#well mostly alya but nino is a key player

[2manyfandoms2count]

The set up - Chapter 1

Because I didn't have enough wips already, here's a new one! It's set post Gang of Secrets; I figured that it might be asking a little too much from the show to give us an Adrien/Nino reveal, since they seem to like keeping our dude off the screen, but what could happen is Adrien telling Nino how he feels about Ladybug... And that news reaching Alya. And Alya doing her thing to make Ladrien happen, because as it turns out, Ladrien is actually Adrienette. Hope you enjoy this first chapter! Stay tuned for more...

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Chapter 1

Adrien sighed as he silently played with his can of orange juice, drawing a tight smile from Nino. The two boys had been sitting on what they considered “their” riverside bench in silence for a while now, the only sound being the sipping of their drinks, but this was the first time Adrien was providing any kind of indication as to how he was feeling. Up until then, his face had been just as blank as his dad’s, which Nino had to admit was pretty scary, given the fact that his friend had sprung the news that he and Kagami were over earlier in the day, just as Mme Bustier had started giving her class that morning, and hadn't addressed the topic since.

Despite all of his efforts, Nino hadn’t been able to find a good moment to talk to him about it since then. They’d constantly been surrounded by people, and Adrien had either displayed his model smile, or his blank façade any time anyone brought up the fencer prodigy. Nino had however hoped that this familiar space, which he’d suggested on purpose to supposedly make the most of the end of summer’s weather, would give his friend the environment he needed to finally express himself. He gave himself a mental shout out for guessing right.

“Hey dude, by the way, I'm really sorry about you and Kagami,” Nino said, tentatively patting him on the back. “You know you can talk to me about it, if you feel like it.”

Adrien started, and looked up a little wildly, as if he’d been caught rifling through his parents’ closet in search of his Christmas presents, before his expression settled on something softer, truer. “Thanks, man.” He sighed again, and Nino noted this one wasn’t as wistful as the first one he’d caught. “To be honest, I understand her decision of ending it. I wasn’t really there enough for her, for us.”

“Really?” Nino frowned. “I thought you guys managed to sneak off most of the time? I’s kind of a feat when you both have hawks tracking all of your movements.”

“Well, yeah, we had the opportunities…” Adrien raked a hand through his hair before continuing. “But I kind of had to bail on her a lot anyway.”

“Your gorilla kept finding you?”

“Eh… Something like that, I guess.” Adrien trailed off elusively. Nino was about to probe further when Adrien’s sad smile turned into something more sheepish. “But even without that, if I’m completely honest with you, my feelings for Kagami were… Well, it feels more like I’ve lost a very good friend than something more. I wasn’t entirely faithful to her.”

“What do you mean?”

At some point during their conversation, Adrien had casually put down his soda can on the edge of the bench, and taken out his lucky charm out of his pocket. Nino noticed he was absentmindedly fiddling with it.

‘Well…” Adrien looked around them carefully, even though the spot was pretty out of the way of any passersby, and leaned towards him. His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “I’m actually kind of in love with somebody else. I thought I liked Kagami enough that I could maybe get over her, but…”

Nino’s eyes darted from his friend’s slight blush to the object in his hands, which he was looking at kind of bashfully. The gift Marinette had given him. No way, he thought as he connected the dots. This dude really just needed to get into a relationship to realise his feelings? Is this really happening?

“Oh, really?” Nino drawled out, feeling a smile spread on his lips. Oh man, wait until I tell Alya…

“Yeah. It’s…” Nino was really struggling to keep his cool, his mind already whirring in search of a plan to get his two best friends together. He was so focused on it that he almost missed Adrien’s last word. “...Ladybug.”

Nino froze as he looked at his best friend, who was dreamily looking in the distance.

“Huh?” He choked on his congratulatory words. “You mean Ladybug, Ladybug? Like, the hero of Paris?”

“More like the hero of my heart,” Adrien sighed blissfully, and Nino could have sworn there were sparkles in his eyes.

Oh man, this dude is whipped, he thought. “Wow, okay.” He whistled softly. “And, erm… Does she know it? That you love her, I mean?” He refrained from asking if she knew him. Because of course she did, he knew from the Ladyblog that she’d saved him a couple of times. The footage analysis had actually managed to shake Alya in her faithful Adrienette and Ladynoir shipping boots.

“Eh…” Adrien’s tentative shrug soon turned into a thorough head shake as his eyes refocused on his friend. “No. No, she doesn’t.”

“And, erm… Do you think you’ll be telling her next time you see her?”

Adrien’s gaze darkened a little. “I’m not entirely sure when that’ll be, actually.” No kidding, you guys meet, like, super sporadically. “And I’m not sure she’s in the right frame of mind right now.”

“How would you know?”

Adrien froze. “Oh, er, grapevine, all that jazz.” He waved vaguely.

Nino was about to ask what grapevine he was talking about, since the closest thing to one he knew was the Ladyblog, which he knew couldn’t be it because surely Alya would have been all over the information that Ladybug wasn’t okay had she known, organising something to cheer her up, when Adrien’s phone rang.

Nino couldn’t make out what Nathalie was saying, but it had Adrien rolling his eyes and getting up on his feet.

“I’ve got to go.” He pouted. “But I really appreciated talking to you about this. Thanks for listening, dude.” He patted his shoulder. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, see ya, dude,” Nino called out weakly as his friend walked away.

He slumped against the back of the bench once his friend had disappeared from his view, and chugged the remainder of his juice, eyes unfocused.

For a second, Adrien had made him believe that he was okay. Telling him he was in love with Ladybug, of all people, made him think he was anything but.

My baby chick is even more delusional than I’d thought, he sighed as he crumpled the can and blindly threw it back towards the bin. He missed, and made a mental note to practise more as he got up and picked it up. So much for Adrienette, he sighed as he looked at the can in its rightful place. Now, how to break the news to Alya?