Chapter Text
ScorpionQueen is Online
Mr.AlicePresents is Online
OneStuntAway is Online
MyInkisBlood is Online
ScorpionQueen has changed name of chat to ‘New School or Not?’
ScorpionQueen: Alright, no time to get into it, but I assume everyone already knows their roles for this upcoming school year? I will be offline for the next week and want to make sure everything does not go to hell.
ScorpionQueen: Again
Mr.AlicePresents: Don’t worry Queenie, it won’t, and if nothing else, I can go to one of the backups, even if it means not being able to attend school with everyone.
OneStuntAway: Don’t worry SQ! I have the list and seating charts all arranged, and I talked to the P.E. and Fencing teachers to keep their guards up just in case.
MyInkisBlood: I’m still in the back, right?
ScorpionQueen: …
OneStuntAway: …
ScorpionQueen: *sigh* yes, you are still in the back
MyInkisBlood: :)
MyInkisBlood is Offline
ScorpionQueen: Was he seriously waiting for that? Good Luck you two.
ScorpionQueen is Offline
OneStuntAway: Well, guess I better make sure everything is ready, will see you soon!
OneStuntAway is Offline
Mr.AlicePresents: ….
Mr.AlicePresents: ….
Mr.AlicePresents: *sigh* I guess I’ll leave too.
Mr.AlicePresents is Offline
——
Swallowing back disappointment, Adrien peeked around a tree, looking around for any sign of the Gorilla or Nathalie.
Taking his chance he sprinted towards the school, the sound of tires squealing meeting his ears and he put on a burst of speed.
Only for a groan to catch his ears, and turning around, he caught sight of an elderly man struggling to get up, his cane on the ground and out of his reach.
Not even hesitating, he ran to the man, helping him up and handing him his cane.
“Are you alright?” he stepped back as the man gathered himself, balancing himself on his cane.
“Yes, thank-you,” and the guy just walked away, as if he hadn’t been on the ground struggling to get up a moment before. Adrien blinked after him, letting out a breath and ignoring how his hands shook.
It was fine, he was just helping an elderly citizen up, nothing else happened, even if something about the guy rubbed him the wrong way.
“Right,” already knowing what would greet him, his shoulder still dropped at the sight of Nathalie and the Gorilla blocking the entrance, the cold, stern expression of Father’s secretary telling him that she would not be budged at all.
Sighing, he followed them to the car, stiffening at Nathalie’s hand on his shoulder as she none too gently pushed him into the back seat, taking a seat across from him. Instead of taking out her tablet or calling his father like he thought, she kept her gaze on him the whole ride back to the house.
It was kind of unnerving, and he really wished that she had sat in the front or at least on the other side of the limo.
Not right across where he could feel her heel covered feet against his own.
A voice inside him screamed that she was close, too close, and he avoided her gaze, hands clenched against his sides as he tried to drown out the discomfort.
Discomfort he knew that she was aware of, but she did not care, not at all, no one in the Agreste household did.
Not anymore.
Fingers appeared in his vision and he flinched back, for a moment it looked like wrinkled fingers adorned with expensive jewelry and clear but clawed nails. Then the image shattered as Natalie opened the door and gestured for him to get out first. Avoiding that cold, blank gaze, he waited for her to walk ahead of him, and for the Gorilla to disappear to pull away with the car towards the garage.
Adrien struggled to calm himself, taking several deep breaths and reminding himself that it was fine, everything was fine. If Natalie noticed his state she said nothing, approaching the front door with tablet in hand, not even looking at him but at the door.
Where Father was standing.
Huh, so the guy actually left his office for this.
Adrien almost felt honored.
“These childish games must end,” Gabriel Agreste stared him down, face as always displaying his disdain and displeasure with Adrien’s actions, “You are to head towards your room without lunch and think about your actions. We may have let it slide in the past but not this time,” the man turned his back, Adrien closed his eyes, counting to ten as he braced himself for the next sentence, “Do not forget the pain you caused your mother with these stunts,” there it was.
No matter how many times he heard it, Adrien still flinched back, and he knew Father caught it before he disappeared back into his office.
