Special thanks to ouijadarling for being my beta. You are awesome!

Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous Ladybug!

This story is planned to be 3 or 4 chapters long.

Chapter 1

For the first time in eighteen years, Adrien was not mad to hear his alarm ringing on a Saturday before sunrise. Maybe it was because this time it was not for an early morning photo shoot, or because of one of the many lessons his father forced him to take, no sir! This time, his alarm was ringing because he was going camping with Marinette, Nino, and Alya.

It was the last weekend before their final exams would begin. After this weekend they wouldn't have any time in the near future when the four of them were going to be free at the same time. With final exams, graduation, and admissions to university to worry about, it would be a miracle if they found time to breathe in the next couple of months. Not to mention Adrien's already busy schedule, with modeling, piano lessons, Chinese lessons, fencing, and his regular side gig of protecting Paris from Shadow Moth.

So when Alya proposed that the four of them take a camping trip to enjoy the last weekend of freedom, all of them accepted right away. Adrien had never gone camping before, but he was sure he was going to have fun with his friends. But more importantly, it provided plenty of opportunities to get some alone time with Marinette.

He had promised himself this weekend he would get enough courage and confess to Marinette.

When he was younger, back when he was in love with Ladybug, he used to confess over and over to her, being crystal clear about his feelings, even when Ladybug kept making it clear she was not interested. He cringed remembering those days.

He didn't want to repeat that mistake a second time, so when he realized he was falling for Marinette, he had been extremely cautious and discreet with his affections, to the point that they were about to graduate Lycée and he still hadn't told her how he felt. He had been terrified of ruining things between them if she didn't return his affections. He knew even if she rejected him she would continue to be his friend, but he didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

Still, Adrien agreed with the people that claimed that the regret for the things you didn't do was greater than the regret of doing it. So he was going to gather all his courage and finally do it. He was going to confess, and the camping trip was the ideal opportunity. He was determined to do it. In between the excitement of the trip and the nervousness about the idea of confessing to Marinette, he had a hard time falling asleep the night before.

Despite that lack of sleep, somehow he easily got out of bed at the first ring of his alarm clock.

"Why do we have to wake up so early? Nino is not picking you up until eight!" whined Plagg without moving from his pillow.

"Well, you don't actually have to wake up right now," answered Adrien, looking for his toothbrush. "But I need to get ready and pack my bags, that's why I set my alarm so early. You can keep sleeping; I'll wake you up when I'm ready to leave."

Plagg closed his eyes again and muttered something that sounded like "Don't forget to pack enough Camembert" before falling asleep again.

Adrien was pretty sure any amount of Camembert he packed would be proclaimed "not enough" by Plagg.

Adrien was in the middle of packing his clothes when out of nowhere some sort of magical portal appeared above him. It was a glowing circle around the size of two meters in diameter. He was pretty sure it was a portal because it looked like on the other side there was a completely different room, but he couldn't know for sure because the glow didn't let Adrien see properly.

Adrien was not even shocked. When one was living in a city that was constantly being terrorized by a nutcase with the power of giving people any power imaginable, random portals opening was far from the weirdest thing one could encounter.

This clearly looked like something that was done by Shadow Moth's newest Akuma victim.

It was never a good time to face an Akuma victim or Sentimonster, but it was better if Shadow Moth had decided to attack right before Adrien left for his trip, since that means that after they had saved the Akuma victim and defeated the Sentimonster, Shadow Moth would probably not attack again for a few days, meaning Adrien could leave for his camping trip without worrying about another attack.

When he had told Ladybug he was going to be out of town for the weekend, he was surprised to learn she will too. Apparently, she had picked the exact same weekend to take a trip with her friends. Though thinking about it, it wasn't that big a coincidence. If Adrien's calculations were correct, she was close in age to Adrien, therefore she was probably about to start final exams too. Not that she would confirm that as she was always so careful about their secret identities.

Of course, they had made plans in case there was an attack when they were both out of the city, but he hoped that wouldn't have to be necessary.

Before he called his transformation in order to deal with whatever was Shadow Moth's latest insanity, a body fell on the floor and the portal closed all out suddenly.

With the blinding light of the portal gone, Adrien could take a proper look at the body that had fallen in his room. It was a teenage boy. He seemed to be breathing, which was a relief, but Adrien still didn't know what to do with an unconscious person. If this was the doing of Shadow Moth, then the Miraculous cure would heal him after they had taken care of the Akuma, but still, Adrien didn't feel comfortable just leaving him there.

The boy looked familiar for some reason, but Adrien couldn't place where he had seen him before. He looked to be around Adrien's age. He had bright purple hair, pale skin, and it looked as if he was as tall as Adrien, but it was hard to know for sure since he was lying down. The boy was wearing what looked like a school uniform. Adrien could see a school ID that was half hidden in the boy's blazer where only part of the name was visible, "Hugo T. Ag"; Adrien could also see the insignia of François Dupont Lycée.

