Common Sense finally came knocking on the imaginary door.
Tikki ignored it, still not entirely ready to move, she turned her head slightly she focused on Plagg's hand which was casually resting on his leg.
She hummed with curiosity when she caught sight of the black metallic band around his ring finger on his right hand.
Her focus narrowed on the small object. Common Sense came crashing through the window... and she became acutely aware of the position she was in.
Head... is on shoulder... my head is on his shoulder.
She lifted her head away from his shoulder as her mental thought process tried to come up with a logical explanation as to why she had never seen the little black ring before.
Where had it come from?
Her brain came to the logical if incorrect possibility to explain the sudden appearance of the ring.
Did... did he have a girlfriend?
No, if that was the case he would have mentioned her... right?
Even if he did or didn't have a girlfriend she wasn't going to ask him if he had one. Prying into other people's personal lives like that was rude, besides it wasn't any of her business anyway.
She and Plagg were just friends. Close friends, but just friends.
That just made the fact that she'd just had her head on his shoulder awkward.
Oh great.
It was going to be awkward now.
She cleared her throat, shifting farther away from his personal space as she bent down to put her shoes back on.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm better now thanks for everything."
"You're welcome."
"Anyways, I better get going see you around."
Oh God, what kind of response was that?! So much for not wanting to make it awkward. Leave. Leave Now.
"Bye."
Plagg raised an eyebrow at the closed door... what just happened?
Oh whatever she clearly didn't want to talk about it so he wasn't going to bring it up. Besides he had other more pressing thigns to worry about anyway.
Now that Tikki was gone he was forced to remember what he had been thinking prior to her unexpected visit.
Resuming glaring at the ceiling as he tried to refocus on the more pressing issue of his little sister and the complicated situation concerning his parents- but he couldn't quite distract himself enough from the lingering warmth on his shoulder.
"Um... do I even want to know why you're upside down? All of the blood is going to rush to your head. Why can't you sit on the couch like a normal human being?"
"This was plan B." Plagg informed Adrien as he slid off of the couch and onto the floor entirely. "Plan A was hitting my head repeatedly on the wall but I'm nice and decided to spare our neighbors from marching over here to comlpain about the noise."
"What's up with you? You seem even more pessimist than usual."
"Thanks for your words of encouragement, Captain Sunshine but I'm confident that you don't want to get dragged into the mess that is currently my life."
"Dramatic much?"
"No. For once in my life I'm being completely serious. I want you involved in this as little as possible."
"I'm your roommate I'm going to end up involved one way or another. Just try me."
"Two words: Custody battle."
"Damn."
"Not exactly the word I would use but close enough. To put it more accurately; shit is going to hit the fan."
"What are you gonna do about it?"
"I have to watch my sister for an undetermined amount of time until the court decides which of the adults is more responsible of the two."
"Can't you call the chief of police or something? Tell your side of it?"
Plagg shrugged. "It's their issue. I'm involving myself as little as possible. I'm already involved in it more than I want to be."
"Well if it makes you feel any better it seems like all of us had a bad day. Marinette called me in tears a few minutes ago she's really stressed out about this charity event next week and the fact that Tikki had to leave work early after having an emotional breakdown apparently they had to put an animal down at the clinic."
Contrary to what Adrien thought that information didn't make Plagg feel better about his own situation. At all. Especially that part concerning Tikki. He sat up, staring at his roommate. "She didn't tell you?" Adrien asked, confused as to why Plagg was looking at him as if he'd grown two heads.
"No, she came over and I could tell she was upset but she wouldn't tell me why and I didn't want to bring it up by asking."
He was going to pretend he didn't feel slightly betrayed by the fact that Adrien had found out the reason before he did.
"She told you?" … so much for pretending not to be offended.
"No, I heard it from Mari. Don't shoot the messenger."
Plagg said nothing, too busy recalling the memory of Tikki's head on his shoulder and recalling the surge of protectiveness he'd felt.
He felt that same protectiveness, magnified twice over now that he knew what had caused her to become so upset in the first place and now his previous actions in his attempt to make her feel better seemed inadequate. He wanted to do something else to make her feel better but he had no idea what. He pushed himself out of his thoughts when he realized Adrien was looking at him.
