I LIVE!

I know this story has been dead since, like, April but I never forgot about it. I just had to crank out older works I did before this one because that wouldn't be fair to my stories From Cats to Cat-Boys and A Small Case of Amnesia. Both of which y'all should totally check out cough cough hint hint.

I've been wanting to do a story where Marinette has a bully support group that she goes to (cause besides her parents and before Alya came in, she had like no support) and I would mostly touch on Bustier's not so good teaching on "the victims should set an example for the bully" bullshit.

Marinette frowned down at her wrapped wrist. Then glared at the pencil and her sketchbook.

Her wrist is currently one of the many things making her life hard.

"Hey, Marinette!"

The bluenette looked up long enough to have a carnation shoved in her face. She blinked, but took the singular flower in her non-injured hand. "Thanks…"

Rose's bright smile made her return it with her own tiny one. "You're welcome! You looked down and flowers always cheer me up!"

Marinette's smile became more genuine. "Thanks again, Rose."

The blonde girl hummed and skipped away.

Marinette shifted in her seat to face forward, but her bluebell eyes never looked away from the flower. She closed her eyes and took a long smell of the flower's aroma, a soft smile on her face.

Not noticing Alya giving the class a proud thumbs up.

Not noticing Adrien turning his head to watch her, a thoughtful look on his face.

Adrien groaned as he flopped onto his chair in his third class, already knowing it's one of those days.

"What's up, dude?" Nino plopped into his own seat. "You look dead."

"Just...stressed," The blond ran a hand through his hair.

He barely got any sleep last night, worrying about Marinette and his up-and-coming photoshoots at the end of the week.

Also the surprising lack of akumas lately.

"Bummer," Nino pulled his headphones off his neck and held them out to his best friend. "Want to try my relaxing playlist?"

Adrien thought about it for a moment before accepting the headphones. "Sure."

With a sigh she gently rubbed her eyes, hoping to rub the sleep from them.

Newsflash: It didn't work.

Marinette shook her head and turned on the bathroom sink, splashing water on her face.

"The week will get better, Marinette," Tikki smiled up at her from her purse. "It's only Tuesday."

"I hope you're right, Tikki."

The little red kwami winked. "Call it a kwami's intuition."

A giggle escaped the bluenette, she turned off the sink and was about to leave when someone bursts into the bathroom.

Marinette jumped and gave a loud yelp when Alya appeared in front of her.

"Come on, girl! We're going to be late for class!"

Alya grabbed the bluenette's uninjured wrist and pulled her out of the bathroom and down the hall.

"But we have six minutes!:

"Adrien's already there!"

At the end of the hall near the bathroom, a scowling Lila was leaning against the wall out of sight.

Whatever was happening, she didn't like it.

Not at all…

Marinette was looking forward to going home. She needed some hot chocolate, macarons, and a nice long nap.

For some reason, the class has been babying her and Adrien all day. It was...suffocating.

She appreciated the effort and care, especially recently. But she never liked being babied.

When the bell rang her shoulders slumped in relief. She stood up, bag already packed and ready.

"Hey, Marinette," She looked up to see Adrien grinning at her. "Can I talk to you? Privately?"

No. Sorry, Hot-stuff, but I want sleep.

"She would love to!" Alya nudged her best friend with a grin.

"Sure, " The bluenette yawned. "But we have to be quick. I have to get home."

"I can give you a ride," The blond's grin somehow brightened.

He lead her to the front of the school and to the side.

"You've noticed the change in the class too, right?"

Marinette yawned again, too tired to care how she looked in front of her crush. "Yeah, the conversation yesterday must have scared them or something."

"Yeah…" Adrien furrowed his eyebrows in concern. "Mari, I want to talk about your second almost akumatization."

The bluenette internally groaned. She really didn't want to relive that day.

There was a car hock and they looked up to see the Gorilla.

"Come on," The blond took her hand. "We can talk in the car."

For a moment, her sleep-hazed brain had a brief moment of clarity that Adrien was holding her hand.

But it quickly disappeared as he pulled her over to the cat. He opened the door and allowed her to go in first, talking to the driver through the open passenger window.

He followed her soon after, setting his bag on the floor.

"So…" Adrien prompted her.

"You aren't going to let this go. Remember the day Lila came back?" Marinette didn't look at him, instead staring at her wrapped wrist. "Well...she followed me into the bathroom and we...talked."

"Go on…" Dread polled in his stomach, Adrien was sure there wasn't just talking.

"When she left I was upset, I went into a stall to angry cry and the butterfly showed up. I managed to get ahold of my emotions and it went away, where I'm sure it found Lila," She looked up at him with a nervous smile. "The end."

He frowned at her rushed ending, but nodded. He wasn't going to push her for the whole story. "I'm glad you weren't akumatized."

A blush flared across her face as the cat stopped. The Gorilla opened the door, holding a hand out to help her.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow," Marinette squeaked as she crawled out.

"See you," Adrien grinned, watching her walk into the bakery.

A conflicted frown appeared on his face.

Had he made a mistake?

Adrien realization is happening right now!

I love my Sunshine child, but the show isn't really doing him justice of who he could turn into...or much of his character at all really.

The "don't say anything and they'll go away" thing only works for tabloids and gossip, but that was Adrien's world before school so I can't really be angry with him (Sometimes, but I do get mad at his reasonings). Maybe we'll have an episode where Adrien deals with bullying and he starts seeing Marinette's POV on things.

Plus there are multiple different ways of handling Lila and I honestly love seeing all of them. I've been lurking on tags about it and no matter no out-of-character or in-character it is, I just LOVE seeing everyone's reactions and how they think things should have gone. This fic isn't really about how I think things after Lila's return should be handled, because I would be petty as hell or mature as hell about it...depending on how saltly I am at the moment. Naw, this fic is about Marinette getting a little bit of support cause she needs that.

In High School, unless the person proves to be an unreliable source, most people either brush them off or believe them. Or look them up solely because they don't want to do class work, so I find it highly unlikely that at least one student besides Marinette hasn't looked up Lila somewhere. But whatever, just gives me more ammunition to work with :).

I've decided that this story is mostly going to be for fun and working off writer's block, so don't expect a stable update schedule.