Chapter Summary: Ugh. -That- scene is included. AND THERE IT GOES! BUH-BYE!
I can be a mysterious writer when I want to be. Dough is thrown. Dough fights are had.


Can you hear my heartbeat? I'm tired of feeling I'm never enough, I close my eyes and tell myself, "that my dreams will come true,". There'll be no more darkness when you believe in yourself, you're unstoppable. Where your destiny lies, you set my heart on fire. Don't stop us now, the moment of truth. We'll make it happen, we'll turn it around: yes, we were born to make history. Can you hear my heartbeat? I've got a feeling that it's never too late. I close my eyes and see myself in dreams that will come true.

- AmaLee

Part IX:

Marinette paused when she heard the smallest of thumps overhead, had she had her music on like she had a minute ago, she wouldn't have heard it. But she was curious enough (and worried enough) to go check it out once making sure she knew where Tikki was.
Perhaps, luckily, it would only be a stray bird or animal that roamed Paris, and nothing else.
She popped her head up as she opened her window, what she wasn't expecting to see was Chat Noir sitting on her railing, his tail randomly flicking in the and against the wind.
"Minou?" She questioned, she paused to watch his tail freeze, before returning to its turmoil flicking.

She knew enough of her partner to keep his tail in mind, it spoke more volumes of her kitten's emotions then the boy ever did.
Marinette watched as he fleetingly looked to her, emotions running over his face, such as guilt.
He hadn't meant to wake her.
"Are you alright?" flick-flick went the tail. That wasn't the right question, then. "Are you hurt?" flick-flick-pause-flick. Sort of then. Why men couldn't just say what the felt, she never understood. "How's your mother?" full body flinch. Gotcha.
Oh

Marinette hoisted herself up onto the balcony, shutting her window behind her, and sat opposite to him on her railing, her back to his front. Marinette gave him a glance over, his tail back to its turmoil flicking, his eyes were a little glitterier than normal. Crying. He'd been crying.

She lifted her hand to scratch his nearest cat-ear, in comfort.
"What happened?" She asked.
Even though she was scratching his ear, he hadn't moved in the slightest, his head still resting on the one upturned knee that he had his arms wrapped around.
"She said my name today." He muttered.
She watched his tail, it wasn't happy, it was still flicking in the wind.
"…And…?" She prompted, stroking his hair at the base of his cat-ear.
"She asked me if I knew where I was." He muttered.
Marinette blinked painfully.
No wonder he ran.

"I wasn't allowed to tell her who I actually was." He continued painfully.
She gathered him up in a hug as she heard him cry out. "Why can't I?!" He screamed painfully.

/


/

"Why can't I…!?"
Marinette woke up in fright, so much she sat up in alarm.
Her sitting up gave way to her guest giving out an annoyed grumble.
"Mari…! Sleep…!" He grumbled much to entirely Chat Noir than Adrien Agreste, as he fumbled for the covers she pulled with her.
Marinette sat there blinking at him, as slowly her dream that frightened her so much dimmed and wanned until she couldn't remember why she woke up in the first place.
But, Adrien was fine. Though, she had no idea why she wanted to make sure.
"Minou…?" She asked.
He grumbled. "Sleep now. Talk later." He scolded sleepily.
She giggled at him, then swiped up her phone, seeing the time she thought it be best not to go back to sleep. Adrien could sleep more, though, he would probably need it.
So, she went about reading the news.
It wasn't hard to remember what day it was.

It wasn't as if she needed the news to remember: the day of the hearing of Gabriel Agreste. She could afford to let Adrien have a little more sleep.
She soon understood what they meant when they said Paris would literally shut down, only so much was open. It was like Christmas in London, apparently. (Not that Marinette had ever been to London). Those working were given holiday pay, and they could leave whenever, with no questions asked.
One could see why a lot of people took the day off work.
As Marinette thumbed through the news, she could see a lot of hate for the day being made off, as a lot of money wouldn't be made today. But she was glad to see there was not hate for them, or for Adrien for that matter.

She gave a grumble as she caught eye of her school bag against Adrien's by her computer. Just because Adrien was excused, didn't mean she was exempt from homework that was due the following school day. Adrien fought black and blue when the teachers exempted him, it was like he couldn't understand why just he was being excused for. Adrien had literally asked her for blank copies, which she blatantly refused to give him. He pouted for the rest of the day.
But, she still had to do hers, moving herself away from her literal clingy cat slowly, as to not disturb him, she made her way down from her loft bed, making sure to replace herself with pillows he could hug instead.
Marinette sat at her computer, resolved to do her work before she needed to wake him, and hide the papers so he couldn't copy. Not when he didn't need to.

