Bleu Piuma seemed to only appear when Scarlet Bug and Catseye were in big trouble. A goliath of a titan would appear and distract whatever Akuma, giving the team a chance to turn things around. There weren’t many clear pictures of the hero, which wasn’t helped that the blue fan seemed to always be covering the bottom half of their face. The blue of their hair was like peacock feathers, the theme following in the costume of long sleeves and cloak like feathers that floated to the floor. It was almost like the robe her son had shown her, ‘the grieving widow of a rich old man’. People who were saved by the new hero during attacks swore the green eyes seemed to glow within the black sciera. What their face looked like, that they couldn’t remember. Some said that they didn’t wear a mask like the rest of the heroes. Others swore they wore a half mask, not quite Phantom of the Opera, but like it was Carnival in Rome.

The point was, there was little information the city had and the heroes seemed to not be any closer to having answers. Piuma disappeared when the fight was over, there only being a feather left from the titan. Except today. Viola had watched the stream from the cameras around Paris – placed by the Mayor as a way to deter a certain classmate of Adrien’s from running into the fray – the Akuma seemed to know Piuma was the person to go after first. The newer hero managed to dodge the attacks but suddenly, they seemed to look dizzy. The cameras could only stay zoomed a certain bit but Viola was sure Piuma seemed to pass out during a jump between buildings, supported with the fact that they seemed to plumet down towards ground. Scarlet Bug’s yoyo had dragged the Akuma away to let Catseye grab Piuma. He didn’t show up for the rest of the fight and when it was over, Scarlet Bug and Catseye disappeared, like they were going to look for someone.

All her co-workers had their theories as to who Bleu Piuma was, why they suddenly appeared, if they were the best choice of a hero. To Viola, she just wanted to know if they were ok, much like she worried about the other heroes. She wondered if Adrien had any clues from Alya that she hadn’t posted on the ScarCat blog, but if he was asleep this hard, she’d wait. She noticed his phone wasn’t resting on its charging dock, the wings on it tucked in. knowing her son would be in a mood if his phone was dead before he had to rush to school, she pulled the covers back more to look for the phone. She couldn’t remember what case he had on it this month, but she did remember he had the lucky cat bell charm his father gave him on the phone. She lifted the cover higher, not wanting to rip it off him to find his phone, patting down until her hand hit something that wasn’t his phone. It was a broach, pale in colour and a very stylized peacock. There seemed to be a crack in one of the feathers of its tail. Maybe it was from worrying about Bleu Piuma, but she wondered if she was holding something to do with the Miraculous Hawkmoth always asked for.

Except that was ridiculous. Her son had taste for statement pieces and he easily could have gotten it as a gift for someone. She didn’t think her; she wasn’t a fan of broaches personally. It didn’t matter, she placed it next to Adrien’s charging dock and went back to looking, hitting the charm for it to make noise. She placed it on the dock, waiting for the wings to light up and spread out before she fixed the covers over her son and with a kiss against his forehead, turned the lights off and closed the door. She had work to do if Piuma was a permanent member of the team and this passing out things was the first of many fainting spells. She didn’t notice a blue creature poking it’s head out from the plush hammock above Adrien’s bed, frowning down at the cracked broach.

_________________

“Why do you want to come with me?” Luka asked, frowning down at Plagg, who tried to look innocent, but he didn’t trust that for a second.

“What, you wanna keep Kitten all to yourself?” Plagg asked.

“Yes.” Luka looked over as Tikki, who looked as equally guilty like she was hiding something. For gods, they were really bad at lying sometimes. “What is going on?”

“Nothing! We’re just worried. I mean, he’s been home for a while, nearly as long as Blacky was after using the Peacock Miraculous.”

Luka looked even more confused. “Yeah? I guess. Why are you saying it like that though? You said you took the Peacock to get fixed by Fu.”

That hadn’t even been the plan. Tikki and Plagg knew how to fix a broken Miraculous, thanks to their past, Nooroo and Gabriel’s loving to monologue. Obviously, they didn’t have Gabriel’s riches to get the pieces, but with Juleka doing modelling for the Agreste line, it wouldn’t be hard to find a way to convince them to give her payment for her gigs, especially the more insane ones. Gabirel didn’t want to have to go back to his daughter, so it should have been easy. Had Duusu not disappeared with the Miraculous. The day everyone came to check on Juleka was when they noticed it had gone missing. They had no clue who Duusu had gone with, just that the new holder was helping with Amoks. And passing out in the middle of battles. They’d managed to convince their sibling holders that Fu had to of given the Peacock away to a new holder and since Luka wasn’t talking to the Guardian, they weren’t checking for answers. For now.

When Juleka came back from school, talking about how Adrien had been called out by his mom, Plagg got suspicious. When it continued to Adrien being home, bed bound, he was suddenly remembering Nathalie being the same during her use of the Peacock Miraculous, it suddenly clicked. The Kwami remembered their lives before the Wish. Why wouldn’t Duusu not be attached to the kid of his holder? He just didn’t think Adrien would be so stupid.

