Twilight paced around the room, wondering how they could continue the mission effectively. It’s not that she didn’t trust Felix, but what if he isn’t as reliable as they had thought?
Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof, a signal that she had come up with a brilliant idea, "Girls, I just had the most awesome idea! Let's spy on him!"
Rarity shook her head with no small amount of disdain, "Rainbow, darling, that doesn't sound like a good idea-"
"I think I have a scrying spell..." Twilight hummed, searching through her memory for the spell.
Rarity rolled her eyes, "It doesn't matter, darling, I do not see how Felix would-"
"He might be lyin'. He's the first human we've met, for Celestia's sake. Ah vote for spying on him!" Applejack shared a hoof bump with Rainbow.
"Oh for celestia’s sake, Applejack, isn't spying a little dishonest?" Rarity sighed.
Applejack shrugged, "Ah'll do it as long as we don't get trapped like the Starlight Glimmer incident a few years ago."
"Shouldn't we give him the benefit of the dou-"
Fluttershy meekly cut her off, "Oh... um... I vote for spying. He was kind of mean... sorryforinterruptingIdidn'tmeanto-"
"And I vote for spying too! Mostly because one of the authors, Latte D'noire, said so!" Pinkie commented cheerfully.
Rarity groaned, "FINE! Be that way! Do not blame me when this comes back to bite you in your rear end, DARLING!"
***
Details ironed out, Felix walked up the stairs leading up to the school the next day with a new determination, a cause, and a plan.
Hand once more on the handle of the door to his homeroom, Felix opened the door slowly, preparing his eardrums for what he knew was within. Flinching slightly at the insanely high noise levels, Felix made himself inconspicuous and walked stealthily around the back of the classroom, avoiding notice. He sat himself next to Marinette, whose dark head was bent over what seemed like a sketchbook.
“I didn’t know you drew.”
“I design, actually.” she said, looking up at him.
“May I…
“Of course.” she answered, moving the hefty book onto his side of the desk. “Just be careful.”
The portfolio was full of ideas: good designs, better designs, but most of all an overwhelming mass of thoughts, annotations and drawings; skill before him in its rawest form. Yes, she definitely needed more practice to harness said skill, but as Felix flipped through the book the sheer potential increased with every page. He soon reached the end, and jolted out of his reverie at the pure talent, the undiscovered treasure that lay before him.
He looked up at her and tentatively handed her the book. “Marinette,” he breathed out.
“I-I know they aren’t perfect, i-it's just a hobby-
“They are incredible.You are incredible.”
Her cheeks coloured, and Felix felt his, too as the full extent of his words reached him.
With what Felix reassured himself was innoticible hesitation, he elaborated, cheeks still slightly pink.
“Within this sketchbook lies the work of a true artist, Marinette,” sincerity was clear in his tone.”If you are this skilled now, I’d hedge my bets on you being one of the best designers in Paris within just a few years, if not the whole of France.”
She blushed a delicate pink, and looked up at him through her feathery lashes.
“Thank you, Felix.”
“Never underrate yourself, Marinette.”
As Felix turned to the front of the classroom at the arrival of the teacher, he smiled once at Marinette, the most genuine one he’d given in a long time.
***
Back to the spy-scrying. Scrying.
The six mares huddled around a tall antique mirror that wouldn't be out of place in a 19th century palace. The mood was somber, even Pinkie Pie stood completely still, all eyes trained on the lilac mare. She took a deep breath and then let it out.
“The book please Rarity.” A leather book with binding frayed with use was surrounded by a baby blue haze and began to glide through the air until it was in front of Twilight. Without breaking eye contact with her reflection she accepted the book, bathing it in lilac. Another deep breath. “Ok, let's do this.” and she began to cast-
“Wait, where did you get the book from?” Rainbow pointed out. Twilight paused and stared at the book she was levitating, then turned to Rarity. Rarity shrugged and gestured at Pinkie.
Pinkie smiled innocently.
No more questions were asked.
With that, Twilight cast the scrying spell on the mirror.
***
In the science lesson later on, as a purple haired teacher droned on about things he already knew, Felix watched as Lila whispered to the redheaded girl wearing glasses and a plaid shirt beside her. The girl would, after every few minutes of hearing Lila whisper in her ear, turn around and glare at the two outcasts in the back. Felix merely rolled his eyes, uncaring of whatever new lies the sausage girl could come up with, but he could feel Marinette shrink into herself with every hate filled glance. He turned to her, slightly awkward - social interaction was not his forte- and cleared his throat to garner her attention.
