Chapter Text
“AAAAAAAH! AAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
After a moment of frozen shock, Ladybug and Chat Noir scrambled across the floor to the screaming young girl curled up against the wall.
The red suited heroine reached her first and hesitantly reached a hand out to touch her shoulder. Chloé flinched and curled up into a tighter ball lying on her side as she continued to scream.
“Chloé, Chloé, it’s alright, you’re safe now!” Ladybug said loudly. Chloé gave no indication she heard, she just kept wailing.
Ladybug gave Chat Noir a panicked look, completely at a loss of what to do.
With a resolute expression Chat Noir scooted closer and began to gently stroke Chloés head.At first he used a feather light tough, but after just a few strokes Chloés wails already began to lower into sobs. Chat Noir inched even closer and smoothly transferred Chloés head to his lap, where he resumed the head strokes with firmer pressure while softly saying “It’s okay, we’re here for you, it’s okay.”
Ladybug recalled what her mother would do then she was small and scared and upset. She hesitantly reached over to stroke Chloés back in imitation of her mothers memory. This time Chloé didn’t flinch away. She was still crying, but she loosened a little more from her protective ball.
For several long minutes the three of them stayed like that, the heroes giving Chloé as much comfort as they could while Chloé released her outpouring of pain and sadness.
Eventually Chloé cried herself out, and or several moment she laid there quietly, sniffling and exhausted. Eventually she pushed herself up, eyes red and puffy and nose running. She looked around, confusion growing on her face.
“Where…are we?” She asked horsely.
“Evangelines place,” Chat Noir answered gently. “She’s been helping us out. We wouldn’t have been able to to save you without her.”
Chloé slowly blinked at him, as if the information was having a hard time sinking in.
Twin beeps from Chat Noirs ring and Ladybugs earrings shattered the quiet. A quick glance revealed they each had one dot left each - Chloés cries had drowned out the previous warnings.
Ladybug took one of Chloés hands in both of hers.
“Chloé, I PROMISE we’ll be right back, okay? We just need two minutes to recharge, but we’ll just be on the roof, we won’t be far at all, okay?”
A brief expression of panic flashed across Chloés face, but she clenched her jaw and nodded.
Ladybug quickly climbed out the window and scrambled up to the rooftop. Chat Noir hesitated, watching Chloé in concern as she stared downward, eyes unfocused. He shook his head and followed Ladybug out.
Chloé absently scratched at her leg and then paused. She focused on her lap and finally noticed her clothes had changed. She examined her stomach, arms, even twisted her head around to look down her back. Chloé touched her face and felt around the mask, her ponytail and the corkscrew twist. It was as she was feeling her hair that her fingers brushed against the hair comb. She frowned, and plucked it out.
A burst of sparkling yellow light burst form the point of contact and rippled down the rest of her body within just a couple of seconds, leaving Chloé back in her old clothes and hair falling around her shoulders again.
Pollen materialized in the air and greeted Chloé with a warm smile.
“Greetings! It’s a pleasure to meet you, my new Queen!”
Chloés jaw dropped and she stared wide eyed at the new kwami.
Pollens expression saddened in sympathy as she took Chloé in. “Oh, you poor dear. Hold on, let me see if I can find some tissues for you.”
Chloé kept gaping as Pollen zipped over and disappeared into Evangelines backpack. The bee kawmi popped back up after a few seconds with a packet of tissues and quickly brought it back.
“Here you go, my dear.”
Chloé moved on autopilot to take the package and tear it open. Pollen patiently waited as Chloé dried her eyes and blew her nose and tossed the tissues to the side.
“So…what’s going on?” Chloé asked.
“It’s a long story, and I only know part of it,” Pollen admitted.
Chloé held out a hand, palm up, in silent invitation. “I have time.”
Meanwhile, Ladybug was already sitting at the peak of the roof and Chat Noir was just reaching her when their transformations expired. Marinette reached down and helped Adrian up the last couple of feet so he could sit besides her.
“Thanks Bugaboo.”
“You took your time coming up. Everything okay?”
Adrian didn’t answer right away, instead focusing on taking out a heavily wrapped cheese wheel for an unusually somber looking Plagg. Marinette was handing Tikki her cookie when Adrian finally responded.
“You know Chloé knows I’m Chat Noir, right?”
Marinette and Tikki froze mid-exchange and stared at Adrian in wide-eyed shock. It passed quickly, with Tikki nodding thoughtfully and Marinettes shoulders slumping.
“That’s why she refused to tell Ladybug anything,” Marinette said morosely. “It wasn’t about Ladybug at all. It was all because she didn’t want you, Chat Noir, to find out what she did.”
“And she couldn’t tell me that she already knew that I was Chat Noir because then she’d have to explain why she figured it out when no one else could, so she had to play dumb,” Adrian added.
“So why bother coming out here then?” Plagg asked. “It’s not like you have to hide from her now.”
“I don’t think she knows that I know she knows,” Adrian explained. “Yeah, we have to talk about it eventually, but she’s been through so much and I don’t want to overwhelm her. We can talk about it later, after she’s had time to rest and recuperate.”
“A wise decision,” Tikki said approvingly. “But she does need to understand what’s happened to her right now.”
Once they were recharged and transformed again, Ladybug and Chat Noir swung back in through the window. Pollen was sitting in Chloés palm, and while they raised their heads to watch the heroes come in, their position gave the impression they had been putting their heads together moments before. Ladybug awkwardly felt like they were intruding on a private conversation.
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to interrupt you two,” Ladybug said apologetically.
Pollen shook her head and smiled comfortingly. “It’s alright, I was just letting Chloé know what’s happened so far.”
Chloé let out a huff and refused to meet anyones eyes. “I really did turn into a Witch, huh? I was hoping that was just an awful nightmare.”
Chat Noir knelt besides Chloé and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look at him.
“Yes you did, and I’m so sorry it happened to you,” he said. “You didn’t deserve that, no one deserves that. But you don’t have to be scared anymore, you’re safe now.”
Chloés expression darkened.
“Until the next time I transform because I ran out of Grief Seeds.”
Chat Noir and Ladybug looked at Pollen.
“We hadn’t gotten to that part yet,” the kwami explained.
Chloés expression morphed into confusion. “What part? What’re you talking about?”
Ladybug knelt in front of Chloé and pointed to the comb she held loosely in her free hand.
“That comb is the Bee Miraculous. While you were…gone…Chat Noir figured out that we could combine a Miraculous with the Grief Seed that used to be your Soul Gem and use the process to change you back.”
“Hey, I can’t take all the credit!” Chat Noir protested lightly. “I couldn't have done it without your help, Bugaboo.”
“You were still the brains, Chaton,” Ladybug replied with a slight smile. She sobered as she focused again on Chloé. “Anyway, since your Soul Gem is merged with a Miraculous now, it doesn’t need to be charged or cleansed or whatever anymore. You don’t need to hunt Witches to survive.”
Initially there was no reaction, as if Chloé literally couldn’t comprehend was Ladybug was saying. Then her eyes began to widen, and she gently bounced Pollen into the air to free up her hand. For ten long seconds she stared at the back of her hand, her middle finger bereft of the silver ring with the citrine stone, her finger nail bare of the yellow hexagon that once stamped it. Ladybug didn’t think she breathed the entire time.
Chloé twirled her wrist around once, twice, three times, and every time her Soul Gem failed to manifest. She looked down at the comb in her other hand, to Pollen, to Ladybug, Chat Noir, and back to Ladybug.
In a quiet, frail voice she asked:
“I’m…I’m free?”
Ladybug smiled and nodded.
“Yes. You are free.”
Tears streamed down Chloés face again, but this time she was smiling, bright and pure like a cleansing rain. It was as if a weight had been lifted off of her, and Ladybug was seeing the sheer relief as Chloé was freed from her burden.
Pollen dropped down and retrieved a tissue from a package she must have found somewhere and silently handed it to Chloé, who took it with a thankful nod and wiped her face again.
“Can I go home now?” She asked. “I want to see my daddy.”
“Of course!” Chat Noir answered eagerly, but Ladybug held a hand up.
“Wait, there’s one last thing we need to go over; what are we going to tell everyone?”
“What’s to tell?” Chat Noir asked. “We can just say we found her and…oh. Yeah, people are going to ask where Chloé’s been this whole time and why no one could find her until now.”
“And we can’t say she was kidnapped because then we’d have to explain where the kidnappers went and why we couldn’t catch them,” Ladybug added. “And we can’t say they got away, because then the police are going to waste time and resources trying to hunt down kidnappers that don’t exist.”
“But we don’t want a story that’s so simple it makes the police look incompetent,” Chat Noir said thoughtfully. “I don’t like some of what they said and did, but they don’t deserve to be embarrassed like that either.”
Chloé snorted. “You guys are making this way harder than it has to be. You do realize my daddy’s the mayor, right? Let HIM make up a story.”
The heroic duo gave Chloé identical incredulous looks.
“Say what?” Was Ladybugs articulate response. Chloé rolled her eyes.
“Obviously we can’t tell Daddy the ENTIRE truth, but we can tell him the important bits. I ran off on my own because I was upset, which is true, but later that night I was captured by a magical monster that feeds off negative emotions, and it kept me basically in a coma the whole time. You two tracked it down, defeated it, and rescued me. So long as Daddy thinks it was just a one-off monster, he’ll will want to avoid panic and will spin some other story. He’ll tell the ‘truth’ to anyone who absolutely needs to know, but he can make sure that whatever story he makes up is believable enough and corroborated enough that the public will buy it without too much question.”
Ladybug bit her lower lip, doubtful that it could truly be that easy. “Would he really believe all that?”
“If it’s coming from you, absolutely,” Chloé said confidently. “And he’ll believe it because you’re going to make a big deal about how this HAS to stay a secret, and he’s one of the few people important enough who gets to know the truth.
“The police get to save face, the public gets appeased, Daddy feels like he’s in the loop, and you guys build more trust with the Mayor. Everyone wins.”
Ladybug and Chat Noir stared speechlessly at Chloé. Pollen was positively beaming.
“I’m going to LIKE this one!” She declared.
Ladybug snapped her hanging jaw shut. “That’s…a really good idea, actually. But uh, please keep Pollen and the Miraculous a secret for now. There’s more we need to talk about, but I think it can wait until tomorrow.”
Chloé eagerly nodded and secured the comb in her hair again. Ladybug exited out the window first, followed by Chat Noir holding Chloé in a bridal carry with Pollen flying after them, and together they traversed across the rooftops straight to the Le Grand Paris hotel.
Now that night had fallen, they could travel with minimal notice. Ladybug was grateful for this, André deserved to be the first person to see his daughter again, not some random passerby taking a picture for their social media.
Things had been going so well, Ladybug should have guessed that her luck was about to run out.
They had just landed on a flat rooftop when a translucent green dome appeared around them, forcing them to skid to a stop before the collided with the wall. Chat Noir took a few steps back and tightened his grip protectively around the girl he held.
“Another Akuma? Seriously?!” He exclaimed. Chloé loudly groaned and dramatically dropped her head backwards, more annoyed than worried.
Ladybug, however, felt a sickening sinking feeling in her stomach.
“No,” she said. “I don’t think it’s an Akuma.”
A figure in green with a wide brimmed hat dropped down in a crouch in front of them. He slowly stood and raised his head to reveal the masked face of an older asian man, and his short stature did nothing to lessen the effect of his cold, angry glare.
“Uh, hello there, Master…” Ladybug said, trailing off nervously.
“Call me Jade Turtle,” the transformed Master Fu said. He crossed his arms behind his back and gave Ladybug a frosty look. “You had been performing so admirably as Ladybug until now. I thought you had the makings of a great hero. I have no words to express how disappointed I am that you would stoop so low as to steal a Miraculous.”
“You did WHAT?!” Chat Noir yelped.
“You STOLE it?!” Chloé screeched at the same time.
Pollen merely covered her mouth with her nubby hands in disbelief.
Ladybug cringed back as if the twins yells were physical hits.
Jade Turtle glanced at Chat Noir, then did a double take when he saw the girl in his arms.
“Is that…Ladybug, did you trade the…no, that doesn’t make sense, if you traded the Miraculous for Miss Bourgeois safe return, Pollen would not be here. What is going on, Ladybug?”
“It’s…a long story,” Ladybug said, twisting her hands nervously.
Chloé scoffed. “Oh for the love of - this is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”
She pushed against Chat Noirs chest for him to put her down. She wobbled on her legs for a moment, but visibly summoned all her strength to stand and walk forward until she was standing before Jade Turtle, staring him down with all the supreme arrogance of a queen.
“You’re the one who gave Ladybug and Chat Noir their Miraculouses in the first place, aren’t you?”
Jade Turtle narrowed his eyes. His silence was confirmation enough.
“Thought so. That’s a LOT of power to just give away, so if you gave it to these two then you must have thought they were trustworthy. You thought their judgement was worth trusting. And you were right, Ladybug does have good judgement - if she hadn’t done what she did, she’d be bringing my corpse home instead.”
Chloé leveled a challenging glare at the shorter man.
“Or are you going to stand there and tell me to my face that my life is worth less than one Miraculous?”
Jade Turtle met Chloés glare easily.
“And how do I know you are not exaggerating the danger you were in, Miss Bourgeois?” He asked. “I can see the comb in your hair right now, I’m having trouble imagining any life threatening scenario that would require giving you a Miraculous. Especially one that somehow wasn’t SO urgent you didn’t need it for almost a week.”
“It’s…complicated,” Ladybug said weakly.
Chloé crossed her arms at Jade Turtle.
“Yes, it is a long story, and you have every right to hear it. But right now there’s a man anxiously waiting for his daughter to come home, and he doesn’t deserve to be left waiting a minute longer. After they take me home, and talk to my father, the Mayor, about what happened, THEN you can hear the whole story from these two yourself.”
Pollen came over to hover by Chloés shoulders.
“Master Jade Turtle, I know nothing happened the way you would have wanted it,” she said pleadingly. “But I promise you, it is absolutely vital that I stay with Chloé! When you hear the whole story, you will understand.”
There was a long, tense moment where Jade Turtle silently stared at them all.
“Ladybug,” he said at last, “I will expect to see you within the hour at my home. Come alone.”
“Hold on-!” Chat Noir started to protest, but Ladybug turned around and stopped him with a look.
“It’s alright, Chat,” she said. “After what I did, the least I can do is honor his privacy.”
Chat Noir scowled, but he nodded.
The green shield came down. By now Chloé was visibly trembling from the exertion of standing for so long, but pride kept her on her feet until Chat was at her side again. She practically collapsed into his arms, and he helped hide it by swiftly scooping her up in a bridal carry again before leaping away.
“Thank you,” Ladybug quietly whispered to Jade Turtle in passing.
“One hour,” Jade Turtle repeated cooly. Ladybug gulped, but nodded and swiftly followed after Chat Noir and Chloé.
Jade Turtle watched them leave in silence, hands clasped behind his back
~*~*~*~*~*~
It was a little before 8 pm by the time they landed on the Bourgeois residential balcony. Ladybug felt oddly surprised it was still so early - so much had happened that day it felt like it should be much later already.
