Miraculous Connections
By Starcry409
A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction
Chapter 4
Makeup
Chloe went about the rest of her day feeling shameful and exposed. She couldn't quite determine why but knew she did not want to see Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Chloe didn't have her classmates' numbers, so she couldn't reach anyone who would have her number. She also wouldn't be caught dead asking for Dupain-Cheng's phone number even if she could, so she was on edge.
She jumped out of her skin when she heard a knock at her bedroom door. She whipped around to stare at the door. Her eyes were wide and she was so taken with panic that she couldn't respond. The knock came again. "Y-yes?" She called.
The door opened a crack and her father's head poked into her room. Chloe sighed with relief. "Is everything ok, pumpkin?" He asked opening the door further. Chloe nodded and felt suddenly ridiculous for the way she was acting. Dupain-Cheng should be scared of her; not the other way around. "Well, I've just come to let you know that you have a doctor's appointment later today, so you might want to let your friend know not to come over." He smiled.
"She is not my friend!" Chloe shouted with such ferocity that her father jumped. Chloe's face was on fire. She felt small and exposed, which only served to frustrate her more.
"O-oh! Of course not! Sorry, princess!" Her father clambered to apologize. Chloe gritted her teeth and he ran out the door before she could shout anything else at him. Her heart was racing and her brain was foggy.
Chloe took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She looked on the bright side. She wouldn't have to see Marinette Dupain-Cheng today.
She loaded into the limousine just like they did when taking her to school, but her father was there to accompany her. Chloe realized she hadn't seen her mom since the morning Dupain-Cheng had sprained her knee. She felt relieved for that fact at first but quickly realized she hadn't heard from her mother at all. She hadn't called or texted the entire week which was business as usual for her mother but…Chloe had hoped they were growing closer. She had hoped that her mother would at least check in on her now that… now that. Well, Chloe supposed nothing had really changed.
"Nervous?" Her father asked gently. Chloe glanced at him briefly before turning back to the limousine window.
"Not really." After a moment, "Has, Mom said anything?" She asked keeping her eyes fixed on the passersby.
"Your mother has never been the best at communicating I'm afraid." Her father said. The response annoyed her. She wouldn't have been surprised if his public relations team had written it were it not for the sadness that laced his tone.
She didn't bother responding as they drove on. The hospital came into view soon enough and her father helped her out of the vehicle with some difficulty. Chloe couldn't help but compare her father's bumbling with Sabrina's expert care. The girl had gotten the unloading and loading process down to two minutes. Maybe Chloe would spend the day with her once this was done.
The two made their way into the hospital where staff was already rushing to greet them. Chloe was ushered to her usual private room after they had taken x-rays of her leg. They waited for the doctor to arrive.
Chloe suddenly felt her phone vibrate. She pulled out her phone and saw a text from an unknown number. She thought about ignoring it, but the boredom of the hospital and her curiosity compelled her to open the message.
Hi! This is Marinette! I got your number from Sabrina. Just wanted to know if I should come over today?
Chloe looked around the hospital room as if she was looking at something incriminating. Her father was too distracted by his phone to notice her strange behavior.
I'm getting a check-up right now.
For your leg?
What else?
Ok, I can come to your house later to see how you're doing!
You don't have to do that.
It's ok. My dad is baking croissants today, so I thought I could bring some over to cheer you up.
Chloe was just about to respond when the doctor entered the room. He shook her father's hand and then pulled up a seat across from Chloe. They went through a list of questions and then he said something completely unexpected.
"Your knee has been healing nicely. I expect it is due to the great care your friends and family have been paying you." He got up and applied two X-rays to a light board just like when Chloe first fractured her knee. "As you can see the fracture is almost completely healed. I expect we can get you off of those crutches now. I want to see you back in two days just to be sure, but I think you should be completely healed by then."
Chloe's father beamed at her and Chloe felt relief wash over her. She smiled thinking about all the things she could do now that she didn't have to use the crutches. She thought about walking up the stairs at school, laying in bed however she wanted, and most importantly being able to walk in her Mom's fashion show!
Her phone buzzed in her hand. Or I can just stay home. I don't want to bother you. Chloe frowned at the text. Of course, this also meant she could no longer fool Marinette Dupain Cheng.
"Isn't that great news Chloe?" Her father asked. She looked up and both the doctor and her father were looking at her expectantly.
"Can I keep the crutches?"
She wasn't even sure why she had said it. She eyed the ugly grey crutches lying in the seat next to her, jostling ever so slightly with the movement of the limo. The doctor had said she shouldn't rely on them, but if she felt too fatigued she was more than welcome to use the aid. It became quite clear that she didn't need the crutches at all anymore on the walk from the limo to her bedroom.
