"I may have miscalculated this one, Nathalie."
— Gabriel Agreste
Clearly, Hawkmoth didn't think things through when he akumatized a woman who wanted grandchildren from her daughter. He gave her the power to hypnotize people into making babies. Of course, Gabriel wasn’t expecting himself, his son, or his assistant to fall victim to her powers. And he certainly wasn’t expecting the Miracle Cure to be unable to reverse the aftermath.
Now, almost every woman in Paris is pregnant, even teenage girls. Marinette herself is carrying Adrien's child, having been working on a school project with him during the attack. At least Alya and Nino and most of their classmates are in the same boat. But will this baby finally push Marinette and Adrien together? Or will it doom their romance before it even begins?
Baby Boom is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction written by ShawnaCanon on Archive of Our Own. It is completed with over a hundred chapters, and even has a few companion short stories. Besides the development of Marinette and Adrien’s relationship during and after the pregnancy, the story also focuses on the pregnancies of their friends and family members, and how the magical Baby Boom affects their lives, including Gabriel adapting to having a grandson and what that means for his supervillain career.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality: The lack of abortion services or "day after" contraceptives is surprising, but required to ensure the premise of the story.
- Adapted Out: Lila doesn't appear in the fic at all, and aside from a couple of mentions of Volpina, everybody acts as if she never existed to begin with. The author mentions that they didn't want to use her, and since Lila isn't the kind of character that can just be pushed into the background, she was eliminated completely.
- Alternate Timeline: Averted. When Black Tom accidentally scratches his infant self with his costume claws, he later sees he has gained a scar in the same place he had scratched himself with. He and Keva realize anything they do will definitely alter their own future instead of creating another timeline, making their stakes even higher.
- Babies Make Everything Better:
- Averted for the most part. As all the pregnancies are unplanned and many are Teen Pregnancies, a lot of people are now in some form of trouble. Several charities form to help finance all the new families and multiple foreign doctors have to come in to help with prenatal care, and those are just the problems affecting the general masses. Kagami reveals she will have to marry the Japanese boy who got her pregnant due to social pressure. While some people do end up better off by story's end, it is clear that most people had their lives compromised at best.
- The birth of their son Louis does finally lead to the reveal of Marinette and Adrien’s secret identities and romantic feelings for each other, and they end up getting engaged in the present.
- The pregnancies of their friends do push the respective parents closer together as a result, finding them fall in love or, if they were already dating, engaged.
- Blatant Lies: Chloe spends most of her pregnancy denying that she was pregnant. Even when she admits the truth to Adrien in private, she continues to deny it when around other people, no matter how unconvinced everyone was.
- Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: In the tenth chapter, Marinette and Adrien talk it out and make-up, agreeing to start over.
- Butterfly of Doom: Future Louis and Keva are very careful not to trigger this trope. While they do want to change things so that the Miraculous don’t need to be set aside and the heroes can continue, they don’t want to change things that will alter their families and friends for the worst.
- Cartesian Karma: Mabel's relationship with her daughter is irrevocably shattered by actions she took while driven completely insane by dark magic.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Keva and Louis in the future. Their parents, Alya and Nino, and Marinette and Adrien, respectively, are best friends, and had their pregnancies at the same time. Louis and Keva were born mere weeks apart and grew up together. Louis reveals he fell for Keva when she defended another childhood friend from bullying. When they complete their mission and return to their own time, Louis proposes, and she accepts.
- Compulsive Liar: Chloe spends a chunk of her pregnancy pretending like she avoided Fairy Grandmother's gas, even when everyone around her knows the truth anyway. When it gets to the point where she can't hide it anymore, she ends up telling her parents that the father is XY.
- Cure Your Gays: Fairy Grandmother's powers even work on homosexuals such as Marc and Juleka.
