"Bye Tikki! I'll see you tomorrow!" Tikki waved goodbye to Sabine as she left the bakery, her order for two in hand.

"Bye Sabine!" Tikki hummed to herself as she walked through the Parisian streets, all the trees were in bloom and it was just so beautiful to her.

"Hey sugar cube." A familiar voice greeted her.

"Good morning Plagg." She greeted him.

"You got my breakfast?" He asked eagerly.

"Do you care only about your stomach?" Tikki teased.

"This coming from the woman who can't go a day without eating some sort of sweet." Tikki clicked her tongue.

"Touche." She handed him his order.

While she would always get a chocolate chip latte with extra whipped cream and sprinkles, Plagg would get black coffee. She would get a strawberry danish while Plagg would get some camembert mini quiches.

"My deliciousness!" The kwami exclaimed, devouring one of the mini quiches whole. Tikki giggled.

His antics may seem annoying to some, but over time they had grown on her. Besides, who wouldn't take joy in seeing their friend enjoying something they liked?

"You know Tikki," Plagg said as Tikki took a bite of her danish. Delicious as always. "Do you really think it's a good idea to get your daily pastries from your client's parent's bakery?"

"I'm trying to support my Ladybug in any way that I can." She said once she swallowed. "If that includes going to a certain bakery for snacks then I won't oppose." 

"I never thought I'd see the day where I care more about secret identities than you do. Normally you're the one who's always on my case about keeping the up and coming vloggers a secret until they're ready." Plagg shook his head.

"Even if someone figured out that I happened to be Ladybug's publisher and knew who she was, that would still leave them with hundreds of people, stinky sock." Her lips curled into a smirk as she said the nickname. Plagg groaned.

"Oh come on! You can't possibly still hold that over my head."

"I can and I will." Tikki started to walk a brisk pace in front of him.

"Lord woman, how can you walk in those?" Plagg asked once he caught up to her.

"It's a gift." She replied. The 'those' Plagg was talking about happened to be her cherry red stilettos she had gotten.

"No kidding. I've heard Pollen complain more than enough times about how painful stilettos are." Tikki hummed.

"Well, I'll just have to teach her how to master the art of wearing stilettos." Plagg shook his head.

"Girls and their shoes."

"Boys and their sports."

"You and your sweets."

"You and your cheese."

"Can we at least agree that cheesecake is delicious?" Plagg smiled.

"Well obviously."

"And you have to admit, cheese makes so many things better!" Plagg said.

"Like..?"

"Pizza, tacos, noodles, burritos, soup." Plagg listed off. "To name a few."

"I'm not convinced." Tikki said with her sly grin. She wasn't usually one to tease, but that was just how her and Plagg worked. Their friendly bickering helped during the harder days of her job and kept her motivated during the easier ones.

"What about cheetos? Doritos? Omelettes! Grilled cheese! Morning sandwiches, burgers! Hot dogs!" Plagg continued to say.

"Fine, cheese does have some uses, but so do my pastries."

"I never said they didn't. It's not my fault you have more of a child's palette." He smirked, winked, then took off.

"Why you!" Tikki chased after him, trying to balance her coffee in one hand and her almost-gone danish in the other.

Even if she was annoyed with the man, she still smiled at the sound of his laughter. Even with their years of being kwami's and friend's together, she still didn't know much about his childhood, but she knew it was why he was closed off and bugged people all the time. He tried to trick them into thinking that he didn't care, but Tikki knew better.

Tikki knew that he cared so deeply about people. He just didn't want to be hurt again. Although, he had slowly but surely become warmer ever since becoming a kwami and taking on Cat Noir. 

Her and Plagg had met during training, they were both becoming kwami's at the same time and it helped them bond, which she was forever grateful for. She had been assigned Ladybug and he to Chat Noir and even though work had kept the both of them busy, they had managed to stay in contact.

It was quite ironic really. When Ladybug and Chat Noir had first spiked up in popularity, Tikki honestly thought they would never have to cross paths other than at banquets. She had thought it would be amusing, if they had ended up knowing each other as well as she and Plagg did. Well, it wasn't so amusing now that she was living in it.

She shook the thought of Hawkmoth from her head and focused on catching up to Plagg and making him pay.

"I may be the one with a child palette, but at least I act like an adult."

"My darling Tikki! How could you insinuate such a thing?" Plagg said in a dramatic gasp. Tikki rolled her eyes fondly.

"Because you do things like that." She answered.

"You love it." Plagg teased. Tikki tapped her chin in consideration.

"Do I? Do I really love it?"

"Yes, you do. Nothing can convince me otherwise." Plagg grinned. Tikki shook her head.

