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Chapter Text

     I am a terrible person, Felix thought as he twisted the dull silver ring on his finger. He wasn’t sorry for stealing the ring- that was rightfully his. But he did feel bad for how he’d tried to ruin Adrien’s life. Having friends, friends that would check on him the day his father died, or friends at all, was something Felix had never had. Mostly because he shoved anyone who tried to befriend him away. It wasn’t that he didn’t want friends; he did. But he couldn’t stand  false people. That was hypocritical, he knew. He lied more than anyone. But Adrien didn’t. Felix liked Adrien. He’d thought Adrien was that friend. But then Felix’s father died, and where was Adrien?  

     Felix realized now that it had been selfish of him to be angry at Adrien. For not coming to his father’s funeral, especially after his mother had died only recently. He hadn’t told Adrien about how he’d stolen the ring, but he wanted to. He wanted to, and yet he didn’t at the same time. He knew Adrien would forgive him- he was too good. But Felix wanted to deserve that forgiveness. So, he tried to be a better person. For years, he struggled every day to be worthy of Adrien’s forgiveness. He told the truth. He didn’t try to ruin others’ lives or make them miserable. People still hated him, but it had always been that way. He was proud of himself. His mother was proud of him. He hoped Adrien would be too.

     But then he had to go and mess it up again.

<><><>

     It hit him suddenly: he was feet from Adrien, and inches from his room. Felix wouldn’t be seeing him tonight, but his presence alone made him feel guilty for what he was about to do.

     I have to do this. This is for him.

     It wasn’t only for Adrien that Felix was attempting to steal the peacock miraculous. If it got into the wrong hands, it could mean death for both of them. Knowing his very existence relied on a magic jewel scared Felix. He didn’t know how Adrien could destroy their fellow sentimonsters with such nonchalance. 

     He doesn’t know, Felix reminded himself. And he never will. At least, that was the plan. 

     Felix opened the jewelry box and peered inside. There. There it is. His hand closed around the brooch. He refused to look at it, for fear that he wouldn’t be able to go through with his plan if he did. With deft fingers, he pinned it to his collar and whispered, “Duusu. Transform me.”

<><><>

    Felix stared at himself in the mirror, disgusted by the feathers that spread across his face, and yet strangely proud of himself. His aunt had worn this mask, and now it was his. 

     “Duusu. Detransform me.” The feathers fell, and Felix could only see himself, the spitting image of his mother, and of Adrien. 

     “Master-”

     “Please, Duusu, don’t call me that, I’m not my uncle,” Felix said, pinching his brow and turning away from the mirror. “‘Felix’ is fine.”

     Duusu hesitated. “Felix,” he said. “Don’t you think you should take me back?”

     “Yes,” Felix admitted. “I do. But I’m not going to. I need you.”

     “Please, Mas- Felix, I know you’re scared, but the current Ladybug is a responsible guardian. She won’t let me fall into the wrong hands.”

     “She doesn’t know about me, or Adrien. What if the new holder made a mistake? I- we - could die instantly. Without warning. I can’t let that happen.”

     “Do you really think you’re better suited to wielding a miraculous than the choice of a Guardian? That you wouldn’t make an even bigger mistake?”

     “You don’t understand. You’re immortal, Duusu. Your life doesn’t depend on something that could be destroyed in an instant by the very person you’re trying to protect.”

     “Chat Noir is very careful with his power. He would never cataclysm my miraculous.”

     “He would if Ladybug told him too, and I wouldn’t blame him. He doesn’t know.”

     “Felix-”

     “ Enough, Duusu. I’ve made my decision.”

<><><>

     Wielding a miraculous was harder than it looked. Felix pored over the Grimoire for hours, studying every entry on the miraculous of the peacock. He twisted the ring on his finger and adjusted the brooch.

     “Duusu, transform me.”

     Power surged into Felix’s body. His eyes glowed with resolve and arrogance. A brash smile tightened his lips. He took a feather in his fist and squeezed, pushing his anger, fear, and rationalizations into it. Then it merged with his ring.

     Agony. Felix collapsed, hacking and shaking. Blood stained his fist when he coughed. Savage chills racked his ribs. His body convulsed, his will fighting against the limits of the miraculous. A sickening crack fractured the miraculous, but Felix had succeeded: his ring held two amuks.

     But then the miraculous erupted. Sentimonsters spewed out and vanished into the night, leaping and galloping and running and climbing and flying and stomping away, blurry in Felix’s double vision. The night closed in around his eyes, and he gave in to the pain. 

<><><>

     “Felix! Felix, wake up! Please! Oh, Tikki is going to kill me…”

     “Oh, is that his name? It’s pretty. Felix! Can you hear me?” 

     Felix groaned and sat up. Duusu hovered right above his nose. Ladybug stood over him.

     Ladybug. He scrambled to his feet, checking his finger for his ring and his collar for the brooch. They were there. “Duusu-”

     “Hi! It’s nice to meet you, Felix,” Ladybug interrupted. “I’m Sentibug!”

Chapter Text

  “Hi! It’s nice to meet you, Felix. I’m Sentibug!”

  Sentibug?  “You mean, you’re not Ladybug?”

  “Nope! Gosh, I’m hungry. Got any food?”

  Felix stared at her, scrutinizing her figure. She sure looked like Ladybug, but he guessed that had been the point. He wondered when she’d been created. Definitely before the defeat of Hawkmoth.

  “Oh, I know! I’ll use my Lucky Charm.” Sentibug threw her yoyo into the air and a box of macarons came down with it. After eating three, she noticed Felix’s eyes on her. 

  “Want one?” she offered, her mouth still full. He shook his head no but his stomach growled loudly. When was the last time he’d eaten? 

  Sentibug laughed and handed him a macaron. “Are you a sentimonster too?”

  Felix thought about lying, but there was really no reason not to tell her the truth. “Yes,” he said, cautiously taking a nibble of the pink spotted macaron. It tasted terrible, but Felix really was starving.

  “Neat! And you even have a name. What should my name be?” Sentibug put her chin in her hand and scrunched her nose, thinking. “I can’t think of anything. “Any suggestions?” 

  Felix glanced around, searching the room for inspiration. He realized he had no idea where he was, but that was a problem he’d address later. A framed picture of the Golden Gate Bridge caught his eye. 

  “How about Bridgette? Bridgette...Dupont.” Oh no, he thought. I think I just made a pun. 

  “Perfect!” The newly dubbed Bridgette squealed. “I love it. Say it again.”

  “Bridgette?”

  She sighed happily. “I’ve always wanted a name. ‘Sentibug’ is so boring and unoriginal.”

  Felix knew how she felt. Being an accidental side effect of his cousin’s creation was not too great for self-esteem. He’d never resented Adrien for it though, until recently.

  “So, you’re the one who broke the miraculous, right?” The heavy question sounded lighter in Bridgette’s bubbly tone.

  Felix didn’t answer. He didn’t need to.

  “What were you even trying to do?”

  His eyes strayed to his ring, betraying his silence. Guilt bore down on him, putting pressure on his heart.

  “Is that your amok?” Bridgette reached for the ring, and he pulled it to his chest defensively.

  “Woah there,” she giggled. “I’m not going to take it. I have my own to worry about.” She pulled an Eiffel Tower charm from her yoyo. “See?” Felix marveled over how trusting she was. How did she know he wasn’t going to snatch it from her the moment she showed it to him? A self-disparaging thought crossed his mind. How do I know I won’t take it from her? Then she dropped it back inside, and the thought went away. 

  “So, are you going to tell me, or not?” she pressed. He hesitated. He wanted to say no. But he needed to tell someone, someone who understood. And Sentibug- Bridgette- was, as much as he hated to admit it, really the only person on earth who knew what it felt like to be a knock off. 

  “I was trying to give myself powers.” The confession tasted like medicine in his mouth. Specifically, bubble-gum flavored medicine. “To make my ring the black cat miraculous.” Even saying it aloud made him feel stupid. It had been a stupid idea. But why, then, did he still want to go through with it? Gah, I’m a terrible person. 

  “Did it work?” That’s not what he was expecting her to say. 

  “I think so.”

  “Show me.” Bridgette leaned forward like a curious cat.

  Felix held up his ring. It didn’t look any different, but it felt heavier to Felix. He brought it close to his face. He hadn’t really thought about how he would activate his power once he had it. Was there a code word? Or a special motion? This was too complicated. He really should have thought this through. He clenched his fist in frustration. 

  “Woah!”

  Felix’s heart jumped against his rib cage as black fabric spread over his body, covering him completely. He felt a tail grow from his lower back and large ears perch on his head. His pupils compressed into narrow slits, and claws broke through his cuticles. But the strangest sensation was the black magic seeping into his soul.

  “Cool,” Bridgette breathed, her blue eyes.. They stood there for a second, silent and still. Then a flower pot fell from a shelf onto Felix’s head. 

<><><>

  “That was very unlucky. Are you alright, master?”

  Felix rubbed his head, and noticed that his cat ears were gone. He must have de-transformed when he got knocked out. That was the second time. He bit his lip to keep from cursing, though he knew that refraining from profanity was not going to make up for the rest of his stupid mistakes. 

  “I’m fine,” he said. There was Duusu, floating and concerned, but Bridgette had vanished. “Where’s Bridgette?”

  “She de-transformed. I sent her into the bathroom to wait.”

  “Why? She doesn’t have a secret identity, she’s not a real superhero. Besides, I already know that Marinette is Ladybug.” 

  Duusu bristled at the mention of his precious guardian. “That’s not why. You said it yourself: she wasn’t created to have a civilian identity, so she doesn’t have any civilian clothes.”

  Heat rose to Felix’s cheeks. She wasn’t wearing any clothes?

  “Oh, yes, alright then,” he said, turning away in embarrassment. “I’ll go find her something to wear.”

<><><>

  Bridgette came out wearing clothes Felix had outgrown years ago, but she was elated. Her long, dark hair hung loose around her slender shoulders, and soft bangs framed her smiling freckled face. Felix had expected her to look more like Marinette than she did, but he wasn’t surprised that their resemblance wasn’t perfect. After all, Mayura hadn’t had any idea what Ladybug looked like under the mask. 

  “How’s your head?” she asked.

  “Better.”

  Her eyes didn’t look like Ladybug’s anymore. They were duller, softer, not as sharp and intimidating.

  “So, when are we leaving?”

  “We’re not.” Felix felt his ring finger twitch. He thought he’d quelled that tell. Bridgette didn’t seem to notice, but she still didn’t believe him. 

  “You have to take me with you. I can help. We can be like Chat Noir and Ladybug!”

  Yeah, let the villain play the superhero, Felix thought. 

  “Neither of us are going anywhere, Bridgette.” Another lie.

  Bridgette stomped her foot, and Felix stepped back in surprise. 

  “Stop lying to me! I know you’re going to round up all the sentimonsters. And I’m going with you, whether you like it or not.”

