Before long Marinette found herself at Chloe's house, she took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A few agonizing seconds passed before an older looking woman opened the door.
"Can I help you with something Miss?" The woman asked, pushing her glasses back up on her nose. Marinette smiled up at her, hoping that she didn't know Chloe was running around as Queen of Broken Hearts lately.
"My name is Marinette… I go to school with Chloe." She told the woman, unfortunately it wasn't enough to get her inside.
"A lot of girls go to school with Ms. Bourgeois." The woman pointed out, starting to close the door over again.
"Wait!" Marinette panicked, she didn't handle situations like these well without the confidence her mask brought her. She took another breath and thought of Adrien… she had to do this for him. "Everyone left school in a hurry today. In all the commotion I think Chloe may have taken something that belongs to me." Marinette worked hard to keep an innocent look on her face, there was no need for this lady to know anything more than that.
"Well…" The woman sighed, opening the door a little bit. "You can come in and see if Chloe has what you're looking for. I think I heard her go up to her room when she got home, but I haven't seen her."
"Thank you!" Marinette grinned, entering the house. "Which way to Chloe's room?" She asked, unsure of where the girl could be in a house this large.
"Upstairs, second to last room on the right." The woman directed her before going back to the task she'd been working on before Marinette had interrupted her.
"Thanks again!" Marinette called as she ran up the stairs two at a time. She had no problem finding Chloe's room, partially because the perfectly white door had a big cursive C on it in a shiny silver color. Marinette hesitated, she didn't know whether she should knock or just go right in. She frowned and squeezed her eyes shut as her hand found the doorknob.
"You can do it." Tikki whispered from inside the girl's purse. Marinette nodded and opened the door to find Adrien sitting alone in the bay window reading a book.
"My Queen?" He asked, looking up when he heard the door. His smile faded into a disappointed look of disgust when he saw who it was. "What are you doing here?" He demanded, putting his book down and standing up. Marinette ignored how his actions tugged at her heart, telling herself over and over in her head that this was all because of Chloe's akuma.
"I came to take you back…" Marinette told him, her hands clenching into fists though she wasn't particularly angry at the moment. "Adrien, you love me, not Chloe." She shook her head. "I know we just technically became a couple on Friday, but we've loved each other for so much longer than that." She took his hand then, her finger gently sweeping over his ring. Adrien didn't seem to understand what she was getting at, the side effect of being hypnotized by Chloe's stupid hearts appeared to be that he didn't remember anything about being Cat Noir. Adrien ripped his hand out of hers and took an angry step back, narrowing his eyes at her.
"You're pathetic! You aren't even worth my love!" He yelled, getting angrier. "I don't know what kind of delusional fantasy world you're living in, but I love Chloe! Not you!" Adrien crossed his arms, looking down at Marinette coldly. The girl felt tears pooling in her eyes, but she refused to let them out. She was about to tell him about Chloe's akuma when she was interrupted by the sound of Queen of Broken Hearts enter the room.
"You heard him." The smug villain grinned. "Adrikins loves me now! You're nothing but a klutzy little annoyance. Nobody really likes you, we all just pretend to be nice because we all feel bad for you." The Queen let out a laugh then, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Face it Marinette, there's nothing special about you!"
"She's right." Adrien agreed, going over to kiss Queen of Broken Hearts on the cheek. The girl gratefully accepted and returned his love with a small kiss in return. Marinette glared at them, she could feel anger starting to bubble up inside of her.
"Now, get out or I'll kick you out!" The Queen shouted, shoving Marinette out of the room and locking the door. Marinette glared at the door, trying to figure out what to do next. She wouldn't go down this easily this time around.
"Marinette, spots on?" Tikki asked after a few minutes passed. The girl nodded once.
"Tikki! Spots on!" She yelled, waiting for her transformation into Ladybug to happen before she kicked the knob off the door and slammed the door open.
"Ladybug?!" Queen of Broken Hearts and Adrien yelled at the same time, surprised by the hero's sudden appearance.
"You've created enough of a mess for one day!" She yelled at the Queen before running towards the girl, her eyes locked on the bracelet hanging from her wrist. The villain side stepped her easily and started walking to the door when a pink butterfly outlining her face stopped her.
"Stop fooling around! Bring me her Miraculous!" Hawk Moth yelled. "Finish her once and for all!"
"You got it!" Queen of Broken Hearts called, spinning around and running towards Ladybug. Ladybug easily avoided her, but ended up right next to Adrien who wrapped his arms around her to keep her still.
"My Queen, I've got her!" He yelled. Ladybug frowned, she didn't want to hurt Adrien while she was trying to save him. She wiggled around in his arms until she freed herself, pushing Adrien away just as Queen of Broken Hearts tackled her. The two girls fought, each trying to gain the upper hand before the other had a chance to win.
"Give me your Miraculous!" The Queen whined reaching for Ladybug's earrings.
