I really just want to say thanks. I love this fandom, and I love this story…just the overwhelming excitement for this fic makes me so so happy. Everything that happens is really just me saying 'whatever, I want to see this'. Does it make sense? Not always. Is everyone completely in character? Maybe. Am I having a blast? Absolutely!
Thank you for all the comments and kudos!
And sorry for the wait. Wedding planning!
—
Day three, Adrien awoke on the pillow. He was used to it now, officially. How scary a thought!
Plagg had laid out his outfit, thankfully so Adrien could approve, or at least warm up to the idea.
It was one of the shirts that Marinette had Frankensteined together from the pieces they had found. Absolutely gaudy, atrocious, and a pain to look at. Stripes, polka dots, plaid, little patterns of flowers, all saturated as far top right of the Hue/Sat scale as possible.
It would make his father cry. It would set the media into a frenzy. It was glorious, and that scared Adrien.
It scared him that he was starting to come around. He was starting to enjoy this reckless abandon. It was cathartic to watch his world shift and change into something more chaotic, and yet somehow pleasant. Organized Chaos.
Plagg came out of the bathroom, devoid of mohawks or any other bizarre hairstyle he could have done. His hair was just swept to the side, combed, but not gelled, into place.
The perfect amount of wild.
"You don't have to wake up when I do." Plagg stated. "I'll just drop you in my pocket."
"It's alright," Adrien assured, yawning. "I'm used to waking up this early."
Plagg dressed quickly, and just as he slid into his moccasins, the room glowed red, and heavy bars slammed shut over the windows.
Both Adrien and Plagg jolted in surprise, Adrien falling into panic.
Plagg just scooped him up, and held him to his chest. "Hey kid, it's alright. You can phase through things. You can escape if you need too."
This helped calm him down slightly, if ever so minutely. Plagg tucked him into his pocket, and confidently walked downstairs.
Gabriel and Nathalie were waiting for him in the foyer.
"What's the deal, old man?" Plagg asked, bluntly. "Akuma attack?"
"No," replied Gabriel, his head held high. "You're grounded. No school. No friends. Nothing."
Plagg scoffed. "I'm under literal house arrest?! Come on! I have a sleepover at Nino's tonight!"
"Did you ask if you could attend this sleepover?"
"No. You were going to say no anyways. Better to beg forgiveness then ask permission and all that."
"Well, that really solidifies my decision to ground you then. You clearly show a clear lack of critical and mature thinking."
"Ah, a pompous way of calling me stupid, hmm?"
Gabriel frowned harder, a line forming at the corner of his mouth. "I am not calling you stupid. I just don't see you making good decisions."
"Gabriel, before this, I wasn't making any decisions. Everything I did was according to your will. How can you be mad at me at being bad at something I have no practice doing?"
Gabriel's eye twitched. "First, do not call me by my first name. Second, I have already made up my mind. If I say you're grounded, then you're grounded. Deal with it."
Oh that was not a good answer. He may have well just said, 'because I say so.'
And Plagg would not stand for it. He wasn't standing for it anyway, but he'd at least be willing to bargain with Gabriel if he was offering some excuse about safety for his well being or something.
This was just a power trip.
"Fine," Plagg smiled maliciously. "Lock me in. But you're locked in with me. And you're going to hate it."
"I don't have time to entertain you, Adrien, go to your room."
As a kwami who spent most days in Adrien's bag, Plagg consumed a lot of media. A pair of headphones, an external battery, and a phone that connected to the school's wifi, Plagg had days to binge all the things that Adrien was interested in.
And some things that Adrien didn't care about, like historical dramas, documentaries, and recently, musicals. Especially for time periods that he had witnessed and experienced. He wasn't omnipotent, so seeing what the humans had thought was important during these periods was fascinating.
But I digress.
The point was that Plagg had a song stuck in his head from a musical and the perfect opportunity to use it had just presented itself.
Gabriel had deemed the conversation over and started to walk back to his office.
"Close every door to me," Plagg sang, in Adrien's sweet voice.
Gabriel halted, but did not turn around.
"Hide all the world from me." Plagg took a step towards him, still singing softly. "Bar all the windows and shut out the light."
Gabriel turned, raising an eyebrow. "If you think serenading me is going to make me change my—"
But Plagg cut him off, raising his voice slightly, "Do what you want with me, hate me and laugh at me."
Gabriel just stared, and listened.
"Darken my daytime and torture my night…" Plagg came closer, singing with feeling, trying to convey, even for an instance, a flicker of the emotions that Adrien had.
"If my life were important I would ask 'will I live or die?' but I know the answers lie far from this world."
This was horrifying to Gabriel, apparently, as he protested. "Of course your life is important! Why do you think I—"
"Close every door to me, keep those I love from me. Children of Israel are never alone."
"Children of—what? We're not even Jewish. What are you singing about?"
"For I know I shall find my own peace of mind. For I have been promised a land of my own."
Confused, Gabriel just scoffed and started back to his office. Plagg stayed hot on his heels.
"Close every door to me, hide all the world from me."
Even Gabriel saw the irony of slamming the office door in Adrien's face, so he resisted, and let his son continue to serenade him into his office.
"Bar all the windows and shut out the light."
Gabriel stood at his workstation, determined to ignore his son's weird emotional outburst, and opened his recent project.
"Just give me a number instead of my name. Forget all about me and let me decay."
Plagg fought the smile of victory when Gabriel hunched his shoulders. Was that guilt on his face? Perhaps Gabriel wasn't as shallow as Plagg had thought and lyrics like this would get through to him.