  Her feet were planted, her chin raised. Her freckles were sharp against her fair skin. Ladybug didn’t have freckles like that. She was stubborn, but so was Felix.

  “It’s my mistake, so I have to fix it.” Felix wasn’t sure when he’d decided he was going to round up all the sentimonsters he’d released. That was the way with all his endeavors: the plan formed subconsciously in his head, and he never questioned it. 

  His thoughts were interrupted by a falling book that landed on his head in the same spot as the flower pot had hit, and also the same spot where the floor had connected with his head when he passed out. Ow. He rubbed his sore head. If it were only two times, he could call that a coincidence, but three times? That was just bad luck. Bad luck. Why was it only him who had things falling on him, when Bridgette had been just as easy of a target? Then it hit him, figuratively this time. Black cats are bad luck, and ladybugs are good luck. Could it be…?

  “Bridgette, what number am I thinking of?”

  “Ooh, I love games! “34!”

  Felix almost laughed out loud. “Alright. You can come.”

Chapter Text

It was then that Felix remembered that he had zero idea where he was, and that that was a problem. 

“Duusu.”

“Yes, master?”

Felix had stopped trying to get the kwami to call him by his first name. It was obviously still afraid of him. Which was fair, because Felix had stolen him. Gosh, he was a terrible person.

“Where are we?” 

“In a hotel! We used your credit card!” Bridgette said ‘credit card’ like the words had never been formed in her mouth.

Felix pinched his brow to stop the headache he knew was coming. A hotel? It could be worse. At least they weren’t at the mansion. But he wasn’t at home either. Now that he thought about it, that was a good thing. His mother didn’t need this right now. His mother… he had to fix this.

“Alright, I’m going to scout out the hotel. You two stay here. Don’t leave this room.” Felix left before his companions could protest. 

As soon as he stepped out the door, the unnerving  sense of familiarity spread over him. With every step, his dread grew. He knew this hallway. He knew these doors. He knew this hotel: Le Grand Paris . This was bad. 

“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! Jean-Baptiste, order the limo!” 

Felix dashed into the nearest room, praying it was empty. He pressed his ear against the door.

“It is currently in use, Miss Chloe.”

“You are incompetent! And so is Ladybug– this scandal wouldn’t have happened if Queen Bee was there. I told her she’d rue the day she took my miraculous!”

“Yes, Miss Chloe. Of course.”

“Sentimonsters, all over Paris! It’s ridiculous, utterly–”

“Hey! What are you doing in here?” An angry patron in a bathrobe pointed his beefy finger at Felix. “Get out of my room!” 

Why did it always come to this? Felix really did wish that he could avoid conflicts, but they always seemed to find him. With a swift chop to his thick neck, the man was out. Felix bit his tongue to smother the groan of self-loathing as he dragged the man back into his bed. If he was lucky, the man would wake up in a few minutes and think Felix was a dream, but Felix knew he wasn’t lucky.

He pressed his ear to the door again, but Chloe was gone. He slipped out and continued down the hall, keeping his ears open. What had Chloe meant about a scandal? Did people know about the missing Peacock miraculous already? If so, his job had just gotten a whole lot harder. 

From the lack of chatter behind doors, Felix thought he must have chosen the one occupied room in the entire hotel. That was strange, and so was the tingle on the back of his neck. He felt the phantom twitch of a tail and flex of nonexistent claws– had he already picked up the habits of a cat? But there was something there, something watching him. 

Felix kept walking, but the feeling stayed with him. The muscles in his neck pulsed with impatience. He wanted to turn his head and look.

Whirling around, Felix pounced on the pair of eyes: a sharp-winged butterfly that fluttered just out of his reach. 

A thousand questions rushed through Felix’s mind: Did Chloe know about the sentimonster? Did the sentimonster know who he was? Was it hostile? When had it been created? What powers did it have? But most importantly, How was he going to catch it?

He lifted his ring, and flexed his hand. Time to be the anti-hero.

<><><>

Felix’s footsteps were soft in Chat Noir’s leather boots. He scanned the hall, his eyes too wide, and his vision tinted green. Every hair on his body stood up with the thrill of the chase. Why did he feel so… oh. A cheshire grin spread across his face, and a laugh bubbled in his chest. Was this what fun felt like?

A strange sensation at the small of his back urged him forward. Felix licked his lips and squared his shoulders. The stiff-winged moth fluttered in his line of sight, and Felix jumped at it, claws flashing and pinning the sentimonster to the ground. But the moth melted into the carpet, and his grin became a scowl. A frustrated huff escaped his pursed lips. He swiped at the floor, but he only managed to tear a gash in the carpet. 

Good, he thought. It was ugly anyway.

A pair of narrow eyes caught his attention further along the carpet. And so the chase began: Felix racing down the hall, cutting dangerous corners at blurring speeds, in hot pursuit of the butterfly eyes that moved through the indefinitely long carpet. He ran on two legs, all fours, and sometimes on the walls. He  dodged ornamental vases with nimble maneuvers that left scorch marks in his wake and just barely avoided crashing into walls that had definitely not been there a second ago. His feet burned with friction, but he could hardly feel it behind all the adrenaline. 

The carpet ended abruptly several yards in front of him, and Felix dug his heels into the rough wool to slow down. The carpet folded beneath him, forming waves for Felix to hurdle over with the skill of a surfer, his cat eyes still trained on his prey. The moth flitted out of the edge of the carpet and Felix pounced again, swiped, missed, and landed on all fours on the floor. He drew in a long, slow breath to relax his heaving lungs. His hair clung to his forehead and the sides of his face, wild and untamed like the look in his eyes. 

What am I doing?

Felix stood. He ran his fingers, now claws, through his hair, combing it back. Is it really that long? He thought absently as he tucked it behind his ears. He needed to think. Deep breath, relax, think. Plan. Strategy. 

Maybe he could trap it.

<><><>

Bridgette stuffed her hand in her mouth to stifle her giggles. Felix looked… she didn’t know the word. Adorable? Ridiculous? Impressive? Anyway, she couldn’t stop laughing. When she’d heard him run past their door, she’d just had to see what was going on, and she hadn’t regretted it for an instant. She’d been witness to the last few seconds of his insane chase, and the stark contrast it had been to how he collected himself at the end. It was altogether hilarious. From her spot behind the corner, she could see him put his chin in his hands and scowl at the world, pausing in his planning every few seconds to brush his rebellious blonde hair from his eyes. It was obviously annoying him very much, but Bridgette was enjoying herself immensely. Her laugh broke through her hands, and Felix’s head turned, the cat ears perched on his head twitching. 

“Bridgette? I told you to stay in the room.”

She beamed at him. “Well, you’re not the boss of me,” she said, still giggling. “And you looked like you could use some help. I’m a good luck charm, remember?”

Felix grunted at that. 

“Is that what you were chasing?” Bridgette pointed to the angular butterfly on the wall. Felix’s pupils became slits at the sight. Bridgette was sure she saw his tail thump the ground. She walked up to it.

“Bridgette, no, you’ll scare it away,” Felix said, but Bridgette ignored him.

“He’s pretty,” she said. She reached out a finger. “C’mere, little guy. I’m going to help you. We’re sentimonsters too.”

The butterfly didn’t respond. Felix snorted derisively.

“Your strategy didn’t work either!” Bridgette snapped. Felix frowned at her. 

The three sentimonsters stared at each other in a stalemate, waiting for someone to make a move. Felix finally spoke up.

“Bridgette,” he whispered. “I need you to transform.”

“Right here? Now?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

Bridgette sucked in a long breath and puffed out her cheeks. She held it there for several seconds, then let it out with a puff and pinched her lips in a duck face. 

“Bridgette?”

“Yeah?”

“Why aren’t you doing it?”

“Yeah… I don’t know how.” Her cheeks colored a little, but Felix just nodded his understanding. It was her first time. 

“All right, try touching your earrings,” he suggested.

Bridgette pinched her earlobes and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Now what?”

“Say… transform me. ”

“Transformez-moi!” Bridgette opened her eyes. “Did it work?”

“No.”

“Oh.” She stared at her toes. She was still barefoot; Felix hadn’t packed any extra shoes in his suitcase.

Felix thought for a moment. Bridgette fought back another giggle when he put his chin in his hand. He tapped his bottom lip with his thumb, and she admired how pretty his mouth was. 

“Try focusing on your amok instead. Your earrings aren’t really the source of your power since they aren’t a real miraculous,” Felix said. He looked at her thoughtfully, as if he were studying her. It made her neck hot.

She clutched the Eiffel tower charm around her neck, rubbing her thumb over the spire. It was warm. She held it tighter, and the warmth spread over her entire body. Felix hummed from the back of his throat. 

“Whoa– neat!” Bridgette looked down at herself. “Hey, I look different than last time!”

Felix took a step closer to get a better look. Her costume was different. For one, her suit was a deep pink. For another, gossamer wings sprouted from her shoulder blades. A short skirt completed her new look. She twirled and clapped her hands. 

Bridgette’s changed transformation prompted Felix to look down at his own suit for the first time. It was definitely not Chat Noir’s. He wore a long tuxedo jacket with black gloves; a hood lay flat against his back, and black boots with thick rubber soles gave him an extra inch. It was very…him. 

“You look hot, Felix,” Bridgette said bluntly.

Felix looked up, a scowl pinching his eyebrows together. 

“Let’s get going.”

<><><>

Felix wouldn’t tell Bridgette where they were going, no matter how many times she asked him. 

“Come on, please ! I’m dying of curiosity.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Well you’re the only cat here,” Bridgette grumbled. Felix rolled his eyes. 

“Bridgette, I don’t want the sentimonster to hear it.”

“But he’s going to follow us anyway… oh.” She smiled like someone who’d just been told an exciting secret. 

“Well we’re here anyway, so it doesn’t matter.” Felix hurried Bridgette through the door before she could spill his plan to the butterfly. Bridgette’s eyes popped at the immaculate white-tiled  kitchen, and her stomach erupted in growls at the smell of foreign delicacies wafting through the air. Saliva formed in Felix’s mouth; neither had eaten for hours, but they would have to wait just a bit longer.

“So what’s the plan?”

“You trap the butterfly with a pot.”

“That’s it?”

“What did you expect? Some big complicated strategy? And from what I’ve seen, the butterfly can only merge with objects, not faze through them. It won’t be able to escape.”

Bridgette shrugged her shoulders and grabbed a pot. Felix gave her some space; he didn’t know how big a range his bad luck had. 

The butterfly slid through the crack in the door, and Bridgette slammed the pot down over it, trapping it against the floor. 

“That was easy,” Felix said. He immediately wished he could take it back; the butterfly wriggled out through a groove in the tile and was off like a bullet. Bridgette shot after him. He’d jinxed them.

“Bridgette, wait!”

