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Marinette squinted, trying not to stick out her tongue as she moved the joystick on the crane game.
Those little knockoff faerie toys almost mocked her with their shoddily painted eyes, she thought. This was her tenth try now and the crane did not once give her the bit of hope she needed!!
She wanted to get a gift for Felix because he mentioned how he never gets to go to arcades, and while it wasn’t much, she thought a cute little firefly — perhaps designed to imitate the actual magic bug resting in her purse, would be a good desk decoration.
Marinette could feel the air growing thick with suspension as she gently lifted her hand off the joystick and pressed the parallel button for the claw to grab at the toys below.
It caught onto something! Her smile didn’t dim in the slightest when she saw it was the mischievous looking Arctic fox with orange accents, any of the little things would do… but then…
It. Slipped. Free.
Marinette’s eye twitched almost immediately, and she had to resist the urge to scream. There was a kids birthday party going on deeper into the arcade in one of its party rooms, and she didn’t want to make a scene! Let alone over something this small… but…
She narrowed her eyes at the cheaply made figurines, staring up at her through their small plastic bubble prisons. “One of these days…” she muttered bitterly as she sifted through her purse for more coins. Those were her last ones. Ugh. “One of these days, I’m gonna—”
…Bump into someone by accident while swearing revenge on an arcade game that’s probably a scam anyway, apparently.
“Oh, uh, sorry! I wasn’t looking where I was going and, and… uh…” No amount of mental apology rehearsals could’ve prepared Marinette for the sight before her. She watched, eyes wide like a fish, as the person she’d accidentally disturbed lifted up their glasses to reveal the unmistakable (and cute) face of Felix Sphinx.
Oh, for the love of…
“Oh! It’s fine, Marinette!” Ohhh his smile was too adorable, but why is it making her legs feel like they’re cemented into the ground… he sounded happier than usual too.
Wait. Go back to that. What was Felix even doing here?!
Marinette blinked, not realizing she was staring until Felix tilted his head. Cute!! Ugh, stop being so adorable she can’t focus! “Is everything okay…?” He asked, looking a bit confused.
“What are you doing here?!” she exclaimed, going pink in the face when she realized she’d been a bit too loud. She looked at the small crowds of kids clustered around some of the machines, making sure nobody was watching, then stood up on her tiptoes to whisper into Felix’s ear. “Your father hates arcades, Felix! How did you get here?”
Felix said nothing, then grinned slyly. He flicked his glasses back over his eyes and ruffled up his hair. “I…think you have me confused for someone else.”
“Ohhh.” Marinette returned the smirk, understanding what he meant without the need for an explanation. “I get it!”
Felix smiled brightly, and while she wasn’t able to see his eyes, Marinette could feel a similar twinkle meeting hers. “Yeah, I uh… I had to be a bit sneaky to get past him, I guess you could say.”
Marinette’s grin didn’t falter for a second. “You’re much more of a rebel than I thought!” She playfully nudged his shoulder then walked up to the counter to get more coins. Thankfully she had enough money to—
Wait a minute.
Uh oh.
The crane game!!
The toy she’d eventually win and give to him was supposed to be a surprise!!! She didn’t expect Felix to just— break out of his own room and come here of all places! Ohh, it was all ruined now…!!
Unless.
Unless.. she didn’t tell him her plans.
There’s an idea.
Marinette had tuned out what Felix was saying as she anxiously twirled her finger over her pendant charm repeatedly, a nervous habit she developed when she was deep in thought but couldn’t keep her hands busy with work. Was he asking her something? He looked like he was. But then again, he was wearing sunglasses of all things inside like some kind of lunatic. A very cute and dense lunatic, but still!!
“So, what are you up to?” Felix asked, eyeing the pile of coins she scooped into her purse. Marinette flinched, nervous at the thankfully quiet ‘oof!’ from Tikki being bombarded with the change. She had to come up with something! And quick!
“Oh, uh, you know, the usual!” She laughed, awkwardly trying not to look suspicious. “Playing my favorites, killing some time.”
