"Hey." Something pokes her cheek insistently. Chloe scrunches up her nose and rolls over on her other side, determined to ignore it and sink back into the warm embrace of sleep.
"Hey. Get up." Her cheek is still being poked. Chloe rolls onto her stomach and shoves her head under her pillow. She stubbornly clings to the fading images of her dream where she's trying to climb over the stone wall surrounding a castle. It's so much more interesting than waking up. The pokes stop and Chloe relaxes, breathing evening out.
Her dreamself clings to the rough edges of the stones in the wall, reaching up for the next one. She's almost go it-
"Get UP!"
Cold water hits her suddenly. It shocks her to her core and Chloe shoots up, gasping.
"What the fuck?!" she yells, wiping her wet hair off her face. Plagg cackles above her, dropping an empty cup onto the bed.
"Geez, that took forever! You sure are a heavy sleeper," he says, flying out of range when she throws her pillow at him. "It's almost noon and I'm hungry. Get me cheese."
"I will poison you," Chloe threatens, but gets out of bed anyways. "You'll have to wait until after I shower because I am not going around soaking wet and cold."
Plagg whines and Chloe points at him accusingly. "You did this for yourself. These are the consequences of your actions."
The tiny god of destruction dramatically throws himself across her desk, loudly lamenting his quickly approaching death, how the hunger gnaws at his very bones, how she's cruelly leaving him to his fate; Chloe ignores him and loudly closes the bathroom door just to make a point.
She doesn't take as long in the shower as she wants too; it is almost noon and she needs to get Plagg and the ring back to Adrien.
Once she's sufficiently recovered from the cold water and her hair is dry, Chloe changes into a plain sweater dress and grabs her phone to order Plagg's cheese. He floats over from where he was waiting on her desk to sit on her shoulder, reading what she texts the kitchen.
"Where's your food?" he asks, as Chloe finishes typing out her order of a wheel of Camembert cheese.
"Not getting any," she replies absentmindedly. Just as she's about to hit send, Plagg knocks the phone out of her hand. "Okay, what is your problem."
His tails slashes through the air angrily. "I'm going to curse you with bad luck unless you eat something. A small meal. I thought you'd be a little more capable, but I see that I have two kits to take care of."
"What? Kits?" Chloe thinks for a moment, then guessing, "Me and Adrien?"
"Yes. Adrien is my charge and you're my not-really-charge. I gotta keep you two safe and healthy enough to use the ring."
"I'm not-"
"I know you're not using the ring," Plagg interrupts, "But just in case of an emergency, when Adrien isn't able to transform, you need to be ready. Eat some food."
Chloe scowls, but relents, adding a bowl of fruits and some bread and jam to the order. This time Plagg doesn't stop her from sending the text, so Chloe checks her notifications and gets rid of any that aren't important. She has a missed call from her father, but no voicemail, so she ignores that as well.
Adrien has sent a wall of texts, asking if Plagg is behaving, if everything's fine, if she's up yet, and so on. He, like Plagg, also demands that she eats before going out and to call him when she's ready.
Worrywarts, the lot of them. Chloe very carefully doesn't think about the time she passed out in front of Chat and almost died. That's not important. She texts him back, a quick message that says:
To Adrien: im up and im eating. lmk where you are and i'll be there soon
He doesn't reply, but she's sure he's stuck getting ready for another photoshoot so she doesn't bother waiting for a response. Chloe tosses her phone onto her bed and opens her closet, looking for the warmest clothes she owns. Plagg hovers over her shoulder, (un)helpfully providing commentary and pointing at random clothes that she could wear.
"Plagg, that's a summer dress."
"Wear a coat with it."
Chloe throws the coat at him instead.
By the time she's managed to put together something she won't freeze to death in, their food arrives; a bowl of fruit, toast and jam, and far too many plates of cheese to be considered healthy. Chloe desperately hopes the kitchen staff don't think anything of her sudden request for as many cheeses as they can provide.
Plagg immediately leaves her side in favor of his breakfast, shoving cheese into his mouth in a way that shouldn't be physically possible. It's almost as though he's a cartoon character with the way he drops an entire block of cheese directly into his mouth.
