Maybe There Is Hope

Here Comes Trouble part 2

Chapter 17

Felix’s home was… not what she’d expected. From the street, it had looked pretty similar to the Agreste Mansion: high walls, pointy fences, and security cameras.

But as soon as the gate closed behind them, the similarities ended. The plot was wide, but the actual house was almost tiny. It had two stories and was by all standards still more than enough for two persons, but for a family this rich, it was almost ridiculously modest. The garden was just a bit too messy, the house just a bit too… homely to compare it to Adrien’s. 

“Mum? I’m home.”, Felix said in English as they entered the house, Marinette hurrying after him. The inside of the building was illuminated by sunlight falling through the high windows, tinted green by the leaves of the maple tree outside. There were shelves as long as the diameter of her room covering the walls, filled to the brim with fashion magazines, novels, and poetry collections. One wall was completely plastered with pictures of a sulking, gloomy-looking boy in various stages of childhood. The photographs didn’t look like results of a professional photo shoot, but rather like snapshots of a phone or amateur camera. 

They were utterly adorable.

“Sorry for the mess.”, Felix pulled her out of her reverence. He looked a bit nervous, bordering on embarrassed. It was… cute.

my mother tends to overcompensate by… well, giving the room her personal flair.”

“And I did a damn good job, Mister Misery Guts!” yelled a chirping voice from the stairs in the back

wrapped around her hips?

“You must be Marinette!”, the cheerful woman greeted before basically throwing her arms around the girl. “I’m Evelyn, and so happy to meet you!”

“U-Uh, likewise!”, Marinette stammered back. This woman could only be Felix’s mother, but she was so… different. All hugs and smiles and loud positivity. If she didn’t know better, Marinette would have never guessed the two were even distantly related.

“Mum, remember the talk we had about personal space?”, Felix groaned and shooed her off so Marinette could breathe. Evelyn jumped back immediately.

“Right! Sorry! I’m just so excited. Felix told me so much about you!”

“He- He did?” Marinette asked with a side glance at her friend, who became weirdly stiff next to her.

“How about we have lunch now!”, he all but yelled, his eyes burning into his mother’s with something akin to panic. She shrugged and pouted innocently.

“Sure! It’s not like I would’ve said something embarrassing. But you were right, her nose really is cute!”

“MUM!”

 

Lunch was delicious. After hearing Felix complain about the English cuisine for weeks she’d been a little worried if she was honest. But the Fish and Chips Evelyn presented out of seemingly nowhere were wonderful! And after realizing Evelyn knew all sorts of embarrassing things about her son, Marinette had given Felix the most devilish grin possible, before starting to worm every little detail out of his mother. But her friend didn’t give his dignity up easily, so the meal turned into a verbal battlefield quickly. Marinette’s attempts at revealing yet another embarrassing childhood story were countered by Felix’s creative solution of changing the topic as fast as possible.