Chat Noir set Chloé down as Ladybug slid the glass door open and stepped in, calling out “Hello? Mayor Bourgeois, are you here?”
There was the sound of a door being thrown open, followed by André himself bustling into the living room. His wife followed much more calmly, hand on her hip and looking annoyed by the unexpected visit.
The hero teens stood shoulder to shoulder as the mayor approached, hope and dread clear in his expression.
“Ladybug! Chat Noir! Did you find anything? Did you need something?” The mayor asked.
Wordlessly the pair parted, revealing Chloé standing behind them.
For a moment father and daughter just stared at each other in disbelieving shock.
Tears welled up in Chloés eyes. “Daddy?”
A sob broke out of André, and suddenly he was rushing forward to gather his returned daughter in his arms, enveloping her small form completely in his bulk. The two fell to the floor in a crying, hugging mess of relief and joy. Ladybug put a hand over her heart and smiled as she watched the reunion, and Chat Noir wiped the corner of his eyes.
Ladybug caught Audrey glaring at her, arms crossed in anger. Ladybug subtly turned to keep the woman out of her sight.
André reached out and clasped one of Ladybugs hands while keeping his other arm wrapped tightly around Chloé, smiling and face wet with tears. He looked between Ladybug and Chat Noir, bursting with emotion.
“Thank you! Thank you so much for bringing my baby girl back, both of you! I can never repay you for this, but tell me anything you want and it’s yours!”
“That’s a generous offer, but we don’t need a reward,” Ladybug said kindly. “But we do need to speak with you in private.”
André started to respond, but was cut off by an acidic voice behind him.
“Anything you have to say in front of my husband, you can say in front of me.”
André grimaced, but Chloé went completely still.
The girl pushed herself up so she could peer over her fathers broad shoulder, and stared in wide eyed disbelief at the woman standing across the room.
“Mama?”
Audrey faltered, eyes darting around as if unsure where to look.
Chloé braced against Andrés shoulder and pushed herself to her feet. She stumbled around him and crossed the room on wobbly legs, her eyes staying locked on her mother the entire time, as if all else in the world had disappeared. Audreys eyes widened and she took half a step back, but Chloé was already throwing herself forward to wrap her arms around her.
“Mama! You came back! You came back for me!” Chloé sobbed, clinging desperately to her mother.
Audrey looked shocked by the contact, and could only stiffly pat Chloé on the head, acting more like the girl was an unknown child she wasn’t allowed to push away rather than a mother greeting her daughter.
André beamed as he watched the one-sided embrace, completely oblivious to his wife’s discomfort.
Chat Noir lightly coughed into his fist. “Why don’t we give them a bit of privacy? Do you have an office or something we can talk in?”
“Yes, yes of course!” André said eagerly as he stood. He turned to his wife and said “Please stay with Chloé for a bit, darling, I’ll be right back.”
Audrey grimaced, but said nothing.
André led Ladybug and Chat Noir away into his home office. Once they were behind closed doors Ladybug launched into the story that Chloé suggested, stressing the need for discretion and how this was on a “need to know” basis as per her instruction.
André listed in rapt and occasionally horrified attention. He asked the occasional question, but far less than Ladybug had feared. She liked to think it was because the mayor just had that much faith in herself and Chat Noir, but she also wondered if it was because André simply didn’t want to know too much.
He did ask one question Ladybug wasn’t ready for.
“This…monster that abducted my daughter…did it have any other victims?”
Ladybugs mouth went dry. The words were coming out before she even consciously thought of them.
“Felicity Dionne.”
Chat Noir gave her a startled look that quickly softened into empathy.
“Felicity…she went missing 38 days ago,” Ladybug continued. “She was 14 years old but really mature for her age. She was kind and brave and dedicated to helping others and she was…I couldn’t…”
Andrés expression saddened.
“I understand,” he said softly.
Ladybug looked away, the lump in her throat blocking her voice.
André pulled his cellphone out and pulled up a certain webpage.
“The Ladyblog doesn’t report any sighting of you in the past hour, so it looks like no one saw you bringing Chloé back. That gives me until morning to come up with an alternate story for the press. I’ll keep this to the absolute minimum, but I will have to share the truth with the Chief of Police - I’ll need his cooperation.”
“Officer Raincomprix doesn’t seem like the type of person to go along with a lie,” Chat Noir said uneasily.
“As a police officer, no,” André admitted. “But perhaps I can reason with him as a fellow father. He’d want his daughter to feel safe in her own city, not frighten her unnecessarily.”
“Whatever you think is best,” Ladybug said. “We’re putting our trust in you.”
André puffed up slightly, chuffed by the praise.
The mayor stayed in his office to make his calls. When the heroes returned to the living room they found Audrey and Chloé had moved to the couch. Chloé was lying down in her head in her mothers lap, softly sleeping, while Audrey was sitting up and tapping away on her phone. She glared daggers at Ladybug once more, but the red heroine refused to acknowledge her.
To a woman who valued publicity over her family, there was no greater insult than to be ignored.
As they were leaving through the patio doors, Ladybug spotted Pollen hiding amongst the curtains. The little kwami gave her a smile and a nod, and Ladybug felt something tight in her stomach relax.
It was good to know that Chloé would have additional support. Lord knows she was going to need it.
She and Chat Noir leapt off the balcony and onto the rooftop across the street. Upon landing Chat Noir idly asked “I wonder what story the Mayor is going to come up with.”
“For once, that’s not our problem,” Ladybug replied. “Right now I need to check in with my parents before I go see the Guardian, they’re probably wondering why I’m out so late.”
“Oof, same,” Chat Noir said, his ears flattening slightly. “Father probably wasn’t expecting me to stay after school this late.”
Ladybug paused as the words triggered a memory.
“Hold on. Before, Gabriel said something about how he ‘let’ you go to school today. What was that about?”
Chat Noir cringed back and nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
“Ah. That. Um…well, it turns out Father discovered the book was missing a lot sooner than we expected.”
Ladybug listened in mounting horror as Chat Noir explained what had happened and his fathers ultimatum. At the end here she was wide eyed in a thousand-yard stare.
“I messed up,” she said distantly. “I messed up, I messed everything up. I stole the book and now the Guardian hates me and he’s never going to give it up again and now you’re going to get grounded forever andI’llneverseeyouagainandIwassostupidIshouldn’t-”
Chat Noir grabbed Ladybug by her shoulders, halting her panicked ramblings.
“Hey hey hey, calm down Bugaboo. My father gave me 24 hours to ‘find’ his book, so we still have time. So, go to the Guardian and tell him the truth. All of it. He might not like what we did, but maybe he’ll understand. And if he doesn’t, well, then we’ll cross that bridge together.”
Ladybug blinked up at him, and let out a breath.
“You’re right. One step at a time. I doubt he’d want you to be locked up either anyway.”
Chat Noir grinned and patted Ladybug on the head. “That’s the spirit! Think paw-sitive!”
Ladybug groaned and swiped his hand away.
“Seriously though, call me or text me as soon as you’re done, I don’t care how late it is,” Chat Noir said. “Remember, I’m here for you no matter what.”
Those words, so simple yet so sincere, filled Ladybugs heart to bursting.
“Chaton…no matter what happens, I want you to know you are one of the best things that ever happened to me; the best partner and best friend I could ever ask for. And I am grateful I got to have you in my life.”
Chat Noirs eyes widened and what Ladybug could see of his face reddened into a blush. He gave a shaky laugh and rubbed the back of his neck again.
“Wow Bugaboo, no need to be so serious! We’re just saying goodnight, not goodbye!”
Ladybug smiled and said nothing.
They parted ways but Ladybug only went a short distance before she stopped and turned to watch Chat Noir go, savoring the sight and locking the memory in her heart.
This might be the last time she got to be with him as Ladybug, after all.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Marinette first returned home and apologized to her parents for being out so late, claiming that the two Akumas forced her across the city to escape and her phone ran out of power. After much apologizing, Marinette feigned exhaustion and begged off to go to bed early.
Ladybug left by skylight shortly after.
She was about a block away from Fu’s massage parlor when she came to a stop. She hesitated for a few seconds, then slowly sat down at the base of a chimney block. She pulled up her knees and sat quietly.
For nearly 10 minutes she stayed that way, simply thinking.
Finally she stood again, stretched, and hurried onwards.
Ladybug discretely landed, de-transformed, and was entering Fu’s parlor with barely a minute to spare until the allotted hour he have given her was up. But she hesitated before she turned the door handle.
“Tikki…I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I was really happy for the time we had together.”
The red kwami smiled sadly.
“And I want you to know that I’m so happy I got to have you for my Chosen, Marientte.”
Marinette swallowed back the lump in her throat, and pushed the door open.
Once again Fu was kneeling on the mattress, waiting. This time however, Wayzz was out in the open and hovering above and slightly behind Fu’s shoulder. When Marinette entered, Fu looked upon her with a stoney expression.
“Hello Ladybug.”
Marinette gulped. She kneeled on the floor in front of him as Tikki hovered nervously at her shoulder.
Fu watched her with cold, flinty eyes devoid of all the warmth they held before.
“I don’t think I need to tell you just how dangerously reckless your actions today were. The Order of Guardians, my order, has spent millennia protecting the Miraculous from those that would abuse their power. Thousands of years of unbroken dedication, and it was nearly completely undone in just a few minutes. You not only put the world in danger, but you spat on the sacrifices of all the Guardians of the past.”
Marinette cringed back from the indefensible accusation.
Fu let her stew in shame for a moment before continuing.
“Fortunately, I was able to recover all the Miraculous you scattered. But I can no longer trust you with ladybug earrings.”
Marinette had been expecting this, but it still hit her like a punch in the chest.
Fu let out a sigh.
“However, Miss Bourgeois reminded be that, once upon a time, I did trust your judgement. And you had served admirably as Ladybug up until now. So, in light of your previously exemplary service, I will listen to what you have to say as a courtesy.”
Marinette released a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.
“Thank you Master Fu,” she said sincerely, even bowing her head briefly in respect. “I have to warn you, it’s a long story. Before I start, I have to ask; have you ever met Kyubey?”
Fu rocked back in shock and Wayzz loudly gasped.
“…It seems your story is a complicated on,” Fu said.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Marinette said. “When you get down to it, this isn’t my story. It’s Chloés.”
And so Marinette began her tale.
She started with the first Labyrinth and meeting Felicity, then Kyubey, and being educated on the Accord as she understood it at the time. She explained why she felt compelled to continue following Felicity against Tikki’s advice, learning about the other two mysterious Magical Girls, and her desire to help as Ladybug.
Fu nodded in approval as Marinette shared Chat Noirs decision to stay out of the Magical Girl business so as to protect her identity.
She choked up as she recalled Felicity’s death, the memory still painful a month later. Fu’s eyes softened in heavy sadness, and he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket for her. Marinette accepted it gratefully, wiping her eyes.
“What a terrible thing to witness, especially for one so young,” he said gently. “I am so sorry you had to go through that. I know it hurts, and it might be hard to believe right now, but someday you will be able to remember her with a smile instead of tears.”
Marientte looked down at her lap and twisted the piece of cloth in her hands.
“I’m…scared that I won’t,” she admitted. “I don’t have any pictures or mementos or anything, and it’s…I try to picture her face and it’s…starting to get fuzzy. I can’t remember the exact color of her eyes or whether or not she had freckles, and so many other things. I try to hold her in my mind but she just…slips away.”
Hot tears ran down her cheeks and Marinette buried her face in the handkerchief.
“I feel like such an awful person! She saved my life, Felicity saved my life, and I’m starting to forget her!”
She felt a warm hand settle on her head, and the silent comfort prompted another wave of sobs. Fu continued to gently stroke her head as she cried anew.
At last Marinette was cried out, wiping her eyes and blowing her nose. Fu waited until she was composed again before speaking.
“When I was around your age, I experienced a terrible loss. Friends, teachers, people who were family in all but blood. I swore I would remember then forever, but over the years I began to forget as well - Chens favorite food, Master Wens face, Tiens voice. It was like loosing them all over again, one piece at a time.”
Marinette sniffled. “So, what am I supposed to do?”
Fu smiled, his former warmth returning.
“I remind myself that forgetting is the natural consequence of time, not a sign that I loved them any less. I remember that that they live on in the things they taught me, what we shared together, and the love I still have for them. Tell me Marientte, is remembering the color of Felicity’s eyes more important that remembering her courage? Are her freckles more important than her compassion?”
Marinette slowly shook her head.
“No, I guess not.”
Fu nodded.
“I only know a little of the Magical Girls experience, but I do know it is a lonely one. You offered her companionship and hope, and I know you made her happy.”
Marinette smiled a little. The sadness was still there, but it felt a little bit lighter now.
Fu folded his hands in his lap.
“With Felicity defeated, I take it you had to defeat the Witch yourself then?”
Marientte shook her head.
“No. I was about to, but Chloé arrived first.”
“WHAT?!” Fu exclaimed. He leaned forwarded wide-eyed and insisted “But that’s impossible, it breaks the Accord!”
“Not really,” Marinette said. “The Accord says Kyubey isn’t allow to make Contracts with my family or close friends. Chloé and I knew each other, sure, but we pretty much hated each other at the time, so me being Ladybug didn’t matter.”
Fu started to speak but quickly clamped his mouth shut. He sat back and laced his hands in his lap, the picture of calm serenity once again.
“You are correct, Marinette,” he said evenly. “And…Chat Noir did not know Chloé was a Magical Girl then?”
Marientte had to bite the tip of her tongue to keep her expression impassive, simply shaking her head.
“No, Chat Noir and I just called her ‘Magical Girl’ when we talked about her. If he found out who she was, there was too big a chance he’d find out who I was by association, and we had to avoid that.”
Fu nodded in approval.
“A wise decision. So, what happened after Chloé defeated the Witch?”
Marinette confessed to her initial blow out at Chloé, wrongfully blaming her for Felicity’s death, her subsequent public if slightly vague apology later on, and her decision to support and protect Chloé as best she could from then on out, whatever it took.
Fu’s eyes brightened in realization, but he kept quiet.
He chuckled as Marientte described her failed attempt to get Chloé to open up to Ladybug after the Princess Fragrance fiasco, gasped in horror at Evangelines attack, stared in disbelief as Chloé returned to save her again, and nodded thoughtfully as Marientte described the arrangement the pair made where she would join Chloés patrols.
Marientte glossed over the period of fruitless hunts, other than sharing Chat Noirs theory that Hawkmoth acted as an emotional pressure valve for the city, leading to a decrease in Witches. She also included Chloés plan to retire as a Magical Girl after one year of service.
Fu frowned in disapproval at that, but said nothing.
He tensed when Evangeline appeared again in the subway, but beamed with pride as Marinette explained how she talked her down, albeit with Kyubey’s help and Chloés hard-won Grief Seed.
“That was very brave and quick-thinking of you,” he praised. “You remain a fantastic Ladybug whether in or out of the mask.”
Marientte looked away, feeling uncomfortable.
