"Psst. Wake up Hugo."

"Mmm…go away Emma… tell Mom I'll wake up in a minute.." This gained him about 30 seconds of peace, before he felt the hand gently shaking him again.

"I'm sorry to wake you up so early but…Nathalie always comes checking on me around eight. And I can't really explain your presence so you will need to hide at one point."

A last groan, a frown, and finally, Hugo started to emerge from his pleasant dreams, only to find himself disoriented in an unknown room.

"...Where are we again?" he groggily asked, rubbing his drooling mouth and clearing his blurred vision.

" In my room. You were so tired last night you fell asleep before I could show you around. I've let you sleep in my bed next to me, I hope it doesn't bother you."

" Of course not Da…"

And then it all came back. What had happened yesterday and especially, the discussion that had followed. Hugo blinked, facing a very shy Adrien offering him a sheepish smile, and definitively not knowing what to expect from him. An awkward silence installed during which his face was turning redder than a tomato by every second passing and without warning, the pre-teen dived under the Ladybug themed blanket.

"Ahh! This is a disaster! A complete disaster!"

"SHH!" warned Adrien, before sending a look to Plagg, who crossed the wall to be sure nobody had heard a foreign voice in his bedroom.

When it wasn't the case, the blond model sighted.

"...Sorry. I didn't know how to react.." replied a mumbling muffled voice.

"No, it's ok. But…don't you want to discuss without the blanket?"

"No! …Uh I mean, it's not like I don't want to talk to you it's… I need some time to accommodate to the situation of you knowing?"

"Ah…yeah."

From down there, he could still hear his father-to-be scratching his neck, a nervous tic he still had in the future.

"You know, it's still quite difficult for me to grasp the whole idea of… YOU being my son from the future. But I've got the idea twisted over and over in my brain this couple of hours and I think I will manage. Besides, Xuppu explained to me a lot of things that clarified the fight from yesterday and your situation."

The blanket flew out of Hugo's bewildered and disheveled face, emerging from the bed in alert.

"SAY W…Oups, sorry. Say what?"

He was met with an unimpressed Plagg, a reassuring smile from the other blond and the floating Monkey Kwami, arms crossed.

"What did you tell him exactly? "

"What was necessary for him to know. We do not want to reiterate what happened yesterday, so I filled him in on the details about the akuma's attack that sent us here and about Pandora's strategy mostly. But do not worry, I didn't spoil anything related to you and your family…"- he eyed a blushing Adrien - "...albeit knowing you both he might have some questions for you."

"Ermm Ermm! How about breakfast? I've some pain aux chocolats in the fridge my girlfriend brought me 2 days ago."

" Des pains aux chocolats in the fridge? Heretic!"

As serious as Hugo could stay, he couldn't miss an opportunity to make a joke when he saw opportunity. In the future, he and his parents had a certain alchemy about this noble exercise. This made both boys giggle before Adrien walked up.

"Yes I know it's a 'Sacrilège!', but Nathalie monitors my diet and the only way to savor it was to hide it in my room. Don't worry, it's not in Plagg's camembert compartment so it shouldn't stink! You just install yourself on the sofa and turn on the TV! There's a 24/24h channel news and I would like to see what they've got on 'The Shift' or yesterday's fight. "

"My biggest question here is why you have a fridge in your room, along with a large plasma TV and a queen bed?" The future kid had asked before taking a closer look around him. The room was indeed huge, with a babyfoot, a freaking climbing wall opposed to arcade games and a library of CDs and books in the 1rst floor because there was a first floor to begin with! If he was asked what a cafeteria campus looked like, he would have described this.

"It's huge right? Seeing your reaction, I guess we won't live in a big house like this one in the future haha." asked Adrien when he found Hugo in the middle gapping at the walls.

"Yeah…It's crazy! My room's like, 4 times smaller than that, might be the same for the entire building, though we have a sports room that's quite huge, for training purposes."

"Training purposes?"

"You always train to keep in shape. And my sister does acrobatic gymnastics at a competition level so she also has to train at least one hour per day."

"Your sister…Emma right?"

