Chapter 1

Plagg was ill, and Adrien was panicking. This had never happened before. He didn't even know kwamis could get ill.

"Aren't you supposed to be immortal or something?" he whispered at Plagg as he hid in the locker room.

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't get ill," Plagg had replied, moaning as he clutched his tiny stomach.

It had started that morning, when a kid from another class had gotten akumatized. He'd hidden in the bathroom as whoever it was roared through the building, transformed without consulting Plagg at all, and promptly threw up his breakfast. He'd quickly turned back, and found Plagg looking somewhat grey.

"You should have said something! What if Ladybug doesn't get here in-"

"MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!" he'd heard her shout somewhere out in the courtyard, and breathed a sigh of relief. This one had been easy, apparently.

Adrien had rounded on his kwami again. "Plagg, why didn't you tell me?"

"I – ugh – didn't wanna bother you -" at that moment Plagg had let out a sickening belch, the smell of which had Adrien stumbling out of the bathroom in nauseous horror. He'd glanced back as the door swang shut behind him and could have sworn he saw the paint peeling off the inside of it.

"You can't come into class with me if you're gonna do that," he'd muttered, running to the locker room. The students heading back to class watched him with vague curiosity, but none followed him.

A few minutes later, Adrien's locker was melting in a cloud of green haze.

"O-okay, forget school for now," Adrien said, holding his kwami gingerly and backing away from the disintegrating locker. He wondered what would happen if Plagg burped in his hands. Or in his shirt. He could afford to lose the shirt, but would the green haze penetrate to his skin?

"Plagg, you have to tell me what to do!" he said, running down the stairs as carefully as he could to avoid shaking his kwami too much. "I can't let you... belch the whole school out of existence!"

"Oh, it could get way worse than that. This is how Atlantis happened," Plagg murmured, almost nostalgically.

"Plagg!"

"Only a Guardian can heal me," Plagg sighed, looking at him through half-shut eyes.

"What!" Adrien had arrived at the school's entrance. He glanced around in case anyone saw him, then tucked himself away behind the gate, which was always kept open during school hours in case of an akuma alert. "But Master Fu's gone! Ladybug's the Guardian now! And I don't even know where to find her!"

"I know," said Plagg huskily. "I'll – urp- PUT ME DOWN-" Adrien almost dropped Plagg on the concrete steps just before the tiny creature vomited a tiny drop of green slime. The slime evaporated rapidly, but not before it had burned a hole in the steps, deep and wide enough that Adrien could have put his arm down there.

"Please tell me you're feeling better," Adrien begged, scooping his kwami into his shirt.

"Adrien?"

Adrien jumped half out of his skin at the sound of Marinette's voice, and he turned to find her smiling at him.

"M-Marinette! What are you doing here?"

"Madame Bustier sent me to look for you after the akuma attack. Are you okay?"

"Oh, sure! I was just..." he glanced at the hole in the ground behind him. "...I got stuck! My... foot, got stuck in that hole right there," he pointed it out to her, shifting Plagg from his shirt tail to his usual inside pocket as Marinette leaned over the hole, frowning at it. He hoped Plagg could keep his cheese down this time.

"How did that get there?" Marinette wondered.

"Maybe the akuma put it there?" Adrien suggested, edging around her.

"It wasn't that kind of akuma," she said, before adding, "Ladybug got here really fast so I didn't see it do much damage, but it was turning people into wild animals, not drilling holes in the ground." She wrinkled her nose as she stood. "And what's that smell?"

Adrien knew what he should say, but somehow the idea of Marinette associating him with that smell made him hesitate.

"Be careful," he said instead, taking her arm to pull her away from the hole. Marinette lost her balance, fell backwards against him, bounced off this chest, jumped three feet into the air and did an honest-to-god pirouette before landing feet splayed with an embarassed shriek, her face entirely red. It was almost impressive and he couldn't help but laugh. She laughed nervously along with him.

"You go ahead, I promise I'll be right in," he said. "And try not to fall over. I just need to... tie my shoelaces," and he crouched down over his shoe before she could see that they were both tied perfectly.

Marinette squeaked "Sure!" and scuttled back through the school gates as Adrien pulled Plagg out of his inside pocket and set him down next to the hole.

"Think you could hide out here until lunch break, little buddy?" he asked.

"You're leaving me?" Plagg laid one tiny paw laid melodramatically across his forehead. "I'll never survive! Or rather, you'll never survive. This whole school could be completely destroyed by lunch time."

"Then tell me how to find Ladybug, quick!" Adrien hissed.

"She's, um," Plagg swallowed hard, from nerves or nausea, it was hard to tell. "She won't be home now anyway," he said. "Besides, you can't transform while I'm ill, and if she sees you like this, she'll know your secret identity."

"You just said if I left you like this then the school might be destroyed!"

"Fine, fine," Plagg grumbled. "Give me a minute to come up with a plan."

"A-Adrien?" Marinette was coming back. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Coming!" Adrien called. "Hurry up," he muttered to Plagg.

"Okay, here's the plan," said Plagg, and what he said next made absolutely no sense to Adrien.

