#adrienaugust

“Wang Fu, he’s listed on both wills that you be sent him if he’s available.” The social worker said, reading off information given to them by their mothers’ family lawyer.

So, they were sent to the outskirts of the French country side, where the house stood out amongst the trees. The traditional Chinese house wasn’t something Adrien felt used to, not to mention all the rules they were given by Su-Han, the groundskeeper of the house, the feeling of a prison was closing in again. Like he needed to survive through this.

Felix, as usual, had been the thing that kept him breathing.

“Hide this.” Felix ordered on their second day, tossing him an orange. It was wax, from the bowl near the front door.

Adrien caught it with ease, looking down at it with confusion. “Why?”

Felix rolled his eyes as always at what he thought were stupid questions. “So, we can learn how to get around this place. We did testing, it’ll take them a while to set up a new home-schooling system for us, so we’ve got way too much free time. now, go hide it.”

Adrien did just that and over the next few days, the halls started becoming familiar as they went looking for the orange, trying to breathe as they never met their host, delt with glares and comments from Su-Han and tense calls from Adrien’s father once permission had been given. It had been a particular bad day to keep his head above when he opened the door to a room he hadn’t gone towards before. it was empty, only a covered piece of furniture sitting inside. He felt something pulling inside, making him walk slowly towards the item and pulling the cloth off. A wardrobe of dark wood stood before him. It was covered in carvings, one with a lion and a tree taking up most of the front. It looked like an apple tree and there was some odd religious thought that came to Adrien’s head, but he brushed those aside as he opened the door. It was full of fur coats, not at all needed for a French winter. Or maybe it was different in the country. Adrien stepped inside, pushing through the furs, going further and further. How big was it? then, he felt it, the change in temperature, the cold. The snow resting on the branches of the pine tree he found as he reached what should have been the back of the wardrobe.

He stepped out into a snowy clearing, a lone lamp post casing on orange glow on the pristine snow as the snow flurried down. for the one moment, Adrien felt like he’d been given a gift for everything he’d been through. He could still see the open door leading back into the house through the frost covered trees, leading him back to reality, but this was something that needed every word that existed to describe. It felt like he’d survived his whole life to end up at that moment. And then when Kid turned past a tree, snow dusting his fur, Adrien didn’t realise he’d have to do it all over again, survive. He thought meeting the faun Kid Mimic, or Kid, was just another part of his reward. He didn’t realise the faun, the person who would quickly become Adrien’s friend, had started everything by inviting the human back to his home, nearly spelling him to sleep while he called for Shadowmoth and then helping Adrien escape. He’d started the prophecy of children of Adam and Eve stopping the White Wizard. But Adrien wouldn’t learn about him until later, after he’d gone back to see Kid, after Felix followed him and was found by the White Wizard, after breaking a window sent them both rushing back to the wardrobe.

“Well,” Felix said, shivering, “any ideas?”

“We can’t hide forever.” Adrien pointed out. He moved back to the break line of the wardrobe and Narnia and pulled two coats down. “When I went the first time, it was only a few moments for you, but I was gone hours.”

Felix hummed, slipping the coat on, frowning at the feminine style of the coat. “It wasn’t that long when I came.”

Adrien furrowed his brow. He hadn’t seen Felix when he came the second time, only finding him in the room after his visit with Kid. Adrien had burst out with what he’d seen and Felix just nodded. He’d thought at the time that his cousin was just agreeing with him to occupy his mind with fantastical ideas.

“You were here? when?”

Felix looked panicked, like he’d been caught. Not a sight Adrien normally saw. “I just, saw something I wanted to see again. We should go see it now.”

“Oh, wait! First, I have to introduce you to Kid. He helped me the last time, I think he was in trouble. Said that any human had to be brought to the White Wizard. He’s really nice and I think he’d should at least know we’re here.”

Adrien hadn’t waited for an answer, dragging his cousin the path he memorized the first time he’d been led there. When he found the destroyed house and the letter left by the police, that’s when it hit Adrien. How surviving was going to be different. When they’d been found by Plagg and Tikki, listening to them explain the prophecy that had spoken throughout the land for ages, since the start of the 100 Year Winter, Adrien realised this time, it would be hard. When Felix went missing, apparently towards the Wizard’s castle, it felt impossible. How was he supposed to do this, when the police, wolves, were coming after him? They’d already taken Kid and Felix; Adrien was trying to live his life without his parents and his aunt. Who decided that this was the thing Adrien needed to survive through next?