“Adrien” Nathalie tried to talk to him, but he just bowed his head and went to his room, looking for all the world like an abashed kid.
The moment the door shut behind him, the sadness disappeared and Adrien gritted his teeth, tears in his eyes.
“What’s so wrong about wanting to go to school,” he whispered, going to the couch and burying his head into his knees.
Anger and shame warred within him, anger from his father’s words and shame from the mention of his mother.
Because hadn’t he put her through a lot? Going off on his own despite her wishes for him to be kept safe. Ignored her constant pleas to remain in the house, accept the homeschooling and the modeling work as necessary.
Sniffing, he lifted his head and bent over the couch, trailing his hand along the seem before finding an opening and taking out a sleek black phone that was a different model given to him for his ‘modeling work’.
Turning on the screen, he went straight to the apps, clicking on the icon for messages and frowning when he didn’t see any new ones.
His thumbs hovered over the names, one in particular, and when he clicked on it he winced, seeing the time stamp of the last message and the anger in those words.
“I couldn’t make it to the school today,” he typed into the bar, before erasing it, “H-how’s everything?” he erased that as well, trying to find the words but feeling that ugly feeling welling up in him, and he wasn’t sure if it was anger or guilt.
Feeling hopeless, he dropped the phone and turned on the news, only for the remote to slip from his fingers as he gaped at the screen.
“Ok, what is going on?” then his eyes fell on a strange box he was pretty sure had not been there before. “Huh, what’s this?”
This is not what he expected after the failure this morning.
————————————————
There were several things that Plagg expected upon being released from the box.
Number One: His new wielder was an underage kid who would be excited at the prospect of becoming a hero without thinking of his future sacrifices of a normal life.
Number Two: The kid would be weary of him upon finding out what he represented and like other wielders before him, keep him shut in the box till he was ready to transform.
Number Three- Be too excited about the power and immediately fall into a Vigilante mindset to hunt down every wrongdoer sneaking through the night.
That one wielder had been weird.
Thankfully, or not, out of all three expectations, it was Number One that the kid unknowingly chose, the idea of being able to escape his house seemed very appealing to him. He didn’t flinch at Plagg’s introduction as the Kwami of Destruction, and Plagg didn’t detect any of that uneasiness he had found in some if not all of his previous holders.
The kid seemed sweet, if somewhat impatient, and Plagg felt somewhat bad but he already resolved himself into annoying the kid to keep some distance between them. Getting close to his wielders always ended in disaster, it was best if they just think of him as an annoyance.
Unfortunately the kid existed to contradict him, and Plagg found himself being shot out of the ring as soon as he was sucked back in.
Crashing into the couch with a grunt, he immediately flew up and turned to the blond to give him a piece of his mind when he paused.
“Kid?” the blond was on the ground, face buried in his knees and body shaking and Plagg felt alarmed at how pale the kid had become, “Hey,” the human was hugging himself, sharp breaths leaving him, too fast to be healthy and Plagg panicked.
“Adrien!” the blond jerked and Plagg let out a breath as glassy green eyes looked up at him.
“T-the,” licking his dry lips, Adrien stared at him, “T-the outfit, i-is i-it p-possible to c-change it?” that took the kwami aback.
“Change it?” his tone was surprised but the kid still flinched, looking away as if expecting rejection, for Plagg to get mad and yell at him. Any plan of telling the kid to suck it up flew out the window at those watery eyes; Plagg lamented his future plans and inwardly sighed, “Yeah, but I have to warn you kid, it will be very draining when you do detransform,” hope appeared in those eyes and Plagg cursed his Camembert soft heart, and prayed that Sugarcube never found out.
She would not be happy.
“Alright, here’s what you have to do, just pictur-” the tears had stopped and those human eyes were now focused on him, hanging on his every word. Plagg felt a bit off-kilter, trying not to think about how strange it was for someone to actually look to him instead of at him. For some reason he had the feeling that he wasn’t going to be able to do his usual lazing around with this kid.
Finally the kid went to transform but something occurred to him.