A large clanging sound drowned out his voice, but Bridgette wasn’t listening anyway. She chased the sentimonster with the same determination as Felix had earlier, moving and dodging various kitchen supplies as she went. Felix watched with horror as pots and pans crashed haphazardly to the ground and bounced with loud bangs on the floor. He cringed at each loud sound, thinking that at any moment a police officer would burst through the door. An unholy screech of triumph came from Bridgette as she jumped from the counter and slammed a Tupperware around the butterfly. She grinned at Felix. He took a step back.

“I did it!”

Felix stared at the mess she’d made, then at the butterfly fluttering against its container. 

“Ladybug?”

Felix and Bridgette turned their attention to the doors. Chloe was standing there, phone in hand.

Bridgette waved, despite Felix’s furious head shaking. 

“Hi!” she said. “Who are you?”

Felix face palmed.

“You don’t know who I am?” Chloe’s voice rose in indignation. “What are you, some kind of Ladybug impersonator?”

Felix stepped in front of Bridgette and grabbed her wrist. “C’mon, let’s get out of here.”

“Don’t you walk away from me!” Chloe waved her phone at their backs. “Ladybug will hear about this!

<><><>

Bridgette clutched the Tupperware to her chest as Felix dragged her through the halls back to their room.

“Duusu! We’re leaving!”

The kwami flew out and tucked itself into Felix’s front pocket. Felix hardly let them pause to wait for him before taking off again. He pulled Bridgette up several flights of stairs and onto the roof.

“Duusu, can you communicate with this sentimonster?”

The kwami flew up to the Tupperware. After a series of unintelligible hums, Duusu perched on Bridgette’s hand.

“This is Optygami,” he said. 

Felix nodded curtly. “Ask him where his amok is. Tell him he can’t go free until we have it.” 

Duusu relayed the message. “It’s a tablet. From what I can tell, it’s not in the hotel. I think he hid it in the subway.”

Bridgette clapped her hands. “We get to ride a train?”

<><><>

After a sneaky exit, a quick stop for food, an uncomfortable cab ride, and a bit of trouble getting tickets regarding Bridgette’s lack of shoes, they were finally on the metro. Bridgette was delighted with everything, oohing and ahing every time they passed a station, but Felix was on edge. He had drawn his hoodie around his head as far as it would go, and checked his phone for updates every minute. The internet was blowing up with videos of various sentimonsters all over Paris, but the trending clip was of him and Bridgette in the middle of a disastrous mess of pots and pans. But so far, neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir had commented on any of these events, in or out of costume. He put his phone down, and gazed at his ring wistfully, remembering the feeling of transformation. That brief relief, like he was free. Free from what exactly, he wasn't sure. But he knew that feeling was dangerous, especially for him. He wasn't Chat Noir. He was jinxed.

Chapter Text

Felix checked his phone every minute on the minute for updates on the spread of sentimonsters. Nothing . But he couldn’t relax. He sat stiff in his window seat of the train. Bridgette snored loudly next to him. Seriously, she sounded like a pig. Even Felix was having trouble ignoring her. He pulled up the Ladyblog again. Still nothing.

Bridgette fell on his shoulder. He pushed her away. She bounced back into him, and Felix huffed, frustrated. He snapped his fingers in front of her face, and she woke up with a start. 

“Hey,” she whined. 

“Quit it.”

She stuck out her tongue at him and turned her back as well as she could in her seat. In a minute, she was snoring again. Felix glanced at his phone.

BREAKING NEWS: Break in at the Le Grand Paris, Ladybug and Chat Noir Impostors!

Felix wanted to scream. But that wasn’t all:

AKUMA ALERT: Possible akuma in your vicinity.

That was weird. He’d thought the Akuma Alert program had been shut down after the defeat of Hawkmoth. Maybe it was a mistake.

The train pitched forward as its brakes failed to stop it quickly enough, coming off its back wheels and throwing all its passengers forward. The wheels came back down with a terrible screech and Bridgette toppled into him, fully awake.

“All passengers, please exit the train in an orderly fashion.” The calm pre-recorded voice was ignored by everyone as they trampled each other to get to the doors. Only some of them made it off before the train wobbled side to side, slowly regaining balance on the tracks. Felix strained his neck to look out into the dark tunnel. That couldn’t be all. Duusu flew into his jacket. He grabbed Bridgette.

A looming stick figure appeared in his line of sight for a split second before it batted the metro out of its way. The train crumpled like a discarded soda can when it hit the side of the subway tunnel. Felix hit the grab rail straight on, head banging against metal, spine ringing like a xylophone. Colors spotted his vision, and black curtains closed in on either side. The last thing he saw was the look on Bridgette’s face that reminded him of his own, the day his mother told him…

<><><>

Bridgette watched Felix thrown back against the wall. She saw his body hit the pole and his face twist into something she never wanted to see again. She saw the vitality fall from his shoulders. He slumped over, and Bridgette was thrown back in time, back to the only other time she remembered. Trapped in Mayura’s miasma of cold and dank that seemed not only to surround her and only her, cutting her off from reality, but penetrate her insides like a cryoprobe. Freezing her until she couldn’t feel. When the last thing she could feel was her existence spilling through her fingers, slipping from her shoulders like a shawl, cruelly ripped out from beneath her like it wasn’t even hers. Helpless.

<><><>

It was his father’s funeral. Bright and sunny, blinding. His mother was crying. He wasn’t. He just couldn’t let the tears out.

“Felix.”

Surprise made him jump. Who could have snuck up on him? He turned; it was his uncle.

“We need to talk.” 

Felix flinched. He hated being told what to do. He hated obeying. He hated being afraid. He hated his uncle.

“Where’s Adrien?”

“He couldn’t come, but he sends his condolences.”

‘ His condolences,’ Felix mocked in his head. ‘ Yeah, right. ” He was mad, but he wasn’t sure who he was mad at. 

They walked to a table away from the rest of the party.

“Your mother is grieving. I’ve been in the same position myself recently. People aren’t always rational when they’re grieving the loss of someone they loved.”

Felix wanted to gag. Filthy hypocrite, he thought.

His uncle continued. “If she told you anything… strange, it might be best to not take her word for it. Our families have had an interesting past, and Amelie didn’t fully understand…”

“Thank you,” Felix interrupted. “But I think she understands perfectly.” He kept his voice even and the fear from his eyes.

“Is that so? In that case…” He twisted the silver ring on his finger. “You will not tell anyone about this conversation, or about who you really are, or about who Adrien is, or about the miraculous.”

Felix kept his uncle’s gaze. He was not about to back down. He couldn’t appear weak. He wasn’t weak.

“Yes, sir.”

“Father?”

Gabriel whipped around to face his stowaway son, faced with the realization that his som had just witnessed their entire exchange. Felix’s feet ached to run. Run and grab the ring from his uncle’s hand, and not look back. But his mouth opened, and just like that he doomed himself.

“Adrien, RUN!”

For once in his sorry life, his cousin listened to him. Adrien ran faster than Felix knew he could.

“No, Adrien. Come back,” Gabriel ordered. He clenched his fist, and Felix gasped. His chest was collapsing in on itself. Sight mingled with sound, a blur of pleading and lights. Adrien walked back, stiff. Tears rushed down his cheeks, at odds with the calm demeanor his father forced upon his body.

“Please, Father, don’t do this,” he begged. Felix dug at his chest. He fell to his knees, eyes watering. 

“No, no, Adrien, please!”

“Adrien,” Gabriel said, an icy calm in his voice that made the heat of the day worse. “This never happened. You didn’t come to your uncle’s funeral. You’ve been at home this entire time.”

Adrien’s eyes glazed over, and Felix could breathe again. 

“Are you going to erase my memory too?” 

“No,” Gabriel said. “I want you to remember this.”

<><><>

 “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Oh non, ” Gabriel said, but with Bridgette’s voice. And just like that, Felix was snapped back to the land of the living. 

“ Non, non, non.”

At least, Felix was pretty sure that was what she said. He could only half hear, as his head was pounding and his blood rushed in his ears. Bridgette was doubled in his vision, and both of her were blurry. He felt her touch him, but recoil. He focused on her cool fingers as she touched him again to keep himself conscious. He thought about how he could feel her heartbeat when she took him underneath the arms and dragged him away, and he tried not to think about how nauseous the move was making him. When she finally set him down again, her hands were all over him: propping him up, checking his pulse and his breathing, feeling for broken bones, and examining his head. He couldn’t feel the head wound, but he was pretty sure he had one because he’d lost his sense of sight and hearing. It was like watching a TV that was in between channels, nothing but static. Bridgette kept messing with his hair, and a multitude of silly half-delusional thoughts entered his mind:

He thought back to grade school when all of the kids lined up to get searched for lice. He hated the idea of something crawling on him, but Bridgette’s touch felt nice, like his mother’s used to when she would stroke his hair. He pictured Bridgette dissecting his brain with her bare hands and seeing all of his thoughts, so he tried to think noble ones instead of childish fancies. That thing that attacked them must be the thing that triggered the akuma alert. But which sentimonster is it? 

<><><>

Bridgette’s fingers grazed the gash on the back of Felix’s head, and he winced. 

“Don’t,” he gasped. 

She choked, and hot tears ran down her chin. She muffled her sobs in Felix’s shoulder. 

“Please don’t die,” she begged, shuddering and shaking. Her arms held him upright, wrapped tight in her terrified embrace.

“Bridgette,” Felix managed to say. “This is not the time to have an existential crisis.”

“Felix!” She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her.

“Ow…” he groaned. “Injured person here.”

“Sorry,” she said, furiously trying to wipe her tears away; but they came out faster than she could dry them.

“Bridgette, quit crying. We need to–” he was cut off by a violent shudder of chills that vibrated through his body. He grimaced in pain, and Bridgette stifled her shriek. She devolved into desperate rambles, apologizing over and over and telling him she just couldn’t do it, and no, no, no, NO, and Felix, Felix, Felix don’t leave me on my own, and worst of all: I’m scared, Felix.

Her fear was palpable, but when she confessed it, it sent memories of dull panic down Felix’s spine. He didn’t want anyone to feel the way he had felt so many times.

“Hey,” he croaked, and Bridgette quieted, clinging for dear life to every word that fell from his lips.

“I’m okay. You’re okay. It’s going to be okay.”

She hugged him, pushing her face into his shoulder and nails pressing into his back. If you asked him later why he’d let her, he would have said that he wasn’t strong enough to push her away. And that would be his signature double-truth, the way he talked when he meant more than the surface said. It was true that he wasn’t physically strong enough to push her away, but he also didn’t have the strength in another way. And that was new for him.

“Can you please stop crying now?” he asked after what seemed like forever to him.

She nodded fiercely, scrubbing at her cheeks.  “What’s the plan?”

“I think I can help with a plan,” Duusu said, flying up to them with a tablet in tow.

“Duusu! How long have you been gone? I didn’t even notice,” Bridgette admitted.

“Not that long. I left to look for first aid supplies on the subway train, but look what I found!”

Bridgette took the tablet from Duusu. “What is it?”

