Chapter Text
As Felix locked eyes with his new desk mate, he felt a slight twinge in his chest and wondered if it could be heartburn. He decides to cut back on coffee.
He took note of his new deskmate, a pretty, but otherwise, seemingly unremarkable girl with dark hair tied in pig tails and big blue eyes. She regarded him with a stupefied expression on her face for whatever reason. The dark-haired girl seemed familiar somehow, but since Felix couldn't remember her, he just brushed it off. He decided to introduce himself, "Felix Fathom."
"Huh?" replied his slack jawed deskmate. "Oh- uh- I'm Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng"
"A pleasure," He said, even though it wasn't really. Felix took a seat and silently prayed that was the end of the conversation. It wasn't.
After rudely staring at him for what was really only a few minutes but felt like much longer, his bothersome deskmate, Marinette, just had to pipe up.
"So... uh- y-you and Adrien are- um- he said you're cousins, right?" she babbled. Not leaving any space for Felix to reply and barely enough to breathe herself, she continued, "You two- uh- you both look really similar.... like, scarily similar..." She finally stopped staring at him and looked away, blushing.
Felix had an epiphany. Ah, she must be one of Adrien's fan girls. Just my luck that I'd get stuck sitting next to her. No matter, I'm sure she'll stick to Sunshine Incarnate over there once she gets a taste of my bad temper.
"Our mothers are twins. Trust me, our faces are our only similarity. We couldn't be more different otherwise, thankfully." He added the last part on purpose to offend her a bit and hopefully push her away sooner.
She was silent for a while, then retorted dismissively, "Yeah, I can already tell." She remarked, with a disillusioned look on her face.
Good, that'll show her to go comparing us. I get enough of that already. I don't need it at school as well.
Marinette flipped her textbook open as Mrs. Bustier instructed. Felix realized he was unprepared as he didn't have a textbook and contemplated what to do. He could simply ask Mrs. Bustier if there were any spares, but he perished the thought. It wasn't as if Felix was shy per say, he just didn't want to waste his energy by raising his hand and having to speak loud enough for the teacher to hear him from the back row on his first day. Or at least that's what he told himself.
Felix glanced at his deskmate. He felt much more comfortable with asking one person a question quietly, instead of having the whole class hear him. If only his deskmate wasn't someone he had already provoked.
Nice one, Felix. He sighed. Mum was right, I really need to work on my social ski-
A soft whisper interrupted his thoughts, "Hey, Felix, you don't have a textbook, right?" Felix turned to look at the girl next to him with suspicion, sure that she would use this mock him. He was taken by surprise by the hushed words that came next, "We can share mine since we don't have any spares." She pushed the textbook closer, then took her chair and moved it close to him.
Then she sat down. In the chair. Right next to Felix.
The smell of baked goods hit him instantly, and he was taken completely off guard.
Marinette's fascination with Adrien stemmed from the fact that she was convinced that he was her soulmate. Though she couldn't remember her dreams very well, (as is typical of someone her age) she was sure he had golden hair, green eyes, and always made her laugh when they would talk in their shared dreams. Who else could that be, but Adrien?
While Marinette did acknowledge it was possible her dream boy could be someone she would meet later down the line, she was all too happy to let herself believe that such a nice charming boy like Adrien was her destined love.
Ugh, who does this guy think he is? How could he say he's lucky he's not more similar to Adrien? Kind, sweet, compassionate, Adrien~ Whoops, I should get my textbook out already.
Marinette flipped through her textbook to page 365 and studied the words. Then she heard a sigh. Marinette looked over to see Adrien's Felix's face looking down at his empty desk, clearly irritated. She then came to the realization that she should probably share the textbook with him.
Marinette decided to play it casual. Sure, she didn't like the guy, but she was his deskmate and not to mention the class representative. Though he didn't look like he wanted it, the new kid needed someone to help him out.
Marinette offered her notebook, sat next to him so that they could both read it easily, and then briefly summarized what they were learning about. She turned to look at Felix to see if he was following, "You got that?"
She looked up to see Felix's face completely red. Oh, no, please don't tell me he's mad at me. I can't afford to make another enemy in this class. First, Adrien's childhood best friend hates me, and now his doppelganger cousin?
"...The- There's not much to get," Felix remarked, his voice a little husky, as he turned away from Marinette's face. "Honestly, I'm a little offended that you thought I would even need help with such a simple concept."
Oh, great. I've already offended him. Again. All Marinette could do was offer a small "...Sorry" and hope that this wouldn't lead to yet another classmate who hated her.
As the delicious, enticing (somehow nostalgic) smell assaulted his nose, all Felix could do was think, Oh, God, oh God, don't panic. Come on, she's just some girl. Why are you acting like this? But it was no use. The beautiful, delicious smelling, bread siren was sitting close enough that he could feel her body heat and smell her vanilla scented perfume. He couldn't help but take note of how shiny her hair was up close, and when she looked up he peered into her big beautiful eyes that were the color of the morning sky, but sparkled like the night. DO NOT WAX POETIC ABOUT THE BAKER GIRL FELIX YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS
Her soft rosy lips and angelic voice had asked him a question that he grasped a few beats too late. Before he could stop himself, his defense mechanism kicked in, and he ended up saying something inelegant and rude. He mentally kicked himself for affronting the bread goddess, then again for thinking such an absurd thing. Felix felt two sides of himself at war. One of which made him feel a pang of self-hatred when the love of his... the irritating... when Marinette apologized to him.
Felix felt the awkward silence and the guilt weigh on him. He moved his chair a bit farther away to help himself think more clearly. Get a hold of yourself, Felix, he told himself. He decided that at the very least, Marinette wasn't as bad as he thought she was, and that she was being rather kind by offering him her textbook when he had been so rude.
After working himself up a bit, Felix finally blurted out the words, "...Thank you." He shut his eyes, then against his better judgment turned to look at Marinette. At first, she looked back in shock, but then she did something truly terrifying... she smiled.
"Of course! I'm the class rep you know, so you can always count on-"
"Marinette. I'm glad you're being so welcoming to Felix, but please don't interrupt my lesson," Mrs. Bustier said as gently as humanly possible.
"Oh... uh.... sorry." Marinette replied as a pretty pink colored her cheeks.
Felix was absolutely doomed.