Miraculous Hunters Rewritten: Book 2

Chapter 20: Making a New Friend Part 2

After her training session with Draal; with a total of 3 out of 6 matches against her opponent, Marinette headed back home for dinner. Following that was her usual video call with Jim and Toby for their daily recap, where she told them her plans to leave Lila alone from then on before going off to patrol with Chat Noir. While the boys were a little miffed to hear Marinette was already throwing in the towel, they understood and supported her. The good mood resulting from the video carried on to Ladybug's performance for patrol, leading to her and Chat Noir having a little race through the city afterwards. When the time came to go back to her house, Marinette only had seconds to mutter her de-transformation phrase before flopping face-first onto her bed and falling asleep.

The next morning was more befitting Marinette's habits, starting with her sleeping through her first three alarms like clockwork. Snowballing from there, Marinette raced to eat breakfast and arrived at school seconds before the bell rang for the first period. With her being late, Marinette didn't have a chance to talk to Lila before class or during their mid-morning break on account of needing to help Alya with proofreading her upcoming article for the Ladyblog. Fortunately for Marinette, no akuma attacked that day and left her lunch break free to finally talk to Lila after once again letting Jim know she wouldn't be present for their usual call.

"Alright, here we go." Marinette quietly declared with her lunch tray in hand, prompting Tikki to pop her head out of her holder's purse and look up at her.

"Good luck, Marinette." Tikki encouraged the girl, a smile appearing on her tiny face.

"Thanks, Tikki." Marinette thanked her kwami before finally walking over to Lila, causing Tikki to hide back inside Marinette's purse just as Lila looked up from her lunch and saw her coming.

"Oh my god." Lila groaned to herself, shaking her head with a roll of her eyes before going to glare at the incoming Marinette. "Has anyone told you that you are annoyingly persistent?" the Italian girl tiredly questioned the girl in front of her, having had enough of Marinette's attempts despite it only being the second day of trying to connect with her.

"Many times as of late." Marinette replied as she placed her lunch tray on the table next to Lila, sitting next to her seconds later. "But it hasn't failed me yet, and I am determined to break through your walls." the designer declared, earning a tired sigh from Lila in response before deciding to tell Marinette to bugger off.

"Look, I already told you-" "But, I'm willing to let this be the first time." Marinette interrupted, to which Lila immediately stopped talking and stared at her in shock.

"I want to say I'm sorry for how I was yesterday. I was being overzealous when trying to offer my friendship to you and that wasn't what I wanted to do at all." the designer continued, further leaving Lila surprised by her words when hearing the apology.

"Okay...?" Lila said in a skeptical tone, leaning away from Marinette a little out of worry about the girl having been replaced by a body snatcher.

"After your akumatization, I admittedly felt sorry for you at the time and wanted to help you feel more welcomed here. And since our talk yesterday, I had some time to reflect and realized that I was forcing my friendship onto you." Marinette explained, bashfully rubbing the back of her neck as she spoke.

"Well, I wouldn't say you went that far. You were only a little pushy." Lila reflected as she looked down at her tray, now playing with her food with her fork. "But why were you acting like that?" the olive-eyed girl asked, sending an intrigued stare at a suddenly silent Marinette.

"I know what it's like not to have any close friends. Up until this year, I was an outcast in my year group and was only acquainted with my classmates except Nino." Marinette admitted, looking at the floor to her left for a second before redirecting her focus back onto Lila. "I was hoping to help you not feel the same way here, but then ended up not listening to you when you said you wanted the opposite." the pigtailed girl added, offering a small smile to the Italian to try and smooth things over a little.