#halfahelix

The young rabbit hero quickly motioned to the surprised teenager to get into her portal before desperately shouting out, 'Luka—Viperion, I need your help!'

Luka tsked. 'Civilian and hero identity? Bunnyx, you're slipping.'

Bunnyx growled. Luka put his hands up as he chuckled in mock surrender.

'Be glad you found me when I was home alone, Alix,' he said as he entered the Burrow.

'Who's breaking rules now, snake boy?' Alix grouched, snapping the portal shut and stomping across the Burrow, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him along with a ferocity that made him immediately switch into focus.

Luka knew how playful Alix was; cheeky by nature, a jovial competitor, and while she was a realist, she would be able to find levity in heavier moments. Normally, if he pulled her up on a slip, she'd roll her eyes, cock her hip and sass right back at him with an anecdote of when he himself had stuffed up, just to make it an even playing field. Normally, there'd be a little more banter. This, however, wasn't normal, and it put him on edge. As he observed her, she was pale, sweating, tired, jittery... scared.

'What happened?' he asked.

'No spoilers,' she shot back curtly as she pulled him in front of another portal.

'Hey.' He pulled his wrist out of her grasp. 'If you're going to send me out of my time into something that obviously has you rattled, I'm going to need to know what I'm walking into - which includes what led up to whatever this is.'

Bunnyx sniffled, and that's when he saw it. It wasn't just sweat trailing down her face. Luka wrapped her up in a hug.

'What are you doing, man?' came her muffled voice from against his chest. 'You-'

'I can spare a moment to make sure you're okay,' he told her. She returned the hug, and he felt his shirt dampen with tears. He wasn't sure how long they stood there, but eventually she pulled away.

'Th-the villain, the new holder of the Butterfly,' she began as she wiped her eyes and attempted to refocus herself, 'she's... so much worse that we could have ever imagined. Hawk Moth, Shadowmoth, Monarch - he had at least some boundaries, some morals, some rules about what he did, some lines he wouldn't cross... but her? She's just... there's nothing she wouldn't do, and it's horrifying.'

Bunnyx shivered, her pale facade tinging green.

'Should... should I ask why you couldn't get the Luka of that time?' he asked cautiously. Bunnyx just shrunk in on herself, and his heart sunk at the mortifying, unthinkable reasons she wouldn't, or perhaps couldn't-

'Spoilers,' she whispered with a glimmer of a smile, and he relaxed. So perhaps it wasn't as bad as he wasn't imagining, right?

'We're down a few members of our usual team, and the ones who are fighting are being pushed to their limits,' Bunnyx continued. 'This akuma is complicated, relentless and devastating. When we get on site, I'll inform the team that you're here, and after that, observe, report back to the team, and for goodness sakes - don't let the akuma see you. It'll be game over if you do.'

'What, like Medusa or something?' Luka joked, but at Bunnyx's nod, he grew solemn.

'And that's just one of the akuma's abilities.'

'Shit.'

'Yeah.'

Luka heaved a heavy sigh. 'Anything else I need to know?'

'Don't touch the goo.'

Luka raised an eyebrow.

'Seriously, don't touch the goo,' Bunnyx warned him.

Luka nodded slowly as he called on his transformation. 'Goo is a no-go. Got it.' He looked back at her. 'See you soon, yeah?'

'Yeah,' she agreed softly. 'Be careful.'

He smiled before stepping through the portal. He was halfway through when he felt a hand pull him backwards.

'Wrong portal, dummy!' Bunnyx scolded, shaking her head as she lined him up with the portal to the left of the one he just walked through. 'What would you even do without me?'

'I'd probably be really bored,' he countered as she shoved him unceremoniously through the portal and onto a secluded rooftop.

'I got the young Viperion for you, team' Bunnyx announced into her comms. 'Don't lose him - he can't stay up past his bedtime.'

'Copy that,' he heard the chorus of voices through his earpiece as he put it in.

'See you later, Vipey,' Bunnyx said to him as she slapped his shoulder in farewell.

'Later, Energiser,' he replied, chuckling as she flipped him off before hopping back into the Burrow, the bright portal swirling shut behind her.