"Alright, whatever you say stinky sock."

"Hmph, it wasn't my fault that I didn't see it." He grumbled.

"It's not your fault that you didn't see a huge pile of laundry right in front of you?"

"I was a bit preoccupied with trying not to die." Tikki rolled her eyes.

"That's what you get when you try and take Mullo's cheese, you should know better than that."

"Well I didn't expect them to get so defensive of it!"

"Mullo loves cheese as much as you do, Plagg."

"Almost as much as I do." Plagg amended.

"Whatever you say." Tikki said, knowing that it was a losing battle.

"But they were hogging the cheese! How was I supposed to know that they would realize I had swiped just a tiny bit of their brie?"

"The same way you would know if Mullo swiped a bit of your camembert. You know brie is their favorite."

"Whatever, they still should've shared."

"Do you share whenever you have an abundance of cheese?" Tikki pointedly asked.

"What? No! I earned that cheese! It's mine!" She raised an eyebrow. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." She said.

"Well whatever! It's still not my fault that I dived head first into dirty laundry!"

"Oh I just love karma." Tikki sang.

"It wasn't karma!" Plagg defended.

"Uh-huh sure."

"It wasn't karma." He grumbled again under his breath, probably not realizing that she could hear him just fine.

"So, what's on your agenda today?" She asked him.

"Damage control." He answered simply.

"I heard that he uploaded a new video, do you think it'll blow over well?"

"I'd love to say yes, but it all depends on Hawkmoth." It was the first mention of how this morning was not like every other morning that they've taken this walk from the Dupain-Cheng bakery to Miraculous HQ. "If he's gone forever then I would say yes. Chat Noir's done a wonderful job at defending himself and refuting Hawkmoth. If he comes back..." Plagg bit his lip.

"He could twist things to paint Chat like a villain." Plagg nodded.

"And then Chat does the same thing and then Hawkmoth and then Chat and then-."

"It's a never-ending cycle." Tikki interrupted Plagg.

"Pretty much and it absolutely sucks. My kid is such a good one Tikki. He's so kind, but his father's an a-hole and would never support him being Chat Noir." Tikki scoffed.

"What type of father would do that?"

"I don't know. Kid says that he's got a vendetta against all celebrities for some reason and he's said some pretty harsh words about our company in the past."

"Hmph. Well, we just have to be the bigger people and not pay attention to it. If it's critique then we can take it to heart and see if it's something we're willing to change, but we both know it's better to ignore the unnecessary hate."

"I know that, but that father is the kid's last family member." Tikki gasped.

"Really?" She asked in a whisper.

"Unfortunately yes. Both of his parents are only children and his grandparents have both passed on."

"But," did she dare ask? "Where's his mother?" She did. Plagg shook his head.

"Gone. Kid's never told me anything more than that, I'm not even sure if he knows what happened to her."

"That's terrible." Tikki said sympathetically. If she ever met Chat Noir, she was going to scoop him into the biggest hug and give him plenty of pastries.

"It really is. Especially since he knows that his father is downright terrible, but he's never stopped loving him. He just wants his approval Tikki and I think that may be impossible unless he covers up a huge part of himself." Tikki could see that Plagg was becoming more distressed, so she did what she thought was best:

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed the living daylights out of him.

"I'm sure you're doing an amazing job of being his kwami and that he's very thankful." She knew what this was really about.

Plagg didn't want to fail and if Chat Noir kept feeling unloved and without approval, it will feel like he failed. She knew Plagg could empathize with him, after all they both had shoddy childhoods. She knew that Plagg probably wanted to help this kid get what he's wanted most: his father's approval. But, she also knew that Plagg couldn't give that to him, only his father could give that to him.

And it was heartbreaking.

Chat Noir had been around for years and if Plagg and he had any relationship like Marinette and herself then she would know that they were very close. It was hard watching someone who you care about go through hard times. It's even worse when you can't tell them and the cherry on top was that Plagg might have dealt with the same thing.

She could feel Plagg freeze up for a moment, he still wasn't used to affection, but soon melted into her.

"Thank you." He said with his arms around her. "I really needed to hear that."

"I know." She said. It was a good thing they had finished eating or else the pastries would've ruined their clothes and Pollen would've downright murdered them.

"I'm good now." He said after a few moments and they broke apart.

"Whenever you need a hug, don't be afraid to ask alright?"

"I won't. I promise." He said.

"You won't what? You won't ask or you won't be afraid?" Tikki grinned. Plagg let out a chuckle.

"I won't be afraid. After all, you're like a marshmallow. Short and sweet." Tikki rolled her eyes.

