57. Day 4 Part 12

She just couldn't help herself. A rush of blood to the head. A sudden burst of anger. An encapsulation of everything horrible she'd experienced since her precious kwami went missing without a trace. Whatever.

Chloe took a few seconds to digest the full impact of discovering the best piece of evidence since her so far fruitless search for Zzubo began, before launching herself full throttle at the comatose Italian lying prostrate in front of her.

"Where is she?! I know you kidnapped my bee and I want to know where she is, now!" came the raucous call from the apoplectic blonde, as pillows were scattered everywhere with wild abandon and bedsheets flew off the mattress. Chloe was determined to get some answers from the motionless figure she now shook like a particularly stubborn bottle of ketchup, and she wasn't going to give up 'til she did.

Sadly. Lila remained as entrenched in Dreamland as ever before, and Chloe's violent administrations did not go unnoticed by the other, far more conscious, occupant of the room.

Suddenly, the heiress found herself being yanked by her arms off the napping brunette and dragged onto the floor whereupon her limbs were pinned to her sides and a heavyish figure sat on her torso. She was now hopelessly restrained, and could only stare upwards at the dour face of a distinctly unimpressed Mrs Binoche looming over her.

"What has gotten into you, child?!" The nurse frowned at the struggling heiress, as she made full use of the techniques she'd learned to handle difficult patients. "That girl could be very sick, and you're trying to start some kind of royal rumble with her! In case you hadn't noticed, this is an infirmary, not a wrestling ring! Calm yourself down this instant, or I might have to tell your teacher about this unprovoked act of aggression!"

Realising that it would do her no good whatsoever to be kept in after lessons when she had a talking bug to locate, Chloe reluctantly quit flailing her arms around like an out of control windmill and turned her grunts of annoyance into something a bit more coherent. "Y-Yes. I understand. I'm sorry, Mrs Binoche. I don't know what came over me. It must be a side-effect of the fainting spell I just had…"

"Well, whatever it was, it needs to stop now!" the nurse adjusted her posture a bit, to put a little less pressure on the heiress's belly. "For a minute there, I thought I was going to have to induct two people into the hospital this evening! Perhaps I should do that anyway, just as a precaution…"

"H-Huh?! N-no… don't do that! I'll be good! I'll be good! I'm much better now, see?" Chloe quickly realised that if detention after class would be a minor setback to her plans, a stay in the local medical ward overnight would be an absolute disaster. "...You can let go now, really. I won't get mad again."

"'Mad' is an understatement. You really had me worried there for a moment…" Mrs Binoche seemed a little skeptical of the blonde's newfound tranquility, but began to climb off her anyway. "I'll give you one chance to prove yourself, but if it doesn't work out… it's the ambulance for you."

"Y-Yes Miss." Chloe gulped in agreement. Even though she itched to investigate the area around Lila for further signs of Zzubo, she had to plant her feet firmly on the ground lest she found herself with a thermometer in her gob and eating terrible food in a room tastefully decorated with many shades of white. Besides, due to previous experiences, me and hospitals don't really see eye to eye…

"I was going to run a few errands around the school, but now that I see that I can't trust you alone with young Miss Rossi here…" the nurse shook her head at the disruptive scene she'd just witnessed. "...I'm going to have to stay put. Now, lie back please and try to get some rest. If you don't show any further signs of random violence before the school day ends, I may just consider letting you go home on time."

"Y-Yes, Miss. T-Thank you, Miss." Chloe wasn't usually this unfailingly obedient, but considering what was at stake she was willing to put her pride to one side for a change.

"Good. You're learning. This is my domain, and I won't stand for any nonsense here, especially against one of my patients." Mrs Binoche seemed satisfied with the heiress's response, as she wedged a chair between the two beds to monitor both girls simultaneously. "So, as I said, get under that jacket and relax. I think you need it, dear."

Grumbling to herself at the missed opportunity to peruse the vicinity around Lila she would've had if the interfering nurse had made herself scarce, Chloe nevertheless slunk back under her makeshift blanket, but not before catching the lead headline of the newspaper Mrs Binoche now unfurled in front of her.

It read: BIZARRE CHARITY THEFT WHERE THIEF MAKES OFF WITH SECOND HAND GOODS, REPLACES THEM WITH LUXURY ITEMS. BARGAIN-HUNTING PUNTERS SAY 'THANK YOU VERY MUCH'.

How strange, thought Chloe, before a few of the accompanying pictures pulled her up short. Some of the now tastefully attired customers giving a thumbs-up to the camera seemed to be wearing oddly familiar outfits, a realisation that reached a crescendo when the heiress spotted a bright yellow jacket in particular, a striped T-shirt, a pair of white chinos…

"Hey, those are mine!" Chloe abruptly rose from her vertical position as quickly as a jack out of the box.

Mrs Binoche put down her broadsheet momentarily to frown at the blonde. "Hey, I said get some rest, not read over my shoulder and start yelling like a hooligan! I'm afraid at the very least I'll have to inform your teacher about your loud antics today, and if you carry on like this I may have to reconsider booking you into the hospital tonight, which would be a shame as I hear they're quite overcrowded now. When are these strikes going to end..."

Unable to do much more, Chloe simply surrendered to sink helplessly back down into her mattress. My first priority will be always remain of course, Zzubo's safe return. But when she does eventually put in an appearence, me and her will be having some serious words.

….

Chloe trudged to the hotel after yet another long, gruelling school day, shuffling her hairy feet all the way so they were barely inches apart.