“Please don’t say that. I had no right to bargain with Chloés Grief Seed like it was mine to give away. And then Kyubey called me ‘exceptional’ just to make Chloé feel bad, like he thought that I was better than her. She was so mad after that, and I was too shaken up to understand why.”
Fu shook his head in disgust.
“You saved her from her own foolishness that day. If she is too short-sighted and arrogant to understand that, that is her failing, not yours.”
Hot anger flared within Marinette.
“Chloé is NOT foolish and she is NOT short-sighted!” She argued back. “She figured out the same thing Chat Noir did, and that’s why she went out of her way to get so many people Akumitized! She was trying to keep them safe from Witches!”
Fu regarded her with a pitying expression.
“Conveniently excusing the horrible way she’s been treating others for years,” he said. “The Witches gave her an excuse to be as mean as she wanted and feel righteous about it. I understand you feel grateful towards her, but do not give her more credit than she is owed.”
Marinette fisted her hands in her lap as she trembled with anger.
“You’re wrong,” she forced out. “You’re judging her without knowing what she’s really like, what she’s been through.”
“We are all responsible for our actions regardless of our past,” Fu responded evenly. “If a person like Chloe was capable of being good, she would already BE good.”
Marinette’s jaw dropped in disbelief at what she was hearing.
Fu sighed and added “But we are getting off topic. What happened afterwards?”
Part of Marinette wanted to keep arguing in Chloés defense, but she swallowed it back. Getting in a circular argument now wasn’t going to help, but making Fu understand Chloé might.
So she moved on to the meeting with Evangeline that Kyubey orchestrated, the mutual understanding they reached, and how it inspired her to convince Chloé to ‘retire’ right before what would have been her final confrontation with Evangeline.
And then, how they learned the truth about Soul Gems.
Fu stared at her in horror, looking more shaken than she had ever seen him before. He startled her when he abruptly stood up.
“Tea,” he said stiffly. “I need to make tea. You are a guest, I need to bring you tea.”
Fu hurried off to the back room before Marinette could say say a word, leaving the young girl blinking in confusion at his sudden departure.
Wayzz floated up to her, little hands together and expression somber.
“Please forgive my master,” he said. “What you revealed is very…upsetting. He just needs a few moments to himself.”
Marinette nodded. “I get it. I remember how mad I got at Kyubey for tricking and trapping Chloé like that, I’m kind of surprised I didn’t punch him.”
Wayzz shook his head.
“That’s not it. Well, not all of it. Western philosophies usually see the body as merely a vessel for the soul, but Eastern philosophies tend to see body and soul as united and indivisible. In Fu’s eyes, what Kyubey did was more than a violation of consent. It was a violation of Chloés most intimate self - a rape of the soul.”
Marinettes stomach curdled.
Fu eventually returned while carefully carrying a tray with a teapot on a warming stand, two small handleless tea cups, and a plate of cookies. He gingerly kneeled and set the tray down on the mat besides him. Marinette watched as he silently poured the tea into the cups, and when he handed her one she accepted it with a quiet “thank you.”
Fu took a long slow sip of his own tea before settling the nearly empty cup in his lap.
“I would imagine Chloé did not take the news well,” he said at last.
Marinette shook her head.
“No, she didn’t.”
She described Chloés near catatonic state afterwards, Kyubey comparing reversing the Magical Girl process to unmaking a cake, and the way Chloé began to push her away, culminating in her breakdown in the kitchen.
Fu covered his mouth in horror with one hand as he listened to Marinette graphic description, looking like he was about to be sick.
Marinette moved on to class picture day, describing Chloés attempts to force her way to Adrians side, up to and including orchestrating Juleka getting locked in the bathroom, and making sure to include how annoyed Adrian himself was with her antics. She explained her reasoning for trying to delete the class photo, getting caught by Chloé, and her confronting the other girl over her actions. How Chloé shoved her against the wall and declared Adrain as being ‘hers’ because of all she had done for him.
It was here that Marinette deviated from the linear story she had been telling.
“As it turned out, Chloé used her wish for Adrian,” she explained. “Originally his father pulled him out of school after Stoneheart and forced him home again. Not even Chloé would have been allowed to see him anymore, he would have been completely isolated. Chloés wish changed that - she’s the reason he’s allowed to come to school, meet new people, and have a normal life.”
Marinette took a moment to sip her cooled tea and helped herself to a cookie. She carefully avoided looking a Fu, pretending not to notice the look on his face as he connected the dots himself.
“That…would explain a great deal,” he said at last, sounding distant.
Marinette nodded and pretended to misunderstand.
“I know, it made understanding Chloé a lot easier. I couldn’t condone what she did to Juleka, but after she basically gave her life for Adrians sake I can understand why she’d be so desperate to keep him. Unfortunately she couldn’t see how her actions were just pushing him away. The class put together a reshoot for Juleka after school, and when Chloé tried to crash it Adrian lost his temper. He blew up at her and broke off their friendship right then and there.”
Fu’s expression turned grim.
“That was the argument that made her run away, wasn’t it? I had thought before she was being recklessly dramatic, but now…I can’t even imagine the emotional devastation she must have felt.”
Marinettes spirit lifted at Fu finally showing some empathy for Chloé.
Fu gestured toward Marinettes empty tea cup, and she handed it back. As he refilled both their cups, Fu said “I understand you and Chat Noir joined the search for Chloé when she went missing. Tell me, how was Chat Noir at this time?”
Marinette took her cup back, gently blew on it and took a sip to buy a moment of time to consider her answer.
“He suggested Chloé might have gotten pulled into a Labyrinth like I did before, so I had to tell him that Chloé was the Magical Girl. He got really upset about it for some reason. Like, really upset, more than I’ve ever seen him before. But, he later explained to me that he had a close family member go missing before, so it made sense that Chloé’s case really struck close to home for him.”
Fu nodded in understanding, looking quietly relieved.
“It can be difficult to remain objective when facing something that reminds us of a personal tragedy,” he said. Marientte nodded in agreement.
“Anyway, Chat Noir pointed out that with Chloés Soul Gem running out of energy, we were going to need a couple of Grief Seeds to recharge her as soon as we found her.”
Fu’s eye browns shot up.
“But, the only one who could give you Grief Seeds…”
“…was Evangeline.” Marinette finished.
Fu shook his head. “How on Earth did you manage to convince her to give up two seeds for you?”
“I didn’t. Chat did.”
Fu raised a skeptical brow. “Did he?”
“Chat was very…persuasive,” Marientte said evasively. “When I tried to talk Evangeline out of challenging Chloé before, I tried appealing to her sense of duty because that’s what would have worked for me. But that’s not how she thinks - to her, fighting Witches is helping herself, it’s just coincidence if it helps other people. Chat Noir knew he had to appeal to her self-interest, and it worked.”
Fu eyed her suspiciously. Marinette fought down the urge to fidget by tightening her grip on her tea cup. Not wanting Fu to question her further, she hurried on with her story.
“Anyway, we got the seeds from Evangeline last Thursday, when she came to my parents bakery. Chat Noir and I split up to cover more ground and we kept searching for as long as we could. It was around…midnight I think? Maybe a little after, when Kyubey came up to me and told me Chat Noir had found Chloé.”
Fu jolted straight up.
“He found her? But this was four days ago, why wait until tonight to bring her home?”
Marinette paused, gathering her thoughts and her words.
“Chloé refused to take the Grief Seed Chat Noir had, just tossed it off the bridge. Without it, her Soul Gem became completely corrupted just as I was getting there. This…huge black whirlwind came out of nowhere and pulled Chat and Chloé in. I tried to catch them with my yo-yo, but they’d already disappeared. I had no idea what had happened until Kyubey explained they had just been pulled into a Labyrinth.
“That’s what Kyubey wanted all along - to harvest the energy that comes from Magical Girls as they are transformed into Witches.”
Fu stared at her for a long, uncomprehending moment. With glacial slowness he turned his head to look at Wayzz.
The turtle kwami looked ashamed as he said “Forgive me, Master Fu. I thought it was kinder that you did not know.”
“Did you not think I had the right to know?” Fu asked, sounding slightly strangled.
Wayzz hovered silently for a moment before he carefully answered.
“I would agree that you’d have the right to know if it were in your power to help. But it is not, and so I hoped to spare you the burden of that knowledge. I did not want you to…possibly feel responsible for girls like Jessica.”
Marinette couldn’t help but sit up at the unfamiliar name, and the question “Who’s Jessica?” was out her mouth before she even thought about it. She immediately regretted upon seeing Fu’s pained expression.
“You were my first choice to be Ladybug, but I had to prepare for the possibility that you would reject it.” Fu explained. “Jessica was my backup choice, and Kyubey knew it. Once you fully accepted the Miraculous, Jessica was no longer protected by the terms of the Accord and Kyubey was free to offer her a Contract.
“Some time later, she disappeared. I had assumed she was defeated by a Witch, but perhaps…”
Without thinking Marinette reached over and placed her hand on his. He looked up in surprise to meet her eyes, sincere with empathy.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
Fu smiled gently and placed a hand over hers.
“Thank you, Marinette, but I am alright. And Wayzz…I appreciate what you were trying to do.”
Fu pulled his hand back and Marinette settled back into her seat. She took a sip of tea to sooth her throat and continued from where she left off.
She stuck to a linear retelling of events, but when she got to the part where she was chasing Chat Noir with Chloé across the roof tops she deviated again.
“Evangeline was right behind us, and since Chat Noir had used his Cataclysm in the Labyrinth he was running out of time. I had to double back and delay Evangeline so she wouldn’t see him de-transformed. That was when I gave her my Grief Seed back, and she agreed to keep Chloé hidden in her home until we figured out what we were going to do. So by the time we caught up with Chat again, he’d had enough time to recharge and transform again.”
Marinette had to literally bite down on the tip of her tongue to hold back the urge to keep rambling, and remind herself she didn’t need to keep trying to convince him, didn’t need to keep adding more details, that she had said enough.
Fu gave no indication he noticed anything amiss.
Something flickered across his expression when Marinette told him how Kyubey implied they might be able to find a way to save Chloé using their Miraculous, but if he already had suspicions on what that might have been he kept silent.
He became very interested as Marinette described the experiments she and Chat Noir ran, and raised an eyebrow at the Lucky Charms she kept getting, eyes flickering to the phonograph by the wall and even down at his shirt with a chuckle. He didn’t hide his distress at Chat Noirs epiphany that an actual Miraculous might be used to turn a Grief Seed back into a Soul Gem, theoretically bringing Chloé back, but he held back any comments.
Marinette truthfully recounted seeing Adrian with the Miraculous spell book in the library, Tikki recognizing it for what it was, and how she witnessed Lila stealing it away from him undetected.
“I imagine it must have been very difficult to get the book away from her without arousing suspicion,” Fu said.
“Actually it was super easy, barely an inconvenience.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, Lila just threw it in the trash when she was done with it, all I had to do was fish it out.”
Marinette confessed to overhearing Lila try to get close to Adrian by lying about being the descendent of a fox hero, and how she confronted her in front of him rather than let her get away with it. Fu frowned in disappointment, but his expression cleared when Adrian called her out for going too far and that how she agreed with him now.
“It was an abuse of power, but I’m glad to see you recognize it.”
“Well, Lila being Akumitized into Volpina made it pretty impossible for me to ignore.”
She glossed over most of the Volpina fight and moved on to Tikki offering to take her to “the Guardian” with the book.
“And, well, you know this part.”
Fu steepled his fingers and gazed and Marinette with a serious expression.
“Tell me, what went through your mind when you saw the Bee comb?”
Marinette lowered her head and she thought back to that moment, the heady sense of clarity and the bitter taste of adrenaline.
“I felt…like everything was lining up and it was all pointing to that comb as the key to saving Chloé. It was like…do or die, now or never.”
Fu quietly hummed in acknowledgment.
“I understand the Collector appeared shortly after you…left. Let’s skip ahead a bit - what, exactly, did you do with the comb?”
Anxiety rolled in Marinette stomach like nausea, her heart beating against her ribcage and heat crawling up her neck.
“Merging the Miraculous with a Grief Seed probably would have been enough to turn it back into a Soul Gem, but that was just a band-aide, it wasn’t a permanent solution. So instead we did the opposite: we merged the Grief Seed with the Miraculous.”
Marinette swallowed thickly, mouth dry.
It took a few seconds for the implications to sink in, and Marinette could see it happen in the widening of Fu’s eyes and the horror that spread across his face.
“You bound Chloés soul to a Miraculous,” he whispered.
Marinette could only nod.
The older man dropped his face into his hands.
“Do you realize what you have done? Any chance to unite Chloés body and soul again is gone, you have permanently severed them. She will never be whole or human again.”
“Kyubey did that her already,” Marinette pointed out. “Like he said, what was done cannot be undone. But at least this way she won’t turn into a Witch, she can live a normal life again.”
Fu dropped his hands to look incredulously at Marinette.
“And what about a year from now? Five years? Ten? A hundred? Kwamis are ageless and eternal, and you just bound one to a human. For all we know, you have just removed Chloé from the stream of time forever.”
Icy cold horror filled Marinette entire being.
Until Tikki spoke up for the first time since they arrived.
“Chloé isn’t bound to Pollen, she’s bound to the Miraculous,” Tikki pointed out. “The Miraculous acts like an anchor for Kwami’s, and now it’s doing the same for Chloé. MAYBE there are long term consequences we don’t know about yet, consequences that won’t be apparent for years. Or maybe there aren’t and Chloé will grow and live like a normal human. Right now, she is alive, she is safe, and she is with family. Let’s not invent reasons to be upset about that.”
Fu actually looked abashed.
“You are right, Tikki. You are both right; Marinette, you did nothing that hadn’t already been done to her already. All you could do was help her the best you could with what you had, and I apologize.”
Marinette shifted awkwardly in place, unsure how to react.
“Well, you caught up to us as we were taking Chloé home, and here we are now. I’m sorry about what happened, and if you can’t trust me to be Ladybug anymore, I understand.”
There. It was all out there, laid bare for Fu. All Marinette could do was wait for his judgement while the butterflies warred in her stomach and attempted to escape up her throat.
Fu heaved a great sight and closed his eyes as he rested his palms on his knees. He stayed that way for a small eternity while Marinette stewed in front of him. He was quiet and still for so long that when he snapped his eyes open again Marinette jumped a little.
“You say you are sorry, but do you actually regret your actions?”
The question took Marinette aback, and she hesitated as she carefully considered her answer.
“I…regret I had to do it, but I don’t regret what I did,” she said at last. “I believe I did the right thing to save Chloé.”
To her shock, Fu smiled.
“Then you shall remain as Ladybug.”
It took Marinette a few seconds to comprehend what she just heard. Tikki zipped around in circles cheering joyfully while Marinette could only stare blankly.
“Say what now?”
Fu chuckled.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this yet, but a single Lucky Charm may have multiple uses because a problem could have many answers. However, if one were to try to stop and try to think of all possible paths they risk being frozen by indecision and easily defeated. That’s why the earrings need to go to someone who can act quickly and decisively, something you demonstrated when you pulled me out of the street on our first meeting. Today, you paid attention to what the Lucky Charms were telling you, discovered a way to help someone in need, and took what you deemed to be necessary action to save an innocent life.
