Plagg hated Mondays, everybody hated Mondays. He wished someone would hit him over the head with his textbook to put an end to his suffering, to make matters worse he was alone in the apartment so there was no one to complain to... but now that he thought about it there was no one here to tell him to study either... he slammed his textbook shut and stood up from his desk chair.

He'd stress about it later. Consequences and a future lecture form Adrien be dammed. He just couldn't focus right now.

He looked at his phone for about three seconds.

No messages from anyone.

Everyone else was probably busy.

He shook his head and sat back down in his chair, rolling his pen back and forth across the desk.

Boredom sucked.

The sound of the pen across the desk suddenly annoyed him and he reached out to stop it.

Now the room seemed to quiet.

Make up your mind do you want silence or not? He glanced at his phone again. 11:23 PM. Adrien would be at the photoshoot until 11:40 and he'd probably end up crashing at his dad's place until he felt rested up enough to drive back to the apartment. Everyone else he knew would likely be asleep. Everone else was sane.

Curse his weird sleeping patterns! He had classes tomorrow! He was supposed to be studying, he was supposed to be asleep!

His face came into contact with his textbook.

Great, now he'd probably have a bruise.

He felt the growl building up in his throat, a sound born of pure frustration and self-detriment. Why did he always end up procrastinating?

Nope, he couldn't do it, couldn't be here anymore. He picked up his phone, stood up from his chair and retreated into the living room, navigating through the dark room purely from memory.

He laid down on the couch and shoved his neon-green earbuds into his ears but not really fully committing to actually turning music on.

He just wished his own thoughts would stop sounding so loud in his head.

He pulled out one earbud when he heard the key turning in the lock. Plagg glanced at his phone to check the time. 11:29. Adrien was back early? This could be equally good or bad...

"How'd it go?"

No response.

"Fabulously I take it, based on your enthusiasm."

"I'm not in the mood for sarcasm Plagg."

"What's wrong, you have a fight with your dear father?" Okay that comment had come out more harshly that he'd meant but if Adrien was going to be in a sour mood then Plagg was going to hand it right back to him. He didn't have enough energy to deal with his own mood much less Adrien's.

Okay so it was a little unfair that he was taking his own frustration out on the guy who helped pa the rent but it was too late to back out of the argument.

"Shut up."

Plagg did no such thing.

"So I'm right then, you two got into a fight... again."

"I said shut up."

"Let me guess, you blinked when the camera went off."

"Don't be stupid that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

"Well it's not like you're going to tell anyone what really happened."

"I'm not talking about this anymore." Adrien said over his shoulder as he turned down the hallway.

Fine.

Plagg didn't even have enough energy to glare at Adrien so he settled for glaring at the ceiling.

He needed to sleep.

He had things to do tomorrow and if he was like this now- arguing with one of his best friends- then he could only imagine what would happen in the morning when he was expected to go and be around people. He'd probably murder someone.

He pressed the power button on his phone- intending to turn it off completely so that he could save the remaining battery percentage.

The notification light was blinking.

Curiosity killed the cat.

He unlocked the screen and dragged his thumb down to view the message.

The cheesey clipart image of a ladybug he had set as the contact photo told him was Tikki.

You still awake?

Yeah, why?

Couldn't sleep.

Join the club.

:P

Tough day?

It was okay, same old, same old.

Well if you're expecting something newsworthy from my end then you're out of luck.

Shame, I enjoyed having luck. Too good to last I guess.

I guess you won't be running into traffic anymore then.

Haha, you're hilarious. You're not going to let me live that down are you?

Never.

Figures... Just quit bringing it up or I might push YOU into traffic.

Fair enough... so why exactly are you still awake?

Marinette snores.

:)

The pause that followed was so long that Plagg assumed she'd fallen asleep.

...do you want to get coffee tomorrow?

Plagg blinked.

Sure!

Cool, Will 7:30 work okay?

Tell me where.

I'll send you the address :) Good night.

' Night

He waited another minute but she didn't reply with anything else besides the address she'd promised.

