Expelled from her school and fearful of rejection by her friends, she turns to the only person she knows will never judge her.

"You know Lila's lying, don't you Adrien?"

"Mr. Damoclese, I don't think-" their principal raised his hand, silencing Adrien.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng. You are expelled from this school!" Gasps rang around the locker-room as Marinette's friends looked upon, some her with judgment, some with pity. One with a smirk. "Please leave immediately!"

Marinette hung her head. Shooting a last glare at Lila, she trudged out of the room, her parents in tow. As she opened the door, a clowder of scarlet butterflies rushed her, one entering her purse.

"Variety Queen, Princess Justice," Marinette felt more than heard, a powerful voice in her head, "I am Scarlet Moth. Since the innocent isn't to be believed anymore, I am giving you both the power to expose the truth!"

Marinette began to remove a single earring, just as the power flooded out of her. She blinked, a white butterfly leaving her purse. She had almost been akumatised by Hawkmoth. And she had almost given up her Miraculous with no resistance.

Marinette looked around the room, only to find glares all around her. Oh… That was right… She had been expelled. That was why Hawkmoth was able to almost akumatise her. She hung her head, before pushing the door open once more and leaving the premises.

Once home, she ignored her parent's calls and races to her room, tears shone in her eyes that she refused to let them see. She burst into her room as a single tear fell down her cheek.

"If you had been akumatised, nothing would have stopped you from handing over the Miraculous to Hawkmoth! We can't let that happen! Marinette, where are you going?" Ignoring the words of her Kwami, she climbed the stairs and pushed open her hatch. She didn't need a lecture right now, she needed support.

Tikki watched Marinette leave the room, sighing, she decided to give the girl some time. In the meantime, she needed to figure out how to prevent something like this from happening again. Perhaps a visit with Master Fu would be in order.

Marinette crawled through the hatch and onto her roof, letting the door slam behind her as she collapsed into the corner. The tears rolled freely now, as she hung her head between her knees, wrapping her arms around herself.

She needed to talk to someone, someone who would understand her.

Marinette pulled out her phone, attempting to blink away the still falling tears enough to see her contact lenses. Alya? No… she could never truly talk to her about Lila. Adrien? No, he was probably busy with a photo shoot. Then it struck her.

She let out a shaky breath as she pressed the call button, pushing her phone to her ear. As the phone wrung, she attempted to calm her breathing.

"Hello?"

"Hey." She let out another unsteady breath, "it's… um… it's been a really bad day," the tears began to fall once more as she hiccupped lightly, "can we talk?" She heard his breath catch. "I just… really need a friend right now."

"I'll be right there."

Tikki flew quickly to the old masseuse shop, ducking in alleys and shadows when passing too close to Parisians.

"Master, I need to speak with you!" She called as she phased through the door.

"He's not here." She whipped around to face the unmistakable voice. Sitting on the record player was none other than Plagg. "Figured you'd show up here soon Sugar Cube, after what happened today with your chosen."

"Yes, today was quite the close call."

"Close call? Your kid looks like she's on the path to a full mental breakdown."

"Yes, and if we don't do something to fix it, it will only make Hawkmoth's job so much easier-"

"Forget Hawkmoth for a second!" Suddenly he was yelling, flying up to her face. "Forget about the akumas, forget about your freakish obsession with being perfect for one minute. Can't you see how much pain your kid's in?" Piercing green bore into her eyes before softening. "She's only human Tikki," she couldn't remember the last time he had called her that, "we need to fix this for her emotional wellbeing."

"Plagg is quite right." The two Kwamis whirled to face Master Fu as he walked in. "We need a solution to this issue with this girl, Liera, not just for Ladybug, but for Marinette as well."

"Well, what can we do Master? How do we stop her when she has so much power over so many of her friends?" Tikki was growing more concerned by the minute. If Master Fu thought they should get involved, then there was clearly no other option.

"Well, the girl has a massive crush on-" suddenly green bubbles exploded out of Plagg's mouth. "Stupid curse," he muttered. "She has a crush on my kid, right? What if we got him to convince her to lay off of Marinette?"

"How might he do that, Plagg?"

"Well…"

The door chime above him rang as he pushed it open. The warm air of the bakery rushed past him as he entered.

"Hello, how may I help you?" A woman, Marinette's mother he assumed, asked as he walked up to the counter.

"Hi, I'm here to see Marinette. She sounded upset on the phone, so I wanted to come and check on her." The woman's eyes softened, and she gave him a warm smile.

"Yes, of course. She did have a hard day, I'm sure she'll be glad to talk to a friend. Her room is right upstairs."

"Thank you."

He headed through the back door and followed the staircases up to a hatch. He knocked gently before slowly pushing the door open. He looked around the room as he entered. It was very… pink. And very Marinette. A wall of photographs caught his eye, where he was unsurprised to see dozens of photographs of Adrien Agreste. He smiled sadly, looking upon the photos.

A click came from behind him and he turned to face Marinette climbing down a small staircase. She gasped when she saw him, losing her grip and slipping from the stairs. He rushed forward and caught her bridal style.

"Hey."

"Hi… You actually came…"

"Of course I did. You sounded so upset on the phone, I wanted to make sure you were okay." He smiled as he gently placed her down.

"Thank you, Luka." She wrapped her arms around him, sealing him in a tight hug.