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Of course, she would run into the wall. She focused on Adrien and Kagami as they skated together in sync; her heart broke just a bit realizing he truly only saw her as a friend. However, the second she let go of Luka’s guiding hand, she ran her shoulder into the wall, landing quite hard on her tailbone.
“Are you ok?” The two boys asked in unison, each with their hand extended out to her with concerned smiles on their faces. She lightly reached her hand out to one boy then the other, not sure who she should choose.
First, there was Adrien. He was undoubtedly her first love, and his very presence could make her do crazy things. He didn’t mind putting in the work to clear up a misunderstanding that was solely based around her misjudgment of him. He gave his umbrella to her despite how unfairly she treated him, despite how she wouldn’t talk to him or even look at him when he tried to talk to her. She had been a jerk and she hated herself for it, but he still opened up to her. He made himself vulnerable to her and tried to clear up what happened earlier that day. The way he laughed truly made her feel something special: love. That day, she fell in love with Adrien Agreste, the boy who gave something he could have used himself up for a girl who at that point wasn’t even his friend.
But now, he felt something for Kagami, something more than friendly. Marinette couldn’t take his hand.
Now, there was Luka. Luka clearly was interested in her romantically. Juleka even told her so when she asked. He had an understanding of her that not many people had, and he was a nice guy. He was brave and creative, and he always knew what to say to make her feel better. She liked Luka plenty. He was a great friend. She could see herself in a relationship with him, even if she hadn't fallen for him. There wasn’t a spark between them, not like the one she felt with Adrien, and not like the one she had with Chat Noir.
Thinking about Chat made her remember what he said to her the other day, “If he weren’t here, would things be different between us?”
If she weren’t pursuing Adrien, would she want to be with Chat Noir?
Chat was special to her, in a way no one else had even come close to. None could compete, not Luka, not Alya, and not even Adrien. She could tell him almost anything, and when the time was right (hopefully soon) she would even tell him who she was. Her Chaton was funny, charming, a complete gentleman, and a sappy yet adorable romantic. When he took Marinette to the rooftop date, she was able to see how easily she could fall for his charms if Adrien wasn’t in the picture. Ever since she found out he was being sincere, she realized she hated turning down his displays of affection. She knew how much having to go through that hurt, especially today. Maybe she wouldn’t have to turn him down next time, maybe now that Adrien was seeing Kagami she could move on to her partner and best friend.
“Get up.”
She didn’t know how long had passed when the gloved hand of Kagami grabbed her own, pulling her to her feet. She looked at Kagami slightly confused until Kagami leaned in and whispered in her ear, “The only reason you can’t stay on your feet is your hesitation. I never hesitate.” Sliding away, she grabbed Adrien’s hand and pulled him along with her, asking in a far more chipper tone, “Shall we go?”
Staring in shock, she watched the young couple skate farther and farther away from her, along with her chances of being with her first love. She wished she could move on as easily as she believed, but her crush on Adrien left her with a crushed heart. She knew it would take time. She could only hope that Chat would be willing to wait for her to be ready.
“Marinette, are you ok?”, Luka’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts which only made her realize she would have to let him know she couldn’t be with him. Another heart Marinette had to cast to the wayside.
“I think I hurt myself.” My heart certainly is hurt. “It’s probably best if we call it a day.” Skating away, she stepped onto the floor of the outer rink and made her way to the bathroom to try and collect the pieces of her heart.
As Adrien watched Marinette walk away, he couldn’t help but notice her dejected look along with the way she was rubbing her lower back, probably sore from her fall. Marinette was known as a klutz from how often she ran into various objects or tripped over nothing, but she was normally able to act as nothing had even happened afterwards. If she was hurt enough to stop ice skating, she could need some help. Luka just didn’t know Marinette well enough to understand that.
