There were moments in life that just made you consider everything.
Plagg had a cat now.
Which was probably the most impulsive thing he'd done in his life and he'd done a lot of impulsive things before.
It wasn't really the cat that surprised him but rather the series of events that led to him getting the cat in the first place.
It was weird to consider the fact that he'd only known Tikki for little over two months and she already had a drastic effect on his life.
If he hadn't known her there was no way that he'd be where he was. This was the only girl who actually helped him instead of offering pity for his past situations.
He had a clean slate with her, they'd been complete strangers after all. She didn't have an opinions of him.
And she'd given him a chance anyway and now here he was considering everything that had happened in the past two months more specifically the last two hours.
He could have been imagining it be he was pretty sure she had blushed at him.
He didn't know how he'd felt about that.
No way was he going to bring it up, leave it alone. He had bigger things to worry about.
A certain letter and a paper butterfly had to be dealt with.
As much as he hated the very idea of it.
It was time.
He took a deep breath mentally steeling himself for what was awaiting him on the other side of the door.
He shut the door louder than was necessary, barely having time to even turn around and process the sound of bare feet on the carpet, rushing towards him before the blur knocked against him and latched onto him like a leech with a squeal.
"Plagg!"
He pried her away from him so that he could kneel down to her eye level. That was as much as she would allow him before she threw her arms around his neck.
"Colette, I can't breathe."
She only hugged him tighter, arms like a noose.
"I don't care. I'm not letting you go! Ever! 'Cause you're a liar. You promised you'd come and visit but then Maman kept saying that you didn't want to come back, and now you're here so I'm not going to stop hugging you so then you won't leave."
… There was the guilt; a kick to the gut. He didn't think she would have remembered his promise to her he'd made it two years ago- she'd been only five at the time-the day he'd left.
He pulled her closer- if that was even possible. "Where's Maman?"
"Kitchen." Colette spoke against his neck.
He stood up, her arms still around him as he made his way up the stairs and into the kitchen.
"I think you need to call an exterminator. This place has a leech infestation."
"What?!" his mother turned to him, face twisted in panic, eyes wide before she realized that he wasn't really referring to an actual leech.
"Colette, sweetie let go of your brother."
"No!" Colette wailed and tightened her grip. Plagg sucked in a breath... so this was how he was going to die, strangled to death by his little sister.
"Okay, okay," he tried to placate her, walking over and sitting in a chair at the dining table so that if he did happen to lose consciousness he wouldn't fall over.
His mother just watched as he was strangled for a moment longer before she tried to convince her daughter a second time.
"Why don't you go and get your drawing books so you can show Plagg all the pictures you made?" Her grip on him loosened a little bit as she seemed to consider the idea.
She pulled away enough to stare at him for a moment before she climbed out of his lap and walked out of the kitchen, looking over her shoulder every three steps.
"I'm not going anywhere." He reassured her. This time he meant it.
She disappeared behind the corner.
The mood shifted as soon as she was out of the room. Plagg rubbed his neck and met his mother's eyes from across the room.
"Why am I here?"
She picked up another plate, scrubbing at with a sponge trying to fringe calm.
"I don't know, you tell me."
"Because you wrote me."
"That didn't make a difference the other times I tried."
More guilt. He refused to apologise for anything. She was trying to make him feel guilty, trying to make him feel like it was his fault.
"What did you expect me to do? Come here and deal with you and dad not talking to each other?"
Silence.
He was going to push his luck this time.
"Where is he?"
"Your father is busy Plagg."
"So he's not going to show up. He knows I'm here and he couldn't be bothered to show up and pay me a common courtesy."
He'd pushed.
She snapped.
The plate she'd been washing landed in the sink with a clatter and a splash.
She threw the dish towel at him, turning to face him; hands clenched into fists at her sides. "You don't get to judge him for anything when you didn't show up for two years!" She hissed.
Plagg caught the towel before it hit him in the face.
"Don't you dare try to spin this like it's my fault! He's the one who started not showing up first. You got mad at him because he wasn't around and because he wasn't around you took it out on me."
"Colette cries herself to sleep at night because her big brother "disappeared" and didn't come back-"
"Don't drag her into this-"
"I hear her crying through my bedroom door Plagg!"
"Exactly, you hear it but do you ever do anything about it? Do you go and tell her everything is going to be okay?"
"Oh like you're doing anything! I've seen your grades Plagg-"
He wasn't even going to question how her seeing his grades were possible considering that the college was supposed to keep stuff like that confidential.
He was too pissed off to care.
"At least I'm trying."
"Trying to what, Plagg?! Train yourself to jump in front of bullets? How do you think that makes me feel that my only son wants to go and get himself killed because he wants to pretend he's a hero? Police officers die Plagg!"
All of her explosive anger seemed to drain and she leaned against the counter, physically exhausted.
