Dear Bugaboo

Plague

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"Is that all of it?" Adrien asked, returning back to his room after distracting Nathalie for a while. While distracting his temporary guardian, his bodyguard guard snuck all the cat utilities from the car.

   The Gorilla answered by nodding his head in approval.

"Thank you so much for all your help," the blonde said full of gratitude. The Gorilla patted his shoulder before leaving the room to continue some of his work. Adrien waited to take the cats out of the bag when the door was fully shut.

The cats were awake, the black cat scowled while the red feline began to look around. The blonde teen began to set up everything for the two animals, hoping they'd find everything easily. While setting everything up, Adrien began to think of what he should name the two cats for the meantime.

Once he finished, Adrien made his way over to the stubborn feline that hadn't moved from its spot. Yet, the cat moved once he saw Adrien walking closer and began to hiss.

"Man, you sure hate people. You pretty much avoid them like the plague," the ex-model joked before an idea popped up in his head.

"How about I name you Plague! Of course, that sounds mean so I'll call you Plagg for short!" Adrien suggested. The black cat wasn't impressed by the human's cleverness. In fact, he went to search for his partner and completely ignored the human.

Adrien rolled his eyes before looking at the red cat. He began to think of a good name for the feline but came up a blank. The blonde was very intelligent in many ways but wasn't the creative type in any aspect. He was too busy to do be involved in any sort of creativity like art, reading books that didn't involve studying, or music outside of what he was forced to learn on the piano. He supposed that he was naturally poetic in a way but that was the hopeless romantic side of him. How could he not be inspired when living in the city of love.

In a way, he blamed his mom for watching those silly cliche romance movies when he was younger. Yet, he always enjoyed watching them with her.

The ex-model couldn't remember the last time he's ever truly had fun since then, yet never complained. His days were fully packed from early in the morning until late at night with a few breaks in between.

Adrien felt slightly blind when he realized that he really wasn't living the life he wanted. He merely was following along with someone who made him a life by scheduling it all out and telling him what to do. Telling who he was and shouldn't be, what he liked or didn't like, what he could or couldn't do.

The blonde felt like a puppet, its strings being toyed with the puppeteer's simple movement of his fingers. He was wrapped around his father's finger in more ways than one and trained to be perfect, not knowing it until now.

He felt so used with his life so wasted in the past few years.

   Adrien let out a shaky sigh before going to do some of his homework. He sat down at his desk and grabbed some scrap paper. This didn't go unnoticed by the red cat who waddled over to the teen and rubbed her head against his leg.

   The blonde boy nearly jumped at the gentle touch of the soon-to-be mother cat. Sad green eyes shifted down to the floor and saw the pretty red kitty. For some reason, he could see some sort of happy smile on the red cat's face as she let out a joyous meow.

   Soon, the frown that was on Adrien's face was replaced with a tiny but a genuine smile.

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   "Hi, mom and dad!" Marinette greeted, cheerily and giving both of her parents a kiss on the cheek. Sabine pulled out two freshly baked chocolate chip cookies from the display case.

   "Why don't you go give one to Tikki?" Sabine said to her daughter, giving Marinette the cookies. Marinette could feel her cheeks hurt from how much she was smiling and nodded in agreement.

   "Okay!" The bluentte replied, taking the sweets before running up to the apartment. Marinette entered the apartment and saw her aunt wiping down the counter.

   "Hi, Aunt Celine!" Marinette greeted before looking around for her cousin, "Have you seen Tikki anywhere? I've got a cookie for her."

   Celine looked up and gasped, placing her hand on her chest.

   "Ouch, the betrayal is real. How dare you not get your ultimately hot and best aunt in the universe a cookie too! You're not my niece anymore!" Celine dramatically said in a "huff."

   "Oh no! What have I done?" The teen dramatically played along, "I am a disgrace!"

   Celine chuckled, placing her elbows on the counter and head in the palms on her hands.

   "How was school, Maribear? Any new juicy news on the dude you're stalking?" She asked, innocently and making Marinette stiffen.

   "I am not stalking him!" The bluenette huffed in denial, crossing her arms in defiance.

   "Oh, right right. My mistake," Celine said before slyly smiling, "The dude that you keep tabs on 24/7, pictures of his face all over your bedroom walls, the ten-page essay of the one time you two bumped shoulders in your diary and let's not forget the giant cardboard cutout of his head in the back of your closet-"

   "Aunt Celine!" Marinette yelled, face going hot, "Shut up!" The redheaded woman laughed so hard, tears formed in her eyes.

   "Sorry, kiddo. It's just way too easy! You should see how flustered you are right now," Celine laughed, stomach starting to hurt. Marinette covered her face with the cookies and grumbled about getting rid of the cardboard cutout.

   "Marinette!" Tikki shouted, running up and giving her cousin a giant hug. The bluenette stumbled a little before smiling, face still covered with a madly red blush.

   "There's my favorite cousin!" Marinette chirped, "Way better than the best aunt in the world! Here, have a cookie!" The younger ginger happily took the treat and began to eat it.

   "Hey!" Celine said, pointing an accusing finger at Marinette, "First you don't get me a cookie then you diminish my title for "best aunt in the universe" to "best aunt in the world!" How dare you!"

   Marinette and Tikki laughed before going to Marinette's room while eating their cookies.

   Celine smiled at their departure but once the room was empty of any other life, a guilty frown encased the woman's face.

   She sighed, rubbing circles on both sides of her temple.

   "When is this torture going to end? I don't think I can keep this up much longer."

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