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Despite all obvious signs, Lila was sure this was Marinette’s fault somehow. She could concede that accepting this whole “chicken” game was very unnecessary on her end; but everything afterwards involving setting this dinner date up, Lila offering to host it and everyone just somehow agreeing that that’s a good idea was on Marinette. Somehow. Lila’s sure she’d figure out how once the other girl actually arrived.
On the topic of Marinette coming over and figuring things out though, Lila still needed to know how the actual hell she was gonna whip up a romantic dinner for two on such a short notice. Just because neither of them really wanted this doesn’t mean she wasn’t gonna put her A-game on. She just needed to figure out what that was first.
Her frustration inevitably led her to the great breeding ground of terrible ideas: the internet. After all, with a near infinite amount of recipe blogs just itching to get life stories and maybe some food out to the general public available, surely one of them would have something suitably date-y.
The next one and a half hours would be spent scrolling through various sites trying to assemble a coherent menu with great difficulty. At this point she could probably tell what Doria S. spent the last month doing from memory but that wasn’t much help. She did however manage to almost get a plan together so it was time to check what she had available.
Not much. The answer was “She doesn’t have much available”. Or more accurately, most of what she had was spare veggies, spices, stuff for two days worth of spaghetti that she definitely won’t be serving here and pastries from the bakery Marinette’s parents worked at ironically enough.
And of course some candles, which was a great find but romantic atmosphere won’t be feeding anyone, so Lila put on her orange jacket and appropriate wig then sprinted to the store with all her might and weekly allowance. She could faintly hear Kim call out some sort of challenge but didn’t pay him any mind for now, she needed to move around the grocery store fast as the wind, precise as lightning and a third comparison that escaped her right now.
It was absolute frenzy, rushing through all the aisles and picking out the first appropriate looking thing she noticed fast enough that her eyes barely processed blurs. It was a small miracle she didn’t end up accidentally tackling anyone or knocking a shelf over. That is, until she arrived on the one phase of this operation she couldn’t speed along: the grocery line. She just had to pick a Saturday for this didn’t she.
She was walking in place nervously. She had no time to spare and the weight of her ingredients was finally settling in on her arm. She was briefly considering giving up on the whole ‘not tackling anyone’ thing but that sort of reputational damage couldn’t be afforded right now. She was briefly wondering how her situation could possibly get worse right then.
“Oh there you are, Lila!” Came the answer loud, clear and in a red hoodie.
“Didn’t know you had all that in you honestly. Maybe sometime between your Super Penguino seshes with Marinette we could race sometime?”
“Kim, please if you don’t shut up right now you’re never going to walk again much less run.” She didn’t even turn around. She was not going to dignify him. And she didn’t want to instinctively smack him in the face with her shopping bag.
“Why, what’d I say?” God damnit. Time to pull out the best of her acting practice while the line inches along.
“I’m so sorry Kim, it’s just that it has been a rough day and I’m in a bit of a hurry so I got a bit frustrated you know? Plus it’s not too easy to do all this shopping and cooking with my arthritis. But I’ll just have to manage, I guess.” She made sure to trail off all sad at the end there. It may not have been the most moral thing to twist the knife like that but to be fair Kim was being mildly irritating so from her point of view he had it coming.
Luckily she need not deal with him any further as she finally got to the checkout. Scanning everything took a while too of course but at last she was free and rushing back with the spoils of her war against time.
Finally she was back home, with two hours left until she could blow…some nondescript body part of Marinette off with how impressive this all will turn out to be. Probably her head. That sounded good, and it would make a nice keepsake. She could practically see it already, lifting that pretty face in front of her with her hand, eyes looking to lifeless eyes and saying ‘Alas, poor Marinette. I was there and it was awesome.’
No, she needed to focus first. See what she has in stock. The Mushroom soup had the veggies, the wine, the soy sauce and the store bought broth because no way in hell she was setting that up too. The cacciatore had the chicken, assorted spices and tomato related ingredients, the herbs and the wine again. Hopefully the one bottle will be enough for both of them, or else she’s gonna have to throw the soup out. The chicken is top priority, it’s a grand symbol of her supposed culture that also serves as an artful visual pun to their situation so if anything had to go right it's that.
Focus, focus. Parsley and onion salad, that one was easy. It's mostly just lemon zest, mint, extra bread, the olive oil and some veggies she already had. Finally the killing blow of a dessert, Salted Caramel Popcorn Pots. Almost all of that had to be bought and it would waste too much time to list but whatever. It would make this entire experience the memory of a lifetime, a lesson for Marinette not to expect her to do anything halfway.
