Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Marinette burst into the classroom, the stack of baked goods in her arms nearly toppling over.

‘I’m here! Don’t worry!’ she yells, as she hurries over to a display table and tries to put all the boxes down at once. One box of macarons slips from her grasp but Alya catches it with ease. She places a reassuring hand on her best friend's shoulder.

‘Babe, relax. We’ve still got ten minutes, no ones even here yet.’ Alya gestures to the empty classroom and Marinette lets out a sigh of relief. Well, almost empty classroom. Nino and Adrien are wrestling with a massive banner that reads ‘PRIDE MEETING’ in huge letters coloured in different pride flags. They’re trying to pin it up on the back wall.

Nino flashes a teasing grin their way. ‘Have I been replaced? I thought I was “babe?”’ He puts his hand to his chest in mock hurt, accidentally causing his end of the banner to flop to the floor.

Adrien groans, still trying to keep his end up. ‘Quit flirting and get some more tape! Marinette, why did you have to make this so huge?’

‘My pride has no limits!’ she calls back, laughing while she takes colourful cupcakes, cookies and cakes out of the boxes and sets them on platters.

‘Well the strength of my arms does. Alya, please?’ He pleads. Alya laughs and grabs a roll of duct tape before going over to help them.

Ten minutes later, everything’s ready. Marinette takes a moment to stand back and admire their work. The banner is finally hanging, as well as other streamers and fairy lights. A rough circle of chairs, cushions and beanbags is set up. Students are slowly trickling in and sitting there, or standing by the snack table and chatting. Most are faces Marinette recognises, but there are a few new ones. She hears a whoop of excitement and glances over at Alix showing Alya, Adrien and Marc a video of their latest race. Marc notices Marinette watching them and excuses himself to come stand beside her.

‘Nice hoodie.’ She compliments. It’s got a bright rainbow pattern.

He blushes and ducks his head. ‘Nathaniel got it for me.’ He says quietly and she laughs. He ignores her and looks around the room instead, grinning. ‘Pretty great turn out.’

It was the first pride meeting of the new year. The idea had started much more unofficially, with meet ups between Marinette and Marc back in collège. They bonded over being the only trans kids in their grade and would have lunch or coffee together and chat about anything, from school to their shared experiences. Sometimes they needed support, other times they wanted to gush about boys (Adrien and Nathaniel specifically). But as the years went on some things changed. Adrien and Marinette decided they were better as friends, they all moved into lycée, and her friend group slowly came out (Marinette and Adrien as pan, Adrien as ace too, and Alya and Nino as bi).

Her meet ups with Marc were always a great comfort, and she realised that something like that could really help other people too. So she set up a meeting with the principal and the guidance counsellor, and slowly but surely got a classroom, budget and set up for weekly pride meetings. It started small, with only her friends coming, but over the last year has grown into their own community and support network.

‘It’s everything I hoped it would be.’ Marinette grins back at Marc. And she knows she shouldn’t jinx it, but these meetings were one of her proudest achievements and she can’t help but brag a little. ‘I really can’t believe it’s turned out so well.’

It was at that moment that Chloé Bourgeois walks through the door.

The lighthearted atmosphere evaporates as everyone goes dead silent. Chloé hesitates for a moment, obviously sensing the wall of tension in the room. But she pushes past it and marches inside. She leans against the wall and starts going through her phone, ignoring everyone. A hushed chatter breaks out after this, unease as the other students glance at her.

Marinette feels a knot of anxiety tie itself inside her. They’d had a few incidents with people when the club first started, but she’d really thought they were past that. She also feels a wave of disappointment. She really thought Chloé was past that kind of thing too.

She excuses herself from Marc and walks over to Alya and Adrien, who were the vice president and treasurer of the club. Adrien appears to be holding Alya back.

‘She can’t just come in here! What does she want?’ Alya whisper-shouts.

Marinette joins the whispered discussion. ‘What does Chloé ever want? Attention and to cause a scene. I’ll get her out of here.’

‘Wait!’ Adrien says. He seems nervous, glancing at Chloe out of the corner of his eye. ‘C’mon. You know she’s not… like that anymore. You can’t kick someone out just because you don’t like them. This club is for everybody. Let me talk to her.’

Marinette sighs, but some of the defensiveness has leaked out of her. ‘Adrien, you’re too kind for your own good.’ She says, and he gives her a hopeful smile. ‘I'll talk to her. I’m not going to let anyone disrupt the club, and if she’s gone “disaster-Chloé” then she’s out of here.’

‘Here, here!’ says Alya.

‘But,’ Marinette holds up her hand, stopping Alya in her tracks. ‘If she seems okay, I guess she can stay. But I’ll be watching her.’

Adrien smiles and Alya scoffs. ‘You're too kind for your own good.’ She parrots, but nudges Marinette with her shoulder good naturedly as she leaves.

Marinette makes her way over to Chloé. The blonde girls posture is stiff, all sharp edges, like you could cut yourself if you got too close. Chloé doesn’t look up as she approaches, just glares down at her phone. Marinette stops in front of her and eventually clears her throat. Chloé huffs and finally looks up at her.

‘What do you want, Dupain-Cheng?’ She mutters, raising an eyebrow.

‘You know this is a pride meeting, right?’ Marinette tries to keep her voice neutral.

‘Yes, I’m not blind.’ Chloé nods at the giant banner. ‘Although I doubt even a blind person could miss that.’

Marinette smiles. It doesn’t reach her eyes. ‘Chloé, what are you doing? Why are you even here?’

‘Obviously the decour. And the free food.’ Chloé smirks, but her eyes are hard. There’s something about her that’s- off though, but Marinette can’t work out what. If it was anyone else she would think they were nervous, but she’s pretty sure Chloé's never been nervous in her life. The blonde in question shrugs. ‘Maybe I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.’

Marinette crosses her arms over her chest. Chloé mimics her. Marinette huffs and takes a step closer to Chloé.

‘Look, Adrien wants to believe the best in you, but don’t think we’re stupid. This meeting is a safe space. I’m not tolerating anything or anyone that’s going to jeopardise that. You do anything I don’t approve of and you’re out. Am I clear?’

Chloé mimes locking her lips and throwing away the key.

Marinette rolls her eyes but walks away. She tries to be proud of herself for trying to find a balance between being fair and being firm, but feels like Chloé's gotten the best of her. She hasn’t felt that way for a while, and finds she hates it now as much as she did back then. Like she’s twelve years old again and has never felt so small. She tries to shake the feeling off and focus on what’s important. The meeting.

She motions for Alya to keep an eye on Chloé, and then calls the meeting to order and does her best to ignore the tall blonde girl that takes a seat beside Adrien.

Which turns out not to be hard at all. Chloé does not say a word.

At one point Marinette finally looks over at Chloé. Nino is leading a discussion about the most recent LGBTQ+ representation in film and TV. She expects the other girl to be bored, or ignoring everyone and on her phone again. Maybe even making faces. Anything to explain her silence. Chloé's arms are still crossed, and one leg is over the other, still as a statue and taut as a bowstring. But she is watching the discussion with rapt attention.

And Marinette is at a complete loss.

The meeting goes well. They go over some major events over the last year, and start planning some ones for the future. Nino, the club secretary, pulls out a list of goals Marinette had put down at the first meeting last year and she’s delighted to see that they’ve completed every one of them, from smaller ones like get actual decorations to go to a city pride event as a group.

(Marc teasingly points out later that they didn’t technically complete all of them, as Marinette had jokingly stated that she might find her future partner through the meetings and she hadn’t found anyone yet. But she pointedly didn’t count that one as an official club goal… even if it might have still been a personal one.)

At the end of the meeting they invite everyone to stay for a while afterwards and enjoy the food. While everyone else wanders over, Marinette notices Chloé quietly slip out of the room. Adrien follows her soon after.

She mentions how weird all of that was to her friends. Nino and Alya are glad she didn’t start anything (although Alya’s slightly disappointed that she didn’t get to throw anyone out, which she had to do once and it was glorious). When Adrien returns a little while later they try to ask him about it, but he waves away their questions and is suspiciously quiet on the matter. So Marinette decides to let it go.

