I'm finally happy with this chapter. Please be warned, there is a trigger warning towards the end of the chapter, I just hope I've done a good enough job for you readers.

"So, Nathalie," Emilie Agreste sat with poise across from her long time friend in the noticeably warmer living room, "you have developed feelings for my husband."

The brandy glass, the assistant had been nursing while waiting for this conversation to arise, slipped out of her grasp and clumsily landed on the table: luckily, no liquid was lost. "I-" Nathalie's shoulders drooped, the woman had since found out that Emilie was privy to everything going on around her, so surmised that there was no point in denying it. "Yes."

Emilie nodded sadly and gazed at her lap, "I appreciate that you came and spoke to me so often, and I also appreciate everything you have done for my family while I was incapacitated…" she let out a long sigh and Nathalie prepared for the worse.

'Why are we doing this now? I know she probably wants to get it out of the way but I really didn't want to do it now… Bringing her back was always the goal! Why the hell did I let myself-'

"I cannot blame you, Nathalie-"

'What?!'

"-I understand the emotional toll my, coma took on everyone." Emilie raised her head and smiled compassionately at the bespectacled female, "I'm just glad that you never once wanted to hide it from me."

Nathalie realised that her mouth was hanging open and shut it quickly before speaking with astonishment. "I didn't know that you could hear me though!"

The blonde woman smiled with amusement, "that might be the case, but you were still honest with me. And although I do not want to share my husband, I can understand that you two will have a much closer relationship now, than you did before."

Nathalie felt her eyes widen in shock, Emilie was being the wonderful woman she had always been, and the assistant felt her heart swell with how lucky she was to have such an amazing friend. Tears began to well in her eyes, "I've missed you so much Em."

Mrs Agreste stood and held her arms out to Nathalie who shot up and embraced the blonde eagerly. Nathalie began sobbing while the recently awakened woman caressed her hair and cooed comforting words into her ear. "I know, and I'm not going anywhere again, okay? I'm here, and I'm sure we can only become stronger from this whole ordeal."

"I h-hope, so." Nathalie buried her face in Emilie's soft golden locks, "you've always been my best friend, all I wanted was for you to come back to us."

"I know," Emilie stroked Nathalie's hair, "I'm here now, and we have a lot to look forward to."

Nathalie snorted through her tears, "how did I get so lucky to have such an amazing friend?"

The blonde moved Nathalie out of her embrace but held her shoulders while gazing adoringly at the teary woman. Emile smiled kindly, "I am the lucky one, because even when I was gone, and it did not look like I was coming back, you did not act on your feelings. You are loyal Nat, you are trustworthy, you fought for me." Emilie's eyebrows pinched with amused irony, "even if it was not the most ideal way to go about it, you supported my husband when you could have easily sabotaged him…" Emilie wiped the tears from Nathalie's cheeks with her thumbs and the dark haired woman leaned into the touch. "You put my family before you, and I will forever be grateful to you for that."

The dark haired woman smiled and then abruptly snorted through her tears. "Your grandson said you would understand, I really could not see how." She shook her head and placed her hands over Emilie's while they continued to cup her face. "Will we definitely be okay?"

The blonde moved her head side to side in a lighthearted assessment. "Mostly, but you have to know that I need to find out if your feelings for Gabriel are not returned by him." Emilie smiled sadly and her forehead creased with thought. "Things have changed, I know that, and all of us need to sit down and have a discussion about this."

"I never told-"

"I know that," the blonde smiled kindly at her friend again, "but I still need to be sure."

Nathalie nodded and took in a steadying breath while averting her nervous eyes to the floor. "What… if he does?"

Emilie swallowed down the tears that threatened to come at the prospect that he did return Nathalie's feelings. "Then we will cross that bridge if we come to it."

Nathaniel's mouth hung open as he stared up at his ravenette friend. "What?"

Hugo nodded and scrunched up his face readying himself to repeat his statement. "I am from the future, and Marinette and Adrien are my parents."

The redhead rubbed his face quickly and then transferred his hands to hold the side of his face while he checked if he was possibly hallucinating. "So you did just say that?"

"I did."

"And the apartment you live in…?"

"Is one that belongs to my grandmother, Adrien's maman, that she gave me the keys to when I was due to come back."

"So you've done this before?"

Hugo winced thoughtfully and held up his arms in a weighing up motion, "kinda, I guess? I'm not one-hundred percent sure… but I s'pose I have." The dark haired teen then rushed to add, "but this bit didn't happen last time."

