Chapter Text
Officially, the movie premiere had been canceled due to the party’s sabotage—as the only found uninvited guest on the premises, Eleanor Mochegatto had been accosted as the main suspect. Not entirely false, as the ruckus did cause enough destruction to set back the event, but it wasn’t the reason for its complete cancellation. That merit would go to Gabriel Agreste’s disappearance; a fact that reserved few were privy to and even less knew the details of.
That was as much as Félix allowed himself to gather and recount to his friends. Hawkmoth was defeated. Nooroo was back with the other kwamis—or faeries. As far as he was concerned, his duties were done for the time being. The fallout of the Agreste company was his parents’ problem, and the police, media, and whoever else could run in circles all they wanted theorizing what had become of the akumas, Hawkmoth, and the superhero trio.
He was fucking tired, it was the fucking Holidays, and he needed a fucking break.
On the first two days following his defeat, the only sign of anything abnormal with the trio was the faeries following them around—not that an outsider would notice them. No one mentioned him, or the powers contained in their jewels, or even their alter ego’s names.
They talked of books, video games, series, and whatever else, but never of superheroes or celebrities and feigned ignorance when passing by civilians discussing them. With the kwamis, they observed their interactions and played games together, but still no mention of hero duties. That was, until the first sleepover at Marinette’s house:
“I hope Duusu is OK,” Nooroo murmured as he looked out the skylight window.
“Duusu is…?” Adrien asked, eyes squinting.
“Peacock, I think.” Marinette glanced at Tikki, who nodded.
“Why can’t I recall who took him?” Nooroo said, gaze fixed on his own reflection.
“He hasn’t been activated in seventy years,” Wayzz said. “I wonder if he’s been taken here as well.”
“I don’t know.” Nooroo buried his face in the folded jacket he was perched on. “I can’t remember.”
While the others comforted Nooroo, on top of his head, a little fox growled softly. Félix reached up to pet Trixx’s bristled fur.
“What is it?” he whispered.
They huffed, ear twitching. “I hate fog.”
Before Félix could voice his confusion, he heard Marinette saying, “I– don’t know how I can even start looking for him, Nooroo.”
He turned to gaze at her form, sat next to Nooroo.
“But I promise to take care of all of you and make sure this doesn’t happen again.” She rubbed a finger on his head. “That I can try.”
“Same here, buddy.” Adrien smiled a bit before his face sombered. “I’m so sorry I never noticed you.”
“I don’t blame you.” Nooroo shrugged. “It was hard to make myself noticeable.”
~•~
For a good part of the rest of the school break, the three of them were inseparable. Walking around Paris and getting to know all the bricks of every public library they came across—apparently, Adrien never went to a library, and Félix refused to let him keep on going that way—and jogging around the parks and following the river streams.
One afternoon, Marinette had declared it was time for a wardrobe change for Adrien, since he had been stealing Félix’s clothes ever since he moved to his house to avoid wearing anything with his father’s brand. So she dragged them to a boutique, where Adrien was more than glad to browse the clothes racks unsupervised and try out and buy varied kinds of outfits to ‘test their vibes’—Félix tried his best to convince him that goth metal just was not for him, but he wouldn’t hear it, and the cackling Marinette sure as hell didn’t help.
Sometime later, Kanté got into contact with Adrien and he started hanging out with him and his two other friends more, leaving Félix and Marinette to themselves for the most part. None of them minded, not with how excited Adrien was to find out that Kanté still wanted to be his friend even though he knew who Hawkmoth was, and definitely not for the opportunity to have time just for the two of them—something that made Félix’s mind kick into overdrive once it actually dawned what it meant.
“So… are you going to ask me out or what?” Although Marinette had a cheeky grin on her face, her skin was as red as a tomato.
“Well…” To be fair, he wasn’t doing much better. “…where would you like to go?”
And that was when he first used the Fox Miraculous again.
She shouldered through the stammers and nervous ticks to explain to him exactly how she envisioned their first date, pausing several times to glance at him and then punch his shoulder for the grin he couldn’t wash off his face.
It wasn’t complicated, they spent the day putting together a picnic basket with things from Marinette’s own home, then it was just left to him to create a star dome to rest under.
While on it, though, Félix noticed some things. With Marinette’s parents, specifically; they wandered around the two teens, going about their day, and bumping into them or each other. And through it, small details stuck out to him: eye twitches, weird intonations, stiff conversations…
It wasn’t the same—M. Dupain’s rambunctious smile was way more genuine than any of his parents ever could replicate. And similarly, Mme. Cheng’s distaste at his loud cheers for “Nothing in particular! No worries, nothing to worry about,” was way more apparent than his parents concealed irritation.