“Could you show me?”
“Huh?”
“Your favorites! I’ve never been so I don’t know which ones are the best.”
Marinette blinked, then smiled. Perfect! Ohh this was perfect in multiple different ways!
“Well, allow me to give you a tour!!”
She led him to the right corner of the arcade, handing half of the coins she bought to Felix when they arrived at her (second) favorite machine.
It was seated right across from the neon air hockey machine with a penguin motif, and was evidently also developed by TsuTech. It had the same off brand Faerie designs Kagami was talking about a while ago, something about mascots specifically made to catch the attention of little kids obsessed with her alter ego in spots.
“So with this one,” Marinette began, putting a coin into the slot and putting on her best focused expression as it let out a jingle. “You have to reflect the faeries’ attacks back at them and try not to get hit. After you hit them three times, they join you so you can hit multiple targets.”
“Huh,” Felix mused quietly, sounding a bit awkward himself. He was probably nervous about potentially getting caught, poor guy… “Interesting…”
“The ticket output is—” Marinette groaned mid sentence, failing at hitting a pixelated ball of red energy back at the moth enemy on screen. She sighed as the somewhat condescending game over tune chimed through. “…Based on how many you can get to join your team. I’ve never gotten that far.”
“The ticket output… so that’s how you get the stuff from behind the counter then, is it?” Felix pondered aloud, humming to himself in assurance as he thought it over.
“Did you see a prize you wanted back there?” Marinette asked, trying not to fidget with her necklace again as she tested the waters.
“Ah, um, well, maybe…?” Felix fake coughed to hide his face, but it wasn’t enough to hide the blush that creeped up into his barely hidden smile. How could he get any cuter, Marinette didn’t know. “There’s someone I really really like a lot, but I don’t know if we’ll ever get to talk as frequently in the future. So I thought maybe if I won them a prize, maybe they’d have something…” he hesitated, still red in the face. “S-Something… nice, to remember me by, I suppose.”
As if his genuine warmth and kind heart couldn’t charm her any more than he already did, Marinette’s eyes lit up at his earnest response. “Aw, Fe, that sounds sweet! You should totally go for it! What were you thinking of getting them?”
“Uh…that one…?” He pointed over to the ticket counter, sounding more like a question. He pointed to a yellow cat plushie with red accents that took up a good chunk of the upper shelving. Upon a second look, it appeared to have a lemon and strawberry cake motif, the ‘whiskers’ sewn onto it looked like woven in icing patterns, and the spot over its eye was the flower of a strawberry plant. Absolutely adorable!!
Aaaand it cost about 3,000 tickets… Oh dear.
The weight and smell of the small pile of metal in her hands hadn't become more apparent to Marinette until that very second as she continued to stare at the cat plush. She didn’t think she’d have enough to win it with just this, but… but the look on Felix’s face as he gazed at it, the neon lights of the clustered machines around them, and how his smile carried a familiar feeling of longing…
She couldn’t not help him, even if it broke her heart to know that the grand prize wouldn’t be for her specifically. Marinette was an explosion extraordinaire, and all her contraptions would go wrong if the day ended in y! Someone as wonderful as Felix wouldn’t like a walking ball of energy like her, at least not the way she liked him…
It’s times like these when she wished she could ask Chat Noir for advice about this, he was the cheesy sort.
In the distracting haze of spiraling thoughts, Marinette hadn’t noticed that one: she’d been fidgeting with her necklace again, and two: half of the pile of tokens was gone… and so was Felix.
He’d walked on ahead, getting closer and closer to the machine of that one Cosmobug show that Brie kept watching on repeat, and the game that was a ridiculously hard mind killer disguised as a cat mascot wanting to nab as much cheese in a maze while dodging evil fireflies.
As she ran to him, he’d stopped in front of one of the bigger machines. A crank game with the fitting name of Blipp’s Treasure Grove. It had the firefly faerie she was trying to win earlier as the mascot, and Marinette had to wonder if all the games here were made by TsuTech…
“This one,” Felix said, pointing to the painted, plastic eyes of Blipp the firefly as the machine went through how to play. “This is how I’m going to win that prize.”
