“Lila has been… but how does… no, no, not that! That doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight groaned and crumpled up the page from the notebook and threw it frustratedly at the bin with her magic, and missing spectacularly. She banged her head on the table situated next to the scrying mirror “Ugh.”
Applejack sat a few feet away from her glancing at her and raising an eyebrow, “You okay there, sugarcube? You’ve been at it for quite a while.”
Rainbow gagged as Rarity excitedly braided her rainbow mane, “More like ages!”
Twilight sighed and levitated the crumpled paper from her failed buckball attempt and gently placed it in the bin, “That’s because Felix has been out for ages and we agreed to observe him.”
“Observe me?”
Twilight froze. Fudge biscuits. She slowly turned to face the door of the attic and was met with the unamused face of Felix Graham De Vanily. She very quickly put on a fake smile and silently berated herself for not checking the mirror in case he returned, “Felix! Welcome… home?”
Felix shook his head and entered the room, examining the ponies with scrutiny, who were all similarly frozen to Twilight. He glanced at the mirror suspiciously. “Why is the mirror over there?” He hummed, then added, “And why can I see myself in it without the reflection being reversed, as all mirror images are, despite me not being in the range of the mirror to see myself in the first place?”
Fluttershy and Rarity glanced at each other with uncertainty and stammered.
“Uh, well, you see… darling… uh”
“Um… um… um…”
Rainbow Dash spoke up with an unusually high pitched voice, “Uh… it’s… a dream… You’re dreaming…”
Felix looked unconvinced.
Pinkie backed away in a corner, “It’s a portal to Discord’s realm?”
“Who is this Discord you speak of?” Felix stepped forward, crossing his arms and continued to shake his head like a disappointed teacher. The gesture made Twilight shrink as she was reminded of Celestia’s disappointed face when she had stolen cookies from the Canterlot Castle kitchen when she was younger. Oh, how she hated to see that face.
Twilight facehooved, “Um it’s a spell I’ve been working on that changes the perception of reflective surfaces!” It was a half truth, she supposed. “Right, girls?”
The others nodded quickly and nervously added a bunch of affirmatives.
Yeah yeah, this was going to be fine. Maybe if they stalled enough he’d go away.
Applejack smiled sheepishly, looking everywhere but Felix, “Eeyup!”
Felix only narrowed his eyes, and targeted the orange earthpony, no doubt realising that the mare was a terrible liar.
Twilight wondered why she does these things.
He advanced on Applejack, “For someone so certain, you seem to be donning a stetson of unsurity.”
She winced from the attack at her hat and stepped back cautiously, sweat matting her coat. She glanced at everypony, until her eyes landed on Rarity. She was wearing an incredulous expression which screamed ‘I told you so, darling!’.
Finally, the dam broke.
“TWILIGHT USED A SCRYING SPELL ON THE MIRROR SO WE CAN SPY ON YOU BECAUSE WE HAD NO IDEA WHETHER WE COULD TRUST YOU OR NOT AND THAT YOU WOULDN’T LEAVE OUT DETAILS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED!” She panted, giving an apologetic look to Twilight.
Twilight, meanwhile, was trying her best to not facehoof her head off to land on the moon.
***
Felix sat down next to Twilight, “Fine, I understand why you did this, but when exactly were you going to tell me about this arrangement?”
Pinkie grinned, “We weren’t!”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, undoing the braid that Rarity had made for her, much to the unicorn’s dismay. The seven of them were now seated in a circle in the centre of the attic.
Twilight laughed nervously, “Ehehe… we didn’t think it was that necessary.” She coughed and straightened herself, “However, you can’t tell Marinette that we were spying on you and by default, her.”
Felix glared at her with suspicion, “Why not?”
“We haven’t met her yet, and she doesn’t know about us. It would make it needlessly complicated and uncomfortable for her and us. You can tell her when we’re introduced to each other.”
Felix considered it for a moment, then agreed, albeit reluctantly, “I suppose so.”
Rarity politely cleared her throat, “Now that… that mess is all tidied up, what do you suppose we do next?”
