(A/N:Hey hey hey everybody, chapter five is in the house, I hope you guys love it because I work really hard on this one and I loved the way it turned out, now then lets see if Dallas is gonna live or die, DUH DUH DUH! I can't afford an orchestra get off my ass.)
Chapter 5: Mistaken identity
Cat Noir managed to get Dallas to the hospital just before he turned back into Adrien, and just out of view of the front door of the hospital itself. He ran into the lobby and cried out. "Help, I need help over here…" The hospital staff turned and saw one boy over another boy's shoulder and bleeding profusely. "He's been shot, he's gonna die he needs help."
"Code blue…" One of the nurses cried out as two more nurses grabbed a stretcher and placed Dallas on it. "Get him to the ER stat." They wheeled him off into the hospital and off to the ER. Dallas woke up in a hospital bed about three days later, he tried to sit up but felt the pain in his stomach prevent that.
"Oh good, your finally awake." A voice sitting next to him said. Dallas turned around and saw some random Blond boy sitting next to him.
"Where the hell am I?" Dallas asked feeling a bit groggy from the painkillers.
"St. Dismas general hospital. You got shot and I…saw Cat Noir bring you here." Adrien replied as he closed his magazine and walked over to his bed side.
"Who the hell are you anyway?" Dallas asked still unsure why some random kid was in his room with him.
"I'm Adrien, Adrien Agreste." He answered as he extended his hand for him to shake, Dallas knew that name from when he had first met Ladybug the night he'd been shot.
"Dallas Jones, and it seems you know some pretty interesting people Mr. Agreste." Adrien assumed that he meant that as in his reputation proceeded him, but didn't really realize what he was talking about.
"Yeah I do know some pretty cool people, the queen of England, Tyra Banks, LeBron James…" He replied as he listed all the high end people he'd met threw his career as a model. Then Dallas added just for the hell of it.
"Ladybug?" Adrien was in shock at this sudden assumption, then he began to panic.
"What? No, not Ladybug. I mean don't get me wrong I've met her a few times because she's saved my life from an Akumaa or two but I don't really know her." He stated with honesty, but after what he'd seen in Marinette's room he now had his suspicions.
"Dude, don't bother denying it, she already told me that she was a friend of yours, and for some reason she thinks I attacked you or something." Dallas said as he just laid back in the bed.
Adrien was shocked by this sudden reveal, I knew it, he thought to himself, I knew I saw Ladybug that day, then that must mean…no, no I can't just jump to conclusions just yet, not without proof.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" Dallas asked very nonchalantly, Adrien nodded his head then Dallas continued. "Why are you here? You don't even know me."
Adrien was prepared for this and said. "I made a mistake, I was attacked by someone earlier this week and I…sort of confused the guy who did it for you, you see…he looked a lot like you, brown hair, American flag based attire, Latino ethnicity…" Dallas suddenly stopped him right there with a hint of annoyance.
"Okay first of all I'm not Latino, I'm Lakota." Adrien had no idea as to what he was talking about and asked.
"Come again?" Dallas rolled his eyes and said.
"Typical, you don't know about my tribal roots, can't say I'm surprised though." As soon as he'd said tribal roots Adrien then put two and two together and realized what he was talking about.
"Oh you're an Indian." Adrien summarized, Dallas then said with more annoyance.
"Don't insult me, I'm native American not an Indian, Indians come from India, I came from Arizona, or at least I think I did, mom was a gypsy and she liked to roam around a lot, as for my dad he was Lakota all the way." Adrien was quick to apologize.
"Sorry, we don't get a lot of in-…I mean native Americans here in Paris, which brings me to ask why are you in Paris exactly?" Adrien asked curiously.
"Two words my friend, foster…care." Dallas replied counting out on two fingers.
"Well I guess your probably one of the luckiest foster kids there is. I'll bet there are tons of foster kids that would kill to be here." Adrien stated with a smile, which was short lived when Dallas said with a sarcastic tone.
"Oh yeah I just feel soooo blessed. Give me the solitary life any day, foster care sucks hairy balls." Dallas seethed as he looked away from Adrien.
