Did Shadow Math decide to start every morning with manipulating someone's emotions?

Marinette was really frustrated. The day had just started, but the akuma already wasn't the first bad thing that happened to her today.

First of all — Adrien was on an unexpected photoshoot for the whole day, that meant she won't see him at all. Second — Alya was still sick, and couldn't spy during the fights, as well as she couldn't help Marinette get out of the class.

Then of course there was Lila, who was mad at Marinette for sharing the project with Felix (as if it was even Marinette's choice), so she tried to threaten her again this morning.

And now the akuma alert happened, and the teacher won't let Marinette leave the class.

"The bathroom can wait." Ms. Mendeleiev said. "It's dangerous to leave the class during the akuma alert when it isn't next to our school."

This teacher was much harder to convince, so Marinette didn't know what to do. Chat was probably already fighting the akuma without her!

"Ms. Mendeleiev." The voice behind her called, and Marinette turned to see Felix. "I'm struggling with a headache today." He was holding his head with his hand. "There is much more noise in Paris than in London. Could a class representative walk me to the nurse's office? I don't know the school well yet. It's Miss Dupain-Cheng, right?"

The teacher looked at him suspiciously for a moment, but nodded in agreement.

Well, this was lucky! — Marinette thought.

Not that she was happy that Felix was in pain, but she really needed to get out of here, and fast. It'll just take a couple of minutes to bring him to the nurse, and she'll be fighting the akuma in no time!

Marinette stood up and went out of the classroom following Felix, who was already waiting for her next to the door.

"Nurse's office is this way." She said, when they were out of the class, Felix went towards the bathrooms.

"I know." He smirked, not looking sick at all. "But don't you need a place to transform, Ladybug?"

Marinette's eyes widened in surprise, but she recovered quickly.

"Why would you think that I'm Ladybug?!" She protested. "I'm nothing like her! I'm so clumsy! I wouldn't be able to be Ladybug even in my dreams!"

Those were the sentences she was preparing for the case someone would call her out directly. But none of it seemed to convince Felix.

"Listen," he said patiently. "You don't have to confirm it if you don't want to. But don't mistake me for an idiot." He sighed. "Let's just say I remembered where the nurse's office was from the tour Miss Buster gave me yesterday, and you went wherever you needed to go. Deal?"

Marinette was staring at him. If she agreed to what Felix was suggesting, it would indirectly confirm her identity. But even if she came with him to the nurse, which he obviously didn't even need, she would have to go to fight anyway, and he would know she didn't come back to class.

Damn it! She didn't really have time for this.

"I just go to the bathroom now." Marinette said slowly, choosing her words. "And then I'll come back to class."

She didn't say when. And who knows how long she needed to stay in the bathroom?! And technically speaking, she didn't confirm anything with this, right? He said he remembered where the nurse was, so...

Felix nodded and didn't even smirk at her anymore, but before running to the bathroom, Marinette still managed to make out the lights of triumph in his eyes.

Oh, who was she trying to fool?!

Felix knew her identity and now there was nothing she could do about it!

Had he pretended to be sick just to help her to get out of the classroom without arousing suspicion? — Marinette thought while swinging towards the akuma.

Did it mean that Ladybug has a new ally now?

But Felix was sly, smug and mischievous. He even tried to make a deal with Hawkmoth once! How could she trust him? And with what?! Her own secret identity, that only one other person knew — her closest friend.

The best thing for now would be to deny everything and think about hiding the miraculous box somewhere else. But where? And what about Tikki?

This was bad. Really really bad.

But then again... why would he tell her he knew? He could just try to steal her miraculous if he wanted to. It would be a smarter thing to do, and Felix was definitely smart.

Ladybug jumped on the roof next to her partner. She will think about this all later. For now there was an akuma to fight.

*

Marinette got up from the table and stretched.

They were working for almost two hours already, and she only noticed how much time passed because of her muscles getting tired of sitting.

When she came back to class after the akuma fight, Felix was already there, but the teacher didn't ask Marinette anything about her long absence. So whatever Felix told her about where Marinette went — was good enough even for Miss Mendeleiev.

She didn't communicate with Felix during the lessons. He seemed busy with his own things, so Marinette didn't even need to avoid him.

After the last lesson he came to ask if she needed a ride to his place or if she had to do something before they met for the project. Marinette lied that she needed to go to the bakery first, trying to put off the moment when they were alone. She could see that Felix didn't believe her, but he didn't say anything.

When Marinette finally arrived at his place Felix had already prepared some materials for the project and explained his ideas to her fast and clearly.