“In short, you behaved exactly as a Ladybug should.”
Marinettes jaw dropped.
“I cannot condone what you did, but I now understand why you did it,” Fu went on. “While I wish there was a better solution, I cannot condemn you for acting as the Ladybug I wanted you to be.”
Tears began gathering at the corner of Marinette’s eyes, and she quickly wiped them on the edge of her hand.
“Sorry, I’m just…thank you so much for understanding.”
“If we are to be stronger than Hawkmoth, then we must trust each other,” Fu said. “And I have chosen to trust you.”
His expression turned stern.
“However, this is the only time I will allow this. You cannot use anymore Miraculous to ‘save’ any more Magical Girls. Kyubey will always make more contracts, and we do not have an infinite supply of Miraculous for them all.”
Marinettes mind flashed to Evangeline. She hated the idea of leaving her to her fate, abandoning her after all she’d done to help them save Chloé. It felt like leaving her to drown after they already pulled Chloé to safety.
On the other hand, the idea of giving a Miraculous permanently to someone like her, so violent and self-centered, filled her with dread and made her throat close in horror.
Still, it was with a heavy heart that she said “Yes, Master Fu. I understand.”
The tension was broken by Tikkis sudden and loud gasp.
“Wait! What about Adrian?”
Marinette blinked, then her eyes blew open wide. She grabbed both sides of her head as she screamed in horror.
“ADRIAN! Lila stole the book from him and now his father thinks he lost it and if he doesn’t bring it back by tomorrow he’s going to be pulled from school and grounded forever and he won’t ever be allowed to leave again and he won’t have any friends and grow up as a sad lonely hermit and I’ll never see him again!!”
In the face of Marinettes rising panic Fu merely chuckled again.
“Well we can’t have that now, can we?”
Minutes later Fu was taking pictures of each page of the spell book with his smartphone.
“The best part is, even if the book itself is lost again or even destroyed, the information is now preserved!” Fu said cheerfully.
Marientte quietly watched him for a minute before speaking up again.
“By the way, when do you plan to meet up with Chat Noir?”
“I don’t.”
Fu answered so quickly and casually that it took Marinette’s brain a few seconds to catch up to what he said.
“Wait, what? Why?! He’s my partner, you chose him for the Miraculous of Destruction, why wouldn’t you want to see him?!”
Fu never paused in his picture taking as he answered, infuriatingly calm as before.
“Chat Noir has proven himself an excellent protector of Paris and a reliable partner for you. However, a chain is only a strong as its weakest link. The more links added, the weaker it becomes. It is for everyone’s sake, Chat Noirs included, that we do not add more links unless it is absolutely necessary.”
Marinette felt numb.
Fu paused in his picture taking to look up at Marinette.
“It may seem harsh, but until we know Hawkmoth’s identity and location our greatest defense is anonymity. If you and Chat Noir do not know each other, you cannot give each other away. If Chat Noir does not know who I am, that’s one less person who could potentially lead Hawkmoth to the Miracle box. For everyones safety, you must not reveal your identities to each other and you must not share mine with him.”
Something vile and sour settled in the back of Marinettes mouth.
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Chat Noir, Adrian Agreste, had been opposing Hawkmoth for as long as she had, shielded her, protected her, encouraged her, put himself at risk to protect Paris even more than she did, and Fu did not trust him.
But all she said was “I understand.”
Fu took the last of his pictures and pushed the book back towards her.
“It is late, so I suggest waiting until tomorrow to return the book. I will leave it to your judgement on how much you wish to tell Gabriel Agreste on how you acquired it.”
~*~*~*~*~*~
The first thing Marinette did once she snuck back into her room was to text Adrian, ‘You still awake?’ Seconds later he was calling and Marinette was answering before the first ring even finished.
After some reassurances that she was alright, she brought him up to speed on how the meeting went. Per Fu’s request she did not reveal who he was, thought she couldn’t hide her resentment at his insistence to keep Adrian out of the loop.
To her surprise, Adrain was actually very understanding.
“To be fair, if we hadn’t found the book you wouldn’t have met him either,” he pointed out. “He revealed himself to you because he had to, not because he chose to. He should be allowed to open up at his own pace if he can.”
“It still stinks,” Marinette grumbled. “He trusts you with an incredibly powerful magic ring, but he can’t trust you to know about him??”
Adrian hm’d a bit on the line as he thought.
“Okay, well, think of it this way; Alya’s your best friend, right? Would you trust her with your life?”
“Absolutely!” Marinette answered immediately.
“Would you trust her to keep a secret?”
Marinette stayed silent.
“And there you go. Trust isn’t an on/off switch, and just because you trust someone with one thing doesn’t mean you trust them with everything. I’m okay with waiting until he’s ready. Actually, what does he think about you and I knowing each other?”
“Oh, he doesn’t know about that.”
“…Come again? I thought you told him everything?”
“I told him everything important, about what happened to Chloé and what we did. I just…skipped over some non-essential parts.”
Tikki snorted from her little sleeping pillow.
“Why would you do that?” Adrain asked in sincere confusion. Marinette chewed her lip as she considered how to best answer.
“Because…when I went to him, I already assumed he was going to take Tikki back because of what I did, and I was prepared for that. But I was afraid that if he found out I knew who you were, he’d decide to take Plagg back too. I couldn’t let that happen, not when being Chat Noir makes you so happy, and I couldn’t let all of Chloés sacrifices be for nothing.”
For a long moment there was no response, long enough that Marinette started to feel alarmed.
“Adrian? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” he said with a thick voice. “Just…thank you.”
Marinette smiled.
Adrian cleared his throat and asked “So, what about the book?”
“The Guardian took pictures of the pages and gave it back. I’m still deciding how exactly I’m going to explain it to Gabriel, but as long as we make it clear that you didn’t lose the book yourself he hopefully won’t blame you anymore.”
“Well I did still steal it from his safe, but I appreciate your help exonerating me at least a little.”
They discussed a while longer until they came up with a workable story - that Marinette “borrowed” the book when Adrian stepped away thinking it was a his portfolio, because she’s a fan of his (and Gabriels) work, and when she realized how important it was she was too embarrassed and ashamed to return it directly to him.
Neither of them liked the idea of Lila’s theft being hidden, but unfortunately the truth was too ridiculous to be believable.
‘Oh, Lila stole the book and threw it away in the trash because she wanted to trick Adrain into thinking she was the descendent of a fox hero, but it didn’t work because Ladybug showed up at the park in the middle fo their conversation and called her out on it. How did she know where they were and what they were talking about? Excellent question! Anyway, here’s your book back!’
Suddenly it was a lot easier to understand why everyone in their class fell for Lila’s stories. Her lies didn’t seem quite so outrageous when the truth could be so much crazier.
With a story finalized, Marinette planned to stop by the mansion in the morning before school once Adrain confirmed Gabriel tended to get up early.
At least, that was the plan until Sabine came knocking in the early morning to eagerly inform Marinette that Chloé had been found.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Marinette was not prepared for this.
She fully expected Adrian and Sabrina to get the first calls, but it never crossed her mind that Chloé might ask her too, not with how their last meeting went.
Facing her as Ladybug was one thing, but facing her again as Marinette was terrifying.
Her wonderfully and inconveniently supportive parents were quick to call the school to have Marinette excused for the morning so she could visit Chloé right away, and before she knew it she was in the Bourgeois suite and being led to Chloé’s room by Jean with a bakery box in hand.
Marinette glanced out the glass patio doors and briefly wondered if it was too late to make a break for it.
Jean knocked on the bedroom door and said “Miss Bourgeois, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is here. Would you like to see her now?”
Marinette felt like she was being pricked all over by thousands of hot needles.
The door creaked open to reveal Sabrina, red-eyed yet smiling. She abruptly grabbed Marinette in a quick hug.
“Thank you for coming,” she said before releasing her. Marinette was speechless, but Sabrina wasn’t expecting an answer anyway. She was already brushing past Marinette to leave.
Marinette took a steadying breath, and pushed the door open.
Chloé was sitting on the edge of her bed, dressed and hair immaculate back in its trademark ponytail, but to Marinette’s surprise she still wore no makeup. But, recalling Sabrina’s red eyes and giving a quick glance at the nearby trash bin half full of used tissues and the Kleenex box sitting slightly behind her, Marinette could surmise why Chloé might have decided to forgo the trouble of makeup today.
Chloé kept her eyes firmly on her lap, her hands twisting around another tissue. Not knowing what else to do, Marinette approached and hesitantly took a seat next to her.
The atmosphere felt thick and heavy in the silence.
Marinette abruptly held her box out to Chloé, both girls keeping their heads down to avoid eye contact.
“For you,” Marinette said and immediately wanted to bite her tongue off for the inane statement.
Chloé took the box, and Marinette could hear rustling as she opened it up and the little huff as she saw its contents.
“Lavender macaroons,” Chloé said quietly “You remembered.”
Marinette chewed her lip. There were so many things she wanted to say, the words clamoring so hard to spill out that she couldn’t say anything at all. She couldn’t even TELL Chloé the extend that she screwed up because it involved her identity as Ladybug, so how could she even begin to apologize for it all?
“I’m sorry.”
Marinette snapped her head up and started at the blonde in disbelief. Chloé refused to meet her eyes, instead staring down into the open box of purple treats.
“For what?!” Marinette blurted out.
Chloé scowled down at the box.
“For hurting you, obviously.
Marinette reflexively reached for her elbows, remembering the scrapes from when Chloé pushed her hard enough to send her flying backwards in their last meeting.
Guilt gnawed at Marinette. SHE was the one responsible for pushing Chloé to her lowest point, and Chloé was apologizing to HER?
“It’s alright,” Marinette assured her. “You were upset, and I know you didn’t meat to shove me that hard, I saw how sorry you were right after it happened.”
Instead of being comforted, Chloé just looked angry. Her fingers clenched at the corners of the box, bending the cardboard.
“Could you stop pretending to be stupid for one minute?!”
Marinette flinched back at the sheer vitriol Chloé just shot at her. Chloé’s face flashed with horror, and she slapped a hand over her face in aggravation.
“Crap. That’s not what I meant. I mean, stop acting like…gah.”
Chloé set the box aside and turned on the bed so she was facing Marinette directly. Marinette matched her position so they were now sitting facing each other.
Chloés eye still had a hint of red from her conversation with Sabrina, but there was a hardness as well that reminded Marinette of sapphires.
“Look, I’ve got some things to say, and I need you to listen without saying anything. Can you do that?”
Marinette opened her mouth, stopped herself, and nodded instead. The corner of Chloé’s mouth twitched in amusement at Marinette’s restraint, but she sobered quickly as she began to speak.
“Remember when you asked if I regretted making a Contract, and I told you that I don’t regret things I can’t change? Well, this past week I had a lot of time to think, and all I kept coming back to was that everyone hates me and I can’t blame anyone except myself.”
Marinette’s immediate reflex was to protest, but a sharp glare from Chloé had her swallowing her words.
“I had a…well, I thought I had a good reason to push peoples buttons this year because, hey, better being Akumitzed that becoming Witch food, right? But I was bullying you for YEARS, and that had nothing to do with Witches or Hawkmoth. I told myself it was because you deserved it, but that was just because I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was jealous of you.”
Marinette’s jaw dropped. Chloé gave a little smirk.
“I know, shocking, right? But you’re talented and cute and popular. Not in the ‘everyone wishes they could be your friend’ way, but in a ‘everyone IS your friend’ way. And the worst part was that you made getting everyone to love you look so easy, and you didn’t even know what you had. It made me…want to put you down, so I could feel better, feel superior to you.”
Chloés voice became increasingly thick as she continued, clearly struggling to keep composed.
“And in spite of that, you still defended me, stood up for me, you were the only one to follow me when I ran away. You did that because you are good, and kind, and forgiving, and I’m not used to that, and I…all I can ever do is hurt you, and you don’t deserve that. And I’m sorry, for everything I’ve ever done.”
A rock had lodged itself in Marinette’s throat and she could feel hot tears streaming down her cheeks.
Chloé grabbed the tissue box and offered it to Marinette. She grabbed a few tissues to dry her face and blow her nose, pretending not to notice Chloé taking a tissue for herself.
Once she was reasonably composed, Marinette swallowed and took her turn. But she kept her gaze down, fearful that if she looked at Chloé again she would’t be able to get the words out.
“I’m not as good as you think I am,” she admitted. “I can be judgmental and stubborn and petty, and there are plenty of times I think I know better when I really don’t. So, I end up giving bad advice or screwing up because I’m so SURE I’m in the right that I forget that I only have my own perspective. You were the villain in my personal story for ages, and so I got used to thinking the worst of you even when you didn’t deserve it.
“So, I’m sorry for hurting you. I’m sorry for making you feel alone when you needed help the most, and you should know that I will always regret that.”
Chloé gently poked Marinette in the forehead, putting just enough pressure to force her to look up again.
“I appreciate that, I really do. But I spent four years tormenting you, and I can’t fix that in a month no matter what I do. I told you before that I think it’s useless to regret things I can’t change, but I still owed you an apology for what I did to you. You DESERVE an apology for what I’ve done to you."
Marinette smiled, feeling light and bright. She hadn’t truly realized until that moment how much she wanted to hear Chloé acknowledge and take responsibility for her past behavior. Or rather, she suffocated it under her sense of responsibility and pity for her former tormenter.
Chloé picked at her pant leg absently. “So, even though we were forced together by circumstance and you’re goody-two-shoes busy body nature-”
“Hey.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Well…”
“Anyway, in spite all that, I’m grateful for you still being there for me even with our history. And I hate to admit it, but you pretty much saved my life when you told Ladybug and Chat Noir about me being a Magical Girl-”
“EH??”
“Please, it’s so obvious you were the one who told them. Which reminds me, I can’t really go into the details but long story short they saved me so I don’t have to hunt Witches anymore.”
Marinette had a brief moment of panic, not having planned out an appropriate non-suspicious reaction ahead of time. Fortunately Chloé was already steamrolling past that bombshell, waving a hand in the air for her proclamation.
“So, you don’t have to worry about me anymore. I hereby release you of all responsibility forthwith, yea verily.”
Marinette blinked.
It clicked in her head that what Chloé was really saying was ‘You don’t have to pretend to care about me anymore.’
The thought made her heart break a little more, and she took Chloés hand in both of hers. The blonde startled slightly at the contact, but she didn’t pull away.
“At first, I did just want to look out for you partly out of a sense of duty, but mostly out of fear,” Marinette admitted. “Not of Evangeline, but that you might die like Felicity did. No matter our history, I never wanted you to die, and I hoped that I could do something to help save you from that, even a little. I felt like I failed Felicity, so I had to do better for you.
“As we spent time together, I got to see you in a way that I never had before. I got to see your loyalty, your determination, your love. And I started to understand a little more how you became the person you are today. It’s like…”
Marinette recalled the Shattered Witch and felt an epiphany bloom, and since she was already talking she couldn’t help verbalize it as it happened.