__________________________

“Who is Aslan?” Adrien asked, staring at his tea cup. They’d arrived back at the cave Plagg, the talking panther and Tikki, the dryad, shared, after watching Felix walk into the castle of the Shadowmoth or White Wizard. Speaking of, “Who even is Shadowmoth?”

Plagg was sure that the Wizard would send his people after him, so he was pushing Tikki around into gathering everything. They were underground, in a cave system, so they had a moment and Adrien just lost another person. He’d meander all he wanted, even if he had to go looking for a lion no one physically saw, who was a king and left his people to suffer enough that Kid was in agony at the idea he had to kidnap Adrien. Adrien was starting to hate the idea of kings; it reminded him of his father.

“He’s not human. A creature with terrifying power. Said to destroyed his whole family to not lose a fight. He was banished from Narnia but managed to sneak his way back in, usurped the royal family and cast the whole land into a 100-year frozen land. The lamp post you saw when you arrived? The oldest object in Narnia, other than Aslan of course.”

“Aslan is, a king? How is he any better? Why hasn’t he fixed things?”

“Aslan is closer to a god, than anything. His ability to affect the area around him is nothing not even Shadowmoth can fathom. He’s given animals the ability to speak, to cast aside our wild ways and become one with those around us. If he fixed, every little thing, how would any of us learn? How would we become brave enough to think about his sightings and push forward to be free of the Wizard rather than just survive under his rule?”

Adrien guessed but he was gonna have a word with this Aslan.

“Ok,” Tikki said, tossing a bag to Adrien, with one around her shoulders, “let’s go!”

Her hair was as red as a ladybug and her clothes didn’t make sense for the freezing winter – honestly hiking through it with Kid was insane to do without a coat, let alone his pyjamas when he went to go see Kid again that night – but she didn’t seem bothered. When sounds of wolf howls started to make their way down the tunnels, Adrien decided to not question it. they had to get out.

“Come on! This system leads to Fluff and Roaar’s!” Plagg said, leading the way.

The sounds of snarls kept Adrien moving, even as he had to climb up a slanted hole, Plagg pushing him from behind. The dim moonlight made it hard for Adrien’s eyes to adjust as he crawled out. he stumbled to his feet before tripping over something. Plagg and Tikki’s hushed voices cut off as a cloud blocking the moon moved on, allowing more light through the frozen branches above them. Adrien had tripped over stone squirrel, a group of them. all over, there were stone animals. Adrien watched Plagg approach one, the stripes of their coat still visible.

“No. I just saw her yesterday. How…?”

From what Adrien could guess, while he’d gone to see Kid again, Felix followed him and had met this White Wizard. Felix knew how to control a conversation, but he wasn’t perfect. Only if he knew he needed to be in control, would he be ready. Felix was like him, needing someone to notice him, that with his guard down, he’d tell everything. Like his cousin, visiting a faun, who’d broken the law to help him. Why Felix still went when he heard what Plagg had to say, when he saw what the White Wizard could do, Adrien didn’t know, but unless Felix got control, their every move would be known. Had this happened because of the Wizard’s spies?

The fox that helped them reminded him of his cousin, how he easily tricked the wolves and put up a bravado when getting his injuries looked after. When the fox announced Aslan had asked him to gather tropes, he smirked in Plagg’s direction as the panther pouted. Felix would have tilted his head the same, flicking his hair out of his eyes. They talked about how Aslan would be there for a war, but Adrien hadn’t been planning on living through that, even if the fox called him and Felix kings. His only plan was getting his cousin, making sure Kid was ok and leaving.

The fox told them that Aslan’s camp was near the Stone Table. Seeing the distance to cross worried Adrien. Felix was in trouble now, what if by the time they got to the camp, the Wizard got rid of him? He wanted to trust his cousin to figure out a way to stay alive, one that didn’t hand the Wizard everything he wanted, but when had anything in their lives gone well?

The trek over had been halved by Plagg insisting he and Tikki ride on him. Not that he let them forget his gracious offer, bringing it up every two seconds.

“I swear, if he doesn’t shut his pie hole, I’m gonna get the closest tree to smack him.” Tikki said, leaning back to whisper at Adrien.

He couldn’t help but laugh when he heard bells. He looked behind him to see something approaching. Something on a sleigh.

“Plagg! I think it’s him!”

“Shit! Hold on!”

