With what little time left of the lesson, Alya guided Felix back to class, and the blonde felt his heart pound violently in his chest. After having an unexpected heart to heart with the reporter, Felix thought that he could at least try and apologise to Marinette: but he was not expecting her to be sat in his seat next to his doppelgänger.

Trying to ignore the way his cousin's eyes burned into his being, he attempted a weak smile at the ravenette who had snagged his heart. Marinette, being the 'understanding person' that Alya had ensured him she was, returned the weak smile with one that was sympathetic and understanding. Felix noted the way she looked to his cousin briefly, and could see she was trying to placate Adrien into ceasing his glares.

It did not work, but the thought was there.

Keeping his head down as he made his way to the vacant seat behind his cousin, the blonde decided that there were already 'two' many blondes in the ravenette's heart. Alya had explained that Marinette had always loved Adrien, a fact he was already privy to, and that he should just focus on building relationships as opposed to burning bridges. Alya was not required to comfort him, heck, he had not exactly been the best new addition to their little circle, but the caring teen still did.

As he sat there for the remaining fifteen minutes of class while the students around him focused on finishing their assigned work and the teacher busied himself with paperwork, Felix contemplated what he wanted exactly. Did he want to make enemies? Did he want to isolate himself when there appeared to be people legitimately willing to be there for him?

No.

'If I'm staying here for the foreseeable, I don't want these people to hate me. Alya's not really my cup of Tetley, but she helped me today. Maybe if I just admit defeat I can find something that's mine… have something that I care about… start to become a decent person. I hurt Bridgette, I've hurt my mum to the point that she's sent me here for some space, I don't want to do that anymore. These are good people, if I'm going to be a better person, these are the people I want to be around… and hopefully learn from.

'Ladybug said to learn from my mistakes, this is what I need to do. It was the right thing to do, to tell Marinette about those heroes… and it doesn't matter that she still does not want me. I can be better, I just have to…'

Staring at the back of Adrien's head, Felix decided that enough was enough and he would learn to be a decent human being. His scheming would stop, his ulterior motives would disappear, and Felix would try to better himself into a much nicer person.

Gabriel Agreste was a reclusive man, but even he was required to make appearances at board meetings, even if it was via a screen held by his diligent assistant. When the fashion mogul felt the familiar tingle under his cravat however, he quickly decided to try and cut the meeting short: the board members had other ideas though.

"If we are finished I'm afraid I have personal business to attend to." He stared at the collective greying men and polished women on the screen, and could see the glares aimed at his image. Gabriel did not care however, but it seemed that a vague explanation for him to bail was not enough to deter them.

"Mr Agreste," a particularly stern looking woman with horn rimmed spectacles addressed him curtly. Taking off her glasses and letting them hang around her neck, she pursed her lips with annoyance that was obviously shared by the other people sitting around the table. "First you refuse to come down here and meet with us personally, sending your suffering assistant in your place when this company bears your name; then you decide that there are more pressing matters elsewhere that need your attention when we have not even reached the most important matters of where this company is heading." She raised her eyebrows challengingly, "your personal business, is this business, so unless there is a life or death emergency that cannot wait, I suggest you humour us and at least participate in the running of this company."

It was not often that a board member would dare to defy his explanations, but they did not know, and could not know, that it was in fact a matter of the life or death of his wife. He could feel the emotion that had desperately pulled him to his lair beginning to ebb, and the man's own frustrations were clearly showing to everyone on screen.

Reluctantly, Gabriel bowed his head and blinked slowly in a show of compliance. "Fine," he breathed out, the emotion he felt had completely dispersed anyway, "what is next on the agenda?"

At lunch, Adrien was still getting his head around what Felix had done, but his lady's presence walking at his side calmed him enough to at least be somewhat amicable in close proximity to his cousin.

You could cut the tension with a knife however, and Marinette was determined to help the situation.

"Please talk to him."

"I really don't want to."

"I know but," she hesitated, causing Adrien to stop with her as Felix, Alya and Nino continued on towards the park. "I can see why he would have gotten the wrong i-"

Adrien screwed his face up, "please don't take responsibility for his actions."

"I'm not," Marinette placed a placating hand on his bicep, urging him to relinquish his glare on the back of Felix's head. "But when we were talking, I was thinking about you." She whispered low enough so that no evesdroppers would hear, "he showed me a picture from the battle, and I," she chuckled, "well let's just say I may have become lost in my own little thoughts."

Adrien's lips curled into a smug smirk as he teasingly leaned into Marinette's face; his need to glare at Felix was completely forgotten. "Oh really?"

