#chlolya fanfiction | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

breeeliss · 8 years ago

Text

[Miraculous Ladybug]: Good Old Fashioned Meddling

a little late with Week 2 of @thinkoutsidethelovesquare but i really really wanted to do a re-write of the Zoo Scene from Animan with a few rare pairs, so i hope this is a fun little piece for you all

Link to Archive of Our Own: [AO3]

Title: Good Old Fashioned Meddling Pairings: Alyadrien (Alya x Adrien), Chlolya (Chloe x Alya), Chlonette (Chloe x Marinette) Summary: A rewrite of the Zoo Scene from "Animan," except Adrien is coaching Chloe through a date with Alya and Marinette's curiosity can't keep her from eavesdropping.

Good Old Fashioned Meddling

“Just so you know, Alya’s never going to fall in love with you if you keep glaring at her like that.”

Chloe’s eyes widened as she quickly grabbed Adrien’s shoulders and pulled him behind the pile of gym equipment she was currently hiding behind. “Are you some kind of an idiot? Can you not make me look so obvious? For Christ’s sake….”

Adrien smirked. “You’re worried about me making you seem obvious? You’re spying on her from across the courtyard with this look on your face like you don’t know whether you should punch her or go up and talk to her.”

She rolled her eyes at Adrien and carefully peeked out from her hiding spot, watching Marinette and Alya sitting on the steps in the courtyard and laughing over the horoscopes in the latest issue of Le Mode. “I’m….observing her. For….blackmail material.”

“You know, I’m kind of offended that you think I’m that stupid,” Adrien told her. “You don’t have to be embarrassed about it. Alya’s a pretty girl and she certainly has the attitude to keep up with you. I totally understand the appeal.”

“There’s no appeal ,” Chloe hissed out. “She’s objectively awful. It doesn’t matter that she’s gorgeous or that she’s been featuring in an ongoing series of some very confusing but strangely satisfying daydreams. The mere suggestion that I’d be staring at her from across the room like a lovesick idiot is frankly the worst thing you’ve ever said to me.”

Adrien raised a brow and let her stew in her denial for a few long seconds. “...so are you going to admit that you like her so that I can help you, or are you gonna keep pining from fifty meters away?”

Chloe scrunched up her nose in annoyance and sat down on the floor with her arms crossed over her chest. “This is how you treat your oldest most precious friend, huh?”

“By smacking some sense into her when she needs it? Yes. That is certainly how I treat you.”

“Look. Even if I did like Alya. And I’m not saying that I do!” Chloe insisted when she saw Adrien’s face-splitting grin. “Nothing is going to come of it because I can’t freakin’ talk to her.”

“You talked your way out of a maths test by convincing our teacher you had encephalitis,” Adrien deadpanned. “All of a sudden you don’t know how to talk to one of your classmates?”

“You’re not understanding the problem, darling,” Chloe explained. “Can I physically talk to her? Of course, I’m the most charismatic person I know. But everytime I start talking to her, I can’t help but poke fun at her or give her shit at least once. It’s like a sickness! Or a compulsion. Or something. Whatever. I just can’t talk to her without making her angry at me.”

“Have you tried?”

Chloe winced. “Well….I tried to compliment her on her outfit the other day.”

Adrien nodded. “Okay, that’s a start. And what did you say?”

“I said that her sweater was decent considering that colorblind, soft butch lesbian aesthetic she usually flaunts in school.”

Adrien covered his face with both hands. “That’s not a compliment Chloe, that’s being condescending.”

“This is my point!” Chloe complained petulantly. “I can’t do this flirting thing!”

“Alright,” Adrien shrugged. “So try something else.”

“Like….pay someone to do her homework for the next month?”

“Oh my God, you’re hopeless,” Adrien muttered under his breath. “Let’s just….start with something simple. What would you do if it was Ladybug?”

Chloe’s eyes brightened and she clasped her hands underneath her chin. “Oh, it wouldn’t matter, we could be trapped in a closet together and I could literally die right there.”

Adrien snorted. “Alright, but if you had to pick.”

“Oh I dunno,” Chloe muttered. “Um….the Louvre has a really nice exhibit that I’ve been wanting to see. I’d probably want her to see it with me.”

“Perfect,” Adrien smiled. “Ask Alya to go to the Louvre with you.”

“Adrien, that’s so stupid, there’s no way she’s going to agree to that.”

“Look,” Adrien began. “As….prickly as you are, you’re a beautiful girl and I know you’re secretly a sweetheart underneath this holier-than-thou act like you love to put on in front of everyone. I wouldn’t be friends with you if I didn’t think there was something about you to admire. If you take a chance and just tone down the animosity a little bit, you won’t have anything to worry about.”

“Oh, easy for you to say, M. Front Cover Teen Model,” Chloe snapped. “You’re a heartthrob, girls drool all over you on a daily basis. It’s hard out here for us lady-loving ladies. What if she’s straight?”

Adrien snorted and tried to cover up his laughter with this hand. “I really don’t think you have to worry about that?”

“Wait, what!?”

“Look, just ask her to the Louvre,” Adrien repeated.

“Yeah, slight problem, genius,” Chloe glared. “She hates me. She’s not going to go anywhere with me.”

“Would you chill out for two seconds please?” Adrien asked, flicking her on the nose. “I’ve got you. Just follow my lead.”

“You know, I’ve gotta tell you. Adrien’s really stepping it up with these photoshoots. I mean, look at this one. Black is so his color.”

Marinette smirked. “This coming from the girl that said ‘Oh I’m not going to buy a magazine just to ogle a boy. That’s something you would do.’”

“Excuse you, but I did not purchase it. You did. For your fashion references. I’m just taking advantage of the stray reading material and attempting to become a more well-read member of society. A good writer studies and learns from other writers, so two birds with one stone.”

“Yeah, because all aspiring investigative journalists read fashion articles about why pops of color are in this season.”

“Will you shut up and let me stare at this boy’s eyes in peace?”

Marinette lifted her hands and laughed. “Hey, I wasn’t judging. Stare away. You know I support you and your big, fat, embarrassing crush on him because it’s the single most hilarious thing that I know about you.”

Alya frowned and smacked the top of Marinette’s head with the magazine. “Yell it louder, yeah? The whole world hasn’t heard you yet.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Marinette snickered. “You know I’m just teasing. Although I’m surprised it’s still a secret. I would’ve expected you of all people to have made a move already.”

Alya shrugged. “We’re friends and it’s a delicate thing asking out your friend. I’m just looking for an opportune moment.”

Marinette bumped her hip against Alya’s. “Oh, opportune moment, my butt. You’re scared to ask him, aren’t you?”

“Oh please, we both know that if you were me, you’d be stuttering all over the place and wouldn’t be able to look him in the eyes.”

“Bite me.”

“Look, the plan is to tell him eventually,” Alya promised. “I hate hanging onto secrets like this. But I want to do it right and not freak him out, you know? I value our friendship and Adrien seems like a kid that’s in desperate need of friends.”

“I get that,” Marinette shrugged. “Although, I think you really underestimate him. If you asked him out, he’d totally say yes. In a heartbeat. Trust me.”

“I dunno. Sometimes that kid is just as clueless as you are.”

“Okay, when did this turn into a read session? Go stare at your magazine.”

Alya stuck out her tongue playfully and was about to comment back with something snarky, but she was interrupted when she accidentally collided with someone and dropped her magazine.

“Oh, crap, I’m so sor — oh. It’s you.”

Chloe was standing in front of them, dramatically brushing off her sweater and readjusting the bag on her shoulder. “What do you mean ‘oh, it’s you’? How dare you, you insufferable little — ”

Her head was suddenly yanked back as Adrien tugged on her ponytail and immediately cut off her sentence. She pouted at him hatefully and rubbed the back of her head while Adrien smiled charmingly. “Ah, silly us, we weren’t looking where we were going. Sorry about that.” He gave a gentler tug on her ponytail. “Right, Chloe?”

Chloe puffed out her cheeks, stared at her feet, and grumbled under her breath. “Yeah, sorry.”

Adrien stared down at the floor and eyed the magazine Alya had dropped. “Oh, is that yours?”

Alya waved her hand away and bent down to pick it up, surreptitiously closing the page on the full spread that had Adrien featured. “I’ve got it, don’t worry.”

“Oh, the new La Mode’s out already?” Adrien asked. “I haven’t seen my spread yet.”

Alya smirked and tucked the magazine under her arm. “It’s pretty good,” she promised him. “Those new Gabriel blazers they put you in looked really handsome on you.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “Aw, thanks.”

Alya laughed a little harder and smiled a little wider than she usually did when she told him it was no problem, and Marinette had to cover her mouth to keep her own amused giggles from drawing too much attention to herself. Alya wasn’t the type to stutter and stumble around boys she liked, but she certainly wasn’t subtle about her crushes either as much as she insisted that she was. As Alya’s best friend, Marinette was of the humble opinion that Alya couldn’t possibly be any more obvious.

“Yeah, uh, sorry about that again,” Adrien said. “Why don’t we make it up to you?” He nudged an elbow into Chloe’s side. “Any ideas Chloe?”

Chloe grabbed the collar of Adrien’s shirt and tugged him closer to her. “Why do I have to say something?” she hissed quietly.

Adrien smiled and spoke through his teeth. “This is your date, you ask her out.”

“I’m not saying anything!”

Alya frowned. “Uh, is everything alright?”

“Perfect!” Adrien said a little loudly. “Ah, why don’t we check out the Louvre together? I was going to invite Nino but he’s home sick today and Chloe’s been dying for the two of us to go see the, uh….” He tapped Chloe’s elbow and pushed her to finish his sentence.

“They, uh….have this really cool photography exhibit,” she said, trying to appear aloof about it. “It’s okay, I guess. Sabrina hates museums and didn’t want to tag along so it’s just Adrien and I.” Adrien stomped on her foot. “And you too! I guess….”

Marinette could see Alya’s interest in the invitation slowly starting to wane, most likely because Chloe was apparently going to be tagging along. But Chloe aside, Adrien was going to be there, and Marinette knew a golden opportunity when she saw one. She covered Alya’s mouth with her hand right before Alya cut in with a sharp retort. “Actually, that sounds like an amazing idea,” she grinned happily. “You love photography, don’t you Alya?”

Alya huffed and moved Marinette’s hand away. “I mean, yeah, I do, but —”

“Great!” Adrien grinned. “Then it’s settled. After school, four o’clock?”

Alya laughed nervously. “Uh, I’m not sure that’s —”

“Yup,” Marinette piped up. “Four o’clock sounds perfect. She’ll be there.”

“Cool. Well, Chloe and I are going to head off for some lunch, but we’ll meet you at the museum after school, okay?” Adrien grabbed Chloe’s arm and started to drag her off across the street. “See you girls later!”

“Bye Adrien!” Marinette called, waving to him and trying not to burst into laughter at the sight of the horrified expression Alya was sending her way.

“Are you crazy?” Alya complained. “You just said yes to me hanging out with Chloe . Are you demented?”

“No, I just said yes to hanging out with Adrien ,” Marinette smirked. “Doesn’t that sound so cute? The two of you looking at the exhibits together, getting a chance to talk, pulling out your Alya Charm, and asking him out on a second date so you two can finally stop dancing around each other. It’s the best plan I’ve come up with in a while.”

“Except you’re forgetting the part about Chloe being there.”

“Minor details,” Marinette insisted. “You know she only ever gushes over Ladybug these days anyway. It’s not like she’s going to treat him as arm candy and get in the way of you two talking. Besides, you’re creative. I’m sure you can figure out a way to ditch her and get to spend some time with him so you can run off into the sunset holding hands and talk about the rest of your lives together while Chloe goes and pouts in the corner like the little gremlin she is.”

“You are so over dramatic,” Alya chuckled.

“Please??” Marinette begged with a pout. “It’s worth a shot! Imagine if this is the story I put in my maid of honor speech!”

Alya smirked. “Who said you’re going to be my maid of honor?”

“That’s the worst joke you’ve ever told because it’s so clearly a lie. Now come on! Say yes say yes say yes!”

“Alright, alright,” Alya finally relented. “I’ll give it a shot. Hopefully this little brat will be on her best behavior and I can actually get a word in edgewise with Adrien. I swear, if she sabotages anything, I’ll kill her.”

“You can handle yourself,” Marinette promised. “Aw man, I’m so mad I’m going to miss this! I want to see you on your first date with Adrien.”

“It’s not a date,” Alya corrected. “And stop being so nosy. I mean, what are you going to do, hide behind the arches of the palace and hook a bluetooth up to your ear so you can hear everything we’re saying?”

Marinette’s eyes immediately widened in excitement and she started bouncing on her toes and waving her hands the moment the words finished coming out of Alya’s mouth. Alya scowled and pointed a finger at Marinette’s nose. “Don’t you dare ….”

“Let me—”

“No.”

“—listen in—”

“ No Marinette!”

“—on your date, pretty pretty pretty please oh my God please please I’ll die if you won’t let me!”

“I will update you on everything that happens,” Alya said. “You don’t have to James Bond this crap, you know.”

“But I want to be there for it!’ Marinette said excitedly. “Maid of honor speech! The story I’ll tell your children when you let me babysit your kids! I want to be there for the most important moments in your life oh my God you have to let me listen in and see what happens, pleeeeaaassseee!”

“Alright!” Alya decided finally. “Alright. Fine. But just this once. And you are not to interject or make any unnecessary commentary during this whole thing. I’m more than capable of lasting an afternoon with Adrien and I don’t need you telling me what to say or gushing about planning our wedding in the future. Be chill, okay?”

Marinette bit down on her bottom lip. “I….will commit to restraining myself as much as humanly possible but ask you to not demand perfection from me.”

Alya smiled fondly. “Close enough, I guess.”

“Yay!!” Marinette screamed. “Alya’s got a date!! This is so cool!!”

“It’s not a date! And would you stop screaming , people are staring!”

“You’re abandoning me!?!?!”

Adrien narrowed his eyes at her. “Um, yeah? I set you guys up on a date. Why would I tag along for that?”

“You fucking traitor you’re going to leave me alone with her?” Chloe shrieked. “Did you not hear me when I said I am physiologically incapable of speaking to this girl without feeling the compulsion to smack her in the face? I can’t do this alone. You have to help me.”

“I already did half the work for you,” Adrien said. “All you have to do is show up, be yourself — minus the sarcasm and the insults and anything else that’s going to piss Alya off — and enjoy a date with her. You’re over-thinking this way too much. Weren’t you the one bragging to me the other day about you being the perfect date?”

“Ugh, stop pulling receipts out on me, this is totally different,” Chloe complained. “I have no idea how to get her to not hate me, meanwhile the two of you get along so well. You know what to say to her to get her to like me, so you have to come on this date.”

“Chloe, come on—”

“Adrien darling, for the love of all that is holy in the world, if you do this one thing for me I’ll never ask for anything else ever in my whole life until I die.”

“You know that’s a lie.”

Chloe threw her head back and groaned at the sky. “Fine, I’ll try to snag you Jagged Stone tickets or something just do this for me please?”

Adrien raked his fingers through his hair. “I’m going to regret this so hard, but fine. What are friends for?”

Chloe jumped up and wrapped her arms around Adrien’s neck. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou, you’re the most marvellous sunshine prince I’ve ever met and I love you with all my heart!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Adrien said, patting the back of Chloe’s head. “Now why don’t we practice trying to get you to say all of that to Alya instead, huh?”

“One, two, one, two, testing? Can you hear me, Al?”

Alya was sitting on the edge of the fountains in the Louvre courtyard and laughed while she touched her earpiece. “I can hear you fine, girlie, but I still don’t know why you’re making such a big deal out of this. I’m not going to do anything crazy.”

“No. Stop right there. Unacceptable,” Marinette demanded sternly, hiding behind one of the columns in the arches of the Louvre palace only a few meters away. “You always do this. You always wanna keep things casual and be cool about everything and pretend you’re so suave and in control of your crush. That boy is gonna know how you feel by the end of the day, gosh darn it! You are not to play it cool, Alya! I expect some grade-A flirting and a promise for a second date otherwise I’m disowning you as a friend.”

Alya rolled her eyes. “Come on, Mari, I don’t know if he likes me like that yet. I don’t wanna screw up a friendship with him by being too forward about it. We’ve only known each other for a few months.”

“Well, I’m not suggesting you grab him by the collar drag him to a corner and yell in his face about how much you like him. I know that’s your default but for Adrien I was imagining something a touch more muted.”

Alya scoffed. “I’m not that intense!!”

“Um. I’m sensing some next level denial here. Just tell him how you feel without being too aggressive and you’re not going to scare him away or ruin a friendship. He’s into you! I wish you’d believe me.”

Alya groaned. “Ugh, alright, alright, I’ll try to find a moment to slip it in there. Happy?”

“Indubitably,” Marinette giggled. “Oh. And just so you know I’m recording this confession to play over and over again later so make sure you speak into the bluetooth clearly.”

“Marinette, I swear on your precious little sewing machine—”

“Crap! Target at ten o’clock! Get ready!”

Alya straightened up suddenly and started to peer through the crowds of people loitering around the fountains and waiting to get into the museum behind her. She straightened the jacket she was wearing and fluffed up her hair, but the only person she recognized coming towards her and navigating through the crowds of people was Chloe, clutching onto her purse like a lifeline, pressing a hand to her ear, and staring down at her feet while gnawing on her bottom lip.

Alya furrowed her brows and spoke into her earpiece. “Where’s Adrien?”

“I don’t know,” Marinette said worriedly.

Chloe let out a huge sigh as she marched up to Alya and balanced on her toes. “Uh. H-Hey.”

“Hi?” Alya said carefully. “Um. Is Adrien coming?”

Chloe tugged on the braid over her shoulder and winced, waiting for Adrien’s instructions to come in through the earpiece she was wearing. “Yeah. So, funny story….”

Adrien cleared his throat and peeked out from behind the pillar he was hiding behind, speaking carefully into his own bluetooth device. “Okay. Don’t freak out for the love of God please. Just repeat after me exactly. Say you’ll be better off without me.”

Chloe nodded and turned back to Alya. “I figured we’d be better off without me.”

Alya frowned. “What?”

“No, not without you!” Adrien sighed, smacking his forehead. “Without me . Adrien me!”

Chloe shook her head. “Him!” she said too loudly. “Him! Better off without him! Haha. Ha. You know, because why would you be better off without me, I mean, I’m literally amazing company, am I right?”

Alya nodded slowly. “...right.”

Adrien groaned. “Chloe, you’re killing me.”

“Shut up darling, I’m fixing it,” Chloe hissed into her own earpiece. She cleared her throat and gave a fake smile. “I mean, Adrien was never really a fan of museums all that much,” she explained. “Silly little thing never did appreciate that sort of thing when we were growing up. But...I still wanted to see it. And I guess, if you wanted to see it we can just. Go. Now I mean. We don’t really need to wait around for him to go inside and check out the exhibit really quick.”

“Yes we do you ignoramus!” Marinette shouted into the earpiece. “Why is she here? Where is the love of your life?”

Alya turned her head and hissed into her bluetooth. “Marinette, would you chill the hell out?”

Chloe scowled and placed a hand on her chest. “Excuse me?”

“I, uh….I said maybe we could just chill out,” Alya amended. “He said he’d come with us to go check it out, so we can just wait around for him until he comes.”

“Tell her that you just want to spend some time alone with her,” Adrien instructed.

Chloe widened her eyes. “I’m not telling her that,” she hissed.

“What? Yes you are, just say it.”

“No. That’s corny. And humiliating. I’m not saying it.”

“Chloe you’re trying to hit on her, will you just tell her?”

“I’m not going to freakin’ say it!”

“Do you need a minute?” Alya asked in confusion. “You look like you’re having an episode.”

“No!” Chloe said loudly, pointing at Alya’s face as she said. “I mean. No, uh. We can. Just wait here for him. I guess. That’s fine.”

“What are you talking about?” Adrien exclaimed. “Don’t wait around for me. I’m not coming!”

Alya shrugged. “Okay. I guess you can sit while we wait.”

“Er, thanks,” Chloe muttered, sitting down at the fountain a whole meter away from Alya and quickly pulling out her phone to fill up the time.

Adrien banged his forehead against the pillar. “Chloe, what are you doing?”

Marinette slid down to the floor and leaned her chin in her hand. “This isn’t going to end well.”

After half an hour had gone by, the unspoken had become incredibly obvious.

“Adrien’s sure taking his time, huh?” Alya asked, back to Chloe and not bothering to look up from her phone.

“How should I know?” Chloe snapped back. “I’m not his keeper. I have no idea where he is. It’s not like this is my fault.”

Alya snorted. “Let me guess. You convinced him not to show up, so he’s not coming, and this is just some stupid elaborate prank set up so that you can embarrass me and film it for the whole world to see. Clever. Cute, even. But you’re a brat if that’s what you’re up to, so if I’m right you’ll at least have the decency to let me walk away and not waste the rest of my day.”

Chloe bit her lip and dared a peek over her shoulder, Alya’s disappointed tone making her chest ache with a small twinge of guilt.

“Chloe?” Adrien prompted. “Listen. Repeat after me exactly. There’s no joke. I’m not trying to embarrass you. I just wanted the chance to tell you something important.”

Chloe gulped in a lungful of air and turned around to face Alya. “There’s no joke,” she said quietly. “I….I’m not trying to embarrass you. I just wanted the chance to tell you something important.”

Alya raised a brow as she turned around. “Tell me something important? That’s new for you.”

“Oh shut up,” Chloe snapped. “I know we don’t get along, but I’m trying here okay? Just give me a second.”

Alya’s expression softened as she pocketed her phone and folded her hands in her lap. “Alright. You’ve got my attention. What is it you want to tell me?”

“I wanted to tell you that I really like you, Alya,” Adrien breathed out with a smile.

Chloe bit down on her lip. “I wanted to tell you that….” She swallowed and hesitated against the words that were caught just at the back of her throat. “I….really really like this girl and I don’t know how to tell her.”

“Chloe!” Adrien exclaimed. “What are you doing!?”

Alya blinked in surprise. “A girl? Like one that’s not Ladybug?”

Chloe dropped her head in her lap and laced her fingers on the back of her neck. “This is so humiliating.”

“Hey, hey, I’m not going to make fun of you for this or anything,” Alya soothed, scooting closer to her. “But why are you asking me?”

Chloe shrugged her shoulders. “You know who she is. I figured you were the best person to go to. I don’t think she likes me very much.”

“No offense, no one really likes you all that much.”

“Oh screw you, you brat!”

Alya lifted her hands. “Sorry, sorry. Okay. That was uncalled for. Ugh, okay, usually I’m against helping someone like you on principle. But….I can’t say no to a girl trying to confess to another girl so I guess I can help you out.”

Chloe peeked out from between her fingers. “Really?”

Alya snorted. “Look, I’m as surprised as you are. But, I’m willing to call a temporary truce if it means getting two girls together. I like girls too, so it’s a weakness of mine.”

Chloe sighed in relief. “Alright. I can handle a temporary truce I guess. So long as we go right back to hating each other when this is over.”

“Hey, you don’t have to tell me twice.”

Marinette snickered into her earpiece. “You calling a truce with Chloe to help her confess to another girl because you have a weakness for it? Oh my God, this is definitely a satisfying plot twist. I can’t wait to hear how this is going to play out.”

Alya frowned. “I can’t wait to hear you shush for two seconds!”

“Sorry?”

“Er,” Alya mumbled. “I said that I can’t wait to hear about this girl. You said I know her. Is she in our class?”

Adrien tapped on his mic to get Chloe’s attention. “Tell her it’s you!”

Chloe played with the hair at the end of your braid. “It’s, um….it’s….”

Alya smirked. “Yeah?”

Chloe bit down on her lip, felt her cheeks start to grow warm, and said the first thing that came into her head. “It’s your best friend Marinette!”

Adrien’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“Holy shit, what?” Alya laughed.

“What the fuck?!” Marinette screeched.

“You’ve been crushing on Marinette this entire time?” Alya asked with a laugh. “Oh my God, this is the best moment of my entire life.”

“What the ever loving hell are you doing!? ” Marinette practically screamed. “This is horrible! Stop encouraging this!”

Chloe laughed nervously. “Ahaha….ah, yeah. Marinette. Yup. Totally.”

“I’ll admit, this is a challenge,” Alya said, drumming her fingers against her chin. “You’re not very nice to her and I don’t think she’s too keen on warming up to you because of that. But if you’re serious about this, this is definitely doable. A little finagling, some clever nudging, a few cleverly placed situations, and this is a for sure slam dunk. I can try and set up a date for you guys if you want.”

“NO!” Marinette shouted, loud enough that Alya almost heard it from across the courtyard. “Are you crazy!? You didn’t even ask me first! She’s a horrifying little brat who’d rather see me crushed under her heel than on a date with her. No. End of discussion. This is not happening. Cancelled.”

“Aw come on babe,” Alya whispered. “She’s a nightmare, but she’s pretty. If anyone can whip her into shape for you it’s me.”

“Why do you keep muttering to yourself like that? What are you saying?”

“I was just saying that Marinette’s pretty!” Alya corrected. “And it would be pretty easy to whip up an excuse for the two of you to hang out.”

