Chapter 8: Watching Over
"Kid, you've gotta be kidding me. You're standing there with your mouth hung open like a fool. I swear, you start drooling and I'm dropping your sorry ass. Hero? More like zero. Why do I even bother sticking around!"
Plagg's tail thumped rhythmically against the glass of the skylight, a sign of his increasing embarrassment that this was the man he chose to wield his power. The vibration of the bass, blinding flares of unnaturally colored lights, and muffled laughter of the party below did nothing to help his declining mood. Maybe if he was able to indulge in some of those appetizers over at the refreshment table, it'd be a different story.
"You're hopeless," Plagg muttered in Adrien's direction as a fond goodbye, a smirk tugging at his lips. Giving his partner one last look, he floated away from the glass and prepared to fly off, perhaps to seek out some delicious cheese shop to host him for the night.
"Plagg?"
The unmistakable, feminine voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Plagg! What are you doing here?" Tikki asked, swooping in close to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.
"Tikki?" Surprise rang clear in Plagg's voice. "Long time no see. What are the odds?"
Slim to none. They hadn't seen each other in person for over a century. An impossibly long time, so it might seem, but there existed usually very small, spaced out windows of opportunity between partners for the two kwami to run into each other. Now being one of them.
"Yeah, I don't believe it," Tikki replied in astonishment. "So you finally went your separate ways with Chat Noir? I'm surprised you went solo with him for so long."
Plagg twitched. The subject was still tender. "I guess I can say the same about how long you've taken searching for a new Ladybug. Still looking, I take it?"
Tikki was instantly set aflutter by his question. "A-Ah! Yes! Can't quite find the perfect match. But, you know how it is, can't rush perfection!"
"...Right."
When fully dedicated to searching, a kwami might find their partner in anywhere between a single week and several decades. Sure, rushing to find the perfect partner wasn't a good thing; kwami were encouraged to take their time. That is, if their time was being well-spent. However, if the kwami chose to dawdle along and waste that time, that was another story.
And, of course, that was exactly what Plagg was doing. Figures.
"So, is he the one? Your new Chat Noir?"
"Huh?" Plagg shook himself to attention to see Tikki pointing out a figure below.
"That one. The guy who your eyes were glued to while spaced out. No, wait, is that?... You're waiting on Adrien Agreste?" Tikki fell into a mixture of snorts and high-pitched laughter. "Well, isn't that quite a funny twist of fate!"
Plagg, meanwhile, broke out in a cold sweat. He'd been too obvious. Tikki knew he was watching him, there was no denying that. And she was right. He was waiting on Adrien Agreste—waiting on him to be ready to reform a partnership, that was. Which was a much different kind of "waiting on" than what Tikki assumed. Her kind of "waiting on" was the final part of the partner choosing process, where a kwami waits for the most suitable time to begin a partnership with their chosen human. Keyword there being begin. Not reform. There was an unwritten rule for kwami to never waste time trying to reform a severed partnership. Plagg never was one for rules... But he knew Tikki was.
That left Plagg with only one option.
"Yeah, I've been following Blondie for about a week now," Plagg lied seamlessly. "He's not in the best mental-emotional state right now, though, so I could be waiting on him for a while."
Perfect. Now she won't question me following him around while not doing anything to approach him. Hardly made any of that up either. I'm golden!
Smug with his flawless cover, Plagg felt ballsy enough to counter-question Tikki. "What about you, huh? You following someone at this party, too?"
"W-What?!" Tikki turned rigid and, if even possible, a brighter shade of red.
"That's a resounding yes," Plagg quipped, giving a cheshire grin. "No need to be embarrassed. Who is she? Or is it a he this time? You do tend to get more flustered with guys."
"It's not a guy!" Tikki cried out, clearly uncomfortable.
"Well, then, do I need to point out every girl in the room, or are you gonna give me a hint? I'm not much for 'I Spy'."
"Her!" Tikki reluctantly exploded, singling out Marinette. As Plagg followed her finger, Tikki beat her wings anxiously, every part of her rejecting the lies she was about to spin.
"Ha! Couldn't have picked her better myself!" Plagg burst out. "That woman has reduced my kid to a puddle in under a minute. Good, he'll need that kind of girl to keep him in check. She's got my stamp of approval, alright. Got quite a similar vibe to the last one, if you ask me."
Tikki's nervous laughter went unnoticed.
"What's holding ya back? She seems just right to me." Plagg asked once he finished evaluating.
Tikki swallowed loudly. "I've been following her for a while. She's got some memory issues and I'm just waiting for her to stabilize."
A half lie. It was the best she could manage.
"Wow, that's some shit luck." Plagg gave the woman another look. She seemed quite stable. Then again, Adrien's issues lurked below the surface. He shouldn't be so quick to judge. "Well, if there's an upside to any of this, it looks like we might just end up waiting it out together. These two seem to be hitting it off just fine, and next thing ya know—wait, shit, where'd they go?"
There was a noticeable gap in the dance floor where their prospective "new" partners once stood. After briefly searching the crowd, the kwami flew around front to catch the tail end of Alya breaking the news to Adrien.
Plagg's face automatically fell to match his partner's. Just as he thought something was finally going right, Plagg got to witness yet another piece of Adrien's heart be broken. Tikki's comforting hand found its way to Plagg's shoulder, and while he might have normally shrugged it off, the kwami let it rest there.
"We might be left waiting a while," Plagg admitted solemnly.
A/N: Tikki and Plagg are back, guys! And what's the first thing they do after being apart so long? Lie, of course! Both Tikki and Plagg have decided to commit a social taboo among kwami and stick around for the opportune moment to rejoin their old partners, and they each intend to get away with it by pretending that Marinette and Adrien are actually the new, soon-to-be Ladybug and Chat Noir and not the dynamic duo from seven years ago. Marinette kept Chat Noir's secret identity from even Tikki, and Plagg hardly seems to remember Adrien's old classmate... How long will it take for them to connect the dots between secret identities and unravel the web of lies surrounding their past partners?
The plot's about to take another turn.
I love me some foreshadowing... How well have you been paying attention?