Pinkie bounced up to her, “We can play UNO!” she proudly displayed the stack of cards in her hoof.
“Uh… I meant about the friendship problem, but I don’t mind playing a little. I think we all need a bit of R and R.” She grimaced, “Especially you, Twilight. You look positively dreadful!”
Twilight ignored the comment and glanced at Pinkie, “Please don’t tell me you have a stash of UNO cards all over the multiverse in case of UNO emergencies.”
Pinkie looked at Twilight like she had spontaneously grown a second pair of wings, “Why would I do that? The cards were in the secret compartment in the table over there!”
“Yes.” Felix confirmed. “I’m the one who put the UNO cards in the secret table compartment.”
“...Why?” Rainbow Dash asked, her head tilted in confusion.
Felix’s cheeks reddened slightly. “I- I do card tricks. Or at least, I used to. Nothing much, however.”
Pinkie stared at him with a disbelieving expression and silently opened the grand piano to reveal it was chock full of cards. Then pulled a dust cover off a miscellaneous shape to reveal it was a large cupboard bursting at the seams with card packs. She then opened various secret compartments all around the attic, each containing packs of cards.
“‘Nothing much’ indeed, darling.” Rarity iterated with a hint of amusement.
Applejack gaped at the piano, “That’s why it was so big…” She muttered under her breath.
“Oh my” Fluttershy gasped, “You really like cards.”
The redness on Felix’s cheeks darkened.
“And these are just the cards in the attic. There are more all over the house and grounds. But not just cards,” Pinkie said, suddenly holding open a discoloured photo album, “All magic tricks in general.” She flipped through the pages of the album, which was filled with pictures of a small blonde boy wearing an oversized top hat and cape doing magic tricks everywhere, progressively getting older and older until the pictures stopped when Felix appeared to be somewhere around 10 years old.
“Awwwwwwwwwwwww” All the ponies cooed, with the exception of Rainbow dash, who just snickered quietly.
“That’s private,” Felix snapped, snatching the album out of Pinkie's grasp.
“Why did you stop doing magic tricks?” Fluttershy asked confusedly, “It obviously made you happy.”
“I stopped doing magic tricks when my mother and I moved to England.” Felix answered curtly, putting the album back in its place.
“Well why did you move to this ‘England’ place?” Rainbow Dash questioned. “You seem a lot more snappy now than before you did.”
Real anger flashed in Felix’s eyes. “That’s none of your business.” He responded in a cold voice.
“Okay, okay.” Rainbow Dash replied, holding her hooves up. “Sheesh. You don’t have to be so-
“MAYBE WE CAN PLAY UNO NOW!” Pinkie cut in loudly. She aggressively handed out cards to everyone with an expression that nobody dared to argue against.
“Rainbow Dash, you will apologise to Felix for being so pushy when he doesn’t want to talk about it, and Felix you will apologise for being rude to Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy ascertained.
“Sorry.”
“Sorry.”
They said together.
“And now we will play Uno,” Pinkie said, laying down a card.
***
Though it had been relatively warm the past few days, the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and Felix stood in the courtyard of the school, stamping his feet occasionally to keep the circulation running in his legs and trying not to dwell too much on his earlier interaction with the brightly coloured ponies. The truth was, he had been much happier before he and his mother had moved to England. But he had also arrived at school early and was just waiting for Marinette to come so they could go and sit in the warmth of the classroom together, and tried to focus on that. Just then, he spotted her small form making its way through the crowd toward him.
“Marinette.” He greeted, nodding at her.
She waved back at him, smiling, a few feet away. But, hurrying towards him, she failed to notice the suddenly outstretched ankle right in her path.
“Hey, Feli- woah!"
Panic flared in his mind and Felix rushed forwards just in time to catch her in an aggressive forward movement. Gripping her arms, Felix stared down in panic at Marinette “Are you all right?” He asked.
“I’m fine, Felix,” she said quietly.
Despite the obvious social cue indicating that he should let go of her, Felix held her for a few extra seconds anyway, scanning her face for the slightest sign that she was in any pain. After checking her over to see if she was indeed fine, he somewhat reluctantly released his grip on her.
