Hello and welcome to one of my Miraculous Ladybug fanfictions!

I decided to post this here because in July 2023's SWC there was a daily where we describe a piece that we're really proud of and then ‘shop’ around in the comments. I decided to describe this piece, and people seemed really interested- which was super sweet. :' D

In any case, the fic is Scratch friendly (I've changed a couple things super minorly, but it is really almost exactly the same reading experience*) so I decided that I could actually post it on here! It has been posted on another site, but I know that most Scratcher's don't have access to the other site so I wanna put it here too in case they wanna read something of this sort and can't find it. : )

How this will work:
Each chapter will be in a new post. In these chapters, summaries + starting and ending notes that are relevant to the chapter itself and not it being posted on the other site it's on will be included in “quote” boxes (the gray things).

It'll all be posted in one place, and after that any readers are free to discuss it! Just try not to quote entire messages please, it really clogs up the space in the Discuss page. If you do, don't worry! Posts can be edited and I won't be mad. <3

Now, here's some information.
Original post time: July, 2022
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug
Characters: Marinette, Chloe, Adrien, Alya, Nino, Tikki
Ship: Chloenette/Ladybee (Marinette x Chloe)
Other mentioned ships/crushes: Marinette x Adrien, Chat Noir x Ladybug, Chloe x Adrien, Alya x Nino (these are either background or not constant in the fic, as in they are in the past exclusively)
General tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Good Chloé Bourgeois, Apologies, Awkward Romance, Identity Reveal, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, what is the opposite of slow burn? Because this is that, No character bashing
Word count: 22,108
COMPLETED!

Summary:
Marinette receives an apology letter in the mail from none other than Chloe Bourgeois. Events take a turn for the unexpected as that familiar fluttery feeling keeps building in her chest, though this time she is not around Adrien!

Identity reveals and worry follow, but a hesitant love also blooms.

Opening notes:
Some events of canon did not happen here! I wanted to give my girl actual character development instead of retconning everything like the actual show did :' )

Also, Ladybug and Chat Noir get to be good friends because I think that's cool. : )

*Italics may not be perfectly preserved. I tried but it's super hard to transpher them into Scratch Discuss. :' D
Link back to my thread of threads: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/695070/

Chapter 1: Gel-Pen Apology

Marinette receives a letter in the mail from Chloé detailing a very dramatic apology.

She also has a heart to heart with Chat Noir.

It sort of started when Marinette got that apology letter in the mail, the one that she would end up re-reading at least eight times within the hour it was opened.

No way it was real.

She had to be dreaming, because it couldn't have been really happening.

Maybe it was a prank, some kind of cruel joke.

But it wasn’t a prank, and it was real. She couldn’t have been dreaming either because her dreams were never like that. Yet even once she discerned this, she almost wished it wasn’t true.

Chloe Bourgeois sending a letter? To her? She was Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Chloe’s sworn enemy, a rival for reasons Marinette had never known. They were supposed to hate each other! (And it was a handwritten letter too, in a fancy font and with a professional signature. It even stated the words ‘I’m sorry’.)

What, had pigs begun to fly?

But when Marinette arrived at school that next Monday morning, half-expecting Chloe and Sabrina to be standing in the classroom ready to bully her for ‘thinking it was real’, Chloe stayed away from her. Not a single harsh word was spoken between them and Marinette didn’t even catch Chloe laughing at her behind her back.

As they sat in the same classroom, just a few seats apart, Marinette stared a hole in the back of Chloe’s head. Trying to somehow telepathically contact her and yell at her to turn around, just so that they would make eye contact. Marinette wanted to scream at her, not an upset scream necessarily, but something asking for an explanation.

Why in the world had she read the words ‘I was wrong to treat you like I have, and I understand if you won’t forgive me, but I do implore you to’ in glittery golden gel-pen at nine in the morning on a Saturday? What the heck had gone down?

And when school broke for lunch, Marinette actually witnessed Chloe tell Sabrina to get whatever she wanted, because Chloe ‘felt bad’ for forcing her to eat what she wanted for several years. What was this, a half-baked villain redemption arc?

This isn’t some sort of teenage rom-com, Chloe! What are you doing?? Marinette wanted to scream at her.

Plus, the fact that all of the apologies felt genuine sort of made her skin crawl.

No one else seemed to have caught on though, so these observations made her feel a little crazy when she brought them up to Alya, who slowly blinked in response.

“She’s probably just going through one of those phases she has- you know?” Alya had finally said, chewing her bagel and brushing it all off far easier than Marinette could. “When she watches too many ‘Ladybug helping people compilations’, or something, on Youtube and feels bad,”

Marinette had squirmed awkwardly in her chair, unable to explain the doubt she had at that response. “But it feels so real…”

“It always does, girl,” Alya frowned down at her food, “And then she goes back to normal.”

She was probably right.

She always was.

Still, Marinette found herself re-reading the letter when she got home. She found herself analyzing every word, scrutinizing whatever phrasing didn’t feel right. Then she would read it again, and suddenly the previously criticized phrasing was fine- but something else was wrong. Her mom eventually asked her what she was reading so thoroughly, camped out at the kitchen counter as she was, but Marinette just laughed hollowly; shaking her head and responding with a quick ‘nothing’ before folding the paper and slipping it into her pocket again.

Man, did she want to confront Chloe about this.

Initially she couldn’t because a part of her was still insisting that it had to be a prank, but her greedy (panicky?) curiosity still felt as though it was eating her inside out. She couldn’t deny that, although she tried hard to keep it to herself.

After about a week of Chloe treating her nicely, she couldn’t stand it anymore. Although Alya somehow kept her from confronting Chloe in the middle of class, pulling out the letter and all, once school was over Marinette found herself racing after her previously-rival as she walked home from school. Alone, Marinette barely had time to recognize before Chloe turned around to find the source of the pounding footsteps, she was walking home alone. (She never did that!)

Marinette skidded to a halt in front of her, breathing heavily as though she had run much farther than she had. (Oh gosh, was she really going to do this?) Chloe stared at her for a second, open-mouthed as if to say something, clamped her jaw shut, and went to turn back around and return to her speed-walking.

“Chloe!” Marinette exclaimed, exasperated and much louder than she meant to.

Chloe froze in place.

“What the heck!” Marinette burst out with very little patience left in her voice. Once more receiving no response, she stomped around so that she was standing in front of Chloe (who was apparently clutching her school-bag rather tightly, Marinette noted now that she could see her classmate’s whitening knuckles).

Who knew where the surge of confidence came from, but Marinette found herself whipping out the apology letter and holding it out so that Chloe could look at it. She said nothing to accompany the grand flourish of wrinkled paper, only violently gesturing in the air next to it with her other hand. Open palmed and flexed, pointing to it with her whole arm, even. This was more important than a one-fingered hand gesture, whichever finger she was to hold up.

“I-” Chloe stammered, and Marinette could have noted the nervousness in her voice had she been paying attention to anything other than the words themselves. Then Chloe’s voice grew small. “I… wanted to say sorry,”

A beat.

“For hurting you, and everyone else.”

Okay, Marinette was going to need a moment to process that.

She was for real? Chloe was honestly, one hundred percent, apologizing to her? Her?? (And directly as well? It would have made her feel almost special had it not been for her distrust.)

The astonished disbelief must have shown on her face because soon Chloe was stammering something about wanting to right wrongs and that it was okay if everyone hated her, and Marinette found herself at a loss of words. This was different from the other times Chloe went through an ‘apology arc’, it had to be. Marinette couldn’t forgive her, no. Not now, not so suddenly. But she would think about it.

“This isn’t a joke, right?” Marinette’s throat was dry.

“What?” Chloe seemed disoriented as her nonsensical soliloquy was cut off. And out of breath, from the way her chest rose and fell under its designer jacket, a movement which Marinette took more note of than she intended.

“You’re not playing some prank on me?”

Now it seemed that something was sticking in Chloe’s throat, because her voice filled with a sort of deep-seated regret that really dug at Marinette’s flight or fight response for some reason. “No! No, I swear, I’m not- I just- I just needed a change,”

“A change from treating everyone like trash?”

“Yes!”

Marinette swallowed, feeling lightheaded. Had she really just agreed with that? No sassy response, no nothing? “You admit that you treated everyone like trash?”

Chloe seemed to bite back a swear as she let go of her bag’s strap, letting it swing crazily from its secure balance on her shoulder as she waved her arms dramatically. “Yes!”

Scratch a moment to process that, Marinette was going to need another whole week.

All she could manage was a shake of her head, still disbelieving, and she let her arm drop back to her side. Her other arm, the one that did not end with a hand clutching a cursive apology letter, went to her hip. “Chloe…” she began, and then sighed. Chloe waited for her to speak, but Marinette only shook her head. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

And then she rushed back in the direction she had come from, now letting her own bag swing precariously as she hurried past and away from the girl that had tormented her for years. She didn’t look back, but if she had she would have seen how Chloe turned to look after her, right arm reaching out as if she could stop her. Forlorn, lost. That was the look in her eyes.

Not that Marinette saw it.



It seemed like Chloe kept trying to talk to her, but Marinette kept avoiding her. In the hallways, in the classroom, and everywhere else they both happened to venture to. Chloe even texted her for the first time ever, but Marinette just left her on read.

She didn’t know how to respond, she didn’t know if she should, so she just didn’t.

With no recent akuma attacks, there wasn’t even an option to take her mind off of the situation, so Marinette was forced to let it revolve inside her head with each passing day. She texted Alya about it too, but got the same response as before. Marinette bit her lip. It didn’t feel the same as before, Chloe had never admitted to doing wrong in, well, ever . This felt real, as much as the salty portion of Marinette’s mind didn’t want to believe it.

Another side effect of her enemy learning how to say sorry, she soon realized, was that Adrien started talking to Chloe more at school. It made Marinette purse her lips with (perhaps misplaced, at this point) worry, even though she already knew the two were friends. Jealous would be a good word for the way she felt, even though Adrien was still talking to her just as much. They were friends, of course he would.

Still, Marinette had to say the jealousy toned down a bit once she realized- after several classes worth of watching Chloe and Adrien converse- that Chloe’s flirting had basically left their conversations. It seemed like, along with making genuine efforts to stop insulting her classmates, a decision had been made to stop with the near-constant romantic advances.

What surprised Marinette most about that particular edge to the situation was the mixed feelings it gave her. On one hand, she was happy how clearly relieved Adrien seemed about being treated like a friend rather than a potential date, but on the other… ugh. She wasn’t sure, it just didn’t seem right.

She couldn’t help but wonder what the heck had happened, once again.

By the fourth week of Chloe’s escapades in treating-people-nicely, Alya finally gave in and admitted that, this time around, Chloe definitely seemed a lot more serious about it. Sure, Rose still hid behind Juleka whenever Chloe saw her do anything even mildly embarrassing, but that was a side effect of being harassed for every little thing she did wrong for a decade. But in reality, the only words Chloe had spoken to her in the past few weeks had been a compliment about her dress. The nice, flowy, purple one with the gold accents.

Marinette hadn’t been quite sure what to make of that exchange, honestly.

She caught Nino and Adrien talking about the change in Chloe’s actions as she walked into the classroom early one Tuesday morning before anyone else had gotten there.

“I’m really glad,” Adrien was saying, “She’s actually acting like the girl I befriended when we were little,”

“Don’t you think she could be lying, though?” Nino sounded skeptical, “Or at least that she’s going to go back to acting like she used to?”

“I hope she won’t,” Adrien responded, and that was that.



When Hawkmoth finally decided to akumitize someone again, dragging Marinette away from her crisis at last, she was half-surprised that she wasn’t the victim, what with all the wild emotions running rampant inside her. The akuma battle was not difficult, despite the rather longer break than normal she and Chat Noir had taken between the last victim and then. She didn’t even need to use her Lucky Charm, which didn’t happen very often.

So, after zipping away from the scene of the battle so that the media wouldn’t catch them, the pair of heroes dropped down onto a roof and sat down to relax. Even though she had been sort of preoccupied with the whole Chloe business, she had missed Chat. They were friends after all, and it wasn’t like they could hang out in their civilian lives.

“You were radiant today, Bugaboo,” Chat teased, careful to enunciate each syllable of ‘radiant’, “Not even a Lucky Charm? My, how professional you are!”

“I could say the same to you,” Ladybug teased right back, “Your ring isn’t beeping either,”

He sighed deeply, comically exaggerating a feeling of comfort he undoubtedly felt, “It’s as though we never left each other’s sides, even though we haven’t seen each other in weeks,”

The playful tone in his voice made the statement humorous, and Ladybug laughed. “It was a nice break,” she commented, “I actually got some sleep for once.”

“I know, right?” Chat exclaimed, sitting up straighter as they shared a moment over the side effect of being superheroes, “It’s like I’m a normal Paris citizen, like- gosh! Is this how being well rested feels??”

“My eye actually stopped twitching like it does out of pure exhaustion,” Ladybug put a hand on her chest dramatically, “I am once again a regular member of society.”

Chat Noir giggled immaturely, “Are you ready to go back to sleep deprivation though?” She looked over at him, smirking, already knowing how the statement was going to end. “Because we are back in business, baby!” He crowed, and she laughed as he continued on, “I am going to be so trashed tomorrow morning, I almost got used to the civilian life!”

“It’s nice to be back,” Ladybug smiled, voice softening as she continued. “Nice to have a source of distractions anyway… and I missed you,” she admitted.

“Aw,” Chat Noir smiled back at her, “I missed you too.”

A comfortable silence entered their space and Ladybug leaned back against the wall they had plopped down next to, hands wrapped around her knees as she smiled up at the sky. Chat Noir more or less mimicked her, he too leaning back against the wall, though his legs were splayed out in front of him and his arms were resting behind his head. They stayed like that for a moment, Ladybug allowing herself to think back over the battle and the days prior.

Then she remembered all the confusion as of late, and a slightly apprehensive frown replaced her reminiscent smile. “Hey, Chat Noir?” she asked out into the quiet of their meeting.

“Yes?” he responded, looking over as she sat up.

