Chapter Text
His parents had always told him that opening Christmas presents early was bad luck, but Félix didn’t believe in those things. But he’d have to be quick and pick something inconspicuous to satisfy his curiosity. There was an enormous amount of gifts, mostly from famous people across the country, so one tiny gift would not be missed. And luckily, he found one addressed to him, a small box wrapped in black paper. He snatched it and scurried back to his room.
It was a ring.
Not something very special, or very valuable for that matter. Just a black ring whose jewel was shaped as a cat. He absentmindedly put it on, and that’s when the Thing appeared.
“I’m hungry. Do you have any food?”
Félix looked at the small black creature, too large to be a bug but too small to be anything else. It had small green eyes and seemed to have whiskers .
“I’m sorry, but what are you?”
“Oh, introductions. I am a mythical being called a kwami , and my name is Plagg. Now, do you have any food? Cheese, preferably?”
“I’ll go get some.”
Félix went downstairs, careful not to wake anyone, to get some cheese. “I’m sorry,” he said when he came back to Plagg, “I could only find camembert, I’m not sure if you - ”
“My favorite!” Plagg said. He shoved the whole thing in his mouth. “You and I are going to work great together! Just as long as there’s cheese.” He munched on the cheese and swallowed. “Oh, by the way, we’re going to be fighting supervillains. Hopefully it’s not anytime soon.”
“I’m thirteen. I can’t be fighting anything right now.”
“Well, you will be.”
Félix was not amused. “You’re connected to this ring?” He asked. Plagg nodded enthusiastically. “Fine. I’ll just - ”
But he couldn’t take the ring off.
“Oh yeah. Forgot to mention, it’s cursed. Ha!”
“Listen here, you little bug.”
“ Kwami! ”
“Whatever. If you don’t stop fooling around and take this thing off me, you’ll be sorry you ever came. I don’t know who sent you here but - ”
“Look, kid, you’ve been chosen by the Guardian to protect London. It’s not an honor that can be passed up.”
“I don’t even know what any of that means.”
“You will, soon. But right now I’m tired. You won’t mind if I take a nap, right?” But evidentially Plagg didn’t care if Félix minded, because he plopped down on his desk, underneath a book.
“One more thing,” Plagg said, “You can’t tell anyone about this ring, or me, or your new superpowers, once all that happens. It’s security stuff.” Plagg dropped off into his nap, leaving Félix alone to try to find a way to take off the ring.
Félix couldn’t take off the ring, and no amount of soap or rubber bands or pliers would help. He was stuck in the grasp of this kwami. He was silently cursing himself for looking at his Christmas presents early, as if Plagg’s curse wasn’t enough. And Plagg’s curse was bad.
It seemed that suddenly, bad luck followed Félix everywhere he went. Upon entering the living room, the Christmas lights on the tree went out. The dinner, made by the finest chefs a highly distinguished movie producer could afford, spilled over the grand tablecloth, and over Félix’s nice suit. It didn’t help that Plagg insisted Félix smuggle some camembert for him. Such a smelly food was not nice to have in one’s coat pocket. He was ready for the day to end. And finally, carrying his warm mug of milk to his room, he was ready for bed.
A few days later, trouble began.
It was night. As Félix was about to drop off to sleep, he heard a large crash, but figured, whatever it was, would be handled by the police.
“Come on! It’s time to transform!” Plagg said, racing out of Félix’s coat pocket.
“Is that the villain I’m supposed to fight?” Plagg had been giving him a few bits of information every day, whenever he remembered to tell them.
“Yes, Hawkmoth. He stole the Butterfly Miraculous”
“A butterfly?”
“Yes.”
“London’s biggest enemy is a butterfly ?”
“Yes! Stop asking so many questions, we have to hurry before things get bad. Say, ‘Plagg, claws out!’”
“That’s weird.”
“Just do it!”
He did, and lots of things happened at once. He only just noticed Plagg being swept within the ring. Green light swirled before his eyes, and before he knew it, he was holding a silver stick and was dressed in a leather black cat suit, with a large golden bell at the collar, a belt with a silver cat icon, and thigh high boots.
“What are these boots?”
“Stop complaining about the fashion and go fight!” Plagg said, from within the ring.
Félix leaped out of the window, pleased with his new superhuman dexterity. He pounced on a nearby railing much like a cat, and climbed up to the top of a roof. There was a bright full moon in the distance, so the area was nicely lit. A bit off, in the light of the moon, he saw a silhouette of someone else on a roof.
“Who’s that?” Félix asked Plagg.
“That’s your partner.” He responded.
“What if I decide to work alone?”
“Bad choice. She’s the only way you can get rid of the curse.”
“How?”
“You must get a lucky kiss from her.”
Félix grimaced. “That’s by far the weirdest thing you’ve said all day.”
“Hey, I don’t make the rules.”
Félix made his way to meet the girl. She noticed him and went towards him too.
“Hello,” Félix said, trying to make a good impression, “Who are you?”
“I’m, uh, I’m a ladybug.” the girl said, looking at her outfit. She had a suit similar to Félix’s, except it was red with black dots, and had a golden beaded belt and a spotted yo-yo at her waist. And she didn’t have thigh high boots.
