I promise not all of these one-shots will be Ladrien having deep conversations with each other, it just so happened that my prompt generator lined all of these up. anyway, yesterday it was Ladybug's turn for a crisis, now it's Adrien's! Yay.... Vote and comment if you've enjoyed!                                                                                                                       -Colorado

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Adrien was yet again questioning every single decision he's made in his life. This time, it was because of university. Even though it was a couple years away, all of his teachers and friends were starting to talk about where they wanted to go, what they wanted to study, and what career they wanted to pursue. Adrien's email was filled with hundreds of universities trying to get his attention. Some even sent letters to his house.

However, as Adrien stared at his computer, he couldn't help but feel lost. He was still no closer to figuring out what he wanted to do in his life. There was always the opportunity to work for his dad's company. He was already the face of the company, but he wouldn't mind going more into the business side. Although, that would require Adrien to have a relationship with his father long after he was a legal adult. After having to put up with him for so long, he wasn't sure if he really wanted that.

There were different subjects in school that he really enjoyed, like physics and maths. But did he like those subjects enough to go to school for them? He really wasn't sure. It was all so complicated. 

He had tried to talk to Plagg about it, but his advice always remained the same. Adrien should open up a cheese shop with him, which wouldn't exactly be the worst thing in the world. However, the horror stories of working retail that he had heard from several classmates were more than enough to scare him away. There was no way that he was going to subject himself to that.

And that was just talking about the career he wanted to go into. That didn't account for the hundreds of universities competing for him to go to their school, and the hundreds of courses each of those universities had for him to consider. Combine it all together Adrien felt lost inside a sea of university applications.

Nothing that he considered felt particularly compelling, and he feared that he would just keep making his way up in his father's company. It's a stable job and a rare opportunity, but his father really was kinda a jerk. He didn't want to give him an opportunity to keep controlling his life.

There was the idea of being a stay at home dad, as well. If he was being honest with himself, that was the most compelling idea. However, being a stay at home dad required him to not only be financially stable enough to raise a child on his own, but he would also like to have a relationship with the mother. He supposed that the financial situation wasn't a big problem, his inheritance from his mother would be transferred as soon as he turned 18. The real problem was getting a wife, because there was only one girl he wanted to marry. Of course, getting her to be even remotely interested in him was going swimmingly! ...Swimmingly bad, that is. 

Ladybug still was pining after the other boy, not even casting a glance in Chat Noir's direction. Adrien tried his hardest not to feel bitter about whoever her mystery love was. He really did appreciate and cherish her friendship, but after being in love with her for years it was almost becoming painful. Yet, he couldn't move on as much as he wanted to. He had tried multiple times, but failed miserably. After a few months of banter with whoever had caught his eye, he always came crawling back to Ladybug. If she wasn't his soulmate, then who was?

He really needed to give this up. 

Before he could get too caught up in brooding about his continuous rejection, he heard a knock on his window. He walked over to let his visitor in, trying not to show that he had just been thinking about her.

"Hey, LB, what brings you around?"

"You look stressed." Ladybug ignored his question, instead looking around his face for any indication of stress. Adrien knew there was a lot. "What's going on?"

He shrugged.

"Fine, don't let me help then." Ladybug shrugged, walking towards his computer.

"Just future stuff, don't worry about it." He tried to wave it off.

As if to add salt to the wound, Ladybug had started to pay more attention to his civilian-self. He wasn't sure how their friendship had turned into her visiting his room nearly twice a week but, hey! He wasn't complaining. Any time spent with Ladybug was a blessing in his eyes.

"Future stuff?"

"Like college, career, course, all that brilliant stuff." Adrien tried to wave it off, but he could see Ladybug's doubtful look.

"Ah, that's wonderful."

"Yep. Even better when you have no idea what you want to study."

"So I'm guessing you won't be working for your father's company?" Ladybug flopped down on his couch and he fell down next to her.

"I might be, but I'm not sure if I really want to. I don't want to give him the opportunity to keep on restricting my life after I'm eighteen."

"Oh."

"But there's no course that I feel super strongly about, you know?"

"Kinda. I used to have this one course that I've wanted to go into ever since I was little. Now, I'm rethinking my decision. There's so many different parts of creativity that I want to go into, it's hard to narrow it down to just one. Plus, there are other aspects of my life that I have to consider, too. Because I'm Ladybug, I can't go to a university far outside of Paris. Luckily, for what I wanted to go into that was never a problem. Now, I'm looking at all these schools across Europe and I can't help but feel like I'm missing out on something." She ranted.

"Exactly! I wish I could just take everything."

"Me too, but I can hear my pocketbook crying at just the thought."

"I suppose even a family fortune couldn't handle me getting a million different degrees."

"Plus having to go to school for that long?" Ladybug wrinkled her nose. "No, thank you."

