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Marinette flinched as she absentmindedly took notes on Ramier’s latest presentation, something about when pigeons were used as messengers and why that was a better form of communication, another loud thunk interrupting her train of thought and causing the last letter to end somewhat jaggedly.
Again. Felix had fallen asleep in class again, his cheek slipping free from the perch he’d made out of his left arm, then smacking into the hardwood rim of the desk hard enough to wake him, cursing under his breath before resuming the position a minute later.
Marinette frowned as she erased the shaky lettering, wondering if he’d be open to talk about his sleeping habits or even inviting him over to her place to nap, and for once the thought didn’t distract her by making her face heat up at the idea.
Well, she’d just have to ask him at lunch or something, but right now, she really needed to pay attention to Ramier’s tangent. She knew despite how… eccentric her homeroom teacher was, he’d still give them a pop quiz on this two days later.
~★~
“Hey, so… is everything alright Fe?”
“Huh…? Oh, it’s fine. I’m fine.” He resumed picking at the food on his plate, the chicken and greens looking barely seasoned, let alone cooked.
Marinette internally pouted, knowing that dry, almost numb tone Felix took on.
Things were not fine.
Things were not fine with him, but Marinette knew not to pry. It wouldn’t be right…
It wouldn’t be right, but gah, she wanted to know so she could hug away whatever mood Felix was in! She hated seeing him like this…
She wanted to help him, but it was no use trying to force her way in if he rebuffed any attempts at opening up…
Although…
He had no reason to lie to his collection of journals found in his Cubecraft crypt in the small server shared between their friend group, and no amount of Marinette-proofing he’d done after the accidental Pyroburst griefing of the castle that previously stood there could keep her out.
He… didn’t talk to her for two whole weeks after she misjudged how far the blast radius would be, and it took Flora quite literally pushing him to talk to her about it.
Unless he had a self appointed degree in Novastone engineering custom doors to bases like she did, there was no way her britebug avatar would be stopped from getting inside, ‘cause she could fit through those one block high gaps like it was nothing.
Well… time for history to potentially repeat itself… Sorry, Felix.
Focusing on note taking after that became a lot harder, but whatever. She could ask for Alina’s notes later, because as far as she was concerned, Marinette had more important work to do today.
~★~
The first thing Marinette did when she got home was hop onto Cubecraft and spawn in their server.
All she had to do was get to Felix’s crypt build and try to find where he wrote his secrets down, look at it for like a few seconds, then apologize profusely to Felix over text before melting into the floor in shame.
Nobody else was online at the moment, and Marinette hoped to the Fae roaming the world that no rogue wishmakers attacked, because not only would they interrupt this investigation, it’d also bring her one fight closer to doing the unthinkable…
Asking for Plagg to return with her to the orb she’d accidentally broken while giving Felix a house tour when she and her maman had recently moved.
Chat Noir was a fun partner, but still, she wanted to make up for what she did, and if that meant cutting off one of her best friends under the mask, so be it.
Marinette frantically moved her controller's joystick towards what she was sure was the crypt, built out of deep blue Starwood planks that glowed softly at night and glistening with what she only knew to be Ember Shards as a light source. Did he have a secret mine down here?
“Only one way to find out…” she said to herself, maneuvering her little britebug avatar through a one block gap in the building's windows, to meet with at least a sixteen block tall ceiling lined with dark bookshelves every two or three blocks. Go time.
He did well to make the place dark. The avatar he’d picked, beastkin from what Marinette remembered, had natural night vision so he could see in this place just fine.
‘Very funny Fe, thinking I can’t just light my way myself.’ She held the A button on her controller and a dome of soft pink light enveloped Marinette’s character for five seconds, and the glow from it lingered. Britebugs were many things, and bioluminescent was one of them. If he had a fireplace around here, then she’d be screwed but as far as she could see, Felix didn’t have that installed yet.
Looking up at the shelves, Marinette squinted at the lettering as she walked past each one. ‘Battle Notes, Spell Guides, Fight Journals…? Has Fe been studying how to do PvP with Kagami?’ Marinette thought. Another thing she might want to ask him then.
“Marinette, are you sure this is a good idea?” Tikki asked, concerned.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life Tikki. Felix is sad and tired and I want to make sure he’s okay!”
“…okay, um, Marinette?”
“Yeah?”
“Remember to blink and maybe take a break, I haven’t seen you do that in like… 5 minutes.”
“…oh.” Marinette blinked, just now noticing how much her eyes were stinging. She waited approximately five seconds in awkward silence with her Faerie partner before her leg started bouncing with impatience before she swiveled back to the monitor. “Well, back to work!”
“Marinette!!”
Further exploring of the crypt led Marinette to a section with the sign “Personal Journals”, and she grinned. Bingo. That’s where she wanted to look.
