Laughter rang through the mansion.

"Don't charm your father, kitten," the black cat said, clear amusement dancing in her eyes as she groomed Adrien's fur.

"But I want to play with him," Adrien pouted.

"There is a time for everything, my little fluffball, and this isn't it," his mother replied. Sage words that held fairly little instruction on how to do it better the next time.

Her green eyes were old and wise, like they have always been. One could never know when smiles would reach those eyes and when they wouldn't. Even if a smile would make her eyes sparkle, it was hard to tell if she was happy about a situation or if she was simply revelling in some malicious joy. She couldn't lie, so she twisted her words, speaking with a silver tongue. They grew up learning to speak like she did.

"My little fluffballs," she said, looking at them fondly and running her soft hands through their hair. "When did you become so big?"

The St John's wort blended with her golden hair and made her look even more ethereal than she already was.

"Take care of each other until I come back, alright?"

Then she went out the door and took all the warmth with her.

Félix startled awake and needed a few seconds to realize that it had just been a dream. Well, it had been real once upon a time, but that had been years ago.

It was hard to tell with his night vision if the sky outside was already starting to get brighter, but the distant birdsong was indication enough that it was early morning. Seeing how he probably wouldn't fall asleep again for the hour that was left, he shuffled out of bed, careful not to wake Adrien.

Climbing out of a window and up to the roof was something he had learned how to do when he was five years old, so it was barely a challenge, even in his half-asleep state. The cool air of the early morning woke him up further and caused him to shiver a little. October was a strange and scary time when the weather couldn't decide whether it wanted to be warm or cold. Samhain was also looming, but at least this year they didn't get an invitation to the revel. Félix didn't know if that was because no one had business with either of them this year or because of the agreement with Chloé. Either way, he wouldn't go as far as to be grateful towards her for it. Not having to go to a sídhe again was a huge relief anyway.

Things had changed a lot since the previous year, one of them being the Miraculous. Even after an entire month of living with the kwami of destruction, it was still something Félix needed to get used to. And that did not even touch upon the Akuma attacks. Adrien had taken the one on their birthday quite personally, especially when his favourite music had been involved—it was too easy for fae to get lost in music, so it would have been a huge handicap for his brother if he hadn't done anything.

Félix, meanwhile, had never felt so utterly helpless in his entire life. Well, there had been a few instances where he had felt helpless, namely on the previous Samhain or on the Midsummer when Adrien had met Marinette. This was another kind of helpless though. He had been forced to watch his brother and his best friend fight against his other friend who had been possessed by dark magic. He had been extremely close to a panic attack while watching Ladybug and Chat Noir fall out of the sky. And then he had been trapped in a bubble himself and even his claws hadn't been sharp enough to burst it.

"Take care of each other until I come back, alright?"

The last words of his mother ghosted through his mind. How was he supposed to take care of his brother when they had become so very different? Adrien could use the powers of a literal god and Félix had…basically nothing. The little magic he could do wouldn't help much in an actual fight. And then there was the problem of the Court's opinion. Nothing definitive had been said yet, but he could tell that the fair folk were enraged by having magic exposed on such a large scale. Danu or not, they wouldn't forgive this any time soon. Following the Court therefore meant not getting involved in Akuma fights, since while the public now knew of magic, they didn't know about the fair folk yet.

Staying on the sidelines didn't quite sit well with Félix though.

Félix did his best to pay attention to what Mlle Bustier said, though it was hard when he saw Marinette's and his brother's seats so obviously abandoned. They were out there fighting another Akuma and he was in class. What was he doing in class? He should go out there and…and what? Help them? He couldn't help them! He clenched his jaw in irritation and instead opted to watch Alya and whatever she was doing instead of concentrating on class.

He had warmed up a little to Marinette's new friend and appreciated her analytic side and dedication. What he did not appreciate was that Alya quickly jumped to conclusions without much proof. A fatal flaw when she wanted to become a journalist. Maybe he should point it out to her sometime.