Marinette had finished (and stashed) her work well before she needed to get Adrien up.
Her mind wandered. Their elders were still around if she were to go downstairs they'd be on the couch in the living room. They had gone back to the fateful street several times since Gabriel was apprehended, yet with no luck of finding the anomaly that had sent them here.
They would need to leave soon, or a little baby not meaning to exist yet could pose a lot of problems and unwanted attention, not to mention questions.
She knew they were worried about it, as Elder-Marinette was not allowed by her kwami to transform on most days since then.

She looked back to Adrien thinkingly, then got up and up the loft to shake him a little.
"…Mari…?" He mumbled in question.
"Just going downstairs for a drink, want anything?" She asked.
"More sleep." He muttered, already bunking down and closing the one eye he had opened.
Marinette giggled at him, ruffled his hair, which he groaned weakly at, then left for downstairs.

Downstairs was much the reverse. Not counting her parents, who were most likely getting the added sleep of a holiday. Elder-Marinette was asleep, with Elder-Adrien awake.
He looked up from whatever he was making, hearing her come down the stairs. "Hey, there, Princess!" He called quietly.
Marinette smiled, then crossed over to get herself a drink. "What are you making?" She asked, finally curious enough, about whatever he was creating since he got here, it did look a little like a kwami.

Adrien grinned happily. "Making little Ellayne her first toy." He told her, showing her the nearly finished project.
Marinette took a moment to realise Not-Supposed-To-Exist-Baby actually had a name.
She found her feet and walked over to him silently, he nudged the toy in her direction so she could take it and look at it if she wanted to. Marinette took it and made notes. The little creation was fit for a newborn, it was made with a white material she knew was hard wearing and washable (not to mention extremely high grade and expensive). It seemed to be modelled after some type of animal that had wings and a fluffy tail. Mythical creature or not, he had taken a lot of time to create it, there weren't any mistakes that she could see.

"How long have you been making this?" She questioned, curiously as she handed the kwami back.
Adrien smiled as he took his creation back. "Ever since we named her Ellayne. I've made a few screw-up versions as I went along, this one is the result of months of redo's." He told her.
Marinette was struck silent in awe that Adrien would want to do something that was that heavily time involved.
"Marinette hasn't helped me once!" He told her, full of pride that he could make the doll himself.
"Are you going to name it?" She asked.
Adrien shook his head. "That's up to little Ellayne, once she gets here, that is." Adrien amended happily.
Marinette was still awestruck that he wanted to be involved this much. She had heard from her mother that not all husbands and fathers-to-be wanted to be involved, she only needed to look at Adrien's father to see how truthful her words were.

She lost how long she sat beside him, as he continued to work on his daughter's kwami. She took in the warm smile he had, his diligent hand work, every now and again he would turn the doll around to see it still functioned in the way he envisioned it would. The notion struck her, and took her by storm by a longshot:
She was sitting beside the man that was the boy who was sleeping in her room.
She was sitting beside the man that was the boy who wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
She was sitting beside the man that was the boy who would become the man who very much wanted to be a father to his unborn child.

She blinked sudden tears away.
"…How…How long have you wanted to be a father…?" She questioned quietly.
Thankful to his cat hearing, he heard her, stalled in his handiwork, to regard her thoughtfully.
Just how long had he wanted to be a father…? It was an extremely good question. He knew from a young age, that if he became a father, he'd devote himself, unlike his father. That much was a given. When Marinette had said to him he would be a father, he naturally freaked: having no experience himself, only dreams of what he would be – He'd be a father, unlike his own father. His child wouldn't be without the belief of love and care. His child would not be second best to anything. Her telling him that he would be a father had alighted the flame he wanted to be a father, but the flame had been there way before then.
He looked back to Marinette in thoughtful thinking of how to tell her when he had started the want to be a father and found he fell short of a small explanation.

