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ggomomomo · 2 years

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Felix and the Cursed Alley

@felixmonth

Felix Week Day 2 (Cookie Version) | Reveal

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The first time was an unexpected accident. They were fresh out of an intense battle, Félix had just destransformed, and had turned by an alley. His ears picked up a faint sound: “Spots off.”

But it was too late.

His foot stepped forward as his eyes widened at a slack-jawed Ladybug in the middle of dropping her transformation. In a split second, he tried to close his eyes to somehow save the situation, but he had seen enough.

Ladybug was Marinette.

He felt two hands on his shoulders. “Did you see?” Marinette hissed.

Félix opened and closed his mouth. Should he say? Or should he not say? If it were him in her shoes, he’d think it would be fair to tell the truth. He stammered out a quick ‘yes’ while opening his eyes.

“You can’t tell anyone,” she firmly told him.

He replied with haste. “Of course I won’t.”

“I’m serious.”

“I understand the weight of knowing your identity, Marinette. It’s not a secret I will take lightly, especially when this puts a target on my back as well.”

His mind was still partly reeling at his discovery. On one hand, he felt stupid for not piecing it together earlier, while on the other, he reconciled that fact that it made sense. No one else would be fitting for the Ladybug Miraculous except for Marinette.

Fear flickered in her eyes. “Target on your back. No, no, no, no, oh no.”

Félix bit back a curse. He should not have said that.

“This is bad.” Ramblings spilled out of her mouth as she put her palms up to her cheeks. “This is really, really bad. You can’t know. You’re not supposed to know. Oh my god, should I call Prophet to help me undo this? No, it will probably trigger a catastrophe—”

“Marinette.” He gently took both her hands in his. “It’s okay. Nothing bad will happen.”

She bit on her lip. “I put you in danger.”

“It’s alright as long as Paonne doesn’t know that I know,” Félix reassured, “It’s my fault as well. I heard you detransform but I stepped into the alley.”

“No, it’s my fault. I should’ve checked first.”

He rubbed his thumbs over her knuckles. He knew how both Marinette and Ladybug would get anxious about the smallest of things. “Regardless, I’ll keep your secret safe.”

She heaved in a big breath. “Okay. Okay. I’m sorry again. Thank you, Fé.”

---

During the second time, Félix began to dread entering narrow, deserted alleys. He was walking to school, determined to avoid paths between buildings, but was forced to take a shortcut when he realized that he was going to be late. His feet stopped and he froze from head to toe when a familiar white portal materialized in the middle of the alley.

“Whew, that was an intense all nighter. Remind me to never visit 1861 again,” Prophet yawned. “Fluff, counter-clockwise.”

The dissolution of the transformation was too quick. Félix didn’t have time to close his eyes. Again. Sibyll was handing a piece of carrot to Fluff when they made eye contact.

“Oh hell no,” she spat out. “Fluff, eat quickly.”

“Why?” The kwami pouted.

“We’re going back in time to fix this mess—” Sibyll paused. “Wait.”

Félix knew her thoughts. If she had traveled back in time to undo the revelation, it wouldn’t have happened at all. Prophet would’ve intercepted him before he could enter the alley.

“You can trust me,” he found himself saying.

She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know why this happened but . . . it’s not supposed to.”

“I know. I wasn’t going to pass through here, but I’ll be late for class.”

Sibyll’s eyes widened behind her spectacles. “Shit! Class!”

Without warning, she grabbed her wrist and they started running. The hem of her blouse fluttered as they raced towards the school. He thought about suggesting to use the Rabbit Miraculous, but he knew her answer already.

She looked back at him. “If you tell anyone—”

“—I know. I’m not supposed to, and I won’t even think about it—”

“—You are dead. Like, literally dead—”

“—considering that I’m alive so far, I’d take it as a good sign.”

Sibyll scowled. “I mean it, Félix.”

He matched her stern gaze. “So do I.”

It wasn’t even the first time he had to keep a big secret.

---

After the previous incidents, Félix religiously avoided alleys. They became bad omens to him, and he didn’t want to know more than he already did. On the bright side, he had made it a habit to support Marinette and Sibyll in the shadows. He backed up their (poorly-constructed) excuses and helped them slip out of class during akuma attacks (before escaping to transform himself).

But one fateful day, the alley became inevitable.

He was caught up in a sentimonster attack. Though he could’ve gotten out on his own, Zyvern had scooped him out of the scene and carried him away.

The problem was that his choker was beeping.

They hadn’t touched the ground yet.

“Fuck—” Zyvern said as he destransformed. They both fell a few feet. Félix kept his eyes shut.

But one glance, one split-second look gave everything away. Right before he closed his eyes, Félix spotted a multicolored beaded bracelet on the hero’s wrist. The same weird accessory he knew his friend regularly wore.

He uttered the name before he could stop himself. “Zee?”

“What? Did you—you saw my bracelet, didn’t you?”

Félix wished that he would deny it. He opened his eyes, confused that Zee was acting coolly about it. “I did. Sorry,” Félix said softly.

Zee studied him with an uncharacteristic seriousness. Félix fidgeted when his friend spent a full minute looking. “You’re awfully calm about this,” Zee commented.

“You’re also calm . . .” Then it dawned on Félix. Zee wouldn’t deliberately risk his identity in front of a civilian. The fact that Zyvern detransformed in front of him proved that Zee expected it to happen.