- Deconstruction Fic: The fic deconstructs the "Aliens Made Them Do It and true love blooms" plot by expanding it to truly ridiculous levels. With literally the entire city affected, not everyone got paired up with someone they liked, and even if they did, the experience was still traumatizing. Some couples do become permanent, but it's made pretty clear that it's more in spite of what happened rather than because of it.
- Destructo-Nookie: If Nathaniel and Alix are to be believed, a lot of the Louvre's art was defaced during the Fairy Grandmother attack, fixed later when Ladybug tries using her "Miraculous Ladybug" magic to restore everything.
- Didn't Think This Through: Even Hawk Moth is forced to admit that Fairy Grandmother is far from his greatest Akuma, to the point that he himself undoes the Akumatization before Ladybug and Chat Noir have the chance to show up.
- Door Stopper: This story is an epic of more than 400K words spread around 129 chapters.
- Dramatic Irony: Mabel comes to Gabriel a few years after the Fairy Grandmother incident to ask that he sponsor a charity event. Gabriel agrees and apologizes for everything Mabel has gone through with sincerity. To Mabel, he comes across as a saint, but readers know that he is apologizing to her for being responsible for ruining her life.
- Even Evil Has Standards:
- Hawk Moth acknowledges that the entire mess with Fairy Grandmother was beyond the pale because of how it was pretty much large-scale rape. He also dislikes not being able to return Nathalie's feelings and all the problems he's caused to her.
- Gabriel would never take advantage of Nathalie, not just because he still loves his wife, but because he finds the idea morally repugnant.
- Fairy Grandmother's gas was not indiscriminate; it didn't affect children or the elderly, and there was no incest. If people were stuck with family members (or were alone), they just zoned out for the duration. It's also possible that people who were in a relationship but not with their lovers at the moment were unaffected; Alya mentions that her parents were separated and just zoned out, but it's unclear if there was anyone else around them at the time.
- After one incident, Hawk Moth decides to hold off from akumatizing pregnant women.
- He also calls out Chat Noir for letting Ladybug fight while heavily pregnant, and decides to take it easy in later encounters.
- As much as he wants the Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses, Hawk Moth's not willing to put the lives of babies in danger, particularly his grandson.
- Gabriel, who as Hawkmoth is more responsible for what happened than Mabel herself, apologizes to her for what she has gone through.
- Extra Parent Conception: Zig-zagged. The people do make the babies the standard way, but it’s the Fairy Grandmother’s spell that not only brainwashed them to do it, but also boosted their fertility, guaranteeing they conceived.
- The Future Is Shocking: When Nathaniel travels to the distant future, he finds out that with Ladybug and Chat Noir forced into retirement by Hawkmoth discovering their identities, there were no heroes to fight off the alien invasion and the militaristic regime that they establish.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Enforced. Word of God says that abortion does not exist In Universe, nor do morning after pills or other types of post-conception contraception.
- I Regret Nothing: Gabriel tells Louis that he regrets none of his actions as Hawk Moth, because, among other things, it led to Louis' and Sebastian's births.
- I Want Grandkids: This motivation sets the story in motion. When her daughter tells her she doesn't want to have any children, Mabel LaCrux is upset. She is then akumatized into the Fairy Grandmother, who casts spells on people to get them to make babies. Deconstructed as well. Even if she was akumatized, her forcing the issue and forcing her daughter to become pregnant has destroyed their relationship. By her second appearance, her daughter makes it clear she will never see the grandchild.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- When he thinks Marinette likes Luka, Adrien is willing to do what he can to help them together. Meanwhile, Marinette tries to bury her feelings for Adrien when she thinks he wants to be with Kagami.
- Luka likes Marinette, but knows that she loves Adrien and that he loves her back (even if he doesn't realize it yet), so he never tries to ask her out.
- Nathalie is in love with Gabriel Agreste and helps him with his plans even though she knows the objective is to revive Gabriel's beloved wife Emilie. When he succeeds, in one of the side stories, she lets Gabriel and Emilie adopt her and Gabriel's son Sebastien, and transfers to London, believing that they will be able to care for Sebastien better than she could.
