I will love again

Part 74 - Where are those the akumas when you need them?

Though Tom and Sabine were rather surprised by the sudden invitation for the Christmas dinner, they of course agreed and stood in front of the mansion at six o'clock straight on the evening of the 25th.

As they rang the door bell, they were shocked, to see Gabriel come to the gate to let them inside himself.

"Welcome and happy Christmas!", he exclaimed cheerfully, making Tom narrow his brows.

"What happened? Did the children do anything stupid? Are you now trying to bail them out?", he asked suspiciously.

"Why don't we just go inside and don't start to accuse each other on the street already?", Sabine suggested and nudged her husband forward to enter the house.

After taking their jackets, Gabriel showed them to the dining room, forgetting completely, that they had already been here for Christmas a couple of years ago.

"Why don't you just have a seat?", Nathalie, who was already sitting on her chair, asked.

The couple nodded.

"Where are the children?", Sabine asked curiously.

"Oh, they insisted on taking care of Hélène for the afternoon, while 'Gabriel' himself took care of dinner. Luckily, Marinette helped him, or we would have ordered some take away by now!", the pregnant woman chuckled.

"Mom, Dad!", Marinette blurted out, as she saw her parents taking place at the large table. She was balancing the toddler on her hip, who couldn't wait to get to her mother.

"Mummy!", she cried out happily and with a shrill tone.

"Hey my little napkin!", Nathalie exclaimed, to then facepalm. "Now I'm already doing it too!"

Marinette giggled.

"Well, to be honest, she said herself, that she wanted to be called napkin. And she loves it! Right my little napkin?"

"Yeeeeaaahhhhh! NAPKIN!", Hélène squealed loudly.

The Dupain-Chengs just shook their heads to that.

Now the young girl, who was followed by her very pale boyfriend hugged her parents.

Then Adrien did too.

"Welcome, Tom and Sabine, we're very glad, that you could make it that quickly!"

"Well, Marinette sounded so secretive on the phone, that we just had to come as fast as possible!", Tom said with a threatening tone.

Sabine shoved her elbow into his side.

"Stop jumping to conclusions Tom. Maybe it's not, what you're already thinking it is!", she hissed.

The big man sighed and nodded.

"Fine", he uttered, "I'll wait for them to talk then!"

Marinette and Adrien gave each other a worried look.

"Why don't we just sit down and eat first?", Gabriel now called out to them while he pushed a cart with their dinner inside, a plate for each already prepared on it.

They all ate in silence, except for the pregnant teenager who was only poking in her food, now and then forcing herself to put a piece into her mouth, when Tom or Sabine were watching her closely.

"Sweetheart, are you sick? You're not eating like I'm used to!", Sabine all of a sudden questioned.

The girl looked up petrified.

"Oh, I'm fine, just too much cooking over the last two days. I'll do it just like yesterday and raid the fridge at night!", she explained sheepishly. "But that reminds me of something, would you please excuse me for a minute or two?"