~

Marinette wonders if something might come of Chloé’s bizarre appearance at the pride meeting over the next week. Not everyone at the meetings is officially out and she worries that she might have put them at risk in her trying to be accomodating. She’d like to think not even Chloé would be that cruel, but she can remember a few pretty homophobic things Chloé has said over the years that makes her think otherwise. But Adrien assures her that Chloé wouldn’t do anything like that, and Marinette checks up on the students throughout the week and nothing’s happened.

Chloé herself hasn’t changed. She’s much better than she used to be, not being so outrightly rude and callous. But no one would ever describe her as warm. She’s more indifferent, usually going about her business but sometimes calling people out if she deems it “necessary”.

And there was one time when she dumped her drink over this guy’s head, but he was a huge asshole (to Marinette in particular) so Marinette can’t say she’s all that sorry about that incident, and he probably deserved it.

So Marinette decides maybe Chloé really was just curious about the club. But she can’t shake the feeling that it was more than that.

There seems to be one person who knows what’s going on with Chloé aside from the girl herself, but Adrien hasn’t offered any real information since the meeting. His friendship with both Marinette and Chloé has always been a touchy subject that Marinette usually avoids, but her curiosity gets the best of her. He and Marinette are sitting together during the lunch break the day before the next pride club when she decides to go for it.

‘Do you think Chloé will come to tomorrow’s meeting?’ She asks innocently.

Adrien goes still beside her before slowly finishing off his mouthful of pasta. ‘Uh, I don’t know...?’

‘Well that was terrible. Hasn’t Alya been teaching you how to lie?’ She jokes and the tension subsides as he laughs.

‘Yes, but she’s not having a lot of luck. But that was the truth - I actually don’t know.’

‘Chloé hasn’t talked to you?’ Marinette asks. They both know she’s fishing and Adrien just raises an eyebrow at her.

‘Wouldn’t that be between me and her?’

Marinette groans dramatically. ‘You’re not helping. It just doesn’t make any sense! Chloé’s never seemed- I mean, she’s always been so… And when she talked to me at the meeting! I haven’t seen her that hostile in years.’ She sighs, her thoughts all jumbled up. ‘She just- she confuses the hell out of me.’

She glances at Adrien and see’s that he’s watching her with a searching expression. He bites his lip, thinking over his words before hesitantly saying, ‘Look… Chloé’s my friend and I can’t- I’d never want to betray her trust. But I can promise you she’s not there to cause any trouble. You know she’s trying to do better. She’s just… she’s… complicated.’

‘I could’ve told you that.’ Marinette mutters but Adrien doesn’t laugh like she expected, he turns to her, completely serious.

‘I know it’s a lot to ask but can you please just- go easy on her? About this?’ He pleads and Marinette blinks in surprise.

She’s always thought of Chloé as a very forceful person, not someone who would ever let anyone have any kind of power over her. But after what happened last week, and something about the way Adrien’s saying this, makes it seem like Chloé’s not as unshakable as she’s always thought.

Marinette nods. ‘Yeah, okay.’

‘Thank you.’ Adrien sighs in relief. They both go back to their lunches, but after a moment he tentatively says, ‘You know, I still think you two could be friends.’ Marinette nearly chokes on her food.

‘Do I have to remind you about the Shopping Incident?’ She asks incredulously, and Adrien winces. Their second year of collège Adrien thought he could get his friends to get along, so he took Marinette and Chloé out on a shopping trip. It did not go as he’d hoped.

‘I thought we all agreed never to speak of that again.’ He shudders and she laughs. ‘Come on, that was years ago. You’ve both changed a lot since then. Just don’t… completely write it off?’ His puppy-dog eyes are annoyingly sincere so Marinette decides to humour him.

She pats him on the arm. ‘Sure. Anything’s possible.’ Although that’s very, very unlikely.

The next pride meeting comes around. The decorations, food and furniture is set up again. Everyone’s milling around, chatting.

And Chloé walks in again.

There’s a less dramatic reaction to her appearance this time, although there are still some hushed whispers in her direction. Chloé gingerly picks up a cupcake and stands next to Adrien. He gives her a bright smile and she tentatively returns it.

Marinette begins to relax. Between Adrien’s talk and Chloé being here again, there was obviously something more going on. She was glad Adrien’s kindness stopped her from kicking Chloé out at the last meeting. Everyone deserves a chance to feel included, whether she liked them or not. So instead of just going easy on her, she decides to make sure Chloé feels included in all of the discussions.

But once again, Chloé does not say a word.

So rather than ignoring the other girl, she treats her like anyone else at a meeting. Eye contact, smiles. Chloé doesn’t seem to know how to deal with that, she looks away every time. But Marinette can’t help but notice how Chloé often seems to be looking at her beforehand.

It’s after a somewhat embarrassing but also funny story of Marinette’s that she notices it. The story is about her disastrous first attempt to come out as pan to her parents. She baked a coming out cake with white icing outside and the pan flag colours inside. She was so nervous, but when her parents cut into the cake, they simply complimented her on the colours and taste. They had no idea what the colours meant and she’d worked herself up for nothing and was back at square one. The group was laughing as she finished off the story and that’s when she heard it. Chloé’s laughter. But it wasn’t cruel or malicious. It was natural, spontaneous. And, she had to admit, kind of pretty. Alright, really pretty.

Marinette turns to her and catches the end of the laugh as it fades from her features. Chloé looks more relaxed than she’s ever seen her at the meetings. But then their eyes meet and Chloé starts and turns away, tension back in her posture. And if Marinette wasn’t seeing things, she could’ve sworn she was blushing.

After the meeting everyone else heads over to the snack table and Chloé once again quietly slips out of the room. But Marinette dashes after her.

‘Chloé!’

The girl in question freezes in place, the echoes of her quick steps still ringing around the hallway. She slowly turns around, arms crossed, expression carefully distant. Marinette catches up to her with a smile.

‘Hey! Look, I know we haven’t always… gotten along. But these meetings can be a really great place to talk about how you feel, or, um, not making any assumptions, even help you work out how you’re feeling. But I get that it can be a little overwhelming to talk in front of all those people. So I wanted to give you this!’

Marinette holds out a slip of paper. It’s her business card (or the mock up design Alya had printed for her birthday). Printed on it is ‘Marinette Dupain-Cheng – Fashion Designer’ and her phone number and email. Chloé watches her whole speech with wide eyes, and continues to stare until finally reaching over and taking the card. Her brow creases as she reads it.

‘It’s my details,’ Marinette says gently. ‘As the leader of the pride club, I’ve had my fair share of talks with people about all this. So if there was anything you wanted to talk about that you don’t feel quite… able to talk about with everyone yet, I’m available.’ She gives Chloé her most winning presidential smile.

Chloé finally looks up from the card to meet her eyes. She looks stunned, and maybe even a little scared. Marinette tries to increase the warmth of her smile but it doesn’t seem to do any good. Chloé nods slightly, and gives a smile that might be more of a grimace. Then she walks away.

~

Marinette wasn’t really expecting Chloé to contact her. Maybe she was a little hopeful. But realistically she doubted it.

What she wasn’t expecting was for Chloé to avoid her altogether.

Looking away everytime their eyes met, ducking around corners in hallways. No comment when Marinette woke up late and came to school wearing a green dress with a massive stain across the front, and had to cover it with Alya’s orange flannel. Not even a disdainful glance. Nothing! She tries to talk to her once, but Chloé mutters some excuse and practically runs from the room.

Alya tells her it’s probably a blessing in disguise, and to be more careful with who she’s putting her care into. At first Marinette felt like maybe she came on too strong, or maybe Chloé really was just curious about the meetings and was offended that it was implied she wasn’t straight or cis. When Adrien finds out what’s going on, his face falls. He vaguely says that maybe Chloé’s just working things out and that it’s not Marinette’s fault.

When the next pride meeting comes around, Chloé is nowhere to be seen. Marinette can’t help but feel disappointed, and doesn’t think she’s the only one. Adrien seems quieter and grumpier than usual.