“…you’re covered in sharp jagged edges, but underneath all that is a deep and sincere love for the people you care about.”
Chloé looked startled and slightly worried by the insight, but Marinette kept speaking rather that give Chloé time to think on it.
“And before I knew it, it wasn’t about duty or fear or guilt anymore. I followed you because I care about you as a person. I care about you as my friend.”
Chloé stared at her, wide eyed and speechless at Marinettes confession. Tears started welling up in her eyes and she hurriedly tried to wipe them away with her free hand.
“Crap! Why’d you have to go and make me cry again?!”
Marinette only scooted closer to wrap Chloé in a hug. Chloé hesitated briefly, but then returned it.
Still hugging, Marinette said “I should have told you this back at the park, but I just froze up because I literally only realized it that very second. I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, well, I can see how it’d be kinda hard to believe,” Chloé said, trying to sound light but voice too thick to pull it off convincingly.
They broke apart and Chloé grabbed another tissue to try her face and blow her nose.
“You said you don’t have to fight Witches anymore, so are you still a Magical Girl?” Marinette asked.
“I don’t know,” Chloé admitted. “It’s all complicated. But that’s a problem for tomorrow.”
Marientte nodded in understanding. “Fair enough. You need time to rest and process. But anytime you need to talk about what happened, I’ll be ready to listen.”
A flash of guilt or fear appeared across Chloé’s face, and Marinette realized her mistake.
“And even if there are somethings that you can never tell me, that’s okay too. You don’t have to share things you aren’t ready for.”
Chloé smiled, visibly relieved. She reached into the bakery box and pulled out one macaroon, broke it in half, and offered one to Marinette, who took it gratefully. The two girls silently ate their cookie halves in peace.
Marinette stood up from the bed. “I should probably let you rest. Call me if you need anything, okay?”
Chloé nodded. “Thank you for coming. It…it helped a lot.”
Marinette smiled.
She bade her goodbyes to the butler as she left the suite. As she approached the elevator, the doors opened to reveal a familiar face.
“Adrian!” Marientte exclaimed happily. She jogged the last bit of distance to meet him as he stepped off the elevator. “You’re coming to see Chloé?”
Adrian nodded. In his arms he held a large bouquet of red roses, beautifully accentuated with sprigs of baby’s breath and greenery. He held it up a little higher and explained “I needed to make a quick stop first, so I came a little late.”
Something uncomfortable twisted in Marinettes stomach at the sight of the flowers.
“I’m sure Chloé will appreciate the flowers,” she said slowly, “but are you sure red roses are a good idea? You know how she feels about you, you need to be careful not to give her the wrong idea.”
Adrian looked slightly uncomfortable.
“I know. I got red roses on purpose; I’m going to accept Chloé’s feelings.”
The floor disappeared underneath Marinette’s feet.
“What?”
Adrian looked down. “You know how I feel about you, M’lady, but you’ve made it clear that you’re never going to return my feelings.”
There was a spinning sensation in Marinette’s head and it was getting harder to breath.
“You…you’re just going too…?”
Marinette could barely speak, and Adrian misunderstood her distress.
“I am NOT using Chloé as my backup!” He said quickly. “I wouldn’t do that to her! But after everything she’s done for me, this is the least I owe her. She…she has so much love to give, and she deserves to have her love returned.”
There was a buzzing in Marinette’s ears and a thumping in her head, nausea swimming in her stomach and up her throat. She wanted to scream and cry and rip the flowers away from Adrian and yell ‘I love you, you stupid cat! I love you so much I fell in love with you TWICE, you can’t give up on me now!’
Marinette bit her tongue so hard it nearly bleeds.
Instead she forced a smile and said “I understand. Chloé will be very lucky to have you as a boyfriend.”
Adrian smiled self-deprecatingly.
“Not really. I was a pretty crappy friend. But I’m going to do better for her now. She deserves it.”
‘She really does.’ Marinette thought.
“Well, good luck!” She said out loud, and slid to the side out of his way. “Better not keep her waiting!”
Adrian smiled, and walked past her.
Marinette hurriedly pressed the elevator button to go down and rushed in as soon as the door opened. They closed just before Adrian entered the Bourgeois suite.
Tikki came out of the purse. “Marinette…”
“It’s fine!” Marientte said quickly out as she kept forcing a smile. “Chloés deserves this, she fought SO HARD for his sake. I can’t be selfish, I shouldn’t…I shouldn’t…”
Marinette couldn’t hold it in anymore. She collapsed to her knees and broke down crying for a love lost, and Tikki settled on her shoulder to comfort her heart-broken Chosen as best she could.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Adrian was standing outside the suite door, ready to knock. His heart was about to leap out of his chest and he felt like he was about to be sick.
Plagg stuck his head out of Adrians shirt to say “You know, you still have time to change your mind. You don’t HAVE to do this.”
“Duly noted,” Adrian deadpanned. “Just like the last five times you said that.”
He rapped his knuckles on the door and Plagg ducked back into hiding. Jean greeted Adrian in his usual formal way, and while he briefly paused upon seeing the flowers he did not comment on them, instead simply letting Adrian in.
He didn’t need guiding to Chloé’s bedroom, even if it had been a long time since his last visit.
As soon as Chloé saw him enter, her entire face brightened.
“Adrikins!”
He froze.
He THOUGHT he was emotionally ready for this. He THOUGHT he was already prepared because he’d already seen her as Chat Noir, so they’d technically already had their reunion.
But standing there as Adrian, unmasked and defenseless, and hearing his oldest friend call him by his oldest nickname, it hit him hard all over again how close he came to loosing her.
He was crying before he even realized it.
Chloés expression changed to alarm, and she was getting off the bed but she’s still weak and she stumbles, and Adrian is tossing the flowers aside to rush over and catch her, and the next thing he knows they’re both on the floor holding each other and he’s bawling into her shoulder while she’s running her nails down his back to comfort him.
When he finally runs out of tears he helps Chloé back up onto the bed, and she hands him the box of tissues after taking a couple for herself.
“Maybe it's a good thing I don’t have many friends,” she comments dryly as she wipes her face. “I’d end up dry as a raisin if I had to cry much more.”
It’s not that funny, but Adrian can’t help but chuckle anyway.
He remembers the flowers and darts back to recover them from the floor, and somewhat sheepishly offers them to Chloé. Fortunately they survived the tumble mostly intact, and Chloé accepts them with clear delight. She tries to smell them, pouts when she realizes she’s still too stuffed up from crying, and carefully sets them to the side.
Adrian steels himself and says “Chloé, I-”
But she holds up a hand to silence him. “I’m sorry, but can I go first?”
Adrian nods. Chloés takes a deep breath.
“I owe you an apology. A lot of apologies, actually.”
Adrian starts to protest, but Chloé stops him with a fingertip lightly pressed against his lips.
“Uh-uh, not a word until I’m done, THEN you get your turn.”
Adrian obediently settled back down, and Chloé started again.
“I had a lot of time to think this last week, and you were right about what you said before, back at the park. I HAD been treating you like property, and I hadn’t even realized it. You were like the sun to me; a constant presence in my life that I needed, and that would always be there. I assumed our friendship was as permanent and immovable as the sun in the sky.
“But you’re not the sun. You’re your own person, with your own wants and needs, and it was unfair of me to expect you to put up with my crap forever. So, I’m sorry for being a bad friend, and for expecting you to just put up with the worst of me.”
Adrian was not prepared for any of this. He had never heard Chloé speak like this before, and while it felt good to hear honest self-reflection from her he desperately wished it didn’t come at the cost of the pain she went through.
“I was a bad friend too,” he said. “I didn’t like the things to you were doing, to me or our classmates, but I refused to say anything because I was a coward. And since I didn’t say anything, I basically implied I was okay with everything you were doing. So instead of talking to you like an actual friend, I tried putting distance between us instead. And of course you weren’t going to understand why because I never said anything.
“I shouldn’t have exploded at you the way I did. We’ve been through too much together for me to treat you like that, and after everything you’ve done for me you deserved better.”
Chloé waved a dismissive hand.
“Well, it’s like you said; getting you into school doesn’t buy you for life. I was still asking too much of you.”
Adrian paused, and slowly said “We both know you’ve done a lot more for me than that.”
“Doesn’t feel like it.” She replied grimly.
Adrian considered her for a moment, and decided it was time to address the elephant in the room.
He let out a sigh. “Chlo, I know you used your wish from Kyubey to guarantee my freedom and happiness. And I know if you hadn’t, I’d’ve been locked up in my house with only Father and Nathalie for company and I wouldn't have been allowed to see you ever again.”
Chloé stared blankly at him.
Adrian pulled his shirt open slightly, and Plagg took the signal to come out in full view.
“Heya Blondie, nice ta meetcha,” the kwami said casually. Chloé stared at him, wide-eyed and unblinking.
Adrain continued, “Look, I know you know I’m Chat Noir, and I know you didn’t want to tell Ladybug you were a Magical Girl because you didn’t want me to know what you did. But Kyubey had to explain everything after you…you know. Transformed.”
Chloé stared at Plagg, then at Adrian, Plagg again, then back to Adrian. Her eyes widened until they looked ready to pop out, her mouth slowly opened in a silent scream, and Adrian started to get the sinking feeling that he might have misjudged this terribly.
Chloé abruptly flipped over face down in her pillow and screamed at the top of her lungs while kicking her legs, forcing Adrian to move out of the way. She came up for air, only to bury her face and scream again.
Pollen emerged from hiding behind the second set of pillows and glared disapprovingly at Adrian.
“Really, Adrian?” She said. “Really?”
Adrian just opened and closed his mouth, utterly speechless.
Plagg had fallen out of the air from laughing so hard and was still rolling around on the bed.
Chloé finally finished screaming and sat back up again, with Pollen hovering by her head.
“You…you really didn’t know?” Adrain asked, prompting another round of laughter from Plagg.
“NO!” Chloé whispered-screamed. “Why on earth would you think I knew?!”
“Because…well…you remember Black Cat?”
Her expression shifts into something he couldn’t identity, but it’s answer enough.
“So, before your wish, I was locked up and you had Black Cat. After your wish, I was free and you had Chat Noir. So…”
Chloé dropped her head in her hands and loudly groaned. Pollen patted her cheek with a tiny hand.
“Don’t blame yourself, my Queen. The Miraculous glamor makes it impossible for even close friends and family to recognize the holders. It’s not your fault you didn’t recognize him.”
Adrian is in disbelief, feeling like the rug had been pulled out from under him.
“I…may have miscalculated,” he said weakly.
Chloé glared at him with one eye through her fingers. “You think?!”
Plagg floated back up, done laughing but still widely grinning. “This is great! This is easily my Top Five favorite identity reveals!”
“You’re not being helpful Plagg!” Pollen admonished.
“This conversation is already a dumpster fire, honeycomb, it’s way too late to be helpful.”
Adrian groaned and covered his face with his hands, wondering if it would be possible to keep this from Marinette for the rest of forever.
The thought made him frown in confusion.
“Hold on, if you didn’t know, then why…I mean, Marientte said you didn’t want Ladybug and me to know about you being a Magical Girl, so if it wasn’t because of me being Chat Noir, then why did it matter?”
Chloé’s expression softened, and she let her hands fall to her lap as her eyes became distant. Pollen settled in her open palm and Chloé absently stroked her back with her thumb.
“The thing about Ladybug is that she’s used to being able to fix everything.” Chloé explained. “After every Akuma she just yells ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ and everything is back to the way it was. And, when you have the power to fix everything, you start to think it’s your responsibility to fix everything.
“But when you’re a Magical Girl, you have to learn that’s just not possible. Hunting Witches often means having to follow a trail of victims. Sometimes we get lucky and save someone, but it’s pretty rare. I’ve only had that happen once. So we end up seeing a lot of the damage Witches leave behind.
“That kind of thing can weigh on you and crush you if you let it. And for someone like Ladybug, whose used to being able to fix everything and save everyone, that would be unbearable. I didn’t want to do that to her.”
Adrian felt his heart burst, and couldn’t help but marvel how well Chloé understood Ladybug already and was trying so hard to be considerate. But it also pained him that Chloé was unknowingly exposing her idol to that darkness anyway through Marinette.
“Ladybug is stronger than you give her credit for,” he said.
Chloé smiled ruefully.
“Probably. But that doesn’t mean she should have to shoulder every problem in Paris.”
“…That’s true.”
Chloé met his eyes again and smirked a little.
“Well, if my wish made you Chat Noir then at least I got my moneys worth.”
Adrain felt a block of ice drop in his stomach as he remembered why else he was there. He turned to the kwamis and asked “Hey Plagg? Pollen? Could you guys give us a few minutes alone?”
Plagg quickly sobered, realizing what Adrian was planning. Pollen looked up at Chloé.
“It’s okay,” she said, and gave Pollen a macaroon from a pink box on her dresser, no doubt left there by Marinette. “Go take Plagg to the kitchen for a snack or something.”
Pollen hesitated a moment more, but took the treat and floated up. “Very well, my Queen.”
Adrian waited until both Kwamis had left, phasing through the floor as they headed downwards towards the kitchens. Chloé sat up a little straighter, recognizing how serious Adrian had become. Adrian took a deep breath to steel himself again.
“After what’s happened, I’ve come to realize how much you mean to me,” he said. “You’ve been a part of my life for so long, I can’t imagine my life without you in it. The thought of loosing you terrifies me to my core. You’re someone important to me, and it’s long past time I showed it.”
Adrian swallowed back the nauseous anxiety and forced out the words.
“So, Chloé, will you go out with me? On a date?”
Chloés eyes bugged out and her jaw dropped.
Adrian stays rigidly in place, keeping his eyes locked on her while he kept swallowing down the hornets trying to escape his stomach.
He was so focused on Chloé that he didn’t see the pillow until it smacked the side of his head.
“What-?!”
He was cut off by Chloé hitting him with the pillow again, her mouth closed but expression otherwise almost frozen even as she hits him again and again.
“Hey what - Hey - Hey stop - Hitting - Me!”
She does stop, but continued to hold the pillow aloft and ready for another strike.
“What was that about!” Adrian exclaimed. Of all the reactions he expected, getting hit in the face with a pillow was NOT one of them!
Thankfully Chloé put the pillow down, so at least he was saved from further bedding attacks. Her frozen shock melted into something sterner.
“We’re going to do a thought experiment, so close your eyes.” She told him.
Adrian was terribly confused, but did has he was told rather than risk another pillow to the face.
“Now, I want you to imagine yourself in the park,” Chloé instructed him. “It’s night, the stars are out and there’s a full moon. There’s a little table with two chairs and place settings, with white lacy tablecloth and silver candles and china plates and silver utensils. Fairy lights are hanging on the trees, and you can hear soft violin music being played, and there is a delicious meal waiting.
“Now, imagine turning around, and you see Ladybug coming for a date.”
Adrian felt his cheeks turn hot and he can’t old down a giddy smile as he imaged him and Ladybug on the beautifully romantic date that had been painted in his mind.
