Alex handed Eleonore the letter, well, more accurately, she snatched it away as soon as he came inside. He hadn't even closed the door and she not so subtly took it straight away from his hand, opening the letter in a fast pace, almost ripping it.
"Hello to you too." Alex wondered if there was anyone polite left in the world anyway.
"Adrien has such a fancy handwriting..." She admired once more, reading the letter with her purple eyes.
"He's good at basically everything, for some reason." He answered her, always finding that fact astonishing.
"He still won't say he loves me." She pouted, took out a lighter and started to burn the letter casually.
Alex, after some time, got used to her burning paper randomly. She never lit anything on fire, so he just hoped she would continue not lighting anything on fire. She let everything burn as she dropped it on the floor, making sure it doesn't have a carpet.
"But you know he does, right?" He questioned, sitting across her.
She grinned and laughed out loud, nodding energetically at the question.
"He couldn't be more obvious." She went to sit on the bed where Mia usually was, looking at the home made posters he had.
"Why do you want him to tell you then?" He decided to grab a glass of milk while he watched Eleonore talk.
"It sounds better. Also, who's gonna challenge him if it's not me?" She pointed at herself, a smug grin.
Alex felt very connected to Eleonore even if he knew her for only a week. She was so likable and talkative, honest and just fun to be around. She made him laugh a lot and no matter how much she talked, it looked like she didn't have energy to lose. He was shocked that Adrien was with a woman like this, but when he thought about it, it all made perfect sense.
"That Mia girl you keep talking about had talent for drawing." She commented, looking at the home made band posters she drew.
"She had a lot of talent in a lot of stuff..." Alex mumbled softly, remembering her with a sad smile.
"But no motivation for anything?" Eleonore questioned, tilting her head to the right.
"Yeah, exactly. But she was so smart and bright, she wasted all of it." He gulped nervously, remembering just where she was currently and what she was doing.
"Sounds to me like she had some type of depression." She told him, feeling sad for his situation.
"And she didn't get the proper help she deserved..." He grumbled in a low voice, knowing who he blamed for it.
"Which you couldn't give. You can't cure depression with love and friendship. It takes more work than that, Al." He had no idea why, but he often felt like she knew just what to say.
The doorbell rang. He furrowed his brows as he thought. He had no idea who could visit him now, especially since he didn't allow people to come over because of Eleonore.
"That's your cue." Alex told the older woman, to which she just groaned.
"Hope this visit won't be as long as the last time." She got up to her feet in a quick motion, just as always.
"I had no idea my dad would be here for two hours! He usually leaves in thirty minutes! I'm sorry!" He whisper yelled frantically, not liking the idea of her being stuck in a small crammed room either.
"You won't be forgiven." She poked him on the way to the room, which he took way too seriously.
"I really didn't know." He continued until he saw her grinning with raised brows.
"Okay, whatever." He closed the claustrophobic room shut, walking to the door.
He opened it and his eyes widened in disbelief. He stuttered to find the right words, but none would come out.
"Nice welcome." Her rough but sarcastic voice spoke up, a small laugh mixed in between it at his reaction.
"...Mia?" He gasped out.
"I don't think you know much girls that look like me... Unless you were very social with the ladies since the last time I saw you." She punched his arm lightly to which he twitched.
He wanted to hug her, but he was scared to do anything. She was so offensive, everything ticked her off. Now that she was finally back, he didn't want to drive her away. But standing still seemed to make her unamused more than satisfied.
"Welcome home." He smiled, his voice a bit shaky.
Nothing else made sense but that this was a dream. She came back so casually, like nothing ever happened. Like they still had the same relationship as before.
"Thanks, Al." She jumped in, sitting on the chair she always used to sit in, her leg jiggling as usual.
"M-Mia, I'm, uh, really sorry if this sounds rude, b-because I really don't want you to go, but, um, uh, just answer this... Why are you here?" His nervousness was overflowing him, he could barely speak without fumbling over his words, his voice trembling.
She grinned as she looked to the floor. A long deep sigh left her lips.
"I'll be honest, Al. They told me to find Eleonore." She spoke up honestly.
He moved back a bit. He suddenly grew nervous.
"They?" Alex questioned, gulping.
"The rebellion. They sent Unako and I." She became more serious as she mention it.
"W-why would I have her?" He stuttered.
She started laughing at him. Not in a mean way, but the way she used to when he tried to lie. He would always start smiling when she did that, so he couldn't not do that here. He couldn't lie to her.
"I know you're lying, Al. Everyone knows you have her. But I don't want to cause drama." Mia told him, looking at him intently.
He kept quiet, not knowing what to do or say.
"Listen, I knocked Unako out on the way here. She'd try to use you to find Eleonore. In all honesty, I don't care about her. I just wanna get out of this shithole and not cause any trouble for you or Adrien in the process, it's the least I could do." She spoke her business, honesty was in her eyes, Alex knew, he trusted her.
"So what are you planning on doing?" Alex asked, his tension loosening up, even though his head wasn't processing half the stuff she said.
"Take the three of us to Adrien's house. Eleonore, you and I. We don't have much time so hurry up with this." She said, already getting bored with this.
"You know, someone would say this was a trap." Alex said as he went toward the crammed room.
"But?" She raised an eyebrow.
"But, out of all your flaws as a human being, trickery and backstabbing is not one of them." He opened the door, revealing a nervous looking Eleonore.
"You still trust me?" Mia asked, grinning as she tapped her fingers on her table.
"I always did. You didn't change." Alex answered.
He got surprised at what happened next. She hugged him. In the first time in forever, she hugged him.
"I missed you, Al." She whispered out, her voice much weaker.
He lost all the previous fear he felt and hugged back tightly.
"I missed you even more, Mia." He said the words freely, tearing up slightly.
She pulled away quickly though.
"Look, this is cute and all, but we have to get moving if we want to go through with this." She wiped her tears subtly, motioning the two of them to follow her.
And so they did. Alex trusted her whole heartedly, while Eleonore just hoped from the bottom of her heart that this wasn't a trap.
