Adrien meant everything to Nino. Sure he had other friends, like Alya and Marinette, and they both meant a lot to him, but there was something special about Adrien. When Adrien was around, the worst pain was but a subtle blow. Adrien was like a sunbeam shining on Nino whenever he was there.
It’d been a week since they’d seen each other, and Nino had been hopelessly missing him. There was a big photoshoot he had to go on, somewhere up north in Germany. Today was the day he returned, and you could see it in Nino’s step as he skipped his way to school.
Outside the building, he glanced around for the blond teenager. He spotted his nanny driving away, and figured he must be inside. He sprinted up the stairs, a smile already plastered on his face.
He stumbled into the classroom and spotted Adrien’s bouncing blond hair as he laughed with Marinette and Alya.
“Adrien!!” said Nino, sliding into their shared seat and outstretching his arms.
“Nino!” responded Adrien, with equal energy. He returned Nino’s embrace and the two held each other for a moment. Nino’s stomach fluttered and he grinned.
“I missed you!” said the hat-wearing student, sitting back onto his heel.
“So did I,” said Adrien with a smile.
“Adrien! Tell Nino about what happened!”
Nino questioningly cocked his head.
“I met this model Marinette really likes.” Said Adrien.
“Oh my God, Adrien.
That’s like, Marinette’s idol!”
“She’s not my idol, I’d just really like her to model my clothes.”
Nino grinned, not really knowing who that was. Alya and Marinette continued to talk excitedly. The teenager turned back to Adrien, who was watching the two girls humorously.
“You know, I’d think you’d be more into this stuff seeing as you’re a model,” said Nino, now pulling his knees to his chest.
Adrien turned. “Meh. I do the modeling ‘cause of my dad, and I’ll pay attention for Marinette, but it doesn’t really interest me.”
Before Nino could respond, the teacher began calling attention and the group face forward for school.
***
It was later that day, and Nino fiddled with his headphone cord, staring at the paper before him. He was sitting on the carpet floor of his living room, listening to music as he worked through his math homework. Adrien sat a few feet away on the couch, working on the same assignment.
“Hey Adrien, what did you get for 32?” Nino asked, taking his headphones off.
“Uuuuh, 43.5.”
“Really? ‘Cause I got 8
”
Adrien’s eyes furrowed. “You’re usually better at this than me, show me what you did.”
Nino nodded, beckoning for his friend to join him on the carpet. Adrien leaned in, looking at Nino’s paper. The blond teenager rested his weight partially on his friend, and Nino felt the warmth of his skin against his.
“Um-“ Nino choked. His face felt warm, and he fiddled with his cord more aggressively now. “Well I-“ He led his friend through the steps carefully, trying to ignore their close proximity.
Adrien nodded, standing and returning to the couch. Nino gave his friend a thumbs up and returned to his music. He stared at the paper, but he couldn’t focus. He kept stealing glances at the model on his couch, uncomfortably aware of his beating heart.
The rest of the evening continued mostly smoothly before Adrien’s nanny came to pick him up. When Nino went to bed that evening, he found himself thinking about their moment earlier, and how flustered he’d been. Normally the brown-haired teenager was fine with physical affection, more than fine as his friends could tell you. He was comfortable, hugging and leaning on his friends daily. And yet, Adrien had done so little as to lean into him a little and he’d freaked out.
He found himself rubbing that arm that Adrien had leaned into as he fell asleep.
***
The three teenagers strolled peacefully down the street, enjoying their hot pastries. It was just Alya, Marinette, and Nino today, although that wasn’t unusual considering Adrien’s strict father.
“It’s just- I think Chat Noir is better than Ladybug,” said Marinette, exasperated.
“How- How can you say that? I run the Ladyblog???”
“Nino back me up.”
Nino hadn’t been listening. The events of Friday has still been sticking in his mind, the simple act of Adrien leaning into him for a math problem— a math problem! Wait what did Marinette want?
“Nino, say Ladybug is better.” Said Alya.
“Um, Ladybug is—“
“No!” Marinette put her hand over Nino’s mouth, “She’s tricking you.”
“Uh—What were y’all talking about?” asked the hat-wearing teenager, once Marinette took her hand back.
“What’s going on Nino? You’re all out of it,” asked Marinette.
“And we were arguing about if Ladybug or Chat Noir is—“
,” said Marinette, before taking a bite of her chocolatine.
“No really—“
“No boy, now I’m curious,” said Alya.
“Well I’ve just been super awkward about like… Physical affection all of the sudden.”
“What do you mean?” Marinette asked, balling up the tissue from her pastry.
“Well the other day when I hugged Adrien, and then later he leaned into me to look at a math question and—I just felt really awkward.”
“Understandable, there are times when I don’t really want to touch anyone,” said Marinette.
“Same, you just have to tell people you’re not up for physical affection,” said Alya.
Marinette nodded in agreement. “I didn’t make you uncomfortable earlier, did I?”
Nino shook his head. “No, that was fine.”
“And I hugged you when we met up, was that uncomfortable?” asked Alya.
“Um… No. Now that I think about it, it’s only been with Adrien.”