Félix narrowed his eyes when Alya started holding a picture of Ladybug with her face cut out to everyone in class, probably to see if the faces matched. He was aware that Alya's blog was all about finding out Ladybug's identity, but he had so far made it very clear to her what he thought about that. Or at least he thought he had. It was irresponsible and dangerous, even without adding the fair folk to the mix! Maybe he should try to appeal to her with some common sense. If that failed, he could always ask Adrien if it was alright to charm her. For Marinette's and his sake of course. Yeah, that would definitely be a fun conversation to have.

"May I charm your new friend so that she is dissuaded from pursuing her passion of unmasking you and Marinette?"

He would very much prefer if that was a conversation they would never have to have. He just hoped common sense would win.

When lunch break came around, Félix walked down the stairs with Nino. They had just had a conversation about the proper ways of handling a dog when someone suddenly grabbed both of them by the arms. Félix was about to reprimand whoever had dared to touch him without his consent, but then noticed that it was just Alya. She received a displeased scowl from him but didn't even seem to notice.

"Nino, Félix, I need your help!" She declared and didn't give them a moment to protest before pulling them away. Félix was not pleased with this, since he had been on his way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Once the Akuma was defeated, his brother and Marinette would arrive there. Besides, he was hungry.

"So—" Nino began to ask as the three of them sat down on a bench by the Seine, but Alya quickly silenced him with a finger on his lips, as she tried to call someone on the phone. The mailbox revealed that said person was Marinette.

"Ugh, I hate when she goes AWOL. She's not calling me back. Where is that girl?!" Alya ranted.

Félix rolled his eyes. That was the reason why he was kept from lunch?! How ludicrous.

"Seriously, my man Adrien is the exact same way," Nino said and then threw Félix a knowing grin. "Do you think the two snuck off together?"

Félix raised his eyebrows as high as physically possible. He was aware of what Nino was implying, but he did not want to start unnecessary and possibly damaging rumours.

"Possibly, but probably not for the reason you would like to hear. They're too oblivious for that."

"Yeah, true," Nino sighed just when Alya's phone beeped with a notification.

A news report showed that Ladybug and Chat Noir had defeated the villain. Félix only got a small glance at an awkwardly waving Ladybug with Chat Noir in the background as he talked to the victim before Alya turned off her phone and let out an excited gasp.

"I think I just found out who the real Ladybug is!"

Félix blanched.

Oh no.

He would have to do a lot of damage control and swear Alya to secrecy, maybe even charm her so she would forget—morals be damned. Worst case scenario, he had to curse her so she couldn't communicate the identity of the heroes in any way and—

"Chloé," Alya suddenly whispered, making Félix's train of thought come to a screeching halt.

A moment of silence passed before Nino started laughing.

"Miss self-absorbed and 'I'm gonna call daddy' is supposed to be Ladybug? Are you nuts?"

Félix, after he was done facepalming, was tempted to throw in his own two cents because it would do Alya no good to get close to Chloé in order to prove her theory.

"I am not crazy," Alya said, obviously ticked off, before Félix could even open his mouth. "And I'll prove it to you."

Before either of them could say anything, Alya stormed off. Félix winced. He was a creature of misfortune, and therefore, sometimes, he could feel disasters before they happened. This was one of those times.

The disaster Félix had felt unfolded itself in front of the twins as they entered the locker room the next morning. Somehow Alya had managed to rope Nino into her crazy scheme, so he was distracting Chloé while Alya not so sneakily took a picture of the inside of Chloé's locker. Sabrina, bound to the Court princess as she was, saw it and immediately called Alya out.

"This isn't gonna end well," Adrien winced and Félix could only nod in agreement.

Alya ended up suspended and Félix couldn't tell if that was for the best because it kept her away from Chloé, after all, or for the worst because it really didn't make Alya happy. When all of them sat in class later and Marinette snuck in late, he watched as she tapped Adrien's shoulder to ask where Alya was.

"She's been suspended," Adrien supplied quietly.

