Nathanael walked into the class on early on a Monday morning and was surprised to see Lila already in the class. Her head planted down on the table.
He walked up to the desk and smirked "I thought I was the sleepyhead?" he sat down as Lila lifted her head a bit she looked at him before letting out a strangely fox-like whine and flopping her head down again.
Nathanael chuckled. "What's up with you?" he asked.
Lila made no reply or sign of movement.
Nathanael stared at Lila in concern. One of his eyebrows raised in question
"Lila...you still alive?" he gently poked her arm.
Lila finally sat up and brushed some strands of hair out of her face. She sighed loudly. "Nathanael why are parents awful?" she asked, looking ahead instead of directly at him.
Nathanael was confused "um I don't know?" he said.
"Well then it shall forever remain a mystery," Lila said sourly.
"Did something happen? Did your parent's do something to annoy you?" Nathanael asked.
"You could say that" Lila answered.
"You want to tell me?" Nathanael ask.
Before Lila answered the classroom door opened and Adrien walked in talking to Marinette, well Adrien was talking while Marinette was blushing and grinning weirdly. Alya and Nino followed behind with smirks on their faces as they watched their friends.
Lila froze with a glare at the blonde model. She let out an aggravated sigh and collapsed her head back on the table.
"Pretend I don't exist" she mumbled.
"Um...okay," Nathanael said unsurely.
The rest of the day Lila was quiet and somewhat moody. It worried Nathanael to see her keeping stuff to herself especially if it made her so upset. Nathanael was never the kind to be blunt especially with an elephant in the room. However, He felt close enough to Lila that he decides for once in his life it was time to be.
When it came to break. Lila and Nathanael were walking down to the park close to the school.
"Hey Lila," Nathanael said as they were walking down the street.
"Yeah" Lila said, glancing at Nathanael.
"I was wondering why you were so...not yourself lately" He asked.
Lila sighed and looked up at the trees before finally looking back. "It's my father he keeps going on about me and Adrien"
"You and Adrien!" Nathanael exclaimed, the same tightness in his chest that he felt on Saturday when she had mentioned Adrien.
Lila gave him a look of concern but decided to ignore his strange behaviour "Yeah anyway apparently he met Gabriel Agreste and was all like saying about Adrien being close to me and Gabriel was like I have no clue what you're talking about so my dad was annoyed and he called me home which is why I left suddenly on Saturday" Lila took a breath.
"And um what happened then?" Nathanael asked.
"Oh, he was all like you better restore the Rossi Reputation or else!"Lila said putting on an impression of her father.
Nathanael started to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Lila questioned, glaring and giving him a gentle shove.
Nathanael continued to laugh tears appearing in the corner of his eyes "s-sorry" he stuttered through laughter.
"It's just Rossi Reputation?" he laughed" and your impression of your father was just too funny"
"Yes my father is very...weird and I'll have you know my acting skills are very good" Lila pouted.
"I never said they were bad," Nathanael said.
"Good cause I'm an amazing actress," Lila said with a smirk.
They came into the park and saw Rose and Juleka sitting on a bench. Rose spotted them and waved them over.
"So what are you going to do about your dad?" Nathanael asked.
Lila shrugged "No idea probably ignore it hopefully he'll forget all about this...that's if we don't move again"
"Move?" Nathanael asked, his voice rising at the end. Sadness and worry was obvious on his face.
Lila noticed this as she glanced at him "Uh yeah but that's not as likely as it used to be. My dad said we were here for a long time so don't worry you're not getting rid of me that easily"
Nathanael smiled "That's good"
They finally reached Rose and Juleka who were whispering about something. Lila only heard Juleka hiss "Rose for the last time No matchmaking!" Then they saw Lila and Nathanael and went quiet and smiled.
Lila eyed them suspiciously. She knew what it looked like when someone was up to no good, mostly because she was usually the person who up to no good but this time it looked like Rose was the one scheming. Lila wondered what it was as she sat down beside Juleka on the bench. Rose and Nathanael had sat on the grass.
