Small edit to Chapter 4: Changed some of Saliha's dialogue that mentioned dinner. Now, Nino is expected to help out after she comes back from the store.

Chapter 6

Nino didn't move until he felt the swarm of ladybugs sweep over him. He lifted his head enough to marvel as a cut on his arm stitched itself together until it disappeared entirely. His newly-repaired cellphone vibrated from the outer pocket of his backpack. Probably a backlog of texts from his parents about how dinner was almost ready and to hurry his butt back home.

And he was sitting on the fire escape from where no normal teenager entered their home.

Figuring he could explain his entrance later, Nino turned to glance through his bedroom window. With no parents in sight, Nino lifted the sill and climbed through with none of the agility from earlier. He was clumsy, accidentally knocking a textbook off his desk and almost faceplanting. Landing on his hands and knees, he took a moment to breathe in the smell of his carpet. Grass mixed with textbooks. His heartbeat slowed enough to hear the cars outside. Adrenaline died down and relaxed the tension in his shoulders.

Nino pushed himself back against his bed.

"This isn't happening," he muttered, allowing himself to fall back against the frame. Nino pulled his comforter off the bed and buried his face in it. Huddled in the darkness Nino groaned deep into the void.

"Hey, come on, you're okay."

Right, the bird followed him in. Nino squeezed his eyes shut and wished the thing had disappeared with Miraculous Ladybug. "Shut up."

Nino tugged his comforter tighter around him, inhaling the aroma of laundry soap. The bird kept saying something to him, some kind of variation of okay or get up while patting his covered shoulder. Nino countered whatever it said with a never-ending stream of shut up that became more desperate as time went on, until the bird stopped.

Sweet silence. Iron Lung's yells vanished. The bird's demanding squawk lessened to a buzzing at the back of his mind. Nino inhaled and exhaled with a mental count of ten. With every number, his fingers pulled at his cropped hair. There was a lot to go over, but there was so much noise inside his head it was hard to grasp the pieces that managed to float to the top.

He had a Miraculous.

He fended off an akuma hellbent on tearing him limb from limb.

There was a talking bird in his room.

Nino reached outside of himself. The hallway outside his room was silent— where were his parents? Forgotten homework on his desk rustled in the breeze. There was a t-shirt hanging off his bedpost. His body finally relaxed enough to pick out the only words he felt had a sense of safety.

"I can't believe I'm home."

Nino slid the comforter off his head with the same hesitation might turn over a graded exam. The bird was sitting on his desk across from him, perched and scanning the room in interest. Nino sucked in a long, deep breath to stem the tears in his eyes.

The bird jumped into the air and flew towards him. "Hey, come on, you're okay."

Nino recoiled back but a gentle tug of his chin lifted his head. Nino came to face with the peacock and its unsettling red and black eyes. Magic trailed up his face, settling in his temples. His headache lessened enough to make the streaming sunlight bearable.

"What the Hell are you?" Nino bit out, clenching his teeth and readying himself to flee for the umpteenth time that day.

The bird wrinkled its face. Despite the lack of eyebrows and nose, there was no mistaking the fact that it felt insulted. It flew back and gave an elaborate bow that made its tail feathers flare out like a cape. "I'm a Kwami, and my name is Duusu." It—she, a gut instinct told him— kept on smiling. Then Duusu huffed when she didn't receive the reaction she was looking for. "A thank you would be nice."

The shock subsided enough for him to think and string some words together. "A thank you?"

Duusu's head feathers folded back in irritation. The air grew heavy with the same heat he'd felt on the Miraculous. "For saving you? I doubt you would have made it out alive without my help."

"Thank you." Nino sighed. There went his heart again, beating up a storm at the slightest hint of magic.

Duusu beamed like a teacher in front of her students. She flew up to him and patted both cheeks. "Anything for my new Peacock! Oh, I can see it now!" Duusu glanced off to the side with a longing sigh.

"What Peacock? Wait," he began, everything before Iron Lung coming back to him in flashes, "what did I agree to?"

Instead of answering, Duusu flew back to the desk and brought something over in her paws. Before Nino had a chance to stand, she dropped the Miraculous he'd thrown away into his lap. Unactivated, it was a normal belt buckle— or brooch, now that he looked at it under the right light— with a teal and blue motif that would actually look rather nice with the right outfit.

Nino tentatively touched it with a finger, expecting the same warmth from when he'd picked up Adrien's ring. To his surprise it was cool to the touch. Even the waning heat Nino had expected of a turn-off laptop was absent.

Duusu had flown out of it when he'd first touched it back in the truck. Was she the source of the unbearable heat?

