Current One-Shot: Support. Social pariah Marinette Dupin-Cheng has been chased out of school by Lila. However, not everyone has been turned against her. Who will it take to see speak up before people open their eyes to what has happened? Adrien isn't sure. But one way or another, it will happen.

Support

Aka the continuation of the one-shot before this, No More, where Marinette gets the support she needs. You do NOT have to read No More to understand this one, though it will enhance your experience. c; I don't want to say any more on the matter, so let's jump right in!

Adrien's Point of View

Surprisingly enough, it started with Chloe.

We'd had to write a tribute to someone we knew and admired for Miss Bustier's class. After being given two nights to work on them, we were required to share them. Miss Bustier had emphasized that not everyone would have to, but that we would receive bonus points if we did.

And to everyone's surprise, Chloe's hand was up in a moment. As she stood, she asked if Sabrina could record her as she gave her tribute. Miss Bustier hadn't even answered, yet the ginger was already fumbling for her phone.

"I...Well, I suppose so, Chloe. But why?" Our teacher leans forward, but Chloe shook her head, abstaining from answering and somehow being allowed to get away with it.

We all knew where this was going. On the one hand, it was likely that Chloe wrote a piece to either herself or Queen Bee. She never missed an opportunity to brag or put herself in the spotlight, and despite some growth, I wasn't sure that'd ever change. Chloe had an ego and arrogance to accompany it. On the other hand, Chloe adored Ladybug. There was the possibility that she had written it to her instead. That could also explain the want for a video; perhaps she intended to send it to Ladybug to try and get her attention and praise.

Yet, as Chloe began, I could tell that it wasn't just me who was shocked by what was being said.

"I am not a good person. Everyone knows that. I'm a bully and a brat. I'm selfish. Arrogant. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous." Chloe paused for a moment, composing herself before continuing. "I've only ever known two people that coud be considered good people. One of those people is Ladybug."

Everyone felt some relief to have that stabilization. Despite the bizarre start, Chloe was back on schedule to follow one of her two expected paths.

But then she deviated again.

"But the other one is a girl by the name of Marinette Dupain-Cheng." You could hear the startled gasps from our classmates, the growing unrest and dissatistfaction. Chloe didn't seem to care. "I've known Marinette for a very long time. I was in the same class with her for four years in a row, till she left this year. Her character never changed, never wavered. She was always a goood person, no matter the circumstance. And I hated her for it."

Where is this going? I bite my lip, trying to figure out what Chloe's game is. Because if it is what I think it is, then what kind of friend am I for not doing it before Marinette's long-standing rival?

"I was horrible to her. I teased her. I stole from her. I insulted her. I acted terribly towards her because she was such a good, sincere person, and I wasn't. She was a reminder to me of what I should be like. A reminder that I didn't want. Anyone who saw us interact could see that we hated each other. Yet, she was still kind to me. When I'd been akumatized into Queen Wasp, Marinette was the one to celebrate my abilities as Queen Bee in spite of it."

"And look where that got you? You aren't Queen Bee now, are you?" Lila asked, tilting her head.

"Shut up! I'm not done yet." The fury in Chloe's eyes was petrifying. "I wish Marinette were here right now, her insufferable goodness and all. I miss the support Marinette gave to the entire class. I miss her calling me out for my crap. I miss being able to think that I could wait till tomorrow to finally tell her all of this. But now it's too late. Now Marinette is gone, and I don't have the chance to tell her any of this.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a good person! And you guys all managed to forget that. She brought us sweets whenever there was a class event. She gave us gifts for our birthdays, personalized to what she knew we'd like. Even me, the girl she probably hated most for a long time. Remember when she helped Nathaniel and Marc meet in order to write a comic together? How they dedicate their works to her? Remember how she designed costumes for Kitty Section? That stupid band created by Rose and Juleka? Remember how she tried to help Ivan when Kim teased him about his crush on Mylene? How she did her best to encourage him to tell her how he felt? Remember how she made that banner for Kim and Alix's race? Did no one listen cllosely enough to realize that she almost messed up a big job for her parents in trying to keep her promise? Remember how she tried so hard to make sure Mylene got to keep her part in our class movie? Remember how, despite Alya being the new kid, she embraced her? How she supported her best friend despite some of her crazy antics to try and get information for her Ladyblog? Remember how she stood up to me and become the first person to challenge me in being class president? Remember how you all voted for her? What happened to change that?