“Uh, Felix,” she began, smiling nervously as she caught onto this game’s catch immediately. He could try at this thing for hours, but he wouldn’t land on the biggest number. Especially not with the small area for the arrow to land on… “I think this one’s a sca—”
“I’m gonna win it! I’m gonna get the jackpot!!” He exclaimed, slipping a token in and cutting Marinette off as the wheel began spinning. He grabbed the crank with both his hands then pushed it down with all his strength, so much so that he almost appeared winded.
He watched as the wheel spun, and Marinette tried not to look away as it slowed down more… and more… until…
“What a shame! 6 tickets isn’t that bad, though!” The machine trilled, spitting out six tickets from the respective slot. All Felix was doing was squinting at the arrow in abject frustration, pointing at the very edge of the 3,000 ticket jackpot line.
He looked from the arrow, to Marinette and back several times. “What.” He said, his tone clearly upset but more so shocked that he didn’t get the amount he wanted.
“That’s just the name of the game, I guess…” she said apologetically, grabbing him by the elbow to lead him away from it… but he wouldn’t budge, and Marinette nearly tripped over a passing little boy on his way to the prize counter.
She of course apologized profusely to the mother with him, and Felix gritted his teeth as he watched the child exchange his tickets for a blue dog plushie on the middle shelves. The paper crown on his head clued Marinette in on the obvious, that had been the birthday boy in the party room.
“Felix, I—” she was interrupted again by the machine coming to life and the wheel spinning. Felix didn’t acknowledge her, tightening his grip on the crank, then pushing it down. He let go, crossing his fingers as he waited for it to stop.
“Woah! 30 tickets! That’s pretty good!”
Felix let out an audible groan of frustration at the number, and Marinette could’ve sworn there was a fire in his eyes that hadn’t been there when he started. He really was locked in, wasn’t he…
Perhaps letting her thoughts wander back there was a mistake… oops.
“Uh, Felix,” she tried, trying to get him to look at her instead of the game. “I don’t think this will—”
“Ohh, I’m not giving up on this. There’s a way to win this thing. All comes down to luck.” He said, holding up another token in between his fingers. “Maybe I just have to watch…”
He continued muttering to himself about luck and spin strength, and as much as she loved listening to Felix talk about things he really really got into, Marinette had half a pile of coins of her own and a cheesy faerie toy to win from that crane game.
“I’ll, uh, be over by the dating simulator, near the entrance.”
“Alright.” He didn’t even look at her, and part of Marinette wished he didn’t see that game in particular.
Sighing as she walked back to the crane machine, she couldn’t help but stare at Felix through the glass. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but by the way he was looking at the wheel and strolling around the machine, he was serious.
He really wasn’t going to stop until he had the jackpot, was he…
Focus, Marinette! Focus! You had a plan earlier! Win him something for his desk!
She shook her head, slipping a coin into the slot. Alright, UFO or whatever your name is, give her some good luck.
Marinette moved the joystick carefully and slowly, aiming for a few near the middle. Any one of them would be good, but she thought the puppy one would be the best option. It was cute, just like him, and maybe…
Her expression turned somber as the thought crossed her mind. Maybe… maybe when she wasn’t Ladybug anymore, maybe when the broken orb holding all the Faerie was fixed, when her mistake was fixed, maybe then she could be honest with him… maybe she could tell him her identity.
Maybe later… but not right now.
Marinette continued fiddling with the joystick for a second, until the shriek of a crying child startled her, pushing the crane into one of the corners and out of reach of any prizes…
She tried to refocus on getting it back to where it was, but the sound of the arcade’s door being violently pushed open caused her to press the button on accident… and the claw, of course, latched onto nothing but disappointment, and Marinette’s face soured.
She didn’t have a long time to complain however, as she felt the ground shake just slightly. She knew those vibrations by now, and ran outside.
Yup. Akouma time.
