well somewhere along the way in our words i must've gotten lost
by @noirshitsuji. Title credit.
Anonymous requested: Beelya where Queen Bee visits the Cesaire house after Alya writes an article about her fighting Mr. Pigeon alone. Normally Chloe would like the publicity but Alya had titled it ‘The Birds and the Bees’. After that she ends up coming back to complain about her mother. And her father. And about the fact that her oldest friend seems uncomfortable around her. Her visits becomes weekly, then almost nightly. (Don't forget to include Chloe redemption (and some "Bee Movie” jokes).)
Trigger warning: Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Referenced Emotional Abuse, and Mild Cussing. Nothing too heavy, but warning just in case.
*
“Césaire,” Queen Bee says, eyes somehow icier through her mask. “Take this down.”
Alya’s been long used to Chloé looking at her like that, though, so she doesn’t even flinch.
“No. If that’s all you came to say, then, Chloé,” she replies, spinning to turn her chair back towards her computer, “you may leave now.”
A grumble behind her, and then–
“Alya,” now that makes her flinch; she’s not sure Chloé’s ever said her name before. “Please.”
Alya turns around to look at her again. Chloé’s pursed her lips tightly, but Alya thinks she can see them trembling. She looks up to her eyes, then, and–
–oh, shit.
“Chloé.” Alya gets up from her chair. Chloé flinches and looks away. “Did something happen?”
Queen Bee is silent for a second before she says, her voice low. “There has been...fan mail, delivered to the hotel.”
Fan mail, one part of Alya’s brain registers as the other clicks on the title of the article on Queen Bee’s solo battle again Mr. Pigeon being The Birds and the Bees–
–Chloé trembles again.
“Sit down,” Alya finds herself saying, voice soft.
She pauses to think as Chloé does so, then adds: “I’ll be making myself some hot cocoa if you want any.”
She tries to phrase it with as little pity as she can because she’s fully aware the other girl’s pride won’t let her take any, but Queen Bee still bristles. She looks at her tensely for a moment before nodding and letting her shoulders relax. Alya dares to ‘accidentally’ brush the box of napkins at her desk a bit closer to her bed as she exits. When she comes back, she thinks she can see one or two missing, but Chloé’s eyes aren’t red-rimmed at all.
(Something tells her, though, that if there was anybody who would know how to fake that, it would be her.)
She hands Queen Bee her mug silently and sits down next to her on the bed, leaving some space between them. She’d sit on the desk chair and leave more, but this already feels too much like a therapy session, certainly not a situation Alya’s ever even considered she could find herself in, and she doubts Chloé has as well.
But fan mail about Birds and Bees?
Alya swallows some memories from last month, and three months before that, and–
–Nobody should have to go through that.
So she sits there, mug growing colder in her hands, taking occasional sips. After a few minutes, Chloé starts talking. She’s not looking at Alya, and Alya isn’t looking at her, even as her voice trembles way beyond calm. She doesn’t offer to write an article on it to get the word out and bring attention to the issue, either. She just listens.
(And in the end, it turns out to be more than enough.)
***
Alya opens the door to her bedroom and stares at Queen Bee sneaking in through her window. The latter freezes for a moment before jumping fully inside and closing the window behind her, then facing Alya head on.
She should call somebody. Chloé shouldn’t be here – Alya doesn’t want her here, and she isn’t sure if it is because she still truly dislikes her (the pity has been growing disproportionately for a while now) or because Chloé just doesn’t fit in here, even if her attitude in general has been improving (neutral with an edge was still better than venomous), even if she has been doing what she can as part of the Miraculous team (with minimum Ladybug ogling and Chat Noir bullying, though he answers her in stride, and she only barely looks at Carapace or Rena if she doesn’t need to cooperate with them, and she’s never worked with any of the others) and–
–shit, this is where Alya needs to be professional – help a colleague, prevent an akumatisation, bonnet blanc, blanc bonnet – isn’t it?
(Something about Chloé still makes her feel she needs an excuse to be empathetic. She’s not sure if it’s her ramrod straight posture or her 500 euro designer watch.)
“Chloé, where have you been?” she asks, more Rena than Alya in that instance, and decides to tone it down a bit. “Nobody’s seen you all day, your father is freaked out.”
“Yes, I know,” Chloé replies. There is something stiff in her posture, but not the usual thing, not pride, but–
“Okay,” Alya says. Why are you here? she doesn’t ask. “I will go and get myself some Oreo and tea. Would you like any?”
She is a polite host if nothing else. And besides, if she had any way of contacting Ladybug and Chat, she would have done it on sight.
(Lies, something whispers in the back of her mind. There’s no other way to get through to her. You knew that already.)