“Okay, now imagine it’s me instead.”
It lasted less than a second, but Adrian couldn’t stop the grimace completely.
He opens his eyes when he feels the tip of Chloés finger lightly touch the tip of this nose.
“And THAT is why I can’t go out with you. You’re not asking because you discovered deep feelings for me, you’re asking because you feel obligated. And that’s not what I want.”
Adrian could only stare, too overwhelmed with surprise, guilt, and relief to speak.
Chloé looked away. “Besides, even if you were honestly interested, us dating right now would be the worst idea after everything we’ve been through.”
Adrian shook himself. “Whose ‘we’? You’re the one whose been suffering all this time!”
Chloé glared at him. “Adrikins, I’m not exactly the soft and sensitive type, but if our roles had been reversed and I had to watch you go through what I went through, I’d’ve been a total wreck! And you’ve got a heart like a soft-boiled egg, I can’t even imagine how much harder it must have been for you! Just because it’s different doesn’t meant it’s not traumatic!”
The words rang in Adrians ear. He knew that seeing Chloé…like that…had easily been the worst moment of his lift, but he hadn’t thought of himself as being traumatized before then.
But it also sounded…right. Validating, even. Like it was okay to acknowledge that he had been hurt too, even if he wasn’t the one who was hurt the worst.
“And that’s why we can’t date?” He asks.
“We can’t date because you don’t feel that way for me,” Chloé corrected him. “But even if you did, I can’t be I’m not ready to support you the way you need to be supported. And you’re the kind of person who’d ignore his own broken leg if you saw someone else with a paper cut. I can’t let you hurt yourself just to help me.”
“You don’t think we could help and support each other?” Adrian asked softly. “Maybe we both need to have someone else who understands everything that happened.”
“We could both use a friend who understands,” Chloé acknowledged. “But only a friend. Anything more would be…too much.”
Adrian smiled, somewhat in awe of Chloé’s sensibility. “How did you get to be so mature?”
Chloé let out a huff. “I’m mostly just repeating stuff Pollen said. We spent, like, half the night just talking. She’s a great listener, and she helped me understand a lot of stuff, helped me find ways to put what I feel into words. Never really had anyone who could help me with that."
Chloé made a face. “Oh. Crap. I meant to talk about this with Marinette, Pollen pointed out that going through this with me must have been super traumatic for her too.”
The words burst in Adrians mind, sharp and clear like ice.
Chloé added “So yeah, welcome to the messed-up kids club.”
“You’re not messed up,” Adrian said immediately. “But…you have a point.”
Chloé smirked, a bit of her old self coming back.
“Of course I do. I’m ME!”
Adrian chuckled.
He crawled up so he was sitting next to Chloé and they leaned back together amongst the pillows, snuggling up to each other sides, her head on his shoulder and his cheek on top of her head, their hands linked loosely together, both taking simple comfort in the touch.
“I really do love you, Chlo,” Adrian said. “And I’m sorry that I can’t love you the way you want me to.”
“I love you too, Adrikins,” Chloé said. “And I’m sorry I forgot to be the friend you needed.”
And Adrian felt like he could finally breath again.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The story of Chloés safe return was released around late morning via press conference, which quickly dominated the news networks. Everyone was talking about how Chloé had been kidnapped and held prisoner for several days, and her a daring escape in the early morning hours. Apparently her abductors were currently still unknown but suspected to have fled the country already.
Not the worst cover story they could have come up with, Marinette thought, considering the short notice André had.
Their classmates had obviously noticed that the three students closest to Chloé were missing for the morning, and after the press conference aired they put two and two together. So naturally when Sabrina, Adrian, and Marinette returned to class for the afternoon they were quickly surrounded by their classmates during the final minutes of free period.
Sabrina was willing to talk, but she still had Rose and Juleka asking as friendly bodyguards against any too-intrusive questions. Alya was clearly bursting with curiosity, but after a few clipped answers she took the hint that Marinette didn’t want to talk right now and reluctantly dropped it.
Kim, utterly lacking in a brain-mouth filter, had no hesitation asking the question on everyones mind.
“Hey, did Chloé tell you how she managed to get away?!” He asked Adrian eagerly.
“Dude, seriously?” Nino asked in slight admonishment as he untwisted the cap on his water bottle. “Is this really the best time?”
“No, I wanna hear this too!” Alya interjected from her desk behind the boys.
“Same!” Alix piped up.
Adrian just shook his head. “Actually we didn’t talk about that at all.”
Kim immediately looked at Marinette, then at Sabrina. Both girls shook their heads as well to say they didn’t discuss it either.
“She didn’t tell you guys anything at all? Seriously?” Kim said in confusion and disappointment. “What the heck else would you even talk about?”
Roughly half the class immediately went “KIM!”
“What?” Kim asked bewilderedly.
Adrian, however, wasn’t at all offended by question. Casually he answered, “Well, I apologized to her for blowing up the way I did, she apologized for the way she’d been acting, I asked her to be my girlfriend-”
Nino immediately spat out the water he’d been drinking, spraying Kim all across the front and making the tall boy leap back and cry out in shock and disgust.
Shock and disbelief rippled through the entire class, some gasping, a few ‘what?!’, and one squeal of delight (Rose). Alya look worriedly at Marinette seated besides her, who continued to look down at her desk and doing her best not to react.
Adrian paused a moment to allow everyone to settle down slightly before continuing on as nonchalantly as before.
“-And she turned me down.”
All chatter immediately ceased.
Marinette snapped her head up and leapt to her feet while slamming her palms on her desk.
“SHE WHAT?!”
Everyone instantly turned to stare at her. Marinette blushed and quickly sat back down again. Adrian, bless him, came to rescue.
“Yeah, I was kinda surprised too,” he admitted mildly. “She hit me in the face with a pillow and told me we’re better as friends.”
The ensuing shocked silence was palpable.
“Dude, are you SURE this is the real Chloé and not a body snatcher?” Nino asked, with a tone that could either be deadpan joking or deadly seriously.
“I am 100% sure she’s the real Chloé,” Adrian answered in the exact same tone.
The bell rang, signaling end of free period, and Miss Bustier signaled for everyone to return to their seats.
Marinette fell back against her chair, still reeling from what she heard and the second chance that she had been gifted.
Later that afternoon as the class made their way to Ms. Mendeleiev’s room for science, Marinette lightly touched Adrians shoulder to get his attention and whispered,
“Can we meet me at the park after school?”
~*~*~*~*~
Chloé would get one more visitor that day, uninvited but not unexpected.
She was fitfully sleeping on top of the bed covers, the afternoon sun streaming through her window, when she suddenly snapped her eyes open. Pollen was directly in front of her face, looking worried, and Chloé instantly realized why. She sat up and immediately looked to the far side of the room.
Evangeline was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and looking pleased to see Chloé awake. She was in normal clothes, but Chloe knew better than to assume she wasn’t a threat.
“Good to see your instincts are still sharp,” Evangeline commented.
Chloé narrowed her eyes suspiciously and didn’t respond.
Evangeline pushed off from the wall and leisurely walked around the room to Chloé’s desk, moving in an arc to keep a respectable distance between them. Meanwhile Chloé tensely sat up on the edge of her bed, keeping her eyes on the intruder.
Evangeline eventually settled in Chloés chair, one leg crossing the other, and leaned an elbow on the desk.
“What was being a Witch like?” She asked bluntly.
Chloé was surprised by the question - she had been expecting another, to be frank. Her first instinct was to shut the question down, yell at Evangeline and throw her out for daring to ask her to remember.
But a larger part of her wanted someone else to understand.
“Like…being trapped in a nightmare.” Chloé answered slowly. “I felt like…like I was covered in paper cuts on every inch of my body, inside and out. But it wasn’t physical pain either, it just hurt everywhere all the time and I couldn’t understand why. And because I was in constant pain, I had no sense of time. I don’t know if I would’ve been able to tell the difference between one day and 10 years. All I knew was that I wanted the pain to stop.”
Chloé felt a warm, tiny weight press against her lower back. She took a breath and drew strength from the comfort Pollen provided.
“At one point recognized I had intruders, but they…you…were faceless to me. At first I felt absolutely terrified that they were going to hurt me, but then I was angry. I wanted to make them suffer, and I knew with every fiber of my being that I would stop hurting if I made them hurt instead.
“But I also wasn’t actually ‘thinking’ any of this. It was all just…emotion and reflex. Like, I didn’t have a sense of self anymore, just pain and anger, all the time.”
Evangeline listened with no expression.
“That explains why Witches thrive on suffering,” she said evenly. “If they felt like it’s the only way they can alleviate their own pain.”
“I wouldn’t wish turning into a Witch on anyone,” Chloé admitted. “Not even my worst enemy.”
Evangeline leaned her cheek against her propped up fist.
“So what now?” She asked. “Ladybug and Chat Noir may have been able to un-Witchify you, but I can tell they didn’t turn you fully human again. And honestly, turning into a Witch over and over again sounds like absolute hell. I wouldn’t do it.”
Now THIS was the question Chloé had been prepared for. There was a tightness in her chest and a prickling across her skin, but the stakes were too high to back out now.
“Well, about that…Pollen?”
Evangeline snapped to attention when the little bee kwami came out from hiding behind Chloé.
“Greetings, Evangeline,” Pollen said politely with a little head bow.
The Magical Girl simply gaped at her.
“Eh?”
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Chloé couldn’t help but smile a little at getting Evangeline off balance for once.
Chloé pulled the comb from the base of her ponytail and held it up.
“You know how Ladybug and Chat Noir have Miraculous that Hawkmoth is always after? This is one too. They basically fused my Soul Gem with it to, well, ‘fix’ me. I have to keep it close like my Soul Gem, but I don’t need Grief Seeds anymore - Pollen provides the power now, not my soul.”
Evangeline stared at the innocuous comb with the intensity of a cat preparing to pounce on her prey.
“So you’re saying, you won’t turn into a Witch again?” She asked.
“As far as we know, yes,” Chloé answered. “But this is literally the first time this has ever been done, so no one knows what the side effects are going to be.”
Evangelines intense stare switched back to Chloé.
“What kind of side effects are you expecting?” She asked.
Pollen took over answering for Chloé.
“Best case scenario, Chloé will continue to grow and age and live our her life like a normal human, just with me as a constant companion. However, the fact remains that her life force is now tied to a Miraculous, and by extension me as well - and I cannot die.
“Chloé might age until she hits the prime of her life, and then stop. Or she might already be frozen as her 14 year old self permanently. If the Miraculous is destroyed, it might free her soul to move on, or it’ll trap her in spirit form with me for the rest of eternity. We won’t know the long term effects until they happen.”
Chloé closed her eyes and tried to focus on breathing as the gnawing fear twisted her gut. They had discussed this already in the early hours of the morning when Chloe couldn’t fall back asleep, but hearing Pollen lay out the worst case scenarios still frightened her to her core.
She opened her eyes to find Evangeline watching her with a blank expression.
“It doesn’t sound like Ladybug and Chat Noir did you any favors,” she finally said.
Chloé shrugged with one shoulder. “I AM grateful to be alive right now, but maybe I’ll feel differently a million years from now.”
Evangeline leaned back in the chair she sat in.
“You’re being awfully open about this. Ladybug didn’t tell you to keep this secret?”
“You were going to figure out something was up when I stopped patrolling,” Chloé pointed out. “I’d rather you know the truth than do something stupid because you got it wrong.”
Evangeline smirked. “Fair enough. I refuse to become a Witch, but I wouldn’t want to be stuck watching the end of the universe either.”
In that moment Chloé felt every second of the future that separated them.
“So where does that leave us?” Chloé asked.
Evangeline shrugged. “Nothing, I guess. Maybe I’ll want more from you if this soul-merge thing turns out to not be as bad as all that, but for now…you don’t have anything that I want.”
Chloé looked down at her lap, then back up again.
“I’m…I’m sorry that you’re still…stuck…as a Magical Girl,” Chloé said hesitantly. “I wish it was possible to save you too.”
“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” Evangeline admitted. “I’d’ve thought you’d want me dead more than anyone.”
“Maybe I should, after all you’ve done. But you did help to save my life, and I can’t ignore that you were tricked into a horrible position where your only options are to fight or die.”
An idea occurred to Chloé, and as per her brash nature she immediately voiced it without a second thought.
“But you know, this hotel has a restaurant. Starting tomorrow, you can come in everyday for one meal that I’ll pay for; breakfast, lunch, or dinner.”
Evangeline stared at Chloé in absolute shock. Pollen was surprised as well, but she also seemed oddly pleased.
“Why would you do that?!” Evangeline blurted out. Chloé shrugged.
“Because if I can’t save you, the least I can do is make it a little easier for you to survive,” Chloé said.
Evangeline started at her for a few seconds longer. Slowly she smiled, and stood up.
“That’s a really good deal. But you know, not even a free meal every day can make me stay forever. Someday I’m going to get bored of Paris and I’ll want to move on. So, the day that I stop coming, that’s the day you know I left, okay?”
Chloé nodded as she played along with the game.
“That’s exactly right. You should try London next, if you can.”
“Good idea.” Evangeline said with a nod. “When I’m done here, I’ll go to London.”
Chloé picked up the bakery box on her night and held it out toward Evangeline with the lid open. The dark haired girl hesitated a moment, then approached to take a single macaroon for herself. Chloé took one as well, and even Pollen grabbed one.
The three of them ate their treats in peaceful silence.
When she finished her treat, Evangeline left through the glass door that led to Chloés patio. With a flourish of her arms and a flash of glittering red light she transformed before leaping straight up to the room and out of sight.
Chloé promptly fell over sideways in bed.
Pollen buzzed worriedly around her head. “Are you alright, my Queen?”
“That took about ten years off my life,” Chloé groaned. “Dealing with Evangeline is like being stuck in a cage with a tiger and hoping she isn’t hungry.”
“You conducted yourself very well!” Pollen assured her. “You demonstrated poise and confidence! I was very impressed!”
Chloé smiled a little, happier for the compliments then she was willing to admit.
She rolled over and sat back up again, holding up her hands in invitation. Pollen settled down in her palms.
“Thank you for trusting me,” Chloé said. “I know I was asking a LOT, since we just met and all.”
“Well, we ARE partners now!” Pollen said cheerfully. “We need to trust each other, and we have to start now. Though I’m curious, what made you so certain this would work?”
“Evangeline isn’t that complicated. She’ll do whatever it takes to survive, but more than that, she wants control over her own life. And honestly, I figured she’d hate the idea of being trapped in eternity.”
Pollen turned somber.
“We don’t know for certain that’s what’s going to happen, my Queen. At this point, we have no reason not to believe you’ll live the normal life of a normal human.”
Chloé put the comb back in her hair. “Except with a FABULOUS accessory I’ll have to dress around from now on.”
Pollen giggled.
“Thanks Pollen, but I’m okay, really,” Chloé said. “It’ll be at least a few years before it’s a problem, so that’s a problem for Future-Chloé. Today-Chloé has better things to do.”