"What?"
Adrien tried- and failed- to hide the smug look on his face and the smile forming at the corner of his mouth.
"I know that look, you like her."
Plagg rolled his eyes. " I swear, sometimes my seven year-old sister is more mature than you."
"De Nile isn't just a river."
"There's nothing to be in denial over, I doubt she even considers me in that way." Plagg replied, deliberately choosing to ignore Adrien's awful pun.
Plagg might not feel too inclined to shoot the messenger but he didn't have to tell the messenger about what had happened between him and Tikki; besides he honestly didn't think she had meant it in that way when she'd put her head on his shoulder and he wasn't going to go so far as to imply the meaning of her actions when there honestly could be nothing there.
She had been upset and he had been there to comfort her. End of story. So what if he couldn't seem to forget the way it had felt? So what if he could still smell the scent of chocolate chip cookies even though she wasn't here anymore? So what if he remembered that one time he'd made her blush? If he was developing feeling for her that was his problem.
She didn't seem to have much romantic interest in him and he refused to beat his head against a wall all because of a girl. He wasn't going to turn into a pile of goo on the floor over some girl- he wasn't laying on the floor anymore, he was sitting on it- He wasn't Adrien- He had some dignity!
"Besides, even if she did like me in the way you are implying I wouldn't do anything about it. I think you should mind your own business and stay out of my non-existent love life."
Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Methinks you protest too much."
"Don't. Seriously. Nothing good could come of a romantic realotionship between me and Tikki. I've seen how stuff like that can take a turn for the worst and trust me its not pretty."
"You don't know it will turn out like that."
"I'm not going to take my chances."
Tikki was really honestly considering hibernating. Why did the cold weather even exist?
It had snowed. The first major snowstorm of the season and while Tikki admitted that she liked seeing Paris all covered in snowflakes and icicles she couldn't really get past the goosebump-teeth-chattering cold.
So cold.
At least she didn't have to go outside.
She was perfectly content on her bed, cocooned in her fleece blanket, she wiggled down deeper into the blanket as she turned her head to look out the window sighing in contentment; as long as the cold weather stayed outside where it belonged. She'd be fine. She turned her eyes to the ceiling still lost in her thoughts as she contemplated what on earth she was going to do for the next week and dreading the very thought of how she was going to function as a human being when winter classes at the college started.
It was times like this when she wished she didn't have responsibilities. Not to mention that when classes started up again that would mean Nooroo was going to leave. … now she was starting to get depressed. If she kept this up she'd put herself into a slump that honestly wasn't worth it.
Marinette's voice broke the quiet and Tikki shifted her attention to the bluenette who was hovering around her dress mannequin. "Black or pink accents?" Marinette muttered half to herself holding up fabric swatches.
"Hmm... pink." Tikki said.
"That's what I was leaning towards too." Mari agreed, setting the fabric down and considering her design again, making a note in her sketchbook. Tapping her pencil against her chin as she narrowed her eyes. "I feel like I should remeasure."
"You're overthinking it again."
"I know! I can't help it, I want it to be perfect, this event could be really good exposure for me, not to mention that it's going to such a good cause."
"Mari, it will be adorable! Just stop worrying so much and remember to breathe."
"Ok, ok, you're right, I've got this, I've got this."
"Yes, yes you do, besides I'm not coming back down there so you can measure again, I just got comfy."
"Fair enough. Have you seen the thread I bought two days ago?"
"You bought a lot of stuff a the fabric store. Please be more specific."
"The silver one?"
"Haven't seen it."
"Hmm, It might have fallen out of the shopping bag, it's probably in my car. Be right back."
"I'll be here."
Mari returned five minutes later thread in hand. "Soooo how'd it go?" she chirped.
"How did what go?" Tikki asked.
"Yesterday, you went to go see Plagg, after work right? Did that make you feel better?"
"I don't know."
Marinette turned to face her roomate, interest peaked. "What do you mean you don't know?"
"That's just it; I don't know. It got awkward and I didn't know how to respond to it so I said thanks and then I... left."
"Awkward how?" Marinette asked.
Tikki shook her head and stared at the ceiling. "Never mind, just forget about it." If she told Marinette what had happened yesterday there was no way that her roommate would let her live it down.
