Chapter Text
Zoé sat in the lobby and waited, again. But this time she was only half an hour early, not a whole one.
School had settled. Kind of. It felt more normal now to go to class just a few floors down from her bed, to kind of technically be the daughter-by-adoption of the man who owned this place. At some point, that might have made her feel on top of the world, or at least safe.
Today, she had other things on her mind.
She had a girlfriend now. Her first ever girlfriend, and it was Marinette. She knew she ought to be giddy about that, even though… even though. Even though everything.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about most things right now, and about Marinette least of all. But she felt she at least had to make the most of it, at least should try to make good on her promise to try and love Marinette better.
She sighed — and as she did so, the front doors swung open. Her first impression was muddled, distant, but she saw blonde hair and a frown and she clenched her fists and steeled herself — but then the image solidified. He raised his head in recognition and then came closer, and it wasn't him.
"Hey, Adrien," she said.
"Hello," he replied.
It felt strange. She didn’t know if they had ever spoken to each other alone before, just the two of them. Maybe this was the first time, and on the first day after she had started dating his ex — his ex of only five days, no less — she felt strange even thinking about that.
"Coming in early?" she said, picking small talk to stave off everything important the two of them might be thinking about. She knew a lot of things that he didn't know — it felt like an echo of the past weekend, all the things Adrien didn't know until he learnt them from Marinette — it made her feel a little like she was teetering on a ledge.
"Yeah, I… don't want the attention from everyone if I come in late. Fewer eyes when I'm the first guy here, right?"
The graffiti. Yeah. All that. "I get it," she said. "Kind of."
"And then I can just sit in a corner and read until class starts."
She felt a small sting at that. He definitely didn't look like he wanted to sit by himself and read for half an hour — nor like he thought he would truly be left alone. "Yeah," she said.
"How are you, though, Zoé?"
"I'm… fine." She looked down. "A bit weird with everything but… compared to you it's probably peanuts." Maybe not, because she had involved herself very directly and personally now with one of the people who had it worse.
He sighed, and the sigh was quiet but drawn-out. "I'm fine. It's fine. If I don’t look in the comment sections, I barely even notice."
"That's good," she said, even though she knew it was only a courtesy. For both of them. "Are people treating you okay? Here at school, I mean?"
That, too, was mostly a courtesy. She felt so strange. Until this moment, she had been so focused on herself — on Marinette — that she'd almost forgotten to think about anyone else. Iris and Alya and Rose and Kagami and some 'heroes' she wanted to strangle had been on her mind on and off, sure, but Adrien? He had been the other side of the Marinette equation. The side with an X in it.
This time, he looked down. "Yeah. I guess. It's not bad here, I don't want to complain. Maybe a couple people are giving me funny looks, but… mostly they're just nice to me. It's just a little stressful to have people around me all the time and trying to console me and stuff, it feels so awkward."
She could hear the lingering word in the air, though, and decided to prompt him with it. "But…"
His eyes glanced towards her for a moment, then fell away again. "It's a lot worse online. I used to be a fashion model — well, you know that, but — I'm kind of a big name. And my father was an even bigger name so… everyone has an opinion, and it's the worst people who have the loudest opinions, and… yeah. It's a lot."
"Yeah."
And now she was in his old spot, kind of. She was his replacement as Marinette's girlfriend, as Kitty Noire, and… as the person who had to deal with Marinette. She even had a dad who wasn't exactly a saint, though she doubted he had the cruelty in him to be a supervillain. He was just a regular corrupt politician, or ex politician, and those tended to be less incendiary than the flashier villains. Monarch… and then the ex-mayor… André was too dull to register.
She wondered what the internet was like right now. If it was the kind of horrible place she imagined it to be. People had taken to the streets to yell at Marinette in person, plus they had gone through the effort of painting insults and even slurs at Marinette on various walls: MA LADIE was one of the less insulting ones she'd seen, somehow. And it had discouraged her from even trying to look online, in part because she hadn’t wanted to risk having those words from the public in her head while talking to Marinette.
It was such a stupid and bothersome thought. Whether or not Marinette was getting bashed more than Adrien. Or Nathalie Sancour, even. Or even Gabriel Agreste. It didn't matter here and now if Marinette was getting it worse because neither Marinette or Adrien deserved it, and if it was bad enough for Adrien to make him sound out of sorts then comments about Marinette would likely be way worse.
