Archive of Our Own

It's not until Alix is ten that the whole idea of soulmarks really begins to bother her.  Before that, she just doesn't really think about them at all, even though her friends do, even though Rose and Juleka's 'marks came in younger than Alix has ever heard of. 

It happens when she's sparring with Kim in the closed museum, with Nath nearby sketching out their flurry of imperfectly mimicked anime blows.  Alix doesn't expect it to go any differently than any of the other times they've done the same thing. 

None of them do.  They're just playing a game.  They're just hanging out like normal.  To Alix at least, it isn't supposed to matter , at least not beyond the end of the game. 

None of their blows come anywhere near landing, because they're mostly trying to imitate non-existent martial arts styles that rely kind of heavily on magic that they don't have (then).  They still aren't supposed to be sparring at all and especially not inside the museum. 

In Alix's defence, they had thought to stay far away from any breakables.

And anyway Jalil is supposed to be their supervision, and Jalil had vanished into the Egyptian wing about ten minutes into their impromptu slumber party, so they all know that Dad's probably just going to be relieved that Alix and Kim did stay away from any artefacts while they tried to imitate six different awesome fights at once.

Alix would probably feel guiltier if Dad hadn't left Jalil in charge.  Dad has got to know by now exactly how well that's gonna work out. 

Jalil was only supposed to be watching Alix, anyway, but Dad's real terrible at saying no so Kim is squaring up again and Nath is completely focused on whatever he's sketching out and Max is up on the landing above them all.  Max is muttering to himself and scribbling down equations on a pile of pilfered napkins, leaning too far over the rail for the safety standards they'd all been drilled in before Dad let them hang out in the museum at all.

(Years later when they're all doing roughly the same things but with some extremely significant differences, Max will be dictating to Markov, instead). 

Their sparring session ends abruptly sometime around midnight when Kim falls back with a startled shout even though Alix hasn't hit him.  They're barely even trying to hit each other by then, anyway, but she knows she didn't hit him that time. 

When Kim rips his sleeve up (and nearly off, Jalil is supposed to be trying to minimize the destruction but they all know he's not coming back), Alix's breath catches along with everyone else's.

But hers is for a different reason than everyone else. 

Kim grins, poking at the soulmark still etching itself into his skin in bright and glowing blue, and Alix only starts to breathe again when it completes itself because it's all gears and circuits and Alix doesn't (want to) know what her mark would be but that definitely isn't it.

Kim shouts up to Max, but it's another month before anything appears for Max, and then the panther that wraps all around his left leg is impossible to hide.  Max doesn't want to hide it, thankfully, but whenever Alix thinks of a soulmark that large and obvious she goes cold in a way that has nothing to do with the temperature. 

Jalil asks her about it, once, but he's years older than her and doesn't have any 'marks either so this isn't really something they talk about.

Even then, all he says is, "I hope mine's small." 

And then Alix realises that she hopes she never has a 'mark at all.

She doesn't want a soulmark, not ever, though she has no problem admiring other people's 'marks and adding them to her graffiti and taking inspiration from them.  She gets that they're important to those other people, even if she has difficulty sometimes grasping why.  Soulmarks are always pretty, and they make a lot of people real obviously real happy, and Alix doesn't mind them, exactly.  Not for other people, anyway.  

She just doesn't want one. 

She breathes a little easier with every year that passes without hers appearing, without the symbol showing that somewhere out there- either waiting out in the world, or as close as the gallery above like Kim and Max- there's someone who completes her. 

People like to phrase it like that.  They call their soulmates their other halves, they say they didn't feel whole until they found each other, they make and gift jewellery and fashions anchored to the theme. 

Two halves, made whole.  Puzzles with pieces missing, now complete. 

They phrase it like one person on their own can't ever be happy.  Can't ever be enough. 

After Chat Noir and Ladybug's first few appearances, the theme that had already always felt insidiously pervasive to Alix spreads even further.  There's new material now, because no matter how often Chat Noir and Ladybug insist that they don't have each other's 'marks, very few people believe them. 

Matching black cat and ladybug soulmate pieces enjoy a rapid rise in popularity.  Alix even runs across a themed wedding once.  Honestly, she's surprised it's only once.  

She starts to think that maybe the heroes agree to talk to Alya so often because Alya's the only one who doesn't use their interviews to keep asking (hounding) them their about soulmarks. 

The first time Alix works closely enough with Ladybug and Chat to have time to talk, she tells them she believes them. 

Ladybug gives her a very odd look, one Alix has trouble reading.  She's not usually all that bad at reading people but this isn't an expression she thinks she's ever seen at the mention of soulmarks. 

Not even in the mirror.

"People don't, mostly," Ladybug says, but she doesn't sound insulted, just curious.  "They see us fighting back to back and they assume it must be true." 

Alix has to consider that for a moment.  "You're partners.  I think a lot of people have kinda forgotten that's got a context outside of soulmarks."  Alix feels a second's pressure just behind her eyes, almost like she's tearing up, but she blinks and it's gone.  "It's stupid that people think you have to be soulmates in order to have what you two've got."

The way the corner of Ladybug's mouth tilts downward and her eyes go dark and shuttered isn't hard to read at all.  "No one needs a 'mark for their souls to resonate.  People shouldn't assume that we'd need a soulmark to be partners."  Her lip curls and her eyes glitter with smothered anger as she mutters,  "There's so much more to partnership than a 'mark. " 

Alix has never heard anyone say anything like that before, and she grins back at Ladybug with affection and relief.  Alix has never heard anyone refer to the concept of soul resonance, and now she wants to.  She's never heard anything like that phrase and she likes it so much better than soulmate.

For a while after that Alix is a little worried that she might be developing a crush on Ladybug.  She doesn't think that could cause a soulmark to appear (unless you're Luka, maybe, but Luka's a special case), but she also doesn't want to take the risk.  

Besides, Alix has trouble grasping exactly what emotion it is people are describing when they talk about things like crushes.  She spends a week trying to figure out if what she feels is a crush or not, before finally deciding it's probably not.  Chloé has a crush on Ladybug that's visible from the stratosphere, and Alix knows that she doesn't feel like that, so she figures that combination of respect and- affection, she guesses? Probably isn't a crush at all. 

Alix still considers claiming she has one, sometimes, whenever anyone starts nagging her about her lack of soulmarks.  

Maybe she should just get a tattoo.  She's too young, and tattoos have their own whole weird set of taboos, but the temptation begins to rear up more and more often because she's apparently hit the age where everyone asks each other about their 'marks constantly. 

And she's too young to get one legally.  Alix is clever enough to find a way to get a tattoo anyway, if she ever decides she wants one. 

Family and, worse, strangers try to commiserate with her.  They tell her that she's still young, that sometimes soulmarks take a long time to appear, that her soulmate is still out there somewhere.  They try their best to dampen the disappointment they're all so sure she must feel. 

Alix wants to tell them that she does check each night for a 'mark, but not for the reasons they think.  She wants to tell them that all she ever feels at the sight of bare, unmarked skin is overwhelming relief .  

She doesn't, because that's not a conversation she feels like having on repeat, but holy shit does she want to.

Ladybug starts to pull her into more battles.  Alix always goes willingly, even before (after/when) she has her own Miraculous. 

Alix had somehow proved herself to her heroes without ever meaning to.  She's never totally sure how or why, but she has some solid guesses, and they mostly involve being one of the people who actually believes them.  She thinks most or all of their class does.  That's probably why and how most and then all of their class start getting pulled in to fight alongside them.

Alix hasn't talked to Chat Noir as much as she has Ladybug, but he's so oddly subdued after one of the worst battles she's been in (someone's parents hadn't liked their soulmark, and though there's definitely no effective way to remove a 'mark that doesn't stop people from trying ), that Alix goes to plop down next to him and starts running her mouth the way she usually reserves for Kim and Nathaniel and sometimes Ondine.

"I don't want one," she announces, startling herself almost as much as she does Chat, both because this isn't a conversation they've been having and because Alix has never actually said it before.  "I don't.  I don't like the idea and I don't want one and I still think this was dumb, 'cause he wanted it, but I'd try to get mine off, too."  She makes a face, running one hand over her paint-stained jeans instead of looking at Chat Noir.  "One of the platonic ones would be okay, I guess, but I don't want that either, and I only really know one person who's got those anyway.  I get why he has them, but I don't want them." 

"Luka," Chat Noir says, and Alix stops talking in her surprise, because this is early on, and Luka is- Luka is actually pretty private about that fact.  It's- it's kind of weird that Chat knows about it. 

She looks up, but Chat's got his arm draped across one folded knee, staring down at his dangling hand.  He clenches his fist once and lets it relax and this close Alix can see clearly that he really does have claws.  Take that, Kim, that's another bet won, she thinks, a little dizzily, and then shakes her head hard.  "Yeah, Luka Couffaine.  He has, like, a dozen, I know some people with two," because Kim has another by now, a mermaid spread all across his back, "but Luka's the only one I know who's got platonic 'marks, I thought people were making them up." 

"They aren't," Chat Noir says, and that and the way his gaze darts down to his boots clues Alix in to a lot more than she'd actually wanted to know. 

She climbs to her feet, offering him a hand.  "You didn't get to Cataclysm anything this time.  Wanna go find some building they're supposed to demolish and help out?" 

He looks startled again, but it morphs into a smile as he takes her hand.  "Yeah, I'd like that."

Nino and Alya don't have each other's soulmarks.  Alix knows this like she knows a lot of things. 

It's like because she doesn't have a soulmark of her own, people constantly want to tell her about theirs. 

It's not actually Nino that tells her, it's Alya in an uncharacteristic fit of worry, but it's Nino she talks to about it.  She's sitting with him at lunch one day, idly tossing a crumpled bit of paper back and forth while Alya and Max argue about the finer points of the Ladyblog interface and Markov occasionally interjects.

(Markov has a soulmark.  It's engraved, but he has one.  It matches the one on Kim's shoulder and Alix knows Max had planned to get a tattoo himself for Markov the moment he was old enough, only a tiny flash drive had shown up high on Max's left shoulder all on its own). 

"I like that they don't match," Nino says suddenly, apropos of nothing, but too quiet for their friends to hear.  He ducks his head and mutters, still for Alix's ears only, "My parent's matched.  I think they thought it meant they'd never have to work anything out.  So I-I guess they just didn't."  He ends on a shrug, and Alix almost misses her next throw, caught on the memory of just how badly Nino's parents divorce had gone.  Anyone who'd been in class with Nino at the time already knows about it, had lived through it, but for the first time she wonders how much Nino has told Alya.

"You should tell them," Alix says, nodding towards Alya and not fumbling her catch this time.  "It'd help." 

Alix doesn't know whose turtle has inked itself on Nino's skin, whose fox hides beneath the collar of Alya's shirts and wraps its tail over the curve of their shoulder.  Alix knows that they don't know, themselves. 

But they know each other, and by the time they're all fighting off kissing zombies together (because Alix's life, all their lives, have gotten incredibly weird and Alix is really hoping no one ever catches on to just how much more fun she's having) Nino and Alya are the most put-together couple she knows. 

She thinks it's because they talk to each other more, because they don't have that easy reassurance that yes of course they're meant to be.  They have to work at it, the way Nino's always known his parents hadn't even tried.  Hadn't thought to try, because soulmarks mean you're for each other, right? Two halves made whole. 

Alix really hates that saying.

Later/then, when Rena Rouge and Carapace appear, Alix thinks back to those unmatched soulmarks and finds herself grinning, then whooping with delight, startling Jalil out of a study trance and getting herself sent outside to run off some energy.

