Return to Lhasa
Both Ling and Ye smiled at the sight of two teens sleeping huddled together in their sleeping bag. They exchanged a look between them and sighed with relief. At least the boy was sleeping peacefully and if the best way to help him right now was to keep quiet then they would do it. Ling clenched her teeth as she sunk into her cold sleeping bag and shuffled a little before she settled to accept the cold.
"Do you think he will be okay?" Ye whispered.
"I do not have a clue. Aunt Sabine wrote they contacted that friend of his, Nino, and his parents and are thinking of what to do about Adrien, together with that bodyguard of his." Ling whispered.
"Yeah, I can't believe that the only family he has left is his bodyguard." Ye watched the mist form in front of his mouth as he spoke. She stressed the word family.
"It will be really hard on him. He will be a minor for years and whoever gets the guardianship might exploit his fame." Ling whispered as she checked if the two kids were really asleep.
"I think he knows all that." Ye replied.
"Yeah. It is not as if we could help. We should get some sleep." Ling replied.
"Well, his Chinese is good, he could go to school here." Ye whispered as if he got an idea.
Ling raised her head and stared at the boy.
"Never mind, good night." Ye turned and closed his eyes. He could not help but scheme impossible plans just to be able to help the boy.
The night was cold. In their rush to leave their things, the four teens took the places that were the closest to the tent entrance and Ling was the closest to the edge of the tent, which meant it was really cold for her to sleep. She woke up a few times and even persuaded Ye to change positions, she simply rolled in her sleeping bag over him because she refused to get out from it into the cold night air. She even bumped into Marinette and Adrien while she rolled. The two teens were certainly stirred from their sleep. But they only muttered a few complaints, shuffled and went back to sleep.
The morning brought the same experience as on their arrival journey. Everything was covered in frost. Most of the students learned their lesson and stored their clothes in their backpacks, but those who have not, have released loud noises that expressed their discomfort while dressing up.
Adrien was awake but waited for Marinette to open her eyes. During the night, he had a nightmare in which he saw his father and Nathalie and his mother and had to fight all three of them. But even in his dream he told himself that he was not alone and then he woke up with Marinette there and knew he was going to be okay. He wandered how would that have felt in a large empty room with nobody around. Well he had Plagg, who probably woke him up from the nightmare by scratching his chest. Adrien gave him a small piece of cheese and took his time to fall back asleep, but it was not long and he enjoyed it as he knew the girl was there.
He smiled to Ling when she asked if she could take a photo of them. Marinette was sleeping, her face covered with the sleeping bag. The older girl had already suffered changing her clothes as the cold night and the morning woke her up earlier than needed.
Ye was also dressed, but he wrapped himself in his sleeping bag and frowned at his phone.
"Don't read that." Ling scolded him quietly. Adrien frowned a little.
"But isn't it rude not to reply to people's messages?" Ye inquired.
"Sometimes you can be rude like that." Ling whisper shouted.
Marinette stirred and all four of them were soon on their way to fetch breakfast.
They loaded into buses and most of the students tried to catch some sleep. Adrien scraped the thin coating of ice from the inner side of the bus. But there was a thin layer of ice on the outer side of the window that prevented them to see through. Marinette laid the palms of her hands onto the window and the outside ice layer behind her palms melted so she created two small transparent openings. Her hands were cold but they could both peek through. Then Adrien did the same and they could see little more of the landscape. Later he removed the mist from the window and was excited to watch the scenery during the whole ride. Both him and Marinette enjoyed the view of the mountains and the deep canyon they travelled along. They counted different kinds of birds they saw and admired the sheep and the goats they saw scale the cliffs as they looked for anything green and edible. Adrien swore he saw a large cat sneaking up on some prey, and he even tried to guess the species. But Marinette missed to see the wild cat.
"Oh, it does not matter, I have my kitty right here." She said absent mindedly as she was trying to spot the wild cat through the window for the last time. She was tired and did not thing about what she had just said, but the said words made Adrien to loose himself in his own thoughts. The boy looked through the window dreamily and said nothing, but pulled the girl closer (and away from the said window).
