Falling for a Villain (Miraculous Ladybug)

An Unlikely Team

Marinette

~~~

Felix smiled, "I don't think we've properly met, although it seems you know of me and I know of you." he held out his hand, "Felix Fathom, a pleasure, Miss Dupain-Cheng."

Marinette was stunned. She'd say he was a perfect gentleman-- if he wasn't Felix Fathom. It wasn't fair that he shared such similar features to Adrien, yet on closer inspection, Felix seemed a bit more refined. How had she not noticed the differences last time? Had Felix changed so much in the past year or had she simply been that blind? Maybe both.

Felix chuckled a bit, "I see you aren't too happy with me." He said when she didn't take his hand.

His voice was deeper than Adrien's too, but she knew he could mimic Adrien's tone and mannerisms well enough, she had to keep her guard up, "What do you want?"

Her mother cleared her throat and Marinette tensed, remembering that she was supposed to be kind and courteous to customers. Mari sighed before she hesitantly took his still-outstretched hand.

Instead of shaking her hand, Felix lifted it to his lips. With a gentle brush, he kissed her knuckles. Marinette was so stunned she was frozen until he let go of her hand. Felix seemed to enjoy her reaction, a sly smirk returning to his face.

His expression made Marinette turn red from anger. He was toying with her and it made her blood boil, "How may I help you?" she practically spit the words just to get them out.

Felix only seemed to find more enjoyment from her blatant dislike of him, "Well, I would love to purchase a bag of chouquettes for my cousin, Adrien."

She froze. Marinette's inner conflict could only be described as a chaotic war. She was frantically trying to decide whether to keep being rude because of her dislike for Felix or to be a bit nicer since this was an act for Adrien. Her anger quickly fizzled out as her affection for Adrien won the war. Surely Felix couldn't be that bad if he was doing this for Adrien, right?

~~~

Felix

This was an interesting development. He hadn't missed how Marinette tensed up, or how her blue eyes seemed to freeze up. Ocean blue... but certainly not a calm ocean at the moment.

Perhaps Miss Dupain-Cheng was a part of Adrien's fan club. That would explain a few things. Felix had expected Marinette to dislike him based on his last visit even despite having no direct contact with her during that time. But, Felix had expected to win her over with some charm-- that plan seemed to have backfired since she seemed to only get angrier with each small smile or charming gesture he made. He never met a woman so fiercely loyal-- aside from Chloe, but she was only loyal to money which didn't count.

Marinette liking Adrien wasn't something Felix expected due to Adrien having a pretty serious relationship, but he could work with this. She seemed to have eased up a bit due to his request being for Adrien rather than himself.

"That will be 5£," Marinette said as she rang up his order.

Felix paid, "Miss Dupain-Cheng, I was hoping I could speak with you for a moment." It was time to test her.

He could tell she was about to flat-out refuse when he said, "It's about Adrien."

Again, she paused before grumbling, "Fine."

~~~

The bakery was slow today, so Marinette's mother let her take a break until another customer came in. Felix pulled out a chair at one of the tables outside the bakery for Marinette. She hesitantly sat down. If Felix had to compare her to an animal, he'd say she's got the eyes and mannerisms of a doe but the ferocity of a mountain lion and the stubbornness of a stone. A stone wasn't an animal but that was how stubborn this girl was.