I guess a snack wouldn't be so bad. She typed as soon as she shut herself away in her room. The response came almost immediately.
Ok! See you in a few!
Chloe smiled down at her phone and then flung it across the room. It thudded softly onto the sofa. "What am I doing?!" Chloe whispered allowed to herself. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. Her breath followed suit just as shallow and quick. She couldn't possibly like Dupain-Cheng's company, could she? No. No, she was just having fun keeping up the charade of letting Marinette walk in the fashion show. It would be hilarious when she found out she had never planned to let her walk in the first place. It would be more hilarious to humiliate her in front of everyone on the day of the fashion show!
She eyed her crutches that were leaning against the sofa. It wouldn't hurt to keep up the charade for a little while longer. If it meant crushing Dupain- Cheng Chloe was willing to go to any length.
"What on earth is all this?!" Chloe asked as Marinette saddled into her room with two bulging beach bags slung over her shoulders and one small paper bag held in her hands.
"I thought we could work on the makeup today," Came Marinette's cheery reply. She plopped her bags down on the coffee table and Chloe shot a helpless look at Jean who was still standing in the doorway. He looked more distressed at the fact that Marinette had carried the bags herself than the fact that she had them at all. Jean shrugged before closing Chloe's door.
"I knew you were hopeless Dupain- Cheng, but I didn't think you would need this many products to look halfway decent," Chloe said eyeing the bags distastefully.
Marinette glared at her. "You don't get a croissant if you're going to be mean," Marinette said jiggling the small paper bag meaningfully. Chloe rolled her eyes but smiled giving her silent agreement to behave. Marinette seemed satisfied with this answer and she offered the open bag to Chloe when she came around to sit beside her on the sofa.
Chloe elevated her leg on the coffee table and then bit into the croissant. As if Dupain-Cheng weren't perfect enough her parents made the best pastries in Paris. Chloe stifled a groan as the light butterflakes melted on her tongue. "Seriously, what is all this?" She asked gesturing to the big bags once more.
"I told the girls we were going to practice doing my makeup to make me look like you. I said I wasn't sure what we would need, so they just gave me all of their makeup collections." Marinette explained around bites of her croissant.
"You do realize I could've just called my makeup artist, right?" Chloe asked staring at Marinette with slight amusement.
"Oh…I hadn't thought of that…" She said and Chloe blinked in surprise at the blush that flooded Marinette's cheeks. She was eyeing the makeup and wringing her hands without meeting Chloe's gaze.
"This will be a better way to make sure my mom doesn't find out though," Chloe said. Marinette visibly relaxed once again meeting Chloe's gaze.
"Right! Should we start?" Marinette asked and Chloe nodded.
Marinette set one of the bags on the floor to make room for Chloe's vanity mirror. They both unpacked the products which Chloe realized were almost all cheap drugstore products. She noticed some high-end setting sprays, foundations, and mascara but everything else was from unfamiliar brands. Would these even work?
"I forgot a headband!" Marinette said smacking her forehead. Chloe threw back her head with laughter. "All of this and you don't have a headband?!" Chloe exclaimed. Marinette ground putting her hands over her face. "Let me go get one," Chloe said shaking her head.
"Do you want me to get it?" Marinette asked as Chloe pushed up to her feet. She stared at Chloe's knee then back up at Chloe with a questioning look.
"I'm fine Dupain-Cheng! The doctor said I can put more pressure on my leg now!" Chloe said quickly grabbing her crutches. She exited the room before Marinette could say anything else. As soon as she turned the corner she pressed her head against the wall. That was so close! Would she know she was lying? No, she had only stood up! She had done that plenty of times when her knee was fully injured. Chloe quickly grabbed a yellow headband off her nightstand and made her way back out to the sofa.
"So your doctor's visit went well then? You're getting better?" Marinette asked as she pulled the headband around her face. Chloe held in a laugh as Marinette's bangs sprang up at odd angles as she pushed them back with the headband.
"Yeah, he says I'm healing nicely, but slowly." Chloe lied. Marinette accepted this without much fuss and went back to the subject of makeup.
"Ok! Walk me through what it's like to be you! What do you do first?" Marinette said looking around at all the powders and containers laid out on the table.
Chloe pointed to some makeup that was similar enough to what she usually used and began to direct Marinette on what to do. "Eye makeup first! I use blue since it makes my eyes pop!" She watched Marinette smear blue eye shadow on her lids and try desperately to blend the color out. The end result was splotchy and uneven.
"Sorry, I've never used that color before." She said rubbing the back of her neck.