“It’s what we came for,” Felix said, a slightly amused look on his face. Bridgette unzipped the backpack she’d been carrying and took out the Tupperware with Optigami.

“You mean, that black shiny thing is this little guy’s amok?” She opened the Tupperware. “Optigummy, do a flip!”

“You have to say it right, Bridgette,” Felix said. “ Optigami.”

“ Optigami , do a flip!” Bridgette ordered, her enthusiasm undamped.

The little microchip moth spun in midair, and Bridgette cheered.

<><><>

“Alright, Lucky,” Felix called from across the tracks. “Now!

Bridgette threw her yo-yo at the Lollipop sentimonster. He hadn’t been that difficult to locate, especially with Optigami helping. And Duusu had been able to find some first aid supplies on the train to wrap Felix’s head with. 

The yo-yo string wrapped around one of the sentimonster’s stick limbs, and Bridgette yanked at it. The monster stumbled, but didn’t fall.

Felix wacked it with his baton, right in the back of the head, and this time the monster did fall. 

“That’s how it feels,” Felix sneered. No, he definitely was not bitter.

The monster climbed back onto his feet and took a looming step forward. Bridgette aimed for his neck this time and succeeded in pulling the monster down. But the enormous lollipop pulled right back and sent Bridgette flying up and over. She yelped, scrambling to climb her yo-yo string before she hit the ground. She landed with a thud against the monster’s back, holding onto the grooves of its candy body. 

Felix jogged to keep up with them. He ignored how his jostled brain hit the sides of his skull, and how his back felt like it was on fire. Duusu huddled in his jacket.

He stopped abruptly, much to his body’s chagrin, at the discarded lollipop on the floor of the subway. He picked it up, and the monster immediately stopped moving.

“Put her down,” he ordered, and the sentimonster obeyed. A gross sense of power sat in his chest. It simultaneously awed him and disgusted him. He knew it wasn’t natural to have such a great command over another being. How could he trust himself with such a responsibility?

Bridgette ran over to him, breathing hard. He handed the lollipop to her, and she received it, confused. 

“Don’t eat it,” he warned, hoping that that had been obvious but not wanting to take any risks when it came to Bridgette’s limited knowledge of the world and basic hygienic practices. “Where’s Optigami?” he asked.

Bridgette waved the butterfly over. “He’s right here. He’s kinda cute, don’t you think?” Felix ignored the last part of her sentence. 

“What are we going to do with them?” she asked.

<><><>

The zookeeper was no doubt very confused at the generous donation of two rare specimens to his menagerie, but how could he refuse such a gift from the Graham de Vanily family? Especially when they offered to pay for any expenses. Felix just hoped Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t visit the zoo very often. He kept their amoks in a safe back at the bank with the permanent instructions to “roam around like animals and please be nice” (Bridgette’s suggestion.)

“Alright then, where to next, Jinx?” Bridgette joked.

“Jinx?”

“It’s my new nickname for you,” she explained. “I’m Lucky, so you’re Jinx.”

Felix turned away, grumbling incoherently to himself. Bridgette laughed. 

“Come off it, it’s great. But seriously though, I’m starving. Can we stop at Burger King on the way to wherever we’re going?”

“Bridgette, this is France. There are no Burger Kings. How did you even find out about those?”

She shrugged. “Duusu taught me about Google while you were figuring out the safe.”

He rolled his eyes. “Okay, but you just ate an hour ago. How are you still hungry?”

“I was nonexistent for a long time! That can work up a real appetite.”

“That actually makes no sense. It’s logically impossible.”

She stuck out her tongue at him. “You and your logic. Just feed me already!”

Felix sighed in resignation. “Fine. We’ll eat when we get there, it’s not too far.”

“Where are we going?

“My summer home,” Felix said, a small, nostalgic smile playing on his lips.

Chapter Text

    “I just wanted a break. We had three years of nonstop fighting, and hoped we could finally be just you and me–”

    “Hey, don’t stress.” Adrien squeezed his ranting girlfriend’s hand. “It is just you and me. We’re on a date at our favorite restaurant, and do you see any sentimonsters? I don’t. Besides, the sightings could just be rumors.”

    Marinette smiled, and squeezed back. “OK, you’re right. Just you and me. Thanks, Adrien, I–” The television minted on the wall next to their booth caught her attention. “What’s that?”

    Adrien turned in his seat to see the television. Live News showed Ladybug and Chat Noir bounding across buildings in a fight against– was that Banana Boom Boom? Adrien sighed. OK, he thought. Not rumors. The camera swooped in for a better shot and focused on the Ladybug and Chat Noir, which were definitely not them. Adrien hated being copycatted. The fake Chat Noir glared at the news helicopter, and Adrien caught Marinette’s eye.

    “Felix.”

    “No doubt. He must have been the one to steal the peacock miraculous. But how did he get our powers?”

    “No clue. I guess the peacock miraculous is more powerful than we thought,” Marinette mused. “We need to find him.”

    “I’ll give him a call.”

<><><>

    “Feeeeeeeliiiiiixx!” Bridgette called. “Your phone is ringing!” 

    Felix was already on the phone, a payphone so he couldn’t be tracked. It was yet another call to the zoo to donate a specimen of a rare, endangered species, and it was getting heated. 

Bridgette glanced at the cell phone. Without another thought about it, she answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hello. Who is this?”

“I’m Bridgette.”

“Where’s Felix?”

“He’s busy. Who is this?”

“This is Adrien.”

Bridgette almost dropped the phone. Play it cool, she told herself.

“ Can I talk to Felix?”

“I already told you, he’s busy.”

“Are you Felix’s secretary or something? Of course he would have a secretary…”

“No, I’m just… um… I’m just a friend.”

“Then can you at least give him a message from me?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because he told me not to answer the phone if it was you, and I would prefer it if he didn’t find out.”

“Bridgette? Who are you talking to?” Felix asked, hanging up on the zookeeper.

“Oh, that’s him. Bye!”

Bridgette hung up the phone. 

“Who was that?”

“No one.”

The phone rang again, Adrien’s icon clearly showing on the screen.

“OK, fine,” Bridgette said. “It was Adrien. But I didn’t tell him anything.” She smiled sheepishly. Felix rolled his eyes, biting his tongue. 

“Well, no choice now,” he muttered, and answered the phone.

“Hello, Adrien.”

“Felix, you know I hate to do this, but you have two choices. Either meet us in the park at midnight, or we take you there.”

“We’ll be there. Wouldn’t want to have to rough you up.”

“We?”

Felix paused. “We,” he affirmed. Then he hung up.

Bridgette grabbed his arm, bouncing excitedly. “Where are we going?” 

<><><>

    Felix looked over at Bridgette, dressed in her own clothes now. He couldn’t stand seeing her wear his clothes anymore; it didn’t feel right. And every time he saw her rolling up his jeans or tying up his tee shirts he felt a strange heat in his neck that he really didn’t like. So he’d taken her shopping, and she’d been ecstatic. She’d run around the mall with super speed, choosing outfit after outfit, each with its own accessories. Felix would never admit it, but it had been kinda fun. Now, she wore her new favorite sundress, blue to match her eyes, and it was almost worse for Felix than seeing her in his clothes, but he swallowed the burning sensation and kept walking. 

    “We’re here.” Felix stopped abruptly in front of the park bench, causing Bridgette to walk straight into him. He stepped away from her, but she followed closely, looking around at the darkened park in quick 180s. 

    “Don’t worry,” Felix said. “It’s just my cousin. He’s harmless.”

    Bridgette laughed nervously. “It’s not him I’m worried about.”

    Of course she’d be nervous to meet Ladybug. Felix chided himself for being so insensitive. How could he not have thought of it before? Even he was still defensive around Adrien. When you were another person’s exact copy, it was hard not to be.

    “Oh,” Felix said, because it was all he could think of to say. It was a feeble attempt, but Bridgette seemed to appreciate it. She offered him a small smile.

    “What’s she like?” She asked.

    “Marinette? She’s actually very annoying, and just as oblivious as my cousin. A little bit of a mess.”

    “Oh.”

Felix shifted. He knew what question she’d been meaning to ask. “She’s nothing like you,” he added. 

    Bridgette let out a small breath that she’d been trying to hide.

    “Felix.” Adrien and Marinette stepped into the light of the street lamp.

    “Hi!” Bridgette waved.

    “Um, hi,” Adrien said, waving back. 

    “It’s nice to meet you!”

    Marinette tossed her pigtails. “Cut the chit chat. Give it back, Felix.”

    “If only you would tell me what it is you think I’ve taken, I’d be happy to assist you.”

    Marinette sneered at him. “The Peacock Miraculous. You took it. Give it back.”

    Adrien put a hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “Look, Felix. We don’t want to fight you. I’m not sure what you did or how you did it, but we can help you un-do it. We’re on your side.”

    “We are not on his side!” Mairinette protested. 

    “I am!” Bridgette chimed in, taking Felix’s arm. He slid out of her grip.

    “And who is this?” Marinette asked, frustrated. 

    Bridgette took a step forward and held out her hand to shake. “I’m Bridgette.”

    Adrien shook her hand politely, but Marinette humphed and turned away.

    “But who are you?”

    “She’s a sentimonter,” Felix said. “That’s why I agreed to meet here. Adrien, I’m here to explain.” He motioned toward the other side of the park. “You might want to hear this alone.”

    “Anything you can say to Adrien you can say to both of us.” Marinette said.

    Felix frowned at her. “Excuse me, O ‘Guardian of the Miraculous,’ but you are the one who wants something from me. And yes, I admit it, I stole the peacock miraculous. And yes, I am bragging, I stole it from right under your nose, and you didn’t even know it was me, so I might know just a little more than you do.”

    “Felix,” Adrien said. “It’s fine. I don’t mind if Marinette hears. I trust her.”

    “I don’t,” he muttered. “Fine. Bridgette, would you stand under the light for a second?”

    Bridgette complied, positioning her face so that the street lamp lit up all her features, from her pale blue eyes to her pink lips to her dark hair, loose around her bare shoulders. 

    “Wait– no,” Marinette fumbled, looking from Bridgette to Adrien to Felix.

    “I believe you know her as Sentibug,” Felix said. “But her name is Bridgette. And she’s like me.”

    “What do you mean, ‘like you’?” Adrien said. 

    “Adrien, come on, even you aren’t that dense. You can’t tell me you never suspected I was a sentimonster.”

    “You’re not. Felix–”

    “I am. And so are you.”

    “Liar!” Marinette shouted. “Adrien’s a real person!”

    Felix’s eyes flashed. “And we’re not?”

    “That’s– that’s not what I meant. Adrien, tell him–”

    “Marinette, I think he’s right.”

    “What? He can’t be. How could he even know?”

    “Well, for one,” Felix said, pulling back his jacket. “I have this.” The peacock miraculous was pinned to his lapel, glowing in thel lamplight. “But I’ve known for as long as I’ve known about myself. Adrien, you don’t remember, but you knew too. Uncle erased it from your memory.” He motioned to the ring on Adrien’s finger. 