First of all, she'd fallen asleep while waiting for that damn nurse to depart, and by the time Mrs Binoche had prodded her awake and given her the all-clear to leave, Lila was long gone. Apparently, she'd conveniently woken up just as the bell was about to ring, and seemed in quite a panicky frame of mind.

The Italian was even more shrill upon seeing Chloe's slumbering form nearby, and couldn't wait to get out of there. The nurse did her very best to stop the brunette from fleeing, but with a swiftness that belied her thinness she was out of sight in seconds, mumbling something about 'mutant wasps' haunting her as she made her hasty retreat.

Then, just as Chloe was gathering her stuff together in a now empty classroom, Miss Bustier 'bust' (ha ha) in with her end-of-the-day coffee. She'd just been told by you-know-who about the heiress's shameful shenanigans in the infirmary, and now she faced a double detention, including the one that had been put on hold but was now being reacted. They'd be suspended for now though, as from the teacher's observation, the still-delirious Chloe needed to get home as soon as possible. Wow, Miss. So very kind of you.

Finally, as if things couldn't get any more awkward, guess which lovestruck tomato head had drawn a huge heart onto a large piece of paper before sticking to her desk, with a little message attached which read 'We need to talk' in the finest possible cursive handwriting. This guy isn't going to quit, is he.I hate those stupid stalker weirdo artist types.

She didn't tear it up though, carefully placing it in her bag on her way out. Maybe, I can destroy it at the same time as Sabrina's bracelet, then upload the footage to the Internet so both those dorks get the message. Yeah, that's what I'll do. H-Heh heh…

With the limo not waiting for her outside (a result of the Mayor's interference, no doubt) Chloe was forced to make her home on foot in the long-retired school uniform, as a result of her mishap with the bucket full of bilge earlier. She did get a few odd looks en route, mostly from oldies who remembered the news about the awful outfit's withdrawal back then, and those surprised pedestrians must've thought they'd accidentally stepped into a DeLorean by mistake.

For the most part though, her journey home passed by relatively incident-free, and she didn't even get her cursory wince at the entrance from the overdressed doorman. Maybe, because of my less arrogant demeanor now, I'm starting to lose my fearsome reputation. Let's hope so.

Being late afternoon when a lot of people were still at work, the hotel interior was sparsely populated. This allowed Chloe to go upstairs in her private elevator without one comment about her straightened hair or scratchy grey skirt, which she was extremely grateful for. Arriving in her room, the first thing she did was peel off her unbelievably uncomfortable uniform, before she sat on her bed while thoughtfully turning her Miraculous comb around in her hand.

"Oh Zzubo, where are you…?" she lamented emotionally out loud, as the tears began to cluster. "I-If you were here right now, I'd tell you how special you are to me, how thankful I am you helped give me a second chance, how I regret every single mean thing I ever said to you. I-If you only knew, just how much I miss you, how much I l-lov…"

"Okay, my head is almost as big as my body as it is, it doesn't need to swell up even more…" A weirdly familiar buzzy voice could be heard emanating from Chloe's bag all of a sudden, which abruptly stopped her crying and cause her mouth to almost hit the floor. N-No, it couldn't bee...

But it was. A yellow and black insectoid shape climbed out of the heiress's holdall to hover just above her head, as it regarded the speechless girl with a mixture of amusement and sincerity.

"You didn't really think I was going to leave that thing behind in your careless clutches, do you?" It said, pointing one of its stubby little limbs towards the comb. "Besides, Miss Chloe Bourgeois-Marigold, we still have a lot of work to do. I have to whip you into shape before Hawk Moth's big plan comes into fruition, and I won't let that sneaky Trixx beat me agai…"

Zzubo's sentence was destined never to be finished however, as suddenly she found herself in a vice-like grip involving a pair of carefully manicured hands which almost rivalled her own tough hugs.

"Y-You're back! Oh, I'm so happy! I thought I'd never see you again! I looked everywhere! Well, not in the boy's toilets because I can't go in there… but the main thing is, you're here! And you're alright! What happened to you?! I know that skank Lila had something to do with it... just you wait til' I…"

After snuggling against a tightly squeezing Chloe for a few brief moments, Zzubo used her ability of intransigence to warp through the joyously chattering girl's arms. "Yes, it's good to see you too, Miss Future 'Queen Bee'." she said, while playfully bopping the heiress on the nose. "But you shouldn't have been so worried. I told you before… you and me are inseparable from now on, whatever happens, I'll always come back to you. So, why don't you put some clothes on, and we can talk about where I've been today, and how we should proceed from this point on. A bag full of sweet nougats wouldn't go amiss either now, if you please."

Still absolutely beside herself with happiness at the return of her beloved kwami, Chloe didn't even notice how different her opinion was now since the first time the bee creature had announced they'd be 'together forever', or her lack of embarrassment in standing in front of Zzubo wearing naught but her underwear. It was as she opened up her one of her many wardrobes full of charity shop goodies though that something did come to mind, which tempered her pleasant mood just a tad.

"Zzubo…" she turned while grinning unnaturally, resembling a shark trying to convince a clownfish to enter her mouth. "Can I have a word, please. It's about all of my missing things."

There's never been any firm evidence that kwami can sweat, but if they could, Zzubo would be dripping with moisture round about now. Uh oh…

…

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Here's another update. Blah.

Things should definitely pick up now, so get ready for the ride. Also, feel free to comment and/or PM me whatever you want to say. I love reviews and talking to people, so don't be a stranger. ;)