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Adrien doesn't fully register how large Wayzz is at first, even after Nino offers him a hand up and Trixx eels alongside to give him a boost.

Marinette simply vaults up from the ground like she's done it half a hundred times before.  Adrien blinks when he sees the way Tikki grips her human's shoulders and flaps her wings to give them both that extra burst of speed.

Adrien isn't about to ask Plagg to do that until they've gotten some more protective clothing, but he is going to ask Plagg to do that. Plagg already looks like he's considering it anyway.

"Hold on tight," Nino warns immediately, gesturing at Wayzz's spines. "Flight's smooth, but takeoff is not, dude."

"Maybe for you," Alya calls teasingly, as Trixx launches happily into the air with Alya astride them. "Some of us can get along without cliffs and thermals!"

Nino snorts as Wayzz's massive wings begin to beat ponderously. There's no way Alya can hear him over the localised wind storm that creates, but that doesn't stop his dry reply. "And some of us like to be armoured more than we like to be flashy."

The sky feels a lot less like it's looming over them when Wayzz is soaring into it. 

Part of Adrien still wants to duck and huddle and hide, but it's shrinking by the second, and Plagg's presence at his side counters it completely.

Adrien can't say he hasn't dreamed of flying. He loves Plagg and would never wish for his best friend to be anything but what he is, but Adrien has definitely had lonely nights where he'd lain awake, Plagg draped halfway over him and snoring, and daydreamed that his dragon was large enough to carry a rider.

The thought is tinged with guilt even now. Plagg may not be a large dragon, and he's not built for a rider, but he would have taken Adrien. Had Adrien been even the slightest bit less stubborn, Plagg would have stolen him away years ago and never looked back. Plagg's never made a secret of that. Plagg never wanted them to stay at all.

Adrien's not sure they should be leaving, even now. What will Nathalie think when she comes to tutor him after the festival ends and finds the tower in ruins? What will she tell Father?

What will Father do?

"Kid," Plagg says suddenly, crowding in close to Adrien and shoving up against his side. "Stop that."

Tikki leaves Marinette's side to inspect Plagg more closely, and Adrien's a little surprised when his dragon curls possessively around him instead of responding to Tikki's obvious interest.

"Stop what?" Marinette asks, eyebrows raising as she steps carefully after Tikki and puts a hand on her dragon's back.

Adrien would really prefer not to answer that, but Plagg growls and says, "Worrying about what his dad's gonna think. Like his dad's even gonna know we're gone."

"Plagg," Adrien hisses back, mortified. Heat rises to his face and he quickly averts his eyes before Marinette can see his expression. "Don't- of course he's gonna know!"

Plagg lets out another displeased rumble and leans hard enough into Adrien to make him stumble. Eyebrows arching, Marinette catches his other arm and quickly directs him to sit down with her and Tikki.

Nino's still up by Wayzz's head, but he twists for a moment to look back and rake his eyes over where everyone's settling themselves.

"Adrien?" Marinette rests one hand on her own dragon's back when Tikki curls up alongside them as well. Wayzz's flight has steadied, but Tikki and Plagg have both taken positions that will let them catch their respective humans if the larger dragon has to manoeuvre unexpectedly.

"He'd know eventually," Adrien mutters, flinching at the noise that pulls not only from Plagg but from Tikki as well.

"Does he not come to check on you?" Marinette asks, hesitantly, and she looks up and across Tikki's back at where Alya and Chloé's dragons are scouting ahead. Trixx keeps darting back and investigating off to either side, while Pollen mostly maintains a position slightly ahead and to their left. "Because I know how fast we had to leave with Chloé. Her, uh, her parents-" She winces. "Well. I'm not sure her mother's noticed yet? But her dad, and his steward, and some of her staff- they would have. He, ah, did come after us once."

"What happened?" Plagg asks, before Adrien can react.

It's Tikki that answers him. It's Adrien's first time hearing the dragon's voice, and somehow the musical timbre of it, offsetting Plagg's gruff tones, reassures him.

Or maybe that's a result of being surrounded by friendly dragons and humans he's never seen before.

Adrien's stomach does do something odd at the mention of Chloé having had staff, and then it does something even more complicated at knowing people had come looking for her.

It might be jealousy. It might not.

"They could not take her from Pollen, or from us," Tikki says, in tones of total confidence, and then she curls closer around Marinette and breathes out a puff of steam. "Imprinted pairs do not like to be separated, and her father, at least, isn't quite that stupid." A further puff of steam curls from her nostrils as she adds, "Usually."

"He.." Adrien blinks. He doesn't know how Father and Nathalie might react to the shattered tower, but he knows, whether he wants to face it or not, that they'll try to take him back. They'll try and Plagg would stop them, and he doesn't want to see his dragon hurt again. Plagg would be prepared this time but Father has hurt him once already, and Adrien's never even been able to bring it up without Father dismissing it as though it's not worth even a moment's consideration. "They couldn't?"