The magical bird settled herself on his knees with the daintiness of a queen taking her throne. Duusu weighed nothing despite the absolute power she wielded. "You agreed to accept my Miraculous and become my newest Peacock. If you hadn't agreed, you wouldn't have transformed."

Nino picked up the unassuming brooch, turning it this way and that. Miraculous. Transformed. His stomach tied itself into a knot big enough to catch his breath. Nino clapped a hand to his chest.

No passing out. He didn't escape a madman just to die on his bedroom floor.

"Let me get this straight," he finally said with as much calmness he could scrounge up from his bedroom floor, "I agreed to become a superhero?"

"If that's what you want to call it, yes."

The world came crashing down in a giant mess of glass. Nino jumped to his feet and sent Duusu tumbling to the carpet. He grasped the Miraculous in his hand, a part of him too afraid to let it go. He gestured to himself, not quite knowing how to start, until his words came out somewhere between a shout and a hiss. "I didn't agree to any of that! You didn't mention superheroes or Miraculouses or freaking feathers!"

Duusu rocketed up to meet him eye-to-eye. There was that pressure in the air again, but now Nino knew it was all Duusu. All that power that came with the suit and the weapons was now aimed at him. Nino backed up as Duusu approached, her tail feathers fanned out to effectively corner him against the bedpost he'd bumped into.

Even clipped, her words were perfectly clear. "Is it my fault you were in too much of a hurry to hear me out?"

"I was going to die!"

The room grew hotter. Duusu growled and reared up. The eyes on her tail feathers pulsated a blood red. "Bottom line is you agreed, and my magic helped your escape. The Peacock Miraculous is now yours. I am your Kwami."

"You can forget it." Bowing his head, Nino turned his back on her. He pulled his shoulders up in a vain attempt to block the rising spark in the air. Nino threw his glance to the window instead. "I'm not a superhero, so you can go ahead and pick someone else instead."

"Kid, this isn't—"

"Nino."

Duusu sighed. The magic in the air shifted like a deviated hurricane. She flew into his line of sight. "Nino, that's now how this works. We're Bonded now. You can't just dismiss me whenever you want."

The prompt was left for him to pick up. Curiosity got the best of his anger. "What's Bonded?"

Duusu perked up. "Bonded means you and I are in sync. You can't leave the Miraculous permanently with someone else. It's me and you."

Nino wrapped his arms around himself. He was falling apart at the seams, but he didn't have a magical suit this time to keep him together. "Can't you undo it or something?"

Duusu was silent. The magic rose and fell in sharp waves of energy. There was no magical string like the ones he'd seen back during the battle— if one could even call it that— but Nino could easily sense the fluctuation from frustrated to pleased to remorseful. Then, in a small voice, she admitted, "Only our Guardian has the power to cleanly break our Bonds. Without him it's… painful with damaging effects."

Even though his nerves spiked enough to restart his headache, Nino plowed on. He dug his fingers into the Miraculous still in his hand. He hoped the pain would be enough for him to eventually drop it. "That's fine. Just get it over with because I can't be a hero."

"With the Miraculous you can."

Tighter until his fingernails pricked his skin. "That's not what I meant."

"Nino, Wielders are not competent in their first fight. They all take to their Miraculous differently."

Nino managed to turn round with an awkward shuffle of his feet. With Duusu watching his every step, he felt he couldn't actually leave the room without her explicit permission.

Eventually, he fell on his bed. Nino let himself fall on his back to block out those insistent eyes near the window. Duusu patiently waited for him to plead his case. "I can't be a hero because I can't even convince my best friend he needs my help before he ends up dead. I can't be a hero because I locked myself in a stupid truck. I can't be a hero because I'm a useless idiot that just ran away."

When silence met his claim, Nino sat up and peeked at his unwanted visitor. Duusu raised an eyebrow, her voice a drawl. "Are you done?"

He hadn't scratched the surface of everything wrong with today, but Nino nodded all the same.

Duusu perched on the bedpost and canted her head towards him. "Tell me about this friend."

"He's Chat Noir." Nino closed his eyes. What he wouldn't give for Chat Noir to be anybody else but his best friend. "He has a Miraculous, and he fights akumas every day. He was even there right now at the truck. But he keeps getting hurt and just doesn't want my help." Nino glanced at the cold Miraculous in his palm. "When I picked up his ring— his Miraculous— it was still warm. I don't think his Kwami got out. So Chat Noit couldn't find his ring."

Duusu jumped high into the air and clapped her paws together. True glee lit up her eyes. "This is perfect! Don't you see? The Peacock is the protector. It is our job to keep the other Wielders safe, no matter what the cost. If Chat Noir's Kwami didn't leave his Miraculous, that means he needed to use that time to recuperate. There's something going on there."

