There was no interrogation of Chloe that night. Nino managed to draw their plans out of Alya and put an end to it.

"Maybe she just wants something, or maybe she's actually trying to redeem herself, either way she's not hurting anyone at the moment so don't go poking around and risk causing her to retaliate!"

Nino was a very good voice of reason when he wanted to be. It was deeply frustrating, but they had to accept that he was right. There was no two ways about it. They couldn't go poking around making trouble where there wasn't any. Which is why, when they returned home from patrol, exhausted, they went straight to sleep. Tikki was curled on Marinette's chest, listening to how she breathed, so Marinette slept in her back. Trixx was buried in a den she had formed in Alya's hair, so Alya had to sleep on her side. Wayzz slept in the speaker, wrapped in his own little blanket that Marinette had knitted for him, which meant Nino had the whole bed to sleep in, but still slept on his side to watch him. Plagg was the opposite. He was supposed to sleep in the corner of his bed, but he usually took up at least half the bed, and made Adrien sleep at an angle that made his hair messier, and woke up with Plagg on his face anyway. Chloe usually slept curled around Mr Cuddly. It sounded childish, but that's the way things go sometimes. Now she had Pollen, she was curled around Mr Cuddly, but her plush Ladybug was in the crook of her legs, so Pollen was always close, sleeping on top of it.
That was useful when the akuma alert went off at two in the morning, waking all of them (apart from Trixx who had been busy plotting new prank ideas) because it meant they all had their kwamis close enough to transform over their pyjamas.

Chloe sat up and gazed out of her bedroom window. She sighed, dreamily. "I'll bee out there too one day."

Even though she knew it was probably too early, Pollen couldn't resist the idea of going out there and being with the other kwamis.

"There's no harm in introducing yourself," Pollen said.

Chloe gasped. "Really?!"

"But you cannot let them know who you really are!"

"I won't, I promise! Oh my god this is so totally awesome!"

Pollen talked her through the rules, and then how to transform, and suddenly Queen Bee stood in her bedroom, with glistening golden wings down her back and yellow outfit that allowed her to hover excitedly in place. That lasted about two seconds before she shot out of the window, swooping through the air, and made a bee line for the others.
The others were gathering on a single rooftop, with messy hair, bleary eyes and bad attitudes. Ladybug in particular was not happy to be conscious. This was not helped by sleepy Chat Noir still looking devilishly handsome.

"How you doing Bugaboo?" He purred.

"It's two in the morning!" She snarled.

"I know, I was deep in a catnap."

"I was getting my beauty sleep."

"You always look beautiful princess!"

"shut up!"

Chat Noir reeled back at the viciousness. Usually she was soft and light and cute when she was tired. But waking up in the arms of the love of your life at ten in the morning on a day with no school, is vastly different to waking up to a blearing siren dragging her into the cold at two in the morning. Rena wolf whistled when she saw that look in Ladybugs eye. You know the one. The "its Monday I just woke up and if I don't get coffee soon the first person to smile will deeply regret it" look. She assumed that, given it was a school day and they were due to go in five hours, it wasn't the last time she was going to see that look.

"Wow you look super cranky. Let's get this over with quick so you can sleep!" She said.

That sounded like heaven to Ladybug. "Thank you Rena, what would I do without you?"

"No worries girl, I've got your back," Rena winked.

Chat turned to look at Carapace who was just landing. Carapace saluted him with two fingers.

"What's new?" He asked.

"Girls are confusing," Chat said.

"I said new," Carapace said.

"This is new to me!"

"I've learned you've just gotta go with the flow."

The girls, eager to get back to bed before it got cold, left the roof top to head towards the fire. Rena was going to flood the area with illusions of Ladybug, so the akuma was so busy fighting the illusions they didn't notice the real Ladybug sneaking up behind them. Chat Noir followed them to the new vantage point.

"What a cat-astrophic fire!" He grinned.

Ladybug snarled, too tired for his attitude, "ONE MORE PUN AND I SWEAR TO GOD I'M BREAKING UP WITH YOU HEAR AND NOW!"

"I would purr-fur if we didn't," he called her bluff.

Ladybug looked him dead in the eyes and said, with a completely serious tone, "You have picked the worst way to cataclysm our relationship. Congratulations we're no longer dating. I'm single again. Rena, do you wanna be my girlfriend?"

