For breeeliss!
Femslash February 2/3: Rescue: After saving Chloe (again), Ladybug finally finds out why she keeps causing akumas.
"I can't believe you! This is the fifth Akuma this week, and it isn't even Thursday! What were you thinking?"
At least, that's what Ladybug would have said, if the look on Chloe's face hadn't frozen the words in her mouth. The heiress had done something to anger another Parisian, what Ladybug didn't know (and frankly she didn't want to know what Chloé could have done to inspire a cheese-themed villain). After digging Chloé out of a mountain of Gouda and swinging her to safety, one Lucky Charm was all it took to make Paris safe again.
Ladybug then swung up to Le Grand Paris, intent on telling Chloé where she could shove her attitude, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Chloé looked hurt, timid, completely unlike her usually sassy self. Her eyes trailed along the railing of her balcony, her shoes kicked at the tiles beneath her. It was as though she expected the scolding, she expected Ladybug to verbally tear her apart and had prepared herself for it. So, imagine her surprise when, instead of a tongue-lashing, Ladybug instead asked:
"Why?"
Chloé looked up at Ladybug. "What?"
"I know you don't want to turn people into Akumas, so why? Why do you do it?"
Chloé opened her mouth to answer, but snapped it shut and crossed her arms, her cheeks reddening. "It's not my fault people can't handle my attitude."
"But you know they can't." Ladybug took a step closer and rested her glove on Chloé's shoulder. "You claim we're friends, yet all you do is make more work for me, so why?"
She didn't answer immediately. She dropped her eyes back to her feet and whispered, "Because...this is the only way I get to see you."
Ladybug recoiled. Was that all Chloé wanted? To see her? To spend time with her?
"Chloé, I don't have time to–"
"I'm sorry," she said. No, sobbed.
Had Ladybug heard her right? Had Chloé Bourgeois...apologized? Not only that, but she was crying?
"I'm sorry I cause so much trouble for you. I'm sorry I'm such a terrible person, but this...causing Akumas and having them chase me is the only way I can see you. And every time you rescue me, I tell myself: this is it. This is when I tell her."
Ladybug leaned over to find Chloé's gaze. "Tell me...what?"
They stood in silence for a few seconds until Chloé's hand found Ladybug's cheek, and her lips found the heroine's. It was a chaste kiss, just a light flutter of Chloé's lips on her own. It broke just as quickly as it had begun. "Tell you that I...I..." Tears welled up in Chloe's eyes, the words she wanted to say danced on her tongue, but in the end she turned away, strode over to the doors to her bedroom, and threw them open.
"I'll stop. I'll stop getting people akumatized. You...won't have to rescue me anymore." Ladybug reached out a hand, but the doors had already shut between them. A rapid beep from her earrings cut off any chance of speaking to Chloé further.
When Marinette dropped into her own bedroom not two minutes later, she sat on her bed in silence for nearly another five. Not even Tikki could get her to speak, so the kwami resigned herself to finding her own cookies. Marinette's trembling fingers soon found their way to her lips. Chloé had kissed her. Chloé had stolen her first kiss. Okay, technically Chat was her first kiss, but that was just to save him from Dark Cupid and he wasn't even aware of it. And Marinette hadn't felt anything when she kissed Chat, but when Chloé kissed her...
She tried to ignore it. She tried to ignore how her heart fluttered through the rest of her day. She tried to ignore how, in her dreams, the blonde she held hands with as they walked along the Seine had blue eyes instead of green. She tried to ignore how the murmur in her heart intensified when she saw Chloé in class the next day. But when she greeted Adrien the next morning without stuttering and realized she hadn't spared him a single thought since her encounter with Chloé, she couldn't ignore it anymore.
Marinette was...in love with Chloé.