Chapter Text
Felix entered the class and froze for a moment.
Ladybug was sitting right on the teacher’s table, dangling one leg and pressing the other knee to her chest.
It wasn’t a picture you could see every day, so it surprised even him.
And the most unusual wasn’t even this, but the fact that all the students that were already in the classroom didn’t pay any attention to the fact. But Felix moved to Paris only a few weeks ago, so maybe he just wasn’t familiar with strange customs that were accepted here?
Felix blinked and went to his seat behind Marinette, who was drawing something in her notebook. That was almost more unusual actually – to see her so early at school, – then to see a superhero sitting on a table like a street teenager.
Felix sat and looked at Ladybug again.
She seemed sad and worried. He wondered what she was doing here anyway? He didn’t hear any akuma alarm today. So maybe she came to talk about some new rules of conduct during akuma attacks and waited for everyone to gather?
But wasn’t she their age and shouldn’t she be in school as well now?
Alya Cesaire entered the class and greeted her best friend cheerfully. Marinette only said “Hey!” automatically without looking up from her notebook, and continued drawing.
But Ladybug perked up and waved her hands.
“Alya! Can you hear me?” She called.
The journalist ignored her idol, and Felix’s eyebrows jumped in surprise again. But he didn’t say anything, preferring to watch this circus from the side.
Was this some sort of prank? Did everyone decide to pretend that Ladybug wasn’t here? Or was it some weird game that he hadn’t been told about?
Adrien entered the class in the meantime with his usual smile and waved at everyone and no one in particular. He ignored the super-heroine as well and just sat at his place.
Ladybug sighed desperately.
“And you too.” She muttered to herself.
Felix frowned. Why would Adrien ignore his crush? Whatever awful game this was, the poor girl’s face was in despair.
Not that he cared.
But this looked too much for any reason they had.
Felix stared at Ladybug, who ran her hand over her face with a tired look and sighed again. Her eyes were wandering around the class and met his for a moment, before moving further.
Then Ladybug looked back at him intently. She turned around to check if there was something behind her, and looked back at Felix.
“Can you see me?” She asked nervously.
Felix narrowed his eyes on her.
“Shouldn’t I?” He asked.
Marinette turned back and looked at him.
“What?” She asked.
“I wasn’t talking to you.” Felix replied.
“Oh my god, you can see me!” Ladybug exclaimed, jumping from the table and rushing to him.
Marinette rolled her eyes and turned back to her desk.
Felix was staring at Ladybug, who came closer and was now standing next to him.
“If you can see and hear me, please nod.” She begged.
Felix stared at her for another moment.
If no one could see or hear Ladybug – and it reeeeally seemed like it, there were two main possibilities of what was happening right now. Three actually.
1. Felix was hallucinating. Which wasn’t probably the case, because... why would he?!
2. This was some stupid joke and everyone pretended not to see or hear Ladybug, and she played along with them, pretending that only he could see and hear her? But even though Felix could imagine organizing something like that to piss someone off, he couldn’t imagine the reason why all those people, including Ladybug, would do that to him.
3. Felix was actually the only person who could see and hear Ladybug, who was standing next to him, still waiting for his answer.
Let’s assume it was the third option, Felix thought and nodded slowly.
Ladybug breathed a sigh of relief.
“You must help me!” She demanded. “I was hit by this akuma that looked like a ghost. I almost couldn’t see them. And it split me in two!” She explained in an emotional tone, talking fast as if worried that he will stop to hear her too. “And no one can see this part of me now, even the other me.” She sighed. “She acts as if I never even existed...” Ladybug paused for a moment, thinking. Then shook her head and looked at him again. “But for some reason you can see me, right? And hear me too.”
Felix was listening to her attentively, narrowing his eyes. Then he opened his mouth to answer, but Ladybug put her hand to his mouth. Felix didn’t feel the actual touch, just a slight warmth on his lips.
“Don’t answer,” The heroine commanded. “They will think you talk to yourself.”
She started to walk there and back fast, muttering something under her breath.
Felix stood up and took his phone out. What he knew well — is how to trick people.
He went out of the classroom and, making sure that Ladybug was coming after him, placed his phone next to his ear, pretending to talk on it.
“How do I know this is all true?” He asked, stopping at the window, not far from the classroom.
Ladybug perched on the windowsill in front of him.
“What do you mean?” She asked. “Do you think I’m lying to you?”
“That’s not what I meant.” He clarified. “How can I know it isn’t some sort of a game?”
