#prime queen

----

“Live in 10 and no heroes, Nadja.”

“They'll be here, Arlette!” Nadja Chamack, TVi's star reporter, told her producer, trying not to sweat: regardless of her assurance, she knew something could still go wrong. “We're gonna break records tonight!”

“You better if you want to keep your prime time slot,” Harlette threatened, as per usual (the slot was coveted by most everyone at TVi and she had been lucky to present the idea for Face to Face and have it accepted). Still, she was certain she had what she needed for –

“Hey.”

“WAH!” Nadja involuntarily screamed as the couch that had been empty two seconds before now had two heroes happily sitting without a care. “How– where did you come from?!”

“Trade secret~” Marigold sing-sang, as Chat Noir leaned towards her with his hands on the table.

“Where's Scarlet Lady?” Nadja asked; while she wasn't strictly necessary for tonight's interview, she could help put the cherry on top of her hopes.

“Oh, she'll be here,” Chat Noir reassured her. “At the last possible second. But forget that, let's talk interview.”

Chat Noir jumped back and sat next to Marigold.

“Off the table topics: Identities. Miraculouses in reserve. Power ups–” Chat Noir counted, while the Bee Heroine looked amazed at him.

Wow, he's like a professional... almost like he's done this before... she thought.

----

“5 minutes, 35 seconds... 5 minutes, 33 seconds...”

Sweet almighty forces of creation (which she wielded on a regular basis), could Chloé get more self-absorbed?

“Chloé, just wait for the show to start with the others!” Tikki berated her.

“As if! I have to make a showstopping entrance worthy of my stardom!”

Never mind.

Every time she asked herself that question, Chloé just proved herself more than capable of saying 'yes'.

----

“Whatever. We don't need Scarlet Lady, we have the two that matter.” Arlette said. “Don't forget the goal, Nadja. Boost the ratings to max audience reactions. Make sure that red turns to green.”

Nadja briefly looked down at the electronic bracelet on her left wrist, currently showing a single red line, as a door slammed and a familiar red and black figure swung her way into the studio.

“Helloooo~ The star is here!”

“Scarlet Lady!” one of the cameramen exclaimed, as the aforementioned landed right next to the table.

“Nice of you to join us, Scar,” Chat Noir sarcastically greeted her, while Marigold sighed.

“As if you could start without me!” Scarlet Lady replied, unaware of how wrong she was in that regard.

----

“I'm Nadja Chamack, you're watching Face to Face!”

“Mommy!” Manon exclaimed, while Lila smiled. When she was calmed down, she was a little angel...

“For our first show, we have Paris' favorite protectors, Marigold, Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady!”

----

Elsewhere in Paris, the Césaires were watching the program with interest, as was a good part of the city. Most times, what they could see of their heroes outside the fight were brief moments before they had to leave, so the fact that they would be for a good hour on screen was interesting.

“Thank you for coming,” Nadja Chamack said.

“Thank you for having us, we're happy to be here!” Marigold replied, smiling.

----

“Ooo, Nadja, the Queen Bee is pleased,” Chat Noir teased.

“'Queen Bee'?” Marigold asked, looking at her partner. “Just how many nicknames do you have for me, Chaton?”

“Do you really want to know?” he asked in reply, grinning at her.

“Good evening, my loyal fans!” Scarlet Lady exclaimed, ignoring the conversation behind her as she hogged the camera.

“Um, please sit down,” Nadja asked as she moved on to the first part of her interview.

----

“We see you saving Paris, but we know next to nothing about you,” the reporter said as the camera focused on the heroes.

“Lucky you, you can ask anything!” Chat Noir replied with a smirk.

“Within reason,” Marigold added. “You never know who could be watching.”

Watching, indeed, Gabriel thought. If there was anything that he could exploit to achieve his objective, then he could well watch this asinine television program.

----

“How about some questions from your fans?” Nadja said, turning to a blank screen behind her. “Hello, caller!”

The screen, turned on, showing–

“Hi, Marigold and Chat Noir! I'm Alya~” their friend said, smiling and waving. “Would you give me an interview for the Ladyblog?”

As they saluted her with different ranges of awkwardness, Scarlet Lady glared at the screen.

“Excuse you, you've forgotten about me,” she said. “You know, the illustrious leader?”

“My followers are interested in the heroes of Paris, not you,” Alya said with a deadpan look.