Adrien grabbed onto Tikki’s waist as Plagg sped up, bounding towards the treeline, the sound of bells getting louder. The sleigh was the Wizard’s preferred method. His wolves had found the tunnel in what felt like a matter of minutes. God, Felix could be – was Adrien just meant to be fully alone his whole life? There was an offshoot of rocks and Plagg jumped off, Tikki pulling Adrien off as Plagg landed and pulled him into the cave the rocks made. They sat in tense silence as the bells got louder before the sound of hooves came with it before stopping right above them. Adrien watched the shadow of a tall person stretch on the bank of snow in front of them, snow falling as steps disturbed it. Tikki had described Shadowmoth as a tall man with a staff and a flowing cape that fluttered like the wings of a butterfly. Adrien didn’t see any cape like movements of the shadow above them as they moved away. Was it possible they weren’t the White Wizard?

“I’ll check if they’re gone.” Tikki whispered.

“The bells!” Adrien reminded. They would have heard them if they left.

“I know, but – ” They stopped at the sound of a whistle. Tikki’s hair seemed to move with her moods and it almost twitched as she smiled. “I know who that is! No one else can replicate the sound!”

Adrien watched terrified as Tikki crawled out of the cave and disappeared above them, making a chirping sound. It was surprised, happily surprised. He shared a look with Plagg and decided to climb out. when Adrien managed to climb up the slight hill, he wasn’t expecting to see a red sleigh pulled by 8 reindeer and a man dressed in red with a snowy white beard and as the song went ‘a belly that shook like a bowl full of jelly’ as he laughed when Tikki pulled from the hug he’d been given her.

“Y-you’re…Père Noël.” The bringer of Christmas toys was from Narnia?

“That I am. it is a pleasure to meet you Adrien. I did enjoy the letters you sent, though I apologize for not being able to give you what you wanted in your last one. I’m afraid that was outside my control.”

He was 14 when he wrote a letter to the man in front of him, asking childishly if he could make his mother better. He knew it couldn’t happen, but his father hid enough things from him that Adrien felt desperate. Felix even wrote a letter.

“Your cousin’s other wish I didn’t have a hand in but I wasn’t mad about the result.” Adrien didn’t know what to say about how Felix asked for his other wish to be removing his father from the picture and how the patron saint of looking after people was ok with a person dying. Then again, here Adrien was in a world hidden in a wardrobe, had met a fawn and had lost his cousin to a wizard who wanted them dead because their arrival meant he’d lose his power. So, what did he know?

“We thought you were the Wizard.”

“Ah,” Père Noël patted the sleigh behind him, “yes. Well, to be fair, back when Narnia had its seasons, I drove this far longer than he did. For one, I don’t use a whip on my team. they’d hit me with their antlers. You’re arrival has helped the Wizard’s power weaken with the hope you and your cousin bring. I have quite a number of items to drop off, in respect to Aslan and what is coming and Spring means I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Kid did say there hasn’t been Christmas in 100 years.”

“Hard to want to celebrate a solstice when a power-hungry creature takes over the land when Aslan can’t stop him. Come, I can’t take you all the way, but I can help get you further to meeting Aslan. You’re still missing your cousin.”

Adrien didn’t bother asking how the man knew about Felix. The stories did say he was always watching. He wondered just how much power the Wizard had to stop Père Noël from doing anything for 100 years, regardless of if his role was just symbolic. With Plagg settled in the back near the overly stuff sack and Tikki gaining the attention of the reindeer hitched in front to where she sat on their back, Adrien sat next to the man his mother told stories about every time red and green started flowing the streets of Paris.

“You look nervous.” Père Noël said as they started out.

“I…I am. what if Aslan won’t help? I mean, Felix essentially betrayed us by going to the Wizard. I know he didn’t mean to, that whatever he promised had to of made him still go. What if that doesn’t matter? What if he cuts his losses? I know this ‘prophecy’ said 2 children of Adam and Eve, but still. We don’t both have to sit on a throne. Also, I’m 16 and dealing with being removed from my father’s care because he’s not fit to raise kids, not to mention my mother’s death and aunt’s disappearance. Why on earth do they think it’s a good idea to throw me into a war? Haven’t I been through enough?”

These were all questions he wanted to ask of Aslan, ask why this god decided he and Felix were the ones who needed to be here. Père Noël would have to do for now.

