The next day Lila walked up the stairs to Nathanael's apartment. She knocked the door and waited patiently outside.
Soon the door was opened by Nathanael. He had his clothes on but his hair was still a ruffled mess and his eyes were bleary from lack of proper sleep.
"Lila, what are you doing here?" Nathanael asked, his eyes quickly widening in surprise as he quickly ran a hand through his hair trying to flatten it but the strands of hair just raised up again.
"I thought we could walk to school together," Lila said brightly.
"Oh," Nathanael said "Sure, I still have a few things to do so um you should come in"
He moved aside to let Lila walk in "that's okay" she said, "But how late did you get up?"
"Not too late...but I couldn't sleep last night" Nathanael said as she shut the door.
"Why not?" Lila asked.
"The usual nightmares" Nathanael muttered with a shrug.
"Oh," Lila muttered sadly.
"Anyway, how did your drama club go?" Nathanael asked as he began to walk up the stairs.
Lila followed behind "It was good, at the start, some people were still giving me wary glares but after a while, everyone was really welcoming!" she smiled. She had decided not to mention Olivia and her bad attitude as she didn't want to worry Nathanael.
Nathanael glanced behind him and saw Lila's smile and felt a smile of his own appearing, glad she was happy.
"That's great," he said.
They reached the top landing and Lila hovered unsure where to go. Nathanael noticed this and he pointed towards his room "You can go wait in my room if you want"
Lila nodded "Okay" she walked over and was about to push open the door when Nathanael shouted, "Wait!"
She glanced over her shoulder at him in confusion.
He blushed "uh I just remembered I um need to tidy up some things..." he rushed over "Can you wait out here for a few seconds"
"I'm sure it's fine, my room can be a mess too!" Lila laughed.
"No!" Nathanael said "just wait"
Lila raised an eyebrow in confusion as Nathanael quickly went into his room and shut the door.
"He really can be weird..." Lila muttered to herself as she waited outside the door.
Inside the room, Nathanael was frantically grabbing every page or sketchbook that he had drawn Lila or anything relating to his crush on Lila on. Soon his arms were full of pages and a sketchbook. He looked around wildly for a place to hide them.
Then he heard Lila knock on the door "Nath, can I come in yet?"
His eyes widened in panic "Uh give me a few more seconds" he shouted back.
He smiled when an idea came to him and he rushed and knelt down as he pushed them all through the small gap underneath his wardrobe. He stood back up and sighed in relief when he saw none of the pages could be seen. Then he put the sketchbook in his bag alongside another sketchbook.
"You can come in now," Nathanael said.
Lila pushed the handle and walked in, looking around the room.
"I don't know why you were in a panic for this place isn't that untidy...oh except that desk" she pointed over to his desk which looked like an explosion had gone off on it as pages, sketchbooks, pens, pencils and markers littered the desk.
Nathanael looked at his desk and looked at Lila with a small glare "That's not a mess, it's called organised chaos"
Lila laughed "Organised Chaos, that's a good one"
"It's organised!" Nathanael exclaimed "now I have to finish getting ready, so wait here"
Lila nodded as Nathanael walked out of the room.
Lila looked around the bedroom. Its walls had been painted a soft grey and Nathanael had put up many an artwork most of them involved fictional superheroes such as Batman or Spiderman. His bed had a black bed frame with a dark navy blue bedsheets on top beside the bed sat a black bedroom locker with a lamp with a grey lampshade sat on top.
Then her eyes focused back on his desk and shook her head. No matter what Nathanael said that was not organised chaos that was a just chaos. Lila walked to the desk and started to tidy the mess of pages and pencils, pens and markers up.
She neatly piled up a bunch of white pages some with sketches on them and some were blank she sorted them into two separate piles. Then she saw a green sketchbook she hadn't seen him use before under the mess of pages. She picked it up and stared at it she really wanted to look in it.
'Nathanael is very private about his work he might get annoyed if I look through his old sketchbook' Lila thought. She bit her lip and glanced over shoulder there was no sign of Nathanael coming back anytime soon.
Curiosity got the better of her and she opened it. She gently flicked through it with a smile but soon that smile vanished when she was met with page after page of Marinette.
Her eyes widened in surprise and she felt jealousy stir inside her. Does he have a crush on Marinette? He never said anything...' she quickly flicked through the rest of the pages which were also of Marinette
'This is an old sketchbook he's probably over his crush on her...I hope' Lila thought. she placed the sketchbook back down on the desk just in time as the door creaked open.
"Lila, You coming?" Nathanael asked at the doorway.
Lila quickly turned around putting on a smile "I couldn't stand how untidy your desk was so I had to organise it"
"Lila, I already said that's organised Mess," Nathanael said "Now c'mon we don't want to be late for school," he said.
Lila nodded as Nathanael walked away. Lila glanced at the Sketchbook with a jealous glare one last time before following after Nathanael.
All the walk to School Lila was deep in thought wondering if Nathanael had a crush on Marinette. 'I wouldn't blame him, everyone seems to love her...how am I meant to compete with that? She's kind to mostly everyone and she always helping people...I'm nothing compared to her...I'm just a liar'
"Lila!" Nathanael said loudly cutting into her thoughts.
Lila snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Nathanael with wide eyes. "What?" she asked.
"Were you listening to anything I said?" he asked.
"Umm...well...No, sorry," Lila said when she couldn't think of what he said.