“WHAT?!” Scarlet Lady yelled.

Nobody cared.

Instead, Alya turned the camera towards her twin sisters, standing next to their beds.

“Marigold! Chat Noir! We have a question!” Etta said.

“Yes?”

“When are you bringing back Koki Marina?” Ella asked.

“She was so cool!”

“I like her hair!”

Marigold smiled.

“Don't worry, girls, Koki Marina is a great hero and we'll definitely be calling on her again,” she replied.

“Yay!” the twins shouted, but then Ella looked at Alya with a curious face.

“Alya, why are you blushing?” she asked, and the camera turned around to show that, indeed, Alya was heavily blushing.

“ANYWAY!” the future journalist said, interrupting the conversation. “Remember to submit your Akuma sightings to the Ladyblog! And tune in for that future interview–”

“NEXT CALL!” Nadja shouted in an attempt to recover control of the situation. The screen stopped showing Alya and turned to show another girl the heroes knew well. “Welcome, caller!”

“Hello~” Lila said, and from a corner of the screen another face showed up.

“Hi mommy!” Manon said, and Nadja smiled.

“Hi sweetie,” she replied, as she silently gave Lila the cue to make her question.

“I'm Lila and I have a question for Marigold and Chat Noir.”

“What, nothing for your ex-best friend, you fraud?” Scarlet Lady said, laughing, while Marigold glared at her.

“Knock it off, Scarlet,” she warned, as Manon reentered the frame with the Marigold doll she had made for the little girl to play with, and Lila readied her question.

“What I wanna know is, how do you put up with Scarlet Lady when she's the worst?”

The heroes froze up at the blunt question, sweating as they tried to come up with something useful, while Scarlet Lady became incensed.

“How der you call in to slander my name and insult me?!” the red-suited girl yelled. “You're just mad I called you out for being the liar you are!”

Lila just stuck her tongue at her as she took a hold of Manon.

“Okay, that's enough!” Chat Noir shouted, sweating as he attempted not to show his true thoughts. “We all work towards the same goal of saving Paris and defeating Hawkmoth.”

“Scarlet Lady has a very important role ensuring we can all continue mostly unbothered by Akumas.

“So you put up with her because you have to, got it,” Lila 'helpfully translated' while Manon waved at the screen.

“Goodbye, caller,” Nadja cut off with a sigh.

“Nadja, get control of your show!” Arlette commanded. “Get to the scoop, now!”

Well, she had hoped to take a while longer to reach that point, but if she didn't act quickly she would lose the chance.

So she turned to Chat Noir and Marigold.

“Numerous fans think that on top of being a couple of superheroes, you're a 'couple', period,” she dropped, leaving them shocked. “Can you confirm it's true?”

“Huh?!” Marigold mumbled.

“What?!” Chat Noir shouted.

“Gross,” Scarlet Lady interrupted. “As if I'd ever be a couple with either of these sidekicks!”

Nadja gave her an awkward smile.

“I'm referring to 'Chatgold',” she said. “No one seems to care about your love life.”

“WHAT?!” Scarlet Lady yelled.

And, yes, nobody cared.

Chat Noir glared ahead at Nadja, while Marigold blushed, looking down.

“We're partners, doing our job,” the Black Cat Hero said. “No feelings involved.”

“That is a very personal, very inappropriate question,” the Bee Heroine added, clearly angry.

“The views are rising, don't let up! Time to give your evidence!” Arlette continued, pushing her to go forward with the plan.

“So then,” Nadja said, as the screen turned to show a still image of Marigold and Chat Noir kissing. “How do you explain these pictures?”

Chat Noir quickly recognized what it was from.

“Oh no.”

Marigold... didn't.

“WHAT?!”

Scarlet Lady...

“Oh, that.”

… didn't particularly care.

Marigold immediately jumped at her partner.

“When did THAT happen?!”

“I was reversing Dark Cupid's spell, I swear!” Chat Noir said, embarrassed. “I was saving you, not kissing you!”

“Then how about these?” Nadja continued, showing more images.

When she scratched him under the chin over his idea to capture Animan.

When she kissed him in the cheek to catch Glaciator unaware.

When he kissed her hand as he gave her the Tiger Miraculous for Juleka.

“Those are out of context!” Chat Noir yelled.

“Excuse me, the kiss?!” Marigold shouted, still stuck there.