"What?!" Marinette exclaimed and the sheer volume and pitch made Félix flatten his ears under the glamour.

Not even being scolded by the teacher stopped her from further inquiring though. This time it was Nino who answered.

"The short story: She got accused of breaking into Chloé's locker. I mean, Ladybug's locker."

"What?!" The shriek this time was even shriller. It was unsurprising that Marinette was sent to the principal's office after that. He just hoped that she wouldn't get suspended as well. Adrien seemed to have the same worries, as he threw a glance back at Félix. For the next couple of minutes, he could hear his brother nervously bouncing his leg under the table, until suddenly the projector lit up by itself and a video started playing.

"I'm Lady Wifi, revealer of the truth!" the obvious Akuma said. "For our first exposé, our principal would like to share a little tidbit with you. So, Monsieur Damocles. Is it true that you wrongly suspended a student named Alya today?"

By Danu.

He should have known that this misfortune wouldn't have stopped with Alya's suspension. While there had been some Akumas since the incident with Nino on their birthday, Félix wasn't sure how well Marinette would do with having to fight yet another one of her friends. And how would Adrien handle it? He couldn't see his brother's expression, but the body language pretty much screamed that he wanted to run and do something.

When Lady Wifi finished declaring her mission to unmask Ladybug—a very dangerous goal for an Akuma—Mlle Bustier immediately sent them home. The homework assignment she was yelling after them got swallowed up by the noise of general panic as everyone left the classroom in a hurry. Adrien was the first one out and Félix did his best to follow him. He would not lose sight of his brother this time.

The bathroom might not be the most creative hiding spot to transform, but it was empty and abandoned for the moment, which was all that counted.

"If Lady Wifi thinks that Chloé is Ladybug she'll go straight to the hotel," Adrien said just as Félix entered the bathroom. His brother jumped at the squeak of the door.

"Just me," Félix said and gave Plagg a grave look.

"What do you think will happen when an Akuma threatens the daughter of the Court's chief?"

Plagg snickered.

"You think the faeries can do something about it? They know as little as you do about who Hawkmoth is and if they'd find out, it would be one worry less for you, wouldn't it?"

"Alright, let's help Marinette. I don't know what she'll do since we have to fight Alya this time. Plagg, Claws Out!"

Félix watched his brother transform and had to swallow the tiny bit of jealousy.

"See you later," Chat Noir said with a wink and then ran out the door.

Félix stayed behind for a few seconds before uttering a curse and shifting to his cat form. He bounded after his brother and up a rooftop, only to see him long gone already.

"Smelt it," he hissed and started walking into the direction of the Bourgeois hotel. Since school had just let out, Chloé was probably still on her way home, which meant that he wasn't in a hurry.

If the Akuma was really targeting her, then he only hoped that Ladybug and Chat Noir would wrap this up before sunset. And if not, he prayed that his brother was smart enough to keep Ladybug away from any fair folk. Because if Mélusine's and his fears were true, then most of the Court would crawl out of hiding during an Akuma attack at night.

"Waiting for the chaos to unfold, Félix?"

He startled so bad that he almost fell off the roof. When he whirled around, he was glaring at a very unapologetic Alix. He had tried to avoid her and also Juleka for the most part so far, but he should have guessed that a confrontation would happen sooner or later. More than once he had thought of how to start such a conversation civilly and with as much finesse as possible. The only thing he managed to say though was: "Why are you on a roof?"

It was, frankly, a stupid question. He had a pretty good guess why she was on a roof, so the better question would have been how she had gotten on one. And while he was curious, he was still not brave enough to ask her what kind of fair one she was or even what Court she belonged to.

Alix shrugged. "Why not?"

Félix narrowed his eyes. "Are you following me?"

"Chill! I'm just checking out what's up with Alya going crazy. Since she's after Chloé, this is bound to be fun."

He wasn't sure if 'fun' was the word he would have used to describe the situation.

"That's why you're here too, right?" Alix continued with a grin and walked over to him. Félix tensed.