“Are you okay if I… tell you about stuff that’s happening in my civilian life?” she looked at him, nervously watching his face as he blinked, surprised but not judgemental. “Not anything super detailed or, like, invasive, just stuff that’s been going on,” she added, biting her lip.

“Of course,” he sat up too, voice smoothly transitioning into a slightly more serious tone. “I’m your friend, I’ll always listen.”

She knew that already, but it was still comforting to hear him say it. Still, it took her some time to actually start talking, opening her mouth to speak before closing it and rethinking her words. Then sighing and trying again. (This series of actions repeated a few times.) Finally, she gave up and just spoke. “So, there’s this girl I know…”

Chat Noir nodded encouragingly, and she smiled weakly before going on. “She… she used to, like, bully me?” her voice edged on questioning at the end, reaching an arm up and scratching the back of her head awkwardly. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s hard to believe, because I’m Ladybug for goodness sake, but I guess that’s what happened,” she pursed her lips. “I sort of fought with her a lot- we didn’t get along,”

She looked over at her partner for more encouragement, desperately wrinkling her nose and frowning, feeling suddenly as if she might cry. Whoa, crying in front of Chat Noir was not on her to-do list for today.

His voice was measured and careful, “So, she… used to bully you? Past tense?”

She nodded, swallowing the sudden urge for tears.

“Did that change?”

She took in a shaky breath and nodded again, “Y-yeah. She actually sent me an apology letter,”

“Like… an actual letter?”

“An actual letter.”

He made that expression he did when he half-approved of something, staring off into the distance as his tightly-squeezed lips formed an almost-pout, though it wasn’t exactly negative, bobbing his head with his eyebrows raised.

Ladybug sighed, “I just… don’t know how to feel about it, Chat.”

“Do you want to forgive her?”

Ladybug hesitated, and then drew in her knees to her chest, hugging them. “I don’t know.” her voice was small, seemingly too feeble to fit her superhero persona. “I feel like I should, but I don’t know if it’s…” she grasped for words, “if it’s right? Morally? If that makes sense.”

Chat Noir nodded slowly, then looked over at her, glowing emerald eyes begging for eye-contact. This was a side of him she didn’t normally get to say, though it wasn’t a mutually exclusive rarity being shared. She was also revealing a side of herself that he didn’t get to see often. As she stared into his face, he responded carefully. “I think I get what you mean,”

“You do?” She rested the side of her head on her knees, looking into his eyes.

“Yeah,” he clicked his tongue apprehensively. “Something like that happened to someone I know recently- well, in my civilian life I mean, someone other than you,”

She nodded and he went on. “She seemed kinda torn, sort of like you are, though she isn’t really talking to me about it,”

They blinked at each other.

“What I’m trying to say,” he reached out and grasped her hand, “is that you should do what you think will work for you. If you want to forgive her, go ahead! But if you don’t feel ready, give it time,”

Ladybug thought about it for a moment, thinking over the options, comparing possible outcomes and consequences. She wasn’t ready yet, she finally decided, and smiled at him. “Thanks.”

“Oh,” he smiled too, “You’re welcome!”

“You’re good at this, you know that?” she released her knees, though she didn’t let go of his hand.

“I go through this cycle with my dad all the time,” he joked, “Trust me, I’ve had plenty of time to mull over the best way to deal with this,”

She wrinkled her nose, “Your dad writes you apology letters?”

“Oh totally,” he laughed boisterously, “Sends ‘em right along with the birthday wishes and the milk he keeps trying to go pick up.”

Despite the dark subject of the joke, Ladybug laughed. Chat Noir really did know how to make her feel better. She was very glad to see him again.

They chatted for a while more before settling down into comfortable quiet again, smiling off into the distance. The sky had melted its way into a beautiful array of oranges and golds, like the rolling hills of deciduous trees in autumn. Ladybug loved the colors of the sunset, even if she was part-way preoccupied with her thoughts and with Chat Noir’s jokes.

Eventually they had to go back to their homes and they bid their goodbyes, sharing a hug before leaping away in opposite directions.

She transformed on her balcony, the evening had grown darker and no prying eyes should have been able to catch her, and went inside through the trap-door. As Tikki gobbled down a macaroon, she flopped onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling now that there was no sky to look into.

“What am I gonna do?” she murmured, not quite a question and not quite addressing Tikki either. Almost talking to herself, had another being not been in the room with her.

“I think you should give it time,” Tikki nodded wisely around her absurdly large snack. “You’re a nice person Marinette, but forgiving people is about trust, not apologies.”

“You’re right,” Marinette groaned, rolling over and rubbing her face. “But I still want to forgive her, kind of,”

“Then build trust,” the kwami responded simply, as if it was as easy as that.

Chapter 2: Forced Building Of Trust

Marinette struggles to process things.

Then, it gets worse before it can get better and Ladybug talks to Chat again.

I hope you enjoy this next chapter, romance sort of starts to build? Not really, but sort of.

A week had passed.

Chloe had leveled up to attempting to call her after several more sent text messages resulted in nothing more than ‘left on read’. Still, Marinette refused to talk to her, even though curiosity still burned in her.

Something about it felt odd, like she had forgotten something important.

“It’s not so much that she apologized…” Marinette was relenting into the phone, scanning the letter for at least the hundredth time as she described it to Alya. “It’s more the fact that I received it in physical form in an envelope covered in flowers,” She could hear Alya snicker on the other end of the call and growled, “Alya- this isn’t a laughing matter!! I’m so confused right now!”

To her dismay, that only made Alya laugh louder. “Confused about what, girl?” her friend’s voice finally crackled through the phone once her giggles had subsided. Marinette could hear the amusement in her words, it made her a teensy bit aggravated.

“Everything!” Marinette exclaimed, throwing herself spreadeagle on her bed, though her right hand still held the phone to her ear. “Why is she apologizing now? It’s not like anything huge happened- plus, why to me? She hates me!”

“Doesn’t seem like she hates you anymore,” Alya said with a tone Marinette couldn’t quite discern.

But something about it felt teasing.

Marinette flushed, “What?”

“Nothing,” she was probably shaking her head. “Nothing, it was stupid,”

Marinette frowned, the twinge of embarrassment twisting in her gut. “What?” she repeated, “You meant something by that, didn’t you? Something I didn’t catch?”

“Nevermind, it was nothing!” Alya repeated herself, quickly shifting the subject. “So- what did you think of the new Ladyblog update? I think that has something to do with this,”

Willingly pulled away from the previous topic, though something in her was still nagging to continue digging at it, Marinette hummed into her phone. “I haven’t checked it yet, why?”

Alya groaned, “Girl, you’re killing me! I thought you said you read it when I texted you earlier!”

Marinette bit her lip, “Oh, is that what that was about? I just-”

“I was kidding!” Alya laughed, “Though it is kind of funny that your immediate response to anything about the Ladyblog is ‘I’ve read it.’”

“Umm… yep!” Marinette forced an awkward giggle. Man was she tired. “It’s just, you know, I’m not as into Ladybug as you are so I don’t wanna seem…”

“Uncultured?” Alya offered, not bothering to wait for Marinette to approve of the word-choice. “I know,” she continued, “It’s so sad, I’d think she’d be a huge interest of yours if I didn’t know you,”

Marinette bit her lip again. She always had to tread carefully when conversations started to shift to her superhero persona, especially with Alya. It seemed like she knew more about Ladybug than Marinette did and that was kind of scary, to be honest. “Really?” she twirled a strand of her hair around her finger nervously, “Why would you think that?”

“Oh, you just remind me of her- kinda,” Alya said casually, making Marinette’s breathing hitch with tension. Luckily Alya didn’t seem to notice, just continuing on with a joke. “I have yet to find that spotted costume in your closet- but I will!” She laughed, Marinette forced herself to as well even though her mind screamed panic. (She was lucky there wasn’t an actual Ladybug outfit that existed outside of using the Miraculous, because if it did she would probably be in for some real trouble.)

So as to not make room for an awkward pause or an identity reveal, as well as just for the sake of making a jab at Alya for laughs, Marinette smirked. “Oh yeah? Well you remind me of Rena Rouge, kinda,” her voice was teasing in a ‘all in good fun’ sort of way.

Hearing how Alya immediately froze up, stuttering a breathless ‘wouldn’t that be crazy, ha ha’, was worth the potential danger of such a comment. It was fun to switch up the stage a bit, every once in a while.

Plus, it made Alya rush to change the subject again. At least Trixx had taught her well, steering away from the secret identity topic the moment there was trouble. It made Marinette very happy with her choice of Miraculous holder.

“Anyway,” Alya said, the lightness in her voice a little forced from her efforts to shift the topic of the conversation, “Can you read the post now? It’s interesting,”

“Alyaaa,” Marinette groaned pathetically, exaggerating her ‘weakness’ to gain some pity points. (She even dragged out the final stable to really sell the silly act.) “Can you just read it to me? Pretty please?”

“Alright,” her friend laughed teasingly, obviously seeing through the half-serious act. “But only because you asked so sweetly!”

Marinette smiled as Alya searched for the post, relaxing further into the bed, bringing her arm up to rest her head on and rolling over onto her side. The Ladyblog made her a little nervous but Alya was super passionate about it so it felt rude to disregard the update completely. Sometimes it was fun to listen to her friend geek out about her as well, although it had taken some getting used to at first.

“Found it!” Alya suddenly crowed, making Marinette jump. “Okay, so- oh it’s kind of wordy actually,”

“That’s okay, summarize it?” Marinette suggested.

“Right,” Alya agreed, already clearly skimming the post because of how her voice clipped. Eventually the pause passed and she cleared her throat. Marinette listened carefully, polite as ever. “Basically,” Alya explained, “Chloe posted an old photo with Ladybug and put this long, drawn out apology below it. She said that a ‘final straw was put’ and she decided to change things. She didn’t explain what the ‘final straw’ was though,”

Marinette blinked. “Uhm, sorry to break it to you but that’s not really a Ladybug update, Alya. That’s more of a Chloe update,”

“Shh! I’m getting there,”

Marinette rolled her eyes fondly as Alya continued to explain the ordeal- even though this new reminder of Chloe sort of had Marinette’s brain buzzing (like bees) and that made it hard to focus.

Alya cleared her throat again. “She also said that if Ladybug sees the post, she would really like to talk to her- and then added that it’s ‘okay if that doesn’t happen, too, but this is very important.’”

For some reason, that made Marinette’s heart jump into her throat. “Uhm, did she say why she wants to talk?”

“Hold on,” Alya searched through the post one last time, “No, but Nino was theorizing that she wants the Bee Miraculous again,”

That made sense.

“Yeah, that sounds like her,” But Marinette pursed her lips, something still felt a little off. Something she couldn’t quite place, beyond just her oddly quick heartbeat and the sudden breathless worry creeping into her voice.

Alya hummed.



A nagging inside Marinette made her get up from her bed.

That same thing led her to transform and climb up the ladder onto her balcony before vaulting away and making a beeline (no pun intended) to Chloe’s residence. It wasn’t her choice, she told herself. Something about Chloe’s request just seemed too important to ignore, something nagging in the back of her mind was imploring her to see what the deal was.

Maybe Chloe would have answers to the questions that had been buzzing around inside Marinette’s head in her civilian life. It would probably be easier to get said answers in superhero form too, though working around her civilian identity was going to take some finagling.

Ladybug landed on the balcony she knew lay outside of Chloe’s room, this knowledge acquired partly from having crashed there several times during akuma battles and also because of the red and black-spotted curtains she could see inside the windows. They looked gaudy from an interior design point of view, but Ladybug knew Chloe was also aware of that and simply did not care. Despite her personal dislike of Chloe, that put a little bubble of joy in her stomach that was hard to explain.

Of course it also weirded her out how her (ex?)bully idolized her, but it provided a sense of superiority that helped ground her (as odd as that sounded).

She stood outside the door to the balcony for a minute, debating within herself whether or not she should really go through with it. There was still an option to turn around and zip right back home, if she wanted to.

But after a second she sighed and raised her fist to knock, chewing on her lip nervously. (The light was off inside, was this really a good idea?) Ugh, she cut thoses questioning thoughts off, whatever- she was doing this.

Ladybug knocked.

It took a good moment for anything to happen, but eventually she saw movement inside. Then Chloe was peeking out the window at her. Lastly, so suddenly that she jumped, the door was flung open.

“I didn’t think you’d actually…” Chloe was breathless, makeupless, and with her hair down.

Ladybug swallowed. It was somewhat surreal to see her like that, distracting and oddly captivating. But Ladybug managed to get past the distraction and tore her eyes away from the free-flowing curls. “Uh… yeah!” Then she coughed awkwardly. “I’m a little surprised too,”

Chloe bit her lip and Ladybug caught herself watching the way Chloe’s teeth squeezed down so… gently.

Woah. What in the absolute-?

She must have been tired, that was all. Ladybug shook her head to clear it of the thought , and squeezed her hand into a tight fist behind her back. Nervous, she suddenly felt nervous. “Um, should I come in, or do you want to talk out here?”

Eyes widening, Chloe scrambled to move out of the doorway. “Yes! C-come in, sorry, I should have done that first,”

Ladybug forced some sort of glassy smile and stepped into the semi-dark space, scanning the area for potential threats and exit points. Habitually of course, she definitely didn’t spend a bit more than a second staring at Chloe’s messy bed. (Alright fine, maybe she did- it was just so fascinating seeing a different side of Chloe. A side that she undoubtedly kept to herself, nonetheless.)

Then Ladybug had to quickly shove away the thought of how oddly personal this was, because it sent her brain spiraling in a way she did not anticipate.

“Sorry about the mess,” Chloe’s voice was rather small, but it was enough to break through Ladybug’s thoughts.

Glad to have a distraction from her invading mind, Ladybug nodded, putting on a smile that felt somehow plasticy and flashing an easy thumbs-up. “Uh, yeah! It’s okay,” she tried weakly, “What did you… what did you want to talk about?”

“Oh, um,” Chloe flushed and suddenly went a little stiff.

“Is it about the Bee Miraculous?” Ladybug interrupted, reminded of Alya’s comment earlier, “Because you know I-”

“I know! You can’t give it back,” Chloe raised her hands in a desperately placating way and Ladybug felt her body ease out a little bit, somehow comforted that she didn’t have to go through that whole confrontation again.

