Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Thomas Astruc does. He is really awesome about sharing info such as the stuff he shared about Félix.

Gratuitous French will be used courtesy of Google Translate, but I do not speak French so I would like to apologize in advance to any French-speaking fans I may have.

Adrien had this strange, almost unfamiliar, glint in his eyes, but Félix was just glad it wasn't tears. Oh, Dieu merci it wasn't tears. He had expected his younger brother to be crying since it was his first birthday without their mère, and their père had pretty much forgotten. Their père had pretty much forgotten that he had sons much of the time; why should he expect him to remember Adrien's birthday? Adrien may have expected it, but he was so young. He was almost still innocent. It was then that Félix realized what his brother's eyes shone with. Oh, no. Mischievous six-year-olds were bothersome creatures. True, the boy had been six for three hours, but still. Chloé had been six for a month and a half more, and she... well, she was always bothersome. But she was more bothersome when she was mischievous because she would convince Adrien to do something.

"You're eight, right?" Adrien said, grinning. Félix ignored the fact that it was the same type of grin his brother would use when he'd steal a sheet of his music and force the elder to chase the younger around the house to get it back. He was just thankful that he was smiling.

"Yes, and you're point is?"

The younger of the two broke into a fit of giggles. "I'm only two years younger than you!"

"What? No, you're- You see- Well it's only for five more days!"

"Happy Birthday, frérot," the nearly-eleven-year-old Félix said to his brother.

"Thanks! So, how does it feel to know that you've once again ceased to age as fast as I do?"

"Oh, I don't know, thankful because then it'll be longer until I'd-" He clamped a hand over his mouth, not wanting to say the d-word in front of his brother.

"Until you die. Ugh, I'm nine years old and most definitely totally not fragile!" He tried not to groan as he realized just how much like Chloé his brother sounded. "If anything you're the fragile one - how many times have you tripped over your own feet even when your shoelaces are tied in the past month?" So he had noticed. Félix had discovered the secret of their mère's ring recently, and the bad luck that came with it. That was funny; couldn't remember his mother ever tripping over anything. Why did Plagg choose to be more cruel to him? Did the curse lessen with age?

"Besides, unlike me you're smart. You're going to be a really good doctor and then you'll find a way to... uh... do important doctor-y stuff." The part about him wanting to become a doctor was true, but it hurt to hear Adrien describe himself as not being smart. Sure, he wasn't as good at academics as Félix was due to the current struggle to find the proper medication for his ADHD, but that didn't mean he was any less intelligent.

"Adrien, why do you say that you're not smart?"

"Um... because Père says so?" Félix clenched his fists, wanting to go to their father's office and unleash a torrent of bad luck, or even worse curses that he wasn't even aware he was capable of yet.

Adrien was a bit sore from fighting Bubbler, but it wasn't his body that hurt. No, what hurt was... everything. It stung for his père to push Nino away like that. He appreciated the thought, but there was a dull pain throughout his body as he thought about how he had been at least partly the reason for his best friend's descent into villainy. He felt even worse when he thought about how that wasn't what was putting him in the most emotional agony, agony that not even Ladybug's smile could cure.

Tears rolled down Adrien's face and onto the scarf his father had given him. It was so unlike his père to give him such a gift. It was more like something he would have done, but Félix was dead. Adrien picked up a framed photograph of the two of them, and his tears fell on it as well.

"What did I do wrong, frère? How could I not have noticed? Oh mon Dieu, what did I do wrong?" He wiped away his tears, and forced a smile. "You know, if you were still here, if you hadn't given up, then I'd be two years younger than you today rather than three." His smile fell away, revealing a stoic sort of fury. "But instead, we're the same age now."

Félix's finger hovered over the "ask" button on the blog that Ladybug and Chat Noir were using. The current Chat Noir, of course. He had given up the ring; it was never his anyway.

A small white akuma landed on the hovering finger, reminding him. "Ouais ouais, I know, I can't let him know I'm alive, or at least not until I figure out how to deal with you guys and my actual powers and release the others from Père." He took one last look at the message before closing the browser.

BTW, frérot, you're still three years younger than me.