Chapter 11: Not enough

Author's note: Yay, finally a new chapter!

Sometimes the hardest part of writing is just knowing where to start. I've had plenty of ideas for what to do in this chapter for ages, but have been suffering from writer's block for how to start the chapter and what order to write all those ideas in. And my motivation to write at all has been in the pits until recently.
As such, this chapter may feel a bit disjointed.

"Okay, now try again."

Taking a calming breath, Marinette moved through her routine, moving her feet and arms around in a fluid motion and lifting her leg in the air and keeping it there are she slowly span with her other foot.

But as Marinette progressed, she found herself stumbling, and not just physically.

Was her foot meant to go there?
Was her timing right?
She was doing this all wrong, wasn't she?
She was going to make a major mistake soon.
She had been practicing this for so long, Zoe was going to be disappointed with her.
What if Zoe declared her a lost cause and kicked her out of the class?

As Marinette predicted, she began to fumble, she wobbled too much, she placed her feet wrong and almost tripped herself, and was left with her arms wheeling to try and keep her balance.

Eventually Marinette came to a stop and hung her head.
She'd had a few dance classes by now, and despite her instructor's confidence in her, she continued to make mistakes.

"I'm hopeless." Marinette bemoaned.

"Don't say that." Zoe told her student. "I've seen you, and I know that you can do better."

"But I keep messing up. I should know how to do this by now." Marinette complained.

It wasn't that hard of a routine, not very long and well within Marinette's capability with how flexible and strong she was.

"And it's this mentality that's causing your problems." Zoe advised. "You're a self-fulfilling prophesy."

"Huh?"

"You believe that you will mess up and so you do. You need to let go of these heavy thoughts and you will be able to move more freely." Zoe explained.

"I guess." Marinette said unsurely, it sounded like it made sense.

"Now, repeat after me. 'I am a good dancer'." Zoe instructed.

"Uhh…" Marinette said, trying to gage if her instructor was being serious. "I'm a good dancer?"

"Are you asking or telling? Say it again." Zoe raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a good dancer."

"Again."

"I'm a good dancer."

"Louder."

"I'm a good dancer."

"Good. Now, do your routine again." Zoe ordered. "And keep saying it."

Hesitantly, Marinette began to move through her routine again, feeling very stupid as the continued to chant that she was a good dancer.
All was going well until halfway through the routine when Marinette made a mistake. Her heart sank but she did her best to recover and continue the routine.

At the end, Marinette sighed and dropped her arms, only to be surprised by Zoe clapping excitedly.

"Very good, much better." The instructor praised.

"But I still made a mistake." Marinette pointed out.

"So?" Zoe put her hands on her hips. "You think that I don't make mistakes, that I don't misjudge my balance or that my feet never slip? Being a good dancer isn't just about knowing a routine, it's about continuing to move despite those mistakes and making your mistakes into part of the performance. Especially when performing free-style."

"Oh." Marinette said.

Zoe smiled and patted Marinette's head.

"Keep up the good work." She said, walking away to help another of her students.

Chloe frowned heavily as she scrolled through the Ladyblog.

'Ladybird and Chat Noir out on patrol.'
"No."

'Which animal will Kleos show up as next?'
"No!"

'Which animal will Púca show up as next?'
"Ugh!"

'Gigantitan fight! Where was Queen Bee?'

Chloe rolled her eyes at the header for the blog post. Alya had really been aiming to get views with that title.

Chloe had dutifully shown up to many other fights in the past few weeks, even the ones that dared to interrupt her beauty sleep. So, she was entitled to skip a few if she didn't feel like it.
Besides, there was no way that she was going to deal with a giant baby of all things.

"Come on, where's all the stuff about Queen Bee?" Chloe complained, flicking through all the blog posts again.

Sure, Queen Bee was usually included in posts mentioning all the heroes, but there was only one or two in the past week that actually focused on her in any meaningful capacity.
When Queen Bee had first arrived on the scene, the Ladyblog had been bursting with posts and forum discussions about the new hero.

"Uh, I think all the hype died down." Sabrina piped up from where she was doing Chloe's homework.

"Died down?" Chloe said in offense, as if Sabrina was the cause.