And hopefully, if she said it often enough she’ll start to believe it.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The butterflies in Marinettes stomach were fighting to escape, and the sensation went into hyperdrive when she saw Adrian waiting for her at the bench situated between two shady trees.
Dimly she remembered this is the same bench she and Felicity had sat on after their first meeting, but she quickly banished the thought.
Adrian stood in concern as soon as he saw Marinette approaching.
“Marinette, is everything okay?” He asked worriedly.
“I’m fine,” she assured him. “I just…there’s something important that I’ve been meaning to tell you, and now that Chloé’s safe I feel ready to say it.”
Adrian stayed silent, patiently waiting.
Marientte takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before she began.
“For a long time I had thought of Chat Noir as one of my dearest friends, and identities aside he was the person I trusted the most. I didn’t take his flirting seriously, but I valued his support, his trust, his humor, and most of all his friendship.
“When I learned the truth about Chloés wish, it got me thinking about what kind of love it would take to make that kind of sacrifice. I wondered who I cared about enough to do the same. Who meant so much to me, had done so much for me, that I’d make the same sacrifice to ensure their happiness. And only one person came to mind.
“I wanted to tell you that I-”
Adrian whispered “Stop.”
The word shattered Marinette completely.
The look on her face immediately sent Adrian into panic mode. “No, I’m sorry, I mean - we just - I didn’t mean it like that!”
His hands came up as if half ready to grab Marinette in case she started running. He needn’t have worried, Marinette was too numb to move.
Adrian gestured to the bench behind him. “Can we sit?”
Marinette obediently takes a seat, feeling like she was moving in molasses. Adrian took a seat besides her, drumming his fingers on the bench as he tried to find the right words.
“If I heard this from Ladybug a few weeks ago, I’d’ve been over the moon,” he admitted. “And I still have those feelings, but it’s different now.”
Marinettes eyes begin to burn.
“Because I’m just plain old Marientte, huh?”
She’s startled when Adrian snaps his hands out to grab one of hers, looking panicked again.
“Absolutely NOT! I think you’re amazing as Ladybug AND Marinette! I just mean…right now I’m just not…”
He trailed off, his expression distressed as his words failed him.
Help came from an unexpected source.
“OH SWEET CHEESE AND CRACKERS!”
Plagg popped out from the inside of Adrians over shirt, looking extremely annoyed.
“He’s trying to say he can’t date ANYONE right now because he’s still messed up from the Witchy-Chloé business!”
Marinette was left speechless and taken off guard by the cat Kwami’s sudden appearance. Adrian just looked mortified.
Tikki popped out of hiding from Marinettes purse. “PLAGG!”
“What?! The kids should be thanking me!” Plagg said in his defense. “I just saved Pigtails from getting the wrong idea!”
Tikki let out a frustrated growl before grabbing Plagg and dragging him away to leave the teens in peace.
Marientte and Adrian sit together for an awkward moment of silence. Marientte broke it to ask, “What did Plagg mean by that?”
Adrian closed his eyes, swallowed, opened his eyes again and shifted so he was sitting sideways on the bench and facing Marinette directly. She turned as well to match his position.
“When I asked Chloé to go out with me, she turned me down for two reasons: she knew I didn’t have those feelings for her, and even if I did, we were both too traumatized by what happened to be in a relationship right now. And I know I’ve been so caught up in my own pain, that I forgot you were dealing with trauma too.”
A feeling of shame and guilt rose up in Marinettes heart.
“I…I wouldn’t say that,” she said. “I’m not the one who turned into a Witch or got tricked in trading my soul away like Chloé, or had to watch my oldest friend sort of die like you did.”
Adrian shook his head. “You were nearly killed by Evangeline, watched Chloé mutilate herself, and Felicity died right in front of you! Of course all that is going to be traumatic!”
Adrian looked off to the side.
“Honestly, between the three of us I think I got off the easiest. But when I think about it, I can see how this has changed me. I’ve been second guessing myself because I don’t want to hurt anyone else like I hurt Chloé, and Lila took advantage of that. I keep checking my pocket and panicking a little every time I come up empty, even though I KNOW Chloé’s home and safe and the Grief Seed is gone. And I still feel sick and scared when I think about what I was ready to do to Evangeline.”
Marinette placed a hand over his on his lap. He brought his attention back, and smiled a little at seeing Marinettes genuine sympathy and concern.
She had no words of wisdom or comfort, nothing to make those feelings go away, but he had her.
Adrian put his other hand on top of hers for a moment of gratitude.
“My point is, if that’s what it’s been like for me, how much worse has it been for you?”
It was Marinettes turn to look away, feeling her throat close up as she recalled the terror, the pain, the weeks of anxiety and stress wearing her down into exhaustion.
Even without words, Adrian understood.
“After talking to Chloé, I realized that, as I am right now, I’m not…boyfriend material. And any girl I might date deserves better than that.”
“That girl might disagree,” Marinette said softly. “If you both shared the same hurt, then you could support each other, right?”
“Not of that girl is so used to taking care of others she forgets to take care of herself,” Adrian countered gently. “I’d want her to take care of herself first, before she had to worry about me. And, I’d like to get to a better place myself so I can better help her.”
When he put it like that, Marinette could not help but understand. She loved Adrian enough that she wouldn’t want him to sacrifice his mental health to take on her baggage, and she knew herself well enough to know that if they entered a relationship she would use caring for him as an excuse to not deal with her own issues.
Marientte gave Adrians hand a squeeze. “That you for talking to me. You’re…a precious friend to me, and I’m glad to have you.”
Adrain smiled and squeezed her hand back. “Thank you. You’re my precious friend too.”
For now they would leave their feelings unspoken and carefully stowed away in the corner of their hearts, until such a time they were ready to open the box again together. Marientte still felt a little sad about it, but mostly she felt at peace.
The moment was broken by a familiar and detestable voice.
“This is why my people consider emotions a sign of a mental disorder.”
Adrian and Marinette leapt off the bench like it had caught fire.
Kyubey sat at the end of bench, looking as if he’d been there the entire time. Tikki and Plagg immediately reappeared from their hiding spot amongst the tree branches to hover protectively by their respective Chosens.
“What are YOU doing here?” Adrian demanded hotly. Tikki crossed her little arms and regarded Kyubey coldly.
“I take it you’re here because you have issues with how our Chosens helped Chloé.” She said.
To everyones surprise, Kyubey shook his head. “Actually, no. You technically stayed within the constraints of the Accord, and truthfully I’m more impressed by the loophole they managed to find.”
Marinette gave him a sidelong look of confused suspicion. “Seriously? You went through a lot of trouble to either get a recyclable Magical Girl out of Chloé or trade me for her, but in the end you got nothing. You’re seriously not upset about that?”
“I think you’re vastly overestimating how much effort I was extending in this endeavor,” Kyubey said. “Ultimately this was just an experiment to see what would happened and what solutions the Holders of Creation and Destruction would find. True, there were ideal ends that would have been most advantageous to me, but just because I didn’t get the results I expected doesn’t mean the experiment was a failure. As long as you learn something new, no experiment is a failure.
“In fact, since the two of you managed to do something unprecedented, in a way the experiment was a resounding success. The implications of what you have discovered are quite…intriguing.”
Adrian and Marinette exchanged horrified looks.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Plagg asked suspiciously. “What are you planning?”
“At the moment, nothing,” Kyubey replied. “This discovery is so new I have yet to determine any practical value. Perhaps it’ll become relevant again in a year, in a century, or perhaps never again. But progress is impossible without new discoveries, and so I am satisfied.”
Marientte felt like she was going to be sick.
“Have you spoken to Chloé yet?” Adrian asked.
Kyubey tilted his head to the side. “Why would I? She has nothing left to offer me.”
Forget sickness, Marinette now just desperately wanted to punch Kyubey in his smug face.
“Are you serious?!” She exclaimed. “You tricked her, used her, and now you’re just tossing her to the side??”
“Would you prefer I approached her then?” Kyubey asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“Chloé is better off never having to see your stupid face ever again!” Marinette shouted back.
“Then I fail to see why me NOT visiting her upsets you so much.”
Marinette had no good response, so she could only let out an inarticulate noise of rage.
Tikki floated forwards, and in a tone that brooked no argument she simply told Kyubey “Leave.”
Kyubey stood, and addressed them one last time.
“Farewell Marientte, Adrian. I know it wasn’t easy, but at least we all got what we wanted in the end.”
Adrian lunged forward with hands outstretched, “You piece of-!” But Kyubey was already darting away. In the blink of an eye he was gone.
“Kyubey always did like having the last word,” Plagg muttered. “Jerk.”
~*~*~*~*~
The next day, Wednesday, the entire school has a short morning assembly conducted by Principle Damocles to announce that Chloé Bourgeois would be returning to school the day after. The rest boiled down to “We all know Chloé recently escaped from being kidnapped, and it was surely a very upsetting experience for her. Anyone who bothers her or tries to hound her for details will receive detention and possibly suspension.”
The result was that, when Chloé walked into school the next day, the student body parted for her like the Red Sea; too scared of punishment to approach, but too hungry for details to go too far.
Chloé gave no indication she noticed. But it probably wasn’t a coincidence that her limo dropped her off with only a couple minutes to spare before class began.
Outwardly she seemed the same as before. All put together, makeup back, hair immaculate in her ponytail. She took her old seat in the front row with Sabrina happily returning to her side, and she even took out a nail file in the final seconds before the bell rang.
But to the surprise of everyone pretending not to watch, once the lesson began Chloé actually took out her books and even took notes during the lectures, something she had never bothered doing before. Sabrina looked slightly disturbed by the uncharacteristic change in behavior.
The problem came when Miss Bustier started handing out worksheets and Sabrina automatically tried to take Chloés, only for the heiress to hold tightly onto it. The two ended up in a tug of war with the paper.
“Don’t worry about it Chloé, let me handle this for you,” Sabrina said quietly as she tugged on the sheet.
“I can do this myself,” Chloé said as she pulled back.
“You need to rest and relax!” Sabrina insisted.
“No, I don’t!”
“Let me help you! I want to help you!”
Miss Bustier noticed the commotion behind her and started to turn around to address the quietly bickering girls, but before she could say anything Chloé leapt her to feet and slammed her hand on the desk to stand over Sabrina.
“WOULD YOU JUST GIVE ME THE GOD DAMNED WORKSHEET?!”
The room went dead quiet.
Chloé immediately looked horrified by her outburst. She spun on her heel and ran out of the room, throwing the door open with enough force to slam it against the wall. Adrian and Marinette leapt out of their seats and chased after her without a second thought.
Sabrina stayed frozen in her seat from shock, fear and confusion.
Adrian hit the railing first with Marinette right behind them, and they spied Chloé running recklessly down the stairs. In her haste she slipped and fell the last few steps. Instead of getting up she stayed on the ground, breathing hard, and giving Marinette and Adrian the chance to catch up. Adrian kneeled beside her to find she was crying, and Marinette stood on her other side with a hand on her shoulder.
“Everyone’s telling me to rest but I CAN’T!” Chloé cried out. “I hated it at home because I wasn’t allowed to do anything and all. I could do was THINK and REMEMBER and I don’t want to keep remembering and I don’t want to sleep because I’ll just remember again! I wanted to come to school because at least I could think about SOMETHING ELSE! Why can’t Sabrina let me? Why is she trying to take that away??”
Adrian wrapped his arms around Chloé and pulled her into a hug, letting her collapsed against him and cry into his shoulder. Marinette dropped to her knees to hug Chloé from behind, surrounding her with comfort and safety.
Miss Bustier watched the huddled trio from her position on the second level. She couldn’t leave her class unsupervised for long, but it seemed Chloé was getting the support she needed right now. Still, a discussion with the schools counselor was sorely needed as soon as time allowed.
~*~*~*~*~
Once she had calmed down Chloé insisted on finishing out the school day. The classmates pretended her outburst never happened, but there was an awkward tension between Sabrina and Chloé now.
As soon as the last bell rang Chloe was out the door as fast as possible without running, escaping to her waiting limo. Sabrina wilted at Chloes hasty departure, and Rose was quick to come up to offer comfort and support.
For Marinette, the walk home with Alya was perfectly normal up until Evangeline appeared in their path.
“Hey Marinette, hey Other Girl,” Evangeline greeted with a wave.
Alya raised an eyebrow. “Uh, hi? Who are you, and how do you know Marinette?”
“We’ve met a few times,” Evangeline answered breezily. “Mind if I steal her? We need to talk about something in private.”
Panic immediately shot through Marinette, but she schooled her expression for Alya’s sake and reminded herself that Evangeline did not see her as a threat anymore. She turned to her friend and said “It’s okay, Alya. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
Alya still looked suspicious, but she walked off to leave Marinette and Evangeline alone.
The disguised Magical Girl jerked her head in silent command to follow, and she led her off the main street down a mostly deserted side street. She moved to the side to lean back against the building, arms crossed, and Marinette felt irrationally relieved that Evangeline had left all avenues of escape open.
“So, how much did Chloé tell you?” Evangeline asked.
Never mind, the panic was back again.
“U-um, not much,” Marinette stammered. “I mean, she didn’t tell me where she’s been or what she’s been doing since she’s been gone or anything.”
“Did she tell you the part where she doesn’t need Grief Seeds anymore?” Evangeline asked.
Marinette froze. “She told you that?!” She yelped.
Evangeline rolled her eyes at Marinettes clear distress. “Relax, Marinette, I’m not going to do anything. Chloé knew I was going to notice something was up eventually, so she went ahead and explained why what Ladybug and Chat Noir did for her wasn’t going to work for me. It sucks, but I get it.”
That did almost nothing to alleviate Marinettes rising panic, but she tried to assure herself that if Chloé didn’t tell Marinette about Pollen then surely she wouldn’t have told someone like Evangeline.
Evangeline went on, “Y’know, I got to meet Ladybug and Chat Noir because they needed my help with Chloé.”
“O-oh, really?” Marinette said, at first trying to sound casual, then interested, then excited as she was unsure what the ‘correct’ reaction should be, resulting in her hitting three different pitches. Evangeline raised an eyebrow and Marinette was vomiting words before she could stop herself.
“B-because you’re a Magical Girl, you’re BOTH Magical Girls, so of COURSE they’d need a Magical Girl to find another Magical Girl, it just makes sense! Good thing you were here to help, eh-heh-heh-heh!”
Evangeline stayed leaning against the wall with crossed arms, but her expression hardened.
“You know, the whole time I was with them I kept thinking how weirdly invested they were in getting Chloé back. Like, it was super personal for them both. And then I though, why did it take them so long to find me? Chloé was gone Monday night, but they didn’t get me until Thursday morning. It was like, they KNEW I go to your family’s bakery on Thursdays but didn’t know anything else.”
Marinettes heart was pounding in her ears and it was getting harder to breath.
“A-aaaaah-haaaa, maaaaaybe they just…didn’t…think of it? Until later?” She said, her pitch a touch too high to sound natural.
Evangelines eyes were as cold and hard as ice. “And then I remembered what happened at Le Grand Paris.”
