Chapter Text
Marinette and Luka work on one side of the passageway, scanning the cliffside for suspicious, could-be-a-trigger-for-a-secret-door rocks or anything that looks like it could be a button. Alya and Chloé stay close to the passage’s door, but they keep hidden behind some conspicuously-placed rocks on either side of the entrance. Félix, Nino, and Adrien work along the other side of the passageway, though Félix mostly walks around aimlessly, processing the past two days’ events. Nino and Adrien keep quiet and search around him, feeling his lack of presentness but giving him space.
Just the day before, he’d been holding Kagami’s hand—being vulnerable with her, twirling her around in the dining room, doing the dishes with her, driving her home, and offering to drive her in the mornings and evenings after school. And, well, today… today he drove her to school, had coffee and danishes with her, hugged her, and he ruined it all by bringing the gang of mystery solvers to her with their theories and suspicions, where she could be affected by it.
Well, technically, he hadn’t asked them to come in, but he hadn’t told them to stay back, either. He’d actually offered them dinner and wordlessly walked inside. He hadn’t been thinking, and he had ruined everything because of it.
His shoulders droop, and he sags against the cliffside, sighing and closing his eyes. There’s a click as he leans against the rocks, but he ignores it, turning and leaning his face against the rocks, as if that will make him feel more… well, grounded, he supposes. Grounded in his idiocy, in his stupidity, in his regret—
His radio crackles to life, and his body tenses against the rock.
“Whatever you guys did, the passage opened!” Alya radioes to the group.
Félix pulls back from the rock he was leaning on, brows drawn together, and he leans back against it. It clicks again.
“Aaaand now it’s closed. That’s definitely the button,” she says.
Nino and Adrien come over, surprised. “Did you find it, Félix?”
“Must be you three,” Marinette radioes.
“We haven’t found anything but bugs, rocks, and more bugs,” Luka says.
Nino clicks the button to speak on their walkie talkie. “I think Félix found it—it was just on the cliffside, and he bumped into it,” he says.
Félix’s expression softens at Nino’s white lie. Thanks, he mouths. Nino nods, smiling softly a bit.
“Well, mark it or memorize where it is and open the passage again!” Marinette says through the radio, her excitement evident even through the crackly device. “We’ll meet you back at the door with Alya and Chloé.”
Félix nods and he presses against the wall again, waiting for the click to sound before he steps back. Nino and Adrien both smile at him, and Adrien puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey,” he says softly. “We’ll help you make things right with Kagami, Félix. Don’t worry.”
Félix’s expression drops some, but he shrugs. “I don’t know if it’s possible for things to be right with her, Adrien, but… thank you. I appreciate the sentiment, at least.”
Nino shakes his head. “Things will be okay, I know it. You guys didn’t hate each other—that much has been obvious the past few days at least.”
Adrien nods. “Nino and I saw you guys come in to homeroom today, and you both looked so much lighter and, well… happier. We even had someone next to us asking if you guys started dating or something, to which Nino had said—”
Nino cuts Adrien off, gently punching him in the arm and shaking his head.
Félix rolls his eyes. “He probably said we were close to that, didn’t he? Or that we secretly have been this whole time?” He asks lightly, as if the idea doesn’t make his regrets feel even more suffocating. He shakes his head, but he manages to smile half-heartedly at Nino and Adrien. “Well, I’m sure they’ll all be disappointed come Monday.”
Nino shakes his head, frowning. “Ignore everyone else, Félix.” He throws an arm around both Félix and Adrien’s shoulders, pulling them closer. “All that matters is we’re all friends, and we’ll protect each other, and we’ll get Kagami back to liking you, again. ‘Cause that’s what friends do, and Kagami really did like you, Félix.”
“And how would you know?” Félix asks dryly as they come back into sight of everyone else.
“Because I have a gift for seeing romance,” Nino says, grinning. “Like how I saw me and Alya getting together, Luka and Mari back in sophomore year, Mari and Adrien soon, Luka and Chloé as soon as they pull their heads out of their asses, and, well, you and Kagami. I can see it,” he says. “And I can see quadruple dates in our futures.”
