Felix had been tormented all Sunday, trying to go to Marinette to talk. Then he would stop, reminding himself that she had asked for time.

But how can time clarify the tangled relationship between them?!

In the end, he decided to talk to her at school tomorrow as soon as the opportunity arose.

*

Felix caught her in the classroom between the lessons while everyone went to the gym to change.

"We need to talk." He stated, closing the door in front of her and blocking Marinette's way out of the classroom.

"There is nothing to talk about." Marinette replied coldly, turning her face from him.

"You can't just brush me away like this!" Felix exclaimed, taking her hand. "You don't really mean it!"

"I do!" Marinette yelled back angrily, pulling her hand out of his. "I do mean it! I don't want to see you anymore!" She said, looking into his eyes with an angry look. "With your stupid lies! And your stupid tricks! And your stupid poems!"

Cold shiver ran down Felix's back as he took a step away from her.

"How long did you know?" He asked, sharply lowering the tone of his voice. Awareness slipped through his mind and everything suddenly became clear. "Wait, don't answer. I know exactly how long. Ever since you started to write to me about myself." He was looking at her, slightly intoxicated with pain. "So you played these games to get back at me? You even..." His voice cracked and Felix felt the lump in his throat. "So how are you better than me if you broke my heart only to have your revenge?!" He hissed.

"Your heart?!" Marinette laughed hysterically through tears that rolled in her eyes. "You don't have a heart!"

Tears flowed down her cheeks and Felix remembered her saying "I need you" so desperately the last time they saw each other. He almost felt on himself just how much she was also suffering.

Marinette didn't believe him, but maybe she felt the same as he did in all the rest?

Maybe she loved him back?

Felix went up to her, and raised his hand to touch her, but the girl stumbled back.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled. "I don't want you!" But she turned her head to the side saying it, – Felix noticed desperately.

"Then look at me!" He swallowed. "Look at me and tell me that what happened between us was just a game for you!" He made a step towards her. "And you don't have feelings for me."

The last words seemed to hit her to the core, because Marinette gave him an angry look.

"Oh I have feelings for you!" She hissed, looking him straight in the eyes. "I hate you!" Marinette slapped him hard on the shoulder with her hand. "I hate the day I got to know you!"

Felix reached out with his arms and wrapped them around Marinette's waist from behind.

"I hate every word I heard from you!" Marinette continued, punching her suddenly weakened hands into his chest, as if immersed in her emotions so much that she didn't notice his actions.

Felix pulled her closer, ignoring her anger.

All he could see was the woman he loved. And she was hurting. And maybe love could really fix everything? 'If they really love each other...' — her words were spinning in his mind.

Felix leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, holding Marinette close to him in a firm grip, feeling her weakly try to resist. Then her body slackened in his arms and her lips softened as she accepted his kiss.

And in the next moment, Marinette had her arms around his neck and was kissing him back, pulling him against her with newfound strength. Her fingers slithered, digging into his hair and clutching at it desperately.

Felix held her close, sliding his palms down her back as if she was still struggling and he wanted to secure her presence.

She loved him. Right? She kissed him back! Their love was stronger than the hatred she had for him...

Felix slowed down their kiss, making it softer and more profound. He captured her lips with his, slowing every movement until they were frozen in each other's arms, pressing desperately against each other.

"I love you, Marinette." Felix's lips whispered into her lips, unable to hold it in anymore.

"No!" Marinette yelled and, as if suddenly coming to her senses, she jumped away from him. "Don't you dare love me!" She hissed at him, her eyes full of tears again. "You are a traitor! You betrayed me! I trusted you, and you betrayed me! You gave me to my worst enemy!"

Felix looked at her with incomprehension. What was she talking about?

Yes, he didn't tell her that it was him, but everything that happened between them was real, at least from his side it was. Marinette was playing with him! Made him fall in love and...

Suddenly, Felix's mind reached her last phrase: "You gave me to my worst enemy!"

Felix felt his fingertips go cold as he began to feel sick.

"Ladybug..." He whispered barely noticeable.

"So tell me, 'Flairmidable', What was so important that you indengered my city for it, reinforcing Hawk Moth with all the miraculous?!" Marinette hissed, and her using his super-hero name left him in no doubt that it really was her. "What did you win for betraying me and my whole team?!"

Felix took a step back and reeled. He felt very sick and slightly dizzy from his furiously pulsing weights.

She would never forgive him, he realized, sinking into despair. She will never be with him. This love wasn't given to rise above everything and save him...

His life gave it to him to hurt Felix more than it already did.

"What was so dear to you, that you don't give a damn about me and hundreds of thousands of people?!" Marinette continued caustically, advancing on him. "What did you get in return! Strength? Power?"

"My life!" Felix exclaimed, feeling his body tighten with unpleasant tension.

Marinette took a step back and stared at him in horror.

"Your... life?" She repeated, looking at him with huge eyes full of misunderstanding and tears.

Felix sat down at the nearest desk, feeling ill and completely overwhelmed.

"I was 10 years old when my heart gave out," he said slowly, looking into space in front of him. "I needed an urgent transplant, but there was no donor. I had a few days to live."

Felix spoke without looking at her, because he knew that any reaction from Marinette – whether it was anger or pity – would silence him, and then he would never say it again.

"Then Aunt Emilie came." He sighed. "She offered my mother a solution that no one was supposed to know about. A heart created with the Peacock Miraculous." Felix paused and finally turned to Marinette, looking her straight in the eyes. "He gave me the Peacock Miraculous back, and now no one can influence that piece of magic that beats in my chest."

Marinette stared at him with a pale face contorted in a grimace of mixed emotions.

"Emilie Agreste." She whispered, slightly lowering her unseeing eyes. "It means that Hawk Moth is..."

"My uncle. Gabriel Agreste." Felix finished instead of her.

Marinette's eyes focused on him again.

"You could come to me!" She said demandingly, lowering her voice.

"And what?!" He hissed back at her. "Would you sacrifice your team and this city for one person that you also hate?!"

"I guess we'll never know what I would do then, right?" Marinette spoke caustically, her eyes flashing with anger.

"It doesn't matter anymore." Felix said, turning his gaze away from her, – hatred on her face was too much to handle for him.

"At least we agree on something," Marinette said through her teeth. "'Cause it really doesn't!"

And she ran out of the classroom, slamming the door behind her.