"It's strange," Hawkmoths gravelly voice echoed through his dark chamber, heavy brow furrowed through his silvery mask.
"What is sir?" Natalie said coming up behind him, pushing up her glasses.
"No one has become upset enough to be akumatized while hanging around Chloe. I've been monitoring her for a week now."
"Pardon me for saying sir, but I don't see anything particularly strange about that. She doesn't know enough people to antagonize them right now. She's reorienting."
"True, Natalie, but her actions don't seem subtle enough for her to be simply reorienting."
"What do you mean sir?"
"Every day after classes she goes to the streets instead of home, always around the same person."
"An old friend?"
"No. She's not interacting with the person. It's almost like she's following them, watching them."
"Sir?"
"Natalie," Hawkmoth turned to his assistant, "I need you to look someone up."
Natalie turned on the tablet she always kept by her side, brushing a stray hair out of her face, waiting for Hawkmoth to continue. He closed his eyes, concentrating, focusing in on the senses of the akuma he had following Chloe. It flew over the girls head, moving closer to the twin tailed target. Close enough to see her face, to read her feelings, to find her name.
"What is the name sir?" Natalie asked, the glow from her tablet casting a dull blue light over her face.
Hawkmoth opened his eyes, looking out the butterfly shaped window arching over him. "Marinette Dupain-Chenge."
"Luca!" Marinette called, throwing her arms around him. The boy had grown into a man over the years, his hair now died completely blue and grown out just enough to shake wildly as he turned his head.
"Marinette," he said smiling, hugging her back as she fell on top of him, "What's going on? I haven't seen you this happy in a while."
"I got an Internship with Gabriel Agreste! It even come's with a scholarship to his college!"
"That's great Marinette! But what about that overseas opportunity you were talking about?"
He immediately regretted saying anything. She glanced away from him, smile turning stiff the way it did when she was hiding something from him. It had been appearing more and more often lately. She would flicker off into her own world at the drop of a hat, making obvious excuses when she left their dates early or arrived late. She was hiding something from him, he had known that since the day she had come up to him crying six years ago, but no matter how long he waited she never let on what it was. Of course he had his own suspicions, though they were nothing he could confirm, but he had promised himself to wait until she was ready to tell him herself. That promise was getting harder and harder to keep. He braced himself, readying to believe whatever lie Marinette was about to tell.
"Ya, that," Marinette said, her cheerfulness becoming forced, "I, uh, didn't make it in. It was a long shot anyway, and I'd much rather study here in Paris. Now I can be close to you!"
She looked him in the eyes again, searching to see if he had bought it. Luca smiled, at least that last part seemed to be true.
"Lucky me then," He said, shifting so she was sitting next to him on the park bench instead of on top.
She blushed and quickly sat primly beside him, tucking a stray part of her bangs behind her ear. "I'm, sorry about that. I was just so excited I forgot where we were."
Luca chuckled, placing his hand on top of hers. "You can do whatever you want," he said, smiling down at her, "I'm happy with it all. I just know you don't like to be too gushing in public."
Marinette laid her head on his shoulder and Luca picked up his dropped guitar, playing a few mellow notes. "Thanks Luca." She whispered, getting ready to lose herself in his music.
A little ways away Chloe sat unnoticed leaning against a tree, watching them and eating an apple.
"That's weird," She said, "wasn't Marinette in love with Adrikins?" She leaned forward a bit, squinting at the blue haired boy Marinette was with. "He looks familiar." He did. His peculiar blue hair, his painted nails, his pale skin. She was almost positive she had seen him before. But when? She thought back, drawing her brows together. Who was he? She had the vague feeling that it had been a long time ago, back before she had left the school.
She took another bite of the apple. It was no use, she didn't remember. Even if he felt familiar, she would have remembered someone with such a distinct look. It had to be her imagination. But even as she pushed it aside she could feel it starting to gnaw at her.
It was an unusually warm afternoon for the chilly autumn, lazy bees finishing their end of the year duties buzzed here and there around the dull orange bushes. Chloe finished her apple and let her hand fall haplessly to her side, still holding the core. The sound of Luka's playing had spread slowly through the park, chatter dying down as people unconsciously quieted to listen. Strum. Strum. Strum. Its low notes reflected the strange warmth that had filled the afternoon and Chloe closed her eye's to listen.
An icy breeze blew by, a shocking knife in the otherwise perfect afternoon. Chloe opened her eyes just in time to see a fluttering black butterfly dart out of sight behind the fall foliage above her. She narrowed her eyes and stood up, tossing her apple core into a nearby waste bin.
She glanced over at Marinette, but of course she hadn't seen it. Chloe rolled her eye's and turned around, looking for the akuma. It was nowhere to be found. She clenched her jaw and started walking home. Hawkmoth was watching her. If she was right and Marinette was Ladybug, Chloe wasn't going to be the one to betray her to Hawkmoth. Not after she had already chosen the wrong side. But still, she had to find some way to confirm Ladybug's identity. Some way that Hawkmoth wouldn't find out.
Marinette opened her eyes, Luca's playing had turned lighter as the wind picked up. She stretched and saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked again and saw a wave of blond hair sway as its owner walked away, the girls jacket a familiar shade of yellow. Marinette tensed, unconsciously balling her fists in her lap.
Luca noticed and stopped playing, looking at her concerned. She wasn't saying anything.
Then, so faintly he barely heard it, he heard her whisper, "Chloe."
His eyebrows pulled together and he placed his hand on her fist, letting out a stream of air when it relaxed beneath his hold.
"Hey," He said, getting her attention, "Let's go."
