Disclaimer: I do not own the anime Le Chevalier D'Eon or its characters. This is a modern times fic.
D'Eon and the twins are hanging off the Eiffel Tower in a basket dressed in 18th century garb
13. La Eiffel Tower
"D'Eon!" Anna gasped as she pedalled up to the tower. She had rented a bike after Marie's car became stranded in traffic. She could see the wicker basket holding her beloved swinging from the top of the tower. Strong gusts caused the basket to sway wildly. The same wind tore at her red hair and voluminous skirts. She had not bothered to change out of her costume when the news came over the radio. Instead, she had begged Marie to drive her to the Eiffel Tower. When caught in the traffic, she had rented a bicycle to cycle the rest of the way.
A thunderstorm loomed. It was going to be a difficult rescue. The rescuers were preparing an air cushion below the tower to catch the stranded children and D'Eon, just in case.
D'Eon spotted the pink gown among the watching crowds below. "Anna?" he leaned out of the basket for a better look. There was a ripping sound as the balloon envelope tore. If it tore through… It was a very long way down.
The basket gave a stomach-churning lurch. Natalia and Maximilien Jr. were jumping up and down. "Stop that!" D'Eon ordered. Obediently, they stopped and stared at their uncle through innocent blue eyes.
"Just keep still…" D'Eon coaxed. The rescuers were below them rigging up some sort of rescue harness to lower them to safety. Max Jr and Natalia exchanged looks. I'm bored… Natalia yawned. Can we get off? She nodded at the steel girder that was tantalisingly close to the basket. Think so… Max Jr. climbed slowly onto the edge of the basket.
D'Eon waited and watched. He could spot Marie's car on the street below, as well as Teillagory's battered Renault. The occupants were standing about Anna, trying to comfort her. He turned back to the twins and his heart almost stopped short. The children were toddling on a steel beam, part of the famous tower. There was another ominous tearing sound. D'Eon hastened out of the basket and onto the beam. In his haste, his prop sword was dislodged from his belt. It went plummeting down, bouncing off the tower and startling the crowd below.
"Look!" Anna shouted in horror and pointed up. There was a blur of red and a purple blur on the dizzying heights. Robin raised his binoculars to his eyes for a better look. It was the twins. They perched precariously on a steel beam. Approaching the children on his hands and knees was D'Eon.
"Don't move… Uncle's coming to get you…" D'Eon called out. The twins only looked at him silently with the wind whipping all about them. D'Eon tried hard not to look down or think of the great distance between them and the ground. The going was painfully slow.
A violent gust caught Natalia's red skirts and blew her clean off the beam. "NATALIA!" D'Eon screamed and lunged forward. "Lia!" Max Jr. bleated in alarm and grabbed her arm. His young strength was not enough to pull her to safety. His sister's weight caused him to pitch off the beam as well.
"NO!" D'Eon screamed, threw himself clean off the beam and grabbed wildly for the children. Somehow, he managed to catch hold of both children. He held them close to his breast as they fell, shielding them protectively. He prayed to God to at least let the children live…
"D'EON!" Anna screamed when D'Eon and the children fell like a stone off the tower. There was a loud 'flump' as they landed on the large air cushion.
Anna and D'Eon's friends hurried over to the air cushion. D'Eon was lying motionless on his back with both tots clutched in his arms.
D'Eon moaned softly. He felt sore all over. Gingerly, he opened his eyes to the smiling faces of his niece and nephew. "Again! Again!" they sat up squealing and clapping. D'Eon only replied with a groan and closed his eyes. He felt queasy from all the shaking.
"D'Eon!" Anna called out and clambered over to D'Eon. She hugged her boyfriend fiercely and kissed him.
"Anna?" a stunned D'Eon blinked. "That hurts…" he winced as a sharp pain hit him in the side.
"I am sorry…" Anna apologised and freed her grasp on him. "Anna…" D'Eon smiled and looked at her in the eye. He kissed her on the lips. He lay back with Anna on top of him, still kissing. He could feel the delicious curves of her bosom pressing against his chest through her lace corset, enough to make him ignore the pain in his side. Robin and Durand poked their heads up over the side of the air cushion.
"Hey, no snogging up there!" Robin teased.
