lahiffed
rangured
miracu-less
mavilez
ruinedchildhood
2 minutes after “Into the SpiderVerse”
gale-of-the-nomads
ML fanfic Idea: Brokenhearted
-Marinette gives up, she is tired of chasing after a boy who only sees her as a friend, and won’t stand up for her when a liar makes her look like a bully. She starts dating Luka, she is happy.
-Adrien finds himself a bit surprised by this, but Marinette is happy, so as her friend, he should be happy for her. (Though his chest hurts for some reason).
-Chat noir and Ladybug beat another akuma, and Instead of getting his fist bump he notices Ladybug looking like she is in a rush. “Have a date my lady?” He joked. But his heart split in too when she said she was late for one.
-Adrien managed to hold it together, it hurt, if there was ever a pain. But Adrien, kept it together. After all, it wasn’t like he knew Ladybug’s life. She could have dates.
-Next time he saw Ladybug, he teasingly asked how her date went, she denied she had one, but the cat knew how to prod to get the truth. She confesses it went great, and that her boyfriend is a sweetheart. Chat noir puts on a Cheshire grin and congratulates the girl. He jokes how if the guy breaks her heart, she should let him know so he could show him how a real man acts. Ladybug was surprised with the cat handling the news well, considering he confessed to her before, and his constant flirting.
-Chat noir cuts back on the flirting in the romantic way, using it more as to tease and prod. Ladybug gets used to this new treatment. Since her partner isn’t abandoning her, or getting akumatized. Chat noir managed to suppress his hurt, maybe behind the sealed door of disappointment and sorrow that he had to deal with in life.
-This all breaks when Ladybug saved Luka from danger. Chat noir saw it, the look of love and worry on the girls face. It wasn’t a look of unrequited love either, he could feel it in his bones. Ladybug was in love with Luka. Luka was happily dating Marinette. And everything clicked. Amazing when one is not blinded by love, how easily things become apparent.
-Chat noir disappeared for a few days. He wasn’t answering calls. Ladybug was worried about her crimefighting partner’s disappearance. He just up and vanished. Rena rouge and Carapace stepped up to help, so akuma were dealt with.
-Marinette went to fu for answers. Where she found an old man looking a touch sad as he held the cat miraculous in his hand. Marinette asked why he was holding it. She was confused, surprised, angry. and hurt. Fu handed her a letter written by Chat noir.
- ‘I am sorry My lady, I just couldn’t hold it in anymore. I tried to play it off, tried to be a good partner, but I failed. I knew if I didn’t give up my miraculous, my pain and hurt would have Hawkmoth turn me into an akuma. If I get akumatized with my miraculous on me, who knows what would happen. I leave it to you, give it to someone better then me. Maybe that guy with the blue tips in his hair, he seemed like someone cool enough to do the job. Good bye, Marinette.’
-Marinette felt her heart sink as she read that. It was heart wrenching to read. She knew the cat was hurting, she should have pushed on the issue more. She should have realized how much hurt he was carrying. How did he know she was Marinette? How long had he known. It was a cyclone of emotions.
-After some time, she did pick a new temporary Chat noir, It was Luka, he was a good fit for it, plus Chat noir did recommend it. The other heroes took a bit of time to adjust, Marinette did as well. Luka took it up as a temporary hero thing, since he didn’t feel he was right to permanently take up the role. He wanted to go by a different name, but Ladybug insisted he keep Chat noir, to keep Paris from gossiping about it. Most people just think Chat noir dyed his hair.
-Adrien, was slowly becoming more distant, shortly after Chat noir got ‘replaced’ he went back to homeschooling.
-Nino and others tried to reach out to him, but he stopped responding. Nino was annoyed, blaming Mr. Agreste for this.
-One night there was an akuma that destroyed the Eiffel Tower. Fearing the worst, Ladybug got the other miraculous users to help out. Thats when they saw a familiar cat costume that was pure white instead of Black and eyes bright purple instead of bright green. He looked at the group and smiled..
-”Its been a while, My lady.” Ladybug felt her heart sink as she realized who it was. It was her old Partner, and he looked very angry.
gale-of-the-nomads
Miraculous Ladybug au: Brokenhearted Part 1
Based on this (post)
(Thats right I wrote it. Please let me know your thoughts)
It had been a few weeks since Adrien had heard that Marinette had started dating Luka. The blond model felt odd about the whole situation. On one hand, it felt like him and Marinette were now closer than before. The black-haired designer didn’t seem so on edge around him, they were able to talk, able to work on homework together, it was nice.
But something ached within him whenever he saw her go to Luka. The blue tipped hair musician would be waiting for her afterschool, a smile on his face as she ran to him. She would hug his neck and lightly kiss his cheek. Then they would go off, he didn’t know where they would head off to, he never asked, it was never his place to ask.