So not only was Adrien getting hurt but his Kwami, too? That definitely wasn't good news.

Duusu floated closer, not quite touching him. "Don't you see? You are in the perfect position to help your friend."

Nino blew out a breath. "I couldn't even get out of a truck. How am I supposed to fight akumas?"

"That was the you before the Miraculous. The you now did a magnificent job staying alive."

Nino bit his bottom lip to stop the tremble climbing his arms. Iron Lung did everything in his power to rip the Miraculous from his belt. "That was one time."

"The first battle is always the hardest."

Another Iron Lung? Hawkmoth himself? Nothing else painted a larger target on his back than a Miraculous on his belt. How on Earth did Adrien do it every day?

Duusu ignored his doom and gloom. She flew up to him and tapped the frame of his glasses to draw his eyes up. "I believe you can do it."

"That makes one of us."

Nino let himself fall on his sheets again. There was just no winning with this bird.

Duusu trailed after him until she was hovering over his face. Her happiness soured into a pensive scowl that darkened the red of her irises. Nino sunk further into the mattress to try and escape her potential wrath.

Seeing this, she relaxed. "Do you want to leave your friend to fend for himself?"

Ladybug had Adrien's back, except when she didn't.

Duusu saw his hesitation and continued. "Because that's what you're doing if you choose to leave. A Peacock should always be present to support the Wielders, and finally someone has decided to pick up my Miraculous again." At his questioning look, Duusu's voice grew small and hesitant. "A Kwami never knows how much time passes when they're inside their Miraculous. I don't know how I ended up in that truck or where I'll end up after the Guardian breaks our Bond. So I can't guarantee that the next person will care about your friend as much as you."

Nino balled his hands. The Miraculous dug into his palm and reminded him that this was all real.

"Nino?"

This was too much power for him to take.

"You're right," Nino said as convincingly as he could.

A shifting of powers. Nino peeked to see a placated Duusu floating in front of him. She smiled back, and his heart calmed.

"I know I'm right. All my Peacocks have always been masters at their job."

"No, you're right that no one cares as much as I do." Nino decided not to elaborate. Duusu was already flying around in a whirlwind of glee.

He'd just lied to someone who could probably crush him with a thought. There was no telling what something like Duusu could do when she was actually furious with him.

She didn't understand just how much Nino knew about magical corruption. Being akumatized into the Bubbler was just an extension of Hawkmoth's Miraculous, or Kwami now that he knew the real source of it all. Banishing every adult in Paris to the skies had only been a sliver of what Nino could do with magic.

The fight with Iron Lung was a blur of revelation after revelation. There was so much he could have done if he actually knew how to use the powers Duusu had given him. He knew there had to be someone out there who would actually be competent, who would actually like the sensation of wielding infinite power.

Duusu finally flitted down. Her smile lit up the shades of blue in her feathers. Had his suit looked like that? "Then will you stay as my Peacock?"

Nino sat up, Duusu moving with him. Other than the mess of papers on his desk, everything looked just how it had been before he left for the Jardin des Plantes. If he ignored the flying god in front him, it was like he'd never stumbled on the Miraculous.

"I'll try it," he amended when Duusu still looked doubtful.

Duusu snickered and motioned to the Miraculous still in his hand. Those indents would probably never come out of his palm. "You have to put it on, silly. If you don't have it on, you won't be able to transform at a moment's notice."

Nino was not about brooches or hairclips— not that he had enough hair for it. So Nino lifted his shirt and clipped the Miraculous back on his belt. Immediately it warmed not with the unbearable heat after transformation but with the steady thrum of Adrien's ring on his finger.

Duusu took his actions with a shrug and touched down on the mattress. "Being the Peacock really is such a rewarding job. There's nothing more satisfying than being the reason your team is safe. You'll love it!"

A sharp, phantom pain where he hit that parked car told him otherwise. Nino grinned and bared it.

"By the way, it's Wings Down."

Nino blinked. "What?"

"The phrase to detransform is Wings Down. When you just take the Miraculous off like that, it stings quite a lot."

Nino looked down. "Oh." He hadn't meant to hurt Duusu, as annoying as she was.

Duusu moved to perch on his shoulder, eliciting in him a burst of fresh goosebumps. "It's fine. Just don't do it again. It's one of the many things that comes with the job."

"Look," he said when it seemed like she was going to launch into another spiel about magic and being a good, little superhero. "I'm going to take a nap. I don't think my parents are here yet, so you don't have to worry about them." And they wouldn't have to worry about Duusu. "Or you can go outside and get some fresh air."

