Note: I'm back after slightly disabling my laptop (now recovered, it only fails to recognize the main battery in Suse Linux) after an attempt to play a film on it ...
Master of Gods
The two old monks left the small room and the two young monks followed. The two teens were left alone with their mixed feelings because of the events that just unfolded. Were they really married? They both shook their heads simultaneously to shake off the thought.
And then, there was the miracle box. They were just assigned to share the duty of the guardian. Marinette was supposed to teach Adrien what to do. She took a deep breath. It was a perfect way to distract herself from what just happened. She motioned towards the miracle box and Adrien nodded.
Marinette out on the pendant necklace first.
"Hello master." Mullo greeted.
"Hi Mullo." Marinette smiled. "Do you recognize where you are?" She had took the mouse miraculous on purpose as the tiny mouse kwami seemed very homesick about the temple.
"I do." Mullo exclaimed while he floated around excitedly. "I do recognize!"
Adrien watched the tiny kwami as it floated around with amusement. "The mouse is so cute." He whispered. Then he looked at Marinette. She was so cute as Multimouse. And he was so sure she was Ladybug just until the moment he thought he saw the two of them side by side.
"And I am not cute?" Plagg muttered from his position on Adrian's shoulder. The boy snickered in response and patted the tiny black cat. "You are too grumpy to be called cute, Plagg."
"Be careful, there are many civilians around." Marinette added. "Please stay in this room." The girl pleaded to the tiny mouse kwami.
"But the monks, they can see me!" Mullo protested while she floated in front of the entrance to the room that was hidden behind a tapestry.
"There are students who are not supposed to see you." Marinette smiled. "Please come back. Let me introduce you to Chat Noir and my fellow guardian." The girl spoke as she motioned towards Adrien.
The boy smiled widely. Plagg sat on his shoulder and pretended not to be interested and looked away to the empty wall beside the boy.
Mullo floated closer to the boy.
"Plagg?" Mullo called excitedly.
"Yes it is me Mullo, I usually accompany Chat Noir." Plagg muttered.
"Don't be such a grumpy cat." Adrien teased.
"He is just pretending, he is just as excited and happy as I am." Tikki chirped as she floated over to Adrien's face and nuzzled him then she turned towards Mullo and smiled widely.
Marinette put on the comb and Pollen appeared.
"Hey, Pollen, come over and meet Chat Noir, and our new guardian." Mullo exclaimed to the newly appeared Kwami.
Finally Marinette put on the choker and Longg appeared. She was pulled over to meet Adrien too.
"You are our new master? " Longg asked incredulously.
Adrien smiled shyly and nodded.
"How do we call you?" Longg inquired.
"You can call me Adrien." The boy replied politely and smiled.
"What about her?" Pollen asked incredulously as she floated over to Marinette.
"They are both our guardians." Tikki chirped.
"They are sharing the duty." Plagg added as he floated in front of Adrien's nose and faced the other kwami. He was not even trying to hide the pride in his chosen.
Adrien tried to look at Plagg, but the kwami was too close to his face. The boy just giggled at the kwami. His face was almost split with a wide grin as the Kwami examined him.
Then he took two bracelets for the snake and the turtle miraculous and went for the circlet of the monkey kwami but Marinette waved her head.
"Perhaps not for your first time." she smiled. "You better chose something else."
Finally he took the fox miraculous pendant necklace.
Sass appeared first when he put on the bracelet.
"Hello Master." Sass greeted and bowed his head.
"Hi Sass, remember me?" Adrien smiled at the small snake like kwami.
"I remember you, I thought you have given up on wielding me as Aspik." Sass replied.
"Oh, no, I am a new guardian." Adrien smiled. "I share the duty with Marinette." The boy looked at the girl and smiled gently.
Sass turned around and looked at Marinette, then he looked back towards Adrien with a knowing smile on his face.
Tikki floated over and waved her head with a warning flashing from her eyes.
"Soooo." Sass drawled the 'o'. "You share the guardian duty?" The tiny kwami stressed the word share and duty while he turned around towards the girl and then back at the boy. "So soon, I see." The tiny kwami grinned. There was a knowing spark in his eyes.
"Sass?" Tikki called as she floated straight into him and pulled him aside. "Was that your plan? From the start? When you read her diary and … " Tikki whisper shouted at the other kwami. At least Plagg was able to hear each word and floated over. The other kwami and two kids mostly just laughed at Tikki and Sass.
Adrien put on the other bracelet and Wayzz appeared.