- In the Blood:
- Louis, Adrien and Marinette's son, has his father's penchant for puns and obliviousness and his mother's inability to confess her feelings and being tongue-tied around their Love Interest. A side story Fourteen Years Old also says he inherited his mother’s talent for tripping all over his feet.
- Keva, Alya and Nino’s daughter, is as just impulsive and curious as her mom. She also has hints of Alya’s Fangirl tendencies, and often drags her best friend into situations just like Alya does with hers.
- Sebastien, Gabriel and Nathalie's son, is as much The Stoic as his mother.
- Clarisse, Chloe's daughter, is rarely seen, but shows that she's just as bitchy as her mother.
- Karma Houdini: In the end, Gabriel Agreste gets away with everything he did as Hawk Moth, ensures the future of his company through Adrien and even recovers Emilie (having become a villain to find a way to revive her) a few years after he gives up the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculouses.
- Kid from the Future: Subverted in a way. Louis and Keva meet their parents when they travel to the past. However, to avoid any drastic negative changes, they only meet while in hero disguises. Adrien and Marinette, and Nino and Alya, only meet their future kids as Black Tom and Ladybird, respectively. In the end, the kids return to their own time, and none of their parents learn who they really are until twenty years later, which is actually right after Louis and Keva come back from their mission.
- Legacy Character: A variation. Louis and Keva take up the Cat and Ladybug Miraculouses to replace Adrien and Marinette after Hawk Moth discovers their identity.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: When Kim and Ondine were under Fairy Grandmother's spell, they were in the pool at the time. When they came too, they were both underwater.Kim: We almost drowned!
Alix: I can't decide if that's awesome or incredibly lame. - Making Room for Baby: In Chapter 68, Adrien buys a huge mansion for his new family. Of course, he was expecting a lot more people in it when he made the purchase. He didn’t yet know Ladybug’s identity at the time, so he was expecting to live in it with Ladybug (Marinette), the guy that got her pregnant (Adrien), their baby (Louis), Marinette, her baby (Louis) and the guy she loves (Adrien). So when the reveal happens, he’s embarrassed that his mansion for seven is now for three. Luckily, Marinette gets the idea to invite some of their friends and their babies to fill in the extra room.
- Married in the Future:
- Many of the teens who had children after the Fairy Grandmother attack are shown to be married to each other in the near future, with some even having more kids after their Fairy Grandmother firstborns.
- To Nathaniel's shock, he finds out that Marc and Juleka got married and had kids of their own after Marc had Coccinelle.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Even if it wasn't really her fault, poor Mabel is devastated upon realizing how many lives did she screw up as Fairy Grandmother.
- Mystical Pregnancy: The main point of the first act. The Fairy Grandmother cast spells on people of Paris giving them enhanced fertility and hypnotizing them to have unprotected sex with the opposite gender closest to them at the moment.
- No Sparks: The reason behind Ladybug's constant rejection of Chat Noir. She considers him a great friend and wouldn't want anybody else as her partner, but she just can't see him as anything beyond that. Even when she finally gives him a chance (though mostly to get over Adrien), even if she has fun going on dates with him, Chat Noir can't make her heart flutter the same way Adrien does.
- On the Rebound: When Ladybug finally agrees to date Chat Noir, she warns him that she's mostly using Chat to get over the fact that the boy she likes rejected her. Chat is too happy to care, though, and is confident he can make Ladybug fall in love with him for real. Of course, as he later finds out, he's the guy that rejected her.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: It becomes a Running Gag that people are able to instantly identify White Rabbit as Nathaniel by his red hair.
- Peggy Sue: The third act of the fic. After Hawkmoth discovers the heroes’ identities, Nathaniel travels to the future to see the consequences of the heroes retiring. Without them, the world falls victim to an alien invasion. Going back to a more recent future, Nathaniel recruits a young adult Louis and Keva to act in the heroes' places in the present and defeat Hawkmoth so the heroes won't be forced into retirement for safety purposes.
