Not So Different After All

Nuisance

It had been foggy that day, and so Félix was doing just what he always did on days like this. He sat by his open windowsill, a pillow tucked behind his back to keep him from cramping up - his wall was hardly suitable for an activity like this - and cozied himself up with a copy of his favorite novel. Lord knows if any of his friends found out about his fascination with old novels, he'd never live it down. He had a reputation to keep up, that was for sure, and reading 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' for the millionth time was probably not the best thing to keep it up.

However, when his reading was interrupted by a soft knock at the door, he sighed and closed it, a receipt from his favorite café keeping his place.

The cheerful blonde woman opened the door, a crack at first before walking inside. "I have good news!" she chirped. sitting on the edge of his bed.

Good news hardly ever meant good news for Félix Graham de Vanily, but he just smiled forcefully. "That's amazing, mother. Can I ask what it is?" he asked, sitting up, a leg crossed over the other.

The woman's face brightened as she leaned forward, fiddling with a stack of papers that Félix investigated briefly before returning his gaze to his her bright eyes. "I'm sure you miss seeing your cousin, and I thought it might be nice for you to have a bit of a get together with him again! So I asked Gabriel to choose a few of his friends to come and stay with us for the summer! Isn't it fun?" she cooed.

It was at that moment that the blonde paled in comparison, setting the book to the side as he tried to put on a smile, one that struggled against him, refused to be put on his lips because oh, hell no, not the French brats again. "Oh! That's... that's great, mother," he said, a dry chuckle emerging from the depths of his throat, so uncomfortable that he had to adjust his tie because damn, is it getting tighter? Maybe. That's fine, choke me to death and I won't have to look at them. Or share my house for pete's sake. "So... when's this all happening?"

Amelie hummed and then checked the date on the paper before smiling, her perfect teeth glinting in the light through the window like always - his mother made it a point to visit the dentist regularly, and he wasn't sure if it was because the dentist was also her best friend - and answering, "Their plane is scheduled for next Monday morning," she said.

Félix gulped and stared at her, a ball of unsureness settling in his throat as he cleared it. "M...Monday?" he stammered, pressing his lips together. Wednesday was supposed to be his band's performance at Claude's. He'd just have to sneak out. Of his own house. Delightful.

"Yes, Monday! I was thinking we could go and greet them together at the airport-" she continued talking, but Félix had tuned her out, trying to figure out who all was going to be there. Surely the boy with the surfer type voice whose main vocabulary consisted of "dude" and "broski", and maybe the blogger girl who he was sure would probably be stalking him in hopes to find him doing something, and oh, gosh, maybe the girl with the crush on Adrien. He was positive she didn't like him much, and he had to admit, what he'd done in Paris years before wasn't exactly... friendly. Yet, he was curious to see how it would effect this whole thing. "How does the plan sound, dear?" Amelie asked, looking at him expectantly.

He just now realized he'd ignored everything she said, and so he laughed sheepishly and nodded. "It sounds perfect, mother. I'm looking forward to it."

Once his mother had left the room, he rolled over to his desk, tapping his pen against his teeth as he stared at the notepad of stationary he had. He wondered what he might be able to do to make this as easy as possible, to get the brats to not care so much about what he did with his free time. And so he began scribbling apologies down, cringing at how mushy a few of them sounded, but he was determined that it would all work out.

It had to work out.