“Adrien, I want you to listen to me. What you and your cousin have gone through already, would shatter people much older than you. I’m sure you’ve heard this in some compacity or another already, but what you’ve gone through makes you stronger than you know. but also remember this, surviving isn’t the same as living. I truly believe that you and your cousin’s arrival here, isn’t just meant to break the Wizard’s control over Narnia, but to give you both a chance to live. I know it’s scary to have to fight to get that ability, but it’s what you deserve. You’ve kept your head above water long enough. It’s time you get the chance to float and enjoy it.”

Enjoying things hadn’t been something he did in, well, ever. It was always locked away at home except for photoshoots or going on set with his mom. He had his hobbies, but playing piano and fencing had been shackles his father made for him to keep him even more locked away. Père Noël was right, the idea of fighting was scary, but the idea of living? Both scary and something he begged for without realising.

Père Noël eventually pulled the reigns and let Adrien out, pulling items from his sack. “I hope to give you all the items when your cousin is back in safe hands, so for now, take these.” A quarterstaff made of wood that looked almost silver was handed to Adrien. His fencing master, a lover of the old techniques from years past, had taught his students how to use it before they every used a foil. Holding the staff, with the etching of a lion’s head near one end, felt like coming home. “while a sword is useful, the staff tends to be a reminder to not be underestimated. And this,” a bottle in a pouch the size of Adrien’s palm was tenderly given. Adrien was sensing a theme, with the lion’s head stopper and red of the leather pouch. “Cordial made from a fireflower. One drop can heal any injury.”

Adrien smiled slightly at the man. “Thank you. and, I’ll see you again?”

“That I can promise. I’ve got a bit to do with all the work piled up and Winter ending, but I will be at the camp before it all starts and when your cousin is returned in safe hands. The dryads and I have spent years working together,” Père Noël smiled at Tikki, “so they’ll tell me when to return. Remember Adrien, we start living, not just surviving.”

“Right. Course, I need to survive avoiding the wolf police and getting to Aslan and survive a war.”

Père Noël smiled. “Yes, but if you’ve proven anything, it’s that you’re capable of doing so. And I know the Great Lion would agree. Long live Aslan, and long live you, King Adrien.”

He could do this. he had to, to save Felix. No more just surviving. It was time to live.

“Wait.” Adrien suddenly realised something. “You said Winter was ending. Doesn’t that mean no more ice?”

___________________________

If Adrien never saw snow again, it would be too soon. Paris was nothing like Felix’s London, cloudy skies and rare days of sun, but Adrien had never been happier that the sun had finally returned to Narnia. How was it, only hours ago, it had been completely covered in snow and ice? He couldn’t complain too much though. After his revelation at Père Noël’s words, he’d rushed to where Plagg had pointed out they’d need to cross to get to the Stone Table. The river, waterfall actually, was quickly melting, the only solid pathway of ice barely holding on underneath what was the rushing falls. They’d only gotten halfway across when ice from above started falling. Not because the ice was melting, but because it was being helped by the wolves catching up and caging them in on both sides. Their leader gave him false promises, that if he turned around, he could leave with Felix, but Adrien didn’t believe it for a second. Thankfully, Plagg had been digging his claws into the ice during the confrontation, so when the falls broke through, Adrien just had to hold on. no wolves seemed to survive, or if they did, they’d lost their scent in the water. Once they were back on shore, Adrien finally started to see just how much his and Felix’s appearance had changed Narnia. Flowers were starting to bloom.

It was even more apparent as they reached the camp, a sea of tents with flags of a red lion. Mythical creatures Adrien had only read about dressed in armour that suited their bodies stared at him like he was an anomaly, following as they got close to the tent in the middle, sitting atop a small hill with more flags than the others.

“Why are they staring at me?” Adrien asked, watching Tikki turn into petals and fly off. He’d seen the petals of a tree wave at him, so he wasn’t worried.

“Maybe you look strange.” Plagg joked.

“Look who’s talking. you still look like a drowned rat.”

“Oi!”

The bantering helped Adrien feel calm. This was it, he was about to meet Aslan, about to beg him to save Felix and really decide if he would do this, regardless of wanting more than just surviving. A centaur, the dark hair of his horse half, stepped forward when they reached the tent. With a deep breath and a nod from Plagg, Adrien stepped forward.

“I’ve come to see Aslan.”

