Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The door slowly creaked open, its sharp wood scratching against the floor as a demonic creature with black smoke for skin and poison green eyes stubbled into the room.

It wobbled into the middle of a small room, the walls were a plain brown with only one picture. There was a single window with a flowing curtain to crash with air as it screamed a howling noise even though there was no wind outside.

A drawer probably filled with the same outfit was sitting on the opposite wall of the bed right next to the creature. On it lay a simple mirror.

It turned around to see the male on the bed, he hadn’t moved an inch. It groaned in frustration as its skin split open and a bony limb brought out food from out of nowhere. 

“Seriously, when is your stupid crush going to go away,” It muttered as the limb placed the food right next to the male’s head.

He still didn’t bother to move. 

“Ignoring me huh? In case you forgot in the last 5 years, my name is Plagg and we used to hang out back when you actually used your voice, you know,” He glared at the boy’s back yet flinched when he responded.

“I know who you are Plagg,” A soft reply was heard yet it didn’t sound like it hadn’t been used at all. 

“Then get up and actually spend some time with me you know!” Plagg demanded. “It’s not fun when you’re practically the devil’s son’s only butler who he hasn’t killed yet!”

“Then I suggest you get another job,” A calm reply was quipped back at him.

Rage roared through Plagg as he forcefully made one of his many limbs go back into him before he stomped out of the room, slamming the door in the process.

Not that Claus noticed anyway.

He simply rolled onto his back and let out a deep sigh.

5 years, 

And nothing had gotten better.

He missed her.

So much. 

So much that he could still see the distraught look on her face from years ago yet it was still fresh in his mind.

He wondered if she was even more beautiful than she had been 5 years ago. Then that thought once again sent him back 5 years ago into the past.

He sighed as he turned sideways on his side and stared at the weird assortment of mashed arrangements Plagg had given him this time. He wasn’t even hungry, there was no need when he was dying for his eternal hunger for Flower Star.

So why should he be a fool and attempt to fill himself by other methods?

No one could understand, he blinked at the soft face that was staring right back at him, his hands itched to even just touch the warm flesh calling his soul.

His hand had that exact thought and lifted itself to brush against the dream that had been haunting him for years.

Only for it to come back splattered with food.

Claus grumbled and collapsed on the pillow, shutting his eyes. He just wanted sleep, or sweet delicate dreams.

He just wanted his wish to come true, anyway, anyhow,

No matter what.

He had only just closed his eyelids when a blue flash surrounded the room and was glowing brightly. His eyes quickly shot open and he sat up to see what was in his room.

A simple glowing blue portal awaited him.

Most would probably question the timing, the moment, what was going on,

But the only thing going through Claus’s brain was the fact his wish was about to come true.

He crawled out of bed faster than he could even register what his feet were doing and he was in front of the portal.

It showed a city, not like hell, this city was bright, full of happiness, big sun, no screaming. He glanced down at the area below the portal and actually saw humans walking around.

Another world.

Flower Star appeared, she was waving and pointing to the portal, the hallucination smiling as it tried to convince him to go in.

It was right though in a way. There was no way he would ever see his own Flower Star ever again, what happened 5 years ago caused that to happen, if this was another world then there would be a new Flower Star.

He could have her fall in love with him all over again, they could finally have the happily ever after that she promised him when he proposed to her at just 12 years old. 

He shook his head, the past was the past, this was the present.

And he would make sure nothing would ever come between him and his eternal happiness with this new Flower Star, 

Father wasn’t here to ruin everything this time.

However, a thought bounced in his head.

What if there was another him,

He could come in between him and Flower Star, if they weren’t already in love.

A wry smile crawled onto Claus’s face,

Then he would just have to get rid of him then.

He placed his hand into the portal and watched it shine in the warm sunlight of this other world.

Nothing could stop him now.

He swiftly dashed into the portal, it shut off the moment his right leg went in.

Cars drove around, people talking about their misfortunes and mistakes or simple happiness at material items.

The random drunkard was dancing in front of a crowd while simultaneously embarrassing his wife, the yelling abusive girlfriend was yelling at the poor boyfriend who cheated on her with her innocent best friend who had recently started selling drugs, the children were running around playing with one another while ignoring the one child who desperately wanted to be friends but had no social skills whatsoever and thought it wasn’t normal so they bullied the others kids to feel better about themselves.

Claus glanced at each and every one of them, Paris didn’t seem all that different from Hell anyway.

Or maybe that was just his opinion.

He moved away from the edge of the rooftop and made his way towards the stairs that led down, he gripped the cold metal bars of the railing and climbed down the three story building that he was currently living in after helping the former family find another place to live.

They must really love it up there in the sky.

He finally reached the ground floor and walked through his barely furnished living room to stand at the open window that overlooked a billboard.

A certain fragrance ad billboard.

Of a certain guy named Adrien.

He grew annoyed just at the name, it was his old name he hated after all, so just the fact the guy still kept this name set off some alarms in his demented mind.

It looked like he had finally found the other him, not personally but not on good terms either.

If you call falling in front of another billboard with his face when he arrived here good terms.

The family of raccoons that he startled would agree with him.

He chuckled as he remembered how they tried to bite him and attack before he killed their strongest with a curse placed on it.

It didn’t take them long after that to run away,

He turned around and closed the window as he walked back to the other side of the room and proceeded to look at the list of things he found about himself.

He had a stupid rich kid life.

He was a stupid probably bratty model.

And he went to a hellhole called Francois Dupont,

That would also become a place Claus would have to attend if he wanted any leads on where Flower Star would be.

He internally groaned, homeschooling was bad enough, now he actually had to go to school,

He was starting to regret this when a warmth started reaching up his empty cold soul, he grasped his chest as thoughts of Flower Star filled his mind, what she would look like, what she would feel like,

Suddenly, school seemed like a paradise,

His cheeks bloomed as he got up and started walking to the only mirror in the room,

He took one look at himself and frowned, he then closed his head and shook his head multiple times to get the result he needed.

When he slowly opened them, he was pleased to see himself with midnight black hair blocking his eyes. He still had the same body structure but decided to keep that way.

He swept his hair up to reveal his poison green pupils and promptly dropped his bangs back down.

He had chosen this specific hairstyle because no one had the right to look at his eyes, they were way too similar to Adrien’s and he was willing to bet his multiple fangirls would be fast enough to spot the color,

Yet he liked his hair being like this, blond was getting boring, black suited him better.

He just hoped Flower Star would love him this way, and if she didn’t then he could just change it.

A grin made its way onto his face and he didn’t even try to stop it.

Time for his happily ever after.

Chapter Text

The sun shone brightly against the window, joy and warmth everywhere as Alya tapped away on her phone.

Everyone else was discussing things that happened to them over the weekend, Nino and Adrien making jokes at each other as the seat next to her remained empty of her best friend who was no doubt late again,

The door clicked open and everyone glanced up to see Ms.Bustier walk into the room with a happy smile on her face, she briefly glanced at Marinette’s desk and shook her head fondly before addressing her class.

“Good morning everyone,”

“Good morning, Ms.Bustier.” They called back, some going back to their seats and most turning around in their chairs to face her.

Her smile grew more as she turned to face the door, “We have a new student joining us today, he just recently moved so I hope you all will give him a nice welcome,” 

At that exact moment the door opened as a thin arm appeared as a male body made its way into the room, everyone’s breath hitching in their throats.

His midnight black hair completely covered his eyes, the white t-shirt he was wearing was crisp and clean, not something you just pulled out of a box to go to school today. He wore a black jacket over it and ripped jeans. He made his way to stand right beside Ms.Bustier,

Then bowed.

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you all,” He glanced up at all of them and smiled. 

Alya suspected he sent a wink too but suddenly she had an idea, she quickly opened her phone and searched up Chat Noir to find a picture of him.

She found one and glanced back and forth between the new kid and the picture, the similarities were strikingly perfect except for the hair,

She wondered if he would allow her to see his eyes,

Ms.Bustier nodded at him when he stood back up again, “This is Claus, as I told you all he recently moved here so he deserves a big welcome,”

“You can come and ask him a few questions while I find the lesson for today,” She announced before going behind her desk.

Immediately the class made their way out of their seats and towards Claus, the crowd around him was suffocating but he seemed to not mind.

Instead he happily answered everyone’s questions with a big smile on his face, up until Alya asked her question though, “Do you think we could see your eyes, Claus?”

He suddenly became stiff and adjusted his hair a bit to make sure no one could see them on accident, “Sorry,” His soft voice spoke, “I kinda don’t like people seeing my eyes, they make me uncomfortable,” 

Rose cooed and grabbed his hands, “It’s okay, we won’t judge,”

Claus though shook his head, he didn’t trust them yet, Alya noted as he squeezed Rose’s hands and gently pushed them back to her, 

“Where are you from dude?” Nino asked beside her as Alya typed that in her phone.

However she didn’t notice that when Claus turned to face Nino, he froze, his mouth falling open like he couldn’t believe his eyes, but it quickly closed and his answer was heard, “A-A pretty far place,”

Before anyone could question Claus on his answer, a familiar friend appeared out of nowhere and gently shook his hand with her ever present soft smile.

“Hi, my name’s Lila Rossi, and if you ever need anything, I would be happy to help!”

She held out her soft hand to shake his, it was slightly cold but it quickly grew warm as they clinged gently.

Alya immediately lit up at the arrival of Lila, she had been gone for about 2 weeks for her trip to England, Alya couldn’t wait to hear about the amazing sights Lila saw.

Everybody else also quickly noticed her and started to direct their attention into her.

No one noticed the smile on Claus’s face disappearing,

Long brown hair that looked nice when she flipped it over her shoulder, green eyes like his own, 

And a thousand horrible lies that almost made him throw up.

He liked this Limo girl, she was interesting and could obviously get the class’s attention just by shaking his hand, but she really needed a few tips if she wanted to get what she wanted more easily.

A grimace came on his face as he tried to walk around the crowd and find a seat to claim, he would happily give her pointers but she probably would no doubt ignore them or rat him out to her minions.

A heavy sigh made its way out of his mouth, this was getting tiring. The school was too happy and everyone was just bursting at the seams with joy, nothing interesting.

“Are you okay Claus?” 

Speak of the devil and he will appear.

It took all of Claus’s remaining small patience to not send an insult to the golden boy’s face. His fists clenched as he forced a rough smile and turned around, thankful that he couldn’t see his eyes.

“Yeah, Adrien Agreste right?” He quickly placed his hands behind his back to not let Adrien see them and insults kept on screaming in his head as Adrien smiled at the recognition.

“Yeah, I hope you have a nice first day, and I like your hair,” A smirk twitched on Claus’s face but he put it away as his hands unclenched and dropped at his sides.

“Thank you, It’s nice to meet you Adrien, you know I was thinking you would behave a lot different from how the media pictures you but you really are as nice as they say,” His smile was innocent but Adrien obviously knew what those words implied as he tensed.

His right hand came up and scratched his neck as he glanced away, “I’m glad I was able to not be the person you thought I was, people don’t always assume what you thought but I hope we can get to know each better,” His hand fell from his neck as he smiled back at Claus.

A wide grin came on Claus' face as he nodded and teased, “Me? Friends with a celebrity? You’re sure I won’t try to use you or anything?”

A snap directed at him came from a blonde girl with her hair in a high ponytail, “You better not, Adrikins doesn’t need to be used by peasants like you!” She glared straight at Claus and he frowned at the nickname.

Adrien smiled tiredly at her, “Chloe, Claus was just joking, he wouldn’t do that,” He assured her.

Of course I wouldn’t do that, who would spend time with someone as pathetic as you

“Sorry, if I gave you any misunderstandings, Chloé Bourgeois right? You’re just as pretty as they say you are.” Chloé froze and a light blush came onto her face at the compliment.

Chloé shook her head and glanced up to still see him smiling at her. Her blush immediately went away and she forcefully turned around to glare in front of her.

She wasn’t about to let some new kid make her flustered. 

Even if his smile was cute. And his black hair looked adorable on him. And he-

Nope.

Meanwhile Claus was desperately trying to not throw up everywhere. 

Pretty? Did I just say that? I can’t believe I just called some rotten banana pretty.

He quickly wiped his tongue when Adrien turned to see who just opened the door and entered the classroom.

“Good Morning, Marinette!” Adrien exclaimed. 

Claus froze. 

His line of sight slowly moved from the ground and glanced up to see who Adrien was talking to.

His green eyes widened at the sight of midnight blue hair in bouncy pigtails around a fair face. Wide eyes that contained the ocean sparkled at the sight of him, a galaxy of pink, black and white shining back at him as she opened her mouth to no doubt greet him then they would become friends, lovers, more, his eternal wish and desire about to come true the moment she opened her mouth.

“M-Morning g-g-great! F-Fantastic! A-Amazing You! Thank Adrien!” Her whole face became red as she shrieked and dashed forward, past Adrien.

And right by Claus without even noticing him.

He watched defeated as she sat down and promptly banged her head on the desk to think over her exact words that made no sense to him.

But apparently golden-brat-mister-perfect understood perfectly and sat back down in his seat with a big stupid smile on his face.

He wanted to punch his face so badly.

If you asked Lila for her opinion then she would say that the kid didn’t look good.

He was sweet and charming, flirting or complimenting anything that walked on two legs, his appearance definitely threw a few people off but he seemed so approachable that you just had to be friends with him.

Yeah right.

Lila was just thinking of ways for him to join her group of worshippers, unless his eyes were ugly then she couldn’t blackmail him and besides he was doing a good job of hiding them.

Though he seemed to be staring at Adrien a lot.

Lila didn’t think much about it, Adrien was a famous model afterall, of course Claus would be interested.

But judging by the conversation he had earlier with the blond (She had been listening very carefully), Claus seemed like he didn’t care if Adrien was famous.

Claus suddenly chose that moment to move away from staring at Adrien’s head and brought out a notebook, ready to take down notes about what the teacher was saying.

That’s what it looked like to everybody else. 

Only Lila saw Claus scribbling down on his paper, not writing. She couldn’t see much but she could definitely deduce that he was a terrible drawer. 

She tried a few times to glance at what he was drawing but couldn’t get a single glimpse.

When it was time to leave class though, Claus dashed right in front of Marinette, blocking her view of Adrien and asked her if she could give him a tour of the school.

Ever the annoying bitch that she was, Marinette of course agreed and they left.

Everyone slowly left the classroom, including their teacher and it was only just Lila there.

Lila had been scrolling through instagram when she passed by Claus’s desk and saw that he had left the drawing behind.

She smirked and reached for it, holding it up to look at it in all its…

Yeah she had been right about Claus being a terrible drawer.

The paper was crumbled like someone had the intention to throw it out but didn’t. Strange hearts were drawn all over the place, some shaded in and others not but all of them somehow ending up with different lengths and sizes. In the middle was a horribly drawn person with wild hair, way too large eyes, and sticks for arms and hands. Lila couldn’t even tell what the person was supposed to be wearing as it just appeared to be some jumbled mess. 

There were words on it though.

Actually, a name was written all over the page in neat handwriting.

Flower Star

Lila turned the page around to see the same name written all over the back, taking up every space, every corner, and line.

Not a single part of the back didn’t have the name written all over it.

Something cold made Lila shiver like she was holding something she shouldn’t have unless she wanted to get into trouble.

Luckily trouble was her middle name.

Right next to Best liar in the world of course.

Claus watched as Jock kid tried to woo Flower Star  Marinette with his impressive muscles, thin waist and handsome body structure.

His breath panting as he completed his one hundred and twenty two push ups in about two minutes before the timer dinged and claps were heard all around them.

Claus could feel the bile in his mouth, of course humans would be so quick to praise someone who had done only a quarter of what Claus could do in 30 seconds.

This was exactly why Claus hated jocks.

And nerds as well, he thought as he glanced at the dumbass Marinette was chatting with as Jock kid chugged down his water, crushed it and drank some more from a different bottle.

The nerd pushed up his glasses as he chastised Jock kid by using way too complex words that Claus knew for a fact didn’t make him smarter.

It only made Claus want to hurt him more.

Yet not as much as Adrien.

He wasn’t even here and yet Claus could hear his annoying voice, see his face turn into that pathetic smile and feel the way he was connected to everyone in some way.

A soft hand was placed on his shoulder as he turned to face Marinette who told him Lunch was over and they had to go back to class.

A genuine smile made its way on Claus. Now there was a familiar feeling, one that he was fine with and was glad it was there.

More proof of his undying love for Marinette Flower Star.

Now all he had to do was get rid of the obstacles in his way,

He could almost laugh at this.

It was like he was in a fairytale after all.

Adrien glanced down at the deep hole in front of him, its never ending darkness threatening to swallow him up if he took just one step forward.

His air supply was running out, his lungs burning for some relief, screaming at him to just take a leap if that meant they would be free from this torture.

But he couldn’t move. 

He was stuck, glued to the surface he was standing against,

His shelter had become his prison.

Then he felt it, the rocks below him crumbling from the pressure of his weight and could no longer hold on.

They fell instantly and so did he.

No words flew out as he zoomed through dark air, his vision blurring as his lungs still tried to rip him apart as a protest for not feeding them what they needed.

Yet he felt pain in his leg,

And suddenly he felt pain all over as dark purple shapes flew all around him as their sharp edges cut his clothes, made him bleed as they filled his vision like moths.

Akumas his brain finally told him as multiple sliced his neck open.

And he fell onto the floor.

His hands clinged desperately to anything that would keep him stable and not fall around him, he barely registered the black Kwami eating cheese on the disarranged bed as Plagg calmly ate his camembert.

He made sure to keep his chewing soft and not loud and waited until Adrien could at least gain the ability to talk again.

“Plagg?” His voice was raspy and wavering.

“Yeah kiddo?”

“What happened?”

Plagg glanced down at the comforter that was wrapped around Adrien. 

“You were struggling to breath because your comforter was over your face and you kept trying to suffocate yourself,” 

He saw Adrien grow tense but nothing was said.

“This dream new?” Plagg asked as he floated away from the bed and curled on Adrien’s hair as he struggled to get up and make his bed again.

“No,” Adrien quietly muttered, “I started having these dreams a few days ago,”

Plagg purred and closed his eyes, Adrien managed to arrange his bed a little bit back to how it was before but he didn’t care. He merely laid down in bed, ready to fall asleep again and hope no nightmares appeared. 

Yet Plagg opened his eyes again, “Today was the day that Claus kid arrived, right?”

Adrien only nodded, but it seems that was the answer Plagg was looking for as both of them fell asleep to Plagg’s purring.

Chapter Text

“I swear Marinette, I’m not kidding, he’s definitely Chat Noir,” Alya tried to convince her as they walked towards their next class, other kids rushing by them and hopefully not hearing Alya’s whispers.

“Alya, no, I know my kitty anywhere and Claus is not him,” Alya had started watching Claus like a hawk the moment he arrived here, to her she was finally onto Chat Noir’s tail and knew in her heart that Claus was either him or had something to do with him.

Marinette however had different opinions, something about Claus didn’t sit right. No matter how much Marinette tried to tell herself that she was just a bit peeved because Claus had somehow always managed to get between her and Adrien, she felt different. She told this to Tikki who revealed that the moment she felt Claus in the room something felt off, like he wasn’t there, just a figment of imagination in their small minds.

Yet he was there, with that warm soft smile,

And still no sign of what his eyes looked liked.

“I sure hope Ms.Bustier will assign us together,” Alya pulled Marinette closer by tugging on her arm and hugging her out of her thoughts.

Marinette laughed and shoved her away, “Me too, fingers crossed?” She grinned.

Alya froze, her eyes on something behind Marinette, Her gaze quickly shifted from joy to shock to excitement as she pointed at Marinette to look.

Marinette sighed and turned around to see just a few steps away from them was Claus, sitting on the steps and leaning forward as he wrote something in a notebook.

An eerie tone was being sung out of his mouth and both Marinette and Alya could hear him giggling. 

“Someone’s in love,” Alya teased.

“Maybe he’s writing something funny,” Marinette tried to guess as Claus continued to write.

“Nah, I know that tone anywhere, it’s the sound of someone helplessly in love,” She glanced at Marinette.

“And I think I know who,”

Marinette spun around to glare at Alya, “No,”

“Yes,”

“No,”

“Yes,”

“No,”

“Marinette, girl, explain then his behavior towards you for the past few days because there’s no way you’ve been interrupted by him several times this week and ONLY when you’re with Adrien, he’s everywhere Mari and when he’s not there, you keep messing up your words, which I know is your problem and has nothing to do with him but I’d be lying to you girl if I said I didn’t see the looks he’s been giving you these past days,”

“M-Maybe he’s just shy Alya, just maybe-”

“He’s the one Marinette,”

Marinette paused at Alya’s exasperation.

“You want to know who’s been throwing the answers to the questions the teachers ask you when you’re not paying attention? It’s Claus, he’s been watching this whole time and always there to help you, but you’re too focused on Adrien to focus on anybody else.”

The glare that Alya sent her shocked her so much she took several steps back.

And accidentally bumped into Claus who was getting up to get to class.

The force between them when they made contact made Claus’ notebook fly away from him and land only steps away from Marinette who quickly reached out to grab him before he slammed his face into the stairs.

There was silence around them as the realization of what happened hung around them.

“A-Are you okay?” Marinette asked nervously as Claus’ eyes darted around the area looking for something.

“M-My hear-notebook, my notebook, I dropped it,” His soft voice came out whimpering as he desperately searched.

Marinette looked around as well and saw it lying face down.

She smiled and bent down to pick it up and flip it over.

Her heart nearly stopped at the sight,

Nearly stopped out of joy, she means.

All over the notebook a name was written again and again, cute little hearts and roses drawn on the pages with impressive skill, Two big eyes staring right back at her, she couldn’t tell what their color was supposed to be though as Claus hadn’t coloured anything in yet.

She spun around to tell him what she found, her smile blinding him out of his clenched fists and deep frown.

“Do you like someone Claus?” She teased him as she handed the notebook back to him.

Claus hesitated before shyly nodding and brushing his hair more over his eyes, a nervous tic she had noticed over the days he had been here.

Marinette was happy as this was not only a chance to bring Claus and his crush together but also get Alya off her back about him being Chat Noir AND having feelings for her.

The Chat Noir thing she couldn’t believe even crossed Alya’s mind, I mean wasn’t she supposed to be a journalist, you know, someone who actually tells facts and not utter bullshit. 

And if Claus did have feelings for her then she needed to make sure he knew that she wouldn’t accept his affections, being Ladybug and loving Adrien put anything of that sort on hold.

What was it with people loving her anyway?

“What’s her name?” She asked gently as she noticed that Claus was still on edge.

Yet he seemed to relax immediately upon seeing her smile,

Maybe Alya was right about this one.

“Flower Star,” He said confidently.

Or not.

Marinette racked her brain for anyone that the name suited, but even though she had never heard of someone having the name Flower Star, she still couldn’t come up with anyone that could have it as a nickname.

“Do I know them?”

Claus shook his head.

The bell rang around them as Claus stayed still, even when the bell blasting around them.

And signalling they were late.

Marinette gazed back to where Alya was but she was gone. Keeping her complaints to herself she held her hand out for Claus who hesitated at first before slowly inserting his hand into hers.

To anybody else they looked like two colors. One bright and colorful, the other pale and able to blend in if he wanted to.

And yet they looked great together.

That’s what Adrien thought as he hurried to class and saw them also on their way.

“I’ve decided who you will be partnered with for this project, and I repeat, I already decided so if I see anyone being partners with someone I didn’t assign them to them I’m sorry but you will lose marks,” Ms.Bustier announced as she reached for the list of students on her desk.

“Alix and Max,” She called. Alix sent a grin at Max who smiled back.

“Nino and Nathaniel,” Nino clutched his heart in mock pain as he held Adrien who chuckled at his behavior.

It wasn’t that Nino didn’t like Nathaniel but he really wanted to be with Adrien for this project so he could have an excuse to show him the new dics he got at the mall.

“Marinette and Alya,” Marinette squeaked as she was immediately trapped under Alya’s twisted grin, no doubt that Marinette would have to work extra hard here to make up for not believing Alya’s Chat Noir theory.

Ms.Bustier announced many more names until there were only two left…

“Finally, Adrien and Claus, you now can move to your partner’s desks so you all can discuss the next course of action.” Ms.Bustier gave a soft smile before turning back to her work.

She briefly wondered if she could get Marinette to work on it for her again so she wouldn’t have to burden herself.

The class meanwhile were busy discussing, yet both Claus and Adrien had made no move to walk towards each other.

“Hey Sunshine, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you moving?” Alya asked as Adrien continued to stare at Claus who was looking out the window instead.

“Just thinking of how I have to tell Claus that we can’t work on the project at my house,” Adrien’s mouth dipped into a frown.

“I’m sure Claus will understand,”

Maybe.

Claus then finally turned around and made his way off his seat with a smile. His black painted fingernails gleamed under the sunlight. 

As he made his way towards them, Rose turned to talk to Juleka, “Have you heard about the missing people Jules? It’s so scary!”

Juleka mumbled something under her breath and Rose agreed with a pout and frown.

Claus grinned at Adrien when he reached his seat and sat down to take out his notebook to take notes. “Your house or mine?” He blinked at his own words, “Sorry, just asking if we decide to spend time after school to do this project.”

Adrien shook his head. “Sorry Claus, we can’t go over to my house.”

Claus’s smile twitched. “Library then?” 

“Let me ask Ms.Bustier,”

He turned to raise his hand and call for the teacher.

She glanced at their direction before looking at her work again and talking to them. “Yes Adrien?”

“Could me and Claus go to the library please?” 

“You can’t stay here?” She didn't mean anything mean by that Adrien noticed, just focused on her work yet giving them half her attention. 

“Research,” Claus cut in just as he was about to open his mouth.

Ms.Bustier nodded absentmindedly, “Of course, just the library though okay?” Adrien and Claus voiced their agreement but she didn’t turn to look at them.

Adrien reached for his stuff and started moving when his jacket was forcefully grabbed.

He gazed down to see Claus’ face directed at him with his hand under his chin like he wasn’t gripping Adrien and there were other ways to get his attention.

“We need an electronic, got anyone in mind?” Before he could even ask what Claus wanted his demands were spoken in a curt manner. 

Claus had been doing this since they met, he would speak casually to everyone else but to him there was no hesitation and straight to the point.

No matter how blunt it was.

He honestly couldn’t tell why Claus did it but it reminded him of his father. 

He gazed around the room to see everyone was busy talking to each other and his sight landed on Max and Alix.

“Hey Max, do you have your laptop?”

Max paused and pushed his glasses further up his nose before turning to face Adrien, Alix took this as an opportunity though to poke him in the cheek repeatedly.

“I do. Do you need it Adrien?”

Adrien nodded with a smile as Max reached for his bag and pulled out the laptop.

Alix immediately grabbed said electronic device and threw it at them, if it hadn’t been for Adrien’s fast reflexes then it would have smashed into pieces.

Max abruptly slapped her hand off his cheek and glared at her. “What was that for?”

Alix shrugged, “Just giving it to them.”

“You could have just walked over,” His voice was getting louder and harsher.

Which made Alix become angry now.

“Sheesh, calm down. You’re a computer whiz, you probably could have it fixed in ten seconds max.”

“Do I look like God to you?” 

The whole class paused and turned to look at Max who was steaming. 

Markov suddenly appeared with an exclamation mark over his face. “Emotion levels are rising too high! Too high! Risk levels for akuma!”

Suddenly there was screaming from the whole class yelling at Max to calm down, Chloé shouting it was too loud and Ms.Bustier’s reprimands not being heard.

Adrien suddenly felt something tugging on his throat and watched as he was dragged out of the room and the screaming didn’t cease.

The door was swiftly shut in his face and a pale hand on it made Adrien turn to look at Claus whose hand was still on his collar.

“Shall we?”

A shiver went down Adrien’s spine at the soft smile but slippery voice.

Chapter Text

Their footsteps echoed loudly in the hallway, no sound coming from the other classrooms and the only movement being their minds, breaths and emotions.

It was so quiet that it would take courage to bring up anything.

“So Agreste, anything interesting happening in your life?”

Or you could just be Claus.

Adrien started to remember the past few days, in hopes that he could find something interesting to tell Claus.

He could tell Claus about his recent nightmares but decided against it.

“Oh, I, uh, did a few photoshoots. I also got Andre’s ice cream the other day, it’s pretty good Claus, you should try some.”

Claus simply nodded.

“I also did fencing and won a few matches against Kagami, she’s a friend of mine but she doesn’t go to our school. She’s an amazing fencer.”

Claus’s mouth moved in a way that looked like he was contemplating something.

“Kagami sounds interesting, oh by the way,” He immediately straightened up, his face closer to Adrien as they both shockingly had the exact same height.

“Are you dating anyone by any chance?”

Adrien’s shoe slipped on a stray piece of paper, his view crashing down as he felt the laptop leave his grip.

Yet he landed on the floor and the laptop was safe in Claus’ arms.

“Sorry for that,” He bent down to give Adrien his hand while moving the laptop to his other arm.

“No, it’s okay, it was just sudden,” Adrien grunted at the dull pain in his chin and cheeks, thank god for superhero work and getting hit in the face multiple times.

Claus also seemed to notice his lack of screaming at the pain but didn’t call attention to it.

“You don’t have to answer the question if you don’t want to,” Claus’ mouth brought back that soft smile as he dusted dirt off Adrien’s outfit.

“Thanks,” Adrien sighed as Claus gazed over him a bit more before nodding at his clean work.

“Anything going on in your life Claus?” Claus took the last few moments of silence to walk away towards the library, pausing a bit to think over Adrien’s question before continuing his move.

“Nope, nothing, just fine. Although, my parents are going to be gone tonight, while they’re gone I can play video games all night.” A wry chuckle came out of Claus as he started listing off the names of all the video games he was going to play.

Adrien sometimes spoke up to agree with some of his gaming selections but most of the games Claus mentioned were ones Adrien had never heard of.

The list was so long that by the time they reached the door to the library, it was only halfway.

“So what do you think we should do for our assignment?” Adrien finally asked when Claus took a break from talking and pulling on his fingers.

“We should make a slideshow, with lots of pictures and animations so it’s interesting. That way everyone will pay attention.” Claus explained as they walked past rows of tall bookshelves.

Adrien nodded his agreement and sat down at the table in front of them, watching Claus walk around the table to sit down next to him.

Adrien was just about to speak again when he suddenly needed to use the bathroom just as Claus opened the laptop.

“I’ll right back Claus. Just need to go use the restroom.” 

With that he rushed off,

Leaving Claus all alone.

Claus quickly got up and moved around the whole place, making sure there was no one that could see what he was doing and also checking for any cameras.

No people and no cameras in sight and out of sight.

Claus grinned to himself.

Perfect

He rushed over back to the laptop and booted it up, ready to start his first phases of terror in this school.

And it was going to be fantastic. 

Adrien calmly walked back into the library.

Well, he hoped he looked calm enough. 

In reality he was embarrassed for leaving Claus like that.

Sure it was only for five minutes but still it was sure to possibly leave a bad impression on Claus’ mind.

Adrien just hoped that Claus hadn’t immediately started creating their assignment or he would feel more worse.

Adrien walked silently from behind a bookshelf and looked at Claus’ back, he knew he should probably alert Claus to his presence but for some reason his feet stood still.

He watched as Claus typed swiftly into the laptop, not stopping to correct any potential errors but Adrien couldn’t see what he was doing.

He had to get closer.

His feet started lifting up then they came silently down, the rush and banging of his heart swimming in his mind as he got closer and closer to Claus.

Just a few more steps…

And he saw it.

An amazing presentation with so much detail that it hurt Adrien’s mind, the title looked fantastic and interesting, and the theme colors blended well.

Adrien glanced at the side of the screen, 

3 whole slides, two done with one almost complete.

Adrien gulped down the harsh guilt.

Too bad it was so big that it was audible.

Immediately Claus turned around to stare at him, the fact Adrien was staring at his hair somehow made his heart squeeze out more poisonous guilt.

“T-That’s amazing Claus,” 

His voice came out shaking, pathetic, useless, weak. 

While Claus had the biggest grin on his face.

“Thanks, Adrien.”

“Claus I swear, he won’t let you stay over.” 

A mischievous grin came into Claus’ face, “I gotta stay somewhere Adrien, can’t be home alone.”

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you not say that you would play video games all night?”

“I did. But, please, at least give him a chance, if he says no then you can take me home.”

He should say no.

He should say he would take Claus home immediately.

Claus would get rejected by Father, no doubt about it.

 He. Should. Go. Away.

“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Claus giggled at that.

He literally giggled.

Buildings zoomed right by them with impressive speed as blurs were the only things visible. 

Adrien gave himself a personal mission,

Don’t look at the windows.

There was nothing wrong with them.

But Adrien just couldn’t bear the growing thought of Father rejecting Claus and who would receive the kicked puppy look?

Adrien of course.

Did the guy even need anyone to see his eyes because that frown of his was lethal enough,

And Adrien did not want to be the next person on the wanted list.

Claus had somehow gotten everyone to like him so much that if he even gave you the twitch of a frown then everyone was on you like bloodhounds. 

One guy had made the mistake of forcefully grabbing Claus’ face to see his eyes and now no one even dared to look in his direction.

You mess with Claus, you basically commit social suicide. 

Speaking of which, Alya had said that once but it had applied to him…

Adrien shook his head and watched as Claus happily smiled with his hands in his laps and his feet swinging under the seat.

He looked so innocent.

“We’re friends right Claus?” Adrien asked hesitantly. 

Claus’ legs slowly stopped kicking.

All the air in the car suddenly seemed sucked in as Claus’ smile slowly formed into a small frown.

His hands gripped his pants, his hands becoming white. 

Adrien’s mouth rushed to apologize for his mistake when the car flew forward, sending both Claus and Adrien forward and thankfully not into Gorilla thanks to their seatbelts.

The force made Adrien lose his breath in an instant and completely forget what he was going to say.

The car suddenly stopped.

Gorilla grunted and pointed at Claus’s window.

They were here already.

Before Adrien could even get out of the car Claus turned to him with a big smile. “Yeah of course we’re friends Adrien.”

With that he quickly unbuckled his seat belt and ran out of the car to wait for Adrien to get out.

Lila Rossi sauntered down the hallway, her long hair flowing in the air behind her, radiating her angelic like face and soul of pure beauty.

Or the biggest succubus herself.

Many turned to point her out to her friends, smiling as they watched her walk to the school entrance, wishing they could be in her eventful life and wanting so badly to be her.

Forget Chloé, Lila was their true queen.

I wanna just be like Lila someday

No way you’ll never be like Lila, maybe in another life but definitely not in this one

I heard Lila was the one that helped Clara Nightingale find inspiration for her newest song

Jagged stone also!

I want to know what perfume she wears 

Do you think she would good in a swimsuit

Bro, get a life, Lila is way too good for you

Someday I’ll get the courage to ask Lila out

I don’t think she’s lesbian

Lila heard all the whispers, she heard the pleas and she loved to grin internally and smash their hopes on the inside.

Her crown would never be shared.

“It’s gone Nino! It’s all gone!” 

Lila paused at the sound of harsh sobbing and crying, the sound not heard by anyone else in the hallway despite being close by.

Lila glanced at her phone, she had enough time to snoop around and learn what had happened.

She walked into Ms.Bustier’s classroom to see that some of her classmates were still here even though it was the end of the day.

Nino, Rose, Juleka, Mylene and Ivan were trying to comfort a distraught Alya while Max was furiously trying something in his laptop and Markov was playing calming tunes.

What was going on?

Chapter Text

Gabriel Agreste was not one to be messed with, he had practically had all the power in the world through his fashion empire.

He could destroy lives, he could make lives better, he could even not work for years and still earn money.

He had faced challenges before that could have possibly ruined his life, he had faced the dangers and obstacles aimed at him.

He knew that God had his sharp eyes on him, watching him at all times.

And yet the fashion mogul felt he could challenge God himself and win 5 minutes after the battle started.

Even his own son didn’t phase him.

But him…

He scared him.

The child with the deep black hair. The one wearing the white shirt with a ying and yang symbol on it with a black open sweater over it. The one whose red shoes that suspiciously looked like Adrien’s shoes bounced up and down on the marble floor, the only sound in the room being his own feet.

Adrien held his bag strap tightly in his hands as Gabriel could see he was trying not to remove one of his hands and rub his neck instead.

“F-Father, this is Claus, he-he’s new in my school.” Adrien stuttered.

Adrien never stuttered, it was a sign of weakness.

Did Claus have something on Adrien?

His cold gaze turned back to Claus who was staring straight at him, a small frown fighting against his cold gaze.

The moment he stepped into his home Gabriel knew he had found the perfect akuma.

Underneath that calm and kind exterior was so much hate that it could fill an ocean, jealousy, envy, so much ugliness that Gabriel was shocked that this child was even calmly standing before him.

A broken soul lay before him, with so many cracks that the moment you tried to help and fix it it would shatter into bits and pieces and release an unseen parasite.