“I’m literally going to kill you!” Marinette said through gritted teeth. “This date with Chloe is not happening don’t you even dare try it!”

“Chloe, what on Earth did you just get yourself into?” Adrien bemoaned. “I don’t know how to get you out of this! What kind of hole did you just dig for yourself, you literally just had to say exactly what I told you!”

Chloe rolled her eyes, and subtly pulled her earpiece out of her ear. “You seem like a meddler so I’m not surprised.”

“It’s one of my many talents,” Alya grinned, also taking her earpiece out and stuffing it into her pocket. “Still wanna see the exhibit? Should give us plenty of time to plan out our next movie with Marinette. Wow, I still can’t believe this is actually happening.”

Chloe shrugged, figuring that this was about the closest she was going to get to spending an afternoon with Alya, even if she accidentally signed herself up with a date with Marinette instead in exchange. “You’re way too excited about this. It’s kind of creepy.”

“You better shut up if you want my help, you little monster.”

“Wait, wait, wait, explain to me again how you managed this?” Nino asked.

“I don’t know man it was actually really bizarre,” Alya admitted, the two of them sitting on the steps of the courtyard two days later. “After we left the museum, I called my mom and she was totally down to open the hotel restaurant early the next evening so long as the Mayor was okay with it, and of course Chloe can get her father to do anything if she begs for it hard enough. So, bam! Private dinner at Le Grand Paris.”

“Did the two of them actually show up last night?”

“I mean, I walked Marinette there and everything. She looked super cute, but I think she hates me now,” Alya chuckled. “God, she kept saying she was going to maim me the whole way there. But she did get all dolled up for it so at least she put up an effort.”

“And Chloe?”

“Yup. Waiting for her by the door and everything.”

Nino sighed out in disbelief. “Dude. Don’t get me wrong. That’s artistry. Like actually. But that’s kind of intense to just spring a date like that on her without asking her first. You should at least apologize.”

“It couldn’t have been that bad, could it?” Alya wondered.

“I mean, who knows. I personally think they killed each other last night. But no matter what I think you should at least say sorry for going over her head about it.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Alya decided. “Not often I get to work my matchmaking powers I guess, so I got a little carried away. I hope she’s not super upset.”

Nino nudged Alya in the side and pointed towards the entrance to the school. “Well, here’s your moment of truth. There goes Marinette right now.”

Alya turned to see Marinette skipping up the steps of the school and laughing over a beauty magazine that Alya knew she always picked up from the newsstand on Wednesdays. But what she wasn’t expecting was for Chloe to be linking arms with Marinette and cackling at the same page Marinette was staring at, leaning on her for support as they gossiped over the article. Marinette flipped two pages back and leaned up on her toes to whisper something into Chloe’s ear that had her gasping and playfully smacking Marinette on the shoulder while Marinette stuck her tongue out at her.

Nino couldn’t keep his eyes off of the scene as he slowly leaned over to mutter, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“The two of them actually getting along?” Alya answered. “Yeah. I’m seeing it.”

“Dude, what kind of black magic did you pull?”

“I don’t know!”

“You’re absolutely awful,” Chloe chuckled as the two of them walked closer to Alya and Nino. “But seriously, if you have that palette let me know how you like it. I don’t know if I want to buy it just yet.”

“I’ll test it out for a week to let you know. But I’m wearing the blushed nudes right now and I really like them.” Marinette shut her eyes and lifted her chin. “See?”

Chloe hummed. “Huh. That eyeshadow looks good on you.”

“Thanks,” Marinette smiled. “You should try the naked colors. The browns and tans would look really good with your skin tone.”

“Worth a try,” Chloe shrugged. “I’m getting tired of these blues and greens. I’m in the mood for a change.”

“Uh,” Alya spoke up. “Hey you two.”

“Oh, hey Alya!” Marinette grinned happily. “Chloe and I were just chatting makeup. By the way, she swears by that eye primer I was telling you about.”

“Magic in a bottle,” Chloe promised. “I don’t leave the house without it on.”

“What’s the miracle the two of you are getting along all of a sudden?” Nino questioned. “You two are usually at each other’s throats before noon.”

“Well, this one sent us on a date last night for close to two hours,” Marinette said, jutting her thumb in Alya’s direction. “Turns out when you get past the brattiness and the ego, the two of us actually have a lot in common.”

Chloe rolled her eyes, but kept a small smile on her face. “Gee thanks, brat,” she muttered. She turned to Alya. “But yeah. Remember that girl I told you I had a crush on. I lied. It was actually you.”

Alya blinked and leaned back in shock. “Wait, for real?”

“Yeah, I’m as embarrassed about it as you are,” Chloe shrugged. “But I guess I only thought I had a crush on you. Turns out after an evening alone with this one — ”

“Hey now,” Marinette interrupted, poking Chloe in the cheek. “You don’t have to gossip about everything.”

Chloe snorted. “Hey, they’re your friends. If you want to keep the suspense up a little bit, be my guest.”

“Here’s the funniest part,” Marinette smirked. “Turns out Adrien was like a stone’s throw away coaching Chloe through that entire afternoon at the Louvre.”

“Wait a minute. Adrien was there?” Alya exclaimed.

“Yeah. Crazy, right?”

Chloe leaned her elbow on Marinette’s shoulder and sent a wink in Alya’s direction. “So Marinette here tells me that you have a crush on some guy.”

Alya’s face fell. “You didn’t….”

“I didn’t say anything!” Marinette insisted, grabbing both of ALya’s hands and pressing a kiss to the backs of them. “Promise! You know, because, I don’t go and make decisions on behalf of other people. Cough, cough, hint, hint.”

“I’m sorry,” Alya deflated slightly. “I’ll cool it next time.”

“You know,” Chloe pondered. “If you really wanted help, I could totally make it happen. You’re not the only one with impressive matchmaking powers.”

Marinette stomped on Chloe’s foot and Chloe immediately backtracked. “Of course that would mean I knew who the guy was! Which I don’t! Because, that would be ridiculous. Because I don’t know who they are.”

“Would you shut up?” Marinette hissed.

“Ugh, fine fine! Forget I said anything.” Chloe crossed her arms and stared at the ceiling. “But, if you wanted to hypothetically make it happen, just give me a call.”

“Chloe! Shut up!”

“ Alright!” Chloe exclaimed. “Anyway, I guess we’ll see the two of you in class. We both forgot to do our maths homework so we’re going to cram before class.”

“Bye Alya,” Marinette waved. “We’ll chat later.”

The two girls scurried off behind them, muttering animatedly in between themselves too quietly for Alya or Nino to hear. Nino scratched the back of his head. “You don’t think that the two of them are….?”

“No,” Alya insisted. “....I mean. I don’t think so. Do you?”

“I dunno, they’re looking a little chummy. Kind of a quick turn around for those two, huh?”

Alya chewed on the inside of her cheek and whispered in Nino’s ear. “Down to spy on them studying in the library?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

#miraculous ladybug #outsidethelovesquare #chlonette #alyadrien #chlolya #chloenette #chloe bourgeois #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #chlonette fanfiction #alyadrien fanfiction #chlolya fanfiction #miraculous ladybug fanfiction #my writing #week 2 #scene rewrite #good old fashioned meddling

202 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Photo

Art by Twin Doodles

Ao3

FF.net

In which we pause to reflect, and then start to go completely beeserk.

Warning: This chapter contains scenes of character death and blatant homophobia.

To read please click on the links above, and don’t forget to comment or leave Kudos if you like to story.

#Chlolya #chloe bourgeois #alya cesaire #Writing #Fanfiction #Sorry for the long wait again

17 notes · View notes

asexualtuckerfoley · 8 years ago

Photo

I’m ML and polyshipping trash, so I’m writing a fic where Adrien, Alya, Marinette, Nino, and Chloé are all in a relationship together and have kids. Who is whose kid, I’ll leave you to figure it out.

14 notes · View notes

astrangetypeofchemistry · 8 years ago

Text

Femslash February: Day 2 - Asleep

Masterpost

Find it on AO3

Here’s the prompts if you’re interested.

Bury Me In Your Arms And Give Me Peace

Chloè looked adorable with her face smushed onto the marble counter, Alya noted with amusement.

She’d come over to drop off a box full of Nino’s things, unappreciative of the way they had been crowding her room. They’d broken up months ago, dammit, and there was no way she was letting anyone have a reason to assume she was still hung up on him. She was well moved on, thank you very much.

Soe she’d walked over here, knowing this was the best time if she didn’t want to catch Nino, letting herself in with the key she still hadn’t returned to him. She knew Adrien had moved in a few weeks ago, and if her memory served her well, Marinette had been pouty about Chloè hogging all of Adrien’s free time.

Of course, it’s not like Alya particularly thought it would concern her, so she hadn’t anticipated that she would run into Chloè.

Or that the blonde would be asleep.

Or that she would look so c u t e.

Her hair was a mess, face bare of any makeup, and, if Alya’s vision served her well, the clothes she was wearing were definitely some of Adrien’s older ones.

If the implication that Chloè was having problems with her father was any true, sleeping in uncomfortable positions probably wasn’t going to help her any, and Alya vowed to helped her move into a more lounge-worthy posture. She did owe Chloè for a prior favor.

She was ready to finally book the hell out of there when she managed to finally lay Chloè down on what was definitely a new bed, only facing a small, teensy, minor problem: Chloè’s hand had grasped onto her wrist.

She had a pretty tight grip, Alya marvelled, but at that point it was more of a pain in the ass than anything. She needed to go, before Nino walked in and realized she’d returned all his stuff. The breakup was amicable, sure, but to awkwardly remind your friend about the failed relationship that hung between you was just. Uncomfortable for all parties involved.

But, with Alya’s luck, Chloè’s death grip on her wrist was nowhere close to letting up, and now she’d taken to mumbling “Don’t go.” And just. Alya’s entire week has been hell. Heck, her year has been hell. A relationship she’d had for years just came to an end, and she’s stressed from all the work that’s been piling up, causing her to be too busy to even hang out with friends and family.

Now she’s standing here, with her somewhat friend begging her to stay. Frankly, Alya would like to divulge in this somewhat selfish act of sleeping during the day as well.

She laid down on the large bed, facing Chloè and scooting closer so her arm wouldn’t tire. In only took a moment, with the sunlight streaming into the room and Chloè’s vanilla scent, to finally fall asleep.

Even when she woke up hours later to Chloè screaming in her face, Alya still felt more at peace than she had locked away in her home.

#Femslash February 2017 #Miraculous Ladybug FanFiction #my writing #alya cesaire #Chloè bourgeois #chlolya

3 notes · View notes

leisey · 6 years ago

Text

Ship Game

I was tagged by @crzangel and @livinglittlelie. Thanks, guys! Challenge accepted!

first ship you ever read fic for: Hmmm...Pretty sure it was Kataang. A:TLA was the first fandom I read fanfiction for.

first ship you ever wrote fic for: I can’t remember if I wrote any fanfics before this, but my first published one was an Eleventh Doctor/River Song fic.

ship you write the most now: Tododeku owns my life.

ship you read the most now: Tododeku and—over the past few days—I’ve been binge reading Victuuri.

newest ship: Oh jeez, um...oh! My newest one is Bong-soon and Min-hyuk from Strong Woman Do Bong-soon! You can literally see Min-hyuk falling in love on the screen and I am living for it.

rare ship you want to read more of: Give me some good Chlolya fics, please.

your taboo ship: I don’t have one?

they never met in canon ship: Again, I don’t have one. I need characters to interact in order to ship it.

your unexpected ship: Really didn’t expect to ship Tododeku quite this hard, but season two just hit me in the face with feels.

the ship you always forget to give love to: The Doctor/River Song, or Merlin/Morgana.

ship your OC with a canon character (if applicable): I don’t have any OC’s, sorry fam.

a ship you’re embarrassed to ship: I’m not embarrassed to ship anything. If it’s written well—be it canon or fanfic—I’ll ship it.

your most romantic ship: oh jeez, um...Victuuri?

your sexiest ship: All ships can be sexy.

your most tragic ship: The Dotor/River Song.

a ship you want more content for: liteRALLY EVERYTHING. GIVE ME ALL THE CONTENT

I’ll tag my wifey again, @bumfuzzled-buttercup but anyone can do this if they want. It was fun.

#leisey writes stuff

2 notes · View notes

skaylanphear · 8 years ago

Note

Hey, so I've noticed that you are active in fandoms that are popular for its ships. I was wondering, is there a "type" of ship that you enjoy most seeing in media or a ship just in general that catches your attention? I would like to hear your thoughts on positive and negative shippings that you see. (I'm sorry if this is worded weirdly).

Ehhhhhh, I dunno, lol. I mean, I think that–to a certain extent–shipping exists in any popular fandom (and unpopular ones). But, like, Miraculous literally has a relationship, or potential relationship, at the center of it, so it’s no surprise shipping is center in the fandom. And Voltron is just filled with so many shippable characters that it’s going to have a lot of ship stuff going on (which has apparently manifested negatively in this case, unfortunately). I mean, shipping is a huge part of fandom culture for a lot of reasons anyway, so that’s going to be a predominant feature to begin with. Like, you don’t have to ship things in a fandom, but a LOT of people do and so content that contains ships is going to be more popular.

That aside, most of the ships I write about have some kind of basis in canon interactions. Or potential canon interactions. I ship the lovesquare because there’s so much backing it in the canon that I can trace my own stories back to it. I write about Klance because every interaction they have in the canon is dramatic and attention-drawing. Be it negative or positive, Keith and Lance have chemistry and it’s exciting. I like exciting romances if they’re going to be in a narrative. If it’s not going to be exciting and entertaining, I don’t care to create for it. I’d rather put my focus on the plot, etc. This is why I don’t write Shallura. I love Shallura, but it’s the kind of relationship that would form slowly over the time of a bigger narrative, imo. If I were to write Shallura, it would have to be some kind of dramatic AU (like teacher/student) to create tension. Klance is FULL of tension and suspense and dramatics. So too is the love square. So is Destiel. So is Spirk. That’s just where my interests lie.

Like, I can enjoy the idea of Sheith and Hance and Alyanette and Adrinino, but based on the canon, those ships lack the tension that I like and so I don’t have much interest in writing them. Korrasami is the same way. I love Korrasami, but it’s… boring to me, from a creative standpoint. I think it’s very healthy and I love that they’re together, but I have no interest in writing about it. Just like I have no interest in writing about Kataang. Or, say, for Shingeki no Kyojin, I’ve written Ereri, but only in AUs because I like how the characters interact in canon, but in order for me to see a plausible ship, it has to be removed from the canon (which means that I don’t actually ship it). But, like, Jean and Mikasa? Sign me the fuck up, I love that ship in the canon.

It’s part of the reason I love Chlolya (Alya and Chloe). It’s got the same dramatics as Mari and Chloe, but seems more plausible in the canon because Adrien isn’t there to get in the way. I don’t like ships that are too soft, that are too easy. Like, when I look at Sheith or Hance, it’s too nice to interest me in relation to canon (I like these ships, I just don’t create for them). Just like Shallura, which is, again, why I don’t write it. If I’m going to create content, I want the characters I write about to work for it.

Which is part of the reason I find reading fanfiction so boring. This isn’t to say anything negative about fanfiction, but I rarely come across fics that present the kind of conflict I write about. Again, there are some–I’m not saying there’s not–but that tends to be something some fanfic writers actively avoid. And I mean that for angst and fluff. You can write angst and be miserable, but if it doesn’t cause conflict, it’s not exciting. There’s a reason why in ACC I write Lance as being as difficult as he is versus him just giving in and letting Keith help him. One, it’s more realistic, but two, it creates tension and conflict.

I don’t know why fanfic writers are afraid of these things–if maybe it’s because fanfic is a place people find solace away from conflict–but that’s not what I’m interested in, personally. Which plays a role in what ships I write about. I want exciting ships and ships that interact in an interesting way in the canon. That’s why I love Ichiruki and loath Ichihime (one of the few ships I really do actually actively dislike, sorry).

As far as being active in fandoms that are popular for their ships? Well, again, I think any fandom has popular ships, but writing in a fandom that’s popular in general means more feedback. I’d love to write an epic for Spirk in Star Trek, but it’s not going to get enough attention to justify it. Sure, write for you and write what you enjoy, but I write so much and have so many stories planned that I have to prioritize based on what I’m going to gain from each endeavor. Writing Miraculous and Voltron gets me a lot of feedback. And seeing as I’m not getting paid to write fic, I want the attention instead *shrugs*

The thing is, if you can get into a popular fandom and gather a fanbase, that gives you more freedom to act freely in other respects. I can create original storylines and characters in SF because I’ve paid my dues and worked my ass off to get where I am. It’d be nice if it wasn’t that way, but it is. What I’m writing in Voltron isn’t some willy-nilly decision that I made out of nowhere.

I’m going to point out some similarities for you:

My Last Thoughts are of You was the first story I wrote for Miraculous, whereas Running Flat was the first short story I finished in Voltron. Both center on a ship and both have dramatic, yet short storylines. This is a way of introducing readers to me as an author without being overwhelming. It’s a way to test the waters with me before they decide to give a longer story a chance.

In Miraculous I then wrote One Thing After Another as a character study and precursor to Serendipitous Fate. This was a long fic that would introduce readers more thoroughly to me as an author and give them more than just a short fic to affiliate with me. In this way, they remember me now, because there was a fic that had a big impact on them. It also means that when I drop a bomb like SF that is super plot heavy and not your usual fic–it’s more like an original work than a traditional fic–I have a fanbase that is willing to read it. Because, let’s be frank, a story like SF on it’s own without my reputation to back it up isn’t going to be popular from the get-go. Look at it in comparison to Pick-Up and Chase. SF, despite how popular it is now, had to work it’s way chapter by chapter to get there. Pick-Up and Chase, which lacks the depth, work, and literary intension that SF has–was popular from the get-go. But I hated writing it. It was fun at first, but that’s not what I’m truly interested in writing. If I hadn’t established myself with One Thing After Another and My Last Thoughts are of You, SF wouldn’t be as popular as it is. It’s a kind of advertising.

And it’s what I’m currently doing in the Voltron fandom. A Commutual Contract is the equivalent of One Thing After Another in my Miraculous works. I’m writing it not only as a character study, but to draw in readers so they can have a piece with which to recognize me as a credible author, so that when I drop my Voltron epic, people will actually fucking read it. I have a Voltron fic outlined that is the equivalent of SF. It’s called Voltron: To The End and it’ll be roughly 48 chapters. But writing it now wouldn’t be advantageous because I’m not popular enough to justify putting that much work into something. Why should I when I could write an original novel instead? I need incentive. I may even have to write another longer Voltron fic before the epic because I’m not sure ACC is getting enough attention in a fandom that is so massive.

And I’m not saying that writing about rare-pairs or unpopular pairings is a waste of time–it’s not. You do you and create what makes you happy. But to someone who writes as much as I do, I have to make decisions and cuts based on what I’m going to get back. And since fanfic doesn’t pay money, I want that payment in another form, and that’s readers. I want people to read my stuff, so even though I want to write a Shallura teacher/student AU, I’m gonna focus on A Commutual Contract because I think I’ll get more out of it and I’ll likely get equal amounts of enjoyment either way.

I am overflowing with ideas ALL THE TIME! I will literally be dead before I can write them all down. So yeah, when I have dozens of ships spread out before me that I like, I’ma choose to write about the popular ones because it’s gonna get me more satisfaction. And I like to be happy. It’s healthier for me. I like to feel like what I’m writing is getting to people. Because if my fanfic isn’t getting attention, then I’m gonna go write an original novel instead (I should do that anyway, tbh) and try to get that published.

If I’m gonna work my ass off as much as I do, then I want it to be worth my time. And I’ll take messages and comments and nice readers over money if it’s satisfying to me. But that also means I have to prioritize what I write and why I’m writing it. That’s sometimes why I’ll release outlines and never write the fics. I’m never gonna write that Voltron/Avatar fic–I don’t have time. But it does exist in my head, lol.

Hope that answers your question, friend. Sorry it got so long, but people are always asking me about my process, so here’s some of it ;D

#skaylanphear replies #abby-6-stuff

65 notes · View notes

livinglittlelie · 6 years ago

Text

Ship Game

I was tagged by @crzangel! So, let’s do this!

first ship you ever read fic for: Pretty sure it was a Johnlock, back when the superwholock stuff was the shit.

first ship you ever wrote fic for:��I started writing fanfiction even before I knew what writing fanfiction was. I started, like 10 years ago writing about anime stories I liked with my OCs. I still have some sketches scattered around.

ship you write the most now: Tododeku for now

ship you read the most now: Nowadays I have a soft spot for Klance

newest ship: mmm, it’s not like, hardcore shipping, but I started watching Darning in the FranXX yesterday and the main characters look very cute together (Basically I’m in love with Zero Two don’t mind me)

rare ship you want to read more of: I’m looking for more well-written Chlolya fics. Please DM me if you have some.

your taboo ship: All my ships deserve all the love and respect of the world.

they never met in canon ship: I don’t really have one. I usually need to see them interact to ship them, and stuff.

your unexpected ship: Actually I didn’t expect to ship Tododeku. I remember finishing S1 of BNHA and going to AO3 to look for fics, and I remember seeing all those tododeku fics. I remember being all ????? who the hell is this Todoroki guy and why do they ship him with Izuku? Then I watched S2 and I understood.

the ship you always forget to give love to: The Doctor x Rose will always have a spot in my heart.

ship your OC with a canon character (if applicable): I ship one of my OCs with Osamu Dazai from Bungou Stray Dogs. He’s such a complex character, I love him so much.

a ship you’re embarrassed to ship: As I said above, all ships deserve all the love and respect of the world. You’re not going to find any ship bashing and ship hate in here, my dudes.

your most romantic ship: oof, such a difficult question. I think everyone can be romantic in their own way. But I guess Viktuuri is the most showy of them all.

your sexiest ship: All ships can be sexy.

your most tragic ship: Todoroki Shouto/Not getting the love he deserves.

a ship you want more content for: look,,,,,, I want more content of E V E R Y T H I N G. I’m not picky

Ps everyone has been tagged already, but I guess I’ll tag @khaleiseyand @bumfuzzled-buttercup, and well, whoever that wants to do this!

#me stuff #tagged questions

0 notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Chloé Bourgeois/Alya Césaire Characters: Alya Césaire, Chloé Bourgeois, Volpina (Miraculous Ladybug) Additional Tags: Character from the Future, Implied Time Travel Summary:

Alya's only had her miraculous for a short time. But when danger strikes, there's already a fox superheroine to the rescue. And she looks surprisingly like Alya... and Chloé's definitely into her.

Short and sweet, perfect Royalfox Quick fic. ;)

#RoyalFox #Chlolya #chloe bourgeois #alya cesaire #Fanfiction #Awesome #great job!

18 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Photo

Art by Twin Doodles

Ao3

FF.net

In which the Volpina is optimistic, Queen Bee looks at the big picture, and sometimes you just gotta roll with it.

When it came to being rescued and swept off her feet, Chloe was an expert.

At the top of the list of course, was Ladybug. Absolutely nobody rescued her like Ladybug did. The strength, the safety, the certainty that everything was going to be all right the moment she was swept up in those strong red and black arms; Ladybug could rescue the world’s most rabid dog, and it would become completely docile the moment she picked it up.

Next on the list was Serge, though it had been years since he had actually carried Chloe anywhere. When she was a kid, Serge was always the one to pick her up and carry her home when she stayed late at the Agreste mansion. Actually, Aunt Sophia was always the one who picked her up, but it was always to hug her goodnight and give her back to Serge. She couldn’t count the number of times she had fallen asleep with her cheek on his shoulder.

Chat Noir had never been particularly high on the list. Knowing who he was now elevated him a little bit, but when he carried her to safety, it was just to get her to safety; there was no charm or elegance to it. If ladybug was a lavish limousine, and Serge was a long used family car, then Chat Noir was a taxi. He got you where you needed to be, but the ride was a bit uncomfortable, and it smelled a little like old cheese.

Volpina however….

“You know, I think that little midair flip at the end might have been a bit unnecessary,” Queen Bee commented as they landed on the rooftop garden of the bakery.

Volpina was a motorcycle. She was wild, exciting, a little scary, and (Queen Bee had to admit,) sexy. There was a fire in her eyes as she ran that made Queen Bee cling to her for dear life. Volpina was going somewhere, and Queen Bee was only along for the ride. Every time they leapt over a gap, Volpina looked down. Not out of fear, but as if she were daring gravity to just try to pull them down to earth. She seemed ready to take on the world if she had to, and have the time of her life doing it. Needless to say, the short trip had taken Queen Bee’s breath away in more ways than one.

She might even have replaced Serge to the number two spot on the list, if Queen Bee wasn’t still a bit hurt and angry with her from earlier.

“Sorry,” Volpina said, smiling and looking only slightly ashamed. “It’s just, moving like that feels so great! Ladybug’s always telling me to take it slow and do things safely, but a superhero’s supposed to have flair, isn’t she?”

Queen Bee rolled her eyes.

“You and Plagg would get along great.”

“Plagg?”

“Chat Noir’s Kwami,” Queen Bee replied quickly, looking around at the roof. “This is… quaint.”

