Adrien had always been passionate about reading and studying the sciences. His love for maths naturally led him to explore further into complex theories and concepts. The day he learned about the Butterfly Effect was transformative—if you mind the pun.

Ladybug had explained 'the ultimate wish' to him, detailing how combining the two Miraculous could rewrite history. She'd described how this immense power could alter reality itself, much like the Butterfly Effect, where a minor change in one state could lead to vastly different outcomes in another. However, grasping the full extent of its consequences was an entirely different challenge.

"The Butterfly Effect...as in the Ashton Kutcher movie?" Zoé asked, prompting quizzical looks from the rest of the team.

"There's a movie about it? We should all watch it together—it'll be like a slumber party!" Rose, bounced in her seat, clapping her hands excitedly. The idea of cosying up to watch a movie seemed perfect, despite the looming threat of a maniac on the loose. Some normality would definitely be welcomed right now.

"I don't think that would be the best idea at the moment, Rose." Luka made his way over to the girls and sat down on the floor beside them

"I'm still confused," Kim said. "Does it mean we need Ashton Kutcher?"

"Was that the dude out of the Big Bang Theory?" Nino asked, looking at Kim for confirmation.

"Naa, man. He's older than that. It was like that 50s Show or something?"

"That 70s Show," Chat Noir responded, "and no, Ashton Kutcher is not going to help us defeat Lila."

"So what are we going to do, then?" Nino asked. "What is the Butterfly Effect?"

Adrien cleared his throat. This was the moment he had been waiting for. If only he could show his father that his obsession with theoretical ideas finally had some use.

"We live in a vast and complex world," Adrien began, gently freeing himself from Marinette's grip to address the team—his team. "It may seem like our small decisions and actions have little impact on the big picture. But if you think about the minute details of your life, you'll realise how a seemingly insignificant event can be the catalyst for significant change. For example, you might bump into someone at a coffee shop who works at your dream company, and it could lead to an interview opportunity. If you had chosen a different coffee shop or arrived five minutes later, you might never have met that person. The idea that something small, like getting coffee, can have much larger effects, such as altering your career, is known as the Butterfly Effect."

"Or deciding to go to college," Chat Noir added, sighing as he collapsed into a vacant chair.

"Shitttt!" Kim dragged out, all eyes turning to him. "What? It sounds bad," he said.

Adrien smiled at the playfulness.

"If you were battling Ladybug and Chat Noir continuously and losing, what would make them undefeatable?" Luka threw the question out, but the look on his face was a clear indication that he already knew.

"Their love," Alya answered, looking between the three leaders standing at the front. Adrien felt himself nodding along.

"So, are you saying the wish would have to be made to stop Marinette and Adrien meeting?" Myléne asked, confused. "But they would always meet. They're Ladybug and Chat Noir. It kind of comes as a package deal, doesn't it?"

"Well, someone else had my Miraculous before me, so couldn't that be the same with them?" Zoé asked, once again causing a murmur around the room.

"And mine," Luka said, eyes setting straight on Adrien and causing a couple of gasps around the room.

"And yours," Chat Noir replied, pointing over towards Myléne, before flicking his thumb at Marinette.

"As true as that is, we're a little different," Tikki said, appearing.

Plagg floated from Adrien's shirt and settled down on his shoulder, keeping close to his holder. "When it comes to creation and destruction, we're two halves of a whole, so our holders have to be two halves of a whole, too. Whether they love each other, or hate each other, we can't go to just anyone."

From the looks on everyone's faces, Tikki and Plagg were just making them more and more confused.

"We have to be with the right people," Plagg explained. "So if Lila made the wish that Marinette wasn't born, then Adrien wouldn't be either, and vice versa. They both need to be around at the same time—they're a package deal, unfortunately." Adrien couldn't be sure, but he was quite certain Plagg was mainly addressing Luka.

"Ok, so what if Lila wished that Adrien was in love with her?" Marinette asked.

"Then he would be, until he met Marinette, and then it would be one of the famed romance tropes," Tikki answered, looking between Adrien and Marinette. "Meet-cute, friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, situationships." The kwami giggled, Marinette smiling adorably with her.

"Most fics on AO3 cover the multiverse and variations." Alix spoke for the first time since she'd arrived, the knowing smirk on her face a balm to Adrien's aching heart.

