Author's Note: AAAAAAHHHHHH! You guys are so awesome for the support I've received for this story so far! I can't thank you enough!
I have some really good/cool news! The amazing Eden Daphne has allowed me to use some art she made of Felix in his civilian and superhero forms! Since I clearly can't post art in stories on this site, I'll be doing it on Ao3 instead. I haven't received the acceptance email yet, but as soon as I do, this story is going up there with the pictures! Links to the art as well as her Tumblr page are here:
Art: (Felix) "(h) (t) (t) (p)(s) : / / 78 . media . tumblr 1809fa8d60bb1b02d06e0ae116f735f7 / tumblr _ p9qeyrDgGk1vtv4tfo2 _ 1280 . png" (remove spaces)(no parenthesis/quote marks)
(Chat!Felix) "(h) (t) (t) (p) (s) : / / 78 . media . tumblr 8c65ae2287fd6552dfbb8e770127dc1d / tumblr _ p9qeyrDgGk1vtv4tfo1 _ 1280 . png" (remove spaces)(no parenthesis/quote marks)
Eden's Tumblr: "(h) (t) (t) (p) : / / edendaphne . tumblr . com" (remove spaces)(no parenthesis/quote marks)
(Honestly, why does this site make it SO FREAKING HARD to post links?)
If you aren't following her on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter, GO DO IT RIGHT NOW, HER ART IS AMAZING!
Ladybug leapt over the wide chasms between the tall buildings of downtown Paris with ease, and Chat was close behind her. As he watched her swing and jump with perfect grace, his mind was like a broken record, constantly reminding himself why he loved her so much.
She was his equal, but at the same time his polar opposite. She took every mission with the utmost professionalism, and executed every fight with unmatchable grace. He took every mission seriously, too, but She always seemed to have a witty quip locked and loaded to fire at him when he asked something of her or suggested a new strategy. Admittedly, Felix was more carefree while as Chat, and they both still spent time together outside of battle or patrol while in costume.
In fact, it was during those times that she had helped him the most. He had told her more personal things than anyone else he knew. She knew all the right things to say, and in the instances when she didn't know what to say, she always did all the right things. Taking him into her embrace, letting him cry and talk as much as he needed until he felt better. All he's ever told her was only small pieces of information he was allowed to spill, it was still far more than he's said to anyone else.
He needed her just as much as she needed him.
After the small mob of thieves they encountered were apprehended and turned in to the authorities, Chat and Ladybug decided to relax for a few minutes on the Eiffel Tower before finishing up the last half-hour of their patrol.
"My Lady?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm..." Chat started, but when he tried to continue his thought, his vocal cords betrayed him. His tongue, lips and lungs refused to form words. This had to be the third time this month this has happened when he tried to tell her about... that.
"Chat, what's going on? I've told you, if you're not ready to talk abou-"
"What?! No! What I meant was I think we need to put together an emergency plan. Heck, maybe more," he quickly saved, keeping a deadpan expression and acted as if that was what he meant to say all along.
"Emergency plan? Chat, what are you talking about?"
"Oh, you know... um, what if one of us were Akumatized? O-Or if you were hurt to the point you detransformed-"
"Chat, where is this coming from?" she asked with concern in her voice. Chat had to admit, even for him that was a pretty bad cover-up. He was in too deep to back out now though, so he continued.
"If you were injured or rendered unconscious in battle and couldn't fight, we need to have a plan B. Every time I get hurt, your cure saves me, but if you couldn't fix anything, I need to know what to do."
Ladybug pondered this for a few moments. She grabbed her yoyo and using the digital screen, she sent a message to his baton. He glanced at it briefly before tilting his head in confusion.
"Coordinates?"
"Yeah. My kwami was telling me about a healer who can help both miraculous holders and kwamis. If something that drastic were to happen, taking me to him would be probably the best course of action. The coordinates lead to his shop. The only other thing I know about him is that he goes by 'Master Fu'."
Chat relaxed considerably and put away his baton. "Master Fu. Got it."
"Chat, don't worry. I can assure you, things will never become that drastic. But if it makes you feel better, that is what you should do if that were to happen."
"Thank you, my Lady. You once again never fail to keep the city and my mind at peace."
Ladybug rolled her eyes as a small smile crept upon her lips. "You're a huge flirt, you know that, right?" she teased while standing up.
"Yes, you only mention it every other patrol, but I'm still your flirt." A large grin immediately adorned Chat's face and his eyes held the same mischievous glimmer she knew all to well.
"No, you're just a silly kitty," Ladybug quipped.
"I'm still your silly kitty just as you are ma petit coccinelle," he purred.
