Back to Back 2

Persuasion

That positivity lasted about twenty steps.

Once Felix reached the stairs he found the other kwamis along with his cousin and his girlfriend. Adrien had his hands wrapped around Marinette, and was leaning in close to whisper to her.

After a second of giggling at his words, she looked over as she noticed Felix approaching them. "Hey," she said. "Where have you been?"

He gave a half-hearted shrug. "Just in my room. I thought that I'd get started on school work."

"That's very studious of you," she teased.

"Yeah," he replied with a small smile. "You know me, my education always comes first."

She laughed, and it was like music to his ears. Then the music screeched to a halt when Adrien joined the conversation. "We tried to start on our school work too," he said, pulling Marinette closer and pressing his nose playfully against her cheek. "But we got a little distracted."

She laughed again. "And who's fault is that?" she asked in jest, turning toward him.

"Yours."

Another laugh. "Oh really? And how do you figure that?"

Adrien leaned in and gave her a loving kiss as his answer.

Seeing it, Felix quickly averted his gaze.

Then Adrien pulled back and spoke to her again. "You know it's all your fault. You're too adorable, and I can't keep my eyes off of you."

"Alright, enough of that," Marinette laughed, pushing him back. "Amelie is waiting for us, so let's go eat."

"Finally, someone is thinking clearly," Plagg announced before disappearing into Adrien's shirt. Tikki laughed and disappeared into Marinette's purse. Then Duusu looked over to Felix.

He nodded at her before reaching up to his chest. "See you soon." And he deactivated the brooch, causing the blue kwami to be sucked back inside.

Marinette stared at Felix for a moment. "Why don't you just keep it activated?" she asked.

Another shrug. "When I first got the brooch... uh you know, back then, I didn't want any chance of my mom or anyone else seeing Duusu and figuring out that I had it. So I kept it deactivated. And now... I don't know, I'm used to it I guess."

"But Amelie knows that we all have a Miraculous now, and Duusu can just hide when we're out in public."

"Yeah, that's true," he admitted. "But if it's activated, then Duusu has no choice but to do as I order. Uh, not that you order your kwamis around or anything like that," he quickly added, not wanting her to think that he was judging her. "I would just prefer not to... tell her what to do."

Understanding why a sentimonster would feel so uncomfortable ordering others around, Marinette nodded. "Right, of course. I'm sorry. I guess I never really thought of it that way."

"No, don't be sorry. You're the Guardian, so it's your job to be in charge of the kwamis. I would just rather keep it deactivated when I don't need to use it."

She gave him a gentle smile. "That's fine. I mean, it's your Miraculous, so you can decide whether to keep it activated or not."

"It's not my Miraculous," Felix replied quietly. "It's yours. I'm simply holding on to it for you."

She smiled brighter. "That's really..."

"Still waiting on that food," a muffled voice said from Adrien's chest, ending the conversation.

Exhaling, Marinette rolled her eyes and started down the stairs, Adrien at her side and Felix trudging along behind them. Once at the table, Adrien pulled out the seat for her before taking his own. Felix took the seat directly across from them.