FW09: Hey hey hey, look what I got, a new chapter!
I'm actually pretty surprised about how few questions I've been getting, but at the same time, that means that maybe I don't have too many weird plot holes/mistakes? Yay!
Also, caution: by the time this chapter gets uploaded, I should have changed the rating to M. And it's because of this chapter. I read the ratings guide just to be sure, but please be warned: this chapter will have a scene about violence. If you're not comfortable, I can put a "buffer" chapter removing the violence and implying/hinting at it to keep the T-rating. The M-rated chapter (this one) would still remain, but specifically have the M-rating. Let me know what you guys think.
Disclaimer: Y'all know the drill - I don't own Miraculous or the characters. Just the story and OCs.
Bedtime Stories - Tikki and Plagg
Chapter 5: Adrien's Bedroom, Banda, and Zida- Part 1
"C'mon Plagg, we gotta get ready for school!"
Adrien got up on the first ring of his alarm, and rearranged all of his sheets quickly. No need for Nathalie to question why he was sleeping the wrong way in his bed, and report it to his father like she always did when something seemed out of the ordinary. When he didn't get a response, the blonde teen rolled his eyes and sighed. This was pretty much their normal routine - wake up early, try to wake up Plagg and fail, get ready, try again and fail, then when he was ready to leave, he'd lure Plagg into the bag with cheese.
However, when he went to nudge the little black creature from sleep, he noticed something a little different about the Kwami. A little smile was on his face, and his tail was twitching into a curl. Adrien's hand paused, stopping an inch or two away from poking the round head, and pulled away eventually. Who was he to wake the little 'God' from his seemingly-happy dreams? Deciding to just let the cat sleep in until he himself was ready, Adrien tiptoed away from the drawer and went straight to the bathroom.
Plagg, on the other hand, continued to dream on, his head filled with a sweet, slightly sarcastic feminine voice. And a pair of crystal blue eyes that were all-knowing, as much as they were gentle.
'Goodnight Furball.'
He sighed into the silk-sock bedding happily, red and black scraps of memory forming slowly, but surely, into a solid image of Tikki. Unfortunately, as sunlight crept into the room and flooded the drawer, the little black cat Kwami was roused from slumber and murmured grumpily in complaint. Again, he was left with nothing more than her eyes and her voice.
"Mmmmnnn..." he glared at the sun, just as it glared back. He was so close to reconstructing her in his memory, but it'd been so long. He frowned deeply, grumpy and annoyed at the image slipping through his mind like sand through fingers.
"All right, Plagg, you ready?" Adrien moved in front of the drawer, shading Plagg from the cursed sun.
"No," came the smarmy response that had the boy smirking, rolling his eyes.
"Not even for a little Gruyere?" a good chunk of the pale cheese was clutched between his fingers, and Plagg's eyes grew wide.
"Mmmm...not quite Camembert, but it'll do," the cat licked his lips and leaped onto Adrien's hand, following when the cheese went into his bag.
As he opened his mouth and started savoring his meal, Plagg glanced up at Adrien through the crack of the bag. The boy had really come into his own since they'd started working together, forming the notoriously charming Chat Noir. Much easier to guide than some of his previous Chat Noirs, that's for sure, and he snorted at the memories of some of his more...reluctant partners. Yet, this was perhaps one of the few who ever really asked him about his past.
Most of the humans he'd met just brushed him off as some lazy, cheese-loving cat - not that they were wrong, mind you - and he was fine with that assumption. He loved his privacy, and better yet, not being disturbed when eating exotic cheeses. However, there were quiet moments. Moments where he'd remember his favorite partners, or even when he was a God, and that's when he'd miss talking to someone. Usually, that someone being Tikki.
Plagg's inner monologue was interrupted when he felt the bag thump on the floor of the classroom, causing him to jolt against Adrien's pencil bag and phone. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, the cat Kwami grabbed the pencil bag expectantly and raised it so that Adrien could reach it with ease. Sarcasm and chagrin coated the reflection on his current predicament.
'Yet another mundane duty of the Kwami of Destruction - handing school supplies to children.'
A small catty smile spread across his face as he wondered what Tikki would say. No doubt she was in the same situation. He took a sly look behind him, towards the back of the classroom, where he had felt her before.
Yes, Plagg knew who Ladybug was. Just as Tikki knew who Chat Noir was.
However, unlike Tikki, who believed in keeping the teenagers' identities secret, Plagg just thought it wasn't his business. Humans always made things too complicated. If they really wanted to know each others' secrets, let them work it out. And if they preferred to not know, then let sleeping dogs lie. That was the expression, right, Tikki?