Ladybug shot him a look that Chat had never seen her express, but it screamed 'where did that come from' before her gaze softened. "Alright, take it easy, minou," she teased again.
Chat's face fell into a pout as he silently prayed that Ladybug couldn't see his blush.
"I'm not a kitten!" he half-shouted, but the damage had already been done. It felt like flames had been ignited under his cheeks, and his mask wasn't doing too much to hide it, either. Ladybug giggled before throwing her yo-yo to a nearby building and propelling herself into the city to wrap-up patrol for the night. Chat remained motionless for a little too long. She has never referred to him by any names other than 'Chat' and the occasional 'silly kitty' whenever they engaged in playful banter. Chat snapped out of his zone-out and quickly followed his Lady.
Later that night, as Felix snuck back into his room, he observed the white box on his desk. He walked towards it and took a closer look at the chocolates. Every piece was supposedly different according to the list that was taped to the under side of the lid. He could tell apart the white, milk and dark chocolates apart just by looking at them. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that each piece also had different garnishes on them, differing both in designs as well as colors. The realization hit him immediately that these were not bought from a manufacturer or imported from some exotic chocolate company founded in another country. No, these were hand-made. The fact that no piece was quite perfect, and each design was unique to the type of chocolate it was proved that these were made by human hands. Someone- well, Bridgette Cheng- put in time and effort to create sixteen little... he couldn't think of any other way to describe them other than 'masterpieces'.
Felix's heart warmed a little at the thought.
This was too much. It was too nice to come from someone who he barely knew beyond what her name was and what she looked like. Despite this, she still made all of these for him.
Maybe he should do something for her in return? Something that showed his gratitude? It didn't feel right for him to not return the gesture somehow.
Strange, he never felt the urge to return favors like this before. Why hasn't he felt like this towards the senders of his other gifts?
Whatever, it wasn't important. He had to figure out something. An act of kindness for an act of kindness. Nothing more.
His mind was void of good ideas. He couldn't think of anything that didn't involve spending a lot of money or persuading his father for favors.. Maybe if he went to sleep now, he's think of something in the morning.
Of course Plagg wasn't going to let him get off that easy.
"Hey, you gonna eat those or not? I'm starving and the cheese is gone."
"Wha-! Plagg! The shipment came in only three days ago! You've finished it already?!"
"I have a fast metabolism, kid. You know this."
"Yeah, but usually one of those lasts you two weeks!"
"But I'm hungryyy! I need to recharge!"
"Why are you always so hungry?!"
"Because all of your shameless, disgusting flirting wears me out! Now, I might forgive you if you give me one of those chocolates!"
Felix groaned. Trying to reason with Plagg was often pointless. "Fine, which one do you want?"
"The cheesecake truffle."
"Of course you do." Felix handed Plagg the chocolate and the kwami zipped out of sight.
Felix looked at the list and considered trying one. It was 2:00, and he had to wake up by 7:00 to get ready for school. Eating chocolate probably wasn't something he should be doing right now...
Meh. His sleep schedule was already messed up enough with this super hero side job. Why the hell not?
Felix grabbed a random one from the box and popped it into his mouth.
The chocolate shell wasn't half-bad on it's own. It was a milk chocolate shell with some white chocolate garnishing in a dotted pattern. Not too sweet, bitter, or hard to bite into it. When bit down, his eyes widened slightly, unprepared for the blend of flavors that exploded in his mouth.
He instantly recognized the taste as lemon. It held the perfect balance of sweetness and tartness. The milk and white chocolate combined with the lemony center seemed like the perfect combination of everything from the taste to texture.
Okay, he definitely needed to thank her somehow.
Bridgette massaged the bridge of her nose with two fingers. She didn't sleep well the previous night since Chat's words struck a chord with her. Sure, he brought up good points, and the hypothetical scenarios were certainly plausible. What really had her worried was the fact he would think of something like that. She still felt she did the right thing by telling him about Master Fu, despite going against Tikki's instructions to wait until Chat's kwami told him about the old healer.
When Tikki fell ill a few months ago, she told Bridgette to go to Master Fu, and he healed Tikki right up! The kwami also told her that if she was ever injured during a fight while as Ladybug, it would be best to go to him for help to avoid suspicion from the public. Bridgette was skeptical at these words, but she trusted her kwami with every fiber in her body.
If Bridgette was being honest with herself, she actually felt better telling Chat rather than keeping it from him. Even if it led her to have a twenty-minute lecture from Tikki before she went to bed.