They were frozen in place for a second as Ladybug mentally put herself back together. Finally she looked away, and out of the corner of her eyes watched Chloe’s arms drop to her sides again.

“Sorry,” she sighed, rubbing the back of her head, the gesture full of exhaustion. Why was this so tiring? “I interrupted you. What is this actually for?”

Chloe bit her lip again, “Well- I,” then she stopped.

Ladybug just blinked at her, watching as Chloe paled slightly. “Chloe?” she asked slowly, snapping the civilian out of her trance with just one word. She watched worriedly as Chloe scratched the back of her neck, looking anywhere but Ladybug and clearly trying to psych herself up for something. Ladybug sucked in her bottom lip, shifting her weight to her left leg and staring imploringly at Chloe.

“I…” she tried again, and Ladybug listened with her full attention. Her brain was buzzing again. Chloe sighed, giving and looking up to grab eye contact. “I think my dad knows who you are, and Chat Noir,”

Ladybug felt her throat seize up. What?

Her voice came out hoarse as she grabbed Chloe’s shoulders in a panic. “What? Your dad knows what?” She had to make sure she had heard correctly, this was a big deal. A huge deal! If Hawkmoth knew the mayor knew her and Chat Noir’s identities, well, she didn’t even want to think about it!

Chloe looked terribly worried by the genuine fear in Ladybug’s voice and repeated herself quickly, “I said I think my dad knows your identity- are you okay?”

No, not really.

Ladybug felt sick, to be honest. She staggered over to a chair and sat down, not even caring that she was in Chloe’s house. This changed things, if it was true. “Chloe,” she pleaded, grabbing onto the ex-Miraculous holder’s sleeves as if they would tether her to the world once more. “How do you know this?”

“Well I-”

“Please?” Ladybug begged her, and then a horrible thought came over her. “Wait,” her voice gained a certain edge to it as she once again dropped Chloe’s arms, “Do… Do you know my identity?”

Chloe bit her lip.

Yeah, sick would be a very good way to describe this feeling.

Ladybug covered her face in her hands and groaned, bringing her knees up to her chest and squeezing them there with the insides of her elbows. “I wish you just wanted your Miraculous back,” she spat, unforgivingly ill. “How did you find out?”

“Well, I still don’t know if I’m right,” Chloe tried to reassure her, but it was too late.

“How did you find out?” Ladybug repeated more insistently and dragged her hands down from her eyes so that they covered her cheeks instead, “You sent me a glitter gel-pen apology in the mail, didn’t you?”

Chloe visibly cringed. “Okay, yeah. Now I know that I was right.”

“Ugh!” Ladybug slapped herself in the face, now the sick feeling had morphed into annoyance too. How had she found out? Had she done something stupid like detransform in the open? “Then there’s no point in staying transformed, is there? Tikki-”

“No!” Chloe flung out her arms, “Wait! Don’t, what if someone walks in?”

“Why would they walk in, though?” Ladybug retorted, catching Chloe off guard with the coldness in her voice and glaring at her. “Tikki, spots off.”

It was final, and in a flash of pink light Marinette was sitting in front of Chloe instead of Ladybug. Chloe had looked away, but Marinette just rolled her eyes. “We both know you know who I am now, Chloe,”

Chloe still didn’t look at her, but Marinette was honestly too tired to care.

Silence soon met them and it was brutal.

Then, into the sea of despairing quiet, (Ladybug had slightly calmed from her outburst) Chloe spoke. “I was going to send you another letter, you know, if you didn’t show up.” Marinette lolled her head to the side to look at her, though Chloe’s eyes were still trained hard on the floor. “I was going to explain that I know and that I think my dad does too,” she continued, “Vaguely, so that if anyone other than you saw it they wouldn’t know what it was talking about. I felt like it was too important for me to just keep to myself,”

Marinette stared at her silently. Judgingly. She felt like she had gone through all the stages of grief in just one chaotic moment. She was tired and she had entered the stage of acceptance, but she still needed to know the reason for all of this.

“Did you tell your dad? Is that why he knows?”

Chloe whipped her head up so fast Marinette jumped, shocked by the sudden eye contact. “No!” Chloe exclaimed, horrified by the accusation. “I know how particular you are about-” she clamped her jaw shut, realizing she was looking at Ladybug without her mask, and shot her stare down at the floor again. “-your identity,” she finished, voice very forced and rather quiet.

Although it felt like her heart had stopped when Chloe made eye contact with her, Marinette pushed her fear down with some effort. Man, she was jumpy without the mask. “How does he know, then?”

“I… I think he saw Chat detransform,” Chloe admitted, “He was talking about it in front of some visitors, but I distracted him before he could let anything important slip,”

Marinette thought back, yes. About a week before she received the apology note in the mail there had been an akuma attack near the building she now sat in. She and Chat had rushed inside, out of last-minutes on each of their Miraculous. Ah, yes. She had rushed off in the direction of the ladies room and detransformed there, but she hadn’t known where Chat had gone. She groaned and rubbed her eyes.

What could she even say to that? She couldn’t be blaming, it wasn’t Chloe’s fault that Chat didn’t detransform in a safe spot. Heck, it wasn’t even Chat’s fault! Sometimes transforming could be unpredictable.

So she just sighed, “Thank you for protecting Chat’s identity,”

Chloe hummed, fingers fidgeting in her lap. Ladybug looked over at her, watching her with disbelief. How was she not angry at her for being Marinette? That was what she had expected to happen if her identity was revealed. But instead, Chloe seemed oddly… civil.

Then she had to ask, the question bubbling up in protection of her partner. “Hey-” Chloe stilled as she listened. “Do you know Chat’s identity? Or, well, did you see him transform?”

Chloe bit her lip, voice small. “Um, I already knew his identity.”

“What?” Marinette jumped up, “How?”

Chloe looked up at her in surprise, raising her hands in some signal of ‘I’m innocent!’. “I just put two and two together! I’ve known his identity for months!”

Marinette stared down at the floor, trying to process this information.

“I told him I knew about it,” she continued, “I thought he let you know!”

“He’s aware of this?” Marinette smacked her forehead. That silly cat! Of course he would be the type of person to keep that from her! “I’m going to have to have a chat with him,”

Chloe looked up at her, worried. “Please don't take his Miraculous. It's his only escape,”

“His only escape?” Marinette repeated, dumbfounded.

“Just trust me,” Chloe nodded, pleadingly. "I know him in my civilian life, being Chat Noir is beyond important to him,“

Marinette stared at her for a moment, two pairs of blue eyes caught in connection, and then sighed before looking away. So many thoughts were running through her head, mostly about her partner's identity, but that didn't matter. ”Fine,“ she said quietly, ”I wasn't going to anyway, because I would have to give up mine too- since you know both of our identities now,“

Clearly relieved, Chloe collapsed back onto her heels and dropped her head. ”Thank you,“ she murmured, ”He would have been heartbroken…“

Marinette also collapsed back into her chair, sighing. ”Yeah, sure, whatever.“

Silence met them as she reclined back in the seat. The ceiling was wide and decorated with golden designs that Marinette knew to be gilded. They sort of clashed with the pink wallpaper, in her opinion, but that didn't matter. (It felt weird to be in Chloe's room out of her superhero form.)

Then she remembered another question she had to ask. ”Chloe,“ she said suddenly, apprehensive almost, ”I meant to ask already- how did you find out my identity?“

Chloe sighed, looking at the ground. ”I just- I don't know, I realized who Chat was because he looks so much like this guy I know, so I eventually applied that logic to you and… yeah,“ Her words were careful.

Marinette continued to stare at the ceiling. ”Ah,“

”Yep.“ Chloe said.

“So… how did your dad figure it out?”

“Well,” Chloe said slowly, "I'm still not sure if he does know, but I sort of feel like he might,“

Marinette sighed, ”Yeah, okay. But how?“

”I think he looked at the school records, you know, for who's out of class and when…“

Attempting to swallow the lump in her throat, Marinette felt a little ill. ”He's allowed to do that?“

Chloe shrugged.

Marinette sighed. ”Well, um. Thank you, Chloe, for telling me,“

”Oh? Um, y-yeah!“ Chloe nodded, ”I felt like I had too.."

Nodding in response, Marinette uttered a soft ‘spots on’ and transformed again. Then, standing up and shooting Chloe a soft look that even she couldn't quite decipher, Ladybug went to the balcony and zipped away.



Oh yeah, she was going to have to have a talk with Chat Noir.

The next akuma battle came quickly, though this battle was far more difficult than the last. A little boy had lost the last soccer game before he had to move schools, or something like that. It was quite a struggle to avoid the rocks he kicked their way, and it took her a long moment of thinking over her lucky charm to realize it was meant as a distraction.

Once she put two and two together, she set down the red and black goal she had received and watched as the akumatized boy shot rock after rock into it. Making up for the shot he had missed when it counted.

With that distraction, Chat Noir had enough time to destroy his right cleat, which held the akuma in it.

Ladybug purified it swiftly and set it free, but after her customary fist-bump with Chat she grabbed his wrist.

“Wait, Chat.”

He stared at her, confused. “My lady?”

“I'll detransform in any alleyway somewhere and feed Tikki, we need to talk,”

Nervousness crept into his face, “Huh? Are you okay? What-”

“Just follow me, okay?” she felt her earrings beep and her urgency showed in her voice.

He nodded, and she zipped away. He followed close behind, waiting on top of a roof as she detransformed below. As soon as Tikki was done with her cookie, she turned back into Ladybug and vaulted back to the top of the building. Chat Noir was waiting for her, patiently as she expected.

Ladybug walked over to him, unsure how to start. He raised his eyebrow at her, clearly not willing to start the conversation either.

As she tapped her foot, she looked him dead in the eyes. “I want to preface this by letting you know that I’m not angry,”

He laughed nervously, “Did I… do something wrong?”

She frowned, “Well- not really, but still,”

“Okay,” he nodded, returning her eye contact earnestly, “But why are we…?”

Chatting? She finished his question in her head, but out loud she only crossed her arms. “Chloe Bourgeois knows your identity?”

He seemed to deflate, even as he reached for her shoulders, panic clear in his eyes. “Wait, my lady, you can’t-”

“I’m not taking your Miraculous!” she assured him, reaching out her arms as well and grabbing his shoulders in a way she hoped would make her words sound genuine. “I just wish you would have told me, it’s really important, your identity,”

Visibly eased, his stiff grip on her shoulders lighted. “Thank God,” his voice was strangled, “It’s all I have…”

Ladybug felt a bite of pity catch in her chest, “Chloe said that too.”

“You talked to her?” he asked, dropping his arms from her shoulders and taking a step back.

“Y-yes,” Ladybug said, voice as measured as she could make it. “Um, and I feel like I should tell you this too- she knows my identity,”

Chat’s eyes widened, “She- what? Since when?”

“Since a couple days ago,” Ladybug lamented, “I let you know as fast as I could, we just haven’t seen each other since-”

“I can’t tell if I’m jealous or just surprised,” Chat cut her off with a nervous laugh, clearly letting her know that her ‘holding back’ the information wasn’t a concern of his. “She… knows both of our identities now? How?”

“She said she just put two and two together,” Ladybug sighed, kicking at a pebble on the roof they stood on. “I wish- I wish my costume was more concealing, she wouldn't have figured it out if…”

“You didn't look so much like you?” Chat offered after a beat. Ladybug nodded.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Chat said slowly, “ You, whoever you are, look very nice.”

She smiled sadly, “Thank you, Chat, though that doesn’t really help with the whole secrecy deal,”

“That’s okay though,” her partner tried to assure her, “We’ll figure something out,”

Ladybug nodded, sniffing and realizing that tears had appeared in her eyes. She hurriedly whipped them away with the back of her wrist, “Oh- why didn’t you tell me I was tearing up?” She pouted in a half-joking way, teasingly accusing him as if it really mattered all that much to her.

“I- I didn’t notice!” Chat suddenly jumped into action, “Do you need tissues or something? I can go-”

“No, no, It’s alright,” Ladybug shook her head, “I’m just, you know, this caught me off guard, and the mayor knows too and that’s not-”

Chat paled and she realized that she had neglected to let him know about that part of this. “The mayor knows?”

Ladybug bit her lip, “Yeah, I meant to let you know but I kinda got sidetracked- what are you doing?”

He was suddenly pacing, hands pressing his temples and eyes wide (though he was only staring down at the ground). He looked scared, she noted, his mind was clearly racing. So, to disrupt his sudden panic before it got to be too much for either of them to handle, she reached out and touched his arm. He froze at her touch, looking up at her.

“Chat?” she implored, sniffing again.

His eyes were still wide as he spoke, robotically almost. “The mayor could tell my father and he’d- he’d kill me!”

She furrowed her brow. “Really?”

“Well, not literally,” he rambled on, “But he’d make me give up my Miraculous, probably, he’d pull me out of school and make me stop seeing my friends! Maybe more…”

“Whoa, really?” Ladybug’s eyebrows rose on her forehead as nervous surprise threatened to overwhelm her at this new light of her partner’s home life.

Chat nodded feverishly and Ladybug frowned, reaching out with arms wide in a wordless offer for a hug. Her partner quickly took it, walking into her grasp and burying his forehead in her neck. He was shaking, she noticed. “Chat,” she frowned, “You can tell me about these sorts of things, you know,”

“But it might reveal my identity,” his voice was small.

Ladybug hesitated. “I probably don’t know you in my civilian life, Chat,” She tried to reassure him, but he just shook his head into her neck.

“You probably do, though! Pretty much every teenage girl in Paris does,” he leaned back, though her arms still encased him and his hands were planted firmly on her shoulders. He looked panicked, but was clearly trying to reason with himself internally. “That’s why I wasn’t all that surprised when Chloe figured out who I was! It’s bound to happen with you eventually, but I don’t want to be at fault and lose my Miraculous!”

