In which, Plagg doesn't actually get any cheese and also tries not to feel love.
The transformation fell. Leaving Adrien standing shrinking in on himself in Marinette's room as he prepared for Plagg's tiny fury. Several seconds passed before Adrien dared open his eyes to peek around the room. The tiny kwami was not floating around anywhere in the room. Growing concerned at Plagg's silence Adrien looked around more closely. A tiny black mound on the otherwise spotless floor seemed oddly familiar. Adrien crouched down to inspect it further.
"Plagg?" he said tentatively when the kwami didn't move. He reached towards the small magical creature, gently stroking the side of his face. Plagg didn't respond. "P-Plagg?!" concern grew exponentially into a combination of terror and utter dread that he'd killed his kwami. "Plagg! Wake up! No, no, no! Plagg you have to open your eyes! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Adrien lifted Plagg from the ground, cupping him in his hands. His voice pitched as his anxiety grew. His elevated emotions only worsening his fever symptoms. "This is all my fault! I'm such an idiot! If I wasn't being so stupid this never would have happened! Please, Plagg, wake up!"
"Will you please," came an exasperated moan cutting off Adrien's initial sob which turned into a gasp that got caught in his throat making him cough instead. "shut up."
Plagg cracked open one eye and glanced sideways up at Adrien. He had been pushed to his limits with this one. Normally he would be chewing Adrien out for forcing the transformation to hold for so long but Plagg simply didn't have the strength to do so. He was just as sick as his chosen if not more-so. Not to mention he knew that Adrien was not in the right state of mind to be on the receiving end of a verbal lashing right now. The poor kid was in a pretty bad way at the moment.
Plagg had learned to distance himself from his chosen eons ago but this was more than even he could bear. His little, disheveled heart broke for the kid, something akin to sympathy begging at his apathetic spirit.
"Oh, Plagg!" Adrien suddenly noticed his heart rate was elevated and his breathing was shallow. It was making him dizzy. Tears clung to his lashes as he shook his head to clear them away. It didn't work but succeeded in making him feel even more lightheaded. "I-I thought you were... I thought I... I'm just so sorry."
"You can't get rid of me that easily," Plagg offered quietly with a short sigh. When Plagg felt the foreign sting of tears behind his eyes he blinked them away and turned his face into Adrien's palm. Was he growing soft in his old age? "idiot."
Plagg added the insult to remedy his own softness though it didn't really have the desired effect. Adrien lifted the kwami to his face and nuzzled him with his cheek. Unable to ward off the onslaught of affection Plagg simply accepted it. He sighed audibly deciding to deal with the bubble of warmth in his chest that only grew in response to the closeness with relative disinterest.
"I'm sorry..." Adrien repeated his voice growing weaker as he failed to get his breathing under control. The room was spinning too fast. "I'm sorry, Plagg. I'm so..."
"Uh, k-kid?!" Plagg croaked as Adrien teetered. His arms went limp and Plagg fell to the ground only just managing to dive out of the way to keep himself from being crushed beneath the unconscious boy. Plagg looked back a little annoyed that Adrien had worked himself up so much when he was already in such a poor state.
"Plagg?!" Tikki whispered, rushing to Adrien's side after he fell. "Plagg, are you okay?!" Plagg moaned from the floor next to Adrien's prone body but didn't offer anything else in reply. Tikki rushed over and knelt down next to her friend. It was obvious to her that he was in just as bad condition as Adrien was. "Plagg... don't worry. We're going to take good care of you... both of you."
Tikki stroked Plagg's cheek with her paw. She wanted answers but that would have to wait, all that mattered in at the moment was getting Plagg and Adrien feeling better.
oOo
Marinette closed the door to her bedroom. She felt uneasy about leaving Chat Noir in her room unattended but it really couldn't be helped. Pulling open the fridge she began her search for... cheese.
'That's a really odd request...' she mused as she moved a head of lettuce to one side. 'Is that what his kwami eats? Hm, he did ask for Camembert when he was about to de-transform at the Mayor's hotel that time with Mr. Pigeon... I guess I lucked out with Tikki. I don't know how I'd explain a sudden desire for Camembert to my parents.'
"You've got to be kidding me!" Marinette grumbled after having removed half the contents of the fridge. "We don't have any cheese! None!"