But a part of Zoé also wanted to insult Marinette. It was another reason she didn't want to go online. Because if she read a cruel and evil comment and found herself agreeing with even a tiny part of it, she wouldn't be able to bear it. She was a bully, after all, and those nasty words and curlish comments… they might slip out. The part of her that hated Marinette, that was the bully part. She was Marinette’s girlfriend and it was her duty to not be cruel and evil.
She really hoped it would work out. But given everything…
"Adrien?" she asked, mindless even in opening her mouth in the first place. His eyes swept up to her again, and this time they stuck. "You were Cat Noir, right?"
"… How did you know?" he said, meek and quiet. He was almost drowned by the noise of the distant entrance doors sliding apart, admitting someone-or-other.
She hadn’t even decided to ask the question, the decision was made for her by a travelling brain and mindless lips, but even without all that this was a bad time to talk about it.
"Sorry," she said. "I heard from M-Marinette." It was a lie, but it was plausible.
His face darkened. Not all the way to a storm, but more into something overcast. "Oh," he said. "I see. Well… yeah. I —"
But he was interrupted, suddenly, by someone walking past him. Not just walking past, but into him, shoving him so he almost fell forward.
"Hey!" Zoé yelled, glaring at the boy. He was tall, with bright hair, and looked like his parents must have a lot of money given his clothes.
He didn't turn around, though. He didn’t even slow down. All he did was to flip the finger over his shoulder, probably at Adrien, as he moved on.
"He's one of the funny looks people," said Adrien, righting himself and straightening his cardigan. "Don't mind him."
"That wasn’t just a 'funny look'," she said, frowning at him. She could feel Plagg stirring inside her jacket; he was probably far more furious than her right now. "He pushed you!"
"Yeah, he hasn't pushed me before, but… he only did the one thing. It's fine."
"It's not fine! You haven’t done anything! Why is he shoving you?"
He shrugged. "Dad? Probably Dad. Or Nathalie. Or he thought I was Félix?"
"But that's ridiculous!" she insisted. "You're innocent! If they want your dad why aren't they going after him instead?"
The way he looked at her made her feel both small and stupid. "Because he's dead?" he said. "And his statue is being guarded by the police, but… I'm not. So I think they're just taking out their anger on whatever they can reach."
"Oh," she mumbled, staring at her knees.
"I guess that's why they're so angry at Marinette, too," he continued, with obviously feigned ease. "She's the closest thing to a villain they have."
She clenched her fists. "Marinette did lie, didn't she? She helped him. And she —"
"She was never a villain, though," he said. This time he sounded more definite. "She saved the city every time. She was a hero."
And so was he. She wanted to yell that at him, but it wouldn't lead anywhere good. So instead she breathed in through her nose and tried, "How… do you feel about all this?"
"I'm still angry," he said.
She looked up at him in sheer surprise. But he was kind of smiling lopsidedly, and didn't look angry.
"I'm angry at her. At Nathalie too. I'm angry at Dad for being exactly as horrible as I thought he was right before he died. I'm angry at myself for trusting him. At all." Just for a moment, he seemed to choke. "I guess I'm also angry with that guy who pushed me and everyone else who's being jerks, but… I don’t want to keep all that going. I'd rather move on. People will stop being jerks eventually. If I just keep ignoring them, it'll be fine in the end."
"That's not fair at all," said Zoé. "That's cruel."
"I know." He sighed. "Anyway, it was nice talking to you, Zoé. But I think I need to be alone a bit before school starts. Okay?"
"Er. Sure," she said and nodded.
"Not your fault. I just need a bit of time to myself."
He walked off with a half wave, and she waved back. The lobby turned — not empty, because other people were coming inside now, but the people there felt so much more distant in Adrien’s absence.
Did she do something wrong? Was it bringing up Marinette? Did he feel she wasn’t taking her seriously enough?
Honestly… she didn’t know if she was taking him seriously. Because she felt her brain flit between feeling sorry for him, and… imagining Marinette in the situations he was describing, and herself stepping in with shouts and righteous wrath. And she wasn’t even taking those imagined situations seriously, because they were fantasies.
Adrien… she really was in his place now. She was also the person whom Marinette would hurt and who would have to deal with all those conflicting feelings about her.
