"Coming to bed, Chaton?" she whispered into the darkness of the room, head against the pillow as she gazed at the familiar silhouette. The shadowed figure sat down at the other side of the bed, reaching out a large warm hand to caress her cheek. The sheets rustled as he shifted closer.

"You're still awake?" Adrien asked, smiling though she could not see it. It was a small break from their normal routine, which included Marinette falling fast asleep within minutes and Adrien following suit not long after. This time Adrien had stayed up later than usual, making up for lost time from his brief photoshoot to study. Marinette hummed in affirmation.

"I couldn't sleep."

Adrien pressed a kiss on her temple. Before he could pull away, gentle hands guided him to meet plush lips, initiating another slow yet chaste kiss.

"Rest assured, princess, your knight isn't going to make you sleep alone," he said with a grin, wide enough that Marinette could feel the curve of his mouth against her own. She turned away and groaned.

"It's too late to be punning," she whined. Her husband chuckled and lied down beneath the blankets, snaking an arm out to pull her closer to his bare chest. Even after years of being together, his rhythmic heartbeat comforted her, and so she nestled closer into his embrace. She closed her eyes, listening for the lulling drum entwined with the rise and fall of his chest.

"Did you kick physic's butt?" Her voice stayed soft, her weariness evident through her shrinking volume and lax limbs. Adrien ran a hand against her hair.

"Another battle won, my lady," he reported.

"Bien joué."

Adrien's eyes softened, and it only took a minute longer until Marinette's deep breathing indicated she was asleep. Her words left him with a beat of nostalgia, and he turned his head in the direction of the small cat tree where Tikki and Plagg slept. It had been years since they had actually needed to fight a real battle- years since they revealed their identities and started a relationship with one another. Sometimes he missed those days, though Ladybug and Chat Noir still appeared now and then to help out the citizens of Paris. Their true jobs as superheroes, however, had formally ended.

Yes, Adrien missed those days, but he wouldn't trade them for the present either. Not with the love of his life both wedded and snuggled to him, in the cozy apartment the two had made a home out of for almost a year now. They were starting their lives together, with Marinette having recently opened her new boutique, and Adrien graduating from his frequent modeling to pursue a doctorate degree. Their lives were still a little chaotic, but they were together, and that harmonious balance always made their obstacles a little more tolerable.

Led to sleep by Marinette's steady breathing, the blonde's eyes drooped until they finally closed. The room became still, filled with nothing but the sighs of sleep and Plagg's soft snoring, and the moonlight that seeped in from the glass balcony doors was diluted by sheer curtains.

Minutes later, a tall figure appeared behind those very doors in a flash of bright blue.

Propelling through the sky with the practiced pulls of her yo-yo, the rushing wind brushed her face as Ladybug glided over the city. It might have been a thrilling feeling, had she not been so preoccupied by her fervent search for the freshly escaped akuma. Her irises shifted left and right as she attempted to find any colorful portals that matched the one the most recent villain escaped through. Old Timer, in spite of his name, was a middle-aged gentleman who was quick to vanish and reappear through his summoned portals, making him impossibly difficult to pin down and attack. Stopping her flight on top of one of the many Parisian rooftops, Ladybug huffed, jostling her bangs upward for a brief second before Chat Noir landed beside her.

"It's been half an hour and I can't find him anywhere," she complained, bringing her hand to the lucky charm at her hip: a deflated swim ring that only managed to save a civilian before it was popped. Chat Noir attempted a reassuring grin.

"Just give him some time, Bugaboo. I'm sure he'll show up."

Ladybug lowered her hand, only so she could part her lips and stare at her partner in disbelief. She sighed again.

"Not if you keep scaring him off with puns, he won't." Her half-amused smile belied her words, which Chat Noir was quick to take note of. He lowered his staff on the ground and rested his elbow against it.

"As long as I'm not scaring you away, my lady." He winked, then settled for a more serious expression as he looked out into the city that spread out below them. The rest of Paris was going through the usual bout of akuma-induced chaos: adults literally crawling on pavement; children having pleasant conversations about their nonexistent grandchildren; elders running amuck in games of tag and hide-and-go-seek (which the heroes were fairly certain exhausted their physical limits). It was as if the duo were the only ones who managed to act their age… if running around in animal/bug-themed suits with a yo-yo and a baton constituted normal behavior for sixteen-year-olds.

