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starshine583 · 3 years

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New Girl on the Block (23)

(Welp, y’all, this is it. This is the last, pre-written chapter that I have written. From here on out we’re gonna have to rely strictly on my writing consistency and... I’m so sorry for that lol Because CLEARLY, if we’re on the last pre-written chapter, after having posted, like, three over the last month, we know that this isn’t gonna be good. BUT! I do have THIS chapter to give you! So please enjoy! And don’t forget to check out the mini series connected to this called Journal Entries!)

Ch.1 / Ch.22 / Ch.24 (ao3)

Chapter 23: How the Cards Fall

Marinette stared in horror at her former classmates, violently kicking herself for being so reckless. How could she forget that this was one of Alya and Nino’s favorite food carts too? She used to eat there with them all the time! She should have known better than to pick this place! Actually, she shouldn’t have picked anywhere to eat at all! Going to a place she used to enjoy meant going to a place where she used to hang out with her old friends, which meant eventually running into them, which meant- well - this! Oh, how could she be so stupid?

Maybe it won’t be so bad, she reasoned with herself before she could start hyperventilating. Maybe they’ll just roll their eyes and leave instead of making a scene.

But Alya was never one to back down from a (accidental) challenge. As soon as she realized her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her, a scowl etched itself onto her lips, and she started stomping in Marinette’s direction.

“It is you!” The red-head scoffed. “Oh, when I get my hands on you-”

Marinette flinched back, officially throwing breathing out the window. She looked at her current classmates and wondered what they would do if she ran, what they would think. Would they follow her or would they stay and talk with Alya? What if they started asking questions that Marinette couldn’t answer? What if Alya answered the questions before she could? Would they believe her? Was she going to have to find a new school again? What if Lila’s lies followed her there too? What if she never escaped Lila’s claims?

Suddenly, not breathing turned into breathing too fast, but before she could spiral further than gasping, a shadow passed over her.

It was Allan and Claude, coming to stand in front of her as a defense.

“Hey, woah!” Claude said, holding up his hands in a calming gesture. “Why don’t you back off a bit and tell us what’s got you so upset?”

A hand touched her shoulder lightly, and Marinette’s gaze snapped to Felix, who was now standing next to her. He met her eyes with a subtle raise of the eyebrows, and she knew what it meant.

“Are you alright?”

Marinette drew in a deep breath to steady herself and nodded, even though her insides felt like they were turning outwards at this point. Felix must have seen through her fib because his hand stayed on her shoulder as he looked back at Alya. His eyebrows were furrowed, which could be from his concern, but Marinette also knew curiosity when she saw it. He wants to know who these people are, and why they’re angry with her. And after everything she’s told him about her old school, he might be able to figure it out.

Alya briefly paused at the boys’ blockade, before raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms.

“So is this who you’re hiding behind now?” She asked, unimpressed. “Are these the new people you’ve managed to dupe?”

Marinette tensed, and Felix’s grip tightened on her shoulder. Whether that was a sign of support or his disgruntlement, she wasn’t sure.

“Are we supposed to know what that means?” Allegra, who had also come to stand next to Marinette, drawled.

“No.” Alya said. “Not yet, anyway. This one likes to wait until you’re in pretty deep before springing her trap.”

Marinette bit her lip, indignation rising in her chest. She didn’t deserve this. She hasn’t done anything wrong!

“Alya, that’s enough-” She tried to say, but Alya cut her off.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” The red-head snapped. “You don’t get to have a say anymore, not unless you’re willing to admit what you’ve done, what you really are.”

“Alya, come on.” Nino, who finally decided to join the conversation, coaxed. “L-Let’s just go. It’s not worth fighting over.”

Marinette might have been grateful had he not backed down right after when Alya shot him a glare.

“I’m going to assume you guys are her new classmates and friends.” Alya continued. “So let me tell you, as a former classmate and best friend, that this girl,” she pointed her finger accusingly at Marinette, “is a fraud.”

“That’s not true!” Marinette couldn’t help shouting.

Alya ignored her. “She makes herself look sweet and innocent by making you croissants or cookies and bringing you handmade gifts, but it’s all an act. All she really wants is the attention that the gifts bring, and when she doesn’t get it, she goes ballistic. I used to think she was the best thing in the world until a foreign exchange student came along and became more popular. Then she started stealing that person’s homework and ripping it up, or throwing her textbooks in the trash, or even tripping her down flights of stairs. One time we even caught her stealing personal items!”

“I didn’t do any of that!” Marinette insisted, more so to her friends than to Alya. “I told you she framed me!”

Alya scoffed. “You can’t even deny it anymore! Lila has all of the rude texts you’ve sent her, there were multiple witnesses to the tattered homework that was on your desk- myself included -and we all saw her take her family heirloom out of your locker.”

“That wasn’t a family heirloom! She literally bought that in a store two months before and then put it in my locker to frame me!”

Alya rolled her eyes and turned back to Claude and Allan. “Obviously, she’s going to make up whatever excuse she can to keep you from listening to me, but I advise you to dump her now while you can. She’ll make your life a living nightmare if she thinks you’re better than her somehow, though at this point,” Alya shot Marinette another scalding glare, “we all are.”

Tears burned in the corner of Marinette’s eyes, but before she could further argue her innocence, Claude spoke up.

“Ok, so what proof do you have of this?”

It was something she’d expected Felix to ask, honestly, and it left her staring at the brunette in shock. He was.. asking questions. The right questions. He wasn’t taking Alya’s words as gospel the way everyone else at Dupont had done with Lila’s words.

Alya frowned. “I already told you-”

“No, I don’t care about what you’ve said.” Claude interrupted. “You’re a stranger I just met, and Marinette is a good friend that I’ve known for a wonderful month and a half. I’m going to need more than your word.”

Alya narrowed her eyes at him, debating.

“Alright, fine. I’ll bring Lila here as a first hand account. She has the texts saved on her phone. As for the homework and such, those have already been replaced and done away with, but I do have the class president binder where several important forms are missing from Marinette burning them instead of giving them to Lila after leaving.”

Marinette had to bite her tongue to avoid laughing despite herself. Lila said that she burned some of the class papers? What would make her lie about something like that? Was it to get out of the work? Oh, boy, was that going to come back to bite her. She probably had to resign all of the ‘missing’ paperwork! Oh, this is the greatest thing Marinette’s ever heard. Hopefully, she said she lost a lot.

“Do you have the burnt papers?” Allan asked.

“No, of course not-”

“So, let me see if I’ve got this right,” Allegra said, her voice edging on annoyance, “we’re supposed to believe the account of a foreign exchange student, who we also don’t know, and who, apparently, brought out the worst in Marinette by herself even though no one had ever done so before, and the only actual proof you have, other than that girl’s word, is a series of texts that can easily be altered and a binder with some missing pages that ‘Lila’ could have misplaced or even burned herself. Is that correct?”

Alya scoffed. “You’re making it sound ridiculous.”

“No, I’m repeating what you’ve said to us, which is ridiculous.”

“She’s done other things too!” Alya insisted. “Just the other day she met up with one of my other friends and tried to persuade them into her clutches again, even though she had already transferred schools. Look-”

Alya pulled out her phone, and for once, Marinette looked on with interest as well. Lila making up a lie like that meant someone had to be going against her now, right? So who was it? Did someone mention Marinette’s name in an argument, and now Lila’s latching onto that as an advantage?

After a minute of searching, Alya flipped her phone around for them to see her screen, and the picture displayed on it made Marinette’s stomach drop.

“Woah, is that Adrien Agreste?”

The group, aside from Felix, leaned forward to see the picture better, but Marinette found herself leaning back, the blood draining from her features. That was a picture of her and Adrien at the café last Friday, but- but how did- when could they have possibly-

“Where did you get that?” She blurted out before she could stop herself.

Alya fixed her with a smug grin. “Look familiar? Lila took this while you and Adrien were having lunch last week. I’d been wondering why he was asking her so many questions about her stories, but now it all makes sense. You’ve been secretly coaxing him to your side again, and poor Adrien couldn’t resist. Even when I called him about the picture, he said he just wanted to be your friend again. I guess he always did see the best in everyone, though.”

Marinette felt sick to her stomach. How long was Lila with them in that café and Marinette didn’t even know it? How much did she overhear as Marinette blabbered on and on to Adrien about her current life? Did she know about Marinette attending Rosemary? Did she tell Alya about her attending Rosemary? How many people did she send that picture to?

She clutched for Felix’s hand on her shoulder, suddenly not trusting herself to stand, and he quickly put his other hand on top of hers. The comfort of his touch was appreciated, but not enough.

A burst of laughter cut into Marinette’s panic, and she turned to Claude who was all but rolling on the grass. He clutched his sides as he howled and even went as far as to wipe tears from his eyes.

“Wait a minute, wait a minute..” the brunette wheezed. “So you’re telling me, that Adrien Agreste, the fashion icon and heart throb of Paris, was in your class, but Marinette only started acting out after the foreign exchange student showed up? No offense to you, Mari, but I’m pretty sure a rich, young model would have been way more popular. How come she didn’t sabotage him?”

Alya faltered for a moment, not quite expecting the question and certainly not the laughter. “W-Well- I mean- she did have a major crush on him. Maybe she didn’t care that he was more popular than her because she liked him so much.”

Marinette felt her cheeks heat up out of embarrassment, but thankfully, no one touched on that subject. Instead, Allegra hummed and said, “Okay, fine. Assuming that’s true, what made Lila so popular?”

“Plenty of things.” Alya stated matter-of-factly. “She’s helped Prince Ali organize several charities, made petitions to save endangered animal preserves, is best friends with Ladybug-”

Marinette didn’t resist her eye roll.

“-and even saved Jagged stone’s kitten!”

Marinette glanced at Claude, who immediately deadpanned a “what”. She knew that if anyone was going to pick up the last line, it would be him.

“Jagged Stone never owned a kitten.” Claude said. “He’s allergic.”

“It was before he knew he was allergic.”

“He’s still never owned a kitten!” Claude exclaimed with a flail of his arms. “He’s only ever owned a crocodile! That’s been said in multiple interviews!”

“But-”

“And if we want to bring up charities, Prince Ali doesn’t organize any charities. He only donates to them.” Allegra pointed out.

“I-”

“And petitions to protect endangered animal preserves?” Allan echoed. “Those don’t need protection. They are set in stone by law.”

“I’m sure-”

“Look, you’ve clearly been given false information.” Claude said, crossing his arms, “and because you were dumb enough to believe the real attention-seeker, you’ve lost an amazing friend. Now I suggest you leave us alone before I report you to the authorities for harassment.”

Alya’s face twisted with rage. “Harrass- you know what? Whatever. I’ve done my part. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when she starts ruining your life out of jealousy.”

Marinette caught a glimpse of Claude clenching his fists, and Allan put a hand on the brunette’s shoulder to steady him.

“We won’t. Have a nice day.”

Alya huffed and stormed off, dragging Nino with her. He glanced over his shoulder to give Marinette an apologetic look, but she didn’t meet his gaze. Instead she crossed her arms over her chest and blew out a sigh. That.. could have gone worse.. she supposed.

“Marinette.”

Marinette’s fingers dug into her skin, and she hesitantly looked up at Felix. His hand had loosened on her shoulder, and he was staring at her with an unreadable expression. What was he thinking right now? Was he angry? Disappointed? Confused about why she didn’t tell him about her lunch date with Adrien? She wished he would give her a clue of some kind.

“Are you alright?” He asked softly. “You’re shaking.”

Marinette blinked, pulling her hands away from her body. She was shaking? How did she not notice?

“Oh, and you look so pale!” Allegra cried, wrapping her arms around Marinette’s shoulders. “Should we take you home?”

Marinette grabbed Allegra’s arm and forced a small smile as she shook her head. “No, no, I’m.. I..”

She wanted to say that she was fine, that they could continue having lunch as usual, but a lump in her throat made it hard to get the words out. Next thing she knew, tears were spilling down her cheeks, and she was putting her hand over her mouth to choke down a sob.

All this time.. All this time she’d been keeping her past a secret from them, scared that they might take Lila’s side like everyone else, yet here they were, holding her close and offering her hushed condolences. They were giving her the very support she’d been afraid of losing, and now she was ashamed that she’d ever been afraid at all.

“I’m so sorry!” She nearly sobbed.

Allegra pulled her closer. “No, don’t say that! There’s nothing you need to be apologizing for!”

Claude and Allan rushed to wrap their arms around her as well, and Felix slid his hand down to rub her back. This, of course, only made her cry harder, because they were being so gentle with her, so kind. How could she have ever doubted them?

“Why don’t we go back to the house?” Claude suggested gently. “Mom and Dad won’t be back yet so we can give you a minute to recover.”

“And Felix makes the best honeysuckle tea.” Allegra adds. “It’ll cure any pain those idiots caused.”

Marinette sniffed and gave a little nod. People were starting to stare at them anyway, and at this point, she’d lost her appetite.

“Thank you.”

“Of course, whatever you need.” Allegra said as she led Marinette back to the car.

Marinette took the handkerchief Felix offered her and dried some of her tears, then gave him a small, grateful smile. He hadn’t spoken much during the altercation, but the way he quietly hovered around her and held her hand when she needed it said enough, especially since she knew he didn’t appreciate being touched.

