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Part 6 of *pisses every mlb fan off*
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2024-01-03
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2,673
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1/1
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what do you mean you already knew?

Summary:

Nino notices something off about Adrien and wants to have a one-on-one with him. It's not until he discovers why Adrien is acting so off that Nino's point of view completely flips.

Notes:

this was suggested by the glorious the spectacular the lovely Inumaru12

THIS IS MY REQUEST TO BE MUTUALS BESTIE <3333

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Nino first noticed something strange once Adrien walked into class. He was smiling, yes. His laugh was normal-sounding, sure. He was talking with everyone, maybe. He was acting completely Adrien-like, totally normal, with his private goofy moments with only Nino. But, there was something off. Something weird. 

Sure he was smiling, but Nino couldn't help but notice how tight it would get whenever Marinette tried to speak to him. He couldn't help but notice how Adrien would pinch his wrists, a sign Nino picked up that said he was nervous. Even weirder, he didn't do this except for when he was talking to Marinette. At first, his brain automatically came up with the excuse that he was nervous because Adrien was finally gaining feelings for Marinette. 

If it weren't for the fact that whenever Marinette would "accidentally" brush up against him, he would ever so slightly tense up, that thought would be his conclusion, and he would leave it be. But Adrien would tense up as if he was scared. Tense up as if he was trying to shy away from her. But he was only doing these things whenever Marinette was near him. 

Not to mention, he's been giving Alya a major side-eye for nearly the entire class period. Adrien only does that to Nino, and it's always in a joking manner. But this side eye felt more so as if he was angry at her. 

Adrien barely gets angry. The only few times Nino could tell someone was at the beginning of the year when Chloé was being the worst version of herself. But even then, he always gave her his signature fond smile afterward. That's just the kind of person he is. But with the way his jaw would clench and his leg would slightly bounce, it seemed as if Adrien was genuinely pissed at Alya for whatever reason. 

Nino was intrigued. Mostly worried, obviously, something was bothering his best friend, and Adrien wasn't saying anything about it. Though, Adrien had the habit of doing that. But still, something was wrong with Adrien, and Nino was certainly not about to sit on his butt and let his best friend of all time wallow through whatever he was going through. 

Adrien already has enough on his plate, the least Nino could do was try and remove this new thing off of it. Y'know, hopefully, make it a little easier to carry. 

And when Adrien's pencil was about to crack from how tightly he was holding it, Nino knew it had to be bad. And it clearly had something to do with both Alya and Marinette. He's quite surprised no one else noticed, except Chloé, since Nino picked up on the fact that she did glance over at Adrien a couple of times, a fierce look of concern laced in her eyes. 

Now begs the question; what could be happening, that involves Alya and Marinette, that can cause such a reaction out of Adrien? Nino knew both girls hated Adrien's dad's guts (as they should, screw the dude), so anything involving him was out of the question (for the first time). 

Quite frankly, now that Nino really thinks about it, not a lot of things can make Adrien angry. Annoyed, yes, Nino can't count the number of times Adrien has visibly and verbally expressed how annoyed he can get whenever they hang out. But angry? True, genuine anger towards someone or something?

Nino can't think of a single thing. 

He looks at Adrien, the pencil once in his hand now laid out on his desk. He looks back at Nino and smiles. Nino smiles back but even a blind man could tell that smile looks artificial. If you know Adrien like Nino does. 

Nino didn't want to confront him right now, he knew how well Adrien could easily lie and put up a front to reassure Nino. Especially when they would be surrounded by so many people. Plus, Alya and Marinette are less than five feet from them. Adrien's not stupid, nor would he willingly talk about what's bothering them when the thing is in hearing distance. Nino would need to be alone with him. 

Then, Nino remembered that they had a free period after lunch that day. Luck was on his side today. 

 

 

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"Meet me in Monsieur Bernard's class after lunch, alright?" Nino told Adrien as soon as they sat down in Mme. Mendeleiev's class. Nino knew that M. Bernard practically dipped school during lunch and wouldn't come back until tomorrow. It was perfect. Adrien's eyes slightly widened before he gave the same smile from Ms. Bustier's class and raised an eyebrow.

"Are you not gonna eat with me?" 

"I am, but I need to talk to Alya before lunch ends, so..." Nino dragged on the 'so' and shrugged his shoulders. He pretended to not notice how Adrien's left eye twitched at the mention of Alya. That was the last straw for Nino. The confirmation that something was bothering him. Because it was so obvious that when Nino looked at Mme. Mendeleiev, the teacher was looking dead at Adrien, eyebrows raised. 

Adrien shot both of his eyebrows up and then down, "Alright, I will." 