"Well..." Marinette shrugs, a little self-consciously. "Chloé wanted to go with Pollen. Once she told her dad and Sabrina that, they let her go. I, uh, I think they lied to her mom about it, 'cause-" Her eyes flit towards the scouting dragons. "Actually, I think the rest of that is Chloé's to tell."

Adrien wants to know, but not so badly that he wants to invade Chloé's privacy.  He tries to think of something else to ask about.  Anything else to ask about. 

He's not actually sure how to have a conversation with a human his own age. 

... maybe he'd have better luck talking to Tikki.

Maybe he'd have better luck not overthinking a basic conversation, because long before Adrien's come up with anything Plagg drapes his head heavily over Adrien's shoulder, ignores it when Adrien tries to shove him off or at least further to one side, and huffs out steam of his own when he says, "So how did you end up with a hatch- prince- with a human?" 

Adrien blinks, caught on the way Plagg had stuttered through those last few words, and catches both Marinette and Tikki blinking back. 

"Marinette was always mine," Tikki says, carefully, after a long silence.  "No one would have changed that.  No one would have had the right to." 

Out of the corner of his eye, Adrien sees Nino's back go stiff.  It's not until Wayzz rolls one huge eye back to look at him that Nino starts to relax again, and even then he's still a lot less relaxed than he was before.

Plagg's jaw goes tense, too, clenching against Adrien's shoulder because he still hasn't pulled away.  Adrien is honestly tempted to reach up and wrap an arm around Plagg and wrestle him off like he might have done normally, but he's not anywhere near as sure of himself around all these new people.  He doesn't know how any amount of play-fighting with his dragon might look. 

Like Adrien's had no other friends, probably. 

...like the truth, probably.

He does reach over to curl his arm over Plagg's front leg, hiding the scarring on it, but Plagg lets him do that so.  So. 

Maybe it's not just Adrien feeling like he's not sure how he's supposed to act, then. 

Marinette shifts a little closer, sliding over until she's sitting on her knees across from Adrien and Plagg.  She glances at the way Adrien is shielding Plagg's scars, the way Plagg is shielding Adrien, and then looks back to Tikki. 

Plagg isn't moving.  Plagg's gone very, very still, letting Adrien support far more of his weight than he usually would. 

Adrien is realising, slowly, that he's not sure whether Plagg has ever really talked about other dragons before.  He doesn't think he has. 

Plagg actually seems almost as uncomfortable around other dragons as Adrien is around other humans. 

Adrien's arm wraps tighter around his dragon's leg. 

Tikki stretches forwards, bringing her head nearly level with Plagg's.  When she speaks, she keeps her voice low so that only Plagg- and by extension, Adrien- can hear her.  "Your princeling is not the only one who found himself abandoned, is he?" 

They both flinch.  

"I wasn't-" Adrien starts to protest, but finds he can't say the word.  He wasn't abandoned, though, it's not like Father didn't know exactly where he was.  It's not like Nathalie didn't come for lessons fairly constantly.  He wasn't...

... it's not like he'd really seen Father much at all.  Or like Father or Nathalie had ever spent much time even when they did come.  Or like he's seen anyone else in years now besides Father and Nathalie and Plagg, and he knows from painful experience that Father and Nathalie don't count Plagg as someone. They barely count Plagg as intelligent. 

They certainly won't believe that Plagg is his closest (only) friend.  Adrien has always known better than to try to tell them that, though.  If they'd realised that Plagg is his friend, not his guard-

They'd have taken him away again.

Father had found a way to trap Plagg once, somehow.  Plagg doesn't like to talk about it so Adrien still isn't sure how- but he remembers that Plagg had asked Adrien to get the cuff on, in the end.  Plagg had had to ask Adrien.  

Adrien remembers that every time he sees Plagg's scarred leg. 

If Father had managed a win against Plagg once, he could do it again.  He could take Plagg away. 

He'd threatened it the last time Adrien had tried to argue with him.  When Adrien had tried again to convince Father that it doesn't make sense not to let Adrien out to see the country.  

You'll stay here.  And if that dragon isn't enough to make you, I'll have to replace it with something that will.  

Adrien had stopped arguing.  He'd tried to come up with other ways to convince Father, written out more plans than he could count, but he'd ended up feeding them all into the fireplace in the end.  Everything he can think of, Father will count as an argument, and Adrien had stopped arguing.

He's never told Plagg. 

He's not sure he ever will tell Plagg.  Plagg would- Plagg would hate that, would hate knowing that he's the threat that had been keeping Adrien-

Adrien's not sure exactly why Plagg thinks he hadn't been able to get Adrien to leave, but he's not going to tell him if he doesn't have to.  Adrien never wanted to risk Plagg, but he knows by now that Plagg never wanted to risk him, either. 

Plagg's too small to carry Adrien.  They'd have had to leave on foot. They'd have been too easy to catch.  Neither one of them is used to walking long distances and running up and down the tower stairs can only make up for so much, and they're not exactly inconspicuous, and Adrien has always been terrified of what might happen to Plagg if they were caught trying to sneak away.  Plagg already has scars he wouldn't have if it wasn't for Adrien.

