A/N: Gabriel hands Dupont a contest - and Ladybug and Cat Noir run afowl of a man that just really, really likes his birds.
Ahaaaa! Bad bird puns aside, this was really interesting to write. I hope you enjoy the shenanigans!
"Attention, students!" Principal Damocles called from the front of the room, hushing any discussions between the children as they all turned to face him. Felix's brow furrowed at the sight of his uncle's assistant standing primly beside him, impassively looking around the room as always.
"We have a very special opportunity from the one and only Gabriel Agreste this morning!" He proudly announced, gesturing to Nathalie.
"Yes, thank you, sir," she politely nodded before clearing her throat. "Listen up, students: to celebrate his new fall collection releasing soon, Mr. Agreste has decided to generously extend a once-in-a-lifetime chance to the students of this school. You have until the end of the day to design and create a hat, which will then be judged by Agreste himself. The winning hat will be modeled by Adrien in his next photoshoot."
All at once, a near-simultaneous sharp inhale of breath rippled through the class, and all eyes darted to the two boys in front. Felix continued to sit up straight, the very pinnacle of unbothered, while Adrien turned and waved sheepishly.
Alya nudged Marinette with a grin.
"The theme of the contest will be derby hats," Nathalie added, and the hopeful girl's smile dropped immediately.
"Alya," she whispered frantically, "I've never made a single derby hat in my life."
A couple of rows away, Chloe turned her piercing gaze on the back of a pigtailed head.
"Ah- ah- achoo!"
"Bless you!" Rose exclaimed, handing a baby-pink handkerchief to the sniffling boy beside her.
"Thank you," Adrien responded dizzily as he noisily blew his nose. He cringed back against the bench when a couple of faces glanced back at him in varying states of confusion - and when Felix turned to stare at him from the front of the room, brows raised in a way that told him he would be getting a talk later.
"Are you feeling okay?" Juleka softly asked, visible eye crinkling in concern as he put the handkerchief in his pocket.
"Y- yeah, yeah, I'll be fine." Trying his best to smile at the girls despite his watery eyes and the redness on his nose and cheeks, he sniffled again. "Just allergies."
Both of them watched as he scraped at his cheek with his knuckles, Rose's lips pursed before she bent down to dig around in her purse.
"Here, Adrien," she murmured, smiling in triumph as she pulled out a bottle of Claritin. "I'm sensitive to certain scents and lotions, so the nurse always lets me have some on hand for emergencies when my hives flare up."
He gingerly took the bottle, looking it over before his hopeful expression dropped. "Oh… thank you for being generous, but I don't think I should take this."
"Are you sure?" The blonde girl crooned, big blue eyes wide with concern.
"My, uh, my doctor has me take medicine," he explained hesitantly, handing the bottle back. His eyes darted away before he finally met hers again.
Juleka shook her head. "No, it's okay, Adrien. Do you want to go to the nurse? I'm sure Miss Bustier wouldn't mind."
"I can tough it out, no biggie." He shrugged, smile back on his face as he returned to their work. "Anyway, where were we…?"
"What am I gonna do about this?" Marinette paced back and forth on the front steps of the school in front of an increasingly-amused Alya. "I've made a lot of different hats - berets, ballcaps, sombreros - but never a derby before! I don't even remember what they look like!"
"Breathe, Mari," the girl encouraged, placing her hands on her shoulders to anchor her in place. Squeezing, she continued, "This is your biggest chance to impress him - are you just gonna let someone else take that opportunity away from you?"
"... No," Marinette reluctantly replied. "Well, maybe."
"No, the answer is no!" Alya shook her friend with vigor. "C'mon, where's that go-getter attitude I'm always seeing from you? You've got nothing to lose!"
"Except the crushing weight of failure and the eternal embarrassment of looking like an idiot in front of the most prolific designer in France," she wearily interjected, flopping back and forth from Alya's shaking. "I've never had a job this big before, Alya - I've been trying to make clothes since I was little, but that was mostly scarves and skirts! The only other time I've actually made something for an important purpose was…"
She trailed off with a flush of red, turning away.
Alya didn't hesitate. With a sly grin, she questioned, "Oh? Do you have a crush or something?"
"N- no! Well, um, yeah," Marinette floundered, cupping her hands over her face. "But- but you can't tell anyone, okay? Nobody in Dupont!"
"Pinky-promise!"
After a quick hooking of pinkies with each other, Alya let her go and bounced up and down. "So spill! Who's the cute guy?"
