#qml

Don’t go into the forest, her nanny used to tell her at night. The forest is where they hide.

Who? she’d ask, trembling under her sheets, knowing that sleep would evade her for hours. She’d spend the next few hours afraid of the whistling wind instead, trying to screw her eyes shut to avoid her fears. Who hides there?

Them, is all her nanny would say before walking out, but it was enough to deter Chloe from ever stepping foot into the woods.

Well, for a while anyway. But when she’s running from her arranged marriage to some frumpy old dude to strengthen some boring ass alliance? Yeah, Chloe’s got no choice but to run into the forest, so she throws a quick prayer up to the heavens to keep her safe, grabs her skirts in her hand, and books the hell out of there.

The “them,” she discovers, is actually the Guardian of the Forest, a wonderful woman who calls herself “Marinette” and gives Chloe food and shelter with only companionship as payment.

And Chloe wonders, briefly, if maybe her fear was manufactured to keep her trapped.

So it’s only logical that she begins to associate Marinette with freedom, and the moment she truly started living.

Twenty-five steps away from Alya, Ladybug thinks, smiling at a reporter who asked for today’s akuma’s motives. She dodged the question by flapping at Chat Noir, begging him to take over the questions while she finished her personal mission. 

Twenty steps away from Alya, she counts, waving at the akuma victim as they were surrounded by their loved ones. She politely declined their request for her to join them while they reconciled, telling them she didn’t want to insert herself into such a private affair.

Fifteen minutes away from Alya, she continues, side-stepping Sabrina’s father as he tried to ask her if he could help. She spoke over her shoulder and told him to have the area cleared of reporters, wanting some privacy from the previously akumatized victim.

Ten steps away from Alya, she breathes, hearing the chirp of her earrings. She prays for Tikki to hold just a little bit longer, just until she could confirm that her girlfriend was okay.

Five steps away from Alya, and she sees the girl in question. She’s frowning down at her phone, muttering about something coming out blurred and not being suited for uploading. 

And Ladybug.

She runs, feeling all the worry seep out of her as she sees Alya animated and full of alive instead of frozen in fear like she had been fifteen minutes ago. Alya looks up just as Ladybug crashes into her, her arms circling her to squeeze her tight.

“Please stop terrifying me,” she mutters into her shoulder, full of relief and the aching of knowing she couldn’t kiss Alya or scold her properly in her superheroine form.

Alya laughs, bringing her arms around her supersuit and shaking her head. “Never,” she whispers, dropping a kiss onto Ladybug’s forehead.

Ladybug only pulls her closer, desperate to have Alya’s heartbeat playing against her ear again.

Listen, okay.

The thing is, there is no way in high flippety hell that Chloe will ever be attracted to Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The girl in question was ridiculously too nice, definitely not Chloe’s type, and had the bad habit of not minding her own business. And she did it all with some stupid smile on her face, so if you happened to think that Chloe even mildly liked the lilt to Marinette’s mouth that turns her smiles into smirks, you are dead wrong.

And yeah, okay, Chloe has definitely been unable to stop herself from staring at Marinette. But it’s not her fault, alright? It’s Marinette’s fault, as always. She walks into school wearing the most ridiculous of hats that she proudly decrees to have designed herself, smile wide as everyone asks to wear them and take silly pictures. And the quiet satisfaction that seems to overtake her face gives Chloe some kind of awe, but don’t take that for some kind of romantic feeling!

After all, once the class rep stops bringing in the hats (the hats, that’s what Chloe’s been staring at Marinette for, alright?), then Chloe can go back to hating her existence and ignoring her presence.

How was she to know things wouldn’t quite work out like that?

Fools are those who take Rose to be sugar, spice, and everything nice only. They compartmentalize her as this too-sweet-to-exist girl, always claiming that she’s too nice and needs to be protected. In their minds, she is as delicate as the flower she was named after, and needed to be protected the same way the Beast protected his enchanted flower.

But Juleka isn’t a fool. She’s seen the fire in Rose’s eyes when she’s witnesses injustice, the power in her voice when someone attempts to silence it. She molds her edges into knives that can cut, and wields them expertly as her defense against bigotry.

She knows of the tigress that lives underneath the surface. She knows the girl who covered her room in rainbows after her mom made a bigoted comment. She knows that Rose has thorns of her own she isn’t afraid to prick people with. 

She gets to see beyond the surface of Rose, and for that she is eternally grateful.

Maybe another person would’ve been able to walk away from Chloe spitting insults at Rose yet again. After all, there wasn’t anything different about her than the day before. She was wearing immaculate clothes as always, hair styled down to every strand and makeup applied perfectly like any other day. But Marinette knew that she alone was aware that it ran deeper than just Chloe being in a bad mood.

After all, she had swung by the Grand Paris Hotel in the cover of night as Ladybug and seen Chloe being yelled at by her father. She’d seen how the girl in question had broken down as soon as he’d slammed the door shut. She’d witnessed how Choe had spent the entire night sitting out in her balcony and sobbed under the cover of darkness, loneliness permeating her as the stars shone down.

And she knew she didn’t owe the girl anything, but to possess the knowledge she had and not extend a hand of kindness, well. That was a level of mean Marinette refused to stoop to.

So she grabbed the extra croissant in her lunchbox, steeled herself, and made her way to Chloe Bourgeois.

“Be honest with me now,” Kagami says, standing next to Lila and ignoring her surprise, “are you truly here out of some fascination with fencing, or because of your frivolous crush on Adrien?”

“Adrien?” Lila asks, seemingly surprised by the name. Kagami looks over to find her deep in thought. “What makes you think I like Adrien?”

It was Kagami’s turn to be surprised. “Are you saying you don’t?”

Lila shakes her head vehemently, even going so far as to make an X with her arms. “Are you insane? I’m...” With a quick look around to make sure no one was listening in, Lila leaned in closer and whispered, “I’m a lesbian.”

“Oh,” Kagami responds, unable to comprehend anything further. Then she nods. “I see why the Adrien accusation surprised you.”

Lila bites her lip in response, bowing her head and letting her hair act as a barrier between them. “You weren’t wrong though, I am here because of a crush.”

“Then you must be disappointed,” Kagami remarks, causing Lila to raise her head in confusion. “Considering all the other girls chose not to show up today.”

“... But my crush is here,” Lila says after a moment’s silence, and Kagami looks at her for a moment before understanding.

“Oh,” she repeats, and then, after a second, “I supposed you’ll be replaying this conversation in your head tonight, as most are privy to with the people they like.”

Lila smiles, ducking her head to hide a blush. “You got it, Tsurugi.”

“You’re kidding,” Chloe exclaimed when she saw what Kagami picked out to try. Kagami could only stare at her, confused, unsure exactly which part seemed to be a joke to Chloe. “You’re buying workout clothes?”

Kagami nodded. “Yes,” she added, when it looked like Chloe was still confused. And then, after another silent moment, she continued, “The ones I currently have are a little old.”

Chloe continued to only look, maybe like her brain had been friend and stopped working. Kagami wondered if maybe she needed to call Adrien and ask him what was going on. Maybe Chloe was often confused by the situations she didn’t relate to...?

“Oh my god,” the blonde said at last, tossing her ponytail back over her shoulder and stepping closer to Kagami. “You’re actually serious.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asked, but Chloe ignored the question, only stepping closer.

With the smallest amount of distance between them, Chloe whispered, “Unbelievable.” 

And then, before Kagami could even think of responding Chloe was kissing her.

Turns out, Adrien bet Chloe she didn’t have the guts to make the first move. Chloe bet Adrien that Kagami didn’t like her back. In the end, they’re both wrong.