It’s funny. Whenever she used to think about them finding out about Lila- because, surely, it would have to happen eventually -she always assumed she would feel anxious or paranoid afterwards. “What if they didn’t believe her? What if they constantly doubted her actions now? What if she constantly doubted their actions? Would they ever be able to trust each other fully again?” But as she got into the limo and sat down, and everyone crowded around her to show their love and support over the awful things Lila had said, all Marinette felt was safe.

~~~~~~

Felix leaned his back against the peppered countertop and crossed his arms, his finger tapping against his bicep with impatience. The iron tea kettle sat on the stove next to him, slowly heating and steeping the honeysuckle tea that he’d been requested to make. Usually, it took no time at all for the kettle to whistle, but today, it felt like he’d been standing there for an eternity.

He glanced at the digital clock on the microwave to see how long he’d been waiting, and the numbers 12:45 blinked across it.

12:45pm.. That meant he’d been in the kitchen for about..

Two minutes.

Felix sighed and ran a hand through his hair, his gaze sliding to the kitchen doorway. Marinette was sitting in the living room with the others just outside of it, with her and Allegra on one three-cushioned-couch, and Claude and Allan on the other one across from them. She seemed to be having a decent time, chatting and laughing with everyone, but that didn’t ease Felix’s mind any, not after what he saw in the park.

He’ll admit to being curious when the fight first started. Rosemary is known for its hair-pulling, arm-biting brawls, but they’re also known to remain dignified despite them. For example, the brawls are almost always private, which is why, when someone called out to Marinette in such a harsh and open manner, Felix couldn’t help being intrigued.

When he saw how Marinette reacted, however, his stance on the situation dramatically changed.

In the month and a half that he’s known her, Marinette has faced down high-class celebrities, an overwhelming amount of clothing requests from Claude, and an actual akuma, and not once has Felix seen her so much as flinch. Not until today, that is, when that red-head somehow shook her to her core. Just the sight of her sent Marinette into hysterics, crying, shaking, her face becoming white as a sheet- he’s quite certain she almost hyperventilated at some point too. This strong girl that he’d grown to admire, that he was starting to believe could face anything unscathed, had crumbled to pieces in mere seconds, and it honestly frightened him. He wasn’t sure what to do or how to help. So he simply grabbed her shoulder, hoping she would understand what he was trying to say- that he was there for her, and was she alright?

She understood him, thankfully, and her shoulders started to loosen a bit under his gaze.

But then that red-head started talking.

She spat out the most ridiculous accusations Felix had ever heard, accusations stating that Marinette was a liar and a fake, that she only ever did things for attention. Even if the part about wanting attention was true- which it wasn’t -why would it matter? She does incredible things simply because people ask her to. Why shouldn’t she get any attention for it?

As annoying as the last claim was, though, it wasn’t nearly as infuriating as the rest of the things that girl said. She told them she was Marinette’s former best friend, yet she cast the ravenette aside at the drop of a hat simply because an exchange student with a rusted silver tongue told her to do so. Honestly, who would be dumb enough to believe that some foreign student was best friends with one of the Parisian superheroes? Or that a highschooler actually got to organize charity events? The most she would be able to do at her age was greet people as they walked inside.

Felix wasn’t even going to think about the Jagged Stone claim, since Claude already made it quite clear that that was another lie, but really, who goes into a new school spreading the most impossibly grand lies they can? More importantly, how did those lies manage to stick? Was everyone at Dupont a complete moron?

No.. No, that wasn’t it. No one was that stupid, surely. They all probably wanted to believe Lila. That’s why they pounced on Marinette the way they did. They were looking for an excuse to go after her the entire time.

Felix clenched his fist and turned to the kettle again, watching the steam rise from the spout. It’s no wonder she became so worried when saw Adrien Agreste at Rosemary. After her crush on him and the lies, Felix wouldn’t want to see his former classmates either.

...Speaking of Agreste, what was that picture about? Felix doubted Marinette was trying to ‘persuade him to her side’ as that red-head had said, but her reaction to it was extremely strong nonetheless. Why were they in a café together? It sounded like she met up with him only last week, but she��d told Felix a couple weeks ago that she didn’t want to see him. Why would she put herself through that? And why did she grip his hand so hard when she saw the picture?

The shrill whistle of the tea kettle broke into his thoughts, and Felix jumped to move it off of the burner. Once it was set aside properly, he turned the stove off and began setting out the mugs to fill them. They weren’t as delicate or pristine as the tea sets his father owned, but they would do nicely for the time being. Besides, if Marinette had a one-of-a-kind glass teacup, she might fret about breaking it instead of enjoying the tea.

Felix filled the mugs and put them on a tray, along with some sugars, milk, and honey, then picked up the tray to bring it into the living room. A round of delighted cheers filled the room as he entered, and Claude eagerly bounced up from the couch to grab his mug. Felix moved the tray out of his reach, though, not wanting to offset the balance and spill everything.

“Sorry it took so long.” Felix said as he set the tray on the table. “The tea is fresh so I brought in ice cubes to cool it off if you want them. If not, make sure to blow on it before drinking or you’ll burn your tongue.”

“Yeah, yeah, we know the drill.” Claude remarked as he reached for his mug again.

Felix rolled his eyes. “That was for Marinette’s benefit, not yours.”

“I’m sure Mari knows how to drink hot tea.” Claude retorted.

“But I appreciate the advice anyway.” Marinette spoke up with a smile.

Felix glanced at her as he handed her a pink mug, trying not to look at the puffed up red spots under her eyes. Her tears had long since disappeared, but the remnants of them still remained, including the trails on her cheeks that the tears had run down.

“You’re going to love this, Marinette.” Allegra chirped, thankfully taking the girl’s focus. “This tea literally tastes like honey. I doubt you’ll even need any sugar!”

“Yeah, but I’m gonna.” Claude smirked, already shoveling a spoonful of sugar into his tea. “Unsweet tea was never my style.”

“I swear you are gonna die from diabetes one day.” Allan muttered while taking a sip of his tea.

“And it will totally be worth it.” Claude replied.

Marinette and the others laughed, which helped Felix relax a tad as he sat next to Allan. If Marinette was laughing again, maybe that meant she was feeling better.

The ravenette’s lips hovered over the mug for a solid minute as she blew on the pale, celadon liquid, and when she finally decided to take a drink, Felix found himself staring. Did she like it? Was it too strong? Should he go make something else for her?

“Oh, this is amazing!” Marinette gasped, her eyes lighting up.

Felix smiled, relieved. “I’m glad you think so. I like to add a few drops of honey and a sprinkle of sugar every now and then because it brings out the flavor, but that’s just a personal preference.”

“The tea is incredible already, but I’ll try your style anyway.” She said, reaching for the sugar. Claude pushed it towards her, while Allegra gave her the honey, and once Marinette dumped the extra ingredients into her mug, she took a spoon from a tray to stir them.

She took another sip of the tea, and this time, she sank into the couch with a contented sigh.

“Wow. That is so good, especially with how warm it is! I feel like I’ve just been wrapped up in the most comfortable blanket ever.”

The trio shared a laugh, and Marinette sat up with another giggle herself, but to Felix’s disappointment, the smiles didn’t last.

Marinette set her mug on her lap and let out a sigh, a bashful smile replacing her giddy one. She kept her gaze on her cup as she said, “So, I guess… I should explain myself?”

The group exchanged glances, and Allegra frowned.

“What’s there to explain?” Allan was the first to ask.

Marinette looked up. “Well- Y-You know.. The reasons why Alya was so angry with me. How everything happened at my old school.”

“Again, what’s there to explain?” Claude said. “It’s obvious what happened. This ‘Lila’ person spread rumors about you around the school, and for some reason, your classmates were dumb enough to believe it. End of story.”

For once, Felix agreed with him.

“.. Not quite.” Marinette admitted, causing Felix to furrow his eyebrows. How much more to the story could there possibly be? Don’t tell him it got worse.

“I’d like to tell my side of the story, if you guys don’t mind.”

Allegra offered her a reassuring smile. “Of course not, but you don’t have to tell us anything if you don’t want to.”

“Yeah.” Allan agreed. “Your word is all we need.”

A grateful smile caught the corners of Marinette’s lips. “Thank you, but I want to do this. I’ll feel a lot better once you guys know the full truth.”

“Then we’re all ears.” Felix said, sincerely.

Marinette’s smile widened slightly as she glanced at him, but her expression fell serious again when she began her story.

“It started almost two years ago. The September before last, a girl named Lila joined our school- er -my old school, Dupont. She came in telling all of these different stories about meeting celebrities and arranging charity events or music concerts and being ‘best friends’ with Ladybug.”

The sheer disgust in her voice when she mentioned being best friends with Ladybug made Felix smirk, but he let her continue.

“With stories as crazy as that, I couldn’t believe that my fr- uh.. That my classmates were actually believing her. In one day, she had them following her around like dogs and carrying her stuff because she claimed to have hurt her wrist in an accident. I forget which excuse she used, but it ticked me off to no end. So I tried to tell everyone that she was lying.”

“It.. didn’t end well, unfortunately. She turned into an akuma and went on a rampage, and after Ladybug and Chat Noir fixed everything, she only gained more sympathy from everybody. That’s when the stories about me started.”

“Every time I tried to expose her, she would make up some elaborate lie that made me the bad guy, and everyone swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. I tried to tell the teachers about what was happening, and some of them helped keep us separated during class time. But other than that, I was kind of just.. left to handle it by myself.”

Felix held back a scoff. Typical. Teachers never bothered entering student squabbles if they thought it wasn’t law-suit worthy.

“Of course, since the teachers weren’t doing anything, the lies only got worse, and soon, Lila started lying about me unprovoked. She would say I stole her things or ripped up her homework or tripped her down the stairs. I almost got expelled over it twice.”

“Wait, seriously?” Claude said before Felix could actually scoff. “So you told the teacher that this ‘Lila’ was spreading lies around the school, but they still tried to expel you over the things she said?”

Marinette nodded. “They would have to if she hadn’t come back and made up some lies about having been mistaken. I’m still not sure why she did that.”

Felix shook his head, absolutely incredulous to what he was hearing. It appeared the students weren’t the only morons in that school. How has it stayed funded for this long?

“Maybe it was a power play.” Allan muttered with a frown. “She sounds like the type of person who would do that.”

Marinette shrugged. “Yeah, I guess she is.”

“Didn’t anyone believe you?” Allegra asked.

A wince overcame the ravenette’s features, and Felix reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say about that question.

“Yes, someone did,” Marinette admitted, “but he wasn’t very helpful, to be honest. Actually, he tried to get me to stop going against Lila in case she got akumatized again. His reasoning was that her lies would eventually be found out on their own, but.. as you know.. They never were.”

Claude scoffed and put a hand to his chest, seeming to be offended by the very notion. “Are you for real? He just wanted you to let it go?”

“Did he even say anything while you were in the process of being expelled?” Allan asked.

Marinette’s face said plenty, but she answered aloud anyway. “No, not that I know of. He never liked getting in the middle of confrontations.”

Now it was Felix’s turn to scoff. He tipped his drink up to his lips, downing half the mug to avoid interrupting her story further. Felix scoffed, taking a sip of his tea to avoid interrupting her story further. Did no one want to stand up for Marinette? Did no one in that forsaken school have any sense of loyalty or gratitude? That dumb redhead at the park even admitted that Marinette had done numerous things for them as favors. How can they look at themselves in the mirror each morning when they treat people so horribly?

“So what happened after you almost got expelled?” Allegra prompted.

“Well, if you’re asking me what changed, then nothing, really.” Marinette replied. “Lila continued to lie, and I continued to take the fall for it, except now people were actually doing things to me. Before, they only talked about me behind my back or glared at me from the front, but after another one of Lila’s crying fits, they started ripping up my homework, stealing my things. I guess they thought they were playing the act of karma when they did it.”

“And I assume that guy who believed you stayed quiet the whole time?” Claude asked bitterly.

Marinette shrugged. “Basically. He tried to speak up on my behalf a few times, but he was always shut down too fast for it to matter.”

“Eventually, it got so bad that everyone started tripping me too, or running into me on purpose in the hallway. The last straw was when someone tripped down the front steps of the school, and I almost stumbled into a passing car. I was lucky I didn’t get hit.”

Felix’s grip tightened on his cup, and he thanked whatever was watching over her that day while simultaneously cursing the idiots she’d been forced to interact with. Did they even realize what they were doing? Or did they simply not care about almost murdering another classmate?

“Oh my gosh.” Allegra gasped, putting a hand to her mouth.

“That’s insane.” Allan said.

“Were they even sorry?!” Claude demanded, outraged. “Did they even look ashamed when you almost got hit?”

Marinette took another drink of her tea and shook her head. “No. My Maman tried to talk to the school about it, but since nothing actually happened besides me getting pushed, they could only offer her detention slips or suspension.”

She paused to look up at Felix, surprising him.

“That’s why I decided to transfer to Rosemary.” She said, and in that moment, it felt as though everything she had ever told him clicked into place. The reason the akuma attacks all seemed minor to her, why she never mentioned her old school, her becoming pale when Agreste first came around to Rosemary- it all made sense now, like he’d taken a million separate puzzle pieces and connected them to form a single picture.

Felix thought he would be pleased, that he would feel triumphant upon solving this brain teaser known as Marinette, but he didn’t feel pleased at all. Instead he felt.. Sympathy. And fury. This girl was not some puzzle for him to mess around with. She was a person, a friend, his friend, and to hear her be treated in such a way made his blood boil.

“We’re glad you did.” Allegra commented.

“Yeah, you’re clearly much better off here.” Claude agreed. “Those jerks don’t know what they lost.”

“So you guys aren’t.. Ya know.. mad at me or anything?”

“Mad at you?” Allan frowned. “Why would we be mad at you?”

“Well,” Marinette thumbed her mug for a moment, “I did kind of keep this a secret from all of you on purpose. I just didn’t want to drag my old problems to my new school. That and.. I didn’t want to risk you not believing me.. I’m sorry I didn’t have more faith in you guys.”

“You don’t have to be sorry.” Allegra said. “You went through something terrible. We don’t blame you for not wanting to bring it up again.”

“Besides, you transferred schools to escape from the rumors, right?” It only makes sense that you wouldn’t tell us about them when you got here.” Allan pointed out.

Felix nodded in agreement, and Marinette let out a sigh of relief.

“That’s good to hear. Thanks for hearing me out.”

“Of course.” Claude smiled. “You’re our friend, Marinette. A few dumb rumors would never drive us away. If it did, we wouldn’t even be friends with each other by now.”

Marinette gave him a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, we’ve all been lied about at some point.” The brunette stated nonchalantly. “I mean, we go to Rosemary, a school filled to the brim with rich, talented, and extremely spoiled kids who have nothing better to do than gossip about each other. I get accused of cheating at least once a semester. Allegra had rumors about her bribing the dance teacher when she was chosen for a leading role one year, and Felix has been rumored to actually not be rich at all.”

Felix rolled his eyes, but an incredulous laugh left Marinette’s lips.

“What?”

Allan snorted. “Oh, that one was pretty funny. Some people still think he actually lives in the school.”

“Seriously? Why?”

“Cause he wouldn’t invite people over to his house.” Allegra said with a wry smile. “And he practically wears the same outfit everyday.

Marinette hummed, looking Felix up and down. “They make a good point.. Felix, is there something you’d like to confess to?”

Felix gave a playful scoff, and the group laughed at his reaction.

“See?” Claude asked. “Your rumors were definitely worse than ours, but we’re not inexperienced. People will always try to bring you down in the lamest way possible.”

Marinette chuckled. “Yeah.. I guess they will. Thanks, guys.”

“Anytime.” Allegra smiled, pulling Marinette into a small hug.

“We’re always here for you.” Allan added sincerely.

Marinette smiled as well. “I know.”

“And if any of those jerks come around you again, you just let us know,” Claude said, punching his fist into his palm, “especially if it’s that guy who tried to tell you to ‘ignore’ Lila.”

A nervous laugh came from Marinette, and she reached up to mess with her pigtails as she said, “I appreciate that.”

Felix, satisfied with how the conversation ended, tilted his cup up to his lips, only to realize it was empty. He pulled his cup down and scanned the table, noting that Allegra and Claude’s cups were empty as well.

“Why don’t I get us some more tea?” He offered, moving to grab the tray.

“Oh!” Marinette perked up, quickly downing the rest of her tea in one gulp. “I’ll come too.”

Felix blinked. “Uh.. that’s not necessary. I can carry it all in one sitting. If you’d rather sit-”

“No, it’s alright.” She said, standing up to take Claude’s cup from him. “I want to stretch my legs anyway.”

The trio exchanged glances again, but Felix was too busy eyeing Marinette to notice. ‘Stretch her legs’? She’s only been sitting for- what? Thirty minutes? Forty-five? How restless could her legs be?

“We’ll wait in here.” Allegra remarked, referring to herself and the other boys.

Felix nodded and picked up the tray, not bothering to argue with Marinette. If she wanted to walk with him into the kitchen, she certainly had the right to do so. And who knows? Maybe she wanted a moment to herself and didn’t know how to tell them.

They strode into the kitchen together, and Felix set the tray on the counter while Marinette handed him her mugs.

“Thank you for helping me. You know you didn’t need to.” He said as he refilled the mugs.

“I know,” Marinette said, leaning against the counter while she waited, “but I actually wanted to speak with you privately, so this works for me.”

Felix raised a questioning eyebrow at her. She wanted to speak with him privately?

“What did you need?”

Marinette glanced up at him, then seemed to think better of it as her gaze flicked back down to the ground. “I wanted to apologize to you too.. You remember last week when you asked me if something was wrong and I told you I didn’t want to talk about it? Well, the reason I was upset was because Adrien came to the bakery that day and begged me to speak with him. I didn’t really feel comfortable with it, but I felt guilty not giving him a second chance when he seemed so sorry about how he’d acted with Lila. So I agreed to have lunch with him after the Valentine’s Day party, which was where I ran off to while you guys were cleaning up. I guess Lila took a picture of us there, and I didn’t realize it..”

Felix frowned. Her reasons for visiting Agreste again were troubling to hear, but..

“Why do you need to apologize to me?”

Marinette’s gaze snapped to his again, her eyes wide with surprise. “Because I didn’t tell you. I knew after everything you’d heard about him that you wouldn’t want me going to see him, but instead of hearing your opinion, I just didn’t say anything. I should have talked to you about it. Maybe then Lila wouldn’t have found me and taken the picture..”

Felix stared at her for a moment, astounded by her logic. She thought she had to ask him before going to see Adrien? Sure, Felix would have advised against it immediately, but that didn’t mean she had to ask his permission.

“Marinette, you don’t owe me anything.” He told her. “Your life is your life. If you want to go have lunch with Adrien Agreste, that’s your decision. And while I would have advised against it, I still would have supported your decision nonetheless. I am your friend, not your boss or guardian. Do you understand?”

Marinette nodded, a grateful smile crossing her lips. He was happy to see it.

“More importantly, you don’t owe Agreste anything either. Just because he finally wisened up to his mistakes doesn’t mean you have to give him a second chance, especially if you don’t feel comfortable doing so.”

Felix paused, thinking over what he’d just said.

“Although, I am curious.. What did he apologize for? He wasn’t one of the people who assaulted you, was he?”

“Oh, no, no.” Marinette hastily answered. “He, uhm.. He was actually the one who didn’t believe Lila.”

Felix tensed, using all of his self-discipline to avoid screaming ‘Are you kidding me?!’. Because really, out of all the people that had to convince Marinette to let Lila go, why did it have to be him? Actually, now that he thought about it, of course it was him! Who else would Marinette have been willing to listen to? Who else would have had the gall, the audacity, to act as though enabling a spoiled brat was some noble sacrifice? Wow, that guy just managed to keep climbing up the ranks on Felix’s ‘most hated’ list, didn’t he?

“I see.” Felix managed to mumble. “Are you going to tell the others?”

Marinette bit her lip, which was most likely a ‘no’.

“Not yet-” bingo “-I don’t want him getting a bad reputation. He did apologize, after all.”

Felix drew in a deep breath, letting the frustration towards that answer melt out of him. This was Marinette’s decision. She has trusted him with it, and he is going to respect it, no matter how much he hates it. That’s why he simply heaved a heavy sigh and put a hand on her shoulder as he said, “Marinette, you are truly too kind for this world.”

A blush bloomed across her cheeks, and she let out a small laugh. “O-Oh.. thanks.”

Felix turned back to the tray and picked it up, offering her a polite smile as he did. He didn’t agree with her method of handling things, but he did trust her to know what she was doing. Marinette was Marinette, after all, and she was much more capable than he was in most areas. If she thought this was the best way to go, he wouldn’t dispute it.

“So,” he began as he gestured for her to start moving towards the living room, “if I just put sugar in Claude’s mug instead of tea, do you think he would know the difference?”

Marinette snorted. “Oh~, that’s a tough one. Maybe we should test it to find out.”

“Alright, but you have to give him the cup. If I do, he’ll assume I’ve poisoned it.”

Marinette giggled and walked into the living room, and Felix followed behind her with a smile. He knew he couldn’t march up to the Agreste mansion and rip Adrien apart like he preferred- he probably couldn’t get any revenge on him whatsoever -but Felix would be darned if he just let this go the way Marinette wanted him to. Actions such as this needed to be punished, not forgiven and forgotten because of some half-hearted apology. If she wanted to toss the whole ordeal over her shoulder, that was fine, but Felix was going to hold a grudge against Dupont that was strong enough for the both of them.

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(Devotion: Alright guys! We’ve talked about the message of God’s wonderful salvation- which you should totally go back and read if you haven’t accepted Christ as your savior. It’s extremely important. -we’ve talked about how the Bible says people will react to the word of God, which has been proven to be true time and again; We have talked about Hell and why it exists; and in the last message, we talked about God’s compassion and faithfulness to His people. The last devotion wasn’t exactly in line with the others as far as the salvation theme, but today’s devotion will be! We’re going to talk about Jesus Christ and what exactly He went through on the cross to become the perfect sacrifice for our sins. This one’s probably going to be a bit long, and it is going to be gruesome. So what I’m going to do is bolden the main points of what He went through, then I’m going to describe them in detail. That way, people who can’t stomach gore or painful descriptions can still see a semblance of what He did, and people who can stomach it will get to understand the full extent of which Jesus loves us. Alright? Everyone got it? Great! Let’s get going then!

We start in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus comes here only a few hours or less before He is arrested to be tried for crucifixion. He knows He is about to be arrested; He knows that this is the only way to save us from our sins, but that doesn’t stop Him from crying out to God and begging Him for a last way out. He says, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt”, and the Bible says that He was under so much stress during this prayer, He actually began sweating drops of blood. Blood! More so, the Bible also tells us that Jesus had to have an actual angel fly down and keep His heart from rupturing, lest He die prematurely. That means that Jesus was so stressed He almost died before He could even be crucified! Jesus was scared! He was terrified of going through with what God was asking of Him, and wouldn’t we all be! Nobody likes pain, and Jesus was about to go through one of the greatest pains we could ever face. Not only that, there were going to be a few other add-ons to the physical pain He was about to receive.

See, Jesus is supposed to be the perfect lamb, the perfect sacrifice to atone for all of our sins, but to do that, Jesus not only needs to be punished for the sins we have committed, He also has to become the thing He’s being punished for. You cannot punish something that is innocent. It would be unjust. Jesus is aware of this, and that’s another reason He’s as stressed as He is in this moment of prayer. Although Jesus is manifested in human form at the moment, He is still very much God and part of the Holy Trinity, and as such, He still hates sin with a burning passion. He is disgusted by the very thought of it, the very idea. So imagine His dismay when He figures out that He has to become sin! That it has to be woven and meshed into His entire being! That would be like, for me, looking at all of the disgusting food water that’s in the sink before doing dishes and having to bathe myself in it without soap. (even bathing in it with soap would be bad, but you know) And for you guys! Think of the most disgusting thing on earth and then imagine being drench in it! Having it smeared on your skin and shoved in your mouth and caked all over your body- That’s what becoming our sin was going to be like for Jesus, and He hated every bit of it!...

But He loved us. So He went on with it anyway, the pain of crucifixion and the atrocity of becoming all of the sins of the world at once.

As soon as He was done with prayer, Judas- one of the former twelve disciples -betrayed Jesus and handed Him over to the chief priests as well as a crowd of people and soldiers. Jesus went willingly with them and did not fight. In fact, when Peter- another one of the twelve -leapt forward to protect Him by cutting off one of the High Priest’s ears, Jesus actually rebuked him and proceeded to put the High Priest’s ear back on his head. He was healing one of the very people who were about to kill Him! And the disciples were so confused and so panicked by this mob and Jesus’ “strange” behavior, that they all fled. Every single one of them. (This was done to fulfill scripture, so we shouldn’t judge them too harshly, but it is extremely sad for Jesus’ case.)

So the High Priests take Jesus away to Caiaphas, another High priest, and they put Him on trial. The High Priests and Elders tried to put false witnesses up on the stand, but none of their stories were adding up. They couldn’t share the same details that the other was, and almost no two stories were the same. Therefore, the High Priests got frustrated and started taunting Jesus directly, saying, “Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee?” But Jesus refused to say anything. He just sat there, silent. This angered the High Priest, so he finally just yelled at Him- or at least, I imagine he yelled -and said, “I adjure thee by the name of the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.” And here, we have one of the instances that Jesus openly admits, plain and blunt, that He is the Christ. He tells the High Priest that He is the Son of God, and that after this, He will be sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven.

The High Priest rents his clothes (which means to tear them. It used to be a sign of grieving) and says that Jesus has committed blasphemy, and unfortunately, the rest of the council agree and sentence Him to death. This is where the beginning of the crucifixion process begins. They still had to get a governor’s approval for the death sentence, but that didn’t stop them from taking Jesus and blindfolding Him and beating him while He was blindfolded. They would laugh and spit in His face during this and taunt Him, saying “Prophesy unto us, though Christ, who is he that smote thee?” It was an incredibly humiliating experience for our Lord to go through, but it was about to get much much worse.

The next morning, they take Jesus to Pontius Pilate, a governor, and demand that Jesus be crucified. Pilate, I would assume, reviews the case, because we see him ask Jesus if He is the King of the Jews a few verses later. Jesus simply answers with a “thou sayest” then refuses to speak again for the rest of the time. Despite that, though, Pilate knew the people were only delivering Jesus there because they were jealous of Him. So he gave the angry mob a choice: “Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?”

so understand this choice, it is important to know that there was a certain feast going on at that time, and at the feast, Pontius likes to release a prisoner of the people’s choice. Barabbas was a current prisoner, known for being a murderer and a thief, and I’m sure Pilate was hoping that by presenting a very unjust man compared to Jesus for release, the people would concede and choose Jesus to release. That’s not what happened, though. The people were so angry and so swayed by the High Priest’s influence that they decided to let the thief and murderer loose, as opposed to a completely innocent man. Pontius Pilate is flabbergasted and asks them, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?”

The response was.. unanimous.

“Let him be crucified.”

“Why? What evil hath he done?” Pilate persisted, but the people only cried out louder for Jesus to be crucified. So Pilate, seeing that he couldn’t change their minds, washed his hands in a bowl of water and said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”

Thus, Jesus was sent off to be Scourged, the first part of the crucifixion process. Scourging is a devious, calculated type of torture that uses a cat of nine tails to rip the flesh off of its victims. A cat of nine tails is basically a leather handle that has nine different whips attached to the same end, and on the end of those whips were hooks created from shattered glass or twisted metal or any other kind of sharp thing you can think of. The romans would throw the whip across their victim’s skin, and the jagged pieces laced into the whip would latch onto the skin. Then, the Romans would yank across the whip, causing the jagged pieces to tear through the flesh. The pain that would come from that is excruciating, and during this scourging, Jesus was stripped of his garments and whipped with a cat of nine tails thirty nine times. To put that in perspective, it takes 40 times of being whipped with that thing to be killed. This means that Jesus was whipped to the point of near death. His skin is in tatters. There is blood all over his skin. His teeth have probably cracked from having to grit them so much, and Jesus is in pain. He’s in so much pain already.

But it’s not over yet.

The next thing the Romans decide to do is place a purple garment around him, and weave a crowd of thorns together. These aren’t just regular thorns, either. These thorns are about two inches long and pointed, and by the time the Romans got a thick circle of thorns together, I’d imagine you could hardly hold it in your hands without getting hurt. They took those thorns and pushed all 70 or so of them into Jesus’ skull. THEN they grabbed a rod and beat the thorns into His head!! The thorns punctured Jesus’ head so deeply, that the thorns actually touched his skull, curved from hitting it, then poked back out of His skin somewhere else. The way the Romans put this crown on His head, Jesus physically couldn’t take it off. And after all of that, the Romans bowed down in front of Jesus and mocked Him again, saying, “Hail! King of the Jews!” and beat Him with their bare hands, even though they had already whipped Him to the point of near death.

Pilate took Jesus to the Jews and again begged them to reconsider and let Jesus go, but the Jews refused to do so. They screamed for Jesus’ death all the more, so Pilate reluctantly gave it to them. This leads us to the beginning of the end, when they make Jesus carry His own cross. Part of the crucifixion was having the crucified carry their own cross to Golgotha, or Skull. It was kind of like an extra burden and humiliation attempt, and it worked well. Think of it like a murderer being forced to make his own death shot and give it to the nurses who were going to insert it in him. Jesus had to walk through the city, or at least on some sort of road, where crowds of people were lined up on both sides, all of them cheering for His death, and He had to do this while He could barely stand up straight. The Bible tells us that, because of His injuries, Jesus actually didn’t get to carry His cross all the way to Golgotha. He collapsed somewhere along the way, and a man named Simon had to help Him carry it the rest of the way, but sadly, they did get it there.

Once Jesus and the cross were on the mount, the Romans laid the cross down, laid Jesus on the cross, and used these huge nails to nail Jesus’ hands and feet to the cross. This was done through careful puncture wounds between the wrist bones and foot bones. It kept Jesus in place, while aggravating his nerves to make his feet and hands go crazy with pain. The Romans then raised the cross up for all to see, and for the next six hours Jesus hung on that cross. Something to note about this is that Jesus’ cross was not smooth. It had splinters and jagged edges all over the place, and the way the nails were pierced into His feet and hands caused Him caused His lungs to push heavily on His diaphragm. Because of this, breathing became a bit of a problem. His lungs could take in air, but He couldn’t breathe out. To do that, He would have to pull up on the nails in His wrists and push up on the nails in His feet and exhale. Pushing up, though, would cause Him to push His scraped, slashed, and bruised back against the splinters or possibly even into them. And let me remind you: He hung on that cross for six hours. Six. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you would do a lot of breathing in six hours.

And yet, despite all of that pain and suffering, the worst was still yet to come.

Jesus said seven different phrases while on the cross. Seven times He pulled Himself up on the cross, enduring extreme forms of agony, to speak with us. Would you like to know the first thing He said?

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Jesus asked God to have mercy on us and forgive us. We’ve rejected Him and cursed His name time and time again, we’ve insisted on turning to Him with malice and hatred, and now we’ve put Him through some of the worst, most excruciating pain imaginable.. But He asked God to forgive us anyway. This, Jesus’ incredible love and mercy and grace towards us, is the baseline of Christianity. His love is what keeps this world turning on its very axis, and it’s why we have no qualms shouting His name to the rooftops. His name deserves to be shouted and praised after all of the things He went through just to allow us to be with Him and talk with Him.

The second phrase He said was to a thief who was hanging on the cross with Him. In the Bible, we are told that Jesus wasn’t the only one being crucified that night. Two thieves were also being crucified along with Him, and they were placed on the mount to His left and to His right. The thief on the right was spitting on Him and mocking Him as well, but the thief on the left rebuked the first thief, saying, “Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.” And the second thief turned to Jesus and added, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”

This is when Jesus speaks the second time, as He, I imagine, turns to the thief as best He can to reply, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” This conversation right here is a wonderful example of salvation and how simple it truly is. This thief was dying. He’d lived a bad life full of mischief and wickedness, and he had no way of making that right. But because he believed that Jesus was the Son of God, he was still able to go to Heaven. Salvation isn’t about works or what we can try to give back to Christ (although, we should try to give back to Christ as much as we can after being saved), it’s about the free gift that Jesus gave us. Heaven and Salvation is a gift. All we have to do is accept it.

The third phrase Jesus says is to John, one of the disciples, and Mary, Jesus’ mother. The Bible says that Jesus sees them before He speaks, so I imagine they are near the cross and weeping. Again, He drags Himself up on the splintered cross, draws in a pain-staking breath, and utters, “Women, behold thy son!” to Mary, and to John He says, “Behold thy mother!”. So He was making sure that His mother was going to be taken care of before He passed away.

Around this time, as Jesus was hanging on the cross, the earth fell into total darkness. I’m talking the sky was black. And as soon as this happened, Jesus cried out into the sky, saying his fourth comment on the cross.

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” or “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

This.. is where we see the second add-on that made Jesus so terribly stressed during His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. He is taking on the sins of the world. One can only imagine how many sins that would be, and in this moment, Jesus is taking every single one of them and forcing them into a single person, a single place to look upon. There was so much sin in Jesus at the very hour, that God had to do what He’s never done before in history and turn His back on a human being.

There are times when God’s grace leaves us, when His mercy runs out and we are instead faced with His judgement, but despite that judgement, God is still present in our lives and in the world around us. No matter how alone we’ve felt in the world, God has always been there next to us without us knowing. But not here. Here, God is actively turning His back on Jesus. He is completely forsaking Jesus because of the amount of sin that has poured into Jesus’ heart and soul as part of the sacrifice. That absence of God is something we are never going to know (unless you don’t get saved and go to hell, I suppose) but I can only imagine how empty it must be. How crushingly lonely it must feel, to know that now, Jesus truly is all alone in this world. The very God, the other part of Himself, that He’s been with since the beginning is now just.. Gone. That, I believe, was the worst part of this entire crucifixion for Jesus. He can face the physical pain; He can face the disgustingness of sin; He can face the humiliation of being God but also being mocked and treated like a life form lower than dirt because He knew He wasn’t facing any of that alone. He knew God was right by His side.

But now He wasn’t.

And Jesus was still there on the cross.

We see in the Bible that the darkness lasted for a full three hours, meaning Jesus has to go at least three more hours without God’s presence and comfort and light. In these last few hours, though, Jesus says three more phrases. His fifth phrase is, “I thirst.”

Another part of the Roman crucifixion costume was to get a sponge and soak it in vinegar mixed with gall. The combination created an extremely bitter taste that would supposedly distract the crucified from their pain every now and then, if only for a moment. So when Jesus said, “I thirst”, the Romans quickly got a sponge or even a cup ready and gave Him a sip of it. After He drank the cup, Jesus cried with a loud voice and said His final two phrases. Now in Luke and John, the last phrase that Jesus says is different when compared to each other, but the phrases are both so unique that I believe Jesus said both of them, one right after the other, and John and Luke simply wrote down different halves. So I’m going to write the last two phrases together.

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. It is finished.”

After this phrase, Jesus gives up the ghost, or in other words, allowed Himself to die. This is another crucial point of Christianity because it shows Jesus’ power over life and death itself. He isn’t killed by blood loss or exhaustion or by a heart attack or anything like that. He simply dies because He wanted to at that moment. I think that’s kind of comforting actually. A God as powerful and loving as Jesus, who can control His own life and death as well as everyone else’s and was willing to give up His own life for us when we didn’t deserve it or even ask, is a God I most definitely want to serve.

Unfortunately, though, death was not quite the end of Jesus’ sacrifice. Not many people know this (or, at least, I didn’t know it for a long while), but after Jesus’ death, He went to hell for three straight days. Yes, you read that correctly. Actual Hell. If He’s going to take our punishment, He needs to take all of it, right? So don’t think God is just dishing out the punishments, but not taking any for Himself. He doesn’t need any, because He is a holy and perfect God, but He took some anyway so we didn’t have to, because He is also loving and merciful.

Hell was, thankfully, the last step of the sacrifice. After that, Jesus completed the ritual of becoming our free ticket to salvation by raising Himself from the dead! Have you ever heard of anyone who could raise themselves? I haven’t! And on top of that, the Bible says that Jesus’ resurrection was so powerful, that several other people around him were raised from the dead too! Just because He raised himself! Isn’t that crazy?

This is why rejecting Christ is such a big deal to God, and why people who claim there are other ways to Heaven are extremely blasphemous, because if there were any other possible way to Heaven, do you honestly think that God would have sent His only, begotten Son to die on the cross for us? Do you think God wanted to come down to suffer through all of this pain just to say “yeah, actually, you can also get in this other way”? No, of course not. Rejecting Christ’s sacrifice and salvation is basically telling Him that all of that pain and suffering didn’t matter, the same as spitting on Him like the other Jews as He hung on the cross.

He’s made the pathway to Heaven unbelievably simple. All we have to do is admit that we’re sinners, admit that we need saving from our sins, and accept Jesus Christ to be our savior by believing that He was the Son of God and that He died on the cross for us. If I was sure about anything in life, it is this. God is real. Heaven is real. Hell is real. Jesus is real, and He, along with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, is calling to you now. He is giving you another chance to accept Him as your savior before it’s too late. This could possibly even be your last chance. So please don’t put it off.

I love you guys very much and really really appreciate the people who have continued reading this. I’ll be praying for all of you to receive what I’ve told you, and for those who already have, I’ll be praying for you to keep growing in the Lord. Stay strong in the faith my friends! Keep telling the world about Jesus! He’s always right beside us! <3

Also, Here’s a link for a youtube video about Jesus’ death from a medical point of view. It’s a bit more detailed than I was, so please go watch it as well! https://youtu.be/0B3kgiLxybYOn that note, here’s a link I found recently that gives a bunch of videos and written materials from the author of “Cold Case Christianity”. He was someone who used to be an atheist until he started studying the four gospels with his skill of eye-witness-account-scrutiny. After studying the Bible for a few months, He realized that the Bible is, in fact, telling the truth, and ever since then he’s been racing to let the rest of the world know. Please check him out! www.coldcasechristianity.com/resources)

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#felinette #Marinette #Felix Culpa #Miraculous Ladybug #Quantic Kids #Rosemary AU #New Girl on the Block

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starshine583 · 3 years

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New Girl on the Block (22)

(Hey everyone! Again, late. I’m sorry!! We’ve had a lot going on lately. I might not have a steady update schedule for a while.. but I’m updating now! So there’s that! Please enjoy chapter 22 and don’t forget to check out the mini series connected to this called Journal Entries!)

Ch. 1 / Ch. 21 / Ch. 23 (ao3)

Chapter 22: Tensions Rising

Buildings with more than one story were always a must in Claude’s book. Not because they held a great view, or because a one-story building occasionally looked cheap, but because any time he had to go downstairs, Claude was blessed with the absolute joy of running to the stairwell, hopping on the railing, and sliding all the way down with a “woohoo!”.

This morning was no exception, especially since he had an extra bounce in his step. Claude grabbed the cool, black railing and swung himself onto it, letting out a laugh as he slid all the way down to the first floor. Right before he hit the ground, though, Claude leapt off of the railing, using his momentum- along with his socks- to slide all the way to the kitchen doorway.

“Kids, don’t try that at home.” Claude smirked to himself as he jokingly brushed off his shoulder.

Oh, yeah. Today was gonna be a good day.

“You seem chipper this morning.”

Claude turned to his mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table with what looked to be a fresh cup of coffee. She tipped the drink up to her lips, offering him a playful look as she added, “You know. More so than usual.”

Claude grinned and strolled over to give her a small hug. She was dressed up again, wearing a navy suit jacket and pencil skirt to match, so she must be working another case today at the law firm.

“I am! Marinette just texted me this morning and told me that she finished my suit. She’s coming over today so I can try it on!”

“Wow, that fast?” Another voice cut in, drawing Claude’s gaze to the kitchen doorway again.

His dad flashed Claude a smile as he walked in, joining them at the kitchen table. He was wearing a suit too, though his was more of a dark grey color. Were they going to the law firm together? That hasn’t happened in a while. Maybe they’re working on the same case together.

“Doesn’t it take a good few months to finish a suit like that?”

“Not for Marinette! She’s incredible.”

“Or lazy.” Claude’s mother remarked lightheartedly. “Maybe you should see the suit first before praising her.”

“Mom!”

She chuckled and set her mug on the table. “Oh, I’m only teasing. I’m sure the suit will look lovely.”

“Felicity, darling.. Maybe you should leave the jokes to me.” Claude’s father said, giving her a peck on the head.

Felicity scoffed and swatted at his chest. “Please, Albert, my sarcasm can’t possibly be any worse than your dry humor.”

“What are you talking about? Dad’s hilarious!” Claude insisted.

“Yeah!” Albert grinned, wrapping his arm around Claude’s shoulders. “I’m hilarious!”

Felicity rolled her eyes with a smile. “If you say so.”

Claude chuckled and ducked out of his dad’s arms to snag a fresh piece of bacon next to the stove, thanking Matilda, their professional chef, as he did.

“So when’s Marinette coming over?” Albert asked as he took a seat next to Felicity. “Will we be able to meet her?”

“Oh, you should. She’s actually on her way over right-”

The doorbell interrupted Claude, and he nearly pounced for the kitchen door.

“Now! I bet that’s them!” He said, slipping around on his socks during his scurry to get to the front door.

“Them?” His parents asked in unison.

“Allegra and Allan!” Claude called over his shoulder. “I invited them over to help set up a surprise for Marinette before she got here.”

His parents exchanged a curious look, but Claude didn’t notice. He was too busy throwing the front door open.

Sure enough, Allegra and Allan were right outside, both offering warm smiles.

“Guys! Thanks for coming!” Claude greeted, giving Allegra a hug first.

“Of course we came.” She said. “We’ve been waiting for this surprise too, you know. I’m just grateful it all came in last Monday. Any later and Marinette might have beat us.”

“No kidding.” Claude laughed, glancing down at the large box in Allan’s hands. “So is that it?”

“Yep.” Allan confirmed. “Should we see what’s inside?”

Allegra snorted. “We already know what’s inside. We all pitched in to order it.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen it in person yet.”

“Yeah!” Claude agreed. “Let’s open it.”

The boys knelt down on the floor, and Allegra joined them, though she let out a light sigh as she did.

Allan pulled off the tape while Claude held his breath in anticipation. He hoped Marinette liked the surprise, because after everything she’s done for them, she really deserved something great.

After a few minutes of struggling, Allan finally pulled off the last piece of tape and flicked his hand to throw it aside, but before he could open the box fully, the doorbell rang next to them again.

“That’s her!” Claude yelped, shooting to his feet.

“Quick, hide the gift!” Allegra whisper-yelled.

“Where? We’re in the middle of the foyer!” Allan whisper-yelled back.

In a panic, Claude whirled around and kicked the box as hard as he could, sending it skidding across the floor and into the other room.

“Claude!” Allegra hissed, now shooting to her feet as well.

“It’s in a box, it’s fine.” Claude waved her off, grabbing the door handle. He paused for a split second to take a breath, then pulled the door open, plastering a bright grin on his face.

Marinette flashed him a smile as soon as she saw him, holding a box of her own in his hands. “Hey, Clau- Oh, wow, Allegra and Allan are here too?”

“They just got here.” Claude explained, stepping to the side so Marinette could enter. “I hope you don’t mind. I wanted them to see your artwork too.”

“Oh, of course not!” Marinette replied brightly. Her eyes glazed around the room, taking in the environment around her but also.. searching.

“Is.. Felix gonna be here too?”

Claude held back a laugh. So Felix’s absence is the first thing to come to her mind, huh? Looks like she’s starting to have it bad too. Allegra’s gonna enjoy that.

“Yeah, he should be here.” Claude assured as he closed the front door. “Don’t know when, though. I texted him this morning when I texted Allegra and Allan, so he might be here in five minutes or half an hour. You know how he is.”

Marinette’s smile softened. “Yeah, I do.”

Claude smirked and looked to Allegra, who had an intrigued sparkle in her eyes. Even Allan held a small, knowing smile.

She wasn’t subtle.

“I hear a new voice. Is that Marinette?” Someone called from the other room, grabbing the group’s attention. Felicity stepped out of the kitchen a moment later, followed by Albert.

“Aunt Felicity!” Allegra grinned, running over to the couple. “Uncle Albert!”

“Allegra!” Felicity trilled, pulling the blonde into a hug. “We were starting to wonder if you’d ever come back. How long has it been now? A week?”

“Yeah, what gives?” Albert joined in. “Do you not like us anymore? Matilda can make better snacks next time if that’s the problem.”

Allegra chuckled and leaned back from Felicity to give Albert a hug too. “No, Matilda’s snacks are always delicious.”

“Is it the comfort levels then? We could always give you Claude’s room if the guest room isn’t good enough.”

“Hey!” Claude protested, though a smile betrayed his lips. He’d probably give his room to Allegra too if she asked.

The group shared a laugh, and Allegra shook her head.

“I’ve just been busy, but I get the hint. I’ll try to stop by more often.”

“Good.” Felicity smiled. She pulled away from Allegra and walked over to Allan to give him a hug as well, then, finally, turned to Marinette.

“You’re Marinette, right? We’ve heard so much about you.”

“I like your pigtails.” Albert commented, walking over to give Allan a hug too.

Marinette offered them a polite smile. “Thanks! Yes, I’m Marinette. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Herolds.”

“The pleasure is all ours, but just call us Aunt Felicity and Uncle Albert. You’re part of the group now, from what I’ve heard. That comes with special privileges.”

A giggle passed her lips. “I’ll try to remember that.”

“We’d love to speak with you more, hon,” Felicity said as she pulled her red hair up to carefully tie it in a bun, “but I’m afraid Albert and I are already running late for work. We’ll try to catch you next time, though.”

Albert nodded in agreement. “In the meantime, our home is your home. I’m sure Claude will show you around, and Matilda is currently in the kitchen if you need anything else.”

“Don’t worry, Uncle Albert. We’ll make sure she’s taken care of.” Allegra said, wrapping her arms around Marinette’s shoulders.

Albert chuckled. “I don’t doubt it.”

Felicity, once her hair was up, turned to Claude and cupped his cheek as a last little goodbye. Naturally, he leaned into her touch with a smile.

“I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”

“See you, Mom.”

Albert quickly came after her, ruffling Claude’s hair. “We’ll be back later tonight, Bud. Don’t wait up for us for supper, okay?”

“K.”

“Bye, Allegra. Bye, Allan. It was nice meeting you Marinette!”

“Nice meeting you too!”

Claude waved his parents off as they left through the front door. He was hoping that they would stick around long enough to see his prince suit, but they’d only be gone until the evening. He supposed he could show it to them then.

“Your parents are really nice,” Marinette said happily, “and this house is so stunning! The stone walls really work with the dark hardwood floors.”

“Thanks! My uncle actually helped my parents design the place.”

“Oh, really? Is he an interior designer then?”

“No, he’s an architect. He gave them tips on how to build the house so it would be strong and modern-looking at the same time.”

Marinette’s eyes widened. “Wow.. You mean your parents actually built this house?”

“Yep! From the ground up. I don’t remember much of it since I was, like, five, but I know we had to stay in a hotel during the last few days of construction.”

“That’s amazing.”

“Isn’t it?” Allegra remarked. “I always love coming over here.”

“Agreed.” Allan smiled.

Claude straightened a bit with pride. His parents were undoubtedly amazing, and he always loved hearing them get the praise they deserved.

“So, Claude, are you ready to see the final product of your suit?”

Claude’s gaze snapped to Marinette. “Boy, am I?”

Marinette chuckled and placed the box on the ground, as Allan had done with his box a moment ago. This time, however, there was no tape to unwrap. So she simply opened the box.

Claude gasped and grabbed onto Allegra’s arm, watching with awe as Marinette pulled the garments out for them to see.

The suit was a deep, royal blue, covered in golden embroidery. The epaulettes were golden as well and sparkling, and white cuffs wrapped around the ends of the sleeves, also covered in gold embroidery and held together by golden cufflinks (where she got those, he’ll never know).

“Oh, wow..” Allan muttered.

“Marinette, that’s incredible!” Allegra exclaimed. “You made that?”

A bashful smile crept onto the ravenette’s lips. “I did. It took forever to finish, though.”

“It was worth the wait!” Claude said enthusiastically. “Can I hold it?”

Marinette giggled and handed over the shirt. “Of course! I’d like you to wear it too if that’s not too much to ask.”

Allegra and Allan laughed, but Claude was too busy studying the suit to care. She even put decorative medals on the front! This was the best day of life!

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” he insisted. “I’m gonna go try it on right now!”

“Oh, here’s the pants then.” Marinette said, pulled a pair of white pants that had a deep blue stripe on each side out of the box.

Claude almost squealed when he saw them. Matching pants!!!!

“Uh.. Claude?” Allegra spoke up, tapping him on the shoulder before he could run off. “What about our surprise?”

“Your surprise?” Marinette echoed. “What do you mean?”

“Oh yeah!” Claude straightened, face palming. “Here, hold this.”

Marinette squeaked as Claude pushed the prince suit back into her hands, and he spun on his heel to go fetch their box that he’d kicked away earlier. Thankfully, it didn’t appear to be damaged, so he picked it up and carried it back into the foyer, where Marinette was now standing puzzled.

“I was so excited about getting my prince suit,” Claude started as he set the box on the ground next to Marinette’s, “that I decided to get something for you too. Well- Allegra, Allan, and I all decided to get it. And it’s technically their surprise too. But they already know what it is.”

He could see that he was starting to confuse her, so instead of talking more, Claude just opened the box and pulled out what was inside.

Marinette gasped, nearly dropping his suit to the ground in shock.

Inside the box was a series of outfits, each set in the medieval time frame as well. The outfit that Claude pulled out was a princess dress draped in pinks and magentas. It was layered with several different types of fabric to make it appear more full and had jewels sewn into it here and there to look regal.

“Do you like them?” Allegra asked eagerly.

“Like them? I.. Claude, where did you get these?”

“Bought them from a tailor company on the other side of France. That’s why it took them so long to get here. Anyway, I figured that, since you were taking the time to make me a prince suit, why not get outfits for everyone and have a play?”

“A play?” Marinette asked, albeit absently. Her eyes were glued to the dress at this point.

“Yeah!” Claude continued anyway. “I’m in drama class, after all. I love plays! And walking around in a prince suit wouldn’t be any fun if I were doing it by myself.”

“Well-” He corrected himself “-It wouldn’t be as much fun.”

Allan chuckled. “We would’ve commissioned you for those too, but we didn’t want you trying to overwork yourself to finish them all.

“Plus, the point was to wear them together.” Allegra added. “Claude would have gone crazy if he had to wait for the rest of our outfits to be finished for that.”

“No, I understand.” Marinette assured, finally turning her gaze from the dresses. But only briefly. “In fact, it sounds like a wonderful idea! This fabric and craftsmanship is going to be a fantastic study for me.”

“Great! This pink dress is for you- obviously -and the purple dress in the box is for Allegra, and Felix and Allan will get the two suits.”

“Tell me you’re joking.”

The flat tone turned the group to the front door, and they were surprised to see Felix in the doorway. He must have skipped the doorbell and walked right inside when he saw them standing there.

“There’s no way you can get me into anything as frivolous as what’s in that box.” Felix stated firmly.

Claude shrugged, undeterred. “Can’t blame a guy for trying, right?”

“Felix!” Marinette chirped, throwing the current discussion aside to greet him.

Felix’s gaze found hers immediately, softening as it trailed down to the suit in her hands. “I see you finished the embroidery. It looks lovely.”

Marinette smiled, and Claude noted the blush that rose to her cheeks.

“Thanks! I had to take it apart more times than I’d preferred, but it turned out alright.”

Felix nodded, an amused glint coming to his eyes as he said, “Did you finish anything else in the last week?”

Marinette’s smile widened, seeming equally amused- Or even sly. “I did. Can you guess what it is?”

Claude furrowed his eyebrows, officially lost in the conversation. What were they trying to guess?

“That depends,” Felix said, “how much time do I have left to answer?”

“Now what fun would it be if I told you that?”

“Uh.. guys?” Allan said, looking as confused as Claude. At least he wasn’t the only one out of the loop. “I hate to interrupt, but what did you make?”

“Yes, Marinette, what did you make?” Felix repeated coyly.

Marinette narrowed her eyes playfully at him. “Oh, just another little project of mine.. Claude, are you ready to try on your suit?”

Claude grinned, his curiosity flying out the window in favor of his suit.

“Yes, please!”

“Allan and I will get dressed too while you get fitted.” Allegra smiled. “Felix, you’re suit is-”

“I’m not wearing a suit. Not one of yours, anyway.”

“Come on, Fe, it’s just for a play.” Allan attempted to persuade. “You love reading Shakespeare. I bet you even know the lines already. You’re perfect for the roll!”

Felix scoffed. “How about I be the director then and tell you when you’re acting is improper? That way I can stay in my own clothes.”

“Alright~ but it’s your loss!” Claude said, giving Marinette her dress as he took his suit. “I’ll be out in a few minutes for you to check my measurements, Mari!”

“Okay, I’ll change as fast as I can!”

Claude grinned and started for one of the bathrooms, absolutely tickled with glee. Who cares if Felix didn’t want to join them? That was nothing new. Claude had his suit and his other friends to help perform the play, and that was all that mattered! Today was going to be fantastic no matter what, and he was going to make sure of that!

