The wingman visits by NiuNiette

Chapter 12: your suggestion lacks romance

Chat Noir's eyes stirred slowly open, his head feeling heavy as an anvil, neck sore and mouth completely dry. He coughed the dryness out from his wind pipe, managing to open his eyes despite the voice in his head saying he should just sleep more.

Strange. It looked like his living's room ceiling.

He tried to remember what had happened. He had a memory of sitting on a couch with Plagg sleeping on the pillow, but anything beyond that was blurry and dark. He turned to his side, noticing that this apartment was indeed his and also realizing that his cat suit was on. Chat didn't remember being transformed and when he took with tired eyes a look at his ring, he was baffled. The ring was completely dark, no signs of a green paw symbol anywhere, yet he was still transformed.

"What the-?!" he croaked, head spinning as he stood up to sit too quickly. He pulled his hand before his nose and eyed the ring. It was odd. So very strange. He shouldn't have been Chat Noir with an empty ring. He tried to take the ring off as to see if Plagg would appear if he retreated the ring, but the ring didn't budge at all. It stayed around Chat Noir's nameless like being welt into it and no matter how much Chat pulled, yanked and shook his hand, the ring staid on.

"What on earth is going on?" Chat muttered to himself, getting up slowly, his head feeling even heavier than earlier. He made his way to the curtains, pulling them off and the sun's bright shining blinded him. Chat turned his head away from the brightness and fumbled the window open, as he felt like he needed some fresh air. The air inside the house was oddly heavy.

Chat Noir scanned the living room and saw nothing unusual at first, until he spotted a hole on the floor. It looked like it would have come from a punch, but he had no memory of it. He walked around the house cautiously, aware that something wasn't right. When he came to his bedroom's door frame a pile of clothes thrown all over the floor and his bed greeted him. He had no memory of rummaging through his closets like that.

"Plagg?" he tried, pondering if the kwami was in some odd way somewhere else than in his ring, but he heard nothing. He didn't even know had Plagg heard him or not.

Chat Noir turned around, walking to the couch's side, looking at the smooth surface. He squinted his eyes, trying to remember what had happened. He had been sitting here and thought about Marinette and how miserable he had been. The sensation of the miserable agony he had battled for a week rushed suddenly through Chat and he gasped, getting vivid memories of finding the necklace Marinette had given him and how that memory of her sweet and gentle smile had pained his heart when he has started to think he would never see it again face to face. He had sat on that couch, in the middle of it, the jewelry tugged into his pants' pocket.

Yes, that was it. He had been agonizing the fact Marinette had commanded him to stay away from her, both as Chat Noir and Adrien. He had taken the butterfly to Marinette's balcony in a glass jar and hurried away before she would witness his face, as he loved her too much to cause more pain to her. He would rather take the pain to himself than give it to Marinette.

Then... there had been this voice... This odd voice thought to be Plagg talking with him. Had it been Plagg? Chat couldn't remember.

Yet all this didn't explain why his bedroom's closets had been turned over and why there was a punch hole on his floor and why on earth the Marinette's present necklace was on the floor, scattered and broken. His eyes widened when he noticed the jewelry and he rushed there, kneeling down and picking the loose beads into his palms. He rolled them with his finger on his palm, eyes clouding. This had been his precious gift, just like the sweet macarons Marinette had baked for him. All the lovely treats and kisses, they left only memories, but this was an actual item, something which wouldn't stay with him only for a while, but the rest of his life if he wanted to. It saddened Chat to see the broken jewelry. He pondered if he had accidentally broken it somehow.