Ladybug bit her lip, mind racing at the various identity hints he had just given her. “I- I know you’re worried about that, I am too! But we’re too deep into this battle with Hawkmoth now, we can’t just give them up! A reveal would only make things dangerous, but we’re the protectors of Paris now and…” she sighed, “Well, I wouldn't want to lose you! I couldn’t take your Miraculous,”

He stared at her, still breathing hard. “You wouldn’t?”

“No! I couldn’t do that to you! Things are different now than early on, we’ve been fighting this guy for years and I couldn’t take a replacement,”

“You could take Chloe back,” Chat offered, looking at the ground.

Ladybug frowned, “Why?”

“If you really needed to, this was important to her too,”

“She gave up the idea of having a Miraculous when she transformed on live television,” Ladybug tried to keep the bite out of her voice.

Chat Noir looked into her eyes for a long moment and though he was still shaking she saw the way he searched for something in her. Finally, he sighed. “You know, me and Chloe are a lot alike,”

Ladybug frowned, and attempted a lighter tone of voice. “Are you trying to hint that you’re a politician or something? Because I don’t believe you,”

“Uhm, yeah- good,” he tried to laugh, “Because I’m not, but that’s, well, that’s not it.”

She looked at him, catching the hesitation in his voice and the way he seemed to ask if he could say more. “Go on,” she said carefully, “I’m… listening,”

“Can I be really honest with you?” Chat Noir looked away from her face, gaze straying to the roof they stood on. “Just for a second?”

She nodded, and with that permission he continued. “The reason I like having my Miraculous so much is because I’m out of the limelight and no one knows who I am! And even if they have an identity to place me with- you know, Chat Noir, it’s not… me,”

“Out of the limelight?” her voice edged on doubtful as her eyebrows knit together, “As a superhero?”

“I told you I was like Chloe, sort of,” his smile was nervous, “But, yeah. That’s why I can’t lose this, it’s an escape.”

Ladybug was silent, looking out at the city they protected together.

“It’s my only escape,” he finished, pleadingly.

Her inhale was shaky. “That’s what Chloe said, about you I mean,”

He was quiet, though he sniffed once as if to ward off tears. Ladybug looked back at him, though his gaze was still pointed down, and smiled a small smile. “Oh kitty,” she pulled him into a tighter hug. He squeezed her back and she nuzzled at his hair with her nose. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to threaten you with your Miraculous,”

“I know,” he sniffed.

And they held each other in silence.



At school the next day, Marinette worked up enough courage to talk to Chloe. For the last few days she had been aware Chloe knew she was Ladybug, but had still gone about her days as if nothing had happened. Chloe did too, though her attempts to contact Marinette had thankfully slowed.

If Alya noticed any change, she didn’t say anything.

Another odd thing that had changed, Marinette was now noticing, was Adrien. He seemed more nervous than normal, glancing about and tiptoeing around conversations as if to escape them.

Marinette couldn’t say it didn’t worry her a bit, but she was so preoccupied with Chloe that it was hard to focus on Adrien. She knew him well enough; they had been friends for a few years at this point, but she still tended to feel awkward around him when he was acting like this.

She didn’t know why he was so nervous all of a sudden but she could relate.

After Chloe let her know about the mayor knowing her identity it felt like every little noise was a jumpscare. Every mention of Ladybug had her running for the hills, figuratively speaking of course. Having Alya talk about the Ladyblog was always nerve wracking but this was like nothing else.

And that’s why she ended up talking to Chloe.

At lunch, she skipped a meet-up with Alya and Nino knowing that they would probably just be talking about the newest superhero drama and instead went after Chloe. She was going to a little bakery on the corner. (Not as good as Marinette’s parent’s bakery of course, but the cooking was still fine in her opinion.)

When Marinette tapped her on the shoulder, it surprised her so much she dropped her phone.

Luckily for her the case was good and the phone screen stayed intact, but it was enough to encourage a little flare-up of her old bullying personality.

“Who do you think you-!” She turned around in fury, but her words died in her throat as she saw Marinette standing there (and looking slightly horrified at the chaos she had basically caused).

Marinette had tapped her on the shoulder.

Ladybug had tapped her on the shoulder.

Chloe’s face turned beet red, “Oh- I, uh,”

Marinette tried to smile at her, but it only came across as nervous.

“Sorry,” Chloe sighed, rubbing her face. “I’m really trying to not do that anymore- just got a lot on my mind.”

Awkwardly, Marinette smiled at her. It looked a little fake, more like a plea to step outside (out of the earshot of the other customers who were already staring at them) and talk. Some naive, stupid part of Chloe even wanted to interpret it as more- but such things were foolish and unrealistic. She shoved it down.

Soon, her meal was delivered to her and Chloe quickly paid for it.

Then she headed out of the store, feeling her heartbeat in her throat as Marinette followed her. To be honest, talking to Ladybug wasn’t very high on her to-do list at the moment, even though it really should have been. It was scary to face her now, knowing how much trouble she had caused her in the past. (Ladybug’s forgiving nature almost made things worse. It meant she couldn’t know what Marinette was really forgiving and what she just said she was, as the bug-themed hero was known to do.)

“Chloe,” Marinette said apprehensive as the door to the bakery shut. “Can we talk? Please? I really need to go over some things,”

Nervousness bubbled inside her, but who was she to turn down one of Paris’ original heroes?

“Y-yeah?”

Chapter 3: Building Trust: Reprise

Marinette and Chloe talk. It goes… surprisingly well.

Looking at a photo of Adrien, Marinette realizes that something has changed.

Funny thing that happened with this one. I wrote the first section and then left it for a while. Then, when I came back to working on it I forgot that I hadn't actually finished the chapter! Hilarious, since then I wrote about five thousand words of chapter four before realizing my mistake. Anyway, if something seems off with this one or if it and the next chapter are a little disconnected, that's why. :')

Marinette talked while she and Chloe walked back to the school, her voice low but desperate. Chloe was stiff as she listened, facing directly forward and sipping from a coffee she had picked up.

“I should have- we should have done this sooner,” Marinette had said apologetically, “But I kept getting sidetracked on things and I'm nervous and…” She had trailed off there, twiddling with her fingers, “Yeah. Yeah, just scared to confront things- or you,”

Chloe hummed.

Sighing, Marinette brushed her hair behind her ear. “Sorry, I'm not who you expected to be Ladybug, am I?”

“I…” Chloe trailed off, then shrugged. “I didn't expect it to be anyone, so you were no less of a possibility in my mind,”

Marinette bit her lip, remembering all the horrible things Chloe had said to her over their school careers. She felt a pit in her stomach- pointing not exactly in the direction she needed the conversation to go, but no time like the present to get things over with. “Did you apologize to me because I'm Ladybug?”

Chloe looked at her, expression morphing from forced indifference through a series of disgruntled surprise, indignity, and finally apologetic shame. She looked away, eyes filling with some deep emotion Marinette didn't get a good enough look at. “I've wanted to apologize for a while- to you and to everyone, but mostly you,”

“Mostly me?” Marinette was a bit surprised, thinking of all the other people who had been hurt by the girl walking along beside her. All the akuma victims she and Chat had been forced to fight because of Chloe's actions. “Why?”

Chloe took a very purposeful sip from her coffee, trying to seem more natural but instead coming off as more nervous. “Realized some things,” the answer was resolved and obviously vague.

Marinette wasn't quite sure what to think of it, looking Chloe over for body language hints a moment longer before looking away. For some reason, her heart was in her throat. “Ah,”

“Yeah,” Chloe said, voice clipped but only through nervousness. “So, why did you really want to talk to me? I know this wasn't it,”

Smiling awkwardly at how well Chloe had just read her, she had no idea that was something she could do, Marinette tried to conjure up the thoughts of what she had initially wanted to talk to her for. Her brain had been a bit scattered by Chloe's confusing response to her question, even though it shouldn't have mattered so much at all. “Uhm,” she laughed nervously, not quite sure how to phrase it. “I wanted to talk about your dad and, you know, how to get him to not spill the beans,”

“Oh, you or Chat?” Chloe asked, taking another sip from her drink and looking at Marinette.

“Both, why?” Marinette asked, “Does it matter?”

Chloe grinned, “I convinced him that you-” she paused as a group of people walked past, Marinette smiled (finding it oddly endearing that Chloe valued her secret identity). “Anyway,” Chloe laughed, “I convinced him that you weren't Ladybug,”

Marinette's mouth fell open, then the look of surprise morphed into a grin, “Really? Oh my gosh! How?!”

Chloe was laughing as Marinette's walk turned into more of a skip for a second or two. “I reminded him that I was able to dress up as Ladybug and fool some people, even though we look nothing alike, so clearly Ladybug must just be an easy person to look like- by accident or not,”

“Didn't he compare my school attendance to akuma attack times?” Marinette frowned. She had previously been unaware of the whole ‘they look like each other’ logic in this scenario.

Chloe nodded, “Yeah, but I managed to reason with him that a lot of people end up out of the school during akuma attacks and then distracted him,”

“He bought it?”

“I mean, it's true,” Chloe shrugged, “Providing a second way to look at it was enough to fool him, if I didn't know for sure I might have second guessed myself too,”

“Huh.” Marinette stared off in front of her, thinking about Chloe's explanation for a second. “Lying through truth, I like that!” she turned to smile at Chloe, “Thank you- really,”

Chloe blushed. Marinette took too much notice of it. “You're welcome,” she said, and then the happy look on her face faded to worry again. “I… couldn't change his mind on Chat, though. It's all I can do to keep dad from revealing his identity,”

Marinette's smile faded too, biting her lip. “Oh.”

“Sorry,” Chloe apologized.

That was a word Marinette had heard from her a lot recently. “I-it's alright,” she sighed, “It's not your fault that he knows,”

Chloe took a long drink from her coffee, finishing off the cup and tossing it into a nearby trash can. Marinette took the moment to think about what to say.

“I talked to Chat,” she finally decided and Chloe looked over to her, blinking in recognition.

“He told me,” she nodded.

Marinette blinked in surprise, “Really?”

“I know him in real life,” Chloe reminded her, “We're pretty close, I'm honestly surprised I didn't notice it before- superhero identities make so much sense when you figure them out,”

Trying not to think too hard in case she figured out Chat's identity (she still wanted a reveal between them once Hawkmoth was defeated, or before then if something dramatic brought it on), Marinette swallowed. “I guess, I've never really had to think about it before. It's either that I have always known their identities or never have,”

They walked in silence for a moment. An oddly comfortable silence for ex-enemies, Marinette noted.

Then, Chloe's eyes brightened, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Marinette watched her politely, hands clasped in front of her. “Sorry if this is too off topic, I just remembered,” Chloe apologized awkwardly, “Chat wanted me to let you know that he accidentally ordered the wrong type of camembert for Plagg and got screamed at by him, look,”

“Jesus,” Marinette laughed as she looked at the short video clip of the little creature having a fit on a carpeted floor. “I’m so happy I have Tikki, I think dealing with him would kill me,”



In their civilian lives, Ladybug and Chat Noir did not know each other. At least, they didn’t know that they were each other. This meant that Chloe soon became a sort of intermediary between the pair, a messenger that could supply info if something happened to one of them.

Somehow, although she was sure her from a few months ago would be aghast at the idea of working with Chloe, these slightly improved messaging abilities between the two heroes took a massive amount of stress off of Ladybug. It also meant that she was having more conversations with Chloe than normal (though it wasn’t a massively dramatic uptake, just every now and then).

One science class (as half the class was in the hallway due to a project), after Chloe showed Marinette a meme that Chat had wanted her to see,

Marinette caught Alya giving her a strange look.

“Do I have something on my face?” Marinette asked, wiping her cheek habitually to make sure nothing was there.

Alya shook her head and then spoke, sighing in a jokingly exhausted way. “I don’t even know with you- one day you hate her and the next you’re giggling at something on her phone together,”

Not sure why her cheeks were suddenly burning, Marinette shushed Alya and shook her head. She groped around for words, finally landing on a simple attempt at an explanation.“I’m just… moving on?” It was a simple offer, and Alya laughed.

“Girllll,” Alya stretched out the last syllable, giving Marinette a playful smack. “You move on too quickly!”

“I move on at a good pace!” Marinette retorted, blushing as she caught sight of Chloe giggling, now back in her seat. Why was it suddenly so embarrassing to get friendly-teased in front of her? Was it because she wasn’t adding in insults of her own anymore and that made it weird? Was it for… some other reason.

Whatever the case, it made her groan as Alya continued to laugh at her embarrassment.

Marinette looked around wearily, knowing that Adrien was outside and she didn’t really have anyone to stare at as she normally did. (Her and Alya were not getting very far in their project and a distraction was welcome from Alya’s teasing onslaught.) Then (it seemed some magnetic force was pulling her eyes these days), her gaze found Chloe’s.

They stared at each other and Marinette found her face to be suddenly quite warm.

Friendly terms, that was what they were on now. Nothing worse and nothing better.

Marinette tried to remind herself of that fact. They weren’t quite friends yet, not officially. But they weren’t enemies. Somehow, Marinette wanted to get even closer.

Her eyes flicked away.



She didn't want to be friends with Chloe publicly, not exactly. She knew what her classmates still thought of the girl (even agreed with them sometimes). It would be strange if they suddenly became super buddy-buddy.

Of course, according to Alya that was already what it seemed like when the pair interacted. At least compared to before.

Chloe showed her memes on her phone for goodness sake- two months ago she had been tripping her down the stairs! Clearly something had changed, even from an outsider perspective it was obvious.

Marinette even asked Alya what she thought had happened, slightly defensively, as Alya yet again teased her for laughing at one of Chloe's (admittedly terrible) jokes. Alya had just smiled, the expression twisted in a way that Marinette couldn't exactly read.

It was like the look Alya used to get on her face whenever she caught Marinette staring at Adrien, and she wasn't sure what to make of that.

Worst of all- some strange part of her liked that Alya thought that was what was going on- even if it clearly wasn't. (Right?)

Marinette knew what it was like to have a crush, this wasn't one. (She hoped.)

She knew what being completely infatuated with a person was like, that experience was one she had experienced for years now. (Well, she supposed it was hard to remember how a feeling like that started… but this wasn't it! Right?)

Anyway, thinking about it made her doubt herself and Marinette had to remind herself often of how Chloe used to treat her.

