The Queen's Reign

The Sentences

By the end of the day, everyone but her own class all had pins and had all vowed their loyalty.

Marinette had Sabrina meet Juleka in the bathroom and hand her a pin to wear on the inside of her jacket. Nathaniel had placed a pin in both Kim and Nino's bag in the smallest pockets their backpacks had, hidden from prying eyes, along with a note with Marinette's vow on them. They were to return the paper signed by the end of the week, or they would be regarded as liars and therefore have betrayed the kingdom, becoming targets with the rest of the Akuma class.

After school, they climbed into the limo to go to Chloé's to review further punishments for those who hadn't received the pin as well as the punishment for betrayal.

Marinette sat down onto the white chaise, waiting as her court settled down.

Chloé and Sabrina had taken the bed. Chloé immediately pulled out her phone and scrolled through whatever social media she was most active in, and Sabrina pulled out a notebook to record the conversation and penalties. Nathaniel preferred to stand in the corner, with Marc leaning against him, the couple cuddling into one another. Alix paced around in the room, unable to stay still. Her energy levels were still quite high from being so active, skating around constantly (though she still did that), and making those reckless bets with Kim tended to take a lot of energy.

"So, what are our best bets for moving forwards? The enemy's followers aren't as disloyal as we'd originally hoped, so we have more punishments to dish out than usual." Alix started, pacing faster as she thought.

"You'll ruin my carpet. Stop that." Chloé barked, narrowing her eyes at the pinkette.

"Sorry," Alix apologized as she slowed down, but didn't stop pacing. Chloé just rolled her eyes, deciding not to argue while they were having a meeting.

"What about dealing out the same punishment? We'd get to be lazy, and they'd all get the same consequence." Marc proposed, rolling his shoulders.

"I wish." Nathaniel huffed.

"They haven't committed the same crimes, so we can't give out the same punishments, Marc," Marinette explained, sighing. "That wouldn't be fair. Either the people who've committed greater crimes would get off with a slap on the wrist, or those who've only committed a small crime would get a life sentence. We can't have people getting off easy, or people's lives being ruined because we decided to be lazy, as much fun it'd be."

"I know," Marc murmured, gazing at the ceiling.

"You'd think someone would be more excited to be back," Chloé smirked, looking up from her phone to send a teasing glance to Marc.

"He's always been lazy." Marinette snickered, feeling some tension release.

It was nice to be able to finally joke around with her friends again. She had missed hanging out with them.

Marc huffed, feigning hurt. "How dare you. I always do my best taking down our targets."