Looks like the birthday boy from earlier didn’t get to have a cake specially made for him since no outside food was allowed, because a child sized knight clad in chocolate bark armor kept commanding a giant dragon-like creature with a cherry for a head to breath nauseating amounts of powdered sugar onto parts of Paris, turning a concrete jungle into sprawling layers of multiple flavored cake…
Sheesh, Marinette had a sweet tooth too, but the air almost felt too sickening to smell…
Nothing a little bit of Ladybugging couldn’t fix, though.
Marinette snuck into an alleyway, transformed, and deployed her Bug Zapper fully loaded with the Heat Core in its barrel.
Ladybug sprung into action immediately, pressing into the trigger of her flamethrower as the knight turned a nearby hotel into a chocolate bar cube. It of course startled the kid long enough for Ladybug to get a good look at him.
The cherry dragon faerie flew in circles above the knight, trilling about the desserts they’d get to eat together once they got rid of her…
‘So this faerie is a bit greedy, huh…’ she thought, jumping back just as the dragon spewed out another breath of powdered sugar. ‘I think… I’ve got an idea, now where’s Chat…’
Ladybug jolted as another blow of sugary death barely missed her, but hit just enough of her raygun to turn the grappling hook into a rope of useless licorice with three sour candied orange slices tied to it.
Cursing under her breath, she ran for the now transformed arcade as she remembered a horrifying truth hitting her like she hit the cobblestone turned wafer cracker street…
Felix was in there!
She needed to find him in case—
He…was gone.
Felix was gone, and unlike the gingerbread statue that had been made of the cashier and other poor children, he was nowhere to be found. Not even beneath the gummy candy prize counter.
Before Ladybug could even find time to panic, a dark hole began to eat away at the shortbread walls, and a hand grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her in.
“Chat!” She shouted, her voice not echoing but also not feeling lost to the wind. “Where have you been?!”
She could see his face clearly by how his eyes glowed in the dark of his portals, and Ladybug secretly hoped he could see her own pouty expression too.
“Look, I got… kind of preoccupied with something, okay? I’m sorry I took so long.” He sounded apologetic, but part of Ladybug wanted to be petty and not accept it…
Gah, she couldn’t stay too mad at him, but still.
“If you didn’t grab me, I’d be a gingerbread statue like those kids back there!” She huffed, lightly smacking him on the shoulder.
“Would it be inappropriate to say you’re already sweet enough?” He teased, winking as he led her out of the portal, the other end at a part of Paris that wasn’t reduced to a dentist’s nightmare. “Have you got any ideas?”
“Well, I know none of them will be using my Bug Zapper—” she sighed, holding out the licorice rope and orange candies… only for Chat Noir to swoop down like a shark and swallow the fruit candies whole. “Chat!!”
“Sorry,” he mumbled in between both chewing and slurping what used to be her grappling hook rope like an overly long noodle. “I haven’t eaten lunch yet.”
Ladybug sighed, putting her grappling hook away. She could spend all the time in the world complaining later. She had a job to do, and none of it could be advanced by using licorice rope.
“So, my idea for how to fix this…” she began, eyeing the wall she’d just stepped out of, then pointed at Chat. “Your portals.”
“Uh, I hate to rain on your parade today Spots, but I don’t think I can make a portal big enough to—”
“No, no!” She laughed, then pointed to the dragon in the distance, mid breath of powdered sugar. She nodded up at how the beast didn’t seem to move or change directions. “I need your portals… to be targets.”
“Targets?”
“Remember what you told me about your personal void being ‘infinite on the inside’?”
Chat blinked, then a quiet “Oh! Right!” escaped him before he charged his claws with the same dark energy he alone had control over. It charmed Ladybug to a degree that his magic affinity and her tech proficiency worked in sync far more often than what she expected.
She figured maybe she should recommend Felix as a potential brainstormer. He kinda liked magic too, so maybe they’d get along. They’d probably nerd out over power systems with Chat’s spells and Felix’s love for media with elemental magic.
