A/N: Based completely off one of my favorite video games of all time: Layton Brothers: Mystery Room. It's a phone app that I highly recommend to anyone who likes mystery/puzzle games.

It was her first day on the job and she was so excited. After all, it's not every day someone is recruited by Paris' finest police force a day out of the academy.

She pulled her lucky black cap down over her red hair before walking into the building.

"Ah, Detective Constable Tikki," Chief of Police, Mr. Fu, greeted. "How wonderful it is to have you join us."

"It's an honor being here, sir," she said, bowing slightly.

He grinned. "Now, I'll show you to your office."

Tikki followed the surprisingly nimble man.

"You will be working as an assistant of sorts for one of our most… eccentric inspectors."

"Oh?" Tikki asked.

"Don't worry," Commissioner Fu said. "I saw your file. You'll certainly be able to handle yourself in the Mystery Room."

"That sounds ominous," she commented, slowly growing a little nervous.

Commissioner Fu chuckled. "That's what the other detectives like calling it. It's nothing more than the office where all the hardest, seemingly unsolvable cases are dropped off at."

Tikki's eyes widened. "And I'll be working there?"

"I have faith in you," Commissioner Fu said. "You have a knack of putting cases together like one would fit together a puzzle. Even the more absurd ones. You also have a healthy dose of patience and perseverance. Which is needed if you are ever going to survive working with Plagg."

She frowned. It wasn't exactly encouraging.

Commissioner Fu opened the door to the office, and Tikki about died at the disaster zone that was the interior.

Papers. Everywhere.

"Maybe you can keep him in line," Commissioner Fu said with a smirk. "He's the best we have, but he may need a little… caretaking." With that, Commissioner Fu spun on his heel and walked off.

Leaving Tikki to stare at the mess. "Oh. My. Kwami."

"What do you think you're doing!"

Tikki dropped the papers she was organizing. "I… I…"

He looked at her expectantly. "You… you…?"

"I'm your new assistant," she managed, sticking out a hand. "Detective Constable Tikki Cheng at your service."

Plagg looked at the hand, then snorted. "You're my new assistant?"

Shyly, she lowered her hand. "That's right. I start today."

Plagg looked at her a moment longer, then sighed. "So be it. Guess I could use the help. Just don't clean up my office."

Tikki frowned. "But… it's a mess."

"I work best in chaos," he said. He then walked over to a pile, grabbed a file straight out of the middle, then handed it to her. "If you're going to stay, you gotta prove your worth. Solve the case, and your job will remain."

Tikki took the file, but before she even cracked it open, she looked around for a place to sit and think. Maybe even a spot to spread out her file so she could see what she was actually looking at. "Um… space?"

Plagg smirked at her. "I thought your file said you were really good at thinking on your feet, cookie."

She frowned. Infernal man.

Well… she'd show him.

"Done." She dropped the case in front of him. "It was the butler. He strangled the girl with a necktie but did it in such a way it looked like her lover."

Plagg quirked a brow, then took the file to look at.

"Well," he said after a while. "Looks like you're right. You can stay."

She smirked. "How kind of you," she sarcastically bit out. "Now, do I get a desk or a chair, at the very least?"

Plagg pointed to the couch covered in papers across the room. "You can have that. And the coffee table."

"And what about the files?"

"You can clean them off as you solve them."

Tikki's gut sank as she looked at the dozens of folders.

From behind her, Plagg chuckled. "Welcome to the Mystery Room, cookie."

Three weeks later, her table was cleared off. The cases she solved were elementary, and she was able to crack a couple each day. Plagg was a pain in her arse, to say the least. He looked at her with mild approval with each case she dumped in front of him, completed and solved. She never interviewed anyone, but that was because once she solved the case, her notes were all given to some lower police officer to fulfill.

"There," she said, handing him the last of the case files. "Finished."

He looked at the file, then at her. "Well done," he said. "You solved the mundane cases. Your speed was impressive, though. I will give you that much."

Tikki scowled. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that these cases," he waved the file folder she had solved. "Were all cases that should have never come into the Mystery Room because the police force should be competent enough to handle them. Thank you for clearing them so I didn't have to."

Tikki's jaw dropped in mild offence.

"Pick your jaw off the ground," he snipped. "You proved your worth having you around on the force, but you haven't proven your worth in here. For that, you have to solve this case."

