We Need to Talk

"We need to talk." Were the firs words Chat uttered while he dropped on Marinette's bed. He just collected the glasses from Peagasus and the whole way back to Marinette's he felt like he should have just left the boy with the miraculous, that he was going to be needed in the future.

"You don't want us to destroy Felix." Marinette stated firmly. That wasn't news for her, neither Amelie nor Adrien were ready to do that step, even if the boy was a sentimonster. The by and his aunt just returned from where they saw the body of his mother and it must have affected them.

"Well, I'm not so sure about that speaking for myself." The boy might be willing to do that just to bring his mother back, but then his aunt was going to be sad for losing her son. "I was thinking how we should go and visit the temple from time to time." He put the glasses in the miracle box.

"I miss them too." She admitted quietly. "We face a new issue each day and fighting akuma suddenly seems much easier that what we are facing right now." That was almost a routine just before they left for China.

"I agree." Adrien looked at his girlfriend. She was sitting on the bed, there was faint light coming from her desk where she left it on since they were reading the Book of Lore just before they started on they journey for the night.

"It is late." She yawned and looked at Adrien, his blonde hair was everywhere, like a halo and his green eyes definitely could shine in the dark even when he wasn't transformed. She had Adrien in her bed in her room and suddenly blushed at the implications, although that happened every night.

"It is, but we don't have school tomorrow." He crawled over her. He liked it when she blushed, he liked her rosy cheeks and her eyes were shining and looking everywhere and … and then he leaned in and kissed her again.

When they stopped kissing, they were cuddled together, wrapped in each other's arms and Marinette put her head on his shoulder, just to catch some air and try to make sense of what they were doing, but he did not try to kiss her again.

"We have a problem." Adrien stated quietly, his tone was gentle and his hand moved over her back as if he was trying to soothe her. Marinette did not know what kind of a problem he was talking about and was not sure if she wanted to know.

What was wrong with just cuddling together for the night, she knew he needed that after everything he's been through, and she could do that cuddling and some kissing, but not more, yes she imagined more in her head, but it was not like she wanted to do any of that for real, yet.

Then again, if he asked her, if Adrien wanted it, she wasn't sure she had the strength to say no. Maybe to postpone it a little bit, to go in slow steps to … she was getting flustered and blushed and was glad he was not able to see her face because even her thoughts stuttered and stammered.

"It is my aunt Amelie." Adrien continued after a few breaths. Marinette suddenly inhaled sharply. So it wasn't that, she exhaled slowly relieved, but then the second thought consumed her. His aunt probably changed her mind, wanted custody, wanted to take him to London …

Okay, okay, Marinette, don't catastrophise, first of all Felix is in their class already, maybe Amelie just wants him to move back in to the Agreste mansion, perhaps she got some kind of a deal with Andre and Audrey maybe …

"She wants my mother back … too." The boy continued after a pause in which he contemplated just how to form that sentence, he decided to add the last word. It was Gabriel who wanted Emilie back, but Adrien wanted her too, the difference was the price they were willing to pay.

"Oh" Marinette held the boy tighter, she knew he wanted his mother too, and whatever he had in mind was potentially dangerous. He had the black cat miraculous on his finger, she had the earrings on her ears, and the Book of Lore was in the trunk, and he knew how to read it.

No, it wasn't that, he was not like his father, he would never propose such a thing. Besides, they just took Amelie to see Emilie and the woman knew what the options were and she did not ask for it herself, because she knew the price. And she was sure Adrien wouldn't either.

"Don't worry, I don't think she would go for your earrings and my ring now that she knows what's the price, but she trusts Ladybug and Chat Noir to find what really went wrong and try to bring her back using the miraculous Ladybug magic." Adrien continued.

"But she understands that it might destroy Felix in the process." Marinette cut in. "That is the reason she never told us about him." And that was the reason not to tell her that they knew. The situation was nauseas and frustrating at the same time.

"Well, we are going to find out what happened and then we will try to fix it, but … I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing." The boy looked at the rooftop window. "I mean, if we have to destroy Felix, I know he's a sentimonster but still, what makes it different than the wish?"

Plagg snored after he devoured a piece of cheese, he did not even care to move from the plate where he found the cheese. Tikki nibbled on a cookie and listened, her eyes half closed, apparently both of them were rather disinterested in this existential rant.

"I though I would hate Felix when I see him, that I would hold him responsible for the state of my mother but … I don't and after I read her diaries, even less, it wasn't even aunt Amelie's decision, my mother did it on her own." The boy tried to explain.

Marinette held his hand firmly, and he held her back, grateful to have that security ling while he opened his heart and soul and rather confused mind and rant about everything that just swirled around like whirlwind without any control.

"I see why my mother did that, she saw that her sister was devastated and she just did it, she was making other stuff all the time, apparently, so she made Felix too." He added. "And now, in order to bring her back, we might have to destroy him."

He pulled her into a hug and held her like a giant teddy bear, it was similar to the way he held her close when they were on their way to China, but the anxiety he felt was rather different, because then he knew what he wanted, now he did not have a clue, he just needed an ear, someone to listen.

"I thought … I thought I was going to jump to the opportunity, you know, I thought I would, but aunt Amelie cares for him so much, she loves him, like he is her son. And I … I don't hate him, I don't resent him. And it was my mum who made him." The boy held Marinette really hard.