The clock was ticking. The time for idle fantasies was over, and the force of creation shan’t wait!
Pat and salt the chicken. Melt the butter and heat the oil in a large pot. A skillet with more oil. Toss in the onion to the pot. She’s meant to wait out the next two minutes but no time, she was dancing amongst her creations as queen of dates forevermore. Toss in half the chicken thighs into the skillet; while that cooks get the bowl, toss in the mint, the onion and the spices; while that softens, toss in the first batch of mushrooms into the pot.
She took a quick few minutes to stretch. As much as she had heard that the best dishes are made with love, she found they were underselling how much the unrestrained love of competition could help with that aspect. She could hardly keep the smile off of her face.
No time left for idle thoughts though. Toss in the rest of the salad stuff cause it should’ve softened now and put some bread in the toaster for that serving. Add the second batch of mushrooms to the soup. Get a second pan for the dessert but keep the eyes on the soup cause that one didn’t specify time the nerve-
She needed to focus, damn it! Put in the rest of the soup’s stuff and let it simmer. Cream, milk and popcorn into pan numero due, let them bubble for a minute then load them into the jug and toss them in the freezer hopefully speeding that along for a bit; unload the toast and get the salad into servable position; notice the smoke pouring out the skillet-
Wait a second.
Lila took the skillet off the heat to check and sure enough, she forgot to turn the chicken over and now it was very very charred. For all that Lila’s mood had soared before, this piece of turbulence has thrown her off quite a bit. She begrudgingly tossed the half burned half raw thighs into the trash can and accepted that she should probably slow down a bit.
First, returning to the soup, it should’ve finished simmering now so she loaded what she could into the blender and let it rip. She made sure to check how well it went a couple of times, then after a few more seconds of extra blending in there for good measure, she poured it back in the pot.
Two down. Then she tried to salvage the main course with what remaining chicken thighs she had. Pat them down, re-prepare the skillet, and this time she kept a close eye on them as the underside cooked for a quarter hour.
Why did she even agree to this? Marinette would’ve been way better at doing this, she lives in a godforsaken bakery! For what Lila’s MO was she had to admit that the stuff from there was heavenly. So why let her fumble around like this? Did Marinette want to see her fail that badly? Did she think Lila could be broken if she just left her alone to boil herself with her own ego?
Was she right?
She turned the thighs around. She will not lose. Not to herself, not to Marinette, not to anybody. But it was becoming evident that this was not gonna be enough for a main course. Once it was ready, Lila decided to break out the drastic measure just in case. The spaghetti could feed her for two days which also meant it could feed the two of them at once. Just had to make sure she got it right.
She dumped in the aromatics and set the next timer. Why was she so anxious about it anyway? She screwed up just the one chicken and now she was panicking. What for? It’s just Marinette, away from prying eyes. Heck, as long as Lila got the word out first it didn’t even matter how this night actually went. But her mind continued to tug at her, like the control bars of a marionette that’s gotten stuck on the scenery.
All the sauce ingredients were together, and she was beginning to feel like she’s gonna run out of time. She filled a pot with water and put some oil and salt in it, then onto the stove it went. She also made sure to check how the dessert was doing before deciding that trying to make a six hour dessert over two might not have been a good call.
Whatever. Guess the dessert is off the menu for now. Her brows furrowed at such an obvious mistake, and somehow telling herself that it didn’t matter did nothing to ease it. She cleaned pan numero due, then put some oil and the minced meat in it. The water started boiling while she was making sure this one didn’t burn, so in the pasta went. She just had to keep focusing on the food. She was no goddess of creation for sure but she was still an artist of the kitchen, and that meant needing to pay careful attention to every stroke of her metaphorical brush until it all assembled into her magnum opus.
Water, flavour mix and canned tomato paste onto the meat. She was good at this. She was good at this. The baker girl never stood a chance. She was gonna be swept off her feet so hard the impact force of the floor would knock the admittance of defeat out of her. Or maybe Lila would just catch her. Hold her in her arms and lock eyes like she dipped her during a slow dance. Keep her playing a little longer. That sounded good.
The drop of hot spaghetti sauce on her arm snapped Lila back to reality and she began stirring meat again. God, what the hell was with her tonight. She really had to focus on the food if her mind kept wandering like this. Sadly she had no cheese or appropriate greenery to top the pasta off with, but on the bright side that meant not taking time away from getting the atmosphere perfect.
