Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Plagg wouldn’t say he collected freaks. The growing number of teenagers in his house were merely coincidental— not his problem really. Of course, once his wife brought one home, that one started telling others about the once-flower-shop-now-basically-homeless-teen-center and then they had two teens. Then three. Then four.

After he found a really pathetic one shivering in the gutter he knew it was over. This was happening. He was running a freak home now.

The kid looked up, rain soaking his face almost enough to hide the tears. Plagg sighed, recognizing the freak-mark only he could see.

Destruction.

“How’d it happen?” he asked automatically. “What scared you that much?”

The boy paled. “What? I— I’m not sure what you mean. I’m not—“

Plagg gestured out of the alleyway with his umbrella. “Do you want me to keep walking?” he asked. “Or do you want my help? You’re what? 15? The police will find you in the hour and then what Adrien? Talk your way out of it with stunning good looks?”

The kid’s eyes went wide. “How’d you?”

“You’re on the news,” he said. “People get scared when city blocks go flat.”

Adrien’s voice cracked. “I didn’t mean to,” he said. “I don’t know what happened. I’m not a freak. I just…” he stared at his hands, shaking in his lap. “I’m not a freak.”

“You are a freak,” said Plagg. “What scared you? Manifesting like that’s not normal. 

Either you were mad or scared.” He tilted his head. “You’re the scared type.”

Adrien eyed the man. What was he supposed to say? Fear of death? One too many bruises? Or fear of making another mistake? Earning another punishment? “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers,” he managed to say.

“Are you calling me strange?” Plagg asked, half offended. The kid was a mess of mud and torn clothes. “You’re the strange one, sitting in the mud like a kicked puppy.”

Adrien hung his head, hugging his knees and muttering something Plagg didn’t hear.
Plagg just sighed. Tikki had always been better with kids.

“Food,” he said, pointing in the general direction of his house. “Dry clothes. No cops. Freaks who can un-destroy stuff. Sound appealing yet?”

“What?”

“You’re not my problem,” Plagg said, starting home. “Follow me or don’t. It’s on you.”

The kid was on his feet in a heart-beat. “Someone who can un-destroy stuff?” he asked. 

“Like— like, someone who can fix the… everything?”

Plagg held his umbrella out just enough to cover the kid without looking like he meant to. “Yeah.”

“Like Ladybug?”

Plagg tried not to smirk. “There’s a resemblance.”

Adrien’s eyes lit up.

“Don’t get too excited,” said Plagg, turning the corner. “Cleaning up after yourself won’t change much. It’s just easier to sleep at night.”

The boy’s face fell. “Oh,” he said, picking at the fraying edge of his shirt.

Plagg didn’t offer encouragement. Manifesting was a death sentence, maybe one the kid had managed to dodge for tonight, but he wasn’t one for empty promises. The government didn’t see him as human anymore. He didn’t have rights. He didn’t have anything.

He was just a problem for the government to make go away.

Plagg pulled out his phone. “Calling home,” he said, knowing full well the kid would bolt if he thought he was turning him in. “Tikki’s the only one who likes surprises.” Nino was still scared of the doorbell. A whole new kid could have him shelled up for two days if they came without warning.

Adrien didn’t watch him type the number. He didn’t seem interested in the call at all.
He’d only been on the run a day. He didn’t know how scared to be yet. Plagg eyed him. Poor little moron, going to the house of someone who could easily be an ax murderer. If someone else had found him…

Plagg decided to focus on the call. The ringing cut to a shout. Plagg jerked the receiver away from his ear, still easily hearing every word.

“If you aren’t bringing tea, don’t come home!”

Adrien paled.

Plagg sighed, holding the phone to his ear again. “Alya, would you give the phone to Tikki please?”

“Do you have tea or not?”

“I got everything on the list.”

“You aren’t answering the question.”

“I have tea,” he said. “Now give Tikki the—“

Alya had hung up.

Plagg sighed and dialed again.

“Is everything ok?” Adrien asked, suddenly hesitating on the sidewalk.

“Yeah,” he said, dialing the number again. “Just—“ the phone picked up on the first ring.

“Be-leaf in Love Flower Shop, how may I help you?”

Good. It was Nino. “It’s Plagg. Where’s Tikki?”

“Oh, um… dude.”

“Nino?”

“Where are you exactly?”

Plagg stopped walking. “Why’s it matter?”

“I mean, like, you close to home or, you know, not?”

“I’m on the edge of the block.”

There was a long pause before Nino answered. “Um, well, Kagami saw her old lady on the news and…”

The sky cracked overhead. Plagg and Adrien both looked up in time to see the lightning linger a second too long.

Plagg swore. “I’ll be right there,” he said, snapping his phone shut. “Keep up kid,” he said, starting to run.

“What?!”

Adrien didn’t get much chance to react. If he didn’t run, he’d be left behind.
Plagg practically broke down the door to a store before Adrien could read the sign as a flower shop.

The weather was worse inside. Adrien had never been in an absolute down pour, but the flower shop was as wet as a shower stall. Papers blew around like a hurricane. Lightning crackled around a cash register.

“Uh…” Adrien looked at Plagg.

The man had already bolted up stairs, holding the rail to keep from being blown away.
Pure electricity crackled in the kitchen. A teen close to Adrien’s age floated a foot off the ground, wind and rain raging around her like the eye of a storm.

The wooden kitchen table was on fire.

“What triggered it?” Plagg asked. “She’s got rain and wind down. Can’t she stop?”

“I don’t think most people are their most rational selves when they manifest!” Tikki snapped back, clutching the remains of a fire extinguisher. The edges of her apron had been singed and a tuft of her red hair clearly matched.

“Try calming her down?” he suggested.

“Yes, brilliant,” Tikki spat, hardly her best self at the moment either. “Why didn’t I think of that? She’s not conscious!”

Plagg looked around the kitchen. “Where’s Marinette?”

“Still not back,” answered Alya. He hadn’t noticed her standing in the corner holding the detached smoke alarm. “She’s said she’ll be late. She’s sticky again.”

“Just perfect,” Plagg grumbled, pulling his coat off. He kicked off his shoes.

Tikki grabbed his arm. “Don’t you dare!”

“This is destruction,” Plagg reasoned, gesturing at the storm. “What’s it going to do? Destroy destruction?”

“You’re not indestructible!”

“He kinda is,” piped Alya.

Tikki silenced her with a glare.

“She’s not wrong,” Plagg said, gently freeing his arm. “I’ll be fine.”

Tikki’s forehead furrowed. Her eyes sparkled wet. “You don’t have to.”

But he did.

Because he didn’t collect freaks.

He collected family.

That was the first thing Adrien learned about the freaks at 236 Kwami Street.

~12 Years Ago ~

Plagg let out a soft laugh, watching the fog from his breath float up into the alleyway. There was something oddly pleasant about this situation. How many days had it been? 167? Assuming the cops were after him as intently as the news claimed— and they were paying people decently well— they’d already wasted over a hundred thousand tax dollars.

It was almost amusing.

His stomach growled. Plagg frowned.

Almost amusing.

“You’d think someone else would’ve gotten their attention by now,” he mumbled, digging in his pocket. “I know I’m fascinating, but it’s getting obsessive at this point. I should file a restraining order. It’s practically stalking now.” He snorted, taking a bite of cheese. “I hear that’s illegal.”

He lazily looked up at the sound of sirens. Unsteady footsteps clattered nearby and he slipped into shadow, fully ready to ignore the passerby.

“Oh my lanta,” grumbled a girl’s voice. It was strained and Plagg’s nose twitched at the smell of blood. “That’s going to stain… drat. Ow.” The girl took a sharp breath.
Plagg eyed her from his hiding place.

She was tiny.

Like, shorter-than-normal-but-also-hasn’t-eaten-in-a-week, tiny.

Plagg nibbled at his cheese, watching her pat her dress out and begin to glow. The holes in her clothes disappeared, replaced by neon red patches of colour where she had touched them.

He made a face, chewing quietly. No wonder she got shot. She hadn’t even checked her surroundings before powering up. Sure, Plagg had a talent for hiding, but she hadn’t even tried.

“Oh…” she said, staring at her hand.

Plagg noticed the hole in her waist the same time she saw the blood on her hand.

“Darn…” she mumbled, stumbling slightly. “That’s not… good.” She crumpled.

Plagg winced as she hit the ground. The sirens were getting closer. He pulled his back pack over his shoulder and strolled out of the shadows, crouching beside the crumpled girl.

He’d never seen such bright hair. It was so red.

“You know, you should really learn to check your six before you glow,” he said, poking her with a cheese string. “You never know where someone might be watching from.”

The girl winced, opening one eye as she struggled to breathe.

“How many fingers?” Plagg asked, holding out his hand.

Her eyes rolled back.

“Yeahhh, that’s not great,” Plagg mumbled, sitting back on his haunches at the sirens grew closer. This wasn’t really his problem. She hadn’t asked for help and it was clear she hadn’t been in hiding that long. She didn’t know what she was doing.

It was a sad place to die though.

“Seems like a you-problem,” he muttered, getting up. The alley would be overrun by cops any minute. He should’ve left the moment she stumbled in.

Plagg hesitated at the edge of his shadow, trying to shut up the burning guilt in the back of his mind.

Helping always ended badly. He was libel to kill her by accident if she didn’t turn him in on purpose.

Still.

He swore, turning back to the crumpled body. “This is psychological harassment,” he growled under his breath, crossing to the back of the alley.

She was small enough to shadow with. He’d get her out of the city. Then she’d be her own problem again.

Chapter Text

~Present Day ~

Tikki had no idea how she managed to wrangle the family to sit around the table. Adrien kept apologizing for causing trouble and glancing at the door. Alya was the most infuriating mixture of smug and irritated. Nino was chugging tea like his life depended on it. And Plagg—

Plagg was Plagg, casually munching on a wheel of cheese in his morning robe as if his previous clothes weren’t ashes on the floor.

At least Kagami had settled enough to sit calmly in her chair, back to her unflappable self. Seeing her mother on TV had pushed her buttons wrong.

It happened to everyone sometimes.

Tikki sighed, hanging up. “Mari’s still held up,” she said. “She’s stuck to Fu’s floor and said not to wait up.”

“Hence family meetings are usually in the morning,” Kagami said simply. “Keeping to a schedule is the most basic tenet of discipline.”

Plagg nodded vaguely. At least one person was back to normal.

Tikki took her seat at the head of the table. “We’ve all had a bit of a day,” she said, placing her hands on the charred wood.

Adrien’s eyes went wide as a pink glow spread from her hands, restoring the room and drying the soaked house. He did a double take, staring at his clothes.

They looked brand-new, slightly tinted pink, but otherwise like they were fresh off the rack.

In fact, now that he thought about it, the whole house had been slightly tinted pink since he arrived.

“So let’s make it a quick chat,” Tikki continued. “Adrien, is it?”

Adrien was almost too busy gawking to hear. “Y—yes Ma’am,” he said quickly. “Adrien Agreste.”

“The fancy pants model dude?” Nino asked.

“I guess?” Adrien had certainly never thought of himself that way, but he could see how it would fit. “I am a model— was a model.” He hung his head, remembering the last thing Father said before Adrien had fled the rubble. “I’m… not anymore.”

“Yeah, manifesting tends to do that,” said Alya, fiddling with her phone. “Money can’t bribe your way out of this one.“

“Alya,” said Tikki. There was a warning in her voice.

Alya went quiet. “Sorry.”

“There’s only one bed in my room,” Nino said.

“It’s not your room,” Kagami said, rather pointedly. “It’s the boys room.”

“We always suspected there would be another boy at some point,” said Alya. “Three girls to a room while you have your own isn’t fair. You don’t even have to share a bathroom with anyone but Plagg.”

“Everything Plagg uses smells like cheese afterward,” said Nino. “You’re lucky you don’t have to share with him.”

Plagg scowled, chewing quietly. It wasn’t like he didn’t have an air freshener in there.

“Ladybug’s made beds before,” Tikki said. “She’ll throw one together when she gets back.”

“When? 2 AM?” Nino asked.

“Midnight,” said Tikki. “It’s a school night.”

“Ladybug?” Adrien asked.

Everyone paused. Plagg yawned and left the room, figuring he’d fulfilled his obligation.

“Ladybug,” Tikki repeated.

“The Ladybug?” Adrien asked.

“For heavens sake, how many Ladybugs can there be?” Alya snapped. “Yes, the Ladybug, and if you rat on where she lives you’ll have to deal with more than—“
Kagami calmly twisted the fork from Alya’s hand before she could finish the threat.

Adrien shrank in his seat. “I— I need to get home,” he said. “Father will be worried.”

“He’ll be worried you aren’t dead yet,” Alya said, holding up her phone. A Tik Tok of the designer was playing on repeat with Adrien’s explosion in the background.

“That thing is not my son,” he was saying. “It killed my son and I want it destroyed!”

“Alya!” snapped Tikki.

“It’s true!”

“That doesn’t mean it’s the right time to say it!”

Adrien didn’t hear. His stomach turned. She wasn’t wrong. He knew what his father thought of freaks. Everyone hated them.

He’d never want a freak associated with the family brand.

“Hey Dude,” said Nino. “It’s chill, okay? It happened to all of us.”

“We told the world to kiss our collective a—“

“Last warning,” said Tikki, cutting her off before she cursed.

Alya went quiet.

“He wants me dead,” Adrien said, feeling the weight of it sink in. “I… I’m going to die.”

“Hardly,” said Plagg, having wandered back in to root through the fridge. “Destruction doesn’t die that easily. Who ate the last of the cake?”

No one answered, but Nino was sinking in his seat.

“Pair destruction with creation and you’re pretty safe,” said Tikki, determined to steer the conversation elsewhere. She smiled at Adrien, somehow comforting beyond her years. “We’ve got both. That’s why we made this place. It’s a haven for people like us.”

“I made it to sell flowers,” said Plagg, pouring himself a glass of milk. “You people just keep showing up.”

Tikki tried to hide a smile, tempted to point out that Adrien had hardly ‘shown up’ and wouldn’t even have found them without his meddling. Instead she kept her attention on the blond.

“It’s been a long day for you,” she said. “You don’t have to decide your whole life right now. Just stay the night, get some food in you, and rest a bit. We’ll figure more out in the morning.”

Kagami raised her hand.

Plagg snickered.

Tikki smiled gently. “Yes, Sweet-heart?”

“We aren’t following the protocol,” she said. “No one’s been introduced. We don’t know the extent of his powers. He hasn’t met Fu.” She narrowed her eyes. “This is abject chaos.”

Plagg snickered louder as Tikki explained this sort of thing usually happened during daylight hours. While they usually followed a pattern there wasn’t an official induction ceremony or check list.

Kagami seemed confused.

“Plagg was being sarcastic last time,” Tikki explained.

The girl blinked in surprise. “Oh.”

Tikki held out her hand and flicked it, producing pink pyjamas out of thin air, followed shortly by a matching toothbrush and towel.

Adrien tried not to stare. “I shouldn’t stay,” he said, getting up. “I could hurt you. I shouldn’t be here.”

“Have you heard about the Big Ben collapse in 1999?” Tikki asked suddenly.

Adrien paused.

Plagg stiffened.

“No.” Adrien’s father had made him memorize European history and he’d never heard of that.

“What about the explosion of the Pyramid of Giza?” Tikki asked. “2001?”

Plagg’s hand twitched.

“No,” said Adrien.

“Collapse of the Golden Gate Bridge, 2002?” she continued. “Disappearance of Vancouver Island 2010?”

“If you don’t like our vacations, just say so,” Plagg snapped.

Tikki turned in her chair to smile at her husband. “I love our vacations,” she said, taking his hand. “The point is if we could handle those disasters, we can handle anything Adrien could do.”

Adrien went pale. “You disappeared an entire island?”

Plagg scowled, moving to leave the room. Tikki didn’t let go of his hand.

“We fixed it,” she said, pulling Plagg closer. “No one remembers anything.” She leaned her head on his side, her arm around his waist. “All in all, it was a picture perfect proposal.”

Plagg simply scowled. The lights in the house flickered.

“He doesn’t handle embarrassment well,” Nino whispered to Adrien.

Adrien wasn’t sure what to say as Tikki leaned on her husband. “All that to say, you can’t do any damage here,” she said. “So you might as well stay the night.”

~ 12 Years Earlier ~

Tikki jerked awake with a gasp.

“Hey Sugar Cube.”

She whipped around, eyes wide as she watched the stranger from the alley carefully tying string across the the room.

He smirked, sharp green eyes almost glowing in the dim space. “What? Never seen a clothes line before?” he asked, wringing out a shirt. “Or are you going to spit some trash about woman’s work?”
She just blinked. “I… I’m Tikki.”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding toward a small radio. “Tikki Vie. 12. Tragically possessed and manifested by creation 12 days ago.”

She swallowed hard. “And you?”

“Plagg,” he said shortly.

“Plagg…?” she asked, hoping for a last name.

“Yup,” he said, stepping over a pile of wet clothes. “That would be me.”

“You aren’t calling the police?” she asked.

“That would be pretty dumb,” he said, returning to the laundry. “Seeing as they want me too.”

Her eyes widened slightly.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend… or something,” Plagg said, frowning at a pair of wet socks. “Machiavelli or Sun Tzu? Chandra Gupta?”

Tikki slowly stood up, letting out a sharp gasp and grabbing her wound.

“You know, it’s probably not a great idea to run around with a bullet hole in you,” he said, neatly hanging a few shirts. “Kinda conspicuous.”

“I didn’t exactly do it on purpose,” she huffed, leaning heavily on the wall.

“Then next time check for adoring fans before you go all glow-ie.”

“You live here?” she asked, looking around the battered room. Calling it a dump would be charitable.

“See, that’s your other mistake,” he said, waving another sock in her direction. “Smart freaks don’t live anywhere. We stay a few days but we don’t make homes.” He made a face. “I’m guessing they found wherever you were holding up.”

Tikki paled. “How did you—?”

“Rookie mistake.”

She took the room in a second time. He had a camp stove, a few tarps, and a sleeping bag. They were all beat up enough to have been in use for a couple months.
“Wait,” she said suddenly. “You’re the guy who blew up the Eiffel Tower, aren’t you?!”

Plagg flinched, whipping around to defend himself. “I didn’t blow it up! I— I updated it!
“It fell over,” Tikki cried. “People nearly died!”

“I made it into modern art! People pay for that stuff! They should be thanking me!”

“Are you serious?!” Tikki snapped. “You destroyed a national monument!”

“Not on purpose!” Plagg shouted back. “And You filled the Seine with macarons! Did you do that on purpose?”

Tikki shrank slightly, getting his point. “No,” she said. “I just— got excited.”

“That’s usually how it works,” he said, crossing his arms. “An extreme emotion and then—“ he mimed a small explosion with one hand, “—it’s over.”

Tikki stared at the ground, still holding her side. “Yeah,” she mumbled. “It’s over.”

Plagg wiped his hands on his pants. “Now heal yourself up,” he said. “We gotta move.”

“Heal?”

Plagg groaned. She couldn’t even do that? What kind of useless person had he picked up? “Heal,” he said. “Use your power on yourself like you did on your clothes.”

She lit up. “I can do that?”

“Yeah,” he spat, crossing his arms. “You can. Now do it. I’m not wasting any more bandages on you.”

Tikki closed her eyes, uncontrolled power flickering across her skin like red electricity. The hole in her side shrank a little.

She gasped in pain, clutching her side again. Plagg rolled his eyes. How did someone this week fill the Seine? He hadn’t exactly expected her to be helpful, but he had better things to do than pull extra weight.

“Do better,” he said.

Tikki tried. Tears streamed her face as she repeated the effort. The electricity on her skin grew more and more erratic with each try. The hole in her side shrank slowly.

“I can’t,” she said, going slack on the ground. “I— I can’t.”

Plagg stifled a growl. “Fine,” he said, going back to his back pack.

“What are you doing?”

“Sharing,” he grumbled, holding out a cookie.

Tikki almost recoiled at the sight of it. It was the kind from vending machines, which she didn’t mind, but it was mostly crumbs. The package was battered like it had been sitting at the bottom of a bag for lifetimes.

“You wanna live or not?” he said.

“I’m not starving.”

“You have creation,” he said. “Your soul food is sugar. When was the last time you ate something like this?”

She eyed the cookie. “A… few weeks?”

“Yeah,” he said, tearing the package. “That explains it. Your power is the only thing you have anymore. You need to take care of it. That means eating this stuff.”

She looked disgusted.

“Open your mouth,” he said.

She shrank back.

“Fine,” he growled. “Die then.”

She ate the cookie. Her eyes flickered with black glow.

Plagg sat back on his haunches, watching the power surge across her skin and close the wound.

The power didn’t stop there.

He backed away. “Tikki…” The red lightning cascaded across the floor of the campsite. “What are you…”

It exploded into cupcakes. Sprinkles rained down from the ceiling. Tikki yelped, wiping frosting from her face.

Plagg sighed.

At least she wasn’t totally useless.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Ladybug slipped though the skylight at 11:59, landing silently in a triumphant pose.

Then freezing in place when she saw him.

Adrien froze too, seated on the nearby couch with a mouth full of popcorn. Slowly Ladybug lowered her arms until she was just standing there, staring at the model. Adrien Agreste, the cutest, richest, and sweetest boy in the fashion industry was on her couch.

Adrien stared back like a deer caught in headlights. The vigilante’s face quickly faded from shock to annoyance.

“Very funny Alya,” she said, pulling something from her hip.

Adrien yelped, failing to duck before her yo-yo smacked him in the gut.

“Ow,” he said, clutching at his stomach. “That…”

“Y—you’re not—“

Adrien looked up, groaning in pain. Ladybug was backing away, eyes huge.

“A— ad— not a— real— in the—“ She gaped. “You’re—“

Adrien have an awkward wave, still holding the place she’d hit. “Uh… Hi?”

She screamed. “There’s a supermodel in the living room!”

Kagami chose that moment to return. She’d left Adrien to get more snacks, fully expecting Ladybug to be her usual 5 minutes late.

“You’re early,” she said, holding out a lollipop.

“T—the —Ad—“ Ladybug stammered, waving at Adrien.

“Adrien Agreste,” Kagami said, calm as ever. “He manifested destruction this morning. Plagg brought him.”

Ladybug did a double take. “Plagg?” she asked. “Plagg brought— he— what?!”
Kagami nodded, unwrapping the candy and handing it to Ladybug. “Here. It’ll calm you down.”

Adrien shrank, feeling very much like a bird that had gotten trapped in a house as Ladybug frantically sucked on a lollipop.

“Plagg?” Ladybug repeated after a few moments of deep breathing. “Our Plagg?”

Kagami nodded.

“Brought him?” Ladybug asked, pointing the lollipop at Adrien.

“Indeed.”

“And he’s destruction?”

“Correct.”

Ladybug stared at Adrien. “You’re destruction?”

The model nodded uncomfortably. He’d only seen her up close once, and she’d been completely different:

Calm

Collected

Graceful

Not screaming…

“We were waiting for you to get back,” said Kagami. “Can you make a bunk bed?”

Ladybug tore her eyes off the model. “Y— yeah. I can do that.”

