Marinette: I will not leave you

Marinette: Until I believe you

Marinette: she could answer

Marinette: these lines were for the play, right?

Marinette: though next time you need to warn me

Marinette: 'cause at first i read them as addressed to me

Marinette: and wow

Marinette: u poets r dangerous people

Marinette: i can accidentally fall in love with u like that

Coz: i think we both might be in such danger

Coz: anyway

Coz: there is a rhythmic mistake in ur lines

Coz: I will never leave you

Coz: Until I believe you

Coz: now it's better

Marinette: damn u r good!

Marinette: i must remember to bring Adrien his favorite macaroni for this!

Marinette: and the lines r amazing

Marinette: she would just melt in place

Coz: what about when she knows who hides behind the mask?

Marinette: i mean

Marinette: if they really love each other

Marinette: shouldn't their love overcome all barriers somehow?

Marinette: though i wouldn't want to be in her place

Marinette: i have enough drama in my life

Coz: but now that u can turn ur bad luck into good luck

Coz: nothing can be really hard for u

Marinette: u r right

Marinette: i was a little confused when so much work fell on me with this theater

Marinette: but because of it i happened to meet u

Marinette: and today i even managed to feel a little how it would be to be the heroine of this story

Marinette: because u sent these poems so unexpectedly

Marinette: and before i realized that it wasn't for me, i had a moment to feel

Marinette: so anyway

Marinette: ummm

Marinette: i know it's getting late

Marinette: and that it's a school night

Marinette: and that yesterday we talked on the phone until midnight

Marinette: but...

Reading these messages, Felix felt the warmth spreading in his chest in anticipation, because he knew exactly what she was talking about.

Coz: yes

Coz: i want to hear ur voice too

Marinette: u read my mind

"I hope it won't become a bad habit." Marinette said in a quiet voice as she answered his call. "But it was just too tempting." She sighed slowly. "I mean... Even before you startled me with those lines tonight, I was kind of processing our conversation all day. A lot of what we discussed yesterday touched me deeply and I wanted to hear you again. You know, to make sure you're real? That you really exist."

"I guess I can consider myself real." Felix said softly, realizing how her words are close to what he himself felt. "But what if I'm not what you expect me to be?"

"Not what? A perfect stranger who is well versed in life, has a subtle feeling and can convey these feelings in an amazing way through words?" Marinette's voice smiled. "How can you not be one of these?"

"For example we might know each other." Felix said and swallowed.

"It sounds almost like the story from the play." Marinette laughed quietly. "Now you just have to say that in real life we hate each other."

Was this the right time to stop? Was it the right moment to 'destroy the magic of their feelings'?

"What if we do?" He asked.

"It's hardly possible." Marinette replied. "I don't hate anyone in my 'real life' – assuming this part of it isn't real." She was silent for a moment. "Well, maybe there are a couple of people whom I strongly dislike, but only for the serious things that they have done. And you can't be any of them."

Felix was silent. Because what could he say to that? I am actually one of them? And then what?

Damn Adrien was right!

Marinette somehow unobtrusively made her way through the wall that Felix erected around him, and instantly melted his cold heart...

His heart! All the trouble in his life was because of that stupid pile of flesh beating in his chest!

Felix sighed.

He closed his eyes and leaned back on the pillow on his bed.

"If the hate part doesn't match, what about the rest of the story?" He asked.

Marinette sighed into the phone.

"What can I say," she replied. "Today, when I read these lines, I imagined it so vividly that if I hadn't come to my senses in time and realized that they were not addressed to me, but only part of a theatrical production, you would risk getting a love-strike admirer."

Felix swallowed.

"I cannot claim that these lines were written for the theatrical production." He admitted.

Felix heard her take a sharp breath and there was silence on the phone for a while.

"Well..." Marinette said finally and swallowed. "I can't claim that my answer was entirely on behalf of the heroine." She added.

Felix felt his heart skip a beat as he unconsciously pictured Marinette beside him.

How badly he wanted to kiss her now!

This desire merged both his own feelings, awakened by this girl, and the fact that she had just practically admitted that she was falling in love with him...

This thought passed through his mind like a sobering slap in the face.

She was talking about someone else. About a person who doesn't exist. Or rather, he exists, and this is him, Felix! But there is another side to him that Marinette hates and because of which she will not be able to accept either his feelings or her own once she learns the truth!

"It's the first time I feel like this." Marinette said quietly after a long silence. "When you imagine kissing someone's lips, and you never even met."

Felix bit his lower lip painfully.

Damn it

Damn Adrien with his negligence! Damn theatrical production that so dramatically intertwined in his life! Damn poems that carved a secret path for her in his heart!

And damn it his heart, which didn't belong to him, but decided for whom it beats in his chest.