-Julian's POV-
"Oof!"
I gasp, falling flat on my back in a puddle, dodging the Akuma's magic wand. The rain poured heavily down upon the two of us. It's one of the rare days this season where it's been raining non-stop. Unfortunately, the overall mood of gloomy rain only made it easier for Akumatisations.
The Magician of Misfortune steps over me, wand at the ready.
"Looks like the show's over for you."
I laugh a little awkwardly. "I suppose it would be too much to ask for an encore?"
The Akuma sneers. "Please, that's for the main performance, once I make the Eiffel Tower disappear, I will be the best magician in all of Paris!"
"Faon!"
Sucking in breath, I swing my legs around, kicking the Magician in the leg, knocking him off balance while regaining mine.
"Sticks can act as paintball guns, Mind's Eye." I spin my blowgun, my weapon turning into a bright green paintball handgun and I fire a couple shots at the Akuma's feet, who was already stumbling back from the kick and lands flat on his butt.
Ladybug and Chat land nearby, the two having successfully saved everyone who fell from the bridge the Akuma made disappear. Chat grabs the Akuma's magician's hat, which we discovered was the actual hiding place of the Akuma, and tosses it to Ladybug who rips it apart.
"No more evildoing for you, little Akuma." She declares, opening her yo-yo and capturing the butterfly before beginning the purification process.
I let out a sigh of relief, watching the ladybugs return all the civilians who disappeared from the Akuma's magic safe and sound.
"Faon, we did it!" Chat cheers excitedly, hugging me from the side.
I laugh, swaying slightly from the force of the tackle. "Was there ever any doubt?"
The blond smirks. "You're right, with you back on the team, how can we lose?"
Blushing, I look away. That sounded way too flirtatious in my head.
For some reason, Chat has been way more confident today. From the moment we met this morning, he always seemed to find a way to be near me, or to hug me, or just straight up flirting with me (he's still hugging me). At first the play-flirting was funny, because he's always blushing or stammering and honestly most of it goes over my head half the time. But now, with this newfound confidence from... wherever , his words are starting to feel more… real? Seriously, if this keeps going on, I might start thinking that he's actually trying to woo me.
"Y-You, ah..."
Wait, am I gonna bring it up!? No! Stop right now and don't say anything to make it weird! Abort mission! I cringe. "Thanks." I say instead before turning to our leader. "Ladybug, we need to talk."
She looks surprised, but nods. "Yeah, we should, but not right now, we have to get to school."
I gasp. "WHAT?" Looking at a nearby clock.
Crap.
"I'm late!" I scream, scrambling out of Chat's grasp and rushing towards the school, ignoring the cat hero's laughter.
"Au revoir deer!" He shouts to me.
"Hate to watch you leave but love to watch you walk away." I hear the stupid cat mutter under his breath and I nearly trip over myself. He definitely knows I can hear him, I can feel his smirk.
I want to scream, is he actually flirting with me!? How is that even humanly possible? Didn't he say that he fell for someone else? Could that person be… me?
I shake my head violently. No way, what am I even talking about. He liked Ladybug! I'm like, a budget version of her, if he fell out of love with her , there's no way I would stand out enough for him to…
Whatever, no time for that right now, I land in front of the school doors and hide in the corner of the courtyard, before detransforming.
"A-achoo!" I jump at the tiny sneeze, looking at Ossi with wide eyes.
Oh no. "A-Are you sick again?" I ask, quickly placing my palm on his head, it didn't feel any different. At least, not like last time.
Ossi shakes his head. "Nah, I'm good, just a little cold." He reassures, flying all around me to prove it. "Good thinkin' with the hood on ya costume by the way, real helpful for keepin' dry."
I stare at him in confusion, Kwamis can get sick from the rain too? I suppose it's a good thing that my hood can't be removed.
The school bell rings.
"Quick! Get in!" I usher, stuffing Ossi into my pocket before high tailing it up to the science lab.
"Alright class, your assignment for today is to-!" I open the door and hear our science teacher, Ms. Mendeleiev, start before looking at me with a frown.
"Julian, you're fifteen minutes late. What do you have to say for yourself?"