That was odd, Adrien was in the very same Lycée but they didn't have school uniforms, and their student IDs looked completely different. He was also pretty sure he had never seen this Hugo in school before, but what did he know, it wasn't as if he knew every single student in the school. Maybe he had passed him in the halls and that's why he looked oddly familiar.

Adrien tried to wake him up by moving him a bit, Hugo didn't react.

"Hugo," he called, unsure of what to do, maybe the sound of his name would wake him up. Adrien didn't know a lot about first aid. If the boy didn't react soon, Adrien would have to call for help, and he would rather not explain to his father and Nathalie why there was an unconscious boy on his bedroom floor. "Hugo, wake up!" he tried again, being a bit louder, shaking him softly.

That seemed to get a reaction because slowly Hugo moved and without opening his eyes he said:

"Dad, what happened?"

Oh, the poor boy was disoriented. Adrien didn't think if he woke up confused his dad would be the first person who would be in his mind.

"Oh, hey, you're awake," said Adrien as if it wasn't obvious "I'm Adrien and I have no idea what's going on either."

Hugo opened his eyes and looked at Adrien. His bluebell eyes filled with confusion. He stared at Adrien's face for a few seconds, and then confusion was replaced by something that seemed like alarm.

Adrien hoped it was not one of his crazy fans.

"What happened to your face?" asked Hugo, still staring at Adrien. He was looking genuinely alarmed at Adrien's appearance.

Adrien instinctively brought his hands to his face, wondering if maybe the weird portal has done more than dropping a random boy in his room. He turned to glance at himself in the wall mirror but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

"What's wrong with my face?" asked Adrien, confused.

"You look like a child!" Hugo said, getting closer to Adrien's face to inspect it.

Adrien could tell Hugo didn't mean this as an insult—he actually looked distressed over Adrien "looking like a child" whatever that meant. Maybe whatever that portal was, was also making the poor boy hallucinate.

Adrien needed to figure out where the Akuma attack was taking place and find a way to sneak away to transform. Or even if an attack was taking place at all, because aside from the weird portal dropping a random boy into his bedroom, nothing else seemed to be out of the ordinary. He was subscribed to the Ladyblog and if there were an Akuma attack, his phone would be going crazy with notifications.

"Can you tell me what happened? What is the last thing you remember?" asked Adrien, trying to sound calm and friendly. The poor boy was clearly distressed already, confused by either Shadow Moth's newest creation or whatever other supernatural thing caused the portal.

"Whatever happened, I just want to make clear it was Louis' entire fault," said Hugo immediately as if that explained everything. Maybe this Louis guy has been akumatized and attacked Hugo by throwing him in a portal.

"Is he akumatized?" asked Adrien. Hugo looked more concerned now. He was staring at Adrien as if Adrien was the one speaking nonsense.

"Are you okay? Besides looking like a teenager, I mean, is your head okay?" asked Hugo, he looked really worried for Adrien, as if Adrien was the one who had randomly fallen into another dude's bedroom and was now speaking nonsense.

Adrien nodded, giving up on having a coherent conversation with Hugo.

"Oh God, where are we?" said Hugo, taking a look at Adrien's bedroom. Then his eyes fell on Plagg lying on the bed.

Plagg looked way too still to be normal, which means he has probably woken up already, and upon realizing they had company, he had played the part of the perfectly ordinary stuffed animal. He was scary good at the act.

"Plagg, wake up! We need to go home," said Hugo.

Adrien's blood turned to ice and the color left his face. How—

Faster than it should've been humanly possible, Adrien got to the bed and grabbed Plagg in his hands. Plagg was still not moving despite it being pretty obvious that Hugo knew he wasn't a stuffed animal.

"Who are you?" asked Adrien, his voice lowering the temperature of the bedroom ten degrees. Up until a few seconds ago he was under the impression Hugo was just a random civilian that had been accidentally transported into his bedroom. How did he know about Plagg? If he knew about Plagg, that meant he must know Adrien was Chat Noir. How did he find out? His head was spiraling but this was not the moment to panic. He was in a delicate situation and he needed to be calm. "Do you work for Shadow Moth? How did you find me?"

"Right," said Hugo in a tone that suggested he was worried about Adrien's mental health. Then he looked at Plagg again and said really quickly in what was supposed to be a whisper: "Plagg, can you stop pretending to be asleep, we have a crisis here! Dad was de-aged and I think he has his younger self memories or something like that, we need to go home. We need to get help."

At that moment, Plagg apparently abandoned the pretense, as he opened his eyes and floated to Hugo. "You said your dad was de-aged?" he asked, probably as confused as Adrien felt.

"Well, I don't know if de-aged is the correct word because I have never seen something like this before. But look at him!" he said, pointing at Adrien with panic evident in his voice. "He looks like a teenager! But it's not only that. He seems to be experiencing memory loss, he keeps speaking nonsense about Shadow Moth and Akumas? I mean, Shadow Moth has been in jail for I don't know how many years now."

