Chapter Text
“Tikki, power up!” Marinette called, tossing Tikki a lime-green macaron. Her kwami swallowed the thing whole before sprouting little fangs and glistening wings—which were surprisingly adorable on the typically harmless little bug. “Jungle Tikki, spots on!” Marinette cried, and caught a brief glimpse of her reflection in the almost-fully-overgrown bathroom mirror before she flexed her new claws and slashed through the vines that were threatening to turn her quick-change-hideaway into a jail cell.
“I could get used to this!” Chat Noir chuckled as he exited the men’s restroom, now equally powered-up. “Take a look, Ladybug!” He flashed a wide grin at her and ran his tongue over his enhanced canines. Marinette would be lying if she said he wasn’t attractive—the jungle power-up had turned him into a black-and-forest-green spotted jaguar, with a thicker tail, fangs, and (Marinette swallowed hard), fuller muscles. There was only one way to prevent herself from fawning too much over her suddenly-ripped partner—flirt back.
She tossed her loose curls over her shoulder, releasing her new antennae to roll up. She was already recognizing electrical signals from them—she knew precisely where the sentimonster had wandered despite still being in the Metro station several blocks away, but nevermind that now. She flexed her muscles, and in a display of foolhardy one-upmanship, she spun a hundred and eighty degrees and arched her back so her iridescent wings unfurled right in Chat’s stunned face. “Yeah,” she giggled, “I see what you mean. I’ll have to thank Wayzz for the new power-up!”
Ladybug effortlessly beat her wings and they picked her up off the ground. She heard Chat Noir moan from behind her, “She gets wings? No fair!”
Marinette released her transformation as she dropped through the skylight into her bedroom. A bedraggled Tikki flopped on her bed with an exhausted little smile. “Tikki, that was amazing! That jungle power-up was something else! Flying? And those antennae? Wow!” Marinette tossed a strawberry macaron to Tikki and slid down the handrail of the stairs to the lower level of her room. She pulled the oval miracle box out of its hiding place and opened it up. Marinette touched the turtle bracelet and a green flash of light brought Wayzz out.
“Good evening, Master!” he bowed to her.
“Wayzz, how many times do I have to ask you just to call me Marinette?”
He smiled, “Is that an order?”
“Definitely not!”
“Then, Master, I trust the power-up was successful?”
Marinette rolled her eyes but smiled, “It was fantastic. Thank you for your help with the untranslated sections of the grimoire.”
Tikki was fully recharged now and flew down to give Wayzz a hug. “You know, there are some benefits of being the kwami of the Master,” she said. “Like getting to see my friends a lot more often.” Marinette smiled, but flopped on her chaise with a sigh. “What’s the matter, Marinette?” Tikki squeaked.
“I’m really grateful for the power-up, but that was still a really tough battle—harder by far than any other sentimonster attack we’ve had in the past. Harder even than the Ladybug clone Mayura sent at Chat Noir that one time. What does that mean? Is it going to be like this again? Should I recruit more people or look into more power-ups?” Marinette’s voice was accelerating and lifting in pitch.
“It’s ok, Marinette, just take a breath!” Tikki consoled.
“Well,” Wayzz—ever the pragmatist—pitched in unhelpfully, “she’s not wrong. Mayura has grown considerably stronger, ever since Ladybug became the guardian.”
“Wait, is it my fault?” Marinette wailed.
“Of course not!” Tikki hissed, glaring at Wayzz.
“Not directly!” Wayzz pressed on. Marinette bit her lip, which had started quivering.
“It is? What did I do wrong?”
“Marinette, relax. Wayzz, shut up. Mayura’s stronger because the peacock Miraculous is stronger.”
If that was supposed to help Marinette relax, it wasn’t working. She sat bolt upright and cupped Tikki in her hands. “What in the world do you mean? The last time we saw Mayura was during that horrible battle with Miracle Queen. She was attacking Master Fu with a huge sentimonster. But she collapsed and Hawkmoth escaped with her—even Chat Noir couldn’t track them down. Then, we don’t see her for months. Suddenly, she’s back and the sentimonster is… well…”
Tikki shuddered, “I know, it was horrible.”
