Was reading stuff on your Duchess Noire AU and had an idle thought. Chloe does discover Tikki but doesn't tell Marinette cos she fears Marinette won't trust Duchess anymore & will get hurt. This also feeds into her sneaking around & watching Marinette with her family and that whole… Everything but like even worse now cos she's full on putting Marinette on a pedestal which only serves to know her lower.

"Sooo, its a little weird that you're sneaking around my house spying on my family, but given you've kind of saved my life a few times by fighting Akuma, I figure I owe you the benefit of the doubt."

"The benefit of the doubt..." Duchess chuckles, no snickers into her paw like gloves like its some joke, but there's a sickeningly tight sort of wheeze to the sound that makes it feel like... Not a laugh.

Marinette swallows, and forces herself forward with the words, "So what brought you here, Akuma hunting maybe?"

Marinette watches as Duchesses stiff half poised to jump frame slacken and she simply plops down on the roof, staring at her. This drags on for nearly a minute as the heroes mouth slowly opens then snaps shut over and over as if she cannpt findf the words before finally she sags.

"I'm trying to figure you out."

"Me? I'm nobody special-"

"HAH! Are you for real?" There's a sort of wide eyes look to the heroine, words spilling out so fast they almost tumble from her fanged maw.

"Of course," She snaps back, not quite angry but increasingly worried about her partner and identity. "I mean you're a super hero-"

"I'm a wrecking ball who happens to make a decent damage sponge when Ladybug needs it. I'm not good for anything but hurting and breaking and being a punching bag, not really, I just happened to be pointed at things worse than me Marinette."

She looks her in the eyes and then away again, all the energy sapped from her frame as she murmured.

"I'm nothing like you, and that's the problem, that's what was always the problem I think. No one worthwhile whose met you has anything bad to say about you, in fact they adore you."

Se stood up and began pacing, tail swishing as her hands gesticulated wildly. "You have that creative brilliance that all truly exceptional artists should that lets you create things other people with more resources and time never could. Your parents don't just live with you they actually love you!"

Those last words seem to rip themselves out of her throat as she turns to look down at Marinette, still staring up at the heroine from her balcony as a sick, heavy dread settled in her stomach.

"Your parents love you," She mutters, practically collapsing atop the roof, a violent shudder running through her body, "And mine don't... So I must... I have to be doing something wrong... I just need to figure out what it is." She chokes whatever she was going to say back.

Marinette's mind races between options and explanations; sickness, akuma, maybe a fight? She knows Duchess can be dramatic and overreact at times, but then... Her parents don't live with her? Is it because they travel for work maybe-

Her thought process stops, Duchess is looking like she wants to run away, body tensing, feet beginning to pivot. Only them does she notice her parents making for the roof through the ladder in her room.

NOTES:

I recall hearing that Chloe just lives in a hotel suite and her dad has his own so while technically in the same building she's functionally on her own.

Also I always figured a lot of Chloe's hostility to Marinette was rooted in jealousy. Both seem to be in the same general 'tracks' at school, even art.

I always like ot HC the first two years of their relationship was more of a rivalry but a very harsh one given Chloe was stll chasutic but not as bad.

It, or more Chloe in general, worsened when they were twelve & Audrey came back for her birthday which Chloe was heavily involved in organizing down to the last detail to make her happy.

The party received no compliments, and Chloe was constantly sent away any time she tried to speak to her mother with some new insult about her clothes, or make up until essentially dismissed.

Locking herself in the bathroom she looked for what was wrong, missing or broken in her before finally losing it and just attacking the mirror, seriously injuring her hands and setting her art skills back to beginner levels.

After that she gave up on being better than Marinette and instead focused on tearing her down. Adrien may be aware of the mirror & party stuff but not how much it led to Chloe going from "Brat with a temper" to "Obsessive campaign against this one person who has everything she wants" that steadily spilled out into wildly direction-less antagonism at basically everything.

OOF YEAH THIS IS

Yeah it's.

I've written before on how while Chloé's overall behavior is a mirror of how her parents treat her and how they taught her to treat others.

Her focus on Marinette is because Marinette is so beloved by everyone despite the fact that she's 'lesser' and doing things 'wrong' (according to Chloé's template for 'Exceptional' given by her parents). Marinette has this perfect life with friends who genuinely like her and parents who do more than the bare minimum.

And there's jealousy and frustration. Chloé wants that life, and is confused why Marinette gets to have it.