His bad manners are not something she wants to see, though, so Chloe quickly takes her food and relocates to her desk, where she can turn her back on Plagg and not watch his jaw unhinge for the third time in a minute.
Just as they're both finishing up, Chloe's phone vibrates on the bed and Plagg flips it over.
"What is it?" she asks, picking up their plates to leave on the tray for the staff to get.
"Adrien. He's saying he's at the usual studio."
Chloe grabs her phone and opens the message notification.
From Adrien: Usual place. Please try to sneak in a snack for me, it's been five hours.
To Adrien: dw i can do u one better
"Hey Plagg," she says, "Wanna mess with the crew's equipment and get Adrien out of there?"
"I've been wanting to since I first went with Adrien to a photoshoot, but he always stopped me."
Chloe grins. "Well, he's not here to stop you now, is he?"
Plan made, Chloe pulls on her teddy bear coat and wraps a scarf around her neck, leaving a small pouch in the back where Plagg could stay. She grabs the ring from where it was hidden under a pillow and tucks it away into her coat's inside pocket. The ring feels heavy, a weight that attracts her attention. The shiver that goes down her spine has nothing to do with the cold.
"Alright," she says, "Let's go."
Plagg settles into her scarf, out of sight, and Chloe sends Adrien a quick text to let him know she's on her way. With that done, Chloe calls one of her drivers and goes on her way.
.
.
.
"Are you sure this will be okay?" Adrien asks as Chloe drags him to the nearest restaurant. "The holiday shoots are always the busiest ones."
"They have enough pictures of you. The rest of the day was going to be spent with other models, so they had no reason to keep you around. They weren't going to let you go, so we made them."
Despite his worry, Adrien looks much less stressed out now that he's outside and reunited with Plagg, ring back on his finger. Plagg is sticking close to Adrien, and it's clear that he missed his charge as well, despite being the one demanding that Adrien not have the ring for one night. He had a little too much fun messing with the equipment and forcing the photo shoot to reschedule to another day for the other models.
"But still, father has been very strict about my schedule and how the photo shoots go. He's not going to be happy about me leaving."
"That's why you'll use me as an excuse. You just have to tell him that I dragged you out the moment I could and forced you to spend time with me. It'll be just like old times."
Adrien frowns. "Chloe, I never mind spending time with you."
"It's a lie, Adrien. I'm sure they still think of me as a spoiled brat, so just use that to your advantage."
"I still don't like it."
Chloe shrugs. "But you'll do it anyways because there's no other way to make your father accept it. Besides, they took plenty of photos of you, they'll find the few they want to use."
Since their drivers may have taken Adrien back to his home, they instead elected to walk to the nearest restaurant, a little hole in the wall that was a few streets away. The walk is barely fifteen minutes, but the cold makes it feel much longer. Even Adrien sighs in relief when they spot the signboard out in the sidewalk, declaring the day's specials in neat cursive.
The bell above the door rings as they enter, and someone calls out a greeting and tells them to sit where they want. It's slightly packed, and the pleasant din of conversation fills the space. Chloe chooses a table besides the windows so she can people watch, and pulls off her scarf to lay folded onto the table. Plagg quickly flies into it as Adrien opens the menu, providing a cover for his kwami.
A server stops by their table a few seconds after Plagg gets himself comfortably hidden away to get their drinks. Adrien settles for tea while Chloe orders a hot chocolate, intent on warming herself up.
"What are you going to get?" Adrien asks, passing the menu over.
Chloe pushes it back to him. "I'm not hungry right now."
He stops. Stares. "I'm not accepting that as an answer," he says.
"I ate before I left. It's fine."
Adrien takes the menu back and opens it up again. "I'm ordering for both of us," he decides, "And I'll pay too, so you can't stop me."
As stubborn as Chloe may be, she knows a losing battle when she sees one. She sighs and rolls her eyes, but relents. "Okay, fine. Order something small then or I won't eat it."