"Way to go, D'Eon!" Durand hollered. D'Eon and Anna blushed beet-red and stopped kissing. They scooted apart and looked away awkwardly,
"Let's get the little ones over to the medics for a check-up," Durand chuckled and grabbed hold of Natalia round the waist. "Righto!" Robin scooped up a giggling Max Jr.
"You got off light with only a couple of bruises and a cracked rib. Careful there. You will be sore for a while," the doctor advised as D'Eon hobbled out of the examining room with Durand's help. The reporters have been fobbed off by Marie giving an impromptu press interview as the CEO of Vee-TV on the coming French history series and Wood's press release on his upcoming attempt to single-handedly cross Everest in a balloon. No one had thought to interview D'Eon or the children until after the ambulance had whisked them off to the nearest hospital for a check-up.
"The children are unharmed, not a scratch! It's a miracle," Anna exclaimed as she met them. The children licked ice lollies sedately at her side.
"Well, we better change out of these costumes and return them to the Wardrobe department," Durand shrugged. He had his heavy green coat over his arm. Their outfits were attracting more attention from the medical staff and patients than needed. "I'll get Gramps!" Robin called out.
"He's got a possible part in the Vee-TV's next drama swashbuckling offering, Le Chevalier d' Maison Rouge…" Durand winked at D'Eon. "He's going to be the young lead. He would need a bit of fencing instruction and riding lessons…"
"If his mama allows it," Teillagory added. "Now get in the car. I will send you to the studio. Later, I could drop you off at your sis' place."
"I should go with you, D'Eon," Anna said. "To help with the children till Lia gets back from Spain."
"Thanks," D'Eon replied. Durand nudged him and gave him a wink. Way to go, D'Eon…
"First things first, we go back to the studio to return the costumes, then grab some lunch before sending the young ones home," Teillagory summarized.
"Just so long as we do not lunch at the dodgy café behind the studio," Robin added.
"Will Chef Philippe's cooking suit your palates? There is always the Café de Rouen…" Teillagory's whiskers twitched in amusement. It would be a change from the usual fast food Robin was so used to like most teens his age.
"Does he have salads?" Robin asked. "I'm vegetarian, you know…"
"Sure. Farm salad, veggie soup, potato slaw…" Teillagory counted off on his fingers. "And fruitti-tutti jelly."
"What are we waiting for?" Robin whooped and scampered off to the car.
"Today's special, Cream of mushroom soup, farm salad, cottage pie for the young ones… Louisiana seafood gumbo for the brown-haired gentleman… BBQ trout for the old Monsieur… veggie lasagne for the young man and Provence-style chicken for the lovebirds…" Chef Philippe drawled as he ran through their orders. He called over his shoulder for the waiter to offer his customers some tea or coffee.
The café ambience was lovely with a battered radio playing traditional Orleans music and watercolour prints of the French countryside on the walls. The chef was a flamboyant character with a dark moustache and curly shoulder-length hair which D'Eon secretly suspected was a ill-fitting wig. His apron-front read 'King of the Grill'. He had placed D'Eon, Anna and the toddlers in a quiet corner of the café while Monsieur Teillagory and the others took seats at the bar. The tots opted to sit on either side of Anna.
D'Eon's phone rang and he answered it. "Lia?"
"Nice work with the kids, D'Eon…" Lia purred. "We caught it all on TV. Oh…" there was a fit of giggling. "Stop that, Max… I'm still on the phone…" Lia whispered away from the phone. D'Eon cringed as he tried not to picture what his brother-in-law and sister were up to.
"The train should reach Paris by nightfall… oh, Max! Would you ask Anna if she would like a cat? We have three cats and two dogs coming with us…"
"S-sure, sis…" D'Eon replied and bid his sister au revoir. The chef and Teillagory launched into an animated discussion of the Orleans Ocelots' win, much to Durand's disgust.
It was a hearty lunch that did not disappoint. The children cooed and gurgled over their dessert. Soon, they were yawning and dozing off against Anna.
After lunch, they spent an idle hour or so chatting and soaking up the ambience before they piled into the car for the Robespierre home. The bleary-eyed twins clambered into the back seat and settled on Anna and D'Eon's laps. Robin took his place in the back seat while Durand took the front passenger seat. The plan was simple. Have Teillagory drop D'Eon, Anna and the twins before dropping Durand off at his Parisian apartment. Then the grandfather and grandson could go home for a well-deserved rest.
