Alya was robbing Félix of his last nerve. No matter what he did, she didn't even consider dropping the investigation of Lila's disappearance. Then again, he was already well-acquainted with her irrational stubbornness when it came to discovering a story.

"Alya, don't you think you're taking this a little too…personal?" Félix tried while he watched her list off prime suspects. "Lila was a manipulative witch, so there's really no reason to so stubbornly work on her case."

Alya glared at him. "She's missing!"

People disappeared all the time. The old man that just went into the garden and suddenly couldn't be found anywhere in it. The little girl who happily chirped that she'd be in her room, just for the room to be empty when someone came to look for her. The mother who went out for shopping and never returned. All of these were people who disappeared, never to be seen again. They were searched for over weeks, months and even years until eventually they were given up on.

Stories like these existed in a common human understanding, yet people were not as afraid of them as they were of the obvious dangers. Probably because they simply didn't expect the unexpected. The disappearances were caused by fae who collected their prices for bargains or played their pranks on a whim. Human life was there for them to toy with, not to treasure.

He could understand how such a mystery could intrigue humans, especially Alya, but to go digging was a bad idea.

"That doesn't suddenly turn her into a saint," Félix said with a roll of his eyes.

"What are you even doing here when you're not going to help me anyway?"

The two of them were at Alya's place after school. A highly uncommon situation. Usually he would prefer to spend the afternoon on his own when Adrien and Marinette were on a date, but things had turned out differently. His wanna-be-journalist friend had set it as her mission to investigate a fae kidnapping so he was there to run damage control.

Félix hadn't ever imagined a kind of scenario where he would willingly, one-on-one, discuss anything with Alya. Her habit of jumping to conclusions made it a rather irritating activity. But, as annoying as it was no doubt going to be, it also offered him a chance to sabotage her progress. That was what he was at least attempting so far.

"I am simply offering rational thought as an addition to your project," Félix said

"Rational, huh?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"It's disrespectful to talk bad about a crime victim!" Alya lectured him.

"Oh, really? So, everyone who has been severely hurt in some way has to be treated like some sort of deity now? I wonder where my fair treatment is in that case."

That actually managed to make Alya shut up for a minute and adapt a somewhat guilty expression. It wasn't a method he would usually use, but, as already stated, this was an unusual situation. Everything that managed to prolong Alya's investigation or even make her want to drop the entire thing, was a win in his book.

"I'm sorry, Félix," she eventually said. "It's just so frustrating! I don't know what the police have found and what little bit I've uncovered leads nowhere!"

"Maybe that's for the best. You want to become a journalist, Alya, not a detective."

"Those two are really similar," Alya argued. "They're both about research based on facts and evidence!"

"The difference is that detectives actually get in life-threatening situations and journalists, if they have a sense of self-preservation, usually don't." Well, the latter was clearly lacking in Alya's case if the Akuma attacks were anything to go by. Maybe she would make a good detective after all. If only it wouldn't be for one thing: "There's yet another difference between the two. Detectives usually keep the resolution of a crime to themselves. It's noted down in the files, the family is told and that's often it. A journalist shares such a story with the world."

"Yes, and that's exactly why I want to be a journalist!"

"You want to be a disrespectful asshole that causes families and friends of the victim pain by dragging out a story—fact-checked and correct or not—over several weeks and rubbing it in their faces?"

Alya seemed stunned again. "That's not what journalists do! At least not good ones," she argued, even though a little weakly.

"Really now? It's exactly what they did when my mother disappeared."

He hadn't wanted to mention it, but cold, hard facts might probably be the only thing that would drag Alya away from her mission when rationality utterly failed to do so.

"That's it!" She said, much to Félix's surprise. "Your mother disappeared without a trace as well! Maybe those two are connected!"

By Danu, no! He hated it when Alya found a lead.

"People disappear all the time, Alya."

"Not without a trace!"

"I swear to god, I will delete all your investigation files from your computer if you dig around my mother's case," Félix threatened.

"But what if we can find your mother this way?!"

Unlikely, as she's currently in an entirely different realm.

"Alya, just drop it," Félix hissed. He had no patience for this sort of thing.

There was another silence that stretched between them, though this one was much more uncomfortable than the last. Alya was eyeing him weirdly, as if he had said something that didn't quite make sense to her. Then, eventually, she narrowed her eyes.