Neither of them had ever pictured leaving with help.  They'd never thought flight was going to be a possibility. 

Father had won against Plagg, or he'd hired someone who had.  Once.

Plagg had been unprepared and alone.  He's not either of those things now.  They're not either of those things now.

Plagg doesn't respond to Tikki's comment, or at least not verbally. 

Plagg twists a little, settling the bulk of himself close to Adrien's side and somehow managing not to dislodge his head from his shoulder in the process.  The dragon does flare one wing protectively out over Adrien's back, the way he's always tried to do when he'd woken from a nightmare, or even when he was awake but suddenly couldn't stand the walls around him for a second longer.   When Adrien would pace and pace and pace around in circles in the tower room and gnaw his fingernails bloody if Plagg didn't wake up and get him to stop. 

Adrien's never... thought about how this would look to other people.  He's never had any reason to, no one else has ever seen Plagg do this.  There's never been anyone else to see Plagg do this.   

But Marinette's eyes turn sad and knowing before she turns aside to call to Nino, and Tikki keeps looking at them both, and Adrien feels a hot flush crawl down his skin because it's not like- it's not like he hadn't known that Plagg was mantling, was shielding him, but he's always thought that even if anyone did see-

Well.  Father or Nathalie have never made any attempt to know Plagg.  They still don't know how intelligent he actually is.  They don't treat Plagg much better than they ever did the castle cats and Adrien's always been a little afraid that if they did see Plagg mantle, they might genuinely think the dragon had decided Adrien was an acceptable meal.  They certainly wouldn't think that Plagg is guarding him, for all that that's exactly what they've always claimed Plagg is for.

Adrien's not stupid.  He knows that's not what they'd caught Plagg for. 

But these strangers have dragons of their own.  They'll know exactly why Plagg is flaring his wings around Adrien, letting steam escape his mouth to curl away on either side as he does, and they'll know by the way Adrien had so easily and automatically shifted into the gesture that it's not an uncommon one. 

They don't say anything about it, though, and he's grateful for that. 

Nino answers Marinette's call with a wave, but then turns and starts to pick his slow way over Wayzz's broad back to join them.  He moves with the ease of someone who's done this a hundred times. 

"Hey, dude."  Nino takes a seat that shifts them all into a loose circle, careful to keep away from Plagg's protective posturing.  "So, not sure how much Tikki and Marinette explained, but like, I'm guessing you have a lot of questions?" 

He does.  He does, but he doesn't know that the answers would change anything he's doing right now.

Even if Adrien had passed up a chance to leave in company, Plagg wouldn't have, and Plagg wouldn't have gone without Adrien and Adrien wouldn't have stayed without Plagg. 

"Or not," Nino says, amused, when it's been a minute and Adrien still hasn't managed to tear himself out of his own head long enough to offer an answer.  "That's cool too, I know it gets a little overwhelming."  His eyes flick sideways for a second, and Tikki coils slowly back to Marinette, away from Plagg and Adrien.  "I barely knew Wayzz when he stole me, dude, I don't get it-get it but I sorta get it?"  His smile is wan.      

"I don't know what you want me to ask."  Adrien winces the moment the words are out of his mouth.  For one thing, even he can tell that wasn't right by the way Tikki's head swivels up with her ears flat back alarm, even if Marinette and Nino's reactions are much harder to read.

For another, Plagg leaned against him hard when he said it. 

"It's not up to me," Nino says, just as carefully as he'd stepped across Wayzz's back.  "You ask whatever you wanna ask, dude."

Adrien wants to know so much. 

But he's not sure what's rude, or invasive, or prying, and he's not sure how they'll react, and he can't justify that kind of risk.  He's not just risking himself, he's risking himself and Plagg.  He can't afford to offend any of these people. 

He doesn't remember the last time he spoke to someone other than Plagg without somehow offending them.

Father's always angry whenever Adrien tries to disagree with him.  Nathalie's always insulted and irritable when Adrien tries to ask her questions. 

Plagg has never cared, but Plagg is the one person in all Adrien's life that's wanted him to talk and Plagg hasn't had anyone else to talk to, either.  He's never had to worry about insulting Plagg, because even before he believed that Plagg really isn't going to hold it against him Plagg still wouldn't have left. 

(Because he couldn't, but that's- that's a whole other set of insecurities). 

Plagg's wing wraps tighter as Adrien struggles to force out a question.  The dragon's tail sweeps behind them both, before curling around Adrien as well.  Voice low and slightly guttural with held-back steam, Plagg says, "Stole?" 

Nino flushes and glances back, towards Wayzz's head.  "Stole.  Kidnapped, anyway.  He, uh, I'm not- I'm not actually- uh.  Wayzz got grabbed to guard the village storehouse, not, uh, not me.  He already had, I-I'm not-"  His flush deepens.  "I'm not royalty.  I was just- I was just. Out, that day.  F-fishing.  I'm not, uh, anyone." 