Marinette didn’t seem bothered—did she even notice it?—and to keep his hand from shaking too much and ruining their date, he decided to ignore it for now.
At night, Marinette locked the attic’s door before joining him on her balcony, where he was perched on the rail, a silver foxtail pendant hanging from his neck.
He petted Trixx’s head before calling, “Let’s pounce.”
There was something exhilarating about having the fox-themed suit draped over him yet again; and this time, without the objective of creating a rift between his parents or going against Hawkmoth. To use it simply because he could. Simply because Marinette wanted a date under a projected starlight and he wanted to give it to her.
Would this be considered abuse?
He glanced to the potted plants by his side, where Nooroo and Pollen tended to the Mayflowers sprouting in them; a tiny smile on the Butterfly’s usually demurred face.
The faeries seemed happier with them. He decided that was enough.
“OK then,” Marinette murmured.
Trickster turned to her, tilting his head curiously at how she seemed to be talking herself up, Tikki smiling encouragingly by her side.
She released a breath, then climbed to perch on the rail much like him. “Spots on.”
The usual pink light took over her form, but as it subsided to her body, a blue shade took over it, then faded to reveal a different suit. A white cape fluttered behind her back—parted like wings—as a deep blue dress blossomed around her; her mask had a blue flower over one of her now mismatched eyes—one completely shaded in a dark blue, while the other was still the familiar brighter shade.
She tucked a strand behind her ear—her hair had also changed to twin buns, pinches sprouting out from them like a beetle’s fangs, but it also seemed to act like antennae would?—and glanced at him, smiling sheepishly. “Also decided on a wardrobe change. What do you think?”
With the smile she gave him? Nothing at all.
He cleared his throat, eyes flickering away. “You look amazing,” he managed to get out.
He reached for the wing-like cape. It twitched on its own at his touch.
“Does it work?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged, fiddling with the cape’s clasp over her chest. “We can leave tests for another time though,” she said, standing up on the railing.
Trickster followed suit. “I wasn’t going to–”
She crossed her arms, raising a brow.
Trickster turned his back to her and jumped onto the streets.
He’d freely admit he missed this feeling. Of the weightless feeling of jumping over the roofs while Marinette’s laughter chased after him—that got louder and more ecstatic when she found she could use her new cape to glide.
“I thought we’d leave tests for later!” Trickster shouted out.
She raised two middle fingers.
He turned to restart the chase, basking in the glee of it all. Of just running over the city in magical suits for no other reason other than reaching the abandoned mall, and hanging stars just for him and Marinette.
She stepped foot on the rooftop just as the orange light covered the place, shining specks starting to float up around them together with piano notes.
“Is that For River?” she asked, settling down with the basket.
“Hmhm.” Trickster sat down on the draped blanket, face averted and tailcoat snapping behind him. “I can just loop any sound I can think of, so why not take advantage of that to–”
“You’re adorable.”
And so so doomed.
He hadn’t put much thought into his relationship with Marinette. He tried not to; thinking usually led to overthinking, which led to paranoia, which led him to attempt to overcompensate for every single problem he spotted—which led to plans after plans to avoid the inevitable; he couldn’t stop the rift nor accelerate it, but because of him, it was way more crushing than it had any right to–
The flash of his detransformation pulled him back onto reality, and he released a breath, blinking rapidly as Trixx narrowed their eyes at him.
He silently waved them off, pulling his knees to his chest and resting his head on it. Marinette had been busy with the basket so she didn’t notice him zoning out.
She had also detransformed already, allowing him full vision of each wrinkle and pull on her face, his eyes lingering on the slight pull on her lips, forever set in a contented expression. If he wasn’t too worried about disturbing this beautiful scene, he might’ve kissed her.
Félix blinked, chest tightening.
Didn’t he want to avoid letting his thoughts get in the way when it came to her, though?
He sucked in a breath, heart pumping as she scooched closer to him with a proud grin, resting her head on the ledge behind their back, sighing. She seemed content to just let the two twirling notes of For River be the only silence-breakers for now.
Félix tried to banish the running thoughts as he rested back and promptly interweaved their fingers when she grabbed his hand, but he found he just couldn’t. So he went for the second best thing and ignored their existence as he turned his head to face her.
She hummed questioningly at his fingers under her chin, turning her face to his, and he saw the realization glimmer in her eyes and felt how it kicked up her heartbeats. Then their lips connected and the screeching thoughts were muffled.