"I am simply keeping an eye out for fair folk, that's all. An Akuma attack is bound to tempt some of them out of hiding and I don't appreciate additional trouble."

"An Unseelie as the fun police? That's new," Alix snorted, sat down on the roof next to Félix and let her legs dangle over the edge.

Félix kept quiet. He wanted to keep looking for his brother, but he couldn't do that with Alix around.

Looks like I need to humour her for a bit.

"You're quite stuffy for a fair one," she said.

Rude.

"That might be so. Why are you interested in a conversation then?"

Alix shrugged again. "Just felt like talking to another fair one in the class about what's going on and you're the only approachable one."

"I beg your pardon?" Since when was he the most approachable one?! "You should have tried talking to my brother then," Félix said, even though he didn't like the thought of a fair one talking to his brother.

"Nah, he was busy playing human. Didn't want to mess up his act. Guess I don't need to explain why Chloé and Sabrina are a clear out, and Juleka doesn't have a good grip on this time period yet since she stayed in Tír na nÓg for a while. That leaves you."

"Should I consider myself honoured now?"

Alix snorted. "Sarcasm. That's new."

"Let me guess: You have not spent much time in human company so far," Félix said and flicked his tail. No sarcasm meant the inability to lie. This just proved his hunch that she was a real fair one and not a halfling like him. Then again, that he knew three other halflings, one of them his brother, was extraordinary enough.

"Bingo. My dad is an archaeologist, though he's not interested in finding things from previous human civilizations. It's fun for him to hide things somewhere and then come back to that place hundreds of years later to dig it back out. He knows where lots of ancient sites were, so he always discovers new grounds. He's currently working as an historian at the Louvre, which gives us a little break from traveling around the globe. How about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah, what's your story?"

Félix rolled his eyes. "Nothing unusual. My father is human and my mother was a Cat Sidhe. She left on Midwinter and never came back. End of story."

"My mum left too," Alix said with dangling legs and looked at the sky. "Or rather, we left and she stayed. She didn't want to leave Scotland while dad wanted to travel. Only my older brother and I went with him while the rest of my siblings stayed with mum."

"How long ago…" Félix started but then trailed off. He shouldn't ask such personal questions, but the whispers of the universe combined with his natural curiosity brought out the worst in him.

Alix grinned. "Thirty years."

His poker face must have failed him because she started laughing.

"You should see your face," she snickered. "I don't look that old yet, huh? But when you're immortal it doesn't really matter how long you drag out your youth. I could stay like this for hundreds of years if I wanted to. The eternal 15-year-old."

Finally, Félix found his voice again. "Why are you going to school then?"

"Because I haven't yet. I was always at archaeological sites or searching for the nearest lochs. Being this close to humans is exciting!"

"Wait, lochs? Are you a Fuath?"

Fuath—water spirits, inhabiting the sea, rivers, fresh water, or sea lochs—were the first thing that came to mind when he thought of the fair folk, Scotland and lochs. He just hoped that he was right and hadn't accidentally insulted her.

"Yep, my mum's a Beithir."

Félix immediately jumped up and took a few cautious steps back. A growl threatened to escape him but he held it back.

His mother had told him stories of Beithirs. Huge venomous snakes that were faster than any human. If they bit someone, the person had to reach the nearest waters before the Beithir did, otherwise the poison would kill them. Those snakes were creatures that were built to kill and now one sat in the midst of their class.

"Woah, prejudiced much?" Alix said and then patted the roof next to her. "Come on, sit back down. I won't bite you."

"How about other people? Would you bite them?" Félix asked suspiciously.

Alix blinked and then tilted her head. "I can't promise you that I won't poison people that threaten me or those that really deserve it. But I'm Seelie and don't care much about killing. Pranks? Yeah, sure. But killing is more the Unseelie Court's specialty, isn't it?"

"A Beithir can't be a Seelie," Félix argued. They were as inevitably Unseelie as Cat Sidhe were, so if he couldn't change Courts, then neither could they.

