"Seriously, this is getting old," Chloe whined as she trailed after Ladybug and Chat Noir. The two heroes leapt across the rooftops, doing impressive flips and spins as they went. Chloe could do those too, but she didn't see the need in them. There was no need to be so flashy and waste so much energy in showing off. The bee holder sighed and dropped her scepter to the ground, dragging it as she walked.
Once she caught up with Ladybug and Chat Noir, the red clad hero crossed her arms. "Well, what do you want to do, Reine?" she asked with a stuffy tone. Chat batted at the girl's back with his tail, his way of warning Ladybug that she wasn't being as nice as she could be. Normally she listened to him and took a step back, but times like this were…difficult.
Chloe continued to pout, bringing up her scepter to swing around. "I don't know!" she groaned. "What is the cool part of this job?!"
Chat snorted, "That's up to opinion," he started, "but probably the special power."
"Special power?" Chloe repeated. "You mean your Cataclysm and Lucky Charm?"
Ladybug nodded, "Didn't your kwami tell you what yours is?" she asked, switching her weight to one leg.
Chloe shrugged, "Is that what she was talking about when she brought up Stinger?"
Ladybug nodded and Chat grinned. "What does it do?" he asked. "Sounds like it must bee a pretty sharp power." Both girls groaned together, and Chat couldn't help but laugh.
"Buzzi didn't explain it very much, she just said something about my scept-" Chloe paused and looked at her scepter, whose crystal was glowing and practically molten. "What did it do?!" she shouted, tossing the object on the ground. It wasn't supposed to melt!
"You must have activated it without realizing!" Ladybug shouted. She picked it up and held the scepter back out to Chloe. "Use the attack so it will die out, just don't aim at anyone!"
"How?!" Chloe was panicking. She didn't mean to activate it! How did she even activate it? And how did she use it, now? Without much thought, she aimed it out at a tree and a quick shot of purple shot out, crashing into the tree without any damage. "What? Why didn't that hurt it?"
"Well, that was pointless," Chat snickered. He was having too much fun with these puns. Chloe's Miraculous gave a beep, which made her jump. "You might wanna head home, unless you want us to see who you are!"
"Eep!" Chloe squeaked, "How long do I have?"
"Five minutes," Ladybug said. "Didn't your kwami tell you anything?" she shouted after the blonde as she ran and leapt across roofs.
Chloe landed in her window just as the transformation gave out. Buzzi landed on her bed, whining loudly about using her power. "You're not supposed to just do that for funzies!" Buzzi fussed.
"How was I supposed to know? You didn't exactly explain it!" Chloe snapped back, plopping a plate of chilis in front of the kwami. "Spill. I wanna know everything is to know about being Reine Abeille."
Buzzi nodded and swallowed her food almost whole, letting out a little burp. "OK, OK," she sighed. "Your superpower is called Stinger. The scepter's crystal absorbs things that could be seen as dangerous, like rocks or flying objects, or akuma attacks. Then, when you call the power, that energy can be sent back to the original source with opposite effects.
So, if you absorb rocks, then you can shoot a stinger at the ground that would make hard, rocky ground muddy. Things like that. You only get one stinger, but the more energy you let the scepter collect, the more powerful the stinger is."
Chloe nodded at the information. One stinger, just like a normal bee. "Then, I only have five minutes before I change back?"
Buzzi nodded, "The Miraculous beeps every minute and you lose a gem on the crown of the hairclip. Time management is key, that's why there's beeps."
"Alright, that makes sense…" Chloe mumbled. All of this was still incredibly new and stressful, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. Her whole body ached, even though she was starting to build muscle and get used to the activity. At least there hadn't been an akuma attack to fight yet!
"You know that you'll have to fight in the next akuma attack, right?" Buzzi deadpanned.
"You're the one that fussed at me last time for jumping in!" Chloe countered.
"You didn't have any training at all!" Buzzi explained, "Now you do so it's expected of you!"
"By who?!" Buzzi had been saying there were things that were expected of her, but who was expecting all this stuff? It sure wasn't the kwami herself!