"Nino," Marinette starts, and then the ground rumbles underneath them.

Adrien flinches hard into Plagg's hold on him even as he registers that Wayzz is growling.  The sound only reaches them after the rumble does, and the realisation that it's a growl doesn't actually do much to calm Adrien down. 

"I'm not."  Nino's still flushed, but he isn't backing down, either.  "You know I'm not.  I'm not any kind of heir, to anything, my folks were-" 

He does trail off. 

Adrien builds an empty book in his mind and inscribes don't ask Nino about his parents on the first page.

Marinette reaches around her dragon to lay one hand on Nino's arm.  Nino shrugs into her, instead of away, so Adrien also makes a very tentative note about casual touching.  He's not- he's not sure how ready he is for that, because he wants it, gods does he want that, his skin still tingles and burns where Marinette had grasped his hand to help him up,  but also he's never had that.  It isn't even a matter of 'since the tower,' this time, it's literally never. 

And as much as he hates to think about it, Adrien's spent more of his life in the tower than out of it. 

This still predates it.

Tikki sits up, reaching to place a talon delicately just next to Marinette's hand, and Nino looks a little less tense.  "I'm-  you know I'm not." 

"It doesn't matter, you know that, Nino."  Marinette doesn't move her hand, but she does turn to look at Adrien.  "Our dragons don't care about rank.  They don't imprint based on that.  It's based on character, and Wayzz saw yours." 

Wayzz's wingbeats slow, but only for a second.  A second is all it takes for Nino to look much calmer.

But now Plagg's gone far more stiff.   And- Adrien can absolutely guess exactly why, and this time around he knows for sure that Plagg doesn't want him to ask, but he also knows that Plagg isn't going to do anything to him for asking.  And- and Adrien really, desperately wants to know. 

"Imprint?"  Adrien's voice is much softer than he means it to be.  He has to fight not to flinch back again as everyone's eyes are drawn to him. 

Almost everyone's.  Marinette's are darting between him and Plagg, her brow furrowing, but she doesn't say anything. 

Tikki does, though.  She addresses Plagg and not Adrien, but her response is immediate and- Adrien doesn't think it's angry, but it's close enough to make him very nervous.  "You didn't explain?"  She draws her head back, resting on her haunches as her wings fold behind her.  "Even if it happened fast, you should have told him after." 

"The kid did it first," Plagg snaps back, but he hasn't let go of Adrien and he keeps the heat from his breath.  "They're not supposed to do it first.  They're not supposed to do it at all!" 

This time the rumble that rolls through Wayzz is unmistakably laughter. 

Tikki lets go of Nino and starts to crowd curiously closer to Plagg, but she halts in a hurry when Adrien can't help but huddle away from her.  He winces as soon as he's done it- Tikki is a dragon, she's safe, she won't hurt him- but he couldn't stop himself doing it. 

Marinette and Nino don't move closer at all.  They don't move away, but they don't move closer.

"I think you've been misinformed, somewhere," Tikki says, slowly, as she curves her head back and away to look at Plagg sidelong.  "They... don't call it that.  Most of them." 

"Some of us do," Marinette says wryly, letting her hand slip from Nino's arm only to resettle across Tikki's back.

Nino rolls his eyes, but he also crosses his arms and hunches over a little in a way that makes Adrien wonder what a dragon Wayzz's size mantling might look like.  "Okay, but not counting where you're from, dragon rider, the rest of us don't like, have words for it at all." 

Something shifts under them in a way that makes Plagg grab for Adrien hard enough that his claws nick through Adrien's shirt, something Plagg hasn't been careless enough to do in years, and then Wayzz's wings slow again as the huge dragon swings his head back towards them all as best as he can.  His voice seems to travel from a much farther distance than it actually does to reach them.  "None of you have answered your new friend's question."   

"I'm not actually sure how," Marinette admits easily, apparently not bothered by Wayzz's contribution even as the dragon retreats and picks up speed again.  "I've never really had to explain it before."

Nino's head ducks down further, his back curling more.  "... Alya has." 

Marinette blinks.  "Oh.  I hadn't thought about that." 

"Yeah.  I know."  Nino doesn't uncurl.  His fingers pluck fretfully at his sleeve for a moment.  "But me and Chloé both had... questions, so..." He exhales, hard, and turns to Adrien. 

Adrien is suddenly acutely aware of the weight of his dragon clinging possessively to him.  Plagg drew his claws back the moment they came anywhere near skin, but he didn't let go and he doesn't seem like he's planning to.  Tikki and Marinette might be staying close to each other, too, but the realisation that something in his and Plagg's relationship is definitely off from theirs settles in Adrien's stomach like lead. 

He'd thought they'd managed pretty well in the tower for just having each other.  He'd thought they were going to come out of it relatively whole and undamaged save for Plagg's scars, and he thinks Plagg had thought so too. 