    The small group was silent. Bridgette fiddled with the hem of her dress as she watched Marinette sign furiously to a pair of creatures floating above her head. Felix watched Adrien stare at his ring, twisting his own around his finger. 

    “Okay,” Adrien said, breaking the stalemate. “I believe you. But that’s not all, is it? What about Bridgette and all the others around Paris?

    “That was not intentional,” Bridgette piped up. Felix shrugged noncommittally. That had not been his proudest moment, but it was turning out okay so far. Oh, he’d just jinxed them, hadn’t he?”

    “So there are rampant sentimonster all over Paris?” Marinette asked.

    “Yes.”

    “We’ve caught a few! We’ve been donating them to the zoo,” Bridgette added.

    “And we'll help you catch the rest,” Adrien said. “A zoo, you say?”

    Marinette shook her head in disbelief. “I really can’t believe you, Felix. But we’ll help, because at least Bridgette seems nice.” She offered an apologetic smile to her twin, and Bridgette returned it. 

<><><>

    “I’m hungry,” Bridgette stated.

    “Bridgette, it’s one in the morning.”

    “Exactly. Morning means breakfast.”

    “Fine.”

    Felix found the least sketchy place he could that was open at this time of night, and ordered breakfast. Now that he thought about it, he was pretty hungry too. 

    Bridgette slumped over on the table. “They seemed nice.”

    Felix snorted. 

    “You don’t like them?”

    “They don’t like me.”

    “Maybe Marinette doesn’t. Okay, she definitely doesn’t like you. And she’s a bit scary, but nice. But Adrien likes you. And I do.”

    Felix shifted in his seat. He avoided her gaze by spearing pancakes with his fork. 

    “Is this a date?”

    Felix looked up. “What?”

    “I like you, and we’re eating at a restaurant together. Isn’t that a date?”

    “Um…I–”

     A low rumbling shook the table. The sound grew into a gurgling growl that made Felix sick to his stomach. Bridgette pounded her fist on the table and stood, then marched out of the diner. Felix followed. Bridgette planted her feet on the pavement and put her hands on her hips. 

      “ Excuse me?!” Bridgette shouted at the echo. “You are interrupting a beautiful love story and I do not appreciate it!”

      “There’s no love story,” Felix muttered, fighting his blush. Bridgette ignored him. 

       “Go away!” Bridgette demanded, and Felix reminded himself to never get on Bridgette’s bad side. 

        The sound reverberated off the buildings, shaking the ground. Felix struggled to keep his balance. 

       “Final warning!”

      The source of the sound emerged: a large, hulking mass of purple flesh with a lipless stretch of mouth. 

        “That’s… disgusting,” Felix groaned. 

       “You’re going down!” Bridgette screamed, costume spreading over her body, as she launched herself at the sentimonster.

Chapter Text

   “You’re going down!” Bridgette screamed, costume spreading over her body, as she launched herself at the sentimonster. 

“Bridgette, wait!” Felix dashed after her, but Bridgette couldn’t hear his warning over her war cry. She was at the sentimonster’s feet in seconds, wacking its head with her yoyo and dodging its tongue. 

The Peacock Miraculous buzzed against Felix’s chest. “Duusu!” The kwami flew out to his shoulder. 

“Duusu, what is this?”

Duusu shuddered. He didn’t remember all of the creations made with his miraculous, but he definitely remembered this one. How could he forget the sentimonster that led him to the hands of the Agrestes? 

“It’s Feast,” Duusu said. “He is the incarnation of an insatiable hunger. His amok is no doubt in his stomach.”

Felix groaned. “Great, just great. Any chance we could reason with him?”

“There’s no reasoning with one so hangry .” 

Felix knew that first hand, from the short time he’d known Bridgette. They’d have to get eaten in order to retrieve the amok.

“Bridgette!”

Lady Luck jumped off Feast’s back. 

“I don’t like him,” she grumped. 

“Neither do I. And I don’t think he’s any better on the inside.”

“Aw, Felix, how can you say that! Everyone deserves a second chance to show their true colors!” Bridgette noticed Felix’s grimace.

“Oh,” she groaned. “You meant inside inside. Gotcha. How are we going to do that?”

“Shouldn’t be too difficult,” Felix said. Feast was lunging closer with every lopsided step. 3,2,1… 

Felix wrapped his arms around Bridgette, and quelled his gag reflex as they were dragged into Feast’s gut by his gigantian tongue.

For a moment, Felix was in oblivion. It was dark nothingness for ever and ever, just black and… his eyes were closed. He squinted into the darkness of Feast’s stomach, crinkling his nose from the stench and ignoring whatever was beneath his feet. Bridgette was breathing slowly beside him. His arms were still wrapped tight around her, and she was holding onto him with all her strength. Her nose was buried into his collar. Felix wondered how she was breathing with her airways smothered by his shirt.

“Bridgette,” he whispered, inclining his head to face her. His lips brushed her hair, and he pulled back, surprised at how close she was.

She grunted in response.

“Are you okay?”

“‘M’fine. Smells in here. Not moving. Can’t make me.”

Felix stifled a laugh, then flushed red at the fact that he was amused. Since when could she make him smile? Since when could anyone make him smile when he was inside a monster’s belly? And to make it worse, no matter where he moved his head, the smell of her hair reached his nose. I’d rather smell her shampoo than stomach acid, he rationalized. 

“Felix?” Bridgette said after he’d been silent for a while.

“I’m fine, just thinking.”

“Okay.” Her voice was muffled. Felix tried not to think about how he could feel her mouth moving through his clothes. No, don’t think about that. Think about how you are going to find the amok. Not about Bridgette. Amok, not Bridgette… Bridgette!”

“Bridgette, can you be lucky?”

She groaned.

“Please?”

Felix couldn’t remember the last time he’d said please, but he made a note to try it more often, because the word really did seem to be magic. Bridgette pulled away from him reluctantly, peeling her arms from around him. Felix immediately felt cold. 

Bridgette pinched her nose and plunged her free hand into a mass of swallowed junk and gagged. “Gross…”

Her fingers closed around something wooden, and she yanked it up. She handed it to Felix. 

“Is this it?”

The moment Felix held it, the peacock miraculous warmed. “Yes. This is it.”

“Great. How do we get out of here?”

“Simple.” Felix held out his hand towards Bridgette’s voice. He felt her take it and follow his arm back to his side. 

“Feast, spit us out,” he commanded to the staff.

“Ugh,” Bridgette groaned, and buried her face in Felix’s shoulder again.

The two sentimonsters rolled onto the ground, holding onto each other for dear life. The breath was knocked out of Felix’s longed as he landed abruptly, squashed between Bridgette and the ground. She was tensed above him, eyes squeezed shut and fists clenched around folds of his clothing.

“Bridgette,” he gasped, struggling for air. “Let me up.”

She let go of him slowly, and fell onto her back next to him, laughing into the clean air. Felix shook his head at her.

“Let’s never do that again,” she said.

“Deal.”

Bridgette shot up, grinning stupidly. “Hey, look, I’m Feast!” She wagged her tongue around, then puffed up her cheeks and mimed throwing up. “Blehh, blahh, garble blech!”

Felix’s eyes pinched closed as a stream of air shot out his nose in a breathy laugh and a smile showed his teeth. He shook his head at her.

“Do that again,” Bridgette said. “Please.” She was staring at him with the warmest, softest look on her face. 

Felix blanched. “Do what?”

“Laugh.”

He forgot her words in her eyes, blue, and yet, dark. Dull, cloudy, but deep. Felix couldn’t look away. He was caught up in Bridgette, because she was real, and next to him, and he never wanted to leave her.

But then the overwhelming desire to run took him over, like it had so many times when someone got too close, and he looked away. His heart burned with shame at the thought of someone knowing him, but at the same time he felt the guilty ache that came with turning away. The ache was stronger this time, because it wasn’t just someone else he was disappointing. 

“Felix?” 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, avoiding her eyes.

“It’s okay,” she said softly. Felix felt her gaze shift from him.

“It’s okay that you’re afraid,” she continued. Felix dared to look back at her, and found Bridgette’s eyes trained on the sky..

“It’s not your fault. I have things I’m not good at either. Like, what was that word you said earlier? When I told the cashier you were rich?”

A small laugh rose in Felix’s chest at the memory. “Subtle?”

“Yeah,” Bridgette said. She reached up at the sky, snatching at the stars like they were just within her grasp. She peered at the constellations through narrowed eyes to make them blur, or at least, Felix figured that was the reason, since she’d done it before and then tried to get him to do it too. It was incredible how she was so fascinated by her body, by the sky, and even by him. He’d never been fascinating to anyone.

“I think I’ve discovered another thing I’m not good at,” Bridgette said after a minute.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Patience.” She laughed lightly. 

A pit formed in Felix’s stomach, despite Bridgette’s joking tone. “At least you’re honest about it,” he whispered.

“So we’re even, then,” she declared.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we each have two things we’re bad at.” She looked away from the stars, but the stars couldn’t seem to look away from her. They left their soft glow in her eyes, on her lips, in her hair. Felix couldn't look away from her either.

“We could work on it together,” he suggested.

“Okay,” she said, smiling. “I like that plan.”

Felix smiled too. This was so easy. Why had he been afraid? 

It seemed, however, that Felix’s bad luck was not quite finished with him. Before either of them could move, a light brighter than any star enveloped them. Felix felt his muscles lock. A voice spoke in his head:

Where are the sent–

“How do you feel about cheese?” Bridgette blurted.

Felix’s lips opened against his will as his mind moved at the speed of sludge to process what was happening. His gaze flickered to the source of the light: a giant eye.

“It’s… “

He felt the words begging dragged from his mouth.

“...nice?”

The light flickered, but Bridgette dragged them out of the spotlight before it could refocus. They ducked behind a pair of garbage cans to plan their next move.

“That was close.” She was shaking. 

“He was going to ask about the location of the sentimonsters we’ve rounded up,” Felix said, realizing. “That can’t be good.”

“Was it a coincidence that two found us at the same time?” Bridgette asked nervously. “What if Feast called for backup?”

Felix scoffed. “No way. It must have just been my bad luck.”

But as the ground shook, Felix began to wonder just how much bad luck he could have. Bridgette grasped Felix’s arm for support. 

“Maybe you were right,” he muttered.

 Another sentimonster came into sight behind the monster eye, beating its chest with large, hairy fists.

“A giant yellow gorilla. Why does this have Chloe written all over it?” Felix groaned.

Bridgette reached for her Eifel tower charm. ‘What do we do?”

Felix scanned the situation. “You take the Eye. I’ll take Mr. Gorilla,” he decided. Bridgette didn’t question him. For some reason, a shiver gathered in Felix’s gut at her silence. It was a  foreboding feeling, as if his mischance pitied him for what it was about to do to him. Bridgette noticed his discomfort and offered him a smile.