"She was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She won Gabriel Agreste's hat contest. Clara Nightingale wanted her to play Ladybug in her music video before changing her idea for the video. She designed glasses for Jagged Stone, and he liked it so much that he brought her on again to make an album cover for her as well as visit her bakery for a TV show. She designed the outfits for Kitty Section, the ones that XY and his father thought were so good that they stole them. For Pete's sake, my mother thought she was so good that she invited Marinette to go to New York with her to be trained up in the fashion world while she saw me as a disappointment!" Chloe is actively crying now, not even reading her written tribute. It is a crumbled ball, clenched tightly in her hands. "And I couldn't even hate her for it, because despite how desperately I tried not to, I liked Marinette. When we worked on a project together, it was fun. I convinced her to try and do a bad thing, so it didn't end well; yet I can't deny that I had fun trying to orchestrate a plan with Dupain-Cheng, of all people!

"And you sent her away!"

In a blaze of fury, Chloe flings her tribute aside, stomping up to Lila's desk. No one dares to move as she leans over the Italian transfer student, blue eyes boring into brown. I've never seen my childhood friend so angry before. What brought this on within her?

"I will never be able to truly apologize to one of the only good people in this world, Lila Rossi, and it is your fault. I don't know what happened in the bathroom that day, but I do know one thing; Marinette would never threaten Lila. Marinette was not a bully. She was a sweet, genuine person. And you all pushed her out. You turned on her so that you could support a new student you didn't know, when Marinette had years testifying to her character. Even worse, you turned to a student who you knew had already been exposed as a liar. Does no one remember what Lila did as Volpina, an akuma? She claimed she was another Miraculous user. But she wasn't! How come no one ever talks about that?"

"Chloe-" Miss Bustier begins.

"I'm not done!" She snaps back, not even bothering to look at our teacher as she continues. "You, Lila, are a foul creature. You take whatever good you see and refuse to let it grow. You stifle it, choking it till the last bit of life drains out of it. And even worse, you do it from the background, orchestrating it so that it's the people the good person is supposed to trust that ultimately betray them."

Then she spins on her heel to stare at me, jabbing a finger in my face. "But you, Adrien? You're the most disappointing one of them all. I watched you. You were the only one besides me to not listen to Lila. And you did nothing. I at least know I'm a bad person. But you? You've always thought you were a good person, even if you never say it. Well guess what? You're wrong. Marinette always quoted Miss Bustier in saying that the only thing evil needs to triumph is for good to do nothing, or something like that. And Adrien? You did nothing."

"Chloe, sit do-" Again, Miss Bustier tries to stop her, this time standing up.

"I hate you guys!" Chloe announces, looking over everyone in the room before grabbing Lila by the collar of her shirt, pulling her up from her seat. "But I hate you most of all. And I swear, Lila, I will ruin you for what you did to a girl who never deserved it. I bulied Marinette, but no one ever gave you permission to. She never did anything to you, you stupid-" She continues by allowing a series of profanities spew out of her mouth, somehow managing to call Lila every foul thing she can think of before Miss Bustier reaches her. Our teacher has to forcefully yank them apart, Chloe taking some of Lila's shirt with her. "Sabrina, send that to Dupain-Cheng. She needs to know that someone still remembers who she actually is, even though its the last person she'll find comfort from saying it. Remember this when all of you become disillusioned to what Lila is saying and see her for who she really is. Remember the girl you destroyed, chased out of the school, because you didn't trust your friend!"

Then it was Luka Couffaine.

We were at a Kitty Section practice. I was back in the band despite my father's best efforts; this was one of my first practices back. Luka was all out of tune with his playing, and finally, Rose piped up to ask, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is that you guys turned your back on an amazing girl," If Luka didn't care so much for his guitar, I could see him throwing it to the ground as he angrily spoke the words. It's the most emotion I've ever seen from him. However, he still gently sets his guitar onto its stand before turning his angry gaze to us, "Who was our friend. She worked with the band. She made us our costumes, supported us at each of our practices that she could come to, helped us enter XY's competition and then fought for us when he tried to steal our ideas. Never once did she hurt us. Ever since I met her, I've been in love with her, and it's destroying me to see you guys try and do this without her.

"Juleka, I don't think I've ever been more disappointed with you. You're a horrible excuse for a friend, especially after Marinette worked so hard to help you in the past. Remember how you thought you were cursed? How you could never be photographed? You told me about all the stuff Marinette did to help. How Rose told you that Mari tried to fight for everyone to wait for you when she realized you weren't there for the class photo. How she tried to steal the photographer's camera card so that she could force him to have to retake it, only to be thwarted by Chloe. How she organized a second photoshoot where you were in every picture, disproving your curse? How did yoy forget that?"

"Luka, why are you saying this?" Rose asked, stepping protectively in front of Juleka, who simply hid her face to avoid meeting Luka's gaze.

