Chapter 12
At the commune, Kagami sat on the couch with Adrien lying on her lap both watching their roommates play bowling on the Nintendo. Alix Kubdel, which stood in front of the screen walking backward looked at the group, which consisted of Kim, Marc, Alya and Ivan.
"You want to see how the Kubdel's strike?" Alix asked moving her remote controller forwards aiming the ball inside the TV screen at the ground, which rolled at the pins and took them all down and a bar appeared announcing, that Alix had made a strike.
"Great game!"
"Adrien, aren't you sure you want to join us?" Max asked. "You still got 5 minutes until your cousin arrives,"
"It's okay Max. Thanks for your offer"
"A little advice for your night at the bar" Kim mentioned taking the controller of Alix's hand. "Drink a beer. Don't be a pussy and drink milk or something, that's not alcohol,"
"No I gotta work tomorrow," Adrien answered. "Next weekend,"
"You can just drink a little. It doesn't make you drunk just like that quickly" Kagami mentioned earning a nod from Kim.
"Yeah you're not as week as Nathaniel when it comes to alcohol"
"Hey!" Nathaniel hissed, which stood between Alix and Rose.
"Yeah, I'm not. I'll see about that later,"
"Yeah, and if he gets drunk or acts stupid, I'm there to save his ass" Nino added giving Adrien a thumb up. "Just like you did to me as I mistook someone's girlfriend for the McBurger King's mascot's wife,"
"Oh, good times" Kim mentioned with a smile recalling an image on his head of an angry boyfriend wanting to punch Nino in the face, while Adrien and Kim tried to protect Nino and Ivan calmed the man down.
"When did that happen?" Kagami asked looking curiously at her boyfriend.
"When you were at the ladies' night in Juleka's mother's houseboat,"
"Oh okay"
Someone rang on the doorbell, then Adrien sat up on the couch looking at Kagami and the friends.
"He's here" Adrien mentioned.
"Okay dude, anyone else interested?" Nino asked watching all shake their heads. "What about you Kim?"
"Hey, I've promised to help my team out" Kim answered. "Next time for sure"
"Okay, see you later babe," Nino said giving the journalist a peck on her cheek, then left them back and Adrien got down to Kagami.
"We will be back around 10 pm, I promise," Adrien said making Kagami shake her head.
"You don't need to be back that early. Take the time you need,"
"Okay, but….." Adrien said, then leaned his head next to Kagami's ear to whisper into it. "I had promised you tonight to let you take the lead"
"We can keep it for the Monday morning," Kagami responded with a wink. "To have a great start of the week,"
Adrien chuckled and pressed his lips on hers, then followed Nino leaving the other friends behind.
"Why could I hear him whispering, but every time my mom talks to me normally I don't understand it?" Marc asked making the others shrug their shoulders.
At the exit, Felix stood there waiting for the two friends and welcomed the two in front of the silver-colored Sedan of the Agreste family.
"Gabriel offered to drive us to the bar as he's afterward going to meet someone," Felix told shaking Nino's hand, which got a little bewildered at what Felix told them.
"On this time?" Nino asked earning a nod from the blonde cousin.
"Yes I think it's an old friend of him, I didn't ask him that" Felix added convincing Nino, then the three entered into the back of the car to encounter Gabriel on the driver seat.
"Hey father" Adrien greeted the older man which smiled at seeing the younger adults behind him.
"I hope you don't mind if I bring you to the bar. I have to meet someone and it's a few minutes away from there" Gabriel explained earning a nod from Adrien.
"Sure no problem, father" The Frenchman responded putting the seatbelt on along with the other two young adults.
"Good. Keep your seatbelts on. I'm about to drive off" Gabriel mentioned shifting to the drive option and moved forward with the car leaving the house where the commune of Adrien's friends was.
At the commune Kagami watched the group play against each other, then Alya sat down next to Kagami to join her at the observation.
"How are you two doing so far?" Alya asked. "I've noticed you two were gone last night?"
"We're great" Kagami answered. "Adrien had invited me out for dinner and he gave me this afterward" Kagami explained showing the woman her new necklace with the letters K and A on it.
