Everyone received a spotlight when they walked in and Marinette's spotlight caused all of the gems on her torso and the gems hidden in her skirt to shine like the stars they were meant to emulate.
Her midnight blue dress was simple in design, but with the black tulle overlay, gems, and silver accents, she looked like a photo of the night sky brought to life. Félix felt like little more than armcandy in comparison and he didn't mind at all if that was his title for the night. When they arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Félix twirled her.
The twirl showed the full movement of the shirt and the changes that naturally occur in the night sky. The hairpin that she'd gotten was silver, with small pieces of silver sticking out of what looked to be a midnight blue resin that matched her dress. Her hair was in a half-up, half-down style. The pieces that were down were curled to give her hair volume and make it look soft and effortless.
Félix's suit was a different fabric but coordinated enough in color that they looked like they could've come from the same collection. The rose on Marinette's mask was on the right side of her face, the side away from him. The rose on his mask was in the same spot on the opposite side. Marinette was wearing her usual earrings, but Félix had moved his ring to his first finger and Plagg changed the shape to be a little bit smaller than usual.
They received a few appreciative whistles when he finished spinning her. She landed in his arms at the end of the spin. "I won't let you fall, Princess," he reminded her in a whisper, "I'll never let you fall." She was wishing she'd opted for a heavier foundation to hide the blush she had in reaction to his comments. He brushed a lock of hair behind her ear.
"We should disappear into the crowd," he said after another moment of her silently standing there. "I have a feeling that Alya is desperate to take a closer look at your dress." He placed a hand on the small of her back and motioned her in the general direction of the orange shape of Alya he had seen from the top of the stairs.
While they were maneuvering toward Alya and the rest of Marinette's friends, Alya was making her way through the crowd to get a glimpse of Marinette's design up close and personal.
"Oh my god," were the first words out of Alya's mouth when she got to see Marinette's dress from a meter away. "Gorgeous," she said, motioning to Marinette's dress. "Gorgeous," she repeated, motioning to Félix's suit in general. "Gorgeous," she added, motioning to Marinette's mask, and makeup, and hair, and all of her. "Gorgeous." She made the same motions toward Félix's general existence. "Leo," she finally landed on, pointing to the silver gems strategically placed across the top part of Marinette's bodice.
"Leo," Félix asked, "is there another suitor I should be jealous of, Princess?"
"No. No, of course not, Fé. Only you and Buttercup."
"Leo," Alya added in, "Marinette put the constellation of your zodiac sign on the bodice of her dress and it looks amazing." Félix had been making an active effort to not stare at her bodice in case she would interpret it as him just staring at her chest.
"I was trying not to look at your chest," Félix admitted, shyly. "I was trying to be respectful, but it sounds like I should have been looking, after all. Do you mind, princess?"
She stepped back so that he could see the full set of stars on her. "Go ahead." She placed her arms slightly behind her so that Félix could see the whole constellation. He met her eyes, after looking over the design for a minute.
"It's lovely," he informed her, as though she didn't already know that. Alya began to lead the two of them to the rest of their friends. While Marinette was holding his arm through the crowd, he leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Now that you know, though. I would have loved to see a Libra constellation instead."
She rose to look like she was kissing his cheek after a nice compliment, but whispered in response, "maybe you're just not looking for it hard enough." She released his arm and scurried ahead to greet her friends. She did a round of unnecessary introductions, telling Félix each of their names, even though he already knew from saving them, among other things. Everyone in the group seemed genuinely delighted to meet the now famous Félix Cloche.
For weeks, almost everyone had noticed Marinette's attention drift from Buttercup, who apparently everyone knew the identity of, to her new friend Félix that she and Alya talked about on an almost daily basis.
"Wow," he joked, "I can't believe I'm stealing you all from Buttercup's side. Maybe there's hope for Marinette to choose me, yet." Almost the whole group started laughing at his comment, but Marinette fell into a deep blush.
"Tisk, tisk, Princess," he teased, brushing the knuckle of his ungloved fingers gently over her bare cheek under the line of her mask. "That color doesn't match your design." Alya and Nino were already shipping Félinette, but the softness and tenderness he'd used to speak with her made a few of the girls in the group practically swoon with how sweet the two were together.
"Why don't you ever hold me like that," Alya asked Nino quietly, trying not to intrude on Marinette's moment with Felix. It didn't work.
"Would you like to dance," Marinette offered, desperate to try to get away from the group before anyone *coughAlyacough* could embarrass her in front of him. She didn't know how to respond to his comment, so she chose not to.
"I would love to," he answered. He leaned down to whisper once again. "If I spin you enough, maybe I'll be able to find your Libra constellation." She took his arm and he led her onto the dance floor. He taught her a few basic steps, thinking that they could move on to more complex moves if she wanted to later in the night.
