Aaaaand… This is the very start of that AU. The one where Lila arrived in the first episode and things went a little different, including Master Fu giving out three Miraculous on that day. Had the idea for this one while walking through Milan's roads, so blame it on the smog.

My explanation for Lila's resemblance to the past Fox Miraculous User, on the other hand, is far older.

Day 8: Free Day

Lila's first impression of Paris was positive, especially compared to London. Sure, she missed such things as Speakers' Corner, but Paris didn't lose anything when it came to parks and monuments, contrary to stereotype the Parisians were actually less arrogant than the Londoners (they seemed that way because they were more lively), the cooking was better, the paparazzi weren't as nosy, and, most importantly, it wasn't as cold(1). Now, if she could convince the other transfer student (that was in her same class, for some reason) to share whatever witchcraft she was using to tolerate the climate when she was from Martinique(2)…

"It's not so bad." Cesaire stated as they walked toward their class. "I simply-Wait a minute!"

They had reached the class, and what had got Cesaire started was the sight of the local bully browbeating a girl of Chinese descent about the latter arriving first at a seating the bully wanted. And, much to Lila's irritation, the victim was so broken she was still going to let the bully have the seat. So, of course, Lila walked up and blatantly sat in the contested seat.

"Excuse you?! That's my seat!" the bully protested.

"May I see the receipt?" Lila asked with the calmest and most irritating smile and tone she could muster. She knew exactly how to deal with these fools who thought money (as made evident by the bully wearing a rather expensive Gabriel outfit and Chloé(3) sunglasses) made them some kind of divinity. For the moment, she enjoyed her sputtering.

"Move away now, or I'll tell my father!" the bully threatened, as expected.

"And why should I care?"

"Because he's the mayor!"

"Aaaand… Saved in the Cloud." Lila announced as she produced her smartphone and touched its screen, quickly changing her plan to take advantage of the new information. "I knew exactly who you are, Borghesotta-that's why I was recording, expecting you to threaten me with your father. Now, I wonder what would happen if this got to the papers, especially when the election is so close…"

Lila let a few seconds pass, enjoying the looks of shock and surprise from the classmates, the gratitude and blushing(?!) from the victim, and the horror on the mayor's daughter's face.

"Don't look at me like that, it wasn't me to threaten to pull the mayor of Paris in a disagreement between middle schoolers." Lila said. "Now go, I believe this is-Uh, I think I missed your name."

"Ma-Marinette! Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

"I believe this is Marinette's place. By the way, my sweet host, would you be so gentle to let Alya Cesaire and myself, Lila Rossi, rest here after we traveled from far away places?"

Master Fu had sent Wayzz to follow the future holder of the Ladybug Miraculous to discover where she lived so he could give her the Miraculous (the chosen of the Black Cat had been easier, thanks to having his face on half of Paris' walls). He had completed his mission-and brought him some interesting information.

"You sure it was an improvised bluff?" he asked his Kwami.

"Her smartphone was turned off and she was ready to dodge a physical attack, Master." the Kwami explained.

"I see… Lila Rossi, currently living in the Italian embassy, you said?"

Lila was laughing as she closed the door of her room at the embassy. Gabriel's newest jewelry line included copies of a necklace that was all too familiar to an Italian, thanks to the latest two known users of the Fox Miraculous having been active there and the first being so popular her hairstyle was still fairly widespread, even Lila herself had it(4)-and as her mother had given her some money to buy herself a souvenir from the city, she had bought one, fully knowing her dear paranoid mother would likely mistake it for the real deal and get a near heart attack at the idea of her becoming a superhero, and would be trying to catch her breath for a while even after being shown the receipt. She'd feel bad if it wasn't for the very thing that prompted her to prank her mother that way…

After stopping laughing she took a look around. She still had to unpack a few things, and needed to choose what to start with. Then she noticed a small hexagonal box, one she was sure wasn't there previously, and opened it, finding another of those necklaces… From which emerged a small fox-like imp.

"You, have been chosen." the imp announced. "A force of evil has appeared in this city. This evil must be destroyed, and only through the strength of Trixx and the Fox Miraculous and the virtue of human righteousness can this evil be vanquished."

Lila blinked for a few moments, then voiced her opinion: "I thought I had outgrown imaginary friends that can quote and paraphrase Samurai Jack."

The imp slapped Lila's head with its tail.

A quick explanation later, Lila knew that someone evil had their hands on the Butterfly Miraculous, whose power was to empower others, and she had been entrusted with the Fox Miraculous to stop him. She also knew that originally only the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses were supposed to be activated, but her defanging of the mayor's daughter had made clear she had the spirit of a hero and possessed the inventive, ability to tell tales, and bit of ruthlessness to properly use the Fox Miraculous(5). Thus she had left to see if she'd meet her partners-and promptly got involved into a battle with the first victim of the supervillain. That, for some strange coincidence, had been one of her classmates. Still, after dealing with him in a battle that could have gone worse and recharging their powers, the three superheroes had met on top of the Eiffel Tower to meet and discuss things. Especially as it appeared they hadn't been warned about her.

"From what my Kwami told me, the one who choose us didn't expect to find someone with the right contradictory character traits for the Fox Miraculous." Lila explained. "Not that there was any need, at least this first time. Still… I think I missed your names. The codenames, I mean. We have secret identities to defend even at cost of appearing snobs or jerks for not telling even small things."

"Oh, right. This is Ladybug, and I am Chat Noir." the cat superhero said. "And you are?"

"You may call me Vorpika."

"Didn't you just say we shouldn't reveal even small things?" Ladybug asked, having got the meaning of the name.

"Between my two predecessors and this hairstyle my Italianity's coming out anyway in a couple days most-or maybe this fox is taking advantage of the expectations to throw off people from the actual nationality. But you should work on keeping secrets too, only another Italian would have got it so fast(6)."