Marinette opened her mouth to reveal it, but quickly shut it with a squeak as an upperclassman walked past them and paused.
"Hey, Marinette," a taller boy with aqua hair smiled gently at her, waving.
"H- h- hi! Luka!" Marinette stumbled over herself, barely remembering to wave back - but instead of the same slow wave, it was rapid. "How- you're- hey!"
The boy, Luka, didn't seem to be weirded out at all by her sudden floundering, or even notice, for that matter. He laughed softly, flashing another smile at the girls before turning and walking inside.
Marinette kept beaming awkwardly at him until the door shut, and all at once her body seemed to turn to jelly and she slumped against the wall.
"Who was that?" Alya asked, turning to her with a giddy expression.
"Luka," she answered with a sigh, covering her face with her hands. "He's Juleka's older brother - and I've just made an entire fool out of myself in front of him. Ugh, why am I like this?"
"We are definitely coming back to this discussion another time, but for now we need to focus." She pointed to the noirette's sketchbook. "Let's go through your past designs and see what we're working with."
With a mumbled "Uh-huh", Marinette finally pushed herself away from the wall and opened the book, sitting down with Alya as they flipped through.
Alya's eyes shone as she looked through the different pages and concepts. Gingerly taking one side of the book, she breathed, "Wow, 'Nette, these are all really good! I knew you were good, but I didn't realize you were that good."
"I have to agree," Felix's voice made them both turn to look up at him and Adrien, the door suddenly open. When had they gotten here? Instead of his usual polite façade, the older blond actually looked interested as he looked over the book. With a small smile as he extended his hand, "May I?"
Marinette glanced at Alya, who shrugged her shoulders loosely.
"Um… sure," she answered, slowly raising the book.
Felix gingerly grabbed it and balanced it on his arm, beginning to flip through it with a contemplative hum as Adrien leaned in. With every page, his eyebrows raised a scant bit more, his eyes twinkling with something unknown.
"You really do have quite the talent here, Miss Dupain-Cheng," he said with a firm nod before shutting the book and handing it back. "I'm confident that you have a decent shot at winning Uncle's little contest."
"Really? You think so?" The tension in her shoulders seemed to lift, and a smile played with her lips.
"You're so talented, Marinette," Adrien chimed in with a wink. "You'll nail it for sure!"
A pleasant blush dusted her cheeks, and she clasped her hands over them with a shy downcast look.
"Just a piece of advice, however - be wary," Felix warned. "While I'm aware you've dealt with Chloe for a while, I wouldn't put it past her to pull a stunt out of petty spite."
"Oh, don't you worry," Alya reassured, wrapping an arm around her friend's shoulders, "there's no way Chloe would dare try to sabotage 'Nette now, right?"
Marinette hummed in thought, brow furrowed. "I don't know," she added in uncertainty. "She's tried to ruin my projects before, but that was before she learned not to mess with me; for some reason every time she tries, it blows up in her face. Maybe she's planning something…"
"She wouldn't," Adrien spoke up, almost pleadingly. She looked up to see his face doing a weird grimacing smile. "Chloe wouldn't try to sabotage something you worked really hard on, right?"
Something like pity washed over her face, and she sighed. "Adrien, I'm sorry. I know you've known her since childhood, but… she's been trying to bully me since elementaire. I don't know what I did to invoke her wrath, but she's stopped at nothing to try and make me and others miserable for years. The only reason she's not acting up now is because she knows she's going to get caught for it."
Shifting in her spot, she mumbled quietly, "She's probably still worried about Principal Damocles suspending her for real after that stunt with Rose's hair…"
Felix quirked up a brow at that, but she shook her head.
"As long as she targets me, none of her usual tricks will work," she stated, confidence seeping into her words as she straightened herself against the wall. "For now, let's focus on the design. Do either of you have any recommendations?"
"Pigeons?" Alya echoed incredulously as the two girls walked up and down the Trocadero.
"I guess," the pigtailed noirette shrugged. "Not really sure why he suggested a bird theme, but… well, it's easy, right?"
Her friend shook her head. "Surely there has to be some kind of motive here."
Marinette huffed, back twinging as she stooped to pick up a single gray feather. Squinting at it, she slowly turned it back and forth in her fingers.
"Like what?" She questioned. "Humiliating me in front of Adrien's dad? That's something Chloe would do, not Felix. He's been nothing but polite since school started."
Alya watched her as she straightened back up, running her index over the silky surface of the feather.