There was a pause, as the centaur looked to the tent before a simultaneous noise came from around Adrien, as everyone in the army – god, there were hundreds of them – kneeled as they could. Even Plagg bowed his head as the flaps of the tent were pushed open by a tawny head. Père Noël had called Aslan the Great Lion and the lion motif was everywhere, but somehow Adrien didn’t realise that Aslan was actually a lion. But the sight of him was, comforting, steady.

“Welcome Adrien, Son of Adam. And Plagg and Tikki, thank you for bringing him here safely. Except we are missing one other.” Aslan’s deep voice spoke.

Adrien was sure the army noticed Adrien hadn’t knelt. He stepped closer, hand tightening on the staff he’d been given.

“My cousin. His actions say he betrayed you, but you don’t know him. Felix might be what my father called a sly fox, but we’re all we have. I refuse to believe he’d do this without an explanation. If you decide that you’d rather cut your losses than help him – ”

“I’d be much like your father, wouldn’t I? judging on only one action. When people are hurting, they react in ways most can’t understand.”

Felix had stolen Gabriel’s ring, one that belonged to his wife’s family and got caught, which started the whole fox comments. It was the one thing Aunt Amélie had wanted from her sister.

“Regardless of your decision on where you’ll stand on this, I give you my word that I will get him back safely. You and your cousin have been forced to do more than enough within your life. I won’t add on another thing.”

And the thing was, even though Aslan was a lion, someone he’d just met after hearing all the stories, Adrien believed him, more than he had most adults in his life. If living meant not getting involved, Adrien believed Aslan would walk them back to what Kid had mistakenly called Spare Oom until the door was shut behind them. so, Adrien kneeled, because that one statement was what he needed to hear to respect the creature in front of him.

“Thank you.”

He was given clothes to change into, fitting into the area more in the tunic and doublet than his jeans and sneakers. He watched the petals and leaves of the dryads fly over him as he sat on one of the many hills, watching a castle shine in the distance. It didn’t look anything like the castle between the mountains he’d seen Felix disappear into.

“That is Cair Parvel. It’s where you and Felix will sit as Narnia’s kings.”

“It’s the ending point of Narnia. That’s what Kid said.” Adrien remembered when he asked his faun friend what Narnia was.”

Aslan hummed as he laid down next to Adrien, his quarterstaff sitting between them. “I suppose he’s not wrong. The Isles belong to the Wizard, as that’s where he was banished when he first came here. Plagg mentioned that when you heard of me, you wondered why I didn’t just fix everything.”

“It’s just…100 years? You left everyone to just, excuse what feels like the word that describes my life right now, survive under Shadowmoth.”

“There’s something that binds the very fabric of Narnia together, called the Deep Magic. I was there my father created it, like I created Narnia. It’s a set of laws that governs this world and we’re all bound to it as it defines right from wrong and governs our destiny. If I went fixing every issue, Narnia wouldn’t flourish like it has. Look around you, they might have survived, as you said, under the White Wizard’s rule for 100 years, but it was their own strength that gathered them here today. So, while yes, I would like to fix everything, I can’t. I’m as bound to the rules as the White Wizard is. I’m not the one who decided your appearance would change everything.”

“The Deep Magic did.” Aslan nodded and Adrien turned back to Cair Parvel. The idea of being responsible scared him but it still felt less like being ordered around by his father. it still felt like he was being given the chance to do more than get through each day, and didn’t that say something about his life.

“My Kings!” purple petals swirled around them before forming a figure. “We’ve found him. We’ve found Felix.”

“Wha – how?” Adrien asked, getting up.

“The White Wizard brought him with him and your cousin has been leading him in circles. From what we could tell, up until recently, he led the Wizard to believe that rumours of Aslan were just that, rumours. That only a small group took your arrival in hopes in confusing the Wizard. Tikki had spread word through the trees to look for him and when the snow finally started to melt, after one of ours was turned by the Wizard, he took off. We managed to get hold of him and he’s being passed around and brought here.”

Adrien turned to Aslan, who stood up and nodded his head. “Noorro, have Marin gather a party and met Felix to be brought here. Adrien would quite like to see his cousin again.”

________________________

Felix squirmed in Adrien’s grip, but he didn’t care. Felix had a few bruises on him, the worst one on his face, but he was alive.

“Can you let go?”

“Why, so you can run off again?” Adrien snapped. “I’m not gonna ask what you were thinking, cause I’m sure Aslan gave you a lecture already, but just know I’m mad at you, while being so happy you’re ok.”

Felix sighed, leaning harder into Adrien’s embrace. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I hated it.”

