#hnas

And he sees that same goddess, the Siren Mother, flitter between people on a sidewalk in Paris. A stream of sunshine here, a flash of light there, and Felix doesn’t realize he’s running towards whatever lay at the destination until he gets to water’s edge.

It’s the middle of the day, but the world is swept grey as time freezes once again and she walks upon La Seine, her footsteps creating perfect circular ripples on the lapping waves. It’s like he’s a little boy again in a dream he can’t forget, but he’s twenty and awake and the world is sleeping.

He’s here, her voice says. My son’s here and it’s time, Felix.

She turns and looks at look at him then, her smile less dazzling and more brittle as she swallows a thought from forming. Gorgeous green eyes glance at the water under her feet before she brings them up to stare at him again. With one hand she points to the water below, and with the other she creates another perfect circle with her forefinger and thumb, brings it up to her eye like a monocle. Felix blinks as he tries to understand, wondering what she’s doing, but—

She’s gone before he can even ask.

The world around him starts moving again, people chattering along the path as Felix grips the handrails. The ring on his chest vibrates, the silver of it glistening and he replays the motion of watching the Siren Mother lifting the circle to her eye as he does the same.

The world has magic, Felix knows, he has to know and has to believe because nothing else would make sense when he brings the band up to peer through, and there, popping through the river’s water is familiar blond hair that soaks up the sun. His heart lurches; he drops the ring and chain, and the view of the boy in water goes away.

“It’s him,” he whispers. “It’s him.” His heart thuds as he doesn’t think and scales the rail toward the rock by the river’s edge.

Behind him, someone makes a comment, but he doesn’t care as he hops over rocks underneath the bridge and waits. Everything is happening so fast as magic and dreams catch up with reality and Felix just wants to bring his family together, but how, he wonders, but how?

“A little help, Plagg, would be nice,” he grumbles.

The black cat doesn’t appear.

Sighing, Felix thinks of the ring that hangs around his neck, and an idea forms as his hands fly to the back of his neck to undo the chain. The ring slides easily down the links and lands squarely in his palm. With a gulp, he tries not to think when he places it on his middle finger on his other hand and waits.

But nothing happens.

So he waits.

Because magic takes time, he knows. Magic is not  an instant thing, it can’t be rushed when done right. A little being forms, the outline similar to Plagg, but not all the way, as he doesn’t fully materialize.

“You’re not supposed to wear the ring, kiddo,” Plagg laughs. The green of his eyes peeks through his shadowy form, a toothy smirk fuzzy at the edges.

“I know,” Felix says simply. “But I, uh, don’t know what to do.”

Plagg laughs again and flicks him on the nose. “Humans think they’re so logical until they encounter something unknown. I was wondering when you were going to ask for help though.”

The human in question rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. “Now, apparently,” he huffs. “What do I need to do? What’s going to happen when he wears the ring?”

Plagg hums for a moment before saying, “Not sure. I just have to uphold my end of the promise and make this kid my next charge. Just gotta wing it, I guess.” As an afterthought he adds, “Better take the ring off now if I were you, I’ve been holding off starting the contract and I don’t think I can fend off fate for much longer if you keep wearing it. Just get the brat to pop up and grab hold of him. You know how those fish folks like to sing—”

The last of Plagg’s words disappear in a trail of echoes as Felix removes the ring. A part of him wants to jam it back on his finger, to find out exactly what the little god meant. But he knows better. It is as Plagg said. He can’t wear the ring. He’s not meant to be the Black Cat.

The back of his neck prickles. Looking over his shoulder, there are eyes peering at him, wondering what he’s going to do next. His heart pounds hard in his chest, a dance of the unknown and he’s not sure of the step sequence. Prying eyes don’t matter when there is chance before him, so Felix ignores them and makes his way further under the bridge.

He walks alongside the water, caught in the surrealist movement that divides him and his cousin. An invisible sheet of glass is between land and river, a screen that Felix feels like he’s looking past and that nothing right now is real. If he reaches through the glass and allows his hand to hang above the water, well, he is one step away from making this all real.  

There is magic in the world, Felix knows, he knows it from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. He knows it when he sees a bag of rocks sitting at the water’s edge, and he knows it when a siren sound springs from his lips. A slightly held hum at the back of his throat before dropping down to his chest. A sound he hasn’t—couldn’t sing for years and yet—

—and yet, he calls to his cousin, the stones crashing into the water, creating sound waves in the murky depths.  