“What’s the big deal? I’m sure Alya would be thrilled to see another new Cat around. I’m thinking you can go by Kitty Chaos.”

Luka stared at Plagg before rolling his eyes and sighing. “Whatever, fine. I already told Adrien’s mom I’d be there before she had to go back to the office, so let’s go.”

Sharing a look with Tikki, Plagg ducked into Luka’s open jacket, hoping he was assuming wrong and that Adrien was just suffering from a cold. Or allergies, he’d so take feathers being the cause.

While Plagg was trying to convince himself he was panicking, Luka wasn’t thinking about Adrien. Not that he wasn’t worried with him suddenly being home and barely awake enough to answer texts, but he was thinking about Bleu Piuma. The new holder appeared the day after Juleka recovered, when Plagg and Tikki said they took it to be fixed by Fu. He hadn’t wanted to be anywhere near the Guardian for a while, so he took their word. He just didn’t get how it was fixed so quickly, let alone why he handed it off. It had to be in retaliation for Luka and Plagg threatening him. But either he just grabbed someone off the street or something was wrong because watching the hero drop like a puppet who’s strings were cut in the middle of a fight, that was terrifying. It was one of those times he was so happy he and Juleka could practically read each other’s minds. He got a little rough with the Akuma, more than necessary, but Juleka managed to catch him. The plan was to lay him in the alcove of one of the buildings nearby, deal with the Akuma via Lucky Charm and Cataclysm and then check in on Bleu, who would hopefully give them answers. Except they were gone when the fight was over. they looked everywhere, but with no luck.

Hawkmoth was laying low, which was probably a good thing, since he’d been sending Akumas after Bleu Piuma the minute the fight started. It was weird not being immediately hunted for his earrings, but he’d take the break. He just wished there was an answer for where Bleu disappeared. He arrived at Adrien’s apartment, gaining access to the lobby as the Rossi matriarch came downstairs.

“Luka, there you are.”

“Sorry. I had a…slight delay getting out of the house.” He said, feeling Plagg move under his jacket. It took everything to not cover where he knew the Kwami was.

“Alright. Adrien is still asleep and he barely ate yesterday. Minestra is on the stove and there’s a fresh loaf if toast is all you can get in him. If he’s still not great, I’m taking him to the doctor tomorrow, so please keep me updated.”

“I will. I guess you’re taking Bleu Piuma’s appearance well?”

Viola sighed. “I worry enough about Catseye and Scarlet Bug, that hero passed out during a fight and the city’s heroes seem to not know who they are. What’s gonna happen if they’re first on the scene and it happens again?”

If it were up to Luka, if he could find out the reason for passing out, he’d suggest they give up. Chloe surprisingly took being told to stand down ok, but that might have been the extra visit plus the letter they left.

“Hopefully, everything will be ok.”

“Hopefully.” She looked at the elevator like she wanted to go back to her son, but Luka took upon himself to guide her towards the door. He knew Adrien’s mom wouldn’t leave him if it was truly very serious. “I will call if anything happens.” He promised.

“Alright. I left the door unlocked behind me. At least call when he wakes up!”

The Rossi apartment was quiet, which wasn’t the norm whenever Luka visited. Much like The Liberty, there was almost always music playing, normally whatever Adrien would listen to when in the house. Sometimes it would even be from the record player but this time – as Luka locked the door behind him – there was no noise. Just wind passing through the open windows. Adrien’s door was partially open and he found his boyfriend sprawled out, one leg hanging off the bed. His hair seemed more chaotic than normal and his breathing was the only thing that Luka sure he hadn’t died.

“Hey, Adrien?” he asked quietly, shaking him awake. It didn’t get far, since all he got was an annoyed moan and Adrien turning his head away. “Hey, cutie, wake up.”

Like a disgruntled cat, Adrien turned on his back, right at the edge of his bed. Luka moved closer in case Adrien actually started to slid off. The blonde stretched and blinked up at his boyfriend.

“What are you doing here?”

“Your mom had to go back to work, last minute meeting. She asked me to come keep an eye on you. Are you hungry?”

Adrien moaned in exhaustion a bit more. “A little.” he tried pushing himself up but flopped back down into bed. Juleka had been this weak after using the Peacock Miraculous, but he still wasn’t sure what Adrien had done to be this exhausted.

“Did you speedrun a cosplay or something?” he asked, slipping his arms under Adrien’s legs and behind his back to lift him.

“No, just…tired.” Adrien replied, wrapping his arms around Luka’s neck, his head already finding it’s favourite place to hide. “Oh, my phone.”

Luka turned with Adrien in his arms to see if the phone was on Adrien’s charging dock when an almighty crash startled them both. Luka spotted a black dot before he focused on distracting Adrien.

“What was that?”