The waterfall they went through on their arrival was still there and its rumbling woke up those students who were asleep. They passed all the curves on the road slowly and Adrien tried to take a photo of each curve. Marinette was nervous whenever she lost sight of the road between the bus and the abyss below them as she was ready to transform and save the bus. But Tikki kept patting her to calm her down. The bus drivers knew how to drive down that road. And this time they had no problems and did not have to get out from the bus on steep part of the road.
When they arrived to the same parking lot in Lhasa from which they started, the adults were there to meet them (at least those who travelled to Lhasa). Adrien and Marinette slept through the last few hours of the ride as it was on a normal road and less scenic than before.
Tom hugged Marinette, but Sabine managed to hug Adrien before his bodyguard. The large man simply engulfed both of them in his hug. Ling and Ye were wrapped into their own parents who could not believe that none of them sustained any injuries from the fight.
They returned the gear they rented and paid for the cleaning. Adrien wanted to hold onto the sleeping bag but he was persuaded to return it any way.
They went into a restaurant for dinner. At first they wanted to go to the place where Marinette's uncle was working, but that place was booked far in advance. In the end, they went to a place that served food mostly to the locals and took the simple dish of the day. Everyone chatted about the weather, the adults mentioned all the sights they saw and all the places they visited, a museum, a theatre show, several organized one day trips out from Lhasa when they saw different mountains from the bus.
The youngsters talked about the bus ride and the walk and the temple … but there was one subject nobody dared to mention, except maybe when Adrien's bodyguard grunted, but he never lead the conversation.
They retreated to the same small hotel and the kids decided that they really wanted hot water shower and even played a game to decide who should go first. In the end it was Marinette who won to go first. Adrien decided to finally place a video call to his legal guardian and went into the kitchen for some privacy as he let Ling know she could go second instead of him.
Adrien stared at the number of his legal advisor and looked at his bodyguard.
"I am going to call Ms Leclerc now." The boy simply stated to his bodyguard. The large man produced a small smile and grunted to acknowledge the information. "Do you want to talk to her?" He asked timidly. His bodyguard waved his head.
Adrien sighed and pressed the button for the video call. He preferred to see her face. She answered quickly.
"Good afternoon Ms Leclerc." Adrien greeted as soon as he saw that the video call has been established.
"Good afternoon Mr Agreste." A young woman with brown hair tied into a pony tail greeted back. "I am Lucille Lavillant, the assistant to Mme Leclerc. She will be with you in a few minutes, if you can wait." The young woman smiled widely.
"Good afternoon Ms Lavillant. I have some time." Adrien greeted again using his standard model smile. Again he was talking to some secretary.
"Please call me Lucille. I am the cousin of your classmate, Rose." She smiled sheepishly.
"Hi Lucille. Please call me Adrien." Adrien smiled wider. Perhaps this was going to be more friendly.
"I am here for the training. Sorry you can't get through to her directly, but she is on the phone regarding your subject. Have you arrived to Lhasa safely?" The assistant seemed genuine.
"Yes, we arrived a few hours ago, but I got to the hotel only ten minutes ago." The boy replied politely.
"Do you want to go through the basics?" Lucille asked quietly. Adrien confirmed and she went through his legal status. Apparently, his bodyguard had something like a temporary custody, he clarified what he knew about his accounts and learned he had some money inherited from his mother that he was not allowed to touch without an approval and confirmed the closest living relatives.
"Do you have some questions, Adrien?" Lucille asked as he noticed she checked something in the office next door and returned.
"Can I keep going to the same school? Can I stay in Paris? Do I have to live in the mansion?" Adrien shot the questions.
"The answer to the latest question is 'better not'. You can stay in Paris and you are expected to go to school." Lucille smiled easily. "If you do not want to move away from France to live with your aunt, then we will organize something."
Adrien sighed with relief. "That is great news."
"Hi Adrien, I mean Mr Agreste, can I call you Adrien? I'm sorry you waited. I am Augusta Leclerc, you can call me Augusta, if you want. Apparently representing you means doing a job of a whole team of lawyers and public relation experts." A woman in her forties appeared on the screen and talked quickly. Her hair was brown too, but cut just below her hears and she had round glasses and warm brown eyes.
"Hi Mme Leclerc, I mean Augusta, you can call me Adrien." The boy smiled.
"I just spent half of the morning assembling the statements for the media and released it just now." The woman looked wired up, but tired. "How are you?" The woman looked concerned.
