What a massive weight off his chest that was...

Ever since Adrien spilled his guts to Luka about everything that'd been going on, being cat noir and the Post Akuma Psychosis- or PAP incidents, he'd found the burden easier to bare. It was still a looming cloud over his head of course, but having Luka to cry to, to help him out, it was a much much needed relief. And there was a bit of a silver lining for Luka too, because now he knew the ins and outs of everything that was going on in miraculous world and how to avoid getting akumatized, regulate his emotions etc. if he was called upon as Viperion to help, he'd be able to perform much better than if he was thrown into it blind.

But the situation in the city was only getting more and more tense. It seemed with every case of akumatization, the PAP was only getting more extreme. There'd been another death, the same kind of thing had happened. A victim had gone into a manic state and in an attempt to silence the voices, ran into traffic. There were two deaths on hawkmoths hands now, and everyone was terrified to be next.

People who'd been akumatized in the past were a little on edge too, fearing that they'd start hearing voices as well. Even though it had only been recent victims so far, insinuating it was the effect of some kind of new akuma, no one knew what hawkmoth was capable of now. If he was willing to let people die to reach his goal, clearly he had no regards for human life other than his own. Before he was just terrorising people, now he was murdering them.

It was something that was keeping Luka up at night, the questions about what hawkmoth's goal here was. And the concern for Adrien fighting someone willing to kill him if it came to it. It was even worse when the house was quiet and he was left to his own thoughts, his mother and sister were off seeing a movie that he wasn't really interested in, so he was home alone. Usually he liked being alone, but when you'd become a bit paranoid... yeah he'd rather be near someone right now.

Didn't help this homework was boring as shit either.

Who cares about the history of the French Revolution? It happened centuries ago. And not in the cool ancient era with big temples and stuff. The boring era when it was just wars between old white men over politics. But alas this essay was due on Wednesday, he had two days to finish it AND he was going out tomorrow after school so he basically only had one day.

So he sat, bored and a little on edge at his desk looking for a website that he could cite for this essay.

What if they're lying to you?

What? Where did that thought come from? Who'd be lying? The guy with the stupid hairstyle in this portrait he was looking at?

Which reminded him, weren't all these hairstyles wigs anyway? How many of these old war general guys were actually bald and insecure about it? Maybe that's why they all had stupid wigs that looked like a Swiss roll.

They're lying to you Luka.

He looked around, looking for... something? Someone maybe? He felt like he was being watched...

And that's when it hit him.

"No, no no no no- I was akumatized before then, I can't be hearing-" he muttered.

They all hate you Luka. That's why they're hiding the truth from you.

"Don't pull this shit, we fixed the situation"

Immediately pulling up his phone, he called Adrien. Surely Cat Noir would know what's going on right? It took a few rings for Adrien to get to the phone, probably busy getting ready for bed at this hour.

"Luka! What's up?" His voice said.

"Please tell me PAP isn't possible in previous akuma victims" Luka replied, clear panic in his tone.

"Wh- what's going on? Is there an akuma?"

"No, I mean... not on me. But I can hear-"

He's going to lie to you Luka, he'll tell you you're just crazy and that nothing is wrong.

"-I CAN HEAR HAWKMOTH TALKING TO ME" Luka snapped, really starting to freak out now.

"WHAT- stay there, don't do anything stupid I'm coming over" Adrien replied.

"Please hurry..."

"Stay calm, I'll be 5 minutes tops"

He hung up, needing to transform to get there. Luka got up, looking around for something to keep himself grounded with. Something to drown out the voices. His guitar, yeah let's play guitar. Picking it up and sitting on the end of the bed, he tried to steady his breath and focus on the notes. First song that came to mind, strumming it out and listening to the resulting music.

Whoever told you you were good at that lied to you.

"Shut the fuck up, my parents are musicians. I've been playing since I was a baby" he snapped back at the voice.

They must have tricked you into thinking you had any talent then...

"SHUT UP-"

He noticed pretty quickly that the theme here was lies and deception, that was what he was akumatized over last time when he became truth. His first akumatizemation as silence seemed to be overwritten by the most recent. While lies have absolutely hurt him badly in the past, he knew that things had since been cleared up and understood. He knew logically that no one was lying to him anymore, so he shouldn't be getting worked up over this... but hawkmoth's voice just wouldn't leave him alone.

Why don't you just give up? You'll never make it in life if no one ever tells you the truth. Why don't you... get revenge on them?

"Shut the FUCK up you stupid butterfly dickhead-" Luka complained, putting his guitar aside before he could do anything bad to it. Clearly the music wasn't helping.

Where was Adrien? He needed him! Had it been five minutes yet?

You know he'll never love you back right? Even if he says he does he's just lying out of pity.

It clicked when he heard that, this psychosis was taking all of his deepest thoughts, feelings and insecurities and saying them out loud. So it wasn't just hallucinations at random, it was using things that would actively hurt a person the most, to rile them up enough to get them emotional enough to be akumatized again. So far the theory was that PAP victims were panicking because they could hear hawkmoth even after being saved. Now he realised the panic wasn't just that, but it was pain from personal attacks that caused people to break so quickly.

"Fuck! I know he can't hear me right now, but gods I hate him... I was akimatized LAST YEAR why is this kicking in NOW?!" Luka complained.

Was that an akuma? No... no it was just a shadow. Fuck now he was seeing things! If he panicked he'd only make it worse but it was hard to not panic when these voices were getting so loud and he couldn't tell what was and wasn't a hallucination anymore.

