Chapter | Two
Chloe Bourgeois was a lot of things, and if one was to ask about her- well she knew that everyone would have a thing to say. She knew she could be a bitch, but at the same time it weeded out unnecessary people from her life. She was independent, but she was also spoiled. She knew this, and took it too her personality. Wasn't her fault if people didn't like it, because she was not born to please others.
The class at Collège Françoise Dupont are simpleminded people. They were people who simply chased after the shiny new toys, and stayed with that toy for as long as it kept them entertained. For years since they were younger, Chloe had always watched everyone fawn over Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She watched as people praised her for her wonderful parents, and how said parents were always there, always present. She hated it the moment she saw it, and in time she took that jealousy and anger out on Marinette.
It was because her home life wasn't idea that she was mean to Marinette, and that wasn't right. As the years passed and they grew up, Chloe watched as Marinette enchanted everyone with her natural charm she didn't even know she possessed- and that pissed Chloe off even more. Marinette had gone out of her way for people, bent over backwards to get something done within a timeframe she had said, and never once had Marinette disappointed. Not until Lila entered their lives.
Chloe had watched as Lila slowly cut Marinette down, turned everyone against her. She watched as Lila became the shinny, new and exciting toy while Marinette was tossed aside like nothing. It had surprised her even more how much seeing Marinette withdrawal herself made her feel upset. Marinette was the last person to deserve what happened to her, and Chloe owed her this. She had to redeem herself as Chloe- a friend, in Marinette's eyes.
Plus when she found out Marinette was Ladybug, it all made sense. The excuses, why she was always tired and running on caffeine- not even the good kind, just straight black. That's how Chloe knew it was bad. It had only gotten worse recently. Chloe had watched as Marinette looked out the window during class lectures, her eyes distant and unfocused. Those bluebell eyes lacked the light they once held.
Made it on the plane, text you when we land. Thank you Chloe. - Marinette
Chloe's lips twitched up into a small smile reading the text message. At least she knew that Marinette would get better, breathe fresh air and be in a city were she can feel her emotions without worry. A soft knock at her door of the floor she was currently residing in got her attention, since she was unsure who would be visiting. Sabrina was one of Lila's mindless monkeys now.
Walking over to the door, Chloe had set her phone down on one of the shelves. Setting her palm flat on the door, she leaned up to look out the peep hole, since she wasn't sure who the hell was showing up at her door. Yet she saw no one standing there. Frowning, Chloe opened the door and there she found a short older asian man in a red Hawaiian shirt.
"Um.. hello?" Chloe says, unsure why this man would be here.
He merely smiled, "Chloe Bourgeois, I am Master Fu and it's time we had a overdue conversation."
"No one else could ever replace you as Ladybug, which is why we have to talk to Master Fu. Explain to him what is happening." Tikki had said.
Chloe recognized the name she had heard and knew that this was important, so she did the only thing she could do, she opened the door wider for Master Fu and welcomed him in. Once he was inside, she closed the door after him.
"It's nice to meet you." Chloe says, albeit awkwardly. She knew that he was important, that this was who Marinette trusted enough to run things by, and that he could answer her questions. She wasn't used to the position she was in, wasn't used to change to benefit others than herself. Wasn't used to being selfless.
"Out of everyone I thought I would talk to, you were not one whom I thought I would be speaking too." Master Fu says, but despite his words his smile is warm. "You have surpassed every expectation put on you Chloe, grown from making people into akumas to someone who is helping bit by bit. I can not tell you how good it is what you did for Marinette."
"She was suffocating here, suppressing every emotion." Chloe deflected halfheartedly.
"If she were to ever get akumatized, Paris would more than likely fall." Master Fu says, growing more serious. "Marinette is something called a true holder, a soul that was destined to be intertwined with Tikki's. A soul of creation, one who bring such a thing to life. It's why she so strong, mentally and emotionally. It's also why she can't risk it here and needs time away."
Chloe nods, "I have a feeling that isn't all you are here to tell me."
"Perspective. I wouldn't expect anything less from a true holder." Master Fu says, and hope flares up in her. "Besides Ladybug and Chat Noir, there are five true holders- which is rare. Especially in the same city, and it only means something big is coming. Something bigger than Hawkmoth and Paris." Master Fu shook his head, "But that is a worry for another time. You, my dear, are the true holder of the Bee Miraculous. You and Pollen are bonded."
"I get to keep her?" Chloe couldn't help but ask like an excited child.
"Chloe Bourgeois, under the judgement and trust of Ladybug- the next guardian in training, I here by grant you the Bee miraculous. You will use this power for the better good." Master Fu went into his pocket and pulled out a box, holding it out to Chloe. "It is extremely imperative that you do not get akumatized. Especially since you have a kwami now and that you are one of the true holders."
