Chapter Two - In Need of Luck
I disappeared for way too long. I'm so sorry! I didn't expect the overwhelming amount of support that I got on this first chapter. I thought this was a way too out there and ridiculous premise, so the fact that so many people liked it was a huge shocker! I'm so psyched about it. c: This chapter would have been out way sooner, but I got sidetracked with some crap and also rewrote it several times. I had a lot of trouble figuring out where I wanted to go next, and my first few attempts rushed a lot of things that I didn't quite want to reveal from my hand just yet. While I'm not 100% satisfied with the end result, this version is much better than my previous ones, so I hope you guys enjoy it. I'm really excited to see what you guys think! :p
Adrien's Point of View
Never in my life did I imagine I'd see Nino calling Chloe and apparently having a civil conversation with her. Then again, things I never thought I'd ever see have suddenly become the norm, so I suppose I need to open my mind a bit more. Otherwise I'll never be able to fathom the things that are happening now.
"Hey Anti," Nino says, smiling awkwardly as he forces a far too cheerful voice. He speaks hesitantly, shifting his weight back and forth. "How are you doing?"
He winces, and I can only assume Chloe is snapping at him. Then again, everything is so different here that I suppose he could be cringing for a completely different reason. Still, something tells me that nothing could change things enough to have it not be the case. That's just who Chloe is.
It's always been one of the more frustrating aspects to our friendships.
Still cringing at the obvious scolding, Nino tries again with the overly pleasant tone. "Geez dude, I know you don't like talking to me, but-" He stops, seeming to have been cut off, and I can tell he's containing a groan.
Despite my best efforts, I fail to fully stifle my snickers as I smash my hand against my mouth. I can't help but be amused by his reactions, seeing as I am only left to guess at what Chloe might be doing to infuriate him like this. I know he'd be doing the same thing in my shoes. Still, Nino obviously doesn't see things in the same, comedic light that I do, because my snickers only earn me a frustrated scowl. That successful shuts me up, mainly because I've never seen him look so irritated with me before. Sure, he seemed frustrated this morning, but even then it wasn't overly so. He's always been so chill, never getting more than a bit annoyed and never staying angry for long. Seeing this look on him is actually really unnerving. Apparently handling Chloe is a lot more frustrating for him than I expected. I'll have to thank him for that later, since obviously he's doing a bigger favor for me than I thought.
Nino makes some noise that is a mix between a gasp and gag, drawing my attention back to his phone conversation. I inch a bit closer, hoping I'll be able to pick up a little bit of Chloe's end of the conversation, but it doesn't do me any good. Thankfully, Nino is too distracted to comment on it.
"Into you? No. Gosh, no! That's disgusting!" Nino's voice is incredulous as he gestures about wildly with his free hand. 'Do you seriously think I'd replace Alya with you? Your ego must be even more inflated than I thought!" My best friend actually looks offended at whatever acccusations Chloe must now be throwing at him, and this time seems to actually interrupt the blonde on the other end of the line. "Alya and I are none of your business, Bourgeois, but just to make things even clearer than they already are, we're fine, and-"
This time, Nino doesn't even bother to stop himself from groaning loudly as Chloe cuts him off to, from the look on his face, throw even more wild theories around. If Chloe were here, she'd throw an absolute fit at the sight of him rolling his eyes at her.
"Shut up!" Nino cuts in again, voice rising in volume and fierceness. "At least I'm dating the person I love, unlike yo-" Chloe cuts him off, and his lips become a thin line of even more thinly veiled annoyance that must just keep building.
Still, his comment does throw me off. The person Chloe loves? To be honest, I'm not sure what he means by that. The only person I've ever seen Chloe express interest in is me, and even that feels overly dramatic and forced. Sometimes I wonder if she's faking a majority of it, even if she is at least slightly interested. The ways she acts just doesn't feel natural. So is Nino referring to me? Or is there a mystery guy in the picture I don't know about?