Plagg was staring smugly at Hugo the same way he stared at Adrien when he figured out something before Adrien did.

"Hugo, what date is today?"

"October 5th," replied Hugo. "What does that have to do with anything?"

It was actually June.

"Year?" insisted Plagg.

"It's 2049," replied Hugo.

Adrien was not focused on Hugo's absurd reply, he was distracted because now that both of them were standing up he could see Hugo's full student ID. The full name on it was Hugo T. Agreste.

And with that, all the pieces fell into place.

It was crazy, pure insanity, and ID could be easily faked. And yet, Adrien knew for a fact time travel was possible. Besides, Hugo seemed to know Plagg, which said a lot because even if he somehow knew about Kwami and could recognize Chat Noir's Kwami, there was no way for him to know him by name.

And just like that, all doubts were cleared from his mind. As insane as it might sound, he was standing in front of his time-traveling son.

Now, this might have been the weirdest situation Adrien had ever encountered.

"Oh. I think you are a very confused kid. Your dad here has not been de-aged as you put it— it's you that has traveled back in time. Welcome to 2021!" said Plagg before stuffing his mouth with a huge chunk of Camembert.

"I'm in the past?" asked Hugo, looking even paler than before.

"Yeah, about twenty-eight years," replied Plagg calmly, as if this was an everyday occurrence.

"I need to sit down," said Hugo before dropping onto Adrien's bed.

Adrien sat next to Hugo on the bed.

If Plagg was convinced this boy was Adrien's son from the future, then Adrien had no reason to doubt it, but it would take some time to get used to the idea.

He took a good look at the boy. He was around the same height as Adrien, and now that he was paying attention he noticed the beginning of blonde roots in his dyed purple hair. The most noticeable part of one face was probably the eyes and the nose, and Hugo's eyes and nose looked nothing like Adrien's, so maybe that's why he didn't make the connection right away, but now that he was purposely looking for their similarities he could find plenty, the ears, the jaw, the lips. No wonder he thought he had seen Hugo somewhere, he had seen that jaw and lips every day in the mirror.

At the moment, Hugo looked really pale as if he could empty his stomach at any minute.

"Are you okay?" asked Adrien, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was talking to his son.

"Yeah, it's just a lot to adjust to," answered Hugo.

"I get it." It was indeed a lot to adjust to.

"I don't understand why humans always make such a big deal about time travel," said Plagg going for another piece of cheese. "Once Fluff ate too much sugar and accidentally sent us all Kwamis forty-three thousand, six hundred, twenty-seven years into the future and we were fine—well, mostly fine," he added as an afterthought. "Anyway, we came back mostly unharmed, and that's what's important."

"Thanks, Plagg, but nothing you said is reassuring at all. If anything, it was pretty vague and oddly terrifying," said Adrien, shooting a sideways glare at his Kwami.

"So, if Fluff has a sugar rush he might accidentally make others time travel?" Hugo asked Plagg, way too casually to be just curious.

"How exactly did you end up traveling back in time?" asked Adrien.

"I'm not sure how much I should say, I have seen enough sci-fi movies to know the rules of time travel, I can't reveal information about the future or else the future as I know it might change."

"Oh, he's your kid alright, he sounds exactly like you," said Plagg, but something about how he said it didn't sound like a compliment. Then he turned to Hugo and said, "While it's probably for the best that you don't reveal information about the future, can you at least tell us what happened right before you ended up here? So we have an idea what we are dealing with."

"All the miraculous holders came to our house today for an emergency meeting. In the meantime Louis, Emma and I, were hanging out with the Kwamis upstairs," explained Hugo.

It was the second time he had mentioned Louis. Adrien was curious about who Emma and Louis were, but he kept his mouth shut to allow Hugo to continue uninterrupted.

"Louis thought it was a great idea to share a chocolate bar with the Kwamis. The next thing I knew there was a brilliant light everywhere like a massive power was exploding. After that, I think I passed out. I woke up looking at a much younger version of Dad, and well, you saw the rest."

"That sounds exactly like something that would happen if Fluff has a sugar rush," said Plagg, "That's why a Kwami's powers always need to be used with a holder—otherwise disasters like this happen."

"What can we do?" asked Adrien.

"Nothing," said Plagg. "Bunnyx is probably going to find out this boy has traveled outside of his time and will come to get him and return him to his own time; we only need to wait for her. In the meantime, the only thing we can do is not get in trouble."

Plagg advising them not to get into trouble? There really was a first time for everything.

"Should we tell Ladybug?" asked Adrien. It felt wrong to keep her in the dark about this.

"I guess you can if you want, but what would that achieve?" replied Plagg. "As the guardian, she has access to the Rabbit Miraculous, but without the correct holder, it can be quite dangerous to use. The only sensible thing she would be able to do is to wait for Bunnyx, and that's what we are already doing anyway. Besides the fewer people that know about this, the better. We don't want to affect the timeline''

Adrien nodded.