"When I wanted to be a father, huh…?" He voiced, and she nodded. "I'm not quite sure, actually. When Mari said to me she was expecting, I was overjoyed, naturally once I got over the panic. But the idea I wanted to be a father was already there, not that I can say from when, perhaps it was something that had always been there tempered and buried from time to time during my life. But, I guess, always there. I've been asked several times, even before I was married, and well before I was eighteen, in interviews and such, what type of father I wanted to be to an Agreste heir." Marinette watched as his face screwed up in contempt of such a thing as a child needing such a label, but he continued. "My answers differed as I grew, but there was a certain amount of expectation of me about my then non-existent child that always made me want to scream." He paused to breathe.
"Why would you want to scream?" She asked him in confusion.
He looked at her with an expression that suggested she was being naïvely adorable.

"It is an expectation that any child of mine, bare the name Agreste and be brought up into the fashion industry, to take over my place once I retire." He told her.
He watched the oncoming frown of dislike. "There you go. My reason for the need to scream." He told her. "Those questions started young, like now, young. When they first started the questions, I was appalled, I was barely a child myself, but all they could see was the future and a future investment." His emotion snarled. "I never heard the end of it from Chloé. You, on the other hand, now that I think about it, were more quiet than usual the day of school after that interview was released publicly, at the time I thought I had offended you again. Turns out you were just as offended as I was that I had no life outside of making a child an heir." He scoffed, then frowned. "I'm getting majorly off topic here…" He sounded.

Marinette blinked. "I don't mind, still semi on track to my question…" She told him.
He laughed quietly. "In the interviews, I gave them what they wanted to hear – the usual any first non-existent child of mine would become heir, and that they would grow up loving and being involved in fashion. As if I could make a child love fashion by clicking my fingers," He growled in an undertone, but she heard him. "They lapped it up like good little reporters and didn't ask for another twelve months. In that time, I had taken to thinking what I would like to be as a father, and what I would expect of my child. As I said before, I wouldn't be like my own father, nor would I subjugate any child of mine to my life. If they want to be involved in fashion, let that be their choice, not mine or others, if they want to be involved in anything else, I'd support them all the same." He told her, then looked to her. "Has such an interview happened?" He asked, curiously.

Marinette nodded, it was extremely recent, (Adrien had told her in passing because he couldn't very well say he had his own role model – himself from the future) and not published yet, though probably would be talked about extremely soon. She remembered the doom cloud that hung over her when he had told her what he was told to say, but he hadn't said the rest – his proper thoughts, probably having thought seeing the elders was enough for her. (It wasn't).
Adrien nodded. "Then from then, I have thought about wanting to be a father." He told her, and held up his to-be daughter's kwami doll, with a shrug. "And this kinda happened." He said sheepishly, caused Marinette to giggle.

/


/

Marinette had left to get dressed once Adrien was awake, and returned to find where she left the elders, her parents and Adrien missing, but she did hear laughter, so she turned and walked in its direction, and wandered into see both Elder-Marinette and her own mother teaching Adrien how to bake.
"No, no, dear, like this." Elder-Marinette told him, and palmed her dough with both hands, as Sabine chuckled and threw hers at her husband.
Adrien for the moment ignored Sabine, noting that he probably wasn't meant to throw things, and studied what Elder-Marinette did, then copied. "Like this?" He started, but in his inexperience, a cloud of flour blew up at him.

Adrien blinked in astonishment, while he heard his elder laugh at him, good-naturedly.
Marinette giggled. "No, not like that." She told him.
He turned to glare at her in good nature. "At least I'm trying!" He said, as his Plagg flew out, now also covered in white flour.
"Ugh! Adrien!" He cried.
This caused Elder-Adrien's Plagg to show up. "My man, learn to know when things are going to go bad, and steer. clear." He advised, causing both versions of Adrien to pout.
"That's mean, Plagg!" Elder-Adrien told him.
He glared. "I've eaten enough raw flour to know what I'm talking about!" He argued, sticking his tongue out.
Someone's alarm went off, and the entire room went sour.
"Well, we'll have to continue this later." Elder-Marinette voiced lowly as she went around gathering up the misused flour.
Elder-Adrien got up from leaning against the wall. "Don't worry, we'll clean this up, it'll be clean by the time you guys get back." He told them, with a nod and went over to get a sponge to help clean up. The rest nodded and went about getting ready to leave. "And you, my Lady, should be sitting down." He voiced.
"Yeah, you definitely turned into a mother hen, didn't you?" Elder-Marinette's voice echoed back to them, along with him laughing, then his yelp.
"You didn't need to throw flour at me!" He argued.
Somehow, they all doubted the kitchen would get cleaned anytime soon.

