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Chapter 4 — It's a Steal! A.k.a Félix gets a taste of his own medicine

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Lila smirked to herself as she paced rather quickly down the busy roads in the centre of London. She kept looking at the numbers written on the doors and glancing at her phone in her right hand, while with her left, she was holding in place a duffel bag.

A very important duffel bag.

+A few weeks before+

Lila was on the Star train, ready to start a round-the-world trip with Adrien, at the request of Gabriel Agreste himself. The Italian girl didn't know why the fashion guru wanted to send his son away from Paris; she had honestly thought it was strange and out of character for Gabriel, who, since the day she had met him, had always tried to keep tight control over Adrien. It was indeed weird that he'd accept that the boy would get so far away from his grip. Sure, he had sent Nathalie on the trip, but no assistant could have a tighter grip than Gabriel himself. Lila had thought about it quite a lot in the hours preceding their departure.

However, as they were relaxing on the train, the latest news bulletin caught her attention, and with it, the dangerous Akuma attack that Papillombre had launched against Paris. Much more dangerous than anything he had ever done before.

That left Lila wondering. She had always suspected that Gabriel Agreste may be Papillon, Papillombre, or Monarch as he started calling himself straight after. But the fact that he would go out of his way to keep Adrien out of Paris; it was as if he knew about the impending attack and wanted to keep him safe—a massive clue on its own. So Lila had her suspicions, until those suspicions became a certainty.

During that elusive trip around the world that never even began, just after Adrien had mysteriously disappeared, Lila had happened to need the toilet. Hence, she entered the closest toilet in the train and stared in amazement at what she remembered being Adrien's duffel bag thrown unceremoniously on the ground, as if Adrien had tried to hide it, or had forgotten about it.

Curious, she locked herself in the toilet and opened the bag; outside, she could hear Nathalie on the phone, coughing and trying to understand what had happened to Adrien. So initially, Lila thought she could find something in the bag to justify his disappearance. This would have put her in an even better light with Monsieur Agreste. However, when she opened the bag, what she found inside left her baffled.

Not only the clothes that were in the bag weren't Adrien's. Or at least, she'd never seen them on him and she worked close to him on several occasions. But there was a tablet in the bag, a tablet that Lila recognised very well. It was Nathalie's tablet, still switched on and unlocked. This aroused Lila's interest because she'd never thought that Nathalie would give her tablet to Adrien. Besides, why was a tablet that contained private information about the Agreste brand, including employees' data, left unlocked? But the page that was showing on the unlocked tablet caused Lila's eyes to grow wide and her heart to race in her chest.

She remembered that book.

It was the book that she saw Adrien reading the first time she met him; but the first time she'd seen it, it was written in an obscure language. Not this time. This time it was written in French. And to her big surprise, the text was a detailed explanation, with pictures, of the power of a very specific Miraculous.

The Peacock.

Lila read the information on the page. Then, she cautiously opened the door of the toilet and leaned slightly outside to overhear what Nathalie was saying.

"Also, sir, my tablet has disappeared. Vanished into thin air, exactly like Adrien. Yes, I know. It contains extremely private and confidential information. I take responsibility. I'll get the train searched in full until it comes out."

Shoot. There was no way that Nathalie wouldn't recognise Adrien's duffel bag if she brought it back to her seat. If the older woman searched it, she'd find the tablet and Lila would miss the chance to discover whatever this "private and confidential" information was. And she suspected that the page she'd been staring at was part of it.

She closed the toilet's door and glanced at the mirror in front of her—and that's when she saw it. Yes, she had a USB player tucked at her waist; she'd forgotten about it. Her mother had given it to her as a present for the trip, including with it a very spacious USB card. Her mother had filled it with useless stuff, such as photographs of them together, or music that Lila liked. Nah, Lila didn't need that. After all, she was going home before the trip even started, based on what she'd heard Nathalie say. But she could use the space to back up the files on Nathalie's tablet.

Which of course she proceeded to do, and then expertly wiped off every trace of her passage. When she was sure that she had all information from the tablet secure in her card, Lila locked the tablet, put it back into Adrien's bag and returned to her seat, placing the bag on the table in front of an even more panicky Nathalie.

"Look what I found in the toilet," she told the older woman.

Nathalie flashed her eyebrows and stared at her, and then moved her gaze to the duffel bag on the table very briefly. "That's Adrien's bag," she said.

"Yeah, I thought it could give us a clue as to where he's disappeared."

Nathalie was very fast at opening the bag. And even faster at gasping when she found her tablet. And when she saw the clothes that weren't Adrien's.

"Félix…" Nathalie muttered under her breath, her gaze suddenly narrowing.

Everything was finally clear to Lila. Yes, Félix Fathom, Adrien's cousin. Now she remembered where she had seen those clothes before. She frowned—if there was one person she hated as much as Ladybug, it was Félix. She had met him only a handful of times; each time, he never fell for her tricks. He always treated her coldly, never trusted her and kept her at a distance, making it clear that he was displeased even to be in the same room as her.

