#senti!adrien

Lemme just share some dumb things they will do

Adrien demands Felix to tell him everything:

I'm particularly proud of the idea I had for today's Olympics-related ficlet, so I decided to share the full text here instead of just leaving it on Ao3.

FWIW these are hastily written and not beta'd, but for me that was part of the challenge. I'm writing a story a day during the Olympics, intended to be a reaction to the day's events. This is the least reactive, since it takes place during the Olympics but doesn't mention a single competitor. Most involve ML characters as spectators (e.g., Kagami going apeshit cheering for the Japanese fencing team that won gold in team foil).

Citius, Altius, Fortius, Miraculous - Aug 6 - Day Eleven [Adrien & Félix - Equestrian]

Adrien and Félix walked the grounds of Versailles, having decided to take a break from watching the equestrian events.

“How was lunch with Zara?” Félix said, fiddling with his fingernails as the grass swished beside his feet with every step he took.

Adrien smiled softly. “It was nice. It felt like coming home.” He stopped walking. “You know, she was the first from the extended family to reach out after Father died. It was really nice… It’s not like we really know each other. Mother never got to take me to see anyone in England. Father wouldn’t allow it. But still…”

Félix turned slowly and looked at Adrien, considering the way the light filtered through the trees on his cousin’s face. He clenched his fists a few times, relieving anxiety that had wrapped tightly around his forearms like shackles. “Colt wasn’t too keen on seeing the family, either. He’d received the imprimatur of our grandparents to marry Mum, but it wasn’t enough for him. As I got older, he was more…forcefully against it. Thought they were always judging him for being arriviste… And he knew that selling weapons could never buy him passage through certain doors.”

Adrien closed the distance to Félix and put his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “I used to be so jealous of you, that you lived closer to family.” His eyes were half-lidded in sympathy. “I’m sorry you had to—”

“I’m a sentimonster.”

Adrien’s hand flinched at the abrupt admission. “You’re a…” He swallowed. In the distance, a horse’s hooves thudded on the green.

“Well, sentibeing. Though I doubt Ladybug would be so charitable.” Félix smirked, but shifted nervously from one foot to the other.

“You’re a… a sentibeing? H-how?”

“Well, when a man loves a woman very much, he acquires a magical jewel…”

Adrien took a step back and looked straight into Félix’s eyes. “Fé, I’m serious. How?Is that how you knew there was a Peacock Miraculous? Did you know Mayura’s identity and stole it from her? Or…did you know Hawkmoth?”

Adrien had gotten to the important questions faster than Félix had expected. The spectators in the distance politely applauded a performance, and he waited to see if Adrien would ask anything else—anything more pressingly personal. A minute passed, and Adrien was still looking at Félix with concern.

“Um, does this change how you see me?”

“What? Of course not. It’s like magical IVF, who cares? You’re still human.”

Félix breathed a sigh of relief.

“Does Ladybug know?”

“Yes.”

“And she still trusts you to have a Miraculous?”

Adrien’s words had breathlessly fallen out of his mouth, and Félix wondered if this conversation was about something he hadn’t picked up on. Well, if Adrien was surprising him like this, then he might as well be honest with his cousin. “She does. Not that she has a choice. She’s not getting the brooch from me.” Félix huffed. “And to the extent she’s worried, it’s because—you might recall—I killed pretty much everyone on Earth so you and I could have some peace.“

Adrien looked down at the three rings on his hand.

Félix had been wondering lately about the one his cousin had been wearing before he put on the Graham de Vanily rings.

“I… I think I might be…”

Félix held his breath and let Adrien keep talking.

“We’re nearly twins. And your father had the Miraculous before he died…” A lone tear snaked its way down Adrien’s cheekbone and toward his chin. “Félix, who did you steal the Peacock from?”

A frustrated rider yelled at a horse in the distance.

“I didn’t steal it. I traded for it.”

Adrien looked down at his hands and fiddled with his fingernails. “But she told me he helped defeat Monarch…”

Félix remained silent.

“Why wouldn’t she…”

Félix put his hand on Adrien’s shoulder. “She was terrified to tell you, so I volunteered. Actually, I begged her to let me be the one to tell you.”

Adrien didn’t make eye contact. He kept his face toward the ground, sniffling. His shoulders and chest trembled. But as soon as it started, the quivering stopped, and he took one final sniff. He wiped his eyes and looked back at Félix, giving him a watery smile. “It’s like magical IVF. That’s what I just said, right?”