“Good. Plagg cataclysmed Nino’s bed to make room.”

Ladybug frowned. “Where’s Nino then?”

“In the closet.”

Ladybug nodded as if that was a completely natural answer.

Adrien had been horrified when Nino had bundled up his blankets and crawled into the closet with them.

“You didn’t steal his bed,” Alya said. “He’s shelling-up.”

As if that was a clearer explanation than ‘turtles hibernate, my dude’.

Ladybug cast another glance at Adrien and left. Kagami watched her go before taking another bite of popcorn. The two were silent for a long moment. Kagami’s stare eventually followed Adrien’s hand to the middle of his stomach. For a moment he was sure she could see the bruise forming under his shirt.

She took another bite of popcorn. “Would you like an ice pack?”

Adrien didn’t see Ladybug again that night. After getting an ice pack, Kagami pointed him to the boy’s room and disappeared down the hall.

Adrien was careful to be quiet as he opened the door and slipped inside. During the day it he had taken a moment to notice the Jagged Stone posters on the wall and vinyl records scattered around the small space. Every inch of the space was either musical or turtle-themed.

At least, it has been.

Adrien hesitated to enter, standing in the doorway so the hall light cast into the room.

The once blank spare wall had been re-painted with the sheet music of a familiar song. He blinked, vaguely recalling mentioning it during a magazine interview. The biggest change was in base of every note. Their staffs all curved like cat tails.

He squinted.

Each note was a tiny black cat.

Adrien crossed the room, almost reverent as he ran his fingers over the pattern. Creation was definitely the cooler power. It seemed Ladybug had settled on marking things meant for him with musical cats or the letter ‘A’. Nino got turtles wearing headphones or ‘N’s.

He paused.

He’d only seen into the girl’s room for a second, but he swore Kagami’s bedspread had a dragon sprawled to resemble the letter ‘K’.

Adrien’s heart sank.

He didn’t belong here. He wasn’t a freak. He couldn’t be. He should be in the grey pyjamas in the plain room in the white mansion behind the iron gates and the pass key locks.

So why did this place feel more like a home?

He closed the door, climbing the ladder to the cat-themed bedspread. He crawled under the covers and flicked off the cat-shaped night light.

“Why didn’t you call me?!”

Adrien shot up, looking toward the door at Ladybug’s loud whisper.

“We all knew you’d panic, overthink, and delay coming home,” Kagami said, talking at normal volume regardless of the late hour. “It’s a school night.”

“I hit him with a yo-you!” Ladybug whisper-shouted. “This is a disaster! A disaster! He’s going to hate me forever and avoid me at school and— is he going to live here? Oh no— what if he hates cats?! He might have just said that for the interviews and —I made him a— he might—“

She cut off suddenly.

“Girl, it’ll be fine,” said Alya, apparently having come out of their shared room.

“What if he thinks night lights are childish or silly or— what if it reminds him of home and makes him sad and—“

“Marinette, girl, take a breath.”

Ladybug’s name was Marinette. That explained all the ‘M’s he’d spotted in the kitchen earlier.

“There, Mari, see? You got this. He’s just a guy, nothing compared to an Akuma and way friendlier then Fé. He’s nothing you can’t handle.”

Adrien‘s stomach dropped at the word ‘handle’. Ladybug fought rouge freaks sometimes. Was he on her list?

“I just…” her voice sounded so small “… I always say the wrong thing. I’ll make him hate me I’m sure and then— then— I’ll never get a hamster!”

Adrien frowned, confused by the sudden topic change.

“It’s one in the morning!”

Plagg.

There was a gasp, a giggle, and loud shuffle of feet outside, then a door closed and the house fell silent.

The day’s exhaustion caught up with Adrien quickly. Sleep pulled him in, more powerful than the fear and confusion clouding his thoughts. He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until he woke up to unfamiliar chaos.

The mansion always felt like a ghost town. Footsteps echoed. The quiet tick of a clock was almost deafening.

“Who the chocolate-caramel-fudge didn’t replace the toilet paper?!”

Adrien jerked awake at the shout.

“There’s more under the sink.”

“This isn’t an anarchist society!”

“Replace the flipping TP, girl!”

The hall outside shuffled with footsteps and near shouts of life. Adrien rubbed his head, trying to figure out how a bedlam had gotten inside the mansion.

He stopped short. Right. It hadn’t. He wasn’t home.

“Who forgot to buy more cookies?” That sounded like Tikki.

“There’s no cookies?” The speaker sounded panicked— maybe Ladybug? “I can’t do a whole day like that! Not after the bunk bed and—“

“I’ll get you cookies.” Plagg. “Now keep your voice down. Someone had a rough first night in a new place surrounded by screaming at midnight.”

Adrien watched the shadows under the door.

“Tikki, have you seen the—“

“—top drawer, sweetie.”

“Turn the music down!”

“Why you gotta be such a hater?!”

A loud crash made Adrien flinch. He held his breath, waiting for Plagg to flip out and shout. Waiting for him to lose his temper. Waiting for screaming and the echo of a smack.

Plagg cursed. “You okay?”

Adrien scrambled out of bed, slipping into the kitchen to see Ladybug sprawled on the floor. Broken glass ware scattered the tile.

Plagg crouched beside her. “Need an ice pack Baby Bug?”

~12 Years Ago~

Plagg hated to admit it, but Tikki made an excellent outlaw. She could only create food so far, but every granola bar and croissant she made was an hour they didn’t have to spend begging.

The biggest annoyance was the stink she made about stealing.

“Not all of us can just make things,” Plagg said, flashing the wallets. “Besides—“ he said, pulling out one’s ID, “—Gabriel Agreste will live without a few euro and a cafe rewards card.” He raised his eyebrows, almost impressed. “Though he is only two cups away from a free sandwich. Good deal.”

“I don’t like this.”

“Then don’t do it,” he said. “I’m not as privileged in the powers area. I have to problem solve.” He tapped her nose with the euro bill before slipping it into his coat. The cheese cravings were getting more intense and Tikki wasn’t a vending machine. He needed cash. “If you’re going to be a bug about this then wait for me somewhere and watch the stuff. At least then we won’t have to drag the gear around.”

Tikki hunched her shoulders and didn’t answer. She didn’t want to be alone. He understood that. He really did, but he didn’t dare admit to himself the benefits of having someone else around.

His dad, for all his flaws, had taught him that much. Survival was a one-man gig. You can step on others. You can drag them. But at the end, everyone else is disposable.

Even your son.

Plagg gritted his teeth at the memory. “C’mon,” he said. “Let’s eat something.”

Tikki hugged herself. “I’m too tired.”

“We’ll get something, Sugar Face,” he said. “Hand.”

She held hers out.

“Get taller,” he said, taking her hand. “I don’t want to hold hands just to stay together in a crowd.”

“As if I can control my height.”

He shrugged, pulling her gently across the market. “There’s a tent city in the area,” he said. “Sometimes our type will alternate through a few of those.”

“So we can have homes?” Tikki asked, lighting up as she kept pace. His steps were huge and it took three of her strides to match one of his.

“More like, multiple temporary camp sites,” he said. “Walk faster.”

Tikki dug her heels in. “Slow down!”

Plagg groaned loudly.

Other people came with a lot of drawbacks.

They eventually found their way out of the busy streets into the quiet ones. He dropped her hand, letting out a loud sigh that came as a puff of smoke.

“There,” he said, pointing out a bridge in the distance. “It’s as good a place as any to set up.”

Tikki shrank a little. “Aren’t homeless people kinda…”

“…homeless? Yeah,” he said. “And yeah, some aren’t all there.”

“Violent,” she said.

He gave her a sideways glance. “Violent?”

She was hugging herself.

Plagg’s eyes widened slightly as he realized her concern. “They won’t mess with me,” he said, holding out his hand again. “Just stay close.”

“Okay.”

“Besides,” he said. “Most are just down on their luck.“

She took his hand. “Oh.”

“Some are crazy, though,” he said. “If you see an old guy in a bunny costume, run.”

Tikki gripped his hand tighter.

Rain drops scattered the cobblestone. The wet splotches of water grew, painting grey stones near black as the sky began to cry.

Tikki’s eyes glowed.

“Don’t you dare try making an umbrella.”

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Those are all spikes and wires,” he said. “If one explodes the shrapnel will kill us.”

“What about a rain coat?”

“Not in public,” he said, guiding her down a set of steps. “Even in a camp like this, you gotta act human. You don’t wanna know how these people react to that stuff.”

She squeaked in fear.

He tried not to roll his eyes. Tikki had a right to be scared. She was a girl. A very tiny girl.

They left the rain behind as they reached the tents. The structures were clustered together like penguins at a cliff, trying desperately to fit under the bridge without falling into the water.

Tikki shrank under the stares. Residents watched them with tired eyes, following the bright red girl as she walked through camp. It was mostly in her
head. They weren’t really staring. They just glanced up here and there between other tasks. They had their own lives to attend to and one oddly dressed girl
was really nothing.

“You,” said Plagg, stopping in front of a cardboard sign. It had a cartoon horse on it, decorated messily with a Chinese emblem. “Is Monkey Brains around?”

The woman smiled. “My apologies, but he is not,” she said. “I gave Xuppu a ride a few weeks ago.”

Plagg sighed. “Of course you did. What about Duusu?”

“Left for Thailand yesterday.”

“What’s your name?” Tikki asked suddenly.

The woman looked at her in surprise. “Oh, where are my manners?” she said, getting up. “I’m Kaalki,” she said with a curtsy. “And may I say, I never thought I’d see the day Plagg to kept some sort of company."

Plagg blocked Tikki with his arm. “We just ran into each other.”

The woman’s smile faded. “Oh, so you need a ride?”

“No,” said Plagg. “Is the old guy around?”

“What’s your name?” Kaalki asked, now fully ignoring Plagg.

“Tikki,” Tikki answered, giving an awkward curtsy.

“And do you come from a glorious line of—“

“Yeah, we’re done,” said Plagg, grabbing Tikki by the shoulders and pushing her down the camp path. “Kaalki’s just good for headlines. Don’t actually talk to her.”

Tikki pushed his hands off. “You aren’t friends?”

“She’s an informant at best,” he said.

“Who’s shoo po?”

“Xuppu,” Plagg corrected. “And he’s a moron.”

“That’s a terrible thing to say.”

“It’s accurate,” said Plagg, scanning the area. He didn’t see the old man’s tent. Maybe he was still in South Africa. “Now, let’s find a place for the tent and—“

“Tea?”

Plagg deflated at the voice. “We don’t want tea, Fu,” he growled, moving between him and Tikki. “We’re just passing through.”

“So said the stream to the mountain, and yet it never left.”

“I’m Tikki.”

Plagg covered his face with his hands.

“Tikki,” said Fu. “What a lovely energy you have.”

She smiled awkwardly. “Is that a good thing?”

“No,” said Plagg.

“Indeed,” said Fu. “The synergy between you is striking. Perfect opposites in balance.”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “Sugar Cube, meet the local nut job, Master Fu.”

Tikki smacked Plagg’s arm. “Respect your elders,” she snipped. “Even if they aren’t with it at least be polite!”

Fu snickered. “Balanced indeed.”

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

“You know, I knew we’d need more first aid supplies when you moved in,” Plagg said. “I just didn’t realize how many ice packs specifically.”

Ladybug got up slowly. Plagg took her hand, guiding her around the glass bits on the floor. He lifted her up, gently sitting her on the counter and opening the fridge.

“Here,” he said, handing her an ice pack. “It’s cat shaped. Meow.”

Ladybug’s costume faded to polka dotted pyjamas as she started tugging at her pigtails. “This is a disaster! A complete—“

“It’s a dish,” said Plagg. “They are made to get broken.”

“They’re made to serve food on,” said Kagami.

Plagg sighed, grabbing the broom. “I mean, if we cared about breaking plates that much we would have made sturdier dishes.”

Kagami seemed satisfied with that explanation. Plagg swept up the glass and the chaos of the morning returned.

Adrien watched quietly. Plagg— apparently the man of the house— wasn’t getting angry. He was barely even annoyed that something was broken. His full concern was with Marinette as he went through the cupboards for some kind of sugary food.

“Sprinkles or maple syrup?” Plagg offered her. “I’ll drop cookies off at your school before second block.”

Adrien gaped as the superhero drank soup from the bottle.

Nino wandered in shortly after.

“I’m not shadowing you to school like that,” said Plagg.

“Why?”
“Blending in means not wearing pj pants.”

Alya handed Nino his hat. “He’s a hipster,” she told Plagg. “I swear. People are more suspicious he hasn’t showed up in those yet.”

Plagg sighed loudly.

Nino leaned on the counter beside Marinette. “If there’s an akuma attack, could you like— herd it through the school?” Nino asked.

Alya flicked the tip of Nino’s hat. “She’s not helping you skip your math test.”

“Please. I’ll give you my desserts for the week.”

Marinette hummed, clearly weighing the options.

Tikki snapped down a plate of waffles. The stack was so tall it hid her face. “That would be endanger civilians.”

“Oh, c’mon,” said Nino. “What have civilians ever done for us?”

Tikki crossed her arms. “If an attack gets that close to school, you and Alya need shelter it and throw up an illusion.” She smiled at Adrien. “Good morning, Adrien. Would you join us for breakfast?”

Adrien froze, eyes shooting to the waffles. They smelled amazing. “I— I’m sorry. I shouldn’t.”

Nino waved a waffle at him. “They taste great, my dude.”

They looked great. “I’ll just have an apple.”

“We only have grapes,” said Alya flatly. “And they’re mine.”

Nino squeezed her hand. “No one’s taking your grapes, girl.”

“We have cheese,” Tikki chirped. “It’s mostly camembert, but I’m pretty sure we have some cheddar cheese strings too.”

“We do not,” said Kagami.

Plagg eyed her. “Feather head wasn’t here last night, was he?”

Kagami crossed her arms. “First of all,” she said. “Argos wouldn’t dare come over after 9 on a school night.”

Tikki nodded in agreement.

Kagami leaned on the counter. “Second, he knows better than to touch anything that doesn’t belong to me.”

“Does he though?” asked Nino.

Kagami silenced him with a glance.

“Third,” she said, “I gave the cheese to Adrien.”

“You can have them back,” Adrien said quickly. “I didn’t eat them.”

Adrien now had Tikki’s full attention. “You barely ate dinner and you didn’t have a snack? No wonder you’re so thin.”

Plagg snorted. “He’s a model, Sugar Cube. Of course he’s thin.”

“You were a model, and I’ve never seen you skip a meal.”

Plagg rolled his eyes. “You didn’t meet me until I wasn’t a model anymore” he said, bending to look through a cupboard. “All bets were off by then. Kid, eat this.”

Adrien barely managed to catch the oatmeal package Plagg threw at him.

“It’s bland and tastes like cardboard, but won’t give you a nutritional shock,” he said.

The room was suddenly quiet.

Adrien shrank. All eyes were on him.

“I eat properly,” he said. “I won’t get sick from the waffles.”

“Great,” said Plagg, grabbing a waffle off the stack. He threw it at Adrien like a frisbee. “Eat up.”

Adrien did not manage to catch it.

~12 Years Ago~

Plagg had never had much trouble keeping to himself. People were annoying. They had wants and needs and always wanted to chat at the worst possible times. The best way to avoid this was to be a little creepy. Dressing in all black helped. Literally growling didn’t make him friends either.

Tikki had yet to hone that skill.

“We’ve been here one day,” Plagg said, crossing his arms. “One day, and everyone knows our names.”

“It’s a community,” Tikki chirped, nibbling on a package of cookies that had been gifted to her. “A little good will gets you a long way.”

“Who gave you the cookies?”

“Fluff. She ‘saw me coming’ whatever that means.”

Plagg sat up, shooting a look toward the rest of the camp. “I told you to avoid the bunny lady!”

Tikki shrugged. “She’s very nice. A little eccentric, maybe, but nice.” Tikki giggled, reaching into a battered shopping bag. “Apparently this box is a package from future me. And this is a gift from future you.”

Plagg tossed his package. “Don’t trust her.”

“I’m not trusting her,” said Tikki, unwrapping her box. “I’m trusting future me.”

Plagg snatched the box away. “Don’t trust future-you either,” he snapped. “And it’s not from the future. It’s a sick woman’s delusion.”

“Well, we have to open at least one of them,” said Tikki. “So we can thank her later.”

“No we don’t. We avoid her. We avoid everyone! That’s how we stay alive.”

“That’s how you stay alive,” said Tikki, grabbing for her package. “I’d rather live a short life worth living.”

“Than what?” Plagg snapped, yanking the box away. “Die alone in an alleyway? You know? Like you nearly did?”

“Only because you didn’t avoid me,” Tikki said, grabbing the edge of the package.

The wrapping tore. The package dumped between them. Plagg cursed.

Tikki gasped. “It’s— beautiful,” she said, taking the box. She ran her hand wistfully down the side. “How did Fluff… I mean, I’ve always wanted one of these.”

“Coincidence,” Plagg decided.

Tikki popped open the box, pulling out the Polaroid camera and its case. “Smile!”

“Don’t you dare!”

Tikki laughed. The camera hissed, releasing the image as Tikki snickered. “Stunning.”

“Shut up.”

“Master Fu says that there are nineteen types of freaks,” she said, shaking the picture. It developed slowly, revealing Plagg’s angry face. “There’s primary powers, secondary, and tertiary.” She gestured between the two of them. “We’re primary.”

“Yeah, well, don’t let it go to your head,” Plagg growled.

Tikki’s smile faded as she fiddled with the photo. “Primaries are easiest to track,” she said. “We have the most fundamental powers and that makes us the most dangerous.”

“False,” said Plagg. “It’s the freak who decides how dangerous they want to be.”

Tikki twisted her hair between her fingers. Plagg frowned, suddenly wondering if her hair had always been lady-bug red or if it had changed with the manifest. He’d been there when she first took scissors to it, leaving two long braids in the front that reminded him of bug antenna.

Her hair grew unnaturally fast compared to his.

“Master Fu told you all that, didn’t he?” Plagg asked.

“He’s got the power of protection,” she said. “It’s his job to educate us on—“

“He’s a moron.”

Tikki shot him a look. “You think everyone’s a moron.”

“No, I don’t!”

“Oh,” said Tikki, fanning herself with the picture. “Everyone except the all-knowing Plagg is a moron?”

“I’m talking about Nooroo!” snapped Plagg. He quickly bit his tongue, but it was too late.

Tikki nearly dropped the picture. “Who?

Plagg grabbed his package. “No one,” he said. “Look. Future me sent me a—“ his eyes widened.

Tikki’s eyes widened too. “Plagg?”

“Yeah?”

“Is there, you know, any chance Fluff’s a freak too?”

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

“You aren’t going to wear it?” Tikki asked. “Your future self made it just for you.”

“Future me has issues,” Plagg growled. “And if it is from future me, I would have known I’d throw it out.”

Tikki pouted, seriously considering fishing the gift out of the trash. It was a black toque with the words ‘STINKY SOCK’ embroidered neatly on the side. It had cat ears so cute she could never imagine Plagg wearing them. The toque itself was well worn and patched. The letter ’N’ was re-sewn in newer thread than the rest.

Someone had loved this hat.

This hat embroidered with a nickname Tikki had invented just recently.

She reached into the trash can.

“Don’t you dare.”

She scowled at Plagg and took it out anyway. He watched as she brushed it off and pulled it over her head

“Now my hair won’t attract so much attention.”

“Unlike the cat-eared hat?”

“Exactly.”

Plagg suppressed a growl.

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

The hat looked good on her.

Plagg hated to admit the pros of having a travelling buddy. Sure, the tent felt smaller with two sleeping bags, especially since they piled all their stuff in the middle to create the illusion of two rooms. However, any time Tikki left the tent, she came back with something new.

“Fu sent us tea,” she announced, setting down two tins of jasmine.

“We don’t have a tea pot,” Plagg noted.

“We have cups and fire.”

Plagg raised an eyebrow. “Don’t burn the camp down.”

Tikki grinned, delicately picking her way through their camp site to the ‘kitchen’. “I’ll be careful.”

He half believed that.

Mornings were worse with Tikki.

“How are you awake this early?” Plagg growled.

“The sun is up,” she said, peeking over the makeshift wall. “A new day has been created! Its full of possibilities and—“ Plagg’s pillow bounced off her face. She caught it, throwing it back

Plagg growled. He needed her out of his life. To do that, she had to get better at her powers.

After breakfast, he shadowed them out to a secluded part of the woods. “The sooner you figure this out, the sooner you’re not my problem,” he said, showing her a picture. “Make this.”

Tikki visibly wilted. “You’re bossy.”

“You like being alive?” he asked, crossing his arms. “You can’t rely on anyone else. This power is all you’ve got.”

Tikki gave him a pitiful look. He made a face back, silently keeping the gap between them. She huffed and closed her eyes, holding her hands out and focusing hard. The red energy flashed around her fingers like lightning— wild and untamed. Even closed, her eyes glowed black.

A table exploded into the forest in front of them. Tikki jumped, covering her face to shield herself from the flying pieces.

“You’re bad at this,” Plagg said.

Tikki let out an exasperated sigh. “You’ve been doing this a lot longer,” she huffed. “Have you considered I might still be learning? I’m on what? Day 7?”

“Day 9.”

“I’m not counting when I was unconscious.”

“Every day counts,” Plagg answered, placing his hand on the deformed table. His hand flickered with black energy, a glint of green behind his eyes as the table fell to dust. “You’re a freak. Every day you survive is one you earned.”

Tikki closed her eyes and repeated the attempt with a slow deep breath. She kept her hands stable. The light of power remained smaller, a smaller but still untamed, storm.

A table appeared. It fell on its side— flopped like a wounded animal.

“I outta take it out back and shoot it dead,” Plagg said.

“You’re not helping!” Tikki snapped. “And I’m getting better! It didn’t blow up this time!”

Plagg destroyed the table. “Do better.”

Tikki’s eyes flashed. Macarons suddenly rained down on Plagg. He yelped, covering his head.

“Cookies,” he grumbled. “How terrifying.”

The cookies fell faster. Bigger. Harder. Plagg winced as a dangerously large one bounced off his head.

“Seriously?” he hissed at Tikki. “How old are you? Stop it.” They might attract attention if they used this much power. A cookie the size of a bowling ball fell on him, rivalling hail. “Tikki!”

Her hands were shaking. Tears trailed her cheeks. Plagg went pale, seeing the terror on her face as her eyes glowed black. Her power danced around her in a red thunderstorm.

Plagg pulled his own power, disintegrating the falling cookies before they hit him. “Tikki?” He knew that look too well. She wasn’t in control. “Can you hear me?”

The girl lifted off the ground. The glowing of her eyes bordered blinding. The forest they’d chosen to practice in looked like a scene from ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’. Black and red cookies of increasing size appeared in flashed a few feet off the ground. Apart from the small radius of Plagg’s destruction, the ground was buried.

He cursed, watching her rise. He’d only seen that happen on TV— he hasn’t been fully conscious when he did it himself. Somewhere deep in his head, his rational brain screamed for him to run. Freaks were deadly. Manifesting was dangerous to everyone in the area.