"What about the Viperion and Ladybug ones?" Luka suddenly asked, looking smugly between Chat Noir and Adrien.

"She said 'most'!" Chat Noir answered.

"And we never see five years after the fic ended," Alix commented, Adrien raising an eyebrow at his counterpart. "Sorry, Couffaine, you never keep the girl."

"You're telling me it's like the Spider-verse then. That they're a canon event," Kim said.

"Exactly, Master," Xuppu responded, pride in his voice.

"If we only met for the first time a month ago, then obviously you didn't come to school," Marinette said. "And without the reveal, when we were together we never developed our complete strength." Her eyebrows did that cute wiggle they did when she was trying to figure something out.

More and more pieces of information stirred around in Adrien's head.

As Chelsea, Lila had dated Adrien to keep him away from Marinette, and then she'd worked for Mary to keep Marinette away from Adrien. Lillie hadn't come to the meeting at Agreste because she'd known, or at least thought, Gabriel would recognise her and she'd put a divide between Mary and Marinette, sabotaging where possible. What didn't make sense was how the akuma had split him in half.

"Okay, so I get the whole 'destined to meet' thing, but why have I been split into two?" he said. "That isn't part of the Butterfly Effect. It doesn't make sense."

"You're right. It's not part of it," Max said, stepping towards Luka and holding a hand out for Sass to jump onto. "The Butterfly Effect is based on chaos theory. A small difference will eventually head to a big difference. So there's a chance Lila has restarted the universe time and time again, making these small changes and reconfiguring the timeline."

"What you're experiencing is the Black Swan." Sass floated from Max's hand and hovered over everyone in the room as he hissed his words out in his usual eloquent way.

"A Black Swan?" Nino asked.

"Black Swans are unpredictable events that are beyond what is normally expected of a situation and have potentially severe consequences."

Kim slapped his face hard. "Great! Now, we need Nathalie Portman!"

Adrien was utterly speechless. How could they do so badly on the quiz nights when it seemed Kim had an intense knowledge of film and actors?

"No, you moron!" Alya snapped. "The unpredictable event is that the universe has had enough of Lila Rossi, and to stop her resetting it again, it created two Adrien Agrestes so Marinette would at least fall in love with one of them."

Alya's outburst took Adrien off guard, he'd never seen her as a girl who would (for want of a better phrase) lose it.

All eyes turned to Marinette, and Adrien knew what they were waiting for, but it would never come. She might have loved him once, perhaps even twice, but not now. Since that morning when the truth was revealed, whatever feelings she had for him were long gone.

Adrien stood solemnly, unable to meet her gaze. He couldn't bear it if she admitted she no longer loved him. He was already struggling to understand what was happening to himself, let alone why she couldn't love both parts of him. It would be too painful.

"So, what are we going to do?" Luka asked, stepping in once again to divert the conversation and attention away from the tension between Adrien and Marinette.

Adrien looked at his other half and felt the dejection as keenly as he saw it reflected in his alter ego's eyes. They were both drowning in sorrow, destined to face it together later. For now, they had a more pressing issue: they needed to get rid of Lila Rossi once and for all. The only way to do that was by reclaiming the butterfly Miraculous.

He couldn't help but wonder how Lila had come this far without knowing both their identities. If she had used the Miraculous to make a wish, how on earth had she acquired them? The thought gnawed at him, adding to the turmoil already raging inside.

"Well, if she knows we're onto her, she's going to need to recreate herself before she can get close enough to us," Marinette said.

"Do you think she'll attack again?" Zoé asked.

Marinette nodded, a slow steady grin creeping over her face. "I'm certain of it. But everyone knows...newly emerged butterflies can't fly."

Adrien sat next to his alter ego as Marinette gave Alya a quick goodbye hug. His mind hurt, physically ached. He had to explain what was going on twice, and all the talk about butterfly effects, black swans, and the significance of déjà vu only made things worse. His thoughts were a chaotic mix, like a jumble of multicoloured Play-Doh.

With their guests finally gone, Marinette sighed, rubbing her forehead aggressively. "I'm going to take a bath."

Adrien looked up from where he'd been staring at the ground, his arms resting on his knees. He watched Marinette, but she avoided his gaze, staring down the corridor in the opposite direction.

"Yeah, sure," he responded. "Just let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks." She didn't even look at him as she left the room and walked down the corridor.

He sighed, lowering his head and ruffling his hair. How had everything gone from perfect to so awkward in a matter of days?