“There,” Ladybug pointed to one of the larger buildings, a somewhat gaudy hotel that looked like it’d cost half a million euros just for one person to stay one night. They were in the rich people's corner of Paris again, weren’t they. Why’d he always exit over here of all places? Shaking her head so she wouldn’t get distracted, Ladybug continued. “That’s where I want it to be. Keep this one end open, close the other, I’ll lead the big guy to you and distract it!”
“So you want that thing to breathe its sugary death sentence into one of my—” he grinned, determined as he got what Ladybug was getting at. “I don’t call this spell Black Hole for nothing!!”
He bounded up to one of the higher balconies, then slashed his charged claws down the wall he slid off, making a portal just about the same width as the breaths of sugar. Perfect.
Ladybug shot him a thumbs up which he returned as she ran off to lead the dragon to him.
It worked like a charm, using two smaller bug drones to distract it. The dragon was actually trying to swat at it like some kind of cat, and Ladybug smirked. This plan was fool proof!
She guided the drones into Chat’s portal, which just as she planned, the dragon followed, taking a big enough breath and blowing it out into the endless void.
Perfect!!
Beaming with pride, Ladybug set off two ultra-powered bug-bombs, fireworks and light strings bursting from the pink tinged smoke. The lights melted the candy covered city, fireworks breathing life back into the gingerbread people, and finally — the smoke caused the chocolate knight to still and start sniveling from regret.
Ladybug bent down to the kid and lightly hugged him as the armor melted away too. “It’s alright, you didn’t mean it.” She smiled, producing a spotted handkerchief from her utility belt. “What got you so upset?”
“My… my birthday cake… it got thrown away…” He sniffed, wiping his eyes.
“Did your maman bake it?” Chat asked, a tad exhausted as the portal fizzed away. The kid nodded, and Ladybug’s face turned into one that said ‘ohhh’ without the need for words.
“I get why you’re sad, but the arcade had a ‘no outside food allowed’ rule.” She said, trying not to sound like she was downplaying the boy’s feelings. “That’s why it got thrown away.”
“B-but… she worked so hard on it for today…”
“Well, who says you can’t just bake something just because?” She replied, smiling with her hands on her hips. The boy blinked, confused.
“You can have cake when it’s not your birthday?”
For a moment, Ladybug could’ve sworn Chat looked jealous before responding. “Well yeah! It could be something you and your family do together!”
The boy’s eyes now burned with determination. “I can bake a cake anytime with my mom!! We can make like 20!!”
“Just don’t overdo yourself, okay?” Ladybug said, and Chat nodded.
“Don’t make yourself sick.” He added.
The boy nodded and ran off, a cherry red sparkle of a faerie following after him. Ladybug knew that not very many people could see it, at least, she thought they wouldn’t since Sun and Moon Stones were a rarity after Faerie formation, but she saw all those little flickers, all those little sparks of dreams and wishes blossoming together without a set form.
“Soooo,” Chat began, teetering on his heels and holding his hands behind his back. “You know how I said I was preoccupied with something earlier?”
She turned to look at him, confused at what he was getting at. “Yes…?”
“I got you something.” He smiled with pride, then opened a portal behind him, diving head first and his lower body sticking out. “Give me a minute, I’ll find it!!”
“Alright then!” Chat got her something? What could that be? Another rose? Some chocolates? He was a silly but sweet guy, so those over the top gestures were right up his alley.
“Got it!” He said, and Ladybug turned around to ask what it was…
Only to be met, cheek to plush fabric, with a lemon colored cat… that had a strawberry blossom sewn spot over its eye.
She took the plush cat in her arms, staring at its face, then Chat’s, his face radiating the same relaxed sunshine aura that the gift did.
“It took me a while to figure out, but I was able to get it for you with enough strategy.” He chuckled. “I-it was a game prize, I mean.”
Ladybug had to fight every single urge her internally screaming brain had to yell out his name as all sense left her.
“I—” she began, not even sure where she was going. “Uhhh…” Don’t say it. Don’t say it, Marinette. Don’t you say it…
Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.