“Marinette doesn’t look too good.”, he began, turning his head slightly towards Kagami before focusing his attention back on his retreating friend. “Sorry, Kagami. I have to go and check on her.” Without waiting for a response, Adrien pulled away, releasing his hand from Kagami’s grasp.
Having momentarily lost sight of her, Adrien looked down the hallways before realizing she could have only gone to the bathroom in the short time she was out of his sight. With a couple of quick taps on the women’s bathroom door, he called for her.
“Marinette? Are you ok?”, he asked with genuine concern. Marinette was one of the few people he thought of as a close friend besides Ladybug, and at the moment he was still feeling a little bitter because of yet another rejection. If Marinette was hurt, or even just unwell, he would do everything he could to fix it.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”, Marinette responded. Adrien however disregarded her words and instead focused on her tone. Her normally chipper voice felt much more lackluster than he was used to, and he heard a slight waver in her affirmation that betrayed her words.
Plagg apparently decided now would be the time to interfere, as he floated up and made eye contact with Adrien. “You’re supposed to be in love with Ladybug, and now you ditch Kagami to go after Marinette?”
“Me? Going After Marinette?”, Adrien asked incredulously. “No, she’s just…” a friend? His voice trailed off. Was she though? If Ladybug got with the boy she loved or if she didn’t exist at all, would he have fallen in love with Marinette, or would it have been Kagami?
Ladybug... where to begin with Ladybug? She was amazing, brave, kind, funny, unbelievably creative, and beautiful as well. She was his best friend. They’d gone through multiple life or death matters together. He got to be himself with her and she accepted him, just not romantically. Maybe if she wasn’t already in love with someone else, things could be different. He didn’t know if Ladybug and the boy she loved were together, but even if they weren’t, he didn’t want to ruin his lady’s shot at happiness. Maybe he had to move on for her sake, no matter how much it hurt to know his love would never be reciprocated.
Then, there was Kagami, who would reciprocate his affections if he were to give them to her. Much like Ladybug, she was strong, fierce, and incredibly brave. Plus, she came from a more restrictive household like Adrien, and was certainly someone his father would approve of him dating. She was incredibly interesting and he wanted to get to know her better, whether he wanted that to be as a friend, or as something more, he wasn’t sure. He just knew he needed to change his target from Ladybug.
Finally, he had Marinette, sweet and kind, though a bit awkward at times. She certainly was a special girl. She was a bit intimidated by him, he thought. He was the son of her idol, and while not always the case, she would stumble on her words when talking to him. Unlike Adrien’s, Marinette’s home was filled with the type of warmth and love that he rarely got since his mother disappeared, and her parents genuinely seemed to care about him. She was also amazing at video games and designing, having won competitions in both. She even gave him her lucky charm when they were practicing for their video game tournament. Besides his ring, it was the only thing he always kept on him, and on Marinette’s birthday he made sure to repay her by making a lucky charm for herself.
If he hadn’t fallen for Ladybug, would he have gravitated towards Marinette? He remembered overhearing a rumour a month or so ago that she had a crush on him. At the time he brushed it off, but maybe he’d be lucky enough for it to be true and be able to be with her. He could always try and see where things go, just like he was doing with Kagami today. That being said, seeing he was standing outside the women’s bathroom checking in on Marinette, maybe he had already switched targets. Certainly, getting closer to Marinette wouldn’t be a bad thing. Maybe he could even get her to get over her occasional stutter too.
He didn’t know what to say, but he wanted to say something. Maybe he should ask Plagg for advice and hope it won’t be cheese related for once. However, before he could get a word out, he saw the hallway changing color out of the corner of his eye.
“What is that?”
As he focused on the encroaching ice, he realized what had happened. “Marinette! Hide! There’s an akuma!” He ran further away from the ice to transform so he could defeat it. He hoped to have more time away from Ladybug to get his heart and mind in check. He quickly powered up Plagg and transformed.