“Uh, I accidently knocked over your phone. Here, it’s on the bed.” He tried looking for Plagg as Adrien grabbed his phone, resting it on his stomach and curling back into Luka again. He couldn’t see him, though he knew the Kwami wasn’t hiding in his jacket anymore. He just hoped he behaved. “Come on. make you can eat a cup of soup for me?”

While Luka was focused on trying to wake Adrien up, Plagg glared down at the abashed Kwami beneath him. The crash had been him seeing a disguised Peacock Miraculous and he went to go grab it and then spotted Duusu. The phone had barely made its noisy decent onto the bed when he shoved Duusu out of the plush hammock and sent them tumbling to the floor behind Adrien’s bed. It was weirdly clean, since he knew his kitten would actually shove things underneath his bed back when he was still an Agreste.

“What, the hell, do you think you’re doing? I thought you said that Adrien was important to Emilie!”

“Well, technically he’s not-”

“Don’t start that!” Plagg interrupted. “What were you thinking? It was bad enough you sent Black to bed for the day; you went to Adrien to the point where he’s been bedridden for days? He passed out during a fight!”

“Ok, ok! I didn’t think he’d put me on!” Duusu said, starting to bawl, emotion-driven as always. “I just didn’t want to go back to Fu. It’s his fault I’m like this!”

Plagg got that, he wanted to actually throttle Fu since the last life and more so now since he was trying to fight against the new rules after cleaning up his 80-year mess. But that didn’t mean they dragged the other kids into this. “Why not tell us this instead of taking the Miraculous and disappearing?”

Duusu moaned, like the answer was too much. “Fu blames you for everything that went wrong. He was gonna blame me. He wasn’t going to care about fixing his mistakes. He always runs away from his mistakes.”

“I know that! That’s why we took care of Feast before he could do anything. We have him in our palm; we’ve reminded him he follows our rules and orders. I get you don’t want to be around him, but you’re putting Adrien through what his mom and Nathalie went through. I know you don’t feel good about that.”

Duusu cried more, he knew the broken Miraculous made him more emotional, but it was getting annoying with his anger at the Peacock endangering his kid. The reason he was fine with not having Adrien was because he was safe, happy, not passing out in the middle of fights!

“When he put me on, he knew what I was.” Ok, that was thanks Kuro Neko appearing twice. “He said you told him to be ready.”

Fucking fuck. What was supposed to a warning in case history repeated itself just landed them in hot water. Adrien thought he was deliberately given a broken Miraculous? Ok, he needed to tell Luka.

“You should have told him differently!”

“But…he still like his mom.” Emilie clearly was important to Duusu, so it was no surprise Duusu clung to Adrien, even if he wasn’t Emilie’s son in this life. “I kept warning him against it, but the fights are solved so much quicker.”

And Adrien wanted to help; he always did. This didn’t feel like Chloe’s first run as a hero before fully switching into a villain. This was more ‘I have a way to help, so why don’t I?’. He just hoped his kitten was smart to realise the way he was feeling was because of the Miraculous.

Meanwhile, Luka was slightly glad they were alone. Adrien hadn’t wanted to let go when he tried leaving him on the couch, so here they were now in the kitchen, Adrien sitting on the counter with Luka between his legs, leaning heavily against Luka, arms still around his neck. Luka rubbed his back, no doubt lulling him to sleep but he could also tell Adrien wasn’t going to let him go for a while yet.

“You gonna tell me what you did to make yourself so tired? You’ve been out of school for a while.”

“Just tired.” Adrien said into Luka’s neck.

Luka hummed, glancing at the pot on the stove. “hungry? Your mom made soup.”

He could feel Adrien move his head, feeling his eyelashes brush against his collarbone. “Where’s mama?”

“Meeting. Last minute.”

“For…the new hero?”

“Yeah, Bleu Plume.”

“Piuma.” Adrien corrected; his Italian accent stronger as he spoke the word.

Luka had started to move his hand to brush through Adrien’s hair but stopped when Adrien corrected him. Luka knew he mixed up the words, going with the French word because he knew in his head, it was pretty much the same. Luka’s Italian was nothing like his mothers and to be honest, most of the words he’d picked up from Adrien were curses or the proper pronunciations for most Italian foods.

“Piuma is…”

“Feather. It’s the same as plume.” Adrien managed to get through, leaning heavier like he was about to fall asleep.

“Hey, wait. Stay awake. How did you know that?”

Adrien groaned, going to hide his face again. “What?”

“Bleu is French. You were so sure the second part was Italian.” Alya had actually misspelled it in her blog post. The new hero introduced themselves to Scarlet Bug and Catseye at the end of a fight, not many other people had been around. For a new hero, they seemed to know what they were doing. Kinda like Adrien being skilled as Kuro Neko.

But there was no way right? The Peacock Miraculous had been inside Juleka’s vanity. It was taken to Fu. Why hadn’t Tikki or Plagg had him or Juleka go with them though?

“Tired.” Adrien said, dropping a hand from around Luka to rub at his own leg. “Hurts.”

“Does it? it’s probably because you’ve been in bed all day. Eat something and I’ll look for your heating pad.”