"Ladybug! Ladybug! LADYBUG!" Alya repeated, ending in a squeal in her best friend's face.
Marinette smirked, and pushed her away. "Common' Alya, it's just me."
"Yeah...which makes it even more amazing! I'm best friends with Ladybug!" Alya gushed. She flopped down onto Marinette's chase lounge chair, and crossed her legs, resting her elbows on her knees. Watching Marinette distractedly tidy up her room, and checking a couple messages from Fei (Marinette was clearly feeling more than a little restless), Alya leaned her chin in her hands. "You know I got pretty close a few times to guessing it was you," Alya commented, making Marinette pause her flustered walking around her room.
Marinette stepped back, and dropped down onto her computer chair, looking back at Alya. "I know there were a few times I had to throw you off the scent," she admitted guiltily. "There were a also a bunch of times I came so close to telling you. I'm...I'm...I'm sorry!"
"Secret identities right?!" Alya brushed her hand in the air, smiling softly at Marinette. "I know how hard it was for Nino and I to keep things from each other. I'll tell you though...it has been pretty amazing now that we can be there for each other no matter what! It has got to be a weight off your shoulders now that you and Chat Noir...I mean Adrien (she giggled) have come clean!"
"It was a bit of a shock," Marinette admitted with a blush.
"I bet," Alya grinned smugly, giving Marinette a look. "And now it is the end of high school and tonight we all get to go out together dressed to the nines for Chloe's big bash! Marinette, aka Mrs. Noir, walking the red carpet with Adrien 'the cat' Agreste! It is just too purrfect!"
Marinette giggled at Alya's attempt at a cat pun, and then sighed, "I can't believe we've really graduated. To tell you the truth I almost forgot about the party tonight. With everything that happened today I don't know if I'm up for it."
"You've got to be there! I will hold you upright all night if I have to! Girl, ya gotta be there!" Alya urged. "Plus..." Alya let her voice raise like she was offering a child a candy just out of reach, "your kitty, Adrien will be there! You don't want to miss out on showing off the dress you've been working on for weeks, just cuz you're a little tired do you! Just think of Adrien."
"He's just so incredible, so sweet, so funny, so..." Marinette gushed dreamily.
"Umm hmm," Alya hummed, "not to mention covered head to toe in a skin tight black super suit! Who knew Adrien Agreste had so many assets!"
"Alya!" Marinette shrieked with a giggle, and tossed the nearby Ladybug plushie at Alya.
Down below in the living room Marinette's parents glanced up toward the ceiling, and back at each other with a smile.
"There is sure a lot more squealing than usual," commented Tom, turning the page of his newspaper. "Do you think they're okay up there?"
"Ah they're just having fun. Marinette has been so serious lately, it's nice that Alya talked her into some girl-time! I'll go up in a bit to take a picture of them in their dresses before they go out to celebrate tonight," Sabine commented, looking over her new schedule for her art class.
"When you were a girl were you that giggly when you talked about me?" Tom leaned in towards his wife.
"Oh, I was much worse," Sabine kissed him on the nose, and gave him a wink.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Over at Nino's place
Adrien had finally pulled himself away from a gaming tournament with Nino, and had stepped onto the balcony to check his phone. It had seemed like forever since it had just been the two of them. With the secret out in the open they had laughed and talked about battles with their miraculous for the first time! It was also really reassuring to have someone to vent to about a day that had started out so horrible. From being led to believe that there was something wrong with his mother, to having his reputation trashed all over town as some teen playboy, to facing a version of himself trying to trap Marinette...well, it was a good thing he could finally unleash all of the things that had been weighing on his mind with a friend. He of course had Ladybug too, but he hadn't wanted to burden her with even more if he could help it.
There was something though that needled at his brain that Adrien didn't even bring up around Nino...Felix.
Adrien had discovered that Felix had got mixed up with Shadowmoth near the end of Shadowmoth's reign. Felix seemed to have a change of heart at the last minute and broke ties with Shadowmoth right before Ladybug and Chat Noir found out who had been behind it all. In the take down of Adrien's father, the family had been torn apart. When a doppelganger showed up in Paris, Adrien's first thought was that Felix could be involved...but Adrien knew his cousin too well. Others might be fooled, but the way the imitation interacted with others was not something Felix had even been able to replicate. Adrien tapped a finger on his knee thoughtfully. Even though it hadn't been Felix, it had made Adrien wonder how his cousin was doing. If the mosquito kwami of Chaos was imitating people he felt he should at least warn Felix. On the other hand, Felix would never be fooled into thinking that fake was the real Adrien Agreste.
Adrien sat on the balcony, with his legs casually dangling over the side, and he checked the time. He still had an hour before he and Nino were supposed to pick the girls up. He'd make this quick. He clicked Felix's icon, and pressed his phone to his ear.