Nathanael looked at her with concern "are you okay? You seem very out of it"
"I'm totally fine, just didn't sleep much last night" Lila lied, she smiled at him before looking away.
"Well, Okay," Nathanael said.
The rest of the walk to school was silent which Nathanael found strange, usually, Lila would be talking about some crazy idea she had. He glanced at her in concern and saw her eyes narrowed in thought, she was in a different world at the moment.
He sighed quietly if only she would open up to him. He wondered what he could have done to make her suddenly close herself off. It was like she didn't fully trust him anymore and that thought made Nathanael's heart hurt.
'Maybe I'm just over thinking everything and she just didn't get enough sleep last night like she said' Nathanael thought mostly trying to convince himself. It was pointless he knew Lila and because of this he could tell she was worried about something 'She'll open up in her own time, I can't rush her'
Nathanael looked at Lila at the same time she looked at him, a small blush spread across both their faces as they quickly looked away again.
Nathanael sighed in relief when he saw the school insight he didn't know why but things felt more awkward than usual between him and Lila.
Lila glanced over and saw Nathanael drawing Ladybug.
'First, it was Marinette, now it's that's stupid Ladybug...why won't he ever noticed me! I'm there for him when he needs me I never see Marinette or Ladybug caring about him!' The jealousy that had been growing inside her suddenly reached a breaking point and her eyes narrowed and hardened into a glare.
"Why are you drawing that pest?" Lila hissed.
Nathanael looked at her in shock to hear her talk in such an aggressive tone to him. "W-what?" he stuttered.
"You heard me! What makes you want to draw Ladybug? She's nothing but a bully hiding behind a mask!" she said this loudly causing some of the class to hear and looked at her with mixtures of glares and confused gazes.
"What was that?" Alya asked, looking at Lila with a frown.
Lila looked at her with a cold glare in her green eyes "Your so-called precious Ladybug is nothing but a bully who uses her power of adoration from all of Paris as an advantage over people who fail to bow down to her!"
"We know that's lies!" Chloe laughed "fed up of not getting attention, Rossi?" Chloe got up out of her desk and walked up to the back.
"Oh shut up, Bourgeois just because your hero represents everything you are yet everyone else is meant to despise!" Lila said also standing up.
"Lila. Calm down" Nathanael said softly, placing his hand on her arm.
"Get off me!" Lila snapped, shoving Nathanael off her in annoyance.
Nathanael gasped and looked at her with a mixture of shock and betrayal. Lila had never been so angry with him before.
"L-Lila" Nathanael whispered.
Lila turned her head ignoring him as Chloe started again.
"You're just jealous because unlike Ladybug, you're just a loser with loser friends and has to make up lame lies to feel good about herself. How pathetic" Chloe said "you're not worth my time" Chloe began walking back to her desk
"Don't you walk away from me!" Lila yelled, stomping after her. "You're the pathetic one. How are you all so blind? Ladybug is a villain! Paris brags about how they have these two amazing superheroes, but they're awful! Ladybug is a stuck-up jerk with a god complex. Ladybug is the worst person I've ever met!" Lila took a few deep breaths. There was a crazy glint in her eye.
The whole class glared daggers at her.
"Why would you say that? Without Ladybug Paris would be destroyed! You should be thankful we have such a great Hero" Alya said.
Lila glared at her but before she could say anything Chloe had to put another comment in.
"Not even your only friend will stand up for you, nobody truly likes you, Liar!"
Tears filled her eyes. "That's not true!" She glanced at Nathanael for help but he just watched with wide eyes filled with confusion and sadness.
"Oh is the Liar going to cry!" Chloe teased, letting out a laugh.
Tears rushed down Lila's cheeks as she shoved Chloe out of the way and rushed out of the classroom. She didn't hear Nathanael's shouts as he called her.
Lila ran down the corridor her boots thudding against the ground as tears raced down her cheeks and blurred her vision.
She ran into an empty classroom, the lights were off casting her in darkness. She couldn't hold the hurt any longer and she fell to the floor in a dishevelled heap as her sorrow poured out in a flood of uncontrollable tears. A great sob escaped her, and she covered her face with shaking hands.
'I hate Ladybug, I hate Chloe...I hate them all!" She thought. Then she took deep shaky breaths to calm herself. Then another thought made its way into her mind.
'You really are a liar, it's not them you hate it's yourself...even Nathanael hates you now, Your pathetic'
And just like that fresh tears filled her green eyes, her thick lashes stuck together in clumps as if she'd been swimming. The tears made wet tracks down her face and she felt her body start to tremble.
She didn't notice the small black butterfly that came in through a gap in the window and silently fluttered over towards the crying Italian. It swooped down and went inside the foxtail necklace that hung around her neck.
Lila gasped as she felt the familiar feeling of Hawkmoth gaining control. A glowing butterfly symbol appeared over her face.
"Volpina, they have humiliated you and it's all because of Ladybug, don't you want revenge on Paris and Ladybug once and for all?" Hawkmoths voice echoed through her mind.
She felt all her reasonable senses become clouded as her eyes narrowed in anger.
"Yes," Lila said.
"Good, I suppose you know the drill, get me Ladybugs and Chat Noir's miraculous and you'll have your revenge"
Lila felt the strange feeling spread throughout her body as the black aura covered her and disappeared leaving Volpina in the place of Lila.
She stood up and let out a laugh "This time I really will destroy Ladybug" she took her flute and blew into it a little a golden beam of light appearing at the end.