Chapter Text
Marinette is not super enthusiastic about going back to school these days. Even after most of the Lila stuff has blown over and most people just ignore her now, the Akumas keep coming. For some reason, more recently, Chat Noir has been busy during these attacks, namely all summer long he had been busy. Not answering his phone, screening texts and showing up just as she was finishing the battle were happening more often than not. It was really running the young bug ragged.
And hey, Marinette knows how it feels to be busy ok? She is the queen of busy. But this is like: the fate of Paris we are talking about, it should usually take precedence. Maybe Marinette is overreacting but right now all she can really think about the fact that she only a solid forty-five minutes of sleep and how none of her summer work is done.
It’s not easy to climb all of those stairs up to the back of the class, her feet feel like they are made of metal and she can feel Lila’s glare on her back like a lazer. When she gets up to her desk, her bag hits the floor and her head hits the surface at basically the same time, making basically the same sound. Mari is ready to spend the day alone, but someone decides to break that bubble. Someone sits down to the right of her, only making the chair scrape against the floor minimally and setting something down in front of her.
“Head up lazy, time to seize the day.” Marinette’s gut drops to her feet. She sits up faster than she should considering how little sleep she had gotten the night prior, so after she blinks away the black spots in her eyes, Marinette saw the one person she wanted to see the least sitting right next to her. Okay, maybe the second least. Third after Hawkmoth.
Chloe isn’t looking at Marinette, just sipping her over-priced latte and blowing on the steam. Things just get more confusing when Marinette looks at what Chloe set in front of her.
“Did you bring me coffee?” Marinette looks fascinated but Chloe refuses to look at her.
“Drink it and shut up.”
“This sooo makes me think you poisoned it.” Marinette says, raising it to her lips anyway. There may as well be hearts in her eyes as she tastes it. “Wow Chloe. This is probably the best thing I have ever had.”
“Don’t be dramatic,” Chloe is looking away.
“You are my golden guardian angel.” Marinette strikes at a moment where they both have their drinks on the table, grabbing Chloe’s hands to hold in her own. “Seriously, do you have a brain tumor?”
“What?” Chloe looks taken aback but amused at the same time.
“When people have brain tumors sometimes they have intense personality changes.” Chloe does a little scoffing laugh but lets Mari finish. “I’m worried about you Queenie.”
All Marinette can see of Chloe is her profile as she stared forward, pulling her hands back into her chest. Soon after her hands are returned, her entire body presentation changes. Where it is usually up proudly towards the sky, her chin is pointed down towards the desk. Her lips are slightly parted, breaths coming short and fast, along with the tight closure of her eyes.
“Look, just listen to me, I do not want to say this again.” Chloe’s eyes remained closed. “I want to be a different person. I don’t want to be the person you all are going to talk about for the next ten years and the only thing you have to say about me is stories about how I’ve stolen your metaphorical lunch money. I’ve been feeling guilty for months now but this summer,” She trails off to shake her head. “Look, it’s not about me. You are the most important person I need to apologize to. I have treated you like a dog and all because I am jealous of you.”
“You are jealous of me?” Marinette shakes the sleep out of her eyes, but Chloe’s face still looks the same. “I don’t understand, how?”
Chloe grumbled under her breath before answering the question. “You are so loved. You are able to give love as well, so easily. I tried when I was younger, I really did, but I fell into a headspace where I thought that I should live up to the expectations people tacked onto me. If people think I’m a frigid bitch, why try and be anything else at all?”
“Chlo-,” but she keeps speaking.
“I know this isn’t true now, but I realized it way too late and now here I am having to grovel.”
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“I mean, what else do you want me to say?” Marinette could feel her eye bags sinking further into her face. “You hurt a lot of people Chloe. I am feeling hope because you apologized, because I know you wouldn’t have done it if you didn’t mean it, but what now? You are sorry, that’s great. I’m proud of you, even. Chloe, being sorry is only the first step, you need to be able to show me and everyone else you’ve hurt that you regret who you were and you want to be different.”
“You are right.” Chloe hung her head before starting to gather her things. “I’m sorry to bother you, this was a bad ide-”
“Don’t go anywhere,” Marinette sighs. “How are you supposed to learn how to be good without someone to teach you?”