Nino frowned once Adrien wasn't looking at him anymore, questions burning themselves into his head. His throat itched and clawed at him to say something, to let Adrien know that he was there for him, and he'd always would be. His hands twitched to hug the dude, he wanted to bump shoulders with him, get him to actually smile at him. But he didn't do anything, just went to pay attention to the science teacher in front of him. 

What is going on with you, Adrien?

 

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Nino never needed to talk to Alya. 

He knows it wasn't the best thing to get his confirmation but he couldn't think of anything else. But, that's not important right now. Right now, he needs to meet Adrien in M. Bernand's classroom, located in the back back of the school, hidden behind the library. No one really knows why the school decided to build a classroom in an area where typically no one goes to, but it's perfect in situations like this. 

Nino passed the open doors to the library, heading towards the hallway to go right down to get to the super-duper-secret classroom. He doesn't see Alya or Marinette anywhere, it would be pretty awkward to run into them at this point. Knowing Alya, she'd want Marinette to tag along with Nino to get her and Adrien some alone time. And Alya would kill him if he tried to say he wanted to talk to Adrien alone.

Then, "Alya! I can't find Adrien!" Nino stops dead in his tracks. Crap. He jinxed it. He turns around, it sounds like it came from the library. 

"Girl, it's okay, we'll find him, he couldn't have just...left, y'know?" Alya giggles as she ends her sentence. Oh my god, luck is not on Nino's side. He kept quiet, inching closer to the wall closest to the open doors. Marinette whined. 

"I know but, my schedule says he should be downstairs in the cafeteria still! He's not there!" Nino blinks and hears Marinette muttering to herself and hears footsteps going back and forth—

Wait. He blinked again. Is he finally going crazy or did Marinette say schedule? What schedule? A schedule on Adrien? A rush of curiosity tackled him and drummed his fingers against his thighs. 

Adrien is waiting for him, but what is Marinette talking about? He can't leave Adrien hanging but the word schedule has now burned itself into his brain cells and won't leave. So, like the little spy he is, Nino tip-toes his way into the library, instantly locating Marinette and Alya at one of the school PCs. Marinette is sitting on one of the roller chairs, facing Alya, who's standing next to her. Nino ducks behind a shelf of books. Five seconds go by and Nino realizes just how stupid he looks. No matter. 

Nino peaks his head and squints to see what's on the PC screen. 

Marinette points at it, "After this period, the day ends and he's supposed to go to modeling." Alya nods her head and crosses her arms. 

"Alright. Simple, just wait until the day ends and meet Adrien there." She stops and puts her hands on her hips. She must have wiggled her eyebrows at Marinette because her face turned red, "Get yourself one step closer to the three kids and hamster dream, girl!" 

"Alya!" 

Nino doesn't even remember moving out the door. 

 

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"Adrien!" Nino yelled once he entered the empty classroom. Adrien, who was leaning against the chalkboard, snapped his head towards Nino. His face twisted into a look of concern. 

"Nino? Are you o—" Nino cut him off by slamming his hands onto Adrien's shoulders. His face must have been incredibly serious because Adrien's mouth closed shut. 

"You won't believe what I just heard!" 

Adrien gulped, "What...what did you hear?" His voice was uncharacteristically quiet. Nino was about to speak before he stopped. He made himself think. Like really think. He realized how serious this was. Marinette having an entire schedule on him? Marinette having a pretty detailed dream of the future with her, Adrien, the three stinking kids, and that stupid hamster?

That's not just a casual thing you tell someone, especially if that someone is the person that is most concerned with it. How is Nino supposed to tell him without Adrien freaking out? Without himself freaking out?

Nino sucks at wording things, everyone knows that. More likely or not, Nino is going to say the wrong thing and completely make this entire situation a thousand times worse. If it can even get any worse. 

But, point is, Nino and words don't mix. 

So, firstly, he forced Adrien to sit down, "It's not great, dude, I'm gonna be honest." It wasn't. It wasn't even good. It was bad, awful, scary. As soon as Adrien sat down, he pinched his wrists; he's nervous. Nino would be too. 

He took a deep breath, "How do I even say this?" Nino finds a chair for himself to sit on because, quite frankly, his knees feel weak. He inhaled sharply and exhaled, clasping his hands together in a praying motion, "Okay." 

