Work Text:
“I’m afraid I only have one room for the two of you to share,” Wang said after dinner, and Marinette glanced over at Fei. “And it only has one bed.”
She shrugged. “If you don’t mind, neither do I.”
Fei gently reached for her necklace — her Prodigious — but eventually shrugged back. “That’s fine. Plus, it will only be for a little while, right?”
She nodded. “Just until I leave.”
“And then it will be a room for yourself,” Wang said as he walked through a door tucked away in the corner of the restaurant to the apartment above, holding the door open when he got there. “Come with me.”
Fei led the way up the stairs into the home. Marinette had only been in here briefly, when she’d first arrived and needed to unpack her things, but it really was a home if nothing else. Wang came in, Bastille on his arm, and set the bird over on a perch for him which had toys and such nearby.
“That bird is more spoiled than I’ve ever been,” Fei muttered.
“Shove it,” Bastille squawked.
“He’s definitely... uh, I suppose you’d call it a personality?” Wang said.
Marinette laughed.
“Here, Fei, I’ll show you the bedroom before I go to freshen up in the bathroom so you can settle down a little bit.” She led Fei up a second, much less hidden, flight of stairs. There were three rooms up here, including one bathroom, and Marinette held the door open for Fei, who stepped through slowly, cautiously, craning her neck to see every nook and cranny.
“No bad guy is going to jump out at you and attack, you know,” Marinette said.
Fei’s shoulders relaxed. “I know. I was just... getting my bearings.”
“I’ll leave you to it.”
The room was smaller than the one that Fei had grown up in, only really big enough to fit a twin bed, a desk, and a dresser. Marinette’s bag rested on the bed, and Fei considered for a moment digging through it, for her safety, to take what was of value out of it.
But that wouldn’t be right, would it? Not only because of all Marinette had done for her, but because she didn’t need to do that anymore. No more stealing just to get by, or just because she wants to.
(Maybe some stealing just because she wants to. Only from people who deserve it, though.)
“What are you looking for?” a deep voice asked, and Fei jumped before looking over at the little blue lion — Mei Shi. She placed a hand over her heart.
“I... I was just taking in the surroundings.”
“Perhaps you’ll be allowed to decorate once you settle in a little. There’s plenty of wall space.”
Fei nodded and walked over to the bed, applying pressure to the soft mattress for a moment. How long it had been since she’d slept on a mattress. How long it had been since she slept at all, really — since her home burned down, she’d gotten used to only napping a few hours at a time. It wasn’t unusual for her to stay awake for twenty hours or more.
“Is it not to your liking?” Mei Shi asked.
“No, it — Hide!” The door began to open up and Marinette popped through. Fei did her best to smile, not that it came particularly easy.
“Getting settled in?” Marinette asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, I was just considering how I was gonna set up my bed on the floor. I’m sure Wang has some extra blankets and pillows, but if not, I can just use one of the pillows and I have a blanket in my bag that I keep with me...”
Marinette’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why would you do that?”
“Well, I didn’t always know what temperature it would be, and sometimes having an ext —”
“No, I mean, why would you sleep on the floor? It might be a little bit of a tight squeeze on the bed, but we can make it work.”
Fei’s mouth hung open and she looked down at the comforter, which was a light beige with black leaves in a pattern across it. It hadn’t even occurred that Marinette might be okay with sharing the bed, and since this was Fei’s new home, there was no way she could leave a guest on the floor.
“Right,” she said. “Right.”
Marinette walked over and grabbed her bag where it was on the bed next to Fei, bringing it over to the desk to rummage through it. “Do you have pajamas? Or would you want to borrow a pair of mine?”
“Um... I have...”
What she had was a ratty T-shirt that she washed maybe every few weeks, whenever she had the time and pocket change to go to the laundromat, and knowing that she was sleeping in the same bed as Marinette, that wouldn’t do at all. “Pajamas would be nice,” she responded.
“Great! I have a pair of sweatpants that you can use, and normally I’d wear a tank top with them, but you might not want to sleep in a tank top — but it might be hot under the covers, too, so if that’s an issue for you then you can use my tank top and I’ll wear a light T-shirt...”