Chloé does a gesture with her head that isn’t quite a nod, but Alya brings a full plate and two mugs of tea regardless (funny, the – emotional or literal – balancing acts having small siblings teaches you) and puts them both on her desk. Queen Bee is on her bed, inspecting her nails through the suit like a cat that’s just noticed it has claws and isn’t entirely sure what to do with that information.
Alya waits, blowing on her tea. Takes an Oreo. Takes another. Moves the plate on the bed so that Chloé can have better access (she needs to wash the cover anyhow), sips her tea. Waits.
“Chloé,” Alya says, her nerves thinning (for more than one reason), but before she can say anything else–
“–My mother came home this morning before school,” Queen Bee replies, looking up from her nails. She folds her hands carefully in her lap, never once looking away from Alya. It unnerves her even more. “I have been...in need of some time away.”
And all at once, Alya thinks she knows why Adrien stays.
***
“Papa...he tries, he really does,” Chloé says, suddenly on the defensive. “It’s just that he...can’t.”
Alya isn’t quite sure how she ended up here, in a place where she isn’t even surprised Chloé would seek her out to talk about her dad, where she wouldn’t even mind her doing so, where she would expect it, where she would–
“But that’s not enough,” Alya says, trying not to put any bite into it. She doesn’t think it works, from the way Chloé turns to look at the posters above her desk.
Screw it. “It never has been. Not enough to raise you,” the other girl flinches, putting her still-masked hands on top of each other as if trying to hold on to something, “and not enough to make you feel loved. Has it?”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re asking for an answer to that, Césaire,” Queen Bee replies, and maybe the venom is accidental but the trembling definitely isn’t.
“You’ve never been hurt from a place of honesty, Chloé,” Alya says, feeling a sudden urge to reach for her shoulder and gently pull her to look at her. She doesn’t. “Everybody in your life has been protecting you from hurt, but that’s no way to love someone. It only means they’ve been good enough at shielding themselves from you and you from them.”
“Not true,” Chloé says, quietly, “Jean-Michel tried to push me in a different direction, and he tarnished my...” can’t say ego but won’t say pride, “and...” She clamps shut.
Alya doesn’t expect to hear Chloé’s mother cited as an example; they both know that’s not what she meant.
She is not surprised to hear:
“Adrien. He hurt me. He hurt me because he couldn’t–can’t–stand to be around me anymore, because I keep being me and that’s not who he wants for his friend, so when he saw I can’t be anything else, he just–” and she shuts up again, because the tears are overwhelming her voice and she cannot not waiver anymore.
Alya’s scooted closer and put a hand around Queen Bee’s shoulders before she knows it.
“You can be different, Chloé,” Alya says, voice low, and fuck it, this has never been anything other than a confession, so she’s going to play preacher until the end. “There’s no such thing as ‘can’t’. It’s your choice how to behave, and that is despite how you were raised. This,” she points to the comb in her hair, “proves it. Ladybug and Chat Noir and Rena and Carapace trusting you proves it. You doing what’s right when it’s necessary proves it.”
She stops, then, takes a deep breath because she still isn’t sure she believes the next words wholeheartedly even if she’s come to accept them, but they come out easily:
“You are not the villain of the story anymore, Chloé. You shot that dead yourself, so just...stop acting like you are.”
Queen Bee sniffles on her shoulder (when had that happened?) and says nothing, not for a minute, but then–
“You’re right, Alya.”
Thud, goes something in her chest, but she squashes it down before she can think about it too much.
Chloé continues:
“I’m sorry. I...” and she’s struggling but she’s trying, and damnit, Alya has something in her eye now. “You’re right. It’s my responsibility, not anyone else’s. We might not be legal adults yet, but if we can be held responsible for saving millions of lives...well, no excuse not to act like it, right?”
Queen Bee raises her head from her shoulder to look at her.
Alya freezes. Fuck; even if Ladybug had allowed for her and Nino to know each other’s identities because it was convenient and because they were dating (not anymore) and were close (still are), they have rules about this, and oh fuck–
–Chloé’s eyes, she suddenly realises, are very, very blue.
“Nobody outside of the team knows my power’s in the comb, even if people have speculated as much,” she says, slowly, calmly, as if she’s trying not to scare off a rabbit. “Nobody knows, though.”
And Alya needs to deny the charge, conscious as she is of the irony of being the one cornered, knowing that it won’t work–
“I’m the Ladyblogger. I pay more attention.”
“Bullshit,” Chloé replies, “you’re Rena Rouge.” Pause. “I’ve been suspecting for a while.”
Alya isn’t entirely sure what to make of that.
Chloé looks to the side again, eyes fixing once again on the posters above her desk. Alya follows her eyes and finds her staring at one of the five of them from a couple of years ago, a bit after Heroes’ Day, before any of the other part-time heroes had come along.