Adrien pinched his wrists harder. Nino bit his lip and opened his mouth, "I just found out, not even five minutes ago, that Marinette has your schedule." Nino wished he noticed how Adrien stopped pinching his wrists, "And I knew I had to tell you because—holy crap! Our friend has your schedule that is supposed to be private, right? Right! She has it and then Alya was talking about this dream about three kids and some hamster, and I'm like 'woah', " Nino nervously laughed, eyes on Adrien's shirt, "'Woah, woah, now. That's not normal'. And it's not! It's not. Because first of all—how did she even get it in the first place? Where did she get it from? Is it floating around on the internet somewhere?" 

"Nino." 

"Wait, no, then do you know how many girls would be everywhere you would be if it was public? It's private for a reason! Duh! And the dream Alya was talking about! It was so—specific and stupid and oh my god!" Nino leaned back in his chair, eyes locking with Adrien's, "It's the way I originally wanted to talk to you about how off you were acting this morning and how much you were shying away from both Alya and Marinette and I were worried but no one else besides Chloé seemed to notice and I knew something happened because you seemed angry and you never get angry!" 

"Nino." 

"And then I passed by the library and heard them looking for you and I didn't want them to see me 'cause I knew Alya would make me take Marinette with me to try and get you two alone but now that I know about the schedule, there's no way I'm even letting her three feet from you because holy crap, she knows your every move and you already have so much on your plate and—" 

"Nino!" Adrien dove forward and placed his hands on Nino's shoulders, stopping him. He blinked and Adrien awkwardly smiled (why is he smiling at a time like this?), "It's okay, it's gonna be okay." Nino's mouth dropped open and he nearly yelled out. 

"Why are you telling me that? I'm not the one Marinette is keeping constant tabs on, it's you, not me!" He said, clenching his fists shut. But it seemed as if Adrien ignored him. 

"It's gonna be fine, you're gonna be fine, Marinette won't be able to hurt you, I promise—" Adrien's grip tightened. Nino grasped his arms. 

"Adrien!" 

"Let me do this for you, Nino! Please, I—I can't let her hurt anyone else!" He started to shake, eyes seeming to water. 

"What do you mean by that? It's not like you already knew about this! It's my job to make sure she doesn't hurt you, not me!" 

"I already do and I'm determined to protect you and Chloé and Kagami and—"

"Wait, what?" Nino questioned, feeling himself go limp because what did he just say? Adrien must have realized what he said because he shut his mouth so quickly. 

"I—" 

"What do you mean you 'already do'?" Silence. The air between them grew as thick as turkey on Thanksgiving. Adrien adverted his eyes but kept his grip on Nino's shoulders. "Adrien." He still didn't look at Nino. "Adrien."

"I—it's...it's nothing, alright, just—" And Nino just realized the reason behind Adrien's behavior. He knew about it and he still was trying to be friendly with Marinette. Adrien never fails to surprise him with his utter kindness, in both good and bad ways. 

"How did you find out?" All of a sudden, a black orb came zooming out of Adrien's jacket and right in front of Nino's face. He most definitely did not scream like his mom whenever she found a spider in the kitchen, he'll deny that for the rest of his life. But he did throw his hands up and get up from his chair. 

"With the help of me." It can talk. Oh my god. It can talk.

"Who the hell—What the hell—" 

"I'm Plagg, nice to meet you, Nino." Adrien butted in, keeping his eyes on Nino as he got up from his seat as well. 

"This is certainly not how I wanted this to go down but—" Nino's eyes nearly popped out of his skull as he noticed the thing's bright green eyes. Like Chat Noir, strangely. "This is Plagg, as he just said, he transforms me into Chat Noir. And that's how I found out." 

"I—" 

"I know it's a lot but—" 

"I need to sit down."

 

 

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Alright. Recap. 

Nino noticed how strangely Adrien was acting and planned to talk to him about it in a private setting to not overwhelm him. As he went to said private setting, his point of view of Marinette's crush on Adrien was quite literally smashed onto its head once he found out about a schedule (that word is now the bane of his existence) she has on him that basically tells where he is at all times. 

Not to mention, he also found out about a dream she has: three kids and a hamster. Nino has a feeling he doesn't want to know where that came from. And then, when he goes to tell Adrien about it because duh—who wouldn't tell their best friend a friend of theirs is keeping constant tabs on them?—Adrien drops an even bigger bombshell when he reveals he already knew and! This's one a doozy, that he's Chat Noir. 

Nino had to go to the nurse due to the massive migraine he gained. 

It was that day Nino made the promise to keep Marinette at a leg's length. Along with Alya. 

Notes:

IT TOOK ME A WHOLE DAY JUST TO WRITE ADRIEN AND NINO'S SCENE AND I STILL HATE IT pls don't mind how horrible this is, when i said the last one was the worst one i lied THIS ONE IS THE WORST ONE but hoped yall liked it <333

 

tumblr <33

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