Here it is, a new edition of the Lilanette Week. And once again I'm not only taking part in it, I'm making a coherent story from seven out of eight prompts. And got a few interesting ideas...
Day 1: Childhood Meeting
Lila had to admit, what had just happened had been quite the trip. Thought she wouldn't repeat it. Then Ladybug knelt at her side and put a hand on her shoulder.
"I-totally overreacted, and should have never spoken to you like that. I'm sorry." she said.
"Wait... You've really forgotten?!" Lila replied in shock. "After the mess of that day?!"
"Uh? Wait, Lilly?!"
"You know each other?" Chat Noir asked.
"Yes. Me, Ladybug, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Lila replied. "You probably know her, considering how many people got Akumatized in her, our class..."
"Oh. Oh, well, I think I should go and leave you alone. See you!"
As Chat left, Ladybug realized two things: her old friend had changed more than a little bit in looks, and somehow knew her real name. But even that was less important than the other part.
"Why did you disappear?" she asked after they took a seat in Gustave Eiffel's apartment. "I didn't get any news from you for years, and-"
"An uncle of mine thought I was being too gay, and took out your contact information and mails. He was also about to destroy your gifts, but Mom caught him in the act. Ever since, her coworkers call her "La Benigna", the benevolent, because they're too scared to offend her. Tried to track you down ever since, saw you at Le Grand Paris yesterday by the way, we may not be as close as the rumor mill paints us but I'm acquainted with Prince Ali..."
"That's why you spread those rumors? To get my attention?"
"No, that was the interview. The other rumors were the usual result of a rumor mill. Except the thing with Adrien, I wanted to see if he'd buy it. That and song Jagged Stone would have written for me, that one I was being sarcastic and Bourgeois apparently likes the stereotype about blondes' IQ. How could she buy that, I've got no idea."
"That may be my fault... One of Chloe's tricks ended up with me making Jagged Stone's Eiffel Tower glasses, and we've been friends ever since."
Lila snorted in a strangled laugh as she brought her hand over the eyes and shook her head.
"Only you, 'Nette..." she said in mock exasperation.
"Before I forget... How did you find out?" Marinette asked as her transformation wore off.
"The speech. It was just so... You. The awesome yet adorable Marinette. Half of Paris, and many outside, fell for you in that moment. Speaking of which... Sorry for putting the moves on your boyfriend, didn't imagine you were dating."
It took a few minutes, but Marinette managed to stammer that she and Adrien weren't dating.
"Ma l'è na capra 'nculata?!" Lila asked, surprised.
"Did you just call him an idiot?"
"Yes. Yes I did. You're good looking, strong, kind, a genius, and a bit crazy to spice it up, and that's without the whole superhero thing! He'll better hurry up, or I move in. No, forget it, I'm doing it."
Years earlier, Verthier
"AIUTO!" Lila shouted as she held herself to the railing. She took another look down from the bridge, right in the (in her mind appropriately named) Eau Morte river, and shouted again, hoping someone would come soon-she was starting to slip.
As she cursed herself once again for running from her parents and play on that bridge, and hoping she'd never leave Rome and her much calmer river ever again, she felt a pair of hands smaller than hers grab her arm-and then pull her up, saving her life. It had been a girl about her age, possibly younger, that Lila immediately grabbed while babbling her thanks just as her parents and those of her savior arrived. Then, belatedly remembering that her savior likely didn't speak Italian, she thanked her again and asked her name.
"Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng." she replied with a smile that just made Lila melt.
Notes
Yep. A childhood meeting in which Marinette saved Lila's life during a vacation, and for the rest of the vacation they were practically inseparable. And the place it happened exists, I've used an actual picture (search for "Eau morte Verthier" on Wikimedia Commons).