"Because until you guys show me what happened to the band mates I've spend so much time with, I'm out of here."

"What?" Ivan voices all of our feelings.

Luka turns away, hands balling into fists. "I quit the band. I refuse to continue on with a group that would hate someone unjustly, especially someone who I consider as a very close friend of mine. If the old members of Kitty Section remember who they actually are, you have my phone number. Otherwise, have fun without me. I'm going to go meet up with Marinette."

He walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him, and left us all staring at each other, unsure what to do after that proclamation. It was only after a few moments that it fully sunk in. Then Rose suddenly had her arms wrapped around Juleka as she dscussed how unfair Luka had just been and how everything was okay as Juleka seemingly cried behind her bangs. Ivan simply stood by one of the windows, staring out of it as if he could cut through the glass with just his eyes.

And I was once again left wondering if I was really the friend I claimed to be if I had now also failed to be the second person to stand up to Lila by sticking up for Marinette.

It continued on with Jagged Stone, who, if I was being honest, probably didn't even know the depth of what he'd done.

He was being interviewed by Alya for the Ladyblog after he had to be saved from an akumatized XY. For the most part, Alya had just been livestreaming her chat with him about what Ladybug and me were like, since Jagged Stone had "worked" with us multiple times.

But then she asked the faithful question.

"Oh, I know this is off-topic, but could you tell me the title of the song you wrote for Lila Rossi. I've tried to dig through some of your old songs, but there's just so many of them to try and get through to find it."

I'm not sure I've ever seen the rockstar look more confused. "Excuse me, who?"

Alya blinked, glancing to the camera as she tried to hide her own confusion. "You know, Lila Rossi? She told us you wrote a song for he-"

"Writing a song about a teenage girl? No way. That's bad press. Even if I had any inclination to do so, I know better than to do something like that. Penny would never let."

"But Lila said- nevermind. Look, she saved your cat's life on an airplane and her ear got seriously messed up in the process, though. How could you not know her?"

"Miss Ladyblogger, I have absolutely know idea who you're talking about. I've never met a Lila Rossi before, and I certainly have never owned a cat. I'm allergic to fur; that's part of why I have Fang." He scratches the back of his head, staring at his other hand in his lap. "I'm not sure why the girl is telling you any of that, but she's lying, which isn't very rock and rolling."

"Are you sure you don't know her?" Apparently Alya is determined to keep digging. "She's an Italian transfer student in my class at College Francoise Dupont. Maybe if I showed you a pic-"

"College Francoise Dupont? I have worked with a girl from there before!"

Alya smiles, seeming to have been put at ease. "See? I knew you had to know-"

Jagged Stone interrupts, fishing through his jacket and pulling out a pair of sunglasses with red, white, and blue eiffel towers on them. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" Alya's nose wrinkles in disgust as she physically pulls away from Jagged. "She's an absolutely amazing designer. She made these cool glasses for me, and she also designed an album cover for me when no one could get it right. If I were going to write a song about anyone, it'd be her to try and thank her for all the designing she's done for me. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe she's mentioned you before. Aren't you a friend of hers?"

"With Marinette? Of course not! She bullied Lila, a perfectly innocent, genuine person who hadn't done anything wrong. She was so humiliated at being exposed as a bully that she switched schools!"

Jagged's face is unreadable. "What?"

"She's going to a boarding school somewhere apparently. Was too ashamed to even be seen around here, I guess. I still can't believe I ever believed she was a goo...Hey, wait, where are you going?"

"To find out what happened to my favorite designer. That girl is like a niece to me."

That conversation left quite the impression on our class. It was a shame that Chloe was still suspended, so she couldn't see the apprehensive looks everyone was giving each other as they now started to question Lila's words. Granted, she was still trying to spin lies to cover her butt, but people seemed a bit less eager to listen and believe. At least, not at first.

But the icing on the cake was when Alya interviewed Ladybug and made a brief reference to Lila Rossi, her supposed best friend.

"Lila and I are not friends. I can't condone lying, and that's all she does. How could she and I have even been close friends? She was in Italy till this year, but I was here."

Alya was caught off guard, and frankly, so was I. I know Ladybug hates liars - she's told me before, and I can tell that she can get quite dismayed when discussing hiding our secret identities - so that wasn't a shock. But why did Ladybug care so much about Lila?

"She hurt someone very close to me." Ladybug's eyes narrow as she turns away from the camera, Alya, and me. "Even if we were friends, I could never forgive her for that. My friend was forced to watch everyone turn against them. They switched classes to get away, but it wasn't enough. Lila turned the entire school against them, and there was nothing they could do about it. Finally, it was all too much. They had one last friend, and both of them switched schools togther."