I gulp, unlike Ms. Bustier, Ms. Mendeleiev is far more strict, and depending on what I say could be the difference between me staying here, or walking to the principal's office.
"Th-There was an accident near my house, traffic was slow…" I mumble, giving her my saddest eyes. Luckily, thunder struck at just the right moment too, enhancing my kicked puppy look.
She was no match for it, giving up with a sigh. "I suppose I can forgive your tardiness. Now get to your seat!"
"Th-Thank you, miss…" I whimper before quietly walking towards Nathaniel at the back of the class.
"Nice one." I turn to see Alix whisper to me, giving me a thumbs up, I hold back a laugh.
"Hi Nathaniel, sorry I'm late." I whisper to my lab partner, taking a seat next to him.
The redhead shrugs. "It's only a few minutes. Ms. Mendeleiev just likes to have an orderly classroom. Besides, Marinette and Adrien aren't here yet either." He gestures towards the empty seats in front of us.
"What?" I look forward in surprise. Unlike Marinette, who is late at least three to five times a week, Adrien rarely, if not ever, skipped classes.
Adrien…
"So you think I'm perfect?"
Oh my gods.
"Wow." I jump, looking back at my friend, who just looks impressed. "I've never seen your face get so red, so quickly. I only said his name."
I blush harder, looking back down in my notebook. The memories that I worked so hard to suppress are returning with a vengeance.
Adrien and I… Me and Adrien. I... I almost kis-
"Julian!"
Letting out a squeak, I look up at the teacher with wide eyes.
Ms. Mendeleiev frowns. "Do you need to see the nurse? You look like you're running a fever."
No thanks! Just suffering the consequences of ignoring my problems!
My internal monologue goes on and on before I realize that I've just been staring at the teacher for the past couple seconds without responding. Her look slowly turned more and more worried.
"I'm- I'm fi-"
"WAHHH"
Suddenly, Marinette crashes into the classroom, tripping over herself and falling flat on her face.
"Ah, Marinette." The science teacher sighs. "And what is the excuse this time? Accidentally locked yourself in the bathroom again?"
"Uh, no! Of course not!" The bluenette assures before going into a wild story about why she's late.
I sigh in relief, wishing that class would just end already since there's no way I'm going to function at all for it.
Is it just me or does the room suddenly smell like tulips?
The teacher seems to have caught onto that too, snapping her gaze onto Rose sitting by the table next to Nathaniel and I.
"Thank you Rose. But I don't think our classroom needs extra refreshing." She informs, walking towards the blonde.
Chloe, who was suspiciously quiet for a while, scoffs. "I thought someone packed a tuna fish sandwich, but it turns out it's Rose's perfume." She haughtily states before laughing, the entire class minus Sabrina ignores her, already used to her antics.
I sigh, watching Marinette quietly creep to her seat besides Alya. Guess we're both lucky today, but Adrien is still absent, which is worrying.
Ms. Mendeleive confiscates Rose's perfume, as well as her smartphone she was hiding under her desk.
"Take the rest of your things and go to the principal's office." The teacher says, sending Rose away teary eyed. Juleka, her lab partner, sends her off with a sad look as well.
"Watch what happens when you play about with flammable substances in a chemistry lab." The chemistry teacher demonstrates by spraying a little of Rose's perfume in a glass container, capping it over a Bunsen burner before hitting the ignite button. The perfume explodes in a violent light and the whole class let out a gasp of surprise.
I frown, that was incredibly dangerous. It seems a little counterproductive considering Rose, the rule breaker, had already left the classroom, can't she stay to watch the demonstration at least.
"Just to make sure you all remember that, I'll be quizzing you tomorrow on lab safety. Again!"
I sigh again, great .
The entire class passed by uneventfully after that. Most of my time was spent staring at the door, in hopes that a certain blond model would walk in. He didn't, and the more time passed, the more worried I got.
Now I'm sitting in the courtyard with Nathaniel, the both of us catching up on our math assignments. Well, Nathaniel is doing that, I'm fighting an internal dilemma.
