MiracuCrack K91: "Busted," Said the Kwami

by DFC

"Hello, Adrien."

Slowly, Adrien Agreste opened his eyes. His mind was in a strange hazy state, and he wasn't entirely sure what was real and what was not. But he would know Ladybug's voice any time and any place that he heard it.

Wait, he thought. Wait! I'm not Chat Noir right now. Where am I, and how is Ladybug here?

With a start, his eyes flew wide open. He was precisely where he thought he was - lying in his own bed, in his own room, in his night clothes, under a bedsheet. The bluebell-eyed girl of his dreams was sitting at the end of the bed, smiling warmly at him.

"You tend to leave your bedroom window open at night, Adrien. Almost as if you're hoping for company," Ladybug giggled. "So, tonight… I decided to take you up on that offer."

"You… did?" Adrien mumbled. She did? Yes, she did! She's sitting right there!

"Absolutely," she purred, scooting a little closer to him. "You know just how cute I've always thought you were, Adrien. How sweet you are. How much I've wanted to be yours."

Adrien shook his head in disbelief. Is this just a dream? he wondered. It has to be!

"I, um…" he managed, blushing hard. "Maybe you should… step away for a minute, and I'll get dressed, and we can talk?"

"Oh, no," Ladybug grinned, devilishly. "You're right where I want you to be now. And how. In fact… I'm going to make sure that you stay right there."

She pointed to a necklace around her neck. "Do you remember this, Adrien?" she smiled.

Adrien gulped. I sure do… it's the Mouse Miraculous. But Chat Noir knows what it is… not Adrien Agreste. How do I get out of this one?

"It looks like… is it a Miraculous?" he bluffed. "I, uh, saw the video on the news of the fight with Kwami Buster today. Is that the one that you gave to Marinette Dupain-Cheng?"

Ladybug giggled quite a bit at that, for some reason. "I suppose you could say that," she laughed. "But tonight, it's all mine. Just like you are."

A shiver ran through Adrien's entire frame. "Wh-hat do you mean by that, Ladybug?"

"This. Mullo… get squeaky."

In a white flash, Ladybug's appearance changed. Her base costume changed from red to gray, her pigtails pulled themselves up into twin buns, and a jumprope appeared around her waist.

Adrien watched, with anticipation and wonder building.

"And now…" Multibug grinned. "Multitude."

He watched as the girl melted away before his eyes. Where there had been one full-sized Multibug… in a matter of seconds, she divided into a dozen tiny ones, each a tiny twin of the original.

"All right, ladies! Let's get to work," the primary one ordered, and most of the group scattered…

"Hey! What are you doing… HEY!" Adrien yelped.

Working in unison, little Multibugs grabbed Adrien's hands and pulled them up over his head. One threw an end of her jumprope across to another, and in a flash his wrist was pinned to his mattress; two others echoed the maneuver on his other wrist. He pulled against them, instinctively, but found himself unable to rise.

"M-m-multibug?" he stammered. "Why are you doing this?"

Four Multibugs stood in a row on his chest, looking down at him. "Why, Adrien, I have been chasing after you for months! And you just keep running away every time I get close," one offered, slyly.

"But you can't get away this time," the second one smiled.

"And we can do anything we want now," giggled the third.

"All of us," said the fourth, in a suggestive voice.

Electricity ran through Adrien from head to toe as the diminutive heroines approached his face…

"GAAAAH!"

Adrien Agreste sat straight up in bed, abruptly. There was a slight chill in the room - an open window had been letting in some cool night air - but, for some odd reason, he was sweating profusely.

He looked around him, frantically. No marks on his wrists, he noted. No sign of unexpected company, big or small. He shook his bedsheets, just to be sure, but no tiny Multibugs went flying.

"What in the world?" he muttered to himself.

A tiny voice from around his computer desk got his attention. "Hey! I'm trying to sleep over here," grumbled Plagg. "Not like I didn't see this coming, though."

"Saw what coming?" said Adrien, defensively.

"One, you're a teenage boy with a crush. So your imagination is scarier than Hawkmoth on a good day," the Kwami explained. "And, two, size-changing heroines. Do I have to say more?"

"I kind of hope you won't," an embarrassed Adrien mumbled.

"Hey! I don't judge," Plagg cackled. "Whatever gets you through the night is your own business."

Adrien left that comment lying right where Plagg left it. After a moment, he looked a little thoughtful.

"You don't suppose…" he began.

"No, I don't," Plagg blurted out.

"Not that!" growled Adrien. "But there was a part where I asked her if she'd given the Mouse Miraculous to Marinette… and she just laughed at that. Like there was something special she knew that I didn't."

"What are you getting at?" asked Plagg, listening more carefully.

"It was almost like… you know how I asked you earlier if Marinette was… could be…" Adrien ventured.

"And you decided later that you were wrong about that, I thought," Plagg replied. "Once you saw them together."

"But in this dream, it was almost like… this is going to sound weird."

Plagg just stared at him.

"Like it wasn't the Ladybug I know… but as if she'd given Marinette the Mouse and the Ladybug."

"All right, then," Plagg said, seeing an opportunity. "So you dreamed that Marinette wants to shrink down and… um… do whatever your filthy little mind came up with?"

That hit Adrien like a taser to the face. "Um…" was all he could say.

"Was it to you, or to Chat Noir?" continued Plagg. "Since Marinette was in loooove with Chat Noir, or at least she said so that one time…"

"I… uh… I'm going back to bed," muttered Adrien.

"Did she use her jumprope to-"

"Good NIGHT, Plagg," Adrien hollered, as loudly as he dared.

Plagg settled back into his sleeping spot on the desk, grinning from ear to ear. Tikki's going to LOVE this tomorrow, he cackled to himself.

As for Adrien, he pulled his sheets up to his neck and laid there for a long moment, his mind spinning.

WAS that Ladybug in my dream? he wondered. Or WAS it Marinette?

AM I dreaming about Marinette like... THAT now?

Whoa.

He went fishing in the depths of his thoughts for an answer, but the hook came back empty. As he rolled back over, he shivered slightly, and sat up. Maybe I ought to go close that open window, he reasoned.

A moment later, he laid back down.

On second thought… I think I'll leave that open. Just in case.