Chapter Text
“Summertime. You got old, now don't die. I'm leaving tonight, I'm leaving tonight, instead of wasting your whole life, messed up and down.” - Stop Wasting Your Whole Life/Messed Up and Down by Starflyer 59
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Following her last use of Duusu’s miraculous, Nathalie completely recovered from her illness, and was in far better health. It took the rest of the summer in order for her to do so, and Gabriel even took some time off from his schemes to keep an eye on her. Thankfully, he wasn’t fretting over her at every given moment, but he still refused to allow her to use the cat miraculous for the time being. It was safer with them for now, and Nathalie would only employ it when Gabriel had absolute need for it.
“Now that we’ve secured one of the miraculouses,” Gabriel says, “I think it’s time to secure ourselves a new holder for Duusu.”
Duusu lets out a yawn at this. “Geez, treating me like the unwanted stepchild is going to backfire on you one of these days.”
Nathalie regards the kwami with ire, but says nothing. If Duusu wasn’t going to show the proper respect to her master, then Nathalie didn’t have to waste her breath trying to lecture her. She would be gone soon enough.
“Yes, I have the perfect candidate in mind. With her utter contempt of Ladybug, and now her attempts to help my akumas, Miss Lila Rossi will be the perfect pawn in my scheme,” he says, looking down at Duusu. The kwami only looks at him with a wide yawn, before settling down on his desk, fiddling with his pens.
“But sir, aren’t you at least concerned as to what Lila Rossi might do with the miraculous?” Nathalie asks, “Suppose she attempts to betray us?”
“I’m not the least bit worried about that brat’s scheming,” he sighs, “We know that using that miraculous in excess will cause the health of its user to deteriorate. If she thinks she’ll be able to use it to take everything away from us, she’ll quickly learn who’s running things around here. Now, I have a plan to get it to her while drawing little suspicion to us.”
Thus, their cover story was formed. A mysterious, upcoming benefactor participating in the Tsurugi Textile Fashion Show asked for help in sending out a special pendant, one that would go to a special girl. His hope was that upon the public seeing the pendant, that they would all see it and want it for themselves, and get people to pay attention to what he had to offer at the show. He was a student of the infamous Gabriel Agreste himself, so of course, anyone would want to get their hands on it.
He chose to send it to the boutique ran by Darcey Reil, of whom he shared a close business relationship. Her store was generally one of the first to display his more casual, everyday items before they were released in shopping centers and whatnot.
Darcey had a daughter named Fleur who went to the same school as Lila, her boutique was pretty close to Le Grand Paris, and Lila had already been to that particular store once when bargaining with Friend Zone for her freedom, and needed to take sanctuary. So Darcey already knew who Lila was. However, neither herself nor Gabriel knew if Lila shared a close relationship with Fleur, but Gabriel was certain that Darcey could persuade her daughter to bring Lila over somehow.
This plan seems dependent on too many variables. Hopefully, she listens and doesn’t end up just giving the pendant to her daughter.
“Ms. Reil, hello,” Nathalie greets, “I have a favor to ask of you.”
She explains the plan while leaving out the unnecessary details. All that’s left is to persuade her to give it to their intended target.
“Actually, there is someone we are considering. She seems to be something of a trendsetter, if the rumors are correct. Her name is Lila Rossi? She went into your shop the other day during an akuma attack. We were hoping to establish contact with her and her family, but our sponsor has some rather… eccentric ideas for doing that.”
“Will there be a way for her to know about all of this?” Darcey asks.
“Yes, there will be a message inside the box for her to read and decide if she would like to meet with us. I think it’s important to understand that only Lila Rossi is the one to open the box. Furthermore, you ought to act as though you are giving her the gift spontaneously and without any further intention. Treat it like a spur of the moment gift-giving.”
“That’s… a rather odd request.”
“We’d be more than willing to compensate you for helping with our strange request,” she continues, “In fact, we have two VIP passes available for the Tsurugi Textile show.”
“Well, it would be nice to see this new designer in person… alright, I’ll help you out. I just need to give the pendant to Lila in a subtle way?”
“Of course. When I enter, I’ll give a cover story so no one is the wiser.”
She hangs up the phone, and can’t help but smile at Gabriel’s triumphant expression. While she wasn’t fond of the idea of giving someone else the brooch, leading them to a miserable fate, she knew exactly the sort of person Lila Rossi was. When Adrien’s cousin, Felix, came over for dinner one night, Adrien spoke of her with unintended, but absolute misery in his voice. Gabriel didn’t seem to notice, but Nathalie did the math. She knew what it was like to have someone like that, someone that made you feel small and compliant as they overtook you. And she knew how someone would express that misery, especially as it would go ignored by those they were supposed to trust.
No, I won’t be that girl again. This is for the high school me, the one that never got a chance for revenge.
She couldn’t afford to move or speak against Gabriel. She was in too deep. But this plan was a personal victory for her, if they executed it well.
“Excellent. Our plan is well in motion. All that’s left is to deliver the brooch.”
She leaves immediately, making sure to wear both sunglasses and a nice hat to cover the top of her head. Her hair is still visible from the front, but it’s still pulled back into its bun. She changes out of her work clothes into a proto-type of one of Clara Nightingale’s stage outfits. As ridiculous as she feels, she’s content to leave and get this errand done and over with.
Ten minutes later, she’s over at the shop, and who should be there than Lila Rossi herself? Although, shouldn’t she be back in class by now? According to Adrien’s schedule, their lunch hour is over by now . Still, it wasn’t her business to care about what Lila Rossi did, unless they needed blackmail. Certainly, the girl had some cover story at play to get her off the hook.
I hope your cover stories are good, Lila Rossi. Because if you’re going to wield this miraculous and help us win this game, they’re going to need to be brilliant .