"Yeah, but Aos Sidhe can be. My dad is an Aos Sidhe from the Seelie Court, so that also counts for me. Looks like both of us are half royalty then, huh?"

"Lucky," Félix muttered.

"That's what it means, yes. Also 'happy' and 'blessed'," Alix said, apparently misunderstanding what he had meant to say. It was just rubbing salt into the wound, though.

That's right, the Seelie were the blessed, happy and lucky ones while he was an Unseelie and therefore an unholy abomination of misfortune and unhappiness, loathed by reality itself.

The sound of an incoming message prompted Alix to get out her phone and groan in annoyance.

"And that's my cue to leave. Dad just got wind of the Akuma attack and he doesn't want me to get in trouble with your Court. Was nice talking to you Félix, let's do this again sometime."

She threw him a grin as she stood up and then walked back to the fire escape she had probably also used to climb up.

What an unusual encounter that had been.

"I've been meaning to ask you a question for some time now," Félix said. He had eventually found his brother and, since nothing had happened for hours, the two of them were waiting on a roof close to Le Grand Paris hotel. Sooner or later, the Akuma, Ladybug, or both would show up. Chat Noir had said that the two of them had met up earlier, but since nothing had happened for over an hour, she had said that she needed to go home for a bit to check on her family. Considering that Alya was potentially angry at Marinette as well for 'going AWOL all the time', as she put it, this had probably been a good idea.

"Shoot," Chat Noir said while leaning with his back against a chimney and tapping around on his baton.

"How can you stand wearing a bell?"

"It's silent," Chat Noir said and poked said bell to demonstrate. It didn't make a noise.

"Now that this mystery has been solved—" Félix said and jumped on his brother's shoulder to be able to see better, "—how is the spoiled brat doing?"

They had figured out that the zoom of the video feature could work like binoculars, which was how they kept an eye on Chloé. So far, nothing particularly interesting had happened, especially not since Chloé had left her room half an hour ago.

His brother suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth and started shaking from barely contained laughter. Apparently, something had happened now. When Félix looked at the baton's display, he had to stifle laughter too.

Chloé was in her room again, though this time she wore a ladybug cosplay and danced around with a yo-yo.

"Looks like someone has an admirer," Chat Noir snickered at the same moment as Félix heard the whirr of Ladybug's yo-yo. He quickly jumped off his brother's shoulder and hid behind a chimney. And not a second too soon, as the heroine presently landed next to Chat Noir.

While the two of them talked, Félix threw a worried glance at the sky. The fair folk were twilight creatures, beings of dawn and dusk, of not quite and almost. They would no doubt crawl out of hiding at this time of day.

With Chloé in the hotel, there would no doubt be others of the folk too. Real fair folk that didn't give second chances and laughed about despair. Magical protection from a goddess or not, he really didn't like the thought of Marinette going in there in the middle of a crisis where Chloé was involved.

Therefore, when Ladybug and Chat Noir spotted the Akuma, Félix followed them.

Félix might have said that he was done with being just a helpless bystander, but participating in a fight without being seen by the Akuma, Ladybug, or the various cameras Lady Wifi had set up proved to be a challenge. Luckily, magic could be invisible, so he just had to wait for the right moment to use one of the spells Plagg had taught him. A small inconvenience, like making the Akuma trip, could be enough to turn the tide. With all the moving around the three of them did, there was no guarantee that his magic would hit the intended target though, so he practiced patience while following them around as invisible as he could. Though following them involved a lot of running up and down stairs.

He started to genuinely panic when Ladybug got locked in the kitchen. Since Lady Wifi was in the kitchen as well and the building was evacuated, Félix allowed himself to swear.

"Iron bells!" He hissed. "Can you Cataclysm the door?"

Chat Noir meanwhile concentrated on something on his baton.

"Not if I don't have to," he muttered and then grinned. "The service elevator. Perfect!"

Félix ran after his brother when he took off to the hallway and jumped into the service elevator with him at the last second.

