"Hey Nino." Alya asked her boyfriend.

Nino was working on a new remix and pulled his headphones down so he could listen to his girlfriend of a few years.

"Is it me, or is Adrien acting weird?" Alya asked.

Nino furrowed his brow in confusion. He hadn't noticed anything too weird with Adrien. The boy had just been more outgoing since getting emancipated, but that was understandable. Being free from having to maintain a public image must have felt good. Marinette still shied away from him sometimes and Alya would occasionally interact with him. Nino, voiced his thoughts on the matter.

"It's just…it seems like he is avoiding me and Marinette. Marinette especially. He hardly talks to us too much whenever he's at either of our houses." Alya said. "Did we do something?"

Nino told her that she was probably imagining things, but she didn't look convinced. He did reassure her that he would ask Adrien about it though.

During lunch, the four of them decided to eat out. Alya gave Nino a nod and she and Marinette entered the café line to get everyone's food.

"Hey dude." Nino started. He didn't want to spook Adrien onto the defensive. "Is everything okay between you and the girls? Alya said it seems like you're avoiding them."

Adrien seemed surprised by the question. He glanced towards the queue and Nino knew that Adrien figured out this was planned. The blonde's eyes narrowed a bit towards his friend. "What makes you say that?" he asked Nino.

"Alya said that she and Marinette noticed that you don't really talk to them unless you need to. Not even when you're working at the bakery or cooking with Alya's mom."

Adrien was quiet after that. Nino let him put his thoughts together for a bit. Adrien was always nice and friendly, so this avoidance was a bit out of character for him.

"I can't tell you too much. Not yet. Let's just say that they did something that hurt me, but they don't understand they hurt me. Even if they did understand they hurt someone, they wouldn't directly know they hurt me. I was kind of an anonymous person and found out who they were by accident. Does that make sense?" Adrien vaguely explained.

Nino mulled over the words for a moment. "Kind of? That was pretty vague. Why can't you tell me?"

Adrien shook his head. "You'll find out later. Trust me. Just tell Alya she's imagining it. Don't tell her why I'm like this. I'm not ready to say anything yet. As great as she is, she can be pretty stubborn."

Nino nodded in agreement. He couldn't argue with that logic. So the two of them just made some small talk as they waited for the girls came back.

Of course, since they lived in Paris, an explosion interrupted their lunch. Everyone put everything down and rushed to the emergency exits and over to the akuma shelters that had been operational for the past few months. Adrien saw Marinette and Alya peel away from the crowd and knew that was his queue. He felt bad for leaving Nino alone, but he'd make it up later. Now that he knew Ladybug and Rena's identities, he had a hunch that Nino was also a temporary hero. Maybe the Turtle since they had a similar speech pattern? He'd figure it out later.

oOo

One miraculous ladybug later and the trio had saved the day again. Chat made to take off, but Ladybug caught his arm.

"Chat, is everything okay? You've been pretty quiet lately. And you haven't really flirted with me recently either." Ladybug asked.

Chat gave her a small smile, but it looked a little fake to her. "Don't worry bug. It's just that I have some stuff going on."

"Oh. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Can't" Chat countered. "It would give away my identity. You know how it is." Chat noticed the slight frown on Rena and Ladybug's faces and felt a little vindicated. It wasn't so fun when the tables were turned.

Three beeps interrupted them and they all quickly left the scene.

oOo

Nino was just relaxing at his desk in his room when a knock came from the window. Turning towards the noise, he was surprised to see Chat Noir outside. Said superhero waved at him and signaled to let him in. Nino opened the window and Chat quietly slid inside.

"Hey dude. What's going on? Some kind of emergency?" Nino questioned.

"Not quite. I need to know. Are you Carapace?" Chat questioned.

Nino looked confused for a moment. "Yeah. Why? You didn't know before?"

"No. Ladybug never tells me anything." Chat said with a little bitterness in his tone. "I figured it out on my own and just wanted to know."

Nino raised an eyebrow at this. "You know, curiosity killed the cat."

"And satisfaction brought it back." Chat returned with a smile. "I'm satisfied, btw. Also, I want to talk with you."

"About what?"

"Well…" Chat started a little hesitantly. "Claws in."

A flash of green light and Adrien Agreste stood before a slack-jawed Nino. This is not how the glasses wearing boy expected his day to go.

oOo

"And yeah. That's everything aside from Ladybug and Rena's identities." Chat finished. "No offense, but that's a big thing and I don't know if I should just hand it out like candy at a toy store. It's not that I don't trust you, it's just…you know. I'm not even supposed to know."

"Wow dude. And yeah, I get it. Don't worry about that. You haven't really given me a reason to doubt you. The superhero stuff is excusable."

Adrien nodded. "Do you miss it? Being a hero?"

"Sometimes." Nino looked off to the side but not staring at anything in general. "I mean it was cool and I wouldn't mind having the powers again. But I also liked helping people. And Wayzz was a pretty cool dude."

Adrien understood where he was coming from. Being a superhero is pretty cool and people did it for different reasons. Chat Noir is who he really was. When he lived with his father, Adrien had felt so suffocated with his life. With Chat, he could act like a normal person. No one to supervise him. He still had an image to maintain as a hero, but at least the mask was able to give him some breathing room. Plus, he liked helping people. Not just because of the good feeling it gave him, but also because it was just the right thing to do. Heroes help for the sake of helping. If you had the ability to stop a tragedy from happening, then it was your responsibility to stop it. With great power, comes great responsibility.

"I've been thinking of asking Ladybug to make you a full-time member, like Rena. I need someone I can rely on to have my back both in and out of the suit. Ladybug and Rena only have the mask. Plus, I am tired of the double standards. And as far I can recall, Hawkmoth didn't technically find you out. He doesn't exactly know which hero you are."

Nino didn't know what to say. The gut instinct would be to say yes, but there were burdens carried with it. And Nino wasn't blind enough to miss the rift that was happening between Ladybug and Chat. He didn't know where Adrien was going to go with this, but he was willing to trust him. Adrien had always been a nice dude. Even to people who didn't deserve it. Plus, Adrien needed a friendly face around him with the way his father isolated him before.

So Nino gave a tentative yes and agreed to a trial run. If it didn't work out, he could always help Adrien with his excuses to getaway. The dude's excuses were a little flimsy sometimes.