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He heard a woman’s laugh and stopped.
No female laughter had been heard in his huge cold house for a long time, and now, sneaking through it in his superhero disguise, Felix felt like a trespasser, intruding into someone else’s territory.
And it wasn’t because of Chat Noir’s black suit, or even that laugh that didn’t seem alien but sounded like it was supposed to sound here. It was just that the house looked different to him, – not like the one he was used to. He couldn’t tell what exactly was different, – some smallest, almost imperceptible details of domestic comfort, – but these walls and corridors no longer seemed to him cold and repulsive as before.
Frankly, Felix didn’t even understand why he was at home.
He had just been fighting an Akuma next to Ladybug, and a moment later his mind flared with a bright light, and he landed on the floor in one of the back halls of his house.
Of course, the right thing to do was to jump out the nearest window and return to the battlefield, – maybe this was Akuma’s power – to move one of the opponents to a distance so that it would be easier to defeat the other, – but something made him go along the long corridors. A weird feeling that he violated the boundaries of someone else’s property, even though it was definitely the house in which Felix grew up.
He approached the room from which cheerful female laughter was coming and peered cautiously through the half-open door. And at the sight of what was happening inside, his eyes widened involuntarily, – although nothing special happened there.
A tall, blonde man walked over to a chair and flopped into it, book in hand, with the obvious intention of reading. A short young woman with dark flowing hair caught up with him and sat across his knees and hugged his neck, forcing him to push the book away. She said something softly and laughed again, and the man laughed with her.
The usual warm family scene, apart from the reality-shattering fact that the man was Felix himself.
Maybe he was taller, or shorter, or had slightly darker skin, or not, and he definitely seemed happier then Felix had ever been, – but it was him.
And also this other Felix with the girl in the chair, – he was laughing.
He actually laughed sincerely and with pleasure. So genuinely, as if he was really happy.
Felix couldn’t say he remembered when in his life he had been happy enough to laugh like that.
Or laugh at all...
His life wasn’t conducive to joy.
A tough schedule chosen by someone else for him, a cold aloof father, a mother who disappeared to no one knows where, and eternal Akumas, for the sake of a fight with whom he had to manage to escape so that no one noticed his absence...
And although Felix was always glad to see Ladybug, she continued to reject his feelings, – so even in their meetings there was no place for such a full-fledged joy that he was now witnessing in his double, who was hugging a dark-haired girl.
Chat Noir opened the door soundlessly and slipped to the other side of the doorway, improving the viewing angle slightly.
Now he could even better see the man’s softly smiling face, albeit from a side, but there could be no mistake. Wherever the Akuma moved him – probably to a parallel universe where he was granted happiness or to an imaginary reality, – but it was definitely Felix Agreste.
Some version of him, anyway.
The hero turned his attention to the girl, examining her dark hair with a bluish shade, a red ribbon tied around a small strand at the back – more for beauty than for its functionality, a comfortable knee-length home dress.
She turned to the opposite from the chair wall and looked at the tall antique clock, and the first thing Felix could say about her when he saw her face was how beautiful she was.
The second thing he could say about her was that this girl was Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
His eyes widened for the second time during his visit to this familiar-unfamiliar house, and Felix felt a shiver run through his whole body...
While he was picking up the pieces of his just exploded image of life, the girl turned back to the other Felix and gave him a short kiss on the lips. They continued to have a quiet conversation, the essence of which was elusive to him, because now Felix could only think about the fact how happy the man in the chair looked, that he clearly was very comfortable with her, and that this reality could only be a parallel universe and not some version of his own future.
Because A) Felix himself was hopelessly in love with Ladybug, B) his Marinette seemed too shy to ever express her feelings so directly, and C) he had long stopped thinking about what his happiness could be, considering it worthless.
But for some reason, now, when he watched this couple, none of these points seemed to him so unshakable anymore, and if one day Felix allowed himself to imagine his happiness again, perhaps that is exactly what it would look like.
“What did you fall in love with me for?..” The low voice of a man from the armchair reached his ears and Chat Noir tensed, trying to catch her answer, because due to his severity and detachment acquired from his father, Felix also never understood Marinette’s sympathy for him and therefore he couldn’t fully believe in her feelings.
Marinette laughed softly again, as if to show that his words couldn’t be taken seriously. “You know, my mom always said that people love not for something but in spite of everything.” She said, and pressed her lips to his in a long kiss, which seemed to Chat Noir endless, because by the time a bright light flashed before his eyes again, it still hadn’t ended...
As soon as he felt a hard surface under his feet, Ladybug hit his chest with her hand, – not painful, but quite tangibly. “You put yourself under the hit instead of me again, Chat!” She exclaimed indignantly. “Promise me you won’t do it again!”
Chat Noir focused his attention on his partner and shook his head slightly, trying to come to his senses and drive away the strange obsession he had just seen. “You know I can’t promise you that, my lady.” He said softly, – his thoughts still partly in that other reality. “I love you and can’t act otherwise.”
If there was a possibility that he had just traveled to the future, it would have to mean that he would have fallen out of love with Ladybug, because with the man in the chair, he definitely saw Marinette...
And even if it wasn’t his future, but some kind of parallel reality or even a hallucination, it suddenly began to seem to Felix that his real life wasn’t so far from it as it seemed to him at first. Because Marinette was so caring and gentle, she was always there for him – in quiet conversation in the library or with extra pasta ‘accidentally’ brought to school by her – just the one he liked. He himself didn’t understand why he still didn’t give a chance to their relationship, after all, Ladybug loved someone else...
“What have I done to you that you are in love with me?” The heroine suddenly asked.
Chat Noir frowned and looked at her confused, not quite understanding the question. “You didn’t do anything, my lady.” He replied quietly. “I just love you. I don’t know for what exactly…”
Ladybug looked thoughtfully into the distance and sighed. “My mother always said that people love not for something but in spite of everything.” She spoke, then turned to him and smiled. “Okay, Kitty, I’ll be de-transforming soon, so I’ll see you on patrol, bye!”
And she fled, leaving her stunned partner to watch her go.
When the first shock of realization receded a little, Chat Noir finally released the air stuck in his throat and allowed himself to relax for a moment.
At least now he knew that it was a time travel Akuma. And if not, then he will make sure that the reality he saw becomes his future in any case.
His happy future.
With Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
With Ladybug.
With a girl who now he could let himself love without any limits.