Alya's POV
Following your friend is not stalking, despite Nino's complaints. It's simply... observing from a distance.

Something has changed since the Dubois' came to Paris, and everyone knows it. I just figured that my bestie would trust me enough to let me know what's going on.

As soon as the five teenagers entered the bakery, Nino warned me to keep my distance.

"Als, this is going to far. Let's just go to my house. Maybe we can pla-" My boyfriend lost my attention as I noticed five figures climb onto Marinette's balcony from our position across the street.

"Nino! This is perfect!"

"No. This is called stalking. Stalking is a crime... and let me warn you woman... prison is not perfect."

"Relax babe. I'm going to figure out what's wrong with our friends once and for all, are you coming with or are you chickening out?"

And with that, my boyfriend reluctantly followed me across the street and into the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

- • - • - • - • - • - • - • - • -

After gaining Sabine's permission to head upstairs, Nino and I made our way up to Marinette's empty room.

"This is an evasion of privacy."

"Shut it Nino, they might hear us." I whisper while gesturing to the trap door. We could hear voices laughing above... but I needed to get closer.

"Wha- what are you doing? Why are you getting in her be- and now you're opening the win-dow... oh... oh! And I'm coming too, apparently." Nino rambled as I dragged him up towards the trap door.

"Keep low and listen." I order, and with that, I pushed open the window.

Marinette's POV
After school, Adrien, the kids, and I rushed towards my house and made our way onto the balcony.

"So... what's up?" I ask, attempting to rouse a conversation.

"Well, Chloe tried to hit on me again, but that's nothing new." Hugo offered.

"As long as she doesn't end up as my daughter in law," my boyfriend shuddered as I sat in his lap. "Now that would be a whole new level of disturbing."

I couldn't help but cringe at the idea as well.

"Aunt Chloe?" Hugo began laughing his head off. "Me and Aunt Chloe? That's priceless. Wait till I tell her-" and suddenly the realization hit like a bag a bricks. "Wait till I tell my aunt and god mother, in the future. A future that I might've destroyed."

The boy sunk his head down in shame. He seemed to be taking their situation harder than his siblings, specifically placing all the blame on himself.

"Wait. Chloe is your... never mind." I intercede. "But this is not your fault, Hugo. None of you could of known how this would all result. No one blames you, and we will find a way to fix everything. Trust me. I am your Mom, aren't I?"

His eyes brightened, obviously pleased by the encouragement. Adrien took this as his chance to switch the topic up a bit.

"So, any updates on our time debacle?"

"Nothing." Louis reported, "and we haven't seen an akuma for the last couple of days, so be ready for one at anytime."

I looked at Louis, this time I really looked at him.

"You have my eyes..." I whispered, never really noticing his piercing bluebell irises that were a near replica of mine.

"You have my eyes," I spoke up this time, allowing the whole group to hear my observations. "You even have the same freckles I do, right on the ridge of your nose, just under your eyes."

"Yeah, I guess I do." Louis giggled, thrilled at the attention.

I smiled too.

"I guess that happens when you share the same genes." I laughed. "But it's still so surreal to think, you three actually are our future kids. I mean, one day we'll be a real family." I beamed with this comment.

"And you know our secret! I mean, we can actually talk without anything to hide. It seems, almost wrong... but it feels so natural." I frowned.

"That would be because we've hid these things from so many people, and suddenly someone knows all our secrets." Adrien read between my lines. "We worked so hard to build this wall, hiding the truth. And now you three come in and tear it down, that's why it feels wrong. But it feels natural because they're blood. It feels natural because it's just right for them to know, you know?" He inquired.

"Yeah. I do know mon chaton." I turned to face the others, obvious discomfort glazing their still expressions. "It feels good to have someone break that wall. Now, we can face a group of people and say 'I'm Ladybug and he's Chat Noir,'" I gestured toward my boyfriend. "And you," this time pointing towards the three kids, "are our future children who decided to time travel to meet teenage us and introduce us to the perfect life we could have assuming we defeat Lila before this new reality is set in stone.' And you don't think we're crazy, you don't have to worry about us spilling our biggest secrets, because you already know." I broke into a smile once more. "And we're going to fix this together... right?"

I put my right hand towards the center of the circle we created as the others began to join in.

"Always, m'lady." Adrien whispered into my ear before initiating a cheesy team-building chorus.

"Let's go Agrestes! We-" he was cut off by a squealing noise in the corner. And that's when I noticed, far too late, the trapdoor was open.

And sitting there, confused and wide eye, sat my two best friends.

Nino's POV
"So... let me get this straight..." I confirmed, after having  Mari and Adrien explain the situation for the fourth time. Alya was for once, speechless.

"So, you two are actually Ladybug and Chat Noir?"

"Yup."

"The Dubois' are actually not the Dubois' but the Agrestes, aka your future kids, who snatched a time machine and went back twenty years to meet this Lb and Cn..."

"Yup."

"And in doing so allowed a new villain to terrorize Paris and quite possibly threaten our entire existence and future as we know it..."  I summed.

"Yup! You got it buddy!" Adrien encouraged as Mari worked to calm Alya down in the corner.

"Ok... ok..." I continued. "But there's still one thing I don't understand.... how exactly does this... this 'love square' work?"

"I got this one Dad, Nino," Louis stepped in. He cleared his throat. This was going to be good...