Marinette smiled reassuringly at his still concerned expression and brushed herself off before speaking in a soothing voice. “I’m fine, Felix. I’m a major klutz and I’m honestly surprised more accidents haven’t happened already. Thank you for catching me, though. That means a lot.”
“Klutz you may be, Marinette, but that certainly was not an accident. I saw someone trip you up intentionally.” Felix’s gaze looked around the courtyard and soon landed on Lila’s smug eyes staring back at him from a few feet away. Eyes narrowing, Felix spotted their homeroom teacher and called her over. “Mlle. Bustier, Mlle. Rossi just intentionally tried to trip Marinette up. I believe repercussions are in order”
Mlle. Bustier stopped in her tracks and stared oddly at him. “I’m sorry Felix, did you just say Lila Rossi tried to trip someone up? Are you sure, Felix? Lila is one of the sweetest students I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. I’m sure there must be some kind of misunderstanding.”
“Yeah, Mlle. Bustier, there is,” Alya cut in with narrowed eyes. “Lila didn’t try to do anything. I’ve been talking to her about my blog the whole time.”
“There, see Felix, I’m sure it was a simple misunderstanding. Lila was probably standing nearby, and Marinette tripped at the same time.”
“But Mlle. Bustier-"
“You all need to hurry along anyway if you don’t want to be late to class.”
“Yes, Mlle. Bustier” Lila called sweetly. Alya locked elbows with Lila as the two left.
Felix opened his mouth to make a scathing remark on the unfairness of it all, when he felt Marinette’s hand on his shoulder, restraining him.“Just leave it, Felix. The teachers are useless; Lila’s got them all wrapped around her finger. Hopefully, this was just a one-off as retaliation for standing up to her yesterday.”
Felix sighed. “I certainly hope so.”
***
Lila smirked to herself; her plan was working well. The entire class was poisoned against Marinette, and when the new kid saw how unpopular she was, he would join Lilas side and love her just as much as the other idiots, and Marinette would be alone. It was almost too easy. Lila thought smug thoughts as Alya congratulated her for standing up to 'that bully', not really paying attention but soaking up all the praise. If everything went to plan, she would be able to get away with some other... things.
***
Adrien hurried out of his car, hoping to catch Marinette before class started. He spotted her in the courtyard and was about to approach her when she went flying. He soon nailed Lila as the one who tripped the girl up and sent her a disapproving look her way.
Shaking his head, he turned back to Marinette who surprisingly, hadn't fallen over, but rather been caught by… Felix? More than slightly shocked at his rather stoic cousin's unusual interference, Adrien barely noticed the look of extreme displeasure Lila shot at her scheme's failure. He remained unnoticed at the edge of the event as Felix, as astute as usual, correctly assessed that Marinette had not just tripped, but rather, been tripped. Adrien watched as his cousin's attempt to seek justice failed, looking for an opportunity to cut in so that he could talk to Marinette. His impatience began to swell as Mlle. Bustier ushered everyone towards their classroom. Adrien sighed. This was turning out to be harder than he would have thought.
***
Adrien sat uncomfortably at the front of the classroom waiting for class to begin as Lila hung off his arm. He simply had to talk some sense into Marinette, and soon. If he didn't convince her to take the high road again and abandon her extremely unexpected alliance with Felix, who knew what kind of things Lila would do in retaliation. Taking his chance as Lila started chatting to Alya about her third cousin twice removed who was a famous reporter in Germany, Adrien snuck up to the desk at the back where the two outcasts were...sharing cookies? Not believing his eyes, Adrien just gawked as his usually aloof cousin Felix actually smiled then took a cookie from a box that sat between the two of them. Shaking off his shock, Adrien cleared his throat to garner the two’s attention as he stood in front of their desk.
“Marinette, I need to talk to you about Lila-"
Adrien felt the words evaporating from his tongue as Marinette glared at him with an intensity that he had never seen.
“No.” she said tersely, cutting him off.
“No? What do you mean, ‘no’?” Adrien spluttered out.
