Hosting
The class plus Kagami went more or less straight towards Liberty after the fencing tournament. Of course, they made a few stops for food and beverages and perhaps goofed around a bit, made a selfie or two, avoided a few fans that they met. The weather was finally clearing.
"Welcome to Liberty!" Anarka's voice would have echoed over the river if there was no city noise in the background. Luka smirked at his mother's antics. She practically threw herself on Adrien and Marinette. "Our heroes!" She grinned widely as she pulled them both in a hug.
"Thank you Mme Couffaine." Adrien beamed.
"Thank you Anarka." Marinette nudged him with her elbow, she knew the procedure.
"Call me Anarka, please! You can call me the captain if you want but no Mme for me." She winked. Her hair was tied with a colourful scarf and she indeed looked like a pirate on that boat in the seine, littered with instruments, wooden boxes used for sitting and other stuff.
"Thank you captain Anarka." Adrien had that crooked grin while he looked at the woman and then at the shy girl by his side. They were bot arrested in the woman's arms while she held them in heartfelt but also crushing hug.
"Dear boy, you are always welcome here, any time and for whatever you need. Feel free to make yourself at home here." She declared. "And if you need to hide away and protect yourself from all those fans, come here, Anarka knows what to do with those."
The rest of the class scaled the board and boarded the boat while the woman was busy fussing over Adrien for his awful father and poor mother and whatnot. Marinette was not let go, so both of them were rather busy, if not literally taken.
Alya was making a video of the whole show and her laughs and cries probably encouraged Anarka to continue, while Luka and Juleka looked slightly embarrassed by their extrovert mother, they both supported her claims when called for.
"Come on!" Kagami stepped on the board before Felix and walked with confidence over the board then finally determinedly jumped to the deck. Her hair flew around her face before it settled to frame her, it glowed in the sun and the girl turned back to the boy and smiled.
Luka was by her side and greeted her warmly, like an old friend, and Kagami actually smiled back, openly, and that was what made Felix frown. Apparently those two knew each other rather well if Kagami was able to open up so much (well so uncharacteristically).
Felix realized his error when he stepped on the board, he was not scared or anything, he was just taken by surprise, so much so that he forgot to take the first step and offer his hand to the girl on her way down to the deck, not to let her go first, that was the gentlemanly way to do.
The ship moved slightly and the board beneath him moved unexpectedly but the boy kept balance easily and landed on the deck with elegance. Kagami watched him with admiration, although her face did not show much of the expression. She looked cold while she looked at him.
Felix intended to change that, why was Adrien able to make Marinette to blush in mere seconds and nobody was doing that for Felix, he wanted someone whom he would be able to turn red in an instant and Chloe was a wrong choice, but with Kagami, he was willing to try.
Juleka advised Felix not to wear his usual boarding school clothes to the boat if he was able to help himself, but he wasn't, he was inclined to disobey and wanted to be different than Adrien if he was able to help it, he wanted to be himself, so he boarded liberty in shirt, vest and a tie.
Of course, Anarka allowed complete liberty in the choice of clothing on Liberty so suit and tie was not actually forbidden (well she would have allowed even more liberty than was legally possible but officer Roger Raincomprix was never too far from the boat so some decency was implied).
"My, oh, my! What do we have here?" Anarka let go of Adrien and Marinette and walked over to the boy. "What are you? A bank manager? A lawyer? A parliament representative? A naval inspector? Because all my accounts and licences are valid!"
Felix took pride in his appearance and stood tall, there was no way for him to give in to this kind of provocation and even attempt to defend himself or his choice of clothing. But then he had an idea, of course he had. He stood straight and tall and even more stiff than usual.
"Actually, the City Hall administrative staff just realized you never submitted permit OX-04 as stipulated in the circular Y-42 issued by office Z-20, Monday to Friday from nine to nine thirty, which means you don't have a permit to anchor by the embankment in any arrondissement in Paris." He spoke quickly with as much of authority as the boy could muster.
Anarka looked at the boy, her eyes were glowing, she almost snorted at his antics, the keyword almost, she managed to restrain herself. Her eyes never left Felix's and it was obvious she was having fun, to anyone but Felix, all he saw was a woman with fire in her eyes.
"Well then, pull in the board, pull up the anchor, raise the mainsail me deck hands let's get swashbuckling around here." She ordered. Juleka's eyes went wide for a moment, she got scared that her mother got akumatized again, but then she recognized the joke.
The board was pulled, the ropes and the anchor raised and Luka was trying to raise the sail, Adrien stepped in to try and help before the rest of the boys joined in. Felix looked around at what was going on slightly baffled, the deck underneath was moving lightly.
