The nerve of Lila! To blame Ladybug for her own clumsiness. It was beyond her control how her cleansing magic worked. It was beyond her control what Lila was doing before she was abducted or what she did when she returned. Marinette wasn't sure if she felt angry or sad. It was really too early in the morning to tell.

Not only did Lila throw the blame on her, but people believed her. They supported her. People who had once praised and adored Ladybug were so quick to turn on her.

Marinette could not bare to listen to her any longer and left the main lobby of the school without a word. She didn't turn to face Adrien in fear of the expression he would show her. Things had been going well with him as of late and she was coming to like him evermore. She was talking with greater ease and actually getting to know him. Obviously, she always knew how kind he was, for it was his kindness that had impacted her the most, but there was more of a playful feature to him that she had grown to like and would have only learned of by being by his side. She was coherent and comfortable, and it might have had something to do with the fact that parts of him reminded her of Chat Noir. Or perhaps that parts of Chat Noir reminded her of Adrien. But of course the morning had gone much too smoothly. Bumping into him while going to school was too happy a circumstance. All that mattered in that moment was that she couldn't stand to be in the same room as Lila for another second, and needed to leave.

She was able to find an empty workshop. A large project had just been completed and submitted and Marinette knew that this was the last place her peers would want to be. It brought back too many memories of sleepless nights. Tikki came flying out her purse as soon as she was able, a look of worry on her face.

"Marinette, you know it's not your fault" she began. "You don't need t listen to her."

"I know," Marinette replied. She was so worried she was pacing, and Tikki did not know what to do except to watch. "I know I need to be positive. I know that it's dangerous for me to feel this negative. I know that Lila lies." She paused to think. "But it's not Lila that's getting to me. Not really."

"Then what is?" Tikki's tone was quiet and concerning. Sometimes Marinette thought that she would have made a fantastic mother figure.

"It's just that, everyone believes her, Tikki. People believe that it was my fault. They don't even have to second guess what she says. They hate me. What's going to happen to Ladybug?" Marinette's eyes were pleading and Tikki's heart wrenched.

"Calm down Marinette! Everything will be okay. Nobody hates you! They're just going with the flow. And not everybody feels that way. There will be people that will fight for you."

"But I don't want them to fight. Fighting will only give Le Papillion more chances to send akuma to wreck havoc on Paris. And heaven knows we don't need anymore of those. We've been fighting every day as it is. There will only be chaos if they fight." Tears began to form in Marinette's eyes. "I don't know what I should do Tikki. How can I stop this?" Tikki paused to think of an answer. She perhaps was not certain she even had one.

"You can't, Marinette," Tikki said apologetically. "Once it starts, the only way to stop it is to let it take its course, or prove them wrong. If you try and convince them, they'll think you're trying to cover something up, and you're not! You have nothing to hide Marinette because you've done nothing wrong."

"But everyone thinks I did." She didn't know what else to say. She felt betrayed and there wasn't much more to the feeling. Tikki didn't know what to say either. Looking at her friend, she knew that Marinette just needed to be sad for a little while. Nothing she could say would make her feel better in this moment. She only hoped that her friends would be there for her.

Class was going to start soon. The bell would ring any second. Marinette wiped away the tiny bit of tears that managed to seep down her cheeks, and made herself somewhat presentable. The last thing she wanted was people asking her if anything was wrong. She couldn't exactly tell them, now could she?

x

Marinette regretted immediately trying to slip of the school for lunch. She had given little to no attention to the classes that morning as she was forced to heed to every word that came from Lila's mouth. She wanted to abscond from the hustle and bustle of the day, and perhaps if she had gone home and claimed to have fallen ill, she might have been able to take the day off. She had even avoided Adrien in order to leave the classroom early. But it had all been for naught. Heaven forbid this day get better.

She stood before a larger crowd, backed away from an argument that centered around the person she really didn't want to see. Marinette did her best to scoot along the edges of the crowd, avoiding detection. She just wanted to go home. She just really wanted to go home. She managed to get a fair distance before another aggressive voice presented itself. Normally, she would have left, ignoring any new intrusion of information in the crowd. However, this voice was something that, without question, caught her attention. Alya was not as grand a presence as others might have been, but above all else, she commanded a presence that drew Marinette. And given the circumstances, her presence was evermore pronounced when she confronted Lila. Marinette listened, disheartened by the loss of the battle. Lila was right of course. And Alya was increasingly loyal and loved. Marinette would never let her go. She was a blessing and even if Alya's defence was for Ladybug and not for herself, her goodness was what anchored her.