If Adrien didn't show up to school on any other day, I probably would've been Faon Vert by now, scanning Paris to make sure he's okay. However…
I lean closer, butterflies in my stomach-
Blushing furiously, I stick my head into the book I'm reading.
Maybe he's alright, it'll certainly save a lot of embarrassment for me if he is.
"Hey! NathaLian!"
I yelp, looking up red faced at the Alix. "C-Could you not merge our names like that please!?"
The skater girl frowns, confused. "Why?"
"Uh…" I blink. "N-Nevermind…" I quickly amend, looking back down in my book. Oh my gods I'm going crazy.
"What's up?" I hear Nathaniel ask.
"Oh! Right. I need you two to come with me." Alix grabs both of our hands and starts pulling us away from our table.
"A-Alix!" I gasp, looking at our table of unfinished homework.
"C'mon Lian! I'm doing you a favor here." The pink haired girl claims, wrinkling her nose at the homework before charging ahead with us.
Running out of the school, she quickly makes a sharp turn, pulling us forward.
"Alix! You can let go of us now!" Nathaniel pants from beside me, I give him a sympathetic smile, he's nowhere near athletic enough for this.
"Oh! Right! Sorry Nat, forget that you don't work out." She teases before letting go but continuing forward. "Don't slow down though! This is an emergency, a code red, a- Oh, hey, Adrien!"
"Hey Alix, what- H-Hey!"
What?
I look up, watching Alix grab Adrien, who had just arrived at school, and had caught Marinette from falling down the stairs, pulling him along now too!
"A-Alix! What's going on!" Adrien yells as he releases Marinette and gets dragged along by the three of us. Sending Nathaniel and I a panicked look.
I shrug, the adrenalin from running actually helping me to not turn into a blushing mess. "Just go with it! It'll save you a lot of trouble!"
Adrien looks confused, but nods anyway, it's not like he didn't miss class already, and as if we're going to do something bad .
At least… not too bad, oh gods please Alix don't get us arrested again.
Finally, she slows down, and the three of us look up to see…
"The park? " I ask, looking at Alix incredulously. " Seriously !? You made us run all the way, to the park!? Nathaniel nearly died! "
"C-Can't… Breathe…" Nathaniel pants from my side, I pat his back, worried.
Alix ignores us, walking towards a familiar classmate sitting at the bench.
"Juleka?" I ask again, so incredibly confused.
The girl with purple streaks in her hair gives me a small smile. "Hey Julian, sorry, Alix got a little carried away."
The girl in question scoffs. "I just decided to bring in some backup, if we're going to do this, we're going to do this right. "
I gulp. "A-And… What is it we're doing…?"
Nathaniel scoffs, still panting. "I swear Alix, if you get us arrested again-"
"I already told you, we weren't arrested, we were kept under observation until our parents picked us up."
"Y-You guys were arrested ?" Adrien interjects, causing Alix to groan.
"Whatever, we have something more important!" The skater says before clapping Juleka on the shoulder. "Juleka, want to tell them what you told me."
The girl blushes, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "W-Well, I uh, Rose uh, yeah, so uh, yeah…"
A beat of silence.
"What?" I tilt my head in confusion.
"Oh my God." Alix groans, slapping her head and giving Juleka an exasperated look. "Juleka needs our help to confess to Rose."
Oh.
Oh!
"That's amazing!" I say sincerely with a bright smile.
"Yeah!" Adrien joins in the excitement.
"But, why now?" Nathaniel asks, still just as excited.
Juleka blushes harder. "It's- you know, I saw Rose talking about Prince Ali and- yeah- uh, yeah."
Alix snorts. "What she means is, she heard Rose talking about Prince Ali and got peanut butter and jelly ."
I tilt my head in confusion. "Prince Ali?"
"He's the heir to the Kingdom of Achu." Adrien explains. "He's in Paris right now to host a toy fundraiser for the children at the Paris City Children's Hospital."
I gulp, stepping away a little from the blond. "Th-That's, that's great." I mutter, truthfully I barely heard any of what he said, but I assume that it's something smart and cute-sounding.
Oh gods the memories are returning.