"Steer this ship towards the middle of the river, let us not be tied to anything, this is Liberty!" Anarka exclaimed and watched Felix's reaction. She saw how the boy frantically searched around for something, anything as his classmates obviously had fun, but then he turned his attention back.
"Are you in possession of permit OX-24 not older than three months issued at the third floor of the naval office according to the item YO-4, article 6 of the code of conduct Z4? Otherwise you are not allowed to navigate the changing waters of the Seine on Saturdays." The boy shot back while barely able to hid an amused smile.
Juleka and Rose steered the boat in rather boat free area while the boys actually managed to raise one sail, at least sufficiently for decorative purposes. Kagami looked at the exchange while her lips twitched into an amused smile.
"Lo and behold, I am not in possession of permit OX-24 not older than three months issued at the third floor of the naval office according to the item YO-4, article 6 of the code of conduct Z4! This is Liberty and we are sailing untied by administration!" Anarka exclaimed.
Well, that was another challenge. Anarka was about to burst into laughter, she barely contained it in her, but her stance, with her hands that gripped her hips while her face was stiffened by her attempts not to laugh actually looked rather angry.
"In that case, I have no choice but to issue you a fine of violating the item X-22 of Article Y-17 code Z-48. You are required to …" Felix recited further. Kagami was unable to hold the laugher any more and she giggled and hid behind her hand. Everyone around them was gasping for air.
Anarka finally burst out laughing so hard that officer Raincomprix might be tempted to measure that volume. The rest of the group joined in, even Kagami was laughing much louder now. The bubble was burst, there was no going back to pretend they were serious.
Felix was confused, he was supposed to be the one who laughed first after he revealed the joke not the other way around. At least he thought so. He pouted for a moment before he schooled himself in a stern expression that was to show he wasn't amused at all.
"Come on, you won!" Anarka nudged the boy with a gentle punch of her fist into his shoulder. The boy looked at his shoulder and pretended to remove some invisible dust. The woman laughed even harder at that and finally his lips disobeyed and twitched a little.
"This is my cousin Felix" Adrien stepped in to do the introductions. He was concerned about that day and what his cousin was a bout to pull, his last prank was not forgotten yet.
"And this is Juleka's mother, Anarka Couffaine!" Adrien continued with the introductions and stepped in between the two. He watched his cousin with a warning in his eyes.
"And I am Juleka's brother, Luka." The boy offered his had for Felix to shake. The blonde boy in a vest and tie observed the other boy carefully, he should have expected that anyone who was Juleka's brother was supposed to look exactly like this, for him it was such a cliché.
But Felix relented and offered a handshake, he was raised better than that. And he did not take any rings this time, he scoffed (internally) at their design. This was a boy whom Kagami greeted so warmly (and vice versa) and Felix chose not to like him at all.
Anarka finally ordered for the boat to be anchored so that the kids could go about their intended business, which was, according to her, to play music as loud as allowed (and perhaos a few decibels more just to annoy officer Raincomprix because that was Liberty).
"We are actually here to do some homework." Juleka muttered quietly to her mother. They both knew it was an excuse to be allowed to spend a day hanging out with friends, it worked just as well for the boat's captain.
"Yeah, we need to analyse a love poem, each." Rose piped in excitedly and showed all the enthusiasm that she had for the subject, several people from the class hoped that rose picked up a few extra poems for them to use in their homework.
"So we were thinking, the girls could go downstairs in the cabin while you boys can stay over here on the deck." Alya proposed. She nudger Marinette in the process and the said girl blushed right on schedule, of course her best friend used her hand her boyfriend as an excuse.
"Why can't we all stay here?" Mylenne demanded and wrapped her hands around Ivan's arm. The boy looked at his girlfriend as if he already suffered from separation anxiety, but only for a moment before a glare from Alya made them separate.
"Does anyone have any ideas to share?" Alix asked, a tablet already in her hands, she was ready to start wherever and whenever anyone would just drop the ball in her courtyard, ahem actually chose a poem for her.
"Hey Kagami, why don't we let these guys deal with their homework, I have this new tune I'd like to play for you." Luka proposed to the girl.
Kagami smiled and nodded while Felix glared at the older boy, but Luka ignored him completely.
"Actually, I was kind of hoping to get some help from Kagami." Felix countered.
"What help?" Kagami asked politely.
"Well if I am to analyse a love poem … " He trailed off, if he admitted that he hoped to have her by his side when he analysed a love poem then he would admit to much more than he was ready, and even before the crowd of his whole class.
That was far more than he intended to admit and judging from their faces, some of them already guessed or according to him dared to assume that the boy had feelings for his fencing partner (which was a bold assumption, he wasn't into that).
