Chapter Text
If anyone had asked Nino 5 years ago what he would be doing during his last year of Lycee, he would have instantly responded with an enthusiastic lecture about his goals to pursue a film career in the States.
If they had ask 2 years- and one horribly mismanaged student film project- later, his answer would have shifted towards a long term career goal working as a DJ across Europe. If you caught him on just the right day, he might even admit to a secret hope that he might somehow, magically, join the ranks of the Paris’ masked heroes.
Now, a good two thirds of his way through that final year of school, Nino Lahiffe had, in fact, found himself working alongside the Miraculous team- somehow becoming an integral part of the small band of teens who tirelessly fought against the mystical evils of the universe. Not as a hero himself, mind you. He hadn’t received any cool new jewelry in a mysterious little box that could grant him super powers.
Now, his role was much more unique. One could actually argue that he was the true key player that Hawkmoth should be focused on, (not that Mr. Butterflies was aware of that fact). Because Nino knew one thing that no other person in Paris did- the secret identities of all 4 of the cities masked heroes. The over-emotional, melodramatic, needy, socially awkward heroes. Which probably explained why whenever his mother pestered him about his plans for life after graduation, he found himself seriously questioning how lucrative it could be to enter into the field of psychology.
It had started with Alya of course. She had only lasted about two weeks into her new double life before she accidentally outed herself during a 3am sleep deprived facetime call.
At first it had been pretty cool with just the two of them. Nino had been in a perfect position to help her manage her new need for stealthy exits, and God knows he was certainly better at coming up with plausible excuses than she was for her sudden disappearances and suddenly hectic schedule. They had even put together a carefully edited video of Alya interviewing the newest member of ‘team miraculous’ for the Ladyblog, to help keep suspicious off or her secret identity.
It had been a good eight months before his next superhero revelation, when he had accidentally walked in on Ladybug detransforming into Marinette. It had been a surprise, but not an unpleasant one,and after her initial freak out at having been discovered Marinette seemed eager to have someone that she could finally share her secret with. However, this did mark the beginning of the complication of Nino’s own life, because while he might know both Alya and Marinette’s secrets- they didn’t know each others.
Chloe had come to him. That had been quite the evening, when Queen Bee had first dropped down onto his 4th floor balcony and started venting about her problems. Apparently she had gotten the impression that he was some sort of superhero sounding board. After about a month of her biweekly visits Nino had been confident enough to confront her about her identity, after all, for all her skills subtlety was not one of them. And while Alya and Marinette, (and to be honest a lot of the rest of the class) had been surprised to see him and Chloe on speaking terms, it had made Adrien happy that Chloe was finally getting along with one of his other friends.
Adrien had held out the longest, and was the only person who had actually meant to reveal his identity. To say he had been shocked when his best friend had transformed into Chat Noir right in front of him was an understatement.
Still, he was proud of his friends, and it had been very gratifying to know that he was, in his own way, helping in the fight against Hawkmoth.
Now if only they could take a hint.
Despite his best efforts, he hadn’t managed to convince a single one of them that it might be in everyone’s best interest to lighten up on secrecy angle. Which is how he found himself in the peculiar situation that he was now, gaping awkwardly at the quartet of heroes yelling at each other on his terrace.
…
“Listen, I don’t care if you have an appointment with the President, I was here first!”
“Oh yeah right! I definitely got here before you!”
“Yeah but unlike you I have other appointments today so you can just run off and come back later.”
“Oh buzz off!”
“Guys there is no need to fight! I am sure we can work something out. Besides I was clearly here before either of you two.”
“Chat you aren’t helping!”
“Well I am kind of on a time crunch here!”
“What, gonna be late for your afternoon catnap?”
“If by cat nap you mean a multimillion dollar work commitment then sure!”
“Oh as if any of us believe that. You’re problem worried you’ll be late for a date.”
“So what if I was? Would you be jealous?”
“Ha. You wish.”
“Stop getting distracted with your flirting whiskers, now tell foxface to come back later.”
“HEY!” Nino shouted causing all four superheros to spin towards him. “What is going on?”
“I needed to talk to you,” Vix said elbowing her way forward, a rather impressive feat on the small balcony.
“We ALL needed to talk to you,” Ladybug clarified, grabbing onto Vixens tail and giving it a quick yank to keep her from getting too far away from the pack. Nino had to bite back a smile as he watched Vixen flush. He wondered if Ladybug realized how much her innocent behavior flustered her co-workers. Probably not. She still refused to believe that more than half the class had crushes on her.
“I am guessing you don’t mean all at the same time,” he said.
“Of course not! Our sessions are private, you know that!” Bee cried indignantly.
“Bee, how many times do I have to tell you they aren’t sessions. I am not your therapist.”
“But I pay you.”
“No, you bring me gifts that I continue to give back to you.”
“You kept the 50 inch flat screen.”
“That was a birthday present.”
“It counts!”
Nino rubbed at his temples a raised a hand for quiet. “Alright, that is it, I am settling this right now! Each of you gets half an hour and I don’t want to see any superheroes lurking in the shadows before their timeslot,” Nino growled.
“Ooo! I’ll go-”
“We’ll do this alphabetically,” Nino interrupted before Queen Bee could insist on going first and start a whole new round of arguing, “Chat, Ladybug, Queen Bee, and Vixen.”
“You would put him first,” Vixen muttered glaring at Nino and crossing her arms.
Nino wondering if he had some migraine medication left somewhere in his room.
“I want everyone who isn’t called Chat Noir off my balcony in the next 30 seconds or I am going to lock myself into my room all night and pretend that all of you don’t exist.”
There was a bit more assorted mumbling as the three heroines took their leave, but soon enough Nino found himself alone with a relieved looking cat.