"Sorry buggy I'm taken," Rena winked.

"Shame. We could have been happy," Ladybug sighed dramatically.

"Too happy. The world would have been so jealous," Rena agreed.

"Ah well, a singles life for me then. Rena are you ready?" Ladybug called.

Waves of identical Ladybugs appeared like an army around her. Every single one was flawlessly identical. Until you touched them and they vanished that is. But for now, Ladybug was standing like a squadron leader, before her army of herself.

"Maybe not so single," Carapace smirked.

"Well if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself," she retorted.

Carapace watched the girls from their rooftop view. Together they seemed to get a handle on this akuma far faster than they usually did. When you're that tired and it's the one thing keeping you from sleeping, you'll pretty much do anything to beat it. No matter how groggy you are.

"Look at Rena go! She's really getting good at that flute," Chat whistled.

"What about Ladybug? Which one even is she?!" Carapace laughed.

Chat licked his lip thoughtfully, and pointed. "That one."

"You're sure?" Carapace challenged.

"I know my Bugaboo. That one's her," Chat nodded firmly.

Hovering with her toes brushing against the ground, Queen Bee smiled. "Very impressive."

The boys leapt up like they had been electric shocked, and were ready to figure.

"Who are you?" Carapace demanded.

"Queen Bee, at your service," She bowed, and grinned.

Carapace and Chat Noir shared an uncertain look. They eased out of their fighting stances, but held their weapons steady, just in case.

"Queen Bee?" Carapace repeated, suspiciously.

"That's my name," she nodded

"What are you doing here your highness?" He asked.

"I came to say hi, and see what you could do. My kwami and I are on a side mission right now, but pretty soon we'll be able to help you fight akumas too," she beamed.

"Interesting," he grinned at Chat, suddenly eased by the mention of a kwami. "This little group just keeps growing doesn't it?"

"It's five now isn't it? It's that usually how big hero teams are?" Bee asked, uncertainly.

"Roughly yes," Carapace nodded.

Bee glanced at Chat Noir, whose face was screwed up with such determined focused thought that Carapace had never seen before.

"What's wrong with him?" She asked.

"He's almost definitely trying to figure out a pun to welcome you with," Carapace said.

"Oh. I was going to go with hive," she admitted

Carapace tilted his head. "Hive?"

"Yeah, instead of hi," she shrugged.

"Oh! Clever. Don't worry, you'll get sick of puns pretty soon," he chuckled.

Chat Noir lit up, suddenly bursting into life with a cracking, "You'd better beelieve it!"

"Hello he's back," Carapace chuckled.

"Hive! I'm Chat Noir, rouge, handsome, wonderful boyfriend of miraculous and intelligent and amazing Ladybug!"

Chat pointed down at the red blur battling an akuma almost single handily, so she could go back to bed. Queen Bee felt her hopes and heart rise. Her hero...

"And I'm Carapace, and that is Rena Rouge," he pointed at Rena.

Rena Rouge was standing on a raised platform, playing her fiddle to make a blur of Ladybugs to protect the real one. Queen Bee felt a swell of pride.

"Yes, I know Rena Rouge. She's amazing," she said.

"Some might say miraculous," Chat purred.

Bee turned to Carapace and gestured to Chat. "Does he do that often?"

"What? The puns? Yeah, sorry. You'll soon learn to turn it out," Carapace promised.

Bee groaned. "Oh brilliant."

"Bee-illant!" Chat chimed in.

Carapace pointed down at Rena and Ladybug as the bright waves of light wrapped around the room.

"Chat, Ladybug caught the akuma. She's leaving."

Chat clutched his chest dramatically, "Without saying goodbye?!"

"Or hello," Bee mumbled.

"That stings," Carapace beamed.

Bee stared at him, in horror, "You too?!"

He gave a sheepish smile. "Sorry."

Chat threw an arm around Bee's shoulders, "you'll be making them too soon. They come buzzing in, and you have to let them fly!"

"I take it back, I no longer want the job," She smiled.

Carapace and Chat Noir laughed together, and agreed that she was definitely going to fit in. If only it had been that simple...

...

Alya rested her head on her arm, and looked over at Marinette, still tired from last night. A strange thought entered her mind, and she felt the need to share it.

"I know Plagg and Tikki and in love yeah, but if Trixx and Tikki got together we could call them Trixxi."