He turned his phone off and resumed staring at the ceiling.

Curiosity might kill the cat but satisfaction brought it back.


Tikki had written, deleted and rewritten the text message about six times and even then it didn't sound right to her. She had almost deleted it for a seventh time and not rewritten it but then her thumb had slipped and pressed the Send button.

She had a moment of irrational panic that she blamed on the fact that she hung out with Marinette.

What if he said no? What if he said yes? It's just coffee. He's a friend this is stupid.

She was in the middle of trying to come up with an excuse to text him that would allow her to back out of the offer with as little guilt as possible.

'Haha, oops that was for my aunt'

Sure!

...she froze, thumb hovering over the keyboard, about to type the "r" in for.

"No!"The word escaped her in a strange form of panic and relief... she had an answer- a positive one at that- but now she'd hate herself if she backed out.

She inhaled and exhaled, hitting the delete button on the half finished message she'd been writing... watched it disappear letter by letter.

She felt very strange and she wasn't sure if it was because of her lack of sleep or because he had said yes... would it have felt better if he had said no?

She mentally kicked herself to prevent the frustrated screams from coming out of her mouth.

She was reading way too much into this! Best to get this conversation over with before she drove herself insane. She sent him the address for the bakery and exited out of the message app. Staring at her screensaver- a picture of her and Marinette- as she tried to get rid of the lingering feeling of panic.

Just coffee. Coffee with a friend.

She set her phone down on the nightstand and rolled over on her side.

Her alarm sounded extra obnoxious this morning. She debated hitting snooze, she didn't have classes until this afternoon, she didn't have to work a morning shift at the veterinary clinic either and she wasn't meeting Plagg until later.

She rolled over and dismissed the alarm. Surprised to see Marinette standing by the nightstand.

"What are you doing up?"

Usually Marinette slept like the dead.

"I told my mom I'd come in and help out with the breakfast rush at the bakery, it's been a while and we really need to catch up."

Tikki sighed, kicking away her blanket. "I'll come with you, give me twenty minutes." Tikki marched over to the small walk in closet.

"Why do you need to go to the bakery?"

"I'm meeting up with someone for coffee." … Tikki froze... the sentence had just slipped out,, she blamed her slightly sleep-deprived brain.

She didn't need to turn around to know Marinette was grinning like an idiot, but oddly enough Mari didn't say anything...

Tikki turned around at her friend's lack of response entirely convinced that she may have caused her to overly excitable friend to faint or go into a coma.

Marinette was still standing, grinning too widely, the expression on her face turning from shocked to devious in an instant as her sky-blue eyes flicked to Tikki's nightstand- betraying her intentions- Tikki's own blue eyes widened in panic as they both lunged for the phone.

Marinette got to it first.

She unlocked the phone with lighting speed and Tikki was oddly reminded of the time she had stole Adrien's phone in order to delete an accidental voicemail. That's what this was- a total invasion of privacy- except this time Mari knew the passcode. Tikki felt slightly betrayed.

"You know, taking someone's phone is illegal." Odd, usually you didn't have to tell someone that but here Tikki was, telling Marinette that for the second time in the past five years.

Mari of course wasn't paying attention. She was clearly trying to suppress a squeal as she jumped up and down.

Tikki rolled her eyes and turned away from her friend's fangirling display; a sound of protest and disgust escaped from her mouth.

Ugh. It was too early to be excited about anything.

"What are you going to wear?" Marinette gushed, following Tikki to the closet, Tikki's phone still in her hand.

"A t-shirt and jeans. It's coffee, Mari not high school prom." Her friend scoffed and turned her attention back to Tikki's phone. "I do not snore!" She said defensively.

Tikki smirked. So she's found that part of the conversation.

"Yes, you do."

"Do not."


Adrien didn't bring up the argument from last night. Weather that meant that he'd forgotten about it or just didn't want to talk about it and Plagg wasn't going to push his own luck by bringing it up.

"Want some toast?"

