"He', Plagg," Adrien mumbles, blinking up at the sky slowly.
It's very blue. It's a nice blue.
"Yeah, I'm here, kid," the kwami says, huddled against his face, tiny body vibrating fiercely with a deep hiccuping purr.
Adrien tries to turn and look at him, but everything in his body feels like limp noodles. Plagg has to dodge out of the way when Adrien's head drops awkwardly over the edge of the wall he was collapsed on top of. Adrien groans, breaking out into a rough coughing fit as he weakly drags his body further onto the roof.
" "m sorry about th' times I jumped in fron' of attacks," he says, ignoring the wetness that covers his lips and trails down the corner of his mouth. "Know you didn' like that. Never though' to ask if you felt it, too... sorry."
Plagg snorts, hovering over one green eye, just far enough away that Adrien can focus on him clearly. "Don't worry about it, Adrien. You're hardly the first cat to do stupid things for a girl. You're downright sensible compared to Naven... Adrien? Hey. Hey! Look at me, kid."
Plagg swoops down and burrows against the tender skin under Adrien's jaw. Pricks of pain from tiny cat teeth sink in through the fog in Adrien's head, and he moans as he pries open his eyes again.
" 'm wake," he mutters.
"Good," Plagg declares as that rumbling purr starts up again. Adrien's lips twitch upwards at the vibrations spreading through his neck.
This is nice, he thinks, blinking some water out of his eyes as his own breath stutters in his chest. I should'a got a real cat before, too.
"I like' being Cha' Noir, you know?" the blond says. He goes to lift his hand up so he can look at his ring, but it just flops down to the roof when he tries. And it pulled something in his back when he shifted like that which makes him want to gag.
And his hand had smeared more red on his over-shirt. Damn, you don't get red out of white easy...
"I know," Plagg answers, voice going weirdly high as a tiny hand pats Adrien's neck. Little flicks of black and green magic shimmer at the edges of Adrien's sight once more and the fog in his head thickens a little as pain seeps away. "You're a good one, too. Ladybug's kwami woul- will like you, as well. Always wanting to go out as Chat Noir, not letting me have my camembert until I let you play hero... she'll definitely approve."
"Really?" he asks softly, blinking at the black spots in his vision.
"Yeah, kid. She'll definitely like you. You just... you just stay put and stay still, ok? We'll just stay here, you and me, and we won't move at all," Plagg stresses, "and when Ladybug finishes that akuma, we'll see all those flashy little magic bugs Tikki uses wash over the city. Then maybe, maybe, if you bribe me with a ton of cheese, we'll transform and go find them so you can do that fist-bump you like with your crush. Sound good?"
Plagg is shaking, Adrien thinks blearily.
"Shouldn' we go 'elp?" he asks, numbness spreading through his chest and arms. "My Lady..."
"You did your part, Adrien. You used Cataclysm and everything. We'll let your Lady get some exercise in and- and it'll be ok."
Everything is quiet.
"A-Adrien?"
"...'k. If you... say so, Pla' "
.
AN: See AO3 version for more details, but this is gifted to demistories.
The situation I thought up when trying to figure out what happened to Adrien was simple: the Miraculous has a 5 minute time limit after it's used. When I remembered how viciously Chat Noir got thrown around by Climatika (since he was thrown so hard he bounced off several cars), it occurred to me that all it would take to turn a normal fight horrible is to have the transformation time out mid-way through what would otherwise be a meaningless hit.
Because Chat can get up unbothered after Climatika's hit, but the very first impact would have been deadly for anyone else.