Marinette stood up, slammed her hands on the desk and leaned forward menacingly. “What I mean, Adrien, is no. No, I will not listen to you preach to me about how wrong I am. No, I will not stay quiet anymore. Lila is hurting me, and you’re too blind to see it. You are all too blind to see it!” She directed the last part to the entire class who had all stopped to watch her outburst. “Lila is a liar. She’s been lying to you all since day one. All that ‘too good to be true’ stuff is too good to be true. So I’m not going to be tolerating you all acting as if I’m the liar anymore. So, Adrien, you can go right back to your seat, because I don’t want to hear it.” A stunned silence around the classroom as Adrien shuffled stiffly down the aisle to the front and sat down.
***
Rainbow tried her very best to keep her cool.
That blonde-haired pretty-boy- who looked almost identical to Felix, by the way. How does that work?- literally tried to get Marinette to not stand up for herself. LITERALLY!
This- it was too painful to watch.
She looked away from the scrying mirror and glanced around the room. Twilight was still taking notes. Apparently she could sense something off about that Lila girl. More like Lie-la, Rainbow snorted at the thought. Twilight said that the abomination of a girl seemed like she had “a faint magic emanating from her”. Whatever that meant. The prismatic pegasus didn’t really dabble in the subject of magic, so she couldn’t really say anything about it.
Applejack was looking at the piano in the corner of the attic, probably thinking about the practicality of keeping all those cards there. Rarity was critiquing the aesthetics of the attic, with Pinkie listening intently beside her.
It was… a big attic. Though not enough for her to fly around and actually do something, unless she broke a lot of stuff, but she didn’t know how Felix would feel about that. She felt kinda bored. And a little claustrophobic if she were being honest.
She turned to glance at Fluttershy, only to see looking straight back at her with sad eyes. No, she wasn’t sad. She was sympathetic.
Oh frick, she knew.
***
After an awkward registration where Mlle. Bustier had grimaced repeatedly at the atmosphere in the class; it was obvious something that had happened before her arrival. Lila sat in her first-period classroom, soaking up the sympathetic looks her class was shooting at her. She couldn’t believe her luck at how well-timed Marinette’s sudden sense of self-respect had come. The girl standing up for herself now would only add fuel to the fire and make her seem in the eyes of the class as even more of a bully and absolutely no-one would be reluctant to act now. Pretending to be working, Alya scribbled down on a swatch of paper and surreptitiously slid it along to Lila.
Don’t you worry about what Marinette said, Lila, the rest of the class and I will make sure she gets what she deserves.
Lila smirked.
***
Rose watched from the side as Marinette showed Felix the brushstroke patterns they had learnt in art before his arrival; the two appeared to be having fun. Rose’s sense of justice seethed at the scene. How could Marinette possibly say the untruths and hurtful things she had this morning and then act as if it wasn’t even a big deal!
Rose had been slightly unwilling to act against her in the beginning - the Marinette she now saw was a complete turnaround of the sweet, kind girl Rose had known- but no more. The pixie-like girl took her chance as the two made their way over to the sink to clean their paint brushes. Rose made eye contact with Juleka and Nathaniel, who accurately guessed her intent, and nodded once. Alix, Kim and Max looked over as well, nodding their approval. At this, Rose casually strolled past Marinette and Felix's desk, quietly tipping their cup of paint water over Marinette's art book, watching the water swirl over the surface and sink through the pages.
***
Marinette was exhausted. Nothing had been going her way today, and she suspected it wasn’t just her astronomically bad luck in play. First, her artbook had been soaked through this morning after a spillage, which meant she would have to spend hours re-doing all the work that had been ruined. Her classmates had taken so long helping Lila get her food at lunch because she ‘couldn’t get it herself because of her crippling arthritis’ as Felix had explained to her, his rolling his eyes, that Marinette had had to stand in the queue for virtually the whole hour, barely getting anything down before lunch was over and it was time for gym.
Not to mention all the other innumerable, unexplainable things that had plagued her the entire day. But as Marinette adjusted her pigtails in the gym changing room, she smiled for herself, just glad the day was almost over and done with.