Maybe that was an evil thought. But she felt it in her soul.
People passed by as she sat there, faces she didn’t recognise and faces she did, but no faces she fully knew. Most just melted by, a steady flow of people from the first year of primary to the final year of high school. Her stepfather had told her there were close to six hundred kids at the school now. Most of them were just… faces.
A small boy toddled past, probably only just started in the first grade. His bag looked strangely jolly, with a fish motif dominating the whole thing. He pulled her fully out of her thoughts, to the point where she just watched him as he spun around between the two hallways at the end of the lobby, apparently looking for something. He suddenly saw it, his face brightening — and ran off at speed, past an older girl who had seemed far more confident in her choice of direction and had moved past him as he stood pondering.
Then she heard the voice behind her. "Um," it said. She spun around and saw —
"Marinette! What happened? Did you hurt your leg?"
Because Marinette was there, but she had a makeshift cane. And Rose, who was standing right next to her and didn't seem to care even one iota about the cane.
"Hey, Zoé!" said Rose, beaming. "Are you ready for the practice concert tomorrow?"
Zoé blinked, pulling her eyes away from Marinette. "Uh, what?"
"The one I invited you to on Tuesday. Before the akuma." There was no hint of reproach in Rose's voice. Next to her, Marinette squirmed a little. "We have a time now. Friday at eighteen, and we'd like everyone to be there, because after this week we all need a break, I think!"
"I'm invited too," mumbled Marinette. Like she didn’t really want anyone to hear. "I might come… maybe…"
"You should absolutely come," said Rose. "And Adrien and Nino are invited too, and Alya, and Kagami, and maybe other friends too! We want everyone to have a good time together. Maybe even make up?"
Zoé kept looking at Marinette. "Is Félix coming?"
"We told Kagami he's invited, but she said he probably doesn't want to be there. I'm not going to force him," said Rose, in a way that probably meant 'I'd rather he didn't come'. "But it will be super fun, so please come! Juleka is really excited."
"… Sure," said Zoé, and then, "Marinette? Are you good to come?"
It took a little while for Marinette to answer. "… You mean the leg? I'm fine, I can walk, it just aches a little…"
"No, I meant — I mean the leg too, but are you good spending time with everyone? In public?"
Marinette swallowed visibly. Her eyes were stuck to her cane. "I think so. I could leave if, if people don't want me there…"
She looked like she was pretending to be normal. Despite the cane — which she was noticeably leaning on —and whatever problem had caused it, despite her mousy avoidance, despite everything around her, she looked like she had made an effort not to be a shambles. Dressed completely normal with her now-normal striped socks, with no bandage or brace visible, and a little pink bow on her cardigan that glimmered faintly in the light. Maybe she had even taken extra care of her hair compared to yesterday, or maybe that was just because Zoé's memory of yesterday's hair was from the very end of a long and exhausting day. Either way, the difference was palpable.
"I'll be there with you," said Zoé.
"Great!" said Rose, rapidly clapping her hands together. "We'll see you there! I'll tell everyone else, but Zoé, could you tell Iris? New friends are welcome too."
Zoé nodded. Rose cheered a goodbye, and walked on, which left Zoé and Marinette to their own devices.
And Marinette's device was an elephant in the room.
"Is your leg okay?" Zoé asked. "Are you hurt? Is it bad?"
"Uh, no," said Marinette, awkward in both voice and expression. "I twisted my ankle. It's not bad, I just needed some… support…"
"Okay," said Zoé.
It was somehow always the same leg. She’d bruised it before last weekend, she'd hurt it again earlier this week, and now she had a twisted ankle. Like she was…
"… Marinette… are you hurting your leg on purpose? Is this… self harm?"
Marinette stared with incredulously horrified eyes. "Wh— no! I didn't, I would never, I just… had an accident," she managed. And it was direct and honest enough that Zoé couldn't imagine it being a lie; Marinette lied differently than that. Maybe it was weird to injure the same foot so often, but Marinette was clumsy, so it could be. Besides, self harm on the foot sounded like a weird place to be doing it, wasn’t it usually the wrists?
Or maybe she was being harassed and some asshole had tried to break her ankle…
"Marinette…" tried Zoé, dourer and more severe this time. "Did someone else hurt you? A bully?"