Swear to God, Marinette saw tears in her childhood bully’s eyes. Weirdest Tuesday ever.
Chloe said nothing else for the rest of class but every time Marinette took a glance to her right there was a certain sparkle in her eye, one to rival her coco-mocho-coco lip gloss.
-
Frances Dupont was a very small and select private school in Paris. The two girls have been in class with the same people, give or take a few, for their entire lives. They are not in primary school anymore in fact, they are in their second-to-last year of college. This is the time in their lives where they were supposed to be frantically planning their futures, but Marinette feels like she is stuck in molasses. She should be applying to internships, to art schools, and she should be working on her portfolio, but the only thing Mari has the energy to devote is to her job as Ladybug.
Marinette is proud to be the saveur of Paris and beyond, as well, she has so much fun swinging along Paris on the line of her yo-yo, but she isn’t fourteen any longer. Where the miraculous suits protect the user from a lot of damage, three years is a lot of time to be taking a beating. Three years is enough time for the protection magic to erode. While she still had master Fo to guide her, he taught her that magic was like stone. It is strong and long lasting, but like a rock on the bed of a river, repeated abuse from outside forces will make the substance waste away. Marinette is tired, body and mind so no, she hasn’t even given life after Ladybug a thought. She isn’t even sure it’s possible.
The end of the school day couldn’t come any sooner for Marinette, the immeasurable feeling of relief as she walks down the stairs and onto the street but it is dashed when someone? Chloe. When Chloe links arms with her and turns Mari in the opposite direction of her house.
“Please Chloe, can we do this tomorrow? I really need to take a nap.” Marinette is really at her mercy, lacking the brain function to pull away.
“You look awful,” Mari tries to squawk in protest but Chloe keeps talking. “You are seeing my personal masseuse right now, I won't take no for an answer. You walk like an old woman because you overwork yourself. Abs are nice but you shouldn’t sacrifice your good posture.” Chloe’s waving her finger around like she’s scolding a child and it takes everything in Marinette not to giggle, until the words she said really sink in.
Marinette is speechless until, “Are you really sure you are feeling okay?”
“Dupain-Chang, I do not have a brain tumor you moron!” The outburst is loud enough to turn other heads leaving the school, and Chloe turns a bit pink. “Look, just let's go,” But Chloe is insecure so she stops tugging Marinette along and gives the interaction a beat.
Marinette keeps walking and she gives Chloe a little tug of her own. “You got cold feet Queenie? Shame, because this hang-sesh was going to make my entire week.” Marinette looks at her with a lilting smile and sees the anxiety melt out of Chloe’s eyes.
“Oh of course it is, I’m just that amazing!”
Marinette knows she’s just joking, and she only waits a few seconds before she falls into a deep belly laugh. Marinette can’t think of the last time someone was laughing because of Chloe and not at her. And you know what? That is really, very sad. Marinette thinks that, while Chloe has certainly done wrong, it is interesting to think about what Chloe would have been like if she had someone to rely on. She’s determined to find out.
Marinette has no way to know that there is a blonde young man watching their entire interaction from the steps of the school. Nor would she see the way he is whispering frantically to something in his shirt pocket.
–
Life has been better for Marinette lately. Chloe and her have a system down pat on how they spend their days, really it has been honed down to a science. Okay, that may be a bit dramatic, but they have a pretty good schedule. Chloe brings the coffee and Mari brings croissant sandwiches or fresh pastries from the bakery. Chloe knows all the spots that are the best in the city to get lunch so the two of them go out most days and have a delicious meal together. After school, they come back to the bakery and study for a few hours, before partaking in the Dupain-Chang family dinner together. Her parents are weary at first, but once they get to know Chloe a little better, they fall in love with her all the same. Chloe and Sabine even love the same Latino soaps; they discuss them loudly together at the dinner table, much to the other’s dismay. Chloe also starts camping out on Marinette’s chase, leaving her cosmetics in Marinette’s bathroom and her obnoxious blonde hairs in the shower drain. Chloe even starts helping out with the bakery, gets closer to Mari’s dad that way and very soon becomes the official-unofficial cake decorator for the whole place.
