My Human, My Kwami

Rated for a darker turn towards the middle. Mild trigger warnings.

I don't own Miraculous Ladybug.

GENERAL POV

The first time Plagg was witness to Adrien's relationship with his father, he had been with the boy for less than a week. The tiny kwami hadn't yet gotten to know Adrien very well, but he did know from past experience that it wasn't all that normal for a teenage boy as healthy, fit, and happy as Adrien to curl up on his bed with a pillow clutched to his chest.

Plagg hovered over Adrien for a few seconds before speaking softly, startling the teen to no end. "Hey um…are you okay?"

Adrien pressed a hand to his chest, trying to breathe. He still wasn't quite used to the kwami being around all the time, but nevertheless he sent him a small smile. "I uh…yeah. Thanks, Plagg. My dad just…missed out on my fencing match."

His gaze slid to the first place trophy sitting on his desk and he sighed, letting his chin drift into a position on his knees. Plagg frowned and settled his body down on Adrien's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Adrien," Plagg said sincerely, kicking his tiny legs against the boy's jacket gently. "I'm sure he'll make it to the next one."

Adrien snorted, shaking his head. "Yeah right," he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut. "Not a chance."

Plagg's face fell and he looked down, plucking at his fur. "Well," he murmured, "either way, I'm still proud of you. If it makes a difference."

Adrien tilted his head sideways to look at the kwami, a smile twitching at his lips as he lifted his hands and brought Plagg close to him, ducking his head again and shutting his eyes.

"It does," he assured the tiny cat.

"I can't believe him!" Adrien ranted, slamming his door behind him and chucking his backpack across the room. It hit the wall with a loud thump and slid to the floor, spilling books onto the carpet.

Plagg looked up from his position on top of Adrien's computer monitor, slowly setting his cheese aside and floating over to his person. "Everything okay?" he asked cautiously, dropping his joking demeanor for a moment.

"No," Adrien snapped, running his hands through his hair. Seeing the somewhat hurt look on Plagg's face, Adrien winced and gently scratched the kwami's head. "I'm sorry Plagg. He just…I need to do a project with Nino for one of our classes, and he won't let him come over and work because he thinks he's a bad influence on me."

Plagg frowned, tilting his head. "Isn't Nino your best friend?" he asked softly. He had only known Adrien for less than a month, and was still trying to figure out his relationships with everyone.

Adrien sank onto his bed and buried his head in his hands. "Yeah," he said quietly, dropping his arms to rest on his legs. "I feel so bad that I can't have him over. He's done so much for me and my dad just…makes it seem like I'm such a snob."

"You're not," Plagg reassured him gently, sitting down on his knee and putting an itty bitty paw on Adrien's thumb. "If Nino is a good friend to you, that's all that matters, right?"

Adrien looked at Plagg sideways and smiled thinly. "Yeah. Yeah, thanks Plagg."

The kwami leaned against his hand and nodded.

It was two am when Plagg woke up, something deep inside him telling him that something was wrong. He had known Adrien for almost two months now, and the two had gotten rather close despite Plagg's typical apathetic attitude.

The kwami lifted his head from the pillow that Adrien provided him with and looked slowly around the room, his eyes sharp in the darkness. His gaze landed on the bathroom door, soft yellow light shining under the door and stifled sobs coming from the crack.

Plagg winced and instantly darted to the door, nudging his paws against it and peering into the bright interior, his heart dropping as he watched Adrien sink to his knees on the tiled floor, a damp rag pressed tightly over his left forearm.

"Adrien?" he whispered.

The boy's eyes shut tightly and he shook his head as he clenched his hand into a fist. "Plagg….please leave me alone," he choked out.

Plagg frowned and shook his head violently, realizing with a start that there were tears in his eyes that were beginning to spill over into his fur. He flew over to his human and clutched desperately at the boys collar, quivering against his skin.

Adrien hesitated for a moment before lifting up his free hand and clutching Plagg to him, letting his tears fall freely. "Why am I such an awful son for him? Why am I so….useless?" the boy hissed quietly, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed.

Plagg grimaced and let his body drift down to Adrien's forearm, where he tugged lightly at the washcloth, peering underneath enough to see the splotchy red cuts before he covered it back up again.

"You're not," Plagg managed to get out, his limbs shaking as his mind flashed back on the dozens of Chat Noir's he had lost to this type of thing in the past. "You're not, Adrien."

Adrien looked at the kwami with surprise, brushing tears away from his face. "What?"

Plagg looked up at him, locking eyes, and shook his head. "You aren't a bad son," he assured the teenager. "You're….he….he just doesn't know how important you are to everyone."

The cat looked down, swallowing. "How important you are to me," he whispered hoarsely.

Adrien choked back a small sob and scooped the cat into his hands, pressing a tender kiss to his head. "Thank you, Plagg," he whispered, lowering his forehead to rest gently on the cats.

"NO!"

Adrien dove to the street, ignoring Nino's astonished stares. His hands slid to a halt just as Plagg slammed into them, bruised and bloodied and battered. The kwami shuddered and curled into a helpless ball against his palm, body shivering uncontrollably.

Adrien sent a withering glare towards the retreating hawk before sitting up on his knees and ignoring his bleeding elbows as he gently stroked the kwami's head.

"Plagg?" he whispered softly, pleadingly. "Come on, please be okay."

"Adrien?"

Said teenager turned to face Nino, who was staring at him in disbelief. "Dude, what…? Who…?"

Adrien shook his head quickly, tears welling up in his eyes as he turned back to Plagg. "Come on," he muttered, flinching when his thumb uncovered a rather deep cut on the cat's fur. "Please wake up."