"Fine, fine! Just stop shrieking directly into my ear and I'll drop the subject! How can you even be that loud right now? Aren't you in a public place?" Nino spits the words, casting a brief scowl at me.
"What did I do?" I whisper with a pout.
He gestures angrily at his phone before saying into the phone, "Ugh, I didn't even want to call you, but-" He pauses for a moment, obviously cut off yet again, and this time takes a deep breath. I watch with wide eyes as almost shouted chaos ensues. "Why did I then? Why did I what? Why did I call you? Because Adrien wanted me to!" Nino only just realizes that his voice got louder and louder with each statement he made, and stops there, panting.
There's a lull in conversation, or at least conversation Nino needs to respond to, as I see him making a rather contemplative face and even nodding a bit as he listened. He's taking deep breathes, obviously trying to calm down from his previous anger, but now I'm the one getting annoyed. Without Nino responding verbally, I have absolutely no clue what's going on. Yet again I find myself desperately wishing I could hear what Chloe is saying now, and what she was saying that got him worked up so badly. Sure, the latter I have some hints as to, but there had to be more to it then that.
Finally, Nino says with a sigh, "Yes, yes. Your precious Adrikins." He casts another look at me, this one less irritated and more sly, and it's my turn to scowl.
He stifles a snicker but does grin a bit at my comment. Sadly it is short-lived, as it quickly fades as he focuses back in on the phone conversation. Cocking his head to the side as he listens, I watch his face begin to grow steadily redder again, his eyebrows furrowing as Chloe apparently eggs him on again, As I watch, nervous to see how this plays out, bubbles begin to appear and dance around his feet. I flinch back a bit in shock, staring at them as they continue to lurk around Nino's ankles, though he doesn't seem to notice my averse reaction or that the're even there.
"What the heck?" I mumble, grimacing at the bubbles as they begin to fly just a bit higher. Does this have to do with him being an akuma? I mean, they are bubbles, and he was - well, is - the Bubbler... "It certainly is possible..."
"I don't know! I can't read my bro's mind," Nino hisses the words, drawing my attention back to his red face, "I just know what he asked me about. Shouldn't you know what your precious Adrikins wants since you apparently know him so well?"
I shudder at Nino's usage of Chloe's nickname for me. Sure, it's bad enough when Chloe uses it, but she's...Chloe. Hearing it come from Nino's mouth makes it a heck of a lot weirder. I step forward, ready to protest his using it, because consequences be darned, it creeps me out. However, he stops my yet again with a simple angry scowl, though he doesn't. Hold it for as long this time. Chloe must have said something to distract him. I step back and begin to nervously shift on my feet and wondering if it'd be awkward to start pacing. At this point I'm beyond antsy as I wait for Nino to get to the point and find out if I can go.
I'm not sure why I'm so desperate to learn if this lunch meeting is meant to hide something from me, or at least has something I'm not supposed to know about. I just know that I am. It feels important, especially with that person that they refuse to name being there. What could possibly be so bad about them that would make them have to be hidden from me?
Whatever it is, it's obvious that even the version of me who apparently is supposed to be in this world didn't know.
"Okay, fine. You win." Nino heaves yet another sigh. "If you wanted to hear his voice so badly, you should've just asked for that at the beginning. It would've made things a whole heck of a lot easier. And no, I frankly don't care about your excuse that-" He stops abruptly, and his gaze lingers on me before he quickly turns away, as if to pretend he didn't just stop because of me. "Okay, okay, I'm putting him on. Patience is a virtue, Anti."
Rubbing his ear, Nino turns back to me and extends his phone out with very little explanation as to what they talked about. "Sorry, dude, that was way worse than usual. Chloe is just having...a Chloe day." He doesn't even give me an explanation as to what that is supposed to mean, insteading tacking on, "She insists on talking to you. Wants to know why you want to meet up with them or some crap like that. I dunno, she makes even less sense to me than Al...a lot of other girls." Nino scowls at th ground, and I frown at his brief slip up. Something definitely was up between him and Alya, but what? He seems to know what's causing the drift, but it's obvious he's also not going to tell me why that is, so I let it go for now.