"I guess it's okay if we don't tell her then," agreed Adrien. "I guess it's for the best as in order to get her involved, I would have to compromise my identity and you know how she gets about the topic of secret identities."

"Oh, so I'm before you learned each other's identity," said Hugo, "Good to know so I don't accidentally reveal this information before you are supposed to know."

Adrien was surprised to learn that they would at some point reveal their identities. He'd started to think it was never going to happen.

"Ladybug and I know each other's identity in the future? When did we reveal it to each other?"

"No spoilers," answered Hugo, he looked like he was enjoying knowing something Adrien didn't.

Adrien knew he shouldn't press the subject, but just because he knew he shouldn't do something didn't mean he won't do it.

"You said earlier Shadow Moth is in jail in your time, so I supposed with Shadow Moth gone, it was safe for us to reveal our identities," guessed Adrien.

Hugo just shrugged without confirming or denying anything.

"But if Shadow Moth is in jail? Why are there still Miraculous Holders, and why were they having an emergency meeting in your house? Shouldn't everything be in peace?"

"Shadow Moth isn't the only threat to Paris," said Hugo, like that wasn't ominous or anything.

"Are there threats worse than Shadow Moth?" asked Adrien, increasingly worried.

"Don't worry about future threats, Mom and you can protect Paris from anything," said Hugo, and then he made a face that suggested he regretted saying that right away. "I forgot for a second about the no-spoiler rule, ignore that comment please."

But Adrien couldn't just ignore how Hugo had utterly tilted Adrien's world on its axis.

Hugo had said 'Mom and you can protect Paris from anything.' There was only one person that could be 'mom' in that scenario.

Ladybug was Hugo's mother.

In the future, he would have a kid with Ladybug.

After finding out Hugo was his son, Adrien had not stopped one second to think about the identity of Hugo's mother—he was too caught in the time travel part. If he had thought about it, he would have wanted Hugo's mother to be Marinette, a hope he would have dared to have due to Hugo's eyes being the exact same shade as hers. But that wasn't what happened in the future, was it? He really had not given a single thought to Hugo's mother until he was slapped in the face with the knowledge of her identity. Ladybug also had the exact same shade of bluebell eyes.

If they had told his fourteen-year-old self that in the future Ladybug would be the mother of his son, he would've died a happy man. Now, eighteen years old Adrien didn't know how to feel about it. He had spent years pining over Ladybug and being heartbroken over and over again, because of his own stubbornness. And after years, he had finally managed to get over her, and instead, he has learned to appreciate the precious friendship he had with her. She was still one of the most important people in his life, but he had no intentions of pursuing a romantic relationship with her anymore.

It was only after letting go of Ladybug that he opened his eyes to his feelings for Marinette. He probably had feelings for her all along and just didn't realize it before because he was blindsided by his feelings for Ladybug.

He was planning to confess during the camping trip and…

THE CAMPING TRIP!

With everything that had happened, the camping trip had completely slipped out of Adrien's mind. He grabbed his phone to check the time and saw he only had twenty minutes before Nino picked him up and he hadn't even finished packing.

"It's late!" said Adrien. "I'll text my friends to leave without me, it's not like I can go anyway."

He tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice; he didn't want to make Hugo feel guilty about making him miss the trip.

"What do you mean you're not going to the trip?" asked Plagg. "You've been looking forward to it for ages! Why would you not go? Is it because of your son?"

Plagg should've been the Kwami of tact. Adrien took Plagg to the corner of his room, away from Hugo. Thankfully his room was large enough that this was possible.

"I can't go on the camping trip with Hugo here, you said we need to wait for Bunnyx right?" whispered Adrien.

"Yes, but we don't know how long she will take to show up, and in the meantime what are we supposed to do? Just hang in your room?" said Plagg.'' Besides, you have been babbling non-stop about how much you wanted to go on this trip and I don't want to put up with your whining if you don't go. Let's just go camping and take Hugo with us."

It was tempting. After all, Bunnyx should be able to find him anywhere, and that way Adrien didn't have to miss the trip.

"What am I supposed to tell my friends?" said Adrien, still in a whisper.

"It's easier to introduce Hugo to your friends as a new friend and take him with us on the trip than it would be to hide Hugo for who knows how many days in your room, with Nathalie walking around this house like a vulture".

"You are right," conceded Adrien.

"As usual," replied Plagg.

They walked back to Hugo, who was sitting on the bed examining Adrien's phone like an oddity.

"What is this?" said Hugo, giving back the phone to Adrien.

"A phone" answered Adrien, confused. Certainly, they still had phones in Hugo's time, right?

"Interesting, I would've never guessed that it is a phone, it looks ancient," replied Hugo. For some reason, Adrien found that amusing. He wondered how much technology had advanced by Hugo's time.

"Hey I was planning on going on a camping trip with my friends today, would you like to join us?" asked Adrien, he knew he didn't have many options, but it still felt kind of wrong to just drag Hugo to the trip without asking if he wanted to go.

