Bug Bites

Chapter | One

Assumptions, that's what everyone had now a days about her character, but the reality was that they didn't know her. Did they really ever? The teenagers who sat in her class at Collège Françoise Dupont felt justified to judge her all based on one teenaged girl's lies. As the months went by, everything seemed to fade away into a hazed around Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Alya was no longer her best friend, falling victim to the lies that left Lila's lips as if it were dripping honey. Lies that were so sweet to other's ears and venom to Marinette's heart.

Nino, her dear child hood friend, was supporting his girlfriend because that's how those things worked. Marinette knew that, and she'd accepted that. She understood, and she knew it didn't make it right, and that it hurt her- but she understood.

Then there was Adrien, the sweet boy who wanted to play peace maker. The model that she found herself less infatuated with as the days went by. He would sit with Lila as she wrapped herself around him as if he were some prize to be won, as if he were an object and not a person. Marinette already accepted that she couldn't compete for Adrien's heart, because there was no point anymore. He didn't care for her enough to check on her, to see if she was okay because of Lila's lies.

No one did.

The whole purpose of her sitting in the back and letting the lies play themselves out were to expose Lila over time was supposed to eventually work right? That had been what Adrien had said, and over time it had just gotten worse. Waiting for Lila to expose herself, to shrink the possibility of her getting akumatized, was supposed to happen- just like Adrien had said. Yet it never did, and now her lies had gotten so far out of hand that Marinette wasn't even sure Adrien knew a truth from a lie from the Italian girl anymore.

Quite frankly, Marinette no longer cared. She no longer cared that Alya believed she was jealous over Lila and Adrien, that she was willing to believe everything without fact checking. No longer did she care to have Adrien's pictures on her wall or worry about falling in front of him, because now she no longer felt anything. Not for Alya, or Nino, or Adrien or even the class that used to welcome her with open arms that now greeted her with icy stares and whispers in the air.

All this because of one girl, Lila Rossi.

Their insults still rattled inside Marinette's head every single waking moment of the day and haunted every nightmare she was plagued with at night. Words that felt like knives being stabbed through her heart and twisted by the people she once trusted so dearly enough to call her friends. An overwhelming pain that Marinette silently suffered in an internal agony.

The smiles for her parents were well rehearsed, perfected in the time she stood in front of her bathroom mirror while she wiped her tears away before Tikki could see. A smile she could only fake for a few seconds at a time, because the pain of forcing that one movement was just too much.

After all she was supposed to be the epitome of perfection, of love and justice and all things fair. She was supposed to be the ever loved Ladybug that everyone in Paris seemed to fawn over and adore. Marinette had absolutely came to hate Ladybug with a passion so fierce that it scared her sometimes. Yet, in a twisted sick joke fate pulled on her, Ladybug was the only thing she had.

"Marinette.." Tikki's voice trailed off as she floated higher with sad eyes watching her chosen. She could feel Marinette's distress, after all the teenaged girl was tethered to her. That was why only Marinette could wield her miraculous so effectively, and only a new one could be chosen once the current Ladybug's life cycle was complete.

Tikki could feel every pang, every inch of heartache Marinette bared and it scared Tikki for her holder's safety. This time not from an akuma, but from Marinette herself. Master Fu had taken a risk choosing the heroes of Paris at such a young age, the pressure of a life, of normalcy and balancing hero work was no easy feet. For nearly three years Marinette had done it flawlessly, but within the past few months the teenaged girl wavered.