Chloe nodded, quickly opening the box to look over the hair comb, but now she didn't know what to do next. "What am I supposed to do exactly? I've never gotten to keep Pollen. How long do I get to have her?"
"Until the end of your life cycle, my queen." Pollen answers one of her questions, blue eyes shinning with happiness that she finally gets to stay with her holder. "It's how true holders work, the kwami and holder make a bond that lasts until the bond is broken. Usually that is when our holders die."
"Since Marinette is going to be in New York, she will be using an app to be notified of akuma attacks and will teleport back to to Paris using the horse miraculous. You are going to be a hero of Paris, though Pollen will need to change your appearance and you will need a new alias since Queen Bee was revealed- at least until Hawkmoth is defeated."
Chloe nods but frowns, "But that doesn't tell me what I'm supposed to do. Be a hero I get, but how?"
"Patrolling with Chat Noir at night." Pollen pipes in, "Being present at akuma battles and inserting yourself with their team dynamic because you are apart of the team now. It will all come to you naturally."
It was just a taste of the responsibility that Marinette carried, and it all felt like a lot. Yet being who Marinette was, while also being Ladybug and training to become the next Guardian (whatever that meant), Chloe could only imagine how much pressure Marinette was really under.
"If you ever need anything, Pollen knows where to find me." Master Fu offered a smile and without another word he left the room to let Chloe settle in.
Chloe took in a deep breath, going through her thoughts that this was all happening. All she ever wanted was to have Pollen back and be accepted, but there was so much more to being a hero and fighting akumas. Chloe was realizing that, and this was now a job she couldn't give back. She promised Marinette a safe escape for a little while, and she could do just that. She could hold down the fort here, she could be good.
Chloe always wanted the chance and she had it, and she wasn't going to fuck it up. She would be a better person but she was also who she was. She would be justified and dish out insults when needed, but be aware of people. She would aid Marinette as an ally and a friend, because she knew a part of her would care for the asian-french girl that always offered her a pastry every Christmas Eve.
"Honey Bee." Chloe mused, looking at Pollen with a small smile. "How does that sound Pollen?"
Pollen nodded her head, "Sounds nice, but you will always be Queen Bee to me my queen."
Chloe grinned and petted Pollen's head gently, "We'll figure this out and aid Ladybug and Chat Noir, but maybe you can fill in the blanks or should I call Marinette for that?"
A thoughtful look fleeted across Pollen's face, "Hawkmoth has the butterfly miraculous, who is named Nooroo. He is being used against his will to create the akumas. Nooroo is the kwami of transmission, like how I am the kwami of subjection. Tikki, Ladybug's kwami is of creation and Chat Noir's kwami, Plagg is of destruction."
"Why force a kwami to make people into akuma's?" Chloe questioned.
Pollen knew that the information was sensitive, but her holder was trustworthy. Sure her holder made mistakes, but every human does. It was simply in their nature, it would be a flaw to be perfect. Chloe deserved to know the whole story if she was getting into this war, into this long fight that could turn anyways any second.
"What is the one thing Hawkmoth wants every fight, my queen?" Pollen gently asks.
Chloe knew the answer easily, "The miraculous of Ladybug and Chat Noir."
"The Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous are special and hold a certain power when put together than other miraculous's don't have. When together a wish can be granted, but will have consequences so dire I do not believe Hawkmoth understands."
"Dire how?"
Pollen sighed softly, "A man's wife one fell ill and he wished for her sickness to go away. She was the only one infected in the village, and the wish worked. She recovered but the illness had to go somewhere, it could not just vanish. The illness was later named the Bubonic Plague."
"Oh." Chloe's eyes widen. "So wishing means danger."
"It really depends on the nature of the wish, my queen." Pollen corrects, "If he were to wish for someone to come back to life, then someone they knew would e who lost their life in return. We are gods and goddesses, but we can not defy nature without a price to be paid. If he were to wish for wealthy, then it would come from somewhere money was. That could be a person or country."
Which made sense why it was important neither Ladybug or Chat Noir got akumatized. Why Marinette pushed down her emotions. Why she was so stressed. No one should burden that alone, because if Ladybug truly got akumatized then who would purify the said akuma? Paris would be royally screwed.
"I have class soon Pollen." Chloe says, grabbing one one of yellow designer purses that was empty for Pollen to hide in when they were in public. She slipped the hair comb into her ponytail and grabbed what she needed for class as she headed out.