Another thought that plagued her mind was what Chat was actually trying to tell her before he brought up the 'emergency back-up plan'. Clearly he was trying to tell her something, but either wouldn't or couldn't for some reason. She knew better than to pry for information, but she knew that bottling up emotions was far worse than letting them out.
As much as Bridgette wanted to keep thinking about ways to help her partner in crime-fighting, she had to focus on school for the moment. Right now, that meant studying up for her retake quiz in two days.
When she reached the school library, she removed all the materials she needed to prepare herself. She would glance at her test, decorated with red pen marks, look at the textbook and write in her note taking journal.
Across the room, Felix was in the process of another novel: 'Les Androïdes Rêvent-ils de Moutons Électrique?', but he couldn't find himself to concentrate as he took notice of two familiar, dark twin tails across the room. He closed his book, and made his way over to the table she sat at without making a sound.
He pulled out the vacant chair across from her and sat down. She didn't seem to be phased by his presence, as she was still mesmerized by the items in front of her. From glancing at the marked paper and oversized text book to writing into a small journal, Felix immediately concluded that she was studying. He looked at the notes she was writing and... wow, her handwriting was really pretty.
"That's not the definition of 'buoyancy'."
Bridgette jumped a little in her seat and made a cute, tiny 'eep' noise as she was brought back to reality from her... self-hypnotized studying?
"O-Oh, h-hi Felix!" she stammered. Felix could feel the panic rise in his chest. What was he thinking coming over here? No, wait, he could handle this. Just a quick 'thank you' and an offer to help her study for her quiz. She'd say no, and they go along their separate paths. How hard could that be?
"I had some of the chocolates you made. They were better than I expected," he started. Having said that out loud, he realized he probably should have thought out his words a little better. Otherwise, so far so good.
"Oh, really? U-um," Bridgette cleared her throat, getting more flushed by the second. "I-I'm glad you like them!"
They sat there silently, the awkward pause doing nothing to tame either of their rapidly beating hearts.
"S-so, what brings you here so early? Do you like sci-fi?" she asked having noticed the novel in his hand. Crap, why did she have to continue the conversation?!
Felix quickly retracted his arm, hiding the book under the table nonchalantly. "For an assignment," he lied. "I usually come to school early and spend time here. It's one of the only places where I don't have to worry about other people bothering me." Alright, that wasn't exactly a lie, but it still sounded a lot worse than he intended it to.
"You're supposed to be thanking her, not make her hate you! What the hell are you doing?" Felix mentally scolded himself.
"Y-Yeah, the library can be a nice place to relax. I-I just came here to study," Bridgette tapped the textbook with the eraser-end of her pencil.
"Ah, Madame Mendeleiev's quiz? Yeah, you didn't do very well on that." "Felix, THINK!"
Bridgette blushed harder. "Uh, yeah. Physics was never my forte." Perfect. Now she's embarrassed.
"I've always excelled in that class…" Felix trailed off and observed her expression. Her eyes held an emotion he couldn't quite place, but it certainly wasn't a positive one. Shock? No... Fear? God, he hoped not. He willed his face to remain deadpan and indifferent, but that was proving to be difficult very quickly, and his usage of words was sorely lacking in manners in general. "I could help you, you know."
"R-Really? I- We-... um... uh-"
"Do you want my help or not?" he spat. "Mon Dieu" he thought exasperatedly.
Bridgette closed her partially open mouth before clearing her throat. "Y-Yeah, th-that would be great."
Felix has done countless improve scenes for his job in the past, each one with different scenarios and with his character having a different personality. How or why was this one any different? It should have been so easy. Why did he have to trip-up and be a jerk to her?
Still, they went over the questions they got wrong, and Felix told her where to find them in the textbook. Other than providing small hints for her here and there when she needed it, she was able to do the vast majority of it on her own with him telling her to keep trying in his own 'Felix' way.
The rest of the school day was pretty ordinary. Turning in homework, getting more homework, a few quizzes, new units and projects; stuff that happened on a fairly regular basis. The final bell rang, and Felix put his paintbrush in a small jar of water.
He cleaned up his work station and removed his paint-splattered apron. Nothing had gotten on his regular clothes (which would typically be considered 'too dressy' for school, but given his popularity, no one cared), so he took extra care when placing his brushes in the sink.
Felix had grabbed his stuff and was about to leave the room when the art teacher, Monsieur Lacroix, rose from his desk and said "Felix, can you to stay and clean up a bit today? My student teacher had a family matter and I have business to take care of elsewhere. I won't be long, and I'll take over when I get back."
Felix noticed that all that was left were some used brushes, pallets and some jars of colored water that needed to be picked up. He'd be done in five minutes tops, so he responded "Yeah, sure."
