Chapter 25
During classes, the students were all sitting except for Debby, which carried in her hands a couple of small flyers all hand-drawn, then handed it out to the girls in her class.
"I will have a pajama party at my parents house. I hope your mom or dad lets you come. It will be funny. We will play games, we can play tag around the mansion, eat Piccolinis. Those pizzas who are very small and like this," Debby explained forming a medium-sized circle so her classmates would understand it.
"I know those, we had this once on my birthday," Commented Rouven making Cody nod.
"Oh you mean those baby pizzas" Nathalie commented making the raven-haired boy nod. "Will you invite Ruby as well? She hasn't arrived yet," Questioned the brunette making the blonde nod.
"Yes, I have seen, that Emily isn't present as well," Mentioned Debby.
At the entrance, appeared Elliot coming in with his backpack and waved at Rouven and Cody.
"Hey Rouven, you can't believe, what happened yesterday night," Elliot began earning Rouven's curiosity. "Hope was looking on Netflix for movies and found out there was a next movie, where you see, that Rocky returns and he's actually really a good guy. He just got his brainwashed or something,"
"What? Really?" Asked Rouven making Elliot nod.
"Rocky is not bad at all?" Questioned Nathalie. "How did Hope find it out?"
"She said it was on the recommendation list and she recognized Rocky on the wallpaper," Elliot announced.
"And what happened in the movie?" Questioned Kodiak earning a nod from Rouven.
"Kiara went to look for her parents along with Ally's help and after finding Ken at least, they moved on with uncle Norm's help. He's the one who notices, that Rocky was alive and slept on a hot rock, then Kiara asked the team to get him up," Elliot explained. "That hot rock was on the lava,"
"Why is he sleeping on the hot rock?" Questioned Eireen confused.
"He was like in a coma. I think Kiara only came back because she remembered him well and didn't forget him,"
"And she forgave him after all that?" Questioned Cody making Elliot nod.
"He had no memory of anything. It had been erased during his time he was under a bad influence. He only remembered the positive moments he had with Kiara before. Go watch the movie, you will all be happy to see him again,"
"Ok, we will," Said Nathalie, then Elliot waved at Nathalie earning her attention.
"Is it true, that your mother also remembered your dad?" Questioned Elliot making Nathalie nod.
"How did you find out?" Questioned the brunette.
"My mom received a message from her, that's how,"
"Oh I had no idea. I just saw in the evening my mother kissing my dad and say she remembers him,"
"That's great," Commented Elliot, then the school bell rang and the students sat back down watching the teacher get up from her chair to welcome the students.
"As I see Debby has invited the most of you to her pajama party. This is one of many good things you're able to do together with each other at this age. At some point of the second grade we will all go together on a class trip for two days. Similar to the pajama party we will all overnight in a small house meant for kids like you all to be there. There's no date set or anything I just wanted to say this, as this is a topic currently," Spoke Mrs. Berger making her class nod.
Adrien stood at the kennel of his family on the outside watching the mongrel cats play around and beside him stood Nino using his smartphone to record the playing cats.
"Can you believe it, that the anime Super Cat revealed the whole season's writing on the internet and that by accident?" Questioned Nino making Adrien shrug his shoulders.
"Nope. How is that possible,"
"I have no idea, dude. It's strange,"
"Are you gonna talk about it on the radio?" Asked Adrien making Nino shake his head.
"I'll see what will be out of it. Perhaps Alya or her crew will take that instead. Or people will forget about it," Nino spoke. "Hey, dumb question, what was that dude's name, who got drunk at the bachelor party and sang in Russian?"
"I don't know it, why? Did you see him?"
"Nah I saw his wife. She came from the créche with her children. I didn't say anything, I wasn't sure if she recognized me,"
"Ah good question. I know she knows Luka very well and maybe Wayhem," Commented Adrien making Nino nod. "So, you're really thinking about taking one of the cats home?" Questioned Adrien making Nino sigh.
