Chapter Text
After leaving his lady to deal with Syren on her own, Chat Noir stopped on a random rooftop away from the battle and de-transformed. A few seconds later, Adrien Agreste stood where Chat Noir used to be, along with a tiny black cat who was not happy with his chosen.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” The tiny cat, Plagg, asked angrily.
Adrien blinked, not expecting his usually lazy kwami to sound angry, but mentally shook himself out of his surprise and scoffed. “Ladybug doesn’t love me Plagg, so I’m showing her how I feel.”
The way his chosen said that, in such a matter-of-fact tone (and was that a hint of pride in his voice?) as if he truly believed what he did was the right thing to do, only made Plagg both disappointed and even angrier than before. Never, in all of his years of being bound to a miraculous, has Plagg had such a stubborn and idiotic Chat Noir as the one he currently works with.
Don’t get him wrong; at first, Plagg took pity on the sheltered little boy who had everything but freedom handed to him on a silver platter. Initially, Plagg didn’t want to work with Adrien, something about him gave Plagg a feeling that Adrien wasn’t the one he was actually supposed to work with. However, after seeing just how stifling Adrien’s life is, with a schedule so full there would rarely be time for friends even if he actually had any before receiving his miraculous, Plagg decided that if the old guardian Fu decided Adrien was worthy for the miraculous, then he might as well allow the kid to experience the taste of freedom. The fact that his new chosen was rich enough to buy him the most expensive Camembert in Paris on a daily basis was simply a small bonus. Unfortunately, Plagg didn’t take into account just how…unstable Adrien actually is due to his lack of parental figures in his life (and boy, did that make Plagg upset) and lack of understanding social cues due to his isolation growing up. On top of that, the last time Plagg was active, social cues were very different back then, and constantly adapting to how society works every few centuries got tiring enough that he simply didn’t care anymore. Now, however, Plagg regrets not being more serious with Adrien, because maybe if he had been just a little stricter, he would’ve been able to teach Adrien how to stand up for himself and to respect people’s boundaries, especially if he claims to love said people. He also should’ve taught Adrien that being Chat Noir was a responsibility-before-fun type of deal, just so he wouldn’t abuse his powers too much; he still wanted the kid to enjoy his freedom after all.
Plagg was so lost in thought that he didn’t realize Adrien had taken his silence as a sign to begin whatever rant he had been saving up since he abandoned Ladybug to defeat the akuma on her own until something Adrien said simultaneously caught his attention and made him stiffen in shock.
“—besides, at least this way once Ladybug understands how I feel, she’ll apologize and I’ll forgive her because I could never stay too mad at My Lady, then I’ll swoop in and save her, and then she’ll have to give me a chance to date her!” Adrien finished, panting from what seemed to be a long rant about how he was doing this to knock some sense into Ladybug or something along those lines and looking far too smug for Plagg’s liking. Plagg honestly couldn’t bother learning exactly what Adrien was talking about; he understood more than enough to reignite his anger that had slowly faded away as he was thinking about his initial thoughts on his chosen.
However, before Plagg could even open his mouth to scold Adrien, a swarm of ladybugs flew past them, getting rid of the water as it did. Relief immediately replaced Plagg’s anger; however, he also felt sadness creep up on him as well. Knowing that Ladybug was able to defeat Syren on her own is a good thing, Paris would’ve been in even more danger if she couldn’t, however, knowing that if it wasn’t for his stupid chosen Ladybug wouldn’t have had to fight the akuma on her own made the sadness Plagg felt grow the more he dwelled on that particular thought. Sadly, Adrien didn’t share Plagg’s relief over Ladybug handling the akuma by herself. In fact, he seemed…annoyed, possibly angry.
“I can’t believe it! Ladybug defeated Syren without me! I bet she didn’t even bother to look for me either! How could she do this to me? Does she even understand how I feel at all?” Plagg tuned Adrien out, having heard enough. He could only sigh sadly and shake his head in disappointment as he waited for Adrien to either finish ranting and transform so they could go home or notice that if citizens saw him ranting angrily on a rooftop people might begin to talk.
Plagg felt sorry for Tikki’s bug, now that he realizes just how bad his chosen has become, he hoped she was okay. He could only imagine how stressed out and overwhelmed she must have felt when her partner, who was supposed to have her back, abandoned her simply because she didn’t return his feelings. Of course, Plagg now knew that wasn’t true, not exactly at least. Thanks to Dark Owl, Plagg knows that Ladybug’s civilian self, one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, has a crush on Adrien. At least, she did have a crush on him, a massive one at that. However, it seems something changed in Tikki’s bug and she has learned to get a handle of her emotions for Adrien, or she has moved on from him. With his knowledge of just how bad Adrien has become, and knowing that he will most likely only get worse even if he interfered, Plagg hoped it was the latter. That poor girl doesn’t need to worry about him, Plagg thought.
Adrien sighed loudly, regaining Plagg’s attention without even knowing that he lost it. “Oh well, I’ll just have to talk to her either the next time an akuma appears or during patrol next week. If only Ladybug would allow us to reveal ourselves to each other, then I could just call her now and see if she’s sorry.”
Oh, not this again, Plagg thought as he rolled his eyes. That was another thing Adrien couldn’t, or perhaps wouldn’t, understand. He was constantly pushing the topic of revealing their identities to Ladybug, despite knowing why they shouldn’t. However, Plagg knew that getting Adrien to drop not only the topic of revealing his identity to Ladybug but also the idea that Ladybug was in the wrong for his chosen throwing a temper tantrum when citizens were drowning would be pointless for now, so he said nothing and simply flew into Adrien’s breast pocket.
As Adrien made his way home, Plagg hoped that tomorrow would be better, not realizing how wrong he was, and neither of them noticed Adrien’s phone buzz with a new Twitter notification sent from the Culpa business account.