They danced for four songs in a row, eyes focused only on each other. It felt like they were the only two in the room and Félix was a good leader when it came to slow dancing. He was able to keep them from running into anyone else on instinct without seeming to put in any extra effort. Marinette felt graceful, a far cry from how she normally felt.
"You need to stay hydrated, sourisette," he informed her at the end of a song. He led her back off the dancefloor, toward her friends once again. He left her to stand at a table with Alya and Nino, "what would you like to drink? I'll grab whatever you want."
"Just a water for me, Fé. Get something to eat, too. I'm sure Papa still wants me to make sure you're eating enough for when you come back to work in the bakery, if you're interested." He smiled at the offer. He wasn't sure if he would still be allowed to work in the bakery, now that he wasn't staying in their home.
"I will." He placed a swift kiss to the back of her hand. "Keep an eye on her," he almost pleaded to Alya and Nino.
"I'll be sure to," Alya informed him with a voice dripping with unspoken words.
"I'll join you, mec," Nino said from the other side of the table. "Lemonade and grapes," he offered to Alya. She nodded and he kissed her temple to be sure he wouldn't ruin her makeup for the evening.
Nino went around the table and held up a hand to show his intention of placing it on Félix's shoulder. Félix nodded almost imperceptibly, and Nino placed the hand around his shoulder, leading him over to the tables with food and drinks.
"Marry him," were the first words that came out of Alya's mouth once the boys walked away. "He looks at you like you hung the moon, Marinette. Before he asked you to the dance, I'd never seen you as happy as you've been lately. I can tell it isn't just the honeymoon stage, too." Alya pulled out her phone and opened her photo gallery.
Marinette was suddenly faced with dozens of pictures of herself. A few were from the day that Alya and Nino showed up when he was 'cosplaying as Sourix.' One was from when they were jumping rope together, one was him catching her when she tripped, and one was from when he had his hand on her shoulder when he was going upstairs.
There were several of them from days she was looking at texts from him, one of them was the day she'd had his pastries in the classroom, a couple were from them descending the stairs when they first arrived. One was him spinning her at the bottom of the staircase.
Alya enlarged a picture she had taken while Marinette and Félix were dancing and Marinette couldn't deny the look of absolute trust and admiration in her eyes. She knew it felt like just the two of them in the world while they were dancing, but she didn't realize that the look on her face matched how she felt in the moment.
Alya practically shoved her phone into Marinette's hands so she could look through all of the pictures. Marinette scrolled through the pictures again, focusing on how he looked at her instead of the other way around. It was the same love-struck, hopeful look he used to direct at Ladybug when they were younger.
Every single picture that he was in, he was looking at her. Even a few from her house, when he was talking to Tom and Sabine, his eyes were focused on Marinette. The pictures of him posing for Renard Rouge's Mirage were taken in a burst. She could see the fact that his expression noticeably saddened slightly in the picture when she had first taken her hand off of him before he looked at her again and his smile brightened almost instantly by the next photo when his eyes were back on her.
When Nino and Alya met Sourix, Marinette didn't necessarily see the lead into him joining her in jumping rope, but Alya had captured the entire situation. Marinette, once again, was looking at a burst of images where Sourix was jumping to match her so that he could join her without throwing off her jumping.
Marinette was so captivated looking at pictures of him and them that she didn't even register that Alya was still talking to her. After about a minute of her smiling at the photos she was swiping through, Mylène, Alix, Juleka, and Rose approached the two girls, surrounding the whole of the tall round table where they were standing.
"Did I hear we're talking about Félix," Alix asked, butting into the conversation.
"Yep," Alya responded, popping the 'p' in her word. She locked her screen and took the phone from Marinette's hand. Marinette absentmindedly looked around, noting Félix's location in line with Nino. He had his head thrown back in laughter, presumably at something Nino had said. Marinette smiled and turned her attention back to the girls next to her.
"He's amazing, Marinette. You two are so sweet together," Rose cooed. She was latched onto Juleka's side. "How'd you two meet?"
"He used to come by to get pastries pretty often when we were in collège," Marinette told them. "We really became friends around uh… do you guys remember when we went to get ice cream the day that André was akumatized? I ran into him on a walk I went on after Adrien didn't show up that night. I was feeling down and so was he." She breathed out with a little chuckle.
"Apparently, Félix had set up a date for the girl he liked back then. He showed me pictures of it. He's set up candles and scattered rose petals on the roof of his building, hoping that she would accept his invitation to dinner. When L-the girl didn't show up, he was feeling down too. We ended up spending time together."