Speaking of, the meat and sauce were around the level where she only needed to stir it every so often so it was time to decorate.
First, the fancy tablecloth. White cotton, with a golden pattern on top evoking one of those crochet ones. Her mother always used it when she had to have one of her superiors over for dinner for whatever reason, so it was definitely qualified for impressing some girl. Curtains all drawn, and candles strategically placed on the middle of the table and across various places in the dining area for that sweet sweet atmospheric lighting. Quick break to stir the spaghetti sauce.
Then came preparing the dinnerware. Matte black with golden edges to contrast the tablecloth but still keep a throughline with it. It was a relic of their days back in Italy, when her mom still had actual friends to invite over, but with those days and people behind them it evidently fell to Lila to keep them in use. She loaded whatever food was ready into a pair of bowls or plates each, before moving all of them besides the soup onto the counter farther away from sight. Then came another quick stir break.
Now Lila was pretty sure they had some fancy cutlery too somewhere, but after several minutes of searching she couldn’t find them for the life of her. She begrudgingly settled for some from the regular set but it is going to take Dupain-Cheng’s A game for her not to stay mad about it the whole night. Every off-key sound in this symphony of hers stuck out horribly on her end, but she knew she had to pretend it was some degree of intentional lest it seem even worse to her audience of one. One final stir break, then she drained the noodles and put them and the sauce onto their own respective plates.
She had a few more minutes left to get herself ready, so she couldn’t do anything too crazy with the wig or at least go grab one of the fancier ones, but she still decided to restyle it into a ponytail worn over her shoulder. The choice of outfit landed on a somewhat ironic piece, being a dress made by tonight’s guest herself. It was knee length, very flowy, and coloured a cool desaturated orange with some dark purple lines twisting around it as the pattern. For all the mind games the two played, Lila had to admit that it was excellent craftsmanship and she was probably going to look for an excuse to wear it sooner than later. She finished the look off with a plum lipstick and dark brown eyeshadow, and just in time as she could faintly hear the ‘ding’ of the doorbell while applying the finishing touches.
Lila was positively giddy as she power walked towards the front door, mentally preparing herself for utterly amazing Marinette with the dinner date she had quite literally cooked up. She made it to the door just in time for the shrill noise of the other doorbell to echo around the apartment, as evidently Marinette thought the first one was defunct. Now came the big moment.
Lila gently opened the door.
And was met with an angel.
Okay, after a couple rounds of rebooting her brain maybe that was a bit much. It was very much Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She was wearing a white blouse with red rose patterns, a dark blue pencil skirt, the kind of ‘no makeup’ type of makeup and her hair loose; and she was definitely wearing them really well in Lila’s opinion, but it was still Marinette, no need to get overly dramatic about it.
“Hi and welcome to my humble abode! Please come right in and take off your shoes.” she returned to her script trying not to let her excitement or newfound nervousness show as she led the other girl inside.
“Hi and thanks again for inviting me. Honestly not sure why you didn’t try doing this before. Luring me out here one on one seems pretty easy for whatever you’re planning to do.” She was at least gracious enough to put her shoes on the rack but Lila couldn’t let that accusation stand any longer than what it took to close the door back up.
“Only if I’d want it traced back to me at record speed. ‘It’ being a dinner date and no more, unless you planned something else of course.”
“Okay but why?”
“Whatever could you mean, mia cara?” Lila replied with the smuggest tone she could muster. God, she loved when Marinette got irritated.
“You engineered an entire scenario where I would be alone with you with nobody else to see, I can’t refuse without looking rude and you can say anything after the fact without anything disproving you. Why the hell would you make it just a regular dinner date?!”
“Very clever I give you that.” She moved to the dining area and stood beside the table. “But I agreed to never break the rule of this dating game and even in our privacy, if I did it the two people I actually care about knowing will definitely find out. And we can’t have that, now can we?”
With a small noise of confusion Marinette took her seat at the table as Lila served the mushroom soup. At least she was polite enough to wait for her before starting to eat. At least hopefully it was just politeness.
In Lila’s opinion the soup turned out great, but she had a hard time focusing on it. She shot every other glance to the other end of the table where Marinette seemed to be devouring her share with far too much eagerness to really look over to her. Every time she saw it it felt like her heart got a little lighter but she had to check again just to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
Predictably, Marinette finished the course way before Lila did, but she still left it to the latter to try making conversation.
