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Zoe (they/them)
As long as they’d known her, Zoe had been completely, utterly, and unwaveringly in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
This wasn’t their best decision—they wouldn’t lie. They were sitting in their room stewing over this. Marinette and Adrien have been dating since long before they ever met them, not much would ever change that. They were practically soulmates, everyone knew that Marinette and Adrien went together like blueberries in pancakes. Or maybe chocolate chips, if that’s your fancy.
Regardless, they were in love. They knew it was fruitless to even try to get in between that. Adrien and Marinette were so main-character-coded that there was no chance they’d break up for measly little Zoe.
Then they had to go and accidentally tell Marinette that they liked her. Wow. Go Zoe, the great decision maker.
Honestly, it didn’t go horribly—but it definitely didn’t go well. They’d glossed over it afterward, choosing silence over the awkwardness talking would cause. Adrien didn’t even know, that's how much they hadn’t talked about it.
It had started innocently enough—the rest of their friends had left to go out to lunch somewhere, so it was just them and Marinette on the front steps, secluded enough that their conversation was sure to be private. In the early afternoon sun, it was almost a crime how nice it felt outside–something in conflict with their internal emotional turmoil. And that light made Marinette’s hair *glow* like she was in a freaking movie, as if she needed any help looking gorgeous.
“So, I wanted to talk with you–just to clear the air between us,” Marinette said, not hesitating to plop down next to them, lunchbox in hand. “You’ve been a little distant from me lately. Is there anything going on? Is it something I did?”
Before they could even think, Zoe responded, “Oh, *no*. You didn’t do anything. I just–ugh, this is going to sound so stupid–I’ve got this dumb crush on you. I know–you’re with Adrien and I don’t even know if you’re gay or not, but I’m not trying to mess up your relationship. I mean—you’re just so beautiful, and *strong*, and really freaking nice, and I can’t keep pretending because now it's driving us apart and that’s just about the *last* thing I want, but now I’m rambling and-”
“Hey, woah.” Marinette held up her hands, steady and calm. Looking up at her, Zoe could see nothing but compassion and sympathy in her eyes.
There was a pause. Not uncomfortable, just full–those glowing blue eyes holding their own. Then, she spoke steadily, not breaking their eye contact.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said, voice even, but still full of that warmth Zoe oh-so loved.
It was calm. Clear. And it was so much worse than just kindness–it was *graceful*.
“I won’t lie,” She added, “it means a lot that you trust me with this. But you’re right, I’m with Adrien, and I really care about him.”
“Right.” Zoe mumbled, eyes locked onto their shoes.
“Now, that doesn’t make your feelings any less valid,” Marinette said, reaching to take a bite from one of her carrots. “For what it's worth… you’re not the only one who noticed something.”
Zoe froze. She *what*? And she said it so casually you’d think she was the queen of nonchalant-ness.
Marinette just sat there chewing quietly, her gaze drifting somewhere distant. And for a moment, there was something thoughtful on her face–like she was remembering something she hadn’t meant to.
“But,” Marinette started again, gently but firmly. “Nothing’s going to happen. That wouldn’t be fair to Adrien. We’re happy together.” She looked back up at them, that eye contact still making their knees weak–even though they were both sitting.
“So… we’re okay?” They asked, not brave enough to look away from her.
Marinette nodded once, her expression still open and sure, “Of course. I’d still like us to be friends–if you’re up for that, that is.”
They weren’t okay, not yet at least. But the warmth in Marinette's voice made it clear to Zoe that maybe–maybe–they would be.
Eventually.
Marinette was so nice about it too, understanding their crush and letting them down easy. Ugh. How dare she be so nice?? So unfairly pretty, kind, understanding—and buff. It wasn’t fair.
Honestly, Marinette was *ripped*. Biceps for days, and Zoe still remembered the time Marinette’s shirt rode up–showing off those *abs* that really should have been illegal. No one really knew why she was that strong—maybe it was from helping at her family's bakery, kneading dough and hauling bags of flour. Or maybe… she just liked being powerful.
Nevertheless, sitting here and thinking about their dumb, stupid, unrequited crush wasn’t being very productive, especially during pride month no less. They should be out there, talking to people, having a life.
OH! They could go talk to Chloe about this!
In the past, they would never have even thought this to be a sane thought, but recently Chloe had been…nice? She apologized to Zoe for being mean, and they hung out for the first time since they were kids, actually having fun.
They went up to Chloe’s room in the hotel, and knocked, greeted with a smile and open arms.
