Butterfly Delivery - Adrinette

Miles Ahead

Eighteen years after Certified Baby

"Does this mean I'm the oldest kid in the family now?" Louis asked.

"What do you mean by that?" Marinette questioned him.

"Because Felix and Bridgette aren't kids anymore!"

The butterfly children had reached legal adulthood. Their parents could no longer shelter them as well as they would like. The newly-termed "butterfly people" faced the same hostile job market their parents had faced fifteen years before. For their parents, society had settled down, realizing that people who had raised butterfly children were mostly just people. They were perfectly viable employees and employers. The concept did not carry over, however, that the children could be just like their parents. The masses were still up in arms about this abnormal group of people. The children had grown up; when would society?

Their influential circle had thankfully grown some since they were tots. Their support system had had time to establish itself. Families who could afford to do so were willing to hire their progeny, but even those whose kin couldn't take them on weren't wholly without resource. Neighbors, who at first wanted nothing to do with the children, had witnessed them grow up. They realized what they feared was not butterfly people; it was the unknown - and if the unknown was no longer unknown, that which was scary was no longer scary. Folks vouched for the motley bunch, letting their friends and family know "this one" was a good kid, and was looking for a job.

"You're a good worker. I could use another one of you," the boss of one of the parents said. "Why wouldn't I want to hire your clone?"

And like that, everyone was accounted for.

--

Nineteen years after Certified Baby

"What are you going to get him for his birthday?" Louis asked.

"Am I supposed to do that?" Nala gasped.

"No, that's pointless," Jazzie scoffed. "He's too young to appreciate it. We don't even know when his birthday is going to be."

"His due date is a week from Friday," Nala argued.

"We don't know if he's going to be born on his due date, he could be born today."

"Doesn't matter," Louis told them. "If you want to be the best big sisters ever, you have to start early."

Alya was expecting her fifth - and she said final - baby. Most of what she needed she had left over from her previous kids, but with the due date just a week away, she and Marinette took the excuse to spend time together picking up a few last minute things for the baby. They brought their combined herd of kids with them. Five-year-old Emma stuck close to the two women, but the older kids were given the freedom to explore within the walls of the store, provided the eight-year-olds all stayed within sight of Idris. Idris, now eleven, had been recently entrusted with his own mobile phone, and had instruction to call his mother immediately if anything went wrong.

"What's wrong?" Louis asked. Nala was holding a stuffed bear, a worried look on her face.

"I don't think I have enough."

"That's okay, I'll pay. Eliza, you too, pick something for Miles. Don't worry what it costs." Louis loved to say that kind of thing. His parents only gave him a few euros a week, but they bought him most anything he wanted anyway, so he had quite a bit saved up. He was unconcerned, telling each of his friends to pick a present for their baby brother at his expense. Nothing in this part of the store was more than he was willing to spend.

"Jasmine, please," Nala pleaded. "Louis is just trying to be nice. Why won't you go along with it?"

"He can use his money better, he's just showing off."

"But he wants to buy something for us, and he can afford it. He said so!"

"Fine, but I'm buying something that Maman and Papa can use. They can appreciate it."

"Okay," Louis agreed.

--

"This is what you want?" Louis asked.

"I understand if it's more than you want to spend," Jazzie challenged.

"It is more than I expected," Louis acknowledged, "but okay." He hadn't really wanted to spend that much, especially when he was buying two other presents as well, but the money was going to good use. His family's dearest friends would be the proud owners of a high tech wristband that would monitor all their baby's vitals - from oxygen level to blood sugar - simply by reading the air the baby exhaled. They were just through the register when Idris got a call.

"We're already at the front of the store," he answered. He listened intently to what he was being told over the phone, his face growing serious. "We have to stay here and wait. Maman's water just broke."

--

Alya laughed, "After making three at once, my body thought 'one more's no trouble at all! I can whip this one out!' " At barely nine months in, Alya delivered baby Miles. Her previous two gestations had been longer by almost two weeks, so it was a bit of a surprise when she went into labor. Still, the baby was deemed full term. Pregnancy was known to vary in length by as much as a month, with genetics and successive pregnancies playing the deciding factors.

Nino sat next to his wife's hospital bed, holding their bundled up newborn. The baby's brown eyes stared blearily up at him.

"Welcome."

--

Twenty years after Certified Baby

"It's a boy!" The hospital staff carried off the baby to clean him up, leaving Marinette exhausted in the bed sheets.
"Our family is complete."
Adrien leaned over and kissed her sweat-glazed head. "Now you never have to go through that again. I don't know if you feel up to discussing this right now, but I've been thinking about how we're going to name the baby."

Marinette looked confused.
"We've been settled on Hugo for years."
"Yes, he's Hugo. Hugo what? I was thinking back on when we got married, you wanted to keep Dupain in your name because the name's rare, then we've gone ahead and given both Louis and Emma my last name. To be fair, Agreste is endangered worse than Dupain is, but not two times as much. Felix and Louis both are already carrying Agreste. Would you like to give Dupain a new male line? It would be all right with me."

--

"Hmh," Gabriel said upon hearing his grandson's name. "I've never much been one for these sentimental conservationist efforts."

"Don't act like you were never worried about your own name dying out," Emilie scolded him. "You cried with relief when Adrien was born."
"Did you, Père?" Adrien asked in surprise.
"She's exaggerating; I didn't cry. It was just... one of the happiest moments of my life. I got a little over-emotional. That's all."
"I'm still learning about you, even now. I love you." Adrien embraced his father.

A/n - Thanks to S116294 and TrinityVallender for naming the Lahiffe kids.