“So, how was it?” Lila asked between spoonfuls. She didn’t want to toot her own horn just yet but she did pretty good on the soup at least.
“It was…” She sighed. What was that in her voice? Disappointment? Surprise? “It was good, I admit. Why didn’t you try bragging about this before?”
“Oh, please don’t get the wrong idea, this isn’t my usual speed. This little experience is just for you, mia cara. I could bring you the next part, actually, if you don’t wanna wait for me to finish this.” She couldn’t help it, she wanted Marinette to try her masterwork as soon as possible. Not like the girl wanted to spend too long here anyway, might as well get to the good part.
“Mmmmmm no.” Or maybe Lila thought wrong, and was this close to doing an honest to goodness spit-take. But she had to keep the cool facade up.
“Oh, how come? Aren’t you curious?”
“It’s just that, if this is really such a special occasion I want to enjoy it right alongside you. I think it’s more appropriate like that.”
“That’s fair I suppose. Just try not to get tired of watching me eat if you leave me in the dust again.”
“Like I’d ever get tired of watching you eat, quin ái de.” Much as she wanted to contest this little bit of counteroffensive action, the combo of that google translated nickname and the memories of hanging out at the bakery Marinette was reminding her of was just too much to keep up with.
The next few minutes were thus spent with Lila finishing up her part while continuing to glance towards the waiting Marinette, who glanced back toward her in turn. After she finally finished she stood up and took away the dishes before bringing in the side.
At least that one took a bit less time to eat. Not for lack of trying though, Lila tried her best not to show it but she really didn’t like how this one turned out. The sound of Marinette clearing her throat told her she felt likewise.
“Can I be honest with you for a sec?”
“Sure, you were always pretty big on that front.” She just sighed at that before continuing on.
“I’m like decently sure you were supposed to prepare this right before we ate it cause now it just tastes kind of stale.” Even if she was objectively right, Lila still felt a little hurt about her words.
“Guess the recipe forgot to mention that part.” Well, it didn't and she knew but she couldn’t help letting that little fib fly when she felt she messed up. Still she needed to salvage this a bit. “Still sorry about it though. I don’t really like how it turned out either. Let’s just forget about this one and get to the main course okay?”
“Fine by me, and no need to apologise.” Lila once again went to pick up the plates and take them away.
“Yes there is. This is a special occasion so it has to be good! If nothing else, maybe the main course will take you off your feet then.”
“I have a pretty easy time doing that on my own, thanks. Let’s just hope it will taste good instead, alright?”
Lila just giggled in response while carrying over the two plates and one coffee meant for Marinette. The other girl’s eyes seemed to go wide at the display and for once they trailed the food’s motion instead of hers.
“Like what you see? Thought it’d be appropriate to go out with a true Italian bang.” She left to get her own serving of the food, letting Marinette sit there silent in what was hopefully awe.
When she came back the other girl was still staring at her food with wide eyes, seemingly only snapping out of it when she heard Lila put down her own plates.
Marinette prodded at the chicken a bit somewhat absent-mindedly, before her eyes went wide, she gently pushed the plate out from in front of her and proceeded to faceplant onto the table.
“Oh my God I just got it.” She said, defeated and her headd still on the table, causing Lila to burst out laughing.
Eventually, Marinette joined in on the laughter as well as her head slowly left the table again.
“How could you? I thought-” another fit of giggles interrupted her. “I thought it was meant to be a romantic occasion! How dare you get puns involved!” she managed to finish her mock-accusation before descending into more laughter.
“Come on I just- I had to-” Lila couldn’t keep talking before she also had to take a break to let the laughter out. Even if she started this little fit she had to admit Marinette’s was quite infectious. “When I found the recipe for it I knew I had to see your reaction. It was absolutely worth it though.”
They wound down quite a bit a few seconds after that but as they began eating they still both had big goofy smiles on their faces. Though, and she’d never admit it out loud, Lila long since stopped caring for the joke and was mostly just smiling at how much her guest seemed to be enjoying herself.
That happiness was also soon joined by some smugness as she tasted her own creations. Between how good they turned out to be and Marinette making her feel cozy more than anything, Lila knew which one of them was more likely to give up. Besides, Marinette was way more honestly interested in Adrien than Lila ever was so clearly this whole arrangement wasn’t going to last for long. She just had to keep it going for as long as possible, milk every moment she could. That’s what her victory would be.