"Maybe we should transform back. It could be a while until he decides to reappear," Chat Noir suggested at last, both of them wincing at an old woman's cartwheel that did not end well. The event reminded him of their encounter with Alix as Timebreaker, and he was half-expecting another Ladybug to show up and conduct their next movements against the villain. True or not, there was nothing they could do against a missing villain. Ladybug stared out at the city alongside him, deliberating with a grimace.

"I think you're right," she admitted, though not too happily. After two years of fighting akuma, she had gotten used to their efficient clean-ups that only took up twenty minutes at most. It had been a while since they had not been able to handle Hawk Moth's messes in one go. She spared a smile for her partner's sake. "You go ahead. I'll clean up everything and see you later, Chaton."

"Later, Ladybug," he returned with a bow. He vaulted off, just as Ladybug reached for the lucky charm and threw it to the sky. Her Miraculous Cure managed to clean up all the damage and revert the citizens back to normal, but the battle was far from over. She returned to the terrace above her room within minutes and detransformed just as she landed on her bed. The worry she had expressed while beside Chat Noir lingered on her features even after it all.

"It'll be okay, Marinette," Tikki assured her in a candy-sweet voice, rising up into her field of view as Marinette still sat. Tikki's large blue eyes welled with confident optimism, and Marinette brightened at the reassurance.

"Thanks, Tikki." The girl slipped off her flats and dropped them on the floor. "I just want to fix this as soon as I can. The last time we had an akuma like this, Chat Noir nearly-"

The words cut off abruptly, Marinette's eyes widening and her pupils dilating without warning. A blue light overtook her, surging up her body like the light of her transformation, but this time there was no mask to follow up the flash.

"Marinette?!" Tikki called out, but the girl fainted, collapsing over her bed. Fear overtook Tikki's features, and the tiny kwami floated closer and pressed her paws against her chosen's cheek. For a moment, she was as still as death.

"Marinette? Marinette, are you okay?" Tikki asked again, shaken with concern.

It took a full minute for her to rouse. All at once, Marinette's eyelids snapped open, her pupils blown wide. She stared up at the trapdoor above her bed, her expression shifting from shock to realization, then finally she jolted up to look at all directions of her room. Tikki watched in silent confusion, but it took a moment longer for Marinette's eyes to land on her kwami. The smallest hint of relief was enough to pull a weak smile on the girl's face.

"Tikki," she breathed, then falling back onto her pillow with both hands covering her face.

"What happened?" Tikki asked, still hovering beside her with audible worry. She watched her throat tense as Marinette swallowed with understanding.

"I… I just traveled around ten years from the future."

Adrien was having a really pleasant dream.

It must have been, because he could feel the warmth and softness of someone lying down next to him. He inched closer to the source of heat, identifying the person as a woman as soon as he let his arm curl around her narrow waist and felt the back of her curves press against him. He burrowed his face into the crook of her neck, humming in sleepy satisfaction, breathing in a clean fragrance that he could only decipher as sweet. His cuddling was met with a tired but not objective moan, and for a second the woman leaned closer to his touch. Wisps of her hair tickled his cheek, but he didn't find it in him to pull away. This dream felt more real than any other he could remember having and it was literally heaven.

"Ladybug," he murmured into her ear, smiling and clutching onto her tighter.

Needless to say, the last thing he expected was his arm being tugged until he was flipped off the bed and onto the hard wooden floor. His eyes popped open just as all the air in his lungs left his body, leaving him to stare up at the slightly blurry Ladybug who was standing over him. Except, she wasn't wearing red, but white.

"Who are you?!" Ladybug demanded, her interrogative tone masking her fright. Adrien blinked up at her, his muddled mind attempting to make sense of such an improbable scenario. Well, he was Adrien right now- that much he was able to know. It was possible she didn't recognize him as Chat Noir.

"It's me, Bugaboo." he answered with a stifled groan, blinking once more to clear his vision, and-

"Marinette?"

She dropped his arm with a gasp, and the sight of Marinette hovering above him- on the verge of a panic no less- sobered him up rather quickly. At least, he thought it was Marinette.

She looked exactly like her, with her dark raven hair falling loose over her shoulders and her sky blue eyes staring down at him. She even wore the same deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression he had seen on her face more than once, pink lips drawn inward until they were no longer visible. Except, this Marinette was clearly older, with some of the roundness of her face matured and her body- while not voluptuous- was more distinctly that of a woman's. The billowing white tank top over her sleep shorts only seemed to accentuate that.