Before she could get it out of Rose though Alya and Mari came past with Marinette loudly wailing. "But Alya I'll mess up and embarrass myself like I always do! I can't do this without you"
"Sorry, Mari but I promised my mum I'd look after my sisters tonight" Alya shrugged apologetically.
"Alya!" Marinette whined, putting her head on Alya's chest.
"What's wrong?" Rose asked, her periwinkle eyes brimming with concern.
Marinette lifted her head and looked at the group who was watching her with wide curious eyes.
Alya smirked, "Someone managed to get a date to the movies with Adrien!"
"I-It's not a d-date!" Marinette stuttered turning red in the face. Alya and everyone else looked at her with disbelief.
She giggled anxiously. Then she turned to Alya again gripping her by the arms tightly "Please Alya I Need your help he thinks you and Nino are coming as well"
Alya eyes darted to the group for help when she had her idea. She grinned "Hey why don't you go with her Lila?"
Marinette freezes "W-what no I wouldn't want to force Lila she's probably busy"
Lila gasped and looked at the ground and started playing with a strand of her hair "um well you see the thing is..." she trailed off unsure how to get out of going. Then an idea came to mind a smirk appearing on her face 'Wait a minute If I go then I can pretend to my dad that I am actually trying to get close to Adrien...though I'm not...still, it might work...but I can't go alone it be awkward' then she glanced at Nathanael and her plan miraculously came into place.
"No, it's no Problem Marinette. I'd love to go but do you mind if I bring Nathanael?" she asked putting on her sweetest smile.
"Wait what?!" Nathanael hissed, his face turning pale and his eyes widening.
"Sure he can come too if he wants...I suppose" she mumbled.
"Great!" Lila said. She looked at Nathanael with an excited smile.
When they were walking back to the school, Rose and Juleka were walking ahead of them
"Nathanael you're coming to the movies with me right?" she asked.
He looked down at his hands which he was wringing "Well I don't know..."
"Nathanael please it'll be no fun without you!" Lila said, pulling a sad puppy face.
"Lila that won't work" Nathanael chuckled.
"Nathy" she complained.
He sighed "okay I'll come"
"Yay!" Lila said hugging him causing him to go red in the face.
Rose glanced over her shoulder and saw Lila hugging Nathanael while the latter turned as red as his hair colour. She grinned and tugged Juleka's arm. "See they are meant to be!" she said
Juleka looked back at the duo and smiled "Rose they may be cute but we can't interfere...what happens if you ruin their friendship"
A look of doubt crossed over Rose's face as she pouted "well Lila's such a good friend to Nathan I'd hate for him to lose that friendship"
"Exactly" Juleka nodded.
"But I can feel it in my heart that they are destined soulmates!" Rose said clasping her hands together and looking at Juleka with wide eyes.
Juleka smiled and shook her head "Rose I said No Matchmaking!"
"You're no fun Jule" Rose pouted, her hands hanging limply by her side while she also lowered her head.
Juleka hated seeing her precious girlfriend sad not to mention being a big softie at heart she sighed giving in "Fine I have a deal"
Rose quickly looked up with sparkling excited eyes "I can be a Matchmaker?" she asked.
"Yes but only if Nathanael or Lila specifically tell you that they like the other" Juleka said with a serious look at Rose.
"Okay, I can't wait for their wedding!" she squealed and started to skip.
Juleka stared at her girlfriend in concern "did she listen to any part of what I just said?'
"Rose, don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself?" Juleka asked, raising an eyebrow at the petite blonde.
"Getting ahead? No way! If I know Nath he'll be a worrying mess when it comes to wedding planning they'll need me Juleka" Rose said very seriously.
Juleka smiled and shook her head at Rose's fangirling.
Lila made her way to the cinema. She had been able to go home first and change into a red hoodie with white stripes around the sleeves, a pair of black jeans and Black doc martens before Marinette had texted her telling her what cinema they were going to, at what time. Lila had texted Nathanael the same only she had added on you better come or I'm going to destroy you! She smiled to herself, she was such a good friend.
Lila saw Marinette waiting at the entrance doors and ran up to her with a happy smile.
