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Felix Graham de Vanily gathered up his materials with a self-satisfied smirk. He hadn’t quite defeated his debating opponent this afternoon… but he’d definitely come close. Indeed, the frustration on her face as he spouted off tangential arguments one after the other in an attempt to derail her rhetoric had been something to see.
“Vanily!” he heard someone call as he turned to exit the room. He turned.
Bridgette Marais marched up to him and poked him in the chest. “You’re buying me dinner,” she said, still looking irritated.
Felix smirked again. “Is that so, Marais?”
“Yes. It is.”
“Strange. I don’t remember inviting you to my weekly dinner date with my mother.”
Bridgette raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. “If that’s meant to frighten me off, it’s not going to work. I happen to appreciate men who value their mothers. I also appreciate it-” with another sharp poke- “when men who make me work three times as hard as necessary to win a very simple argument have the decency to buy me dinner afterwards.”
“Ah,” Felix said. He moved toward the door, not sure if he was hoping she’d take the hint and back off, or stand her ground. He wasn’t necessarily opposed to taking Bridgette out to dinner- he hadn’t really considered her in that light before, being too focused on… other things. But she was intelligent and could think on her feet. She didn’t look half bad, either, with dark brown hair that framed a heart-shaped face and a figure that appealed. But if he took Bridgette to dinner with his mother, Amelie would start pairing them together like the romantic she was, no matter what.
Bridgette fell into step beside him and poked him again. “Well?”
“I propose a compromise,” Felix said, as if this were just another debate. “I really do have a dinner date with my mother tonight, and she’s romantic. If I bring you, she’s going to start assuming, no matter what I tell her. What about this weekend instead? Saturday, at seven? I know a good jazz cafe- you seem like the type to appreciate jazz.”
Bridgette considered that for a moment, then nodded decisively. “Acceptable. Text me the details?”
“Of course.”
They nodded to each other and went their separate ways, although Felix watched her for a little while until she rounded a corner. Now that he was considering her as a possible girlfriend, he had to admit… she might be a good fit for him.
—
Felix was getting very tired of dodging a certain pair of perniciously persistent superheroes. First his home, both before and after school today, and now they were following him!
Alright, so maybe he had betrayed Ladybug while disguised as Adrien, and offered their nemesis a blood price in the form of most of the miraculous in exchange for the Peacock broach. So what? What were they going to do about it? They couldn’t very well kidnap him and torture Hawkmoth/Shadowmoth/whatever-Gabriel-was-calling-himself-these-days’ civilian name out of him… they were heroes! Heroes didn’t do that- witness the several opportunities they’d already passed up to do so.
Fools. Felix smirked as he ducked into the entrance of the jazz cafe where he was meeting Bridgette, leaving his two obnoxious superhero stalkers to languish on the roof of the building across the street. He spotted his date already sitting at a small table for two in the midst of the early evening crowd. She saw him and waved, a cheeky grin on her face. He grinned back and wove his way through the press of people, confident that they wouldn’t follow him in here.
He sat down in the table’s other chair and took off his coat, hanging it over the back. He’d had time to go home and change his school uniform for the suit pants and vest he preferred, and he was glad to see that casual Bridgette also preferred a more dignified look than the usual flashy trash most of their peers wore when they went out. She wore a blue dress that fit well enough to draw attention without being overt about it, and there was a black bolero cardigan draped over the back of her chair- simple and elegant.
The band was already playing, making it hard to talk, so Felix opted to simply smile another greeting and sit back to watch. Unlike Adrien, Felix had never studied an instrument, but he often thought he would have been suited to the saxophone, with its sultry, soulful sound. He was just looking at the menu when the band suddenly stopped mid phrase and everyone went silent, looking towards the door.
Felix turned his head to see two figures standing by the bar, one red with black polka dots, the other all in black with cat ears nestled in shaggy blonde hair. Ladybug was talking quietly to the bartender, but Chat Noir was looking straight at him. Felix mentally cursed, even as Bridgette’s mouth opened in surprise. Felix froze for a moment, rapidly going through all his current options, none of which looked good. Then Chat Noir’s attention was caught by something Ladybug said, and broke eye contact. Thinking quickly, Felix ducked and rolled out of his chair, slithering through the press as quickly and quietly as possible, even as people began talking and whispering again.
He checked to make sure no one was looking at him before ducking into the small, dingy corridor that led to the toilets. He slid into the mens’ toilet and locked the door behind him, hoping that would buy him enough time to escape. Then he called Duusu out of his pocket, thankful that he’d taken to keeping the miraculous pinned to the inside of his vest.
“Duusu, we have to transform.”
“Yaaaay! Of course, master Felix!”
“Don’t call me that!” he snapped. “I’m not your master!”
“Of course you are! You have my miraculous!”