"What? You want me to – but that would – she would know!"

"Multimouse's identity was compromised anyway, but only you and Ladybug saw her detransform," Plagg spoke quickly. "She won't be a target for Hawkmoth. I'll find a way to get her to give me to Ladybug without her finding out who it is – urp." He swallowed hard.

"Why can't I just take you to Ladybug?" Adrien said, trying to ignore the nausea now rising in his throat.

"You can't know each others' identities!"

"But Marinette can?"

"Just tell her Cat Noir gave me to you!"

"So... Cat Noir gave you to me to give to Marinette to give to Ladybug? And two people knowing our identities would be less risky because...?"

"Because if Hawkmoth caught her, she would only be able to give away Ladybug's identity, not yours! Besides, Marinette is trustworthy, right?"

"Who are you talking to?" Marinette leaned over just as Adrien stood up and he banged his head on her chin.

"OW! Are you okay?" They both cried out at once. Marinette laughed painfully, but Adrien frowned as he looked at her. He reached out, and before she had time to jump away or fall over or whatever Marinette usually did, he brushed her bottom lip with his thumb. It came away bloody.

"It's fine," Marinette squeaked, at the same time as Adrien said "I'm so sorry!" He patted himself down frantically before producing a packet of tissues. "Here, let me..."

"It's really okay, I..." she trailed off and stared up at him as he cupped her face in one hand while dabbing gently at the cut.

"I'm really sorry," he repeated.

"Uh huh," Marinette sighed breathily. She looked a bit red. Was she trying not to cry? He didn't know what he'd do if she cried.

"Maybe I should take you to the school nurse?" he said.

"N-nooo, I'll be fine, really!"

Adrien remembered what Plagg had said, and sighed inwardly. "I insist," he said. Before she could protest, he had his arm around her shoulders and was steering her back into the courtyard.

The nurse's office was always always empty first thing in the morning because that's when Sebastien, the nurse, went out for his morning smoke and coffee. Adrien knew this because the nurse's office, being smaller, was often a more private a spot to transform in during an akuma attack than the bathroom.

Sure enough, Sebastien was out. Adrien, ignoring Marinette's reassurances, rummaged through the first aid kit on the desk until he found antiseptic and gauze. She stopped talking when he tilted her chin in order to dab at the cut. It was clotting already, but a trickle of blood had made its way down her chin, and he pretended to concentrate on cleaning that up while his mind raced over what exactly he should say next.

"Marinette, can I ask you something?" He tossed the gauze in the bin and looked at her properly. She was staring at him, frozen in place, and he wondered if he was doing the right thing. "Marinette?"

"Nn?" she squeaked. Adrien kind of understood why Ladybug had given her the mouse miraculous. That had been a really complicated mission, come to think of it. And she hadn't talked to anyone about it, he was sure. Not even Alya, her best friend, who would have been ecstatic to get an exclusive interview with a one-time miraculous holder. She could have, since Ladybug had said she wouldn't entrust her with a miraculous again, but... she hadn't.

Adrien took a deep breath.

"I... didn't just bring you here to clean your cut," he finally admitted. "I needed to talk to you somewhere private because..." Her eyes widened. "...Someone asked me to give you this." He took her hand in his, palm facing up, and, his heart jackhammering in his chest, he fished Plagg out of his inside shirt pocket and placed him there.

If Marinette's eyes had been wide before, they were saucer-sized now.

"This-! This is-!"

"A kwami, yes, I know."

"You're-?!"

"Cat Noir told me to give it to you," he added quickly, before she could jump to the right conclusion. "His kwami's sick, and Cat Noir wants you to give it him to Ladybug. He can't transform with his kwami in this state. He even had to show me his true identity to do it, and you... he said you'd know where to find Ladybug. I don't know if you know her true identity, but at least this way, neither of us knows who both of them are."

Marinette was staring open-mouthed at the miniature cat in her hand. Plagg was curled into a ball, trembling.

"He's... hot," she finally said.

"Only Ladybug can make him better," Adrien said. "That's what Cat Noir told me, anyway."

She looked back up at him suddenly, and he was surprised to see anger in her eyes. "Is he insane?! How could he just give himself away to... to... I mean," she amended, as Adrien backed away slightly, "Not that you're not trustworthy, I'm know you are, and I know I am, well I mean – but -" she took a deep breath. "Wouldn't it have been better to just take Pl- the kwami to her himself?"

"They don't know each others' identities," Adrien said. "And since than they're Hawkmoth's main targets, it has to stay that way, right?"

Marinette opened her mouth, and Plagg chose that moment to let out another burp.

Marinette turned a pale shade of green and retched into the sink next to her, almost dropping the kwami. Adrien held his breath, grabbed her arm, and was about to pull her out of the nurse's office when he ran headlong into the nurse himself.

"What are you- AUGHH!" The nurse coughed and backed out of the room, allowing the two students to escape. "Which one of you did that in my office? That's inhuman!"

"It wasn't us, I swear!" Adrien shouted over his shoulder.

"Whoever it was, go home!" Sebastien called back. "Nobody wants that going round school!"