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The door opened and Marinette entered his office, though for him it was more like she just floated in, supported by streams of invisible force, because her appearance felt like a flow of fresh air that couldn't actually be coming from the corridor.
He didn’t even notice that, as always, she didn’t knock on the door before entering, although perhaps by this point it didn’t matter anymore. Marinette’s appearance always excited Felix too much, distracting him from all useful thoughts, so the first few times he simply forgot to tell her about knocking. And by the time he finally came to his senses enough to notice such details, talking about her not knocking was somehow out of place, so he simply ignored it, and this time was absolutely no exception.
The fact that she was wearing this long, tight dress certainly didn't help Felix come to his senses any faster, and even her coat, casually thrown over her forearm, somehow didn't particularly hide the curves of her figure from his attentive eyes, forcing him to plunge for a moment into the fantasy that it was him she came for, and that they would go somewhere together, the evening smoothly turning into a night that they would also spend together...
“Oh, hi, darling!” Marinette exclaimed with a soft smile, and for a moment it seemed that she was talking to him, and that maybe his fantasies weren't so far from reality. Felix’s heart had already begun to melt and he managed to think that if not this smile, then what could serve as confirmation that she did have feelings for him...?
But then Marinette walked deeper into his office, casually dropping her coat on the back of one of the chairs standing by the side wall as she passed them, and came closer to his desk, and it became obvious that she was smiling, of course, not at him, and she greeted so softly not him either, but his cousin, with whom Felix was standing at the table, examining the construction plan for the new exhibition pavilion.
Adrien also smiled widely back at her, stepping towards the young woman, “Hey, Mari!” he chirped, giving her a short kiss on the lips—a bad fashion in their group of friends that Felix frankly didn’t understand and which he stubbornly refused to follow.
He was scared to imagine both that Marinette would start touching his lips with hers every time they met, and that she would refuse to kiss him on the lips at all, even with such a meaningless kiss, but she wouldn’t want to greet him like that. In the first option, his brain would completely turn off every time and Felix would look just stupid, and in the second... in the second option, he would lose even that weak hope that her hatred for him would one day turn into some other feeling…
Adrien probably couldn't even appreciate the touch of those amazing lips, seeing that the model preferred them edged with stubble, he thought irritably. At least knowing that his cousin was gay helped Felix to retain at least some of his sanity and restrain his jealousy at the sight of such greetings. Not that he had any right to be jealous, of course...
To be honest, sometimes it seemed to him that Marinette had started this whole tradition with kisses just to annoy him. She was driving him up the wall, quite deliberately it seemed, with much lesser things, why not this…?
Marinette meanwhile turned her gaze to Felix, her face immediately becoming stern. Not that she looked angry or anything, but her whole appearance instantly became purely professional and very businesslike, as if to show him that there could be no talk of any personal interest on her part. As if he hadn't already learned that by now…
“Mr. Fathom,” she spoke with exaggerated seriousness—she often liked to call him that way, Felix didn't know why, but of course he always felt like she was teasing him with these words, showing that she didn't take him seriously at all. And when she called him by his first name, on the contrary, it always felt like she finally noticed him, but of course this was simply a result of her saying his actual name, and the softness he imagined in the sounds of her voice wasn’t there at all...
“Felix, I need you,” the woman said, still seriously, almost sternly, not at all how he wanted these words to come from her lips. But his traitorous heart melted hearing them all the same…
Marinette came closer and stood very, very close to him, between Felix and his desk, her gaze fixed on the pavilion blueprint. “Oh, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” she said, turning her back to him completely to point her finger somewhere on the building plan. “Right here, see? Where we have planned an area for showing new models…”
By this point, Felix’s brain had already begun to shut down, because it clearly didn’t have enough blood to function—all of it going down to where his body was closest to the tempting roundnesses of Marinette's butt, covered with a thin, tight fabric. In fact, some parts of Felix's body were now in extremely dangerous proximity to those very roundnesses, and he, of course, could no longer perceive either what she wanted to change in the design of the complex, or look where she was pointing on the construction plan...
Marinette continued to explain something about decisions he needed to make, and Felix bit his lower lip hard, forcing himself to come to his senses and at least stop staring at her ass, not to mention calming his erection, and even more so to actually start listening to what she was talking about.
