Ever wonder how Adrien found out that he is allergic to feathers. He was about 6 years old at the time.
"Today at Chloe's was the absolute most bestest day ever!" Adrien exclaimed to his father as he and his mom came into Gabriel's office at the mansion. It was a comfortable summer afternoon, Adrien and Emilie had just come back from a playdate with Chloe and her mom. Gabriel had made it a habit to; if his wife and child went out without him, do some designing there, in the momentary peace and quiet.
"Oh, really now, I was under the impression that 'bestest' wasn't a real word?" Gabriel joked playfully; Adrien's joyous face and cute pink nose always put a smile on his own.
"I know father, but it should to be a real word!"
"Oh, Gabriel," Emilie admonished giggling at the exchange, "the chef told me that dinner's ready, so if you can tear yourself away from your desk for a little while, maybe we can enjoy family dinner and Adrien can tell you more about his 'absolute most bestest day ever.'"
All three of them sat on one end of the long dining room table enjoying their usual Friday night meal, as Adrien regaled them with tales of play pretend, tag and lastly a pillow fight.
"We ran through the whole place! This way, that way, when I finally caught up and tagged her, she grabbed a pillow off her bed and socked me in the tummy!" Adrien was excitedly saying between bites, bouncing up and down.
"So then I grabbed one of the other pillows on her bed and we had an all-out epic pillow fight!"
The next day, instead of designing Gabriel was just sitting in his leather swivel desk chair thinking about his son's smile and if there was any way to bottle it for himself; because he wasn't feeling particularly inspired at the moment, when a marvelous thought struck him.
Gabriel zipped of there as fast as could to find his wife, son, and three of their biggest pillows.
They spent the rest of the afternoon pillow fighting and laughing in Adrien's room until the seams on their pillows burst open and fluffy cotton flew everywhere. Then Gabriel got another brilliant idea that he 'had to go sketch before he forgot' and was off.
Later he realized that they had just destroyed all of Adrien's pillows, so he sent Natalie out to get three of the puffiest pillows she could find.
That night before bed, Emilie read Adrien his favorite bedtime story, the one about the cat as he called it, sitting in their favorite spot on the couch.
"Alright, time to hop in bed now," closing the book as she said so.
"Awww, but can't you read one more story pleasewwe!" Adrien begged.
"No sweetie, you have to get up early tomorrow, tomorrow's a big day."
"Okay," and with that he bounced into bed and immediately let out a great big sneeze.
"Bless you, sweetheart," Emily said as she tucked to him under the covers and gingerly kissed him goodnight.
"Thanks Mom, love you," he said in a cute, slightly, stuffy voice.
"I love you too. Sleep well, Adrien," she whispered as she walked out and turned off the lights.
Adrien sat there sneezing for a long time trying to fall asleep. Eventually getting up to grab a tissue, which made him feel a little better, blew his, now red nose, loudly and went back to bed none the wiser. He repeated this scene several times during the night until he finally fell asleep around 1'o clock in the morning.
The next morning Adrien wasn't feeling any better, in fact he felt worse, even waking up earlier than necessary because of his sneezing.
His mom came in at the time she had planned to wake him up, to find he was already awake, looking terrible with watery red puffy eyes, a red nose with boogers, and loud sneezing; standing next to a box of tissues and a trash can.
Immediately she rushed over and put him back in bed.
"Are you alright?" Emilie asked. "You look ill, Adrien dear. Lie back down and rest."
"Okay-achoo-mommy," Adrien complied in a very stuffy voice.
"You don't seem to have a fever," Emilie mumbled to herself as she put the back of her hand on Adrien's forehead. Adrien started in on another fit of loud rapid sneezing.
Handing him a tissue she said, "We're going to have to stay home today."
"But mom we're going to missĖachoo!"
"I know," she cut in, "but we can't go when you're feeling unwell like this, you'll have a miserable time; we will go next week."
"Achoo! Promise? Achoo!"
"Promise; now rest, I'll let your father know."
With his mother gone to talk to his father, Adrien just sat there with that strange feeling you get in your head from all the sneezing.
"Change of plans, Adrien is not feeling very well today, dear."
"Really, he seemed fine yesterday afternoon during our pillow fight," Gabriel asked tiredly with a hint of concern in his voice, as he sipped his tea at the kitchen table. "Shall I need to summon a physician then?"
"Oh Gabriel, you worry too much, but if your concerned why don't take him his breakfast, I'm sure seeing his father would make everyone feel better. You might even be able to get him to fall back to sleep some rest peaceful will do him some good."
Gabriel walked into Adrian's room with a tray of child size portions of a breakfast much like his own, to see Adrien let out the biggest sneeze he had ever seen-slash-heard in his entire life. Adrien had moved from his spot on top of the pillows, to underneath them in a vain attempt to stop the sneezing that way.
"Bless you, are you okay?"
"Why do you guys keep asking me that?" Came his muffled, tired voice from under the pillows.
"Because we want to know," Gabriel replied, "I brought your breakfast."
"Father?" Adrian jumped out of bed to give his father a big hug, and nearly knocking the tray out of his father's hand in the process.
"Hey, aren't you supposed to be in bed resting?"