It was sometime the previous day that Roger had come around to the Dupain-Cheng's in order to give them their visitation passes to the hearing, Sabine had let him in, the good natured woman that she was, he remarked, seeing Adrien that he hoped that Nathalie knew where he was, (which Adrien told him that she did), while the elders made themselves scarce, having nearly walked in on Roger in alarm, and nearly a kwami whisker too late.

The rest of Paris had seen Chat Noir and Ladybug out and around midday, and "got up to speed" via Alya and gave their response that yes, they would be at the hearing at the appropriate time, upon them being seen, they were requested to see the mayor, them and them only.
So, besides all involved and Ladybug and Chat Noir, only knew of the actual time change, so they could be at the hearing before the reporters got wind of the change, and for the heroes to be aware the time had actually changed from the original for Adrien's protection, having given the state of the recent video on the Ladyblog.
It was why they came to the court in Adrien's car by Gorilla driving alongside Nathalie, (once having picked up Nino and Alya) that it was empty of reporters, expect for a few setting up, with the windows tinted, they were just another lot heading for the courts, (just because the city shut down, didn't mean court dates could be changed, thankfully).

All the while, Adrien sat there thinking over what his elder had pulled him aside for.
"Oh, and Adrien?" Elder-Adrien called, causing Adrien to turn around with a blink when he gestured for him to come closer. "I spoke with Gabriel recently, just to see if I could," Adrien flinched. "He is much different to the man I uncovered, that I was actually able to speak to him without him cursing my head off. Now, that's no cause for you, but just know he is open to conversation." He had told him.
The hell was he meant to do with that information?! Why would his elder tell him that? So, he could speak to his father, to tell him he never wanted to see his face, ever again?
He had nothing else to say to his father, aside from that. And he could very much assume that his elder had told his father as such.

It was hard to explain that they had help from their elder selves, and because of that help, the events had changed, leaving their version different to the current in a way that would excuse but exonerate their elders at the same time, (yes, they were us from the future, no, they can't testify – their own events have changed, yes, they helped us take down Gabriel before they did it in their own timeline). It was also a challenge to beat time to transform back and forth between civilian and hero form in time for each section of hearing. Once Marinette and Adrien excused themselves, alongside everyone else for tea break, the rushed to change, make show outside, then get back in. Visa Versa once their hero forms were no longer needed, they had less time to change back to civilian form, but they managed, thankfully.

It was a little unnerving, for all involved, but Gabriel spoke only when spoken to, to confirm his history, to confirm that literally, no one knew, no less than his staff and son. And didn't fight the only plausible conclusion to the meeting – that he would be put away, with an amount of time that may as well have been called a death sentence, at his age. Because of this, there would be no need for any second or more hearings. Adrien was asked if he wanted to speak to his father by the judge, who in turn got an incredulous look from Adrien.

Gabriel's only wish to have allowed visitation rights in the future which would be granted on a good behaviour bond, as well as to have contact with Nathalie about the company.
Adrien shot down the idea he was going to run it anytime soon, when the judge looked at him. Adrien's only outcry for the entire procedure. In so, there was a contract written up by the judge that he could take over and run the company alongside Nathalie in the future should he so choose later on. (Adrien very much doubted this). As well as, Gabriel needed to sign that extra monetary proceeds in the company would be made over to Adrien to have in a fund for the remainder of Gabriel's working life. (This very much made sense as they recalled that Elder-Adrien received money from Gabriel, but detested in using it).

The only thought going through Adrien's head for the entire hearing was that he was the son of Papillon. And there would be a day his Lady would no longer want to deal with that. Or him. She would leave, despite her previous reassurances, and he couldn't fault her for it. Adrien sighed as he leant back in his seat, he may as well enjoy her company while it lasted.


A/N 1: If anyone is curious, the little kwami animal is not actually a mythical creature, but is an animal that is called a flying possum, which lives in Australia (have you noticed I live there, yet?) and what Elder-Adrien is making is in the style of hand-crochet. (you can look up what they look like, or go to this chapter on AO3 and see the toy version on there, because hey, FF doesn't allow photos/links)

A/N 2: Hmm. That first scene was a bit odd, huh? Theorise away my dear readers! I'm curious to your thoughts.
DID I DO THE COURT SCENE OKAY?! I LITERALLY HATED IT!