Work Text:
"Bibliophagy: when the book eats you."
Félix grinned cheekily, watching how Marinette’s expression changed from victorious to confused. Her brows furrowed in bewilderment. Her mouth parted in protest—there was no way the game board would accept that word—then closed, as the green light crowned him the winner.
She resigned with a pout and crossed her arms over her chest. She huffed, nostrils flaring, but did not complain. He won fair and square. She was as happy about it as she was annoyed.
“Uh-uh,” he waved a finger at her. “You promised!”
He propped himself up on his elbows and leaned closer, turning his head sideways, so she could give him the kiss she owed.
Marinette shifted, still sour from losing.
Félix eyed her from the corner of his eye, waiting impatiently. It had been difficult to beat her fair and square and it had taken him several tries. It was a matter of honor—ever since he realized she let him win from time to time, he strived to match her in more than enthusiasm. It was a matter of pride.
Marinette grabbed his chin and gently turned his head before planting a sweet kiss on his lips.
She pulled away. “So, you’ve been going to the city, I see.”
“I had to learn somehow!” he stole a kiss back. “The librarian has been very helpful.”
Marinette hummed in reply.
“Has he…?”
“No.” Félix shut her up with another kiss. “Well, a little bit.”
She giggled, taking him by his shirt and pulling him closer. They were breaths apart when she spoke again, in a whisper.
“Do you want to see my favorite book?”
Now it was Félix who pulled away, an eyebrow raised teasingly. “You have a favorite book?”
Aside from the ones she owned, Marinette had never shown any interest in books, when they visited the local bookseller for his pleasure. While he browsed all the novelties, she lingered by the entrance, leafing only through cookbooks—for what she called practical purposes.
“I do.” Proudly, she cocked her head. Though she tried to hide it, a smile tugged at her lips, breaking through when Félix propped his elbows on the game board, nearly climbing on top of it, pushing pieces off the table like a cat with a purpose. He leaned closer until they were nose to nose, breaths mixing, both hoping for their lips to meet.
Félix shuddered, the tension breaking through his bones. Marinette held his gaze.
“I do,” he echoed, his lips brushing against hers. “I want to know everything about you. I—” he swooned when she smiled against his mouth. “I want to know your favorite book.”
Marinette stood up, cheeks flaming. It always got to her whenever he said things like this and because of that, he did it often. Telling her as sincerely and honestly as possible how much he loved her was his favorite pastime.
She was still getting used to that.
“T-then let’s go!” she exclaimed with an almost inconceivable stutter. She flashed him a bright smile and pecked his cheek. “We’ve got to hurry if we’re going to get there before it closes.”
Félix pulled a key out of his pocket and waved it in front of her eyes. She made a grab for it but he pulled it away, inviting her to a game of cat and mouse. She rose to her tiptoes. He kept the key out of her reach. She jumped; he caught her.
He relinquished the key.
“Where did you get it?” She studied it in wonder. It was made of iron, with delicate engravings running like vines down its shaft. It had a small snake for its collar, its tail in its mouth. An end, a beginning. “Did you…?”
“The librarian gave it to me,” he said proudly, puffing out his chest. “As payment. For helping his wife.”
“Oh,” Marinette remembered. It was Félix’s first time with a newborn after all. He had been so soft, so gentle with the baby. It was a memory to cherish. “That was incredibly…” thoughtless, irresponsible “sweet of him.”
Félix grinned. Marinette cupped his cheek, mesmerized.
“Let's get going then.”
Neither made a move to do that until after he had stolen another kiss. It broke the spell and she breathed sharply in before jumping up and pulling away. She scrambled to pick up the fallen game pieces to put some distance between them. It didn’t work well because he joined her on the floor, helping her the best he could.
Their hands brushing was not very helpful, since it made her drop whatever she was holding, skin sizzling in places where he touched. It was an unfamiliar sensation, something she had never felt in all her years of existence, and it tickled her spirit in ways that rendered her paralyzed. She was in love.
She didn’t know what to do about it.
Marinette snapped Félix by the wrist, holding him still until she got the last chips into her free hand. She stood, letting him go, and placed them gently on the game board. They fell into a disorderly pile.