“Yeah, it’s not bad,” Volpina said, missing the subtle sting in Queen Bee’s choice of words. “Hard to imagine there’s an evil Akuma just three stories below. Maybe we got it wrong?”

Volpina looked at her optimistically. Before Queen Bee could do more than raise an eyebrow, there was a loud clattering of bells as the door to the bakery below them was thrown open. They both peeked over the edge and saw a line of gibbering macaroons run out of the bakery and head towards the park.

“So, is constantly putting your foot in your mouth another superpower, or does it just come naturally to you?” Queen Bee asked, watching the freshly baked minions go.

Volpina groaned and grabbed at her face again. Queen Bee smirked in satisfaction before looking over at the park thoughtfully.

“Still, that explains why there always seems to be more of them. The Akuma must be turning them out by the dozen.” She turned back to Volpina. “So, what’s the plan?”

Volpina grumbled and walked over to the trapdoor leading inside.

“We get in, we get the Akuma, and get out,” she said sourly.

She was about to open the trapdoor when Queen Bee grabbed her wrist.

“And we do it very carefully, remember?” she asked.

Volpina looked up at her. Queen Bee looked nervous, but she was trying to hide it. Volpina sighed and then smiled reassuringly, and put her hand over Queen Bee’s.

“Right. Don’t worry, I’m sure this’ll be a piece of cake.”

Queen Bee made a face.

“That is not at all reassuring today.”

Volpina gave her a helpless little shrug, and pulled open the trap door.

As the two of them descended into Marinette’s room, Queen Bee felt her skin crawl. She imagined most people would have the same reaction walking into her penthouse. If there was one person in Paris she hated, and felt completely justified in hating, it was… well it was probably Hawkmoth now that she thought about it. But if there was a second person in Paris she hated and felt completely justified in hating, it was Marinette Dupan-Chang.

Her hatred only grew as she got a good look at the bedroom they were sneaking into. The room was comprised of mainly three things: sewing supplies, pictures of Marinette’s friends and family (several of them just of Adrien,) and the color pink. It was everywhere. The walls were pink, the sofa was pink, the carpet was pink, the air even smelled pink somehow, no doubt due to a flowery pink air freshener hidden in a pink corner somewhere. Queen Bee had to pause on the stairs and spend a few seconds just scowling at the room.

It worked. Though she would never admit it, the slightly varying shades of pink and other colors used sparingly about the room just made it work. Marinette knew how to use a theme, and Queen Bee hated it. It wasn’t right that someone like Marinette had legitimate talent. But then again, her own father was one of the most successful men she knew, next to Uncle Gabriel maybe. It seemed the blacker your heart the more likely you were to succeed in life.

Life sucked.

“Are you okay?”

She blinked and realized she had been lingering in her angry thoughts too long. Volpina was already on the bottom floor of the three tiered room, and was looking up at her with her head slightly cocked to one side. Queen Bee shook her head and continued down too.

“Yeah, I just… Pink’s not my color.”

Not her best lie, but Volpina just pursed her lips and looked around the room.

“Yeah… she’s sure got a thing for it, doesn’t she? Never did get the appeal of it myself. I was always more of a fall colors kind of girl.”

“Pity you shot me down earlier,” Queen Bee said, strolling past her. “Else I’d say how much I’d love to see you in nothing but flesh tones.”

Volpina focused her attention on a nearby sewing machine and bit her lower lip, fighting a smile and trying to keep down a light blush. Queen Bee paused for a moment at the second trap door before turning around to look back at Volpina with a puzzled expression.

“Am I doing that right? Like, I know you’re not interested, but the flirting… Am I doing that right?”

Volpina looked at her blankly. Queen Bee took it as a bad sign, while in reality Volpina’s mind had simply been completely overridden by a single word.

‘Cute.’

“It’s just, I never flirted with a girl before today,” Queen Bee explained, beginning to play with her fingers. “I’ve never honestly flirted with anyone, really. I mean, I know how to flirt of course! But not with someone I actually like. Not that I like you! I mean, I do, but I know that you don’t like me, so I’m not going to, you know… I just, you seem to know how to do it, so if you could give me some pointers or something, that would be… nice.”

She trailed off, still playing with her hands and looking at every part of the room that wasn’t occupied by her partner. Volpina meanwhile was fighting a small war with herself as she resisted the urge to squeal and scoop the nervous girl up so she could start cuddling her again.

After a few deep breaths, and reminding herself that she had already messed up and hurt Queen Bee once already, she decided she could be trusted within arm’s reach of her partner again, and purposefully strode past Queen Bee and over to the second trap door leading down into the main house.

“You’d probably come on a little too strong with a line like that,” she said, pointedly not looking at Queen Bee.

“But, that was still pretty smooth. For a rookie,” she added, looking over her shoulder and giving Queen Bee a small smirk.

Queen Bee beamed at the praise. She did a little arm pump and whispered “yes!” to herself. Volpina could feel her resolve slipping away by the nanosecond, so she quickly looked back down at the trap door and cleared her throat.

“Okay, Dating for Lesbian’s 101 is over for now. Time to focus on the mission.”

“Right,” Queen Bee agreed and gave her a quick salute.

Volpina said a quick prayer to beg the powers that be to give her strength, and the two headed down into the rest of the house.

Truth be told, both of them had half expected the downstairs to have become some impossibly large maze made out of gingerbread or something. Instead, they found a perfectly normal house. Queen Bee guarded the stairs while Volpina did a quick check of the second floor for any clue or hint of the Akuma. She returned giving Queen Bee a disappointed shrug.

They continued down the stairs to the small hallway connecting the house to the bakery, as well as the small side door to the street. From inside the store, they could hear the sounds of a man’s voice talking enthusiastically to himself. Volpina put a hand on the doorknob and looked meaningfully at Queen Bee, putting a finger to her own lips. Queen Bee nodded, and quietly as possible, they pushed open the door.

However, the door had been installed by a complete moron, (most likely the owners, Queen Bee guessed,) because it opened out into the bakery, and away from the interior. Queen Bee was certain that violated at least two safety regulations, as well as plain common sense in design. She cursed silently to herself for leaving her purse back in the nurse’s office, as her hand mirror would have been perfect for peeking around the stupidly designed door. Instead, in order to get a look at anything other than a brick wall, they had to open the door conspicuously wide, and poke their heads around it. They kept low to the ground, trying to preserve what little stealth they could, meaning Queen Bee had to practically lay across Volpina’s back to get a look.

Which led Queen Bee to decide that maybe who ever put in the door wasn’t so stupid after all.

Queen Bee was unable to truly enjoy herself however, partially because pressing her body into someone she knew wasn’t interested was still awkward, (even if they did smell fantastic,) but mostly because of the strange sight that awaited them on the other side of the door.

The store itself was just as it had always been. Fresh bread and pastries lined the shelves, light poured in cheerily from the large windows, the smells of warm baguettes and light fluffy croissants filled the air. The actual baking area however had undergone quite a makeover. Any electric lights inside had been turned off, and several black candles had been lit about the room. The wooden table Tom used to roll out his dough had been converted into a cross between a 17th century alchemical laboratory, and the set of a cooking show.

A cloaked figure stood chanting at the table. In one hand he held a plane looking wooden rolling pin, while in the other he held a large book wrought in a heavy iron frame and lock, making it look like the grimoire of some ancient wizard. The figure himself was large and bulky, and stood behind the table in profile to them. The heavy hood of his dark robes hid his face in shadow, and fortunately also kept them from his peripheral vision. He also wore a small white chefs hat on top of his hood, and a white cotton apron around his waist, which clashed almost comedically with the rest of his dark and mysterious appearance.

“I think we found our Akuma,” Volpina whispered in Queen Bee’s ear.

“Either that, or the Grim Reaper is getting ready for a bake sale,” she whispered back.

They continued to watch as the figure waved the rolling pin over a mixing bowl and chanted phrases like, “One and one fourth cups of dry active yeast, two teaspoons of sugar, a pinch of salt!” then bursting out into a maniacal cackle.

After about two or three of these laugh breaks, the figure finished reading his “incantation,” and the contents of the bowl glowed and swirled up into the air. The bits of various baking components manifested into half a dozen giant croissant soldiers, which stood still and lifeless in front of the cloaked figure. He pointed his rolling pin at them.

“Go my creations! Go see that that detestable taster remains where he is! And make sure Ladybug and Chat Noir are ready to taste my ultimate revenge as well!”

The croissants flew into a frenzy and charged out the door. Well, most of them did; one of the little monsters managed to trip and impale itself on its own spatula on its’ way out. It lay on the ground, completely motionless with the spatula sticking through it as its fellows ran around it and out the door. The last croissant paused next to its fallen comrade, and regarded the spatula for a moment before ripping it out. It held its newly acquired weapon in the air and screamed with delight before following the rest of its troops out the door, wildly swinging both of its weapons in berserk joy as it went.

The girls watched as the hole punched in the fallen croissant began to mend, and a few seconds later the evil edible jerked back to life and leapt to its feet. It looked around for its stolen weapon before running out the door, gibbering furiously and shaking its fist.

“Did you see that?” Volpina whispered again. “That thing was down for the count! They must be weak to their own weapons.”

“Maybe,” Queen Bee whispered back uncertainly. “But remember the ones in the park? They didn’t get up until all of their pieces were in place, remember? I think that the spatula kept it from healing all the way, and that’s why it couldn’t get up. Like those old Christmas lights, the ones where if one bulb died then the whole string went out?”

“This is magical warfare, not party decorations,” Volpina snapped back. “I bet it’s the weapons. It’s more poetic that way.”

“And I say it just has to impale them,” Queen Bee snapped back.

Before they could begin to argue like an old married couple, and likely blow their cover, the front door to the bakery opened with a sad ringing of its abused bell.

“Honey, I’m back! You would not believe the lines at the…”

The door closed behind Sabine Cheng as she stood stalk still at the front of her bakery, holding several large grocery bags. Before her was the recognizable bulk of her husband, standing behind a strange mess of beakers, tubes, and open containers of sugar, looking like he was ready to go to a Halloween party. Off to her left, were the unrecognizable masked faces of two strange girls peeking out from behind the door to her house. All three of them seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see them.

After blinking at the strange scene taking place in her bakery, Sabine simply gave a little shrug and carried on. She walked around the table of culinary alchemy and handed the grocery bags to her Akumatized husband and began digging around in them.

“I got you another bottle of maraschino cherries since you said you were low. Oh, and mixed berries were on sale so I got a few boxes of those. I figured even if you didn’t need them we could always have some with breakfast this week.”

“Excellent,” her husband cackled as she set the ingredients down on the table for him. “These are just what I needed! Soon, my revenge will be complete! That fool Dude Fury will rue the day he crossed THE NECROBA-Oh wait, um… you didn’t happen to pick up some more marshmallow fluff too, did you?”

Sabine held up a jar of it.

“Perfect! Now my revenge will be complete! And that fool Dude Fury will rue the day he crossed THE NECROBAKER!” Tom through back his cloaked head and cackled evilly, still carrying his wife’s grocery bags.

“That’s nice dear,” Sabine said, taking the groceries back. “I’m just going to go upstairs and put this away before the ice cream melts. Have fun enacting your revenge.”

“Thanks Honeybunch!”

The Nekrobaker kissed his wife on the cheek and went back to his evil work. Sabine turned around just in time to see a pair of orange ears and black antennae disappear behind the door. She walked over to it and pulled the door open the rest of the way with her foot. She stepped inside to see the two masked strangers huddled up next to the stairs, looking awkwardly from her to each other.

“Hello girls,” Sabine said after closing the door behind her. “Could one of you please tell me what is going on?”

After introducing themselves as Paris’s newest superhero team, the two of them followed Sabine upstairs and Volpina recapped everything that had happened, as well as what she suspected had happened to turn Tom into and Akuma. As she finished, Sabine went over to the window and looked over at the park swarming with her husband’s handy work.

“That no good scoundrel,” Sabine cursed. “Who does he think he is? Trying to bully money out of people like that; it’s just down right rotten! I’ll tell you one thing for sure, I’m certainly never watching his show again.”

“I doubt that cockroach will even have a show after this,” Volpina said, wickedly. “Once it gets out that he’s been blackmailing the places he reviews, I doubt he’ll be able to get a job on an infomercial.”

“Of course, that’ll also put bad press on anyone he did give a good review too,” Queen Bee interrupted. “If those network affiliates have any brains at all, they’re going to try to twist this around to say that the restaurants offered the bribes to him, and try to sue. Sure, you’ll save the little places like this that couldn’t pay, but what about the ones like Le Grand Paris? If this gets out, Le Grand Paris will get sued for bribery, Chef Cesaire will be made into a scapegoat, and she’ll be fired and blacklisted from every restaurant in Europe, along with every other owner of an establishment that appeared on that show.”

Volpina gaped at Queen Bee as she finished her grim “big picture” analyses of the situation.

“But… No! No, My mo- I mean, Chef Cesaire doesn’t own Le Grand, the Mayor does! He’s the one who will get burned when it comes out that he paid a bribe. Oh, this is going to be perfect.”

Volpina smiled and rubbed her hands together while Queen Bee sighed.

“You said the money to pay Dude Fury’s bribe came out of the Head Chef’s pay, remember? The Mayor didn’t just do that to slight her, he did that so any paper trail for the bribe could be traced back to her. His lawyer’s probably already have an iron clad case written up to peg her for any scandal that pops up. They’re very good at shifting the blame like that.”

Volpina stared at her with her mouth agape, while Queen Bee looked pointedly out the window.

“You girls certainly seem well informed,” Sabine said, looking from one to the other.

They both flinched.

“Uhm, well, er, gotta keep up on current events, you know,” Volpina said crossing her arms and trying to lean casually against the kitchen counter.

“A superhero has to look at the grand scheme of things,” Queen Bee said easily, pretending to admire her nails, despite the fact that she was wearing gloves.

Sabine smiled at them.

“Well, don’t forget, you two have lady luck on your side. Ladybug luck, in fact. As long as you two do the right thing I’m sure it’ll all work out. Although it certainly doesn’t hurt to be prepared…”

Sabine put a finger to her lips and thought for a moment before nodding to herself and heading for the bedroom.

“I’m going to make a few phone calls, could you girls go downstairs and take care of my wayward husband? That cookbook he was holding has been passed down for generations. Just tear it apart and I’m sure you’ll find one of those butterfly things. Oh, and don’t be afraid to be a little ruff with him if you need to,” she added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “Tom used to be quite the rugby player in high school, and anyway he could use the exercise. Have fun!”

And with that, she closed the door to her bedroom and left the two new superheroes staring after her.

“This family is weird, right? It’s not just me?” Queen Bee asked, turning to Volpina.

Volpina just held up her hand and made a little “maybe” gesture.

Back at the bottom of the stairs, Volpina went over her plan with Queen Bee.

“Alright, I’m gonna rush in there and smash up his little laboratory so he can’t make any more of his minions. Then, while he’s distracted with that, I’ll grab the book away from him and run back here. We beat feet upstairs, run back across the rooftops to Ladybug, I throw it down to her, she de-evilizes the Akuma, and mission accomplished!”

“And then Dude Fury causes no end of problems for either the bakery, or La Grand Paris,” Queen Bee deadpanned. “And that’s if your plan doesn’t go catastrophically wrong in any one of a thousand ways I can think of off the top of my head.”

Volpina groaned and ground her teeth.

“Well it’s not like I’m hearing any great plans from you!”

“You didn’t ask. You just started declaring you were going to go in and start smashing stuff and that that would somehow fix everything.”

Volpina glared at her, while Queen Bee crossed her arms and stared back coolly. Volpina’s glare began to falter, and she forced herself to look down at the floor instead, her hands squeezed into trembling fists. Queen Bee sighed and uncrossed her arms. Fighting with her partner wasn’t going to help the situation, and she knew it.

“Look I’m… I’m sorry. I can tell you’re really invested in this for some reason, but your letting your emotions do the thinking, and it’s going to get you or someone else hurt. Or worse, caught and get your miraculous stolen! I don’t want to lose my partner on my first day. I mean, who’d help me find a girlfriend?”

Queen Bee nudged her playfully and forced herself to let out a hollow laugh. Volpina sighed and looked at her, her expression now more ashamed then angry. She turned her head and looked back at the door, pursing her lips at it in thought. After a minute she turned back to Queen Bee.

“So, what do you think we should do?”

Queen Bee frowned and gave the door a distasteful look.

“Personally, I think we should just get out of here and get Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Volpina shook her head.

“I already told you, we can’t let Ladybug know.”

“That’s if she hasn’t figured it out already,” Queen Bee lamented. She sighed and continued. “But, if you insist we have to do this by ourselves, then fine. I think we should try your illusions again. If we can get him out of there, and out in the open, I think we have a much better chance of snagging that book and getting away without him seeing us.”

Volpina thought for a moment and nodded.

“Alright, I think I might be able to make it look like the bakery caught on fire behind him. That should flush him out. But I’ll need to get another look at that room first.”

Queen Bee gave her a thumbs up, and Volpina nodded with a smile. She went over to the door again while Queen Bee hung back; less faces meant less chance of being seen. Volpina cracked open the door and poked her head around. From inside the room came the sound of rushing winds, and the voice of the Nekrobaker screaming over it.

“Rise my ultimate creation! Rise! Rise my Antibug Devil! Rise and crush my enemies like ground nutmeg beneath your-“

Volpina withdrew her head quickly and snapped the door shut. She stood perfectly still for several seconds before turning around to face Queen Bee.

“…So plan C, right?”

Authors Notes:

Regarding the bakery: Yes the door really does open like that in the show. I don’t know why, but it does. It took me forever to work out what the floor plan of Marinette’s house looked like, but near as I can figure it goes bakery on the first floor, house on the second floor, then Marinette’s room, and Marinette’s garden on the roof. I almost ignored the strange design of the door, but making them poke their heads around made it much easier for them to be caught by Sabine.

Originally, I did write it so the house became a giant medieval dungeon that Queen Bee and Volpina had to navigate through, but for reasons that will become clearer in the next chapter, that idea was just too problematic to use now. I also originally wrote Sabine out of the story completely; either by having her locked in one of the dungeons of the transformed house, or just had her out getting groceries the entire time, but then I got the idea of her coming home to find everything gone nuts, and found the idea of her just rolling with it too funny to pass up.

Regarding the Nekrobaker: I had a devil of a time coming up with a suitable name and identity for this first Akuma. The original name I had suggested was Doughmanator, but I just couldn’t make that name work with the concept and scene I had planned.

Regarding feedback: Thank you all so much for your continued comments, reviews, and kudos! They really make this story so much more rewarding to right. I’m doing my best to keep to the weekly upload schedule, and your feedback is what motivates me to stay as consistent as I have been.

#Chlolya #chloe bourgeois #alya cesaire #Queen Bee #Rena Rouge #Volpina #RoyalFox #Fanfiction

23 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Link

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Chloé Bourgeois/Alya Césaire Characters: Chloé Bourgeois, Alya Césaire, Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug), Chat Noir (Miraculous Ladybug) Additional Tags: According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that Chloé would be gay, Chloé of course is gay anyways, In which Chloé has a big fat gal crush, chlolya, ml spoilers Series: Part 1 of I Won't Say I'm in Love Summary:

Chloé was fine. She wasn't totally crushing on Rena Rouge. She was annoying, too cheerful, she gave her awful nicknames all the time, and, of course, she wasn't drop-dead gorgeous. Of course not.

But she did have a crush on her, and Chloé had A Problem TM.

Well this is RoyalFox Fics, so here’s a great RoyalFox Fanfiction for you all to read!

#RoyalFox #Chlolya #chloe burgeois #alya cesaire #fanfiction #Great job!#You all should read this #Right now!

14 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Photo

Art by Twin Doodles

Ao3

FF.net

In which our heroes are having a crumby day, it’s all some Dude’s fault, and the fox stings the bee.

“Probably not good!?”

Queen Bee gaped at Volpina, and the other girl shifted awkwardly.

“Well, I mean… It might not be as bad as it looks.”

Queen Bee looked back down at the very bad looking situation in the park. Chat Noir and Ladybug hadn’t been exactly successful in their rescue attempt. In fact, all of the hostages were still hostages, and both of the heroes were struggling to get free from a moderately sized army of possessed pastries, while more of the evil minions began erecting two more sacrificial pretzel stick posts for them. Oddly enough, there also seemed to be a lot more of the evil edibles then there had been before.

Queen Bee looked back at her partner as if to ask, ‘how?’

“It’s Ladybug!” Volpina insisted. “Ladybug always has a plan. Besides, if they were in any real trouble she’d be using her Lucky Charm right about now.”

“Lucky Chmmhmm!”

They looked back down to see a giant sugar cookie stuffing a wad of wax paper into Ladybug’s mouth to gag her, as the rest of the minions held her down and tossed away her yoyo.

“I’m failing to see the part where we’re not all doomed,” Queen Bee said flatly.

Volpina grabbed at her own face and groaned.

“I don’t get it! How could this have happened? They were wiping the floor with those things earlier, they should be nothing but crumbs by now! How can they be winning?”

“Look!”

Queen Bee grabbed her arm and pointed down to the broken remains of a gingerbread man Ladybug had just managed to kick off and sent flying into the trunk of a tree. The gingerbread man had shattered into a dozen pieces, but it didn’t stay that way for long. The pieces began to wriggle and hop their way back together like a squirming jigsaw puzzle. When the last crumb had climbed back into place, the gingerbread man sprang to life again, picked up its’ rubber spatula, and charged back into the brawl without a moment’s hesitation.

“Oh, that’s just not fair!”

Volpina was beside herself with outrage, while Queen Bee just sighed and shook her head.

“That’s why they picked two new superheroes,” she said, gesturing at another pastry as it pulled itself together after being smashed. “The Akumas are getting stronger. And smarter! The minions have nearly captured the dynamic duo, but there’s still no sign of where the actual Akuma is! This is worse than that ‘Puppeteer’ Akuma I read about.”

“Don’t remind me,” Volpina mumbled under her breath. “But you’re right. And we have another problem, have you noticed there are more of them too? Are they regenerating and reproducing?”

“I don’t know, but does it matter right now? Ladybug and Chat Noir are way out numbered either way, I can’t even get off this roof by myself, and you… you…” Queen Bee trailed off, her eyes looking from Volpina to her flute.

Volpina arched an eyebrow.

“…me?”

“You… Wonderful superhero you!” Queen Bee’s face lit up and she beamed at Volpina. “You’re a one-woman army! All you have to do is make a bunch of Ladybugs and Chat Noirs to even the odds!”

Volpina frowned.

“Sorry, but I only know how to make illusions right now.”

She put her flute to her lips and blew a quick tune and created a perfect copy of Ladybug standing next to them, smiling, but still as a statue.

“They look real, and they even sound real, but,”

She waved her staff through the double and it evaporated into shimmering smoke.

“If they touch anything solid the illusion is broken and they disappear. Even pigeons will break them. Especially pigeons actually,” she growled, tightening her grip on her staff and baring her teeth.

Queen Bee guessed there was an amusing story behind that, but it would have to wait.

“Okay, so… you can make illusions. You said that was all you can do now. Do you have other powers?”

“Yeah, but Ladybug won’t let Trixx tell me! She said I’m not ready for my superpower yet! She only let her teach me how to foxwalk yesterday!”

“Foxwalk? Okay, well, could that power help?” Queen Bee asked, glancing back down at the park below.

Volpina’s head drooped miserably.

“Probably not, it just helps me get around…”

Queen Bee frowned. She cupped Volpina’s face and tilted it up to look at her.

“Focus Foxy. They’ve almost got Chat Noir tied up and they’ll have Ladybug soon too. Now think. Your illusions can’t touch anything right? So we’ll… we’ll scare them! We’ll make an illusion that will send them into a panic so Ladybug can get free!”

Volpina’s face lit up and she put her hands over Queen Bee’s.

“That’s it! Only… what scare’s a giant evil cookie?”

They thought together for a moment until the answer struck them both at the same time.

“MILK!”

They hurried over the edge and skidded to a halt.

“Okay, there’s a bunch of stuff in the way, but it’s stationary so I should be able to make the illusion go around everything without breaking. Provided there are no pigeons hiding anywhere…”

As Volpina began quickly judging distances and terrain, Queen Bee started nearly dancing with nervousness as she watched a demented cupcake tightened the ropes (of thick fruit leather?) holding Chat Noir’s arms to the posts.

“Hurry uuuuup,” she whined, but Volpina didn’t seem to hear her.

“Okay, visualize the illusion. See it in your mind,” Volpina said to herself. “The milk comes out of the buildings, through the gate, around the fountain, and… Crap! It’s not gonna work!”

“What? Why not?”

Queen Bee tore her gaze away from Chat Noir, who was now attempting to eat the ropes holding him, to look at Volpina as she groaned and pointed at the farthest group of evil pastries with her flute.

“That’s why not. As soon as my illusion hits even one of those stupid éclair dog things, the whole thing will go poof! The ones nearest to Ladybug and Chat will hardly see it!”

Queen Bee put her hand gently over Volpina’s and coaxed her to point her flute at the park again.

“Make the wave go up,” she said, using the flute to draw an imaginary wave. “Think of it like a tsunami. Have the milk flood in, and then form a giant wall that will crash down over them. That ought to get their attention.”