She went over to the nearest one she saw, then right clicked.
‘April 16th — I’m not sure where to go from here…’
Marinette’s blood pressure skyrocketed as she read, spotting the chat log in the corner ping with a notification that Felix had gone online. She anxiously pressed the right arrow on the entry.
‘Another rogue wishmaker attacked today, so I had to go earlier than I wanted to.’
Marinette squinted at the sentence. What did he mean by that?
‘The fight wasn’t that bad today, guess my notes about my powers really paid off. Apparently a kid wished he could reach the stars, be an astronaut, but was chronically scared of heights. Papillon made his move and warped the poor boy’s wish so I had to fight a wishmaker while Paris’ buildings and parks were erratically stretching up through the clouds and back. I know I have good enough reflexes to land on my feet again as Chat Noir, but that still made me motion sick. I’m pretty sure my head’s still spinning… probably shouldn’t be looking at this for too long… ugh x.x’
Marinette could only stare at the screen, jaw practically on the floor. She didn’t acknowledge it, but Tikki was doing the same.
Felix was Chat Noir.
Oh.
Marinette swallowed thickly, knowing her heart might hurt when she clicked over to the last page.
‘I’m glad the fight didn’t leave too much damage behind, but… but Spots and I are one fight closer to the day we might never meet again, the day I might never get to see Plagg again… I know it’s for the good of Paris, but I can’t help but be upset about it. They’re both my friends and one of them is who I love to death, but if I never see them again…? I might just shut myself here for the next ten years, at least then I could still escape from Father somehow… at the cost of my sleep schedule, but it’s not like I’d be losing any more to what this dilemma is already doing to me. I don’t want my friends to worry about it though, so that’s why I wrote this all here. They don’t need to be worried about me or my stupid melodrama.’
Marinette’s eyes stung again, and it wasn’t from straining to read the pages…
She hadn’t even noticed that Felix had gone offline minutes ago or not even react to her. Come to think of it, had he even seen her…? She hoped not…
A few tears hit her thumbs still clasped over the buttons and joystick as she moved back from the shelves. Cautiously, she placed a sign near it in the main room of the crypt.
‘I’m sorry but I read one of your journals from here, Felix. I just wanted to know if you were okay… - Mar’
She directed her character out of the crypt, and was just about to get back to a Novastone coaster entrance into what would be her fifth secret base to take her mind off what was eating it alive, when she heard a knock on the skylight above her bed.
“Marinette?” A muffled voice called, and Marinette’s stomach twisted with guilt. “Mar, are you awake?”
She knew who that voice belonged to now…
Wordlessly, she opened the door, and Chat Noir fell through it, plopping on her bed back first and leaning into it with a grin. “Glad you’re up for some company tonight, Marin—” Now was the absolute worst time to sniffle, but Marinette couldn’t control the reaction, and Chat had unfortunately heard it. “Did I…come at a bad time?”
“N-no…” Marinette coughed, reaching behind herself for a tissue. “No, you didn’t, but…” she sighed. “I’m just… conflicted with something I found out about one of my friends and… I don’t know how to move forward.”
“Oh?” Chat sat up, curious. He tilted his head to the side. “What’d you find out?”
Marinette glanced at Chat then her computer monitor, still lighting up the room far more than the ball lights dangling from the hooks embedded into the beams in her space. She sighed, looking down at the orb hidden beneath a hastily thrown together shelving unit under her desk. “It’s… it’s about you, actually.” She said, hesitant but knowing now what she had to do to ease her friend's worries, and a sign placed in Cubecraft would not be enough. She’d have to tell him…
“Me?” Chat snickered, rolling his eyes. “I’m pretty sure I’m about as open of a book as I can be. What’s so conflicting about me?” He batted his eyes dramatically with a smirk, and Marinette had to fight herself to swallow a giggle. She failed.
“What’s conflicting is that I…” Marinette’s throat suddenly felt dry and constricted, even if there was no more dust in this old place. “I know who you are… without, um, without the mask.”
She didn’t have to look to know the way Chat flinched at what she said, and the air was still, yet not suffocating or hard to even exist in…
“…how?” He asked. He sounded disappointed, and it only strengthened the resolve Marinette had to tell him who she was, even though the thought still made her arms tingly from nervousness.
“I… read one of your Cubecraft books…” she admitted, hanging her head in shame. “I’m really sorry… you just looked so tired and when I asked earlier today you said you were fine, b-but—”
Chat embracing her cut off the thought, and she returned the gesture. “It’s okay… it’s fine…”
“Is it though…” Marinette mumbled into his shoulder.
