London
time: one week before
Big Ben was announcing that yet another hour had passed, to the joy and amusement of tourists that just had to hear that and pride and annoyance of the fellow Londoners, who loved their landmark, but were mildly displeased by the noise (sometimes, but they would never admit that).
"I don't understand why your cousin Adrien did not come over to spend his holidays here, with us, in London." Amelie was sitting by the window and enjoyed her cup of tea. Her desk, her desk chair, the shelves and the floor were littered with papers related to the project she worked on that morning.
"Because uncle Gabriel did not let him?" Felix offered with an amused smile. "You know how he prefers to keep his model boy locked away from the world." The boy sipped his tea with an amused smile. He was always jealous for Adrien's easy demeanour, but not the way he was treated at home.
Amelie looked at her son, his hair combed carefully back, flat on his head, not a hair would go astray, his perfect face, a white shirt, a tie and a grey vest, the boy was all dressed up as if he was going to school, but he was home for the school break.
"On the other hand, you tend to chase the world away from you." Amelie scolded gently, but all the edge of her words was brushed away by the motherly smile she gave her son. She knew Felix was jealous because Adrien easily connected with people.
Felix knew his mother studied his choice of clothing. He always dressed up, even when he intended to spend his day at home. His mother did the same, in her long dress she could have been in the theatre or even shopping the high street, but she chose to give her attention to her most recent project.
"Most of the people are stupid." Felix muttered and pretended to drink his tea. He had such discussion with his mother before. He preferred to stay away from his peers, unless he had an idea on how to pull a prank on them. And his mother adored his pranks, he was her little magician, a boy who always knew how to draw the attention away from what he intended to do.
"You still have to work with them." Amelie smiled. "Everything is much nicer if you don't go through it alone." She continued. She was worried because Felix had no friends, always stood on the sidelines and always used any opportunity to make a fool out of someone.
"You need someone even to pull out your tricks, my little magician. It would have been so wonderful if Adrien was here, then the two of you could go around, you would take him sightseeing London, to museums and whatever else you young boys are up to these days." She smiled.
Felix smirked. It would have been nice if his twin like cousin was in London because Felix would have more resources to pull pranks on other people. He might have to put up with his boring cousin, but there was a reward in that. The other boy was famous, after all, and that could be exploited.
"I just can't stand to think that the boy is there in that large mansion all alone while he could be here, with us." Amelie sighed. She missed her sister, she missed her a lot, and the way Gabriel treated her family was scandalous. Who did he think he was?
She knew that Gabriel went on a business trip to China with that assistant of his, what was her name again, ah Nathalie. The woman was as stiff as Gabriel. Amelie smirked. She was an adult and her mind supplied what that could mean. They would suit each other just fine.
"Why don't you imagine him then on some exotic holiday with one of his fangirls, then?" Felix cut in. Why was his mother talking about Adrien so often? And since his aunt Emilie disappeared or died, he never understood which, it was getting even worse.
Amelie laughed heartily. "Oh, I'd like to see Adrien travel around with nothing but a backpack and young people his age for his company. To sleep on a bus or a train or an airplane, or in a sleeping bag. To cook his own meals in some improvised kitchen." She smiled at the memories.
Felix made a disgusted face, straightened up his vest and tie and sipped some more tea. His mother was always like that, she had those, probably heavily selective memories of the life with her sister and everything they used to do together, he was not in the mood for that.
"At least Adrien does not have to fear those akuma attacks, first they stopped in Paris and now they have them in China." Amelie shook her head. But she had a knowing smile on her face. She observed Felix carefully. She liked to play with people like that, make them draw conclusions on their own.
"Where did uncle Gabriel go for his business trip? Wasn't that in China too." Felix inquired offhandedly and sipped some more tea. His eyes met the eyes of his mother and he knew that he touched a subject he was not supposed to, and yet she often taunted him.
"Indeed it was. Everything is made in China these days, apparently." Amelie looked through the window again. She promised Felix to explain him everything when he was old enough. But she refused to define the number in age, it would pose such a dreadful deadline.
"Thank you for bringing me tea, Felix. I have so much work to do until lunch." She motioned towards the papers that covered all possible surfaces. She sighed, she loved her job, especially since she was still able to switch between producing and acting whenever she wanted.