...
Plagg glanced back again, his green eyes boring holes through thick cotton, steel chair legs, and fleshy human legs. She was there, he knew she was. And after that night when they'd de-transformed, Plagg couldn't get rid of the nagging curiosity. How many spots did she have, exactly? What shade of blue were her eyes? Did she still like rubbing her cheeks when she was frustrated, or flustered? These questions had answers once, long ago. Achingly long ago. And in spite of that, Tikki still had him wrapped around her finger. He flicked his tail in annoyance, but couldn't help sweeping his eyes back towards Tikki's direction as the day dragged on...
Tikki never really left Plagg's thoughts, even after the day's events of battling akumatized villains and school. He flew out of Adrien's bag as soon as they were safe in his room, and sat on the boy's desk, staring at that same spot where Tikki's signature was.
"Still thinking about her, huh?" Adrien grinned again, and wondered mildly if that's how he looked when thinking about Ladybug.
Plagg gave a little 'you're a little smart aleck, you know that, right?' look before returning to stare at the wall.
He really, really wanted to see her. Talk to her. Just a greeting or two would do. Though, he already did get one the other night...and she initiated it, surprisingly enough. It wouldn't be weird if he started sending her a few words back, then. If she broke protocol, why couldn't he?
Start off with a casual greeting, like...'How's it going, Tikki?'
Or maybe something flirty like 'I knew you missed me, Spot'?
Plagg sighed, continuing to think about what to say to her as Adrien shrugged and opened his notebook to start his homework.
One hour later...
...Then again, it wasn't quite a greeting. And she hadn't chosen to contact him again afterward. Was she mad at him when he asked if she'd missed him? No, no, of course not. If she was, she wouldn't have bothered to reply.
Goodnight, Furball.
She even used his 'pet' name for her, pun not intended. She couldn't have been mad at him...right?
Adrien left a small plate of Roquefort cheese by the cat Kwami's side as he returned from the dining hall, having eaten dinner by himself - yet again. He laughed silently into his hand while Plagg recognized the smell and pawed for the cheese absentmindedly.
Two hours later...
She'd managed to keep quite for nearly two centuries the last time she was furious at him. That Kwami could hold a grudge. And the urge to see her was so strong this time, he couldn't risk it...even for just a little acknowledgement. Right? No? Yes? Maybe?
Adrien rolled his eyes at Plagg as the teenager finished the last vestiges of his homework and powered up his PC to check the latest on the Ladybug Blog.
Three hours later...
...Plagg sagged and face-palmed, shaking his head. This was getting him nowhere.
"So, you left me on a cliffhanger, buddy," Adrien broke Plagg from his merry-go-round thoughts, "Wanna tell me more about what happened between you and Ba'al?"
Grateful for the distraction, the cat Kwami gave a tired yawn and stretch, turning to see Adrien wearing his designer pajamas. He blinked once, then twice, and swiveled his head to see the clock read '8:15 PM'. Had he really been thinking about this for over three hours? He flopped backwards, his eyes bleary and his head sore.
"Ughhhh...maybe if I had a little motivation?" he groaned, craning his head back to look at the boy insistently.
Adrien was already ahead of him - a big slice of Camembert was cradled in his palm, little wafts of stench reeking its way to Plagg's twitching nose. With a lick of his lips, he zipped over to the meal and hugged it happily. Cheese was good. It never gave you headaches and never made you wonder if it liked you or not.
"So...?" Adrien placed the cheese and Plagg on the dresser before getting into his backwards position - head at the foot of the bed, and his feet at the headboard.
Just as the cat Kwami was about to devour the cheese, he paused. Ah. Right. Tonight's tale was going to be...graphic. Maybe more graphic than a 15-year old could handle. His green eyes drifted over Adrien's fussing and re-arranging, his tired mind now grappling with this new dilemma.
"So...you really want to know what happened between me and Ba'al, huh?"
"Well, heck yeah," Adrien finished his preparations and settled on his back this time, staring at Plagg on the dresser, "I mean, he didn't kill you, but something happened."
"..." Plagg bit off a piece of Camembert and chewed it slowly, thinking about his response carefully, "We might want to skip it."
"What?!" Adrien covered his mouth and glanced around, waiting to see if anyone was going to come. Luckily, it looked like nobody was around to hear them.
"You can't just...leave me hanging, Plagg!"
"Tch," the cat Kwami scoffed and sighed. He flipped and flopped his tail, chewed his Camembert, and let his mind wander back to Tikki. What would she do?