“I love it… thank you.” The words fell out of her mouth without her noticing, but they were genuine and softer than she thought.
“I’m glad.” Chat smiled warmly at her words, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Now, you’ll have a little piece of me with you…I-if we ever part ways.”
Another knife to her heart stabbed and twisted into her bloodstream at the comment. She wasn’t sure if she should confirm the change of plans at this news known only to her…
“Th…” sticky webs of taffy and sweetness threaded into her heart as she hugged the cat close, turning bitter from the guilt she couldn’t come clean about yet. “Thank you…”
“Any time, Bug.” Chat nodded to himself, pressing his hand into a nearby wall and opening a portal, then taking a bow in front of it. “Well Spots, I bid you adieu.”
He vanished into the darkness he created, then it fizzled out, leaving Ladybug to process her thoughts… and detransform.
Needless to say, Marinette’s thoughts were swirling no less when she returned to her spot near the UFO crane game, the cat Felix had been eyeing gone from its post…
She didn’t say anything, reserving the screaming for her thoughts, and slipped a coin into the slot. Focus. Don’t look at the cute gift from your even cuter crush, Marinette.
She felt like she got a good angle, pressing the button as the claw descended, then latched onto a red and black dalmatian that had a clover spot over its eye.
Hmph… red and black.
She hated to acknowledge how warm yet loud those colors made her thoughts. She knew he’d like something like that, because he liked…
B-because… Felix.. liked…
Suddenly, Marinette was grinning at more than just the crane actually grabbing onto something and getting close to the chute.
She wasn’t even paying attention to the person calling her name as her smile reached ear to ear… then it fell. Right next to the chute…
Her optimism deflated nearly immediately, then brushed up against someone as she turned around…
The sight of Felix this close to her after the things she figured out dyed her face the warmest shade of pink as she bolted back, nervous and unable to voice her thoughts.
But, luckily, she didn’t have to.
He took one look at the cat plush sitting at her feet up against the console, then looked at her, and smiled…
He was blushing too, actually… how cute.
“I don’t suppose you’d need a little help from another portal?” He joked, his tone meant to try and take the edge off.
“Uh… no,” she replied, looking anywhere but at his eyes. The pile of coins was smaller than when she last saw it. She’d only assumed that some kids got to it before the akouma attacked, but she didn’t mind. “Look, Felix, I—”
Before she could finish, Felix nearly tackled her in a hug, laughing almost in relief…
“I’m so… so glad it’s you…” he said quietly, his voice slightly shaky. Was he crying…? “Really, I… I really am.”
“You’re… uh…” Marinette didn’t know how to respond as she returned the embrace, shocked at more than one thing now. Why was he crying…? “You’re not surprised…?”
“Honestly, I’m just not letting that reaction set in yet… just let me celebrate…”
“We’re in public…”
“Oh, uh…” he took a breath to compose himself, then slowly let go of his embrace. “S-sorry, I’m just…really happy that there’s nothing else between us anymore.”
Part of her heart glowed at how genuine he was, but part of it broke as she realized that she couldn’t hold this back anymore.
“There is… one thing, Felix.” She said, guilt twisting into cotton candy webs of relief as she went over what she was going to say. “I didn’t think I’d ever get to see Chat again either, after all this was over…”
He looked down at her, his expression so soft yet worried that she couldn’t look him in the eyes, but at the same time she did, a game of push and pull that Marinette wanted to give up. “What do you mean…?”
“I-I was going to ask for Plagg to return to me w-when…” she swallowed, fighting her eyes to not tear up. “W-When Papillon is…”
She couldn’t finish her sentence before she started crying silently, part in relief, part in guilt, part in regret, she couldn’t discern between the emotions she felt stewing as she confessed.
Marinette felt Felix’s tight but warm embrace surround her again, an embrace she returned almost immediately as the moment was quite literally held in between them…
“I-I’m sor—”
“Shh,” he soothed, not sounding the slightest bit upset. Marinette wasn’t sure if that fact made her hold him tighter out of guilt. “It’s okay. You don’t…” he sounded almost worried as his voice quieted down. “You don’t plan on doing that now… I-I hope…”
“No…” she sniffed. “No, I don’t.”