"I don't know it, bro. Perhaps we should wait a little. Maybe when Chantal is able to go to school as your boy Elliot. I have heard bad histories of people adopting kennel pets, while they had babies at home,"
"It's not as bad as it sounds,"
"It's not that, it's the point that Chantal as a toddler might not understand the ways to treat a pet and I don't want her to have an accident with them"
"Well to avoid that to happen you needed to have at least an adult present. Shadow was already grown up as Elliot was born. He barely gave any interest on Elliot. He just watched him, when we had him in our arms. Even if you would show Shadow the baby, he would just take a glimpse and mind his own business,"
"But now he's different, right?"
"They get along. He likes being pat by Elliot. He's seen by Shadow just as us,"
"Good," Commented Adrien, then Nino's smartphone vibrated in his hands and Nino attended it.
"Hey Alya, what's up?….I'm with Adrien at the kennel. I dropped Chantal by my mom….Sure, I will pass at the supermarket. See you later," Nino took his phone back and looked back at his friend.
"You're leaving right now?" Questioned Adrien making Nino nod.
"I think it's better or I get stuck in the traffic jam," Answered Nino. "You're probably unable to bother Kagami right now, huh?"
"I don't know. I can always help out with anything or enter the kennels and entertain the animals," Adrien commented making Nino nod, then move his hand up to high five with his best friend.
"See you next time," Nino said leaving the blonde back, afterward Adrien walked along the path heading back to the building, then out of his jacket Plagg glimpsed out to look at the blonde.
"Have you thought about visiting your mother-in-law again?" Questioned Plagg making Adrien shake his head.
"It's up to Kagami. I will wait for her. It's her mother after all,"
"Just asking. I don't know when it was the last time. She doesn't have many people home to talk with her. She doesn't show it often, but she appreciates to see you and Kagami…..well, see that you're around,"
"I know, what you mean, Plagg. As well she likes it, when Elliot comes to see her," Adrien commented entering into the kennel to see his mother walk along the corridor to look at the cages, which had to the outside the gates open, so the dogs could leave and enter. "Hey mom, have you seen Kagami?"
"She's doing the inventory of the animal food," Responded Emilie. "She must still be working on it. She's doing both dry and wet,"
"Alright, I'll meet her up later," Said Adrien. "Nino had to leave to do shopping now,"
"At this time with his baby, it's usual, that you might have to go shopping more often due to her needs,"
"Yes, thought for me the worst time was during Kagami's pregnancy. That one night I had to go twice to the super market and ended up encountering Luka, Nathaniel and a few others. That was one of the funniest coincidences,"
"The time you went to buy the wool socks?"
"Yep, that night. Otherwise I just encountered people from other work shifts and a few times one of the lawyers, that helped us with the case of Raiden. You know the one from Scotland,"
"Oh I remember him" Commented Emilie making Adrien nod, then both heard two small dogs bark at each other aggressively and Emilie opened the door to whistle. "Girls! Out! Bad girls!" Emilie ordered watching the brown-colored dog stop and sink her eyes, while the bitch across her faced the ground disappointed as well. "Can you take one of the two with you into another cell?" Questioned Emilie making Adrien nod, which entered into the cell, followed by Plagg, that floated above Adrien's shoulder. Adrien gently picked up the brown dog and got out of the cage.
"Shall I put her in cage 2?" Questioned Adrien making Emilie nod seeing her son open the second cage to put the dog down, which looked up at Adrien, then jumped at his legs asking him for attention. Adrien smiled and caressed the dog above the head. "Come, you will like it here," The blonde promised, afterward the dog trotted away to check the cage by using her nose to sniff. Adrien got up and closed the door, then approached his mother, which smiled and embraced her son from the side.
Rouven and Eireen sat after school behind the car and Juleka sat alone in the driver's seat bringing the two home.
"How was school?" Questioned Juleka a little silent as she was focused on the road with her eyes.
"We had to make rockets with the carton of the toilet paper," Eireen mentioned making Rouven nod.
"I almost made three, I finished two of them, the last one I will finish tomorrow," Rouven stated proudly. "I colored them all after mom and dad's favorite color."
"You know their favorite color? Which is it?" Questioned Juleka.
"Dad's favorite color is blue and mom's is pink," Rouven mentioned making Juleka nod.
"Correct," Responded Juleka.
"Is your mother or your father at work, Rouven?" Asked Eireen earning Rouven's attention.
"I think it will be my mom. She said, she would come home earlier," Responded Rouven making the danish girl nod.