It wasn’t supposed to happen twice.

His rational brain was ignored. Plagg countered with destruction, turning the cookies, grass, and trees to dust. They kept falling, now the size of boulders. Plagg pushed through, diving into the red aura of power around Tikki.

It exploded in contact.

Plagg was thrown back, the air knocked out of his lungs. He felt his control slip.

Then there was nothing.

Chapter Text

~Present~

“Tiiikkiiiii…”

Tikki smiled without looking up from her flowers. “Plaaaagggggg…”

Her husband hugged her from behind, resting his chin on her shoulder. “I did a dumb.”

She chuckled. “You? Never.”

He nuzzled her neck, letting out a good natured growl. “The house is gonna blow up.”

“It’s blown up before.”

“Nino’ll be traumatized.”

“He knows about double manifesting,” Tikki said. She plucked a rose from a tin of spare flowers and cut the stem. “He’s done it.”

“Yeah, but it’s less scary when it happens to you.”

Tikki pulled away just enough to give her husband a skeptical look. “I recall you screaming.”

Plagg let go and crossed his arms. “I did not.”

“We both screamed,” she said. “I fainted.”

“Yours was more intense.”

“Whatever you say, kitty.”

Plagg was quiet for a moment.

Tikki paused, giving here husband a sideways look. “Where is Adrien?”

“I left him with Ziggy.”

Tikki smiled, tilting her head. “Ah, what would we do without someone to forge IDs?”

Plagg shivered. “Homeschool.”

At that, she laughed. “You were terrible at correspondence math.”

He growled again. Tikki’s smile faded.

“We might need to homeschool him a while,” she said. “He’s still in the public lime light.”

Plagg hesitated. “He can stay?”

“Have I ever not let someone stay?”

“Queen Bee? Volpina?”

Tikki nearly smacked him with a flower. “Those were unique situations and you know it!”

Plagg smirked. “Hawkmoth?”

Tikki’s face flushed to match her hair. “As if he would ever come around asking for help!”

Plagg conceded that with a nod. “But you wouldn’t let him stay if he asked.”

“Absolutely not,” she snapped. “Ever. Never ever ever!”

He kissed her forehead.

Tikki glared. “If you say I’m cute when I’m angry—“

“You are absolutely terrifying when angry,” Plagg purred. “And I love you for that.”

Tikki seethed, almost smoking at the thought of Hawkmoth. “I swear, he knows exams are coming. If there’s an attack during her finals—“

“No!” snapped Plagg. “You promised.”

“We shouldn’t be leaving this battle to her.”

“We aren’t,” said Plagg. “I go out all the time.”

“So why can’t I?!”

“You know why.”

Plagg could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears. Her eyes grew wet and she slammed her fist on the table. “This is all your fault!”

“Yes it is,” he said. “I take full responsibility for that, but if you went out right now and something happened, you’d never forgive yourself.”

Tikki’s eyes glowed.

Plagg matched her power, cupping her face in his hands. “This won’t be like the first time,” he said. “We have friends. If he attacks during Mari’s exams we’ll pull a few strings and beat him silly.” He smirked. “Maybe even have Fluff send the akuma back to get beat up by past-us.”

Tikki’s expression went flat. “If that had happened, we’d remember it.”

“Only if we knew it was a time traveling akuma. Fluff can be discrete when she wants.”

Tikki sighed, resting her head on her husband’s chest as the glow faded from her eyes. Plagg’s glow faded in sync and he pulled her into a hug.

“You’ve gotta stop stealing my hat, Sugar Cube,” he said, patting her head between the sewn-on cat ears. “It was my Father’s Day gift.”

“You would deprive me in my delicate condition?”

“Mari made you your own hat,” he said. “Wear that one.”

“This one smells like you.”

He sighed dramatically.

Tikki made a funny noise.

“Cookie for your thoughts?”

Tikki took Plagg’s arms and pulled them around her in a hug. “You didn’t… kidnap Adrien, did you?”

Plagg scoffed. “Tikki. I have never done a criminal act in my entire life! Why, I’m offended at your suggestion!”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “I saw how you looked at Mari’s magazines. You knew he wasn’t okay.”

Plagg’s smirk faded. “Unlike you, I know when things aren’t my problem.”

“You worry anyway.”

“How dare you accuse me of such things?”

She smiled softly.

“I just found him,” he said. “I saw the news, but I wasn’t looking for him.”

“You weren’t?”

Plagg avoided eye contact. Tikki closed her eyes, leaning into him again. He was so soft. He hid it well, but it was always there. At his very core, he wasn’t pure destruction.

He was compassion. He cared too much— so much that it hurt. So much he tried to protect himself by cutting off the world.

But the compassion was always there.

She loved that about him.

“Are we still against murder?” he asked.

“Plagg!”

“If we just killed Hawk-head—“

“No,” she said, pointing a finger in his face. “We have to set an example for the kids.”

“We can set a good example next time.”

“You read the parenting book,” she squeaked. “You know that’s not how it works. Consistency is key!”

“Just this once!”

“No!”

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

Plagg came to with the same slow confusion of an old-style radio trying to find a station. The world felt fuzzy. Words and noises were obscured by static.

And yet something felt… right. Was that the word? Right? No. It was better than right.

“Euphoric?” he mumbled, peeling himself off the ground.

Tikki was barely aware herself. With a deep breath, she pulled herself out of the dust. Her body felt weird. She stared at her hands, examining the dots. She certainly hadn’t painted her nails recently.

Plagg moved in her peripheral vision.

“Oh my LANTA!” she squeaked, pointing at him. “MY LANTA what in the—? How? Why did—?!”

Plagg stirred. “Can’t you swear like a normal person?” he growled. It rumbled louder than normal, almost monstrous. “I swear you’re such a puff-ball.”

“You have ears!”

“Of course I have ears,” Plagg hissed, sitting up. His jaw dropped at the sight of Tikki. He pointed, gaping for a moment before he found words. “W—wings.”

Tikki squeaked, looking over her shoulder and screaming at the glittery things hanging from her shoulders. They fluttered. She screamed louder.

Plagg slammed his hand over her mouth. “CALM DOWN! We’ve gotta get out of here! We’ve caused a mess and people’ll sense—”

She pointed frantically at his head.

“I said calm d—“

Tikki grabbed his ear.

Plagg yanked away with a hiss, reflexively covering his ears.

Ears on the top of his head. Fuzzy ears. He stared at Tikki. She was still wearing that dumb hat, so any ears on top of his head had to be…

“You have a tail!” Tikki squeaked. The two braids in front of her face twitched.

Plagg didn’t hear that. He ripped off the hat. “You have antenna.”

Tikki touched the braids dubiously. She was dead-pale. Sure enough, one strand of hair wasn’t hair anymore. It was black and segmented.

Her eyes rolled back in her head.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

The sky turned black.

Adrien froze, clutching the oversized bags from Ziggy. The akuma alert started blaring.

Adrien reached for his phone. He had to hide and call Nathalie. If he apologized enough— begged enough— he might be forgiven for sneaking out.

A red streak painted the sky. Adrien watched, his eyes following the same famed Ladybug who he’d shared breakfast with.

Adrien didn’t have a phone anymore. He hadn’t snuck out. He’d been chased out.

Screaming.

Sirens.

Snow pelted from the sky. The sudden cold brought Adrien to his senses.

He grabbed the strings of his hoodie and pulled so it closed over his face. He’d seen people do that on Tiktok, but he’d never dared try it. That was undignified and he represented the Gabriel brand. Of course, now he was wearing a black hoodie with ‘Meow or Never’ written on the front. He hated to imagine what his father would say if he saw him like this.

It sure was warm, though.

He ran for the flower shop. Plagg told him to wait in a coffee shop, but the attack changed things. No one would come to pick him up in an attack. He was a stray at best.

Not a priority.

The snow turned to hail. Wind threw Adrien off his feet. He slid, grabbing onto a telephone pole and flapping like a flag in a storm.

“Where is Ladybug?” someone screamed.

“Help!”

“This is that freaks fault!”

Shops locked their doors. Cars flew. The growing hurricane threw a mailbox.

A familiar heat seared inside Adrien’s brain. He closed his eyes, tightening his grip on the pole. He had to calm down. He couldn’t blow up here. There were people. He could kill someone.

The pole turned to dust between his fingers.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Adrien hit a wall. He gasped, the air knocked out of him as he dropped to the ground of a random balcony. He scrambled the covered area. The sky exploded with thunder. Hail the size of golf balls fell as far as the eye could see.

The Eiffel Tower shook in the wind.

Where was Ladybug?

Adrien scanned the skyline for red. Instead he saw a girl in purple. She floated above the rooftops, her hair pulled into spiralled pigtails. She pointed her umbrella at the sky, spewing clouds into the growing storm.

“I’m predicting record-breaking hail!” she shouted.

The roof over Adrien crashed. He winced, spotting a dent the size of a tennis ball. Ladybug was Marinette— the same Marinette who started the day spread eagle on the kitchen floor. Could she even fight in this weather? If she got hit with one of those it could kill her on impact.

“There you are!” The akuma spun around, pointing her umbrella at something Adrien couldn’t see. But he saw it a second later.

A red shape— Ladybug— racing across the scuffled rooftops. She held her yo-yo spinning overhead. He’d seen that on TV. It was an effective shield, but it took focus. That was her main weapon and right hand.

She could fight or she could avoid getting her brains blown out by the weather. She couldn’t do both.

“Aurora!” Ladybug shouted. “Please stop this! You can reject the akuma and—“

‘Aurora’ blasted her off the roof.

The next thing Adrien registered was falling. Green lightning exploded over his body. His foot made contact with a rooftop. He landed running, tearing an umbrella from a random balcony without looking away from his target.

The red blur falling from the sky.

He was rapidly running out of roof. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he should stop. He could hear his father screaming. What was he doing? He’d ruin the brand, the company, the image he’d been so carefully groomed to fit.

Adrien leapt. His feet hit the next roof and he bolted, throwing his arms out behind him like an anime character he was never supposed to watch. Something too childish. Unrefined. Wild. The wind threw his hair. Who cared if it wasn’t perfect? If a strand was out of place? If acne showed?

“Ladybug!” he shouted. “Over here!”

She threw her yo-yo. Adrien jumped as it zipped past his face, catching the chimney beside him. She shot towards him. He fumbled with the umbrella, forcing it open again. Ladybug sprawled across the roof underneath.

“I guess only cats land on their feet?” Adrien asked.

Ladybug’s yo-yo returned to her hand with a snap. “Who on earth are you?”

He blinked in surprise. “Uh…”

“Cuz if you’re come kind of copy cat—“ She closed her eyes, still lying on the roof. “—some Noraneko knock-off… I’ll do something… in a second.” She waved a hand at him, still catching her breath. “And… and it’ll be bad. You’ll be sorry. Be scared.”

Adrien snickered, crouching at the base of the umbrella. “Tired?”

“Noooo…,” she scoffed. “Why would you think that?”

Wind blasted in their direction. Adrien braced himself.

Ladybug slammed down the umbrella like a wall, bracing it against the chimney in time to break the gust. “Could a tired person do that?”

“I think you could do anything,” he answered honestly.

She flushed. “And what can you do?”

He hesitated in confusion. “Break stuff?”

The hail got louder. The umbrella tore.

“Alright,” she said. “I don’t have time to ask questions. Hold this.”

He obeyed, bracing the umbrella. Ladybug took a deep breath, holding her hands about a foot apart. Pink lightning flashed across her fingers, arcing between her hands in a wild crackle. It grew, gathering as a white glow between her palms.

She took another deep breath and closed her eyes. “Lucky charm,” she whispered.

~12 Years Ago~

Fluff shot up from the couch. “Tea for two,” she shouted, diving for the tea pot. “Yesterday, tomorrow, or now!”

Fu snatched the pot away. “Not the two of us, I take it?”

Fluff grinned, pausing to pull up the hood of her rabbit onesie before giving a salute. “Until last week,” she chirped. “Or next week!”

Fu waved goodbye as she disappeared into a burrow. Fluff was one for close calls. He didn’t have a lot of time.

He quickly started gathering his best china. His tent was one of the nicer ones in the colony, though that didn’t mean much. It was really just a pop up shade tent with tarps over the sides.

Most tents required visitors to crawl. That didn’t work for Fu. Kaalki, for one, tended to move large groups without warning. Fluff could never remember if he lived in a house: yet, never, or now. Bunnix was a little more certain of the timeline, but she still had trouble aiming. More than once she’d fallen from the ceiling or shot up from the ground.

A particular destruction user needed near pitch-black shadows to slip through.

Fu cleared the table— an old door balanced on three milk crates and a pile of books. He needed his good cushions and maybe some sugar depending on the visitors. He rifled through his pile of grocery bags. There was an old bed sheet in there somewhere that he often passed as a table cloth.

There was a crash behind him.

Fu sighed, slowly turning around. Plagg stood over the table, one foot tilting the door off the crates. The remains of a few decent tea cups covered the ground tarp.

Tikki was limp in his arms.

Plagg dropped the door into place, straightening it with his foot. Fu watched silently as the destroyer placed Tikki on it, pausing to ensure her wings weren’t bent.

Fu retrieved another pair of tea cups. “It is the right time now, I see,” he said. “Take a seat.”

Plagg grabbed the cup, holding it on the shelf so the old man couldn’t pick it up. His eyes glowed in the dim tent. “Explain. Now.”

Fu smiled, picking another cup. “We should wait for the lady, I think.”

“No,” Plagg growled. “Now.”

Fu poured a cup of tea and held it out to Plagg. “A second manifest is quite taxing. Take a moment for your body.”

Plagg took the tea. “My body has a tail!”

“Patience is a virtue.”

“And teapots are breakable!” snapped Plagg. “I thought you said a manifest only happens once!”

“No,” he said calmly. “I said Nooroo could only manifest once.”

“And the rest just wasn’t relevant?”

Fu set a full cup of tea beside Tikki’s head. “The water hadn’t boiled yet,” he said, sitting on the floor. “As one does not drink black tea at night, one does not prune a new bud.”

Plagg held two fingers so they nearly touched. “I am this close to strangling you, old man.”

Fu took a sip of tea. Plagg’s tail thrashed. His ears flattened to his head.

It started to rain.

“I am glad you came,” said Fu. “Last we shared tea, you swore you’d rather die than have my help. I feared I’d failed you as a guardian.”

Plagg didn’t answer. His eyes glowed, but they were focused on Tikki. Her wings fluttered. She shivered. Without a word, Plagg pulled off his coat and dumped it on her. He was too hot anyway.

His tail puffed in the cold.

The old man smiled, stirring his tea. “Is Nooroo well?”

“How should I know?” Plagg snapped.

Fu nodded again.

The rain grew louder. Thunder rumbled outside.

“Will it go away?” Plagg asked.

“Hm?”

“The tail,” he said. “Will it go away?”

“In time,” said Fu. “Once you’re calm.”

Plagg glared at him.

“Its a part of you,” said Fu. “You will learn to control it as you come to peace with your transformation and your power. Until you do, it will most likely appear when you are stressed or emotional.”

“Great,” Plagg hissed. “I take it you already had her over for tea and filled her head with your weird greater-good stuff?”

“I explained the concept of a transformation, yes,” he said. “She seemed surprised she hadn’t seen yours yet.”

Plagg didn’t answer.

“Are you still unable?”

“I can do it,” he snapped. “But unlike you, I don’t think I should have to play hero for a bunch of people who want us dead.”

“How can we earn their trust if we hide?”

“I don’t want their trust. I want them to leave me alone!”

Tikki stirred.

Plagg scowled. “She knows enough to stay alive,” he said, downing the tea and slamming it on a box. He hadn’t promised anything else. He’d already gotten way too involved. “She’s not my problem anymore.”

“You manifested together,” said Fu, standing up. “You’re bound by fate.”

“I’m not bound to anything but cheese,” said Plagg, taking his coat back and slipping it on. He pulled up his hood, carefully tucking his ears out of sight. That was going to take some getting used to.

Fu blocked the entrance to the tent. “This is not something to take lightly. You and Tikki represent the most basic elements. You have the opportunity to set an example for our kind.”

“We blew up a forest,” Plagg snapped. “That’s manslaughter in the making!”

“Tikki can undo anything you destroy,” said Fu. “You can destroy anything she can create. It’s—“

“She can still be normal!”

Fu frowned. His forehead pinched in confusion at Plagg’s shout. “Normal?”

“Forget it,” Plagg hissed, pushing past Fu and into the storm.

“You cannot run from destiny,” Fu called after him. “It always finds you in its own time.”

“Great,” Plagg snapped, walking backwards away. “Tell it to pick up a pizza on the way! Double cheese. Extra camembert!”

Fu only sighed.

Teenagers.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

The glow between her fingers shorted out. Ladybug groaned. “Why today?” she hissed under her breath, throwing her effort into a second try. “Lucky Charm! C’mon!”

A piece of hail split the umbrella. Adrien yelped. Ladybug jumped in surprise, her power exploding into a beach towel.

“Yes!” she cried. “Finally!”

Adrien felt sick, looking out through the hole at the approaching akuma. “What do we do?!”

She was already scanning the surroundings. “Give me your belt and that paper bag.”

Adrien started to empty the bag before he remembered he didn’t have a belt. He was wearing sweat pants for maybe the second time in his entire life.

That’s when he finally saw his hands and froze. His blood ran cold at the sight of his gloved fingers and catlike claws.

“And the paper bag,” Ladybug said, sitting cross legged with the towel and beginning to fold. “Quickly.”

Adrien gaped down at himself. He was dressed for the runway! His shirt— coat?— cut down across his chest in a low ‘V’ his father reserved for older fashion models. Adrien scrambled for the zipper, yanking it up to his chin.

This had to be some kind of nightmare.

“Belt!”

The outfit had a belt hanging off like a tail. Adrien wrestled it off, shoving Ziggy’s gifts into the only pocket his new look provided. Ladybug snatched it.

“If you have to be here, at least be a good distraction,” she said. “Buy me five minutes.”

Adrien blinked. Ladybug looked just as beautiful as she did in the magazines. In the moment, her pigtails fluttering in the wind, he nearly pinched himself.

“Go!” she snapped. “Now!”

Adrien saluted, giving her a sweeping bow. “As you wish, M’lady. There was no way this was real.

For once in his life, Adrien could be himself.

~12 Years Ago~

Figures it would be raining.

Plagg sighed, pulling his coat shut and fumbling with the buttons. No matter how far he travelled or who he met, he always wound up back in Paris. The mangled remains of the Eiffel Tower stared down at him: judging him, reminding him, keeping him in line.

He dawdled on the bridge. He didn’t want to run into that guy out here. He had a way of forcing Plagg to face his denial. He wasn’t in the mood.

//

Crying.

Plagg scanned the bridge. It was nearly abandoned at this time of night. A lone figure haunted the deck. Plagg watched her pace. It seemed this bridge was a place for the troubled.

She climbed onto the rail.

He bolted towards her. “Wait!”

She looked at him.

A butterfly landed on her shoulder. A pink mask of light covered her face.

Plagg slid to a stop.

“Hello Clarissa,” said a familiar voice.

The woman’s face became peaceful. Plagg relaxed, quickly turning away before that guy felt his presence nearby.

The woman climbed down. Plagg knew how the conversation would go. She’d remember something worth living for— he always found something— and send her off in a daze.

Usually it was to family or friends. In some cases he sent them to a mental health crisis centre. But he never took back the butterfly until they were safe.
//

“Why do you always come back here?”

Plagg let out a growl. “Don’t you have a home?”

Nooroo stepped out of the shadows. His eyes were bright, even as the mask on his face faded. “Don’t you?” he asked, holding up a polka dotted umbrella.

“Oh, shut up,” said Plagg, snatching the umbrella away. Still, he stood close enough to keep the kid dry.

Nooroo only sounded smart because he was smart for a ten-year-old. He was still easily taken in.

“What was her story?” Plagg asked, jabbing his thumb in the woman’s direction.

Nooroo’s face brightened. “What is her story, Plagg. Her story still is. I don’t know how it will end. I can only hope it’s a long and lovely one.”

Plagg bonked the kid on the head. “Have you been watching rom coms again?”

“My manager likes them.”

“Of course she does.”

“I missed you.”

Plagg tried not to wince. “You gotta stop doing that,” he said. “You can still pass as human, so forget about the freak world and have a life.”

Nooroo pouted. “I don’t want to.”

Plagg made a face. “Your agency didn’t find out, did they?”

Nooroo shook his head.

“Did your mom?” Plagg asked, as if Nooroo’s mom wasn’t his manager.

“No.”

“Then why are you here?”

“I felt you coming.”

Plagg sighed, crouching to the kid’s height. His stomach grumbled. “Nooroo…”

The boy opened his jacket, pulling out two packages of cheese.

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Plagg said. But he couldn’t hide the smile. “I can take care of myself.”

“Manager says lying is bad.”

Plagg shrugged, smiling bigger and taking the cheese. “Yeah, well I’m a bad guy, remember?”

Nooroo wrinkled his nose in anger. “Is that what you told Tikki?”

Plagg stiffened at her name. His tail appeared in a flash, barely saving his balance. “How do you know that name?”

“Master Fu.”

Plagg stiffened. “Don’t you be talking to that coot,” he said. “You aren’t destined to be a hero or part of a balance or something. He’s just crazy.”

“But I can help people!”

“You’re ten years old.”

“Eleven!”

“Not much better!"

Nooroo glowered. A purple glow shimmered in his eyes as he glared at Plagg.
Plagg hung his head. “If you still wanna be a hero when you’re 18, then cool. I’ll even help you.” Nooroo might get himself killed otherwise. “But for now, stick with the butterflies, okay?”

Nooroo grinned. “You’ll be my sidekick?”

Plagg tried not to laugh. “If you want, then sure,” he said, offering his pinkie finger. “But only once you’re 18. Until then, stay away from Fu.”

Nooroo couldn’t say ‘no’ to that.

Chapter Text

~Present~

Tikki stared at the TV. 

There was an Extreme Akuma Warning in effect. Her kids were probably hunkered down under desks in their classrooms. Kagami was most likely powering up to deflect the weather. Nino was definitely having a panic attack somewhere in his school.

But almost worse was the two idiots catapulting themselves across the rooftops of Paris. One idiot in particular had her freaked out, because there was no way on earth the leather-clad teenage boy was anyone other than Adrien. 

She hugged her knees, huddled up under the workbench and watching the flickering TV. Adrien seemed to have fixed his shirt situation. Now he was beaming, running on all fours like an actual cat. 

Ladybug wasn’t on screen. Tikki wondered if Adrien was a voluntary distraction or taking orders. He threw his head back in a wild laugh when the akuma spoke, but the TV drone wasn’t close enough to hear him. 

“Tikki!”

Tikki hit her head on the workbench. “Back here!”

Plagg nearly blinded her with a flashlight. “Are you okay?”

She rubbed her head, giving him a thumbs up. 

Plagg joined her under the desk, 

wrapping his wife in a hug. His heart pounded loud enough for Tikki to hear. Tikki ran her hands through his hair, pressing down his cat ears until they disappeared. 

“Shh… see? We’re okay. I’m okay.”

