Requested by @Mysticfashion and @SandraTheStar

Please forgive me! Between working, getting severe writers block, catching covid a second time, stressing with finishing contest reviews, and all the "please update" comments I've been receiving... your girl has been behind on a lot of things.

I hope you enjoy this though! Much love for your patience ❤️

After plotting her revenge on Lila, Marinette starts to feel guilty when Alya takes Lila's side—despite the proof of her lies. Sensing the tension in the air, Lila decides to use that to her advantage to try and destroy their friendship. Thankfully, Adrien won't let that happen. After all, he knows a thing or two about adding salt to an open wound—and that is what makes the sting all the more enjoyable to witness.

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Marinette told herself that the party to purposely humiliate Lila had gone quite successful. Lila was caught red-handed in front of everyone she had lied to and put on the spot, looking incredibly lame and stupid as she tried to explain her long list of lies.

But when Ladybug rested her elbow on her partner's shoulder, smirking as Lila tried to defend herself, she found Alya skeptically staring at her out from the corner of her eye.

And then suddenly, she didn't feel so prideful about it anymore.

When the party was over, and Lila scrambled off in tears (probably off to the bathroom) everyone else began the actual celebration. Marinette, however, only felt nauseated and even disgusted with herself.

And the feeling only grew worse when she de-transformed and returned to the party as Marinette, only to be confronted by her best friend.

"What was this for?!" Alya shouted, nearly pushing the ravenette back just with the volume of her voice. Thankfully, she wasn't standing in front of Alya alone, and Adrien was still standing beside her looking just as puzzled.

"What are you talking about?" Marinette said calmly, despite the nervousness she was currently feeling.

"Don't play dumb, Marinette. You know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"Honestly Alya, I don't!"

"You lied!" Alya spat, jabbing a finger harshly in Marinette's chest. The action caused Adrien to quickly take a sudden step forward. "You said this party was supposed to be an apology for Lila! You said it was to reconcile! But you lied to me!"

"Tell me one good reason why I should ever apologize to Lila?" Marinette shoved her best friend back. "Lila is a liar. Didn't you see how her lies were just exposed? How much she's lied to everyone?"

"Yes I did." Alya said, "And I also saw how humiliated she was!"

"So what?" Marinette rolled her eyes. "That's what she gets for lying all the time and for fooling everyone—for fooling you!"

"Fooling me?" Alya scoffed, placing her hands on her hips. "You literally lied to me today!"

"You can't possibly compare me lying to you once to Lila's long list of lies!"

In the midst of their heated argument, Marinette didn't even notice that Adrien had placed a hand on her shoulder, as if he were trying to keep her rooted.

She felt herself crack the moment Alya let out a bitter laugh. "At this point, you're not any better than Lila, Marinette."

A million thoughts flashed through Marinette's mind. The many times she had to lie to her parents, to Alya, to her other friends, to her teachers, and once to Adrien, about being Ladybug. The lie she was forced to tell. The lied she had to tell to protect everyone.

She wasn't like Lila. She was nothing close to Lila.

"Alya!" Adrien exclaimed as if he were horrified. He stepped forward, looking to shield Marinette from her view. "How could you say that?"

Alya scoffed, "Come on, Adrien. Don't tell me you're actually taking her side? She lied straight to my face, yet dares to condemn Lila for lying."

"Comparing the two of them is just ignorant, Alya. You can't compare one lie to a thousand." Adrien frowned.

"Oh I definitely can, because all I see is a bunch of hypocrisy." Alya stubbornly retorted. "You can't point the finger if you're doing the wrong too."

Adrien folded his arms across his chest and stepped forward, almost as if he was looking to shield Marinette with his body. "Obviously Marinette lied to you because she knew you would react like this. Lila lies only because she likes deceiving people."

"Lying is wrong regardless, Adrien. You shouldn't be justifying it."

"You're one to talk! You're always justifying Lila's actions!"

Marinette cowered behind her outraged boyfriend like a coward, despite the fact that both of her friends were talking about her as if she wasn't there.

"I don't justify Lila's actions!"

"Oh yeah?" Adrien challenged, "What about that one time when Lila tripped Marinette on purpose?"

"She said it was an accident! She was stretching her leg out and didn't know Marinette was there!"

"And you actually believe that?!"

"Of course she does." A sultry voice purred, and suddenly, the wicked witch of the west herself joined them, almost as if she had materialized out of thin air. She came from behind Marinette with a wicked smile on her lips, and it seemed as if crying in the bathroom hadn't done her any justice, considering her mascara was stained down her cheeks like streaks of rain.