The image took shape in Volpina’s mind and she smiled.

“Clever girl.”

Queen Bee smiled and stepped back so Volpina could play. A few seconds later Volpina cast the orb of energy across the park again.

“Sure hope this works,” Volpina said as the shining orb hit one of the buildings and vanished.

“It will,” Queen Bee assured her, looking down as Ladybug was hoisted into the air by a group of giant sugar cookies and carried toward the waiting pillars.

‘It has to.’

Suddenly there was a loud rumbling and the sound of breaking glass as a massive torrent of milk burst out from every window of every building on the far end of the park. Gallons upon gallons of the stuff poured out and began flooding the park. It crashed around the fountain and merry-go-round at terrific speed until it came to a stop about ten feet away from the nearest minion. Then it began to grow, stretching taller and taller until it formed a massive rolling white wave of milk that towered over the nearby buildings.

“No birds, no birds, no birds, no birds,” Volpina kept chanting, watching as the pure white wave grew to its’ full height.

Queen Bee took her hand and squeezed it supportively, and forced herself to look down at the crowd below. Everyone, the minions, the hostages, even Ladybug and Chat Noir were staring up at the great white tsunami that had suddenly appeared smack dab in the middle of Palace De Vogses. Then there was a terrific roar of rushing water (which hopefully sounded the same as rushing milk) and the wave began to slowly crash down over them all.

If it was panic they wanted, it was panic they got. Cupcakes crashed into one another in a mess of frosting, sugar cookies were trampled by stampeding macaroons, four legged éclairs with mouths foaming with cream yelped and barreled over everything in their path, and the gingerbread men really did run run run as fast as they could, but were beaten to the park exit by a pack of croissants waiving a white flag.

Amidst the total chaos, Ladybug was released by her captors as they ran for their lives, and she raced over to Chat Noir to untie him. No sooner had she untied one of the partially gnawed through ropes, then she looked up and pulled them over to the pretzel stick pole he was still tied to, and clung tightly to him. Chat Noir reached around her to grab the pole with his free hand, and tried to shelter her with his body as they both braced themselves for the crashing wave.

It popped harmlessly as soon as it touched a surprised looking pigeon that had perched atop one of the poles.

Wisps of fleeting orange smoke was all that washed over them all as the pastries continued to panic, and Chat and Ladybug looked around in confusion. Then Chat Noir understood and looked up to the roof tops where Volpina and Queen Bee were both jumping and cheering at them. Ladybug followed his gaze and realized what had happened. They both gave them a thumbs up, and quickly undid the ropes holding Chat’s other hand. Once he was free they rushed to recover their weapons before the minions were able to regroup.

Up on the roof, Queen Bee and Volpina continued to cheer and hop around in victory.

“It worked! It worked!” Queen Bee cheered. She laughed as Volpina lifted her up and spun her around. “Did you see how those little troglodytes fell over each other!”

“If only I had my camera!” Volpina said wistfully, as she set Queen Bee down and smiled at her. “That would have made a killer video!”

“You sound like a blogger,” Queen Bee laughed, stepping away. She staggered a little, dizzy from the spinning. “Whoa!” She fell on her rear and burst out laughing again.

She reached up a hand to Volpina.

“What was I saying?”

“Uh, something about troggles?” Volpina said quickly, pulling Queen Bee back to her feet.

Queen Bee just giggled some more and shook her head.

“Whatever, let’s just see how Ladybug and Chat Noir are… Oh no! You have got to be kidding me!”

Volpina looked down and saw that Ladybug and Chat Noir’s rescue attempt had already gone awry again! They had succeeded in recovering their weapons, but while plenty of minions were either still running out of the park in panic or trampled to crumbs, a decent amount of them had already either reformed or just returned to the fight. The brawl was becoming so fierce again that neither of the heroes could stop long enough to get to the other and escape, and more of the evil edibles were joining back in by the second.

“It’s like there’s just no end to them!” Volpina yelled. “It doesn’t matter how many we smash or scare off, there’s always more of them!”

“This is insane,” Queen Bee said, watching as another sugar cookie reformed itself. “This is just in-sane! We could fight these things for an hour and they’re just be three times as many!”

“And where is the Akuma? And what does it want?” Volpina asked. “All its’ done so far is tie up a bunch of news people in a park!”

“They’re not all news crew,” Queen Bee said, pointing at the particularly well-dressed man she had noticed earlier. “That guy in the middle, in the custom tailored Cashmere suit from last year’s Agreste Autumn Line. I swear I’ve seen him before somewhere.

Volpina raised an eyebrow at how specifically Queen Bee had identified the man’s clothes from over two hundred feet away, but looked at the man she pointed out. She sneered in disgust when she recognized him.

“That cockroach in men’s clothing is ‘Dude Fury.”

Queen Bee snapped her fingers.

“That’s right, he’s on that show on the Chow network, um, “Restaurants, Snack Shops, and Eateries.” He did an episode about the restaurant at Le Grand Paris last week.”

“He scammed Le Grand Paris last week you mean,” Volpina said through clenched teeth. “He threatened to call the head chef’s food ‘inedible,’ when it was really the best thing to have ever touched his rotten tongue, unless the owner, our mayor, gave him a big bribe, which he took out of the head chef’s pay check!”

“Yeah, well… that’s politics for you.” Queen Bee said, looking down at Mr. Fury.

‘I guess that also explains why Alya looked like she wanted to punch me in the face more than usual last week. Thanks again, Dad.’

“It’s bullshit!” Volpina yelled back, wringing her staff as if imagining it was Dude Fury’s neck.

She saw the questioning look Queen Bee was giving her and sighed.

“People like that just… really get to me. You know? They’re scumbags, and they get paid to be scumbags. It’s not right!”

“Yeah… scumbags…” Queen Bee said, suddenly feeling very small.

There was nothing to argue about that statement, and she didn’t even want to argue it. Volpina was completely right, but still, how would she react if she knew her new partner was one of those scumbags she seemed to hate so much. It was a troubling thought, but Queen Bee reminded herself that she wasn’t that person at the moment, and they had much more pressing matters to deal with. She shook her head and pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind.

“Let’s get back to the Akuma. We’ve got a tied-up news crew, a crooked food critic tied to some posts by a never ending army of baked bads, and they’re all in Palace De Vogses for some reason.”

Volpina scoffed.

“Well I bet I know what the Akuma wants if he is involved,” Volpina said, not taking her eyes off Fury. “I’d bet my last dollar that that greasy slime ball threatened someone else. Someone who couldn’t pay his blackmail money so he ruined their business on national television. Their life is destroyed, Hawkmoth sniffs out their bad feelings, and bam. Instant Akuma.”

“Sounds pretty likely to me,” Queen Bee agreed. “But who did he ruin? It would have to be someone who couldn’t afford to meet his price, right?”

“Or someone who’s to honorable to stoop to his level,” Volpina added.

‘So a commoner or an idiot.’ Queen Bee reasoned to herself.

“Okay, so it’s probably a family owned business,” Queen Bee said, “and given the theme of the minion’s it’s probably a bakery or a…”

She froze as she realized what she was describing. Volpina seemed to have caught on too, and looked even more unhappy with the prospect than she was.

“…Or a confectionary,” Volpina finished, her voice filled with dread.

“And if their all gathered here, then it’s probably somewhere close by…”

“Maybe even right next door…”

Both of them turned towards “Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie”

“Oh no...”

The horror in Volpina’s voice was matched only by the pure indifference of Queen Bee’s expression. Of course the Akuma was holed up in her most least favorite place in all of Paris. Why wouldn’t it? Today was officially kick-Chloe-while-she-was-down-day, and what better cherry on top then to make her (at least partially) responsible for helping save a Dupain-Cheng. Oh well, at least she didn’t have to go in there.

“We have to go in there,” Volpina said.

Queen Bee whipped around to stare at her.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“No, listen! The Akuma’s got to be in there, right? Ladybug and Chat Noir have all his minion’s distracted down in the park. There’s a rooftop entrance to the building, we can sneak in through there, find the Akuma, steal whatever it’s hiding in, and run it out to Ladybug so she can de-evilize it. It’ll be perfect.”

Volpina smiled awkwardly in an attempt to sell the idea, but Queen Bee just gaped at her.

“Volpina, we are completely outclassed here! You can only use a few of your powers, and I can’t use mine at all! Neither of us have been in a fight yet, and you want to go into a supervillain’s lair to steal his most treasured possession so we can take it to Ladybug, who is in the middle of a bake-room blitz by the way, so you can impress her?” She put her hands to her face and took a deep breath and Volpina bit her lip. “Look, I know you want to prove yourself, but this is suicide!”

“It’s not about that…”

Volpina looked over the edge at Ladybug, who was wrestling with one of the foaming éclairs as it tried to attack her. …in whatever way a giant soft fluffy pastry with no teeth or claws could attack a person.

“Look I can’t explain why, but nobody else should go in there. Or even know who the Akuma is if we can help it. You just have to trust me on this, okay?”

She tore her eyes away from the cream filled carnage below, and looked down at the miraculous around her neck.

“I always wanted to be a superhero. Fight the bad guys, save the day, the whole shebang. But now that I’ve got it, I want to protect my friends and family most of all. And that’s why I have to go into that bakery before Ladybug figures out who the Akuma is. She gave me this chance. I have to try to do right by her, and myself.”

She sighed and let go of the fox tail necklace.

“But you’re right. We are underpowered, you especially. So you stay here and wait for me, while I go in and-“

“The hell I am!”

Volpina was taken aback by the sudden outburst. Queen Bee grabbed her hands and looked her dead in the eye with that same determination she had shown earlier.

“I may not be very useful right now, but I’ll wear orange polka dots on blue and green stripes before I let you go in there alone! We’re partners, and if you say we need to go in there, then we’re going in there!

…just, let’s be very very careful about it? Please?” She added, wilting a little.

Volpina couldn’t decide if she wanted to laugh in amusement or cry in appreciation, so she settled for just hugging the poor girl instead. Queen Bee seemed to find this acceptable, and sank into the embrace happily.

“You know, hugs are good,” she commented, lazily playing with Volpina’s ponytail.

Volpina chuckled.

“Hugs are awesome!”

She gave Queen Bee another squeeze before letting go. Queen Bee giggled, feeling slightly tipsy from physical contact and the wonderful scent of Cinnamon and that other lovely smell still filling her nose.

“Careful now,” Queen Bee said, “Keep hugging a gay girl like that and she might start getting ideas.”

She clapped a hand to her mouth and her face went pure scarlet under her mask as soon as she said it. Volpina just laughed and scooped her up in her arms bridal style before Queen Bee could panic and fall off the building again.

“You’re the one who ought to be careful,” she said, nearly purring into Queen Bee’s ear. “Keep flirting with a bi girl like that, and she might start getting ideas.”

Queen Bee felt she could die happy after hearing those words.

Volpina meanwhile had to laugh again at the dazed and goofy smile Queen Bee was wearing. Then the little voice of her conscience, who sounded remarkably like Ladybug, started whispering in her ear that she had just made a horrible mistake.

“You know, I think I’d be okay with you getting those ideas,” Queen Bee flirted back, cuddling closer in her arms.

Volpina’s smiled died as she realized Queen Bee was being completely sincere. She gulped and she wondered if she may have laid it on a little too thick, before turning to look away as the whispering in her ear became very angry screaming.

Ladybug would most definitely not be happy with her if she found out she had been flirting with her knew “professional” partner. She hadn’t really meant it of course, but it looked like Queen Bee hadn’t quite caught on to that little detail. Volpina nervously weighed her options and decided it was probably better to just rip it off like a Band-Aid before things went any farther.

“Uhm… Seriously though, Queen Bee?”

“Hmm?”

Volpina turned back to face her partner, and met the biggest, happiest, most affectionate looking baby doll blue eyes she had ever seen, and realized that she was a truly horrible person for what she was about to do.

“Uhm… I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have led you on like that.”

She felt a jagged knife plunge into her heart and twist, as she watched the joy drain out of Queen Bee’s face like air from a leaky balloon.

“…oh, you mean you’re not actually…?”

“Oh no, I am! Bi, I mean. Yeah totally. Have been since the day I was born.”

Hope began to return to Queen Bee’s face.

“It’s just, you’re not really my… type.”

And there it went. Yep. She was going to hell for this, and she deserved it.

“I’m really sorry,” Volpina added quickly. “It’s nothing against you! You are super cute, like the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen! It’s just… I’m more into-“

“It’s fine,” Queen Bee said softly, not looking at her. “It’s fine, really. It’s just not my day apparently.”

Volpina bit her lip and felt the guilt twisting the knife a little more.

“…I’m sorry. That was a really mean thing to do, wasn’t it?”

“Ya think?”

“…I wasn’t thinking. You were just so darn cute and I just-“

Queen Bee put a finger over Volpina’s lips to shut her up, but still refused to look at her.

“Stop. I get it. You’re not interested, and you’re sorry. Let’s just move on now.”

Volpina stood there still holding the slim girl in her arms, feeling like she was holding an angry wasp waiting to sting.

“…Do you… want me to put you down and leave you here now?”

Queen Bee turned her head slightly as if not sure she had heard correctly.

“I said, do you want me to put you-“

She was interrupted by Queen Bee turning fully around to face her, and to her surprise, wrapping her arms around her neck.

“What did I just say about you not going into that bakery alone?” she growled.

Volpina gulped.

“Uhm… that even though I’m a terrible human being, you’re still my partner and you’re such a beautiful and amazing person you’re still going to come and help me?”

“And don’t you forget it,” Queen Bee huffed, and adjusted herself to sit more comfortably in Volpina’s arms.

Volpina let out a sigh of relief and Queen Bee flicked her on the nose.

“Ow!”

“Don’t think I’ve forgiven you,” she said with a devilish smile. “That was a very cruel thing you did, breaking a girl’s heart like that. And I am an expert on very cruel things...”

She let the sentence trail off with a promise of unspeakable suffering hanging in the air between them.

“N-noted,” Volpina squeaked.

Queen Bee’s smile flashed to a pleasantly cheery one at her partner’s tremble of fear.

“Good.”

Volpina blinked. One thing was for sure, this girl was downright scary when you were on her bad side.

Then Queen Bee’s smile began to fade away all together, and left her looking slightly wistful and somewhat forlorn.

“Actually, I am glad you told me you weren’t interested now, rather than waiting for me to get a full on crush on you first. Better than me chasing after you in some one sided romance like some other superhero duos I could mention.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Volpina echoed.

She was just about to set off across the roofs for the bakery when a thought struck her.

“You know what, I’m going to make it up to you.”

“Oh?” Queen Bee arched an eyebrow.

“Yeah! I promise to find you the best girlfriend in all of Paris!”

Queen Bee blinked at her in surprise for a moment, then smiled sweetly.

“You know, I think I’m going to hold you to that promise,” she said, booping Volpina on the nose. “But good luck finding someone who’s up to my standards.”

“Oh I shall aim to please, your majesty.”

A feline scream from below cut through the air.

“…We should probably get going on that Akuma first though.” Volpina said, adjusting Queen Bee and getting ready to leap over to the next roof.

Queen Bee smiled devilishly again.

“Ehe, probably.”

“…shut up.”

Author’s Notes:

Regarding the point of view changes in this and other chapters: I feel like these point of view changes might be a bit confusing. Chloe is the main character of this story, but Pollen and Alya/Volpina are also major characters as well. I really hope that the transitions between Queen Bee’s thoughts and Volpina’s are clear enough. Please let me know if they aren’t, and if not, how you think I could improve on them.

Regarding Volpina’s rejection: I have a very clear idea of Alya’s character, and I’ll sometimes write scenes I don’t necessarily intend to include in the final draft. This was originally one such scene, but after writing it it just seemed so full of character for both of them I decided to keep it in. There will be a payoff to it I promise, so please excuse me for indulging in a little bit of drama and character building.

Regarding the new season 2 episodes: I haven’t seen them yet, but I have read the fan synopsis of them and seen screen shots. I don’t know what Serge’s cannon name is, but if I may say, CALLED IT!

#chloe bourgeois #Queen bee #Chlolya #alya cesaire #Fanfiction #Rena Rouge #Volpina #Useless Lesbian Chloe #Confident Bisexual Alya

26 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Photo

Chloe never explicitly asked for a miraculous. In fact she never thought she deserved one. But when she’s offered the chance to reinvent herself and be whoever she wants to “Bee” as long as she agrees to help fight Hawkmoth and his Akumas, she’s interested. Too bad she didn’t read the fine print about getting a hot bisexual partner, becoming a gay icon for Paris, her Kwami having a bigger attitude than her, and the part about how her Miraculous might have some issues of its own. All this plus her own problems of being the mayor’s daughter are a bit to much too handle on her own, but she’s about to learn that she was never as alone as she thought she was.

Slight A.U. with the usual Love Square, Adrien&Chloe friendship, mentioned JuleRose, and eventual Cholya

Art by Twin Doodle

Ao3

FF.Net

Prologue

In which we start towards the end, questions are raised, Ladybug talks to much, and Chloe has a tea party.

Ladybug didn’t like being the bad guy. She didn’t like having to tell people no, or that they couldn’t do something, especially when it was her friends. However, she was the unofficial team leader, although the other three Miraculous users already considered it pretty much official anyway. That only made it harder when it became clear that subtle hints weren’t going to cut it and, for the good of the team, she was going to have to take a more direct approach.

It wasn’t that she necessarily had anything against Queen Bee having an overtly romantic relationship with her best friend. In fact, if circumstances were just slightly different she would have loved to see them together. Since Queen Bee had joined, all four of them had made it clear to the public that the super heroes of Paris were in very supportive of same sex relationships. She would like nothing more than to be happy for the first overtly gay superhero couple of France and give them the same approving smile Chat Noir gave the two of them every time they so much as held hands, (though she noticed those looks of approval were mostly directed at Queen Bee.) She might even have been able to tolerate, neigh, embrace their sickeningly sweet giggling whenever she caught them make bedroom eyes at each other, and might not even have wanted to tear her own pigtails out with her bare hands every time Volpina made another “pollination” innuendo to get Queen Bee to blush, if it weren’t for one small detail.

The relationship was completely doomed to failure.

Ladybug blamed herself. She should have seen it coming, and really should have taken steps to prevent it. Alya had always had a thing for super heroes, and when Marinette had reveled who Ladybug really was she had been… heartbroken wasn’t the right word, more like unpleasantly disillusioned. Of course, any slight resentment she may have felt towards her best friend was quickly forgotten once Marinette explained why she chose to reveille herself, and asked Alya to join her as the new Volpina. Looking back, it should have been obvious that Alya would be “in the rebound” after her old super hero crush was no longer an option. However, Ladybug couldn’t possibly have foreseen that Queen Bee would make her grand entrance into the superhero scene by saving Volpina’s life. Or that Queen Bee would an even bigger flirt with the ladies than her “brother” Chat Noir was. And it shouldn’t have been a problem when Volpina very passionately returned those attentions except for the fact that, as Martinet kept having to remind her, Alya was still dating Nino.

At least she was supposed to be dating Nino. “Volpina” seemed to completely forget that her civilian self wasn’t single as soon as Queen Bee entered the room. Or swooped in to whisk her to safety. Or was so much as mentioned in passing conversation.

Ladybug was beginning to regret choosing her best friend to be the next Volpina, though only ever so slightly. Truth be told, in almost every other area of heroism Alya had done far better Martinet had initially. She was brave, quick witted, caring, and even managed to keep up on the Ladyblog despite being personally involved in a fair number of the Akuma attacks she was reporting on. True she still tended to leap before she looked at times, but she was getting better at thinking before acting, even if she did enjoy letting Queen Bee come to her rescue. She worked well with the rest of the team too. Though that really just meant she worked okay with Chat Noir. The two were on friendly enough terms with each other from what Ladybug could tell. They weren’t as close to each other as either of them were to Ladybug or Queen Bee, nor did they seem interested in becoming so. They had paired up on their fair share of missions when the situation had called for it, just as Ladybug and Queen Bee had, and had worked together well. But once the Akuma was dealt with, or whenever the group met up for patrol, Volpina made a “Bee” line right for her partner.

Not that there was anything wrong with that. They were a team, just like Ladybug and Char Noir. It certainly didn’t make Ladybug just the teensy tiniest bit jealous every time her best friend just left her to go slid up next to some aliased blond they’d only known for a few months. She wasn’t jealous in the least. It was just unprofessional. Flirting like that with team members was a no-no, everyone knew that. Especially when at least one of said team members still technically had a boyfriend. Even if said team member had never actually gone on a real date with said boyfriend in the seven plus months they had been considered a couple. And even if said team member had confessed shortly after meeting other said team mate that she had never really felt a connection with said boyfriend like she had with other said team mate, it still had to stop didn’t it? And if said “said team mate” wasn’t going to listen, then she’d just have to talk to said “other said team mate.”

That was how Marinette had explained it to a confused looking Tikki earlier that day, and was why at little past ten o’clock she found herself standing nervously in front of an uncertain looking Queen Bee. They were supposed to have meet up at the Eiffel Tower that night to do their patrol, but Ladybug had called her shortly before they were supposed to meet up and told Queen Bee to meet her on a rooftop not far from the school instead so that they could talk privately. Ladybug didn’t want to take the chance that either Chat Noir or Volpina might decide to suddenly join them. Queen Bee had agreed and shown up only a few minutes later but apart from their initial greeting, neither of them had said anything yet. Taking a deep breath, Ladybug decided it would be best to just get this over with.

“Look,” she began, ironically unable to look at Queen Bee, “I need to talk to you about you and Volpina.”

Queen Bee seemed to relax a little and actually did look at Ladybug. “Good. Because I need to talk to you about you and Chat Noir.”

“…Huh?” Ladybug asked, completely confused.

“Chat Noir,” Queen Bee repeated. “Cat ears, magic leather jump suit, big green eyes? Been completely devoted to you for like the last two years?”

Ladybug blinked again. “Umm, yeah? What about him?”

Queen Bee suddenly rolled her eyes and stamped her foot in an eerily familiar way demanding, “When are you going to ask that poor boy out already?”

“W-what?!” Ladybug took a step back. This was not how she had expected this conversation to go at all.

“Oh come on, even a blind person can see the way he practically worships the ground you swing over.” Queen Bee huffed, crossing her arms in an expectant, and again hauntingly familiar way.

“He’s almost as bad as I was,” she added quietly, then shook her head. “Look, the point is that boy is the best thing that’s ever going to happen to you. Trust me, I’ve known him nearly all my life and there isn’t a man in this city who would make as perfect a boyfriend as him. He’s brave, kind, dashingly handsome, and trust me on that, when the lesbian says a boy looks good without the mask, he looks good without the mask,” Queen Bee added confidentially. “Let’s see am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah, he loves you so much he’s willing to die for you, and has if that Timebreaker thing last year happened like he said. So what are you waiting for?”

Queen Bee looked at her expectantly while Ladybug tried desperately to figure out what was happening, and how she had so immediately lost all control of this conversation. Her lips foundered as he mind attempted to catch up.

“Well, I mean… We’re… partners?”

Queen Bee rolled her eyes. “So hurry up and become domestic partners too!”

Ladybug felt her face heat up and stammered, “I mean were professional partners! We’re friends but… but that’s all! There’s absolutely nothing else between us.”

The look Queen Bee gave her brought to mind a time when Marinette was 4 and had tried to deny to her mother that she had eaten a missing cupcake, while it’s remains were still smeared all over her face and hands.

“You feel absolutely nothing for him?” Queen Bee asked dryly.

“Not… romantically, no.” Ladybug replied, crossing her arms and turning away slightly as a mysterious, but certainly not guilty, shiver ran up her spine.

“Hmmm, so I guess Vix and I’ll be getting chin scratches and told were a ‘good kitten’ next time we do a trace an Akuma or coming up with half way decent plan, huh?”

“Th-that’s just… positive reinforcement!” Ladybug was quite sure the rest of her face was the same color as her mask now. Though really there was no reason for it. She honestly didn’t have any feelings for Chat Noir. Sure, he was a loveable goofball sometimes, and yes she may have had a nightmare or dozen after the Timebreaker incident, and yes, he was completely irreplaceable to her, but still…

Queen Bee sighed and her posture lost that infuriating (and still horribly familiar) air of smugness and superiority. She walked over to the low wall of the roof and sat down, patting the spot next to her indicating for Ladybug to do the same. Ladybug complied with the silent request, though hesitantly, as if she expected Queen Bee to sting her at any moment. Instead, Queen bee gently took her hand as if to reassure Ladybug she meant no harm, and began to speak to her gently.

“You two have chemistry. Whether you want to admit it or not, I can see how much you both mean to one another. Look, I love that boy. He’s some of the only family I have and we… He’s been through a lot. You’d never know it by the way he acts, both in and out of the mask but he… he may seem goofy and care free as Chat Noir but if something ever happened to you it would kill him. You’ve done so much for this city, and he’s done so much for you. I was serious when I said there is nobody in Paris that can compare to him. Forget that, there’s nobody in France, or the world for that matter who would be a better match for you! You have to see that. You both deserve each other, so what are you waiting for?”

“You… You don’t even know who I really am. I don’t really know who he is!” Ladybug argued back. She felt slightly uneasy that that their identities were first excuse that came to her mind so she quickly added, “Plus, I’m already in love with someone else.”