***
The day was far from over. Marinette stood in the gymnasium as she stared at the substitute loudly explaining the rules of dodgeball and groaned.
Though Marinette was relatively lithe and decently quick, she, very simply put, sucked at dodgeball.
But Monsieur D’Argentcourt and the other physical education teacher weren’t in so both classes would be lumped together in a massive game until the next lesson when normality would resume. Marinette groaned again and did some preliminary stretches, preparing herself for the coming onslaught. She just needed to get through this hour and then she would be home free.
***
Playing the arthritis card again, Lila managed to get out of P.E., giving her another excellent opportunity to further her propaganda. Clutching at her supposedly aching leg, Lila looked up at Alya from her seat at the edge of the gym and said quietly “It’s a good thing I couldn’t play today anyway, otherwise what with all the hustle and noise, and only a supply teacher for supervision... who knows what Marinette could have gotten away with again.” Lila watched as her words began to take root in Alya’s mind, growing and growing until they finally blossomed into a poisonous flower. Eyes set, Alya responded.
“Don’t worry about that, Lila. I have an idea.”
***
Felix had never played dodgeball before and listened to the teacher explain what sounded like the most violent game he had ever heard off with growing apprehension.
“Uh, Mlle., I’ve never played dodgeball before, so I believe an observation period would be prudent.”
“Of course! Just join when you’re ready!” the teacher responded brightly.
“That seems unlikely,” Felix muttered under his breath as he sat down on a bench, watching a large boy Marinette had earlier identified as Kim get hit in the stomach particularly viciously by a shorter girl that he had yet to be introduced to. The shorter girl let out a loud cheer of triumph, completely unaffected or concerned about the severe injury she had just inflicted. At this seemingly standard display of brutality, Felix worriedly made eye contact with Marinette, who merely shrugged from her place towards the back of the gym. Seeing the supply teacher wasn’t paying any attention to them, she came a few feet closer to him.
“That’s just Alix and Kim who are like that. They have this huge rivalry thing and do pretty much anything for it. The other class is much more subdued, so you might even have fun playing with them. A huge plus is they haven’t met Lila yet, so we could even try to gather allies from there...”
“An excellent idea,” Felix replied, nodding in approval before a smirk crossed his features. “But if dodgeball is so fun, why aren’t you even attempting to pla-”
Felix was cut off by the loud whoosh of air that left Marinette's mouth, a shocked expression crossing her face as a dodgeball hit her.
***
Marinette's breath left her as a dodgeball collided with her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs. Wheezing, she doubled over, just as another ball landed a hit on her side. A few seconds later with her breathe mostly recovered, she frowned and straightened up, looking through the clamour of the surrounding kids who were also playing so that she could give whoever had hit her a piece of her mind, when yet another dodgeball struck her across the arm, the area smarting painfully. She soon located the ones throwing the dodgeballs: Alya and Alix. Marinette scowled and called for the substitute, but to no avail, she was busy talking to Lila at the very end of the hall, much too far away to have seen anything or to have heard her calls.
Marinette scowled again; she wasn't going to let the two girls get away with this. “You're only supposed to aim below the waist. That was completely uncalled for- “
Another ball hit her from behind, landing right in between her shoulder blades, and she stumbled forward a few steps.
“Uncalled for my foot! What's uncalled for is how you specifically aimed for Lila last time we played dodgeball, not to mention how barbarous you are to her in general! Yeah that’s right,” Kim’s voice came from behind her. “She told us all about the stuff you do when no one is looking, and now we’re going to give you a taste of your own medicine!”
Marinette swivelled round to face him in annoyance. “You aren't even in the game anymore! So just stop hitting me where you shouldn’t be and-"
Dodgeballs rained down on her, and Marinette panicked, crouching down in a squat to minimise surface area.
“This is physical abuse.” Felix's voice called out in an ice-cold tone from a few yards away. “Stop immediately.”
“Or what?” Kim jeered. “I could take you on. And what’s more...”
