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Thanks to DragoonSensei, bunnywabbit29, Shiranai Atsune, yellow 14 and The Keeper of Worlds for your reviews :)
Once the magic of the transformation fades, Ladybug bursts into the hotel, only to see Kim throw Chloé in the air. Acting on pure instinct, Ladybug throws her yo-yo to catch Chloé's ankle and tug her into the ball pit rather than letting her splat on the hard floor.
"About time!" Chloé snaps once she's surfaced. "What took you so long?"
Ah, there's the Chloé they all know. Kim seems to be sharing Ladybug's thoughts because he charges at Chloé, only to trip over a silver baton and crash head-first into the ball pit. Ladybug notices a small black teddy bear lose its grip on his ankle and slam into one of the rich red walls.
"That's a very slippery dance floor," Chat Noir quips, expertly twirling his baton. In any other case, Ladybug would have chuckled, but when the bear starts making a run for the crowd of people nearby and they start to scream, she knows this isn't the time.
"Move aside! All of you!" she demands, sprinting for the bear while spinning her yo-yo. Chat Noir's hot on her heels. The screaming civilians scatter like smoke, but the distraction is enough time for the bear to vanish, and Ladybug has no clue where it's gone until Max jumps onto a table and attempts to throw a chair at her.
It's like a game of musical bears. From Max, the bear goes to Alya, then to Ivan when Alya fails to subdue Ladybug. Chat Noir breaks the table Ivan is about to crush them with, but they lose sight of the bear again…until Chat Noir grabs Ladybug's wrist.
"Oh no!" Ladybug gasps when she catches sight of Chat Noir's unnaturally poisonous-green eyes. Once again, her partner has been brainwashed against her, and she doesn't want to have to fight her partner again, but she also can't just keep dodging every time he makes a grab for her earrings.
"Chat Noir! It's me! Stop it!" she cries, dancing out of his way with her wrist still held captive. But appealing to his suppressed consciousness when he's brainwashed has never worked before, so of course it doesn't work now.
"Cataclysm!" The familiar word, dripping with contempt, reaches Ladybug's ears when she's finally got Chat Noir in an armlock. He whips his arm back around, grabbing for her Miraculous, and she's two seconds from finding out what happens when Cataclysm touches a person when she receives help from the most unlikely source.
"Paws off, kitty!" Chloé grabs Chat Noir's tail and yanks him away from Ladybug, sending him stumbling and crashing into a couch and wasting his Cataclysm when he accidentally touches it.
"Thank you," Ladybug says, figuring that she may as well offer positive reinforcement as the side of her that Chloé respects. Maybe it'll help her stay nice.
"Hey, I was really nice just then!" Chloé says, looking positively delighted as she addresses the whole room. "Did you see? No?"
In response, everyone in the room collapses.
"You all suck," Chloé says sulkily, crossing her arms with a pout. Okay, this has gone on long enough. At a loss for what to do now, Ladybug turns to her last resort and summons her Lucky Charm, which turns out to be…a fork. Sometimes, she feels like Tikki's just messing with her.
Chat Noir jumps to his feet and launches himself at Ladybug, who squeaks and hightails up the spiral staircase with him hot on her heels. She needs a plan, she needs a plan, what's she supposed to do with this fork –
She doesn't start forming a plan until she's hiding on the top of the entrance to the rooftop so that Chat Noir doesn't see her. Only then does she manage to cobble something together after spotting a poolside umbrella, the boot of Chat Noir's that the bear is clinging to, and her fork.
"Okay," she says to herself, then leaps into action. Unfortunately for her, Chat Noir anticipates her yo-yo throw and easily deflects it with his baton, resulting in a brief bout of hand-to-hand combat until she can grab the bear's string and tie it to the fork. She throws the fork at the umbrella so that it lodges in one of the spokes, then spots Chloé hiding from the action under the umbrella, and the final part of her plan falls into place. "Chloé, would you be so kind?"
She keeps Chat Noir occupied until Chloé salutes and twirls the pole of the umbrella like a carousel, beheading the bear and rendering its influence on Chat Noir useless. She can see the exact moment when Chat Noir comes back to himself, as the poisonous green of his eyes fades back to the normal paler green that she knows so well and the force trying to ram the baton into her head while she holds it off fades.
"Ladybug?" Chat Noir blinks and looks around, no doubt wondering why he's on the rooftop. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, nothing," Ladybug teases. "Just saving your skin with the help of our new little sidekick."
Chloé preens and flips her ponytail. Suddenly, there's a high-pitched sound that can only be described as the sound of a tiny voice screaming threats, coming from the miniature person kicking Chat Noir's boot.
