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Marinette Dupain-Cheng was used to teetering on the brink of insanity ever since getting her Miraculous, but Lila had really been pushing it lately. It all started around a week after her unjust expulsion, with a line of reasoning so logical it bordered on completely uncharacteristic. If the brunette managed to get her expelled by lying and goading Marinette into getting angry in front of her teachers, then she just needed to be extra prepared for the next trick.
As Alya always loved to say, indisputable evidence often revealed even the most unlikely truths. Which quite plainly meant that the best way to make sure that Lila got what was coming for her was actual proof. Proof that she couldn’t deny or try to spin around. An incriminating photo, maybe. And Marinette had plenty of experience sneaking around unseen. That those activities were almost exclusively Adrien-related was just a big coincidence!
She started small at first, too subtle to be noticed. Lila said her ankle was hurting, and she couldn’t participate in gym class? In came a picture of her mid-stride down the hallway when the brunette thought nobody could see, her leg perfectly fine. A lie about needing to sit at the front of the class—and therefore next to a certain blonde model—because of her bad eyesight? Marinette caught her in the act of carefully observing something far away.
So on and so forth, until she’d collected a small stack of Lila pictures over the course of a couple weeks. All of them circumstantial evidence, enough to support her claims and oust her, but not without a big accusation to set the precedent. The bluenette spent hours upon hours carefully analyzing those photos for the most minute of helpful details…until she noticed something rather bizarre.
So unusual was this observation that she had Tikki and Alya double-check independently of one another to avoid any confirmation bias. In every single picture she’d taken thus far, Lila looked perfect. Unnaturally radiant and utterly flawless. It confused Marinette horribly; surely modeling with Adrien for just a couple days wasn’t enough to magically turn someone photogenic? If not for Tikki confirming the brunette’s total lack of a magical signature, she would’ve suspected an Akuma at play.
Undeterred, Marinette kept…following Lila around school and occasionally outside of it. She most definitely wasn’t stalking! Just…preparing! She was the one who’d declared war on her in the first place and nearly got her expelled too! Marinette was well within her rights to be both wary and proactive here, even if Lila decided to admit she’d lied about the whole thing for some reason. Why Principal Damocles didn’t do anything afterwards she couldn’t understand. And besides, she suspected that Adrien probably pulled some strings to help her, given he and Lila were now modeling together and he never seemed all too delighted by that. He really deserved the best batch of macaroons she could make; Marinette would serve it right along with a big helping of justice as a side dish.
She was currently crouched in the locker room, where Lila was aggressively scribbling on a notebook she hadn’t seen before, and deposited her supposed grandma’s necklace along with it inside her locker. Ladybug should probably double-check on Gabriel Agreste’s whole knockoff Miraculous product line, but that was neither here nor there at the moment. She hadn’t made a single sound while watching the brunette, completely hidden behind another row of lockers and practically invisible. There was no way Lila would find her she’d just have to apply her special technique to find out what the brunette was planning as soon as she went away. Yes, she meant having Tikki phase through the locker to open it.
“You know I can see you, right?” Marinette yelped so hard that she fell halfway over the nearest bench, snapping her head over at the other girl…who looked far too smug for her own good. Lila gave a little sigh, tutting her like she was disappointed at how quickly the bluenette gave her hiding spot away. “Way too easy. Maybe you’re not that much smarter than your friends if a simple bluff works so well…” she teased with false sweetness, grinning from ear to ear.
The brunette made her way over in a confident stride, picking up Marinette’s phone, which was already open to her camera app. She scrolled through the gallery, looking over all the collected pictures one by one and raising an eyebrow. Lila seemed entirely too amused about them but simply gave it back instead of so much as threatening to tell Miss Bustier.
“Honestly…it’s very rude to stalk people. You could’ve just asked me to pose, unless I scare you too much?” She went redder than Ladybug’s suit at the words; the liar’s smile was all teeth. “Did you seriously think I wouldn’t notice? Amateur,” she hissed through gritted teeth, but none of the usual wall-pinning or threats came along with it.