"So that leaves me just having to pick one thing and I don't know about you, but that is so exhausting."

"You're talking to the queen of decision paralysis, here. Believe me, I know how it feels. My dreams since I was little have conveniently left out where I should go to school. Obviously I'm able to narrow it down quite a bit. But there's still so much to consider, I just wish things could be simple."

"Like how they were when we were kids."

"Yeah. It's just a side effect of growing up, I guess."

"We really are growing up, aren't we? I mean here we are complaining about uni." Adrien gave Ladybug a wry smile.

"I remember when it seemed like a lifetime away. Now, it's just another couple of years."

"Time flies I guess, before you know it we're gonna start having to pay bills and do taxes."

"Yuck. That is not an appealing thought. We're gonna have to schedule our own appointments too." Ladybug groaned.

"What, not a fan?"

"No. Absolutely not. It gives me so much anxiety. I can come face to face with a terrorist on a weekly basis and win every time, but I can't talk to my doctor." 

"I have never heard a more relatable sentence." Adrien laughed.

"You come face to face with Hawkmoth, too?" Ladybug teased. Adrien hoped that she wouldn't notice the panic shooting through his face as he scrambled for an excuse.

"No, but I mean, it feels like we can accomplish really great things, yet we can't do the most simplest tasks. Like, I can balance fencing, modeling, basketball, piano, Mandarin, and school with ease. However, asking my father to spend dinner with me? Yeah, no thanks, I'll pass."

"Your father is such a jerk." Ladybug groaned. "I can't believe he won't even spare a couple of moments to hang out with his son."

"Yep. It seems as if he's just tightening his leash on me more and more as the years pass. It's a bit ironic, because you think it would be the other way around."

"Good lord." 

"Yeah and if I continue to work for his company, nothing will change. However, that would be the easiest course to take and I know that's what my father wants me to do. If I were younger, maybe that would make me believe that he'd change! I'm not so trusting in him now. He might even ban me from moving out if I continued to climb up the ladder in the company. I'd have to keep things civil with him until he died, and is it so wrong of me to want a little bit of freedom?"

"No! I mean," Ladybug looked around his room, "it's a bit hard to imagine a thirty year old man still living in this house."

"Exactly. And I bet he wouldn't even change anything about my room, either."

"Ugh, your father infuriates me. Who can be so awful to his own child?" 

"My father, I guess. But hey! On the bright side, I'll be out of here soon. As soon as I turn eighteen I get the money my mother left me. Once that happens I can get my own apartment somewhere in Paris."

"And then you'd be following your life by your own rules."

"Yep! I can eat as much junk food as I want! Until my stomach starts feeling super sick because I'm not used to that diet." Adrien grinned sheepishly.

"You're going to have to give me the address of your new place. That way I can still visit you!"

"And we don't have to be paranoid 24/7 that someone is going to walk in and see us! And hopefully by that time, you'll be able to stay for longer."

"I don't know, Paris is so expensive to live in. But I couldn't get a dorm because my roommate would definitely figure out my identity sooner or later, which would not be ideal." 

""So you're thinking about staying with your parents then?"

"For a little bit, at least. I've got really good parents and wouldn't mind spending more time with them."

"That just sounds insane to me." Adrien shook his head. "Moving out is one of the things I'm looking forward to the most. I finally get the independence I've wanted for so long. I'll be able to drop any extracurriculars that I don't want to do. As long as my schedule obliges I can hang out with my friends, and might even be able to throw a couple of parties! There's no way I'd be able to get away with that here. My father would take me out of school and you'd never see me again." 

"I definitely don't want that to happen. I really like hanging out with you." Ladybug admitted, and was that blush on her cheeks? No, Adrien must just be imagining things again.

"I really like hanging out with you too, Ladybug."

"And hey! When we're older, we could even do this every night."

"Really?"

"Yeah! And we'll get invites to weddings and get to start families of our own." The sparkle in Ladybug's eyes made Adrien's heart hurt. He wished that sparkle was for him, he'd do anything.

"Yeah, families of our own." He whispered quietly.

"I mean, if that's something that you want. It's totally natural if you don't want to have kids, especially at the age we're at. And if you never have kids, that's totally cool, too. I've just always wanted a big family so..."

"Don't worry." Adrien chuckled. "I definitely want to have a family, too. In fact, I'd adore being a stay at home dad. However, if word got out I think my father would die of shock." 

"I'll be the first to admit I'd love to see that." Ladybug playfully elbowed him. "So, stay at home dad?"

"Yeah. I didn't have the best home life growing up and I really don't want my kids to have that same experience. I want to be there for them at every birthday, first day of school, every concert and recital, every aced test, I want to see it all."

"That's... really sweet." She whispered.

"It's everything I wanted growing up, and if I can't have it, at least my kids will. I'll be damned if my children feel the same way about me that I do about my father."