"Watch your step, Chat Noir," Ladybug grins. Chat Noir grins back and grabs the tiny person, leaving Ladybug free to break the bear's string so that she can release and purify the akuma. After she releases the Miraculous Ladybug, the miniature person grows into a full-sized butler that Chat Noir suddenly staggers to hold, while the evil little bear reverts to a golden bear with a black-striped white belly like Chloé's top. Ladybug picks the bear up and holds it out to Chloé. "Thank you for helping me out there. That was…really nice of you."
While it's painful to say, those words do the trick; Chloé preens again and says, "I know, wasn't it?" But the moment doesn't last, as Chloé starts to swell and brag about how she'd saved the day and how she's better than the superheroes when her butler confesses that he doesn't remember anything. Ladybug just sighs and shakes her head. It's egotistical, but it's better than nastiness.
"Hey, milady?" Chat Noir says as their Miraculouses beep. "Can I have a word?"
"It'll have to be quick," Ladybug says. Chat Noir holds his hands up.
"Just a minute or two, I swear. Just haven't had a chance before now," he says. Once they're out of earshot of Chloé and her butler, Ladybug turns to Chat Noir and waits. For a moment, he bites his bottom lip, as though trying to figure out exactly what to say. Then, before she can gently hurry him along, he says, "I have to ask you something. And I need you to be completely honest with me."
"Kitty? What's wrong?" Ladybug tilts her head.
"Do you love me?"
Ladybug blinks. "I – what? Of course! You're my partner, Chat. You're one of my best friends."
"No, I mean…" Chat Noir runs a hand through his hair. "Are you in love with me?"
"I – I –"
"Be honest with me," Chat Noir blurts out. "I've just been wondering. I've never actually told you that I was in love with you."
"You…are?" Ladybug says softly. "Oh. I just thought you were a flirty tomcat."
Chat Noir laughs uncomfortably and looks away. "Only with you, milady. And Marinette, but that's just our dynamic. I just have to know. I talked to Marinette the other night and she mentioned trying to move away from her crush and focus on being friends – and I know we're friends, we're best friends, but I just…guess I need the clarification. If you're not in love with me, I can try and put those feelings aside like Marinette is with her crush."
Ladybug ignores the beeping of her earrings again. "I had no idea," she says. "I thought that was just our dynamic."
"It still can be!" Chat Noir hastens to say. "If you like it, bugaboo, I can keep doing it. I guess I just wanna know if I've got a chance with you or, well…if you're still in love with Adrien."
"Honestly?" Ladybug says. "If I didn't meet Adrien first…I think I might have fallen for you. But I did meet him first, and I can't just turn those feelings off."
"I'm not asking you to." Chat Noir reaches out and only takes Ladybug's hand when she nods. He rubs his thumb over the back of her hand and adds, "I just needed to know for sure. Closure, I guess. Now I can –"
"Move on?" Ladybug says when Chat Noir cuts himself off. "Is there another girl, Chat?"
Chat Noir shrugs. "That doesn't matter. At least now I can flirt with you without hoping it'll lead to something more or trying to push anything on you," he says. "Which I probably shouldn't have been thinking in the first place but…"
"Thank you, Chat," Ladybug says with a small smile. "I appreciate the consideration. And thank you for being open with me. I'm actually kind of flattered, if I'm honest." She's about to ask just why Chat Noir had even been in love with her in the first place, but their Miraculouses beep urgently and she jumps away from Chat Noir. "Oops, gotta go! Bug out!"
Okay. So. It seems that positive reinforcement when Chloé's nice is a thing, because she's gone and done the unthinkable and invited Marinette's father to give them a baking demonstration at the party. Marinette's not sure whether she wants to grudgingly thank Chloé or tie her up and search for an akuma. Instead, she hovers at the end of the baking table to overhear Chloé and Adrien, who are abstaining from the baking along with Chloé's butler.
"That was a really great idea, inviting Marinette's dad," Adrien says. Chloé positively glows.
"I know! This way, no one can be mad at me for calling the fire department!" she says. Marinette closes her eyes and counts to three under her breath. There's no point in making a scene about it now, especially when Chloé's invited her father to make up for the interrupted baking demonstration. She's just going to have to let this one go. "I'm really nice now! Did you notice, Adrikins? Even Ladybug said so! Didn't she, Jean-Pascal?"
Marinette's certain that's not the butler's real name, but that doesn't seem to faze the man.