"What, you don't like your foster family?" Adrien asked, He didn't answer him with words, rather just a shake of the head. "What's wrong with them? Is there something wrong with them?" Dallas knew he wouldn't be able to dodge this question so he just took a deep breath and said.
"It's not them, it's...me actually." Adrien was confused, then Dallas continued. "Most foster families are great, or at least most of the ones I've been in are. But the system is anything but perfect, way too many kids in foster care either get abused, raped, neglected or just plain ignored by their foster parents. Oh but child services would rather go to hell than admit the truth about it, their system is flawed and they know it. They just won't admit it, which leaves us foster kids with a difficult choice, we can try to run, obviously, but that's no guarantee that we'll be okay in the long hall, sometimes were just brought right back to those bastards and even when we tell the cops why we tried to run they never believe us, they just think that were nothing but delinquents who just get off by getting into trouble somewhere else." Dallas paused for a second before he continued, Adrien quickly began to realize why Dallas was the way he was wasn't his choice. "And as for the ones who get away, they either whore themselves out or are forced to join a gang in order to survive kinda like I did, of course those are the lucky ones, others are forced into white slavery and are made to do whatever they're told until they die."
"So...you joined a gang? Is that why you got shot?" Adrien asked trying to sound clueless.
"Yeah but that's only the tip of the iceberg, I tried to screw the big boss out of a million euros by hacking his personal bank accounts, as you can see that didn't really work out for me, and now Antonio Lorenzo is pissed and wants me dead. But I've managed to survive this long so maybe I'll get lucky. But I doubt it, truth of the matter is I'm probably going to die and that's that. Not that it matters though." Dallas said as he just looked away from Adrien.
Then Adrien asked sort of confused. "What do you mean it doesn't matter? Of course it does, I mean what about your family? Don't you think they'll be upset if you die?"
Dallas looked back at him and said. "Seriously? Dude, both my parents are dead, I have a brother but he's in the Missouri state pen, I have an uncle in South Dakota but he could care less about me, which is why he just let child services take me away. Which brings me to my current situation. So would it actually matter at this point? I think not because other than my brother no one would bat an eyelash if I died right now, but to be honest I'd be fine with that cause my life has basically sucked so hard sense I lost my mom."
Adrien wanted to tell him how sorry he was for him, he had no idea of the kind of hell he'd been through. I was so quick to judge him for what he did to me that I didn't even consider that something may have made him this way, I'm such an asshole, he thought to himself.
"So…how is it you're so well connected with people from the higher end of society?" Dallas asked trying to change the subject.
Adrien just chuckled a bit then asked back. "You haven't been in Paris very long have you?"
Dallas looked back at Adrien with a weird look. "What's that supposed to mean?" He asked very nonchalantly. Adrien pulled out his phone and googled his name and showed Dallas all of the magazine covers he'd posed for.
"I'm a teen model, one of the most famous in Paris to be exact." Dallas just combed over each and every picture he saw one by one, one of them caught his eye especially, one that he'd seen in the U.S. before he came to Paris.
"Adrien the fragrance? Wait, you're the kid from that annoying cologne commercial? Oy, just when I thought I'd finally escaped it, it comes back to haunt me." Dallas said with an eye roll.
"Oh don't even start, that commercial was way worse for me. I couldn't even go to the movies without getting mobbed by a swarm of my fans, also got chased by my Akumitized bodyguard in the process." Adrien countered with a casual smile.
"Yeah I've been hearing that word a lot lately, what's the deal with these Akuna matata things anyway?" Dallas asked curiously.
"It's pronounced Akumaa actually, and they're pretty much the servants of a super villain by the name of Hawkmoth and…" As Adrien began to explain but Dallas just started to snicker.
"I'm sorry, but seriously? Hawkmoth? What kind of a super villain name is that? What did he just look in the mirror one morning and say to himself "what's a super badass name I should go with as a villain? Ooh I know, how's about Hawkmoth?" I mean seriously, there has got to be way better names than that. I'm mean it sounds like a hawk fucked a moth and crapped out some unholy monstrosity from hell or something. Or at the very least it sounds like someones hacking up a loogy. You know, 'HACK-moth'." Dallas joked as he took notice that Adrien wasn't getting the joke. "Eh what ever man that was funny."
Adrien shook his head and said. "No, it really wasn't."
