March 3rd AU is back- and it’s Félombre’s (aka, Cat!Felix) turn.
Félombre was given the miraculous on complete accident. Of course, he totally abuses the power, much to Marinette’s frustration and dismay. Interestingly enough, he and Lady Beetle actually get along and work together well as a team. He’s the one who thinks of the plans, and she has the charisma and competence to pull them off. AKA, Félombre is the brains, and Lady Beetle is the face. Well, that is, until everything gets upended.
Not to say Copycat is back, but I did get enough inspiration to write a chapter.
Ao3
Felix had just set his third shirt in the biggest backpack that he could find, when a big tin of Camembert just dropped into the opening, smushing the neatly folded clothes Felix had, and rumpling up the backpack.
“Plagg!” he cried out, taking it out and holding the tin to the kwami, who pouted back at him, ears folded back. Felix scolded, “I don’t have room for this!”
“But I need it!” Plagg cried out.
“No, you don’t,” Felix insisted, taking it back to Plagg’s cheese drawer. “I assure you, a bakery will have plenty of cheese.”
“But I’m used to a certain quality of cheese,” Plagg protested.
“Marinette’s family isn’t poor,” Felix pointed out. “No one that’s poor can live across Notre Dame. They will have high quality cheese.” He gave Plagg a look. “Honestly, I expect you’ll be spoiled, and won’t want to come back.” Felix could just imagine it. Marinette would bring Plagg’s dinner on his own plate, make a specialized toys and a little room just for him, and would give the kwami many pets and cuddles and humor him lounging on her… Felix cut the thought short, feeling a small bit of jealousy.
Plagg scoffed, raising a brow at him. “I think you’re projecting a little.” Plagg was certain that Felix wasn't wrong. Marinette probably would and will take good care of him. Honestly, she and her family's wealth wasn't his concern. No, his concern was her kwami. The bakery was Tikki’s terf. She’s willing to humor other kwamis around, but she had her rules. And she would hover . This wasn’t Plagg’s first time spending some time in her zone, and like every other time, he held some little bit of anticipating dread. She was going to be in his business 24/7. And personally, Plagg thought he had it the worse out of all kwamis, and he fully blamed it on them being counterparts. They really couldn't exist with the other, but they also couldn't stand being together either. And knowing Tikki, the lucky bug that landed a bakery, her space was going to stink of chocolate.
While I’m not sure how much time I’ll have for writing in the upcoming days, I dreamt part of this one and then struggled to write a conclusion to it that I felt okay about. But perfection isn’t achievable and at some point I needed to just let that be, since otherwise I wasn’t going to end up with material for any prompts this month! This one is fairly bare bones in terms of plot and was done in the usual fashion (with no editing and no beta readers that is probably the death of my writing)
May or may not qualify as some degree of angst(?) but mostly in a way I find sweet. About 1200 words (somehow). Also, cat!Felix and always has been in this universe
Felix tried to swallow the lump growing in his throat as he held on to Marinette’s arm for dear life. He needed to focus on finding a better way to get her up onto the nearest beam of the Eiffel Tower without harming her, now that the transformation had dropped. At the very least the akuma had been drawn away by an illusion when her timer was running out, a fake Chat carrying away a fake Ladybug with beeping earrings.
He couldn’t help but think that falling off a beam in the chaos, with no yo-yo to help herself, was probably not how she would’ve planned any potential identity reveal. He figured that at least he had managed to catch her, even if his baton was simply wedged in the supports to stop their descent. Her kwami hurried into the little purse still hanging across her shoulders, likely to go eat whatever snacks Marinette had stowed away.
Another gust of wind blew around them, causing the pair to sway slightly and her hand to slide just a little further down his forearm. Felix took a deep breath and tried to focus again, tightening his grip as much as he dared without his claws digging into her skin.
“This feels very different without my suit.” Marinette managed a shaky joke. His fear for her safety only grew and he wondered if he would be calmer if it had been anyone other than her.
“Do you think you can pull yourself close enough to climb onto my back? With this angle, I can only pull my arm back up so far but I think if you can grab my leg or hips and get to my back, all you’d have to do is hold on tight and I could walk my hands in until I’m able to get on the beams and climb up to the observation deck.” Felix hoped his voice wasn’t trembling. He knew with the enhanced strength from his transformation, it shouldn’t be too difficult to climb with the additional weight, but he wasn’t sure how easily she would be able to grip his leather suit to get on his back in the first place.
“I think I can probably do that…” As she spoke, Marinette’s free arm reached towards him, twisting her body to try reaching the arm he was holding her with. He immediately tried to pull his arm up as high as he could without losing his grip on her or his baton. After managing to grip his wrist, she reached a leg out and hooked his leg, so she could pull herself right up to him, though the action did cause her to slide down slightly.
Felix grunted with the strain of holding his arm at that angle and she mumbled an apology. With her legs wrapped around one of his, Marinette managed to move one hand up to his shoulder and stretched to move her hand to his back. Once her elbow was hooked on his shoulder, fingers digging into his back, she paused and took a deep breath before speaking.
“Okay, I think I’ve got enough of a grip for the moment. I’m going to let go of your arm now and slide it up behind you and hook it on my other arm. Then I’m going to try to slip my head under your arm and shift until I’m on your back. Ready?” With how close she was now, he could see the sweat starting to form on her forehead and wondered if she was focusing on each word to keep calm like he was. When he realized she was waiting for a response, he nodded and loosened his grip on her arm.
