Butterfly Delivery - Adrinette

Hostel Environment

The Next Morning

"Marinetta, wake up, my little fairy, your phone's been going off non-stop." Marinette stretched and rolled to the side, which resulted in her bumping her head on the rail which was there to prevent her from falling off the bunk bed. Sleeping on an upper level wasn't ideal when there was a baby to check on a few times in the night, but it wasn't truly so different from her loft bed back home - and it was the available accommodation in range of the airport and in their price range. They could have afforded a bit nicer lodging short term, but while uncertain how long they would have to stay hidden, they would need to spread the cash they had as far as it would go. Sure, carrying cash while traveling was dangerous, but so was using an ATM or bank card for someone who didn't want a paper trail for the police to follow. Weighing their risks, they had opted to go as cheaply as they could among those establishments to which travel guides gave passable marks for safety and sanitation. Bridgette had helped - by crying mercifully few times during the night.

Marinette checked her phone to see what had been causing a string of notifications to go off. It was mostly text messages from Alya, which she didn't dare open lest her friend be able to see that she'd read them. She tried to get as much as she could from the previews displayed on her lock screen.

"Where are you girl? You've never been thi..."

"Have you heard about Adrien?"

"Your maman is acting weird, please tell..."

"Are you all right?"

"I know where you are, I found the plane tic..."

"The cops are threatening your par..."

"They know..." Marinette whispered, warily glancing at the other hostel guests. Though no one had yet spoken to them other than mundane pleasantries, they'd felt the watching eyes around them since they'd first arrived. Discussing matters of home - in any detail - would have to wait.

Gina, understanding, nodded. "Let's find Adrien and get some breakfast."

--

In the men's area, Adrien was feeling rather lonely. He was surrounded by people, but not anyone that he knew. He was thinking he would have to change that by going up to someone, when he heard a voice that he did know. "Hey, kid, what's happened? Did you forget about me?"

"No, I didn't forget. I just think it's appropriate to wait for somewhere more private to have our conversation - sorry, I'll take my phone call outside," he ad-libbed, pointing to his ear as if he had a Bluetooth device.

He wasn't quite to the door yet when it swung open, nudged by the foot of a young Malagasy man - broom in one hand, dustpan in the other. The door immediately tried to swing back shut on the man, who staved it off with the handle of his broom.

"Need help with that?" Adrien asked, pushing and holding the door open.

"Thank you," the man mumbled, continuing with his task.

"Hey! I try to be friendly, and you just sweep past me like that?" Adrien teased.

The man looked surprised, but smiled. "Sorry about that. I saw I had broom to get by, so I took it."

"Oh, hey, nice!" Adrien high-fived the guy, glad to find someone who shared his sense of humor.

The man resumed his task of cleaning up the floor, but as he did so, he spoke. "So you have a kid?"

"Uh, yeah, I do." Adrien once again found himself bemoaning the sorry condition Felix was in, and how he couldn't be a better father and get him out of it. "How did you know about him?"