"I am okay. A little tired, we travelled whole day on the bus, it is evening here." Adrien replied quickly.
"Oh, I won't make you even more tired then, you should have your rest. Stay away from the media. You do not need that right now." The woman smiled but her eyes were serious as if she studied him.
"Okay" Adrien nodded. He did not need to be reminded of that.
"Have you been contacted by Gabriel Agreste or Natalie Sancoeur since the fight?" Augusta asked carefully.
"No" Adrien waved his head.
"Do you want to know what happened with them?" She was cautious as the boy did not ask about that once in his messages nor in the conversation.
"I assumed they were taken by Chinese authorities." Adrien shrugged.
"They are. France had required them to be transferred." The woman confirmed but decided not to go into details because Adrien's face was looking darked than before. "Do you want to know the details?"
"No, not really, at least not right now." Adrien answered timidly. He did not want to be bothered by his father, unless he was a threat.
"All right, I will keep you posted on that in case of any big change. And please be careful what you write and send to your friends." The woman smiled.
Adrien frowned.
"I will explain in more details when you get here. Don't worry you are not in any trouble." she continued quickly.
The boy relaxed. "What is wrong?" He asked as he sensed something was hidden from him again.
"Some information about you leaked to the media. I identified what happened and handed it over to the police." The woman smiled.
"Okay." Adrien raised his eyebrows.
"It is just complicated and not resolved yet, don't worry, that is what you have me for." The woman smiled.
Marinette walked into the room with a towel on her head. Adrien instantly remembered her with the googles in the cinema and started to laugh.
"Marinette is here." He stated simply to explain his behaviour. Both women he was talking with were amused by his reaction.
"She can stay for this conversation, actually I might ask her what happened." The woman continued with a sigh. Adrien quickly introduced Marinette and the women introduced themselves. Marinette waved to the screen and looked at them expectantly.
"Are you both okay? No injuries?" The woman studied them both with a kind look.
"Okay, not hurt." They both nodded.
"Troubles sleeping?" The woman continued.
They both waved their heads.
"Excellent." She smiled to the screen.
"Any concerns?" She continued.
"Plenty." Adrien smiled sheepishly.
"What is going to happen to Adrien?" Marinette asked worriedly.
"According to his wishes, he will stay in Paris." The woman replied. "We cant force him to live with his relatives if that means moving out of the country."
Marinette smiled widely.
"But, we will have to handle the most recent problems." She was serious again.
"Could you please explain briefly?" Adrien insisted.
"They will learn about this before they return for sure." Lucille told quietly to her supervisor.
"You're right. I can't shelter them enough." Augusta replied quickly to her assistant.
"Adrien wrote me, but could you please both confirm. Had any of you ever sent any messages or photos to Lila Rossi?" The woman looked very serious.
"No" Adrien replied calmly while Marinette practically screamed. He never told her that was one of the questions and she looked at the boy bewildered. What was that liar up to?
"We only communicated with Nino and Alya, they were the only ones who knew we were here before the fight." Adrien said quietly. "That was what I actually wrote, I was never explicitly asked about Lila." He told Marinette.
Marinette nodded to confirm she understood.
"Last night, I sent only one message to a few girls from my class to confirm we are okay and on our way home." Marinette added. She knew Lila may have pried some information from them.
Augusta looked at Lucille. "Let's say we already got that information." The older woman smiled knowingly.
"That is Rose's cousin." Adrien pointed to the younger woman on the screen.
"But you sent messages and photos to Alya Cesaire?" Augusta asked sternly.
"Yes and her boyfriend Nino Lahiffe. They both also had access to the messaging application I use to communicate with my father and his assistant." Adrien confirmed.
"The same one you sent me access code for the other day?" Lucille asked. Adrien confirmed.
"That one is okay." The younger woman told to her supervisor.
"Okay kids. I will get to the end of it. You did nothing wrong. I will not forbid you from communicating with your friends I know you need them at times like these. It is very late where you are and you had a long day. Get some rest and enjoy your travel." The lawyer finally closed the argument.
They chatted for a few more minutes about the time difference and the weather and the mountains they saw on their voyage as the two women were genuinely interested in their experiences. Ling and Ye entered the room and told Adrien it was his turn for the bathroom. The boy said goodbye to the two women and felt rather light. He felt both of the women actually cared for him.