“So, what do you mean Mayura’s stronger?”
Wayzz and Tikki shared a meaningful look, before Wayzz started explaining, “You remember Master Fu’s story of when he lost the peacock and the moth Miraculous at the temple in Tibet all those years ago? Well, the peacock Miraculous was damaged.”
“What? How?”
“I’m not sure. There’s several things that can damage a Miraculous—Plagg’s cataclysm, forcing a kwami to join with a different Miraculous or a different piece of jewelry, combining or misusing power-ups, or if a kwami is ill when a user transforms, etcetera. I don’t know if the peacock Miraculous was damaged when Master Fu used it, but I do know that the next time it was used, it was in bad shape.”
Marinette’s face was full of concern, “What happens to you if you use a damaged Miraculous?”
“Nothing good,” Wayzz pondered, stroking his little chin. “That is probably why Mayura collapsed in the first place.”
“Wow,” Marinette gasped, getting to her feet and starting pacing. “But if she’s doing better now, what does that mean?”
Wayzz’s eyes twitched nervously, “I believe Mayura and Hawkmoth figured out how to repair her Miraculous.”
Marinette looked at her computer, where she carefully stored all the images of the grimoire and Master Fu’s translations. “But, only a Master can translate the grimoire, and the grimoire’s the only place that explains how to repair a Miraculous or heal a kwami!”
Wayzz looked worried, “That is true, Master, but Master Fu only got the grimoire when you brought it to him, from—”
“From Gabriel Agreste, yes, I know. I know he still has the book, but he doesn’t know what it is or how to read it. He just thinks it’s full of neat pictures of superheroes.”
“That may be true, but we can’t be certain what happened to the hard copy after you returned it to Monsieur Agreste. He may have given it away or sold it. And that’s not even considering the computer files Master Fu saved of all the images and translations he made. I tried to convince him to keep a secure vault for his work, but he insisted that computers were the way of the future. He put a password on his account, but…”
“Do you think that Hawkmoth was able to hack into Master Fu’s computer and steal the files?” Marinette gasped.
Wayzz shrugged, “Anything’s possible. But if what happened today in any indication, the peacock Miraculous has been repaired and Mayura is back to full strength.”
Marinette flopped on her chaise again. “Goody,” she grumbled. “Just what I need. Two fully grown supervillains. Two full-strength Miraculouses to track down and defeat.” Marinette flipped over and pounded her forehead into the pillow on the chaise. “How am I going to do this?”
“There there,” Wayzz tried. “When Master Fu couldn’t figure out the solution to a problem, he would drink some herbal tea and meditate. Why don’t you try sitting cross-legged on the floor while I count off breathing exercises?”
Marinette glared at him. “That’s hardly helpful, Wayzz. Tikki! What should I do?” Marinette looked around the room, but didn’t see Tikki right away. Finally, she spotted the red kwami sitting on the shoulder of Marinette’s dress form, with her back to the two of them. “Tikki?” Marinette repeated, “Is everything alright?”
Tikki turned to look at Marinette and wiped tears from her face. “Oh yes, of course everything’s—”
“Tikki! I’m sorry, what did I say?”
Tikki chuckled, “Nothing, nothing. You’re totally fine, Marinette. It’s just… I’m having a hard time being upset at Hawkmoth and Mayura repairing the Peacock Miraculous.”
Marinette’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “A hard time… being upset… you’re happy about the Peacock Miraculous being back up to full strength?”
Tikki flew to Marinette’s knee. “It’s just that… I care about the kwami, you know? They’re my friends. Oh, I’m angry enough at Hawkmoth and Mayura and what they’re doing. Nobody hurts this city and gets away with it! I’ll fight them as long as it takes! But Nooroo and Duusu… I’m just happy they’re together and that Duusu doesn’t have to endure the pain of loneliness that comes from having a damaged Miraculous.”
Marinette looked between Wayzz and Tikki, “Ok, explain.”
Wayzz huffed, “When a kwami’s Miraculous is damaged, they can’t connect with any other kwami. I don’t mean they can’t see other kwami or talk to other kwami—they can do that superficially, but some of us are connected with each other more fundamentally.”
“Oh Wayzz, you make it sound so boring,” Tikki whined. “It’s really very special.”