"Why do you stand for it? Why do you listen to them bad mouthing you and do nothing about it?" The bell rang just then and Felix started to pack his books up. He looked at Marinette and saw such a hopeless expression on her face he immediately felt bad about probing such a delicate topic.
"I'm sorry-" he began awkwardly, before realising her expression wasn't directed at him, but at a blond boy Felix recognised as Adrien Agreste as he came up to their desk as the rest of the class filtered out and they were left alone in the classroom.
Felix stiffened. “Adrien.”, he acknowledged, with a curt nod.
“Hello, Felix.” Adrien greeted much more cordially, albeit with a strained smile. “I wasn’t in yesterday because of a photoshoot and it seems that a lot of people have been talking about how you’ve been rude to Lila while I wasn’t in, so I was wondering if I could speak with you privately about that.”
Felix narrowed his eyes. His cousin Adrien going to this school had been a massive factor in Felix's reluctance to attend, and with good reason. No doubt his doe-eyed relative had fallen prey to the liar's lies and had approached Felix now to admonish him for his earlier interaction with the liar and offer forgiveness with his holier-than-thou attitude that Felix had never been able to stand.
“If, Adrien, you honestly expect me to just stand there while you tell me off like I am five for upsetting Mlle Rossi’s ‘feelings’, then you should know better. She is a liar, Adrien. All the far fetched tales she appears to have been spreading among your school are just that: far fetched. She lies, and I had the common sense to see through that and acted accordingly. I would have hoped that you knew better than to blindly trust such an obvious fake.”
Felix picked up his bag and turned to Marinette, who had been standing awkwardly watching the two boys’ interaction.”Let’s go, Marinette. I would like to enlist your help in picking a suitable establishment to eat at for this lunchtime.”
Head down, she walked past Adrien, who watched as the two began to leave with a tightlipped expression.
“I know she’s a liar.”
Marinette sighed as Felix froze. “What?”
“I know she’s a liar.” Adrien repeated. “I’ve known, right since the start, that she’s a fake.”
Felix wordlessly stared at Adrien, which the model took as a sign to continue.
“But don’t you see Felix? There’s no point in upsetting her, it just makes her lie more. We have to let her understand her mistakes by herself, otherwise she’ll never change. We should just leave her alone. Besides, it’s not like she’s hurting anyone. ”
Felix, though he had been frozen in shock, could feel anger bubbling within him and shot an icy stare at Adrien that had the boy flinching.
“Congratulations, Adrien. You’ve reached an all time low, which, considering how stunted your standards were in the first place, is a miracle within itself.” He shot out scathingly. “She isn’t hurting anyone, my foot. She’s been spreading lies and committing defamation against me just because I have enough common sense to stand up against her-”
A new thought occurred to Felix, and he turned to Marinette, shock evident on his face.
“You stood up to her too, didn’t you, Marinette? You saw through her and she turned on you, had the entire class hate you -it’s why you were sitting alone in the back before I got here.”
Utter disgust coursed through Felix as he turned back to face Adrien.
“You were so focused on keeping your misguided ideal of peace you stifled her rightfully voiced protests, just so things would remain simple and easy for you. She hurt Marinette's feelings, Adrien. Even I can see that, and I’ve only been aware of the situation for two days. You’ve been allowing her isolation and mistreatment to go on for what I guess as to be weeks without even trying to do anything about it. Don’t approach me again; I am ashamed to call you family”. Felix walked to the front of the classroom, pointedly ignoring his cousin, and held the door open.
“After you, Marinette.” he said, shooting one last glare at Adrien before following her out of the classroom, and slamming the door shut.
***
Still shaking slightly, Felix muttered angrily under his breath as he and Marinette walked the corridors of the school.
After calming down a bit, Felix cleared his throat and broke the silence that had settled between the two.
“I apologise for putting Adrien in his place without your consent, Marinette. For all I know, you agree with his beliefs, and I intruded upon them.”
