To Lyger 0: Yeah… Although in her defense, she hasn't exactly had family since the Tarasque, so she's been really lonely.

"Hmm… I like the cut of this one, but I'm not sold on the color – your skin tone isn't quite the same as Chloe's, so this color makes you look a little too pale. I'll have to give that some thought – a little lighter color would complement your complexion much better. But for now, how about…"

Chloe leaned against the wall in the boutique shop's back fitting room, arms folded, with Bee-atrice sitting at her feet, her tail thumping on the floor anxiously as she looked back and forth between Zoe and Chloe. Zoe held another blouse up to her chest, a nervous look on her face, as Marinette circled around her while tapping her chin, her brows furrowed and tongue sticking out in concentration. Finally, Marinette shook her head, snatched the blouse out of Zoe's hands, and tossed her two other ones that she lunged to catch. Dismissively, Marinette dropped the blouse on top of a growing pile of rejects in a crate against the wall, miming for Zoe to hold one of the new selections against her chest.

"It's almost scary to watch her work, isn't it?" whispered Sabrina, sitting next to Chloe in a chair that the sales representative had brought back for her. Bee leaned against Sabrina's shin, and she absentmindedly reached down to scratch behind the puppy's ears. "I don't think I ever see Marinette half as focused and intense as she is when fashion is involved! Although," she added, raising an eyebrow, "I also don't think I ever feel her to be as happy as she is when fashion is involved – though Adrien is the exception."

Chloe hummed, raising an eyebrow as Zoe awkwardly twirled around, holding the blouse against her shoulders. With a sigh, she reached down for the new skirt she had picked out on the way in. "Considering that I'm much more used to being the one being fitted, rather than watching someone else be fitted… it's a lot different from this angle."

"Welcome to the club!" Sabrina teased her, nudging her hip.

"Ha, ha," Chloe retorted drily. "But I never made you sit around while I picked out a whole wardrobe!"

Sabrina snorted. "No, you didn't. You just made me run around and pick up one of every article of clothing in the store for you to try on!"

Chloe cocked her head to one side. "I didn't do that more than–"

"Annually."

Chloe opened her mouth to respond, but Marinette interrupted before she could speak.

"Okay, I think we can go with this one," she decided, taking the blouse from Zoe and hanging it at the end of a steadily-filling rack. Chloe's jaw clenched – how were they supposed to fit more clothing in her penthouse closet? Marinette sighed, smiling. "I think this might be my favorite for you. It brings out your eyes so much – actually, if I remember right, you have one of these, too, right, Chlo? Or at least one from the same collection?"

Chloe started, looking more closely at the blouse in Marinette's hand. Slowly, she nodded. "I think so… I wore it for… something. The bachelorette party, maybe?" She furrowed her brows, looking away in concentration. Jean-Claude had been explicit: no "hand-me-downs" in public. "I don't think I saw any pictures online with it, though…"

Sabrina hummed. "That sounds right." Shaking her head ruefully, she sighed. "I thought I'd forgotten everything about that night – in the rush of everything that happened the next day!"

"Trust me, you're not the only one," Chloe told her, shaking her head wryly.

Marinette cocked her head, glancing away from the rack of clothes to eye the two of them. "Oh? I though the bachelorette party was seared in everyone's minds… What happened the day after it?"

Quirking an eyebrow at her, Sabrina gestured to her stomach. "That was the day I found out."

Marinette nodded in realization, her mouth falling open and her eyes widening. "Oh. Good thing we didn't get anything to drink, then!"

"Wait…" Zoe turned around and looked more closely at Sabrina. "Are you…?"

Sabrina smiled tenderly. "About four months along now," she told her, shifting in her seat and resting one hand on her belly.

Zoe bounced on her heels. "Wow, that's–that's so exciting! Congratulations!"

"It's… been a lot of changes, all of them happening all at once," Sabrina admitted, looking down at her hand and holding it out so the small diamond caught the light. After a moment of contemplation, she blushed and put her hand back in her lap. "But it's been good so far. The baby is doing well, at least. Although my feet hurt a little more often than I care to admit and it feels like I've gained at least 50 kilos in the last month…"

Chloe pursed her lips. "I hope that fiancé of yours has been taking care of you. If he's neglecting you, we might need to have… words."

Sabrina sighed. "Of course Max is 'taking care of me'," she assured Chloe. "Though I am glad I can sit down here…"

Marinette shook her head ruefully. "From what my mom has said, those things are the least of your worries. According to her, it's not until the baby is born that the real changes start taking place. Starting with your sleep schedule!"

Sabrina groaned, rubbing her forehead. "Don't jinx me…"

Chloe arched an eyebrow at Marinette. "Of course, you could always babysit for the babies…"

Marinette paled. "W–w–what?" she stuttered, wide-eyed. "Considering how off my sleep schedule can sometimes get, especially when a deadline is coming up, I don't think that's necessarily the smartest–"

"Of course!" Sabrina grinned eagerly. "You'd already be awake, probably, so you could just take both babies and just go and check on them if they wake up! It would be perfect! Why didn't we think of it sooner?"

"'Both' babies?" asked Zoe, furrowing her brows and looking at Marinette in confusion before turning to examine Chloe more closely.

Chloe gave her a deadpan look. "Obviously it's not me."

Zoe's eyes bugged out, and she turned back to Marinette.

Marinette blinked.

Sabrina stifled a laugh. "Chloe isn't the only 'surprise sister' here," she explained, nodding toward Marinette. "Her mother is expecting – she's a little further along than I am, in fact!"

Zoe nodded, her mouth coming open and eyes widening. "O–o–oh. S–sorry," she apologized, glancing back at Marinette. "I, um, congratulations?"