That manages to placate Adrien. It's barely a compromise, but she'll take what she can get when faced with Adrien's mother-henning. It's not like it's a bad thing either, being cared for. It's just something Chloe's not used to, and even after repairing her friendship with Adrien and becoming closer to Kat and Zee and even Marinette, Chloe tries to avoid being cared for simply because she doesn't know what to do with it. It's easier to deal with Adrien caring for her; they've known each other so long, and Adrien is so earnest about it because he has so few people he can call his own.
So she'll eat more than she's used to, thanks to Plagg and Adrien's determination to make sure she's fed.
Adrien gets a sandwich, a croque monsieur with extra cheese so he can sneak Plagg something to nibble on, and soup for Chloe. He also insists that she have at least a bite of his sandwich, and Chloe relents to this too. By the time their done, both are sated and warm, finishing off their drinks under the murmur of other people's conversations.
It's not just the food that warms her.
Chloe's never really liked winter. She loves spring and summer, but the colder months are spent wishing to hide away inside and make the days go by faster until it's warm again. But when she's not alone, sitting besides a friend without worrying about anything, winter doesn't seem so bad.
She changes her mind quickly after they leave the restaurant when a gust of wind sends a chill directly to her bones. Winter is only to be enjoyed from inside, she decides, wrapping her scarf tighter around her neck and mouth.
"This is miserable," she says, muffled under her scarf.
"I like this!" Adrien says. "It's nice being out in the cold."
"I would rather set myself on fire."
He laughs. "Come on, it's better than being stuck inside all day having people yell at you if you breathe too hard."
Chloe wrinkles her nose. "I always feel so sorry for you."
"I could say the same for you."
"Low blow. Also, I refuse to stay out here. I'm going back to the hotel."
Adrien darts forwards and links their arms together, leading Chloe to the metro. For all that he worried about pushing back the photoshoot, he sure was quick to leave his responsibilities so he could spend the day with Chloe. It's nice, this small change from local Good Boy Adrien.
They pass time on the metro showing each other silly memes on their phones and quietly laughing into their hands. It feels nice, just being to normal teenagers hanging out, instead of very depressed and lonely people who don't know how to take care of themselves. It's nice laughing with Adrien again; before, being together hurt. They just reminded each other of when they were younger and things were easy, and they weren't neglected and grieving their mothers.
When they reach their stop, Adrien once again grabs Chloe's arms and hurries her down the streets to the hotel. He smiles and greets the staff as they pass through the lobby, but doesn't stop moving until their in the elevator. The moment the doors close, he slumps against the walls, sighing deeply.
"They really ran you ragged, huh."
Adrien just sighs again. "Chloe, I am so tired."
"Rough night."
"I had trouble sleeping without Plagg nearby. I kept checking my phone to make sure there were no akuma attacks."
That's. That's not great. That's really concerning actually. Chloe is sure that the responsibility of keeping Paris safe must be a heavy burden to bear, but to see how much Adrien relies on that responsibility to feel needed in some way, to live his life around being Chat Noir is. Well, it's bad. Someday, Ladybug and Chat Noir won't be needed anymore, and Adrien will go back to being Adrien. What will he do then?
She pokes his cheek to make him look at her, then says, "We should probably talk about how unhealthily dependent you are on Plagg and your identity as Chat Noir."
"Chloe, no offense, but you're the last person I want lecturing me about unhealthy habits."
She glares at him. "You're right, but I'm not happy about it."
They reach their floor before the conversation can continue, and though Chloe knows Adrien's going to avoid talking about it for as long as he can, they both know he can't run away forever.
"Come on," Chloe says, leading him in, "Take a nap, you're dead on your feet."
Without any further prompting, Adrien kicks off his shoes and collapses face-first onto her bed. He groans loudly. "I am going to sleep for three years. This is my bed now." Plagg settles on top of Adrien's head, ready to join Adrien in sleeping the day away. Chloe can't help but take a picture and send it to him, it's perfect for a home screen.
Despite being tired, Adrien still pulls out his phone once he gets Chloe's message.
"Oh!" he says suddenly, rolling onto his side to face her. "Did you pick out your dress for the gala yet?"
"No, not yet. Why?"
"I wanted to get ready with you."
"Trying to get away from your father?" The grimace on his face is all she needs. "Sure, alright. You'll have to get here around noon the day of and help me with my makeup."