"Uh-w-well, the same happened with Kleos and Púca." Sabrina shrunk in her seat.

Chloe scowled.

"It's way too soon for the attention to fall." She insisted. "Queen Bee isn't some temp' hero, she's Ladybird's partner. In fact, she should be getting more attention than Ladybird."

Chloe had to admit that it was a harsh truth, but Ladybird just did not belong in front of the camera, especially after what happened with Prime Queen. If reporters happened to catch Ladybird before her fellow heroine could leave, answers to questions were often short and awkward, though she now had Queen Bee to step in for her.
Chloe, meanwhile, had no problem talking to the reporters and explaining all the details. She'd even managed to perfect her balancing talking to them and leaving to time out.

Sabrina didn't respond, not wanting to earn Chloe's ire.

Chloe looked back at the Ladyblog and pulled a face at the entire layout of the blog. The pinks and reds, the spotted silhouette of Ladybird, and definitely the name itself.

"Why is it still called the Ladyblog anyway?" Chloe bemoaned aloud. "Ladybird isn't the main hero anymore, so she shouldn't be getting top billing."

Queen Bee needed to be on that banner alongside Ladybird. And Chat Noir and the other two she guessed, in the background.

"Sabrina, remind me to tell Césaire to change the Ladyblog." Chloe ordered her 'friend'.

Just as Chloe was about to shut down the blog, the Akuma alert sounded.

"Ugh." Chloe moaned loudly. "Again?"

She was tempted to skip this fight too. But, in the end, she knew that her continued popularity did rely on Queen Bee showing her face.

So, Chloe stood up and began to make her way to the roof.

"I'm going to get some sun." She made up her excuse. "I don't need you up there." She quickly held up her hand as Sabrina made to follow her. "You still have work to finish."

With that, Chloe left to transform.

"Check out my latest video." Alya excitedly showed Marinette.

Marinette just sighed, seeing how close the camera was to the action yet again.

"Alya, one of these days you're going to get badly hurt for this." She complained.

"Maybe." Alya admitted. "But there's no reward without the risk."

Alya sped through the video until reaching a point with Queen Bee as the focus.

In the video, Queen Bee noticed the camera focused on her, though it was too far away to tell the expression on her face.
Then, suddenly, Queen Bee began to take a much more active role in the fight than before, clearly surprising Ladybird and Chat Noir if their reactions were anything to go by.

Naturally, Alya's video began to follow Queen Bee as the focus of the battle. And Marinette couldn't help but notice that the heroine's head was regularly turning towards the camera before focusing back on the fight.

"Huh, usually Queen Bee isn't so forward." Marinette commented, watching Queen Bee attempt to take the lead in the fight.

"I know, it's a bit weird." Alya agreed.

While Queen Bee had started off as an aggressive hero, she had quickly fallen back into more of a support role for the team over the time she'd been active, hanging back and waiting for the right moment to attack. So, Queen Bee personally engaging the villains so much was noticeable.

In the video, the heroes seemed to be regrouping, Ladybird pointing off in a direction and Chat Noir nodding along. Queen Bee looked back at Alya yet again and seemed to argue.
The villains attacked again and the original duo split off, leading the villains away somewhere, leaving Queen Bee to stomp her foot in frustration before following after.

"I lost them after that." Alya said, cutting off the video.

Marinette kept the thought that it was a good thing to herself.

"Césaire!"

Both girls let out heavy groans as they swung around to meet Chloe.

"What?" Alya made her annoyance clear.

"I need to talk to you about the Ladyblog. You need to rename it, and change it's look. Queen Bee is a highly important member of the team now but your silly blog still doesn't reflect that. Why is Ladybird the central focus?"

"Because she's the team leader, my favourite hero, and there's this little thing called brand recognition." Alya listed off with a raised eyebrow.

"Ladybird isn't the leader, she and Queen Bee are equal partners." Chloe objected. "And it isn't fair on the other heroes that only one of them gets constant central focus on the blog."

"Chloe, I'm not changing my blog." Alya stated simply. "If you're so butt-hurt about it, go make your own."

Chloe sneered.

"You know what? I will." She proclaimed confidently. "And my blog will drive yours into obscurity."

