“She’s not here right now, I’m sorry,” Marlena said. “Alya rushed off to Marinette’s house an hour ago. I think she said something about her friend having a crisis?”
Nino nodded politely. “Thanks for letting me know. It’s no big deal, I was just planning on surprising her with this new playlist I’d made. I’ll just show it to her at school tomorrow.”
Assuming that she wasn’t busy whispering with Marinette about something. The two of them had been close ever since Alya’d moved to Paris, but lately Marinette and Alya had been less “thick as thieves” and more “attached at the hip”.
As he turned to walk away, Marlena caught his arm. “Wait.”
He stopped, looking Alya’s mom over more thoroughly than he’d done a few seconds before. Her wings looked a little ruffled - nothing too bad, but combined with the worry in her voice… “What happened? Is something wrong with Alya?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “That’s the problem.”
He frowned. “You don’t know?”
Alya wore her wing covers when in public, like most people did. Few people wanted to show every random passerby how they were feeling at any given time, so they covered them up for privacy’s sake.
But it was common to remove wing covers when among friends and family, and Alya was no exception. She’d wear them to school, of course, but would usually take them off whenever meeting up with friends inside, or when just not feeling particularly worried about what any random stranger might think of her.
She had been wearing her wing covers more often than usual, though. Even when she and Nino were alone in her room. He’d thought it was strange at the time, but everything seemed strange after Monarch’s announcement that he’d stolen most of the Miraculous. His own wings had been a little droopy that night. Poor Wayzz. Hopefully the little dude was doing okay, even while being held captive by Monarch.
“She hasn’t taken off her wing covers around us in weeks,” she confessed. “Not even during mealtimes or at night. Not that I’m seeing her at night all that often. She sleeps over at Marinette’s place two to three times a week. I don’t have a problem with that, Marinette’s a sweet girl and her parents are some of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, but… it just seems off.”
“I had noticed her walking to school with Marinette more often.” He’d been disappointed that Alya’d been wanting to walk with her more often than him, but after the debacle with thinking she was cheating on him with Chat Noir, he wasn’t inclined to push on that front. He didn’t want to accidentally push her away while trying to keep her close.
“Could you ask her what’s going on? I thought maybe she’d open up around you more than us. I was thinking of asking Marinette as well, but she hasn’t come over since Alya started acting cagey, and I’m not desperate enough yet to call her directly.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get to the bottom of this! Detective Nino is on the case!” Though with less spying and more just asking what was going on. He’d learned his lesson.
Marlena’s wings drooped in relief. “Thanks.” She looked back towards the kitchen. “Want some curry for the road? I made too many portions since I’m used to Alya being here.”
Nino’s eyes lit up. “You’re an angel, dude!”
She chuckled a little, before getting a container for him to take the curry home.
----
He waited on the school steps the next day. Sure enough, Alya and Marinette walked to school together. Alya’d probably slept over there again.
Alya arched an eyebrow as he ran up to her, smiling. “What’s the occasion?”
“I made a cool new playlist for you, see!” he held out an earbud to her, before shaking his head. “Dammit, that’s not the reason I waited for you - okay it’s not the only reason I waited for you, anyway.”
“Got another plan for the Resistance?” she asked, sounding skeptical.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh… not right now?”
She let out a relieved sigh. “So, what is it?”
“Can we talk later? Privately?”
Alya sucked in a breath, swallowing audibly. “What about?”
“Nothing bad,” he assured her. “Well… maybe something worrisome. Not in our relationship,” he added hurriedly, not wanting to freak her out more than she already was, “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
Her eyebrows drew together. “Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“Alya, is something going on?” Marinette asked. Nino could almost hear her asking herself, Did I miss something?
“It’s fine, Nino’s just worrying about nothing,” Alya said. Her tone wasn’t entirely convincing.
“If there’s something wrong, you know you can tell me, right?” Marinette asked.
“I told you, I’m fine,” Alya said, a little snappier than normal. “I’ll just talk with Nino, we’ll clear this up, and everything will be fine.”
Marinette bit her lip, before heading inside.
“So, when do you want to talk?” Alya asked, turning to Nino.
“During lunch, maybe?” He suggested. “At your house? You missed some awesome food last night.”
She blinked. “How do you know that?”
“Aside from every meal your mom makes being awesome? I tried to drop by last night, but you weren’t there. Your mom gave me some of the curry she’d made.” He hesitated, before barreling onwards. “Actually… that’s part of why I wanted to ask. She’s concerned about you, with how often you’re going over to Marinette’s, and- and how often you’ve been hiding your wings. Which is your right!” he added quickly. “But you don’t usually do that at home, or when it’s just me and you.”
