Adrien laid on his bed, tossing his basketball up at his so very far up ceiling. He hadn't expected that losing Plagg would make his life so boring again. No offense to Duusu, but she was terrible at conversation. There was so much to do in his room and yet after spending nearly his whole life trapped in here late nights like these made it feel like there was nothing.
He set the basketball down and paced around. He traced his fingers along the rows of video games and records, fiddled with the rungs of the foosball table, tried and failed to scale the giant pole. He finally settled in front of his giant full sized mirror, if full sized could mean like three times the size of him. Adrien just stared at himself, in this old hoodie with these huge bags under his eyes and a sneering face. What happened to the golden happy boy?
He'd get him back, he told himself. That's what his mother was for, when she was back he'd lose all this exhaustion, this hate.
"Duusu, spread my feathers." Adrien stared himself in the mirror as he focused on his transformation. This wasn't an uncommon routine - most of his new designs for his costume came from many late night trials of learning to change it.
He played with the loose peacock feathers along his collarbone and sneezed. He wished Marinette were here - she would have made a far better design for this than he could have.
"Adrien?" He jumped back at the sound of her voice. There's no way - it's not possible. His father certainly wouldn't have let her in - did she sneak through the window? Either way, there Marinette was, standing in her double pigtailed glory in the middle of his room, illuminated by the moonlight.
He couldn't help but acknowledge how beautiful she looked. And more importantly, happy. She was smiling at him, the first time in weeks. He missed her smile.
Adrien grabbed her sides, taking her in, before wrapping her in a tight hug.
"I'm so glad you're here."
"Why of course. You created me."
His face dropped, losing all color as he stepped back. As his hand unraveled from being tightly wrapped around her back, he realized his fist was clenching something.
His old lucky charm bracelet, from back when he and Marinette were friends, back before he ever became Paon, back when he was just a superhero in love with his partner.
"I don't understand. You look… so real."
Marinette - or whatever this Amok Marinette was - laughed. "I am real!"
Although he tried to avoid reminders of his life as Chat Noir as much as possible, Adrien was drawn back into the memory of Buginette. Was it possible - did he create a real, alive amok?
"I believe this belongs to you," Adrien said, handing over the lucky charm without a second thought. Was it insanely weird that Marinette now basically had a clone? Yes. Could he bring himself to kill her? Never.
"You can't stay here, by the way. Get out of Paris. I can fly you anywhere - New York, Shanghai. I'll book your tickets now."
But as Adrien turned around from the computer, Amokinette was gone. He breathed a sigh of relief at first. To be honest, he wasn't quite sure how he'd hide even a fake Marinette in his house without his father losing it. He just hoped Amokinette had enough common sense for someone who was only five minutes old to not immediately run into someone he knew. I mean Paris was a city of over 2 million people - surely one copy would go unnoticed?
Maybe it was the power drain of creating a whole new living being, but Adrien suddenly was hit with exhaustion. He detransformed and marked this as a later problem as he collapsed into empty dreams.
Marinette was half asleep on her chemistry textbook when the doorbell rang.
"I've got it, Maman and Papa!" She called, racing down the stairs. She wasn't quite sure what to expect - Adrien, here to apologize and talk more? An amok, off to instigate some sort of late night damage? Paon, in some strange door to door plea for the miraculous?
Whatever crazy ideas she had could not compare to what it felt like opening the door and seeing your own face stare back at you.
"Hello, other Marinette."