Work Text:
Queen Bee’s appearance was a surprise. Not a welcome one for the two-member team: Ladybug and Chat Noir—especially for Ladybug. Still, the little bee had helped defeat the Akuma, who was clearly quite strong and had been giving the pair more than a few problems.
However, that didn’t stop Ladybug from not trusting her. Why would she, after the Volpina incident? She hadn’t even finished her introduction when the heroine looked at the one calling herself Queen Bee and declared: "I don’t trust you."
Harsh words that stabbed the bee heroine’s heart. They struck hard against her chest, wounding her. Of course, she was a fan, and hearing her idol say something like that was deeply painful.
"I’m not an enemy," she muttered, looking straight at her despite the damage those words had caused.
"I don’t know that," Ladybug replied. "Aside from my partner, I won’t trust any other Miraculous holder."
The mentioned partner simply watched, saying nothing, just observing the confrontation between the two "bugs." Queen Bee clenched her fists at her sides.
"I defeated the Akuma!" she exclaimed. "How can I be an enemy after that?"
Her gaze was firm. She was hurt, but her eyes didn’t fill with tears—they burned with an invisible fire. Chat Noir, watching her, couldn’t take his eyes off her.
"That has happened before," Ladybug snapped. "I won’t be fooled again."
"So that’s the reason you won’t trust me?"
"Yes," she simply said, as she heard the beep of her earrings. "I appreciate your help, but that doesn’t mean I trust you."
With that, she left, throwing her yo-yo and disappearing between the buildings. Chat Noir didn’t move, even as his ring was beeping. The bee heroine didn’t either.
She still had her fists clenched. She wrinkled her nose and huffed, head lowered while her body trembled in spasms. She was going to cry.
"I trust you."
Those words left the hero’s mouth before he could reconsider them. She looked at him, startled, her eyes now glassy—no longer burning with fire, but with water gathering in them.
"You do?" she asked in disbelief. "Why?" she questioned him. After all, Ladybug had made it very clear why she didn’t trust her. Something the two heroes were supposed to agree on.
He didn’t know what to say—it wasn’t really a reason. Call it instinct, cat instinct, or whatever you want. But there was something… something about her that earned his trust.
"I don’t have a reason," he said. "It’s just my instinct that makes me trust you."
The bee heroine bit her lip. The urge to cry had eased. She stopped clenching her fists, noticing that when she opened them, her palms were hurt from her nails. The sting remained.
"You should leave before you lose your transformation. I’ll do the same," the cat hero said, hearing the rapid beeping of their Miraculouses.
Queen Bee nodded and soon left. The cat hero did the same, thinking about what had just happened.
He wasn’t one to go against his Lady, but rather to support her. Still, he couldn’t share her distrust of the new heroine when he didn’t feel it. Instead, he felt something different when he looked at the bee heroine. That strength she showed on the outside while being fragile on the inside. Her courage and refusal to stay silent when something seemed wrong. And above all, the joy she had shown when she defeated the Akuma—that smile, that almost childlike happiness.
He remembered someone else in her. And maybe it was because she reminded him of what his friend from childhood used to be like. That was the reason he trusted her.
Queen Bee. Yes, she reminded him of Chloe as a child.
Meanwhile, she was heading back to the hotel. Those words from the cat hero had never been expected to make her so happy, but they also gave her the strength she needed to keep fighting Akumas—and whoever else came—to prove to Ladybug that she was trustworthy. That she was not an enemy, that she was there to help.
And now that she had someone on her side, an ally, she felt it could be possible. She set herself a goal: soon, she would fight alongside Ladybug as partners—and why not? as friends.