Chapter Six: Tikki & Plagg

Marinette felt nervous. This would be her first time seeing Chat face-to-face in a long time. They had been planning on meeting up for the past few weeks now. As the day approached, she felt herself grow more and more nervous. Even though she had forgiven him, there was still some awkwardness between them.

Her eyes fled back to the clock. It read 6:00. One more hour before she saw Chat. She had rushed to make dinner that night. Marinette felt really bad for leaving Adrien, but she had to talk with someone before seeing Chat. As she approached the storefront, a sense of calm washed over her.

Tikki worked with "Guardian" as Marienette's trainer. She had been Marinette's confidante since she was a teenager. Marinette couldn't count the number of times that Tikki had helped her work through the many hard times in her life. If there was anyone who could help Marinette calm down, it would be Tikki.

Adrien was thankful that Marinette had a last-minute errand appear at the last minute. That gave him plenty of room to stress out for the next hour. Marinette had been thoughtful enough to leave him dinner, but Adrien was pretty sure if he tried to eat that he would throw up. He really wished that Marinette was here. She always had a way of calming him.

Since Marinette wasn't available, he decided to opt for the second best option, Plagg. Plagg worked with "Guardian" as a trainer to new spies. He'd been with Adrien for such a long time that it felt weird to not be training with Plagg. He'd listen as Adrien would vent out his frustrations. He'd been one of Adrien's main supporters when the world found out who Hawkmoth was.

Even if it was just over the phone, Adrien was sure that Plagg could help him calm down before his meeting with Ladybug.

As Tikki handed Marinette a warm cup of chamomile tea, she couldn't help but feel a little worried for the young woman. She was as jittery as ever, and Tikki wasn't completely sure how to help her fully calm down. "So you're finally meeting up with Chat after all these years, huh?"

"Yep, and as you can clearly see, I'm not the slightest bit prepared to talk to him. I can barely keep up a phone conversation without getting stressed out. How am I supposed to talk to him face-to-face?"

Tikki sighed. She loved this girl to pieces, but she hadn't the slightest clue on how to calm her down. Tikki had witnessed her heartbreak first-hand when Chat had left. Of course, it took a lot of self-control (more like Plagg holding her back) not to go and beat that boy across the head. And then what do you know? She goes off and marries him without even knowing it. Obviously, Marinette didn't know that last part, nor would she ever have to worry about it.

"Why are you so worried in the first place? It's just a meetup, not a date."

Marinette looked her dead in the eye, and that's when Tikki knew she screwed up. "Of course, it's not a date!" Marinette shouted, "I just—feel guilty. That's all."

"And why would you feel guilty?"

"Cause I got angry at him without knowing the reason as to why he disappeared. Then I ignored his calls when he tried to fix things. I'm a horrible person!"

Sometimes, Tikki wondered why she still helped this girl out. "It's not your fault and I'm sure that Chat Noir doesn't blame you for thinking or acting the way you did. He didn't give you an explanation for years so it's no surprise that you thought the worst. He explained everything so all should be good between you two now. Right?"

"Right," Marinette said as she set her cup down, "Thanks for talking with me, Tikki. I should get going otherwise I'm going to be late. I'll visit you later in the week to tell you how it went. Bye."

"Bye, Marinette. Stay safe out there."

"I will."

Plagg mentally groaned as he hung up the phone. Of course, he'd be freaking right before meeting up with her. Even though the kid annoyed him sometimes, Plagg really loved Adrien. He just refused to admit that to anyone. As he set his phone down, he heard a stampede of footprints make their way into the living room.

Before he could even get up, Plagg was swarmed with little children screaming "Daddy, Daddy, guess what happened today?!".

"Children, give your poor father room to breathe." As the little humans crawled off of him, Plagg looked up to see his beautiful wife, Tikki, standing there, a slightly worried look on her face. He knew that look well enough to tell that Marinette had visited and ranted about something that was very worrying to his wife. He stood up and pulled her into a tight hug.

"They'll be all right, Sugarcube. Don't you worry," he whispered in her ear.

"How can you be so sure of that?" she whispered back.

"I'm not sure, but they're both determined to fix this problem. They're smart enough to come up with a solution."

Tikki chuckled. "They remind me of us a lot back in the old days."

Plagg pulled her closer at the reminder of what they'd been through together. "Yeah, they do."