"It's alright, Chloe. You've got this," Pollen whispered in her Chosen's ear, pressing a tiny kiss to her cheek before zooming up to hide in her ponytail.

Chloe huffed and turned her nose up. "Of course I do, Pollen. It will work out just fine."

Pollen wasn't convinced. Chloe was constantly fidgeting with her purse, her shirt, and her hair. She wasn't saying it in so many words, but the girl was freaked.

Pollen gently tugged at a lock of hair in reassurance. While Chloe would have to do this on her own, that didn't mean she couldn't offer moral support.

"… Thanks, Pollen," Chloe whispered. The girl took a deep breath, schooled her expression, and pushed open the door.

Her father and her future stepmother looked up from where they were bent over something on her father's desk, heads close in discussion.

"Daddy, I need to tell you something." By now Chloe was doing everything she could to channel her inner Queen Bee, the same part of herself who stared down dangerous akuma and whose first thought was 'I'm going to kick their ass.' "I'm now officially dating."

"That's wonderful, baby girl! Do I know him?"

Chloe wasn't able to completely repress a wince. "… Yes? Sort of?" She took a deep breath to brace herself. "I'm dating four people. They're all classmates of mine."

To be fair, there were few things that could strike the mayor of a city that regularly dealt with the results of a supervillain targeting someone's bad day speechless. Chloe's announcement was one of those things, it seemed.

Why was this so much scarier than fighting akuma? Oh, right, because it was generally considered a bad thing to beat up all of your problems outside of supervillains.

Akuma were a lot easier to deal with in that regard.

"You've met Adrien, of course. The other three are Nino Lahiffe, Alya Cesaire, and Marinette Dupain-Cheng. We have already been on a few dates-" Honestly, mostly movie nights and cuddles, but Chloe was learning that they certainly had their place in a relationship. Still, it was very nice to be able to show off all of her loves to the world. "-and I felt that you deserved to know, Daddy."

Her father finally found his voice. "Absolutely not, Chloe! It would be one thing if you were just dating another girl, that's fairly accepted these days, but several people?! Did you ever think about what this would do to your reputation? My reputation? I'd never get re-elected if this got out! No, you'll simply have to break it off."

"She will not, Andre." Chloe started, having forgotten the presence of her future stepmother.

The woman was standing there, arms crossed and one foot tapping. Elizabeth, or Beth as she preferred to be called, was American, and while her French was steadily improving from being immersed in it, she still wasn't fluent yet. The woman was tall, even slightly taller than Chloe's father, with long blonde hair that she usually kept pulled back in a ponytail.

In truth, Chloe had no idea how the two had met, or what her father saw in a woman who regularly wore flannel shirts and jeans. Ever since their introduction, she had been doing her best to avoid Beth.

"Chloe is you daughter, Andre." Beth still had trouble with tenses sometimes, that Chloe knew, and apparently she hadn't gotten past it yet. The tall woman prodded a finger into Chloe's father's chest. "Is you… job? Is that the right word?"

"I think you meant 'responsibility'," Chloe said faintly, more than a little stunned.

"Yes, thank you Chloe." She turned back to Andre and continued her tongue lashing. "Is you responsibility to look after and support her! No matter what!"

"But… Beth… sweetie…"

"No 'sweetie' me! You support Chloe, or wedding is off!"

"I…" Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Andre caved. "… Yes dear."

"Be happy for Chloe. She found people who make her happy, let her enjoy that." Beth's phone dinged, and she pulled it out to glance at the time. "Lunch break over, back to work. We talk more later."

"I… yes." Still a little stunned, Andre turned and left.

Beth let out a long sigh and turned to Chloe. "I know you do not like me. I do not blame you, I would not either. But know that I have you back."

Chloe looked away, then jumped slightly as she felt a small tug on her hair from Pollen. "I… maybe we could… spend more time together?" She said hesitantly.

Beth gave her a bright smile. "I would like that."


"It went better than I thought it would," Chloe said as she continued to run the brush through Alya's thick hair, gathered it into one hand, then began sectioning it. "Daddy freaked out, but then his fiancée, of all people, chewed him out for it."

Marinette raised a brow, but carefully didn't move from where Nino was brushing her own hair out. They had a little time before school started, so they were passing the time waiting for Adrien to join them by playing with each other's hair on the school steps. "Really?"

"Yes." Chloe flushed a little, even as she began braiding Alya's hair. "We're going shopping Thursday, actually." She sniffed a bit, turning her nose up slightly. "The woman has no fashion sense whatsoever, so obviously I'll have to help her out. Maybe I can convince her to rethink some of the wedding plans to something less tacky."

