#give lila anon a chance to b!tch and moan like usual?

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Hey, Little Songbird

Chapter 33 - AO3

Ten minutes.

Ten minutes of keeping Rossi pinned to the ground while she hissed and spat at him, struggling against the superior strength of the Peacock Miraculous. Ten minutes of kneeling on her torso, unable but not incapable of fighting while King Monkey and Chat Noir picked off the rest of their akumatized classmates. Ten minutes of waiting, Rossi’s connection to Hawkmoth flashing for a few moments before extinguishing.

It was the longest ten minutes of Argus’ life.

The doors of the gym slammed open. Argus couldn’t spare a glance, but multiple people ran into the room, one coming up right behind him. He braced himself. “Oh thank god.”

“Ma—” Argus turned his head to look, but instead of who he was expecting, it was Ladybug behind him. Several police officers had arrived with her. “Ladybug. Did everything go well?”

She nodded, smiling. “Both Hawkmoth and Mayura were arrested and no one was hurt. And now—” She walked around him, so Rossi could see here. “It’s your turn, Lila Rossi. Are you going to surrender the akuma?”

“Never!” She snapped, spit foaming in her mouth. Argus wrinkled his nose.

“Hard way it is, then.” She glanced at Argus. “Do you know where her akumatized object is?”

“No idea. Everything about her is so ugly, it could be anything.”

Rossi hissed at him, trying to bit his arm. He slammed her head back into the floor, cracks radiating out on the wood under her.

Ladybug appraised the akuma. “There really is room for taste. But when Rossi was akumatized previously, the object was…” Reaching down, Ladybug plucked a necklace off Rossi’s neck. He hadn’t noticed it before due to the ugly prom queen aesthetic, but a dainty, tasteful necklace had been there the whole time, hidden in the ruffles of the bust. Ladybug snapped the necklace in half, and a black butterfly flew out. “This.”

Quickly catching the akuma, a loveliness of ladybugs washed over the gym and into the world outside. Damage from the battle healed, cracks fading and shrinking. His classmates transformed back into their normal selves, dazed and confused. Rossi, too, transformed back to normal, with none of the confusion previous akuma victims had. Instead, she continued to glare up at Argus and Ladybug, hands balled into fists (thumbs tucked under her fingers like she’d never learned to punch before, and the sadistic part of Felix really wanted her to try).

Ladybug helped Felix to his feet. His knees cracked from kneeling for so long. “Your costume looks good on you,” Ladybug said suddenly. He blinked at her and she flushed. “It’s… You kept the hoodie look. It suits you.”

What?

What??

Before Felix could truly question whatever that was, Rossi crawled to her feet. Her face had smoothed into false gratitude, a simpering smile trying to placate her audience. “Oh, Ladybug! Thank you so much for saving me—”

Ladybug stepped aside for the two policemen, who hauled her to her feet. She complained about the rough, only to scream when handcuffs clicked around her wrists. “Lila Rossi, you are under arrest for terrorism against the citizens of Paris. Everything you say can and will—”

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Rossi sputtered, trying to pull her other wrist free before it was locked behind her back. “I was an akuma, I can’t be held responsible for helping Hawkmoth! If I need to be arrested, so do they!” Unable to gesture with her hand, she kicked in the direction of dreadlock girl, goth girl, and boy with a skull on his shirt. They looked horrified at the prospect.

He really, really needed to learn his classmates’ names.

The police officers didn’t look inclined to answer, but Argus was ecstatic to inform Rossi of what was going on. He was a hero, at least for the day; he couldn’t let someone walk away ignorant after all! “So, that wasn’t you in the video I took? The video where you can clearly see someone who looks exactly like you snatches an akuma out of the air and negotiates with Hawkmoth for better powers?” He looks back at Ladybug, who was giving him a look. “Oh dear, we ought to go out and search for this mysterious doppelganger then. But… the doppelganger theory doesn’t explain the mountain of other evidence for more crimes we found on you. Whoops.”

“You—” She lunged for Argus, but the officers hold her back. “You ruined my life!” She spat.

Chat Noir approached, crossing his arms, and glaring at the girl. “Ironic, coming from End Days herself.”

Argus snorted. “I know, right?”

Rossi was dragged away by the bobbies, screaming at the top of her lungs about diplomatic immunity and that she’d been framed. Argus rolled his eyes. Turning back to the heroes, he flinched, finding Chat Noir staring at him with an unidentifiable expression. After a few seconds, the hero spoke. “I don’t like you.”

“Chat—”

Argus cocked an eyebrow. “And why should I care?”

Chat Noir glared. “But, you did good in your first fight against an akuma. And hopefully, your last.”

“That was hardly my first fight against an akuma, remember?”

He stepped into Argus’ personal space, staring him down. Argus stopped breathing. “I won’t forget.” He stepped away. “But I guess you were lucky enough to find some people willing to tolerate you. That’s probably the reason why you’re not a loser anymore.”

“Chat Noir!” Ladybug stood in between the two, glaring at her partner. “There was no reason to say that to Argus! He’s the only reason we were able to defeat Hawkmoth!”

Chat Noir’s face darkened, and he looked away. “Yeah.” Like it was planned, Chat Noir’s Miraculous beeped, though the Ladybug and Peacock stayed silent. Ladybug must have recharged on her way over, and Argus never used his ability in battle—Duusu hadn’t even explained how, claiming that it was dangerous—so he was the only one who had to leave or risk his identity. Ladybug offered him a fist bump before he left, and Chat looked like he was about to cry. “Meet me in the usual place? Tonight, at ten?”

“Of course, Chaton. Take all the time you need.”

The black cat hero raced away to parts unknown after whatever that was (although, the dark part of Felix’s mind already had a suspicion he really didn’t like). That left Ladybug alone with the three temporary heroes, along with the three victims. She cleared her throat. “Thank you, everyone. With your help, we managed to finally arrest Hawkmoth—”

“So, who was it?” Chloe asked.

“You find that out tomorrow, with the rest of Paris. I believe a press conference is already in the works for the morning” Ladybug didn’t seem to care about the interruption, used to how Chloe acted. “I need to collect your Miraculous now, but Queen Bee, Argus, since you both have public identities…”

“You want ours back first before collecting the others,” Argus finished, snatching the Bee Miraculous out of Chloe’s hair. She yelped as she detransformed, and Argus tossed the hair comb to Ladybug. There was no sign of a kwami; did that happen when the Miraculous was removed without the transformation phrase? If so…

“Why you do that!?” Chloe screeched at him.

“Don’t act like you were going to return it willingly,” Argus spat back.

King Monkey agreed. “Yeah, you were probably planning to crash another train to impress mommy dearest.” He held out a fist to Argus, and the Peacock hero reluctantly tapped it.

Ripping the brooch off his chest, Argus turned back into Felix and he tossed it at Ladybug. She fumbled, bouncing the jewelry off her arms and chest before clutching it in a move so familiar it was burned into his retinas. “You don’t want to say goodbye to your kwami?” she asked.

Felix snorted. “If I never had to see that hyperactive monster ever again, it would be too soon. Keep the horrible thing.”

Ladybug nodded, gesturing for King Monkey to leave with her. She looked back at him over her shoulder. “I’ll see you soon.”

Felix nodded. And it would be soon.

As in, the next day of class, soon. They sat next to each other, after all.

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