Ever After

Interlude the Fifth:On the First Date

Marinette stood in the doorway, nearly in the center of her completely empty home. No one was here. No one was coming back soon, no one for days; just Marinette and no one else. The silence was deafening, and her mind kept trying to reconstruct how she'd gotten here, a place she had never been before in her entire life. The evening sun filtered through bedroom curtains to highlight crisply folded bed sheets stacked with several sets of well tailored men's clothes. All that was left of her tenant for this last half-year. What had happened?

April and May were whirlwinds.

Oddly the *least* intense moment had been the whispered revelation in the airport; Adrien and Chloé temporarily married for the sake of legal maneuverings. Adrien's sheepish grin when he told her and her own when he commented, "I figured it might save Tikki a transatlantic flight getting ahead on this one," had been surprisingly light memories. They parted on good terms, and while it was all still settling there was no pain this time, no worry. She didn't have to know how to act or feel, she could just let it come in time.

Back home, the end of Emma's term, finalizing and working out the kinks in distribution for her summer line while still floating on the bump from Style Queen's retirement, and an unexpected email seeking her interest in MCing the Summer show in London all piled up. The last one had come at the Dowager Queen's recommendation, another peace offering? No way Marinette could pass it up, so she heaped it on top of everything else.

Oh, and Felix still existed too.

Just the second guy she'd ever kissed. Just the guy she'd kissed for the first time while sitting on his bed, in her nightshirt, in a castle, owned by her former enemy, who was dating her ex-husband. She hadn't even told Alya yet, because she wanted to be able to enjoy the five or ten minutes of laughter Alya would get out of the whole thing. Oh, and he was still living under her roof too. No way that could possibly be awkward.

Only, it wasn't awkward. She almost wished it would have been. Between Emma and work Marinette crawled into bed at whatever hour and rolled back out when her body was willing to put up with further abuse. Felix receded into the background without ever mentioning the moment or hinting at the slightest ... anything. It made everything easier but she would have taken a little bit of difficulty for one of their dinners again. Maybe a wine-soaked meltdown again, she could let her heart be battered around a little just to see that patiently judging stare, just for that slight contact that conveyed more than a crushing embrace.

She'd meant to talk to him about it; to find the right way to approach it. In between everything else she was so sure she could set aside time to figure out how to address it. But between the vitamin spiked coffees (She wondered if he'd figured that one out himself) and bouts of complete torpor it never happened.

She'd taken Emma to the airport this morning then headed right over to work. June 1st, the day he'd always mentioned and it was just another day in the insanity of her workflow. She came home to silence. No Felix, no note. And now, everything she'd given him piled up neatly, as if he'd never been there. Marinette crossed the threshold, scanning. It was all clean. It was all perfectly arranged. There was nothing left to indicate anyone had lived here.

In a sudden panic she sifted through the clothing. She hunted for a missing button, a loose thread, an imprecise fold. She needed something to show they'd ever been worn; that she hadn't just imagined a whole person, but they gave her nothing.

Marinette pulled out her phone. This was stupid, she had his number right here. There were text messages. She realized she didn't have a new address. She had meant to ask, but everything...

She shook her head. She could just text him. She could text and ask. She typed out the message but each letter came slower.

Marinette: Hey, you forgot to leave me your new address. And were my clothes that bad that you didn't take-