"Yeah! The Kingdom of Achu is famous for exporting hand-made products. Prince Ali, despite his young age, already manages a few branches, including toy development." The blond continues to explain as if reading off a Wikipedia article.
Juleka scoffs. "So he manages toys, big deal…"
I blink, before snickering. Okay, that was cute.
Alix snorts too. "Now you see why I needed backup? Alright, huddle up." She grabs Nathaniel by the hand and pulls him into a discussion circle, Adrien and I following behind him.
"So, here's the plan." Alix whispers conspiratorially. "Nathaniel and I are going to head over to Juleka's house, get her some nice clothes and maybe a makeover. Adrien and Julian, you two head back to school and invite Rose to hang out at the mall, we'll make it so that Juleka 'bumps' into her there."
"Wait." I lean away, messing with my sleeve nervously. "Sh-Shouldn't I be the one to help Juleka get a makeover?" I glance at her. "I-I have makeup experience, plus, my fashion sense isn't that bad…"
Plus, I don't want to hang out with Adrien, not yet!
Alix hums. "You have a point. Okay!" She snaps her finger. "Julian, you and Adrien follow Juleka to her house for a makeover, Nathaniel and I will lure Rose to the mall."
What?
"W-Wait!" I interrupt again.
Alix smirks. "What? You're right, you would know the most about makeup, but Adrien would know more about fashion, right?"
I gulp.
Crap.
"Okay, so, that's the plan, any objections?" Alix continues.
"Sounds good to me!" Adrien says brightly.
Nathaniel nods. "I'm okay with it too."
Juleka blushes in the corner.
I sigh, outvoted, before nodding too.
"Then it's settled!" Alix pats Juleka on the head. "Relax Jules, by the end of the day, your sappiest dreams will come true." She says before sparing me a look. "And if it goes really well, maybe we can kill two birds with one stone."
I blush, sending a death glare to Alix, who ignores it.
Why is this my life? Why can't I just be born in a secluded forest somewhere and be raised by singing bears?
"Alright! Operation 'JuleRose' is now a go!" Alix quickly grabs Nathaniel by the arm and gives us a salute. "Good luck soldiers!" She says before pulling Nathaniel away again, the redhead accepting his fate.
"How do you survive being around her for so long…" Juleka sighs, giving me a tired look. "Alix and I have been friends since primary, but I can never keep up with her the way you and Nathaniel can."
I snort. "It becomes easier with time." I look at Alix's retreating form. "Honestly, if it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't even be here…" I sigh contently before giving Juleka a look. "If you're uncomfortable, just say the word, Alix might get carried away, but once you tell her it bothers you, she'll stop."
Juleka laughs and shakes her head. "It's fine, it's kind of distracting me from how I'm going to lose a best friend later."
I frown. "That's crazy. Rose isn't the type to do that."
"Yeah." I jumped at Adrien's voice, I completely forgot that he was here. "Everyone can tell how much Rose cares about you."
Juleka smiles. "You're right…" She says, mind elsewhere (probably thinking about something sappy.)
"Well, let's get you home then!" I announce, standing up and patting the dust off my knees. "Hope you don't mind us popping in for a bit."
Juleka laughs, standing up and leading us to her house, luckily, it's within walking distance.
I blush, clearing my throat. "H-Hey." I grab Adrien's attention.
Oh gods he's looking at me . I cringe, looking anywhere else but him.
"Y-You don't hafta help us, I-I know Alix kind of, literally dragged you into this." I scratch the back of my head. "I kind of expected it to go way worse th-than this…"
The blond chuckles. "It's no problem at all. Although I would like to know about how you guys got arrested one day."
"I-It honestly started out similarly to this."
Adrien laughs again, and it's just so carefree and happy that I feel my brain slowly melting from the embarrassment.
"You seem happy today Adrien." Juleka points out.
"Yeah." I hear the blond reply almost wistfully. "Something amazing almost happened over the weekend."
The girl with purple streaks raises an eyebrow. " Almost happened?"
"Well, I would be happier if it did happen, but for now, just knowing that it almost happened is enough." Adrien explains, smiling wistfully as I freeze in place.