"Hey, Lila," Marinette said with a wave.
Lila smiled "Hey Marinette" Lila came to stand beside the "So where's Adrien?" she asked looking around.
"Oh, I was just going to ask you the same thing about Nathanael" Marinette giggled.
"Oh well I'm sure they'll arrive soon," Lila said.
Marinette nodded as a silence descended upon them. They stood there for a while before Marinette spoke.
"So um...are you and Nathanael dating are something?" she asked.
"W-What!" Lila stuttered out, a blush was developing on her face as she turned to look at Marinette with wide eyes.
Marinette saw Lila's distress and gasped "Oh I'm sorry is it meant to be a secret?"
"What's meant to be a secret?" Lila asked.
"You and Nathanael dating" Marinette replied.
Lila's face turned even redder "No!" she laughed anxiously "me and Nathanael aren't dating"
"You aren't?" the midnight-blue haired girl asked with doubt in her eyes.
Lila shook her head "No, Me and Nathanael are just good friends that's all"
Marinette nodded "oh okay"
Then Adrien and Nathanael came walking up together.
"Hey, Marinette...oh and Lila," Adrien said.
"Hi, Adrien" Lila said. She glanced at Marinette and saw a huge blush spreading across her face "A-Adrien welcome...I mean hello...no Hi" she laughed in embarrassment.
Lila winced 'wow! No wonder she was desperate for Alya to come. She's awful at this whole talking to your crush thing'
Adrien smiled at Marinette's weirdness "um...so we going into the cinema?"
"Uh yeah" Marinette nodded as Adrien walked in. Before Marinette could follow Lila grabbed her hand stopping her. Marinette looked at her in question.
"Okay...Marinette as your replacement Alya" Marinette giggled at that. "I've got to tell you to calm because you're totally giving off serial killer vibes"
Beside them, Nathanael burst out laughing. Lila gave him a look which made him be quiet though he continued to snigger.
She turned back to Marinette who was glaring at her "Alya would say it much nicer than that" she grumbled.
"Yeah well, I'm not Alya" Lila deadpanned. "Okay you're going to take a deep breath and then you're going to walk in there and be yourself...unless he doesn't like who are then I suggest you change everything about yourself" Lila smiled.
"um Lila that's not good advice," Nathanael said.
"Sshh Nathy I know my stuff I've dated before," Lila said with a smug smile.
Marinette rolled her eyes "can I go now?"
"Yes go my protégé and make me proud!" Lila said dramatically, clutching her hands over her heart.
Marinette laughed awkwardly and walked into the cinema.
"Now are you coming, Nathy?" Lila asked, looking at the red-haired boy.
Nathanael glared at Lila.
"What is it now?" Lila sighed.
"It's just...how do you know I've never dated before?" he asked bitterly.
Lila smirked, "and have you dated before?"
"Well...no but that's not the point!" Nathanael argued an embarrassed blush appearing on his face.
"So what was your point?" Lila asked.
"My point...well...my point was that...we should go watch the stupid movie!" he said before storming through the doors.
Lila followed behind giggling.
After they had all bought their drinks and popcorn which had taken a bit longer than usual with Lila and Nathanael arguing with each other who was buying who the stuff. Marinette and Adrien had waited sending each other awkward glances. Lila had eventually succeeded in letting Nathanael let her buy him his ticket as well as his popcorn. Nathanael had rolled his eyes while he had grumbled but Lila had smiled brightly.
When they finally entered to watch the movie Lila had pulled Nathanael into the row behind Marinette and Adrien so Marinette and Adrien could have alone time.
"I'm still going to pay you back," Nathanael said as he sat down beside Lila
Lila sighed "We've been through this Nathy, you do not need to pay me back!"
"I still feel bad for letting you pay for me" Nathanael grumbled.
"Don't be I wanted to pay" Lila hissed back "now be quiet the movie is starting"
Half-way through the movie, Lila fixed her attention on Marinette and Adrien and sighed Adrien was sitting watching the movie intently while Marinette was grinning weirdly as she kept glancing at Adrien.
