Chloé felt a hysterical laughter take over her lungs. She just couldn't believe how dumbfounded Marinette looked as she sat in the middle of her bed.
Admittedly, she had known the shenanigans Adrien had dragged himself through for the past four years with his father, but flirting around with Marinette to just leave her high and dry was just so like him.
"Wait, how do you know, Adrien?" The bluenette pointed her finger at Chloé, a look of concern plastered across her face.
"Oh, please, Marinette," the blonde pulled Marinette's arm forward and wiggled the index finger with the ring. "The same way he probably duped you. Did he come to you under a dull moonlight at the back of your bakery, begging with teary eyes for a sidekick, a teammate, a friend?"
Marinette's face went pale.
"Trust me, Bug-a-boo, I helped him rehearse those lines," Chloé crackled.
"But how? For how long? W-what?" The bluenette malfunctioned before her eyes.
Chloé tilted her head and pretended to fall into deep thought.
"Since the end of middle school, maybe?," she nodded. "We met at a fashion show that my mother had to unceremoniously drag me to," she groaned, sinking into the bed as she kicked off her yellow stilettos.
"I thought I was the saddest kid stuck backstage watching their parents mix and match fabrics until I saw Adrien pouting his way to an Oscar performance in the corner. He totally convinced me that I was my secret younger sister for the next two years, you know, with how we were so blond and all, until I saw what his mother actually looked like. I had an existential crisis."
Marinette rubbed her forehead. "So you were childhood friends?"
"Pretty much," Chloé sang. "And he would tell me everything."
Marinette bit her bottom lip. She played her like a second fiddle.
"Well, he wouldn't exclusively tell me everything-everything, but Adrikins is so easy to read. It's all in the eyebrows," she pointed at her own."
It was certainly true, Marinette was better as the straight faced bad cop act than Chat Noir.
"Anyways, he got a giant box full of jewelry from an old man for helping him cross the street or whatever. I told him not to wear the junk, and then the ring wouldn't come off."
"Well, I can relate," Marinette gruffed.
"Then this totally dark, tall, and handsome man popped into existence into the room," she swooned.
"Okay, now you've lost me."
"His emerald eyes and that toned body. When paired with that baritone voice of his, I fell in love instantly," she said before her low went dark.
"Wait, are you talking about Plagg?!"
"You've seen how handsome he is, right?" Chloé sat up and held onto Marinette's shoulders.
He was more squeaky, squishy, and sassy.
"Does he say anything about me? Does he miss me?" She shook Marinette.
"He actually hasn't said a single thing about you at all," she shook her head, making her companion clench her chest.
"Well, he crushed my heart the first time we met. I was too naive and blah, blah, blah. Why won't he just shut up and be the eye candy of my heart?"
"Okay, woah woah woah. Time out!"
Frankly, she wasn't here to hear about woes of love at first sight, especially one that involved Plagg was the one on the equation. Chloé knows so much. She actively knew Adrien more than she did for all these years.
"You've always known about...Chat Noir?"
"I named him, nursed his wounds a few times, sold his autograph to cover my shopping trips -"
"So, you knew about me?"
Chloé nodded her head. "If I didn't recommend you, I would have been the one stuck chasing him around as a bug. I can't afford to sweat for any ridiculous villain wearing chicken feathers and spraying cheap perfume on people's faces."
"Recommend me?"
"Adrikins has been my only real friend like ever, but when Hawkmoth kept on pressuring him, I thought it was a good idea to reach out for help. I did some research and picked a few random people around the city. Well, very random to me at the very least."
"It didn't work out at first, " she admitted. "Who knew that giving out magical jewelry to strangers and asking them for help against Hawkmoth would make them turn their back on you and run away with the cruddy thing?"
Marinette firmly held onto Chloé's shoulders and stared deep into her eyes.
"Chloé, I need you to tell me who those strangers are."
"Huh? Look, Marinette. Those people don't wanna be bothered about villains the same way I do. " She raised her thin eyebrow.
"People's lives could be in danger."
Chloé brushed her off.
"Agreste is in jail, and he'll rot in there for eternity for all I care." The blonde crossed her arms. "The city has never been this quiet before."