"Didn't he say his and Adrien's moms are actresses, or something?" Alya pressed, brow furrowed. "Maybe he's playing a long con. He and Adrien are childhood friends of Chloe."
Marinette let out a tiny snort of amusement, the fragile plumage wavering with her breath. "C'mon, you saw how mad he was at her on our first day. If anything, I think he'd be too busy keeping her from trying to cheat than trick me."
The bespectacled girl let out a non-committal noise as Marinette firmly nodded her head. "Got a good one. Let's go."
Turning, they began their walk back - when Marinette's foot met a soda can.
"Whoa-!" She yelped, slipping on it and falling backwards.
Her sketchbook flew through the air and landed face-up several feet away, the pages resting on the hat design.
"Mari!" Alya exclaimed, reaching to help her up. "Are you alright?! That was sudden…"
The trees and bushes rustled in the breeze, even as Marinette struggled to her feet with a low groan of pain.
"Owwww…" she rubbed her sore back with a hiss. "I'm- I'm fine, just gotta give me a minute. I haven't had a fall that painful in a while."
"You mean this happens often?" The tan girl raised her brows incredulously as Marinette dusted off her jeans.
"Well, yeah," she shrugged, raising a hand to her pigtails - and discreetly checking her earrings with her thumb. "I've been tripping over my own feet since… well, forever. It's one of the reasons I always carry band-aids in my purse; you never know when you're gonna scrape your knee!"
"Here I thought it was just because you're nervous around the new boys." Alya huffed an amazed breath as Marinette stooped to pick up the sketchbook.
The pigtailed girl's brow furrowed, scrutinizing the pages, as well as the feather that had fallen out of it..
"No good," she lamented with a sigh as she dropped the tiny thing, letting it flutter uselessly to the ground as she tried to straighten out the page. "This one's scuffed. I'll have to remake the design."
"Aw, I'm sorry." Her friend patted her shoulder.
"It's okay; I hated that one anyway." With a sniff, she turned to Alya with a grin. "Hey, I'm kinda tired of walking around. How about a fake feather? I'm sure I have some in my room."
Alya beamed. "You're a genius! That way we won't have to miss all of lunch just looking for a pigeon!"
Some ways away, a man skulked out of the area under the unrelenting glare of a policeman…
"Whew! That was close," Sabrina huffed as she and Chloe hurried back up the steps. "One moment later and she totally would've seen me!"
"That's why you need to be stealthier," Chloe snarked as she flipped open her makeup compact. "Ugh, the stupid wind ruined my lip gloss."
Sabrina followed her dutifully as she stalked to the girls' bathroom, glancing left and right. Not a lot of students were walking the halls yet. Maybe they were still in the cafeteria?
"S- so," the redhead piped up, making Chloe glance her way in the bathroom mirror, "when, uh, when are you going to make the hat? I didn't think you liked sewing."
"I don't." Chloe popped her lips and leaned in to check the sheen of the gloss before capping it and shoving it in her purse. Fluffing her ponytail in the mirror, she added, "Daddy has people for that."
"Oh, right." Sabrina let out a nervous little giggle. Of course. Why hadn't she remembered that?
Chloe spent another long several seconds checking her makeup before her lips pressed into a line, apparently satisfied enough with her appearance. One spritz of perfume later, they were heading back to class.
"Let's just hope they have real bird feathers at this time of year," Chloe was muttering under her breath as she pulled out her phone.
"Crrrrrrrroo! Roooloooooo!" Mr. Pigeon cried as he hovered over Paris on his army of birds. "The city is mine! Once I have the mayor in my talons I will be unstoppable!" Pointing to the distance, he declared, "Go! Find Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculouses, my pretties!"
"Breaking news!" The newswoman's declaration from the TV made Marinette and Alya come to a halt, turning to stare at the family TV. "Large numbers of pigeons have been congregating together in Paris. Currently they've done nothing except be a nuisance to local traffic, but apparently the man behind the attacks has an announcement for the citizens."
Marinette's face dropped in horror as a man in spandex chirped loudly from the air. "Attention people of Paris! Your days of abusing my little pigeons are done! We've taken over the city - Ladybug! Cat Noir! Just try and stop me!"
There came a pause - and with an uncanny twitch from the villain of the week, a strange glowing butterfly visor appeared in front of his face and a deeper, more confident voice rang out: "People of Paris! I am Hawkmoth. I am far from a tyrant at heart - in fact, Ladybug, Cat Noir, all of this mayhem and destruction can be stopped forever! All you have to do is give me your Miraculouses."
