Dearly Despised, (I love you)

Despair Dance

A/N: Chloé may not like Marinette or Adrien, but at least they hate each other too.

Right?

-

When Adrien was a young boy, noosed to the commands of his father (still is), he'd be dragged into this palace of snobs where the marble would sparkle but the servants' eyes wouldn't, and those servants would plead with the noblewoman to get their name right (still doesn't). Noblewoman-Chloé would play royalty with him on the crimson-carpeted stairs until he whined to be the dragon or anyone else that didn't become her 'true love'. The "King"—the in-and-out player—only appeared when Chloé made sure Adrien knew the answer to that was no, which led to his more preferred, single-player game he called 'escape' – where he'd sneak off and find his mother drinking the tea she liked least as the other adults talked.

Now, Adrien knew every elevator, fire escape, and dumbwaiter in Le Grand Paris. Also on the list of things he knew far too much about was the hotel's life-long resident, Chloé, who he progressively became loss tolerant about as he observed her behaviour towards anyone not with the same appeared status, such as the kids that played in the lobby—Adrien and Chloé's play space—as their parents booked visits or read the paper.

At first, having her as his only friend, he didn't know he was allowed to call her out instead of just tricking her into giving the kid's toy back.

"Hey, that's mean," some girl said, their age—six of seven maybe—once Chloé insulted her pink overalls.

Adrien was over at the Bourgeois' again, occasionally dawdling over to his mother to inquire if the time until they could leave had been significantly shaven off – which it never was, because he dawdled to the private lounge every two minutes. 'Can we please play with the other kids, Chloé?' he'd beg. 'Maybe one of them will be your prince.'

But Chloé only relented to gather more servants – and she let the lobby children know it.

This girl in particular, Adrien had suggested playing with simply because she was pretty and smelt good, yet it appeared she didn't have the same effect on the Chloé.

The blonde girl's glossed lips rounded in surprise. Jean-whatever-his-name-was had escaped to the kitchen to be out of range from the child's shrilling complaints.

"You can't speak back to me!" Chloé sniped to the piggy-tailed girl.

"You can't speak like that to anyone! It's not kind!"

Adrien stood a good distance away as he had prepared to use this argument to play 'escape', but no one had held their guard against Chloé. She hadn't even shed a tear yet, and the tragedy of her entire outfit had already been pointed out.

"Oh go back to your bakery!" Chloé waved the young guest off. "It's enough I have to see your stupid face at school. You're not welcome here."

"Chloé! That's rude!"

Her blonde ponytail whipped as she flashed his way, icy eyes as heated as ever. "Well she's not!"

"Yes she is! It's not your hotel!"

"Yeah!" the classmate chimed. "It's all your daddy's!"

The muscles of Chloé's mouth bunched as indicative frustration rolled off in waves. A stomp of her tiny shoes almost echoed. "How dare you!"

Adrien stepped in between the girls just to fist his hips and look down at Chloé.

"Leave her alone or I won't play with you anymore!"

His heart tendons fretted together and knocked against his stilled ribs. He liked telling Chloé off. He liked it a lot actually. And it only became easier with each visit.