“I…” she bit her lip, looking away. She let out a breath. “Okay. We’ll do this. My place at lunchtime. But it’s not that big a deal, really, I promise!”
He nodded, taking her hand. “That’s fine. Then we’ll just get to hang out together, right? And even if it’s not that big a deal to you, I still want to know about it, to help you with it.”
She smiled at him, her eyes softening. “You’re the best, you know that!”
“Oh, I dunno, I think I could stand to be told that more often,” he grinned.
“Nope, I take it back, don’t want you to get a big head,” she teased.
“Hey!” There was no fire behind his response as the two of them ran up the steps, still holding hands.
----
A few hours later, the two of them cuddled close on Alya’s bed, door locked to prevent being surprised by Alya’s younger siblings. Nino had the feeling that if they were interrupted, he’d have a hard time getting Alya to open up again.
“I missed this,” he murmured, leaning against her, hand running up and down her side.
She let out a contented sigh. “So did I.”
They stayed like that for a moment, drinking in each other’s presence.
“You know, we still need to talk about your wings,” he murmured. “School won’t wait forever.”
Alya groaned, but sat up straight. He mirrored her, looking her in the eyes. He had a feeling this discussion would be better if they could actually see each other, to get a good sense of how she was feeling.
Slowly, Alya pulled off her wing covers.
The feathers of her small, gray wings stuck out at odd angles, many hanging lifelessly, dull and uncared for. The wings themselves appeared to be in good shape - at least, nothing appeared to be obviously wrong with the shape or musculature of them - but the state of the feathers was concerning, to say the least.
Nino had seen worse, especially in documentaries about people who’d been trapped in abusive, painful circumstances. Wings mirrored that person’s mental state - no amount of actual grooming could get them to look nice, only an improved mindset could do that. Many an abusive spouse had been caught due to the unnatural angles their wings rested at, the broken bones (or well, what passed for bones for a mental projection, at any rate), bruised and bleeding wings, the lack of feathers, were dead giveaways that someone needed help, now, whether the person themselves thought so or not.
Of course, those symptoms only manifested in the most extreme cases, when the person was so psychologically broken that their wings changed to match (Once they started recovering, the wings’ condition improved as well). He’d long suspected that Gabriel went beyond simply being a stern, distant parent and into straight-up abuse. Adrien never removed his wing covers, ever - not in front of anyone. He refused to talk about the condition of his wings either, saying only that his father had forbidden him from talking about them. No amount of persuasion got him to budge, no matter how much Adrien looked like he wanted to tell him.
But with all of the akuma attacks, it was inevitable that Adrien’s wings would get exposed sometimes. One girl’d gotten akumatized because Chloe had mocked her for forgetting her wing covers. In retaliation, she became Revealer, using her power to vaporize any wing covering or other concealments people used on their wings. Adrien didn’t get out of the way in time.
At first, Nino hadn’t understood why Gabriel was so stringent about Adrien keeping his wings under covers. Sure, they were a glossy, sleek-looking black, which contradicted the angelic white wings that photo editors always gave him in his photo ops and that were added in via CG in any commercials he was in, but black wings weren’t that stigmatized, and he doubted they stayed that color all the time anyway - most people’s wings had a few common forms that they usually defaulted to, but rarely did they stay a single color at all times.
Nino’s wings, for instance, were usually a warm, light brown color, and larger than most other people’s. Probably because of how much his little brother enjoyed snuggling under his wings when he was cold or upset, though he’d been starting to pull away from doing so lately, much to Nino’s disappointment. But if he needed to grab attention, like say, if he was auditioning or making a pitch for something, his wings would often change colors, turning blue, green, orange, any sort of color that tropical birds could have - something flashy that’d cause people to sit up and take notice.
Then Nino had looked closer at Adrien’s wings, and noticed something that made him wish he’d actually managed to find Gabriel as Bubbler and send him into the sky.
Adrien’s feathers were glossy and well-cared for… the feathers that he actually had, at any rate.
His flight feathers were missing.
Not just clipped or cut, but entirely absent.
Wings may not allow humans to fly - they were far too small for that - but they still had that association in most people’s mind, an association with freedom.
While Adrien’s wings were well cared-for and remarkably healthy, he had no freedom.
He’d tried to ask Adrien about them afterwards, but his face had just screwed up, with him saying that he wasn’t allowed to talk about his wings. At one point he looked like he was in physical pain as Nino pressed him about what having stripped wings might mean for him, his eyes almost pleading as he said he couldn’t talk about them, even though his wide eyes and slightly open, gaping mouth had indicated to Nino that Adrien hadn’t thought about what the state of his wings might mean, and the disturbing implications they held.
