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Sunlight sneaks in through the windows. Warm and bright on her pale, cold face. She smiles at what her sister says. Her darling sister who loves hiding inside her own home. Her darling sister who despite that came for her, with a plan. A plan to get Emelie out in the sun for an hour. A plan that failed.
Amalie was never the one to make the plans . It isn't a surprise to Emelie it wasn’t successful. Emelie doesn’t care. If she herself hasn’t done the plotting she doesn’t want the win. And perhaps from her sister’s failure she’s gotten something much sweeter. Amalie opened some curtains for her. Now the light and warmth is found inside her home. She remembers having longed for that many years ago. Back when her home was another.
Gabriel agreed to having the Fathoms for dinner at the Agreste mansion. In their vast dining room. He wouldn’t agree to any other places Amalie suggested to go eat at. Amalie must’ve thought showing how her sick husband was ready to go to all of them would make Gabriel consider the fact Emelie could as well. But Gabriel is stubborn. He thinks she should always stay on her bed. Unmoving as if she were already a corpse. He is only worried about her, she knows. Still she gets mad sometimes at his overwhelming love. Mad she has to spend her days just lying there.
She remembers being told to still before. To stay inside with all the dolls she’d begged her parents for. She remembers running from that home towards the hill her parents declared far to walk to. Collapse at the top of it, exhausted. Feel green blades poke her “delicate” skin. Get all red and itchy because of them. Care so little about it. All to pluck some flowers to bring home to Amalie. Flowers Amalie wouldn’t want. Flowers Emelie would tangle into her sister’s hair anyway.
One day, collecting what Amelie considered weeds, she stared at the sun the way you’re not supposed to. She dreamt of bringing a piece of it along with the flowers. Maybe then she wouldn’t have to leave home for the hill again. Wouldn’t have to leave home at all.
She left. She found Gabi, a boy like her. A boy who’d lived most of his life outside. When she asked him why this was so, he’d answered with “my parents”. Emelie giggled at that. His parents were outdoorsy people. His parents were opposite to hers. Yet if he had asked her the same question , she’d given the same answer.
He doesn’t go by Gabi anymore. He doesn’t speak of his parents. He tells her to stay still. And she does, because she has to.
Well, she doesn’t have to. Gabriel is never home. He wouldn’t know how she spent her day. But weirdly she finds herself doing what he’d want. She finds herself stuck in bed because she loves him. She finds him outside of their home, always traveling because he loves her. But today, at least today, they are both at the dining table.
“ No. What? No, no. It was-“ Gabriel is mumbling. Perhaps so that no one hears him. The fathoms don’t. But His voice is the loudest song she’s heard. Even when he’s quiet.
“Are you okay, Father?” Her little miracle says with food in his mouth.
Emelie could fix that. Could tell him it’s impolite. But that would make her sound too much like her mother. And she thinks in a way she’s already suffocated Adrien enough. For when she ties herself to bed, he doesn’t dare leave her alone. She’s tied him as well. And really if she were to correct anything of the way he spoke now, it wouldn’t be the fact he has food in his mouth. If she’d let herself twist the ring she would change the way he no longer says Papa. Emelie has always hated the word “Father.” She doesn’t want her husband to be one.
“Gabriel?”
He struggles with his words. Emelie gives him time. Emelie always gives him time. But even though he pretends it doesn’t, time always runs out.
She notices his hand. His bare hand.
“Gabriel… where’s the ring?”
“I- I don’t know - I had it. I- I did. I had it on this morning. I must’ve…”
She braces herself. Keeping quiet. Picking on her skin. It gets itchy by the second.
Quiet, Emelie.
Just give him time.
1
2
“I lost it.”
“What?” She pushes herself up from her seat.
He what?
Her fork and spoon drop to the floor. Her head spins.
He what?
She coughs. And coughs and coughs and can’t stop.
He what?!
“Emelie, dear, sit down.”
“What do you mean you lost it?! Are you- Gabriel are you serious? What?! How? How could you just lose the fucking ring?!”
She’s yelling. Gabriel squirms not seeming to like that.
She doesn’t care.
“I cannot believe you right now! Do you find the ring important at all?!”
She’s yelling. At her husband. At a man. She’d done it before, when she yelled at her father. Her parents wouldn’t like that.
She doesn’t care.
“Because it is! I didn’t think I’d have to tell you this but that ring is the most important thing in the world. It is my everything! And it should- it should be yours.”
“Emelie, it’s okay. Just calm down. We’ll help find it. Won’t we, Colt?”