" Damn you've heard me earlier….yes. It's my big sister, she's 16 and all. Since I've already told you about Louis, I can tell you he's the eldest of us all three."

He swore he could have been blinded by how the green eyes on him had started to shine.

"Woa…I've three kids in the future! And they 're almost all older than me at the moment, or whatever how that works! What about you?"

"I'm 11; just got in '6ème' this year."

Without noticing, they were both already sitting on the sofa, TV on and a plate of chocolate croissants waiting patiently on the table. Like yesterday, the older teen took some time to speak again. Out of the corner of his eyes, Hugo could see he was having an internal struggle on whether to ask or not. Finally, he saw him use the remote control to switch off the TV's sound.

"Say hum…can I ask you something?"

"Uh…it depends..but sure?"

"Is Marinette your mother by any chance?"

Jackpot, he might have thought, seeing how Hugo's jaw had dropped dramatically.

"W-w-w-wait, how did you…Did I give it away in my sleep..?"

Adrien quickly gestured a no.

"No no, ! Marinette is my 'current' girlfriend and..uhm…I really love her very much so I was kinda hoping she would be, and seeing your reaction, my guess was right! " The young model was avoiding his gaze but he could see him smiling happily from ear to ear.

"Oww, I was so bad again … How did you succeed in hiding your secret identity all these years? I've only been here one day and I already blew mine so hard! It's impossible!"

"Haha well, if you want to have some free time when you live with Nathalie and my father, you need to be able to poker face while lying in their face ! And you forget that I'm modeling too, it's not exactly actorship, but I've a wide range of expressions!"

"Mmmm, your mouth has gone dry seeing how much time you've been gaping yesterday..."

"Hey! Not nice! I don't need to hide my feelings all the time! And I'm pretty sure even the most impassive person in the world wouldn't be able to hide his surprise if he was told time travel existed! "

" Haha, I was just teasing Papa, relax. But to think you've to act before your own Dad and Nathalie …You really had it harder than I thought in your youth."

It was simply a statement, but he saw that Adrien had paused, smile depleted. Intertwining his fingers, he was pursing his lips with hesitation.

"Say, in the future..am I a good father?"

This one had popped out of nowhere, and with the confused look on his face, the blond model decided to elaborate.

"You probably know Father…your Grandfather…wasn't a really good example of fatherhood let's say. I've always feared that in the future, I would become like him and never be able to manage…"

" You're not like him! You're nothing near like him!"

Simple and effective. The boy hadn't hesitated for one second, standing on his knees to spread his arms and making wide gestures.

" You're the best I could ever ask! You've always been here for us, been the nicest man in the whole universe and always annoyingly jokes about everything even when akumas have been multiplying like pests and you have to fight all the time! I know friends that would kill for having that! ( 'And you spoil us a little bit too much too, but I'm not telling you that Hehe') So, you're the best Dad I could ever dream of…Are you crying for real?"

" Thank you, it really means a lot to me."

He wasn't totally crying, but his eyes had moistened quite a bit, and he quickly rubbed them.

"Hehe…you remind me of Marinette a little, she would totally say something like that."

"Of course! Mom's always the first to compliment you!" answered the boy rubbing his nose proudly. He then dropped his ass on the sofa, feeling his job at lifting up his father's spirit accomplished and also feeling like he deserved one chocolat croissant as a reward. But of course, the conversation couldn't just stop like he would expect, and another burning question was on Adrien's lips.

" Talking about Father, you've told me he was frightening, you've even fled from him like he was a stranger but…don't you know him in the future? "

Hugo almost choked on the croissant he had managed to grab after all the babbling. Oh shit, here we go again. This one was going to be much more painful than the previous if answered. He needed to avoid it at all costs.

"Ah..uhm…I can't answer this question, you know for the future's integrity?"

Right, after all they had already talked about, like hell it mattered. Lame excuses as always, he should really start taking theater courses for Kwami's sake. Yes, Adrien seemed to understand his logic, but the pre-teen had been too late to hide his discomfort, and the model's face had turned into the one of a kicked puppy.

