An Unexpected Alliance

A/N: First ML fanfic, please be kind! (Yes, this is cross-posted on Ao3!)

. . .

Marinette had less time today than she would have liked. Maybe things would have been different if she had opted to work alone with Chat. Except, of course, she chose today to enlist the help of Chloé Bourgeois. It was a reward of good faith after the blonde started working to improve her attitude. Chloé was not the problem today. Time was.

After purifying the day's Akuma, a nasty viper empowered with the help of Hawkmoth's mysterious partner, Marinette led Queen Bee away from the scene to retrieve her miraculous. Which was her first mistake of the day. Paris knew who Queen Bee was; there was no reason to hide. Her second mistake was miscalculating how much time she had left of her transformation. As a result, Marinette heard the frantic beeps of her earrings' last warning just as Chloé handed over the miraculous box. Panic coursed through her body.

"Chloé–close your–" Her shouts were in vain. Ladybug's costume faded away with a pink shimmer and Tikki erupted from the earrings, immediately diving to hide in her human's purse (and nervous-eat her after-transformation macaron). Marinette deflated and half-heartedly finished her useless plea. "–eyes."

Chloé's jaw dropped and her gaze went shockingly blank. It took her a minute to recover before she turned her nose up and scoffed. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Of course it had to be you."

"I'm guessing that I can't ask you forget this ever happened?" Marinette squeaked. Of course it had to be You. She flinched, the words finally processing in her head. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!"

"I'm just saying," Chloé sneered, "that if course the goodie-two-shoes who's friends with the whole entire school is the most popular, amazing superhero in Paris. I mean, how blind are we? Next, you'll tell me that Adri-kins is Chat Noir."

Marinette blanched. "Adrien is not Chat."

"I know that!" She snapped. "I know everything about Adrien, Marinette. I mean, Ladybug. Marinette." Chloé hesitated, reality settling in. She knows who Ladybug is, the hero she's idolized for over a year. And she's nobody more than a stupid classmate. Chloé didn't know if she was excited or furious. Could she be both?

Sensing the growing apprehension, Mariette waved her hands in some attempt of quelling the situation. "Look, Chloé. I know I'm not the Ladybug you expected. In probably not the Ladybug you want. But can I please ask you to keep this..." She swallowed, suddenly very nervous. "... Between us?"

"Of course. Duh."

"Wait–really?" Marinette froze. Certainly, it couldn't be that easy? With Chloé? No way.

Chloé rolled her eyes. "Of course. Telling people doesn't benefit me," she scrunched her nose in disgust. "Like, at all."

"Oh."

"Besides the fact of who would ever believe me? It also makes this more dangerous if Paris knew who you actually were. Hawkmoth would have your miraculous in, like, an hour. Flat." She shrugged and turned her eyes down. So far, it wasn't great that her civilian rival was also her superhero idol. It meant she needed to be civil. And rational. It was ridiculous. "Who would save us if you couldn't be Ladybug? We...We need you. As Ladybug." She paused. "Not as Marinette, obvi."

If there was a time for Marinette to gloat, it would have been then. But instead, she was incredibly humbled. She smiled softly at her classmate. Marinette knew that Chloé could grow into a better person. Just like Madame Bustier said. She held up a pinky to the blonde. "Truce?"

Chloé hesitated before raising her own hand and linking fingers with Marinette. She narrowed her eyes. "I may love Ladybug, but I still hate Marinette. Nothing about that has changed."

Marinette grinned. "Likewise." She shook once and looked at Chloé with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "Brat."

"Fashion reject."

"Snob."

"Loser."

Marinette choked on a laugh at the weak insult and diverted her attention down to her purse. "Tikki, you ready?" The red kwami nodded with an amused grin. "Tikki, spots on!"

Chloé watched in dazed awe as Marinette transformed back into Ladybug in a flurry of pink glitter. So that's why she was always wearing those stupid earrings. It took her a moment to get her head screwed back in to remember that she wasn't supposed to like the dark haired girl in front of her. "Hey, now that you're a superhero, Dupain-Cheng, you should really think about upgrading your raggedy wardrobe."

"Funny thing, Chloé," Ladybug drawled, tossing her yo-yo out in the direction of Master Fu's apartment. "I don't remember asking for your opinion."

She flew off without another word, leaving Chloé slack-jawed and red in the face. "Ladybug!" she screeched. So not cool.

Marinette laughed as she soared over the rooftops of Paris to return the borrowed Miraculous. The reality was she wished she never had to compromise her identity. This option, however, proved to be the least complicated of the bunch. Carapace would have blurted it to Alya (he really loved her too much to keep a secret). Rena Rouge would have it on the LadyBlog in approximately 30 seconds. And Chat...she wanted to avoid all the emotions, heartbreak, and inevitable disappointment that would come when whoever was under that black mask realized she was just ordinary, not-special Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

She wanted to prolong that revelation for as long as she could.

Push come to shove, Chloé was the best option. She'd never admit it to anybody, but Marinette was happy to have Chloé Bourgeois on her side.

For once.

~FIN~

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