“How?” Alya says, finds her voice a bit too small, clears her throat.
“Smart, pragmatic, even more no-nonsense than Ladybug,” Chloé shoots immediately, pauses, adds (with a sense of haste that makes Alya feel...weird) “Aside from the physical resemblance, of course.”
She pauses again, and says, a bit more quietly: “You had a ponytail last week. I’d never seen you with one before, but it...served to confirm my suspicions.”
(Alya decides to ignore this last bit. And the second thud in her chest.)
***
Nathalie Sancoeur is standing there, holding the tablet with her usual stone-cold face, and Marinette and Adrien both look like they’ve been gutted. The silence in Bustrier’s classroom is entirely too stark against the sounds of laughter and teasing of the two long-time-coming lovebirds from earlier (even if only Alya, Nino, and Chloé of the lot know the full extent of the joke) and Alya searches, desperately, for words with which to counter Adrien’s father. She sees her friend flex his right hand (Cataclysm would create more problems than it would solve, even if he could summon it and somehow obliterate this mess) and Nino reach for his back (but he can’t shield them from this) and she herself wishes she had her flute; an illusion of obedience would do well, if not one of intimidation, but she doubts it would work through the screen.
And Marinette’s face is racing through a million emotions per second; there is a flash of Ladybug in there, too–but she cannot pull rank here, nobody can–
“–Monsieur Agreste.”
–except for her.
Chloé’s moved right in front of the tablet, and all eyes in the room are on her. Her voice is ice-cold:
“I sincerely hope I did not just hear you say what I thought you did,” and oh, there it is, the venom, and Alya thinks that Nathalie has stilled a bit too much for it to be just her natural mask of indifference. “In fact, I will give you the chance to apologise for it, since I doubt you would be so stupid as to try and prevent your son and his girlfriend from being happy.”
“Miss Bourgeois,” a condescending con descending, “it is not you or your father’s business how I raise my–”
Chloé slams her hand on Adrien’s desk, making everybody jump. Nathalie nearly drops the tablet. Gabriel’s mouth clamps shut.
“Wrong,” she says, voice very, very quiet. “Entirely too wrong, monsieur Agreste. It is very much my business, and as a consequence it is both of my parents’ business. It is that of my mother, as the leading critic of the fashion world,” she throws a glance sideways at Max and he nods, stunned, taking out his calculator, “and it is very much my father’s, as corporate licensing approvals are kept track of by the municipality.”
“Your father,” Gabriel starts, and Alya has never seen him this angry, “would be nothing without my support for his campaign.”
“My father has been cooperating with Ladybug, Chat Noir, and the rest of Paris’ superhero team against Hawkmoth for years now,” Chloé does not look at them, at any of them, but Alya looks at Nino who looks at Adrien who has his shoulder squeezed by Marinette, and he reaches for Chloé’s hand. “I am sure they could spare a few words of gratitude for him.”
Marinette and Alya move closer to her at the same time, crowding her a bit from behind.
Gabriel is silent for a second before he replies: “This is not a game you can play, Miss Bourgeois.”
“Max,” Chloé says, calmer now. Alya thinks she can hear the smirk in her voice. “What are your numbers telling you?”
“There is a 96.7% chance Gabriel Fashions would be bankrupt within the year if they were unable to display any collections at any shows of the upcoming season or get any sort of media exposure otherwise,” Max says, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Hypothetically speaking, of course, seeing as this could only happen if the critics, for some reason, outright ignored them, which would signal to everybody else that the company is best avoided.”
There is an edge to Max’s voice, too, as he looks at Nathalie and the screen from under his lashes: “The odds are, of course, higher if said critics express outward disapproval, or,” he glances at Chloé, “ if they were to uncover any information that would put the company’s name in bad standing.”
“Oh, so you have nothing to worry about, then!” Chloé jumps in, cheerily. “My mother is an honest woman, if nothing else. I’m sure she would tell everybody how high her regard is for you, Gabriel.”
Alya sees Nathalie flinch. She’s surprised Adrien’s father hasn’t been akumatised yet, but if that ends up happening–well, it’s a half-an-hour-from-now problem, hopefully.
“Not to mention,” and there it is, the venom again, but this time Chloé’s stare is not leveled at the tablet, but at the person holding it, “that much less needs to happen for some of your pawns to be ruined.”
And honey is less sweet than her voice when she adds: “Don’t worry, though, I’m sure child services would be more than happy to look after Adrien’s wellbeing throughout the process and ensure that nothing happens to him.”
It is now Adrien who flinches. Alya thinks she can see Chloé squeeze his hand under the table, but doesn’t stop: “So, au contraire, Gabriel, it is you who cannot play this game.”