They’re ten minutes into the meeting when Chloé walks into the room. She always did know how to make an entrance. She marches in without a word, pulls out a chair with a screech, and drops into it. Then raises a hand in a ‘well, get on with it’ gesture.

Adrien grins and jumps into the conversation, smoothing over the awkward silence. Marinette catches Chloé’s eye and gives her a small smile, which is hesitantly returned.

The group starts talking about their favourite musicians, and of course LGBTQ+ musicians are in the forefront. There’s an impassioned debate as to whether Hayley Kiyoko or Janelle Monae’s music was better (answer: they’re both amazing). Other names like Soko, Lil Nas X or Christine and the Queens are coming up. And then, very quietly, Chloé speaks.

‘I always liked girl in red.’ A red flush is creeping up her cheeks and she’s not meeting anyone’s eyes. It’s so unlike anything anyone has seen from Chloé before. And it starts to settle in that, hard edges aside, Chloé was here for real.

When the meeting finishes up, Adrien asks Chloé to stay. She does, and tries to join in some of the conversation, even though she’s still uncomfortable. Marinette tries her best to include her, and earns a few surprised smiles in return.

Later that night she gets a text from an unknown number. It reads ‘Thank you for today. I know I’m usually great at everything, but I’m sort of out of my depth at the meetings. I saw what you were doing and I just wanted to let you know I appreciate it.’

The text is quickly followed by a second. ‘This is Chloé by the way.’

Then a third. ‘Chloé Bourgeois.’

Marinette grins, surprising herself. She adds Chloé’s number to her contacts with the emoji of a blonde girl with a ponytail and sends back ‘You’re welcome, anytime.’ With a few smiley faces.

The next morning when she gets to class she gets a slightly different welcome from Chloé than she’s got for the last week. Or even the last decade. Because Chloé beams at her – a real, genuine smile that Marinette can’t help but return.

~

Over the next few weeks there is a noticeable change in Chloé. Not just in the meetings, or to the people going to them, but to everyone. She’s not just “not mean” (the official stance she’s taken since collège) but can actually be… nice.

One afternoon Max gives a nervous reading of a Shakespearean monologue and a couple of classmates snicker behind his back. Chloé gives them the finger and leans over to Max and whispers, ‘You did great.’

It’s this change, along with encouragement from Adrien and a begrudging blessing from Alya, that leads to Marinette texting Chloé one night.

M: Hey! You might’ve heard it mentioned but there’s a coffee meet up some of the girls in the pride meetings have once a month. No pressure, but it’s on Thursday afternoon if you wanted to come.

The bubbles of Chloé’s typing almost instantly show up, then disappear. They stop and start several times. It’s a few hours later when a response finally ding’s through.

C: Thanks, I’ll see you there.

Thursday afternoon arrives and Marinette and Alya walk over together to their favourite coffee nook near the school and head inside to find a table. A few other girls trickle in, with Chloé being the last to arrive. Marinette waves her over and she sinks into the chair beside her with a shy greeting.

The coffee meet ups are more casual than the official meetings. They chat about school for a bit, Rose describes a gig she had on the weekend and Alya shows them photos she took of it, and a couple of the younger girls discourage anyone from trying out a new sci-fi show because the lesbian character dies in the second episode.

It’s near the end of the meeting that the conversation steers towards some more personal issues. They start talking about when they first knew they were queer. Rose finishes off her story about how it was hard to deny she was into girls when she was falling for her best friend, and everyone ‘awws’ at her story and Juleka’s blushing reaction. Now everyone else has spoken and Chloé looks to be steeling herself. She’s started speaking more, at meetings and this meet up, but it’s never been about something so specific or personal.

Marinette leans in towards her and whispers, ‘You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.’

Chloé glances at her out of the corner of her eye and her mouth turns up at the edges. ‘Thanks, but I think I’d like to.’ Marinette gives her an encouraging pat on the shoulder and leans back, giving the other girl the floor.

Chloé clears her throat and the eyes around the table turn to her. ‘For me, um, it was when I was six. You know in school when you line up before going into class? Well there was another class across from mine and there was a girl there and I would watch her when we would line up. And I remember thinking that she was the prettiest person I’d ever seen. And when the other girls would talk about who they wanted to hold hands with in line, I would always think of her.’

Her face has darkened in a deep blush, and she fiddles with the coffee cup in her hands. There’s a moment of silence after her confession that’s broken with Marinette’s involuntary whisper of, ‘Oh my god, that’s so cute.’

Everyone laughs and Chloé’s head whips in her direction with a surprised grin and quirk of her eyebrows. It’s Marinette’s turn to blush. ‘What? It is!’ She stammers.

She misses another girl asking Chloé if she remembers who the girl was when she notices Alya’s expression. Her eyes are squinted and lips pursed. Marinette knows that look. It’s her investigative reporter look. She mouths ‘what?’ at her best friend.

Alya shrugs and looks between her and Chloé with a growing smirk. ‘You tell me’ she mouths back and Marinette rolls her eyes and scoffs, turning away and completely ignoring her insane best friend and her responding laugh.

She’s proud of Chloé, that’s all. And that story was adorable. Chloé has never said exactly why she’s been coming to the pride meetings, and Marinette didn’t want to assume. But now she knows for sure that Chloé Bourgeois is into girls.

Not that it matters. Not that she’s ever thought about it.

~

The first year of lycée Marinette and Chloé only had one class together. Of course the seating plan had them sitting next to each other.

‘Bourgeois’ and ‘Dupain’ had always been close alphabetically - they’d been stuck next to each other in a lot of classes growing up. It hadn’t been fun for anyone. But as the years went on names like ‘Cesaire’ and ‘Couffaine’ split them up, or a certain ‘Agreste’ sat on Chloé’s other side and helped her keep her cool. And as they grew older the teachers started to relax the seating arrangements.

But apparently their new maths teacher liked things more traditional. Marinette’s shoulders slumped as she read the seating chart, and given that Alya and Adrien were in another class, she said goodbye to a sympathetic Nino and headed over to face the girl she’d be sitting next to every… single… day. For the next year.

Joy.

Chloé had changed a lot in their last year of collège. Slowly (very, very slowly) her anger and defensiveness and malice had subdued. Even though she mellowed out with the other students, there was still tension between her and Marinette, until suddenly her hostilities stopped all together.

Between one day and the next Chloé seemed to want nothing to do with Marinette. She barely said anything to her, any time their eyes met she looked away. The last time they’d seen each other was on their last day of collège. Marinette had joked that ‘at least they’d survived’. Chloé had laughed awkwardly and walked away without a word.

Chloé confused her. And often aggravated her too. But they were starting a new school, they were older, and they were going to be in close proximity on a daily basis. Marinette wanted to keep her sanity, so she was going to try to be the bigger person.

Marinette prepared herself, then slipped into the empty seat beside the blonde. Chloé was staring intently at the cover of her maths textbook.

‘Hi.’ Marinette said.

‘Hi.’ Chloé said back.

It could’ve been worse.

Marinette glanced at their maths teacher, a grumpy looking old man who looked like he wouldn’t tolerate any kind of drama. She decided to try and extend an olive branch, and make sure she was absolutely clear at the same time.

‘Look,’ She started, turning to Chloé. ‘We’ve both matured a lot, and we’re in lycée now. So I think we should just try to be civil to each other. I just want to get through this year, we don’t even have to talk. So… what do you say to a truce?’

Chloé was silent, watching her with those ridiculously blue eyes. There was something in her look that Marinette didn’t understand, but before she could try Chloé turned away, nodding.

‘Whatever you say, Dupain-Cheng.’ She muttered.

Well. That could’ve gone worse too.

At first, aside from their standard greeting of ‘hi’, they didn’t speak at all.

A few weeks in, the class was working quietly as their teacher graded papers behind his desk. Marinette was trying to focus on her problems, but she could swear she could hear music. It was very quiet, but definitely there.

She then noticed Chloé, whose head was bopping ever so slightly and whose perfectly manicured nails were silently tapping to the beat. Chloé’s long hair was out and swept to one side so it covered one of her ears. Somebody had airpods.