Nathaniel's brow furrowed and he twisted his lips, "I don't-"

"When this was put to me, to come back and do all this," Hugo gestured outwardly with his hands, "I remembered 'bout the kind and sweet school friend that Maman used to talk about. She would tell me that she wished there was something else she could've done…" The teen from the future gingerly took a few steps and cautiously sat next to his redheaded friend, "so I asked another one of your friends, who helped me to come back, if I could do something."

Nathaniel shook his head and turned away from the teen beside him before looking him dead in the eye. "I don't believe this Marc-"

"Hugo, actually." The teen offered Nathaniel a weak and apologetic smile while wincing slightly.

"Hugo?" The artist shook his head again, "whatever, sorry but, I'm struggling to get my head around this." The distressed teen rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand and finally looked back at the ravenette. "I like you Marc-Hugo, whatever your name is. I. Like. You." He turned away and stared at the wall surrounding the mansion's gardens, "I thought you liked me too, but-" Nathaniel shook his head and looked once again at a pained and now slightly teary Hugo. "I must be what? Twenty, or even thirty years older than you from where you're from."

While Nathaniel tried to get his head around that fact, Hugo turned away from the redhead and bit his lip. The raven haired teen tried to keep back the tears at what he was about to say, but felt the lump in his throat constricting his voice and knew he was unable to keep them at bay for long. The teen eventually mumbled out some words that Nathaniel struggled to hear, and the artist let out a dejected sigh. "I can't hear what you're saying."

Hugo swallowed and turned back to Nathaniel with tears streaming down his face.

"You're not in the future that I came from." The teen covered his mouth and looked at the floor before murmuring once again. "I never knew you before I came back, I was only told the stories of what happened to you and how m-my parents, and your fr-friends, wished they could have done something, t-to prevent it."

Tears streamed down Hugo's cheeks while he covered his face with his shaking hands. "You were conned out of everything you had saved up, and went to a… v-very dark place." As Hugo could feel his throat tighten with each word, he coughed into his hand to clear it and turned his head to see Nathaniel listening with a deep crease between his brows. Hugo straightened his posture to take Nathaniel's limp hands in his. "You drew posters instead and did commissions for the people of Paris. You were working alongside Théo Barbot when you were tempted to invest your money in your own gallery, but the investment never existed."

Hugo's green eyes gazed at a confused and disbelieving Nathaniel while he tilted his head sympathetically. "You lost everything, your aunt had the baby and you never told her. You said you had found a place and could support yourself, because before the money was taken, you would have been able to do that. You and that-" Hugo scrunched his face up as if what he was about to say pained him immensely. "-that thing, never told anyone about what you'd arranged, and it finally came out after you were found and your aunt was shown your bank statements… with the note, apparently it was clear why you had done what you did."

Hugo let out a shaky breath while Nathaniel took the information in and continued to stay quiet. "By the time it came out about what had happened, she was long gone… They eventually found her a few years later after she'd overdosed… Supposedly her conscience kicked in and she couldn't live with what she had done… That's what her therapist told Papa anyway, her mother had already disowned her by that point and she had no one in the end."

Nathaniel took his hands out of Hugo's grasp and shook his head. Holding his hand to his chest, the redhead's face scrunched up when his own tears began to well in his eyes. "D-did I…?"

Hugo rolled his lips, "you did, and I was able to come back and change your life because your friends know that you are meant to be here." The dark haired time traveler reached out to take Nathaniel's hand once more and the teen gingerly let him. "There are always consequences when we change time, but every time I have been visited by someone from the future, they have had nothing to report about the impact this change will have." Hugo squeezed his fellow teen's hand, "they think I was meant to come back and do this, they believe you should be here."

Nathaniel's tears finally fell onto his cheeks and trailed down his reddening skin. "There have been times I don't believe that. I used to think that I don't have a place here."

"But you do," Hugo smiled through his watery tears as a green butterfly gently fluttered down and onto Nathaniel's hair, "and because of you, I do too."

Thank you for reading, and I would just like to say how much I appreciate the reviews, follows and faves =^.^= I'm not able to update as often as I'd like, and I really appreciate your patience on the matter. It's not that I'm suffering with writer's block at the moment, I'm just really really busy. But please know, all your feedback is much appreciated, and persuades me to put other things off so I can work on my fanfics (shhh, don't tell my boss!). To show my appreciation, I'm gonna upload another chapter on another fic tonight, even though I have a mountain of cutting to do!

There's only a few more chapters to go now, with a glimpse to the future included.

Take it easy =)

Lady Rhi X