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He jumped as fast as he could, but even his excellent martial training wasn’t enough to save her from the hit.
Felix only had time to grab Marinette in his arms, but as they fell together through the open door of the classroom, he felt a shock of energy on his body, and the next moment the door slammed shut behind them.
“Get off me! Get off me!” Marinette yelled indignantly, trying to push him away.
“You are welcome.” Felix growled, rising and offering his hand to her.
Marinette stopped yelling and looked at him slightly surprised, but took the offered hand and stood up from the floor.
She immediately went to the door and pulled the handle.
“Damn it!” The girl exclaimed and her eyes widened from the fact that she cursed out loud.
Usually she did it to herself, and outwardly behaved like a decent girl.
“Is it locked?” Felix asked, coming closer.
“It definitely is!” Marinette confirmed. “And I need to get out of here fast!”
“It might be safer to stay here until the attack is over.” Felix suggested.
“I can’t stay here!” Marinette protested. “I need to get out!”
“Do you hate me so much that you can’t even stay in one room alone with me?!” Felix asked with resentment in his voice.
It was strange. Usually he was very cold, and during their many arguments Felix looked impenetrable, as if nothing could hurt him.
“I don’t hate you.” Marinette replied, she didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, even Felix’s. But then her mouth continued speaking as if by itself. “Actually I find your company interesting and like spending time with you.”
Marinette’s eyes widened on her own words.
What did that akuma hit do to her? Made her speak nonsense?! Since when did she find his company interesting?! And what was it about spending time together? Are constant disputes considered a joint pastime?!
In fact, now that she thought about it, Marinette realized that she really enjoyed arguing with Felix. Not the fact of quarreling itself, of course, but the fact that he always found interesting arguments and very competently expressed his point of view.
This constantly challenged her, made her grow internally.
To be honest, disputes with Felix so much occupied Marinette’s head that she hardly had time even to daydream about Adrien...
During the time Felix lived in Paris and studied in her class, it seemed that they spent all their free time between lessons together, sorting things out.
Marinette shook her head, trying to get the unexpected revelations out of her head.
“I…” She wanted to lie that she didn’t mean it at all and that she didn’t like spending time with Felix, but instead her mouth spoke completely different words. “I find you extremely smart and very attractive…”
While Marinette was experiencing quiet horror from the confessions that her mouth dropped, and which were discoveries even for her, — because where has it been seen for a girl to honestly admit her feelings to herself?! — Felix, who had previously been watching her in surprise, dropped his jaw and spoke slowly.
“Did you just say that you like me?” He asked, but there was no sarcasm and mockery characteristic of him in his voice.
In fact, his voice sounded in such a way as if her words genuinely touched him.
“I… I…” Marinette wanted to deny everything, but she was beginning to understand that whatever this akuma did to her, it was very reminiscent of the case when Luka was akumatized and forced her to tell the truth.
And Marinette was afraid that if she started talking or resisting the effects of magic, she would spill even more secrets.
So instead she covered her mouth with her hand and looked at Felix with the wide eyes of a guerrilla who had been captured but was ready to fight for military secrets.
“Was it…” Felix swallowed. “Was this akuma…” He narrowed his eyes. “There is a way to find out, I was hit too.”
Felix looked around and his eyes fell on the door.
“The door is locked.” He said.
Marinette giggled and even removed her hand, so ridiculous was his obvious statement.
“I know it's locked.” She said, “I just tried to open it myself.”
Felix turned to her with a serious look.
“Yes.” He agreed. “But I tried to pronounce the sentence. ‘The door is open.’”
Her face immediately became serious and she looked at him, realizing that everything she had said aloud in the last minutes had to be the truth, even if this truth was hidden from herself.
Marinette began to seethe with anger inside — she felt so vulnerable in front of Felix, — she practically confessed to him feelings she didn’t even realize till now she had, and that now he would laugh at her.
“Why did you even come to rescue me?!” She yelled, trying to protect herself with aggression.
“Because your safety is important to me!” He yelled back indignantly.
They both stared at each other with wide eyes.
“I… I didn’t mean to say that.” Felix said, calming his tone down.
Her safety was important for him, Marinette repeated mentally, and this thought warmed her from the inside.
