this chapter features an akumasona by clloudhead! check it out here: post/143620831149/looks-like-your-card-was-declined-my-akumasona

Lila was very annoyed that an akuma had to come exactly at that moment. Really, she and Marinette were having a perfect moment together and while she could appreciate being underneath her girlfriend, she would have preferred it to have been done purposefully. And it also meant that Marinette would have to transform into Ladybug, which Lila did not like, and would have to go fight the akuma, which Lila liked even less.

Marinette moved to get up and Lila rubbed at her sore lip, which Marinette's front teeth had unfortunately hit during their fall. Lila immediately missed the warmth of Marinette's body, and she sighed, staring up at the ceiling as Marinette got to her feet. She hadn't expected Marinette to actually initiate a kiss, and she'd been temporarily speechless when it happened. But she was still glad it happened.

"Why now, of all times?" She asked as Marinette extended a slender hand down to her. She took it in her own and got up, relishing in the contact between them.

"Yea." Marinette said sadly.

"I guess you, um, have to do that thing." Lila looked away, scratching her head. She wasn't sure what to do. Maybe she should leave the room and come down from the kissing moment. "You know what, I'll just stand over here. Don't mind me." Lila turned around and headed for the opposite corner.

"You're probably going to have to get used to this." A much smaller voice said, and Lila whirled around in surprise to that weird tiny red creature floating halfway between her and Marinette. Lila made a face.

"I think we're going to have to have a talk about um, all this stuff, someday." Lila said awkwardly.

"Yup. We've got questions for you, too." The creature, Tikki, said.

For some reason that sounded menacing.

"Okay, come on Tikki, transform me!" Marinette suddenly called out, effectively halting the uncomfortable conversation. Tikki unnerved Lila, and she was relieved to see it fly away towards Marinette's earring. (Fun fact, I use "Transform me!" instead of "Spots on!" because I saw the French dub first and I actually know some French so that's that.)

A solid twenty seconds passed as Lila watched several sparkles swirl around Marinette, changing her dress into the spotted suit that Lila disliked. Even if Lila had come to terms with the fact that Marinette was indeed Ladybug, she still wasn't comfortable with it.

But as she looked at the heroine, she realized that Marinette looked fiercer, more confident, and freer than she ever had underneath the mask. Perhaps she could come to appreciate this side of Marinette, too.

"Good luck." Lila said quietly as Ladybug finished transforming. She looked down at the ground, unsure of how to act around Marinette's alter ego when all of a sudden a red hand went under her chin and lifted her downcast head, capturing Lila's gaze. Lila was momentarily stunned by the sheer power she could see in Ladybug's radiant blue eyes, a power she wasn't accustomed to associating with Marinette. And then Ladybug planted another kiss on Lila's lips.

But it was different from before. Whereas Marinette's had been shy and tentative, Ladybug's was full of surety and confidence. Ladybug had moved back before Lila had even been able to react, and smiled.

"I'll see you soon, Lila." Ladybug breathed in the short distance between their faces, and Lila could feel her heart do the opposite of calming down. And then the superheroine turned away, pushed open the door, and was gone.

Lila had to sit down and take a moment to breathe. She'd kissed Marinette several times before, but never Ladybug. And now that she had, she had realized just how little she knew Marinette. Lila may dislike Ladybug, but it was undeniable that she was a key part of Marinette's identity. And that no matter how much time she spent around Marinette, she would never truly know her unless she knew Ladybug, too.

Furthermore, she was beginning to find that she actually might like Ladybug. Lila had been trying to be cool and collected the whole time for Marinette but the whole time Marinette's alter ego was already way cooler than Lila ever was.

Lila probably needed to step up her game.

"Uh, guys, I think I really need to use the bathroom." Adrien said.

He, Alya and Nino were currently hiding behind a clothing rack. The three of them were in the store Marinette and Lila had entered some time ago. Alya wasn't hiding, exactly, because she had her phone out and was prepared to capture whatever happened. They had all heard of the rampage the akuma had been going on, and had yet to see it actually pass by.

"Really? There's a supervillain roaming around and now you need to pee?" Nino groaned.

"Um." Adrien smiled sheepishly. "Yea."

Nino rolled his eyes when all of a sudden he saw none other than Ladybug suddenly sprint out from inside the store to the entrance.

"Ladybug!" He exclaimed, and both Adrien's and Alya's heads turned at the same exact time, all three pairs of their eyes as wide as saucers. The superheroine slowed to a stop and turned to look at him, and for a moment she looked incredulous and extremely confused. But it must have been his imagination, because several seconds afterwards she was wearing a grin.

