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"Ugh, Dupain-Cheng, do you seriously need to infect my personal bubble with your gross baker germs."
"Are you serious!? If you actually have any intention of trying to actually make this believable, you need to put on a decent act of not acting like," she gestures in her direction, "you, for once. This is gonna sound crazy coming from me probably, but if we really want to fool Lila, we're going to need to up our game Chloe!"
"Psh well I don't know what you’re expecting ME to do about Dupain-Cheng it’s not like this was my idea anyway hmph."
"It literally was, Chloe!"
Chloe turns pink and stammers, "W-w-well regardless! How do you suppose we put on a convincing act anyway, Dupain-Cheng?"
Marinette stutters for a moment before replying, "Well, we could always try and act like how we did over Adrien…"
"What’s that supposed to mean??"
"Exactly what I said Chloe! If we want to sell the power couple act, we're going to need to act like we actually care!" retorts Marinette. "So come on already! If we can’t even hold hands, how are we going to show off our solid Teflon act against her? We need to act like we actually mean it. We both have the reputations and connections to be able to stonewall her, so all we need to do is actually get our own island of isolation set up and act believably and then she'll finally see about messing with us", Marinette growls.
"And hopefully that harlot will eventually stop running her hands all over MY Adrikins", pouts Chloe.
"Yes, Chloe, that too", sighs Marinette. "Alright let’s take it from the top again, Chloe, and no more trying to act like we did before what kind of person insults their girlfriend like that anyway!"
Chloe blushes, "Well, I'll be! Some of us have standards Dupain-Cheng."
"YOU'RE LITERALLY THE ONE WHO CAME UP WITH THE IDEA!" screeches Marinette. "Stop screwing with me and get lovey-dovey with me or get out of the freaking way!"
"FINE", Chloe sticks her hand out and sniffs turning away.
Marinette grabs her hand, and unbeknownst to her Chloe starts to turn red.
Marinette sighs, "Alright Chloe, I'm glad we can at least get this far, now it’s important that we don’t trade our self-confidence for solely acting disgustingly lovey-dovey, we need to still be ourselves but combine our power.
Chloe replies, "Yeah yeah yeah, I get the idea Dupain-Cheng", Chloe tries to calm her blushing and swiftly hooks her arm with Marinette’s, and starts confidently walking towards the school with Marinette,
Marinette is surprised at her confidence, but figures that at least Chloe is finally getting over herself. Chloe maintains the touch as they walk into the building but then decides to head to her locker as Marinette goes to catch up with Alya and Nino.
Chloe sits down at her seat and eventually Sabrina joins her at the table as people start gathering in the classroom. The classroom scene looks as it typically does.
"I can't believe I'm actually going through with this Tikki", Marinette whispers into her locker as she gets her books and bag ready.
"I'm surprised you’re going through with it too Marinette. But it just goes to show that people really can change", Tikki cheerfully replies.
"Uh-huh, yeah, I doubt it. Chloe is just trying to make a truce now since Lila is being a bigger jerk than her, and she refuses to not have her place at the top", Marinette snarks back.
"It's not very nice to not give her the benefit of the doubt, Marinette", chides Tikki, "You never know, maybe she really is turning herself around this time after seeing what it’s like being the victim of someone else."
"Be that as it may— ", Marinette gets ready to retort, however just as she begins, she notices that class begins soon and closes everything as she begins to race to class. Tikki smiles as she flies back into Marinette's purse to observe the rest of the day.
Just as the bell rings Marinette races through the door just before Ms. Bustier closes it, remarking, "Well, I'm glad to see you're not late today, Marinette, but let’s try to keep our energy levels at a safe range inside the school."
Marinette walks forward without responding. She notices that Lila is sitting next to Alya right now as she waves at Alya. Lila opens her mouth and begins to say, "Oh Marinette, I'm so sorry but my tinnitus— "
Marinette dutifully ignores whatever garbage Lila is trying to pass off as the truth and walks up to Chloe and begins to La Bise with her to the shock of the rest of the class. She ends it with a peck on her nose, causing Chloe to blush, and the rest of the class to gasp as from their viewpoint it looks like Marinette just pecked Chloe on the lips. Alya makes to stand up and start asking questions but a glance from Ms. Bustier silences her back down. Chloe then looks over at Sabrina and snaps, "Well? What are you still doing in Dupain-Cheng's seat? Get on with it!"
Sabrina hurriedly rushes out of the desk, "Sorry Chloe!"
Marinette shoots an apologetic glance and grateful smile at Sabrina, who gives back a small smile of comradery with Marinette over Chloe's attitude. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Lila frowning in frustration slightly.
Ms. Bustier ignores the posturing the class is engaging in and begins teaching the lesson. As class continues Chloe visibly relaxes into leaning back against Marinette's shoulder as she ignores class to be on her phone. Marinette likewise doesn't acknowledge it but rests her left hand on the seat next to Chloe and Chloe eventually intertwines their fingers. They both ignore the class's visible interest in their interactions. Alya energetically messages Marinette but Marinette set her phone on silent and is ignoring it during class.
Chloe whispers to Marinette, "whisper whisper whisper".