“Well, you can see I’m... I can’t really touch anything.” Ladybug replied.
She waved her hand, passing through his, and Felix felt the warm feeling on his skin, like a summer wind. Only he was fully dressed.
Ok, she wasn’t a real person, that was playing a game. No one could actually see her. But what about him? Could she be a product of his own mind?
Felix wanted to ask about it, when Ladybug spoke first.
“Concerning your imagination. Hmm... Any fact I could tell you about yourself, you know them too, so I could be your hallucination.” She sighed. “I don’t know how to prove to you that I’m real.”
“What about you?” He suggested. “You could tell me something about yourself that I could prove by checking. Something everyone can see or touch.”
Ladybug crossed her hands on her chest.
“There is no way I’m telling you my identity!” She said, “And there’s no other facts you could possibly check about me.”
“Well, this sounds pretty much like Ladybug that I would create in my imagination.” Felix smirked.
He was almost sure that the heroine was telling the truth, – with all the possible akumas that he read about, why not the ghost-akuma? But it was funny to tease Ladybug like this.
“So you won’t help me then?” She grumbled.
“I didn’t say that.” Felix was looking at her slyly.
“What are you saying then?!” Ladybug demanded angrily. “Do you believe me or not?!”
Felix sighed.
“Fine.” He said to his phone. “But I’m not skipping the classes because of you!”
Ladybug snorted.
“Who knew you were such a bookworm.” She said in an annoyed tone.
“Call me worm again, and you can look for another crazy boy who can see the ghosts.” Felix replied, removing his phone, and went back to the class.
*
When Felix was passing by Marinette he glanced at her notebook and his eyebrows jumped up once more: an entire page of her notebook was drawn with his portraits.
Felix sat at his chair and stared at Marinette’s back, while the teacher started the lesson. But Felix didn’t hear a word she was saying...
What was that about? Why did Marinette, who was crushing on his cousin, and even tried to confess to him once — not that Adrien knew about it — draw Felix’s portraits all over her notebook?
“Hey! Are you alive?” He heard and opened his mouth to reply, when he realized that it was Ladybug talking to him.
The huge boy, who was normally sitting next to Felix, wasn’t at school today, so the heroine sat at his place and apparently decided to patronize him.
Felix sighed and took his notebook.
‘Don’t annoy me,’ He wrote, and moved the page a little closer to her, so that she could read, but it wouldn’t look like he was sharing a note.
“Don’t be so rude!” She snapped. “Why are you staring at her like that?!” She demanded.
‘Maybe I like her, why do you care?’ He wrote, getting really annoyed.
“Do you?” Ladybug asked.
It seemed to Felix that she sounded surprised and a little embarrassed. Was it embarrassing for a superheroine to discuss someone’s personal life?
‘This is none of your business.’ Felix wrote on the page.
“If you weren’t so rude, I would compliment your handwriting.” Ladybug commented.
Felix shook his head.
‘Are you gonna distrust me the whole time?’ He wrote. ‘How do I suppose to learn something?’
“Oh, come on, you weren’t even listening to what the teacher was saying!” Ladybug protested. “We should have better try to bring me back instead of sitting here! I would tell the teacher that you were helping me afterwards.”
‘Right, if you proved you were real that is.’ He wrote.
“We have already been through this.” Ladybug said. “The only fact about me to know — is my identity, and there is no way I share it with you.”
‘What if it would be necessary to fix you?’ Felix wrote. ‘Did you even think about your next step? If you need to connect to your other self, you’ll have to tell me who you are anyway. How can I help you otherwise?’
“I don’t know.” Ladybug sighed. “We’ll have to find Chat, I guess... I don’t know...”
‘Or Shadow Moth.’
“And how do you imagine doing that?!” Ladybug exclaimed.
“Shush!” Felix hissed at her, forgetting that he was the only one to hear her noice.
Marinette turned and looked at him attentively.
Damn it! This Ladybug was so much trouble! Why would he even agree to help her?!
Felix opened his mouth and stuck in that position without knowing what to say.
What do you even say to a girl that you might have a tiny-winy crush on, and who is crushing on your cousin, but for some reason is drawing your face, when she thinks you called her, when you were actually shushing an annoying super-heroine who no one can see or hear except for you?
Marinette narrowed her eyes and turned back to her desk.
Felix covered his eyes with his palm and shook his head.
Now Marinette will think he is weird... Not that she would care about him enough to even think about it.
“You DO like her.” Ladybug said slowly, reminding Felix about her presence.
Why would he even be able to see her when no one did?!