Chat Out of the Bag?

chapter 18

Felix was with his beloved mother on the way to see his cousins and his not so beloved uncle. It was his aunt's death day so they were going to spend the day with his cousins remembering his deceased aunt.

He had three important things he wanted to accomplish during this visit. The first was cheering up his cousins. The second was getting the twin rings back from his uncle and lastly was convincing his cousins to leave Paris and come to London with him.

Adrien and Lucia deserved better than their father that barely pays attention to them.

The looming Agreste mansion was in front of them. It felt colder now that Felix's Aunt Emilie was no longer there.

His mother entered first and she hugged Adrien and commented on how big he was getting. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. Lucia hopped in place excitedly and hugged his mother. "Auntie Amelie, I haven't seen you in forever," said the little girl.

"You can't be this big already Lucia. I refuse to believe it," she replied.

The little girl giggled and continued to hug her aunt.

"Felix," said Adrien excitedly.

Felix walked over and offered his hand to Adrien. Adrien ignored his hand and hugged him instead.

"Felix!"

That was the only warning he got before Lucia leaped into his arms. She hugged him tight and would not let go.

Felix shifted his hold on Lucia so he could shake his uncle's hand. "Uncle."

His uncle ignored his hand. "You know your uncle has never been the physical type," said his mom to ease the tension.

She gushed about how much Felix and Adrien looked aliked and how big everyone got. She then asked about the family rings which got his uncle testy. His uncle ordered Adrien to take Felix to his room. With his little cousin in his arms they went up the stairs to Adrien's room.

"I missed you so much! I haven't seen you since your papa was sleeping in that weird box," said Lucia.

She had finally relinquished her hold on Felix and was bouncing happily in the bed. The little girl had been staying with relatives at the time so she went to the funeral while her father and brother did not attend.

Adrien apologied for not going and try to think of fun things to do together. "Do you want to have a basketball competition like old times," he asked as he passed the ball to Felix who effortlessly threw the ball into the basket behind him without looking.

"Goal," shouted Lucia happily.

Adrien laughed, "That's for football not basketball."

Felix smiled at their antics. He had missed his cousins but now was not the time to be distracted. He needs to convince them that living in Paris with their father is a bad idea and somehow get the twin rings from his uncle.

He hugged Adrien and asked if he still had the chess set they always play with. During the hug he took Adrien's phone from his pocket. He might be able to find something on there to convince him to leave Paris. Lucia shouldn't be too hard to convince because of her age.

Adrien went to find the chest set and cards for them to play with and Lucia said she wanted to show him her dolls. He started snooping around the room while Adrien was distracted. He found some cheese and was going to put it under his pillow.

"Don't touch Pla..ugy," said a little voice behind him.

Felix underestimated how long it would take Lucia to get her dolls.

"Plaugy?"

"That's the cheese's name," she replied with the self confidence that children tended to have, "I saw how to make cheese on tv and I put it there for safe keeping."

Lucia had seemed to master her father's patented 'disappointed in you look' and gave it to Felix. He put the cheese back where he found it and sat on the bed next to Lucia. He wouldn't get much snooping done with her watching him. He had to think of a way to get things done where Lucia couldn't disturb him. Lucia showed him her handmade superhero dolls. She mentioned a girl named Marinette made them.

Once Adrien found his chess set and some cards, Felix made the excuse that he wanted to shower and if he could borrow some clothes. Adrien readily agreed and told him to make himself at home.

Felix turned on the water to hide the noise he might make. He took out the phone he took from Adrien and scoffed when it didn't even have a password to it. Once he accessed it he realized that it couldn't be Adrien's phone. It had too many photos of random animals and Lucia with random little girls.

Did Lucia switch the phones when he wasn't looking? No that was absurd obviously Adrien was holding his sister's phone since her dress didn't have pockets. Maybe he carried his phone in his jacket pocket and he just missed it.

He decided to continue looking through Lucia's phone because she might have something he could use to convince the siblings to leave Paris.

The only things he learned was that Lucia had met the heroes of Paris before and took pictures with them and that Lucia had a knack of finding cats in every part of Paris. He sighed and gave up trying to find anything useful on Lucia's phone. He took a shower and dressed in some of Adrien's clothes.

Lucia noticed him first and started giggling. "You like Adrien!"

"We always had fun with our twin act when we were younger so I thought it might make you happy," replied Felix.

Lucia asked what twins were and Adrien explained it to her.

"Oh, like maman and auntie Amelie or like Ella and Etta! They are fun to play with but can be really loud," said Lucia happily.

Adrien told Felix to sit next to him and showed him his phone. Felix noticed that the siblings had the same style phones so it added to his theory that Adrien was holding his sister's phone for her.

"My friends sent me videos and I wanted to watch them together with the two of you," said Adrien.

Lucia sat on Adrien's lap and tapped on his phones to start the videos. The videos had different people taking turns telling Adrien that they were there for him if he needed them. A girl in pigtails appeared but before she could say anything the video glitched. Adrien looked so happy that his classmates messaged him and tried to make him feel better.

Felix wished that he had gotten Adrien's phone instead of Lucia's. He could have deleted the messages or caused a rift between Adrien and his classmates. They would never understand Adrien like he did. He was the only one that knew what it was like to have your free will taken. Felix wasn't completely sure if Lucia was like him and Adrien but he would protect her too.

Felix had to find a way to get his cousins to leave Paris and be safe and happy with him and his mother in London.

Felix played a few rounds of chess with Adrien while Lucia sat in the corner whispering with her dolls. His mother knocked on the door and said that they were going out for lunch soon.

"Adrien put your phone in my purse. It will be nice and comfy there," said Lucia as she put her black cat purse on Adrien's chest.

Adrien put his cell in the bag and Lucia held the purse like it held a great treasure in it.

"By the way I found this cell on the floor by the bed," lied Felix.

"Thank you Felix," said Lucia as she carefully put her phone in her purse.

They walked downstairs to find Felix's mom and Natalie by the doors.

"Mr. Agreste will be unable to accompany you to lunch," said Natalie.

Felix was angry at his uncle for not even putting aside his work to be with his family today of all days.

They were driven to an upscale restaurant to eat lunch.

The food didn't arrive yet before Lucia said she had to use the bathroom. She gave her purse to Adrien and Natalie took her to the restroom. As soon as they left, people started yelling.

"Akuma!"

The restaurant then erupted into chaos.