Butterfly Boy

Chapter 19

Danny and Alya talked animatedly as they walked to school. It turned out she lives a few houses from his own house, so they'd taken to walking to school together.

"Pierre's been placing stories that have been emailed on the website. The latest story was of a man who apparently laughed in Hawkmoth's face when he got akumatized and called him birdbrain."

Danny frowned. "When was that?"

"Two days ago, according to him."

He shook his head. "No man has come to me about a stuck akuma in the past two days. Take that down." He put a finger on his chin. "But use that insult, even though apparently hawkmoth is a type of moth, I like it."

Alya nodded like she'd thought he would say that and noted something down on her cellphone. "You like everything that insults Hawkmoth. Not that I blame you. It's already taken care of."

"Did you erase my address and schedule? My mom won't budge for the greater good."

"Done. Your phone number's allowed on here right?"

"Only the SpookPhone. I'll send you the number later." Danny scrunched his eyebrows. "How's Francine doing?"

"Great! A comic she sent in last week was uploaded as the new cover. It goes with the title: The Emo Butterfly, and it's with a drawing of a teen with dark eyeliner, stomping on the ground and a few purple akuma's around him. He's shouting: It's not a phase, mom."

Danny grinned. "Perfect. Give her a promotion."

"Done." She noted it down. "By the way," They rounded a corner and the school appeared in view. Alya put her phone away and looked at Danny. "Your parents were at the last fight."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. They pointed some strange device at the akuma and did something."

"It was probably the Fenton Extractor. It's supposed to extract the akuma from the victim."

Alya blinked. "That's pretty smart."

Danny nodded as he adjusted his backpack straps. "As long as they make sure the person won't be in any danger for when their powers are stripped and Ladybug is close by to cleanse the akuma."

"True." Alya shook her head. "But whatever they did, it wasn't extracting an akuma. The akumatized person just seemed really confused. They didn't even move and let Chat steal their weapon."

Danny hummed. "Maybe they paralyzed the akutamized person."

"Akumatized."

"Ah. Hakuna matata. Who cares. I'll talk to my parents later. Hopefully, they won't want to do more scans on me. Ever since the last one, they've been in the basement for hours doing who knows what. They're kinda worried the ladies are doing something to me."

Alya glanced at the Papillions flapping their wings in protest. "Are they?"

Danny shrugged. "I'm craving a lot of sugar lately and my dad says it's because of the butterflies."

Alya gasped and suddenly laughed. "Oh, this is rich. It's affecting you too. That's funny."

"What?" Danny moved in front of her and started walking backward, looking at her with raised eyebrows.

"Well." She waved her hand at the sky. "I've been noticing things about our superheroes. At first, I thought that Chat Noir acted like a cat intentionally, but he doesn't seem to notice how he uses his tail a lot, for things like balance or showing emotion. He's also pretty hyperactive and can't seem to keep still. Have you ever seen a cat just go crazy for no reason? And it just seems to bounce off the walls? Yeah, that's him."

Danny snorted at the picture.

Alya continued. "And you should see Ladybug in winter. When you're close to her, you feel her suit just radiating warmth, and she still comes to battle with a tight scarf and a thick jacket. I've tried to keep an eye on those pieces of clothing, but I haven't seen it on a civilian yet. She also looks worn out even before she starts fighting. Like she's been fighting off hibernation." She shrugged. "So my theory is whatever gives them power or however they got it, it affects them. And that theory just got strengthened by your new development." She laughed again. "You eat sugar. I wonder what else is gonna happen."

No srsly. what are common butterfly tendencies? All I can find on google is their friking cycle and that they don't like the cold and eat sugar.

Danny shrugged. "We'll see. Maybe my parents found something out. They didn't tell me anything about my sugar level being too high or me getting diabetes. So I'm probably alright. They are banning me from eating too much chemical sugar, though. I gotta drink lots of milk and eat like two apples a day since that has natural sugars." He took a can of coke from his backpack and opened it. "Doesn't stop me from getting some nice sucrose in my system."

Alya rolled her eyes. "Just make sure you take care of yourself, Papillon Garcon. Anyways, I bought some Papillon clips." She rummaged through her backpack as they climbed the school stairs. "I thought we should start using them as icons for HAR."

Danny's eyes twinkled. "That's an awesome idea! Can you pass those around? Oh and put it on the website."

"I'm glad you approve." Alya grinned.

They entered their classroom and Danny went to sit next to Nathaniel. They smiled at each other. Neither felt the need to say anything and that was alright. They readied their stuff quietly.

Danny smiled, satisfied as he grabbed the printed pictures and the worksheet with answered questions. Despite all the drama with Hawkbutt and his papis, Danny had been able to keep up with his homework. Although he had terrible problems concentrating. His sister had told him it probably was because of how he was wired to do his studying in outrageous hours like deep in the night or early morning. Jazz had helped him by giving him a schedule each day in which to do his homework. She'd also told him to play Jazz instrumental as background music. He'd snorted at that, which had her flicking his head. She would also have him clean his room beforehand. After hearing his complaints she'd said it would clear his mind of distractions. He had had a rocky start, but after a few weeks, he'd been able to somewhat find some structure. 

His parents had also noticed the giant change in Danny's attitude towards his studies and how they barely got calls from the school about his ditching the classes and missed homework. Even though his grades were only slightly better, they wouldn't pass a chance to tell the boy how proud they were of his efforts.

Despite all of Jazz' tips, Danny knew this year would be hard. He'd missed too many classes the last years. Besides that, even though he was a whizz in languages, going to a full French school was hard and the culture shock was pretty big. However, Danny was good at adapting and he would do his best at passing the year.

At least he could find some comfort in the fact that Jazz was having a hard time too.

The teacher called for attention, bringing Danny back to the present. He looked around until he spotted Chloe, sitting in her usual spot.

It was Monday, meaning it was the first time he'd seen her since her dad supposedly spent some time with her. He had no way of knowing he'd actually done it, but just by looking at her, he knew something good had come out of his conversation with the mayor.

Even though she wasn't smiling all the time, he could see it trying to lift her lips at seemingly random times. She held her head higher, which some people might see as a rise of her ego whereas Danny saw it as a rise in her self-esteem.

Sabrina, on the other hand, was grinning non-stop.

Danny caught Adrien's eyes and sent him a victorious thumbs up. Adrien nodded and with a wide smile mouthed: Thank you.

Boom. big chappie (for this book at least)
Changing schools to another country is hard you guys. I should know. kudos for anyone who has done this. respect and good luck.

Also kudos for Grammarly. super helpful.