Chapter 7
The light of the sun shined paly in the hospital room, Adrien and his father standing by the hospital bed. Félix laying on the white mattress staring up at the ceiling his eyes distant as if daydreaming. There was a still mournful silence, as none of the three in the room spoke to each other.
A flicker of sorrow moved a crossed Gabriel Agreste's face, before he reached down to take Felix's hand. "The doctor said you'll be able to return tomorrow in the morning." He said to the older teen.
"That great." Félix responded his tone not matching his words. His body not seeming to respond to the older man's touch.
There was a moment of pain that filled the man's eyes as he seemed lost in thought. The sound of a phone buzzing startling him. "I have to take this call." He released Félix's hand as he looked at the caller ID "We'll talk later." He said his fatherly tone becoming cold and professional.
Felix's eyes finally looked to his benefactor and temporary guardian "Yes sir." He said almost robotically as he watched Gabriel leave the room.
As his father left Adrien shifted awkwardly making sure the two were completely alone "So." He began to speak looking at Félix expectantly "What do you think?"
The other teen's blue eyes narrowed on him suspiciously "About what?"
"You know." Adrien made a nonchalant circular motion with his hand. "Using the Miraculous."
"Miraculous?" Félix repeated anger and confusion tinting the word.
Adrien let out a nervous chuckle as his eyes narrowed in concern "Do you not remember?"
Félix gave a slow blink before shaking his head, confirming that he had no memory of using the Miraculous.
"Ha!" Adrien let out a laugh to hide his shock "That's great I was just testing you." He hated to lie to Félix, but something about the other teen not being able to remember being Cat Noir made his skin crawl ever so slightly.
The other blonde-haired boy watched Adrien's reaction, his eyes narrowing even more as he grew suspicious.
"What do you remember?" Adrien asked trying to defuse the situation.
"You and dad turned into cats." Félix closed his eyes doing his best to recall what had happened "Then I fainted?" He blinked his eyes open once more as if he wasn't entirely sure that was correct himself.
"Dad?" Adrien questioned more caught off guard by the simple word then all the things that the other boy couldn't remember.
Félix is expression faltered at the realization that what he said "Mr. Agreste." He quickly corrected himself "Sorry." Then apologized.
Adrien's mind swam with conflicting thoughts and feelings "I'm gonna let you rest." He said curtly heading out of the room "See ya'."
Feeling as if his skin was being stepped on by thousands of tiny insects Adrien nervously jumped to the nearest visitor restroom in the hall. He took several deep breaths before slipping on the miraculous ring. "Plagg."
"What?" The Kwami emerged from the ring of a yawn, still slightly exhausted from the earlier battle.
Adrien paced the small restroom "He doesn't remember! Why doesn't he remember?" He gave a harsh whisper to the spirit.
"Chill it dude." Plagg shook his head slightly disappointed by a Adrien's reaction "It's merely a side effect from using my Miraculous wrong, he'll recover in time."
"What you mean side effect?" Adrien stopped to his back and forth movement "How can you possibly use a Miraculous wrong." The thought of it didn't sit right with him, the more you focused on it the more he was worried that he would end up like Félix or something similar would happen to him.
Plagg seeing Adrien's distress but a pod to his chin as he tried to think of the best way to calm him down "Think of it as climbing a ladder." He began to explain "You are really good, and even though you started at the bottom rung you're climbing up safely, but are moving up at a fast pace." He gave a zip and patted the tip of Adrien's nose "Félix on the other hand instead of climbing up the ladder like a normal person, jumps up a few rungs." Then preemptively rolled his large green eyes "Sure, it made him powerful, but because he wasn't going up the ladder safely, when the Miraculous deactivated it was the equivalent of falling off it."
"And the Miraculous hurt him?" Adrien narrowed his eyes as he tried to piece everything together "By taking his memory of being Cat Noir?"
"More or less, if I had more time with him eventually the side effects will stop." Plagg said almost relieved "Though I think it's best for the both of us that he doesn't remember."
"Maybe it is." Adrien said almost guiltily, he could only imagine the types of conflicts in trouble that could happen if Félix was aware of the Miraculous. His memory reset was good enough for him to be a substitute, and as long as Adrien kept the need for a substitute sparingly it really was probably a benefit.
Though, there was a new problem that crept into his mind at that conclusion.
"Plagg?" He called up for his Kwami.
"What?" Plagg tilted his head.
"You think Félix's amnesia, may have come from a past experience when he used a Miraculous wrong?" Adrien swallowed the theory seeming all too possible, but due to Félix's condition Plagg was the nearest reliable source of information.
"Well." The catlike spirit let out a long drawl "I really doubt it, no Kwami worth their powers would willingly let that misuse happen." He answered "Plus, that type of memory loss would take a long time." His tone indicating that to be the only conclusion before he let out a fake cough and whispered "Or a lot of misused Miraculous powers at once." Under his breath.
"Okay, okay." Adrien said not hearing Plagg's last few words, moving to unlock the bathroom door. "You said the Miraculous power is like climbing a ladder? Then when will I be able to use that black hole move?"
"Umm." Plagg crossed his arms taking on a more mischievous tone "At the rate you've been going, five years tops." He answered.