At the entrance of the building to the Couffaine's apartment, Marinette stood by the mailboxes to take out the mails and took a look at them. "Cool Sabrina's inviting us to a baby shower?" Questioned Marinette taking a look at the letter. From her purse, Tikki flew out to look at the letter and smiled.
"Is is that party, where they reveal the baby's gender?" Questioned Tikki making Marinette nod.
"Yeah, I and Luka have to open it. I presume it's next month or the other one, where the gender reveal party is. Until there we will know, where we can drop Rouven off or he will come with us if the others will bring the kids as well,"
"The kids will find a way to entertain themselves, when they're not expected to be always around before or after the revelation," Tikki mentioned making Marinette nod.
"You're right, Tikki," Commented Marinette and looked out at the road to see across the road a few meters away from the living place a bus stop to show three people leave.
One of the three people was Durant Lefevre, which carried a bagpack on his hand. On the other hand, he held a smartphone to look at the navigation, showing a long, blue line show his way towards a destination, which was another hotel. Durant walked over the road passing by Marinette, which had turned her back to the road as she had attended a call she had received. Durant moved on following the voice of the navigation noticing the blue-haired woman and spotted at the corner a car stop, then observed the boy of Marinette step out and waved back at Juleka and Eireen. Juleka waited before taxing off as she watched another bus come from the right side to enter into the road of the Couffaines. Durant saw the bus as well coming on that road and observed Rouven begin to run with a grin as he spotted his mother at the entrance. Durant looked back to see the mother of the boy still distracted, then he had an idea and stepped aside to let the boy pass beside him, then he gently placed his foot down to cause the boy to trip, causing him to fall in front of the bus. Durant grabbed him quick by the shirt, making the bus honk and push the brake hard.
"Woah, careful boy!" Durant warned pretending to be surprised, then heard Marinette scream in shock and he saw Marinette had dropped her smartphone on the ground from the situation.
Rouven looked up in panic at the man, the back at the bus, realizing he had almost gotten under the wheels of the vehicle. The man lifted his hand at the bus driver, which was looking at the inmates of the bus, which seemed to have had luck with the brake and the bus drove off normally.
"Doesn't the bus driver come out and yell?" Questioned Rouven making Durant shake his head.
"I don't think anyone got hurt there," Spoke the Frenchman, then Marinette grabbed Rouven on his shoulders to check on him.
"Are you alright?" Questioned Marinette looking at the raven-haired boy, which nodded and had widen his eyes by looking at the shock on his mother's face.
"I don't know what happened. I was running and suddenly I tripped over something," Explained Rouven, then Marinette pecked the boy on his forehead as she noticed a tear run down the boy's eye.
"Thank goodness, you're alright," Marinette commented while embracing the boy relieved, then looked up at Durant.
"Kind of lucky I had just passed by here," Durant added making Marinette look neutrally at him.
"Are you going to check on my neighbor? He just left this morning," Commented Marinette making Durant shake his head.
"Actually I'm moving to another hotel and the direction leads beside that crossroad there and a few miles more by feet," Durant explained showing Marinette the direction on his smartphone.
"Ah, that's one of the smallest hotels in town," Spoke Marinette.
"Yeah, at the moment I'm still looking for a job and at the moment for me it would be best to be at a cheaper location, until I'm able to earn more money when I get a job,"
"Alright, that's a good idea," Spoke Marinette, then Rouven had taken from the ground the smartphone to give it back to his mother. "Oh I almost forgot it, thanks. Afterward I need to call your grandmother back or she thinks something happened to us,"
"Well your reaction is understandable. It's practically natural if you would experience your own child to get hurt terribly," Commented Durant making Marinette nod.
The two are silent for a moment, then Marinette pondered for a minute and looked up at the man.
"Would you like a cup of tea or coffee? I'd like to offer, after all you saved Rouven from a tragic accident,"
"I'm fine, it was just a pure coincidence. I'm just glad I could have helped," Durant responded, then Rouven moved his mother on the arm.
"Offer him one of the madeleines you made last night. It's better," Suggested Rouven making Marinette chuckle.
"Well, if your boy really wants me to come up, I will. I think one coffee or a madeleine will not hurt," Commented Durant making Marinette chuckle.