Every time he caught her looking at him, or when Marinette voluntarily approached him, like now, or came to him for help, Felix thought that maybe her dirty tricks affected her as much as they affected him... But then he convinced himself that he was wrong, because Marinette always talked about something else—about fabrics, about models, about deadlines, about the construction of a new pavilion…
So of course this time, as always, she has something else on her mind other than me, Felix thought with annoyance, with an effort of will turning his gaze to the layout of the room, but he couldn’t make out anything there, as if it wasn’t Felix who had explained the project to Adrien in detail just a few minutes ago.
It seems that it began to affect his intellectual abilities, the way she tortured him with these smiles and dresses, as if checking how much longer he could endure before exploding—something Marinette managed to do as if by chance, without the slightest effort. Maybe she didn’t even torture him on purpose, hugging her perfect body with thin fabric and coming so close to him, bending over the table and moving her ass right to his groin? Maybe she just didn’t notice the effect she had on him...?
Although sometimes it seemed that she knew perfectly well how much her crazy ways made him exactly that, crazy, and Marinette didn't change them specifically to punish him…
He didn’t know why, it just so happened that from the very beginning of their acquaintance they argued and fought. Felix was annoyed with her—and all of Adrien's friends—simply for the fact that they existed, and they disliked him in return. Only Marinette, of course, brought this dislike to perfection, turning the relationship between her and Felix into a real unspoken war...
But in any case, regardless of whether she understood what she was doing to him or not, this woman succeeded in her nasty tricks every single time!
Felix thought that if they started dating, they would continue to argue, more often making up than making love, but it didn’t cool his desire to be with her at all. On the contrary, he could easily imagine this love-hate dynamic turning him on like nothing else could, challenging him over and over again, so he couldn't deny that it was exactly what he wanted, and how much he needed this woman was gradually becoming absurd…
Marinette finished speaking and turned to face both men. ”Well, what do you think?” she asked, resting her palms on her hips.
Felix blinked silently, trying desperately to remember at least one sentence from what she had just said, but his mind seemed completely blank, the blood stubbornly refused to return to its place, as if it wasn’t afraid of being caught in an illegal maneuver…
“That’s a great idea, Mari!” responded Adrien, God bless him, taking the hit. Not that he was in any danger of getting an actual hit, of course, Marinette's favorite that he was… But this time Adrien had saved his cousin from looking like a complete idiot, so today Felix was even ready to forgive him for all those greeting kisses...
“Well?” Marinette demanded, turning to Felix, only after she smiled approvingly at Adrien, of course. “What does Mr. Fathom think?”
“I think it’s a good idea,” Felix answered succinctly, “We’ll see if the team can implement it in time or if some deadlines need to be postponed,” he added diplomatically, hoping that Adrien would explain to him later everything about this idea of hers, and that it wasn’t some new way for Marinette to mock him…
The woman looked at him suspiciously for a moment longer, then finally nodded with satisfaction. “Okay,” she sighed, glancing at her wristwatch, “I'm leaving for Milan on the seven-thirty train, there's an exhibition there tomorrow, remember? So I won't be here for the next two days.”
Felix only now noticed that when Marinette entered, she left a small suitcase at the entrance—he was so distracted by her smile, and that tight dress, and then by how close she came to him, that he didn’t notice it at first…
Damn it, he hated those exhibitions that she had to leave town for! Every time they happened and he heard that line about Marinette leaving for one of them, it seemed that everything around him became gloomy, because it meant that he wouldn't see her the next day, and maybe the day after tomorrow as well…
Missing her was already becoming his usual state, honestly, so feeling bad about it seemed like his usual operating mode—a state that others thought was good because Felix was undistracted and his productivity increased. Although in reality it was only because he tried to distract himself from thoughts about her with whatever he could…
God, he was so in love with this woman…! Felix didn't even have to think about the fact that he wouldn't see her for two days again to understand it... It was enough to just think about her in general, about how much he wanted her with him, or about the fact that she was completely unattainable, because of course if Marinette liked him even a little she would have hinted at it a long time ago, seeing he wasn’t able to hide his feelings from her...