As the two ice-ready heroes landed on the frozen rooftop, Ladybug turned to her partner, who was noticeably missing his usual ever pleasant smile, and said, “Chat Noir, we need to set up a trap for whoever turned the city into a giant ice rink!”
With a curt nod, he slid down to the next eve on the roof. “You go your way, I’ll go mine.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re still mad at me about the rose?”, she asked with another piece of her heart breaking.
‘Please don’t be mad.’ She didn’t think she’d be able to take it if she accidentally ruined her chances with Chat Noir right before she decided she wanted to try dating him.
“No, I’m not mad at you, I’m just doing my best to move on.”, he sighed out, still not looking at her.
‘No, no, no, don’t move on!”
“I’m trying my best to make sure you’re happy, bug. So I want to make sure I’m not interfering with your relationship with your beau.”
‘There’s nothing to interfere with, I want to be happy with you.’
“Oh, ok.”, she muttered dejectedly. She really had lost both of them.
Maybe, just maybe, she could explain the situation to Chat and he would be willing to try going on a date. That would have to wait until this arctic akuma was defeated though. Shaking her head to get herself back in the game, she spoke again with slightly more confidence than before, “Let’s get to it then.”
As they were about to jump off to go their separate ways in order to find the akuma, a white portal opened itself up next to Ladybug. In a blink of an eye she found herself pushed behind Chat Noir, who had his baton extended and ready for a fight.
“Stay behind me, my lady!”
Stepping out of the portal was a white and blue suited little girl, maybe a year or two younger than Ladybug herself, with large bunny ears atop her wild, long blonde hair. Her bluebell eyes widened behind her mask as she saw the two heroes in front of her.
“Is this a bad time?”, she asked softly.
Before either of them got to respond another figure stepped out, a blonde man with green eyes wearing an armored Ladybug outfit. With his hand still in the mysterious portal, he helped out a woman Ladybug was able to identify as herself wielding the black cat miraculous, meaning the man was probably her chaton. Even with the confusing picture in front of her, what startled her the most was the fact that her counterpart was pregnant, very pregnant. She must be at least seven months along, maybe eight. Even with the skin tight suit it was hard to tell. That might have been another function of the miraculous glamour, but it wasn’t one Master Fu or Tikki had told her about.
“Watch the ice, Coal Kitty.”, he said as he guided his partner to the wall of the neighboring rooftop, making sure she was able to stay steady on the slippery narrow surface with her skates. “Emma.”, he directed his focus to the bunny themed girl now that Coal Kitty had a grip on the wall, obviously about to say more before he was interrupted.
“It’s Snow Hare, Papa. Can’t use my real name in front of people.” She whined with a mix of annoyance and excitement.
Both older heroes’ heads snapped up to lock eyes with their younger counterparts. Shock spread across their faces as they stared at their younger, awe filled ones.
“Em-Snow Hare, we told you to bring us to an icy winter so we could get you some practice in your ice form. I didn’t expect you to bring us to the middle of an akuma attack.” The Ladybug themed man huffed out, clearly a bit annoyed at the situation.
“But Sir Elytra, look at all the ice around!” The little girl argued excitedly, gesturing to the city around her “It’s everywhere!” She did an excited little butt wiggle as she talked, making Ladybug more and more sure that this was her daughter, her daughter with Chat Noir if Snow Hare’s exclamation of “papa” was to be believed, and boy did she want to believe it right now.
Letting herself chuckle a little, Coal Kitty spoke up, “Well, looks like you get some fighting practice today too, Snow Hare. Snow Hare, meet Ladybug and Chat Noir, our younger selves. Because I’m currently not in peek fighting condition,” she lovingly rubbed her enlarged stomach with a blissful smile on her face, “I’m currently forbidden from doing any of the heavy lifting so I’m Coal Kitty today, and that’s Sir Elytra.”
“Pleasure to see you again, however unexpected that was.” Sir Elytra introduced himself with a bit more awkwardness than her partner typically had with him, which should probably be expected with the situation.