A-Almost happened? He's happy that something almost happened? Like, like how we almost-
"Julian?" I jump at Adrien's voice, the model giving me a worried look. "Are you okay?"
Absolutely not. "I-I'm fine."
Before things could get more specific, we arrived at Juleka's house, or more specifically…
"Is this a ship ?" I ask incredulously, looking around and finally noticing where we are. Juleka lives on a ship?
"Oh, uh, yeah." Juleka says, deep in thought. "My mom is at work, and my brother should be out with his friends, so it's just us here right now."
I tilt my head in question. "You have a brother?"
The girl nods. "Twin brother actually, his name is Luka." She lets out a hum. "Sometimes I forget that you and Adrien are new students this year. It feels like you guys have been around way longer."
Adrien and I share a surprised look, before blushing and looking away, smiling. I can't help but laugh at the similar reaction too, guess we both just needed to feel like we belong somewhere.
Juleka led us into the shiphouse, and while on the outside it looked kind of color clashing and messy, inside it's just… so much worse.
There's clutter almost everywhere , books, instruments and their various equipment, makeup products, shoes, and clothes of various colors and sizes, all just strewn about.
"Woah." I hear Adrien marvel from beside me, I can't help but nod in agreement.
"Oh, right." Juleka coughs awkwardly. "Sorry, I didn't realize we would have company today." She wades through the living room, Adrien and I doing our best to copy her steps so we don't knock over anything important. Scooping up a remote, the girl turns on the TV and turns to us.
"Sorry, but my brother doesn't want me bringing anyone he hasn't met into my room. Is it okay if we do it here instead?"
"Oh." I share a look with Adrien. "Uh, sure, just take out whatever you think is important."
Juleka nods. "Alright, you can have a seat while I look around for something decent to wear. I'll be right back." And with that, she walks into a nearby hallway. I take a seat on the couch, Adrien following shortly after.
An awkward beat of silence passes.
I feel myself blushing harder and harder the more time passes. This isn't good, the silence is just making me obsess over life's problems.
"T-This plan is weird…" I mutter, getting the blond's attention. "I mean, Juleka doesn't need a bunch of weird boys to help her look pretty. Rose would like her just the way she is…"
Adrien chuckles but doesn't disagree. "You think I'm weird?" He instead asks.
Crap.
"Th-That-" I tense up, this is turning way too familiar.
You think I'm perfect?
C r a p.
"H-Have you seen this show before!?" I ask way too loudly, looking pointedly at the TV.
Adrien takes one look and laughs. "You mean the news channel?"
C R A P.
"At your service, Princess Fragrance~"
A really weird sound emanates from the TV, almost like a bunch of people singing, extremely off-tone at that. Suddenly snapping out of my stupidity, I look at the TV.
"Who-who are you?" A well dressed boy asks an Akuma, a girl wearing a black skin-tight clothes, bright pink hair and green skin. She walks up to the boy.
"I'm Princess Fragrance and I've come just for you! In just a spritz you'll be mine, Prince Ali!" She declares, raises her perfume gun and pointing it at the boy before loud confetti explodes out from behind her. Distracting them.
"Who is that? " Adrien asks, confused.
I gulp. "An Akuma…"
"R-Rose!"
The two of us turn to see Juleka, looking at the screen in terror.
Oh no. I look back at the screen with wide eyes.
" That's Rose?"
"I have to go." Adrien quickly stands up, nimbly traversing through the cluttered up living room.
"Wait! You can't just go ! It's an Akuma!" I shout.
"It's fine! I'll be fine, just- stay in here, okay?" Adrien shouts back before disappearing out the front door.
I frown, gripping my fists tightly. What just happened? Adrien just… left? For no purpose at all!
Why didn't I try harder to stop him!? I sigh in frustration, messing up my hair again.
"You're worried about him."
I jump, looking at Juleka before letting out a huff. "A-Aren't all of us?"
"Well, yeah. But you're like… worried worried."
Blushing, I look away. "Well, I'm not... not worried worried…"
Juleka hums, glancing at the TV. "You should go get him then."
