Rainy morning
The next morning was hard. Marinette actually promised to help out in the bakery and her mother popped out through the hatch door to call her daughter, she did not venture further into the room for she would have noticed that the bed had two occupants and not just one.
"We overslept." Marinette whispered in panic once the trap door was closed again. She was wide awake, panicked and distressed, but Adrien was cuddly, he held her close and wanted to steal a few more moments before he transformed and went away.
"I think it is still early for Nino." Adrien smiled as he checked the time with her. "We have a fencing tournament at noon, remember?" He pulled her closer and kissed her cheek. She blushed and melted but then her eyes popped open again.
"Yeah, but I will have to do the warm up in the bakery." She whispered back as she started to wiggle out of the blankets and his arms (and somehow his arms found their way back around her no matter how many times she unwrapped herself.
"You want me to come over and help?" He only half teased. He would be glad to return as Adrien and help out and spend more time with Tom and Sabine and of course, Marinette. He had sufficient freedom at Nino's to make such decisions for himself.
"As you wish … in fact, I better ask papa or, I don't know, too early." She yawned and Adrien laughed. "No, have your time with Nino and get some rest, it is still really early." The darkness outside confirmed her words.
"As you wish Princess." He whispered and transformed into Chat Noir, he lingered for one more kiss before he climbed up her skylight. He opened it and looked around carefully, to his relief he did not see much.
"Be careful not to be seen." She warned. There was that constant fear that Bunnix was coming over again to take them to fix some other future because they made an error again, unsure what actually went wrong the last time and if they fixed that at all.
"It is still dark, and I'm wearing black" He turned back through the skylight and winked before he closed it and turned away. The tiny droplets refreshed Marinette's face and she turned away, it was time to get up and face the world, or at least her parents in the bakery.
"Oh, Tikki, it is so early, I barely got any sleep." Marinette whined to her kwami while she got herself ready to go downstairs. The clock mocked her, she did not even try to cumpute how few hours it was since they finally fell asleep.
"Well, you could tell your mother that you are too tired, I'm sure they'll understand." Tikki chirped in cheerfully although her eyes were worried, her chosen looked tired, she was physically and emotionally exhausted.
"No, Tikki, I promised, besides this is just another morning after a nightly akuma fight." Marinette concluded. Except she spent literally each night that week fighting or thinking or reading diaries or retrieving some magical books and …
Marinette stumbled down into the bakery, it was still dark outside, but it wasn't night, thick clouds covered Paris with dull quiet rain, a drizzle, surprisingly light precipitation from such dark skies and thick clouds, one would expect strong wind, pouring rain, lighting and thunder.
"Perfect weather to stay in bed." Sabine yawned. Tom and Marinette followed suit. It was contagious. All three of them stared out through the bakery windows when one of the ovens pinged and they suddenly stirred back into motion.
Sabine stepped forward and flipped the sign to 'open'. Tom went into the kitchen and quickly rolled the next round of croissants while Marinette identified which oven to open and empty. Then she returned with a full tray full of raw pastry.
"We will need you only through the morning rush. After the customers stop rushing in, you can go back upstairs, dear." Tom cooed while he filled one more tray. He felt sorry for waking up his daughter that early, but it was difficult for two people alone.
Soon, it was clear why Marinette was needed. The shop was full and she was filling the paper bags with orders while her mother handled the counter. As soon as the number of people reduced, Marinette was bringing more pastries from the bakery to fill in.
Sabine remained cheerful and Tom whistled while he decorated cakes that were going to be picked up during the day, it was a Saturday, and people always bought more, for the whole weekend, for parties and birthdays and Sunday lunches.
Marinette had no time to dwell over why people wanted this or that, she worked on autopilot. She did stumble a few times, caught by her parents or simply let the tray slide along the floor while she caught herself splayed over.
But the rush hour seemed to never stop. Her father was making more pastries and bread and cookies and macarons and her mother was selling more than they were used to. Even in the bad weather, people flowed into the bakery.
"Glad you are back in business."
"Finally had a vacation?"
"We missed you!"
"Was that your daughter fighting Hawk Moth?"
Everyone had a few kind words and everyone wanted at least a piece of pastry and perhaps a piece of information too, and a kind word and a glance at tired and sleepy Marinette who quietly went about her chores on autopilot.