A sly smirk came over Mr. Pigeon's face. "However, if you want more akumas to keep popping up... by all means, keep fighting me. But be forewarned, you cannot fight your destiny!"
The villain let out a maniacal laugh as the live feed switched back to a dumbfounded, nervous news anchor.
Alya slowly looked over to her friend, watching her shoulders begin to tremble. "Uh, Marinette…?" She hesitantly reached over.
"Hawkmoth...!" She ground out. "It's not enough that he has to target Aurore, is it?! No! He has to go after a GUY THAT FEEDS BIRDS on the ONE DAY I have something important to do! What's next, a child? A baby? THE MAYOR?!"
The girl began storming out of the room, grumbling under her breath.
For a moment, Alya stared after her, speechless.
"H- hey! Marinette! Wait!"
Cat Noir eyed Ladybug as she dropped Mr. Ramier off on the ground. "Uh… Ladybug…? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine! Just fine!" She chirped, though her left eye was twitching. "I'm not upset that a very important task I had got interrupted by a bird akuma, nope, not me!"
"... Riiiiiiiight," he replied blandly, sparing a glance to the wary man before them. "Hey, sir, you know there are plenty of places to feed your birds, right?"
"I… I suppose," he answered slowly, looking up at the heroes. "But the air is so nice here, and it's so beautiful - can you blame me for wanting a serene spot to feed my beautiful pigeons?"
Cat's lips pressed into a line. "Yes," he deadpanned. "Please just find a new spot."
"Please." Ladybug agreed, sending the man a warning look. "For the sake of Paris, and for yourself for that matter, please go feed your pigeons somewhere where it's legal."
The bell rang just as Marinette slipped into the courtyard next to Alya in a line of ten others, out of breath and red in the face. Taking a moment to catch it, she looked up and smiled at Aurore (who happened to be walking past them in the upper corridor with Mireille), waving at her before Alya's hand clamped down on her shoulder.
"Girl, where were you?" The auburn-haired girl whispered furiously as Nathalie and Adrien's bodyguard entered the school.
"I- I almost forgot the hat," Marinette wheezed, holding up the white box.
Still, her friend continued to stare at her incredulously. She doesn't buy it, does she?
Felix and Adrien stood up front near the first contestants, the former looking quite bored and the latter with a neutral upward quirk of his lips.
Once he spotted Marinette, his smile grew wider and he waved to her. Because of the glances back at her, she sheepishly waved back. Felix merely nodded to her, and she smiled back.
"Alright, contestants," Nathalie instructed, the video chat of Gabriel staring at the crowd. "Please pull out your hats."
Marinette and Alya exchanged excited looks as she pulled the hat out of the box, sitting it atop the lid.
After a moment, Alya looked past her and her smile dropped. "Um, Marinette…"
"What?" Marinette turned to look where she was pointing, and she stifled a gasp.
Chloe stood proudly with her own hat on display - a hat that looked strikingly like the one in front of Marinette and Alya. It even included a pigeon feather in the brim.
"What do we do?! She stole your design!" Alya hissed in her friend's ear.
Marinette, for her credit, turned to give the blonde a nasty look for all of a second before her chest puffed up. "I have a foolproof method," she murmured in turn.
One by one, Nathalie made her way towards the end of the line with Felix and Adrien in tow. Gabriel scanned each hat with mild interest, giving his criticisms as they passed.
Until finally, they got to Chloe's hat.
"Oh no…" Adrien muttered under his breath, causing Felix to give him a concerned glance as he leaned back. "Ah… haachoooo!"
The sneeze was so loud it echoed around the courtyard, and even students walking through the corridors above paused to see just who had made that loud sound. Mireille whispered something in her friend's ear and she began to giggle, face flushing pink.
Nathalie turned, Gabriel's face on the tablet pinched with concern. "Adrien? Are you well?"
"S- sorry, Father, it's… allergies…" Adrien sniffled, pulling out the handkerchief to dab his eyes with.
"Allergies?" Chloe balked, while Sabrina shrank behind her an inch.
"Adrien is allergic to bird feathers," Felix clarified with a disdainful tilting upwards of his chin. "Tell me, Bourgeois - is that a real feather in your hat?"
Alya and Marinette froze and exchanged panicked looks.