For a split of a second, all the times that his dad had dragged him to places he didn't want to go crossed his mind, and he got an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

"Sure, who else is going?" asked Hugo. He had now moved to study Adrien's desk computer. Apparently, once the initial shock had worn off, he'd taken great interest in all the 'ancient' technology in Adrien's room.

"Oh, I hope you know them because I hope we are still friends in the future. They are Nino, Alya, and Marinette," replied Adrien, writing a couple of messages to the group chat to let them know he was going to be late and he was bringing a friend.

"Is this a couple's getaway kinda-thing?" asked Hugo. "Because it will be awkward to tag along if that's the case."

"No, it's not a couple's thing. We are friends, well, I mean Alya and Nino are a couple, but Marinette and I are not a couple," said Adrien. He wished they were, but that was not the case. And what was the point in wishing, if he now knew they were not meant to be?

"You are not?" Hugo looked genuinely surprised by this information.

Why did Hugo assume Marinette and Adrien were a couple? Wasn't he the living proof that Adrien was going to end up marrying Ladybug?

Well, nobody said anything about marriage… Now that he was thinking about it, he only knew that they had at least one kid together. And it would be naïve of him to assume that just because two people had a kid together, they were married. But regardless of his relationship status with Ladybug, he could have dated Marinette long before having a son with Ladybug. Maybe Hugo knew he dated Marinette around this time, and that's why he was sure this was a couple's trip.

"We are just friends," replied Adrien, as much it pains him to just be that, friends.

Hugo and Plagg gave each other a look as if they were sharing a joke Adrien wasn't getting.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing," answered Plagg and Hugo at the same time. What had Adrien's life become; betrayed by his Kwami and his son?

"That's even more suspicious."

"Don't worry about it, let's focus on a more pressing subject," said Plagg. "We need to come up with another last name and a backstory for Hugo. We are not going to go babbling to your friends about the future, no matter how close they might be to you both."

Adrien had to admit Plagg had a point. As they brainstormed ideas he started to throw stuff in his camping bag. They agreed it was for the best if they said Hugo was a friend from work. Nino, Marinette, and Alya were all in the same class, so he couldn't tell them he met Hugo in school, Marinette knew his fencing classmates, and his Mandarin and piano lessons were with a private tutor. So a friend from work was the only cover that worked.

"Gabriel is leaving right now," observed Plagg, looking through the window. "Great!"

Adrien looked through the window just in time to see his dad getting into the backseat of the car with Nathalie. Presumably, the Gorilla was driving, which meant Adrien was alone in the house. That was good news. Adrien was an adult now and he didn't need Gabriel to approve of his plan for the weekend, but sneaking Hugo out would be easier with no one else in the house.

"He is taller than I expected," murmured Hugo to himself, Adrien could tell he didn't mean to be heard.

How come Hugo didn't know how tall his own grandfather was? There was something about the idea of thinking about Gabriel Agreste and the word Grandfather in the same sentence that would have been hilarious in another context, but at the moment Adrien was not focused on that. Had Hugo never seen his grandfather in person?

A thousand theories ran around Adrien's mind. Has something happened to his dad before Hugo was born? Has he passed away? Or maybe Hugo had met him but had just never seen him standing up? Maybe he was in a wheelchair in the future?

Hugo was from twenty-eight years in the future. That meant he would be born in ten or eleven years, Gabriel would've been in his late fifties by then. Fuck. A cold hand squeezed Adrien's heart at the thought of his father passing away or facing an accident or a sickness that would make him unable to walk.

And then it occurred to him that something about Hugo's voice didn't seem right. He didn't sound like a grandson seeing his deceased grandfather for the first time, not that it would be a common situation so Adrien didn't have a reference to compare Hugo's reaction to, but he would expect a bit more emotion there. Hugo sounded completely indifferent to Gabriel, the ancient phone and computer had sounded more interesting to him.

Of course, there was also another possibility. One that would explain why Hugo has never seen Gabriel in person, yet he still acted completely uninterested in him: Adrien had gone no contact with his father.

That actually seemed like the most likely scenario. The hand around Adrien's heart didn't feel any less painful at that thought.

"You're not planning on wearing that uniform the whole time that you're here?" Plagg's question to Hugo interrupted Adrien's depressing train of thoughts.

"It's not like I have anything else to wear," shrugged Hugo.

"I think your dear old dad's clothes will fit you," said Adrien.

Luckily for both of them, Adrien had more than enough clothes to spare.

Marinette had the slight suspicion that the camping trip was part of Alya's plan to get her together with Adrien before they ended Lycée. She could already see how Alya would play it: with the excuse of needing alone time with Nino, she would push Marinette to spend that time with Adrien. Maybe she would even ask Marinette to switch tents with Nino in the middle of the night, forcing her to share with Adrien. Adrien wouldn't suspect anything because he would just think Alya and Nino wanted to have a tent for themselves, which was perfectly natural for a young couple.