"They're made after my dad's recipe. The baker, that works near the Notre dame at the Dupain-Cheng bakery. I'm sure you know it,"
"I know a lot of bakeries to be honest. If I had to pick a favorite one it would be hard….." Durant spoke following Marinette along with her son to the building.
Later at the apartment of the Couffaines, Durant sat on the table along with Marinette and Rouven. Marinette and Durant had a cup of coffee, while Rouven had a larger cup of chocolate milk, including a slice of toast Marinette had made for him.
"How long have you been here in Paris?" Questioned Marinette in a little suspicious way.
"For three or four weeks maybe. I heard it was better to get a job here and I thought I would come by and check it out,"
"The most people, who got here said the same. The thing here and other places too, is that it's harder to find a job now due to the amount of people who are just like you looking for a job and also the refugees that are being integrated here,"
"It's difficult for each of us to find a job. In some places the requirements are also really high or certain places prefer to wait for a better one and in the end, they're not quite happy with anyone else," Commented Durant making Marinette chuckle.
"My husband Luka told me, that his boss has the same issue and tends to pick the wrong people. Mainly, because his boss only focused on good grades, but most of them in practical aren't quite good as to be expected," Mentioned Marinette making Durant nod. Marinette heard an odd sound, then watched Rouven blow into his cocoa drink making Durant furrow his eyebrows confused and Marinette frowned.
"Rouven, stop that," Ordered Marinette making Rouven chuckle.
"He seems like a little entertainer," Commented Durant making Marinette shrug her shoulders.
"He enjoys getting the attention of everyone sometimes. He doesn't mean it bad," Marinette stated making Rouven smile. Marinette's smartphone rang, afterward she took it up to see it was her mother. "Right, I was meant to call my mom," Marinette said getting up to attend the call, then she stood in the middle of the kitchen distracted by the phone call of her mother. "A bus had almost hit Rouven and I panicked, but everything is fine now. A pedestrian happened to be near him and spared his life,"
Durant had observed the half-French woman phone, then he looked at the boy, which was drinking his milk, while dancing with the feet under the table.
"Hey little guy, is there a bathroom I could use?" Questioned the blonde man making Rouven nod.
"It's there in front of my parent's bedroom," Rouven responded, then Durant got up and thanked the boy, then got into the corridor. He took a look back to see Marinette gaze out of the window while deepened in the phone call.
Durant looked into the bedroom of the adults, then sneaked carefully in it.
Durant sneaked into the bedroom of the Couffaine's, slowly approaching the closet and leaned his hands on the handle, then took a look back to hear Marinette still talking with her mother. Durant opened the door carefully and saw the safe, which had three different panini stickers of the superheroes Cat Noir, Ladybug and Viperion. He pondered about it, then shove his hand beside the safe hoping to find notes about the safe, and found nothing, but the safe's information brochure.
"I'm pretty sure that this is where the miraculous could be in. Or at least with money together," Durant thought, then squinted his eyes hoping to read the brochure for any clues about changing the number. Durant heard Marinette question Durant's presence shrieking the man, who quickly shove the paper beside the safe. Afterward, he closed the closet, then quickly sneaked out of the room at the corridor to see the open toilet door and got into it, then opened the tap to pretend to be washing his hands. He closed the door afterwards and heard someone walk on the corridor.
"Are you in there?" Asked Marinette.
"Uh yes, your son allowed me to use the bathroom. I hope that was okay, I've...i've been using the bathroom a lot today. I think I might have a bladder infection. I didn't drink too much today though,"
"That's okay, you're okay otherwise. No pain or anything?"
"It's fine, Mrs. Couffaine….I appreciate your hospitality," Durant commented. "I…..I have to go make sure I get to find a free room in time. I'm pretty sure we will see each other again someday," Durant said making Marinette nod, then Rouven got into the corridor to look up at the two.
"Maman, can I ask you for help later on the homework?" The boy questioned making the mother nod.
"Go get your papers out. I will just bring Mr. Lefevre out," Marinette said watching the man move his hand up.
"It's alright, Mrs. Couffaine. I can go myself. I don't mind it," Durant said making Marinette nod, which opened the door to the stairways and let the man get out.
"Have a great day," Wished Marinette making Durant smile.
