"Honey bee yourself." The words were soft like a delicate mantra, and Chloe took a gulp of sweet, sweet air.
She spun around to face her fiance, "I don't think that he'll like this engagement for once, not after all of the rumors of you being Cat Noir that are present or the fact that you've quit being a model."
"No one believes the rumors anyway, not even Ladybug." He smirked like there was an inside joke there, and Chloe sighed, rolling her eyes at him.
"It's just, how's he going to take the fact that his little girl is growing up and loves someone that won't be remembered by the mass public in a few more years?" Chloe stared at the hotel, seeing the way her father talked to some of the hotel guests.
"He doesn't really treat you like his little girl anyway." The bitter words roll off his tongue before he can stop himself, and Chloe gives him a look and with the almost soft smile that lights up her face in that moment moment.
"I know, not since Mom left, and probably not even then." Chloe sighs, and in that moment, Adrien recalls dimly that she's Queen Bee as she squares her shoulders, confidence restored, and marches over to her father, not angry, just may be a little relieved to not have to call this place that feels desolated when it isn't physically, home anymore.
"Father," She pulls him away from the client with a tone of voice that reminds Adrien of years ago, long before Queen Bee became a part of who she was, and long before she'd had the confidence to become a woman rather than stay the same, tired, lonely girl that only had a facade to fall behind.
"Yes, dear?" The look that he gives her is placating, not loving, and Adrien feels sick, just seeing it; it wasn't far off from some of the looks that he'd seen his own father wear in the past, but his father rarely kept those looks for long.
"I wanted to tell you." Chloe shifts just further out of sight of any reporters, "That I'm engaged." Chloe smiles, and that lifts a part of Adrien's heart that had nervously broken for her sake.
"With who?" Her father's voice is acidic and reminds Chloe how when they first started dating that she insisted that they couldn't tell her father; he would have probably liked Adrien then.
Chloe sends a nervous but comforting smile Adrien's way and directs him over with a gentle sway of her hand, "Adrien Agreste."
Adrien stands by her side, looping his fingers through the hand that had motioned him over, staring at the engagement ring that seemed to shine so brightly on her finger.
"You've got to be joking, honey." Her father's eyes narrowed, "He's going nowhere. Most people don't take models seriously when compared to a politician's daughter, and you know that you have quite a name to live up to."
"Father, he may have chosen to quit modeling, but it doesn't mean that his life is over." She stuck her chin out confidently, body swelling into a familiar confidence that she often only let shine as Queen Bee; that confidence had never been spoiled as Queen Bee, never been a means to tear people down, because a part of her had still been finding her way back when she first set out to become a hero.
"He's going downhill, sweetie. The only thing that will save him is his father's name and the company that he'll one day inherit." The mayor gave his daughter a look as if he was scolding her for a poor choice or another.
"He's his own person, Father. It's what I want to be too." Tears gathered in his fiance's eyes; Chloe felt a burning ache in her chest, her heart racing and yet falling behind all at once, and so, so angry. It was like her father was ripping a part of her out in this moment, as if he'd refused to let her stay his daughter, and as if he still hoped that she'd be a 'mindless' robot out to stay the same, may be knock a few people down, or may be just use her wealth as if it were a joy, a blessing, which she'd since came to doubt; after becoming Queen Bee, she never felt the same about her old life.
"Sweetie, you have a reputation to uphold. You know that." Her father stared her down, "What was wrong with the politician's son, I introduced you to last week? They are a well off family, and it looks good for our name since they aren't trying to steal my rightful spot as mayor."
"Father," She took a deep breath, steadying the broken organ still beating in her chest, "I am in love with Adrien, you know that. I can't break our promises to each other by seeing some nobody." She felt as if her legs had melted into some, sticky glue, and that she was just about to figure out what the floor felt like.
"He's not a nobody. Don't you see that you're wasting your life away? He's not going to make your life better by marrying him when you know that for a while, my decision to marry your mother worked in my favor." The mayor of Paris stood up tall and for a moment, Chloe forgot that he was supposed to be her father, someone to love, respect, and look up to.
"Did you just marry Mom for political gain?" Chloe hated the taste of those last two words on her tongue, hated how she felt so weak, so minuscule, here in this moment.
Adrien's fingers had taken to massaging her hand, and she tried desperately to relax into the touch.
"Why else would I marry her?" He practically sneered the words, and Chloe understood perfectly well why her mother would divorce this man, "Love is dead in the city of Paris."
Chloe felt tears prick her eyes though nearly stumbled when Adrien shifted beside her.
"Excuse me, sir. Love will never be dead in the city of Paris. We live in the city of Paris." Adrien's words had shocked her silent as tears still shook in her eyes; she pressed closer to her fiance, relieved to feel his arm encircle her waist when she drew closer.
"It's dead if you want to have a career, young man." Andre Bourgeois had never before looked so cold to Adrien as if he'd already been buried six feet under.
"What if I want to just be a stay at home dad or a teacher? What if I just want to be there for your daughter and take care of her? I don't want a career with the way you run business." Adrien's words were honest and raw and yet a part of her heart broke to hear her fiance talking to her father like this.
"Adrien, Adrien, we should just go." Chloe told him, clinging to his arm, half desperately, "We let him know that we're engaged, and that's what matters."
"Young lady, you are not allowed to marry that man or even leave this hotel right now." The mayor's decree did not have the desired effect on his daughter, didn't have the effect that it would if she was still in school.
Queen Bee flared in her eyes, confidence puffing her chest out, and bringing out her stubborn side, "You can't stop me from living my life, Father. Adrien's the only man that I'll ever love and the only man that I've come to love. I don't want to live a shell of a life here with you. You can't stop me from walking out that door like you couldn't stop Mom from walking out that door." She spun around, turning to leave the hotel far behind, as if it was just a relic from a past life.
"I'm sorry." Adrien murmured in her ear after they'd left the hotel.
Chloe's blue eyes twinkled with tears as she turned to face him, "It's not your fault. I'd rather be with you, someone who cares about my joys and worries when I'm really upset, then be with someone who can't ever find the time for me and thinks that endless spending of money can fill a void in my heart. I'm done being the girl that thinks that a credit card can define my happiness. Even if we struggle and fall apart or if my father cuts off my bank account, I want to be with you. I love you, Adrien, and it may have taken me becoming Queen Bee to figure all of that out, but I will never leave your side if you don't leave mine."
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears as she moved closer, and Adrien pulled her in; it was definitely not going to be easy, but he loved her just as much as she loved him.