Caught In A Storm

Chapter XXIV

The knock on the door resonated in his large bedroom, waking him up from one of his first nihts with good sleep since he had arrived. The curtains were still drawn shut, hindering the sunlight to stream into the room and wake up the Heir to the Kingdom. It had been the first good night sleep he had had in more than a couple a months. He groaned into his huge pillow, burying his face into the red silk sheets, hoping to fall back asleep back again and hide from his duties as a prince, fiancé to Chloé Bougeois and mostly from his duties as future husband and future king.

"Prince Agreste? The tailors are in your salon. They would like to start with the fitting." The valet explained after knocking on the door repeatedly on the door, before leaving the prince alone in his chambers.

Reluctantly Adrien threw the covers off his body and made his way to his bathroom. He brushed his teeth. He wanted to be angry that everybody was getting ready for his marriage, but the huge smile on his face couldn't be whipped away. Even if he was brushing his teeth and the toothpaste as starting to drip unto his chin, he couldn't help but smile. He took his time to get ready and dressed appropriately. Before going out of his room, he doubled-checked that he had safely hidden the gift box he had received less than a day ago.

With a beaming smile, he made his way down the hallway of his private apartments, heading towards his salon. He didn't catch the curious looks he got from the valets as they saw the first smile in months on his face.

Outside the bright sun of April as shining inside the salon, making all the golden designs and fancy fabrics form the tailors. The tailors were running around the room, rearranging all of their fabrics and working utensils, hoping to order everything before the Prince would come. The doors suddenly opened, making the tailors freeze and the Prince entered.

The sun blinded him at first, but once his eyes adjusted to the light, his smile faltered. Seeing so many fabrics, he knew this was going to take all day. His eyebrows furrowed slightly as he shot an uncertain look around the room, the corner of his lips slowly falling to form a tired pout.

An old man walked up to him and bowed as he heard the doors close behind him.

"Prince Agreste. It is an honour to help prepare you for your wedding." The man said as everybody in the room bowed. Adrien cleared his throat uneasily.

"Thank you for coming." Adrien answered even the words sounded off and bitter coming out of his mouth. The tailors ushered around the room to gather everything they needed to first take his measures.

"Please, Prince. If you would like to stand right here... We would like to start by taking our measurements, if you have nothing against it of course." The old, bald man asked as he pushed his small glasses on his nose as they kept falling of his nose due to his heavy sweating. Adrien shook his head before heading towards where he was asked to stand.

Someone else started to measure him, starting with his shoulders, waist and hips. He kind of felt sad for them. Sad that they would put so many hours into their work, tailoring everything to perfection, hoping the wedding day would be perfect and that maybe one day the Royals would call for their help for another grand event like the marriage of the next Heir to the Throne. He felt sad, but it was not as if he could tell them his plans. Nobody would know until it was too late.

The tailors, who Adrien noticed were all men, pushed him under the beams of the sun and nearly suffocated him as they held up different fabrics, with different shades of white or colourful fabrics up to his face to see if they matched the colour of his skin and made him look better than he already looked. They kept arguing, completely ignoring the Prince, who kept sighing or coughing as the dust form the fabrics tickled his throat.

At some point as the sun began to set, the tailors had made their choice. They had barely asked for Adrien's opinion, but it's not like the Prince cared very much.

After the tailors left, dinner was brought to him directly in his salon. He ate in silence, but the smile started to tickle the corner of his mouth again. He finished all of his plate the first time in months.

The Dupain-Chengs were seated around their small dining table. Sabine Cheng was slowly pouring soup into their respective plates, whereas Tom Dupain was cutting a loaf of bread into pieces and started to put some butter on his piece of bread, savouring the amazing taste of something so simple. As he reached for another piece of bread, having already devoured his piece, Sabine slapped his hand away.

"Tom, we are civilized here! Eat your soup first." She gently chastised, watching her husband's hand sloyl retreat to grab his spoon.

They looked at one another as they say their daughter hunched over soup, barely lifting the spoon up to her mouth. She had barely looked at them since they had come back.

"So... Marinette. How's Alya?" Sabine asked, trying to get her daughter to communicate with them.

"I don't know..." Marinette mumbled, not making her mother's task easier to get her daughter to talk to them.

"Well... I don't know if you heard the news here, since we were told the village was been under huge layers of snow, but the Prince is getting married. You know? Prince Adrien?" Her mother said with a bright smile. She was happy to have lived for the second Royal marriage. Sabine froze as Marinette's spoon fell out of her hand and clattered loudly against her plate. Marinette quickly picked it up and took a spoon-full of soup trying to act as if nothing important had happened.

"I heard he is a very handsome man and with great manners." Her mother continued not realising how tense her daughter was." I didn't hear much about Marquise Bourgeois, but if she is to be the future Queen, I assume she must be a wonderful lady." Marinette started shaking like a leaf. She willed her body to control itself, but she couldn't stop the tears from falling.

"Marinette, dear. Is everything alright?" Her father asked, interrupting his wife, who hadn't paid attention to their daughter and had continued talking about the royal marriage and all the information she had gathered form the trip to see family. Their family lived near the capital and had much more information on all the Royals than the did here at the border.

Marinette quickly wiped her tears away and continued to hide behind her bangs.

"Did I say something to upset you?" Her mother asked concerned. Marinette quickly shook her head and tried to cover her face with her loose bangs.

Her parents looked at one another perplexed not knowing what caused this reaction out of their daughter. But it was the first time she has been showing an emotion since the day they had arrived.

Before her parents could say anything else, Marinette stood up and ushered into her bedroom, locking the door behind her. She fekt the need to barricade herself from her family and mostly her feelings.

Her parents were still seated at the dining table, perplexed and puzzled by their daughter's reaction.

***

Eat chocolate !