"Whatever just move on to the eyeliner and then the mascara." Chloe sighed. Marinette layered mascara onto her eyelashes. It was the eyeliner that was the problem. "What are you doing? Don't you know how to tight line your eyes?" Marinette shook her head looking at the eyeliner pencil as if it was a torture device. Chloe tried to demonstrate how to do it on herself, but all Marinette managed to do was poke herself in the eye. Black tears raced out of her eyes mingling with blue powder that had dusted onto her cheeks.
"You look like a disaster," Chloe said flatly. Marinette looked at herself angrily in the mirror. Chloe sighed and got up from the coach. "Wipe all that off. I'll be right back." Chloe collected her makeup bag and rejoined Marinette, who had already managed to get most of the makeup off.
Chloe stood for a moment trying to figure out the best way to position herself in front of the girl. She wished she could sit crisscross in front of her on the couch, but she needed to keep her leg elevated if she wanted to pretend it was still hurt. Chloe sat on the couch and propped her leg up on the coffee table. "S-sit on the floor in front of me!" She said as she set up her brushes.
Marinette didn't get up for a moment and Chloe was afraid she would refuse to move. Did she think this was weird? Marinette slowly walked over and stood in front of Chloe. She placed a pillow down on the ground and lowered herself into a crossed-leg position. She sat trapped on one side by Chloe's leg. Chloe tried not to bump her other knee against her shoulder.
Chloe's hands were beaded with sweat and her entire body was on fire. Neither girl looked at the other while Chloe fussed with the makeup beside her even though she had found what she needed before Marinette even sat down.
Her skin was buzzing and it took everything in her not to let her hands shake. "Close your eyes. Eyeshadow." Chloe ordered at last and Marinette quickly shut her eyes and turned to face Chloe. Chloe took a deep breath to steady herself. She had never been this close to Marinette before. She dipped a small eyeshadow brush into her favorite blue eyeshadow and tapped off the excess. Up close she could see a light smattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose.
She tried to touch the brush to Marinette's eyelid and the girl flinched before settling once more. Chloe rested her pinky on Marinette's cheek for stability the way her makeup artist usually did. She was uncomfortably aware of how close they were, the smell of her breath, the makeup brush slipping in her sweaty grip, and how wide her legs were. She tried to focus on the makeup.
The blue powder would kick up into the air and swirl around as Chloe lightly swiped the color onto Marinette's eyelids in a window-wiper motion. She did one eye and then the other and tried to make sure the color was blown out in the outer corners of her eyes. She paused now and then to see what her eyes looked like from a distance.
"Ok," Chloe said once she was satisfied. Marinette opened her eyes and looked directly at Chloe. Her heart gave a little jump. This was all so weird. "Do you trust me to tightline your eyes? I've never done it on someone else but the eyeshadow will look a little crazy without it." Chloe said busying herself cleaning the pencil.
"You can't be worse at it than me." Marinette chuckled. She was tapping her hand on her leg rapidly. At least it wasn't just one of them that was nervous.
"Ok. Don't get mad if I blind you," Chloe said. She stared at Marinette's eyes for a while trying to figure out the best way to go about it. "Um… Can you look that way? I'm going to pull your eyelid up." Marinette looked in the opposite direction as Chloe carefully lifted her eyelid and exposed the waterline. She colored it in as quickly and carefully as possible and then let Marinette blink a few times.
"God that felt weird. How does it look?" Marinette asked pushing around the skin of her cheek in an attempt to scratch her eye without smudging the makeup.
"Fine," Chloe said. Of course, she looks better in it than I do. Chloe thought. They repeated the process on the other eye and both girls sighed with relief when it was done. "Ok, you put the mascara on, and then I'll do the foundation and everything else."
Marinette nodded leaning back from the confines of Chloe's legs to grab her mascara which she had discarded on the opposite end of the coffee table. Chloe's eye fixated on the way her neck stretched down to her collarbone. She averted her eyes once she positioned herself correctly once again.
Marinette swirled the brush inside the tube before bringing the brush to her eyelashes and coating them in the thick black gel. Chloe watched the careful way that she did both sides making sure to flick the outer edges up with more product. She liked the way her delicate fingers wrapped around the mascara wand. Marinette blinked at herself in the tiny compact mirror she used and then looked at Chloe. "I think it's coming together. I look pretty cool don't I?" she said wiggling her eyebrows and then squinting her eyes. The mascara and the eyeliner made her gaze fierce and piercing. It must be because her hair was the same jet black.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Just shut your eyes so I can do your foundation." She said with a little more force than she intended. Marinette's brow furrowed but sat up straight and did what she was told.