"You know something, don't you?"

"I know a lot of things, but none of it would help you."

That was technically true at least.

"You're evading."

"And you're prodding. Quite rudely if I might add."

"Adrien and you have been very insistent on making me stop investigating ever since you found out what this was about. A little odd, don't you think?"

Félix fixed Alya with the most unimpressed stare he could muster.

"Have you ever thought that maybe we don't want to be reminded of our mother's disappearance and the similarities this case has? Or the approach of common sense that you keep rejecting? You know, the one where someone who hasn't even finished school yet shouldn't be concerning herself with a missing person case that has nothing to do with her?"

"Or you're just scared of what I could find!"

Precisely.

"Alya, let me put it this way: There are things that are better left untouched. The sooner you learn that, the better. You're letting your journalistic curiosity get the better of you without thinking about the consequences."

Alya crossed her arms in a clear gesture of defiance.

"Why would it have consequences? Finding missing people is something good!"

"Well, let's take a more obvious example from your journalistic…career then, shall we?" Félix said. In reality he was just trying to avoid Alya's direct line of questioning.

"The Ladyblog," he said, which was enough to make Alya glare at him again. He knew very well that insulting her heart's work wasn't going to win him any sympathy points, but it was a necessity. "You created it to give people news about the local superheroes and that's all fine and well. But you also created it to find out Ladybug's identity. Now, how would you say that is a good thing?"

Alya visibly bristled at the accusation. "The city deserves to know who's saving them all the time so we can show her our admiration!"

Félix sighed heavily. "A naïve viewpoint, but alright, I'll take it. I know you don't like to hear this, especially not from me, but the consequences of such a thing are actually quite severe. For one, Hawkmoth would then know Ladybug's identity as well. It would make it easy for him to track her down in her civilian life and steal her earrings, maybe even kill her if he is so inclined."

The thought of such a scene made an involuntary shudder run down his spine. Alya, in front of him, meanwhile paled.

"Furthermore, she would be swarmed with attention that she has made very clear several times is not something she wants. Her hero life is hectic enough already, so she at least deserves to find some peace and quiet in her downtime. Outing her identity would destroy that, and a stressed Ladybug is an inattentive Ladybug.

"So, you see, outing her secret identity, no matter how intriguing the mystery is, would have severe consequences. Have you considered any of them?"

A tense silence seemed to become the norm of the day by now, so Félix decided to fill it.

"And this is in a situation where we have a clear overview of the possible consequences. Now, for instance, take a mysterious case like my mother's or Lila's disappearance. We don't know who the kidnappers are, what they want or what they are capable of. Unmasking them could easily make you or someone in your family or friend cycle their next victim. Do you really want to risk that just for the short-lived fame an article on it would give you?"

Alya buried her head in her hands.

"God, I'm so stupid!" She sobbed.

Oh no, he had made her cry. Félix had no idea how to deal with tears. He cringed awkwardly and looked frantically around the room before getting a tissue out of his bag and giving it to Alya. She accepted it thankfully, took off her glasses and dabbed at her eyes.

"What am I supposed to do now?" She asked, her voice throaty and weak.

At least that was a question Félix could answer.

"The same you have done before, just more carefully and with regards to the consequences," he said. "For starters, I suggest to remove the section of the Ladyblog that is about finding out Ladybug's identity."

Without another word, Alya put her glasses back on and turned around to her computer. She closed the investigation file and switched over to the Ladyblog, diving into full admin mode.

"I really suck at this, don't I?" Alya asked while she expertly edited the code.

"No, you're impulsive and easily excitable, that's all. It would do you good to remember to take a step back once in a while to consider if what you're doing is really for the greater good or worth the risk."

She nodded. "I don't know if I can just do that. I mean, I have just always hunted for the newest scoop."

"Maybe listen to Nino then. He's very reasonable most of the time," Félix suggested.

"Yes, but…I dunno. You're better at this whole rationality-thing."

"Oh, I know. But the last thing I'm planning to do is to run after you in an Akuma attack. I'll gladly leave that honour to your boyfriend."

Alya was quiet for a moment as she seemed to struggle with a bit of code.