But if this child had so much hate in his heart and blood then how come he wasn’t bursting at the seams right in front of them?
 
He needed to study this child.

Lila had told him a bit about him actually but he hadn’t bothered to pay attention when she told him about the new student.

Shit, he should have paid more attention.

Claus gave a soft shrug as he turned around.

“Guess you were right Adrien, don’t worry about our project though, maybe we can just do it when my parents are home next time?” 

Adrien nodded and told him apology after apology as they both walked back to the front door.

Gabriel had made his choice.

“Stop.” He demanded to the both of them, Claus’ back still turned towards him and his hand at the doorknob while Adrien froze fully in his line of view.

“You are permitted to stay for the night, but I assure you that you will be rejected off the premises if you disturb Adrien’s home lessons.” Gabriel spoke coldly, moving his back to Adrien and Claus, already walking back towards his office.

“Do I make myself clear?”

“Of course, Mr.Agreste.” 

Gabriel’s office door locked shut with a bang.

Alya struggled to get a word out to Lila, her body shaking from pain and anger and suffering. 

She had tried multiple times to tell Lila the whole short story but each time her throat closed and she told sputters and coughs instead.

She sounded like variations of dying rats, dogs, and any sort of animal known to mankind.

“It’s…gone…all gone…” That was all she could say for the past few minutes.

Lila wanted so badly to just smack Alya and force her to tell her what she wanted to say but she had to keep up her innocent act and smile like the angel she was. 

The angel she was on the outside anyway. 

Nino patted Alya more on the back before looking at Lila with tears also in his eyes.

“The Ladyblog got hacked and the hacker deleted everything, Alya found out a few minutes ago,” He hugged Alya tighter when she howled in pain at the mention of her destroyed work. 

Lila froze, the Ladyblog had been hacked and deleted…

Hell no.

She couldn’t have this.

Lila fucking needed that stupid website to ensure people knew of her when they talked about Ladybug. 

How the fuck was she supposed to do that when Alya’s dumb website was gone?

What about her interviews, her videos, the endless comments of praise and adoration and jealousy for her being non-existent friends with Ladybug.

Lila wanted to grab her hair, scream and screech towards the all knowing gods.

A shriek almost made it out of her throat when Max calmly walked in front of them all.

“I can’t seem to figure out the problem, Markov has also been trying to help although I am afraid to disclose that this may be a lot more complex than I originally thought. I’ll try when I get home but I can not promise anything good.” Max’s eyes softened at Alya as he moved forward when Nino shifted back a little. Max gave Alya a big hug, her arms immediately latching onto him and making it quite difficult for him to release her when he tried. 

Eventually he was able to move out of the hug trap and grabbed his laptop and Markov without a word. 

He did send Lila a wave but Lila didn’t see. 

All she remembered was banging drums in her head and the room spinning while a voice that sounded like her bid Alya and Nino goodbye. 

Moments later and she was in her room, desperately reloading the LadyBlog multiple times and wishing more times than she could ever remember that this was all a big prank, joke, act, comedy, help?

Still the ‘This website seems to not exist’ haunted her with each click and reload. 

She clicked once again, the arrow pointing to the left spinning for way longer than all the other tries. The spinning snake chased itself in circles more and more as the seconds passed.

Lila’s breath caught in her throat, relief flooding her chest as she started to think about the multitude of praises and worship she wanted to give Max at that moment for saving her reputation. 

This Website seems to not exist. 

Lila suddenly had a sense of being forgotten. 

The farm door crashed against its hinges, the hay surrounding it flying everywhere as Adrien walked out in his dirty worn green boots, their laces intertwining as if lace soulmates. 

Adrien hiked happily through the muddy ground towards the pig’s pen, oinks filling the air as he trudged closer and closer. 

An old fence appeared in his sight, the oinks a siren directed at him as the pigs noticed him there. 

A particular big one came running at him but stopped at the fence and oinked at him hungrily.

Adrien laughed as he reached over to pet the fluffy black hair, its tips a firm gold and pointed upward like a horn. Kim responded by oinking in return,

Multiple other pigs came over to oink at him and engage in contented chatter amongst themselves. 

Alix, Nathaniel, Nino, Alya, Max, Rose, Juleka, Ivan, Mylene, Chloé and Sabrina. 

All good little piggies. 

Adrien hummed cheerfully at the sight when over all the oinking he heard multiple different sounds. 

He heard his father screaming at their family dog Nathalie who barked at him back like she was arguing. 

Adrien turned to his right and saw the two foxes his family had recently bought at the market the other day, they were shrieking and screeching like they needed help. 

Adrien narrowed his eyes at them, squinting to look at them closer. 

No…

Lila was the only one screeching while Claus instead…

Was killing her and biting down on her neck, his claws ripping her skin apart with no signs of stopping. 

Soon Adrien was the one screaming at the top of his lungs, he could hear Nathalie’s barking and his father rushing towards him while sounding oddly like a dog himself, yelling out orders to someone Adrien couldn’t see.

Adrien though couldn’t understand what he was crying about, Claus was still chained to the ground, he had no way of escaping not only his chains and the fence they had placed around the foxes. 

It seemed Claus heard his thoughts as a sinister grin appeared on his face and his chains popped off with Claus not even moving an inch.

Everything rushed swiftly as he saw his father run inside their shed and bring out his prized hunting gun, aiming it at Claus who leapt over his fence and dashed to the pigs pen.

Nathalie chomped down on his jeans, dragging him away from the harsh rain of pig’s blood when Claus landed inside.

More gunshots sent the ravens in the trees around them flying into the sky, blocking the blazing sun.

Adrien saw Max’s glasses fly right by him, Mylene’s teeth fall in front of him, Nathaniel’s squeals wailing for him to help.

He couldn’t move though, even when his clothes were drenched with evidence of the blood of his friends and the dangerous fox who had somehow grown ten times a size bigger than his original weight was staring him down with immense hatred and hunger. 

A bullet flashed before Adrien saw a hole in the ground, then multiple holes started appearing and they were growing and getting closer and closer to Adrien.

Then a single meow seemed to silence everything. 

Adrien’s head shot towards the sound, seeing their kitten Marinette meow for attention and move her tiny body towards them, curiosity in her eyes. 

Adrien shot back towards Claus, and they both came to the same conclusion.

The same horrifying conclusion.

As the boy who cried fox cried, the fox himself gnawed down on the kitten's neck.

Adrien watched as Claus bounded towards the field, blood flowing behind him as Marinette screamed for help.

Claus spared him a final glance as Adrien froze at the fox’s eyes.

The same eyes he too held in his skull.

Oh how he wished to rip them out,

His hands reached up to do exactly that, moving on their own, coming closer and closer to his face.

Adrien felt his own hands slap him and everything went black for a few seconds before a messy bed came into view. 

A messy bed, a clean bedroom and a concerned Kwami. 

“Adrien, something’s wrong.”

Adrien shook his head as he collapsed back on the bed, “Nothing’s wrong.”

“You just tried to gauge your own eyes out.”

“Nightmares make you do things Plagg,” Adrien spoke exhaustedly, all his energy was gone and he didn’t feel like talking about his nightmares.

A rush of cold water shivered down his spine, Adrien glanced around the room.

No sound was heard.

“Plagg, where’s Claus?”

Plagg yawned and floated backwards, “The kid got up a few minutes ago, don’t worry he didn’t see me, probably just using the bathroom though,” Plagg waved his small paw in the direction of the door. 

A sigh of relief made its trek out of Adrien’s mouth. He could relax. 

And also hope for no more nightmares while he was at it.

Max stared at the bright screen in front of him, it was so bright that it illuminated his whole room. 

The brightness and lack of information about who that stupid hacker was were adding flames filled with poison to his pit of anger. 

Not to mention Alix’s stupidity. 

His fists clenched on the keyboard, all alone and left to his own devices as Markov rested for the day.

He just wished that for once either people would stop doing stupid things or people would stop coming to him for help.

Price to pay for being a computer genius, Max guessed. 

A heavy sigh made Max’s shoulders sag underneath his weight. 

Maybe it was time for a break, it wouldn’t do anyone any good if he became an akuma afterall.

Max turned off his computer, calmness and relief making his mind calm down and his eyes to suddenly feel droopy.

He glanced at his digital clock that was on his bed stand right next to his bed. 

His glasses fell off his nose before he could tell the time but knew that it was very late. 

Max merely shook his head, he loved Alya and hated the fact he was going to tell her tomorrow that he had no luck but he needed rest.

His laptop vibrated briefly, getting his attention. 

He scoffed, what was wrong with him, he should have shut it down already.

He grumbled under his breath, he was definitely out of it today, if it had been another day he probably would have already found the hacker by now.

He found several hackers in the past, all it took was 2 or 3 minutes and he already had their IP address, actual address, and face.

So it bothered him how sneaky this one was.

They weren’t stupid, that was for sure, they knew what they were doing and deleting the LadyBlog hadn’t been a prank that seemed funny or someone accidentally finding something.

It was targeted.

Either they hated Ladybug or they hated Alya, Max thought as he opened his laptop.

He almost dropped it in shock.

There in big bold letters were the words,

Agreste

Max spun around to call Alya, someone, anyone.

He was immediately pinned to the ground. The last thing he saw before everything went black?

A smile.

Chapter Text

Adrien yawned as the early morning sun shined down on him, his energy slowly registering in his brain as he stared at the ceiling.

Nothing moved on the ceiling yet he still stared.

He glanced at the pillow next to his head, Plagg was nowhere to be seen, probably off to find cheese somewhere.

Adrien softly smiled, at least he didn’t have to listen to Plagg screaming for Camembert so early in the morning.

Suddenly memories of last night flashed in his mind, Claus being invited, both of them finishing half of their assignment, playing video games and watching movies.

Most of the games and movies Claus had never heard of so it was lots of fun to show him what Adrien liked.

Claus gave him a weird look though when Adrien cried at a sad ending of one of the movies they watched.

Adrien groaned as he slowly sat up, his eyesight going blurry before clearing the room up.

Still no sign of Plagg, and neither was Claus.

His legs moved automatically off the bed, they were stiff for several moments before working and Adrien placed them on the cold floor.

He got up and walked towards his bathroom, glancing at his couch to see the black blanket Claus had slept in was moved like someone had gotten out of bed recently.

Adrien frowned slightly as he looked around the room but still no sign of anyone.

It was obvious why Plagg was nowhere to be seen, but not knowing where his black haired classmate was sent shivers down his spine.

Way more than the fact he felt someone watching him.

Adrien wouldn’t say anything to Plagg, everybody or even Ladybug but every time he looked at Claus, he felt like he was looking at himself.

Maybe his nightmares were just making him feel things.

Adrien’s door slid open as he walked into the vast bathroom.

He opened one of his drawers and pulled out toothpaste and his twentieth toothbrush that Plagg hadn’t destroyed or ruined.

The toothpaste crawled over the skin of the toothbrush, a creamy minty chemical concoction.

The toothbrush was placed back on the countertop as Adrien opened the drawer again.

He was just about to place it back when a pale hand appeared out of nowhere and landed on his own.

Adrien froze.

The hand didn’t cease, instead it moved and grabbed his toothpaste, calmly ignoring a tense Adrien.

Adrien couldn’t help it, there was no one else who shared the exact same size and hand movement and even fingernail measurements as him, so he gave in and looked at the arm of the hand.

Then the elbow, then the shoulder and finally the face.

He was staring straight into a mirror, Adrien knew he was, but it wasn’t the fancy mirror that was hanging on the wall right next to his head.

It was one that managed to share eyes that looked exactly like his yet they glowed.

Adrien’s eyes were watering from not blinking in the last seconds, a brief blink and the supposed glow he saw was gone.

“Boo,”

Adrien jumped backwards in reflex and saw Claus’ smirk at his behaviour before he brought out one of Adrien’s thousands of spares of toothbrushes and used it to brush his teeth.

Adrien shoved the brief shiver he felt down.

There was no reason to act this way, Claus was a friend and completely fine, the fact they both shared the same eye color wasn’t rare or scary.

After all he shared eye colors with Lila and you won’t see him trying not to have a panic attack.

Most of the time.

A hum drifted around them, the song Claus often sang to himself calming Adrien down as they finished cleaning their teeth and got ready for school.

Adrien didn’t ask Claus where the new clothes came from.

His parents probably came to drop them off.

Max Kanté has been missing since last night, the next unfortunate soul to be caught in a now growing list of missing people.

Some were found dead.

Others are still missing.

The police are searching everywhere for Max Kanté, they believe that if they find clues on his whereabouts then they’ll find the other missing people.

The authorities plead to all of Paris, please help in stopping the mad person who is doing this, all information that could reveal where he is is needed no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

This is Nadja Shamak and don’t be bemused it’s just the news.

Students whispered to each other as they watched the police move around the school, investigating everyone that knew Max and his relationships with them.

No one noticed Adrien Agreste and Claus walking into school together, talking and laughing like best friends.

Claus immediately paused as Kim ran up to them.

“Have you guys heard of Max’s kidnapping!?” He asked frantically with sweat falling down his face.

Fun and happiness died down between them.

There was now only suspicion, wariness, and confusion.

“No.” They both said at the same time.

Kim’s eyes fill with tears as he rushes away.

Claus and Adrien glanced at each other before walking to class.

Not a single word was spoken between them.

The whole class was silent, save for the crying in the room.

Even Ms.Bustier didn’t bother with her facade of happiness. It would have been even worse if she had pretended to be happy even more than she did recently.

Lila’s tears sounded like raindrops as they crashed on Claus’ desk, she heavily sat down next to the black haired boy.

As she put her stuff away and willed more tears to come, Claus still continued to draw in his notebook, ignoring Lila.

Lila took a second to hide her shock behind the crocodile tears.

Before Claus’ drawings seemed like chicken scratch but now they seemed amazing, levels above Nathaniel’s little pathetic figures.

The girl on the paper stared back at Lila with a look of pure innocence and purity, she seemed shocked to see Lila there before she was effectively blocked by the notebook closing.

Lila’s gaze moved upwards to see Claus finally decided to take notice of her.

Did he have to give her a frown though?

“Do you need something Lila?” 

“Just wanting to hangout,” Lila’s eyes watered as her top lip quivered in shame and guilt. “You’ve only been here for a week and all this has happened.”

Claus clicked his tongue. “It is pretty surprising all the stuff that happened, but I have no intention of regretting my choice.” 

Lila was probably mishearing things over her tears but she was sure she heard a chuckle out of Claus and amusement in his tone.

Lila sniffed, “I’m sorry,”

“It’s not your fault, I would have liked to get to know Max better but,” Claus’ head dropped and Lila saw his hands clench into fists.

“Whoever did this deserves to rot in hell.” Lila scoffed, it was something she meant fully.

Whoever decided to kidnap Max was disrupting her plans to take over the school, couldn’t they not have decided to give into their urges in a few months or something.

Everyone was wary now, wary of everyone around them, lies wouldn’t go over their head like they would have yesterday.

They would take everything you would say into account, just in the hopes and horror that someone near them was the one who committed the crime.

She just needed a few more days and Claus would be under her clutches.

Bad luck was in her life recently, first the LadyBlog getting deleted and now Max getting kidnapped?

Fury almost erupted in Lila as she struggled to keep it all in.

She would find whoever was fucking responsible and ruin their life as revenge for getting in the way of her plans.

The LadyBlog had been her first breakthrough in this stupid city and Max was going to fix it with his nerdy skills, why on earth would they kidnap Max if-

Lila suddenly felt all the air sucked out of her.

The hacker and the kidnapper were the same person.

The same person who had now kidnapped Max.

Lila’s eyes shot around the room, who would they take next? Who was their next victim?

Or the question she should be asking,

Who did it?

Claus waited for Marinette to come back, the recent akuma attack had wasted their entire lunch time.

Claus wasn’t even mad at the knock off demons, he was mad because Marinette had been nowhere to be seen throughout lunch.

How was he supposed to win her heart when she disappeared into thin air?

Claus scoffed as he brought out his notebook and skimmed through the pages of drawings of Flower Star or poems directed to Marinette, declarations of love, and drawings of the two of them standing beside each other so Claus could see how similar they were.

Sure it had been years since he had last seen Flower Star but his predictions of what she looked like after several years looked great in his opinion.

Who was he kidding, of course they were great, this was Flower Star, she would look perfect in anything.

Large footsteps stomped through the hallways.

Claus calmly put the notebook back in his pocket. 

Police officers.

Two of them walked into the classroom and saw him sitting on Adrien’s desk in the empty classroom.

“Hey kiddo, do you mind if we question you for a bit?”

“Not at all.” Claus slowly blinked.

“Got any backpacks?” The other police officer questioned.

Claus pointed to the book bag on his desk.

The second officer nodded before moving while the first one asked Claus a few questions.

Where were you last night? Were you with anyone? Did Max tell you if he was going somewhere? Did Max say he was going to do something? Blah blah blah.

A yawn was shoved down, Claus was getting bored with all these questions, it wasn’t his first time being questioned after all and he already knew what answer the policeman would ask and what answers he would give.

He didn’t even care to look behind at the second policeman because he knew he wouldn’t find anything.

Well, anything that wouldn’t point to him.

“Hey kid.” 

Claus almost smirked.

Instead his eyes widened as his spine became stiff like a deer caught in headlights as he turned to face the second policeman.

“What are all these notes for?”

“Just a project sir, me and my classmate Adrien were working on a project on Max’s laptop and those are my notes for our presentation.” Claus spoke nervously.

The policeman searching his bag nodded at the first and while he searched once more through Claus’s things, the first one turned on him once again.

“Could you tell us what you were doing with Max Kanté’s laptop?”

Claus shook slightly as his eyes looked at the ceiling instead like he was trying to remember what happened yesterday.

“I suggested to Adrien that we ask Max for his laptop and use it to make a presentation for an assignment our teacher gave us, Max gave us his laptop then we went to the library and worked on it,” Claus’s eyebrow scrunched. “Though there was a time where Adrien went to the bathroom for a while but he came back a few minutes later. We then finished about half of the project and went back to class.” Claus shook his head like his brain would give him more information but the police officer understood when Claus stared at him blankly.

His eyes narrowed at Claus, watching his moves for any sign of guilt or weakness. “Did you know the LadyBlog had been hacked and deleted yesterday?”

Claus’s eyes shot wide open, the officer saw shock, disbelief and confusion. 

“It was all over Twitter but don’t worry kiddo, we’re almost done with the questions.”

Claus gulped.

“Alya Cesaire is in the same classroom as Max Kanté, was Max involved with the LadyBlog by any chance?”

Claus shook around like he was uncomfortable, the gaze of the police officer making his feet shuffle around like if he said the wrong thing then there would be consequences. “I’m sorry but I have no idea if Max had anything to do with the LadyBlog.”

The first one nodded his head in a sympathetic way while the second one shook his head at the answer.

“Ok kiddo, thanks for answering all our questions.” The first police officer smiled at him as they both made their way out of the classroom.

Claus nodded slowly and waved them away as they disappeared down the hallway.

His nervous demeanour immediately became bored and annoyed.

Claus huffed, they better put their one single brain cell together to find his hints.

He was getting tired of being near idiots all the time.

Lila leaned forward into the locker room, glancing around her to see if anyone else would be in sight of her future conversation.

Nope, completely empty.

Except for Claus.

Lila wondered how she should go with this.

Put a happy smile on and tell him the horrible news? No, because then he would question why she was smiling at his heart being broken.

Lila huffed, she had cried so much today, was it that bad to hope he would just believe her the moment he saw her?

Peasants don’t work like that

They need a reason to believe you

He needs a reason to believe you

A single dot landed on the fall, alone in its flight, then suddenly multiple wet small holes appeared in the floor as Lila dashed forward, sobs fighting out of her.

Claus shot around to see her, only to dash away when she tried to hug him.

Lila tried again once more and Claus dodged her attempts once again.

They ran around in a circle until Claus turned around.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT WITH ME WOMAN!?”

Lila froze in her half hearted attempts to trap him, her arms outstretched and tears still falling.

“Trying to give you a hug?” Her words were rough and distorted because of her sobs but she was able to get her message across.

Claus glared at her instead of feeling sympathy. “Do you ever stop crying?”

Or at least she could feel his glare.

“I can’t help it, my tinnitus always blurs my eyes and makes me cry in the process but also because I’ve got important news to tell you!”

“Then why did you try to hug me?” He crossed his arms as he continued to glare.

She had tried to hug him to make him feel like he could trust her when she told him but now that seemed useless when he wouldn’t even let her touch him.

“F-For support…?” 

It was a pathetic answer Lila knew that but it was the only thing she could think of.

Whatever, she just had to stay on track and he would be under her rule.

“I-It’s about-about Marinette,” Lila’s feet shuffled around while her right arm clung to her left in a way that showed she was uncomfortable.

It was subtle but she saw it, she saw Claus’s hands clench before releasing, she saw Claus’s mouth go straight into a deep frown before coming back to a slight one. 

She saw his demeanour change from innocent to you better not be lying to me before it changed back to innocent.

Lila almost smirked, it seemed she finally met someone who was just like her.

It was quite a comical sight, a narcissistic liar versus the son of the devil himself.

Both competing to get the upper hand over each other.

But only one can win this battle.

Battle of innocence? Battle of who deserved what each of them caused to people in the past or present?

That’s up to you to decide my dear reader.

Lila’s eyes narrowed and her hands relaxed only to be placed on her hips.

Claus did the same thing.

“What about Marinette?” Gone was the soft voice that spoke volumes of friendliness and innocence.

A large layer of ice spoke back to her burning wretched soul.

“You haven’t been here that long so I knew I had to warn you, Marinette is actually a bully, she’s been bullying me for ages now, she tried to get me expelled but thankfully it didn’t work and you know she’s trying to be a fashion designer?” 

Claus nodded stiffly. At least he was listening.

“Well all the sketches she’s done are fake! She stole every single one of them from me!” She howled as she tried once again to move towards him but he took a step back.

“One time she pushed me down the stairs, I HAD A FUCKING BLACK EYE FOR WEEKS CLAUS, SHE MANAGED TO CONVINCE EVERYONE THAT I TRIPPED MYSELF!” 

Lila’s voice grew painful as the sobs blocked more words from coming out and she fell to the ground on her knees in fake exhaustion.

Silence filled the room as atoms and molecules waited for her sobs to finish.

A soft hand was felt under Lila’s chin, her head was slowly brought up to Claus’s face and her tears stopped at his gentle smile.

“That sounds so horrible Lia, I can’t believe you went through all of that.” His hand moved to rub circles on her cheek as he cooed to her.

Lila didn’t even notice the fact he got her name wrong as she stared more at his black hair.

The hand that was rubbing circles on her cheek drifted upwards and grabbed a bit of Claus’s hair to carry it away to show his eyes.

The warmth and fondness in his eyes soon calmed down Lila enough as she continued to stare at him.

Claus whistled a tune as he got up while still holding her close to him. 

“How about we become best friends?” He gave her a sweet grin.

Lila couldn’t remember but she was sure she nodded.

Lila now knew what it felt like to sell your soul to the devil.

Son of the devil won the battle.

Chapter Text

Alya looked over the Tvi news website, articles flew by as she gripped her mouse to go directly to the top of the food chain.

4 more individuals have gone missing.

The police were now doing everything in their power to find all these people but three more dead bodies had been found.

Everyone was trying to help them, any clues, any evidence, just anything to help the remaining survivors get back to their homes.

But the kidnapper never took anyone in the same location.

The kidnapper never took anyone in the same family.

The kidnapper didn’t always take people at night time.

Lately the latest bodies either had smiles carved into them or the person had been smiling for some reason.

It was a taunt Alya was sure, catch me if you can, screw you all, I’ll walk away scot free.

Alya vowed that until the day she died, she would find whoever did this and make them pay.

His fists clenched as her elbow shot up into the air and launched itself forward, dead set on destroying the screen in front of her.

But she didn’t, instead her arm fell down in exhaustion as her other hand turned the screen off.

Then she leaned backward and fell asleep.

She had numerous nightmares of the kidnapper either kidnapping her or her family, maybe even her friends.

She had nightmares of a masked person wearing a joker mask and with blood all over them.

She dreamed of being in an empty classroom all by herself surrounded by dead bodies.

She dreamed of walking through her school, dripping bloody corpses making the walk much harder.

She stepped onto a girl’s breast and watched as it sagged and blood spurt out of it. Alya continued to move to get to class.

An eyeball rolled onto the ground and clung to her shoe as a knife fell off the wall, the boy it was hugging fell as well into a pile of flies and flesh.

A frozen hand reached out for her yet she passed it unnoticed.

She reached the courtyard and looked up to see a web of teachers, students and parents staring back at her blankly. Their eyes watching her every move as the web shook slightly in a small breeze.

The hive gurgled at her as she made her way underneath it and straight to her class.

The hallway her class was in though was clean.

No corpses, no hive watching her, nothing except for the multiple black widows on the walls.

Chattering called out to her as she walked into a wall of black widows and merely blinked at the falling mass of spider rain around her.

Some tried to get back at her by crawling all over her arms and legs but their little bites didn’t phase her.

Soon she reached the doorway and the spiders rushed away back to their wall of death.

Her pale hand moved to grip the doorway when suddenly the sound of maniacal laughter was heard through the door.

Alya shoved it open to confront the person only to see a male leaning on Marinette’s seat with his shoes on her desk.

His face was hidden by a black and white drama-like mask that stared back at her.

No words were exchanged as he slowly leaned down to bring out something that was under the desk.

Max’s decapitated head.

Alya suddenly heard screaming in her ear, her mind too slow to realize she was the one screaming and crying for help.

The male ignored her though and opened his mouth to say something when the sound of rings came out of his mouth again.

The rings continued to get louder and louder as Alya rushed forward to kill him when she fell on her cold floor instead.

She panted heavily and brought her knees close to herself to stop the shivers and cold sweat covering all of her body.

Her phone continued to ring.

After several moments of trying to give herself some sweet oxygen and force the pain to stop hurting, Alya looked up and saw her phone ringing.

She gulped down a harsh lump and tried to reach for it, instead a surge of hunger hit her and her arm stayed on the ground.

But Alya Cesaire was not one to give up, she reached for her phone on the desk again, her shaking arm trying its hardest not to fall.

And she felt the cool device in her shaking hand.

She slowly brought the phone to her face and saw the number calling her, her eyes widened as she pressed accept then brought the phone to her ear.

“Alya Cesaire speaking,”

Her voice was rough and raspy, unused for days now due to crying non stop.

But the caller didn’t notice.

“Alya, It’s me, Max’s mom, the police…”

No 

No

Hell no

Her mind rushed with prayers that Max wasn’t dead, that Max was still alive, that they were going to save him somehow and bring him home,

“The police found Max’s laptop and it says Agreste.”

Alya’s head bashed against the floor, the impact just hard enough to shut down her brain and body.

The phone crashed to the ground as the call cut.

The sun was perfect, perfect for the photo backdrop, perfect for a beach outing, amazing for a nice picnic.

And even more great for swimming.

Kim watched the water dash upwards as Ondine swam briefly underwater before slicing back to the surface.

Her bubbly laugh calling out to him as she dived once more.

Kim was conflicted.

Swim and have fun in the water and try to impress Ondine? But then he would think of Max and how he probably wasn’t anywhere near water and close to anyone he knew.

It felt wrong to have fun without one of his best friends who had been kidnapped.

Ondine had managed to convince him though, while she also knew what was going on, she wanted him to have hope for Max’s safety but at the same time wanted Kim to not spend every waking hour thinking about it.

It was just pure luck that she had managed to convince him even though more people had gone missing.

Cold spit of water splashed at Kim’s hesitating figure as he looked back at Ondine who was smiling at him with a look of sympathy.

Kim both loved and hated that look.

He liked looks of adoration more than the feelings she was feeling about him.

It made him think about Claus, he was actually a bit jealous of that guy, ever since he had come he had been the talk of the school and the class most of all. There was just something about him that made everyone love him.

Maybe it was his face, his looks, his scent, his-

A rubber ball suddenly hit him straight in the face, the force making him lean back harshly before he opened his eyes again to see Ondine again.

This time she had a slimy smirk on her face as she floated backwards a bit while holding the rubber ball she had thrown at him.

Kim couldn’t resist, he immediately dived right in to chase after her. 

Ondine screamed as she swam away, the ball hitting him again and again as she turned around once again to throw it at him.

Kim laughed and dived underneath the waves, the ball splashed just a bit away from him and he quickly glided towards it, grasping it in his fists and pushing off with his feet to where Ondine was getting ready to dive back under the water to look for him.

Kim shoved the ball into her side and when she flinched at the unexpected weight, grabbed her hips to force her under the waves. 

Ondine’s mouth opened and numerous bubbles flew out as she screamed then giggled and turned towards him. 

The bubbles calmed down as he leaned forward and gently pressed his lips against hers. 

When he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss, he was met with a rush of unsanitary water and realization of what he was doing. 

Kim grabbed his throat, quickly making his face seem like he was dying as he advanced backwards against the cold barriers around him.

Ondine’s mouth became wide again as he barely heard giggles in the rushing water in his ears. 

Kim was just about to make his act more believable when Ondine’s eyes widened this time.

She mouthed the words, “Gotta go to the bathroom, real quick,” before disappearing upwards to the surface.

Kim watched her figure move around before effectively disappearing from his line of sight.

He huffed slightly before also making his way to the surface, the cold finally settling in now that he had no reason to ignore it.

The water rushed out of his ears as he placed his hands on the tiled floor and lifted himself, water flooding down as he settled and sat still for a minute.

A minute. 

Kim grew bored and looked around him, no one was around him and the pool was completely silent and empty. 

A tired sigh blew out of his mouth as he moved his arms behind him and pushed off into the water once again.

But once he hit the water and tried to swim around to at least get some laps in, he found out the hard way that he couldn’t.

His left leg was stuck and no matter how hard he tried to move it, it wouldn’t budge, instead it dragged him lower and lower. 

Kim’s blurry gaze shot downwards to see why his leg wasn’t working and his eyes widened at the ball of chain that somehow had managed to wrap around his leg.

Who the hell had managed to put a chain on his leg?

Kim couldn’t bother to think about that now, all he could think was his increasing lack of oxygen and the fear of drowning slowly gaining on him as his leg brushed against the tiled floor.

Kim tried as hard as he could to move, swim, anything. But nothing worked.

Water became his blood, head pounding as it shut down from the lack of oxygen and his mind was a restless mantra of prayers and wishes.

He had finally closed his eyes when an arm wrapped around his body and pulled on him.

Kim didn’t bother opening his eyes to see who it was, probably just the grim reaper trying to make him calm for his final judgment.

So there he passed out.

A sweet smile on his face.

Pitch black.

So black you couldn’t see anything even if you tried.

The curtains blow around with a sweet mischievous howl.

They’re calling out for help.

In the empty dim walls, the neighbours look at the door that used to house a family.

A loud one but they were quite friendly and chatty.

Then suddenly they disappeared.

This new family arrived but not a peep has been heard out of this house since.

Except when their son goes to school every day.

“Bye Mom and Dad!”

He calls back to the silent apartment, no calls call back to him.

Yet he smiles.

Then he puts on his shoes and leaves for the metro.

Whispers crawl around before an old woman gets the courage to open the door in the middle of the night.

She tries to catch her breath, bracing herself for the screams of invading privacy.

But when she opens the door, she is only met with a clean hallway.

She should leave, shouldn’t she?

Hasn’t she not heard of the saying ‘Curiosity killed the cat?’

She should have never done this alone.

She should leave

Instead she placed her foot into the apartment and quietly closed the door behind her.

She bumps into nothing as she moves forward, no trinkets, no photos, no potted plants.

Only clean floorboards, bare gray walls, and a single drawer.

Then as she placed her feet again silently to not alert anyone, she hears it.

The sound of a TV playing.

She strains her ears to listen and hears laughter and munching on something.

Pop corn.

A harsh gulp rocks her throat, should she check or should she go.

She walks forward on wobbly feet.

When she reaches the end of the hallway, she leans her head around the wall to see the living room/kitchen in front of her.

The kitchen empty and a young boy eating popcorn in front of the TV.

He grabs a bunch and shoves them into his mouth to chew loudly as few fall to the floor.

Then they merge with the floor and disappear.

Her eyes widened as she watched as the boy continued to eat popcorn but the bowl seemed endless.

Never finishing, always lasting.

He didn’t seem to notice though.

Just watching whatever happened on TV.

While the audience laughed on screen, he didn’t.

Soon he turned slightly to reach for the remote and aim it at the TV.

Then it clicked to a different channel,

And suddenly the old woman was sitting on the couch behind the child.

She grabbed her mouth to silence the gasp that almost made it out and tried to get off the couch.

But she couldn’t, she was stuck there.

It lasted for minutes or hours, her trying to find a way to get herself off the couch while the boy continued to watch TV without looking at her once.

There were times he would slightly shift to move his body in a way that would make him see her but he always turned back around.

Sweat had stuck her clothes to herself, she felt like she wanted run, scream, cry, do anything but she couldn’t while under this strange torture.

And not once did the boy close his eyes to go to bed or get up.

Just eating his bowl of popcorn and eating and eating and eating.

Until she had enough,

She screamed, “HELPPPPPPPP”

The TV actually paused, everything paused as the boy tensed up before relaxing and miraculously finishing his popcorn.

“I was wondering how long you would last,” A soft chuckle came out of him. “It’s barely been five minutes.”

She huffed and puffed and tried to catch her breath, five minutes, a mere five minutes?

A tired sigh came out of the boy, still not bothering to turn around.

“Have fun I guess,” he muttered unhappily.

She was just about to ask him what he meant when she felt something dragging on her.

She pushed and tried to shove it off, only to realize that she was sinking deeper and deeper into the couch.

She tried to scream again but this time her throat had been slit as she silently disappeared as well.

Chapter Text

The car slowly stopped driving in front of the stairs.

Adrien poked his head out the window to see if anyone was around but there was no one in sight. 

Not a single leaf was moving, bushes shivering or the wind picking up.

Adrien felt a deep dread pin him down.

But he had to get out.

Father was already thinking of taking him out in fear he would also get kidnapped, he had to prove him wrong.

Adrien quickly ran out of the car, glancing around him when it drove away.

Since Max had been the only one in their school that had been kidnapped, there had only been police officers asking questions but they left at the end of the day.

So Adrien was shocked to see two big police officers standing on each side of the front entranceway.

Their eyes immediately turned on him when they noticed him standing there, their gazes wary and narrowed like they were just waiting for him to try something.

Adrien instead gulped quite hard and made his way through the entranceway, well aware that the police officers were still looking at him.

Adrien patted his chest pocket gently to calm Plagg down as a way to shake off the feelings of distress mounting up in his head and heart.

His next steps were heavy and uncertain and he glanced around nervously.

In his eyesight he saw Alya dashing towards him.

Adrien let out a sigh of relief at the sight of her but instantly jumped back at the screams of fury Alya unleashed at him when she got close enough.

Her arms reached for him like she was going to claw him out of his own body with her nails.

Her wide mad eyes made Adrien freeze in his state as he anticipated the inevitable outcome that was Alya going to kill him with her bare hands.

But two lanky arms wrapped around her the moment she got near him and tightened as she thrashed around, her nails swiping the air with the intent to kill.

“LET GO OF ME NINO! I KNOW HE’S YOUR BEST FRIEND BUT YOU CAN’T HELP A KIDNAPPER!” She screamed out loud as some of her nails managed to even slice through Nino’s hands.

But he still didn’t let go.

“ALS! YOU’RE NOT THINKING STRAIGHT! JUST BECAUSE THEY FOUND ADRIEN’S NAME ON THE LAPTOP DOESN’T MEAN HE’S THE KIDNAPPER! HE WOULD NEVER KIDNAP KIM AND MAX!” 

“THEY FUCKING CHECKED NINO! HOW THE HELL CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT THE FINGERPRINTS THAT TYPED THAT SAME MESSAGE WAS MAX’S!?”

“IT’S ADRIEN FOR CHRIST SAKES! WHAT WOULD HE WANT TO KIDNAP MAX AND ALL THOSE OTHER PEOPLE FOR!?”

They struggled against each other, none of their words making sense in Adrien’s mind as he tried to at least learn what had happened when a blur of black crashed into him.

His arms laid stiff at his sides but that didn’t stop Claus from crying out loud for everyone to hear. “ADRIEN! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!? YOUR NAME WAS ON MAX’S LAPTOP AND NOW YOU’RE THE PRIME SUSPECT, AND KIM GOT KIDNAPPED AS WELL! I DIDN'T BELIEVE IT THE MOMENT I SAW IT I’M TELLING YOU!”

Claus looked deep into Adrien’s eyes, searching for any emotion, anything.

And he saw it.

Adrien’s head felt like a lump, he felt like he was struggling to breathe, he felt like his ears were being exposed to the loudest sound in the universe and it just kept on ringing and ringing.

Claus grinned and moved his arms away from Adrien, hiding his look of happiness at the confused teen and rampaging couple behind him he quietly made his way away from the group.