"I do not matter, I'm only one person. Destroy me completely, then throw me away."
And Gabriel sat, staring with his wide gray eyes. His full attention on his son.
"If my life were important I would ask 'will I live or die?' But I know the answers lie far from this world."
Plagg pounded his fists on the workspace, crying out the words with passion, actually making Gabriel jump.
"Close every door to me! Keep those I love from me!" He leapt up on a coffee table, putting his entire body, his very soul into this performance. "Children of Israel are never alone!"
Gabriel couldn't move. Why couldn't he move?
"For we know we shall find our own peace of mind! For we have been promised a land of our own!" He held out that final note, letting it hang in the air, as Gabriel continued to stare, mouth slightly open.
Truth me told, Plagg was just intending to annoy him to freedom, but had the song choice done more? Did Gabriel finally understand?
"Well," Gabriel adjusted his glasses. "That was...certainly something. If I knew you could sing like that, I would have tried to find a use for it. Never mind, I'll add it to your resume now."
No. It seemed that Gabriel was as stubborn and obtuse as ever.
"Close every door to me," Plagg began again.
"No no no," Gabriel spoke over him. "One performance is more than enough."
"Hide all the world from me."
"Adrien!"
"Darken my daytime, and torture my night."
Gabriel groaned, and made an effort to ignore Plagg again. A real effort this time, with no eye contact and no facial expression. When that didn't work, he moved from his workstation and went to grab Adrien. But Plagg evaded him, continuing to sing, with every grasp.
How many times did he cycle through the song? His throat hurt, as every time he reached the climax, he belted out the notes with passion.
It would be surprising if no one outside could hear him.
He climbed up on a table. "If my life were important I would ask will I live or die—"
"Enough! Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up!" Gabriel shouted. "I can't take this anymore!" He bolted over to the security control panel, and shut off the lock down. The bars on the windows disappeared.
"Go...please, just go." Gabriel said desperately.
"Cool, thanks dad!" Plagg said cheerfully, skipping out of the room.
Gabriel collapsed onto his workstation.
Whatever tricks Adrien had learned, whatever manipulation guru he had visited, he was good. Very very good. It would take a while to get him back under his thumb. And he might need to resort to more drastic measures.
What was more drastic than putting the house into lockdown? He'd need a little while to contemplate that.
—
Plagg had missed several morning classes thanks to Gabriel's stunt, but his friends heaved a relaxed sigh when he arrived.
"Hey hey hey!" He sang, coming in the door. "What's happening, party people?"
"Mr. Agreste!" Miss Mendeleev barked. "You better have a good excuse for being tardy!"
"A great excuse! My dad shut the house down to ground me, and I had to annoy him with Broadway until he opened up. He was a lot more patient than I expected."
"Are you serious?" Miss Mendeleev asked.
"Madam, do you really think that my father, fashion mogul, would allow me to leave the house like this?" He gestured to his mismatched outfit.
"Point taken. You may take your seat."
Plagg shot a thumbs up to his friends.
—
After school, the group of four piled into Nino's family car and headed over to his house.
"I'm so excited! My first sleepover!" The excitement was genuine, as this truly was Plagg's first sleepover. Of course, his whole life had consisted in sleeping in different places that weren't his home (the Miracle Box) but the concept of going to a friends house to eat food and gossip all night long was novel and exciting.
"What curfew do you girls have?" Mrs. Lahiffe asked.
"I have until 11," beamed Alya.
"I have to leave at 9," Marinette pouted. "I have to help my parents in the bakery tomorrow."
It was also Ladybug's solo patrol tonight, Plagg noted to himself. Kind of a saving grace, since Chat certainly wasn't going to be on it.
"I'll be sure to count you both for dinner then!" Mrs. Lahiffe chirped.
Adrien had been to Nino's house a handful of times, all under the pretense of working on homework of course. And it wasn't a house either, it was an apartment, like most residences in Paris. It was warm, not always clean, and the smell of their cat's litter was just a hint in the air.
Major Tom was a right good cat. An old gray tabby, who was far too wise for his own good. Plagg had met this family member in person, since the cat was still pretty curious in his age.
As soon as the group of friends entered the apartment, Major Tom stretched and trotted toward them, toward Plagg, and rubbed against his leg.
"Hi Tommy," Plagg smiled, an inside joke passing between them.
"I swear," said Nino with defeat. "Major Tom likes you more than anyone else in this house...and you've barely met him."
Plagg just shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a pussy magnet."
"DUDE! My mom is right there!"
Mrs. Lahiffe was not amused, but the furious giggling from behind him made it all worth it, he supposed.
"Sorry mom, Adrien's going through a rebellious streak. He doesn't usually make jokes like that."
"Yeah, sorry, Uh...I just couldn't pass up the opportunity."
Mrs. Lahiffe shook her head. "I noticed your outfit was rather...daring. Is that from your father's new collection?"
"Nope! This is a Marinette original!"
Marinette smacked him in the arm. "I told you not to associate me with that abomination!" She turned to Mrs. Lahiffe and quickly clarified, "He designed it and I carried out the deed."
"Oh you kids are so funny!" She laughed. "Well, you didn't come over to entertain me! Go have fun, I'll get pizza around 6?"
"Thanks mom!"
"Thanks Mrs. Lahiffe!"
On the way to Nino's room, he asked. "What movie do you guys want to watch tonight?"
Plagg grinned, "Have you ever seen Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat?"
—
Chapter is kind of short, but I have delayed it long enough, and sleepover shenanigans need their own chapter.
The song Plagg sang was 'Close Every Door' from Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.