But the sky above them has weight to it, and the dragons don't send a frisson of unease through Adrien when they get too close the way the humans do, and Plagg is shielding him and hardly speaking and apparently doesn't know things the other dragons seem to be taking for granted. 

That Adrien is not at all used to other humans and might not be able to catch up after this many years without them had settled uneasily into him a long time ago.  He'd never gotten far enough into an argument with Father to bring it up, even before arguing at all became too unsafe to keep doing, but Adrien knows he's never going to be quite okay around humans.  That isn't a surprise.  He knows, distantly, that it's Plagg's body language he'd started mirroring a long time ago, that there's an answering echo to his dragon in the way Adrien moves and speaks now that isn't human and that's never going to be.  Maybe if they'd left earlier he'd have been able to learn humans better, but they hadn't and he didn't and it's too late now. 

He can try all he wants- if he even does want- but after years of Plagg as both his constant and only companion there are parts of Adrien that should be human that are dragon now.  There's more dragon than there should be and Adrien can't stop flinching from the humans but he feels safe and settled around the dragons even when he barely knows them. 

He doesn't really understand why he can't stop flinching.  No one had hit him, the only one who's even really touched him since he first got banished to the tower is Plagg and Plagg has never hurt him.  (Well. Scratches and minor burns from playing don't count.  It's not like Adrien's never nicked Plagg in return, especially back when Plagg could still sometimes talk Adrien into trying for his magic, too). 

But Plagg's had only Adrien just as much as Adrien has had only Plagg. 

The dragon doesn't talk about before the tower much- he's never talked about himself very much- but when he has, there's been.  He's.  Well.  There's been a noticeable lack of other dragons in his stories. 

There'd been no way for Adrien to know, trapped in the tower without any real idea what other dragons or humans are like. 

If Adrien moves and talks- wrong, if he's just that little bit off, just enough that he doesn't think it's something he can recover-

- so does Plagg.

Plagg's not at ease around the dragons the way Adrien is, he's shying closer to the humans, and some of Plagg's mannerisms and reactions have more in common with Marinette and Nino than they do Wayyz and Tikki.

Adrien feeling safer with the dragons where Plagg feels safer with the humans is... likely to be a problem later, but that's really too much for Adrien to think about on top of all the rest. 

Adrien's so hung up on the realisation that Plagg's just as lost as him that he's forgotten that Nino's planning to explain.  When Nino turns towards him, gesturing expansively with one arm, Adrien flinches into Plagg again and the dragon lets out a quiet rumble that could be the precursor to either a growl or a purr. 

Nino pulls his arm back, but not all the way.  He keeps it a safe distance from Adrien, though. "Imprinting's a little hard to explain, like, clearly, but Alya calls it a partnership and they're not wrong?  It's, like, dragons sorta pick one human- or dragon, actually I think it's usually another dragon? I dunno, but anyway they end up getting super attached to their human and sorta.  Uh.  Guess it depends on a lot of other factors, but... Adopting them, I guess?"  Nino starts to pick at his sleeve again, flushing.  "They sorta stake a claim on you but like, not as creepy as that makes it sound."

"Alya's sorta wrong," Marinette puts in, sliding seamlessly back into the conversation.  "Dragons choose their family.  The partnership thing is- more what happens with scouting pairs, like we all are.  It's more common for a dragon to choose a human to raise them, or help raise them, the adoption thing is pretty accurate."  She grins, and something secretive plays under her smile.  

"So Tikki is like your mother?"  Adrien's question is much softer than he intends it to be, mainly because he's not sure he should be asking it.

(Plagg likes questions.  No one else ever has).

Marinette and Tikki exchange deeply distressed looks with each other, before Marinette decides,  "Older sister, would be closer.  Aunt, maybe.  It's not-"  She grimaces.  "Dragon and human familial relationships don't really... have a one to one sort of translation.  And they're all different, like, Alya and Trixx describe themselves as being in cahoots, and Chloé and Pollen are friends."

Nino snorts and tries to muffle laughter.  "Of course Alya and Trixx do.  Wayzz is... I guess more like a mentor?"  His gaze shifts away, out past Wayzz's wings for a long moment.  "... most of 'em only ever pick one human.  I'm, uh, not Wayzz's first."

Nino sounds so uncomfortable admitting that that Adrien doesn't ask for more, despite how very badly he wants to know. 

"So, you two."  Tikki cranes her neck over again, this time angling her wings so that the sunlight picks out their vibrant spots.  "I don't think you know what kind of imprinting it was yet, do you?" 

Adrien's-

It was easy to lose track of the days, in the tower.  Plagg had found the chips in the staircase wall, had found the place where Adrien had given up counting, and had helped him etch their crude calendar into the ceiling but so much of it had been guesswork because once Adrien had lost track he hadn't been able to pick it up again.