Kim’s distraction lent Marinette a momentary reprieve; the girl making a beeline for the exit. Alix and Alya’s blows glanced off her, unable to get a solid hit on her while she was a moving target. Hoping her luck would hold until she could get out, Marinette stopped to open the doors and made the mistake of pausing to look at Alix when the fiery girl let out a war cry and flung the dodgeball in her hand with all of her strength at Marinette.
***
Marinette sat on the ground unsure as to how she got there. Everything was too loud and bright, and her head was killing her.
“...Marinette? Marinette? Are you okay? Please talk to me.” A male voice said to her as the noise and brightness levels came back to somewhat normal.
“Felix?” she asked, slightly dazed, looking at his face as it swam in and out of her vision before it became clear. She focused on his eyes. He had nice eyes. A similar shade to Adrien’s leaf green ones, but darker. More teal green, with silver flecks.
“M’kay.” She said, stumbling to her feet, accepting the arm he offered her.
“Are you sure, sweetie?” The substitute asked her with a concerned look. “You took quite a nasty hit to the face, or so I’ve been told. I didn’t see it myself, but Lila here assures me that Alix must have just misjudged her throw and it was all a big accident. Go to the nurse’s office and get checked out, okay? I’m sure she’ll apologise to you afterwards.”
“Can I go get some water first?” Marinette asked in a quiet voice, grimacing from both the pain of being hit in the face with a dodgeball and that the throwers of said dodgeball would be getting away with it.
“Of course you can, sweetie. You there, Felix, was it? Take her to the water fountain outside the changing rooms on the way to the nurse’s office.”
“Of course, Mlle.”
Leaning heavily on Felix’s side, Marinette walked out of the gym, head spinning.
***
Felix handed Marinette a ridiculously brightly coloured plastic cup of water.
“Thank you,” she said, sipping slowly as she shifted on her seat. Silence hung heavily between the two before Marinette set down the cup with a clack.
“So how bad is it?”
“How bad is what?” Felix asked, slightly confused.
“My face, duh. Will I be getting any cool scars?” Marinette asked with a cynical smile.
“No, certainly not!” Felix rushed out. “There are preliminary signs of eminent bruising, but that is all. You..may have a black eye, at most.”
“Cool.”
Felix cleared his throat and brought himself down to eyes level with Marinette, kneeling in front of her.
“I am truly sorry I could not have prevented this, Marinette. I should have known this would be the perfect opportunity for Rossi to quash any resistance.”
“It’s fine, Felix. I knew what I was getting into when I decided I wasn’t going to take anymore crud. There’s nothing you could have done.”
“I feel awful, though.”
“So do I,” Marinette said. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “But we’ll both feel better after a while.” She smiled softly at him, and Felix looked into her azure blue eyes, as they sparkled with vibrancy and understanding, and Felix couldn’t help but move closer-
The door to the waiting area outside the changing rooms opened and Felix jerked back from Marinette and stood up in one motion, eyes narrowing.
“Adrien.”
***
When the lesson ended not long after the whole dodgeball incident, Adrien took his chance while Lila was distracted by her latest victory to escape and hurriedly make his way to the changing rooms. Hopefully, Marinette and Felix would still be there. He absolutely had to talk to them. Bursting through the doors Adrien swore he saw Felix about to….but he couldn’t be sure as his cousin was standing up and glaring at him within the next second. “Adrien,” he said in acknowledgement, almost spitting out his name.
“What do you want, Adrien?” Marinette asked, getting up from her seat and standing next to Felix, a tired but stubborn look on her face.
“I have to talk to you-"
“Like heck you do. She has to go to the nurse's office and recuperate, not listen to your blither-
“Just listen to me!” Adrien yelled, cutting off Felix. “When you were so busy defending yourself, Marinette, you made Lila feel attacked and she retaliated by convincing the entire class to do all the stuff to you that she's been telling them you were doing to her! ‘Standing up for yourself’ has officially backfired! Lila isn’t going to leave you in peace anymore; what happened today is just one example of the lengths she’ll go to keep you quiet. She’s already convinced everyone to make your life miserable, and with so many people on her side, she’ll feel comfortable doing even bigger stuff than did today! Saying she’s a liar like you did today won't do anything to convince the class and now have no one on your side.”