Plagg nodded, finally letting his grip loose. “I need to check on Ladybug.”

Tikki winced. “I guess you haven’t seen the news, then?”

Plagg whipped around to see the TV just in time to catch a close up of Adrien. It seemed the news had finally figured out how to get audio. 

“That wasn’t very ice of you!” Adrien crowed at the akuma. He posed with his chest puffed and his hands on his hips. “You’re causing Paris a cat-astrophy and they deserve and a-paw-logy!”

Tikki sighed. Of course that would be the first audio they’d catch. By tomorrow it would be someone’s ring tone. 

Plagg stared in horror. “I gotta go get him.”

“My big concern if Mari’s going to figure out who he is,” said Tikki. “She won’t be able to function.”

“She’s gotta know who he is,” said Plagg frowning. “Who else could it be?”

Tikki raised an eyebrow, a gesture Plagg always found to be a mix of intimidating and adorable. “If she knew, we would have—“

Her cellphone ran. 

“—gotten a call by now,” she said, answering the phone on speaker. 

“I’d like to inform you that Adrien appears to have transformed.”

Kagami. 

Tikki relaxed a little. “Yes, we saw. We’re working through what to do next.”

Kagami’s voice was as measured as ever. “Our current status is ‘shelter in place’,” she said. 

“We discussed sheltering the school,” Alya chimed in. “But my illusions would fall apart under the hail.”

Hyperventilation in the background suggested Nino was part of ‘we’. 

“As such we are currently under a shell in the all gender bathroom,” Kagami said. “We are unsure if this is a sufficiently threatening akuma for Ryuko and Carapace to make appearances. Please advise.”

Tikki tittered, her stomach turning at the idea of them getting pelted by hail. Carapace and Ryuko weren’t considered as heroes by the public either. There was a much higher chance of police intervention if they were seen. It wasn’t a matter of if the kids would be shot at, but when. 

The same went for Adrien. Plagg had just barely gotten himself into the public’s graces and he lived on thin ice. 

She looked at Plagg. His face had darkened in thought. His tail twitched. 

“This has to be your call,” he told the kids. “But whatever you decide to do, stay in contact and keep your gps active.”

“Understood.” 

“And we love you,” Tikki added quickly. “No matter what you pick. We love you so much!”

There was a loud huff of relief. “We love you too.” 

Nino. 

“And be careful.”

“We are always careful,” Kagami informed them. “Goodbye.”

Tikki smiled. “Good— and she hung up.”

Plagg fixed his eyes on the TV screen. The news was already trying to decide what to do with the new black cat. Was Noraneko trying a new look? Was it an akuma? Some random freak?

“I guess Ladybug really doesn’t realize it’s him,” he said, watching her throw Adrien by the tail. 

Tikki and Plagg winced as Adrien hit a ‘Gabriel Agreste’ billboard. It turned to dust on impact. 

The footage changed dramatically. Familiar green domes popped up, covering parts of the city in seemingly sporadic patches.  An observant eye would notice his targets:

Hospitals.  

Schools. 

Public shelters. 

Major buildings that would be full of people. 

The Louvre.

Nino would be exhausted that night. 

A deafening sound illusion followed. “Please move to a sheltered building! They will be opened for one minute in five minutes. Please move to a sheltered building! They will be opened for one minute in four minutes fifty seconds…”

This was not Alya’s first rodeo. 

The phone rang. 

Plagg answered, immediately holding the phone away from his ear. 

“ADRIEND ISING A CATSUCIY FUNNIGN ADORU D UN PARIS WITHOUT A SHURT AND HES SO HOT ANF I CANTN BREAFHS AND—“

Tikki cocked an eyebrow at her husband. 

Plagg covered his face with his hands. “I take it he jumped in on his own?"

“HE JSYT SHOWSED UPINA CATSUIT AND STARTIED RUNGIN AROJND MAKEUNG PUNS AND FLIRHTING WITH ME AND HHE SAID MLADY AND WHATS TBAT—“

Plagg covered the receiver as Ladybug’s spiral continued. “We lost her.”

“Ya think?” Tikki pulsed with faint light, a box of macaroons appearing in her hands. “She didn’t eat enough.” 

“I’ll go.” Plagg tucked the box under his arm. 

Tikki nodded, turning her attention back to the phone. “It’s okay, baby. Let’s have a deep breath, okay?”

“ADRIENS INA CATSUIT DKNTTELL ME TO BREATHE!”

This wasn’t going to be fun. 

~12 Years Ago~

Canada was good for big forests. The further north you go, the quieter it gets. It’s hard to mobilize an anti-freak squad to the middle of the Rocky Mountains and even better, there’s almost no one up there to begin with.

It’s wonderfully lonely. Plagg would always tell Nooroo that.

Plagg sat on the ground, lets crossed and eyes closed. 

“C’mon,” he hissed, pressing his fists together. “Just… just do it!”

His power surged. 

The grass below him turned black. He swore and tried again. 

“You’re the most powerful freak Fu’s ever met! You can do this!”

The nearby trees crumpled to ash.

“Change!”

His power exploded. Plagg yelped, covering his head at the loud sound. The forest rumbled. The mountains shook. 

Plagg threw his hands in the air. “Who cares!” he snapped, throwing his hat at the ground. “I don’t need to transform! I’m don’t owe those humans anything!”

It started to rain. Plagg screamed at the sky. He yelled. He threw everything he had on his person. He cried. But no matter what he did, it was still a ten kilometre hike out of his fresh crater. 

It wasn’t wonderfully lonely.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Plagg transformed on the go. Somewhere between shadows and rooftops he gained his costume and the power to be unrecognizable to laymen. He leapt, catching the next roof with his claws and scrambling up the slope of it. “Pigtails!”

Ladybug looked up, huddled under a yo-yo shield and gripping her phone to her ear. She’d stayed on the line with Tikki. 

“Noraneko at your service, Princess,” Plagg said, giving a mock bow. “I’m told you need a paw?”

Ladybug scoffed, looking up with a half-smile. Puns always had that effect on her. She might be annoyed, but she wasn’t fully panicking anymore, and that was worth its weight in gold. 

Since puns were banned in the house Plagg’s outlet for them had been reduced significantly. 

Adrien landed next to her on the rooftop. Ladybug squeaked. 

“I’ve spotted some purrfectly useful information,” Adrien announced. “The akuma is catty over losing a weather-girl contest. Her name isn’t in lights so now it’s in lightning.”

Plagg had Adrien by the bell of his costume before the boy could react. “You are 15 years old with no training,” he said. “I’m fine if you want to be a hero, but not until you can take a punch.”

Adrien’s face darkened. “I can.”

“And that worries me on another level!”

“Phone,” Ladybug said, holding it out to Adrien. 

He frowned and took it. 

“Stay here until you finish talking to Tikki,” Noraneko growled. “Got it?”

“Okay?”

He let go of Adrien. “Good. Ladybug, let’s deal with this.”

She nodded. They zipped off as Adrien watched. He’d only seen Noraneko on TV once. He was a sideline hero. He only showed up when things got bad. 

“Adrien? Sweetie? Can you hear me?”

He sighed, pacing the roof. “Yeah.”

“I’m not sure you know this, but a drone is following you. We can see you on the news.”

Adrien froze. “What?”

“You’re doing very well,” she said. “It took Plagg months to figure out transforming and you nailed it in 24 hours.”

Adrien looked down at his clothes. “Y—yeah.”

“Are you aware of the hail?”

He frowned. What kind of trick question was that? “Yeah?”

“What’s stopping it from hitting you?”

He stopped short. He had no clue. 

He looked up. 

Black light zipped across his skin. The hail disintegrated on contact.  It was hitting him. He just destroyed it before it hurt. 

“You can’t control your power yet,” she said. “You’re a sweet boy. I know you’ll hate yourself if something goes wrong. You’ve bought Ladybug time like a pro, but it’s time to come back to the house.”

He stared at his hand in horror. It shook, crackling with power. He could have killed someone. He could have killed a lot of someones. 

“Do you need me to come pick you up?”

No. He should be able to get himself home. He was supposed to be self sufficient. Agrestes were tough. 

“You’re hyperventilating.” Tikki’s voice was gentle. “Get into an undercover area. I’ll get to you.”

“Okay.”

~12 Years Ago~

Plagg’s feet rested on the desk. This was such a funk. He was being reckless, scamming a hotel to get a night in a bed. Tikki never would’ve gone along with it. 

He shook his head at the thought of her. He’d get by on his own. He always did. 

He flipped on the TV. 

“—mysterious figure appeared in Italy seems to be moving towards Paris. The media—“ 

He changed the channel. 

“—Plagg, possessed by destruction, is still at large. He is believed to be in Paris and has not been sighted since—“

He changed the channel. 

“—going by the name Master Fu—“

He grabbed the tv schedule. “Where’s the food channel?”

Knocking. “That’s you on the TV, ain’t it?!”

Drat. He’d conned the hotel and he wasn’t even going to get a good sleep out of it. 

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Adrien could not recall his last family dinner. He had a faint sense it was something he used to do.

It seemed this family only had family dinners.

“Today’s battle was disorganized,” Kagami said, pulling a clip board out of her back pack. “I took notes on how we can improve. Marinette. Panicking at the sight of Adrien was unprofessional. What do you intend to do so it doesn’t happen again?”

Marinette slid down in her seat.

“Dude, that wasn’t on her,” Nino pointed out. “You saw the footage. Plagg freaked too.”

Plagg took a sip of tea. “Adrien is too junior to be in the field on his own. I would have done the same if any of you had gone out that unprepared.” He eyed Tikki but said nothing. 

She eyed him back. “Because you are a better guardian than Fu.”

“I’m not a guardian,” he grumbled, drinking more of his tea. “I’m a dad.”

“There’s a resemblance between the two roles,” said Kagami. “Both involve the protection and—“

“I know ‘Gami.”

“Next,” she said, going back to her checklist. “Adrien. Radiating destructive energy in the manner you did today is extremely risky. How do you plan to avoid this in the—“

Plagg took the clip board. “We’ll go over it on the next fight,” he said. “We got through. No one died. Lessons were learned.”

“Exactly,” said Kagami. “But it’s important to learn those lessons properly to prevent future mistakes.”

Nino tilted his head in agreement. Her regimen had saved their lives more than once now. Alya elbowed him.

“The attack was after my math test,” he said, catching the hint to change the subject. 

“You guys did great today,” Marinette told them. “The civilian management system you set up was perfect. I didn’t have to swoop in for more than three civilians.”

“Yay!” said Tikki, handing out empty plates. “See? That’s a big win.”

“And Mari only panicked off camera,” said Alya. “I went through the footage and there’s nothing of her freak out.”

“Yay again!”

Marinette sank further in her seat.

Plagg made a face. “What’s the chatter on the new hero?”

Alya smirked. “He already has a fan site,” she said, flipping through her phone and showing him the screen. “People think you had a secret love child with Lady Luck.”

Plagg raised an eyebrow, scrolling through the page as Adrien wished to disappear. The kid’s first transformation was just as terrible as Plagg’s had been. The battle-puns bore a resemblance as well. Aside from the hair colour he could see where the rumours were coming from.

Expect they were way to young to have a teenage son.

Nino leaned over to see Alya’s phone. “Cool. What are they calling him?” 

“The Black Cat, or in the words of Hot_tatterTots2002 ‘The epitome of the sexy cat costume’.”

“Boo,” said Nino, taking the phone. “At least make it in his first language. You were born in France, right?”

Adrien frowned. “How did you know that?”

If not for the ‘we eat as a family’ rule, Marinette would have bolted for her bedroom. Instead she pretended to take unusual interest in the design of her plate.

“Oh, Mari’s a huge fan,” said Alya. “Aren’t you?”

“Are these new plates?” Marinette asked. “They’re hot— cute!”

Adrien caught himself smiling. Ladybug was a fan of his? “They are nice plates.”

“Thank you,” said Tikki. “I made them myself.”

~12 Years Ago~

It had been 74 days since he left Tikki. He was trying not to track time that way, but it was nicer than the 17 days since he was nearly caught in a hotel or the 5 days since he broke his arm in an escape or 3 days since he ate something resembling cheese. 

So 14 days it was. He panted, gritting his teeth as he flipped through stolen first aid books. 

Tikki could heal an arm. 

He threw the book. It bounced off the radio. It screamed to life with static. He winced at the noise.

“—calling herself Lady Luck— suspected to be —ikki — manifested 31 days.“ The voice died.

Plagg grabbed the radio. “What?” He shook it hard. “Talk to me you box of bolts!”

“—Senti — London,” it sputtered, turning to ash between his claws. 

He swore, grabbing his stuff with his good hand. What had Fu told her? 

His arm throbbed. He hissed loudly, nearly dropping his sack. He’d have to travel lighter than this. Just the clothes on his back. He held out his hand, focusing the energy. It was barely a spark now.

“Oh my Lanta!” he snapped. He couldn’t even make a shadow portal. “C’mon!”

Nothing. 

Drat! Surely Tikki was fine. She had Fu. He wouldn’t let her get too hurt, right? He called himself a guardian. He was supposed to look out for the freaks.

He eyed his bag. He didn’t need to pull on that last resort. He wasn’t desperate enough. She didn’t need him that bad. What could he even do in this condition?

Plagg unzipped his bag, digging out the small box Fu had given him months ago. 

“I’m not calling for help,” he told himself. “I’m picking a fight. That’s totally different.”

He wasn’t worried about her or anything. 

He stopped short. The cops nearly had his location. Even if he could make a jump, freak energy anywhere near his last sighting would be caught and tracked. He was just getting through by the skin of his teeth. He couldn’t be anywhere near other freaks right now. They’d get as pinned down as he was.

Especially Fu.

Plagg hissed, pacing the cave. She wasn’t his problem anyway. He didn’t need to care. It would be worth it for Nooroo, but he’d made Tikki no promises. 

He didn’t owe her a thing. 

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

Plagg slumped against the wall, panting. “What’s got them so riled up?” he mumbled between breaths. 

The sirens were closing in. 

Plagg swallowed hard. They must have figured out how to track him through the shadows. He eyed the darkest part of the space he’d shadowed into. He doubted he could make another jump. 

361 days was a solid run. 

His knees buckled. He dropped to the ground, panting on his hands and knees. 

“C’mon,” he growled, willing himself to crawl to the shadows. His arm ached, loosely bound and supported by scraps. “Just one more jump.”

One more jump. 

One more jump.

One more—

Gunfire. 

Plagg collapsed. Each bullet evaporated as it hit, destroyed on impact with his body. His power surged out of control. The ground cracked. 

Shouting. 

Screaming. 

Plagg curled in on himself, desperate to control his power. It crackled beyond his reach as the bullets came faster. The grass turned to dust around him. 

He had to calm down. 

He didn’t want to destroy everything, but bullets didn’t work on him. They should have noticed that by now.  Shooting always made it worse. 

Dumb cops. 

The shooting suddenly stopped. 

Plagg almost didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t want to see the people he had turned to ash. He wished that he could be killed like that. He would rather be dead than a murderer. 

But he opened his eyes.

The grass was back. 

He did a double-take, sitting up to look around. Nothing was broken. The gunmen were still shooting, but a strange light seemed to keep the bullets at bay. 

A strange light coming from a girl in red. 

“Tikki?!?”

She smiled, keeping one hand up to maintain the apparent shield. “Hey Stinky Sock.”

"What are you—? They—? It—“ He stared at her, touching the ground he’d destroyed only moments before. “It’s not safe here,” he managed to say. “I’m not your problem!” He blinked, finally registering her ridiculous get up. “Your transformation looks rediculous.”

Tikki made a face, stalking over to him and holding out her free hand. “Get up.”

Plagg just gaped. 

“Plagg!”

He grabbed her hand, surprised at her strength as the tiny girl pulled him to his feet. 

“Can you shadow?” she asked. 

He was still stunned. “Can I—?”

“Shadow! Can you jump us through that shadow?”

Plagg wasn’t sure. The exhaustion had faded though he couldn’t imagine how. “I think so?”

“Good,” she said, gripping his hand tighter. “Let’s go.”

They stumbled into a forest. Plagg dropped her hand, gasping again. He’d never jumped so far before and he could feel it. His head spun. The pain in his arm was gone.

“Where are we?” Tikki asked. 

“Canada.”

The tiny girl gasped. “We crossed the planet?”

Plagg nodded, then threw up. “Why’d you dive into my business like that?” he hissed. “You could’ve gotten killed.”

“You needed help.”

He glared at her, wiping vomit off his mouth. “I’m not your problem.”

“You’re my friend.”  

“I don’t have friends,” he growled, straightening up a bit. 

She smiled, crossing her arms. “I think you do.”

Plagg scowled. What was wrong with this idiot? Everyone else left. 

“I told you,” he said, freeing his newly healed arm. “You’re the kind of freak that can do okay if you keep your head down. I’m—“

“—on borrowed time,” she said. “Except you don’t have to be.”

“Oh, are you all-knowing now?” Plagg growled, getting in her face. “Last I checked, I destroy everything I touch.”

Tikki didn’t back down, holding her ground against him. “I talked to other freaks,” she said. “Turns out lots of freaks make homes.”

“And how long did it take for the cops to catch up?” he asked, flexing his fingers. Tikki’s power was scary. “Weeks? Days?”

“235 years,” said Tikki simply. 

“Have I got a bridge to sell you,” Plagg scoffed. 

“Freaks have always existed, Plagg,” she said. “There’s stories about us. Records. A whole hidden community— a network of freaks like us.”

He gave a dry laugh. “Powers are trackable,” he said. “Either those people are weak or—

“Every power has a match,” she said quickly, cutting him off. “They cancel each other out. If you have the right set you can’t be tracked.” She was grinning now. “Don’t you get it? That’s why no one found us when we were together. Creation and destruction balance each other out!”

Plagg sighed, rubbing his forehead. “What kinda nut jobs have you been hanging around with?”

“Why don’t we test it?” she asked. “Stick together in one area for two weeks. If no one finds us then we know it works.”

Plagg scrunched his nose in a frown. “And if your crack-theory’s a bust?”

“We’ll shadow away and I’ll never bother you again,” she said, holding up her pinkie finger. “Deal?”       

“What’s in it for me?”

Tikki faltered. He really didn’t want to be around her, did he? “Cheese,” she said quickly. “I’ll make you all the cheese you could want.”

Plagg shook his head. “Moron,” he said, linking pinkies with her. “Two freaks can’t hide anywhere.”

Chapter Text

Plagg woke to ragged breathing. For a long moment he lay perfectly still, listening. The hotel was hardly secure. The cops could’ve found them. 

He moved slowly, turning to the other bed. 

Tikki was up. 

“You cry loud,” Plagg said. 

The girl nearly jumped. “P—Plagg!  I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to— to—“ She wiped her eyes on her pyjama shirt. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Great job, then,” he grumbled, sitting up. The clock read three in the morning. “Top notch.”

“Go back to sleep,” Tikki said, hiding her face with her sleeve. “I’m—“ the rest of her words were swallowed by a sob. 

“Like I could sleep through that,” Plagg grumbled, sliding out of bed. “What’s your problem?”

“N—nothing. I’m—“ She sobbed, burying her face in her blankets. 

“Clearly,” Plagg said, crossing his arms. 

Tikki sniffled. 

Plagg rolled his eyes. This was SO not his problem. 

“I’m sorry,” Tikki said again. She kept repeating it, rocking back and forth in the small bed.

“Forget this,” Plagg said, grabbing her coat. “Get up. We’re going.”

Tikki looked up from between her fingers. “What?”

“I’m hungry,” he said, tossing her coat at her. “There’s a 24 hour something down the block. C’mon.” 

He wouldn’t have admitted it, but walking always helped him calm down. He was absolutely NOT trying to help her by suggesting it. “We’ll get cake or something,” he said. 

She scoffed in her tears. “No cheese?”

“Obviously cheese,” he grumbled. “I’m hungry, not crazy.”

Chapter Text

~ Present Day ~

At one in the morning, Adrien had to go to the bathroom. He moved on tip toes, careful not to wake anyone as he crept down the hall. Every step he was absolutely silent. He washed his hands with almost no splashing. He twisted the doorknob before closing it to avoid the soft click of the latch on his way back to his room.

He couldn’t wake Father. 

“You’ve got the sneaky thing down.”

Adrien squeaked, whipping around. In the dark Plagg was little more than a glowing pair of green eyes in the hallway. 

“Sorry I woke you,” Adrien whispered, quickly backing away. Plagg had a tail right now and it was twitching. Adrien had never learned to read that kind of body language. Was it angry?

“You didn’t,” Plagg said, barely bothering to lower his voice. He gestured for Adrien to follow as he disappeared into the living room.

Adrien obeyed with dread. Plagg was gone.

“Up here.”

Adrien jumped in surprise, looking up to the skylight. Plagg’s green eyes seemed to float between the stars. 

“You could make this jump easily earlier,” he said, holding his hand out to the kid. 

Father had done a lot of things, but he had never helped Adrien onto a roof at one in the morning. He’d also never sat side by side with him, staring into the distance at the Eiffel Tower.

“You probably have a lot of questions,” Plagg said suddenly. “It’s my house, so me first.”

Adrien stiffened, hugging his knees. “O—okay.”

“Every power comes from somewhere. Creation users tend to be exceptionally creative. Protection users are protective or afraid.” He looked straight at Adrien. “Destruction users have been destroyed.”

The boy paled.

“Bullying, abuse or worse,” he said. “It varies. From how you react to me, I suspect there was a not-very-nice man in your life. Hmm?”

Adrien’s grip tightened. That’s where this power came from? Father? “Y— yeah.”

“Sadly, Tikki says I’m not allowed to kill people.”

Adrien choked on his spit. “Father’s not like that. He loves me!  He just— just—“

“Gets angry sometimes?”

“He’s protective.”

“And angry?”

Adrien didn’t answer. His silence said what Plagg suspected. Plagg picked irritably at his nails, glaring at the moon. He’d known this the moment he saw Adrien in that alleyway. He’d just hoped that somehow this was the one kid in the world who’s powers were a fluke.

“You’re destruction too,” Adrien said, looking up at Plagg in surprise.

“Ding ding ding,” Plagg said, pretending to ring a bell. “We have a winner.”

“So you…?”

“Yup.”

Adrien gaped at him. He’d seen the occasional video of Noraneko. He was incredibly powerful.

“Is it… proportional?” he asked. 

“The power to the pain?”

Adrien nodded.

“Doesn’t seem to be.”

Somehow that was a relief.

“Now the questions,” Plagg said. “What are your triggers?”

“My what?”

“Triggers. Things that freak you out.”

Adrien pulled back.

“Spiders are banned from our house for Pigtails,” Plagg said, ignoring Adrien’s reaction. “Kagami cannot handle high-pitched noises. Nino just… well Nino has a list. You’ll learn as you go.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. Was this guy asking what he didn’t like? Did he actually care or just want to bully him. “I don’t know,” said Adrien. He’d give him a fake trigger to see what happened. Yes. That was safer than admitting the real one. “Touch,” he said. “I don’t like being touched.”

Plagg made a ‘makes sense’ face and nodded. “Not a hugger?”

Adrien loved hugs. He just never managed to get any. “Not a hugger.”