Marinette had almost forgotten that Lila was still a threat, with how much time she’d spent sorting through her pictures in the past weeks. Whole stacks analyzed meticulously, hidden under her bed and haphazardly stuck on the few free spots along her walls. Unfortunately way too close with all the ones she had of Adrien, but Marinette refused to take those down for anything except a national emergency. She pushed herself up from the bench and held her phone close, unwilling to let the liar snatch it again.
“How do you always look so perfect in them?” the bluenette asked instead of trying to argue. Ladybug narrowed her eyes and crossed both arms over her chest, scrutinizing her carefully. Lila didn’t seem to mind the change of subject, flicking a bang behind her ear and preening like a peahen at the accidental compliment. It hadn’t been meant that way; she was just enough of a self-centered villainess to accept it regardless.
“Because…” she drawled, grinning so widely that the corners of her mouth stretched unnaturally. “It’s impossible for anyone to take a bad picture of me! Never happened, never will!” the brunette proclaimed innocently, leaning into Marinette’s personal space and booping her on the nose. Mocking her, as if she was dumbing down her reasoning so a baby could understand. Lila only laughed at her questioning look, mulling something over for a moment before smiling again. “Tell you what! If you manage to take one bad photo, then Adrien’s all yours. I’ll lay off on the lies, tell Alya the truth, etcetera. You’ll win! Open offer, Marinette. As long as the pic isn’t edited of course…”
Marinette felt her heartbeat start to race at the words, even as Lila finally gave her some breathing room instead of being up in her face with all that arrogance. The brunette turned on her heel and waved goodbye before she could even agree, but the stage was already set. With all the bullies and villains she’d encountered, overconfidence was their greatest weakness. Lila was certainly smarter about it than Chloe…and yet, she’d given her the perfect chance to take her down for good! Marinette knew the bet would hold; it was a matter of personal pride and her nemesis wouldn’t be able to stand losing at her own game. Ladybug had managed the impossible before, so surely snapping an unflattering photo couldn’t be that hard!
While leaving the locker room, it occurred to her why Lila must’ve bothered to put this on the table. To leave Marinette grappling with her morals, see if she’d choose the easy path of editing one of the dozen pictures she’d taken so far and take the bait of easy victory. She did think about it, just long enough to dissuade herself entirely. Responsible superheroes weren’t allowed to misuse their skills for lies like that; she wouldn’t stoop to Lila’s level like the brunette was clearly goading her to. Nuh-uh! Ladybug had a moral code to uphold and plenty of ideas to consider once she got some time to plan. Especially since she didn’t need to stalk—err, to keep an eye on that villainess in case she…got up to another evil scheme, of course! A perfectly reasonable thing for her to be incorporating into her busy schedule, though not anymore!
Since nothing in her current stash qualified as a ‘bad’ picture, Marinette kept her guard up and camera app open at all times from then on. The next day passed mostly without incident, until gym class. Mr. D'Argencourt had them running laps once a month to justify the usual permissiveness for sports games in the courtyard…and Lila looked like her lungs were seconds away from giving out entirely. He simply hadn’t been swayed by the usual stream of excuses about everything from her supposed knee injury to a phobia of racing her classmates from deep-rooted trauma in her childhood. Mr. D’Argencourt simply frowned and told Lila in no uncertain terms that he respected her condition—even if Marinette had never heard of a lying disease before this month—but that unless she had a signed doctor’s note that explained why she was physically unable to participate, then she’d be running with everybody else in the interest of fairness.
It would be extremely underhanded for a superheroine to take advantage of her vulnerability, especially when she looked so close to genuinely dropping dead every other step. However, all was fair in love and war! And this…this was a conflict Lila had brought upon herself. Marinette snapped the photo just as the brunette’s eyes locked onto the camera; she watched them widen in surprise and shift to something vaguely approaching begrudging respect…but when Ladybug looked down at her phone, she nearly dropped it from the shock.