Marinette stared at Chloe in disbelief. "What did you do to this girl?" Giving Zoe a warm smile, she told her, "Believe me, it's most definitely 'congratulations'; I always wanted a little sibling!"

As Zoe nodded in understanding and Marinette picked out another skirt for her to test out, a sales associate rushed down the aisle toward them, looking down at Bee nervously. "Excuse me, mademoiselle," the woman told Chloe. "But I'm afraid we can't have pets in the store."

"She is perfectly well behaved," Chloe assured the woman.

"That's not the issue," the woman began. "It's store pol–"

Marinette cleared her throat, raising an eyebrow at the associate. "I said it was okay."

The woman turned away from Chloe and cocked her head, and her eyes immediately widened. "O–oh! Of–of course, Mme Agreste. I'm sorry to bother you."

Marinette waved her hand dismissively. "It's not a bother; you're just doing your job."

Zoe started, looking at Marinette in surprise. "Wait, are you the Marinette Agreste?" Marinette shrugged. Zoe gasped, her eyes wide. "I'd heard about you… but only by reputation – one of my friends from school, all she could talk about was when she got one of your dresses for her birthday."

"Please." Marinette blushed. "I'm just Marinette."

Zoe looked down at the blouse and skirt in her hands. "And you designed these?"

Marinette nodded, smiling. "These are actually from the newest collection," she explained, holding up a sundress beside Zoe. "I got the idea while I was in Spain over the summer to visit a friend." She hummed, examining the dress alongside Zoe, and tapped her chin, her brows furrowed. "I do think I like this one for you," she mused slowly. "But maybe I'll adjust the neckline a little bit to work better with the shape of your collarbone."

"Are–are you sure?" asked Zoe, looking back and forth between the sundress and Marinette. "That sounds like a lot of work; I don't want to cause any trouble…"

"Oh, it's no trouble at all," Marinette assured her dismissively, sweeping the dress away and draping it over a display rack. "It'll be done by the end of the day – I can drop it off in the morning."

"Trust me," Chloe told Zoe, stifling a laugh. "This is the kind of thing that Marinette lives for."

Marinette sighed, shaking her head ruefully. "After the last couple months… this kind of busyness is so much better than the other kind!"

"Was this one of the shops that she hit?" asked Sabrina, glancing around the interior of the store.

"Yes." Marinette nodded, her mouth set in a thin line. "Adrien had all of them insured, at least, and the insurance money was enough to repair the damage to the structures and replace some of the damaged merchandise. Though we still took a bit of a hit: they paid for the wholesale cost, not retail value. But still, overall it turned out better than we had any right to expect. We were fortunate that none of the stores were open at the time – if our employees had been here when she attacked…"

Zoe furrowed her brows in confusion.

Glancing over the back fitting area they had taken over, Marinette sighed. "So, we've got a few blouses here; some lighter shirts and tanks; the sundress; a couple more formal dresses and skirts; two jackets, formal and informal – I think these capris will go well with that blouse. Oh, and I'd better throw in a couple sets of pajamas so you don't have to keep using Chloe's. Now, what else do we need?"

"We should probably pick out a bathing suit for her," Chloe pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "Daddy is planning a trip down to the Paris-Plages by the Eiffel Tower next week; she'll need something to wear for that."

Marinette hummed, examining Zoe closely. "Hopefully you'll be able to have some fun there… So. Do you prefer wearing one-piece or two-piece suits?"

"Um… two?" Zoe answered hesitantly.

"One piece," Chloe interjected, her stomach turning over. Zoe looked at her in surprise, and she sighed. "Jean-Claude is going to try to milk the 'innocent little girl' angle for all its worth, for as long as he possibly can. Meaning at least until after the election."

Zoe's shoulders slumped. "Okay…"

"We can split the difference," Marinette suggested, picking out a tankini and handing it to Zoe, who nodded gratefully. "So, what else? Does she have shoes? Purses? Jewelry?"

Chloe nodded. "Daddy took care of shoes, bras, jewelry… all of that yesterday. Though he didn't replace your purse," she added, glancing down at the tattered one Zoe had brought in with her.

"We'll get you a new purse then," Marinette told Zoe. "Mine have more space than that one does, anyways."

"O–okay," Zoe agreed, nodding. "Thank you."

Finally, with two carts loaded down with new clothing and Bee in tow, the four of them made their way up to the front counter. As the cashier rang up their purchases, Chloe pulled the wallet out of her purse, but Marinette scoffed, shaking her head. "You aren't paying here."

"Yes, I am," Chloe retorted. "There's no way I'm letting you just give us all this clothing." Her voice dropped lower, and she gave Marinette a meaningful look. "Especially when there's an election coming up…"

Marinette rolled her eyes. "Please, what do they think we'd try to do here? You're my friend."

Chloe arched an eyebrow at her, jerking her head toward the large glass front windows, through which no less than three photographers were visible.

Marinette sighed, folded her arms, and gave Chloe an annoyed look. "Oh, fine. Pay if you want. But the next time you bring your little sister shopping at my store, it's my treat!"

"In three weeks, perhaps we'll take you up on that," Chloe agreed wryly.

Forty-five minutes later, while Zoe was getting her hair cut and highlighted at the salon three blocks from the boutique store, Marinette, Chloe, and Sabrina sat together in the waiting room. Craning her neck, Chloe strained to watch Zoe's hairdresser work, at the far end of the row of chairs.

Marinette turned to Sabrina, stifling a laugh. "So, did you ever think you'd see the day when Chloe Bourgeois was a big sister?"

Sabrina shook her head, covering her mouth. "Nope. But I have to say, it fits her well."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "It's not that big a deal," she grumbled, shaking her head. She let out a breath. "Considering that I didn't even know this girl a day ago…"