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The first time she heard him, she thought Adrien was talking on the phone with a friend. A rather interesting, cheese-obsessed friend who was a little too into voice acting (because seriously, what human being sounded like that?) and spent time on the phone with Adrien to keep him company when he wasn’t allowed out of the house.
The second time, however, was while she was bringing Adrien’s phone to him after finding it on the floor where he had dropped it. While approaching Adrien’s room, she heard the familiar conversation and wondered how a friend had managed to sneak in. However, when she opened the door to give Adrien his cell phone, even though he startled as though he wasn’t expecting her, there was no other human being in sight.
“Who were you talking to?” she asked, betraying no emotion but feeling genuinely curious.
Adrien rubbed the back of his neck. “No one. Just, you know. Thinking out loud.”
Nathalie nodded and walked away without telling him she had definitely heard another voice that was decidedly not Adrien’s.
The third time, she came to a conclusion that made her chest tighten and her fists clench in anger at Gabriel Agreste. Adrien must have made up an imaginary friend. He must have been making up a voice for the friend (in which case, he was quite the talented voice actor—not that she would ever tell M. Agreste for fear that he would give his son another job that took away from his time to have a social life). The fact that Adrien was that lonely, despite having friends at school… the fact that it wasn’t hard to believe was just plain wrong.
She lived with the secret imaginary friend theory for months, and it was true that in the few occasions she overheard him talking to himself, he was normally grounded or being kept in the house for an amount of time Nathalie wouldn’t agree with if she were his mother (which she was not, of course). She did her best to make sure he had time with his friends, even occasionally going behind M. Agreste’s back. When she had gone a while without hearing the voice, she assumed that she had succeeded in making sure Adrien was able to have a social life.
But then she heard the voice again—in a context that made this imaginary friend sound as though he may not be so imaginary. Because he and this other voice were arguing about something, talking over each other. If Adrien had found a way to talk at the same time as himself, that was one talented voice actor.
“Everyone feels this way about their friends—”
“No they DO NOT, Adrien! ONLY you—”
“Fine Plagg, I feel this way about all of my—”
“Really so do you feel that way about Glasses?!”
“So she’s a special friend—”
“For heaven’s sake she’s more than a friend!!!”
This was no imaginary friend.
But when Nathalie opened the door, making sure to do so while this… Plagg was talking as to not give anyone time to hide, the voice abruptly cut off and Adrien was the only person there.
Nathalie, at some point, decided to make it her life’s mission to find out who Plagg was, not wanting to ask Adrien directly and risk never hearing of the person again. However, it ended up being Plagg’s fault himself that Nathlie found out exactly what he was. See, while she was… not eavesdropping at all, no, she totally had a perfectly good reason to be there, she overheard the following words:
“Stop I-told-you-so-ing me. It doesn’t even matter that I like her… she can barely even talk around me. I don’t even know how to have real friendships with people, it’s like I destroy everything I touch…”
“I mean, that’s kinda the whole point of your miraculous.”
“Not helping, Plagg.”
“Sorry, but you kinda invited it. But honestly, relax. That girl love you almost as much as I love camembert cheese!”
Did—
Did he really—
Destroy everything—
Miraculous—
Nathalie’s brain began to spin with only two phrases echoing around in her mind:
Plagg was a kwami.
Adrien was Chat Noir.
Nathalie opened the door. “Yes?” Adrien asked, though she could tell he was disappointed to hear from her as she often carried news from his father that he didn’t want to hear.
“I need to speak with Plagg,” she deadpanned.
Adrien’s eyes widened just a fraction, but the acting skills he’d acquired through his work as a model over the years served him well as he assumed a look of confusion. “Who?”
Nathalie kept herself sounding neutral. “Your kwami. I want to talk to your kwami.” When Adrien was silent, she said, “I promise you it’s nothing bad. I just need to talk to him.”
“What’s a kwami?” Wow. He didn’t even stutter. When did he get good at lying?!
Nathalie gave him a flat stare, assuring him she wasn’t buying it. She knew what she’d heard. She wasn’t about to second guess herself.
Adrien sighed. “Plagg, you can reveal yourself. How did you find out?” He asked as his kwami zipped out to face her.
As Adrien gestured with his hands, she noted the ring on his hand, and also realized with some surprise that not even a small part of her mind was scheming how to get the miraculous from him for M. Agreste’s sake. “It doesn’t matter how I found out,” she said.
Plagg now hovered in front of her. “Alright, do you feel like telling me what’s going—”
“I’d like to speak with you. Come with me.”
“Um, you can’t just take Plagg—”
“I’m not taking him, I’m going to have a conversation with him.” Plagg looked reluctant to follow. “I have cheese for you,” she added, which could be easily arranged. Now Plagg looked tempted, but still looked back to a very nervous looking Adrien.
“Plagg will tell me everything you say,” he said, which she took as permission to leave with the kwami.
***
“It is time for us to step into our rightful roles as Adrien’s parental figures,” Nathalie said flatly. “Seeing as M. Agreste has been quite terrible at his job.”
“You’ve been his mom for a looooooong time, miss. You’ve just been in denial.”
“I am not his mother. That title is reserved for Emilie Agreste, even while she is in a magical coma.”
“In a what?”
“However, considering the fact that Gabriel Agreste is secretly terrorizing Paris, I believe declaring him an unfit parent and assuming those roles ourselves is the correct course of action.”
“I’ll get into why I’d be a horrible dad thing later, preferably after I’ve had a lot of cheese, inhaled a lot of dirty sock scent, and had you explain to me exactly what you mean by ‘a magical coma’ and ‘terrorizing Paris.’”
“Gabriel Agreste is Shadowmoth.”
Plagg paused for a moment. “Ok yeah, that makes sense. Poor kid.” His eyes widened. “Oh no, I am his parent! What is happening to me! I’m supposed to be a god of destruction!”
“Anyway, you can tell Adrien that part. Oh, and tell him to start making invitations because at the soonest moment that M. Agreste is away from this house, he is having a huge party, inviting everyone he knows, and trashing this entire mansion. Understood?”
Plagg broke into a grin. “I like you.”
Nathalie nodded curtly. “Awesome. Now let’s go to the kitchen and get your cheese.”
“I really like you!!!”