Dallas rolled his eyes and said. "Well it's a lot better than the gimp cat's lame cat puns."
Adrien frowned and narrowed his eyes and said sort of angrily. "That so called gimp cat as you call him saved your life, and he's also saved the lives of so many others in this city and he deserves some respect because if it wasn't for him you'd be dead right now and you know it."
Dallas felt the sting of his words to be true, he'd been hurt before but this was the first time he'd ever come close to death. He just sighed and said. "Your right, I do owe him that much. But I don't have to forgive him for fucking up my nose, the same can be said for his partner Ladybitch. Did you know she punched the crap out of me the other night? All because I said that she was too good for Cat Noir and whoever's her new boo. Granted I could've worded it better but still she didn't have to beat me like a piñata, let alone while I was tied to a lamp post like a beast of burden." Adrien began to snicker, then Dallas glared at him. "You think that's funny mother fucker?" He snapped at Adrien, and immediately regretted it as it hurt his ribs to yell. "AH, fuck that hurts." He winced in pain as he leaned back again slowly.
"Just try to relax, I'll go get the doctor to see if you need anything." Adrien got up and started toward the door, when Dallas stopped him.
"Hey pretty boy…" He said to get his attention. Adrien was about to make a joke about him being attracted to him when he continued. "You never told me why you came here, other than a mistaken identity."
Adrien wasn't really prepared for this question but answered the best way he could. "Because I wanted to apologize…I was quick to judge someone I didn't even know for something that he didn't really do and I wouldn't have cared in the end if you were convicted. So for that I'm sorry." He then continued out the door leaving a very confused and somewhat ashamed Dallas.
Damn that pretty boy, he thought to himself, he made me realize that I did the same damn thing to…him, stupid model, stupid cat, stupid fucking everybody. Dallas then looked over at the window and saw something just sitting there sleeping, it was small and black and looked like a cat of some kind. "What the fuck kind of cat is that?"
That's when Plagg rose up from his nap and stretched. "Adrien…" He yawned. "Is it time to go home now? I'm starting to feel…uh-oh." Plagg stopped when he caught sight of Dallas sitting there with his mouth a gape. Plagg realized he was in trouble. Out of desperation he simply did what he thought would work for him. "Uh…meow?" Dallas then let out a scream that could wake the dead. Plagg himself screamed and flew through the window and out of sight.
"Nurse, Doctor, someone get in here!" He called out to anyone who'd listen. A doctor, a nurse and Adrien all ran into the room to find a very frightened Dallas Jones hyperventilating.
"Mr. Jones what's the matter?" The doctor ran over to his bed side and tried to calm his patient.
"I saw a demon, a demon cat! It was sitting right there on the windowsill, and it could talk too…" This of course made no sense to the doctor or the nurse, but Adrien knew right away what it was he was talking about.
"Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones it's alright, it's just a side effect from the painkillers, it's just a minor hallucination nothing more." The doctor tried to reason, but Dallas was quick to announce.
"But it knew him…it knew his name!" He pointed to Adrien. "It even asked if it was time to go home yet, why would it…" The doctor then started to try and justify this.
"Mr. Jones these hallucinations always act at random, sometimes they react to your subconscious…" Then Plagg flew up behind them all and started taunting Dallas with a series of funny faces and dances like the can-can, salsa, an Irish tap dance, the Charleston and flossing. "It's more than likely that you just want to leave and this is your subconscious way of telling you that." But Dallas barely heard a word as he was being terrorized by the Kwami floating behind everyone. Adrien got the feeling that Plagg was now intentionally screwing with him and just casually looked up to where he assumed Dallas could see the mischievous little creature, just as soon as Plagg saw this he flew behind Adrien and into his over shirt's inner pocket. "Don't worry about this Mr. Jones, you will be fine, now get some rest."
The doctor and the nurse left the room and Adrien followed suit. "I'll come by and see you tomorrow if you'd like, I don't really have a lot going on as it is, and I have a feeling that your foster family doesn't know you're here yet."
Dallas nodded his head and said. "Yeah, that would be great…hey uh Adrien?" He stopped before he left the room and turned around to face him.
"Yeah?" Dallas then said very nonchalantly.