It's been at least five years since they'd trapped Plagg to guard the tower.  It might have been as many as seven.  Plagg must have been one of the earlier dragons to get caught, considering how long he's been with Adrien.

Adrien hadn't been on his first year in the tower when Plagg had shown up.  He's never been sure how long he'd been there, but he knows he'd made over a years' worth of stairwell marks before he'd stopped counting (before he'd had to stop counting, he'd have driven himself mad if he kept counting). 

Plagg's had him for nearly a third of his life.  Maybe more than.  They should- know this. 

"No, we don't,"  Plagg answers before Adrien can, loosening his grip a little but still not letting go of him.  Adrien figures they'll have to be back on the ground before Plagg is willing to let go, even taking into consideration the worried look Marinette is giving his shoulder where Plagg's claws are putting new holes in Adrien's shirt every time the dragon shifts position.  "But he's mine." 

There's a slight snarl underlying those words that would be frightening from anyone but Plagg. It is Plagg, though, so Adrien grins to himself and hugs Plagg's scarred foreleg closer.

He's never once doubted that Plagg wants him.  Maybe everyone else in Adrien's life has been- has been fine with locking him away, shoving him into storage until someday they might need him- assuming they don't forget about him, assuming he's not left to starve if something happens and no one ever comes again, it's not like anyone had ever left him a way to contact the outside world and Chloé's comment is the first hint he's ever had that other people even still remember that he exists- or had existed, once-

Adrien can tell himself he wasn't abandoned all he wants but Adrien's not stupid.  He can lie to himself, but he can't make the lie convincing.

But Plagg wants him.  Plagg's not going to abandon him or- or cage him like an unwanted pet.

(There's a poem Plagg found in one of the tower books years ago- Plagg actually has the whole poem memorised, he used to recite it when he couldn't sleep or when Adrien couldn't stop pacing, but it's the nor iron bars a cage that had shivered its way unpleasantly under Adrien's skin and lodged there).

All of the others take Plagg's comment in stride, even though Adrien doesn't want to imagine how Nathalie or, worse, Father would react to a declaration like that.  Adrien's fine with Plagg trying to jealously hoard him.  Adrien's not really sure how much of that is normal dragon behaviour and how much is we've-been-in-this-tower-too-long behaviour, and he doubts Plagg knows either, but Adrien is absolutely fine with being Plagg's hoard because Plagg only hoards things that he wants. 

But if there are words to describe that feeling, then Adrien doesn't know them. 

"He's mine," Plagg says again, tail lashing once in clear agitation before it curls back around Adrien.  There's a thread of unease in the dragon's movement that probably goes unseen to everyone else and tells Adrien that Plagg doesn't have any more words for this, either.   

This time the way Wayzz slows and turns doesn't slam Adrien's heart up against his ribcage, because he knows what Wayzz is doing. 

He's still a little surprised that the words Wayzz has slowed to share are, "And are you his?" 

Wayzz withdraws to the absence of voices.  The wind streaming past, though it's nowhere near as much as Adrien had expected it to be, whistles loudly between them all as Plagg's claws clench tight enough to shred cloth and he doesn't answer.  Adrien pulls free the arm not already around his dragon and reaches to draw Plagg's wing further in around himself, because he knows that to the dragons both Adrien letting Plagg curl his wings around him and Plagg letting Adrien handle his wing at all are enormous signs of trust. 

Adrien doesn't care if Plagg tells Wayzz no.  It's enough for him that he's Plagg's, he doesn't need for Plagg to be his.  Honestly, Plagg deserves better than that- Plagg deserves better than someone who's only ever earned him scars and traps and cages.   

Marinette and Nino are both giving Adrien deeply troubled looks, though. 

"Yeah."  Plagg's voice is nearly too low to hear.  He draws his head back enough that his heavy exhale ruffles Adrien's hair.  "Yeah, I am." 

Hearing it still sends a surge of emotion through Adrien that he's afraid to examine too closely.

They don't talk again for a bit after that.  Nino has to go back up by Wayzz's head to talk directions and possible campsites with him, and Marinette swings her pack around and rummages through it to produce trappings for a quick stew.  From a bundle a little nearer to Wayzz's tail, Tikki fetches two small logs. 

Adrien's very confused about how she plans to cook, until Tikki merely lights a fire on Wayzz's back. 

... of course.  Wayzz is just as immune to flame as Plagg is, as all their dragons are. 

They're near enough to landing that Nino doesn't join them to eat.  Instead Marinette passes him a bowl, and then passes Tikki two more, which confuses Adrien even worse until the dragon takes off to bring them to Chloé and Alya. 

When Marinette hands over a single bowl to Adrien- or to Adrien-and-Plagg, considering Plagg still doesn't seem to want to let go- Adrien instinctively shifts to offer it to his dragon as well before catching a strange look from Marinette. 

"Mostly the dragons eat on the ground," Marinette clarifies, when she sees the way Adrien's gone motionless.  "Tikki eats with us instead sometimes, but not always.  Trixx and Alya like to hunt together, anyway, they'll probably take off again once we've gotten a camp secure."

