Now Plagg had been alive for many thousands of years. During this time, he had learned around 50 different languages, been to each continent, and had tried every single cheese the earth had to offer. He'd seen Leonardo paint his last masterpiece, been there when the Bastille fell during the French Revolution, and he had gone to America's first Pride Parade. He was very wise, although he didn't usually show it, and to top it off, he, like the other kwamis, had limited future vision. With all of this knowledge and experience at hand, or rather, at paw, you would think that he could easily come up with a convincing lie to tell an 18 year old boy. But, as the story goes, he could not.
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If anyone happened to be observing the girl, perhaps from the window to which Chat Noir so often frequented, they would have thought her to be doing an odd summoning ritual. Or maybe even a dance. Something to do with a lot of precise movements and important words, something, the observer would note, she didn't seem to be particularly good at. Eventually the girl flopped down on her bed and groaned; trying to ignore what seemed to be a large and persistent bug flying around her head.
"Marinette you can do this, you just need a little more practise!"
Marinette sat up and stared at the creature in shock.
"Did you hear me? Did you see me?! I was atrocious! Chat will immediately know somethings up if I can't look him in the eye without turning as red as my suit!"
She paused in her argument against herself to glance at the clock hanging on her wall, then groaned again and resumed her place on the bed.
"I have to leave for patrol in less than an hour, oh Tikki what will I do??"
The little red kwami tried to think of a reply, as her eyes clouded over and her pupils disappeared. She quickly scanned the possible futures, but, seeing nothing in the dark fog, started to return to the present. Marinette's voice acted as her anchor, pulling her back and keeping her there.
"...and I can't give anything away because if he even suspects for a single second that I'm Marinette behind the mask..."
She left the end of the sentence unfinished but the words she was going to say seemed to be pounding into her skull.
"He'll hate you. He could never trust you again. He'll be so disappointed."
Tikki quickly picked up on Marinette's thoughts and mood and put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
The girl turned away from her however, and stared out the window. She got up off her bed and went outside to the balcony, peering over the streets of the city she protected. After a while, Tikki spoke again.
"We must go. Don't worry Mari, I''ll be there. I'm always there."
The girl gave almost no indication she'd heard anything, but she cast one final sweeping look over Paris, and went back inside.
Adrien was usually a very neat boy. This might have been to do with the fact that his father paid people to keep the area around his son as clean as possible, but Adrien also never went out of his way to mess the room up. He placed his shoes just so, kept his desk empty and usable, and put all dirty laundry down the laundry shoots as opposed to on the floor. And so, it was strange to see the boy pacing angrily, grabbing anything within reach and throwing it against the opposite wall. During Plagg's speech Adrien had broken two bowels, three glasses, an expensive vase and the glass from the frame of a picture of himself and his father from last year. He had relished the sound as it had smashed on the floor, but not once did he take his eyes off Plagg.
"All this time? You've known all this time?"
"I've known forever."
Adrien paused in his pacing and stared even harder at his kwami, questions burning on his lips.
"How long is forever?"
"Long enough."
The boy paused again, as if devoting a lot of thought to this next question.
"You know the girl behind the mask, don't you Plagg?"
For the second time that day, Plagg cursed his inability to lie.