The look on Alya's face stabbed at Marinette's heart. She watched as Adrien walked away with Alya, his eyes searching the crowd that they were leaving behind. Marinette ducked away, making no obvious move to leave as of yet in fear of being noticed. It was while she was waiting that she heard them.

The whispers.

"You can't win over facts I guess."

"Even if Lila was lying, I don't think she's wrong about Ladybug."

"She has been saving Paris everyday…"

"But what would we do without her?"

"Maybe we should get a new superhero."

"From where? They don't exactly grow on trees."

"Well, is it better to let Ladybug and Chat Noir start hurting people too?"

The thoughts of the crowd lingered in the air and Marinette felt that she had frozen to the floor. They meant no ill will. That much she knew. It was not as if the people here knew that Ladybug was standing inches away from them. It was no direct attack on her person. In fact, it was likely that none of these people would ever say such things to her face. They were at least kind enough for that.

She watched from the sidelines as Alya and Adrien left. There wasn't much she could do but watch, and quite frankly, she wasn't exactly in the mood to talk to anybody. She was just about to leave for home when another shrill voice entered the scene.

"Lila Rossi!" Chloé's voice echoed. Marinette was somewhat shocked to hear an echo outdoors in such a crowded space, but Chloé simply had the mannerisms.

"What do you want, Chloé?" Lila asked with clear annoyance in her tone. The two of them did not particularly get along, even at the best of times.

"What is this I hear about your lies about Ladybug?" Chloé asked. It wasn't much of a question as it was an accusation. Somehow, Chloé wasn't in the loop until this afternoon, but for some of the crowd, it was worth the wait in order to see what would happen next. Everybody knew Chloé was a huge fan of Ladybug, especially after the Anti-Bug incident. There wasn't much left to hide. She was sure to be furious.

"What lies? I never lie," Lila responded coolly. Chloé's eyes narrowed and she fumed. She advanced on the injured girl and pushed herself into Lila's personal space.

"You had better watch it, Lila," Chloé whispered threateningly. "Ladybug is the best superheroine the world has ever seen! And she is so much more than you will ever be. To think that you would even compare yourself to her, is appalling. Don't you think I forgot that you said you were best friends with Ladybug. You're just a jealous little fox who can't get what she wants! And now you're getting your little revenge because Ladybug embarrassed you." Lila returned Chloé's harsh glare with a desire to retort, but with nothing to say. "My father is the Mayor of Paris, and I am Ladybug's biggest fan. If I were you, I would sew my lips shut before I do it for you." Chloé backed off with a hand on her hip and her eyes still as sharp as knives. With a huff, and call for Sabrina to follow her, she sauntered off through the crowd, her classmates backing off to make her a path.

Marinette wasn't sure what Chloé had said. In fact, nobody was. It was a conversation between Lila and Chloé alone. But whatever it was, seemed to have shut Lila up for the time being. For the first time in a very, very long time, Marinette was a little bit glad to have Chloé on her side.

x

When Marinette didn't go back to school after lunch, Alya got worried and made a call from the girl's bathroom. Marinette glanced at her phone and hesitated to pick up, eventually deciding that she could not block Alya out of her life. She couldn't act too depressed.

"Marinette! Where have you been?" Alya asked.

"I went home for lunch and felt ill. So I stayed home." It was a simple explanation, though perhaps too simple for Alya to accept.

"Are you okay? Do you need me to come over?" She sounded significantly less panicked, and significantly more skeptical. Marinette coughed just once before speaking again, trying to simulate that she was a least trying to hold up her end of the lie.

"I'm fine. Really. You don't need to -."

"Adrien's been worried about you all day," Alya said. The tone in her voice was difficult to describe. It was somewhere in between teasing, concern, and frustration.

"…Really?" Marinette couldn't help but blush even slightly at the knowledge that Adrien had noticed her in such a way. It wasn't her main priority, but it was something nice to add to the pile of terrible that had been her day.

"He's the one who noticed first. Though, in my defence, you totally skipped out on seeing me all day."

"Yea, sorry about that. I've been feeling sick all morning and…" She didn't feel the need to finish her sentence. Her best friend seemed to put the pieces together on the own.

"He told me about Lila. He said you were really upset. Do you… need to talk about it?" Alya had clearly given in to dismissing the idea that Marinette could have at all been sick. They had long since moved on from that, though it was not clearly admitted.

"I really don't want to," Marinette replied.