Lila shook her head 'seriously what is it with Paris and its teens being so...Naïve!' Lila had, had enough of the being oblivious and shy. Her anger was beginning to sizzle. She was going to put an end to this. She leaned forward to whisper to Adrien. "Hey, Adrien"
Adrien jumped a little and glanced over his shoulder a bit at Lila, "What's wrong?" he whispered back.
Nathanael was now watching them curious as to what they were whispering about.
"Do you like Marinette?" Lila whispered back.
"Well, of course, she's a good friend," Adrien said.
Lila narrowed her eyes at the model amazed he could lie to himself to the point of believing his own lies. The tiny blush was obvious on his face. Lila sighed she needed to find a way to work around this.
She sat back up straight on her seat and Adrien went back to watching the movie but he was a little confused by Lila's questioning.
"What was that all about?" Nathanael asked.
"Adrien is so oblivious he doesn't see his own obliviousness" Lila responded glaring at the back of the model's blonde head.
"Okay, I've lost you" Nathanael whispered.
"Adrien likes Marinette but doesn't realise it he said she was a good friend" Lila responded.
"Are you sure he likes her?" Nathanael asked "maybe he really does just think of her as a friend"
Lila nodded what Nathanael said did make a little sense. She remembered when she had gone to the library with Adrien it had seemed he had a thing for Ladybug. Lila rolled her eyes she didn't honestly believe anyone could like that pest but it seemed he did.
"Then I wonder who's going to break it to Marinette that he has a crush on the bug" Lila said quietly to herself.
Nathanael overheard and looked at Lila in confusion "Adrien likes bugs?"
Lila had to bite her tongue to stop herself laughing out-loud in the quiet theatre, well quiet except for the fact there was a group of children which would start randomly crying or fighting between each other at certain times, at the face, Nathanael pulled it was a mixture of disgust and confusion.
"I'll tell you some other time" Lila whispered before paying attention to the movie again.
Nathanael was left to wonder 'Adrien is attracted to bugs?' He looked at the model boy sitting in the row in front of them 'I know there are some weird people in the world...but how?'
They came out of the Cinema and Marinette stopped and looked at all three of them "So um where should we go now?" she asked.
"Well you two can go and do whatever you two want me and Nathanael had something planned" Lila lied with a smile, she was wanting the two to go off on their own maybe then Adrien would fall for Marinette.
"We did?" Nathanael said, not fully getting what Lila was getting at.
Lila gently elbowed him "Yes, don't you remember Nathanael" Lila hissed, her eyes narrowed in warning.
Nathanael gasped finally understanding "Oh right, Yes plans...we have lots of plans....so many plans...you wouldn't believe how many plans we have" he laughed anxiously as he rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand
Marinette and Adrien looked at Nathanael in concern.
Lila sighed realising how bad a liar Nathanael was "that'll do Nathy" she said taking his left hand and quickly dragging him away.
"Um bye then" Adrien called after them.
"Bye," Lila said as she continued to dragging Nathanael off.
Adrien and Marinette stood in silence for a moment before Adrien asked: "Are they dating?"
Marinette looked at Adrien in surprise "Lila and Nathanael?" she asked. Adrien nodded.
"Well I asked Lila the same thing and she was all like no way," Marinette said.
"Oh, I see" Adrien nodded. Then he looked at Marinette with a grin "So where to Next Pr-Marinette?" Adrien chuckled anxiously having stopped himself from nearly saying 'Princess'
Marinette hadn't seemed to notice instead she was smiling shyly as a blush appeared on her cheeks. She looked shyly at the ground "Well where would you like to go? After all your perfect...I mean Perfect at picking places to go!" Marinette laughed.
"Oh okay well I know this great ice cream shop lets go there," Adrien said smiling, Marinette looked back up and noticed a childish gleam in his eyes and smiled softly. 'He is so cute' she thought as she followed him to the ice cream shop.
"Lila, what were you on about in the cinema?" Nathanael asked as he let the Italian girl drag him around a corner and out of the eyesight of Marinette and Adrien.