"Stop it, stop it, stop it, STOP IT" He snapped, starting to feel the panic really set in.

His heart raced, his breath quickened, his palms were sweaty. He couldn't help but look over his shoulder and at every shadow in the room because they kept looking like butterflies. He wasn't entirely sure when he started to loose his grip on reality, some where between the voices getting to the point they were overlapping and the point he was physically trying to swat away butterflies that weren't there. But by the time Adrien landed on deck and rushed downstairs into the cabin, he couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't anymore.

"Luka! Luka are you-" Adrien called out, swinging the door open to find him in tears and trying to fight off imaginary akumas.

It was just like the behaviour before the last PAP death...

"No, no no no- Luka! Hey, Luka don't listen to them, they're not real!" Adrien panicked, rushing over and grabbing his arms before he could hurt himself.

In his state of psychosis, induced by an akumas effects he registered Adrien- who was still transformed, as a threat. The cat ears and mask telling his brain to attack for the miraculous.

"Get- GET OFF ME!" Luka snapped, trying to fight out of his grip to snatch the ring off his finger.

"Woah! No, calm down! Luka it's me! Plagg claws off!" Adrien replied.

He detransformed, hoping the lack of the shit would register in his mind as Adrien, rather than as Cat Noir.

"You're not real! NONE OF THIS IS REAL- MAKE IT STOP!" Luka screeched.

"I'M REAL! I'M HERE! Luka please..." Adrien replied, starting to tear up himself.

But Luka wouldn't stop struggling, and Adrien had no choice but to pin him down and kneel on his back to keep him subdued before he could hurt himself.

"STOP LYING TO ME- STOP TELLING ME THOSE STUPID LIES-" Luka snapped... more like cried in desperation.

Adrien really didn't want to hurt him, but he couldn't risk Luka throwing himself overboard in a fit of delusion. Grabbing one of his amplifier chords, Adrien bound his hands and feet to stop him from getting up and hurting himself.

"I'm sorry Luka, I'm sorry! But I can't loose you" Adrien tried to get through to him.

He truly didn't know what to do, how to make it stop. But all he could think to do was to keep him alive and unharmed. Despite him not being able to get up and run around, he could still thrash and scream at the fake akumas he was seeing. In sheer desperation, Adrien simply pulled him into a tight, full body hug. Holding him close and wrapping all his limbs around him, trying to keep him from thrashing and hoping the touch would ground him.

"Please Luka... it's me, I'm real. I'm here. None of the akumas are real, you're not akumatized, hawkmoth isn't actually talking to you!" Adrien begged.

He squeezed tight, hoping the pressure would make Lukas brain register him as a real presence. And after a few more moments of him struggling, he stopped. Falling limp against Adrien and simply sobbing and hyperventilating.

"It's ok, I'm here... I... I'll figure this out. I promise Luka, I can't loose you..." Adrien sniffled.

He wasn't sure how long he just sat there holding Luka up to his chest and listening to him cry and mutter 'leave me alone' and 'stop it' at the voices over and over. But eventually, it fell silent. Luka had exhausted himself, and Adrien was too scared to let him go in case something happened to him. That silence felt like an eternity before it was finally broken.

"Adrien..."

The blonde perked up, grabbing Luka's shoulders and pulling back from the hug to look at him. He seemed... there.

"Are you ok?" Adrien asked.

"...no. But... it's mostly stopped..." Luka replied.

Adrien sighed in relief, even if it was traumatic at least he wasn't hallucinating and coherent at the moment.

"I'm sorry... I just... I couldn't let you hurt yourself and tying you up was the only thing I could think of and-" Adrien tried to explain.

"It's ok... I get it. I could have... done something really bad if I could move..." Luka muttered.

"Fucking Christ, you scared the shit out of me Luka..."

Adrien pulled him back into the hug, loosening the chords so Luka could set his arms free. Immediately the hug was reciprocated, Luka holding onto Adrien tight.

"Adrien tell me the truth..." Luka spoke up.

"Always" Adrien replied.

From everything Luka was screaming about, Adrien gathered pretty quickly that the episode was based on the last time he was akumatized as truth. He couldn't imagine all the things hawkmoth was telling him...

"Do you love me?" Luka asked.

"Wh- yes! Of course I love you.  Don't listen to a THING that stupid moth says. You mean the world to me I-"

"Do you love me... Adrien..."

Oh... that kind of love. Adrien felt his cheeks go red, this isn't how we expected or wanted a confession to go but... clearly that's what needed to happen.

"Luka I don't want anything, especially that fuckwit moth telling you that I don't love you. Because I do, I love you so fucking much. I didn't... I mean I thought you didn't like me like that so I never... Damnit- I love you Luka, I promise that's the truth, I love you" Adrien assured.

Luka gave him a weak smile, all the horrible words he'd just been attacked with clearly having taken a toll on him.

"Really..?" He asked.

"Really, I'll prove it"

Adrien kissed him. No hesitation, no second thoughts. Usually he'd be shyer than this, but the situation had him wanting to kiss and never stop. Luka was quick to melt into it, that kiss was something he desperately needed right now. And it sure was enough proof alright...

Click. The front door opens.

Oh fuck- his mum and sister were home.

How the hell was he going to explain what just happened and why Adrien was here? And Damnit, his mum was absolutely going to take him to the hospital for something to stop any further hallucinations now... he was totally not getting that essay done.