"For what it's worth, I forgive you." Adrien then asked a bit confused.
"For what?" Dallas then answered.
"Mistaking me for someone else, and also calling me a Latino, and an Indian." Adrien smiled as he walked out the door and shut it behind him.
"Plagg…" Adrien growled as he opened up his over shirt and found he wasn't in there, he was puzzled, until he heard another scream from Dallas's room. "Ugh, damn that little cheese eating bastard."
He opened the door and saw Plagg terrorizing him again, this time he was right up in Dallas's face and making ghostly moaning sounds. "WoOooOooOO…I'm here for your soul Dallas Jones, WOoOooooOOo…"
Dallas was absolutely terrified, sense he was part gypsy that meant he was a firm believer in evil spirits. "Get away from me demon!" He bellowed as he swung his hand at Plagg and made contact and sent him flying across the room and hitting the wall face first.
"Ow..." Plagg groaned as he slid down the wall and moaned as he hit the floor. Dallas then realized he'd just touched him and now he knew he wasn't just seeing things.
"I touched it, oh god it's in the material world!" Dallas began to freak out even more at this point, he just started to scream and shout. "Deval (The gypsy word for god), Wakan Takan, which ever one of you protect me from this monstrosity."
Adrien knew he had to intervene, so he just walked over to him and said. "Dallas, calm down, there is literally nothing there." He lied for obvious reasons, he knew he had to let him think Plagg was just a figment of his imagination.
"But but but…" Dallas tried to convince him that he wasn't seeing things, especially sense he'd just touched it.
"Dallas I promise you there isn't anything there. Now just lay back and relax, you'll be just fine." But just as Adrien had said that Plagg flew up to Dallas and said.
"I will have your soul Dallas, OooooOOoOOh." God damn you Plagg, Adrien thought to himself.
While trying to make it look as though he was telling the truth he wave his hand one way and smacked Plagg in the face. "Trust me, there is nothing to be afraid of in here." Plagg went flying into another wall.
"Waaaaaaaaaaah, oof!" Plagg slid down the wall again. "Owy…" He said as he flopped on the floor.
"You felt that right? Tell me you felt your hand hit him." Dallas pleaded with Adrien desperately trying to convince him that he wasn't seeing things.
"Felt what, and hit who?" Adrien pretended to be clueless. "Dude, just chill out okay? It's all in your head."
Plagg quickly flew up to Adrien and screamed. "You asshole, that's kwami abuse!" But Adrien had to ignore him to keep up the charade. "Say it with me Dallas, it's all in your head." He said as he put both his hands on Dallas's shoulders.
"No I'm not, I'm in the real world and he knows it too." Plagg said with anger knowing that he could get away with it, until that is after they left the hospital.
"It's all in my head, it's all…in my…head." Dallas said trying to convince himself that he was only seeing things, until Plagg flew up to his face and just pushed the envelope too far. He licked his face, then he started to scream. "IT LICKED ME! AAAAH GET IT AWAY FROM ME!" Dallas began to thrash around in the bed forgetting all about his pain, Plagg immediately regretted what he'd just done as Dallas hadn't bathed and tasted like dirt.
"Blech, when was the last time you had a bath?" Plagg asked rhetorically as he started to wipe his tongue against his little hands.
Adrien knew that this was only going to end one way now. "Sorry Dallas, but it's for your own good. Doctor, I think you should sedate him…" Adrien called out to the doctor in the hall way.
"I need my cheese to get the taste out, hey Adrien do you have any cheese?" Adrien continued to ignore Plagg to keep up the act. Plagg knew he wasn't going to answer him so he just said. "Oh never mind I'll just find out for myself." And he flew into Adrien's overshirt.
"He knows your name; how does he know your name? And why does he act like he knows you? And why does it want cheese so badly?" Dallas asked suddenly cowering away from Adrien.
"Dallas for the last time there is no one, or nothing else in here with us." Plagg popped out his head one last time holding his wedge of cheese then said.
"Yeah Dallas, no one and nothing else but us." He wiggled his eye brows playfully and loving the fact that he was going to get away with this, he slowly disappeared back into Adrien's shirt.
