The Louvre Museum was quiet inside, at least relatively so. Adrien had weasled a small amount of time to himself in his schedule, and the photoshoot he'd just done had been close by. So he walked over to the Louvre and showed his ID card for free entry. He liked the Louvre. It was peaceful being someplace where every room had something of greater notoriety than you and everyone's attention was somewhere else. There were still too many people around for Plagg to come out of hiding, but he kept a murmured conversation going from Adrien's pocket. Which Adrien mostly couldn't answer to, and Plagg took full advantage of that.
When they passed a black stone stele, carved over with ancient writing, Plagg fell briefly silent. The silence caught Adrien's attention, and he came back to look more closely at the stele. The writing was cuneiform. The label said the stele was the original Code of Hammurabi, originally displayed for all to read in the city-state-cum-empire of Babylon. In the 18th century BCE.
"So why did this shut you up?" Adrien murmured to his pocket. "Not here", was the only reply. Adrien studied the stone for a while, then moved on.
Later, in his room he gave Plagg several pieces of Camembert without being asked. Plagg got halfway around the wheel before asking "Hey, waitaminnit. Are you trying to bribe me?"
"I don't know, is it working?"
Plagg sighed in exasperation. Now he'd have to choose to forgo cheese, or walk right into whatever Adrien was about to ask for. Might as well find out what it was. "Whaddaya want, kid?"
"Why the stele?"
"Who cares?" Plagg tossed another chunk of cheese into his mouth. Looked like his kitten wasn't going to let this go, so Plagg was going to claim as much cheese as he could. And not make it easy on him.
"You care", Adrien replied with a smile. "It actually shut you up. Nothing does that."
"We don't talk about Babylonia", Plagg tried.
"Seems like we are", Adrien replied. "I studied it, you know. Mesopotamian history. Last year. At least, some of it." He paused. "It was really a mess, that's mostly what I remember from the textbooks. So many city-states and empires that only lasted a couple of generations." His voice turned wheedly. "I don't suppose you could fill me in on a little bit of that?"
Plagg's ears drooped. "Look kitten", he said in a quieter voice than usual. "I can tell you about it. But I warn you, the holders of the Black Cat miraculous usually didn't have great lives. Well, they were great, but not great." He looked around him at Adrien's expensive, grand, lonely cage of a room. Adrien followed his gaze, and took his meaning. "I'd still like to know", he said. "It would help me feel less alone."
Plagg eyed his kitten and nodded. "There's strength in knowing there were others like you", he said decisively. "It's a lesson Su-a never learned". He sighed. "Maybe I should have taught it to him."
"Su-a?"
"My Cat, the Rulebreaker of Babylonia." Plagg nestled up against Adrien, though it wasn't clear who was supporting who, and began.