#but being in the big seat???nnnnno.

[snazzi-strawberri]

☹️<- loves taking initiative hates being in a leader position

[miracufic]

Auld Acquaintance

June 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Matchmaker or: Wherein Rose Plays Cupid

“Rose, I do not need—” Chloe tries to protest, but is quickly shushed by Rose.

“You’ll like it,” Rose assures her.  “And it’ll be good for you to finally have a night out instead of just being stuck inside all the time.”

“We go out most nights,” Chloe says.

“You know what I mean,” Rose says.  “Have fun bye~!”

Rose daintily taps the big red “end call” button before Chloe can protest further and places her phone onto the dining table next to her breakfast.

“Uh,” Juleka says.  She sets down her butter knife.  “What was that about?”

“I set Chloe up on a blind date,” Rose says, her voice tinted with just a smidge of smugness.

Juleka turns and looks with a proportionate amount of incredulity at Rose.

“Why,” she says after a couple seconds.

Rose shrugs.  “Well, she’s the only one of us who isn’t really happy with where she is, relationship-wise, and I figured that she deserved to be.”

Juleka rolls her eyes.  “Again I ask,” she says.  “Why?  This is Chloe we’re talking about.  She’s improved from when we were still in school, yeah, but she’s still about seventy percent condescending and twenty-five percent selfish and whiny.  And frankly, you could compare most people favorably to Chloe from when we were still in school.”

“Doesn’t mean that she doesn’t deserve a little happiness.”

Juleka looks at Rose.  “Uh.”

“Look,” Rose says.  “Chloe is Chloe, but I’m me, and I think she deserves a little more in life than just, y’know, work and, well, more work if you want to look at what we do at night like that.”

Juleka sighs and presses the tips of her fingers to her temples and cheekbones.  “All right, all right,” she says after a minute.  “It’s not like I can stop you—or want to stop you from making someone’s life a little brighter.  Even if that someone is Chloe.”

Rose beams.  She takes a sip of her coffee.

“Also, do you want to go out to do something tonight?”

Juleka freezes halfway through buttering her croissant.

“I mean, I know we were just going to have a quiet night in since you have the day off, but I figured that it’s been a while since we’ve had a date night, so—”

“You want us to spy on Chloe and her date, don’t you?” Juleka says.

“Well, I wouldn’t say spy, really,” Rose says.

“Rose.”

“Okay yes I want to see how it turns out.”

“No, Rose.”

“Come on, Jules—”

“Don’t Jules me, Rose, let Chloe have her night.”

Juleka pauses, studying Rose’s expression.  “Who is Chloe going out with?” she asks slowly.

“Nnnnno one—”

“Rose, who?”

Rose pretends not to hear, even as she squirms under Juleka’s glare.

“Tell me or I’m not kissing you for a week, Rose,” Juleka says.

Rose slurps noisily at her coffee.

“Two weeks.”

“Okay fine,” Rose says, deflating.  “Nathaneal was free.”

Juleka groans.  “Rose, why him of all people?  He despises Chloe.”

“Well, she’s changed.”

“Does he know that?”

“And the mayor has this beautification project thing going on and Nathaneal mentioned how he’s wanted to do some real art again recently.”

“And how is this going to keep him from walking out of whatever restaurant you’ve booked for them the instant he sees Chloe?”  Juleka’s glare intensifies as Rose’s expression grows guiltier.

“I may have mentioned that I could set him up with someone who could maybe, uh, possibly help.  Him.  With that.”

“So he doesn’t know that this is a date?”

“Possibly not.”  Rose brightens.  “But business dinners are a thing and those are kinda like dates, right?”

Juleka looks flatly at her girlfriend.

“No,” Rose says.  “I guess not.”

Juleka finishes buttering her croissant and takes a bite before sighing through her nose.  She chews for a second, then swallows.

“All right,” she mutters.  “Looks like we’re spending the evening making sure that this mess of an evening you have planned doesn’t go too haywire.”

“Okay, so let’s recap,” Rena yells at Ladybug later that evening as the two of them duck under a fallen support beam as the restaurant burns around them, dragging Nathaneal’s unconscious body behind them.  “We come here half an hour early and get in by claiming that we’re friends of Chloe’s—”

“Well, we are,” Ladybug says.  She kicks a table out of the way and grabs Nathaneal’s legs.

“—and then Nath got seated right next to us and we spent most of dinner trying to make sure that he didn’t see us.”

“We succeeded, didn’t we?”

“—and then Chloe came in, saw Nath, saw us, and started yelling at you, and then all four of us somehow ended up in the kitchen, yelling at each other.”

“Mm.”  Ladybug considers this timeline of events as Rena recounts them.  “Yes, pretty much, but we ended up in the kitchen because I said that maybe we shouldn’t be arguing in public and I think we just migrated there somehow.”

“—and then the chef lost it, got possessed by the akuma, killed someone, Nath fainted and now we’re trying to run for our lives.”

“Yeah.”

“Rose?”  Rena shoulders aside some rubble and kicks open the front door.

“Yes?”

“No offense, but please never try to organize a date for us.  Ever again.”

Ladybug tries to look offended.