Chapter Text
“…And oh my god,” said Chloé, waving her brand new nail file for emphasis. “Did you see Pinky tripping over herself? What an idiot, right? I can’t believe Chat Blanc puts up with her.”
“You’ve said that three times already,” Marinette sighed under her breath, exasperation getting the better of her as she filled in homework answers with the ease of too many hours spent studying and not enough spent sleeping.
Chloé either ignored her or didn’t hear it; Marinette wouldn’t be particularly surprised at either.
Cons of being friends with Chloé: she was annoying, insulted Marinette’s alter ego daily, insulted everyone daily, was so honestly mean she was responsible for more akumizations than any other single source, had no boundaries, did not care for other people’s boundaries, was thoughtless, was petty, and had god-awful fashion sense.
Pros of being friends with Chloé: Maman was happy.
That was it.
If it weren’t for Maman…
“She’s just a useless fangirl. She should hand those powers over to someone who can actually use them,” Chloé sneered, and Marinette’s stylus froze a millimeter away from her screen. “Moi, for example.”
No.
No, Marinette’s head screamed as her chest seized, panic clamping her lungs vice-tight, fight-or-flight response telling her to get out get out get out, escape and don’t let anyone, anyone take your most precious possession away, don’t let them take Tikki away, don’t let them take your freedom away, don’t let them—
“Aw, c’mon Chloé,” a new voice interrupted, and Marinette took a stilted breath. She made her tense muscles relax, blinking and letting go of a careful, controlled exhaleand reminding herself of where she was as she listened to the emerging conversation with half an ear. “You’re just jealous you’re not nearly as cute.”
Well, that caught her attention. Cute?
And from Adrien, no less.
Marinette looked up from her homework, ignoring Chloé’s sputtering. “And here I thought she wasn’t your type.”
Adrien jumped under her attention, flushing sunburn-red. He still had a charming grin at the ready, as always. “Of course, she’s got nothing on you, my lady.”
She snorted, looking back down at her homework and feeling flattery and disappointment war in her gut. Of course Pink Lady could never measure up to Marinette Cheng. That was a given, wasn’t it?
(Useless, idiotic, clumsy Pink Lady — what is she even doing hanging around him? Why does he put up with her? He would be so much better off without—)
“Doesn’t mean she not completely badass in her own way, though.”
For the second time in as many minutes, Marinette’s stylus came to a halt over the answer she was about to select.
Chloé, predictably, wasn’t impressed. “Oh please. Only if you mean she has a completely bad ass. She cannot work skintight.”
“Can too,” Adrien shot back with all the collective maturity of a classroom of five-year-olds. Or, considering the subject matter, teenage boys. “And Chat Blanc would be sunk without her.”
“Yeah, right. Try, so much better off.”
And Marinette, from her position as eavesdropper, caught a funny flash of… — darkness? Anger? Fear? Something — flickering across Adrien’s face and then vanishing like a dream.
“Who else could make those crazy plans work?” he asked, so lightly Marinette dismissed the look in an instant. “Who else would watch his back half as well? Who else—…” He paused, then changed what he was going to say with a little huff. “Pink Lady is totally awesome, Chloé.”
Marinette found, to her utmost horror, that she was blushing.
Adrien was a dork. A prankster. A troublemaker. A hopeless admirer with more bad pickup lines than a joke book. An annoyance.
And yet...
He thought Pink Lady was awesome. Badass.
“Laaaaame,” drawled Chloé, cutting through the moment and going back to filing her nails. “Don’t you have lame nerd friends to run along to? My bestie and I need alone time.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Adrien snorted, rolling his eyes as he slid out of the bench. He paused at the edge to wink at her, shoot her a little finger gun, and remind her, “Don’t worry, Marinette. You’ll always be my number one.”
And then he scampered.
Then Chloé slid an arm around her shoulders with plans to drag her on yet another shopping trip and Marinette was mercifully kept from thinking about why it felt so good to be Adrien’s number two, too.