Her present partner however was rapidly shifting his focus between Snow Hare and Coal Kitty’s pregnant belly, so Ladybug took the lead in conversation on their front. “Uh, hi.” She began elegantly. “I don’t really understand what’s going on. Can anyone fill us in?”
“I wanted to give Snow Hare here some lessons with all her power ups, but it’s summer right now, so we decided to go to a nice icy winter so we could practice.” The armored hero explained simply. “And apparently since right now the entire city is covered in ice, she decided that this would be the best time to drop us off.”
“What more could you ask for, everything is icy!” She asked, with an adorable yet confused smile on her face that in turn brightened Ladybug’s.
“But now we have a new situation, that being Frozer, and I won’t be able to join you. Don’t want to put Louis at risk would we.” Coal Kitty added with a wink to her younger self.
“Aw, I don’t get to fight by your side?”, Snow Hare asked disappointedly. Watching her daughter pout pierced Ladybug’s already aching heart, she had to do something to make it go away. All she needed was a plan, and she was great at making plans. Looking to Chat Noir to see if she could think of anything, she simply saw him staring at the time travelers with his jaw on the floor, a hint of confusion on his face.
“Why don’t I join you?” Ladybug added optimistically, making Snow Hare perk up as she turned to face the spotted heroine. “Sir Elytra, you and I can go take down the akuma, while Chat Noir can protect Coal Kitty.” She hoped to get more information out of the older bug and wanted to spend some time with her daughter. Plus,based on the way Snow Hare was bouncing up and down, she was quite excited by the prospect as well.
“Can we papa, this will be so much fun. Please?” The little girl begged her father, pulling on his arm as she did.
“Alright, alright. Bugs and Bunny will go take down Frozer. Kitties will go off on their own and talk I guess.”, Sir Elytra relented with a smile on his face as he rubbed the little girl’s hair affectionately. Turning his attention to his younger self he said, “The baby’s due within the week. Be careful, both of you.”
“Don’t worry, little kitty” The older woman began as she looked at Chat Noir “I’m still able to skate and I know where there won’t be danger.”
Shaking himself out of his stupor, Chat responded with a grin on his face. “A stroll through icy Paris with a lovely woman on my arm, how could I say no?”
How could he have said no? He was trying his best to move on from Ladybug, and was genuinely excited about the possibility of being with Marinette. Yet here he was, skating with Coal Kitty, which was Ladybug from the future, while Ladybug fought the akuma with his future self and his daughter. He was still trying to process the whole time travel thing, but he definitely heard Snow Hare (Emma, like his mother Emilie) call him papa. His heart nearly burst from his chest realizing that he had an amazing daughter like Emma, that he would have a family at all if he was honest.
There was just one problem. He knew he was the father, but who was the mother.
It could be Coal Kitty, his Ladybug. Maybe in the future, things didn’t work out with Marinette or with Ladybug’s mystery guy. Maybe they found solace in each other and were a perfect fit (just like he thought). Emma could be a little cat-bug, his and his lady’s cat-bug, like he always imagined.
Or was it Marinette? Maybe things between him and Marinette worked out amazingly, they got together soon after the present time and fell in love with each other. Marinette would be a great mother to their kids. Her designing talent would surely get his father’s approval, and she would get to become the head of Gabriel .
The way Emma looked up to Coal Kitty could be a daughter to mother, or it could be that Ladybug became like a cool aunt for his kids, and he a cool uncle for hers. It sounded like one day akumas wouldn’t be a part of their daily lives, so they could know each other outside of the mask.
“I know you’re overthinking there chaton, wanna talk about it?”, Coal Kitty asked with a smirk. Despite their slow journey around the frozen city, Chat Noir had yet to say anything, too caught up in his own thoughts.