"N-no!"
"If someone else is hurting you, you have to tell me."
Marinette's eyes fell to the ground. "Zoé… I swear it's not," she said quietly. "No one else hurt me. Not… I mean, it's different. I just stumbled on the stairs. It's nothing to worry about."
"… Okay."
If nothing else, Marinette was at least being coherent. Zoé didn't know if she believed this last explanation, but she didn't disbelieve it either. At least not enough to raise a stink about it. Maybe Marinette had just been lost in her worries and didn't want to talk about it.
Now, though, Zoé found herself out of things to say. The conversation with Adrien and the injured leg had thrown her off a little more than she would have been otherwise, but even without those she didn’t know if she'd have known what to say. She wanted to greet her girlfriend on their first day of school as a couple, but they were also supposed to stay a secret, so it was hard to know what was even appropriate. What was the correct level of greeting? What were they supposed to say, or do?
She considered all that for a little while, but then she noticed the air in the lobby. The weird looks, the sharp frowns, on the people passing by — the people who seemed to be pointing and whispering near the entrance, like they were watching some kind of performance. If Adrien was pushed over despite not doing a single thing…
"So, um…" said Marinette.
Zoé made her decision right then, and got to her feet. "Come with me," she said, reaching out her hand. Marinette's surprise was quickly won over by her servile side and she took the hand, and Zoé pulled her along into one of the corridors — into the nearest cleaning closet.
It was narrow. Zoé didn’t close the door. Hopefully it would be hidden enough.
"Hey, honey," she said, because that was her duty now.
"H-hey," said Marinette. She pulled her hand back after replying, placing both on the cane's handle. "Honey. If, if it's fine to call you that."
"Of course it is," said Zoé, and wasn't sure if she believed it. It would have been the sweetest thing to hear from those lips only a few weeks ago, but now it felt hollow. A consolation prize instead of the real, lovely Marinette with apples and a black marker.
Zoé really hoped it would work to love that real Marinette back into existence.
"Although I'm more of a kitten now, don’t you think?"
"Yeah. May, maybe."
It was — at the very least — a consolation that Marinette didn't seem like she wanted to run away.
"So… the leg? Did you fall this morning?"
Marinette glanced down at the offending limb. "Um, no, I… I didn't fall. Like I said I just twisted it kinda bad at home, and… y-you look good today?"
"… Thank you," said Zoé, suddenly embarrassed — and then she noticed the deflection. "Wait! Your leg! How bad is it?"
"It's… I'll be fine, I can walk." Marinette didn't meet Zoé's eyes. "It doesn't hurt if I don’t step on it, so…"
"Do you need a doct—"
"No. No. Don't, um, I'm fine. Please. Don't worry about it."
How could Zoé not worry, though? That was an impossible ask. But she didn't say that out loud, because she didn’t want this to be a bad start to the day. The day was probably going to get bad enough for Marinette pretty soon, anyway.
She sighed. "When are you going to the police station?"
"Lunch… I leave right after second period."
That, somehow, was something Marinette didn't need to hesitate when talking about. Then again, Zoé assumed that the interrogation would probably have been at the forefront of her mind — it was important, after all.
Again she sighed. "You have to tell me if you need help or anything, okay? Or if something happens," she murmured. "We're girlfriends now and girlfriends are supposed to trust and help each other." Hard though those might be right now.
Marinette smiled, though. And it didn’t look fake. It was maybe a little brave, but it was natural enough that Zoé felt her heart beat a little faster. "I know. Um… thank you. I'll do my best."
"And girlfriends are also supposed to wish each other good luck for police interrogations," said Zoé, and her heart beat even faster, and she decided to just make it quick and looked past Marinette and into the hallway beyond and no one was there so Zoé took Marinette’s shoulders and pursed her lips and closed her eyes and placed a kiss on Marinette's cheek and ignored Marinette’s sharp intake of breath as the kiss started and the trembling of that breath as the kiss lingered just a little, a tiny bit longer than planned, but —
— she couldn’t ignore the gasp and little yell from just outside the doorway. "Oh! I, I'm s-s-sorry!"
Zoé let go of Marinette even before she knew what was happening. She pulled her face back and opened her eyes wide and she saw… Iris. Right outside the door.