~~~~~~~

Felix sat down on a stray crate, back hunched and elbows resting on his knees with his chin settled in his palm. Everyone was getting dressed up for the play Claude insisted they put on, and since Felix refused to be in said play, he was forced to sit outside and wait for them, not that he cared to do so. Anything was better than dressing up and prancing around in an outfit that Claude ordered for him. He’d probably get thrown into the roll of the court jester, and then Marinette would laugh at him as he attempted to recite his lines. No, thank you.

Felix looked around the theater room, idly sizing up the curtains and the stage and the rows of seats. Despite knowing Claude for three full years, he still couldn’t fathom the fact that this guy had an entire stage-play theater built into his house. Not built separately, not bought from a place somewhere in Paris, but built into his house. Granted, it was a modest stage, closer in size to their school theater rather than an opera house, but an entire stage? With ceilings high enough to set up good props and produce incredible acoustics? Who does that? How many plays must one perform to decide they need a stage right at home? Did it take long to build? How hard did Claude have to beg for his mother to agree to it?

..On second thought, Felix doubted he had to beg much. His parents were the ones to send Marinette all of that expensive fabric. They clearly didn’t mind investing in Claude’s interests.

A smirk came to his lips as he thought back on Marinette’s reactions, not only to the fabrics, but also to the stage itself. The way her jaw dropped to the floor was priceless, and he swore he’d never seen her eyes so big. They looked like saucers as she took in the room.

“You have a theater??” He remembered her saying, completely incredulous over the idea.

“Yeah! Isn’t it awesome?” Claude had replied.

“..It’s definitely something.” She had muttered back. “You guys really like being grand about your hobbies, don’t you?”

Felix’s smirk widened, and he quietly nodded in agreement with her, even though the conversation ended a while ago. The trio did enjoy exaggerating their interests. In fact, they quite enjoyed exaggerating everything. If she thought this was bad, he couldn’t wait to see her face when she walked into Allan’s game room. That place was bigger- and more crowded -than Allegra’s music room and Claude’s stage room combined.

In fairness, Felix had his own, decently-sized library too, but that, he liked to think, was a different matter.

“Whatcha smirkin’ about, Fe?”

Felix’s expression fell flat as he turned to Claude. He and Allan finished getting ready a bit earlier than the girls, so they came out to the stage area to wait with Felix.

“Nothing of importance.” Felix answered.

Claude chuckled, leaning back on the stage with his palms. Felix didn’t appreciate him sitting on the floor while wearing the new prince suit that Marinette had made for him, but it was Claude’s suit. He had a right to dirty it up if he wanted to, and they could always wash it later.

“Awe, come on, you don’t usually smirk for no reason.” Claude coaxed. “Was it the joke I told earlier? I bet it was the joke.”

“Yes, Claude, you’ve guessed it. That bland joke you made about Shakespeare earlier was so humorous that I simply had to laugh at it again, even though it wasn’t funny enough to laugh at the first time.”

“I know, I know, I’m just too funny.” Claude sighed wistfully. “It’s a talent.”

Felix rolled his eyes and looked back at the stage, specifically the thick, red curtain that was hanging next to them. Marinette and Allegra were supposed to be getting ready somewhere behind it, but he hadn’t heard any sounds from them in a while.

“Do you think the girls are gonna be done anytime soon?” Allan asked, taking the words right from Felix’s mouth. He was sitting on the stage floor too, but Marinette didn’t slave away to make his king costume, so Felix simply ignored that gesture. “I mean, I know they have a lot more fabric to their outfits, but they’ve been back there for, like, ten minutes now.”

“Maybe one of them got stuck.” Claude thought aloud.

Felix shot him a look. “Stuck? Really?”

“Sure.” Claude said. “You know, like, when you start to put on a shirt, then realize it’s too small, but you can’t take it off because it’s too small. So you sit in the changing room for a bit just flailing around and trying not to rip it-”

Allan snorted. “Claude, these dresses were custom made to fit their size. I don’t think they got stuck.”