Queen Bee’s eyes went wide. “What! Who?”

“Um… well…” Ladybug had to fight the urge to pull at her collar, Queen Bee was still holding her hand.

“Like, Seriously! Who?” Queen Bee exclaimed. “I just told you, nobody can compare with my boy for you. So… wait…” Queen Bee suddenly looked very worried and let go of Ladybug’s hand. “It’s… It’s not Vixen is it?”

Ladybug’s jaw dropped. “W-what!?”

“Well I mean, you always look all angry whenever Vix gives me a kiss on the cheek or anything, and I just thought…”

“No!”

Ladybug threw her arms across her face in a large “X” in an attempt to call for a time out to what was rapidly becoming one of the most mortifying nights of her life. Queen Bee seemed to get the hint, and sat silently for a moment looking worried while Ladybug took a very slow, deep breath.

“Okay, first of all, her name is Volpina. Not Vix, or Vixen, or whatever other weird, cutesy nicknames you made up for her. So… Stop calling her that. At least while I’m around. Second, I am not dating Volpina. She’s my best friend, but that’s it! We’re not like that. At all.” Queen Bee seemed to relax a bit at this, but Ladybug sensed an opening and deciding that it was high time she gained control of this conversation added, “We’re never going to be like that because she’s already dating someone.”

Queen Bee blushed and smiled happily so Ladybug added flatly, “Who isn’t you.”

Queen Bee looked confused for about half a second before saying “Huh? Oh yeah, the civilian thing! Yeah, I already know about that,” Queen Bee said, her smile coming back. “Vix told me she had been seeing someone before we met but it wasn’t really going anywhere so she was trying to find a good way to break it off with them. She wouldn’t tell me any details about who it was though, so I thought… well I mean, I just figured if it was you then that would… well, I’m just glad it’s not,” Queen Bee finished happily. Then her expression darkened again. “So who do you think is better than Chat Noir?”

Ladybug gaped at her. She blinked several times. Even considered pinching herself to prove she wasn’t trapped in some horrible nightmare, but no. This was actually happening. Without even the grace of a transition or a five second breather, Queen Bee had turned the entire conversation on its head again. Just gone right back to the topic she wanted like she hadn’t just been worried she might have been making moves on her (unofficial) leader’s girlfriend. Just gone right back to her original conversation without batting an eye.

Ladybug was quickly learning that Queen Bee was as ruthless and resourceful in the field of socializing as she was on the battle field. Her mind flashed back to the expression Mr. Damocles had made in his final moments as an Akuma cowering before Queen Bee. Suddenly the thought of trying to dissuade Queen Bee from Volpina seemed suicidal.

That plan abandoned, she was still left her with her current predicament. Ladybug ground her teeth as she considered her options. When she finally accepted that swan diving off the roof to land on her head came with no guarantee that Queen Bee wouldn’t continue asking her who she was in love with, (even as she was being loaded into the ambulance) Ladybug conceded to option two: Compromise.

“I can’t tell you who it is, that could jeopardize my identity, but to answer your question, it’s… It’s not that its anything that Chat is lacking it’s just… Chat’s Chat and he’s him. Their totally different people and I just… I fell in love with him first that’s all. He’s so kind and thoughtful, and he’s like that to everyone! Even people who probably don’t deserve it…” She added, thinking of a particularly mean and blond example. “And he’s so amazingly talented. He speaks like five different languages, plus he’s a great athlete! Not to mention he’s the most handsome guy in Paris. Especially his smile, and those eyes and-“

“Wow,” Queen Bee said softy, as Ladybug looked off into the distance and continued to list all the attractive features of the unspecified “luckiest man in Paris.” Though it broke her heart for poor Chat, it was obvious to Queen Bee that Ladybug was absolutely head over heels for this guy, whoever he may be. She only hoped she didn’t act like this when she was talking about Vixen. She couldn’t recall ever looking off into the void and just listing off all her partner’s best qualities, though she could easily spend an hour on Vixen’s eyes alone. Not to mention those hips and curves…

Queen Bee snapped herself back into reality and was about to try to do the same for Ladybug when something caught her attention. She had seen enough public-address speeches to be able to tell when someone was looking vaguely out at an audience, and when they we’re reading off a teleprompter. Ladybug may not have been going off of a script but her eyes definitely seemed to be moving like she really was looking all the details her lips were rattling off. Queen Bee turned to look over her shoulder as Ladybug continued to about how cute “his” bangs were. There was nobody there that she could see. Just some rooftops, a weathervane, a couple of pigeons, a billboard for the new Agreste fall line that of course featured Adrien Agreste for the umpteenth time, and…

Her gaze lingered on the image of Adrien as Ladybug described “his” deep green eyes. A hint of suspicion crept into her mind and then quickly grew to the size of a bull elephant as Ladybug continued to wistfully sigh and prattle on behind her. Queen Bee turned her head back to look at Ladybug, who continued to keep her gaze fixed dreamily on one place. Queen Bee followed her gaze and sure enough it to landed right where she thought it did.

“…Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

Queen Bee’s voice finally shook Ladybug out of her gushing and back to reality. She quickly realized that Queen Bee was now looking back at the same billboard she herself had been staring at, and had an uncomfortable feeling that the other girl had just put one and two together and gotten three. Her suspicions were confirmed when Queen Bee said,

“You’re in love with Adrien Agreste.”

It wasn’t a question, or an accusation. Queen Bee sounded dazed and almost disconnected, as if she couldn’t quite wrap her head around the meaning of the words, despite them coming from her own mouth.

“It’s not what you think.” Ladybug blurted out.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure you don’t know what I’m thinking right now.” Queen Bee said, looking from Ladybug to the billboard of Adrien. “Because I’m not sure I know what I’m thinking right now…”

Ladybug closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Look I… Yes. Okay? Yes, I am hopelessly in love with Adrien Agreste! I have been for nearly two years now. But it’s not some celebrity crush or anything like that! I know him, he’s kind and chivalrous and smart and… I just… Look just stop looking at me like that!”

After about second sentence or so Queen Bee’s jaw had nearly dislocated is shock. She snapped it shut after Ladybug rounded on her, though she continued to stare. Ladybug glared back and crossed her arms in a huff.

The two sat there in silence for a good five minutes until Queen Bee suddenly stood up.

“I…” She began, then shaking her head she said, “You… Don’t ever change.” And then flew off before Ladybug could say anything.

Left alone on the roof top, Ladybug briefly considered doing the patrol by herself for the night before deciding it might be best to just head home. Better to get some sleep and try to shake off whatever that mess of a conversation had been. Making a quick swing over to her house, Ladybug opened the trap door and stepped inside, wondering who she was going to get more of an earful about this from, Tikki when she changed back into Ladybug, or Alya when Queen Bee inevitably told her about tonight.

Queen Bee landed back on her balcony and dropped her transformation before she had even stepped into the penthouse proper. Chloe’s mind was still racing, and she began talking almost before Pollen had finished popping back into existence.

“Ladybug is in love with Adrien!”

“Yes. Yes, she is.” Pollen replied patiently, pointedly landing next to the thermos holding their tea.

“But Adrien is in love with Ladybug!” Chloe continued, beginning to pace up and down the living room.

“Quite so.” Pollen agreed, tapping on the thermos.

Chloe failed to notice and instead continued to pace about, waving her arms and continueing, “But Ladybug won’t admit she loves Chat Noir, but Chat Noir is Adrien!”

Pollen sighed and floated over the sit on the top of the thermos. It appeared tea would have to wait until their chosen had calmed down. “Yes, each one is pinning after the other’s alter ego. I believe Wazz was referring to it as a… ‘Love Square of Ignorance’ or something like that. Apparently Chat Noir’s are usually much faster at uncovering their partner’s identities, however Adrien has been raised to be a gentleman and has pointedly refused to do so. Despite Plagg’s insistence.”

Chloe sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yeah well, that’s Arikins for you. Polite to a fault. Wait, Plagg knows about this?”

“We all do actually,” Pollen replied, not looking at Chloe and longingly stroking the thermos lid they were sitting on. “Plagg, Wazz, Trixx. This miraculous masquerade has even begun to test Tikki’s patience, and she’s always been the most adamant voice for our chosen to maintain total anonymity. ‘Reap what you sow’ I suppose.”

Chloe stared at her Kwami in surprise as she digested this information along with everything else she had been given by Ladybug. Then she noticed the object of Pollen’s attention gave a self-berating grumble. She went over to the thermos and Pollen quickly took flight so she could open it for them. “Sorry,” she mumbled, grabbing the tea cup Pollen had designated as their own, and poring a generous amount of earl gray for her tiny friend. Pollen sipped at their beverage of choice happily, but as always with royal edict. Chloe pored herself a cup and sat down in a nearby chair, only nursing her tea as her thoughts began to steep in her swirling mind.

The two sat quietly in Chloe’s luxury though solitary apartment, the silence only broken by the occasional ‘clink’ of Pollen’s tea cup. When Pollen had finally had their fill, Chloe set down her own cup as well and voiced the bitter thoughts she had been left with.

“Ladybug said she knew Adrien. Like, she knew him personally.”

Pollen politely dabbed at their mouth with the corner of a nearby napkin, but offered no input of their own, so Chloe continued.

“If she knows Adrien personally, that means she probably goes to school with him.”

Pollen put down the napkin and leisurely sat down on the edge of the table, but still said nothing.

“And if Ladybug goes to school with Adrien, then she knows Chloe Bourgeois. And if she knows Chloe Bourgeois, then that… explains a lot.” Chloe said sadly. Pollen turned their head to look away from , “And if Ladybug knows Chloe Bourgeois, then Vixen knows Chloe Bourgeois, and that,” Chloe collapsed back into her chair and stared forlornly up at the ceiling for a moment before concluding,

“…and that means Queen Bee’s kind-of-a-girlfriend, definitely hates her guts, but just doesn’t know it yet.”

Pollen let the sentence hang in the air for a moment as they carefully chose their own words.

“To quote your father, I can neither confirm, nor deny these allegations at this time.”

Chloe slapped one hand over her face without looking down from the ceiling and gave an exasperated moan.

“Chloe this is not the end of the world. Or of your love life for that matter.” Pollen told her, flying up to hover closer to Chloe’s head. Something they only did when their concern for their chosen outweighed the royal decorum of observing personal space.

“It may as well be,” Chloe replied, taking her hand off her face to speak but turning away from looking directly at Pollen. “When this all ends or we all come clean with each other, Adrien’s love problems are going to disappear a puff of red polka dot smoke. While my chances with Vix are going to go up in flames the moment she learns she’s been spit swapping with the world record holder for indirect Akuma creation.”

“You’ve gotten significantly better since I’ve known you.” Pollen argued, flying around so Chloe had no choice but to look at them. “You may not be the nicest person in Paris but you have gotten much better at only being mean to people who deserve it.”

“People like Martinet?” Chloe asked bitterly, turning away again.

Pollen sighed and flew around to face her again. “So you have made some mistakes. You are still quite young even by human standards, and you have begun to learn from those moments of poorer judgment rather than simply repeat them. Granted you may still be having some difficulty finding or asking forgiveness from some of those you’ve wronged unjustly, but it is not hopeless. I seem to remember you and I having quite a strained relationship too at first.”

Chloe huffed, but smiled at the memory. “Strained and sore you mean. I still remember the looks I got when I showed up to school with a black eye.”

“We imagine they were nothing to the ones your peers gave you after you, how did that article put it? Oh yes, ‘decimated’ that Lila woman when she attempted to attacked your people.”

Chloe huffed again. “Rose and Juleka were just my former victims and classmates back then. And I didn’t even mean to help them at first, I told you I just… reacted.”

Pollen landed on the back of the chair and smiled. “And though We may have missed that particular ‘reaction’ as you put it, We have seen you ‘react’ on quite a number of occasions,” Pollen said fondly. “You may not be a forgiving or gentle hero Chloe, but you are a strong and devoted Queen. Remember that.”

Chloe had no choice but to smile back as she recalled them learning that particular lesson, but her thoughts drifted even further back when her eye caught sight of her open laptop over Pollen’s shoulder. Her lock screen was set to show a short slide show, and she watched at the images cycled through. The first was of a professional looking man in a tuxedo with a small mustache, standing at attention though he was looking into the camera and giving it a small smile. Then came two teenage girls, one tall and wearing punk-gothic looking pajamas, with her dark purple hair partially covering her face, and the other short, blond, blue eyed, and clad in the most gagging pink night dress any camera had ever captured. The girls were asleep, leaning against one another, the smaller one’s head resting on the taller girl’s shoulder, and the taller girls cheek resting on shorter ones head. Their hands were interlocked between them, and a half-eaten bowl of popcorn off to one side. Next was the familiar face of Adrien Agreste, posing along with Chloe in what was supposed to have been a funny picture, although Adrien somehow still looked fantastic. And finally, the screen changed show a beautiful blond haired, green eyed woman, laughing while she held two young kids in her arms, one a green eyed boy and the other a blue eyed girl.

“She would be proud of you, Chloe.” Pollen said, not needing to turn around to know where she was looking.

Chloe began to blink back tears and her vision blurred, forcing her to close her eyes. Even as she felt the tears fall, she smiled. She had come a long way since she getting her miraculous. As a person, as a leader, and as a member of a family. An unconventional, and broken family to be sure, but she wouldn’t trade it for the world. It was still a family that accepted her, and pushed her to be herself instead of the hateful monster she had become in order to please her father. Her mind floated back to the day she had first begun to realize she still had that family. The day she had been offered Pollen’s miraculous for the first time. The day that marked the death of the only mother she had ever known.

Mrs. Sophia Agreste.

Authors Notes:

Regarding the A.U. tag,

This fanfiction was written before the release of season 2. I began to outline this story while watching season one however so key points have changed from the actual cannon, hence the A.U. tag. The biggest change is that Mrs. Agreste is dead, not just missing. She also died many years before the start of the show’s events. Apart from that change, and some slight changes to the order of a few events (but then the show has never been strong on the exact continuity of the episodes anyway) the cannon leading up to this fic are the same as the show. All the past Akuma’s are the same, Chloe’s behavior towards the other students, Alya and Nino’s relationship, Princess Fragrance, ect.

Regarding the next Chapter,

The next chapter will start the story properly off from the beginning, and will take place a few weeks after the end of season one.

Regrading Pollen,

As of writing this fic, no one knows very much about Pollen so my take on the character is pretty much an O.C. When I was originally outlining the story, Pollen’s name was first Embllem, and then Reegal. I actually grew fairly attached to Reegal, as it fit the personality I invented for them perfectly. However, the name doesn’t look right with the double letter rule, and Pollen is admittedly a much better name. Their personality stayed however, and we’ll be learning more about Pollen later. There are two things I think I should address here however.

First, Pollen speaks with the Royal We. Second, they are referred to with the gender neutral “they.” Kwami’s do not have sexes, but Tikki identifies as female, and Plagg identifies as male. Pollen identifies as royalty.

#chlolya #miraculous ladybug #chloe bourgeois #pollen #queen bee #fanfiction #slight a.u.#adrien and chloe sibling love #useless lesbian chloe #supportive brother adrien #confident bisexual alya #scared and confused marinette #royal agenderd pollen #eventual royalfox

253 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Photo

Art by Twin Doodle

Ao3

FF.net

In which the penthouse gets a makeover, Serge is on call, and Chloe gets a lot of tail.

Chloe shook out her loose hair and shuddered as she opened the bathroom door and felt the comparatively chilly air the apartment wash over her. She silently thanked Serge for always including slippers with the silk pajamas he kept stocked in her bathroom. She hated to think what the cold tile would feel like against her bare feet. Just looking at it made her feel a shiver and…

She froze as her eyes locked onto the fallen, and horrifyingly open wooden box that lay motionless on the hard tile floor a foot or so from the steps leading up to her bed. Her gaze slowly drifted from the box to the vacant eyed ladybug plushie she had perched it.

‘Et tu, Dot?’ she thought.

Turning her attention back to the box she grimaced and slowly made her way over to assess the damage. The box had fallen open facing away from her so she couldn’t see the inside. Part of her didn’t want to look, but she didn’t have a choice. Picking it up gingerly with both hands, she opened it fully and finally got a look at its’ contents. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but she was not disappointed.

Inside, and thankfully held securely in place, was a breathtakingly beautiful decorative gold comb, with a gilded honey bee design making up the bridge. She was pleased to see that contrary to the box it was held in, the miraculous inside was just her style. Shinning gold, sparkling black obsidian, the bee thing seemed a bit on the nose if that was going to be her motif but she it would probably change into something less obvious like Adrien’s ring did. Speaking of…

She looked over at her phone and bit her lip in thought. Adrien had said they would go over how to use her miraculous and everything tomorrow after school. But it wasn’t like he had expressly told her not to try it out tonight.

Brushing her fingers over the beautiful honey bee design she again marveled at the comb. The craftsmanship was masterful. The gold felt strangely warm under her fingers, almost as if the metal were alive, and it stuck her that she was holding a real miraculous. Something magical, capable of granting her who knows what kind of unimaginable powers. With this she wouldn’t have to be Chloe Bourgeois anymore. She could be whoever she wanted to be. And flirt with cute girls like there was no tomorrow!

Of course, magic had never been exactly kind to her in the past and without Adrien to explain how it worked she might blow up half her apartment. Or take over someone’s mind. Or travel back in time and accidentally create a world where apes evolved from men! Though, Adrien’s Bodyguard probably wouldn’t be affected much.

Deciding it would be best to not play around with powers she could not yet comprehend on a school night, Chloe was about to close the box when,

Tunk.

The sudden sound behind her made her jump twist around to look behind her.

“Hello?” She called out.

There was no answer.

Holding the box tight to her chest, she carefully made her way around stairs in search of whatever, or whoever had made the odd noise. She saw the culprit almost immediately.

It was her mostly used box of tissues.

Breathing out a sigh of relief she sat back down on the bed and let herself fall back onto the mattress. The tissues must have been close to the edge and just slipped off when she sat down or something, she figured. She rubbed her face and again felt the weight of the day pressing down on her. She had been feeling significantly better after her bath, but one falling box of Kleenex was all it took stress her nerves to the limit again. Best to just order some sushi and call it a night before she mistook her teddy bear for an Akuma.

Putting the jewelry box on the bed and crawling over to the nightstand she picked up her phone and pressed the speed dial for her faithful personal butler. She smiled when he picked only half way through the second ring, as usual.

“Mademoiselle Chloe? Is something wrong?”

“Hello Serge, no everything’s fine. I’m just feeling a bit hungry. Could you order me an eel plate from the usual place?”

“But of course, Mademoiselle! I shall see to it at once.” Serge said happily. “May I presume then, that you are feeling better? …Mademoiselle?”

“Huh? Oh, yes. Much better.” Chloe shook her head and continued. “I’m just tired, Serge. I’ll be fine once I get something in my stomach and get some sleep.”

“Understood Mademoiselle, I shall have your order brought up as soon as it arrives. Is there anything else you require?”

“No, I believe that will be all, Serge… Oh, wait! A few more bottles of mineral water.”

“It will be brought up shortly, Mademoiselle.” And with that, Chloe pressed the button to end the call.

Tunk.

She froze. It was the same sound she had heard earlier.

Slowly crawling over to the opposite edge of the bed, she peeked over and saw that the tissue box had somehow moved to the next step down. Which didn’t make sense since even expensive tissue boxed didn’t move around on their own. At least, not so far as she knew. But as she continued to watch, the box suddenly jumped and flung itself the rest of the way down to the floor. Chloe yelped in surprise and flattened herself onto the bed.

Peeking over the edge she watched as the box continued to bounce about on its own for a few more seconds before going still. Grabbing her phone, Chloe just about to call her father when she realized that for once, he might not be the best answer to her situation. Backing out through her contacts she found Adrien’s name and hit call.

“Pick up, pick up, pick uuuAAAAAAAA!”

Glancing back over to the tissue box on the floor Chloe was surprised to see that it was not on the floor but was instead hovering in midair just a few feet from her. Panic overrode common sense and she hurled her phone at the box with all her strength. Unfortunately, aim correction was not one of the Myphone 13’s installed apps, and the top of the line smart phone missed its target by several inches, smashed through the glass window overlooking the beautiful Parisian night, and plummeted to the street below.

Undeterred, Chloe grabbed the next object within reach and hurled that at the floating box. Her pillows were considerably larger than her cell phone, and Chloe managed to knock the box out of the air on her second try.

The box gave a surprised but slightly muffled, “AAH!” of its own as it collided back to the ground with the pillow resting atop it.

Chloe crept up to the box as quietly as she could. She could just hear a soft moaning coming from it. Swallowing, she took the pillow off the box and held it in front of her self like a shield. The box was slightly smushed now, and resting on its side with the opening in the top facing her. She crouched down to try to look through the plastic covering the opening. It was too dark to see, so she reached in with a finger to spread open the plastic open so she could get a better look. No sooner had she poked her finger inside than she felt a sharp sting as something pricked her.

“Ouch!”

She withdrew her hand quickly and put the injured finger to her lips.

“And there is plenty more where that came from you barbarian!” Called a tiny angry voice from inside the box.

If she had been in a good mood, Chloe might have been able to forgive the slight injury to her finger. However, Chloe was far from being in a good mood, and the incomprehensible level of insult of being called “barbarian” was beyond forgiveness. Which was why Chloe felt completely justified in smashing the top of the box with her pillow again.

“And there’s plenty more of that too!” She yelled back.

Chloe hadn’t done much damage with the ultra-soft pillow, but she did managed to cave in the center of the box slightly. Realizing she would need a better weapon she began reaching for the school bag she kept at the foot of her bed when two pure blue, insect like eyes peeked out from the damaged box. She froze and the eyes glared at her for a moment before the voice inside said,

“It would appear that we are at an impasse then.”

“Hardly,” Chloe scoffed at the tinny creature, casually relaxing back to a siting position. “You’re stuck in there, but I can crush that flimsy box with my bare hands if I wanted to.”

The eyes narrowed to glare back at her.

“That would be most unwise unless you desire another taste of our sting.” It said warningly, but Chloe just scoffed again and began examining her nails.

“Please, my eye shadow is bigger than you. If you think some little pin prick is going to, owe!”

Chloe winced and shook her hand as she suddenly realized that the spot she had been stung was beginning to hurt. Looking closely she realized that the injured finger was red and noticeably swollen.

“Fufufu.” The thing in the box laughed hotly, its eyes narrowing in satisfaction. “Our sting has more bite then you think, brute.”

If Chloe had been mad before, she was out right seething now.

“Listen you… whatever you are. I am the Mayor’s daughter. I am the closest thing to royalty you are ever going to meet.”

“Mayor’s daughter? Ha!” The voice barked at her. “You are speaking to the tutor of true royalty, you bumptious ruffian. I have held court in a hundred lands, watched civilizations rise and fall with a wave of my arm, and have been personal advisor and confidant to the greatest queens in all of history! Yet you dare try to command my respect with a pathetic, inherited title like ‘mayors daughter?’ An uncultured Wildwoman born into an undeserved seat of privilege? You are not fit to shine to boots of our-“

Slam! Slam! Slam!

Chloe had never considered herself to be a violent person, but then she had never considered herself to be a saint either. Besides, the thing in the box should probably noticed she was reaching for her heaviest text book instead of getting caught up in itself as it insulted her.

When she had finished smashing the tissue box into crumpled mass of broken cardboard and shredded Kleenex, and was able to see the world in colors other than red, she realized that she had probably just murdered the horribly rude little what’s-it inside. She poked cautiously at the box with the corner of the history book.

“Um… You… still alive in there?”

There was no response.

Deciding that she was in way over her head. She quickly got up and went back to her bed to search for phone to call someone for help. Completely forgetting that she had just thrown her phone out the window, she frantically searched among the upturned pillows until she felt the point of a venom tipped stinger jab into her backside.

“Yeowch!”

Chloe howled in pain and hopped around rubbing her pricked posterior muttering increasingly explicit expletives as she did. The tinny yellow and black creature hovering just behind her gave a cry of victory.

“Ha! Surrender, you vulgar guttersnipe! You’ll not do away with Us so easily! Our mastery in the art of combat second to none amongst our-“

Smash!

Chloe brought the book down on top of the creature as hard a possible and ground its little body into the floor with all the furry she could muster.

After a few seconds of pressing down with all her weight she pulled the book away to look at the remains of her attacker. The creature was completely flattened in an almost cartoonish fashion. It blinked once up at her once and then popped back into its proper shape. As it sat up it shook its head and groaned, letting Chloe finally get a good look at it.

The first thing she noticed about it was its distinctly yellow and black stripe coloring. It had a tuft of white fluff around its neck and chest like a fur frock, and a bulbous head that was bigger than its body with two black antennae sticking out the top. Everything about the creature screamed “Bee” and with an awful jolt Chloe realized,

“You’re the guardian spirt thing of my miraculous, aren’t you?”

The bee thing seemed to snap out of its daze and stared up at her, it’s solid blue eyes wide with horror.

“Your miraculous? Impossible! The guardian would never entrust a Miraculous of such grace and refinement as Uurs to an uncouth savage such as you. Unless…” The Kawmi stood and preened the fluff around its chest thoughtfully as Chloe fought back the urge to smash it flat again. “Tell me, what year is this?”