“Oh, what are we supposed to do about this ‘Akuma’ afterwards,” the question surprised him and he answered,
“Sugarcube’s wielder is supposed to capture and cleanse it, then use her Miraculous ability to restore all the damage. Just so you know,” he warned the kid, stopping him from transforming, “Your ability is a one-use thing, afterwards you only have five minutes. Make sure you detransform somewhere safe, because you are going to be drained and find it difficult to move for a while,” the blond nodded and Plagg let out a breath, relieved.
“Right, you know what to do,” green eyes glittered.
“Plagg, Claws Out!” and as he was sucked into the ring, Plagg caught a glimpse of the outfit the kid wanted and tried not to grimace, yeah the kid was definitely going to need to rest afterwards, and eat a lot. So will he, and even as his energy washed over the kid, he couldn’t help but muse about the kid’s reasons for choosing such an elaborate looking costume.
————
Adrien kept the image in his head, even as the black energy washed over him, he didn’t let it distract him from focusing on the outfit that he wanted. Another ring appeared to add more to the top, ending at his fingertips in black and green bandages overlapping one another, metal tips hidden in the nails. His pants had many pockets, ranging from one side to the other, and wrapping tightly around his ankle at the bottom even as combat boots rose up to cover them.
A green shirt appeared over his chest, covered with another black shirt, both with long open sleeves that nearly hung over his hands. Then a final layer appeared, black with green edges going over his shoulders and hanging over his lower thighs like a coat. All the layers were held together by a cloth wrapping around his middle, held by a green belt that wound around before hanging off the edge like a tail.
His blond hair lengthened and went past his shoulders, a green ribbon tying it back in a low ponytail, the gold bell from before much smaller and hanging from the ribbon, so that only two bangs hung over either side of his face. His mask appeared, and he kept it the same, apart from a green outline, and for the ears, instead of looking like leather, they resembled black jade with pointed green tips.
As soon as his transformation ended he jumped out the window, grabbing the staff and using it to propel himself over the rooftops. Excitement and jubilation taking over the fear and mortification of his previous reaction to the outfit away.
He really owed Plagg for letting him change it, even if it did mean delaying the confrontation with the stone monster. But there was no way he was going out into public with an outfit like that.
He nearly passed over a street when he spotted a red figure hanging upside down from a light, tangled up in what looked like a black thread attached to a yo-yo.
Huh, red with black spots, Plagg said his partnerf was wielding the ladybug miraculous right? Jumping on the light, he grabbed the yo-yo and disentangled it, slowly letting his new partner down who was blushing in mortification.
“You okay?” he asked as she took back her yo-yo, the wire retracting immediately.
“Yeah, just mortified about how clums” she looked up and trailed off, staring at him with wide eyes, he cleared his throat, feeling a little nervous as she looked to his ears, then to the rest of his body.
“Uh, up here,” at his sentence she shook her head, cheeks blazing.
“S-sorry! I-it’s just, your outfit looks way more detailed then mine,” she looked at her own skin tight suit with dismay and he felt for her, wincing at how it hugged her figure and trying not to imagine wearing an outfit like that.
At least his fencing outfit was padded, but the one time he tried wearing a gymnastics outfit he clawed himself out of it and threw it into a paper shredder.
Chloe had been pissed, before giving him his own personal brick fireplace to burn those kinds of clothes.
Huh, speaking of which, with the new line coming up he’ll need to gain access to the fireplace for all the clothes Father will no doubt make him wear.
Just the thought of what that man was going to make him wear sent shudders down his spine.
His mind returned to the present and he saw the slight envy in those blue eyes and the shame of wearing such an embarrassing outfit. Hm, maybe he could help her with that?
“Well, maybe your kwami will let you change it afterwards, mine let me,” she looked somewhat relieved at that, but before she could continue, the roar of the Akuma caught their attention, “After you m’lady,” he bowed and she gave him an embarrassed smile before throwing her yo-yo and taking off, he extended his staff and followed right after.