"But Father, it's not working, I can't rest," said with the biggest eyes imaginable.
"How about if we both sit in bed and you eat your breakfast, while I read you a book?"
"Okay-Achoo!"
Adrien spent the next hour and half sneezing and blowing his nose to no avail. As one hour turned into two Gabriel ended up falling asleep. Adrien got tired of sneezing, and not being able to fall asleep himself, decided to get up to play with his action figures instead. Happily, Adrien's sneezing subsided.
"What have you two doing in here? It's almost time for lunch." Emilie said as she walked in, and then in a more hushed tone spoke, "Well, it looks like your feeling much better, but we probably shouldn't wake Father up; he stayed up late last night sketching."
Catching her meaning, Adrien got up and quietly tip-toed over, then they walked out hand in hand, to have lunch. The rest of the day Adrien didn't even sniffle.
Gabriel woke up sometime later, surprised that he had fallen asleep since he was supposed to be the one trying to get Adrien to fall asleep, not fall asleep himself. He got up to find his wife and Adrien playing a board game in Emilie's favorite room, her drawing room, a plush peach-colored room that looks more like it belongs in an old Victorian home then the Deco modern mansion they live in today, but it suited her very nicely so that is why they have it.
"Adrien's doing much better, dear, hasn't even sniffled once," came Emilie's sweet voice.
"Well, I personally am very relieved, you had me very worried there for a minute, Son." Gabriel said while patting Adrien's head. Adrien beamed, although his eyes and nose were still a little pink from irritation; he was perfectly fine.
When Adrien fell asleep on the couch for a nap an hour later, Gabriel and Emilie had another discussion. Being the worrying parent, he is, Gabriel argued that maybe they should still call the physician to give the boy a check-up. Emilie, the more level headed of the two, argued that Adrien, even though he had been sneezing a lot this morning, among other small things, was fine now and all he needed is sleep. Summoning doctor now would only result in Adrien losing much needed sleep and a completely unnecessary doctor's home-visit bill. Like always Emilie was the only person to ever win in an argument with her husband and like almost always she won. Adrien woke up full of energy soon after and they dropped the matter.
That night, Emilie was tucking Adrien in bed when his sneezing started back up again, in full force.
"Bless you!" She whispered sweetly as she handed him a tissue, "sweet dreams and good night."
As she got up to leave the room and turn off the lights, a concerned look spread across her face as Adrien's sneezing did not cease, but increased violently.
"Gabriel!" Emilie shouted in an almost uncharacteristically loud, worried voice.
From his office Gabriel heard the frantic call and rushed to the scene, Adrien sneezing his brains out.
"That's it, we're taking him to the hospital!" He exclaimed as he picked up his little son and ran him out to the car, Emilie following close behind.
Adrien's sneezing quickly subsided after reaching the car; at this point laying in the backseat, head being held gently on his mother's lap.
One worried car ride, Adrien feeling better, an hour long wait, and fifteen urgent care forms filled out later.
"He's fine now," said the tired-looking urgent care doctor.
"But he's been sneezing violently; and the whole time his eyes and nose have been all red and puffy." Gabriel countered.
"And it's been off and on like this the whole time, he was fine yesterday until right before bed then he started sneezing. And when I come into his room this morning I found that he been up half the night sneezing, but then he stopped by lunchtime, and tonight when I tucked him in bed, he started sneezing ferociously." Emilie added.
"Mmm, sounds like he has an allergy, my guess is that it's something in his room," the doctor commented, "although that's not my area of expertise."
Back home again at an hour too late for Adrien as evidenced by him falling asleep in the car. His parents decided to let him sleep in their bed with them tonight, both relieved this that whole ordeal was almost over.
The next morning Adrien awoke bright and early, fully energized for a brand new day. Gabriel went to work like normal and Emilie stayed home with Adrien like always.
"Today, I want to figure out what you're allergic to."
"Is it gonna make me feel bad?" Adrien questioned eyes wide.
"Maybe a little, but then we can get rid of it and you won't feel bad any longer." Emilie explained.
They spent the whole morning with Adrien sniffing various things in the mansion. He sniffed everything from yo-yos to expensive vases but didn't sneeze once. Stopping for lunch they talked about what was left to smell and if there was anything new in his room.
"That's it! Didn't we bust open all of your pillows on Saturday?" Emilie exclaimed
"Yeah, we did!" Adrien agreed.
"And where did the ones that are now on your bed come from?"
"Father sent Natalie to pick some up. You don't think maybe...?" Adrien's voice trails off.
His mother nodded, and both rushed off to smell the pillows; once there, Adrien sneezed confirmation. Emilie decided that was enough and quickly pulled Adrien out of the room. Then she made a quick phone call to a befuddled Natalie, asking what kind of pillows she bought the other day, upon hearing they were down feather pillows, gave an "aha", a quick thank you, and abruptly hung up.
"Adrien, it looks like you're allergic to feathers," she sighed.
Emilie bagged up the feather pillows to be trashed and threw the sheets and pillowcases in the washing machine.
Then she and Adrien had a very peaceful time shopping for some nice hundred-percent polyester-filled pillows.
THE END