Her suspicions were confirmed when the night before the trip, Alya insisted they have a sleepover and then woke up Marinette stupidly early in the morning to do her hair and put a bit of makeup on her. Why would she do that before going camping? It was so obviously a scheme.

Tikki was clearly in on the plan too, since when Marinette had originally tried to refuse to go on the trip on the grounds that Ladybug couldn't leave Paris, she had gone above and beyond to convince Marinette to go on the trip. After all, if she took the horse Miraculous with her, she could be back in Paris in seconds if there was an attack.

In the past Marinette would've been onboard with the plan, would have stayed all night with Alya planning every single moment of the trip, to make sure to create all the appropriate situations to confess to Adrien. But she had no interest in doing that anymore.

A few months ago, one day she was randomly watching a video on the internet about the craziest things fans have done for their favorite celebrity, and it hit her that despite being friends with Adrien, she behaved no better than his obsessive fans.

After an all-day long crisis, she had finally decided it was time to remove Adrien's pictures from her wall and throw away his schedule. After that, she started focusing on actually behaving like his friend without expecting anything more than his friendship in return. She was not giving up her feelings for him, she was just giving up on trying to force the situation, if they were meant to be, then things would happen naturally. If they were not meant to be… well, she would just have to accept that. That's what she had told herself back then.

What she had not expected at all, is that ending her obsession with Adrien would have the strange side effect of making her aware of things she hadn't realized in the past. To be more specific, it made her more aware of her feelings for a certain cat-themed superhero.

Marinette had always liked Chat Noir a lot; he was easily one of her favorite people. They were a team, partners in (fighting) crime, two halves of a whole. But she had always assumed she felt this way for him in a strictly platonic way. Even back when he had insistently confessed her love to her every other day, she had always assumed she didn't return his feelings. When she compared the way she felt about Adrien with the way she felt about Chat, it never felt the same, so back then there were no doubts in her mind she was not in love with Chat Noir.

However, now that she had decided to stop obsessing over Adrien, it was as if she had removed a blindfold. Only now had she realized how similar her feelings for Chat were to her feelings for Adrien. The main differences she saw that made her think she was in love with Adrien but not with Chat were not due to her feelings for him, but due to her obsession with him. With that gone, she could see way too clearly now: the feelings in her heart for these two were not that different.

She didn't know when or how this happened; she had been too blinded by her crush on Adrien to notice Chat Noir had discreetly sneaked his way right into her heart. She didn't know how long ago this started happening; maybe it has been going on for months, years, or from the very beginning of their partnership. Marinette didn't know for sure.

What she knew for sure was that now that she had noticed her feelings for Chat she cannot stop noticing them. She couldn't just ignore the way her heart raced when he got close to her. Or the heat on her cheeks when he flirted with her, not that he had done that recently, for some reason he had stopped flirting with her seriously.

Oh, he still made flirtatious comments from time to time, but it was just how Ladybug and Chat Noir interacted with each other, there was no intention behind those comments anymore.

Life was funny like that sometimes; Chat had decided to stop flirting with her seriously just when she had become aware of her feelings for him.

Not that she was planning on acting on those feelings anyway, getting romantically involved with her superhero partner sounded like a bad idea for a plethora of reasons. For starters, Marinette needed to keep things professional. She couldn't afford a distraction when fighting Shadow Moth. Besides, the logistics of having a relationship with someone without knowing their identity just didn't work. And a reveal before they defeated Shadow Moth was just too risky. Not to mention it wouldn't be ethical to get involved with Chat when she still had lingering feelings for Adrien.

In the same way, it would not be ethical to try to get together with Adrien now that she had discovered her feelings for Chat Noir.

It didn't seem very fair to pursue either of them while still having feelings for the other. She still felt guilty over how she had broken Luka's heart by trying things out with him when she was in love with Adrien.

So in the end she decided to do absolutely nothing about her feelings for Adrien or Chat, just ignore the problem until it solved itself. It wasn't working so far but she was hopeful about this strategy. Maybe it was a bit un-Ladybug of her to run away from the problem instead of facing it, but this was her heart on the line, not the fate of all of Paris, so she was allowed to be un-Ladybug.

Marinette had not shared any of this with Alya. Not because she didn't trust her, she trusted Alya with her life and her secrets—she had even told her years ago about her secret identity. The thing was, Marinette knew Alya would not agree with Marinette's strategy of ignoring the problem until it goes away, so Marinette had not told her about the problem in the first place.

So that's why Alya was still working under the assumption Marinette's heart belonged exclusively to Adrien and was trying to pick the perfect shade of lipgloss for Marinette to wear during the camping trip.

Marinette's thoughts were interrupted by her and Alya's phone buzzing at the same time. They both took their phones to check it. Tikki read the message floating next to Marinette´s phone. It was Adrien in their group chat.

Adrien: Hey guys, something unexpected came up and I'll be ready a little later than we agreed to leave, please wait for me.

