Chapter Text
Adrien was changing back into his street clothes after an excruciatingly long photoshoot with his least favourite coworker when the door to his dressing room swung open without warning.
He jumped, quickly zipping up his pants with one hand and throwing his opposite arm across his torso to provide some modicum of cover.
“Lila, I’m getting dressed!” he protested as she closed the door behind her and leaned back against it, taking him in with roving eyes and a self-satisfied smirk.
“I know. I like to watch,” she laughed in that bell-like way that everyone thought was so charming as she leered at him, rubbing the side of her thumb back and forth over her bottom lip as her eyes traced every line and curve of him up and down.
He couldn’t contain a shudder of discomfort.
“It’s so cute how shy you are,” she chuckled. “We literally just spent hours hanging all over each other in skimpy clothing for that summer wear shoot, and now you’re embarrassed for me to see you bare-chested?”
She pushed herself off of the door and sauntered over to run her fingers along his shoulders.
He stepped back, shrinking away from her touch. “Sorry. Could you not? I don’t really like being touched.”
This small act of rebellion clearly displeased Lila. Her olive eyes narrowed into a glare, and she strode forward, placing her palm flat on his chest like she owned it.
“You’d better get used to it, then,” she warned, all levity gone from her voice, “because I’ve been thinking. The media has been speculating about our relationship status for several years now, and I’ve decided that it’s time for us to officially start dating publicly.”
Adrien recoiled, pulling away until his back was pressed up against the mirror. “Sorry, but I don’t think so.”
“Too bad you don’t get a say in the matter,” she informed him with authority. “We’re dating now, and you can either do as I say or watch as I spread rumors about Marinette until everyone thinks she’s trash and no one wants to talk to her.”
“Lila,” Adrien hissed low in warning.
She clasped her hands in front of her chest and assumed the higher-pitched, innocent voice she often used when soliciting sympathy or agreement from others. “Because, you know, I’m so worried about Marinette lately. I overheard some of the basketball team members talking about seeing her out late in a skimpy little dress at this bar with a much older man.”
“Lila,” Adrien repeated through gritted teeth, his fingers clenching into fists.
“You don’t think her family is having money trouble, do you?” Lila continued, batting her eyes and playing dumb as she feigned concern. “Has she said anything to anyone? It’s so easy for desperate young women to get into trouble, and I want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to help, if she needs it. That’s what friends are for, am I right?”
“Lila, this is crossing a line,” he growled, standing his ground. “I’m not dating you. In fact, I think it’s time I told my father about your increasingly inappropriate behavior.”
“Try it, and I’ll go to the media about how you’ve been taking advantage of me for years,” she retorted coolly with a shrug of the shoulder, always master of the situation. “I’ll tell them I didn’t say anything sooner because I wanted so badly to succeed in modeling, and if that was the price of success…”
He rolled his eyes. “You can’t touch me, Lila. I am the Gabriel brand. Try it, and my father will bury you. You’ll never work anywhere again. Trust me. My father is a very petty, vengeful man.”
She held up her hands in surrender, conceding the point.
“Fair,” she agreed. “Maybe I can’t slander you personally, but there’s no one to protect poor Marinette. I can and will burn her to the ground,” she promised. “Your father may like her now, but just wait until he hears about how Marinette’s been using you, making you fall in love with her so that she can get a leg up in the world.”
Adrien stiffened, a rush of fear streaming in.
He didn’t think his father would turn on Marinette so easily, but…Adrien had seen Lila in action before, and the young woman was very persuasive.
“You couldn’t protect her,” Lila snickered, crossing her arms with a venomous smirk. “If you tried to refute my claims, your father would just see how in love with her you are, and you’d only confirm her guilt in his mind, and Gabriel Agreste is a very powerful enemy, Adrien. As you say, he could keep her from working anywhere if he wanted to.”
Adrien’s chest tightened, making it harder to breath as he tried to come up with a rebuttal to her logic.
“You may be untouchable, but Marinette isn’t,” she sang, seeing from the distressed look on his face that she had won. “Only you can protect her, Adrien…so what will it be? You can give in now or watch me ruin her only for you to end up giving in later. Which do you prefer?”