“Then sorry for grabbing you by the bell,” he said. “That must’ve been a lot.”

“Yeah,” but not for the reason you’re thinking. He’d expected to be slapped, not warned. 

“Question two,” said Plagg, holding up two fingers. “If you want to be a hero, you gotta wait two months. Them’s the rules.” 

Adrien raised an eyebrow. “Two months?”

“It’s a standard rule. You’re not allowed to help in the shop til then either. You shouldn’t ever feel you have to earn a family.”

Adrien’s stomach turned a little. 

“But if you want to be a hero, I’ll start training you as soon as you want. You just can’t fight anyone until the deadline.” He tilted his head. “So help me, if you’re going to throw down with a monster, you’ll be prepared.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck again, trying desperately to get a read on Plagg. These weren’t really questions at all. If anything this felt like a midnight orientation.

“Any questions?”

Adrien shook his head.

“Nothing?” Plagg asked, narrowing his eyes. “You know everything about freaks? No curiosity at all? Not even about the ears?” Plagg gestured to his cat ears, wiggling them slightly. 

“I’m good.”

“Really?”

Adrien shrank back. He didn’t dare question the man of the house. 

“Okay,” said Plagg, catching the boy’s discomfort. He stood up, dusting off his pants. “Goodnight then,” he said, starting for the hatch in the roof. “You’ll get them too, by the way.”

“Ears?”

“Yup.”

“When?”

Plagg beamed, flashing two perfect rows of sharp teeth. “When you clash powers with your soulmate.”

~ 12 Years Ago ~

Plagg sat crouched on the edge of a public bench, looking an awful lot like a real cat as he nibbled away at a piece of cheese. Tikki sat next to him, licking a lollipop nearly the size of her head. The moon was high. The corner store had closed a while ago. 

“You’re a wreck,” Plagg said, eyeing Tikki. “Superheroing not your style?”

“I wouldn’t call it superheroing,” she said quietly. 

“Didn’t Master Fu teach you the ways of caring for humans and being a good guy?”

“Not exactly.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve been galavanting around by yourself?”

Tikki shot him a glare. “You do that.”

“I’m a recluse,” he said. “I told you to try and blend in.”

“Well I did,” she said, licking her lollipop and going quiet. 

They ate in silence for a moment. Plagg glared at the moon, fully aware he could and should be wrapped up in an actual bed. He’d spent enough nights on park benches already. A hotel, even one paid for by Tikki at her own insistence, was a much nicer way to spend a night. 

Tikki clutched her head.

“Sugar Cube?”

“Nothing,” she said. Her voice was strained. She held her lollipop so he couldn’t see as she brushed something off her face. It clattered on the sidewalk. Plagg’s blood ran cold. He grabbed Tikki’s hand away from her face before she could react.

A bullet sized hole was closing on her forehead. He looked down, horrified to see a shell working its way out of her collarbone. 

“The oh my lanta did you do?” he snapped.

“It’s nothing,” she said, pulling the bullet out and tossing it away. “I heal around them.”

“That’s not something we wanted to find out,” Plagg hissed. Was this his fault? Was this from her rescuing him? “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It was a few days ago,” she said. “I thought I got them all.”

“How many times were you shot?”

She pushed Plagg’s hands away. “I don’t know. A couple?”

“A COUPLE?” The nearby streetlights flickered. The darkness glowed around his eyes. “The cops just—“

“It wasn’t the police,” she said.

“Then who?”

“Its not your problem, okay?!”

Plagg blinked in surprise.

“Just eat your cheese and stop caring,” she said, pulling a bullet out of her neck.  “Alright?”

She was pulling bullets out of herself the rest of the night. There were less the next day, but it was enough. It wasn’t that Plagg was counting, but he numbered them at least in the double digits.

Someone really wanted Tikki to hurt.  

Chapter Text

~ Present Day~

A scream woke Adrien. He shot out of bed at the noise, knowing the house was supposed to be empty. Everyone was at school. Plagg was in the shop and Tikki was at an exercise class.
He bolted toward the noise.
Marinette stood on the kitchen counter, pointing.
“S— sp— spi—“
A large black spider crawled along the kitchen floor. The remains of a glass jar lay shattered nearby.
Adrien took a deep breath, tip toeing around the glass to get a cup. He gingerly placed it over the bug.
“Sorry little buddy, but you can’t be inside.” He looked up at Marinette.
She was white as snow, shaking like a wet kitten on the counter top.
“I take it you don’t like spiders?”
She shrank away from his edge of the counter. “I hate spiders.”
Fair. Mother used to have a similar reaction to them. Adrien had been her brave spider relocation specialist.

Where do I get paper?” he asked Marinette.
At his question a dozen papers fell from the air around her. He grabbed one, carefully sliding it under the cup and coaxing the spider onto it.
“There you go little guy,” he said, gently picking up the whole contraption. “The isty bitsy spider climbed up the flower shop,” he sang softly, heading for the door. “Down came the jar and crashed the spider out. Up came the me and caught him in a cup and the itsy bitsy spider never came back again.” He frowned, stopped in his tracks by the door. “Could you?”
Marinette leapt down and threw the door open.
Plagg got the pleasure of watching a teenage boy, in his cat patterned pjs, tip toe through his open flower shop. Having been half asleep when he woke up, his hair was feral. It could have come to life and scampered away for how insane it was.
Marinette followed a step behind, holding her breath.
“Spider?” he asked.
“From someone at school,” Adrien said.
Marinette froze.
Plagg’s face went dark. “You’re getting bullied?”
Adrien stopped in his tracks. Was this what would make Plagg fly off the handle? Marinette not making everyone like her? Needing help to solve a problem.
“You promised to tell me if it happened again.”
“It’s not that bad,” she said. “I can handle it.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“But I can,” she said. “I can fix anything. I can get along with Chloe.”
Plagg covered his face with one hand and let out an audible growl. “Chloe? I thought we transferred her out of her class.”
Marinette wilted. “But not out of her school.”

~12 Years Ago ~

“I’m thinking we stay here for the test,” Tikki said, waving at a cheap looking hotel. “It’s got bones enough that I can spruce up our space. You can destroy my changes when we leave. Hm?”
Plagg’s nose twitched. “It smells.”
“Okay, what about that one?” she said, pointing across the street. The second hotel was slightly less run down. It smelled too, but less like things Plagg didn’t want to say out loud.
“I don’t think this is a safe neighbourhood.”
“It’s in budget.”
“I say we camp.”
“It needs to be a place we could be found,” Tikki whispered. “Or you’ll say we got by because of your amazing hiding skills.”
Plagg scowled. “Wow. I’m feeling really attacked right now.” How did she know his plan? “You think I want this to fail?”
“Yes.”
She wasn’t wrong. If it succeeded it meant he’d been hiding out alone all this time for nothing. It meant at least an eighth of what Fu said was true.
More importantly, it meant he’d put Nooroo in more danger by telling him to avoid other freaks.
“I want a safer hotel,” he said.
“Fine,” she said. “But you have to go to the pawn shop with my stuff.”
“Deal.”
It took a few shadows and a lot of bickering, but they found a decent hotel in a small town. It was far out enough that Plagg felt safe and busy enough they had some police nearby.
A tourist town.
“I’ll book it,” he said. “I look older.”
“Fine,” said Tikki, handing him the cash. “Just don’t say anything weird.”
“I’m not that weird,” he growled. After living in a cave he was real roof-motivated.
Tikki made things to sell for most of the first and second day.
“If we have to run, I want to leave enough money to pay for our stay,” she said.
“Do you even have a sense of us vs them?”
“I do,” she said. “But it’s me vs… you know what? You really need to stop viewing the whole world as your enemy. There are just a few bad people ruining it for everyone else.”
“Like whoever shot you?”
Tikki gave him a warning look. Plagg scowled back.
Tikki crossed her arms. “What were you doing the whole time we were apart?”
“Why’s it matter?”
“Because you seem to want to know what I was doing.”
Plagg made a face. “I want to know how you got shot.”
“These things called guns used gunpowder to expel small metal—“
“I know how guns work,” he said. “I want to know why you were shot.”
“I got in a superheroing fight,” she said. “The other heroes weren’t as hero-y as I expected. Happy?”
“Happy you got shot?” Plagg asked. “No.”
Tikki perked up at that. “You… care?”
“No,” he said. “But if you drop dead from a bullet in your brain I’d like to know why.”
“I wasn’t hit in the head.”
Good. “Then I guess I shouldn’t have asked.”
Tikki was smirking.
“Stop making that face!” Plagg snapped. “I really don’t care what happened to you.”
Tikki sat on the bed, beaming to herself. “Oh, I’m sure you don’t.”

Chapter Text

~12 years ago~

A phone rang.
Plagg made a face, rolling over in bed and covering his ears. Since when did they have a phone? Did Tikki buy a phone? Make a phone?
Who would even be calling?
A crash jerked him the rest of the way awake. He shot out of bed.
The phone was on the floor. Its shattered screen displayed a butterfly icon. Tikki stared at it from across the room, pale as death. She trembled, eyes wide with abject terror.
Plagg picked it up without thinking.
Tikki barely moved. She shrank in on herself.
“Hawkmoth?” Plagg asked, reading the screen. “Not a friend of yours?”
Tikki didn’t answer. She didn’t seem to be breathing. She just stared at him.
She had never looked so small.
Plagg answered the phone before she could react. “The owner of this phone isn’t too happy to hear from you,” he said. “Mind telling me why?”
“Who am I talking to?” asked a man’s voice.
“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” Plagg purred, turning his back to Tikki. The fear on her face hurt too much. It felt so wrong. “What did you do Hawkmoth?”
“There was a minor misunderstanding,” he answered. “I need to speak to her.”
“Mmm,” Plagg eyed Tikki.
She looked sick.
“Naw,” Plagg said. “But I might take a message if you ask real nice.”
There was a short pause. Tikki gasped, gripping her nightdress. The clock was the only noise for a second.
Hawkmoth was thinking.
“Tell her to come home,” he said. “She’s a freak, and freaks aren’t safe out there. She belongs with her own. We’ll protect her.”
Plagg raised an eyebrow.
Hawkmoth scoffed. “You’re Plagg, aren’t you?” he said, clicking his tongue. “Tikki told us about you.”
“All bad things, I assume.”
“Not especially good things.”
Plagg narrowed his eyes. “But she ran to me,“ he said. His tail was twitching. He had a tail again. “Which begs the question, Hawkie. What. Did. You. Do?”
“I kept her safe.”
“Is that why I found her full of holes?”
“She needed to come home,” said Hawkmoth. “We didn’t hurt her permanently.”
“And that makes it better?!” Plagg snapped.
Tikki winced.
Plagg forced himself to calm down. Hawkmoth kept talking— trying to negotiate or explain himself— Plagg didn’t care. All he saw was Tikki.
Cowering.
Cookies fell in piles at her feet. Her wings— she had wings again— fluttered at her sides. Her breathing was ragged.
Plagg took a slow breath. “Yeahhh… no Hawkie,” he purred, destructive energy leaking from his hand. “I don’t think I’ll pass on your message.”
It felt like a lifetime before either of them spoke.
“You have bad taste in friends,” was all Plagg could think to say.
Tikki burst into tears. Pink light exploded around her. Plagg yelped, plunging into the mess with destructive force. The room shook. Tikki’s eyes glowed white. The power surged. Plagg grabbed at it, pushing it back into her— hugging her.
“Breath, Bug.”
She sobbed into his shoulder.
“I told you not to trust people,” he hissed.
“I know,” she sobbed. “I’m so stupid. I’m just— I’m not strong like are.” She hugged him tightly. “I can’t live alone like you do!”
“You found other freaks?”
“They found me.”
Of course they did. Someone with creation was valuable. Collectors were rare, but they gathered Freaks like trading cards. One of each, maybe a second of the more common ones just for fun. Gangs were more likely, and just like Plagg they knew creation meant free food and equipment. Even someone who was weak with the power could make food from thin air.
That could be the line between life and death.
“Make friends with humans, then,” he said. “Keep it under wraps.”
“I’ll get found.”
“Then find a different destroyer,” Plagg said, letting go of her. “Someone who actually wants you.”
Tears streaked Tikki’s face. “That’s just it,” she said. “You didn’t promise me anything. I know you won’t come if I need you. I know you don’t care.”
“Yeah,” spat Plagg. “That’s a bad thing.”
“It’s a trustworthy thing,” she said. “You won’t stab me in the back because you never had my back.”
Plagg scowled.
“I’ll make myself useful,” she cried. “I’ll stay out of your way. I won’t ask for anything and I’ll make food and gear and hide your powers so no one can track us. I’ll heal you and do whatever you want just don’t— don’t Don’t make me leave. “
Plagg couldn’t say ‘no’.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Adrien knew a Chloe, or rather, he had known a Chloe. The more Plagg and Marinette spoke, the more sure it was the Chloe he’d known.

“You don’t have to raise your hand to talk in your own house,” Plagg told him.

“I don’t think I can go to Marinette’s school,” Adrien said, lowering his hand. “If Chloe Bourgeois is there, she’ll recognize me.”

Marinette visibly drew back. “You know Chloe.”

Adrien winced at her reaction. “I— she was the only other kid I knew. I was home schooled.”

Plagg snorted. “Well, if that’s not child abuse, I don’t know what is.”

“Homeschool isn’t—“ Adrien began.

“Chloe being your only exposure to other kids is practically abuse,” said Plagg. “We’ve home schooled. We’ll home school you if we have to. But with Orikko’s talent we might be able to sneak you

into school right under that girl’s nose.”

Marinette stiffened slightly, already imagining what insanity Adrien must have been through as Chloe’s friend. If it was anything like what Sabrina endured…

“Or we’ll use the magic of make up,” Plagg said. “People are blind.”

Adrien hugged himself. “Okay.”

Adrien didn’t expect to rediscover makeup so soon. As soon as Alya was back from school, she and Marinette got to work.

“Brown, dirty blond, or black?” Marinette asked, holding up three wigs that had appeared from thin air.

“Uh…” Adrien eyed them both, unsure of the question. A crude drawing of him hung on the fridge as the kitchen was turned into Project Runway.

“The dirty blond looks green,” said Nino, sitting on the counter. “My dude’s not an avocado.”

Adrien shrank in his chair.

Kagami nibbled on a snack, standing in the corner. “If we are talking about looks, shouldn’t we talk about his transformation first?”

Marinette flushed to her ears and looked away. Adrien shuffled in place, sad his presence seemed to make her so uncomfortable. Apparently Marinette was famous for fixing bad first transformations. Adrien had tried to ask about it twice.

Both times Marinette had made a desperate escape.

“How do transformations work?” he asked.

Marinette turned red.

Alya elbowed her. “Explain it, girl.”

“Well,” she started. “Your transformation is a reflection of—“

A siren made everybody jump. A glowing green shell engulfed Nino. Alya turned invisible. Marinette was out the skylight before anyone could speak.

Kagami took another bite of her snack. “Saved by the Akuma Alert,” she said.

“Saved?” asked Adrien. Was Marinette that desperate to avoid him?

“She’s just embarrassed, dude,” said Nino, eying the Adrien on the fridge. “She’s got a crush on you, so talking about your transformation freaks her out.”

Adrien gagged on his own spit. “What?!”

Alya elbowed Nino hard.

“What?” Nino echoed. “I didn’t do anything. My guy’s just tuned out so I’m setting it straight before it gets weird.”

Adrien hugged his knees.

“Look,” said Alya, waving at Adrien. “You gave him anxiety.”

Adrien had never felt so red in the face before. Now, he caught himself rocking on his chair. “She likes me?” Thousands of girls ‘liked’ him, but they hadn’t met him.

Ladybug had seen him in that ridiculous outfit.

She’d heard him rattle off those dumb puns.

He hung his head, barely hearing Nino and Alya’s attempts to talk him down.

“Is my transformation a reflection of who I am?” he asked suddenly.

Alya cut herself off. “More than that, actually,” she said. “But how’d you know?”

“Something about the outfit,” he mumbled, remembering the ridiculous look. He could find it inside himself if he looked. It was a lifetime of trying to be who his father had wanted.

“Can I fix it on my own?” he asked.

The two exchanged glances.

“Plagg’s not bad,” said Kagami. “He helped Marinette fix hers when she first transformed.”

Alya snorted. “Yeah, I forgot how bad Baby Bug was. And we have no idea what Plagg’s first transform looked like, just that it was bad.”

“I’ll talk to Plagg, then.”

“Nope,” said Plagg, appearing as if summoned by name. He made an X with his hands. “Ladybug’s look worked out because Marinette knows fashion. All I did was listen while she talked it through.”

“But—“ Adrien started.

“We don’t let crushes get between family members,” Plagg continued. “Either you arrive already dating like those two,” he tilted his head at Alya and Nino, “one of you moves out like Argos did, or you get over it.”

“Or you get married and adopt street kids who’re going through your garbage,” said Nino, putting his arm around Alya.

“Blegh,” said Plagg, heading back to the flower shop. “Your sickening sweetness made me lose my appetite.”

Chapter Text

~12 years ago~

“A moped?” Plagg asked. “You made a moped?”

“We needed a way to carry groceries,” said Tikki.

“You’ve got to stop acting like we’ll live here forever,” Plagg said, pacing the small hotel room. It was feeling more like a home every day.

That needed to stop now. He opened his mouth.

A siren made them both freeze.

They stood in silence for a moment, both fully expecting a swat team to burst through their door. This was it. They were caught.

But nothing happened. The siren wailed on. Tikki held her breath. Plagg opened a shadow, ready to pull them both through.

“The news,” Tikki said, grabbing the polka dotted remote. She switched on the matching TV. “It’ll know what’s going on.”

The small machine slowly flickered to life, not the most well built little thing. Tikki’s poor understanding of how TVs actually worked made it more of a fire hazard than a television. The siren was deafening. Plagg covered his ears.

Tikki paled at the purple man on the screen.

“Tikki!” the man said, although she could only read the subtitles over the siren. “If you don’t—“

Plagg grabbed the remote and switched it off. “He can’t blackmail you if you don’t get the message.”

“He could hurt people!” Tikki shouted over the siren.

“People who’ve never done a thing for you.”

“I have to stop him.”

“With what?” Plagg asked, “your winning smile?”

Tikki gave him a look, making a second remote. The TV switched back on.

“—Stop protecting Paris from Akumas without her help. Please, citizens of Paris. If you know how to reach Lady Luck—“

“Oh good,” Plagg said, switching it off again. “See? He won’t hurt anybody. He’s trying to reach you.”

“He makes the akumas, Plagg,” she snapped. “That’s why I left!”

Plagg frowned. “The Hakuna Mattatas?”

“Akumas,” she said, briefly explaining the concept to him. “He makes them as Hawkmoth and then helped me stop them as Betterfly. I left when I found out.”

Plagg was quiet, trying to wrap his mind around the idea. “And who’s Betterfly?”

Tikki shot him a withering glare. “You haven’t been paying attention to world events, have you?”

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Cleansing ladybugs covered the city. Adrien watched the Eiffel Tower return to normal in a flash of pink light, but Marinette didn’t come racing home.

A reported cornered Ladybug on the edge of town. “Is it true that the cat hero from last akuma is your secret brother?” he asked. “What’s his hero name? Is he a hero?”

Adrien sat on the edge of his seat, watching Ladybug on the TV. She smiled calmly at the camera.

“He’s not my biological brother,” she answered. “In fact, we’re not sure if he’ll chose to join us long term. He powered up accidentally when he saw I needed help.”

The interviewer drew closer with the microphone. “So you’re saying he could join Hawkmoth.”

“Ad—“ Ladybug sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance. “My as-of-yet unnamed ally may choose to remain a civilian or join the heroes. The fact he sprang into action to assist me
shows he’s not joining Hawkmoth.”

The reporter scowled. “A freak cannot be a civilian,” he said.

“A freak can be whatever they want to be,” Ladybug answered. Anyone could hear the edge of her patience.

“What do you have to say to the rumour that this new cat’s pre-manifest identity is Adrien Agreste.”

Ladybug didn’t miss a beat. “Does it matter who he was? His family, like most families, abandoned him the moment he manifested.” She looked the camera dead in the eye. “Their loss.”

~12 Years Ago~

“I have to stop him,” said Tikki. Her pink light engulfed her, leaving her transformed in the dingy hotel room.

“And do what?” Plagg asked, seated on his bed with his arms crossed. “You’ll play right into his hand if you go now. He hasn’t akumatized anyone. He isn’t committing any crimes. All you’ll do is announce the only freaks people almost tolerate are actually evil.”

Her wings drooped. “I’m not evil.”

“The public may not understand the nuance.”

Tikki’s transformation fell. “Then what do I do?” she snapped.

Plagg shrugged. “I told you not to get involved with people.”

But she did. The next time there was an akuma alert, Lady Luck was out on the roof tops.

“Having fun?” he asked when she returned. Blood dripped from her costume. A gash in her head healed before his eyes. “Ready to stop getting involved.”

“The deal was that we’d stay close together so we couldn’t be tracked,” she said. “This—“ she waved to the bullet holes on her torso “—was because you were too far away.”

“What do you want me to do?” Plagg spat. “Stalk you from the shadows like an alleycat?”

So Noraneko was born.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

“Technically, I wasn’t Noraneko until I started transforming,” Plagg said. He sat with his legs crossed on the rail. Adrien sat behind him, less comfortable balancing on the rail of the Eiffel Tower. The parkour he’d attempted getting to the meet spot was more than enough. Like Plagg, he was watching the skyline for Ladybug.

“Some people transform easy,” said Plagg. “It’s an expression of your inner most self. If you’re an open person it’s easier.”

Adrien glanced at Plagg. Noraneko was famous for being terse with the public. “Did you find transforming hard?” Adrien asked.

“Yup,” he said. “I was throwing destruction before I could get the outfit sorted.”

Adrien lit up. “You can throw destruction?”

“Yeah, but it flies like a frisbee so it’s a pain in the butt.”

Adrien’s eyes sparkled.

Plagg groaned, feeling the kid’s expectant stare. With a flick of his wrist he manifested a dark disk of shadow. He whipped it into the night. It flew, sailing merrily and vanishing with a snap of Plagg’s fingers.

He didn’t want to destroy someone’s house.

Adrien watched in silent awe.

“Practice with a regular frisbee first.”

A red blur stained the sunset. Plagg stood up, his power rippling over his body and transforming him. It was always safest to be Noraneko when Ladybug arrived. Some crazy fans liked trying to follow her with drones.

Adrien tried to transform too. He felt the ripple of black energy and touched his face. He could feel the mask. Looking down at himself, he felt his face get hot.

“It’s not as bad,” said Plagg without bothering to look twice. “The second one is always a little better than the first.”

Still, Adrien flushed hard when Ladybug made her landing. As feared, two amateur drones had followed her this far.

Noraneko smiled at them, his eyes glowing under this hood as he snatched one. He flipped it upside-down, examining the design.

“Sound capable. Nice.” His voice was more smooth as Noraneko. He almost sounded like a cat, purring his observation as he took in the device. “Smile.” He pointed the drone at Ladybug.”