"I'm not going to jump in front of somebody who has a gun! It's forensics; physiologic research, criminal profiling."
She scowled at him.
"How do you think Colette will feel about it."
"I told you not to bring her into this."
"This is about her Plagg, it's the reason I wrote you that stupid letter in the first place! She misses you-"
"You don't think I feel guilty about leaving her here?" Plagg clenched the dish towel in his hand.
"Then why did you leave?" His mother accused.
"Because you kicked me out. Which I was fine with, if I left then that meant you and dad would have one less thing to fight about, I told myself Colette was going to be fine because I thought both of you would have enough common sense to not have a screaming match in front of a five-year old! I left willingly; not just because I was sick of it but because I thought it would be better for everyone if I wasn't around."
"I never kicked you out-"
"Yes. You did. You and dad both pay for my college, you practically pay me to stay away from here so I'm sorry that I don't come running back the first time you 'apologize.' "
Silence. Enough of it that he could hear his own thoughts inside of his head again.
When had he stood up from his chair?
He looked down at his feet, he didn't feel entirely attached to his own body. "Why am I here?"
His head snapped back up and he met his mother's unflinching stare once more. He threw the crumpled dish towel to the side, onto the table. Spreading his now empty hands out at his sides, palms out.
"Why am I here?"
"I have to go back to court Plagg."
That sentence seemed to suck out his remaining energy. He moved sideways to the wall, leaning his left shoulder against it like a crutch.
"Why?"
"He wants to reopen the can of worms."
"What does he want?"
"Full custody of Colette."
Plagg vaulted away from the wall. "No! He can't do that! The court ruled that you had full custody of her."
"He seems to think he can do it anyway."
"Over my dead body."
"I need you to take her for a while just watch her for a couple days while I deal with this mess, okay?"
"I have classes, training at the police station. I can't watch her all the time."
"Your Aunt Nathalie and I already discussed the situation she can pick Colette up from school and watch her on the days that you have classes, she can take care of her at night. She just needs you to watch her for a couple hours on the days when she has to go and work. Pick Colette up from school when she can't."
"I'm sorry but have you ever actually met Gabriel Agreste? He's not the kind of boss you let's you work a nine-to-five."
"Nathalie already discussed the situation with him."
"Basically what I'm hearing here is that I'm the last one to know about any of this." Plagg shot his gaze into the living room, walking out of the kitchen and ignoring his mother, who tracked his movement with her eyes but didn't try to stop him.
He glanced down the stairs at the door. Froze in his tracks as the temptation swelled. Closed his eyes as his shoulder devil whispered to him.
He opened his eyes, brushing the imaginary devil off his shoulder as he turned down the hallway.
Her door was shut.
"Go away." She called from the inside.
He leaned his forehead against the door, hand resting on the door knob. "It's me." He whispered, staring at the white paint on the door.
No response.
He twisted the doorknob.
It wasn't locked.
He opened it slowly, peeking into the room though the space between the door and the frame to see her sitting in the middle of the floor hugging a sketchbook the way that most kids would hug a stuffed animal.
When she realized it was him she blinked; her brown eyes going wide and she moved, trying to make herself smaller. "I don't want you to go away, I mean everyone else. I want everyone else to go away, everyone else makes you mad and they yell at you and you yell back and maman gets mad at daddy and they yell and it makes me mad and it makes me want to yell at them but I don't because they would yell at me... why does everyone yell all of the time?"
He knelt down in front of her, his hands on his knees. "I'm not yelling right now."
"But you were... I heard."
"I know."
"Are you and Maman mad at me?"
"No, Kitten, never."
"I heard my name."
"I know."
She dropped her eyes down to her sketchbook, tracing the flower on the cover with her finger.
"Is that your drawing book?"
She didn't say anything, just nodded her head without looking at him.
"Can I see your pictures?"
She shrugged, picking at the corner of the cover but not really opening it.
"You're mad at me, huh?"
A shrug
He sighed, feeling horrible and not knowing how to fix it. He wasn't some superhero. He didn't fix things. He just destroyed them. What kind of superpower was that?
"It's okay if you're mad at me."
She didn't look at him, just kept her eyes on her sketchbook as her little fingers moved up to her neck where they twisted a silver chain.
"I don't want to be mad, at anyone."
"I know, but it's okay to be mad."
"... I guess you want this back huh?" She tugged on the chain and reached around to unclasp it.
The silver chain spilled onto the floor and she picked up the object that had previously been attached to it.
He felt the familiar weight of the ring press into his palm. He wrapped his fingers around it. He knew it purely by memory.
He'd been fifteen when he'd first found it.
The silence of the house was always a paradox to him, the quiet meant that mom and dad were gone and he had peace but it set him on edge for when they would come back and his peace would end.