Chloe took a deep breath and replied,

“Twenty eighteen.”

The Kwami took a step back and seemed dazed again, it’s eyes wide with shock.

“Two thousand and eighteen? No. No that can’t be… We could not have been kept asleep for so long as that. Why would…”

The tinny Kwami’s voice trailed off as it stared out into nothingness. Chloe arched an eyebrow as she watched the shocked creature seemed lost in its own thoughts. Then it began to tremble slightly.

“Um, hey? Are you okay?”

The Kwami didn’t answer but began to shake harder. Not knowing what else to do, Chloe leaned down and poked it gently along its side. The Kwami screamed and shot off like a rocket away from her. Chloe jumped back in surprise as well and landed quite painfully on her now swollen rear. As she rolled onto her side and clutched at her pained posterior, the Kwami stopped in midair and looked around it confusion as if not sure where it was. As soon as it caught site of Chloe it rounded on her in anger and embarrassment.

“How dare you touch me, you wretch!”

Chloe glared up it from the floor.

“I was only trying to help you, you ungrateful little monster! You were freaking out so bad you’re lucky I didn’t just hit you with the book again.”

The Kwami looked at her appalled.

“We… We were doing no such thing! We are a module of normality and poise. There is nothing the least bit freakish about us. If anything, you are the only freak in this room. Just look at your eyebrows. They look as if you had drawn them on with mud crusted stick. And those swollen lips make you look like a bullfrog waiting for a-“

Thwack!

Despite being an ancient spiritual guardian, the Kwami seemed yet to have learned not to strike a regal pose and close their eyes when insulting someone holding a makeshift weapon. Chloe on the other hand had just discovered that hitting small creatures with a history book sideways was just as satisfying as smashing it down on top of them. Especially when the annoying little pest flew strait into wall, rebounded slightly, and fell neatly into potted plant below like a goal hoop.

As the tinny creature pulled itself out of the pot with a grunt of effort, it glared little venom tipped daggers at Chloe.

“Oh, We think that will be quite enough of that.”

Chloe gulped as she strengthened her grip on the history book.

About thirty minutes later Chloe sat panting and straining amongst the overturned wreckage of her living room.

A trail of destruction ran through the entire apartment. It began at the destroyed tissue box in her bedroom, trailed up and over the disheveled bed, and into the ruined closet that had only one of its French doors still attached to the frame while the other lay in shattered pieces amongst the scattered shoes and torn designer outfits littering the floor inside. The trail continued back out into the bedroom, past the smashed remains of the tipped over potted plant, into the hall connecting the bed to the rest of the apartment where the window closest to the bedroom had been broken out as if something had been batted through it and into the nights sky. Further along the wall, the remains of another window lay shattered over the floor as if something had flown back into the apartment in a berserk furry.

The trail then crisscrossed and zigzagged over overturned furniture until it ended in the living room where Chloe sat amongst the torn open cushions and ripped out history pages, gritting her teeth in pain and held shut a thrashing and angrily buzzing history book with her swollen and cut hands.

“And you can just stay in there until you learn some manners you horrible little cockroach!” she growled, slamming the book against the floor a few more times. She continued to wrestle and mumble curses at the book, completely oblivious to the world until,

“M-mademoiselle?”

Her head snapped up in surprise to see her faithful butler standing in the door way holding a serving tray and looking at her in complete astonishment.

Chloe quickly hid the still thrashing history book behind her back and gave it a good rap with her scraped knuckles to tell it to be still as she and her butler looked at one another. And at the wrecked penthouse.

Chloe herself looked, if possible, even worse than her apartment did. She had been stung at least a dozen times, leaving painful looking red welts on her forearms, neck, hands, face, and several places not visible under her torn silk nightclothes. Bits of debris, including the closet door she had fallen though, were tangled up in her hair which had come partially loose from its’ usual ponytail. Her expression was one of child with her hand caught in the cookie jar. After first getting into a barroom brawl with the cookie jar and shattering it all over the floor in the process.

Serge blinked at her in shock for only a few seconds more before he sprang into action. In one move he righted a nearby footstool, placed the serving tray atop it, crossed the five feet separating Chloe from the door, kneeled at her side and began checking the extent of her injuries with one hand as he whipped out his phone and began dialing the number for hotel security with the other hand without looking.

“Mademoiselle, what on earth had happened to you?”

Chloe looked around guiltily as she tried to keep the history book hidden behind her back.

“Um… there was a… bee.”

Serge stopped with his finger hovering over the dial button to look at her.

“A bee, mademoiselle?” He asked, his eyes darting to the red welts covering her exposed skin.

“…It was a big bee.” Chloe replied flatly. Serge looked at the torn hem of her pajama shirt and the chaos broken furniture and torn paper surrounding them. Feeling the need to further elaborate Chole added,

“…I won.”

Authors Notes:

Regarding the lateness of this chapter: This chapter was originally MUCH longer. However I have been informed by everyone that I know that 28 pages and 9,000 words is not an appropriate average length for one chapter, so it has been split up into two. You can expect to see another chapter of this length very soon.

Regarding the recent Zag Spoilers: Yes, I am aware of them. No. they will not be changing anything in the story. It’s an AU for a reason.

Please leave a review!

#Fanfiction #Chlolya #chloe burgeois #Pollen #Chloe's Butler #Eventual Chlolya #Sorry for the wait again #Enjoy!

18 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Photo

Art by Twin Doodle

Ao3

FF.net

Chapter 1 The 14th of May

In which Chloe cries a lot, Adrien has an identity crisis, and Plagg is there.

Despite what most of her classmates would assume, Chloe Bourgeois adhered to a very strict schedule. Every Tuesday she had her nails done at her favorite salon. Every Friday, after she was given her generous allowance, spent the afternoon going to the same expensive stores, in the same order, to ensure that her wardrobe was stocked with the latest fashions, even though her white blouse and yellow cardigan never went out of style. Every Sunday afternoon was spent with Sabrina, either playing superheroes or making plans to keep their “peers” in line. Every second Thursday of the month she attended her father’s staff meeting so that she knew what to say and how to act at the next public address. And every year on the fourteenth of May, she cried.

No matter what day of the week it was, no matter what obligations she had scheduled, Chloe Bourgeois disappeared from the eyes of the world on May fourteenth, and was not see again by anyone, until the next day when she would back to her normal, self-centered, intolerable self. She always made sure to fake some generic illness building up the day prior, in case she had class or some important function she was supposed to attend as the mayor’s daughter that day. So far, no one seemed to have caught on that she always got food poisoning on the same day every year, but anyone that knew Chloe Bourgeois knew better than to be anywhere near her when she was feeling ill and even more irritable than usual, so she was always left alone.

Completely alone.

She spent those long twenty-four hours sitting in her room and crying until she had no tears left. She didn’t put on makeup. She didn’t shower. She didn’t see or speak to anyone. Even on the rare occasion that her father came to see her, her personal butler would tell him that she was asleep and not to be disturbed before he had even reached the elevator. She only ate at the end of the evening right before she fell asleep from emotional exhaustion, and even then, it was only some simple bread and expensive mineral water. She couldn’t stomach anything more than that with the guilt and anger churning in her stomach.

All she did was cry and think. She thought about all the unnecessarily horrible things she had done to random people that year. She thought about all the completely necessary horrible things she had done to Marinette that year, though she almost felt a little bad for some of the meaner stuff. She thought about how horrible a daughter she was, about how she couldn’t really be the perfect little political asset her father needed her to be. She thought about Adrien, and how they had gone from being practically family, to rarely speaking unless she was throwing herself at him to convince the world she was smitten with him. And most of all, she thought about how disgusted Sophia Agreste would be with the monster she had become, and how much of a complete coward she was for not doing something to change it.

In fact, despite all the monsters, bad guys, superheroes, and all-around magic that had forced its way into Chloe’s daily life, she had stubbornly done her best to keep to her regularly scheduled life of being a rich and vindictive brat. She forcibly ignored any hint of magical consequence that may have flared up from time to time, despite the innumerable chances she had had to change her ways. Only once a year did she allow herself to even consider doing something that could upset her life of luxurious monotony.

On May 14th, at around four o’clock, Chloe’s hand hovered over her phone for a good five to ten minutes. She spent that entire time trying to will herself to pick it up and make a call that she had been trying to make for the past 10 years. A call she hoped might finally be the start of her finally turning her life around. But every year, fear and her own obstinace would ultimately win out over her guilt, and she’d give up in disgust.

Or her arm would get tired from hanging in the air for so long and then she’d give up in disgust.

It was just another part of her strictly scheduled life. But a schedule was a good thing. It meant safety and predictability. It meant control, and she needed control. If she didn’t have control then the carefully maintained lie that was “Chloe Bourgeois” would collapse. Even when she was facing near certain death at the hands of some punily named super villain, she always kept control. Whether she was whining about how the worst her would be murderer was doing was ruining her hair as she hung suspended over a pool of boiling soup, or complaining that she was going to be late for a spa appointment while she was being chased around by a dozen mind controlled minions, she always kept up the uncaring rich girl persona.

Granted, most of what she complained about really did get under her skin to a degree, so it was easy to just play it up a little.

However, on one particular May fourteenth, over a year after the first Akuma attack and the appearance of Ladybug and Chat Noir, Chloe had finally picked up the phone. She had even gotten as far as opening her contacts list and finding the name she wanted. It was the closest she had ever come to making the call, but even though her finger was trembling less than an inch above the screen, she knew she wouldn’t do it. She could already feel her courage drain as she looked at smiling face of Adrien Agreste.

What would he even think of her calling him on the anniversary of his mother’s death? He probably didn’t even have his phone on anyway. He was probably with his father placing flowers on her grave, something she should have done years ago.

She curled her finger back into her fist and closed her eyes in defeat. There would be no call this year either. No heartfelt apology and tearful reunion with the only real friend she had ever had.

But there is a saying that fate helps those who help themselves, and while Chloe’s courage had failed at the last second it seemed that the world had either taken pity on her, or simply had enough of her attitude and was willing to provide that little bit of help she needed to get started.

And it started, fittingly enough, with a bit of sarcasm.

“You know, as advanced as those things are, I think you still have to push the buttons to make them work.”

Chloe’s head jerked up in surprise. The phone slipped out of her hands and fell to the floor as she stared at what, impossibly, seemed to be Adrien Agreste himself leaning against the satin draped archway leading into her bedroom. Her jaw fell open and she stared bewilderedly at him from her seat on the bed. She blinked several times as Adrien, or at least what looked like Adrien, smiled casually and waved at her. The two stared at each other a long time until Chloe finally closed her eyes and took a deep, collective breath.

“You are not Adrien,” she said finally.

[kw1]

“Really?” the not Adrien asked in surprise, looking down at himself. “I certainly look like him.”

“You are not Adrien,” Chloe insisted, keeping her eyes shut. “Because Adrien isn’t here.”

“Ah, I see.” Not Adrien said. “Although the evidence would seem to say otherwise.”

“On the contrary,” Chloe said coolly, opening her eyes and fixing him with her best look of daunting bravado. “I know Adrien isn’t here because it is impossible for anyone to be here. Nobody could open my door without the key, and nobody has a key except for my butler and he would have announced you if he had let Adrien in, which he wouldn’t because he’s not supposed to let anyone in. So, you are not here.”

“Fascinating,” the person who logically wasn’t there replied. “So if I can’t be here, even though I obviously am, then that can only mean…”

Chloe took another steadying breath and finished, “You’re a hallucination. I’ve finally lost my mind, and I’m hallucinating Adrien Agreste in my bedroom.”

“Well, technically I think I’m still in the hall leading to your bedroom,” the hallucination corrected, looking down and adjusting his feet so they were completely behind the potted plants. “And how do you know I’m not the real Adrien Agreste just coming to visit my oldest, dearest friend?”

Chloe glared harder at whatever or whoever was with her and growled back, “Adrien doesn’t want to see me. Not after the way I’ve treated him. Especially not today…”

The anger left her voice at the end and she had to look away. She felt the tears coming again and she let them fall, not caring if she had imaginary company.

“So you do remember.” The fake Adrien said softly. He sounded slightly surprised, and she scoffed at him.

“Of course, I remember,” she said. “I was there.”

Silence hung in the air and Chloe began to wonder if the hallucination had disappeared. Turning around, she saw that he had simply moved. He was now sitting in profile on the loveseat at the foot of her bed. He looked at her and gave her a quick uncertain smile.

“Well, all the more reason for me to be here,” he said brightly. Then his face fell and he added, “Maybe I’d like to spend her anniversary with someone who loved her too, for a change…”

“You,” Chloe shook her head, “Adrien has his father. I know he always complains about Uncle Gabriel being heartless but he couldn’t just leave his son alone on… on today. I’m sure they’re…. having dinner or… visiting her or… something…”

It was the hallucination’s turn to scoff at her. “You have no idea what he’s like, Chloe.”

“Shut up!” She snapped, turning away to face the wall again. “I don’t have to listen to someone who doesn’t even exist make me feel even worse about today!”

There was another long silence as Chloe felt the hot tears building up again. Beating up on herself was one thing, but hallucinating Adrien to make her feel even worse about leaving him alone like this, that was really crossing a line with herself, she thought.

“Why not just call me and find out?”

Chloe sighed and she wiped her eyes.

“Because you hate me,” she said quietly.

“I don’t hate you, Chloe,” the hallucination argued but Chloe spun back to face him and stood up yelling,

“The real Adrien hates me! And if he doesn’t hate me he should! All I do is throw myself at him and creep him out like some kind of creepy stalker creep! He’s the nicest boy in the world and I take advantage of him nearly every chance I get! He used to be my brother, and I nearly kissed him at his own birthday party! Ech!”

Chloe nearly wretched and sat back down on the bed, burying her face in her hands to try to hide from the memory.

“Yeah, about that…” the hallucination said, also sounding quite uncomfortable. “Glad to hear you don’t think of me that way, but why did you suddenly start acting like I was your boyfriend once I started going to school?”

“Because I’m a Lesbian and I knew I could use you as cover without you ever wanting to actually go out with me,” Chloe replied, still distracted from the horrific and shameful memory.

“Well, you could have at least asked me about it first,” the hallucination replied rolling his eyes in annoyance.

There was another pause and then Chloe slowly straightened up and quietly repeated,

“I’m a lesbian.”

She looked almost bewildered by her own statement and she said it again, though this time with more confidence.

“I am a lesbian.”

“Yeeessss, I heard you the first time Chloe.” the hallucination said slowly, arching an eyebrow at her.

Chloe smiled and ducked her head back down to her hands. She her body began to shudder and it became apparent that she was giggling.

“Uh… Chloe?”

“I’m GAY!” Chloe exclaimed, throwing her arms and legs out and falling back onto the bed in a fit of laughter.

“Yes. Yes, you are.” The hallucination agreed, awkwardly watching as the girl on the bed continued to laugh and laugh until fresh tears began for form in her eyes.

As she lay there completely oblivious to everything but herself, a small back creature with lime green eyes flew out from the hallucination’s shirt to stare at her as well.

“Uh, you sure this is the one you want to pick?” it asked, looking at Chloe uncertainly. Hallucination Adrien gave it a warning look and shoved it back into his shirt pocket.

Eventually, Chloe’s laughter ran its course and she simply laid on the bed, still smiling and giggling every so often as she tried to catch her breath.

“Enjoy your new discovery?” the hallucination asked, but Chloe just dismissively waved him off.

“Please, I’ve know I was gay since I went to the Agreste swimsuit fashion show when I was eight. I just… I’ve never said it out loud before.” She gave another contented giggle and smiled. “It feels… nice.”

The hallucination smiled back too. “Well I’m happy to be the first one you’ve said it too.”

“Please, you don’t count,” Chloe countered. “You’re not even real.”

The hallucination huffed, and crawled forward onto the bed, the mattress sagging under his weight.

“Chloe.”

“Hmm?”

The hallucination reached forward and flicked her sharply on the nose.

“OW!” Chloe sat up rubbing her nose and glared at Adrien. “What the hell was that fo-” Her voice faded out as she stared at the satisfied smile of the boy sitting next to her.

She looked him up and down several times and then reached out and poked him. He let himself lean back a little with the poke. Still smiling he said,

“Hello, Chloe.”

Her face went as white as the silk sheets they were sitting on.

“You can’t tell anyone!” She screamed, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him. “I’ll give you whatever you want! How much do you- Shit! You’re richer than me. I’ll, Ah, Uhm. I’ll destroy your- um. No one will ever- crap. My father will hear of- NO!!”

Chloe was hyperventilating and panicking so much she seemed to be terrifying herself with her own threats. Her eyes were unfocused and she was shaking badly as she held on to Adrien with all her strength. Scared that she might hurt herself, or at least traumatize herself, Adrien did his best to calm her down before she passed out.

It took several minutes of rubbing her arms and pleading with her to just breath before Chloe seemed to come back to reality again. She was still crying and trembling, but he had gotten her to let go of his shoulders and take one of his hands instead. He used his other arm to pull her into a slightly awkward one armed hug. She continued to tremble, but he gave her hand a reassuring squeeze every so often and eventually she started to squeeze his hand back and nod when he talked to her. Her tears began to slow, and he breath evened out a little.

“Just breath Chloe,” he asked again, giving her hand another squeeze. That was what you were supposed to do to comfort someone wasn’t it? It was what he had always done for his mother when she was in the hospital. “It’s going to be all right. Okay?”

Chloe sniffed, and tried to dry her eyes. “I’m just… I’m sorry, I… Please don’t tell anyone about me. If my father ever found out I could be disowned and have to live off the streets in a box and… and have to eat pizza or starve or… something I don’t know, just please Adrien, you have to keep this a secret!“ She looked at him such sincere fear, although it was hard for him not to grin at some of her more specific fears.

“Chloe, I… Look, I promise I won’t tell anyone,” Adrien assured her.

“Really?” she asked. He had never seen her look so vulnerable before. Her eyes were red and puffy from all the crying, and her face was completely bare of all make up. She didn’t look like Chloe Bourgeois anymore, just a terrified girl who was in dire need of a hug and a fresh box of tissues.

He squeezed her hand again and gave her a comforting smile. “Come on Chloe, am I the kind of guy who would out anybody like that? Much less my oldest, dearest, most gayest friend ever?” He added, jokingly grabbing her around the shoulders with both arms and very awkwardly hugging her in mock plaintiveness. Despite her recent panic attack, she laughed at his overly dramatic theatrics.

“Okay I believe you!” she tittered, putting her hand on his face and shoving him off when he tried to jokingly rub their cheeks together. He laughed and let go, leaning back to give her space and look her over. She stuck out her tongue and then began fixing her hair so she could pretend to ignore him. He chuckled. They were both being childish, and it felt wonderful.

“It’s not like this news to me anyway,” he said, sitting up and straightening out his shirt.

Chloe stopped part way through redoing her pony tail and looked at him quizzically. “...What?”

He gave her a deadpan look. “You’ve never been exactly ‘subtle’ about your love of other women, Chloe.”

Chloe scoffed in mild outrage and looked at him with her mouth agape. “Excuse me? I have never once let even the slightest hint slip, to anyone, that I was anything less than straight. In all of my sixteen years never once have I so much as let my gaze linger to long on another female.”

“When we were kids you always insisted that you were the one who got a kiss from the princess whenever we played superheroes.” Adrien countered flatly. Chloe just scoffed again.

“I was the hero, you were the side kick. Everyone knows the hero is the one who gets the kiss.”

“You pestered dad constantly if he could design matching wedding dresses instead of a dress and tux after you saw him designing the autumn wedding line one year.”

“That could have been for a double wedding! They were… quite popular at the time I remember. Anyway he drew it up for me didn’t he? So, he couldn’t have thought it was a bad idea.”

“You had him wrapped around your little finger the same as mom did.”

“Oh, what-ever.”

“And then there’s your oh so well hidden crush on Ladybug-“

Here Chloe actually put up her hand to stop him. “Okay, Ladybug doesn’t count. There isn’t a man, woman, or cat in Paris that isn’t in love with Ladybug.”

Adrien opened his mouth to argue, but upon reflection simply said, “…touché.”

Chloe gave him a victorious smirk and lowered her hand. They both savored the nostalgic feeling of bickering with each other for a minute or two.

“I’m glad you came here today.” Chloe said quietly. “It’s… I just miss her a lot, you know? And I really missed you too, even if I’m the reason we…” She started to cry again, and Adrien pulled her into a hug without a second thought. She wrapped her arms around him too and buried her face in his shoulder.

“I missed you too, Chloe.” He whispered, tears forming in his eyes too.

The two of them hugged and cried for a long time. After they finished they reminisced about their times together, about their memories of Aunt Sophia and, to a lesser extent, Uncle Gabriel. He had never been the most attentive parental figure to either of them, spending most of his time in his office working on designs until Aunt Sophia drug him out to spend time with his family, but Chloe was still shocked when she heard the extent to which he had distanced himself from his son.

“I’m so sorry, Adrien. If I had known I…”

“It’s okay.” He said, after taking a deep breath. “You had your own problems to deal with. It can’t have been easy growing up alone in here either.” He said, looking around the luxurious, but coldly impersonal looking penthouse. Aside from a few stuffed animals on the bed, there wasn’t much visible in the apartment that showed off any actual personality.

“It’s not that bad.” Chloe said, following his gaze around the room. “I’ve got everything a girl could ask for, literally.”

“Except freedom to be yourself.” He argued. Chloe looked away.

“Everything has a price…”

“Chloe,-’

“So how did you get here?” she asked suddenly. “I was serious, nobody is supposed to be allowed up here. Serge’s not even supposed to let my father up here today.”

Adrien looked unhappy about her defensive change of topic for a second, but then he seemed to change his mind and gave her a mischievous smile. “Well, you should probably lock your terrace door if you don’t want visitors.”

Chloe blinked and looked at him as if she hadn’t heard him correctly. “…huh?”

“The terrace.” He repeated, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. “Or veranda or whatever you call it in a hotel. You really should put a lock on it or something. Any half decent cat burglar can just walk right in.”

Chloe looked from him to the glass doors just visible through the large windows of her bedroom.

“I guess, but what does that have to do with… Wait… do you mean you?” She laughed. “Adrien, please. There is no way you climbed up five stories to my balcony.”

“It’s easier than you think,” he said with a smile. Her laughter died a little but she still looked at him skeptically. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I actually, uh… I didn’t come here to talk about mom. Though I’m really glad we did.”

Her expression softened.

“Me too,” she told him. She gave him a grateful smile. “So what did you come here to talk about? However you came here, anyway.”

He didn’t answer at first, but instead he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small wooden box. The wood was so darkly varnished it looked almost black, but it was streaked with bits of deep red highlighting along the sides. On top was an almost oriental looking design painted, no, carved in to the wood and given that same blood red color. On one side were two hinges that she could tell at a glance were made of real gold.

From the size and hexagonal shape, she quickly guessed it was some kind of jewelry box, but while design looked antique, the shine of the varnish and the dark rich color of the red paint made it look new. She was sure of three things however:

First: old or new, it was definitely handcrafted, and very expensive.

Second: it was part of a set. The design and craftmanship was exquisite but not overly ornate. The creator could have gone into far more detail but chose not to. The only time Chloe had seen such restraint used on something as ornamental as a jewelry box was when it was part of a set and all the pieces had to be identical. Going by the level of detail, she guessed there were around six, at most seven boxes like this in existence.

And third: it wouldn’t go with a thing in her wardrobe.

She looked from him to the odd box with a questioning eyebrow. Adrien just gave her an apologetic smile for some reason.

“Since your trusting me with your big secret I guess it’s only fair if I tell you mine?”

He didn’t sound entirely sure of himself, so Chloe gently put one hand over the box.

“Adrien, it’s okay. I trust you.” Even she was surprised by how sincere she sounded, but it was true. It was a little scary actually, trusting someone not because she had paid them off or had threatened them to keep quiet, but simply because she believed that they wouldn’t hurt her if given the chance.

“Besides,” she added with a shrug. “I doubt you could be involved in anything even remotely scandalous.”

Adrien looked honestly offended. “What? I’ll have you know I have one of the most scandalous secrets in Paris. Something everyone in the world is just dying to know!”

“In this little box?” she asked, plucking it from his hand and holding it up for closer inspection. “What’s in here, the designs for your father’s fall line?” She made to open the lid but Adrien quickly stopped her.

“Actually, that’s for later,” he replied, carefully taking the box from her and setting it on the bed behind them. “But I think you’re going to want to try on what’s inside way more than any of my dad’s designs.”

“Oooo,” Chloe said, reaching for the box again. “Now I have to know what’s inside.”

Adrien caught her wrist again and tutted at her. “First things first Chloe, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

He stood up, pulling her attention away from the tempting box and standing in front of her as he reached into his inner shirt pocket again. At least, that’s what she thought he was going to do. Instead he just held his shirt open slightly and a small black… thing flew out of his shirt and did a few quick loops in the air before saying,

“Finally! If I had to listen to you two be all ‘happy family’ any longer I was gonna start throwing up rainbows.”

