A Cat, a Fox, and a Bee walk into a Bakery

Chapter 2

Three months.

It had been three months since a storm had first resulted in her taking refuge in Marinette's room.

What Chloe, what Queen Bee had found, had been the exact opposite of what she was expecting.

To be fair, none of her interactions with Marinette had prepared her. Chloe would... reluctantly (and with Pollen's rather insistent urging) admit that, sometimes... okay, more often than not... she was the instigator to their fights. Marinette was the only one that would really stand up against her and give her a challenge, and Chloe tried to ignore the thrill she got each time she butted heads with the tiny, fiery girl.

Pollen called it backhanded flirting. Pollen need to shut the heck up.

As Queen Bee, however, she saw a side of Marinette that Chloe never experienced. Queen Bee was the one who got a warm, fluffy towel and someone brushing her hair and honey-lemon pastries that practically melted on the tongue. Queen Bee was the one that Marinette folded her hands around hers while gripping a controller and guided her through a new combo or past a challenge in a video game (and wasn't that a trip, Chloe had never actually played anything beyond a time-waster phone game).

It was Queen Bee, not Chloe, who got to rest her head in a warm lap, feeling slightly calloused fingers stroking through her hair as she confessed how cold and lonely her home was, whispering about how she missed her mom so much it hurt and her father's throwing money at the problem instead of actually spending time with her.

Was it any wonder that she found herself coming back to her surprisingly warm-hearted classmate, time and time again? And if Marinette noticed that she was picking fights less and less at school as time went on, she never mentioned it.

In hindsight, she probably should have realized that Paris's best kept secret would have attracted more than just her.

Vixen was the first to pick up her dropped jaw and recover from the shock of seeing two of her teammates arrive on the balcony at the same time. "What are you two doing here? Is there an akuma?"

"No." Chat relaxed a bit, leaning back against the railing with a near boneless grace. "I was here to visit my Pr- a friend." He hastily corrected.

"Marinette? How do you know her?" Queen Bee huffed, irritated that her planned session of swiping (freely given) pastries and venting about her day was being delayed.

"Ladybug had me protect her from an akuma once, before you two were around." Chat's eyes narrowed, and he shot the two of them wary looks. "For that matter, how do you two know her?"

"None of your business." Queen Bee was bristling. "Now shoo, you mangy alley cat."

"Hey now, no fighting." With the lack of Ladybug, Vixen had clearly taken it upon herself to act as the peacemaker of the group.

"That goes for you too." Queen Bee flipped a hand at her. "Go, run along."

"Hey, Marinette is my friend, too! I have just as much right to be here as you do!" The orange-clad heroine snarled, tail lashing behind her.

"And I knew her first, so I have seniority!" Chat snapped.

Marinette opened her balcony trap door to an argument between the three heroes who had all been visiting her at night and groaned.

Honestly, she probably should have expected them to run into each other sooner or later.