She goes without complaint, still grinning, and doesn't even care that she gets swept into an akuma battle not ten minutes later. 

Her friend's soulmarks are for themselves and Alix feels so much lighter for knowing that's something that can happen.  She's never even heard of it before.  Maybe it's never happened before, because as unlikely as that seems- she already has friends with those rare multiple soulmarks, Luka with his even rarer platonic soulmarks, herself and Jalil getting older and older without any 'marks at all.  Rare and unusual 'marks seem oddly rampant in their class. 

(Later, she'll wonder if Plagg and his chaos are somehow to blame for this).

Alix still doesn't want any 'marks at all, but if she had to have one then her own is a possibility she could live with.

Much later she realises their marks could well be Wayzz and Trixx, but she doesn't think kwami can have soulmarks. Fluff tells her that they can't, that they're deliberately unable to, and while that could be a lie by then/now Alix has learned to trust her kwami about soulmarks.

Fluff has taken/will take her to see the history that no one else still knows, after all.

No one really remembers where soulmarks came from anymore.  They aren't in any of the recorded history past the last five centuries or so, then suddenly they're everywhere, all across the world, and in every culture they're treated as if they always existed.  They go from nowhere to everywhere, as if they happened in a moment, and yet that moment itself somehow passed by unremarked.   

Fluff takes Alix back to that time, that unwritten moment, and shows her exactly what had happened. 

And Alix fights a lot harder to keep Hawkmoth far, far away from Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous.

Soulmarks don't follow very many rules.  They can show up at nearly any age, although below the age of eight is unusual and most people have them by their early twenties at the latest. Soulmarks can be platonic, but for whatever reason those are so rare they're nearly in the realm of myth, and Luka only ever mentions his to family and close friends and the people that they match him with.  Most often 'marks show up when you're spending time with the person that they're for, like with Max and Kim, but sometimes they simply show up with no apparent trigger and you might not even have met their match yet. Sometimes you can be friends with someone for years, or even partnered with them, before the 'marks appear. Sometimes you never meet their match.

Alix thinks that's why her dad seems so unbothered at her lack of soulmarks.  He and Mom had been married for three years before they'd had theirs. 

She wonders, sometimes, if it would have gone different if they'd had their soulmarks from the start.  She wonders if they would have been different. 

It's not a thought she likes.

"Sometimes they come slow," Dad says, when people ask him thinly veiled questions about his daughter's soulmark, because Alix is old enough now that people ask and she doesn't want to lie about this.  She doesn't have a 'mark, she's not gonna pretend she does.  She could get paint or an underage tattoo or something to stop the questions, or she guesses she could, but she'd rather just deal with the questions than deal with the web of lies that would require.  She resents feeling like a web of lies and a fake soulmark is an option at all. 

Jalil still doesn't have a soulmark either.  No one ever asks about his. 

Alix thinks that might bother her more than if they did.

"I have hers," Chat Noir tells Alix one day, nearly drunk from exhaustion after a terrible chain of battles.  Alix has heard so many people say that Mayura must be Hawkmoth's soulmate to have this kind of coordination and she doesn't believe it any more than she'd believed it about Chat Noir and Ladybug.  She thinks Mayura must just be the strategist Hawkmoth himself has never been.  

Alix jostles Chat a little, tries to get him to lean more weight into her side as they take slow steps back towards the sounds of shouting and destruction because the battles are, impossibly, not over.  Alix isn't transformed, hasn't gotten/doesn't have Fluff, but she's used/will use her Miraculous enough for her powers to sink into her skin and she doesn't have any trouble propping Chat up. 

Though she's noticing he's light enough that she might not have much had trouble anyway. 

"Your Lady's waiting on us, we gotta get back," Alix tells him, for the third time, because Chat's having enough trouble tracking what's going on that she thinks he's pretty badly concussed.  Alix is impatient for the fight to end, for Ladybug's swarm of miracles to fix her teammate, because Alix hates seeing her friends hurt.  Chat has a rough enough time at home, even if she's not sure he knows that yet.  It takes/will take Adrien a long time to accept that the way his parents kept him from having friends is wrong.  

(Time's hard enough to keep track of, Alix isn't going to worry about identities at this point. It's kind of become/becoming a moot point for her, anyway). 

"I have hers," Chat Noir repeats, insistent, and Alix's ears would twitch if she had Fluff with her because she's pretty sure he slurs a little that time. 

Chat Noir's ears droop, plastered to his head by exhaustion and dejection as he mumbles, "She doesn't have mine.  Doesn't have any," he adds sadly, and Alix stumbles herself.  She rights herself quickly, because they still have a battle to finish, but she tucks Chat's words into the back of her brain to poke and prod at later.   

For Alix, who gets to hear nearly everyone's soulmark-related woes, this isn't a hard puzzle to work out.

She doesn't bother doing anything about it the next day, because she's too tired to give a damn and Marinette and Adrien are asleep at their desks and Nino's going to follow suit at any moment and Alya just didn't bother to show up at all. 

The day after, though, Alix finds Marinette on her way to lunch and swings into step beside her. 

Marinette looks wary, and that makes Alix wince internally, but she hasn't hit the point in this timeline where anything can be done about Lila just yet- or at least, not without making everything worse for everyone.  She's had that argument with Fluff too often/not enough already. 

"I was gonna get out of here for lunch, wanna come with?" Alix grins at Marinette, rocking back on the balls of her feet, keeping herself moving just enough to keep Marinette's attention.

It's sort of sad, the way certain motions draw Marinette and Adrien's attention immediately now.  Alix knows for a fact that neither one of them is going to lose that wariness for a long, long time, if they ever really do.  They might not; they might just get better at hiding it. 

She wonders how they'd react to birds and flying insects if their kwami didn't fly, too.  She wonders, but she doesn't actually want to know.  They're going to have enough trouble with Nooroo, and Nooroo's going to have enough trouble with them, and Alix hadn't thought/doesn't think it was a good idea at all to leave them all together but Fluff and Wayzz had insisted and if that hadn't been enough then the dark look in Plagg's eyes when anyone dares suggest separating them definitely is/will be. 

It makes sense, in a way.  Plagg is/was/will be viciously protective of Nooroo, for reasons Alix definitely doesn't want to know, and the kwami will/has thoroughly adopted Adrien as his own.  Anyone who tries to take Adrien from him is in for a fight; Plagg is always protective of his chosen, more than he'd ever willingly admit, but then- then something happens that Fluff refuses to let Alix see, and Alix has some very strong suspicions, and then Adrien doesn't have any family left but Plagg and the Gorilla.

Alix is sure that if Plagg were capable of adopting Adrien more traditionally he would.  Instead Plagg adopts his chosen in every way he can and a couple she doesn't think he's supposed to, because no one else retains so much of their Miraculous traits when they aren't transformed and yet Adrien's only ever get more and more obvious. 

Alix half-expects to see Adrien's eyes slit one day. 

She's honestly starting to get really worried about how long it takes after puberty for him and Marinette to start visibly ageing again. 

(It takes her a while to realise that it takes her even longer).

And Plagg keeps/will keep a wary eye on the Gorilla- because the man may have already had custody papers ready to go the second Adrien had needed it (they never can figure out how long the Gorilla's planned to get Adrien away from his dad, but he very clearly had planned it), but it isn't like Adrien had/has been having much luck with family.  Plagg's long since become his constant in a way the rest of their kwami just aren't.

(Alix strongly suspects that their kwami aren't supposed to stay with them past the point of victory, but Plagg's far from the only one who would have to be pried away from his chosen, and any semblance of rules the kwami might have followed vanish with Master Fu.  Anyone who tries to take Adrien or Nooroo from Plagg's protection is going to learn new definitions of destruction, but anyone who tries to take Marinette from Tikki is going to learn just how harmful creation can be, too.)

Marinette agrees to have lunch with her. Alix has to hastily think of somewhere to go, because she'd like a decent amount of privacy for this conversation, and settles on Grounds for Divorce since no one from their class is likely to- no, okay, actually most of their class is likely to be able to find it someday but not today, not in this slice of time, so it'll be fine.  Probably.

Alix really shouldn't go into this particular coffee shop without Fluff.  Marinette really shouldn't be in it at all. 

But it's the only place Alix can think of, damn it, and she thinks if they stay out on the pavement and don't hang out inside they'll be alright. 

She still has to hastily block Marinette's view of the table by the window, because wow this was a really dumb idea, and she sees two employees laughing at her while another gives her a worried frown and then hurries them both out the door as soon as she can.

The whole time she's carefully not looking at Marinette. 

"I've never seen that place before," Marinette says thoughtfully, once they're back outside, and Alix takes a hasty gulp of coffee to avoid answering and nearly burns her tongue.  It's only luck that there's enough whipped cream in her drink to prevent it, even though that's definitely not the drink Alix remembers ordering.

If she ever has to do this again she's finding some other café.

"Yeah, this place is, uh."  Alix coughs, then hastily changes the subject, hoping desperately that Marinette won't notice. This isn't technically playing with their timeline, but it's a lot closer to it than Alix should ever have allowed herself. 

She doesn't think Marinette's likely to be able to find the café again, and that's something Marinette is likely to notice.

Lucky, then, that Alix is entirely aware that Marinette knows she's Bunnix. Lucky, too, that Alix is sure the café's owners have plans of their own in place to prevent anything too terrible from happening.

It won't occur to Alix until much later (but too soon) that she really shouldn't have been able to find that café herself without Fluff's help.

Alix knows she should probably ease into things, should try for subtle, but subtle is not something Alix is any good at.  Besides, they've long since hit the point where no one ever knows if their next few words are going to be interrupted by another akuma or amok or both; dumb, then, to put things off, to wait.

Alix doesn't want to admit it, even though she's sure it shows, but she'd never felt so settled and sure of herself as she does with so many of them fighting Hawkmoth.  She's never quite felt like she fit before, and she knows several of her friends had felt the same, and yet- and yet-

Fluff makes her feel more confident in herself, more like herself, and maybe now she can catch at the edges of that feeling that everyone insists soulmates are supposed to have.  Alix still refuses to refer to it as making her feel whole, because Alix is complete without anyone's help, thanks, but she maybe sees a glimmer of what it is everyone is so enamoured of. 

"Alix?" Marinette says, hesitantly, trailing after her.  Alix paces far enough away from the café that they should be safe and then throws herself down onto a metal chair that frankly doesn't deserve the treatment, making it rattle. "You wanted to talk?"

Marinette's voice is hesitant, but her eyes are sharp, scanning around them for threats even now.  Alix doubts Marinette has any idea she's doing that.

Fluff has kept Alix very deliberately away from Hawkmoth and Mayura's identities, saying if she finds out too soon it could collapse their timeline or worse- and Alix does not want to find out what 'worse' is, Trixx has shown her collapsed timelines and Alix doesn't want to imagine what could be worse- but it hadn't taken long at all for Alix to work out exactly who everyone else is.

Marinette is wary now, the aftermath of a hundred battles written through her instincts, and though Alix can only do blunt she does still know to be careful with her friend.  "I noticed you never talk about your soulmarks.  Even Alya doesn't know anything about them."  Alya bemoans that fact regularly, so it's not a suspicious thing for Alix to know. 

Marinette says nothing for a long moment, then,  "I just... prefer to keep them private.  There's nothing wrong with that." 

"No, of course not," Alix says, more softly than she intends, because how she wishes more people were private about their soulmarks.  The only people she knows personally who keep their 'marks to themselves are Marinette and Adrien and, strangely enough, Sabrina, and she can kinda halfway count Luka in that he may not actively hide his but he also doesn't tend to talk about them.