The doctor finally came back into the room holding a bottle of sedative and a syringe. "I'm truly sorry about this Dallas but it's for your own good son, your still in a bit of a critical condition and we don't want you to hurt yourself."
But Dallas just smacked the drug out of his hand and the bottle broke against the floor. "You keep your damn drugs away from me, it's probably because of them that I'm freaking out like this, get me some herbs like lavender, Valerian or even lemon balm. I refuse to take any more of your prescription drugs."
The doctor then said. "We don't have those here I'm afraid."
But Dallas wasn't taking no for an answer. "I don't care if you have to build a damn garden to get them, I won't take any more of your crap drugs."
The doctor knew he couldn't just force Dallas to take his medicine, but he couldn't compromise with him either. Thankfully Adrien came to his rescue. "Don't worry Dallas, I might have a friend who can help." Adrien pulled out his Phone and called Master Fu and asked him to come to the hospital with all the herbs that Dallas had asked for.
It only took him an hour to find the hospital and arrive with Dallas's herbs. "Hello young man, I'm Mr. Chan I'm here at Adrien's request to give you some herbs to help you sleep." Dallas tried his best not to laugh at the old man's shirt, Holy shit this old geezer dresses like a Hawaiian tourist, he thought. "As requested all the herbs that you need. Freshly picked from my own garden." Master Fu started to grind the herbs together with a mort and pestle, then he put them in a cup then poured boiling water into it. "Here you are, freshly ground herbal tea, a much better choice in medicine if you ask me." Fu said as he handed Dallas the cup.
"I couldn't have put it better myself." Dallas took the cup and started to drink It.
"So why is it you refused to take the hospitals medicine exactly?" Fu asked very casually.
"They're making me see things, for example a tiny little black cat that floats in the air, smells like cheese, has weird little whiskers and I'm pretty sure he want's my soul." It didn't take Fu long to figure out what, or rather who he was talking about.
I will be having a few words with you later Plagg, he thought to himself. "It sounds like your dealing with a taoyan de shengwu." Fu said as he described Plagg very accurately.
"What's a tow-yan de whatever you just called it?" Dallas asked as he had no idea what that meant.
Adrien knew right away what it meant as he spoke Chinese. Oh yeah Plagg is definitely annoying, he thought to himself.
Plagg grumbled inside of Adrien's shirt. "I am not an annoying creature."
Then Fu answered Dallas. "They are very obnoxious little creatures from the spirit realm that appear into your life for the sole purpose of driving you to the brink of insanity. They derive from Chinese folklore mostly."
This started to make Dallas believe he wasn't seeing things, but he was still confused about one thing. "Okay, but why do they smell like cheese? And why do they want cheese so badly?" He asked hoping for an explanation.
"Who can say, these are spirits after all. To understand their true nature is like trying to understand why the wind blows." Fu replied trying to hide the fact that he knew Plagg even better than Adrien did, Dallas thought for a second about what Plagg was doing to him earlier then he asked.
"Do they steal souls? Please tell me they don't steal souls because I'm pretty sure he wanted my soul." Fu just shook his head and said.
"No they don't steal your soul, they just say things to scare you until it drives you mad, but there is a trick to drive them away from you, at least for a little while." Fu said as he reached into his bag and pulled out a sensor and a bag full of dried spearmint leaves. "They absolutely hate the smell of burning spearmint and will do anything it takes to get away from it." He said as he stuffed the sensor with the dried herb and pulled out a match box then lit it on fire.
"Oh no not this." Plagg absolutely hated the smell of spearmint and he hated it even more if it was burning. Fu then started to swing the sensor around the room to cover the entire room with the sent of the herbs, it didn't take long for Plagg to start gagging on the smell. "Oh god that stinks, screw this I'm out of here." He said as he flew out the window.
Dallas breathed a sigh of relief as Plagg had left his room. "Thanks, I thought that little bastard would never leave me alone." Dallas thanked as he finally started to feel the affects of the herbs kicking in.
"No need to thank me son, I was happy to help." Fu closed up his bag and began to take his leave. "If you need anymore herbs from me though just ask Adrien and I'll be right over." He said as he walked out of the room.
"Here's my number, that way we can stay in touch." Adrien said has he handed Dallas a little slip of paper. Dallas was about to make a joke about Adrien being in love or something but he thought better of it and just let it go. It's too easy anyway, he thought just before he finally passed out.