“We didn’t really ask Marinette about her size, though. We just had Allegra guess by looking at some of her shirt tags during the sleepover.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Felix chided. “They’re old time dresses. Allegra and Marinette just need time to put the dresses on correctly.”

“Or they could have gotten stuck.”

“Claude, it’s a ludicrous theory and you know it-”

“But it’s still a possibility-”

“Guys, can we just-”

“Sorry it took so long!”

The boys’ argument was interrupted by Allegra, who threw open the backstage curtain with a smile. Her dress was a deep shade of purple, and it wrapped around her shoulders and torso, twisting into an old time princess dress that vaguely reminded Felix of the Roman Era. Her hair was pulled up into a high bun as well, with a small braid trailing from the bottom of it. It worked together nicely, and the overall demeanor made her appear to be cultured and refined.

“Marinette’s dress was apparently a tie-on instead of a zipper,” Allegra explained, “So it took us a while to get it on right.”

Felix gave Claude a look of “I told you so”, but before Claude could glare at him or wave him away, Allegra stepped to the side and pulled the curtain further back, allowing them to see Marinette as she entered.

The room hushed immediately, or perhaps it was just Felix forgetting to breathe as he watched her glide in. Marinette’s dress was much fuller than Allegra’s, fluffing out around her from the waist down, but she wore it well and made sure to take slow and precise steps so as not to fall. The dress swayed with her every move, almost glittering in the stage lighting, and her sleeves, which hung loosely around her shoulders, did the same. It made the fabric around her shoulders seem ghostly, haunting. He might have been inclined to watch it wave back and forth for a few more minutes had there not been other things to admire.

A jeweled necklace adorned her neck, paired with earrings that, for some reason, were clipped above her usual, black earrings. For a moment, he wondered why she simply hadn’t replaced the black earrings entirely, but then he got caught by her gaze.

Her eyes were sparkling, giving away the giddiness she had from wearing the costume. And why shouldn’t she be giddy? The glittering gown made her look enchanting, radiant, regal, and she held her head high with this knowledge.

A true princess, indeed.

“Marinette, that looks great on you!” Claude beamed, “In fact, you both look great!”

Marinette's eyes turned away from Felix so she could smile at Claude, and for a brief moment, Felix felt rueful of it.

“Did you curl her hair?” Allan asked, a hint of amusement in his tone.

Felix raised his eyebrows slightly and glanced over Marinette’s hair. He hadn’t noticed at first, but the tips of her bangs were a bit curled, weren’t they? The stray hairs that fell from her bun were curled too.

“Yep!” Allegra confirmed eagerly. “I figured it would help her get more into character. Doesn’t she look amazing?”

“Yeah, it looks nice together,” Allan agreed. “Why are you wearing two pairs of earrings though? They look heavy.”

“That’s what I said!” Allegra replied. “The second pair of earrings was for the costume, but she didn’t want to take her black ones off to wear them.”

Marinette lightly touched one of her black earrings, a shy smile on her lips as she said, “They were a special gift to me. I don’t like taking them off.”

“Hey, that’s alright.” Claude smiled. “Sentimality is always welcome here.”

“Just make sure to take the extra earrings off if they start to hurt.” Allan added.

Marinette nodded, and Claude got up from the stage to brush himself off.

“Now that we’re all ready, I’m gonna run backstage and grab the scripts. Can you guys come help me get the props for the first scene?”

“Sure.” Allan smiled, getting up too.

“I’ll grab what I can in this dress.” Allegra joked, pulling the curtain back again.

“Felix, are you sure you don’t want to join us?” Claude asked, for the millionth time. “It’s not too late to change your mind?”

“I’ll pass.”

Claude shrugged and walked backstage with Allegra and Allan, but Marinette stayed out front.

“I’ll be right with you guys.” She told Claude as he passed her.

“Okay. Just go towards the back when you’re ready. Allan should be there working on the lights.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Felix watched Claude leave, feeling a tad curious as to why Marinette was waiting. Was she going to put her ponytails in her purse? Or maybe set her regular clothes on one of the theater seats? He could do that for her if she needed him too.

Marinette turned to Felix and started to approach him, causing him to straighten on the crate. She was coming closer to him. Did she need something? Should he stand up? Why did her smile suddenly look devious?

She stopped in front of him, the edge of her dress brushing against his shoes, and leaned down to meet him at eye level. It was a casual gesture, something that shouldn’t have affected him at all, but for some reason, he felt his heart lodge itself in his throat.

“Are you ready?” She asked, so smooth it could have been a purr.

Felix swallowed.

“..Ready for what?” He asked carefully.

“To guess.” She said, straightening once more. It was only then that he noticed her hands behind her back and realized she was hiding something, no doubt the surprise that she had said she’d finished. She must be offering him the time to guess now.

Felix blinked, trying to gather his thoughts. That.. hadn’t been what he expected her to do, but what did he expect her to do?

“What’s the surprise, Felix?” She inquired, pulling him back to their conversation. “And who’s it for?”

Felix frowned, trying to rack his brain for the possibilities that he’d come up with over the last week, but his mind was a bit scrambled by.. well.. her. So he went with his top guess instead, the only one he really remembered.

“The surprise is for me.” He said, sprinkling a bit of feigned confidence into his voice. “And it’s..”

She had to have been holding the surprise this whole time, right? He didn’t see her pick anything up before walking over to him. But she also touched her earring earlier with one of her hands, which meant the present was light enough to hold behind her, and small enough to hold in one hand.. It was also something she made or personally altered, and something she knew he would like (should it be a surprise for him). That left him with..

“A tie.” He guessed. “You made me a tie.”

Marinette giggled, triumph flashing in her bluebell eyes. “You were half-right.”

She pulled out a box from behind her back and held it out to him. It was wrapped in black wrapping paper, with a grey ribbon to match, similar to the colors of his suit.

Felix smirked at the irony as he took the gift.

“The surprise is for you, but it’s not a tie, which means I win.” She trilled, placing her hands on her hips and grinning down at him.

“Yes, yes, you win,” He relented, “but can you really say I lost? It looks like I got a fantastic prize regardless.”

Marinette scoffed, rolling her eyes with a smile. “You haven’t even opened it yet.”

“I don’t need to,” He replied, though he started pulling the ribbon off anyway, “Anything you make is clearly worth having. Just ask Claude.”

“Can you just open it already?”

He chuckled and set the ribbon to the side. “I’m opening it, I’m opening it.”

Felix felt around the black wrapping paper for an opening, then when he found a good corner, he glanced up at Marinette as he slowly pulled the paper back, little by little. She didn’t say anything at first, electing to glare at him instead, but when he started taking off the tape piece by piece, she quickly snapped.

“Felix Culpa, I swear-!”

“What?” He laughed, leaning back to avoid her swatting hand. “I want to save the beautiful wrapping paper.”

Marinette’s nose scrunched up in annoyance, and Felix gave her an innocent smile.

“Shall I continue?”

“..Yes. But if you take any longer, I might throw it at you instead.”

Felix snorted and went back to the gift, this time actually unwrapping it.

The rectangular box underneath was ordinary, no special brands that he could see, and Felix guessed it to be the box that her project first arrived in. Anticipation twirled in his chest as he opened the top, but it dropped again when he saw two blocks of styrofoam inside.

His gaze flicked to Marinette, curious. What would she need styrofoam for? Were these made of glass?

Marinette gestured for him to continue, looking equally as eager. So, with a final breath, Felix pulled out the styrofoam and looked at his gift.

Two large chess pieces were inside, each sat on their own, respective wooden platforms that reached both underneath them and behind them, as though they were on mini shelves. One piece was a black king, while the other was a white queen, and the platforms were stained a dark mahogany, except for the section of wood directly under the chess pieces. Those spots were painted pitch black, resembling the squares that chess pieces usually moved on during a game.

“They’re bookends.” Marinette explained as he pulled them out. They were heavy in his hands, proving that they’d been made well. “I was trying to find a way to thank you for everything you’d done for me, and.. well.. I figured since you like chess and books.. Do you like it?”

“Like it?” He almost scoffed. “Marinette, these are incredible. You made these?”

“Oh, no.” She said, reaching up to play with her hair. When she realized her hair was in a bun, though, she brought her hand back down to fiddle with the fabric hanging from her shoulders instead. “I mean, I painted them, but I ordered the product itself online. I never could have made them that smooth by myself.”

Felix had a feeling that she could if she tried hard enough, but he wasn’t going to argue over it. She’d made him something immensely thoughtful, and now was not the time for unnecessary corrections.

“They’re perfect.” He said. “I’ll use them as much as I can from now on.”

Marinette perked up, flushing slightly as a smile graced her lips. “Really?”

“Of course. I’ll put them on my bedroom shelf as soon as I get home.”

Marinette bit her lip and shifted slightly from one foot to the other, undoubtedly trying to hold back a squeal.

“That’s great to hear.”

“Hey, Mari!” Claude called from the back, cutting into their conversation. “Do you think you can come help us with these lights? We need a good pair of strong arms!”

“Allan apparently isn’t up to par.” Allegra yelled jokingly.

“Hey! I don’t see you trying to lift this!”

Marinette giggled as she turned to the curtain. “Be right there!”

She then turned back around to give Felix an apologetic smile. “I have to go help them, but I’m glad you like your gift.”

Felix returned her smile. “Thank you for making it for me.”

“Of course!” Marinette chirped. She twirled around, her dress briefly twisting with her, and bounced to the backstage area, where Allan’s grunts and Allegra’s chortles could still be heard.

Felix looked down at his gift again, setting one of the chess pieces on his crate so he could run his hands over the first one.

A gift to say thank you, huh?

~~~~~~

Marinette stretched her arms up towards the sky, letting out a long sigh as the tension drained from her shoulders. The sunlight above seeped into her skin, covering her with a soft warmth and lighting up the grass that she was currently treading through. Despite it being the middle of winter, the temperature outside was quite comfortable. So comfortable, in fact, that Marinette left her jacket in the car when they all got out at the park to grab lunch.

Then again, after wearing that Victorian-style princess dress for a good two hours, Marinette wouldn’t be surprised if she stuck with a plain t-shirt and jeans for the rest of her life. Who knew all of that fabric would be so heavy? The women in those old time movies made it look like a breeze, yet she could barely keep from tripping onto Claude more than five times during the play. Thank goodness it was only Felix watching them instead of an official audience.. Or did that make it worse?

Whatever the case, Marinette was glad to be in her normal clothes again.

“Whew! It is scalding today!” Claude said, reaching up to place his hands behind his head as they walked. “You sure know which days to pick when it comes to eating out, Mari.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of uncanny.” Allan remarked. “What are the odds that the one day Marinette picks where we eat, the weather is perfect for it?”

Marinette giggled. “Lucky guess?”

“Lucky is definitely right,” Allegra said light-heartedly, “but if you want to talk about miracles, how about the fact that Felix actually agreed to go to a food cart with us? He hates greasy foods.”

Marinette pursed her lips, her eyes sliding over to the blond in question. He did seem a bit put off when she suggested they eat here.. Should she have chosen somewhere different? He could always speak up if he changed his mind about joining them.

Felix tisked, rolling his eyes as usual. “I just don’t like how messy they are. You need five napkins to get one, clean bite out of them, and I don’t get a single utensil during the meal. The entire concept is vulgar, in my opinion.”

“See what I mean?” Allegra smiled.

“Uh- excuse you,” Claude piped up, “Food trucks are a blessing upon this earth. There’s barely ever any lines, the food is quick and easy to eat, and- hello! -it all comes to you itself! Where else can you get something that great?”

“A normal restaurant?”

“No!” Claude insisted. “You have to walk to a restaurant. With a food cart, the restaurant walks to you!”

“That’s not how a food cart works, Claude.” Felix stated flatly.

“Sure it does.”

“We are literally walking to the food cart right now.” Allegra pointed out.

Felix gestured towards Allegra with a look of “see?”, but Claude only scoffed.

“I’m right! This is just an exception!”

Marinette covered her mouth to hide her giggles and drew in a quick breath to compose herself before saying, “Are you sure you don’t mind going to the food cart, Felix? We can always pick a different place to eat.”

Felix’s eyes met hers, reluctant but certain. “Yes, I’m sure. We’re always dragging you to our restaurants, so it’s only fair that we follow you to yours.”

Marinette smiled, an entirely different warmth washing over her skin. She knew he’d say something like that, something about her. It was like clockwork. She would mention being nervous or ask for clarity on a subject, and he would give it without a second thought through honeyed words and soft confirmations. Felix probably didn’t mean to sound sweet- he was just telling the truth -but it melted her heart nonetheless. Sometimes, she was tempted to say certain things just to hear him talk about her, like with his surprise that morning. She knew he liked it. His face alone told her everything she needed to know, but Marinette couldn’t help asking for his thoughts anyway, couldn’t help searching for his compliments and quiet smiles that he offered in his replies. She wanted to listen to him talk forever, and if some of the things he talked about happened to be her, well… who was she to complain?

It was a horrible thing to do, really, manipulating Felix in such a way, but she wasn’t ready to squash her addiction just yet. After all, if she was going to get caught up in these ridiculous feelings for him, she might as well enjoy the high while it lasts, right? Just for a little while..

“Don’t push yourself too hard.” Marinette teased him. “We wouldn’t want you getting a splotch of grease on your vest and spiraling into a breakdown or anything.”

Claude and the others snorted, while Felix rolled his eyes with a smirk.

“Please. If I can handle your messes, then I’m sure a splotch of grease will be of no consequence to me.”

“Felix!” Allegra gasped. “Don’t be rude.”

“Oh, really?” Marinette said, unbothered. “And what if one of my messes happens to involve a whole tote of grease this time?”

“Oh, ho!” Claude couldn’t help blurting out.

Felix looked her in the eye for a solid three seconds, assessing her level of seriousness, and Marinette tried not to blush too hard under his gaze. If she “lit up” now, he might take it as a win.

“Well, then, Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, I hope you brought an extra change of clothes, because I assure you that that tote of grease will not be falling on me.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes playfully, ignoring the chorus of “ohhhh”s that the trio provided, but as she opened her mouth to respond-

“Marinette?”

-someone called out her name.

Marinette froze mid-step, her blood running cold as her feet rooted themselves to the ground. That couldn’t have been who she thought it was, right? She was hearing things. She had to be hearing things. It was a mistake.

But the group paused with her, each looking confused as they searched for the source of the call. Marinette didn’t search with them. If she did, she might see something that she desperately wanted to be weird, wishful thinking.

“Uh.. Marinette?” Claude asked. “Do you know those guys?”

Marinette bit her lip, so hard she swore she’d be tasting blood in a second, and dragged her eyes upwards to follow Claude’s gaze.

Unfortunately, no luck in the world could have saved her from the girl her eyes landed on, the one person aside from Lila that Marinette’s been actively avoiding: Alya Cessaire, accompanied by Nino Lahiffe, and they were both looking right at her.

Oh no..

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(Devotions: Hey, everyone! It’s the end of the chapter devotion again! Thanks to anyone who decides to read this and apply it to their loves! I truly hope and pray that God touches the hearts of those who see this as He has continually touched my heart while I write it! Today we’re going to talk about a passage that really shows how good our God is: John 11:35. This verse is commonly known as the shortest verse in the Bible, but to me, now, it’s a reminder of the incredible compassion of Jesus Christ and the rest of the trinity.

Let’s back up and look at some context, and then I’ll explain what John 11:35 says and why it means so much to me. The story John 11:35 stems from starts at John 11:1, when the Bible first mentions a man named Lazarus. Lazarus was the brother of Mary (Not Jesus’ mother. A different Mary.) and Martha, two sisters who have also been mentioned in the Bible. Mary is famously known for washing Jesus’ feet with expensive ointments and drying His feet with her own hair in an effort to show her faith and adoration in Him, and while Martha is mostly known for chiding her sister in that moment, since she was neglecting their guests by washing Jesus’ feet, her faith and adoration for Jesus was extremely great as well. In the passage we’re reading through (John 11:1-45), we see that Lazarus is extremely sick, so much so that Mary and Martha are certain he’s going to die soon, and they send someone out to find Jesus as a last resort. His ability to heal the sick and make the lame walk or the blind to see is well known in the Jewish community, so it’s only natural for them to search for Him is such desperate times.

The Bible doesn’t specify how long it took the messenger to find Jesus, but once they did, they told Him the urgency of the situation, saying “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.” (And isn’t that such a nice thing to read? ‘He whom thou lovest’.. It’s so sweet. <3) With that kind of message, one would assume that Jesus would rush right down to see Lazarus immediately, but that wasn’t the case. Instead of running full speed to help someone he loved, Jesus continued to stay in the place he was at for two more days. This wasn’t because He did care. Quite the contrary. He stayed away from Lazarus because the Holy Spirit told Him that He was to raise Lazarus from the dead for the glory of God, and Jesus’ spiritual power to heal was so strong that, in any city He visited, no one died until He left. You can’t exactly raise someone from the dead who hasn’t died, so He had to wait where he was for a couple of days before He could make His way into Judaea where Lazarus was.

So two days pass, and Jesus walks down into Judaea. By the time He makes it there, Lazarus has been dead for four days, and the Bible says that Jesus doesn’t even make it to Mary and Martha’s house before Martha comes running up to Him. She’s sobbing and, I imagine, stumbling over herself to meet Him, her expression riddled with grief. She cries out to Him once she’s close enough, saying, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.”

We can go through a whole other devotion about how great of a reaction this is, because Martha didn’t know Jesus was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. All she knew was that she asked for His help and He didn’t show up till it was too late, so she could have fallen into the trap of blaming Jesus for the sorrows of the world and being bitter towards Him, but she didn’t do that. Instead, she simply cried out to Jesus, saying the heartbreaking truth that if He had been there, Lazarus wouldn’t have died. Again, though, this devotion is about John 11:35, not her, so let’s move on to what Jesus responds with.

Jesus tells her that her brother is going to rise again, but Martha misunderstands Him and thinks He is talking about the resurection that comes with His second coming, so she replies, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” To which Jesus responds, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Martha tells Him that she does, and then runs to go get Mary and tell her about Jesus arriving. She’d been in the house grieving with other company up until that point, but when Martha comes in and says that Jesus is calling for her, Mary jumps up and rushes out to go meet Him like her sister had a few moments prior. This causes the people mourning with her to run out as well, and they all end up going out to see Jesus together.

Mary, I imagine, is the first to reach Him, and she falls at his feet, tears streaming down her cheeks, and says, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” (Almost an echo of Martha’s statement)Jesus, seeing the extent of Mary’s grief and the weeping of those behind her, groans in His spirit and asks where Lazarus has been buried. Mary tells Him to come and see, and this is where we get to read the amazing verse of John 11:35.

John 11:35- Jesus wept.

He wept. As Jesus walked with them to go see Lazarus’ grave, He cried with Mary and the others, and I just think that is so incredibly comforting. He knew He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knew their grief was going to be over very soon. He knew that all of this was for the greater good in the long run, yet He still wept with them. Even though He was going to heal all of their woes in mere minutes, it still hurt Him to the point of tears to see Mary and Martha in such pain.

God loves us to an immeasurable degree. I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue saying it till my dying breath (and then afterwards, when I get to praise Him in Heaven). He never wants to see us suffering, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to go through trials. There is still free will on this earth, and everything we do has an effect on someone else, whether it be good or bad. Those bad effects are going to fall on all of us eventually, but John 11:35 let’s us know that God’s going to be right there with us when it does, crying when we cry, and enduring the same pain we endure. He’s not just going to sit up in Heaven and watch indifferently with the knowledge that He’s going to work it all out in the end. He understands that a good end doesn’t make the bad middle hurt any less, and He’s promised to comfort us in any way we need during those hard, middle times. I don’t know about you, but knowing that He cares that much for us is extremely heartwarming to me.

If you’re going through a trial right now, I hope this helps you to remember that God is always watching over you, and that He will never leave you nor forsake you. And if you’re not going through a trial, I hope this reminder of God’s empathy and compassion prompts you to seek Him more fervently from now on! God is a gracious and glorious God, and He deserves all of the praise and love we can give Him! <3)

#felinette #Felix Culpa #Marinette #Miraculous Ladybug #New Girl on the Block #Rosemary AU #Quantic Kids

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starshine583 · 3 years

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Thank you so much for this fic I love it with all my heart. I love everything about it.

I can't decide...Adrien or Felix ...

I have my cies next week and honestly chp 21 calmed my stress.

Also I'm grateful for you for the devotions you add, its wonderful. I'm a muslim myself but this is honestly so kind of you.

Thank you very much for the compliments! It's always nice to hear that people are enjoying the story so far and especially nice to hear about their appreciation for God! He deserves all of the credit we can give Him 🥰

#submitted #sweet #love praising the Lord ❤

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starshine583 · 3 years

Text

Journal Entries 13

(This Journal Entry is based on Ch. 21 of New Girl on the Block.)

Entry 1 / Entry 12

Sunday, February 17th,

After Marinette ignored my texts for a full day, I finally decided to go over to her house. It was a last minute decision, and my mother found it quite humorous, but the result was definitely worthwhile. Marinette was caught completely off guard, and I was able to get a good look around the place before she could counter my so called “attack”. Unfortunately, my efforts weren’t all that fruitful, because her room was littered with the fabrics from Claude’s suits, but I enjoyed the visit nonetheless. I got to talk with her for a bit and watch her scramble to explain the rules of the bet, and after a while, she actually fell asleep! In the middle of our conversation! I might have found it rude had Mlle Sabine not mentioned her working day and night to finish her projects. That silly girl never knows when to quit..Anyway, as I said, she fell asleep mid-visit, and I wasn’t going to rummage through a girl’s room while she was sleeping, so I moved her over to the chaise, grabbed a blanket and some snacks for her, and left her one of the decorations she’d made during the Valentine’s Day party. (I hadn’t mentioned it before, but she said she was quite fond of the decorations while we were putting them away, so I asked Allegra if she could have one. I’m unsure as to whether Marinette will actually keep the stream of hearts or not, though.)

I hope she’ll begin taking care of herself properly. Ignoring sleep, along with food and water, is not a healthy process to get work done. Perhaps I need to start visiting more often during her projects.

Dear Diary,

You’ll never believe what Felix did today! He actually came over! To my house! Unannounced! Isn’t that awful? That little punk was trying to catch me off guard so he could find my gift! I mean, I knew he was a little on the devious side but I didn’t think he would resort to this! I should have. I should have known he would try underhanded tactics if it meant he could win. Luckily, I did take the proper precautions.

I guess I can’t be too hard on him, though. He was really sweet when he stopped by. He asked about whether I’d eaten or not, and when I said no, he went to get me some food. I.. may or may not have fallen asleep while he to get it? So I don’t remember the rest, but I woke up on the chaise covered in a warm blanket, and there was fruit and water on my desk for me. He left a note too! It was paired with one of the heart decorations I made for the party, which was kind of nice because I’d mentioned off-hand that I was “sentimental” about them (I’m really not, but we’re not gonna go into all of that). I’ll leave the note here so you can read it later, but I think I’ll hang the heart strings up in my room. You know.. For decoration..

Anyway, now that I’ve got some rest and been rejuvenated, it’s time to get working on Claude’s suit again full force! So goodbye for now, Dear Diary!

#felinette #Felix Culpa #Marinette #Miraculous Ladybug #Rosemary AU #Journal Entries

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starshine583 · 3 years

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New Girl on the Block (21)

(Sorry for the late update, guys! Yesterday was CRAZY for me. Actually, this whole MONTH has been crazy! I haven’t been able to write in weeks :’( but thankfully, I’ve pre-written a few chapters so I can still post an update today. I hope you all are doing well and don’t forget to check out the mini series connected to this called Journal Entries!)

Ch. 1 / Ch. 20 / Ch. 22 (ao3)

Chapter 21: Elementary

Felix eyed the Dupain-Cheng bakery as he stepped out of his limo and onto the pavement. The open sign hung neatly on the front door, and behind it, the lights shined brightly inside. M Dupain-Cheng was manning the register from the looks of it, which meant Marinette either wasn’t home or wasn’t working. Both scenarios would suit him fine.

After a swift ‘thank you’ to his driver, Felix walked over and pushed open the bakery door. The entrance was noticeably different from the first time he visited- no mulling or fussing over manners and such -but the warmth that came with the charming patisserie was the same. Scents of cinnamon and vanilla wafted through the air, and the bright chattering of M. Sabine was as light as the customer bell that rang above his head when he came in.

A usual Sunday for the Dupain-Cheng household, he mused.

M. Sabine caught his eye in an instant, her smile brightening as she shooed off her current customer. The customer didn’t appear to be happy about it, but she clearly didn’t mind, because she continued beckoning Felix over to the register with a wave of her hand.

Felix strolled over as requested and managed not to tense too much when M. Sabine pulled him into a hug.

“Felix, it’s so good to see you!” She trilled. “What can I get for you? A croissant? A cupcake? Or are you here to see Marinette?”

Felix offered a small smile. “The last one. Is she home?”

“She is! Just take those stairs up- oh, but you know how to get up there already. You’ll find her in her room, but I advise you to tread lightly. She’s been working on some projects non-stop for the last two days.”

Felix hummed. Has she now?

“Thank you very much. I’ll be sure to buy some sweets for my mother on the way out.”

“Oh, don’t be silly! Tom and I can get a bag ready for you while you’re up there. No charge necessary!”

Felix chuckled softly and shook his head. Marinette truly did inherit her generosity.

“That’s quite alright. I have plenty of money.”

“As do we. Now go on up before Tom finds you and gives you another bear hug.”

The comment was enough to send Felix scurrying up the stairs (in a dignified fashion, of course). Tom was a wonderful man, but his bear hugs were.. not exactly something Felix would actively seek out.

He glided through the familiar hallways of the apartment complex until he found Marinette’s, then quietly walked inside towards the attic stairs, taking care not to bump or touch anything that would alarm her. If Marinette became aware of his presence, she might find time to panic.

Or hide things.

Felix climbed that attic stairs and lightly knocked on the trapdoor, waiting for an absent invitation to enter. Hopefully, her parents knocked when they came to her room too, or she was going to guess rather quickly that he wasn’t her father or mother.

“Come in!” A muffled voice called, to his relief. She didn’t suspect a thing.

He pushed open the trapdoor and climbed inside quickly, his eyes darting around the room before anything could be touched. Various things were scattered across her floorboards and furniture, namely things like unrolled fabrics or loose spindles of thread. She’d clearly been working on something, but what? How was he supposed to find anything in this explosion of colors?

Thanks, Claude.

Marinette gasped, bringing his gaze back to her.

“Felix!” She yelped, that predictable panic washing over her features. She shot up from her rolling chair and snapped her gaze from left to right as her hands flailed a bit behind her. It was almost like she couldn’t decide what to protect or where to escape. Did that mean the entire room was somehow a clue or only part of it?

Felix straightened, giving her a small, innocent smile. “Good afternoon. I hope I’m not.. interrupting anything.”

“Uh- No, no! I was just-” Marinette’s gaze flicked over her shoulder “-You know. Working on Claude’s.. Suit. What are you doing here?”

“You haven’t been responding to my texts,” He said idly, scanning the room again for good measure, “so I thought I’d come check on you.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Marinette’s surprise melt into annoyance.

“You mean your texts about the surprise?” she asked flatly.

Felix held back a smirk.

“Hm? You mean the surprise you mentioned offhand two days ago? Yes, I suppose some of them were about that.”

“You know this is cheating, right?”

“Cheating?” Felix nearly gasped. “I don’t recall setting any rules.”

“I thought it was a given!” Marinette huffed, though he caught the corners of her lips twitching upwards.

“Clearly not,” He replied with a smirk, “but by all means, if you have rules, I would be delighted to know them. I want to win knowing you had all of the advantages.”

Marinette scoffed, giving him a playful eye roll. “Well, first off, you can’t ambush me like this. If you come in while I’m working on the surprise, then of course you’re going to know what it is.”

“Are you working on the surprise?” Felix inquired, tilting his head to see what was on the desk behind her.

“No, but that’s not the point.” Marinette said, blocking his view from her desk anyway.

“Alright, then what should I depend on for my guess?” He asked in turn. “You’re words? You could be lying or giving misleading information, and if you did tell the truth, I highly doubt you’d give me any clues that you thought would help me.”

“True,” Marinette agreed, “but the bet was to have you guess the surprise.”

“An educated guess is a guess all the same.”

“An educated guess is an assumption based on prior knowledge and experiences.” She pointed out. “If you see my surprise, you won’t be guessing what it is from things you saw beforehand. You’ll just know what it is because you saw it directly.”

Felix hummed. That was a good loophole.

“So are you saying that the surprise is easy to make out once you see it?”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying.”

“Oh, so it’s not easy to make out?”

“Felix!”

Felix laughed. “So you want me to make a deduction based on what I already know about you? Is that correct?”

Marinette eyed him for a moment, seeming to search for a trick in his words, then sat down in her rolling chair again. “Yes.”

Felix nodded thoughtfully and walked over to the chaise, gingerly moving scraps of cloth and a stray, bush pin holder aside so he could sit down as well.

“Alright, let’s see.. What do I know about Mlle Marinette Dupain-Cheng? I know you are creative.. Thoughtful.. Clever.. Minorly obsessed with giving gifts.. And work mostly in the clothes district, though that doesn’t mean you can’t make other things such as dolls or fake jewelry.”

Marinette snorted, an amused smile crossing her lips. “Go on.”

“You’re also empathetic and incredibly intuitive, picking up on the things around you without a second thought while also managing to run into a pole that’s directly in front of your face.”

“Hey!”

“My point is,” Felix continued slyly, “you’re clumsy in your walk, but not your work. If you made this bet with me, you’ve no doubt guessed where I would look and tried to counter that already. The gift is either hidden where you know I won’t look for sake of privacy or out in plain sight where you don’t believe I’ll see it as odd.”

“How do you know it’s even in this room?”

He smiled. “Your anxiety. Putting the box in any other place would have you fretting constantly over who’s touching it or whether it’s been moved. Your bedroom is the one place you can hide it while also watching over it unceasingly.”

Marinette raised her eyebrows ever so slightly, apparently impressed, and it only made his smile widen. He’d been spot on, hadn’t he? The surprise was in her room!

“That’s very cute and all, but you still haven’t guessed what the surprise is,” She retorted, crossing her arms, “or who it’s for.”

Felix tilted his head in a nod. “Alright, let’s go through the possibilities. You have Claude, Allegra, Allan, and myself. Anyone else wouldn’t make sense as a surprise.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because otherwise you wouldn’t feel the need to keep it a secret.” He pointed out. “You’re keeping this a surprise because you don’t want the person being surprised to find out prematurely, yes? So telling me would only jeopardize that if it were myself or someone I’m with regularly, which is Claude, Allan, Allegra, and you, and you can’t exactly surprise yourself-”

“I could. You never know.” Marinette joked.

Felix chuckled. “Sure, but it would be highly unlikely. Moving on, I don’t think it would be Claude, Allan, or Allegra either, because, as you know, I don’t enjoy blabbing my mouth to others. If you were surprising one of them, you most likely wouldn’t have hesitated to tell me what the surprise was. There is the possibility that you’re just being extra careful, but I highly doubt it.”

“Therefore, in conclusion, you’re left with me.” He finished.

Marinette hummed, setting her elbow on her desk and leaning her head on her palm. “So you think the surprise is for you?”

“It’s my leading theory.”

“I see. Might I ask why I would make a surprise for you?”

“That wasn’t part of the bet.”

Marinette snorted. “What if I don’t want to tell you because I don’t feel like it? I don’t have to tell you everything about my life, Felix.”

“No,” he agreed, though a part of him would like her to, “but you wouldn’t have made the bet if you didn’t want me prying, now, would you?”

“Maybe I’m just a poor planner.”

Felix simply raised an eyebrow. Marinette’s plans might not work out the way she wants them to on occasion, but she certainly wasn’t a poor planner.

Her smile widened, clearly catching onto what he was thinking. “It could always be a possibility.”

Felix lightly scoffed and leaned back on his palms, his gaze sweeping over Marinette’s bed up top. It was neatly made, with nothing else surrounding it but a stray glass of water. That probably meant the surprise was on the lower portion of her room, since it would be hard to keep something hidden in a clean space. Could it be in one of her chests, perhaps? Or was he going to have to unravel one of her fabric rolls to find it?

“Perhaps I’m putting too much faith in you, but-”

A yawn cut off Felix’s remark, and he blinked at Marinette as she stretched out her free arm. Her posture was practically slumped against the desk, her cheek sagging against her palm as she slid further into it. Was she.. tired?

“Are you alright?” He asked, leaning forward to get a better look at her. Had those bags under her eyes been there this whole time?

“Hm? Oh, yeah.” She pulled herself back into a sitting-up position, attempting to rub the grogginess off of her expression. “I just hadn’t realized how tired I was until I stopped working.”

Felix frowned. “When did you last sleep?”

“Uh.. What day is it again?” She glanced down at her computer. “Saturday.. I think I got some sleep yesterday morning.”

“Yesterday Morning?” He repeated, flabbergasted. M. Sabine had mentioned Marinette working non-stop on her projects, but he didn’t think she meant it literally. “Why haven’t you been sleeping?”

She offered him a half shrug. “I didn’t mean to stay up this long. I just keep getting into the zone with Claude’s suit, and it makes time fly by.. Plus, my insomnia was getting to me again. So, I figured: Why roll around in bed relentlessly when you can do something productive?”

“You need to rest.”

Marinette tossed her hand in his direction. “Nah. What I need is to go get one of my mocha frappuccinos. Actually, can you get it for me? It’s downstairs in the fridge.”

“I’m not getting you a frappuccino,” Felix stated flatly, “but I’ll get you some water. Have you eaten anything today?”

“Uh.. I think I ate a macaron sometime this morning?”

Felix sighed and stood up from the chaise. Why was he not surprised?

“I’ll find something for you to eat then as well.”

“Felix, you really don’t have to do that.”

“No, but I’m going to. You can’t work on a project while you’re half-dead, after all. It’ll only lead to mistakes.”

“What are you talking about?” Marinette drawled. “Being half-dead is when most of my inspirations come to life!”

Felix pinched the bridge of his nose, though a small smile tugged at his lips. Sometimes he forgot how much of a mess Marinette could be.

“I’ll be right back.” He said, pulling open the trapdoor.

Since Tom and Sabine were still working, the main housing area was empty, so Felix was able to slip down into the kitchen without a problem.

He went to the fridge first, though he wasn’t entirely sure what to give her. M. Sabine told him to ask her for snacks if they needed any, but she would probably only bring them sweet treats. Marinette hasn’t eaten anything but a macaron since this morning, so she needed something healthy. Would fruit work? What kind of fruits did she like? He’s seen an orange in her pre-made lunch every now and then, but did they have any oranges here?

He closed the fridge and glanced at the counters. They were mostly covered with kitchen utensils, but he did spot a bowl of apples and oranges on the island, along with a few bananas on a hook nearby.

Perfect.

He snatched one of each fruit, then got a cup from the cabinet and filled it with as much water as he could. Hopefully it wouldn’t spill on his way back up.

With food and water in hand, Felix carefully trudged back up the stairs to the trapdoor. He switched all of his fruit over to one arm and pushed the trapdoor open, keeping a watchful eye on the water while doing so.

“Marinette, do you like oranges more or..” Felix trailed off as his eyes landed on Marinette again. She was slumping in her chair now, and her eyes were completely closed while her head was tilted to the side at an odd angle. If that didn’t bring him to the realization that she was sleeping, the snore that came a few seconds later certainly did.

Felix almost laughed as he continued into the bedroom. She fell asleep? Within the two seconds that he was gone??

“Marinette, you truly are incredible.” He whispered to himself, setting the water and fruit on her desk. Should he wake her up? She’ll probably be embarrassed if she finds out she fell asleep while he was there, especially after claiming she wasn’t that tired.

..On the other hand, leaving her be might give him a bit of an advantage..

Felix smirked, carefully tip-toeing away from her sleeping figure. Where was she looking when he mentioned the surprise again?