Okay so maybe he did remember. He usually offered food as a way to apologise.

"No thanks, I've got plans."

Adrien shot him a look, clearly skeptical.

"Since when do you have a social life?"

"Ouch. Your words wound me."

Adrien just rolled his eyes at Plagg's sarcasm and glared at him.

"And you're going to wear that?"

Plagg rolled his eyes, turning away from Adrien and walking out the door. "Models." he scoffed.


Marinette, sneaky, plotting Marinette. Of course she'd told Alya about Tikki's "little coffee date"- Marinette's words not hers- and of course Alya would show up at the bakery before Marinette and Tikki did despite the fact that it was 6:30 on a Tuesday and any sensible person who didn't have work would be sleeping in.

Alya was leaning against the counter, already chewing on a pastry.

"Tell me everything." She demanded as Tikki and Marinette Made their way over to her.

Tikki resisted the urge to grab the brunette by the shoulders to try and shake some sense into her.

"It's. Just. Coffee." She stressed each word, trying to get it though both of her friends thick heads.

"Coffee with a guy." Alya teased.

"A guy you have a crush on." Marinette giggled.

"I've said it before, I'll say it again. It's Not. A. Crush."

"If you say so."

"I'm not talking about this," Tikki said, pointedly ignoring them as she disappeared behind the counter to grab a chocolate muffin from the display case.

With another hand she pulled her phone to text Plagg.

SOS. Alya and Marinette won't leave me alone. -_- we might have to take coffee to go, what do you want?

Surprise me. ;)

You're no help! :(

Tikki rolled her eyes and scoffed before she shoved her phone back in her pocket.

Fine! If he wanted to make her life more complicated.

She marched over to the coffeemaker.

"Good morning girls, how are you all this morning?"

"Just fine Mrs Dupain-Cheng." Alya and Tikki chorused as Marinette's mother appeared from the bakery kitchen.

"Morning, mom." Mari walked around the counter to kiss her mother on the cheek. "Hello sweetie, would you be a dear and come back here to frost some cupcakes?"

"Sure mom." Marinette disappeared behind the kitchen door. Alya sat down to finish eating her pastry. Tikki wasn't sure what to do with herself she still had about an hour to kill before Plagg was supposed to show up.

Mrs Dupain-Cheng came back through the door, carrying a pan of cookies and started to place them behind the glass display.

"You want one, sweetie?" Sabine offered a chocolate chip cookie to Tikki.

She shook her head. "No thanks I already robbed you of a muffin." She held up the treat in question.

"Take whatever you want, we always make more than we sell anyway."

"I'm still going to pay for it though... and the coffee too," she shot her eyes towards the espresso machine.

"Nonsense, consider it on the house for waking me up so early to come over and say hello to me... it's been forever since I've actually seen you, classes are keeping you busy I take it."

"It's not so bad, term exams aren't for another month or so but I'm sure I'll be a ball of stress in the next few days."

Sabine hummed and finished putting the cookies in display, grabbing the now empty tray and turning to go back into the kitchen.

"And how's work? Did the animal shelter come and pick up those kittens I found a few weeks ago?"

Tikki walked over to the espresso machine taking one of the cups and setting it aside. Taking the second one and staring at the dark liquid, considering what she wanted to do with it.

"Works fine," She answered Mrs Depain-Cheng's question. "the shelter came and picked the kittens up last Wednesday. Said that they should be eligible for foster care in a few more weeks. I told the guy to let me know how the whole thing turns out."

"Oh, that's wonderful news, you'll let me know what happens won't you? Marinette was so worried they weren't going to get that far in the process what with all those silly 'bad luck' superstitions and all."

"I'll let you guys know when I hear anything." Tikki promised,

Sabine smiled and patted her shoulder as she disappeared into the kitchen with an empty cookie tray.

Tikki decided that she may as well make herself useful and stayed behind the counter to take care of customers orders whenever Marinette or Sabine was in the kitchen.

The bell on the door chimed and Tikki looked up to see Plagg come into the bakery.