Marinette found a way to breathe and wiggled a little to make space for her lungs to expand, finally the boy loosened his grip on her, if only a fraction to allow her to breathe. She stroke his back in hope to soothe him.

"I mean … you saw her diary, how much my mother invested into making Felix, how happy she was that it worked out, she was proud of her achievement of each little step he made." As proud as she was for her own son, because they were both hers, in one way or another, she made them both.

There was something in his voice, as if he now knew that he shared his mother with Felix, that his own mother also followed Felix the way she followed his own ups and downs, his own successes and achievements, and was connected with him.

"That's okay, he's your cousin." She managed to say. It was normal to love your nephews and nieces right? And his aunt probably loved him, no, she was sure Amelie loved Adrien. But the boy shook his head (and shook her own head because eh held her that close).

"He is not just my cousin, he is an exact copy of me, I think my mother created something like an identical twin. Gabriel always claimed that my mother was unique, but she had an identical twin, it turns out I am not unique either, I have an identical twin too." He elaborated.

"But you are unique, you are different persons, Amelie and your mother, they are different persons too." She tried to bring some comfort to the boy, she knew wow much his aunt reminded him of his mother, but she believed that they had different personalities.

"What if … what if we destroyed a sentimonster she created, I mean Felix, not something else we might find, and then we bring my mother back and she learned what we did and what my father did … she wouldn't like that." The boy concluded.

"You are probably right, she made Felix and wanted him to prosper, she would not like if we destroyed him, even if we brought her back." She concluded.

"My mother wielded a miraculous just like my father did, she … got herself into trouble … herself. And Felix, he is not really my cousin, he is a sentimonster. And I think Amelie knows this and understands the issues but … " The boy had difficulties breathing.

Marinette let him try to settle down, she wasn't expecting him to find fault with his own mother, who used to be perfect for him, but now he learned that she had secrets, that she used him, in a way, to help her sister, it was her choice to do that and to keep doing that, Amelie was right.

"As … as a guardian of the miraculous box I should consider what my parents did and its consequences in some kind of objective way … " He trailed off. It was hard to hate his own parents, to be ashamed of them yes, to be angry at them too, but not to really hate them.

"Nobody is ever truly objective, Adrien. I know I never was. But … while I was in the cave I had time to think. It was your mother who found the miraculous, right?" She did not even make a pause for him to confirm. "What if she was meant to find it?"

"Oh" Adrien suddenly felt much lighter.

"That is entirely possible Marinette." Tikki chirped as she floated up from the desk.

"That makes sense, too bad you never stumble upon a piece of Camembert." Plagg added sleepily from the plate where he pretended to be asleep for most of the conversation.

"That is because you ate it all first." Adrien brushed of the tiny glutton.

"That book and the brooch and the pin were there for a century and a half. I know it is not heavily populated, but somebody might have stumbled over and never noticed, perhaps she was meant to find them, perhaps she was chosen, just not by a guardian." Marinette whispered.

"You mean like … by accident, like Chloe and the bee miraculous. I know she was also a disappointment sometimes but you cant say that she is not good to wield that power, both as for good as when she is consumed by evil she is difficult to beat." Adrien concluded.

"She found two miraculous, and she chose one, the peacock. What if she was meant to wear the butterfly miraculous and just made a mistake there, or what if she was meant to give the other miraculous to someone else, someone close to her but not Gabriel." She was thinking out loud.

"Amelie, she said something, like Gabriel and my mother were not even close. I mean, I thought they were close, after everything I read … " He blushed in the dark, it was awkward to read that. " or mostly skipped in her diary."

"But she was probably closer to her sister!" Marinette exclaimed. "Think about it, they walked around each day, the two sisters, whenever they caught some time, they were meant to find it, but they were never alone and ..."

"That is not how I remember what we read the other day." Adrien was deep in his thoughts, the diaries were in his room at Nino's and it was for the better, if they tried to read them again, they would not fall asleep until the morning.

"Sometimes I do not mention in the diary what I simply do every day, only what is different." Marinette explained. "It is not like a writer telling a story, she did not write each detail just the things she thought she might forget."

"Okay." He wasn't ready to admit that he kept some kind of notes on his life that could have been considered a diary too. But those notes definitely contained stuff that he would probably never forget, like those cheesy odes for Ladybug, that he just might show her one day.

"I have a feeling, in fact I feel like I know, I can't explain it, but your mother and Amelie, I think they were supposed to use the two miraculous and find their way back to master Fu or … " She trailed off. "Or the sentimonster that was still buried there."

"But they would not have beaten it and in fact Feast would have followed them and try to eat them, well, their miraculous if it woke up or … it doesn't make sense." He was trying to explain the idea away, or to support it with what they knew.

"No, it doesn't, besides, I'm not sure why I think Gabriel was never meant to have the miraculous, perhaps it is just his actions, the things that he'd done after your mother … " She trailed off. Yeah, he might have been a good wielder of a butterfly miraculous if only he did not abuse it.

"Father thought the only way to bring my mother back was to get our miraculous, but you brought back people that were hurt by magic, you brought me back. Father said that mother got ill because she made Felix. But what if he was wrong?" Adrien pondered.

"What … what if he was right?" She whispered. After all, she knew a lot about fooling herself. Sometimes she was right and sometimes wrong. "Because it is easy to believe that he was wrong and search for some other reason for all eternity, but what if he was right?"