Marinette leaned back, smirking, and went back to her work. She enjoyed a period listening to the quietest music she’d ever heard, which included Angèle, MARINA, even some old Disney songs. It was like a little glimpse into Chloé’s personality that Marinette had never seen before, and it was almost… nice?

Which was weird.

When they were packing up, Marinette waited until their teacher had left before leaning close to Chloé and quietly saying, ‘You’ve got pretty good taste in music.’

Chloé bolted upright and leaned back away from her. ‘What!?’ She asked, alarmed.

Marinette blinked, stumped by the extreme reaction, and wordlessly tapped against her own ear and gestured at Chloé’s. Chloé blushed and pulled the airpod out of her ear, still softly playing music as she shoved it into her bag.

‘I didn’t realise you could hear it.’ She muttered, not meeting Marinette’s eyes. She took a breath, and seemed to be struggling with something. ‘...Sorry.’

Marinette had heard Chloé say that word a couple of times before, to Adrien or a teacher, but it was the first time it had ever been directed at her. Even for something as simple as that, it was pretty shocking and she found herself responding without thinking. ‘S’okay. I liked it.’

Chloé looked up at her in surprise. She glanced between Marinette and the teacher’s empty desk. ‘You’re not going to…’ The question hung in the air but Marinette shook her head.

‘No. I’m not a snitch.’ She quickly amended this, her words running away from her. ‘Or well, my official stance on snitching is if no one’s getting hurt why bother saying anything, but if someone is going to get hurt if you don't say anything then you should probably say something, but- uh, anyway, no. I won’t say anything.’ She eventually finished, inwardly cursing herself for not knowing how to shut up.

She waited for Chloé to inevitably start making fun of her, but Chloé only coughed awkwardly. ‘Thanks.’

Well that was different.

They stood silently for a beat too long before Marinette nodded emphatically and grabbed her bag. ‘Okay, well, I’ll see you tomorrow.’ She said, too loudly.

‘See you.’ Chloé echoed quietly, and Marinette quickly walked over to where Nino was waiting for her, eager to leave whatever-that-was behind her.

After that, whenever the class was quiet enough, Marinette could hear Chloé’s music discreetly playing. Pop hits, movie soundtracks, a lot of acoustic covers. Songs Marinette had never heard before. It was strange, sharing something with Chloé Bourgeois.

They never talked about it.

One Monday morning (who puts maths on a Monday morning, what hell did they crawl out of) Marinette was practically nodding off. She’d spent most of yesterday helping her parents out with a huge order for a charity drive, and she was up late finishing off her homework.

She wasn’t really paying attention, which only became an issue when their teacher called on her for an answer. She floundered, looking between her textbook and unfortunately blank notebook as if hoping the answer would appear.

Then she felt a kick on her ankle. Already on edge, she was about to snap at Chloé, years of instinct kicking in, when she noticed Chloé subtly nudging her own notebook towards her. In the top corner ‘-29.5’ was written. Putting her trust in Chloé was always a risk, but the answer was as good as any. She hesitantly called it out, and their teacher merely nodded and continued writing on the board, calling out a question to another student.

Marinette looked at Chloé, but the other girl was writing in her own notebook.

‘Thank you.’ She whispered, surprised at the gesture. Chloé never really put herself out there for, well anyone really, but definitely not Marinette.

Chloé shrugged and continued writing as if nothing had happened.

She was still confusing.

The thing was, Chloé wasn’t a quiet person. Marinette could hear her in the halls, and Alya complained about how much she talked in their Lit Studies class. Chloé wasn’t really mean anymore, but she still demanded attention. Usually. But whenever Marinette was around she seemed to go quiet. And distant. And kind of awkward.

And Marinette had no idea what that meant. At first she’d thought Chloé still hated her enough that she wanted nothing to do with her, but their time in maths seemed to shoot that theory down. Maybe Chloé had just spent so much time hating her, now they had their truce she didn’t know how to behave around her anymore?

Confusing.

As the weeks went on, she and Chloé slowly started talking more. First about the weather. Then about the class. Sometimes even about school in general.

One time Marinette braided a red ribbon through her hair to match the new dress she’d designed and Chloé actually complimented her. It was a sort of strange, stuttering ‘Uh, you look- nice.’ But hey, it’s progress.

Their relationship (if you could call it that) was a little… strained. And kind of weird. But, true to their words on their first day of lycée, it was also civil. Which was a first in all the years they’d known each other. Marinette found that she was actually relieved. A sort-of-nice-enough relationship with her old rival and a handful of daily interactions that didn’t end in shouting was honestly more than she’d ever hoped for.

Marinette realised she didn’t know much about Chloé, besides the fact that she was rich and liked fashion.

She was also good at maths, although she seemed to hide it. Her phone background was one of those mid-ride theme park photos, which showed Chloé, Sabrina and Adrien screaming and making ridiculous faces on a rollercoaster. And she was really into superheroes, if the pins on her bag and the stickers on her notebook were any indication.

None of these things were exactly earth-shattering, but they were different from the image of Chloé that Marinette had built up over the years.

Late one afternoon, Marinette had stayed in the library to work on a group project. The other students left right after they finished, but she had to trek back to the other end of the school to grab a book she’d forgotten in her locker.

The school was quiet, most people had already headed home. Marinette trudged along, her mind going through the list of all the things she had to do before tomorrow. But when she passed the hallway leading to the arts rooms she paused.

A gentle guitar melody floated down the hallway. Marinette hesitated for a moment, but the sound was soft and sweet and familiar and she found her feet moving towards it before her thoughts had caught up with her.

The door to the music room was ajar, and as she got closer Marinette recognised the song, it was an acoustic version of Married Life from Up. Marinette didn’t want to interrupt, but she was also a naturally curious person, and so she peeked around the door to see the musician inside.

It was Chloé.

To say Marinette was shocked was an understatement. First there was the fact that Chloé, who didn’t even seem to like school, was here so late in the first place. Then there was the other very unexpected fact that the scene before her left her breathless.

Chloé was sitting on a desk by the window, hair shining golden in the afternoon sunlight. She was relaxed in a way Marinette had never seen her before, a soft smile on her lips as she played. She was really good, her fingers plucking over the strings with a practiced ease.

Marinette wasn’t sure if it was the music or Chloé herself but something about it all was captivating, and she couldn’t help but smile.

Until she remembered exactly where she was, what she was doing, and most importantly who she was admiring. Then the thought that she was admiring Chloé Bourgeois hit her like lightning, and Marinette was backing away from the door and bolting down the hall like her life depended on it.

What the hell was she thinking?

Chloé was straight. And she was also kind of a homophobe. And sure, she was pretty, in an objective-third-party-observer sort of way. But she was also Chloé Bourgeois - the girl who’d gone out of her way to antagonise Marinette since they were kids. And okay, she might not be as insufferable as she used to be, but she’d never apologised for her behaviour and she wasn’t exactly friendly now either, even if she was weirdly nice sometimes in an awkward sort of way.

But none of that mattered!

Any kind of romantic thoughts - not that she’d been thinking anything romantic of course just hypothetically - would not only make Marinette an idiot but also insane and probably a laughing stock. God, just think of whatever face Chloé would’ve made if she’d seen Marinette watching her play. She didn’t need that kind of humiliation in her life.

Chloé was just a student she had to be civil with. Any other thoughts (if there even were any) could be locked away and the key thrown out.

And that had been Marinette’s stance since.

But then Chloé suddenly showed up at the pride meeting.

But then Chloé genuinely seemed to be trying to change for the better.

And if she’s changing, maybe Marinette can too. Maybe they could even be friends.

(Because even if she’s changing, and even if she’s into girls, thinking anything else - even hypothetically - would still make Marinette an idiot.)

~

Marinette is in the library one afternoon studying. Well, she was studying, until this guy from the grade above came over and started talking to her. What started as polite ‘what’s-the-time’ conversation quickly devolved into aggravating flirting. Apparently he believes that telling her how “smokin” he thinks she looks is a legitimate compliment and guaranteed way to get her number. The guy leans on the back of the chair next to her and looms above, refusing to take her repeated hints to leave her alone.