-

There is magic in the world, Adrien knows. It leads him to Paris and leads him to The One Who Rises. There is magic in the world that fills up the hole in his heart that his mother left behind and gives him something greater.

Love, he remembers his mother saying, is the most powerful magic of all. It’s what brought his human father to the ocean, a force that refused to die by a siren’s song. Love is splendid and fruitful with The Counterclockwise Current of the Adriatic Sea That Brings Clean Water East being the result.

He has the love of his sisters, of his mother, of Marinette—and Adrien’s world is filled to the brim with a rainbow that used to arch overhead after a hurricane. Red slips into orange, then shifts into yellow. Stacked upon that is green which filters into blue. The moment sinks into indigo and lastly, rests with violet.

He hums to himself at the bottom of the river, resigning to the facts that the pollution isn’t so bad if he doesn’t think about it. He has enough of his own magic stored from his sisters to filter the water, thankfully, but that’s the most of his ability. He does bring clean water, after all.

But more so, there is pleasure radiating under his skin, down each knot of his spine to the end of his tail. The One Who Rises kissed him so passionately that he feels like he’ll bleed his whole essence into the water with bliss. Maybe siren sisters and siren mothers are meant to eat the hearts of men, but mermen, Adrien concludes, are meant to kiss lovely women.

He sighs again, little bubbles tickling his nose as they drift to the world above him. He could spend lifetimes kissing Marinette, feeling the blood thrum under his hands, breathe air forever if it meant breathing her. Her cheeks fitted so perfectly in his hands, as if she is a puzzle piece he didn’t realize has been missing. Her every emotion and very soul, vivid and bright, has been more than enough to tell him that she is most beautiful creature of all.

But magic is a funny thing, and more of a trickster than a saint when he hears his name sung from the world above in tone he doesn’t recall, but stirs something deep within in soul.

The bag of rocks crash through the waves and sink into the water, the sound of his name echoing to him below and in this moment, his stomach clenches as everything feels as if it is going to change. A part Adrien knows he shouldn’t go forward, shouldn’t swim up to see who is calling him, but that voice that sounds like him, that person who sings with such mourning and fear—

—to him, it feels like a lost friend.

The hairs on his arms stick up, tense and resistant, but his heart knows that whoever is above him won’t hurt him. He swallows though before he breaks the surface, feeling the phantom push of his mother’s hand between his shoulder blades, swearing just for a second he can see her golden hair.

Breaking through the surface, he knows there is no going back, can feel how something is wrong as his sense of sight comes back to him fully. No more magic when he can plainly see a young man with green eyes and blond hair like his. There’s an echo of familiarity in his face, the man’s mouth downturned, but not unfriendly.

The man sings his name again, a slightly held hum at the back of his throat before dropping down to his chest, and extends his hand for Adrien to grab. Automatically, without thought, Adrien reaches for him and sings back a modest short low note, like a laugh always done with a smirk. A name song he doesn’t remember, but recognizes at once. The man nods and smiles, his hand warm and mumbles something Adrien can’t quite grasp, but there’s a wholeness to his moment, years of longing and loneliness ripping across their touch. A warm soul in colors of blue, from chilly icy depths until warm sky blue. Of love and family and thanking of gods sings through so plainly to see, of relief and happiness loud and clear.

Images of Adrien as a child flash through his mind, this man younger too and there are so many questions he wants to ask, this moment a muddled messy reunion that just feels so right. This man is his cousin: Guarded but Loyal Delight. Everything is moving too fast, the multitude of memories, the man being family. Adrien can only hopelessly watch as he pulls a necklace off his neck and grabs a ring.

Guarded gestures to him, wordlessly saying that the ring is his and places it in Adrien’s palm and mimes for him to put it on. Adrien does so, compelled to do so, as he vaguely remembers stories about little cats lost at sea and promises that gods and goddesses must always keep. Magic sings in his palm and he’s mesmerized as he places it on his right ring finger. It sits there for a moment, the world remaining the same for a second, until his next heartbeat.

The ring pulses on his finger, in time with the thrumming threading through his chest, creating a new and painful song as his body begins to change. The scales on his tail receding into skin. His bones shifting and flesh splitting at the seams to form strange, extraneous limbs. The gills smooth out on his neck, and he’s positive those are his screams he’s hearing.