"I'm not allowed to tell you that part!"
They held glares for a moment before Chloe resigned and sighed. "Fine, keep secrets," she mumbled. "I'm going to bed; it was a long evening."
At school, Chloe was half asleep in class. Not that that was uncommon. Still, it was the fifth time that week she almost fell asleep in class, and Sabrina was worried. "Chloe, are you alright?" the girl asked as she gently nudged the blonde's shoulder.
"I'm fine, Sabrina," Chloe mumbled. She turned her head away and buried her cheek in her arms as Adrien walked in the room. "Hi, Adrikins!" she greeted, though less enthusiastically than normal.
"Hey, Chloe," Adrien greeted back, plopping down beside Nino. "You look really tired…" he noted to the girl.
"It's because she's not wearing twenty pounds of make-up," Alya snickered, which made Marinette giggle.
Wait, was she not wearing make-up? Chloe reached up and rubbed at her face, horror filling her as she realized she was bare-skinned. So, naturally, she screamed. Loudly. Shrilly.
"Chloe Bourgeois, please excuse yourself!" Mme. Bustier fussed.
"With pleasure!" Chloe shouted, grabbing her bag as she got up. She ran off toward the bathroom, hands blocking the class's view of her face. How had she forgotten to put on her make-up? How had Buzzi let her forget?! That bee usually kept her in line!
Once in the bathroom, Chloe slammed the door shut and stuck a chair under the handle. Buzzi zipped out of the bag, a chili dangling from her mouth as she watched her human frantically tear out her make-up products.
"Oh, great," Buzzi whined, "You're putting that stuff on!"
Chloe whipped her head to face the kwami, a scowl on her face. "You let me walk out without it! I thought you were watching over me or something!"
Buzzi sighed a fluttered closer, "You know you don't need all of that, right?"
"Yes I do!" Chloe said stubbornly, sifting through her bag for her eyeliner – where was it?! She didn't carry everything with her to school since it would be too heavy, so her make-up was already not up to standards. Her normal blue eyeshadow was replaced with a neutral shade, and her favorite blush was completely gone, so she was left with bare, uneven-toned cheeks. Bags under her eyes were left exposed, which left the dark skin highly noticeable compared to light skin. There was just nothing in her bag to hide them with, and Chloe was almost certain if she stepped out of the bathroom she would be assaulted with insults over her appearance.
This was too much.
Luckily, she still had her lipgloss. The light shade was shiny and sweet and without it Chloe was sure she would have had a breakdown right there in the bathroom. "There…" she breathed out once the gloss was on.
Buzzi shook her head and crossed her arms, which warranted questioning from Chloe. "I've had a lot of Reine Abeilles in the past, but you're the first one that's had to have two physical masks…"
"What are you talking about?" Chloe spat. She cleaned up the mess she had made with powders in her rush, slinging her bag back over her shoulder.
"You use that make-up stuff like a mask. You were so afraid of people seeing you without it, you ran in here as fast as you could go," Buzzi explained. "And let me just say, you look just fine without all that stuff!"
That made Chloe laugh, "Yeah, right!" she removed the chair from the door handle. "Tell that to my mother! I wasn't even allowed out of the house without something on until she died!"
Well, that's how you stun a kwami. "Your mother was that mean?"
"She was awful. I wasn't allowed out of the house without a full-face of make-up because I'm too ugly to be without it, I was 'lucky to have her' because 'my sense of style is nonexistent', and I had to fight to keep my phone from being checked every day." She could have kept going, but the more Chloe spoke of her mother, the more she began to curl in on herself. With crossed arms, she looked away from the kwami, whose gaze was one of pity, and mumbled out a "I'm glad she's gone."
Buzzi had seen many Stingers before, but this one had to trump all the others.
"C'mon, let's just get to class…" Chloe grumbled, holding open her purse for the bee to zip in to. She did so without fuss, too shocked to argue with her human.
I'm not good at writing angst, but I try. I really shouldn't.
Review and tell me what you thought!