The girls sighed in relief as Chloe turned and stormed off.

*A few days later*

Chloe curled her lip in distaste at her blog.

After Alya refused to be reasonable, Chloe, or rather Sabrina under her instructions, had made her own blog to give Queen Bee the focus she deserved. But there was barely any activity on it.

The layout of the blog was also extremely bland, even with the Bee theme and all the images of Queen Bee, mostly due to Sabrina not having much experience in creating web pages and thus using a standard template.

"Why isn't there any engagement? I have plenty of views." Chloe complained, looking annoyed at the 'How much do you love Queen Bee' poll that only had one vote despite being up since the previous day.

Unknown to Chloe, Sabrina had bought views after Chloe screamed at her about how little attention her new blog was getting. Though, those bots only artificially inflated the view count, they didn't do anything about actually interacting with the blog.

"Attention is not everything, my Queen." Pollen tried to comfort Chloe. "Being a hero is about saving people, no matter the praise. And there are people who look to you as part of the team."

"Oh, shut up." Chloe grumbled. "I risk my life to save these ungrateful peasants, the least they can do is give me the attention I deserve."

Throwing her phone down on her bed, Chloe stormed out of her room, almost running into her mother in the process.

"Ugh, Zoe. It is unacceptable to run into people." Audrey brushed imaginary dirt from her clothes. "Look where you are going."

"I didn't mean to." Chloe said in way of an apology.

Then she paused.

"What did you just call me?"

Audrey regarded her daughter with a frown.

"I don't have time for these games, Zoe. I have places I need to be." Audrey went to move around Chloe.

"It's Chloe." Chloe scowled. "My name is Chloe."

"Chloe, then." Audrey scoffed, as if was no big deal that she forgot her daughter's name.

Chloe's fist clenched.

"Why are you forgetting my name again? I'm your daughter." She demanded.

Sure, when Audrey had first returned, she struggled with Chloe's name. But after Chloe had proven herself just as vicious as her mother, Audrey had finally started getting her name right.

"Well, have you done anything worth remembering?" Audrey raised a critical eyebrow. "Being my daughter is hardly an accomplishment on its own."

Chloe's mouth dropped open.
Was her own mother really demanding that she prove her worth like she was some employee of hers.

"I've done plenty worth remembering." Chloe said defensively as her eyes burned. "I save people every day as-ow!"

Chloe was cut off from impulsively revealing herself as Queen Bee by a sharp sting to her hand.

"Save people?" Audrey scoffed. "That will hardly get you proper recognition, outside of ten-minutes of fame from doing something drastic. Do something exceptional with your life that will actually get you remembered."

With that dismissal, Audrey walked away.

Chloe stood there in shock until her mother had disappeared. She then scowled angrily as a guilty-looking Pollen appeared in front of her.

"What was that for?" Chloe demanded as she rubbed her hand. "Why would you hurt me?"

"I'm sorry, my queen." Pollen bowed deeply. "But I didn't have the time to think of any other way to stop you from revealing that you were Queen Bee."

"Why? My mother would be impressed if she knew I was Queen Bee, that I'm well-known and a recognised icon." Chloe crossed her arms.

"My queen, you can't let anyone know who you are, not even those closest to you." Pollen stressed. "If someone knows your identity and Iris Akumatises them, they will not care about care about keeping your identity secret."

"So? It would mean finally getting the recognition I deserved." Chloe pouted.

"And Iris never giving you a moments rest. She will be able to send Akumas after you directly or attack herself." Pollen reminded.

"I could fight her off." Chloe said weakly, knowing that she couldn't actually defend against Iris all the time.

Pollen said nothing, sensing Chloe's defeat in the argument.

"Whatever." Chloe mumbled, going back into her room.

With Gabriel Agreste being a very busy man, and Marinette having her own obligations, including the dance classes he had told her to sign up for, one-on-one training didn't happen often. But since Gabriel was determined to not send a young teen out to fight villains without sufficient training, despite being willing to send a young teen out to fight villains at all over fighting himself, he still made time to spar with Marinette.

The student and mentor circled around each other warily, hands up to defend against an incoming attack.
Gabriel took initiative and struck, forcing Marinette on the defensive.