Adrien laughs, blushing some, but he rolls his eyes. “If you say so, Nino.”
Félix raises a brow, but he’s smiling a bit, infected by Nino’s faith. “Sure, sure.”
Nino grins. “Trust me, guys. It’s all gonna happen.”
The three boys come near to the rest of the group, and Nino drops his arms from around them, quickly moving to twist his hat nervously around his head. The passageway is open, but only darkness greets them, almost tangible as it seeps out towards them. Nino shivers, glad they all have flashlights.
“Ready?” Marinette asks, clicking on her flashlight and grinning. She peers into the darkness behind her with her flashlight, and she turns back to grin at the rest of the gang. “I have a good feeling about tonight.”
“I hope you’re right,” Nino says with a sigh. “I don’t particularly like going into cavernous dark spaces where bugs and bats and murderous people driving semis frequent.”
Alya reaches out, smiling a bit, and she grabs Nino’s hand, pulling him closer. She squeezes his hand and she leans up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. “I’ll be right by your side, and we won’t let anything happen to you, babe.”
Nino nods. “Yeah, I know, I just… what if’s, and all.”
Alya nods, and she squeezes his hand again. She looks to the rest of the group. “No splitting up again now, alright? We should stick together, since we don’t know what’s going to happen in there or how easily we could get lost. That being said, we should also lead a trail back here in case we need a quick escape.”
Marinette nods, and she steps just inside the passage, turning on her flashlight. The rest of the gang follows quietly, keeping close behind.
~*~
The tire tracks from outside continue into the cavern, and it doesn’t take long before they find something that has them all frozen, flashlights held out in front of them. The rope, their trail back to the entrance of the passageway, even drops from Marinette’s hand, but she hardly notices it as she and the rest of the gang take in their surroundings.
Around them are piles and piles of glittering crystal door knobs, and tire tracks from outside continue around and under the piles, veering off into the darkness in many spots, but the main attraction is the door knobs.
Marinette realizes she’s dropped her rope, and she shakily crouches and picks up the remaining rope before she stands again, walking quickly over to the nearest pile. The rest of the gang follows, and though they had vowed not to split up again, they each head for different piles, examining them for clues and just generally taking everything in as they catalog the evidence on their disposables and their phones.
It’s a few minutes before Alya calls out for the rest of them, walking towards the middle point between a few piles. In her hands, she holds a journal. She holds her flashlight up over the pages, and as the gang converges around her, she starts speaking.
“Remember that diamond thief about twenty years back? The one that was never found, and the only suspect disappeared?”
Nino shrugs. “My mom talks about it sometimes, yeah. She has an article on it framed in her bookstore. Is this…?”
Alya nods. “Supposedly, this is the journal of that one suspect. He confesses here that he and his partner stole the diamond, but before his partner could do anything, he switched the diamond out with a crystal in a door knob. The only thing is, he doesn’t reveal in here which door knob he switched the diamond with. He was afraid his partner would find the journal.”
“So that’s why nearly all of the door knobs in Crystal Cove are missing,” Chloé says.
Alya nods. “It seems so.”
Marinette shifts on her feet, frowning. “I suppose just about anyone who could have found the journal would have been interested enough to try and find it.”
Luka nods and glances around the cavern. “Should we trap the culprit now, or lure them out someplace?”
“I don’t think we could set a good trap for whatever comes in here—we can’t say whether it will be a person or the truck that comes back, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I don’t have much to trap a semi-truck,” Marinette says, crossing her arms over her chest. “I think the best thing to do would be to try and lure it out, and I can throw down a tire spike strip, but we have to be careful to have the truck following us at a certain distance. When I throw out the strip, we need to keep very clear of the truck. We should lure them out to a clearing where there’s no risk of anyone getting hurt.”
The rest of the gang nod in unison, and Nino looks to Félix, biting his lip. “Ah—”
Félix gives him a carefully soft smile that just barely reaches his eyes. “I can do the driving.”
Nino relaxes quickly. “Thanks, man.”