“Felix, no!” she replied, bluebell eyes wide. “I was just thinking about what you said before, and.. You were right. I did see through Lila when she first arrived at Francoise Dupont, just a new student with a glamorous life outside of school. I soon realised the things she said couldn’t possibly be true, but when I called her out on them, it was too late. She had already convinced the entire class who was telling the truth.
"Some of my oldest friends abandoned me within the space of a few days; my supposed bff Alya had found a new bff and although Adrien knew the truth too and he always said we were in it together.. We never were. He didn’t call Lila out, so she left him alone and just targeted me. I was alone, and I never did anything about it because if I tried Adrien would lecture me about how the only way to stop Lila was to just take the highway and…
"You’ve helped me see that was wrong. Lila is hurting someone. Me. So I’ve decided, I’m not going to take Adrien’s crud anymore,” She said, resolve hardening in her eyes, a determined set to her mouth. “I’m not going to take Lila’s crud anymore. My feelings and my mental health are just as important as anything else. Thank you, for taking a stand and helping me realise that, Felix.”
She smiled at him, dimples wide, and despite his usually stormy countenance, Felix found himself smiling back at the strong willed girl beside him.
“So. Lunch?” He asked.
“I know a place,” Marinette, replied, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Lead the way,” he said, as they walked out of the school, the spring sun shining.
***
“When you say you knew a place, I have to admit, I did not see the family business move coming,” Felix said, following Marinette up to the apartment section of the Tom et Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. “A rather shrewd business move on your part Mme. Dupain-Cheng.” Felix said with a small smile.
“But of course,” Marinette replied, looking back at him with a smirk.
“I like your parents,” he offered. “They are no doubt decent people, though they seemed a little… Enthused upon my visitation.” he said, referencing the hug he’d been wrapped up in upon his introduction.
It had been slightly unpleasant but that was more felix and his touch dysphoria. The Dupain-chengs as a whole made him feel...safe.
“Don’t mind Maman and Papa,” Marinette said, opening the door to the neat yet cozy apartment. “They’re just happy I've brought a new friend for them to feed.” She rolled her eyes fondly as she sat down on the couch.
“Friends?” Felix asked as he sat carefully on the edge of an armchair, noting her casual use of the word in appliance to him.
“Uh, that is, if you want to be.” she replied, looking at him. “I kinda feel like we’ve moved past the acquaintance stage. So, what do you say? Friends?”
He gave a small smile and extended his hand over the coffee table, preparing himself for the discomfort that would come with touch. “Friends.” he said.
Ignoring his hand, she got up and walked around the coffee table.
“What are you doing?” he asked in surprise, getting up himself. She held her arms out and stepped towards him. “Friends don’t shake hands, dummy, they hug.” She took another step towards him but then stopped inches away. “Unless you don’t want to. I noticed you don’t like it very much when people touch you, and I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” she said, sympathy evident in her eyes.
“It’s fine,” Felix said, warmth filling him at her thoughtfulness. How anyone could have abandoned someone as kind and incredible as Marinette was beyond him. Bracing himself, Felix closed his eyes and hugged Marinette, waiting for the feelings of repulsion to come.
And he waited.
And waited.
And waited.
...They didn't come. Surprised, Felix unstiffened and allowed himself to relax into the hug properly.
“Anyway,” Marinette said after a few seconds, pulling back. “I’ll go get some food. Since, you know, that’s the whole point of us coming here in the first place.”
She smiled at him again before walking into what he assumed into the kitchen.
Felix smiled back.
***
“Oh my gosh that was so. Cute!” Pinkie pie squealed, bouncing around the attic.
“Ugh, it was so sappy.” Rainbow dash said, watching the two humans as they ate, but no one could miss the tiny, amused smile that had formed on her lips.
“Ah have ta agree with Pinkie on this one,” Applejack said nodded with a good-natured grin.
“Truly,” Rarity added. “That, darlings, is the spirit of friendship.” Her expression darkened and she muttered under her breath, “Spying, on the other hoof…”
“I’m happy Felix and Marinette managed to become friends.” Twilight nodded, taking notes on her observations, “It will certainly help combat Marinete’s situation with her other classmates.”
Fluttershy giggled, “Uh huh, friends.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Um, yes. Friends. Are you okay, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy just smiled and glanced at Rarity, who took the hint, “I think I understand, darling.” she smirked.
“What?”
“You’ll see.”