"This would be much less crowded if I could shift right now," Chat Noir grumbled while Félix wiggled in the small room behind him. As much as he wanted to make sure to not be left behind again, he also didn't want to be seen first thing when the service elevator arrived.

"Concentrate!" Félix hissed. "You'll probably get attacked as soon as you get out of this thing."

"I'm more worried about Ma—"

Félix bit his brother's tail, turning what he wanted to say into a hiss.

"Are you crazy? Don't say her name while transformed, no matter how secluded you think you are!" Félix scolded.

They didn't have time to discuss the topic further because at that moment, the service elevator arrived. Félix did his best to be invisible in the furthest corner while his brother stepped out. Through a reflection on a pot he could see that Ladybug had been pinned to the wall with two lock symbols. The sight made his fur stand on end. It seemed like they had arrived just in time.

When Lady Wifi looked away, Félix took his chance to jump out of the service elevator and hide. He sneaked over to where Ladybug was pinned while Chat Noir started to fight with the Akuma. Félix frowned at the camera icon while remaining out of its range. He might be able to destroy the lock signs—their spell matrix seemed rather simple—but he would be filmed and broadcasted to all of Paris while doing so, which meant it wasn't an option.

Félix snapped his head around when his brother let out a yelp and was pushed into the freezer. He heard muffled cursing from within but didn't pay it much mind. His brother could take care of himself but Ladybug was still pinned to a wall and now without any help.

No, that wasn't true. He was there to help. All he needed to do was to go back to plan A, though it would probably take more than an inconvenience for it to work. His mind went to the only other thing.

"How about curses? Do they work on Akumas?" Félix asked which earned him a scowl from Adrien.

"Yes, but they'll stay on the person even after the Akuma is purified. I wouldn't recommend it because to let them work at all you'll have to make them especially strong. If you want to lift them afterwards it'll require direct contact and a loudly spoken counter-spell, so that could become problematic," Plagg said in between bites of Camembert.

"Félix, we talked about this: No cursing anyone," Adrien said surprisingly sternly.

Félix would get an earful from his brother later, but depending on what he'd curse Lady Wifi—no, Alya—with, it could even become beneficial. Some curses might be pretty bad, but simply bothersome ones were barely worth a mention.

He snuck closer and touched the Akuma's leg with a paw. Both her and Ladybug were too preoccupied to notice him and the touch was too faint to gather attention. It was enough though.

Fail to unmask Ladybug, no matter how hard you try.

The effect was immediate as misfortune took its course. Taking Ladybug's earrings would have meant to unmask her, so the universe didn't allow it. When Lady Wifi held up her phone, no doubt to place more cameras, the phone charm caught in her hair, making her yank at it in frustration. The phone was dropped in the attempt to free her hair from it and Félix immediately darted over to the possessed device.

Paws were not the best to work touchscreens, but this was a magic phone and Félix had practice. Cancelling out the pause symbols and the camera were therefore an easy feat for him. Ladybug was freed and he back in hiding before Ladybug or Lady Wifi—who had coincidentally hit her head when bending down—could notice him. He slid the phone over the ground to Ladybug and prayed to whichever god might be merciful to him that the embodiment of good luck would continue to be oblivious to his presence. Even though speaking curses gave him good luck—it was no doubt the only reason why he hadn't been spotted yet—he didn't want to test out how far said luck would go when put against the powers of Danu.

Deciding it would be best to let Ladybug handle the rest of it, he snuck below serving wagons and kitchen counters to get to the freezer. He could hear swearing from inside and then the door fell apart after a muttered "Cataclysm". Chat Noir immediately jumped out just in time to see Ladybug break the phone and purify the Akuma. Then she ran over to Chat Noir and hugged him.

"You're alright!" She said and Félix had to grin as he saw his brother's cheeks darken from more than just the cold.

"Takes more than some cold to defeat this cat! What about you? How did you manage to free yourself?" Chat Noir looked her over worriedly, as if she had been the one that had been thrown into a freezer.