A further noise echoed in the train compartment they were sitting in, taking Lila out of her thoughts. Nathalie picked up her phone.

"Yes? I found it. It was in Adrien's bag. What? No, Adrien's got nothing to do with it. He wasn't even on the train in the first place. Yes, sir. Félix. How do—" she whispered, but Lila could hear her quite well. "Oh. I see. We'll be right back on the next train, don't worry. I'm glad Adrien's okay."

Which didn't explain what had happened to Félix, but Lila didn't care about him. And evidently, neither did Nathalie.

"So this isn't Adrien's bag?" she asked.

"No. The one on the train with us wasn't Adrien; Adrien's at home, safe and sound. That's his cousin's bag. I'll arrange to get it returned to him."

Lila put a hand on the bag's handle. "No reason for it. I'm due to go to London in a few weeks for a charity event. I was going to cancel it because of this trip, but since we're going home, I'm going to go. I can return the bag on your behalf."

Gratitude flashed in Nathalie's eyes. "Thank you, Mlle Rossi."

+End of flashback+

And so, there she was, on an official mission to return the duffel bag to the boy who despised her.

She was going to make him pay for the way he'd always treated her. And for having tricked her in such a way on that train. Just wait and see.

She had spent the last few weeks going through the material she'd copied from Nathalie's tablet; the things she had discovered went beyond just finding out Monarch's identity.

There was more, so much more!

Her head got dizzy for quite a few days after reading the terrible truths contained in those files. Sadly, one of the folders she had tried to download gave her trouble: not only was it password protected, but it appeared greyed out and wouldn't copy onto the USB key. Lila had had to go through quite a few hoops before she could copy it on her card, and yet, she didn't know whether she would ever be able to access the files. But even the things that were out of password protection were shocking. And one of those secrets involved Félix personally. And Adrien. Lila pursed her lips. She has to talk to Félix to put her plan into action. If only the houses in London weren't all so similar to each other! It was driving her crazy.

Suddenly, her gaze lit up and she smirked triumphantly. In front of her, lay the house she'd been looking for. The Fathom and Graham de Vanily residence.

Almost too eagerly, Lila climbed the few steps that separated her from the door and rang the bell. Once. Twice. She glared at the bell, and at the door that hadn't yet opened.

"Who is it?" asked a voice from inside.

Thank God for that, thought Lila. "I'm Lila Rossi, a friend of Félix from Paris," she said. The door cracked open and the frowning face of Amélie Graham de Vanily appeared from behind it. Lila smiled, showing the duffel bag to the woman. "I'm returning this."

The door opened, and Amélie stepped back to allow Lila in. "How very kind of you, darling. Félix said he'd lost it."

Lila stepped in and, as Amélie wasn't looking at her, her fake smile turned into a smirk. "He left it on the train," she said suavely.

Amélie didn't seem to have the same untrusting demeanour as her son; she smiled genuinely at Lila as she guided her to the sitting room. Lila kept looking around as she walked: the Fathom residence was stunning. Far from being small and claustrophobic as the house looked from the outside, on the inside, there were large windows that revealed a wonderful view of central London right in the sitting room, where Amélie had promptly brought her, gesturing for her to take a seat.

"Please. Félix is taking a shower; he shouldn't be too long. I'll put the kettle on." Amélie disappeared through a door opposite the one they had come in, so Lila started looking around.

The place was very well furnished, and most of the objects in it must've cost a fortune, Lila could tell — the softness of the sofa, number of details on the statues, knick-knacks and paintings… it wasn't cluttered, just the right amount of stuff, a perfect balance that not even the Agreste Mansion had. While the Manor looked sterile as if it had just come out of a showroom, this place looked homely—yet posh. Lila wondered where Félix's bedroom was. But she had just thought of getting up when the door opened again, and Amélie stepped in with a tray on which she had put a teapot and three cups, a jug of milk and a sugar bowl.

"Tea?" she asked. Lila nodded absent-mindedly and grabbed the steaming hot cup the older woman was offering without even looking at it. She took a sip and wrinkled her nose. Ugh. Tea with milk… not her thing. She pretended to take another sip and put the cup down.

"Does he usually take so long in the shower?" she asked.

Amélie sighed. "Oh yes. I don't know who takes longer in there, him or Adrien. Sometimes my sister and I spoke about timing them to check, but we never got around to it." She laughed a laugh that didn't reach her eyes and then sipped some tea. But before she could say something else, her phone rang. Her eyes widened when she saw the caller's ID. "Sorry, I need to take this. I may be unavailable for some time. Make yourself at home."

As Lila watched Amélie disappear again through the same door she went off before, she smirked. Don't worry; I'll do just that, she thought and got up from the sofa to start looking around.