Hesitantly, I take the phone from his outstretched hand and lift it to my ear, noting that the bubbles around Nino's feet are gone. I don't dwell on that for long, storing it in the back of my mind for later contemplation as I prepare to handle the hurricane that is Chloe Bourgeois. "Hey Choliday," My old childhood nickname for her slips out automatically as I try to seem casual and not like I'm digging for information. Whatever version of me that was here, from my impression of how everyone is treating me, wasn't apparently much of a snooper, "what's up?"
"Adrikins!" Chloe shrieks more forcefully than necessary, and I wince, finding myself copying Nino as I rub my ear that doesn't have a phone pressed against it. "So, you want to go on a lunch date? Is that what this is? Why didn't you ask me earlier? You know my answer is yes, after all."
This forcefulness is starting to seem as if it's just a part of this world's Chloe's character. It's definitely off-putting.
"Wha-" I sputter, taken aback as I remember Chloe batting her eyes at me and saying something very similar in the...real world.
"I just knew you'd come around eventually!"
"No, no, that's not what this is at all, Chloe." I'm not sure how exactly to do damage control at this point, because it feels like the situation is just going to continue to escalate, but I try to reign the conversation in anyways.
She doesn't answer right away, so I take the chance to try and listen to what's going on on her end. Sadly, it doesn't actually give me any useful info. I can hear indistinct chatter in the background, but i don't hear Nathaniel or any other voice that I'd recognize. Obviously Chloe must have walked off to have this conversation in a more private place, or at least away from the secret person who I want so desperately to find out more about.
Finally, Chloe huffs on the other end of the line, deciding to finally respond. "Cold feet, huh? Can't say I blame you. You're too perfect to be blamed, and besides, I'm very intimidating. We'll just blame Nino instead."
In different circumstances, I'd be laughing at that ending statement, but there are more important things to focus on right now. Instead, I hold back a sigh and say as gently as possible, "No, I just wanted to have lunch with some friends. More than just Nino, that is. Would I be allowed to join you, Nathaniel, and whoever else is with you?"
Again, Chloe pauses, but this time she speaks with a much more severe and serious tone than she did before. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever heard her this serious before, so it catches me completely off guard. "I'm not sure that's the best idea, Adrien."
"Why?" I bite back a statement saying that that just makes me all the more curious, knowing it won't help. What are they so desperate to hide from me, and why?
This time, Chloe is the one who sighs as she says, "Put Bubbles back on, I have to talk to him."
Extending the phone out to Nino, I say with a semi-forced wink and semi-genuine smirk, "Back to you, Bubbles. She isnsists." This time, I can tell he overly exaggerates his glare, and I take the joke as an unspoken apology for being cross with me when he was talking to Chloe a few minutes ago. I chuckle, dropping the phone into his hands. "See what you can do to advocate for me, alright?"
"I'll try." Despite the fact that he's my best friend, Nino does not sound very convicning when making that promise. He puts the phone back up to his ear, taking one last deep breath before diving back into the chaotic ordeal that is Chloe. "So, what are you thinking, Anti?"
"Yes, what is she thinking?" I bounce on the balls of my feet, and Nino quirks an eyebrow at me, as if to ask 'Really?'
"I get you. Ya, that's my thoughts on it too. It's dangerous. What if h-" He pauses, eyes flickering to me before readjusting his statement, "They can't just go home?" Again, he pauses, nodding and shutting his eyes. "No, no, you're right. They need to have this chance. Ugh, ya, I'll handle it. No, no, Nathaniel has a good point." Nino's eyes open again, and then he huffs, "No, just shut up, Chloe, I don't want to hear about how much you care about Adrien. Bye."
Hanging up, he slides his phone back into his pocket, and faces me with a frown that I know means I have been shut down, especially based on what was said previously. "So..." I trail off for a minute, shifting awkwardly as I try to stay optimistic, "...what did she say?"