How wrong they were going to be.
In Spain, Lia dressed and combed her hair. It had been a long while since they had enjoyed privacy as a couple. Back home, the children were more often than not clamouring for their parents' attention. It was time to leave Spain. "Max…"
"Mm?" Maximilien nuzzled his wife's neck. "Must we go so soon?"
"Stop it, wasn't two hours enough? You may have made me pregnant again…" Lia teased. She kissed him on the lips.
"What's another one? Perhaps we could have a dozen kids…" Max teased and hugged Lia. "Come on, we have a train to catch…" Lia laughed and swatted him playfully with her hairbrush. She gave him a peck on the cheek before tying up her hair in a ponytail.
"Say, did you receive the warning from Elizaveta?" Lia asked. "What do you make of it?"
"You mean that about the Russian mob? Well, yes… but I see no reason to panic," Maximilien replied. "Especially if it is threat is from that godfather-wannabe Pytor and his goons. I mean, besides small-time robbery and extortion, what harm can he do?"
Anna and the twins entered the house first while D'Eon thanked Teillagory for the ride. The first thing that he saw when he entered the house and closed the door was Anna's fear-stricken face and the nasty-looking gun pressed to her temple. "No one makes a move or sound or she gets it," the bearded goon taking her hostage warned. The place had been trashed.
"Yes, Lia de Beaumont. Any sound and your kiddies get it…" a scrawny man said as he motioned to two other goons holding the sullen twins in their large hands. The twins, to their credit, only sucked on their pacifiers quietly. They did not give any expression of fear.
"Er, Pytor… I don't think that is the bitch…" Voronstov corrected his superior. "No?" Pytor blinked and staggered over to D'Eon.
"What the… Hey!" D'Eon yelped involuntary when Pytor tore open D'Eon's shirt, sending buttons scattering onto the floor.
"Silence and hands above your head," Voronstov warned and pressed the barrel closer to Anna's head. "He may be a relation, the resemblance…" D'Eon raised his hands high above his head as his chest was thoroughly groped.
"So what Voronstov, maybe the bitch has a flat chest…" Pytor was not convinced. He tugged on D'Eon's jeans. "No…" D'Eon gasped out through gritted teeth as the jeans slid down his hips, followed by… "Not in front of the children and her, please…" he begged. With a squeak, Anna raised both hands to cover her eyes as D'Eon's boxers hit the carpet. His niece and nephew only stared in silence, their faces inscrutable.
"Now are you convinced, sir?" Voronstov asked sarcastically.
"D'Eon, my old comrade died on me again. May we use your ph…" Teillagory stepped in through the door. His eyes bugged out at the sight of a half-naked D'Eon with his jeans pooled about his ankles.
"Hands up high or she gets it…" Voronstov ordered. Teillagory obediently complied. "The same for the rest of you…" he added as an oblivious Durand and Robin stepped into the house.
"May I get my pants on please?" D'Eon pleaded.
"Very well… but any false moves and the lady dies," the burly Russian warned. D'Eon pulled on his boxers and jeans.
"Voronstov, should we kill them or something?" Pytor asked. Murder was going to be messy. Messy was not what he liked doing personally.
"You, boy!" Voronstov pushed Anna away from him and pointed the gun at Robin. "Go to that bag and take the rope. Tie up your friends tight or the kids get hurt." One of the goons holding the twins had a knife pressed to Max Jr.'s ear. Robin nodded and retrieved the rope.
"Sorry, Gramps…" the redhead apologised as he bound up his grandfather's wrists behind his back. He also tied up Teillagory's ankles. He did the same for Durand, D'Eon and Anna. Satisfied with Robin's work so far, Voronstov had the goons put the toddlers into the playpen. Robin was similarly bound.
"You're a boy scout, aren't you? Can you get out of your own knots?" Durand whispered to Robin. The redhead was wriggling hard. "Nope… I'm tied up good."
"When Lia gets back home, we will have a nice surprise for her…" Pytor hiccupped as he uncorked one of the wines from the house's wine cellar.
Author's Notes:
Poor D'Eon gets felt up and goes Full Monty.
Home invasion scenario. Lia and Max will be in for a bit of a shock when they get home.