"I'm proud of you, Chloé," Adrien says with a wide smile, resting a hand on her shoulder. Marinette takes a deep breath. Positive reinforcement. Praise Chloé for being nice or she won't see any reason to be nice otherwise. "I think you've proven that you're capable of making an effort to be nicer to everyone!"
"Oh, Adrikins!" Chloé sighs. "So, we'll always be best friends forever? Pinky swear?"
"Pinky swear. So long as you're nice." Adrien does the pinky swear with Chloé and they approach the baking tables together.
"That's…okay, I guess," Chloé says when she surveys Kim's macarons with a slightly disgusted look on her face. "It's totally the most awful shade of pink, but it doesn't look too horrible." She moves on to Mylène's, picking up a macaron gingerly and scraping some icing off with a spoon. "Too much icing. You don't want to kill people. But it looks baked okay, at least."
They're not nasty comments exactly, but they're not nice either. Still, Marinette supposes that it's a start for someone so used to being nasty as Chloé is. Her comments are now more along the line of harsh criticism rather than outright insults…at least, until she reaches Marinette's macarons.
"Wow, for a baker's daughter, you sure have no actual talent," Chloé scoffs, pushing Marinette's near-perfect macarons away. "I mean, I can think of something nice to say about everyone else, but you? Hopeless, utterly hopeless."
Marinette clenches her fists as Chloé tears into her, struggling not to bite and start a massive fight. She glances at Adrien out of the corner of her eye, only to find his face darkening with each comment Chloé makes.
"That's enough, Chloé," he snaps. Chloé blinks and her words screech to a halt. "You were just nice to Kim and Mylène, so why can't you be nice to Marinette?"
"Well, that's asking a bit much," Chloé scoffs. "They're Kim and Mylène, not Dupain-Cheng."
"Marinette's super sweet," Adrien says, crossing his arms. "And if you can't be nice to everyone then we can't be friends. Apologise to Marinette."
Marinette's even more certain that she's in an alternate dimension. Adrien's standing up for her? Against Chloé? Had he really taken her talk to heart?
"But Adrikins –"
"Now."
Chloé turns to Marinette with blazing eyes and clenched teeth. Marinette tries not to look too smug on the outside, although she's not sure how well she succeeds because this is Chloé and Marinette's only human.
"I can't," Chloé says pleadingly, stomping her foot. "I'll be nice to anyone else, Adrikins, please, but I can't be nice to her, especially when she's so mean to me!"
Adrien sighs and shakes his head. "Then we can't be friends anymore. You can't just be nice to people selectively, and Marinette didn't even say anything to you there. I've never seen her be mean to you if you weren't mean first. And I can't be friends with someone who lets me take the blame for something I didn't do. Twice. I was going to forgive you for that, but I can't if you can't be nice to everyone."
"Adrikins, wait!" Chloé runs after Adrien as he stalks off, leaving Marinette frozen to the spot, blinking. She pinches her forearm and yelps, but nothing changes. She's not dreaming. What the heck is even happening?
"Omg," says a voice from behind her. Marinette jumps, but calms down when she sees that it's only Alya. "Did Adrien really just stand up to Chloé? For you?"
"Yeah," Marinette says. She blinks when Alya sighs.
"I'm sorry, Marinette," she says. "I never meant to make you out to be this silly girl with a crush and invalidate your feelings. I didn't realise it hurt you so much."
"And I'm sorry too!" Whoa, where did Lila come from? "I thought that it was my duty as your friend to point out when you were blinded by him, which obviously wasn't the case. You were right to not want to come to Chloé's party unless there was someone who could keep her in line."
"At least I know I've got friends who'll keep my head screwed on straight," Marinette teases. Lila's apologised and sounds sincere, and Alya apologised even though she didn't even need to do so, so that's good enough for her. Now she's debating to herself about whether she should tell them about her near-akumatisation as Miroir, since Alya would get wildly enthusiastic that Marinette had fought off an akuma, but Lila would probably blame herself for it. "But you'll never get me anywhere on time. That's a lost cause."
"Oh, girl, don't you challenge me or I'll actually do it," Alya cackles, slinging an arm around Marinette. Marinette's suddenly blindsided by how radiant Alya is, but it's not in the same way that she's been blindsided by Adrien; it's more like an epiphany that her best friend is gorgeous but with nothing actually coming of it except for that realisation.
"But seriously, you're trying to move on from Adrien?" Lila grabs Marinette's other arm, her olive eyes wide and gleaming. "You have to tell us everything!"
"Okay, okay," Marinette laughs. "Just let me grab these macarons and I'll tell you."
Yes hello I would like one (1) bi Mari who thinks her bestie is cute without necessarily crushing on her because I mean who doesn't think Alya is gorgeous