She finally says outright, ‘I’m not going to give you my number, I just want to study.’ His “charming” expression instantly shifts to an ugly snarl.

He has some choice words about girls leading on a nice guy like him, and how he wouldn’t want the number of someone ‘like her’ anyway. Marinette grits her teeth, getting ready to move, and vaguely wonders whether his speech is about to get racist, panphobic or transphobic, or maybe a combination of all three.

A pile of books slam down between her and the guy, making them both jump. Marinette looks up in shock to see a familiar blonde plant herself between Marinette and the guy.

‘Yeah, you’d better not finish that sentence.’ Chloé snarls, advancing towards the guy, causing him to back up. ‘Like any girl would ever give the time of day to a greasy, brainless, sexist pig like you. If I ever see you talking to a girl like that again in this school, or honestly anywhere, I’ll have my lawyers on you so fast you’ll be drowning under harassment claims until you’re thirty.’

The guy practically runs from the library, stuttering an apology over his shoulder.

Chloé smooths her hair back down and glances at Marinette. ‘You alright?’ she asks. Her cheeks are flushed from the confrontation. There’s a window behind her that frames her face in light, making her look almost angelic. It’s kind of a bad time for Marinette to realise just how attractive Chloé really is.

‘Fine. Thanks.’ She rasps. Chloé shrugs self consciously and goes to pick up her books. ‘You can stay. If you want.’

Their eyes lock and Chloé’s face softens. She hesitates for a moment, but then she pulls the chair out, sits down beside Marinette and starts opening up her books.

They sit quietly for a moment. ‘You know, technically I did give him the time of day.’ Marinette says, and Chloé looks over at her. ‘He asked for the time.’ She says in explanation and Chloé snorts.

‘You know, next time a creep asks for your number, just tell him you don’t have a phone while you’re already texting someone. It’s the perfect combination of petty and disinterested.’

Marinette laughs at that. Chloé blinks, a blush dusting her cheeks as she looks away and focuses on her books. But Marinette notices her smiling.

Their impromptu study session is the first time they’ve spent any time together outside of class or a pride related meet up. They work out that they often study at the same time and slowly start studying together more often. It’s a little awkward at first, but Marinette’s never been one to give up easily and after a few sessions they’re getting along surprisingly well, and Marinette thinks they slowly might be becoming friends.

~

Marinette considers herself to be a pretty reliable person. It’s something she prides herself on. But that reliability can become an issue when she’s trying to be reliable to ten different people at the same time. The most frustrating thing is that she usually knows when she’s stretching herself too thin, but she can never bring herself to say no to someone who needs her help.

Which is why, a few minutes before the pride meeting is supposed to start, she is rushing through the school carrying way too many boxes of baked goods.

She’d been helping out a study group well into the evening yesterday, then she had to stay up late to work on an assignment, then overslept and was late to school and didn’t have time to get everything ready to pick up that afternoon for the pride meeting – but it was fine because she had time to get it together later, except for the fact that an emergency student council meeting had cut way into her time and she had only just managed to get home to get everything and she was still going to be late to start the meeting.

Marinette’s just rounding the corner of the building when her foot catches on a step she’d forgotten about. She pitches forwards with a yelp, and the boxes go flying. She manages to hold onto a few but they’re crushed under her as she slams into the ground, her palms stinging from the impact.

There’s some awkward laughter and sympathy groans around the courtyard from other students who saw her fall, but she tries to ignore it as she slowly sits up and looks around.

The desserts are ruined, either scattered on the pavement or crushed under her, and her new top has chocolate and whipped cream stains across it. Her stomach drops and she doesn’t know whether she should laugh or cry when a gentle hand takes her wrist.

‘Are you alright?’ Chloé asks.

Of course it has to be Chloé. Marinette has a real talent for humiliating herself in front of the other girl. She thought she’d outgrown it, but here they are again. Although it’s a little different. Chloé from collège would have laughed or scoffed, and Chloé from their first year at lycée would have said nothing at all. This Chloé kneels down beside her and reaches out to brush a piece of chocolate from her cheek. Huh.

Marinette shakes her head in response to her question, not meeting Chloé’s eyes as a mortified flush creeps up her neck. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be at the meeting?’ She mutters, her voice catching on the last word.

‘You know, me. Always fashionably late.’ Chloé jokes, but Marinette doesn’t respond except to scrub her hand at her eye. Chloé squeezes her wrist. ‘Hey, it’s okay. I’m sure you ju-’

Marinette pulls her hand from Chloé’s grasp. ‘It’s not okay! I’ve ruined all the snacks and I don’t have the budget to get more, and there’s no time anyway because I’m supposed to be starting the meeting right now but I’m a complete mess, and I barely even planned anything for this meeting because I never have any time for anything!’

Chloé looks at her in surprise. It’s not like Marinette’s never snapped at her before, but it’s been a while and it was never about something like this. Marinette’s face flushes an even darker red when she realises what she’s said, but Chloé doesn’t laugh. Her gaze travels over Marinette’s face shifting from surprised to thoughtful to determined. Before Marinette can say anything, Chloé pulls her up by the arm and is leading her back to the front of the school.

‘What are you doing?’ Marinette gets a few weird looks from people as they walk, and she tries to cover the stains on her shirt with her arm. Chloé notices and glares at anyone who dares look in their direction.

‘We are working this out.’ She says, pulling out her phone.

‘What about the meeting?’

‘That’s why you have a vice-president, right?’ Chloé says, flashing her a quick smile over her shoulder. She opens her contacts on her phone and hits call. ‘Hey, Alya, you’ve gotta run the meeting for a bit… Yeah she’s fine, we’re just fixing something… I don’t know, go over the agenda, talk about gay-subtext in that cartoon you like, or the news – aren’t you a reporter? You’ll think of something.’ She hangs up without waiting for a response, and Marinette snorts thinking about the look that must be on Alya’s face.

‘Would there be enough desserts at your parents bakery?’ Chloé asks, and Marinette shakes her head.

‘We make more because we know I’ll need them. And stock sells early on weekdays so there’s not enough. And making anything takes too long and my parents are already working on a big order and everything’s already ruined and Chloé what are we even doing!?’

Chloé finally stops when they reach the parking lot.

‘Look, if you’ve got a plan maybe you could share it?’ Marinette asks.

‘You are going home and fixing yourself up. I am calling the cafe around the corner for an emergency delivery.’ She says, typing into her phone again. ‘By the time you get back we’ll have all the snacks we need and plenty of time before the talking part of the meeting ends.’

Marinette’s shaking her head before Chloé finishes. ‘I don’t have the money for all that. The budget’s already so small-’

But Chloé’s waving her off before she can finish. ‘It’s fine, I’m shouting.’ She’s already typing something else into her phone. Marinette blinks at her, gratitude and stubbornness rushing through her. Stubbornness wins out.

She reaches out and gently pushes Chloé’s phone down. ‘Chloé, thank you, that’s really sweet but I can’t accept that.’ She thinks that will be the end of it, but she must be out of practice in disagreeing with Chloé, because things never ended that easily, the other girl was just as stubborn as her.

Chloé huffs and begins listing things with her fingers. ‘I have the money, I like the pride club, and you need the help. It’s fine, I swear.’ She sighs when Marinette continues to shake her head. ‘Come on – you do nice things for people all the time! Let me do this for yo- for the club.’ Her tone has lost some of the defensiveness and instead sounds almost… pleading.

Even the newer, nicer Chloé didn’t really go out of her way for other people like this. The Chloé standing before her has something to prove. And if she was trying to turn a new leaf, who was Marinette to stand in her way?

‘Alright.’ Marinette says eventually, and Chloé’s whole face lights up. ‘Thank you, I really appreciate it.’

Chloé calls the cafe nearby, and Marinette’s glad not to be on the other end of the line, because as willing as Chloé is to pay for her services, an order of ‘all the cakes and desserts you have, to be delivered in the next fifteen minutes’ is not the easiest task.