"Well?" Marinette asks, probing and cautious, and Alix hides a wince as she considers this is almost definitely an identity matter to Marinette.  She can't be matched with Ladybug when neither of them have any 'marks, because everyone assumes that of course Ladybug and Chat Noir would hide theirs- that of course they'd insist they don't have each others.

Ladybug had looked so strange when Alix had believed them.

But Chat knows about Ladybug's lack of soulmarks.  The one person Marinette is most worried for (Alix remembers/will remember Chat Blanc, and Marinette has every right to be scared for her partner) is the one person who will know what it means that Marinette is blank, too.

(Blank is frequently used as something less than a slur but more than an insult, and Alix has always hated that).

Alix takes a deep breath, because she knows, she knows, that Marinette of all people won't feel the same about this as she does.  Marinette's crush on Adrien might not be literally written on her skin, but it's still just as glaringly obvious as if it was.  Soulmarks or not, Marinette's not like Alix.  (And like possibly Jalil, although like hell is Alix ever having that conversation with her brother).

"Marinette," Alix says, and although she tries to keep her voice even Marinette's sudden stillness tells her that she didn't succeed.  Alix just hopes she doesn't sound desperate, because that's all too easy to misinterpret.  "You don't have any 'marks either, do you?" 

Marinette's face does something very complicated. Alix watches, intrigued, but even without the disadvantage of a mask she still doesn't know how to interpret that expression.

"It's- private," Marinette finally repeats, but weakly.  She looks down at their table, setting down her drink to trace patterns through the latticed metal.

Alix has gotten loud and brash about her own lack of 'marks and she knows it.  Her guilty relief every time she checks and still doesn't have a soulmark twists itself around and manifests as an ugly sort of pride (she's already whole, she's not waiting for or on someone, she isn't half of herself and why do people always phrase it like that-) but she thinks Marinette probably wishes she did have a 'mark.  She thinks Marinette wishes that very badly. 

She thinks she's glad that Marinette doesn't, because she doesn't know if Marinette's would tell her Adrien or if it would tell her Chat Noir, and Marinette deserves for that decision to be her own. 

And then Marinette surprises her.

"I don't want one," Marinette says suddenly, loud in the lull of their conversation.  There's no one else around them, Alix risked this café specifically for that reason, but Marinette still pulls back and resumes her scan of the area.

Much more quietly, Marinette says, "When I make a choice, I want to know that it's my choice."

Alix feels the delighted grin spread over her features, leaning in without thinking it through and then pretending she doesn't see the way Marinette's eyes dart back and narrow for half a heartbeat of threat assessment. Alix's heart rate actually jumps when Marinette looks at her like that, even though it fades fairly quickly.  Alix isn't a threat, but she can still pinpoint the moment in time where Marinette has to remind herself of that.

Alix doesn't know what exactly she did as Timebreaker, and it's not something she's going to ask Fluff, but whatever it was must have been bad.  There's a new wariness in Marinette's eyes ever since then that didn't happen for the rest of their akumatised classmates.   

"Exactly!  Exactly, the choice is, like, a whole thing, right?" Alix says, far, far more intensely than she means to, but she can't pull herself back now.  No one else has ever acknowledged that aspect of soulmarks within Alix's hearing.  She thinks other people must have, because to Alix it's always been such an obvious conclusion and she cannot possibly be the only who who feels that way, but they've never said as much around her. 

Marinette is relaxing again, or as much as she ever does/will, and her smile mirrors that guilty relief Alix has felt for so long. "I don't usually mind not having anyone's soulmark.  I don't need a shortcut like that." Marinette tilts her head, one bit of hair falling loose from her pigtails.

Alix has spent so many fights now being grateful for her own short hair that she can see why Marinette keeps hers pulled back, but they've had a rough enough few days that the elastic bands are probably at the end of their rope.  Kagami will be silently, secretly thrilled if Marinette goes to watch them fence later.  Alix should suggest it.

(Alix also isn't sure that she's met Kagami yet).   

"I don't need to find my other half," Alix says, giddy with the prospect of someone who understands, her mouth running ahead with the words even as the back of her mind whispers no, no, wait- "It's not missing."

And Marinette's smile turns sad, and Alix is an idiot, because it's not the same thing and she already knew that but also because of course the language of halves and wholes and completing each other is just as fraught for Marinette. Her objections aren't the same as Alix's, but they live in a city plastered with reminders that all of Paris is certain already that they know who her other half is. 

Alix thinks back to Chat's tired, pain-laced whimpers.  I have hers, I do, but she doesn't have mine.

Maybe that should sway her to Chat's side, and she thinks for most of her friends it might, but instead it makes Alix angry at the whole idea of soulmates all over again because it means that Chat's 'mark is hurting him. 

She longs to be able to tell Marinette what she knows, what Fluff showed her, the reason Alix wants no one to have any chance of stealing and misusing her friend's Miraculous.  Alix will do anything to stop that from ever happening. 

Tikki had looked sad as hell when the wish was made, but she'd also looked resigned, like she'd seen it coming a long way off.  Plagg... Plagg had looked horrified, all his fur on end as if electrified, and then he'd looked furious, and Alix eventually works out that Plagg's hissing and snarling meant that whoever'd had him then must have ordered him not to speak because otherwise she thinks he'd have been cursing the air blue.

As much as Alix prefers not to think about that at all, whenever she does she's overwhelmingly glad that Plagg has Adrien this time around.  As badly as Adrien needs Plagg, she thinks maybe Plagg needs him, too.  Alix doesn't believe for a second that Nooroo and Dusuu are the only kwami who have ever found themselves misused, and Plagg's the obvious target. 

Alix, personally, finds the kind of destruction Fluff could wreak to be a lot more terrifying, but then she's pretty biased. 

She wonders what Plagg says to Adrien about soulmarks.  She can't imagine that Plagg doesn't say anything, not when he'd looked so trapped and furious by that initial wish, and she kind of doubts that Adrien wouldn't bring it up himself.

Marinette doesn't want to tell anyone about her (lack of) soulmarks.  Adrien's not allowed to, and Alix doesn't know exactly what his father holds over him to keep him from saying anything, but it must be something pretty severe from the way he clams up whenever soulmarks are brought up. 

Even though he usually looks like he's longing to join in.  Even though Alix has seen the way he knocks his right ankle against the nearest object or his other foot whenever he's caught up in a soulmate discussion, unwillingly silent, kept that way by some looming threat she can't unravel. 

Alix has a suspicion brewing about M. Agreste, but if she's right there's no way Adrien knows it, and she won't be the one to suggest it to him.  She could be wrong.  She wants to be wrong. 

But she also kind of hopes she's not, because otherwise-

Because otherwise Adrien's dad is just a shitty, shitty person, and no one needs superpowers just to be a dick.  There's enough people regularly crashing in Kim's spare room or on the deck of the Liberty or on Alix's couch for her to not know that.  Adrien is one of those people. 

It's not like Adrien realises how shitty his dad is, which is another kind of painful, but Alix knows that doesn't hurt her half as much as it does Nino.

(Nino got another soulmark, the day after he stole Adrien away for a birthday party- Adrien's second birthday since they'd met, and this time around Nino knew not to bother with Adrien's dad at all- and Alix is one of the only people that sees it before Nino seems to realise something and hastily starts to cover it up every day. 

Alix still sees Nino rest his whole hand over his chest frequently, pressing hard like he wants to make sure the acid green paw print imprint has sunk past his skin and into his heart. Alix wonders about that 'mark a lot- she doesn't know if it's a rare platonic one like so many of Luka's, or if Nino knows that it's Adrien's, or if instead he's startled to have woken up and found Chat Noir so determinedly marked into his skin.

She thinks he has to know it's Adrien's, because she's seen the way Nino so carefully watches his best friend.  Nino is the one who makes sure that there's always someone checking in on Adrien and that at least one of them has a conversation with him at least once a day, even when Adrien's been pulled from class for some stupid reason or another, and she kind of thinks Nino must wonder if it's platonic, too. 

And because Nino hides the 'mark and she can tell how much that hurts him, but he does it anyway.

Because Gabriel Agreste is going to be furious if he finds his son knows anyone who's carrying a match to any of his soulmarks. 

Alix wasn't sure initially, but by now she's positive Adrien has more than one.  She doesn't know how many might be platonic but otherwise she thinks he might be like Luka, with half a dozen or more soulmarks intertwined, and even though Alix is never going to like soulmarks she's grateful that Adrien of all people would have more than one.  Adrien's not like her either, but then he's not like any of them, and even Plagg would/will agree that his chosen needs those reminders that he's loved).

"It's not really about other halves for me," Marinette is saying slowly, dragging Alix as much back to the present as she ever gets anymore.  "I- I know right where my other half is, but that's not what it's about.  I never wanted to be told who- what makes up the rest of me." 

Not the same after all, and Alix should have known.  She still can't stop the words that tumble out.  "There's no rest of me.  I'm all of me, I'm not missing any pieces.  I'm both halves of me." 

Marinette pauses. 

Slowly, watching Alix like she's testing the water for sharks- or checking the sky for butterflies- she says, "Alix.  You don't have to answer this, but- are you asexual?"

Maybe, honestly, but Alix has never really thought so and it doesn't feel quite right.  She likes the idea of sex, at least, although as they all get older and everyone accumulates soulmarks she's starting to realise that might be more difficult to arrange than she'd thought.  "I don't think so.  I get that part."

Suddenly a weird mixture of shy and bold, because this is her team leader she's talking to even if that's not something Marinette knows yet, Alix adds, "It's the gooey romantic stuff I don't get.  I don't- I thought maybe it was something that happened, like, eventually, but it isn't, is it?"  That's still not quite what she means, but Alix isn't sure how to say what she means.

"Are you aromantic?" Marinette asks next, and that's how Alix ends up learning that aromantic and asexual don't actually mean the same things.

It takes her a really long time to puzzle out why Marinette knows so much on the topic, but slowly she realises even years in the future/months in the present that although she thinks team cuddle piles must be Adrien's favourite thing in the world, he never evinces any interest in anything more, and Marinette never asks it of him.  Though he's always been so obviously in love that it hurts like something's broken just to see it, and he'll beg shamelessly for attention after every rough day, he doesn't seem to want to escalate beyond kissing and no one ever teases him about it.

Alix wonders if Marinette's the one who gave him words for it, too.

Alix thinks about that conversation with Marinette a lot. 

She thinks about it as she wanders the museum well past closing hours, kicking absently at the floor as Jalil studies something in the back of the Egyptian exhibit.  It's not something new, he's just still stuck on this obsession.  Alix is hoping he'll move on to something else eventually and frankly, after Pharaoh, she really can't wait. 

She kicks at the floor again, wishing her Heelys hadn't been confiscated before Dad had agreed to let them hang out in here overnight. 

"Alix," Jalil says, suddenly, and Alix sullenly drags herself over because it's the first thing he's said in hours that isn't just muttering to himself. 

She hadn't really wanted to spend her night in the museum, but Jalil had, and Dad's busy, and he doesn't like the idea of her running around unsupervised all night when there's been so many akuma attacks even if Alix had only really planned to go to Kim's anyway, or maybe Nath's place if he doesn't already have plans with Marc but that's pretty unlikely.  They've been joined a the hip ever since they'd started on the comic together.