It’s so weird to say, but it’s like Chloe rounds out their little family. Her and Marinette still have fights, but they are usually petty squabbles about clothes or who gets the first Sunday morning croissant. She’s like a sister, dare Marinette say it. One night, the four of them are decorating christmas cookies when Mari and her mother take a break. They do not want to get in the middle of what always happens between the other two, a well-meaning but not lighthearted competition.
Her mother smiles at the two of them and then speaks lowly to Marinette. “I am so happy that you were able to bring her back into our home. Your father and I missed her and the things you told us about her in the beginning of college were concerning but you two seem to be getting along again.”
“Again?” Marinette looks at her mother confused. ”What are you talking about?”
“You two went to a private nursery together. When you were small you two were inseparable, best friends, you went around telling people you were sisters.” Sabine looks like she may start to cry. “Her parents are not amazing but her mother saw how well you two got along and asked us to have her live with us so we could care for her.”
“What?”
“Keep your voice down!” Her mother has this interesting talent where she can yell without raising her voice at all. “You know that family. The father, off being some kind of political diplomat and the mother, working on the line that was going to be ‘her big break’. She just did not have time for a child that was ‘incessantly rambunctious’ as she called it.” Marinette’s mother always tries to be impartial as she can be in situations like this one; she knows this from experience. Although, her mother could not keep the disdain out of her voice. “She lived with us full time from when she was two to when she was six, I believe.”
“Four years? Now Marinette feels like she wants to cry; Sabine has beaten her to the punch.
“Four years. You two lived like sisters and we loved you both so much.” Her mother has to wipe her eyes to continue. “Then her mother left for America and her father got paranoid. He made her move home, got a staff, gave her anything she wanted just so she wouldn’t leave him. He spoiled her, stunted her growth, made her forget what real love felt like.”
Chloe and Tom were devolving into all out war. It started when Chloe was obviously going to win, Tom noticed. Without thinking, took his mostly full piping bag and fast as lightning, drew a smile on Chloe’s cheek. She stood stone still for ten seconds, until she turned to Tom with an unhinged smile. The poor man actually turned white.
“Chloe is my sister,” Marinette is speaking absently, having honestly forgotten her mother is standing next to her. “We could have been faux twins.” That's true, Chloe is only about a week older than Marinette.
“We really wanted her to be in our family, but you? You took the news of your sister going home the hardest.” Marinette helps try and wipe her mother’s tears away. “You were so confused, you thought she was home with us, you thought we sent her away. We just didn’t know how to explain to you that we were as broken up by her leaving as you.”
A little bit of understanding crosses over Mari’s features. “My nightmares, the ones that kept me up as a child! I remember now, they were all about me not being able to trust you and Dad. So, that must have been why.”
Sabine chokes off with a sob, and Marinette shepards her into another room. “Forgive me Xiǎo gōng zhǔ. We tried everything, even tried to petition the courts for custody, but they wouldn’t budge. They wouldn’t risk their jobs taking the mayor’s daughter away from him.”
“Mother, Má má, there is nothing to forgive,” And Marinette believes it too. Her mother brings her into the most crushing hug she ever has but she can’t help but laugh at the weight of it all. “Má má, I have a big sister. She’s finally come home,” Sabine just cries more.
They spend their time like that for a while, in the hall, laughing and crying in each other's arms. They have done this a few times before, when life had been hard but they had gotten over it together. They talk and profess their love and are reminded by the other just how similar they are. Marinette has known it about herself, that in her teen years she was so insistent on being her own person. It’s not a bad thing, only notable at all because of how much she didn’t mind being close to her mother in personality. She knew they were always going to try and put others first, knew the stubbornness and determination of will. The most amazing part of it all is that, as far as Marinette knows, her and her mother have had drastically different experiences in their formative years. Like, as far as she knows her mother was never, in the small Chinese village she grew up in, tasked with a magical talisman she could use to save the world. Although, they both had the same strength and determination to do good in the world. If there was ever someone Marinette wanted to emulate, it was her mother.
“Darlings, are you okay?” Tom is standing in the doorway to the hall with Chloe peeking from behind him, both of them looking hesitant.
“It was all in good fun, really!” Chloe blurts it like she had not planned to speak at all. “I just get carried away, I promise I did not want to make you two upset.” She looks like she’s going to cry now.
