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fallsofnoir · 4 years

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Honey is Not Enough

AO3 | Beta-reader @angrycroissantt (thank you so much!)

Summary:

Luka wasn’t even supposed to be at this party, but it was Chloe’s party and he couldn’t stay away. … Even if she didn’t know his identity.

// in which Luka deals with his own girlfriend treating him like a stranger and struggles not to reveal his identity.

Luka wasn’t even supposed to be at this party. He’d been just about to work on a new chord progression for the band when Rose had come running into his room. She’d gasped and started to complain about what he was wearing, he heard something about a party as she dragged him with the strength of a mighty... bunny to his wardrobe.

Despite his protests and questions, she managed to wrangle him into a clean pair of jeans and a less worn hoodie. Juleka had thankfully put his guitar back in its case by the time Rose was done with him.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Rose clapped her hands together and made her way to the door.

“Where are we going?” He asked.

She stopped in her path and turned around with a grin, “to Chloe’s party.”

“I wasn’t invited.” There wasn’t any bitterness to his tone, there wasn’t.

“Rose and I can’t go out this late without you anyway so her highness will just have to let you in,” his sister explained as she handed him his shoes. They stood next to each other with such hopeful gazes that he really couldn’t say no.

Looking around the party, he could see nearly everyone from Chloe’s class, the only person missing was Chloe herself. He tried not to look for her. Marinette and Adrien were keeping him busy by discussing some plans for the band to see if they could get Adrien to schedule in some more jam sessions. He was excited to be able to do more music with Adrien, the kid could seriously rock the keyboard. Finding a free evening, however, was proving to be difficult, if Adrien was free it was likely Marinette was busy or the other way round. Luka didn’t even want to factor into how many evenings he’s busy. They finally settled on the following Thursday, he’d just have to ask to see if one of the other heroes could cover his patrol. No big deal.

Alya soon dragged the pair away from him and he made his way over to the food table. There was a slice of pizza with his name on it. Chloe might just kill him if he ruined his body from the pizza, but it was so worth it. He was just taking a bite when the blonde in question strutted into the room with Sabrina in tow.

Fashionably late, but wow. She was gorgeous. He didn’t know how anyone could look that good in white jeans.

She made a beeline for the microphone set up in the corner and brought it to her lips. “You all better not have been having too much fun without me, but now that I’m here the party can really start! Let’s see if any of you can beat me at karaoke first.” Smirking, the girl held out the other microphone as if daring someone to challenge her. Luka knew that look, it was similar to the look she gave him when she raced him to the Notre Dame. A challenger stepped forward, he was pretty sure Alix pushed him, Kim. He didn’t back down though and from then on the game was set.

Five rounds later it was clear she knew the songs too well. Knowing Chloe, she’d probably spent her whole childhood playing this game. A quick glance at Adrien proved him to be mouthing along to the words too so Luka assumed he was correct in that assumption. Slowly, though, her voice wore out and she ended up handing her champion status over to Marinette with much resentment. Promises of winning next time were made and soon she was stalking over to the drinks table.

“You’re very talented,” he commented.

The blonde grinned and flicked her hair over her shoulder. “Of course I am.” She downed some punch and poured herself some more to sip at more leisurely as she perched on the edge of the table near him. “Who are you?”

“Oh, sorry, I’m Jules’ brother,” he held his hand in greeting. She shook it, pausing ever so slightly when she noticed his painted nails. “She dragged me here so she could stay out later.”

He noticed that her eyes widened and the corners of her lips turned up ever so slightly before she schooled her features. “More like so she and Rose could find some alone time.” He knew that wasn’t the case, but he couldn’t exactly prove when the two girls were currently locking lips on the opposite side of the room.

“I think they get plenty of that at ours,” he grinned at her. She should know that they were here for her. “Mum’s pretty chill with that sort of thing. And Rose has always said that you throw the best parties.”

Chloe smiled back at him and tapped her fingers against her cup. “That’s because I always have the best sound system.”

“It is pretty great, Adrien was saying earlier about how nice it would be for the band to practice here.”

“You’re in his band?” Chloe looked surprised. He wondered if the girl had stopped listening to Adrien talk about the band once she found out Marinette was in it too. He had heard both sides of the story on their rivalry and he wasn’t about to get involved.

“More like he’s a part-timer in my band. Poor kid’s got no time to join us most days.”

“Yeah well, his dad can go walk off a cliff for all I’m concerned.”

He hummed in agreement and they both turn to look at the boy currently singing his heart out to what he thought must have been a Disney song. “The only thing stopping me from pushing him off the cliff myself is that Adrien would be alone.”

The girl turned to look at him, a question on her face. Perhaps she didn’t realise how close he was to Adrien. Or maybe she just didn’t expect anyone to agree with her suggestion. Either way, she didn’t have a chance to ask when a shockwave ran throughout the room.

“Everyone get down!” He heard Adrien shout through the mic. Luka threw himself over Chloe, rolling them under the drinks table.

