(I'm 3 days late for this but nevemiiiind 😅😅)
Alix yawned for what seemed like the millionth time that day. And it was just only past noon. Ms. Bustier, the teacher, had given the students a worksheet to do as classwork and Alix had already finished it. She looked around the class, seeing her classmates busy doing their work, and thought, "Well a nap of a minute or two won't do any harm, right?" She crossed her arms of the desk to serve as a pillow, rested her head on them looking downwards and closed her eyes.
"Mylène, is Alix... sleeping?", Ms. Bustier asked, confused. It was quite unusual to see said pink haired girl tired, let alone sleep during class (which she had never done before). Mylène gently brushed away some strands of pink hair and saw her friend's bright blue eyes closed. She nodded to her teacher and softly asked, "should I wake her up?"
Ms. Bustier looked thoughtful for a few seconds before replying, "no, let her rest, we are only doing some revision, nothing too important." "Not to be rude or anything, but she looks like she definitely needs to sleep," Chloè piped up. "I mean, have you seen how she's been looking recently? She looks like she hasn't been sleeping at all.", Chloè continued. And what she said was true.
Alix looked paler than normal and she had dark bags under her eyes. Her once bright blue eyes looked dull and sometimes were red rimmed, an indication that she had been crying. When asked if everything was alright, she replied with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, said that everything was fine and then changed the topic.
The rest of class all nodded and some murmurs of agreement were heard. All of them were worried about their friend. "Did she tell anyone about what happened to her?", Ms. Bustier asked, visibly worried. Everyone shook their heads as if to say no and a few collective 'no''s were heard. "When I try to ask her she always says that she's fine, but I don't believe her.", Kim spoke up and said. Ms. Bustier simply nodded and sighed, wishing that there was a way how she could help her once outgoing student, before continuing the lesson.
The bell rang, signalling the end of the school day but Alix was still asleep. Almost everyone was leaving the classroom looking worriedly over their shoulders at Alix. "You coming dude?", Nino asked his best friend, Adrien. "Go without me Nino, I'm going to try to talk to Alix.", he replied.
Adrien knew that Alix was given the rabbit miraculous permanently by Ladybug, just in case something serious happened in the future that she had to fix immediately. Alix also knew that he was the holder of the cat miraculous. Maybe the knowledge of each other's secret identities would get her to open up a bit with him.
"Are you sure dude? She doesn't seem to be opening up to anyone soon.", Nino once again asked Adrien. Adrien smiled and said, "well it doesn't hurt to try, right?" Nino smiled at him before saying his goodbyes and leaving. Adrien approached Mylène, who was going to try and wake Alix up, and he told her the same thing as he told Nino. She then told him that she hoped that he would succeed as she hated seeing one of her closest friends sad before saying goodbye and leaving the classroom.
Adrien then went over to Ms. Bustier's desk, where she was packing her stuff, and asked her, "is it okay if I stay a bit in here and try to talk to Alix?" She looked up at him and smiled warmly before saying, "yes Adrien, you can. Here's the key so when you're done you can lock the class. I will be downstairs waiting for you to give me the key back after you're done." She sighed and said, "I really hope that you manage to get her to open up to you, I am worried sick about her." Adrien nodded and agreed with what his teacher said. She finished packing her stuff, said goodbye to Adrien and left the class.
He made his way over to where Alix was. Once seeing that there was nobody that shouldn't know about him, Plagg flew out of Adrien's shirt. "So what are we doing again?", he asked. "Try to get Alix to tell me what's going on with her.", Adrien replied while running a hand through his hair.
At that Fluff came out of Alix's bag looking worried sick about her holder. "Fluff!", Adrien exclaimed as soon as he saw the white rabbit kwami, "is everything alright with Alix?" She looked down and shook her head no. Adrien knew that something was wrong, but to hear it (or well, see it) from her kwami was worrying. "I have been trying to get her to open up with you or Ladybug but she wouldn't listen. She said that she didn't want to burden others with her own problems that can't be solved.", Fluff said rather sadly.
Adrien felt saddened by this. She certainly wouldn't be burdening others with her problems, he would always be there to listen to and try his best to help her. "Why can't her problems be solved though? Doesn't every problem have a solution?" Plagg asked. Fluff paused for a moment before saying, "I think it's best if she answers that. Even though she told me all that she's going through it's better if she explains everything to you." Adrien nodded, trying to think about what was so serious that couldn't be solved before waking her up.