"Drink," his leather-clad counterpart said, standing up and heading toward Félix's mini bar.

"Why not? Open the whisky."

"Fine choice, my cotton-clad friend."

"Well, only one of us can wear the spandex at a time." Adrien took the tumbler from Chat Noir's hand as the hero settled into the chair opposite. They lifted their drinks simultaneously, wincing as the hearty liquid slid painfully down their throats, its impact amplified by the strange bond between them.

"Do you ever think we're just meant to remain unloved? That this whole mess is because we're too hard to love?" Chat Noir pondered aloud.

Adrien took another sip, contemplating Chat Noir's words. Did he think they were unlovable? Not really. Were they just cursed with bad luck? Most likely. But he didn't want to delve into this conversation right now. Marinette's cold shoulder was already giving him a dull ache in his chest.

"Well, you are an obnoxious twat," Adrien said in response, downing a large gulp of whisky before heading back to the bar. If all else failed, deflect with humour.

"I know you are, but what am I?" Chat Noir met Adrien's eye as he poured himself another glass.

"Will you both just stop? Sometimes I wonder how Marinette is in love with you both." Tikki's outburst both shocked and impressed Adrien as the small red kwami spun into the room like a hurricane, finding Plagg and shaking him awake from his cheese coma.

"Past tense, Little Red," Chat Noir said, standing and offering his tumbler to Adrien for a refill. "She loved us both. Well, she loved me; she told me that. You, on the other hand?" He tilted his head and pointed at Adrien, before taking a sip of his newly replenished drink.

"I'm not even going to try and deny it." Adrien took off his glasses, discarded them on the counter, and rubbed his eyes fiercely. "You know, in any timeline, she wouldn't fall for the home-schooled model. Look at me: without my face and body, I have nothing. At least when I'm you, I can free myself from the constant fear of people judging me. As Chat Noir, I can do pretty much what I want, within reason, and nobody says a damn thing. I have a purpose when I'm you."

Adrien grabbed the decanter, topping up the tumbler once again before downing it and adding to the already painful burning sensation.

"You know as much as I do, this version of me, you – us – is extreme. We're not like this... Well, we are, but not quite to this effect. I think sometimes we forget who we really are and what we do. Adrien, we travelled the world and went to Cambridge! We lived with Félix for four whole years – that's an achievement in itself."

Adrien snorted, a little bit of liquid making its way back up and setting his nose on fire. "It got worse when he became more serious with Kagami," he choked out.

"Tell me about it. Remember that first night she stayed over? Our birthday was ruined!"

Adrien burst out laughing, with Chat Noir joining in as they both reminisced about that unforgettable night. Adrien had sworn off eating frosting off cakes ever since. As the laughter subsided, Adrien posed a question that had been on his mind ever since he'd discovered Marinette's identity as Ladybug.

"Can you remember the night Ladybug kissed us for the first time?" Adrien whispered, more from emotion than fear of being caught. It was his most treasured memory, one he replayed in his mind, wishing he could talk to her about it—or to anyone, honestly. But it seemed so trivial, one of those moments you had to experience to understand.

"I could never forget it," Chat Noir replied, a statement that rang true. Their minds were linked, sharing memories and thoughts. "How do you think she would have reacted if she'd known who we were? I mean, we were a big deal back then."

Adrien sighed, walking over to sit back on the sofa. "If her response is anything like now? Not good. I don't think we would have made it to first base, let alone fourth."

"Don't remind me of your deflowering shenanigans. Sugar Cookie here wouldn't shut up about it for weeks." Plagg flew over to the bar, phasing into his own mini fridge where he knew Félix kept him a rather stinky, fermented cheese.

"It was a huge step," Tikki said. "I'm so glad you took it together." She flew over to them, hovering just in front. "Just give her time; she'll eventually understand her feelings. This situation is weird and awkward. Chat Noir, she waited so long for your return, and then you came back into her life, discovered her identity, and ended up split in half. She wasn't sure if you were real or not."

Chat Noir snorted. "She wasn't the only one."

Adrien twirled his ring around his finger, the sleek black contrasting against his lighter skin. How could they ever become whole again? This split was no way to live.

Chat Noir sighed and stood up. "I'm going out for a while. Staying around here isn't helping anyone."