She carefully moved, managing to get her arm over his shoulder before stopping and groaning, “I didn’t think this through enough. I don’t think I can keep my grip and get underneath your arm.”
He glanced down at her face, considering their position and what she had originally proposed. He also hadn’t realized that instinctively his arm had wrapped around her waist, to steady her when she was trying to get the best grip around his neck.
“I think if you hold on tight and keep your legs out of the way of mine, I can still climb like this. Are you comfortable with wrapping your legs around my hips and just holding on tight?” Felix tried not to blush at how close her face was to his, tried to focus on how they would get out of this situation before the akuma caught on to the illusion.
In response to this, Marinette tightened her grip on his neck, untangled her legs from his as smoothly as she could, and started pulling herself up higher. Felix couldn’t help but feel grateful that so far his baton was far enough over the beams that the shifting weight at this end didn’t seem to be affecting its balance. After a moment, she seemed to have settled into place, and Felix slowly moved his hand from her back, up to his baton.
Stepping his hands in, the two progressed towards the tower beams fairly quickly. From Marinette’s bag, Tikki peeked out and informed them that she was ready to transform again when they were ready to go. Once they reached the beams, Felix wrapped an arm around the closest beam using the beam to keep Marinette steady, then retracted the baton with his other hand.
He took a moment to scout the area and saw no sign of the akuma yet, much to his relief, then proceeded to start a slow climb down to the closest platform. Neither spoke until their feet were firmly planted on the ground for a long moment.
“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to talk with you about this later, but until then, I’m going to go so you can transform and we can finish up. Do you want to meet me at the top of the tower so we can figure out where they’re at or would you rather meet wherever the akuma is?” he whispered to her, leaning close despite the lack of bystanders.
“I’ll meet you at the top,” she replied shyly, while the blush in her cheeks slowly started to fade. Felix nodded and immediately started up the tower, hoping the exercise would clear his head.
Quickly after reaching the highest platform, he was joined by a transformed Ladybug swinging over the railing by her yo-yo. The two scouted out where they were going and were off to finish off the fight.
When the duo met late that night to discuss the accidental reveal, Marinette wasn’t sure that she wanted to know who her partner was yet. She expressed her concerns with the revealed identities, specifically with what Tikki had told her in the past, but still felt they needed to talk it through. Both brought questions and Felix admitted to knowing her in his civilian life. By halfway through, Marinette was willing to learn his identity and the two both detransformed. Both thoroughly assured the other that they weren’t disappointed, though neither was quite willing to admit just how pleased they were with the identities below the mask. After many more questions and a few sloth jokes, the two parted ways with endless smiles.
idk if i’ll be doing a kwami swap within my kwami swap au (like Reflektadoll or w/e had) but that doesn’t stop me from thinking about the possibilities
Ladybeetle (Luka) is more of a defensive player, while Chat Nuit (Felix) is an offensive player; which they play out in their respective roles. CN, and Huli Jing (Marinette) fend off the akuma(s) while LB finds a way to defeat it (CN is lucky to have HJ think quickly on her feet, and the two more or less can communicate silently in battle). Switching their miraculous in this au would force them into positions they’ve never thought about.
As Ladybeetle, Luka is a more pronounced version of himself, and as Chat Nuit, Felix is able to explore a wilder, untamed side of him that has been kept away for years. If they were to swap accidentally, it would be a disaster. Luka, not used to being offensive, aggressive, or assertive becomes clumsy and trips over himself as he tries not to sink into his habit of observation; Felix, while he is actually used to being silent and planning, can’t stay still on the defensive and takes a more active role than Ladybeetle, but he has no idea how to use a yo-yo as a weapon.
Thankfully Huli Jing would be there to keep them from accidentally killing themselves (and/or everyone around them), but she’ll have her work cut out for her. If Ryuko is in the picture at this point, she’ll be busy laughing her ass off and memorizing every moment for blackmail/teasing material.
If I do plan in a swap, it might be between Huli Jing (Marinette) and Ryuko (Kagami) because they’re both fairly offensive. There would of course be struggles for adapting to new weapons, but since they’re similar to the ones they’re used to it wouldn’t be like if the boys swapped. It’s also more likely to happen, with the narrative, and it would probably be Fox!Kagami (Kitsuneko) showing up after Marinette misplaces/forgets her miraculous after hanging out together; as it happens to be, Marinette accidentally gathered up Kagami’s miraculous so she ends up (panicking) transforming so she can catch up to her.
The aftermath of the accidental Fox-Dragon swap would be a mix of a panicked confession, kwami hangouts, and anecdotal history lessons that are more humorous than anything because both Trixx and Longg are mysterious little shits who drop shocking one liners then never elaborate or answer questions. This would be the point where marigami/kagaminette becomes a thing. The two never swap again because doing so too much could tamper with the progress they’ve both been making with their own miraculous’ powers (bc i totally revamped/redid the powers of all the miraculouses even if just by a little bit bc canon is dumb)
So, I wonder, if Catwalker turns out to be Felix, should I incorporate that into Copycat? Name and design?
Like I am feeling refreshed enough to get back on WIPs and I’ll be doing a little reread of Copycat; that can be my prime time to make changes. I will say, I wouldn’t mind it, I do like Catwalker as a name. Nice nod to Adrien’s modeling, and Felix is pretending to be Adrien, could be his own personal joke; and over all do like the look. Only thing I’d tweak up is the hair, make it black or blond cause that green is awkward. Probably black as that would throw more people off.
But ultimately I can go either way. And I am uncertain choice wise, so what do you guys think?
