"What do you mean nobody can come pick me up?"

Felix Agreste sighed into his cell phone, rubbing his forehead to relieve his agitation. He had just arrived in the Paris airport after traveling all the way home from New York. Home, he thought. It had been almost a year since he had last been in Paris. A year of few phone calls or messages from his family. He received the occasional postcard now and then from his brother, Adrien, but there was little point to him holding onto those. Just seeing his brother's signature pop up on the card was enough to fill him with a distinct sense of disgust. And what was his father doing that he couldn't even get their driver to pick up his oldest son on his seventeenth birthday?

"Alright, alright," Felix grumbled. "I can just take a cab home. I'm hanging up now, goodbye."

He cursed under his breath at Nathalie's exact precision. Her straightforward, business-like nature annoyed him. Yet she was his father's personal assistant, and even if he were to be rude to her there was no point. His father had hired her for a reason. Nathalie had apologized to him, saying she thought he had said he would arrive back on the 18th of December instead of the 17th. Felix thought that was bull shit, as he had clearly stated his date of arrival several times over the last few weeks. Besides, it was his birthday.

"Why did I even bother coming back?"

As he strolled through the airport terminal towards the luggage carousal, a particular poster off to the side caught his attention. A few young teenaged girls strung themselves around the poster, gushing to each other about the young model being featured. Felix leaned against the wall, wondering who it was that was causing such a fuss. Besides women like Nathalie who appeared distant and boring, he disliked giddy girls who obsessed over handsome boys even more. But when the girls began to move away from the poster, Felix experienced a deep sense of dread upon seeing the face they revealed. It was Adrien.

He held his breath, a bit perplexed having to see his brother's face so soon. He was obviously modeling for their father's fashion brand, Adrien's gentle warmth radiating through his cool smile. Felix wanted to wipe that expression right off his face.

Felix felt something fall against his shoulder, almost knocking him over. Before he could totally regain his footing, he was about to grumble something at the stranger who had fallen on him. A girl around Adrien's age with two dark pigtails giggled nervously, backing up away from him. He was glad his sunglasses hadn't slipped off his face as he fixed them into place, furrowing his brow slightly at the girl. His expression softened when he noticed how nervous she seemed, quickly apologizing for having bumped into him.

Her face was somewhat flushed and her bright blue eyes stared downwards. Felix blinked. Something overcame him in that moment but before he could figure out the feeling developing in the pit of his stomach someone was calling out to the girl, commanding her attention. "Marinette! Marinette!"

"Oh, Bernadette!" the blue eyed girl exclaimed, her momentary embarrassment having disappeared. She turned back to him in a flash, patting his shoulder. "I'm so sorry for almost knocking you over!"

"Um, no, that's okay… you really… don't need to apologize?" Felix said flatly, but the girl had already dashed off. He stood, a bit dazed for a moment before noticing the carousal had been endlessly lapping his suitcase around.

As he sat in the cab, he stared out the window a bit whiplashed by the day's earlier events. Yet while the poster of Adrien weighed down on his soul, it was to the girl he had bumped into that his attention turned to. He remembered the other girl's voice calling out to her, as he tried to recall her name. Marinette, or something.

A light drizzle came down on the gloomy Parisian landscape as the cab pulled up to the Agreste mansion. Felix held out the palm of his hand, allowing the cold, misty rain to touch his skin. He sighed again, plucking his sunglasses off and sticking them in the front pocket of his jacket. Home, he thought. I'm finally home.

"Home sweet home."