So Felix just drove himself into his grave faster, what with these sharp jumps of blood, which obediently floated down, as if trained, when Marinette approached, and back up when she moved away from him, and it drove him crazy again and again. Just like now, when she mercilessly turned him on, and was about to leave…
While Felix was lost in his sad thoughts, Marinette had already taken a step away from him to leave, but somehow awkwardly stumbled—maybe high heels weren't the best choice of footwear for the road—and began to fall, his arms catching her reflexively, even before Felix realized what was happening. He came to his senses only when they were in a slightly awkward position, bodies pressed against each other, his right hand holding her sideways just under her chest, so that the lower roundness of her breast was almost in his palm.
Felix froze, expecting... anything, really, that she would slap him for such impudence, despite the fact that he was trying to help, or scold him for not knowing how to catch women properly, or something else along the same lines… But Marinette just silently looked at him, as if she was waiting for something, or trying to discern something in him, but at least she didn’t scold him for inappropriate touching…
“You can release me already, Mr. Fathom,” she muttered, barely putting the usual emphasis on his formal name. “I think we’ve all realized by now that you have good reflexes.”
Felix gently helped her up and let the woman go, still confused by the whole situation, and his own reaction, in which he probably once again gave away how he felt about her, and the fact that Marinette didn’t look scared that she was going to fall at all, but rather… he couldn't really say what she looked like…
He almost missed Adrien's knowing look, thinking that probably now not only his cousin knew about his torment, but Felix probably failed to hide his feelings from her entirely, and that's if by some miracle she still didn't understand how much he was in love with her until today.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Adrien wink at Marinette. Felix frowned, trying to figure out if it was his imagination or if maybe these two were laughing at him behind his back... Maybe they both knew about his feelings and Marinette was deliberately teasing him, and Adrien supported her in this torturous game…? No, Felix shook his head mentally, she was too kind to do this to him... Right?
He glanced at Marinette, who had moved away a little and was now standing between his desk and a couple of chairs by the side wall, her arms slightly pulled back, and was looking at him expressively, as if expecting something.
Felix looked at her blankly, not understanding what he was supposed to do and Marinette rolled her eyes, tapping the toe of her shoe on the floor—an expression of impatience if he had ever seen one. He finally realized what she was waiting for and jerked towards her just as Adrien had already taken her coat from the back of the chair and quickly handed it to his cousin. The expression on the model’s face was slightly amused, but Felix decided that Adrien’s attempt to help him balanced it out…
He nodded gratefully to the other man and helped Marinette dress, straightening her coat and carefully sliding the sleeves onto her long-awaiting hands—you could never know what that evil woman would do to him next time if he made even the slightest mistake. Maybe she would come wearing something even more provocative to drive him completely nuts, or, even worse, she wouldn’t come to him for weeks making his pining even more torturous… So it was better not to jeopardize his sanity, or what was left of it…
At least Marinette looked at him approvingly before leaving, throwing a “Bye, boys, don’t miss me,” before leaving, as if she knew perfectly well that this was an impossible task.
Felix wandered back to his desk, when he finally came to his senses and tore his gaze away from the door that closed after she left, of course, catching Adrien’s soft, condescending glance on the way. “Don’t look at me like that,” Felix snapped, slumping down in his chair and running his hands over his face. “It’s pathetic, isn’t it?” he asked in a much more subdued voice, sighing.
“It kind of is,” the model confirmed, “But you never heard me say it out loud, because when you come to your senses, you’re going to want to kill me for having the misfortune of witnessing your moment of weakness…”
“I always seem to have a moment of weakness when she’s around…” Felix muttered under his breath as Adrien giggled in the background.
“I wonder when you'll finally pull yourself together,” his cousin asked with genuine curiosity in his voice. “Maybe you could even pull both yourself and her together…”
“You know she hates me!” Felix protested desperately. Didn’t Adrien realize that he was only tormenting his soul with such hints?! Well, his soul or his body, it didn’t really matter anymore, because there was nothing left in him that this woman hadn’t touched…
“She might hate you a little,” Adrien agreed to his surprise, “But she definitely wants you much stronger than she hates you. Otherwise, she wouldn’t do all these dirty tricks only for you.”
“She just likes torturing me…” Felix muttered tragically.