"Actually, I was hoping to get some help from Kagami too." Kim, of all people cut in. There were gasps of surprise and horror. Everyone looked at the large boy while he took a step closer to Kagami and smiled. Max nudged the boy with a warning look in his eyes. Kim nodded back.
"I'm sorry to trouble you with this … " Kim spoke something he obviously practised, turned towards Max, received a nod to continue, then he turned back. "I'm just a bit … well … please don't take this the wrong way … " Kim glanced towards Max again and he nodded.
Kagami had her usual serious face as she paid undivided attention towards the huge boy and waited patiently for him to pronounce whatever he wanted from her. For such a huge sporty boy, he as sure hesitated too much for her taste.
"Please, do you know any love haiku I could analyse? I'm bad in literature as it is and I'd really prefer not to do anything longer." Kim smiled, his hands joined almost as if he was begging, he was sincere, and lazy, he checked with Max who only shrugged.
"How dare you?" Felix snarled and surprised Kagami, well he surprised everyone by reacting at all, but she was the closest to him and she actually twitched at his raised voice. Felix looked livid and ready to jump on the much larger opponent, but Kagami took his hand.
"It is okay." Kagami replied calmly to Felix first and then turned towards Kim. "I could help you with that, but you would have to find a proper translation. Most of haiku is about nature, but there is love hidden between those lines."
Felix glared at the boy and took deep breaths, it was unlike him to react that way. Because his huge classmate asked his girlfriend to help him with love haiku, of all things, just because she was Japanese! Stop! Rewind! His what? No no no, his friend, Kagami was his friend.
Kagami needed a minute to find an example and even one translation and let Kim deal with the rest while she never let go of Felix's hand. The boy stared at their hands, she gave him a ride, they had ice cream, they held hands, were they dating? And why didn't he notice that before?
The blonde boy stood there and observed Kagami with new eyes, he watched her while she searched her phone, he observed while she showed the author and the title to Kim, and then he lowered his eyes and noticed their holding hands, he stared at those hands surprised.
When did this happen? He was not some pathetic teenager who dreamed about love day and night, first love, second love, a kiss in the moonlight or a janitor's closet, holding hands while walking into school together, or on a friend's boat, she smelled nice, he noticed, what was going on?
However, the haiku was found, the girls descended in the cabin below deck, the boys already settled onto the deck and got deep into whatever they were searching, Kim gratefully thanked Kagami for his help and Luka was there to take Kagami away.
"Did you want me to find another haiku for you?" Kagami offered because the boy was not letting go of her hand. It was a kind, polite and sincere offer, she was ready to make friends and she had Marinette as an example, always ready to help others, well almost anyone.
"No, I would do nothing less than a Shakespeare sonnet." Felix replied proudly. He produced a book from his bag, it was a small book meant to be carried around (and probably read to significant others in romantic settings), it belonged to his mother.
"Well, I will leave you to your bard. This shouldn't take too long and allow you to do your homework." Kagami made a firm nod and retrieved her hand. Then she turned towards Luka and they went together to the bow of the boat while the rest of the group remained at the stern.
Felix observed the boys, apparently they were actually working on their homework, wrote down the verses and few of them even began to analyse.
Adrien had that stupid lovesick expression on his face, he was probably thinking of Marinette, as if she was not just a few meters away and they just separated a minute ago.
Ivan was deep into a poem that probably him and Mylenne decided on together, or maybe it was a surprise for the girl.
Nino had his headphones on, his head moved in the rhythm of the music while he scribbled down something in the notebook.
Unsurprisingly, Nathaniel was drawing, he clearly did not intend to do any analysis of any love poem here on the boat. The boy probably did it already during his session with Marc in the library or some other similar occasion.
Max discussed something with Markov. The boy and the robot were suspiciously close to the stairs that lead to the living room part of the cabins. Felix suspected that Max maybe eavesdropped on the girls, but the conversation between them had too many percentages for that.
Felix looked at his empty paper from the notebook and his copy of the sonnets. He really intended to do this while on the boat, but apparently he was missing the essential ingredient, and that ingredient was a girl that currently sat at the bow of this ship and listened to some other guy playing a guitar.
With determination, Felix got to his feet and decided to walk over there. He opened his small book ( to a page marked generations ago. Luka had just finished playing the melody and Felix stepped in and read the lines without any introduction.
"Wow" Luka said with admiration once Felix finished. "You really read it nicely, one can hear you heart and soul in it." Felix stared at Kagami at first but his eyes flicked towards Luka while the boy was speaking and he saw the fire in the boy's eyes and the honest admiration on his face.
"Thank you Felix, that was a nice poem." Kagami replied politely. She smiled, well the corners of her lips twitched upwards, and was that a blush? Unaware of his own pink cheeks, Felix was satisfied, he was able to finish his homework now.