Requested by Freddy101

* 🔞 + for language. The F-word is used once. *

Read at your own risk.

Future post-reveal one-shot.

With Hawkmoth finally defeated, Adrien and Marinette must return their miraculouses back into the miracle box.

Twenty years later, Adrien (who is now a proud father), just wants to spend some quality time with his teenage daughter.

So when he walks into her bedroom unannounced one afternoon, Adrien doesn't expect to find his daughter blabbering for an excuse as to why Plagg is hovering mid-air in the middle of the room.

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"It's time." Master Fu said, hands extended out to the two heroes as he waited patiently for the miraculouses to be handed back to him.

Marinette and Adrien exchanged a sad glance, knowing that their time with their kwmai's was coming to an end. After all, Hawkmoth had finally been defeated and Gabriel Agreste had been sent off to jail. Nooroo had been rescued and freed, and his miraculous was sent back to rest in the miracle box, along with Duusu and the peacock miraculous. Paris was now free and no longer had to worry about akumas.

And although all of this was good news, it also meant that there was no need for Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore... which meant it was time to give their kwmai's back to Master Fu.

Marinette had cried... a lot when they were first told that they would have to give back their miraculouses. Adrien had tried his best to comfort her... but there wasn't much he could do considering he was just as upset. Giving up Plagg was going to be the hardest thing he would ever have to do, and he was sure Marinette felt the same.

The kwami's had been by their sides for years. It was going to be hard to let that part of their life go.

"I'm going to miss you, kid." Plagg choked sadly behind his words as he nuzzled Adrien's cheek, and the blonde couldn't help but pet underneath his kwami's chin, letting out a watery chuckle of his own.

"Me too, Plagg. Me too."

"You are one of my best kittens," Plagg told him. "No one can ever take your place in my heart."

Adrien chuckled sadly, "That's very... sweet of you to say."

"I mean it. I love you, kid. I don't love you more than I love Camembert, but you're second."

"Well, now I'm really honored."

And although they were currently sharing a sad and emotional moment, Adrien smiled when Plagg grinned and snickered.

The blonde spared a glance over at Marinette, who was also tearfully saying goodbye to her kwami. Tikki was settled in her cupped palms and she was crying just like her holder was. Adrien watched with a sad smile on his lips as Marinette leaned down and pressed her lips to the top of Tikki's head in a soft kiss, and he watched as Tikki squeezed her eyes closed.

Adrien felt a rogue tear of his own slip down his cheek. He wasn't just going to miss Plagg... he was going to miss Tikki too. Maybe not as much as Marinette would, but he would still miss her nonetheless.

He'd gotten to known Tikki quite well (just like Marinette had gotten to know Plagg), when they both decided it was time to reveal their identities to each other. Things had been simpler then; easier. Better.

But now that Hawkmoth was finally defeated, and his father was exposed and sentenced to a lifetime sentence in jail, there was no reason to be Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore. And that is what saddened him the most.

After all, a big part of their lives would be leaving them today. Plagg had been Adrien's answer to freedom, whereas Tikki had been Marinette's answer to confidence.

But then they all built a friendship. A friendship that Adrien truly believed, with all of his heart, was practically unbreakable.

All four of them had memories together that he would cherish forever.

And even if today he would have to say goodbye to Plagg for good, he didn't like to think of it as forever.

He liked to think of it as a goodbye...

...for now.

_______________

Adrien should've known that someone would get ahold of the moth miraculous again. After all, Nooroo was known for being stolen merchandise.

But even after all these years, Adrien would've never suspected that someone else could have taken his father's place. Someone who actually wanted to bring back the chaos his father had unleashed all those years ago on the city of Paris. Of course, as soon as he and Marinette saw the news broadcast on television of akumas returning to wreak havoc, they were both ready to spring into action.

Unfortunately, they'd both forgotten in that moment that they no longer had a miraculous, or a kwami.

That was when he watched his wife break down over the absence of her kwami in a long time, and as Marinette sobbed into his chest, he tried his best to soothe her by rubbing gentle circles into the spine of her back.

When their youngest son, Hugo, accidentally walked in on their sad and grieving moment, the little boy simply asked, "Why is mama crying?"

Adrien opened his mouth. But before he could say anything, their second oldest son waltzed into the room and smacked his younger brother upside the head. "Because she's upset, you idiot."

"Obviously. But I want to know why."

"It's none of your business, stupid."

"Boys," Adrien cleared his throat, sending a warning glance at both of his sons that basically interpreted as 'watch your mouth'. "Now is not the time. But since you're both here, would one of you fetch me a box of tissues?"