So she would find herself going over past situations in her head as she laid awake. Thinking about all the times Chloe had made fun of her in front of the whole class- while actually meaning it, not like how Alya did. Alya was friendly when she teased people and stopped when the person became really uncomfortable. Chloe didn't use to do that, she was only concerned with herself.

Of course, after years of being treated like that by the girl, Marinette still almost wanted to believe that Chloe had not changed. She wanted things to stay the same, have someone to fill that spot of ‘bully’ to keep her mind off of other things, give her motivation.

But at the same time, this new side of Chloe that she was now interacting with was genuinely pleasant. (In the past, Marinette wouldn't even have believed that kindness was a thing she was capable of- but now it seemed to make sense. Now, Adrien's friendship with her was believable. Was this how Chloe had treated him for years?)

Maybe, if Chloe had been like this from the start, they could have been friends too.

Of course, Marinette's thoughts would then remind her of all the times Chloe had treated her badly, again. These thoughts came and went in cycles, not unlike how Chloe's kindness often did- though this time she really was convinced it was at least half genuine.



Marinette wanted it to be real, she believed it.

If she didn't believe it, she would have to go back to having an enemy in her class. (One other than Lila.) Somehow, this new ally was what she wanted, even with her still lingering doubts.

Yet- it didn't seem like enough.

Even as she kept around some distrust and the dislike wasn't fully put away, Marinette found herself believing Alya's insistence on her new ‘crush’. It was embarrassing, yes, but it made sense.

She could picture herself and Chloe holding hands, even if it felt odd to see it so clearly in her mind's eye.

What if they had been like that since the start? She kept thinking. How different would things be then?

“Marinette!” her history teacher's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. This was the only class she didn't share with Chloe, Adrien, or Alya. That meant she should have been focusing, but there she was.

“Huh?” she tried to pull herself together, lifting her head from where it had been resting on her hand. The whole class was staring at her, looking bemused. She swallowed nervously, what had she missed.

“I asked you a question,” her teacher was reiterating, even though she hadn't heard the question initially.

“Oh?” Marinette squeaked.

Her teacher sighed. “If you are that distracted, why don't you take yourself down to the office and be distracted there?”

She opened her mouth to protest, but the teacher shook his head. “Go,” he insisted, sounding annoyed. How long had she been distracted?

Marinette tried to keep her eyes from meeting any of her classmates' as she stood and gathered her things, rushing out of the room with several hushed apologies. It was alright, she tried to tell herself, she deserved this. Being that distracted wasn't like her, even with the constant thoughts bumbling around in her head, it wasn't like she was being sent away for no reason.

Still, it felt a little unfair.

Marinette shut the door behind her and stopped in the hall, very much wanting to just stand there instead of going to the office. A chat with the principal wasn't something she wanted to do right then.

But the history teacher knocked on the door from the inside, jump scaring her, and she quickly pulled herself together and rushed off in the direction of the office. Gosh, this was embarrassing.

Her pink flats clicked on the linoleum floor as she went, feeling rather emotional. Darn it all- why did she have to be so distracted all the time?

Despite all her attempts to keep it together, she felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes.

Her mom and dad would probably get called about this, no matter how small the offense. (Her history teacher was very strict, she really should have known better than to get so distracted in his class.)

Before she even knew it, Marinette found herself in front of the principal's door.

But she couldn't make herself knock. It was like she was frozen in place, staring at the wood, hand raised in fist to tap the material but unable to do so for some reason. Marinette bit her lip, rolling it between her teeth for a moment and wishing that she could pull herself out of the sudden state of frozen she found herself in.

Just then, a voice called her name.

Adrien.

She turned to look at him, seeing that he was walking towards her with a slightly worried look on his face. “Marinette?” he asked again, smiling with a nervous light in his eyes. “Were you also sent to the office?”

Surprised (and a little relieved that she now didn't have to walk in alone), Marinette hurried to wipe away the overly dramatic tears that had cropped up in the corners of her eyes. “Um,” she tried to laugh, “Yeah, I got distracted and didn't hear my teacher asking me a question,”

He laughed, “Oh, I was sent down here because I broke a beaker in the science room, apparently,”

“But you don't even have science right now?”

He shrugged, “Apparently that doesn't matter, I guess it was broken when the class that's there right now came it,”

She smiled, feeling her fears start to melt a little bit. (Huh, it seemed that she was able to talk to him without stuttering now. Had something changed.) “That's stupid,” she declared.

Adrien nodded, “So- after you?”

She cringed, reminded of where she was. “Oh, yeah,”



The meeting with the principal went reasonably well and Marinette was sent back to class before too long. Adrien smiled at her as she left and it left butterflies in her stomach, but not at the level such an action would have created in the past.

Huh, something really had changed. (Curses! Right as she found herself able to properly talk to Adrien too- though maybe that was part of it.)

Marinette walked home, glad that there was no akuma to drag her away from her resting today. She needed to take a nap- that day had been properly exhausting, what with all the distractions inside her head and with the principal's visit. (Luckily, he hadn't made her call her parents because the ‘trouble’ she had gotten herself into hadn't really been worthy of a principal visit, so she was able to head straight up to her room.)

But then, as she plopped down on her bed and closed her eyes, Marinette found she couldn't sleep.

Eventually, she sat up, frustrated by how long it was taking for sleep to take her under its wing. She needed to sleep, darn it! Why wasn't it happening?

Though it probably was about to do the opposite of get her to rest, Marinette pulled out her phone and unlocked it. It opened to a photo of Adrien, her current backdrop, and she hesitated.

Huh. She looked down at it with curiosity, as if she was looking at something unfamiliar.

Somehow, it didn't feel the same.

Of course the photo still made her smile, but it felt like the reason was different now. Less… romantic? Was that even possible?

Marinette hadn't thought that her feelings for him would ever change, not even a tiny bit. But there she was, looking at the photo in fascination, as if she was looking at a photo of a friend for the first time. (Yes- that was right. He was her friend. A very close friend.)

Not more than that, she thought, in awe.

Was this really happening?

But then she blinked herself out of her trance. What was she thinking about? Of course she still had a crush- that was pretty much a quintessential part of her identity these days. It had been for ages, that's why so many of her conversations with Alya ended up mulling over Adrien and his newest escapades in modeling.

And yet,,, didn't he hate modeling?

Why was she, as one of his closest friends, staring at these photos with such awe? Didn't that make her a bad friend, looking at the job that harmed him with drool practically dripping out of her mouth?

Marinette swallowed the hypothetical drool. Oh yeah, something had definitely changed within the past few weeks. She just didn't want to think of what. It felt too wrong to delve into the possible reasons. It felt like she was betraying herself. (Maybe that was a clue to what had happened.)

Just then, Tikki spoke up.

“Marinette?” the little red creature asked, floating into Marinette's line of vision and distracting her from her phone screen.

“Hm?” Marinette hummed, tearing her eyes away from the photo of Adrien and forcing herself to make eye contact with her kwami. Tikki had an odd look on her face. Marinette couldn't help but smile. “Tikki? What is it?”

“You know you're allowed to let things change, right?” Tikki asked, floating down and sitting on Marinette's knee, her voice earnest and full of insistent purpose. Marinette found herself swallowing. Tikki could read her well, she remembered now, very well.

“I guess,” Marinette shrugged, looking back at Adrien again and feeling that odd twinge of guilt for appreciating the photo. They paused for a moment, Tikki waiting for Marinette to continue and Marinette looking the photo over one last time before shutting off her phone and setting it down.

She smiled at Tikki. “Maybe I will,”

Alt ending for that second part that I wrote on two hours of sleep and then realized did not fit in with the story:
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Then, Chloe's eyes brightened, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Marinette watched her politely, hands clasped in front of her. “Sorry if this is too off topic, I just remembered,” Chloe apologized awkwardly, “Chat wanted me to tell you that he started a Discord chat for Miraculous holders,”

She held her phone out for Marinette to see. The screen displayed a Discord chat with only two people in it for the moment, Chat Noir and Chloe's own Discord account. “I know I'm not a Miraculous holder anymore,” she said quickly (before Marinette could hypothetically say anything), “I just need to be on the server to show you,”

“It's okay,” Marinette said quickly. As Chloe pulled away her phone, Marinette pursed her lips and sighed. Chloe listened intently as she flushed with embarrassment, voice small. “I don't have a Discord account,”

Chloe laughed, “I thought you were going to say something serious! You scared me- I'll show you how to set one up,”

Marinette blamed her blush on the embarrassment of not having a Discord account. “Neat,” she said, quietly.

—

As it turned out, setting up an account wasn’t all that difficult. It did, however, mean that Chloe and Marinette had to text each other to work the whole process out. What it was said and done,

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And then I was like, what am I doing, and stopped.

Chapter 4: Backseat Driving

Ladybug stops a mugging, goes on a walk with Chloe, and fights an akuma.

Marinette tries to figure out what the heck is going on with her feelings.

There's a lot going on it this chapter, but out of the whole fic (it's all written, just not all edited) this is probably my favorite chapter. I wrote most of it sitting outside at night, you can sort of tell because of the first setting.

Reading it just reminds me how pretty the sky was. : )

(Also, this is a rather longer chapter. I'm sorry to say that chapter five will probably be much shorter than this, but I hope the content of this chapter makes up for that!)

Though some break in akuma attacks was occurring, or at least from the ridiculous amount her and Chat Noir had become accustomed to over the last few months, Ladybug still found herself transformed on the roof of some building near a park she and the other heroes often congregated in.

It was late at night but that was alright because she couldn’t sleep anyway and school the next day was going to be a struggle no matter what.

Around her the cool air hummed with faint city sounds but also the chirping of crickets from the green area below. The sky was a dark gray and although not many stars were visible due to the lights of the city that still burned bright, it was still beautiful. Clouds dotted across the expanse above and created patterns that she traced with her eyes. It wasn’t a sight she could easily become bored looking at, especially with the added addition of fireflies blinking in the park, among the trees and above the walkways.

She came here often when she was stressed or had something on her mind. As long as night reigned over the place, it was a good spot to clear her head. (On her and Chat Noir’s patrols this was a spot she often claimed.)

Sighing, Ladybug kicked her leg gently against the side of the building she sat upon, watching it bounce back up and glitter reflectively in the lights of streetlamps below. She was grateful that Chloe had convinced the mayor that his impression of her identity was wrong, at least for the time being.

However, that made way for worries about her partner’s identity.

She had to be honest with herself, she was curious about who the other hero was. She always had been, but now wasn’t the time to take advantage of a situation and she felt bad for the reveal.

At least, according to what Chloe reported, only her and her father were aware. That was good, at least. It meant that if Chloe could force her father to keep it under the wraps, everything would end up alright. When she told Chat about it he had been a nervous wreck, but when Ladybug let him know that Chloe was making attempts to keep it a secret (even with the mayor’s relative blabbermouth) he had calmed down a bit.

That made her glad.

Even if they had both decided that romantic pursuit of each other was not going to happen, she clearly still cared about him just as he cared about her. He had told her, one day, that he was pursuing a guy at his school and she had congratulated him. From then on their ‘flirting’ was purely a joke, not that it had ever been fully serious.

And from that tangent, Ladybug felt her mind start to inch towards romantic gossip with itself (as there was no one else here to talk with, not that it was a conversation she would have engaged in with other people anyway).

Her crush on Adrien remained strong enough, but she had put it behind her when she really assessed it and realized that what he really wanted was friends. That was alright with her, and since that realization speaking with him had been much easier and they had grown closer. It also made her notice that she did not have many other people to romantically pursue. Luka was an ex, but they were happy to stay as friends now. (The schedule with her being Ladybug had made it very difficult to date him and they had broken it off before one of them got hurt from misunderstandings.)

When she really thought about it, very few other people stood out in her mind as ‘crush material’.

Alya was pretty, but Marinette didn’t have a crush on her, all they were was very close friends. Nathaniel had taken up dating Marc, Rose and Juleka were together… There just weren’t that many people to go after, really.

And that was okay, it really was. It meant that she had more time to focus on being Ladybug and that was very important. After all, akuma attacks would be very dangerous if the city did not have her to protect them. (Of course they would still have Chat Noir if she did not show up, but he didn’t have the ability to reverse the damage done by more destructive akumas. That was a power only she had, hence the reason they had to work as a team.)

A car horn honked and unceremoniously snapped her out of her romantic ponderings.

Sitting a little straighter up from where she had leaned down to, Ladybug turned to look at where the sound had come from. Obviously, it was nothing to worry about, but a distraction would be nice.

So she stood up and began to walk along the roof of the building she had been sitting on, just to peer away in the direction of the car horn. She was too tired to go swinging through the city at this hour, she hadn’t really left all that far from home for that exact reason, so Ladybug just stared off into the distance. From this angle she could see the Eiffel Tower clearly and took a moment to look at it all lit up.

Lights shone and illuminated the structure, a beacon towering over much of the city (she supposed that was even in its name). She distantly wondered how different the city scape would be without it, but soon left the thought and turned away, padding back to her original sitting location.

In the night air she was a little chilly standing so tall, so she welcomed her initial curled up position overlooking the park, sighing contentedly as she wrapped her arms around her knees. Now, many of the clouds had gone from the sky and left open the gray canvas and its lightly speckled stars. She smiled, looking up at the little white spots and imagining her own constellations between them.

Then, her eyes caught on movement below.

Her eyes snapped downwards and she crouched down lower against the roof, knowing from experience that her suit was very easily spottable against any dark background.

It wasn’t that she really expected to see any criminal activity, but it was that she anticipated it from years on the job.

To her dismay, it was exactly what she saw.

On the street below, a man was walking down the sidewalk, a bag in hand. He wasn’t the issue. The issue was the other man running up behind him, unnervingly silent in the darkness. He wasn’t brandishing a weapon that Ladybug could see, but a mugging wasn’t something she was about to let fly either!

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” she called out, bolting to her feet and leaping off the edge of the building.

Both men looked up at her in surprise, the one that was walking freezing in place as the other skidding to a near halt.

She landed, knees bent to absorb the impact and raced past the man with the bag. He watched her in confusion as she went past him, eyes then catching on the man running up behind him.