Today was a day of change, so Chloe opted to walk to school instead of being driven. The warm air of Paris was nothing new, being mid-May. Summer would be here soon in full force, and the heat would be too much. Chloe didn't care much for sweating, and if she was sweating then she was working too hard.
"I say a week until someone asks about Marinette." Chloe hummed, making a mental bet with herself. Her classmates weren't the brightest after all, and she wouldn't e surprised if they were declared brain dead with how they followed Lila so freely.
Ridiculous. Utterly Ridiculous.
Tom and Sabine Dupin-Cheng always knew that their daughter was extraordinary, too talented to stay put in the city forever. They knew that one day she would be offered a chance she couldn't refuse, one that could and would help shape her future in a successful manner. Paris was a city too small for her now, and even they could see it closing in on her the more time she spent up in her room.
Sabine knew her daughter, more so than Marinette could ever think. She knew that the teenager had been more to herself, spent less time around her friends. She took note a few months ago that Marinette stopped mentioning them all together. It worried her, but she knew if Marinette wanted to talk then she would tell her when she was ready to speak.
That's exactly why her and Tom had closed the bakery the next morning and how they ended up in the airport with Marinette hauling a few suitcases. They would be shipping the rest of her stuff for her stay in New York.
The pervious night was the night Marinette brought up the idea of her moving to New York for a little bit. She had been offered an internship by Audrey, but had to leave as soon as possible. Sabine, as sad as she was to see her daughter off, knew it was for the best. Marinette had already designed for Jagged Stone, doing some other small commissions. She was building her portfolio and this internship would only add to it, so how could Sabine ever say no?
"If you need anything, you call me and your mother. Time zone doesn't matter, and I mean it Mari." Tom tells Marinette, trying to hold back his emotions. He was proud of his little girl, so very proud of her but sad to see her going. She was growing up, finding her own way in life and even as sad as he was that she was no longer little, she was growing into a beautiful young woman with a good heart.
"Papa, you know I'll call everyday!" Marinette promised, knowing that she would do her best to do so. She was excited, nervous but excited because she was actually doing this. She was chasing her dream, doing something for herself for once and she felt free.
She didn't have to worry about getting up in the morning and dragging herself to class- which she dreaded by the day. She didn't have to fake any smiles or act like she was okay when her classmates and supposed friends gave her attention when Lila wasn't around. She was free to feel, to not worry about one less thing and she already felt a weight lifting up off her shoulders standing in the airport by the security check in.
Sabine grabbed her only child into a tight hug, squeezing reassuringly for her own purpose. She wasn't sure the next time she would see her little girl, so she was going to savor this moment as best as she could.
"Be happy, sweetheart." Sabine says softly into Marinette's ear, "All I want is your happiness."
Marinette hugged her mother back tightly, knowing that she couldn't go home to see her parents for a few months. She wouldn't be back until early September.
Hugging her parents on last time, Marinette walk away with her head held high and a newfound confidence she forgotten she had. She looked back over her shoulder at her parents through the crowd of people and gave a genuine smile for the first time in six month. Tom and Sabine could only be proud with their own matching sad smiles watching their daughter walk towards her future.
New York was busy, a lot more busy than she remember Paris being. Don't get her wrong, Paris was always busy with the citizens bustling around to get too point A to point B with always being on the look out for akuma attacks and keeping their emotions in check. New York, in a sense, was a peaceful busy, with nothing to worry about but the daily affairs in each individual's lives.
They weren't under an emotional terrorist, essentially what Hawkmoth exactly thirty-seven hours Marinette had been in New York, her feet on ground where it was safe to feel and process everything she had in her head and buried deep in her heart. Audrey had given Marinette a studio apartment where Chloe would have usually stayed- had the blonde ever decided to come to New York with her mother.
"I couldn't ask this much of you-"
"Nonsense child." Audrey had cut her off, "I don't use this apartment, but it is paid for in case Chloe ever decides to come to New York. You are a friend of hers, a very promising friend and I know my daughter. She never spoke so passionately about someone before, so this is the least I can do to help. And after all, I invited you here. I don't expect someone so young and new to have the rent. We all start somewhere."
It took exactly twenty four hours for Marinette to realize one very important thing, and it was called the Avengers. Or as they dubbed themselves the world's mightiest heroes. She remembered a few years back seeing the headlines of aliens attacking New York, of the Avenger's first appearance. Yet she hadn't really been able to focus on anything outside Paris with Hawkmoth attacks rising.
For exactly two and a half years she had been Ladybug, going through things that no normal teenaged girl had to go through. Sure she had thought about contacting the Avengers for help against Hawkmoth, but Tikki had stopped her.