Only to be stopped by Lila.

“I got our books for us.” Lila smiled cheerfully at him as she held up several books in her arms, the ones Claus had made sure were heavy, large and would prove difficult for a normal human teenager to carry if they didn’t have the experience.

Claus smirked internally at Lila’s shaking arms and pleading muscles as he patted her on the head.

“Thanks so much, Lila! You know this is why I consider us to be best friends,” He grinned as he walked away, not even bothering to help Lila as she struggled to hold the books. “You’re just so easy and pathetic, that kind of behaviour is something us friends have to help out with after all.” He muttered to himself, ignoring the crash of books behind him as Lila fell over onto the pile she dropped.

Adrien though felt the desk beneath his behind, he didn’t even know how he had managed to get into the classroom without collapsing.

He felt the stare of pity Nino was giving him, he felt the shocked disgusted and horrified angry faces of his classmates as they noticed every move he made rather than the lesson in front.

But nothing was as worse as when Marinette came into the classroom, late as usual.

He just knew what was going to happen.

Marinette placed her backpack under the desk and happily sat down ready to learn whatever Ms.Bustier was talking about.

Adrien felt his life flash before his eyes as Alya took one glance at him before leaning over to whisper into Marinette’s ear.

That was all it took.

Marinette froze in her seat as Alya finished talking, moving back to her own space to let Mari think about this on her own.

He thought he would just die there, just immediately try to run out the classroom.

One of his bestest friends thought he was a kidnapper, the other one probably thought so too but was giving him the benefit of the doubt,

And he was going to lose Marinette.

Of all the people he never wanted to lose was Marinette.

He didn’t know why but he felt like throwing up vomit at the mere thought of the idea.

Yet she turned around, a look of sympathy on her face as she confidently placed her hand on his and mouthed.

I don’t think you did it

And she said that with a look of determination and a smile.

Gabriel lightly tapped on his modern screen with his mouth stretched into a thin line.

Adrien’s schedule was in front of his face as he made sure it was packed to the brim with activities and responsibilities so Adrien could work more in perfecting his image.

Gabriel was sure that Adrien was slacking off more due to that Claus child.

Something about that boy didn’t seem right to him.

There had been barely any akumas lately as he had been waiting for the eventual opportunity of when Claus would break down and become the perfect akuma.

But nothing.

He still felt Claus’s emotions and how they stirred deeply but the child was good at hiding his true feelings and emotions down inside his dark soul.

Gabriel frowned and placed his hand on his chin in concentration, there had to be something to break him.

He heard a brief beep before Nathalie’s voice was heard.

“G-Gabriel,” Nathalie coughed to hide her nervous tone but Gabriel noticed anyway and raised an eyebrow.

He clicked the speaking button, 

“Yes Nathalie?”

Nathalie didn’t say anything for a few moments before Gabriel froze at her next words.

“The police are here and they want to question you.”

How…

How did they find out?

Did they know he was Hawkmoth?

Did they come to arrest him?

“They want to question you about Adrien’s whereabouts on the night of Max’s disappearance.”

Gabriel scoffed. He was still safe but his son was innocent, there was no way Gabriel would allow a kidnapper to be under his roof and Adrien was no such thing.

When was the day Max Kantè had been kidnapped anyway?

“Let them in.” Gabriel demanded before straightening his suit and making his way out of the office.

“Now Monsieur Agreste, we’re not saying that Adrien is the kidnapper, it’s just that our only clue is pointing at him.” The stubby police officer said as he tried to explain to THE Gabriel Agreste that his own son could have kidnapped not one but two of his classmates and many others.

Cold heartless Gabriel Agreste.

“Officers, I assure you that Adrien is being framed, there is no circumstance of Adrien having kidnapped all those people. So what if Adrien’s name was there, that does not mean anything.” Gabriel placed his leg over his other one as his hands clenched the arms on the soft armchair he was sitting on.

“Sir, we believe that Max Kantè may be sending a message by leaving your family name on his own laptop, Max was kidnapped in his own room and the fingerprints on the keyboard belong solely to Max. There was no reason for Max to leave that clue in the first place so we are taking everything about it into account, so please Monsieur Agreste, can you tell us where Adrien Agreste was on the night of Max’s kidnapping.” It was a question but Gabriel didn’t shiver.

He too was confused, if Max had been kidnapped in his own room and there were no other fingerprints on the laptop other than his then why did he leave Adrien’s last name instead of a quick description of the killer?

Gabriel tapped his right foot against his left leg as he tried to remember.

Had there been an akuma that same day? He could probably ask Nathalie to quickly check for him but he couldn’t alert the police officer, any gesture he tried to make and Nathalie no doubt moving would set off some alarm bells.

Gabriel glanced around, trying to remember when the day was.

His walls were a mere modern clean gray with barely any decorations, housekeeping had done quite a mediocre job at keeping everything fresh and orderly.

Everything seemed in place and in order when he noticed the mirror,

It wasn’t anything special and quite small but it was meant to be a decorative piece after all. 

It wasn’t facing the area they were all in though, rather it lined up to the front entrance way, as a quick way for guests to check themselves as they entered the house.

He imagined a limited number of guests coming in and out that doorway.

The staff, Nathalie, The Gorilla, Himself on rare occasions, Adrien,

Anyone Adrien brought home unannounced.

Gabriel’s eyes widened as he realized just who had entered the house on the same day that Max had disappeared. 

Had Gabriel really let in a kidnapper in his own house?

The video paused, then it rushed backwards, camera footage of the pool in full view as it came smack in the middle of an almost empty pool.

Two people present.

They played around, the girl throwing a ball at the boy before they chased each other and eventually dived underwater. 

Nothing moved for a few moments and then two hands reached up and gripped onto the slippery surface of cold unsanitary pool water and blue tile.

The girl launched herself out of the pool before rushing in the direction of the washrooms. 

3 seconds passed and then the boy came out as well but he didn’t follow the girl, he wasn’t even facing the direction she went in. Just lost in his thoughts it seemed.

Then he jumped back into the pool water.

And never came out.

The video paused. 

“You sure the boy didn’t just drown?”

“We’re sure. Lê Chiến Kim was last seen going back to swimming after his girlfriend Ondine left. Either the kidnapper was under the water the whole time or…”

A collective shiver went through the whole room.

This case was just becoming something short of a nightmare.

At first they had a kidnapper then they resorted to killing, now most of the kidnapped victims were dead with smiles on their faces and placed randomly in city streets with no witness having seen anyone place a body there. 

All the top investigators had been called but no one could understand what was going on.

This was their only lead, the kidnapper hadn’t kidnapped anyone from the same friend group before. 

And there was that strange message on Max Kanté laptop, the drag marks at the bottom of the pool, Lê Chiến Kim’s strange disappearance. 

But nothing else. 

What the hell was going on?

What was with the smiles?

Was this an akuma?

Or something else…

She had messed up, big time.

Bunnyx’s hands dripped with sweat as she struggled to create the portal to the possible answer to her problems.

She hadn’t meant for her portal to go to his bedroom, it had been a test to see if she could send burrows into alternate universes.

Well, well done Bunnyx, you can and not only did you figure that out but you also brought a serial kidnapper who went to jail for a reason to your own world.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Her mind raced as she desperately tried to remember what world he had come from, maybe she could go back and shut the portal before she sent it.

But no, she slapped her cheeks, she would just mess things up even more.

She had ruined things for the future and now she would fix things.

Suddenly a tiny sprite of blue energy appeared before her, small but still a big beacon of hope for Bunnyx and her actions.

Bunnyx scrunched up her eyebrows as she narrowed her eyes at the sprite and concentrated less on her mental spiral and an ominous fact and more on fixing the mess she had created.

If she didn’t fix this soon then Claus’s powers would grow enough to corrupt everyone around him.

They were already working, making people around him feel negative feelings, getting more emotional, more aggressive and able to attack others they had known for their whole lifetime just because of a simple rumor. 

She didn’t even know if Claus knew that his powers were causing everyone's weird behaviours but she would put it past that son of the devil to figure it out very easily.

Adrien had always been very smart at noticing things that other people didn’t. 

The sprite was growing smaller.

Bunnyx gulped as she tried once again to create the portal.

It stayed the same for a few more minutes before finally growing to a size that would fit Bunnyx.

She couldn’t get it any larger or she would pass out from exhaustion and stress.

Quickly she forced herself into the portal, ignoring her sole bones and tired mind from the overexertion and stumbled feet first into the disappearing broken barrier of timelines.

Once she finally got her other leg through, the portal was gone and would stay that way until Bunnyx managed to rest.

Her eyes grew heavy as she gazed at a large pool of sparkling mass of calm water before her.

Gorgeous crystal clear butterflies floated around her, blurry shapes and colors moving in Bunnyx’s line of sight as she leaned forward to cease the uncomfortableness in her stomach.

She needed to sit down and fast.

The butterflies stirred and floated away from her as Bunnyx moved forward, getting dangerously close to the pool.

Her foot was just to crash into the water when a few simple words made her freeze.

“What are you doing here?”

Chapter Text

Adrien’s mouth stayed heavily dry as his foot tapped against the entranceway rapidly, ignoring the twitching in his leg and his body screaming at him to calm down and stop.

He couldn’t stop though. 

His Father had just texted (HIS OWN DAD!) hours ago that he could bring two people to today’s photoshoot but they had to behave.

He outruled Nino because Nino already had plans to be with Alya, He outruled Alya because she hated him at the moment, so that just meant the rest of the class…

It hurt more than anything to be shunned away when he tried to approach them. 

Even Chloé ran away when she noticed him coming near, quickly grabbing onto Sabrina’s arm and dashing away with the poor girl in tow.

Marinette though agreed to come with him.

Now he was anxiously waiting for her to arrive.

Rapid taps against his chest made him stop and look down at Plagg.

Plagg pointed away from him and Adrien gazed up to see Claus walking towards him.

Sure he and Claus were friends and Claus had pointed out this morning that he didn’t believe the rumors but something told him to just run away from Claus.

But Adrien couldn’t do that, Claus was now one of the only three people that believed him.

Why would he push a friend away?

In all his thinking he didn’t notice Claus getting closer and closer until the boy was right in front of him.

“Do you think I’m the kidnapper?”

Adrien choked on his saliva.

Out of all the questions Claus could have asked or even said a simple good afternoon, he had to ask a question Adrien had never considered.

But…

No.

Claus may have started school right around the time the kidnappings started but that didn’t mean he was the kidnapper.

It was just probably a coincidence. 

Since when did you believe in coincidences?

“It’s just that I realize that people may think I’m the kidnapper because of me being new and all. So I’m just asking, that’s all, you can tell me you know,” His wide eyes and scared expression made Adrien’s heart clench more in guilt for his thoughts. “But I promise that I’m not the kidnapper Adrien.”

He stopped talking, he’s waiting for you to either agree or disagree.

Something told him that what he was going to say should be heavily considered in thought.

You don’t poke a lion in the butt after all.

“No Claus.” He said sharply. “I believe you.” He smiled to show his sincerity.

Even when part of his soul was screaming not to.

When both of their smiles slowly disappeared, Adrien’s phone vibrated, making him jump and Claus’s mouth to frown,

Adrien reached into his pocket, ignoring Plagg’s concerned look, and opened his phone only to feel his heart sink in mud.

“Marinette’s busy at the bakery, she can’t come.” Adrien mumbled out loud to himself, forgetting that a certain someone was close enough to hear his words.

A encasing cold surrounded all of them as Adrien shivered, the sudden temperature making him shake as his hand holding the phone grew so shaky that he watched the device slip out of his sudden slippery hand and onto the floor.

His eyes shot up to see Claus glare at him with all the hatred in the world, the wind gently moving his hair enough to give Adrien too much of a look into those venomous eyes.

But before Adrien could gain his breath again, the wind somehow gently brushed the hair back and Claus walked forward.

“Guess it’s just you and me, Adrien.” He said offhandedly as he waved off the interaction they just had.

Adrien didn’t say anything to question how or why Claus had suddenly invited himself into what was going to be his hangout with Marinette if she hadn’t canceled.

But, Adrien could live with this.

Hopefully.

The flash of the camera temporarily blinded Adrien.

The calls of what to do next barely reached his ears.

The taste of makeup in his cheek almost made him gag.

The blurry faces in the dark behind the endless maze of cameras and lights made it impossible to see his friend.

He looked more like a doll he was sure.

But to everyone else he was perfect.

Claus grumbled to himself, 

Bullshit.

There was only one perfect person and Adrien wasn’t her.

No one noticed as the black haired student and friend of Adrien got up from his seat, no longer wanting to watch such a boring display and walked away to explore.

His hand pushed open the studio doors, making sure they both opened and closed quietly to not alert anyone of his presence.

Claus quickly looked around him, hearing for anyone who was coming by and waiting for several seconds.

A wicked smirk came into his face as he heard nothing and sensed that nothing would come between him and his little trip.

With that he dashed away, towards the changing rooms.

Once he reached there, he ignored other stalls in favor of looking for the exact one he was looking for.

He finally found the door and pushed it, 

It was unfortunately open.

His smirk grew bigger as he quickly moved around the room, searching through Adrien’s things.

The smell of cheese filled his nostrils but Claus giddily noted it down in his brain instead.

More fuel to humiliate Adrien.

With that he continued to search through the bag but found nothing except books, homework, a schedule(He took a picture of that) and disgusting cheese.

It reminded of the cheese he would often have to give to Plagg to get him to not tell his parents about something he did.

The little devil always liked rotting cheese for some strange reason.

Claus scoffed before getting up and dusting any dust off of him.

A sudden ringing was blasted into his ears as a black blur shot out of Adrien’s locker with a gray ring.

“KID! AKUMA ATTACK! QUICK SAY THE WORDS!”

Time froze as the black creature took in the sight of who was supposed to be Adrien and realized what horror he had done.

Plagg immediately rushed away but Claus’s greedy hands closed around him, trapping him in between.

“Would you kindly tell me the words?” He taunted the small creature struggling in his hands.

“I KNEW YOU WERE BAD NEWS!” Plagg cried out.

Claus rolled his eyes. “And yet you let me continue my fun.”

“ADRIEN LET YOU! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I’M TELLING HIM! YOU DID KIDNAP ALL THOSE PEOPLE-“

“This is a private conversation, Plagg. We can’t have anybody listening in so you should stop yelling.” Claus spoke calmly as he shoved one of his fingers into Plagg’s mouth and pressed another finger against his head.

“Now,” Claus brought a shocked Plagg up to his face. “Tell me how Adrien becomes Chat Noir.”

Adrien would have probably collapsed of exhaustion and hurt if he wasn’t a professional.

But that didn’t make it any less boring to be here.

All his life he had always been under a camera, it had become his only thought before school.

Now what to do…

He moved just a bit and quickly moved back when he caught the glare.

Oh yeah, he has to stay still.

He lifted his arms up when he was called, his mouth squirmed into a yawn of sorts but put on pause.

Then he heard the clicks.

Then he heard the alarm.

The Akuma alarm.

Immediately workers pulled out their phones to see where the akuma was but strangely relaxed while Adrien became stiff as a board.

“The akuma’s not anywhere near us. Back to work.” A cameraman called out as everyone settled down.

Shit.

Adrien had to leave.

But he couldn’t.

He hoped that Ladybug would be fine.

Tears sprung out in his eyes and screams erupted suddenly, making him shove them down.

Chat Noir looks a bit different doesn’t he?

Yeah, but he’s still his cocky stupid self…

Honestly Ladybug should just take his miraculous

I would be definitely better than that neutered cat

‘Chat Noir’ landed quietly behind the crowd of talking people, a wicked grin came onto his face as he watched them discuss about Adrien.

He made sure to bring out his baton and record the conversation before leaving and jumping away into the air.

His suit was almost like Chat Noir but he had a large black hood with little gray smiling faces on it. His material was a deep black with gray smoke rising up from the steel boots to the knees. Instead of a mask he wore a theater mask with the smiling face only. 

However, you paid enough attention then you could see every time he moved, shadows of scrubbed off tears would appear before disappearing.

It blocked only his eyes but secretly held holes so he could see through, his mouth open wide into a fanged grin as he made his way towards the Akuma.

His soft black tail with a single red stripe through the middle whipped around the wind as he twirled around and bounced happily towards his destination. Fluffy pointed black ears peeled out a little from beneath the hood of black hair.

And definitely unlike that stupid cat, he didn’t have a bell.

He wasn’t tamed.

He lightly landed on a rooftop that gave a view of the ongoing battle.

His claws lightly scratched against the brick roof as he watched Ladybug struggle against a spider like akuma that attacked with its multiple arms and legs.

‘Chat Noir’ only stared as he watched her grit her teeth and quickly retreat away.

She landed right next to him and immediately turned to face him with a glare.

“You couldn’t even bother to-“

‘Chat Noir’ grinned underneath the mask as realization dawned on her.

Her eyes grew as a frown came into her face. She obviously didn’t like him already but was willing to go with it.

“Where’s Chat Noir?” Or not.

Claus shrugged. “He’s busy, we’re best friends so he gave me the miraculous and told me what to do.”

Ladybug’s jaw dropped in shock and something similar to jealousy glowed in her eyes. “He revealed his identity!?”

This was perfect. 

Claus tried to keep his giddy chuckles down as he confronted the hypocrite in front of him. “So you’re saying that you’re the only one that can reveal your identity?”

Ladybug’s eyes narrowed at him as she placed her hands on her hips. “No,” her tone suddenly became wistful as she remembered their words. “But we promised to reveal to each other first before anyone else…”

Claus couldn’t keep down the scoff that came out of him.

Ladybug immediately went back to glaring at him when Claus suddenly ducked down.

It was then that she remembered that they were still in the middle of a battle and at the last second she quickly dived down into her stomach and saw a huge steel beam flying above them.

They got back up instantly and Ladybug threw out orders. 

“Distract him and I’ll-“

“Nope.” ‘Chat Noir’ called out before lunging forward and flipping his body a few times in the air before falling down into the street where the akuma was in a smooth fashion.

Ladybug gasped at the smoothness of his movements, not willing to believe that someone who had just earned a miraculous could be this fearless already.

She quickly threw out her yo-yo and lifted it up into the air to yell out her famous life saving words,

“LUCKY CHARM!”

A burst of pink light shone around her yo-yo in the air before it collapsed back into her arms and a red and black spotted tiny knife also landed in her hands.

Ladybug blinked blankly at the object before hurriedly looking around, her gaze getting more worried for clues as she heard a sickening crunch in her ear.

After seeing nothing in her view turn into spots, she turned to see how her temporary superhero partner was holding the akuma only for her mouth to be covered by a loud gasp she let out.

‘Chat Noir’ had managed to beat down the Akuma enough to get the demon down and begging on its knees but he didn’t stop.

He kept cackling as his baton kept crashing into the beast, crushing into its multiple eyes, breaking its already dangling limbs and making howls of terror rip out of its chest.

Ladybug scrunched her jaw tightly, she had to stop this.

She couldn’t have this monster continue to have a miraculous in her sight or harm any civilians whether they were akuma or not.

She dashed forward, her yo-yo thrown out to wrap around ‘Chat Noir’’s body just as his hand reached up and he called only one deadly word.

“Cataclysm!”

The black bubbly mess corrupted his hand and he plunged it down into the Akuma.

The demon screamed in pure agony and pain as the deadly magic tore it apart limb by limb.

The yo-yo wrapped around ‘Chat Noir’’s torso and pulled him harshly away from the poor akuma.

Ladybug didn’t even hear his screams of protests as she fell forward right next to the rapidly deteriorating body and grabbed the purple watch on one of its still standing arms.

She ripped it and her yo-yo circled back to capture the violet butterfly that came out.

“Miraculous Ladybug!” She said shakily, as she threw the knife into the air and purified the akuma.

“Bye bye little butterfly.” She struggled to say as a pure white butterfly came out and a man in his mid-thirties appeared before her, still breathing.

He was a mess but he was passed out and well.

Ladybug quickly checked him over for injuries.

None were found other than Ladybug’s own emotional wounds.

She shot around to send the impersonator a deadly glare only to find the spot she had thrown him empty of his horrible body.

She didn’t look behind her as she sent quick words of comfort before throwing her yo-yo at a nearby roof and zipping away.

She landed on the roof where they had had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting each other, her feet moving slowly as she pulled out her yo-yo and spinned it around, getting ready to defend herself.

“Unless there’s another akuma then I see no point in taking an attack position.” A voice purred against her ear, slightly grazing it and making Ladybug jump back and keep her instincts down to throw whoever had gotten close to her.

Her mouth tightened into a frown as she made her yo-yo spin again while keeping her eye on him.

“Tell Chat Noir…” She paused, the yo-yo slowly losing its momentum and falling.

‘Chat Noir’ didn’t twitch. “Tell him what?”

Her tongue was stuck in anger, hurt and completely disarranged unrelated things and yet while her thoughts screamed suggestions and foul curses, her mouth stayed dry.

‘Chat Noir’ grinned, like she had just told him something interesting and funny. “Ah, now I get it. You’re being selfish and wanting me to tell Chat Noir to not give me a miraculous anymore and to banish him from ever revealing his identity to anyone else.” He spoke with an amused expression and waving his arms around like he was giving a speech.

Ladybug grit her teeth, it was basically what she wanted to say but without banishment and she was definitely not being selfish. 

“You hurt a poor civilian and you’re telling me I’m being selfish!?” She growled out as he moved away to sit down on the edge and swing his legs back and forth.

It was quite similar to how Chat would behave but this time there was no comfort or jokes, only ridicule. 

‘Chat Noir’ shrugged like what he had done was as innocent as the slight smirk on his face. 

“I’ll tell Chat Noir what you said,” Ladybug rolled her eyes, they both knew she hadn’t even told him what he assumed(And so what if what he said was true…) “But you have to agree…”

Ladybug groaned internally, this conversation honestly made her want to slap Chat even more for choosing such an unworthy candidate and her urge to run off into the distance away from this person just increased by the second.

But she should at least hear him out.

“Our battle today, don’t you agree that it was a little short?” 

She could hear the smirk in his tone but she couldn’t tell where he was going with this.

“Usually normal akuma battles take about 20 or so minutes, ours though only took five…”

“What are you saying?” She silently placed her left hand on her yo-yo, just in case.

“Maybe you should put down Chat Noir, after all if he was here then everything would have taken much longer,”

‘Chat Noir’ stood up, turning around to finally show his wicked smirk that took his whole face.

“Chat Noir is useless. I did what he tries to do in 15 minutes in under a second, the cat miraculous should obviously-“

“I’ll say my words this time. If you really are friends with Chat Noir then tell him that I don’t ever want to see your face again and you will never be a miraculous holder. If I ever find out who you are then I’ll make sure you pay for what you did.” Her words were a deadly calm as she glared at ‘Chat Noir’ with all the power of a god.

‘Chat Noir’ didn’t say anything. He twitched a bit at Ladybug interrupting him but he seemed to be listening with a blank face.

That was before a smirk appeared on his face as he bowed down.

“Farewell, witch.”

Ladybug choked and lunged at him in an uncivilized burst of anger but he leapt back just in time to go flying to wherever deep pit of filth he came from.

Ladybug quickly shot out her yo-yo to catch herself from falling into the street.

Her feet abruptly froze at the edge and she saw the possible consequences of what her anger could have caused.

At that moment while she was still trying to get her breath back, her earrings started ringing in her ears.

Ladybug huffed and took a few steps back.

She threw out her yo-yo and shot away, her anger being shoved down to avoid any more akuma attacks.

Chat Noir has to find better friends.

Adrien rushed towards his changing room.

Claus slid into the changing room calmly.

Adrien almost pushed and shoved people but they could see that he was in a rush so they let him through without much of a word.

Claus landed gently on the ground, placing his hands on his hips and twisting his neck to sigh happily at his luck.

It must be Flower Star’s blessing.

Adrien had seen the news, there was someone pretending to be him and he had to get to his change room quickly, find his ring, transform and beg Ladybug for forgiveness.

Claus stretched, wringing his hands together and holding them above his body to stretch his ribs, the spandex stretching as well and highlighting his muscles.

Adrien’s mind raced with possibilities of what would happen IF he was able to find his ring and beg Ladybug, would she forgive him? Would she scream at him? 

After all the people of Paris now declared that Chat Noir was a danger to them all, 

Tears filled Adrien’s eyes, his legs dashing forward and catching on a stray piece of clothing.

His legs went flying upwards and Adrien came crashing into the ground, his head taking the brunt of the damage.

Tears fell down to the floor as Adrien struggled to get up. His pain pleading for him to lay down and wait for someone to come but he couldn’t do that.

Claus, still transformed, picked up Adrien’s bag and pulled the zipper to open it.

He hummed to himself as he turned the bag around and the contents of it fell to the ground.

Claus bent down and started searching through it all.

Adrien shakily got up to his feet, his head still throbbing but he shook it off.

He had to get to his change room now.

He ran forward, taking in his surroundings to not trip again and saw he was getting closer and closer.

Claus grumbled as he saw more cheese and nothing interesting in the mess.

He scoffed as he crossed his arms, “Plagg, Claws in.”

Adrien banged the door to his changing room open, his eyes shutting immediately at the bright flash of green toxic light.

When he rubbed them though with his hands and took who had detransformed in front of him, he wished his eyes could have been kept shut.

Adrien and Claus stared right at each other.

Plagg flew up to be right in the middle of their staring match.

Oh no, Plagg thought.

Chapter Text

Oxygen actually froze.

Not really but it felt like it.

All of the air had been swept out of the room, betrayal and other conflicting emotions fueling Adrien’s lungs way more than evasive oxygen.

After all what the hell are you supposed to do when not only did your own friend go through your bag (Guessing by the mess on the floor) and steal your miraculous and make it seem to Paris that you had suddenly gone down the mentally well drain and right into the ‘he’s going to get us killed’ sewer.

But his conscience, like the angelic hidden devil that it was, just had to forgive his friend or find some deep down excuse that could justify his actions.

“I-It’s not what it looks like…”

Everyone paused to take in how stupid that sentence was and how late it was due to the time where that sentence could even be remotely good for a conversation was long gone from the time period.

“You won’t tell anyone will you?” Adrien had to make sure his friends would never betray him.

Claus didn’t do anything, Adrien couldn't even tell if he was thinking about it and the silence just made him more nervous, Claus’s hair once again hiding his eyes from the world and trapping his emotions away.

Adrien doubted now that Claus hid his eyes away just for the sake of being insecure, he just probably didn’t want anyone to see what he was truly thinking. 

And Adrien could agree, looking into those eyes was like looking into a snake’s predatory eyes, a shiver wrecking his hungry ribs together at the similarities of their eyes.

Claus still didn’t move. 

It was faint at first, Adrien noticing but thinking it was coming from outside because the window was still open.

He glanced at Plagg who shook his head in a rare scared manner and pointed right at Claus.

Adrien turned around to see that his friend was bent over his knees, his body shaking and his mouth moving in silent screams of help.

Was Claus actually crying…?

Adrien couldn’t help it, the golden boy in him making him rush forward and pull Claus close to his chest, ignoring Plagg’s hisses of warnings.

Claus continued to shake and twist in his arms, Adrien pulling a recited apology out of his brain and almost placing his hand on Claus’s back when he got shoved backwards.

He landed harshly on the floor, his body reminding him of his earlier fall but that wasn't what made this situation much more worse. 

It was the condescending laughter howling out of Claus’s perfect mouth that made everything feel much worse.

“DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW LONG I’VE TRIED TO GET YOU TO FINALLY FUCK UP!?” He screamed out to get his words through his never ending laughter, the glee in his eyes terrifying as he walked forward while Adrien crawled backwards.

Both Adrien and Plagg crawled more and more towards the door as Claus walked more and more towards them, the manic excitement making Adrien’s recent pool of dread fill up in his stomach again.

He gulped harshly as he finally backed up into the doorway, nowhere to go else. 

He could probably run at Claus and knock him down then force Plagg to tell him how to erase someone’s memories but something told Adrien he better sit down like the scared cat he was or get eaten by the half lion half snake in front of him.

Speaking of snakes, he did imagine that snake tongue he saw briefly slither out of Claus’s mouth right?

Claus placed his hands on his hips, his usual shy and slouching demeanour being replaced for a person who got everything they wanted the moment they thought about it, his nose pointed up like a royal looking down on a peasant and his mouth in a deep frown.

“From now on,” A purring voice spoke as Claus calmly brushed his hair away from his face, framing it in a way that made his looks more attractive. “If you don’t want your little secret out for their world to know, then we have to follow a set of rules now, right?”

The ‘right’ was harsh, like there was no choice and Adrien had to agree.

But he had to agree though, if any rumor(false or not) spread around that he was Chat Noir, not only would it compromise his identity, but people would harass him even more in both identities, making akumas either worse or hard to deal with, low filth criminals coming after him much more to kidnap him or worse things.

But Claus wouldn’t actually do it, right?

After all if you don’t provoke someone then they have no reason to attack,

That’s what Father said anyway.

(And yet look at the antagonists in canon…)

Adrien meekly nodded his head, Plagg shifting deeper into his skull to provide comfort as a wicked smirk came onto Claus’s face.

He took more steps forward, Adrien freezing and quickly crawling away from the door to let Claus pass.

Yet Claus stood still in the doorway, then turned and kicked Adrien right in the stomach.

“ADRIEN!” Plagg cried as he zipped around, not noticing Claus walk away from the room as he tried to get Adrien to respond to him.

Adrien groaned at the pain, somewhere in his mind telling him he deserved it.

There’s a rumor going on that if you talk about the recent kidnappings then you’ll get taken away as well.

Adrien didn’t know what cruel person spread this around to get everyone to not talk about something as serious as multiple kidnappings but it was disgustingly working.

His classmates were already chatting in their class group chat like nothing had been going on for the past weeks or so.

And every time someone even implied the crimes, they were instantly insulted, hated on and multiple other sick things.

It was like some kind of disease was spreading through his class to make them into mindless hate machines that attacked every person that didn’t agree with their ideals.

Lila probably caused it but Lila hadn’t even said anything in the past few days.

She was always near Claus and if Claus wasn’t around Lila would instead make everyone listen to her about, not herself surprisingly, but Claus.

Adrien was happy nevertheless that Lila was finally giving up on lying to make herself feel better and trying to point out the kind qualities in her best friend.

However Adrien did find it unnerving that suddenly now all Lila could talk about was Claus and only Claus.

It was like she had turned into an orange version of Sabrina. 

Adrien’s eyes slowly closed, his hand falling down and pulling Plagg close to his chest, the Kwami insisting that he stay by Adrien’s side, just in case Adrien tried to pull his eyeballs out again.

Plagg had said that sarcastically but Adrien saw through the facade, Plagg just wanted Adrien to have some peace in his suddenly shattered life.

And for that, He was thankful and grateful for Plagg.

Up until Plagg started complaining about cheese again.

“Hey!”

Adrien’s eyes shot open, his bedroom was gone and a dim light filled the area. A crystal like cave shoved him into a tiny corner in the small cavern.

Stalactites hung from the ceiling above him, making Adrien’s throat grow dry with fear as he pictured many scenarios of them crushing him, each one worse than the last.

Something that sounded like someone trying to shut another person up was heard in Adrien’s ears before he felt something hard hit his head and fall on the ground.

Adrien clamped on his tongue as he stared at whatever was thrown at him and realized it was a small but firm rock that had a bit of his hair stuck to it.

Adrien zipped around to crawl backwards in relief at his reflection.

Clear glass crystal stared back at him, his own reflection showing his scared face.

The rock had probably dropped from the ceiling.

“Then how am I talking?” The reflection spoke as it raised an eyebrow at him.

Adrien cried out and rushed away from clear crystal, running to the opposite wall of not so clear crystal and making sure to not turn his back on the talking reflection.

The reflection only smiled and placed its hands on the crystal, “I’m you, why are you so scared of yourself?”

Adrien glared at it. “Because reflections don’t talk.”

The reflection’s smirk grew wider. “Golden Boys don’t snap.”

Adrien grit his teeth as his hand reached for the rock again and threw it at the reflection which pretended to jump back in fear at the rock.

“Ahhh! My weakness! A tiny rock!” The reflection called out with mock fear, giggling at the glares Adrien was giving it.

Adrien’s glare soon softer into a look of acceptance. “This is a dream isn’t it?”

The reflection’s giggles stopped and a grim face came onto it. “Of course it is,” It spoke softly as it leaned against the crystal it was trapped in.

There was silence as Adrien tried to think of something to say or find a way to wake up but his reflection beat him to it.

“Do you still consider Claus your friend?” 

Adrien grew stiff at the familiar name.

If you had asked him just a few days ago, Adrien, like the naive fool he is, wouldn't have even considered your question and answered yes.

Now he actually had to think about it.

Adrien looked around as he thought around the question, he had a feeling that most would say no to the question he was just asked but Claus hadn’t even done anything, he hadn’t exposed him or anything.

“Then how do you explain him ruining your reputation as Chat Noir?” He heard his reflection ask.

Oh yeah, this was a dream.

“I can’t forgive him for that.” Adrien frowned as he realized. “But everybody deserves a second chance.”

“Then do I deserve a second chance?”

Adrien raised an eyebrow, confused as he looked up then jumped back in fear.

His reflection had been replaced with Claus.

“C-Claus!?”

“Do I deserve a chance Adrien? Please answer the question,” A concerned look came on Claus’s face as he placed his hands on the crystal wall keeping him in.

Adrien couldn’t tell if the look was for him or for Claus himself.

“I-I can’t answer that,” Adrien stuttered as he saw Claus's mouth shift into an angry frown.

“Then you’re the worst friend in history.” Claus declared as he got up and walked away.

Adrien watched as the more Claus moved away, the more cracks started to appear in the wall.

Quickly Adrien got up and ran to the wall, slapping his hands on it as he watched Claus walk away.

“Claus, the cracks!”

The black haired boy turned to face him with a frown when the ground beneath him broke and Claus fell down into deep darkness.

Adrien unknowingly reached out with his hand at the spot where Claus had fallen, he heard a brief crack before he too was falling deep into darkness.

His arms twisted around as he desperately reached for something to hold on to as his eyes searched for something.

He saw a glimpse of someone else falling and reached his hand out, his hand gripping theirs as they both turned to face each other.

Adrien and Claus stared deep into each other's eyes as they both fell into eternal ink.

The wind blew around their hair, their eyes were wide and their clothes were flying along with them, the darkness blending in with Claus who didn’t even notice.

Adrien opened his mouth to say an apology, something, anything, just a few polite sweet words that could make anyone forgive him for whatever atrocities he committed.

But before he could  even breath, he was given Claus’s venomous infamous glare.

“I’ll never be your friend or anyone’s friend, you're my puppets, the puppet master has no use for useless broken toys.”

That was the only thing Adrien remembered when he awoke the following morning due to his alarm.

From being a perfect doll, to a sweet classmate, and back to being a puppet.

Adrien giggled lightly then it turned into a full belly laugh as Plagg was thrown across the room yet he didn’t say anything.

His laughter was the only sound in the room and it slowly started to glow with the morning sun.

A wide wild smile on his face as tears fell down his face.

Adrien couldn’t stop the laughter, there was nothing funny about all this yet he found it hilarious.

He just wanted the pain to stop.

The following day was a strange one.

“Kid, he’s definitely going to do something. You need to keep your guard up.” Plagg warned him, the corrupting energy he had been feeling from Claus was much stronger and it was getting hard to keep a calm head as they drove towards school.

“I agree, Plagg.” Adrien nodded along absently.

But there was something Claus hadn’t said that bothered Adrien.

He had mentioned rules, yet he never actually said them.

Adrien stared at the window deeply, his eyes narrowing as his brain tried to come up with a reason for Claus’s actions.

Yet no reason came to mind.

Even Chloé had a reason for her actions, Lila had one as well, though horrible, she still had one.

Hawkmoth…well, he’s a super villain, that’s reason enough.

But Claus was an enigma.

He was the one that seemed perfect, everything about him just screamed perfection but isn’t that not how normal people think of Adrien?

Why is it that the person who everyone thinks is perfect isn’t perfect and thinks another person is perfect when they’ll just start the cycle once again?

The car stopped before Adrien could answer that question to himself.

A simple grunt from the Gorilla told him that they were here.

Adrien turned to face the school that was once a dream to him and a safe place, yet suddenly it was an arena of hate and power.

And it was hard to tell who was winning.

His thoughts were clouded, not with hate but dread and confusion as he made his way up the stairs.

No one was there to comfort him.

When he reached the top though, he came face to face with a nervous Nino, who was holding his headphones in his hands rather than let them hang on his neck.

His expression grew even more grave as he saw Adrien approaching him.

“Hey Nino,” Adrien waved with a smile he didn’t mean. He didn’t have the emotional energy to actually make it seem like everything wasn’t falling apart.

“Hey,”

They both stared at each other, Adrien’s mood grew worse and worse as he stared at the shifting emotions on Nino’s face.