“We should probably get out of here before there's a chance the ghost rig returns,” Adrien says, shifting nervously on his feet. Chloé and Nino both nod. Alya snaps the journal in her hands shut and slips it into her bag, and Marinette starts going back the way they came, her steps quick, even as she bundles up the rope in her arms. The rest of the gang quickly follows, each of them growing antsy.
Félix idly turns over the idea of driving until they find the ghost rig—the idea of seeking the death trap out. He’s really just trying his best not to focus on anything Kagami-related until the case is over, and he's home, in his bed, and ready to fall apart.
So, in efforts to keep his mind off of things: the idea of seeking out the source of what is quickly becoming a core fear of his is an intriguing notion, to say the least. It makes him almost wish he had more fears, to see if there is a point for each of them where he has to be braver for a mere moment, if only to seek out the source of said fear. Does one afraid of drowning ever have to seek out the lake they nearly drowned in as a kid? Does one afraid of heights ever have to seek out the place where that fear developed? Does one afraid of small, enclosed spaces—he knows that one. Nevermind. Does one afraid of spiders—
He thinks this is a stupid train of thought. He thinks it means nothing—it’s inconsequential, simply stupid and useless—in the face of anything that has occurred the past two days. He wants to be out of this cave. He wants to be home. He wants to be able to go back in time and to stop himself from inviting the gang of mystery solvers into the restaurant after him. He wants to go back in time and right things so he can ask Kagami again why she was crying—to ask her again, but to have much higher chances of receiving a response. He wants to know why she was crying. (He wonders if it was because of Rung. The thought makes him want to punch a hole through the pompous man’s face. He wants to cave in Rung’s skull for hurting Kagami by not showing up. Mostly, though, Félix wants to somehow quell the feeling of his own body caving in on itself for having hurt her in other, somehow more deep-cutting, violently emotional ways. He doesn't think that punching Rung would help that feeling, but, then again, he recalls how the man doesn't care for Kagami’s wants, and the urge to punch Rung returns. It doesn't stop the feeling that Félix has done so terribly wrong by Kagami by making her think none of his care for her was real. It doesn't stop the feeling. It doesn't stop the feeling. It doesn't stop—the feeling. Will anything, he wonders?)
Despite Félix’s inner turmoil, the gang is soon out of the cave and headed back for the van. They file back into the same seats as before, though Marinette and Luka sit on the floor in the back, setting up the tire spike strip so that they're ready for the trap.
Félix starts up the van and adjusts the rearview mirror slightly. “Everyone secure?”
A chorus of yeses and close variations answers him, and he takes a deep breath, pulling out onto the road. He knows where he wants to head, but he calls back to the rear of the van to make sure: “Were there any openings to the caves near that one clearing with the big oak?”
Marinette nods, though Félix can't quite see it despite the flashlight Alya holds out over the floor of the van and the moonlight filtering dimly through the back windows of the van. “There's two, both of which the ghost rig probably covered.”
“That area is sometimes used by teens and young adults looking for somewhere secluded,” Alya chimes in, “and the oddly-shaped rocks create a bit of a wall between the middle of the clearing and the edge of the cliffside, giving them the privacy they want from the road.”
Félix nods. “A good spot for the semi to crash, then, yeah? A wide area, clear of civilians for the most part, and any civilians who are there are safe behind the big rocks?”
Marinette shrugs.
“It could work, yeah,” Luka says, before hissing as he pinches his fingers by accident in the contraption on the floor.
“I doubt the rig would follow us very far from the caves,” Félix notes almost absentmindedly, driving just above the speed limit. His hands are rigid on the steering wheel, but he flexes and stretches them out carefully, loosening his hold. His eyes scan the road behind and in front of him constantly, his ears just as aware of his surroundings.
When Chloé speaks up quietly, in the captain’s chair behind him, Félix jumps slightly. “That makes sense. Whoever is driving has a lot of territory to protect, and they wouldn't waste time chasing us super far from that territory.”
Adrien nods, but he quickly sighs and shakes out his hands in front of him. While Nino nervously fidgets with his hat in his hands—thankfully not on his head, Félix might have unbuckled him and chucked him further back into the van otherwise—Adrien rolls his passenger-side window down, and then after a minute, he rolls it up again. He's about to roll it down after another moment, fingers tapping speedily away along his thigh, when Félix hisses, “Adrien.”