"Marshmallows are delicious thank you very much."

"Did you just call yourself delicious?" Plagg teased.

"Oh you be quiet you sticky sock." He laughed as they continued to walk.

"Next time think before you speak Teeks." He told her. "That's the only way to escape my wrath."

"Your wrath?" She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, your so-called 'wrath' could probably be defeated by a seven year-old."

"And yet you still can't seem to come up with good comebacks. Hmm, how odd."

"That's because I try not to be so childish."

"Yet you hold an incident I had several years ago over my head."

"You know the deal. I stop calling you stinky sock when you stop calling me sugar cube."

"No can do, sugar cube!" Plagg said cheerfully.

"Fine by me, stinky sock."

"You need a better nickname for me." He pouted.

"No, I don't think I do."

"But sugar cube is an actual good nickname! It's cute and sweet! Stinky sock is an epitome of embarrassment for me!"

"Well, what else am I supposed to call you? Camembert?" She crossed her arms smirking.

"Camembabe." He winked. Tikki faked gagged.

"Yeah over my dead body." She told him.

"Aww." He whined. "Well I don't know, it doesn't have to be food related!" He said, perking right back up.

"I still like stinky sock the best."

"Tiiiiiikkkkiiiii" Plagg whined. "Why must you do this to meeee? I'm just a poor boy from a poor family."

"Spare him his life from this monstrosity." Tikki said.

"What?" Plagg gave her a blank look. Tikki gasped.

"What do you mean what?" She cried.

"Exactly that. That was random."

"You've never heard Bohemian Rhapsody?" She asked incredulously.

"Uh no? Should I have?"

"Have you heard We Will Rock You? We Are the Champions?" Both were met with the shake of a head.

"No what are those?"

"Do you even know who Freddie Mercury is?" Tikki asked.

"Should I?" Plagg asked.

"Yes you should! He's one of the most influential people in rock music!" She cried. "I can't believe this, I've known you for years and yet you don't know what Queen is! This must be fixed, after work we're going to my apartment and you are going to get a lesson in rock music."

"Okay then Ms. Tikki! I don't think I've got anything to do. Chat Noir is working his civilian job today."

"He works two jobs?"

"Yep, isn't your bug the same way?"

"Yeah and she does fashion commissions on top of that." Plagg whistled.

"Very impressive." Tikki had to agree. "You think she could make me something?" Plagg asked.

"I don't see why not, but what would you want?"

"I don't know, but it'd be nice to have something from the girl who means a lot to you." Plagg said grinning.

"Yeah, you know, I don't think I have anything made by her either!" Tikki suddenly said. "Oh I must fix this! I'll have to email her or something. What would you like?" Plagg laughed.

"I just told you! I don't know what I would like!"

"Oh! How about some merch? For Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

"I have some already, but no merch to wear."

"Well, it's decided then!"

"So what are you up to today?" Plagg asked her.

"Well, I'm not exactly sure. I can't exactly do damage control as easily as you can. I may go through new submissions and see if we can pair anyone with our not in use kwamis."

"I still can't believe you're on the jury."

"You're on the jury too." Tikki reminded him. Plagg grinned.

"Yeah, you're right, but I never have time to go through submissions! I've got an entire video team to manage! And then there's the actual film studio people who hopefully won't be on my back for renting it twice next week."

"Why would you need to rent it twice?" Tikki asked.

"Your bug hasn't told you yet? Chat reached out to her and they're going to brainstorm how to handle this going forward, if there's reason too." Tikki looked at Plagg in surprise.

Mari hadn't mentioned anything to her, then again this was most likely something that had happened yesterday.

"Well, that's amazing!" Plagg nodded.

"It's a good thing they aren't alone."

"Tikki! Plagg!" They were greeted by Wayzz, his long green hair pulled up into a bun on the top of his head. "Master Fu was wondering, have either of you heard from Nooroo?"

Tikki and Plagg exchanged looks of confusion.

"No why?" She answered for the both of them.

"He missed his shift yesterday." Wayzz explained. "Master's not too worried, we all know how often Nooroo has forgotten to call in sick."

"He thinks he's bothering us!" Tikki shook her head. "That poor man, especially with Duusu in the hospital," Wayzz nodded.

"Yes, well we were curious, apparently no one has heard from him since Tuesday."

"I hope he's alright!" Tikki said.

"Of course he is. He probably just got sick and then forgot to call in, like Wayzz said." Plagg told them.

"Well, if you hear from him Wayzz, tell him I told him to get well soon." Tikki said.

"I will."

With that the three kwami's entered the building, ready to face the day.