She shot him a warning look, turning her head to Alya who was still sitting at the table. Alya caught Tikki's glace.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" The brunette inquired, looking up from her phone and meeting Tikki's eyes... something must have shown on Tikki's face because Alya was turning around before Tikki could come up with an excuse.

"Hello, Plagg."

Tikki could hear from Alya's tone that she was likely scheming.

There was the sound of running footsteps from the kitchen and Marinette appeared in the kitchen doorway.

Tikki realized that Alya had spoken in that tone to warn Marinette.

Tikki sighed. So much for avoiding them. She picked up the coffee and a pastry from the display case, handing them to Plagg before she picked up her own coffee and half-eaten chocolate muffin before she marched out from behind the counter.

"Where are you going?" Plagg asked.

"Away from crazy," she gestured vaguely over her shoulder at Alya and Marinette.

Plagg glanced at Alya and Marinette who gave him falsely innocent smiles. He smirked and shugged at them before following Tikki out of the bakery and to one of the outside tables.

"They couldn't have been that bad." Plagg said.

Tikki shook her head. "You wouldn't know, you weren't here. Marinette thought that I was going to prom or something and she tipped off Alya who started interrogating me, it's just too early to deal with them, especially when I haven't had caffeine yet." She took a sip of her cappuccino to emphasize her point.

Plagg smiled. "I second that statement, I was convinced I'd murder someone today."

"Why would you do something like that?" Tikki questioned lightly she knew he was joking.

"If I told you my motives I'd have to kill you."

"Fair enough." She picked at her muffin, pulling off chunks of it but not really eating them.

Silence settled and Tikki lifted her eyes away from her muffin, trying to restart the conversation before it could get too akward.

She tilted her head at him, whatever she was planning to say she promptly forgot and a different sentence replaced it.

"What happened?" She reached out before she could stop herself and touched her fingers gently to the bruise on his forehead.

"Oh, that? Just a classic case of my face connecting with my textbook." he grinned at her even as he flinched a little at her touch.

"Oh," Tikki pulled her hand away. "What were you doing?"

"I was trying to study. It went very well, obviously."

"What's your major?" Tikki asked, finally popping a bit of muffin in her mouth.

"Painful."

She swallowed her muffin and rolled her eyes. "I meant what do you study? What do you want to get your degree in?"

"I'm getting a criminal justice degree, emphasis on forensics."

She tilted her head at him again, regarding himn with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"This wouldn't have something to do with your 'alter ego' would it?"

He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms and glaring at her.

"You swore you'd never speak of that again."

"Never." She agreed with a short little laugh.

"What?" Plagg asked, taking a sip of his coffee, a smug look on his face as he met her eyes.

"Nothing."

He looked at her then stared down at his coffee cup. "What is this?"

"Don't try to change the subject."

"So what if I am? Just answer the question."

"It's just a double shot of espresso."

"It doesn't taste bitter."

"I put caramel in it, the kind that you put on ice cream sundaes- me and Marinette invented it back in middle school because neither of us can handle plain black coffee, life sucks enough without a bitter aftertaste in your mouth."

Tikki looked through the window back into the bakery, and was startled to catch Marinette and Alya both looking out the window, watching them and being none to subtle about it.

Tikki huffed and rolled her eyes. "If I commit murder and have to flee the country, destroy the evidence."

"Are you trying to corrupt an officer of the law?" Plagg teased.

"When you say it like that it makes me sound so evil," Tikki stood up from her chair and fixed Plagg with a small smile. "Don't think of it like that, think of it like we're partners in crime."

He leaned back in his chair again, crossing the ankle of one foot over the kneww of the other, the smirk on his face growing into a devil's grin.

"Then who am I to deny the lady her wish," he gestured vaguely to the window. "If you wish their demise then I won't stop you."

"Tikki marched back into the bakery.

Plagg caught the beginning of her sentence before the door swung shut again, cutting her off.

"It's rude to spy!-"

Plagg snickered and took another sip of his coffee in an attempt to hide his amused grin.