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Friends.
Chloe never had many of those.
Her papa told her they were a necessity, that she would need them if she wanted to get anywhere. But he also said you couldn’t trust them. He said that friends would and could stab you in the back if it helped them climb higher in the world.
She didn’t particularly want friends after that.
But despite her feelings towards ‘friends,’ she had ended up with one anyways. His name was Adrien, she had learned after seeing him many times at her papa’s parties, and he didn’t seem to have any friends. Just like her. She figured that must mean he didn’t know that friends could hurt friends, and she had taken advantage of that.
“You’re my friend now,” she had told him. When he looked at her with confusion in his eyes, she explained, “We’re friends. That means that no matter what, we can’t ever, never hurt or leave each other.”
“Oh… Okay!” he had told her, smiling widely. She smiled too; now she would never be stabbed in the back by him.
After that, Chloe liked to consider her and Adrien to be best friends. He held true to the meaning of ‘friend’ she’d given him, and he was always there for her. She sadly couldn’t say the same for herself, often leaving him to play with other kids or not showing up to their playdates. He never said anything, though, and so she thought it was okay.
Eventually, she met a girl named Sabrina. The girl was always alone, and Chloe heard people whispering about her papa. They said her papa was a police officer, and would arrest them if they talked to her. Chloe knew that was silly, even if she was a bit scared. She gave herself a quick pep talk, saying that she can’t be arrested because she’s the mayor’s daughter, and before she knew it, she was standing in front of the other girl.
“Be my friend,” Chloe demanded.
“Wh-what?” Sabrina asked. “Aren’t you scared of me and my papa?”
“No! My papa’s the mayor, so I’m not scared!” she exclaimed. When the girl only stared, Chloe insisted once more, “Be my friend!” This time, she held her hand out- she’d seen her papa do it to people he knew before, so it must be a sign of friendship. When Sabrina hesitantly reached her own hand out, Chloe had grabbed it and squeezed. “Great! I’m Chloe, in case you didn’t know! Now let’s go do friend things! We can go shopping after school, or get our nails done, or play superhero…”
“That sounds really fun,” Sabrina had remarked, “but I dunno if my papa will let me. I was supposed to do my homework right after school.”
“Oh, don’t worry about him! I’ll get my daddy to set it up as a play date! And we can do our homework together, okay? Maybe we can help each other- I’m really good at maths,” Chloe claimed, dragging her new friend alongside her.
After school that day, Chloe had found out that Sabrina quite enjoyed doing homework, and was even better at it than her. She was jealous, but happy the girl did well on her assignments. When she asked for help, Sabrina was quick to assist, and didn’t seem bothered by it like the tutors her papa always hired were. That made Chloe smile.
Now she had two friends. One that was always there for her, and one that didn’t mind helping her. As far as she was aware, she couldn’t possibly need or want more friends than the two she already had.
She and Sabrina were in the same class for years, and one year, Adrien had joined them. That just so happened to be the year that Ladybug made her first appearance, as well as the year that Marinette Dupain-Cheng made Chloe unreasonably jealous. Chloe had been jealous before, a lot of times, so she didn’t understand why she was so jealous of this girl. She didn’t understand why people were attracted to her, why they chose her, or why Adrien seemed to prefer her.
Chloe grew meaner because of it.
But that only pushed potential friends further away, and until that moment, she hadn’t realized she’d even thought of her classmates as ‘potential friends.’ Growing up as she did- never needing to apologize for anything- she wasn’t sure what to do. She still had Sabrina, despite the bump in their relationship when she had gotten her akumatized. She still had Adrien, sometimes. She knew he didn’t like her hanging all over him, but he never pushed her away, so she knew he still wanted to be friends.
She had Ladybug, too. At least, she liked to claim she did. The superheroine never stuck around, but she didn’t stick around for other people either. Whether the girl under the mask liked Chloe or not, she always saved her. That has to count for something, Chloe had thought.
Chloe tried to be content with her three friends, but even with them in mind, she found herself imagining what it would be like to have people that laughed at jokes with her, who went shopping and knew what style was. She wondered what a friendly competition was like. She wondered how Marinette came to have all those opportunities.
Not too terribly long after she had wondered that, Chloe followed Marinette into the bathroom. The other girl didn’t seem to notice, and Chloe allowed it until she did what she needed and moved to wash her hands.