But before that victory, she had to enjoy some of the spoils of the present. And boy, what good spoils they were. Admittedly she knew the chicken could still use some work even if not accounting for the little incident with her first try but the spaghetti was such a simple well practiced masterpiece she couldn’t even look at Marinette while eating it. Just pure enjoyment.
Sure, she thought that she should look over to her reaction multiple times but the food was just too good to not give her full attention to. She could only actually commit to the checkup once she had already finished her part, just managing to catch Marinette averting her gaze and going back to her own serving of spaghetti. Thinking about it, she still had quite a bit of it, so she probably spent a while looking at her instead of eating. Only one way to confirm though.
“Do you not like it?” She had to put some sadness in her voice to really sell it, but luckily just thinking about Marinette actually not liking the food made that trick easy.
“Oh no no no no! I mean yes, yes I think it’s very great! Why made you ask?” She replied in a slight panic then facepalmed at that last bit of spoonerism. She could be so cute when she got off-balance like this.
“It’s just that there’s still so much left of the spaghetti and you were never really a slow eater before. What else could’ve changed?” C’mon, c’mon…
Marinette sighed in mild frustration. “It’s just- Ugh! This is embarrassing” That’s why I’m asking , Lila internally added. So close…
“I mean, isn’t the whole dating thing about learning to be embarrassed around each other?” Admittedly she got that one from one of Doria’s rambles but darn it if it didn’t help her in this case.
This earned a look from Marinette. Lila saw her eyebrows raise and her head tilting, but couldn’t figure out what it meant from that alone before she let out another sigh to signal her final answer.
“It’s just, I never really get to see you really enjoy food you know? I usually get hungry while making stuff so I get too busy eating to check your reactions. I just really wanted to see what you look like in my place.” She looked so awkward admitting that, it honestly looked adorable. But Lila needed to press further. Marinette wasn’t gonna win this when everything she had up her sleeve just set Lila off harder.
She rested elbows on the table and cupped her face with her hands before speaking with a smile that didn’t quite manage to reach her ears. “Oh do tell me then! What do I look like?”
“H-hey, that’s not fair! I never interrogate you about that!” Marinette nervously protested, inadvertently walking right into Lila’s next line of attack.
“Well, if I had to describe it somehow, it’s kinda like a cute lil mouse stuffing its cheeks full of food, just chewing all adorable-like just making me wanna squeeze your face! Is that sufficient?”
Marinette answered but it wasn’t in any language Lila could understand, or one that had words for that matter. She wanted to add more fuel to the fire but she honestly felt a little sorry for how red in the face the other girl had gotten. That was one of Marinette’s deceptively strong points in this whole game of theirs. Even when taking everything Lila could throw at her she just gets more adorable in her blubbering and that just puts Lila back on the defensive. It would’ve been frustrating if it wasn’t so huggable.
Instead of making any attempt at clearing herself up however, Marinette chose to start shoveling spaghetti into her mouth, almost as if to give the other girl a more proper look. She was clearly still embarrassed for sure and was probably trying to dodge the topic by building a wall of pasta in its way but it didn’t do much in deterring Lila.
After several minutes of watching Mousinette at work the main course was finally finished so Lila took away the dishes before sitting back down to her seat.
“So uh…do you want some help with washing the dishes maybe?”
“Oh, no need to! You’re a guest after all! I’d just like an answer to my question, if you wouldn’t mind”
Marinette just sat there for a while, occasionally sputtering out half-words before cutting herself off again with red cheeks and furrowed brows.
“If you really don’t want to, it’s fine by me, though I admit it’s a bit disappointing.”
“No, it’s just- UGH! What is your deal today?!” she managed to burst that out.
“You already accused me of lying for attention, are you really surprised I’d want to know what I look like doing something?”
Marinette sighed in frustration, but gave no space for Lila to wonder what could’ve gone wrong before answering.
“There’s no attention to lie for here though. Just you and me. And I’m getting the feeling that there’s something more to this game for you than you’re willing to admit. So spill.” She had a harsh glare but none of it felt truly accusatory, more like statements of fact. Like she already knew something and was waiting for Lila to let go of the other shoe.
Frustrating for Lila however, it seems she has misplaced it.
“Sorry to disappoint mia cara, but for once there’s nothing else behind it all. Why not just get the whole expose thing out of your pretty little head for once. And enjoy the night. Sorry, spit almost went the wrong way there.” Not really, she just got annoyed enough at getting back to this again she almost forgot to make it all seem innocuous.