Just outside the hospital both Fu and Adrien were just glaring at Plagg as he got all defensive. "I can't believe you did that to me master, you know how much I hate the smell of burning spearmint." He said as he just floated there and crossed his arms.
"Serves you right though Plagg, that boy was only just shot a few days ago and you decided to terrorize him just for the fun of it, it was bad enough that he saw you but to deliberately expose yourself to someone like that is just plain reckless and irresponsible." Fu scolded him.
"Oh come on I was just having a little fun." Plagg justified.
"Need I remind you of the last time you tried to have a little fun?" Fu asked rhetorically.
"Oh come on that was just an accident, and besides it was allergy season." Plagg made an excuse.
"You caused an entire city to go up in flames. Chicago was almost completely destroyed because of you." Fu pointed out.
"Wait wait wait…" Adrien interrupted. "You caused the great Chicago fire?" He asked sounding surprised.
"Yeah that was me. But I totally got swamped because that stupid cow got all the credit for it." Plagg complained as he grumbled under his breath.
"Do I even want to know what other calamities your responsible for?" Adrien asked half rhetorically.
"Ever here of the KT extinction?" Plagg asked casually, and as a result Adrien's jaw just dropped.
"You wiped out the dinosaurs?" He asked even more surprised.
"Yeah, that one I'm not really proud of, but in my defense I was young and easily provoked." Plagg stated right before Adrien asked sounding puzzled.
"You were provoked? By a dinosaur?" Plagg then said without a hint of sympathy.
"Hey if you mess with my fermenting fruit then you get the cataclysmic power of Plagg the destroyer." That's when Adrien got even more confused.
"Uh…fruit?" He asked puzzled.
"It was the only thing I had to eat that smelled good to me." Adrien just decided to give up trying to see logic in this and just let it go.
"My point is Plagg you don't know when you've taken a joke too far, and believe me when I say this you've already gone too far." Fu stated the truth, Plagg was about to abject but had nothing to use against him. So he just crossed his arms and growled. "Now if there is nothing else I will take my leave, I wish you a pleasant day Adrien." Fu said as he bowed to his pupil, Adrien did the same then Master Fu left the hospital.
"Just for the record, I am NOT an annoying creature." Plagg denied Fu's earlier comment.
"Oh please, that's basically you to a fine point." That's when Plagg started to get mad.
"Why you little SON OF A…" Before Plagg could finish Adrien pulled out another wedge of cheese, and he immediately forgot why he was mad. "Never mind." He said as he zipped down and snatched it up, then he ate it in one bite.
Adrien left the hospital about 10 minutes later and returned home, as soon as he walked through the door he was greeted with the sight of a very concerned Natalie. "Adrien there you are…" She started up. "Where have you been you had a photo shoot two hours ago."
Ever sense Dallas had been shot Adrien had chosen to make sure that he'd be okay when ever he had a chance to, so he'd visit the hospital during hours and he would intentionally avoid his scheduled shoots, of course he mostly avoided them in retaliation for his father hitting him, and Gabriel knew that was the only reason. Ever sense he'd hit him Adrien had become much more rebellious and resentful toward his father, after all the years of his father neglecting him he had finally decided that enough was enough. "I was seeing a friend…" He stated with attitude. "Or is that not allowed by his royal highness?"
He simply walked past her and headed up to his room. Gabriel was watching the whole thing from his office, he slowly made his way over to his desk and just sat there mentally berating himself for what he'd done. I shouldn't have done it, he stated the obvious. I should've seen this coming, hell I even did see this coming but I still wasn't prepared for it.
"Mr. Agreste…" Natalie came in still worried. "Are you alright sir?" She asked concerningly.
Gabriel didn't even look at her, he just sat there resting his head on his fist. He only answered her with a single word. "No."
(A/N: Alright that's all for this one people, I hope you liked it, please let me know what you think. In the next chapter of WOS Gabriel visits Dallas in the hospital, Gabriel finds out Dallas is the son of an old associate of his, and Hawkmoth and Mayura pay Antonio a little visit, how will that turn out I wonder? Stick around and find out in the next chapter, see yah soon.)
