Check Mate

Chapter 13

Felix had been sleeping peacefully in his room, when a persistent tapping noise reached his ears even in his dreams. He tried to ignore it, but it just wouldn't stop. Agitated, he rolled out of bed and stormed over to his bedroom door, completely prepared to tear into whoever had the nerve to wake him up.

He yanked it open, and was greeted by nothing. No one was there. His agitation faded away, and he was suddenly very confused.

The tapping was still going, now accompanied by a quiet whispering. He briefly wondered if he was going mad, but he listened carefully and the tapping sound was coming from.. behind him?

He turned around, seeing his balcony door. Feeling ridiculous, he shrugged it off and tried to ignore the tapping. There was absolutely no way someone would be on his balcony, he was four stories up, and the only way to get to his balcony was through his room.

He tried to go back to bed, but it wouldn't go away. Eventually he caved, deciding to check it out. Maybe it was a bird or something. If nothing was there he would go sleep on the couch.

He opened the door.

And his brain short circuited.

"Marinette?"

No that was impossible. There was no way Marinette Dupain-Cheng was standing on his balcony in the middle of the night.

She looked equally as confused, and a bit angry. Why was she angry?

"Felix, what are you doing in my room?!" She hissed at him.

Felix felt the world come screeching to a halt.

What?

"What am I-? I'm not in your room! I think the more appropriate question would be how are you on my balcony?!" He hadn't meant to be harsh, but he was desperately confused, and more than a little bit startled. There was no way he was seeing this right now. He had to be dreaming, that was the only logical conclusion. Any moment now he would wake up and this would all be some weird dream he could pretend never happened.

Marinette's face twisted in confusion, "Your balcony?" She echoed, turning her head to look at her own balcony as if she had to check, "I could have sworn this was mine..." She frowned, biting her lower lip.

She peeked around him, scanning his background and took a step back when it was confirmed it wasn't her room, "Oh. You're really not in my room. Thank goodness."

He openly gaped at her. That was her concern?

He opened his mouth to get some answers out of her, but she just padded over to the railing, "Sorry for the mix up, I'll just go back to my room."

He was floundering. Her room was inside!

When she hitched up her leg to throw it over the balcony, he balked, grabbing her to yank her back the second he realized what she was attempting, "What are you doing?!"

She tilted her head up to look at him, "I'm going back to my room?"

He wanted to scream. She acted like he was the one being strange, and the casual tone of voice told him that it made perfect sense in his mind.

"Then go through my room! It's not safe to climb from my balcony to yours, it's completely reckless!" He was almost yelling now, but at this point he didn't care.

She pushed him back a bit, opening her mouth to retort, when her nose scrunched up. A sneeze cut off whatever she was about to say, and she put a hand to her head, wincing.

It was then Felix really paused to take in her appearance. Droplets of water were rolling down her skin, her hair was weighed down heavily by rain, her clothes were drenched, and she was lightly shaking, her skin frozen to the touch. Looking down he saw that her feet were bare, a bit dirty, and was that a pebble?