"...Hmph. Just brace yourself, all right? This isn't exactly one of my...finer points of history..."
"I'm not evil."
Ba'al blinked at me when I spoke those words. And for a few seconds, he looked like he believed me.
I mean, being evil meant hurting humans, didn't it? And no matter how many times Cybele or the other caravan workers held me, I never hurt them. Sure, some things went missing and rotted, but my power never hurt the humans. I couldn't be evil. Never.
"I'm not evil," I repeated, and Ba'al continued to stare at me, "I'm not."
"Dak'n..." Ba'al seemed to struggle with himself as he explained, "You destroyed our caravan goods. Our livelihood. And sooner or later, others will notice."
"I didn't mean to," I twisted in his grasp, trying to rub my head along his palm in apology, "I'll be good. I promise!"
"You can never be good!" he yelled at me in frustration, then composed himself, "What you do is...unnatural. What you do is not 'good', it never will be. You can never...be good. Do you understand, Dak'n?"
My ears twitched and I tilted my head slowly in confusion. I didn't realize that...he was explaining that humans would never see me as anything more than what I could do. What my powers could do. That I would always be an Evil God in their eyes. A harsh, cruel fact.
"It is all right. You need not understand," he scratched under my chin with his thumbs, "Not for much longer."
There was such a sadness to his voice, and all I thought about was how to make him feel better. I twisted in his hands, making sure to rub against his fingers in comfort. He let me readjust myself...before he let my body fall through his fingers, and his thumbs found the hollow point in my neck.
"B-Ba'al?"
He didn't respond. Chills ran down my spine, blood turned to ice in my veins, and my instincts flared sharply. This was dangerous. Whatever was happening was dangerous. I squirmed in his grasp, struggling to get my head free.
"Wait, stop, stop!" I felt his hands trying to hold me tighter, and I raked against the back of his hands with my claws, "Please, Ba'al!"
"It won't be much longer," he replied finally in a grunt, "The pain will go away...once you die. I...promise..."
For all the scratching that I was doing, he was clever - he had wrapped his hands in thick cloth. It prevented me from hurting him. Me, on the other hand, well...it felt like my neck was about to snap.
"D-don't do this!" I gasped as he squeezed, "Please, please, please, don't...don't do this!"
Tears pricked my eyes from the pain, and I started to choke on my words. And all the while, I could feel something terrible brewing underneath my fur, pulsing and throbbing as my heart tried to push blood past the thumbs strangling me. However, I pushed it down with every last fiber of my being, and used my voice to try and reach him. After all, I couldn't scratch or struggle my way out. Words were all that I had.
"I'll be good, I promise...I'll be...good," I started to sob, even as I could feel my consciousness fading, "I don't...hic...I don't want to...die..."
...
A few seconds later, and the pressure on my neck lessened. Desperate, I sucked in hot desert air and coughed on it, stinging my lungs. Ba'al released me slowly, letting me drop onto the edge of the well, and stared down at my limp body with tired eyes. I stared back, my chest burning and my limbs numb, and tears still streaming down my furry cheeks.
"...Leave, Dak'n."
There was no hate, or anger, or disgust. In fact, his words were soft - calming, even. With a touch of sorrow and tears of his own.
"If you don't want to die, leave. And stay away from humans. Words will not save you next time."
With that, he turned and retreated back to Ur. I watched him fade into the distance, even with a pounding headache and aching throat. A part of me wondered if he let me live because he pitied me. Another part wondered if it was because he couldn't bear to do it, and would rather have the harsh nature of the desert to the dirty work for him. Either way, I had to deal with the reality that Ba'al...had abandoned me.
"Need a moment?" Plagg paused in his story as he saw Adrien's eyes grow dark.
"I just...I can't believe he tried to..."
"But he didn't," Plagg sighed and floated to the top of Adrien's head, crossing his arms, "And even after all this time, I don't blame him for what he tried to do."
"He tried to kill you, Plagg!" Adrien gripped the bed sheets in his hands tightly, "Weren't you scared? Sad? Angry?"
"Yeah, for a long while," the cat Kwami looked down at Adrien's blonde locks with a blank expression, tail twitching in thought, "But in a way...he saved me."
"...What?"
"It wasn't common, but there were others who were like me - Gods born with powers that weren't considered...good," Plagg drifted over to the dresser, sitting on top of it, "And whenever that happened, they turned them over to the En or Nin."
"En...or Nin?" Adrien tilted his head, scrunching up his face at the unfamiliar words.