Adrien let go of Felix so he could look at his face. “Hated what?”

Felix sighed, sitting on the bench inside the tent they’d been given. They were waiting for one of the healers to finish boiling water so Felix could bath before his injuries were looked over. “being controlled. Lorded over, by my father, yours, the case worker. Fuck, even Su-Han. I just, I wanted us to have control for once. Mum always thought I was amazing and when the Wizard did, I thought, maybe this was it. maybe things could change. I arrived at the castle and everything in me was screaming it was a mistake. I didn’t do one thing  right and suddenly, I was of no use. It took a bit and your friend Kid had to pay the price, but I got the upper hand, even if only a little. when the fall was flowing and you seemed to get away, I knew then I had to go, I had to try and get back to you. you’d said something about the trees when we got to Kid’s place when this all started and I just hoped I could find one to trust. You know,” Felix had a wry smile on his lips, “throughout everything, both before and now, knowing you were ok made it all worth it. I hated not having power but you seeing the good in everything reminded me that maybe things would be ok.”

Adrien leaned on Felix. “It will be. Promise. No more doing this by ourselves. We already are supposed to rule together according to the prophecy, so let’s not split up again unless we have to.”

Felix rolled his eyes. “I’m older, why are you giving orders?”

“I just spent the past few days escaping a wizard with only a dryad, a talking panther and a quarterstaff for help. I know spinning lies takes work, but I went a lot harder. Now, let’s get you looked after. Père Noël is supposed to arrive at some point to finish getting us ready.”

“Did you just say Père Noël? As in Father Christmas? What the fuck is this place?”

N: I will miss your father too Adrien, but you must remember that his greatest wish was for you to be happy, and you know what we should do?

A: What?

N: Make a pool in the backyard and invite all of your friends over to a pool party.

“Hey, Plagg,” Adrien called, looking at a video on his computer. “This ghost thing kinda looks like you.”

Plagg peered over Adrien’s shoulder as he relished the taste of a particularly delicious wheel of camembert. Huh, that was a cat spirit, a decently strong one too, from the looks of it. It wasn’t quite as well formed as him. Its tiny black body was mostly a head with tiny little bat wings, and its eyes were purple instead of his ravishing green, but he could see the resemblance. 

Then, having fed off enough fear from the civilians nearby, it transformed. Its wings grew to massive lengths and grew to four. Its face morphed from a simple fear to a pig nosed muzzle, and its main body became long and sleek like a panther’s.

“Oh,” Adrien said, frowning. “It doesn’t anymore.”

“Puh-lease,” Plagg remarked, lifting his nose up away from that pathetic transformation, “my true form is much cooler than that. 

Immediately, Adrien sat up straight, looking at Plagg in undisguised awe. “You have a true form?” Adrien asked.

“Of course I do,” Plagg said, grinning smugly as he revealed in the attention his chosen was giving him. He nonchalantly swallowed a roll of camembert whole as he smugly asked, “What, did you think those ghosts could be cooler than me? Trust me,” Plagg swept his paw through the air in a dismissive gesture, “compared to me, those ghosts are just the very beginnings of curdled milk. It would take them millenia to even be a fraction as smart or as powerful as I am.”

“Wait,” Adrien cocked his head, looking at Plagg in an adorable level of confusion, “why don’t you ever use it then?”

“Because it’s huge,” Plagg said, rolling his eyes. “And if you think my powers are tricky in this size, it’s nothing compared to my true self. Honestly, I could probably destroy the entire Milky Way on accident like that.” 

“Oh,” Adrien said softly. “I guess that makes sense.” 

Plagg hummed, eyeing Adrien carefully. It didn’t take a genius to see Adrien’s disappointment. His wielder wasn’t subtle about his emotions. How anyone could miss them was beyond Plagg, but showing someone his true form was a big deal. Most people only ever wanted to see it before they demanded that he fuse with Tikki to make reality bend to whatever stupid wish they wanted. Adrien though…

Plagg genuinely believed that Adrien might just want to see it. He was curious like that, always grabbing and reaching for whatever scraps of knowledge Plagg handed out to him, and his wielder was clever too. 

At first, Plagg had given Adrien the tiniest scraps of information to tease him, offering only a small taste of information to see his tiny little human mind get blown, but after a month or so, Adrien would surprise him by casually mentioning things to Plagg that he’d never even said out loud before, had never even needed to. 