His shoulders slumped, and he looked away, muttering, “Fine. Just don’t push your luck on the PDA because I really don’t like being touched, and someone’s bound to notice that it looks like I’m under duress,” he warned in what he knew deep down to be a futile attempt to set boundaries.
“Noted,” she hummed generously, watching as he retrieved his shirt and pulled it on. “So long as you know that no one would believe you if you told them. Everyone knows that any seventeen-year-old boy would kill for the attentions of a beautiful, Italian model like me. No one would believe that you were the victim here.”
He kept his gaze down as he re-rolled the sleeves of his overshirt into cuffs. “…Why do you even want to date me anyway?” he wondered sulkily. “It’s not like we’re really friends. I mean, we’ve never actually gotten to know one another because everything out of your mouth is a lie, and it’s not like we’ve ever had scintillating conversations for you to observe my quick wit or charming personality. I honestly don’t get what you see in me.”
She snorted at his naiveite, going back to leaning and crossing her arms as she watched him get dressed. “You’re a fool if you think anyone will ever be interested in you for your mind or your personality.”
Adrien flinched, wounded by the way that she laughed at his romantic idealism.
“People are only ever going to want you for your money, your body, or your influence,” she informed matter-of-factly.
He wanted to tell her she was wrong, but…he’d been one hundred percent himself around Ladybug and Marinette, and neither of them seemed interested in him romantically. Meanwhile, hordes of fangirls were just lining up for him to autograph their bosoms because they idolized the public image he projected as the face of the Gabriel brand.
“My particular aim is to use your influence to get a leg up in the world,” she confessed, and he found it ironic that she was the one guilty of something she was all too ready and willing to accuse Marinette of.
“You’re useful for getting my name out there and opening metaphorical doors to future opportunities,” she continued to talk about him like he was an object without feelings, meant only to be used until he was used up.
It reminded him of the way his father talked about him, and that added an extra sting because it made him think that if he were to go to his father about what was happening, Gabriel would only scoff and blame Adrien for getting himself into such a mess in the first place.
He could easily conjure his father’s voice saying that Adrien deserved what he was going through because Adrien hadn’t been smart or strong or clever enough. He could imagine his father berating him for being weak and letting his feelings for someone trap him.
Gabriel might believe Adrien, but he wouldn’t do anything to save him.
“It also doesn’t hurt that you’re a nice piece of eye candy,” Lila laughed, clearly enjoying herself and luxuriating in her victory. “Plus, it’ll make some of my rivals jealous, and I just feed off of their envy,” she chortled.
Adrien looked up at her with a frown, utterly baffled by her behavior, not for the first time. “Why are you like this? Why can’t you ever just…I don’t know. Tell the truth? Be nice to people? Try to work your way up in the world through effort and perseverance?”
Lila’s laughter stopped as her brow creased and her eyes narrowed. “What? You mean like Marinette?” she scoffed, giving her hair an indignant toss. “Adrien, you live in such a fantasy world. I would have thought your father had taught you better.”
Adrien tried not to let her see how her words cut him. He didn’t want her to think she had any kind of power over him when it was really only that she sounded so much like his father that it almost felt like Gabriel himself delivering the admonishment.
“I am the way I am because that’s how people actually succeed. The goody-goody path doesn’t work,” she asserted, and he wanted to ask her if she had ever tried it.
“Soft-hearted people like you might not like it, but you’ll see when you grow up and open your eyes that I’m right. I know what I want, and I’m willing to do whatever I need to do to get it. Maybe you think that makes me a bad person,” she allowed, “but I’m not. I’m just living in the real world. Soon you’ll realize that this is what life is really like. You’ll see that I’m right. I am the way I am because people like me are the only ones who win.”
“I hope you’re wrong,” he whispered at the end of her diatribe.
She gave her hair another flip and turned on her heel. “Keep dreaming, then. In the meantime, let’s get a move on. You’re giving me a ride to school. If we leave now, we can make it back by the end of the lunch break, and that will be the perfect time to announce to everyone that we’re officially dating.”
Adrien shuddered but didn’t protest as he followed her out of the dressing room.