Adrien decided to be happy for her, she seemed happy and Luka was a good guy. He would support her, he would smile and wave as he watched them leave. Then he would get into the car his bodyguard would drive him around in and go do the activity he had to do for his schedule.
______________________________________________________________________
It wasn’t much later when he found out Ladybug had a date. Chat noir knew she would never intentionally tell him that. Their personal lives were personal, despite his constant prying in the past. They were fighting an akuma, he hardly remembered what the akuma’s gimmick even was all he could remember was his red clad partner frustrated exclaiming how she was gonna be late for her date.
The black cat hero thought he had simply misheard her at the time, there was an akuma, and it was clearly stressing her out. That was his reasoning for it, denial is an amazing way to deal with shock, until it is clear it can’t be denied.
“In a rush my lady? Have date you are late for?” Chat noir prodded, his Cheshire smirk hiding his fear that he might be right.
Ladybug looked at him, the look of frantic panic, as if she was trying to think or say something. Like a mouse with its tail caught in a trap. Chat noir knew he had hit his mark. His smile vanished from his face as he looked down. Ladybug tried to speak.
“Chat noir…” the sound of his name felt like another nail in his heart.
Love shouldn't be selfish, and having Ladybug’s pity would only make it worse for him. Through sheer will he forced his smile back on his face.
“It is fine My Lady… or should I keep it more professional?” Chat noir questioned, keeping his playful tone as steady as he could.
Ladybug’s look of worry faded as she saw the cat’s smile. It seemed that she had bought his farce, or perhaps in her rush, she didn’t bother to delve into it deeper.
“It is fine Chatton, I am still your partner after all.” She smiled at him, unaware that her kindness continues to nail in the fact that the love of his life was out of reach because of someone else.
Ladybug left in a hurry, leaving Chat noir waving and smiling till she was out of sight. As soon as she was, he dropped to his knees, clenching his heart. It felt as if someone had stabbed him with a blade of fire. The burning agony of heartbreak coursed through every vein.
After a few minutes, he calmed himself. He stood up, wiped his tears out of his eyes and headed home. He knew he couldn’t go home angry or distraught, what if Hawkmoth akumatized his Miraculous? He couldn’t risk it. If he felt his emotions go out of control, he would need to transform, it would be the only way to stop himself from losing control.
_____________________________________________________________________
Another month past and things seemed to stabilize for Adrien. He was a good friend to Marinette, sure she and Luka were going on double dates with Nino and Alya, but he still had time to spend with his friends when he wasn’t busy. He stopped needing to transform to deal with his emotions.
As Chat noir, his flirting had changed to more of a way of teasing his red clad partner, see how she was doing. Apparently, her date had gone well, she had a steady boyfriend, much to the cat hero’s aching heart. He kept himself calm, after all, if Ladybug is happy, he should be happy. He thought maybe he should start trying to go out with someone, maybe being so transfixed on Ladybug has made him miss out on a girl in his life.
_______________________________________________________________________
He dated Kagami for about three weeks before she dumped him. The blond model had tried his best to be a good boyfriend to the prodigy fencer and for a while. The break up was unexpected, and he honestly took it better then he thought he would, but her words still haunted him.
“We are done Adrien.” She stated calmly, no hint of emotion expressed on her face.
“What? Why? I thought we were doing great?” Adrien asked in disbelief.
The fencer poked his chest with her finger, her eyes staring right into his.
“I hate being second Adrien, whether it is in fencing or in love. I am no one’s silver medal.”
She left him standing there speechless. He tried texting and calling her for a few days but she didn’t respond, he was pretty sure she blocked him. He texted his friends on what to do. He briefed them on the situation. Nino, Marinette, and Alya took him out to go ice skating to cheer him up. It was nice, the four of them hanging out, he had forgotten all about the break up and enjoyed himself, until Luka showed up. Adrien seeing Luka appear and Marinette eagerly leave his side to skate up to the musician. It hurt, as soon as he saw them kiss it was enough for him to call it a night. He told Nino his stomach was acting up and went into the bathroom.
He felt more pain seeing Marinette with Luka then he did with his break up with Kagami. How did that make any sense? He told Plagg to transform him as he punched the bathroom wall. He finally realized what Kagami meant. He was in love with Marinette, that’s why it hurt, that’s why Kagami broke up with him. She knew that he had feeling for the blue-eyed designer. She could tell.
He left the building as Chat noir, texting Nino that he went home and to thank them for the fun night.
_______________________________________________________________________
Adrien tried dating other girls after this, he became kind of an unintentional playboy. He had a date every week, and each one with a different girl. Each girl getting their heart broken, since Adrien didn’t want them to be lead on when he realized he wasn’t romantically interested in them.
Each girl getting their heart broken, and Hawkmoth taking advantage of it. Ladybug was getting sick about hearing about Adrien the playboy.