Nino heaves a sigh. "Come on, dude. We both know you were listening in on that conversation to the best of your abilities. You aren't subtle." I only feel slightly ashamed at being called out even though I thought I wasn't that obvious. However, my smile does grow a bit more nervous as I wonder if he's mad. But it's Nino, so surely he wouldn't get mad at me over that, right? I wish I could give a certain yes to answer that, but it feels like nothing is certain anymore. "What do you think she said?"
I wilt a little, more because my investigation got shut down than because I wasn't as sly as I thought I was. Not that Nino knows I was investigating, but the point still stands. Though, I suppose I did get something out of that whole fiasco of a phone call: confirmation. Sure, I technically already knew it was the case, but something is definitely being hidden from me. Actually, the call made it seem like multiple somethings, including a someone, are being kept from me. There is the possibility that some of these secrets are unintentional on everyone's parts. It does seem like some of them are things I'm apparently supposed to know and just, for some reason, don't.
But there are somethings that I am purposefully being kept in the dark on, and I am determined to get to the bottom of it. I'm positive that the unintentional secrets are a big part of it. But how am I supposed to find those out if I'm already supposed to know them? And how am I supposed to go about getting the information I'm not allowed to know?
"Woah, earth to Agreste?" I blink as I notice Nino waving his hand in my face, looking at me expectantly. "You okay, dude? You blanked out there for a second and never gave me a response."
I give a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of my head as I offer the same lame excuse as before, "Oh, sorry. Ya, I'm fine. Probably just the medication, you know?" I really need a better fall back.
Nino adjusts his hat, a skeptical expression on his face. His eyes sweep over me, as if searching for something, and I try to calm my heart beat as I wonder if he's on to me. Thankfully, he apparently decides whatever he was thinking was ridiculous, as he shakes his head and gestures for me to follow him.
"Well, since that was a bust," Nino chuckles, offering me a grin as we begin to walk along, "how about we stop by the hangout and play some video games? Just for a little while, till your dad is ready to meet up with you. I'll even play Ultimate Mecha Strike III with you, even though you always win." He winks and smiles wider, apparently not too upset by that. At least one thing in this universe didn't change. "Plus, Alya should be back from patrol soon," How short are their patrols? Didn't she just set out on one? I can only assume Nino's definition of soon is very different from mine, "and I wanna talk to her, figure some stuff out. She's been on edge recently and there hasn't been an opportunity for me to actually discuss it with her."
"Ya, I noticed. What's up with that? Do you have any guesses?"
"She's probably just a bit under the weather, you know?" Nino doesn't sound all that convincing as we stop at a crosswalk and wait for the light to change. I can't tell if he doesn't want to admit what's wrong to me, or if he actually has no clues. "Some stuff has been bothering her...decision wise too, and I guess she needs some time to stew on it. You know what I mean?"
Ah, so it's the former option. Whatever is going on with Alya, Nino seems to have at least a vague understanding of what it is, but isn't comfortable telling me. Or he can't tell me? It'll probably take some observing to figure out which of those it is.
"Uh, I guess? I don't really, but I think I know what you're getting at." I bob my head with a frown. "But I thought letting a girl stew is a bad thing."
"Not really stew..." Nino strokes his chin, walking forward as the light turns green. He doesn't even check to make sure I'm following, and while I guess this would technically be a good time to try and make a break for it, I don't know nearly enough to actually make being myself useful. "I guess I'm more just hoping she'll calm down and be a bit more, uh, reasonable. It's more like letting her gather her thoughts on things so that she'll be a bit more rational. That's why I've been avoiding hanging at the hangout these days unless she's on patrol; I didn't want her to get mad at me."
I get the distinct impression that he's lying to me about something, but I choose to ignore it since I already am aware that he's hiding stuff from me. Instead, I focus in on something that struck me as odd: his mention of a hangout. He said something about it before too, right?
"Wait, hangout?"