Fear, anger, confusion, something, something, something.

And then the last one,

Pity.

“A-Adrien, look, bro.” Nino’s gaze didn’t stop on Adrien.

Adrien didn’t say anything.

“My parents found out about, you know, the kidnapping and how you’re-“ Nino paused to give Adrien a guilty look. “Just, they banned me from talking to you and Alya’s watching me. My parents asked her to keep an eye on me so that I didn’t try to talk to you in secret.”

Adrien’s eyes widened as he looked around them but didn’t see anyone.

“Alya’s in the bathroom,” Nino explained. “I’m sorry, bro, but Alya just-“ Nino’s legs suddenly grew wobbly as he fell backwards on his behind.

Adrien instantly reached out to help Nino but the boy slapped Adrien’s hand away.

“I’m sorry.” Nino spoke quickly as he got back on his feet and ran away.

Adrien stood there, frozen, when a beep from his phone made him move robotically.

Meet me in our classroom, it’s time to discuss our contract ;)

A text. From Claus.

Adrien didn’t blink, his arms fell still as they automatically closed the phone and his legs stiffly took him towards their room.

He didn’t see the glares from the other students.

Chapter Text

When Adrien opened the door, the first thing he saw was the back of a certain boy, the black short sleeved t-shirt staring back at him with a skull on the back rather than the black haired boy’s face which was staring out the closed window in the room.

But Adrien was grateful, because there was no way he couldn't look at this boy without getting angry. 

The t-shirt shifted slightly as it slowly turned, a sweet relaxed smile on Claus’s face like everything happening was just another school day.

“Doesn’t today feel like a wonderful day?”

Adrien didn’t know why he did it, but he couldn’t control it.

He sprinted forward, right into Claus’s face,

And slapped him.

Both male bodies in the room grew stiff and cold as both of them realized what Adrien had just done.

Claus gently placed his hand on his cheek, his fingers skimming against the wound while his expression was unreadable.

Then a wide smile came onto his face. 

“I’m happy to continue to be your emotional punching bag, Adrien. After all, I can’t have you turning into an Akuma,” Claus grinned as he walked away, happily ignoring Adrien’s shocked expression and sat down on Marinette’s desk.

Adrien turned around, still numb with shock as he watched Claus dig his fingers into the desk, the hobo gloves he was wearing today made his black fingernails stand out.

“First things first, we need to lay some ground rules.” Claus smirked as he stared at Adrien.

Adrien didn’t say anything as Claus continued.

“Number 1,” He made his left hand form a fist and raised one finger. “You have to do everything I say, no questions asked and no response given to any questions you do ask.”

“Number 2, we’re not going to be friends anymore.” A wry smile spread on Claus’s face as the intense look in his eyes grew brighter and made them glow. “We’re going to be best friends now,”

Adrien’s throat suddenly went dry, Lila’s same words of being Claus’s best friend were repeated endlessly in his mind.

Lila had been tricked also, hadn’t she? 

Adrien couldn’t help but feel some sympathy for Lila even though a part of him told him she deserved it for always trying to control others like puppets.

And now look at who was the puppet,

“Number 3,” Claus spoke through his mind barrier. “Anything that is spoken between us can’t be told to anyone else, not a single human, monster, thing, plant,” Claus grinned at Adrien, something told him that Claus had something up his sleeve so Adrien begged internally for the words out of Claus’s mouth to not be what they were.

“Kwami,”

Adrien‘s view suddenly fell as his legs became weak all of a sudden as the words hit him straight in the heart.

“Why are you doing this to me?” Adrien mumbled to himself but it was loud enough for Claus to hear.

“That’s personal,” Claus purred. His voice slithered into Adrien’s ear like he was sitting right next to him.

Adrien glared at the spot right next to him but saw no one.

He then looked at Marinette’s desk and saw Claus was sitting there, waving at him and smirking at his state.

“Please, I just need an answer.” He pleaded.

Claus’s smirk fell.

Adrien didn’t say anything more as Claus contemplated his answer.

“Mari.”

Adrien blinked, confused. What did Marinette have to do with this?

“I want the one thing I couldn’t have.” Claus still kept speaking. “She was taken away from me. We were going to live happily ever after when he took her away from me. But how could he understand love anyway, he’s heartless, an old man, shouldn’t he be rotting in a grave somewhere..”

Adrien watched Claus fall deeper and deeper into some sort of mind break, it was like Claus had forgotten where he was. He kept mentioning a man and saying he and Marinette belonged together when Marinette had never even mentioned him.

Yeah this guy was a living breathing psychopath.

Adrien fearfully looked around, searching for an exit when he saw the door to the classroom, he quickly glanced at Claus who was still talking to himself and smiling at nothing as his eyes grew wider.

Adrien quietly stood back on his feet, making sure to move slowly towards the door and not walking in front of Claus who was now pulling his hair.

“SHE SHOULD BE MINE!” He screamed, still not noticing Adrien walking away.

Adrien was now close to the door, trying to remember if the door creaked so he lightly pushed it and happily heard no creaks. He let out a sigh of relief and moved to finally escape.

He failed to notice that Claus had stopped screaming, he failed to notice the shadow right behind him, he failed to notice because of his relief.

Adrien froze as the door slammed back shut and a hand suddenly gripped his arm, holding it so tight that Adrien felt tears appear in his eyes at the pain.

The hobo glove around the hand made his arm scratchy and itchy as the labored breathing made his heart race.

He made the mistake of looking up and saw Claus’s face. His eyes being shown on full view because of the slap and wide as they glared at Adrien with immense hate. The hand holding his arm held tighter and Adrien cried out while Claus laughed at his pain.

“You want to know what I want so badly?” A massive grin on his face as he taunted Adrien.

Adrien didn’t say anything because of the pain but Claus continued anyway.

“I want Marinette, I want you to suffer. I WANT EVERYONE TO BURN AND DIE!” He declared as he finally let go and watched Adrien fall to the ground, clutching his possible broken arm.

Claus smiled down wickedly at him before a calm sweet innocent smile crawled on his face.

“Now that you know what I want to earn out of this, then the contract is complete!” He exclaimed in excitement and happiness, a big contrast to his crazed look just a few seconds ago.

Adrien groaned in pain as he saw Claus walk away towards the door, skipping happily before he abruptly stopped in the doorway.

“We never actually made our contract official.” Claus mumbled out loud.

Something told Adrien to run, jump out of the window, do anything to get away from Claus right now even though he didn’t know why.

He suddenly knew right away what his mind was telling him when Claus turned around, the excited look still on his face, while the knife in his hands twirled around.

“But who likes shaking hands anyway? For a contract to become official,” He beamed as he started walking towards Adrien, the knife held tightly in Claus’s hands.

“Blood needs to be cut.”

Adrien crawled frantically backwards as Claus laughed and moved forwards. His legs kicked in front of him, trying to ward off Claus when the boy kicked him once again in the stomach, causing Adrien to lay down backwards.

Claus swiftly straddled Adrien’s hips, the knife pointed downwards, at Adrien’s neck.

Claus smiled, Adrien closed his eyes.

Adrien felt something cut, he felt pain but not that much, then he felt his own blood drip down his hand.

Adrien opened his eyes to see that Claus had only cut his hand and then proceeded to do the same to his own.

“There,” Claus purred as he watched his own blood drip. “Now we both have accepted the contract.”

Adrien glared at Claus. “I decline.”

Claus stiffened. “Are you sure?” His voice was far from considerate and caring.

“Yes,” Adrien said confidently. “I decline the contract.”

Claus clicked his tongue as he got off Adrien. “Are you sure?” He asked again but this time there was a smirk on his face.

Adrien nodded.

Claus smiled. “Fine then,” His eyes narrowed as his smile morphed into a sly grin. “Then you’ll have to deal with the consequences.”

Adrien narrowed his eyes back.

Claus’s grin grew wider. 

Then Claus brought out his phone, typed a few things, took a picture then put his phone back.

“Then I hope you’ll love dealing with thousands of akumas.”

Adrien froze, flashbacks of Heroes day racing in his mind as his face showed a pleading expression towards Claus.

Who just stuck his tongue out at Adrien.

“You’re the one who disagreed, and now you have to get a punishment,”

A scream was heard coming from the school before multiple shouts and curses filled the area.

Adrien dashed away, towards the screams, leaving behind a smirking Claus.

Adrien ran out into the school courtyard, still clutching his broken arm and gasped at the scene before him.

His classmates, students in other classes, friends screaming at each other, some fighting each other and throwing things at each other while screaming about something they did.

“How could you!?” Adrien shot around to see Rose holding a knife shakily, tears cascading down her face and making a giant puddle beneath her feet as she stumbled towards Juleka.

Juleka’s eye was wide as she shakily took small steps back. Her voice loud enough to tell Rose and all the others around them that she didn’t do it.

Do what?

He didn’t get a chance to get his answer because loud screams made him turn around to see Alya and Nino yelling at each other, no weapons in their hands other than their deadly words.

“YOU’VE BEEN SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME WITH THAT KIDNAPPER THAT HE MADE YOU DO THIS!” Alya shouted.

“FOR FUCK’S SAKES, I NEVER DID ANYTHING! I DIDN'T SEND THAT EMAIL!”

“THEN WHO DID!? WHO OUT OF EVERYONE IN THIS SCHOOL KNEW ABOUT WHAT I DID OTHER THAN YOU!?”

A table went flying over their heads but they didn’t notice. Ms.Bustier dashed around the courtyard, trying to stop students from killing each other and calming as many students as she could.

The other teachers were too busy screaming at each other as well, all of them shrieking about some email or something.

Bits and pieces of information came flying into Adrien’s mind as he dodged angry students and screaming fighting classmates.

Someone had sent emails to everyone, stating secrets that only the people they deeply trusted knew,

And it caused chaos.

Gabriel held his head as he rushed to get to the painting of Emilie, the pounding mob of large feelings made his heart race and his head hurt.

“NATHALIE! NATHALIE!” Gabriel called as he quickly pressed the buttons on the painting and absently felt the elevator bring him to his lair.

Nooroo shot out from his brooch, crying out his pain before being effectively shut quiet by Hawkmoth’s transformation.

Nathalie appeared only moments later to see Hawkmoth laughing wildly while clutching his head like he was going through the worst headache of the century.

“Sir? What’s wrong-“

“Catalyst, we need you again.” Hawkmoth simply said as he clutched his head, an expression of pain on his face.

Nathalie was confused, Catalyst had been amazing during Heroes Day but she was sure that she would never have to be used again.

“H-How many Sir?” She comforted Hawkmoth by rubbing his back as he endured the headache.

Yet she still felt a shiver run down her unemotional spine as a strange grin grew on Hawkmoth’s face.

“A whole school.”

Adrien ducked underneath a boy who had just gotten hit in the face by his own sister. He ran away from a few girls who were pinning down another girl, one of them brought out a stapler but Adrien looked away so he wouldn’t have to see what they were doing to her.

He still felt bad when he heard her cries for help along with the sound of the stapler closing down on something.

Adrien managed to move to the middle of the courtyard, a full view of everything happening around him as he searched desperately for where Marinette could be.

When he found no sign of her, he sighed in relief, she was late again.

Then he heard a familiar tune, one that every time someone heard it, they commented on how creepy it was.

This tune was never sung with words and only came from one person.

Adrien’s arm grew numb as his body simultaneously grew cold as he turned around and looked directly up to the second floor, where the tune was coming from.

Claus sat on the railing, humming his signature creepy song and still twirling that knife in his hands, yet no one noticed because they were too wrapped up in their own fights.

But Adrien was the only one who knew who exactly caused this and sent the emails.

Claus was right when he said there would be a punishment for his actions.

Adrien quickly rushed to the stairs, avoiding a boy and a girl who got pushed down them and landed on the floor with loud thuds. He shoved down the people who pushed the boy and the girl and dashed away towards the railing.

Claus’s head followed his every move as the black haired boy continued to whistle his tune. His hair once again covered his eyes.

Claus’s black hobo gloves shone bright as he watched Adrien get closer and closer, for a moment he hoped Adrien was coming to slap him again so he could give him another punishment.

After all this school was starting to get boring and Claus had just found a new form of entertainment, he decided that no one could blame him for wanting to play with his new toy.

Lila could only be his best friend for so long.

Claus looked down and saw Lila standing near the shadows on the first floor, her face a mix of fear and excitement as Claus contemplated what next to do with her.

He shrugged though, he’d figure out what to do later.

He turned around to see Adrien right in front of him, the look of pure anger on his face made Claus grin.

But the pleading look on Adrien’s face as he bent down and held his hands together made him freeze.

“PLEASE CLAUS! STOP THIS! PLEASE DON'T LET EVERYBODY GET AKUMATIZED!”

Claus was in such a state of shock, he forgot momentarily to not show his emotions, his shock on full view for everyone to see if they paid enough attention to their conversation.

Yet he didn’t have to fake his glee at Adrien’s dread, he really loved seeing people give him that look when he had them trapped in a corner and he especially loved seeing Adrien like that.

Claus gripped the railing he was sitting on hard as his feet swung back and forth and his grin of innocence came on his face like a mask. The knife he had been holding was swiftly put away into his pocket.

“Stop what Adrien?” He taunted, he knew exactly what Adrien was talking about.

He had planned for this after all.

“The akumas! Hawkmoth’s going to sense everyone’s emotions and send a mass of akumas to akumatize them!” Adrien cried, getting closer to Claus to hopefully make the boy feel some sort of sympathy.

Claus’s head moved away as he pretended to think it over, occasionally glancing at Adrien to see his expressions, delighting over Adrien’s growing sense of doom dripping off him.

He could practically taste it.

Then Claus’s gaze moved up and his smile became twisted.

Adrien also looked up and the urge to throw up hit him in full force.

Thousands of akuma butterflies were surrounding the school, blocking the sun with their bright blood red wings yet no one noticed.

Except Adrien and Claus.

Both of them looked down at the same time to see the looks on each other’s faces as they realized what was going to happen.

“I accept,” Adrien said quickly.

“Accept what?” Claus purred.

“The contract, I’ll do whatever you say, I’ll be your best friend and I won’t tell Plagg and any one else.” 

Claus’s grin grew large, backup plan completed.

You see, Claus had a feeling that Adrien would decline the contract even with his threats and him trying to kill the blond.

So he came up with a plan to guarantee Adrien would be forced to accept the plan and would never even think of going against the contract.

Not when he knew lives were at stake.

“I forgive you!” Claus beamed at the scared tears falling down Adrien’s face, his hand gently wiping them away and patting Adrien on the head.

Before he leaned backwards and fell to the first floor.

Bunnyx felt cold water brush her with trembling spiky hands, then she felt a rush of cool air blow against her.

Muffled voices filled her ear as she was placed on something and something warm was pulled over her body.

Bunnyx sighed as she welcomed the nice relaxing thought of sleep.

Hours passed when she finally opened her eyes to see she was on a bed, a dim light bulb above her lighting up the room with a nice warm comforter pulled over her.

Bunnyx also felt that she was strapped to the bed, leather straps keeping her from moving but giving her enough space to breathe if she fell back asleep again.

She turned her head to the left to see a bare black wall.

She turned her head to the right to see a young girl reading a book, calmly flipping each page and ignoring Bunnyx.

“Where-“

The book was suddenly closed as the girl looked up at Bunnyx, her ocean blue eyes scanning Bunnyx all over.

“You don’t look much like a thief, and your portal entrance was horrible to say the least.” The girl mumbled to herself as she placed her book on Bunnyx’s chest.

Bunnyx blinked then smiled anxiously. “Didn’t know that I was going to be tested on my portal creating skills, it’s my second time sending a burrow to another dimension.” Her voice was groggy from the sleep and Bunnyx started coughing to get water out of her throat.

The girl merely raised an eyebrow.

“You landed in my pool,” The girl started explaining. “While I was taking my bath.”

A red blush came onto Bunnyx’s face but she didn’t want to wallow in embarrassment.

“Look,” She tried to reason as she squirmed against her straps. “I’m looking for someone that can help me stop a bad person who I accidentally sent to my world, he’s causing chaos and I have to stop him.”

The girl only blinked.

“So you weren’t trying to steal anything or be a pervert?” She tilted her head curiously.

“No,” Bunnyx snorted. “I just need to ask you a question.”

The girl tilted her head back and nodded to let Bunnyx question her.

Bunnyx narrowed her eyes. “Do you know Claus?”

The girl froze, her blue eyes growing wide as she clutched her dress in her hands like a lifeline.

Bunnyx didn’t say anything as she watched multiple emotions run over the girl’s eyes.

Fear, Love, Fear again, shock, multiple other emotions.

Shock was the emotion she settled on though.

“Why-Why do you need to know-know th-th-that?” The girl immediately grabbed her throat, gulping harshly as she tried to control her stuttering.

Bunnyx knew that she had her answer but she couldn’t grin at the sight of the girl’s distress. 

“I brought him to my world, he’s the one I have to stop and I need your help.” Bunnyx softened her eyes at the poor girl.

The girl glared at her like a parent about to scold a child for their actions because of the fact Bunnyx had brought Claus to her world when her face became tired instead and her eyes grew distant.

“It’s been so long since I’ve heard anything about him,” She whispered to herself and frowned in thought, her hands let go of her dress and placed themselves calmly in her lap, one crossed over another.

“So you do know him?” Bunnyx raised an eyebrow.

The girl sent her a glare before going back to looking through her memories. 

She only nodded to confirm that she did indeed know Claus.

Then she didn’t say anything more.

She did snap her fingers though and the straps keeping Bunnyx down disappeared in a flash but Bunnyx didn’t move.

She just stared at the girl who stared at a tall purple flower sitting on a nicely decorated desk.

None of them had any idea how long that silence lasted.

Bunnyx faintly heard the sounds of a clock.

And she smelt the scent of Mint, and could even taste it on her tongue.

But she put all that away in her mind as she tried to guess what the girl was thinking.

She hated it when she had to guess the emotions of someone who was good at keeping them hidden.

She waited for the girl to tell what she was thinking though, not moving off the bed, only waiting.

Then finally the girl turned to look at her, she looked nervous but determined.

“What’s your name?”

“Bunnyx.” Bunnyx replied hopefully.

The girl nodded and turned around, Bunnyx felt her hope sway when the girl’s head looked at the flower again.

Before she turned towards the door of the room and bent down to reach for something under the bed.

“I’ll help you.” She spoke softly as Bunnyx heard something brush against glass.

She raised an eyebrow confused but her eyes grew wide when the girl brought out a large scythe with a clean edge, flowers with a faint scent were braided onto the snath along with a single red ribbon. 

“My name is Flower Star,” Flower Star said as she caressed the ribbon, a blush growing in her pale face.

“Claus’s ex-fiancée.”

Adrien rushed to clench the railing as he saw Claus’s feet disappear when he fell.

Adrien looked down just in time to see Claus do several flips in the air before rolling onto his butt before he crashed into the ground.

Claus looked up over his shoulder to send Adrien a wicked grin before he ran forward and towards where a bunch of tables and chairs were thrown together and kids were running back and forth to grab some to attack each other with and others were thrown back into the pile, broken but could still be used.

Claus climbed onto the pile, crawling up to the top and to a secure spot where he could stand and not fall.

He lifted himself shakily, his nervous new kid mask appearing once again in his stature and his face before the real Claus took over and he stood high and proud on the large pile, looking down at the screaming peasants before him.

Claus took a moment to breath in the smell of fresh copper blood, hear the screams of terror and laughter all around him, and gaze upon the mess he caused.

Some called it a mess, he called it a masterpiece.

He took a moment to look up at the still rapidly growing sphere of bright red akuma butterflies, still waiting for a command to attack the unsuspecting students and create even more chaos.

Claus couldn’t help it, he just had to savor this moment because what he was going to do next was definitely not going to be fun.

After staring at the butterflies for a few moments, he then made his face form a determined look as he grabbed a megaphone that a student had thrown onto the pile after ripping it from Mr.Damocles’s hand.

“EVERYONE!” He yelled into the megaphone, making sure that everyone could hear him even if they were across from the school.

All students and teachers froze, their faces showing brief anger at being stopped while others looked like they could die from relief at not being killed.

Claus ignored them all.

“ARE WE REALLY GOING TO HURT THOSE WE LOVE ALL FOR SOME STUPID EMAILS SOMEONE WITH NO SOUL SENT!?”

No one answered.

“IS THIS WHAT OUR FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE HAS COME TO!? THE MOMENT YOUR SECRET GETS OUT YOU ATTACK THOSE YOU THINK DID IT WITHOUT QUESTIONING!?”

Claus noticed Alya wince at the questioning part but he had to keep up his facade so he saved his giggles for later.

“WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO GAIN FROM THIS!? GETTING AKUMATIZED!?” To prove his point, Claus pointed directly upwards and everyone followed his hand.

Their eyes widened at the sight of the horrible familiar red butterflies as their faces grew pale while the realization slowly set in.

Claus looked behind him, making everyone believe that he was just looking at the far side of the courtyard for something when really he was sticking his tongue out at Adrien, then he mouth only a few words.

Remember our deal.

Before he could see Adrien’s reaction Claus quickly turned back to face the crowd and scream some more into the megaphone in his hands.

Adrien felt sick at the way everyone seemed to eat up Claus’s words, their eyes betraying the fact they saw Claus as a hope in darkness that was guiding them the right way.

These were really the people he had practically sold his soul to the devil to save?

Adrien shook his head at that thought.

No, they were good people, they were just tricked and now they’re being tricked again but this time they’ll be safe from akumatization.

His stomach still curled with dread though.

He gently held his broken arm as he slowly made his way down the stairs.

Claus’s words ringing in his ears.

“FORGIVE EACH OTHER AND PROTECT! WE CAN’T BE AKUMATIZED!”

“HAWKMOTH WON’T BEAT US DOWN!”

“KEEP YOUR ANGER DOWN AND DON'T LET HAWKMOTH BOSS YOU AROUND!” 

The crowd cheered, their anger fading the more Claus spoke, and he spoke a lot.

Eventually Claus spoke his final words and took a moment to take in a deep breath.

Unfortunately for him, the crowd was so enthusiastic at Claus and his speech that they all climbed onto the pile, grabbing at his hair, sides, legs and arms to lift him up into the air then catch him then throw him back up into the air.

For any other person they would be screaming in laughter and happiness at the thought of people loving them so much that they would ignore their shaking arms to grab at their body and lift them.

But Claus saw red.

He didn’t let it show on his face though, making his eyes wide and his mouth shaped into an o shape.

Claus hated being touched, he hated all their happy faces and he hated how they thought they could just touch him.

But what he hated the most was not even the fact he was being touched,

It was what he saw when he got lifted into the air one more time that made him almost break his mask.

Adrien was standing near the entrance, clutching his broken arm while Marinette, who had just come running into the school due to waking up late, looked over his wound.

She was close.

Too Close.

Adrien felt someone watching him, the shiver going down his spine had nothing to do with Marinette but with how his feeling of dread increased tenfold.

His gaze moved from Mari’s sweet smelling dark blue locks,

And into the deep dark pool of darkness in Claus’s eyes.

Clash fell back into the crowd of students and teachers before he was lifted back up.

His eyes were the only thing that showed his true expression.

The expression of an enraged cat getting annoyed at its prey getting too smart.

Or, too close,

To the Cat’s mate. 

Chapter Text

Adrien trembled as he tried to remain still while he bent down with his knees on the polished cold ground (Claus had forced him to wear shorts) and his hands were spread out in front of him.

Claus however calmly read a history book while placing his crossed ankles on Adrien’s back, humming to his signature tune as he sometimes lifted his ankles only to make them fall harshly back on Adrien’s back.

If that wasn’t enough to embarrass the model, then Claus had told him to read out children’s books out loud and sing them.

Plus Claus was also recording this whole thing.

Adrien stumbled on a few of his words and immediately grit his teeth as he knew Claus would do something.

But what he thought would happen didn’t happen because Claus didn’t aim for his back this time.

He aimed for his neck.

Adrien lay coughing on the ground and clutching his neck, hearing Claus’s smooth laughter fill the air at his misfortune and wishing that the other boy would just shut up.

Claus suddenly stopped laughing.

“You know,” He paused, Adrien felt his eyes on him. “This is getting boring.”

Adrien’s breath got caught in his throat.

Though he knew his next action would be a definite mistake, he did it anyway.

Claus calmly watched as Adrien crawled away, getting up on his feet and preparing to run away from his bedroom. Claus had come over 2 hours ago, asking and pretending to want to be with Adrien so that they could study together.

In reality he had just needed something to take his anger on.

Did Claus really mean it when he said he was going to be the emotional punching bag?

Adrien would never know.

He did know that he was in trouble though when he felt sharp nails crawl around his neck and forcefully shove him backwards.

The fingers wrapped around his neck seemed to get tighter as heavy breathing brushed against his ear.

“Where are you going huh?” Claus chuckled, mostly to himself.

“I haven’t heard you bark yet.”

Adrien couldn’t say anything more as he was punched into the ground, the pain made his head swim and his head throb as he felt Claus’s hand let go.

Then he felt Claus’s shoe once again unfortunately hit Adrien’s stomach and his back was back up off the floor and his hands were still on the floor.

Claus quietly placed his foot back on Adrien’s back, making sure that the tip of his shoe was at least touching one of Adrien’s ribs as he smiled to himself.

“I’ve always wondered what animal you secretly are on the inside,” Claus mumbled to himself, his face showing detachment at Adrien’s pain and pleading face.

He even yawned to show how much he didn’t care.

If Adrien hadn’t seen his smile then he would actually believe that Claus was tired and would stop tormenting him.

“I thought to myself, a cat? A bird? A donkey?” He grinned as he placed more weight on his foot and saw Adrien’s mouth fall open.

“And then I finally realized,”

Adrien gladly felt the shoe lift from his back but his hope diminished at the thought of Claus coming for his neck again.

Claus didn’t though, he just sat down in front of Adrien, slapped Adrien’s hands a few times before leaning close to his face.

“You’re a worthless, disgusting, disgraceful, hideous dog.”

Adrien didn’t even feel the tears.

He only saw them in Claus’s smiling eyes.

“Bark,” Claus ordered, beaming with delight.

“W-Woof Woof-Woof?”

“Better! Like you mean it!” Claus snapped his fingers against Adrien’s nose, the wound from the punch making itself known again and causing more tears to fall.

But Adrien barked.

Against his will but he barked.

This went on for several minutes.

Claus would grin and pat his head, giving him praises like ‘Good dog’, ‘Good Boy!’.

Adrien genuinely wanted to throw up.

It was faint.

So faint that Adrien didn’t even hear it over his tears.

Yet Claus somehow did.

“Shit!” He grit his teeth harshly as he grabbed Adrien and shoved him onto his feet.

The boy then pushed Adrien into his computer chair, not noticing Adrien spinning around in the chair and quickly grabbed several books and placed them on top of each other.

He then grabbed another chair and sat down on it, taking a book and opening it to a random page and absently snatching a piece of paper to write down complex math problems.

Adrien looked at Claus confused which made Claus look up to glare at him before realizing that Adrien still had tear streaks on his face.

Claus grabbed a piece of tissue paper out of his pocket and hurriedly cleaned up Adrien’s tears, cursing and glaring as he made sure Adrien didn’t look like he had been crying.

But there was still the punch wound.

Claus seemed to glare at it, wanting the wound to disappear.

“When she comes in, don’t you dare go against our deal.” Claus warned.

And not a second too soon as Nathalie came walking in.

His Father’s assistant looked around the room, her cold gaze settling on both of the boys who seemed to be studying some math problems at the moment.

She only nodded before writing down on her tablet.

“Your father can’t make it to dinner again, Adrien. Be prepared to say goodbye to your friend in 20 minutes.” 

“T-Thank you Nathalie,” 

Nathalie paused, staring straight at Adrien’s back.

She then came closer.

Nathalie’s head was pushed in between both of the boy’s heads.

“Is the air conditioning too cold Adrien? You’re shivering.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. Nathalie was close enough to see the wound.

“N-No. It’s fine,” He added as a second thought when Nathalie turned to face him.

Claus didn’t bother looking up once.

Adrien expected Nathalie’s eyes to widen and ask him where the wound came from and how he got it, possibly reciting his father’s words about always keeping his face intact because of his modeling career.

Yet Nathalie just blinked and moved away, her heels clinking against the ground as she walked away and out of the room.

Claus still didn’t look up when she left.

Adrien though shot out of his chair and ran to see his reflection in his full length.

His face wound was gone.

“C-Claus?”

Claus didn’t answer.

Adrien turned around to see that the computer was on, his background picture of him and his mother Emilié on full display with three screens to show the picture on all sides.

Claus stared at the picture, his usual smile no longer on his face and his eyes seeming tired.

Adrien opened his mouth to question why Claus suddenly seemed tired when Claus got up abruptly.

“Leaving. See you later, Agreste.” He said curtly as he picked up the backpack he had thrown at the couch when he arrived and put it on hastily.

Adrien didn't get to say anything more as Claus quickly walked away.

“Your wound? I made it go away,” He merely said before leaving the room.

Adrien heard Claus’s feet walk down the main stairs, then the front entrance door sounded like it was being opened.

Then it slammed close.

Adrien stared more at the door, wondering why Claus suddenly seemed to act the way he did as he heavily sat down in his seat.

He didn’t feel Plagg’s presence on his shoulder until the Kwami spoke, (Adrien made the Kwami stay away from the room due to Claus’s deal)

“Hey Kid, I know you’re not going to tell me what happened but I thought I heard something that sounded like a kicked puppy, can you tell me anything about that?”

Adrien wanted to say something.

But he didn’t.

But he couldn’t.

He simply stayed quiet.

Claus stretched and yawned into his fist and he laid in his blanket, looking at the open window that showed the dark night time sky.

Stars would briefly blink and then vanish, making Claus narrow his eyes to see where they went.

It was a fun little game he liked to play when he wasn’t trying to fall asleep.

Unfortunately sleep is something he never had.

He would often ask Flower Star what she saw in her dreams when they were younger when she took a nap near him, and when she told him he would pretend to have actually been there.

But of course he wasn’t.

Claus growled to himself before lifting the blanket and pulling it over his head.

He didn’t bother to sleep, just grabbed his phone on the desk and opened it underneath the covers.

The bright light didn’t pause him as he scrolled through pictures of every single person in school.

Pictures he had taken in private.

Some had red x’s over their faces while others had drawn question marks around their heads.

Claus paused on one particular picture though.

It was one of Alya, Nino, Adrien and Marinette.

Alya had a smiley face drawn next to her along with horrible drawn tears dripping down her smiling face, Nino had black scribbles drawn over his head along with the words ‘No’ written in red all over him.

Adrien had a leash drawn around his neck, also with another smiley face drawn above him but this one had its eyebrows facing downward so it looked more like an evil smiling face.

Marinette was the only one that had roses drawn all over her.

Yet Claus swiftly swiped away from the picture and turned off the phone.

He sighed as he lifted the cover off him and stared right into the hallucination of Flower Star.

“What? I haven’t done anything,” He raised an eyebrow at it.

The hallucination only rolled their eyes.

Claus ignored the eye roll and fell back on his bed, his head hitting the soft pillow and yet he didn’t feel tired.

“Can you sing me the lullaby you always sang to me?”

The hallucination shook their head, their expression a look of pity.

And it made Claus angry.

He glared at the hallucination before grabbing the blanket again and pulling it over his half naked state, rolling away to face the wall instead of the fragment of his imagination.

He didn’t bother to stop the hallucination from walking to that side of the bed and sitting down to pat his head.

And he definitely didn’t allow it to continue (He did)

“I miss you,” He softly as he closed his eyes, pretending to be able to fall asleep.

The hallucination said nothing.

“I saw mother, Adrien’s mom is also gone but I think he still misses her.”

The hallucination couldn’t speak but it still asked a silent question.

Do you miss her?

“No. I always hated her for some reason, she was always scared about something, crying and always jittery yet she always asked me to smile.”

Claus opened his eyes this time.

“I never listen to cowards.”

Alix looked up from talking with her Kwami Fluff, the white rabbit also pausing to look at the new person that walked into one of the two living rooms in this house.

A 16 year old girl holding a large scythe that was covered with blood.

Her own blood.

Alix froze at the sight but Flower Star calmly walked away from them, her blood dripping on the floor as she walked away from them.

Then a few minutes passed and Flower Star returned clean with no trace of blood and a light pink nightgown, a soft smile in her face as she sat down on a large armchair.

“Luck must be on your side for you to arrive here while my parents are gone for a few weeks, Bunnyx.” Flower Star mused.

Alix shakily grinned, humor coming up to mask how she felt that Flower Star had just been standing before them calmly in her own blood.

“Well at least your father can’t kick me out huh?”

Flower Star’s blue eyes took on a mischievous spark. “You’re right. He would have just killed you on the spot.”

Alix gulped.

“Don’t worry though,” Her eyes widened as a pleading look came on her face. “I would have stopped him, I consider you my-“

Flower Star froze at the way she had placed her hand on her heart and how she had been willing to stop her overprotective father from killing an intruder.

She quickly closed up her feelings, her face going back to show a neutral look and her hands were crossed once again in her lap.

Alix had been around the girl enough to know that there was no way to get her open up once she closed up herself.

So she simply asked the more important questions,

“What happened to you?” 

Flower Star blinked, the burning light from the fireplace lighting up her face and her shadows.

Maybe if Alix looked closer, she could see Flower Star’s secrets.

“My family has been long line of grim reapers, we get rid of demons who have died and are causing havoc in this world so the rest can live in peace or continue with their disgusting lives if they want,”

Alix froze at the last part but Flower Star went on without discussing what she said.

“Like your akumas, but these spirits can kill and hurt you badly if you’re not trained well. Thankfully my mother trained me from the moment I turned 3 so I would be prepared for this.”

Flower Star mumbled something else but Alix didn’t hear what she said.

Flower Star gazed at Fluff who was now sitting down on Alix’s spiky hair. 

“Now that your Kwami is well, and you’re safe, why aren’t you leaving?” Despite how blunt the question was, Alix could tell Flower Star didn’t mean anything mean by asking it.

Though it was still embarrassing to answer.

“Well you see, uh, It was an accident that I sent Claus over to my world and It almost killed me to send a burrow again into your world so I’m kinda trying but at the same time failing to create another portal back to my home.”

Fluff giggled and Alix sent a glare at her direction but stopped when Flower Star also giggled.

“It’s okay, failure creates masterpieces, that’s what my mother always says, you can stay as long as you like.” 

Flower Star yawned when she finished talking, finally sitting up from the large armchair and waving at Alix while trying to keep down another yawn.

“Anyway, you know where the guest room that you’re staying in is so I’m going to go and sleep, have a good rest Bunnyx,” Flower Star spoke softly as she walked away.

Adrien was at his wits end.

The kidnapper still hadn’t been found even though there hadn’t been a kidnapping for weeks now.

His classmates were still missing.

His still here classmates still avoided him.

Claus still tormented him.

Though now that Adrien was thinking, he was trying to figure out who was the kidnapper.

Though his school only had about 5 kidnappings, for some reason the kidnapper had left clues on Kim and Max.

The laptop and the marks at the bottom of the pool.

And these appearing clues were honestly useless because one was going against him and the other only told them what happened to Kim.

But Adrien had a feeling.

And he knew just the person to question.

Yet Adrien watched along with everyone as their apparent ‘Hope in the darkness’ walked into the school.

After Claus’s speech about resisting Hawkmoth during the school fight and making everyone have enough positive emotions in them that the akumas surrounding the school disappeared, his reputation of being a quiet new kid who was always on his notebook and always covered his eyes skyrocketed into their ‘Hope in the darkness’.

And that title came with company.

Suddenly everyone wanted to be Claus’s friend, some wanted to pretend that they knew everything about him and others just wanted to be near him.

But Claus wasn’t the person he wanted to question.

Adrien walked down the stairs and made his way to the hallway that led to the locker rooms, glancing behind him to make sure no one was following him.

He reached the door and opened it slowly to not alert anyone of his presence, and just hoped no one else would be in the women's locker room.

Thankfully there was no one except the person he wanted to question.

Lila Rossi, Claus’s best friend supposedly.

Lila was just putting away her things while simultaneously being on her phone when Adrien coughed loudly.

“Hey Lila,” 

Lila tensed and slammed her locker close, her phone was shoved deep in her pocket as she turned around, a sweet smile glued on her face.

“Yes Adrien?”

Adrien could definitely see what Lila thought this conversation was going to be.

And he felt some pleasure at popping her bubble.

“How come you and Claus are apparently best friends yet you’ve barely hung out together?” Adrien questioned with a look he hoped looked like innocence and curiosity.

Lila though looked disappointed for a second before her smile was back on her face, this time with more glue pressed on it to keep it from slipping.

“Well he’s gotten so popular lately that we can’t seem to get any time together at school so we just hang out at home.”

“But he only got popular recently?” Everyone knew that, just a few days ago if you asked people what they thought about Claus they wouldn’t say much.