“Thanks for putting up with us,” Chat laughed, “I can’t imagine what I would do in your shoes.”
“Probably kick out everyone except Ladybug and start reciting sonnets,” Nino teased dropping down into his chair and picking up his soda.
Chat’s shoulder drooped and he leaned heavily against the railing.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Nino asked sympathetically.
“Look, I know you’ve always been really supportive of my feelings for Ladybug.”
“That goes without saying.”
“And you seem to think that she has feelings for me too.”
“I don’t think, I know. Trust Nino. Nino is wise.”
“I just think it’s time to give up,” Chat admitted turning to face Nino. “It’s been years! Never once in the whole time we’ve been partners has she given me the impression that she is interested in me in that way. I mean, we are about to enter into a whole new stage of life and I feel like maybe I need to be focused on moving forwards.”
Nino opened his mouth to argue but held back. He had a feeling there was more to this story than he was aware of.
“So what exactly do you mean by ‘moving forwards’?” he asked instead.
“Well,” he blushed ducking his head down and staring at his feet, “I’ve never been in a relationship.”
“The superhero supermodel who can’t score a date.”
“Shut up, I’m being serious.”
“And I’ve told you a dozen times that I can list off at least 5 people who would happily date you if you gave it a chance. You’re the one who can’t see past his tunnel vision.”
“Well what if I said I was looking now?” Chat asked raising his eyebrow. Nino felt his breath catch a little bit.
“Dude, are you serious?” he breathed. Never once in their years of friendship had Adrien ever showed signs of straying from his unending crush on Ladybug, even during the times when Nino had rather wished he would.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” Chat confessed, dropping his gaze back to the ground again. “I mean, I still love her, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like it’s stupid to put my life on hold for a crush that isn’t going anywhere. Maybe I need to look at other options you know?”
“You know Marinette is still single,” Nino said innocently.
“Nino for the millionth time Marinette and I are just friends,” Chat said although his face seemed to flush even deeper behind the edges of his mask.
“Ok, putting aside your oblivious pigheadedness for a moment, what sort of options were you thinking about?” Nino asked taking another drink of his soda.
“Well Queen Bee asked me out last night.”
Nino spat out his soda and began violently coughing.
“She did WHAT?” he choked as Chat patted him gingerly on the back.
“She asked me out. We were commiserating about our uncertainty about the future, and how Ladybug is probably never going to give either of us a chance-”
“I’m gonna kill her. I swear to god I am going to kill her.”
“And then we started talking about feelings in general, and she mentioned that she has always had a bit of a crush on me as well-”
“Oh I’ll bet she did.”
“Which was sort of surprising cause I never would have guessed that. I mean, yeah we’re pretty close but she’s never really flirted with me the way she does Ladybug, or even Vix for that matter.”
“I hate my life so much right now.”
“Anyways she suggested we try hanging out but in a date like way, and if we hit it off maybe we could reveal our identities and whatnot.”
“Oh I bet she did,” Nino seethed.
“It’s not a terrible idea,” Chat said. “And we do get along well so maybe it could turn into something more. Besides, I mean you know both of our identities and nothing terrible has happened. ”
“It’s not the identity part I am worried about,” Nino hissed. “Besides she already figured you out months ago.”
“Wait, she did what?”
“Uhh….” Nino grimaced, fiddling nervously with his bracelets.
“She know’s who I am?”
“Yeah.”
“And you knew that she knew?”
“Obviously,” Nino sighed. “Look I didn’t mean to spill the beans but to be honest it’s getting pretty hard to keep track of everything at this point.”
“Sorry.”
“Dude, I am not upset. And even if I was the girls have been dragging me into their drama long before you decided to own up to your duel identity.” Nino bit his lip trying to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. “Look, what’s this really about? No offence to Bee or anything, but I feel like more is going on then your sudden need to start dating.”
Chat flushed guiltily and looked out across the skyline.
“Talk to me,” Nino encouraged gently, laying a hand across his friend’s shoulder.
“You’re right,” Chat sighed, “I honestly don’t know what I really want anymore. It’s just… I guess I am worried that everything is falling apart you know? We haven’t had any major new villains lately which is great, but…”
“But you aren’t as needed.”
“Exactly. I mean we still do patrols and stuff but more and more lately it feels like it’s just been everyone on their own.”
“They are probably just busy with exams. Not all of us are you you know.”
“Maybe. But what if it isn’t? What if we all start drifting apart? And I am not just talking about the Miraculous crew either. What about our school friends? What if we never see each other?”
“Adrien,” Nino said spinning him around, “That’s never going to happen ok? Do you really think that your friends would just walk out on you because our lives get busy, or we don’t see each other every day in class? Do you think I would do that to you? Do you have any idea how much I care about you?”
Chat’s eyes raised back up to his again with an oddly searching expression.
“Nino?”
Both boys jumped and turned their heads towards the house at the sound of Nino’s mother’s voice coming from inside.
Gesturing for Chat to hide out of sight, Nino quickly slide back into his room in case him mom came looking.
“Nino dear, you’re girlfriend is here,” she called as the door to his bedroom opened.
“Of course she is,” Nino muttered under his breath as a non-repentant looking Alya came in through the door with a victorious smile.
“Hey honey, how is everything going?” she asked sweetly.
“I thought you were going to come over later,” he said pointedly.
“Oh come on, let me have my fun. It’s not like any of them know.”
“I know.”
“Well duh, but come one I can totally try to finagle some interviews. After all who knows how much time I am going to have once we start at university?”
“Alya, I am in the middle of something kind of important,” Nino groaned.
“Yeah Vix, it’s not polite to cut in line you know.”