Chloe (she/her)
Now, she wasn’t gay. That’d be weird. Gay people had a certain way about them that she just wasn’t a fan of. Adrien had been her crush for *years*, and she still wasn’t quite over him, but she’d tried to move on since he and Marinette got together.
Ugh. Marinette. She had mixed feelings about her. On one hand, she was the poor baker girl, *and* she still somehow got better grades than Chloe in most classes. But also, she was the one that Adrien chose, and she was always really nice to everyone, and she was kind of pretty. Maybe she was too nice sometimes, but that was a her problem.
The other day, she had been encouraged by a certain someone *cough it was totally Lady Noire cough* to be a little nicer to her classmates, as a way to make them like her more, so she brought pastries for everyone and apologized for being mean in the past, and for ruining the picnic. While the rest of the class didn’t really believe her, which was so mean of them?? Here she was, actually apologizing and they didn’t have the decency to hear her out all the way.
Then, because of course she did, Marinette came in and interrupted *her* moment, and barged into the classroom, late as always. *Then* she had the audacity to still be nice to her? Without even hearing her apology speech–which was, admittedly, kind of short.
Marinette had just walked up, taken a pastry, sat down, and told everyone to trust Chloe. *What*? Marinette, of all people, chose to trust her? Maybe Lady Noire had a good point with this ‘being nice’ thing, because before she knew it, everyone was coming up and thanking her for saying sorry and eating pastries with her. Even Adrien, who had been drifting away from her, came up to say he forgives her.
Back to the main point though, she wasn’t gay. Just because Lady Noire gave really good advice, and had really pretty muscles, and her fangs were really cool (Read: really enticing, she wanted to know how sharp they were *wink wink* *nudge nudge*), that doesn’t mean anything. Nothing at all.
On top of all of these very not compelling reasons, she totally messed it up last week when Lady came to see her.
(A/N: This is the moment from the comic that was illustrated, when Chloe totally outs herself to Lady. This is purely for my own enjoyment, and maybe Katze’s girlfriend if they ever read this :))
She’d been doing some make-up homework that Mme. Bustier asked her to do, because previously Chloe had made Sabrina do it. She was working on being better, okay?
Irregardless (A/N: Not a word), she was working, when she heard a knock at her window. She was on one of the top floors, so this would usually be unsettling to pretty much anyone else, but not her.
Lady Noire had been coming by more often to be patched up after fights, and the reason for that was a whole other story for another day. Chloe got up to let her in, moving faster when she realized Lady was bleeding all over her balcony.
“This is utterly ridiculous, it's the third time this month.” Chloe told her, grabbing her arm to throw it over her own shoulder, helping Lady limp into the room and onto a chair. “It’s not easy cleaning your blood off the floor, you know.”
Lady looked up at her and made eye contact for the second time that evening, not that Chloe was counting or anything, with a certain mirth in her eyes. “In my defense, you’re the one not letting me leave.”
Damn. She actually kinda had her there. “Yeah, because you’re *bleeding everywhere*!”
Honestly, where did her filter go? It was like those eyes just looked past her own and into her soul, compelling Chloe to say whatever came to mind.
Lady, not deterred by Chloe’s general bluntness, told her, “Can’t fully blame me for the floors then, can you?”
Oh man that eye contact was going to make her melt into a puddle. She avoided the question for a moment, choosing to rush over to the first aid box, not fully put away from the last time this happened, and start preparing bandages and disinfectant.
Chloe had caught her reflection in the mirror on her vanity as she was walking past, and realized she was still in her Lady Noire-branded pyjamas. Because of course she was, why wouldn’t she be. At least Lady hadn’t commented on it yet.
Looking back at her Lady, Chloe’s breath caught in her throat, because the gash in her side wasn’t just bad, it was *really bad*. It was even deeper than she’d originally thought, still bleeding sluggishly through her Lady’s hand as long as Chloe’s been standing there gawking. Her eyes swept over the rest of her, not noticing anything else too worrying–just nicks and scratches on her arms and a scrape on her cheek–but that big gash was what had her hands moving even faster, grabbing supplies with a certain frantic energy.
“Oh shut up.” She snarked, looking up from what she was doing for a moment to really put her heart into the sass. “You’re lucky you look even hotter covered in blood.”
Oh yeah, that ought to put her in her pla–
What? *What* did she just say? Oh god. *Oh* dear. *Oh good heavens*, did she really just say that to *Lady Noire*?? She froze and just stared in front of her, absolutely mortified with this interaction.