For instance, after a few weeks of listening to Adrien drone on and on about his sickeningly sweet crush on Ladybug, Plagg had once again given his excellent cheese advice only for Adrien to counter that Plagg had never been in love. Or after Plagg had introduced the idea that he’d had many wielders before, it had only taken Adrien about 3 weeks to complain about how he couldn’t transform into a cat like Bast had.

From then on, it had become a game of sorts. Plagg would drop some little seed of information every so often, and Adrien would counter it by bringing up some surprisingly insightful tangential guesses about it with the surety of someone who’d known it for years. Sometimes he was wrong, hilariously wrong, like the time he’d thought Loki was a fox, but most of the time, his wielder was right on the money. 

Plagg had let a lot of secrets go this way. He knew he’d dropped far too many hints for his own good, but it was so satisfying to watch his little human grow and figure out things so quickly and easily. In fact, for the first time in a long time, Plagg felt like he trusted his wielder. So maybe, he could try something. 

“Do you want to see it?” Plagg asked cautiously. Immediately, Adrien lit up like a Christmas tree, but he hesitated. 

Biting his lip, Adrien hesitantly asked, “But didn’t you say it was dangerous?”

Plagg gave him an easy grin and waved his paw dismissively. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. “We’ll just have to find someplace big enough to hold me without anyone seeing us, and I’ll just need to avoid using my powers. No big deal.” Then he paused before quickly adding, “But, just in case, I can’t stay in that form for too long.” As Adrien nodded, he quickly added, “and it’s just the one time.”

Adrien hummed, before he grinned. “I think I know a place. Plagg! Claws Out!” ~*~ As it turned out, Adrien’s place was one of the cisterns in the sewer. It was hardly conspicuous. Both Ladybug and Chat Noir had hidden near a number of these several times,but Plagg was a little worried he wouldn’t be able to fit. 

Apparently, Adrien had the same idea, because he looked at it nervously as he asked, “Is it big enough?”

As Plagg listened to Adrien’s voice, he cursed his soft heart. As soon as he heard that tone in Adrien’s voice, Plagg knew, as clearly as he knew that pasteurized cheese was a crime against humanity, that if it wasn’t big enough, his wielder would blame himself. He was weirdly self-conscious like that: eager to blame himself at the slightest opportunity. Plagg blamed his stupid father for that, and Ladybug’s stupid obsession with secrets hadn’t been helping. 

“Yeah, it’s big enough,” Plagg said, quickly to assuage Adrien’s doubt. For Adrien, Plagg would find a way for it to be big enough. 

Quickly, he coached Adrien through the spell. “In order to do this,” Plagg told him, “you’re going to have to say, ‘Plagg, reveal yourself’. It’ll be a bit like transforming, but the magic’s not going towards you, it’s going away, so you’re going to have to be forceful, but not too forceful or we’ll bring this place down.”

Adrien nodded before following Plagg’s instructions to a tee. Feeling the bindings on his smaller form loosen, Plagg stretched his form out very carefully, making sure not to touch the ceiling or the water. He’d only be a fraction of his normal size like this, but he figured that Adrien would still be able to see all of his features.

As soon as he was finished, Plagg looked back at Adrien with all three of his eyes to find Adrien with eyes the size of dinner plates and beaming like the cat who caught the canary. 

“You look so cool,” Adrien gushed. “And look at those wings! They look just like Astrocat’s. And that eye! Can I have an eye like that? Can you see out of it? What does it look like? Does it look like it does with only two eyes or can you see in other dimensions?” 

Smiling, Plagg stretched and flexed, a strange feeling coming from his chest as Adrien oohed and awed at every new thing he noticed about Plagg, asking dozens and dozens of questions in barely contained glee. Adrien delighted in everything:  from the realization that his body was covered in eyes, “can you see from all of them?” to Plagg’s disembodied joints “how far can they move?” to the giant hole in his chest, “can I touch it?” 

Plagg had to admit, he let time slip away from them as Adrien admired Plagg. At first from the ground, but after Adrien asked to be picked up, from up close. There was something so simple, so joyful in being marveled at instead of being used as just half of a battery. 

Together, he and Adrien spent a few hours down there until Adrien had started getting tired and -very reluctantly- suggested they go back. The next morning though, they paid for it. Adrien had come down with a cold, one of the nastiest that Nathalie had ever seen apparently, and Plagg had felt terrible. 

As soon as Plagg apologized though, in his own way, Adrien shook his head.