Chloe picked up the foundation that most closely matched Marinette and then found one slightly darker and used that one instead. She pumped some foundation onto the pack of her hand and then swirled and dabbed a short compact brush with flat bristles into the puddle until every hair was evenly coated.
She was faced with the same problem as when she did the eyeshadow. How to brace herself while she applied the foundation. She struggled with this for a moment before she forced herself to grab the side of Marinette's head.
Marinette let out a small surprised gasp as Chloe's palm rested on her neck and her fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of her neck. Chloe began dabbing on the foundation before she could question herself.
She swiped the foundation across her cheeks and nose covering the freckles she had discovered only moments before. She managed to cover the left side of her face before needing to coat her brush with more. Chloe pulled back and repeated the process of pumping the foundation on her hand and covering the brush. This time she placed two fingers under Marinette's chin guiding her to look to the right. She continued to stipple and swipe the brush gently along her skin.
Chloe was beginning to enjoy the process when Marinette spoke. "Why do you hate me?" It was barely audible, had chloe been anywhere but five inches from her face she could have pretended she didn't hear it.
Chloe continued to paint Marinette's face making sure that the color was even all over. "You're little miss perfect," Chloe said as she stroked her forehead with the brush. "You seem to get everything that I really want; good grades, friends, attention from Adrien…" Loving parents, talent for the things you love, she continued in her mind. She was just about done with the foundation but she wasn't quite ready for Marinette to open her eyes. She decided to blend the makeup a little down her neck. Mercifully, she kept her eyes shut. "I don't know. I guess I've always wanted what you have. Like when you came to school wearing those cute ribbons in your hair when we were younger." Chloe said. She put the foundation down and picked up a compact of her favorite peach-colored blush. She would be needing a new one soon.
"You pushed me to the ground and yanked them out of my hair," Marinette said with a frown and a bit of anger in her voice.
"I know," Chloe said quietly. She didn't even really want the ribbons. The bubbling feelings hadn't gone away when she had stolen them, and she never bothered to wear them in her own hair. "You didn't deserve that, or anything I ever did to you," Chloe said, it was an effort to keep her hands steady as she swirled a big poofy brush in the small cake of powder. She placed her fingers back under Marinette's chin as she glided the brush in big circular motions over her cheekbones. "Especially once we entered middle school. I don't know why I was so angry."
When they had returned from summer break Chloe had noticed the extreme changes all of her classmates had gone through. Glasses, acne, curves, and muscles. Everyone looked different especially Marinette who now wore her hair up in a bun. She let two tendrils hang loose framing the cheeks that had lost all their baby fat. Chloe had thought she looked pretty and then immediately wanted to rip her apart so it wouldn't be true.
She set down the blush brush and looked down at the one spot she hadn't touched yet. Marinette's lips were stained around the edges with foundation. They were plump and the middle was still showing their rosy tint. Chloe's heartbeat sped up. She felt that familiar angry feeling she had been trying to explain bubbling up in her chest. She wanted to hit her. She wanted to push her away. She wanted to make her cry so all of the makeup messed up her face and she would never come back to her house again.
"Chloe?" The lips spoke. Chloe's eyes darted back up to meet Marinette's. She wasn't sure when she had opened her eyes but now she was staring up at her with an unreadable expression. Chloe's words were caught in her throat she couldn't get them out.
"You make me angry too." Marinette said. Their eyes were locked together. Chloe's head was blank and all her thoughts were feint screams under the pounding of her heart.
Marinette's eyes darted down to Chloe's mouth then back up again. Chloe found herself leaning forward drawn in by Marinette's half-lidded eyes.
What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing?! Her brain shouted at her but she couldn't seem to care.
Marinette stretched her neck up and leaned forward too. Their lips crashed together in a messy union of lipgloss and foundation. They jumped apart almost as quickly as they had come together. Marinette crashed into the coffee table and managed to send several of her friends' makeup items crashing to the floor. Chloe sent the sofa skidding as she pushed off the ground to pull her knees to her chest.
They sat frozen, gasping as if they had woken up from a bad dream. They each darted a glance at each other and when their eyes met they both quickly looked away. "I'm going to go!" Marinette said snatching her bag off the couch and stumbling out of Chloe's room. She heard the door slam and buried her face in her knees.
She was in so much trouble.
Author's Note: Wow that got really sapphic really fast. I wasn't intending for this story to be romantic, but sometimes the characters want what they want. I hope none of you mind. I hope this scene lived up to everything you wanted it to be Jblaser. Sorry for the extremely delayed post. I'll try to post a chapter every week from now on until it's done. Wish me luck!