“We're partners, friends! Of course we're going to be close, but–” Chat Noir shouted at Nadja, but Marigold...

“THE KISS!”

… had yet to comprehend everything that had gone on back then.

“OH KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!!! I'm at my FUCKING limit!”

Everyone on the set turned to look at Scarlet Lady in shock.

“I can't believe you'd waste my time to speculate on my sidekicks' love lives, instead of focusing on what's really important – ME!”

True to form, she did the right thing for the wrong reasons.

“Of course we'll cover your exploits, Scarlet Lady,” Nadja said in a conciliatory tone, “as soon as your partners admit the truth–”

“This is the dumbest interview ever!” Scarlet Lady shouted. “We're leaving!”

Nadja just barely avoided dropping her jaw in shock.

“What?! You can't–”

“Sorry, but for once I agree with Scarlet Lady,” Chat Noir said, giving the presenter an ugly look as he helped an almost comatose Marigold leave. “This has been incredibly unpleasant and uncomfortable.”

“Wait! The show isn't over!” Nadja attempted to call out. “The fans will be disappointed if you don't answer–”

“No means NO, lady!” Chat Noir shouted at her, and the door to the set slammed shut.

----

The command to stop the program came a few seconds after the heroes (and Scarlet Lady) left, and Nadja collapsed to her knees, crying; it had been her best chance to make a program to rival everything else in the channel, and it had sunk within a few minutes.

“Welp, wrap it up, people,” a crew member said after no one started to move for a few moments.

“Do you think we'd have a better success rate if every show at our station wasn't live?” a camera man asked.

No one noticed the black butterfly flitting down towards Nadja Chamack.

At least, not until it was too late.

----

The heroes and their not-so-heroic companion had jumped to the roof of the studios, where the latter of the group proceeded to continue making her displeasure of the previous events known.

“The AUDACITY! What a HACK!” Scarlet Lady yelled. Chat Noir ignored her, instead approaching his partner, who was clearly saddened by the reveal of their kiss.

“Marigold! I'm really sorry!” he said, trying to fix his mistake. “You can punch me if you want–”

“It's fine,” she interrupted, but even he could tell it very well was not. “It was just because of the Akuma, right? It didn't mean anything. So let's drop it.”

Chat Noir tried to come up with something to reply, seeing how hurt she was, but –

“AND ANOTHER THING!”

– Scarlet Lady was still in her tirade.

----

At her house, Lila looked at Manon, who had fallen asleep just a moment before everything went to hell, and saw her being completely dead to the world.

“What a dumpster fire,” she muttered, thinking of how badly Manon's mother had handled the show – as well as Scar's reaction.

“Good evening! Welcome to your new show! I'm your hostess, Prime Queen!”

Lila turned to look at the screen... which showed Nadja Chamack, only this Nadja had deep red hair, fluorescent blue skin, and Tron lines over her dark blue clothing.

“... of course,” she grumbled. After everything, it wasn't surprising that she became Akumatized.

----

“Tonight, Marigold and Chat Noir disappointed their fans by refusing to admit they're a couple in love!”

For once, Chat Noir, Marigold, and Scarlet Lady shared the same opinion on what they were just watching.

“You've got to be kidding me,” they said in unison.

----

“We'll see how far they'll go to hide the truth!” Prime Queen continued – and the screen behind her showed...

“Huh?!” Lila said, shocked. The studio screen was somehow showing her, as seen from her TV screen!

Which, of course, was the point when the Akumatized villain pushed her hand through the screen – and, as if it were an American horror film, Prime Queen's hand was suddenly coming out of her TV!

“What the heck, why ME?!” she complained as she tried to dodge the hand of doom.

Unsuccessfully.

----

“Welcome to the Subway of Suspense!” Prime Queen declared, showing a speedometer to the side, while a column to the side was filled to about a fourth of its size. “If it reaches 100 km/h, you can say goodbye to Scarlet Lady's former best friend!”

“Nadja, you idiot, you just kidnapped your babysitter!” Lila, tied up in cables, screamed at the Akumatized reporter – who ignored her.

“Will you dare to go through the screen to save your dear little Lila?”

Scar scoffed.

“As if I'd get my nails dirty for the superliar.”

Chat Noir sighed. Knowing Scar as he did, it didn't surprise him. Nor did her reaction to him pointing out the obvious.

“It's being broadcast live,” he said.

“Out of my way!” Scar shouted, ignoring the dismissive glares from both heroes as they jumped behind her.

