Once the afternoon was finished and the class was splitting up to head back home, Felix stood by Adrien and watched a limo for Chloe pull up. "Wonderful to see you after all these years," she kissed him on the cheek as though they were old friends, "and I hope we see each other soon!" She and Sabrina slipped into the limo and it pulled away, leaving him slightly unnerved. She was far more controlling than he remembered.

Alya and Nino headed off with a wave. "We have to do this again sometime!"

"And dude, we totally need to bring some killer music!"

Marinette and Lila giggled. "Come on," she pulled Marinette back to the bakery, "we still have to set up for our sleepover tonight."

"Okay." She gave Adrien and Felix a big wave. "See you guys later!"

Adrien waved back. "Later."

Lila basically had to drag Marinette away at this point, which Felix took as his cue to turn Adrien back to the road. "I have called Natalie for a ride. Your bodyguard should be here momentarily. If he takes his job seriously, that is."

"How harsh."

"He was supposed to be doing circles around the perimeter, but I saw your limo across the bridge in the direction of a small coffee shop. Highly risky in a business like his."

"He works hard enough. I don't mind him taking a break every now and then. Father really does make him and Natalie do a lot."

"They are paid to do a lot."

"I know, but…ever since mom left, he had been really, really, really, really, really-"

Felix silenced him with the swipe of a hand. "Understood."

"…How did Uncle Justin take Aunt Cordelia disappearing?"

Under the Mesmer he had taken it quite well, but Felix was not about to tell his cousin such a thing, so instead he merely slumped his shoulders an inched. "He was heartbroken. The Marines are what brought him back. They give him purpose while she is away…and perhaps he hopes he can find her out at sea." Part of Felix hoped that would be the case, but no sea connected to the Grand Canyon.

The limo pulled up and let the boys in. On the way back home Felix once again found himself staring at the ring. His contacts were finished scanning for thermal but he felt drawn to it. Not to keep it or steal it away, but because it was on his own cousin's finger. Of all the people in Paris to have a miraculous, it ended up being Adrien and a friend of his.

Adrien noticed him staring again. "Oh, this?" He held the ring up for a better look. "I, uh, got it from a small antique shop."

Felix knew he was lying from the way he would not make eye contact and the shortness of breath he suddenly had. Whether or not he had gotten it from the Master in a shop or on the road meant little. The fact that he had met the Master was enough. "I had not realized there was an antique shop in the 21st District."

"Um, it may have been one outside the district. I have a hard time remembering, it was so small and so long ago."

The bodyguard was looking at them through the rear-view mirror. Felix smiled. He would not be asking too many questions in front of a third party. "I think it suits you."

Adrien nodded, relieved that the questions were over. They rode the rest of the way in silence. It gave Felix time to think.

To think of a way to steal the miraculous.

On his second night in Paris Felix felt sure enough of the secrecy of the guest room, with the thin stick of foam beneath the door. He pulled out his laptop and brought up the view of the camera he had placed in Marinette's room. Cammo popped out of the tie pin he still wore and sat on the back of his left hand. "This feels wrong."

"Most part of being an S.P.I.E.S agent revolve around doing what most people consider wrong. It is not for the fainthearted."

Cammo poked his own chest. "Wonder if I have a faint heart."

The resolution was crystal clear. Marinette and Lila sat in pink and green pajamas respectively, laid out on a mess of blankets and eating cookies. Nothing out of the ordinary yet, but he had the whole night to wait.

Eventually Lila stood and moved to a box of dolls. She picked up the ladybug doll and ran one of her fingers over the fabric. Felix noted the way she examined it before tossing it back in the box. She glanced in the camera's direction for a moment but showed no signs of actually noticing it. Not surprising. Only agents were trained to notice. "Too much Ladybug here, if you ask me," her voice rang out clear through the camera's miniature microphone, "but I suppose I'm the only one in Paris who is not a fan."

Marinette fixed her pigtails. "Come on, Lila, you have to forgive her. Ladybug apologized, you told me so, remember?"

Lila slumped back down to her stomach and grabbed a cookie. "Yeah, but it still hurt. She was so mean!"

"Well, you did lie."

She hid her face in the blankets. Marinette sighed. After a few seconds Lila sat back up with a smile on. "Forget about Ladybug. You and I are going to paint our nails."

"Of course," Marinette smirked, grabbing a small red nailbrush, "but you are so getting red with black spots!"

"Ugh," Lila ran around the bedroom, Marinette chasing after her, "not on your life!" They were laughing and tripping over the blankets.

Cammo smiled. "How nice…?" He flew up to the screen and pointed. "Hey, Felix, why is that box shaking?"

Felix leaned in. On her desk was a small pink box with a lock, and it was indeed shaking on its own.

"Well," he said, "I believe we are about to have an encounter."

He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...wonder how Felix would react to meeting the real Santa Claus. And man, planning out five separate fanfictions is insane! This one, Dance of the Trickster, and MMMQS are constantly on my mind. Where will the characters go? How will they each defeat HawkMoth? Who is truly behind the masks? And with my term coming up, and being put in charge of my church's preschool worship for the next year...oh boy ;-;

Until the next chapter!