Ladybug smiled. There were bags under her eyes. Her hair had come loose from its pig tails. She’d won the battle, but the war left visible scars that healed as the camera recorded.

Noraneko caught the look in her eye and lowered the camera. It turned to dust between his gloved hands.

“Bad battle, Buggaboo?”

She eyed the second drone. Noraneko threw a disk of destruction at it.

It crumpled to nothing.

“Today sucked!” Ladybug squeaked as soon as it had. “So many cameras! So many questions! I was stabbed out there. STABBED! But do they ask if I’m okay? No. It’s all, will he go evil? What’s his name? Why haven’t you defeated Hawkmoth yet?!?” She dropped her transformation, returning to the pink jegging wearing teen who had run from the room earlier that day.

“You got stabbed?!?” Noraneko snapped.

Adrien winced. Now Plagg was finally going to lose it. He’d be mad she’d mistepped. Mad she got a scar that would mess with her public image.

“Are you okay?” Noraneko asked, grabbing Marinette by the shoulders and spinning her around. He looked her over, hands shaking. His cat ears appeared. “That wasn’t in the broadcast! You’re supposed to call that sort of thing in!” He shook her by the shoulders. “You’re not supposed to take hits. I taught you to dodge!”

Adrien closed his eyes, bracing himself for the screaming match.

Instead Plagg dropped the transformation and pulled Marinette into a hug. “Tell me you’re healing okay.”

“I’m healing fine,” she said. “It wasn’t that bad. It just— it hurt.”

“Show me.”

She pulled up the corner of her shirt. A black welt-like stain was fading from her waist.

Adrien gasped.

Marinette jumped, whipping around weapon drawn.

Plagg grabbed the weapon. “Don’t pelt him off the building!”

“Adrien?” Marinette squeaked, going pale. “What are you—? Why are you here?”

“He’s in training,” said Plagg. “Remember? I figured drone busting would be a good first job shadow.”

“You have to warn me,” Marinette said.

“You have to call it in when you get hurt,” Plagg answered. “Anything strong enough to pierce the suit is something you shouldn’t be facing alone.”

She didn’t answer him. She gave him a tired stare, the kind that made her look like an immortal who had lived through the worst of mankind and not a teenage girl in grade 10.

“Head home,” Plagg said, opening a shadow. “Adrien and I will meet you there in a second.”

She nodded, walking through the darkness without another word.

As soon as she was gone, Plagg gave Adrien a sad stare. “Do you still want to be a hero?”

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

Lady Luck raced across the rooftops. Her heels clicked loudly, one of the only sounds in the cold night. It was an eerily loud sound against the muted backdrop of the villain de jour.

Some poor soul was sick of city noise.

Plagg sighed, slipping between shadows as he followed her from a distance. Anyone who couldn’t handle city noise shouldn’t live in Paris. Of course, he shouldn’t be in Paris after what he did to the Eiffel Tower, but here he was.

He peered through Tikki’s binoculars. She was doing well enough. The akuma came at her. She dodged, slipping just out of his reach. She seemed to fall, only to handspring and knee the creature in the face.

Plagg winced as it caught her by the foot. It roared, whipping her back and flinging her across the city.

Plagg cursed, diving into a nearby shadow.

One hundred meters was the deal. It they were further than 100 meters the challenge time would restart and Tikki would win. He’d be stuck with her just that much longer.

He came out into a new alley, holding his arms out.

Lady Luck fell from the sky.

“Still want to be a hero?“ Plagg asked.

Lady Luck turned red, scrambling out of his Princess-lift. “Yes,” she said. “And I know how to land. You don’t have to catch me.”

“Yeah, but last time you did a number on the sidewalk.”

She shot him a glare. Her power flickered. She was struggling with her transformation.

A sing song voice rang out through the night. “Lady Luck… if you grant my wish this can all be over.”

“What wish?” Plagg asked.

“I thought you didn’t care,” Tikki hissed back. “Open a shadow. I need a retreat.”

Plagg made an X with his arms. “No can do. That’s the nineth time he’s said something ominous. I need to know what mess you’ve gotten me involved in.”

Tikki was breathing hard. Her transformation fell. “I thought you weren’t involved Stinky Sock.”

“I don’t even want to be here,” he said. “I want to go back to the hotel but some FREAKY FRIEND OF YOURS IS—“

Tikki slapped her hand over his mouth. “It sees with sound, Plagg!”

A dozen shots of light filled the alleyway, the sudden brightness killing any hope of shadowing out.

“Oh my LANTA!” Lady Luck snapped, drawing a katana from thin air and taking a stance. Her legs shook beneath her. “Run, Plagg!”

Plagg didn’t move. He wasn’t frozen with fear. He knew anything shot at him would disintegrate. Instead he calmly observed the giant creature climbing down between the buildings.

Six arms.

Spiderlike.

“Wow,” he said. “I thought you said Hawk-head was some kind of designer. That thing’s ugly.” He strode past Tikki to stare down the akuma. “Hear me Hawkie? Your akuma is ugly. U-G-L-“

Pain.

Plagg looked down, eyes wide.

Things were supposed to disintegrate when they touched him. They always did. Bullets didn’t hit him. You can’t hurt destruction.

But the akuma’s arm was pieced straight through his chest.

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

Plagg was cold. The air was cold. Everything was cold. He blinked, barely making out a blur of red. Blood? No. That obnoxious girl. She was speaking— or her mouth was moving at least.

“PLAGG!”

Oh. She was loud. Was she crying? Yeah. She was. Her face was flushed. Her eyes were bloodshot. Plagg felt an annoying emotion. Who made her cry?

Who did he have to fight?

“Say something!” Tikki begged.

Plagg heaved. “Are… you bleeding?”

She smiled, tears filling her eyes. “No. You are you Stinky Sock,” she said, jabbing his face with her finger. “Never do that again!”

Right.

He’d tried to tell off an Akuma and gotten stabbed.

Man that hurt. He hadn’t thought he could feel pain anymore. Everything turned to dust before it touched him. Why hadn’t the Akuma? Because it was alive maybe? They were mostly innocent people possessed by Hawkmoth. He wouldn’t want to actually hurt them.

Plagg shot up. “Did I kill them?! ACK!” The pain tore through his body like a hundred knives. He swore.

Tikki shook her head. “They nearly lost an arm,” she said. “But they’re fine. The butterfly is cleansed. You’re…” Her voice cracked. “You’re alive.”

Plagg looked down at the remains of his shirt. There was a literal pink polka-dotted circle on his chest. He touched it in silent confusion. Had she… remade part of him? “Did you do this to the other guy?”

“Sort of,” said Tikki, still kneeling beside him. “But the dots didn’t appear on him. I think I had to use more strength on you because you’re destruction.”

“Makes sense.” Yeah. Getting stitched back together by her because an angry butterfly monster had life issues ‘made sense’.

Tikki’s eyes were wet. Faint tears trickled down her cheeks as she smiled. “Let’s go home,” she said. “Okay?”

Plagg managed to open a shadow directly to the dingy hotel room. Plagg watched her hang her coat. She took his and he surrendered its remains without much argument.

“I’ll sew it up,” she said, examining the hole. “If you promise never to do that again.”
“So now you don’t want me involved?”

Tikki didn’t answer. She held his coat. Tears trailed his face as she stared at him.

“Sugar Cube?”

She folded his coat and set it on his bed. “You’ll do whatever you’ll do,” she said softly. “No matter what I say.”

She wasn’t wrong.

Tikki fell asleep shortly after. When she had, Plagg pulled out the laptop she had made and typed in Noah Roux. It was a regular search for him, but getting nearly killed left him worried. Nooroo’s face popped onto the screen. Plagg scanned through the latest news searching the usual. Noah Roux freak. Noah Roux butterflies. Noah Roux Plagg.

The only mentions of Noah Roux and freaks was an article tying them to the pyramids and the true origin of freaks as aliens. In short, the usually insanity but nothing serious. The only evidence for Noah Roux being a freak was that he was filmed in a scene with butterflies once and seemed scared of them.

Apparently certain freaks were scared of butterflies. The fact some could control butterflies was not common knowledge.

The less humans knew about freaks the better after all. Luckily the more powerful freaks were considered too dangerous to study.

Freaks like Hawkmoth and Plagg. Freaks like Tikki were theoretically possible to catch.

Theoretically.

Plagg eyed her. She curled in on herself under the blankets. Her breathing was ragged and unsteady. Her hands gripped the blankets, shaking as the knuckles turned white. She always seemed to have nightmares. In the last few days he’d seen Tikki fight. She was good.

Too good.

He typed in ‘Tikki Creation Freak’.

Lady Luck popped up immediately, alongside her human name: Tia Cie. The shortened freak names played a dehumanizing role that some freaks oddly embraced. The names were their military target names. Some generated new human names to hide behind. Some went under a thousand names.

Some picked their own freak names for their freak identity, like Nooroo.

First he looked at Lady Luck footage. Her standard move seemed to be making swords when she was in trouble. Someone had made a ten minute compilation video of her just creating katanas. Another complication was ‘Lady Luck Solving her Problems by Cutting Them.’

Someone was selling look alike katanas.

Tia Cie’s social media had been turned into a memorial for her human self. A lot of people had written arduous letters bemoaning her manifesting as if she had become a completely different species. That was how the governments of the world framed it, so it made sense they treated her as dead.

Tia Cie was popular. Tikki was a monster to them.

Plagg scrolled through a dozen images of Tia Cie posing with different kinds of swords. One video showed her slicing bamboo with a katana. Another was a black belt forum tutorial. The scariest one was Tia Cie’s father explaining that cutting through ballistics gel and human matter was roughly the same, followed immediately by Tia slicing through a ballistic gel mannequin.

No wonder Lady Luck loved swords. She was raised with them.

Plagg’s stomach tightened. This violent girl had literally dragged him from death’s door.

If he had died, who would be here checking on Nooroo? He realized his hands were shaking. He made fists, going to the mini fridge for some cheese. He gobbled down two camembert wheels before his brain could form thoughts again.

Watching more footage he could see how much effort Tikki put into not hurting the akuma victims. Plagg knew that his power would have destroyed the entire arm of the victim who impaled him. His power could have killed the whole man. His stomach tightened at the thought. He wouldn't have forgiven himself.

But Tikki had saved them both. Not just the victim. Both of them.

Plagg stared at her sleeping shape for a moment. Liking people, even tolerating people, was dangerous. They can use that against you. Like liking someone could get him killed. After all, somewhere deep down he knew he’d faced down the Akuma to impress her. Somewhere inside he’d wanted to look brave. He wanted to be cool.

He wanted her to like him... even just a little bit. He wanted her to tolerate him at least. Because if someone as open and kind and careful as Tikki couldn’t tolerate him, who could?

Chapter Text

As Adrien stepped through the shadow into the kitchen he was met by quite the scene. Kagami stood in the middle of the kitchen, holding a blackened and detatched cabinet door. Now both it and her were piled with white foam. Next to her was Tikki, poised with a fire extinguisher.

Marinette was frozen with her hands over her mouth.

Adrien almost sprang into action before Plagg could follow him. Hiding an accident like this would be easy with their powers. They just had to distract Plagg for a few seconds. He’d never get mad if he never knew.

Instead he heard Plagg’s voice behind him. “Was the house on fire?”

“No,” said Tikki, still holding the used fire extinguisher.

“Yes,” said Kagami.

“Only a little bit,” squeaked Marinette.

Plagg strode past the frozen Adrien. “Did we learn something from this non-existent fire?”

Kagami nodded seriously. “Nino cannot cook.”

Marinette flushed. “Don’t suddenly shout and scare Kagami? She might make lightning.”

Tikki put the fire extinguisher down. “We need a new fire extinguisher,” she said. “Ours is empty.”

Plagg tried not to laugh. “As long as we learned something,” he said, passing his wife and disposing of the extinguisher.

“Dude, what did I do?” asked Nino. Apparently he’d made the mistake of leaving the room for a second. “All I did was— THE CAKE!”

That’s when Adrien noticed the second burnt item in the room.

“I set a timer and everything, man,” said Nino, throwing his hands down. “I swear! Kitchens hate me.”

“It wasn’t burnt by the oven,” said Kagami, attempting to offer some semblance of comfort by patting his shoulder. “I got surprised and burnt the kitchen.”

“That was my fault,” said Marinette. “Sorry Nino.”

“Now my bro doesn’t get a congrats cake,” Nino answered, staring sadly at the mess.

Adrien’s gut tightened. Cake? “For me?”

“It’s a tradition,” said Marinette. “You get a cake when you survive your first training with Plagg.”

“We didn’t get to the tip of the tower,” said Plagg. “You can make him a cake next time.”

Nino lit up. “Yes,” he said, pumping his fist. “The tradition can stand.”

The family had a number of odd traditions. That night Adrien was honoured to place his votes for house rules.

“We vote?” he asked when Plagg gave him the notebook. “On rules?”

“It’s your home,” he said, opening it to the third page. “You should get some say. For example, should we be allowed to make puns in the house?”

Tikki’s eyes went wide. “No. You can’t start with that one—“

Adrien looked at the list sadly, already hearing his father’s voice. “Puns… are a low form of humour.”

Marinette let out a sigh of relief.

“But a fun form of humour,” said Nino quickly. “We saw the footage. You like them.”

“They’re not… proper.”

“So what?” asked Plagg. “We’re not proper.”

“Plagg,” Tikki warned. “You can’t influence his vote."

“His dad is influencing his vote,” said Plagg, crossing his arms. “I’m trying to make sure he picks what he actually wants. Do you want to make puns?” he asked Adrien.

Adrien looked at Tikki, afraid there was a wrong answer to the question. She sighed, then smiled. “There is no moral or personal failing in having a sense of humour.”

“Then…” Adrien said, thinking hard. “Yes to puns?”

“YES!” snapped Nino. “Taco about a grate idea!”

“Truly the Gouda option,” said Plagg, holding up each food as it appeared in the pun. “A thyme for celery-bration indeed.”

Marinette face palmed.

“A-meow-zing decision,” said Nino. “Turtley awesome!”

The pro puns law was carried by half a vote. Alix, the only family member Adrien was yet to meet had apparently voted ‘no’. Since she was only around half the time, she only had half a vote.

Other rules Adrien changed included: a for being allowed to eat snacks in bedrooms, quiet time being moved up from 11 to 10, use of the kitchen to bake being allowed after 11, classical piano can be listened to without headphones, and the final decision on the running debate of whether a hotdog is a taco or a sandwich.

The family stance was officially taco.

Make of that what you will.

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago ~

Living with Tikki long term led to some annoying discoveries. For one thing, while she had growing control over what colour she made things, she usually opted for cute.

“You told me plain black was easy,” said Plagg, holding the black and neon green heart-covered toothbrush. “That means you put extra effort into this.”

“I swear,” she said. “It came out that way on accident.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Yeah… well…” Tikki’s face had turned a light shade of pink. “Everything around you slowly turns black so I’m sure the hearts will go away.”

“Try again,” he said, handing the toothbrush back.

“No,” said Tikki. “Take it or leave it.”

Another annoying thing about living with her was how often she got hit on. She’d cut her hair so people wouldn’t recognize her. When she wasn’t transformed it was a black pixie cut. From her old social media Plagg knew she used to wear gym clothes all the time. Now she was always in a dress.

Someone whistled.

Plagg whipped around, letting out a low hiss.

The man jumped. “Woah, you two together?”

“She’s my sister,” said Plagg, putting his hand on Tikki’s head. “Mess with her and lose a tooth.”

“Chill dude.”

That was another annoying thing about Tikki. She made him act in ways he didn’t expect. He found himself remembering bad things too.

“You like those?” Plagg asked.

Tikki beamed, sniffing a wildflower. “Aren’t they pretty?”

Plagg eyed the daffodils. His cheek hurt at a memory. They were beautiful. He’d tried to grow them once. It was a girly hobby.

Girly was bad for boys.

“They’re flowers,” he mumbled.

“You can’t fool me,” said Tikki, picking one and poking him with it. “You always slow down when you pass flowers.”

Plagg destroyed the flower. “You’re mistaken.”

Tikki’s face fell. “It’s natural to like things that are pretty.”

That’s why he had to be a model. To make people like him. If people liked him they would like the brand.

“Yeah, for some people,” he mumbled. “It’s just not my thing.”

Tikki eyed him for a long moment.

Plagg frowned.

“You’re lying,” Tikki decided, turning on her heels. “Like them or don’t. Who cares?”

Plagg gave the flowers one last look before running to catch up.

A siren started up.

Tikki sighed, handing Plagg the bags. “Go home.”

“And the hundred meters rule?”

She shot him a look. “What about the ‘don’t nearly die’ rule?”

Plagg made a face at her. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“Your heart stopped.”

“And for some reason that bothers you,” said Plagg. “But I mean, we’re gonna die eventually. Better to live unafraid. Isn’t that what you said?”

Tikki turned red. “That was different.”

“Oh?” Plagg asked. He leaned down over her so their noses almost touched. “You’re allowed to be stupid about your life, but I’m not?”

“Exactly.”

He rolled his eyes. She was dancing with a double standard and he needed to make her stop. This Lady Luck thing was asking for trouble. She had to survive long enough for the cops to find them. He had to prove her conspiracy theory wrong.

“Why is it different?” he asked.

“Because you’re you and I’m me.” Tikki said. Living with Plagg had taught her some very important things too. Number one: he liked a challenge.

“I’ll make you a bet,” she said. “If I can take down this next akuma without getting hit once, you have to answer one question about your pre-freak life.”

Plagg’s nose wrinkled up. It always did that when she made a point he didn’t want to concede. “What’s it to me if you get hit?” he asked. “Seems like a faster way to get rid of you.”

Tikki bit her lip. Thing number two: Plagg was afraid to show attachment. Be it to things, ideas, or people, Plagg feigned indifference like everyone’s lives depended on it. She was scared to learn what had made him that way.

“I can’t make you cheese if something happens to me,” she reasoned.

Plagg’s face suddenly darkened. Tikki was surprised. Usually reducing people to resources got past his indifference. Why was it making him upset this time?

“I’ll make you a counter offer,” he said. “Get hurt even once, and you this deal,” he gestured between them, “is off. Forget the hundred meters. I’m gone.”

Tikki paled. She needed Plagg. He knew that. She couldn’t dodge both Hawkmoth and the police on her own. Her power was too traceable.

Then key thing she knew about Plagg danced in her mind:

He cared way too much. No, not about humans. He didn’t give to shakes for people he didn’t know, but he worked hard not to know those people. He’d tried hard not to know her.

“Counter counter offer,” said Tikki. “You go home and I fight and we mind our own business outside of canceling each other’s powers.”

“No.”

She stiffened. The sirens were getting louder. She couldn’t not go. Hawkmoth was her enemy. He was only making such a mess because of her. “Fine,” she said. “I take one hit, you leave. I take no hits, you answer my question.”

“Deal.”

`

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

“We should tell Adrien about your dad,” Tikki said suddenly.

Plagg groaned. He had collapsed onto the bed as soon as the pun storm ended. The idea of Marinette being stabbed my an akuma left his hands trembling. He tried to hide them under the covers.

The image of Marinette’s waist, blotchy black and bloody, kept returning. He knew what that felt like. He’d hoped she’d get by without it.

Marinette was a lot smarter than he was after all.

Tikki assumed he was shaking at the mere mention of his father. Plagg had once been known to do that. “We should tell Adrien about your dad,” Tikki repeated.

Plagg snapped out of it at his wife’s voice, swearing at the suggestion. “Why would we do that?”

“Because his father seems similar to yours.”

Plagg sat up, revealing a pj shirt covered in paw prints. “Having an awful dad doesn’t give him licence to hear my trauma.”

“I just thought it might help with his trauma,” she said. “He’s terrified of you. Whenever things go even a little wrong he looks at you and physically braces himself.”

Plagg looked away, familiar with that reaction. He’d hoped he was imagining it. “Telling him won’t make him less scared of me. All that will work at this point is time.”

Tikki sat on the bed across from her husband. “You don’t want to train him, do you?”

“I’m a tough trainer,” he said. “I know you have a different skill set, but he might not be a fist fighter like I am. I googled him. He fences.”

“Then I’ll teach him bo staff,” she said. “When he’s more comfortable with you, you can do more parkour.”

Plagg eyed his wife, then her stomach. “Are you safe to be teaching bo staff right now?”

Tikki scowled. “I’m not going to spar him. He’ll practice with Nino.”

“Nino’s terrible with bo staff.”

“Then Kagami.”

“Good,” he said. “Because you promised you’d be extra careful. No transforming.” His eyes narrowed. “I could have handled Adrien’s panic attack.”

“You were handling Marinette’s panic attack,” she said. “And while we’re worried about Adrien being afraid of you, you need to work on how you express your concern. You looked livid.”

Plagg threw his hands in the air. “I was livid. He could have died!”

Tikki made a face at her husband. “That’s what I’m talking about. You need to figure out how to redirect that rage before people take it wrong. Adrien is probably used to… violence.”

Plagg looked away, reaching for his back without thinking. Male models usually can hide bruises back there. After all, it’s the abs that get photographed.

Tikki circled the bed to Plagg’s side and sat behind him. Before he could react, she kissed him between the shoulder blades.

He relaxed a little. “Did you think I was damaged goods the first time you saw?”

“No,” she said. “But I was happy when you got your tattoos.”

“The scars were that ugly?”

Tikki shook her head, starting to braid her husband’s ponytail. “The tattoos were your way of taking control again,” she said. “And they’re beautiful.”

“You could always get ink,” Plagg said, turning his head to look at her.

She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t have your pain tolerance,” she said. “I’d cry.”

“I’ll hold your hand. I’d be good practice for—“

“—that’s a different kind of pain,” Tikki said. “And if I’m supposed to avoid transforming right now, I can’t imagine what the rules are about tattoos.”

Plagg wrinkled his nose, annoyed to concede. “Fair.”

Tikki let go of his hair. “When are we going to tell the kids?”

Plagg tilted his head thoughtfully. “Well, they’ll find out in six months or so.”

Tikki punched his arm. “We have to warn them!”

“I know that! I just— when is a good time to say that sort of thing?”

“Family meetings.”

“Adrien has to feel settled first.”

“That can take two months,” she said. “By then I’ll look fat.”

“No, you’ll be beautifully well-rounded,” he said, kissing his wife’s forehead.

She scowled at him, but accepted the near-compliment.

In the main area, Adrien was scrounging his brain. He sat at the kitchen table holding two resource cards and wondering if he’d ever had this much fun before.

“Marinette isn’t ruthless enough to win,” said Alya. “Unlike me. Read ‘em and weep. I block your road!”

“No!” cried Marinette. “And I thought we were friends. My little house is even next to yours.”

“That makes us in competition for resources,” said Alya. “It’s a fox eat bug world.”

“Can I build a post office?” asked Adrien, showing Marinette his cards.

“No. You need more brick.”

“Drat.”

“I was GOING to build a store,” said Marinette, shooting Alya a glare. “But SOMEONE blocked me.”

“I use voyage to cross the board,” said Kagami. She moved her horse piece to the far side of the map.

