I'm a sadist. Truly a sadist. Also, I stay with my name for heroic!Lila: Vorpika.

WARNING: Also set in an AU where Lila showed up right at the first episode and things went a bit differently… Including Master Fu giving out three Miraculous on that first day. Not in chronological order.

Day 3: Confession

"Come again?" Lila asked, hoping she had not heard what she thought she had heard.

"I love you." Marinette repeated. Then, before Lila could say anything, she added: "It's not a crush for when you neutralized Chloe. Well, yes, it started like that, but then… Then I got to know you. The good. The bad. The generosity and the repressed anger. The cunning and the hidden cruelty. The fantasy and ability to lie. And I love all of that."

For a moment, Lila couldn't answer. She couldn't even move. Then, much to Marinette's surprise, she started softly crying.

"L-Lila? Are you well?"

"Not sure… I mean, why did it have that I can't even give you a chance?!"

"What-"

"I-I'm sorry, but I love another girl. E nu' posso manco confessaielo."

"But-why?" she asked. She couldn't exactly speak Italian, but at least she could understand it well enough to get the Romanesco dialect Lila would sometimes slip into when emotional. Or when she had to make appreciations about Zoe the Fangirl(1).

"C'èn'impiccio, e si nun s'arisorve… So' na cazzo de lei, first I can't even give you a chance, wouldn't be right for you, or her, and then I vent on te…"

Marinette just hugged her. At least she could help her with that…

-TIMESKIP-

"Vorpika, are you well?" Ladybug asked her friend. The one who, alongside Alya, had helped her deal with the events of Lila's rejection. She still hoped she'd manage to solve whatever complication. Maybe she'd have a chance then, or Lila would be happy.

"Sò felicia a' botte!" Vorpika replied. "I mean, Papillon's finally dealt with, and-"

"But why are you covering it? I mean, he terrorized the city…"

"I understand his reasons. That, and the collateral damage would be enormous. Plus, it's not like the law can do him worse than what I did him… And no, I'm not telling you what I did, you're smart enough that you could guess it now that we've retrieved both his Miraculous."

"OK, OK. But then, why are you so, well-"

"Strange? Because I can finally do something I've been hoping to do for months! Ladybug, te vojo bene."

"What?"

"Je t'aime. I love you. Ti amo. Aishiteru. Wo ai ni. And I would have said it long ago, if I could figure how to make it work when we can't even tell each other who we are under the mask."

"Wait, I-" Ladybug started to say, before realizing what Vorpika was about to do. "The secret identities! They have to remain secret! Master Fu-"

"S'inculi. Too much has happened. I-I need to do this. Trixx, destrasformame."

And before Ladybug's eyes, Vorpika became Lila, of all people. And then the spotted superheroine cold only look at her with an open mouth and bug eyes, before she started laughing.

"Ladybug? Wait, what's so funny?"

"Trixx, untransform me."

"Uh-MA CHE CAZZO?!"

Author note

(1)Little OC of mine. Very punchable.