The room Amélie had disappeared through most definitely led to the kitchen, so it couldn't be Félix's room. Lila walked to the door they had walked in and had a quick look around the hall, finding a second door which she hastily opened. The door brought her to a second corridor, and through the first door on it, Lila was sure she could hear the sound of a shower running.

Bingo. That didn't take long at all.

She smirked and looked around, worried that Amélie would suddenly appear behind her. But her voice was still coming from the kitchen, and she seemed to be very busy in conversation. Decisively, Lila put her hand on the handle and walked in.

The noise of the shower was still sounding loud and clear from what must've been an ensuite. From the corner of her eye, Lila saw something moving in the room; intrigued, she raised an eyebrow and started searching around, but she couldn't find anything. So she went back to her previous task. She took her phone out of her pocket and swiped the screen a few times until she reached the picture she was looking for and studied the Peacock Miraculous drawn on it very carefully.

It was a brooch, so Félix couldn't possibly have taken it with him to the shower. As she looked around, she noticed a neat pile of clothes resting at the side of the bed, and her smirk stiffened a little, her gaze glancing at the ensuite's door rather uncomfortably. She needed to hurry and find the brooch before its owner would come back to his room. Hopefully wearing a towel—her fingers felt like ice. She moved closer to his pile of clothes and quickly rummaged through them. But as expected, the Miraculous wasn't there. Félix was too clever to leave it in full sight. No, Lila knew better. She had to find some hiding place, maybe a little safe? Something that Félix would feel was a good spot to leave his precious brooch in when unattended.

She searched his desk, and then the drawers of his desk. His bedside table. She looked behind any picture frame on the wall, constantly eyeing the ensuite and keeping her ears peeled that the shower was still running. Until she knocked by accident one of Félix's shoes—and there it was. Very clever of him, hiding it in his shoes. A triumphant smirk stretched Lila's lips as she grabbed the brooch that had fallen to the ground and hastily donned it on the inside of her top. She eyed the ensuite's door and, silent like a fox, slipped away, and out of the Fathom's residence.

§§§

About fifteen minutes later, Amélie knocked at the door of her son's room and, hearing no answer; she came in. She looked around, folded her arms over her chest and walked to the ensuite's door.

"Darling, sorry if I'm disturbing your shower."

From inside the ensuite, the shower's noise turned off. "Don't worry, mum. I was getting out." Minutes later, Félix opened the door and walked into his room, his body and hair wrapped in two different towels. "Were you looking for me?"

She smiled softly at him. "Just wondering if that friend of yours came to say hi." She saw his eyes widening and her brows furrowed into a frown. "I left her in the sitting room because my accountant rang; I was away for a good half an hour. When I looked for her again, she'd left without even a note."

Félix's brows furrowed too. "Who's she? I wasn't expecting anyone."

"Oh, just that Italian girl who works for your uncle. She came to return your duffel ba—" Amélie said, but she couldn't finish because all blood drained from Félix's face as he eyed his bed and noticed the clothes not any more neatly sitting on it, and the mess on his desk.

He ran to his shoes and slipped a hand inside one of them. "Fu—" but he didn't finish, gasped, eyed his mother's stern expression and blushed. "Sorry, mum. Did Lila enter my room?"

Amélie sighed. "I don't know. I had to leave her in the sitting room by herself, as I said." Then she looked at Félix's hands and cleared her throat. "Darling, don't squeeze your shoes like that; you're going to break them."

He squeezed them even further.

"Damn." He then looked at his mother and bit his bottom lip. "I need to head back to Paris. Lila's stolen something extremely important." He growled worse than a caged beast. Then he let out his hair and started to towel it dry.

"Just be careful. Remember that Ladybug and Chat Noir are still looking for you." She ran her fingers through his damp hair, messing it up, so Félix fixed it the best he could.

"I know. But the stakes are too high. I must get the brooch back." That said, he started drying himself; Amélie frowned at him again and walked out of his room.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note

Hello everyone!

Thank you so much for the feedback on chapter 3! As you can see, chapter 4 sets the beginning of the disaster, and things are going to go uphill from now on. Writing from Lila's perspective is always difficult (you spend half of the time wanting to strangle her. Figuratively, of course!), but I must admit that it cost me A LOT to write the ending of the next chapter, which you will read next week.

I hope you liked the way I linked with Strike Back: I thought that canon hadn't explained what happened to Félix's duffel bag, so I found my own explanation—hope you felt it connected the story well to the ending of season 4.

I shall see you all next weekend for chapter 5: "The Blackmail".

As usual, if you read this and enjoy reading, writing and talking about Miraculous, please join my favourite Discord servers, Miraculous Fanworks (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash mlfanworks) and Miraculous Discordance (for people on FFN, discord dot gg slash QwgKdUhJNJ). I'll wait for you there!