“What?” She heard from behind her, not even bothering to look, paralyzed with embarrassment.
She had to fix this. “I SAID I HOPE THE AKUMA FINISHES YOU OFF NEXT TIME!” With this, she turned and threw the bandages at Lady, not meaning to but totally striking her directly in the face with them with a resounding *WHAP*.
And if that wasn’t just the icing on the cake, she didn’t know what was. How was she completely and utterly screwing this up so much? Not only did she essentially verbally assault her, but she physically *beat her while she was down*.
The worst part about this whole thing was her reaction, a completely unphased, “ow.”
She didn’t flinch, didn’t even attempt to move out of the way, didn’t even try to grab the bandages after they fell to the couch beside her. There was no outwardly reaction whatsoever.
“Oh, my god. I’m so sorry!” Oh great, here comes the ramble. “I didn’t mean to do that at all, you’re literally already hurt and I just assaulted you with freaking bandages for no good reason. Is your nose okay? That looked like it hit you square in the middle of your face, I hope I didn't break anything.” As she continued on, she shuffled closer to Lady, clutching the disinfectant in her off hand like her life depended on it.
Before Chloe could stop herself, she dropped the item next to the bandages lying on the couch and grabbed Lady’s face in both hands, turning her this way and that.
“Your nose looks straight, and I don’t think it’s bleeding. I guess bandages aren’t hard enough to break anything, but you can never be too sure. I can’t believe your eyes aren’t watering though, even as soft as that throw was.”
She realized she was still holding Lady’s face, but couldn’t get herself to let go just yet, captivated by those glowing green eyes (A/N: Danny Phantom??). As she looked at her whole face, she realized Lady was… laughing? Chloe took her hands away from her face and stepped back once.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be laughing.” She’s right, she shouldn’t. “I just- Oh man this is just the most unique experience I’ve had in the last couple months at least, maybe more.” Lady looked up at her again, grabbing Chloe’s hands in her own once she calmed down.
“Thank you so much for that, I’ve needed to laugh like that for a while now.” She looked down at their hands, then to her right where the first-aid equipment lay. “Well, that definitely caused me to lose a significant amount of blood,” Was she slurring her words a bit? “I really shouldn’t have moved that muuc-”
She passed out. She literally fell like a freaking rock, directly onto her left side. Luckily not the injured side though, so there’s some good news within this shitshow of a conversation/emergency situation.
Chloe reacted fast, first catching Lady and making sure she didn’t hit her head on the way down. Then she reached for the first-aid and got to work, pulling her suit back to get a better look at the gash in her side.
Why didn’t she wrap this sooner? Why did Lady even come to her? She should go to someone with actual medical knowledge, not just a dream and a first-aid kit.
As she was pulling at her suit again, trying to gain leverage to put pressure on the wound, it started glowing green and it transformed into an almost skin-tight sports bra, revealing the necessary (and unnecessary, but you won’t see Chloe complaining) skin to be bandaged.
Once she finished, not needing to suture anything because of Lady’s accelerated healing interfering with the process, the suit started glowing once again, transforming into a t-shirt and covering those *hella* chiseled abs, much to her dismay. She really did look hotter covered in blood, she wasn’t lying when she said that earlier.
Eventually, Lady woke up about an hour later, refreshed and ready to go, both her side and other various nicks and scratches healed. She stuck around for a little bit, both of them sharing what was, at that point, a 3am snack and talking about anything except what happened earlier.
And, you know, even if any of that *did* mean anything, it's not like she could date a superhero. That would mean so much effort and time–but it's not like she had none to spare. She didn’t think the hero was dating anyone either, so there was, in theory, nothing stopping her.
Okay, maybe she was a little gay. She liked boys and also Lady Noire, there’s nothing more to it. She could live with this, because no one needed to know.
Well, maybe one person could know. Her sibling–half-sibling–Zoe. She knew Zoe was a lesbian, it was apparent to literally anyone with eyes. Zoe wouldn’t judge her, and she could just… oh what was it Lady Noire suggested? Be like, super duper nice? Maybe she could bribe Zoe with pretty words, then they’d have to listen and be nice back. Yeah, that could work.
Just as she was thinking about this, there was a knock and a voice at her door. “Hey Chloe! It’s Zoe, can we talk?”
Oh! Speak of the devil. “Yeah, one second!” She called back, getting up to go open the door for them.
“Hey Zoe, just the sibling I’ve been wanting to talk to,” she smiled, leading them into her room. “I’ve been wondering…” Chloe trailed off, not wanting to seem too obvious about what she wanted to talk about. “Um, do you, you know, have anyone that you happen to, like, ‘like like’ right now?”