He added a sticker of a cat making pleading eyes. Marinette imagined it was the kind of stickers Chat Noir would use when he texted. She really should stop comparing Adrien and Chat, it was unhealthy.

Marinette was about to reply 'not to worry', because of course, they would wait for him when a second message came right after the first.

Adrien: I'm sorry this is pretty last minute, but can I bring a friend to the trip?

"Why is he bringing another friend?" asked Alya out loud, sounding vaguely annoyed.

If Marinette was right (and she was sure that she was) about this whole camping trip being just Alya's plan to set her up with Adrien, a fifth person going to the trip will mess up everything. Even if Alya said she wanted alone time with Nino, that would not automatically mean alone time for Marinette and Adrien if another person was there.

Despite telling herself she was not pursuing Adrien anymore and that she didn't approve of Alya's plan, Marinette couldn't help but feel disappointed at this turn of events.

Their phones buzzed with another message in the group.

Nino: Of course dude, the more, the merrier.

Marinette wondered if Nino was aware of his girlfriend's scheme. It didn't matter in the end; it's not as if there was actually a valid reason why they should tell Adrien he couldn't bring his friend.

Marinette hoped he was at least bringing someone cool and not, god forbid, Chloé Bourgeois.

"You don't think the friend is Chloé right?" asked Marinette.

"I don't think so, I mean he has more friends than just Chloé and us," replied Alya, "besides, he knows we don't get along with her. Let me ask just in case."

Alya: Someone we know?

Adrien: No, no one you know, just a friend from work.

Alya: Cool, my family has an extra tent that we can borrow in case your friends need it.

Adrien: That will be great Alya! Thanks.

In Adrien's line of work, a friend from work most likely meant a supermodel. And why would Adrien bring her on the trip? It could be to introduce her as his girlfriend. Marinette could see it perfectly. She would be drop-dead gorgeous and nice and kind and Marinette would like to hate her but she won't be able to because she would be so nice. Adrien and his supermodel girlfriend would spend the whole camping trip being all cheesy and lovely-dovey and happy, and Marinette would have a front-row seat.

Just because she had feelings for Chat and had decided not to pursue Adrien didn't mean it wouldn't be an unpleasant experience for Marinette to see Adrien with his hypothetical girlfriend.

"Stop thinking about the worst-case scenario," said Alya suddenly.

"You don't know what I was thinking," replied Marinette.

"No, but I have a vague idea. You were making that face you make when you are thinking everything is about to be a disaster."

Marinette wasn't aware she had a specific face for that.

"Alya is right. Marinette, I know you are probably overanalyzing Adrien's text and thinking 'a friend' means girlfriend and 'from work' means supermodel." It was scary how sometimes Tikki seemed to read Marinette's mind. "But we don't know anything yet, maybe this person is really just a friend."

Tikki's words did calm Marinette a bit, but not much. She still had an unpleasant feeling in her stomach. Marinette really wasn't entitled to feel this way, even less considering her heart wasn't just Adrien's.

An hour later Marinette was with Alya and Nino in front of the Agreste's mansion. Nino's parents had let him borrow their truck because there was no way they were fitting all their bags, three tents, two coolers, and a grill in Nino's car or Marinette's motorcycle. Not to mention Marinette's bag was extra huge and heavy because she had to hide the whole Miraculous Box in it, there was no way she was going to be gone for the weekend and leave the Miraculous Box unprotected in her bedroom.

While they waited for Adrien to exit the house every minute felt like an eternity for Marinette. She couldn't help but think about Adrien's hypothetical girlfriend and all the ways this situation was going to be torturous.

Finally, Adrien exited his house carrying his bag.

"Hey guys! I'm so sorry I'm late," he said looking truly embarrassed about it.

"It's okay, stuff happens sometimes," Marinette reassured him. "I'm late more often than I'm on time and you guys always wait for me."

That was true, sometimes she was late because of Akuma attacks, other times she was just late because she chronically overslept.

Adrien smiled at her and Marinette couldn't help but smile back at him, even if her heart was doing things that it shouldn't.

"Finally ready to leave," said Nino as Adrien put his bag in the back of the truck. "We just need to pick up your friend, what's their address, dude?"

"Actually he is here," said Adrien. So it was a he, not some secret girlfriend. "I just came out first because I wanted to make sure my dad was not back yet because he doesn't know my friend is here, I'll go get him now," he said before entering the house again.

Adrien came back a few minutes later with a boy around the same age as them. He had blue eyes, purple hair and his face looked familiar to Marinette, but she didn't remember where she had seen him before. Maybe it was another model, she usually only paid attention to Adrien, but she might have seen the other guy in a magazine, or online or maybe he had been in one of Adrien's photoshoots when Marinette had tagged along. He definitely looked like the model type, as he was tall and handsome. Marinette noticed everything he was wearing looked to be Gabriel Agreste's brand. He was definitely a model then.