"You're going to be a fantastic father, Adrien." Ladybug's voice was way too earnest for his increasing heart rate.

"Thank you, Ladybug, I really appreciate that, especially from you."

"Yeah well, it's only the truth. How many kids do you think you'd have?"

"Like two or three? I know I want more than one, but I don't want so many that I keep losing track. I want a home to be cozy, not crowded, you know?"

"I want three kids too, actually." 

"Really? That's a funny coincidence."

"Yeah it really is. I want two boys and one girl, the order of which is up for debate."

Adrien, against his will, couldn't help but picture a boy with her hair and his eyes, a girl that looked like his mother, and one with his hair and her eyes. He loved them already and he wasn't even sure if they would ever exist.

"That sounds perfect." He breathed, and Ladybug shot him a glance packed with too many emotions for him to name.

"Yeah, perfect."

"So uh," Adrien cleared his throat, noticing how heavy the mood had gotten. He wasn't entirely sure what it was, but there was something else in the air. They seemed to be dancing around something, if only he knew what that something was.

"So...?"

"You know I'd bet you will be a great mother." He said before he could stop himself.

"You think so?" Ladybug perked up.

"Well, I've seen some footage of you handling baby August whenever he's akumatized, you're always so kind to him. It's very admirable, really. Plus you've got a solution for everything! Which is something that mothers always seem to have. Also, let's be honest, you're totally the mom friend."

"You're gonna make me blush." She looked down, bashful.

"Good. You deserve to be complimented, too. Whoever ends up marrying you is going to be the luckiest person in the world."

'Real slick there, Agreste.' A voice sounding a lot like Plagg chided him. He pushed it away. 

"And whoever you end up marrying will be right up there. They've gotta be so lucky to catch the eye of Adrien Agreste."

He tried his hardest not to read into her implication, he really did. There was no way she did that on purpose, it would be like if she said she wanted to be his wife! Now that would really be crazy. Although they do both want three kids....

No! He can't be thinking about that, she's got another guy she was interested in.

"Um, uh, thanks." He finally managed to choke out.

"You're welcome. See? The future isn't quite as bleak as we thought."

"Yeah it really isn't. Finally gaining independence, getting married and finally starting a family, it's like all of the things I've ever wanted are going to come true. My life up until now has been so monotone, but once I turn eighteen it'll be a burst of color. I just have to hold out until then."

"If university applications don't kill you first." Ladybug winked.

"Ugh, don't remind me." Adrien stared up at his ceiling.

"But I hope now things don't seem quite as bleak."

"Definitely not. And hey! With every university I research, maybe I can research apartments in the area, too. Like, incentive you know?"

"Very clever. In fact, I might do that, too."

"It'll give you a good idea of what prices might be, although who knows with inflation."

"Hey! No more negative talk about the future, it's too late for that."

"Ok." Adrien laughed.

"I wish you luck with all of the research you have to do." Ladybug stood up.

"Are you leaving already?" Adrien asked, not bothering to hide his disappointment.

"Yeah, sorry to rush off. It's getting pretty close to my curfew and I don't know how I would explain to my parents that I was hanging out with Adrien Agreste."

"Yeah, that would not be good." Adrien flinched thinking about his father's reaction to him sneaking a girl into his house in the late hours of the night. 

"I'll catch you later then, yeah?" Ladybug asked, preparing her yo-yo to swing away.

"Yeah, definitely! And by that time, maybe I'll actually have worked my way through all of the uni research."

"Ha! You can sure as hell try, but there's no way that you're getting through all of that."

"Hey, never doubt my abilities. You're just going to make me even more determined to prove that I did it."

"Well maybe next time you see me, I'll be finishing up with my emails too. If I don't get too caught up in other things, which is probably much more likely."

"Well, either way. I'll see you later, right?"

"Absolutely." Ladybug waved and swung away.

As soon as she was gone, Adrien let out a lovesick sigh. Leave it to her to make everything in life seem just so much better. 

Looking through his email was now not something that daunted him so much. He was no closer to figuring out what he wanted to do, but he didn't care. He would figure something out, eventually. Who knows, maybe one university would specialize in one course that would automatically draw him in. Maybe he would just take a little bit of everything, the possibilities were endless! Because it was his future, no one else's and he could do whatever he pleased. Whether that was taking a gap year, studying physics, or not doing anything at all, it was up to him. But it all started now, with making his way through the 328 emails sitting in his inbox, awaiting to be opened.

With a much better mindset and the incentive of apartment shopping in mind, Adrien turned back to his computer, determined to make it through his emails. 

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There's nothing quite like growing up, is there? Hope you enjoyed this one! Also I apologize for the really late upload, I was away from my computer all day. However it's before midnight where I'm writing this so HA! Still totally counts.                                                                                                           -Colorado