_______________________________________________________________________
Adrien went face first into his bed. He really screwed up. His Kwami tried to console him.
“Adrien, you are blowing this way out of proportion. I don’t think it was that bad.” The black cat kwami tried to assure him.
“I kissed Marinette. I kissed my friend, Marinette! I kissed MY FRIEND MARINETTE WHO HAS A BOYFRIEND! I am a terrible person!” Adrien exclaimed.
“Well… yea. Yeah you did do that. But she didn’t slap you… or insult you. She just… walked away with a stunned expression.” Plagg trying and failing to comfort the teen.
“She already thinks I am a playboy! I don’t even know why I did it. She was trying to comfort me. She was being a good friend! And I kiss her. I am scum!” Adrien muffled into his pillow.
“Maybe you should transform Adrien, just to avoid… a you know what.” Plagg mentions as he nervously looks around.
“Whats the point….” Adrien dismissed. The poor blond felt awful, but fate was on their side, as it seemed Hawkmoth had akumatized someone else already. Plagg managed to get the sad lump out of bed to help him get out. Surely fighting the akuma will help get his mind off of this minor hiccup.
_______________________________________________________________________
Chat noir arrived through his room window faster than any other time he hurried home. He transformed back into Adrien and he was frantic. He had finally figured out who ladybug was. It all made sense and it was tearing him apart.
“Marinette is Ladybug?!” Adrien exclaimed in shock.
The black cat kwami was still spinning from the sudden de-transformation. “What?”
“Marinette is Ladybug!” Adrien repeated.
Plagg felt his heart sink, the kid had finally figured out the truth. He could see it in his eyes.
“Adrien…”
The blond turned to the Kwami.
“You knew! You knew this whole time! You knew through this whole ordeal who she was!”
“What was I supposed to do? I couldn’t tell you! I wanted to, but I promised to keep it a secret. Because that’s what Tikki wanted! I wanted to tell you, but I also… didn’t want you hurting more then you are now.”
“That ship sailed a while ago Plagg.” Adrien commented with biting sarcasm.
Adrien took several steps away from Plagg. Taking a calming breathe.
“How did you even figure it out?” Plagg asked, his tone softer, his curious nature taking hold.
Adrien turned to him, his head hung low.
“When we were fighting the Akuma, Luka was in danger.”
“The musician boyfriend of Marinette?”
“Yea. He almost got hurt. Ladybug saved him.”
“Okay… but she saves a lot of people…”
“It was how she looked Plagg, that was the look of someone who wanted more than anything to save the person they loved. The look I always have when I protect Ladybug. Ladybug was in love with Luka.” Adrien explained.
“How could you know that for certain though, maybe Luka was two timing.” Plagg tried to optimistically point out.
“Believe me, if he was, Alya would find out and have gotten to him months ago.” Adrien countered. “So, the only explanation, is that Marinette is Ladybug.”
Plagg frowned as he watched the boy’s heart break again.
“It makes to much sense Plagg…” Tears were streaming down Adrien’s cheeks.
Plagg felt horrible, why couldn’t he have told him before? He could have spared the poor boy so much pain if he did.
“Plagg, transform me.” Adrien commanded suddenly, holding up a piece of cheese for the cat kwami. For the first time in Plagg’s life, he didn’t want the camembert.
_______________________________________________________________________
An old man was sipping tea and watching a late-night talk show when he heard a tapping on the window. The man whispered for a small turtle creature to hide as he went to the window. He opened it to see Parisian hero, Chat noir knocking on his window.
The old man opened the window and let the boy in. The blond teen closed the window and told him the truth.
“You want to quit?” The old man stated in surprised.
“Yes… I need to, for the sake of Paris.” Chat noir answered.
“But ladybug needs you.” The old man said with a worried tone.
“Ladybug needs a chat noir that isn’t another heartbreak away from becoming an akuma. Fu, please take the ring back. Give it to someone who deserves it. Have ladybug decide.” The black cat hero insisted. He then handed him a letter.
“Give this to her for me.” Chat noir spoke softly. “Claws in.”
_______________________________________________________________________
Ladybug arrived at Fu’s residence several days later. He seemed to have been expecting her.
“Fu, I think something has happened to Chat noir! I had to deal with two akuma on my own. He hasn’t responded to my calls, he would at least send a message or his kwami to help….” Ladybug stopped raving as soon as she saw the old man walk over to a mysterious black box.
He opened it to reveal the cat miraculous.
“He gave up his miraculous.” Fu spoke, solemnly yet firmly as he picked up a letter next to the box. He handed it to her. The letter was addressed to ‘Buggaboo.” Ladybug opened it and read the letter:
Dear Ladybug,
If you are reading this, then you know that I have given up my role as chat noir. It is selfish of me to do this; how could I leave you like this? I know those thoughts are crossing your mind right now. I am sorry for being an awful partner, always getting in the way, always having the villain incapacitate me, control me, use me against you in some weird way. Though you have never said it outright, I know you would tell me I am wrong. That is one of the reasons why I love you.