It burned. So much. The overdrive in his head heaved it over his shoulders while the one in his chest burned so freaking much. But the hand gripping his and the one on his shoulder were steady and seemed to want to keep him there.
He was the one to pull away, letting out a small gasp. The kiss couldn’t have lasted more than half a minute, but Félix found it hard to keep lingering on it, especially since he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, and he needed to gauge her reaction to make sure he didn’t screw up.
The grip on the shoulder of his vest didn’t let him retreat much, making their foreheads touch. He held in his breath as hers caressed his scorched lips.
She gazed up at him, eyes blown wide and agape mouth slowly splitting into a grin.
Then she let out the sweetest giggle to ever grace his ears, cupping his face and rubbing her nose against his, and he couldn’t keep in a smile of his own, also falling into fits of giggles with her.
The rest of that night passed by in a gleeful blur, but that first hour already set it up as one of the best of his life.
~•~
Marinette was in heaven. That was the best description she could use. At least, for the most part. The Miracle box was still incomplete and things between her and her parents were still a bit stiff, but for the first time in forever, her worries didn’t feel like they’d lunge out of the sea and swallow her whole if she didn’t swim to safety now.
Well, except for the tons of homework the start of school’s last term provided. But she’d drown in them out of boredom, not worry.
“There should be some kinda hero-extended-vacation,” she said, voice muffled by the book over her face. “Isn’t there an extended break for people going through a stressful period, or something? We should have that.”
“Secret identities,” Félix stated.
Marinette groaned.
Aside for a hiccup in the first day back to school—Kim ambushed Félix to act out the Terminator’s movie script, and his reaction caused Kim to resume avoiding him at all costs; Alix was delighted that he finally went through with their challenge, though—things were more peaceful than Marinette could’ve expected.
With the lack of action these last weeks, no one had much to gossip about regarding superheroes besides the occasional ‘Wonder what happened’ comments. There were still lots of people theorizing about Hawkmoth, the superheroes, and how it connected to the thief sabotaging a movie party—especially from one Alya Césaire—but Marinette found it very easy to ignore them.
Maybe it was because there was no way she could accidentally feed into anything, so it was easy to just go on with her day.
In fact, she got so used to just keeping going forwards that she stopped worrying about being seen, so one day, Alya called for her to stop in the school hallway.
Even after all these months, she still flinched, but turned to glance back nonetheless. Alya had changed too, at least in appearance. Her hair had gotten longer, pulled back by a hair band, and her clothes seemed– newer? They were still loose on her figure and simple in composition, but there was a kind of pristine quality to the material.
“I’m sorry. I–” She shut her eyes, head hanging. “I’m so sorry. For everything.”
“OK.” Marinette nodded, eyes flickering everywhere—was Chloé always there?—as her hand reached for Félix. She found his forearm and grabbed it. “Thanks.”
She turned to keep on moving forwards.
Once she was a good distance away from Alya, she sighed the stiffness out of her shoulders. “Hope this is done for good now.”
“There’s a good chance it is.” Félix patted the hand on his arm. “Come on. Adrien wouldn’t shut up about needing to see something. I just hope letting him sleeping in with Kubdel wasn’t–” He halted in his tracks, causing Marinette to almost stumble down.
“Hey!”
She glared at him then turned to follow his dumbfounded gaze and see–
She slammed her palms on her mouth. “Oh my God.”
“Hey, guys!” Adrien waved cheerfully from their homeroom door, exaggeratedly passing a hand over his magenta hair. “Noticed something different?”
~•~
As spring went on and summer break came into the horizon, so did a looming worry: Félix would be going back to London.
It wasn’t too bad, it’d just be for two months, but it still sucked. Especially since the days leading up to it were all school days. Also, his parents. Who both were very eager to get out of Paris.
“They fought about it again,” he had told her one night. He had taken to running away to her house with Trixx’s help quite frequently. “They were being quieter these days, with Adrien there and all, but it got louder today. I got dragged into this one.”
Marinette hugged him tighter, her fingers running through his hair. They were on the pillow fort under her loft, his head comfortably tucked under her chin.
“They asked me again if I really wanted to stay by myself in a place like this. I think it got on their nerves today, because Father groaned and Mother started pacing and complaining. She shouted, then Father shouted back, and I–” He sucked in a breath. “I screamed that if they didn’t let me come back here I– I’d run away.”
She reached for the shaking hand, rubbing circles over his knuckles.
“It got them to shut up.”
Aside from his parents becoming more aggravating because of it, they also started making plans for their time apart. One of them was making Félix acquainted with all multiplayer games in existence.