“I didn’t mean to yell at you.” Marinette admitted apologetically. “I… Thank you for… trying to…”
“I wasn’t fast enough…” Felix turned away.
“You’re not a superhero to save people, Felix. she tried to console him. “You didn’t have to save me at all.”
“Of course I had to!” He objected, turning back.
“And why is that?!” Marinette raised her voice again, following his example.
“Because I’m in love with you!” Felix snapped at her. He looked like he was shocked by his own words. “That is not… that isn’t… uhh...”
“Truth?” Marinette asked with annoyance in her voice.
Did Felix really have feelings for her, and he resisted them so much that he didn’t want to accept them even when the truth poured out of him by itself?
“I thought we stated that akuma’s magic prevents us from lying.” Marinette reminded him.
“But that is not the entire truth!” Felix argued.
Marinette’s eyebrows jumped in surprise. If Felix was able to say it out loud, then he was telling the truth, he had feelings for her, but… what other part of the truth he had in mind?
“So what is it?” She smirked.
Felix crossed his arms over his chest.
“I don’t want to say it.” He admitted.
“Come on, Felix!” Curiosity was eating her alive. “What can be worse than what you already just said?”
“I’m in love with someone else too, ok?!” He snapped.
Marinette was taken aback with his words. It turned out there could actually be something worse.
“I… I couldn’t imagine you have so much… Emotions inside you.”
“Well I do!” Felix replied angrily.
It was obvious that he didn’t want to be so vulnerable in front of her and it unsettled him.
And how much did she understand him at that moment?! Not only was she now talking to a guy she liked… Okay, a guy she REALLY liked. Okay, maybe she liked him so much that she had no idea what to do with herself when said guy wasn’t around to argue with her about something so elegantly and masterfully, as no one else could!
But this guy also just said... that he loved someone else.
And he could only speak the truth.
“And who is she?” Marinette didn’t expect not her own question, nor the bitterness in her voice in which the question was asked.
“I… you’ll think I’m an idiot…” Felix said, turning away from her again.
Marinette sat down at the nearest desk and dropped her head on her hands.
“You can’t be a bigger idiot than I feel right now, so... shoot.”
“I…” Felix swallowed. “I’m in love with Ladybug.” He confessed, and started chasing back and forth through the class. “I know this sounds crazy… but when she hit me, I felt… how strong she was… I mean, on the inside, you know, not the magical power enhancement…” He trailed off and turned to her. “And you… even when I saw you on that pathetic video, I could see so much heart inside you, and… I thought I’ll understand myself better when I’m here, closer to both of you… but… it only got worse, because I realized that your inner strength is just as great, even though you usually hide it. And Ladybug… Watching her, I can see that her heart is as big as yours… It drives me crazy!.. Why can’t one rational person just decide who he likes better?! This must be easy, right? But I… I just…”
“I’m Ladybug.” Marinette was staring into Felix's wide eyes, shocked how easily her biggest secret slipped out from her lips… “I… I… Felix, you can’t… you can’t betray my secret!... this is not fair! I was keeping it so hard!” Marinette panicked.
“You. Are. Ladybug.” Felix pronounced every word separately, as if it could help him digest the received information piece by piece. “That means… that means that I only love one woman…”
“You…” Marinette started, but was interrupted.
“I stole his miraculous for you, but they turned out to be fake…” Felix declared.
“You... what?” Marinette’s eyes went wide. “From whom? From Shadow Moth?!”
“Funny story… haha!” Felix was laughing nervously, he obviously wasn’t prepared for this conversation as much as she wasn’t. “Ever since I learned Shadow Moth’s identity, I’ve been trying to steal the amulets to return them to you and show that I am worthy of you.”
“You know who Shadow Moth is…” Marinette almost whispered in disbelief.
“I... yes... He slipped me fakes when I opened the safe in his house…” Felix confessed reluctantly.
“You did what?!!” Marinette jumped from the chair.
“I know that you don’t approve of my methods, but sometimes the ends justify the means…” Felix said, making a step towards her. “Plus…”
His words were interrupted, when Chat Noir stumbled into the classroom, breaking through the door and fell to the floor.
The hero immediately jumped up on his feet and looked at those present.
