Chapter Text
“Alright, dudes,” Nino said, stepping up to the lectern with a rather serious look on his face.
Immediately, the six other people in the room fell silent and turned to face him.
It was the monthly meeting of the Protect Marinette squad, and as the president and founder, Nino was presiding. He pressed a button on the projector set on Mme. Bustier’s desk and their agenda was projected onto the chalkboard.
Nino didn’t know how Chat Noir - their eighth member, who was absent for this meeting - had managed to get the headmaster to let them use a classroom in the middle of the night once a month, especially since they were a group of students with no adult supervision. But somehow, strings were pulled and here they were. He had to hand it to the superhero, it sure beat having to come up with excuses to everyone’s parents and avoiding any eavesdroppers that might be lingering in any of their houses, as well as outsiders trying to steal any of their Dupain-Cheng leftovers that Marinette’s parents were more than happy to hand over for free, no matter how often they tried to offer to pay.
#ProtectMarinette Squad Meeting No. 65
Agenda:
- The Chloé Situation
- The Lila Situation
- Akumas
- Voting
“First topic of discussion, Chloé,” Nino said, and everyone nodded in agreement. Even Kagami pursed her lips at the mention of the blonde, and Luka frowned heavily.
“She seems to be getting better,” Nathaneal offered.
“Correction - Marinette is getting better at dealing with her,” Kim said.
“Yeah, she’s been getting better at dealing with Chloé since the whole Queen Bee thing,” Nino noted, eyeing how Adrien was staying stoically silent as he always did during conversations of this topic.
“In that case, I say we should cross it off the list while continuing to keep an eye on things,” Kagami said, “Chloé doesn’t seem to be a very big concern anymore.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, and Nino made the note on the sheet of paper he had in front of him.
“Moving on to the Lila Situation,” Nino continued, and immediately everyone was frowning. “We obviously know that Lila cannot be trusted anymore.” The other members nodded and grumbled, remembering the one-day expulsion. Adrien in particular looked like he was ready to murder Lila. “For those of us in the class with Lila, we should continue acting cordially towards Lila for the sake of keeping up appearances, but since we know the truth, we can’t trust her or anything she says.”
“It wouldn’t be smart to outright seem distrustful of her,” Adrien said, “because then she might suspect something and take it out on Marinette. And that’s the last thing we want.” The blond picked up a chocolate-chip cookie from the box in front of him and aggressively bit into it.
“Yes, Adrien is right,” Nino agreed, “which brings us into our next topic - risks of Marinette being akumatized. We want to keep those chances as close to zero as possible, so it’s important to continue being good friends to Marinette-” a pointed glance that Adrien somehow missed “-and ensure we’re all valuing her as much as we should be. Any ideas on how we can do that?”
“We could give her a parade,” Kim called, “and carry her around on one of those chairs that four people need to lift in the air - or she could ride on my shoulders!”
“She seems to be a fan of Chat Noir,” Ivan spoke up, “maybe we could start a fan club for him.”
“We could paint a mural in her honor,” Nathaneal offered, “maybe in the courtyard.”
Nodding, Nino jotted all the ideas down as they came up with more - write her a ballad, elect her school president, set up a dinner with Gabriel Agreste (Nino made a face at that one because, well, Gabriel), sneak into her room and finish all her sewing projects for her.
“Let’s throw her a party,” Kagami suggested once the ideas were slowing down. “One with all her friends, to show her how much we all appreciate her. A small one - a surprise.” Everyone looked at her with rather wide eyes. Kagami stared right back at them.
“That’s genius,” Luka said, “we can make food, and have it be outside - after school, or on the weekend, and -”
“-I can get together streamers and things-”
“-we have a bunch of tables at my house-”
“-I can provide the picnic blankets-”
“-I’ll write her a song-”
“-I’ve been practicing baking, I can make a cake-”
“Okay,” Nino tapped his pencil against the edge of his lectern, “let’s get this under control. Why don’t we talk it over in the groupchat later? Right now, we need to focus on voting and getting home soon.”
Everyone settled down and nodded as Nino set out two buckets with “Prez” and “VP” taped to them on Mme. Bustier’s desk.
“You know the rules,” Nino said as he started handing out sheets of paper and pencils, “this is our annual voting for the president and vice-president of the Protect Marinette squad. We’ll have volunteers for those who want to run, then vote by writing names down and putting them in the right bucket. I’ll tally the votes, and then we can go to bed. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m the current President and Kim is the current VP. Any runners for this year’s President?”
The members all shyly glanced around at each other. Kagami pressed her lips together, but no one raised their hand.
“Sweet,” Nino fist pumped, “six years and counting! Okay, anyone want to challenge Kim for VP?”
This time, Adrien raised his hand, as did Luka. Kim started laughing as the other two boys stared at each other in surprise before their eyes narrowed competitively.
“I’m going to leave both of you in the dust,” Kim smirked.
“Okay, we have Adrien Agreste and Luka Couffaine challenging Le-Chîen Kim for the position of Vice-President,” Nino said, “please write down the name of your preferred candidate on your paper and place them in the appropriate bucket!”
After everyone had dropped their papers in the VP bucket and their pencils in the Prez bucket, Nino started counting the votes.
“Adrien … Luka … Adrien … Kim … Adrien … Adrien … Luka. And the winner is Adrien!” Nino smiled at his best bro as Luka shook his hand and Kim gave him a hearty pat on the back. “Congrats, bro! Now remember to check your phones for the text organizing the party, and we’ll meet back here next month, same time. Now let’s go, meeting adjourned.”
Later, Nino wheeled his lectern home, careful not to spill the bag of leftover goodies on top - perks of being the president. Halfway, Chat Noir stopped by to help him and get filled in on the details of the meeting. He wasn’t too upset about not getting to vote, and when Nino told him that Adrien was the new VP, Chat grinned and said he thought the other blond would do a good job.
“Well, see you around, Nino,” Chat said as they reached Nino’s door, “Thanks for filling me in - sorry I couldn’t make it.”
“It’s cool, man,” Nino told him, “Duty calls, I understand.” More than you know , he thought to himself as he watched Chat Noir vault away.
Another successful meeting done, Nino took a glance at the photo of himself, Alya, Marinette, and Adrien that was taped to his computer monitor. A notification lit up his phone - Operation: Adrienette meeting, tomorrow, 10.30 . Stifling a groan, Nino swiped it away and flopped onto his bed. Alya would want him to bring his lectern, of course - and they didn’t get free treats from the Dupain-Chengs for those meetings. While the cupcakes Rose usually made were nice, they weren’t Dupain-Cheng chocolate-chip cookies. Still, sweets were sweets, and that night, Nino dreamt of pastry heaven filled with cookies and cakes and macarons and pastries dancing to one of his remixes.