“Why,” he asked again, clenching the controller as his character pogoed to lava again. “We could be literally doing anything else, why don’t save this for when we’re in London.”
“So that we can help you get good at it personally,” Marinette said, falling back onto the pit Félix respawned in to flip over him before boinging to the next area. Just because she could.
“And laugh at you personally too,” Adrien added.
“You’re also coming to London!”
“Yeah! Double the teasing!”
Marinette glanced back at the sound of footsteps and shuffling paper, throwing a good morning to her papa while Félix begged to go back to the restaurant game. (“You get mean playing Overcooked.” “At least I can play!”)
“Hey there, sweetie!” He grinned brightly. “What you’re doing?”
She reminded him of Félix’s and Adrien’s approaching departure so they were practicing multiplayer games to play while separated.
“Oh, right, right. Uhm–” Her papa flicked his eyes to Félix then back, scratching his chin thoughtfully. “What do you think of London?”
“Huh?” Marinette’s eyes were focused on the screen but she felt Félix stilling by her side, causing his character to be struck by a laser beam. “What do you mean?”
“I know all you three want to be together, but have you thought of–”
“Tom,” Maman’s voice cut in.
Marinette fully turned around to see her glaring daggers like she never saw to Papa.
“Just a thought.” Papa straightened up, throwing a piece of paper away as he turned to head to bakery.
“We already talked about that thought,” Maman gritted as he passed by her, then turned to follow after him, fists were shaking by her side.
The pin-drop to break the silence was the shuffle of paper being unfolded. Papa had missed the bin.
“Uuuuuhhh–” Adrien’s eyes widened as they turned from the paper to Marinette. “Marinette…?”
She snatched it out of his hand and skimmed it over, her blood reaching higher tension the more she read.
“I–” She scrambled to get up. “I gonna– have to go!”
She spent the rest of the day pacing in her room, reading and re-reading the document as she nipped her knuckle thoughtfully. Félix had come in to ask if she wanted to be left alone and, hesitantly, she nodded; but promised she’d see him tomorrow to walk to school. She just needed– one night.
And on that night, she searched around the house, finding her maman in the kitchenette alone, head plopped on both her palms and a teacup in front of her.
Marinette cleared her throat to call her attention, sheepishly passing the wrinkled document to her. “I found this.”
Maman’s eyes widened, then softened as she regarded Marinette. “Oh, dear, I–”
“You and Papa were planning to divorce.”
She sighed. “Yes, we were.”
“It’s from before the akuma attacks.”
“Marinette, it isn’t your fault! None of this, please know that–”
“Were you discussing going through it again?” Marinette asked, frowning at the words she had read a thousand times already. She picked it up, gazing at Maman’s signature, Papa’s was missing. “Why didn’t you? Papa threw this away.”
Maman pressed her lips together, eyes shut tight. “He threatened to reveal you. And use it to fight for custody.”
Maman stared at Marinette, waiting for a reaction. Probably so she’d jump in with more assurances about not being at fault.
Marinette only hummed, glancing at the teacup on the counter. “Do you think it’d be better if he didn’t know?”
“I–” Maman blinked, eyeing Marinette thoughtfully. “I don’t know about better, but it’d be safer for you.” She snorted, shoulders heaving up and down as her face fell on her palms. “So yeah, better, definitely better.”
Marinette nodded, then turned away saying she’d resolve this. But a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“Hold on. I want to help you, if that’s OK.”
On the way to school, she told Félix and Adrien that her papa probably wouldn’t be home much for some days.
“I forgot,” she had said. “Before the attacks, he wouldn’t always sleep at home.”
~•~
The last day of school wasn’t anything to write home about. To Félix, at least. Although he’d say he was on better terms with—most—of his classmates, he surely wouldn’t say he was on ‘friendly’ terms with any of them; polite terms, sure, and he liked the times they’d gather around to play party games between classes, but that was about it.
Adrien was the one that had taken to talking more to everyone in and out of class—to compensate for all the time he didn’t hang out with them while he could and the time he wouldn’t be able to during summer break, he had explained—although he still mostly stuck either to Kubdel and her friends or Félix and Marinette.
Marinette would converse with Couffaine and Lavillant, and also catch up with Lahiffe from time to time, but when asked about it, she admitted she wasn’t sure she’d call any of them friends again.
“Believe it or not, I don’t mind it all that much.” She shrugged as they trekked along a vined red brick wall, their joined hands swinging between them. “Not having all that many friends.”
“Really? I can’t possibly fathom someone being fine without at least ten other friends.”
“Fuck off.” She rolled her eyes, turning them to the flowers specked across the wall.
