Disclaimer: never did and never will own it. Thomas Astruc does.
Spoilers: canon until Season 2, Episode 10 (Sapotis)

Two weeks ago…

Queen Bee had managed to tackle down Cat Noir when arriving at the Collège Françoise Dupont. They brawled like ruffians, Queen Bee finding herself on the ground more than once and protesting how her perfect hair would get dirty.

"The things I do for you," she grumbled.

She fared better than he did, because now that she was away from Purple Muse, she was also away from his mental influence and twisted words. She forced herself not to think about them, how they had torn her inside. Instead, she focused on Ladybug's words. One of us, Queenie. You're more. She shook her head. She was free from Purple Muse, but Cat Noir was not and he had been hit with something nasty. She owed Ladybug to protect her kitty.

She dared not use her Explosion since she would lose her transformation soon after, so it was up to her wits. She almost lost them when Cat Noir growled and the black magic of his Cataclysm danced on his fingers, inches apart from her face.

"Hurry up, Ladybug!" she called, and dodged. The wall behind her crumbled to dust, revealing a classroom with a single occupant in it.

"Queen Bee? Cat Noir?" Luka asked, confused.

"Why aren't you with Volpina?" Queen Bee asked viciously, sending her trompo ahead to make Cat Noir fall.

"Who is Volpina?"

"Lila Rossi akumatised! I saw you together earlier, you seemed very... friendly. Ouch!" She tumbled down under Cat Noir's attack. "Oh no, you don't!" she snarled.

Luka stepped forward to help her.

"Stay where you are!" she exclaimed. "I don't need Volpina's boyfriend to help me against Cat Noir. It would be too easy to steal his Miraculous!"

"I assure you, Queen Bee, that I don't know who this Volpina is! I haven't moved from here since Chloé pushed me in."

"He told me to get lost!" Cat Noir interrupted, almost crying. "I need to get lost, it hurts!"

"Oh kitty, you are already lost," Queen Bee said gently. She reached out to him. He grabbed her and yelled, "Cataclysm!"

"Oh, really! Well, you want to get lost, I'll help you! There! Explosion!"

Her trompo sent Cat Noir flying back and Queen Bee was very helpful in making sure he hit the wall. His hand touched it too and it fell down on his head. Queen Bee slowly straightened up.

"Sorry, Cat Noir," she whispered. She pointed at Luka. "Since you claim you're not with Volpina, keep an eye on him until Ladybug solves it all. It should happen any moment now. Tell him none of this was his fault. I need to go!"

Her hair comb was starting to beep. She ran inside the Collège, ducked into the bathroom and released her transformation. She took the time to check that her appearance was neat – in her case, perfect as usual – until she felt the rush of Ladybug's restoring cure wash over her. Then she strolled to Luka's classroom, opened the door and made a show of being worried he wasn't here.

"Luka! Luka? He has been kidnapped or something! He–" she shrieked.

A loud tap at the window made her turn around, her eyes wide. Luka was outside, with Cat Noir. She ran to open the window.

"What happened?"

"I was with Queen Bee and, by accident, I Cataclysmed the outer wall. When Queenie had to go, Luka was nice enough to keep me company," Cat Noir explained, rubbing his neck.

Chloé almost rolled her eyes.

"Where were you?" Luka asked. "I waited for you to come back!"

"Well, I did, didn't I?" she said crossly. "I am here."

"I thought you'd come back... sooner."

"Marinette was not as easy to find as I thought."

Luka accepted her explanation with an odd smile. Cat Noir excused himself and left. Chloé almost didn't notice it.

"So, about those two blonde girls…" Luka began.

She couldn't believe he would continue their conversation as if nothing had happened. To give herself a countenance, she pushed back her ponytail. "What, are you comparing Queen Bee to me? I know, I'm awesome. But she's a newbie, so you're setting the bar a bit high."

He smiled. "Yes, I agree, Queen Bee is great. But I prefer the new Chloé."

She caught herself before preening under his compliments. It wouldn't do. It was her due, after all. She stomped on that thought. "The new Chloé?" she repeated.

"Yes, the one who cares first for her friends. The one who has friends. The wonderful Chloé who wanted to protect Marinette no matter what."

She stared at him. "Uh..." And there she was again, unable to articulate a single word without making a fool of herself. The worst was that Luka seemed to know perfectly why she had suddenly become tongue-tied. She hated him. Then he took her hand, reaching to her through the window.

"Be careful," he said softly, giving her fingers a little squeeze.

With that, he was gone.