Adrien's friend noticed Marinette staring and waved and smiled at her. Marinette waved back embarrassed to be caught staring, but she was also confused. He didn't seem to be smiling just to be polite, he looked sincerely happy to see her as if he was seeing an old friend. That paired with the fact that he looked familiar made Marinette think maybe she had met him before and she just didn't remember.

"Everybody, this is Hugo," said Adrien "Hugo, these are my friends, Nino, Alya, and Marinette."

"Nice to meet you!" said Marinette, hoping she really hadn't met him before and she was not further embarrassing herself.

"Nice to meet you too Marinette," Hugo replied warmly, shaking Marinette's hand.

Hugo exchanged pleasantries with Nino and Alya, and then they all got in the truck,

"How old are you, Hugo?" asked Alya. She was in the front seat, already typing away on her phone. Hugo was in the backseat between Adrien and Marinette. Nino was the driver.

"I'm seventeen, well, I'll turn eighteen next month," replied Hugo.

"Me too! When is your birthday?" asked Marinette.

"November 17th," answered Hugo.

"Dude, I don't think that's next month," said Nino without removing his eyes from the road.

"Oh what a lovely day we have today, that's what I like about June, the weather," said Adrien out of nowhere—for some reason he put emphasis on the word 'June'.

"I mean my birthday is in four months, not next month, I meant to say a few months," said Hugo. Marinette guessed he was nervous about making new friends and that was why he was mixing up his words; that usually happened to her too when she got nervous.

"So, are you in your final year in Lycée too?" asked Alya.

After that, the conversation flowed smoothly because school stress was something that they all could relate to.

Before they left Paris, they stopped at a grocery store to buy drinks and meat because they were planning to have a barbecue at the campsite. When they were in the grocery line Alya did the math on her phone of how much the bill was going to be, and then she split the amount equally, so they could hand her the money before she got to the cashier.

"I'll cover Hugo's part too," whispered Adrien to Alya, handing her enough money for both of them.

Then they stopped in the gas station to fill the tank, again they had previously agreed to split the gas bill equally, again Adrien paid Hugo's part in addition to his part.

Marinette wondered what was that about. If Hugo was struggling with money then it was really kind of Adrien to cover all his expenses on the trip—that would definitely be the kind of thing Adrien would do. However Marinette didn't think that was the case, Hugo's clothes certainly screamed that money was not an issue. Then why was Adrien acting like covering Hugo´s expenses was his duty? Maybe Hugo had just forgotten his wallet and Marinette was reading too much into things.

They finally left Paris two hours later than they had originally planned to leave. It was a three hours trip to get to their campsite. There were probably other camp areas closer to Paris, but they agreed they needed to get far away from the city to be able to relax. Not that Marinette could really relax, she needed to keep an eye on the news in case Shadow Moth decided to attack and she needed to get back to Paris right away.

The first hour of the trip was just them singing out loud to Jagged Stone´s new album. Marinette noticed Hugo hadn't sung along to any of the songs.

"Not a fan of Jagged Stone?" asked Marinette.

"I have nothing against the guy. My parents are huge fans, but I just don't listen to his music much," said Hugo shrugging.

"Your parents must be really cool, most people our parents' age don't listen to Jagged´s music, he is mostly popular with younger people," said Marinette.

"Funny, where I'm from most of his fans are middle-aged."

"Where are you from?" asked Alya.

"It's really far away," was Hugo's only response, but if he was not going to volunteer more information they were not going to press him.

At some point after the second hour of the trip, Marinette felt her eyelids starting to get heavy. This always happened to her, she always fell asleep during road trips. She started to get comfortable, thinking maybe she shouldn't fight sleepiness and instead embrace it and sleep the rest of the trip when suddenly she felt a weight on her shoulder. She turned to see Hugo was asleep on her shoulder.

He seemed to be sound asleep and he didn't seem to be doing this on purpose but it was still awkward. She tried to gently push him away but he just wouldn't move. Adrien seemed to notice the situation because he touched Hugo's shoulder and said:

"Buddy wake up."

"Don't wanna wake up, five more minutes," said Hugo without even opening his eyes.

"Fine, keep sleeping if you want, but stop using Marinette as a pillow," said Adrien, gently moving Hugo's head away from Marinette's shoulder.

Hugo, still asleep, just fell into the opposite side and started using Adrien's arm as a pillow instead. Adrien didn't seem bothered by it. Instead, he turned to Marinette and said:

"Sorry about that, I don't know why he did that."

"No need to apologize, I don't think he did it on purpose anyway," replied Marinette.

Adrien just smiled brightly at her.

Marinette wondered why Adrien felt the need to apologize on behalf of Hugo. Marinette just looked at Hugo sleeping peacefully, resting his head on Adrien's arm. That looked like a really comfortable place to sleep.

And for a second, just for a second, Marinette wondered if her suspicion that Adrien was bringing a 'girlfriend' to the trip had not been far off the mark.