Like Nino and Alya, Marc and Nath don't have each other's soulmarks.  Unlike Nino and Alya, Alix is pretty sure they want to, but Nath never brings up soulmarks around her at all and Marc is too shy to bring them up around anyone even though they have one of the most visible ones she's ever seen- a tiny butterfly just beneath their right eye, which has been pretty damn unfortunate given current events.  Nath's taken to meeting Marc early most mornings and painstakingly painting around it until it blends in with something different, or looks more like a dragonfly or, more and more frequently, a ladybug.  The ladybug is definitely harder for him to pull off, because Alix has seen some of the failed attempts, but Marc must like it because Nath keeps trying.  

Nath's getting really, really good at face-painting. Alix has already got plans should a mark ever decide to show up anywhere she can't keep covered. 

Nath's place is probably out for the night, anyway, Alix doesn't really want to interrupt him when he's with Marc.  Marc makes Nath happier than she's ever seen him and she's thrilled for them both, but she's also never been real comfortable around anyone acting lovey-dovey and they are turning out to be the kind of couple she can only tolerate for about half an hour at a time.

But she thinks Max and Ondine probably are at Kim's, and she's probably safer with them than with Jalil, anyway.

That argument had not worked on Dad.

(Although Dad, at least, has never said a word about so many Alix's closest friends having each other's soulmarks and not one of them hers, and Alix is more grateful for that than she ever can or ever wants to express). 

"What is it?" Alix asks, after several minutes of silence have dragged by and it's become clear that Jalil's forgotten that he called her over.

Jalil traces a broken bit of hieroglyphics, frowning.  "I found the Egyptian cut-off.  We were looking too far back," and the second half of that statement is to himself again.

Alix smothers a sigh at her brother's habit of continuing conversations they haven't actually been having and reminds him, "Not enough information."  

He blinks, seemingly registering her presence all over again.  "The cut-off.  Between when no one had soulmarks, and when everyone did."

If Jalil picks up on Alix's reaction to that, he hides it well. 

Since he's usually terrible at both reading people and paying attention to anything from the current century Alix feels safe assuming that he didn't notice anything. 

"Everyone?" She manages to keep the bite out of her voice, mostly.  Besides, as far as she knows Jalil still doesn't have any 'marks, either, which is a point in the 'absent-minded, not cruel' direction.

"Nearly everyone," Jalil amends, still not turning to her.  His brows furrow as he squints closer at the hieroglyphs.  "It's strange, though, there's no record of an- of an event of any kind.  There's no mentions, there's just- nothing.  It's as though they sprang into existence overnight and yet there's barely any reaction." 

Alix doesn't need a timeline for it.  She knows the timeline for it.  She knows the event that Jalil can't, and won't, find.

Plagg and Tikki hadn't told Adrien and Marinette that the wish was even a possibility until they'd had no choice, which is telling in itself.  Alix thinks they'd have kept that secret forever if Robostus hadn't somehow learned about it.

Somehow. Yeah, right.  Alix doesn't know what he wants it for, but she knows what Hawkmoth's after.

Alix has talked/will talk to Plagg and Tikki across time and timelines. The first thing they both stress about the wish, once something forces them to admit to its existence- which they never want to do, no matter how many times and ways Alix meets them, not once is the wish something they want anyone to know about- is that it has consequences. 

Every time, Alix can't help but think Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, and when she's hiding with Fluff at the very moment that the last wish changes the world- changes the world and lets the world think that nothing's been changed at all- Alix has to stuff her fist in her mouth to cut off the hysterical giggles that want to burst from her.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.  Every wish has a consequence equal to its power.

And that wish had made over the whole world, all in the breath of a moment.

She doesn't know why the wisher made the wish.  To be honest, she doesn't actually care.  It isn't something she can change, because equal and opposite reactions apply to her and Fluff too, and she doesn't see the point in figuring out the reasoning now.  She's pretty sure it's only going to make her angry.  

She doesn't know for certain what it was that the world gave up for the chance- the imperative?- to have their soulmates marked into their skin, indelible and lasting and there for all the world to see.

Unless you're Adrien, whose own father demands that he hide his, even though the matching hummingbird moths high on his parent's collarbones, often mistaken for simply hummingbirds but clear enough to Alix on the vanishingly rare occassion she gets a glimpse of Adrien's dad, had hardly been a secret.   Unless you're Marinette, who feels fiercely that 'marked or not it's her own business and no one else's and whose parents clearly support her choice- because Alix is pretty sure she's seen Marinette's parents soulmarks before, but it was enough years ago now that she doesn't remember what they are. 

Unless you're Alix, who has no soulmarks, wants no soulmarks, has looked loudly into ways to hide or remove them just in case and discovered to her dismay that there's no sure and proven way to do either.  You can obviously cover them with clothes, or do what Nath and Marc are doing to obscure which part of the design is the actual 'mark, but that's about it.  Soulmarks show through makeup, they show through tattoos meant to cover them up, she's even found cases of desperate people trying to carve them out of their own skin only to find their 'marks have simply moved to some new and unblemished place. 

The fact that people have tried that at all only rouses the suspicion that's been rolling through the back of Alix's mind ever since Fluff had taken her on their little field trip. 

She thinks Fluff had wanted her to know.  She doesn't think her kwami would have brought her otherwise. 

The wish has consequences equal to their actions. 

And the thing about the 'marks, the reason Alix shies from the idea so hard, the reason she doesn't want so much as a single platonic mark anywhere on her at all and she has plans for if it ever happens to her- tattoos may not cover a 'mark, but get enough of them and no one will know which one is real, and she knows Nath will be on board to help her paint around a soulmark-

Soulmarks take away your choice.

Soulmarks hurt people.  They hurt Nino's parents when they'd assumed the 'marks meant they didn't need to do any work in their relationship.  They're hurting Chat Noir, whose 'mark doesn't match him so much as lead him desperately on.  They hurt Nath and Marc and Nino and Alya, because there's always a quiet undercurrent of disapproval over dating someone whose soulmark matches them with someone else.  They hurt Luka, who doesn't actually know which one of his 'marks might not be platonic, or if any of them are romantic at all.  They hurt Juleka and Rose, who never got the chance to see if they might be compatible with anyone else.

Alix refuses to acknowledge that her lack of a soulmark could ever hurt her.  She doesn't want one, she doesn't like them, and she refuses to let soulmarks have that kind of power over her at all.

There are and always will be people who still fight to choose- Alix has years and years in the future to know that Nino and Alya never will have each other's marks, that Chloé will sometimes spend years lying about hers, that Ivan and Mylene's never match despite them being one of the most in love couples Alix knows and that is a high bar for a Miraculous holder.  She has years in the past to know that Dad hadn't been honest, that he'd only gotten his 'mark when Mom died, that they'd spent a lifetime together without thinking they were soulmates at all.

She has the present, which is so full of her friends making choices that they've refused to let their soulmarks dictate.

With enough thought and determination the choice can still be made, and Alix thinks from the look of desperate rage and hurt on Plagg's face when the wish was forced from him and Tikki that it's probably due to him. 

But so many people never see that they have a choice at all.  They see their mark and think yes, of course, this is fate, and then they never look any further.

Kim had been ten.  Rose and Juleka had been even younger.  How can anyone know who they want to spend the rest of their life with when they're at an age where they're still insisting that they're going to grow up to be Batman?

(Okay, so Kim still says that, that isn't the point).

The conversation with Jalil peters out, as conversations with Jalil always do. 

Alix waits until he's absorbed in the exhibit again, then turns and leaves.  She doesn't bother with a window- the windows are alarmed, the front door is not, and Jalil's not paying anywhere near enough attention to see her leaving. 

She makes it maybe two thirds of the way to Kim's place before getting caught in a battle with both an akuma and an amok. 

She really hopes no one registers how gleefully she's fighting, because she had already so wanted to work off the frustration that the origin of soulmarks always causes her.  She definitely doesn't need to do quite as much hopping through time or hopping around in general as she does but no one calls her on it. 

She must not be the only one having a bad night, because Carapace and Ryuko are definitely not necessary for this fight- and because the reason they're definitely not necessary is the way Chat and Ladybug are fighting. 

Honestly, Alix kinda wants to take a quick hop back from the fight just to watch the two of them.  They're flashing in and out of each other's spaces, wheeling around each other in a synchronicity that she wouldn't have thought possible if she weren't watching it, weaving and darting and taking shots at the amok and the akuma one after another in a rotation that they've got worked out in wordless precision.

Okay, she can see why so many people are so convinced that the two of them are 'marked for each other.  She does see it.  She kinda doesn't want to see it, but she does, she can't unsee it in the way Ladybug and Chat Noir barely need to do more than exchange glances to know exactly what their partner is planning. 

A lot of people seem to think Chat Noir has no part in the planning, but Alix knows that is patently untrue.  Sure, a lot of his part in their plans is built on that damning helpless trust that tricks everyone into gossiping about what their soulmarks might be- there's a divide between people who think the 'marks will reference their hero identities and the ones who think they'll be civilian 'marks, and it's mainly knowing the other Miraculous holders 'marks that has Alix landing on the side of heroes - but there's more than that.  Chat's smart as hell too and his partner knows it, and Chat isn't the only one in their partnership with that level of absolute trust.

Alix really, and she means really, hates to admit it but way deep down with the part of her that's more honest than the rest she actually kinda thinks that they are meant for each other.  It's just...

She doesn't think it would have been good for either one of them to have a 'mark tell them that.  She thinks it's something they always had to work out between themselves, or it wouldn't have had the full weight and meaning of their partnership behind it. 

The love and trust that's on such bright display was earned. Not that Alix doesn't think that a lot of soulmated couples have earned what they have, but she knows Marinette.  She knows that the fierce devotion Ladybug has to Chat Noir would have an entirely different flavour to it if Marinette thought it was what she was supposed to feel. 

Alix wonders if Marinette ever resents Chat's soulmark.  Alix gets why Adrien probably needed one, and if Alix can get that then Marinette definitely can because no one except his kwami understands better what her partner needs, but Chat's 'mark has also given him a lot of hurt and heartache and Marinette never would have wanted that for him. 

They win that fight easily, but it drags out a lot longer than it should.  Alix wants to feel guilty about it because it's not like it's the akumatised dude's fault and it's not really fair that he just had five different heroes take out their frustration on him, but she can't quite manage it.  Sure, he's not gonna remember it, but it was still kind of a shitty thing to do and he's probably gonna see the news footage at some point.

Maybe.  Alix never watched any of what Alya recorded of Timebreaker.  She doesn't need to watch it to know that whatever she'd done, it was worse than usual, and she doesn't need to know more than that.  She suspects enough as it is.

Eventually, Alix does something she damn well knows is stupid.  Fluff is going to give her an earful, because this is definitely not what her kwami taught her how to do this for, but Alix is tired and frustrated and she does it anyway.  Fluff knows her well enough that it's not gonna be a surprise anyway.    

She waits until the middle of the night, then waits a little longer until an akuma battle goes crashing through the distance, and then slips herself sideways in the distraction and twists sharply the way Fluff taught her and the way she is so totally not supposed to do without her kwami.  She's not even sure she should be able to do it without her kwami. 

Huh.  Maybe it's more than just Plagg and Tikki that have latched hard onto their chosen this time around.  Maybe Nooroo and Dusuu's mistreatment is getting to all of their kwami pretty damn badly.     

The café is well-lit, a glittering beacon even in the darkest part of the night. The closed sign is flipped up, but there are still people bustling around and laughing inside, because the staff here doesn't have to leave to go to sleep.  Not if they don't want to.