"What do you mean?" Lila asked, finally slowing down and walking casually beside Nathanael hand in hand.
"You said Adrien was attracted to bugs" Nathanael said with wide eyes.
Lila started to laugh. Nathanael glared.
"Lila tell me how you know about his weird secret!" Nathanael demanded.
Lila finally stopped laughing and took a breath to calm herself before speaking "Not Bugs, Nathy, he has a crush on the bug"
"The bug" Nathanael repeated.
Lila nodded "Adrien Agreste has a crush on Ladybug"
Nathanael let out a small gasp finally understanding the situation. "So that's why you said Marinette would be upset because he doesn't like her," Nathanael said.
Lila nodded.
"How did you find out he liked Ladybug?" Nathanael asked as they walked on down the street.
"It was on my first day in school. Me and Adrien had gone to the Library to work on some homework and then..." Lila let out a gasp as she remembered the book full of superheroes.
"Lila, what's wrong?" Nathanael asked, his ocean blue eyes were fixed on Lila full of concern. They stopped walking coming to a standstill on the footpath.
"It's nothing don't worry" she lied managing to fake a smile.
Nathanael fixed Lila with a hard stare his lips forming a tight line. Lila's heart rate increased as her worry doubled. She felt guilty for lying to Nathanael which she found surprising she had never felt guilty for lying to somebody before. 'But this isn't just somebody this is Nathanael' Lila thought.
'He's been there through everything so far...he stayed my friend even when he found out about my lies and he didn't judge me for hating Ladybug...but I have to lie...right?' Lila thought doubts forming in her mind.
"Lila...you know you don't need to hide things from me," Nathanael said.
"I'm not," Lila said, yet another lie.
Nathanael glared at the Italian but it was not a glare of anger it was more a glare of disappointment. He let go of her hand causing Lila to widen her eyes in shock.
"Lila, you promise no more lies!" Nathanael said, a certain hurt in his voice.
"I'm not...at least not really...anyway it's too late there's nothing we can do now" Lila said
"What do you mean?" Nathanael asked.
Lila shook her head and looked down at the ground refusing to look directly at the red-haired boy. "You'll hate me" Lila mumbled.
Nathanael reached across and took Lila's hand again, Making Lila look up into his seafoam eyes. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze and smiled gently at her "Lila I will never hate you okay"
"How do you know that," Lila asked looking off to the side so her blush was less noticeable.
Nathanael shrugged a blush starting to appear on his cheeks "I don't know...I just won't, that's a promise"
Lila stared at him with her deep green eyes before she sighed "well okay"
"So you'll talk to me...no more hiding the truth?" Nathanael asked.
Lila nodded "as you've promised I'll also promise no more hiding the truth" Nathanael smiled, Happy that Lila was finally opening up to him. "So...?" he prompted.
"Adrien had a book it was full of superheroes...designs and stuff" Lila started.
"Like a sketchbook?" Nathanael asked, surprised and excited to hear that Adrien also liked drawing.
Lila shook her head "No he definitely didn't draw the stuff it looked like a really old book it had some weird foreign language written on the pages".
Nathanael nodded a little disappointed but he kept that to himself.
Lila gave another sigh "anyway Adrien was looking at a page on Ladybug and I may have got a little...jealous so I decided to...borrow the book that's how I found out about the vixen heroine...I wanted Adrien to like me so I lied that I was a superhero, that I was Volpina"
"Oh...so what about the book?" Nathanael asked.
"We were meeting in the park I meant to try an' slip the book back in his bag sometime without him noticing but I panicked when I saw him coming a little earlier than I expected and decided to hide it, unfortunately, the closest thing was a bin," Lila said sheepishly.
Nathanael started to snigger. Lila glared at him "This isn't funny now we're never going to get it back...I wonder if Adrien has noticed already"
"You put his book in a bin!" Nathanael laughed. "Could you not have...I don't know...hid it under the bench and then later acted like it fell from his bag"
Lila glared "I panicked okay, I wasn't in the right mind to be thinking up plans Mr know it all!" Nathanael laughed again.