"Have any of you seen the akuma?" She asked.

"Ladybug!" Alya nearly yelled as she bounded over, her smile large and sparkling. She had turned her phone to target Ladybug.

"No." Adrien said, shaking his head. "No akuma here, but we heard it."

"Alright," Ladybug said in response, glancing back out the shop before turning back to Adrien, who appeared to melt a little under her gaze. Nino raised an eyebrow. "Stay hidden, I'll stop it."

"Good luck!" Alya called out as Ladybug left, and then both she and Adrien sighed dreamily. Nino suddenly worried if he had competition, but his attention was caught by Alya moving to leave.

"Where you going?" He asked, before remembering that his girlfriend was also the administrator of the Ladyblog. Alya gestured to her phone.

"I've gotta follow!" She said excitedly, and then she was gone. Adrien patted Nino on the back, and he sighed.

"Well, Chat Noir might be there soon too." Adrien commented, and then Nino vanished just as quickly as Alya had. Finally Adrien was alone, and he moved into a secluded area.

"Plagg, transform me!"

Ladybug only had to follow the trail of clothes, credit cards and other assorted shopping-related items to find the akuma. She had passed by several civilians who were either bound by plastic shopping bags or buried underneath piles of clothes, so she noted that this akuma had several abilities. Standing at the top of an escalator was a girl with an immense mane of pink hair with an equally pink outfit, and she appeared to be shoving an immense amount of money into her tiny wallet. Probably money from civilians.

"Ooh, this is just perfect!" She said, taking notice of Ladybug, who had grabbed ahold of her weapon. "I've been looking for you, Ladybug. It just so happens that I need your miraculous, so I would highly recommend handing it over right now." The akuma said sweetly as she tucked away her wallet.

"I'd rather not." The superheroine declined.

"Who's this?" A familiar voice suddenly said, and Ladybug glanced behind her to see Chat Noir sprinting over. "Shopaholic?"

"My name is Queen Fashion." The akuma hissed, and then drew out a small rectangle from her pocket. With it held between two of her fingers, she swiped the card horizontally, and in its wake several similar, dangerously sharp-looking cards appeared. With a wave of Queen Fashion's hand, the cards were sent flying at the two heros, and they leaped away. But Queen Fashion wasn't done just yet.

"I lost everything." She seethed, and then swiped her card again creating small pink balls. "And you're going to give it back! Give me your miraculouses!"

"This is definitely how I wanted to spend my Friday afternoon." Ladybug muttered as she used her yoyo to swing up to the next floor. She was extremely suspicious about her friends being in the mall, because they had all cancelled on her earlier, and now she had to fight some supervillain in the middle of her accidental date. One of the pink bundles that the akuma had sent after them exploded into a cloud of clothes, and Ladybug stepped to the side. But with the small explosion came a shudder that rocked the floor, and Ladybug realized exactly why there had been a mini earthquake earlier.

"I think we should go shopping together after this." Chat Noir commented as he leaped up beside her and batted away a clothing bomb with his staff. "You, me, on a date at the mall? Sounds purrfect to me." Ladybug rolled her eyes.

"Thanks, but no thanks." She told him as she began to spin her yoyo in front of her, protecting both of them from a couple of other projectiles from Queen Fashion, who looked like she was getting a bit angry.

"Awe, why not?" The cat hero asked, only slightly put off by Ladybug's refusal. The two of them kept moving, dodging credit cards and clothing bombs as they began to close the distance between them and the akuma.

"Chat, please! Now is not the time." Ladybug glanced away from the akuma to shoot the boy a look, when she was suddenly struck with clothing bomb. At least, she had thought it was a clothing bomb until she realized that she could no longer move any of her limbs and had tripped and rolled across the ground for several feet and finally stopped face-down.

"Ladybug!" Chat Noir yelled and changed directions to head towards her, but he was distracted by several razor-sharp credit cards flying past his face.

"Spending too much time talking is deadly, you know. You need to pay attention to your actions." Queen Fashion said, stepping forward and swiping her card again in the air, creating another row of deadly credit cards. "Perhaps you should worry about yourself, kitty cat." She continued, and then struck. Chat Noir let out an eep! and barely managed to hit the cards away.