“Well that’s not fair.” Félix thought to himself. Aloud he said, “Nice to meet you, Ladybug. I’m Cat Noir.”
“Ooh, fancy.” She smiled, and Félix thought it was a wonderful smile.
“Do you know where that crash came from?” he asked her.
“I think it’s from that park. There was a huge crowd of pigeons flying from there.”
“Pigeons? First the butterfly guy, and now,
pigeons
? This villain doesn’t seem so scary.”
“Well, however scary he is, he still needs to be stopped.”
They ran to the park, and saw their culprit. He was in a curious outfit, a gray and pink suit which went around his head. He had a wild expression on his face.
“Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Now my sweet birds, our fight begins!” he said.
“Is this Hawkmoth? I thought he’d be more of a butterfly kind of guy,” Félix, now called Cat Noir, said.
“No, I am Mr. Pigeon.”
“How creative.”
“Now give me your miraculous!”
“Miraculous? What’s that?”
“It’s the jewelry your kwami came in.” Ladybug explained. “Come on, we need to regroup to plan our attack.” She bounded off on the rooftops.
“After them!” Mr. Pigeon ordered his pigeons, and a huge flock started chasing them.
“What’s your plan, Ladybug?” Cat Noir asked her.
“We need to free his akuma. It’s supposed to be a butterfly trapped in something he has. Once we break it, I’ll purify it. Then the miraculous ladybugs will fix the mess the akuma made. And then we can go home. The only thing we have left to plan is how we’re going to get the akuma, and where it is.”
“How did he get the akuma anyway?”
“My kwami told me it’s something to do with negative emotions. Hawkmoth uses those emotions to create supervillains in hopes that they’ll be able to defeat us and take our miraculous.”
“He’ll have a hard time getting mine.”
“How so?”
Cat Noir wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell Ladybug about his curse. How would she handle knowing his only cure was a lucky kiss from her, someone that she just met a few minutes ago? He wouldn’t call himself a love expert, but he had enough sense to understand no one wanted to kiss someone they just met, and definitely not a forced kiss for that matter.
“I’m not going to let him get it,” he said instead, “I have the power of destruction.”
“Oh, that’ll come in really handy for defeating the akuma. We’re going to make a great team, Cat Noir.”
He smiled in agreement. So far, so good. He’d have her falling for him in no time.
“Hello again, my dear friends,” the voice of Mr. Pigeon came from behind them. “I hope I am not intruding.” He was being carried by his flying pigeons, so that he was standing in mid air.
“Actually, we were just waiting for you.” Cat Noir said. Mr. Pigeon sent his flock of birds to peck at Ladybug and Cat Noir. Ladybug took her yo-yo and began to spin it, effectively creating a forcefield to protect them from the pecks. Cat spun his stick to create the same effect.
“What now?” he asked her.
“I think it may be in his seed bag,” she said in a whisper. “Look, he’s feeding them with it.”
“We need to get it out of his hands somehow.”
“First, we need to deal with the birds. I got it! You take over for a second. I’ll distract the birds, and you get the bag and destroy it.” She stopped spinning her yo-yo and said, “Lucky Charm!”
A swirl of ladybugs (which seemed to funnel from the sky) appeared, and then left as quickly as they came. In her hands, Ladybug held a bird feeder, red with black dots.
“Here, pigeons!” she called, “I have some snacks for you!”
“No!” cried Mr. Pigeon, “Don’t listen to her, my birdies, she’s trying to distract you!”
Pigeons were never the brightest kind of birds, at least not when there was food involved. Mr. Pigeon's army left him to follow the new source of food, leaving him standing on a rooftop.
“I’m not done with you,” he said in disgust, “I’ll take you out, kitty.”
But Cat Noir was ready. He leaped out of Mr. Pigeon’s reach and got him to chase him. As Mr. Pigeon was up at full speed, he quickly pounced on a darkly lit balcony, holding his stick so that it would trip the pigeon man as he ran. Just as he expected, Mr. Pigeon fell, and in the process dropped the seed bag.
“Cataclysm!” Cat Noir said, activating his power. He could see a black aura surrounding his hand, which proved it was working. A simple touch, and the bag disintegrated, and from its ashes came a dark purple butterfly.
“No more evil-doing for you, little akuma,” Ladybug, who had just come back, said. She opened her yo-yo and caught the butterfly in it. “It’s time to be purified!” And after she swung the yo-yo, she opened it up.
“Bye bye, little butterfly,” she said as the butterfly, now white, flew away.
“That was awesome.” Cat Noir said.
“That was awesome.” Ladybug responded, “I’m so glad we’re a team. I’d be terrified to do this all alone.”
“Me too. I don’t know how Superman does it. Must be a lonely life.”
“Yeah. We’re more like Batman and Red Robin.”
“The colors even match!”
They laughed, but then heard some high pitched beeping.
“We’d better go home now.” Ladybug said, “We’re going to transform back soon!”
She waved, and leaped across the rooftops. Her silhouette bounded in the light of the full moon.