"Chloe!"

She flinches, startled, and turns around to see Adrien running to her from across the courtyard. She stops at the base of the stairs and waits for Adrien to reach her. Behind him, Marinette, Alya, and Nino trail along, walking and watching her with careful eyes.

"Chloe!" he says again when he reaches her. "Are you okay? I heard that the akuma went after you." Ever the mother hen, Adrien grabs her shoulders to keep her still as he checks her over for any visible injuries.

"I'm fine," Chloe says, "Even if I got hurt, Ladybug's cure would have fixed me."

He frowns. "Just because it'll help you doesn't mean you're completely healed. Are you sure you're okay?"

The others have finally caught up. They stand behind Adrien in a semi-circle, eyes darting between them. Nino looks wary, ready to pull away his friend at the first sign of trouble, Alya all but glares at her, and Marinette purses her lips and carefully doesn't look at Adrien's hands on her shoulders.

Maybe I should tell her I'm gay so she'll stop doing that, Chloe thinks for a moment before the very thought of coming out to Marinette has her stomach twisting into anxious nausea.

Nope. Not happening. Not ever.

Chloe turns back to Adrien and gently takes his hands off her shoulders. "I promise I'm fine. I hurt the akuma more than it hurt me."

"What?" says Nino, blinking at her as he tries to make sense of her words.

"I punched the akuma. And uh, pinned him to the ground so he'd stop trying to kill me."

"WHAT," four voices chorus at once. Adrien's hands go back to her shoulders and he shakes her.

"You punched an akuma?" he all but shouts.

Chloe shrugs. "It's not like it's hard."

"I- That's not the point here, Chloe! That's dangerous!"

"Yeah, well, our local heroes saved the day, so I had nothing to worry about."

"Still-"

Alya cuts in, waving Adrien back as she draws herself up to her full height. She is intimidating, but Chloe's been afraid of everything long enough that it doesn't phase her.

"I hate asking this," Alya says, "But can I interview you about this? I was under the impression that civilians like us can't hurt akumas."

"Has anyone civilian tried to hurt an akuma before?" Chloe asks.

Alya frowns and looks away. She mutters something about research and starts listing names of akumas to see if anyone tried to fight back against them. It's a little scary how quickly Alya falls into research, shifting through her memories to find an answer and create a report.

Something ugly and envious twists in Chloe's chest; it must be great to have a passion, a clear idea of what to do in the future, of having something she loves doing and being good at it. Chloe wants that. She wants that so badly she's willing to fight for it.

She doesn't of course. Swallows down the poison that bubbles up in her throat, burning her tongue, begging to be spit out and open wounds. It's reflexive, almost instinctive at this point; knowing that she's created such a monster out of herself makes Chloe feel sick, so she turns her attention to Adrien, making sure to keep Alya out of her line of sight.

"What about you?" she asks, "Are you okay? Underdog didn't get you, right?"

Adrien shakes his head, "No, no, I was fine. He was too focused on going after his bullies then you to chase after me."

"You know you just implied that you were in danger, right?"

"We're always in danger with Hawkmoth out there!" Adrien replies brightly.

Nino claps a hand down into his shoulder. "Dude," he says, seriously, "You doing okay? Getting close to an akuma as dangerous as Underdog would leave anyone shaken up."

"Yep! I'm perfectly fine and totally coping!"

Chloe rolls her eyes at his optimistic despair - his go to humor when he couldn't come up with any puns. She steps back from the group, suddenly catching Marinette following her movement. Her eyes are a sharp blue that seem to cut into Chloe. For once, Marinette isn't staring love-struck at Adrien; no, she observes Chloe, her expression something too foreign for Chloe to decipher. For a long moment, they stare at each other. Chloe can' breathe, feels like a fish about to be gut, wondering what she's looking for.

Despite how long they've known and hated each other, despite the years of Chloe tormenting Marinette in a desperate attempt to prove herself to anyone, Marinette is still unpredictable. Not a single thing she does makes sense, but it always works out, because of course it does. This is Marinette, designer extraordinaire, baker and heart-breaker.

In all honesty, this Marinette scares Chloe with how clear her gaze is, how she seems to see through everything, how she observes, like a tiger about to strike.

So Chloe doesn't stay. She doesn't challenge her, ask her what she's looking at as a thinly veiled threat to back down. She just turns and starts to walk back to class.

"Ah, Chloe!" Adrien calls out from behind her, "Where are you going?"

"Class," she replies, barely looking back to answer. "I intend to be on time like a good student. I understand if you can't relate."

It's a challenge to Adrien, telling him to start the back and forth they have with increasingly darker jokes, but he doesn't answer. Alya scoffs, interrupting him before he starts, ending their game before it's begun, and the moment is gone.

Chloe keeps walking, ignores the others behind her, and tries to pretend they're not there.

The class is half full when she walks in. The chatter dies down some when she enters, students staring at her. Both the akuma and the targets get to share the joy of becoming zoo animals for a day, having the world observe them for a distance and whisper about them with glancing eyes.

She's sure they're wondering what she's done now to deserve the wrath of another akuma.

She knows no one would believe her if she said she did nothing.

Truly, nothing really changes. One person isn't enough to change the way the world spins. As long as she lives, Chloe will have the carry the weight of all her mistakes, know that the world will never believe that she's grown into someone better, and she will always end up alone. Had she been anyone else, Chloe would have hated who she once was, too. She tries, even now, to hate herself, the her who existed just last year. But Chloe can remember her fear, her desperation, her longing to be worth something and wondering if she'll ever be strong enough to stop pushing everyone away.

"You have made it this far, haven't you?" Takahogi's voice rises from her memories. Already, on just the first day of school, her anxiety threatens to swallow her whole. But Takahogi had offered her advice during their lunch together, ever calm and understanding.

"You have made it this far, haven't you?" he had said. "Even when you didn't think you could. Imagine how much farther you will go, if only you don't stop yourself."

As much as Chloe's grown used to drowning in her despair, as much as she wants to keep believing it's all meaningless in the end, Takahogi is right. She's come this far despite never believing she could do it. She can keep going.

Small change is still change. Chloe is different, and so is the world she's building around herself. Though she knows that there will come a day where they will leave her, Chloe has Adrien and Takahogi and Sabrina. She can survive this for them; she'll hold onto them a tightly as she can, and cherish the time they have together.

It's been too long since Chloe's loved others so deeply.

So Chloe keeps her head held high and sits at her desk, ignoring everyone else as they slowly begin to turn back to their own conversations. Slowly, more students trickle in until everyone is back in their seat, Marinette sitting stiffly besides her, barely taking a moment to tell Chloe, "Alya wants to interview you after school today if you can." The teacher comes in after that and quickly introduces herself before jotting down equations on the chalkboard.

Chloe grimaces as the numbers get larger and the equations more complex, and pulls out her notebook to begin copying everything down.

It's an accident when Chloe meets Marinette's eyes as she reaches for her pencil, freezing as her fingers curl around it. There's a furrow in her brow, and something in her expression spells fear, or maybe sorrow, or maybe quiet pain. Either way, it sets Chloe on edge, sure that Marinette is seeing something that everyone else misses.

This is fine. Marinette will end up like everyone else; unable to see past her memories of Chloe. Whatever she sees that moment will fade away into nothing and everything will settle back into place.

I can survive this, Chloe tells herself, and turns back to the board. For once, she believes it. She's survived everything else, after all.