~~~~~~~

Marinette squirmed under her blanket, twisting herself to become more comfortable on the fluffy material underneath her. She’d forgotten how soft her chaise was, or how the memory foam helped her sink into it just right.. Maybe she should try sleeping on this more ofte-

Wait a minute.

Marinette cracked an eye open, glancing around her room with a frown. Since when was she lying down on the chaise? Hadn’t she been sitting in her rolling chair a moment ago? With-

“Felix!” she gasped, lurching upwards. Where was he? Did she fall asleep while he was in her room? Why didn’t he wake her up? Was he still in the house?

Marinette threw off her blanket and stood. She didn’t see him anywhere in her room, but that didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t there. He could be downstairs in the living room, or talking with her parents in the bakery. Did he see anything while she was asleep? What if he found the small cans of paint behind her fabrics? Would he be able to figure out the surprise from that? What if he found the surprise itself?!

Seized with panic, Marinette raced up the ladder that led to her bed, then scaled the next ladder that led to her balcony. She threw open the trapdoor and poked her head outside, glancing around again.

The platform was empty, thankfully. No Felix in sight. And the little pot in the corner next to her beach chair looked to be untouched as well.

Marinette let out a relieved sigh and walked over to the pot, carefully picking up the fake plant that she’d placed on top of it. Inside, past the plastic that covered the top in case of rain, she saw her package sitting snugly, right where she’d left it. Thank goodness she decided to hide it the night before, otherwise Felix would have won their bet as soon as he stepped inside her bedroom.

Marinette put the fake plant back where it was supposed to be, making sure the plastic wasn’t visible anymore, and stood up to scan the road. Felix’s car wasn’t on her street, which probably meant he went home, but that didn’t mean she was safe just yet.

“Tikki!” She called as she climbed back down into her room. It was a nasty trick he played, visiting her home unannounced, but in hindsight, she probably should have expected it. If Felix was going to guess the surprise, he needed more information on it, and how else was he going to get information (aside from herself, who was currently ignoring his messages)? Her house, where the surprise- and any clues pertaining to it -would naturally be.

Tikki zipped up to Marinette almost immediately. “Yes, Marinette?”

“Do you know how long I was asleep?”

Her kwami hummed, briefly turning to find a clock. “I’d say about.. Two hours?”

“Two hours?” Marinette repeated, horrified. Imagine what Felix could have done in that amount of time!

“Did Felix find anything about the surprise?”

“Not that I know of,” Tikki answered, to Marinette’s relief, “He started to look around for a bit, then decided against it, I guess, and left you a note before leaving himself.”

Marinette’s eyebrows knitted together slightly. “A note?”

Tikki nodded. “It’s on your desk.”

Marinette turned around to scan the bottom of her room again, indeed spotting a piece of paper on the corner of her desk. She must have been too worried about the surprise to notice it.

She climbed down her second ladder and walked over to the desk, picking up the small piece of paper. Felix’s letters curled across the page, beautiful and delicate, and to her surprise, she found something tucked underneath the note as well: A string of hearts. The same hearts she’d made for the Valentine’s Day party.

Dear Marinette,

You fell asleep before I could mention it, but the real reason I stopped by was to give you the decoration we talked about while cleaning up last Thursday. I noticed you forgot to ask Allegra about it, or perhaps you simply didn’t want to in the end. If the latter is the case, feel free to throw the decoration away.

I left fruit on your desk, along with a glass of water. Please eat and hydrate yourself so you don’t collapse later.

Signed,

Felix

A soft warmth bloomed in Marinette’s chest as she glanced at the group of fruits on her desk. It was a bit embarrassing that he remembered her stupid ‘reminiscing-over-the-hearts’ excuse, but also sweet that he took the time to ask Allegra about them after Marinette left. He always seemed to pay more attention to her than she realized.

“Hey, how did I get on the chaise?” Marinette asked Tikki curiously. “Felix didn’t.. You know.. carry me or anything, did he?”

The very thought nearly made her blush, but she tried to push it aside as best she could.

“Oh, he thought about it,” Her kwami confirmed, a certain amusement to her tone, “but in the end, he decided to wake you up just enough to have you walk over to the chaise yourself.”

Marinette nodded thoughtfully. She didn’t remember any of the moving process, but the neat piles next to her chaise proved that Felix put a lot of effort into cleaning the furniture off and making it comfortable. He even found a stray blanket for her to use.. With such gentle treatment coming from him, she almost wondered what she could have done to deserve it.

“Did he.. By any chance.. Do anything else while I was sleeping?” She asked hesitantly.

Tikki furrowed her eyebrows, confused. “Like what?”

Marinette flushed, flailing her arms as she replied a bit too loudly, “O-Oh, nothing! Nothing at all! I mean, if you didn’t notice anything then clearly nothing happened- hahaha! Anyway-”

She turned away from Tikki and put her hands over her face, almost groaning from embarrassment. Why would Felix even do anything to her while she was asleep? He didn’t like her that way! In fact, he didn’t like touching people at all! He wouldn’t be the type to longingly gaze at her sleeping face or maybe gently brush her bangs to the side with a smile.. It just wasn’t realistic. She needed to quit hoping for these fantasies before she fell too deeply into them.

A sigh passed Marinette’s lips, and she lowered her hands to look at Felix’s note again.

At least he cared for her in general. That’s better than nothing, right? She was happy just being his friend.

Even if she might be starting to see him as something more.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Devotion: Hey guys! Thanks for coming back for another end-of-chapter devotion! I really appreciate all of those who read this, and I am very excited to share more of the Bible with you! Today we’re going to talk about the beginnings of Hell, why it exists, and why it’s now our problem today.

People often like to question God’s goodness and grace by pointing out the existence of Hell. They say that if He is truly loving and truly as great as we say, then putting someone into Hell- or making it in the first place -should be too grievous of a task for Him. He shouldn’t want to create a situation where any of His other wonderful creations will suffer. I will agree that is a good question, but it is also a question that can be perfectly explained. (or as perfect as I myself can explain it anyway lol)

The first thing we need to understand is that Hell was not originally made for us. Hell was made for Lucifer and his followers. For background, Lucifer is an angel of light that used to be known as one of God’s chiefest angels. He had six wings, was beautiful beyond imagination, and (some believe) served at the right hand of Jesus Christ himself. Despite all of these magnificent gifts, however, Lucifer became unsatisfied with his position. As he looked at the things around him and thought about the incredible powers he’d been bestowed, he started to believe that he was above God. That instead of serving the one who made him, he should be the one on top, the one served and glorified. Pride and envy snaked through his chest like weeds, and soon, he was convincing other angels that he should be in charge too. This blasphemy continued until Lucifer felt he’d rallied enough angels together- or perhaps God called him prematurely -and He attacked God with one third of Heaven’s angels. As you can imagine, the fight didn’t last long. God won with an overwhelming victory, and for their insolence, God banished Lucifer and his followers to the place we now know as Hell. It is a place that God does not touch with any of his mercies or graces or light, a place a complete darkness where you can’t even see your hand in front of your face and your soul is tormented with an excruciating, unsoothable pain for the rest of eternity, where the only sounds you’ll hear is wailing and screaming and crying and gnashing of teeth. This was the place of punishment that God created for Lucifer and his followers, but it wasn’t supposed to be a place of punishment for us.

Now this brings us to the beginning of creation and earth, where Hell suddenly became a problem of our own as well. See, Hell is the place where people who do not want to serve God or give their hearts to Him go. It is not a direct punishment or forced suffering, per se. It is more like getting all of the privileges that come with serving Him taken away from us. If we are rejecting God, then we are rejecting the kindness and gifts that He gives us for accepting Him, such as peace, love, happiness, protection, light, and all of those great things. In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve, and He gave them the choice of following Him or rejecting Him and going their own way. He put them in a ginormous, beautiful garden, where they had everything they could ever need, and in the midst of the garden, He put a tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told them that they could eat of every fruit in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they could not eat. It was a simple rule, just one: Don’t eat the fruit of that tree, but you can have everything else. For a while, Adam and Eve followed that rule. The Bible doesn’t specify how long before they broke it, but one day, as Eve was eating in the garden, a serpent came to her. It’s unclear as to how many animals could speak during this time on earth, or if the snake itself was an exception, but the snake did speak to her.

“Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” The serpent hissed.

Eve, I can imagine, shook her head. “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ‘Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die’.”

“Ye shall not surely die,” the snake said, “for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

Now, this is the tricky part of how the devil works. He likes to throw in a little bit of the truth to cover up big lies. The fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did have the power to open our eyes to sin and wickedness, but it also was definitely going to kill Eve if she ate it. With the honeyed words of satan, however, and the tempting thought of becoming something better than she was now, Eve didn’t consider that he might be lying, and she didn’t consult God on the matter either. Instead, she took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil hesitantly in her hands and, with one final breath of courage, took a bite of it.

In that moment, she chose to go her own way instead of God’s

.Eve didn’t die physically as she’d expected to, but that wasn’t because God lied. It was because He was talking about a different kind of death, which was a spiritual death. Her body may have remained after she sinned, but her soul was shriveled up inside itself, now separated from God’s touch of everlasting life. She rejected God and His graces, and in doing so, sent herself in the direction of a place where God’s light does not shine. What’s worse is that since “nothing happened” when she ate the fruit, she brought the fruit to Adam as well. Adam, seeing that his lovely wife was still alive and well, came to the conclusion that God had lied too and also ate the fruit he was specifically told not to eat. They’d both chosen a life without God now.

Of course, since God sees everything, it wasn’t long before He came down to talk with them. Just like with Lucifer, God punished them for their insolence and disobedience. He cursed Adam’s seed, so that anyone born by him (or any man) would have their eyes opened to sin as well, and He cursed the ground so that weeds and thorns and such would sprout from the ground, making it ten times harder for Adam to work in the fields. For Eve, he cursed the way she gave birth, multiplying the pain and sorrow of it, and said that she now had to submit to her husband and that it would even become her main desire to please him. On top of those curses, He made the animals to be carnivores from then on, eating meat and growing wild from the curse of the ground, and also banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. And at the very end of that, we know that they were on their way to Hell for their disobedience.

“That’s not fair!” You might say. “They only ate one little fruit! Isn’t that punishment a bit excessive?” Well, no. Sin is a big deal. It is direct disobedience of God, and God’s rules that He gives us are not there without reason. He knew the importance of not eating the fruit and warned us ahead of time that the punishment for eating it would be severe, yet we ate it anyway. Any punishment we were given was completely deserved. You cannot say that God is merciless and cruel for not holding back on a punishment that He told us beforehand that He would give if we did something we weren’t supposed to.

“What about the rest of us? None of us were the ones to eat of the tree. Why do we have to pay for it?” You may not have sinned by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but you have sinned in your life regardless. At some point, you did something wrong and turned your back on God’s influence and grace. We are all deserving of the punishment that we are heading towards.

