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Maybe it is a bad idea to go through other people’s phone, especially your cousin. Felix didn’t expect to find so many pictures of the Ladybug themed heroine in his cousin’s phone. Yes, Felix is fun at parties, that’s why he is silently judging his cousin for being a fan, maybe a super fan, of a certain hero in Paris. Felix silently browsed through Adrien’s gallery, it’s all filled with pictures of that heroine. He continued scrolling, occasionally shaking his head and rolled his eyes, silently judging his cousin the more he went through his gallery.
Of course that idiot has a crush on a superhero.
Every time him, his mother, and his cousin are having a meal at the dining table, Felix tries so hard not to mock his cousin for letting out a few giggles, don’t forget his smiley cheery face too when he stares at his phone. Felix can guess already on what he is looking at, sure Adrien probably thinks no one around him is aware of that, but that’s where he is wrong.
It’s really pathetic, seeing his cousin smiling and giggling at his phone like some lovesick high school girl texting their lovers. Felix had to bite down his tongue to stop himself from throwing mean comments to Adrien. He wondered if his cousin is okay on the head to fall in love with a superhero, Felix can’t help but feel a sense of superiority over his cousin's childish behavior.
Days have passed and it keeps bugging Felix for some reason. Do people really fall in love with a face of a hero which they didn’t know who they really are beneath the mask? It’s weird, at least that’s what Felix thought. Whenever Felix spotted Adrien gushing over the superhero Ladybug he can’t help but feel irritated, he still can’t comprehend why would someone fall in love with a person they don’t even know, not to mention that they are also hiding their real identities behind their mask.
There’s this one night where Felix is having some trouble sleeping because of that thought, it’s bugging him to the point he kept tossed and turned on his bed, trying to push the thought away. He shouldn’t be this frustrated over something so… unimportant.
When Felix is already done with his class of the day, he often goes to the library and stays there until some time. In the middle of his reading, a few rushing steps can be heard by him, at first he shrugged it off but then a few shouts can also be heard and his nose catches the smell of smoke, that’s when he realized the library was on fire. He was still trying not to over panicking at the situation as he packed up his things.
He quickly ran towards the library entrance door but unfortunately the fire already spread to the point it blocked the entrance door. Felix cursed under his breath as he scanned his surroundings, looking for any other exit and he spotted a nearby window. He can’t help but cough as he is starting to suffocate because of the smoke as he walks towards the window, he keeps coughing even when he opens the window.
Felix widened his eyes when he felt two arms reaching out for him from the outside and pulled him, one of the arms is now around his waist probably to prevent him from falling.
“Are you okay? Is there anyone else inside?”
No… she is not Ladybug.
Ladybug doesn’t have those sharp horns and golden eyes. He also noticed the heroine in front of him has scales on her suit. Felix was struck by the sight of her, speechless as she kept holding him by his waist.
“Yeah… I’m okay, though I don’t know if there’s still anyone inside, the smoke made it difficult to see.”
She nods at his answer before she went to the ground and put him down. Felix then leaned himself against a nearby railing, he silently watching, or maybe admiring, the heroine as she walked away from him to do her job. He never seen her before, he doesn’t even know that she ever existed. She’s so cool, that’s what Felix thought before he shakes his head trying to get that thought out of his head. Felix observes the situation on how there are some fire fighters who finally arrived as well in the scene, he is looking towards the heroine as she talked to one of the fire fighters.
Would it be weird if he wanted to look her up later? No, Felix is not… falling in love with a masked heroine like his stupid cousin, that would be hypocritical of him, right?
Felix froze in his place when his eyes met with the heroine’s, he didn’t expect her to turn her head and look at him too. He can feel his heartbeat thumping loudly as the heroine’s walking closer towards him, oh God what is he supposed to do.
“Are you okay? If you don’t mind me asking again.”
“Do you have a name?”
Felix glad the heroine in front of her probably doesn’t know that he is mentally cursing himself right now. He can’t believe he let his intrusive thoughts take over.