He put a hand on her shoulder to shake her gently to wake her up but as soon as his hand touched her shoulder, she shot up from her previous position. She looked frantically around the room, asking with a panicked voice, "what happened? Is everything alright? Do I need to-", before noticing Adrien looking at her, concerned to say the least.
She slumped back down in her chair and awkwardly laughed before saying, "sorry about that, it's just...". She paused and then continued, "yeah never mind." She smiled slightly and looked down to her hands. If Adrien wasn't worried for her before he was now. Alix was acting way too strange compared to her usual behaviour.
"Listen Alix, are you sure that everything's okay? You know you can trust me right? Especially that we know each other's secret identities and all that." She said with a newfound enthusiasm, "yeah, yeah! Everything's great! Peachy even!" Yeah Adrien didn't buy any of that. He put his hands of her shoulders, causing her to slightly flinch and then look up at him with wide deep sky blue eyes, and he softly said, "You can't really expect me to believe nothing's wrong. That nothing happened, not when you flinch everytime someone touches you. Always remember that I am here for you, okay?"
Alix felt touched by his words, she felt tears filling her eyes. She did want someone to open up to, something wasn't okay but she didn't want to burden Marinette or Adrien with her problems, they already had enough themselves. But here was Adrien, ready to listen to her, being there for her (and honestly, after she discovered his secret identity she became closer to him than to Marinette).
She couldn't help the single tear falling down her cheek and at the sight of his soft, concerned and wanting to help her face she helplessly burst into tears. Well Adrien clearly wasn't expecting that. And neither was Plagg as he stopped mid-bite to look over at her direction, surprised. Fluff's ears dropped as she perched herself on her holder's shoulder, trying her best to calm Alix down.
Adrien could just look as a wave of emotions passes through Alix's eyes before bursting into tears and hiding her face in her hands, still sobbing. What on earth could have happened to make one of the toughest persons he knew cry like that? He looked over to Plagg to see if he maybe had a clue on what to do in this kind of situation. He streched one paw out (the other was still holding the cheese) and curved it inwards but Adrien didn't have a clue on what his kwami was doing. Plagg gave a frustrated sigh, put his cheese on a desk and made the same movement with both paws. Adrien understood that as a sign to hug and try to comfort the still sobbing Alix.
He did so and he felt her relax slightly in his embrace while slowly rubbing her back. Oh, how she had wished to have someone to comfort her during the previous times when that had happened. Surely she had Fluff, but a kwami isn't big enough to give a proper hug.
Eventually her sobbing calmed down and she slowly started straightening her back. Adrien noticed that she had stopped and he broke off from the hug. Alix breathed out and wiped away the tears that were staining her cheeks. She sheepishly smiled and said, "heh, I'm sorry about that", while rubbing the back of her neck. He smiled at her and said, "you don't have to be sorry for anything Alix." She just nodded at that.
"So, do you want to maybe talk about it?", Adrien asked, sitting down on Mylène's chair. She started speaking very fast, saying, "well uh yeah, maybe? I don't know if I should be telling you, just in case something happens to the timeline, or, or, I don't know... or maybe you shouldn't know, or I mean it's just- ugh, I don't even know where to start from", she said that last part with an exasperated sigh, putting her hands to the sides of her face and slowly pulling them downwards.
"Wait, what do you mean you don't know where to start from?", Adrien asked. Everything had to start from somewhere. Alix sighed and replied, "it's just, the whole thing is too complicated that I don't know from where to start explaining." Fluff flew from her place on Alix's shoulder and volunteered to explain the situation the best that she could and Alix told her to do so.
"So you can understand everything I have to tell you this before", Fluff started. "There are these things called timelines which show how events are going to unfold. But sometimes the simplest actions can set a timeline off its course, causing something really bad to happen." "How bad?", Adrien asked. Alix looked down towards her hands again and quietly answered with a shaky voice, "seeing everyone you love and care about dead for example..."
Adrien's eyes widened and he was stunned. She actually had to see that!? That would be traumatising to anyone. He looked over at Alix and saw her still looking downwards, breathing shakily. He once again placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to look up at him, another tear sliding down her cheek. He felt bad now for complaining to Plagg that he didn't have all the freedom that he desired when this girl in front of him had seen everyone that she loves literally dead.
"Alix, I'm just, I'm so sorry that you had to see all of that, I wish that there was a way that I could help-", Adrien started before being cut off by a dry laugh from the girl he was talking to. "Listen Adrien, there's nothing you can do to help me with this, really. You don't know what stuff will cause the disruption in the timeline and neither do I until it actually happens. It is my job to fix bumps in the timeline and to take care of the future. I have to do it. It's my job."