“Hey, guys!” He smiled apologetically. “Sorry for the door. Gotta go. Bye!” And Chat rushed back into the fight with the akuma through the hole in the door.
Marinette looked at Felix, then at the door, then back at Felix.
“I need to help him.” She said, and ran after her partner.
The girl ran to the toilet to transform out of habit, forgetting that she could do it right in the class. She thought that despite the akuma’s influence, much remained unsaid between her and Felix.
Will they be able to be as open with each other once the akuma is neutralized?
*
Magic cure ended its action and Ladybug hit her partner’s fist with hers.
“I have an unfinished thing to do, Chat.” She said, “I need to go!”
Marinette transformed in an alleyway and approached the school, where the students were standing in small groups, waiting to be told if classes would continue. Her classmates stood together, so she went towards them.
“Mari!” Her girlfriends pounced on her. “Where have you been?!”
“I... was... I…” Marinette didn’t have time to come up with an alibi for herself, so much her head was occupied with new realizations of her... feelings?
“She was with me.” She heard Felix’s voice behind her and turned to meet his eyes.
Marinette felt as if everyone around disappeared and they were standing alone, looking into each other’s eyes with a silent conversation about what happened between them earlier.
Did they confess to each other? Do they really have mutual feelings?
Now it all seemed so confusing and incomprehensible, but then it seemed so obvious. Marinette felt that with every passing minute, her certainty that what had happened was real had vanished.
Felix’s eyes looked at her seriously and reservedly, and it was difficult to see through them now that his sensitivity and vulnerability were so well disguised by coldness and severity.
“Riiiiiight!” Chloe exclaimed. “Who would believe that you could spend so much time together, you can’t stand each other! In which I, Felikins, support you very much!”
Marinette opened her mouth to say something, her alibi fading before her eyes, but Felix beat her to it.
“The thing is,” He said, “We were both hit with that truth akuma, and were locked together in an empty classroom.” Felix continued without taking his eyes off Marinette.
“Poor Felikins, you had to spend so much time alone with her!” Chloe whined.
Marinette suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at Chloe’s comment. She didn’t want to tear herself away from those deep green eyes, looking at her so seriously and confidently.
“I was just fine.” Felix rеtorted, face still serious, while looking at Marinette as if they were still alone. “That akuma helped me to say what I should have said to Marinette a long time ago.”
“And what was it?” Chloe teased. “How much she annoys you?”
“No. I told her the truth.” Felix replied, and Marinette’s eyes widened.
She wanted to stop him. She saw how his face tightened and how his eyes burned, and she had a feeling that he was about to say…
“I told her that I love her.” Felix finished.
Most of the girls in the class, who had been following the scene enthusiastically before, gasped and whispered.
Approaching the crowd, Adrian looked confusedly at the couple in the center of it, then at other classmates, not understanding what was happening here and why everyone was silent.
“And what did our girl answer you?” Alya asked carefully, smirking knowingly between them.
Marinette was looking at this boy, who just confessed to her in front of the whole class, choosing to do so of his own free will and not under the influence of an akuma.
It seemed to her as if Felix had regained control of his own life this way. It was as if he had made a decision on top of what life had decided for him, hitting him with truth magic.
Like a rider rides a naughty horse, subordinating it to his will. So Felix decided to bend his life to his will, accepting responsibility for his words, even those spoken against his authority at first.
Marinette made a step to him and took his hand, still not taking her eyes off Felix.
The boy parted his lips a little and looked down at his hand in hers. Then he looked up at her and Marinette was engulfed in a wave of heat that flared in his eyes.
“She said,” Marinette replied finally to Alya’s question, and it seemed to her that the whole class was waiting with bated breath for her answer along with herself. “She said that she loves him back.”
Felix looked at her tenderly and lovingly – the open Felix that she met earlier today visible in him – and pulled Marinette in for a kiss.
She readily accepted the kiss, ignoring gasps and squeals around them, succumbing to the warmth of Felix’s lips on hers.
Chloe snorted, turned around and walked towards the entrance to the school, grumbling as she went.
“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” She exclaimed.
Marinette felt Felix smiling into her kiss and smiled back.
There was much more to say between them. But now she was sure that every word they say would be nothing but the truth.