"Well? I'm waiting, pigtails..." The blonde brat demanded, impatient as ever.
"Well, Miss Bourgeois, I was invited. And that's the simple answer."
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure they were forced to invite you out of pity every other time, so why now?"
"Chloe, can you tell me the purpose of this ball?" Marinette said, blankly.
"Wha- Of course! It's so Adrien can pick me to be he wife, duh!"
Marinette winced, but chuckled inside.
"Well, you're halfway there I guess... But no, that's not why we are here. We are here so Adrien can choose a bride. Quote the word 'choose'..."
With that, Marinette calmly walked past Chloe, maintaining her posture and demeanour.
"If anything, it should have been you who had to learn their lesson." She whispered as she brushed Chloe's shoulder.
"I remember you coming off worse than I did."
...
The mood calmed itself after that, Chloe fuming and clinging to Adrien as he tried to dance with all the other potential wives.
The only one he avoided was Marinette, who lurked in the shadows.
She thought back to her discussion with the prince only a few days ago. He had told her about how the black butterfly had seized miraculous headquarters and Ladybug had feigned ignorance around his true intentions, pretending not to notice nearly ever move he made.
When she was sent to kill Chat Noir and return with his cursed stone, she saw her long awaited opportunity.
The king's cursed stone allowed him to brainwash and control people. It was more powerful when involving hatred, hurt or anger, and Master Fu's disappearance left plenty of that to go around. Her cursed stone protected her, but she pretended to have fallen under the spell. The idea was to find a way to steal his cursed stone, and work from there, trying to convince him.
If all else fails, he would have to be exiled from the kingdom if his crimes came to light, so they would keep it undercover and fake his death.
Adrien had never had the best relationship with the king, so it didn't cut him up too much, but it still hurt him, and she could tell.
...
The night proceeded smoothly, and the king did not appear to notice Marinette searching him for any sign of his cursed stone. The time had come when Mari was the only candidate left, so despite Chloe's protest, Adrien took to the floor with her.
"Any luck?" He whispered, as they began to swirl before the adoring eyes of the nobility.
"Nothing yet." She replied.
He tightened his grip around her waist and lowered his head.
"I trust you. I know you can do it. Oh, and did I mention that you look beautiful tonight? Like, really beautiful. I can't believe it was you who flipped the table on Chloe. That was hilarious!"
He blushed slightly.
"And embarrassingly, dessert table girl was the first crush I ever had..." He trailed of towards the end.
The prince could feel the girl tense up for a second p, then relax into a fit of giggles.
"Aw, your so sweet, kitten!"
She would never admit that she was totally infatuated with him at the time.
"S-Shut up! At least I'm willing to admit it, instead of just making fun..." His whole face had gone bright red. The music stopped. Before the next dance could start and the obsessed suitors could track him down, he grabbed her slim wrist and pulled her outside into the balcony.
"Geez, I wish I could stay here forever. I don't want to go back there with all those stuffy, self important girls who just want my throne..."
Mari chuckled.
"What if I just want your throne? That's not the case, but it could be."
"At this point, I don't know if I'd care."
"Really? That quite out of character..."
"Well, I'm already in too deep, and I don't know what you're thinking, but I'm not letting you go anywhere now..."
The prince walked up behind her and placed his arms gently around her shoulders. He rested his chin on her shoulder and could practically taste her furious blushing.
"W-What do you mean?! Let m-me go!"
"Never."
"Yes!"
"No... I don't wanna..."
"Geez, you're such a kid Adrien... But I guess the same applies for me as well. I'm in waaaaay too deep to even see the sun."
"But I am the sun."
"No you're not."
"Yes I am. I'm crazy hot and I bring you light every day. Heck, my hair even looks like the sun."
...
"Does that make me the moon? Or the earth?"
"When I first saw you, you reminded me of the moon. You had that strange and mysterious aura, and that silvery glow from that dark room. The moon can be red, like your mask, white, like your skin, or blue, like your eyes."
"Idiot, a blue moon isn't actually blue, ya know. Oh, here comes Chloe. I'll get back to the task at hand."
Without another word, she slipped away into the darkness.
The prince watched her every step until she faded away. She was still mysterious.
"Adrikins! Why were you dancing with Maritrash?! What were you saying to her? Everybody saw your face go really red and started muttering about it, but I assumed she had made you angry. Do you want me to tell Daddy? I can ruin her!"
"No. Don't you dare. If you do anything to her it will be over my dead body, understand?"
The tone turned serious very quickly.
Chloe appeared to realise something. Slowly, gradually.
"Do you... Love her...?" She asked timidly.
"Yes."
...
"I see..."
Chloe slowly turned around, with what looked like a sparkling jewel, far more beautiful than those showered upon her dress, in the corner of her left eye.
She couldn't cry in front of him. She couldn't make herself look more pathetic in front of him.
She'd tried everything that her Daddy told her to do. Everything that was meant to win his heart. But it was all in vain, Because of that stupid Marinette. No. It wasn't Marinette's fault. It was her own for being so selfish. For thinking that money and a fresh coat of lipstick could solve all her problems. Her naivety was cringeworthy to a painful extent. All those years wasted. And she could never tell him the truth. She loved him. She always had. She'd been told how to achieve her goals. She'd trusted her parents. She had been wrong. And she'd blown everything.
Was it even worth existing anymore? After all, she had no other friends. Adrien had been her number one priority. And she had only hours left before he chose Marinette to be his bride.
After all the awful things she'd done to Marinette to keep her away from Adrien. Her Daddy told her it was all in the name of love, and it didn't matter what she did as long as she married Adrien.
The way he'd looked at Marinette. He'd never looked at her like that before. Not once.
And she finally knew the reason why.
Her Daddy was using her.
She'd always known it, she just never wanted to know it. The disgusting truth.
Everyone she'd ever trusted was after the crown. Was she after the crown? Did she even love him?
Everyone had always told her.
You love Adrien.
You want to marry Adrien.
You'll be happy with Adrien.
On reflection, she wasn't sure if she'd even once thought about him of her own free will.
It was almost worse like this.
She was a walking, gossiping, sparkly facade. Nothing more. Nothing less. A clingy, self absorbed, lemon haired gold digger.
Pathetic.
Walking as fast as her heavy gown allowed, she felt herself crash into someone.
"Ow..."
The girl with blue eyes lay before her on the floor.
"Geez, Maritrash, watch where you're goi-" She paused.
The blonde reached out her hand.
"Here. Let me help you up. I know how heavy these dresses are..." Chloe averted her gaze, mortified.
"Chloe...? Are you okay-"
"Just take my hand already! I'm sorry, Okay? You don't have to forgive me, but I'm sorry for everything! And make sure you look after him... He was my best friend, you know...? Friend..."
She felt tears welling up in her eyes, so she pulled Marinette up quickly and ran away, covering her face.