“You did this on purpose.” Félix blinked.

Zee shrugged. “More like I don’t mind if you know. You’re trustworthy. But you didn’t answer my question.”

Félix cleared his throat. “Perhaps the shock will kick in later.”

He knew it wouldn’t.

Zee took a look at him for a few more seconds. If there was one thing that was constant about Zee, it was his perceptiveness, and Félix didn’t want to deal with any interrogation because of that.

“Aren’t you going to take care of that?” Félix deadpanned, motioning to the sentimonster rampaging in the sky.

“Right.” Zee rubbed his head. “Longg, grab your food here.”

---

After discovering Marinette, Sibyll, and Zee, his thoughts began to wander. It was dangerous to think about it deeply, but he couldn’t shake off his theories. Three of his friends were Miraculous wielders—it couldn’t be a mere coincidence.

These unwound thoughts were what accidentally led him into another alley. Félix became too absorbed in thinking that he didn’t notice that he had walked into a forbidden place. When he grasped his surroundings again, he heard two voices talking.

“I don’t know . . . my usual champions are getting tired. I have to consult new ones but I’m scared they won’t agree.”

“What if you ask the other heroes to find new civilians?”

“I don’t want to bother them.”

“What about your friends?”

“They’ll be in danger.” The voice softened to a mumble. “I don’t think they want to be champions though.”

“You can try asking! I’m sure they’ll be happy to help out.”

“What if they figure me out?”

Félix tried to hide. But Cosette fell silent, and looked towards his direction. She gasped sharply and Nooroo flew back into the pocket of her dress.

Félix could only rub his face, stunned at his own careless mistake.

Suddenly, Cosette’s face contorted, and tears started to spill from her eyes. Félix immediately rushed forward to comfort her. “Cos—Cos, wait.” He stroked her head carefully. “I didn’t see anything.”

The timid girl sniffled. “You did.”

“I didn’t.” He lied.

“They’re going to take my Miraculous away,” she cried.

He shifted from one foot to another, not knowing how to make her feel better. Usually, Zee and Marinette were the masters at calming her down. “They won’t if they don’t know that I know,” he assured. “And I won’t tell.”

Her teary eyes blinked at him. “You won’t?”

“I won’t,” he gently said. “I’ll even help you keep your identity secret.”

As he’d been doing for the rest of his friends.

Cosette wiped her reddened face. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

---

The fifth time was a close call.

Suspicions had been hounding his mind already. He found an alleyway to recharge in whilst trying to come up with a plan against the tricky sentimonsters. As he leaned against the wall, he caught a flash of gold and white in his periphery, which then radiated into a bright light, to reveal the last one of them: Haru.

His friend looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“Haru . . .” Félix started. At that point he had been used to it already. He might as well find out the identity of his last teammate. “Or should I say . . . Aurum?”

Haru coughed, sneakily trying to slip a piece of fruit to his kwami (but failing miserably). “Who’s Aurum?”

Félix gave him a look that said ‘really?’

“I’m not Aurum,” Haru pitifully denied, even throwing in awkward finger guns.

Félix nearly felt bad, pondering if he should just play along.

“There’s no use denying it,” Félix sighed. “Are you alright?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? I was just escaping from the scene of the attack . . .”

“This place is too far from both your house and the school.”

“I was just . . . uhh . . . art supplies! Yeah, I’ve been canvassing oil paint.”

“You took a pretty bad hit back there.”

The involuntary wince on Haru’s face told Félix that the suit hadn’t been enough to absorb the pain. Haru dropped his frantic hands and looked down. “Listen . . .”

“I know what to do,” said Félix as if it was a memorized poem. “I know how important your secret identity is and I will not mindlessly give it away.”

---

Félix thought everything would be okay.

He only had to keep six precious secrets. He was good at hiding and pretending that everything was normal, but it turned out that his teammates (and friends) weren’t.

They perched on a random rooftop one patrol night and no one was talking. Chat Noir knew why. They were too unsettled about their identities being discovered and didn’t know how to break it to the others. It was a mess.

Crossing his arms, he broke the silence first. “What was that?”

Prophet snapped out of her reverie. “What was what?”

“There’s something wrong,” he replied.

Four heroes looked away guiltily. But Zyvern gave him a steady gaze. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Chat snorted. “Obviously, everyone seems distracted. Ladybug, you took forever to figure out your Lucky Charm earlier; Prophet, you time traveled four times; you almost lost hold of your champions, Solandis; and your illusion didn’t last five seconds, Aurum.”

“We’re just a bit out of it today, that’s all.” Ladybug smiled stiffly. “Maybe everyone’s tired?”

But Chat knew, deep in his mind, that it wasn’t a one-time thing. They would continue to be out of sync, and it was all because of his discovery.

“Not only today.” He shook his head. “I know what’s bothering you all—”

Aurum jolted. “How—”

“And I’m going to settle this. Claws in.”

As he revealed himself, the others were consumed with shock. Félix massaged the bridge of his nose. “Now will you please talk it out right now.”

Prophet looked back and forth between him and the others. “Do you mean you also found out . . .?”

“Yes, everyone’s.”

“Everyone’s?” Ladybug squeaked. “How did that even happen?”

His cheeks burned. “It started with the alley . . .”