She looked… disappointed? Like Lila wasn’t getting something obvious.
“Really. Nothing. Nothing that you wanted to say. At all.”
“Why, it’s almost like you don’t believe me. How shocking.”
“No no no!” Awfully defensive all of a sudden, the girl kept on fascinating Lila more and more. “It’s just that…I thought you finally figured something out. But nevermind.”
She got up to leave and Lila rushed after her. She can’t lose her like this damn it!
“Wait wait wait! At least give me a hint for God’s sake! Look, I know you don’t think much of me usually but you’re a really smart gal. You can figure out how much I don’t get out of pretending to be an idiot here.”
She looked at her again. Still disappointed but moreso in a sad way and endlessly confusing Lila.
“Wanna know something? Once I knew you were full of nonsense it got pretty easy to tell when you weren’t being honest. There’s just a certain stiffness to it all.”
“Figured you’d pick up something like that.”
“Wasn’t finished yet. Cause after this all started, I finally got small looks at what it's like when you are genuine. Something about when you were eating back there seemed…true, I guess? Or happy? I guess if I had to go all metaphoric like you it’s something like a fire, dancing around and burning real bright and that sort of thing.”
“I- Thank you but-”
“Still not finished. Cause seeing that kind of made me realise just how much time you spend going on stiff mode. Even when I don’t think you would be, like back when you turned into Chameleon.”
She paused again but Lila didn’t interject this time. She was too busy trying to put it all together. Why would she “stiffen up” when confronting her? She hated her! They hated eachother! That was the whole point of all this, to humiliate eachother! That was the whole point.
“You’re doing it again.”
“What?”
“Whenever we do stuff like this it always gets so close to what I saw now but then you just. Stiffen back up.”
“I suppose I never really checked myself out enough to notice me doing it.” They were already next to the shoe rack by then, but she didn’t want her to leave yet.
“It happens I guess. But it’s- it’s bugging me a bit why you would even do that. Well, I think I have a theory and- no. No, I think you need to be the one to figure this out.”
She pat Lila on her head. It was so natural she didn’t even try to stop her from doing it by now. Just another sweet gesture to stow away.
“It’s…weird to admit but you’re also really smart at what you do. I’m sure you’ll get it in no time.”
Her next move was definitely new though. For anyone else it might’ve just looked like a quick peck on the nose but as Lila tried processing it every replay came back slower, more detailed and more overwhelming. The motion of Marinette pursing her lips. The trajectory of her head suddenly approaching. That little last minute course correction away from Lila’s own lips.
The feeling of the lips on Lila’s face. The feeling it made her feel. It was something sweet, something warm, something pushing in her stomach, something speeding up her heartrate, something stronger than anything but something familiar. She dared not speak its name but she knew what it must’ve been.
She had to think about this another way. Clearly there was something else about this. Clearly she didn’t just feel like that about Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Clearly Ma- Dupain-Cheng didn’t feel that way about her. Clearly this was just some sort of tactical manoeuvre to get her off balance. Clearly…
Clearly this is what she meant, wasn't it?
Lila got up from her slump against the front door. Evidently Marinette left, presumably saying goodbyes, and Lila slumped against it, too deep in her own head looking for an alternate justification that wasn’t really there to notice any of it.
She went over to the dishwasher and loaded up everything they got dirty that night. They. Her and Marinette. Together as a unit. God, it was not to think about it.
But what was her plan exactly? She could keep trying to ignore it but who would that even help here? It’s not like Marinette will just forget about this all when she notices her apparent ‘tell’ again.
She could just abandon “Lila” all together and move on to her other lives more but why? All those other names felt like nothing more than rehearsed plays, going through the motions and saying the words but not really feeling or experiencing anything in earnest. Would she just throw away the only one that finally gave her something new?
She caught her reflection in the bathroom mirror. Even if she felt bad going on autopilot she could excuse herself this time.
Was this what Marinette was getting at? Clearly Lila wouldn’t have believed it if she had just been told, that much was obvious. So she got her wondering about it by playing off of her need to know about herself, set it up as a mystery to solve but still give her that smooch at the end so she’d connect the two mentally.
She loved how much of a manipulator Mari could be when she put her mind to it.
Loved.
Loved.
She kinda liked the thought actually. Maybe this all went better than she hoped it would.