Alya giggled. Marinette shot a stern look. “Did he do anything to upset you?” asked Marinette.
“No! I really missed him, too!”
“So like—what
of awkward was it?” Alya said, leaning in.
“I don’t know? My face got all hot and I got butterflies, and I felt like I was choking—You aren’t suggesting it was like-“ Nino gulped, “Romantic.” He squeaked.
“AHA! You do have a crush on Adrien,” Alya said, to which she received a jab in the side from Marinette.
Nino’s face was on fire now, and his hand drifted to his headphones, which he fiddled with as he thought.
“Come on, let’s get inside to talk about this,” said Marinette, gesturing to her house, which they were coming up on. The others nodded, and the three made their way to Marinette’s room.
***
“I CAN’T have a crush on him. He’s like… my friend!” The flustered teenager was on the bed, making wide movements with his arms as he ranted. “I mean that’s crazy! Insane! No one would say that!”
“But you did,” said Alya, gesturing with her soda can.
“Alya, don’t be mean,” Marinette smiled sympathetically at Nino. “It’s not fun having a crush on your best friend.”
Nino groaned and laid back on the bed. “Don’t you have shit to do Alya?” said Nino as he checked his phone.
“I can stay a little longer,” She said, also pulling her phone out to check the time. “Oh—I guess I can’t! I will help you with your crisis later.” She patted Marinette’s head as she stood, “See y’all later!”
After Alya left, Nino sat up. “Wanna play video games and forget about our horrible love lives?”
“Please.”
***
The two played Minecraft for the next few hours, talking about pretty much anything than the topic at hand.
“Are you staying overnight?” asked Marinette after they’d been building appropriately long.
“Yeah.”
“Alright I’ll let my parents know.” She stretched, standing to go downstairs. “It’s probably almost time for dinner.”
Nino also stood, and the two went downstairs. Marinette’s parents were sitting in the living room, with the news on. The black haired teenager went to talk to them, and Nino found himself leaning against the wall. There hadn’t really been any resolution earlier, and the question was still in his mind:
It had seemed ridiculous at the time, but as Adrien was thinking about it now it wasn’t completely impossible. I mean when he first met Adrien, he thought he was cute. And he’d been having pretty different feelings about him for a while. He hadn’t really noticed when it was happening, but it’d been a few weeks that hanging out with him was
somehow. He pulled his phone out of his pocket to text his sister.
“You let your parents know you’re staying?” asked Sabine, standing up and walking over to Nino.
“Uh yeah, I’m texting my sister right now.”
“Alright good,” said Marinette’s mom with a smile, “We’re having dinner soon, so be sure to go wash up!”
The family had dinner, and it was barely a moment before the two teenagers disappeared upstairs with a plate of cookies. Nino’s bed was a sleeping bag set up on Marinette’s floor, which he took a seat on, Marinette sitting on her bed.
“Have you thought about Adrien at all?” asked Marinette.
Nino groaned, “Yes. And I’m totally dumb. I definitely have a crush on him.”
Marinette giggled. “Sucks for you.”
“Yeah like you have it any better.”
“Say one more word, Lahiffe.” Marinette leaned forward, eyebrows furrowed. After a moment of tension the two erupted into laughter.
“Okay I won’t tease you about your crush on Aly-” He stopped, seeing her glare.
“Okay but seriously what are you gonna do about it? You should tell him, you guys are so close, you’ll be fine afterwards.”
Nino shifted. “But-- What if he doesn’t want to talk to me anymore.”
Marinette leaned forward. “Take it from me, I’ve had a best friend completely and totally in love with me, eventually he got over it and we’re still the best of friends.”
“Who’s that?”
“Not telling you,” said Marinette with a grin.
Nino shrugged. “But, it’s awkward man. I don’t want him to be weirded out or something.”
“Nino, he won’t be.” Marinette’s voice turned soft and she gave a sympathetic smile. “You guys are too close for something like this to mess up your relationship.”
Nino’s hands drifted to his headphone cord, and he fiddled with it.
“But it’s okay Nino, you’re still figuring this out. There’s no pressure to tell him right away.” Marinette leaned over, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Thanks for the advice Marinette, maybe you could take some of it yourself.”
“I--” The black-haired teenager gave her friend a playful slap on the face. Nino responded with a giggle.
The conversation drifted after that, but Nino’s mind was still thinking about it. That night when they went to sleep, the scenarios in which he confessed were playing out in his mind. Eventually he reminded himself not to get ahead of himself and think about his actual feelings towards Adrien, then he fell asleep and forgot all about it.
Hi! I’m Hyacinth, I’m an artist and writer, and I am currently fixating on who knows what! I’ll probably post about and reblog about miraculous, danny phantom, the owl house, and warrior cats. (im a mess atm, consider me Multifandom)
My pronouns are per/pers and he/him, the first being preferred. he/him is only there if you absolutely refuse to try and use per/pers.
You can send in art and fic requests (either to asks or DMs), although they might take a lot of time to fulfill. Here’s my AO3. I do often fill them even if they’ve been left for months though (I recommend turning off anon so you can be notified.