"What?" I give her a surprised look. "But, you're here."
"Yeah, in my house, the safest place." She shrugs, leaning back and trying to look nonchalant. "If it makes you feel better, I'll drive the ship to the ocean after."
I snort, okay, that was good. "Thanks Juleka, stay safe, alright?"
"I should be saying that to you." She mumbles before looking back at the screen.
I frown. Something about this tells me that Juleka just wanted to worry about Rose alone without me making things worse, but I do need to leave.
Stumbling out of the shiphouse, I quickly hide alongside the walls of the river bank.
Ossi flies out from my jacket. "Are ya ready?"
I nod, pulling out the pen. "Ossi, Horns Drawn!"
Ossi immediately dives into the tip of the pen, causing a deer head to appear in front of it. Swiping the pen across my eyes, the mask gets drawn and materializes onto my face, I drag the pen from my left hand back to my right as a brown suit slowly starts to appear from my arms towards the rest of my body. Twirling the pen around effortlessly as it slowly grows longer, I toss it upwards before reaching towards my back and pulling up a newly made hoodie, ears on its side and antlers on top as I catch the pen which has turned into blowgun as I lean against it with a lazy smile and a peace sign raised in the air.
Leaping from building to building, I head towards the Hotel, before an ear splitting giggle hits my ears. Stopping in place, I look around, spotting the Akuma flying somewhere, using her perfume gun as some sort of jetpack.
It's so surreal hearing Rose sound so… evil . I think to myself, quietly tailing her.
Her chase led me to a fancy looking car that had its windows open, approaching closer, I nearly retched.
Holy crap! That car stinks like rotten fish! I cough into my hands, desperately trying to plug my nose. Seriously? Why even get enhanced senses when the previous Akumas always seem to take advantage of it?
"Sticks act as nose plugs, Mind's Eye." I watch as my blowgun slowly turns into a tiny set of nose plugs, sticking them in my nostrils.
"My prince, I'll take you to the Pont des Arts, and there, we'll seal our love!" Princess Fragrance, starts spraying the inside with perfume before I jump in, kicking her in the side and knocking the both of us off the car.
The Akuma gasps in pain, glaring at me. "You DARE hurt a princess!?" She screams.
I shrug, the nose plugs making my voice sound a little stuffed up. "Yeah, wanna see me do it again?"
Fragrance roars, firing a couple perfume shots at me, quickly diving out of the way, I hide behind a car for cover.
This is going to be hard, while the environment makes it easier to dodge the perfume shots, I don't have a weapon because of my Mind's Eye, which means I need to find a way to get close to her and fight hand-to-hand.
Suddenly, a boy in black leather lands in front of me, and I let out a sigh of relief.
" Chat , thank gods." I send him a smile before turning to look at Princess Fragrance. "Okay, so, the Akuma seems to launch perfumes, we better-"
Something kicks me from behind and I let out a pained gasp, collapsing onto the floor.
Chat keeps me pinned down with his foot, glaring at me menacingly.
"Ch-Chat…?" I look at him with wide eyes, fingers slowly reaching for the nose plugs and pulling it out slightly.
Crap, he smells like tulips.
"Give me your Miraculous~" He sings, incredibly off-tune as I wince. An annoyingly high pitched laughter rings from above.
"Perfect! Now kitty, get that pesky nose plugs away from him so he can become one of my loyal servants!" She orders. The cat hero nods, grabbing the plugs off my nose.
Well, now or never.
"Deactivate!" I scream, my Miraculous immediately extending back into a blowgun, one of the ends smacking Chat right in the face as it knocks him off of me. Grabbing the blowgun, I spin it around and swipe at the Akuma, who leaps back with a surprised yelp.
"Well, as much as I love to hang around, I think it's best for me to retreat." I look at my blowgun slowly counting down my remaining time before firing a shot at the ground, the impact of the shot creating a large puff of smoke that gives me the chance to slip away unscathed.
"Where'd he go!? Kitty, find him!" I hear Fragrance orders, followed by an off-tune acknowledgement from the blond as I quietly slip into an empty alleyway.