Adrien, unlike most people, had no idea this was not how one plays Settlers of Catan. The fact Plagg had reinvented the game during the homeschooling phase to teach Freak Economics was lost on him. He was busy trying to use the butterfly ability to start a postal service.

“I’ll deliver your goods if you let me put one of my post offices in your territory,” he offered Marinette. “Then you don’t need roads.”

“Deal!”

Nino’s game power was creation and he was having way too much fun selling food across the board. Alya, on the other hand, made her own fun.

“Leave me alone,” said Adrien. “All I want to do is deliver mail. I never did anything to you.”

“That’s business,” said Alya, using the destruction move to wipe out a post office. “Feelings don’t matter.”

Business.

Adrien’s stomach suddenly tightened. Business is about deciding what people want and making them want more.

Agrestes don’t lose.

Nino’s piece clicked loudly as he placed it. Adrien caught himself touching his cheek. A phantom sting rippled across his skin.

Make up can cover a lot of things.

“Adrien,” said Alya. “It’s your turn.”

He didn’t know what to do. Alya was taking over his postal service. He was losing. Even teamed up with Kagami to travel through areas that were normally blocked, to be a postman he needed to be at peace with everyone playing.

“Adrien?” asked Marinette.

She didn’t get a response. Adrien’s breathing grew visibly rapid. The lights flickered.

“…Adrien?” she repeated, looking up at the lamp. A black glow danced around it. Adrien’s cards turned to dust in his hand.

His eyes went wide. The table started to rattle.

Nino’s breathing grew loud too. A green light shell wrapped him and Alya.

The table crumped. Kagami stood up and stepped back. Adrien held his head, digging his nails into his scalp. The dark power flicked wildly through his clothes. His chair disintegrated.

He was going to lose the board game.

Agrestes don’t lose.

“Tikki!” shouted Marinette.

The lights went out.

Marinette glanced at Alya.

“He’s your opposite,” Alya said. “Power up.”

“But—“

Tikki appeared in the kitchen door. “Oh my LANTA,” she snapped. She practically dove to the floor beside Adrien. Her power flared up around them both. It coated the house. The table rose from the dust. The lights flickered but died again.

Adrien was pretty sure he was dying. For a moment he managed to look out from between his fingers. He expected to see his father glaring down at him.

Instead, there was Plagg. He was crouched at eye level beside his wife. Tikki’s hand rested on Adrien’s head. She spoke, but Adrien didn’t hear. Plagg wasn’t scowling. His eyebrows pinched together in an expression Adrien could barely place. Maybe he’d seen it in a movie once? He wasn’t sure. It wasn’t anger.

This wasn’t a man who was about to fly off the handle.

“Touch is one of his triggers,” Plagg told Tikki.

He’d remembered that? In this moment when the house was at risk of being turned to dust, Plagg cared what stressed him out?

Tikki pulled her hand away. “Sorry,” she said. And she meant it. He could tell from the softness of her voice and the concern in her eyes. “Look at me Adrien,” she said. Her voice was so gentle. “What are 5 things you can see?”

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Adrien didn’t expect a lot of things when he first placed Noraneko as Plagg. A black cat-eared cloak made up the majority Noraneko’s transformation. It was easy for civilians to imagine all sorts of things about his appearance underneath. But the man was a retired model with ballet training. Most of the time he didn’t look it. Sure he was slender, but he towered like a giant and fought exclusively with his bare hands.

In short, he didn’t act like a ballerina. He did, however, seem aware of his height. When someone was vulnerable he made himself shorter. He sat or crouched, or even once lifted Marinette so she could sit on the kitchen counter while they discussed Chloe.

Adrien never expected to find a man who was as powerful as Plagg and didn’t use it. Instead, after the near destruction of the house, Plagg offered Adrien a cheese string.

“It has a dinosaur on the package,” he said. “That means it’s the good kind.”

“They’re all the same,” said Kagami. “The images are random.”

“How dare you,” he said. “I’ll have you know, Marinette went through a phase when she would only eat the dinosaur ones.”

“I was eight!” snapped Marinette. Her face almost matched her suit. “My parents had just died. I deserved the dino ones.”

“See?” said Plagg. “Its the good kind.”

Adrien hugged his knees. “I’m… not hungry.”

“Lies,” said Plagg. “You used destruction. You need cheese.”

He wasn’t wrong. Adrien’s mouth watered at the thought of eating a cheese string. But he couldn’t risk gaining weight.

“You’re not a model,” said Plagg. “You’ll never be a model again. Isn’t there a food you’ve always wanted to eat on cheat day?”

Adrien swallowed hard. “We don’t have a cheat day.”

“Well, you’re having one now,” Plagg said, pulling Adrien to his feet. “We have a fridge full of different cheeses and we aren’t stopping until we find something you like.”

Plagg was right. Adrien ate three cheese strings that night and the dinosaur one was the best.

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

Tikki took a hit. Not just one hit either. Oh, Plagg wished it was just one hit, but he counted. Initially it was to rub it in her face. His stomach turned as the count passed ten. At fifteen he winced.

This wasn’t a regular akuma. He checked his watch. Tikki should have won by now. She always won.

A pink butterfly outline floated over the akuma’s face. “Grant my wish and this all goes away,” it said, waving its hand at the city. Smoke rose from roof tops. Sirens wailed. “I mean, technically I’m only doing this because you won’t grant my wish.” It leaned down, grabbing Tikki by the chin and squeezing her face.

Plagg looked away.

“That makes you the villain,” said the Akuma. “I’m just an innocent man who wants your help.”

“Raising the dead isn’t innocent!” Tikki spat. “Someone else would die.”

“You think I care?” the akuma spat, squeezing Tikki’s neck. She cried out as its claws drew blood. “Now tell me, how many bones of yours do I have to break before your pretty little morals go?”

Plagg glanced around the alley way. He spotted recently emptied dumpster. A few empty pallets leaned against it. A mouse skittered by.

No good weapons.

“All… all of them,” said Tikki. Her breathing was laboured. Blood stained her transformation. “I’ll die… before I let you kill someone with… my power.”

An orange bounced off the akuma’s head. The akuma blinked in surprise, looking for the source. All it saw was an empty alleyway.

“Lights out butterfly,” shouted Plagg, jumping out of the akuma’s shadow. He swung the grocery bag at its head.

It caught it, growling. But it dropped Tikki.

Plagg swore. The weight of the bag had been his only weapon. He spun around, hoping there was some vague similarity between a dance kick and a regular one. His heel made contact with the akuma’s head. His tail swung to keep balance.

There are a lot of high kicks in ballet.

Tikki rolled out of the way, gasping. A flash of pink light brought her another sword.

Plagg dodged the akuma’s claws.

“Plagg, catch!” cried Tikki, throwing him a bo staff.

Plagg did not succeed in catching it. He was, however, distracted. The claws ripped across his waist.

He screamed in pain.

“Plagg!”

Plagg did not have Tikki’s pain tolerance. A transformation would have protected him more. His now- tattered black trench coat did not.

Plagg flashed his teeth and hissed, baring claws he hadn’t known he had. He struck back with a swipe. The akuma dodged easily. Plagg swiped again and again, each attack less coordinated as the pain began to pound.

Suddenly, the akuma collapsed.

Plagg blinked in surprise. It took a moment for him to spot the dart in its neck.

“You killed… killed them?” he asked, turning back to Tikki. She was still sprawled on the ground, barely propped up on her elbows to aim.

She shook her head, dropping the dart gun she’d made. “It’s asleep. Break its… head piece.”

“That Plagg could do. He watched in satisfaction as it turned to black ash at his finger tips. The butterfly escaped, paling from black to white as it flew away.

Hawkmoth was done with this akuma. Plagg quickly pulled the remains of his cloak shut and glared. Victims tended to take their anger out on Tikki. She was small and they were scared. It made her an easy target for fear-based hate.

This time the victim looked up and paled. They would have seen pictures of the freak who destroyed the Effiel tower on the news.

“Next time you get fired and it isn’t your fault,” said Plagg. “Sue for unlawful termination and get therapy. Got it?”

They ran.

“Good,” said Plagg, turning away. He knew how to hide a limp and he strode to Tikki like a man on a catwalk. “You’ll heal, right?”

She forced herself to her feet. “Yeah,” she said. The cuts in her neck had already faded. “But you—“ she powered her hand, holding it out to him. “Can I?”

He shrugged, trying to look unconcerned as he rolled his eyes. Still, his hackles were up and his tail was stiff. Her touch took the pain away. He visibly relaxed, much to his chagrin. He could hide pain pretty well, but not quite agony.

“So, you’re going, then?” she asked. “I mean, I took a hit.”

“Nineteen hits.”

Tikki winced.

Footsteps had them both on their guard.

“Oh my LANTA,” Tikki whispered.

A strange man approached. His clothes were purple from head to toe, looking like the kind of suit you might wear to the Grammys, not the alleyways of Paris. A silver mask the shape of a butterfly covered his face.

“Hawkmoth,” breathed Tikki.

“Tikki,” said Hawkmoth in a honey-like voice. “Sweetie. I’ve been so worried about you.”

Tikki drew a red staff out of the air. “S—stay back.”

The man kept moving forward. “Everyone’s been trying to find you,” he said. “The whole set of—“

“She’s not part of your set!” Plagg snapped, blocking her with his arm. “Get lost!”

The man’s attention lazily turned to Plagg. “That explains why we couldn’t find her,” he said. “You’ve canceled her out.”

“Yeah,” Plagg growled, practically snarling at him. “And if you come any closer I’ll cancel you straight of of existence.”

The man smiled, the same placating smile you might use when a toddler declares they’ll be president some day.

“Oh, I’m sure you will,” he said.

Then he opened his hand, releasing a single black butterfly into the alley.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

Nino held his cutlery vertically, bouncing it up and down on the table. “Sat-ur-day. Sat-ur-day. Sat-ur-day.”

“Saturday?” asked Adrien, sitting beside him.

“Marinette cooks breakfast on Saturday,” Kagami explained.

“If Marinette feels like it,” said Marinette. Clearly she did feel like it, because she was happily stirring a bowl of batter. “I make no promises for all Saturdays forever.”

“Marinette makes the best cheesy bread and waffles,” said Plagg, pulling out a chair for Tikki.

She sat and immediately put her head on the table.

Marinette paused in her stirring. “You okay?”

“Just… bad midnight snack,” said Tikki.

Marinette frowned, looking into her mixing bowl with concern. “Should we be throwing anything out?”

“I tossed it last night,” she said. “It tasted off.”

Marinette let out a sigh of relief and continued her cooking. “Sorry you feel gross.”

Tikki gave a thumbs up without lifting her head. “Thanks.”

Alya eyed Tikki. After a moment she smirked and turned her attention back to chatting with Nino.

Adrien swallowed hard. He had to ask Marinette about transformations soon or his could settle into its current state. Plagg had warned him that if you don’t intervene by third transform you can be in a bind. Adrien’s next transform would be his third.

“Marinette,” he asked.

Marinette jumped at his voice. The batter splashed up. Adrien dove, catching the spill on his clean plate.

Marinette stood frozen with the bowl over her head, although Adrien wasn’t sure how it had gotten up there.

“Yes?” asked Marinette, lowering the bowl. Like before, her face matched her usual costume.

Adrien poured the batter back into the bowl. “Sorry, I did mean to surprise you.”

“It’s fine,” she squeaked. “I just, you know, gotta have lightning reflexes. Hiya!” She pretended to deflect a sword with the whisk. Batter splattered across Adrien’s shirt. “IMSOsoRRYIDidntMEAnTOdOTHAt.”

Adrien snorted, covering his mouth. He couldn’t laugh. He had a bad laugh. It was one of his worst traits.

He broke out laughing anyway. Marinette snickered, covering her mouth too. As Adrien let out a snort she doubled over in guffaws.

Plagg elbowed Tikki and gestured at the pair. Tikki grunted an acknowledgement.

It wasn’t until after breakfast that Adrien got up the courage to try again. “Could you maybe help me with my transformation, Marinette?” he asked, standing by the sink. He’d volunteered to wash the dishes. But he’d never done it before, so a frustrated Kagami had taken over to show him ‘the correct way’.

Marinette froze halfway through taking off her apron. “O— okay.”

He smiled. There was something oddly adorable about the way she got flustered. He watched her make a sheet of paper and a pen.

“Here,” she said, handing them to him. “Your first transformation showed us how you think of yourself— your suppressed self. My guess is you don’t want to be a model.”

“I want to please my dad,” Adrien said automatically.

“But who do you want to be?” Marinette asked. “I’m not talking about a job. I’m talking about character traits. What sort of person do you aspire to become?”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, feeling his own face grow hot. “I write that here?”

She nodded.

He tried, but his list was a superficial ‘kind’, ‘friendly’, ‘nice’.

“Okay, let’s see an example," Marinette suggested. "Nino, can you share yours?”

Nino gave her finger guns. “Anything for my bro,” he said, turning to Adrien. He was sitting on a spinny stool and went too far, quickly correcting himself to actually face Adrien. “I want to protect my family, fight for truth, make people feel safe, and be cool.”

“I want to prove freaks are still people,” said Alya. “Take down Tsurigi Industries for spear-heading the anti-freak movement, reveal truth, and punch Hawkmoth in the face.”

Marinette smiled. “Maybe character trait was the wrong term. It’s more like your mission statement.”

“Oh,” said Adrien. “I… don’t know.”

“That’s okay,” she said. “You can think about it. Just keep it down to about 4 things.”

“What’s yours?” he asked Marinette.

She turned bright red again, quickly looking at the ground. “Oh, you know. Truth and justice and stuff.”

“Oh,” said Alya. “I recall something about a hamster.”

“Hamster?” asked Adrien. “You like hamsters?”

Marinette’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Do you?”

Plagg spoke up. “We are not getting a hamster!”

“Can we move to make it a rule?” Adrien asked. Kagami had made him read the rule book. This might the chance for that knowledge to come in handy.

“No pets,” said Plagg. “That’s a veto.”

“Aww,” said Adrien. “But they’re so cute.”

“If you two want to move out in ten years and raise a hamster, go for it,” said Plagg. “But we have too much on our plate to add another small furry escape artist.”

“Another?”

“I think he’s referring to Alya,” said Nino.

“I’m referring to all of you,” said Plagg. “Or am I the only one to remember the incident last year?”

“It was your birthday,” said Alya. “We wanted to do something special.”

“By giving me a heart attack?!”

This discussion continued while Adrien stared blankly at his piece of paper. What was his purpose? To be perfect? To obey? To be beautiful? That’s what he’d always been told.

A siren made everyone freeze.

“I’ll finish the dishes,” said Tikki easing herself up.

Kagami sighed. “I’ll go see what kind of akuma it is.”

Adrien soon learned that there was a routine to akuma attacks. Aside from everyone jumping at the sound of the alarm, they seemed a surprisingly mundane to everyone else.

If things went according to plan, which was about 50% of the time, Kagami turned into air to investigate. Akuma affects don’t hurt air, so they don’t hurt scouting Kagami. Once she had investigated, she would change back and radio in the basic details and location. Depending how far it was from home, Marinette would either leave through the skylight or be shadowed there by Plagg.

Then Ladybug would kick butt. Everyone would watch on TV, ready to spring into action if needed. Plagg usually waited for Ladybug in the shadows, but sometimes it
would be Alya or Kagami depending on availability.

They had school after all.

The only thing that never changed was how fights ended. Ladybug always called for pick up and would meet Plagg at a random location to shadow home. It was a way to avoid being chased by fans. At least, Adrien assumed this would never change. He went on three pick up trips with Plagg, each time trying his best to do the shadow-travel. He missed by a kilometre or so every time.

“We got here in one piece,” said Plagg, patting him on the back. “That’s the important part.” He looked around, scanning the horizon for the usual red blur. Paris glowed with the usual ambience of a romantic city. His tail flicked as a whiff of cheese carried in the wind.

But Ladybug didn’t show up.

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

This was an upset Plagg, and Adrien wasn’t sure what to make of it. The man was pacing the rooftop they’d planned to meet her on. His tail whipped about angrily as he scanned the horizon. Each time he reached one end of the roof, he would check his phone and text again.

“She’s usually late, right?” asked Adrien, leaning on the bow staff Tikki had made him.

“Yes,” said Plagg. “But if she’s just late she texts back. Either her phone was destroyed and she can’t create a new one, or she’s in serious trouble.” His ears flattened. “The fight went well. She shouldn’t be hiding.”

“Hiding?” asked Adrien, beginning to follow Plagg’s pacing.

Plagg’s tail twitched. “Sometimes— rarely— she’ll hide if she thinks she’s failed. Its… an issue we’ve been working on.” His ears tilted and he eyed Adrien. “She’s prone to spiralling. If she thinks she’s failed she’ll start thinking she’s failing the family name or something.” He shook his head and checked his phone. “Two hours late means we split up to look for her. If you run into anything at all, shadow home and call for help. Understand?”

Adrien saluted as Plagg dialled his phone. “We’ve got a rug with no bug,” he said. “Release the teenagers.”

Adrien snickered.

Plagg glared at him and he went quiet.

Soon the whole family was scanning Paris. Adrien was told to check alleyways. Kagami had air support, searching street level without being seen. Alya was with Nino on rooftops. Tikki was holding down the fort in case Marinette made it home. Plagg was phoning friends and enemies alike and harassing Master Fu, whomever that was.

Adrien felt like he’d checked a thousand alleys by the end of the next hour. Maybe he had. He paused in one, panting to catch his breath. He felt naked shadowing so much untransformed. It was hard to search systematically when he could barely control which shadow he came out of. He could shadow to a location, not a person, and he wasn’t awfully familiar with the alleys of this city. Or he hadn’t been an hour ago. Now he knew the scent, the cold air, the drip of water from a gutter. He knew the types of garbage he’d find, and that the unexpected should always be expected inside of a dumpster. Fortunately, that is not where he found Marinette. He checked all of them, but Plagg had instructed him to rely on his hearing more than his sight.

So he heard it before it hit him. The strange chirp and crackle caught his attention. He turned around just in time to raise his bow staff and smack the creature coming at him. It staggered back, clutching its side where it had been struck. In the dark, Adrien barely managed to make out the shape.

Six arms. Red dress with black spots. Glowing red eyes and shiny segmented skin.

Akuma.

Akumatized creation user.

Ladybug.

“Uh oh,” said Adrien.

She came at him again, grabbing his staff with all six hands. She tried to yank it away but Adrien held on to it better than he kept his footing. He clung to the staff like a rag doll. Bug monster Marinette let go with two hands, attempting to pull him from the staff. He didn’t let go, running purely on instinct.

He couldn’t imagine winning without his weapon.

Monster Bug trilled and threw both him and the staff against the alley wall. Adrien cried out in pain, hitting stone at speed. His body transformed in response. Adrien barely registered it was his third time changing.

He had to dodge as six hands came at him. He dove across the alleyway.

The akuma followed, grabbing at him. He swung his staff wildly, hoping to make contact. Monster bug dodged with ease.

The pink mask appeared over her face, revealing that the red eyes were only glowing spots on her cheeks. She had the head of a giant ladybug with eyes to match.

She paused a moment when the mask appeared.

“You’re not Noraneko,” she crackled.

“Yeah, I don’t have a name yet,” said Adrien.

“You’re Adrien A—“

She was distracted. Adrien took the chance to strike her across the face. Hawkmoth was in complete control. Hopefully that hit hurt him a little too.

“Bug off Hawkbrain!” Adrien shouted. “She’s not your Pinocchio!”

Monster Bug stumbled back. Adrien fumbled for his radio.

It was busted.

“Well that bugs me,” he said. “Guess I’ll be winging it.”

Monster Bug made swords and came at him. The mask was on her face again. She was being controlled— a feeling he knew too well.

Adrien gripped his staff and blocked the swords as best he could. They ricocheted off his weapon. One snapped in half.

“Cool!” said Adrien. “Did you see that? I broke it!”

Monster Bug was less than impressed, replacing her lost sword with a halbert.

“Oh dear,” said Adrien as she stalked towards him. “Marinette. I know you’re in there…”

The bug didn’t so much as blink.

He backed away, hitting the alley wall. She had the exit blocked. She was much more trained and skilled at fighting. She had a supervillain whispering into her brain.

Sweet awkward Marinette wasn’t the enemy here. Sure, he might be able to run, but then what? How far could he get? Would he ever forgive himself for leaving her like this?

She drew closer.

He had to help her. He felt his power flicker through him.

The bug raised her swords. He braced himself, hoping his staff would take another hit. He needed a plan.

The bug stopped short, a glowing mask over its face again.

Adrien kicked her as hard as he could. She flew backward, crackling. The sound. Was awful, like a bug being crushed.

Adrien winced. A black butterfly slipped out of Monster Bug’s dress. Adrien dove for it, his power surging forward.

The butterfly turned to dust in his hand.

A black goo-like light rippled over the akuma. Ladybug dropped to the ground.

“Ma— m’lady!” Adrien cried, catching himself before he said her real name. He rushed to her side, breaking her fall with his arms.

Her eyelids fluttered. “Noraneko?”

He chuckled. “Almost. Adrien.”

“Oh— OH,” she shot up, nearly smashing her head into his. “IMSOSORRYDIDIHURTYOU???”

“No,” Adrien lied. He was good at hiding pain. A little flying around wasn’t too bad and he didn’t want to know how bad she’d feel. “I’m fine. Are you okay, Marinette?”

She banged her head with her hands. “Stupid stupid stupid! Control your emotions, Dupain-cheng!”

“Woah,” said Adrien, backing off so she didn’t hit his head too. “It can happen to anyone. Even my dad was akumatized once.”

“And I want as little in common with that butt-head as I can,” she snapped. She went pale and slammed her hands over her mouth. “I mean, he doesn’t seem to be a good father and I’d like to be a food griend. Good friend…. To you…. Yeah. That. It’s that I don’t want anything to do with you. I love you. I MEAN, ITHINKYOURE NEAT.”

Adrien smiled. “Thanks. I think you’re neat too, Marinette.”

Marinette looked away, bright red in the face. “Thanks,” she squeaked.

There was a beat of silence in the alleyway.

“Don’t tell Plagg,” she said suddenly. “I mean, he’d flip his lid if he knew I was akumatized.”

Adrien went stiff. “What’s… what’s he like when he gets mad?”

Marinette frowned at the seemingly odd question, then her eyes widened slightly as she realized what he’d thought. “Not like that,” she said quickly. “He’d never hurt us. He gets mad when we’re in danger because he’s really scared something will happen to us.” She crossed her legs and looked Adrien dead in the eye. “You should ask him what his transformation motto is. It explains a lot… if you can get him to admit to it.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “Speaking of transformation mottos,” he said. “I had my third transformation. I don’t know what I looked like, but I didn’t have a whole motto yet so I might be stuck.”

She shook her head. “It just means it’ll be a little harder. But that just means I’ll have to try harder, and the tricker a design, the better it looks when you finally succeed.” She grinned. “Hard work is good.”

Adrien sighed, relieved as he stood up and held out his hand. “Let’s go home.”

“You won’t tell Plagg?”

“I won’t tell Plagg.”

She grabbed his hand, letting him pull her half way up. She gasped in pain, grabbing her waist and falling back down.

“Marinette!”