Satisfied that Chloé’s onto it, Marinette gets into her car and heads home. She’s not used to letting someone else have control, but Chloé’s taking things seriously and honestly it feels good not to have all the pressure on her shoulders for a change. She pulls up at her house and she dashes inside to clean herself up and change, and by the time she’s pulling back up at the school, Chloé is directing two delivery-men carrying two trays decked out in baked goods. They lead the deliveries to the classroom, where the pride meeting is being enthusiastically led by Alya.

Later, when everyone is eating the snacks, Marinette walks over and leans against the wall next to Chloé. ‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome. What were you doing with so many boxes by yourself anyway?’

‘I always do that. I want them to be fresh, so I head home just before break to get them.’

Chloé nods at this. ‘You know, I get that you have all these big ideas, and you usually do a great job with them, but there’s also no shame in getting help sometimes too. You don’t have to do everything by yourself.’

Marinette sighs. ‘I know. Or, in theory I know. In practice, I can be kind of a perfectionist.’

‘You? Never.’

She elbows Chloé in the side. ‘It’s something I’m working on. Like with today. This club’s really important to me. I’m always worried it’s going to fall apart if I can’t do everything perfectly. But this was good. You with the food, and Alya with the club. Made me realise I’m not, you know, the only one holding it together. It was kind of a relief to have someone else take care of it. So thank you.’

‘You don’t have to keep thanking me. Sometimes people do nice things. And I know I’m not usually “some people” but… I’m trying.’

And Chloé keeps trying. The next week, when Marinette arrives before the meeting with all the snacks, she sees Chloé waiting by the entrance to the car park. She claims she’s bored and figured she could help with carrying. But she’s there the time after that too. And the one after that. It became their routine before every meeting.

The pride meetings could sometimes get into some pretty serious topics. Before she got the all clear for the meetings, the school counsellor made it clear that Marinette was to encourage people to come talk to her, and to tell her in confidence the names of any students she felt needed some, well, counselling. Marinette was also required to do a course on mental health to make sure she was prepared to be running a group like this. And it was days like this she was especially grateful for it.

Because in this particular meeting the topic of homophobic parents comes up.

Some of the students have parents that aren’t accepting, and some of them are still in the closet because of it. They need a place to be heard and understood and supported. Marinette and the group try to help as much as they can. She encourages everyone to go and see the counsellor if they’re in the situation, and during the chatting period after the meeting goes and talks to each student that spoke out to make sure they’re okay.

After the last student she leans against the table to take a breather. Adrien comes up to her. ‘Have you seen Chloé?’ he asks quietly.

Marinette thinks back, but can’t remember when she last saw her. In fact, she doesn’t think Chloé said a word the entire meeting. It was like it was her first time there again. She’d been caught up with everyone else and hadn’t noticed. ‘No, sorry. Is she okay?’

Adrien sighs. ‘It’s her business, I don’t want to overstep, but some of the stuff that came up would’ve… affected her.’

Marinette runs a hand through her hair and looks around the room, hoping to see her but knowing she wouldn’t be there. ‘Crap, okay. We should make sure she’s alright. You check the lockers, I’ll check the bathroom.’

He gives her a grateful smile and they leave together.

She peeks her head into the bathroom at the end of the hall. Chloé is standing at the sink with her back to her, applying makeup in the mirror.

Marinette lets out a relieved sigh and steps into the room. ‘There you are, Adrien and I were worried-’

Chloé starts and spins around. Any thought of what she was saying flies out of Marinette’s head because Chloé’s eyes are red and face splotchy, although the newly applied makeup is doing its best to hide it. Marinette feels a pang in her chest. ‘Oh Chloé…’

The other girl stiffens and turns back around, pulling out another tube of concealer. ‘I’m fine.’ Her tone leaves no room for argument. She sounds just like the Chloé from years ago, so much anger and defensiveness in everything she said and did. Marinette remembers the various homophobic things she’d heard Chloé say over the years, and her confession of how long she’d known she liked girls. The homophobic parents aren’t all that hard to fit into the picture. She wonders if that younger Chloé ever locked herself in the bathroom too. She knows that her younger self wouldn’t have known what to think or do if she’d ever found the apparently untouchable queen bee in a situation like this.

But they’ve both grown a lot since then.

Marinette walks over and leans back against the sink besides Chloé. ‘I don’t want to push, so I can pretend that you’re fine if you want. It’s just… you shouldn’t have to hide how you’re feeling if you’re not okay. And maybe I can help?’

Chloé huffs. ‘And what could you do to help?’ It’s meant to sound haughty, but there’s a break in her voice exposing her vulnerability.

‘Well for one, crying on someone’s shoulder is usually preferable than crying alone in a bathroom stall. And mine’s available.’ Chloé laughs at that. Short and a little stilted, but still there.

Marinette smiles, and touches her shoulder. Chloé meets her eyes for the first time. ‘And you could talk. Sometimes even if there’s not a perfect solution, just getting it off your chest or knowing someone’s there for you can be really good. And you can definitely talk to me, but if that’s not something you want or it feels like too much, you could always talk to the school counsellor.’ Chloé starts shaking her head, but Marinette pushes forwards. ‘Counsellors can be really good, I swear. Everyone needs help sometimes and they’re literally trained to listen and give advice.’

Chloé’s nodding, and gives her a little nervous look. ‘I know. I’ve- uh, I’ve got a therapist.’

Oh. That makes a lot of sense actually, with how much Chloé’s changed over the last few years, and how much happier she is. ‘That’s great.’

‘Yeah, but I haven’t seen her in a while. Or ever really talked about all this. So, I’ll… think about doing that. Thanks.’ Chloé sighs and leans back against the sink. ‘I didn’t mean to get so worked up, but I wasn’t expecting all that in the meeting.’

‘Mmm, sometimes it can get pretty serious. Although our decorations may have fooled you, it’s not all rainbows. But having that kind of support and knowing other people are going through it is why I started the meetings in the first place.’

‘I think it’s great that you did. I remember when they started. I wanted to go so badly but I just…couldn’t. What would people think of me? What if she-’ She bites her lip and stares at the floor. ‘What if my mom found out? Or my dad? And I finally worked up the courage to go, and I was hoping people would think I was there as a joke or to cause trouble. But then you showed up in all your righteous fury and called it a ‘safe space’ and everyone was so sweet to each other. It was terrifying but it was also the first time I’d felt less… alone, I guess. Like maybe I could actually come out as, you know.’ Chloé’s voice has dropped to a whisper and she gestures vaguely with one hand.

‘You don’t have to say it.’

Marinette wonders if Chloé takes that as a dare, because every time she says it Chloé side eyes her and barges ahead anyway.

‘A lesbian.’ Chloé blinks, like she can’t believe she’s said it. She sighs, like a weight’s off her shoulders. Her voice is small but determined. ‘I’m… a lesbian. And those meetings are the first thing that have made me feel like one day I’ll be alright with that.’

Marinette grins at her and puts her hand over the other girls, giving it a squeeze. Chloé definitely blushes but smiles back. ‘I’m really proud of you, Chloé. Thanks for telling me all that. And about your parents,’ Chloé pulls her hand away and tugs self consciously at her jacket. ‘Look, I get it’s sensitive. And I might not know exactly what’s going on but I know you and your mom have some issues, and your dad’s parties policies aren’t…great for people like us. And well, just know parents aren’t always right about everything. A lot of them can be really wrong actually. And coming out can be really scary but you don’t have to do anything unless you’re safe and sure you’re ready. And I’m gonna be there every step of the way, if you want me.’

‘Knowing you, you’ll be there every step of the way whether I want you there or not.’ Chloé’s eyes narrow at her but there’s a hint of a smile playing at the edge of her lips.

‘Hey! I respect boundaries. Or I try to. But I also want to help.’

‘Relax, I’m just teasing. Thank you, that actually means a lot.’ She fiddles with the ends of her hair. ‘You know I’ve never told anyone all that. Adrien knows a lot of it. But I’ve never actually said le- that particular word out loud about, well, me.’

She lets out a nervous laugh and Marinette bumps Chloé’s side with her hip. ‘I’m honoured. The first person I came out to was my goldfish.’

Chloé bursts out laughing. ‘Does that even count?’ She wheezes, all traces of uncertainty gone.