As soon and M. Lacroix left, Plagg emerged from Felix's book bag.
"Sooooooo... Bridgette..."
"What about her?"
"You completely made a fool of yourself in front of her this morning. It was hilarious!"
"Thank you for the reminder."
"My pleasure... So you're seeing her tomorrow, eh?"
"Well, technically, I see her every day... What are you implying?" Felix asked, having caught Plagg's teasing tone in the question.
"Oh, nothing!"
Felix said nothing and resumed his task. He turned on the faucet and began washing the brushed thoroughly. He was well aware of Plagg hovering over his shoulder, but payed him no mind.
"Psst... Hey, kid."
Felix didn't respond.
"Kid!" Plagg zipped to Felix's other shoulder.
"Felix!" Plagg was sure to get a reaction out of Felix by half-shouting directly in his ear, but Felix still didn't blink.
"FELIX!" He flew in front of his chosen's face and shouted at the top of his... lungs? Do kwamis have lungs? Regardless, Felix still didn't even flinch.
"LOOK AT ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU!" Having finally lost his patience, he flew to the shelves of paints and popped all of the caps on the plastic bottles. The mischievous little twerp them pushed every bottle off the shelf one-by-one. Finally, Felix turned around, his face expressing a combination of utter shock and horror.
"Plagg, what are you DOING?!"
Bridgette ran to the art room as fast as she could while trying to secure her second ponytail. She left her bag in there by accident, and she knew the trouble she'd be in for leaving Tikki unattended for so long. With any luck, the kwami would have been asleep the whole time or would forgive her after a few chocolate-chunk cookies.
She didn't even bother to change out of her bathing suit before coming, she just threw on her brown cardigan, denim shorts and flip-flops. She knew she smelled faintly of chlorine, but she would have plenty of time to shower off later.
Bridgette finally made it to the door of the room. As always, M. Lacroix placed any left items right at the doorway just inside the room. Bridgette reached in to grab it when her eye caught the huge mess in front of her...
Well, alright, the art room was never as clean as the rest of the classrooms due to the paints they used being near-impossible to get out of the floors, walls and peoples' clothes once it was dry. This, however was something else entirely. The worst part was, Felix was in the center of it all.
And he saw her, too.
Bridgette saw Felix crouched on the ground, trying to scoop and salvageable paint globs back into the bottles. It seemed he had already went through about four bottles, but there was well over twenty spilled on the ground. She could see the panic in his eyes. She was nearly speechless herself.
"W-What happened?!"
"I-I don't-... It's just- god damn it, HELP ME!"
Bridgette wasted no time in grabbing paper towels and wiping the small bits of paint that Filex hadn't managed to scoop. With every color he finished putting back, he told her which one so she could clean it up. They almost immediately fell into a system with no words exchanged between them. In less than two minutes, the rest of the bottles were picked up and placed back on the shelf in the proper order.
Bridgette felt something cool and wet trail down her stomach, and looked down to realize that she had gotten paint in her hair. The same 'eep' sound she made in the library that morning escaped her throat. Her eyes widened as the water dripping from her hair brought paint with it and stained the pastel pink suit with streaks of green, purple, black and a multitude of other mixed hues.
Felix took notice to and handed her a small pile of folded paper towels. She took them and instantly began rubbing herself clean but stopped when Felix told her "You need to get out of here. He'll come back any second."
With partially numb legs, Bridgette tried to stand from her kneeling position. She felt a strong hand grab her bicep and she was instantly on her feet. Felix let go of her arm and them pushed her out of the room, not enough to hurt her, but enough to get her to go faster. When she was out the door, all she heard was "Thanks for your help, Bridgette," before the door closed behind her.
Even though her eyes caught his face for only a split second, she could tell he was legitimately appreciative of the favor this time instead of usually faking it. Even though she knew she'd help Val if Val was in Felix's place just now, she couldn't help the small fluttering in her heart.
Tikki groggily levitated out of the bag and with a small yawn asked "Is school over yet?"
"Yeah, Tikki. It's over."
Felix finished cleaning just as M. Lacroix returned. Miraculously, Felix still had no paint on his clothes, with the exception of a few drops on his fingers and on the back of his hands. Felix exited the room and headed for home. The halls were empty, and it was safe for Plagg to fly out.
"Oh, come on, you never let me have fun!"
"That was fun to you? Do you know how much trouble I would have been in if Bridgette hadn't come in?"
"Duh! You should have seen the look on your face when I dumped the paints! Imagine if you got caught!"
"Not. Funny."
"Yes it is!"
"Stop snickering."
"Never!"