"A-Are you talking about Marinette Dupain-Cheng?" Alya's eyes are wide with horror.

"Yes. I am."

"But Lila said-"

"You all believed a new student over your friend? She always said you were her best friend, Alya. That you would be there for her through thick and thin. What sort of best friend are you if you didn't even hear your friend out, instantly believing a stranger who had already been akumatized over lying?" Ladybug stands up and walks over to the window before glancing back at us. "That sickens me."

"Ladybug-" Alya gasps out the name, looking like she's about to cry.

"Bugaboo?" I stand as she pulls the window open.

Then she swings out, and I'm tearing after her. Alya can wait. Ladybug is what's important right now. Sure, she'd vaguely mentioned knowing Marinette before, but why was she suddenly saying all these things? Were the two close as civilians? Perhaps Ladybug went to Marinette's new boarding school? But that was far away; it would be almost impossible for her to get here all the time, wouldn't it? No, Ladybug must've known Marinette before she was chased away. That must be why this was all so raw for her.

"M'lady?" I finally land on a rooftop, glancing around to see where my partner might have gone. Did I lose her? Has she already transformed and gotten home? But I need to talk to her! However, when I hear some whimpering from behind a chimmney, I realize that she hasn't gotten away after all. "M'lady, are you there?"

"Go away, Kitty," She chokes out from her hiding spot.

I turn the corner, but my jaw nearly drops at the sight. Because it's not Ladybug curled up and crying there: it's Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Horrified, I find that I can't look away as I kneel down, spotting Ladybug's - Marinette's? - kwami as it ducks behind her hair.

"But...But..."

"I hate her, Chat," Suddenly the bluenette has her arms wrapped around me as she blubbers into my shoulder. "She took away all my friends and I hate her. She threatened me in the bathroom. She told me she'd make everyone hate me if I didn't stop trying to expose her for the liar she was. And I told the boy I liked, who I trusted more than anything," I blanch, though she doesn't notice. Does...does she mean me? "Told me just to leave it. He said it wasn't worth it. So I did nothing, and she still turned everyone against me! He said they'd all see through her lies eventually, but they didn't! Chat, I trusted him, and yet when the class confronted me and believed her, he didn't do anything. I thought I loved him! I thought maybe, just maybe, he might love me too one day. Or that he'd at least be my friend.

"But he wasn't. He didn't support me when I needed him to. Why didn't he support me when I needed him to?"

As I cradled Marinette in my arms, her desperate begging and pleading for an answer filling my ears, I wondered the same thing. "I don't know, Marinette. I don't know."

Apparently, Ladybug was the last straw for the class.

Everyone turned against Lila. She was shunned for what she did, and then suspended by the school administration till they decided whether she would be expelled or not. And, only a few days after Chloe came back from her suspension, Marinette very hesitantly returned to our class. While no one knew that for sure, rumor had it that the school had to fight to convince Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng to re-enroll their daughter at their school. And they were purportedly easier to convince then Marinette herself.

When she walked back in for the first time, it was with a very scary-looking Kagami Tsurugi in tow. The other bluenette had also rejoined the school, and Marinette made it a caveat that they be in the same class upon returning. The school agreed in its eagerness to make up for what they had done, which was why she was here now. Despite her expression being unreadable, Kagami's stance said everything: If any of you hurt her, I will break you.

Something told me that threat extended to me as well.

The room was silent as everyone watched Marinette enter. Then Alya, who was standing in the front of the room waiting for her, stepped towards her once best friend to try and greet her. "Marinette, I-I'm so sor-"

Marinette sidestepped past the Ladyblogger and her open arms, instead approaching Chloe's desk. For a moment, the two locked gazes, just staring at each other. Alya, who tried to step after Marinette, was yanked back by Kagami, and while no words were exchanged, something was apparently said, because Alya returned to her seat almost shaking. To be honest, it looked like she was about to cry. And as Alya sat down, Marinette finally broke eye contact with Chloe as she shifted around the desk and hugged her.

"Thank you," I could barely make out the words, but Marinette definitely said them as she clung to Chloe.

And I didn't think I imagined seeing Chloe tearing up as she hugged her back.

There we go! One of the two continuations that I am intending to write for the one-shot, No More. Take your guess on whether that was the happy or sad one that I have planned. c;

Anyways, what did you guys think? Was this good? Bad? Which defense did you guys like best? Personally, I feel like Chloe's is the best, but I'm interested to see what you guys think. Are there any one-shots you want to see me try a hand at later? Let me know in a review!

See you guys soon! :D Hopefully I can start posting stuff more consistently now.

~ Dagger