Under normal circumstances Chloe would probably have screamed and begun throwing the closest object within reach at the site of any strange, black, flying, and potentially magically corruptible creature, regardless of whether it seemed to be literal bosom buddies with Adrien or not. But between wallowing in her grief most of the day, her accidental step out of the closet, and her long awaited reconciliation with Adrien, she was just too emotionally drained make such a dramatic reaction so she instead settled for,

“…oh.”

“Chloe, I would like to introduce you to Plagg, my Kwami.”

“Cool,” she said, watching the little creature give her a dismissive wave as it looked around. “…What’s a commie?”

“Kwami,” Adrien corrected, watching Plagg as he ignored Chloe and flew about to room, probably looking for something to eat. “And he’s kind of a… guardian spirit sort of thing?”

“Oh…” Chloe said again, watching Plagg fly around. “You know, I’m starting to think I’m hallucinating again.”

“Well could you hallucinate me up some Camembert,” Plagg asked as he checked under the bed. “I’m starving here!”

“Camembert?” Chloe repeated, looking from Plagg to Adrien in confusion, and slight disgust. Adrien put his hand to his own face in embarrassment.

“Plagg, would you cut it out already! There is no cheese here so could you please just join the conversation?” Plagg grumbled at him, but flew back to hover next to Adrien.

“Thank you.” Adrien said, exasperatedly. He turned back to Chloe. “Chloe, you are not hallucinating, but you are about to see something amazingly unbelievable.” He added with a grin.

Chloe just frowned at him pityingly in response and looked over at Plagg. Plagg looked back at her before looking at Adrien and also gave him a befuddled look.

“…What?” Adrien asked.

“Kid, how exactly are you going to convince her that she isn’t hallucinating, if you’re about to show her something unbelievable?”

“Yeah, sorry Adrikins, but you’re not really helping your case here.”

He looked at her flatly before reaching out to flick her on the nose again.

“Okay okay already!” she yelped, scooting back on the bed and covering her smarting nose with her hand. “You’re real I get it! Now stop hurting your poor oldest dearest friend already.”

He smiled and held up his hands in a show of peace while Plagg very animatedly rolled his eyes at them.

“Alright, let’s get a move on already. The soon we finish here the sooner we get to the food!”

“Fine,” Adrien conceded. He and Plagg moved around to the foot off the bed and made sure he had ample space. “Now watch closely. You are the only person to ever see this.”

“Well, aren’t I the lucky one?” Chloe said, rolling her eyes. Then her brain caught up with her snark instinct. “Wait, see what? Plague isn’t your big secret?”

“Plagg,” Adrien corrected. “And kind of, he’s only part of it.”

“Will you just show her already!”

Adrien grumbled something about no one appreciating a proper build up and finally proclaimed,

“Plagg, claws out!”

Chat Noir always loved the transformation process. Putting on the ears and mask with a swish of his hand, directing the sparkling energy from his chest outward to form his suit, and finally feeling his tail burst into being to complete the ensemble. He felt unbelievably cool nearly every time he transformed. He expected his first audience to be stunned into silence, or perhaps gasping and stammering in shock and confusion. He certainly didn’t expect laughter.

And yet, that was exactly what Chloe was doing. Laughing. She saw his confused and slightly hurt look and tried to stifle her laughter.

“Sorry,” she said unconvincingly, still smiling from behind her hand. “Sorry just… you actually choreographed a whole transformation sequence for Chat Noir? You even stuck a pose at the end and everything. I just… wow. No honestly, it’s super impressive how dedicated you are. I should totally come up with one for Ladybug too! Of course, I actually have to put on my suit.”

Chat Noir let his arms fall to his sides and stared at her. “Uh, Chloe? You do understand what’s going on, right?”

“Of course, I do Adrien. I understand completely,” she replied earnestly. “And really it isn’t that big a deal. I mean, yeah you went way more into it than most, but that kind of dedication is something to be admired.”

“Chloe, I think you’re missing something here,” Chat said carefully. “I mean, you did see the whole thing, right? Plagg sucked into the ring, magic sparks, Adrien Agreste turning into Chat Noir right before your eyes?”

“And an excellent performance it was.” Chloe replied, smiling encouragingly. “Seriously, I’m blown away. You’ve gone just all out on this. It’s almost like I’m looking at the real Chat Noir.”

Enhanced senses or not, Chat Noir couldn’t believe his ears. Stammering he frantically gestured at himself and exclaimed,

“You are looking at the real Chat Noir!”

Chloe gave him a patient look. “Adrien, I’ve spent quite a bit of time around the real Chat Noir and can know for a fact that you aren’t him. It’s a very good costume, and I’m not quite sure how you did the actually change, but I can tell it’s you under that mask. I mean it only covers your cheek bones.”

Chat Noir continued to gape at her in disbelief. With a sigh of pity, she stood up and walked over to him.

“Look, mask aside there are a couple other little details you missed. Just a couple little things.”

“Like what!?” Chat Noir screamed. Chloe pursed her lips and gave him a look that said she did not appreciate his attitude.

“Well, for a start, your hair’s all wrong,” she snapped, reaching up to take one of his stray locks between her thumb and forefinger. “Chat Noir’s hair looks like a bunch of bananas turned into a wig. Yours is much to… uhm…” She faltered, blinking at the “banana” styled bundle of hair she was holding as if she only just realized it was there.

She quickly let go of it and shook her head dismissively. “Never mind. You’re off on the eyes too of course. Chat’s eyes are much more… uhm…”

As she looked into his eyes she blinked again, as if suddenly able to see them properly for the first time. “Well, er… Chat Noir is much Taller than…” She paused, holding a hand level with the top of Chat’s head.

“…Shorter?” she tried again, moving her hand up so it was level with the tips of his ears. She faltered there too. And on the next correction she tried to make. And the next. And the next.

Chat Noir’s confidence began to come back as Chloe began circling him, pointing out a flaw, and then trailing off when she realized it wasn’t a flaw at all. After the twentieth time, where she tried almost desperately to say that his bell was crooked, she stopped and just stared at him in wonder.

‘About time,’ he thought.

“What’s the matter” he asked, giving her his best Cheshire grin. “Chat got your tongue?”

The pun seemed to be the last straw, as Chloe took a step back, clutching at her head and said, “But you can’t be… Adrien?”

His triumph was short lived as Chloe stared at him in shock just a moment longer before suddenly wincing in a contorted grimace and clutching her head with both hands. Her knees buckled and she would have collapsed on the floor had Chat Noir not cried out in alarm and bolted to her side to catch her. As he steadied her, she put one hand on his shoulder, while the other remained clutched to her head in pain. He helped her back to the side of the bed again and let her sit down. She refused to lay down completely when he tried to make her, but after a few seconds she was able to open her eyes again.

“Are you okay?” Chat Noir asked. He felt stupid the moment the words left his lips.

“No.” Chloe spat, rubbing her temples and keeping her eyes pointedly fixed on her own lap. “I feel like someone just cataclysmed my head.”

“Sorry,” he said meekly. He sat next to her awkwardly, unsure of what to do or if he was even still welcome in her company. Chloe stopped rubbing her head and looked up at him. Her eyes looked frustrated, then confused, then amazed.

“It really is you,” she said, sitting up and staring at him in awe. “You’re Chat Noir.”

“The one and only,” he said, masking his anxiety with his signature charm. She gave him a single scoff and shook her head, smiling.

“How did I not see it? How did I not recognize you immediately! You don’t even change your voice!”

Chat Noir Shrugged. “Ehe, it’s all in the attitude.” This only made her look more worried and confused so he added, “I think there must be some magic that keeps people from recognizing me. I mean, both of my faces are on TV nearly every day, but no one’s ever put them together. I should probably ask Plagg about it actually...”

“Well, thanks for using me as your guinea pig,” Chloe grumbled, going back to rubbing her temples.

Chat winced at her tone. “Chloe, I’m sorry. I swear, I had no idea it would hurt like that!”

Chloe took a deep sigh and put her hand back in her lap. “It’s alright. I’m not mad at you, I just… I feel so… blonde right now. It’s like there was wall separating Adrien and Chat Noir in my brain. They just couldn’t have any correlation with one another at all. ��But when I started looking for reasons why they couldn’t, when you were right in front of me, it was like that wall just… broke. I’m fine now, but… wow.”

Chat Noir hummed in response as he thought about her description. It certainly sounded like magic alright.

After a while Chloe broke the silence.

“So…” she said, innocently looking around and casually swinging her feet. “Chat Noir huh?”

“Yep.” Chat confirmed.

“Hmmm.” Her eyes slid over to him with a hopeful glint in them. “Don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me who Ladybug is too, huh?”

Chat gave her a playfully chiding look.

“Hey,” She said with a shrug, “a girl’s got to have her priorities.”

“…touché,” he conceded with a nod, then added with a sigh, “and between you and me I’d love to know too.”

“Wait.” Chloe blinked in surprise. “You mean you don’t know who your own partner is?”

Chat Noir shook his head sadly. “Our kwamis are pretty big on us keeping total secrecy, even among other miraculous bearers.”

Chloe gaped at him.

“Hold on, you two protect your secret identities so much you don’t even know who each other is? But you’re telling me?”

“Because I have a very important reason to,” Adrien said excitedly. He adjusted himself so his entire body was facing toward her. “Chloe, do you know why I became Chat Noir?”

“…So you could hit on Ladybug?” she ventured.

“No. Though being close to my lady was an unexpected perk,” he admitted. “I got my miraculous the same day I tried to go to school the first time. My dad wouldn’t let me though, and he made Gorilla and Nathalie bring me back. I felt like a prisoner! Then I found my Miraculous and met Plagg. Becoming Chat Noir gave me the freedom I wanted for so long! I can do anything like this! Be anyone! Adrien Agreste has to be Paris’s poster child and be a perfect little gentleman twenty four seven, but Chat Noir can do anything he wants!”

“As long as he’s being a hero,” Chloe reminded him. Chat smiled.

“Everything has a price,” he parroted. “But it’s so worth it, Chloe. I get to be dashing, charming, funny, and most of all free! All I have to do in return is fight some bad guys once in a while and hang out with the most wonderful woman in Paris.”

“While nearly getting killed in the process,” Chloe added while rolling her eyes. Still, there was a wistful look in her eyes as they settled on his ring, and that was all the encouragement Chat needed. He grabbed the ornate wooden box from behind them on the bed. She looked from him to the box curiously.

“It is amazing, Chloe. And I can’t think of anyone else in Paris who would appreciate that freedom as much as I do.” He offered her the box.

Chloe looked confused a second longer before her eyes went so wide they seemed in danger of popping out of her face.

“You mean this is a…”

“Uh hu,” he said, grinning.

“You want me to…”

“Yeah!” He nodded enthusiastically.

“Are you…”

“I am,” he cut her off again, looking her in the eye and letting his excitement give way to certainty.

Truth be told, he hadn’t come there expecting to offer it to her that night. He had just meant to see if he could lay some ground work with her, maybe test her to see if she really was as bad as she made out to be with their classmates, find out why she acted so flirty with him. She had far exceeded all far his expectations and he was certain she was the one for the job now. He just knew it in his gut. Now all he had to do was wait for her to accept.

“Are you out of your mind!” she yelled furiously, standing up and staring at him in horror.

Of course, Chloe always had a way of surprising him.

“…What?” he asked, completely lost as to where he had gone wrong.

“I’m Chloe Bourgeois!” she said in way of answer, gesturing to herself franticly.

“Yes,” Chat said slowly, not seeing the problem. Chloe groaned and slapped her face.

“Chloe Bourgeois, the queen bitch of Paris!”

“language,” Chat chided, but Chloe was in no mood for it.

“I am the single most horrible person in Paris, Adrien! I have bribed, blackmailed, and bullied every man, woman, child, and retail worker to ever cross my path. I publicly humiliated a boy for asking me out with a jeweled broach! Then I had a girl locked in a bathroom so that I could stand next to you in a picture to prove how straight I was! I’ve gotten other students suspended by threatening the principle, Hawkmoth should give me a medal for the amount of Akumas I’ve made for him! There isn’t a person in Paris who hasn’t wished that Chloe Bourgeois was dead.”

She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the floor. There was a glow of light and a crackling sound and she turned to see Adrien Agreste standing in front of her again.

“I never did,” he told her.

Chloe actually gasped. She was sure that if she had any tears left she would have started crying again, but they had been spent. He walked over to her and took her hands gently.

“You’re family Chloe. I could never wish you were… We’ve lost to much of our family already.” He wiped his eyes. “But you’re right. You are pretty terrible to people. I’m the one who has to clean up your mess you know. I’ve fought every Akuma of every person you hurt. I’ve heard every one of our classmates talk about how you ruined their life. I watched the caring girl I used to love like a sister and play super heroes with be called pure evil by my friends! It broke my heart every time I heard someone try to say your name, because your right, Chloe Bourgeois is the most hated person in Paris. I can’t even argue that anymore!”

Chloe looked down at the floor between them, ashamed. “I can see why you’d think I’d make a good superhero,” she quipped, bitterly.

Adrien looked at her carefully for a moment and then said, “You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you something for a long time, Chloe.”

“Are my sunglasses prescription?”

He actually was curious about that, but Adrien refused to let her changer the subject this time.

“Why? Why do you act like this, Chloe? What happened to you?”

“…Why shouldn’t I act like this? I’m rich, I’m beautiful, I’m the Mayor’s daughter. Why not enjoy it?”

Chloe tried to crossed her arms again but Adrien kept his grip on her hands. She wriggled awkwardly for a second but still refused to look him.

“Is it because if me?” he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper. “Is it because I left you alone for so long?”

Her heart nearly stopped when she heard the anguish in his voice. “What? No! Adrien no, I left you alone after she died, remember? I’m the one who stopped visiting and left you alone in that house!”

“But I could have gone after you!” He argued desperately. “Something happened to you to make you like this, and I should have been there to help you after mom…”

“…Life happened to me, Adrian.” Her voice was mournful as she turned and looked out the window and gazed out over Paris. “There’s nothing you could have done to protect me from that. Most kids get normal families and like the people their supposed to, but they have to work till they’re eighty just to afford a carboard box to live in. I get a penthouse and some magic words that get me whatever I want, but I have to be the person I’m told to be. That’s how life works. You read your lines off the teleprompter, or you sit in the audience.”

Adrien watched her and the city for a minute before asking, “Did you ever want the box and the family instead?”

“No.” Chloe’s expression hardened. “I wanted it all. The family, the penthouse, the girlfriend, even the box too just so it’s mine. I wanted all of it, Adrien.” She scowled. “But you’re not supposed to have it all. So, I make do with what I have and hate the people who have what I don’t.”

“Chloe,”

“I hate them, Adrien! I hate all our stupid perfect classmates with their perfect little families. I hate all those stupid peasants who don’t have to worry about their father disowning them because having a gay daughter might hurt their chances of becoming prime minister someday. I hate Marinette for being such the perfectly perfect back stabbing bitch that everyone thinks is so wonderful! I hate you and Ladybug for saving me all the time when I don’t deserve it! I hate everything!”

She practically screamed the last words before collapsing onto the floor. Her body was wracked with dry sobs and her mind was dizzy with hate, pain, and dehydration. Adrien looked at her helplessly. He had no idea what to say, or what to do. Fortunately for both of them, there was still one person left in the room.

“So the world sucks and it’s not fair.” Plagg said, floating off from his spot on the bed where he had been watching them. “Congratulations, you’ve already figured out what takes most of you humans’ half your life span.” He landed in front of Chloe, who looked down at him with a tired, and angry expression.

“Look,” he told her seriously, which came as quite a surprise to Adrian. “I’m the Kwami of destruction, so I’m not really good the comforting thing but here goes. You’re going to die.”

To his credit, that did get Chloe to stop sobbing. All she could do was stare at him, then look over at Adrien, who looked like he wanted to die too now rather than be affiliated with Plagg in anyway.

“Just hear me out here.” Plagg insisted. “You are going to die right? You’re human, that’s what humans do. They live for a little while, and then they die. We Kwami’s have pretty long life spans, but we spend most it asleep in our miraculous until some human needs us, and even then we usually only stay awake until their done with us. So you know what I do when I wake up? I enjoy it. Every second of it. No matter who owns me, if we’re on the good side or bad, I try to enjoy it, cause my time is limited, and so’s yours!

“I’ll be honest, cause life is too short to beat around the bush you know, I thought Adrien’s brain had gone overripe when he said he wanted you to have the miraculous. But after gettin’ to know you better tonight, he’s right. You should have it. Because you’re miserable. You get what life’s all about, having fun, and you can’t join the party so you gotta make it miserable for the folks that can. I can respect that. But,”

Plagg flew back to the bed quickly and returned carrying the box. He placed it on the floor between them and continued.

“What the kid tried to explain before is this is your ticket in. Everybody hate’s Chloe Bourgeois right? From the sound of things, you want a break from her more than anyone. Well with this you’ll get a second life! Sure you’ll have to risk it fighting a few monsters, but Ladybug’s magic fixes everything anyway. But for a little bit of work, you get a clean slate. No, fathers, no expectations, you really do get to be whoever you want. And trust me, the ladies love the mask.”

“You should know,” Adrien added to Chloe, giving her a knowing smile.

She was stunned however. Clean slate? It was impossible. Everyone in Paris knew who she was, she’d be recognized instantly. But then, she hadn’t known who Adrien was even after he showed her, so maybe no one would know who she was too. Still, what Plagg really suggesting what that she could be…

“A gay super hero?” Even when she said it out loud it sounded ridiculous.

“Why not?” Adrien asked excitedly.

“Seriously, not the first time it’s been done.” Plagg told her.

“Yeah, but not in Paris?” Chloe chided him. “Being gay isn’t illegal but they aren’t openly welcomed either.”

“It’s the city of love,” Adrien said, making a dramatic swoon. “Nobody really cares. Besides, what better way to meet the ladies of our fair city then by swooping them off their feet to safety.”

“Yeah because that’s worked so well for you, hasn’t it lover boy?” Chloe replied, rolling her eyes at him again. Adrien wilted somewhat.

“Well… It’s kind of hard to sweep a girl to safety when she’s actively fighting the danger”

“The point is,” Plagg said, trying to keep them from getting side tracked again. “If freedom to flirt is what you want, this is how you get it.” He tapped on the box again.

Chloe looked from him to the box and bit her lip. She looked to Adrien but he just smiled and nodded. Nervously, she reached down, and picked up the box. Slowly, she began to open it.

“I am a cat! Just hanging out!”

Everybody jumped as the second verse to Jagged Stone’s number one hit began blaring through the air. Chloe nearly dropped the box on Plagg and had to clutch at her racing heart while she glared at Adrien as he frantically searched his pockets for his phone to silence the alarm.

“Seriously Adrien?”

“Hey, it’s a good song” he said, finally fishing the phone out and silencing it. “We gotta go. Nathalie will be calling me for down for dinner soon.”

Plagg made his enthusiasm for the evening meal well known as shook her head Chloe stood up to escort them out. A few minutes later, Chat Noir was strolling out onto the terrace with Chloe following behind with an amused expression.

“So, you do the whole dance every time?”

Chat Noir looked up at the sky and sighed exasperatedly.

“It’s not a dance it’s… You know what, forget it. You’ll understand soon enough.”

Chloe hummed in agreement and looked at the box she was still carrying.

“You know I’m still not sure about this, right?”

“It’s worth it Chloe.” Chat told her, hopping up onto the railing. “Look, why don’t spend tonight just relaxing and taking it easy. Just hold on to the box for now and we can get started on teaching you the ropes tomorrow after school?”

Knowing it was Adrien under that mask, Chloe suddenly felt very uneasy seeing him balancing precariously over a five-story drop. She knew Chat Noir never fell, but she still reached up and grabbed his arm anyway.

“You know you could just walk across the street. We can literally see your front door from here,” she suggested. He smiled at her and squatted down on the rail to look her eye to eye.

He carefully removed her hand from his arm and held it between his.

“True, but remember what Plagg said. Our time is limited, so enjoy it.” And with that he let go of her hand and launched himself backwards into the air. Chloe almost screamed out his name, but caught herself before she did. Instead she just huffed and shook her head as she watched Paris’s favorite cat pole-vault and backflip his way to the back of the Agreste Mansion.

“Show off.”

With an affectionate smile she turned and went back inside. Chat was right, it was nearly dinner time, and for the first time she was ending Sophia Agreste’s anniversary without her stomach churning with bad butterflies. She grabbed her mineral water and drained the whole bottle in one go. Not very lady like, but then, who cared really? Catching site of herself in the reflection off one of her windows she cringed. Had she really spent the entire afternoon with Adrien looking like that? It was a good thing he was family, anyone else would have to be killed for seeing her in such a state. Making her way to the bathroom grabbed another bottle of mineral water and put the box in a place of honor atop her Ladybug pillow, before stepping into the bathroom to freshen up.

She thought about what she would like Serge to bring her for dinner as she ran herself a bath and tried to keep herself from dry sobbing again after getting a good look at her swollen red eyes. She didn’t notice the heavily varnished box begin to slip from atop the round and fuzzy ladybug pillow. No sooner had she closed the door than the box fell off the pillow and the bed and bounced off the stairs, popping open and releasing an orb of golden light.

Author’s Notes:

Regarding the lateness of this chapter: As you can tell, this chapter took a lot longer to write than was anticipated. I blame Chloe. Entire pages were deleted and completely rewritten several times because the girl would just not stop talking I kept losing the plot thread. I think I must have written another chapter’s worth of just rambling between Chloe and Adrien. Several times I’d have to stop writing the conversation I was working on and go back to see if I have already written it somewhere else in that draft. There was a lot of Chloe’s character that had to be gone into, or at least touched upon in this chapter, and I’m still worried that too much was crammed in at once.

Regarding Adrien: Adrien is a cinnamon roll. He’s got a bit more of a lip on him now after spending a year with Plagg, but he is still a cinnamon roll. Just to clarify, he knows which Kwami is in the box, although he hasn’t met them personally. A bit more about this will be gone into in later chapters, but that is one of the key reasons he picked Chloe over, say, Nino or Alya. The moment he heard “Queen” he thought Chloe.

Regarding Plagg: Plagg is a really fun character to write once I figured out how I wanted to write him. I can summarize my take on him in one word, nihilistic. In two words, positively nihilistic. As he said, he’s the Kwami of destruction. He understands better than anyone how fragile and fleeting life is, and rather than despair at it, he embraces all the time he has and encourages those around him to do the same. I think this maybe a fairly cannon interpretation of him too, though I’m ashamed to say that he only clicked with me as I was writing the final draft of the ending. Originally, I just had him complain that they kids were wasting time and he sped of the process so he could go eat finally.

Regarding Chloe’s hatred of Marinette and her fears of being disowned and of Pizza: Two of these will be gone into in detail in later chapters, one not so much. I leave it to you to guess which.

#Fanfiction #chloe bourgeois #Miraculous Ladybug #Adrien and Chloe sibling love #Sorry for the wait everyone #hope you like it!#Chlolya #Chloya

19 notes · View notes

royalfoxfics · 7 years ago

Photo

Art by Twin Doodle

Ao3

FF.net

In which we round out the cast, Chloe needs some sleep, and someone only thinks outside the box.

Adrien smiled as he stepped out of his private (and still completely unnecessary) limo and saw Nino, Alya, and Marinette waiting for him at the top of the school’s stairs. The three of them waved to him and he said a quick goodbye to Nathalie and Gorilla before going up to meet them.

“Yo dude, what’s up?” Nino asked, exchanging their patented “secret” handshake.

“Not much, just glad to be back at school,” he told them, with a tired smile.

The other three smiled, but still looked at each other anxiously. It was no secret that yesterday had been the anniversary of his mother’s death. All the fashion industries of Paris had paid tribute to the tragic passing of one of the most beautiful and beloved models it had ever had. Gabriel Agreste made sure of it.

The four of them stood awkwardly looking at each other for a minute. Finally, Alya dropped the casual act with an exasperated groan and grabbed Nino and Marinette to pull all four of them into a big group[kw1] hug. The other two resisted a little at first, but soon gave up and wrapped their arms around Adrien as well. Adrien chuckled a little and did his best to hug them all back.

“Thanks guys…”

They had all made it clear to Adrien that they were there for him, and each had called to check up on him throughout the day yesterday, and had repeatedly offered to come over if he needed them. He could never tell them, but it was their support that made him choose that day to finally confront Chloe and mend their relationship. He knew his friends would be there for him no matter what, and that convinced him he needed to start being there for his family. Well, the family he thought he had a chance of reaching anyway.

The four of them separated with each one of them wiping their eyes. This time their smiles were all much more genuine. Nino patted him on the back and they all silently made their way to class. There wasn’t anything more to be said, his friends were there for him, and that was that.

As he climbed the stairs his thoughts turned to Chloe. She hadn’t answered any of the texts he had sent last night, or this morning for that matter. She had looked pretty tired when he had left her though, so she had probably just went to bed early and had woken up late. She was going to need the rest for this afternoon. He was so excited to show her what she had been missing, he had been half tempted to call her this morning and ask if she wanted to skip school for the day so they could get right to the fun. Ladybug probably wouldn’t approve of such a thing though, so they’d wait. But once that bell rung they would be out the door and hitting the rooftops faster than you could say “Claws Out!”

