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She wakes up, sits up in bed and looks into the darkness of the night room.
In the gap between the curtains, she sees the sky, – still dark, but no longer as dark as midnight, because dawn is about to come and the horizon will begin to brighten, chasing the darkness of the night, – along with all its fears and anxieties, – away.
Her thoughts go back to that night, many years ago, when she was still afraid of the darkness that filled the space between dusk and dawn...
[Flashback]
This school evening didn’t portend any changes in her life. Just another event where she would fantasize about being invited to dance by one particular person, and will be approached by anyone but him.
But as soon as the sunset burned out, dance music began to play in the large school hall and Marinette took her usual waiting spot near the exit – simply because from here she had a good view of most of the hall and she could pine after the boy she liked while watching him from a distance, – the light turned off.
Not only did the lights go out, but apparently the power went out because the music stopped and all she could see was darkness, and all she could hear was the noise of worried students.
Overcoming her long-standing fear of the dark, Marinette swallowed, clenched her teeth, and holding on to the wall headed for the exit, – if there was an Akuma responsible for this somewhere, which wouldn’t be surprising since Hawk Moth liked to attack her school during public events, – she needed to transform and find them...
Walking down a dark corridor away from the bulk of the people and reaching the nearest class, Marinette called to the room, checking to see if anyone was there, but no one answered her. She went in and closed the door behind her before calling for Tikki.
“Do you think it’s an Akuma?” The girl asked, going to the window, where was the brightest spot in the room, but the light was still extremely dim, because it came only from the moon – all city buildings and street lamps within her visibility were also shrouded in darkness. “It will be difficult for me to jump around the rooftops in such darkness without night vision, but I’ll probably have to do it anyway…”
“I’m not sure, Marinette.” The kwami replied with hesitation. “Perhaps it’s…” Tikki trailed off and slid back into her chosen’s purse as the door opened and someone entered the class.”
“Is there someone here?” A familiar male voice asked, and after hearing it, Marinette immediately became calmer in this darkness, from which unpleasant goosebumps were running down her back.
“Felix!” She breathed out in relief, – although she was looking for solitude herself, it was only when Marinette was alone in the dark that she realized how unprepared she was for this.
“Miss Dupain-Cheng…” He responded courteously, if a little irritably, as if he wasn’t happy to find her here. “I didn’t mean to disturb you, excuse me.” He said hastily and the door opened again, which only meant that he was about to leave.
The prospect of being alone with the darkness that frightened her, – which didn’t seem anything special in the light of street lamps and windows, but which aroused some primitive horror in her now, when there were no usual sources of light around, – terrified her even more than the fear of looking ridiculous, and with a loud cry of “No!” Marinette rushed to the door to stop him from leaving.
Almost blind in the darkness, she stumbled on the flat floor and collapsed into his arms, thankfully ready for her clumsiness. “I… am sorry, F-felix…” Marinette muttered as the boy helped her straighten up. “I didn’t mean to… I… Of course you can go… I just… I…”
At the thought that he would leave and she would be left alone, Marinette felt her breath become difficult, and the gray shadows around her began to merge into a blur of gloom, and her shoulders shook with uncontrollable trembling.
“...cheng… Marinette… Marinette!” Reached her blurred consciousness and the girl tried to focus her eyes on his face, which was barely visible in the darkness of the classroom – away from the window. “Can you hear my voice, Marinette? Breathe with me, do you hear? Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out…”
“I… you… go… dark… dark…” Marinette muttered as she struggled to understand what was happening and continued to choke on the air. Now there were no specific frightening thoughts in her head, but just a diffuse anxiety that didn’t allow her to calm down.
She felt the ring of his arms tighten around her, and the warmth of his closeness eased her anxiety slightly, though Marinette was still unable to regain her breath. “I’m here…” His low voice whispered, as softly as she’d ever heard Felix speak, as if penetrating her mind and displacing her anxiety. “I’m here, with you, Marinette…”
Her body began to relax and go limp against his chest, then she felt the hot stream of his breath right on her face as Felix leaned down to her. As if it was the most correct, the most natural action in the world, his lips found hers, and a completely different shiver went down Marinette’s back, – warm and enveloping, calming and exciting, but with a completely different emotion.
His kiss was very slow, and as tender as she would never have expected it to be from a man as cold on the outside as Felix seemed to be. His hands slightly loosened their grip on her, as if letting her take that part of the control over her body that she already could, overcoming her anxiety.
When his lips completely stopped, not moving away from hers however, but continuing to slowly breathe into them, and sending more and more waves of warmth and relaxation down her back, – Marinette pulled away from his face a little, as if to look into his eyes – if only it were possible in such darkness.
“Felix…” She whispered under her breath, peering into the outlines of his face and not being able to see them clearly.
Was this his way of stopping her anxiety attack? If so, it definitely worked, but her poor heart wasn’t sure it was ready to pay for it with its subsequent disappointment...
“Perhaps confessing my feelings to you is just as good now as it is any other time…” He spoke softly, and loosened his grip on her even more. “Forgive me… I shouldn’t have… I just…”
Felix let go of her completely, and Marinette instantly felt how cold it seemed without his embrace, and her next words seemed as natural in this darkness as the touch of his lips a little earlier. “I love you, Felix…” She whispered, and before he had a chance to escape, she pulled him by the neck towards her.
Felix sucked in a sharp breath, – as if her words burned his chest from the inside with the same heat as his words burned hers, – and his next kiss was already more insistent and desperate, as if he was afraid that she would escape and leave him alone, and not vice versa…
“Do you think it’s an Akuma?” Marinette asked in a low voice some time later, when she was recovering from the several passionate kisses they shared in the darkness and that made her breathless.
“The Akuma alarm system is self-powered, so regardless of access to city electricity, we would have heard the alarm.” Felix answered authoritatively. “Probably there was some kind of breakdown in the city power plant.”
“You… will you stay with me until the breakdown is fixed?” She asked carefully, afraid to frighten off what was happening between them.
Felix hugged her tighter in his arms and kissed her hair. “Until then, and then until you let me.” He answered.
Marinette relaxed and closed her eyes, where a warm darkness met her.
But it seemed that she would no longer be afraid of this gap between dusk and dawn. There was a lot of happiness hiding in it, after all...
[End of flashback]
She sees the dawn begin to creep up, slowly but surely, penetrating the sky and unavoidably resurrecting light.
She turns away from the window and watches her husband sleep, his chest rising and falling calmly, the light strands of hair tangled on his forehead.
Her attention is drawn by quick light steps in the hallway and the door opens. “Mommy, can I stay with you and daddy?” Little blonde girl asks from the threshold.
“Of course, honey.” She says, and when little feet run up to the bed and slide under the covers between her and her husband, burrowing deeper, she adds. “You can always come to me, my girl, daddy and I are always with you.”
“I love you, mommy…” Her daughter mutters back, – her eyes already closed as she falls asleep almost instantly.
She looks around the slowly brightening room once more and lies down too, burrowing under the covers together with her family.
While the dawn is coming, she still has time to get more sleep and enjoy the rest of the fading darkness.