But now there was endless compliments, praises and shouts of their ‘Hope in Darkness’ 

And weren’t Claus and Lila best friends before that?

Lila seemed like someone had just given her a frog to eat and she backtracked.

“Yeah but we’re just so close that he’s never going to l-leave me,”

Adrien didn’t believe her.

He was getting tired of this.

“Look Lila, I’ll get straight to the point.” Adrien sighed and crossed his arms while glaring at her.

“Does Claus have something to do with the kidnappings? I know he also tricked you too into becoming ‘best friends’ with him and how he manipulates others, if you want any hope of leaving his grasp then you have to help me Lila!” He pleaded with her, his glare forgotten.

Lila just stared at him with wide eyes.

“He’s watching.”

Huh?

Lila quickly dashed away, Adrien was just about to call for her when she came running back in the locker room.

“No one’s here. I have enough time to tell you what I know.”

Adrien looked around him quickly, searching for any security cameras but there were none.

His search stopped abruptly when Lila forcefully grabbed his wrists.

“It hurts, he controls my every move and knows exactly where I am at all times. I-I think there’s a reason why he doesn’t show anyone his eyes and hide them behind his hair. He did something to me and now all I can think of telling everyone about him in a good way and-“

“Lila!”

Lila froze, looking up at Adrien with her suddenly exhausted eyes.

“You’re crushing my wrists,”

Lila’s eyes widened and she let go, trembling as she watched Addien massaged his wrists.

“Look, I’ll help you, even though you always lie and also manipulate others to get what you want I’m still going to help you Lila.” Adrien spoke gently.

Lila smiled in relief.

“Anything else I should know about Claus?”

Lila shook her head. “Just make sure you save me and not become useless during that.”

Of course Lila would say that.

Adrien was tempted to suddenly disagree and not want to help her anymore but he ignored that thought and walked away, shifting the new information in his mind around.

He grew numb though when he saw who was blocking his way of leaving the locker room.

“Well, well, well~ If isn't my two best friends.” Claus purred as he walked forward, forcing Adrien to move backwards and stand right next to Lila.

They were both trapped.

Claus’s grin grew as he twirled around a piece of his hair. “What were you guys talking about? We’re all friends here, friends share secrets and trust, not betrayal.”

Adrien didn’t miss the hardness at the word betrayal or the feeling that Claus was glaring at him specifically even though he couldn’t see his eyes.

Lila opened her mouth at that moment, probably to say something when Claus started clapping.

The sound bounced off the walls three times, making them silent and tense as Claus continued.

“Let me guess, hmmm” His head moved from looking at Adrien to Lila.

Then he looked down at Adrien’s wrists, the dents from where Lila had held them still visible.

“Oh! I get it now! You guys were probably kissing, weren’t you?”

Claus’s smile made Adrien want to throw up as he said those words,

“What!? No! We weren’t! We were talking about-“ Adrien froze and quickly slapped his hand on his mouth to stop himself from talking.

Claus’s grin somehow grew bigger and wider. “What was that Adrien? You said something but then you stopped so rudely.” A pout then appeared on Claus’s face as he tsked and shook his head. “So mean Adrien, but this is exactly why I have Lila as my other friend.”

“Oh Lila!” Claus taunted. “What were you and Adrien talking about?”

Adrien immediately turned to Lila and shook his head several times, wishing that whatever control Claus had on her wouldn’t make her speak.

But she did. 

“Adrien came and asked me if you had anything to do with the kidnappings, he wanted to save me and help me and I told him what I know about you! I told him all about how suspicious I think it is that you never show your eyes and how much I’m suffering! He’s trying to bring us apart!” Lila cried out in one gulp.

The room went quiet except for Lila desperately trying to gain back her breath after saying all of that.

Claus beamed. “Well that sounds much more interesting than a make out session,”

Adrien was the one to open his mouth this time but Claus was still the one to interrupt, the locker room somehow becoming so cold that it caused the both of them to shiver yet Claus didn’t tremble once.

“I’m glad that you’re finally seeing the things around you, Adrien.” He didn’t sound glad. “But what evidence do you even have? A feeling? Something told me that the new kid was the kidnapper?” Claus taunted as he pretended to be crying, a mockery of Adrien.

“I’m serious Officers! I think the new kid did it! No this isn’t jealousy! I actually think he kidnapped those students!” Claus mocked.

He then suddenly stopped playing around and his mouth was set into a deep frown. “You seem to have forgotten that I was at your house the night Max was kidnapped, and the fact that Max wrote down your last name and not mine.” Claus pointed out. “And besides you can’t even blame me for Kim’s disappearance because I wasn’t even at the pool that day! If I was then the police would have seen me on the security cameras!”

Adrien felt it when Claus rolled his eyes. “Play time‘s over Agreste! You may not have gone against any of the rules in our deal but you’re still making me angry!” Claus stomped his foot as he cried out.

The display made Lila shake some more but it just made Adrien angry.

“Who do you think you are Claus? You can’t just make deals and make people’s lives horrible just for your own enjoyment!?”

“Last time I checked, dogs don’t go against their owners!” Claus berated him back.

“Last time I checked, there was something called a human soul!” Adrien barked back.

“IF A HUMAN SOUL MAKES WEAK PEOPLE LIKE YOU THEN I DON'T WANT IT!”

“YOU’RE HUMAN TOO CLAUS! YOU CAN’T BE THAT HEARTLESS!”

“LIKE I’D EVER BE ON YOUR LEVEL AGRESTE!”

“THINK OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU’VE HURT!”

“WHY IN HELL WOULD I EVER THINK OF BROKEN TOYS!”

“PEOPLE AREN'T TOYS TO BE PLAYED WITH!”

“I’LL DO WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT!”

Tears were now at the edge of each boy’s eyes as they screamed at each other like fighting brothers.

“PEOPLE LIKE YOU DESERVE TO DIE!”

“GOLDEN BOYS LIKE YOU SHOULDN’T TALK!”

Adrien opened his mouth to send another insult at Claus when only air came out.

Both boys froze at the lack of words being exchanged as Adrien struggled to speak suddenly.

His voice wasn’t working.

Even Lila, who had been meaning to sneak out of the room like the coward she was, stopped and looked at Claus who had said those exact words that somehow made Adrien unable to speak.

Golden Boys shouldn’t snap, The words from Adrien’s recent dream spoke in his mind as he stared confused at Claus, still unable to use his voice.

Claus looked like he was going to be the one to throw up.

But then his look of terror seemed to slip off.

His left hand came up and brushed up and brushed against his face, hiding it for a brief moment.

And it moved away,

There was a smiling black haired boy with the same green eyes as Adrien beaming right back.

It was just another facade.

How many did he have?

But no matter how many times Claus put up a mask on his face, Adrien would always be sure of this one thing.

Claus had made a mistake.

“You’re just trying to trick us aren’t you Adrien?” Claus questioned. “You’re pretending not to speak so that you can just walk away from this clean AREN’T you!?”

Adrien wasn’t stupid, he could see that Claus was trying to cover up the fact he was the one that made Adrien’s voice disappear.

“I can’t even-“ Adrien froze, his voice was back.

Unfortunately this now looked like Claus was telling the truth and Adrien was trying to get sympathy.

Exactly what Claus wanted to happen.

Claus’s grin became sharp.

“Would you look at that, we have a liar on our hands,” He glanced at Lila then turned back on Adrien. “Well to be specific, one is male.” 

Claus’s giggles filled the air as Adrien attempted to think of something that wouldn’t make everything seem worse for him.

And just in every single time where a character is trying to save their skin from something, the greatest savior always comes to their rescue.

The homeroom bell.

The bell screeched in all their ears as Adrien and Lila scrambled away, leaving a furious Claus alone in the locker room.

And Claus swore he would make Adrien pay for even thinking of going against him.

How many times did that guy need to be shown that his actions would only cause other people hurt if he got in the way?

Claus was getting sick and tired of it.

He needed a way to make sure Adrien stayed loyal and quiet.

And if that didn’t come to anything.

The warehouse he was keeping his victims was looking quite empty recently,

It would be wonderful to have someone new to torture and scare and confuse the police.

A deranged smile appeared on Claus’s face as he brushed his hair back to cover his eyes.

There was a reason why he said Golden Boys shouldn’t snap or talk.

Chapter Text

“BREAKING NEWS! THIS IS NADJA CHAMACK AND WE HAVE BREAKING NEWS OF THE KIDNAPPER THAT HAS KIDNAPPED AND KILLED MULTIPLE PARISIAN CIVILIANS!”

Adrien stared at the Tv with his phone in his hand, Plagg sat down calmly on his shoulder, his fur pointed upwards.

“LAST NIGHT A TOTAL OF 500,000 WERE KILLED AND ARRANGED AT CHAMP DE MARS TO FORM THE WORDS ‘YOU’LL SEE WHAT I’M CAPABLE OF’!”

“Nadja, what do you think the kidnapper is trying to say?”

“I don’t know Clara, but if they’re able to do all of this then we should definitely be prepared for whatever is in store for the sake of Paris, the police are currently sending out an arrest warrant for whoever is responsible and pleading Parisians to speak up and send in anything that can help stop this monster. Heck, this might be foolish of me to say but this person is much worse than Hawkmoth.”

Clara nodded on the screen. “I agree Nadja, but coming up is the recent drama on Twitter where everybody isn’t sure whether they can trust Chat Noir or not due to an Akuma attack that took place just a few months ago, here are some comments-“

Plagg turned off the Tv.

He watched as Adrien trembled and blinked only once, the hand holding his phone shivering as it brought it up to Adrien’s face to show him the message Claus had sent him last.

You reap what you sow

Now do you see what I’m capable of?

You don’t have any evidence or proof

This is your punishment

Hope you’re ready for school today

Don’t try to skip or pretend, I’ll find you

Since you want to play so much

I’ll play

I’ll keep you close until I get bored of you

You and I will be together for forever 

Until I leave, you’re mine

Golden Boys always stick together

Adrien struggled to read some of the words, what did he mean until he leaves? What did he mean Golden Boys stick together? Is this another manipulation tactic?

Adrien couldn’t tell.

H-He just, he had to go to school.

He had to see what he caused to happen.

He shouldn’t have made Claus angry.

Plagg could sense his feelings as the Kwami quietly watched Adrien pick up his bag that he had dropped when the Tv turned on.

Plagg flew over to the window and closed it and floated into Adrien’s pocket, the blond not even noticing the Kwami as he walked down the stairs.

He caused this.

He should have known even someone like him who everybody respected would never be heard.

Alix and Fluff moved to stand right next to Flower Star who was just looking at a large painting in the hallway.

The painting showed frozen flowers in a flower pot, a mix of colors that could spark different emotions.

“So, not sure if I can ask this but how did you meet Claus?”

If Alix didn’t know what Flower Star went through everyday then she definitely would have heard Flower Star’s neck snap by the way her head spun around to look at Alix.

Alix didn’t turn to look at Flower Star, she just stared at the frozen flowers.

“The way Claus always meets new people,” Alix heard the smile in Flower Star’s voice.

Alix chuckled. “By tricking them?”

Flower Star turned back to look at the painting. “By killing them,” She corrected.

Alix froze and Fluff grew tense, especially at Flower Star’s laughter.

“Don’t worry! I’m not dead, Claus did try to kill me but he didn’t do it,” Flower Star smiled as she turned to look at Alix who stared back.

“Why didn’t he not do it?”

Flower Star was the one to grow tense this time.

“T-This painting, I don’t remember where it came from but it was probably made by one of my father’s friends,” Flower Star tried to deflect the question but Alix could tell she didn’t want to answer.

“That’s nice.” Alix mumbled.

There was no answer from Flower Star.

Fluff and Alix turned around at the same time to see the girl was gone.

Adrien didn’t have to see the scared looks all around him.

He didn’t even have to look at a crying Nino who was sitting in fear underneath the staircase (Though Adrien couldn’t tell if Nino was crying over the murders or the fact Alya broke up with him)

He didn’t feel relief when he saw Marinette talking with Mylene, Ivan and Nathaniel.

How could he, 

When all he had to know that something really bad was going to happen was just by looking at how happy Claus was as the black haired boy came skipping towards him.

If he didn’t feel like he could just cry or punch something, he would have actually thought something amazing happened to Claus despite the fact 500,000 people died overnight.

Claus soon came skipping into Adrien’s view,

And hugged him.

“Don’t tremble Adrien,” Claus whispered into Adrien’s ear, not caring about how the blond didn’t hug back.

“You shouldn’t be shaking, after all,” Claus let go of Adrien to look at him.

“This is all your fault.”

Adrien pleaded, he was sick of pleading like a broken record but he pleaded once more.

“Please Claus, if you have an actual soul in you, just please stop whatever you’re going to do,”

“People died last night Claus, everybody doesn’t-“

Adrien’s words were cut off when Claus suddenly pushed his hands on Adrien’s face, effectively stopping Adrien from speaking but also making him feel his teeth brush together in a way that was not fun.

“Say another word and I’ll cut off your tongue,” Claus spoke abruptly before moving to be beside Adrien and firmly grabbed Adrien’s arm.

“Well if that’s the last stupid thing that’s going to come out of your mouth, I would appreciate it if we walked to class together,” Claus beamed happily, even as he was crushing Adrien’s arm.

He then moved to whisper into Adrien’s ear. “This way I can make sure you don’t run off,”

Adrien didn’t get to say anything more as Claus made them move, albeit awkwardly but still they walked together.

Towards the cause of both of their actions.

Adrien and Claus were unfortunately the first ones to come to class, Claus forced kindly asked Adrien to sit with him so that they could listen to today’s lesson together and see what notes they took.

In reality Claus just wanted Adrien to be right next to him.

To see everything.

Their classmates slowly came walking in, some looking like they walked miles to get to class while others just looked uneasy.

Most of them still glared at him though.

He even heard some whispers coming from behind him asking why Claus even wanted to still be friends with him.

If only they knew it was the other way around.

Soon almost everyone was seated and Ms.Bustier was tiredly getting her lesson plan ready.

Almost everyone.

Lila still wasn’t here.

Ms.Bustier only glanced up to look at everyone who was present and sighed.

“Does anyone know if Lila traveled somewhere or had a photoshoot today?”

Everyone shook their heads.

Ms.Bustier grumbled, something that she had never done before the kidnappings had started.

“Well if anyone is willing, you can take down extra notes for her when she gets back,”

Some nodded, clearly ready to help the sweet Italian girl when a scream made everyone jolt and pause.

Everyone except Claus.

“IT HURTS!” A feminine scream filled the air as something came bashing into the door, forcefully shoving the door open as a body fell inside the classroom and shakily pushed itself back on its feet.

Almost everyone gasped at the sight of Lila.

Her hair was messed up and not in its usual ponytail, her eyes were wide and bulging, her body was shaking and she was struggling to stand.

Bleeding cuts were all over her arms and legs that weren’t covered by her nightgown.

In her hands was a knife.

“I DID IT OKAY!? I KIDNAPPED AND KILLED THEM ALL! I LIED!”

“I LIED TO MAKE YOU ALL BE MY PUPPETS! I KILLED SOMEONE IN SELF DEFENSE AND HID THEM ALONG WITH MY MOTHER!”

Lila stumbled forward, which made everyone lean backwards.

“SHE WAS ONE OF THE PEOPLE I KILLED AND THEN I WANTED MORE! I WANTED YOU ALL TO BE MY KINGDOM UNDER MY LIES AND ALSO KILL PEOPLE BECAUSE I LOVED IT SO MUCH!”

A manic smile came onto Lila’s face. “I killed all those people, I hurt all those people, I made everyone suffer,”

Then suddenly she was sobbing as she held her arms. “WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH!? I ENJOYED IT ALL BUT IT STILL ISN’T ENOUGH! IT’S NEVER ENOUGH! IT HURTS! MY DREAMS! MY MIND! I SEE THEM ALL!”

Lila glared at something invisible, not seeing the scared class around her.

“LEAVE ME ALONE MOTHER! YOU NEVER CARED! YOU COULD FOUND SOMEONE RICH AND GIVEN ME EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED!”

A gush of liquid shot out of Lila’s mouth, forcing her to stop screaming as she threw up more food.

Lila just kept on throwing up, tears were falling into the mess and making it worse as Lila clutched her stomach in pain.

Finally the last drop dropped out of her mouth.

She panted, taking multiple gasps of fresh air before snapping her neck in the direction of the class, making them scream in fear as they finally noticed the small but sharp knife in her hands.

“W-Won’t anyone help me?” She panted out as she took a step towards the class, specifically at Alya who was recording the whole thing.

Alya’s eyes widened as she watched Lila take another step.

“D-Did you really murder all those people?” Alya asked.

Lila smiled. “I did. No regrets.” She excitedly said as she took more steps towards Alya.

She was shocked though when Alya glared at her. 

“Then die and rot in hell, Lila Rossi.”

Lila’s eyes grew wide as she took several steps back in shock, narrowly missing her puddle of throw up when realization seemed to dawn on her face.

“Y-You’re right, I-I should-should be rotting, I hurt-hurt you all and k-k-KILLED all those people,” Lila spoke mostly to herself, struggling to speak with her stutters.

“Y-You a-all wi-will never forgive me. I-I’m pretty-pretty much dead once you re-re-release that video,” Even as she stuttered, Lila smiled up at Alya.

“Then I guess the best option is to kill myself right now.”

Though she spoke those words shakily, there were no stutters and no one else in the classroom realized what she meant by those words.

Lila raised the arm with the knife inside a clenched hand,

And swung.

At first Adrien thought she had only grazed her neck.

The knife instantly fell, Lila’s body collapsed onto the floor,

And Lila’s lifeless head fell into the puddle of throw up, a mess of colors coloured her face and hair.

It rolled forward, towards Adrien and Claus.

Both of them stared into Lila’s lifeless crazed happy eyes.

It was so silent.

Adrien was numb, all he could do was stare into those eyes.

He heard a faint sound, but he ignored it.

Then suddenly he heard sobbing.

Adrien shot around to see wet large tears falling down Claus’s face, the sobs coming out of his mouth were loud.

Suddenly it was like Claus’s sobbing had finally made everyone move because everyone was now crying.

Even though they all knew what she did, they all sobbed.

Even Alya cried.

Adrien was the only one with dry eyes, even Marinette couldn’t help but feel tears in her eyes despite what Lila did to her.

Claus got up from his seat, his sobs still the loudest of the class and he fell onto his knees and crawled towards Lila’s body, ignoring and probably not wanting to touch the decapitated head.

Claus clutched Lila’s body to his chest, howling and sobbing at the death of his ‘best friend’.

It was so real and heartbreaking that everyone cried harder.

Only Adrien saw just how deceitful Claus was.

How far he was willing to go.

For what reason though?

Adrien had no clue.

Chapter Text

There was a lot of debate regarding Lila’s death.

Most believed she had been framed because her whereabouts during those kidnappings couldn’t explain how she managed to kill 500,000+ people.

However most countered that fact by saying no framed person would ever have a mental breakdown as deranged as Lila did.

Lila was right about her lying about pretty much everything.

But she wasn’t wrong about her mother also being dead as she was one of the 500,000 people that died.

The government couldn’t decide whether they wanted to reveal to the public that Lila’s fingerprints were all over her own mother’s body yet her fingerprints weren’t on all the others.

So they just simply sent both bodies back to Italy while Paris mourned.

A young boy simply watched the massive funeral take place on Tv.

He saw people crying, others were angry, many emotions at one place.

This was way too much fun.

He chuckled as he grabbed a notebook that had been sitting right next to him and opened it.

In the notebook were details of every single person in the Akuma Class.

Lila, Adrien, Max, Kim were the only ones with blood red x’s around their faces, while others had circles drawn around them but some remained untouched.

Future victims.

The boy grinned, if he just stayed close to his plan and made sure no loose threads came undone,

Then he would have the time of his life before he eventually went back to his world.

This wasn’t over yet.

He turned around to look straight at you.

And smiled.

Bunnyx grunted as she held her hands out and concentrated.

Her eyebrows were scrunched and her mouth was in a deep frown as she tried to create a burrow back to her world.

Flower Star gasped softly at the tiny blue spark that suddenly bounced out of the air.

Then multiple started bouncing out of nowhere and flying into a line that resembled a circle.

The circle grew from a small sphere to a big enough hole.

Flower Star beamed and was just about to congratulate Bunnyx when the hole suddenly disappeared.

Bunnyx growled in anger as her eyes shot open to reveal they were much more tired than they were just a few minutes ago.

“At least you managed to make it into a portal..?” Flower Star muttered, unsure whether to talk or not.

Bunnyx just sighed heavily, she wanted to glare at Flower Star but the girl was half Bunnyx’s height and Bunnyx didn’t feel like stretching her neck to glare down at an innocent girl.

“I’m taking a break,” Bunnyx groaned out loud as she stumbled over to the large armchair in the living room and plopped down on it, sinking into softness.

Flower Star just stared at Bunnyx, the tea she had been drinking placed down on the side table as she continued to watch the older woman.

Bunnyx was getting uncomfortable with the staring.

She was just about to kindly ask Flower Star to stop when the girl spoke up.

“Do you want to hear a story?”

Bunnyx didn’t think much of it, shrugging and nodding her head lightly. “Sure,”

Flower Star smiled, yet Bunnyx felt shivers go down her spine at it.

Flower Star then raised one hand, immediately it began burning with light blue flames that reflected Flower Star’s crazed eyes.

“H-Huh? Flower Star what are you-“

Flower Star threw her hand forward, the flames ripping off her hand and landing on the floor with a burst of light.

Bunnyx got up instantly, grabbing the umbrella on her back and getting ready to get rid of the flames when they started spinning.

Bunnyx’s eyes widened as the flames suddenly spread out and showed a fiery little girl walking down a blazing street.

“ Once upon a time there was a little grim reaper, ” Flower Star's uncharacteristic loud voice bounced off the walls as both of them watched the little girl in the flames continue walking.

“ Her parents had finally allowed her to go out into their demon filled world, a place she had never had the chance to be in as she was always trapped in her gorgeous home for a prison,”

Flower Star snapped her fingers, the vision of fire changing as it showed the little grim reaper in her house, watching other children play outside while she remained inside before Flower Star snapped again and the burning street was back with the little grim reaper happily walking down it.

“ She was so happy that she had forgotten why her parents had sent her outside in the first place, such forgetfulness will get her in trouble,” Flower Star was glaring at the flames, but most especially the little grim reaper.

Bunnyx knew that there was nothing she could do to stop the flames and they weren’t spreading anyway so she hesitantly sat right back down in the large armchair, keeping her arms close to not seem relaxed but alert at the story unfolding.

“ As she walked down the bright street, she made a turn and saw a scene,”

A snap and the flames twisted around to show the little girl looking at a boy whose back was turned towards her, the flaming boy was looking at a dove who was struggling to fly due to a broken wing.

“The little grim reaper watched as the dove floated softly into the boy’s arms, a moment of calm in their small bubble as the little grim reaper watched,”

This time there was no snapping as the flames moved to show a close up of the boy’s blank burning face and the curiosity and thankfulness of the dove for relieving its pain.

“ The boy smiled at how helpless the dove was, such creatures can fly through the air,”

Flower Star’s eyes became cold and hard. “ And yet just one scratch can make them useless,”

“ So the boy decided to help the sweet dove, he lifted his soft hand and brushed it against the dove’s neck,”

“ The dove didn’t move as the hand wrapped around its neck,”

“ And it still didn’t move when it got snapped, ”

Bunnyx’s eyes widened as she watched the flames show the boy walking away, not even bothering to put the dead corpse in the ground as he dropped it on the street and started walking away.

As the boy in the flames walked away though, the little grim reaper came closer to the dead dove.

“ Even though a grim reaper is forbidden for using their powers of rebirth, such acts of cruelty by others oftentimes make the rules seem worthless,”

The flames licked upwards as the little grim reaper bent down to pick up the dove, ignoring the blood that was bleeding into her clothes and gently moved the neck back in place before blowing a small gust of air on the body.

“Moments passed yet the little grim reaper was patient and waited,” 

Moments passed as well for the flames before the bird’s eyes fluttered then closed then opened up slowly.

“ The dove’s eyes were a deep brown, the little grim reaper noticed, as the bird slowly left her arms, stretched its wings and flew off into the sky,”

Bunnyx watched as the dove did indeed fly up into the fiery sky, unfortunately it flew off in the sight of the boy who had only made it halfway through the street.

“ The grim reaper didn’t have a talent for running, she had never had a reason to run,”

Flower Star grinned.

“ Now she had the perfect reason,”

The flames clashed as the grim reaper ran away the moment she saw the boy turn towards her, and she was right to run because the boy sprinted after her with fiery glaring eyes, intent at making her pay.

Both children ran back down the familiar street, this time though the flames made it seem more blazing and dangerous, flickering at the slightest movement from each of them.

“ The little grim reaper didn’t know this street like the other kids, she could only rely on seeing what was in front of her and on glancing behind her, keeping an eye on the fast boy chasing her,”

“That was a mistake,”

The little grim reaper ran into an empty alleyway, not knowing how alleyways worked and froze at the tall wall of brick blocking her way.

“ The prey turned around to find another way but the predator had already arrived,”

Bunnyx didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until she started coughing harshly, making Flower Star pause and look at her with concern, breaking her cold gaze.

“S-Sorry, continue,”

Flower Star didn’t say anything as she watched Bunnyx breath some more before continuing.

“ In a strange way, she didn’t want to die yet she was calm about it, especially when she saw the knife in his hands,”

“ So as a last effort to at least plead with her murderer, she looked up,”

The flames showed a close up of the girl’s face, and Bunnyx felt like she was going to choke again.

Because the little grim reaper looked very similar to Flower Star herself.

Flower Star’s voice finally took in a gentle tone, almost the same as her normal voice but this one could still be heard throughout the room.

“ The boy’s eyes widened and the knife fell, he only took one look into the little grim reaper’s eyes to be filled with shock,”

The boy seemed to be in a trance before he turns around,

And ran away.

The little grim reaper in the flames just stared at the retreating form of the boy.

Flower Star gently smiled as the light blue flames seemed to roar once last time before they slithered down into the ground and disappeared.

Not a single burn mark was left.

Bunnyx was frozen, her body was numb and she was still staring at the spot where the flames were.

Flower Star however seemed relatively calm as she stood up from her seat to walk away and prepare for her nightly job of being a grim reaper.

“That girl…” Flower Star froze at Bunnyx’s voice. “That was you wasn’t it? And t-the boy was Claus right? That was how you two met?”

Flower Star’s hands moved into fists, not turning around to face Bunnyx.

Then her fists let go.

Flower Star leaned in Bunnyx’s direction to see the older woman was waiting for her reaction.

Flower Star only nodded.

Then she walked away.

This was breaking and entering.

This was wrong.

He should be inside at home, fast asleep, dreaming nice dreams or screaming at his nightmares.

Not sneaking into Claus’s apartment.

But Adrien couldn’t convince himself not to do it.

He knew Claus was involved with killings and he somehow managed to convince Lila she was the mastermind when she wasn’t but Adrien had no proof.

So he was going to sneak into Claus’s apartment, hoping that he could find evidence that could stop Claus’s schemes.

Or find a dead body,

Maybe multiple.

Chat Noir gently opened a window, freezing abruptly at the light snoring coming from inside.

To make sure he didn’t alert anyone, he moved his head to fit inside.

He almost started sweating through his suit at the tired soft asleep face of Claus who wasn’t wearing a shirt.

Chat Noir gently placed his left foot inside, then his right and finally his torso and head.

He debated leaving the window open but closed it when Claus shivered and rolled over to face the wall where the window was.

Chat Noir looked around the room, not seeing much decorations for a teenager’s room as the walls were blank, the desk beside Claus’s bed was empty except for a black lamp and his phone charger which was charging Claus’s phone.

He glanced behind him to see that Claus was still fast asleep and his head was turned towards the wall.

Chat Noir moved towards the door, when he was close he placed his head against the door and listened.

No sound.

At least that was a good sign.

Just for one last check, Chat Noir looked behind him.

And froze.

Claus was staring at him with half-lidded eyes, the moonlight shining on him made his green eyes seem much brighter and tense.

Chat Noir opened his mouth to say something when Claus spoke.

“Flower Star,” He mumbled as he closed his eyes, light snoring filling the air again.

Oh, he had just been asleep.

Chat Noir could have died from relief but he had to see the rest of the apartment first.

Chat Noir gently held the doorknob, twisting it lightly to see if it would creak.

It didn’t and Chat Noir fully opened the door to move silently deeper into the house.

When he closed the door, he didn’t see the smirk appear on Claus’s face.

Just one room left.

Chat Noir had checked the living room/kitchen, Claus’s bedroom when he arrived, the hallways that led to the rooms and the entrance hallway, the bathrooms and even the stairs that led to the rooftop,

Nothing was up there though.

There was only one place left.

Chat Noir looked at the bare Bedroom door.

He felt no presence, did Claus even have parents? 

He had to at least have one right?

If he didn’t then there would have been no need for the master bedroom he was currently trying to convince himself to go into.

Maybe Claus had guardians or sorts,

Guardians that let him toy with people’s lives?

Chat Noir’s ears twitched, his mouth set into a deep frown. 

His tail swept the air as he gently placed his hand on the doorknob,

And twisted it.

The door opened without a sound.

Please don’t be a dead body, please don’t be a dead body

The first thing Chat Noir saw instantly made him realize this was a mistake.

A large black bed sat in the middle of the large room, there was a table with a lamp on it sitting right next to the desk while a small window was on the other side.

There was no sign that the room had actually had living breathing humans inside it yet the shapes underneath the sheets on the bed said otherwise.

A black haired man and a black haired woman were asleep, sleeping right next to each other.

Then the man’s eyes fluttered, then stopped, then fully opened and stared right at Chat Noir.

He was caught. 

His body knew the danger before his mind did,

He immediately dashed out of the room the moment the man started screaming and shouting, waking up the woman right next to him whose expression of confusion was the last thing he saw of her as he ran away.

He charged right down the hallway,

And right past Claus.

Who was standing in the hallway, smirking when Chat Noir passed by with a look of shock on his face as Claus waved at him while sticking his tongue out.

Claus didn’t even bother to see if Chat Noir got out when he heard his bedroom window abruptly open and close.

Now that that’s taken care of.

Claus pulled his comforter more over his shoulders, he hadn’t bothered to take it off when he got up to see how his intruder got stopped.

He moved into the bedroom, not flinching as the man started screaming at him and the woman gripped his arm.

Claus scoffed at the screaming before he snapped his fingers and the illusion disappeared. 

Leaving an empty bedroom. 

Claus didn’t even blink as the hallucination of Flower Star came walking into the room, moving around the empty place while Claus watched her with a smile.

If he wanted to he could pretend she was real,

And when he either gets Marinette to love him or somehow gets Flower Star herself to love him again.

He’ll get rid of it.

A simple hallucination didn’t matter to him.

Claus shrugged as he walked away, knowing that the figment of his imagination would follow him back to his bedroom.

He just wished that the night would go away sooner so that he could make Adrien regret his stupid choice when he arrived at school tomorrow.

Chapter Text

Claus opened his eyes.

Everything was blood red. 

He closed his eyes.

Everything was dark.

He opened them again,

Blood red.

His hand lifted up to his vision, his skin was still smooth and soft.

Yet the black nail polish on his nails was red.

He looked down and saw he was standing, he wasn’t in the bedroom anymore.

He was in front of the mirror in the living room, he was still shirtless, his pants were a deep red and everything swam like the bottom of the blood red sea.

He lifted his hand to move his hair out of his face.

His eyes weren’t green anymore, they were the color of crimson red.

Why on earth were they showing his real eye color?

He blinked and tilted his head. 

He sort of liked the redness, everything seemed so calm and quiet.

And he really wanted to destroy it.

He smiled happily as he moved back to his bedroom, whistling his signature tune as he walked through the red haze.

Alix’s dream suddenly ended as her surroundings finally registered around her.

She felt the plump soft bouncy pillow underneath her head and the warm bed beneath her. She pulled the comforter over her body more towards herself so that she wouldn’t have to get up yet.

“Good morning Bunnyx~”

Alix froze at Flower Star’s voice, it was still as soft as a gentle wind but something was off about it.

It seemed slurred and she was breathing heavily.

Not to mention the fact that Flower Star was apparently just sitting right next to her bed watching her.

Alix yawned, making sure Flower Star heard her and rolled to the other side of the bed to see the girl.

Flower Star was still wearing her night dress?

Alix’s half lidded eyes moved upwards to see Flower Star’s neck, Flower Star’s panting mouth, a small black heart on Flower Star’s cheek, Red eyes, and Flower Star’s hair.

Alix’s eyes shot open.

“Since when did you have red eyes!?” She cried out.

Flower Star giggled. “I never did! I just checked the mirror because everything was bright red,” She giggled some more like she was drunk. “Everything is redddd~”

Alix blinked as she sat up, watching Flower Star who seemed to not be well at the moment.

“Maybe you should take a rest or something?” Did Flower Star have alcohol or something? She had never seen any alcohol in the house in the time she’s been here though.

And alcohol can’t change the way you look.

“I KEEP lying to you!” Flower Star suddenly cried as she grabbed Alix’s hands.

“Hey!”

“I keepppp telling you things and then I never say anything more,” Her face suddenly seemed hurt, like she was the one being lied to. “I told you how me and Claus met but I never told you the full story,”

Alix probably should feel happy at that news because Flower Star’s story had really had her questioning things but Flower Star’s hands were crushing her wrists.

“Calm down and tell me what’s wrong with you! You’re not acting like yourself!” Alix tried to reason with the girl who was breaking her wrists.

Yet Flower Star continued. “Claus stalked me after that! He followed me for a few days until I got sent to do an errandddd! A boy was bullying me annndds Claus beat the boy for me! He then asked me to be his friend!” Flower Star giggled. “He was my first friend and we were childhood friends after that!”

Alix finally got her hands loose from the right grip and instantly jumped off the bed, she called out her transformation words and was into the safety of being Bunnyx.

Flower Star looked confused at her before a slit-like smile came onto her face as she sat up from the bed,

Holding her Scythe.

Her blood red eyes seemed to pulse as the black heart on her cheek glowed.

“Did I ever tell you about how me and Claus broke up?” She giggled some more as she moved closer and closer.

“Can you tell me when you’re at least sane and not under whatever is going on?” Bunnyx shakily smiled as she grabbed the umbrella on her back to protect herself from her own friend.

Flower Star didn’t seem to hear. “He proposed to me when we were just 12 years old,” Her words were hollow and eerie, contrasting with the wide smile on her face.

The scythe dragged along the floor, cutting through it and making a horrible sound as Flower Star moved forward towards Bunnyx.

“We were engaged for only a few months when our families found out, Papa was ffffuuurious,” Flower Star cackled, “Mother didn’t know what to do but Claus’s father did,”

Bunnyx reached for the doorknob, hoping that her movements weren’t obvious.

“He forced us to cancel the engagement and I ran out crying, I didn’t know what to do and I ran home only for my father to ban me from ever seeing Claus or leaving the house again. Mother tried to plead with him but he didn’t listen. In my head I just wanted Claus to come and save me so that we could run away together.”

She lifted the scythe up and held it in her hands, her red eyes scanning it.

“My Prince Charming never came that night, or the next night, or the weeks after that. I learned months later that he had attacked his own father and got sent to prison.”

Flower Star grew quiet, her eyes staring at the red ribbon tied on the scythe along with the sweet smelling flowers.

Bunnyx finally opened the door.

“But I guess what they say is true, Fairy tales don’t always have happy endings.”

Bunnyx immediately jumped away from the door and just in time to see Flower Star cut the door in half with her scythe, obviously aiming for Bunnyx.

Pieces of the door fell everywhere as Bunnyx dashed right by Flower Star who took a moment to collect herself.

Flower Star may not be in the right state of mind but Bunnyx could tell that one slash could end her even if Flower Star wasn’t calm enough to process her own actions.

Bunnyx charged down the hallway, hearing Flower Star’s bare feet following her with impressive speed.

Claus whistled as he happily skipped up the stairs, everything was still blood red but he had gotten used to it.

He had managed to wear a large sweater and some pants. He made sure to keep his hair over his eyes even as random kids came up to talk to him about random things.

The redness was making their words swim away from them and he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Probably nothing important.

While they all called for him to come back he simply walked away, towards class.

He watched as some students with missing heads walked right by him while others were floating and talking to each other even though their torsos were gone.

Sometimes they even smiled back at him, the red made the smiles swim and warble but Claus could tell they were smiling.

Kind of.

Was he sick or something? He couldn’t be sick but he had no idea why everything was red,

He shrugged it off though as he walked into the classroom, humming away at his wordless tune.

He looked up and gasped.

There was Flower Star looking at him with a look of unease. She was definitely different from years ago but still the sight of her made his heart flutter and his cheeks to flush.

Adrien gazed down at a shocked Claus who was blushing bright red and staring at both him and Plagg with a look of awe, amazement and adoration.