"W- well," Chloe floundered, looking from the hat to the assistant, and finally catching a glimpse of Marinette's hat. With a sour look, she pointed. "Dupain-Cheng's hat also has a feather in it!"
"It's not real!" Alya was quick to exclaim once Nathalie turned to face them. "We decided to go with synthetic because real feathers seemed… a bit unhygienic to use."
Marinette nodded rapidly. "We could've gone with a real one, but they were too flimsy to work with. And yeah... unhygienic."
"I see," Gabriel mused from his end of the connection. "And… Miss…?"
"Dupain-Cheng," Marinette supplied nervously.
"Dupain-Cheng." The way he said her name made her tense. "I couldn't help but notice yours and Miss Bourgeois's designs are strikingly… similar."
Chloe looked at her like the cat that got the canary.
"That's because she stole my original design for the hat," Marinette announced.
Several small gasps went up from the other contestants, including Sabrina (The blonde's smirk dropped and she nudged her hard in the side, choking the sound).
"You're such a liar, Marinette," Chloe sneered, folding her arms. "You can't prove I stole anything! I made this design with my own hard work!"
The air was tense as Gabriel, brow furrowed, added, "Well? We're waiting for an explanation."
Marinette casually lifted the brim of the hat, and Nathalie leaned in, both her and Gabriel squinting.
"Um…" Adrien spoke up timidly. "What are we looking at?"
"My logo," the pigtailed girl proudly stated - and then slowly turned the hat until the brim revealed something familiar.
Where before it looked like embroidery around the underside of the brim, now it clearly looked like initials.
"M…D…C…" Gabriel muttered under his breath. "And does Miss Bourgeois's hat have the same design?"
"It does, because it's the very same one I had to scrap this afternoon." Marinette felt Alya's hands clasp onto her shoulders as she began to bounce in her spot, something that made her grin wider.
"Wh- what? But-"
"Show us the underside of the hat, Chloe," Felix stated, narrowed eyes twinkling with mirth as a barely-there smirk graced his face.
The blonde floundered for a few seconds more, but at last, she raised the hat. It was the same exact embroidery, and yet turning the hat upside-down revealed…
"I see them," Felix nodded, taking the hat out of her hands and showing the rest of them. "MDC, the same initials as on Miss Dupain-Cheng's hat."
Gabriel's face seemed torn between the stormy glower directed towards Chloe and a twitch of his lips belying his interest. "I see. Very intriguing work, Miss Dupain-Cheng. You have the beginnings of quite the skilled hatmaker."
"Thank you, sir!" Trembling from excitement, she bowed at the waist.
"All of your designs were quite entertaining," Nathalie spoke to the group this time, even as Felix sent Marinette and Alya a wink over Adrien's shoulder. "But now Mr. Agreste must pick a winner."
"Yes, well," the fashion mogul began, adjusting his glasses, "All of your designs showed some promise. But this time… I will have to give it to Miss Dupain-Cheng."
The breath seemed knocked out of her body as she turned to give her friend a thunderstruck gape. Alya beamed back at her, pulling her in for a tight hug.
"As for you, Miss Bourgeois," Gabriel's voice became icy, even as the girl shook under its weight, "You will never be allowed to design anything for my company ever again. I don't accept forgeries, I want honest work and skill - things you have clearly demonstrated you lack in spades."
Chloe's face fell into something between sad and resentful. Marinette winced at the sight. "I hope I don't have to worry about her akumatization," she mused.
"The rest of you show promise." Gabriel continued, eyes sweeping across the line. "Perhaps someday in the future some of you will come to work for me. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules for this little contest."
"You are dismissed," Nathalie announced, eyes shifting to Marinette and Alya. "Except for you, Dupain-Cheng. You are to stay back for a minute."
Nodding, she turned to conceal her excitement as the others murmured amongst themselves, packing their hats and leaving.
Chloe sent her a death stare before harrumphing loudly, flinging the hat at the ground and storming away with Sabrina at her heels with pleas and reassurances.
"I can't believe you won!" Alya quietly squealed with her, jumping up and down hand-in-hand.
"I know!" She truly felt on cloud nine. Not even Chloe putting gum on her chair or in her pigtails could ruin the high from hearing Gabriel Agreste's praise.
"Miss Dupain-Cheng," A voice suddenly cut through her excitement.
She sheepishly turned around with a smile, face pink with embarrassment at being caught fangirling right in front of her idol.