Chloe was right, he definitely was a good partner for studies. In fact, Marinette was so comfortable working with him, that didn't even notice how two hours had passed.

Marinette walked through the room, watching around. When she came here, she was too nervous that Felix would start talking about her identity, so she couldn't think about anything else.

Now that she relaxed a little, she noticed that Felix had much more books in his room that she'd expected. And he just moved in here. Did he bring all of those with him from London?

"How many of those books have you actually read?" Marinette asked, turning back to Felix, who was following her with his eyes.

"Uhh..." Felix raised his eyebrows. "All of them?" He said as if the answer for this question was obvious.

"Really?" It wasn't obvious for Marinette.

"We stand on the shoulders of giants." He said. "It's a simple formula for the continuity of knowledge." He stood up, stretched his hands a little and went towards the sofa. "New achievements are made based on the discoveries of the past. I don't plan to be an exception to this rule."

"Wow." Marinette was kind of impressed. "You really did read them all."

Felix sat on the sofa and spread his arms on its back comfortably.

"I saw the video from today's akuma fight." He said unexpectedly. "And as long as you don't have anything to do with it, I can tell you how bad their strategy was. Especially Ladybug's."

When he put it that way, Marinette couldn't even be nervous about Felix knowing her identity. Rather, stubbornness prevailed in her.

"Oh really?" She dared him, raising her chin. "What was so bad about it?"

"Like, why would you (random you, of course) would run after that akuma, making them destroy half of the city, if you knew they were after your miraculous anyway?" Felix asked. "You could make them run after you, choosing where to lead them and how to fight."

"Well, it very much depends on the particular akuma." Marinette argued. "Sometimes there is no time to strategize."

She saw Felix smirking at her smugly. Did he just get her involved in discussing the akumas from Ladybug's perspective? Sneaky little...

"Well, no matter the akuma, those two lose to Shadowmath every time they don't catch him anyway, so..."

Marinette didn't even understand, when she took a pillow from a nearby chair and threw it, but the pillow definitely just landed on Felix's head.

"You didn't just throw a pillow at my face." He said, standing up.

Marinette opened her mouth to apologize. No matter if Felix's opinions on her hero-job was making her angry or not, what she did wasn't appropriate, and Felix wasn't a person to allow things like that.

But before she could say a word, a pillow smashed at her face as well.

"I just said you were bad at fighting, and you're starting a fight?" He asked, but his face looked pleased, not outraged.

Marinette took the pillow again and threw it at him. He wants to provoke her, he's gonna get his butt kicked. Or more like his face.

Felix dodged the pillow and immediately threw two pillows that he already prepared back at her, one after the other. Marinette dodged the first one, but the second hit her, and as the girl hadn't had time to return to a stable position yet, she plopped down into a chair.

"I told you." Felix was coming to her, smiling triumphantly. He was holding another three pillows in his hands. "It's all about the strategy." He said, throwing one pillow at her lightly. "You only had one pillow from the chair, when you started the fight. I had five from the sofa." He threw another pillow that she caught in her hands. "So the fight was lost before you even started it." He said, throwing the last pillow down at her, standing in front of the chair.

Marinette looked at the pillow in her hands, at Felix, at the chair behind her, and her brain entered the lucky-charm-figuring-out-mood.

The objects combined in her imagination, and Marinette made a move as if she was throwing a pillow at him, so that Felix would grab it, trying to catch it, but she didn't let go either. She pulled the pillow to her, and turned, making Felix fall sitting on the chair and got up to stand in front of the chair instead of him.

Felix's eyes widened for a split second before he understood what she was doing, but he didn't resist her actions.

"Not bad." He smirked at her as if it was him standing in the winning position now.

"I used to win fights against the stronger opponents." Marinette said.

"I like strong women." He smirked. "You aren't stronger than me though. At least not without red and black."

Felix pulled the pillow that they both were still holding to a side, making Marinette, who caught it stronger on a reflex, lose her balance, and the next moment she found herself sitting on his lap.

His face was close to hers, and it seemed that despite his bravado, Felix didn't actually plan for this to happen, judging by his deeply blushing face.

Marinette was blushing too. How did they even go from a joint project to almost a hug in five minutes?!

"I... uhh... probably crossed the line." Felix said and cleaned his throat. "My apologies, miss Dupain-Cheng."

Marinette made an attempt to get up, just to fall back to his lap again. Only from the second try and with Felix's help she was able to stand up, followed by him.

"Well." She said, straightening her hair. "I think it's safe to say that after the pillow fight we just had, you can call me Marinette."

Felix smirked.

"Maybe I will."