“You can address me as Ryuko.” She chuckled lightly before asking again, “now, are you okay? Did you get hurt inside perhaps?”
Felix blinked and shook his head, “I’m okay, don’t worry much. Though I’m not gonna lie but feel a bit sad, the renovation for this library is probably gonna take awhile.”
Ryuko turns her head to look at the library, really different from what it was before, the building sure takes a lot of damage from the fire earlier.
“You really like this place, huh?” She asked him.
“Yeah, I come here almost everyday. Not to mention I am still new to this city, so I don’t know much around here, let alone another library.” He explained to her. Felix can’t hide the disappointment in his voice, he has grown fond of the quiet and comfortable atmosphere of the library, seeing the building is now badly damaged makes him sad.
Ryuko smiles as she places her hand on his shoulder while looking at him, “I know another library around here, would you like me to take you there?”
Felix’s heart skipped a beat when she touched his shoulder. What is wrong with him? He feels like he needs to get up from the situation.
“Sure, do you bring your cards with you?”
Ryuko raised an eyebrow, “for what?”
“For the bus?”
Ryuko laughs, in which her laughter rings in Felix’s ear.
“Who said anything about taking a bus?”
In just a second, she wrapped her arm around his waist and pulled him closer. Her arms around his waist felt so gentle and… something new to him.
“Hold on tight, okay?”
Felix stares at her for a while before his arms go up wrapped around her neck, he then nods at her.
It’s been a month since Felix last saw Ryuko, it shouldn’t be a big deal for him since he told himself that it’s stupid to be so interested in someone he barely knows about, so he mentally scolds himself whenever he thinks about her a little too much.
He shouldn’t be thinking about her at all.
It also makes him awake at night, tossing and turning on his bed while trying to think of something else, or maybe someone else. In his break times, sometimes he would search up about her on his laptop, though there is not much information about her even on the internet, she rarely made public appearances let alone her identity beneath her mask. Felix finally closed his laptop, slamming it down harder than necessary.
At one point an idea crossed his mind, should he set his cousin’s mansion on fire just to… hold on, did he even think? This feels ridiculous, he then ran his hands through his hair, feeling frustrated that he barely knows anything about her. Must be easy for Adrien since Ladybug often made public appearances, he thought.
On one evening at the weekend, Felix tries to relax a bit from the chaos his mind has for the past few weeks with three books he took from the library’s shelves, one of the books is being opened on his lap. He’s growing fond of the new library, it’s not exactly the same place like the library on his university, but it’s enough for him to kill his time there, he can say it’s a cozy place for him to clear his mind. Not even realizing it’s almost seven in the evening, he packed the three books that he borrowed into his bag and headed home.
It’s not that far from the mansion so he doesn’t mind walking while enjoying the evening breeze. Felix has his tab on his hands while walking, eventually he turns it on and opens the browser that already has many tabs about something, or rather someone. He can’t help it, he’s curious and the more he resists the more he wants to know more about the superhero, it’s been a week or so since he started to have those tabs of information about her.
Sure she might lack of public appearances but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know one or two things about her, like how in her wikipage it is stated that she might be a cat person, if not then make it someone who adores cats so much even the stray ones, there are several pictures of her patting cats on the streets and there are also pictures of her giving stray cats some decent cat food.
“Those cats are so cute, I doubt you can resist them too.”
Felix shivers at the voice behind, it made him turn off his tab immediately and keep his expression calm.
“It’s rude to take a peek at someone’s phone like that.”
“You’re holding a tab.”
“I think my point still stands.” He tried to sound nonchalant as possible, but beneath the surface his heart is currently pounding so hard than usual.
Ryuko chuckled, “fair enough.”
Felix turned his body so that he is now looking at her, he thinks it’s cute to see her looking up at him because he’s clearly taller than him. His eyes wandered anywhere but her, didn’t want to be seen as a creep in her eyes.
“Why are you out at this hour?” Felix asked without even looking at her.
