Nino knows their secret

Marinette sat on the bench beside Alya. They had been chatting about something during their break, but Alya was currently talking to Max about a problem with the Ladyblog website.

In that short period of time, Marinette had gotten lost in her own mind as she stared off into space. She hadn't realized it yet, but she'd spent the last few minutes staring at Adrien who was sitting across the room with Nino.

"Dude, why is she staring at you?" Nino asked.

Adrien shrugged. He'd noticed a while ago, but wanted to see how long it would take before she would notice he'd been looking back at her.

"She's probably gotten lost in thought again."

Nino's suspicion grew. They didn't talk about girls often, but that was mostly due to Adrien's lack of interest. However Adrien's interest seemed to have changed as of late.

"What's up between you two anyway?"

Adrien broke his line of sight with Marinette and looked suddenly at Nino. "What?"

Panic suddenly found its way into Adrien. Marinette had asked him to keep things quiet for now, just have everything stay between them. He wasn't sure why, maybe she was trying to find the right time to tell everyone? He didn't really care, after all the modeling he'd done, he understood why she might not want to tell everyone yet. He had a lot of fans who might not be as excited about it all as he was.

"N-No!" Adrien began to stutter, "We're just really good friends."

Adrien wanted to hit himself. He'd been telling Marinette that they were 'just good friends' for months before they starting dating. What a joke. He told himself.

"Oh cut it." Nino rejected Adrien's poor excuse. "You should know by now."

Adrien attempted to look anywhere but at Nino, but he knew what was coming.

"You know she likes you. Has she finally told you yet?"

Adrien looked back at Marinette who was still off in her own world. Curse his feelings. He wasn't a good enough liar to fool Nino and he knew it, but he had to try anyway.

"What?!" He exclaimed dramatically. "Marinette likes me?" Was this too over the top? Probably, but he couldn't completely blow his cover.

Nino crossed his arms, that was the most fake response he'd ever heard.

Adrien sighed. "Please don't tell Mari I told you." His eyes widened and he pointed a thumb over his shoulder toward the two girls. "Or Alya. Oh my god Mari would kill me if Alya found out because of me."

A smile snuck across Nino's face and he uncrossed his arms to give Adrien a thumbs up. "Finally! She's been crushing hard on you since day one!"

Adrien put a hand on the back of his neck, "Yeah… I guess I'm just blind." It wasn't totally true. He knew Marinette liked him, to a degree. He was still committed to ladybug though so he didn't want to entertain Marinette's feelings if he couldn't devote himself to her.

Nino laughed, "You really are if that's the case. Everyone knew she liked you." He paused, "Wait, when did you start calling her Mari?" Nino elbowed his friend, teasing him.

A light blush covered Adrien's cheeks. "Uh…" He thought back to about a month ago when they'd been texting during lunch class about lunch plans. "Do you remember that day in class when I took Marinette out of class during lunch and Alya freaked out?"

Nino tried to picture the scene, "I think so?"

"I'm not exactly sure when, or why, but that was the day I started calling her Mari. Though I only do it when it's just the two of us."

Nino's jaw dropped. "Wait. you mean you've been on dates—"

Adrien covered Nino's mouth with a hand and looked around to make sure no one heard him.

"Shh! Everyone will hear you!"

Adrien took his hand away from Nino.

"So you have?" Nino asked in a hushed voice.

Adrien look at him, eyes squinted and brow furrowed. "What do you mean? Of course we have!"

There was no way Adrien would be able to not take her on dates and spend time together whenever they could. Especially when they didn't get to spend time together at school.

Adrien looked back at Marinette again and a soft expression on his face. If only this had happened sooner.

Marinette's daze was broken by Alya trying to get her attention. When Marinette realized she'd been staring at Adrien the whole time, and he her, she blushed before turning to Alya.

Adrien sighed audibly.

"Dude, you've got it bad."

sorry for the late upload, I forgot what day of the week it is lol