Adrien stops. “Sorry,” he breathes.
Félix shakes his head. “Just try not to worry, you'll freak me out even more.”
“You're freaked out?” Chloé asks dryly. “Couldn't tell.”
He mumbles some unintelligible curses.
“Hm?” Chloé asks sweetly.
Before Félix can mouth off a more intelligible reply, there's a booming clap of thunder behind them. Instantly, Félix’s hands tighten on the wheel. He forcibly relaxes them, even as he speeds up and glances in the rear-view mirror.
“Four miles to the clearing,” he calls back to Marinette and Luka.
“Got it,” Marinette calls back.
“The semi is gaining on us, Félix,” Alya calls back, her voice going up a few pitches.
Félix doesn't respond, only presses harder on the gas as he slips around one bend, and then another, and he clenches his jaw. Three and a half miles. Three and a half miles. I just have to get us another three and a half miles, he thinks.
Behind them, the ghost rig roars.
Nino and Adrien look back at Marinette and Luka. “Is there anything we can do?” Adrien asks. Nino bites his lip so hard it bleeds.
Luka looks over quickly. “Ask Félix how much further.”
“Three and a half miles,” Félix calls out. His hands ache to tighten over the steering wheel, but he keeps them loose as he swerves around another bend, missing hitting another car by a hair. He keeps one eye on the road and one on the ghost rig in his mirrors, watching to make sure the semi doesn't change course.
As terrifying as it is, he's relieved it continues tailing him. Félix wouldn't want another person in danger, and he’d be stuck between a metaphorical rock, two metaphorical hard places, and the very real, very cold drop off of a cliff if he had to figure out how to protect someone in another car from a semi-truck clearly ready to risk it all, murder charges included, for a diamond in a door knob. Even so, he speeds up a bit more.
“Two and a half miles,” he calls out, interrupting whatever Nino had been saying.
“Well,” Luka says, “we could use some extra hands back here if Félix doesn't need them up there.”
Félix shakes his head slightly, and Adrien and Nino are tumbling over the bench and into the back of the van in the next moment, having unbuckled unbeknownst to Félix. He glances back at the rig quickly, just as it blares its horn, inching closer. Félix assesses the estimated distance left, and shouts for everyone to get back from the door.
Only a few seconds pass, but it’s enough for the rest of the gang to slip back up against the captains chairs.
Félix slows the van.
The semi rams into them, sending them rocking forward several feet down the road they’re on, and as soon as he feels steady traction beneath the tires once more, Félix puts the gas pedal almost to the floor. “Get ready!” he calls. “One and a half miles!”
The gang scrambles back for the doors, and Félix increases the speed slightly, drawing the distance between him and the rig to a yard, and then four feet, and then five. As they near the half-mile mark, he stretches it to two yards, even as the rig thunders behind them. As they reach the start of the last bend, veering close to the designated clearing, the back of the van’s doors swing open. With Chloé and Alya holding Adrien and Nino, who hold Marinette and Luka inside, the lattermost two toss out the tire spike strip onto the road in front of the rig. Everyone is pulled inside and the doors are quickly shut, and this signals Félix to swing the van around and begin reversing, so Félix and everyone can watch to make sure everything is falling into place.
The ghost rig drives into the tire spikes after attempting to brake sharply, but its momentum around the bend sends the rig continuing forward, until the back end turns to be almost ninety degrees with the front part of the semi, the back end skidding into the grassy clearing. The momentum slows to a stop, and the rig threatens to tip over. It stays upright.
There's a long minute of silence.
Marinette is the first to exit the van, something that Félix almost expects at this point. Luka, Alya, and Nino follow. Adrien and Chloé are slower, having only recently become accustomed to venturing out into dangers like these. Félix, dangers aside, has just bravely faced a recently discovered fear of his. He is the last to exit the van, but he leaves it running. Just in case.
The gang slowly approaches the ghost rig in three small groups. It is a quiet affair, their approach. They each move a bit robotically—still wary, still afraid, still winding down from the adrenaline rush.