"What no fair." Adrien was sure that the battle against Hawk Moth would be over by the time he went off to a university.
That meant he might not be able to use the powers his look-a-like had.
The Kwami simply gave a shrug disappearing as Adrien opened the door. Outside Adrien noticed a crowd of familiar faces crowded in the guest waiting area.
"Ms. Bustier, guys." He called to his classmates and literature teacher "Mr. Damocles?" He said noticing that his headmaster was among them.
"Oh, hello Adrien." His cheery teacher smiled as she noticed him.
"What's the whole class doing here?" He asked walking closer to him.
"We saw on the news that after Ladybug and Cat Noir saving and fixing the city, that Félix ended up back in the hospital."
"We all made get well gifts." Marinette piped up from the group of students holding a box of macaroons.
"That's so nice." Adrien tried to keep a cheerful tone as he began to notice all his classmates holding some type of gift box or bag.
"Speaking of nice things." Mr. Damocles said stroking his beard "We need to talk to your father, where is he?"
"Uh." Adrien looked around "He went to take a phone call, I'm sure he'll come back."
"Well we wait out here for him." Ms. Bustier said maintaining her pleasant tone "Why don't you introduce your class to Félix."
Seeing the expected faces of all his classmates Adrien obliged, leading the class into Félix's room. The large amount of new faces causing Adrien's look-alikes face to pale and cause vocal confusion among nurses who were trying to navigate the halls outside of the room.
"and this is Marinette." Alya said after several minutes of volunteering to introduce everyone to the teenage boy in the hospital bed "The only one that's not here is Lila, but she said she be here soon."
Félix who went from concerned to now looking exhausted stared at Marinette a lot longer than the other students in the group "Have we met before?"
Marinette blushed out of nervousness and said "Yes, you visited my family's bakery."
Félix gave a nod to, seeming to be satisfied with the answer before looking at the group of teenagers out large "Thank you for the gifts everyone." He said to them.
All students responded with varying degrees of enthusiasm at Félix's thank you.
"That's not all." Chloe said probably, as if the whole event had been her idea.
"What else you could you have gotten him." Adrien looked at the pile of gifts with unease, genuinely uncomfortable by the amount of attention his doppelgänger was getting.
"We wanted to talk to you this morning, but after the monster attack it was decided sooner was better." Sabrina chimed in on Chloe's behalf.
"Better for what?" Félix said confused.
"We want Félix to go to school was us!" Rose squealed unable to the secret contained.
"Guys." Even though he smiled, Adrien felt a pang of jealousy rush through him. "That's nice but…" He remembered how he had to beg his father and his assistant to allow him to attend school so he could make friends. Now all his classmates and friends wanted Félix to go to school and they didn't even know him!
"That seems rather impossible and my condition."
Everyone, even Adrien's face as fell into shocked or saddened expressions at Félix's words. Brief murmurs of confusion and disbelief rumbled through the small crowd of teenagers.
"We knew that, of course." Chloe scoffed being the first to recover "That's the reason why headmaster Damocles, wants to give you a trial visit."
"Trial visit?" Adrien and Félix asked in unison.
"You must be lonely going between the hospital, doctors' visits and the mansion." Alya explained "A trial visit would be something good, it might help you jog your memory."
Félix leaned his head back "Well if Mr. Agreste agrees to it, I don't see a problem in a visit." He relented to the idea of visiting the school.
Sighs of relief and giggles of excitement replaced the tense silence that had filled the group.
"It's so nice to see everybody getting along in here." Ms. Bustier said poking her head in the room at that moment "We have to be going now, Félix needs his rest if he is going to come visit us tomorrow. " She gently said coaxing the group of students out into the hall.
"Tomorrow?" Adrien said confused.
"Yes." The literature teacher nodded seeming excited herself. "Your father said Félix can go with you to school after he gets checked out of the hospital in the morning."
"That…Great!" Adrien gave another fux smile as he watched his classmates leave the room "I think I'll head out with them, see you in the morning." He turned back to Félix before moving out into the hall with the rest of the group.
Completely left alone Félix drifted off to sleep, however it wasn't a peaceful one. His mind filled with painful blurs of black and red. Visions within his dreams went from painful for taxes of light and sound to plunging deep suffocating darkness and back again within seconds. He saw faces, saw their pain, they fear.
It was all too much.
He awoke with a start shaking and sweating as if he had ran a mile instead of simply closing his eyes. He looked around the room searching for his dream journal before the images that had overtook in his sleep drifted away from his mind. However, the sketchbook was in nowhere to be seen, something else quickly catching his attention.
A girl with long brown hair wearing a red jacket and black outfit stared at him from the doorway. Her expression was a mix between painfull tears and happiness as she looked at him.
"Hi." The girl said shyly in the doorway, holding a small narrow box in her hands.
Félix didn't say a word as she let herself into the room and boldly sat herself on the bed.
"I'm Lila Rossi." Her greenish hazel eyes glittered as she took one of his hands "It's so nice to see you again." She whispered as if she was about to cry.
"Again?" Félix asked suspiciously.
Lila nodded as she looked out the window "I can't tell you everything right now." She squeezed his hand "But Félix, my little kitty cat." She smiled and looked back at him "You can trust me."