Marinette gulped, “You mean, like… like…” she couldn’t get her mouth to say what her brain was thinking—it was too embarrassing.
“It’s not like human love, Marinette,” Tikki responded, reading her chosen’s mind. “The connections kwami have with each other are eternal and deep. You have your romance and love, we have something more… more special than that.”
Marinette scoffed, “More special than love?”
Wayzz rolled his eyes, “We wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
Tikki puffed out her chest, “Now now, Wayzz, Marinette understands a lot more of this than even Master Fu did.”
“Yeah,” Marinette urged, “give me a chance.”
Wayzz sighed, “Nooroo and Duusu have been a companionship from the very beginning. They are stronger together, they are happier together, and they find each other wherever they are.”
“Do all kwami have a companion?” Marinette asked.
“No,” Wayzz shook his head. “Though we all do enjoy being with each other. Kwami are always stronger together than apart.”
“How about you, Wayzz?”
The little turtle looked indignant, “I am happy serving my chosen and the Masters of the Miracle Box.”
Tikki turned away from Marinette, and that’s when Marinette began to understand why her kwami had been crying a moment earlier. “But you have a companion, don’t you, Tikki.”
Tikki shrugged and looked away, “It’s something we don’t try to talk about often.”
“Why not? If it makes you stronger and happier and all that, why don’t you want to share that with the world?”
“Because we can’t always be together, and I would never want you to feel pressured into being with the holder of another Miraculous if it wasn’t what you wanted. See, if we’re to fully connect with our companion, we need to be physically close, as well as emotionally and spiritually. The magic only works when we’re together at almost all times. Say what you will about Hawkmoth and Mayura; Nooroo and Duusu deserve happiness, and I know they’ve found it at last.”
“That’s definitely true,” Marinette pondered, but then she tenderly scooped Tikki up in her hands and stroked her kwami’s head. “Tikki, who’s your companion?”
Tikki shook her head and looked away. “I won’t do it. That’s too special, too close to my heart.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out, though. “It’s Plagg, right?”
Tikki stiffened in Marinette’s loose grip and started crying again. Marinette knew she was right. “Please don’t do anything about this, Marinette. Please just let it go.”
Wayzz flew over to console Tikki. Marinette knew instantly that she’d make no such promise. There had to be a way for Plagg and Tikki to have the connection time they needed. In the eighteen months since Marinette had become Ladybug, Tikki had never asked for anything. She’d always been incredibly supportive of Marinette and had listened to her chosen ramble on and on about Adrien, even though she knew that meant at least one human lifetime of being away from her companion kwami. The mere thought pained Marinette—why hadn’t Tikki brought this up sooner? Tikki’s self-sacrificing nature was sweet, but to another self-sacrificing soul, it was hard to accept.
Marinette got up, cleaned her room for a bit, then left the kwami alone while she went downstairs for supper with her parents. She watched her mother and father lovingly set the table and lay out the meal. She listened to the way they talked about their day, their little personal jokes, the way they reminded each other what was on the upcoming schedule. She watched their faces as they looked at each other and Marinette smiled. Her parents had always been a great example of love and commitment, and she wanted to find someone, someday, that she could have the same connection with. She’d always hoped that person would be Adrien, but if she was going to stay as Ladybug and stay the guardian for any length of time, Marinette suddenly realized that she was going to need a very close relationship with Chat Noir—for Tikki’s sake. It didn’t have to be love, Marinette promised herself fiercely. But she needed to get to know Chat Noir better. She needed to learn his ups and downs. She needed to make inside jokes that the two of them could laugh at. And most of all, she needed to get comfortable enough that they could be in the same building when he wasn’t transformed (she pushed away the thought of sharing identities—don’t get ahead of yourself, Marinette!) so that Tikki and Plagg could connect… whatever that meant.
Marinette thought about Chat Noir’s lame jokes and goofy demeanor and all the times he goofed off during a battle. This wasn’t going to be easy. Then she remembered his softer side—the way he always encouraged her and was there for her (and an unexpected vision of his full muscles and jaguar spots flashed through her memories)… she could handle it. For Tikki and Plagg? She’d figure something out.