"That would be my grandmother's attempt at teaching me Italian, I have all the-" Ladybug interrupted herself when she noticed Vorpika's look. "Oh. Dammit, I'm such a disaster…"

"No. You are inexperienced. We all are. I'm better at the secret identity thing because, for certain reasons, I have experience at it, but for the rest I'm just as bad as you if not worse. And we'll get better, because if we have been chosen it means we have the potential."

The following day didn't start as well as the previous. Turned out that they should have purified the butterfly-the Akuma, as Trixx had called it-and as they hadn't it was turning half of Paris into inanimate copies of Stone Heart, the villain they had defeated. Plus, she couldn't contact Ladybug, and she really feared her confidence issues had driven her to do something really stupid. Finally, Marinette, who was the daughter of the best bakers in Paris, as her best friend (who had lived in Paris before they first met) had presented them, was feeling down due the effects of the failed clean-up. Only good thing was that Lila's mother didn't suspect her of being Vorpika anymore-in her words, "You may be the kind of person who'd buy a copy of that Miraculous and prank me that way just to hide the fact you have the real one, but you wouldn't screw up that way, even as a beginner". Never mind they had.

"They're beginners who committed an amateur's error, Marinette, simple as that." Lila told Marinette as they walked to their class with Alya-who had already set up a fan blog to the superheroes. "But they're extremely talented beginners: without training, coordination, or even knowing how many of them would be there they took on that thing, and with such a talent they'll fix this soon."

"But-" Marinette started, but stopped when she saw Lila's face so close they almost touched their noses.

"Do you trust me, Marinette?"

"Y-y-yes…" Marinette squealed as she started blushing.

"Then you will believe me when I say they'll fix this before the day ends."

And she meant that. Thanks to Trixx' explanation, she knew what would happen: to fix the copies of Stone Heart they needed their classmate, Ivan Bruel, to get akumatized again, and she knew, knew, that their class' personal bully would provide to make him vulnerable, in the lunch break at the latest, at the mid-morning break most likely, with their villain having all the reasons to take advantage of it immediately. It was distasteful, but she'd have to let the Borghesotta do her thing. That, and she couldn't stop everyone who'd treat him bad for it, she knew human nature and they hadn't had the chance to explain the situation to the public yet, so letting the bully who apparently knew all his buttons already ream into him would just make things faster.

Lila's train of thoughts was interrupted by Alya's "Hey!", and as she turned to see what she had seen they noticed they had arrived to the class-and there was a teen-aged model in a rather suspicious attitude over their desks, of all things. Something that flared up Marinette's temper, leading her to ream into the model until Lila realized from his face she had to stop her.

"Listen, blondie, answer just one question: why are you covering for Bourgeois?" she asked.

"Uh? No! No I'm not! I mean-" the model stammered, and that was enough for Marinette to realize the situation even better than Lila.

"For how long she's been your only friend?" she asked.

"Since I remember." he admitted.

"Then it's time you have a few more." the music boy who was apparently the model's desk mate said.

And that at least was dealt with.

Chloe Bourgeois was nothing but reliable, and almost coinciding with the end of the mid-morning lunch break Stone Heart had made his return, with his copies providing him an army. While the copies were easily dealt with, as they didn't grow bigger when hit and Vorpika had a good right cross, the police had come in their way more than once, and Ladybug had arrived late. Vorpika didn't voice her suspicions at why it had been, partly because she was now seeing her more determined than she had been, and they and Chat Noir chased Stone Heart and his hostages (aside for the obvious, he had another classmate, Mylene Apron or something like that), and, after Stone Heart threw the mayor's daughter at his father (with Ladybug's intervention saving both), their enemy, Papillon (she had nearly laughed at that. Then again, French would think of butterflies before bowties at that word, and someone calling himself "THE Butterfly" wasn't as ridiculous), manifested himself through a face made out of Akuma-and then had the gall to blame Ladybug and Chat Noir for his own actions. She was about to call him out for it, when she heard clapping-from Ladybug?!

"Nice try, Papillon, but we know who the bad guy is." she said, with far more calm than Vorpika would have managed and movements emphasizing her words that were just perfect. "Let's not reverse the roles here: without you, no innocent victims would be transformed into villains. Papillon! No matter how long, we will find you, and you will hand us your Miraculous!"

She then sprung into actions and dissolved the giant talking head. She then said something, but Vorpika wasn't listening, too busy to admire the sudden change in Ladybug. And she knew it was still her, the movements, the speech patterns, the everything, was just her. And as the onlookers cheered at her, she whispered: "Daje Roma,te sto incollata anche a casacalla…"

It would be only later, after they triumphed on Stone Heart following a plan that seemed completely insane without asking the spotted heroine if she had gone crazy, and Ladybug somehow found Ivan a girlfriend, that Vorpika realized what her spontaneous declaration of following Ladybug even to hell meant.

Author notes

(1)As I said, I imagine Lila as being rather cold in Paris… And, logically, would have felt even worse in London.

(2)I am genuinely puzzled by this: how does Alya (and apparently her father and older sister) manage to go around Paris while wearing such light clothing when they're from Martinique?!

(3)Chloé is the actual name of a French fashion house that makes, among other things, sunglasses.

(4)This is my headcanon for Lila's resemblance to the Fox Miraculous user in the Miraculous Book: she became a national hero to Italy, and Lila is intentionally imitating her.

(5)My little theory: the Fox Miraculous is by its nature a tool of psychological manipulation, and to express its full potential it needs someone without qualms to do just that.

(6)Vorpika has a specific meaning derived from Italian media conventions, and it's rare for an Italian to pick up on it.