"I'm glad it worked out okay for you. My parents teased me a little, but they were really supportive." Marinette leaned back against Nino, giving a content hum at the feel of the brush running through her hair, and unable to hide a small blush as Nino ducked his head and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

"My family was betting on my love life," Alya huffed, crossing her arms to sulk. Chloe poked her in retaliation as she ended up pulling her half-finished braid out of her hands, forcing Chloe to restart it. "Apparently my mom got closest, she got everyone but Chloe right. The only one who did bet on Chloe was my grandmother, who apparently liked the 99 to 1 odds."

"My Mama doesn't really approve, so she's taking a wait and see approach," Nino chimed in. "She just worries about me getting hurt."

"Well, if we have anything to say about it, that won't happen," Marinette said, twisting a little and tilting her head up. Nino chuckled and obligingly leaned down to kiss her.

Alya was turning to look indulgently back at her boyfriend and girlfriend, when something caught her eye. She stilled, then tapped Chloe's ankle where it was beside her hip. "Chloe? Is that… Adrien, walking to school?"

Chloe looked up from where she had been putting an elastic on the end of Alya's braid, frowning in concern. "Yes. Which is-"

"Weird, because normally his dad insists on the limo," Alya finished, frowning as well. "And he looks…"

"Something's wrong. Really wrong," Marinette murmured, just loud enough for the rest of them to hear it.

Later, none of them could have said who moved first, but a beat later all four of them were up and running towards their boyfriend.

Adrien looked up at the sudden sound of footsteps, took one look at the four, and his face crumpled.

Marinette was the first to reach him, just as his knees gave out, and she grunted as she caught the brunt of his weight. Nino was there a heartbeat later, helping her hold Adrien up as he started to sob into her shoulder. Then Alya and Chloe were there, and the four pressed in around Adrien, holding him from each side as his chest heaved with his sobbing.

"Shh… shh… we've got you, babe," Nino murmured into Adrien's hair.

It seemed an eternity before Adrien's sobs died down, and Marinette wasn't sure exactly how damp her shirt was other than 'very' by the end, but finally the blond sniffled and pulled back a little, going to wipe his face on his sleeve and being intercepted by a handkerchief that Chloe shoved at him. "S-sorry."

"Hey, no, don't apologize. If something had you reacting that way, it must be serious," Alya said softly.

Adrien's face fell, but he seemed to be all cried out for the moment. "My father… didn't take it well. He told me I had to break things off."

Chloe was just clearly winding up when Adrien held out a hand to stop her. "I told him no. And he… he…"

Marinette's eyes widened as a chill settled into her chest. "Adrien, what did he do?"

Adrien gave a bitter, choking laugh. "He disowned me. Said I'd still get my trust fund and the money I made from modeling, but I'm no longer his son. He said I have to be out of the house the day I turn eighteen."

All four of them were stunned speechless. Chloe recovered the fastest, and in all her years Marinette had never seen the girl that angry.

"He's dead."

"Chloe no, we're not posting your bail," Alya said automatically. Her expression had darkened just as much as the blonde's, but her eyes were far more calculating.

"No one will know it was me if Queen Bee drops his ass off of-"

"No." Alya cut her off. She was squeezing her phone so hard that Marinette could almost hear it creaking. "We're not going to kill him. We're going to ruin him."

Honestly, Marinette had been half in favor of Chloe's plan (no one hurt her Kitty like this), but Alya's declaration got her attention. "What?"

Alya smirked, and there was a fox's cruelty behind it. "We are going to ruin him and the entire Gabriel brand. We will beat him down until he is left with nothing, and we will leave him alive, because there is no point of beating an opponent like him unless he knows, every day for the rest of his life, that he lost."

Slowly, a cruel grin grew on Chloe's face. "I like the way you think, my dear."

"And how are we going to do that?" Nino pointed out from where he was cuddling Adrien into his chest, soothingly running his fingers through his boyfriend's hair. "We're kinda still teenagers in school."

"Oh, something like this will take a while." Alya rubbed her hands together gleefully. "And we beat him at his own game. Between the five of us, we could totally build our own fashion empire and crush his."

"… What," Marinette said flatly.

"Look, Marinette is a good designer, and she'll just get better with more practice. Adrien can model and give insight to the fashion world. Chloe knows business and politics inside and out. And Nino and I can handle advertising, social media, and any tech issues." Alya was now angrily tapping at her phone as she made notes.

"You guys would… seriously…" Adrien stared at Alya, at a smirking Chloe, at Marinette who had a slowly growing grin.

"No one hurts you, babe." Nino nuzzled Adrien's ear, making him shiver. "If we have to create an entire fashion empire to get revenge on the jerk who did, then, well…"

Adrien gave a choked laugh. "You guys are ridiculous."

"We're your ridiculous." Marinette grinned at him. "You in?"

"I… yeah. I'm in." Adrien sniffled a little as the three girls dragged him and Nino into another group hug, and buried his face against Alya's shoulder. Really, he didn't know what he did to deserve these four, but whatever it was, he was one lucky cat.