It rang for the fourth time, but finally a groggy voice on the other line answered. "Uh huh? Adrien? What is it?"
"Hey Felix, sorry to bother you. I was just checking...you're not visiting Paris right now are you?" Adrien inquired.
"No, course not. If I was there you'd know about it," Felix's voice said offhandedly, and slightly muffled.
"Just wanted to check. Someone has been making a show of themselves, pretending to be me in front of the press," Adrien informed him.
"Hey! It wasn't me!" Felix protested defensively. "Geez, I haven't played those childish tricks in forever! How long are ya gonna hold something against your own flesh and blood!"
"You pretended to be me just last year," Adrien responded unimpressed. "You had the whole house turned upside down, and I got into major trouble!"
"Common' that was just a joke that time. Didn't you see their faces!" Felix snickered. "Have a sense of humor my dear cousin!"
"I know this time it wasn't you," Adrien went on, ignoring his cousin. "I just wanted to let you know in case. Sometimes it seemed like you and I were the only ones who could really tell the difference between us. Keep your eyes open. Something is going on, and I'm going to get down to the bottom of it."
"Alright whatever," Felix responded with disinterest. "Don't they say imitation is the highest form of flattery or something like that. Maybe you should just relax and be flattered that whoever it is wants to copy your style. Everyone always wanted to emulate the perfect Adrien Agreste. If only they really knew the real you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Adrien asked pointedly.
"Just that it's not so easy being 'perfect,' is it Adrien," Felix replied lazily. "Our parents pushed us to become the very best, and even as little kids we sacrificed everything to meet their demands. Yours had their way, my parent's had theirs. In the end they bent us to their will. In the end where did it lead us?!"
"I'm sorry about how things ended last time we met. About everything with my father. Even after everything between us, I want to make sure you're okay," Adrien said concerned with Felix's tone.
"Me?! Ha! I'm better than ever. I'm a survivor Adrien. Always have been," Felix turned his offhand voice, to one with false warmth. "I'll see you around cuz." With that the line went dead.
Adrien looked down at the receiver and shook his head. He wasn't sure what he had been expecting. At least he had been able to confirm that each of the appearances throughout the day really had been the kwami of chaos and not his mischievous, misguided cousin.
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Meanwhile on Felix's end, he was lounging in a massive luxury suite at the St. Regis Osaka in Japan.
Felix flicked his phone over to a polished bedside table, slung the corner of the silk sheets over his shoulder, and chuckled to himself. "Adrien. Totally clueless as ever!"
"Adrien Agreste? Your cousin called you suddenly after all this time? Why now?" A female voice piped up from the other side of the bed in alarm. "You think he suspects something?!"
"Ha!" Felix rolled his eyes. "He called to check up on me, that's all. I told you, for all his smarts, he's got no street smarts. You'd think that the son of Shadowmoth would have picked up some sense by now, but he was so sheltered from everything, he has no idea how the real world works."
"You never told him about us right?" her voice demanded.
Now Felix sat up, against the headboard, and glared at the women next to him. "You'd think I'd let anything or anyone get in my way when I'm this close?!"
"You mean our way," she grumbled, shuffling further under the covers.
Felix smiled coyly, and slid over to her side. "Of course our way, my beautiful little butterfly," he soothed. "We would've been a little closer if you hadn't let the Prodigious fall through your grasp though. I could've had the power of the Renren already!"
"He said he wanted it destroyed! He said that it was too risky to keep it in play! If that idiot volcano dog-witch hadn't handed it straight back to Ladybug it would have been handled," the young women with long auburn hair grumbled, not looking back at him.
"Whose plan are you following?!" Felix's voice rose as he bristled, and then immediately drew back his fury. He took a measured breath, and continued in a level tone, "It's you and me. The wild kwami of chaos just wants to see the world burn...just wants to shake up the miraculous' and break them from control. I don't want to destroy them, I want to have the control!"
"We...we want the control," the woman turned back to face him, her green eyes sparking.
The thick bangs on her forehead were flicked to one side, and he smiled at her. He drew a finger through her hair, letting it fall back down in place.
"That's right! You and I, my darling Lila. The mosquito kwami thinks he is using you, but soon all of the kwami will have no choice but bend to the will of a miraculous. The wild kwami were always meant to be tamed!"
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At the start you might have expected this chapter to be all fluff and stuff, but here I have finally revealed the major players that are setting up for the end game.
Fun fact: The expensive hotel Felix and Lila are staying in together during his chapter is in an area known as the "Champs Elysées of Osaka."
Thank you to all the readers! Please like or follow this story if you're wondering what is going to happen next!