The true reason why I write this, is because I can’t handle it anymore. I am in an emotional flux that is sooner or later going to result in me getting akumatized. I have been playing it off as best as I could, but I can’t keep playing this game anymore. If the cat miraculous got akumatized, it would be over.
I leave the ring in your care, pick a good replacement for me. Maybe that musician with the dyed blue tips, he seemed cool enough to be chat noir. Be safe my lady.
Signed,
Chat noir
Ps. Have a nice life princess.
Ladybug felt her heart get crushed as she read every word. He knew who she was? Was he suffering that much? Chat noir was in love with her, yet he put on a brave face for so long just so she could be happy.
“Fu… who is Chat noir?” Ladybug questioned, trying to keep her voice steady.
“Why are you asking Ladybug?”
“Because… that silly kitty left his ring here… I need to give it back…” Ladybug spoke as her eyes watered.
______________________________________________________________________
Marinette did calm down after some time. Fu had refused to tell her, for the sake of their safety. She hated that, she begged tikki to tell her but still got no answers. She just needed to forget about that cat for a bit, maybe he will come back after a few days, who knows. What she needed to do was focus on school. She would worry about this after school today.
“I can’t believe he did this! Adrien was happy here! Sure he was acting a bit weird, but he didn’t deserve to get pulled out of school!” Nino was upset.
“Nino what’s wrong?” Marinette asked, wondering why everyone in class looked gloomy, even Chloé was surprisingly downtrodden.
“Adrien got pulled out of school. His dad is putting him on lock down. No phone, no internet, no anything. Adrien managed to tell Nino all of this before he got his phone confiscated. Apparently, Adrien’s grades were not up to his father’s standards.”
“That’s ridiculous! How is that fair!?” Marinette questioned, sure she had a bit of an awkward time with Adrien a few days ago, which she still feels very conflicted about, but he definitely didn’t deserve this.
“It isn’t fair, and if we try to talk to him, his dad said if he sees any of us set foot on his property, he will send Adrien to New York.” Nino stated the worst bit of news.
Marinette felt horrible, her former flame and friend now unable to come to school. She could only imagine what he was feeling.
_______________________________________________________________________
“Are you sure you are okay with this Adrien? You were the one who was insistent on going to school in the first place.” The fashion mogul inquired as he looked at his son.
Adrien lowered his head.
“I don’t want any more distractions. You were right. I don’t need to go to public school.” Adrien answered.
His father could tell that this wasn’t the real reason, but he did not need to concern himself with it. This would make it easier to keep him safe. He wouldn’t need to worry about his son becoming collateral damage in an akuma attack.
“Very well. If that is what you want. I’ll have Nathalie schedule your lessons for next week.”
“Thank you.” Adrien said hollowly as he headed out of his father’s office door.
He slowly made his way up to his room. He closed the door behind him and laid on the bed. He was completely alone.
lunian
My late birthday gift for @powerdragonmoon ;3;
You always remind me how beautiful and adorable Chlonath is, especially when its about family au lol
sillyxkittyy
*screams into the distance*
DID- DID THEY REALLY MAKE ADRIEN STARE AT MARINETTE WHILE SHE WASN’T LOOKING? AND MADE IT ALL IN SLOW MOW? WITH A SOFT SMILE AT THE END??
THEY SURE AS HELL DID!
ALSO ADRIEN REALLY DITCHED LILA TO GO SIT NEXT TO MARINETTE
THAT IS THE CUTEST GODDAMN THING OHMYGOD.
“JUST A FRIEND”?
…
NOT FOR LONG
jonathankai
“You and me against the world” - theme at the end of season 2 and at the start of season 3
Funny how Marinette and Adrien now share a secret together
angelofthequeers
Little Devil
Disclaimer: I don’t own ML.
You know, if Adrien didn’t just sit by and be an enabler. And if Chloé’s character development actually stuck. And if the writers could actually write consistent characterisation.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Alya to bits. But this girl was so wildly OOC in this episode that it’s not funny. I also like all the other classmates. But since it’s Chloé’s POV, we all know our blonde bitch will take any chance she gets to drag them.
The fic idea came from @gale-of-the-nomads and Little Devil from @zoe-oneesama (in case you want a picture reference). And @angel-of-death-2015 requested a tag in this here saltfic, so here you are! Part 2 coming tomorrow when I’ve caught up on sleep!
This is ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous! Okay, so Chloé doesn’t like Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and you’d have to be an idiot to not realise that by now. But if there’s one person that Chloé dislikes more than Marinette, it’s that serial liar Lila Rossi.