“Oh, that too, of course,” Adrien agreed again, his voice cheerful, as if they weren’t discussing Felix’s sad fate, “But why she likes to torture you in particular, and in such… ahem… specific ways, that’s a whole other story…”
Felix looked up at his cousin, frowning. That teasing asshole knew something… And Felix probably didn’t imagine that Adrien winked at Marinette, and maybe not because they were laughing at him behind his back, neither of them were of a malevolent nature, after all… But because…
Felix felt like now, when all the blood that had escaped from his brain had finally returned with Marinette’s departure, everything in his head seemed to finally become clear for the first time.
“She likes me, doesn’t she?” he breathed out, still in disbelief.
Adrien looked at him with the same expression as people watching their favorite entertainment show. “This is the first time this idea has occurred to you, isn’t it?” He teased. But it wasn't funny at all, because yeah, Felix really didn't allow himself to hope that she might actually like him...
“I always thought that she just knew that I liked her, and that's why she was torturing me,” he admitted, “Hate and all that…” Although as he said it out loud the idea itself seemed absurd, considering the kind of person Marinette was.
Adrien just looked at him with obvious amusement, as if he knew exactly what was going through his cousin's head and it was incredibly entertaining.
“I'll catch up with her!” Felix declared decisively, grabbing his own coat from the hanger without waiting for Adrien to answer. “I'll find that woman and tell her everything I think about her!” He threatened, throwing on his coat and heading for the door.
“Don't forget to use protection!” Felix heard his cousin shout before the office door slammed behind him.
He quickly walked down to the parking lot, expecting Marinette's taxi to have probably already left, but to his surprise he only saw her saying goodbye to his mother, who was getting into the taxi, while Marinette herself clearly had no intention of getting into it as well.
“Next time, try that blue dress I suggested,” Amelie advised as she climbed into the back seat, “Or maybe you’ll find something even more provocative in Milan. Felix is a man, after all, he has to react to something sooner or later. Bye, dear!” And his mother closed the door behind her, the car immediately pulling away from the parking lot.
“Or he'll never react to me at all…” Marinette muttered, raising her hand to check the time, but Felix had already come close enough to hear her clearly. “And now I’ll have to travel on the train in heels and a tight dress because of another useless attempt…”
A new taxi appeared at the entrance, and this one was probably for Marinette, and Felix approached her faster, blocking the woman’s path to the car.
She raised her eyes at him in surprise, but immediately recovered and looked at him with interest. “Mr. Fathom,” she greeted him again in a teasing tone, “Did you forget to kiss me goodbye?”
Previously, Felix would have taken such a remark as a joke, but now he couldn't help but notice that her lips were slightly parted, as if Marinette was really expecting his kiss, and that she didn't even try to step away from him at a more respectable distance, and even the fact that she asked exactly that and not something completely different now seemed obvious to him as well.
“Are you taking seduction tips from my mother?” he asked to let her know that he had heard the end of their conversation and to see what she would say about it.
The woman just narrowed her eyes at him, not a drop of regret or remorse in them, and not even a hint of embarrassment that she was caught red-handed. “All’s fair in love and war,” she said, lifting her chin with a slight challenge.
Felix almost choked when he heard that word from her lips, and in that context too. He stepped even closer to her, very, very close in fact, and put one arm around her waist, pulling the woman towards him and throwing away all pretenses.
Marinette didn’t resist, but even voluntarily leaned forward, as if this action wasn’t completely unusual for both of them, and under her open coat, through her thin dress, Felix could feel all those tempting curves of hers that he admired in the office a few minutes ago. Those same curves that she literally shoved under his nose, Felix reminded himself, actions that he—the idiot that he was—somehow convinced himself to interpret differently than what they so obviously were.
Her dress was so thin… Earlier in the office Felix kept himself from paying as much attention to it, but now it felt like under this coat she was wearing nothing at all. And he realized with renewed vigor that Marinette had chosen an uncomfortable dress for the road and climbed into high heels especially for him—precisely for these few minutes when she would enter his office before leaving, hoping to attract his attention even if she would be uncomfortable the whole way to Milan afterwards.