“Yeah, it’ll all be over before you know it anyways, and Ladybug’s going to…” he swallowed, suddenly sounding choked up himself. “She’s going to… take Plagg with her once this whole rogue wishmaker mess is resolved and Papillon is put where he belongs… I won’t get to be Chat Noir anymore after that, so… I guess it’s fine if you know…”
Now was the wrong time to get soft hearted at what he was saying, or even bitterly laugh at what her plan was before finding out just who her masked partner in justice is… but now, she didn’t care. Now, she didn’t want that anymore.
Now, she only wanted him to stay.
“No she won’t…” she finally said, her words quiet and carrying all the softness in the world. “She won’t take him away…”
Chat looked down at her, confused. “What do you mean…? She told me she would be. How can you be so sure she’s not going to now?”
Marinette pulled away from his embrace, but still lingered close to him, then gestured to her face. “Take a guess.”
Chat blinked, then raised an eyebrow. “…I don’t get it.”
“Want a hint…?”
“No, no, let me take a good guess first.” Chat replied, bouncing his foot anxiously and tapping his finger against his cheek. “Uh… your Novastone builds!” He smirked confidently, hands on his hips. “You got so good at those from both video tutorials and experimenting with Ladybug’s guidance!”
Feeling less uncomfortable and more cheeky than a few minutes ago, Marinette grinned and turned back to her monitor, walking over to one of her previous builds. Her avatar pressed a button on the side of an unusually flat cliff face, and it opened up several layers in an alternating star and diamond pattern, revealing a stairwell down into her third base underground. “Getting warmer.”
“Oh, am I now?” His smile grew wider at the thought. “Oh, did you get Ladybug into Cubecraft or something, and does she want my username so we can still play together?”
“I’m pretty sure she already has you on her friends list, Chat.” Marinette said, logging off the game after going to sleep in the base. “Are you sure you don’t want a hint?”
“Uhhh… yeah, I think I might need it now.”
“What do Ladybug’s gadgets have a 50% chance of doing when she first makes them?”
“They… explode?”
“And what do my Novastone builds have a tendency to do when I’m experimenting?”
Chat blinked, then stared at her. “They… explode. Or cause other things to explode.”
“And what happened the last time I tried to do that?”
“You destroyed my castle when you tried to make an automatic fireworks display, obviously…” Chat pouted, puffing out his cheeks in faux upset for a moment, then snickered. “What connection are you trying to make, I don’t—”
All it took was Marinette crossing her arms and smirking, and Chat Noir froze for a solid two minutes before going “Ohhhhhh…”
“Yup.” She said, smiling at Tikki as she flew out from behind the beams of the attic. “Sorry, again. About reading your journal.”
Chat shrugged. “Hey, a cat can make some exceptions once in a while.”
“Would this cat also like to stay for dinner, then? I know how you are, poor Kitty.” She rolled her chair over to pat his head. “Your lunch today was barely even seasoned.”
“It’s so bland, Marinette! And he keeps making it that way!!” He complained, mumbling something she couldn’t catch under his breath. “Yes… yes I would like some dinner.”
“Then after that, do you want to show me around some new builds? I realize you haven't given me a complete tour of the cat crypt yet.”
“You didn’t blow it up, did you?” He sounded legitimately panicked.
“Nope.” She replied with a giggle, and Chat exhaled loudly in relief.
“Oh thank god… phew… you had some restraint, thank you.”
She smacked his stomach playfully. “Don’t make me do it on purpose because of that comment, Kitty.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.”
The banter was cut off before it could escalate any further, Sabine opening the trapdoor and calling Marinette down for dinner, surprised but delighted to see Chat in Marinette’s room and calling him down to help.
He eagerly obliged, and Marinette kept the secret she now knew under lock and key until they went back up to the attic to tour Felix’s “cat cave”, him teasing her about calling it a crypt just because he laid on the forest hut themed aesthetic choices a little thick.
The night ended with Marinette guiding him through her secret base in turn, then Chat left at almost midnight just as Alina got online. A few minutes later, Felix got online as well, and sent something to her in the chat.
‘Good night Mari UwU’
Rolling her eyes and smiling tiredly, Mari sent a reply. ‘Night Fe. Let’s both get some good sleep okay?’
‘No promises’
‘Go to bed, Lucky.’
‘You first :3’
‘Har har.’
‘Where r u?’
‘In my base I showed you earlier, why?’
Felix’s avatar came running into the in game bedroom she’d thrown together. He placed a bed next to hers.
He replied a second later. ‘There. Now I will sleep :3’
‘You absolute nerd!!’
‘Love you :)’
‘Love you too, you goof. See you tomorrow?’
‘Yea. Bye uwu’
Marinette put her avatar to sleep, and soon after went to sleep herself, not realizing she’d left the monitor on as she drifted off.
The ensuing pings from the chat messages of Alina presumably freaking out didn’t wake her up, letting the relief of sharing her secret with Chat Noir, or as she’d see him tomorrow — Felix, make her ensuing dreams all the sweeter.