Wow. ‘like like’? Was she seven? Dear lord this silly totally-not-a-crush thing was making her utterly incompetent.
“I mean, you don't have to talk about it if you do, I was just wondering. For the sake of conversation. Because I’m trying to be nice. No other reason.” Oh for the love of everything miraculous, kill her now. How was she still digging this hole?
Luckily, it seemed as though Zoe didn’t catch the weirdness of her phrasing, because they responded… actually pretty enthusiastically.
“Oh! yeah , how did you know that's what I came to talk to you about?” They asked, seemingly unperturbed at Chloe’s lack of tact.
She shrugged, “Oh. Well. You know, context clues, powers of observation, etcetera.”
Oh good god she just said freaking ‘etcetera’ out loud, what was happening to her.
“Well, that was…something,” they waved their hands in Chloe’s direction, confused. “Anyways, moving on. I really just needed someone to talk to about my crush because she kinda knows I like her but kinda not? And I’m so not over it at all, even though it's been like, at least a week since this all went down. I’m just- I don’t know what to do because she’s so pretty; and she's got this dark hair, kind of messy, but always tied back in an effortlessly cute way. Ugh it’s so not fair, you know?”
Oh boy, did Chlow know. She knew a little too well, in fact. Was Zoe messing with her? “Okay, did you like, read my diary or something? Are you actually mocking me right now?”
“What? No way!” They looked offended at the accusation, but could you blame her? There’s literally no way that they would have the exact same story as her, happening in the same time frame and with a girl that looks seemingly similar to Lady Noire.
“No! I’m talking about my crush. We talked last week and it went so horribly, there’s no way I have a chance with her now. Not to mention that she’s unavailable right now to dating.” They explained, looking very sincere.
Zoe explained their whole interaction with their crush last week, and Chloe empathized so hard with them.
“Woah, you’ll never believe what happened to me.” She started, looking at Zoe with figurative stars in her eyes, excited to actually tell someone about her tiny little inconsequential crush.
“And I think the worst part about this whole thing is Adrien, to be honest with you.” Chloe said, looking up at the couch from where she was laying flat on her back on her bed. They had been talking about their crushes for the past hour or so, explaining each of their woeful stories.
“Oh my god, exactly! He’s literally the only thing standing between me and my crush!” They said, and that was a little suspicious.
What did they mean by that? She meant that Adrien was Chloe’s biggest issue, not Zoe’s. She sat up and looked at Zoe, really trying to read into their mind.
“You said your crush was who again?” she asked, ticking off each thing as she said it. “I mean, what. She has bright eyes, dark hair that’s always pulled back, is unfairly strong compared to normal people, is taller than you, and Adrien is something that's keeping you from her?”
This was getting out of hand, there’s no way that they’re crushing on the same person. Literally no way.
“Uh, yeah. Wait.” Zoe paused, like they were finally catching up with what Chloe was putting down. “Are you saying that your crush also has insane biceps, dark navy hair, the most glow-y eyes you’ve ever seen, and is also taller than you?”
“Uh, yeah. I’ll ask again. You said your crush was who again?” At this point, Chloe had completely sat up and turned around, staring Zoe in the eyes.
Zoe seemed to be having a similar reaction, they were sitting upright on the couch, looking into Chloe’s eyes like they held the secrets to the universe. “Um, I didn’t say who my crush was, did you?”
“There’s no way I told you who my crush was. I’ve barely admitted it to myself, to be honest!” Chloe said, dancing around the subject.
Zoe seemed fed up with the lack of answers from both of them, “Okay, obviously we’re not going to tell each other like this, so we’re just going to say the name of our crush at the same time. We’re just going to hope we don’t say the same name at the same time, then all will be well with the world.”
Chloe straightened, feeling significantly more intimidated now that she had to put a name with these rants. “Okay, on three I guess.”
They looked each other in the eyes, a knowing look passing between them. They were totally going to say the same name, and this was either really good or really bad.
“Alright. One. Two.” They hesitated, then. “Three.”
“Lady Noire!”
“Marinette!”
They looked at each other, both of their eyes widening in shock and realization as it dawned on the both of them what this meant. I mean, it's so obvious now that they are saying it out loud. They literally described the same person, there's no way it's anything other than this.
Marinette. And Lady Noire. Are the same person. Marinette is *Lady Noire*. Her Lady is *Marinette*.
Oh *good god*—she had a crush on *Marinette*.