Guess this proves how much I suck at updating... we've gone up 1,500 reads since the last chapter -cough-

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Felix was acting.. well, off.

Although, maybe off was fairly normal for his twin brother. It was hard to tell, truly- Felix never maintained any type of mood for any longer than maybe.. an hour. But something about his behavior really bothered Adrien.

He spoke with one word answers- avoided everyone's gaze. He was torturously quiet, in a way Adrien was not used to. Though, I suppose it would be quite difficult to tell when Felix was ever acting normal. But nevertheless, there was clearly something wrong. And that concerned Adrien.

He didn't seem like he was angry, however. He actually looked quite.. troubled.

He could ask for advice, maybe a helping hand. But should he really get anyone else involved with the walking, mumbling issue (not to be rude) that was his brother? And Felix wouldn't appreciate anyone else to unintentionally get on his nerves, anyways.

He was on his way to class that morning, science class, actually.

That class was normally disruptive.. rowdy. Everything his brother hated. Felix probably asked to use the bathroom five times in that period, just to escape to find some momentary silence. I suppose Adrien understood that.

But today, he sat silently in his seat, his eyes glazed over with little to no emotion. Oddly enough, it seemed.. the noise didn't bother him one bit. He barely moved, only to write a few things on his paper- but other then that, nothing. He didn't make eye contact with Adrien either.

Better yet, after school, when he tried talking to Felix, they had collided shoulders harshly as his brother ignored and pushed past him. This spawned a surge of unrequited anger in Adrien, but he managed to contain it.

He knew his brother was a broken kid. His father had told him that. Not the details of course, they never shared a conversation for more than a few sparse minutes, but enough for Adrien to slightly understand. That was probably why he dismissed it.

He shouldn't have.

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A woman picked up the phone.

As usual, the other end of the line was buzzing and silent. Not like she didn't expect it- it had been the same for the past three days, receiving a call every two hours without an owner. The contact name simply said "Unknown," and never had there been a single word pass through the phone. And it was driving her crazy.

She thought about saying something. But she didn't, instead setting the phone down and ending the call. She sighed, running her hands through her hair. It was a rather unsentimental, stressful situation. One that she didn't have time for. She stared at the phone a few minutes before picking it back up, the screen now empty of notifications. She unlocked it, traveling to her camera roll.

There she slid through a few years worth of pictures of her vacations, friends and such before she stumbled across a photo from 2007.

The quality was terrible, consequently from being transferred from her old phone plus the fact it was about a decade old. But it was rather peculiar. It only included one person, a.. child. Blonde locks that were rather long cascaded down the sides of their face, nearly reaching their broad shoulders. A beaming smile was plastered on their face, a laugh filling his features. His clear blue eyes were filled with joy.

She knew those eyes. That smile. But yet again, that's the first time she'd ever seen them. Why did this child haunt her? Torment her?

She knew exactly why, but did not want to admit it..

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"Hey, Felix." Marinette smiled at the blonde boy, and he managed one back. He opened the door for her.

"Thanks for coming on such short notice. I appreciate it." He said.

"No problem," Marinette responded, following Felix up to his room and taking a seat in his armchair. "So what's this about? Why did you call me over?"

Felix shifted nervously, while Marinette leaned forward to brush the hair out of his face. She didn't want him to be uncomfortable. "You don't have to tell me. I just thought maybe I could help," she smiled sincerely, giving Felix a sense of security. He wanted to tell her everything, really, but it was terribly difficult to make the words come out of his mouth. Terribly difficult. He frowned.

"It's about Adrien,"

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Adrien came home, frustrated as usual, arms full of textbooks. Groaning, he slung his backpack off his shoulder and on to the table. He had a ton of homework. How did they expect them to handle it all? Oh right. They didn't care.

He collapsed onto the table, arms sprawled across it. For once he wanted to relive himself of all this stress, and not have to worry about a thing. It was still such a common occurrence for most people, but he had to deal with both school, his modeling career, and Felix. It was tough life to juggle all of these things upon his shoulders.