“Did he finally lose his mind or is he just fantasizing about his next torture method?” Plagg spoke up as he cringed at the aura of love and obsession that was pouring off Claus.

Adrien narrowed his eyes and took a step back. Whatever Claus was planning, he was prepared.

He didn’t prepare however for when Claus raised his arms like a prayer and cried out,

“FLOWER STAR!”

Adrien didn’t even get a single second to react as he was suddenly shoved into a corner of the classroom at the back, his shirt shifting up at the sudden change as his arms held away from his body as foreign lips forced themselves on his.

Adrien’s wide eyes took in the fact that first, somehow he was at the back of the classroom in the speed of a few seconds, second, he was being kissed.

Third, he was being kissed by Claus.

HE WAS BEING KISSED BY CLAUS!?

Adrien screeched and instantly tried to just get Claus off when the boy on top of him stopped shoving his tongue down his throat and calmly leaned away.

Adrien didn’t know much about Claus.

Well, to be specific, Adrien knew nothing about Claus.

Just that he was a jerk, he loved to torment others, he had a nice face, he was a big manipulator, and he was part of a kidnapping operation.

But he also knew Claus’s eyes were green.

Not crimson blood red.

Claus stared down at him, his black hair making his eyes seem even more strange as zero emotion went through them.

“You’re not Flower Star,”

There wasn’t even a look of realization on Claus’s face, just a blank stare before the deadliest glare came on and Adrien quickly rolled away just in time to avoid the punch that managed to crack the wall he was previously leaning against.

Plagg came to his side immediately as both of them dashed towards the door.

Adrien grabbed it, pulling on it and even pushing it.

But it didn’t open.

He cried out as he shoved his shoulder into the door but it still didn’t budge.

“Plagg!”

Plagg flew forward,

And crashed into the door instead of phasing through it.

Plagg pulled away, confused before trying again but he still couldn’t phase through the door.

“What the hell gives!? What’s wrong with this door!?” Plagg fumed as he contemplated cataclysming the darn thing.

Adrien just forced his body more towards the door in the hopes that someone would come as Claus slowly made his way down the steps.

“Can’t open…” He mumbled to himself as his steps echoed around the room.

“Plagg! Try Cataclysming it!” Adrien cried as Claus got closer and closer.

“You’re too close, kid! You’re going to also get Cataclysmed if you don’t move!” Plagg cried out, not turning his back on Claus who was suddenly starting to glow red.

“Is he an akuma!?” 

“Sorry to burst your bubble but I can’t sense a single thing from..that..that THING!” He pointed his paw at Claus who was now standing in front of him, a light of red bleeding off of him. “HE’S NOT EVEN HUMAN!”

Adrien froze and turned to look at Plagg, then at Claus, then his eyes widened as realization set in. 

Well, that explained a lot.

Claus finally seemed to hear them as he smiled. “You’re right, I’m not.”

Adrien jumped back at something crawling on the door behind him and grabbed Plagg as they moved away from the door to see a mass of flesh rip itself out and form with shaking movements and motions,

Into a giant eyeball.

Adrien and Plagg stared back at it then jolted backwards when it blinked.

They jolted more when Claus yawned.

“Is that all it takes to scare you guys? A floating eye really? I’m sure you’ve fought with much worse,” They turned around to see a slit-like smile on Claus’s face as he eagerly took in their fear.

“One eye, two eye, three eye, four eye,” He taunted as he took a step towards them and they took a step back.

Claus’s smile crawled over more of his face.

Behind them, the more Claus spoke, the more eyes ripped out of the walls and chairs and blinked right back at them like living beings, cornering them into a corner as Claus merely taunted some more.

“Oh Bunnyx~!” Bunnyx crept more into the tight small space that was on the second floor, she heard Flower Star somewhere on the main floor but now her voice was on the same floor as Bunnyx.  

“Doooo you wannaaaa know why I liked you the first momentttttt I sawww youuu?” Flower Star’s cried out as Bunnyx twisted her body to hear any feet moving.

But the second floor had carpet so there was no way she could hear Flower Star coming.

“Youuuuu remindedddd meeeee of my plushieeeeee!” 

Bunnyx could hear that her voice was closer now so she crawled down the hallway.

In her mind she asked why,

“Because my plushie’s name is FluffBun,” 

Bunnyx froze at the soft whisper in her ear, the breath of someone not talking anymore gently blowed on her ear and made her hear the distant Grandfather Clock that decided to ring at that moment.

Bunnyx jumped up in the air and behind Flower Star, just in time to dodge a slash from Flower Star’s scythe.

Bunnyx forced her umbrella closed, using the pointed tip to attack Flower Star when she got too close and used the shaft to block the vigorous strikes.

She got shoved into the wall by a kick from Flower Star and rolled away onto her feet to see that Flower Star had lunged her scythe down into the spot where Bunnyx had been and now it was stuck in the wall.

Flower Star grunted and grunted as she tried to pull it out, even placing her bare feet on the wall to try but it still wouldn’t move.

Bunnyx smiled slightly, “Looks like the little bunny’s weapon is stuck,” 

Flower Star turned to glare at Bunnyx, forgetting about her scythe as she stomped forward.

As she charged forward, Bunnyx opened up her umbrella to block whatever punch or hit Flower Star would try when she gazed up to finally get a good look at the 16 year old girl’s face.

Flower Star’s eyes were now fully red with tears falling down from them like she was in pain, The black heart on her cheek was much larger and cracks had spread from it to wrap around Flower Star’s lower face, the cracks even went as far as Flower Star’s neck.

Bunnyx’s eyes widened as she saw Flower Star briefly disappear from her sight.

She shot around everywhere but didn’t see anything when she heard a battle cry(of pain or anger Bunnyx couldn’t tell) and turned to face her front to see the wicked smirk on Flower Star’s face.

Bunnyx’s vision went black as she felt enormous pain in her throat rush right into her head and make her scream in agony.

Flower Star merely watched as Bunnyx went crashing down the hallway, the punch that Flower Star had directed to her throat instantly made her lose consciousness.

Flower Star grinned, then she winced at the feeling of more cracks coursing through her body but still moved forward towards Bunnyx.

She was going to get rid of her, even without her scythe.

Then she heard it.

Something breaking and smashing behind her and getting louder and louder as Flower Star turned around to see a glowing hole rip itself out of nowhere and show an unknown place.

And the back of an unknown person.

Flower Star growled and snarled out loud at the person, wishing that they would just go away.

The person appeared to be laughing and cackling when they turned around, hearing Flower Star’s growl, to give Flower Star a glare.

Both of them froze though when they realized who exactly the other person was.

Even though they both looked completely different from years ago. They somehow still recognized each other.

“Claussss?”

“Flower Star?”

Bunnyx’s eyes fluttered but closed at the feeling of her throat still burning while Adrien and Plagg just crawled more into the corner they were trapped in, not seeing anything that Claus was apparently seeing.

The both of them didn’t even know what to say,

So they ran towards each other.

Their fingertips briefly touched as the both of their minds finally cleared and their eyes returned to being Blue and Green.

Then a force split them apart and sent Flower Star flying and falling right on Bunnyx’s stomach while Claus hit his head on the teacher’s desk and went unconscious at the impact.

The portal they were both seeing disappeared.

The eyes that were growing in the classroom burst open and into thin air, not leaving a single trace of their appearance.

Plagg hissed when Adrien got up to move towards Claus and touch his arm, only to flinch backwards at the slightest movement.

“Kid! Get away from him! He’s probably faking it!”

“You saw him hit his head, Plagg!” Adrien turned to glare at the Kwami before going back to watch Claus. “I think he’s actually knocked out,”

Just to make sure Adrien quickly flipped Claus’s eye open, the eyes lid opened softly to reveal the same shade of green eyes that Adrien had before Adrien dropped them.

“He’s asleep,”

Plagg grumbled something that suspiciously sounded like, “Yeah, like checking someone’s eye totally tells you they’re asleep,” before flying instantly into Adrien’s pocket.

He was just about to ask what Plagg was doing when the door calmly opened and his classmates came walking in.

They froze however when they saw Claus unconscious and Adrien suspiciously standing over him.

“OH MY GOD IS HE DEAD?” Chloé cried out as she stomped to the front with Sabrina following her.

Adrien’s eyes widened as he quickly tried to defend himself, “No! He, uh,” He glanced down at Claus, probably just wanting the black haired boy to wake up and give him the perfect excuse.

But Claus, like the unhelpful person he always was, stayed unconscious.

“We were, um, talking and then Claus tripped and hit his head on Ms.Bustier’s desk!”

Plagg pat his paw on Adrien’s chest, Good excuse Kid

Chloé still narrowed her eyes at him, which made Adrien hurt.

He had been let go as the lead suspect of the kidnapping and everyone was back to being his friend but he couldn’t shake the feeling of disappointment that they only wanted to be his friend now because he wasn’t the one that kidnapped and possibly murdered their friends,

Did their friendship really never seem genuine to them?

Nino came forward to check on Claus, his exhaustion made his movements wonky and strange and tear streaks were still on his face but he seemed determined.

He checked Claus’s pulse and nodded, his headphones rubbing against his neck and caused him to rub it.

“He’s just passed out, we need to get him to the Nurse’s office though, I see blood in his hair from the hit,” 

This made the class jolt in fear again and Ivan was the one who moved this time to pick up Claus and bring him away from the classroom.

Adrien heard their classmates gush and hope about how they hoped Claus was okay but he turned around to just walk and sit in his seat.

He smelled a sweet scent and smiled as he turned around to talk to Marinette.

“Remember that time I couldn’t make it?” She smiled at her new found ability to talk to her crush, “Well, my parents found out about you being the lead suspect and kinda freaked out.” Her eyes went wide though at the look of sadness on Adrien’s face. “Don’t worry! They calmed down and realized you would never do such a thing,”

She turned to face a horribly familiar spot in the class. “I wonder if Lila really was the kidnapper and she wasn’t just saying one last lie before you know, she,” Marinette looked at him and made a gesture before going to sketching in her sketchbook.

Adrien just stared.

He knew exactly what she meant but there was no way he was going to tell her the truth.

Not when she also believed that Claus was just your ordinary shy boy who suddenly got a lot more confident when he had an army of followers moving along with him.

Adrien proceeded to hit his head on his desk multiple times before finally stopping after seeing the shocked look on Marinette’s face.

When did his life become such a living hell,

A pounding headache greeted him with open arms as Claus rolled around.

The last time he had a headache this big his father had introduced to the holy savior called alcohol.

When he was just 15 years old by the way.

But this was on another level.

At least the floor seemed comfy.

It was cold though.

Wait a minute, why was he on the floor?

His hands spread out and felt along the floor, the coldness made them sting slightly but it was also familiar.

Claus scrunched his eyes, his eyebrows furrowing as he struggled to open them.

Then they slowly fluttered, then closed, and fluttered again, this time enough for Claus to see the familiar layout of a living room/kitchen.

He was somehow in his apartment.

Claus blinked and looked around, seeing how dark it was because of the night and relaxed.

For a second he thought someone had tried to come after him and kidnap him instead but that would have been impossible.

He rolled onto his stomach and lifted his head to see a piece of paper sitting on the ground in front of him.

He reached out to pick it up and turn it around.

It was a page from his notebook.

The one about Marinette.

She wasn’t crossed out but she didn’t have a red circle around her,

Yet the list of details below her said otherwise.

The things he had learned took up most of the page and even the back of the page.

While one hand held the page and his eyes looked over the details, the other sneaked into the pocket of his pants and brought out his phone. Claus didn’t bother to see what he was doing as his thumb swiped and swiped until it finally landed on the image he was looking for.

He turned to look at a photo of Marinette who was reading a book and smiling.

In Claus’s eyes, the image shifted to show another girl who looked the exact same but had a white dress on and her hair was long and flowing instead of packed into bouncy pigtails.

Flower Star.

Fuck.

Claus slammed his phone into his forehead as he grunted, not at the pain but at his own stupidity.

He was sent here to make his dream come true, not mess with Adrien and play around.

But the plan…

Claus looked over to the Tv stand where his notebook sat, all alone and unopened recently.

A malevolent smile crawled on his face.

Fuck the plan, his dreams and desires always came first and no fucking plan was going to stop him from getting his own true love.

A red marker appeared instantly in Claus’s hands as he turned to face the page.

He happily drawed a large circle around Marinette’s face, the marker paint dripping down the page but Claus didn’t care.

Enough playing around, he was going to take what was his.

Flower Star hummed as the throbbing in her head continued to dance a loud tune in her brain.

It hurt, a lot.

Yet she still gently fluttered her eyes open.

The first thing she saw was her dark blue canopy for her bed, the curtains were pulled and tied with golden rope. Then she saw FluffBun, her blue and black bunny plushie sitting right next to her, its wings were still outstretched and it had its usual determined look on its adorable cotton face.

The pillows were still tidy and wrapped around her head, the lullaby her mother often sang to her finally showing its words.

“Sing out loud, scream it now, can’t help you, hate this world,”

“That’s a strange song.”

Flower Star’s mouth snapped close and her eyes went wide as she finally took in the sight of a very tired Bunnyx who was rubbing her throat gently.

Fluff was beside her, looking also equally tired.

Flower Star pulled the covers over her from her body and sat up, wincing at the force of her headache but still had enough energy to talk and sit.

“Did something happen?” Flower Star noticed that Bunnyx’s voice was scratchy and soft, almost like she couldn't talk in her outgoing nature like something had hit her neck.

Wait.

There was no more red haze.

Flower Star’s eyes shifted around her bedroom but there was no sign of strange redness anywhere in the room, she heard Bunnyx talking to her while she was searching.

“You…you don’t remember?”

Flower Star went back to stare at Bunnyx and Fluff but they were both looking at each other with a look of confusion and shock on their faces.

“No, all I know is that one moment everything was red then I blinked and passed out,” Flower Star knew she often subconsciously hid secrets from others but she really didn’t like it when people hid things from her.

Her uncomfortableness didn’t diminish even when Bunnyx gave her a calm smile.

“Well, you went crazy and tried to kill me and you also punched my neck but don’t worry I know you weren’t yourself so-“

“WHAT!? BUNNYX DO YOU EVEN REALIZE THAT THIS IS A MIRACLE THAT YOU’RE EVEN BREATHING!?” Bunnyx got cut off by Flower Star’s shout as the girl crawled forward to gently examine Alix’s throat.

“It doesn’t look all that bad, needs some more time to heal but hopefully this doesn’t damage your vocals,” Flower Star mumbled out loud.

“Don’t worry, the miraculous managed to take most of the damage that you did! Alix should be good as new in no time!” Fluff grinned as she also checked Alix’s wounds.

“Alix..?” Alix glanced down at the confused look on Flower Star’s face.

Oh yeah she had never told her her real name.

Alix chuckled a bit, wincing at the pain that jumped at her but still managed to talk, “Yeah, Bunnyx is my superhero name, Alix is my real name.”

“Oh,”

Both blinked at each other, there wasn’t exactly much to say anyway.

Flower Star didn’t say anything as she moved back to the head of her bed and sighed as she closed her eyes in minor pain.

“Anything else I did?”

“You told us the full story of how you and Claus met anddd, told us how you became his ex-fianceé,” Alix spoke cautiously as she shifted on the bed a bit. 

From the way Flower Star’s eyes shot back open, Alix probably shouldn’t have said that.

“What?” Flower Star’s voice was suddenly very tiny.

Alix only nodded, a look of pity on her face.

Flower Star stared at them with her wide eyed look before she finally collapsed backwards into the soft sheets of her bed and gently closed her eyes.

Alix and Fluff didn’t know what to say, especially when a single tear squirmed out of Flower Star’s closed eyes and gently flowed its way down her porcelain face.

“I’m sorry,”

“No, No-“ Alix coughed to get her throat unstuck before talking more. “You weren’t yourself, you were under, uh,” Alix turned to look at Fluff who shrugged with nothing to say, “Something,” Alix settled on when she saw no more tears drop down Flower Star’s face.

Flower Star opened her eyes softly to reveal that though there were no more tears, her eyes were still brimming with them.

“You’re not furious with me?”

Alix shook her head fondly. “No,”

Flower Star slightly smiled, it wasn’t large but she still tried.

Alix watched as she relaxed again and took the time to look around the bedroom. She had never been in Flower Star’s bedroom before so it was quite a sight.

The room was spacious and had almost no other color than the white fire in the fireplace and dark blue on the bed, the walls, the carpet on the floor and even her bookshelves were a mix of dark colors.

Seeing no other sense of color, Alix could definitely understand why Flower Star had felt trapped when she was younger.

As she looked around some more, she finally noticed a small bunny plushie sitting right next to Flower Star.

A black and blue bunny with tiny little bat wings on its sides and a determined face.

FluffBun.

“What’s this little thing’s name?” Alix cooed as she gently grabbed the plushie and brought it over to her face so she and Fluff could look it over. She already knew the name of the plushie but couldn’t help wanting Flower Star to tell her .

Flower Star’s pale face flashed a bright red. “I-It’s Fluffbun, my mother gave her to me when I was young and I named her that.” Flower Star’s head bent down in embarrassment.

“That’s so cute!” Fluff giggled as she twisted around the air before landing softly on FluffBun’s head.

Flower Star stared at the sight fondly.

Alix leaned against one of the poles for the canopy bed and sighed. Today was a rough day.

Then she had a thought that made her chuckle, “You know what would be funny, Starry?” She noticed Flower Star raise an eyebrow at the new nickname but didn’t say anything. “Even after what happened today, you still had one major secret to tell us,”

The thought also made Fluff chuckle.

Yet it made Flower Star grin secretly.

“That would be funny, wouldn’t it?” She asked mysteriously.

Alix rolled her eyes, “Just tell us what you’re hiding this time.”

Flower Star giggled, she too knew she could be quite annoying with her secrets.

“Fineeeeee,” She groaned mockingly.

Everyone smiled at each other(except FluffBun) and waited patiently for Flower Star to start talking.

“I bet I never told you my name isn’t actually Flower Star did I?” 

Chapter Text

Agreste.

Adrien, can’t you not ever listen to the instructions I say out for you? Everything I am doing is for your sake, you are an Agreste Adrien, you will always be an Agreste.

Multiple voices seemed to bounce off invisible walls, ringing in his ears as he saw nothing but deep darkness, he heard their breaths.

There were a lot of breaths.

An Agreste must always be perfect, an Agreste should always be superior, Agreste is a title of honor, a title of respect, an Agreste must always remember this fact.

It sounded like an anthem, a set of rules that he had to follow yet no one had told him what they were, yet they were always there.

Watching him, holding him, reminding him.

You are nothing except an Agreste.

Adrien jolted and turned around to face the voice that just spoke into his ear but saw nothing.

Laughter erupted around him as he heard something breaking and cracking.

We’re just like you Adrien.

We were also surrounded by the heights of being an Agreste.

He felt someone right behind him, they were small and short, their breathing was wobbly like they were on the verge of tears.

I was kicked out of my village, The person behind him sobbed out loud.

I was murdered because of him.

Suddenly more clear voices came from all around him, the direction of where they were coming from unknown as he kept twisting around and seeing nothing except darkness.

He made me this way.

He killed me.

I was a mistake.

I was abandoned.

He sold me because he thought I was a monster.

They kept mentioning someone, some spitting as they spoke of ‘him’ while others’ voices vibrated with extreme hate.

All because we all shared the surname of Agreste.

They all collectively spoke, their voices making away for a beating drum that bang every few seconds before a soft sweet melody that could only come from the experienced hands of a pianist was flown into Adrien’s ear and mind.

But we all managed to escape.

The piano suddenly hit a deep measure with a loud thud as Adrien felt eyes, many eyes, on him.

He could even feel the stare of the person behind him.

All except you.

The soft tap of feet moved quietly to be right beside Adrien, he didn’t dare turn to face them though, fearing they too would disappear.

We simply want to warn you Adrien.

Claus is our brethren as well, but our brother has caused the great barrier between our worlds to become weak.

The more he stays as an intruder, the more powerful he gets, the more the barrier breaks.

The person right beside him gently reached for his hand and squeezed it before letting go.

If you continue to ignore the threat around you, we too will gain the ability to leave our worlds and come to yours.

Adrien felt a coldness seep into his bones as he shivered and tried to calm his mind that was suddenly feeling very lightheaded.

Unlike Claus, the rest of us will not control our eternal lust for the destruction of others.

The moment we are let loose,

Is the moment you can say goodbye forever.

Adrien fell to the floor, his head pounding as his hands stretched out before him to touch something, anything in the deep darkness that wasn’t laughing at his fate.

He heard more cracks of something breaking, glass,

The barrier.

It was breaking as the days went by.

The moment he thought those words, the laughter stopped abruptly and his mind finally cleared.

A soft song drifted from behind him and he turned around to face a bright light shining down on a white bassinet.

He didn’t see any baby in it.

The mobile above the bassinet was making the soft tune as the toys hanging from it floated up and down in a cycle as they continued to move around to create the soft tune.

Adrien leaned closer to see a skull, a mother holding a baby, a snowflake, a little black cat, a crown and finally a pink cherry blossom hanging from the mobile.

Adrien smiled gently at the twirling motion of the toys, gentle and sweet.

He made the mistake of looking down.

And saw narrowed glowing green eyes staring right back at him, there was darkness in the inner bassinet, shielding the body of whatever creature was staring back at him.

Our family will be complete

A mess of black and pain crushed Adrien’s skull as the creature leapt up and ate his face after saying its words.

Marinette’s eyes fluttered open as she remained still to hear that noise again.

She didn’t hear anything.

Marinette closed her eyes, prepared to savor sleep in case any night time akumas attacked.

A squeak made her freeze as silence followed.

Marinette moved her head cautiously to face the end of her bed, her feet covered by the pink comforter over her body as darkness was the only thing she could see.

“Tikki?”

Tikki didn’t call back.

Marinette grabbed the comforter in a hurry and pulled it over her head, immediately wrapping her arms around her face as her fears consumed her.

What if it was a robber?

What if it was the kidnapper?

What if it was the ghost of Lila?

What if it was another nightmare akuma?

What if,

That’s such a deadly pair of words.

Marinette scrunched her eyes closed, okay, she was going to risk a peek, a little peek.

Just one peek.

To try and convince herself that she would just be taking a peek, she threw the comforter over her head and stared straight into darkness.

“Tikki, I swear, if this is a prank,”

Often this is where the monster or person makes their appearance in stories like this one.

Yet Marinette was given nothing to confirm her fears but also nothing to denounce them.

She sighed heavily and flopped backwards and pulled the comforter up to her neck.

She snuggled her head deeper into her suddenly much warmer pillow and moved her head towards the warmth.

It kind of reminded her of Adrien which made her giggle and smile.

“I love that sound, and I love you being in my arms,”

Marinette went stiff.

She didn’t move.

Her body couldn’t respond.

Her mind unhelpfully told her that not only was the thing she was snuggling a human body, it also belonged to a male person judging by the voice.

And they somehow managed to get into her house and sit right behind her without her even noticing.

A warm hand drifted into her sight and caressed her cheek as she started to feel deathly tired. She wanted to push them off, kick them, hit them and run to her parents or even scream but the sudden need to sleep overcame her as the person started humming a familiar creepy tune.

The last thing she thought before she fell asleep was the fact it was Claus’s signature tune.

Fluff started coughing as Alix stared wide eyed at Flower Star.

Just how many secrets did this girl have!?

“Why’s your name Flower Star then? Why don’t you use your own name? Why?” The more questions she asked the more she leaned into Flower Star’s space which caused the girl to blink several times.

Flower Star blinked once again before tilting her head to stare at the dancing white flames in her fireplace, momentarily distracted before tilting her head back.

“To answer some of your questions, Claus gave me the name as a sign of our friendship and his love but then it stuck and it’s been my name ever since.”

Of course Claus had something to do with this.

Alix rolled her eyes and leaned away from Flower Star.

“Does everything about you always have to have Claus in it? It’s like everything we know about is a result of Claus and his behavior,”

Flower Star nodded absently and mindlessly. “I guess but still, this is who I am. Destiny just makes it so we’re that close together.”

Alix chuckled and rolled her eyes again. “Destiny, bullshit,” She muttered under her breath but she noticed that Flower Star probably heard her as her eyes had moved in her direction before going back to watching her hand pet Fluff who was snuggling into FluffBun’s head.

“Soooo, what’s your real name?” 

Flower Star’s hand paused abruptly before going back to petting the rabbit Kwami.

“I forgot.”

Alix blinked, Fluff coughed, if FluffBun wasn’t a plushie Alix was sure that she would slap her little forehead.

“You…what?”

“I forgot,” Flower Star moved her head to smile at Alix, no hint of mischief on her face or trickery.

Yet Alix just could not believe her sentence.

“I-I, t-that just,”

Flower Star took in her confused expression before yawning and stretching her arms.

“Good night,”

Alix opened her mouth to say more but Flower Star started snoring softly the moment her eyes closed.

This discussion was over.

“Fine then,” Alix stood up from the bed and Fluff followed her. 

“Good night,” She called out as she closed the bedroom door.

Flower Star didn’t move.

Yet her arms moved to wrap around FluffBun and bring her to her chest.

“A curse or true love, something so unknown, could anything please fill the hole that I’ve burned through,” The rest of the lyrics to her mother’s song were sung softly as Flower Star fell into a deeper slumber.

Adrien slammed the door shut as he fearfully moved backwards away from the door while Plagg zipped around his shoulder.

“Calm down kid, don’t worry, maybe it's just our minds playing tricks on us?” Plagg tried to calm down Adrien who immediately started pacing.

Adrien paused to narrow his eyes at Plagg. “You’re literally a god Plagg, you’re old,”

Plagg scoffed and flew away to eat some camembert, effectively rendering himself useless to their dilemma. 

“There’s no way that my dream is actually coming true is it…can’t be…just a dream…can’t believe this is happening…” As Plagg munched on his stinky cheese, he heard bits of Adrien muttering to himself and rolled his eyes.

“Kid, this is basically a huge sign that we need to get Claus back to his own world.”

“BUT IT WAS JUST A DREAM!” Adrien cried as he spun on Plagg who floated up to his face.

“Kid,” Plagg flew over to the door and phased through it, a second later and the door opened to show Adrien his current worst nightmare.

They were like ghosts, but Adrien could see their bodies as they moved up and down the walls like robots. 

And they all looked similar to him.

A blond boy just like him but with glasses walked in front of the door, glancing at him and Plagg for a mere second before walking through a wall and disappearing.

A black haired boy but with the same green eyes as him moved on the ceiling like everything was completely normal.

They were all from his dream that was warning him of the barrier. 

“Okay, calm down, kid, take a deep breath,” Adrien heard Plagg telling him as he became aware that he had stopped breathing.

His body seemed to have caught up with his mind as he started coughing to let air in as Plagg spoke calmly to him on his shoulder.

A door was heard open and Nathalie came walking out with her tablet in her hands, she seemed distracted for a moment before she looked up and stared directly at Adrien.

“Adrien, your father will be joining you for breakfast today.”

Adrien’s eyes went wide as he stopped coughing and stared back at Nathalie, but before he could say anything his father’s assistant walked calmly back into her room.

One of the ghost boys even stopped to look at Nathalie’s door and raise an eyebrow before walking through the floor with a smile.

Plagg’s fur bristled against Adrien’s cheek as he cautiously floated into Adrien’s front pocket while watching for any of the specters but they all just seemed to stay close to the walls and ceiling.

“Let’s go before your pops starts getting cranky, kid,” Plagg peeked his head out and glared at a ghost boy who was sitting on a railing and watching them with a smile.

Plagg stuck his tongue back out at him but immediately retreated into Adrien’s pocket when the boy stuck his tongue back.

Adrien made sure to avoid any of them as he went down the stairs, not liking how little by little each of them would stop and turn to stare and smile at him.

Adrien pushed open the door to the dining room and froze.

Usually just the knowledge of knowing his father was here for breakfast would make him freeze but the sight at the dining table made his blood grow cold otherwise.

While his father remained at the head of the table, the normally empty chairs were filled.

With the ghost boys.

They stared at him, smiling. Some crossed their arms with smug looks on their faces while others stuck their tongues at him.

At the part of the table where Gabriel was seated, a tall blond man with green eyes was sitting calmly right next to him as he swept his hands through the golden locks of a young girl in his lap.

A girl who looked exactly like him.

Gabriel couldn't see any of them.

The man laughed as the girl demanded he braid her hair into a bun and he finally accepted her request and started to braid.

The other boys just watched Adrien as he sat down.

Gabriel, who was on his phone doing whatever finally looked up to acknowledge his son.

“Adrien, how was your rest last night?”

Adrien gulped harshly, the boys were still smiling at him and so was the girl now.

The man braided the girl’s hair into a small bun and looked up at Adrien.

Unlike the others, his smile was warm.

“Adrien? I asked how was your rest?”

Adrien jolted as his gaze moved from the smiling man to a slightly annoyed Gabriel.

“N-Nothing Father,” 

Gabriel nodded, Adrien couldn't tell though if he was nodding to himself or Adrien.

“That’s favorable,” Gabriel simply said as he held his fork and started to eat.

Adrien realized he also had to eat too and quickly turned his whole attention on his plate.

That doesn’t look appetizing.

Adrien froze at the unknown voice in his head.

He glanced up at the table to see the ghost boys were now talking to each other and playing around like normal boys, their attention no longer on him.

Though the man’s attention was still on him even as the girl moved off his lap and went to talk with the boys.

He could do so much better than that, The man’s eyes narrowed at the diet on Adrien’s plate. You deserve so much better, He glanced up to smile again at Adrien before turning his head to look deadly at Gabriel who ate his meal in peace. 

People like him make innocent people like you suffer.

Gabriel glanced up to see Adrien staring at him.

“Is something wrong Adrien?”

Adrien quickly shook his head. “Nope!”

Gabriel narrowed his eyes though, “Get rid of unnecessary language, say no if you want to prove your point, I do not want to hear that word in this house, do I make myself clear?”

Adrien gulped and looked at the man who was shaking his head with disappointment.

When the man stopped and realized that Adrien was watching him, he nodded.

Adrien looked back at Gabriel, “Yes, father.”

Gabriel’s mouth twitched. “Pleasant,”

He went back to eating his food.

The man leaned forward with a fond look as he separated two ghost boys that were arguing and calmed them down before patting their heads and leaning back in his seat.

I guess this is horrifying for you, yes we are from your dream but we are merely ghosts of our real selves, our real selves know nothing about the barrier and the impending danger.

Adrien picked at his food.

Can we communicate through thoughts?

He quickly glanced at Gabriel who was sipping his cup of water, unaware of the man’s malevolent gaze on him.

Of course, I have been talking to you through thoughts after all.

The man had a smile on his face before the smile grew sharp and evil when Gabriel moved to eat his food.

Then what are you?

Unfortunately that answer will soon be revealed, but I can’t answer it for you. 

The man turned to give Adrien his full attention.

But I can stay with you, along with our family.

Adrien jolted and his hand became stiff, causing his fork to fall from his grasp, clang against his plate and flip towards the floor.

The sound of the fork hitting the floor multiple times effectively forced everyone to be silent.

Even the ghost boys(and girl) stopped talking to turn and stare at him.

Adrien coughed as he blushed and bent down to pick up his fork while continuing to communicate.

WHAT FAMILY!?

The one you see right now.

Adrien sat back up in his seat and gulped at the sudden smiles on the ghost boy and the girl’s faces.

What kind of family was this?

A loving one

Oh yeah he forgot this guy could read his thoughts.

Adrien narrowed his eyes at the man while stabbing his fork into his food and bringing it to his mouth. 

Look, just leave me alone, I’ll try to get Claus out of this world and you can stop being with me.

The smile on the man’s face became stiff before it became natural.

Family never abandons each other 

Family never tries to scare the living hell out of one another.

The man chuckled.

Take a nice look at your siblings.

Adrien glared but relented and stared at each and every one of them.

Most were teenage boys that looked different from each other, one had white hair and red eyes, another was blond like him but had deer horns.

The girl was talking with the black haired and green eyed boy that was walking on the ceiling earlier and they both burst out laughing.

One boy with weird pupils that spun around in his eyes was scratching the surface of the table and messing with a card deck.

Another had a large scorpion tail sticking out of him but he was having fun with his “siblings”.

They all looked happy.

Isn’t that not how family is supposed to be?

Adrien looked up to see that the man was standing up.

He finally could see what he looked like.

The man was wearing a business suit with a black jacket over his shoulders, he seemed prepared to go into a business meeting and talk about statistics but with the way he was looking at Adrien, he seemed interested in something else.

I genuinely want to see you happy Adrien, I want to see everyone I love in this room wearing a smile on their face.

He turned his head to glare at Gabriel who was on his phone again.

I want to give you the life he couldn’t even bother to give. Even when your mother was here, was he really ever with you all? All he cares about is himself.

Adrien blinked in astonishment.

Then what’s your name then?

The man turned his face to smile at him.

My name is-

The man’s mouth had moved but nothing came out.

He tried again.

My name is-

Nothing happened.

The ghost girl came over to the man and pulled on his jacket, the man beamed and bent down to listen to what she had to say as she whispered in his ear while staring at Adrien.

After a few moments, the man’s sweet smile somehow grew and he kissed the forehead of the girl.

She slightly blushed and walked away to converse with her “siblings” as the man turned to face Adrien.

Our names can not be revealed until you know the truth, so for now you can call me…

He seemed to ponder this before his eyes lit up.

You can call me Mama.

Adrien’s eyes went wide but Mama turned to face the ghost kids.

“ Breakfast is over now,” 

The ghost kids froze and started to complain.

“Seriously!? But we didn’t even eat!?”

“Yeah only he got to eat anything!” A ghost kid pointed at Adrien.

Mama only smiled fondly. “ We can’t eat food in this world, don’t worry I’ll make something for you all,”

With that he shooed them all out of the dining room but not before smiling mysteriously at Adrien.

“ We have to let Adrien finish his breakfast, after all, he has a special surprise waiting for him at school,”

Adrien was unfortunately an expert in taunting due to being Chat Noir and Claus’s tactics.

But even then he couldn’t tell if Mama was trying to tease him or actually warn him.

“Adrien?” Gabriel’s voice cut through. “You have school to go to, hurry up,”

“Yes father,”

Adrien rushed to eat his breakfast which was not as appetizing as the chefs tried to claim it was(Mama was right with that one).

He ran outside the mansion and hurried down the steps to open the door to the car.

He paused though when he felt someone watching him.

Maybe, just maybe it was his own father watching him as he went to school?

Adrien spun around,

And was heavily disappointed.

Mama was right there with all the ghost kids, some were similar to his age while few were toddlers or older teenagers.

Mama was holding a ghost baby to his chest as he waved at him along with his “siblings”.

Adrien sighed to himself, it would be rude if he didn’t at least wave back.

So he waved and got into the car, the gorilla gave him a strange look though as he had seen Adrien waving at nothing.

As the car left the mansion, Mama and the kids eventually stopped waving once the car was out of sight.

Mama grinned as he rocked the baby from side to side before turning to face his other kids.

“Follow him,” He commanded.

They all nodded and floated off the ground.

Some cackled as they sped in the direction of the car while others disappeared.

Mama only smiled as he led the ones who hadn’t disappeared (including the baby) back into the mansion.

Chapter Text

Marinette twisted her body around as she awoke slowly.

She already knew she wasn’t in her bed as she had been woken up by the sudden cold that stung her arm when it slipped off the blanket she was laying on and onto the cold concrete floor.

Her clothes were still on and she didn’t feel any bruises. She was relatively clean except for a few specks of dirt.

But her hands were tied up.

Marinette grunted as she tried to move her hands, the horrible feeling of rope scratched against her skin made her pause.

It sure was dark here.

As if on cue, she heard footsteps hitting the ground as they got closer and closer.

Then they stopped.

The door (She hadn’t even seen it) opened abruptly and something landed on the floor in front of her.

Marinette flinched at the manic laughter that occurred when the thing that was dropped started to feel around.

Her eyes were slowly getting used to the darkness.

Then the door closed.

“Time for a reunion!” A muffled voice spoke and suddenly the room was bathed in light.

Marinette and the thing collectively hissed at the bright light in the room as they both shielded their eyes.

Marinate rubbed her eyes for a bit before slowly opening them and gasping.

“MAX!?”

Max froze and stared at her with a blank expression. His face was bruised, with wounds and cuts all over, glasses gone and his clothes were ripped and smelling of dried blood and other smells. One of his legs was twisted and not looking normal with some bone sticking out of burned flesh. Some of his toes were cut off and his fingernails were smashed.

He looked horrible.

The other person in the room looked normal except for the gas mask they were wearing. They had on a black suit with a red dripping rose on the front, its thorns shimmering in the bright light.

“Mari..?” Max’s voice was barely there, his eyes were unfocused and he didn’t even seem to be looking at her.

“It’s me Max! It’s Marinette!” She glared at the guy with the gas mask. “What did they do to you!?”

Max’s eyes widened before they seemed like someone who was giddy and excited yet on the verge of anger.