“Let’s go,” she said simply, looking away. She grabbed her pouch and her scarf, and headed for the door, not bothering with a heavy winter coat. It was already warm outside. First spring flowers were in bloom: snowdrops peeked out everywhere in their garden, and crocuses were full of bumblebees among whom Marinette was sure to have spotted another faery.
Félix slipped on his wool jacket. In it, he looked like a scrawny wolf in sheep’s clothing, but it was warm, and that mattered more than whatever impression it gave of him.
He followed after Marinette. Seeing her wrap the scarf around her shoulders, stubbornly sticking to her decision, he smiled softly. When she got cold (and it was inevitable with the temperature drop after sundown), they could huddle closer to each other for warmth.
She set their walking pace and he matched it, even though his long legs longed for longer steps. After a while, she took his hand in hers.
~༶~
Without a Key, the library was just another room in the sanctuary, where the educated came and went to seek answers to their mundane questions.
With a key capable of unlocking the door hidden in plain sight, it became a rabbit hole.
It was bigger on the inside, extending inwards. The rows of books curved unnaturally, folding over each other in twisted patterns and horrifying spirals. Many a man had left their sanity there, unattended on shelves holding jars of carbonated pink and titles like Losing Your Mind.
It was magic, the obvious magic, and its endless corridors were easy to get lost in. The librarian acted as a guide, showing people in and out, so they would make it through.
Félix knew the place by heart.
“This way,” said Marinette, pulling him along into a darkening hallway, where shelves embraced each other like the lovers in Klimt’s The Kiss. It was rumored to be haunted, though that only fueled the frequency of young folk visiting.
“Is your favorite book The Myriad of Melodies?” he guessed.
“Nope!”
“The Memories of a Madman?”
“Ha-ha, no, though I wish .” Marinette laughed. She'd never made it past the first twenty pages of that book despite trying several times. They turned a corner. “It’s actually Bliss and Babylon.”
Félix had never come across such a book. He spun her around so they were face to face. He stared at her in disbelief.
“Please tell me you just made that title up.”
Marinette smiled smugly. She reached out her hand and pulled a book off the nearest shelf. “Nope.”
She held the book up and sure as sunshine, it was the book she was talking about, green leather-bound with golden letters spelling out its title. He snatched the book from her and flipped through it, confirming that it was in fact an actual book and not a magically conjured prop.
Its pages were full of text written in an alphabet he had yet to learn. The letters resembled leaves on vines, twisting and twirling around heavy branches. If this was her favorite book, then he’d simply have to learn its language, but somehow he doubted it.
“How did you do this?” he asked, looking at her appreciatively. “Is this really your favorite book?”
Marinette shrugged, pleased that she’d managed to outwit him.
“How Not To Tie A Knot,” she confessed finally. “That’s my favorite, as far as magical books go, that is.”
Félix’s face lit up. He knew the book. He’d read it several times! It posed several puzzling paradoxes and fascinating solutions while sticking to conventional time travel theories. It listed all commonly known time travelers, of which there was only one.
“Is it because of Mayhop?” he pounced on her. “She’s so cool! What do you think of the theory that she might be born in our lifetime?”
“Mayhop is a myth.”
“Mayhap.” Félix watched her reaction, seeking approval in the way her lips twitched in poorly veiled amusement. Why she insisted on not liking puns when she so obviously did, he didn’t know, but her eventual smile was worth continuing to make them.
“No one’s seen her,” she rushed to defend her opinion. “It takes a lot of magic to travel in space. Not even Granny can do it comfortably, and she’s the head witch! Even with the help of faeries, time travel is… It’s just a dream. But that's why I love it!”
Félix entwined their fingers and squeezed her hand. “Some dreams do come true.”
He was referring to his freedom. He was referring to their love. He had dreamed of both, both had become a reality and for once in his life he felt like he could live up to his name.
Marinette kissed him on the cheek. “Well, maybe you're the first person to actually see her.”
“One can dream,” he flashed her a grin. She rested her head against his shoulder.
“I suppose I don't have to show you the book after all.”
He kissed her forehead. “Do you want to see my favorite book?”
Marinette perked up. “You have a favorite? I thought you'd have, I don't know, hundreds.”