Tikki took the file folder, cracking it open and slowly reading the information.

And quickly realized that, unfortunately, Plagg was right. She could already tell the other cases were child's play compared to this one.

"Not so smug now, are we, cookie?"

She glared up at him, not willing to admit he was right.

"The case is a curious one," he said, standing in order to begin pacing the room. "And far more typical of what we get here in the office. At least, what we should be getting in the office."

Tikki looked all over the information. This would be a hard one to crack.

"I've gotta say, cookie," Plagg said as they waited for their suspect to be brought in for interrogation. "I really didn't expect you to solve that so quick."

"Please," she scoffed. "There is no more creative person in the world than a bitter woman gathering blood money. I thought you would have known that after working here so long, kitty cat."

Plagg sputtered in surprise. "Kitty cat?"

Tikki shot him a smug smile. "Considering that reaction, yes, I think that nickname will do quite nicely."

He stared at her a moment longer before slumping in his seat with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face, making him look like a put-out child. Tikki couldn't restrain her laughter.

It was her first interrogation, and Tikki felt like she was failing.

Confrontation had never been one of her strong suits. Especially with people who couldn't be reasoned with. She hated to say that she was thankful that Plagg was there to keep her on track, but he was and was doing a very good job at it, too.

"For the last time, where is this murder weapon?" the suspect purred. "Because I certainly don't see it nor have you presented me with any possibility."

Tikki was just about to hand it to her when a cool voice came from beside her.

"It's disappeared."

The woman turned to glare at Plagg. "Disappeared." She deadpanned. "Is that really the best you can come up with?"

Tikki turned to Plagg, who somehow didn't look like the man she remembered. His eyes were wild and the smirk on his face was completely unsettling. She swore that even his hair was darker, more ruffled, his bangs hanging in front of his face to shade his eyes. "Yes," he purred. "Because that's exactly what happened, isn't it? You didn't use the stake to kill him. You can never fully get rid of traces of blood. No, you used something that would disappear completely in the heat of the night."

Plagg chuckled, and it caused Tikki's hair to stand on it's end as gooseflesh rose up and down her entire body. "Yes, my lovely assistant is right: you are a creative girl. But hardly inspired. Murders for money usually cause people to get sloppy. Greed clouds the judgement process when it comes to executing a clean kill."

"Plagg?" Tikki said, her voice weak with uncertainty. "What are you—"

"Quiet!" he snapped, turning to glare at her with teeth bared and eyes wild.

She did as demanded.

"So," he purred, turning back to the woman he was interrogating, one who looked about as unnerved as Tikki by Plagg's sudden switch of demeanor. "Where were we? Oh yes, I was about to tell you how you committed the murder of your—oh, what was he?—fourth husband? Yes. Number four who happened to be the owner of a very large life insurance policy. Sitting on all that money that you could never access as long as he was breathing. So you had to stop it. Getting a man drunk certainly isn't fair." He tsked her. "Oh, I bet you were a tease all the way home from the bar. Then, you took him up to the house, but you weren't going to fulfill the promises you were probably telling him all night. No. You took him out to the balcony instead. And he didn't fall off onto a garden stake. No. You stabbed him with a knife of ice. Orchestrating the rest was easy."

Her eyes widened, and it was clear as day her game was up. "Wha… how…"

"The blood spatters didn't line up!" Plagg shouted, slamming his hands down on the table in front of her, causing the woman to flinch. "And you aren't going through mourning, you little minx. You're acting isn't that good. And don't give me the shock excuse, either. Your body language alone proves that. You are far too happy for this event to have happened to your fourth loving and doting husband." Plagg snarled. "Pathetic."

The woman looked away.

"This all ends," Tikki finally spoke up, "with a confession."

The woman looked up at her, then eyed Plagg. "Just get him away from me."

"After the confession."

She gave her statement, and Tikki quickly dragged Plagg out of the room.

"What was that in—are you okay?"

Plagg was holding his head, hands tightly in his hair. He looked as though he was swaying, so Tikki reached forward to steady him.

Only for him to completely pass out.

"Plagg!" she shouted as he fell to the floor, taking her with him.

She scrambled up into a sitting position, then shook his shoulders. "Plagg?" she frantically called. "Plagg!"

But he was out cold.

She sighed. Don't panic, Tikki. Don't panic. Only… what did she do now?

A/N: Marked complete... for now ;)