They tracked the Akuma to the stadium, targeting a boy whose name was Kim, if what he heard from the possessed person was right. He charged right in, grabbing the kid and bringing him out of the Akuma’s range,
“Who are you?” the guy was staring at him with wide eyes and for a moment, Adrien wasn’t sure how to respond, he hadn’t really thought up a name yet. He was a cat themed superhero, but what could he call himself? Ugh, he wished he had more time with this.
“Well, you can call me Chat Noir,” he jumped back in to deliver a hit to the Akuma, but immediately retreated when instead of falling back, it grew in size, “Oh come on, really?” it gets bigger everytime you hit it? He groaned, these kinds of villains were the worst in comics and shows. He looked around for his partner but couldn’t see her, maybe she was doing reconnaissance on where the akuma could be? He looked at the rock monster, searching their form and dodging their attacks as he examined them. All he saw was rock, no clothes or accessories, just a giant rock monster trying to grab him with his left hand, but not the right one.
Wait, he jumped on the golem’s arm and lunged at the closed fist, only for the arm to reach back and smack him across the stadium into a wall.
At least this suit absorbed the impact, he groaned, falling out of the imprint and nearly on his face as he took out his staff. He didn’t want to use Cataclysm, Stoneheart was a human being and there’s no telling what would happen. Plus if this fight got dragged out, not only would he end up detransformed, but in a weakened state in front of strangers, and he could kiss his superhero life goodbye. There’s got to be some way to make this Akuma keep still, or open his fist.
A yo-yo wrapped around his wrist, yanking him back towards the girl in red,
“Sorry for taking so long,” she apologized, still looking nervous.
He felt some annoyance that she’d been hiding and not doing any reconnaissance, but then again, this was her first day facing danger.
Adri- no Chat Noir wished he could say the same.
“I think the object is in that guy’s fist, but if I damage him he gets stronger, and I can’t use my power because it might end up causing the guy being possessed harm,” he wasn’t really sure, something to ask Plagg though. The girl looked surprised before nodding to herself,
“Then let’s see what my power tells us to do,” before he could ask what that meant, she threw her yo-yo into the air, calling out Lucky Charm, only for a wetsuit to appear in her hands.
“Well, that’s an,” he trailed off, “Interesting ability?” she gave him a sheepish smile before looking around the stadium, and he caught sight of a girl with reddish hair and green eyes watching them from near a water hose, phone camera out and pointed straight at them, an excited gleam in her eyes. Chat Noir didn’t have much time to contemplate it before the girl came up with a plan to deal with the Akuma.
Which involved throwing him right at it and getting captured in one of its hands. The grip was painful and Chat Noir resisted the urge to free himself with his staff as she pulled off the rest of her plan with the help of their watcher. A crumpled purple note fell to the floor and the girl broke it, freeing a purple butterfly that started to fly off.
But she didn’t try and catch it.
Alarmed, he called out to her, even as he fell to the ground while Stoneheart disappeared, revealing a teen around his age.
“Capture the Akuma! Your supposed to capture it!” she blanched and threw out her yo-yo, capturing it and cleansing it in quick succession, before grabbing the wet suit and on impulse threw it up with a call of ‘Miraculous Ladybug’, sending out a stream of ladybugs that swept over the city.
The girl ran up to them, all excited and babbling questions, but apart from introducing herself as Ladybug, his new partner had to leave quickly and Chat Noir left himself before the girl could drag him into an interview.
He did not do well with journalists, especially ones new to the field with a desire for a scoop.
No matter what.
—-
He took a secret route back to the mansion, slipping through the window and as soon as he detransformed, he fell over, every part of his body aching. It felt like he’d run a marathon with no water, and he whimpered at the empty feeling in his stomach.
“Ugh,” he groaned, followed by a groan from the black Kwami who was lying on his back, moaning about needing food. Struggling to his feet, Adrien stumbled over to pick Plagg up, setting him on his shoulder, and receiving no protest as he walked over to his bookshelf and pulled on a cooking book. There was a click before the bookcase opened, revealing a pantry filled with chips, protein bars, ramen, and other non-perishables that Adrien kept in case of emergency. There were also cases of water bottles, both flavored and non.