Alix wonders who in this timeline has caught on so far, whether it was Marinette's attention to detail or Nino's sharp eye or Alya's keen observation that would have noted first that their coffee shop is more than a coffee shop. She doubts that Adrien's the one who noticed, because she never has met any version of him that would know to move past gratitude and into suspicion, but depending on how long it's been and what their reasons were for first coming to the café the others are bound to have picked up on something.

She wonders what their reasons were, if they were the same here as they would have been at home.

Alix doesn't have a reason of her own to come here. Not really.

But there are no soulmarks in this part of the timeline  (Alix isn't sure if this counts as a separate universe, but kwami can't have soulmarks even if it's not, and the staff here only look human)  and right now, for a few hours, Alix kind of needs to forget that soulmarks exist at all.

So long as she doesn't ever have one herself, she doesn't hold it against anyone who does- that would be exhausting, anyway- but sometimes she just wants a few hours without the constant reminders.  She wants a few hours where she feels like she can breathe.

She doesn't go inside. She only finds a chair at a shadowed edge of the patio and sits, watching, a weight lifted from her in the way there's no advertisements here about finding the one who completes you.

Alix never talks to anyone here, but she looks away and back and finds a caramel latte at her elbow all the same.

It's not the only night she goes there.  Eventually, she thinks Fluff has to know she's doing it, but her kwami never mentions it and Alix breathes a sigh of relief because that means she doesn't have to stop doing it.    

"I get it by now, I think," Alix tells Rose late in the evening weeks/months/days later, even though she doesn't, exactly. She's trying, she's been trying for years, but she still doesn't.  Not really. "It's about the reassurance." That's what she thinks it is for Adrien, at least, and his and Luka's are some of the only 'marks she sort of understands. His, Luka's, Nino's, Alya's and Marinette's- Alix has never been able to shake the feeling that all of them being Miraculous holders isn't a coincidence.

Rose giggles. "It's about the romance, Alix."

Alix doesn't get that, not at all, but she doesn't think she can put that into words that'll make sense to Rose so she doesn't say anything else.

Rose is a romantic at heart, and Rose wears that heart on her sleeve.  Alix is pretty sure she herself is whatever the dead opposite of a romantic is, and while if it was just her and Juleka right now, or even better, just her and Luka, she might try to explain, she doesn't think she particularly wants to talk to Rose about it.

Not now, not when they won't have time.

Alix can feel the coming knot in the timeline like a storm about to break and she doesn't know what happens from here.  She only knows the tangle of threads that emerge from the other side- and that not all of them are timelines she wants to live through. 

Some of them, she won't live through.

She doesn't know when she expected that dark tangle to hit, but it wasn't while she was laid out on the deck of the Liberty, staring up at the sky and trying to will stars into existence past the light pollution that hides the constellations. Juleka is on Rose's other side, one hand wrapped in her girlfriend's while her other hand carefully jots down possible song lyrics and music notations.

And Luka's at the bow, talking very quietly to Adrien and Kagami, who'd shown up together and looking like hell. Adrien's barefoot and Kagami's wearing someone else's clothes, and it takes even Alix a while to place Marinette's overshirt because it's so incongruous.  Adrien and Marinette are/will be the kind of people to share clothes and accessories freely, but Kagami never is.  

Alix tries to fix this moment with Juleka and Rose and the sky and peace firmly in her mind, because she thinks within the hour peace is going to be the last thing anything of them are thinking about. 

(She's certain, now, that her guess about Hawkmoth was right. Kagami looks like hell and Adrien looks even worse, dark shadows under his eyes and a bruise high on his right cheek, favouring his right side and missing his shoes, and Alix moves subtly to send Nino his Adrien's in trouble signal because if anyone's ever needed the kwami of protection it's Adrien, right this instant.

Alix thinks it's telling that Nino even has an Adrien's in trouble signal.  He's not subtle, either, Alix sends him a turtle emoji and then puts her phone carefully away. 

She's long since stopped thinking the 'mark over Nino's heart is entirely platonic.  She knows Alya's seen it, too, and she wonders sometimes what Alya thinks about it, because Alix sure didn't see any change in Nino's relationship with Alya and she's not totally sure what that means).

Adrien's bare feet display the soulmark on his ankle, the one he's kept hidden from everyone because his father had ordered him not to ever let it show.  Even with Alix's own complicated feelings about soulmarks, that had been all she needed to hear before deciding that she kinda hated Adrien's dad. 

It's not like Alix had ever bought Gabriel brand clothes in the first place, but she sure would have stopped after that.  Marinette and Mylene and Marc all had stopped after that. 

She's never seen Adrien's soulmark before.  As far as she knows no one has. She still has no idea what his dad had threatened him with to keep it a secret, because even with his 'marks hidden it's always been obvious that Adrien takes comfort from them. Alix has seen the way he crosses his ankles over each other when he's stressed, pressing at the soulmarks there.

She isn't surprised by the vibrant ladybug, because she did know whose 'mark Chat has. That must have about killed his dad, whenever it had appeared. She's a little surprised at the sword and guitar twined around his other ankle, less so the music notes and fountain pen that curl over the top of his foot.  She'd suspected that Adrien had multiple soulmarks but she hadn't expected this many. The only other person Alix knows with so many 'marks is Luka, and most of his aren't romantic and he won't tell her which ones are.

She's not entirely convinced he knows. She's not sure how long he's had them.

Luka doesn't talk about his soulmarks. Alix thinks, sometimes, that maybe they'd gone badly for him when they'd started to show. She never has figured out why Luka's homeschooled and Juleka isn't, and if Juleka knows she's not talking about that, either- the same way her and Luka never mention their dad at all.  No one has any idea who he is. 

Kim had started a rumour years and years back that Juleka's dad is Jagged Stone.  Juleka must have enjoyed the rumour, because she's never done anything to discourage it. 

Rose and Juleka's soulmarks had shown up simultaneously when they were five, on the day they met. Alix doesn't know anyone else who's ever gotten theirs that young.

She wonders if Rose and Juleka would have spent so much of their lives together if it had never happened, but most people don't seem to wonder about soulmarks the same way that Alix does. People gush about it embarrassingly instead. They tell both girls how sweet it is and what a wonderful story they'll have to tell their kids someday.

Alix notices, because it's the kind of thing she pays attention to, that Anarka and Luka are not people who do this. Ever. They never make a big deal out of Rose and Juleka's soulmarks at all, and as they get older Alix starts to think the way Rose is spending more and more time on the Liberty and less and less at home doesn't have as much to do with her soulmark as it does with other people's reaction to it.

Rose's mother gushes. Rose's eyes go pinched and quiet and she doesn't talk very much at home. The one time Alix ever goes to Rose's place, she takes one look at Rose's face after her mother's started to rhapsodise and Alix promptly makes up some excuse to leave and take Rose with her.

Rose is on the Liberty so often that no one seems sure anymore if she's going home at all, and Alix thinks it is because of her soulmark, but not because her soulmark is Juleka's.

(Alix may actually be dying to learn what Plagg thinks about that).

Sometimes Alix catches Anarka rubbing the treble clef flag on her shoulder and staring absently just past her daughter and her daughter's girlfriend, staring into unoccupied space like she's missing someone who was meant to be there.

No one knows who Anarka Couffaine's soulmate is. It's been years since anyone's been daring enough to ask. 

But Anarka never discourages the Jagged Stone rumour, either.

Alix flops back onto the deck, squeezing her eyes shut for one last three-count when she hears more arrivals on the ship.  She can hear the faint, tinny music from Nino's headphones, and she only hears one other set of footsteps with his, which usually means Alya but these steps are too light. Alix only knows two people who move like that, and one of them is already on the ship.

Alix sits up, suddenly enough that Rose makes a startled sound of protest.

Sure enough, it's Marinette at Nino's side, looking grimmer than Alix has ever seen her.  Marinette only hesitates for a moment when Nino beelines for Adrien.

Marinette moves slowly, not letting her partner out of her sight, but she goes to Kagami first and firmly adjusts her overshirt around the other girl. Their voices are too quiet to carry, though Alix can hear the hurt and confusion in Adrien's and the banked anger in Nino, Marinette, and Kagami and, slowly, Luka as he's filled in. 

It's slowly trickling in to Alix that if Kagami's here and looking like this then maybe she'd been wrong about Mayura after all. She's more sure than ever about Hawkmoth, and she doesn't think Mme. Tsurugi looks even a little like Mayura, but they don't know just how much the Miraculous can do to hide an identity. Plagg and Tikki can hide soulmarks, which isn't possible in any other way- Alix has checked.

She knows Marinette's pissed when she tangles her arm with Kagami's and pulls them both closer to Adrien, and then to Nino and Luka too, joining the fast-growing huddle with a few low, sharp remarks that are at odds with the way she gently brushes one hand against Adrien's bruised cheek. Adrien closes his eyes and leans trustingly into the touch, and from that gesture it's abruptly very obvious that they must know each other's identities by now.

Alix still doesn't realise just how pissed Marinette is until she lobs a familiar watch at Alix's head.

The match to it still rests/will rest in Alix's pocket, a heavy reminder that she feels constantly even before she's actually supposed to have it, and she knows it isn't like Adrien and Marinette don't both know damn well who she is already but she hadn't thought they were already at the point of telling her who they are.  Her gut starts to churn, because she knows what Marinette's cold rage looks like and if they're already at that stage this fight is going to go a lot rougher than she'd thought it would.

They need Marinette to calm down.  Alix has no idea how that's supposed to happen when Kagami looks so battered and someone's clearly already hurt Adrien, and badly.  Alix isn't sure how calm she can stay- those bruises have to hurt. 

And she's pretty sure she knows who left them. 

Somewhere past this tangle in the timeline, Adrien's family narrows down to only Plagg and the Gorilla.  (And all of Adrien's friends, but that part takes a little longer to happen and a lot longer for Adrien to believe). 

Marinette turns to toss a bracelet to Luka, turns again to step in close and fasten a chain around Kagami's neck. When she steps back from Kagami she steps into Adrien, leaning hard into his uninjured side like she already knew exactly where he'd be standing, like she knows now how much he needs the reassurance after seeing her so close with Kagami.

(There's some kind of insanely complicated relationship between those four, and maybe Nino and Alya and in a couple timelines Chloé, that Alix isn't even going to try to understand.  It actually sort of makes more sense to her than most relationships, because she selfishly likes the idea of maybe heaping all the romantic responsibilities onto someone else, but still- no.  She's not figuring that out).

Nino's already wearing his bracelet. Either he got it from Marinette on the way, or Wayzz has been staying with him.

Alix probably isn't supposed to know it happened, but Wayzz just lost a chosen. She's been through time enough with Fluff to know how that affects most of the kwami (Fluff is kind of an exception, since Fluff has never really lost anyone, not for forever).

She hopes Wayzz is staying with Nino. Wayzz is going to need it, and he might be able to keep Nino from stressing himself into any more anxiety attacks. Alix remembers those from way back when his parents had divorced, but it wasn't until recently that she'd realised he's been having them again, and maybe worse than before.  She thinks he's been trying to hide them, this time, because he's so frequently anxious over Adrien and he'd never want Adrien to blame himself for that.  Adrien would, too.  

Nino's far from the only one having anxiety attacks. Hawkmoth and Mayura aren't good for anyone, but especially not for anyone already prone to anxiety, and Alix has found Mylene tucked away and hyperventilating in the smallest space she can find more than once. Usually Mylene will try to get to Ivan, but if he's not nearby already- which, admittedly, he usually is- then she simply goes for the nearest sheltered corner.  Ivan himself does a little better, but he's never exactly comfortable during an attack, either.