Nine-year-old Hugo wasted no time in darting out of the room.

As soon as he was gone, Adrien turned to look at Louis. "Emma and I are going to the shop to pick up some new paint for her room. Could you let her know we'll be leaving soon?"

Twelve-year-old Louis wrinkled his nose, as if the idea disgusted him... or maybe he was just annoyed that he wouldn't be able to tag along this time. "I don't think she's planning on going anywhere," the blonde boy said, "She saw the news and took off to her room crying."

Adrien raised a curious brow to that. "Crying?" He didn't really believe that... mostly because his eighteen-year-old daughter wasn't known to be the dramatic type.

Like ever.

Louis nodded, "Well she had her face in her hands, so it looked like she was crying—"

"I have the tissues!" Hugo suddenly exclaimed, returning to the living room with the box in hand.

Adrien nodded softly, stepping back ever-so-slightly so that Hugo could give the tissue box to his mother. Marinette sniffled, her smile sad she took the box from him and thanked him. While she dried her tears, Adrien pressed his lips to her forehead in a soft kiss and whispered against her skin that he would be right back.

Marinette nodded silently. Reluctantly, Adrien extracted himself completely from her, watching fondly over his shoulder as Hugo took his place, wrapping his arms around his mother's waist and pressing his cheek against her stomach. Adrien chuckled airily underneath his breath when Louis shook his head to Hugo's invitation to join the hug.

The blonde boy had never been the affectionate type, after all.

Adrien slowly trudged up the stairs, pausing in front of his daughter's bed-room door. He lifted a fist to knock, but then paused the moment he heard his daughter talking to someone else.

But the voice that she was talking to... it sounded way too familiar to him.

So, without a second thought, Adrien twisted the doorknob open.

"Hey Em, I wanted to check up on you. Louis said you were upset, and I know we made plans to go paint shopping today, but—"

Adrien halted abruptly underneath the doorframe of the room, almost toppling forward. His eyes blew wide at the sight of his daughter sitting on her bed, and a small, black figure hovering right beside her in mid-air.

Adrien's breath left him entirely.

He barely registered the sheepish smile his daughter had to offer him. "Uh Dad... hi! There's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this..."

His daughter, Emma, who glancing nervously back and forth between him and Plagg repeatedly, began stuttering so hard like Marinette used to back when they were freshmen's in high-school that Adrien couldn't even pay attention to what she was trying to say.

All he could do was stare directly at Plagg.

And even when she finished talking, he couldn't seem to remove his eyes off of Plagg.

"Um dad?" Now Emma was confused, looking at her father weirdly. "Are you okay?

Plagg was here. After twenty whole freakin years of not having his kwami by his side, he was finally seeing Plagg again.

And... it also turned out that his daughter was fortunate enough to become the next Chat Noir.

He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

Emma furrowed her brows. "Dad! Did you hear anything I just said?"

Adrien's eyes snapped to hers, still in complete and utter shock. He didn't even register what he was thinking until it was too late, and he said, "Well fuck. Now we have to go back to buying Camembert again."

And just to prove that he wasn't hallucinating, Plagg snickered, causing Adrien's eyes to dart back to the kwami. He almost couldn't believe that any of this was actually real... which is why his mind seemed to be taking so long to process all of this.

The top corner of Emma's lips twitched disgustingly as she looked at her father as if he'd grown a second head. "What? Camembert? What does stinky, rotten cheese have to do with any of this?"

"Camembert is my favorite~!" Plagg sang happily.

But poor Adrien wasn't paying attention to what his daughter was saying. He was still watching Plagg, and he couldn't help the broad smile that spread across his lips. "Some things never change."

"I'll say," Plagg said, "You don't look like you've aged at all."

"I'll take that as a compliment, Plagg."

"And your hair! It's still as shaggy as ever. Why don't you ever brush it, Adrien?"

"I definitely brush my hair."

"Well then you need a new hairbrush, kid."

Adrien's heart blossomed, warming at the sound of the one nickname Plagg used for him that he hadn't heard in years.

"It's good to see you again, Plagg." Adrien said softly.

The kwami smiled, "You too, Adrien."

Meanwhile, Emma was watching the exchange between her kwami (which was supposed to remain a secret) and her father with wide, confused and unsure eyes.

All she knew was that when her partner, Mister Bug, found out about this, he was going to flip out.

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Heyy sorry for the long wait! I hope you enjoyed this, Freddy! I honestly struggled over how to write this out three times, so this was the final product lol.

It's a little short for my liking, but hopefully you still enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)

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