Speaking of him, as Ladybug ran towards him he turned around and sprinted down the road in the opposite direction. She gave chase only for a moment and soon stopped, content with stopping the crime at this before she turned around to face the first man again. He was still frozen in place, watching her in gratitude (though some of the initial surprise clearly still lingered in his eyes).

“Sorry about that,” she apologized as she walked up to him, “He was going to try and take your bag, I think. I happened to be around so I stepped in,”

“T-thank you,” he breathed, then laughed awkwardly and flicked his eyes down. “I thought for a second I was doing something illegal,”

She flushed in embarrassment, “Oh, I’m sorry about that,”

“It’s okay!” he quickly pacified her apologetic nature, “It’s more important that you stopped him,”

Nodding, Ladybug cleared her throat. “Yeah- it is, you’re right,”

He smiled at her and she smiled back, both realizing that they were at an awkward standstill. Ladybug quickly jumped into action, “So where are you going from here?”

Clearly relieved to have a topic instead of an awkward staring contest, the man scratched the back of his head. “I was just walking home from work, I had to stay late,”

She nodded, “I should probably go home soon too, do you think you’ll be fine on the way to your house?”

“Yeah, it’s near here so I’ll be okay,”

“That’s good,” she smiled at him, “Glad to, um, stop you from being mugged?”

He laughed, “Yeah, glad to be stopped from being mugged,”



When he was out of sight, Ladybug turned to go. She really should have been heading home at that point, it was getting quite late in earnest.

But just as she was about to swing her yo-yo to zip away, another figure entered her peripheral vision. Distracted, she let her yo-yo drop again, turning to look at the person who had just turned onto the street.

To her surprise, she caught eyes with Chloe Bourgeois.

They stared at each other for a moment, both clearly drawn away from their focus by the bright colors of the other’s clothing. Ladybug stood where she had been, putting one hand on her hip teasingly as Chloe jogged over. “What are you doing out so late, miss?” she called, jokingly.

Chloe laughed, looking both ways before crossing the road over to where Ladybug stood (not that there were any cars to be seen in the vicinity). “I was just… walking, I guess, you?”

“Clearing my head,” Ladybug shrugged, dropping into a more casual stance as Chloe made it to her side.

From somewhere within her, Ladybug could feel the distant thoughts of romantic contemplation bubbling up from where they had been shelved when she stopped the mugging. Swallowing and looking away from Chloe to hide a blush which suddenly spread across her face, she stared out into the park and shoved the thoughts back down. “Hey,” she stared before she could think about her words, “Do you wanna go for a walk?”

Chloe inhaled sharply and for a moment Ladybug thought she’d said something wrong, but then Chloe responded. “Y-yes! Yeah, let’s do that, in the park?”

“Sure, why not?” Ladybug smiled, flashing the look at Chloe before looking back into the park, “Neither of us can sleep, apparently,”

Chloe laughed and Ladybug could feel something shift in her stomach.

Were those… butterflies? She frowned to herself, pushing them down. What had gotten into her recently?

Then Chloe cleared her throat, a nervous twinge to her voice that distracted Ladybug from her thoughts. “Um, after you?”

“Oh- yeah! Sure,”

The pair made their way into the park, feet padding along the pavement of the walkway, looking out into the rows of trees and flowers. It was a small park, but it was still beautiful. Ladybug found herself looking over at Chloe as they walked in silence, noting the way the girl’s face looked without her usual makeup. Memorizing it.

Her hair was tied up under a baseball cap and she wore a bright yellow sweatshirt instead of her usual designer jacket. Ladybug didn’t even know she owned clothing like that.

Then Chloe’s eyes flicked over to look at her and Ladybug tore her eyes away, watching the path in front of them instead.

Say something, her mind pleaded to itself, anything.

So she cleared her throat, catching Chloe’s attention (she could see her turn her head out of the corner of her eye, although her eyes remained forward). “I… stopped a mugging, like, just now,”

“Really?” Chloe gasped, “Oh my God, like, right before I got here?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Ladybug tried to ignore the way her face heated up as Chloe talked to her with that genuine excitement in her voice. “It was, well, I was sitting on the roof up there and looking at the stars but I saw someone moving,”

Chloe giggled, “How? While you were looking up?”

Ladybug found herself smiling, “I don’t know! Just out of the corner of my eye, I guess, but I looked down and there were these two men walking on the street,”

She put a finger to her mouth in pondering, “The… the one in front was kinda strolling along and he was holding a bag, I don’t think he noticed the other guy,”

Chloe nodded and Ladybug smiled, looking over to her as she relayed the story. It was nice to have someone to tell these things to before she had to go back home and be Marinette again. “And the other guy was running up behind him, like, weirdly quietly?” she continued, “I don’t even know how he was doing it, but anyway- I kinda just jumped down there and chased him off,”

“That’s really cool,” Chloe said, then seemed to think for a moment. “Was the guy with the bag about my height?”

Ladybug looked her up and down, “Pretty much, yeah,”

“I think I passed him on the sidewalk,” Chloe nodded, smiling as she looked forward again. Ladybug watched as her features formed the gentle expression without the usual smirk she included. It was… beautiful.

And then Chloe turned again to Ladybug and their gazes met. Chloe smiled a little wider, eyes flicking over Ladybug’s face. “You look tired,” she murmured, and the sound arose something inside Ladybug, “how often do you do this?”

“Do what?” Ladybug asked, blushing and looking away. What in the world had gotten into her?

“You know,” Chloe waved her hand dramatically, “Save people in the streets of Paris? Is this why you’re so tired in class all the time?”

Ladybug swallowed, coughing. “I guess, but I’m also just generally tired all the time,”

“If you do this often that would make sense,” Chloe noted, “But that’s superhero life, isn’t it? How do you even sneak out?”

“My mom and dad go to bed pretty early,” Ladybug shrugged, not quite sure why she was telling Chloe this but too on a roll to really stop. “Since they’re…” she glanced around to make sure there were no other park-goers within earshot. “…bakers, they have to wake up really early in the morning. It gives me a little more time to do stuff at night as long as they think I’m going to bed at a reasonable hour. I can leave through the balcony or a window, either works really,”

“That makes sense,” Chloe pondered, “It’s a trend, I think?”

“What’s a trend?” Ladybug looked at her incredulously.

“Leaving through windows, A- um, Chat said that’s what he does,”

Mulling it over for a moment, Ladybug nodded. “That makes sense, he’s always talking about his parents being controlling and stuff, not that he ever goes into detail about it!” She quickly cleared that up so that Chloe wouldn’t think she knew more about Chat’s personal life than she did and accidentally spill something. “So, um, it makes sense that he would leave through a window,”

Chloe nodded, smiling with a faraway look in her eyes. “Yeah,”

They walked in silence for a moment, Ladybug looking up at the stars and Chloe gazing around at the plant life that surrounded the little walkway. It felt… comfortable.

It felt right.



Marinette walked into school the next day on very little sleep, but at least she wasn’t alone in it this time.

In the front row, Chloe chatted to Sabrina tiredly, pointing out the still visible bags under her eyes and noting something about her concealer not being full coverage enough. Marinette smiled distantly as she watched, resting her chin on her arm.

By her side, Alya watched her, following the direction of her eyes and letting her gaze also fall on the Bourgeois girl. “Woah,” she said, catching Marinette’s attention, “She looks tired,”

Marinette nodded, voice a bit airy as she smiled tiredly in Alya’s direction, “Yeah,”

Alya laughed at the look on her face, “You look tired too!”

“A bit,” Marinette admitted, yawning as she sat up and stretched her arms over her head, “Aagh, it’s like- a headache or something, I can feel it coming on,”

Alya laughed again, “Oh girl, what have I told you about staying up late?”

“That the sewing projects can wait?”

“Exactly! So take the advice to heart instead of memorizing it like I don’t mean it!” Alya patted her on the back, causing her to giggle a bit.

Marinette let her eyes stray around the room as she leaned back in her seat a little more comfortably. Almost instantaneously, she caught eyes with Chloe. They both stared at each other for a moment, Chloe blinking as Marinette raised her hand a bit. When Marinette waved, the gesture small as she yawned, Chloe smiled and quickly returned the motion.

Then she turned back around and returned to her conversation with Sabrina, Marinette felt her cheeks warm a little bit.

Seriously, what was going on with her??



At lunch (she and her friends had decided to eat on the steps outside of the school that day), Marinette found herself staring off into the distance with a dopey grin on her face, thinking about her walk through the park with Chloe the previous night.

“Dude,” Nino’s laughter brought her out of her thoughts, “What are you even thinking about? Adrien’s photo in the new perfume ad?”

Adrien busted out a guffaw, nearly choking on his food as Marinette spluttered, successfully distracted and now embarrassed. “What?” she gawked at him, looking between Alya’s giggling form and Nino, “His what?”

“I did another perfume ad a bit ago,” Adrien explained, shaking his head and patting Nino on the back beside him. “They had me wear this weird shirt,”

“It looked so stupid,” Nino grinned.

“It was a weird color,” Alya corrected, rolling her eyes around her salad, “It didn’t look-”

“No no, it did look stupid, he’s right,” Adrien nodded, “I thought it looked weird with my hair, but who was I to judge?”

Marinette looked on in confusion as Nino cackled, “Oh yeah- your hair dude! They had it slicked back,”

“I looked like my dad,” Adrien grimaced pathetically, “I have no idea why they styled it like that, I’ve seen the backlash online too,”

Alya giggled, “They’re horrified,”

Feeling a smile growing on her face, Marinette tried not to think about Adrien with slicked back hair. It was an unnerving thought, Still, she totally wanted to see it. “What? Can I see it?”

“Yeah! Hang on, I’ll pull it up,” Adrien laughed, taking out his phone and setting down his food.

The photo was soon brought up and Adrien reached out his phone for her to look. Sure enough, there he was in an off-purple T-shirt and slicked back hair. Altogether, it wasn’t that bad a photo. However, it was very not Adrien- both branding and the actual person. Marinette laughed as Adrien took his phone away.

“It’s bad, right?” he shook his head, “I think my father’s upset about it,”

“You even look uncomfortable in the photo,” Marinette giggled, causing Nino to nod.

“Right? That’s what I was saying!” he agreed, “He looks scared,”

Adrien frowned, sticking out his lower lip in a joking pout, “I do not!”

“You so do,” Alya looked over his shoulder at his phone screen, “You look like you’re thinking about the math test on Friday and realizing you haven’t studied yet,”

The whole group laughed, Adrien shaking his head. He looked a little less stressed than he had been recently, Marinette noticed. Good, she thought, it was hard to see him worried. Especially since she wasn’t so sure why he was worried in the first place.

Their banter continued as lunch went on, assessing new superhero drama (both Adrien and Marinette rushing on through the topic like their lives depended on it, as usual), teasing Marinette for being so tired, and finally to a light debate about whether tomatoes were good in salad or not. It was in the midst of this debate that Marinette noticed Chloe walking up to their group, Sabrina beside her and carrying a box full of something.

“Hi!” Marinette called out, swallowing down her worry at the sight of Chloe in the context of school. (After years of sharing classes with her the fear was pretty much innate, though she could feel it disappearing bit by bit these days.)

Chloe smiled and waved as the other three turned to look where Marinette was looking. “Hey,” she responded, prompting Sabrina to smile as well.

Marinette saw the slightly distrusting look on Alya’s face, but nodded to her reassuringly. Before she knew it, Chloe and Sabrina were right at the group’s sides. “Do you want a cookie?” Chloe asked, “Me and Sabrina baked them after school yesterday, I’ve been waiting for them to get to the right temperature before handing them out,”

“Yep!” Sabrina nodded, extending the box, “We put jelly in them,”

Marinette smiled up at them, particularly making eye contact with Chloe (though she wasn’t quite sure why she was doing it). “Thank you, I’ll take one,”

She stood and reached into the box. The cookies were a pale cream color with a little heart shaped window of jelly in the center. They weren’t exactly bakery quality, but they were still pretty well crafted. Adrien stood up too, thanking the pair and retrieving a cookie as well. Then, despite her still standing dislike for Chloe, Alya also reached into the box and took one of the treats, Nino following soon after.

Marinette bit into her’s. The flavor was good! Sweet and buttery almost, with raspberry jelly in the center. She smiled, thanking Chloe again. “These are really good, thank you both,”

Sabrina smiled and Chloe blushed, voice quite precisely in the way it had been during their walk the previous night. “Y-you’re welcome,” Marinette felt her heart skip a beat, butterflies rising not-quite-unpleasantly in her stomach. Something she couldn’t place.



That following Friday, another akuma attack occurred.

She and Chat had gotten back into the swing of things, so the battle went relatively smoothly at first. However when a cataclysm was wasted on an incorrect guess to where the cursed moth was, the pair had to fall back. The good news was that the powers of this new manifestation of Hawk Moth’s power were not destructive, really.

To Ladybug’s knowledge, no one had been harmed so far in the battle. Sure, people were frozen in place where they stood, but no one was actually hurt.

“Sorry!” Chat Noir was apologizing and he and Ladybug retreated behind a series of chimney’s. He was out of breath and she was cursing herself for not guessing properly where the moth was, “Shoot, it’s probably in her hat,”

“Her hat?” Ladybug whipped around to watch the akuma, about fifty feet tall, wreak havoc in a public park. She wore a purple baseball cap with an ‘M’ on it. “Why her hat?” she looked back at her partner for an explanation.

“Dunno, it clearly wasn’t in her necklace though- darn it! We had such a good opportunity,” he stamped his foot in annoyance.

“Don’t kick yourself,” Ladybug went back to watching the akuma, “I still don’t feel like it would be the hat, though, is she holding something?”

Chat peaked around the chimney he was pressed against, craning his neck to watch the akumatized woman shoot a beam of light blue light and freeze a bunch of people in their tracks. “I… I dunno, can’t tell- we’ll need to get closer,”

Ladybug nodded, “Do you have your breath back?”

“Can I have another second?” he asked and she nodded again.

A moment later he gave her a signal and the pair turned to head out and continue fighting the akuma. But just then a voice called out from the other side of the building.