“Emma,”, he started cautiously, not sure how exactly he wanted to word his question. “I know she’s my daughter. Is she your daughter or is she Marinette’s?” He didn’t know what to expect from her response. It could have been either extremely vague like time travel stories tended to show as the norm, or just a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’. What he didn’t expect was her laughter, straight up guffawing as the hand he wasn’t holding was wiping tears from her eyes.
“Oh, kitty! We came at such a bad time didn’t we?” Chat gave such a quizzical look at Coal Kitty, to which she only laughed harder. “Look.” She tried again after taking a few breaths to collect herself. “Things between you, Marinette, me, and the boy I love are about to get really complicated for about a year. Everything will be confusing, but in the end it all works out. Trust me, you’ll see how weird it gets, just take it day by day ok?”
That was not the advice he wanted. His heart was already confused, and Coal Kitty just made his mind more puzzled. Even with Ladybug rejecting him from time to time, he liked how their friendship was, and hearing that things would be complicated between them wasn’t what he wanted to hear. His relationship with Marinette seemed to always be complicated, so making that more complicated wasn’t ideal, but they could work past that, hopefully.
“I hope Ladybug is getting more answers than I am.”, Chat Noir grumbled with a pout that his skating partner couldn’t help but giggle at.
“You’re my daughter, right?” Ladybug asked, only able to contain her curiosity till she, Snow Hare, and Sir Elytra were out of ear-shot of their partners’ enhanced hearing.
The little bunny hero looked at her with such confusion before finally saying, “Of course i am, maman. I thought you-”
“Ok, enough of that.”, Sir Elytra interrupted. “Emma, your mother’s gonna kill me when she finds out you let that slip.”
Snow Hare tilted her head, believing she didn’t let anything slip, “But I thought maman said you were the only-”
“Stop, Ladybug doesn’t know that yet.” He informed her, giving Snow Hare an intense paternal glare.
Ladybug however paid it no mind as she wrapped her daughter up in a hug, knowing she might not get a chance to do so until she was born (which should be how it goes, but she certainly wouldn’t complain about the opportunity she was given). After pouring as much love as she could into hugging her daughter who was more than happy to reciprocate the hug despite their high speeds on ice, she turned her attention to her older partner (and probably husband now that she thought about it). “I know I probably shouldn’t ask, but what part of what she said don’t I know yet?”
She couldn’t see Sir Elytra’s face as he pulled ahead of the girls, but she could imagine his face was scrunched up while trying to decide what to say. Eventually, the three of them stopped, crouched behind an iced van near the Eiffel Tower. “Listen buggaboo, I’ll tell you this only because we both had a rough year relationship wise for stupid reasons. You’ve told me that during ou-your double date, you decided to pursue Chat Noir. Well, I decided to stop pursuing Ladybug not too long before and instead focus on wooing Marinette. You turned me down because you had believed something that wasn’t true, and I turned down your advances because I believed you were just playing with my heart. It wasn’t a fun time for either of us.”
“You fell for plain old Marinette?” She asked with absolute awe in her quiet voice. She knew that guys often wanted to be with her. There was Luka, Nathaniel, Nino, and even Kim a few years ago, but she never expected Chat to be one of them. He was in love with the confident, strong, capable, skintight-suit-weaing Ladybug, but he still somehow moved onto the clumsy, over sleeping mess that was Marinette.
“Maman, you’re amazing!” Emma began, pride evident in her bright blue eyes. “You know how often my classmates say they want you as their mom! It’s like at least once a week, usually more.”
Sir Elytra added to his daughter’s comment with a smile, “She’s right, and there’s nothing plain about you princess, because everything you do is extraordinary.” Ladybug couldn’t help but turn away as she blushed from his kind words. “Now as much as I’d like to work through your self esteem issues now, I think we should take down Frozer with a double dose of Lucky Charm!”
Sir Elytra and Ladybug both summoned their Lucky Charms, the young heroine had a bag of salt dropped into her arms while the older hero received a spotted crowbar. “Do you have a plan, M'lady? I know what we did with the salt, but the crowbar’s new.”