‘Of course it does! I was five and Cheeto the goldfish was the best trans ally I’ve ever known.’ Chloé’s trying her best to muffle her laughter with her hands but little snorts are still coming through. Marinette’s grin softens and she can’t help but think that’s really cute. The mood might be lighter, but she still needs to make something clear. ‘Seriously though, I am really glad you told me. And don’t worry, I’d never tell anyone. And obviously you don’t have to, but maybe you could tell Adrien too. He really cares about you. And he’s very trustworthy.’

‘He’s my oldest friend. He’s always stuck by me. I think that might be a good idea.’

‘Yikes, speaking of good ideas, I should text him. He’s probably still out looking for you.’ While Marinette lets a relieved Adrien know Chloé’s alright, the bell rings signaling the end of the break.

Chloé sighs. ‘God, I feel drained. The last thing I want to do is go back to class.’

Marinette hums in agreement and stretches her arms above her head. After the unexpected topic of the meeting and her subsequent attempts to comfort everyone involved she’s exhausted. Plus, her afternoon is a fascinating mix of maths and science that she could stand to miss. As she lowers her arms back down she catches Chloé checking out her midriff out of the corner of her eye and a little thrill shoots through her.

‘Then don’t.’ It comes out of her mouth before she can think too much about it.

Chloé jumps, startled eyes tearing away from her waist to meet her gaze. ‘Wait, what?’

‘Don’t go back to class. I think we should ditch.’ Her voice rises in excitement. She’s never broken a rule like this before, but it seems to be a day of firsts.

Chloé frowns at her. ‘Is this some kind of class-rep-good-girl joke, cause I’m not getting it.’

Marinette rolls her eyes. ‘No! We’re both exhausted and I think we deserve a break. So why don’t we get out of here and go do something fun?’

‘What like extra homework?’

‘Yes, obviously I want to ditch school to do more school. C’mon, you just came out, we could go get celebratory ice cream or something.’ She trails off. Chloé’s looking at her with an expression she can’t quite place. ‘I mean, you don’t have to. I can go myse-’

‘No, I want to.’

Their eyes lock but Marinette quickly looks away, nodding several times. ‘Okay, good, ok-ay. Let’s go then!’

Marinette goes to sneak out of the school, darting from cover to cover. Chloé scoffs, saying ‘It’s not Mission Impossible.’ And walks right out the front door, with Marinette trailing behind her. Chloé doesn’t want to call her driver before school hours are over, so they decide to use Marinette’s car.

They stop at a cute little ice cream place by the Seine and sit outside, trying each others flavours and chatting while they enjoy what’s probably the last warm weather they’ll see for a while.

Marinette realises that this is the first time they’ve ever done… anything like this together. The only times they’ve seen each other out of school were for the pride club coffee meet ups, and the only times they’ve really spent one on one were to study. So this was a pretty big deal. She’s also surprised to realise that spending time with Chloé like this is… really nice. And natural in a way she wasn’t expecting.

They’re walking back to the car along the river, a breeze blowing steadily across them. Marinette’s hair is up in a bun so she’s fine, but Chloé’s is down so the wind keeps whipping her hair into her face and Marinette can’t help but laugh at how disgruntled she is.

‘Oh, sure. Laugh at my pain.’ Chloé grumbles and Marinette chuckles.

‘Come on, it’s going to be cold and miserable again soon, we should enjoy this!’ She grabs Chloé’s arm and pulls her over to the stone railing separating the walkway from the river. They’re facing the wind now, and Marinette breathes in with a smile as she watches the ripples across the water.

She glances over at Chloé to say something but her thoughts still when she sees the expression on the other girl’s face. It’s… something different, almost fond and conflicted all at once. Chloé quickly turns away.

‘I- uh. Thank you, for this. You really know how to cheer a person up.’ She says quietly.

‘You’re welcome. It’s one of my many talents.’ Marinette jokes, but it seems to fall flat as Chloé crosses her arms and leans against the wall.

‘Well, I appreciate it.’

Marinette’s not sure what to make of Chloé’s sudden strange mood or what happened to cause it. She decides to tread lightly. ‘S’okay. I had fun too.’ She says, nudging Chloé in the arm. But that does nothing to relieve the tension, because Chloé abruptly turns to her with an incredulous look.

‘You’re just so- I don’t get you. Why are you so nice to me?’ The words burst out of her like a dam exploding, and there’s no going back. ‘After everything I did? You have every right to hate me, or to completely ignore me, but you just- you’re still…’ Chloé’s anguish is clear but Marinette can only stare at her in shock.

This was the thing that they didn't talk about. She believes in second chances and in helping people, but she hasn’t forgotten everything Chloé has done. And Marinette’s kind of pissed that Chloé’s going to bring it up at all, especially considering she’s never even-

‘Look, I…’ Chloé takes a breath, looking back out over the water. ‘I’ve been trying to work out how to say this for a while now, like a long while. But I never knew how to say it and nothing ever sounded right and by then I left it too long. But I know I’ve never actually apologised to you.’ Chloé turns to her, nervous and determined at the same time. ‘And I am so sorry, Marinette. For everything. Honestly. No one deserves half the shit I put you through, especially not someone like you. And you obviously don’t have to forgive me, but I wanted you to know how sorry I am. Truly.’ Chloé says with sincerity.

And Marinette’s stunned. She knows she’s supposed to react in some way but she’s just frozen in place, completely astonished. She’d already accepted a long time ago that even if Chloé was sorry, she wasn’t going to say so. She still remembers a twelve-year-old Chloé claiming that ‘apologies are for pushovers and people who are about to be fired’. So she’s really not sure what to do with a genuine apology like this.

Eventually Marinette’s brain catches up with her thoughts and she manages an, ‘I-uh…’

She realises aside from shock she’s also feeling grateful. Confused as to why now, and a little exasperated at how long it took, but grateful for such a heartfelt admission. The fact that Chloé’s not expecting forgiveness sinks in, and Marinette takes in how fragile the other girl looks at her lack of response, and she manages a coherent sentence. ‘Thanks. For saying all that.’

Chloé lets out an involuntary sigh of relief. She seems to grapple with something for a second, before settling on, ‘It was long overdue.’

Silence settles between them as Chloé stares at the ground and Marinette gazes out at the water. The significance of what just happened starts to dawn on Marinette.

Her relationship with Chloé has changed a lot over the years, from antagonism, to civility to their now-almost-sort-of-friendship. When Chloé showed up to the pride meeting Marinette set aside their differences to reach out to her, knowing that every queer person deserves to have someone in their corner. But while she’s actually grown to like the other girl, she’s held herself back, their history becoming an elephant in the room as they tried to move past it without ever talking about it. Now that it was out in the open… and Chloé had apologised for it… put herself out there and was genuinely remorseful…

Marinette glances at the girl beside her. Chloé looks small, and dazed. She’s fiddling with her hands, like she’s jumped across a barrier and isn’t sure what to do now she’s on the other side. Marinette feels a tingling in her chest.

She wants to be friends with Chloé. Really friends, not some kind of half-awkward attempt at it. Chloé’s trying to make amends and move forwards, and Marinette doesn’t have it in her heart to refuse.

‘I accept.’

‘What?’ Chloé turns to her, startled out of her own thoughts.

‘I accept your apology.’ Marinette says, her lips curling into a smile at the bewilderment on Chloé’s face.

She starts to shake her head. ‘You don’t have to-’

‘No, listen.’ Marinette holds up a hand, and Chloé pauses at the seriousness in her voice. ‘I’m not saying it was okay. None of it was okay. But usually when someone apologises you wait and see if their actions show that they mean what they said. You’ve already changed your actions and been a nicer person these last couple of years, so I know you mean it. And yeah, the apology’s late but I get why, that couldn’t have been easy to say and I still appreciate it.’

Now Chloé’s the one who’s left stunned. She gapes at Marinette in disbelief before turning away, a hand coming up to run over her face as she mutters something under her breath, but all Marinette can make out is ‘fucking hell… unbelievable… years ago…’

She looks back at Marinette, hesitant, as if waiting for her to take it back. When she doesn’t, Chloé just shakes her head. ‘You’re really something Marinette Dupain-Cheng.’