“Chat Noir! Ladybug!”

Both of the heroes whipped around towards the source of the sound, staring down at the street where it came from. There, on the sidewalk below, stood Chloe. She was waving frantically to them, clearly trying to encourage them to drop down and talk with her. Chat Noir looked over and Ladybug in confusion, she shrugged.

“Yeah?” she asked. There was a time where she would have ignored the urgent look in Chloe’s eyes or even scolded her for it, but now she didn’t feel like doing something like that.

“Come down here!” Chloe waved them over again and Chat Noir nodded.

The pair of superheroes dropped down onto the street below, Ladybug rolling to absorb the impact while Chat Noir just bent his knees. “What is it?” he asked Chloe, “Because we’re sort of-”

“Busy, yeah,” Chloe nodded, “I didn’t expect to see you- the akuma’s in her bracelet! I saw it happen,”

Ladybug blinked at her, then at Chat Noir. Apparently both of their guesses had been incorrect. "Her bracelet?”

“Yeah,” Chloe repeated, “She was sitting on a bench in the park, I saw the akuma flying up to her but couldn’t do anything about it,”

“You wanna go for it?” Chat Noir asked Ladybug.

Nodding to confirm, Ladybug agreed. “Thank you Chloe,” she smiled. Chat Noir grinned in agreement and saluted her.

“No problem!” Chloe called up after the pair as they leapt back up onto the roof and launched themselves towards the park.

With the use of her Lucky Charm and sheer dumb luck, the akuma went down soon enough. As the magical ladybugs swept through the city to repair the damage done, Ladybug fist bumped her partner and smiled at him. He smiled back, if a little frantically due to his beeping ring, and they parted ways. Ladybug headed back home and Chat vaulted off to who knew where- probably an alley to detransform.

She dropped down onto her balcony and went inside, detransforming as she touched down on the floor of her room. Tikki flew out and landed on the bed, groaning. “Gosh,” she rubbed her head with her tiny hand, “You cut it close with that transformation Marinette,”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Marinette apologized, already fishing around for macaroons in her bag. “Just let me get you some-” the bag was empty. “-Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?” Tikki questioned, confused.

“Yeah, I don’t have any sweets on me, just wait here while I dash downstairs really quick, okay?”

Tikki nodded, laying back on the pillow and closing her eyes to rest, clearly quite exhausted. Marinette hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen, hearing a few voices in the ‘store’ segment of the house. Her mother and someone familiar in deep conversation. From the few words she caught as she searched the counters for leftover cookies it sounded like they were discussing… her.

So she peaked around the corner, confused and curious.

Her eyes fell on Chloe.

Her heart fluttered in her chest. Goodness, she couldn’t seem to escape the girl recently, could she?

Walking out into the space, Marinette made herself apparent by clearing her throat. “Hi mom,” she nodded, grabbing her mother’s attention quickly. “Um, and Chloe…?” Her voice rode on questioning, unsure what Chloe was doing there.

“She was bringing you some cookies, dear!” her mother smiled, “Why don’t you two go hang up in Marinette’s room, me and Tom have some business to attend to in the shop,”

“Mom-” Marinette tried and Chloe struggled to utter a ‘no no it’s okay’, but Mrs. Dupain-Cheng just smiled and shooed them off.

Sighing, Marinette beckoned Chloe to come with her. She had to admit, she was still a little nervous around her (though if it was purely from her initial fear of the girl or not she could not tell), but it was hard to turn down an offer for cookies.

“I’m so sorry,” Chloe apologized nervously as they entered Marinette’s room, “I didn’t mean to stay over, I just wanted to drop off the rest of the cookies since-”

Her eyes fell on Tikki, who had frozen in place (not finding a good enough hiding place in time). She noticeably relaxed when she realized that it was just Chloe, knowing that Marinette’s identity had been blown to her.

“Oh!” Marinette exclaimed, heart jumping into her throat, “Oh, I’m so sorry, she’s hungry,” she addressed Chloe.

“Marinette? Sweets?” Tikki prompted, kindly but in a serious manner.

“Arg! Sorry Tikki, I-” Marinette apologized, then she remembered the cookies Chloe had brought. She turned to Chloe, who was still standing by the trap door nervously. “Can she have the cookies?”

“Of- of course?” Chloe nodded, taking a few steps forward and reaching out the box for Marinette to grab.

Marinette passed it to Tikki, who peered inside and squealed excitedly. (She had once told Marinette how much she enjoyed the cookies with jelly in them.) Digging in, Tikki had soon devoured two cookies.

Chloe and Marinette watched expectantly (and rather awkwardly) as the kwami ate.

“She normally eats this much?” Chloe hesitantly made conversation.

Marinette blinked, a little surprised to be spoken to. “Um, sometimes? It depends, honestly,”

Nodding, Chloe took a few steps forward. By then, Tikki had removed herself from the box and was laying back against the pillow looking content. “Hi,” she started, smiling nervously. Tikki looked up at her, blinking with her usual wide eyes.

“Hello,” she smiled politely, “I don’t believe we’ve properly met, have we?”

Marinette took some steps forward, “I mean, you once pretended to be a doll because you fell out of my bag near her,”

Both kwami and classmates seemed to think back for a moment, scanning their memory for such an occurrence. They both cringed at the same time. “Oh, yeah,” Tikki muttered at the same time as Chloe let out a strangled whine of embarrassment at the reminder.

She couldn’t help it- Marinette laughed.

My sister said that Chat Noir and Alya were her favorite characters in this fic and I think I agree? Like, I love all of them but writing Alya is shockingly fun. x D

Chapter 5: I Tolerate You (With a Romantic Intention)

Friendship is evolving.

Chloe buys a videogame and Ladybug makes a rash decision.

Short chapter, this is the homestretch now though! Only one more chapter. (Though I was thinking of maybe doing a sequel…? No promises.)

Before long, Tikki was napping on a pillow and Chloe and Marinette were chatting. For a pair that had hated each other mere weeks ago, they actually got along quite well. At the moment, they were in deep conversation over a video game Marinette had recently gotten into and whether it was worth it or not. Apparently, Adrien had gotten into the series a few years back and Chloe was familiar with it.

Apparently the pair had played it together, which Marinette was not expecting.

Quite frankly, it made her jealous in a way she wasn't too used to regarding Adrien and Chloe. (In a way she wasn't quite ready to admit, even to herself.)

“It's cool that you know what I'm talking about,” Marinette smiled at Chloe, hugging her knees to her chest and tilting her head to the side.

Chloe smiled back at her, “Yeah, it's nice to know that people other than Adrien are interested in the series- and I'd say it's worth it, its really fun to play,”

“It costs a lot though,” Marinette frowned, “Even though I really wanna play it…”

She jumped as Chloe put a hand on her arm, her classmate's voice suddenly excited. “I'd buy it for you!”

For some reason, that (in combination with the wild grin on Chloe's face) made Marinette blush. She was blushing a lot recently. “No- no you don't have to do that!”

“Have to?” Chloe laughed, “I want to! I think you deserve to play it,”

“But it costs so-” Marinette tried to get a word in, but Chloe was already pulling out her phone.

“Let me get you something,” Chloe shushed her, “As an apology?”

She offered the explanation up nervously, as if she had to ask for permission to mention the past. Marinette tensed. Chloe must have felt it because she froze too, fingers hovering over her screen as she looked over at Marinette again. The space between them was so tense it felt like it could catch fire.

“S-sorry,” Chloe tried, “I shouldn't have brought that up,”

Marinette swallowed. “It's fine,”

“No really, I should have asked before I mentioned-”

“It's fine!” Marinette insisted, a little more forcefully. Chloe looked away again, bringing her arms closer to her chest as if for comfort. Marinette's own chest felt like it was suddenly hollow, unsure if she really meant that it was okay.

Sure, things had certainly changed between them, but it was hard to forget the past. Forgetting was always beyond difficult, it was forgiving that she was used to forcing. (But was this forgiveness really all that forced? It felt natural enough.) So Marinette smiled as well as she could, patting Chloe on the arm. “Forgive, right? I don't need to forget, you don't need to. What matters is that we're…”

She trailed off. Were they better now? Things had changed, obviously, but it hadn't been officially stated yet from either of them. Since the apology letter and since the identity reveal they had been ignoring the sudden and vast change in their dynamic. It had to come up eventually, but she hadn't expected to be the one that would bring it up.

Chloe looked at her and Marinette caught onto the hopeful edge in her eyes. “We're..?” she encouraged, wanting to know what Marinette was about to say.

“It's-” Marinette hesitated. There was no going back if they admitted it, but it had to be done. She forced herself to meet Chloe's eyes, somehow this felt like more than it was and her heart hammered in her chest. “We're okay now,” she murmured, feeling her eyes soften even as her heart jumped up and down in her throat. “What matters is that we're okay now,”

“We are?” Chloe whispered, her phone slipping from her grasp as she maintained Marinette's eye contact. It fell gently onto the bed, Marinette tried to ignore her urge to also fall onto the bed as it had. She tried to ignore how tempting Chloe's gaze was, how soft and gentle her perfectly manicured fingers suddenly looked.

Marinette swallowed, tearing her thoughts away from such things. “Yeah,” her throat felt dry, “If you think so too,”

“I do,” Chloe's voice was barely loud enough for Marinette to hear.

It felt like a promise.



Ah forgiveness.

It really had a way of worming into her gut and making her second guess herself.

So Ladybug found herself standing next to Chat Noir on that same roof above the park she and Chloe had walked in, telling him as much as she could without telling him who he saw. She listened to her carefully, eyes watching the street below instead of his partner as she paced beside him.

“And I forgave her,” Ladybug was ranting, waving her arms around to exaggerate her words even though she knew Chat wasn't watching her as she spoke. “I felt good about it, I still do! But I don't know if I should have done it, it feels like I'm betraying myself,”

She looked over at her partner for help, biting her lip. “What do I do?”

He paused, then turned to watch her face. She knew she looked scared and unsure, just as she did when they fought a particularly difficult akuma and she didn't know what to do with her Lucky Charm. “Did you want to forgive her in the moment?” he asked, words measured and calm.

Ladybug nodded.

“Then you should keep forgiving her,” Chat Noir smiled, “Keep forgiving her until something changes, if it does,”

“What would change?” she asked, desperate for answers that she knew neither of them had. She couldn't tell the future, neither could he,

So she expected him to shrug, just as he did. “You tell me,” he glanced down at the street for a second before looking up at her again, “But it might not,”

“I don't know what to do if it doesn't change back,” she bit her lip, “I'm used to her doing this- it used to happen over and over again, but I never forgave her before,”

“It almost sounds like you didn't forgive her,” Chat commented.

Ladybug bristed, not sure why this was getting her so worked up. “I did! I forgave her because she's really changed this time, I just don't know if it was the right move, what if she gets the wrong idea?”

A strange look passed over her partner's face as he looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

She flushed, realizing what she had said. But she had no way to explain herself. “I-” she bit her lip, “I don't know,”

Chat Noir smiled at her, the expression ever so slightly incredulous. “Alright,” the smile turned to a lopsided grin. It was reminiscent of the looks Alya used to give her when she denied her feelings for Adrien. The comparison between the two, although it was made by her own mind, made Ladybug's stomach twist unpleasantly.

“But- but I really want to forgive her,” Ladybug went on, determined to move on past the odd statement that had forced its way out of her mouth. “And I am forgiving her! She really has changed, it just still doesn't seem-”

“Real?” Chat offered. Ladybug smiled, exhausted and oh so glad he was such a good listener.

“Yeah,”

Hearing her relieved tone of voice, he smiled gently, patting her on the arm as she went to sit down beside him. “I'm sure you'll figure it out LB, you know you always do,”

She smiled, trying to ignore the way her stomach still twisted with nervous tension. “I… um, I guess,”

Chat Noir shot her a grin. “Don't ‘I guess’ me, you know it,”

“No!” she claimed, waving her arms, “I don't know what you're talking about,”

He laughed, “Sure- you're a real jokester, you know that?”

“But I don't always work it out!” she protested.

He grabbed her shoulders, startling her as he stared into her eyes with his own cat-like ones. Hypnotizing. “Yes you do, you're resourceful and work things out, that's why you're still Ladybug,”

She swallowed, fighting the urge to deny his words again. “But-”

“Nope!” he put a finger over her mouth, smiling playfully as she shut up. “Nope, don't deny it!”

The urge came back, but she pouted instead, a smile teasing the expression even as she did so. t was stupid to keep going like this, they both knew it, and she usually caved first in these sorts of pep-talk ‘debates’, right then was no different. “You're no fun,” she muttered, trying to avoid his triumphant gaze.

“You know it,” he grinned in that cheeky way she knew so well, “Chat ‘no fun’ Noir, that's me,”

Ladybug laughed, feeling just a little bit lighter.



For the second time in a relatively small span of time, Ladybug ran into Chloe in public.

This time, the sun was shining above them and people were bustling all about them.

But the proper public nature of this meeting didn't stop the genuine smile from appearing on Chloe's face. Nor did it stop Ladybug's polite smile in return, feeling calm in Chloe's presence in a way she hadn't really felt before. Chat Noir's pep talk really had talked some sense into her, it seemed.

“Ladybug!” Chloe's excitement was obvious in her voice, ignoring as the people around them started to look on. (A celebrity interacting with a superhero in a public space, of course their attention would be grabbed.) “Look, I bought y- I mean, I bought a new video game,”

Ladybug watched on in amazement as Chloe pulled the disk's case out of her purse, showing the cover to Ladybug briefly before slipping it back into the bag and looking back up at her. “Cool, no?”

“Yeah,” Ladybug breathed, all too aware of the several cameras that had just been taken out to record them. (Videos to be submitted to the Ladyblog for judgment, probably. Public interactions between Chloe and Ladybug had been highly valued ever since Chloe's tweet, it felt a little odd to think about.)

So Ladybug reached out and took Chloe's hand. She felt her heart beating hard in her chest.

Uh oh, she was about to do something rash.

And do something rash she did, lifting Chloe's hand up to her lips and kissing it gently. Chloe's mouth fell open, stopping in the middle of what she had been saying, amazed shock clearly evident in her all too excited expression. Ladybug's face felt very warm, especially with the cameras pointed at them.