Actually, scratch that. Chloé doesn’t even really care about Marinette anymore. Hell, after all that stuff Marinette had done to get Chloé’s maman to like her and then throw that party for Queen Bee, Chloé’s inclined to think that Marinette is average. Not worth her attention, whether positive or negative, even though Chloé had been a bitch about the macarons on Heroes’ Day (but then Marinette had invited her to the picnic, so. Yeah.). And sure, Marinette’s crushing on Adrien – really, who wouldn’t crush on him, that’s just common sense – but she doesn’t hang off him like some kind of…ugh, leech. Even Chloé’s not as touchy as this Lila girl, who had practically been sitting in Adrien’s lap in class.
And really, Chloé has a right to be so physically affectionate with Adrien. They’re childhood friends, after all. She’s started to suspect that he’s not really that into it, but that’s something they can deal with another day. Right now, the problem is Lila Rossi. More specifically, how everyone in the class seems to be under some sort of spell or something, because how else would they swallow these utterly ridiculous lies?
Hmm. Maybe Lila’s just a permanent akuma from now on, with the power to make anyone believe her ridiculous lies. Queen Bee should really investigate that…with a few small hits to make sure. But Chloé can’t really go Queen Bee right now, so it’s time for the next best thing: the enemy of her enemy is her temporary ally. And that ally just happens to be one Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
“Ugh, really,” Chloé scoffs, shattering the silence. Having taken the cafeteria by surprise, the attention is now on Chloé, just as it should be.
“Is there a problem, Chloé?” Lila says, all sickly sweet and pathetic. Ugh, really. At least Chloé doesn’t have to tell so many lies for attention; that just comes naturally when you’re the mayor’s daughter. Small lies, sure, but at least she can say she’s not Liar Rossi.
“Duh,” Chloé drawls. She pushes her gourmet lunch from her personal chef away and stands up, hands on her hips, her lip curling at how everyone’s crowded around Lila to cater to her every whim like Sabrina does for Chloé. The difference is that Chloé actually gives half a fig for Sabrina, whereas Lila clearly doesn’t give a damn about any of these losers. “The problem is what’s wrong with all of you.”
“What’s wrong with us?” Alya says. Hmm. Some best friend to Marinette she is. “You’re one to talk, Chloé!”
“At least I’m not two-faced to my friends,” Chloé says. “Sabrina knows what she’s signing up for by being my best friend, though I’m not so sure I like how she’s fawning over Lila like that when she’s supposed to be fawning over me.” She puts on a look of exaggerated thought. “But I don’t think Marinette expected this from her friends…if you can even call yourselves that.”
There’s predictably immediate uproar, which Chloé drinks in with a smug smile on her face. Chaos is absolutely beautiful. Cause enough of it and you can pretty much get away with anything while everyone’s distracted by their hurt feelings. Lila just stares back evenly, the look in her eyes promising that somewhere, sometime, Chloé will pay for this.
Which would be a lot more intimidating if Chloé hadn’t mastered that look for herself, to be honest. What could this pathetic liar do to her, Chloé Bourgeois?
“Oh, come on,” Alya scoffs. “Like you care about Marinette. You’re just jealous of Lila because you’re not the centre of attention anymore.”
Chloé lets herself laugh at that because honestly, she doesn’t give a damn about Lila. Maybe if Lila was actually a credible threat. But really, Chloé can disprove half her lies on the very spot; she’d just rather not until she absolutely has to get her hands dirty. Make everyone stew just that bit longer.
“You’re right,” she says. “I don’t really care all that much about Marinette. But at least I’m honest about it. I don’t go calling myself her friend and then turning my back as soon as some lame new girl shows up.”
“Hey!” Kim says. “We didn’t turn our backs –”
“No, stop,” Lila sniffles. A tear slides down her cheek and it’s all Chloé can do to not double over laughing at how obviously fake it all is. “Chloé has a point. I didn’t mean to take Marinette’s friends from her –”
“Dude, you didn’t take us,” Nino says. “You needed help because of your ear and wrist.”
“Yeah!” Rose pipes up. “Marinette’s just upset. But she’ll come around! And then she’ll just love being your friend!”
“Oh, this is priceless!” Chloé laughs, wiping a tear from her eye. “Do you even hear yourselves? ‘Marinette will come around, then she’ll love being your friend!’ She can’t stand Lila!”
“And I don’t understand why,” Lila says, delicately dabbing her nose with a napkin with the hand that Chloé’s pretty sure is the one she claimed had arthritis. “I’ve tried to be nice to her! I want so badly to be her friend, but I guess some people are just incompatible…”
Chloé laughs even harder. “Oh. My. God. How am I the one defending Marinette while the rest of you treat her like some horrible person because she’s the only one smart enough to see through Lila?”
“You’re just defending her because she’s acting like you,” Alix says, her arms crossed. “Now that she’s started being mean to Lila because she’s jealous that Lila’s sitting next to the guy she likes, I bet you think she’s just the best person ever.”