"S.H.I.E.L.D is a government organization who is affiliated with the Avengers. Marinette, the miraculous can not be apart of or near any government. The miraculous have been kept secret for many millennia, with only those trusted to know. Hawkmoth is just a taste of what could happen. If a government got a hold of the miraculous, it would be the end of things as we know it."
When Marinette learned of that information, it strike her odd how through social media like the Ladyblog and news cast than no government caught on what was going on in Paris. When Sokovia happened, it was casted all over. It was the cause of the Sokovia Accords that captivated the world. It was the final cause in the camel's back that made Marinette look into why no one knew of Paris.
What she found had strike her odd, and it was something only she and Tikki knew about. The only other one that she shared with was Master Fu that he told her to leave alone and not to question. Tourist who came into Paris had to sign a NDA, and looking at the files the NDA's were highly detailed.
Marinette had no doubt it could ruin a person who spoke up, and why tourists numbers have fallen, there because being tickets were too expensive- and they were. Everything in Paris to outsides was nearly triple the average amount. She was also able to see financial records, using her Ladybug persona with a enthusiastic fan at the bank to look into Mayor Bourgeois's account and found that an anonymous third party paid a high amount (with at least six zeros) to keep news outlets and social media's off the radar. This would be something to talk about in person with Chloe after the next akuma attack.
Marinette had no doubt that whoever that anonymous third party lead back to Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth was the faceless ghost that haunted her around, and it also didn't help that the peacock miraculous was reactivated. She felt it in her bones, despite no public appearance of the broken miraculous. Tikki had told her it was because she was the next guardian that she felt the reactivation.
Ladybug was to make no appearance in America. She was not to help with any hero acts nor get caught up in anything to do with the Avengers or the law. She was here to mind her business, go to work at a fashion institute and train under Stephan Strange. Nothing else, nothing less. It was imperative that no one found out about the miraculous.
Audrey gave Marinette four days to settle in and get to know the city, and also get used to the time zone difference. Time was different but she was adjusting quickly and caffeine was forever her one and only true best friend. In two days she would start her internship officially, her little office space that she had been shown faced the city. It was a dream come true, in all honesty.
"Marinette, where are we? I thought we were going to the fabric store you googled?" Tikki questions, poking her head up from her thoughts and realized she totally missed her stop on the subway.
In all honesty, Marinette didn't know where the hell she was as she made her way to get out of the underground train. People were pushing and pulling each other and Marinette could only grip her purse tighter to her body to help shield Tikki from being squished. She was doing good at it until someone pushed her with more force that sent her stumbling to the ground.
"Hey!" Marinette yelled, glaring at the man who was running away as if his life depended on it.
Cops were running after him, and right at the top of the stairs of entry to the subway tickets a other officer tackled the man who pushed her. It hit her that her was a thief when they pulled a purse from him, and she then decided Tikki was having a new hiding spot. Too many people on people here to try to pick pocket.
"Miss, are you okay?"
Marinette looked up, finding a teenager around the age of sixteen standing above her. He was cute, a dorky cute with his science tee shirt and innocent looking brown eyes. Though his brown eyes held secrets, and concern. Someone with a good heart was something rare to Marinette now a days, so maybe that's why she took his offered hand and ignored the tingling she felt upon skin to skin contact.
"Yes. The man just pushed too hard." Marinette's voice came out in accented english, causing the boys eyes to widen.
"You're not from around here, are you?" He asks, then asked one obvious question. Well more so stated, "You're lost."
Marinette couldn't help a little laugh as she straightened her shirt, "I came from Paris a couple days ago for an internship and decided to do some exploring, but ended up lost. Where am I, exactly?"
"You're in Queens." He scratched at his head, a body movement that showed uncertainty. "Would you like a tour guide and maybe I can help you get back to where you're staying?"
"Oh!" Marinette was quick to shake her head, "I'm sure you have other things to do, so it's okay. I'll manage but thank you!"
He chuckled, and Marinette knew it was from the word vomit she just spat out. "Aunt May would kill me if she found out I let a girl walk around lost. Especially someone from somewhere cool like Paris. I'm Peter Parker, by the way!"
And against the better judgement of stranger danger that her parents installed in her memory from a young age, Marinette tossed all caution into the wind feeling as if Peter was trust worthy. A feeling she felt deep in her instincts that she couldn't ignore as she offered her own shy smile back, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng."
So the stage is set and now the real story begins since I got what I wanted to be known. I just was trying to set up these two worlds in one and hopefully it makes sense. This story is going to be a slow burn (as best as I can do that) to fit in the most.
Thank you for the support so far! I appreciate it!