----

Landing into the now moving metro car, the tiny screen at one end showed Prime Queen, looking with way too much interest at them.

“You're going to be the stars to the biggest audience record in TV history!” she declared. “Rules are simple! You admit the truth, that you're a couple in love, and I'll stop the subway!”

“A forced confession is as good as a false confession!” Chat Noir angrily shouted back, furious that she was trying to force something that was untrue.

“I want my scoop!” Prime Queen yelled; much like every other Akuma, she was looking for Number One.

“Seriously, why does anyone even care about this?!” Marigold said.

“If it helps, I care more about the 'not crashing' part,” Lila added from the floor.

Marigold sighed, and began to blush as she spoke.

“Fine, Prime Queen. I confess. I am in love with Chat Noir.”

“Oooo! Saving their fan by admitting their true feelings! The news is going crazy~!”

“Good thinking with that lie, Goldie!” Chat Noir whispered as she looked his way... but then she looked away.

“Superheroes don't lie, Chaton,” she whispered back.

And then he began to blush, as he realized what she meant by that.

“What a sweet gesture!” Prime Queen continued, simpering, as the bar to her right filled up to half. “But! The audience isn't breaking records yet! You'll have to do better than that~!”

As the heroes patently held onto their wish to roll their eyes at the goalposts being moved, Prime Queen gave a little clap.

“Oh, I know! To prove your feelings are authentic, you need to take off your masks! To do so, give me your Miraculouses!”

“Gross,” Scarlet Lady interrupted. “I'm not in love with either of these cretins. And I will do no such thing!”

Prime Queen made a grimace.

“Oh, I forgot you were there.”

“YOU–!”

Clearly unwilling to give up, the Akumatized villain jumped through a screen that took her to the Louvre museum, and then reached through another, grabbing someone else and tossing them into a sarcophagus.

“On to the next segment, dear viewers!” Prime Queen declared, showing her newest victim was–

“ALYA!” Marigold said, terrified.

“Marigold! Please, help me!” Alya – tied, trapped, helpless – begged before Prime Queen slammed the sarcophagus shut. “Ow!”

“Oops! Isn't that the girl who runs the Ladyblog?” Prime Queen maliciously said. “Better hand over your Miraculouses before your biggest fan is mummified!”

“Uh, why should I save her after she snubbed me–” Scarlet Lady muttered.

“Hurry up so I can go back to my room!” Lila interrupted her, shoving her through the screen.

“AH–!”

Marigold and Chat Noir jumped through as well...

“This isn't the Louvre!” the Bee Heroine exclaimed; instead of the museum, they had landed into a freezer room.

“She trapped us in!” Chat Noir added as the screen behind them changed to show Prime Queen's face.

“You got that right!” the villain replied. “Last chance, heroes! Take off your Miraculouses or your biggest fan will take a dip in the Seine!”

“NO! ALYA!” Marigold shouted again, trying to look for something that would help stop the Akumatized villain.

“Don't keep the public waiting~!”

“So what.”

Chat Noir and Marigold turned to look at Scarlet Lady, shocked.

“SCAR!” Chat Noir yelled.

“What? I'll bring her back when we win, so what's the big deal!”

----

“The 'big deal' is that that's seriously messed up, Scarlet!” Marigold shouted.

The other big deal was... well, it was being broadcasted live.

And hundreds of thousands of Parisians were watching.

And they just had seen and heard the so-called 'heroine of Paris' demonstrate a complete lack of regard for a potential victim's death.

And through many minds went one thought.

Is she what we thought she was?

----

Besieged by glares from the other two, Scarlet looked away.

“Oh fine, you big babies: Lucky Charm.”

As she saw the object Scarlet had summoned – a roll of tape – Marigold quickly came up with an idea.

“This'll work,” she declared, picking an empty pizza box – from the same pizza shop where Luka worked, even – and pulled it apart.

And put it on top of the screen, while Chat Noir (who had quickly seen the plan) grabbed the tape and fixed the spread box to the screen.

“Wuh–What's going on?! Why can't I see?!” the villain shouted.

“Too bad, Prime Queen,” Chat Noir said, grinning, as he stood to one side of the screen. “We think we will take off our Miraculouses.”

“And we will reveal our identities!” Marigold taunted.

“You just won't get to see it~!” both of them finished in unison.

“They'll probably make out too,” Scarlet added.