Mostly the dragons don't simply share food with their humans the way he and Plagg are used to doing, Adrien discovers. 

Other things he discovers: mostly the dragons eat much more than the half share of Adrien's own meals that Plagg is used to.  Mostly the humans eat more than the half share that Adrien is used to. 

It's Tikki that coaxes a halting explanation of their twinned reaction to the stew out of Adrien, because he likes Marinette but still can't quite look her in the eyes without flushing and feeling inadequate in the face of her competence.  Tikki is easier.  Dragons are easier. 

He knew that would happen, but it's still-

It's been a constant hurt since he'd first realised what he'd lost, because he's spent the part of his lifetime when he should have been learning human interaction internalising his dragon's language instead and there's no way to take back those years, but now that dull background ache has spread all through him and turned sharp with its sudden immediacy. 

It was different as a hypothetical. 

It was different before he looked up from sharing his food with Plagg, from shoving at his dragon with a playful growl and showy snap of his teeth when Plagg tried for more than his fair share, to see the way Marinette was looking at him. 

Her eyes are wide and strangely solemn.

Adrien swallows and lets Plagg have the rest of the stew.  His stomach grumbles at him for it, but it was Plagg's turn for the last bite anyway, Adrien's only giving in a little earlier than he normally would have. 

... and that's... probably not a thing the humans do, either.  

He swallows again, feeling a flush creeping across his face, and stares down at his hands as Plagg licks the bowl clean and then stretches widely before dropping his upper half across Adrien's lap and curling his tail around his back, pinning Adrien in place in a way that's only ever been reassuring before. 

It's not reassuring now. 

His hands are shaking. 

"There's more stew."  Marinette's voice is very quiet.   "If you want more.  Alya always swings back for seconds, we do have more."

His hands won't stop shaking. 

There's a series of noises like Marinette is repositioning herself, and when Adrien glances up through his bangs he sees that Tikki's taken up guarding her human's back.

With Plagg curled around him the way he does at night, there's no longer a wing arched over Adrien.  He tries to look up, to see what the setting sun looks like from outside, but the sky presses heavily in around him again and he goes right back to staring at his hands.  It isn't like Plagg's wings had sheltered Adrien completely- Plagg's too small for that- but it's only without that comfort that he realises how much of a comfort they'd been. 

It's not a pleasant realisation. 

"Hey, are- are you alright, dude?" 

Adrien hadn't heard Nino rejoin them, but he looks up again as the other boy takes a seat nearby.

And then down again, because he's not-

"Hey, you know you don't-"  Nino swallows and starts again, slower this time, with a change in his tone that pre-emptively smothers the scared hiss trying to escape Adrien.  "You know, you don't gotta be alright.  Don't think anyone really expects you to be, dude."  A pause, and Adrien listens to his friends breathe through it. 

Are they friends?  For as much as he's wanted to have friends, Adrien's not very clear on exactly what defines a friendship.

"Me and Chloé weren't.  Okay, I mean.  We weren't okay."  Nino hands his bowl off to Marinette just as Adrien manages to still his hands and raise his head a little.  "I mean I'm arguably still not, like, okay, dude.  Probably not- probably not ever really gonna be, really, Wayzz didn't- Wayzz actually sorta grabbed me before he imprinted."

Adrien raises his head the rest of the way, though he can't help the way he's angling his neck still.  He might be willing to take a threat posture with Plagg, but he's not going to test the other's tolerance for him by taking one now.  He needs to make himself as non-threatening as possible.   

And then they'll keep you, a young, scared voice in the back of his mind whispers, and though he envisions clawing that voice to shreds and ash there's more that slips through than just that.  Like Plagg kept you.  Maybe you can make them want you both.

If Adrien could spit sparks, he would. 

Because he knows- he knows that something in those thoughts is wrong.  He knows that if any of that had been out loud he'd be getting those wide-eyed, worried looks again.  He doesn't know exactly what's wrong, but he knows that something is. 

But he also can't not think them, he's tried that, and he doesn't know what else to do. 

Plagg's scaled head tilts into his hands, nudging him until Adrien starts to scratch at the base of one his horns, and then Plagg casts his gaze over the others before looking back to Adrien and closing his eyes. 

The message is clear enough, but Adrien privately thinks that if Plagg wants him to believe it then the dragon shouldn't have eeled into his lap first.  Adrien can feel the tiny shivers his dragon is trying as hard as he can to suppress, Plagg doesn't know how to trust these people either. 

Nino and Tikki and Marinette settle down comfortably themselves, spread out just enough to give all five of them space, and Nino eventually sprawls on his front against Wayzz's back with his head propped on his crossed arms.  Adrien's not sure how long it's been when Nino starts talking again. 

"I guess... I guess Wayzz sorta had to take me."  Nino stops long enough for Adrien to hear Marinette's quiet noise of protest and Tikki's even fainter shh. "Or, okay he didn't, he coulda left me? I wouldn't have-"  Nino breathes in for the count of one, then out for the count of five.  It's a habit Adrien recognises easily.