"Dude, you're really out of sorts today. You sure you're okay?" For some reason, he still believes me when I nod in affirmation, and simply moves on without questioning it. "And ya, the hangout. You know, for the akumas? It's like a home away from home, our base of operations. Sure, we have our own homes to go to, but it's a nice spot to hang out and get away from everything. Plus Hawk- I mean, your dad," He manages to catch himself and quickly tries to correct it, but I still wince. I can't quite wrap my mind around it; it doesn't make sense. My dad and Hawkmoth are somehow one in the same, and I'm not sure I'll ever believe it, "sometimes has meetings there that we all have to attend. He bought the place partly for that exact reason. Talking to too many akumas at once through the mental link takes a lot out of him; he already expends a lot of energy when we all are using our powers at once."
I resist the urge to rub my aching head and try to tuck away all the information Nino has just given me. "And where is this place?" I realize too late that I didn't even bother to make it sound like I knew what he was talking about.
To my relief, Nino doesn't catch my slip up.
"Right here." He stops, and gestures to a building in front of us. It looks so normal, just like every other building on the street with practically no defining features besides the fact that it's fairly tall. "Well? Come on, slowpoke." Without waiting for me to respond, Nino walks up the few stairs and loudly raps his fist against the door. "Guess who's home?"
And there we have it! I believe this chapter is a bit shorter than the previous one, but I'll hopefully be making up for that as the story progresses. I know, I know, this one probably feels like a lot of filler, but it's establishing a lot of the groundwork and clues for things to come. What do you guys think? Was it good? Bad? Were you expecting Adrien's wish to join Chloe, Nathaniel, and their mystery person for lunch to get shot down? Who do you think that mystery person is? What do you think is up with Alya? Do you think Nino is on to Chloe? How do you think Adrien will handle meeting his dad when he does? We should be seeing that encounter either next chapter or the one after. What mystery has you the most intrigued in this story so far? Any speculation as to what might happen next? I absolutely love reading your theories as to what is going on, so please, keep them coming in the reviews!
Speaking of reviews, let me respond to all of your wonderful reviews for our starting chapter!
Guest : Thank you! Don't worry, we'll find out eventually if anyone else is awake/remembers things like Adrien does. Hopefully you like where things are going!
pinksakura271 : Thanks for the offer, but no worries. This story is all cannon characters and I know - for the most part - where it's gonna go from here. At this point it's mainly just figuring out whether I'm going to give it a happy or sad ending. :p And don't worry, that is definitely pretty close to the top of Adrien's to-do list. He's just a bit distracted by everything else, and doesn't really have a clue as to where Plagg might be. As for Marinette/Ladybug's whereabouts, well, we'll be seeing that eventually. Initially we were going to learn a fair amount of that stuff in this chapter, but I decided against it. So we'll just have to wait and see!
ChloeBourgeois : Thank you so much!
ButterBlythe : Ah, thank you! Don't worry, we'll be getting more information as the story moves forward. Adrien is just as confused as you. XD
sergeant peace : Thank you! I haven't seen many ML Fanfictions that used this premise yet, so I thought, "hey, why not do it yourself?" It's a classic for a reason after all. cx
Anonymous Person : Wow, thank you! It was Hawkmoth who defeated. Ladybug, not Chat, but there are definitely some awesome predictions that you have there, though I'm obviously not going to tell you if you got anything right. :p You've got a great eye for some of the smaller hints I've placed! And no worries, we'll find out where the heck Master Fu is sooner rather than later. c:
leafgreenflower : Thank you! Hopefully you're still intrigued by this chapter. c:
BooksAnonymous : Thank you! That means a lot to me. Sorry this update took so incredibly long!
Dani : Thank you! Here's the more you asked for. c;
And that's all for this round! I really appreciate all the favorites, follows, and reviews I got on this story. The support was overwhelming for a premise I thought was rather silly, so thank you so so much!
See you soon (sooner than the time gap between this update and the first chapter, I hope)!
~ Dagger