"Wow, that's really pretty," Alya complimented earning a nod from the blue-haired woman. "He sure must have picked it as he knows you love fencing"
"I think he ordered it to get made like this. He didn't really tell me, where"
"Nice"
"Yes, still it was a lovable thing he did for me," Kagami confessed making Alya smile, then shrieked as Ivan jumped up in the air yelling.
"Take that, Kubdel!"
"Woah, what a strike, Ivan!" Alya complimented watching the repetition of the strike on the flat-screen TV.
"We're only a few turns away from the end. Aren't you sure, you want to play along?" Alix asked. "You can take Nino's controller and play with Alya in the same team?"
"Well I can join along now" Kagami answered getting up from the couch, then Alya handed her out the controller of Nino and they all watched Nathaniel use his game controller to throw the ball, hitting seven out of ten pins.
"Woohoo" The redhead chanted after scoring points for his team.
Adrien, Felix and Nino had arrived at the bar, where they had combined in visiting together. Nino approached the bar, where a few people around their age sat watching the baristas mix drinks for the guests and gazed at a raven-haired man, which spread the made cocktails to a trio of teenage man, which smiled at the barista, that made them.
"Yo dude, show us your skills and make us three of your best shots," Nino ordered earning a nod from the barista.
"Is that the model-friend you talked to me about it in the past?" The barista asked picking up his mixing cups to use them to make the drinks.
"Yeah, this is my best pal Adrien. The well-refined dressed man over there is his cousin Felix" Nino introduced seeing Felix lift his hand up to greet the man neutrally.
"You two are like twins, Adrien" The barista mentioned. "Or am I seeing double?"
"My mother and his mother are twins. We both earned the looks from our mother's side" Adrien explained earning a nod from the man.
"With that look, you two are sure going to find a nice girl tonight" The man mentioned with a wink making Adrien chuckle.
"Thanks, but I already have someone in my life" Adrien answered smiling. "And I'm happy about it,"
"That's fantastic, what about your cousin?"
"Not really" Felix answered. "My last crush rejected me,"
"Oh get to hear that a lot. But hey there are many attractive young girls around your age, a major part of them are single. If you're lucky one of them will like you" The baristas assured the British-descendant man.
"Maybe" Felix responded. "I got time,"
"Yeah don't worry the right girl will come along your way or maybe you already know her like I and Adrien do" Nino explained winking at his best friend which nodded.
"I'm really happy she stood back with me, because of love" Mentioned Adrien leaning his back on the counter. "It's hard to explain in words how it feels. You just know it, when you are going through it,"
"Yes dude. You two have passed through a lot the first months after your mother-in-law's behavior at Kagami's first wedding. But you and Kagami knew what you two wanted,"
"Yes and thanks for everything you did back there. Without you, I wouldn't have found out Kagami would have been stuck for the rest of her life in a household of somebody she didn't ever love nor would she eventually find happiness,"
"I just wanted you to feel better again and you finally were good, when she confessed you, she had fallen in love with you all over again,"
"You're so lucky cousin" Felix pointed out. "I wish I have had that luck too,"
"Just be positive Felix. You're 25. There are people out there, that find their love with 30 or even older," Adrien comforted the blonde, which nodded.
"I have time. At the moment I don't have more plans for the future, than finding a job with a better income,"
"I'm working as a DJ at this bar here. Alya is finishing her journalism education and had her exams two weeks ago. She's now waiting for the results of her exams," Nino explained.
"You're probably thinking about a family, cousin?" Felix asked Adrien, which shrugged his shoulders.
"We're taking one step at a time. We have been only married for like two weeks," Adrien explained earning a nod from the blonde.
"He wants to enjoy the private moments he has with his wife" Nino whispered into Felix's ear, followed by a laugh making Adrien shake his head at Nino's comment. "What? I'm stating true facts"
"I know" Adrien answered, then he looked up at the music boxes as another song began to play, which he recognized. "Hey, that sounds like that song Luka sang the other day at Lila's birthday party,"
"It is, but this one is the original one, which is sung in Italian"
"Sounds cool thought"
"Well, it's the original one after all" Nino answered ironic making Adrien chuckle.
"You know there are songs out there that are even better, than the original ones?" Adrien questioned earning a nod from the Moroccan man.