“You liar…”

Marinette looked back at Max. “What?”

The guy in the gas mask leaned against the wall, crossing their arms, their muffled voice was happy. “You heard him, he’s calling you a liar,”

Marinette glared at them. “Says the kidnapper!” She spit at them.

The guy in the gas mask mockingly gasped in pain. “And I thought my accomplishments would be met with praise!” They shook their head. “You definitely underestimate how hard it was to kill 500,000 people. Plus there were those toys I had killed before that incident,” They acted like they were contemplating, mocking Marinette and pretending like this was all a game.

“Where’s Kim!?” Marinette demanded as she struggled against her ropes.

The kidnapper only watched.

“Kim can’t join us today, he’s still…” The kidnapper tilted their head. “Not good enough to be played with just yet,”

“HE ISN'T SUPPOSED TO BE PLAYED WITH!” Marinette screamed.

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT MARINETTE!” Max suddenly cried out.

Marinette froze. “What…?”

“IF YOU HADN'T EXISTED THEN I WOULD BE HOME, I WOULD BE WITH MY MOM, I COULD EAT FOOD, WHY WHY WHY WHY!?” Max yelled out as he placed his hands on the floor and struggled to lift himself up.

The kidnapper cheered. “Woo! Go Max! Go Max!” They cried out while laughing as the poor boy fell back into the floor before trying again.

Tears were falling from Max’s eyes as he struggled to lift himself up and kept failing every time. “They told me everything, how they wanted you and how you were their target, they want to kidnap our whole class and treat them the same way I was treated so that they could have an excuse to kidnap you,” Max lifted his head enough to glare right into Marinette’s soul.

“This is all your fault,”

Marinette couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t speak, all she could do was watch Max try to come after her and listen to the kidnapper cheer him on like a cheerleader at a sports match.

Her tongue felt heavy as she moved it slightly, the harsh taste of sand and dirt in her mouth mixed with the snot dripping from her nose made her realize she was crying.

“No! N-No, they’re tricking you Max! T-They’re trying to bring us apart! I-I didn’t want this..I never wanted this,” She sobbed as the tears dripped onto her pajamas.

She didn’t notice Max lunging out at her. His cry was one of pain and suffering.

All she heard was a large thud.

Her vision was blurred as she slowly moved her head to witness the sight of a passed out Max and the kidnapper with the black gas mask standing over him.  

It didn’t take a genius to know exactly what happened.

“That…was…” The kidnapper just stared down at Max while shifting their hands in their pockets.

Then they shot towards Marinette who flinched and tried to crawl away from them. 

It was useless as the kidnapper merely walked over to her sobbing form, pulled on her hair and brought her face to face with the gas mask.

“Amazing! I haven’t had that much fun in years!” Their voice cheered as the mask pushed into Marinette’s face.

“Let go of me!” She wailed as she tried to kick them away with her legs and feet.

“Aww, look at you,” They cooed, “Your freckles sparkle like stars, tiny cute little stars, how unfortunate that she doesn’t have freckles, I would love to count them!” They gushed as they ignored her kicking their stomach.

Marinette’s wails grew louder and louder. 

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! FIRST HAWKMOTH AND NOW THIS!?” She screamed at the feeling of her hair being pulled some more as the kidnapper stood up to stand, bringing her along with them.

“Calm down,” They spoke calmly as they caressed Marinette’s cheek before swiping her bottom lip, “Or else I’ll find another way to make you silent,”

Marinette immediately stopped crying.

The kidnapper let go of her and stared as she dropped to the ground.

Marinette yelped at the harsh feeling of being dropped and rubbed her head to stop the throbbing from getting her hair pulled. 

Tears were still falling down her face and she sniffled a bit but she kept quiet as she watched Max unconsciously sleep during a rare moment of peace for him.

If this was what she was going through, she could imagine what they did to him.

She glanced up at the kidnapper, expecting to see them acting happy at their suffering.

But instead they were pacing the room.

“Why isn’t this fun anymore…” She could tell they were muttering more to themself but she could barely hear because of the gas mask, “Why does it feel wrong…something’s not right…she’s right here,”

They paused their pace to look right at Marinette.

Marinette made her face into a pleading expression. “Please, just let us go. Let go of everyone you still have alive and do the right thing. Please,” 

They just watched. 

Then Marinette heard a heavy sigh.

“Ahh, I get it now,” The kidnapper said slowly as they moved over to Marinette, “This is called cheating isn’t it? That’s basically what I’m doing, or at least trying to do,” They held out their hand and gripped it as they stared.

“I. Would. Never. Cheat. On. Flower Star,” A calm deadly voice floated from the gas mask over to Marinette as it lifted up to stare directly at her. 

“You’re worthless to me now,”

Marinette’s eyes widened as she looked around the room, nowhere to hide, nowhere to run.

Her gaze swept over Max’s body as she instantly dove forward and placed herself over him. 

“YOU CAN KILL ME BUT YOU CAN’T KILL HIM!” 

The kidnapper chuckled. “When did you get the idea that you could boss me around huh?”

The kidnapper tilted their head and she felt their manic grin. “At first you were like an angel from heaven, but now I see your true self,”

“You’re practically nothing except for your good looks, and looks aren't exactly something I’m attracted to. They’re just a bonus that comes with the real jackpot,” The kidnapper shrugged. 

“Who I’m after isn’t here, so I think I’m going to hurry up and mess with my favorite little toys before I go back home, you know?” They laughed as Marinette leaned more over Max. 

“Will you at least let us go?”

The kidnapper shrugged again as they walked away towards the door, “Not him or the others but you still have a mouth on your face so I guess that still makes you worth something,” He turned around and lifted the gas mask just a bit to show his smile.

“My next target will be the other high-school near Francois Dupont, don’t give me that look, you know the one I’m talking about, it’s only a few streets away. Once you wake up head over to the police station and tell them everything you know,”

“Tell them about my appearance, my charm, my looks, if you please, oh and don't forget any little detail okay? Because you’re going to take a nice little nap before you face the storm,”

Marinette opened her mouth to protest when she felt her body suddenly grow weak and collapse onto Max.

She watched lethargically as the lights turned off and darkness surrounded the room before the only light that was coming from the door closed.

She could only hope that Max and the others would be safe when she went to the police.

From the moment Mama had given him the warning to even staring at the school once the car stopped, Adrien felt like he was in a story.

A story where everything bad was going to happen and many things were going to get revealed,

But in the end nobody would win.

Adrien shuddered at the cool air around him and closed the door, he turned around to face the place he used to call his actual home but came face to face with one of the ghost kids.

One of the two older teenagers to be exact.

Adrien opened his mouth but the boy cut him off.

“Don’t speak to me, you’ll look crazy to everyone else, use your mind,” The white haired boy spoke curtly.

His blue eyes glared down at Adrien like he had been forced to be here.

What are you even doing here?

The boy rolled his eyes. “Mama made us keep an eye on you, just because you say you’re going to get Claus out doesn’t mean you’re actually going to keep your promise so he told us to follow you, we have to tell him everything that happened if you make it out-“

The boy paused, then continued. “If you don’t tell him yourself, I mean,”

Adrien looked behind him and around him but didn’t see any other ghost kids, just a few groups of students hanging around in groups while also watching their backs.

How many are there?

The boy walked alongside Adrien and kept taking in deep breaths, “About 5 watching you, and others playing around. We’re just kids so obviously we’re not going to watch you all the time yet we’re still going to tell Mama everything that happened, though,”

He suddenly moved in front of Adrien with a wicked grin on his face. “We can be bribed,”

Adrien made sure to keep his face still as he moved towards the entrance.

What do you want?

The boy gave a malevolent smile. “H likes photographs of anything and anybody, G wants some meat to eat, Adry wants some candy, and-“

I said, what do you want?

The boy paused.

“I want your deepest darkest secret,”

Adrien stopped walking and looked straight in the boy’s eyes.

Cold ice blue stared right into warm forest green.

“No,”

The boy smiled at the fact Adrien had said that out loud.

“Fine then, but let me warn you about something Adrien,” The boy smiled as he moved to whisper into Adrien’s ear as Adrien walked into the school and towards his classroom, avoiding the courtyard that was full of students.

“Our little ‘family’ isn’t exactly what Mama is trying to tell you,”

I think I can see that.

“But you don’t know the full story, every single person is either a psycho or a weirdo, it depends on the person and on their powers,”

“But sadly since we’re mere ghosts, we can’t access our normally uncontrollable powers, so we find other ways to entertain ourselves,”

Adrien stopped to look him dead in the eye.

Are you a psycho or a weirdo?

The boy grinned. “I’m perfectly your ordinary psycho, my dear brother.”

The boy moved along, pretending not to notice Adrien’s scared face.

“Hmm, I wonder how you’ll talk to me now, after all you know what I’m categorized as, and yet,”

“Doesn’t Claus act the same way?”

“You let him talk down to you and he gets to do whatever he wants yet when I want to help, you give me that scared look and attitude,”

“I think I agree with Claus when he says you’re quite pathetic,”

Adrien didn’t say anything, nothing in his mind and nothing out loud.

The boy chuckled. “I love when people get like this, they act all high and mighty then when confronted they suddenly look like kicked little animals,” He started cackling and holding his stomach like he had been told the funniest thing in the world.

IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!

The boy paused and looked straight at Adrien’s face before laughing again, 

“YOU DO REALIZE YOU'RE GLARING AT NOTHING RIGHT!?” His laughter bounced off the walls, “YOU SHOULD SEE HOW STUPID YOU LOOK!”

You’re acting just like Claus!

The boy coughed and abruptly stopped laughing. “Of course I am, we’re siblings, we have similar mannerisms, but we’re still completely different,”

“Because unlike him, I don’t make anyone else’s lives worse unless they did something to me,”

With that, the boy calmly opened the classroom door for Adrien, giving him a full view of a fearful Nino who was sitting alone in the classroom.

“Nino?” Adrien spoke as he walked in, ignoring the smirk on the boy’s face as he moved towards the window to look out from it.

“M-Mari, s-she was,”

Adrien sat down and placed his bag right next to his foot, 

Please don’t let her be kidnapped, please don’t let her be kidnapped,

“Mari had been k-kidnapped the night before,”

Adrien’s eyes widened and his stomach dropped but Nino continued.

“The kidnapper let her go though, and she went straight to the police and told them everything she knew, she also said that the kidnapper’s next target is the other highschool near here,”

Adrien’s eyes grew wider but this time with relief and excitement.

“Then we’re going to get them! Then we’ll know where Max and Kim are!”

Nino nodded shakily. 

“Have there been any kidnappings there?” Adrien immediately asked more, ignoring the laughter coming from the ghost boy.

“Y-Yeah, well at first he was declared missing but then when Marinette came in, they realized he had been kidnapped so they sent police over there to monitor the school,”

Adrien could hardly contain himself and hugged Nino tightly, making the poor boy gasp for air.

“THIS IS AMAZING NINO! Everything can finally go back to normal!”

“Adrien,”

“MARI IS THE BEST! SHE SAVED US ALL!”

“Adrien,”

“THANK GOD-“

“ADRIEN! YOU’RE CHOKING ME!”

Adrien dropped his best friend and watched as the boy gasped for the air, the mocking laughter getting louder.

Wait, why wasn’t Nino happy about this?

“Don’t you see Adrien?” Nino gasped out as he coughed and shivered. “This is clearly a trap, the kidnapper let her go on purpose and told her what she needed to know to arrest him, what kidnapper in their right mind would do that?”

As if he had been waiting for this exact moment, Claus chose that moment to walk into the room as happy as a kid who had just gotten his birthday cake.

Adrien watched as the black haired boy moved up the steps to his seat, Adrien could almost even see him wink at the ghost boy but that was probably a trick of the light as no one but Adrien could see Mama and the ghost kids.

Claus sat down and started arranging his things while the ghost boy moved away from the window, looking directly at Adrien as Nino started to explain why he thought it was all a trap.

“I want you to remember two things, Adrien.” 

“One,” He lifted up a finger. “My name is S,”

“Two,” He lifted another finger, “Just some life advice or just advice if you want to stay alive or whatever,” He waved away his words dismissively before a sly grin grew on his face.

“In a group of mentally unstable people, the sane one is often the one you have to watch out for the most,”

Then he stuck out his tongue, saluted and disappeared one body part at a time.

Chapter Text

Other than the one boy that had gone missing and was later found hanging from a tree with a bloody smile dripping off his face where his mouth was supposed to be, there were no other kidnappings and murders.

There were however multiple akuma attacks.

Too many.

The total had been doubled to about 4 a week and they always seemed to either be very difficult or easy as fuck.

Chat Noir had proved himself to be innocent when he announced that in a rush decision, he had given his miraculous to a friend.

That ‘friend’ was promptly dropped from ever being a superhero and The Miraculous team refused to even give a hint to this friend’s name so that all of social media and the LadyBlog community would not go attacking them. 

Though Chat Noir secretly wished they could.

And Adrien’s current life?

Being a babysitter.

“Drop that!” He grabbed the computer out of the little ghost boy’s hands.

G glared at him and tried to reach for it again but his short height made it impossible.

So he did the same thing he always did when he didn’t get what he wanted.

He bit Adrien’s legs.

Adrien yowled in pain as he tried to shove the little ghost off of him as his teeth dug into his flesh.

Mama merely watched the whole thing happen with a smile on his face as he held Baby F’s bottle for the baby to drink from.

“HA! I win!” H cried out as he had once again cheated played fair and square through a card game.

“I literally see you stuffing the good cards up your ass,” S growled out as he grabbed the cards and shuffled them together for another round.

H (the black haired and green eyed boy) simply giggled as he handed the cards he had stolen over.

F (The one with deer horns) was at the grand piano playing a solemn tune while Genius (The glasses one) sat next to him, not looking at the way F played but at the piano itself.

Genius was unable to see the people around him due to his brain filtering them out, but he could see his surroundings.

So he simply listened to the tune.

C-C threw another basketball up at the high net and cheered at how far he got this time, he then proceeded to climb up the wall and draw a line where the basketball had hit then dropped back down.

This was practically Adrien’s life now.

He probably would never admit it, scared that one day his new dysfunctional family would turn on him but he was actually starting to love each of them.

He could only imagine their real selves.

Adrien glanced up as he managed to shove G off his leg to see P(the ghost boy with the scorpion tail) clinging to the ceiling again and taking a nap while C(the ghost boy with the mask) was reading a book while hanging upside down on the ceiling.

That would probably be something Adrien would never get used to seeing.

Adrien sighed and sat down on his bed, not a second later a bouncing form came running and jumped also on the bed, sending Adrien flying onto the floor.

He rubbed his behind and groaned as he stared up at the smiling face.

Adry, the only girl in the whole ghost family.

Adry laughed as she bounced a bit more before calming down and waiting for him to join her.

Adrien sat down right next to her and watched as she made faces and played around with Plagg.

“Hey Adry?”

Adry stuck her tongue out at Plagg and blew a raspberry before turning to face him.

“Yeah?”

“How is your life anyway? You guys are ghosts but your real selves are still out there,”

Adry stiffened.

“Just fine! She’s probably just having the time of her life! An amazing life!” Adry grinned as she spoke, her words seemingly happy and cheerful yet nervous. 

Adrien didn’t believe her. “Oh really? Then can you tell me what happens in your life?” He raised an eyebrow as he put on a smiling face to make her calm down and talk to him better.

“I don’t have any memories of my life, I only embody her personality,” She said numbly and cold, like a recitation.

Adrien frowned and froze. They stared at each other before he became ashamed and patted her shoulder.  “Sorry,”

Adry shrugged and smiled, this time it was forced though and moved off the bed to go and play with her ‘siblings’.

Plagg flew in front of Adrien’s face. “Kid, you have to hurry up,”

“I know Plagg but I have no way to send Claus back!”

“Then stop getting attached to them, because this is exactly what they want, they want you to fail because then they’ll get their real bodies back,”

Adrien glared at him and crossed his arms over his chest. “Weren’t you just playing with her?”

Plagg jolted and he looked away. “Just hurry up kid,”

He then flew away.

Adrien moved towards the door on an ordinary Saturday, his mind was racing and his body was on auto-pilot as his hand reached for the doorknob.

“Adrien,”

Adrien paused.

“Come, sit,”

Adrien turned around to see them, all of them, sitting down on the floor in front of the couch, watching him with blank looks on their faces. 

Only S looked at him with a look of resignation.

And only Mama sat on the couch, even Baby F was in Adry’s arms, the numb look on the baby’s face terrifying him to a large extent.

Mama patted the spot right next to him on the couch more, trying to make everything feel like a simple family meeting.

Adrien could tell it was far from that.

Yet he sat down right next to Mama anyway. 

“Do you have anything today?”

Adrien nodded.

He had a photoshoot today.

A fake one that he had managed to sneak into Nathalie’s schedule and convince the modeling company to let him use their room for just at least an hour. 

They had agreed, albeit reluctantly but still let him have it for an hour and a half and gave him the keys.

That was enough time to confront Claus and finally stop all of this.

Mama hummed twinkle twinkle little star as he stared at each and every one of the ghost kids with his smile.

“You’re aware that if you succeed, we’re going to disappear into nothing right?”

Adrien gulped harshly, he had no clue.

“As I told you before, we are only ghosts,” Mama’s normally warm voice was laced with a deadly fatal poison, “The moment you send Claus back, is the moment you can say goodbye to us forever,”

“We are only mere embodiments of our real selves, we only exist to warn you and convince you, as well as influence you,” They repeated like a messed up prayer, their dead eyes staring right back at him. 

“You are either our savior or our killer, what is your choice?” Baby F blubbered on his line, trying to repeat the words but failing and making gurgling sounds.

“So, what will you decide?”

Adrien didn’t even need a minute to make his choice.

Adrien turned around the sound of a door opening in the large studio, the sound of it closing a few seconds later bounced off the walls as a comfortably dressed Claus made his way towards him.

Claus was wearing a low neck black sweater that showed a blood red necklace wrapped around his neck.

His black and white clean sneakers glided against the sparkling tiled floor as Adrien looked him over.

Claus had even styled his hair in a way that would show his eyes and his smile.

On his right hand was a watch that Adrien had never seen Claus wear before.

“Good morning Adrien,” Claus greeted as he stood in front of him.

“Good morning to you too,”

They both stared at each other in silence.

“So, this is the climax?”

“Why are you calling it that?”

“Because this is where the real fun begins,” 

Claus’s smile grew into a sly grin, like he already knew everything that was going to happen.

Honestly, if he did, Adrien wouldn’t be surprised.

He already felt guilty enough at the fact he was killing a whole family if he won this battle.

Actually, he had to win.

All those people who were killed, all those loved ones who suffered because of this parasite, all his victims, everyone,

He had to save them all and avenge the lives lost.

“Do you ever think about the people you’ve hurt, everyone you’ve killed,”

Claus paused and frowned slightly.

“Does their fear and terror really bring a smile to your face? Do you really just sit on your throne of dead rotting corpses and think to yourself that you’re the highest order?”

Adrien leaned forward, their noses almost touching as each gave each the numbest look they could master.

“Those people you look down on are the same people you could have been spending your life here with, you could have done something meaningful with your life and threw it away to mess with others for your own selfish desires,”

A twitch from Claus’s mouth.

“I’ll tell you once and this is the final chance you’re getting Claus. Because I’m tired of being your puppet and watching you play with people while being scared that you’ll do the same to me,”

“I realized that’s never going to fucking stop you, you want people to watch as you mess with them and their loved ones,” Adrien had never sweared in his life but now was most likely the appropriate time to do so.

“We may be completely different but-“

Adrien’s eyes widened at the feeling of pain, his body fell to the ground as his side hit the floor harshly, a tile digging into his skin.

Above him was Claus staring down at him with a blank stare as his hand remained in the air.

A still motion of the way Claus had moved to slap him.

Claus then dropped his arm.

“I’m sorry, we’re different…?” His eyes held no emotion as he stared down at Adrien who was glaring at him back.

“Yes, we-“

“I fail to see how we’re different,” Claus crossed his arms over his chest. “Is it because I’m put in the category of ‘bad guy’ and you’re ‘good’?”

Adrien moved to blink but Claus was faster at speaking.

“You’re a superhero, you save the day, you help people, you stop the bad guys,” Claus’s eyes sparkled lightly. “Yet, the reason why there are bad guys is because of you, the reason why people suffer is because of you, your precious jewelry caused a madman to become obsessed with taking them and that is what caused the akumas, am I right?”

Claus didn’t wait for Adrien to answer.

“You have a pretty face and model clothes, accessories and outfits, your job is to look pretty so pedophiles can happily buy a magazine with your face on it and it won’t look suspicious,”

“You live in a nice house with a roof over your head yet you complain it’s cold and dark, you have enough food to eat yet you don’t agree because it’s not the food you want to eat, you have communication skills and you’re not shy and can easily make friends, you at least have a dad even though your mother is gone,”

“You’re rich and can buy anything you want, your bank account access is the only thing stopping you, yes you’ve never seen the world before but I ask you Adrien, have you ever heard of a teenage boy even caring about the things you seem to call precious? No, absolutely no.”

“You keep a mask on your face then complain how everyone only sees the mask, you only wear the mask because you’re afraid that the moment people realize you’re not what they assume, the truth will hit harder than if they thought the mask isn’t what they assume,”

“So, please Adrien, tell me exactly why we’re different,”

“Because I assure you, if you went through the same things I did then you would be me, but you didn’t and you’re you,”

“How does that make us different when we’re the same? We just went through different circumstances,”

Claus softly stopped talking and simply stared down at him.

But Adrien’s throat was dry.

Claus placed his hands on his hips, an ecstatic grin on his face.

“Want me to show full proof that we’re not different?”

Adrien’s mind raced as he thought through his entire life, the way he acted, the way everyone around him acted, was he really that selfish? Did he really deserve everything he had?

Claus tilted his head, “I’ll take that as a yes,”

Right before Adrien’s eyes, he saw the black color of Claus’s hair drip away to reveal the same golden locks he had.

The outfit Claus was wearing briefly pulsed before it seemed to wrap itself all around him to form a full suit.

Claus’s tongue stuck out to show a snake tongue before it slipped back into the caverns of Claus’s mouth and slippery smile.

Before his eyes stood a new boy.

One that had the same hairstyle as him, the same green eyes as him.

Yet he wore a deep black suit with a red rose on the front that dripped static red blood from its thorns.

The only thing that remained the same was the watch on his right hand.

The new boy smirked.

“We never really had a formal introduction did we?”

He held out his hand, beaming like it was two strangers moving from the barrier of acquaintances to friendship.

“Hello Adrien Agreste, My name’s Claus,”

“Claus Agreste,”

Chapter Text

“Well? Not so different are we? That look on your face tells me you’ve at least figured that out,”

Adrien couldn’t breath, his throat was stuck, his eyes were watering, his soul was shattered as he stared right at his mirror copy.

And he just kept on goddamn talking.

“This whole time we’ve been playing around, you’ve been so happy with your pedestal as a ‘good’ guy and me down below you, always believing in the fact justice is going to stop me,”

The sharp smile on his face grew wider.

“I came to this world because of fate, or something like that, we were meant to meet so we could see how the other lived in their own universe,” Claus leaned and gently patted Adrien’s cheek.

His snake tongue slithered out and lightly flicked Adrien’s nose before it crawled back into Claus’s mouth.

“STARRY!? OHHH STARRY!?” Alix cried as she walked through the large house, Flower Star once again missing.

She moved away from a dark hallway to come face to face with another one, this one though was different.

It was filled with portraits. 

Alix walked forward and gazed at the large paintings of neutral calm faces, there were rare smiling faces on dark haired beauties but as it was earlier described, it was rare. The paintings seemed to literally go down a whole family line, a father and his uncle and his son standing solemnly next to each other, a mother with a rigid face and her ten children surrounding her also with their faces of coldness.

There was something that was present in all of them other than the unsmiling faces.

There was always a symbol of death.

Either on the men’s outfits or the women’s hair pins and outfits, as well as even in the background with crows lying still or skulls staring back at Alix with blank stares. 

They really wanted to show they were a family of grim reapers huh?

Finally she reached the end.

It was a large painting of a brightly smiling woman wearing a black qipao dress with blue rain drops gliding down her figure holding a small little girl wearing a gothic style dress in her arms, the girl’s big blue eyes staring right at Alix and contrasting with the large frame of a man behind the both of them who gave a stern look at Alix while placing a hand on the girl’s hair.

Alix beamed as she leaned to see the little girl’s face clearer.

It was definitely Flower Star.

That was when Alix saw the plague,

Dedicated to Xuefeng, Meoc and their lovely daughter Qa

The rest of the girl’s name is erased, almost like someone wanted to forget the name.

“You know what I realized a long time ago, Adrien?” Claus asked as he smirked.

Adrien tried to shake his head but Claus was holding him by the neck and lifting him without a single flinch.

With his lack of muscle in his arms, you couldn’t exactly blame Adrien for thinking Claus wasn’t the strong type.

“W-What?”

“That there are more of us, more people that suffered, more that have lost what rightfully belongs to us,”

“N-Nothing belongs to you, YOU PSYCHO!” Adrien grunted out as Claus’s hand gripped just a bit more on his throat, the pain making his breath hitch. 

“Tell that to Mama,”

Adrien froze, his lungs briefly stopped as his head grew silent. 

“Didn’t a certain someone tell you something before? Something about watching out for the sane person the most,” Claus grinned wickedly.

“So you know,” It wasn’t a question, just a hard cold statement. 

“Of course I do Adrien, who do you think sent you all those nightmares?”

Adrien’s blood grew numb and cold as he stared down at Claus in shock.

“My-My Night-Nightmares..?”

Claus nodded. “Yup! All those nightmares of you dying or trying to die were all from me, I knew you were too stubborn to tell anyone about them so I decided to mess with you, though that warning dream wasn’t from me,” Claus stopped smiling and glared at him.

“I already knew from the moment you woke up what you were going to do here, if you think it’ll be easy to get rid of me then you’re mistaken,”

Suddenly Claus’s hand let go and Adrien  fell to the ground.

“But I want to give you a chance,” Adrien looked up to see a sly grin on Claus’s face.

“Have you ever done something you want to do on your own accord, Alix?” Flower Star asked softly as she sat calmly with her legs brought up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs as she sat down in the large arm chair Alix now knew belonged to Flower Star’s father, Meoc.

Alix grinned. “Yeah, I was kinda given free reign on my life as I grew up, it’s been just me and my brother and my dad since I can remember,”

Flower Star didn’t question the fact Alix didn’t mention her mother.

“That must be nice,” Flower Star mumbled to herself as she watched Alix pet Fluff’s head a few times with her unusually dull blue eyes.

Alix glanced up at her and raised an eyebrow at her face.

“Something wrong?”

Flower Star blinks,

Her mouth wobbles a bit as she shakily smiled.

Tears then slowly flow from her eyes. “It must be nice to control your own future and life,”

Suddenly she started sobbing.

Alix shot up and appeared at her side, rubbing her back as the young girl continued to sob and cry. 

“Hey, it’s okay, what’s wrong Starry? You can tell me you know,” Alix reassured the bawling girl as she hiccuped her pain and regret.

“I-I’m sorry! But you-you having your own life made me regret my own-own choices,” Her words kept getting repeated every time a sob got stuck in her throat. 

She kept saying sorry, sorry, sorry and crying and sobbing in Alix’s arms until she finally fell asleep.

Alix found out later that she had been crying because when she was younger her mother would ask her every three years if she wanted to continue to be a grim reaper.

On her thirteenth birthday, her mother asked for the last time.

Flower Star only said yes because she would have felt guilty for not continuing the family legacy.

She never wanted to be a grim reaper.

“A chance? What do you mean?” Adrien asked, confused as he got up and rubbed his neck while moving away from Claus.

“A chance,” Claus spoke nonchalantly, “To get rid of me,”

Adrien was about to speak more when Claus spoke again.

“Hit me,”

Adrien went stiff.

“What-“

“HIT ME!” Claus cried out as he grabbed Adrien’s collar and shoved their faces so close that their breaths mingled.

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU’RE SAYING!” Adrien screamed back as he thrust himself back and slapped Claus’s hand away from him.

But instead of the venomous anger he expected to appear on Claus’s face, a malicious smile flowed elegantly onto his perfect face. 

“Just what I needed,” 

Claus lifted his right hand, the one with the watch on it, and Adrien watched horrified as an akuma he hadn’t seen before flapped gently towards the watch.

So this was his plan this whole time.

“It would be too easy to mess with you myself so I’m handing over my body to Hawkmoth to control so that even if everything doesn’t go to plan, at least I would have an excuse, after all who would blame poor Claus for becoming an akuma victim because he was mad and acted on his emotions rather than logic,” Claus explained as Adrien reached for the akuma.

He calmly kicked Adrien harshly in the stomach, watching the boy slide away in pain as he felt the power of the akuma getting closer and closer.

“I would say ‘save me’ but the more appropriate response is ‘I hope I make you experience a living hell’” Claus uttered his final deadly words as the akuma collided with the watch he had found in the apartment he was living in.

The last thing he saw was Adrien getting up and running away from the studio.

Hello Claus, I am Hawkmoth, I see the anger and revenge in your heart

Hawkmoth didn’t mention it but he was struggling to stand by the amount of fury coursing through his body because of this child.

Thank God he still had his voice because his head was pounding. 

“Let me guess, the miraculous?” An uncomfortable feeling swept through Hawkmoth at the sultry seductive voice coming from the boy.

You’ve never been akumatized before but you seem knowledgeable about this, 

“From the way everyone talks about you, it’s not hard to learn a few things about Paris’s most hated stupid villain,”

Hawkmoth ignored that jab.

Then accept my power, Flame Driver and bring me-

“Flame Driver? Seriously?” Okay now this boy was pissing him off, first he called him stupid now he had the audacity to insult his naming skills?

Okay boy, you watch that filthy little tongue of yours or this power will be taken away by force.

“Do that and you’ll regret it, I’m your golden ticket to the senseless jewels you desire, and I can even get them even without being an akuma,” Claus’s voice was suddenly ice cold as Hawkmoth felt his lungs abruptly close then after a few moments release to give him some fresh air. 

He didn’t believe Claus but something told him to just give the boy what he wanted.

Fine then, prove it to me that you can at least do this by being an akuma.

“Can I choose my name?” Claus had asked a question but it sounded more like a demand. 

Hawkmoth scoffed, Sure, just get me those miraculouses!

He didn’t see it but he could feel the grin on Claus’s face. 

“My name is Arson and I’ll do much more than bring you those jewels you want Hawkmoth,” 

Hawkmoth raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll bring you every single superheroes’ head, especially Chat Noir’s,”

Adrien dashed right down the hallway as his legs moved forward and back so that he could get far enough away from the akuma.

His heart pounded in his ears and his stomach was still in pain, his body trying to convince his mind to just slow down.

“KID!”

A large smile burst on Adrien’s face as he turned his head around to see Plagg appear with him,

“PLAGG CLAWS-“

A blast of hot air sent him flying into something, his head was the first to take damage as he felt blood pour out of his mouth.

His stomach was now pounding and his heart was trying to escape.

“KID!” He heard a muffled scream as he felt something grab his arms.

Then he felt a nice warm body against the suffocating sizzling air, the heat making his skin feel like it was on fire and burning alive.

And suddenly he was moving.

“WAKE UP! YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP!” He heard another person call, their voice sounding like they were beneath him.

Adrien’s eyes slowly cracked open then shut close at the blazing air that threatened to melt his eyes.

But he opened them, regardless of the pain that made him wince when he did.

And he saw fire.

Gigantic fire slithering through the walls, some melted and others burning a bright orange all around him as he looked down, away from the smoke in the air.

He was being carried.

The person carrying him didn’t even make a sound as they rushed through endless hallways of burning metal and building materials.

Adrien wanted to laugh at the fact he had told the production people nothing would happen to the place while he was using it.

Too late for that now.

The person’s hair was soft as it brushed against Adrien’s face several times.

He took a deep breath and coughed at the smoke that he inhaled.

But he also smelt something ice cold.

That was when he realized the person who was carrying him had white hair.

“S?” Adrien croaked out.

He heard an ice cold chuckle,

“Close your mouth right now, you stupid idiot. I’m not going to save you if you suddenly collapse due to the smoke, do you know how stupid you were to confront the son of the devil himself by yourself?” S reprimanded him as he jumped over a flight of stairs and landed down on another burning floor.

Adrien felt his eyes droop as the heat was getting more and more unbearable.

“DON'T FALL ASLEEP YOU DUMBASS!” He was suddenly jolted out of his tired state by an angry S.

Was he always this mad?

A wall suddenly burst out flames right behind them just a second after they passed it, the close proximity of the flames making S hiss as he tried to run and stay away from the walls.

Soon he managed to reach the lobby and charged forward, 

“ADRIEN, I WANT YOU TO KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!” He screamed as he got closer and closer to the glass doors.

Adrien glanced up to see them and immediately realized what S was going to do as he placed his head into S’s neck, smelling more of his ice cold scent.

S was going to dash right through the doors.

Adrien felt his body shift into S’s arms, his limbs wrapping around Adrien’s body tight as S was bigger.

He felt some pain but saw the shards of glass flying right by them, S had charged forward with his back hitting the doors to protect both him and Adrien, Plagg right behind the both of them.

Then he heard the crash and looked up to see the ceiling coming down on them.

Adrien shut his eyes close and prepared for the feeling of burning materials coming down on him when all he felt after a few moments was just a bit of hot dust on his cheek.

A gust of fresh slightly warm air came at him as he felt S roll them around onto the sweet grass outside of the building.

S groaned as he let go of Adrien and Adrien opened his eyes to see the person who had saved them from the falling debris.

Mama turned to face them as he let go and jumped away from the destroyed melted entrance.

“Are you guys okay?” He rushed over to them and picked up Adrien to check him over.

Adrien heard S hiss again and turned in Mama’s arms to see Adry looking over S’s back.

“So much glass…” She had an expression of pity on her face as she touched S’s back again causing the older boy to hiss and glare at her.

“It probably won’t hurt IF YOU STOP TOUCHING IT!” S gave her deadly glare while she shrugged and walked over to Adrien, she was holding something behind her back.

Unfortunately Adrien found out a second later that it was ice cold water.

“ADRY WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?” Adrien screamed at the feeling of being in the snow storm.

Adry shrugged once again and giggled as Mama spread the water around.

“I told her to get it, you shouldn’t fall asleep Adrien, you still have a battle to win after all,” Mama smiled his warm smile even though his hands were as ice cold as ice blocks.

Adrien pouted as he even saw Adry and Plagg share a fist bump.

“Alright, you seem fine,” He heard Mama speak as he placed Adrien back down and held his arms as Adrien got used to walking again.

“What about me!?” S snapped as he shot around to show everyone his back.

Adrien gasped at the numerous shards sticking out and the blood dripping down from large or small cuts that held bloody glass stuck in flesh.

Plagg winced, “Sorry kid, but you’re the one who decided to charge at glass with your own back,”

“Oh yeah, because what else was I supposed to do, TOUCH GLASS DOORS IN A BURNING BUILDING!?” S waved his hands around to show his sarcasm and anger.

Adrien felt bad but S had a point.

“Sorry,”

S shot around to give him a grumpy look.

“I guess it is your fault,”

“S!” Everyone cried out in shock.

“What? If he hadn’t been stupid and fallen for Claus’s trap then we wouldn’t be in the mess,” S crossed his arms over his chest and Adrien felt more guilty when he saw S flinch in pain.

“Now now S, don’t blame Adrien, he’s a victim as well,” Mama moved towards S, his hands held in front of him ready to help.

“I blame Claus then,” S pouted, but his body relaxed as Mama came closer.

Mama shook his head fondly.

“I mean-“ A sudden blast of light made Adrien unable to see as he heard Adry scream for someone to help and Plagg yelling her name.

The light slowly went away a moment later and Adrien gasped at the sight of Adry, Mama and S all lying on the floor with their eyes rolled back and their mouths opened.

Plagg was shouting for Adry to wake up and S was miraculously laying down on Mama with the older man’s arms wrapped around S to protect him and not cause his wounds to get worse.

“Kid Look up!”

Glass breaking rang in his ears as Adrien gulped, stared at the frozen faces of S, Mama and Adry before he looked up.

In the sky was a large crack, more cracks forming as Adrien heard glass breaking.

There was only one explanation.

The barrier.

Bunnyx knew she was running out of time.

Fluff had become more anxious, reminding her over and over again about the fact Bunnyx really needed to get back home.

Flower Star also agreed, she had after all said she would help them bring Claus home if Bunnyx could get her stupid burrow working.

So she concentrated, and relaxed.

And again and again she failed.

On the 23rd try, Bunnyx fell to her feet and placed her head in her hands, trying to make herself calm down and take a breath.

At first she had wanted to get her burrow working so she could go home.

But now she wanted to at least show Flower Star a different way of living.

