Chapter Text
Félix and Adrien are sitting next to each other in Adrien’s limo on the way to school. Adrien’s scrolling on his phone while Félix sits there in the awkward silence. He can’t get his mind off of Marinette and how his cousin, who he thought was a great guy, treats her. He can’t get the image of her slight smile out of his head.
“So, Adrien, I was wondering… How did you and Marinette meet?”
“Well, we met in 10th grade when I first started going to public school. Chloe put gum on her seat-”
“Why would she do that?”
“She’s a bitch.”
“Adrien, I’ve known Chloe my whole life, I know that. I mean why Marinette?”
“Apparantly she’s bullied Marinette since middle school and this was a normal thing for her.”
“Jesus, and I thought Chloe was bad before…”
“Anyway, I was taking the gum off of her seat when Marinette came in. She was really pissed at me even when I tried to explain I was taking the gum off, not putting it on.”
“Wow, how’d you guys recover from that?”
“At the end of the day it was pouring down rain and she didn’t have an umbrella. As a peace offering I offered her mine and swore to her I was taking the gum off, and the rest is history.”
“Wow… I never would have thought you guys would have such extensive history. How’d you guys even end up dating though? I mean, based on that story I would assume you were just friends.”
Adrien laughs, “I thought that too, until last summer when she asked me out during a beach trip with our friend group. She said she was expecting me to reject her! Isn’t that crazy? She was the most popular girl in school and one of the prettiest and she thought I would reject her?!”
If she’s so amazing why do you treat her like shit?! Félix thinks, something he would probably never say out loud.
They pull up to the school and meet Marinette by the bottom of the stairs.
“Hey, Marinette! Good to see you again,” Félix says with a smile.
“Hi, Félix,” Marinette says blushing.
“Well, what am I? Chopped liver,” Adrien says, chuckling to himself as Marinette awkwardly laughs. She stretches up and kisses him softly on his lips, smiling up at him.
As they walk into the school Félix notices the glares Marinette receives and assumes it’s because she’s dating Adrien, which is the only logical explanation. Why would someone as sweet and wonderful as Marinette be hated?
He waves goodbye to the two lovers as he heads to his homeroom, unfortunately different from his only friends’.
Félix walks into his science class, his last class of the day, and scans the room for Marinette or Adrien. He spots Marinette alone in the very back of the room, looking like she’s about to cry. She looks up and notices Félix and her mood shifts instantly, she smiles and waves him over and he happily obliges.
“Félix, I’m so glad you’re in this class! I have way too many classes with no friends so I’m glad I can take science off the list, especially since Mendeleiev makes it annoying enough as it is.”
“I’m happy to see you too, Marinette,” he laughs, causing her to immediately turn bright red.
“Oh, no not like that! It’s just that other than homeroom and math, Adrien has a completely different schedule and since he’s the only person who actually likes me-”
“Woah, woah! What do you mean he’s the only person who likes you? Adrien said you were the most popular girl in school!”
“I was… I was until Lila-”
“Oh, I wouldn’t sit next to her, blondie. She’ll fill your head with lies,” Alya says, sneering towards Marinette.
“I don’t see what you mean. I met her over the weekend since she’s my cousin’s girlfriend and she seems perfectly honest,” Félix replies, looking over at a weirdly distressed Marinette.
“Oh, that’s what we all thought… Until she pushed poor Lila down the stairs and stole her dead grandmother’s necklace!”
“Alya please! You know there was never any actual evidence of those claims so please don’t fill the first new person I meet’s head with them!”
“Marinette, I am saving him from the same betrayal we felt!”
“I never betrayed any of you! Lila’s a liar, a manipulator! If anything you betrayed me by picking her over me, your best friend.”
“Marinette, I stopped being your best friend the day you pushed Lila down the stairs despite her never doing anything to you.”
“Well, Alya, in that case you’re still my best friend because I never pushed Lila down the stairs,” Marinette says, completely emotionless despite her eyes shining with tears.