Now Felix felt like an even bigger idiot, because all actions had a reason, and Marinette wasn't known for inconsistent behavior, so he couldn't understand how he hadn't noticed the logic in her actions before.
“So, where’s my goodbye kiss, Mr. Fathom?” Marinette murmured, relaxing comfortably in his embrace, ignoring the car that had pulled up to pick her up.
“You know very well how much you drive me crazy, don’t you?” Felix asked, lifting her face up with his free hand.
“I try my best to get the result I want,” Marinette admitted, still looking at him with a slight challenge, but her eyelids slightly lowered, as if waiting for the moment when they would have a reason to close completely. “Not that my best was ever good enough for you…” she added, looking at him reproachfully.
“Oh, it was always good enough, darling,” Felix admitted, leaning down to inhale the scent of her hair with impunity. “You’re more than good enough for me, Marinette. Without all your dirty tricks and in whatever clothes you are wearing, when you enter my office—without knocking, just as brazenly as you entered my life, rightfully feeling like its mistress—I immediately want to lower the curtains and lock the door, and never let you go…”
“And yet I am still waiting for my goodbye kiss while the car is waiting for me…” she muttered into his chest as Felix was surprised at himself, because he really still hadn't kissed her.
He straightened up and nodded to the taxi driver, who was patiently waiting for their farewell, then opened the door for Marinette and the girl looked up at him in surprise. “No goodbye kiss for me, then?” she asked, no longer teasing, but in a genuinely surprised and slightly offended tone, nevertheless obediently sitting down in the back seat while the driver put her suitcase in the trunk.
Felix climbed into the car after her, noting with satisfaction how her face lit up at the sight of him in the car, and this time her smile was clearly just for him. “I need you, Marinette,” he said softly, again taking the woman into his arms from which he wasn’t going to let her go, at least not for long... “I need you so much, when I start kissing you, I will no longer be able to stop. So I’m going to Milan with you.”
Marinette stared at him in amazement for a moment. “You’re crazy,” she finally concluded, but her smile was wide and genuine nonetheless, “You don’t even have a suitcase with you.”
“But I have you,” Felix reminded, and finally kissed her, instantly losing himself in the feeling of her lips, which he had wanted to touch for so long, and her scent, which he had previously only caught furtively, and her perfectly proportioned body, which went limp welcomingly under his touch.
It was safe to say that this kiss lasted all the way to the station, and then was interrupted only briefly, while Felix bought himself a ticket and led his girlfriend (his girlfriend!) to the train. And then, of course, it was interrupted many more times for various little things that are usually called daily affairs…
But Felix always felt like from that moment in the car their kiss lasted for the rest of their lives.
Crazy by Aerosmith
Come here, baby
You know you drive me up the wall
The way you make good on all the nasty tricks you pull
Seems like we're making up more than we're making love
And it always seems you got something on your mind other than me
Girl, you got to change your crazy ways
You hear me?
Say you're leaving on a seven thirty train
And that you're heading out to Hollywood
Girl, you been givin' me that line so many times
It kinda gets like feeling bad looks good, yeah
That kinda loving turns a man to a slave
That kinda loving sends a man right to his grave
I go crazy, crazy baby, I go crazy
You turn it on
Then you're gone
Yeah, you drive me crazy
Crazy, crazy for you baby
What can I do, honey?
I feel like the color blue
You're packing up your stuff
And talking like it's tough
And trying to tell me that it's time to go, yeah!
But, I know you ain't wearin' nothing underneath that over coat
And it's all a show, yeah!
That kinda loving
Makes me wanna pull down the shade, yeah!
That kinda loving, yeah
Now I'm never, never, never gonna be the same
I go crazy, crazy
Baby, I go crazy
You turn it on, then you're gone
Yeah, you drive me crazy
Crazy, crazy for you baby
What can I do, honey?
I feel like the color blue
I'm losing my mind, girl
'Cause I'm going cra
I need your love, honey, yeah!
I need your love
Crazy, crazy, crazy for you baby
I'm losing my mind, girl
'Cause I'm going crazy
Crazy, crazy, crazy for you baby
You turn it on then, you're gone
Yeah, you drive me
Ooh, ooh, ooh, Ooh, ooh, ooh
Ow, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, now baby, baby, baby, baby