“Why not stop us? Why let us choose sin over Him? Why even give us the opportunity to do wrong at all?” Free will. God loves us all dearly, so He wanted to give us the choice to love Him, not just force us to because we are His own creation. Isn’t that amazing? He loves us so much that He created us knowing we wouldn’t love Him the same way He loves us, and He continues to give grace to those who reject Him and essentially spit in his face. I can’t imagine having that much love or patience for somebody, can you? He even gave us another chance to spend paradise with Him by sending Jesus Christ down to save us! Think about it: You know somebody who’s rejected you. You’ve given them good advice, and they’ve spit curses at you while deciding that they know better. They’ve shaken their fist at you and refused to talk to you, called you awful names for giving them the best things they could have, and yet, despite all of that, you decide to send your only son, your prime possession, to go down and take an incredible punishment for them, to die for them. That person who rejected you doesn’t deserve it. They haven’t asked for forgiveness. There is no guarantee that they will even acknowledge the fact that you saved them, but you do it anyway. God did it anyway, and He did it on a much larger scale than that little metaphor.

Hell was not meant for us, but we are headed there now because of our poor choices. God has given us a way to reconcile, to change the choices that we’ve made, because He loves us. He’s calling out to you now. I pray that you are listening. Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a blessed day! If you have any questions about God, please message me and let me know! <3)

#felinette #Miraculous Ladybug #Marinette #Felix Culpa #New Girl on the Block #Rosemary AU

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starshine583 · 3 years

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I just wanted to say how much I love your New Girl On The Block series and that I really appreciate your little devotionals at the bottom of your newer chapters. I'm not on social media at all but I love reading fan fiction on tumblr, but it's so hard to find just good, clean Miraculous ladybug stories. I really admire what you do, because I honestly could never write fan fiction even though I love writing. :) people assume writing fan fiction isn't hard, but I tried it once- it's so much harder than writing original characters. Sorry that this is long, but I wanted you to know that your writing is amazing and no one should tell you otherwise.

(thank you so much! I really enjoy doing the devotions and sharing God's wonderful gifts to us, so it's always nice to have positive feedback from them! I'm glad you enjoy the fanfiction and the way I write as well. The chapters are hard to keep up with sometimes, and if not for the fact that I pre-wrote a good few chapters, I actually wouldn't be able to post an update today lol and even this update is late.. but anyway, thank you again! I hope you have a blessed day <3)

#submitted #sweet #<3

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starshine583 · 3 years

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Journal Entries 12

(This Journal Entry refers to New Girl on the Block ch. 19 and 20. Enjoy!)

Friday, February 15th

We finally took the Valentine’s Day decorations down today, and I couldn’t be happier. Now I won’t have to worry about that cursed holiday until next year- though, I suppose if Marinette attends again, I won’t have to dread it as much. I wonder how long she’ll stay at Rosemary. It’s natural to assume she’ll stay until graduation, of course, but she did transfer here. She might decide to transfer somewhere else later on. Perhaps the tuition will start to weigh too heavily on her parents’ shoulders, or she’ll simply start to feel like she isn’t welcome anymore. After all this time, it will be strange not having her around, if not disheartening. I’m sure I could gather enough funds if money was the problem, and as for the feeling of being welcome, Claude and the others should be more than happy to invite her along on other outings.. But this is all speculation. Marinette will most likely stay until graduation, and I’ll have nothing to worry about.

Speaking of Marinette, she had an appointment today. I’m not sure what kind of appointment, but it caused her to leave the Mandarin Oriental. Whatever it is, I hope it went well for her, because she seemed a tad out of touch today, more so than usual. She kept staring at the decorations with a wistful smile, or muttering to herself as she grabbed a balloon. I’m quite certain that I even caught her glaring at a rose at one point. Either way, she looked to be equally put off and sentimental. I dare say that it was a bit amusing, but I also have a theory as to why she was acting that way. You see, earlier this evening, Marinette texted me about a certain surprise that she was crafting. She won’t tell me what it is or who it’s for, but she has declared a bet between us: I must guess what the surprise is, and I must do it before the surprise is revealed. It’s a thrilling gamble, and I am fully prepared to engage every trick in the book to win.

In other words, there are going to be several, entertaining entries to follow.

Dear Diary,

So, I finally had my lunch with Adrien today.. I have to admit, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. The café that we met at had great lattes, and he seemed to really understand the fact that I want to stay at Rosemary! We even talked about him meeting Felix and the others, though I don’t think I’ll go through with that anytime soon. For one, Felix kind of lied about me attending Rosemary a while back XD and for two, I’m just not comfortable with that thought yet. I know everything went smoothly and I was clearly worrying over nothing, but I still can’t shake the feeling that this is all gonna come crashing down at some point, ya know? It’s probably just my anxiety talking.. Anyway, I actually have more good news! My package for Felix’s gift finally came in! I’m super excited and I can’t wait to start it! I even made a bet with Felix about whether he could guess what it was or not!

I know, I know, “Not the greatest tactic, Marinette!” but I’ve got a feeling this will work out in my favor.

Anyway, I’m super close to finishing Claude’s suit. So I’m gonna try to pull an all nighter in order to start on Felix’s project too! Wish me luck, Dear Diary!

#Felinette #Felix Culpa #Marinette #Miraculous Ladybug #Rosemary Au #Journal Entries

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starshine583 · 3 years

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New Girl on the Block (20)

(Can you guys believe we’re up to twenty chapters already?! I certainly can’t! Thanks to everyone who’s been supporting me during this writing process. I’ve been having such a blast! I hope you all enjoy this next update along with the devotional at the bottom! Don’t forget to check out the mini series connected to this called Journal Entries!)

Ch. 1 / Ch. 19 / Ch. 21 (ao3)

Chapter 20: The Odds Stacking Against Us

“WHAT?!”

Nino jumped, immediately launching himself off the couch and bolting into the kitchen where his girlfriend’s scream had come from.

“Alya? What is it? Are you alright?” He blurted out as he slid to the kitchen doorway. Was the food burning? Was there another akuma attack across town? People weren’t putting rude comments on her blog again, were they?

Alya stood next to the stove, her eyes on her phone and her hand on her mouth. She didn’t appear to be in any sort of pain or danger, but whatever was on the screen must have deeply disturbed her, because her eyebrows were knitted together too.

“Babe?” He tried again, carefully walking over to put a hand on her shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Alya blinked, seeming to come back to him, and shook her head. “Nothing, it’s.. Lila just sent me this picture of Marinette and Adrien having lunch together.”

Nino pulled a puzzled look. “What?”

Alya tilted her phone and his direction, and Nino glanced over the screen as well. Marinette and Adrien were definitely together, and they seemed to be in a café.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Nino muttered, a frown tugging at the corner of his lips. Adrien never mentioned going to see Marinette by himself. “Was this picture taken recently?”

Alya nodded. “Lila says she just saw them today and took a picture. It looks like they’re having a pretty good time too.”

“But how did he even get in touch with her? I thought she changed her number.”

“Or she just blocked us.” Alya said bitterly. “Either way, she still lives at the bakery. He probably went there to find her. What I don’t understand is why? After everything she’s done to Lila, he shouldn’t even want to look in her direction, let alone have a lunch date with her.”

Nino glanced to the left, a bit of discomfort rising to his chest. “Yeah.. Maybe he wanted to reason with her? He said he was going to talk with Marinette about the texts to Lila, right?”

“Does this look like reasoning to you?” Alya countered, showing him the photo again.

Nino sighed at the smiling faces on the screen. “..No.”

“No.” Alya agreed. “It looks to me like he’s just hanging out with her, as if they’re still friends. So maybe he just gets a sick sense of joy from being on a bully’s good side.”

“Hey, come on, that’s not fair!” Nino shot back. “You know Adrien hardly talks with Chloe anymore. I’m sure he has a perfectly good reason for hanging around Marinette.”

Alya crossed her arms. “Like?”

“Like.. uhm.. I don’t know.. maybe he just misses her? He might not have realized she had a crush on him, but he still saw her as a close friend.”

“But that’s my point. Why is he considering her a friend at all? I wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone who would be so cruel to others.”

“Well- uh-” Nino reached up to scratch his jaw with his forefinger “-Adrien’s.. You know.. A naturally forgiving person.. And if you think about it, Marinette never really did anything to anyone except Lila. Maybe he thinks it’s a misunderstanding?”

Alya narrowed her eyes. “A misunderstanding? Lila showed us screenshot evidence of Marinette bullying her! Do you think that is a misunderstanding?”

Nino squirmed slightly. “Uh..M-Maybe? I mean.. Screenshots can be altered-”

“Are you saying you don’t believe Lila?” Alya asked incredulously. “What- you think she just made all of this up for no reason?”

“N-No! I mean- maybe - but I don’t know! Look, all I’m saying is that I can see why Adrien might not be convinced. A lot of things happened, and he likes to see the best in people, ya know?”

Alya scoffed, muttering “unbelievable” as she went back to her phone. Nino continued to squirm next to her, extremely grateful that they were alone in the apartment that day. He hated when she got like this. He hated fighting with her at all, and it always seemed to be about Lila now-a-days.. Why was her feud with Marinette such a big deal, anyway? So the two girls had some unresolved conflicts. So what? People hated each other all the time. It was nothing new. So why did the school have to take the fight personally? If you ask him, they all just overreacted.

Was Lila lying like Marinette claimed? Possibly. But there wasn’t really any proof of that, and even if there was proof, what did she expect them to do? All Lila was doing was making up crazy stories and giving empty promises. That’s not exactly punishable, just sad.

Was Marinette lying and bullying people like Lila claimed? Probably not. Nino’s known Marinette his entire life, and she would never hurt a fly unless provoked. If he had to guess, there were either some major misunderstandings or Lila did something beforehand to make Marinette go feral. Or- heck -maybe both girls were lying and simply wanted to make each other look bad. That still didn’t give any of the other students a right to intervene. At least not the way they did. Instead of helping the girls find a solution- and maybe gain the full truth from both of them -everyone decided to pick sides. This only made the fight worse, and it ended up making one of his oldest friends leave. Nino didn’t blame Adrien for going to see Marinette. In fact, if he was being honest, he kind of wanted to go see her too. He missed seeing that bright smile of hers and laughing together when the teacher wasn’t looking.

“Oh no.” Alya groaned.

Nino perked up. “What is it?”

Before she could reply, his ringtone went off in the other room, and she gestured in his cellphone’s direction.

“That. Lila just accidentally sent the picture to the entire school.”

Nino’s face twisted. “Seriously? Isn’t there a whole process you have to go through to do that?”

“Yeah, usually, but she said after clicking the first, wrong button, she panicked and accidentally dropped her phone, which made her click more wrong buttons as she grabbed it.”

Nino let out a disapproving hum. That sounded like a crazy set of circumstances.

“Well, maybe this is good.” Alya said, setting her phone on the counter. “That means Adrien is going to get the picture too, and he’ll know he’s been caught. I was hoping to interrogate him beforehand, but this works too. He’ll know he can’t lie now.”

“Woah- interrogate? Alya, I told you, I’m sure he has a perfectly good explanation.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll have one. He has to if he wants to make out of this alive.”

“Okay, look,” Nino interjected, “Why don’t I call him? Lila just sent you that picture right? He’s probably still at the café right now. I’ll call him and see what’s up.”

Alya eyed him for a moment.

“Alright.” She relented. “He’ll probably be more apt to tell you the truth anyway.”

Nino furrowed his eyebrows at the insinuation that Adrien would lie if it were her, but he went to get his phone anyway. He needed to get that call in before Alya changed her mind.

He texted Adrien first, not wanting to interrupt his time with Marinette if they were still together, but when he realized that Adrien might not see the text for a while- and that Alya’s patience was much too thin to wait that long -Nino called him. Unfortunately, the call went straight to voicemail, which didn’t help his case anymore than the texting did. Was Adrien’s phone completely off or did he just forget to charge it again?

“Uh..” Nino called into the other room. “His phone is going straight to voicemail.”

“Told you!” Alya called back.

“That doesn’t mean he’s guilty!” Nino defended. “It just means he’s being attentive to the person he’s having lunch with. I’m gonna try calling him again.”

He typed in Adrien’s number and pressed “call”, but the phone didn’t make it to a single ring before going straight to voicemail again. Nino sighed and tried again. And again. And again. It wasn’t until he got to the fifth call with no luck that he finally decided to leave a voicemail.

“Hey, Man, it’s me. I was just calling about the picture that Lila sent all of us. I don’t mean to pry or anything, because that’s really your business, but I just wanted to warn you that Alya’s pretty ticked. So you might want to come up with a good explanation. Call me back when you can.”

“And please make it fast.” He refrained from adding, pressing ‘end’ on the call. Now all he had to do was distract his girlfriend long enough for Adrien to reply.

“Nino, has the loser answered you yet?”

..Piece of cake.

~~~~~~

Adrien strolled down the street with a fresh bounce in his step as he searched for a place to transform and head home. His lunch with Marinette went extremely well, and although they didn’t talk about Dupont as much as he’d preferred, he still got to learn a lot about her current school life. That, in and of itself, was helpful, because if he wanted Marinette to come back to her original school, he was going to have to offer her something that was better than the things she had now. Having her old friends back should be a good motivation, but he’ll probably need more than that. After all, it’s not every day you gain four, equally rich friends who constantly bring you along on their crazy outings. Maybe he can create a schedule that allows her to keep seeing her new friends after she transfers back? That should work. If they’re true friends, they won’t mind working around her old school setting. As for the crazy outings, Adrien had plenty of money to supply those by himself. He’d have to get permission from Father, of course, but that shouldn’t be-

Adrien paused on the sidewalk, panic seizing his chest. His father! He hadn’t turned his phone off silent yet!

He whipped out his phone immediately, praying to all that was holy that he didn’t have any phone calls. What time was it? Was his father even home yet? How many months of grounding was he going to get for leaving without Gorilla?

His heart about stopped in his chest when he saw the list of missed calls that he had, but before he could spiral into thoughts of what his new-found solitude would be like- because surely Father would drag him out of school for this -Adrien caught the name of the person who’d called.

“..Nino?” Adrien thought aloud, scrolling through the numerous missed calls. Why was Nino trying to call him? Did Adrien forget something at his house the other day?

He clicked on the voicemail that had nearly been buried under the ‘missed calls’ notifications and held the phone up to his ear to listen. Nino’s voice piped up over the speaker immediately, but it was hard to make out. He sounded concerned, or even irritated, and he was rambling on about something Adrien couldn’t quite catch. Something to do with Lila and Alya being angry?

Adrien turned up his phone’s volume and replayed the voicemail.

~Hey, Man, it’s me. ~ Nino began, much clearer now. ~ I was just calling about the picture that Lila sent all of us. I don’t mean to pry or anything, because that’s really your business, but I just wanted to warn you that Alya’s pretty ticked. So you might want to come up with a good explanation. Call me back when you can.~

Adrien frowned at his phone. Picture? What picture? He didn’t recall getting any pictures.

He pulled up his messaging app again, but the only new messages he had were from Nino, not Lila. Adrien hated to think about what that meant, because if Lila sent the same picture to everyone but himself, it was probably for another scheme. A scheme that, unfortunately, had his name written all over it.

Adrien walked over the side of a store to avoid blocking the sidewalk and called Nino back. Surprisingly, he answered on the first ring.

~Hey, dude, finally. Sorry I left so many calls and messages, but Alya’s dying to know what you were doing in that picture.~

“Yeah, sorry, I had my phone off. What picture are you talking about?”

~The picture that Lila sent to everybody. Didn’t you get them?~

Adrien sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No. No, I didn’t. What was the picture of?”

~Huh, that’s weird..~ Nino mumbled. ~I could have sworn Alya said that she accidentally sent it to everyone in the school-~

“Wait, Alya sent the picture to everyone?”

~No, Lila did, but Alya’s the one who told me about it. Anyway, it was a picture of you and Marinette at a cafe. I guess Lila passed by while you two were eating lunch together?~

Adrien’s eyes widened, and he felt the blood drain from his features. Lila saw them at the cafe? When? He didn’t remember seeing her anywhere. Did she just take the picture and leave or did she hang around to eavesdrop? If the latter, how much did she overhear?

~Adrien? You good, dude?~

Nino’s voice dragged Adrien back to the conversation.

“Uh.. yeah, yeah, I’m fine, just.. a little surprised, I guess. So she really sent that picture to everyone in the whole school?”

~Everyone except you, apparently. I don’t really care, to be honest. It’s just Alya you have to worry about. I barely kept her from storming down there herself.~

Adrien forced out a nervous chuckle, though he truly felt like cataclysm-ing something. He finally gets a chance to see Marinette a month and a half after she transferred, and what happens? Lila sees him and decides to tell the entire school about it, basically shattering his original plan to expose her and sticking a target on his back via Alya all in one go. Great. Just great.

“Thanks for keeping her at bay. I appreciate it.” Adrien said after a moment. At least Nino wasn’t taking the news poorly. Why was that anyway?

~No problem. You know I’m always here for you, Man. What were you guys up to? Assuming that picture was taken today.~

“Oh, uh..” Adrien faltered. “You know, it’s like you said. We were having lunch together. I haven’t really seen her since she transferred, so I was hoping to catch up a little.”

Nino hummed. ~It has been a while since we’ve seen her now, hasn’t it? Like- what -a month? Two?~

Two months and three days, Adrien mentally recounted.

“Yeah, it has. So are you.. I don’t know.. okay with this? You don’t sound very upset that I went to see her.”

~..I mean.. should I be? You went to go see a friend. Unless you had bad intentions by going to see her, I don’t think it’s that big of deal.~

Adrien felt a smile grace his lips. Man, was he lucky to have a friend like Nino.

“No, I didn’t have any bad intentions. To be honest, though.. I don’t think Marinette did either.” Now might not be the best time to mention Marinette’s innocence, but Nino was sounding reasonable, and Adrien didn’t know when another opportunity like this would pop up again. “I’m really hoping she comes back to Dupont.”

There was a pause over the phone, and Adrien held his breath.

~..Are you sure that’s a good idea?~ Nino asked. ~Like, I get it. She was a great friend to us, and I..~ He lowered his voice. ~I miss her too, but everyone’s still pretty mad. Do you really want to drag back into all of this drama? She left for a reason.~

Adrien leaned against the store with a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. No, he didn’t want to drag Marinette back into the drama that made her leave.

But that was why he was going to make things better first.

“You have a point, but-”

~Did you just say that you miss Marinette?~ Alya’s distant shout over the phone caused Adrien to jump, and from the way Nino began sputtering, he’d been surprised by the remark too.

~A-Alya! I didn’t know you were-~

~listening? Oh, yeah, I heard it all. No wonder you were dismissing Adrien so casually. It’s because you want to go see Marinette too!~

~S-She’s been my friend since childhood, Al.~ Nino tried to defend. ~We have a lot of memories toge-~

~Oh, don’t try to pull that! I was her best friend before she decided to become another Chloe. Don’t talk to me about memories.~

Adrien grimaced and reached up to rub the back of his neck. Should he just hang up the phone or..?

~Is that Adrien on the phone?~ Alya asked next, causing Adrien to straighten. ~Did he finally call you back with some flimsy excuse for his betrayal?~

Oh, he should definitely hang up the phone now.

Nino started to answer, but a muffling over the phone cut him off, and before Adrien knew it, Nino was the one in the background, and Alya was the one on the phone.

~Agreste, you better have a good explanation for seeing Marinette behind our backs or so help me-~

“Oh, hey, Alya!” Adrien said, all while internally screaming. “I’d love to keep talking, but I’ve got a lot on my plate today. How about we take a raincheck?”

~Adrien Agreste, don’t you dare-~

“Thanks for understanding!”

Adrien hung up the phone and started down the street, walking much faster than before.

This.. was gonna be a bit of a setback.

~~~~~~~

Marinette stuck her tongue out slightly as she pushed the needle through the delicate fabric in her hands. Sewing on the curling details of Claude’s suit was a challenge, but then again, Marinette liked challenges. They helped perfect her skills and sharpen her mind. Besides, the grin on Claude’s face when he saw this outfit was going to be more than worth it.

“There,” Marinette muttered, holding up the golden embroidery she’d just finished, “How does that look, Tikki?”

Her kwami flew up behind her and let out a delighted gasp. “Oh, Marinette, that looks incredible! Are you going to do that throughout the entire suit?”

“Probably not, but I’m definitely going to do it on the front and somewhat on the sleeves.”

“Claude’s going to be so excited!”

Marinette giggled and placed the suit back on her desk, smoothing out the deep blue fabric to begin sewing again. “I sure hope so. I didn’t spend all this time on his suit just to hear him say it was ‘sub-par’.”

Tikki giggled with her. “You know Claude would never say that.”

“I know. He’s so easily impressed.” Marinette replied fondly. That was one of the many things she liked about Claude: the fact that he could become so animated about the smallest of things. Of course, making him an entire prince suit wasn’t small by any means, but she’d seen him get ecstatic over other things too, such as her parent’s croissants, or the tiny octopus at the aquarium that happened to change colors while they were watching it.

Everything in life sounded like an adventure to him, and that was a rare trait to find now-a-days, especially in a rich kid who could probably pay for any adventure he wants.

Marinette went to stab her needle into the suit again, but her phone’s ringtone interrupted her before she could. It sounded like a text from the group chat, so Marinette set her needle to the side for a moment to see what they were talking about.

DancingQueen: Did you guys hear about Abby and Noah getting back together?

A frown tugged at her lips as she read Allegra’s text. Abby and Noah? Who were they?

More messages quickly followed, this time from Allan and Claude.

TrebleChild: Woah, seriously? Isn’t that the fourth time since last school semester?

TheBetterShakespeare: I thought Abby was sick of him!

DancingQueen: Yeah, sick of him until he begs for her ‘mercy’ again. I’m pretty sure she just likes to have some around who will let her walk all over them without complaint.

TrebleChild: When did this even happen?

DancingQueen: At the Valentine’s Day party, apparently. They got into another argument, so she threw her punch on him, and when he went out to wash it off, she followed. Next thing you know, he’s hanging off of her again, and she’s acting like she cares.

TheBetterShakespeare: And you know this.. How?

DancingQueen: I get around.

TrebleChild: Allegra, you never cease to amaze me.

Marinette giggled and started typing.

Our-Cinnamon-Roll: Who’s Abby and Noah?

TheBetterShakespeare: Mari!!!!! :D

DancingQueen: They’re just some long-time students at Rosemary that people talk about from time to time. They’re relationship is pretty toxic, to be honest.

Our-Cinnamon-Roll: Then why do they stay together?

TrebleChild: Same reason we all stay in bad situations from time to time. They keep hoping it’s gonna get better, but it’s not.

TheBetterShakespeare: Wow.. That was pretty deep, Allan.

TrebleChild: ?

Marinette chuckled, though she silently agreed with Claude. Most people don’t realize that hope can be different than reality, and things that were good in the beginning don’t always stay good till the end. It’s not healthy to hold onto things that used to make you happy, but don’t make you happy now. Dupont taught her that lesson the hard way.

DancingQueen: Truer words, Allan, truer words. How was the rest of your day, Mari? Did your appointment go over well?

Marinette’s smile widened slightly at the irony. Speaking of Dupont.

Our-Cinnamon-Roll: You know, I think it did. What about you guys? Were you able to pack everything up alright?

She was admittedly anxious when she went to go see Adrien earlier, so much so that she had hoped he wouldn’t show when he ran a bit late, but after talking with him through lunch, she realized that visiting with him again might not be that bad, after all. He seemed to really understand why she left Dupont in the first place, and as soon as she expressed her discomfort towards mentioning her old classmates, he made sure to keep the conversation focused on her new school instead. It was nice. He was taking her thoughts and feelings about everything into account, and simply reaching out to her as a good friend. No catches. No strings attached. They didn’t even get interrupted by Lila or Chloe like she’d expected. It made her feel a bit silly for worrying so much.