He hated when the kindest and most deserving man he knew made this face. Understanding Gabriel/Adrien's dynamic from the stories, he was probably thinking his father had cut ties with him. His mom had mentioned she never was on good terms with Gabriel and that he was against their teenage romance until the very end. But wouldn't it hurt more if he knew what had really happened to him? Ahh, what was HE going to do? Hugo sent a hopeless glance at the Kwamis, but was met with a curious Plagg and an avoiding Xuppu that didn't want to have anything to do with this.

"Papa, I know what you're thinking, and it's not like that…"

Adrien's face raised from his saddening thoughts, closed face.

"No…I think I get it. He never approved of Marinette, so if I decided to settle with her then…he might not want to see me anymore…but to think he would even avoid you all out of spite…"

"And I told you you were wrong! It's just…it's difficult to say. "

"Then … What is it? " said the older blond expectantly but also fearful, his hands shaking in anticipation.

Hugo gulped. Great, now there was no coming back from this.

" I knew what he looked like from photos and stories you and Mom would tell me but I never met him when he was…well….alive, Dad."

A silent 'O' formed on Adrien's face as he paled. Immediately, the boy panicked and decided the best solution was an emergency hug.

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything else. I didn't even want to talk about this. I know it's painful and I can't imagine losing you or Mom. But can you please…don't be too sad? It didn't happen YET and you've got us…"

He felt his father's arm tightening around him, and heard a muffled "yes". Hugo had started talking about his house and family without thinking because it seemed only natural to speak about everything with his father. But he had to remind himself it wasn't the Adrien he knew and that he shouldn't have revealed so much. He parted with his father, making quite the gloomy face too. There was an awkward silence when he was fighting back his negative feelings. The worst that could happen right now was to be akumatized by Monarch (speaking of the wolf). Still, he was diving again in unhealthy feelings.

"..I've really messed up big time and when I think it couldn't be worse, I make it worse . You're not supposed to know any of that. So please don't ask more questions and forget about all this for your sake."

"What is done is done though… And I can't just ignore all we talked about."

" I might not be existing anymore actually so what would that matter.."

"Why are you saying that?"

It had trotted in his head over and over and stressed him much more than he let it show. He wanted to be strong, like how his Mom would always face an impossible situation and remain victorious. But he had needed to confess this to someone at one point, and it's now he decided to express his worries out loud.

"Don't you know about the butterfly effect?! The past's already changed! One change and everything I knew could be erased! What if nobody knows me anymore when I come back? Heck, I might have triggered the apocalypse in my timeline or something! So maybe it doesn't matter anymore indeed!"

"No, don't say that! Now that I know, I will never let this happen!"

"And how are you going to do that! It's not like it's for you to decide!"

"I promise you that even if the future changes, I will do everything needed for you to be born along with your siblings! And I will not rest until it's done! "

They both froze, gazing at each other. The statement was serious but the phrasing, well… Adrien covered his mouth while Hugo buried his face in his hands and curled in a ball on the sofa.

"I…well…you get the idea…"

"By all Kwami gods, stop talking! I don't wanna think too hard about it!"

"Yes, listen to the kid! What are you talking about before my camembert! Gross."

They discovered Plagg installed on the table just facing them, tasting his favorite cheese while Xuppu was sneakily taking crumbs out of their pain aux chocolats . The cat was watching them closely though, not skipping every piece of information that had been exchanged.

"Hey, I've been literally freaking out a couple of times about this but…Aren't YOU of all people at least concerned by the timeline stuff a bit?" asked a frowning and baffled Hugo.

The Kwamis seemed relaxed, and waited for their munching to end before responding.

"Kid, it's not the first time Fluff's gone crazy, believe me. Not talking about all the previous holders, Ladybug and Chat noir had seen their share of dinosaurs, Time Tagger and a time-travelling Monarch trying to catch their inexperienced selves. We will manage somehow."

"..Oh. You're..sure sure?"

This really lifted a weight from Hugo's shoulders, who sat back on the sofa he had left for his drama speech. Before he could pursue the debate and ask exactly how this could be resolved, Adrien suddenly shushed him and had taken the remote control to increase the sound, as the news were showing on TV. And it was talking about the Shift.