Lila looked like she’d been cropped straight out of a marathon runners’ scrapbook; she practically galloped across the courtyard with stalwart determination and a true love for the sport glinting in her eyes. The brunette appeared to have barely broken a sweat at all, paying the lens no mind as she tracked the invisible finish line ahead of her. Marinette’s gaze lifted to double-check, spotting her lying on the ground next to their teacher, barely clinging to the mortal plane out of sheer, unadulterated spite. Even then, her sprawled form radiated pride at the accomplishment, which perfectly translated to the next photo; she was practically the visual definition of a triumphant yet exhausted athlete.
Marinette got her chance at redemption during literature class the following morning. It was a miracle she even made it on time—according to everyone who knew her except Alya, who was lying to be nice—but they were oblivious to what was truly at stake. At such an early hour, Lila was bound to be off her game. Which meant a chance at victory without needing to be dishonorable like before. Ladybug had a reputation to live up to, after all. Sure enough, when the brunette got there, she looked almost as bad as Marinette usually did after a midnight Akuma. Wearing a pair of reading glasses to hide most of the dark circles under her eyes behind the innocent excuse of paying very close attention to her notes. Certainly not falling asleep mid-lecture.
She chugged the remainder of her coffee and devoured the macaroons Papa gave her for the road to keep herself awake, with the phone carefully positioned on her leg so she could snap the picture at a moment’s notice. Marinette waited, pretending to give an excellent example to everyone who wasn’t class president while Miss Bustier talked about curtains, symbolism, and something about foreshadowing she didn’t quite catch. Probably nothing she couldn’t enlist Alya to help her with later. As expected, Lila started to look just as bored out of her mind as Kim soon enough. Marinette snapped the photo when she was mid-yawn, mouth stretching open in an uncontrollable expression of drowsiness…but upon double checking…the brunette appeared to be deeply focusing on scribbling down as much of the lecture as she could. How? Lila didn’t even have a pen anywhere on her side of the desk! And that posture was completely different? Was she a magician in her spare time?
Marinette would’ve genuinely felt tempted to disrupt class just to get answers if the girl in question hadn’t already dozed off against her notebook, reading glasses falling halfway down her nose. She didn’t need a photo to see that Lila looked…weirdly adorable when the threat of social isolation wasn’t imminent. Marinette took it anyway, even though it was certainly a dud for their wager. Well…it was—as Max would say when trying to help her come up with synonyms for her essays—absolutely imperative that she collect as much evidence on her as possible! Maybe this one could be used as circumstantial later on; she didn’t know! Besides, it was her moral responsibility to remember the original mission of exposing Lila for being an evil liar who constantly lied!
That she avoided the brunette like the plague during their next class was purely strategic. Bereft of a Lucky Charm to give her ideas, Ladybug needed time to recuperate and think up a new plan. Thankfully, Miss Mendeleiev presented her with the perfect opportunity! They were going to be practicing with combustibles—in extremely small amounts—to learn the dangers and prepare for the inevitable quiz on lab safety, which would no-doubt come out of this experiment. She and Lila had about as much chemistry together as hydrogen and the nearest flaming oxidizer, so Ladybug needed to exercise caution and keep poor Alya out of the blast zone.
Marinette wisely chose to focus on not accidentally knocking something over with her infamous clumsiness since Adrien’s perfect, angelic blonde strands were exactly one desk in front of her. Even exposing their class’s real-life supervillainess wasn’t worth putting those locks in danger… After she’d thoroughly ensured that Alya remained unexploded from their own mix, the bluenette turned all of her attention over to Lila. Who was furrowing her brows in fright as she desperately pleaded to every item on the periodic table that her mix wouldn’t spontaneously combust. Marinette only felt a little bad when she took out her phone in preparation for disaster, but it struck so quickly that the sensation didn’t have time to stick.