Marinette desperately cast her memory back, trying to remember if she said anything suspicious but couldn’t think of anything.
“I remembered how you ran all the way down from the roof to the ground to get Chloé’s Soul Gem, then ran all the way back again,” Evangeline went on, her tone even and betraying no emotion. “The hotel is six stories high, seven if you count the roof. I tried it myself, and there’s no way a normal girl could have done it in less than ten minutes. And yet, ordinary little you did it in less than 30 seconds.”
Marinettes mouth went dry, electricity sparking in her veins.
“W-what are you saying?” She asked hoarsely.
Evangeline didn’t answer right away. She pushed herself off the wall and took a few steps closer, until the two girls were a mere breaths apart, Evangelines unblinking, unwavering eyes never once breaking away from Marinettes.
“I’m saying, that perhaps little old you is not so ordinary after all,” she said. “And perhaps, the reason you aren’t allowed to make a Contract is because you have…prior commitments.”
Marinette can’t breathe, can’t move, frozen in place by Evangeline.
Just as the tension was about to snap Marinette in two, Evangeline took a large step back and turned her head away while spreading her arms out.
“But, that’s none of my business.”
The abrupt change of mood almost gave Marinette a feeling of vertigo, but at least she could breathe again. “Uh wha?”
Evangeline shrugged and smiled.
“I mean it. Your…second job has got nothing to do with me, nor mine with you. I just thought you should know that you might want to be more careful in the future. And…”
Evangeline looked away, her smile gone, looking…ashamed? Unsure? Marinette didn’t know what to call the expression Evangeline now wore, but it was definitely vulnerable.
“…after everything, with me, and you, and you still…I didn’t think people like you were real. How can you still be so…kind, to someone like me?”
Marientte felt the moment crystallize as two clear choices opened up before her.
She could continue to play dumb, act like she had no idea what Evangeline was hinting towards in a last ditch attempt to protect her identity, at the cost of stabbing Evangeline in the weak spot she trusted to expose.
Or…
“You still scare me,” Marinette admitted, “but you’re a victim too.”
Evangelines eyes hardened again.
“The Contract forces you to live like an animal,” Marinette went on. “You have to hunt, and protect your territory, and when there aren’t enough Witches to go around you have fight other Magical Girls for every seed, all so you can survive one more day. I hate the things you’ve done, but I can’t ignore that you’re trapped too.”
Evangelines eyes softened.
“Some people would say none of that matters,” she pointed out. “That I’m still a monster.”
“If I thought I had the right to choose who deserved to live or die, I would be an even worse monster,” Marinette said.
Evangeline smiled.
“Just so you know, I’m still going to defend myself and my territory, but I’m not going to attack other Magical Girls if I don’t have to. And definitely not ‘potential’ Magical Girls.”
Marinette lit up with joy. “Really??” But a new thought quickly dimmed her enthusiasm. “Wait. Is it because it’s the right thing to do, or because you need more Magical Girls turning into Witches?”
“If I said I’m doing it out of altruism, would you believe me?”
“…I would like to believe it.”
“Then let’s say it’s true.”
Evangeline reached over to place a hand on Marinettes shoulder, but stopped when Marinette flinched and pulled her hand back. She instead crossed her arms behind her back.
“For what it’s worth, I AM sorry I attacked you before. You deserve better than that. So, if you ever need an enforcer or heavy hitter, hit me up!”
“Oh…okay,” Marientte said weakly.
Evangeline grinned and gave Marinette a salute with two fingers to her temple and flipping them upwards before turning and walking away, as cool as can be.
Marinette watched her go and could not help but mourn her.
~*~*~*~*~*~
A few days later André called Chloé to the living room, to the surprise of the latter. When she came in and saw her father sitting with his serious expression, she immediately knew she was not going to like the upcoming conversation.
André waited until Chloé took a seat before speaking.
“Sweetheart, you know I love you very much, right?”
Chloé raised an eyebrow. “Nothing good ever comes after an opening like that.”
“It’s nothing bad, you’re not in trouble or anything!” André said quickly. “It’s just…I’ve noticed how much you’ve been struggling; you’ve been waking up with nightmares, you’ve been jumpy, erratic, and Jean tells me you’ve developed a tic where you keep rubbing your middle finger.”
Chloés hand twitched toward her empty finger where her ring used to be. She caught the motion in time to stop it, but from Andrés glance he clearly still noticed.
He leaned forward in his seat and said “I think it would really help if you could talk to a therapist about what-”
Chloé’s response came out as a knee jerk reaction.
“No. Absolutely not.”
She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat while also crossing one leg over the other. She stubbornly looked off to the side so as to avoid looking at her father.
“I’m fine! Just fine! It’s just a few bad dreams, I’ll get over it, I don’t need a shrink!”
“It’s more than just a few bad dreams,” André tried to gently point out. “Maybe by talking to a professional you-”
Chloé furiously untangled herself and leaned forward in her seat.
“I DON’T NEED A SHRINK! I’M NOT WEAK!!”
That was what Mama had said, the night Chloé came back, when she and Daddy thought Chloé was still asleep in her bedroom.
“A shrink? Are you kidding?! If she’s that weak and feebleminded it’s your own fault for coddling her so much!”
Chloé couldn’t hear the rest, not when Audrey’s words kept replying themselves so loudly over and over in her head, each repetition piercing her like knives. She resolved to tell her mother first thing in the morning that she was fine, that she was ready to go on as normal, prove to her that she was strong and unbroken.
When she left her room the following morning she learned from Jean that Audrey had left early that morning to catch a plane back to New York.
Chloé hadn’t even known she was leaving.
André had fallen back into his chair, wide eyed and briefly stunned silent.
“O-of course you’re not weak!” He stammered out. “I just want what’s best for you!”
Chloé stood up. “I’m not talking about this anymore, I’m going out!”
She marched off and grabbed her purse while André got up to follow her. “Sweetheart, I really think we need to talk about this!”
“Okay! I’m not seeing a shrink, there, we’re done talking! I’ll be back later!”
“Keep your cell phone on!” André called out just as Chloé slammed the door shut behind her.
Pollen came out from where she had been hiding inside Chloé’s ponytail.
“Where are we going, my Queen?”
“Anywhere else!” Chloé snapped. She immediately regretted it, but didn’t know what else to say.
Pollen looked like she wanted to say something, but ultimately she only nodded. “I can understand needing to get out for bit. A nice walk can do wonders for clearing one’s head, get some peace and quiet.”
Chloé felt a wave of gratitude that Pollen wasn’t probing. She’s been getting enough of that from her father the last few days.
She wandered aimlessly for a while after leaving the hotel, Pollen riding along inside her purse. She stopped at a bakery to get some treats for Pollen - the bee kwami liked floral treats, and lavender macaroons were the easiest to find - and leisurely window shopped for a while after that.
Eventually Chloé found herself at the riverside, and stopped when she came to one of the bridges crossing over. Her mind went back to the Point Alexandré III bridge and she felt bile at the back of her throat.
‘…weak and feeble-minded…’
Chloé clenched her fist.
“I am NOT weak!” She said to herself, and determinedly marched across the bridge.
Or at least, she tried to.
She barely made it halfway across before the trembling in her knees became too much. Her head was spinning, her heart was racing, she was breathing rapidly and she felt a thunderbolt of terror that she was about to pass out.
Large blue and gold eyes filled her vision.
“Come my Queen, turn this way. That’s it, keep watching me, look into my eyes. Now, step forward. There you go, now another. Another. Another. Very good, just a little more. There you go.”
Chloé stumbled to the stone railing and leaned over as she breathed heavily as if she’d just run a marathon. Pollen continued hovering nearby at the edge of her peripheral vision.
“Alright, I need you to focus now,” Pollen said in a firm but gentle voice. “Tell me, what are you feeling now? I mean physically, with your body.”
“I…I feel the railing. It’s cold, hard, smooth. Stone.”
“Good. What else?”
“Um…I can feel a breeze. It’s cool. I feel the sun on my back. It’s weak, but still warm. I feel the fabric of my clothes. My sweater is soft and warm, my pants are…stiffer, warm too.”
“Good, good. Focus on those sensations. You are here, this is real, and you are safe. Just keep breathing, and looking down at the water. In, one, two, three, four. Out, one, two, three, four. There you go. Keep breathing like that.”
Chloé followed her Kwami’s instructions obediently, and started to feel somewhat better after a couple of minutes. She was so focused on her breathing, on feeling, on watching the water flow below her that she failed to notice Pollen diving back into her purse. Her concentration was only broken by a new yet oddly familiar voice.
“Excuse me, are you alright?”
Chloé turned her head just enough to see the newcomer out the corner of her eye; a teenage boy looking at her with concern, standing a respectful distance away and still half mounted on his bike. Chloé scowled when she realized she recognized him.
“Oh great, now I’ve got a stalker.”
The boy looked mildly offended by the accusation.
“Excuse you, how am I a stalker?”
Chloé stayed leaning on her elbows against the railing, but she raised one hand to start counting on her fingers.
“You were at the coffee shop I went to-”
“You mean the one I was already working at?!”
“-you started dancing with me at the salsa party thing at the park-”
“YOU were dancing with ME!”
“-and now you’re showing up here. Three times is a pattern, ergo, you are a stalker.”
The boy didn’t respond this time, he just looked at her with an unreadable expression. It made Chloé uncomfortable, so she looked back down to the water. She heard sounds of him fully dismounting his bike and pulling it to the side, and at the edge of her peripheral vision she could see him leaning again the stone railing besides her, closer than before but still respecting her personal space.
“You skipped one,” he said quietly.
Chloés jaw reflexively clenched tightly shut.
“You remember, don’t you,” he prodded. “The subway.”
Chloé forced her jaw to unclench.
“…Most people would probably rather forget,” she said. “I would, if it were me.”
“Kinda hard to forget about the time you nearly throw yourself in front of a moving train,” the boy pointed out. “Actually, I owe you an apology. I shouldn’t have ignored you like I did, and I’m sorry.”
Chloé rolled her eyes. “Oh please, it’s not like I’m hung up over that. I know I can be petty, but I’m not THAT petty.”
The boy lightly chuckled. “You’re better than me then. I would’ve been at least a little disappointed if I saved someones life and they just ignored me.”
Chloé started to nod, only to freeze. She snapped her head around to stare wide-eyed at the boy.
“The whole thing feels like a hazy dream, and I have a hard time remembering the details,” he admitted. “But I remember a falling sensation, and then looking up at a beautiful gold and white light, and a face looking down at me.”
He turned his head to look at Chloé.
“Your face.”
Chloé felt her heart race and her cheeks begin to burn.
“You’re the one that pulled me back, aren’t you?” He pressed. “You’re the one that saved me.”
Chloé couldn’t speak, but her silence said it all.
He smiled.
“Thank you for being there. Thank you for saving my life.”
Such small words, but they made the Earth stop spinning.
Chloé would often daydream of being showered in praise and accolades by all of Paris for doing something amazing, something so incredible and big that the whole world would have no choice but to acknowledge how exceptional she truly was. Being loved and adored by all she met, and finally making her mother proud.
Yet her dreaming did not equip her for being the singular focus of one persons deep and sincere gratitude. She could count on one hand the number of times it happened, each moment like a precious perfect pearl.
Most of them came from Adrian, like when she helped him get into school.
Once came from Marinette, after saving her from Evangeline.
And now…
Well, now she had physical proof right in front of her that her time as a Magical Girl wasn’t wasted, that the good she did did not begin and end with her wish.
His sincerity was too much for her, and Chloé had to look away
“So, are you okay? After what happened?” She asked.
The boy was quiet for a long moment. Chloé was just about to tell him to forget it before he finally answered.
“I can’t stop thinking about it,” he admitted. “I just got fired from the coffee shop I was working at, and I remember feeling so upset, so useless, like I was a failure, and…I don’t remember going down into the subway, I don’t remember deciding anything. It was like being in a dreamy haze, until your friend woke me up. I’m scared that it’ll happen again, I’m scared of loosing control, I just feel…scared, all the time.”
Chloé felt her eyes burn as she listened to his experience, different but not so far off from her own.
“How do you deal with that?” She asked before she could stop herself, and she hated how weak she sounded.
But there was not an ounce of judgment in the boys voice when he answered.
“At first I tried to pretend that I was fine. I’m used to being the responsible one, and I thought I HAD to be fine, you know? But eventually, I had to I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t fine, and I needed to talk to someone. Telling my mom was the hardest part, because I never wanted to make her worry, but she thanked me for trusting her. She helped me find a good therapist, and he’s been helping a lot.”
Chloé frowned down at the water.
“That doesn’t embarrass you? Doesn’t it make you feel weak?”
“It did at first, a little,” he admitted. “It was hard to get started for me. I felt ashamed that I needed hep, like I was being a burden. But my therapist helped me see it from the other side - if this happened to my sister, I’d want her to get all the help she needed and I’d support her every step of the way. I wouldn’t feel ashamed of her, and she could never, ever feel like a burden to me.
“And if that’s true for her, why shouldn’t it be true for me?”
Chloé thought of Adrian, who lost his mother and was left with a father who was both smothering and emotionally distant, so full of emotions and allowed so few outlets. She thought of Sabrina, so desperate to constantly prove her usefulness she’d put up with constant abuse she didn’t deserve.
She imagined someone calling either one of them weak for seeing a therapist. She didn’t feel one iota of embarrassment for her friends. She only felt a vague, protective desire to punch that person in their face.
“I’m really annoyed by how much sense you’re making,” Chloé groused. The boy laughed.
“I just know what it’s like to feel like you have to put on a strong face,” he said. “Sometimes you just need someone to tell you that it’s okay to not be okay.”
Chloé stilled.
She slowly turned her head to look at him again, really look at him. He looked the same as before, but it was like the scales had fallen from her eyes and she was only truly seeing him now.
His tall, lanky frame. His teal dyed hair, now missing the leather cat ears poking out the top of his head. His blue eyes, no longer framed by a black mask and with round pupils instead of horizontal slits, but still just as vibrant and bright.
The boys expression changed to concern when he noticed Chloés staring. He pushed off the railing and turned so he was facing her fully. “Are you alright? Did I say something weird?”
“N-no,” Chloé stammered. “It’s just…you’re the first person to ever tell me that.”
The boy who was once Black Cat looked saddened by her answer.
“Wow. I’m so sorry no one ever told you that before now.”
Chloés first reaction was disappointment.
Of course he would misunderstand, Chloé erased the timeline where he told her that before when she made her wish, he could not possibly understand, it’s not his fault for not remembering what never happened.
And then she was determined.
She pushed off the railing to face the boy as well.
“Hey, can we keep talking? Like, in the future?”
The boy lit up like the sun.
“I’d like that. Let me give you my phone and you can put your number in.”
He started digging into his pocket, but Chloé held up a hand. “Hold on, this is our fourth meeting and we still haven’t had a proper introduction!”
Chloé squared her shoulders and stuck her hand out.
“My name is Chloé Bourgeois. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
The boy smiled wider and took her hand.
“The pleasure is all mine. My name is Luka Couffaine.”