Nino is not having it
After avoiding most part of the awkward talk with the two monks, Adrien turned back to his phone.
"Is Alya bothering you with more questions?" The boy asked Marinette quietly. Pema raised her eyes briefly when she glanced to the two teens, but then she pretended to be busy with her tea and food. Dorje caught her behaviour and did not ask her anything, he allowed her to eavesdrop.
"Um" Marinette took her phone. "Only 26 messages from Alya." The girl said and shrugged.
"Twenty six?" Adrien asked incredulously. "Only twenty six?" The boy continued.
Marinette nodded and shrugged. She was used to get massive amounts of messages from Alya, they were often just one word, mostly formed as a question, and related to her and Adrien, and that was something Marinette was not ready to discuss with him, just yet.
But Adrien raised his eyebrows at her and was not going to settle for that as an answer.
"Alya likes to pry, she mostly has questions about … you and me." Marinette barely whispered the last words while she looked at her hands. Adrien smiled gently, but she did not see that. He understood she was too shy to talk about that subject. "And" She continued slightly louder. "When Alya does not get an answer instantly, she continues to send messages like 'girl' 'why' 'where are you' and so on until I answer." Then Marinette bowed her head and actually opened the message application and her chat with Alya. There was a usual longer message followed by a lot of short questions, emojis and simple teasing.
"Nino wrote to me that she has gone nuts and that we should ignore her." Adrien turned his phone to show Marinette the message.
"This is not much more than she usually writes." Marinette smirked. Once she admitted that Alya was teasing her about her and Adrien, and the boy in question did not produce any negative reaction, she felt relieved. "And she stopped sending them last night, see?"
"Well, let's call Nino then." Adrien said quietly and pressed the call button before Marinette had a chance to protest.
"Hey dude." The usual greeting from Nino sounded from the phone speaker almost instantly as it started to ring.
"Hey Nino." Both teens greeted their friend. "What are you doing?" Marinette asked as she squinted her eyes and then turned away her face quickly.
"Um, I was actually in the bathroom, sorry, I was not aware I was answering a video call again." Nino apologized as the screen went dark and they could only hear a few muttered and distant noises before the screen got lit up again.
"Better?" Nino asked and Adrien nodded while he replied "Better."
"So what are you doing anyway?" Adrien asked again. "I mean besides the obvious."
"Well, I just got up and made breakfast for Chris." Nino said as he sounded a bit tired. "It is raining outside so I will not be meeting Alya in the park. Besides, I think it is all for the better."
"So you are home with your little brother?" Marinette asked.
"Yeah, it is morning here, and we just got up, like an hour ago, or more like, Chris got up as soon as maman and papa left for work and started the video games while I slept. I am so busted if they find out." Nino was obviously very tired.
"You look very tired dude." Adrien furrowed his brows.
"Yeah, Alya kept me awake all night." Nino complained slowly and tiredly. Marinette blushed severely, Adrien raised his eyebrows. Then finally the boy in Paris understood what he just said. "It is not what you think, she was sending me messages all night." Adrien raised his eyebrows, that did not sound any better than the first statement, Marinette turned away from the screen as she continued to be red. "Not those kind of messages, uh!"
Then Nino sat down. "Chris, please eat your food." Nino said to his little brother.
"I started getting messages from her where she demanded that I send her again all the photos you sent me from China and that I ask you to send me more photos and that I send her the recordings of all our conversations which I did not make in the first place and … basically I did not send her anything and now she is angry with me." Nino bowed his head.
"She sent only the usual messages to me." Marinette replied cheerfully.
"The thing is, that livestream from yesterday made her blog really famous, now Nadia Chamack wants to interview her and I think it got to her head. I will not let her use my friends to make her career." Nino said firmly.
Adrien and Marinette exchanged a look.
"Thank you Nino." Adrien was the first to speak. He was used to be used by his so called friends and acquaintances for his fame, and this was exactly the same, just a different kind of fame, and this time Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie did not control the media for him. "She did help me a lot so I would agree for an interview for her Ladyblog once I get back from China." Adrien looked at Marinette. "Weather Marinette would agree to that is her own decision, and we are both minors so her parents should agree as yet for me ..."
"Don't worry bro, I wrote her that much last night." Nino waved his head. "Now listen, I was home last night and talked to my parents. You are invited to stay here for as long as you need. We will adjust my room, we will have to share. I know it is not what you are used to but ..."