Marinette kept going, rummaging through her bag and throwing clothes around. Her mouth never stopped moving, and Fei could hardly concentrate, though what little she did pick up — something about subway and the Pearl Tower, how had she even gotten here? — hardly seemed as though it was actually about pajamas anymore. Or anything, really.
The walls of the room were beige, like the bedsheet. Her old walls had been red. Maybe she could save up the money to paint them... But she wouldn’t want to impose on Wang, obviously, so only if he said it was okay. But did she want them to be like her old room? If there was ever a time to reinvent herself, this was it.
She found herself holding her necklace.
“Fei? Are you okay?”
She quickly looked up at Marinette, eyes going into focus again, and nodded, forcing herself to smile. “Of course. I’m tired, and a lot has changed today, and I’m just trying to keep up with it all.”
Mari came and sat down next to Fei, resting her head on Fei’s shoulder, squeezing around her back. “Good change, though?”
Fei nodded, resting her head on Marinette’s. “Good change.”
“Can I play some white noise?” Marinette asked, sitting on her end of the bed, blanket pulled over her legs but knees pulled up to her chest. “Usually I fall asleep to the sound of rain.”
Fei nodded. “That’s fine!” Compared to the types of sounds she heard when she was still sleeping in the school after it burned, a recording of rain would be nothing. Marinette beamed, grabbing her phone off the bedside table and clicking until the rain started playing.
On the opposite side of the bed, Fei laid down on her pillow, crowding against the wall as much as she could to avoid knocking Marinette’s feet.
“Do you need me to scoot over?”
Fei shook her head. “I’m good.”
Marinette was already moving over.
“Now we can turn out the lights and get to sleep. Unless you need anything else?” she offered.
Fei shook her head. “Nope, I’m good.”
“Good.”
The lights turned off. It took only a moment for her eyes to adjust.
Despite the rain sound playing, the air was quiet, quieter than she’d ever really known. Or maybe Fei had just forgotten. Growing up, her father had such a beautiful voice, and he loved singing — he was always humming or whistling while working, while training, while cooking. When she was really young, he would sing her to sleep every night.
When was the last time she slept without the sound of cars threatening her peace?
“Fei, are you okay?”
Suddenly, she zoned back into the room, her eyes coming into focus again, which is when she realized — tears were pooled in her eyes.
She wiped them as quickly as she could.
“Is something wrong?” Marinette asked.
Fei shook her head. “I’m just... overtired. I’ll be better by morning.”
Though Fei really only wanted to go back to sleep and pretend this never happened, Marinette sat up, her hair messy after just a few minutes of lying in bed, and waved for Fei to sit up too.
She did.
The sound of the rain was the only thing between them. Fei looked down at her hands, fidgeting with the sheets.
“The rain is... too muted.”
“Do you want me to turn it up?” Marinette asked.
“No, not too quiet. Too muted. When I had to sleep out in the rain... I always made sure my roof was in good condition, so I was never in the rain, but this recording... it makes it sound like the rain is through a wall. And there was never a wall. There’s never a wall.”
Marinette remained silent for the first time since they’d finished up dinner.
“Everything’s changing so fast,” Fei continued. “I’m sorry. I just need some time to get used to it.”
“You don’t need to be sorry,” Marinette said. “There was a day where... everything changed for me. Everything. I didn’t get a new home, but I got... Well, I got three new best friends. It was the day I met Adrien, actually. Everything changed so fast, and I’m so glad it did, but all I wanted to do that night was sleep for a million years. It all felt so... overwhelming. I must have spent two hours the next day pacing and listening to music just to keep myself from bursting with the excitement of it all.”
Fei nodded and swallowed. “Do you ever worry that it will go back the way it was before?” she asked.
“Every day. If I lost Adrien and my best friends and... and you, really... I don’t know what I’d do. But for tonight, do you want to find some other white noise to fill the room?”
Fei nodded, then smiled slightly. “Do you have any car honking? To make it feel like home.”
Marinette opened up her phone, and the light made her eyes sparkle. “Oh Fei,” she said. “You have no idea just how niche the world of ASMR is. Let me show you.”
Fei snorted as Marinette got to work.