“Nevermind that for now- Ladybug and Chat Noir are here, and I’ve got to escape before they corner me.”
“Why don’t you just talk to them?”
“Because I can’t explain why I did what I did. They probably wouldn’t believe me, or care, and they’d definitely try and take you away from me. And from what I’ve seen, Ladybug doesn’t treat sentibeings as anything more than nuisances to be destroyed. Do you really want someone like that to have control over you? To lock you away again, and only use you for convenience instead of being free with me?”
Duusu dropped a little in height. “You say that, but you also delivered all my friends into Gabriel’s hands- and I know what it’s like to be under his control. The new Guardian can’t be much worse than that.”
Felix flushed hot and adjusted his tie to avoid tugging on his collar- a gesture he hated. “I only did what I had to do to get you.”
Duusu continued to regard him soberly for a moment before his mood changed again in that lightning way he had. “Well? What are you waiting for?” he piped brightly.
Felix called his transformation, expecting to hear pounding on the toilet door any moment. Nothing happened, but he wasn’t willing to trust in his continued safety there. He wrenched open the small, painted-shut window, and squeezed himself through, relishing the greater strength and flexibility he had with Duusu’s help. He parkoured up to the roof and found what he considered to be an adequate hiding spot. He sat still and listened as hard as he could, but he heard nothing… until the half-familiar zip of a yo-yo sent a tingle down his spine.
He heard two light footfalls, and then two more as they reached the roof, looking for him. He reached out with his power, searching for the emotions of the two superheroes. There and there… Felix concentrated, trying to see if he could feel where they were in relation to himself, and if he could tell them apart using only their emotions.
Frustration, burgeoning anger, something complicated and sad, quite a lot of guilt… he’d be willing to bet that was Ladybug. She had to still be sore about his betrayal. Felix allowed himself to enjoy a little private gloat over how neatly he’d tricked her, but then he turned his attention to the other presence.
Curiously, Chat Noir’s emotions were very similar to Ladybug’s- though there was anger, there wasn’t as much as he’d been expecting. There was sadness and guilt there, too… but why? What did Chat Noir have to feel guilty about? It was Ladybug who’d trusted the wrong person- if anything, he’d expected her partner to be on the warpath on her behalf, but he seemed to be feeling just as much guilt and conflict as she was.
“Why does he keep running away?” he heard a feminine voice softly ask in French. He was pleased to discover it was coming from the being he’d sensed first. “Why won’t he just talk to us?”
“I wish I could tell you, m’lady,” Chat Noir answered, just as softly. “Adrien said he was dodging his calls as well.”
Ladybug sighed. “That girl inside wasn’t very helpful… I don’t think we can count on her to call us if he tries to meet her somewhere again.”
“To be fair, wouldn’t you try to protect someone you were interested in if some foreign superheroes turned up looking for him?”
“Well, as a superhero myself, I’d hope I wouldn’t get involved with someone willing to side with a terrorist in the first place!”
“You don’t know that he did… Felix could have been caught between a rock and a hard place,” Chat Noir responded, but neither his voice nor his emotions backed up that statement.
“He was with me from the moment he transformed until the end of the battle, Chat. He had to have touched my yo-yo deliberately in order to steal it from me later, and that had to be after his part was already done, or his power would have fetched my yo-yo instead of the akumatized object. What reason could he have to do that other than to betray us?”
“I don’t know.”
“I just wish I knew when he started actively working with Shadowmoth- he clearly knew where to find him quickly after the battle. And don’t forget that he was willing to work with him before, that first time he impersonated Adrien. As far as I’m concerned, he’s as bad as Lila.”
Felix felt Ladybug’s anger and frustration surge as she said that, even as Chat Noir’s emotions continued to center around guilt and remorse. He couldn’t get past how strange that was, but he tried to put it aside in favor of listening. Surely, any moment now, Ladybug would mention the Peacock Broach…
But she didn’t.
“I don’t know that I’d go that far,” Chat Noir said, in an even tone that didn’t reflect his true feelings. “But I agree that he owes us an explanation. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to find him again tonight- not anywhere we can talk to him, at least. His mother seems just as unwilling to help us as that girl downstairs.”
“I know you don’t like the idea of just grabbing him while he’s in public, Chaton, but it might just come to that,” Ladybug said, sighing wearily. “This could be our best chance to actually find Shadowmoth and end this once and for all. We have to have answers.”
Chat Noir sighed as well. “Well… let’s try a few other, less questionable methods first, m’lady. The last thing we need right now is more people doubting us.”
Ladybug didn’t reply, but Felix felt her emotions shift from confusion and hurt to determination even as he both felt and heard them leave the rooftop. He mentally cursed, not wanting to risk that they were still close enough to hear him if he even whispered it. But it was frustrating that Ladybug wasn’t going to give up on trying to interrogate him- after listening to them, Felix wasn’t going to bet on the coming encounter remaining a simple conversation.