“See, Marinette, it’s one thing to hurt someone but it’s another thing to blatantly lie about it.”
Marinette stands to match Alya’s height and puts her face extremely close to hers. “There’s nothing to lie about,” Marinette says in complete monotone.
Alya glares at her for a second before slapping Marinette so hard across the face that she stumbles backwards onto Félix.
Félix stares down at Marinette’s face and sees the bright red handprint on her face. He looks up at Alya and sees her smug look of satisfaction.
Without hesitating, he moves Marinette onto her own chair lightly before immediately springing up and pinning Alya to the wall. His arm is on her neck and he revels in the look of terror in her eyes. He hears classmates screaming behind him but he doesn’t care. He slaps Alya across the face the same way she slapped Marinette, only harder.
She starts crying and blubbering apologies but he doesn’t let her go.
Marinette stares, awestruck. She should be freaked out by the outburst but she’s not. She can’t help but think about how he’s the first person to stick up for her in a long time.
“Young man, what do you think you’re doing?!”
Marinette cringes at the sound of her teacher’s voice and watches Félix (unfortunately) release Alya.
“And on your first day of school, no less. Maybe this would’ve flown at your old school but it won’t fly here! You’re suspended!”
Marinette sighs, There goes my only friend.
Marinette and Adrien are waiting for Félix by the front steps of the school.
“Really, Marinette? You just had to get my cousin wrapped up in all of your bullshit.”
“Are you serious?! He stood up for me without me saying a word, something you would never do.”
“Excuse me?”
“Nothing,” Marinette says with an innocent smile.
“No, no, please elaborate. Tell me all of the ways my cousin would be a better boyfriend than me,” Adrien says, two seconds away from making a scene.
“Well, if you insist,” she says through gritted teeth, staring Adrien dead in the eye.
“Oh, dear, I hope I’m not interrupting…”
“Lila, what do you want?” Marinette diverts her scathing glare away from Adrien and towards Lila.
“Well, I just wanted to say how disappointed I am in you. I can’t believe you manipulated Adrien’s poor cousin into attacking Alya for no reason!”
“Oh, fuck off, Lila,” Marinette says with a quick roll of her eyes.
“I’m sorry?”
“I said fuck off, Lila. Shall I repeat myself?”
Lila gives a humph and storms off, flicking her auburn hair as she struts.
“Damn, that was hot.”
Marinette’s face goes bright red at the sound of Félix’s voice.
“Félix! I-I didn’t see you there…” she said, turning towards him and avoiding Adrien’s angry eyes.
“Guess who just bought his way out of suspension!”
Adrien shakes off his anger in a blink of an eye and smiles at his cousin. “There’s the cousin I know!”
“I’m so sorry about that whole suspension thing by the way,” Marinette says, tucking her dark hair behind her ear.
“You’re sorry? Marinette I’m sorry. I completely saw red back there, I just don’t know what happened… It was as if when she slapped you something in me snapped.”
Adrien slaps Félix on the back just hard enough to make him flinch. “Well, what are we doing just standing here? I say we see a movie to celebrate your descent into a life of crime.”
“Oh! There’s this movie that came out recently I really want to see,” Marinette says, eyes lighting up with excitement. “It’s about this girl who escapes a toxic relationship and starts dating a real life Prince Charming. Based on the trailers I can tell it’ll be a big tear jerker and the lead actress is-”
“Marinette. We’re celebrating Félix with this movie, aren’t we? And I think he really wants to see Sharks vs. Aliens vs. Robots 4, right, cuz?”
“I don’t know, Marinette’s movie sounded pretty cool. What was it called, Marinette?”
Marinette smiles at Félix, who responds with a sweet half smile. “I believe it was called The Glass Slipper,” Marinette says to Félix, barely even addressing Adrien.
“Alright, let’s do that! What do you think, Adrien?”
“Sure, I guess,” he says with a half-assed shrug. “Sounds pretty boring to me, though.”
“Well, good thing you said it’s my choice!”
“Yup! I did say that…”