Alya can see Adrien squeeze her hand back and shoot her a mildly disapproving glance after looking pointedly at Nathalie. Chloé sneaks one at him, but Alya doesn’t need to see it to know what she’s thinking: she’s not innocent, you know?
Adrien looks away. Nathalie’s face is very, very pale.
“Now get out of the classroom, Miss Sancoeur,” Chloé says, turning towards her again. “You interrupted our class.”
Suddenly, the only sound that can be heard is the slow pit-patter of rain outside. Everything is still for a moment. Nathalie says nothing, but looks desperately down at the screen, evidently for some guidance.
She receives none. Gabriel is looking at Chloé with a sort of vengeance that makes Alya’s skin crawl, but he doesn’t make an answer.
“Apologies,” Nathalie says, finally. She waits for another moment before turning off the screen and then heading through the door she’d left open on her way in.
There are thirty seconds of silence before Adrien turns towards Chloé, stares at her, and then pulls her into a hug. She is stiff for a moment before answering him in turn.
“Thank you,” he mutters, “thank you so much, Chlo.”
Chloé’s laughter is strained; tears are already falling down her cheeks. “Anything for you, Adrikins,” and she doesn’t add anyone else’s name, but throws three consecutive looks at Marinette, Alya, and Nino, and that speaks enough for itself.
Marinette smiles at her and gives her a hug as well once Adrien lets her go. “Thank you,” she says, pulling way and taking Adrien’s hand. Chloé smiles back, awkwardly, happily, and Alya’s heart melts.
And she thought Marinette would be the first to say it, but if not–
“Hey, come here,” she pulls Chloé towards her. “I’m proud of you.”
“So am I,” Marinette and Adrien chirp, then giggle at their unison.
“Me as well,” Nino adds. Chloé reaches behind Alya’s back and she realises she’s bumped fists with him.
“That was amazing, Chloé!” Rose exclaims, a beaming Juleka next to her.
Kim shouts in agreement, Max nods, Nathaniel hands over a sketch he’s made (Chloé takes it but doesn’t let go of Alya), Alix high-fives, Sabrina’s eyes water (Alya knows she’ll have to let go eventually; she and Chloé have things to sort out), Mylene and Ivan cheer, and everything, everything is okay.
Almost.
“Bee Movie, tonight, mine,” she says in Chloé’s hair. “It’s finally time.”
Chloé groans but doesn’t complain.
(Alya’s pretty sure she doesn’t want to.)
***
Chloé’s head has somehow ended up in her lap, and Alya’s hand has somehow ended up in her hair. She strokes it slowly, carefully, reflecting on how funny the reaction she would’ve gotten for daring to do that a couple of years ago would have been.
“My mother wants me to go to New York next month to stay with her for a while,” Chloé says.
Alya’s hand freezes, resumes. “Oh?”
“She says there are some people she wants me to meet, so I guess I’ll have to play trophy daughter,” her voice is very tired, but Alya thinks it might just be because she is sleepy. “I don’t know how Adrien did it for all of those years, honestly–how he still has to do this.” Her eyebrows scrunch together.
“We’ll get him out of there, Chloé,” Alya says, patting one thumb against Chloé’s right temple. “One way or another. He doesn’t have that much time left in that house as is, and I’m pretty sure there’s a tentative agreement in place with the Dupain-Chengs now about him semi-living there.”
“Yeah,” Chloé says, a small but gloating smile on her face. “I did that, didn’t I? One of the best things I ever did.”
Alya rolls her eyes. “Yes, yes you did.”
“No need to sound so condescending. Credit should be given where it is due.”
Alya doesn’t reply, but she’s smiling as well now. All is silent for a minute, until:
“Come to New York with me.”
“How?” is the first coherent thought Alya has at that. She looks up at her posters. “We have school then.”
“I’ll have tutors there, we’ll keep up,” Chloé replies, pauses, then adds: “It will be fun. Way better than being alone with my mother. And I’m pretty sure I can persuade her to use her contacts to get us a meeting with Majestia.”
Something dawns on Alya, then. “My birthday is next month.”
“It is,” Chloé says, and when Alya looks down at her again, the other girl’s smile is almost sheepish. “If you, uhm, want to spend it here with the others, of course you–”
“–no,” Alya replies, and the truth hits her like a brick. “I don’t, I would rather spend it with you in New York. Because it will be with you,” she adds, because Chloé needs to know it’s not New York or Majestia or the money or the private tutors, it’s–
“Okay,” Chloé says. She lifts herself up from Alya’s lap and sits on her knees before her.
Alya can’t remember seeing her this happy.
“Say, Césaire,” her smile turns into something impish and slightly terrifying and very, very beautiful, “ya like jazz?”
The finger guns she makes, in combination with her shitty American accent, are enough to make Alya want to laugh.
She kisses her instead.
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