"Lila!" Yet despite everything that had happened, Alya's only concern lied with the liar. "Are you okay? I was going to come check up on you after I finished dealing with these two."

Adrien remained strong, but the venom in Alya's tone of voice caused Marinette to flinch back. It was difficult to comes to grip with the fact that Alya could even be that harsh... and to her out of all people.

"Oh..." Lila giggled, "I'm fine. Just... confused..." she turned her gaze over to the ravenette, who was peeking around her boyfriend's side. "...as to why you would make me look bad like that, Marinette."

"You make yourself look bad, Lila." Despite feeling guilty, Marinette wasn't about to not speak her mind. "You're the one who chooses your reputation—your reputation of lies."

Lila placed a hand on her chest and laughed, "Are you talking about those things you revealed? True, I lied. But I only did it because I wanted to be able to fit in... since I was attending a new school and all."

"God Lila, Pinocchio would be impressed." Adrien deadpanned, "Even after looking like an idiot, you still keep running your mouth."

"No one here cares for your sarcastic remarks, Agreste." Alya snarked.

"Oh.. shut the hell up, Alya," Adrien turned his attention to her once more, his retort causing her eyes to go wide. "No one here asked for your 'fake friend' input, yet here we are."

"Well..." Lila snickered at one in particular. "Looks like Adrien here has become Marinette's itty-bitty guard dog. She doesn't really need you to stand up for her anymore, now does she, Al?"

The silence that engulfed the four of them was sickening. The look that fell across Alya's face was a painful one to examine..... considering the brunette actually seemed to believe Lila's little game to be true.

"Whatever you're playing at Lila, I'd watch your words if I were you." Adrien said lowly.

"What?" Lila laughed innocently, "It's the truth, isn't it? You claim Alya to be 'fake', yet you threw her off to the side once you two started a relationship."

"No one threw anyone off to the side!" Marinette interjected.

Lila clicked her tongue. "Oh? Well... that's not how I see it. You see, from what I've gathered, Alya can't be friends with anyone else without one of you two getting jealous."

"Jealous?" Marinette couldn't believe what she was hearing. Better yet—she couldn't believe what Lila was implying. "What would I possibly be jealous of? You? That's a dream you wish was a reality, Lila."

"Don't flatter yourself, Marinette." Lila rolled her eyes. "You're not that special. And you're not very real either."

"Coming from the fakest person that exists on this planet." Adrien let out a bitter laugh.

"And don't get me started on you—"

"Oh save it." Adrien held up a hand. "Your bullshit is hurting my ears."

"Why you little—"

"And while we're on the topic of 'fake'.." Adrien chuckled airily, "..let's talk about that fake Louis Vuitton purse you've got hanging on your shoulder." He gestured to the bag with a jolt of his chin, which seemed to awaken the fear that lied somewhere deep in the pit of Lila's conscience.

Lila's eyes darted fearfully to the bag before she cleared her throat. "That's a bit low of you to claim my purse is fake, Adrien. It's all real."

"Tell that to the EBAY DIY seller you bought that from." Adrien mused.

Lila gasped, "How dare you—"

"And don't even get me started on that fake Gucci shirt you're wearing," Adrien pointed out, snorting out loud when Lila scrambled to cover it from his view. "I know a fake designer shirt when I see one."

"Ugh!" Lila stomped her foot on the ground, like a toddler throwing a little tantrum. "Nothing I own is fake—!"

"Tell that to your fake adidas." Adrien pointed down at her shoes.

Lila stomped her foot again. "They're not fake! You're just jealous that you don't have a pair of your own."

"Why would I be jealous of your copy and paste shoes?"

Despite their bickering, Alya felt the need to interject once more. "Who cares if she's wearing fake brands?"

"Oh I don't, not really," Adrien said, "I was just going to point out how well it all goes with her fake personality. It ties it all together, really."

Lila huffed, "As if I care what you think about me."

Adrien laughed at that. "Of course you do. You care about what everyone thinks of you. That's why everything you say is a lie. Because no one cares to be friends with the real Lila."

Lila's tense figure straightened at that, and it was all the proof needed to show that Adrien was right. Marinette spared another glance around her boyfriend just in time to see it too. So, no one liked the real Lila, huh? Marinette liked to guess it was because Lila was so...

Bratty?

Rude?

Obnoxious?

A know it all?

...insecure?

That last thought made Marinette pause for a brief second. Was Lila really that insecure? Was she really so insecure that she felt the need to pretend to be something she wasn't?