"Horns Away." I whisper, Ossi flying out of the blowgun before it shrinks back into the pen.
"Here." I say, passing him a bag of croutons as I crouch quietly on the floor.
A quiet moment passes, Ossi quietly munching on his food while I wait until I can confirm that Chat's really gone. After a while, I sigh in relief, there's no way he would continue looking here for this long, so he should be long gone by now.
"Hey, Ossi." I whisper, hearing him grunt in acknowledgement.
"Do you think- Do you think I should... confess?"
The Kwami suddenly looks up from his meal, swallowing. "Ya mean, aboutcha feelings?"
Blushing, I nod.
"Ya feelings, about Adrien?"
Blushing harder, I nod again.
"Julian, that's great!" He exclaims, rushing to hug my face. "Oh! My fawn's all grown up! Now I can finally hear ya gush about that boy without sounding so damn melancholic all the time."
"Let's not be too hasty…" I grumble, willing the red away from my face. "He might say no."
"Doubt it~" Ossi sing-songs, swallowing another crouton in one go and letting out a burp. "What madecha decide to do this?"
"Well…" I scratch the back of my head. "It's Juleka… Watching her just, decide to confess, and being so level headed about it, it's kind of inspiring, I guess…"
Ossi hums. "Level headed, or is she just resigned to the fact that Rose will say no?"
I huff, poking him in the forehead. "That's dumb. Juleka has nothing to be afraid of, they are meant for each other, and Rose would never let something like this get in the way of their friendship."
"Kid, have ya thought about taking yer own advice for once?" The Kwami grumbles and I scoff.
"Not you too…" I say before a large shadow encapsulates the two of us. Looking up, I gasp at the sight of a large perfume cloud suddenly bloating out the sky.
"We need to go." I look at Ossi, pulling out the pen and pointing it at him. "Ossi, Horns Drawn!"
Landing at the roof of a nearby building, I take a closer look at the scene. A large, growing puff of pink perfume is slowly covering every inch of Paris. The center of this cloud? Le Grand Paris.
Quickly leaping to the location, I ready my blowgun just in case a Chat Noir would tackle me out of nowhere, I land directly in front of Princess Fragrance and the well dressed boy from TV.
The Akuma gasps. " You!"
Giving my weapon a flourish, I smirk at her. "Me."
Without warning, I fire a couple shots at her, interrupting her cloud-making to dodge. Picking up the pace, I rush towards her, spinning around and slamming my blowgun right on top of her perfume gun. Immediately, fireworks started going from out of nowhere, the explosions hitting the remaining cloud of perfume and sending the entirely thing exploding in a brilliant flash of bright lights.
I snicker. "Looks like your plans are going up in flames."
"Why must you ruin everything! Now, I must ruin you!" Fragrance fires her gun away from us, the sudden increase in force lets it break past my defense as she punched me in the face.
"OW!" I yelp, staggering back and gripping my nose. Holy crap, that hurts like hell!
"Enjoy the feeling of freedom while it lasts, because soon you're going to be under my control, FOREVER!" She screams, aiming her gun at me and firing.
Before even a little bit of smoke could come out, a large tube covers her perfume gun, the perfume pouring into the balloon attached to the other end and inflating it.
"What the- AH" Fragrance yells in surprise as a yo-yo wraps around her hand and yanks her to the floor, the perfume gun flying out of her grip and into the hands of a familiar sight.
"Ladybug!" I yell in relief, watching her throw the gun on to the ground, breaking it and immediately capturing the Akuma.
"Miraculous Ladybug!" She shouts, throwing her yo-yo in the air as ladybugs start pouring out of it to fix the city. I fall on my on the floor and sigh, exhausted.
"Prince Ali?" I hear Rose ask in wonder, I frown as I watch her cuddle with the prince's arm.
"Who are you?" The prince asks.
Rose smiles sweetly. "You know how you always help sick children around the world? I just want you to know that you're the most kindhearted person I have ever met!"
The prince looks surprised, before smiling back. "R-Really?"