Félix wasn’t sure about this swift change in emotion. “…Right. But still, he was—”

“An asshole. And abusive.” Adrien laughed, a little wild, a little mirthful. “I guess that explains why I avoided Marinette. And why, after talking to Nathalie, that weird feeling stopped.” Adrien swallowed, his developing Adam’s apple bobbing as if it were tracking his acceptance of the truth. “Oh. Nathalie…”

“Yeah…”

“Sentibug…”

“Who?”

“Mayura—well, Nathalie—made a girl like Ladybug, and then…and then she killed her. She knew she was like me, and she killed her!”

Félix felt his blood pressure rise. He hadn’t known about that. But he swiftly pressed the emotion down. “How are you feeling?”

Adrien smiled. “You know, I beat his ass the day he sent me to London.”

Félix’s eyes widened. “Really? Wow, cousin, I didn’t think you had it in you. And I’m surprised he didn’t stop you…”

Adrien pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, and then he spoke. “Who else knows? You, me, Ladybug, Nathalie… I’m guessing your mom…”

“There’s this Super Guardian guy who probably knows about both of us.”

Adrien fiddled with his original ring, sliding his index finger and thumb along the smooth metal as he spun it. “Do you think I should tell Marinette?”

“That’s a decision I think you should make on your own. But I think she’ll surprise you. When I pretended to be you at the Diamonds’ Dance, she broke in, you know. She’s obviously in love with you. And she doesn’t care about the family name or anything. Actually I think she hated your dad.” 

Adrien laughed. “Yeah, there was this whole thing about pancakes she told me about. I don’t really get it, but you’re right.” He beamed with pride. “She’s so perceptive. She’d give Ladybug a run for her money in that department… I called her that once, you know. My ‘Everyday Ladybug.’”

Félix choked back a laugh.

“Wait, have you told Kagami?”

“Oh, she has zero problem with the senti-stuff if you know what I’m saying.” Félix crossed his hands over his chest to signify a certain kind of prowess. He leaned in and cupped a hand to his mouth, pretending to share a secret. “Prestidigitation…”

It was typical of Adrien to turn everything back to others. Always trying to understand how everyone else felt, how everyone else was acting. He supposed it was the model training in Adrien, that he’d done so well because he’d learned to mimic and follow orders.

But could he blaze this path himself? Félix had struggled with it, and he had that rebellious streak, titanium lacing his backbone.

But Adrien had him. And Marinette. Ladybug. A family that loved him.

Just so long as Chat Noir didn’t come calling with a Cataclysm. Well, he’d skin the cat alive if he went after his cousin.

Like let’s say Gabriel wins. He gets his wish. Emilie’s back. Nathalie and everyone isn’t dying. But the world is altered and he probably gets mind wiped or something going back to his previous life of being controlled. Which really means he stuck as the “perfect” son and doesn’t get an ounce of true happiness. I don’t think his mother will stop the engagement to Kagami. So no free will stuck in a world of his fathers making. Pretty f***ed up.

Okay now let’s say ladybug and chat noir wins. Welp, Gabriel is dying and or going to prison. Nathalie’s still sick and His mom stays dead. Oh and he will probably find out he’s a sentimonster. Which all of those at once is a triple kick in the dick. That would also make Adrien suspect number one if anything s***y happened in Paris. Probably be sued by pissed of parisians. And if word got out that he was a sentimonster? Forget it, they’d try to burn him at the stake. Not ideal and Not even covering the mental crisis and imposter syndrome he’d be dealing with. This isn’t ideal but he does have his friends and his aunt. He might want to leave Paris for a while tho.

Then I guess the third option is where maybe Gabriel realizes he done goofed up, and he ends ups remorseful. He and ladybug come up with some sort of plan to use the wish to fix things making some weird hybrid result. He still dies but Emilie’s alive but he gets his “redemption through death”. Which would at least leave Adrien with a parent but also probably results in Adrien being kept in the dark about everything because he wouldn’t be okay with any of that. But that sounds worse than the first two because Adrien gets left in the dark and sort of glosses over a LOT of things including him being in a dynamic where once again people he loves are hiding sh*t from him. Oh and it basically excuses Gabriel’s abuse, so that’s also a no. Oh and since Adrien probably wouldn’t know, it means someone else is keeping his amok which just means well s***, someone is still controlling him.

The fourth option is that Adrien is involved and uses himself to save his parents and Paris. Wishing for a world where everyone he loves could be happy. This one would piss off EVERYONE (except the Adrien haters but they don’t matter) but establish Adrien as being the most human in the series. Also it ends the ship with him dead and leaves Marinette feeling awful, unless her memories get wiped.