Marinette giggles and responds, "whisper whisper whisper whisper", making Chloe snort quietly but still gathers the attention of the class, causing Ms. Bustier to comment, "Chloe, Marinette, while I am glad to see you both getting along for once, please pay attention and keep the distractions to a minimum."
Chloe ignores Ms. Bustier, while Marinette smiles and replies, "Yes Ms. Bustier", she then tightens her grip on Chloe’s hand and nudges her making Chloe also reply, "Yes Ms. Bustier…"
Ms. Bustier smiles at the couple and turns back to teaching, meanwhile the class gapes at Chloe deferring so easily.
As class ends and everyone filters out to the vestibule, Alya rushes from the desk to catch up with Marinette, leaving Lila silently fuming at the desk behind them. As Nino, Marinette, and Alya exit the room talking Lila quickly clings onto Adrien and begins trying to talk about his work with him. Adrien grimaces and bears with it as he leaves the room as well. Chloe goes to stand by the exit and chats with Sabrina as she waits for Marinette.
"Girl, what was that!" Alya exclaims.
"What was what?" Marinette pretends to not know.
"Girl, you know what I'm talking about!"
"Yeah 'Nette, you have to admit that that was a bit weird right?"
"I really don't think I do guys."
"Sitting with Chloe, talking with Chloe, kissing Chloe!"
"Oh that."
"Oh that."
"I don’t know what you want me to say about it Als" smirks Marinette, glad that they're act is convincing enough.
"What do you mean you don't know what I want you to say about it!?" Alya yells.
The group is interrupted by Lila and Adrien walking up to them, Lila looks at Marinette and opens her mouth with a devious look in her eyes—
—and is promptly pushed violently away from them as Chloe walks up to the group and stiff-arms her away as she hugs Adrien, "Adrikins~, was that hussy bothering you?"
Adrien grimaces, "I was fine Chloe, but thank you for your concern."
"Of course, Adrikins! Now, Marinette!"
"Yes Chlo?"
(Alya and Nino and Adrien share a look mouthing Chlo?)
"Come on, you promised that we'd go see that movie after school today."
"Of course, Chlo, you know I wouldn't forget about it," assures Marinette as she rests a hand on Chloe's shoulder.
Marinette then lets her hand fall down and grasp Chloe’s hand. As the couple walks away Marinette turns around and waves goodbye to Nino, Alya, and Adrien. Chloe also looks back but just to smirk at Lila as she silently fumes furiously off to the side, enraged over how unimportant everyone is acting like she is.
Once the two are a fair distance away they let go of each other and start laughing.
"Did you see how angry Lila was when we left? Ridiculous! Utterly Ridiculous! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"I know right! And how shocked and surprised everyone in class was acting too! We really fooled them all" rejoices Marinette.
Chloe sobers slightly at the reminder of the false nature of the events. "Well at least now you know you never should have doubted my acting prowess, Dupain-Cheng."
"Yes Chlo, I know I know, but still!" crows Marinette, "I knew she would be upset a little at how much I ignored her, but I never imagined it would have gone this well!"
Marinette nudges Chloe as she cheers over their success and unconsciously links arms with Chloe as they continue walking.
"You really did do a great job at acting though Chloe", praises Marinette, "the fake whispering was a nice, fun touch too."
Chloe blushes slightly as she interlocks their fingers after Marinette locks arms with her, "Well of course I did a great job, obviously I have the gift for acting."
Marinette raises an eyebrow at Chloe holding hands with her but doesn't think on it much as she continues, "I guess I should probably head back to the bakery now and let you get back to your day Chloe, thank you again for working together with me to get back at Lila, I really appreciate it."
"Of course, Dupain-Cheng, I couldn’t stand her waltzing in and acting like she owns the place when clearly I am the one who owns the place, literally, that is, because Daddy is the mayor.
Marinette playfully shakes her head, "Sure Chlo, Sure."
As Marinette makes to turn around and leave, however, Chloe suddenly tightens her grip on her hand. Marinette turns to look back at her, "What’s up, Chloe?"
"Well, I may have just made it up for us to be able to make a quick getaway, but…", she trails off, suddenly shy.
Marinette waits for Chloe to explain herself, watching as Chloe starts to blush as she uses her free hand to pick at her shirt. Chloe squeezes Marinette's hand once more to gain courage and turns around to face Marinette and suddenly haughty, "There was a movie I saw that seemed interesting and I haven't been able to get Sabrina to buy me a ticket for it yet…"
Marinette stares at her for a moment before laughing. "If you really did want to hang out and see a movie Chloe, you could just say so."
Chloe flushes darker and then insists, "All that I'm saying is we could use the practice to make sure our couple act remains foolproof", she pouts, "Plus, going around in public and getting more exposure, especially since everyone knows who I am, obviously, would make our fake relationship more believable and have more proof."
"Sure Chloe, sure", Marinette acquiesces, and then releases Chloe's hand to take a moment to text her parents. Then Marinette, without thinking, re-grabs Chloe's hand as she walks forward with her and begins swinging their arms as she asks, "Alright, what did you want to go watch?"
Chloe sputters as she’s dragged along by Marinette, but she still gives a small smile behind Marinette's back. She's genuinely happy to be getting back on the right foot with Marinette, hopefully their friendship can strengthen to the point where eventually, they don't need to be faking…