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The house was deadly quiet, his vision blurrier with every step. When his phone clattered against the polished floor, he looked at his hands in horror.
Still, he needed to tell someone. Dropping to his knees, he scrolled down the contact list.
Would it be appropriate to call him? They had not been close. Surely, it would not be well-received.
Hovering above the dial button, he slowly came to terms with reality: he had no one else. The ringing echoed through the void; he smacked his head against the immaculate column.
“Adrien?”
It was a miracle he had picked up at all.
“Felix.” The confused voice made the moment too real, too raw; he gasped for air, only to choke on ice. “I did — I did something really bad.”
“Where are you?”
Adrien looked up, taking in the sea of black and white. Unsure how they had made it this far.
“I’m at home.”
Reaching down, they held their skin to the lifeless marble. They chased the icy bite, the ache, the punishment that would snap them back to reality.
Just give me a reason to say it.
“I’m coming. Go to your room and don’t move from there.” Adrien’s gaze snapped to the top of the stairs. “Don’t hang up. Talk to me.”
“I won't hang up,” they promised, brokenly.
Hands pressed to their eyes, they wished they could go back. That they could make it all go away.
‘It’s not too late.’ Even at the very end, as the dark mark clawed its way up his neck, Father had fiddled with the wedding bands. ‘You can still save your mother and Nathalie. You can still save me.’
“Stop.” Adrien grabbed his head, begging into the empty air. “Stop it. Stop it."
“I’m here. Open your window.”
Blinking back to awareness, he hoisted himself up.
“You’re… here…?”
“Adrien, listen to me.” Felix's words were firm, but soft: a plea, not a command. “Whatever this is, I’m going to help you through it. I just need you to go to your room and open your window. Can you do that for me?”
A switch flipped in their head, and suddenly, they were numb. Of course they could walk — they had done so countless times before.
Abandoning their phone, they watched themself ascend the staircase.
***
The window flung open, and Felix slipped right into their arms.
“Adrien. Adrien.” Gloved fingers curled around their jacket. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?”
Their arms remained limp, their cheeks wet with tears unfelt. Adrien was no victim: they were a monster.
“He's dead, Felix.” Their tone was eerily level. “I killed him.”
“Are you sure?”
Adrien had expected fear, rage, maybe retribution. He could take it — he deserved it all.
But realistically, disbelief made the most sense.
“Pretty sure. I —”
Sucking a sharp breath in, he pictured his ring, inactive next to his father’s body.
He did not deserve it anyway.
“… I cataclysmed him.”
Chat Noir had been his escape, his safe place, a part of him he held close to his chest; but it did not matter anymore. Nothing mattered anymore.
“You did it.” Felix’s eyes lit up, specks of gold swirling through a sea of magenta. “You did it! Adrien! You’re free!”
Before he knew it, his cousin was clutching him once more. A crying, laughing mess, he cradled his head and smoothed out his hair.
“We’re free…”
Slowly, gently, life returned to their fingertips.
They should have known.
This time, they reciprocated the embrace — a sob wracking their entire body.
“Why do I feel so scared still?”
“Because it just happened. You’ve been scared your entire life… It’s hard to let go.”
Felix spoke from experience. And Adrien had not been there.
His fists tightened as he held on.
“But it does get better. Trust me.”
The back rubs were awkward, but sincere. Distantly, the eldest realised how much they had missed each other.
When Felix stepped back, he kept their arms linked.
“Adrien.” A hint of hesitation, terrifying in his mouth. “The rings. Your parents’ wedding bands. Did you grab them?"
“Should I have?”
Felix’s features crumbled, and Adrien dug into the coat. If he let go now, he would shatter to the floor.
“You and I…” His cousin searched for his words. “There’s a reason I would have sacrificed everything for the brooch.”
“To… make us the last two people on Earth?”
Calling Felix had been a blessing. Despite everything they had been through, despite the wedge that had nestled between them, he had reached through the fog for the one person who could understand, who could talk him out of his spiral and bring him back to himself.
Free. He was free. His entire life was changing, euphoria peeking behind the fear. Did he even deserve it?
“I wanted to protect you. To protect us.” Felix’s breath was hitching, his gaze fleeting. “And I felt we could not be safe with humanity around, because… we’re not like them.”
“Right.” He basked in the sentence, finding comfort where he could. “We’re not like them. Everything my father did… that could never be us.”
“Don’t speak so soon.” Their cousin trembled, younger than he had looked in years. “Adrien. The Peacock — that’s how we were created.”
“… What?”
It did not make sense. It did not make any sense.
Why did it make sense?
“It’s not a bad thing,” Felix rushed out. “Well, it is, but — it does not make you any less real. And we’re free! Your father is gone! I’ll even give you the brooch if it makes you feel safer. But, Adrien —”
He was pleading now, like he did when they were little. When the holidays came to an end and he clutched him until they both hurt, begging him to stay.
“— we need to get your rings. Then we can talk about everything else, I promise.”
Adrien lifted his hands, and found that they were trembling.
“I’m… like them?”
He remembered the battles, the amoks, the murders hailed as victories. He remembered Sentibug, how real she had felt between his arms.
Guilt pooled in his stomach.
“You’re like me.” Felix’s smile was an apology, the clasp of his fingers a lifeline. “Adrien, can’t you see? This is the secret that separated us. But now we’re free, and we’re together, and — and the two of us can be a family. If you want to.”
The word broke him out of the darkness.
“A family?”
Did Felix mean that? Did either of them know what it entailed?
Despite the purple glow of his cheeks and the shade of his hood, despite the lies and betrayals, their cousin had never looked more like himself. And Adrien loved him — they had never stopped loving him.
“OK,” they whispered, hope blossoming in their chest. “OK.”
Felix exhaled a deep, long breath, shoulders setting into a confident line.
“I’ll grab your rings. You stay here.”
And then, he slipped away. Panic built in Adrien’s chest, sharp and cold like teeth; he dove for the indigo sleeve.
“Don’t go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” The promise was tender, but it was not enough. “I’m getting your amok back. You don’t need to see him again.”
“Don’t go.” Adrien’s head was heavy, much too heavy to carry on his own. “Don’t go. Don’t leave me here alone.”
The moment stretched on, neither of them pulling away.
When Felix’s fingers found his, he felt no hint of the smooth leather: only soft, warm lilac skin.
“Keep your eyes closed,” he instructed, squeezing tight. “Let me guide you.”
Adrien nodded, shutting the world out. If they tried hard enough, if they channeled their entire being into the bridge of their hands, maybe the pain would become bearable.
“Keep your eyes closed.” Felix’s voice was quiet, the tug on his arm gentle. “I’m not letting go.”