Marinette felt almost as though she was moving instinctively, moving her arms to block and angling her body out of the way without really thinking about it.

Suddenly, Marinette saw an opening and took it. She grabbed Gabriel's extended arm and used his own bodyweight and forward momentum to flip the man over, pinning him to the floor.

There was a moment of stunned silence as both combatants registered what had just happened.

"I…I did it." A grin slowly grew across Marinette's face. "Oh my god. I actually got you."

"Indeed you did." Gabriel conceded. "However-"

In a flash of movement, Gabriel easily broke out of Marinette's hold, flipping around and sleeping the teen off her feet, sending her to the floor.

"Such victories are fleeting if you do not properly maintain your hold and your guard." Gabriel advised.

"Yes sir." Marinette mumbled, feeling slightly downtrodden that her moment of victory had quickly been taken away.

Gabriel's phone beeped, signally that training time was over.

"I will be busy for the foreseeable future, so continue training on your own." Marinette's mentor instructed.

"Yes sir." Marinette said.

Just before Gabriel left through his secret entrance, he stopped to address his apprentice.

"You have improved. Keep it up." He acknowledged before shutting the door behind him.

Marinette smiled at the praise while Duusu cheered beside her.

"Please, why are you even here." Iris scoffed as she and Queen Bee faced off. "It's not even been a month and you're already washed up."

"Shut up!" Queen Bee yelled, jabbing forward frantically in an attempt to hit the villain with her venom, her anger making her aim worse. "I'm not washed up! Everyone loves me, especially after I finally take you out."

Iris just cackled, enraging Queen Bee further.

It hadn't taken the villainess long to notice Queen Bee's insecurities bleeding into her heroics and deduce that the heroine had an ego problem. And, of course, Iris wasn't above preying on the Bee hero's ego and insecurities to throw Queen Bee off her game and make her easier to manipulate.

Though, Iris could see Queen Bee nearing a tipping point of sorts. The hero's need for recognition had been steadily getting worse, to the point that she had allowed Iris to isolate her for a one-on-one confrontation this time, apparently wanting the credit for taking down Iris all to herself.
Iris found it a bit insulting that Queen Bee believed that she could defeat her.

"Take me out? Don't make me laugh." Iris mocked. "The only thing you're dangerous to is others. I don't have to even try when you're around."

Queen Bee gritted her teeth and tried striking Iris again. All she needed to do was land one hit, and then it'd be over.

Spotting something in the corner of her eye, Iris grinned and began to back away from Queen Bee towards it.

"If I'm no threat, when why are you running away?" Queen Bee taunted herself.

"Because I have enough humility to understand when it's best to retreat and find a better advantage." Iris continued to grin infuriatingly, coming to a stop and proving Queen Bee a seemingly perfect opportunity to strike. "And I pay attention to my surroundings."

Queen Bee leapt forward, striking at Iris with her Venom.

At the last second, Iris dropped, the Venom skimming over her fox ears before continuing on with the force of Queen Bee's attack.
Right into the chest of Alya Césaire.

Alya's face became frozen in a state of shock as the Venom took effect, her phone still held out in front of her to record Queen Bee's look of regret and annoyance, as well as Iris' mad laughing in the background at what she had lured the heroine into doing.

"Well done." Iris grinned and she clapped sarcastically. "You sure showed that innocent civilian, hero."

Queen Bee turned to look at Iris in anger.

"The Venom will wear off." She said. "And I don't need it to beat you."

She attacked again, leaving the paralysed Alya where she was.

Continuing to grin, Iris connected to her Akuma.

"Reunite with me, I've had my fun." She instructed, making sure Queen Bee could hear that Iris had only been 'playing' with her.
Iris did actually have to be careful against Queen Bee and had almost been hit a couple of times, but the lie helped to further anger the heroine and provide her amusement.

Queen bee continued to attack, hoping to take out Iris before the other heroes arrived along with the Akuma, so that she could still get the credit for being the one to take out Iris.

The arrival of Iris' latest Akuma was easy to notice, heralded by plenty of property destruction. Paris was incredibly lucky that Ladybird had her Miraculous cure ability or Iris' Akumas would have made the city uninhabitable many times over.