"Adrien?" A voice called, and when he turned around he was expecting Nathalie, but instead found his brother Felix at the door or his room. He sat up. That was a bit weird.. Felix didn't usually ask anything of him. "Mind if I come in?"

"Uh.. sure?" Adrien said uneasily, while Felix, who had his hands stuck in his pockets, approached him. His eyes scanned Adrien's room. It had been a while since he'd been inside.

"Look, this... doesn't belong to me," Felix said suddenly, handing Adrien a box. It was strikingly familiar- red patterns and shape cascading across it. Inside was obviously a miraculous.

"Why are you giving me this? Don't you like being Chat Noir?" Adrien looked up, cupping the box in both hands and looking up at his brother questioningly. Felix blew a strand of hair out of his face, shaking his head and sighing.

"Sure beats this place, that's for sure," he gestured to their empty, depressing mansion. It was true. Felix had a lot of fun in the suit, being able to feel truly free. "But I'm not Chat Noir. I wasn't chosen like you were." He put a hand on Adrien's shoulder, nearly making him flinch. They hadn't bonded like this since... grade school. It was rather peculiar. Adrien stared at him blankly, still not understanding.

"Look, Adrien. You have a job to do. The people of Paris need the real Chat Noir. I was only filling in while you were away." While you were away. The words stung for the both of them, bringing back old memories of close calls. Felix averted his gaze, stuffing his hands back in his pockets. "I've seen that you've been struggling lately. Maybe.. a break is just what you need." Then he left, leaving Adrien with the box still clutched in the palm of his hand.

Maybe for once, Felix was right. But he still couldn't shake the feeling of how he had been acting earlier that the day.

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"Ladybug?" Chat found her atop a cherry-bricked clothing shop, stargazing. She sat up, alarmed.

There was a deadening silence. Ladybug stood up suddenly, grabbed Chat by the shoulders, and stared into his eyes hopefully. He swallowed.

"Chat? Is it... really you?" She looked into his eyes and there they were, the forest green that she admired so much more than she wanted to admit. She had missed terrible cat his puns, his irrelevant flirting and everything else that had once drove her crazy.

"Y-yeah.. it's me Ladybug.." Chat said, scratching the back of his head smugly. Golly, she sure missed him alright.

Then she did something neither of them would ever expect of her.

She pressed her lips onto Chat's cold cheek, catching him completely off guard. His eyes widened before he returned the gesture, his lips pressing against soft, nimble skin. Both her and Chat's faces resembled a bright cherry shade of red. Chat was speechless, as was she.

Then as he was only just barely collecting his thoughts, she kicked him. In the shins. Hard.

"Ow!" Chat jumped, grabbing his leg protectively. "What was that for?" He pouted, a small pain shooting up his calve.

"That's for almost leaving me, you stupid cat!" She stuck her tongue out, crossing her arms. He grinned. That's the Ladybug he knew and loved.

"Wow, you sure know how to ruin a romantic reunion." He raised his eyebrows and chuckled.  She turned a darker shade of red.

"It w-was not romantic!" She protested, shocked at the fact that she was stuttering in front of her partner. "It w-was just in the moment.. o-okay!" She crossed her arms, turning away from him. He smirked.

"How about another? This time right here?" He pointed toward his cheek, tapping a spot rather dangerously close to the edge of his lips. She peered at him out of the corner of her eyes, and jumped, ready to defend herself.

"In your dreams, C-chat! Why would I ever do that?" She sputtered.

"You tell me.. you initiated it!" She couldn't help but chuckle along with him a she took a seat next to her on the rooftop. This was what the both of them missed. And they wouldn't trade it for the world.

And this was definitely a break that Adrien desperately needed, much like Felix had said.

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a lot of people have asked me what my favorite ship is & the answer to that is
L-A-D-Y-N-O-I-R
my dudes (;