Alix privately thinks that being the first person Hawkmoth ever akumatised left some invisible scar on Ivan, one he hides well most of the time but that comes out sometimes when Hawkmoth's managed anything like a similar akuma. 

She thinks a lot of people might assume Rose is prone to nerves when there's a fight, but Alix has known Rose nearly as long as she's known Kim and Rose is frequently fearless to a frankly alarming degree.  Sometimes Alix looks back and is vaguely surprised that they never lost Rose to a kind stranger offering her candy in exchange for helping to find his poor lost puppy when they were younger.  That's about all it would have taken for Rose to climb into any number of shady-looking vehicles or wander down a dark alleyway. 

Maybe Rose's soulmark only turned up so early in a kind of self-defence, because Alix does have to admit that Juleka does a lot to curb some of Rose's more dangerous impulses. (Some of them, not all.  Some impulses Juleka happily encourages.  Alix is pretty sure Rose has just stopped bothering to go home at all). 

Nerves are very much the more common reaction outside of the people Alix knows personally.  Paris is a big city, and anyone's fear can be made exponentially worse by knowing how badly that fear can be used against them.  Alix is honestly pretty sure that the main reason her class seems to weather the fighting a whole lot better is that so many of them are Miraculous holders. 

She's not always sure how she feels about that.  It feels too much like the destiny that Alix has had a lifetime to develop an aversion to, and that makes her so uncomfortable that Fluff can tell when it's bothering her again because it's the only time Alix will specifically avoid her kwami. 

They are also Marinette and Adrien's classmates, and Alix reminds herself of that every time she starts to feel the crushing weight that the whole idea of fate always seems to hang over her head.  Marinette's chosen out of her closest friends near every time (Alix spends a lot of time real determinedly not thinking about Chloé, especially since Chloé's one of the factors that goes alarmingly fuzzy in the time-knot around whenever they finally all kick Hawkmoth's ass), and Adrien doesn't really know anyone else.  Barely, anyway, and Alix kind of doubts Adrien would ever even want to give his dad or his dad's assistant a Miraculous.  Adrien spends half his time escaping from them as it is, and he's not dumb, he wouldn't do anything to make his escapes harder. 

(She's surprised to realise that she's less sure he wouldn't give one to his bodyguard.  The Gorilla does seem to both actually care about Adrien and to show it, though, which is painfully more than Adrien's used to.  Once Alix had gotten around to working out how often the Gorilla is definitely deliberately letting Adrien sneak away from him, she's a little less surprised that he had those custody papers ready to go so quick. 

A little.  It's still not something she'd expected.  Judging by Adrien's stunned and grateful- and yet newly, painfully wary- reaction, he hadn't expected it either).

Alix is really not a fan of the whole fate and destiny deal.  She barely manages to listen to Dad, and she usually actually wants to listen to Dad but she's just kind of bad at it.  She's definitely never going to be any good at listening to some vague cosmic idea of who and what she's supposed to be. 

Luckily Fluff never makes her feel that way.  Alix has her Miraculous because she told Marinette and Adrien that she would have her Miraculous, after she already had it, and she's pretty sure they both picked up on the implied temporal paradox but they never do bring it up.  Alix has/will have the faint impression when they're older that Adrien at least is kind of proud of her for it. 

She's sure that Trixx is proud of her for it, because Trixx is pretty vocal about that pride, and she's pretty certain she catches a gleam in Plagg's eyes on the rare occasions anyone else (Alya, usually) does bring it up.

Alix doesn't know exactly which timeline they're heading for, and trying to work it out does nothing but give her a terrible headache and a worse mood, but she knows which future she's hoping for and she already loves their team.  She just hopes her future self doesn't have any of her teammates' soulmarks hidden under her suit.  Alix doesn't need or want a soulmark to know she loves them.  She doesn't think it's the kind of love that soulmarks really tend to show up for, anyway, Luka and Adrien are rare exceptions. 

She thinks they're only exceptions because they needed to be.  She never does learn what happened with Luka, but they all know why Adrien would have needed that reassurance.

Alix might not like soulmarks but it's kinda hard to deny how relieved they all are that Adrien has that indelible reminder that he has people who love him. 

Alix turns her watch over in her hands once, feeling the way its weight shifts as it settles into this timeline and the way the watch in her pocket grows thinner at the same time, trying not to exist too loudly in the same space as its counterpart. She thinks about all the things Fluff has shown her and she thinks about how this isn't one of them and allows herself one panicked breath to think about the timelines that splinter or run parallel or get destroyed or merge into another.

She's suddenly certain that they're at one of the jumping off points for all of those timelines.

She forces a smile she doesn't feel as she rolls herself up onto her feet, pulling Rose with her who pulls Juleka with her. The two of them don't have Miraculous yet, but Alix doubts that's gonna last a hell of a lot longer.  They're here for this and there's an awareness sinking into all of them now, even if Juleka and Rose might still be figuring out what it's about, that this is going to be it.  This is the beginning of the real fight, the beginning of the end of things.

Alix really hopes it's not too much the end of things.

She looks to Marinette, who has one hand on her earrings and the other hand tightly wrapped around Adrien's uninjured forearm. 

Marinette is too-clearly being very, very careful not to grip her partner's wrist instead, and Alix feels her smile waver and then become a little more solid.

I have hers, but she doesn't have mine-

But Marinette doesn't need to have Adrien's soulmark.  She never needed to.  Marinette doesn't need to have anyone's soulmarks. She doesn't need so much as her own 'mark like Nino and Alya have. 

Though Alix thinks Fluff is/was wrong, that Nino's mark is for Wayzz after all.  She thinks Fu's loss probably catalysed Nino's 'mark, because suddenly Wayzz had needed someone and Nino is really ridiculously suited for his chosen.  It's true that Nino's had his 'mark since they were somewhere around twelve, but Alix has long since found to her frustration that soulmarks seem even less bound by time than she is.

She blames that chaos firmly on Plagg. 

The look on Marinette's face as she tugs Adrien closer, the love on Marinette's face, belongs only to Marinette. No 'mark told her she should feel it, and that's what Marinette had needed more than any soulmark- to know that she had a choice.  If a soulmark had told her either Adrien or Chat Noir from the beginning things would have gone radically differently.

Alix should know, she's checked.  Interestingly, in nearly all the other timelines that have soulmarks at all, Marinette never does have one. Alix thinks she's seen Marinette with a 'mark only once, and that may have only been a tattoo, and she wasn't all that surprised that it was clearly for Chat Noir.

Alix kinda suspects Tikki's the reason for that.  Maybe if Marinette wasn't Ladybug she'd have had 'marks after all; maybe it's her bond with Tikki that kept her soulmarks from ever appearing.  Marinette is still Ladybug in every timeline Alix has explored so far- her bond with Tikki is always there. 

(Alix does and doesn't like that, because- it brings up the idea of fate and destiny again, and Alix still hates that, but at the same time she never finds any version of Marinette that isn't too-obviously the perfect partner for Tikki.  Something about Marinette is inherently Tikki's chosen, and the same holds true for Adrien and Plagg.  Most of the others switch Miraculous in different timelines, but not all of them, and rarely the four of them).

It's Plagg that Alix thinks of when she thinks about the wish the kwami had fought not to grant, because it was Plagg's hurt and rage that resonated with Alix, but she thinks now that she made a mistake in discounting Tikki's reaction as nothing more than resignation. 

Tikki and Plagg are very, very literally each other's other halves. Alix hadn't expected the two of them to be so fiercely against binding soulmarks to humans, but she's seen/will see enough with Fluff that she knows it's the binding part they object to so strenuously.

The Miraculous haven't existed forever.  Plagg and Tikki have, or near enough to it as makes no difference. 

Alix has laid awake more nights than one wondering if the wish is something that's always been inherent to Plagg and Tikki, or if the wish is something to do with the Miraculous instead.  She's found she doesn't actually want to know the answer. 

She jolts back to the present (ha) when Marinette breaks the spell of stillness that's swept aboard the Liberty.  She turns from Adrien, her grip on him tightening briefly when he shifts unhappily, and holds out her free hand.

Alix has to nudge Rose forwards, but then Rose holds out her hand in turn.  Rose's fingers curl nervously back over her open palm as Marinette gently sets the Miraculous of the Dog in it.  Moments later, Marinette does the same with Juleka and the Goat. 

Alix had wondered.  Weirdly, neither Rose nor Juleka has the same Miraculous in every timeline, even though most of them do.  She's got a running theory that it's because Rose and Juleka usually do less fighting and transforming than a lot of the others.  Ivan's and Nathaniel's change sometimes, too, and sometimes Ivan doesn't have a Miraculous at all. 

Ivan fights well enough without one that it doesn't make as much difference as she might have thought. 

Besides, Marinette's dad with the Ox is frankly a really awesome thing to see.

And then Alix immediately gets a sharp reminder that she doesn't actually know this part of the timeline at all, because Marinette turns to Anarka next.  Anarka's been silently leaning against the wheelhouse this whole time, watching with sharp eyes and not interrupting even as all her children are handed Miraculous and begin turning to their kwami.

Marinette takes a deep breath and then tosses Anarka the Ox.

Fluff giggles.  Which is worrying.  It's very worrying.

Alix manages not to do anything more than blink, but she definitely hadn't expected that.  She doesn't think she's ever seen that.  She's not objecting, because she's pretty sure Anarka with the Ox Miraculous will be awesome, but she is surprised.

"Is that a good idea?" Alix hears Nino ask.  He's careful to keep very quiet, but Alix's hearing carries over with or without a transformation now, the same as she knows Adrien and Alya's does.

Marinette runs one hand down her face, looking drawn. "We need all the help we can get. She's here, and we know she's on our side. Nino, if we'd gone to the bakery- but we didn't, though." She glances sideways at Luka, then slides her gaze to Juleka and Rose. "I'm sorry, I know I'm putting your whole family in danger.  I just-"  She rubs her free hand down her face, glancing sideways at Adrien's bruises for the barest instant.  "We really need your help." 

"Don't be sorry," Rose says, her smile bright. "We want to fight with you."  If Rose is surprised at finding Marinette handing out Miraculous, or by the fierce way Marinette is guarding Adrien's weak side right now in the echo of hundreds of battles fought and won, she's doing a very good job of not showing it.

Adrien hasn't been healed.  As far as Alix knows, Ladybug's never finished a fight without healing her partner.

Alix has a very bad feeling that Adrien hadn't been transformed when he'd gotten those injuries.

No wonder Nino was here so quickly.  Even before he'd quietly arranged his own personal Adrien-signal, Nino has always had a sixth sense for whenever his friends have been injured anyway.  Nino also takes it very personally when he hasn't protected them- even when, like right now, no one would have ever expected him to know.

Alix takes a step closer to the growing huddle, only to halt when everyone turns towards her. Sweat prickles down her back, even though the night is cool, because she can feel time stretch out ahead and behind and below and above and to all sides.  She can feel how the time she thinks of as hers splits off into a hundred different threads from here. 

She can feel the way some of those threads of time are about to fray or snap or fade away forever.

She takes a very deep breath and forces a grin she doesn't feel.  "So. Time to assemble?"

Marinette closes her eyes, then slowly opens them again.  It's not the slow blink Alix will become familiar with later, but an expression of exhaustion and hurt.  Marinette isn't injured, as far as Alix can tell- but Adrien is, and Alix knows that seeing Adrien hurt makes Marinette hurt in turn. 

Makes a whole lot of them hurt in turn. 

In every relevant timeline, their team starts to bond closer than anyone could ever reasonably expect. 