"Then we have to go get some as soon as possible!" Tikki said from beside her startling Marinette. She looked around hurriedly as if waiting for her parents – or worse, Chat Noir – to pop in and see the kwami.
"T-Tikki! What are you doing?! Hide!" Marinette said in a harsh whisper glancing back at her bedroom door.
"Marinette, Chat Noir is unconscious and Plagg needs that cheese as soon as possible!" Tikki explained, her little arms waving in her excitement. "We have to go to the store right now!"
"But Tikki!" Marinette said looking down at her clothes. She was still in her pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers. "I can't go out like this and Chat Noir is in my room de-transformed! I can't go in there!"
"Hm..." Tikki rubbed her little chin in thought. "I'll be right back." she zoomed up through the ceiling and into Marinette's room.
Marinette stood staring at the spot on the ceiling where Tikki had disappeared. There were shuffling sounds coming from the room above. After a couple minutes Tikki reappeared and waved Marinette up the stairs.
"Tikki? What did you do?" she asked as she moved up the steps, pausing at the hatch.
"He's still unconscious so I put a blanket over him. His identity is safe for now." Tikki looked a little winded. A blanket was a heavy thing for such a small kwami to carry.
"Alright, if you say so." Marinette pushed through the door slowly, peeking around the room before entering. In the middle of the floor was a large bundle draped in a blanket that could only be Chat Noir. She sneaked in as quietly as she could and grabbed her winter clothes from the closet.
Chat's breathing sounded so labored from beneath the covers. Marinette sighed and looked at Tikki. She felt something in her grow soft for the sick alley cat and she set her things down on her workbench. Grabbing a pillow from her chaise lounge she knelt down next to Chat Noir. It wasn't much but it was all she could do for now. Reaching beneath the blanket she lifted his head carefully and slid the pillow underneath. At least this way his face wasn't smashed into her floor.
"M-maman..." he mumbled causing her to freeze. His voice was hardly intelligible as the words broke through from the depth of his slumbering mind, slurred and murmuring. "please come... home..."
Marinette wondered for a wild second about Chat Noir's home life. She'd always just assumed that he had a family, just like her and that he was happy, just like her. Ignorance was bliss. A tiny crack was forming in her image of him, spurred by the words that fell from his tongue and torpid mind. Maybe he didn't have a loving family to go home to... Maybe he wasn't happy?
"Don't worry Chat," her voice just above a breath, her hand resting on his shoulder for a brief moment. "you're going to be fine."
She collected her things from her desk, sparing him one last glance before she closed the door to her room. For the first time since finding him on her couch, she wondered,
Why was Chat Noir out in the snow last night?
She dressed quickly and headed down the stairs. It took a little convincing but she finally got her mother to understand that she was running an errand for Chat Noir and not just skipping out. Though her mother seemed perplexed as to why he would need cheese, Marinette assured her it was urgently necessary.
Marinette stared at the store shelves. Why were there so many different kinds of cheese? And where on earth was the Camembert?
"Oh, there it is!" Marinette picked up the circular carton that cased the cheese wheel. Marinette's jaw dropped at the price of the container. "What?! How in the world does Chat Noir keep his kwami fed?!" Marinette said to her purse. Tikki poked her head out of the clasp a questioning look in her eyes. "Why is something so smelly so expensive?!" Tikki shrugged. "How much should I get? Is one enough?"
"You should get as much as you can afford," Tikki offered. "I know it's a lot of money but Plagg is going to need all the cheese he can get his hands on. He's not doing well..." The sadness in Tikki's eyes made Marinette rethink the validity of any argument she could conjure. It was for the greater good... she supposed.
"Chat Noir better pay me back for this," she grumbled. Picking up four cases of Camembert cheese and a few cheaper wedges of Cheddar and Swiss she headed to the checker. She had not planned on spending all of her savings... on cheese. This "Plagg" had better be grateful.
oOo
Adrien lay on the floor his face pressed against something soft that smelled nice. He didn't have the brain power to place what it smelled like exactly but it smelled good nonetheless. Although his face was quite content to remain where it was, his body was wracked with pain. Sore and swollen from the night before, his joints positively screamed at him to find somewhere more comfortable to lay down.