"Pssst, Fluff", Plagg called out to the other kwami who was focused on her holder. "Mhm?", she replied. "Don't you think that 15 is a little bit too young for someone to wield the rabbit miraculous? Especially with what you say that your previous holders encountered", he asked. Fluff turned around to face him and said, "not to be rude to Alix or anything because honestly she is one of the best holders I've ever had, but yes, 15 is way too young to take on the responsibility of providing the safest future possible. I didn't have time to tell the guardian about that before I was given to Alix permanently." Plagg nodded before continuing to savour his precious cheese.
"So how often does the timeline get messed up?", Adrien asked. Alix took a deep breath before mumbling, "almost everyday." "What!? Almost everyday!? So she had to deal with seeing all that almost everyday!?", he thought. He still couldn't believe all that she was going through. Alix must have noticed his shocked expression as she then said, "yep, almost everyday. It's not always the same thing that happens, but most of the time it does end up in deaths. Sometimes I get the end of the world, sometimes I get a very powerful akumatized person that manages to destroy a lot of stuff, sometimes I get Hawkmoth winning and taking your miraculoues, etcetera etcetera." She said all of that in a nonchalant tone, not seeming to care that much anymore, or maybe she was used to the tragedies by now, even though deep down every time she saw the deaths part she would be affected greatly.
Adrien was absolutely stunned. She had to deal with all that and still managed to continue with her education!? She is strong, even stronger than he had thought before. He then noticed her yawning and thought of a question he had been meaning to ask her. "Al, have you been sleeping at all? Because you don't really look like you have been to be honest.", he asked.
She looked up at him and asked, "normal sleep or just random naps?" He blinked twice and replied, "uhhh, normal sleep? Like when you go to sleep at night." "Oh, uh, normal sleep, let me see", she started and then paused to count on her fingers. Adrien seemed confused, why did she need to count? Unless...
"Approximately two or three weeks? I kind of lost count...", Alix continued, smiling nervously. He was once again totally shocked. How was she even surviving without sleeping? "How have you gone without sleeping for that long!?, he exclaimed.
She fidgeted in her chair and looked back down before nervously answering, "well, uh, you see, I go to sleep and after 2 to 3 hours of sleeping, if I'm lucky I manage to get 4, I start having nightmares about well, the, the bad stuff that I see so I get woken up aaaand then I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep." "How- How are you even managing to stay awake most of the time and do all your work?", he asked, still in some shock.
Alix gave another dry laugh and said, "well I do my homework when I have time to do it, sometimes even in the middle of the night when I can't sleep, and I'm powering on those few hours of sleep, sometimes taking naps when I can't stay awake anymore and caffeine."
"But- but Alix, that isn't good for your health", Adrien said, even more concerned for her. He had learned that the average person needed at least 8 hours of sleep, and Alix had slept way less than that. He didn't know how she was still managing to function properly, and to be honest, she herself didn't know either. She sighed and answered, "well is there anything I can do?"
"Maybe go to a therapist or something?", he said sheepishly. He had heard that a therapist's job was to help people feel better, and that's what Alix needed. She snorted at what he had said before turning serious and saying, "Adrien, you and I both know that we can't reveal our identities to other people, let alone strangers."
"Oh", he thought, "to be able to help others you first have to know their problem... how stupid can I even be?" He mentally face palmed at that. He just gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his neck. She just raised an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything else. Of course, she would obviously know if he had told his secret identity to someone else.
She seemed lost in her thoughts but after a while she spoke up and said, "isn't your bodyguard here to pick you up?" He nodded and said, "yeah, he is supposed to be waiting for me outside." She stood up and said, "well, we must get going then. Don't want to make your grumpy old man mad, hm?" Adrien laughed at her commonly used nickname for his father and helped her pack her stuff.
Their kwamis got back into their hiding places after saying goodbye to each other while their holders made their way to the door. Adrien paused in front of the closed door and put his hand on Alix's shoulder. She looked up at him and he genuinely said, "Hey Alix, if you're ever feeling sad or just saw something like those that you were saying and just need someone to talk to, just remember that I'm here if you ever want", followed by a kind smile. She smiled back and said, "thanks bro, I really appreciate that" before hugging him. He hugged her back and then they went out of their classroom.
"So I guess I'll tomorrow then?", he asked. "Yep, bye!", she said. He said a goodbye to her before she was off. He locked the door and went downstairs to give Ms. Bustier her key back.
Alix could only hope that that day was a good one and that she didn't have to see another timeline gone wrong, but alas, she was wrong.