As the Akuma arrived, it knocked over a wall close by.

Queen Bee and Iris instinctively looked over at the loud noise, eyes widening when they saw that a large chunk of the damaged wall was flying right towards Alya, who was incapable of getting out of the way herself.

"Shelter!"

Just before Alya could get squished, Púca appeared wielding the Turtle Miraculous, summoning a magical forcefield around themself and Alya to protect against the falling wall.

Meanwhile, Iris narrowly missed getting struck by Ladybird's yoyo as she and Chat Noir arrived.

"Ah, there you are." Ladybird said, not looking happy with Queen Bee.

"Ladybird, I-" Queen Bee began.

"Save it." Ladybird ordered.

Ladybird then turned her attention towards Iris and the Akuma.

…

With the casting of Ladybird's Miraculous Cure, Alya was thankfully unparalysed early and seemingly unaffected by her near brush with death, more concerned with getting good shots of Púca's latest costume.

"Why is Púca getting all the attention, they hardly did anything?" Queen Bee complained with crossed arms.

"They saved that girl's life. Unlike you, who put her in danger by paralysing her in the first place." Ladybird accused with a glare.

"It wasn't my fault." Queen Bee denied. "I was aiming for Iris and she was just there. If you have an issue, bring it up with her for always putting herself so close to the danger."

Ladybird breathed in deeply.
As angry as she was with her fellow heroine, she couldn't argue that point. No matter how many times the young reporter got herself in danger or was told to keep her distance from the action, she refused to learn for the sake of her blog.

"Beyond that. You shouldn't have run off in the first place. We had a plan, in which you played a vital part, only you decide to run off after Iris alone when our backs are turned. I had to go get Púca for the plan instead." Ladybird fought to keep herself calm so as to not be dismissed as irrational.

"I saw an opportunity. Iris was separate from her Akuma and if I took down Iris then the Akuma wouldn't be an issue." Queen Bee argued.

"Or Iris could have taken you out, then she would have three Miraculous that we'd need to retrieve, and a Miraculous which is very dangerous against us." Chat Noir joined in to point out. "We don't separate because then we can't help each other if things go wrong."

"Ugh." Queen Bee huffed.

Before she could argue further, her Miraculous beeped incessantly, indicating imminent de-transformation.

"I don't have time to put up with this. I'm leaving." Queen Bee said as she ran away.

Ladybird and Chat Noir watched her go with different frowns.

"I think something's up with Queen Bee." Chat Noir expressed his concern for the Bee hero. "She's been acting off lately."

Ladybird, however, shrugged. "If she's got a stick up her arse, she can pull it out herself. She doesn't listen to us and I can't be bothered with her." She told her partner.

Chat Noir frowned at his partner's lack of sympathy for Queen Bee. Though, he couldn't exactly blame her, as the heroine was often annoying and had the sort of personality that wasn't easy to get on with, especially with Ladybird's own 'people annoy me' attitude.
Chat Noir himself was only recognising Queen Bee's reckless and standoffish behaviour as the result of something deeper due to his friendship with Chloe.

Following the fight, the Ladyblog was alight with discussions that focused around Queen Bee, though not in the way Chloe wanted.
Thanks to Alya's phone still recording while she had been paralysed, everyone had been able to see not just Queen Bee paralysing Alya in the first place, but also Alya almost getting crushed because the teen had been left vulnerable in a dangerous area, as well as Queen Bee's entire attitude about what she had done.

Chloe's lip curled in disgust as she read the Ladyblog on the way to school.

'Queen Bee just left OP in danger!'
Unfair, Chloe had been busy with Iris and didn't have the time to haul Alya out of danger.

'What sort of hero attacks a civilian?'
A completely unfair and false representation of what actually happened. Chloe hadn't been aiming for the reporter and she shouldn't have been in attacking distance anyway.

'This is why Púca should have been the permanent hero, not QB.'

Chloe sneered.
There were more than a few posts and comments making similar declarations. Claiming that Puca was somehow a better hero than she was, even though they weren't a fulltime hero like she was.

'Puca was better at using the Bee than Queen Bee.'

"Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" Chloe exclaimed at the post.

