Chapter Text
This. Could. Not. Be. Happening.
It just couldn’t.
Because if it was, it meant that not only was Ladybug—Ladybug—having the biggest breakdown Chloe had ever seen in her life (and that was saying a lot) right in front of her, but also that Ladybug was Dupain-Cheng.
Which actually made a lot of sense, but still.
There was a little red thing floating by Dupain-Cheng’s—Ladybug’s—head, desperately trying to console her—yep, that was a kwami.
This . . . was actually happening.
Chloe didn’t know what to do. Chat Noir had scampered off as soon as the battle with the akuma had been won, his timer dangerously low, and the only reason that Ladybug had been anywhere near Chloe as her own timer had counted down was because she needed to get the Bee Miraculous back. Chloe didn’t know how to comfort people—she just didn’t. Couldn’t do it and barely understood how it worked in the first place, as the majority of the “comforting” she’d had aimed at her was just her Daddy buying her lots and lots of clothes and shoes and anything else she asked for. So Chloe just stood there, staring at Dupain-Cheng as she bawled her eyes out, miraculous in her hand and Pollen floating by her head.
The worst thing was that, somehow, Chloe had caused this—caused Ladybug to break down. And she didn’t even understand how! She hadn’t been rude or uppity, just asked almost absentmindedly why Ladybug had taken almost forty-five minutes to show up to help with the akuma—then the next thing she knew Ladybug had crumpled, practically collapsing on Chloe’s bedroom floor and bursting into tears that hadn’t slowed since, even when her timer had run out and she’d destransformed.
Which had led to where they were now.
It took another five minutes of staring before Chloe’s brain finally rebooted itself. She muttered a curse—several curses, actually, including words that her Daddy would be scandalized to hear from her—and tried to figure out what to do next. Pollen didn’t seem to have any more idea than she did, staring at the sobbing heroine helplessly.
Finally, Dupain-Cheng’s kwami let out a distressed noise before zipping to Chloe, hovering right in front of her face. Chloe jerked back with a start, but the ladybug kwami didn’t seem to notice.
“Hug her,” the kwami demanded.
It took Chloe’s brain a second to process that. “What?”
“Hug. Her.”
“You really want me to—”
“Well she needs someone, and right now you’re all we’ve got!” the kwami snapped.
Chloe gaped for a moment before glancing at Dupain-Cheng. At Ladybug. She’d been idolising Dupain-Cheng this entire time. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.
. . . Dupain-Cheng was her idol.
“Right,” Chloe breathed. Because hugging her was so simple. “Uh, what—”
“Sit down next to her, wrap your arms around her, and hold her against you,” the kwami instructed. “Let her cry it out.”
Hesitantly—Chloe was not about to get in an argument with a tiny, powerful god—Chloe did as she said. She quickly tucked her miraculous back into her hair, then stepped close to Dupain-Cheng, lowered herself to the ground, then scooted as close as she could get without actually touching the girl. She took a moment to try to figure out how to wrap her arms around her, then carefully pulled Dupain-Cheng into her lap.
Dupain-Cheng collapsed against her, the side of her face pressing into Chloe’s shoulder as she curled into herself. Her kwami was back by her head, dutifully brushing strands of hair out of her face as she cried.
Chloe briefly wrinkled her nose when she felt Dupain-Cheng’s tears soaking through her shirt, but realized that that probably wasn’t her biggest concern at the moment. Surprisingly enough, neither was how incredibly awkward she felt holding her enemy/teammate/idol in her arms. No, the biggest concern was the fact that something—and it wasn’t Chloe, despite her question having triggered the breakdown—was impacting Ladybug enough that she had not only broken down in front of but also revealed her identity to her longtime bully.
Oh, gosh, Chloe had been bullying Ladybug. Admittedly, she hadn't actually done so for a while, but still.
She wanted to be sick.
She quickly pushed the feeling aside because it was not helpful, and focused on determining what was behind all of this.
Or rather, who, because after three seconds of thinking the answer was fairly obvious: the one and only Lila Rossi.
With that, the picture started clicking together all too clearly—Dupain-Cheng was not only handling the responsibilities of being a student, but also a part-time job as a fashion designer (because Chloe was smart enough to pick up on the fact that Dupain-Cheng was MDC—it was obvious, really) as well as her superhero duties, all with exactly zero support because Liar Rossi had destroyed her social life.
The last part, Chloe realized, had been very intentional on Lila’s part. She hadn’t seen it at the time, as she hadn’t really cared enough to pay attention, but in hindsight Chloe could see just how methodically Lila had torn Marinette’s life apart.
Chloe swore under her breath. No wonder Dupain-Cheng had looked like such a wreck these last few months—and no wonder she’d been late to the fight.
And knowing Dupain-Cheng as she did—knowing how people ticked was kind of Chloe’s thing—Dupain-Cheng’s own insecurities and natural anxieties had made it all even harder, the pressure mounting until Chloe’s question had been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Chloe swore again, and then a few more times just for good measure.
Honestly, how had this happened??? Someone had to have been looking out for the girl.
Except each and every one of Dupain-Cheng’s friends had been turned against her, with the exception of Adrien, who was an oblivious sunshine child and probably hadn’t recognized the severity of what was going on. If the rumor mill was right, even Dupain-Cheng’s parents had lost their trust in her, and outside of her now ex-friends and her parents, all Dupain-Cheng had was . . . Chat Noir. And it was no little secret that Ladybug was insistent on them sharing nothing of their personal lives with each other.
Which meant that she had no one. Well, not counting her kwami.