The more Marinette thought about it, the more she felt bad for her—in a sense that Lila was fooling herself.

She was fooling herself more than she was fooling anyone else.

"The real Lila just isn't that interesting, huh?" Adrien probed mockingly, "She's not famous, she hasn't travelled all over the world, her parents aren't rich... and I bet they're never home either."

"Okay Adrien, knock it off. That's enough." Alya interjected once more. "You're going too far."

"Am I?" Adrien turned to look at her. "This is what Lila does to other people. She puts them down for not being like her, but what she perceives herself to be isn't even real!"

"Sometimes people need an alternative reality to escape to!" Alya exclaimed.

"That is not the case here." Adrien replied sternly.

"Oh yeah?" Alya scoffed, "And how would you know?"

Marinette felt Adrien's tense underneath her hands. And she knew why.

Because Adrien was the master at knowing how to pretend.

Adrien raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Are you really asking me that right now Al? I thought you knew me well enough to know the answer to that."

Marinette watched as Alya's face crumbled once again, when the brunette realized the extremity of her words. But Marinette didn't feel bad that time for Alya's guilt.

Instead, she felt a bit relieved.

Because what else needed to be said for Alya to realize how wrong she was, and how manipulative Lila is?

She watched as Alya unclenched her fists, which were tightly balled at her sides during their lengthy and heated argument. She then sighed and turned to face Lila, who was watching her with a already skeptical look in her eye—as if she was trying to predict Alya's next move.

Marinette snickered to herself at that. She could admit that she herself was predictable, but Alya was quite the opposite.

"I think... I think you should apologize for lying at least." Alya said to Lila, and no one missed the way Lila's eyes blew wide at the suggestion. "Because that was wrong, even if you aren't the only one here guilty of doing something wrong."

"You want me to apologize?" Lila laughed, brushing back one of her sausage-like pigtails over her shoulder. "As if I would ever apologize for doing absolutely nothing wrong."

"Seriously?" Alya asked in a deadpanned yet disbelieved tone. "You literally lied countless of times and you're saying there's nothing wrong with that?"

Lila rolled her eyes. "Come on, Al. It's not that big of a deal. It's just a couple of lies."

"A couple?" Adrien let out a mocking laugh. But Marinette placed a hand on his shoulder; a silent signal for him to leave it be. For Alya to really grasp how twisted Lila was, she had to experience it all for herself.

"Lying is wrong.. no matter how many times you do it." Alya frowned, "Please, Lila. Just apologize to everyone so that we can move on."

Lila folded her arms across her chest. "I'm not apologizing... and I never will. It's not who I am. I don't stoop down to such a low level."

"Then if that's not who you are... I don't want to have any part of you." Alya said and finally took a step back.

The sight had Marinette breathing a heavy sigh of relief.

Finally Alya saw it.

She saw who Lila really was.

Lila's face crumbled—whether it was genuine or fake, Marinette didn't know. But the look didn't suit her. "But Al—"

"Don't call me that." Alya said sternly. She turned her gaze until she found the ravenette's eyes, and when she shot her best friend a timid, sad smile, Marinette found herself returning it wholeheartedly. "Only my friends get to call me that."

Lila visibly shrunk into a pit of darkened despair, as if she'd been punched in the gut, and Marinette genuinely felt bad for her... but she could tell Adrien didn't feel nearly the same way when he started bawling out laughing.

Everyone snapped their heads to look at him with wide, confused eyes.

The blonde wiped away a non-existent tear from underneath his eye. "It looks like the fox has played her last card... and she's all out of moves."

Lila's eyebrows came together angrily at that. "Don't think for a second that this is over, Adrien. I haven't lost. I always have a hidden move up my sleeve."

And then the brunette pivoted on her heel, flipping her hair behind her as she trotted away. She made her way over to a few of their other suckered classmates, who from afar, looked weary to have her around. And perhaps that was the start. Perhaps all it took was uneasiness to open someone's eyes.

"Oh Lila..." Marinette mused sinisterly underneath her breath. She felt a hand grasp hers, and when she glanced over to see who it was, she found Alya's kind smile. The brunette squeezed her hand gently, a silent sign of her apology. The ravenette squeezed her hand back. She then looked up to catch Adrien's eyes, only to find that he was already looking at her with an all-knowing grin on his face. And then, Marinette turned to look back at Lila in the distance, a determined smirk on her lips. "Only those who have lost run away."

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Well... I hope whoever read this enjoyed it! Sorry in advance for any spelling errors. If you happen to find any, let me know!

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