A hand settled on his shoulder and he glanced back at Nino, who, though confused, looked sympathetic. "I uh…you know my mom's a vet, right?"

Adrien gave a soft laugh and nodded. "Yeah…thanks, Nino, but he's not…a normal cat…"

Nino's eyebrows raised slightly. "Considering he's barely bigger than your thumb, I figured. But whoever or whatever he is, he's obviously important to you, and his injuries are normal. Come on, let my mom take a look at him."

Adrien sent a worried gaze to Plagg, leaning over to get closer to the kwami. "Okay, buddy. This…this is my only option without Ladybug, okay?"

Behind him, Nino's jaw fell to the ground, but Adrien didn't look at him, keeping his gaze locked on the cat in his fingers. The fuzzy cheese lover just groaned quietly and curled himself around Adrien's thumb, so he stood and turned to Nino anxiously. "Lead the way."

As he waited for Nino's mother to fix Plagg up, he told the story to Nino in hushed tones, his hands clasped in his lap and his eyes downcast. His fingers shook violently until Nino finally clamped his hands around them, making Adrien look up.

"Dude," he said gently. "Plagg will be okay. I promise. Though when he is, you gotta show me this Chat Noir transformation."

Adrien let out a soft chuckle and nodded. "Yeah, all right. I just…"

He glanced to the door leading back into Nino's mother's office. "I just need him to be okay," he murmured hoarsely. "You know…you know what my dad is like, Nino. Plagg has gotten me through some of my hardest times and I don't…."

His voice trailed off, hitching in his throat, and Nino carefully wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

They sat like that for several minutes, only moving when Nino's mother came out of the back room, Plagg cradled tenderly in her hands. His tiny head was bandaged up, stitches underneath the gauze, and she slid Plagg into Adrien's fingers as gently as possible.

"Chat Noir, huh?" the woman murmured, stroking Adrien's hair away from his face.

The boy glanced up at her pleadingly and she chuckled, placing a motherly kiss to his forehead. "It's okay, sweetheart. Your secret's safe with us. And Plagg will be fine. Don't transform for a bit though, okay?"

Adrien nodded, clutching Plagg to his chest and breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you," he whispered.

"You were really worried about me, huh?" Plagg taunted him a week later, flying around the room after Adrien while the boy put away laundry.

Adrien scoffed softly. "You? With how annoying you are? Yeah right."

Plagg rolled his eyes. "Hellooooo, you gave up your secret to two people because I got hurt. You were soooo worried. Good reason too, that hawk snatched me outta nowhere."

Adrien flinched, his shoulders tensing as he stopped moving. Plagg smacked into his upper back and shook his head before moving around to sit on Adrien's shoulder. "Hey…you good?"

He laughed harshly, letting his laundry basket drop to the floor. "You almost died," Adrien choked out, pressing trembling fingers to his lips. "And it was my fault."

"Hey, no it wasn't," Plagg reassured him quickly, putting a paw on his neck.

Adrien shook his head, kneeling to pick up the clothes he had dropped. "But it was," he murmured. "I flicked you out of my jacket because I was annoyed…if I hadn't done that, the hawk wouldn't have…"

He grimaced and paused for a minute, pressing a hand to his forehead. "God I'm stupid," he muttered.

Plagg leaned against him gently. "I don't blame you," he said quietly. "Trust me, you could have done worse."

Adrien sighed and reached a hand up, stroking Plagg gently and eliciting a purr from the kwami. "I'm still sorry."

"When do we get back to working? I heard that Ladybug hasn't been doing too hot without us," Plagg said teasingly, trying to lighten the mood.

Adrien smiled thinly; he wasn't wrong, it had taken Ladybug multiple tries that week to catch every akuma, whereas normally they were able to get it in only one or two tries. Adrien had never realized how much she actually needed them; it was a nice feeling, actually, and he missed working with her.

"Well, Nino's mother said that you can get the stitches out this afternoon, so tomorrow, probably," Adrien figured, dumping his pants into his bottom drawer and standing with the basket in one hand. "Ready to work again?"

"As long as I get my cheese after."

"You always do, Plagg."

Ladybug looked up with a thin smile as Chat landed next to her in the fading twilight, leaning against the building behind them. "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in," she mused with a chuckle.

Chat swatted at her playfully, a smile on his face. "Like I haven't heard that one a dozen times. Sorry I left you hanging this week."

Ladybug shrugged and looked at him curiously. "It was harder than I thought," she admitted. "Working without you, I mean. Why…why were you gone, again? You never said."

Chat's smile fell and he glanced away, his eyes stinging.

It's not your fault. Seriously, stop kicking yourself for this Adrien. I'm okay.

Plagg's voice in his head snapped him from his tears and he took a deep breath, looking up at Ladybug. "My uh….my kwami. He got hurt," he said softly. "I didn't…I was scared. I didn't want to lose him or overwork him."

Ladybug grimaced and, to Chat's surprise, pulled him into a quick hug. "I'm sorry," she whispered into his ear before pulling away. "My kwami and I are pretty close, so I know that it must have been really hard for you. He's okay though?"

Chat smiled, swallowing the lump in his throat and rubbing the ring on his finger fondly. "Yeah. Yeah, he is."

Ladybug tilted her head, a grin gracing her lips. "Seems like you care about him a lot."

"You have no clue, My Lady."

I have this head canon that all of the previous Chat Noir's have had really crappy lives that they always hid with a smile, and that Plagg had lost one too many to self-harm or suicide, and it really started to get to him.

Their relationship is fascinating to me, and I think that they both really care about each other.