"And what, 3 years later he just showed back up in your life to take you to a dance," Alix questioned with a suspicious look in her eyes.
"No, not at all. He's come by the bakery when he has the chance since that day. We've been pretty close since we met. He's a good guy." Marinette tried to shrug casually, but Alya knew better.
"Is that why you confessed to him even though he was in love with someone else?" Marinette was a little surprised by the bluntness of her question and wasn't prepared with an answer.
"It was a mistake." She tried to think of any possible reason she would have mistakenly confessed to him, but every possible answer she came up with sounded stupid or crazy. "I was trying to tell him that I was starting to develop feelings for him, but my dad overheard." She looked around to make sure he wasn't near them yet. She didn't want to make him feel bad about it while they were at the dance.
"My papa decided to invite him for a 'meet the parents' brunch the next day and… I guess Félix really likes his quiche, so he agreed. Papa set up a full four course brunch with heart shaped foods for two. We only got through the first two courses before Félix told me I was a great girl and he likes being my friend and then he started boasting about how great he is." Marinette folded her arms across her stomach, embarrassed to be admitting what happened that day and how she accidentally had a hand in her dad getting akumatized.
"He rejected me and I thought it would be funny to overreact to the rejection, but apparently my papa didn't think it was funny. Papa thought I was serious and he got akumatized on my behalf while Félix was walking out of the bakery that day. He ended up coming back to help Ladybug fight Papa-Garou because he felt so guilty for turning me down."
"This boy fought an akuma for you? No, he fought your dad as an akuma for you. And you didn't introduce us to him until you had to for this dance? What kind of dramatic love-story life are you living, Marinette?"
"I'm not," she tried to argue, but the argument fell on deaf ears. "Listen, my papa can joke about it now, but Félix seems to still feel guilty about it, so please just don't bring it up around him. If you tell the story to your dates, I would appreciate it if you'd tell them not to bring it up either."
As she finished telling the story, Félix and Nino returned from getting snacks and drinks. He placed her water on the table with the petit-fours he had gotten for the two of them. "Found it," he said with a smile.
"What did you find?" Alya spoke up from her spot among the group of girls.
"Well, after you mentioned she used the Leo constellation on the front of her dress, she told me that she used the sign for my moon and sun somewhere else on her dress," he explained. "It's Libra." He gently poked her side at the base of her ribcage where the top star of the constellation sat. Marinette squeaked in response to the poke and moved her hand to cover the spot.
"Oh, I did not know I was ticklish there." She blushed again and he did the same. "I probably would've put it somewhere else if I did." He shook himself out of his surprise at her squeak and blush.
"Anyway, what were you ladies talking about before we arrived?"
"The fact that our Everyday Ladybug found herself an Everyday Chat Noir," Alix told him.
"You both have blond hair and Marinette told us your jokes are terrible," Rose chipped in, trying to come up with on-the-spot comparisons between him and Chat Noir that wouldn't be suspicious.
"Oof, ouch. Princess, I'm hurt. My jokes aren't nearly as bad as his. I could only wish I were as attractive as Chat Noir, though," he sighed dramatically, "alas, no one can live up to his beauty. He's just so awesome in so many ways, anyone could fall in love with him." He put a dreamy expression on his face, but winked at Marinette regardless.
"Why are you like this? Did you act as a kid? Is that why you're so dramatic literally all the time?" Marinette dropped her face into her hand. When she looked back up, she was practically beaming at him and it was clear she wasn't even slightly annoyed.
"I probably wouldn't do this with you if you didn't like it," he told her, sincerely. "I just like to make people smile and you make such an easy candidate in that regard." He kissed her temple lovingly and reached out to grab one of the petit-fours.
The group kept talking for a while longer, getting to know Félix and just watching the interactions between him and Marinette. Alya was taking pictures of the two of them and now that Marinette knew that, she noticed most of the time when Alya was taking the pictures. After about 20 minutes of talking, Félix asked her to dance.
She took his offered arm and he led her out onto the floor. Once she put her arms around his neck, she listened in to hear what song was actually playing. It was her and Adrien's song. He felt her tense slightly in his arms and didn't know what he did wrong. She had never minded dancing with him to this song in the past.
"Is everything okay," he asked. She nodded silently, but that wasn't particularly reassuring to him. He held her close in their dance, trying to reassure her and offer support while avoiding the prying questions jumping around in his head. When the song ended, she looked up at him and her body relaxed once again.
"I'm fine," she lied. "I was reminded of an experience with Buttercup. I danced with him to that song in the past a few times, but I've really been trying not to think about him tonight." He placed his hand lovingly on her cheek to assure her that it was okay.
"Dupain-Cheng!" The shrill cry caused Félix and Marinette to both tense.