There was a knock on the door. It was not unusual that someone interrupted their morning tea with giving them a visit, Amelie even expected that. She kept a maid around the house to help with such distractions, especially when she needed to concentrate on her work.
"Milady, you should better watch the news." A woman dressed in black, with white shirt collar and white apron announced and proceeded to switch on the TV even before her boss told her to do so. "The journalists are already gathering in the street." She warned.
"The paparazzi will always be there." Amelie sighed. But if there was something new in the news, she had to know. "What is it this time? The royal family again? Someone got married? Divorced? Had a baby out of wedlock? Wore a wrong kind of hat?" She teased.
"Oh it is not the royal family, milady, it is your family." And the woman switched on the news. They were playing a video of a fight, two monks and three kids, fourth kid was apparently filming, and they were fighting Hawk Moth and Mayura. Amelie was interested.
It was strange how her mind had just supplied memories and doubts about the identities of the two villains, she never knew for sure, but she had her own ideas and reasons to think that way. She could not have faced Gabriel about that, she had too much to lose.
"This is in that new temple that appeared in China." The maid said as she repeated the information that rolled over in the banner on the screen. She knew which piece of information she saw before she rushed into the room of her boss.
"You mean the old temple that reappeared few months ago?" Felix corrected. He despised such imprecisions in speech. The woman glared back at the boy, he grinned and then snickered. It was a game they played on a daily basis. He was bored.
"The boy has been identified as Adrien Agreste and it seems … " The maid looked at Amelie. Both Amelie and Felix gasped. So the boy did escape to have his holidays somewhere outside his mansion and enjoy the world. But right now they were looking at a fight.
"Well, it seems that Hawk Moth … " The woman continued to speak. Felix felt immense pain go through his body. He fell of the armchair he was sitting on, the remains of his tea spilled over the floor, the carpet and the papers his mother spread everywhere.
"Felix, are you all right?" Amelie asked worriedly. The maid quickly collected the cup and wiped the tea as much as she could. "Oh leave it, please, it is not important." Amelie told the maid. "Let's take care of Felix first." And the two women raised Felix and placed him back in the armchair.
Falix found it was painful to breathe, but he was able to do it. The servant looked back onto the screen. "Isn't that Gabriel Agreste?" She asked without thinking it through. Amelie finally averted her eyes away from her son. "Yes, that's him." She confirmed calmly.
Amelie held her hand on Felix's forehead and stroke his cheek. Felix was mildly annoyed by the action because she was treating him as a small child and he was a teenager, but the pain he felt was far more disturbing so he let her continue to practise the soothing motions.
Then his vision went black.
Amelie checked for the heartbeat and the breathing. Some old monk on the TV just finished banging some metal instruments that produced an awful noise. Her son fell asleep or lost consciousness or worse. She was scared to think what it could be.
She failed to feel disturbed by her brother in law being publicly revealed as a villain that created monsters. But Amelie felt proud that it was her nephew who defeated the man, she stroke the forehead of her son and thought of the other boy.
She had memories she pushed aside, and now they were back again. Emilie did something, her sister kept doing something that normal people were not able to do, she knew that her sister harnessed magic and was sometimes tired from using it.
A doctor and an ambulance was called upon. It took them forever to arrive. But Felix looked as if he was only asleep. The armchair was one of those new things that could lower the headrest and raise the leg rest so Felix was lying down.
Amelie was really worried for her son. She watched over him and only occasionally glanced over to the TV. She preferred for the boy to stay at home, than to go to a hospital and she managed to get a few words out of him when the doctor was there.
"He is probably very tired." A nurse told her and adjusted an IV. "He needs rest and a lot of fluids." The woman administered some medication into the bottle to slowly flow into Felix and Amelie was left to take care of Felix on her won.
She promised to call a doctor whenever anything happened. Felix actually woke up, ate and then fell back asleep. The doctor was satisfied. Amelie promised to ensure a lot of rest for her son. It was just a temporary weakness, nothing more.
But Amelie observed the same battle on the TV screen again, a thought haunted her, a thought that told her there was more to it, that the event on the TV somehow had something to do with the condition of her son.