TheBetterShakespeare: Yup! We got it all out a little bit after you left, actually. Felix almost broke all the candles tho.

Marinette snorted. Felix almost broke the candles?

Our-Cinnamon-Roll: What?? What happened???

DancingQueen: Oh, yeah, that was hilarious! I almost died laughing XD

TrebleChild: He tripped on a chair leg as he was carrying the box outside.

TheBetterShakespeare: I’ve never seen him flail around so much in my life!

DancingQueen: You think some of your clumsiness is wearing off on him, Mari?

A joking gasp escaped Marinette’s lips, though none but Tikki heard it.

Our-Cinnamon-Roll: Hey! I resent that comment!

Our-Cinnamon-Roll: (even though it’s probably true)

TheBetterShakespeare: Ha!

TrebleChild: XD

Marinette shook her head and started to type again, when another notification popped up at the top of her screen. She glanced over it briefly, but did a double take when she realized the notification read ‘Felix’. Was he messaging her privately? Why?

Curious, she tapped on the alert and held her breath as the app switched to her personal texts with Felix. He wouldn’t be saying anything special to her right? He was probably just texting her about something that Claude said, or asking her a question that he didn’t care to ask the whole group. Nothing unusual or crazy (or romantic) there.

Felix: Need I bother seeing what the group chat is rambling about tonight?

Marinette chuckled softly and relaxed a bit in her chair. Yes, this was just another, ordinary ‘Felix’ text message.

Marinette: I mean, you could. So far, all they’ve talked about is Abby and Noah (?) getting together again and how my clumsiness has apparently worn off on you.

Felix: Abby Bernthold and Noah Grensted?

Marinette: I don’t know. I didn’t even know their first names until I read Allegra’s texts lol Do you know them?

Felix: Not personally. They just happen to be a common topic of conversation amongst Allegra and the other students. How did your clumsiness wear off on me, exactly?

Marinette: lol you know, you could go read the texts.

Felix: Yes, but then they would know that I’m online and they would fight to keep me there. Or blow up my phone in retaliation of me leaving again.

Marinette: I guess you make a good point, but who’s to say Claude won’t blow up your phone anyway?

Felix: ...True.

Marinette giggled and switched over the group chat for a moment to catch up on the new texts that had been made.

TheBetterShakespeare: Does that mean she can rub off on all of us?

DancingQueen: Let’s hope not. Claude’s inelegant enough as it is.

TheBetterShakespeare: Okay RUDE

TrebleChild: You’re just going for everyone’s throats today, aren’t you?

DancingQueen: Lol watch yourself Allan, you know you’re gonna be next.

TheBetterShakespeare: RUN, MAN, RUN!

Marinette snorted and put a hand to her mouth to muffle her laughter. She was tempted to respond, but another private text from Felix brought her attention back to him instead.

Felix: I’m convinced that that chair appeared out of nowhere.

He reads fast, Marinette thought, a bemused expression trickling over her features.

Marinette: They always do Felix lol Just be grateful you didn’t break anything. I have no such luxury.

Felix: And yet, you manage to create the most delicate of designs on a regular basis. Speaking of which, How’s Claude’s suit progressing? Have you grown any closer to finishing it?

Marinette smiled at his praise, feeling a bit of heat bloom across her cheeks.

Marinette: I’ve finally started working on the embroidery, but it’s tedious work, so it’s going to take a while.

Felix: Make sure to take rests every now and then so your hands don’t cramp up.

Marinette: Eh.. I can rest my hands when the suit is done lol

Marinette: Actually, scratch that, I just remembered that my next project came in the mail today.

Felix: Already? Is it an accessory for Claude’s next suit?

Marinette: Nope. This one’s actually a surprise.

Felix: Oh? For whom?

Marinette smirked and glanced up at the package sitting on her desk. Her parents had given it to her earlier when she got home from lunch, and although it was unexpected- her email said it wouldn’t come till next weekend -she was elated to have it. Now she could start working on it even sooner!

Marinette: That is also a surprise.

Felix: Hm. Might I at least inquire about the time that this surprise is taking place?

Marinette grinned.

Marinette: No.

Felix: Fair enough, but how long do you think you’ll be able to keep this project a secret? I’m quite the sleuth, if you didn’t already know.

Marinette: lol I’m sure you are, but I’m also a master at keeping secrets myself.

Or, at least, one specific secret.

Felix: Then I suppose we’re at an impasse.

Marinette giggled.

Marinette: Can’t you just let it be a surprise?

Felix: I could, but I quite enjoy getting to say “I told you so”.

Marinette: Pfft, alright, fine. If you can guess what the surprise is and who it’s for, I’ll give you a little reward, anything you ask.

Felix: I won’t be asking for anything, but I accept the challenge nonetheless. What happens if I fail? (Mind you, I won’t, but I like to know the stakes.)

Marinette snorted.

Marinette: Okay, if I win…

What did she want from Felix? Aside from the embarrassing, too-close-to-crush thoughts that immediately popped up in her mind, there wasn’t anything specific that she could think of. Should she ask for a ride in his limo again? Have him take her to a cool attraction in Paris? There were loads of possibilities, but nothing really stuck out to her.

Except..

Marinette: If I win, you have to take me to see your house.

It was a reasonable request, right? She hadn’t seen it yet, and she still wanted to meet his mom. So going to his house shouldn’t be a weird answer.

Felix: My house? Are you sure that’s what you want to place your bet on? Because I can take you there any day of the week either way.

Marinette couldn’t help giggling.

Marinette: Are you saying you want me to raise the stakes?

Felix: Not at all. I’m simply confirming your request, but we both know I’ll be the one winning so I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Marinette leaned back into her chair with a laugh. It probably wasn’t wise to tell Felix about the surprise, since he was pretty observant, but she partly hoped that by getting his brain going, she could scatter it. If he’s too busy trying to find random clues that she ‘accidentally’ left lying around, maybe he’ll be too distracted to figure out what the surprise actually is.

It was a long shot, but it was the only way she could think of to keep the surprise under wraps. Otherwise, she’d have to try not mentioning it at all, and that wasn’t gonna happen.

Marinette: We’ll see about that.

Marinette set her phone down and started working on Claude’s suit again. She needed to finish the surprise quickly so she could hide it, but she also wanted to finish Claude’s suit first.

In short, tonight was gonna be a long night.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------(Devotions:

Hey, guys! It’s nice to see you here again. I hope you learn from this new devotional, because I certainly did while writing it! Last update we talked about Salvation and the incredible sacrifice that Jesus made for us. This time, we’re going to talk about how the word affects different people and what we can do to change that.

To start off, we’re going to refer to Matthew chapter 13. In this chapter, Jesus talks with a multitude of people and teaches them through parables, which are earthly stories with heavenly meanings (or extended metaphors, if you will). One of those parables talks about a sower who is throwing out seeds to plant them. Here is the original story:

Matt. 13:3-9

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The passage clearly states the fate of each set of seeds. Some seeds fell completely away from the field, where the birds quickly grabbed them. Some seeds fell upon stony places, where they didn’t have enough room to grow, and when the sun fell upon them, they dried up and died. Some fell amongst thorns and weren’t even given a chance to grow, as the things around them choked before they could try. The last set of seeds, though, landed in good ground, where there was plenty of soil and plenty of water for them to grow, and grow they did. Verse eight says the seeds grew into amazing plants and brought forth all kinds of fruit, sometimes in the 100s, sometimes in the 60s, sometimes in the 30s.

This parable might sound strange- What does this have to do with the Bible? Why would a story about a sower be part of God’s word? How can this possibly apply to us? -but Jesus explains it’s meaning a few verses down, in Matthew 13:19-23.

19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

22 He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

The seeds falling to the wayside resembles people hearing the word of God, but missing the point of it entirely. They don’t understand- or don’t want to understand- what’s being said to them, and in that misunderstanding, the devil quickly slips in and corrupts their thinking. He convinces them that, since it doesn’t make sense, it clearly isn’t true, and that the Bible is just full of ludicrous, incoherent sayings. That thought is completely false, of course, but the ones who can’t understand the Word of God don’t know any better, so they simply accept it as fact.

The seeds that fell into stony places resemble people who hear the gospel and accept it into their lives, but they’re not actually giving their lives to God. They say Jesus is their savior and start doing all of the works that they are supposed to- go to church, pray everyday, read their Bible -but at the same time, they’re still holding on to things of the world. There are certain desires that they are still chasing after, certain pleasures they are still indulging in, and that isn’t the kind of fellowship we’re supposed to have with God (not to say that we can’t have any desires or pleasures, but that’s a different matter.). We’re supposed to surrender all of ourselves to Him and let Him take care of the rest. When we don’t do that, we block the word from fully growing within our hearts and changing us for the better, because there are still things within ourselves that we’re not willing to change. We become a stony wall that cannot be moved by the word, and with an attitude like that, it only makes sense that we get offended by trials that come our way. We’ve ignored God’s word to the point where we’ve forgotten who God is and how He works. How can we have good, solid faith in someone we don’t know?

The answer is simple: you can’t.

Onto the next metaphor, we have an unfortunately common occurrence: The seeds amongst the thorns resemble people who hear God’s word and his gospel, but the people around them keep them from accepting it. They are told by their peers that the gospel is just a bunch of religious junk that they don’t need to be listening to and that the things of the world are much more enticing. Or sometimes, they’ll simply be afraid of what their friends will say if they accept the word. Or some of the people in this group won’t even have friends that discourage their salvation. They will simply be drawn into the temptations of the world by themselves. It’s a sad state to be in, leaning towards the temporary delights of this world instead of the eternal satisfactions that God offers, but it’s how it often goes.

The last set seeds are of the ones that fall into good ground and bear fruit, and I believe the people that those seeds resemble are quite clear. The people in this group are the ones that not only accept God’s wonderful gift of salvation, but they are also the ones that give their entire life to Christ in the process. They surrender the things of this world- wisely so -and start spreading the gospel as they are supposed to while simultaneously strengthening their walk with Christ daily. This is by far the best outcome for anyone who hears the gospel, and I will be praying daily that people- along with myself -come to this outcome everyday. After all, it is God’s will that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 peter 3:9)

Alright, now that we’ve talked about the four groups in this parable, let’s talk about how you can change the outcome:

Here’s how to help change things:

For the seeds in the wayside: Just be open to God’s word and what it’s trying to tell you. Jeremiah 29:13 says “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” and in Proverbs 8:17 it says “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” God loves you with an everlasting and enduring love, and He is always waiting for an opportunity to draw you to Him. If you diligently and genuinely seek Him out (and wait patiently for an answer!), then I promise He will come to you. Just give Him a chance to help you understand what He is trying to say.

For the seeds in the stony ground: I know it’s hard, and I know that sometimes it can be scary too, but just give your whole heart to Him. God loves you, and He knows what’s best for you. The Bible states clearly that God will give us what we need if we will only serve Him. (1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” and 1 Samuel 12:24 “Only fear the Lord, and serve him with truth in all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you.” and Hebrew 6:10 “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.”) It also states what will happen if we don’t give everything to Him. (Revelation 3:15-16 “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” and 1 Chronicles 28:9 “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.” and many other verses!) I’ll admit that I had a lot of trouble with this one myself. I didn’t want to forsake the earthly things that I had grown to love, or even myself, which I had started to like, but when I realized that the gifts and rewards God had in store for me were a million times better than anything earth could offer, it only made sense to drop the sins I was indulging in and follow Him. He really is the best option so please! Please drop the earthly things you are holding onto and follow the Lord. I promise he will pay you back for it ten fold <3

The seeds in the thorns: Don’t give into the temptations!!! The devil likes to make the world look pretty and full of life and “if you could just get this one thing” or “have even just a little bit of this-” but don’t fall for it!! God clearly says in John 8:24 “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” and in John 8:51 “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” and in Proverbs 11:28 “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.” and in Proverbs 10:2 “Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.” and in Proverbs 10:29 “The way of the Lord is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity” (iniquity being sin). God warns us time and time again that the things of earth, along with sin, are temporary and, in the end, unfulfilling. They will leave you just as empty as you started, but God will give you a joy that lasts forever if you only trust in Him. Yes, your friends might laugh at you. You might even lose some friends, to be completely honest, but the gift of eternal life, and getting to spend an eternity in paradise (rather than an eternity in torment) should far outweigh that! Please give your heart to God and don’t wait! The Bible says that our lives are but a vapor, so this might be your only chance to get your free ticket to Heaven! Don’t delay the Lord’s blessings upon you any further!

The seeds in the good ground: You don’t have to change a thing! Just keep serving the Lord like you’re doing now, and everything will turn out just fine! I’ll be praying for you and cheering you on!

That’s all I have for now. Thank you all for listening and reading through my message. I hope you all open your hearts to the Lord, and if you haven’t been saved yet, please look at my last devotional to take care of that! Or even if you want to ask questions in the comments, that’s fine too! I’d be happy to answer! I pray that you all have a blessed week, and I’ll see you next update! <3)

#Felinette #Marinette #Felix Culpa #Miraculous Ladybug #New Girl on the Block #Rosemary AU #Quantic Kids

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starshine583 · 3 years

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New Girl on the Block (19)

(Hey, everyone!!! Thank you so much for your patience while I was away. It’s good to be back! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter!)

Ch. 1 / Ch. 18 / Ch. 20 (ao3)

Chapter 19: A Date with Misery

“Marinette, you are.. an incredible person.”

“You don’t need anyone to validate how amazing you are.”

“You are talented, kind, and capable all on your own.”

Felix’s words from the night before played over in Marinette’s mind again and again, an endless loop that she found herself incapable of escaping, and with each echo, her heart seemed to melt further than she thought possible. The comments were simply too honey-sweet, too sincere. She couldn’t help reveling in them. How long had he thought of her that way? How long had he placed her on such a high pedestal that she wasn’t aware of? Marinette knew that Felix had a tendency to make unexpected comments every now and then, but last night truly caught her off guard.. and perhaps made her just a tad bit love-stricken. Had he always spoken to her in that soft manner, the one that made her believe she could be the very stars in his night sky? Had he always possessed the ability to send her heart fluttering the way it did last night, when he allowed her to pull him onto the dance floor and hold him incredibly close? She had no way of knowing, and certainly not enough nerve to ask aloud. But, oh, how her mind ran rampant with fantasies anyway. Will she ever be able to dance with him like that again? Would he look at her the same way he had then, with eyes that felt soft as a cloud in the moment? Did he go home last night and think about her too, endlessly turning on his bed and glancing at his diary- if he kept one, that is -and thinking maybe just one more entry-

“Marinette?”

Marinette jumped, nearly falling off of the ladder that she’d been balancing on, and felt a blush explode across her cheeks.

“Nothing! What? I mean-” She flailed her arms a bit to regain balance, then peeked down at the person below, the very boy she’d been fantasizing about “-Did you need something?”

Felix stood at the base of the ladder, his brows furrowed slightly. “..No. I just wanted to know if there was something wrong with your heart.”

Marinette sputtered, her blush deepening considerably. She couldn’t have been that obvious, right? What expression was she making before he came over?

“M-My heart?” She asked- or rather, squeaked.

Felix pointed to a stream of hearts on the wall, the ones she was supposed to be taking down. “You were staring at one of the hearts for quite a while. Is it ripped?”

“Oh.” She said, staring blankly at the wall. The paper hearts. He meant the paper hearts hanging next to her. Not her heart specifically. That made a lot more sense. “No, sorry. The hearts are fine. I was just, uh.. you know.. reminiscing. We had a lot of fun times with these decorations.”

“Ah,” Felix tilted his head up in a slight nod, “my apologies for interrupting you then.”

“Oh, you didn’t.” Marinette assured hastily. “It really wasn’t anything important.”

Definitely wasn’t anything important..

She plucked out the pin that held the hearts and started down the ladder to move to the other end of the stream. Felix offered a hand to help her down in the process, and she took it, strongly ignoring the tingling sensation that came from doing so.

“If you’d like to keep one as a memorial, I’m sure Allegra wouldn’t mind.” He remarked. “I doubt she’s going to keep any of these things herself after all the parties they’ve had.”

Marinette hummed. Keeping a heart streamer as a memorial, huh? That didn’t sound like a bad idea.

“Thanks. I just might do that.”

Felix gave her the tiniest of smiles, the kind Marinette was used to catching at this point, and slipped his hand out of hers when her feet hit the ground. She clasped her hands together afterwards to compensate, also ignoring the fact that it might have been nice for him to hold her hand just a tad bit longer.

“Would you like help moving the ladder?” He asked, to which she shook her head.

“I’ve got it, but if you could move the box over to the other round table while I move the ladder, I would be grateful.”

Allegra had given her an empty box to put the decorations in as she took them off of the wall. So far, Marinette had exactly.. zero decorations in the box. Gosh, how long had she been staring at that heart? Was she going insane? Why would she even be thinking about Felix this way? He’d just told her last night that he wasn’t interested in romance. Falling for him would be guaranteed heartbreak! It would be completely ridiculous! It would.. It would..

It would probably be inevitable.

Felix was just too sweet to her, too kind. He was always looking out for her and supporting her, always sharing his quiet laughs and amused smiles, and he said too many things that made her head spin for her not to start liking him. There was just no escape! It was going to happen eventually. The only question now was when.

And maybe today was her answer.

Stop it. Marinette scolded herself as she picked up the ladder to walk it over. It’s just some butterflies in your stomach. How many of those did you digest around Adrien?

Marinette froze midstep, an immense sense of horror washing over her. Oh, gosh, this wasn’t going to be another Adrien situation, was it? It couldn’t be. She refused to go through that again. At least not this soon.

Marinette continued walking, if only to avoid Felix’s suspicions, and set up the ladder under the next pin that was holding up her stream.

When you think about it, this really can’t be another Adrien situation, right? With Adrien, she had no idea whether he liked her or not, but was hopeful despite that and used her friends in an effort to gain his attention. With Felix, she already had her answer. She knew for a fact that he didn’t like her romantically, that he wouldn’t ever like her romantically, and she also hadn’t asked any of her new friends to help her gain Felix’s attention. (Though, in all honesty, she probably wouldn’t need help even if she was looking for his attention, because he already gave it to her willingly on a constant basis, but that thought didn’t exactly help her cause.)

“Is here alright?” Felix asked as he set the box on the end of the round table.

Marinette nodded, scaling the ladder to pluck the next pin. “Yep. That’s great, thank you.”

“Of course. If you need anything else, I’ll be wrapping the candles and putting them in boxes.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” She said, pulling a smile.

No, this wasn’t going to be anything like her crush on Adrien. This time she at least had closure before she began, and although it might be just as heart-shattering in the long run, she won’t be wasting her time wondering “what if” or tripping over herself to become his dream girl in an effort to be ‘chosen’. She’ll simply be his friend, as he’s been to her, and if she’s lucky, this sort-of-tiny-little crush of hers will wither away before it grows into a bigger problem.

After all, it’s like Felix said: She’ll find someone new who appreciates her eventually. It just.. won’t be him. The sooner she took this lesson to heart, the better.

Marinette plucked the next pin out of the wall, watching the stream of hearts fall into the box below, and started back down the ladder again. That’s one down. Five to go.

She paused at the bottom of the ladder, ready to pull it together so she could pick it up and move it again, when her phone started buzzing in her pocket. She quickly shimmied it out to check what the buzzing was for, only to be met with the flashing words “Adrien Agreste - Café”.

It was her alarm clock telling her that it was time to go meet Adrien for lunch. And it couldn’t have picked a worse time. She still had five other heart streamers to take down, and at this rate she was going to have to run half way across town just to make it on time. Ugh- why didn’t she set her alarm clock earlier?

“Hey, guys?” She called out to the group, tucking her phone back into her pocket. “I hate to say it, but I actually need to get going. I’m sorry I couldn’t help out more.”

If she hadn’t stopped every two seconds to daydream about somebody-

“Oh, don’t worry about it!” Allegra called back with a smile. “You’ve helped out plenty.”

“Yeah,” Claude agreed. “This was our party anyway.”

“I know, but I only managed to get one of the streamers down.” Marinette sighed.

“But you also helped fold all of the tablecloths and put them away.” Allan reminded her.

“And you swept the room after the trash was taken care of.” Allegra added.

“Go have fun at your appointment thing or whatever. We’ve got everything covered here.” Claude assured, emptying the water from another flower vase.

Marinette smiled as she grabbed her purse from one of the round tables. Her friends were so great, each and every one of them.

“I’ll see you guys later then.”

“See ya!”

“Bye, Mari!”

“Do you want me to call my driver for you?” Felix asked, briefly setting his candles aside. “It’s quite a walk from here to your house, isn’t it?”

“Thanks, but I’m good. I can have Maman and Papa come to pick me up if I start running late.” Or she can transform into Ladybug and swing right over to Adrien herself, which was exactly what she planned on doing. “I’ll text you guys when I get there, though.”

That seemed to satisfy Felix, because he nodded and continued placing his candles in the box. “I’ll be waiting to hear from you then.”

Marinette pursed her lips and spun towards the door, hoping he didn’t notice the fresh blush that was creeping across her cheeks. Gosh, how was she ever going to survive this boy? Maybe Adrien’s presence will give her a good slap in the face and bring her back to her senses.. She highly doubted it though. With her track record, she’ll probably end up falling for Adrien again too, and then she’ll be stuck between two unrequited crushes! Great!

