"Will you name a little girl after me, Adrien? For our friendship, I mean." Chloe stammered as she stared down at the ground, already trying to calm her tears, because surely he wouldn't hold onto this just like her mom couldn't hold on to her and her dad.
"Yeah," Adrien smiled, "You're my best friend, first friend, and someone needs to remember you when they have kids." He beamed up at her, all innocent and kind.
"O-Okay, don't forget, alright?" Chloe muttered, still looking nervous and a wreck. Her name felt like the last thing of her mother that she could hold on to and yet like something completely different too; it felt like something all hers, no matter who named her, really. Chloe liked her name; it had the potential to be so much more of anything. It wasn't in any of the books that she'd read, and her mama had told her that it was a secret that she'd one day know why she was named this way. She doubted that she'd ever hear of what that secret was now, but at the very least, she had the free will to mold her name like playdough to her skin.
"I won't forget." Adrien beamed up at her, all of his innocence of youth clung to him like nothing else.
"Hey, Daddy! If I ever had a little sister, what would you name her?" Emilie asked, fidgeting as she ignored her older siblings' continued game of Nerf all through the house, Emma jumping past, gun pointed straight at Hugo's head.
"It's up to your mom too." He glanced over at Marinette who for a moment was caught up on the phone with Alya, hands waving around excitedly, her best friend still able to reveal the youth and sudden teen like spirit of his wife as if in some ways she remembered quite well when she met Alya. Adrien could bring it out in Marinette too, and he wondered what she'd say about the memories that plagued him even now.
Adrien had never been the sort to overlook his wife's opinion, but he remembered how Chloe and Marinette used to fight like cats and dogs and how that had faded away to a halfway decent acquaintanceship though the two women never spoke long whenever they had to. Marinette didn't mind the fact that Adrien and Chloe were childhood friends, especially with the whole Queen Bee thing once she'd figured it out, so Adrien knew that Marinette could get along with her but usually just tolerated her.
He still wasn't sure what to say especially when his wife's hand came to rest on her belly, and he knew that she was pregnant again which was one of the only reasons that Emilie had asked after all.
"What would Mommy name her? Something a lot like Emilie or Emma." Emilie frowned at that as if she was frustrated that her name was slightly similar to her big sister's though Emma and Emilie sometimes fought, they were still pretty close sisters other than the fact that Emma often played with Hugo and Louis since they were closer to her age, and she'd known them longer.
"No, probably not. Probably something beautiful like after your grandparents or something like that?" Adrien and Marinette had talked about the possibilities of what they could name their future children after little Emilie was born, so he knew full well that she probably carried either a Thomas or a Sabine in her womb, but he wasn't quite sure that he should tell Emilie that.
"Oh, okay." Emilie grew bored and went to grab her own Nerf gun though she usually lost against her big brothers and sister.
Adrien smiled as he walked over to Marinette, "Hey, Bugaboo?" It was just a whisper against his wife's neck to mostly let her know that he was there since she was still on the phone though his wife did quickly say, 'bye' to Alya before turning to him.
"What's up?" She smiled, leaning against his side.
"Well, what do you say to Sabine's middle name being Chloe?" He asked her, nervous as all can be, but unable to not want to discuss this at all.
"Why?" Marinette looked up at him and when he told her, she leaned against him attentively and her eyes widened. "I always forget just how well you've known her."
"I promised her when we were kids, but it's been a little while since I thought about it, and I know that you don't have the best kind of history with her, but..." Adrien began before he was cut off with a finger to his lips.
"Adrien, of course I will. I love you, and while I don't always see eye to eye with Chloe, she's like the sister that you never had, and I trust that she has her reasons for who she became back then. Besides, Queen Bee's a good person, and probably wouldn't mind a little girl named after her though she'd probably gloat just a little too much." Marinette spoke up.
He couldn't help chuckling with her over the gloating thing; Queen Bee totally would. Adrien truly loved his wife more than anything, and with moments like these, she proved that her love for him was just as strong if not stronger than he'd ever realized. It spoke of how far things had come that she was willing to give their daughter the middle name of what was once her worst enemy, and he knew that Marinette's mother wouldn't mind too much. She'd tried to see the best in everyone, and Chloe had came an especially long way in recent years.