The door at the end of the hallway seemed to loom over him even now, making him feel small when he was not. Perhaps the reason he felt so small when he was not. Perhaps the reason he felt so small when compared to this seemingly plain door was the rule that he had been attached to it.
The rule that had been taught to him since he had learned to walk. Don't go into Mom and Dad room. Ever.
The one rule he never broke even when he was little and suffered from nightmares. He could not retreat to his parents room for comfort like he could when he slept over at Aunt Nathalie's. This door was always shut. He never dared open it.
Until today.
Just standing this close to the door caused an odd mixture of fear and excitement to rush through him in a wave of adrenaline.
He reached for the doorknob. It was locked.
He bit back a hiss of annoyance and frustration that threatened to come out of his mouth he dared not make a sound to break the safety of silence that had settled over the house; afraid that if he did such a thing then it would somehow make his parents materialize out of this air.
Of course the door would be locked.
He scowled at the door. He refused to accept defeat, a thought occurred to him in the next moment that had him smirking.
His retreating footsteps were muffled by the carpet as he walked away from the door and instead went into the kitchen.
He wasn't really going off of much. He'd only seen it in movies. Here's to hoping that it worked. He would only have so much time before his parents came back from wherever they disappeared to.
He'd promise that he'd walk over to Nathalie's so that she could take him to work with her.
He had no intention of keeping that promise, but he had no intention to stay here either. He just had to get past this door.
He slipped the paper clip into the lock and began the process of picking the lock. Exhaling in relief when it actually clicked.
He pushed the door open and stepped into the room.
The first thing that he noticed was the darkness. The curtains were drawn over the window plunging the room into an unnatural darkness and making it seem like everything was frozen in time.
He blinked trying to help his eyes adjust. Green eyes calculating as they scanned his surroundings. In the movies people would hide things under loose floorboards but that wasn't possible because the floor was carpet.
That left the closet shelf and basically anywhere else. He drifted to the right side of the room, his dad's side because the nightstand was empty. His mom's nightstand had jewelry scattered across it.
He'd take those later if he had enough time to grab them but it would be more likely for her to notice if they were missing because she wore jewelry more often.
He was after something else.
He had a stronger grudge against his father anyway, and he was enacting his vengeance.
He just needed the ring.
He slid the drawer of the nightstand open, his eyes catching the dull glint of the emerald set into the black circular band. Acting as if he was possessed he snatched the ring and fled the room, slamming the door behind him as he fled back across the hall to his room.
He jumped onto his bed and was opening the window, removing the screen and preparing to climb out of his window and run like the devil was chasing him because when his dad found out that he'd been robbed by his own son... Plagg would have preferred the actual devil chase him instead of his dad.
Besides they wouldn't care if he ran away, they had a different kid now. Let someone else suffer the hell he'd been trying to get away from for three years.
Let them smother and control someone else.
He shot his eyes to the bed on the other side of the room. Colette was just watchin him his two year-old sister didn't say a word. Just watched him. He shook his head and turned his attention back to his escape plan.
He was halfway out of the window one foot on the garage roof when he heard the sound that would damn him and seal his fate.
A car, his mom's car was coming up the street.
He swore and retreated back into his room, rushing to put the screen back in place and shoving the stolen ring into his pocket to hide the evidence of his crime as he heard the front door open.
He crept to the door and watched as his mom stopped in front of her own bedroom door. Her head lowered as she looked at something on the floor.
The paper clip was on the floor.
He cringed... rookie mistake.
He expected his mother to turn around and start screaming at him but when his mom turned around she just looked tired and she went into her room without a word. He watched the lock turn as she locked herself in the room.
The ring turned to lead in his pocket.
He slid the ring onto his finger.
He wasn't going to leave her again. He had a promise to keep.
He felt her climbing into the bed in the dark and he turned to face her, taking his attention away from the black ring he'd been turning in his fingers.
" How come you never wear it?"
Her voice was a whisper, so in contrast to the raised voices that were coming into the room through the closed door.
She pressed closer to him on reflex in response to the screams.
"I don't wear it because it give me my superpowers. If I put it on then it would blow my cover." He traced the inscription on the inside of the ring with his finger.
'half of a whole'
The front door slammed shut and he flinched, he flet Colette press closer to him trying to suppress a whimper.
He pressed the ring into her hand, curling her first around it; it seemed to calm her down. "It will be okay, I promise."
"Don't go."
He knelt down, taking a silver chain out of his pocket and the ring off of his finger.
Clasping the necklace around her neck.
"Keep it safe for me okay, Kitten? I'll come back. I promise."
He snapped his attention back to Colette still sitting on the floor and looking at her sketchbook.
"I have a friend who draws pictures."
"Really?" Her face lit up.
"She drew me a butterfly. She has superpowers too; she's really lucky. Maybe you'll meet her sometime."