"Priests who served the Great Gods," Plagg opened one of the drawers on the dresser and dragged out a few silk socks, arranging them on his desk against the light to create shadows, "En were the male priests, and Nin were the female ones."
Adrien turned to face the wall to the right of his bed, staring at the shapes Plagg was creating. One was of a falcon with wings outstretched, and below it a cobra poised to strike. A cow grazing brazenly next to a crocodile with open jaws joined the shadows, and at the back of the group was a human with a tall crown and holding a rod. Last but not least, Plagg placed himself beside the bundle that made the man's shadow, completing the picture with a large cat by the man's side.
"Long before my time, six Gods of immense power gathered and worked to protect the cities of Man from both the desert and the Evil Gods," Plagg spoke, the shadow's mouth moving in response, "They could cause rivers to run, sands to shift, and stars to fall. One could even manipulate time."
Plagg shifted the man's shadow to the center of the herd.
"And of all these Great Gods, 'Ea' was the most worshipped, because he could control the one thing that all desert people valued: water," more fabric moved as he created waves in the light of the shadow that pooled around Ea's feet, "From him, life and cities came. And all Gods bowed before him, even the other Great Ones. Humans especially liked him because he took on a human shape."
Plagg took small boxes from on top of the dresser and arranged them to show rising towers and buildings on the outskirts of the shadow play.
"The most zealous," the cat Kwami paused and smirked, "The most crazy out of all the worshippers were the En and Nin, who acted as 'enforcers' of the Great Gods' wills. They were the ones who dictated what was 'Evil' and what was not. And more importantly, they were the ones who supported catching Evil Gods and forcing them to bend to the will of Man and the Great Gods."
"Whoa, whoa, 'catching'?" Adrien spoke up finally, tearing his eyes from the elaborate dark shapes on the wall to look at Plagg, "I thought you said people were supposed to...kill Evil Gods?"
"Heh, never said that," the black cat clicked his tongue smartly, "Hiding or protecting Evil Gods was criminal. Killing one was also an offense, although a minor one. No, the En and the Nin ordered that all Evil Gods be captured and turned over to them."
"Why?"
"Sometimes they were used for slave labor," Plagg closed his eyes and grew quiet, "And sometimes...they were used for instruments."
The way the cat Kwami glanced over at the various accessories Adrien kept on the dresser made Adrien's stomach drop a little. There were little innocuous things, like a sterling silver crescent moon necklace and matching eclipse-themed watch. Then there were the animal-themed accessories - a shark tooth necklace, a pair of tortoise-shell print sunglasses, and an ivory-carved ring. Adrien was surprised the cat hadn't hissed, the way his eyes narrowed and his fur seemed to stand up.
"Staffs, headdresses, ornaments..." Plagg took a steadying breath, then looked back at Adrien with his ears folded back, "Even rings."
The boy looked down at the silver ring with dawning realization. He jolted from his prone position and nearly pulled the thing off when Plagg flew down to stop him.
"All this time...I didn't realize...you...this ring...I - "
"That's not what the Miraculous is," Plagg laughed as if he'd just played a prank, and Adrien relaxed a little, "But in the old days, the En and Nin did make that sort of stuff. Charms and what not, containing the power and spirit of the Evil Gods they killed."
"So...by Ba'al trying to kill you..."
"He was making sure my spirit wasn't bound to their will," the black cat finished with a swish of his tail, and he settled into a comfortable position on Adrien's bed, "If he'd given me to the En and Nin, I would have been forced into eternal servitude with no rest."
Adrien calmed himself as he thought about the situation, and agreed reluctantly. Sometimes there really were fates worse than death.
"Now, can I continue the story?" Plagg raised an eyebrow, and Adrien nodded, enthralled by the story, "Let's see, after Ba'al left me, I remembered just laying there..."
For a while, I stayed by the well and waited. For what, I'm not sure. Maybe I thought he'd come back for me, in spite of what he'd said. Or maybe I was waiting for someone to come by and take me, not knowing what I was. However, no one came. It was a dried well at the end of a city that moved where the water flowed. Nobody would come unless they were like me - left for dead or Evil.
...
Trouble was...that's exactly what came.
FW09: Whoo! Another chapter down! I was struggling with writer's block for a while, but I'm glad I was able to get this done! Again, if anyone is extremely uncomfortable with this chapter's violence rating, let me know and I'll tone it down and post this mature-version as a separate chapter.
Also, sorry about the long parts where there's no backstory for Plagg - but the second part should make up for it!
If you liked it or have constructive criticism, please let me know in the reviews or PM if you'd rather not have other people read it! And I'll see you next time!