The lights blew out and then they appeared. A glowing white. Their body seemed to float, dancing past the glass windows without looking in the room. Everyone in the room seemed to wait with bated breath as the figure inched closer to the balcony. Chloe wriggled underneath him and he let her up. She gestured for him to remain quiet and made signals to someone across the room. He saw her motion towards the door.

One by one he could see the hands and knees of his friends make their way towards the doors and away from the balcony. Relief went through him when the doors opened. The pale person was still outside the balcony doors. Just floating.

Until.

Someone made a run for it. He jumped up when he could no longer see the ghostly being outside and shouted to Chloe that they’d vanished.

“Boo!” He heard from behind him. Turning he could see the ghost thing in front of a terrified Kim. “You thought you could ghost me! I am Remembrance and I’m going to make sure everyone remembers the love they have lost!” With that, she grabbed Kim’s hand and disappeared into thin air.

Great, just great. Marinette stared at him and Chloe with wide eyes before Adrien grabbed her hand and pulled her out the room. He knew he needed to move. He just had to try and find a place to transform.

The rest of the crowd streamed out the doors quickly after that. Chloe dodged his attempt to grab her hand and ran over to the balcony door. She was gone before he even had the chance to chastise her for running into danger. He transformed in the empty room and found his fellow heroes on the rooftop.

Finding Remembrance when she could literally phase through walls was the hard bit. Defeating her was not. And soon he was untransformed back at the hotel waiting for Chloé to return. With only Sass as company.

He had expected everyone else to come back to the room the party was held in. But he hadn’t seen a single person. He didn’t know how to take that. Didn’t know what to think. He knew Ladybug and Chat Noir had to take the person who was akumatized and Kim back home. The poor guy was going to get a lecture from one of the heroes no doubt. His sister had probably filled her quota for socialising today and taken Rose home. But the rest? He didn’t know why they weren’t here.

He’d just managed to feed his Kwami when the doors opened and he looked up expecting the crowd to steam in. There was no crowd.

Chloé slowly walked into the room, her eyes rapidly moving around the room before her shoulders slumped. She spun around and faced him. “Just you?”

He nodded. He had a really hoped her friends would pop up from behind the tables or something, anything to happen to stop the sad look from being on the girl’s face.

He could see her blinking rapidly from across the room and he knew she was trying not to make a scene. “I think that means the party is over, you can show yourself out.” With that, she was hurrying back out of the room.

Would it be alright to follow her? He didn’t know, but he damn well was not going to let secret identities get in the way of comforting her. Ladybug can kill him later. He ran out of the room.

For someone wearing heels, she sure ran fast. Her lift had already started heading to her floor before he’d reached it. He mashed the lift buttons but the next one was still 10 floors away, he’d never reach her in time. The stairs it was.

Her breathing was quick and her hands were shaking as she exited the lift. Her palm came to rest against the nearest wall and she bent over to try and catch her breath. This was how Luka found her. Sobbing next to the door of her suite.

“Oh, honey -“ he started. She gasped, pausing in her sobs. His hands came to rest on her shoulders to stop her from turning around. “I’m sorry, I’m not transformed.”

“How are you here?” She breathed out between her cries. She didn’t throw him off her, however, and that was enough encouragement as any.

“I was here when the Akuma hit,” he explained. His hands slipped past her shoulders and wrapped her in a hug from behind. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “You don’t have to explain anything, but know that I‘m here and I love you.”

If possible she crumpled even more. Her hands came up to cover her face and she allowed him to rock the two of them together. He wasn’t entirely certain why she had broken down, but he had a feeling it was to do with the lack of people that returned to the party.

“You know me?” She asked after not very long. Her breathing increased. He hadn't managed to calm her down. “How do you know me? I didn’t want you to know me, you can’t... please tell me you don’t know me.”

He didn’t know why he shouldn’t know her, he’s known who she was since day one. How could he not? Chloé was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen, of course, she’d be Queen Bee. He told her as such.

“No, no, no I’m not,” she mumbled. “I’m not supposed to be a superhero, I’m not good enough.”

“You are.”

“No, I’m really not,” she shook herself out of his grip to hit the wall with all the force of a superhero. It left a dent. “If I was people would have come back.”

“Maybe they were busy?” He tried. He knew for certain that some of them were busy doing superhero duties. Chloé had patrol tonight so she was excused. Ladybug had offered to drop the civilian home instead of him because it was a girl so he’d been given a free chance. Yes, the others should have come back, but who knows why they couldn’t. It wasn’t Chloé’s fault.

“If anyone of my classmates thought I was worthy of being a superhero they would have been here. I’m just the mayor’s daughter, they can’t say no to me, can they? I practically force everyone to come anyway. Stupid, stupid, stu-“

“Hey, hey, hey,” Luka grabbed her hands to stop her from hitting the wall again. “You’re not stupid! They’re the stupid ones if they can’t see how amazing you are! Bee if anyone should be a superhero it’s you.”

“You’re just saying that.”