"Hello Wayzz." Adrien greeted with a smile and explained the situation briefly before he put on the pendant necklace and greeted Trixx.
Wayzz was cool about having two guardians and spoke to them slowly and calmly while Trixx pounced all over the two teens. Mullo nuzzled Marinette gently and Longg floated calmly on the side.
In the meantime, Tikki was scolding Sass and Plagg looked like he was having time of his life.
"Have you made them come all the way over here only to make them share the duty?" Tikki whisper shouted.
"They fought Hawk Moth, they won." Plagg teased Sass, but it was Tikki who returned and incredulous look. Sass looked surprised at first, but then he calmed down and assumed his usual cool composure.
"And that too? You see," Sass smiled slyly. "I was right, they had to come over here." But the tone of his voice made sure that both other kwami in the conversation knew that was just a byproduct.
"Yes but you!" Tikki was obviously not very happy about Sass.
"Yes but I what?" Sass replied with a smug expression on his face.
"What have you done?" Plagg inquired, he was just so curious, he had to know what made his Sugarcube so angry.
"Well perhaps I might have read our guardian's diary." Sass rolled his eyes while he spoke.
"Her diary?" Plagg whispered as he got even closer to Sass. Because now they had two guaridans, and Plagg knew Sass did not read Adrien's diary, because there was none.
"Yeah, she wrote about how much she loved your chosen and how she even gave him to wield me that one time." Sass spoke with a smug grin.
"Yes, I remember that." Plagg was not remembering any happy memories from the time Adrien spent as Aspik. Then he spoke louder, intentionally, so the boy could hear him. "He only wielded the snake miraculous to impress her." And there was no hint of jealousy in Plagg's tone, none whatsoever, he was not jealous because his chosen decided to take the Snake miraculous from Ladybug just because he had a crush on her. Nope. And he was not so perry to be jealous because he was left aside while his boy tried and tried (and failed and failed) to have a successful battle while wielding only the snake miraculous. It worked fine in the end when they combined, but, there was still this remaining pain. Not that Plagg remembered all the attempts, it was a single five minutes span for the black cat kwami.
"Plagg!" Adrien blushed severely as he tried to stop his kwami from talking.
"What? You have." Plagg grinned. "And you failed. Miserably." The little black cat teased further. It was clear that Plagg meant 'that he failed impressing Ladybug' not only that he failed as Aspik.
"Actually, you are wrong about that." Sass smirked as he looked at the boy.
There was hopeful expression on Adrien's face.
"Oh, trust me, you could not be more wrong." Sass returned a knowing look.
Tikki floated over to Sass and put her tiny paws at her hips.
"You. Are. Not. Going. There." The tiny red kwami threatened the snake kwami.
Adrien looked over towards the girl who was slightly blushing.
"I, um, appreciated your wisdom when you gave up the miraculous for Luka." Marinette said sheepishly.
Tikki, Plagg and Sass all smirked with a same knowing look on their faces, she only gave him the miraculous because she liked him (and believed in him).
"So you are our new guardian too?" Trixx pounced around Adrien.
"I am honoured to meet you." Pollen floated over and chased Trixx around.
Adrien aughed.
"Are you from a respectable family?" Longg inquired as she floated over Adrien's face.
"I can't say that I am from a respectable family any more." He said with a hint of sadness in his tone, but his face looked happy because of the kwami.
"His father used to be Hawk Moth." Plagg stated simply. All the kwami looked at the boy with strange expressions on their face.
"But my chosen fought him and won." The tiny black cat floated proudly as he recited the words.
"They did it together." Tikki chirped. "Hawk Moth and Mayura are defeated."
There were cheers coming from the kwami.
"They fought in the temple and won while not transformed." Plagg stressed. But then he suddenly changed the expression on his face and looked up as if he was trying to compute something. Did that mean that his chosen did not exactly need him (his kwami) to win? Was that a good thing for Plagg's ego? The tiny god of destruction was not so sure about that any more. But he was proud of the boy nevertheless.
"But what about Nooroo and Duusu?" Mullo asked.
"We have put the jewels in the miracle box." Marinette spoke slightly confused. She expected the other kwami already knew.
"They are still too weak to be active in the magical world." Tikki chirped.
"Yeah, they get to snooze their lazy butts." Plagg teased while it was not only Tikki who glared at him.
"But we got them to appear, they have spoken with us." Adrien protested.
"Hawk Moth and Mayura spent a lot of time in the temple transformed." Plagg shrugged.