"Same to you, until next time," Durant spoke walking downstairs, then smiled about the minor confidence he seemed to have made with her.
At night, Nathalie had fallen asleep on the couch, before the show would have started and Nathaniel had been exchanging messages with his mother on the smartphone.
"Grandma sent you a kiss, Nathalie," Nathaniel mentioned looking down at the daughter, which had her eyes closed, then he smiled admiring the tired girl. Nathaniel used his smartphone to take a picture of the girl, then sent it to his mother. A few seconds later his mother replied with a heart, then Nathaniel got up and took the girl up in his arms gently and tried to carry her up to her room. "You're slowly getting a little heavier for a lift, my princess," Nathaniel spoke hearing a hum from the girl's lips. "Or I'm getting too old,"
The redhead arrived by her bedroom, crossing it towards her bed, and lied her down on top of the cover. He tried carefully to pull the cover from under the girl trying to not wake her up, then she opened her eyes up and Nathaniel noticed the girl wake up.
"You've been awake?" Questioned Nathaniel watching his daughter yawn and look up at the man, half-sleepy.
"I'm not tired, daddy," Commented Nathalie sitting up, then got up and Nathaniel pulled the entire cover back then sat down, stopping his daughter from walking away.
"Come on, I can see you're tired and sleepy. You're better off here," Nathaniel mentioned. "I'll be here with you, I'll tell you a story if you want,"
"What story?" Asked Nathalie, while yawning and Nathaniel rolled his eyes pondering about any story, that would jump into his head.
"Okay, I will tell you a story about…...two superheroes…..Lady Frost and Fire King…."
"You're…...making it up," Nathalie commented making Nathaniel chuckle, which held his hand in front of his daughter's eyes playfully.
"I want a story for you to have a good night of sleep, not a bad one. I promise it will be a cute one," Nathaniel spoke making the daughter nod, which lied down and Nathaniel tucked her in.
"Lady Frost, she was…...thoughtful, kind and very brave. She was a superheroine capable of using ice. Then there's Fire King. He's wields the power of fire and he's a little of a know-it-all guy. He's deep inside his heart a very good person, but his past relationships with friends and families led him to lack self-confidence making his only important thing in life to be better than anyone at everything, hoping he would gain the recognition he missed. Both had been chosen by a mysterious monk to be the superheroes of their beloved city and to stand up together against the big bad guy…...the big bad tiger with the…..tiger miraculous. The heroes just name him tiger, cause they're unaware of his looks and anything related to him, but they know he's the guilty one for the chaos caused in their city," Nathaniel watched Nathalie, that seemed to be sleeping now and he thought about continuing a little more on his story. "The two knew each other in real life, but their identities were discreet obviously. But one thing was up with the two. Lady Frost had a huge crush on Fire King's alter ego. A 12th grader, who's suffering currently with the last school year due to the number of exams he has to pass through above the year. Mainly because he has trouble in concentrating and focusing on things he should do. Lady Frost, she was a student like anyone else. She's very helpful towards her pals at the school, whenever they need. Her biggest problem is, that she sometimes…..No! Always puts her needs behind everyone else's. It isn't her first time, she's working late on her homework, cause she preferred to help a friend out in something, that could as well be done a little late. What she doesn't know is, that Fire King has a small crush on her, which both of the two don't notice. With the time he begins to realize it and speaks with her more often, eventually trying to gain her as a friend,"
While the story-telling, Lila had appeared behind Nathaniel's back and placed her hands on Nathaniel's shoulders, then shove them down to lock all her fingers on the other's.
"Is she asleep?" Whispered Lila into his hear making Nathaniel shrug his shoulders.
"Now she is," Nathaniel whispered back. "She already was sleeping, when I brought her, but she got up again,"
Lila chuckled softly, then watched Nathaniel bow down to peck their daughter on the forehead gently. "Good night," He whispered getting up on his feet to glimpse down at the girl again. He felt Lila embrace his arm to earn his attention.
"You remembered me of something right now, "Commented Lila making Nathaniel open his eyes to listen to her words. "When she was around three years old, at one point you had time to work on one of your comics and she had passed by the hobby room to look for you. After you told her, what's up you had offered her to read her some of your comic books or even make some on your own,"
"Yeah, that's true," Commented Nathaniel, then looked down at the girl.