“Do you even hear yourself?” Chloé says. “I don’t even like Marinette.”
“No, really?” Juleka mutters.
“In fact, I have a whole list of reasons why I don’t like her,” Chloé declares. “Sabrina can back me up there. But you know what isn’t one of those reasons? Being a bully. If there’s any one person out of the lot of you who’s least likely to be a bully, it’s Marinette.”
“But Adrien –”
“Think, people!” Chloé interrupts Rose. “Is Marinette really the kind of person to be mean to someone over a crush?”
Most of the class looks like they still want to demonise Marinette in favour of Lila, but it’s Mylène who looks down and mumbles, “We did try to help her talk to Adrien. But she told us to stop because he liked Kagami and she didn’t want to get between them.”
Chloé files that nice bit of information away in case she needs to deal with Marinette later, although it probably won’t be for a while if this lot are any indication. She and Marinette may never end up friends, but it might be wise to call a truce while Lila’s around. “So, you know Marinette wouldn’t be mean to someone because she’s jealous,” she says. “But you still rushed to kiss up to Lila because she told you a few cool stories?”
“I can understand why you’d doubt me,” Lila says, still putting on her pathetic ‘woe is me’ air. “I know a few of my experiences sound pretty outlandish –”
“That’s an understatement,” Chloé says. “How anyone believed those utterly ridiculous stories is beyond me. And see, as soon as anyone calls you out, you cry and whine and act like a baby to make people feel sorry for you. And it works! Now everyone hates Marinette. And now everyone hates me even more, not that I really care.” Actually, she does, if her outburst to Ladybug when her father had been akumatised is any indication. But they don’t need to know that. “I hope you’re all happy with yourselves.”
Though everyone’s still glaring at Chloé, there’s a far less hostile atmosphere. In fact, the cafeteria is starting to feel shameful rather than angry, like everyone’s beginning to realise that Chloé’s right. Of course she is. She’s grown up around people like Lila all her life, who’ll say and do anything to win over others for their own use. And while Chloé’s never had the subtlety to do it herself, she’s very much familiar with the whole backstabbing business of it. One wrong move and you’re done for. Unfortunately for Lila, Chloé doesn’t care about being subtle and not making enemies, because at least she knows where she stands with people while being nasty to their face.
“You told Marinette that a journalist always uses sources,” Chloé says to Alya, recognising this as the time to strike. “Did you use any sources, Ladyblogger? Or did you just believe Lila because she told you what you want to hear?”
“Excuse me?” Alya looks like she wants to spit nails.
“You believed a random girl over your own friend!” Chloé says gleefully. “Your best friend! You didn’t even look for sources yourself like a good journalist would! And hmm…Marinette’s the one who searched for sources on Heroes’ Day, right? She did your job for you and you ignored her. Because she was just jealous.”
The look of dawning horror on Alya’s face is absolutely beautiful. “I –”
“My daddy’s the one who invited Prince Ali here last time,” Chloé says, her entire body about to float away from just how perfect this all is. “All I had to do was ask him and he said there was no way that Prince Ali could’ve invited a commoner like Lila to be his personal guest. The timing doesn’t work out. And I’m sure that Rose could call him up and ask, since they’re just the best of friends.”
“I told you,” Lila insists, shedding a little of her pathetic air, while Rose looks away. “He never said that he’d be in the country with us.”
“Okay, whatever,” Chloé says. “But even if Marinette can’t prove that, what about Jagged Stone’s kitten? Isn’t Marinette the one with Jagged Stone’s phone number? Didn’t she design his album cover? Couldn’t you have asked her to check with him?”
A wide-eyed Alya says nothing, so Chloé goes in for the kill, revelling in how obviously Lila is trying to hide her panic.
“And even if you didn’t do that, you’re the Ladyblogger, right? Ladybug talks to you. Why don’t you just ask Ladybug if she’s Lila’s best friend? After all, a journalist always checks her sources! But sure,” Chloé shrugs, “Lila’s totally telling the truth.”
“Leave her alone!” Nino growls when Alya backs away from Chloé and turns away, her face twitching and eyes shining suspiciously. “Why do you have to be so mean, Chloé?”
“Mean?” Chloé smirks. “For once, I’m not being mean. I’m being honest. But you can’t handle that. And Alya’s not the only one who turned her back on Marinette, so she’s not the only one to blame. You all made up a whole seating plan to cater to one person without even asking the one being kicked to the back.”
“I have to sit up the front!” Lila says. “My tinnitus –”
“Oh, I can’t prove that’s fake, as much as we both know it is,” Chloé says. “And I’m not mean enough to accuse someone of faking a disability. But you and I both know that the only reason you wanted that seat was to sit next to Adrikins. And your ‘disability’ isn’t even the problem. It’s how everyone here made plans without even asking Marinette if she was okay with being pushed into the back row, then turned on her as soon as she asked why it was her who had to go when she wasn’t asked in the first place. She didn’t even say anything about Lila’s hearing!”