As much as Nino would love to get Adrien away from that poor excuse for a father, Adrien simply missing his flight feathers wouldn’t be enough to get the child protection system involved - not against someone as rich and powerful as Gabriel, especially when Adrien was so reluctant to talk about his wings.
Hopefully in the future he’d find some way to free Adrien, to restore his wings to what they should be. For now, he just tried to be the guy’s friend, and hoped that would be enough.
“Nino?” Alya queried, frowning.
He snapped back to the present. “Oh, right!”
He might not be able to help Adrien, but Alya was a different story.
Peering at her wings, he tried to make sense of what their state might mean.
With the way several of the feathers stuck out, it looked like her wings were uncared for, and the dullness probably hinted at some sort of depression or otherwise feeling down for an extended period of time, but there didn’t appear to be any structural damage that would be harmful in the long or medium term - unlike with Adrien’s wings, which would have to regrow flight feathers over a long period of time in actual birds, requiring a moult of some sort, Alya’s wings mostly looked like they needed a good preening and other sorts of grooming, but like they’d be fine once those were done.
But that required Alya to take care of herself, and likely, for other people to help take care of her.
He reached out a hand to touch her wing, but hesitated. “May I?”
She nodded, biting her lower lip.
Gently he stroked the wings, causing Alya to shiver slightly.
He couldn’t actually smooth out the wings - only a change in her mental state could do that - but maybe his touch could soothe her, however slightly.
“I- I realized my wings looked a little… off, the morning after Monarch made his announcement,” she told him quietly. “I’d slept over at Marinette’s that day, so I just… put my wing covers back on before she noticed. She’s had a hard time recently, and I didn’t want her to worry over me.”
“Sometimes, we want to worry over you,” he told her softly, cupping her chin in his hands. “A lot of people care about you - me, Marinette, your mom, the entire class, really - and it worries us more when you’re keeping your hurt tucked away.”
“I don’t think Chloe would worry,” Alya said, her mouth quirking upwards slightly.
He laughed. “Okay, maybe not Chloe. She’d just say you were being ‘ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!’”
She joined in, chuckling. “One of the few times I agree with Chloe.”
That caused him to sober up. “It’s not ridiculous, Alya, whatever it is. If it’s hurting you, it’s valid.”
His mind raced back, thinking of what would’ve happened around the time Monarch made his announcement that would’ve caused Alya’s wings to get into the state they were, and stay that way.
Monarch’s announcement itself had ruffled a lot of people’s feathers, but he doubted it would’ve led to the dull wings and broken, loose feathers in her wings, not all these weeks later. So it was probably something else, something more personal, that’d wormed its way into Alya’s head and wouldn’t leave, like an earworm for a particularly grating piece of music that nevertheless gets itself stuck in your head.
His eyes drifted down to the pouch Alya still wore - the one that used to hold a small, mischievous fox kwami. His eyes widened. “Is this about Trixx?”
She winced, looking away. “I- I know Ladybug blames herself for the Miraculous being stolen. But as far as Trixx goes, I’m more to blame than she could ever be. I gave the Fox Miraculous back to her, even over her insistence I keep it. If I’d just listened to her, if I’d kept the necklace, Trixx would be safe and Ladybug and Chat Noir wouldn’t have to fight alone. When I think of him, held captive by that- that MONSTER-” she punched her bed lightly, her voice cracking. “-I can’t help but to imagine what it would feel like, constrained and controlled by one of the most evil, despicable men alive, knowing that my power would be used for evil against my will, not knowing when I’d get free.” She fished around in her back, taking out a grape. It must’ve been pretty fresh, it still looked good to eat. “I’ve been restocking my bag regularly, just in case Monarch somehow slips up and Trixx manages to escape. He is a sneaky fox, after all,” she said, hiccupping slightly as tears formed in the corners of her eyes.
A lump formed in Nino’s throat, thinking of Wayzz. He hadn’t been able to spend nearly as much time with the little turtle as Alya had with Trixx, but he’d still made a secret handshake with him. He’d worried about Wayzz after seeing the shield around Monarch’s projection during his announcement, but had quickly pivoted to wondering what this meant for Ladybug and Chat Noir instead.
But Alya’s and Trixx’s relationship was different. They’d know each other for a lot longer, had been together even outside of emergencies, had really gotten to be close friends.
No wonder Alya wasn’t okay.