“So what do you suggest, Adrien? I go back to quietly suffering through the lies Lila was already spreading? Go through what you said we were in together, alone?”
Adrien's jaw tightened. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Don’t misguidedly ‘stand up for yourself’ it just disrupts the peace and doesn’t do anything. Take the high road, Marinette. Do the right thing. And we are in this together.”
“Is that all, Adrien? Is that all I need to do?”
“Yes. That's all I’m asking. But the class isn't just going to let this go, so first you to apologise to Lila-”
Adrien didn't see the slap coming, but he felt it. A searing pain cut across his face and his cheek burned.
Marinette stood panting in front of him, eyes alight.
“Now you listen to me, Adrien. You want me to apologise to that witch, just so we can all go back to your mistaken idea of peace? You want me to take the high road and just ignore all those whispered words, shared looks and disgusted faces like it doesn’t hurt to see people I once considered my friends abandon me-” She sobbed once, anger turning to anguish, tears filling her eyes. “It does hurt, Adrien. It does. So much. I can’t do that anymore. I can’t go along with your deluded idea of peace, and I certainly won’t apologise to Lila. When I first agreed to just ignore her, you said that we were in this fight against her together, but whatever friendship we once had, that ended when you chose her over me.”
“You’ve only changed your mind because Felix-"
Her eyes seared through him with a ferocious intensity. “Don’t you dare! Felix has done nothing except show me kindness and be my friend when you were too busy keeping the status quo! Yes, it took his interference for me to realise what was happening was wrong and to take action, but I would have figured out bottling up emotions is far from normal or healthy. All I have left to say, Adrien, is that I hope one day you realise just how oblivious you are.” And with that, Marinette rushed out of the room, tears spilling down her cheeks and Felix following after her, leaving Adrien alone in the room as the door slammed shut.
***
Marinette stormed down the corridors and knocked on the nurse's office, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the nurse. She felt Felix silently come up behind her and turned to accept the handkerchief he tentatively offered her, angrily swiping at her face with the silky fabric.
“I just- cannot believe the nerve-” she said furiously as the nurse opened the door and ushered the two inside.
“I’ll just get an ice pack for that,” the nurse said, motioning to Marinette's quickly bruising face and directing them to seats. He left them alone in the office and Marinette flumped down on a seat and let out a noise of frustration.
“I know,” Felix said in a soothing voice. “I too cannot believe the sheer nerve and idiocy Adrien would require to have said all that he did.”
Marinette stared straight at him. “We have got to do something about the situation or I will explode.”
“I sincerely do not wish for that, and so… I think there is something concerning the said situation that you should know.”
“What is it?”
Felix winced. “I cannot exactly tell you here. Can you come to my house? I would be better able to show you there.”#
Marinette tilted her head at him. “...Sure. When?”
“Today?”
“Is 5:00 fine? I need to go home and drop off my books and get changed and stuff first.”
“Certainly. I will text you the location. Here is my number.”
He pulled out a business card with his number on it and handed it to her.
“...Marinette?” He asked when she just blinked at him.
Her face cracked into a smile and she chuckled.
“Where did you get that from?” She asked as she looked him up and down, some of her normal cheer returning to her eyes.
“You just pulled that out of no-where!”
“The same place I stored the handkerchief.” He replied, not understanding her reaction.
“The handkerchief?” Her eyes widened as she stared at the handkerchief he had given her in her fist. “Where did you get that from? You don’t even have pockets!”
The nurse returned and handed Marinette an ice pack.
“You’re free to leave dear. Just take it easy now, okay?”
“Yes, Monsieur. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
He smiled at them and Marinette smiled back as she and Felix left the office to go home.
“A magician never reveals his tricks,” Felix responded.
“Oh come on! You can’t be seriou- Wait, magician?”
“I know a few tricks.”
“Show me,” Marinette demanded with a solemn expression. “This I’ve got to see.”
“I don’t have any cards or such apart from business cards with me now, but I would love to show you when you come by later.”
“It’s a date.”