“I offered to sit up the back because I felt bad that I’d caused that trouble,” Lila says with a well-timed head droop.
“No, you said that to make Marinette look like the nasty bad guy so everyone would hate her more,” Chloé says. “My maman is Audrey Bourgeois. Do you really think I don’t know how this works? You suck.” Her eyes sweep over all her stunned classmates, who are standing there with open mouths like some sort of hive mind. Ha, hive mind. Her sense of humour is as impeccable as her sense of fashion. “You all suck. Especially if you believe some story about napkin balls cutting eyeballs out that even I know is fake, and I don’t even do my own homework. And the funny thing is that it took me to tell you all this and I’m not even Marinette’s friend! In fact, hasn’t she always stood up for all of you against me? And the only time you’ve paid her back is by helping her with a picnic where you got to eat her food anyway.”
“W-Where are you going?” Rose says in a high, unstable voice when Chloé starts to walk off. Chloé turns back around.
“To find Marinette and kick some sense into her, seeing as none of her friends seem to want to do that. Also, thanks for ruining my lunch. I can hardly eat it now that it’s cold.”
Chloé whips her ponytail around in a move honed over years and walks out of the cafeteria. No one says anything as she goes. They probably all hate her even more than usual, not that Chloé really cares right now. She’s used to being hated, and she’s too drunk on the high of actually being in the right for once. Now to find Marinette and kick a spine into her.
“Chloé?” she hears as soon as she leaves the cafeteria. When she turns and sees Adrien standing behind the door, she can’t help but beam.
“Adrikins!” she chirps, immediately rushing to his side. When he gives her the same look that he gave Lila, however, she forces herself not to throw herself all over him. Maybe all she needed was to see someone else do it to realise. “Please tell me you don’t believe Lila and her awful lies!”
“I heard what you said in there,” Adrien says. “And I think you could’ve been nicer about it but…you were right. Everyone did wrong by Marinette.”
“Not you,” Chloé insists, looping their arms together to pull him in the direction of the bathroom, where Marinette’s probably hiding out. There’s really nowhere else she can be, since bathrooms seem to be a magnet for crying teenage girls. “You didn’t say anything mean to her, Adrien!”
“But I didn’t stand up for her,” Adrien says. He looks down, green eyes crinkled and mouth drooping, and the urge to slap Lila for all the trouble she’s caused grows even stronger in Chloé at the sight. “I should have said something. I should have offered to sit with her at the back of the class. I knew Lila had a problem with lying – I should have said something then –”
“And had her make you look bad too?” Chloé says. “Please. It’s not your fault.”
Adrien doesn’t say anything to that, so Chloé just harrumphs and hopes that an akuma doesn’t come flapping its way in because if Queen Bee has to beat on her Adrikins then there’s going to be hell to pay. When they finally reach the girls’ bathroom, he freezes on the spot.
“I can’t go in there!” he says. “I’m a boy –”
“Adrien, if Harry and Ron can go into the girls’ bathroom to save Hermione or make some potion, you can go in there and cheer Marinette up before she gets akumatised and wrecks the school,” Chloé says. Adrien stares at her. “What? I saw the movies. And I’m not as dumb as people think I am. Come on.”
“I never thought you were dumb!” Adrien protests as Chloé pulls him into the bathroom. There’s no one in there, but one of the stalls is closed and Chloé can hear faint sniffles from behind the door.
“Dupain-Cheng!” Chloé announces, her voice echoing off the tiles. “You better come out right now.”
“C-Chloé?” Marinette’s voice is thick and wet. “Go away. I can’t deal with you right now.”
“Marinette, Chloé’s here to help,” Adrien says soothingly, like he’s talking to an animal about to spook. Judging from the gasp from inside the stall, Chloé thinks she’s pretty spot-on with that simile.
Yes, she knows what a simile is. Just because she makes Sabrina do her homework doesn’t mean she doesn’t actually learn the stuff. She just can’t be bothered doing the work.
“A-Adrien?” Marinette squeaks. “But – but this is the girls’ –”
“Who cares what bathroom this is?” Chloé says. “Look, Marinette, I just lectured our whole class and made an enemy of Lila, so you’d better get out here this second.”
Honestly, it’s probably shock that gets Marinette to open her stall door, but Chloé doesn’t care what it is. All she knows is that the lurch in her gut at seeing Marinette with red-rimmed eyes and a wet face should not be there because she so doesn’t care about Marinette at all.
And yet, a small part of her can’t help wondering if this is how she’s made Marinette feel with her own meanness. It’s not exactly that good a feeling. Ugh, is this what it’s like to actually care about other people?
“You – you did that?” Marinette looks from Chloé to Adrien, seeking proof that Chloé’s telling the truth.
