The Fox and the Ladybug

Part Twenty-Four: Pizza

Marinette's POV

4:01 pm

"No more evil doing for you, little akuma!"

Chloe sat on the cold concrete in the street adjusting to the recently gained control of her mind. She blinked, then looked up at me like I was Zeus or something. Of course, she possessed her ungrateful attitude, the one she made my alter ego experience every day without remorse.

"Finally, Ladybug! Now take me home!" she ordered. She might as well have pretended I was her 'daddy'. I would've returned to Lila without a second thought, but Chloe had no way of getting home other than walking two miles in heels, and it would only take a minute...

"Fine," I said. I told her to hang onto my back with her arms and legs and we reached her house in seconds. I observed her fancy room, with a king sized four poster canopy bed covered with a yellow and black blanket. She had a wardrobe bigger than my room, with enough clothes to dress a village.

"That Marinette girl will pay," I heard Chloe grumble. I tried my best not to snort with amusement. The worst she could do was give me detention for a day or two. Chloe walked into her closet and closed the door. Without any reason I needed to stay, I bolted out the hotel to Lila, who was probably uncomfortable waiting in the hot sun for me.

I met up with Lila who was waiting loyally on the bench I left her at, and for a second I felt a twinge of guilt. Then I remembered that it would've been extremely risky for me to take her to the battle, and I felt a little better. Her green eyes brightened at the sight of me.

"C'mon, let's go," I said, kissing her forehead. I heard from behind me and saw a pair of reporters with cameras pointed at me. Their mouths opened wide and they stayed completely still while filming. I rolled my eyes and jumped off.

When we reached Lila's house, I said my detransformation words and set her on the couch. She winced in pain as I bumped her leg against an armrest and I looked at her sympathetically.

"Are you sure you're fine?" I asked. She nodded and barely got up from the couch. She limped towards her shelf of cookbooks just above her fridge. She picked one from her vast collection and turned to me.

"What do you want to eat?" she asked me. I shook my head disapprovingly.

"You are so not cooking tonight," I declared. "I'll pick up some pizza, but it's too dangerous for you to be wobbling around the kitchen right now."

"Fine," Lila agreed reluctantly. "Just get mushrooms on half."

"Mushrooms? Really?" I recoiled in disgust.

"What?" she said mischievously. "It's only on half!"

"Okay, but only because you're hurt," I said. I put on my pink wool coat with strawberry patterns and doused Lila's face with kisses.

"Be back soon, Foxy," I called out from just outside the door.

The sky was draped in dark gray clouds hiding the starry night sky, like a curtain on a stage hiding performers. The shining moon glowed above Paris, protecting it from becoming too dark. The romantic golden lights decorating the Eiffel Tower glowed perfectly in the moonlight. And yet, there was an air of menacing foreshadowing in the night, like the moon and clouds were looking upon me, deciding my fate tonight, knowing I wouldn't be fortunate.

I knew Lila was hungry and would've been annoyed if I came back because I was scared of the dark, but this didn't seem like a normal phobia. This seemed ominous. I turned around to make sure nobody was following me, but all I saw was a cold, empty street with nobody around. I couldn't even see cars, although I could hear them in the distance. Suddenly, the beautiful twilight didn't seem so obvious. I shivered, but persisted in my quest for pizza.

Within a few minutes, I was relieved to arrive at Marino's, my favorite pizza place. One could not describe with words how thankful I was to enter the warm, lively atmosphere of the restaurant.

"Hello, one small pizza with half mushroom, half pepperoni, please," I said to the girl at the front.

Soon enough, my pizza came out of the oven and into my frozen hands and I instantly felt a sense of delight tingle from my hands to my stomach. It was too bad I couldn't just eat some right now.

I reluctantly took myself and my pizza outside to walk to Lila's apartment. After a few seconds, the pizza didn't seem so warm in my hands. I felt eyes resting on my back and I could almost hear clickity-clackity heels behind me. Nevertheless, when I turned around, nobody was there. Well, almost. The third time I turned around, I thought I could see a shadow behind me, tiny one that was close to invisible, but a shadow.

Just to be safe, I walked faster, but this only decreased the time between the shadow's heels going click clack, click clack, slowly catching up to me. By the time I was almost at Lila's, the shadow and I were basically sprinting, but as time went on, the shadow became closer, and closer.

I could now make out the outline of the figure. They were definitely wearing white heels and a glittery diamond belt. They broke into a dash, and grabbed my hand to pull me into an alleyway, while not gripping me or forcing me to stay. They pulled off their hood, and...oh no.

Chloe.

***

"Chloe, get off me!" I said fearfully.

"You better not take that scholarship, Dupain-Cheng, or I'll get you banned from Paris," Chloe hissed. I couldn't help but laugh.

"Seriously? You think Audrey will allow me, the girl she just gave a scholarship too, to be expelled from my school, let alone be banned from Paris? That's adorable!" I fired back, picking up the pizza Chloe made me to drop to waltz into the apartment.

"Perhaps, but I know I don't have to ban you to hurt you," Chloe said, circling around me like an animal stalking its prey, deciding which direction to attack from.

"I could ban Lila. She'd have to move all the way back to New York, where she'd never see you again. I could get Lila a lifetime of imprisonment, a lifetime stuck in the same cell as her mother. I could ruin her life, Dupain-Cheng. Why can't you see that?!" Chloe said her last sentence with bitterness embedded in her tone while raising her voice.

"No," I whispered. "You wouldn't. You're not...you're not a monster, Chloe. You...you can't. No, you wouldn't. You wouldn't!" I hopelessly tried to convince myself Chloe was lying to make me hand over my scholarship, or she was just trying to get a rise out of me, but the shameless evil grin in front of me said otherwise. Still, she couldn't.

"Chloe, I know you're not a monster. I know you're capable of good. I can teach you how to be a fashion designer, I can do your homework for the rest of the year, I can carry all your bags, just please, don't expel Lila, please!"

"Give me that scholarship, or Lila is getting banned. I'm talking to my father on Thursday," Chloe said finally. I took my pizza and ran inside the apartment, now bursting with tears.

When I got to the door, I knocked a couple times, and Lila opened the door. She noticed my red puffy eyes and wet cheeks. She frowned and pulled me into an embrace.

"What's wrong, Mari?" she asked worriedly.

"Chloe, she's...she's going to expel you!" I screamed in Lila's arms. "I'll never get to see you again if I don't give her my scholarship!"

Lila's expression darkened as she realized how dire the situation was. She smiled sadly as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"It's okay, Marinette," she choked out. "I'll be fine. I won't let you refuse a chance to do the thing you've wanted since you were born. I can't get in the way of that." My eyes widened as I realized what she meant.

"No, I can't leave you! I can't!" I pleaded. "I can't!!" I screamed.

"Marinette, I won't let you choose me, you know I can't do that. You've got to choose soon, so please just...don't choose me." She rubbed my shoulders and hugged me, trying to get me to calm down. I took a deep breath and looked her in her dazzling emerald eyes, the ones that I've grown to love so, so, so much.

"No, I don't have to choose," I said, forming a plan in my head.