"Hello." Nadia Chamack greeted with her daughter in tow. "Oh, I don't need babysitting today, I just came around to see if you saw our news special last night about the fight with Hawk Moth and your travel to China and how he got defeated?"
"Um, no?" Marinette muttered after her initial greeting. Manon looked at her with wide eyes and sucked on her lollipop that was red with black spots, of course.
"I just promised my daughter to see you this morning. She thinks as highly of you as if you were Ladybug." The journalist laughed.
Marinette released a strained laugh.
"Please say hallo to Adrien for me! I hope he is doing well after everything that happened." The woman greeted before she got out from the shop with a ding of the bell.
Marinette continued to work in the bakery almost until the fencing tournament.
"It might have been an error to ask her to help out in the bakery Tom." Sabine whispered. "Many of the customers this morning dropped in just to catch a glimpse of her." She warned her husband quietly while she eyes another group of people that were just outside the bakery door.
"I guess you might be right, I did not see much from the kitchen." He admitted and observed the same group quietly.
Adrien had a much easier morning. He was in his bed until Chris burst into his room, which was not particularly early. The problem is, he did not sleep, the thoughts of his mother, aunt and cousin flooded over his mind. And of course, the thoughts of Marinette. He smiled gently.
It wasn't hard to get up, he liked his best friend Nino, they got along well, he liked having Chris around although the boy was a pest, especially about electronic gadgets that could play games in any form. And he liked Nino's mum, she was motherly but not overwhelming.
He had no idea if he liked Nino's father. The man was not much outgoing nor easy going, but perhaps he just needed more time. They all tried to make this work, but not too hard, it was a work in progress.
Adrien and Nino dragged Chris to breakfast together. Adrien knew he had little sleep and he was exceptionally tired, probably the whole week accumulated, especially after that night when they restored the two kwami and cured them.
The boys were expected to tidy up their own rooms. And that was an easy task for Adrien. Back in the mansion, either he kept it tidy, or someone else did it for him, and he preferred his privacy, so he put away his things easily.
Then Nino burst in with the vacuum cleaner and Adrien's first association was kwami buster (Plagg's probably too, although he would have phased under the bed in panic anyway). The boys finished that task quickly too and everything was fine until Chris came around.
"Boys, I need some time to do shopping and house work, would you please mind Chris for a while?" Mme Lahiffe asked quietly. Perhaps she was tired too, or just lacked enthusiasm to actually go outside in that weather. Whatever it was, she managed a small smile that did not reach her tired and concerned eyes before she checked if she had everything in her purse.
"Sure" They answered in unison. It was the usual drill, as far as Adrien understood.
"So, the weather outside sucks, so no park, how about some games?" Nino offered.
"Please don't hang in front of the screen the whole morning." Mme Lahiffe asked while she put on her shoes and took the umbrella.
"What about board games?" Adrien inquired. He was able to play video games all he wanted, but seldom had a chance to play board games because he was always alone.
"Yeah, dude!" Nino offered his fist for a fist bump and Adrien joined. Chris pouted.
It took some whining (from Chris) and a lot of persuasion (from Nino) and more whining (from Adrien who impersonated Chris and repeated everything the little boy said and the way he said it) for Chris to accept a board game and they started to play.
And the older boys had to lose if they wanted to keep the little boy entertained.
Felix had breakfast with his mother, who looked tired and distressed. Amelie glanced towards him and smiled over her coffee. She hugged the cup and took a sip, but did not touch her food.
"Perhaps you should rest today mother." The boy suggested. He knew she was busy with taking over the company, but that morning her appearance suggested it was all getting a bit too much for her.
"Oh, I just didn't get as much sleep as I usually do." Amelie smiled. "I will be fine."
"You don't have to come for the fencing tournament, it is not going to be much anyway." The boy continued.
"Oh, I wouldn't miss it for the world!" Amelie exclaimed. "I don't care how tired I am." She yawned. "You know how much it means to me."
"Okay, but please don't let this Gabriel business let you fall ill." Felix smiled. That made Amelie gulp down her tea faster than she intended, the memories of her sister who had fallen so ill that she was in some kind of magical coma were too fresh.
"Besides, it is your first tournament for D'Argencourt academy, I simply have to be there." She smiled. "Adrien is going to have a few duels too, right?"