"Are you two going to dance?" Felix asked watching Nino shrug his shoulders.
"For some reason, we've got here" Nino answered. "But we can also sit here and talk. I don't mind,"
"I'll go to the dancefloor" Adrien mentioned walking at the dance floor to the others, then Nino looked at Felix.
"The drinks are taking a little while. I may as well join him" Felix declared walking to his cousin, joining him and the others dancing. Nino crossed his arms and leaned his back towards the counter watching the two cousins dance to the song.
Several songs later the trio stood around the table drinking while chatting about the evening.
"She called you a liar because you told her you were married?" Nino asked curiously his best friend.
"Yeah. I even showed her my wedding ring and she said it was fake!" Adrien complained showing Nino his wet dress jacket. "She emptied her drink all over my jacket,"
"Makes me think on that girl, that felt insulted in that ambiguous statements clip as a man jokingly complimented his friend's melons and not her breasts," Nino pointed out.
"What kind of video?" Felix asked bewildered at Nino's story.
"That video was made by two influencers, which asked their followers to send funny ideas to do for their videos and one of them was walking around with various objects like a melon, a cucumber of a plush and one of the friend walked secretly behind strange people, while the second influencer came towards their victims for the video mentioning the object in an ambiguous way, waiting for their reaction afterward it's revealed the object and the two influencers keep talking as if nothing happened," The Morrocan told his best friend's cousin. "Two girls there speaking in French from Switzerland, but acted like they were Parisian"
"Oh, I've seen that a lot in London, to be honest,"
"Some people's behavior are strange to me" Adrien mentioned. "Should I try to wash it off?"
"Maybe if you use soap, it works?" Felix suggested. "To be honest, I have no idea how to do the laundry"
"I try it out" Adrien mentioned. "Be right back"
"Sure dude" Nino answered watching Adrien head to the toilets, then he looked at the cousin, which watched Adrien go away.
"Do those restrooms more, than one toilet?" Felix asked earning a nod from Nino.
"Yes. Four Urinals and three cabins" Nino answered earning a thumb up from the blonde.
"Thanks. I'll be right back" Felix announced following his cousin into the bathroom, where he encountered Adrien holding the jacket under the running water tap and Felix walked at the end of the restroom, where there was a closed window and Felix opened the window to put his head out to look at a parking spot with cars.
"Good idea to open the window" Adrien mentioned. "It's pretty hot inside the room there"
"I didn't expect there was a window in this restroom, but thank goodness there is" Felix mentioned keeping his head out. "Are you managing to get the stain off your jacket?"
"A little bit" Adrien responded. "In any way, I have to let it get washed by the wash machine"
"Probably" Felix agreed taking from his pants his smartphone, then opened an unnamed phone number and typed down a message. "I opened a window from where I can see the parking spot. Get ready"
"This question is kind of random, but how did you and Nino meet?" Felix added. "You two are kind of different from each other,"
"He sort of offered me on my first school day his friendship as he heard Chloé was the only good friend I had," Adrien told. "Since then we've been inseparable"
"That's great" Felix confessed putting his hand on the pocket of his pants to take out a small bottle with no seal on it and he walked into the cabin of the toilet to take out a bit of toilet paper. "Is Nino your only best friend or do you have more?"
"Well I see Kagami as my best friend too," Adrien noticed. "Does that count too?"
"Sure it does" Felix responded opening the bottle to spread over the paper the transparent liquid on it, then approached Adrien slowly while he continued to rib with his hand over the stain.
"I believe it's getting better," Adrien pointed out, then Felix dodged the blonde and stood beside him pretending he was going to check out the stain on his jacket.
"It looks better" Felix answered. "Why don't you continue?"
"I try for one more minute, afterward I leave" Adrien explained. "I came here to have fun with you and Nino, right?"
"Sure cousin" Felix responded and Adrien's smartphone beeped receiving a message, then Adrien looked down at his smartphone afterward he took it out to see an image of Kagami sharing a hot cup of cocoa with Alya and Myléne.
"It's from Kagami,"
"At least they're having a nice evening too" Felix added. "By the way. How is Kagami like? You know as a person to you? What made you like her?"