"This is serious Nathanael! I never meant to forget about it! But then that whole Akuma thing happened" Lila said looking at the ground sadly.
Nathanael sighed "Well there's no way of getting it back now...it's probably recycled like all the paper trash...maybe he bought it online?"
Lila shrugged "I don't know I never asked where he got it but I suppose I could search to see if there is other copies"
Nathanael nodded "See everything will be fine now"
"I hope so" Lila said as they started walking again, still hand in hand.
When Lila finally got home with a happy smile from spending the day with Nathanael, he was such a good friend.
She sank down in her white, slightly fluffy and very comfy desk chair. She switched on her computer and it blinked into life showing her background photo which was of her hometown Genoa. It was photo she had taken her herself.
Lila opened up google and thought to herself 'I never got the name of the book...well I'll just search old book on superheroine Ladybug maybe then it'll show up'
Lila typed this in and the computer started to search a page was brought up and gave out an aggravated sigh when nothing came up except some spell book stuff.
"I'm not looking for a spell book!" Lila complained out loud. She decided to type in another search.
Ten more searches later Lila was in a panic. She couldn't find mention to the book at all.
'Shit! I bet it's one of a kind! When Adrien finds out-if he doesn't already know I'll never be able to return to school! This is awful! My life is over!'
Lila was in a panicked fluster. Her brain was coming up with worst scenario after worst scenario. She needed help and fortunately, her phone pinged with a message.
Lila let out a tiny yelp-sounding a little like a fox- 'please don't be Adrien' She thought as she picked up her phone. She gave a sigh of relief when she saw it was Nathanael.
SuperNath: How's the book search going?
Lila quickly typed a message out.
Rossifox: AWFUL!
SuperNath: really that bad?
Rossifox: Yes, I can't find it anywhere
SuperNath: would there be any point in me searching?
Lila smiled when she got Nathanael's message. 'He's so kind' she thought.
Rossifox: No I tried everything but that's sweet of you to ask. Lila typed out before sending it.
SuperNath: okay, what you going to do now?
Lila read his message and sighed. She honestly had no clue what she was going to do now. 'Maybe I should just forget about it after all Adrien hasn't said anything and it's been so long he's probably forgot himself' Lila thought hopefully.
Rossifox: No idea. Maybe Adrien's forgot about it.
SuperNath: Lila that's not nice I honestly think you should just own up and apologise.
Lila grumbled when she read his message she didn't like Nathanael being annoyed with her and she didn't like him being right.
Rossifox: but then everyone's going to hate me again and they've only recently started being my friends.
Lila had to wait a few seconds before Nathanael finally replied.
SuperNath: I'm sure that'll never happen they'll more likely be happy you actually owned up and apologised to Adrien than if you didn't and even if they did end up hating you I'll always be your friend no matter what.
Lila smiled when she read the message. 'Well as long as I always have Nathy then I'll be fine'.
Rossifox: fine I'll tell him first thing in the morning as long as you come with me.
SuperNath: of course.
After that, the messages stopped and Lila decided to get ready for bed a little early as she was tired out from the day. She collapsed into her bed but decided to read a little of a book to calm her thoughts. She chose from her bookcase the story 'Heartless' it was about the queen of hearts before she actually became the queen of hearts and how she changed into the self-centered queen all of Wonderland would grow to fear.
Lila loved the queen of hearts while all other little girls grew up loving Alice as they watched the movie or read the book. Lila never could stand the girl always causing problems and never could clean up her own mess. No Lila would always root for the Queen of Hearts sure she wasn't the nicest of characters but at the end of the day she was ruling a land full of crazy rule-breaking citizens that was bound to drive anyone to the point of enforcing some fear in them.
So Lila found herself reading a bit more than a little more specifically she ended up reading to the third last chapter only then did she managed to remove her tired eyes from the page and glance at the clock and she gasped at the time. It was so late she needed to sleep or else she would never get up!
She put her bookmark in the chapter closing the book and reluctantly putting it on the bedside table. She switched off the lamp and finally rested her head on her pillow before finally she drifted off to dreamland.