There was no way that Púca could have done a better job against Headmaster with the Bee than she could have. If anything, she did a better job at wielding the snake, with how many times she saved Ladybird and Chat Noir from screwing things up.

Chloe stormed in the school courtyard, sneering openly as she realised that the fight was all the other students seemed capable of talking about at that moment. And not a lot of it was favourable to Queen Bee.

"Are you sure you're alright, Alya?" Marinette asked her friend in concern.

"I told you, I'm fine." Alya insisted, trying to push her friends from crowding around her so tightly.

"It's just, you came so close to getting hurt really bad." Rose worried. "And this time, you couldn't even run away."

Juleka muttered something about Alya putting herself in danger constantly.

"What was Queen Bee thinking, hitting you like that and then just leaving you there?" Alix shook her head.

The others nodded in agreement.

All had varying opinions on Queen Bee, especially after the latest fight.

Marinette herself didn't like Queen Bee all that much, even before her negligence led to Alya almost getting squished, the heroine's attitude just rubbing her the wrong way.

"You know, I've been telling Ladybird for a while now that Queen Bee isn't the best suited for being a hero." Lila claimed, using the lie that she and the heroine were close friends. "Maybe she'll finally listen to me after what happened. The Bee Miraculous deserves to be in the hands of someone much more appropriate and responsible." Lila placed her hand on her chest, making it clear who she thought that someone should be.

Chloe stormed over and gave a laugh she didn't feel.

"As if Ladybird could take the Bee Miraculous away from Queen Bee if she tried. Not that she would because Queen Bee is already a great hero." Chloe claimed.

"Is that why she let poor Alya almost get squished? We're lucky that Púca, at least, had their priorities straight." Lila said.

"Queen Bee had her priorities straight." Chloe argued. "She was trying to stop Iris once and for all. It was Césaire's fault that she was close enough to get in the way in the first place."

Once again, Chloe's point couldn't be fully argued against. All of Alya's friends personally believed that she put herself too close to the danger for the sake of her blog but had long since given up on trying to persuade her out of it.

"The duty of a hero shouldn't be to only stop the bad guys, Chloe." Marinette spoke up. "Protection of civilians and keeping them out of harms way is also important. When Queen Bee saw that she'd paralysed Alya, she should have taken Alya to safety or led the fight away from Alya."

"That was an accident!" Chloe defended her alter ego.

"Accident or not, Queen Bee still put Alya in danger, and she didn't even check on her afterwards. It was Púca who did that." Mylene said before shrinking under Chloe's glare.

Deciding that she didn't want to put up with the negative comments towards herself, Chloe stormed off while proclaiming about the ridiculousness of the situation.

"Why isn't Queen Bee getting the popularity she deserves?" Chloe questioned Sabrina as she stormed to class.

"Well, I guess there's her attitude, she claims to do a lot that she doesn't actually do and talks down about the other heroes that people like, she could stand to be nicer really, she only shows up for fights unlike Ladybird and Chat Noir, she doesn't try to assure others after they've been in danger, and doesn't have a flashy…power…" Sabrina trailed off as Chloe glared at her, realising that her friend didn't want an honest answer.

"Shut up, moron." Chloe snapped at Sabrina. "You don't know a single thing about what you're talking about. Queen Bee does plenty."

Sabrina shrank back and quieted, hiding the usual hurt she felt when Chloe snapped at her.
She didn't understand why Chloe was getting so worked up about the hero. Sure, fans could get very defensive about the person they liked, acting like any offence against the person they liked was an offence against them, but Chloe was taking it very far.

"I'll get the fame I deserve, no matter what." Chloe muttered to herself. "And then, they'll see."

Author's note: Please comment.

I'm sorry to say, but I'll possibly be abandoning this story yet again soon. The last few chapters have just been a slog to get through, especially this one. Writing Jak and Daxter one-shots has reinvigorated my motivation for writing, which helped me finish this chapter, but I'm not sure that the motivation will last me to the planned end for this long-form story.
At the very least, I want to get to the end of the current arc with Chloe, since it is something that I really want to write and would allow the story to end on some form of conclusion. We'll see from there if I'll want to continue to the end, or if I'll just post what my plans were for the rest of the story.

Anyway, next up, the thing you've all been waiting for.