Red String of Fate

Son Ange

"Maman? I'm home!" Pierre shut the door behind him and kicked off his shoes. He heard his mother's faint response from somewhere in the kitchen, as well as a hearty greeting from his father. He must have gotten home early, he thought to himself happily as he hung up his jacket.Now I can tell both of them about Henry at the same time! He padded along the wood floors in his socks, then took a running start just before he entered the kitchen and slid the rest of the way with a rather childish laugh. His mother, who was cleaning up the last of dinner, applauded his entrance while his father chuckled along with him. "Ta-da!" he chirruped, giving them a dramatic bow.

"Tres bien, Pierre," Richard chortled. "I think that one deserved a perfect 10." Pierre beamed and walked over to give him a hug. "You're in a very good mood," his father noted, ruffling his hair. "Your mother mentioned you were at a friend's house, so I'm guessing that's part of it." Pierre nodded as he sat next to him, his grin growing and a blush forming on his cheeks. Richard, upon noticing the slight change in his son's complexion, raised a dark eyebrow and tried to hide his mischievous smile. "From the roses growing on your cheeks," he teased, "I'd say that you had a pretty good time with this 'friend' of yours." Richard winked, and Pierre blushed even harder.

Jeanne threw the towel she'd been drying her hands with at her husband, hitting him square in the face and making him yelp in surprise. "Oh give him a rest, Richard," she scolded playfully. "He can explain himself in his own due time. Though if he knows what's good for him," she went on, leaning on the counter and resting her chin in her hands, "his own due time will be sooner, rather than later." Richard tossed the towel back at her, and she ducked out of the way so it landed on the floor behind her. "So," she said slowly, her hazel eyes twinkling up at him, "tell us about them."

"Where do I even begin?" Pierre groaned, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling. "I guess the beginning's a good place to start. Do you remember how I would talk about mon ange Henry all the time?" Jeanne giggled and nodded, and Richard made a noise of acknowledgement. "And I bet you two kind of guessed that he was more than just my friend," he went on, blushing even harder. "He was...well, he was everything to me, I suppose is the best way to put it." Richard and Jeanne shared a secret smile, confirming that they had been well aware of the fact that Pierre's little friend had been much more to him than that. "I told myself growing up that I would find him again. And today," he announced with a humongous smile, "I found him in my English class of all places."

"C'est merveilleux, Pierre!" Richard said warmly as Jeanne squealed and ran around the counter to give him a huge hug. "What a wonderful stroke of luck! Of all the places to find him, you found him in your new school!" He leaned over to murmur in Pierre's ear. "I must say, Fate must truly wish you two to be in each other's lives if she has reunited you after all this time." Pierre laughed and nodded, hope dancing in his excited blue eyes. "So you went over to his house," Richard said, "and you two just chatted and held hands the entire time?"

Pierre harrumphed as his cheeks flared up again. "And here I was thinking that I was done with this blushing business," he grumbled. Jeanne snickered and ruffled his hair, her other arm still draped around his shoulders. "I met his adoptive father too, and we had a really nice conversation over dinner." He chuckled again. "Remember how I told you about Mister McCrae, and how he would come to the orphanage to play with us and see Miss Trelawny? It turns out that he adopted Henry a little bit after the accident." He paused, and then spoke in a slightly more serious voice. "And we found out today that they actually are father and son." Jeanne gasped, and Richard's eyebrows shot up to his hairline. Pierre quickly explained about Henry's desire to find his birth parents, the DNA test, the aftermath of the discovery, and Henry's goal to find his mother.