..Why does she always have to fall for the people who don’t love her back?

~~~~~~~

Wind rushed past Chat Noir’s face as he raced across the rooftops, his grin stretching wide from ear to ear. Today was the day! It was finally the fifteenth! In just a few short blocks, he was going to meet Marinette at their agreed café, and they were going to have a whole lunch together just to themselves! It made him buzz with excitement at the very thought, because finally his plans were progressing. Finally he was gonna have a long, drawn out chat with Marinette as Adrien, and perhaps, if he had gained even the slightest bit of luck from his partner, he would be able to convince her to transfer back to Dupont. Or at least have her consider it. She probably shouldn’t come back right this second.

Chat Noir landed on a rooftop and slid down the tiles with glee, but before he could leap to the next rooftop, a red and black-spotted figure flew out in front of him. He stumbled back with a yelp, staring at the person with wide eyes as they sailed onto the rooftop across from him. Was that..?

“My Lady?” He called out, pushing himself back onto his feet. What was she doing out at this time of day? It wasn’t like her to be out and about during daylight when no akumas were present.

Unless there is an akuma. Chat realized with horror. He glanced around the city, looking for explosions or destruction of some kind. Please, let there not be an akuma. That would mean he’d have to skip out on his lunch with Marinette! And he’d worked so hard just to get her there!

The spotted figure turned around- proving that it was, in fact, his wonderful Ladybug -and flashed him her signature, Lady-Luck smile. “Oh, Chat Noir! I didn’t realize you would be out today.”

Chat Noir returned her smile and hopped over to her rooftop. “I could say the same to you, Bugaboo. Is an akuma on the loose again?”

“No, not that I’m aware of.” She assured, to his relief. “I just had some free time and thought I would do a small patrol around the city to make sure everything’s still in order.”

Chat Noir chuckled. That’s His Lady for you. Never ceasing to protect Paris. Could she ever become more amazing?

“Sounds like a great idea. I’d be tempted to join you, but I’m actually on my way home already. I’ve been out for a while.” He said, though none of it was true. He hadn’t been out for a while, and he certainly wasn’t running home, but Ladybug was extremely strict on the ‘keeping identities a secret’ policy. If he let something about his civilian life slip- like, say, meeting someone at a cafe about five minutes from now to talk about school transfers -she’d get upset and scold him for divulging too much information. It wasn’t fun lying to the person he was supposed to trust the most, but this was the set up that they’d decided to use.

“That’s alright. I wasn’t planning on staying out long anyway.” Ladybug replied. “I’ll see you during our next patrol?”

“Or attack.” Chat Noir agreed, giving her a little wink before he took off again. This time he turned to the left of the café, moving in a direction that was somewhat opposite of it. He didn’t want Ladybug seeing where he was going- again, secret identities -but, he also didn’t want to stray too far from his and Marinette’s meeting place, or else he was going to be late. So, he figured he could find a comfortable alleyway about a block or two away from his destination and simply run the rest of the way on foot.

Thank goodness he did, because as soon as he turned left, Ladybug swung off in the exact direction he’d originally been heading. Can you imagine if they’d started going the same way? The explanation for that one would have been awful, he’s sure.

Chat Noir dropped down into an alleyway a few minutes later, just as planned, and detransformed back into Adrien. Running around Paris in his civilian form probably wasn’t going to be any easier than jumping rooftops, but at least he didn’t run into any problems with His Lady. That was a plus, right?

“Ugh,” Plagg groaned as he swirled back into the air, “remind me again why we had to waste my precious energy on a lunch date?”

“Come on, Plagg, you know I hate having Gorilla hover over my shoulder.” Adrien said, offering his kwami a slice of cheese. Gorilla does his best to give Adrien as much space as possible, but still, when you know someone is there specifically to watch you.. “Besides, it’ll give Marinette and I more privacy while we talk.”

Plagg gave a dismissive sigh as he snatched the cheese from Adrien’s hands. “Oh, that’s right. We’re still on pigtails.. I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with her. It’s not like she died or anything.”

Adrien frowned. “I’m not obsessed. I’m just trying to be a good friend. She’s always been there for all of us. So why shouldn’t I be there for her?”

“Mm.. Does this really count as being there for her, though?” Plagg asked as he shoved the first half of the cheese into his mouth.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re trying to be there for her by bringing her back to Dupont, right? Well, she seems perfectly happy at her new school to me. So why not leave her be? If you want to be there for her, don’t you think you should be supporting her decisions?”

A bit of guilt festered in Adrien’s chest, and he rubbed the back of his neck. “I.. get what you’re saying, but I want her back too. I want to hang out again and talk like we used to.”

“You’re about to talk with her right now.”

“You know what I mean. I want to talk with her daily, like we do at school.”

“Then, why don’t you transfer schools?”

Adrien let out a small chuckle. “And leave Nino? I couldn’t do that to him.”

“Okay~, but don’t say I didn’t warn you if things don’t work out the way you want them to.” Plagg said. He then shoved the rest of the cheese into his mouth and zipped into Adrien’s shirt pocket.

Adrien furrowed his eyebrows, but didn’t reply, instead starting for the cafe. Why would Plagg say something like that? Of course everything was going to work out! Yes, Marinette was happy at her new school, and yes, getting her to come back to Dupont might be a tad tricky (especially since he had to deal with Lila first) but that didn’t mean his plan was going to fail. He simply needed to remind Marinette that she loved being at Dupont too! More so than Rosemary even! It’ll be alright. Plagg will see.

With little time to spare, Adrien booked it to the café, careful to keep his head down and not catch the eyes of the media. Thankfully, he made it there in one piece, albeit five minutes late. It should be fine, though. If anyone were to understand missing the mark for an appointment, it would be her, right?

Adrien slipped his phone out of his pocket as he walked inside to check for any new messages from the ravenette, then silenced it when he saw that there were none. He didn’t want this precious time to be interrupted.

The bell on the café door jingled above him when he entered, reminding him of a certain bakery. He glanced around the room for Marinette hopefully, then lit up when he caught sight of a pair of ravenette pigtails at a table in the middle of the room. Yes! She was here!

Adrien wasted no time strolling over the table, tapping the top of her head to get her attention. She jumped- as she usually does -and whirled around with wide eyes.

“Hey, Marinette.” He greeted with a smile.

“Adrien!” She said, letting out a nervous laugh. “Y-You’re here.”

“Yeah!” He chirped, slipping into the seat across from her. “Sorry I’m late. I ran into a bit of traffic on the way here. How have you been? Did you have a good Valentine’s Day?”

Marinette settled back into her chair as well, pulling a small, tight smile. “It’s alright.. I’ve been pretty good, and my Valentine’s Day was wonderful. How was yours?”

“Oh, you know,” Adrien shrugged, “same as always. I got some cards from a few fans and did a special photoshoot for my father, but that was about it. I tried to go see Nino or something, but he was with Alya, so..”

“Aw, I’m sorry. I wish it could have worked out better.”

“No, it’s fine.” He quickly assured. “I’m used to it. Besides, Nino and I have actually been hanging out a lot more during the winter break.”

“Oh,” Marinette said, “That’s good then. You deserve the free time.”

Adrien smiled. What a very ‘Marinette’ thing to say. “Thanks. Have you ordered anything yet?”

She shook her head. “No, I figured I’d wait for you.”

“Then let’s go get some food.” He said, standing from the table again. “I’m starving.”

Marinette stood with him, and they made their way over to the line that led to the service counter. It wasn’t long, thankfully, only holding about three people or so. They should be back at the table in no time.

“So, are you enjoying your new school life? I heard you transferred to Rosemary.”

“Yeah, I’ve been having a great time,” Marinette said, a bit too cheerful for Adrien’s liking, “but I do have a question. How did you know I transferred to Rosemary?”

“Oh, uh..”

Would she accept ‘my good friend Chat Noir’ as a proper answer?

“..Mlle Bustier. She announced to the class that you had transferred, and when I asked about it afterwards, she told me that you went to Rosemary.”

A hum came from Marinette, the corner of her lips tugging downwards. Why was she frowning? Did he say something wrong?

“Is that a problem?” He asked.

“Oh! No.” Marinette replied hastily. “Well.. sort of. I’m just worried that if she told you, then she’d be willing to tell other people.. Like Lila or Alya.”

Ah.. She made a good point. Her whereabouts could be spread around easily if Mlle Bustier was being loose-lipped. Although he doubted that Lila would come after Marinette since she’s not trying to out her anymore, Adrien wouldn’t put it past the girl entirely, especially since she was still spreading rumors about Marinette on a regular basis..

Granted, this only mattered if Mlle Bustier actually told him where Marinette went to school, which she didn’t. So they should be perfectly safe for the time being.

“I’m sure everything will be fine.” He insisted. “I was the only one that asked, anyway, and I made sure we were alone.”

Marinette nodded, but she didn’t look any less unsettled. “You’re sure you were the only one that asked?”

“Positive.”

“.. Okay.” She muttered, fiddling with the tip of her black jacket. Oh, she was getting anxious now! He needed to fix this. Change the subject!

“Anyway, you said your new school was great?” He asked as he stepped forward in line. “That’s good to hear. Have you made any friends there yet?”

Of course, he already knew that she’d made new friends- several, in fact -but hopefully talking about them would help her relax. Plus, it would give him more information on her new environment. So it’s a double bonus.

Marinette took the bait, her hands quickly falling back to her side as she said, “I have. I was fortunate enough to run into a whole group of friends on my first day, and they took me in without hesitation, which was sweet. They even gave me a tour of the school and everything.”

Adrien plastered a tight smile onto his face in an effort to show support. She already had an entire group of new friends? That was gonna be hard to pull her away from.

“Wow, they sound really nice. You’ll have to introduce me to them sometime.”

“Maybe I can,” Marinette agreed, “but it probably won’t be for a while. We all have schedules and things that we’d need to work out, and I’ve been working on this fashion project lately that I was hoping to get done by the end of next week.”

“No worries. I definitely understand having a busy schedule.” Adrien joked, stepping forward in the line again. “Dupont’s been a little crazy since you left too. We had to pick a new vice president and everything.”

“Yeah, I heard. Lila had to come by and grab the books.” Marinette said bitterly.

Adrien winced. “Really? What did she say?”

“Gosh, I don’t even remember anymore.” Marinette rolled her eyes. “I try not to worry over stupid people. I’m sure she just rubbed her ‘victory’ towards me leaving in my face.”

Adrien chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I bet.. Lila aside, though, we all miss you. Dupont isn’t the same without you here.”

Marinette raised an eyebrow at him as they took another step forward in line. “You all miss me?”

Adrien frowned, partly because she doubted him, but mostly because he knew her skepticism was justified. They didn’t all miss her. Some- if not everyone besides himself -seemed to be happy that she was gone. It was a true tragedy.

“Well.. I miss you.” He said, his heart dropping further when she gave a satisfied nod. She’s already accepted the tragedy as fact, something unchanging, but he was going to work to make things different.

“Can I take your order?” The cashier cut in, grabbing the pair’s attention.

Adrien and Marinette gave the cashier their order and walked back to their table to wait for their names being called.

“So..” Adrien trailed off as they took their seats. “Do.. you miss us?”

He knew it was a risky question, especially since she’d firmly told Chat Noir a month prior that she did not, in fact, miss Dupont, but maybe her opinion had changed since then?

Marinette shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable. “I.. I’m not sure how to answer that, Adrien. How can I say that I miss the people who treated me like a monster for no other reason than the fact that I decided to stand up against a liar? I get that Lila twisted their views, and that everyone has their own version of a story, but it still hurt for them not to believe me even though most of us have known each other since childhood.”

“Do I miss the fun times and the people they used to be before Lila came along? Sure I do, but they’re not the people they used to be. They’re not the friends I grew up with anymore, and I’m not going to regret leaving a situation that wasn’t good for me.”

Adrien sighed. “Alright.. That’s a fair answer.. But what if they did come back? I mean- like - What if they realized that Lila was lying and came back and apologized and everything went back to normal. Would you come back?”

Marinette frowned. “.. I don’t know. What you’re suggesting is extremely far-fetched, and even if everything did go back to ‘normal’, it still wouldn’t quite be the same. They abandoned me for a foreigner. You can’t really come back from that. Plus, I think Rosemary is a great opportunity for me. It’s a prestigious school with extensive classes on the fashion industry and many other things, and although there can be some snooty, rich students, most of the people I’ve met there are really nice.”

Adrien hummed. Her answer was, once again, disheartening, but he took comfort in the fact that she said ‘I don’t know’ instead of just a straight up ‘no’. That was at least something, right? He could work with an ‘I don’t know’.

“Was this all you wanted to talk with me about?” Marinette asked. “Whether or not I would come back to Dupont?”

Adrien winced. “Well, no-”

Yes.

“-I also just wanted to catch up in general. We haven’t really seen each other in over a month, ya know?”

Although she appeared to be hesitant towards his answer, she gave a small smile anyway. “Yeah, it’s definitely been a while.”

Adrien chuckled. “You know, I actually tried to go visit you at Rosemary one time before this, but when I asked a student where you were, he said that you didn’t even attend the school. Had you two just not met yet?”

“Uh.. Can you describe him? There’s a lot of people at the school.”

“Sure. He was about my height, maybe a bit taller, with pale blonde hair and light eyes- I think. He was kind of just pale in general.”

Marinette snorted. “Do you know the amount of people at the school that could match that description?”

“Okay, okay, uhm.. I think he was wearing dark colors that day. Like, greys or blacks maybe.”

“Wears dark colors, but has light hair and eyes, and is tall. Got it.” Marinette smiled. “Sorry, Adrien, but I’m just not sure. That could be Devin or Caleb or Eliot or any other number of boys. It could have even been someone who’s not in my classes.”

“Right, that’s fine. I was just curious.” He said casually, though it was really eating him alive. He knew that they knew each other. They had to! No one gets that upset during an akuma attack and calls the person their friend without knowing them. The guy even mentioned that their mutual friends were waiting for them! So who could it be?

“Order for Adrien and Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

Adrien stood. “I’ll get it.”

Honestly, he didn’t need to know the guy’s name. It was a bitter inconvenience, to be sure, but in the end, finding out the blond-haired dude’s name isn’t the objective. The objective was to get rid of Lila, then get Marinette to come back to Dupont. She might be hesitant about it now, which was understandable, but once she sees the changes that he’s gonna make at Dupont, she’ll be more than happy to come back. He simply needed to open her up to the idea again.

Lucky for him, he had a whole lunch date to do just that.

~~~~~~

Lila slowed to a stop on the sidewalk, panting and out of breath. She searched the city streets from left to right, but was only met with the scenery of a regular, Paris afternoon. Where were the screaming fans? The paparazzi? The bodyguards holding everyone back? Did they all disperse already? That post was literally made five minutes ago! How did he run away so fast?

She pulled out her phone to unlock it, watching as her social media popped up again. It was a picture of XY standing next to a downtown café, the very café Lila was standing next to right now.

“Chillin’ at the Café Aroma today!” The post read, but there was no XY in sight. There were hardly even any XY fans here looking for him. Was the post just a ruse to get rid of the paparazzi for a while? Don’t tell her she got up and ran all the way down here for nothing!

Lila let out a groan, slumping against the café. If XY or any of his lackeys bothered to answer their dang cell phones, none of this would’ve happened! Why would they even put out public numbers if they weren’t going to tend to them? It was really a jerk-ish thing to do.

Nevertheless, she still needed to find a way to contact him. XY was the only celebrity in Paris that might be willing to show up at Dupont per her request. Jagged Stone was a close second, but if she brought him to school, Lila was certain Adrien would ask about her stupid, kitten-saving story. Then, Jagged would get all confused and say that he never had a kitten, and Lila would have a lot more explaining to do. That was too much of a hassle for her to deal with. She needed someone she hadn’t lied much about, someone who could also quiet her whining, soul-sucking classmates. Ergo, she needed to find XY.

But where is he? Lila thought, scrolling through her phone for more recent posts. XY clearly wasn’t downtown, meaning he could be just about anywhere in Paris. He could even be outside of Paris. How was she supposed to find him when she had no special contacts to do so? It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

And yet.. Marinette managed to find and reign in every celebrity she needed while she was class president. On. Her. Own.

Lila scowled and shoved her phone back into her pocket. Curse that goody-little-two-shoes for making her job harder. Curse her for somehow being perfect at everything and forcing Lila to enhance her lies to compete. Curse her for leaving to another school and making Lila suffer the consequences for it. Why couldn't Marinette have been a normal class president, hm? Why did she have to constantly outdo herself with the grandest of gestures and the most important of people? Why did Lila have to be so stupid as to try and fill an impossible roll? She should have convinced Alya to run for president instead. At least then she wouldn’t be blamed for the sudden budget cuts or the mismatched class trips. She would be able to continue lying in peace and not have to worry about delivering on all of her false promises. In fact, if she weren’t so busy trying to keep up with Marinette’s ‘legacy’, along with her own big mouth, she might have been able to take care of Adrien by now.

Lila heaved a heavy sigh and massaged her temples as she stood up from the café wall. XY wasn’t going to be found anytime soon, so she might as well take a break and grab a coffee before moving forward. Perhaps the caffeine will spark her creativity for a few lies that Adrien can’t dig into should her plan to find XY fail.

She walked over to the café door and pushed it open. The bell attached to the door jingled, reminding her of that incorrigible bakery, but she ignored it and continued inside. A little music toy wasn’t going to get in the way of her espresso.

Her eyes grazed over the room, hoping to find an empty table.

What she found instead, however, made her stomach drop.

There, sitting at a table near the middle of the room, was Adrien Agreste himself, and sitting across from him was none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Lila yelped and ducked back outside, pressing herself firmly against the wall where they couldn’t see her. What were they doing there? What were they doing together?!

Carefully, she crept past the door and slid over to the large window at the front of the café, where she could watch the two from a safe distance. It probably looked suspicious to anyone passing, but she hardly cared at that point. If Adrien and Marinette were getting together like this, Lila was going to have much bigger things to worry about.

She peered through the glass, noting the near-empty plates on their table. They must be having lunch together. Did they do that often? Since when? What could they possibly be talking about?

A smirk tugged at the corner of Adrien’s lips, and Marinette snorted, putting a hand on her mouth to hide her laughter. Ugh, why did she look so cheery! She was supposed to be miserable!

Lila scoffed, digging her fingernails into the brick at the base of the window. What happened to the endless tears and the defeated, sagging posture? What happened to the shriveled up nothing that Lila watched leave the school? Was she really enjoying herself now that she wasn’t attending Dupont? More importantly, how long have Marinette and Adrien been meeting up like this? Was this the reason Adrien suddenly decided to fight back against her? Because he’d rekindled his friendship with Marinette? No wonder the man was out for blood! Marinette probably set him up to the task herself! She must have planned all of this from the very beginning!

No, Lila thought, digging her phone out of her pocket again. She refused to be made a fool of. If they thought they were going to pull one over on her this easily, they were gonna have another thing coming.

She snapped a photo of them together, making sure to get a moment where they were laughing hard, and tilted the angle of the camera to make it seem like she’d been passing by. Lila then got up and walked back into the café. A picture of Adrien having a grand time with Marinette should be enough of a set up for her to build him a bad reputation, but she needed to know what they were talking about specifically. The more she knew about this meet-up (and previous ones) the better, and if she were anything close to lucky, they would talk about their plans for her while she was there too. That would give her plenty of time to find a way to prepare.

Or, perhaps, strike first.

As casually as possible, Lila slipped into an empty seat near the pair, not too close, but not too far away that she couldn’t hear them. She then snatched the menu on her table and propped it up so her face couldn’t be seen while she listened.

“Okay, wait. So you’re telling me that they threw an entire Valentine’s Day party at the Mandarin Oriental by themselves?” She heard Adrien ask. He sounded immensely impressed. Who were they talking about?

“Yeah!” Marinette replied, the smile clear in her voice. “They’re parents paid for it, of course, but they arranged everything themselves, including the caterers and reservations. We actually made some of the decorations by hand too.”

“Wow, that sounds like a blast. I bet they all looked great.”

“They did! Especially when we finished the lights and stuff. Everyone loved it.”

Lila scrunched up her nose, equally confused and annoyed. Someone threw a party at the Mandarin Oriental for Valentine’s day? Who? Why was Marinette invited? And why did she get to personally help with the decorations? This wasn’t another one of her “chummy celebrity friends”, was it? It better not be.

Adrien chuckled. “If all of those rich kids at Rosemary enjoyed it, I’m sure it was something.”

Lila froze. Did he just say “all” of the rich kids? Meaning multiple? Why was Marinette hanging out with multiple rich kids? How was she hanging out with multiple rich kids? Were they inviting her to the parties they were throwing? Why? What did she have that was so freaking special?

Wait a minute.

Her raging thought finally caught up with the rest of Adrien’s comment, specifically the one about Rosemary. Wasn’t that the stuck-up school near the middle of Paris that was famously known for hosting either incredibly rich or incredibly gifted students? The one that barely let you breathe in their direction if you weren’t considered “worthy”? How did Marinette end up wandering around there long enough to catch some rich friends? No one’s allowed inside except for students or staff, and their policies are extremely strict. (she should know, considering she’s tried to weasel her way in there several times.) The only way she would be able to get inside was if-

Lila gasped, nearly dropping her menu in the process.

No.. No, no way Marinette got transferred from Dupont to Rosemary. That would just be absurd! She didn’t have any money! And she certainly didn’t have enough talent to be accepted despite that!

But as Lila listened to the conversation more and more, she had to endure the horrible realization that Marinette had, in fact, been transferred to Rosemary. Not only that, she was thriving there. She was making new friends who gave her rides in limos. She was going to fancy restaurants that cost more than Lila’s house for an afternoon snack. She was having slumber parties in mansions. Mansions! Entire estates that were apparently just as big- if not bigger! -than Adrien Agreste’s!

Lila had finally gotten rid of Marinette and won Dupont, only for Marinette to gain the new life that Lila had always dreamed of having! How was that fair? How was any of this fair!

Lila drew in a long, deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. She couldn’t blow her top just yet. Marinette may be winning right now, but once Adrien is out of the way, Lila will make sure that Marinette suffers the way she deserves. Rosemary isn’t going to save her for long.

She pulled out her phone to unlock it and clicked on the messaging app, scrolling down until she found her favorite minion: Alya Cessaire.

~Hey, you’ll never guess what I just saw!!~

Lila smiled as she sent the text. With a message like that, Alya won’t be able to help her curiosity, and when Lila sends the picture of Adrien and Marinette together, the journalist will fall headfirst into a pool of rage.

In other words, that pampered little rich boy won’t know what hit him.

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(Hey, everyone! This section isn’t quite part of the story, but it’s going to be part of the updates from now on. Two weeks ago, I visited a Bible camp, and the Lord really spoke to my heart through the messages. So, from now on, I want to make Him the center of my life and glorify Him in everything I do. At first, I thought of not writing anymore fics or chapters, since doing so would really take my focus away from Him, but instead, I decide to start writing little devotions at the end of each chapter I post. That way, you all won’t have to suffer through an incomplete story, and I get to share the wonderful gospel with you all!

The first devotion I want to post is the message of salvation and how you can know that you’re going to Heaven when you die. The Bible (King James Version) says in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” and the first part of Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death”. We have all had a moment in our lives where we know we’re not supposed to do something, but we do it anyway. That breaking of rules is called a sin, and because of that sin, God says that we are not fit to be in His presence, for He is a just and holy God. So, due to this, our souls are condemned to the fiery prison known as Hell, where it is pitch black around you, and the only thing you can hear is wailing and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Your soul will be alight with fire, but your body will never actually burn, so you will be faced with that pain for the rest of eternity. Can you imagine that? Being in that kind of torment forever and ever and ever and knowing that it will never end? I can’t wrap my brain around that kind of pain, and I certainly don’t want any of you to have to endure it. So that’s why I’m telling you now that there is a bright side to all of this!

John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” and the other part of Romans 6:23 says “but the gift of God is eternal life”. Do you realize what this means? It means we don’t have to go to Hell! God has provided a way of escape for us!

2,021 years ago, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, down to earth to die for us. He was a perfect man, with no sin about Him, but he became sin for us and sacrificed himself so that we could be saved. People beat him and mauled him to point beyond recognition, then they nailed him to a cross for him to die. The pain he had to endure was excruciating, but he did it for us, because he loves us.

Then, three days after the Son of God passed away, he arose from the grave with new life! and because of that, we now have a way to join Him in heaven! All we have to do is admit that we are a sinner, repent of our sins, and accept Jesus Christ into our hearts as our Lord and Savior. We must believe on Him, and believe that he died on the cross for us, then we won’t have to go to Hell! It’s that easy! And those who believe on the Lord Jesus not only don’t have to go to Hell, but they also find a new home in Heaven with the very person who created us and loves us so much to the point of sacrificing Himself for our benefit. It’s a win-win scenario!

I know this isn’t a normal thing to do for fics, but this is something extremely important that I need all of you to know. So please, if you read through this, I implore you to get saved and accept Jesus as your savior. What do you have to lose? If you don’t, you’ll be doomed to an eternity of pain and suffering that you can never escape, but if you do, you will be guaranteed a place in paradise, where Jesus will be waiting for you with open arms. Please trust Him with your life and your heart. You know he will keep it safe.

Thank you all for listening to this and I hope you have a wonderful day!)

#felinette #Marinette #Miraculous Ladybug #New Girl on the Block #Rosemary AU #Felix Culpa #Quantic Kids #miraculous #ladybug

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