“Monarch has to be feeding Trixx at least,” he assured her. “He has to, in order to use his power. Maybe not as much as he should, and I doubt it would be his favorite food, but he’s probably not in physical danger.” He hoped not. If the innocent little kwamis were badly hurt-
Well. He’d knocked Hawk Moth upside the head with his shield before, on Heroes Day. He wouldn’t say no to doing it again. Possibly repeatedly.
“I- I keep telling myself that,” Alya said, tugging her blanket towards her and hugging it tight. “All the kwamis have to be - not okay, but recoverable. That Ladybug and Chat Noir just need to get them back. That they WILL get them back. That my mistake might have caused Trixx to be kidnapped, but that it’s fixable. Eventually.”
Oh yeah, she had said something about her giving the Fox Miraculous to Ladybug, hadn’t she? “Why’d you give the Miraculous back to Ladybug?” he asked gently.
“After Sentibubbler, I had to stay hidden when I transformed because Shadow Moth would target my family otherwise, remember?” she said. “I was exposed during the fight against Strike Back. If I kept the Miraculous, I thought he’d attack them again,” She barked out a laugh, a few tears slipping out of her eyes and down her cheeks. “Instead, he attacked Trixx.”
Nino reached out, his heart aching, flexing his wings as they grew bigger and bigger, becoming softer, fluffier - more like ostrich wings than anything. He wrapped them around his girlfriend, surrounding her with a blanket of feathers. “You did the right thing,” he told her, taking both her hands in his, as he looked her in the eyes. “You gave up something you loved, something amazing, because, as far you knew, it was the safest thing for everyone. Even if you had kept Trixx, I don’t think things would’ve been okay - there’s no reason to think Monarch wouldn’t have targeted you or the people around you again.” He hesitated. “Besides… it’s kind of my fault as well. I was the one who exposed you.”
He hadn’t really thought through his actions at the time, he’d just acted. And Alya and Trixx had paid the price.
“Nino, if you hadn’t done that, I would’ve been a pancake,” Alya told him flatly. “You did the right thing.”
“Same for you,” he countered. “You did the best you could with the information you had. If you’re to blame, then so am I.”
She smiled slightly. He glanced at her wings. Was it his imagination, or were the feathers a little shinier? “We really are quite the pair, aren’t we?” Alya said.
He laughed. “The only couple that would be more iconic would be Adrien and Marinette.”
She groaned. “Oh, don’t even get me started on those two. I love Marinette to death, but her love life is the most frustrating thing I’ve ever borne witness to.”
“At least Adrien’s finally realized his feelings for Marinette?” Nino said. “Took him long enough. He’s been shooting her goo-goo eyes for months now.”
“Yeah, and now Marinette’s running away from her feelings for him, now that they’re almost certainly returned,” Alya muttered.
He frowned. “Does that have something to do with why you’ve been sleeping over there so often?” He understood why she’d keep her wings concealed, but the sleepovers seemed odd, if she was purposely not seeking out emotional support.
“Well…” she said awkwardly. “Partly.” She shot Nino an apologetic look. “Sorry, I really can’t tell you much more than that. Marinette’s going through a tough time and no one else can be there for her the way I can - not even her parents. It’s Marinette’s secret, and I really, REALLY can’t tell you anything more than that. But I have to make sure she’s okay. As okay as she can be, at any rate. And if that means sleeping over there half the time? …well, don’t tell mom I said this, but Dupain-Cheng breakfasts are to die for.”
He laughed. “She may be a professional cook, but I don’t think even your mom would take offense to that. They’re the best bakery in the city.”
Sobering up, he leaned forwards, touching his forehead to hers. “Just make sure to take care of yourself too, okay? You’re important, and you can’t pour from an empty cup. You have to care for yourself before you’ll be able to care for others.”
“I’m guessing you’re gonna enforce that?” she asked, her eyes crinkling as she smiled.
He tipped back his hat. “Just call me Nurse Nino!” he joked.
“Well, Nurse Nino,” she said mischievously, “we’ve still got a few minutes left. How about a game of Super Penguino?”
“Oh you’re on!”
As Alya reached for her tablet, Nino inspected her wings once again. They still looked a little duller than usual, and a few feathers were still out of alignment, but they looked a lot better than they had only minutes before.
He’d continue checking up on her, trying to be there for her, until they were back to their full glory.
A child wearing a long pink coat with a hood walked up to Sona. Chicken feathers stuck out of her coat and clung to it. The child extened a hand. "Trick or treat"
Well! Another dressed-up little one. It was a good thing she’d made quite a few candy apples this year. There were no tricks to be found at the Buvelle manse for children.
So with a smile and a nod, the Maven handed over one of the apples on a stick. It was coated with caramel and nuts for a nice crunch.