“She did,” Adrien says with a small smile. He unloops his arm from Chloé’s so that he can wrap it around Marinette, who squeaks and flushes brightly and accidentally pushes her damp handkerchief into Adrien’s chest. “Chloé was amazing. She told everyone exactly what they did wrong, especially how they could’ve just asked you about Jagged Stone’s kitten or Ladybug about being Lila’s friend. And she also made them see that it was wrong to not ask you if you could sit up the back because they all thought you were angry at Lila’s disability.”
“It wasn’t that!” Marinette bursts out. “I never said she didn’t have it! She just – and everyone believed her, when she’s done nothing but lie but I always help everyone – oh, I’m sorry!” She covers her face with her hands. “I shouldn’t be acting so entitled –”
“Marinette, shut up,” Chloé says. “You’re allowed to stand up for yourself.”
“Especially after everything you’ve done for everyone,” Adrien says. “I meant it when I said you’re our real-life Ladybug.”
The bell ringing at that moment drowns out Marinette’s squeak. Adrien looks around at the door, panicked.
“I can’t miss class,” he says wildly. “My father would be furious if he knew I skipped class to comfort a friend. But I can’t just leave Marinette –”
“Go to class, Adrikins,” Chloé says. “I’ll stay here and talk some sense into her. And the principal wouldn’t dare punish me for missing class or I’ll tell my daddy.”
“Are you sure?”
“Please go!” Marinette lets out another squeak. “I mean, don’t go – I mean – I don’t want you to miss class because of me!”
Adrien looks torn but, with one last squeeze, he lets go of Marinette and heads for the door. As soon as he’s gone, Marinette squints at Chloé.
“Why are you doing this?” she says. “Why would you stand up for me?”
“Because I hate Lila more than I hate you,” Chloé says. Before she can launch into some speech about calling a truce because they both hate Lila’s lies, there’s the sound of fluttering and Marinette shrieks and jumps away from Chloé.
“Akuma!” the noirette cries, backing away into a corner of the bathroom.
“Damn it, Marinette, stop being upset!” Chloé snaps, her eyes flitting to the bathroom door so that she can make sure she’s got enough time to run if Marinette gets akumatised.
“I’m trying!” Marinette wails, waving her handkerchief in front of her. “I’ve tried breathing – I’ve tried thinking happy thoughts – but I can’t help it this time! I’m sorry!”
Okay, wow, Lila is so going to pay for this because Chloé totally didn’t sign up for an akumatisation today. She backs out of the room, determined not to be the first victim, but she pauses outside the door and peers inside when Marinette does something strange. As though resigning herself to the akuma, Marinette stops trying to get away and instead, yanks her earrings out and flings them into a corner of the bathroom a split second before the akuma hits her handkerchief. Chloé’s distracted from the oddness of the action by Marinette sliding to the floor, whimpering and tugging at her hair as a purple outline appears over her face.
“No!” she shouts. “Leave me alone, Hawkmoth!”
Wow, is Marinette actually going to fight this off? Chloé sure hopes so. Her nails were just done yesterday.
“I don’t want your power!”
But Chloé can see the exact moment when Marinette is overcome by Hawkmoth’s sheer will. Not that she can blame Marinette, really. Chloé’s been subject to it three times and she hadn’t even tried to fight (though to be fair, she’d been hit by Despair Bear and Dark Cupid the third time). Hawkmoth can be super persuasive, especially with all the negativity amplified by ten and surging through you when the akuma hits.
“This isn’t even my fault for once!” Chloé whines softly when Marinette’s head whips up, an uncharacteristically dark smile spread wide across her face, and she’s engulfed in dark purple and black from head to toe.
When the akuma magic fades away, the thing floating in the bathroom is nothing but an ugly mockery of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Her skin is now a blood red, her eyes still bright blue but the whites now burnt yellow. Her pigtails look sharper, more like downward-pointing horns, while she has little horns poking up that look like hair but, knowing Hawkmoth, are probably real horns. She’s wearing a black one-piece that ends in short shorts and T-shirt sleeves, with thigh-high black boots and gloves a darker red than her skin, with hearts cut out of the back of her gloves and dotting her suit. And on her back are little black devil wings, though they’re probably not keeping her afloat since they’re not flapping. It takes Chloé a moment to locate the akumatised handkerchief tied around Marinette’s throat like a cravat, and she’s just wondering if she can somehow grab it without getting herself hurt when Marinette lets out a loud laugh and floats to the door, slamming it open and sending Chloé crashing to the ground.
“I am Little Devil!” Marinette announces, her voice warped deeply and horribly from the voice that Chloé knows. Chloé idly notices that she has a narrow black tail, like Chat Noir’s but ending in a love heart-shaped point, just like the pitchfork she’s carrying. “You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I’m the bad guy.”