"Also, I need you to cover for me at the gala because both Chat and Adrien have to be there again."
Secret identities sure are a pain in the ass. Another reason she's glad she's not a superhero. "We'll worry about that when we get to the gala."
Adrien makes a muffled noise of agreement. He squints at his phone with bleary eyes, stubbornly staying awake for some reason. A part of Chloe wants to throw a pillow at him and knock his phone out of his hand, but most of her doesn't want to move from where she is on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket.
Chloe puts a movie on, turning the volume down so it doesn't disturb Adrien too much. Except he's not going to sleep. He stays on his phone, eyes only half open. Plagg is already asleep, curled up into a small ball with his tail over his eyes to block out the light. But whatever, if Adrien doesn't want to sleep yet, that's not her problem.
It's not like she has a leg to stand on, considering how often she stays up past three in the morning or just doesn't sleep at all. So Chloe idly scrolls through her Twitter while letting the movie play in the background, enjoying the calm atmosphere.
It's relaxing enough that even Chloe starts to doze off when a text notification pops up on her phone.
From Adrien: Hey would you let Marinette make you a dress?
Startled, Chloe sits up and turns to look at Adrien, who hasn't moved at all, still on his side and struggling to keep his eyes open. He must have been too tired to talk and turned to texting instead.
To Adrien: yes? why do u ask
From Adrien: I asked since you don't have a dress yet and Marinette's fine with it
From Adrien: She seems very excited about it actually
To Adrien: u already asked?
From Adrien: Yeah. What should I tell her?
To Adrien: nothing. go to sleep i'll talk to her
From Adrien: :)))))))
Chloe gets up from the couch, taking the blanket with her. Adrien puts his phone down besides him and finally closes his eyes. "I'm glad you two are friends now," he mumbles, already drifting off. She doesn't know what to say to that and keeps quiet, because the other option is to start crying. She tosses her blanket over Adrien, because he was too tired to bother getting under the covers, and quietly leaves the room.
In the hallway, Chloe stares down at Marinette's contact in her phone for a minute, gathering her courage, then calls her.
"Chloe! Hi!" Marinette's cheerful voice fills the hall.
"Hey."
"Did Adrien tell you? About the dress, I mean?"
"Mm. You really want to make something for me?" After all I did to you, goes unsaid, but it's heard anyways.
"Of course!" Marinette reassures, "I love making things for my friends, and you're really the only person I haven't been able to give anything. There are so many designs I want to see you wear, and ballgowns are really fun to design! What kind of dress did you want?"
She hasn't actually thought that far ahead. Usually Chloe browses catalogues until something catches her eyes; she never goes looking for a specific design or color, and now that she's asked, Chloe doesn't actually know what she likes.
"Something warm," is what she eventually settles on. "I'll leave everything up to you. I trust your skills."
"Oh! Okay! I'll draw up a few sketches today and send you pictures so you can choose which one you want, and then we can go pick out the fabric and I can get your measurements. Are you free for the next couple of days?"
"Yeah, I'll be free."
"Okay! I'll get started now!"
Chloe clears her throat, awkward, and somehow manages to force her voice to remain steady and clear. "Thanks, Marinette."
"It's not problem, I was looking for a new project to work on so this really helps me out!" Her voice is bright and energetic, and it's so strange to be on the receiving end of it when Chloe's used to Marinette's voice being tight and cold when talking to her. Things really do change quickly.
"I won't keep you any longer then. I'll see you later?"
"You sure will! Bye-bye!"
Chloe manages to make some sort of noise before ending the call, dropping to sit on the floor. Marinette is incredibly extroverted and optimistic. Everything comes easily to her, and conversations never get quiet or boring with her. It would be nice if Chloe could gain even a fraction of Marinette's social skills, instead of always being on guard around people she's not close to (read: everyone) and being rude because it's the only way she's learned to speak.
But she is getting a Marinette original, so one awkward phone call is more than worth it. She'll have to thank Adrien when he wakes up. Who knows what she would have worn to the gala without his and Marinette's help.
There's one week left; best to start getting prepared.