Rose giggles. "Well, not really. I have a best friend that's a thousand times more kind hearted, oh she'll love you, I always see her feeding the strays around her house, and she always make sure that I don't feel too sad, she's just-"
I scoff good heartedly. Figures, Rose just wanted to meet her idol, but her heart's still very much set on Juleka, her Akumatized form just warped the two.
"Faon Vert?"
I turn to look at Ladybug and gulp. "Y-Yeah?"
She frowns, taking a seat next to me. "We need to talk." She says, as Rose and the boy walk away, chatting animatedly between each other.
I sigh, looking around. "Yeah but… I think Chat should be here too."
The superheroine shakes her head. " Chat used his Cataclysm, so he's recharging, but it's fine, what's happening right now is between us anyways, if we talk about this in front of him it'll only hurt him."
I clench my fists. "Still, he's part of the team too you know? He deserves to be part of the conversation as well."
She sighs. "You're right, you're right…" She says as her earrings beep. She sends me a look. "Let's all meet up at the Eiffel Tower this Friday, I have way too much homework to do right now."
I shudder. "Geez, way to remind me, Bug Wonder."
She laughs, sparing me another look before reaching out a hand. "Truce?"
I pause, looking at her, then back at the outstretched hand before slowly grabbing it with mine. "Truce." I breathe out.
"Great." She says as the earring beeps again. "Alright, see you later Faon, bug out!" She says before swinging away.
I sigh, watching her leave. Friday's only five days away, we can survive for that long.
Why do I still feel so uneasy about it though…
-Some Time Later-
"Okay Juleka, just walk up to her, and ask her out!" Alix repeats the plan to Juleka, standing beside her. Nathaniel and I sat next to each other and watching the pep talk with amused looks.
Juleka takes a deep breath. "O-Okay. I just walk up to her, and… uh… I uh…" She blushes and shakes her head. "I can't do this."
Alix pats her on the shoulder. "Yes you can . Nat, Lian, help me out here."
"Just go for it Juleka." Nathaniel joins, I nod enthusiastically beside him.
"Yeah! Besides, if the worst happens and she says no, we're at an ice-cream store." I say before getting smacked in the head by Alix.
" Not helping!" She chastises, ignoring my yelp and giving Juleka a softer look. "Look, if you don't want to do it, it's fine, I'll just invite Rose to laser tag and you two can fight on the same team."
Juleka gives her a small smile, but shakes her head. "N-No, I… I want to do this. Rose deserves to know how I feel about her." She stands up and pushes her hair behind her ears before striding towards Rose, who I assume is busy looking around for us.
"Here you go Julian."
I huff, pointedly looking away from the blond, pretending to be mad.
Adrien takes a seat next to me, but doesn't give up. Slowly moving the ice cream cone into my view.
"Please Julian? I already said I was sorry, I won't run off like that ever again, I promise." He begs. If I turn my head anymore it'll twist off, so I settle for glaring at the dessert instead.
Alix snorts. "Geez, you two are like-"
" Don't finish that sentence." I growl, giving Alix a warning look before sighing and plucking the ice cream off the blond's hand.
"And you, I forgive you, but yeah, don't do that again." I glare at Adrien before biting into the dessert, eating half off it in one go.
"Damn Julian no need to scare the poor guy…" Alix says, her and Nathaniel look horrified.
"Actually, I chew my ice cream too." Adrien interjects, biting into his ice cream as well. I blink.
He's perfect.
"Julian, you got a little something in your face." Alix comments, making a discreet heart sign with her hands before snickering.
Blushing, I look away. Dammit, what kind of face I was making?
" YES! YES A MILLION GAZILLION TIMES YES !" The four of us turn to see Rose wrapping Juleka in a fierce hug, the latter blushing horribly with wide eyes, turning to us almost to check as if she's not dreaming the entire thing.
"YEAH WAY TO GO JULES!" Alix screams back, waving her ice cream in celebration. Nathaniel and I share a look before cheering alongside her too, Adrien laughing beside us.
I turn to look at him, and then the ice cream in my hands, and the display of full affection between Rose and Juleka, and unlike the melting dessert, my resolve only solidified.
I'm going to confess to Adrien Agreste.