Félix laughed nervously—it was true. Usually, it was difficult to pick just one. He'd already introduced him to his favorite storybook, reading it out loud to her and their resident fae, as the sun set. They all listened attentively. Nooroo asked a lot of questions afterward, eager to understand even the most mundane bits of human existence, and even the others listened, though at times Trixx could not care less and Plagg was Done With Everything.
“Today, I do.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and spun her around again. He started walking, pushing her forward. She didn’t resist and even giggled, going along with his antics. They marched through the library like that until he brought them to a stop in front of a glass case in which lay a single book. With many engravings and gems to decorate its cover, there was no wonder it was inside a locked case.
Félix slid in his key and opened the case.
“Hello, Brie. How’s it going?” He reached his hand in, careful to approach it from the side of the spine. The book spun around and snapped at his hand anyway. Félix pulled it out.
“Bibliography: when the book eats you,” Marinette connected the dots. “I can see why it’s your favorite.”
“Its full name is something Brief History of… something. I call it Brie for short. It seems to like it.”
“Brie, huh,” Marinette leaned over the case to read the title. The book stared back at her, flipping open to a random page instead, forcing Marinette to face a moving illustration of a bunny hop-hop-hopping through luminescent grass.
“It’s got some funny pages in it,” he commented, leaning over her shoulder. “I’ve learned so many good puns from it.”
Marinette hummed.
“May I?” she asked the book, reaching her hand over again. The book quivered but allowed her fingers to brush over an oddly shaped pink quartz. It sent a familiar spark through her nervous system. She immediately pulled her hand away as though burned. “Oh, you poor thing… How did this happen to you?” She then turned to Félix. “It’s good that you found them, Félix.”
“What do you mean?”
“What we’re dealing with here is not a magical book at all,” she shook her head, stunned. “It’s a spell gone wrong.”
“You mean to say…” Félix turned to the book in horror. “The book is not a book but a person?”
Marinette nodded. “Uh-uh.”
“It’s been in the collection for over three hundred years,” he whispered in shock. “You mean to tell me this… this person has been a book for all this time?”
“It seems so.” She was equally horrified. “But we can fix it! It’s an easy spell!”
Félix grabbed her hands.
“Do it!” he pleaded. “Do it right away!”
Marinette would have done so without him asking. She pried her hands free and picked up the book much to its dismay. It wiggled in an attempt to get free, protesting even though they were only trying to help.
If there was an incantation, she said it so quietly that Félix didn’t hear it. From the way he saw it, it was the kiss she blew at the book that undid the spell, though he could not be sure. Maybe this was simply another one of her tricks.
Marinette released the book, as it was engulfed in the warm light of transformation. It was yellowish in color and pleasant to the eye, though Félix looked away regardless. It seemed too personal.
The light faded, leaving in its place a small girl in a blue-white dress. A pair of bunny ears stood up in her dark hair, as she tried to make heads or tails of the situation.
Marinette guessed her to be no older than five (plus three hundred if her time as a book counted towards the age).
“Hey,” she approached her gently. “Are you alright? That must’ve been quite a shock.”
Finally, Brie noticed them. Her blue eyes bore holes into the two adults for approximately two seconds before she jumped up, her white boots kicking up dust, clutching the pocket watch hanging from a silver chain around her neck.
“Oh, you’re going to be so mad!” she cried, snapping the watch open. A fluffy-tailed fairy appeared from it, startled by the ruckus and confused by their surrounding space. Brie gave her little time to adjust. “Fluff, take me to the burrow!”
Fluff did what was asked of her. She bounced to the ground, opening a portal through which they could find a way home.
The girl gave one last look to her saviors and grinned. There was something eerily familiar about it.
“See you soon!” She saluted, then jumped.
“Bone voyage!” Félix called after her, earning a snort from the lady beside him and a giggle from the small girl, as she disappeared through the rabbit hole. When she was gone, he turned to Marinette. “Still don’t think Mayhop is real?”
Marinette gave his shoulder a nudge.
“Mayhap.” The corners of Félix’s mouth twitched before stretching into a wide smile. He took her hand in his. Warmth pooled in her heart. “I have a feeling we’ll see her again one day.”
She squeezed his hand in total agreement.
“Let’s not jinx it then.”