"Yeah," she sighed dreamily.

-o-o-

The following morning, she was, as usual, hanging near the group of the four friends; she knew they would give her a place without any question asked, but she had a reputation to maintain and it would not be by frequenting those 'nobodies', as her father would say – the exception being Adrien, of course. As Marinette and Alya left ahead to go to class, the boys lingering behind and she with them, she caught the beginning of a conversation that sounded strange.

"Listen, dude," Nino said, horribly embarrassed, "Wayzz told me yesterday evening that you needed to go see Master Fu. Like ages ago."

Adrien said, "Did he tell you who is Master Fu?"

"More or less, rather less than more," he added a bit sourly. "Something about the Guardian, which I now am since I have, well, Wayzz."

"I see. I'll have to warn the Gorilla that we need to make a detour," Adrien said glumly. "Or else, my father will fly off the handle. Maybe even with the warning."

She sighed. Adrien and his overcrowded schedule! How did he not get mad with all those extra classes? She had to do something about this. She took a deep breath and prepared for act one.

"Adrikins! You promised to go shopping with me this afternoon!" she said, suddenly clinging to his arm.

Adrien looked at her with a mix of confusion and a bit of anger. "Did I?" he asked hesitantly.

She stomped her foot. "Oh, I can't believe it! You forgot! I'll call Daddy and he'll call Nathalie or whoever manages your planning. I'm disappointed, Adrikins, you don't care about me at all!" She pouted. "Come, Sabrina!"

"I didn't know you were to go shopping this afternoon," the red-head said. "You said nothing to me."

Chloé looked at Sabrina with pity. "Didn't you tell me that your father had a free afternoon today and that you were overjoyed to spend it with him?"

Sabrina joined her hands in front of her. "Oh, Chloé! You remembered! You are the best friend I could ever have! You care for me, give me fashion tips..."

"Which you don't follow," Chloé murmured.

"Yes, yes, you are right, my father has the afternoon off. But if you need, I can stay with you..."

Chloé waved her offer away. "I'll make do without you. It will be hard, of course, but time spent with your father takes precedence. You'll have to come with me tomorrow to see everything I bought." She shrugged.

"Oh, Chloé, you're such a beautiful model! It will be a pleasure to watch you!"

"Good. Now, I'll secure Adrien for today."

She didn't see Luka just behind her as she said those words. She was concentrated on starting act two, as she had to find the exact words for her father to give in, even to the point of calling Nathalie Sancoeur. Frankly, who wanted to call Nathalie Scanoeur to tell her that her careful planning had to be modified? She shivered at the idea. Nathalie was scary.

-o-o-

At the end of class, Chloé waved Sabrina goodbye before turning toward Adrien. She was ready for act three, the denouement. The model was awfully embarrassed.

"Er, Chloé, I... I have something else I need to do…"

She rolled her eyes. "I know that! But I gave you the perfect excuse, didn't I? I'm sure your chauffeur received the instructions to drive you wherever I wanted. Is Chloé the best, or is Chloé the best?"

Adrien's eyes widened in realisation. "Oh! Chloé, you are indeed the best!"

"I know," she gushed. "Time for you to acknowledge it." Then she sighed. "I hate you though. I will have to go shopping now."

"Usually, you like that."

"Yes, but Daddy didn't send the limo, since I'm supposed to be with you! I will have to walk! Go, go, don't remain here as a witness to my sufferings!" she said dramatically, waving him away.

Adrien smothered a laugh. "You're the best, Chlo," he said again.

As he left, alone – though Chloé had no doubt he would meet Marinette further on the way – a puzzled voice said from behind her, "I thought you wanted to secure him for the rest of the day?"

"Didn't your parents teach you that you shouldn't eavesdrop?" she exclaimed crossly. "Adrien and I are friends and he has a girlfriend. I'm not going to make him break up with her."

"Others would."

"Well, others have no idea to which lengths Mr Agreste would go to prevent such bad publicity." She sniffed disparagingly. "Besides, I do not come second. He picked Marinette, now, I'm off limit to him!"

Luka smiled. "I can come in his stance, if you want." She stared at him. "Of course, I don't have a car with chauffeur..."

And then Chloé would have been hard put to say what happened exactly. She accepted his offer – how, she had no clue, since it was the kind of offer that would leave her speechless – they spent the rest of the afternoon together, walking quite a lot, and the only thing that was bought was ice cream – ice cream! At one moment too, their hands found their way to each other, it was all very strange.

It was the best afternoon she ever had.