"Please, you don't understand," Marinette begged. "The butterfly miraculous is missing, and I can't find it, but whoever's using it is looking for Adrien too. It's putting your life in danger. It's putting Adrien's life in danger."
Chloé pressed her lips together as she saw the worry embedded onto Marinette's face. She was serious, and it was starting to make Bourgeois break out into a cold sweat.
"U-um, I told Adrien to give one to you a-and one to Nathalie."
"Who's Nathalie?"
"H-his assistant! It was the peacock brooch."
"Who else?"
As Chloé stutters, her mind goes blank with a heavy sense of dread pulling on her shoulders.
"I can't remember their faces. I'm trying to, but I can't. Marinette...it's my fault," her teeth shuttered. "Adrien is going to -"
"I can get to him before anything bad happens," she stopped her in her tracks.
Chloé was falling into her thoughts. She was too impatient about giving out the miraculous. Being in over her own head, she blamed herself, and Marinette could see it. She probably told Adrien to give them away because she thought he would get more allies to help fight against Hawkmoth. She never really knew what it meant. It wasn't her fault.
"That's what a guardian is meant to do, right?"
"Y-yeah." The fearful Chloé nodded her head vigorously. "You could totally do it! Like Adrien.”
"We can do it, just like the two of you back then," Marinette assured her. "Just take a moment and breathe."
Her cheeks blew out cold air. If anything, it looked like she was blowing out bubbles.
"We can fix this," Chloé chimed. "How?"
Marinette's eyes fell to the ground. It was a question she was trying to figure out herself. We would love to chase down Blackfire and the new Hawkmoth herself, but she was so undertrained, and with Chloé being a target by association was a problem itself.
"Okay, forget the faces. Do you remember what the other miraculous looked like?"
"So there's Adrien's cat ring and Ladybug earrings..."
"I have both of them and the peacock as well."
"My hair comb," Chloé clenched it in her palms. "And the Piggy bracelet."
Marinette nodded as she got off the bed and grabbed her phone, and opened her notes.
"What else?"
"A locket or watch thingy and... a fox-tail necklace!" She jumped to her feet and rubbed her temples.
"Wolf, no wait, dog or puppy something. Maybe a choker," she pointed at her neck.
After a few more ums, Chloé was fresh out of ideas.
"It's okay, don't overthink it," Marinette walked up to the blonde and removed the hands that were now pressing against her temples. "Knowing the shapes is plenty enough."
Her ice-blue eyes were on the verge of breaking the dam. There was no way she was going to live this down. Marinette was putting herself into harm's way to protect her. She felt like she needed to do more.
"What can this do?" Chloé shoved her hair comb in Marinette's direction. "It just looks like a bee."
"Did anything remarkable or magical happen when you put it on?"
Chloé shook her head. "It just glows from time to time."
"Maybe it just hasn't been activated yet. Here, put it on."
Marinette helped Chloé place the hair comb in her hair.
"Okay? Now what?"
"Every miraculous has a password. A key phrase that will unlock it, but you have to say it since you're the one wearing it. Try saying bee catchphrases."
"U-um, Beeswax?" She squeaked out before covering her eyes and flinching.
"Just keep going," Marinette said. "It's not going to explode."
Chloé cleared her throat and stood up right.
"The bee's knees," she peeked at Marinette. "Busy as a bee? Buzz-iness As Usual?"
"Try shortening it to two works. Like Buzz On!"
"Okay," she nodded, unsure of the suggestion. "Buzz on."
When nothing happened, she glared at Marinette. "You're making me look ridiculous. It's utterly ridiculous!"
"Look, it was awkward for me the first few times I did it!"
Chloé shook her hands and reluctantly gave it one more try.
"Buzz On."
And with those magic words, her bedroom was enveloped in the brightest light they had ever seen before it took the form of a black-haired woman, dressed in black dress with yellow stripes and a white scarf.
"Pollen at your service, my dear," the magical woman chimed with a bow.
As the blonde stared in awe of her kwami, Marinette couldn't help but bite the inside of her cheek.
Adrikins and Bug-a-boo. Plagg could have totally shimmered and shined like Chloé's kwami. He could have.