When the inevitable happened and the deafening bang sounded across the classroom, Marinette started noticing a pattern. Lila’s expression in the picture was one of absolute concentration as she added the very last drop; it could easily have been used to print a poster about lab safety protocols. Not a hair out of place; her eyes glinted with utter dedication to the task at hand behind her goggles. Even after the miniature explosion—which only really scared poor Mylene—Lila looked annoyingly proud of herself for not setting anything on fire. Marinette didn’t get a chance to snap another one anyway, since Miss Mendeleiev immediately secured the scene and spent the rest of the period relentlessly quizzing them on how to avoid any further unwanted reactions.
By the midday break, she’d come up with nothing even remotely unflattering. Maybe the brunette really was blessed to be inhumanly photogenic under every possible circumstance, but surely Marinette was just missing something obvious! It was pretty common when she got her head too far into a project, as Alya loved reminding her. Thus, she elected to follow Lila at a distance again, this time without bothering to hide. The brunette simply went for a walk in the park and spent a bit of time innocently sitting on a bench. Her eyes kept darting over at Marinette, who pretended to be looking literally anywhere else. But…she was clearly expecting a picture. Even if this one definitely wouldn’t win her the bet, she still pressed her thumb down on her phone anyway.
Marinette’s heart started beating out of sync as her gaze turned downward. Lila was sitting on the bench as before, legs now tucked under her as the brunette absentmindedly fiddled with her hair. The sunlight just so happened to perfectly frame her face and distinguish her bangs from the background shade, while Lila herself seemed every bit the kind, sweet girl she pretended to be. Her dazzling smile only sold the lie further, even if Marinette remained unconvinced. The sun must’ve been hitting her head, because she started feeling much warmer than a few moments ago. Deciding that the brunette’s cheeky grin meant she was overstaying her welcome, a Marinette-shaped dust cloud was all she left behind while running back to school.
After that spectacular failure—because her heart was racing like she’d fought through a gauntlet of Akumatized villains—she decided that having a partner in crime would probably work better. Since Chat Noir didn’t coincidentally sit in front of her at school every day, Alya was Marinette’s next best bet. Now…her friend hadn’t been particularly happy that she ran a private investigation without telling her beforehand—it was apparently ‘not okay’ to ‘stalk’ people—but once the bluenette explained her findings and provided evidence, she slowly started coming around. Especially since Alya had seen today’s events with her own eyes and was thus appropriately mystified at the Lila displayed on Marinette’s phone. Aside from the very last picture. For some reason, she just playfully smacked her on the shoulder and gave that knowing look which even Ladybug couldn’t decipher.
Alya eventually agreed that despite her questionable methods, she had come across a genuine mystery. Lila’s photogenic powers seemed almost supernatural, so it was her duty as a reporter to investigate and uncover the truth! It also helped that Hawkmoth appeared to be on break this week and nothing interesting had happened in relation to Ladybug. Oddly considerate of him, given how many hundreds of people were actively losing their minds over Gabriel Agreste’s upcoming fashion expo. Marinette wasn’t going to look that particular gift horse in the mouth, since she already had her hands full with the bigger threat.
The bluenette spent the rest of their break unable to rid her face of a residual blush, which Alya ruthlessly teased her about for no good reason whatsoever and without even explaining why! Marinette hadn’t a clue about why she kept going beet red when looking at Lila’s smile in that picture. Probably embarrassment, since she was nearly overcome by the urge to flee and hide several times when remembering the cheeky expression. They did return to school for the rest of their classes after a while—Alya dragged her by the arm until she gave up and followed—without much time left until the bell. Marinette really didn’t want to wait around until tomorrow, so if they were going to somehow disprove Lila’s inhuman photogenic abilities, it had to be immediate.
Marinette decided to take a page out of Chat’s book, and any semblance of a plan Ladybug might’ve come up with was traded in for causing chaos instead. She’d have to apologize profusely to Adrien for this later, but it was in service to the greater good. Alya would accidentally get a pigeon feather stuck on her shirt—generously donated by Edgar after they explained their situation, resulting in an affirmative, determined series of chirps—and go near the love of Marinette’s life when Lila inevitably tried to get close to him again. The resulting category five sneeze would then scare the bangs right off of her, and she’d be able to win their bet! The brunette would be forced to uphold her part of the deal and tell everyone she was an evil liar who lied…and they would have peace in the classroom.