After a moment of thinking it through, Ladybug had it. “Snow Hare, you’re with me. Elytra, listen closely.”
The fight went easily enough, especially with the extra help from a more experienced hero who had knowledge for them on how the akuma was defeated last time. Ladybug and Snow Hare taunted Frozer into chasing them across the frozen terrain, sometimes skating along the walls or even on benches and lampposts. The way she and Emma interacted just made her fall in love even more, her daughter was witty and clever even at a young age. The mother-daughter team led the akuma to the salted truck where they were able to catch Frozer’s skates, breaking them and releasing the hidden butterfly.
Ladybug caught the akuma just in time for Snow Hare to drop her transformation with five minutes having passed since she opened her burrow. After both spotted heroes threw their Lucky Charms into the air, saving Paris from it’s icy fate, they held their fists out pointed towards each other and their daughter.
“Come on duchess.”, Sir Elytra began, a proud smile shining across his features. “You helped beat the bad guy, you earned it.” As soon as Emma, who Marinette can tell is unmistakable as her and Chat’s daughter now that there isn’t magic in the way, realizes what he means, her entire face lights up and her fist joins the other two waiting for her.
“Pound it!”
Before any of their fists even break contact from one another, Ladybug heard her partner running towards her, screaming words she really didn’t want to hear.
“Sir Elytra, Sir Elytra, the baby’s coming.”
In a word, Ladybug and Chat Noir’s day was hectic. It started out with a disaster of a double date, followed by an akuma, and their future selves and their daughter traveling back in time to meet with them on accident. Then older Marinette was about to give birth so the five of them (soon to be six) rushed to the hospital. All four of them dropped their transformations causing a quite shocking reveal for the present day heroes which was quickly outclassed by the fact that Marinette was about to pop and they weren’t even in the hospital yet. Marinette watched her youngest son (apparently Hugo was a few years younger than Emma so he didn’t join them) be born while Adrien waited in the hall.
Marinette and Adrien and Marinette and Adrien and Emma got to hold baby Louis in their arms, and everyone, including Louis, cried. Today was the day Marinette’s first chronologically born child was born, her son with Adrien Chat Noir Agreste. When it was finally time to say goodbye to their future selves and kids, the younger teens hugged Emma tightly wishing all of them a safe trip back home.
Neither Adrien or Marinette made it back to the ice rink, but as night time fell the heroes instead found themselves sitting on the Eiffel Tower, legs dangling off the side carelessly.
“So.” Chat began, unsure how to breach the awkward air between them, “You moved on from Luka to Chat Noir?”
Ladybug couldn’t help but groan in response burying her hands into her eyes. “No minou, I moved on from Adrien to Chat Noir, just like you moved on from Ladybug to Marinette.”
Adrien’s eye’s went impossibly wide by another revelation being thrown at him that he was thoroughly unprepared for. “Oh, I guess Coal Kitty was right when she said we would have made things really complicated.”
“Yeah, you’re right.”, she paused letting the silence overtake them. “What does this mean for us?”
“What do you mean?”, he asked with an adorable tilt of his head. “I mean, we’re gonna get married eventually, have kids, heck Louis was born in front of your very eyes.”
“I know, but what does this mean for us tomorrow, and next week and next year?” Ladybug elaborated hoping to get her point across better.
“Oh, I-I don’t know. I don’t really think we should dive right into a relationship.” Chat admitted with a slight grimace on his face. Several long moments passed with the noise of the city filling their ears.
After a bit Ladybug perked up with an idea. “Hey chaton, would you like to come over to my place during lunch on Monday. We can play video games after we eat if you’d like. Plus I’d love to get to know my best friend better now that I can know more about him.” She let a soft smile pull at her lips while she looked at her partner whose face soon mirrored hers.
“I’m sure I can make that happen, m’lady.”