"It must be a shock to learn that someone close to you is a villain and someone else close to you had suffered such a terrible ordeal as that son of his." The maid said. "You took it exceptionally well, but your son is just a boy." She smiled.
Amelie thanked the woman and smiled. It was a sad and worried smile, but a smile nonetheless and the servant knew that her efforts were appreciated. "Thank you for staying with me for so late in the evening."
"I could not bring myself to go home when you need me so dearly here." The servant replied. Amelie finally let Felix sleep and collected the papers discarded all around the room. "I think this play is not going to be produced." She concluded and discarded the papers.
The servant did go home, eventually.
Amelie kept walking back and forth through the room, the old memories haunted her, she knew there was more to it than she knew, more than she was told, more than she ever dared to ask. Her sister had a secret, Amelie knew that much, and it had something to do with her son.
Felix was getting better. He was feeling very tired, irritated and dull at the time, but he was gaining back his strength. Amelie followed the news on Gabriel religiously. He was in prison in China with his assistant who was Mayura.
"Any news from Adrien?" Felix asked at one moment. He remembered how his cousin fought his own father and won, finally the boy stood up against that dull and stiff man, who preferred control as a mean of parenting.
"He is going home from China as scheduled. His legal representative called me. He wants to stay in Paris and live there." Amelie smiled. She did hope that the boy might want to move to London and live with her, but she understood his choice.
"Any fangirls with him?" Felix smirked. Yeah, he was jealous of his cousins popularity, of the fact that girls adored, that he had a fan club, but on the other hand, Felix disliked most of these people, he found them pathetic and boring.
"Actually, there is one, Marinette Dupain Cheng. He was travelling to China with her, her parents and his bodyguard." Amelie laughed breathlessly. "And the person who streamed the video of the battle was her cousin."
"Marinette … " Felix repeated the name. "Dark, black and blue hair, blue eyes? A friend from his class?" Felix inquired. Memories of a video he saw not so long ago, a video he removed and then replied to replayed in his head. Yeah, he did find her love admission utterly pathetic.
"Yes." Amelie answered. "What about her?" Perhaps Adrien and Felix talked about that girl during their last visit to Paris? Her son must have known about that girl if Adrien was as close to her as to go on a two week journey as far as China and hide that from his father.
"I was right. He did go to a fancy vacation with one of his fangirls." Felix snickered. "And he got to play a hero." He was jealous of that, he certainly was, now his cousin was famous for something else than his good looks.
Felix knew they looked the same, or they were able to look the same if they only tried a little, so why was Adrien considered a modern day Adonis, adored by fans, the face of a fashion brand (put there by his father) while Felix had no issues to hide in plain sight.
"Yes, he got to play a hero. They both did." Amelie repeated with some sadness in her voice. She felt sorry for her nephew and she was even more concerned about the destiny of her sister, because it had became known that Emilie was kept in a sarcophagus in the basement of the Agreste mansion.
On a Sunday evening they both watched the interview. Amelie laughed at their antics. Felix sulked, because his cousin was not only popular, but so loved by everyone, and now he was a hero. Even when Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived, the spotted hero was leaning into Adrien.
He knew they had feelings for each other, he just knew it! All those photos in his phone had to mean something, and he was certain she returned his feelings. Too bad she knew him so well that she saw through Felix's prank.
And that Marinette girl did not move a finger, she did not even look jealous, and that Chat Noir hero was like all over her in front of cameras in the TV studio and nobody did a thing. She was the girlfriend of Adrien Agreste and a superhero flirted with her there in the studio?
Felix was so consumed in his own interpretation of the interview he just saw he barely noticed that the show was finished. He was still digesting everything he just saw and heard. His cousin did not keep such public appearance, he was more like a doll or a puppet.
"That's it." Amelie clapped her hands. "Are you up to going to school tomorrow?" She switched off the TV and turned around to her son. But there was a glint in her eyes and a slight crook in her smile that told her son she had different plans.
"I hate the idea of going back to school. It is so boring there.." He smiled back. The eyes of his mother were shining with mischief and the boy knew that he guessed right and played along just as he was expected.
"Well I guess it is time for you to change schools then." Amelie smiled. "Get some sleep, we are packing and going to Paris tomorrow."