"I just thought that maybe you could come with me on my next interview run? I wanted to go around Paris and ask a few people stuff about Ladybug and Chat Noir. So, if I'd go overboard there, you'd be able to tell and I could better tell what to look out for. Besides, it's been a while since we've really hung out. Mari said that the dating shouldn't get in the way of our friendship but it still kind of has and I'm sorry about that."

That was…actually quite considerate of her. Not that he needed that kind of consideration, as he was honestly fine on his own, but it was still nice to be thought about.

"Very well, I suppose I could do that," Félix therefore said with a small smile.

The two of them sat in a coffee shop and went over Alya's notes from yet another interview run. It was close to Christmas, so everything around them was decorated with an oversaturation of the colours green, red and gold. The rudest assault to Félix's eyes, however, were the fairy lights. Not the ones that behaved in a constant steady glow, but rather those that had been set to what Adrien always called "rave mode". He had nothing against Christmas, but he could really do without that particular development in festive decorations.

"I think you should leave out this answer here," Félix commented and pointed with his pen to one particular section of the paper.

Alya held up a finger as she finished reading through something on her half of the notes before leaning forward to see what Félix meant. She read through it and then furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

"Why? It's not that different from all the other answers, is it?"

The two of them were going through all the interviews, neatly typed up by Alya in hours of work from what she had recorded with her phone and printed out to go over manually. At this point, it was just quality control.

"No, but their way of wording it is quite…crude."

"Yeah, I see what you mean now," she said thoughtfully. "Cross it out."

Félix did as instructed.

He had no idea when it had stopped being weird to help Alya with her blog and started to become something he even somewhat enjoyed. While, yes, it did reduce quite some stress to be able to monitor Alya's knowledge of certain things, it also had become enjoyable to have serious discussions with her.

Ever since he had pointed out her lack of consideration towards consequences about a month ago, she had strived to better herself. What he had said must have deeply impacted her to make such drastic changes, and he was happy to have caused a positive development for once. Especially since that development meant that the two of them could hold a decent and educated conversation. Sure, she still sometimes fell into her old habits of jumping to conclusions and being excessively emotional and protective of some topics, but that was only to be expected.

The more time he spent with her, the more he also noticed the little bit of bad luck her curse was attracting. It wasn't something obvious like tripping and falling, but rather subtle annoyances. She missed Metros, spoke to the exactly wrong people who would refuse to answer her when she ran around and interviewed the population of Paris, and she got stuck with babysitting more often than she liked.

Those were excusable misfortunes though and he was glad to not have caused anything major. More than once during the last few weeks, did he think about perhaps lifting the curse from her. It would make her less fae-marked and therefore less noticeable. But the reasoning that it would still be a disaster if she happened to find out Ladybug's identity on accident always kept him from it.

"So, is Adrien giving Marinette anything special for Christmas?" Alya asked after a few minutes with a grin on her face.

Well, he has a charm enchanted by the goddess of creation that will keep Marinette from finding out that this planet is also populated by magical creatures that can doom her.

"A charm for her bracelet, I think," Félix said with a shrug.

"Ohhh, what is it this time?" Alya asked excitedly and learned forward in her chair.

Félix raised his eyebrows. "Since Marinette has gotten a charm for her bracelet on every birthday of hers and on every Christmas, she probably already suspects this gift. I will not risk spoiling the little bit of surprise it is by telling you what kind of charm it will be this time. After all, you could accidentally let it slip towards Marinette."

Alya gave an offended gasp.

"I would never!"

"You'll just have to wait another week to find out," Félix said and took a sip of his coffee.

Just another week until Christmas. He really wished he could stop dreading that time of year. Not because of the celebration itself, but because of what happened before it. In just three days it would be Midwinter and he loathed it even more than Midsummer. This year it would be three years since their mother disappeared. Three years on their own. He was honestly surprised that they had made it this far, which was in no small amounts thanks to Mélusine's and also Marinette's help.

It would never stop being risky or become easy to handle. Plagg was a huge help, but he wouldn't be there with them forever. Eventually Hawkmoth would be defeated and the Miraculous would have to be returned.

Félix set his coffee down and got back to his half of the notes.

"What are you doing for the holidays?" he asked, if only to distract himself from his ponderings.

"We're staying here since it'd be hell to travel with the twins. And since I know that Adrien and you aren't going anywhere and that Nino and Marinette aren't either, we should totally meet up after Christmas."

