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“This is all my fault,” said Adrien as he and Nino ground up the long gravel driveway. Far up the hill, the lights of a large building glittered at them.
Nino shoved Adrien with his shoulder. “Can you stop saying that? So the car broke down, and we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere.” Nino shivered. “In the winter. Do you think that hearing you apologize every three seconds makes the walk any better?”
“No,” said Adrien. “I’m just so—”
“—sorry. I know,” said Nino. He sighed, making his breath puff out in a little cloud. “We can talk about it once we’re somewhere warm.”
As Adrien and Nino grew closer to the building, they began to see it for what it was: a small castle. The front doors looked like solid oak, and the door knocker was an intricate metal eagle. Nino swallowed hard.
“You knock,” he said. “You grew up rich.”
Adrien frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“I don’t know! Maybe they have it rigged to open a trapdoor or something if a poor person knocks. I’m not risking it.”
Adrien rolled his eyes. “We have got to get you someplace warm, dude. Sounds like your brain’s frozen.” Lifting the heavy knocker, he rapped on the door twice.
It was some time before a tall, dark haired woman answered the door. “Come in,” she said. “Even if you’re murderers or thieves, you deserve some reward for walking all this way. I have a fire going.”
Inside, the castle was even more wondrous than it had appeared from the outside. Taxidermied animal heads snarled at them from the walls. The woman led them into a drawing room, where Adrien and Nino sat by the fire in a massive pair of wingback armchairs and told their story.
“I’ll call the mechanic in the morning,” said the woman, who introduced herself as Lady Selma. “But you’d better sleep here for the night. The guest bed should be all made up.”
“If you’re sure,” said Adrien gratefully. The feeling was beginning to come back into his fingers. He would have agreed to almost anything if it meant he didn’t have to go back out into the cold. One look at Nino told him that his friend was thinking the same thing.
“Of course,” said Lady Selma. She smiled. “Guests are a rare treat these days. But I’m sure you’re tired. Let me show you the room.”
Something occurred to Adrien. “Just one room?”
“I’m afraid so,” said Lady Selma. “There was a bit of flooding in the west wing last autumn. I haven’t been able to replace all the mattresses.”
“Please don’t worry about it,” said Adrien hurriedly. “It’s so kind of you to give us a place to sleep at all!”
He and Nino were best friends, weren’t they? Sharing a bed with him would be perfectly fine. Adrien didn’t realize he was chewing his lip until it started bleeding. Just fine, he thought as he dabbed at it with a tissue. I’ll be totally normal about this, and Nino won’t notice a thing.
When Adrien turned around, Nino had taken off his shirt. Which was fine and normal and fine. Over the course of his modeling career, Adrien had seen dozens, if not hundreds, of shirtless men. He had even seen Nino shirtless before on occasion, though he tried not to linger on those memories.
It wasn’t good to let himself dwell on how pointlessly, hopelessly in love he was with his best friend.
Nino saw his expression. “I thought I’d give my clothes a chance to dry out,” he said, with his hand on the zipper of his pants. “I can put it back on.”
Adrien hurried to shake his head. “No, that makes sense! Because it’s warm in here, and it was wet out there. And our clothes are wet.”
“Right,” said Nino.
Adrien turned away, pulling his own shirt over his head. Nino’s logic made complete sense. The drive back into the city tomorrow would be much more comfortable in dry clothes, and he wasn’t exactly enamored with the idea of sleeping in wet jeans. There was nothing romantic about sharing a bed with his best friend. Even if they were both in their underwear.
“Ahh,” said Nino, stretching out on top of the covers. Adrien tried not to notice the mole on his stomach or the sharp line of his collarbone. “Wonder if I’m the poorest person ever to spend the night in this room.”
“Probably not,” said Adrien. “See how small it is? It probably used to be part of the servants’ quarters.”
Nino rolled his eyes. “And here I was hoping to put one over on the ghost of some snobbish lord.”
“Sorry,” said Adrien automatically. He spread out his clothes beside Nino’s and took a seat on the corner of the bed farthest from his friend.
Nino was studying Adrien’s face. “You’ve apologized a lot tonight,” he said.
Adrien pleated a corner of the bedspread. “Yeah, because it was my car that broke down.”
“Oh no!” Nino threw up his hands. “You mean it’s your fault that I have to spend the night in a castle? Alya and Marinette are going to flip when we tell them about this tomorrow.”
Adrien tried to swallow his guilt. Nino was right. This was pretty cool. “They are, aren’t they?”
“Yeah.” Nino pulled back the blankets, climbed under the covers, and patted the space beside him.
Adrien lay down next to Nino, careful to keep their skin from touching. He was okay. He was normal. He could get through this night.
Nino leaned forward, invading Adrien’s space until Adrien could feel the warmth of his body. “It’s a cold night,” said Nino. “I bet we’d both be more comfortable if we snuggled.”
Adrien swallowed. “If you’d like,” he managed. “Would you like that?”
“I would,” said Nino. Putting his arms around Adrien, he snuggled closer.
Adrien knew he was blushing. Nino’s skin was impossibly soft. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had held him like this.
With Nino’s head on his chest, Adrien couldn’t see his face. Was he flirting on purpose? There was only one way to be sure.
“That’s a lot warmer,” said Adrien.
Nino hummed happily. “Yeah? Feeling better, dude?”
“Almost.” Adrien took a deep breath. He could feel Nino’s heartbeat. “But my lips are still cold.”
In an instant, one of Nino’s hands was cupping Adrien’s cheek and their faces were inches apart. “Is that right?” Nino asked, looking from Adrien’s eyes to his lips and back again. “I’d better warm you up, then.”