"Marinette is Ladybug and Adrien is Chat Noir. Mari/ Lb was in love with Adrien not realizing that he was also her crime fighting partner. Adrien, being the oblivious love struck dork that he is, didn't realize that Marinette loved him because he was obsessed with Ladybug, not realizing that she was also Mari. In return to Chat Noir's feelings... Lb said that she loved another boy not realizing that the other boy was actually him. This lead to the forming of the four ships, being the competitive Ladynoir, cheeky Marichat, shy Ladrien, and besties Adrinette. As the two searched their feelings spending years deciding whether they loved Lb or Mari? Cn or Adrien? They tortured themselves as they fell in love with each other... twice. Then when their identities were revealed, they finally deduced that they were not four, but two dorks in love, entangled in an extremely complex web of feelings that ended up being a frickin string. They then decided to go public with Ladynoir and Adrinette, a pair of coexisting ships and announced to the world that they were in love... but still to this day have nightmares of the sheer complexity of their painfully oblivious and dense situation that could have been solved much more easily, I might add. And I believe that concludes this showing of the love square. Good night everybody! I'm here all week!" He winked in exit.

Needless to say, I left the explanation much more confused and concerned for the mental health of my friends than I had going in.

"Sorry about him... he likes to make things.... complicated." Emma amended. "Well, actually it is complicated. Marinette obviously is Ladybug and Adrien Chat Noir... right?"

She paused and waited for me and Alya to nod before continuing.

"So, Mom was obviously in love with Adrien, but Dad loved Ladybug. Whenever Cn told Lb how he felt, she turned him down because she 'loved someone else'. What she didn't realize was that the someone else was actually him."

"And in their civilian forms," Hugo filled in, "Adrien was oblivious to Mari's feelings because he was so caught up on Ladybug."

"So what you're saying is that Mari loved Adrien who was Chat Noir who loved Ladybug who was actually... Mari?" Alya clarified, obviously as confused as I was.

"Purr-sicely!" Chimed in Louis.

"Wow," I started laughing, "you two really are dense! You're saying that this whole time the love 'square' was just a line? Like, you guys spent years trying to navigate a stick?! This is priceless!" Marinette and Adrien did not look amused.

"He has a point, you know," My girlfriend offered, "but I'm still confused about the 'Marichat' part..."

"Well, after a mugging gone wrong, Marinette's light was on, so I came here and asked her to patch up a nasty cut."

"After that, we started talking, and I saw a side to my kitty that Ladybug never got the chance to see."

"And I got to see my princess in a whole new light."

"After that, he kept coming and I kept letting him in. Even though I still liked Adrien..."

"And I still loved Ladybug..."

"I started recognizing the boy who was there for me, whether I was in a mask or not."

"And I learned that there was a girl willing to listen to me, someone who understood me better than anyone else."

"And then it clicked. I was in love with my dork of a partner Chat Noir.

"And I was in love with my purr-incess."

"You don't know how... how ecstatic and thankful I was when I learned that the two amazing boys I had fallen for were one in the same."

"Both of the girls I liked were two halves of one woman that I loved with all my heart."

"Though we knew how we felt about each other... we settled with being best friends for a while."

"I mean... you guys were there. You saw that we were inseparable."

"And that's when we made a decision."

"Whether as friends, heroes, a couple, or even something more..."

"We will always be partners."

"Till death do us part." Adrien cheekily added to the couple's story. Mari rolled her eyes in return.

"Slow things down a little, kitty," She quickly glanced at the kids around them. "But yeah, one day we will say 'till death do us part'." She softly said to her boyfriend. He briefly nuzzled her with his nose before remembering their audience.

"But, hmm, yeah. That's about it. Our relationship from start to finish. Any questions?"

"Oh, I have many questions sunshine. I just don't know where to start." Replied Alya.

"I just have one..." I glanced over at Emma before continuing. I obviously had a million thoughts running through my head, but one seemed to be reoccurring.

"What happens to us?" I gestured to my girlfriend and myself.

"Well, we've messed with time enough as it is, so I really don't think I can go into details," Emma began, "but I can tell you this: Aunt Alya, Uncle Nino... you guys are happy, really happy." She smiled.

"Oh," Hugo snorted, "you're only telling them all of this because you're dating their kid!" He taunted.

"O-our what?"

"Our sister may or may not be in a relationship with Janson Lahiffe..." Louis had apparently decided to help his brother mock their sister as well.

"Oh be quiet you two!" Emma warned, leaving the boys laughing hysterically in reply.

Judging by the confused expressions on Adrinette's faces, this was new to them as well.

"Wow... wow..." I began to process. "We... wow!" Me and Alya had a future together. A good one, a happy one, surrounded by our family and friends. I wasn't just going to let that all slip away.

"So what can we do to help?" I asked.

"Well... um... I'm not sure if that's such a great idea..." Mari rambled. "I mean... you guys are awesome, but, um, we barely understand this ourselves... and you guys could get hurt! And I mean-"

"Relax, dudette." I interrupted. "You're talking to the people who just managed to process the fact that their best friends are superheroes,"

"And I'm expecting an interview, by the way, girl!"

"Those same best friends defeated their father/future in-law,  have kids who time travelled to meet them, and are responsible for both simultaneously destroying and fixing our timeline. No offense... but I'm sure we can find some way to help fix our future."

"Well then..." Adrien concluded. "I guess we'll have to make a few adjustments to our family motto," he scanned his family before the five of them put their hands in the middle of our makeshift circle, the boys grinning like idiots and the girls obviously annoyed that they had to follow along.

"Let's go Agrestes! Family... forever and always. Now let's fix our future!"

The others whooped and cheered in reply, Mari and Emma seemingly beginning to enjoy it as well.

Adrien gave Alya and I a confused stare.

"What are you doing?" He asked as though we were missing something obvious.

"Umm... well..." I began to stutter, unsure of how my best friend wanted us to reply.

Suddenly his grimace broke into Chat Noir's cheeky grin.

"Come on! You guys are family too!"

And with that, all of our hands had found their place in the middle.