Chapter Text
A lazy morning at home. (A continuation of Tikki's Home.)
Tikki gave a contented sigh as she slowly drifted awake, comfy and warm and cocooned in soft blankets on her little bed. This was wonderful. She was as snug as a bug.
Tikki giggled to herself at her little joke and realised that if she found that funny then she was clearly still half asleep. She made a note to tell Plagg the next time she spoke to him. He'd like that joke.
She toyed with the idea of rolling over and going back to sleep like the snuggly bug she was. It seemed really early. Too early to be awake. It was barely light around her and a quick glance at her wall-clock, the tiny face of a wristwatch mounted on her bedroom wall, revealed it was barely an hour after sunrise.
Definitely too early.
Tikki snuggled further into her blanket cocoon, determined to drift back to sleep. It was very early, Marinette was still asleep and snoring softly just outside of her hidden home, and there was nothing urgent to do today. It was the perfect morning to go back to sleep.
Unfortunately her stomach disagreed.
She was just on the verge of falling back into her dreams when her stomach made itself known. A nasty akuma yesterday meant that her energy stores were still low and her stomach wanted cookies. And it wanted them now!
“I’m getting worse than Plagg,” Tikki grumbled to herself.
She gave up on the idea of sleep and reluctantly rolled out of her cocoon of blankets and set about straightening the bedsheets. This set was new, a beautiful soft ombre cotton set fading from a pale rose to a deep burgundy, and she wanted to look after it properly. Tikki finished piling the tiny scatter cushions back onto the bed and stepped away to admire her work.
Tikki really loved this bedding. Marinette had been serious when she said that she would help Tikki make this home her own, and that anything she wanted to do would be done. No sooner had Tikki admitted to liking this fabric, then Marinette was dyeing, cutting, and sewing it into bedding for her. It was the same with her wall-clock. She had barely asked the question before Marinette had her phone out and they were shopping for a wristwatch.
Tikki adored their final choice. A pale pink surround with bright red and pink blooms in the middle of the clock face. It was so pretty and cheery and it fit the style of her home perfectly.
Bed made, Tikki walked downstairs to the living room, barely concealing a yawn.
Under the living room window was a small tupperware box containing a handful of miniature cookies.
That had been one of Tikki’s ideas. Unlike her Chosen, who was decidedly a night owl, Tikki didn’t mind the mornings. More often than not that meant she was up before Marinette. On those mornings she didn’t want to have to accidentally or deliberately interrupt Marinette’s sleep to get her breakfast, so early on in their partnership she had asked Marinette to leave a cookie or two out for her. Now that Tikki had her own home, they changed it from a few cookies on the desk to a tiny tupperware box. Every night, Marinette would take the box and wash it out before filling it up with cookies, mini cookies, and oddly shaped bakery rejects, ready for breakfast in the morning.
Tikki was delighted to see a few triple chocolate cookies in there - her current favourite - and eagerly pulled them out. A few taps of her little paws had her phone open and ready to resume the nature documentary she had been watching before bed last night.
“This is the life.”
Tikki gave a happy sigh and sat back on her little sofa, eating her breakfast, and cooing at the wild kittens on screen. What a perfect lazy morning this was. She was so lucky to have been paired with Marinette.
Falling at the First Hurdle. (A discarded scene.)
Marinette puzzled over where in her room she could possibly hide a doll’s house. If she couldn’t find a suitable location then she would have to give up on the house idea and try something else to keep Tikki safe.
The only place in her room where Manon wasn’t allowed was up on her loft bed - she had been banned ever since the time she had nearly fallen trying to climb out of the roof hatch - but Alya was up there all the time. She couldn’t hide a house from Alya up there, unless…
Quietly, so as not to disturb the slumbering kwami, Marinette climbed up to her loft bed and shuffled towards the back wall.
Right above her bed she had a little recessed alcove where she kept some of her favourite books, a few nick-nacks and a little moon and stars lamp. Her parents had installed it when they'd decided to raise the level of the bed in the attic room to give her more floor space. It was more convenient than trying to somehow build a little table next to the bed.
It was also perfect for a little doll's house.
She climbed down to her desk, grabbed her tape measure, a notebook, and pencil, and hurried up the stairs again. Working quickly and quietly, she removed everything from the alcove and carefully measured every single centimetre. She double and triple checked her figures, hardly daring to hope that this would work.
“It’s perfect,” she breathed, finally starting to get excited about this project. “It’s absolutely perfect for a little kwami house!”
She could just see Tikki's happy face when Marinette produced the house for her. If she could keep the whole thing a secret then it would be even-
“A what now?”
Marinette shrieked and flailed her hands, sending her notebook and pencil flying, as she stared in horror at her kwami - at her very wide-awake kwami - on the giant cat plushie.
Tikki had a look of utter shock on her little face. “Did you… are you making me a house?” she squeaked.
Well, that was one way to tell her. “Uh… yes?”
The resulting squeal could have shattered glass and Marinette had to wrap her hand around Tikki’s mouth to shut her up while she apologised profusely to her parents for having the sound on her TV up too loud and disturbing them.