Why couldn’t they just leave him be? Whatever Ladybug might think, the miraculous shouldn’t be all hers to administer and control, and while he didn’t approve of Gabriel’s methods or his treatment of Adrien, he did understand why he wanted the power to change the world. Since that changed world would make his mother happy by bringing his Aunt back, Felix could live with that. But he wasn’t going to help his uncle anymore than he already had. He also had no intention of making any sentibeings of his own- he didn’t want anything else to have to live with the knowledge that one snap of his fingers could destroy them completely. Granted, the superheroes didn’t exactly know that, but…
He waited long enough to be certain the two superheroes weren’t hanging around waiting for him to reveal himself, and then made his careful way home, alert for any ambush they might have planned. Clearly, he couldn’t count on social rules to keep himself out of trouble with them, so he would need to make some contingency plans.
—
“So what was that all about?” Bridgette asked him, bright and early at school the next week.
“What was what about?” Felix asked absently. He’d nearly forgotten about their still-born date- he’d spent the weekend coming up with a story, and finding and installing a secure hiding spot for the Peacock Miraculous. If the heroes really didn’t know he had it, as their conversation seemed to indicate, that was good. But he wasn’t willing to count on that.
Bridgette suddenly pulled him into a little niche in the school corridor, left over from some long-gone cupboard or something, out of the flow of student traffic.
“Why are superheroes from Paris looking for you?” she hissed quietly.
Felix regarded her with hooded eyes. “I believe that’s private business.”
“And I believe that you owe me, Vanily,” she said, giving him a pointed look. “You should be glad I didn’t miss that glance at them before you bolted for the bathrooms, or I might have sent them in after you.”
Felix sighed, somehow not surprised that she had noticed his brief moment of panic and flight, even with the distraction of foreign superheroes to steal her attention. Well, perhaps he could test his story on her, just to see if an outsider would buy it.
“I went to see my French cousin a week ago, because I heard my awful uncle was going to force him to go on some ridiculous business trip with a girl he hates, and I wanted to support him- give him the courage to actually stand up for himself for once,” Felix explained, doing his best to sound sincere. “But you know how Paris is these days- magical supervillains can pop up at any time. In short, I was… constrained to act a certain way, by a certain supervillain. It ended up being very bad for the heroes, who are now convinced that I know who their nemesis actually is. I don’t, of course- no one who is controlled ever remembers anything after that ladybug cure.”
Felix watched her as innocently as he could, trying to gauge whether she believed him or not. Bridgette eyed him narrowly, clearly still suspicious. “So why dodge them? Why not just tell them that?”
“Because it’s ridiculous!” Felix rolled his eyes, projecting irritation, which wasn’t hard. “Why should they assume I know any more than any other akuma victim?”
Bridgette pursed her lips thoughtfully, her eyes still narrowed, but apparently convinced that he was simply being his usual unhelpful self. “If I were you, I’d just explain it all. Then they’ll leave you alone.”
Felix frowned. “I shouldn’t have to, though.”
“Lots of people have to put up with things, Felix. Get over yourself and just talk to the superheroes. And don’t forget that you owe me dinner! If I have to debate you again before this is resolved, it’ll be two dinners!”
With that, Bridgette slipped away into the rapidly emptying corridors and to her next class, leaving Felix to snort at her “threat.” As if going on a date with her was any kind of hardship. At least she seemed to buy the explanation he’d come up with for the ignorant masses. He still had to come up with a story that would get the superheroes off his back without actually giving anything away.
He made it to his class just before the tardy bell, and slipped into his seat. The teacher entered and class started, but Felix was too busy mentally revising the story he’d told Bridgette to pay much attention. He’d already read through this lesson three times, and had a tolerable understanding of it, so he focused on more pressing concerns.
He hadn’t precisely lied- his story was true, it was just… incomplete. He had gone to Paris to help Adrien (even if his true motive had been getting him out of the house so he could investigate). Likewise, he had been caught up in the fighting- Ladybug herself had come to recruit him to her side. It was also true that Gabriel’s previous actions constrained Felix’ own decisions to a large extent. Really the only part of his story that was a lie was the implication that he’d acted under the influence of an akuma. And that he didn’t know villain’s identity.
Of course, Ladybug knew better and at least suspected that he might know the villain’s identity, or know where to find him. So he needed to come up with something better… but what?
A sudden silence in the classroom made him look around. Britannia- England’s own premiere superhero- was standing in the doorway, with Ladybug beside her. His classmates and teacher were staring at them dumbfounded, but Felix shot a quick look toward the windows… only to see Chat Noir casually balanced on the window ledge outside. No escape there. And Duusu was safely at home, so he couldn’t even transform to give himself an edge.
Well… Shit, he thought.