"That is excellent news." Adrien exclaimed with a huge grin on his face.
"Or you can get the other room and Chris will be with me." Nino continued the offer. "But they can't adopt you, they say it is too much paperwork and they need more time to see about that guardianship stuff."
"That is okay." Adrien smiled. "Everything is perfect."
"I am just not sure what will you do about that fancy babysitter of yours." Nino continued.
"Well, I might need him even more now that I am so famous." Adrien gave his lopsided smile that he often showed as Chat Noir and almost never as Adrien.
"Dude, what you showed yesterday, the way you fought, you might not need him at all." Nino teased back.
Adrien raised his arm from Marinette's shoulders and flexed his muscles.
"You are right, I am so muscly it is scary." Adrien teased back.
Marinette rolled her eyes.
"You might need that when you come back." Nino continued. "Be prepared for the fiercest attack of your fangirls." The boy adjusted his red hat and winked.
"Oh, I have here one rather fierce lady to defend me from them." Adrien teased Marinette who blushed again just when she started to resemble normal colour in her face. Adrien wrapped an arm around her and brought her even closer.
"She might scare them away form what I could see yesterday." Nino nodded showing his deepest respect in his words.
Marinette took a deep breath and cleared her throat. She briefly clenched her hands into fists to encourage herself and then finally spoke.
"I can rescue my prince over here from any mob of fans that might be after him." Marinette joined the teasing.
"Oh, you have showed me that already when I escaped the mansion to see that film, remember?" Adrien told her gently while a shadow passed over his face. It was Solitude, the film that featured his mother as a main actress.
"I remember I had to hide you from the crazy fans and the media back then." Marinette smiled gently.
"Well, you see dude?" Adrien spoke to Nino again. "I have a bodyguard right here." The boy smirked as he glanced back towards Marinette and then back to the camera.
Nino grinned at his friends.
"Dude, you two look so cute together." He said without thinking and then slammed his hand over his mouth.
Both teens blushed.
"Sorry, dude I did not mean to make this awkward." Nino apologized quickly before anyone said anything.
"Dude, you think I am cute?" Adrien raised his eyebrow while he teased his friend on the other side.
"Sure I do." Nino smirked back.
"I did not know you had it in you, dude." Adrien continued.
"Oh, I did not think like that before, only when I saw you with Marinette." Nino replied.
Marinette groaned and covered her face with her hands, which was probably for the best considering what was coming.
"So only when you saw me taken, you started to be jealous?" Adrien continued to mock tease his friend while it was Marinette who blushed at his words. He held her tighter as he felt she might run away from embarrassment.
"Yeah, you got me there, dude." Nino nodded as he spoke.
"What about Alya?" Adrien teased.
"Oh you are way cuter than her, but only when Marinette is by your side." Nino teased back.
"So it is her who makes me cute." Adrien continued.
Nino nodded in response as he did not want to continue the teasing, he noticed Marinette covered her face and she was probably rather red underneath.
"Did you hear that, you are so cute you make me look cute." Adrien turned to Marinette while he was talking and she hitched a breath and groaned while she exhaled.
Adrien laughed.
Nino waved his head.
"Please just stop." She begged both boys because she could not be the centre of such attention, it was just too much for her. Adrien squeezed her even tighter before he relaxed his hold but did not let go.
"Sorry, did we make you uncomfortable?" The boy asked quietly and Marinette nodded while she kept her hands over her face but she peeked between the fingers and that made Adrien laugh.
"Okay, let's change the subject then." Adrien proposed as he turned back to the screen,
"Um, yes, if you need anything from your room, please let me know. Or Chloe. She can get that for you, or I can ask her." Nino said in a more serious tone.
Adrien was thinking, his face changed several expressions.
"I could talk to Chloe but I am not sure if I want her snooping around my room while I am not there." Adrien said deep in thought.
"Your house is completely surrounded by journalists and paparazzi but the police and the Mayor are not releasing any information. You might want to ask Chloe what is going on there." Nino continued. "Actually, I think she and the Mayor are flying back to Paris only today, he controlled the raid remotely so far with Sabrina's dad, and Sabrina I guess." Nino added.
"I understand." Adrien nodded. "They need time to travel and it is not so easy, but Sabrina and her dad are doing most of the work for the two of them anyway."
Marinette let her hands fall into her lap.