"But you two were looking for them in the miracle box?" Marinette was confused.
"Yes we did, and we did not find them." Tikki confirmed in a light hearted tone.
Trixx, Mullo, Pollen and Wayzz gave her an incredulous look.
Sass and Longg exchanged a knowing look and sighed together.
"Our chosen brought them back to speak with us." Tikki chirped proudly "We have seen them." she continued in a cheerful tone..
"This is how they are the new guardians now!" Plagg stated as he tried to be even more proud than Tikki. Sass looked at Plagg with a knowing look that said 'We both know that is not how you become to share the duty of a guardian."
"But! We put the brooch and the pin in the miracle box." Marinette tried to understand what was going on. There were too many things she did not know, suddenly she was not so self assured about being a guardian. She wondered if that was a good decision they have made.
"Haven't you met them in your magic world?" Adrien asked cautiously, he was not sure if his question made much sense. He had absolutely no experience as a guardian. And now he was named one, he was to be trained by Marinette. So he faced the girl as he put the question as if he expected her to answer it and she smiled lightly.
"No." Pollen and Trixx waved their heads together.
"We have not seen them." Mullo replied as she floated over to Marinette.
"We have not expected to see them." Sass continued.
"We would have felt their presence." Wayzz added.
"That is because they were not there." Longg finished.
Then there was a short moment of silence.
"Um, as a Guardian, I do not know much how your magic world works." Marinette admitted. Adrien just smiled sheepishly at the kwami, slightly relieved that they both did not know.
"We are still in the temple." Longg finally spoke solemnly.
"The magic works differently in here." Mullo piped in hopefully.
"Yes, yes! Have you?" Trixx floated over eagerly
"Have you found the cursed stone?" Pollen elaborated the question further.
Sass raised an eyebrow (that thing above his eyes anyway)
Tikki and Plagg looked uncomfortable.
"I, um, I thought I did." Marinette spoke slowly. "But then Hawk Moth took it and nothing happened." She continued as she looked to her hands. "He even threw it at Mayura and hit her brooch." She sighed. "But they did not detransform, nothing happened." Marinette sounded exasperated.
"That is excellent news for Nooroo and Duusu, actually." Sass retorted.
"We kwami are not supposed to know how it works." Tikki chirped in.
"We were not really supposed to know where it is and even to know for sure about its existence." Plagg continued as his eyes glinted with mischievousness.
Marinette and Adrien looked at their kwami, they were both there and now they could know which stone it was from the description of the fight the girl just gave.
"Only the temple guardians know." Sass cut in as he eyed both kwami, it was clear to the floating snake that the two kwami saw the stone or at least knew something more about it.
"Pema and Dorje, they were there." Adrien whispered as he looked Marinette in her eyes and the girl looked back. So the temple guardians knew that Plagg and Tikki probably saw it and possibly knew. The girl expected that the two temple guardians were moving the stone.
"Anyway, we were talking about Nooroo and Duusu in the magic world of the miracle box." Marinette switched the subject quickly.
"Perhaps we should move the box outside the temple if the magic interferes … " Adrien spoke but he was quickly cut off.
"No" there was a collective shout from the eight kwami.
"It is important for them to stay in the temple for as long as possible." Wayzz was the first to speak.
"Um." Marinette replied wisely as she looked at the boy. Adrien shifted in his place.
"We are supposed to leave tomorrow morning." Adrien spoke quietly.
"You will have to leave them here then." Sass shrugged.
"Oh no." Mullo whispered.
"They need their time to recover and they will recover faster if they are here." Longg continued.
"But it was Marinette and Adrien who brought them back." Tikki protested.
"It might be better for them to go with us and the miracle box." Plagg continued.
"Can't you stay here?" Mullo whispered.
"Do you have to leave?" Pollen inquired.
Adrien sighed. To be honest he was asking himself the same question, he wanted to stay. He dreaded to come back to Paris. There were too many uncertainties. He wanted to stay in the temple with Marinette, with Dorje and Pema to teach them.
But other students would leave the temple, he would loose all other social interactions, there would be no Ling and Ye. He had friends in Paris.
"Um, we will have to leave to get some food for ourselves. Please eat before we put the miraculous jewels beck to the box." Marinette smiled to the kwami. They ate and floated around bantering at each other while Marinette and Adrien laughed at their antics. Then they took off the extra jewels and put them away in the box.
"I think we should leave the box here until this evening." Marinette smiled.
"I'd like to meet more kwami." Adrien smiled back as they finally left for lunch.