Work Text:
To: Chlo
From: Adri ❤︎❤︎
Sorry for being such a bad friend
To: Adri ❤︎❤︎
From: Chlo
what?
To: Chlo
From: Adri ❤︎❤︎
It’s nothing, I’m sorry
To: Adri ❤︎❤︎
From: Chlo
adrien i’m not stupid
you don’t text first
ever
did something happen?
did someone tell you you’re a bad friend?
whose life do i have to ruin
To: Chlo
From: Adri ❤︎❤︎
Chloe no
It’s really nothing important
I just wanted to apologize, because I haven’t really been the best friend to you since I started school. And that’s not fair to you.
To: Adri ❤︎❤︎
From: Chlo
well yeah then you can’t say i’ve been the best friend either
seriously why are you trying to lie to me
you know you can’t
i know you better than ANYONE
i’m calling you
wait no, i’m coming over. you have the afternoon free, i know you do
To: Chlo
From Adri ❤︎❤︎
No
You don’t have to
I’m serious, nothing happened. I just… I realized I’ve been a sort of terrible friend.
To: Adri ❤︎❤︎
From: Chlo
OH MY GOD NO YOURE NOT!!!
the more you protest the faster i’ll be there
—«·»—
Adrien looks up from his physics textbook at the harsh knocking at his door. While he’s thankful for the distraction — the words had been swimming and melting together in a swirling dance — he had told her not to come.
Plagg grumbles from where he’s nested in Adrien’s hair. “Tell her to go away.”
Chloé knocks again, shouting, “I’m not going away!”
Adrien would be worried that she somehow heard Plagg, except he can hardly hear Plagg’s muttering himself. “I’m never going to get her to leave, you know that,” Adrien whispers.
“You don’t want to talk to her,” Plagg protests.
He doesn’t. Not really. He really wants to sit on his bed and do nothing but worry and panic and hate himself for not being able to do more. But if Chloé is anything, she’s stubborn.
Adrien stands up. Plagg gets the hint and dives off Adrien’s head to hide under his pillow and keep napping.
“I told you not to come,” Adrien says as he opens his door.
Chloé raises an eyebrow and crosses her arms. “What happened?”
“I already told you, nothing happened.”
She rolls her eyes. “Really cute that you think you can lie to me. Was it Nino? Alya? Marinette? ” She leans forward defensively, her nails digging into her arms.
He balls his hands up into fists. “No! No one told me I’m a bad friend! I just…” He glances away, the tension leaving his shoulders as he sags. “I don’t know.”
Chloé drops her arms. “Come on, Adri. What’s wrong?”
There’s something about the way she says it, the unguarded look on her face. Because suddenly, they’re ten years old again. They’re huddled up together behind the couch, Chloé’s fancy heels and his tie discarded on the floor in front of them. She wiped her eyes and sniffled, fingering her mother’s necklace. He squeezed her free hand. That and their sides pressed together were the only warmth in the room. The cold from the floor was sinking into his bones.
Mothers can go away.
Fathers don’t have to care.
Mothers can fade into shadows and distant memories, with only the dull sparkle of photographed smiles left behind.
Fathers can try. Fathers can fail. Fathers can think that everything is solved with money and toys.
And parents—
Sometimes kids can sneak away from dinner to share stories behind a couch. They can find solace in each other and finally feel again.
And the parents won’t notice for nearly an hour.
Chloé stiffens as Adrien throws his arms around her in a hug. In the short moment before she hugs back, he panics. When her arms wrap around him, everything falls to pieces.
“I don’t know how to help,” he whispers, his voice thick. “I don’t know how to be a good friend.”
“Bullshit,” Chloé says sharply. She pulls away from the hug, grabbing Adrien by the arm. She shuts the door behind her and drags him over to the couch. She drops to the ground and pulls him down next to her with a yank of his arm. She leans back against the back of the couch. “You’re probably the best friend I’ve ever had.”
Adrien watches her subconsciously reach up to brush her fingers against her necklace. He drops his gaze. “It doesn’t feel like it.”
“Why not.”
It’s no longer a question. She’s demanding that he tell her. She’s no longer playing around and he knows he’s not getting out of this conversation. He was doomed from the minute he first texted her. He chooses to go silent for just a few seconds more.
Chloé sighs. “Look, if something didn’t bring this up, you wouldn’t have texted me. We haven’t actually talked in months.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice is choked. And if he thinks about anything too hard he might start crying.
She softens. “It’s your fault as much as mine. You didn’t know that at school I’m…” She scoffs and shakes her head. “We should be talking about you. Tell me .”
Adrien closes his eyes. There are too many things happening in his head right now. “I… Something— Something happened with Marinette. I don’t know what, I just know she’s really upset and I don’t? I don’t know how to help? I just—” He rests his forehead on his hands. “Alya knows exactly what to do. Nino knows exactly what to say. And I-I think I might be making part of it worse? And I don’t know how to make her feel better or even just be there for her and not only that I—”
Can’t tell you .
Something has been going on with Ladybug. And she won’t tell Chat. She just gives him sad smiles and pretends to be okay. And he has photoshoots and homework and he’s just so stressed .