“Hey. You always come out on top, okay?”

“We,” he responded. “We always come out on top.”

He gave the signal, and the two senti-heroes rushed the monsters.

It all went wrong far too quickly. Felix pounced, cat eyes trained on the banana-colored ape. His claws extended, ready to land on the beast, when a twitch in his right ear pulled his attention away. A blue shape was flying towards him.

The new threat tackled Felix, and he landed with a thud against the concrete, head ringing in tones that should have been too high for him to hear. 

His watering eyes tried to locate the enemy, but the darkness just blurred.

“Felix!”

Bridgette.

His attacker reappeared, and Bridgette’s screams pierced the cotton in his brain. 

“Bridgette!”

She was flailing, he could see her thrashing in someone’s arms. It was a humanoid someone. Another sentimonster? The light from the eye froze Bridgette mid-screech, and the gorilla took her from the humanoid. 

“Bridgette!” he screamed, hoarse and desperate, but his consciousness was already fading as the enemy retreated into the night.

Chapter Text

Felix was numb to his soul. It wasn’t like he hadn’t lost before, he had, and lost hard, too. And he had grown enough to be able to admit that he hadn’t handled it well. But this… his fingers itched to move, but everything was frozen. He wanted to form a fist and fight his way through the pain, to fight his way to Bridgette, but the rest of his body shrank from battle. He knew that if he didn’t act now, the turmoil inside his chest would grow stale and leave him callous as it had before. And at the same time, somewhere deep inside him, something that had always been there finally spoke up loud enough for Felix to hear: 

I don’t want to be alone.

The fog cleared, and Felix took a step forward.

<><><>

Bridgette was straight up not having a good time. Giant Ape Express™ was not her preferred mode of transportation, especially not when she had no idea where she was headed. It occurred to her that she might ask, so she tapped the ape firmly on the knuckle.

“Excuse me, Monsieur Ape, but could you inform me as to our destination?”

The ape ignored her.

“I’ll have you know,” Bridgette continued, not yet disheartened, “that I had a hearty midnight snack an hour ago and if we’re not going to get where we’re going soon, I’m going to need a potty break.”

The ape grunted at her. Bridgette wrinkled her nose. Giant yellow ape breath did not smell like daisies. It smelled more like rotten bananas.

“Come on, tell me where we’re going! Who am I gonna tell? I’m dying of curiosity.”

The ape glared at her, but didn’t answer. Bridgette wondered if he could talk. She knew some sentimonsters couldn’t. Bridgette sent up a silent ‘thank you’ to whoever had inspired Mayura to give her the power of speech, because Bridgette very much liked talking. 

“Curiosity killed the cat, you know,” Bridgette said, just in case her captor was only pretending to be mute. 

“I’m not a cat, but my boyfriend is. Well, he’s not my boyfriend yet, but I’m pretty sure he will be by the next chapter. But I could still die, even if I’m not a cat. Curiosity might be even more dangerous for me, since cats have nine lives and ladybugs have just one. And it will be your fault if I die, and I’m sure you don’t want that on your conscience.”

Bridgette cast a glance up at the still-silent ape. 

“Also, Felix would be mad if I died. He’s the cat I told you about, and he’s mean, so he’d probably claw your eyes out or something. And I wouldn’t be there to stop him bcause I’d be dead. Think about that.”

The ape gave her a strange look. Yeah, he was definitely thinking about it.

<><><>

Once again, Felix found himself breaking into his uncle’s mansion. He comforted himself with the fact that he hadn’t come to steal anything this time, but as he passed the big portrait on the stairway, he seriously contemplated vandalism. Gabriel’s portrait would be so much more accurate with devil horns and a tail. And maybe a mustache. 

He made his way to Adrien’s room, the only part of the house still alive. The door wasn’t even locked, and Felix made a mental note to berate his cousin for not taking the proper precautions. Adrien Agreste was peacefully sleeping, a ladybug plushie clutched to his chest. Simp. 

“Adrien.” Felix nudged him, but Adrien didn’t stir.

“Adrien.” Felix shook him harder, and immediately he heard Bridgette in his head telling him to be gentle. He nudged Adrien again, more gently this time. 

Adrien yawned adorably, making Felix roll his eyes. Seriously, Felix thought, if Adrien gets any more perfect, woodland creatures will start to gather around him like he’s some sort of disney princess. 

“Felix?” Adrien said sleepily, rubbing his eyes. 

“Yeah, it’s me. Get up.”

Adrien sat up obediently. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and slid his feet into a pair of cat slippers. They clashed horribly with his ladybug pajamas. 

Really, you’d think a model would have a better sense of style. But Felix bit his tongue and kept his comments to himself, once again thinking of what Bridgette would say. Besides, he needed Adrien’s help, and insults weren’t a convincing argument.

“What are you doing here?” Adrien asked. HOW did he not have bedhead??

“I need your help.”

“Already? Fé, it’s only been a few hours since I last saw you. What could have possibly happened…”

Adrien faltered when he met his cousin’s eyes. 

“You lost her.”

Felix hung his head. “Yes.”

Of all the things Felix was expecting, Adrien hugging him was not on the list. But Adrien had always been the sensitive one, the one who knew what was wrong before you said it, the one who understood. Felix didn’t hate the contact like he thought he would. It was comforting, despite the feeling of vulnerability that gathered in his gut. Felix’s eyes stung, but he refused to let tears fall. He pulled back from Adrien’s embrace. 

“Will you help me get her back?”

“Yes.”

Adrien summoned his kwami into his ring and threw open the window.

“Where are you going?”

Adrien looked back at him with glowing green eyes. “To get Marinette, of course. We can’t do this without her.”

Felix grunted, but didn’t argue. He transformed and followed Chat Noir out the window.

<><><>

“You lost her already?!”

Felix glared at Marinette. “It wasn’t my fault!”

“It’s always your fault,” Marinette spat. 

Adrien stepped between them. “We can’t abandon Bridgette, Marinette. It doesn’t matter whether it was Felix’s fault or not.”

“It matters a little,” Marinette muttered. “But you’re right. We have to rescue Bridgette. And I’ll bet that wherever she was taken is where we’ll solve this rogue sentimonster problem.”

Marinette beckoned the boys to climb down into her room. There were still pictures of Adrien everywhere, Felix noted, though many of them had her in them too now.

Marinette pulled down a screen from her ceiling and extended a pointer stick.  Felix was pretty sure that was the same screen she used to use to stalk Adrien. And yes, he was aware that even knowing that made him a stalker too. He’d had reasons (not great reasons, but reasons) for keeping an eye on Marinette, but he knew that Marinette would tolerate none of them, so he kept his observation to himself. 

Marinette smacked the screen with the pointer stick to get their attention. Felix wondered how a pig-tailed girl in pink pajamas could look so authoritative, but she did, and Felix would be lying if he said he wasn’t at least a little bit scared of her. 

“This is a map of all the sentimonster sightings in Paris,” Marinette said.

She pointed to a cluster of red pins. “This is where the majority of the sightings have been concentrated. I say sightings because, for the most part, there haven’t been any direct attacks. The only outbreaks of violence that have occured were, from what I can tell, instigated by civilians.”

“So the Sentimonsters aren’t on the offensive?” Adrien asked.

“Not yet, at least.”

Felix frowned. Marinette was confirming his suspicions with hard statistics. 

“Felix, when you released the sentimonsters, did they all appear in front of you? Or did they appear in the place they’d been destroyed?”

“In front of me, I think. At least, Bridgette did. It was hard to tell with the others, since the effect of the miraculous knocked me out.”

“And where did this happen?”

Felix tapped the map. “Near the Agreste mansion.”

“Couldn’t wait, could you?” Marinette muttered derisively. 

Adrien shot her a look. 

Felix bit his tongue to keep from snapping at her. This was why he hadn’t wanted her to have the peacock miraculous. She didn’t understand what it was like to have such a great weakness. His very being was his kryptonite, and no matter how hard he trained or how strong he got, he could never overcome that weakness. Marinette didn’t get it, and Felix was trying and failing not to blame her for it.  

“This won’t work if you two can’t get along,” Adrien said. “Felix, I trust Marinette. And Marinette, I trust Felix. If you both trust me, that should be a good enough reason for you to trust each other.”

Felix looked down at the floor, seething. Marinette, he assumed, was doing the same.

“You guys, please. If we wan’t to rescue Bridgette, we have to work as a team,” Adrien pleaded. 

Felix locked eyes with Marinette, and immediately a pain shot through him, because she wasn't Bridgette. She wasn't even almost Bridgette. She just looked enough like her to make Felix miss her all the more. He fought the urge to hate Marinette for that, but only because Bridgette liked her. Only for her. He needed Marinette, because he needed Bridgette. 

He held out his hand. 

“Help me get her back. Please. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

Marinette eyed his hand warily before shaking it firmly. Her grip was murder.

“I’ll hold you to that. And just so we’re clear, I’m doing this for Adrien, not for you. I’ll kill you if you jinx this up.”

Jinx. He was, wasn’t he? A jinx.

“Deal.”

<><><>

Giant Ape Express™ halted in front of a typical darkened building. Typical because it seemed to Bridgette that in all the kidnapping movies she’d seen, (five, to be exact, and all pirated off YouTube and viewed from Felix’s phone) it was always a building like this one that the kidnappers took the kidnappee. It was very cliché, in Bridgette’s opinion, but she thought that it might be rude to point that out, so she decided not to comment. But then again, she thought, kidnappers didn’t deserve politeness. Especially not ones that refused to talk. That was rude. So she was perfectly justified in making snarky comments. Bridgette summoned the dead-pan tone she’d learned from Felix. 

“Seriously? An old abandoned warehouse? I haven’t even been alive for a year yet and I know that’s basic. Get a life.”

The giant yellow gorilla grunted at her. Bridgette grunted back, satisfied. She’d sure showed him what for.

The door to the warehouse opened with a horror movie creak, and a humanoid sentimonster stepped out. He was blue-faced with a red hat. Or maybe it wasn’t a hat, Bridgette didn’t know. She wasn’t one to judge others’ fashion choices.

“Is that her?” The blue dude asked.

“Yes,” Yellow Gorilla grunted.

“You can talk!” Bridgette exclaimed. “I can’t believe it! This whole time you could talk, and you ignored me?! The audacity !”

Bridgette crossed her arms as best she could and harrumphed loudly.

The blue dude laughed, but it wasn’t a nice laugh. “Bring her in. We’ve been waiting.”

Yellow Gorilla (who could apparently talk) carried her through the door. The smell of damp wood and dust assaulted her nose. Bridgette sneezed.

 “Oh, that is awful .”

The lights came flickering on, revealing a hoard of sentimonsters. Blue dude walked forward, still laughing his sickening laugh.

“Welcome, Sentibug, to the Sentimonster Sanctuary, home of the Rebellion.”