Alix blinks herself and glances at Luka's arm, trying to keep her glance over casual as something occurs to her. 

Nino's 'mark for Adrien is a paw print.  When Max and Ondine had gotten Kim's soulmarks, they'd both gotten a panther, so Alix has never made the connection with the malachite butterfly high on Luka's left arm.  Alix has always made a point of not investigating Luka's 'marks too closely anyway, knowing how private he is about them, but the malachite is one of his largest and one of his first. Alix has never once thought about who it might be for.

Has never once thought about the way it would apply to Adrien, too.

For the first time, Alix looks close enough at the butterfly to realise it's Luka's largest 'mark because it's two marks.  A ladybug trails close to the malachite's leading wing. 

She stops looking then, because even if no one is paying any attention to her sudden interest Luka is private about his soulmarks and Alix isn't about to mess with that. 

Besides, they have much bigger concerns than just who Luka's 'marks are for. 

And their team leader is trying to get her attention. 

"Alix." Marinette's voice is soft. Beside her, Adrien is silent, his head ducked as he favours his bruised side and blinks down at his bare feet. "Bunnix. Do we win this?"

"You know I can't tell you that," Alix aches with not knowing herself, aches more that Marinette's far enough past her breaking point to disregard secret identities so completely.  "But even if I could, I really don't know. Fluff would never let me check."

Fluff makes a tiny noise and darts down to hide in Alix's shirt.

They must win, because Alix has seen them all in the future, something like half of them living together and being disgustingly domestic. She's seen most of their class at one time or another. She's seen herself sharing a tiny apartment with Max and Kim and Ondine and Markov, with what wouldn't seem like enough space to anyone who doesn't know them well, with what looks like too few rooms but Alix knows is more than enough for them.  She's seen the way they and their friends swing casually into each other's space every other day, the little unit Plagg and Adrien and Nooroo form that Marinette and Tikki are finally free to love as much as they want, she's seen- They must win.

Except that's far from the only future Alix has seen. Some of those branching futures don't have any of her friends in them. Some of those futures don't have Paris in them.

"We have a good chance of wrecking Hawkmoth and Mayura both," Alix says, still thinking, caught on all the possible futures and not enough in the present.

She thinks she hears the wounded noise Adrien makes a half-second before he actually makes it.

"Minou?" Marinette lets go of everyone else to rest her hands on Adrien's shoulders, tugging him in towards her. "You don't have to do this."

"Of course I have to do this." Adrien looks distant as he says it. "It's my- my-" He stumbles to a half, tilting his head against Marinette's arm as his eyes slide shut. He blinks twice at her, long and quiet, and this time it is the slow blink that Alix is/will be familiar with.

Marinette leans up to rest her forehead against his. "Minou, you don't have to do this. It's your family. We'd understand."

Adrien swallows, hard, and when he splays his hand over his heart Plagg phases out and looks at him silently until Adrien reaches for him.

Plagg settles on his shoulder with a rumbling purr, clearly not concerned about making himself visible.

Adrien reaches up to his kwami, and his voice is soft but steady when he says, "My family's right here." 

Plagg purrs louder.  There's a smug note in it, somehow. 

Yeah, Alix will never stop being glad that Plagg and Adrien have each other.  She's never seen this moment before, this is a fixed point that branches out in far too many directions for her to know anything about it, so she's never seen Plagg or Adrien be quite so obvious about their bond before but-

Nino's first 'mark is a turtle, and Alya's is their fox.  Maybe Fluff is right about Alya's 'mark being for Alya, and Alix still kind of hopes it's true, but she definitely doesn't think that Fluff is totally correct about kwami and soulmarks.  Alix stopped thinking that Nino's turtle is for Nino a long time ago.  Maybe the kwami can't have soulmarks but obviously their chosen can, and Alix doesn't actually see any reason that a chosen can't have a 'mark for their kwami. 

She thinks that Marinette would, too, if Marinette had any 'marks at all.

Adrien never does manage to entirely free himself of a lifetime's habit of hiding his soulmarks, so Alix has/will wonder, often, if he has a cat inked somewhere on his skin.  She's never sure how she feels about that.  She's never going to forget the rage and devastation on Plagg's face the moment the wish was forced from him, but Plagg also has to know what the soulmarks mean to Adrien, and while she doesn't know how Plagg might feel about anyone being 'marked for him there's no way he would begrudge Adrien that comfort.

Alix has seen enough of time and space to know that Plagg is a lot more attached to Adrien than he ever is to most of his chosen.  Plagg doesn't bother to leave Adrien and Marinette's bloodline for at least a couple generations, as far as she can tell.

That is, if the next few hours and days go well.  If they don't-

Well, Alix has seen those timelines, too.

It doesn't take very long past that for everyone to gather on the ship's prow, most of them already transformed, and by then Alya and Kim and Max have joined them too.  Alix isn't even sure who called Kim and Max. 

Marinette and Adrien don't transform just yet, and neither do Nino or Alya, and Alix figures that's got to do with the four of them being the early team.  She thinks Marinette has gone well beyond her breaking point and jumped from not caring about identities to wanting everyone to know. 

Marinette wants them to know that Chat's Adrien.  Marinette wants them to see Adrien, to see why she's so righteously pissed, and while Alix isn't sure how she feels about using Adrien's obvious injuries like that she can see the strategy behind it.  The more Alix sees Adrien's bruised face and how much he's favouring his side, the more upset she gets, and she's not the only one.

She's already kinda wanted to go scream at Adrien's dad for a while now, but now she wants to fight him.  If she feels like that she can't imagine what Marinette feels, what anyone who has Adrien's 'mark feels. 

It doesn't escape Alix that they're still missing a holder.  It also doesn't escape her when Marinette leans in to murmur into Adrien's ear, when he pauses and then nods minutely and then Nino hands his phone to Adrien without looking or even appearing to have been a part of the conversation at all. 

So it doesn't surprise Alix when, after nearly ten minutes of anxious, milling waiting, Chloé shows up with a far more murderous expression on her face than Alix has ever seen.  Chloé storms up to Adrien, only to freeze when he flinches against Marinette's side.

(Clearly secret identities are a thing of the past now.  Alix actually is a little stunned that they'd read Chloé in on them, though).

Ladybug sets her feet and glares back at Chloé.  Ryuko steps up to guard their leader's backs, expression neutral but posture defensive, and Nino curls himself close to Chat's free side like he's forgotten he doesn't have his shield yet.  He does have Wayzz on his shoulder, in a tiny mirror of his protective pose, and it should look ridiculous but it only looks fiercely protective instead.

Chloé, to her credit, doesn't make any attempt to move them away from each other after that.  Her eyes never flick to Adrien's bared soulmarks, even though Alix is pretty sure Chloé's never seen them before.  Instead, all of her attention is focused on Adrien's injuries. 

"Who," Chloé says, low and dangerous and without paying any attention to any of them except Adrien and, tangentially, Marinette.  Plagg is still making no attempt to hide, pressed hard against Adrien's shoulder and still purring, and Chloé spares him only the briefest glance. 

Alix can't stop watching in fascination.  She knows Adrien's always said Chloé's his oldest friend, but this is the clearest evidence she's ever seen that Chloé even knows what the word friend means.  Chloé looks like she's ready to stalk up to Hawkmoth and shove a stiletto through his eye, and then maybe another through his throat for good measure. 

Disturbingly, Alix kind of wants to cheer her on.

Whatever Adrien says in turn is too quiet to hear, but it freezes the look on Chloé's face for half an arrested second before she's turning to Marinette. Chloé's lips purse as she takes in Marinette's stance, her steady gaze, her protective hold on Adrien, and now Chloé's eyes flick down to Adrien's soulmarks.

No- just to the ladybug 'mark, Alix realises uneasily. 

Chloé lets out a breath and says, flatly, "Let me fight." 

There's a lot of uneasy shifting at that, from everyone but Marinette and Adrien. 

Marinette holds Chloé's eyes, then looks to Adrien.  "You wanted her to know, kitty.  This is your choice." 

Adrien starts to say something, stops, and takes a deep breath as Plagg rumbles louder again. 

Chloé reaches up and rips at the shoulder of her shirt, sending a stunned ripple through the ship.  Even Anarka doesn't seem to know what to do with that, though Anarka's also already hovering at the edge of the circle of teenagers looking like she's not sure why she's here at all.

Like hell does she look like she's planning to leave anytime soon, though.  Alix privately suspects Anarka has been taking the same secret, wild joy that Alix herself has in a lot of the fighting.  It sucks, it sucks a lot most of the time, but Alix has also gotten to leap through time and fight supervillains so she generally hasn't been complaining like she probably should. 

But Alix had also done something while akumatised that's made Marinette uncomfortable around her ever since, and she still isn't willing to find out if she'd done what she thinks she had.  Alix isn't gonna lie to herself, she kinda likes the fighting, but she also really kinda hates Hawkmoth. 

But not as much as Chloé probably does. 

High on Chloé's shoulder, in a space easily concealed by shirts and straps, glows a vivid green paw print that matches the one over Nino's heart. 

"I always knew you didn't have mine," Chloé says, her voice tight, her posture rigid.  "No matter what I did, you never had mine." There's the barest trace of hurt as her eyes travel to Adrien's collection of soulmarks again, there and gone as she looks him determinedly in the eyes instead. "You need to know that I don't expect anything from you for this, Adrien.  Not for this." 

Marinette shifts, drawing everyone's attention, and holds out the Bee Miraculous. 

After another glance at the ladybug 'mark, and a deep growl as she takes in Adrien's injuries again, Chloé accepts it and slides the comb into her hair before taking her place in the loose circle they've formed.

Marinette- Ladybug- looks around at the assembled superheroes, lets out so deep a breath it flutters the bits of her hair that have escaped her pigtails, and takes a tiny step away from Adrien, straightening as Viperion and Ryuko draw in closer. 

Marinette looks at Adrien again, waiting patiently until he nods to say anything.  When he does, she leans in and says something to him, again, and Adrien responds with an almost undetectable shake of his head.  Plagg's moved closer somehow, sitting pressed up right against Adrien's neck and purring, and Alix honestly wonders if that purr would come out in Adrien's voice if he said anything right now.

She finds out a moment later that it sure does, because she must have missed something in that swift silent communication. 

It's Adrien that turns to sweep his gaze over everyone, before he takes a deep breath of his own and says, unmistakably, "Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste."  He hesitates a moment, then, at what Alix thinks is some signal from Plagg, adds unhappily, "And Mayura is Nathalie Sancoeur."

Marinette rests a hand on his shoulder, lightly, deftly avoiding any bruising.  Her eyes are darker than even Chloé's as she adds, "We're going after them tonight.  We're ending this." 

Kim moves like he wants to ask something, then stops, his eyes flickering between Adrien and Marinette before he decides it's safer to look at Alix.

He doesn't voice his question, but Alix knows what it is. 

She knows what it is because Kim's parents are out of town, because Kim's parents have been out of town for the past week and Alix and Max and Ondine have been rotating between crashing at Kim's place and having him over at theirs, because it's the system they'd worked out years ago when they'd realised Kim was scavenging for food in the back of his pantry while his parents' work took them who-knows-where.  Alix still doesn't know what it is Kim's parents even do.  She just knows that they're never home. 

She knows what it is because of Nino's sudden stillness, because Nino's parent's divorce had gone so badly that he'd spent a few lonely nights at the museum with Kim and Alix and Nathaniel, who were never supposed to be there either but at that age always were.  Alix has never asked Nath's reasons, but she trusts that he has them, because they all have their reasons.