Well, crap, Ladybug thought to herself. She had forgotten that Queen Fashion also had nets of plastic shopping bags, and now here she was, unable to move because of it. Chat Noir was standing a couple of feet in front of her and fighting off Queen Fashion, so he couldn't do much else. She tried flexing her arms and pushing her elbows out, but it just hurt and the plastic was twisted into rope, so it was hard to break. For a moment she felt an edge of panic begin to creep up in her mind and she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. For a moment she was no longer Ladybug; she was just Marinette in a suit. She was trapped and she couldn't fight and she was useless and-

Something touched her arm, and Ladybug opened her eyes to see none other than Lila kneeling next to her armed with a tiny pair of manicure scissors and snipping away at the twisted plastic.

"What are you doing?!" Ladybug hissed quietly, praying that Queen Fashion would be too focused on Chat Noir to notice Lila.

"I'm saving you." The girl replied, and Ladybug realized that Lila looked like she was about to pass out. Her teeth were clenched and she was visibly shaking. Even though Lila was that nervous, she still had come out to help Ladybug when she needed it. And somehow the tiny pair of scissors was doing its job, and Lila successfully sawed through several ropes of plastic.

Just then Chat Noir flew back towards them, similarly tied up in the shopping bags and landing next to Lila. Queen Fashion laughed and stalked forward, a long strip of white paper with small text on it now in her hand.

"How many things did you buy? You sure you're not in debt?" Chat Noir asked incredulously, eyeing the ridiculously long receipt. Queen Fashion wasn't paying attention to him.

Ladybug's heart stopped as she saw Queen Fashion's eyes fix on Lila, who kept on cutting.

"Looks like someone doesn't know when to stay out of others' business." She said with venom dripping from her voice. One strike with the receipt whip knocked the tiny scissors out of Lila's hand, and she gasped. But as Queen Fashion pulled back her arm for another lash, the last pieces of plastic fell away and Ladybug leaped up and hurled her yoyo at the akuma, knocking the receipt from her hand. The akuma recoiled for a second, and then snarled at her.

Lila was pretty certain she had lost her mind. Sure, she was a confident liar, but she was definitely not a confident jumping-into-battle-er. And yet here she was, only feet away from a supervillain armed with blades, nets, bombs and whips.

She may have lost her scissors, but she looked around and spotted some of the akuma's credit card blades on the ground and reached for one. Lila decided that after the helped Chat Noir, she would flee and never return.

"I thought you and Ladybug were never going to be friends?" Chat Noir said as she turned to him and began to cut through his bindings. For a moment Lila froze, because she didn't know how to explain that it was her girlfriend Marinette in red who was currently defending the two of them. It would be extra weird, since Chat Noir was crushing hard on Ladybug. She didn't want to give Marinette away either.

"Times change, Chat." she simply replied. Now that she was no longer talking to Marinette-as-Ladybug, she suddenly felt a bit calmer.

"I see." He grinned. "No one can hate for her long, anyway. She's perfect." Chat Noir's eyes suddenly went misty, and then he snapped back to attention. "I mean, what a brave and beautiful girl you are. It's a pleasure to be rescued by someone this dazzling." Lila felt kind of bad for the poor boy.

She cut through the last piece of plastic and Chat Noir stood up, brushing off the ropes.

"Well, I'm glad I could rescue you." She replied with a wink, although she was really glad she was able to help Marinette. Ladybug. Whatever. She had a personality to keep up.

"Thanks. But you should go hide. And, uh, protect whoever you're with." Chat Noir said awkwardly, clearly referring to Marinette, who he probably thought was all alone in some store. He wasn't very good at hiding all aspects of his identity.

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug called out, and Chat Noir turned around to fight alongside her.

"See you around." Lila waved, and then she went into maximum overdrive and was sprinting away at an impressive speed that put Kim and the panther he wanted to race to shame. Her heart was suddenly pumping at a dangerous rate and she felt blood rush to her face.

I just saved Ladybug I just saved Ladybug bhughdgffdgsgerwammmmmmmmmmmm

But as she was running back, she slowed down to catch her breath when she suddenly saw Alya and Nino running in the direction she was coming from. Alya had her phone in hand and she was gesturing wildly to Nino, but they didn't notice her because they were on opposite sides of the hall.

Wow, alright. It only took a little bit of thinking to comprehend the situation, and she let it go and just went past them. She had probably masterminded this date. Alya was only doing what she could to bring her and Marinette closer, and she appreciated it. Even if it was probably bad to keep having this stress on Lila's poor heart.

Somehow Lila made it back to the dressing room and she sat down and buried her face in her hands, her smile peeking past her fingers.