Adrien sighed enamored with the question and took his smartphone back.
"Well….she's one of the most strong personalities I have ever come across. She's really friendly and endearing when you get to know her really well. Kagami was the first person to understand me and like me for the real me, the one I could never be around my father or the fanbase,"
"What was the best thing she has ever done to you?" Felix asked standing behind the blonde holding the paper up preparing to use it while waiting for Adrien to respond to the question.
"That's a hard question…...I would say….she allowed me to stay in her life and be her husband" Adrien responded thinking about his wife, then Felix took the opportunity as he caught Adrien distracted with his thoughts and covered his mouth with the paper shrieking Adrien which saw what Felix was doing to him and tried to push his arms away, but Felix wrapped his free arm around Adrien tighter to ruin Adrien's chances to fight him, afterward Felix had left Adrien to fall down followed by hitting his head on the lavatory. Felix gazed down at his unconscious cousin, then he moved him aside to see him with the eyes closed, then picked up his smartphone to look for Gabriel's smartphone number and on that time from the outside he heard a familiar noise from a vehicle, then he gazed out of the window to see Gabriel getting out of the car.
"I knocked him out temporarily. This will be enough to at least have him out from here"
"Okay be quick, we can't be seen here" Gabriel ordered, then Felix tried to pull Adrien up by under his arms, then tried to push him up at the window and Gabriel tried to pull Adrien by his arms.
"Why did you have to use violence?" Gabriel asked surprised as he noticed Adrien was injured over his right eyebrow.
"I used the alcohol as I've seen in the movies. I wasn't expecting he would hit his head on the lavatory!"
"Okay, it doesn't matter now. Be quick"
"I'm trying!" Felix complained pushing Adrien by his legs out of the window, therefore Gabriel managed to catch Adrien and dropped him in the trunk of the Sedan and closed the door.
Felix jumped out of the window and got into the vehicle, so Gabriel could drive off leaving the building back.
Ten minutes later they parked their car on the side of the road on the parking spot behind an identical vehicle, then Felix quickly left the car along with Gabriel, then Felix looked up at the surroundings, which he didn't recognize.
"Where are we?"
"Far away from trouble don't worry. I just stopped her cause I needed to know, what's next on our list"
"Well, I need to rearrange my hair to look like Adrien, then I need to convince anyone to pretend to have an affair with me and have pictures taken"
"And you think any woman around the city would just accept your idea?" Gabriel asked a little bewildered at his plan. "You know the chances of a woman doing that is as rare as honesty in the politics?"
"We can always pay them money?"
"I think the smartest idea would be to organize someone like a prostitute, which really does it for money or someone who looks like a regular citizen,"
"What about the ones, that live on the streets?"
"Well, they're not as hard to convince as others I guess," Gabriel responded. "Look, here in the near, there's a bridge, where most of the homeless persons are. We could check it out there"
"It's worth a try" Felix answered thinking about Gabriel's suggestion. "Is it far? If not it's better if we go by foot. You know in case of a police control or anything"
"Good thinking Felix" Gabriel responded, then they ran together along the sidewalk towards the next corner disappearing and after a few minutes a tow truck appeared coming from the direction Felix and Gabriel went and the vehicle exchanged road to stop behind the car of Gabriel. From the truck, two young men got out of the while chatting with each other and the youngest man jumped on the vehicle to release the cords.
"I'm glad I'm working this week only and then I'm gone for good," The younger man said looking at the two cars, that stood on the parking spot of the road. "Hilarious how identically those two cars are,"
"It's funny how half of the cars we've seen here from the rich guys are German vehicles," The second man said moving a handle on the back of his tow truck to lift down the platform into a diagonal position.
"They're very good cars after all. No wonder these rick jocks all got them"
"It's interesting to know, that this Mr. Raffelberger had the luck to stop right here,"
"Some are lucky, others are unlucky. Heinz had the misfortune to break down in the middle of the highway and nearly was crashed by another car which was around the 180 km,"
"That was big luck," The young man said attaching the hooks under the back of the car. "Come on, Eren. Let's get this car up" The young man asked watching his work pal get up on the platform to assist the man on securing the vehicle to get it pulled up.