To his credit, if he noticed it he said nothing. "Congratulations on making such a fine hat, miss. Adrien will wear your hat in his next photoshoot, and credit to your hard work will be included in the article."
"T- thank you so much, Mr. Agreste," she really tried not to gush, but she couldn't help the admiration in her voice seeping out as she beamed at the man. "Your praise means a lot to me."
His lips twitched, as if he would smile. He didn't. "Good day, then."
The video call ended, and Nathalie turned the tablet. Adjusting her glasses, she nodded to the girls curtly. "If I may?"
"Oh, uh, sure." Marinette put the hat back in the box and handed it to the assistant, who handed it to the bodyguard.
"Thank you for your time, ladies," she said as she began to walk away, bodyguard in tow.
Behind them, Felix and Adrien remained behind. The latter was beaming despite his watery eyes, and Felix looked a little taken aback.
"You… you're a fan of Uncle?" He questioned.
"His fashion," she answered with a breathless laugh. "It's always been my dream to work under one of the greatest fashion icons of our time. This could be my open window into the industry once I get into lycée!"
"Maybe he'll like you enough to let you come over sometime!" Adrien seemed oddly hopeful at that. "He's always scouting out up-and-coming designers to try and get a leg up. We should ask him about it."
The older blond shot him a look, to which he shrugged defensively.
"I'm so happy for you!" Alya chimed in with a laugh. "How about ice cream? You wanna come?"
Adrien shook his head. "Sorry," he apologized, "but Father is expecting both of us right after school."
"That's a shame," the bespectacled girl mused.
"Quite." Felix agreed, lips pressed into a line. "Well, classes are over, are they not? We should go get our things."
Marinette gave him a look as her contemplation was interrupted. "Wait, Felix..."
The blond paused and turned, looking at her in question.
"Why did you tell us to look for pigeon feathers?" She deadpanned, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Were you trying to get us to mess up? I didn't even realize Adrien had a feather allergy."
Alya cupped a hand over her mouth in surprise.
Felix stared her down for a second, before slowly a smirk began to spread over his face. "Who said I was trying to trick you?"
"Wh- what?"
"I told you about the pigeons because I figured Chloe was going to try something," he answered with a casual shrug. "Unlike any of you, Adrien and I have known that brat for our entire lives - I knew she couldn't pass up the opportunity to get one over on you. I just didn't expect her to forget about Adrien."
His cousin scratched the back of his neck, the redness in his face fading a bit. "To be fair," he murmured shyly, "I don't really like talking about it."
"You..." Alya choked a laugh, making the others look over. "You seriously relied on a Batman gambit? With Chloe?"
"Know your enemy as yourself," he quoted dramatically.
"Y'know what? I think I like you. You're cool in my book, Felix." Alya slung an arm over Marinette's shoulders with a wide grin.
"I thought she wouldn't bother anymore," the noirette slowly added with a disbelieving sigh. "She probably even got Sabrina to try and steal it for her. I guess not even she can change."
"It's Chloe," said the boy dismissively with an eye-roll. "She doesn't allow herself to change."
"Be nice, Felix," Adrien chastised, gripping his sleeve. "I believe there's a chance."
Later that night, Cat Noir perched atop a roof, staring up at the night sky. The stars peeking back at him from the veil of light pollution and the clouds made him frown, even as Plagg sat atop his knee nibbling at some cheese.
"So… feathers, huh?"
A snort from the hero.
There was a pause.
"You know," the Kwami mused, chewing on his camembert, "this means you'll have to be extra careful now."
"I know." Cat Noir's civilian self stared at the stars once more, a nostalgic, mournful frown spreading across his face like storm clouds rolling in on the sleeping city of love. "We can't let her get akumatized. I… I really don't think Paris is ready for that debacle."
A/N: Surprise! Luka is here already!
Luka is older because I said so - as of now in the fic, he's in 8th grade and ~15. The twin thing was a fun fan theory, but I liked it better when he was Juleka's cute older brother; that, and Lukanette has a vice grip on my heart, sue me. The Jagged plot twist will probably still happen, but differently than canon, because canon continues to be devastatingly disappointing.
(Also I made Rose have sensitive skin/fragrance sensitivity both to give her another interesting plot point and to replace that weird headache-thing the showrunners made up for her in the later seasons. Seriously, if it was so important that she regularly goes to the nurse why the hell hasn't it been brought up before?! It's just like the other Miracle Boxes and Felix's entire existence before Season 5: irrelevant and contrived!)
My personal salt aside, please tell me what you thought!