No Way Out

Cartwheels, A Way Out, and A Sweet Embrace

The kids were having so much fun that they begged Adrien to let them stay longer. Being more of the 'pushover' parent, he agreed. Then he took the car by himself to go pick up Marinette in the afternoon.

She gave him a kiss after climbing into the car. "You didn't have to pick me up, you know."

"I know, but I wanted to. You work too hard, and you deserve a break every once in a while."

"You're sweet, my Kitty." Marinette looked out the window for a minute before asking a question. "So, what happened?" She didn't need to elaborate any more; they both knew exactly what she meant.

He snorted. "We got pretty into it."

"And?"

"You were right. He hid the Starfish somewhere."

With a sigh, she ran her fingers along his arm. "Did he say anything else?"

"He said a lot of things. Nothing worth repeating."

The remainder of the car ride was quiet. Once they got to the mansion, Adrien led her directly around the side of the house to the garden.

"Hi Mommy!" Emma yelled out, announcing her arrival. "Watch this!" She did a cartwheel, raising her arms into the air in victory afterwards.

"Very nice!"

"I can do one too!" Louis quickly said. He tried to copy his sister but his feet didn't quite make it all the way around. After falling to the ground, he instantly stood up and smiled at her. "See?"

"Amazing!" Marinette laughed.

"Great job, buddy," Adrien added before joining the kids as they ran around doing jumps and handstands.

Marinette went up to Emilie. "Thanks for letting the kids stay here today," she said. "You know they love it."

"The pleasure is all mine. You know how much I enjoy having my babies around. We played games, and had a picnic lunch, and watched the clouds go by, and had a dance party. It was a perfect day," Emilie sighed.

Marinette nodded and covered a yawn. Seeing Gabriel approaching them from the corner of her eye, she turned toward him.

"How was work?" he asked as his greeting.

"It was fine. You know, the usual."

Then there was an awkward lag. Not being able to say what she really wanted to talk about in front of Emilie, Marinette simply stood there instead. After a long twenty seconds, she finally spoke again. "Well, we should get going. We've already imposed too much."

"Not at all!" Emilie insisted. "You could stay here forever as far as I'm concerned."

A laugh. "You say that now, but you'd be singing a different tune after a few days with four crazy kids running around."

She laughed too. "No, that actually sounds great. Don't you think so, Gabriel?"

"It sounds wonderful," he agreed.

Emilie smiled at him before addressing Marinette. "You should have seen Gabriel with the kids. He was laughing and crawling around with them all day. He even played a few rounds of 'hide and seek.' The kids absolutely loved every second of it! I think that they were shocked to see their grandfather act like a ten year old again!"

With the perfect setup, Marinette couldn't resist. "You played 'hide and seek,' huh?" she asked him. "Adrien tells me that you're quite good at that game."

Gabriel only stared at her in response.

"Anyway, we'll be off," she continued after a yawn. She was going to step away but thought of something else. "Oh, and by the way, if you two ever want to go out on a date night, you're welcome to drop Annabelle off at our place. It's always nice to have some alone time. You know, so you can talk."