Adrien hesitantly pushed himself off the floor, propping himself up on his elbow. Why couldn't he see anything? There was something on his face... Where had this blanket come from? He was too out of it to really process anything. Thoughts simply echoed through his empty mind, finding no purchase. Even his body was on autopilot simply reacting to his environment without really taking his actions into consideration. With a great deal of effort, he sat up fully. The room spun as the blood rushed to and from his head. His whole body felt several times too heavy as though he were made of solid lead. He pulled at the blanket to get it off of his face.
Through the fog in his head, he saw something that looked like a bed and he crawled over to it, not trusting himself to stand or really having the energy to do so. He pulled himself up onto the chaise dragging the blanket and pillow along with him. He settled in. His face was turned to the back wall of the room and he laid on his stomach. The blanket was pulled roughly over the top of him only covering him from the knees to the shoulders. He didn't have the wherewithal to cover himself more fully... or to even realize he should be hiding his face. All he cared about was getting back to sleep.
oOo
Marinette rushed home in the snow, slipping and sliding but not falling down once. She mentally commended herself for the feat as the bakery's bell chimed at her arrival. This cheese-run better be worth the effort.
"Oh good, you're back!" her mother said to her as she came through the door. Marinette smiled but rolled her eyes after she'd moved past her. It was like she'd expected her to just run away and not come back. She wasn't that irresponsible!
Making it up to the apartment Marinette kicked off her shoes by the front door. She paused at the hatch looking down at Tikki who urged her to open the door. Marinette knocked lightly. It was enough to alert him if he was awake but not loud enough to wake him if he were still asleep. She pressed through the door and entered the room.
A trill of panic swept through her as she noted the blond haired boy lying face-down on her chaise lounge. She froze in place, not daring to go any closer. Tikki moved to go and cover his face but dove back into Marinette's purse almost immediately. The boy on the chaise had pulled his arm up to his side to prop himself up. Marinette turned her back to him not a moment too soon as he looked over to see who had come in.
"Wha..? Mar'nette? What're you doin' my room?" Chat asked his voice groggy and almost nonexistent. She could tell he was either still asleep or his fever had gotten worse. "It's not allowed. If m'father finds you here... he's a be so mad."
"Uhm... what your father doesn't know won't hurt him?" Marinette said feeling a bit strange for playing along but deciding this was better than trying to argue with someone who was quite possibly hallucinating. She kept her back to him, suddenly remembering why she'd gone up there in the first place. "I brought you the cheese you asked for. Sorry, it took so long, we didn't have any so I had to go to the store."
"Cheese? I don' know 'bout any cheese," he sounded completely confused. Marinette gripped the bag in her arms and hoped that he hadn't requested cheese in the beginning throws of hallucination. If that were the case she was going to make him pay her double. "w-wait, wait... I know a guy who knows st-things 'bout cheeeese."
Marinette gave an exasperated sigh, he was difficult enough to deal with when he wasn't fever-drunk but this was almost more than she could handle. Not to mention how worried she was that he was going to inadvertently reveal his identity to her. How could one alley cat be so troublesome?
"Plagg?" Chat said and Marinette could hear him moving around behind her. Possibly looking through his blankets. "Plagg?!" he called again his voice growing with irritation. "I don' wanna play hide and seek righ' now!"
Marinette caught a glimpse of Tikki out of the corner of her eye pointing animatedly towards the desk. She chanced a look in that direction to see a small black cat curled up on an over-sized, fluffy sweater she'd made that was waiting to be taken in. She turned her attention back to the wall opposite from Chat Noir.
"Is that Plagg over there?" she asked pointing towards her desk.
"Plagg! W-what're you doin' out?" the boy called from across the room. The kwami didn't respond. "You can't be seen... If father cashes you, he takes you away." his voice was growing weaker and he sounded as though he were falling back to sleep. "takes 'verything away... tried n' take m'ring. Thaz why we ran away..." he yawned and rolled over but Marinette heard every mumbled word. "Cuz he's a bad guy."
Marinette stood with her arms wrapped around the cheese in total shock. Her thoughts racing through her mind as she gaped at the wall in front of her, none of them slowing down enough for her to grasp them. His words could mean so many things. Should she take them at face value? Is there a deeper meaning? Was this all just some crazy fever dream and none of it meant anything at all?
Was this the reason he was out in the snow?