“No, Scar,” Chat Noir added, ready to move as soon as the villain fell for the trick.

“You better not be lying,” Prime Queen said, confirming she had swallowed the bait, and she punched through the screen and pizza box.

Which a prepared Marigold was all too happy to take advantage of.

“Venom~”

“Cataclysm! Free with one freezer exit,” Chat Noir said as he destroyed the freezer's door.

“The fact that that worked was embarrassing,” Scarlet Lady said as Marigold pulled the paralyzed Prime Queen into the freezer.

“Who's the idiot here, her or Hawkmoth?” Marigold rhetorically asked.

----

Once more, everything was fixed through the use of the Miraculous Cure, save for Scarlet Lady's entitlement and reputation, and... the situation between Paris' heroes.

“Marigold, I–”

“Chat Noir, I know we're just good friends and partners, you don't have to–”

“NO!” Chat Noir interrupted. “Goldie, you're AMAZING! And kind and wonderful and the best partner ever!”

“Chat, please, just don't–” Marigold begged, struggling not to tear up in front of her friend.

“I mean it! It'd be easy to fall for you, but --” and here Chat Noir began to blush, “but I'm already in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

Marigold completely blanked out at hearing those three words, and slowly turned to look at her partner.

She must have misheard something.

Or she had just gone temporarily crazy.

Because there was no way the boy she loved just said he was in love with her civilian self.

“Wuh... buh...” she babbled as she tried to make sense of it.

“You might not know her since I had her swear to stay out of fights around the time you joined the team,” he continued, completely unaware of the storm he was causing in her mind, “but she completely captured my heart! But since I see her everyday as 'myself', I can't just forget her! If you met her you'd get it!”

Marigold's eyes widened, and her blush intensified. What Chat Noir had just said... it really sounded like...

“The two of you are so alike, it's almost as if–”

Whoa, time to cut it off.

“AHAHAHA! You know what?!” Marigold interrupted, smiling. “She sounds awesome and you should totally go for it. Anyway, gotta go!”

“HUH?!”

And, as Marigold left, Chat Noir was left looking at her, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

----

Finally back at home, she watched at the now snoring little girl on her bed, making her pout.

“Wow. Amazing what people sleep through,” she muttered, before putting the covers over her again and moving to another room so she could check her computer without disturbing Manon.

Just in time to receive a call request.

Opening the screen, she quickly accepted.

“Yo!” Alya said, smiling and waving. “Glad you're safe!”

“You too,” she replied, returning the smile. “I guess the Cure has more heart than Scarlet Lady.”

Alya's face turned thunderous.

“She was gonna let me drown! She's dead to me!” she yelled, before shaking her head and breathing deeply. “Prime Queen sorta had a point with these views. Too bad for her they're all on my blog.”

“Seriously? That many people care about the imaginary romance between coworkers?” Lila asked, opening the Ladyblog and seeing the comments.

“Mostly people are split between ship wars, and freaking over Scarlet Lady,” Alya replied, and Lila could tell it was quite the understatement.

DING!

“Huh? An email?” Alya said, opening it – and she squinted at the contents. “You've got to be kidding me.”

“What is it?”

“Nadja Chamack just invited me to be a guest on her new show, 'Side by Side'.”

Her jaw dropped.

“All that melodrama over her dumb show being cancelled and they just handed her a new one?!”

----

“What a looong day, come to me my love~” Plagg sang, hugging a piece of Camembert cheese, but Adrien paid little mind to him, instead going over of what just happened. Which the Kwami noticed. “Uhh, what's got you thinking so hard?”

“Marigold... her reaction was strange.” He turned to him. “Her mood completely changed when I mentioned Marinette. And not in the way you'd expect if she was jealous... is it possible... that Marigold could be...”

Plagg began to sweat.

“Oh, no,” he whispered.

He really didn't want to face Tikki if his boy realized the truth.

----

“WOOHOO~!” Marigold said, landing on her terrace as she changed back to her normal self, letting Pollen come out.

“What a wonderful revelation!” the Kwami said, clapping with her little arms. “Chat Noir is in love with 'you', my Queen! Aren't you happy?”

“Sure, but, uh...” she replied, shrugging, confused. “What did he mean he 'sees me everyday as himself'?”

----

Zombizou

@zoe-oneesama Finally reached the end of Season 4! Let's see how much I manage to do before you end the story...