Both instantly snapped into the right mindset as screams came from outside the school doors followed by the horrifying shrieking of something that wasn't human. Before Felix could bolt outside, the doors were blocked by a splatter of a black substance that was too hard to be liquid but not enough to be solid. It blocked out most of the light coming in through the windows, but Felix could barley manage to see a feminine figure with think, curly hair that came to her waist. A soft purple aura illuminated her face, allowing Felix to identifying her as Hawkmoth's latest victim.
The Akuma outstretched her hand and the same gooey substance that sealed the door sprayed out of her fingers. She pinned a handful of students to a nearby wall and examined them closely. When she was dissatisfied with whom she caught, she shrieked, and ran to another group of people while shouting 'Araña'.
"Plagg, take out all the security cameras in the school, we need-"
"Done."
Felix wanted to ask how Plagg managed that so quickly, but he had to focus on the situation at hand. "Claws out!"
Ladybug observed Araña from afar. Knowing Hawkmoth, he'd probably make her say some horrible puns that did nothing other than annoy her or cause Chat to retort back with a pun of his own. Ladybug used every trick she had to try to stop the Akuma as well as free the citizens trapped in Araña's 'web' as she called it. Eventually, the Akuma ensnared Ladybug in the web before the superheroine had time to react. She watched as Chat battled the Akuma, and eventually managed to catch the corrupted butterfly, but was helpless as the webbing held her arms and legs tight to her body and crawled upwards to her ears, and removed the earrings. She was pressed harder and harder into the wall. Her senses faded by the second until her body went completely limp.
Chat finally managed to neutralize the purple and black clad villainess, but watched in horror as magenta light emanated at her feet and crawled up her legs... and continued crawling until her mask was gone.
A.N. BOOOOOMM! Jumpin' right into it, baby! Screw slow burns! (Just kidding! I have nothing against slow burn stories, I just suck at writing them.)
Wait... *reads over chapter plans* oh shoot, nevermind, this is gonna be kind of a slow burn... Oh well, we'll see how this turns out!
I wanted to include the Araña fight in this chapter, but it was too long. Don't worry, I'll include it in the next chapter along with some Miraculous-Swap humor! (#FelixBug) (#NotAHint)
No one asked this, but the book Felix was reading in the previous chapter was "The Martian" by Andy Weir. I plugged the title into Google Translate and that was what came up. I couldn't resist putting it in the story! The book he was reading in this chapter was "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". I apologize if the translations are wrong, but all I have is google translate (I know it's not the most reliable translation source) and I don't know a lick of French. If these or any translations in the future are incorrect, feel free to correct me in the reviews!
Also, I accidentally wrote 'Marinette' instead of 'Bridgette' like a bajillion times in this chapter and the last combined. If you see 'Mari' or 'Marinette' where it should say 'Bridgette' instead, please let me know so I can fix it!
A few things to know about this AU:
Bridgette can't sew to save her life. Her passion is chocolate-making, which is an ART, and is way harder than it looks. Believe me, I've tried, and failed. Miserably. It would definitely take more than 2.5 hours to make sixteen different types, but I like to think she's extremely skilled in that field.
'Val' is essentially the Alya equivalent in this story (Bridgette's BFF).
Felix is only grumpy when something happens that made him that way (like not getting enough sleep or something), but he always seems angry because he has social anxiety and almost zero people skills. He's self-conscious about this, and puts on a sort of "I give no shits" (metaphorical) mask, but is slowly learning to be more proactive and interactive with others, such as offering help when needed, or agreeing to help if someone asks him for it. When he tries to talk to almost anyone around his age or younger, he often can't or doesn't know how to handle his words or actions. He's spent most of his life around other adults, so it only makes sense to me to write his character to be this way.
As much as I love Adrien from the show, I find it a bit hard to believe how well he handled himself with Nino, Alya and Marinette in the origins episodes. Sure, most of his goofiness/awkward side is shown when he's Chat, but still, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't happen in reality if he was homeschooled all his life and had no close friends his age outside of Chloe... Sorry, Zagtoon... :/
I know most of the fandom has deemed Bridgette as a bubbly, optimistic, love-struck teenage school girl with a sassy and sarcastic side while as Ladybug. I chose to make her shy in the start mostly for the sake of the story, but also partly because SHE'S MY BRAINCHILD! *deep breath*. As for Felix, I tried to make his mannerisms match what we actually know about the canon character- at least what would be canon if the show stayed an anime. (despite the info being very limited). (-_-)
And to the guest review on the last chapter: AHHH! Thank you so much! And AHHH! The puns! (I love them!) Thank you for liking what I wrote!