They found Lila in the cafeteria along with the rest of their friends…and the feather target conveniently passed by at the precise moment they needed. Alya instantly teleported to the blonde’s side—chatting him up in a very important conversation about Ladybug—waiting for the inevitable. Slowly, Adrien’s nose scrunched upwards, leaving Marinette desperately floundering to not drop what she was doing and fawn over how adorable he looked! Then…it happened. Nino sensed it first, clutching onto his headphones for dear life and diving under Alix’s table to shield himself from the blast. Markov deafened his audio receptors a moment later, followed by Max plugging both ears and dropping prone to hide behind his chair. In the next millisecond, everyone except for Lila understood what was going to occur; she simply continued carrying her tray without a care in the world, stepping ever closer to Adrien.
Juleka tried to warn her with a gasp, but it was already far too late. Adrien Athanase four-more-middle-names Agreste sneezed…and the building shook at its foundations. Alya was knocked off her feet and landed on the floor with a soft thud; Marinette saw Juleka’s other eye for the first time in years. Lila screeched so hard that the windows shook, yelping in such fright that her face locked up in what could only be described as existential horror. Ladybug slammed her thumb down on the camera button at the exact moment when the brunette was half-turned toward it, cackling in the morally justifiable triumph of her ultimate victory!
Unfortunately, Marinette made the horrible mistake of looking down at her phone. Lila Rossi—who’d gone pale as a sheet and practically gained an entire row of special effects depicting terror beyond mortal comprehension on her face—was caught mid-turn, body swaying in the nonexistent wind like she was about to be lifted off into the sky. Her hair floated gently, framing her face and conveniently covering how she was scared half to death; her chin slightly upturned with an invisible gaze staring directly into Adrien’s soul. She…looked like she was swooning in some romantic billboard ad. The blonde wasn’t any better, but Marinette had fully expected him to appear with his hair swaying across his face and an ethereal smile brighter than the sun.
She ignored the faint pink glow framing him; Kagami could see those too, so Marinette wasn’t crazy! The anime backgrounds were real! And…as she flicked her gaze back to the vile, no-good liar she was attempting to expose, one of those was behind her too! Adrien meekly apologized for the sneeze from somewhere far away as the bluenette’s heart skipped a beat. Because Lila just tucked a bang back into place with entirely too much charm for an arch-nemesis to have! This was a disaster! Marinette spun herself around and booked it for the hallway, but her phone accidentally slipped from her grip, sliding across the floorboards with naught but utter grace…ending up gently tapping against Lila’s foot. She picked it up, sauntering over casually like Ladybug’s civilian reputation wasn’t about to be in shambles, and handed it back with a polite smile.
“It’s nice to see you’re trying to get my good side,” the brunette smirked at her, holding onto her hand for a lot longer than strictly necessary before finally letting her go. She said it as if anything else would defy the laws of the universe itself. Marinette was actually starting to believe that.
Lila took a small step back before leaning in for a quick hug completely unprompted.
“Oh, and Marinette? If you do want to take a few more…I’d be happy to pose with you!” Every muscle in Ladybug’s body went rigid. Take photos…together? With Lila that close? She went crimson at the thought, eyes darting around the cafeteria as literally their entire class watched the exchange with curious gazes. Rose tentatively held up a small pride pin, looking between it and the two of them as if questioning. “How about this weekend? I’m free Saturday! It’s a date, yeah?”
Marinette Dupain-Cheng might’ve been tethering on the brink of insanity all day, but Lila Rossi came up behind her and kicked her off of it with a dazzling smile. Or rather, by looking over at Rose and grinning from ear to ear before giving a brazen thumbs up. That really wasn’t what she’d pictured for her first proper date, but she mirrored the gesture without hesitation. If Lila wanted to hold a captive audience…well, Ladybug had made far bigger sacrifices for the good of Paris!