"Here is Nadja Chamack presenting you this special news. As it is widely known now, around 54 persons have been found unconscious following the giant lights that appeared at 14h55 yesterday. We've tried to interrogate some of them but for an unknown reason, it seems any camera trying to film them can't produce images of their faces. Nonetheless, we've still managed to record one interview with Gilène and Marita, two of the victims of this unknown phenomenon, and learned some shocking revelations."

The image switched to a random street in Paris, with two tanned women, two teens with about 3 years of difference. As explained before, the video was distorted, buzzing, at a point their faces couldn't be seen, and strangely it only seemed to affect 'them' and not their surroundings. They still could guess their movements and hear their panicked voices though. It's the oldest girl who was talking, standing before the younger one protectively as the second was crying.

"Who authorized you to film me..bzzz. and my daughter?! Leave us alone, there's an akuma in the loose and…and it might have shot me because I look so young again..bzzz…this has to be a..bzzz. nightmare." -They could hear the girl behind crying - " I'm scared mom..", before the older teen came to embarrass her- "Shh, it's ok ma chérie..bzzz… it will be fine. Ladybug will find the akuma that did …bzzz it. Now please, leave us alone!"

The video was cut and Nadja Chamack reappeared on a cleaner screen.

"As you can see from this shocking interview, it seems that an akuma with a peculiar power is hiding somewhere , although no claims have been made like it normally does. Besides, some of the victims, mostly teenagers from 11 to 15, don't have any known identities in Paris whereas claiming they live in the city. From another video from the Ladyblog, one of the victims even though he was in 2050. So, is it a big hoax? An akuma with the power of altering memory's? Or time travel? The survey is in progress.

Don't forget to watch this afternoon the debate with our experts about the subject on this special edition about 'The Shift'. "

The following news about the conductor akuma looked quite brief compared to this, and no cameras had succeeded to catch Secret Teller. With very few witnesses and no known victims, it didn't even stay up for 5 minutes on TV. Once it was over, TV's sound was lowered again.

"2050?!" immediately asked a bewildered Adrien.

"Yeah, and I saw that we were in 2023? That's like 27 years ago..It wasn't that far from my calculations!"

"27 years ago…So if I calculate well, me and Marinette will have you in 2039!"

"Dad, don't think too much about it please! You will spoil yourself your own future!"

"Guys, We've got something else to worry about..all the other lost humans that followed us in the past." reminded Xuppu, making both green and turquoise pupils widened.

"Oh shoot ! I've completely forgotten about Aysha! What happened to her? "

"Don't worry, after the…strange girls beat her up, Ladybug took care of her. I'm sure she will be fine."

"..I hope so. She has a tendency to get in trouble without even trying…" He sighed.

A series of knocks at the door almost got him a heart attack.

"Good morning Adrien, may I enter? Are you with someone else? I'm hearing voices in your room…"

'Oh shoot, it's Nathalie! Hugo, Xuppu, go hide in my bathroom, quick!'

Almost crawling on the floor, the younger Agreste escaped to the bathroom and hid himself in the shower before he heard the model opening the door.

"Good morning Nathalie! Ah, it must have been the TV! Did I put it too loud ? "

Silence. The hidden pre-teen was trying to hold each breath he was making, scared his pounding heart could be resonating on the tiles. He feared his granny Nathalie could scan all her surroundings within 100 meters. With these robotic legs, she sure looked like a cyborg earlier.

" Well, sorry for the mistake." - she paused - "Did you see that shadow?"

"Uh, which shadow? "

"...Nothing. I might be a bit too tired. I thought I had seen something passing by your window, it might have been a bird. Anyway, I was going to inform you that your usual morning fencing lessons have been canceled since Mister D'Argencourt had an imprévu. Your father still wants you to train the piano concerto you will have to give on his special reception and he reminds you to not deceive him."

"Yes Nathalie."

"Your breakfast will be served in around 30 minutes, I trust you to be in the living room on time."

"Yes Nathalie."