"Not today." Ladybug smiled smugly grabbed hold of the bracelet and pulled it from the villain's wrist. "Your heartbreaking days are over!" She told her as she pushed the girl off of her.
"Hey! That's not yours!" Adrien yelled, grabbing it out of her hand. Ladybug sighed and blew a piece of her hair out of her face. She'd seriously had enough of this.
"Seriously? I'm trying to save you!" She told him. "Lucky Charm!" She yelled, smiling as a red and black spotted pillow fell into her hands.
"What are you going to do with that?" The Queen asked smugly. Ladybug just smiled and tore a hole into the pillow and threw it at Adrien. The boy frowned when he caught it and a bunch of feathers flew into his face.
"Adrien is allergic to feathers." She told the villain triumphantly as the boy dropped the bracelet during his sneezing fit. Ladybug went and picked it up while Adrien was distracted by the feathers, twisting the charm off its chain and releasing the akuma.
"No!" Queen of Broken Hearts cried out in horror as she watched the akuma fly out. "It's not fair!" She screamed, stamping her foot.
"Time to deevilize!" Ladybug grinned, swinging her yoyo around until she caught the evil moth, transforming it back to its pure white form. She was quite pleased when she got to throw the pillow up in the air and return everything to normal.
"Ladybug?" Chloe asked when she came to her senses and saw the hero standing in her bedroom. "What are you doing here?"
"Umm…" Ladybug frowned, keeping Adrien to her back as she spoke so she wouldn't have to see him as she explained.
"You tricked Adrien into thinking he was in love with you instead of his girlfriend with the help of an evil butterfly called an akuma." Ladybug sighed and held out Chloe's Tiffany bracelet for her. "This is yours."
"Give me that!" Chloe yelled, grabbing it out of Ladybug's hand. Ladybug sighed, Chloe really wasn't all that much different than the Queen when it came to her bad attitude.
"I have to go now." Ladybug said, her words emphasized by her earrings blinking down to only two spots left. Without another word she started for the door.
"Ladybug, wait!" Adrien reached out for her and grabbed her by the wrist, spinning her so she was facing him. Ladybug looked at the sadness in his bright green eyes and instantly knew just how sorry he was for whatever had happened.
"I have to go before I change back." Ladybug told him softly, smiling as she pulled her hand away slowly, letting the contact remain for as long as possible.
"Go." He told her as he watched her earrings go down to their last spot. "I have to go find Marinette and apologize to her anyway." He sighed softly. "Thanks for saving me Ladybug."
"What's so great about Marinette?!" Chloe asked. Adrien sighed, rolling his eyes at Chloe as Ladybug left the room.
"Tikki, Spots off!" Ladybug called, at the top of the stairs. She waited until she was back to Marinette before she walked downstairs. "Goodbye." She smiled, waving to the woman from earlier as she made her way to the door.
"Did Chloe give you back what you were looking for?" She asked, trying to be friendly.
"She did, thank you." Marinette smiled at her as she left the house, she was in a hurry to get back to the bakery.
"Where have you been!?" Alya asked when Marinette finally walked in the door.
"Why?" Marinette panicked for a second. "Did something happen to the bakery while I was gone?!"
"No, relax Marinette." Nino smiled and came out from behind the counter. "We only had a few people come in actually."
"And now that you're back Nino and I have to go." Alya grinned. "He promised he'd help me with a new site design for the Lady Blog."
"That's fine. Thanks for watching the bakery for me." Marinette hugged Alya and walked her and Nino to the door. "Do you guys want anything for the road?"
"Nah, we're gonna grab some pizza or something." Nino answered, opening the door.
"Bye Marinette." Alya waved as she followed him out. Marinette waved back and then went inside so she could get started on Mr. Johnson's order.
"So, do you feel better now that you defeated Queen of Broken Hearts?" Tikki smiled up at Marinette from her spot on the table in the back room. Marinette smiled as she got the ingredients she needed to start the cupcakes.
"Yeah. I do." Marinette grinned, adding flour into the mixer. "I hope he knows I'm not mad at him." She sighed. "I mean, I think I was just a little shocked at what happened because it was our first fight knowing what we know about each other. It's going to take a little getting used to."
"I know you guys will figure it out." Tikki smiled, dragging a stack of cupcake papers over for Marinette. The girl was about to start putting them in the tray when the bell jingled, signaling that a customer had just walked in.
"Hold on Tikki." Marinette wiped her hands on her apron and went out to the front.
"Marinette…" Adrien frowned when he saw her, he didn't know what to say so he looked at the floor for a minute. When he looked back up at her his eyes looked glassy, like he was trying hard not to cry. "I am so sorry. I don't know exactly what happened, but it's not hard to guess based off what Plagg told me. I never meant to hurt you Mari."
A/N: So there's another chapter down. I hope you liked it, it was a little weird to write Ladybug fighting without Cat Noir fighting by her side. I'll have a new chapter up as soon as I can! Leave me a review if you want to make my day!