And, when Chloe thought about it, explained why she’d let Chloe start being Queen Bee again. Ladybug and Chat Noir had needed assistance on the battlefield, but Rena Rouge and Carapace were obviously Césaire and Lahiffe—Dupain-Cheng’s most avid haters, at this point. Well, Alya was. Nino was a little more uncertain in that area, seeming to go along with his girlfriend more than anything else. And knowing Dupain-Cheng, by the point she’d been able to admit that she and Chat Noir needed help she’d probably lost all confidence in herself to choose new holders, and assuming that the rest of the temporary holders were also in their class, she couldn’t reuse those either.
Which left Chloe.
There was a slight bitterness in Chloe’s mouth at the thought of being Ladybug’s last resort, but she swallowed it back. She may have been Ladybug’s last choice, but while she hated to admit it, she’d pretty much earned such disregard—and on the brighter side, in the dozen or so fights she’d assisted in since becoming Queen Bee again, she’d earned back the heroes’ trust. They’d even let her take the lead in one of the battles!
And now she was holding a sobbing, detransformed Ladybug in her arms.
Actually, not sobbing, as Dupain-Cheng had apparently lost consciousness while Chloe was thinking.
Dupain-Cheng’s kwami made a distressed noise, rising a few inches higher in the air above her holder.
“What is it?” Chloe asked.
“She’s crashing,” the kwami answered, her voice wavering.
Pollen gasped. “Are you sure?” she asked, darting down to press against Dupain-Cheng’s forehead.
Chloe felt a small stab of betrayal, but she pushed it away. “Crashing? What does that mean?” It definitely didn’t sound good.
Pollen floated back up, Dupain-Cheng’s kwami taking the spot she’d been in. She looked worried—really worried. “Unless a miraculous is damaged, they’re normally safe to use—”
“Normally?”
“In all instances except rare ones like this, my Queen.” Pollen was wringing her little paws(?) anxiously. “If a wielder of a miraculous pushes themself too far, too hard, too fast while not using a miraculous, then the resulting exhaustion compromises the wielder’s ability to channel the miraculous’ power, and the overspill of power gradually overloads their body until they crash.”
“And you let this happen?” Chloe asked Dupain-Cheng’s kwami sharply.
“No!” she responded sharply. “I would never—Marinette’s the strongest holder I’ve ever had, and even with everything she’s going through, I never saw any of the signs of overspill!” There were tears in the kwami’s oversized eyes as her arms flailed about helplessly.
Chloe swore. “So now what?” A thought occurred to her, and she straightened (something that was hard to do with an unconscious Dupain-Cheng in her lap) in alarm. “She’s not going to die, is she?!”
Dupain-Cheng’s kwami squeaked at that, her mouth opening and closing soundlessly as fat tears started rolling down her face. Chloe winced internally—she’d made a kwami cry. Yet another mistake to add to her ledger.
Kwamis couldn’t get akumatized, right?
Pollen shook her head, floating to hold the other kwami. “It’s not bad enough for that, and all things considering, the Ladybug Miraculous is the best miraculous to get overspill from if you can’t avoid it. It’s the power of creation, which means that she’ll heal just fine—it’ll just take a while.”
Well, that was something, at least. “How long is a while?”
The kwamis glanced at each other, Dupain-Cheng’s furiously wiping tears off her face.
“Um,” Dupain-Cheng’s kwami offered, her voice thick with tears, “a few weeks?”
Chloe swore loud enough that both kwamis jumped. “A few weeks? Paris can’t go without Ladybug for a few weeks!” That would be a disaster—without Ladybug to purify the akumas and amoks, Hawkmoth and Mayura would win.
The kwamis glanced at each other again, seemingly having a silent conversation. Finally, Pollen turned back to Chloe. “Then we’ll need to find someone else to be a temporary Ladybug.”
Chloe’s brain stuttered to a halt. Find someone else? To be Ladybug?
Even if Chloe had never particularly liked Dupain-Cheng, she couldn’t imagine anyone else behind the mask.
“We’ll worry about that later,” Dupain-Cheng’s kwami said, and Chloe could tell that she didn’t like the idea either. “Right now we need to get Marinette home.”
Right. “I suppose that I’m keeping my miraculous for now?” Chloe asked. The question should’ve made her feel ecstatic, but all she felt was equally stressed and hollow.
She blamed Dupain-Cheng. Sort of.
Not really. How could she?
“Yeah,” Dupain-Cheng’s kwami said.
“Right. Okay.” Chloe looked down at the girl in her arms. Dupain-Cheng looked like a mess—her usual blazer and leggings were gone, replaced by a hoodie and pajama pants, and her hair was a tangled disaster pulled back into a half-fallen out low ponytail. Her eyes were swollen from crying and tear tracks stained her face, though her makeup hadn’t run everywhere as she wasn’t actually wearing makeup.
“It’s Sunday,” Dupain-Cheng’s kwami explained quietly. “She locks herself in her room working all day, so she doesn’t actually need to try to look like she’s fine.”
Something in Chloe’s heart twisted, and she swallowed dryly. “Pollen, buzz on.”
Chloe waited until the transformation magic had finished washing over her to adjust her hold on Dupain-Cheng. As soon as she had her securely in a princess carry she stood, thankful for the extra strength her miraculous gave her.
Chloe made her way onto her balcony, then considered the buildings around her. Carrying Dupain-Cheng the way she was, she wasn’t going to be able to use her top. Thankfully, the roof of the nearest building was only about twenty feet down; as long as she was careful, they should be fine.
Dupain-Cheng’s kwami—Chloe should really ask what her name was—slipped into Dupain-Cheng’s hoodie, huddling by her neck.
Here goes nothing, Chloe thought, and then with a few running steps she was leaping to the next building.