Beneath them, at a much slower pace, Wayzz does the same. 

"Made it.  I wouldn't have made it," Nino says, finally, his voice steady but clearly held that way through force of will.  "I.  Wayzz coulda left me, but I wouldn't have made it, e-everyone was gone.  They'd- there was- either they'd managed to evacuate, or they hadn't, and if they hadn't they were- everything burned, by the next morning it was- there was so much ash, so- I hope they made it out."  His words ring hollow on the last sentence.  He winces. 

Marinette moves like she wants to say something, but stills at the way Tikki leans against her back.

"I'd met Wayzz, but I still didn't know what was happening when he grabbed me, I still didn't really know him."  Nino laughs sadly.  "I was out at the edge of the village- I didn't even live there, we'd been visiting- and F- Wayzz's old- they knew where I was, uh, camped out at the time, so they took me away, but then the village was gone and I didn't know where my- where anyone else was and they sorta, didn't have anywhere to put me, so."  Nino shrugs.  "So they kept me.  I didn't even know that F- that he'd got hurt til he was gone, too, and it was just me and Wayzz, an' I didn't think Wayzz was still gonna want me but he did so.  He brought me back to Marinette and Alya's village, and Wayzz wouldn't let them blame me, but he came back with me instead of his rider so I think they- I think maybe they blamed us both." 

Marinette inhales sharply, but doesn't refute that. 

"They can't- separate you from your dragon, it's,  it's not a thing they can do, but.  We kinda tend to stay out on scouting missions, now."  Nino drops his head against his crossed arms, muffling his words.  "S'sorta what you do when you don't, I dunno, fit.  So like.  If that's what you're worrying so hard about, dude, you don't gotta be.  Besides, you were doin' great 'til you started overthinking things.  You were doin' better than I did for like, weeks." 

"I'm not- I don't-"  Adrien's voice catches, probably because he didn't mean to use it. 

In his lap, Plagg starts up a subsonic purr, inaudible but enough to remind Adrien that he's not alone out here.  That he's not going to be, Plagg would never leave him alone, Plagg hates that Adrien was alone for as long as he was.

"I'm not very good at humans."  Adrien bites back a whine.  "I don't, um, I don't really get humans.  I'm sorta better with dragons, they, they make sense to me and humans- don't." 

Nino props himself back up on his elbows, face twisting into a scowl and then a less intimidating frown at Adrien's flinch.  "Dude.  How often did you even, like, see other humans from-"  He waves an arm back the way they've come from, apparently unwilling to name Adrien's tower.

The fact that Adrien has to think about his answer appears to be answer enough for Nino. 

Plagg responds anyway, pushing his head against Adrien's hands before he speaks up.  "Depended on the time of year.  Spring and summer and early fall, his dad's steward came for a few hours almost every morning and his dad came once or twice a season.  Winter and festivals- no one." 

Adrien actually relaxes a little, because that doesn't sound as bad as he'd thought it would, Nathalie had come nearly every morning through most of the year.  

She hadn't stayed and she hadn't let him talk and she hadn't ever seemed to want to be there or to teach him but she had been there.

"They left you alone through the winter?"  Marinette sounds horrified.  This time when she moves in closer, huddling just barely outside of Plagg's reach, the dragons don't stop her.  "Adrien, that's terrible." 

"It wasn't-"  Adrien stops, because he doesn't know what he's defending.  There has to be something there worth defending.

There has to be. 

"It was."  Plagg's scales scrape harshly as he lifts himself out of Adrien's hands.  "It was awful and it sucked and you spend every single winter scared that they didn't count up enough food for us both, kid, it was." 

Adrien spends every winter scared there wasn't enough food left for them both because there have been two separate, worse winters where there hadn't been.  They still ration, just in case.  Plagg doesn't tell the others any of that. 

"You're out now, Plagg, Adrien."  Marinette telegraphs her movements as she lays one hand on Plagg's unmarked foreleg and reaches for Adrien with the other and neither of them pulls away.  "You never have to go back." 

You can't promise us that, Adrien thinks unhappily, but he ducks his chin and presses his head into Marinette's hand with his best stuttering approximation of a purr.  He thinks right after, with his heart dropping down to the soles of his feet, that probably nothing about that was baseline-human-normal but no one says a word about it. 

By the end Adrien had actively been trying to be just as small and silent as Father and Nathalie had always wanted, because he doesn't know anymore how to differentiate between his dragon reactions and his human ones and any single slip up could have lost him his only friend.

Marinette ruffles his hair and presses back when Adrien's instinctive reaction is to shove his head harder against her hand.  Plagg's laugh sounds more like Adrien's quiet snickers than it does the noise Tikki makes, but Tikki laughs back and Plagg's rising grumble sinks into a purr instead. 

So maybe they'll be okay after all.

They have a chance to find out now.