Marinette is the first to reach the ghost rig. She climbs up to reach the door, Luka, Nino, and Alya just behind her. Just behind them are Adrien and Chloé, and Félix is still nearing them.
As Marinette grabs the handle of the door, pulling it, said door flies open, flinging her already mostly-airborne form back into the air. Félix is already jogging closer when she's inevitably caught by her friends, but he doesn't slow, rounding the rest of the gang to stand in front of Alya—who hasn't backed away from the rig’s open door, except to take a single step towards where the others help Marinette up.
It's just Félix’s luck that the person who steps from the ghost rig, shaking out their limbs and cursing the mystery solvers out, is Rung Ladderton, because he's been wanting to punch that smug, pompous asshole for at least two days now. Maybe more like three… or four… or, well, he doesn't care to count. Ladderton’s treatment of Kagami had already hammered in a few nails for the man’s much-needed coffin. Ladderton putting Adrien and Adrien’s friends in insurmountable danger the past few days sorts out the many other nails needed to make his coffin, and the way Ladderton pushed Marinette out of the way is merely the last one necessary.
Félix pulls Ladderton down from the steps up to the rig by his stupid ascot, and he winds up a fist to punch that smug look off of his smug face. Félix hits him square in the temple, and it feels good to have just that one good crack resounding through the air. It feels even better to have Ladderton look shocked for a moment.
He’s restricted from punching Ladderton again—he has two slights to account for, of course: Kagami, and Adrien’s gang of mystery solvers—by a firm but gentle hand at his elbow, holding him back. He glances over to see Adrien at his side, shaking his head.
“Not like this,” Adrien says quietly.
“I could kick him if that’d be better,” Félix mutters, glaring back at Ladderton, who doesn't even have the decency to hold back a grin, now that he’s collected himself from his prior shock. “I could kick him. Hard and fast, and no one else would have to know,” he hisses. “Just—”
“No,” Adrien says, again. “Not like this, Félix.”
“But—”
“I know,” he soothes. And he’s always been good at that—so much better than Félix ever was. Ever could be.
“Please?” Félix whispers, and it comes out a little broken.
“Come on,” Adrien says, tugging at Félix’s arm. “Alya called the Sheriff, and he’ll be here soon. Until then, Nino and Luka can make sure he doesn't get away. Marinette is alright, and so are the rest of us.”
“Kagami,” Félix says helplessly. There’s still Kagami to account for. There’s still someone else I messed up with.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Ladderton says, sounding calm and like he isn't at risk for any more violence, “I think I had somewhere to be with that Kagami girl earlier tonight. Really, if she were more interesting, I might have remembered, but—”
Adrien doesn't stop the second punch that flies through the air. Félix will thank him for it, later.
~*~
In the end, the gang deciphers that the unknown “G. Nurno Treddal” was actually Rung Ladderton spelling his name backwards. Alya again apologizes for not looking further into the dead end that was Treddal’s purchase of the ghost rig’s tires, for jumping to the easier conclusion instead of properly digging into why she couldn't find a reason for said purchase.
Félix waves off the apology, but they all understand the need to do better in the future.
While they had waited for the Sheriff to arrive, and Adrien had bandaged Félix’s hand, Ladderton had spilled why he had done all of the ghost rig and door knob stealing business. Apparently, because ladders are built to be sturdy and durable, no one ever replaces them, which makes for a quite useless business. Félix thinks it's a sad, sorry excuse for all that happened. He wants to punch Ladderton again, but alas, the man is now detained and awaiting trial for many charges.
Adrien tells him that's better for everyone, but Félix still feels like he needs to hit something. He still feels like his body is caving in.
~*~
The next day, the gang is gathered at Félix and Amelie’s place to celebrate the closing of the ghost rig case. Or—well, not really celebrate. Moreso just… relax. It's exhausting, being chased around the cliffsides by a semi truck that doesn't care whether or not it kills you. It’s also exhausting trying to solve a mystery, and to have both of those factors at play while also trying to handle school, well… the gang needed a break.
