Chapter Text
November 19th 2009
Charles didn’t want to go to school that morning, he thought it was useless, he had a karting race tomorrow that he could have been getting better prepared for.
He saw his mom preparing breakfast in the kitchen with his little brother sat by her feet.
“Morning Charles,”
“Morning mama”
“How did you sleep?”
“Good.” He said taking a seat at the table.
“Do you want some breakfast?”
“Sure”
“Okay let me finish your brothers then i’ll do yours.”
Charles nodded in response.
Charles watches as his mom finished his brother's plate and began on his.
“What jam do you want?”
“Raspberry, please.”
His mom placed his plate down before making herself a coffee.
“Charles, do you know if Arthur is up?”
“No”
“Ok would you go check once your done”
Charles made his way to his brother's room.
“Art, you up?” Charles asked while knocking.
“Yeah,” Arthur said in a groggy voice.
“Ok just making sure.”
“He just got up” Charles said, returning back to the dining room.
Charles sat down by his youngest brother then began to wipe the jam off his face, making the younger boy laugh. Charles had always been close with his youngest brother, most of the time him, Charles, and Arthur were inseparable. Charles was the type of older brother that would protect his younger brothers from anything.
Charles had also gotten to name his youngest brother, his mom would tell him how he had spent weeks figuring out the perfect name for him before deciding on Valentin.
Arthur had finally gotten out of his room, looking like he had just gotten the best night sleep of his life.
“Arthur, go fix your hair.” Charles laughed at him.
Arthur rolled his eyes before heading to the bathroom.
“You boys,” His mom laughed.
Charles returned all his attention back to Val, before Arthur returned.
“Arthur, do you want something to eat before you go?”
“I’m okay, thank you though”
“Okay well you two should get ready to leave in a bit.”
“Yeah” Arthur said going to sit next to Charles.
“Morning Char and Val”
“Morning,” Charles said.
“Morning Art” Valentin said with a big smile on his face, which made Arthur smile.
“We should get going, Art.”
“Yeah” He said, getting up to grab his bag.
“Grab mine while you're over there.” Charles yelled.
Arthur returned with both of their bags.
“Okay bye mama!” Charles said as he made his way out the door.
“Okay bye, love you two, be safe!” His mom waved at them.
“Love you too!” Arthur yelled back, closing the door.
“Alright Val let’s start to get you ready to go.”
“Mama, I'm done.” Val said, pointing to his empty plate.
“Okay good job baby.” his mom said, grabbing his plate, beginning to wash it.
“Val, can you go grab your shoes and bag” his mom said as she finished the last few dishes.
“Yeah” Val said, running over to his bag.
His mom looked at her watch as she finished the last dish.
“Ok hun you all ready.”
“I have one more shoe” He said as he forced his last shoe on.
“Ok baby let’s go.” His mom said, grabbing his hand as they made their way out the door.
The pair made the walk to Valentin's primary school, as Val babbled the whole time. His mom checked him in and said her goodbye as she left.
+++
Charles met his brother at the end of the day before they made the walk back home.
“Any homework?” Charles said, trying to fill the silence.
“Just some maths and english.”
“I can help if you would like.”
“Please, I don’t understand any of the maths homework.”
“Okay, when we get home I'll help.”
“How do you feel about the race?”
“Good, I feel confident especially with how it’s been going so far.”
“You’ll win,”
“You think?”
“Mhm” Arthur nodded at him.
“Yeah I think so too”
+++
After work Pascale had made her way to the primary school to pick up Val.
“Hi, I'm here to pick up Valentin Leclerc.”
“Okay one second.”
The Lady at the desk had begun to type on the computer before making a confused look.
“Uhm, it says he’s been picked up already.”
“No he shouldn’t have been, uhm does it say by who?”
“It says he was picked up at 11:52 by Hervé Leclerc, that’s his father right?.”
“Yes but that’s not right, their father is working right now.” She said in a panicked voice.
“I'm going to call him real quick.” She said as she walked away from the desk.
“Hello?”
“Hi hun, uhm, did you pick Val up early today?”
“No, why?”
“They're saying you did.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Uhm okay maybe they just made a mistake i’ll call you back in a moment.”
She walked back up to the desk, “Are you sure he’s gone, can you please at least call his classroom.”
“Sure”
She had started to freak out more and more as she waited to hear if her kid was safe or not.
“He’s not there.”
The mom had froze for a moment before managing out, “Did you see how took him?”
“I wasn’t working at that time, I'm so sorry ma’am. But we will look through our footage, we will find him. I’m calling the police right now.”
Pascale nodded before call her husband back.
“Hervé” She said, tears starting to fall down her face.
“No, no”
“He’s missing”
“I’ll be right there” He said before hanging up.
Pascale had called the kids and told them she’d be late and if they got hungry she had food in the fridge, she had tried so hard to keep calm during that call.
The police had arrived along with her husband.
She had stayed at the school for an hour before the police told them to go home and they would be in contact with them.
+++
“Mama!” Arthur yelled running to open the door.
Arthur stood with a smile on his face, that’s when it hit him, dad was home, there was no Val. He looked back at Charles who had realized the same thing.
“Mama, where’s Val”
Their mom had started crying again the second she got in the house.
“Papa?”
His dad had put an arm around Arthur and walked close to Charles.
“Uhm, something terrible happened today but I need you guys to stay calm.”
“Papa, what's happening?” Arthur asked.
“Valentin went missing.”