“Good…” Felix released the embrace, but they lingered together in the closeness for just a moment, then he took a breath to change the subject completely. “Anyway, what’s this one?” He pointed to the UFO logo, then the claw. “You never showed me this game.”
Marinette felt knots of sweet and sour feelings thread itself into her throat, pink in the cheeks but not flustered to the point of panic. She could do this. She could tell him now…
“This game doesn’t give tickets,” she began, her voice soft as she smiled at him. “Those toys in there are what you get for winning…” Her expression grew irritated as she glared at the claw. “If you actually get one to the chute, that is. Hmph…”
Felix looked at her, then dug through his pockets and pulled out a coin. “Here,” he said, placing it in her hand. “It’s my last one, figured it might give you some good luck like the one before it gave me.” He looked down at the plushy sitting up against the console.
Marinette smiled, then put the final coin for the day into the slot. More determined than ever, she aimed the claw for the black spotted red dog. When it looked to be at juuust the right angle, she pressed the button and covered her eyes.
“Ohh, I can’t look!” Marinette stammered, nearly flinching as she heard something that made her hands retreat from her face.
A tumble.
A light thump against something metallic.
Then finally, the whirring of the machine as it returned the claw to its position in the back.
She didn’t hear the tumble before… Did that mean—?!
Marinette whipped around to the game, bent down to the chute, and opened the hatch at the bottom. Sitting in its corner was a little capsule, held within it was a red and black spotted dog.
She did it!!
Marinette grabbed the toy and held it out to him. Felix looked at her, confused for a moment as he pointed to his face.
She nodded at him, insistent. He took the capsule from her, staring at the plastic toy in bewilderment, but not offense. Marinette grabbed her bag and the cat plush he’d won for her, then used its paw to lightly bop him on the nose.
“There.” She said, grinning. “Now we’re even.”
Felix’s face became dusted a deep pink, just like hers, but the flustered look in his eyes and the way he covered his mouth with his free hand made Marinette’s inner gremlin beam with pride. Heheheh. Gotcha, Felix. Bullseye to the heart.
“S-So, where to next…?” He coughed. It sounded fake and was clearly an attempt to disguise his stammering. She really got him with that one, didn’t she?
“Well, since we’ve both got what we wanted to do…” her voice trailed off as she glanced at the tiny prize in Felix’s hands, then the plush toy clutched in hers. “I was thinking of going back home, so…”
Felix pocketed the gift and averted her gaze, the same thing he did when he had something to say but was deliberating if he should. “So… that’s a no?”
“To what?”
“A second…” he did the fake coughing bit again, the pink in his face turning red. “A second date…?”
Now it was Marinette’s turn to get shot in the heart, because that was even smoother than she was a second ago.
“I mean… unless you want to, uh… plan one?”
Felix finally met Marinette’s eyes again, smiling with all the warmth of a sunbeam in spring as they walked out of the arcade, not even aware of the fact that they were holding hands. “I’d love to, Marinette… we can talk about it later, if you want.”
“I’d like that.”
So they left, walking hand in hand to Marinette’s apartment on cloud nine, and even when they were no longer in each other’s presence, the warm feeling still lingered.
Light and warm in her heart and mind, Marinette made a beeline for her room in the attic and sent Felix a text, planning a second date with the boy who her friends didn’t know was also a dork in cat ears…
Man, Alina’s comment a while ago about Chat being way classier than Felix was pretty funny to think about now…
Both of his sides were dorks, but they were also classy in their own right, she supposed.
Nevertheless, Marinette smiled at her phone as Felix replied to her texts, and sat the strawberry lemon cat plush next to her pillows.
Ahh, today was a good day. She won something for Felix like she planned, and Felix won something for the girl he liked too.
The true grand prize of today though, was the planned second date a few days later at the movies with Felix, her best friend, both in and out of the mask.