Marinette gave a confused, amused smirk, and turned slowly so Alya could see it. "You have too much time on your hands girl."

Alya started laughing first, but she always made Marinette laugh too. Her joy was infectious. Then again, the way Marinette smiled was also infectious. It caused Adrien to smile a silly love struck smile every time he saw it. He didn't alert them to his presence by calling to them like he normally did. Instead, Adrien wrapped his arms around Marinette from behind. She yelped in alarm, but when he rested his chin on her head she knew exactly who it was. Only Chat Noir rested his head on her like that. She looked up to smile at him, affectionately, so he kissed her forehead now he could reach it.

"Hey princess, feeling better?" He purred.

"It's magic what sleep can do," she said.

"Magic or miraculous?" He smiled.

She groaned but laughed anyway and he nuzzled against her neck like some kind of vampire. Nino groaned in mock disgust as he took his seat beside Alya.

"Can't you just sit down like normal people?" He said, sarcastically.

"Why don't you ever kiss me like that?" Alya demanded.

"See?! Sit down, you're making me look bad!" Nino insisted.

Marinette and Adrien laughed, but Adrien took his point and sat down properly. Nino gave a firm nod, pleased. Under the table, Marinette and Adrien still held hands.

"You two ok after last night? You were awesome, you must be exhausted," Nino said.

"I'm always exhausted. Trixx doesn't help, she's up half the night, and keeps me up too," Alya complained.

"I tried to tell you to go to bed, you're the one who had to finish what's on your blog!" Trixx argued.

"It's important to the fans!" Alya argued.

"If you'd stuck around you could have written about Queen Bee," Adrien said.

"What?" Alya frowned.

"You missed Queen Bee," Nino translated.

Alya and Marinette shared a confused and suspicious look between themselves, and then looked back at the boys.

"Um, ok?"

"She's says she's a new hero. Says she has a kwami and everything," Adrien explained.

"A new hero?" Alya sounded outraged, "What's wrong with just us four?"

Nino laughed and hooked an arm around her. "Aw come on Alya, it's just one more."

"And she's a bee? So we've got two bugs to bug us?" Alya huffed.

"Hey!" Marinette laughed.

"Not that you bug me or anything, but seriously?" Alya scowled, "Queen Bee? What's makes her so great she gets a crown?!"

"Are you worried the bugs will bugger off?" Adrien grinned.

Nino groaned heavily. "That was bad, dude, even for you!"

Adrien gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry."

Marinette rolled her eyes at Adrien but smiled. He was more comfortable in himself now that he was making bad puns at school as well as in battle. That was enough to make her accept his puns, as Marinette and Ladybug. Right now, though, her focus was on Alya.

"I get it. I was hesitant at the idea of you becoming Rena Rouge. It's not like the fox hasn't be tricky before, but come on. Queen Bee? How bad could she possibly be?" She asked.

"She said she and her kwami are on a side mission that she has to complete before she comes works with us. That'll give you time to get used to the idea," Adrien said.

Alya scoffed and grumbled, "Yeah because royalty get their own akumas!"

Nino pulled her a little closer, affectionate, if a little scared of her, "Let's leave the green eyes to Adrien, hey? They suit him better."

She pulled away and gave him a scathing look. "Are you saying I don't look good with green eyes?"

Despite the fear in the pit of his stomach, he forced himself to smile flirtatious.

"I'm saying your eyes are more beautiful now than they ever could be, so don't be so jealous."

"Aww you're so full of crap," she cooed.

"Do you want me to stop?" He flirted.

She nestled back into his chest, "no. Never."

Tikki leaned against Plagg and cooed like a love-struck teenager. Plagg wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled her affectionately. Adrien and Marinette looked deeply into each other's eyes. Wayzz chuckled as Trixx gagged. The table burst into laughter.
From the other side of the room, Chloe looked over towards them. It had been nice to sit with them before, but it was a one-time thing. Marinette would tolerate her long enough to please Adrien, but there was too much history there. History that she didn't want Adrien to know. It would destroy the way he saw her. First, she had to learn how to be better, then she could start to make it up to Marinette. But one day. One day, she'd be at that table, and she'd be in on the joke.
She just had to beelieve.
Oh hell now she was making puns too.
This hero stuff had better be worth it.