“Do you want to talk somewhere else?” she offered, just barely under her breath.

Chloe looked light headed, if anything. “Sure,” she breathed, and Ladybug felt glad.

Soon, she had wrapped her arm around Chloe and they were zipping off through the city, Chloe clinging hard to her and whooping with excitement. The wind rushed past them, fast moving and hopeful- reflecting Ladybug's heartbeat perfectly. This felt right. This felt so right!

They landed on a building not too far away from the school, Chole laughing happily and Ladybug smiling like an idiot.

“Thank you,” Chloe gushed as Ladybug set her down on the roof, “I forgot how much I missed doing that,”

Ladybug grinned stupidly, “Yeah, me too,”

“You do it all the time!” Chloe laughed. Her excited amusement was contagious and soon Ladybug found herself laughing too.

In fact, with the adrenalin and the pleasantly warm wind coursing through them, the pair had quite a hard time stopping laughing. It was like someone had told a very amusing joke and then neither of them remembered how to let their giggles subside. Though no one really had told any joke, it was just the inability to stop laughing that remained true.

But with it, Ladybug felt happy.

Really, truly happy. Like she had been missing this her whole life and she finally found something that felt right.

Finally, their laughter dwindled into the occasional snicker and bemused smiles. Dazed smiles. like neither was sure how to define what had happened.

Then, Chloe said exactly what Ladybug was thinking. “I'm glad,” she said simply, a stupid smile on her beautiful face. It made Ladybug's heart flutter, grinning in response.

“Me too,” she breathed.

They smiled at each other for a long moment as if in a trance. Ladybug's eyes searched Chloe's face, taking in her reddened cheeks and the sparkles in her eyes. Oh, how had she lived without this? It had been hers for approximately fifteen minutes but it still felt like a necessity- her mind loopily shelving it in the ‘food and water’ category as her gaze went to Chloe's lips.

Pink lip gloss.

It matched her eye shadow, somehow.

Ladybug still remembered what Chloe looked like without makeup and, for whatever reason, the thought made her smile grow. “Thank you for buying the game,” she finally whispered, reaching out awkwardly as if for a handshake. “You didn't have to, but thank you,”

Chloe grinned and reached out, returning the handshake as if Ladybug had not just kissed her hand. “No problem, I wanna play it with you,”

“You do?” Ladybug felt her heart skip a beat, “With me?”

“Yes,” Chloe dropped their hands, reaching up with her other hand to teasingly poke the end of Ladybug's nose. Ladybug laughed, bringing a hand to rub the spot her friend had just touched.

“Thank you,” she smiled, and it wasn't hesitant at all.



In the following weeks, they did play the game together.

They were hanging out so much that Alya jokingly told Marinette that she would gladly hand over her best friend privileges just to see her and Chloe interact even more. Marinette just playfully shoved her shoulder, shaking her head and reminding her that ‘best friend’ was a title applicable to many people in her eyes.

Chloe wasn't a ‘best friend’ yet, but she was climbing the ranks ridiculously quickly.

Sometimes, Marinette forgot why they had ever disliked each other in the first place. More importantly: sometimes, she wondered if Chloe would some day reach a spot beyond ‘best friend’. She was ready to admit it now, the thoughts were following the path that her crush on Adrien had.

Maybe her and Chloe could adopt three kids and a hamster. (Boy, maybe she did move on fast.)

It was thinking too far ahead, obviously, but Marinette found herself smiling over the thought at dinner more than once. She also caught herself thinking about it as she was trying to go to bed and during class, so it was steadily reaching ‘Adrien’ levels.

Chloe's apology letter had been successful after all, Marinette thought to herself, a dopey smile on her face during science class. She didn't even care that Alya was giggling about her, she finally felt free (like this had been building up for a long time instead of less than a year).

Her gaze shifted to Chloe, smile turning truly genuine and gentle as her eyes softened. Somehow, looking at Chloe felt comforting now.

And, as she watched, Chloe turned around to look at her.

She smiled too.

Chapter 6: Epilogue/Where To Go From Here?

Marinette is happy.

Ladybug takes one last piece of advice from Chat Noir.

Chloe wants to kiss her.

(Wrapping it all up.)

Final chapter everyone! Love this for us. : )

What's this??? Me finishing a fic??? Woah! Didn't think I had it in me.

Three weeks had passed.

In that time, many things happened very quickly. For one- Chloe Bourgeois released an official statement on Twitter coming out as pansexual. For another, Marinette finally told Adrien how she had felt for years and apologized for not being a good enough friend for him. He had hugged her and smiled, and told her that he understood. Something about a similar experience.

Alya and Chloe were able to hang out with Marinette at the same time twice without fighting at all, which was quite frankly exceeding Marinette's expectations for either of them.

She was happy, and the people around her noticed.

It seemed that once she stopped chasing someone she wasn't going to end up with, opportunities sprung up in front of her.

They still weren't sure if they could call it dating yet, but that was alright.

That was moving too fast, wasn't it? (Then again, everything about their sudden transition from hatred to friendship was moving ‘too fast’, even if it had actually been several months since Marinette first received the apology letter in the mail.)

It still felt like such a short amount of time that everything had changed in, and in comparison to the years of history they had on less-good terms, it was a short amount of time. And yet, even with her knowledge of the past, Marinette was happy with what she had now.

She was happy when Chloe and her played that video game she had bought for her. She was happy even when Chloe beat her.

She was happy when Nino fist bumped Chloe in class, even if he reminded her that he hadn't completely forgiven her right afterward.

Marinette was happy when Chloe held her hand.

Honestly, being around her nowadays made Marinette happy, it didn't matter what they were doing.

It seemed that, even if she couldn't forget, forgiveness was enough to make the past matter less. It was still their history, and it wouldn't be ignored, but it was a benchmark that they grew from.

A benchmark that Chloe constantly reminded Marinette of whenever she bought her gifts or squeezed her hand so kindly the way Marinette liked, even when she complained that bringing up the past wasn't necessary. Apparently, Chloe was bent on improving and improving until there was no room left to improve.

Luckily, Marinette had the feeling that Chloe would have plenty of time to become even better. (It didn't seem like they would be abandoning each other any time soon.)

As Ladybug, Marinette had to be carefull with her affection around Chloe. It was dangerous to potentially make her even more of a target for Hawkmoth than she already was, of course, but it was also important that she keep her identity hidden from her classmates. If she and Chloe were advancing into territory often defined as dating when Marinette was not Ladybug, it was important that their meetings in superhero dress were to stay completely professional.

That didn't stop Ladybug from wanting to take her on grand tours of Paris, swinging over the rooftops and whooping in glee. She couldn't do it, but it was always something she hoped to do one day.

And on the weekends, particularly Saturdays because it lacked a school day the following morning, they made their little walks through the park a tradition. Of course, Marinette had to turn into Ladybug to get there- but the shared moments were shared when she was Marinette.

After all, she was more Marinette than she was Ladybug, and Chloe seemed to love her for who she was.

Wow.

Loved her.

It gave her little butterflies in her stomach to think about. Love. She was in love with Chloe, Chloe was in love with her. For a long time, Marinette hadn't thought herself to be deserving of love.

But now, she felt like she could get used to it.



There was the matter of Chat Noir's identity to deal with, because Chloe's father still knew.

With Chat Noir in on the plan and a little bit of help from Trixx, the mistake was patched up.

Marinette hadn't expected Chloe to look that good with the fox Miraculous. (Of course, she would never replace Rena Rouge, it was just used because Alya couldn't know Chat Noir's identity, just as Ladybug couldn't. That was why Chloe had to wield the fox Miraculous for the plan, since neither Rena Rouge nor Ladybug could be there.)

Chloe had even given the magical necklace back right afterwards, which put a fluttery feeling in Marinette's stomach- even though it was a very low bar in comparison to the others Chloe had already leaped over in the past few months. It marked a change, a very definite change. That was why it meant so much, Ladybug decided.

Chat Noir hugged Ladybug after the little plan was carried out, the mayor now convinced that he was not his civilian identity- whoever that was. He also hugged Chloe, and that made Ladybug smile. She might not have known who he was in his civilian life, but she was glad that he and Chloe were friends when she figured it out.



Marinette held hands with Chloe tentatively, unsure if what she was doing was right.

Chloe clung to her like a drowning man to a raft, desperately spilling the contents of her heart whenever she spoke, waxing poetry with even the littlest stories. How Marinette had not noticed how charming she could be when she told stories, she wasn't sure.

Even with the way Chloe used to act, there was no way this side of her had been completely hidden.

Or maybe it was.

But either way, Marinette was just thankful she was able to see it now. She could see their future ahead of them, even if they weren't labeling it just yet.



It honestly seemed to be the gossipy tabloid articles that got it first, which was mildly amusing to Marinette.

The first clue was Chloe coming out on Twitter, obviously. The next was pretty much everything about how her and Marinette acted in public these days.

They looked into each other's eyes with a gentle warmth that was hard to replicate. They held hands, and not in the way ‘just friends’ tended to. Sometimes, Chloe would even kiss Marinette on the back of her hand.

It made her flush every time, and Chloe would smile deviously and insist it was ‘payback’ for Marinette's rash decision as Ladybug. That made her blush even harder, to be honest. (Had it mattered that much to Chloe when she had done it? Because whenever it happened to her she felt like all the love and affection in the universe was being placed upon her, even if her usage of the action had originally been taking a page out of Chat Noir's old book. Now it didn't seem so much like his move- it was more like Chloe's.)

Oh well, cute blonds.



Alya teased Marinette for having a thing for blonds, or for people of high social status.

Marinette playfully batted her hand away.

It wasn't like everyone could just forgive Chloe, of course. Alya was one of those people- even though she had known Chloe for far less time than Marinette (and had therefore dealt with her past actions far less). Still, Alya was always invested in romantic escapades.

It was like watching a reality TV show, she had said once (in front of their teacher and much to Marinette's embarrassment).



Eventually, they were going to have to label it.

For some reason, Marinette found herself as Ladybug, pacing the roof of the regular patrol meeting spot. Chat Noir would meet her soon.

Hawkmoth wasn't gone yet, but she was ready to make a very bold decision. Not an identity reveal, certainly not (she was always one to stick to the rules as tightly as she could), but perhaps a hint.

It would be an obvious hint if Chat Noir knew Chloe as well as she knew him too, but that was sort of the goal.

Right on time, she heard his feet hitting the roof behind her. She turned around and smiled at him, nervousness in her throat.

He smiled back, but as he walked closer his eyebrows raised, clearly noting her nervousness. “What's up LB?” he asked, twirling his staff gracefully in his hand.

“Oh nothing,” she kicked a non-existent pebble sheepishly, “I just wanted to… ask you for some final advice,”

“Final advice you say?” he asked, smiling foolishly in that way she knew so well. He wiggled his eyebrows, causing her to laugh even as she felt nervous. “Does this, by chance, have to do with that mystery girl who you've been vaugeing about for a while now?”

“Yes,” she blushed. “I thought it wouldn't be quite right if you didn't get to hear the end of the story, since you were basically there with me the whole way through,”

He grinned. “I've been told I'm good at advice,”

She laughed, “Yeah- by me,”

Thinking over her word choice, Ladybug smiled at him. She wasn't having doubts, but she wanted to get one last good look at him before he had a proper hint that might unravel her identity to him. They were good friends, she trusted him.

“So,” she said, as casually as she could (spinning her yo-yo in the precise way he had been with his staff earlier. A homage, if you will). “I wanted to ask what you thought of me asking her out- romantically, this time,”

(She had, of course, told him about the trips she had gone on as ‘just friends’, even though she, Chloe, and Chat Noir all knew the trips were clearly not just platonic. No one had confronted it yet, that was all.)

A grin lit his face, cheeky as ever. “Oh?”

“Yes, ‘oh’,” she teased, “What do you think? Should it be a dinner date or something a little more casual,”

“Video games are always a good bet,” he offered.

She laughed, “Yes- but we already play video games together,”

He laughed too. Obviously he knew that, she had told him before. “Well,” he sighed, smiling fondly at her. “If you're asking for my ‘blessing’- because that's what it sounds like, I obviously say yes!”

She grinned from ear to ear. “You do?”

“Duh!” he laughed, waving his hand in a mock-dismissive manner. “I'll be waiting for the marriage invitation, ta ta!” And with one last wave he vaulted off the building and away on patrol.



Marinette met up with Chloe on a Friday afternoon, dragging her alone to a little fabric store on the corner of a street intersection. Marinette often shopped here. It was important to her. Chloe was important to her. It made sense that a first proper date would be held in such a place, even if she hadn't invited Chloe along on a date explicitly.

They spent a while looking at fabric and chatting, pretending like Marinette had let go of Chloe's hand even once since they had met up at the door of the shop.

Finally, Chloe asked it.

“Is this a date, Dupain-Cheng?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and cracking a smile that Marinette was very glad to see.

Somehow, Marinette didn't stutter, didn't blush. She only smiled back, somehow smooth even as her heart pounded in her chest like she had been running. “If you want it to be,” Marinette whispered.

Chloe stared at her for a long moment, trying to see if she was really serious. Then, when it was decided that she was serious enough, Chloe broke out into a huge grin. “I do. I do want it to be a date,”

“That's good,” Marinette smiled, “Because I might have cried if you said no,”

Chloe squeezed her hand tightly, reached out and took hold of her other one. She maintained eye contact with Marinette as she lifted up her hand and gently kissed the back of it. It didn't matter that the move was outdated, it was romantic. Marinette broke into a grin.

“Can I kiss you?” Chloe asked, “If this is a date?”

“Who knows,” Marinette teased, tilting her head like she was considering it. “Maybe I'll play hard to get,”

“You couldn't play hard enough to get that I'd give up on you,” Chloe smiled.

It was as truthful as it was profound, and Marinette found herself leaning in for the kiss.

Thank you all so much for reading. <3 I loved writing this fic sm, I hope you enjoyed it too!

Okay, that's the whole thing!

Feel free to tell me what you thought in the forum space below. Let's hope I do this again some other time. <3