"I'll be over after school," Alya decided. There was no discussion to be had evidently.

"Alya…!" The line had already gone dead before Marinette had the chance to get another word in. Marinette supposed that it was just time to wait. Once her friend had made up her mind about something, it was difficult to stop her. She could only wait for the knock at her door.

Alya did not even knock. Marinette's parents had likely let her in, she was far from unwelcome in their home, and Alya did not hesitate a second longer before barging into Marinette's room. That was the thing about having a best friend. Whatever was yours was theirs and vice versa, she supposed. That apparently included personal space. Marinette swivelled in her chair when she heard her friend enter. She would have been more surprised if it had not been for the racket she made on the way up the stairs. She was just about to complain about privacy when her throat seized up at the sight of an addition to the attack on her bedroom.

"Adrien!" Marinette blurted. She couldn't think of why he would be here, even though it may have been obvious. Alya hadn't mentioned it, though she wouldn't put it past her to have hidden it from her deliberately. It seemed to be her mission to try and set the two of them up. But for her information, they were doing just fine on their own and without her assistance, thank you very much. Adrien waved at her, looking as though he felt a bit intrusive, as Alya should have felt.

"Hey, we thought we would check up on you. You didn't look so good this morning," he commented. Her anxiety started to rise and she almost sent a look of panic in Alya's direction. But he was too close. He would have seen it and he was too close.

"Oh, yea. I…" She wasn't sure if she could lie to him. He was witness to her morning. She could have said she was sick, which would have lined up with what she had told Alya over the phone, but her friend obviously hadn't believed her. It didn't matter what she said because the two standing before her had already figured it out. They only wanted to see if Marinette would talk about it.

"Lila gets on all of our nerves. That's just how she is," Adrien offered.

"Yea, whatever she says will just blow over. It's not like any of it is true anyway," said Alya. Marinette grinned half-heartedly at her friends' best wishes. She knew her friends were doing their best, but she also knew that they didn't know or realize that what Lila and everyone else was saying was much more personal to her than she was willing to let them understand. Adrien and Alya looked at one another, clearly worried. They didn't know what to say to help their friend. Alya approached and gave Marinette a warm hug, which she welcomed. There wasn't anything to say, and Marinette knew that, but a hug felt nice, no matter the situation. It was good to know they would be there for her, even if she couldn't talk about what was wrong.

"Look, I need to do some damage control on the Ladyblog. Lila has either made an account, or her lies are spreading. Either way, she's driving me crazy. I'll just be in the other room." Alya left, leaving Adrien with Marinette alone. It hadn't even occurred to her to check on the Ladyblog, especially as she frequented it. It was for the best then that it had slipped her mind, particularly if damage control was stressing Alya out as much as it was. There was a good chance she wouldn't like what she saw. Her leaving the room was a fairly good indication that she didn't want Marinette to see.

Adrien came around to sit on Marinette's bed and wordlessly asked her to join him. It took her a second to comply, but she eventually did, leaving just a little less than a foot of space between the two of them. She knew that Alya had some how plotted to have the two of them alone together. Even in Marinette's times of need, she always managed to incorporate her love life into the mix.

He didn't say anything for a while, likely unsure of what to say. Then, he scooted over, closing the space she had created between them.

"You're… sure that you don't want to talk?" he asked. Marinette nodded. It took him a while to speak again. "I didn't realize how big a fan of Ladybug you were." She didn't respond. For the longest time, she showed disinterest in the subject, all in order to avoid being in the same place at the same time. She pretended to be scared, and pushed herself away from any scene of an attack. Not to mention it felt very weird to be obsessing over her own alter ego. Her lips tightened at his comment for a lack of conversation. "She is pretty great. I'd have to agree." Her attention piqued. "So brave, and confident. Not to mention hard working, fighting akumas every day." He paused. "I think she's amazing." He turned to face her, a warm smile on his face.

She couldn't help but glow just a little bit at the thought that Adrien kind of liked her. She liked who she was when she was Ladybug. It wasn't the same, but it was something. She wanted to thank him, but wondered if that would sound weird. Instead, she smiled back at him and looked down at her lap. Marinette made a quick mental note to thank Alya later.

She couldn't have felt more grateful to her friends.

Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the support on all the Miraculous Ladybug work I've been producing. It's really been fulfilling! I enjoyed the dialogue thoroughly in both this chapter and the last chapter so I hope you like it!

I also finished this chapter about 5 or more hours before I posted it because I worked on it at work instead of doing real work and then just forgot... augh.