He was so lost in thought, he barely noticed that Chloe was already in her usual seat when they entered the classroom. She had her back to them and seemed to be muttering to herself while digging around in her purse. As usual the other three completely ignored her, save for Alya who just shot her a nasty look. Adrien only realized she was there after he had sat down and started taking out his things.

“Hey Chloe,” he called. She stiffened up. Clearly, she hadn’t been aware of him either. “How are you…”

His voice died when she turned around to face him. She didn’t look especially happy to see him. Though that may have had something to do with the large and painful looking black eye she was sporting.

Alya whistled loudly, while Marinette did a double take, and Nino quietly whispered “dude” under his breath. They all stared at the bold new ‘racoon’ look the Mayor’s daughter was trying out. She had bags under the eye that wasn’t completely bruised, which were clearly visible since she wasn’t wearing her usual makeup, or even any foundation. Though going off of how swollen and bruised her eye was, it may simply have been too painful to put it on that morning.

Adrien was frozen in his seat one second, and the next he was less than an inch away from her in a state of near panic.

“What happened? Who did this? Are you hurt? Should I call an ambulance? Do you need a doctor? Has anyone seen Rose?”

“Adrien!”

Chloe grabbed him by the cheeks and brought his now fishlipped face level with hers.

“I. Am. Fine.” She told him, looking him straight in the eye, or at least as straight as she could. “I’m okay. It’s just a black eye, nothing to worry about. So calm down, okay?”

Adrien did calm down a bit and Chloe let go of his cheeks and gave him a gentle and reassuring smile.

“…wow.”

Chloe stiffened as she realized they were in public now. A quick glance around and she saw that most of the assembled class was staring at her in surprise. Well, Alya looked like the universe had just turned upside down and Marinette was looking from Adrien to Chloe like she was about to burst into tears, but on the whole the expression was surprise.

“I mean, I’m sure I’ll be fine if my charming Adrikins would give me a kiss to make it all better!” Chloe declared for the classes benefit, being sure to aggressively cuddle up to (elbowed) Adrien and make large pouting kissy lips at him.

Adrien gave a subtle grunt, and gently pushed her back into her seat, giving her an unhappy frown as he clutched his ribs.

“Uh… Yeah you’re fine,” he said, getting the message as she let herself be pushed away, though he made no effort to move from his spot next to her.

Seeing them go back to their normal dynamic, the rest of the class dismissed the odd exchange without a second thought and went about their business. Alya continued to look at them suspiciously, but Marinette breathed a deep sigh of relief. As usual Adrien failed to notice her, but Chloe still shot her a glare, silently telling Marinette not to get too comfortable.

“Seriously though Chloe, what happened to you?” Adrien asked quietly.

Chloe pursed her lips for a moment before answering.

“I had a little… pest problem in my room last night.”

Despite being across the room, Alya suddenly perked up asking, “Was it another Akuma attack?”

Adrien looked worried, as did Marinette for some reason, but Chloe quickly shook her head.

“No. It was just a… wasp or something.”

Alya looked at her skeptically.

“A wasp gave you a black eye?” Then she laughed. “If that’s true, then I think Ladybug might be in danger of losing her place as most heroic bug in Paris.”

Chloe and Adrien looked at her appalled while Marinette seemed to wilt a little for some reason. Noticing Marinette, and the dangerous glares the two blonds were giving her, Alya quickly corrected, “I mean, Ladybug’s still number one of course! She just… never punched the walking Akuma magnet in the face is all.”

The mood did not improve

“For your information, nobody punched me,” Chloe said, tossing her head back dismissively. Then she cringed and gingerly rubbed her still sore and bruised neck. “I just tripped over some furniture while dealing with the little home invader,” she grumbled.

Alya smirked.

“Well, glad to hear karma finally caught up with you.” She said, then went back to her phone, though she gave Marinette an apologetic look.

“Yeah, it can be a real Bee-itch.” Chloe mumbled, still rubbing her neck.

Adrien beamed at her.

“Did you just make a pun?” he whispered to her. Chloe shot him a wiry look.

“Don’t push it,” she told him and nudged him back towards his side of the aisle.

He went, smiling proudly the whole way until his mind began to connect the dots. He looked over at Chloe again and realized for the first time that she was wearing a new hair accessory. She caught his eyes and saw him looking at the golden bee sitting just in front of her pony tail in place of a hair tie. It blended in with her golden blond hair perfectly, so you wouldn’t notice it immediately unless you knew to look for it, but Adrien did, and he quickly realized who the “pest” in her room last night must have been.

Before he could do anything but give her a guilty and questioning look, a loud gasp and the thudding of falling books drew everyone’s attention to the front of the class. Rose, with Juleka of course, had arrived.

As soon as she had spotted Chloe’s black eye, Rose had dropped the school books she was carrying and thrown her hands up to her face to gasp in horror at such an injury. Juleka on the other hand looked almost impressed.

“Oh my goodness! Are you okay?”

Rose produced a bright pink first aid box from… somewhere, and nearly flew to her injured classmate. It made no difference that Chloe and her toady Sabrina were still the number one source of torment and suffering for herself and everyone else at the school. Someone was hurt, so Rose had to take care of them. Juleka just shook her head and began picking up the books Rose had dropped, as Rose pressed her palm against Chloe’s forehead and started shining a light in her eyes.

As Chloe tried in vain to fight off her class’s self-appointed nurse, she leaned back and accidently stuck her hand into her purse.

“OW!”

Rose jumped back as Chloe swore and quickly pulled her stinging hand out of the angrily buzzing lion’s den she had foolishly stuck it in.

“Oh no! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt-”

“It wasn’t you!” Chloe snapped, holding her already swelling hand and glaring at her previously beloved designer handbag. “I just… pricked myself on something in my purse…”

Rose gasped again and grabbed Chloe’s hand. She pulled a magnifying glass out of the first aid box and began looking it over closely.

“Was it broken glass? There could be shards in the skin! We’ll need to cut them out immediately if it’s broken glass before it gets into the bloodstream.”

Chloe felt close to tears as she tried to pull her hand back and saw Juleka carefully lift a sterilized pink scalpel from the first aid box to hand to Rose.

Adrien couldn’t help but give a sympathetic smile as Chloe began pleading for her hand back and insisting that there was no glass. He didn’t enjoy seeing her suffer, but even he had to agree she had it coming. Like she’d said, karma was a real bee-itch. Though Chloe would get a chance to dish out some just desserts of her own soon, and he was sure she’d start changing her ways once she got a taste of that sweet nectar of justice.

…And got to flirt with a few girls.

‘Well,’ he thought, as he watched Rose lead a still frantic and almost broken Chloe out the door and off to the school nurse’s office.

‘If she can survive that long...’

Chloe lay on the school’s hospital bed feeling like a partially wrapped frozen mummy.

Once Rose had noticed the bruise on Chloe’s neck while they were waiting for the nurse to fetch an icepack for her eye, she had nearly stripped Chloe naked searching for more. Of course, Chloe had had to go through a similar experience the previous night after Serge had found her kneeling in the wreckage of her penthouse, but at least the private doctor Serge had called to see to her hadn’t gasped in horror at every injury, and repeatedly asked her if she was being abused at home.

She couldn’t fault Rose or the Nurse for asking those questions. Heck, she had been abused last night, but she couldn’t very well tell them it had been by her new… friend. Still, the questions only stopped when the nurse called Serge himself to have him verify her “pest control” story. She did find it a bit odd that the Nurse had known to call Serge instead of the mayor’s office, and even had her butlers cell number on file, but then it may well have been Serge who had signed all of her school paperwork. Her father was extremely careful about what he put his signature on.

However, while Serge confirmed that she had been seen by a trusted doctor the previous night, he had also expressed his support of Rose and the Nurse’s refusal to allow Chloe to return to class, given the battered state she was in. Her father was still blissfully unaware of the extent of the previous night’s incident, so Chloe had little in the way of threats to offer as argument.

Which was why she now found herself laying on a cheap, commoner’s hospital cot, wrapped head to foot in compression bandages, both to hold the multitude of icepacks covering her bruises in place and (she suspected) to keep her from sneaking away.

She glared angrily at the ceiling. She couldn’t even shop on her phone while she waited because it had been smashed into a thousand pieces after its’ three story drop, and the replacement wouldn’t be ready until that afternoon. She was sore, she was cold, she was humiliated, and she was dreadfully bored.

She adjusted herself a little so she could look over at her purse sitting a few feet away. The Kwami was still inside as far as she knew. No, it had a name… what was it again? Pigeon? Pippin? Something like that.

She closed her eyes and tried to think back to the previous night.

“I still do not understand why you are so insistent about going to school tomorrow, Mademoiselle,” Serge replied curtly from the empty closet where he was hanging up her clothes for the next day.

Chloe adjusted herself on the hotel room’s bed uncomfortably, and not just from the welts and bruises covering her body. Serge had called a private doctor to check her over as soon as he had seen the insect stings covering her face and arms. She had spent the last hour being poked, prodded, and examined as she repeated again and again that she had been stung by a very big bee. The doctor had eventually released her back to Serge’s care, saying that she would be sore for a day or two thanks to the bruising, but the swelling from the stings would likely go down by morning.

Serge had then called her father and made her explain to him what had happened. Of course, she may have glossed over the true extent of her injuries while on the phone with him, which earned her a suspicious look from Serge, but her father didn’t ask to many questions. He never did.

Serge did ask though. She’d long ago learned that a half-truth was the best lie, so she told him everything from the moment she left the bath. She just left out the bits about the miraculous or the fact that the bee could talk. Still, he could tell she was hiding something. He was normally good about giving her her privacy, like any good butler should, but it was another matter when he thought her silence could be putting herself in danger.

Which was why he had made her change rooms for the night. He said it was because he couldn’t have the broken windows of her penthouse replaced until morning, but Chloe knew it was so he could keep a closer eye on her. Not that changing the room would keep her safe from the tiny terror when it was still trapped in the history book she was still holding. Serge had to have been aware of how protective she had suddenly become of her homework, but he had yet to say anything about it. She’d kept a death grip on the book since he had found her, even during the medical exam. The Kwami inside had gone completely quiet after she slipped away to hide the miraculous while they were waiting for the doctor. She’d snapped the jewelry box shut with the comb still inside and stuffed it into her purse while Serge was marveling at the destroyed closet.

Now she was waiting for Serge to finish setting up her temporary room and leave, so she could try to make nice with the creature she had repeatedly bludgeoned over the head and kept pressed flat inside of a high school text book for the last hour and a half.

…Then again, maybe she could just tie the book shut with a belt or something and leave it till tomorrow.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Serge stepped back into view and repeated his request.

“Mademoiselle, please. You are hurt, you are tired, and you will most certainly have a horrendous black eye tomorrow amongst all your other injuries. Would it not be better for you to simply stay home and let yourself recover, rather than needlessly risk going out in public in such a state?”

Chloe sighed and tried to roll onto her back with only a small groan of pain.

“I’m sure seeing me in ‘such a state’ would only boost the school’s morale,” she said bitterly. “Plus, Sabrina’s still out with the flu, so I have to take notes and get our homework.”

There was a long pause and then,

“I am calling the doctor back immediately. Clearly Mademoiselle is suffering from some horrific head injury that was missed in the initial diagnosis.”

“Fine!” Chloe groaned, forcing herself up into a sitting position to look at him with a tired glare. Serge simply looked back at her expectantly, waiting for the truth. Chloe’s attitude held for only a few seconds under his gaze before she had to look away.

She didn’t trust anyone completely, but her personal butler came close. She had known Serge longer than she could remember, and he was one of the few people in the world who cared about her enough to tell her when she was wrong. She’d never lied to him, but there were some secrets she had never told anyone. She wouldn’t lie to him now, but it seemed another half-truth was in order.

“Look I… I made up with Adrien today.”

Judging by his expression, Serge hadn’t been expecting that answer at all.

“We talked and I… I apologized for the way I had been using him for the last few years. I told him I was only flirting with him so I wouldn’t have to deal with any other boys flirting with me.”

“That much, was obvious,” Serge said flatly. Though he had an amused smile on his lips. Chloe shot him a warning look and continued.

“Anyway, I apologized for being weird, he apologized for… I don’t know, he didn’t do anything wrong. We talked about how much we missed Aunt Sophia and about Uncle Gabriel and we… made up. We’re friends again. For real.”

Serge walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder gently. “I’m sure Mademoiselle Sophia would be most happy to hear that.”

Chloe just nodded.

“Yeah, well. Adrien said he wanted to meet up after school tomorrow so we could hang out, just the two of us.” If you don’t count the ancient spirit partners anyway, she added mentally. “It hasn’t been just us for so long, and Sabrina is still out sick and Adrien’s schedule is actually clear for once so I don’t want to miss the chance and...”

She trailed off, keeping her eyes focused on her bedspread instead of Serge. Everything she had said had been the honest truth, even if she was dancing around some of the minor details. Like how she had talked with Adrien in person after he had cat burgled his way in to her apartment, or that their little get together tomorrow was for superhero training.

Minor or not, Serge still seemed to know she wasn’t giving him all the facts. However, he seemed satisfied that she would be in safe company, so he relented.

“If that is the case, then I shall of course ensure that mademoiselle’s schedule is also clear tomorrow afternoon.”

She smiled at him gratefully.

“However,” he added sternly, “I must insist that you not push yourself, Mademoiselle. As you have said, you will be without Mademoiselle Sabrina tomorrow, so-“

“I promise I’ll behave,” Chloe interrupted. Serge looked skeptical so she added, “hey, the last thing I need is to be running from another Akuma like this.” She gestured to the red welts still throbbing on her otherwise flawless complexion.

Serge gave her a sympathetic look and nodded.

“Very well, Mademoiselle. Is there anything else you require?”

Chloe let her eyes fall shut and shook her head slowly.

“No, I think that will be all for tonight, Serge.”

Her butler smiled and helped her lay back down and tucked her into bed. She yawned and could feel herself quickly drifting off to sleep when she heard Serge say,

“I’ll just leave your text book on the bedside table for you then.”

‘…Merde.’

Chloe kept her eyes shut and her expression neutral as Serge turned off the lights and left. He paused only a moment to half whisper, “goodnight Mademoiselle,” before closing the door.

As soon as she heard the soft click of the latch, Chloe threw off the covers with a muffled groan of pain and switched on the bedside lamp. She silently berated herself for letting go of the book. It was still completely motionless on the bedside table, but for all she knew the Kwami had slid out of it the moment she had loosened her grip. She tapped tentatively on the beaten-up cover.

“Hey?” she whispered. “You in there?”

There was no reply.

Carefully, she picked up the book by the front and back covers and shook it out over the floor. A few more pages fell out, but no Kwami.

She put the book back on the small table with a soft thud. Wonderful. She had a pint-sized terror with an elephant-sized ego and a grudge to match hiding somewhere in her room, waiting to strike with a venom tipped needle attached to its’ rear end. Was it really too much to ask for this night to just be over already?

She wracked her exhausted brain for options as she looked about the unfamiliar gloom of her temporary room. The little pest could be hiding anywhere and she had no means of finding it, or even properly defending herself without creating a racket and waking up everyone on the floor. Still, she couldn’t just wait for it to attack her during the night. She needed help, but who? And how? Her cellphone was smashed to bits on the sidewalk below, and she couldn’t risk Serge or one of the other servants finding the guardian spirit of a Miraculous…

‘The Miraculous!’

Chloe got out of bed as stealthily as she could and made her way over to her purse. Chat Noir and Ladybug were supposed to be able to call each other with their weapons. Maybe she could use the Miraculous he had given her to contact Adrien so he could come over and deal with the little monster he had given her. It was a slim chance admittedly, but it was the only chance she had.

She tiptoed over to the desk where Serge had left her things. Her nerves were nearly shot, but she kept on high alert, her every sense straining to detect even the slightest hint of movement. Her imagination kept taunting her with images of the Kwami waiting to lunge out from the shadows to attack her ankles. Reaching her target, she quickly snapped open the five-hundred-dollar handbag and pulled out the unassuming looking wooden box. It looked remarkably innocent, especially since it was the source of the utter fiasco her quiet evening had turned into. She opened it to grab the comb inside, but nearly dropped it as she was blinded by a sudden flare of bright golden light. When she could see again, the Kwami was hovering in front of her, blinking and swaying slightly.

“What? Where are We?” The Kwami shook its’ head and nearly fell out of the air. Once it got its’ bearings it noticed Chloe standing in the gloom. “Oh! You must be our new… Oh, it’s you again.”

The Kwami glared at her and Chloe gulped. The book was across the room, so she knew she’d best choose her words very carefully, else her face be used as a pin cushion again. Taking a deep breath, she started to set the box down on the desk so it wouldn’t distract her and addressed the Kwami as politely as possible.

“Okay, look. I think we may have got off on the wrong-“

“Stop!”

Chloe jumped and froze. The Kwami was staring at the box in her hands as if it’s life depended on it. Absentmindedly, she had nearly closed it while setting it down. Sensing a vulnerability, Chloe opened the jewelry box all the way and watched as the Kwami relaxed slightly. Then she slowly started to close it again and saw it worriedly tense up and look anxiously from Chloe to the box.

“You need this to stay open, don’t you?” She asked. The Kwami’s silent glare was all the answer she needed. “This box turns off the miraculous, doesn’t it? Or like, blocks the signal or something so you can’t… project from it? Like putting a cellphone in a led safe! I’m right aren’t I?” Again, the Kwami only glared in response. Chloe smiled in triumph. She had the power now, and it felt good.

The temptation to just snap the box shut so she could sleep undisturbed for the rest of the night was strong, but she knew that the threat of punishment was sometimes more advantageous in the long run than a direct show of force.

“Alright, here’s the deal. You stop stinging and spitting insults at me and do what I say, and I let you stay awake and bask in the life of luxury with me, alright?”

The Kwami grumbled under its breath, but nodded obediently.

“We have no choice in the matter. If you truly are our chosen, then we must do as you wish, no matter how… distasteful We find it.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still not really sold on this whole ‘chosen’ thing,” Chloe said, more to herself than to the Kwami. The Kwami still perked up however, somehow looking both hopeful and offended at the same time.

“What do you mean you are not ‘sold’ on bearing our miraculous? It is an honor any would gladly give their left eye for!”

“Keep it down!” Chloe hissed, glancing over at the door. “Do you want to wake up the whole hotel?”

“Hotel…”the Kwami repeated. “We are visiting some foreign land then?”

“No, I live here,” Chloe explained, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Look, I live in the greatest hotel in France, you trashed my penthouse so I’m staying in a commoner’s room for the night. My dad is the Mayor of Paris, my best friend is Chat Noir, and he’s the one that gave you to me. He and Ladybug have been fighting Hawkmoth and his Akumas for like, two years now, and I guess they need more help now or something. Anyway, Chat thinks I’m the girl for the job, but I wasn’t supposed to open your box until tomorrow after school when he was going to train me. Right now, I’m tired, I’m sore and I’d really like to get some sleep. So, how about we just forget about all the fighting and yelling until tomorrow, okay?”

The Kwami seemed to be dazed again by Chloe’s quick and dirty summary of events. Chloe let it have a few seconds more to process the information until the pain in her back and lower extremities became too much, and she turned to hobble back to bed.

“Wait!”

“Oh, what now?” Chloe turned again and looked back at the Kwami impatiently.

“You… We never made proper introductions. Also, you will have to put on the Miraculous before We will recognize you as our new master.” The Kwami added, closing its eyes and putting on that infuriating air of superiority again and turning its’ nose up at her. Well, it didn’t have a nose that Chloe could see, but still.

Chloe sighed, and decided the quickest way to bed would be to just give it what it wanted.

“Fine.”

With some difficulty due to her swollen finger, Chloe finally took the golden comb out of the box and put the box back into her purse. After a few seconds of trying to figure out how to wear the comb fashionably, she gave up and pulled her loose hair into its usual ponytail and used the comb to hold it in place.

“Happy?” She asked, gesturing at the hastily made and slightly lopsided ponytail. The Kwami looked her over unimpressed.

“It will have to do for now, We suppose…”

“Good.” Chloe limped over to the Kwami and stuck out her hand. “Chloe Bourgeois, Mayor’s daughter.”

The Kwami just looked at her.

“…Bourgeois?”

“Yes.”

“Your name is Bourgeois?”

Chloe could feel her anger beginning to rise again as she fought to keep her hand held out in friendly greeting.

“Yes,” she answered tartly.

“As in… the middleclass?”

“It’s an old name,” she said through gritted teeth.

The Kwami just continued to stare blankly at her until it shifted its gaze up to the roof.

“…What did We do to deserve this humiliation?”

“Oh, come on!” Chloe withdrew her hand and felt ready to burst into tears of frustration right there. “It doesn’t matter what the name means, okay? My family has been the head of Paris for more than two decades!”

The Kwami simply scoffed at her.

“No doubt thanks to some less than ethical political moves, if your attitude is anything to go by.”

Chloe was about to argue back, but the words died on her tongue.

“…You know, you’re right,” she admitted, looking down at the floor. “That’s exactly how we got here.”

The Kwami gaped at her in horror, but Chloe kept her gaze elsewhere and continued somberly.

“My father has used nearly every dirty trick in the book short of actual murder to keep himself in office. He’s used blackmail, slander, bribery, anything it took to destroy his opponents image and keep himself looking completely clean. But you want to know something else? He has no idea that the biggest scandal in Paris is sitting right under his nose.”

The Kwami jumped a little in midair as Chloe suddenly looked up at it with an angry fire burning in her eyes.

“He has no idea his precious only daughter loves girls more than Jagged Stone loves skin tight leather, and I’ve had to keep that secret from him and everyone else in Paris all my life! Then Adrien and his smelly cat thing show up and say, ‘hey if you want to help fight super villains we’ll give you some cool superpowers so you can flirt with cute girls without anyone knowing it’s you!’ Only it turns out that the combee of my miraculous is a stab happy little monster with an ego bigger than its own fat head, so I don’t know if I’m ever going to get that chance to actually be me for once in my life!”

Chloe managed to hold her furious glare at the baffled looking Kwami for all of three seconds until physical pain and emotional exhaustion overtook her again. She nearly collapsed and had to reach out to grasp the desk for support. The Kwami simply hovered silently in the air and watched as Chloe slowly gathered what remained of her strength.

After nearly a minute, Chloe limped her way back to the bed and climbed in. She barely noticed as the Kwami followed her silently and settled on top of the history book still sitting on the bedside table. Chloe pulled the now cold blankets over herself and let her head hit the silk covered pillow with a dull thump. She let out a long breath as she tried to relax into the soft mattress. She was so close to finally getting some rest, when the Kwami loudly cleared its’ throat next to her.

“We… We are willing to acknowledge that we have both been… not at our best tonight,” it said slowly. Chloe opened one eye and gave it a tired glare as she made a show of snuggling down deeper into the blankets. The Kwami seemed not to notice and continued.

“We… We would not be opposed to making a second attempt at first impressions. When we are both in a better state of mind of course.”

Chloe sighed and reached to switch off the light in an attempt to end the conversation, but hesitated when she noticed the history book the Kwami was perched on. Maybe if she gave it something to do it would leave her alone.

“Here,” she said, carefully shooing the Kwami off the book and opening it for it. “You can read this and get caught up on some of the history you missed while I get some sleep.”

The Kwami hesitantly approached the book. When it was sure Chloe wasn’t going to try to trap it inside again, it began flipping through the table of contents. Once it seemed settled in, Chloe settled back into bed with her back to the light.

“Just keep it down, okay?” she asked over her shoulder. The Kwami gave no response that she could hear, but she took that as a yes.

Just before she slipped off to sleep, she realized she still had one important question nagging in the back of her mind.

“Hey, what’s your name anyway?”

The Kwami didn’t answer.

“Are you still there?” Chloe asked, making the mistake of twisting around to look over at the table. Her body screamed in protest and she quickly flopped back to her original position. The Kwami was still there, but it was looking off into space again.

“What? Yes, yes We are still here.” It answered, shaking its’ head. “It has just been several centuries and We…” It thought for a long moment until its eyes lit up in recognition.

“Pollen! Our name is Pollen. We are the Kwami of…” Its’ voice trailed off again.

Chloe waited for it to finish for a few more seconds before giving up and trying to get comfortable again.

“Whatever, Pollen it is.” She yawned again and pulled the sheets over her head. “Goodnight, Pollen.”

Pollen didn’t hear her. They were too busy staring at a chapter in the history book labeled:

“1800’s Century Political Corruption and “Le Piquer Royale”: The Queen of Thieves”

Authors notes

Regarding Serge: Chloe’s butler is an interesting character and more will be seen of him in later chapters. I think his relationship with Chloe is pretty obviously inspired by some other famous butler in fiction. I chose his name because it means “attendant,” “protector,” or “shepherd.” All of which fit the character I’m giving him perfectly.

Regarding the Miraculous Box: Yes I am aware that Tikki disappeared as soon as Marinette took off the earrings in the origin episode, not when she put them in the box. Again, AU.

Regarding “Le Piquer Royale”: I do not speak French, but roughly translated it means “The Royal Sting” and we will learn a bit more about her later too. Though I’m sure you all already have theories.

#Chlolya #Fanfiction #chloe burgeois #Adrien and Chloe sibling love #Pollen #Chloe's Buttler #Eventual Chlolya

2 notes · View notes