"Don't leave on my account," Adrien said, standing up with resolve and grabbing both glasses, as if on a mission to return them to the kitchen.

"I just need some space. I mean—" Chat Noir paused dramatically, taking a deep breath and letting it out in another long sigh. "I think we both know where this is headed. I'm stuck in this suit, wielding superpowers which are made to destroy. Let's face it, intimacy is a natural part of being human, and unfortunately, I don't have that perk. She needs you, not me."

Adrien chuckled, his expression a mix of sympathy and amusement. "She's not exactly chasing after either of us right now, so try not to stress too much."

Chat Noir stood up, stretching his arms above his head and striking a pose. If he ever returned to his old self, he had some serious self-improvement to do. He was a walking billboard for arrogance. Yet beneath it all, his heart was pure and his intentions were genuine. It was just the darn cover that needed a makeover.

"I'll see you all in the morning," Chat Noir said, walking towards the window, leaving Adrien with a wave of extreme guilt. He couldn't let him go without saying something — anything. So, he spoke the words he would always hope to hear from someone else.

"Oh, and Chat, please be careful out there."

A grateful smile tugged at the corner of Chat Noir's mouth before he disappeared through the window and into the night, blending effortlessly into the shadows—something Adrien wished he could do now, escaping the weight of his own emotions.

He turned the corner from the lounge to the kitchen, when he hit something—or someone. The glasses rattled and Adrien took a step backwards, only to find Marinette standing in silky pyjamas. Not just any, though. Black silk with little green paw prints. Her hair was down and wet, a vision that made everything inside him itch to grab her, throw her over his shoulder and take her to his bed...

Well, Félix's bed. Payback would be sweet.

Marinette had her hands clutched in front of her, her fingers playing as she began to speak. "I was – um – walking my socks and I heard everything... I mean... I didn't hear anything. I was just this moment passing, so... Are those glasses in your hand? Do you need some help washing them up?"

Adrien tilted his head to the side, looking at her with a curious expression. Had she been listening in? "No, it's okay. I've got them. I'll see you in the morning."

Giving a quick smile, Adrien walked past her and into the kitchen. Did it really matter if she was listening? It wasn't anything she didn't already know or anything he didn't want her to hear.

As he dried the glasses and placed them back at the bar, he stole a glance out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of his alter ego. Closing his eyes, he tried to connect to him through their shared bond, but it seemed elusive. It seemed Chat didn't want to be found. With a sigh, Adrien decided to call it a night, completely drained—emotionally, physically, and maybe even spiritually.

Climbing into bed promised a staircase to heaven, though sadly lacking an angelic companion to share the night with. He just hoped he could settle enough to sleep. Theories and plans ran a circuit around his head, each one wanting their own time to be mulled over.

He spent most of the night tossing and turning under the covers, plagued by the looming return to Paris—a return that signalled the beginning of the end, with him still feeling incomplete. He knew he wouldn't be entering the upcoming battles clad in armour or wielding special powers. He would be plain old Adrien Agreste and the thought of facing potential danger without his alter ego's abilities made him fear for his life in the weeks ahead.

With another heavy sigh, he slammed his head down, sliding an arm into the cold underside of his pillow and squeezing his eyes shut even tighter. Perhaps counting sheep would help distract him from the mounting tension and anxiety.

Just as he reached fifty-four white, fluffy sheep jumping over a fence with a small twerk as they went, he heard the door creak open, followed by the soft padding of feet moving toward the bed.

The slight dip in the mattress behind him signalled another's presence. He was certain his alter ego wouldn't have come in for midnight cuddles, and he couldn't help his heart from racing with anticipation about who might be joining him in bed.

As he felt her hand resting on his chest and heard the whispered words of always and forever, a rush of emotions flooded through him. His heart skipped a beat, and warmth spread through his body like a comforting embrace. The simple touch and tender words ignited a spark of hope within him.

Reaching out to gently clasp her hand over his heart, he couldn't shake the feeling that everything was worth fighting for—especially her. In that moment, amidst the darkness and uncertainty, he found a renewed sense of purpose and determination. Marinette, with her gentle touch and whispered promise, was his reason to face whatever challenges lay ahead.

With a deep breath, he squeezed her hand lightly, silently vowing to protect her, to fight for her, and to hold onto this fleeting moment of connection amidst the turmoil. Whatever happened next, maybe, just maybe, love could be the beacon that guided him through the impending storm.