"I'm okay. Lady Wifi dropped her phone and that must have cancelled the locks."

"Lucky," Chat Noir said with a wink that made Ladybug roll her eyes. Then his ring beeped, making her eyes dart to the destroyed door.

"I don't have a…you know…to fix this," she suddenly said in a panic. "Tikki said I should only use my power when I really need it but I didn't need it this time and I already purified the Akuma and—"

"My lady, breathe," Chat Noir said. "If a Lucky Charm is created by using magic from your yo-yo, and throwing a Lucky Charm in the air activates the cure, then logically throwing your yo-yo in the air and calling for the cure should work too. It's the same magic after all."

It was not exactly logical, since there was nothing logical about magic, but the explanation seemed to at least calm Ladybug down. Félix guessed that Plagg had just given his brother instructions to say that.

While she threw her yo-yo into the air to fix the freezer door and everything else that had been damaged in the fight, Félix fixed his attention on Alya. The Ladyblogger had been mourning her destroyed phone but switched her attention to the conversation between the two superheroes. Félix narrowed his eyes at her. She was cursed now, but that only meant that she would never find out Ladybug's civilian identity. That was a good thing, since it would keep both her and Marinette safe. Well, relatively safe. But a curse was a curse and he couldn't help but be nervous about possible side effects. He'd have to keep an eye on her.

"You won't ever get involved in an Akuma fight again!" Adrien yelled, seething to the brim with anger. Félix actually cowered at this, since it was rare to see his brother this angry. His defiant and rational side won out though.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were locked in a freezer and the Akuma was about to take Ladybug's earrings while having a camera pointed at her. Should I have just done nothing? Besides, what took you so long? You could have used Cataclysm immediately."

At this, Adrien suddenly looked sheepish.

"I lost the ring," he muttered but then shook his head and fixed a glare on Félix again. "But you still could have done something else! Why did you have to curse her?! I thought we talked about this!"

Félix took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I did not have many options."

"You had other options though!"

"Adrien, will you stop complaining for a moment about what-ifs and listen?!"

His brother shut up but didn't stop glaring.

"Alright," Félix said, "I admit I messed up a little—"

"A little?!"

"—but anyways, this outcome is favourable to alternative options. The curse prevents Alya from unmasking Ladybug, no matter what she does, so that keeps Marinette safe."

Adrien's glare softened to a frown. "Strong curses have side effects."

"Meh, so she'll trip more often and maybe fail a test. Big deal," Plagg said while hovering nearby. He was surprisingly unfazed about the whole ordeal.

"But that's not fair, she—" Adrien started, but Plagg didn't let him finish.

"Kid, I'm not saying I'm on your brother's side or that I agree that there wasn't a better way to handle the situation. But now you won't have to worry that your reporter friend will unmask Pigtails eventually. Worrying if she'll hurt her ankle while tripping is much better than having to worry that the Court will rip your girlfriend apart if her identity is compromised."

Adrien visibly paled.

"And you," Plagg continued and now turned towards Félix. "You're messing with magic way beyond you. Akumas are unpredictable and we never know if your magic might even help against them. You were lucky this time, especially considering you're a Cat Sidhe, but you won't always be on the winning end. One day an Akuma might get you and that would make the entire situation a lot worse.

"If you want to help so badly, then do what your brother can't actively do and keep the fair folk away. If you need to hover close to fights, then at least do that much. It wouldn't do us any good if Ladybug would spot them and think they're another Akuma."

Now Félix paled too. Plagg was right. They had been in Le Grand Paris hotel for Danu's sake! Encountering fae had been his primary worry but it had shifted once he'd seen Marinette in danger. Sure, his brother had not been able to help at that moment, but that didn't mean that Félix was allowed to step in and act.

Félix wasn't helpless; the fight had proven it to him. He didn't belong on the sidelines either. No, his battle lay elsewhere. He had just not been able to see it before. The fair folk liked to avoid Cat Sidhe because of their bad luck. Finally, he would be able to use this to his advantage.