“I’m fine,” she gasped, gripping her waist. “Don’t worry, I’m—“ She cried out, curling in on herself. She rolled up the bottom of her shirt. A strange scar emblazoned her ribs. It was red and purple, spreading from a single line like the wings of a butterfly.

“Don’t tell Plagg,” she said quickly. “Scratch that. Don’t tell anyone.”

Chapter Text

~Present Day~

As asked, Adrien kept the fight to himself. He told Plagg exactly what Marinette asked him to: She’d taken an unexpected hit and hidden in shame. The usual.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” he asked the next time they were both alone.

“Oh yeah,” she said. “I can heal from anything.”

Adrien’s life began to settle down after that. It became a beautiful series of vignettes and chaos unlike anything he’d known before. He couldn’t explain the strange kind of wonderful he felt.

Was this what it meant to be in a family?

“It’s that time of year again,” said Marinette after gathering everyone around the kitchen table. “And you know what that means.”

Adrien looked at the others she had gathered in the kitchen for help. Vague dread was painted on all their faces.

“What?” asked Adrien.

Nino piped up to explain. “It’s Bunnyx’s birthday tomorrow so we have to make her a cake. Family tradition mandates everyone be involved.”

Adrien looked around. “Where are Plagg and Tikki?”

“They did their part procuring ingredients this morning,” said Marinette. “Now, we must divide up the duties. Adrien, what kitchen skills do you have?”

“None.”

Alya groaned. “We’re going to cause another fire.”

“That’s okay Adrien,” said Marinette. “We’ll teach you. You can be recipe reader this time.”

“That’s my job,” said Nino.

“You’ve been promoted,” she answered. “Today you will be oven master.”

“Dude, I just burned a cake while supervising the oven,” said Nino. He looked less than impressed with his assignment. “Can’t I be the measurement man?”

“No!” said everyone in unison.

“I am the measurement woman,” said Kagami, handing Adrien the cookbook. “We’re on this page.”

“We’ve been working through it,” said Alya. “The goal is to be a well oiled enough machine that we can bake any recipe well without practice.”

Adrien frowned at mille feuille, noticing something about stirring over steam. “Why?”

Kagami looked very serious. “I wondered that too. The reason is Marinette tends to come up with convoluted plans in the field that must be carried out with precision and minimal questions. This is training for communication and execution.”

Adrien eyed the cook book. “Shouldn’t Marinette read the book then?”

Nino chuckled. “You think Marinette could just want us cook without helping?”

Fair enough.

Baking began as one would expect. Adrien read the list of ingredients. The ingredients were gathered and laid out. It went down hill from there. There was cake at the end, but Bunnyx wisely did not come to eat it.

A few days later, school was out for a day due to an akuma attack on teachers everywhere.

“You’re the teacher today,” said Nino to Plagg. “Teach.”

Plagg scowled at Nino. After a moment he pointed at one of the questions on the page. “As you can see, this question has an equal sign in it,” he said in an annoyed voice. “And this one has a plus.”

Nino and Adrien snickered.

“So it’s 7x+2 = 51.”

“Seven,” said Adrien automatically.

Plagg perked up, checking the answers. “Uh, yeah. It’s seven.”

“Duuude,” said Nino. “That was math-e-magical.”

“It wasn’t that hard,” said Adrien, explaining how he got the answer. Three questions into the lesson, he realized Plagg had started taking notes. Ten questions in, Plagg plopped down a much harder question. Harder to him, anyway. It involved percentages. Plagg had long ago accepted his brain was for flowers, attempting parenting, and beating up bad people.

Not numbers.

“Oh,” said Adrien, reading the question. “That’s 2794 dollars.”

“What about this?” asked Plagg, sliding another question across the table.

Tikki bonked him on the head with a roll of paper. “Stop making him do our taxes.”

“But someone in the family can finally do numbers!”

“Luka did numbers just fine,” said Tikki. “Hence he went to live with Sass—“ she looked at Adrien, pausing to give context. “Sass is an old freak friend of ours. He’s great with numbers so most of us freaks use him as an accountant.”

“There’s a whole freak economy,” said Nino. “It’s pretty amazing actually. With two creation users on site, we act like a department store most of the time.”

Plagg grumbled. “Never mind that we sell flowers.”

Nino smiled. “If they know what’s good for them, they leave with flowers too.”

After two weeks, Tikki finally managed to wrestle through Adrien’s school papers to get him enrolled at the same school as the kids. They all went by different names at school and had different appearances just to be safe.

“You are not calling him Comrade Mayo at school,” said Tikki, arms crossed. “He’s been registered as Felix and that’s that.”

Nino wilted a little, but accepted the name change. Adrien had to focus hard to respond when his new name was called in class.

Chloe was much crueler than he remembered her.

“Mar— Bridgette,” he said, hugging his text book. “Can I sit with you?” Nino— Mercury at school— was in a different science lab and for the second time all day, Adrien was alone. He didn’t want a repeat of the first time.

“S— sure Felix,” said Marinette. “But I think Chloe wants—“
“Please let me sit with you,” Adrien begged.

Marinette blinked in surprise. Chloe always bragged about how much she loved Adrien. She had assumed it went both ways. But Adrien visibly relaxed sitting next to her.

That’s when she spotted the word ‘loser’ written on his arm in sharpie. Chloe’s script was unmistakable. Adrien flushed, tugging on a sleeve much too short to cover the writing.

Marinette uncapped a pen.

Adrien flinched away.

“Ever heard of a cover up tattoo?” Marinette asked. “Where you draw one thing over another so you can’t see the first?”

Adrien shook his head.

“Do you trust me?” she asked. “Because I can turn that into flowers.”

Adrien hesitated, but he slowly held out his arm. The strange feeling of felt tip pen on skin lasted half of the period. Every time Adrien looked down at his arm another letter had been consumed by buttercups and lotus flowers.

“How’s your scar healing?” he whispered during a pause in instruction. “Did it go away yet?”

“Its all better.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “You sure?” He’d noticed the way she was sitting took weight off that side of her body.

She nodded, carefully avoiding his gaze as she made purposeful eye contact with his arm. “There,” she said, finishing the last flower. “All done.”

When school ended, Plagg eyed Adrien’s arm. “Mari got bored?”

“Uh, yeah?”

Plagg narrowed his eyes at the flowers. Adrien stiffened. The word ‘loser’ was impossible to read now, but Plagg was Plagg. Maybe he’d somehow know.

“She’s gotten better at buttercups,” he said. And that was that.

They went to a different school to pick up Kagami. She went to a private school because she’d won a fencing scholarship. Adrien wondered if he could get the same scholarship without ousting Kagami, but after seeing the stoic girl making goo-goo eyes at a boy on the school steps, he decided not to ask. He liked being in Nino and Marinette’s class a lot anyway. Chloe was bad but survivable.

A siren made everyone stop in their shoes. A storm cloud grew overhead. The ground beneath their feet turned to ice. Adrien turned to Marinette. She was hiding it, but she was still hurt. She couldn’t fight this one on her own. She was already running for cover to transform.

Adrien followed without thinking.

Chapter Text

~12 Years Ago~

“Don’t let it touch you,” Tikki said. “It’ll take you over!”

Plagg summoned destructive power to his hands. “I’d like to see it try.”

She shook her head frantically. “That’s his power! He’ll control you with it. He needs creation and destruction for his plan!”

Plagg hesitated. Nooroo could kind of control people, but he said it was a contract. The other person had to agree to let him help.

The hesitation was enough. Tikki ducked under his arm, blocking him the way he’d just blocked her. “Leave him alone!” she snapped. “He doesn’t have anything to do with this! You already have Miaou. You don’t need him.”

Hawkmoth tilted his head, the butterfly staying close to his hand. “I don’t know, he seems a lot more powerful than Miaou.”

“Oh, probably,” said Plagg.

Tikki elbowed him. “You don’t want this man interested in you,” she hissed.

“Oh, no, I’m definitely weaker,” Plagg corrected, as if he had any clue about this Miaou person and their dumb name. “I can’t destroy much.”

“You took out the Eiffel Tower.”

“Okay,” said Plagg. “But I’ll bet this Miaou guy has better control than I do.”

“Miaou’s a girl,” said Tikki.

Plagg made a face, annoyed. “I’d know that if you told me literally anything!”

“Well, you’re not exactly an open book yourself!”

The butterfly shot toward them. Plagg concentrated his power in his hand, the black lightning crackling like a storm around his fist as he reached for the bug. But Tikki was faster. She threw herself between them. The butterfly landed on her sword.

It was over in that moment. Plagg would overthink those seconds for the rest of his life. The black goo enveloping Tikki— the last look of fear in her eyes as she begged him to run.

The fact he actually listened.

He’d have nightmares about it for years. But like that, they were separated. Clearly Hawkmoth mostly wanted Tikki because no butterflies followed Plagg back to the hotel. Plagg stood in the doorway, at a loss for words as the TV showed the playback of Lady Luck’s latest battle. Sure, she’d told him to run. Sure, he’d promised that if she took any hits she wasn’t his problem anymore. Sure he didn’t care at all what happened to her.

Except for that nagging feeling in his gut.

“Oh well,” he whispered. “Drag I guess. She had a good run.”

That nagging feeling grew louder.

Baark was pretty good at finding people. If he had an object Tikki made, he’d be able to find her. Plagg could probably shadow in and kidnap her out without much trouble. That’s what Fu would say to do. But then they’d be stuck fighting Hawkmoth. If Plagg got involved now, he’d be involved forever. That’s just how it was with Tikki. She valued saving people more than she valued him as a traveling companion.

He couldn’t blame her.

Chapter Text

“Hey Nooroo.”

The boy stopped short, lighting up and whipping around to face the alleyway. “Pl—“

Plagg pulled him into the darkness, plunging them through a shadow into the privacy of a cave somewhere.

Nooroo dusted himself off from the trip and grinned. “It’s good to see you!”

“You too,” said Plagg, ruffling the boy’s hair. “Wish it was under better circumstances, but yeah. It’s always good to see you.”

Nooroo grabbed Plagg’s hand, holding it on his head. “What’s wrong?”

“I met a bad person,” Plagg explained. “He’s not as strong as you, but he seems to have the same power. I need to know exactly how it works.”

“Oh,” Nooroo dug in his back pack, pulling out a sheet of origami paper. “I can show you.”

“Paper?”

“I can’t always use real butterflies,” he said, starting to fold the patterned sheet. “They’re hard to come by. Look.” He held up a paper butterfly, displaying it with the same pride as someone in a perfume ad. His power engulfed it.

Plagg had always envied Nooroo’s power. Unlike Plagg’s primal destruction, transmission was a peaceful flow. It moved like water, a purple river from Nooroo’s hand to the butterfly.

Nooroo smiled, gently tossing it at Plagg. Plagg knew his way around a paper airplane. The butterfly should stop midair and fall.

But it glided.

“Master Fu taught me,” said Nooroo.

Plagg rolled his eyes. “I told you to stay away from that old coot.”

The little boy retrieved his butterfly. “He helps me hide my powers,” he said. “I was dripping whenever I got upset. Now I make these.” He opened his backpack.

Plagg gaped. It was stuffed to the brim with purple paper butterflies. “That’s not normal, kid. People are going to notice.”

“I go to the bathroom and make them there.”

“People are going to think you have a bowel problem.”

“Better than thinking I’m a freak,” he said with a smile as he dumped the butterflies on the cave floor. They flew up in a swarm, circling the two boys like a purple hurricane. “Touch one.”

Plagg had frozen in awe. His eyes widened at the fluttering sight. There was a beauty in this. Each butterfly was slightly different… patterned with stripes or spots of slightly darker or lighter purple. Hawkmoth’s butterflies were plain black. Were they like that because they were being misused? Or did every transmission user have a different way?

Had Fu worked with Hawkmoth once?

“Touch one,” said Nooroo again.

Plagg reached out. One landed on his sleeve, disappearing into the fabric. Nooroo’s voice echoed in his head.

“Hello Plagg, I’m Nooroo.”

Plagg made a face. “I know who you are.”

“Its polite to introduce yourself,” said Nooroo. “When you do first aid you’re supposed to give your name. I am going to help, so I want them to know who I am.”

So the introduction was habit. Plagg suspected he’d picked up his own cat-like tendencies since getting a tail, even if it was an occasional tail.

“Now, I usually ask how I can help,” said Nooroo. “And if I can give them a useful power for a while, I do.”

“I need to find someone,” said Plagg. “Can you give me the power to track a person?”

Nooroo’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I can do that. Who do you need to track?”

Plagg reached into his own backpack and drew out Tikki’s camera bag. He shook out a recent picture she had forced him to take of them together.

For posterity or something.

“This girl,” he said, pointing to her. “Tikki.”

Now Nooroo’s forehead crumpled up like a disposable pie tin. “Did something happen to her?”

“Yes,” said Plagg. “I think she needs help.”

“So you’re going to be a hero?”

“No!” hissed Plagg. “We aren’t heroes. One of my friends was taken and—“ He covered his mouth.

Friend.

Drat.

“You made a friend?!?” Nooroo squealed, bouncing on his heels

“She’s an associate.”

“Friend.”

“Acquaintance.”

“Friend.”

“Fine!” Plagg snapped, his power exploding around his eyes. “She’s a friend. What of it?!”

Nooroo simply beamed. “Nothing.”

Nothing at all.

Chapter Text

The biggest problem, and there were a lot of problems, was Nooroo’s power. In order to use it on Plagg he had to be within a reasonable distance of him. That meant Nooroo had to be in Paris.

That meant Plagg had to consensually kidnap him from London and leave him safely in a nearby hotel room. The worst part was not wanting to leave him completely alone there. Nooroo was smart, but defenceless in his own right.

“I’m not asking for me,” Plagg said.

Fu smiled, looking at the young man over the rim of his tea cup. “So the water has boiled.”

“I’m literally begging you to speak English.”

Fu gave a nod of acknowledgement but made no promise. “You need someone to protect Nooroo?”

“Yes.”

“And you came to me?”

Plagg made a face, crossing his arms. “You call yourself a guardian. Thought you ought to live up to it at some point.”

“I would go, but I’m not the right one,” he said. “What you need is someone who can move Nooroo a great distance quickly.”

Plagg covered his face with his hands.

Kaalki smiled when she saw him coming. She did a quick circle around him and frowned.

“Where’s Tikki?” she asked.

Plagg made a face. “You like her that much?”

“Indeed,” Kaalki said. “She’s quite delightful. I did a little research and she comes from quite the honourable family of warriors.” Kaalki’s frown deepened. “Is she gone?”

“Another freak is holding her,” Plagg said. “I can get her out, but first I need to find her. To find her, I need to put someone helpless at risk. To keep them from being helpless— I’d like you to be on stand by.”

Kaalki looked surprised. “I never thought I’d see the day you had a friend, Plagg.”

“I don’t have friends,” he snapped. “I have— problems.”

“Are you calling Tikki a problem?”

“Yes,” he said. “Now will you help or not?”

Kaalki seemed to mull it over, tilting her head and humming a thoughtful note. Plagg’s stomach did a flip. Her power was fairly rare. Finding another freak to do this would be hard.
He might even have to go to Fluff.

“On one condition,” said Kaalki.

Plagg lit up with relief before he could stop himself. He quickly covered his mouth and looked away, desperate to appear stoic. “What?”

Kaalki held out a tiny rope that Plagg recognized with dread. “I want to be friends with you too.”

“I don’t have friends,” said Plagg.

“Friends, or no dice.”

Plan B was Fluff. He really did not want to leave Nooroo with a crazy maybe time traveller.

“I’ll think about it.”

***

“I need someone else,” he told Fu.

This time, Fu didn’t look up from his tea. “Is your pride worth this much to you?”

Maybe. “Fine,” said Plagg. “You want me and Tikki together, right? Help her by helping me find her.”

Fu sighed. “Bunnyx is your best bet.”

“Who?”

“She’s like Fluff, but a bit more grounded,” he said. “Easier to reach. More partial to you for future reasons. And time is an ocean, so she may have always helped you. It’s worth asking.”

Bunnyx turned out to be the even shorter than Tikki. She looked up at Plagg with an irritated look. “Wow,” she said. “You weren’t kidding when you said you used to be a little piece of trash.”

Plagg did not want this child’s help. Enough kids were already involved. “You sure you’re a freak?” he asked her.

She held out her hand, a large blue disk appearing at her finger tips. She reached in, pulling out a hat that made Plagg’s blood run cold.

“Recognize this?” she asked.

Tikki had that hat when she was taken.

“I won’t make you be my friend,” she said. “But I do have a requirement.”

Plagg made a face, nervous. “What?”

“TV rights November 4th 20XX,” she said. “We watch the Great British Bake off and you don’t complain at all.”

“Deal?”

And they were off.

Bunnyx instantly softened when she saw Nooroo. “Oh, you were so cute!” she said, ruffling his hair. “You grow up so supermodel-looking, I should have known.”

Nooroo’s eyes widened in surprise. “You know what I look like when I grow up?”

Bunnyx put a finger to her lips. “Secret future stuff.”

Nooroo nodded seriously.

“You’ll both stay here,” Plagg directed. “No matter what happens, stay in the hotel room unless you personally are in danger. Don’t worry about me and Tikki. Understood?”

Nooroo sat on the bed, swinging his legs with his mouth full of mint chip ice cream. “Mm hm!” Bunnyx gave a thumbs up.

Plagg held out the photograph of Tikki. Nooroo cupped one of his butterflies. It filled with power, the deep purple light slowly rippling up the sides of the paper wings. He lowered his hand, but the butterfly hovered.

Bunnyx yawned.

Plagg touched the bug with the photograph. The photo immediately began to morph in his hand. He gripped it tighter.

“Plagg, I give you the power to find Tikki anywhere and in any form she may wear,” said Nooroo. That had been an important detail they went back and forth on. Would he only be able to find Tikki if she looked like Tikki? What if she was Lady Luck or akumatized or something?

Nooroo was only 30 percent sure he could work around that. “I can probably find Tikki and Lady Luck,” he had confirmed. “Its the akumatized thing I’m worried about.”

They both breathed a sigh of relief when the photograph spun in the air and made a ladybug-like robot- thing. Plagg wasn’t sure what to call it, only that it wasn’t terribly subtle like he had hoped. But it chirped happily.

It knew where she was. Plagg just had to follow it. He held up a hand to Nooroo.

Nooroo high-fived him, and Plagg didn’t even care that meant getting ice cream on his hand. He was off. He stopped short in the doorway.

“Stay here,” he repeated, holding out his pinkie. “Pinkie promise.”

Nooroo rolled his eyes the way Plagg often did. “I’m not a baby.”

“I’d do the same thing with Tikki,” Plagg said.

The little boy lit up, jumping down from the bed and linking pinkies with his friend. “Pinkie promise.”

Plagg was off after the bug. He didn’t know where he was going, so he tucked it in his coat and relied on the push and pull under the fabric. It pulled hard and Plagg was worried he’d need a new jacket before he needed a new traveling buddy.

Acquaintance.

Oh, who was he fooling at this point?

Chapter Text

~Time????~

Time was loose at best, but home was its own kind of constant. Bunnyx flipped through the book of rules. It was terribly worn out, so she’d arrived fairly late in the time stream. Her name was still in it like they’d promised. She flipped through to rule 27.

She still had an emergency partner. It wasn’t Marinette anymore, she was paired off with the Kagami girl she’d met a few jumps ago.

Bunnyx lowered her head to the desk and sighed softly. Keeping track of time was hard.

The light came on.

She looked up, scowling at Plagg.

He stood in the hallway, arms crossed. “If you’re home, at least go to sleep. It’s 1 AM.”

“Its noon bunny time.”

Plagg let out a long sigh, opening the fridge and pulling out a bundle of carrots. “You’re younger than last time I saw you. How old are you now?”

“Ten.”

“That explains things. How long have we known each other?”

“A few days.”

“You already use the rule book as a time anchor?”

She nodded, flipping through. “You invent rule 27 just in time, you know that?”

“Which one is rule 27?” he asked, pulling a bundle of carrots out of the fridge. “The one about your bed never moving?”

“No,” she said. “The Separation Clause.”

Plagg smiled, carrots in hand. “We did, didn’t we?”

Bunnyx stretched, letting out a hum of approval. “Speaking of timing, I’m just doing a time scan. I want to get a jist of the timeline.” To see if Tikki really meant what she said. “You didn’t leave a note when you moved.”

“Older you was there,” Plagg said. “We didn’t know that you wouldn’t know.”

“I almost didn’t find the new house.”

Plagg handed her the carrots. “You—“

A wail caught both their attentions.

“A baby?” Bunnyx snapped.

“You were there for the delivery,” said Plagg, gesturing for her to follow as he went toward the nursery. “It just hasn’t happened to you yet.”

She followed. “What date did you move?”

“Jan 10, 20XX.”

“WHO SHRUNK BUNNYX?!”

Bunnyx whipped around. A transformed boy in a black cat suit stood below the skylight, Ladybug peaking down from the roof.

“I have to get baby,” said Plagg, continuing to the nursery and leaving them in the hall. “But this is Bunnyx’s first time through time. Show her around.”

“Oh,” said Ladybug, sliding down her yo yo rope. “Good to see you. Welcome to the new house.”

Bunnyx was staring at the cat boy, eyes wide as his costume faded. “Who’re you?”

Adrien looked confused, glancing at Marinette for help. “Adrien?” They’d worked together a dozen or so times by now. “Haven’t we met?”

“She’s younger than then,” said Marinette. “This might be her first time meeting you— you remember, she’d met you before when you first met her.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, frowning as he tried to untangle that knot of time. Slowly, he lit up with understanding and held his hand out to shake Bunnyx’s. “Nice to meet you, I’m Adrien and Chat Noir.”

Bunnyx didn’t shake his hand. Her arms were crossed. “So, you’re Ladybug’s emergency buddy?”

“Yup,” Adrien said, beaming with pride. “And her partner.”

“I thought you work with Noraneko exclusively,” Bunnyx sassed. “You wouldn’t let me help you.”

“Do you have the watch?”

“What watch?”

“You can’t control your powers yet,” said Marinette. “Once you can, I’ll be happy to work with you. I promise. We do work together eventually. You were here earlier today.”

Bunnyx’s eyes narrowed. “Doubt it. You’re just saying that because you don’t want me to cause trouble.”

Marinette sighed, remembering Bunnyx’s rebellious phase. She aged out of order to the timeline, so she’d gone through it just before Adrien arrived. Apparently that had been the most stable time to be moody teen in their family. Older Bunnyx said she had needed to make room for Adrien to be a moody teen instead.

“Will you be sticking around?” Marinette asked. She’d rarely seen Bunnyx this young. Even back when she first joined the family, she’d done a two year time jump and come back.

Maybe it was time for those two years.

“No,” said Bunnyx. “I’m just scanning time.” She held out her hand and a blue disk appeared. “And I can control my jumps perfectly, thank you.”

“Just be careful,” said Marinette. Adrien nodded seriously behind her.

Bunnyx rolled her eyes and expanded the disk, stepping through it without a goodbye, still clutching Plagg’s carrots.

It almost looked like Tikki had meant it.

The family was always going to be there for her.