It’s only fitting that Amelie, the designated ‘cool’ parent of the group, offered the night before to host them all. She'd done so after Ladderton had been arrested, coming out to meet Félix as Nino dropped him off.
“Mum,” Félix had greeted, kissing her on the cheek. He had carefully hid his bandaged hand from view, at least until he got inside.
“Félix,” she had replied with an easy smile. “I actually wanted to ask your friends if they—”
Félix had nodded. “You can ask them, just make it for later in the day. Afternoon, maybe.”
Amelie had rolled her eyes at his predictions. “Very well.” She had turned to Nino, glancing in at the otherwise empty van. Disappointed, she had asked, “Is everyone else gone away?”
“Dropped them all at home already, Ms—”
“Amelie,” she had corrected with a gentle smile.
“Amelie,” Nino had said a bit awkwardly. “Félix is the last stop before I’m headed home.”
She had nodded, pursing her lips. “Well, you all have a group chat, yes?”
Nino had nodded as well, loosening his grip on the wheel. “Yup.”
“Could you ask if your group would like to… celebrate the end of another case? Together, here, at our place. I’ll provide dinner, dessert, drinks, and snacks, if that's alright with everyone?”
Nino had raised his brows, and he had brought a hand up to fidget with the brim of his hat. “That's not too much, M—Amelie? Seven kids, seven hungry teenagers? You sure?”
She had only smiled and nodded.
Félix had rolled his eyes and looked to Nino. “I’ll message everyone tonight and ask, but she's being genuine, yes.”
Nino had blew out a sigh. “Well, if you say so, man… I’m in, if the others are.”
The others had been, especially at the mention of free food and the opportunity to be out of their own houses.
So here everyone is: splayed all along the wide back porch that opens into a large yard with a pool that glitters pink, yellow, and orange hues under the setting sun. Marinette and Nino lay out on the porch floor, finishing their Chemistry homework while Nino’s music plays in the earbuds they currently share. Chloé has convinced Alya to sprawl out on the lawn chairs for some sort of tan moment that Félix doesn't really understand, but they're talking quietly back and forth as they… tan, he thinks the term is. Luka sits on the thick wooden porch railing, phone propped up on one thigh, learning via YouTube video how to sew a few patches into his dark denim jacket. Adrien reads a book for English class while lying upside down on the stairs to the inside of the house, his legs folded against one of the French doors criss-cross applesauce-like. And Félix, he sits normally, in a normal deck chair, in a normal position on the porch, and he's curled normally around his phone, frowning, as one normally might in a situation like the one he's in.
5:24 p.m.
Félix
Can we please talk?
5:29 p.m.
Félix
Kagami?
Please.
Kagami
What is there to talk about?
I feel like we talked enough yesterday.
Félix
It wasn't fake.
It was all real.
All of it, Kagami.
Please.
5:37 p.m.
Félix
Please, I mean it.
Kagami
If it was all real, then why accuse my
mother? Why accuse her first, of all
people? Especially when you know what's been
going on—with me, with her, with everything
surrounding my name.
Why accuse her first?
Félix
I tried to stop them, Kagami.
I really did.
Kagami
Evidently not enough, if my mother was
still the first choice. Why not try harder?
Félix
I’m sorry.
I’m so sorry, Kagami.
Please. I’m sorry, but you have to understand that
it doesn't render everything else null. Please.
Kagami
I don't have to do anything, Félix.
In fact, I think I’ll block you.
Make things easier for us both.
Félix
No—Kagami
Kagami?
Kagami, please
6:09 p.m.
Félix
Please?
delivered 6:09 p.m.
~*~
The rest of the celebration is fine. Félix still feels like his body is caving in on itself. The rest of the gang relaxes, unaware of his turmoils.
He doesn’t say anything, though—and how are they supposed to know, when he doesn’t say? Doesn’t explain? Doesn’t ask for help? They hardly know him. (Well. Adrien and Amelie know him. But they’re busy. One can’t fault them for that, right?)
(He certainly doesn’t.)
It doesn’t stop the feeling, though. Nothing does.
(It doesn’t stop—the feeling.)