Soon, they reached the end of the sidewalk, which led to the plaza of the library that had a French Revolution cookbook with a print error, making it seem like it was from the Siege of Paris.
It was also where the train station was located.
“How long do we have?” Marinette asked, resting her head on his shoulder.
Félix took out his phone. “One hour or so.”
“I’m gonna miss you,” she whispered, gripping his hand tighter when the railroad appeared in the distance.
He stopped to fully turn to her, holding her face in his hands. “Me too.”
They never kissed much after that first date. Physical affection didn’t come naturally to Félix, so it always had to go through a mental process before he actually went through with any action. It was easier when Marinette initiated it since he just had to follow her lead, but she rarely tried to initiate kissing.
In less than half an hour, they would be separated by a train track for two months, which was more than enough prompt to go through his brain’s cobwebs and kiss her.
She grinned into the kiss, hands resting over his chest. Her lips moving startled him and he instinctively pulled back, squeezing her hands as he rested his chin on top of her head—in part to avoid seeing if he disappointed her, in part to remain as close to her as he could.
She snuggled closer, pulling a hand free to fish out her buzzing phone. “Adrien arrived at the station.”
Félix hummed. None moved for a full minute.
Marinette sighed and detached from him, pulling his hand with a soft, “C’mon.”
Sabine Cheng was waiting for them at the station’s front door, looking more lively than Félix remembered her being.
“Here they are,” she said as Trixx flew out of her purse and body slammed onto Félix’s face. “Trickster, right?”
“Uhum.” Félix quickly picked Trixx and moved them to his vest pocket, averting his flaming face as he took his suitcase from Sabine’s hand. He should’ve expected—after all, who might be the two boys her superheroine daughter hung out with all the time?—but it still made him sputter on his coffee when she asked if Trixx also wanted anything one morning.
His father’s figure on the platform for the next Eurostar to London made Félix slow his pace, but as soon as Raphael saw that Félix had arrived, he headed into the train.
Adrien was a bit to the left, saying his goodbyes to Kubdel, Kanté, and Le Chiên.
A poke on Félix’s back made him turn to Marinette.
“Remember when we were talking about tabletop RPGs?”
Félix raised an eyebrow; he didn’t know what he expected from their last goodbye, but it didn’t involve RPGs. “Yeah?”
“Well… they seem interesting, so I was looking into them and came across this.” She pulled out a book from behind her back and handed it to him.
“OK…” Félix took the book, still a bit bewildered by the present choice, but a warmth filled his chest nonetheless as he hugged it to his chest. “I– didn’t get anything to you.”
“I did!”
Félix yelped at Adrien’s sudden appearance over his shoulder.
“Here Mar.” He pulled out a photo between his fingers and extended it to her. “I noticed you don’t have any more photos up so–” He shrugged, suddenly uncertain of himself.
“I love it!” She grinned at the picture of the three of them at the arcade. Adrien had found animal headbands and begged for them to put on and, with Marinette’s help at convincing Félix, got them to pose for a photo with their respective animal ears or antennas. “Thank you, Adrien.”
The train whistled for the passengers to hurry. Marinette turned to hug the both of them, holding tight onto their necks as she told them to take care.
“Will do,” Adrien said, then pulled away to head to their car.
“I’ll call you as soon as I can,” Félix said to Marinette’s hair, giving her back one last squeeze before reluctantly releasing her.
The tinge of sadness in her smile tugged at his heart to hold her again and never let go, but the car’s door closed and he couldn’t see her face anymore.
Félix sighed and made his way to his seat by Adrien. The window faced the wrong platform, so he couldn’t look for Marinette in the crowd. Félix groaned with his throat at it and pulled the book she gave him to his lap, tilting his head curiously at the bookmark it had.
“It’s been so long since I went to London,” Adrien commented as Félix opened it on the bookmark. “You’ll have to take me on a refamiliarization tour.”
Félix had a reply about charge per hour at the tip of his tongue, but it fell off with the laughter that burst out of him.
“Uh… Félix? I know I’m hilarious, but this is a bit much, no?”
Félix shook his head, face in his palms as more laughter wheezed out of him; a scratched out and high-pitched thing that he knew Adrien wouldn’t let him live it down—the moron already sent him enough videos of foxes laughing as it was—but he just couldn’t hold it in.
The train’s whistle and rumble for departure made him calm down and flop back onto the seat’s backrest. He passed a hand down his grinning face, red from the fit of laughter he just had and the marked words Marinette left for him.
“The Trickster … is a lover and a thief, often at the same time. He laughs even when he fails, for he knows there is a lesson in it.”
~•~
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