- Pet the Dog: Gabriel apologizes to Mabel LeCrux over everything she has been through.
- Poor Communication Kills: A good part of the personal problems between Adrien and Marinette are caused by their belief that the other is in love with someone else (Adrien with Kagami and Marinette with Luka).
- Practically Different Generations: Sabine also ends up pregnant due to Fairy Grandmother's magic, meaning that her and Marinette's respective kids will be the same age despite being from different generations. In fact, since Marinette ends up giving birth first, Sabine ends up with a grandson that's older than her second daughter.
- Pregnant Badass:
- Pregnancy won't stop Ladybug from continuing her job of protecting Paris from Hawkmoth and the Akumas he creates. However, as her pregnancy develops, her speed and reflexes naturally decrease, and she's forced to direct her male teammates from the rear and stay away from the action.
- Defied by Alya. As much as she loves being Rena Rouge, she won't do any superheroing as long as her pregnancy lasts. When she bows out, Marinette realizes it wouldn't be fair to ask any of the other girls for help either, which is why she has to make sure the boys are ready to step up. Ladybug, of course, can't retire completely, because she's the only one who can purify akuma.
- Primal Scene: In the future, Adrien's office double-doors are usually open during business hours. If they're closed, it either means he's probably in a meeting, possibly with Marinette, or he's in there with Marinette without a meeting. Louis has learned the hard way that he definitely shouldn't barge in on either one.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: While the future doesn't go to hell right away after the heroes are forced to retire, the distant future does show that without them, aliens will invade and wage war against the Earth, taking it over and making it grim. Louis and Keva from twenty years after the present are recruited by Nathaniel and taken back to his own time to defeat Hawkmoth so that the heroes won’t be forced into retirement to protect themselves.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The whole reason why Gabriel wanted the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous was because he would going to use it to revive Emilie, unaware that she was going to wake up from her coma a few years later all on her own. Although, Mother of the Groom makes it less so, since her awakening was actually triggered due to Gabriel's actions as part of a Stable Time Loop.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Mabel LaCrux/Fairy Grandmother. She only appears three times over the course of a very long story (and one of those times is in a post-finale one-shot), yet she's the one who kicks the whole story in motion, and irreversibly changes the lives of thousands of people, including the main characters.
- Stable Time Loop: By gathering information across the sequels, this trope happens. Louis tells Gabriel that Emilie was going to wake up from her coma all on her own when he was three (i.e. three years in Gabriel's future), encouraging him to give up the Butterfly Miraculous. Years later in Mother of the Groom, Gabriel suspects that his future self lied and uses a magic amulet with a monster trapped within it to try and wake her up in time for Adrien and Marinette's wedding. Gabriel would not have been able to kill the monster (and thus completing the ritual that revives Emilie) without the new Butterfly Hero Monarc, if Louis didn't convince Gabriel to give up his miraculous Marc would never have become Monarch in the first place, Gabriel would not have used the amulet if Louis hadn't told him not to use the miraculouses to revive her and Louis wouldn't have been able to tell Gabriel to do any of this if he hadn't gone back in time and told Gabriel any of this in the first place.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Louis looks so much like his father, than Nathaniel at first mistakes him for Adrien with his hair dyed.
- Teen Pregnancy: What happens to countless teenage girls thanks to the Fairy Grandmother attack.
- That Came Out Wrong: "Hawkmoth got me pregnant!"
- Trust Password: One of the reasons Gabriel Agreste gives up is because Louis mentions something about Emilie he would have never told Adrien or Louis — which means that Louis is telling the truth about Emilie's revival.
- Two-Person Love Triangle: Much like in canon, Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Chat Noir are this. The difference is that several other people, such as Viperion, know about their love square and want to tear their own hair out.