~/~

As always, @halfahelix and I got to talking about Emilie, and well...

looks like you’re having fun ��

hhh thank you so much ;A; ur so sweet thank u for taking the time to send this message <3 i’ll do my best!!!!

// Ladybug thought she had had everything handled; it was only when the blond cousin revealed his true nature that she realized she'd tied up the wrong one!

Ladybug thought she had had everything handled; it was only when the blond cousin revealed his true nature that she realized she'd tied up the wrong one!

'Damn it, Félix!' Ladybug exclaimed. 'Why didn't you say anything earlier?'

'I was curious as to why you needed my cousin so desperately as to kidnap him,' he replied from his position slung over her shoulder, still bound by her yo-yo, looking as infuriatingly calm as ever. 'You know if you just asked him that he'd go anywhere with you, Marinette. Besides, he's in London right now.'

Ladybug growled and put him down on his feet, recalling her yo-yo as she pinned her boyfriend's cousin with a glare. She was tired, and now that she got a proper look at him, he was obviously in his pyjamas with bed head, making his hair look more like Adrien's. She knew Adrien was in London, but as she swung past him earlier, he looked too much like Adrien that Ladybug couldn't help but take the opportunity to rescue what she thought was her boyfriend, too exhausted to think straight and realise it wasn't him.

'You know perfectly well why I'd go to such drastic measures,' Ladybug retorted. 'Speaking of; why did you decide that a theatre performance was the best way to tell me everything? Why didn't you and Kagami just talk to me? Preferably before Adrien was forced to leave Paris?'

'That's the way Kagami wanted to tell you,' Félix admitted, 'but I thought that the most optimum way of delivering all the information was through a storytelling medium - we figured that us performing the story would hold your attention long enough to give us a chance to make you listen to what we had to tell you.'

'Well, it did work,' Ladybug conceded, 'but I also thought I had dreamt the entire thing and struggled to put it all together. But that doesn't answer the question of why you two didn't tell me earlier.'

'Rehearsals,' answered Félix with a light shrug. 'Kagami is wonderful, but a theatre major she is not.'

'How did you convince Kagami to perform, anyway?' she asked curiously, before shaking her head to refocus. 'Ugh, tell me later. Anyway! So - Gabriel Agreste is Monarch, and you and Adrien are both part-sentimonster?'

'Correct on both counts,' he confirmed.

'And does Adrien know about any of this?' she pressed.

'To my knowledge, no,' said Félix.

Ladybug groaned. Poor Adrien was being left in the dark about, well, everything. 'Why didn't you tell him all this?'

'We couldn't risk it,' Félix answered. 'Gabriel still has possession of Adrien's amok, and therefore has control over Adrien. Telling him could jeopardise everything, including any advantage we have to defeat my uncle.'

Ladybug nodded thoughtfully. Unfortunately, Félix was right. But sooner or later, Adrien deserved to know.

'Fine,' she agreed, 'but as soon as Monarch is defeated, you have to tell Adrien everything. And you won't disappear on him like you did with me - you stay with him and answer every question he has for you, and you will comfort and support him so that he can come to terms with the bombshells you'll be dropping on him. This is your shared history - I can't be the one to tell him. Got it?'

Félix grumbled, pouting. 'I was hoping maybe that you-'

'No,' she immediately cut him off. 'Not me - you. Copy?'

He sighed. 'Fine. Now, can you take me back? I'm kinda cold.'

Ladybug shot him a deadpan look.

'You and I both know you can transform into Argos and get yourself home,' she retorted.

'But you're the one who kidnapped me,' he fired back, smirking playfully.

'I wasn't- I was trying to save Adrien-' she blustered, before sighing. 'I'm too tired for this.'

'Maybe you need some melatonin if you're struggling to sleep?' Félix suggested.

'What I need is to stop my father-in-law from destroying the universe and for him to let my husband freely live his life,' Ladybug muttered dully. After a moment, her own words registered in her mind and her eyes widened. 'I- I mean- to stop Gabriel and- boyfriend not husband-'

Félix laughed lightheartedly. 'I understood, don't worry... cousin-in-law.'

'Go home, Félix!'

~/~

@buggachat