“Ladybug called me earlier, just to check stuff up.”
He looked her in the eyes before he asked her a question out of curiosity, “so Ladybug calls you on daily to monitor things?”
“Oh wow, I didn’t expect to be interviewed.” She said jokingly.
“Just making conversation.” He smirked.
Ryuko smiled, “I was just joking. Sorry that I interrupted your time.”
“Interrupting me? Hardly, I was just walking home, nothing special.”
There’s silence between them after their little talks. Felix felt so awkward, he doesn’t know if the awkwardness is coming from a few minutes earlier where he gets caught searching her up on screens, or is it just from her presence alone that made him feel awkward. Ryuko smiles seeing him going quiet.
“Do you want me to walk you home?” She asked.
Felix doesn’t answer immediately, he just nods with his eyes fixated on hers before answering, “Sure, that would be nice.”
They began to walk side by side, the streets sure are quiet for a sunday night, not that Felix mind of course. These past days he tried to get to know her better only through online media and now he had her right next to him. His eyes secretly sneak glancing at the heroine figure beside him admiring her profile with careful so that she doesn’t notice.
“How’s the new library?” She asked that instead of calling him out.
“It’s not the exact same as my last one but… it’s not so bad either, I like it there, thanks for showing me a new place around here.”
She smiled at his response, “don’t mention it, I’m happy to help, you could even ask me to show you more places around here, Felix Fathom.”
“I see you too were looking up at me.” He said when she addressed him with his full name.
“I think everyone here knows about your name.” Ryuko chuckled.
“Right, shouldn’t be surprised.”
He can’t help but feel a little irritated at the thought of people around recognizing him because of his family reputation whatsoever, he never liked that a bit. Ryuko noticed the subtle change in his expression and tone, she could tell that he wasn't thrilled about his family name being well-known to the public, he is so much like her.
“You know I think I never said this to anyone but I don’t like my name syncing with my father’s name.”
Felix tensed up a bit since he blurted that out without thinking further, and immediately regretted it. He really didn’t want to let his guard down and express his true feelings with Ryuko. Now he is expecting her to tease him for being too dramatic, or better yet making jokes about him being a rich person from an influential family.
“Sorry if that sounds weird.”
“Not even the slightest, it’s okay, I understand.”
To his surprise, she seems to take his words seriously. He catches her looking at him studying his face with a thoughtful expression written on her. Seeing her look at him with those soft golden eyes made him feel like she actually understood what he meant.
“You do?”
“Kind of, though I’m not gonna go into details.”
Felix nods respecting her boundaries, just like she respects him.
There was something about her non-judgmental attitude that made him feeling funny inside, is it weird that he felt that way with her, with a superhero like her? She was practically untouchable and he was just… him. Eventually both of them came to a stop in front of his family mansion, which is what made him disappointed since he has to part ways with her.
“Looks like we’re here.” Ryuko was the one who spoke up first.
Felix tried to keep his voice steady as he spoke, “yeah, this is my stop.”
He paused as his gaze lingering on Ryuko while trying to say something, anything, to prolong their time just a little longer. Felix was about to open his mouth to speak but he can’t seem to find the right words. What should he say? “Hey, it was nice walking with you, how about we go out to the movies next time?” Yeah right that sounds soooo right, way to go Felix.
“You got something to say?” Ryuko asked.
Felix stands there awkwardly, trying to figure out how to answer such a basic question from her.
“Nothing… just, I had a good time walking with you, that’s all.” That came out better than what he expected.
Ryuko tilted her head and gave him a warm smile with a small wave as a farewell before she took steps back.
“Well, I’ll see you around, Felix.”
“See you around, Ryuko.”
Seems like he can’t deny it anymore, he lies in his bed after cleaning himself and having dinner downstairs. Felix staring at his bedroom ceiling, it just keeps getting harder for him to sleep at night especially after earlier.
Maybe he is also one of the idiots who has a crush on a superhero.