"A-Adrien? Is that you?" Even as her lips parted to speak, none of the nervousness left her.

For the first time Adrien thought to check his surroundings. What he should have noticed a long time ago was that he was definitely not in his room, unless his room was suddenly reduced and redesigned to be a much smaller and simpler square bedroom. Glass double-doors leading to a balcony allowed in the faint glow of morning light, leaving half of the room still covered in shadows. A king-sized bed took up most of the space, with end-tables, a dresser, and a cat-tree being the only other pieces of furniture in view. For a small space, it was tastefully decorated, with modern designs accented by pastel blues.

None of it was familiar.

"I…" At a loss of words, he trailed his gaze back up to Marinette's, only to belatedly recall how he practically smothered her when he woke up that morning. Her lips parted in a silent gasp just as he gaped at her.

"I'm sorry!" they both blurted out, Marinette with her arms up defensively, and Adrien scrambling to his feet (only to realize he was notably taller than he last remembered). They shared a long look that might have incited some nervous laughter on any other occasion, but the most they could manage were amused if not also apprehensive smiles.

"What are you two on about so early in the morning?" Plagg demanded, floating out of one of the openings of the cat-tree. It zapped just enough life back into Adrien to force him to jump in front of Marinette.

"Is that-"

"So, Marinette, funny waking up here together, right? I wonder what happened!" he interrupted, forcing a great smile in a futile effort to distract her from his kwami. If it was any other time, Adrien might have realized that was probably the least reassuring thing to say to a girl after waking up next to her, but at this time all he could think was please don't notice the talking miniature cat-thing that's floating in mid-air. Marinette blinked up at him, her gaze mystified and her cheeks red. Then her eyes widened once more as some sort of clarity seemed to wash over her.

"Chat Noir?!"

And out of all the things, that was what made Adrien realize Marinette was Ladybug: that very same high-pitched tone of pure surprise whenever she had found him under the impact of some brand of akuma magic. Which was the same outcry Adrien had (unfortunately) come to hear a lot from Ladybug, consciously or otherwise.

And find him, she did.

"I…. Yes?" His eyes never narrowed so much as a millimeter, physically unable to process the life-altering knowledge in such a short timespan- like two correctly placed puzzle pieces that cannot fit when jammed together at full-speed.

As it happened, finding out her partner was actually the boy she had been crushing on for years- just after waking up next to him shirtless in bed in an unfamiliar room- was Marinette's breaking point.

"I-I see. So you're Chat Noir. All this time. That's great, isn't it? I… That's..." Yet, just after she finished speaking, she started to laugh in a way that bordered on hysterical. The sound petered off just as soon as it started, Marinette taking in Adrien's complete confusion- probably wondering how she could laugh in such a situation.

"Marinette?" he asked, his voice smaller than before. Like he was hurt. Her eyes widened before she considered him with a more sympathetic gaze.

"I'm just surprised. This whole time… you've been… well, you. I'm not disappointed."

Her words seemed sincere. Adrien regarded her once more, piecing together the similarities between her and Ladybug, until her searching blue eyes sealed the deal.

"I'm not disappointed either," he returned, pulling a small smile. To his surprise, Marinette's face was flooded with red. Just as he raised his brow, she backpedalled towards the door. Not daring to surprise her further, he stayed in place as her hand scrambled for the doorknob, but the confusion never left him.

"I-I just need…. moment a short, I-I mean, a shmoment, that is-!"

The last expression he could read off her face was one of sheer terror, just before she cut off her words to step behind the door and slam it.

"She took it about as well as last time," Plagg commented, smiling wide, eyes glowing with all too familiar mischief.

"Last time?" Adrien repeated, still staring blankly at the door she escaped to.

"At least this time she didn't scream." Plagg snickered at some unknown memory, while Adrien could only blanch.

Right on cue, muffled screaming sounded from the adjoining room.

Well, here's an idea I've been sitting on for a while.
I know there are plenty of time travel AUs, but I haven't come across one where future Marinette and Adrien are both sent into the past, which I honestly think has a lot of potential. (Here's hoping I do it all justice.)

Reviews and favorites are appreciated as always, but an honest question to the readers: Would it be easier if I labeled which segments are taking place in the present and the future? Thanks in advance!