She knows what it is because of Chloé, because of the stormy steel still lining Chloé's eyes whenever she catches a glimpse of Adrien's bruises and the way Chloé crosses one arm across her chest to grip her other arm tight in a tell Alix hasn't seen since they were kids. 

She doesn't think she can consider any of them kids anymore, not when they're all gearing up together to go and fight a supervillain. 

Alix opens her mouth herself, a question on her tongue, but Ryuko beats her to it.

"We are not all here yet," Ryuko says, in that careful, precise way Alix has slowly learned is Kagami's way of concealing her simmering emotions.  "We should have as complete a team as possible."  She glances at Marinette, who nods, evidently able to read a question in Ryuko's gaze.  Alix can't imagine how, but then, she isn't Marinette.  Marinette's best at reading her partner, but she's good at reading most everyone else, too. 

(Marinette and Adrien are not actually together in every timeline Alix has found.  They are in the majority, but it's still far from all.

But they are partners in every single one.  Alix has never found a timeline without that bond, not once.  It... kind of flies in the face of her own personal thing about destiny and fate, but after a lot of struggling with the idea she has to admit to herself that any timeline where her friends had other partners would feel inescapably wrong).

Max looks up from his phone, Markov ducking in close behind his head as Kaalki does the same on the other side.  "Marc and Nathaniel are on their way here.  Ivan and Mylene are on their way to the bakery, to provide backup and support."  He nudges his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and nods to Marinette.  "We're leaving it up to you how much you want them to explain."

Marinette closes her eyes, but only briefly.  When she opens them again her gaze fixes back on Adrien, who's no longer looking back.  His eyes are directed at his feet, now, at the vivid lines and colours none of them have ever seen before. 

The ladybug seems brighter than all the rest.  Alix is pretty sure that's a trick of the light. 

But she's not totally sure. 

Marinette says something far too quiet to make out, and Adrien goes still.  After a long, agonising moment, without looking up, without his expression changing, he nods. 

Marinette turns back to Max and Markov.  Steel lacing her words, she says, "All of it." 

Chloé steps closer, not quite into the huddle of heroes yet but dancing on the edges of it.  "Anything it takes that he doesn't have to go back." 

Adrien startles at that, head lifting as he stares at Chloé in wonder and something close to shock.

Chloé reaches one hand out like she's going to clamp it around his wrist, but both a flinch from Adrien and a low snarl from Marinette stop her. 

With a dangerous edge in her voice to rival Marinette's, Chloé says, "He's not allowed to hurt you.  No one is allowed to hurt you, do you understand me?" 

There's enough rage in her words that Alix isn't the only one who finds herself stepping backwards. 

Nino is one of the few who doesn't, shifting to place himself more in front of Adrien instead.  Alix had been worried, distantly, about Nino panicking at having all his friends in such immediate and obvious danger, but Nino now is more focused than she's ever seen him. 

He's definitely reacting to all of them being in danger, but it's not with panic.

It doesn't take long for the remnants of their class to arrive.  Sabrina comes, too, trailing after Marc with a look at Chloé that suggests she'd never expected to be left behind. 

Sabrina's another of the vanishingly few people who hides her soulmark.  Alix has always suspected that she knows exactly why, but the unhappy resignation that flits over Sabrina's face when she sees Chloé's bared 'mark crystallises it. 

That's at least three people in their little group alone whose soulmarks don't match up right.  Alix has another suspicion, one she's harboured ever since first learning that her parents hadn't had matching 'marks in all the time they'd been married. 

She thinks there's maybe a lot more people lying about their soulmarks than most people have ever dreamed.

She thinks maybe, just maybe, whatever it was that Plagg tried to do to stop soulmarks from becoming so entrenched in the world had actually worked.  That maybe it's not easily seen, but that the 'marks-

That the 'marks don't mean what people think they do. 

Plagg isn't going to leave Adrien's side right now for anything short of the world ending and Alix kinda doubts even that would move him, so she looks to Marinette instead and waits for the flash of red at the edge of her purse. 

When Tikki peers out she looks directly at Alix. 

Alix takes a deep breath, suddenly acutely aware that she's got her hand wrapped tight around her upper arm in an unwilling mirror of Chloé.  Alix is pressing down hard on the space where Dad has his soulmark, where Alix has spent years willing her skin to remain blank. 

Which is ridiculous, because even if she's right it doesn't change the odds of her own soulmark appearing.  The 'marks can appear at any time- it's not like she's going to age out of the possibility.  No, she's just going to live with that dread forever, something she's tried and failed to resign herself to for years. 

"Tikki," Alix says, in the barest hiss of a whisper she can manage, and licks her suddenly dry lips.  Quiet as she is, she still sees one of Plagg's ears swivel towards her.  She still sees Adrien tilt his head towards her. 

Yeah, Plagg is definitely lying about how deeply attached he is to Adrien.  Fluff has taken Alix to meet plenty of other Miraculous wielders throughout history (Alix is never ever telling Alya).  It takes a lot for Plagg to transfer a trait that strongly.  That permanently.  If Adrien's so deeply entwined with Plagg that he's sharing Plagg's cat traits even now, even when he's as hurt and distracted as Alix has ever seen him, then they've already become a part of him.  Like the timelines have become a part of Alix herself. 

Fluff is different, though.  Fluff isn't like the other kwami.  Fluff forms bonds like that with chosen out of necessity, so that they won't lose each other through timelines with multiple versions of themselves, and for a Rabbit those bonds form fast - it wouldn't do for either of them to leave with the wrong version of their partner. 

It's much, much rarer for a Black Cat to be so deeply attached to a chosen.  Plagg loses most of his Chosen (and Alix tries not to think about that, but she usually fails, because Plagg has lost Adrien, he's lost Adrien to Alix, and if it weren't for Marinette and Tikki then Adrien might have been lost forever).

Plagg is jealous and guarded and defensive and hurt and he has very good reasons for taking Nooroo's situation so seriously.  Plagg knows Nooroo's situation far too well.

But the little cat didn't go to free Nooroo immediately.  He stayed with Adrien.  If Alix is reading them right, then Plagg's first instinct had been to get Adrien out of danger and go for help, and that's not how the kwami usually operates.  Plagg puts on a show of being lazy, but he's one of the more practical kwami in the end.

But he'd made the choice to guard his chosen before anything else.

Plagg... Plagg doesn't do this.

But then neither does Tikki, who seems to pride herself on being an impartial judge, for all that she's a major player and to Alix's sceptical eye can't possibly be impartial.

Alix has Fluff's timelines to thank for how damn certain she is that Tikki's imprinted just as hard on Marinette as Plagg has on Adrien.  There's the chosen the two kwami have had in the past and future, and then there's these two, who Plagg calls kit and Tikki calls sunshine and little bug and Alix wonders sometimes if she can find the timeline where Marinette didn't convince Adrien that they absolutely could not name their firstborn Plagg.

It's gotta exist.  Alix refuses to believe otherwise.  Somewhere there is a Plagg Dupain-Cheng, she's sure of it.  Somewhere there's probably a Tikki, too.    

But the point is, Plagg and Tikki aren't supposed to stick around at all after they've achieved their goal.  They're the balance, the oldest and most powerful of the kwami, and they aren't supposed to stay with their chosen after they've won their battles. 

Alix has still seen them stay with Adrien and Marinette for a lifetime in more timelines than not.

Plagg's a better guardian for Adrien than his dad ever was.

Tikki's eyes are still trained on Alix.  The kwami tilts her head in Alix's direction, ever so slightly. 

Still in that hissing whisper, licking her suddenly dry lips, Alix asks the question that's been building in her for days or months or years.  For a moment it becomes the most important thing in Alix's world, and yet she can compress it to a single word.

Alix tilts her head in turn, towards Luka, the nearest person to her whose 'marks are visible, and then back the other way- towards Chloé, whose revealed 'mark told her to try for something that was never a possibility.  A soulmark for a soulmate that could never happen.  

An impetus to treat at least this one person more kindly than she did anyone else. A reason to build the strange, fierce friendship that's lighting the building fire in the way Chloé holds herself whenever she catches sight of Adrien's injuries.

A list of tightly knit friends, a reassurance that he'd have close friends.  A reassurance Luka and Adrien share. 

Plagg blinks.  Tikki tilts her head again.

"Potential," Alix breathes, and feels something in her chest give way more than relax as Tikki's eyes light with comprehension and the kwami returns a nod.  A dangerous smile flickers around the edges of Tikki's expression.  Alix keeps her voice low, but she still sees Adrien twitch like he can hear her after all, because he's more Black Cat than anyone was ever supposed to be.  "They were always about potential."

Plagg pokes his head out.  He doesn't bother to whisper.  "You only just workin' that one out?

Alix's grin is wild and fierce and bleeds into her movements as she looks across her assembled friends.  Marc and Nathaniel are running up to the boat now, Nathaniel out of breath, Marc's expression full of both hope and fear, and something slams into Alix's chest as the group grows.

For a moment she forgets to breathe. 

For a moment, a moment, something bright and colourful swirls across her arm- across both her arms, her shoulders to her elbows all the way down to her wrists-

And then it vanishes. 

Alix can't breathe. 

She doesn't want-

Plagg won't leave Adrien, not now, he couldn't be pried away from Adrien for all the cheese in the world, but he does look across at Alix and narrow his eyes at her.  "Breathe, kid." 

Fluff ducks out of Alix's pocket, leaving the time-ghost of her watch alone, and pats Alix's shoulder with tiny paws.  "Hey, Alix? You can have them if you want them."  Fluff pauses, studying her, and then grins bright.  "But you don't want yours.  So you don't have them."

The laugh that leaves Alix is maybe a little hysterical.  It's okay, though, it's only like a dozen of her closest friends that are gonna know about this. And Anarka.

Okay, now it's a lot hysterical. 

This is not the time for a personal crisis, they have a supervillain to defeat.  Alix is pretty sure the only one allowed to be having a personal crisis right now is Adrien.  Maybe Marinette. 

Maybe Kagami, as tense and unsettled as she still looks, but Alix still has no idea what happened there. 

(Maybe all of them, but Alix is trying to talk herself out of having a crisis).

Nino and Marinette aren't about to leave Adrien's side anymore than Plagg is, but after a moment's hesitation Viperion steps forward to wrap Alix in a hug. 

"It's okay," he murmurs, and Alix feels herself beginning to calm down.  "We all know you don't need soulmarks."  

Alix isn't sure she's ever heard anyone refer to her potential soulmarks in the plural before.  Their class is used to the idea by now, because Kim brags and most of them know Luka, but most people would never assume multiple soulmarks. 

Alix definitely doesn't want them, but it does kinda take her breath away that for that half a heartbeat she'd had two full sleeves' worth of 'marks.

It can't be that long before Alix pulls away from the hug, but it's long enough for everyone else to have transformed and formed two loose circles- one centred on Chat Noir, one centred on herself and Viperion.  Anarka hovers between them, looking like she doesn't know which way to go, but even so she's already transformed and eyeing the quickest route from here to the manor.   

Alix takes a deep breath, tosses the watch into the air and catches it in a way she really shouldn't do, and tries to grin again.  "Hey guys?" 

Everyone's eyes flick to her, even Adrien's huddle of protectors. 

Alix thinks about the wish she'd seen.  How utterly enraged and helpless Plagg had looked.  How resigned and simultaneously furious Tikki had been. 

How Hawkmoth wants that wish, and how Alix has no idea what for.

How badly Adrien's dad has hurt him for a chance at that wish. 

Alix transforms and her grin regains its full force.  "Let's mosey."