The poor girl had never been able to live her life the way she wanted to and Bunnyx would rather die than not at least show Flower Star something fun.

So every time the burrow didn’t work, Bunnyx grew more and more desperate.

She thought about fictional movies and stuff like that, normally the main character would get some power up and motivational words to get them back up so they could defeat the evil boss.

Yet how could you defeat a boss when the boss didn’t even know you existed and you were stuck in another world.

“Fluff Clock-“

“Don’t tell me that’s all,”

Bunnyx froze, Flower Star had barely said anything when she came downstairs earlier and saw Bunnyx trying to summon burrow, she had just been standing in the corner the whole time.

“Don’t you remember? Failure creates masterpieces,” Flower Star tilted her head in curiosity.

Bunnyx smiled hesitantly, “But what if it doesn’t?”

Flower Star tilted her head back.

“Then it’s not worth it is it? Nothing’s worth it if you don’t try,” 

She and Bunnyx stared at each other for a bit before finally Flower Star walked out of the room, her gaze still on Bunnyx as she left.

Fire.

Smoke.

Heat.

Agony.

Ladybug stood over a burning Paris, the fire was everywhere, taking lives and people down with it, no amount of water would stop what hell had descended upon them.

Ladybug grit her teeth, Hawkmoth finally found a decent akuma huh.

She needed the whole team for this.

All except Chat Noir who still hadn’t joined them yet as they hid behind a series of chimneys hiding them from the akuma.

Ladybug felt tears burn in her eyes at the sight of Adrien as the akuma, he wasn’t even watching around him, just staring at the Eiffel Tower with a smile.

Gazing as it burned into irreversible dust.

He had on a black suit with a dripping bloody rose on the front.

As Ladybug stared at him, she couldn’t help but still find him attractive even as an akuma.

“Get ready, he can summon fire so I assume it’s only far range,” She ordered the team as they all listened, some glancing at the akuma with worried expressions as they knew Adrien personally.

“Viperion will distract him with his lyre then Pigella can use gift to calm him down and he can hopefully let go of the akuma, or we can use it to our advantage and search for the akumatized object,”

Everyone nodded as the ones who weren’t included immediately realized they would be back up in case anything went wrong.

Ladybug shot out to watch the battle as Viperion leaped out towards Arson.

Arson glanced at the charging superhero and a sharp smile came onto his face as a gust of burning air sent Viperion flying backwards.

He hit another set of chimneys as the other superheroes got their weapons ready.

Viperion’s face scrunched in pain and he reached for his bracelet only to gasp as he quickly rolled away to avoid a punch from Arson who came charging with a fiery fist.

He had no time to activate second chances as he avoided fists and punches from a joyful Arson whose strength was much more than he could handle.

“EVERYONE WE HAVE TO HELP HIM!” Ladybug screamed out as the superheroes came out of their hiding places and got ready to attack.

Arson didn’t even blink as he cackled at the sight of more play things around him, the sight unnerving to them all as they were staring at Adrien’s deranged face.

But they would de-akumatize him, no matter what.

They all charged at the same time.

He destroyed Rena Rouge’s illusions, took down Minotaurox and sent him flying into Vesperia, Ryuko and Purple Tigress right off the rooftop they all standing on, the heat getting more unbearable as he sent a blast out from his body, the flames filling Ladybug’s nose with something burning.

A black moving shape was zipping through the rooftops as Ladybug saw it get closer and closer.

Her yo-yo was held right in her hands as she tensed up at the appearing shape but quickly relaxed when she saw the shape was Chat Noir.

“CHAT!? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?” She immediately reprimanded him for being late, “QUICK! WE NEED YOUR HELP ADRIEN’S BEEN AKUMATIZED!”

Chat Noir froze and looked at Arson who shoved Carapace away from him.

“Ladybug, that’s not Adrien. I just helped Adrien, THAT'S CLAUS!”

Ladybug’s head shot back around to look at Arson again but couldn’t see anything that resembled Claus, he looked exactly like Adrien.

But Ladybug had dealt with copycats before.

The smell of burning flesh suddenly assaulted her and Chat’s face grew into a look of terror at whatever was behind her.

Ladybug had to look, if one of her team members was done then she had to face it.

What she faced was much worse than a fallen hero.

Arson’s single hand on Viperion’s melting face made tears spring to her eyes in shock and disgust.

The blood was burnt as it cascaded from the molten flesh that was meant to resemble a face just earlier, no screams from Viperion himself as everyone witnessed his face get ravaged in a matter of seconds.

And fall soon after.

They all froze, a horrible mistake when Arson had finished wiping the blood off his hand and was looking for his next victim.

“Gift!” Screeched Pigella as she made a present appear in front of Arson to show him the thing he most desired.

Arson’s attention was immediately captured on the glowing present, giving the heroes enough time to grab Viperion’s body and bring him away as the present exploded into a small ball of light that soon morphed into his desires.

Pigella froze at the vision of a burning Paris, almost every single superhero’s head impaled on a large stick in a circle, Adrien Agreste being in a cave with chains keeping him forever stuck there and a young woman that looked suspiciously like Marinette in a forest picking cherries.

Arson’s head stuck right into the vision, showing that it had no effect on stopping him, only giving him more motivation as his open hand appeared next, ready to inflict the same pain he had inflicted on Viperion.

Pigella felt a string wrap around her waist just in time as she was swiftly pulled away from Arson’s hand.

They all watched Arson charged forward when he froze and a butterfly mask appeared on his face.

They had never before been so happy to see Hawkmoth stop an akuma.

Hawkmoth was shaking, his knees were knocking together and he was struggling to stand as Mayura held him up and kept on mumbling in his ear how stupid he was to akumatize Claus.

“Arson, I said BRING ME THEIR MIRACULOUS!” He yelled out and winced at the increased feeling of his body on fire.

“And I said I would bring you their miraculouses and THEIR HEADS!” Arson yelled out, not caring if the heroes heard him.

“Now that I know what you mean, I DO NOT WANT YOU BRINGING ME DEAD BODIES!” 

“LIKE I CARE! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO STOP ME!?”

Hawkmoth grit his teeth harshly and his fists clenched too deep as he tried to use his power to control the rampant akuma. “I am Hawkmoth, I gave you powers and I can take them away, NOW STOP THIS MADNESS AND GET ME THOSE MIRACULOUSES!”

Hawkmoth didn’t notice until he finished speaking that Arson’s burning rage had subsided inside him until it suddenly burst and Hawkmoth screamed for the pain to stop.

“When I kill them, you’re next Hawkmoth, you worthless bastard,” With that the connection snapped and finally the pain subsided.

All that remained was the guilt and regret eating him alive. 

“BURROW! BURROW! BURROW!” Bunnyx held out her hand and shouted as she tried again and again for her powers to work.

Flower Star was standing behind her, holding Fluffbun to her chest as she watched.

“OH COME ON, BURROW!” Bunny tried once again but nothing happened.

She sighed a deep breath and turned around, passing Flower Star by and not bothering to look her in the eye. 

“Try again,”

Bunnyx stopped.

“But-”

“Try again,” 

So Bunnyx turned and walked back, still not looking Flower Star in the eye.

“Burrow,” She said weakly.

Nothing happened.

When she heard the taps of feet moving towards her, Bunnyx just clenched her fists in disappointment. 

A soft hand wrapped around her right hand and brought it up to show Flower Star’s small pale porcelain hand and Bunnyx’s much larger calloused slightly rough hand.

Bunnyx twisted her head to see a soft smile on Flower Star’s face.

“Fine, but you know this is so cliché right?” Bunnyx shook her head fondly.

Flower Star tilted her head. “What's cliché?”

“Something stupid yet just what I need,” Bunnyx spoke softly as she squeezed Flower Star’s hand.

“One more try?”

Bunnyx nodded and watched as they lifted their hands, a sudden burst of energy dancing across her fingertips, sparks flying through her blood as she realized just what was happening.

“BURROW!” She screamed out and shot her head away, clenching her eyes in the process, to not witness a potential failure again.

Yet as moments passed and nothing happened, Flower Star spoke up.

“You did it,”

Bunnyx slowly opened her eyes and turned her head around hesitantly to gasp at the bright blue portal spinning and alive.

Leading to her wonderful, amazing burrow.

Flower Star simply smiled as she walked through.

“WAIT STARRY WAIT UP!” Bunnyx rushed through just in time as the portal closed.

The heroes (The ones still standing as Purple Tigress had to take Pigella away as she started puking) instantly branded their weapons the moment Arson cut the connection with Hawkmoth, a look of pure rage and annoyance on his face before it turned to glee.

When he suddenly disappeared, they all shot around to where he would appear next.

At the sound of fighting and grunting, Ladybug turned around to see Arson fighting against Chat Noir with a fiery sword that he definitely didn’t have before.

She threw her yo-yo at him to try and get him off but he was fast and solely focused on Chat Noir as he merely kicked the yo-yo away from him.

“RYUKO USE-” A gust of flames sent all of them flying off the rooftop, their skins burning so much that Ladybug was getting tired of the screams of pain in her ears. 

She couldn't even tell if they were hers or her teammates. 

The last thing she saw before the roof disappeared from her sight and brick walls greeted her before she felt her back break from the force of landing on the ground was,

Arson straddling Chat Noir’s hips and watching the hero’s face melt into more terror as he melted Chat Noir’s baton.

Arson threw the destroyed baton and his sword away as he simply looked down at Chat Noir.

Chat Noir took this chance to punch at Arson’s face but Arson was faster and swiftly grabbed Chat Noir’s right arm and twisted it in revenge while the hero howled in pain.

More glass was heard shattering around them as the hero’s right hand fell to the floor useless as Arson gazed upon his face with a calm expression.

“Hero,” Arson chuckled, but then suddenly the thought that Chat Noir was a hero was so funny that he doubled over laughing, tears pouring from his eyes(boiling hot) as he cackled. “WHO THE HELL THOUGHT YOU WERE GOOD ENOUGH TO BE HERO!?” He got out through his delight at Chat’s look of misery. 

“Even now, I can simply rip out that miserable thing you call an arm and you won’t be able to stop me,” He purred as his hand caressed Chat Noir’s arm, causing the hero to attempt to say something when his air supply was suddenly constricted by Arson’s heated hands.

“But you know what I’d rather do than just choke you to death?” Chat Noir couldn't even answer as Arson’s hands gripped tighter and tighter before he finally let go. 

Chat Noir coughed and coughed before he finally was able to take in fresh gulps of air and see why Arson stopped.

He was holding his fiery blazing sword to the area where Chat Noir’s pounding heart laid, the tip just hot enough for him to feel.

“For some reason, I always paid attention to you,” Chat Noir glanced up to see Arson’s expression but he was more focused on playing around with the tip of the sword and circling it around Chat’s heart.

“Since you were me, I hated you at first, I thought you were going to be some stuck-up rich kid with no purpose,” Arson lifted his head to look straight at Chat Noir.

He hadn’t noticed up until now that Arson’s eyes were crimson red with the right one’s pupil having a mix of black while the left one was cracked into two pieces of red, almost like a heart.

“Turns out, you do have a purpose, a purpose to always be used by the people who claim to love you, so I decided to put things in my own hands,”

“I wanted you to suffer, to make you regret everything and make you angry enough to stand up for yourself, but then my efforts backfired and now I’m the one you hate,” Arson mockingly pouted as he made the tip of the sword move up and down Chat’s rapidly beating heart.

“At least I got my fun out of it, it was amazing to see a lesser version of me suffer at my hands, 10 out of 10, I would do again,” Arson grinned to himself.

Then he placed his head on Chat’s chest, with his ear above the hero’s heart, hearing it bang against its cage. 

“Tell me your last words, you can tell me anything, tell me your deepest secret, or call me a bastard one last time,” He could hear the smile in Arson’s voice and lifted his working arm to try and shove the akuma off him but he didn’t budge, only pointing the tip of the sword at his face in warning.

“This won’t be my final breath, you asshole, when Ladybug stops you, I’ll be back,”

To say it was uncomfortable to feel and hear Arson’s crazed laughter against his chest was an understatement.

“Fine then,” Arson cracked out, “Tell me your final words in your stupid fantasy,” Arson lifted his head to caress his cheek with a smirk. “Because that stupid bug won’t be able to stop me or save anyone while I’m here,”

Chat gave him a deadly glare and Arson’s smirk grew larger.

“Fine then, here’s my final question; Who is Flower Star?”

Arson froze, his eyes going wide at Chat Noir’s question before the sword was abruptly placed in front of Chat’s face and Arson snarled.

“Why do you want to know? I kept giving you hints and NOW YOU’RE SUDDENLY INTERESTED!? BACK OFF SHE’S MINE!” He screamed in Chat’s face, the grip on his sword getting tighter and tighter.

“You said I could tell you anything so I’m just asking a simple question,” Chat tried to appear nonchalant but he could tell the more he asked about this person, the more Arson was going to kill him faster.

“SHUT UP! I SAID TELL NOT ASK! BE IN LOVE WITH YOUR MARINETTE! STAY AWAY FROM WHAT’S MINE!” Arson shrieked out hysterically in anger as the grip on the sword grew tighter by the second.

“I’M JUST ASKING A QUESTION!” Chat Noir yelled back, he was confident in Ladybug saving him but that didn’t mean he was ready to die (most of the time).

“Did anyone ever tell you you should learn to keep your mouth shut?” Arson demanded as he leaned away from Chat’s face.

Before Chat could say anything more though, Arson’s face grew from an angry scowl to a demented delight.

“Then I should show you,” 

His working arm was swiftly pinned down and the only thing in Chat’s vision was a deranged Arson plunging a burning sword of fire into his heart.

Then suddenly he saw a blue flash erupt right behind Arson and a moment later a new sight was in his vision.

Flower Star gazed in awe at the portals of times around them, creatures she had never seen before moved around calmly in their respective spaces, cities she never knew existed taunted her with their strangeness, making her want to see them up close than through a portal.

She moved towards one of these portals, only to be stopped by her vision being blocked by Bunnyx’s hands.

“Sorry Starry but we’re here on a mission, sightseeing’s gonna have to be out on pause,”

Flower Star pouted on the inside, she wanted to see these fascinating places but of course duty would always come first.

Bunnyx moved her around and then let go of her hands so that Flower Star could see her confused face.

“Are you sure that outfit is good for battle? We’re probably going to fight Claus you know,”

Flower Star glanced down at her white qipao dress and shrugged. 

“No need, there won’t be a battle,” She mumbled out loud.

Alix froze, her fingers stopping from doing their task of bringing up the portal to her home.

“What?” Flower Star didn’t flinch at the cold tone.

So she spoke calmly again, “There won’t be a battle,” She spoke a little louder this time.

Alix shot around and gave her a glare. “THEN WHAT WAS THE POINT-“

“There won’t be a battle because Claus won’t hurt me, there won’t be any bloodshed because I’ll be able to stop him,”

Bunnyx chuckled unbelievably, “Fine, but what if something goes wrong and he does decide to fight?” Alix couldn’t help it, there was no reason to be cocky now(even though Flower Star was never cocky).

A sharp smile grew on Flower Star’s face. “We fight then,”

They both stood there staring at each other before Flower Star blinked at her vision being filled again, this time a chest was in front of her and arms were wrapped right around her.

“I just realized, I’m probably never going to see you again,”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Flower Star clumsily lifted her hands and wrapped around Bunnyx’s body, an uncomfortable feeling soon melted into one of peace.

It disturbed her, peace, it seemed too good to be true.

“Just,” Bunnyx was heard taking a deep breath before Flower Star felt Bunnyx’s arms wrap around her tighter, “Let’s just hope that you’re right about there being no battle,”

“I wouldn’t say something unless I was sure, it’s stupid to say something until you’re sure,”

Flower Star heard a fond chuckle that caused Bunnyx’s chest to brush against her face before it went back into itself. 

She expected Bunnyx to say more things but she simply let go and turned around to start the portal.

It was strange to want Bunnyx to hug her again but Flower Star didn’t voice out her desires, simply placing her arms back behind her like a cooperative girl.

She didn’t have to wait long before another bright blue glowing portal appeared before the two of them, no words spoken as Bunnyx instantly went to walk through the portal to the seemingly normal world on the other side.

Yet she was stopped by Flower Star herself.

Bunnyx simply smiled and turned around to give the 16 year old girl her attention.

“Can you promise me something?” Flower Star cut off Bunnyx’s question to ask her what she wanted.

“Sure,” Bunnyx was curious but didn’t say it out loud.

“Promise me you’ll never come back here to my world,”

Bunnyx nodded, “Okay, anything else?”

Flower Star shook her head. “If you ever come back, also promise me that you won’t bat an eye if I kill you,”

Bunnyx’s eyes became wide as she tried to say something but Flower Star cut her off again.

“What you did was reckless Bunnyx, you brought Claus to your world, what if you sent more demons to your world and they weren’t so merciful? He might not act like it but Claus was doing you a favor by not killing everyone he saw, because you wouldn’t have been able to do anything if that happened,”

Her head fell down in shame as her own words hit her.

“I also wouldn’t have been able to do anything if that happened,”

Flower Star hadn’t even asked and yet she found herself in another hug in Bunnyx’s arms.

She wasn’t complaining nevertheless.

“If you ever come back here, for any reason, big or small, I’ll kill you, I’ll make sure to do it,” Flower Star announced against Bunnyx’s shoulder.

Bunnyx didn’t say anything for a few seconds as Flower Star watched the portal over Bunnyx’s shoulder, gazing at the way it shifted to show different places in the world inside.

Such a sweet-

Fire, tall flames lifting high in the world made Flower Star’s eyes grow wide as Bunnyx spoke finally.

“Yes, I’ll keep your promise,”

Only to realize a second later that Flower Star was no longer in her arms and was rushing towards the portal.

“STARRY!” was the last thing Flower Star heard as she dashed in.

Chat Noir stared at the strange sight before him.

Arson was still straddling his hips but he was occupied with the fact a girl that looked almost identical to Marinette was kissing him on the lips, her hands on his burning cheeks with no appearance of pain of being near the burning boy.

Her eyes were closed and her hair was flowing in the wind with no shame in what she was doing.

Soon the kiss ended and yet Arson looked gobsmacked as he watched the girl smile at him.

“F-Flower Star!?”

Flower Star tilted her head and her smile grew as she turned to face Chat Noir.

“Thank you,” 

Her voice was soft and she didn’t exactly look like a knight in shining armor but there was nothing that could say otherwise in his mind,

She was their savior.

Chapter Text

Suddenly flashes of shadows appeared on them and Ladybug landed on the rooftop, along with most of her team, ready to attack when they froze at the sight of Flower Star.

Especially Ladybug, because she was practically looking at a clone of herself but her hair was longer and down, she also was wearing a white qipao dress.

“Who are you?”

The girl didn’t say anything, just turning around to address Arson whose face was one of lovesickness and adoration.

“You need this don’t you?” Flower Star instantly plucked a purple watch they hadn’t seen before off Arson who realized too late his object was taken away from him yet did nothing to object.

“He’s never worn a watch,” Flower Star explained as she walked over to her clone and handed the watch over.

“And why should we trust you? How do you know so much?” Ladybug narrowed her eyes and lifted her yo-yo to show she was armed.

Flower Star raised an eyebrow at that, “I’ve been friends with Claus for a long time,” She merely said as she pushed the watch forward for Ladybug to take it.

Another flash of blue erupted on the rooftop and a familiar portal emerged, Bunnyx dashing right out of the portal and towards them.

“Bunnyx!?” Ladybug exclaimed, “Is there an emergency!? Did something happen with time-“

Bunnyx didn’t even hear her as she crashed into Flower Star and gave her a big hug.

“DON’T DO THAT EVER AGAIN! GOD! AND YOU CALL ME RECKLESS!” Bunnyx cried out as she squeezed the living lights out of Flower Star.

Flower Star gave a simple smile before somehow walking out of the hug and moving towards Arson who was sitting calmly on the rooftop with Chat Noir watching him from a respectable distance.

Arson lit up from his jealous glare at Bunnyx at the sight of Flower Star coming to him again.

“Do you also want a hug?” 

Arson nodded his head happily like a toy.

“Too bad,” The sudden glare from Flower Star didn’t faze him but it still made him sad and mildly guilty.

Not for causing Paris to burn down though, just for making Flower Star mad at him.

“Did you really think I would give you anything right now? I’m struggling to not slap you right this instant,” She huffed and her glare grew deadly as he shifted.

“Once you’re not in this,” She glanced at his attire, “You’re going to face the consequences of your actions, something I know you’ve never had to do most of the time,”

It was strange how Arson had lots to say to Chat Noir but barely said a word in Flower Star’s presence, only making gestures or shaking or nodding his head.

Chat Noir kept down his giggles at the way Arson shook his head rapidly just at the thought of actually getting punished.

“Again, too bad,” Flower Star stuck her tongue at him.

A simple flap of air against her cheek and the realization of hearing nothing behind her made her pause.

She turned around to see a storm of ladybugs move towards her, swirl around her body in the breeze, and lift towards the sky.

If she used her imagination, she could picture them as sweet beautiful doves, just like the one she met when she was younger.

Her dream bubble was burst though when she heard a groan and then felt arms wrap tightly around her.

“FLOWER STAR!” Yup, she knew that voice anywhere.

So she calmly turned around his arms and gave Claus a sweet grin.

“You’re still going to face your actions,”

“Actions?” Claus asked, confused.

“Don’t play stupid with me,”

He smiled confused but knew he was undoubtedly in trouble, he had no memory of what he did as an akuma, but he did indeed remember what he did before all of that.

A cough made the both of them look up, Flower Star turning around to see the heroes’ shocked faces at Claus and her as they probably looked very similar to people they knew and Bunnyx’s sheepish face as she started to explain what was going on.

“Bunnyx,” Bunnyx winced and turned around to face Ladybug who was still staring at Flower Star, she had a sinking suspicion that the heroine didn’t exactly like her so she kept quiet, “Did something happen with the burrow?”

Bunnyx shook her head, “No, nothing wrong, just I may have messed up a teensy tiny bit,” A look of bashfulness came on her face but the two people behind her were obviously signs something small didn’t happen.

“And what exactly did you mess up?” Ladybug demanded.

Bunnyx gulped audibly as she glanced at Claus before facing her own actions. “I may have accidentally brought him,” She gestured to Claus, “Here to our world,”

“Okay..?” Ladybug asked confused, “And how is that bad?”

“Because he is the kidnapper,” They all turned to face Chat Noir who had barely said anything, just glaring at Claus who scowled at him, “He’s the one who kidnapped our friends and killed all those people, he killed Lila, he kidnapped Max and Kim, he made my life miserable and he was going to kill us all,”

No one said anything as they just stared at him then a loud angry roar made everyone flinch.

“YOU KNEW WHO THE KIDNAPPER WAS THIS WHOLE TIME!?” Ladybug screeched as she stomped over to Chat Noir and jabbed her finger into his chest.

“NOT THE WHOLE TIME! I WAS SUSPICIOUS BUT I DIDN’T HAVE PROOF!” He protested as he narrowed his eyes at Claus who rolled his eyes then yelped when Flower Star slapped him on the back of his head. 

“I knew you did something,” She muttered out loud.

But they all were not prepared for the loudest scream of all, a blur of fury and revenge boiling off Rena Rouge as she charged at Claus.

“YOU! YOU BASTARD! YOU DESERVE TO ROT IN HELL! DIE! JUST DIE!” She shrieked as she lunged at him with her flute.

Claus blinked at her angry face, once she got close enough to do damage to him, he simply flicked his finger at her arm and a large gust of wind sent her flying away.

Ladybug stared shocked at the flying dot in the sky before turning on Claus and Flower Star.

“Let me guess she’s also here to kill everyone too,” She glared at Flower Star whose eyes widened in hurt.

In an instant Claus and Bunnyx were in front of her, protecting her from the angry heroine.

“She did nothing! She saved you all!” Bunnyx defended her while Claus looked like he was going to add someone new to his kill count.

“She’s also someone who’s not supposed to be here because of your mistake!” Ladybug argued. 

“SHE’S ONLY HERE BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO SAVE YOU ALL!” Bunnyx cried out.

Chat came closer to Ladybug, hesitantly placing a hand on her shoulder, “Hey Bugaboo, please calm down I’m sure Bunnyx knew about her mistake and-”

“Don’t touch me,” Ladybug growled out, making Chat drop his hand and move away.

Ladybug heard his quiet mutter of sorry and crossed her arms over her chest, “There’s no danger now so she can’t be here,” She pointed at Claus, “AND HE NEEDS TO BE IN JAIL!”

“There’s no point,” Flower Star pushed her way from behind Claus and Bunnyx, finally glaring back at her identical copy, “He’ll just get out, it won’t matter what you do, I’ve seen what he’s capable of,”

She glanced at Claus who just shrugged his arms.

“A jail cell won’t keep him, a life sentence won’t do anything either and-”

“And he can’t stay here anyway,” 

They all shot to look at Chat Noir who just stared at the sky, a shattered line slithering through it like it was glass, “He can’t stay,” He repeated, 

Ladybug gazed up confused at the crack, her cure was supposed to cure everything related to the akuma, so why was it still here? It only appeared once the akuma alert went off.

As she stared at the crack in the sky, she still couldn't find an answer so she turned to face all the other heroes who were either comforting each other or just looked sick of everything.

This would have never happened if Bunnyx hadn’t messed up. 

“He has to go back,”

No. No. Just no.

“Then how the hell is he supposed to get the punishment he deserves!?” Ladybug shot around to see that Flower Star was the one that said that, she had somehow moved to be right behind Ladybug without her noticing.

And that made her more angry. 

Flower Star didn’t say anything. 

“I’m sorry,” She finally whispered.

“Sorry doesn’t fix anything,” Ladybug turned to Bunnyx. “Just fix your mistake and get them out of my sight,”

With that she threw out her yo-yo and zipped away.

One by one, the heroes left, their faces showing their feelings of betrayal and anger, none of them wanting to even glance at Bunnyx and Chat Noir.

Soon only 4 were left.

“Where’s Kim and Max?” Chat Noir demanded to Claus.

“Who?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” Chat narrowed his eyes at his copy while Claus just yawned,

“I seriously have no idea what you’re talking about,”

“The people you kidnapped and are probably alive,” Claus instantly tensed at the sudden appearance of Flower Star right next to him, tears shining in her eyes as the earlier interaction rewinded again and again in her head.

Claus was just about to comfort her when she snapped back at him, “JUST BRING THEM!”

He stared at her for a bit before grumbling and sighing.

He lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers, the sound ringing in all their ears as two people appeared before them. 

Max looked like how Marinette had left him in the warehouse, his leg still twisted, his clothes torn and filth all over his body with the same horrible smells clinging to him.

Kim however looked exactly like how he had been seen in the swimming pool footage, the same boxers were on him even though they also looked filthy, his hair was loose and hanging low, he didn’t appear to have any bruises on him.

He didn’t move though.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM!?” Chat screeched while Claus shrugged,

“I barely did anything, Nerd Boy is fine and Jock kid,” He kicked Kim who still didn’t move, “Needs a bit more time to get his brain back but that’s fine,”

Either he pretended to not notice the deadly glares directed at him, or he actually didn’t notice. 

The glares soon turned into pity as they stared more at Max and Kim, Max crying quietly while Kim still stared blankly at nothing.

A blue flash of light made almost all of them look up to the portal and then look at Bunnyx, 

“Come on, Chat Noir will bring Max and Kim to a hospital, I’ll send you guys home,” Her voice was void and the hopeless air was suffocating as Bunnyx walked into the portal, Flower Star coming through next with her gaze stuck on the floor.

Claus just stared at Chat Noir who started lifting up Max.

“I’m not sorry,” 

“I know you’re not,” Chat replied back.

Claus smiled, “Then I hope you know that from now on, I’ll always be here, even when you can’t see me, I’ll be in your nightmares, your dreams, I’ll be everywhere,”

Chat Noir didn’t say anything, just picked up Kim while avoiding Claus’s grin.

And he didn’t say anything when he heard Claus’s footsteps get closer and closer to the portal.

“Do it,”

Chat froze, glancing around him to see where the voice came from. But there was no one, only the smell of something ice cold.

Chat turned around to see Claus was close to the portal, once he went through, he would never be back.

“You can do it,” Another voice, this one of a female cheering him on.

Suddenly a whole bunch of voices were cheering him on, telling him to do something before it was too late.

So he did.

“I forgot to say I won’t miss you, but at the same time I can give you a goodbye present,”

Claus raised an eyebrow and turned to see what Chat was talking about when he felt something hard hit him in the face, his feet slipping from beneath him and his head crashing onto the rooftop because of the punch.

“Claus!?” He heard Flower Star’s sweet voice as she came back out to help him but when she saw Chat was the one who punched him, she froze then smiled and finally giggled,

“He really deserved that, I’m sorry for all the trouble he caused,” 

With that she picked up a groaning Claus, smiling happily as she dragged him into the portal.

The cheering voices in his head made Chat grin and smile, even as the portal closed.

“ADRIEN!” Adrien turned around from talking to Plagg, his confusion disappearing into happiness at the hug Adry gives him when she crashes into him, S walking contentedly behind her, wearing Mama’s second jacket over him and Mama close by.

“Right? Kid did great out there! He didn’t die and he even punched Claus!” Plagg bragged to Adry when she let go of Adrien, stars sparkling in her eyes.

“That’s amazing!” Adry grinned as S smirked.

“Finally, maybe now you’ll learn to stop letting people walk over you,” He placed his hand in one of the pockets of the jacket and brought out a pair of sunglasses.

Adrien and Adry let out curious sounds as S placed the sunglasses haphazardly on Adrien’s face with zero care.

“Hey, Super-man was able to walk around carefree with these on, they should give you enough time so that we can make it back home.”

“We can do window shopping right?” A new voice made Adrien look up to see H walking towards them from behind Mama.

Before anyone could even say anything, both Adry and H gave their biggest smiles to hopefully get their older siblings to let them.

Yet S looked up to stare at Mama. 

Mama’s always there smile grew larger, “Of course, maybe a toy or two if you want,”

Cheers erupted as Adry and H moved away from the others out of the alleyway to go window shopping.

S shook his head fondly as he and Adrien followed, Plagg and Mama staying at the back of the group.

Adry and H cooed and awed at the multiple things they saw in the windows, Plagg leaving Mama’s side to join their fun, hiding in Adry’s dress pocket.

The bright sun on all of them lifted their spirits as S looked around at the busy but calm street all around them.

“It’s kind of nice to see everything all happy and stuff,” He remarked at the happy or neutral faces all around them.

“You’re not used to being happy?”

“Not really,” S shook his head as he gazed at the way H and Adry stared at a bright sparkly outfit fit for an adult woman in one of the windows of the stores surrounding them. 

Both he and Adrien saw Adry leave the window to see more things, her hand grabbing H’s and the both of them running down the street, but not too far away so that the others could see them.

The smooth wind pushed against them slightly as Adrien took in a deep breath, so this is what love felt like.

A family’s love to be exact.

The feeling of his hand in someone else’s made him look up to see Mama had caught up to them, his large smooth hand in Adrien’s made him relax.

His other hand was placed into S’s right hand, all of them making sure to walk calmly through the crowd so that they didn’t trip.

It almost didn’t matter that soon this all would disappear and they would be gone,

Adry, S, H, Mama, all the other ghost kids would die.

He had made Claus go back to his own world, they would soon fade because of him.

Adrien gazed up to see the crack in the sky was gone.

Then he looked back down to avoid the sun’s rays,

He tearily smiled, he would make sure that he remembered them.

Because even though the family they were in was unconventional and full of weirdos and psychos,

In the end, Adrien would always be a weirdo, so of course he belonged here. 

With that he smiled and let go of S and Mama’s hands to join Adry and H in their window shopping.

Claus and Flower Star sat side by side next to each other on Claus’s bed in his dark bedroom, Flower Star staring blankly at nothing while Claus yearned for something to say.

He couldn’t say sorry because he wasn’t truly sorry, he couldn’t say he loved her because she already knew that,

It was frustrating to say the least, he often just said whatever came to mind but now he was at a loss,

Yet his anger was no longer there to accompany him like usual, instead he was tired, exhausted but still content to have his Flower Star right next to him
  
“Why did you go into the portal that Bunnyx unintentionally sent you?” A soft question finally cut through the air between the two old friends/ex-fiances/whatever they were.

“Because I missed you, I was too afraid to come see you when I was let out and I didn’t want to,”

“Why didn’t you? The only worse thing I could have done was beat you up,” 

Claus chuckled lightly but stopped when she didn’t laugh.

He didn’t say anything to answer her question though.

“Let me guess, you were scared I moved on, you were afraid I hated you, you didn’t want me to see you, you were vulnerable,” Every word she said cut an invisible knife deeper into him with each letter and breath taken. 

For the first time in his life, he was silent and this time he had nothing to say to counter his silence.

When a pair of arms wrapped around his waist, he inhaled and smelt the scent of flowers.

“Don’t kill anyone for a year, then I’ll decide then if you deserve to be forgiven,” Flower Star spoke against his arm.

It was an effective punishment, killing was something Claus loved and desired, he was after all the sole reason why most people wouldn’t love to live in their world.

He got to kill as much as he wanted and no one could stop him because he was the son of the devil.

Well, there was someone.

Claus tilted his head to face Flower Star who didn’t give him a smile or anything to get his hopes up.

“I accept,”

A gentle smile grew on Flower Star’s face and it got bigger when Claus yawned.

“You haven’t been able to sleep have you?” She obviously knew the answer because of her teasing grin.

Claus shook his head and was just about to make himself fully awake when Flower Star gently grabbed his head, ignoring his wide eyed look and placed his head in her lap.

As she swept her hand through Claus’s hair, she turned her head to stare at the dark star filled sky,

A creepy tune drifted out of her mouth as she sang the tune her mother had sung to her that she had often sang to Claus when they were younger, the sound filling the whole room as she tried to go through her memory and see how much Claus’s room had changed over the years.

Very much to be precise.

The walls were now a brown color when they used to be white, the one window he always had was still there but she didn’t remember Claus having one drawer,

And there was that picture.

It’s always been there for as long as she could remember.

The one of a young Claus grinning happily with no malice and sitting right next to another boy who was smiling just as happy with no care in the world.

Underneath the picture it read, 

Rest in peace, Nino. You’ll always be my best friend and my first kill

Chapter Text

Adrien hurried down the staircase as fast as he could so he could get to the car and to Max’s birthday party.

He was almost close to the door when Nathalie came out holding a box and called to him,

“Adrien, I know you have a party to get to but this box arrived for you this morning, do you want me to put it in your room or you can open it now?”

Adrien paused with his hand on the door, contemplating and taking out his phone to check the time.

He had enough time to spare to check what was inside and besides he was curious.

“I’ll take care of it, thanks Nathalie!” He rushed to hug her and take the box out of her arms so that he could rush back to his room.

The door gently closed behind him as Plagg floated out of his pocket to watch as Adrien placed the box on the ground.

A card was attached and Adrien read it out loud.

From: Noir
To: Adrien Agreste

He glanced up at Plagg who stared confused back at Adrien.

So none of them knew who Noir was.

Still to send a box to Adrien and not to his father was something definitely worth checking.

The box had a simple black bow decorating it so Adrien grabbed the ends of it and pulled it, pulling the box apart gently until finally he could see what was inside. 

Dolls.

Small tiny dolls were sitting in either groups of two or alone as they all wore smiles on their faces.

Adrien picked up one that had blond hair, green eyes just like him, but it was wearing a suit with another jacket over its shoulder.

Just like Mama.

Adrien turned the doll around and saw a price tag attached to the doll’s neck but there was no price on it, just a name.

Noir

Adrien had a suspicion but decided to check all the other dolls just to make sure.

He placed Noir down in his spot and picked up another doll that had white hair, blue ice cold eyes with smugness flowing in them, exactly like S. 

He read the tag.

Snow

He placed the doll back and picked up two more dolls that were right next to each other.

They looked exactly like Adry and H.

Adrienne, Hades were the names on their tags.

That’s when it hit Adrien, all these names were their real names, the names they couldn’t tell him because something was blocking them from doing so.

He checked all the other dolls and found their real names as well, but then he stopped.

They were dead.

It had been 3 months since they disappeared, 

So how did this box get sent to him,

That was when he noticed one lonely doll in a corner of the box, one that looked exactly like Claus’s true self but this doll was frowning.

And it had a single cherry blossom in its hair. 

Adrien stared at Plagg who drifted down towards the Claus doll and picked it up to inspect it,

“Nothing on it other than its name,” Plagg brought the doll close to Adrien who read the price tag.

Adrien

Adrien’s throat went dry as he wanted to put the doll down or just kick it somewhere, better yet why not just throw it out the window.

As he placed his hand around the doll to do just that though, one of his fingers pressed down on the cherry blossom,

The frown suddenly shifted into a smile and after a few moments, its mouth opened to allow a piece of paper to fall out.

Adrien picked up the piece of paper and relaxed with a smile on his face as he read it to Plagg.

Thank you for bringing me home