"Please just remind everyone that Adrien is a minor and they have no right to go through his things without a legal representative present." Marinette spoke firmly. She had no lawyers in her family but she understood that much from the lectures on civil and children's rights they had.
"Uh, actually, the social service already assigned a person as your legal representative, and your bodyguard apparently has the papers as a temporary guardian, that is how you left the country in the first place." Nino whispered while he watched his little brother. "My parents learned that last night when we were discussing your stay here and my parents already contacted her to ask for approval."
Adrien was confused, again someone was making decisions for him.
"She replied that she has to meet you first and talk to you, and she would have to interview all of us, but the idea was okay with her in general." Nino continued when he saw his friend frown.
Adrien lightened up instantly. That was much better, he preferred that woman to Nathalie and his father even before he met her.
"She probably sent you a message, she got your number, you might want to talk to her." Nino continued seriously.
"Um, I got a lot of messages, how will I know which one is her?" Adrien frowned back, but this time he was concerned and thinking not annoyed.
"I will ask her if I can send you her number." Nino replied quickly.
"Thanks dude." Adrien grinned.
"You will have to think how you will pay me back for all these favours I do for you, dude." Nino teased back as he smiled and showed he was only joking.
"You can have any of the games from my room, anything at all." Adrien grinned.
"I do not have the space to put it here, especially if you are moving in." Nino sighed half serious half joking while he looked around. "Besides, I doubt I would ever get my turn to play with Chris around." Nino turned the phone to show that Chris had re-started the video game.
"Chris you have not finished your breakfast, go back to the table and eat." Nino ordered to his little brother and then turned the phone back to his face.
That distraction allowed Adrien to get an idea.
"Actually, if my room is preserved, we can make a party there and you can use all of the games as much as you want." Adrien grinned at his idea. The body of his mother was no longer in the mansion (the thought of having a party there while she was somewhere around made the boy cringe) and if the police and the mayor allowed him to use it then he might as well organize a party. That was what he always wanted, he wanted to have friends over and he was never allowed any.
"That is great idea dude." Nino grinned. He wanted a party and he wanted his friend to have a party and he remembered how happy Adrien was when they actually had a party in his room that was unfortunately disturbed by the Party Crasher. But still, they had their fun. "Perhaps we could invite the rest of the class, too?" Nino proposed timidly.
"But then you would have to share the toys." Adrien warned teasingly. "And you do not want to share them with your little brother."
"That is because Chris is so possessive over any games he can lay his hands on." Nino retorted. "Chris go back to the table, now." Nino groaned as he pulled the phone away.
"But then you would have to share with Kim and Max and ..." Adrien continued with teasing voice.
"Kim is going to be interested in your bathtub only." Nino sighed.
"But we are going to invite the girls this time, are we?" Adrien raised his eyebrows while Marinette nudged him.
"We both know your girl is going to come weather she is invited or not." Nino teased back.
Marinette huffed.
"That was not fair." The girl muttered.
"I need to find a game where I would beat her." Adrien teased as Marinette rolled her eyes.
"I have only beaten you in the Ultimate Mega Strike Three." She groaned.
"She will beat us all there, trust me dude, you do not want her anywhere near your arcade games." Nino warned.
"I am sure there are games there that I have never played in my life." Marinette waved her head. She could not believe they had that conversation. It was not as if she had to win each time. It just happened, okay? She was not that obsessed with wining. Never. At least she would never admit to that. Her need to win and her ability to concentrate and win any battle no matter how hopeless it got was never what she did, it was never the quality that made her excellent Ladybug in the end.
Adrien smirked. He knew how competitive she could be.
"I am sure there are games I never played in my life either." Adrien replied slightly exasperated.
"I thought you tried them all, being bored and locked up in your room as you were." Nino raised his eyebrows.
"Probably, but I am not sure, besides there were a few games for multiple players that I never played because I was not allowed to have friends over. I mean, how was I supposed to play table football alone?" Adrien waved his head and smiled at the stupidity of the way his room was organized.
"You are right." Nino nodded as he adjusted his cap again. "Chris go back to the table, finish your breakfast and take your dishes to the sink, this instant!" The boy groaned away from the phone.
"Nino, we are going to hung up now, you can take care of Chris." Adrien proposed.
"Okay." Nino replied distractedly. Adrien and Marinette said their greetings.
"Same to you, stay cute." Nino greeted and cut the call to his blushing friends.