“Okay, I have rice cakes in different flavors,” he pulled out the chocolate ones for himself, offering one to Plagg but the kwami turned away, so he took one out and nibbled while looking at the other stuff, “I have ramen, fifty different varieties of chips,” he spotted one and grimaced, taking it out, “Including these Camembert ones that Chloe got me,” he felt more than saw the kwami perk up.
“Camembert?” Adrien blinked but popped open the bag, trying not to breath in the stench and leaned back while Plagg leaned forward, falling into the bag with a yelp.
“Um,” he glanced inside, “You okay?” munching sounds met his ears along with moans of satisfaction, and with a roll of his eyes, he carefully sit the bag down without jostling it too much. So Plagg liked Camembert huh?
While it served as a nice snack, he still thought about what else the kwami could eat.
Since he was a cat, maybe fish? Or some kind of seafood?
—
Camembert Chips were the best invention ever since Camembert itself, and Plagg was not going to change his mind, even if he told himself that seeing what other ‘snacks’ in Adrien’s pantry tasted like might annoy the kid.
Unfortunately he was still hungry, and the kid still somewhat pale from the energy drain, no doubt starving as well if the dishes he had brought in were any indication. The chefs seemed puzzled at his order, but he cited ‘skipping lunch’ and they didn’t say anything else before leaving.
Then the covers were removed and Plagg felt a bit puzzled, they were in France right?
“Not what I expected,” the kitten gave him a puzzled look, taking out some chopsticks and picking apart the fish on the plate, and Plagg tried to ignore how good it smelled. There was an entire course, from the fish on Adrien’s plate, to a bowl filled with different kinds of seafood in a stew, rice, a salad topped with grilled chicken, a loaf of brown bread already sliced, and a sweet smell underneath a different lid that hadn’t been removed yet.
“Well, I figured, since you are a cat kwami, that fish was best, you don’t eat it?” and there was the disappointed tone, Plagg twitched and swallowed, reminding himself of the plan that had been derailed earlier. He was supposed to be keeping his distance from the brat, and besides, he really didn’t need this other food, no matter how good it smelled.
“To be h-honest,” he choked out, because he wasn’t being honest at all, “I only eat one thing to restore my energy, all other food is meaningless,” blond eyebrows furrowed and he coughed, putting arrogance into his tone, “Do you have any Camembert? And I mean the real gooey stuff, not the chips, though if you have more of those I’ll gladly accept them,” the smell of the fish reached his nose and his stomach growled, his eye twitched, “Hahaha, even the mention of Camembert and I’m hungry! So, got any?” the kid leaned back and crossed his arms, eyes focused towards him, a serious expression on his face.
“You can only eat Camembert?” “And any other cheese if you don’t have any, but yes,” the chopsticks in the kid’s hands moved and the fish was dipped into a soup that was filled with oysters and shrimp and vegetables. Plagg’s eyes followed it unwillingly, trying to ignore the saliva in his mouth as the teen popped the piece of soaked fish into his mouth.
“So your body is only programmed to accept cheese as a power source?” “That is a weird way of saying it but yes,” “Your stomach cannot tolerate any other foods?” “Well tolerate is a strong word, but cheese is my one and only!” the kid had been picking the fish clean while asking him these questions, and Plagg watched the meat and soup disappear with some dismay. Even the chicken salad was being devoured, and the crunch of the brown bread made him almost scream (when was the last time he had bread?) Then the lid on the sweet smelling tray was removed and four skewers of fruit covered in syrup reached his nose.
‘It’s been forever since I had that’ he thought, then frowned, wait, he’d never had fruit on a stick.
Had he?
While he pondered whether he did have fruit at one point, only a quarter of the fish remained, and he watched in shock as the kid dumped it into the soup, setting the remains of his salad and the loaf of bread with two remaining fruit skewers on a separate tray.
Which he then proceeded to take to a trash can, opening the lid and tilting the bowl- what?!
“Woah, woah, what are you doing?” he flew over to the kid who gave him an innocent puzzled expression,
“Well, I am full, and leftovers aren’t really a thing in this place, so if you aren’t going to eat it,” Plagg watched the bowl slowly tilt over, its contents edging towards the edge.