Chapter Text

The warehouse looked a lot cushier with the lights on. The walls were lined with shiny things that had probably been stolen, and there were several tables full of what looked like take-out from cheap fast-food restaurants. But the strangest thing was the hoard of senti-creatures arranged around the hall. They were lined up between stanchions of velvet rope that snaked back and forth across the room, and many of the creatures had their arms full of more shiny things.

“Hail, Sentibug! Created to oppose Ladybug, enemy to our kind!”

The crowd cheered as Bridgette was set down in a make-shift throne at the front of the room. Between the ‘Hail’s and the bowing, Bridgette could hear cries for her to save them. She gripped the arms of the throne. Whatever she had been expecting, it had not been this.

“Proceed with the gifts!”

The blue dude with the weird hat gestured for the queue to move forward, and the first creature in line approached Bridgette.

“My Lady, please accept this golden nugget for your treasury.” The creature held out his hands to her.

‘Um, that’s a chicken nugget–”

“I’m sure you will use it wisely. And please, in your wisdom, save us from those who wish for our destruction.”

“Oh, um, ok… thanks…” Bridgette watched as the blue dude– she really needed to learn his name– accepted the chicken nugget for her and placed it on an empty table near the throne. Then the next creature in line stepped forward. She was tall, but she knelt down to Bridgette’s level to present her gift: a pretty blue and yellow hair bow.

“Please accept this as a token of our gratitude. Please defend us, My Lady.”

Again, the blue dude took the gift and set it on the table. Bridgette watched the tall lady walk back into the crowd.

“Um, hey,” a voice said. 

Bridgette turned to find an extremely handsome man standing in front of her. 

“So, um,” he continued. “I didn’t know I was supposed to bring a gift, I was kinda kidnapped– I mean invited– here last minute, but I’m throwing a party next Saturday, and I’d love for you to come as my personal guest.”

Bridgette blinked at him. “You’re human?”

He ran his fingers through his hair. “Um, yeah, I’m Jackson Wang from China.”

“They kidnapped you?”

He shrugged. 

Bridgette motioned for the blue dude to come over. “Hi, sorry, what’s your name?”

“I am Sentibubbler, My Lady.”

“Great. Sentibubbler, could you please show Mr. Jackson Wang from China back to where you found him? He’s very busy.”

“Of course, My Lady.”

“Thanks.”

“I’ll send the invite to the party to this address, is that okay?” Jackson Wang from China said as Sentibubbler showed him out.

Bridgette pinched the bridge of her nose. This was going to be a weird next few hours.

<><><>

Felix did not like working with Marinette. She was bossy, flippant, and she gave him death stares every time Adrien looked away, as if to remind him that she blamed him for every single bad thing that had ever happened to Adrien. But she was smart. Smart and experienced with this kind of mission. And if she could help him get Bridgette back, then he would put up with her for as long as he had to.

“OK, so here’s the plan.” Marinette slammed her hand on the table. “We draw them out. If we can’t go to them, we make them come to us. Then we kick ass and get Bridgette back.”

“Great plan, My Lady. I just have a few questions.”

Felix had many questions, mainly why Marinette thought what she’d said was a plan. It sounded more like wishful thinking to Felix.

“Go ahead, Adrien,” Marinette said.

“What do we do with the sentimonsters after we rescue Bridgette? We can’t let them run loose in the city, but I don’t think it’s right to lock them up. I mean, some of them are basically animals, so maybe we can send them to a nice zoo, but some of them are like me and Felix and Bridgette.”

Marinette put her chin in her hands. “You’re right.”

“And what if…” Adrien paused to collect his thoughts. “What if they aren’t bad? What if they’re just scared?”

“What do you mean?”

Felix cleared his throat. “I think Adrien is onto something. We still don’t know why they took Bridgette. They haven’t offered any kind of ransom or ultimatum, and if they wanted her dead they could have killed her right there.”

“What’s your point?” Marinette was giving him another dirty look.

“Marinette, not all sentimonsters are bad,” Adrien said.

Marinette’s expression softened. “I know that. How could I not know that, with you right in front of me?”

Felix noticed she didn’t mention him.

“But the one thing we know about this group is that they took Bridgette by force,” Marinette continued. “We can’t afford to give them the benefit of the doubt.”

“Actually, I think we can,” Felix said. “Think about it: They have no motive to destroy the city. What if they’re trying to protect themselves, using Bridgette as a shield?”

“You think they’re using her to make sure you won’t attack?”

“Maybe. But I don’t think they’ll hurt her.”

“So we go in there and ask nicely for them to return Bridgette?”

Adrien nodded, not getting Marinette’s sarcasm.

“I was thinking more along the lines of a stealth mission,” Felix explained. “We go in, figure out where she is, then regroup and make a plan to get her out.”

Marinette crossed her arms. “For that to work, we need to know where to start looking.”

“We do know where to start,” Adrien said. “Near my house. That’s where you said they first appeared, right? Their base is probably somewhere not too far from there.”

Marinette and Felix both looked at Adrien, then looked at each other.

“Okay,” Marinette said. “Let’s get ready to go.”

<><><>

Bridgette was starting to understand. For the past hour, she’d been receiving odd gifts and requests to “deliver us from the destroyers.” Not a single one of the senti-creatures looked fierce or menacing. Instead, they looked scared. Bridgette could relate to that. The knowledge that your life depended on the whim of whoever held the peacock miraculous was terrifying. Bridgette trusted Marinette, but that was because she knew her. These creatures had only ever known her as their enemy. Ladybug had been the one to destroy them; of course they would be afraid of her. Bridgette’s case had been different: She’d been able to see the goodness in Ladybug before she died; Mayura had been the one to kill her. It was only by a miracle that they’d managed to come back to life: a freak accident caused by Felix’s overuse of the Peacock miraculous. 

Bridgette had already decided that she’d live this time. She couldn’t let her life be taken from her again; she could not throw away her second chance, because she knew she wouldn’t get a third. She was going to live without holding back.

But she knew that you couldn’t live without holding back if you were afraid. These senti-creatures couldn’t live their life to the fullest as long as they were afraid. Bridgette knew she wasn’t their savior, but maybe she could help. She could talk to Marinette, explain the situation, convince the senti-creatures that she wouldn’t hurt them, that they could be free. 

She didn’t know if they’d listen, but she had to try. 

<><><>

Marinette walked over to Felix, who was sitting on her balcony. Adrien was still downstairs suiting up.

“Felix.”

He met Marinette’s gaze, and for the first time he realized she wasn’t glaring at him or giving him a mean look. There was something different in her eyes. Something almost like… understanding.

“You really care about her, don’t you? You’d destroy anyone who tried to hurt her?”

“Yes.”

Marinette sighed, and for a second Felix saw just how tired she was. She’d been carrying her own burden for a long time. Maybe not for as long as he had, but it had caused her no small amount of pain. 

“I’d do the same for Adrien,” she said. “And I wouldn’t care what or who I had to sacrifice to keep him safe. He’s… he’s more than I deserve. He is so good, and I just want to make the world good for him. I– Bridgette reminds me of Adrien.”

Felix knew what Marinette was trying to say, and he knew what she left unsaid: Adrien and Bridgette were kindred spirits; and Felix and Marinette had more in common than either of them would like to admit.

“Thank you,” Felix said. “For helping me get her back.”

Marinette nodded. “But don’t forget: if it comes down to it, I will choose Adrien over anything else. He comes first.”

Her glare was back, but Felix didn’t mind it so much this time. 

“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

Adrien popped his head up out of the stairwell. “Good job getting along guys! I’m so proud.”

Marinette scowled, but said nothing.

“Let’s get going,” Felix said. “I don’t want to waste any more time.”

<><><>

Ladybug, Chat Noir, And Jinx launched themselves from Marinette’s balcony and landed on the roof of a nearby building. Ladybug and Chat Noir stuck the landing with perfect grace, but Jinx stumbled. Ladybug scoffed at him, brushing past him as she moved to the front of the group. 

“This way,” she said, and took off again. 

Chat Noir grinned at Jinx. “Come on, let’s go.”

As the three of them raced across building tops, Felix realized just how much stamina Ladybug and Chat Noir had. They ran like they could never grow tired, and each of their leaps was just as high and strong as the last. Jinx, on the other hand, was panting and cursing. He managed to keep up, but his chest burned with the effort. He hadn’t realized how much more powerful the real cat miraculous was compared to his copycat version. 

Still, Felix had something that Ladybug and Chat Noir didn’t: pure desperation. He would do anything to get Bridgette back. 

<><><>

Ladybug and Jinx relied on Chat Noir’s night vision to scout out possible hiding places. They circled the Agreste Mansion, expanding their search further and further out. About two kilometers out, they reached a sketchy sector with several abandoned buildings. 

“This is the one spot I couldn’t save,” Ladybug admitted. “If only I hadn’t had to detransform, the Miraculous Ladybugs could have fixed this.”

Chat patted her shoulder. “It’s not your fault, My Lady. Hawk Moth did this.” 

Jinx ushered the two heroes to keep moving. They made their way through the sector, listening intently for any sign of Bridgette’s kidnappers. 

Chat Noir’s ears twitched. “I hear voices.”

“How many?” Jinx whispered. 

“A lot. Maybe a hundred. They’re muffled though.”

“Where?” Ladybug asked. 

Chat Noir crept forward, and the others followed him. 

“Here,” he said, crouching down above a shaded sky light.

Ladybug reached under the groove of the sky light and lifted it a crack. She peered through.

“It’s definitely them. You were right, Chat, it’s about a hundred, maybe more.”

“Is Bridgette there?” Jinx asked.

“Yes,” Ladybug said. “She’s surrounded, though. We need to sneak in and scout out the area to find a way to get her out.”

Jinx nodded. 

The three of them entered the building through another skylight located toward the edge of the building. They dropped down onto the rafters above the warehouse, hidden by the shadows. From there, Jinx could clearly see Bridgette. She was sitting on a throne next to a table laden with stuff. She wasn’t tied down or restrained in any way, but it would still be a challenge to get to her. 

Adrenaline pumped through Jinx’s veins. He could feel his heart beating in his tensed muscles. 

Ladybug and Chat Noir settled down next to him. They whispered to each other about how best to reach Bridgette. But Jinx was still. He waited. He watched. He felt that something was going to happen. 

<><><>

The line of gift-bearers was finally dwindling, and the table next to Bridgette’s throne was as full as it could be. She took a deep breath. She had to do it now; she had to try.

Bridgette stood on her throne, and the room went silent.

“Friends,” she began, because she wasn’t sure how to address a group of non-humans that had appointed her their queen.

“I know you’re scared. I’m scared too. But we have to try not to be. If we want to live for real this time around, we have to be brave.”

All eyes were on her. The room seemed even larger from this perspective. She took another deep breath.

“You have entrusted me with your safety, and I will not break your trust. I will fight for you. I will fight for your rights. But Ladybug is not the enemy! Ladybug’s enemy was Mayura, but she was defeated. Ladybug wants justice for all of us.”

