Hidden ~ Miraculous Ladybug AU

Chapter 32

Third Person POV

Marinette sighed contentedly, sketching on her balcony. The dinner was amazing, connecting with her best friends was the best part, not to mention the two of them were extremely rich and made her let them pay. After getting past the initial wall between them, it was like they'd never left.

Marinette was designing some outfits for the back to school #5 line for Ladybug, since the one she'd released earlier was already completely gone.

She loved how people loved her work, though she was never quite sure why. Marinette never thought of herself as "Miraculous", one of the many words people had described her work as, and it kinda just stuck.

She was waiting for Tikki to come over now, she said she had a special surprise for her today, more than one. A knock on the glass door startled her out of her thoughts, it creaked open.

"Hey, girl. I'm going out now. See you in the morning!" Alya said, closing the door before Marinette could even say anything about it. She let out a defeated sigh,
What could she possibly be doing? Why do they keep it a secret from me?

Three knocks on the glass of her door sounded before she heard it slide open. Marinette turned around and smiled,
"Hey, Pea."
"Hey, Mari." Felix replied, pulling the other chair she had closer before sitting down.
"What's brought you here?" She asked, closing her sketchbook and turning to look at him.
"Well, I-, um, I wanted to talk. Just the two of us, you know? Alya let me in."

Marinette could feel a pit form in the bottom of her stomach,
"Okay."
"So, erm- ha, I don't really know how to start." Felix looked out on the view, "Um, how'd you manage to get this room?" He didn't have to say how her financial situation definitely probably didn't permit this room.

"Oh, you know. I was working some jobs throughout high school to save up money for college. Whatever I could." Marinette answered, feeling bad for lying to him.
"Oh." The two of them sat together in silence, and the bluenette sighed. How'd they manage to drift apart so much that they could barely talk?

"How have you been?"
"Good, I guess. I'm just glad to finally get out of that terrible boarding school." The boy sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.
"That reminds me! What's up with you and Lila?" Just saying that demon's name put a sour taste in her mouth.

"Ugh. Don't even get me started. I can't ever get her to leave me alone." He groaned, leaning back in the chair. From there the two friends began to catch up and it almost felt like it did when they were younger, but, Felix still hadn't asked her about the one thing he really needed to address.

"So, um, Nette?"
"Mm?" Marinette hummed in response, still smiling from their last topic of how Felix prepared for college - he might have been a little obsessed.
"Well, I really wanted to talk to you about...well, Chloe, and Lila. And just, the bullying you said was happening. Everything that I missed that wasn't...all sunshine and rainbows."

Marinette glanced over at him in surprise, and then scoffed. Sunshine and rainbows? She felt like she'd hardly seen the light of day.
"Sunshine and rainbows?" She laughed darkly, "Sure."

Felix frowned and looked at her sadly, the expression on her face was twisted into a sick grin of sorts, but he could see the pain swimming in her blue eyes.

"Buggy, please, I want to know. I want to help." The girl sighed and looked at her hands, her smile faltering.
"You wanna know? Are you sure you can take it?"

By no means was she going to tell him her whole story, there was no possibility of that, at least not any time soon. She was still slightly angry and bitter with them for leaving her behind, and then neglecting to call.