DISCLAIMER: I don't own Miraculous; that belongs to Thomas Astruc, ZagToons and Method Animation.

SPOILERS: Takes place in Season 3, sometime between the episode "Chameleon" and the Season 3 finale.

"Lyre Festival Fraud"

By StellarStylus

It was a pretty day in Paris, and in the home above the wildly popular Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie, two teens were having fun playing Ultimate Mecha Strike III together in the upstairs bedroom.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste were spending a little time to themselves while the rest of their class went off on some crazy vacation for spring break. Lila Rossi had managed to convince the rest of them to go off with her on some vacation somewhere, and so off they went with her.

But what had really set off the warning bells in the heads of both Marinette and Adrien was how Lila had claimed she was setting up a private party on a remote tropical island, and she would be using her own personal connections to bring in some high-profile talent to perform for them.

Both of them had tired to convince their classmates otherwise — especially once Adrien realized that standing back and letting Lila continue to scam people was a bad idea (and he'd apologized profusely to Marinette for that mistake) — but it just couldn't be helped. Lila had all of them wrapped around her finger. Even if they hadn't wasted time by going with Adrien's initial suggestion of doing nothing so it could all eventually blow up in Lila's face, it might not have helped. Lila was just that skilled at what she did.

At the moment, Marinette had just walloped Adrien for the umpteenth time, but he lost gracefully and instead took pride in the fact that he had gotten closer than ever to beating her at this game.

"Wow, you had only one percent health left and you still wiped the floor with me," he commented.

"Eh," she said, shrugging and trying to stay humble. "I do my best."

They both agreed to take a short break, and they both snacked on some macarons graciously provided by Marinette's parents. Once they were finished, they both looked for something to do next…

…and somehow, they both found themselves staring each other in the face, only inches apart.

Marinette couldn't tear her gaze away from his bright green eyes, while Adrien felt like he could sink into her deep blue eyes.

They found themselves drawing ever closer to each other…

And just then both their smartphones went off, and the open social media accounts on Marinette's home computer was beeping alerts like crazy.

Both of them backed off from each other, both a little flustered but also a little grateful to be saved from further embarrassment.

"Hey, Marinette!" Adrien exclaimed. "Look at this!"

"What is it?" she asked as she hurried over.

"It's Nadja, but look at what she's reporting!" Adrien exclaimed.

Marinette turned up the volume and then stood back so they could both watch and listen.

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news," Nadja introduced herself as always, before moving on to today's special report. "What looks like an entire class of French teenagers have been stranded on a remote island without sufficient food or water or supplies, claiming that their classmate abandoned them there after promising a getaway filled with music and partying."

Both Marinette and Adrien exchanged a glance. They both had a bad feeling about this…

Nadja continued: "The event in question was called the 'Lyre Festival,' and was apparently put together by one Lila Rossi." (Here, an image of a music lyre popped up, black against an ugly shade of burnt orange like the jacket which Lila wore as part of her signature look.) "Furthermore, there were supposed to be musical acts by famous celebrities like Jagged Stone, Clara Nightingale, and XY, as well as gourmet food by renowned chef Marlena Césaire…"

And then the images appeared on the screen. The rest of their class from Collège François Dupont was stranded on island populated only by emergency tents meant for refugees.

And as for their classmates themselves…

All of their twelve other classmates looked utterly wretched. They all looked like they dearly needed a nice hot shower and a decent meal and a good night's sleep, because it looked like they'd gotten none of those things since setting down on the island.

In fact, for all Marinette and Adrien knew, they probably hadn't.

The two teenagers turned to look at each other. They knew that Lila's scheme would do something pretty bad to their classmates, but they didn't think it would be this bad.

And then they heard clips from their other classmates themselves…

Nino was griping, his hands thrown up into the air as if demanding answers from a divine source: "Dude! We were told that Jagged Stone AND Clara Nightingale AND even XY would be here! Not cool man!"

Alya was ranting and raving like a madwoman. "I was told that my own mother would be doing the catering! GARGH, why didn't I bother to check and ask her first!?"

Rose was wailing, looking as sad as they'd ever seen her. "I just tried getting in touch with Prince Ali again, he said he'd never even heard of Lila Rossi! Now I don't know if he'll ever speak to me again!"

Juleka was muttering something as she hugged Rose close to her, and they couldn't make out exactly what, but they thought they heard words like "hurt my girl" and "kill the liar" and stuff like that.

Nathaniel was mumbling something which they couldn't quite make out, but as he was mumbling whatever it was, he was clutching his prized sketchbook to his chest like a drowning man clutching a life preserver.

Max mumbling something about calculations and the probability of something like this happening, and with his glasses askew like that, he looked rather deranged.

Kim was looking a little delirious. "I can swim to the other shore for help! No, seriously, I really think I can do it! Anyone want me to swim away to go and get some help?"

But Alix was having none of that; she looked ready to kill someone. "No, you fool! Save your strength! We need it for when we get back home and confront Lila the Liar!"

Mylene was wailing something about how all they had to eat was hastily-made cheese sandwiches, while her boyfriend Ivan was trying to comfort her (although there was a wicked gleam in the large boy's eyes).

"This is ridiculous… utterly…" and then Chloé passed out before she could complete her catchphrase.

"Chloe!" Sabrina wailed, ever the obedient lackey. "Hang on, Chloé, I'll try reaching out to your father again, maybe he can send a rescue team…!"

And then it switched back to Nadja Chamack in the news room. "Well, as you can see, loyal viewers, this has clearly been a unique disaster. We will continue to provide you with more details as the story develops. And on a related note, one Lila Rossi, the daughter of the Italian ambassador Benigna Rossi, has apparently run away from home…"

Adrien flicked off the device as both of them digested all this news.

"So…" he began to say, but then trailed off.

"So?" she replied.

"What do we do when they come back?" he asked her. "How do we handle this?"

"Do you mean, should we gloat and throw this in their faces? Nah. They've suffered enough." And then, as if realizing what she'd just said, she then hastily added: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not enjoying seeing their suffering, but I just hope that they finally learn from this…"

"Marinette, it's fine," Adrien gently interjected, with a reassuring smile. "I get it. You want them to stop believing Lila after this, but you're still sad that it came to this point. Trust me, I feel the same way."

Marinette relaxed a little. "Thank you for understanding, Adrien."

Adrien smiled a little more. "That's another thing I like about you, Marinette: You have all the sweetness and compassion of a Disney princess."

She turned pink. "Aw, Adrien…"

"…Well, except for when you play Ultimate Mecha Strike III, because then you're ruthless and merciless," he added with a catty smirk.

Then she stuck out her tongue at him and he just laughed.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Yes, this was inspired by the real-life Fyre Festival fraud. Both Netflix and Hulu have documentaries about it, although I personally feel that the Netflix one was more professionally done and is overall better than the Hulu one, for various reasons. I just thought it might be interesting to see all the dupes get suckered so spectacularly this way. (And yes, "Fyre" + "Lila" = "Lyre.")

Oh, and the original idea for this plot bunny included Marinette's scammed classmates swarming her parents' bakery like a horde of zombies and stuffing their faces with baked goods because they were starving.

If anyone else wants to run with this and make a full story out of it where all the dupes suffer on the island for the amusement of the readers, please go ahead and let me know!