"I wa-was just looking f-f-for… um, I'm so sorry!" said Iris — looking far more horrified than Zoé felt, and Zoé felt extremely horrified. Iris was practically shoving the backs of her hands through her cheeks.
"Iris, you —" started Zoé. But she was interrupted by Marinette's hand stroking against her arm.
"It's okay, Iris," said Marinette. She did a smile, but a half one. "What were you looking for?"
"… Z-Z-Zoé," said Iris. She lowered her hands a little, so they were clasped right below her chin. "I didn't know — are you a date, um, a-are you dating?"
Zoé sighed. "Yeah. Kind of."
"Yes," said Marinette, with more certainty. "We, we are, but… please don't tell anyone."
"Why?" said Iris.
"It's best for Zoé if… if no one hears. She wants us to be secret, so —"
"That's not what I meant!" said Zoé, horrified by the implication. "I meant…"
"I know," said Marinette, after Zoé trailed off. She had a gentle though sad smile on her lips that drew all the breath out of Zoé's lungs. "But it's still for the best. Sorry, Iris, we just don't want people to hear about it. It's okay for you to know, though, I — I think. Maybe."
She glanced back at Zoé as though asking for permission. Still short of breath — still baffled — Zoé only had the presence of mind to nod. Even though she didn't know that it was okay. She kind of felt that it wasn't, in fact — except Marinette's eyes were so captivatingly blue…
"Yeah," said Marinette. "Hey, Iris, sorry we, um, surprised you. You’re good. But, b-but, yeah," Zoé only now became aware that Marinette’s hand was still on her arm, "we are to-t-together."
"Oh," said Iris. "I see."
Zoé's heart was racing now. Her face was probably beet red. She wanted to scream, she wanted to grab Marinette by the shoulder and ask her very firmly and maybe a little loudly why she was being like this now — why, after yesterday's reluctance, she was suddenly so determined — but then again, that would be terrible. To stop her now would be to give up on it, to stop it from happening. Even if it was only an illusion, she felt her mind cling to it.
"Yeah," said Zoé, taking heart. "Dating but not in public. So please keep it a secret for us, okay?"
Iris nodded like she were afraid for her life. But then she saw the cane. "Um! Are you, is-is your leg okay?"
"Um… yeah," said Marinette, and the illusion was gone. The hand dropped away from Zoé's arm. "I'm okay. I just stepped on it wrong."
"O-oh," said Iris. Her expression, or rather her eyes in specific, had changed — they were focused on the leg, practically burning into it. "T-Tuesday? With the girl who opened the door on you?"
Marinette shook her head.
And then Iris… nudged the leg with her shoe. With eyes which remained in that burning, focused state. And Marinette drew in air through her teeth and crumpled and Zoé almost yelled and whatever had compelled Iris suddenly disappeared. "Sorry! So-so-sorry! I, I just, I was curious if — I didn't —"
"Don't do that," said Zoé sternly. "You hurt her!"
"P-p-please don't hate me, Marinette," said Iris. Horror oozed off her like steam.
"It's… it’s fine," said Marinette, wincing her way into standing upright again. "Don't worry. It just hurts a bit."
"Really?" said Iris — her expression was suddenly blank, her voice kind of hollow.
"Yeah," said Marinette. She smiled again, the same as before. "Don't worry about it."
"Well… okay," said Iris.
Zoé pulled her eyes off of Marinette. "I think… we should get out of this closet," she said. "It's crowded. Marinette, I'll walk you to your classroom."
"I, I'll come too!" said Iris. "As a-an apology."
"Okay," said Marinette.
Zoé felt like she was going crazy. But in a way, it was heartening to have Iris there too on the way up, in the elevator, because it meant less pressure to perform. It meant less of having her breath taken away, because something about Marinette today felt different in a way that, well, took her breath away.
She told Marinette by the classroom door that they'd see each other during next recess, to wish her good luck for the interview. Then she and Iris left for their own classroom, and the bell was only five minutes away by the time they reached it.
She never got to say good luck to Marinette, though. Because as the bell rang for recess, the teacher informed them that it was Iris's birthday — and they gathered to sing and cheer for her, and then Iris clung to her a little too much to allow for getting down to Marinette. The last she got to do with Marinette before a police interrogation was to break a promise.
And worst of all… she didn't even know if she minded breaking that promise.