“Why does everyone like you?” she had asked, unable to keep all of her desperation out of her voice. “Nobody likes me, aside from Sabrina and Adrien. Why? What’re you doing that I’m not? How can I change?” Her questions flew out like bullets, unfiltered and frail.
Marinette had looked up and stared at her, unsure of just what to say. It was obvious she hadn’t been expecting the outburst, hadn’t expected to see her bully of years on the verge of tears asking her how to be better. She finished washing her hands before approaching.
“Be nice. People like people who’re nice. But it’s going to take you a long time to get people to forgive you, I won’t lie about that. If you truly want to change, and really want people to like you- for you, by the way, not the stuff- then you’ll keep trying until it happens. I don’t know how the others will react, but… if you want, you can start with me,” Marinette had said. She’d held out her hand and continued with a smile, “Hi. I’m Marinette, and I would love to forgive you someday.”
Chloe had sniffed, and held her own hand out. Somehow, shaking Marinette’s hand didn’t feel like she was making a deal. Not like it had felt when she’d given Sabrina her hand oh so long ago. “Chloe. I’d love to earn your forgiveness and make amends. I- I don’t know how to do it, but I want to.”
“I’ll help you.”
And she had. Marinette had been right in that it would take a long time, but then came the days when she started to be included in groups. The days she and Sabrina laughed and did things together, really together, rather than Sabrina doing all the work. The days Adrien no longer looked uncomfortable hanging out with her, the days people sought her out because they liked her, the days she finally started to hear ‘It’s okay’s and ‘I forgive you’s.
The days she finally started to have friends and understand what friendship was… well, those made it all worth the time, patience, tears, and effort put into making amends with everyone.
She was never quite sure, though, at what point Marinette had forgiven her. The girl had certainly helped a lot, and pushed her to become the person she really wanted to be. It was honestly hard to figure out when Chloe stopped thinking of Marinette as someone she used to hate and instead thought of her as a friend. She never asked Marinette if it was okay to consider her as one, but then, the girl never made her feel like she needed to ask. That didn’t stop her curiosity, though, and one day, when Marinette leaned on her as she laughed, she couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Are we friends?” Chloe had blurted out. She scowled when Marinette only laughed harder and looked away. “N-nevermind…”
When she said that, Marinette’s laughter died down, and she said, “No, no, I’m sorry, I just- I assumed we were by now, and I didn’t think you’d ask that. You haven’t exactly asked everyone else.”
“Yeah, well, that’s because they all told me they forgave me, obviously,” Chloe said, sniffling. “Except for Rose. She tackled me to the ground in a hug- that girl is scary strong for someone so small.”
“Alright, that’s true. I guess I kind of always assumed we were good after awhile. You tried really hard to be nicer, and I was there to witness the sincerity of it, so… it was unspoken, but I forgave you. And I consider us to be friends.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Chloe had wrapped her arms around the other girl and squeezed, laughing out of both relief and happiness. “Thank you,” she breathed.
“Thank you, too,” Marinette replied as she hugged Chloe back.
As they embraced, Chloe thought of all the people she considered to be her friends now. She knew that her father’s understanding of friendship had been muddied by politics, which made her sad to think about. But at the same time, she was happy that friendship was a happy thing, one that she’d been able to really get to know.
And her classmates were only a small portion of the people she would befriend as time passed. She would become friends with more students, ones above and below her grade level, her staff, and even a team of superheroes, though they wouldn’t know it for awhile.
Friends.
Chloe could say, with absolute certainty, that time changes things. Because she had a lot of friends now, but she also had something more.
As she looked around her, she could see it. It was in the way Marinette hugged her with no caution behind the action, the way Adrien cracked jokes that made her groan and ultimately smile, the way Sabrina’s eyes twinkled when she looked at her. It was in the way Alya toasted to her, the way Nino dedicated a song to her, the way Rose worked on another scrapbook of them. It was in each and every action the people gathered around her did.
They aren’t just friends, she thought. They’re more than that. They’re the ones who showed me kindness and what it means to love. I learned how to be the me I really wanted to be. I learned how to help instead of hinder from them. They’re definitely more than friends. They’re… best friends? No, no, they’re more than that too. They’re…
Family.