There was a flash of something, maybe jealousy, over Felix's face, at the mention of his cousin. He lived his whole life being compared to his cousin, being told how they looked the same and he strived so much to be different.
"Yes, all the fencers from the academy are going to be there." Felix noted. "I planned to have a walk." He looked outside, dark and wet weather was insufficient to deter someone who grew up in London from a walk outside. "And then I will return just before to pick up my gear."
"Very well, may I join you just for part of a walk? I need to stretch my legs but I'd prefer to keep it short." Amelie smiled gently.
"Of course." The boy was not about to deny his mother such request.
Indeed, a quarter of an hour into the walk Amelie decided to turn around while Felix just began to enjoy the walk and the weather (yeah, the weather too), because the streets were almost void of pedestrians and whoever was outside just hurried after their business.
The boy wandered through the streets with no particular plan except to meet nobody and to talk to nobody. He avoided puddles of water and held onto his umbrella and avoided running into other people as much as he avoided them running into him, and their dogs.
Then he found himself in front of a bakery. He knew the address, his mother and him visited briefly on their fits day. The bakery shop was full, he was able to see through the shop windows, the lights inside were on because it was so dark outside.
He saw Tom when he peeked from the bakery kitchen, he noticed Sabine at the cash registry and then he saw familiar pigtails of his classmate and the girlfriend of his cousin. She looked tired and distressed and needed time to manoeuvre some pastries in the box and arrange them.
It was easy to observe from afar like this, a normal girl, helping out her parents in the bakery, there was absolutely nothing special about her, yet his cousin, whom everyone considered special, perfect even, fell in love with her.
But then he remembered what he saw, how she fought his uncle and his assistant, well in fact she fought Hawk Moth and Mayura, two supervillains, along his cousin and a few more civilians, and they won, so there was something special about this girl.
Finally, he decided not to be caught staring at the bakery so he continued to walk and stumbled upon a pleasant small park hidden between the streets and blocks of buildings. It would have been a far more pleasant place without the rain, but he ignored it.
The park was exactly what he was looking for, a place void of people, because who went to park when it was raining like this? That hotel was too crowded for his liking, the school was full of people, he needed time and space just for himself.
He walked around the park and watched the path just in front of his feet not to step into a puddle and make it all awkwardly wet with water in his shoes, he listened to the sound of rain on his umbrella and finally he was satisfied and alone.
His heard settled in a steady pace, this night he felt agitated and the night before he woke up just after he fell asleep and felt disturbed and angry as if something was taken from him. It was probably a nightmare, but he forgot the details as soon as he woke up.
He raised his eyes by chance and then he saw her. He wasn't in the park alone after all. Because there, in the dull steady rain of the morning, Kagami practised her moves with a sword that looked much like the aikido sword from what he was able to tell from that distance.
Kagami practised alone, at least she did not have any opponent to practise with, she aimed at raindrops and hit and stroke and turned and stroke again. He found her magnificent to watch, the determination, the strength, the beauty … ahem, he looked to the side for a moment.
Wait, it is not like anyone else knew how he felt, so yes the poetry of her movement, each strike strong and to the point, it looked like dancing, she moved slowly and then quickly completely unaffected by the change in pace that she imposed on herself.
Felix probably stared creepily for some time, his eyes glued to the girl that practised, he was partially hidden by a tree he stood underneath and of course his umbrella and his raincoat. And he smiled, he allowed himself that, because nobody was watching.
Then he noticed slight movement under another tree in the park and glanced that way. He assumed it was another Parisian walking a dog, but there was a woman, a Japanese woman, a woman that was clearly Kagami's mother and her face was turned as if she looked straight at him.
At first, he wanted to take a step back, because he was noticed, because he stared and smiled and was seen, but then he noticed the white stick and the dark glasses on the woman and he released a long relieved breath, she did not see him, she couldn't.
The mother and the daughter exchanged a few words and walked to the exit from the park where a red car was waiting for them. They entered the car and it drove away, and Felix was alone again, but this time he was not happy about it, he missed someone, not to talk to, just to be there.
He took one more breath in and walked back to the hotel, it was time to get some snack, his morning tea and prepare for the fencing tournament. He was going to see her again today. And he was going to win.