‘Is that a good thing?’

Chloé huffs but a smile cracks through. ‘Yeah. It is.’ She says breathlessly and Marinette blushes.

‘Thanks.’

‘Thanks for accepting my apology.’ Chloé says quietly, before rushing out, ‘You won’t regret it. I can’t- I don’t think I could ever make up for all of it, but I plan to try to.’

And that’s- sweet. It is. But it leaves Marinette with a heavy feeling in her chest as something she’s always wondered and worried about comes to the forefront of her mind. Maybe she’ll finally get an answer.

‘Why…’ She starts, before realising how absurd it sounds, and why ruin the moment, and come on, Marinette, you’ll just make her uncomfortable, don’t you ever think before you speak? ‘Never mind.’ She says hastily.

She’s taken out of her thoughts by a soft, unsure touch at her arm. Chloé nods at her. ‘No, you can say anything, really.’

Marinette bites her lip, her morbid curiosity getting the better of her for an answer she’s not sure she wants to hear. ‘Why did you… do all of that? I mean, you obviously had stuff going on, you pushed everybody, but you… singled me out. I guess I just… always wondered what your problem with me was?’

Chloé pulls her arm back, sorting out what she wants to say. Marinette would say the anticipation wasn’t killing her, but it kind of was. After a moment Chloé sighs and runs a hand through her hair.

‘I didn’t have a problem with you. Well, I mean I guess I did but… it was complicated. Look, I was a stupid, angry, insecure brat. And you… were so good, all the time. To everyone. I didn’t think anyone could be like that without wanting something out of it. So I didn’t trust you. Which turned out to be ridiculous because you really were just that nice of a person. And I was too busy being- being jealous to realise that.’

‘Jealous!? Of what?’ Marinette cries out, shocked at the revelation.

‘Of you!’

‘What about me?’

‘Everything!? You were smart and talented and pretty and everybody liked you. You always seemed to know what to say or to do. You’re parents showed up to every single school function and completely adored you. And you were out and proud and confident about who you were and everyone still liked you anyway!’ Chloé’s voice catches at the end and she clears her throat, hands wringing together as thoughts she kept locked away for years pour out. ‘It was stupid. And selfish. I didn’t even realise that’s what it was about at the time. Everything you did drove me crazy and I couldn’t work out why. And by the time I’d worked out what a bitch I was and that I actually just wanted to be like you, I’d already ruined everything. I’m so sorry Marinette. I understand if you want to un-accept the apology.’ She whispers, her eyes pained.

‘No, I just… that’s a lot to take in.’ Holy shit that’s a lot to take in. Marinette’s overwhelmed, trying to piece back together their history with this new information. The idea that Chloé Bourgeois, the girl who seemed to have everything, had been jealous of her seems almost insane, if anyone other than Chloé herself had said it she doesn’t think she’d believe it. Marinette sighs and leans against the railing, a mix of emotions whirling through her. ‘I mean, it sucks. Sure. But it’s also a tiny bit relieving. I always thought you just hated me.’

‘I never hated you.’ Chloé admits.

And Marinette nearly faceplants into the railing. She gapes at the girl who’s thrown yet another curveball at her within the span of a few minutes and Chloé just shrugs helplessly.

‘Oh my god. You are the most confusing person I’ve ever met.’ Marinette mutters in disbelief, pinching at the bridge of her nose where she can feel a headache coming on.

‘Sorry.’

Marinette laughs and shakes her head. ‘Okay, I never thought I’d say this, but stop saying sorry.’ Chloé ducks her head and peeks at her out of the corner of her eyes, unsure of Marinette’s reaction. It’s endearing and Marinette takes a breath, ready to get this all out in the open and behind them. ‘You know what, fuck it. You were a terrible person. But you realised you were being terrible and stopped, and tried to do better, and now you’ve apologised for it. And I think that’s good and important, and that’s all you can really ask of someone. So can we just… move forwards? Not with a truce, but like… understanding?’

Chloé’s eyes are wide and shining, and she nods desperately. ‘Yes, yeah. Yeah, I’d really like that.’

‘Okay. Cool. So, we’re good?’

‘Yeah, we’re good.’ Chloé smiles shyly at her, and Marinette smiles back, feeling like a weight’s off her shoulders, one she didn’t even know was there.

‘Alright. I think that’s the first time we can actually say that.’

‘Well, sometimes miracles happen.’ Chloé says sheepishly. ‘Thank you, for listening to all that. And for being a hell of a lot more understanding than I ever would have been.’

‘Honestly grudges are exhausting. I just prefer being nice to people, it’s easier. And I actually kind of like spending time with you, so. Everybody wins.’ Marinette grins, something occurring to her. ‘Oooh, wait. I’ve got a condition to my-accepting-your-apology.’

Chloé’s face falls. ‘Oh? W-what is it?

‘If we go out for ice cream again, you buy.’ Marinette says seriously. Chloé pauses, before she realises what Marinette’s said and she shakes her head in exasperation, but her face is lit up by a disbelieving grin.

‘Deal. You are the second most confusing person I've ever met.’

They both stare out at the water for a moment longer, something new settling between them. Marinette shakes off the reverie as the exhaustion of the day catches up with her. She claps Chloé on the shoulder. ‘You ready to head back?’ Chloé nods and they start to walk away.

Once they’ve found the car, Marinette drives Chloé to the hotel. But when she pulls up outside, they both hesitate, not sure what to say. After an awkward pause Chloé clears her throat.

‘Thanks for today.’ She says quietly.

‘Yeah, you too.’ Marinette nods, tapping at the wheel.

‘Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘See you then.’ Marinette replies. They smile at each other, before Chloé gets out. Marinette watches her walk away, and Chloé turns back once to look at her over her shoulder. When they realise they’re looking at each other they both blush and quickly turn away.

Marinette shakes her head, and pulls back out into the street. She decides to go home and have a rest after a lively day.

She collapses on her bed and stares at the ceiling. She thinks over the events of the day and runs a hand over her face, trying to work out whether she wants to cry or laugh or just sleep. She pulls out her phone to distract herself and sees a bunch of missed texts.

The latest one is from Alya, simply saying ‘ok. now that you’re dead nino wants permission to DJ at your funeral.’

She snorts and unlocks her phone.

BFFFFFFFF 📸🖕🏽😎

M: why am I dead?

A: She Speaks! you missed class this afternoon and we figured the only way that would happen was if you were sick
A: then you wouldn’t pick up the phone so obviously we assumed you’d died

M: Obviously.

A: you ok though? did something happen?

M: i was pretty tired after the meeting so i went home

A: …

M: what?

A: with permission though, right? cause some of the teachers were pretty confused as to where you were

M: …
M: i may have ditched

A: Ah. so you’re not dead. you’ve just been kidnapped and someone’s impersonating you.
A: or maybe you’ve been brainwashed.

M: i can be rebellious!

A: oh, so what did you do on Marinette’s Day Out?

M: got ice cream. came home to sleep.

A: true acts of rebellion right there

M: screw you - i already maxed out my rebellion quota ditching, and who doesn’t love ice cream

A: so you got this ice cream by yourself?

M: why do you ask?

A: there may have been someone else who was also missing from class. a certain blonde that you’ve had your eyes on

M: i have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about

A: oh so you didn’t spend the afternoon doing a bunch of DATE activities with Chloé Bourgeois???

M: they were not date activities!

A: jfkdsl;f;asldfh;as
A: SO YOU WERE OUT WITH CHLOE

M: NOT LIKE THAT. and i have NOT had my ‘eyes on her’ what does that even mean

A: it means you’re Always watching her and when she gets upset you lose your mind, ditch school and take her out for ice cream, apparently.

M: she needed a friend!

A: Mmmmmhmmmmmm

M: Don’t you Mhmm me Césaire

A: Mmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmm

M: Alya, seriously, it was a nice afternoon out to cheer up a friend. Nothing more.

A: Alright.

M: thank you.

A: just know I’m always here for you, babe. we can talk about this later when you’re willing to admit your Crush.

M: OH MY GOD
M: Friendship cancelled. Goodbye.

A: love you too.