The ravenette playfully pushed him away with a finger to his nose and whispered as her cheeks flushed, "down Kitty." Rolling her eyes as Adrien started to chuckle, Marinette found herself letting out a sudden squeak when he unexpectedly pulled her closer with his arm around her middle.

"I just can't get past the whole three times that he's tried to do that now."

Marinette sighed and rested her head into his shoulder, "in all fairness, two of those times he thought I was someone else an-"

"That doesn't make it any better." He squeezed her hip and grumbled, "if anything, that just says that he thinks he can go around kissing whomever he wants… and I failed to protect you. Every. Single. Time."

As he looked away with shame, the teen beside him used two delicate fingers to pull his gaze to meet hers. With her sparkling blues shining up at him full of complete love and adoration, all the resentment that was building up in the blonde evaporated; he was still angry, but he was angry with Felix and not her.

"Minou, just, please try and talk to him."

Adrien huffed but did not look away.

"He's the closest person you have to a brother, and as soon as he realised he was wrong this time, I could see he knew he'd made a mistake and was sorry… I didn't get chance to tell you either," Marinette noticed the blonde's interest piquing and smiled, "he apologised to Ladybug about that time."

Adrien rolled his eyes and pursed his lips to poorly hide the fact that he knew he would end up talking with Felix. Marinette was right, and his cousin had at least shown some remorse for his actions… Adrien turned Marinette to fully face him, wrapping both arms around her so his hands clasped at the small of her back. With him bringing her so close like that, her head was conveniently tilted back so Marinette was gazing at him with a soft smile, and Adrien had to resist the urge to lean down and capture her lips.

"Fine," he sighed playfully, "I'll talk to him, but we need to talk too."

The blonde enjoyed the bashful blush that tinted her cheeks and again was required to physically stop himself from kissing her senseless. It seemed that Marinette could not form a coherent reply as she coyly rolled her lips and nodded quickly in agreement.

Peridots and sapphires gazed at each other with lovesick grins in place, and were only brought out of their moment when Nino stumbled after Alya nudged him a little too enthusiastically to bring his attention to what was going on between their friends. With the two secret heroes blushing profusely at the interruption, Nino tipped his cap approvingly, Alya bounced while clinging onto her boyfriend, and Felix bowed his head and shoved his hands into his pockets; he had picked the wrong girl to set his sights on, but he was also conflicted with the knowledge that Adrien had competition. Wanting to be a good cousin, and show his loyalty to his fellow blonde, the British national knew he needed to warn Adrien about the other blonde in her life.

Olive eyes glared at the scene across the street from where she was sitting. No one in class was talking to her, but the look on the new addition's face when he walked into the lesson gave her an idea.

Felix was hurting; hurting leads to misery; and misery loves company!

They could even help each other out in their shared predicament.

Felix was obviously hung up on Marinette, it had been apparent by how attentive he had been with her. It had been funny at first for Lila to watch, the way Adrien would glare and sulk, but it had also been a painful reminder that she had well and truly lost him to Marinette. All the effort she had put in, to infiltrate the class and become the centre of attention, had been in vain. If Lila could go back to the beginning, she would have got on Marinette's good side, and operated the whole 'keep your friends close, and your enemies closer' approach. Thinking back however, Lila could not work out just how Marinette had come to the conclusion that she was not to be trusted.

'What in God's name tipped her off.' She pursed her lips while thinking back to when she first arrived in the scene at Collège Françoise Dupont. 'There was that whole to do with Ladybug, but that was in front of Adrien… I doubt he would have said anything… no one else seems to know about that… but she did know that Ladybug had never saved me… how? Even the blogger, who chases practically every akuma she can, didn't even catch on…'

Deciding to debate that another time, Lila refocused on the task at hand: how to get Felix on his own? Once she could speak to him one on one, she would be able to give him a proposition that he would not be able to refuse.

She smirked to herself, making sure to keep her head down just in case someone did happen to be looking in her direction. The Italian had portrayed the perfect facade of remorseful teen so far as she was concerned, it would not do for her to be rumbled just as an opportunity had made itself known to her.

Sorry it's taken so long to update guys, and please excuse any errors as the kids are still running around after a very hectic day, I just really wanted to get this update out before I start preening the next one.

So… Thoughts? Will Felix stick to his inner promise and try to be a better person? Or will Lila have a proposition for him that the blonde can simply not refuse?

Thanks for reading! And thank you for being patient :) I appreciate all the faves, follows and reviews you guys have given on this and all the other stories I have published so far, and I look forward to reading your thoughts.

Take it easy!

Lady Rhi X