“I’m a terrible person.”
Chloé grabs his wrists. He lifts his head to look at her. She has a steely glint in her eyes and a hardened expression on her face. “Say that one more time, Adrien Agreste.”
He blinks, his eyes watering. “I- I’m a terrible person?”
She squeezes his wrists tightly. “No, you’re not . You are not a terrible person, and you never will be.”
“But—”
“Other people don’t define your worth.” Chloé’s voice is tight. “And it’s not your fault if you can’t help, or if you can’t handle helping someone.”
Adrien shakes his head. “I can handle it. I want to.”
She glares at him. “If you’re also stuck in the quicksand, you’re going to have a hard time getting someone else out of it.”
He looks at her in surprise.
Chloé lets go of him and sinks back against the couch. “I know, good advice from someone with no real friends, huh?”
“No that’s not—”
She gives him a silencing look. “Come on, who are you kidding? Sabrina follows me around because I give her things. I don’t… I want to be her friend but I don’t know how to go about it and she’s got her own weird…sort of worship thing going on? Whatever. And you—” She looks away. “We aren’t really friends anymore.” She laughs bitterly. “I mean, were we ever?”
“Yes,” he says firmly. Because how is that even a question. “Of course we are.”
“Sure.” She scoots away a little, like he wouldn’t notice. “Because real friends never hang out and hang all over each other and fangirl over each other. And make each other uncomfortable and—”
Adrien wraps his arms around Chloé, burying his face in the crook of her neck.
They’ve spent too long sat in this position. All for bad reasons. Bad days, bad nights, arguments, absent parents, anniversaries, forgotten birthdays, boxes of clothes being given away, old jewelry found in a dusty drawer.
“I’m sorry I’m a terrible person,” Chloé whispers. She rests her cheek against the top of Adrien’s head. “I’m sorry I’m so… me .” Her voice gets higher like it always does before she’s about to cry.
They know the patterns of each other’s voices and tears and sorrow.
“We’re both bad friends,” Adrien murmurs. “We could do better.”
She laughs hoarsely. “You’re the best, Adri. I don’t think you can.”
“I can always do better. I’m selfish and jealous and reckless—”
“And make terrible puns.”
He laughs shortly. “I can get better. And so can you. We’ll get better together.”
Chloé turns her head, resting more of her forehead against his head. “I can’t.” Her voice wavers dangerously. “I— I’ve been this way around everyone for so long. No one would believe. It’d just be another act.” Her voice is high and slightly hysterical and he can feel the tears dripping down her face onto his hair.
“ I’ll believe it,” he promises.
“Why?” Chloé sounds lost. Chloé is never lost. “Why would you do that? You have friends . What reason have I ever— I’m not just terrible to other people, I’m terrible to you .”
“Because I know you, Chlo.”
“I sabotage and hurt and bully and— I’m a monster .”
Adrien just holds her until her sobs lessen. “You’re not a monster,” he says softly. “You’re just a teenager. A teenager who’s still growing and learning. A teenager who…who’s been through a lot. And needs more support and a better friend than who she got.”
She nudges him lightly. “Shut up. You could do better than me.”
He loosens his hold to look up at her. “I don’t want to.”
Chloé’s lip quivers. “You’re a sap,” she says shakily. “Disgusting.”
Adrien smiles. The worst is over.
“Besides,” she says with a shrug, “maybe I don’t want a friend who runs around Paris in a leather cat suit .”
“ What?! ” Adrien jerks away, catching himself on his arm as he falls backwards.
Chloé smiles wickedly at him as she wipes her eyes. “Oh, was I not supposed to know that, Chat Noir ?”
He stares at her with wide eyes. “How did you— That’s not…”
She snorts. “You didn’t even deny it. Wow .”
Adrien shakes his head. “No really, how did you figure it out?”
Chloé tosses her hair. “What, like it was hard?”
“Yes.”
“Adrien, you picked me up and put me in an elevator. That’s not something you would do anymore. And did you think I wouldn’t notice how weird you were acting when we were stuck in that photograph? Please.” She rolls her eyes. “And that one time when Chat was getting me away from an akuma and I was panicking, some of the things you said were distinctly Adrien things. Things only you would know to say to me.”
He blinks at her. “That’s all?”
“Well that and your weird little flying thing isn’t very good at hiding or moving out of sight quickly.”
Adrien’s eyebrows shoot up. “ Plagg?! ”
Chloé shrugs. “My question is how did no one else find out sooner? I mean, you aren’t subtle.”
“Uh…” He gapes at her for a moment. He definitely didn’t think that Chloé would be the first to figure it out, but he probably should’ve known.
She smiles at him and holds out her pinky finger. “I won’t tell.”
Adrien wraps his pinky around hers. “Cross your heart and hope to die?”
“Stick a needle in my eye. But as if I’d tell!”
They release their fingers and lean against the back of the couch at the same time.
“Friends?” Adrien asks. He tugs off his sweatshirt and tosses it on the floor in front of them.
Chloé rolls her eyes and toes off her shoes, dumping them on top of his sweatshirt. “Duh.”