It is only a second, but it feels like a lifetime of dread.

He feels the hands of his cousin touching shoulders, wrapping him in something warm, as the world comes back to normal. He tiredly looks at him, at the blond hair and green eyes. His cousin sings his name, the note of apology there.

The edges of his vision are dark now, everything stinging as a little creature floats into view and touches his forehead.

“It’s okay, kid. I got you.”

There is magic in the world, Adrien knows, but in this moment, he doesn’t particularly feel it as everything slips away.

-

He awakes with a start, feeling as if he’s drowning in darkness, the moonlight in the room shining through with abandon. Adrien’s heart hammers in his chest and it takes him a moment to realize he’s not underwater. The afternoon comes back to him in a rush as he pulls off the cloth over this lower body and his tail—

—it’s gone.

And in response, he screams again.

A roaring thumping crashes through the room as the man from earlier stands eerily at the opening. “Adrien? What’s wrong? Does it hurt?”

Without thinking, he snaps attention to him, his mind a mess. “Of course it hurts! My tail is gone!” And then it hits him, that he didn’t sing that part. His hands fly to his throat. “My—my song, where is my song? Why am I not singing?! What did you do to me?!”

His cousin stands there, in the darkness, and he doesn’t look as precious as he did in the sunlight, the rush of earlier long gone, leaving Adrien on the on the tail-end of agony.

There’s a flick on his ear and the creature from before grins at him. “Felix ain’t done nothing to you, little merman. It was me. And you’re not in pain, promise. Your mother would kill me.”

“Y-you know my mother?”

The little cat nods. “Yep. Known her a long time and I owed her a favor and now look at you! With two legs and human to boot! Name’s Plagg. That guy over there is Felix. He’s been looking for you for some time now.”

Felix, his cousin, Guarded but Loyal Delight sits down on what he thinks is called a chair. “Your mother has been giving me visions lately and has implored that I find you.”

“...you’ve seen her? Where? Is she here too?”

Felix shakes his head. “There’s a lot we have to go over, but the most important thing is that I’ve found you now. This is just the beginning before the end...”

“What’s the end?”

Felix sighs and hunches over, bringing his hands steepled to his chin. “We have a week to save the world apparently. According to your mother, at least.”

“My mother?”

Felix nods and tilts his head. “Well, apparently you and Ladybug that is.”

Magic comes with a price, Adrien knows, but this is a lot to bare on his shoulders.

However, the price of magic can wait as the words his cousin said start to tick in his head.

“Wait! What!? Save the world?! And who’s Ladybug?!”

-

Marinette is curled up on her bed, miserable and heartbroken, but thankfully she has stopped crying, Tikki notes. Where the young merman has gone, they have no idea and that has caused such worry for her charge that it breaks her ancient heart.

From first kiss to disappearance, Tikki doesn’t blame Marinette for being so upset. But magic comes with a price, Tikki knows, for she’s part of the rule as to why that law exists.

She floats over to her charge and cuddles close. “He’ll turn up soon, Marinette. He was earnest in how he felt about you, that’s for sure! I doubt he’d just leave without saying goodbye.”

Marinette sighs, a damp cheek resting atop Tikki’s head. “I guess. Falling in love sucks…”

Despite herself, Tikki giggles. “Not the first time a Ladybug has said that to me and it won’t be the last.”

Marinette laughs a little, dry and not much, but it’s something. “As long as I’m your favorite Ladybug, I think that’s all that matters to me.”

“Well, I think you’re my current favorite Ladybug!”

“Hey!” she interjects, but falls back onto her bed. Marinette sighs again. “Man, I do hope Minou does turn up again. At least I know I have more of a chance with a merman than a Black Cat…”

Tikki smiles to herself a bit, unsure how to voice the tingling that’s been prickling at the back of her neck.

“I’m sure one or both will turn up soon, Marinette. But it’s time for bed, Ladybug. Tomorrow’s gonna be a new day!”

Marinette yawns and shimmies under her covers. “Night, Tikk. I love you.”

Tikki hurries to turn off the light and flies back to her charge. “I love you too, Marinette. May your dreams be sweet.”

Marinette hums in thanks and quickly, her breathing evens out to a steady pace. Tikki does not join her in sleep, but instead floats up to the window to stare at the moon instead.