"Have you found it yet?" Ladybug asked.
"No," I said as I pushed aside a pile of candy wrappers. Eww, I did not want to know why they were slimy. At least Plagg's had the worst end of it. He was currently searching under the heap of garbage I was in.
"Why did you have to lose your miraculous in the garbage bin?" Ladybug grumbled.
I bristled. Was she trying to blame me for this? "And who was the one who threw me in-"
"I didn't mean for you to land in there. I was trying to keep you from getting hit by an ice cream blast."
I huffed. As true as that was, it didn't make the current situation any better.
The container jostled hard, flinging me to one side and tossing trash into the air.
"Hey," I complained, "I'm getting tossed like a salad in here."
Ladybug didn't respond. The container jostled again, harder this time. My head hit the lid of the container and I landed hard on my back.
What the heck was going on out there? I rubbed where a bump was forming on my head before remembering that my hands had just been sorting garbage. Great, I was definitely going to need a shower after this.
As I was regretting my current life choices that lead to this moment, a movement from the corner of eye caught my attention. A mini pizza box had moved suddenly. I watched it for a moment and it moved again. It was as if there was something inside it trying to push the lid open.
I slowly reach a hand out towards it and pinch the corner of the lid.
Please don't let it be a rat. Please don't be a rat.
In one quick movement, I flipped the lid to reveal Plagg sitting there with a smug look on his face and a bit of drool coming out of the corner of his mouth.
"Plagg you pig. Have you been eating this whole time?"
He belched, "Maybe."
"You were supposed to be helping me look for the miraculous."
"That was good cheese," he cooed unapologetically.
"Ugh, Plagg! Paris is in danger."
"But the cheese was in danger."
"OF WHAT?"
"Being wasted." Plagg wailed.
"Will you two stop bickering and get back to finding the miraculous?" Ladybug snapped.
The garbage container jostled hard again before rolling over twice and spitting me along with half of its rubbish out. I landed hard tumbling almost head over heels before skidding to a halt on my back.
Oww. I think I now had a good case of road rash. Wincing, I sat up and took in my surroundings.
I had landed in an abandoned narrow alleyway. The garbage bin lay in front of me, its contents strung out in a way that would give Rogercop an aneurysm. Beyond that was Ladybug, face down on the ground. She must have belly flopped the ground and I winced at the thought.
She groaned before lifting her head. It swung in an almost pendulum-like way before locking eye contact with me.
Shoot, I'm not Chat Noir right now. She's not supposed to see me. Whelp there goes my secret identity. She's going to be angry about this later. Or maybe not. Could I pass this off as me passing by and Chat Noir MIA? One glance at my disheveled clothing had me disregarding that idea. There was no way she would accept that idea with how I looked. She was too smart for that.
Why hadn't she said anything? Shouldn't she have some sort of reaction to find out her partner's identity?
She hadn't even moved since she first locked eyes with me. She had just been sitting there intensely staring at me. How angry was she? She couldn't be that angry. This wasn't even my fault. If anything the blame was on her. And Plagg. Yeah this was Plagg's fault.
"Ah, hey," I said meekly and her stoic expression broke into a huge grin.
"Hehe," she giggled. She rested her chin on her palm and I could practically see the hearts in her eyes as she gazed at me.
"Adrien," she cooed.
My eyes widen in horror. Oh, no. She had been hit.
"Plagg!" I cried, flipping over and scrambling to my feet, "find the miraculous!" I fled the alleyway, escaping from my love struck partner before she could get to her feet .
"Adrien," Ladybug called after me, "where are you going?"