The senti-creatures were starting to murmur and rustle.

“I know this is hard to believe,” Bridgette said, raising her voice. “But I’ve met her. She has no animosity towards our kind. Her partner is one of us!”

This prompted what Bridgette hoped was a more positive reaction. She kept going:

“I am going to work with her to make sure we are safe. She will help us!”

No one cheered, but Bridgette could feel the hope radiating off of the crowd. She’d gotten through to them. Maybe with a little more time–

“INTRUDERS!!!”

The entire warehouse erupted into chaos. Bridgette had no idea who had raised the alarm, but she knew it must be true. 

“PROTECT THE QUEEN!”

A wall of senti-creatures formed around her, boxing her in on all sides. Her stomach dropped as she realized who the intruders must be, but there was nothing she could do. 

“Felix, save them,” she whispered, hoping against hope that he had figured out what she had.

<><><>

Jinx didn’t know how they’d been spotted, but that didn’t really matter right now. What did matter was that he was now the target of every senti-creature in this room. Some of them cowered back at the sight of him, but others charged. 

One came at him swinging a giant club. Felix side-stepped his first swing, but his attacker pivoted and swung again, landing a blow to Felix’s side. He winced in pain, but managed to raise his baton to block another strike. He pushed back and threw the senti-creature off balance. While he had the chance, he knocked the club out of his hands and ran. Most of the creatures moved out of his way, but some stepped into his path. Felix raised his baton.

His instincts took over. As he fought through the crowd, he noticed Chat Noir out of the corner of his eye. He was guarding Ladybug as she worked on something– Jinx couldn’t tell what. He didn’t have time to figure it out, because the attacks just kept coming from all sides. Every time he had a moment to take a breath, he strained his eyes for a glimpse of Bridgette. He’d started out with an idea of her general direction, but he’d gotten turned around while fighting. As he disarmed opponent after opponent, he prayed that whatever Ladybug was planning would work.

The answer to his prayer came in the form of an ear-splitting sound that made everyone in the room drop their weapons and clamp their hands over their ears. 

“Senti-creatures!” Ladybug cried, her voice amplified by whatever contraption she’d conjured up with her Lucky Charm.

“We are not your enemies! We wish you no harm. All we want is the safe return of our friend, Bridgette, who you know as Sentibug. As long as you release her peacefully, we have no reason to fight.”

Felix couldn’t tell if the crowd was actually listening to Ladybug, or if they were just still recovering from having their eardrums ruptured, but he hoped it was the former.

“We want to help you!” Ladybug continued. “You are persons, and you deserve to live like persons. Let us give you that freedom!”

She lowered the magic megaphone. The crowd was silent, save for one senti-creature who was pushing through the crowd. When he reached Ladybug, he bowed deeply. 

“It seems we have misjudged you, Ladybug. Sentibug told us of your worthiness; if she is right, and you are to be trusted, we will gladly accept your help.”

Some of the crowd still looked reluctant, but others shouted their agreement. Ladybug reached out to shake the senti-creature’s blue hand. 

“Good choice,” she said. She disconnected the megaphone from the magic speaker and threw it up into the air. 

“Miraculous Ladybug!” The room filled with red light, and Felix felt the pain in his ears melt away. 

Cheers rose up from the senti-creatures, but Felix wasn’t ready to celebrate yet. He hadn’t yet accomplished what he’d come there for.

<><><>

The fighting may have ceased, but the crowd was still large and loud, and Bridgette was lost in it. She made her way through it, eventually finding herself at the edge of the warehouse. She looked around for Felix, her heartbeat gaining speed with every second she didn’t see him. 

“Bridgette!”

She turned toward the voice, and saw Felix coming towards her. She let out a sigh of relief. 

“Felix! There you are. Are you al-“

He pulled her into a hug. His arms held her tight and his chin rested firmly on her head. 

“Hey,” she said softly. “Are you okay?”

“I was so worried,” he whispered. 

“Oh.”

He hadn’t let go yet. Bridgette slowly lifted her hands to grip the back of his jacket. He still didn’t move away from her.  

“Don’t worry any more,” she said. “I’m okay. And I’m glad you’re okay too.”

She could feel the shaky rise and fall of his chest. 

“Fé—”

She tried to pull away, to make sure he really was okay, but he didn’t let her.

“Just— just stay a little longer,” he said. “Please.”

“Okay.”

She hugged him tight. “I’ll stay, so don’t worry.”

His breathing slowly steadied, and after a few moments, he finally loosened his hold on her. She didn’t let go of his jacket, but moved away just enough to see his face. 

“I thought I’d lost you,” he said. 

She shook her head and smiled. “You didn’t. I’m right here, see?”

He raised his hand to touch her face. She leaned into his touch, smiling. 

“I won’t go anywhere, I promise.”

She’d never seen him like this. He’d never touched her like this before. It was kind of making her heart go crazy, but she was trying not to show it. She didn’t want to scare him away or make him uncomfortable. But now he was looking at her and his gaze was really soft and it was making her cheeks really hot and—

His hand on her back pulled her closer. His gaze dropped a few inches below her eyes and he leaned in, lips barely brushing against hers before he abruptly pulled away at the sound of approaching footsteps. 

“Bridgette!” Adrien called. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

Bridgette glared at him. “Leave.”

“What?”

“ Now .”

Adrien gave her a weird look, but he turned around and left.

Bridgette turned back to Felix. “Okay, continue please.” 

He laughed, pulling her close again to kiss her. Bridgette raised herself up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck to make sure he didn’t pull away again. 

He kissed her sweetly, smiling against her lips.

“That means you’ll be my boyfriend now, right?” Bridgette asked. “If you say no it will be kinda awkward since I already told all the senti-creatures that you were.”

Felix laughed again. “Yes. Just never become Queen of the Sentis again, okay?”

“Okay,” Bridgette said, giving him another quick kiss. “Now let’s go find Adrien and Marinette.”

<><><>

Felix approached Marinette. She seemed to be expecting him. She reached out her hand, palm facing upward. He placed the peacock miraculous inside.

“I’m sorry I took it,” he said.

“Are you?”

Felix almost laughed. “Yes, I am.”

“Well, I don’t think you should be.”

Felix raised an eyebrow. That had been the last thing he’d been expecting Marinette to say.”

“You were stupid and reckless and entitled, but if you hadn’t been, then all of these senti-creatures, including Bridgette, would still be trapped inside the miraculous. So I really don’t think I can say that it would have been better if you hadn’t taken it.”

Marinette smiled at him, albeit reluctantly. “Just don’t do it again.”

“I won’t,” Felix said, surprised that he meant it.

“In that case…” Marinette pushed the peacock miraculous back into his hand. “I’m entrusting you with this. Get rid of Jinx. Be Paon, or whoever.”

Felix’s fingers closed around the miraculous. “Are you serious?”

Marinette nodded. “It should be with a senti-creature. You know best how to care for your own. And they do need to be taken care of. You’ve earned my trust Felix.”

She cast him one more glare. “Just don’t break it.”

“I won’t.” 

Adrien gave him a thumbs up from the sidelines. Felix was pretty sure that his cousin had had something to do with Marinette’s decision, but it didn’t matter. 

“Thank you,” he said. “You won’t regret this.”

“I’d better not.”

Marinette and Felix shook hands, then parted ways. 

<><><>

Bridgette was waiting for him. She didn’t seem surprised when Felix showed her the peacock miraculous on his lapel.

“I figured she’d let you keep it,” she said, smiling big. “You’re the obvious choice.”

“I think she just didn’t want to handle all of the senti-creatures herself,” Felix grumbled. 

“Maybe. But maybe she really did think you were the best person for the job.” Bridgette kissed his cheek. “I know I do.”

“Well, I can’t do it without you,” Felix said. 

“I will of course be your partner. Jinx and his Lucky Lady can never be separated!”

Felix laughed. He didn’t think he’d ever been so happy. He didn’t care if he were jinxed for the rest of his life, as long as he had Bridgette, his life would be nothing but blessings. 

<><><>

A few days later, once things had settled down, something occurred to Felix. It had been a while since he’d tripped or had something fall on his head. And he hadn’t even had trouble doing simple tasks… was his jinx gone?

He told Bridgette about it, and she laughed. “Oh yeah, of course! It’s ‘cause I kissed you.”

“What? Was that all it took? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Bridgette shrugged. “You owe me a soda now, though.”

“I don’t think that’s how that works.”

Bridgette pouted. “So you won’t buy me a soda?”

“No, I will, but– never mind.”

Chapter Text

After everything, Bridgette relayed what had happened during the time she’d been a hostage. She told Felix about being made Queen of the Sentimonsters and about all of the strange gifts she’d received.

“And then I got invited to one of Jackson Wang’s parties… Do you think I can still go?”

Felix looked at her blankly. “Um…”

Bridgette gasped. “Wait a minute! Felix, aren’t you rich, brooding, ridiculously hot guy who’s obsessed with me?”

Felix choked. “ UM–”

“AM I Y/N!?” Bridgette exclaimed. She pressed her hand to her chest. “There’s no heartbeat!”

“Your heart’s on the other side, Bridgette…”

“Oh. There it is.”

“And what does your pulse have to do with being Y/N? What are you even talking about?”

“Just think about it, Felix. Like I said, you’re a hot brooding rich guy who’s obsessed with me–”

“I never agreed to that description–”

“–and Jackson Wang randomly showed up and invited me to his party–”

“ Who is Jackson Wang ?”

Bridgette gasped again. “ OH NO !” I bet you’ll have to fight a werewolf who wants to be my Alpha!”

Felix pinched his brow. “Bri, have you been reading Wattpad fanfiction again? I told you AO3 was better.”

Bridgette shrugged. “Adrien gave me some recommendations.”

“You’re not allowed to talk to Adrien anymore.”

Bridgette gasped for a third time. “Oh my gosh, you just ordered me not to talk to another boy!” I AM Y/N!”

Felix face palmed. 

Later...

“Hey, Adrien? Have you ever heard of Jackson Wang? Or Y/N?”

Adrien froze and looked up at his cousin. 

“Who wants to know?”

Felix rolled his eyes. “I do. Bridgette was going on about how I’d have to fight him for her hand in marriage or something… you wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

Adrien squirmed. “I may have sent her a fanfiction… or two… or three… okay I sent her like ten fics, okay? She wanted to know more about me and Ladybug and our adventures and stuff so I sent her some self-insert fics so she could feel like she was there.”

Felix pinched his brow. “I have so many questions right now. Firstly, you read self-insert fanfiction about yourself and your girlfriend?”

“Maybe.”

“And these involve someone named Jackson Wang?”

“I may have had to fight him for Ladybug in one or two of the fics.”

“And you thought this was the best way to fill Bridgette in on your history?”

Adrien shrugged. “I mean… they were good fics.”

“Does Marinette know about this?”

“She loves me for who I am, Felix.”