“I’m not!” He glanced at the door next to them. “Can we go to your room?“

“Oh! Yeah of course,” she replies, she sounded like she’d forgotten she wasn’t in private.

They shuffle in an odd way to the room. Luka unwilling to let her go and Chloé needing to unlock the door. She immediately went to her bedside to grab a sleeping mask to cover her eyes for the time being.

He smiled when she turned around to face him blindly. The Ladybug mask seemed strange on her face. “I think I prefer your actual mask.”

She snorted, and he was glad to see a smile on her face, albeit small. But he wasn't done yet.

”You, Chloé Bourgeois, are every bit deserving of being Queen Bee as Ladybug is herself,” he said, his hands moved to grab hers. “Who was the one who brought ice cream for us when we were baking in the super-suits on the hottest day of the summer? Who is the one who always jumps in front of their teammates when they’re in trouble? Who is the one who did patrol every single night for three weeks when the rest of us were stuck with flu? On their own? Well, mostly,” he placed a kiss on her knuckles. “You are caring, thoughtful, crazy loyal, smart, powerful and absolutely ready to put your teammates first. That, honey, is what makes a superhero if you ask me.”

She had tears dripping down her cheeks by the time he was finished. His kissed them away too and a smile lit up her face.

“How do you always have the right words?” She stomped her foot in mock protest. “I bet I look like a mess.”

“I’m only being honest,” he answered, smiling when she reached up to wipe her tears away. “You look beautiful.”

“I don’t, but thank you.” He couldn’t stop himself from kissing her then. Her arms went around his neck and his around her waist. Sweet and leisurely, like pure honey. And he was addicted.

She pulled back before he could get too carried away. “This mask is so not made for kissing.” It had been bunching on her nose making breathing even more difficult than usual.

“Maybe we should save that for our next patrol then, Queenie,” he suggested but it didn’t stop him from stealing another kiss or two from the blonde. “In fact, I think you probably need to get going, don’t you? It’s Saturday.”

“Oh right, what time is it?” She mumbled.

“10:47.”

“Oh phew, I’ve got like what 10 minutes to get to the other side of town,” she stepped away from him and called for Pollen. She asked for her transformation but kept a hand over her eyes. “I’ll have to invest in a better mask for next time you plan to stop by as a civilian. You will come back, won’t you?”

“I’ll wait in eager anticipation, my queen.” He bowed and kissed her hand.

Queen Bee wrinkled her nose, “don’t start coping the cat. Ladybug and I couldn’t take it if there were two of him.”

He spat out a laugh. Chat Noir sure was a bit over the top lately with his affections for their leader.

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“You better be there, Scales,” she grinned at him before her wings took her out through the window.

He grinned the whole way home.

Epilogue

“I want to apologise!” Ladybug stood in front of a very confused Chloé Bourgeois with what looked to be a gift box. Chat Noir stood just behind her.

“Apologise for what Ladybug? As if you could have done anything wrong.”

“I - um - It was your party this weekend-“

“And? I had a ton of people turn up, I don’t expect you with your busy schedule to be able to make it.” The blonde rolled her eyes.

“Well yes but I’m sorry-“

“And besides we had that stupid Akuma hit right in the middle of it anyway, the party ended after that,” Chloé looked at her nails as a distraction. She wasn’t sure how much Chat Noir knew about her, but she wasn’t about to give her identity away to the cat.

“I guess so, but still Chloé,” Ladybug had shoved the box into Chat Noir’s arms at this point. She grabbed the blonde’s hand. “I wanted to be there and I know how much effort you put into it. I can’t give away my identity, but no one is more annoyed than me and Chat about that Akuma happening.”

Chloé looked up at Ladybug’s face to see her staring at her. There was something in her eyes that she couldn’t place, but she knew she had to accept whatever the superheroine was apologising for.

She shook her out of her grip and walked over to retrieve the box from Chat Noir. She noticed an infamous logo on the box. “Macaroons? How did you know where to find my favourite bakery?”

She had never told anyone that she was partial to the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

Both of her teammates' eyes widened. “Uhh, lucky guess?” Ladybug shrugged, sheepishly.

Chloé wasn’t about to complain anyway and she opened it and popped a macaroon straight into her mouth. “Apology accepted, Ladybug, not that you needed to.”

Ladybug grinned before nodding at her partner and grabbing her yo-yo. “Thank you Chloé, I’ll make sure to clear my schedule the next time you throw a party.”

“Yeah, no Akuma will be there to stop us from partying next time,” Chat Noir added. The two heroes left Chloé with the macaroons. The blonde wasn’t sure how she knew to, but Ladybug always managed to cheer her up. And she was going to do everything in her power to help out the heroes when they needed her too.

Fin.

#miraculous ladybug #ml fanfiction #luka couffaine #chloe bourgeois #queen bee #viperion #viperbee #one shot #my fic #fic: honey is not enough #series: honey honey #i hope you guys all enjoy it!#i certainly loved writing it #beta read

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