The response came so fast and naturally, yet artificial, it reminded him what his father had told him just before, about having to act when lying to their faces. This was actually really sad when he thought about it, to play the obedient dog for his father. When he would be back, he would never see Nathalie the same way again, even if she really evolved for the best in the future.

He heard her cough and the model asking if she was alright with worry in his voice, but she dismissed him and left the room. They waited a good whole 2 minutes before he saw Adrien's face again.

"Alright, she's gone, you can come back."

"Wow, do you always have to obey everything they say to you?"

The moment it came off his mouth, he wanted to retract back. He had to remind himself that yes actually, he had to, considering they had his amok. Stupid question really. Adrien didn't seem offended though, he just sighed deeply.

"My father has always decided everything in my life, so I'm used to it. You know, I didn't consider it so bad until I was allowed to go to regular school, when I met my friends' family, and realized how wrong it really was. But it's difficult to change rooted habits. "

What could he reply to that? Fortunately, there was someone here who knew exactly how to answer this.

"Do not worry kiddo, I've already started to train him to let his rebellious self out, and in no time, he will be ready to finally fly with his own wings!"

"Like you've ever taught me anything about gaining independance, Plagg!"

" I beg your pardon? Who's letting you escape at night in spandex cat clothes to travel on Paris' most beautiful roofs and thus, making all those lousy jokes out of your system? "

"..Touché."

A shadow in the wall stopped them on their tracks.

"Is that the bird again?"

"Which bird?"

"Didn't you hear ? Nathalie saw something from the window earlier…I hope it isn't mister Pigeon again…"

Needless to say they got the answer quite fast, and it wasn't a bird, but a now familiar giant bat, chilling behind the window.

"Shiny?!"

Hugo didn't let the time for Adrien to ask how he knew the animal's name, the boy directly reached the large window and opened it in large.

"Finally! I started to think we would wait here the whole day!"

Spontaneously, the twin bats and the 2 girls that composed the sentimonsters procession invited themselves in, allegedly from the roof.

Shiny, the slimmer bat, crushed onto Hugo's lap and nuzzled against his cheek, making him giggle.

"Hihihi, stop Shiny, you're tickling me! Ouf! "

No time to rest for the braves, as he was tackled by the shark girl who was now lifting him up in her bear hug.

"Hehe, you're alright Shrimp! We were kinda worried 'bout you so we decided to come say Hello!"

"Gaa, Billie, you're going to choke me to death (and I've already had my dose of that)! Manage your super strength please!"

"Sorry sorry!"

Meanwhile, Adrien was greeted by the mischievously smiling peacock holder.

"Hi Uncle! As Billie said, we were paying you a visit to see if Hugo was fine, although I never worried about it much. The second reason being we need to talk!"

"Wait how did you find us?"

"It's Shiny! My sweety has the ability of putting an invisible beacon on a target and to trail it thanks to his ultrasound! No akuma can hide from us."

"Haruka! Why did you ask Shiny to monitor me?! exclaimed a pouting Hugo. He never liked being compared to a trailed akuma…or a lost kid, even if admittedly he was.

" Before I tell you everything my dear cousin, we should make proper presentations." The woman glanced at Adrien's confused face.

"Oh, right!"

Hugo stopped petting the bats, escaped Billie's arm, and sided by his dad.

"Papa, this is Haruka and Billie, my cousins! And Shiny and Cutie well, their euuuh…brothers? Pets? I'm not sure…"

"But wait, they're your real cousins? Then, that means…"

The false twins glanced at each other, their hawk grins widening in anticipation. Then, Haruka made a step forward and dropped her transformation. What a shock it was for Adrien to discover that behind the bluish filters of the miraculous magic was a raven haired young woman with short hair and piercing green eyes, wearing a high school set uniform he could now swear was typical English school ones; feeling pretty familiar.

The young english-japanese teenager took the side of her skirt and bowed down politely in old fashioned manners contrasting drastically with her previous behavior.

"Hajimemashete uncle Adrien, we are Billie and Haruka Tsurugi Fathom, daughters of Kagami Tsurugi and Felix Fathom. It's a pleasure to meet you on this timeline!"