Oh, of course. Her sister doesn’t like the yelling either. Her sister who’d be oh so afraid to do anything out of line. Her sister who is soft spoken. Her sister who would never yell. Her sister who is a real lady. Emelie has proven time and time again she isn’t.
“It is ours. Not just mine. It should be ours- our love!”
It should be Papa.
Gabriel should be a Papa.
Gabriel was not supposed to be a“Father.”
“Mama, me and Felix will help too. Don’t worry. We’ll find it, I promise.”
Adrien, her beautiful Adrien says with determination in his eyes. He doesn’t like the yelling either.
His life is in danger. His life- he’s so small. His life is in danger.
She wants to yell and scream and throw things and cry. But both the children wouldn’t like that. And she does care about her own boy and Amalie’s.
Felix. He hates loud noises. She’s seen him tense and flinch at them all the time. She should calm down. She should apologize, but when she goes to look at the boy in his eyes, there is something she wasn’t expecting. Felix is smiling.
Oh.
Felix is smiling.
You wouldn’t think so if you didn’t know him. He has an excellent poker face.Emelie sees right through it.
He has the ring.
Others would notice soon enough as well. She doesn’t want them to.
“Thank you so much my little angel.” She finally responds to Adrien who is searching underneath the table.
“Thank you all for helping.” She says though Colt certainly isn’t.
She has to find away to get Felix alone.
“Gabriel, you don’t know exactly when you lost the ring, right?”
“No. I do not.”
“Well then, we should divide ourselves in duos and search in different places around the mansion.”
Adrien grabs his cousin’s hand ready to pull him to some side of the mansion.
“No, no. Gabriel, you’re searching with Adrien. To remember what’s important. Felix you can come with me.”
Everyone throws questioning glances but she has always been a leader. They do what she’s told them to. Felix follows her into a room. With her back turned to him she pretends to look for the ring she knows he has.
“Auntie Emilie.”
She smiles. “Mhm?”
“Would you like to see a magic trick?”
She most definitely does. She turns to him and nods.
He puts his hand behind her ear and tada there it is.
“I’m sorry I made you worry. I’m not sorry I took it, though.” He says as he places it on the palm of her hand.
She has the ring. She can breathe now.
“Felix, this ring is important-“
“More important than me?” He lets out that cheeky smile he attempted to hide before.
She pokes his cheek. “Yes! A million times yes.”
He raises his eyebrows.
“I’m kidding. You’re equally as important.”
“I’m as equally as important as some ring?”
“It’s not just a ring. It’s… it is love.”
Adrien is love. Adrien is everything. Adrien is safe. He was all this time. Felix’s hands are safe.
“It’s love because you and Uncle got married with them?”
She doesn’t want to think about Gabriel. Not right now.
“Yes but there’s other reasons.”
“Like?”
“Like the way the rings are a set of twins. Me and your mother are a set of twins. You and Adrien are a set of twins. Twins are where love shines the most.”
Felix considers this but it seems he was trying for another answer. “Do rings grant powers?”
“I’m sure some ring out there does.”
“Do these?”
“Hmm… no, I guess the broach is what grants the powers.”
“What broach?”
She’s said too much.
“Hey, I think I’ve answered enough questions. How about you answer one for me now, huh?”
“If I do, can I get a clue to what you mean by the broach thing?”
This kid.
“Yes. Now here’s my question. Why did you steal the ring?”
Felix thinks through his answer. He probably has twenty but he settles for one.
“Your anger inspires me.”
She bursts out laughing. “My what? My anger? It inspires you? That’s- that’s kind of sweet. In a very very weird way.”
She keeps on giggling and Felix joins in before going all serious. “Auntie Emelie, the clue.”
Right. She did say she’d give one.
“Are you okay with a one word clue?”
He nods.
“Feather.”
Five Years Later
Felix has moved to Paris. He has come for his other half. Both of his other halves. The one with freckles on her face who knows him like the back of her hand. And the one lately wearing a pale cold face who he wishes knew him more.
His cousin is sitting at the dining table. Nathalie and his own Mom are as well. Felix had tried for them to go eat someplace out but Adrien said he “didn’t have much energy for it.” That made Felix upset. But he knows it’s unfair to be mad at Adrien. He only wishes his cousin didn’t miss Gabriel Agreste.
Adrien is stuck. Stuck in a world built of lies. All because Adrien cares for what Ladybug says. And Ladybug says Gabriel Agreste was a hero. But today, Felix won’t be angry for his cousin. Adrien has to do that for himself. Felix will only open some curtains for him. Let sunlight sneak in through the windows.