She's supposed to be perfect. Perfect means normal. Chloe's managed to convince everyone, even herself, that she's flawless.

Then Ladybug happens.

She's thrown from the Eiffel Tower and the ground is getting closer. She puts her hands together as to pray and promises to be kinder should she make it out alive. Everything stops for a moment, and the cold wind is replaced with warmth.

When Chloe opens her eyes, she's in Ladybug's arms.

"I didn't swear," she says for lack of anything else to say. She tries to hide her blushing, how flustered she's become in Ladybug's arms. The world seems to have stopped, and when Ladybug looks down at her, Chloe forgets how to breathe. Her eyes are very blue, Chloe notes. Her heart threatens to jackrabbit out of her chest when Ladybug says, "What?" and her voice is smooth, like water over stones, and Chloe wants to stay like that forever.

It hits her then that what she was feeling was more than just admiration. No , she thinks, no I can't be. That's not right, I can't be.

Ladybug leaves then, too focused on the akuma to notice Chloe's soul shattering revelation, or the beginnings of her panic. Still, she can't help but look after Ladybug's retreating form, moving with effortless grace that would have made Chloe jealous if it didn't captive her completely.

Chloe wonders how long she can keep it a secret. How long she can deny it. She's been denying it for years to herself, but this was too big to ignore. She stares blankly after Ladybug, eyes locked at the spot where she last saw the red-clad figure swing away. Her body was frozen, and she would have believed that her heart had stopped if it wasn't for the blood roaring in her ears. Chloe stays there for a moment, then shakes herself out of it. She puts on her masks and acts as though nothing happened.

Things end quickly after that. The akuma is destroyed, the person freed of its clutches, and Chloe tries to put the incident out of her mind. Most of the time, she goes about as she normally would. But occasionally, she would slip up.

Everytime she catches herself staring after a girl and admiring how nice she looked, how gorgeous her smile was, how perfectly her hair fell around her face, Chloe would push those thoughts down, telling herself that it's perfectly normal to think people are pretty; it doesn't mean anything at all.

Everytime Sabina gets too excited and clings to her arms or, on the rare occasion, even hugs her, Chloe flinches away as though she's been burned. The fact that she wants more, wants to hold and never let go, is just from being deprived of affection, she tells herself. Chloe's father is too busy playing Mayor to spend time with her and her mother is dead. So when someone (specifically a girl) gives her any affection, she wants more. It's only natural right?

Except.

It's not.

Chloe knows it's not no matter how hard she tries to convince herself otherwise. So she latches onto Adrien, throws herself at him every chance she gets. It's normal right? Having a crush on Adrien (a boy ) was completely normal.

Still, there are times Chloe feels eyes boring into her back and fears that everyone knows what she's hiding. The fear makes her more desperate, holding onto Adrien as though he could protect her. Marinette and Alya glare each time she does so, and Chloe feels fear pierce her heart.

They know, a dark voice in her mind whispers. They know what you are.

She sneers at them, trying to keep her voice from trembling as she spat insults at them. They threw insults back without hesitation. That, at least, was normal. As long as they hated her for how she treated them, she was fine.

There wasn't much anyone knew about Chloe. Despite the fact that she gossiped and insulted everyone she knew, despite how much she talked and flaunted her wealth, there wasn't a lot people knew about her. Everything they knew were facts they could get from magazines. Adrien confirms the class's theory that she had always been cruel with stories of their childhood. He hasn't noticed he fear yet, or how she pales when someone mentions gays.

Chloe was alone. She was terrified and pushed everyone away, calling on her father so he could act as a good father and continue playing mayor.

The year passes with akumas and Ladybug. No one is any wiser.

It's only near the very end, the last week of school, that they notice that something's wrong with Chloe.

Hawkmoth had been quiet, and there hadn't been any akumas for two weeks. The class had finished all their courses and only messed around in class. Chloe rarely spends time in the classroom anymore. She wanders around the school, thinking and quiet, different from the Chloe everyone knew.

That day, she had hears something. Near the back of the school, a young boy was cowering on the ground as two older boys towered over him spitting insults. Louis, they had called him, asking why he didn't act normal and get a girlfriend, threatened him to stop being gay.

Chloe leaves without being seen, running away before they found out she wasn't normal either.

She had heard the horror stories, of course. Who hadn't? Anyone who wasn't gay or conform to society's idea of gender was shunned and beaten into submission. But she had never seen it in reality, never seen how cruel others could be for something they couldn't change. (It was ironic, really, with how much she insulted others for things that were just as hard to change. She knew she wasn't a good person, but didn't know how to change.)

Her feet lead her to the classroom. She walks in silently, head bowed, trembling. Adrien notices immediately.

"Chloe?" he asks, slowly, standing from his desk. "Are you okay?"

She doesn't look at him. She walks towards her desk. Everyone's eyes were on her, she knows, even though she could hear the quiet conversation of the other students.

"Chloe?" Adrien asks again, standing in front of her. He lifts a hand and put it on her shoulder, backing away when she flinches.

"Please don't," she says. When she looks up, there was a fear in her eyes he had seen before, amplified by tenfold.

His brow furrows in confusion. She could practically see the thoughts flying through his mind, a litany of: What happened? Is she okay? What upset her? Wasn't Chloe supposed to be unbreakable?

He doesn't get the chance to voice any of his questions. When he moves to place a gentle, comforting hand on her shoulder again, Chloe reacts instantly, years of self defense classes making her move without thinking. She slaps his hand away, taking a step back, hands raised to defend from any attacks.

There's a flash of hurt in Adrien's eyes. She knows she's treating him like an enemy, knows it's unfair, but she can't trust herself from breaking down in terrified tears if he got too close. She knows she's hurting him, throwing away years of playdates and friendship in a moment of panic and terror.

The classroom is quiet when she says, "Don't," in a soft voice. Chloe knows they're all watching her. The feeling of being watched in familiar; being the mayor's daughter makes people interested in you. Sometimes it's not a good thing.

"I'm leaving," she says quietly. The teacher says nothing, simply watching as Chloe picks up her bag and walks to the door.

Her hands are shaking when she reaches for the doorknob. For a moment, she stares blankly. Then she curls her hand into a fist, forcing her nails to dig into the flesh of her palm, and takes a deep breath.

She's gone before anyone can say another word.