"You'll see at least Adrien on Christmas Eve when he follows Marinette around on her present run."

"Oh, that's a tradition?" Alya inquired.

Félix shrugged. "Apparently. She said that it was more a thing between her and Nino before and now it extended to you as well."

"So, she doesn't come by your house?"

"No real need for that when we're spending Christmas at her place anyway. She will try to personally pick us up before the present run though, so fingers crossed for that," Félix said.

"You think your dad won't let her in?" Alya asked and even without looking up, the incredulity in her voice was more than enough to imagine what her face looked like.

"My father doesn't even let the mailman in. That said, I'm sure Adrien will be more than ready to personally open the door for her. Father can say whatever he wants about that."

"How come your father lets you spend Christmas at her place anyway?"

Félix gave a wry smile. "Let's just say that we have come to an agreement a few months back."

That was, if you could call an ultimatum an agreement. Their father was very much not in agreement of it, if his akumatisation directly following it had been any indication. Still, it would only be a matter of time until he found their disobedience infuriating enough that he would actually look into loopholes on the deal. As a businessman, he was bound to find some. Félix just held out hope that it would still be a while until it'd become relevant.

"What kind of agreement?"

The fae kind.

"Oh, just something about us going to the authorities about his mistreatment of us if he keeps up with his nonsense," Félix said vaguely. The twisted truth was still the best kind of lie.

"Wow, really?!" Alya asked, looking equal parts excited and impressed by that revelation. Félix just nodded and took another sip of his coffee.

"No word of that to anyone though, especially not Marinette. She'd just worry unnecessarily," he said.

Alya nodded eagerly and mimed zipping her lips and throwing away the key.

The two of them resumed their work in silence then. Félix was half paying attention to what he was reading while he kept his other ear out for any incriminating talk nearby. While he wasn't as popularly known as Adrien was, it still wasn't unlikely for him to get recognised. If that were the case, he would prefer to catch any gossip from mean tongues and personally put an end to it before it could make the rounds.

Today, like on most days, the surrounding conversations seemed of mundane topics. People worried over their own lives, retold anecdotes and joked about common acquaintances.

"Hey, if you made a deal with daddy dearest, does that mean you don't have to go to galas and other events anymore?" Alya suddenly asked.

"I'm not certain. So far, we haven't heard anything about having to attend an event. That could change though," Félix replied absentmindedly.

"Then what's next Wednesday?"

Félix was instantly attentive. "Next Wednesday?" He repeated and tried his best to not let his voice waver. That's when Midwinter was.

Alya nodded. "Yeah, Mari complained to me about it all week since she wanted to steal you guys—or at least Adrien I guess—away right at the beginning of the holidays. Apparently, your brother was quite adamant about that being impossible because of some fashion gala event. And now you say that there is no event. Suspicious, suspicious."

Félix had been among many crowds ever since he was small. He knew how to move around in a room full of celebrity patrons that were eager to get the occasional company secret out of a naïve child like him. Therefore, he was a master at playing dumb, at evading or at downright calling out people on their actions.

He considered which of those approaches might be best with Alya. Playing dumb definitely wasn't it since she had already called him out on a mismatching story and evading would just make her more suspicious. That left him with only one option.

"Alya, remember our conversation about not prodding too much? This is an excellent example," Félix said.

"I just don't get it, okay?! If it's some family stuff then why didn't Adrien just say so? It's always family stuff with you two anyway."

Félix set down his pen and fixed Alya with a serious stare.

"Listen, I don't know why Adrien lied, perhaps because unexplained family stuff is slowly becoming a touchy subject between him and…all of you actually. The point is that if anyone should be confronted about it, then it would be him. I, however, don't recommend you to do that, as he probably didn't want to admit it out loud."

"Admit what out loud?" Alya asked, though her tone had softened. She was still obviously curious, but at least she was giving Félix the option not to reply.

"If you really must know," he said. "It's the day our mother disappeared. Not a particularly happy occasion, so I would appreciate it if you wouldn't bring it up again."

Alya simply nodded and then went back to her notes in silence. Félix did too, but all kinds of different thoughts flitted through his head. First and foremost: When had Adrien stopped using the "family matters" excuse?