"Let's leave her now," Lila whispered, then both walked out of the bedroom and closed the door.
"Were you sleeping before?" Questioned the redhead making the wife shake his head.
"No, I had found in the bedroom another of our family albums and thought about looking through it," Lila noticed making Nathaniel nod, then she led him to the entrance of the bedroom to show it. "The green one there,"
"Ah that's the one, where we have most of our pictures with Nathalie. There's a lot thought," Nathaniel commented, then Lila entered the room and looked back at her husband.
"Are you coming to bed?" Questioned the raven-haired woman watching Nathaniel step in.
"Are you really alright with wanting me beside you tonight?" Questioned Nathaniel making Lila nod.
"We're married after all. I'm not fearing you here or anything," Commented Lila making Nathaniel nod and head to the other side to sit down on the bed, while Lila shove her legs under the bed cover and opened up the book to show it to Nathaniel as well. Lila widened her eyes at looking at one of the images, that showed a 3-year-old Nathalie dancing and by her stood another girl copying her.
"I remember that day. That girl is one of my cousin's daugther. She was inscribed in a toddler's dance course and wanted to show it to me and Nathalie. Nathalie afterward found it entertaining and joined as well. I think this moment had been recorded, but not by me. By Valentina only,"
"Perhaps….I think she had uploaded it on social media or well, most things about her daughter only."
"Yeah, I don't think she had put anything of Nathalie in there," Lila mentioned, then Nathaniel moved to the next page to see Nathalie sitting inside a toddler's pool with a small toy ship playing. "This reminds me of something, I'm pretty sure I've got one image of that," Lila commented swipping a couple of pages forward to encounter a page, where Nathalie sat in the pool and Lila was in her bathing clothes sitting in there with sunglasses and a book reading. In the image, Lila had a smugly grin on the face while in most of the images, Nathalie was convincing to get her mother out of there like that. "I remember Nathalie saying on that day I should join her, it's like the beaches from the movies and as I went to take my outfit, I had this idea,"
"That really was a funny idea," Confessed Nathaniel moving forward on the book to see pictures of Nathalie in her bedroom playing with toys and the last two showed Nathalie sleeping in her bed. "When she began to sleep in her own bed alone,"
"Kagami was right about the spending time with Nathalie in her room more often before bedtime. She was still a little reculant on trying it out, but she made it as we began to read her stories,"
"Your voice impressions do mostly impress her. Similar to an audiobook. Background noises were the only missing thing then,"
"The job was free, if you were looking for it," Joked Lila making the redhead grin.
"I would most likely use the buttons app to make the sounds. I probably know how to make two or three sounds….,"
"We won't need that in the future. This way it has worked well," Lila commented switching to the next page of the album to show Nathalie along with Rouven and Elliot dressed for halloween. Elliot was dressed as a samurai, Rouven as a prince and Nathalie was painted to look like a zebra.
"Ah I remember this one. Adrien and Kagami had questioned us years ago, what actually halloween was and Luka had suggested us to go out the next halloween with our kids out," Nathaniel explained moving to the next page, where the three kids were present asking adults at the door for candy and the last image the group stood by the wall of the Agreste mansion with Luka, Nathaniel, Kagami, Adrien and Marinette behind them.
"I wasn't around on that night so far I remember,"
"You were at the theatre along with Myléne. This is also why Ivan or Cody weren't present," Explained Nathaniel making Lila nod, then both switched to the next page to show a image of a smiling Nathalie with all the sweets she had obtained. Lila chuckled about it, then moved her eyes to the next page to see the between the three images a photo of herself with Nathaniel, where both had shared together a black-colored licorice as if they were copying a famous spaghetti scene with it. Lila smiled while leaning her cheek on Nathaniel's shoulder, making him look down at the woman.
"I'm so glad, you're able to remember a lot now. After all these months, it's a great sign," Nathaniel confessed earning a nod from Lila. "I missed the Lila I had fallen in love with before,"
"This Lila won't leave so fast," Lila comforted and gave him a kiss on his nose, making him smile, thereafter he leaned his arm around her back, so she could lean closer to him to see the images along with him.
Yep, Nino's talking about the miraculous bible leak.