Then there was a knock on the door and Adrien set the bowl down before going over to answer it.
Plagg dove.
“I texted the cook to bring some of that Camembert while I was eating if” Adrien paused and stared at the empty bowl, Plagg staring off to the side.
“Took care of it,” the kwami explained, not meeting his gaze, and hoping that the kid didn’t look in the trash can to see what wasn’t there.
“Hm,” Adrien hummed, not looking convinced, then turned the news on louder while Plagg flew down to the Camembert, trying not to fidget at how full he felt.
When was the last time he had fish? Or any other food apart from the source those monks allowed them. To them, Kwami only needed food to recharge, nothing else, it was not like they were human with a need for food for every mealtime of the day. Before Camembert was invented, he had Gouda cheese, and before that,
Before that.
What did he have before that?
He stared at the runny cheese, taking a slice for himself and nibbled on it, turning to look at the screen, only to nearly drop his food at the image on there. Sure he’d seen it in the kid’s head, but watching it on screen was different somehow.
“That’s the outfit you chose?” no wonder the kid nearly passed out as soon as he detransformed! Or that Plagg felt like the kid forced two Cataclysms in one go! Strange, he hadn’t seen this kind of outfit in centuries, why did the kid want it?
“Yeah,” the kid sheepishly scratched his cheek, staring at the screen, though there was some shame on his face, “D-do you think, if I hadn’t wasted time thinking of a new outfit, we might have dealt with the Akuma more quickly?” Plagg shook his head.
“Nah, if anything, it was better that you got the new outfit out of the way before you made your first appearance,”otherwise Tikki would’ve known that he let the kid change it.
“Well Ladybug was a bit put off about the differences in our outfits, and was shocked when I told her about changing it,” never mind, Tikki was going to kill him.
He groaned into his cheese, ignoring the kitten’s worried voice and contemplating his future with his new wielder. And wondering what else he had to expect from the kid.
“So, if” Adrien’s voice cut off and Plagg shook himself, following the kid’s eyesight to the TV where the ‘news’ had changed to a brief report in Italy.
“The Italian police haven’t released anything yet, but it was reported that Phantom Thief Eclipse was spotted moments before a train was derailed, making off with quite an assortment of jewels and priceless art,” the scene was horrible, there were train cars scattered everywhere, and Plagg blanched.
Just because he was the kwami of destruction did not mean he enjoyed scenes like this!
“Another tragedy, another scene where Eclipse is,” Adrien was pale as well, and before Plagg could ask about this ‘Eclipse’ character, the kid changed the channel, “Let’s watch something fun okay?”
“You are the murderer!” Plagg yelped at the accusation, flying behind Adrien and staring at the screen where a Chinese teen in a dark hanfu was staring down a woman cowering on the floor.
“Kid, how is a murderer being revealed fun?” Adrien gave him a blank look before blinking,
“Oh, unlike the news this is fake, everyone’s just acting out a script,” the blond tilted his head, looking worried, “H-have you never seen a play before?” oh, Plagg relaxed.
“Of course! Though I always fell asleep,” actually his holders would put him back into the box before he could see more.
“Huh, well if it does get boring, I can change it to something else?” okay now he was starting to feel weird, why was the kid being so nice?
Is it because there was no note telling him to put Plagg away at the end of every battle? If there had been a note would he have obeyed its instructions? Should Plagg tell him what he should actually do?
But it felt nice, flying out into the open and being allowed to eat what he wanted, he really did not want to give it up.
He came back to himself in time to see a close-up of the teen on the screen, blue-grey eyes staring straight at them.
“As long as I live, I shall reveal all falsehoods within this kingdom, that is my vow,” the screen changed and the images that appeared made Plagg question some things.
Thankfully Adrien explained to him what commercials were, though it didn’t take Tikki to notice that the kid looked somewhat sad now, staring at the thin box in his hands that was still dark.
Something told him it was best to ignore this, it wasn’t his business after all.
Now, where was the rest of that Camembert?