The mother and daughter pair look at each other for a moment before bursting out in laughter. Sabine walks past her husband to envelope Chloe in a sated and long overdue hug. The blonde melts into her arms like butter, like she belongs there. (Unbeknownst to her, she actually does.) At the same time, Mari throws herself at her father because, fuck, what else is she supposed to do? They both cry and they both laugh and the other two just resign themself to the fates of emotions that do not belong to them.
“Xiǎo gōng zhǔ, my little girls, my loves, you two are perfect.” Sabine babbles over her tears. “You just reminded me of something I need to tell you.” Sabine ushers all of them up the stairs to the sitting room, finally ready to say the words to the daughter she’s been craving for over ten years.
Chloe ends up crying like a baby and clinging to her sister. Marinette can’t find it in herself to mind.
–
The public all but forgets about Chat Noir. Ladybug is alone in the battle field all of the time now, making due where she can and enlisting the occasional sidekick when expressly necessary.
One night, late in December, Marinette received a letter with no return address. Inside there were only two items; a little note scribbled on a post-it and a sickeningly familiar black ring. The ring spoke for itself and all the note said was “I know that she trusts you, please find a way to get it to her,” she is proud that she only breaks down when she notices he signed the note with a little drawing of a paw print. Now that he’s gone, of course she misses him. More than she expected and more than she really should. She knows she’s in love with him, but she wasn’t sure until after he disappeared. Even still, Marinette doesn’t start putting all the pieces together until Chloe says something.
“Adrien has officially been pulled from school as of two days ago and yesterday, he texted me something concerning before my messages stopped going through.” Chloe whisper-shouts as she delivers their coffees one morning. She then wastes no time in pushing her phone into Marinette’s hands and forcing her to read.
Adrikins: hey, look
Adrikins: if they ask you about me in school, just say I transferred to an american school for modeling jobs
Adrikins: you all are not going to hear from me so much any more
Queenie: ?? adri? Baby?
Queenie: what’s going on?
Adrikins: i love you, chlo
Adrikins: you were the best big sister
Queenie: i love you
Queenie: but tell me what’s wrong i can help
Queenie: ill come get you wherever you are
Queenie: we can figure out whatever it is together
Queenie: adri? (not delivered)
Queenie: what the fuck (not delivered)
Marinette is speechless and Chloe has angry tears dotting her eyes. She tries to think of anything but that little black ring and the connection her tratorus brain wants to make. It makes sense to Marinette that Chloe would be an angry cryer.
“Something is clearly wrong here and you can’t tell me for one second that Gabriel isn’t involved.” Chloe spills coffee on her blouse and doesn’t even notice. She is serious. “I swear, that man treats his son like a kept animal. Uses poor adrien as a literal cash cow, gets away with it cause he buys his way out of child labor laws. Fucking animal. Most evil man in Paris.” Like an arm being shoved back into its socket, the connections click into place for Marinette with a brutal, sickening pain.
“I need to leave, I'm gonna be sick.” Marinette whispered as she started frantically throwing things in her bag.
“You really do need to learn to speak up, I can’t understand you when you get like this.” Chloe went on, aggressively picking something imaginary from under her nails. The teacher starts lecturing but Marinette does not hear a thing.
“I need to leave, I am going to be sick!” She's already halfway to the door as she shouts it, getting the whole class’s heads turning. Chloe says nothing and just grabs the rest of her friend’s things as she runs, hot on Mari’s heels. Neither of them see Alya and Nino instinctively reach for their phones, but they certainly do just that.
Chloe catches Marinette on the sidewalk outside the school, doing unspeakable things into a city gutter. Chloe grabs her hair (that for some reason was down today for the first time in forever) and throws it up into a messy bun. Marinette sends her a silent thanks and uses her t-shirt to wipe her mouth. Chloe tries to pretend she’s trying not to gag but Marinette can see right through it (and hugs her anyway though).
“There is one last side to me that you now get to know,” Marinette whispers it into Chloe’s ear, “You’ll either understand or not and if you don’t? Well, try and think about the implications of this information getting out about your sister.”
“Mari, what the-,” but Chloe was cut off and dragged back to the bakery in one fell swoop.