Duusu sounded like she was going to protest, but Nino had already laid down and faced the wall. He managed to shrug off his shoes before he fell asleep, plans to get rid of the Miraculous and Duusu slipping away like sand through fingers.

Nino woke up to a sharp prod in the cheek. He started away and found a blurry Duusu hovering between him and the wall. Nino rubbed his nose— falling asleep in glasses was never a great idea— and braced his arms to sit up.

"I'm hungry," Duusu declared once he adjusted his glasses.

Shit. He didn't know gods ate food. It was a miracle he hadn't been smited REM cycle. Nino rubbed his face to try and wake himself up enough to avoid insulting Duusu. "Sorry about that. I don't have anything in my room, dude, but you can look around for snacks."

As Duusu flew off to first rummage through his backpack, Nino glanced at the still-open window. He blinked through the haze of sleep until he made out the night sky peeking through the buildings. Immediately, exhaustion hit him once again and pulled him back into the rumpled sheets of his bed. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep for, but it wasn't enough.

Duusu landed on his stomach. Even when Nino adjusted his glasses she still had a glare. "I can't transform you if I'm hungry."

There was no way he was transforming just so Hawkmoth could sick on him another one of his pets. "Why would you transform me?"

"You need to practice as soon as possible." Duusu plopped down and gestured to the open window. The incoming breeze ruffled her feathers and made Nino pull up his covers. "Night's darkness is the perfect opportunity."

There she was, scheduling his life for him. Nino narrowed his eyes, trying to read if she had figured out his lie. When she just continued to point at the Parisian night more directly, he said slowly, "I didn't say anything about practicing. I just agreed that I would try the hero thing."

Until he figured out a way to get rid of her without those painful consequences she'd warned him about.

Duusu opened her mouth to retort something short and biting when there was a distinct sound of a door closing. Nino choked on air, coughed, but it did nothing to dispel the voices coming from the living room.

"Nino, are you home?" His mom. Sweet, glorious, very human mom.

Nino got to his knees, cold and fatigue forgotten. There was no way she could go near Duusu. What if Duusu attacked her if she touched the Miraculous? Would she erase his mom's memory instead or something even more invasive?

Duusu tilted her head in interest. She drifted to the door despite Nino's spluttering protest. "Is that Arabic?" she asked him through his shock. Duusu sighed contently. "Such a lovely language. One of my best Peacocks was an Egyptian girl in the 1800s who—"

Nino took two giant steps and grabbed her with both hands. It was like grabbing a live wire. The magic made every hair on his head stand on end, but he still managed to say with a hiss, "Would you shut up?"

"Nino?" his father's voice rumbled on the other side.

Duusu glared up, but it was nothing like the dread his father's voice provoked. "Coming!" He waited for the footsteps to recede before letting out his breath. "Okay, Duusu, I—Ow!"

Nino dropped her. She rose up, willing to bite him again. Nino raised his hands and backed up. He didn't think he would get away with anything less than obliteration if he grabbed her again. "You have to stay here."

"And where are you going?" She crossed her paws.

Why did she have to be so loud? He gestured wildly to the door to drive his point home. "If I don't go out there, my parents are going to barge in here and see you. Do you want that? Do you want my mom to cook you for dinner because you couldn't shut up?"

"I have to go with you. We're Bonded. I cannot leave your side."

Perfect. That made it a lot harder to ditch the Miraculous somehow. "What part of them seeing you didn't you understand?"

Duusu flew up. Nino brought his hands to his face, but she zoomed up and scurried under his hat instead. Nino grabbed the brim. She pulled back. He gave up and went to the door.

"Since we're leaving and cutting our conversation short," she emphasized the last word, right next to his left ear, "you might as well get me something to eat and a place to sleep."

He stood there with a hand on the doorknob and his mind on the new plan. Maybe at the store he could find someone to leave with Miraculous with. Duusu said they were Bonded, but wouldn't she have to follow the Miraculous wherever it went? There was no Peacock if there was no Peacock Miraculous. Just some sleight of hand and an unsuspecting shopping cart and Duusu's stay would come to a close.

"Sure." Nino stressed the word with a toothy smile. "What do you eat?"

"Carrots, but only in small pieces. Oh, and I want a tall plant to sleep in." Duusu popped up, hanging upside down, and used her paws to show him exactly how tall she was talking about.

Nino wrinkled his nose; her feathers were ticking him again. "We don't have any carrots, and why do you need a plant to sl—?"

"Oh, just let me see for myself what you have out there!"

Duusu crawled halfway out of his hat before Nino pulled down the brim with one hand and roughly shoved her back with the other. A Duusu let loose spelled nothing but trouble. "Alright, alright I'll go to the store. Just stop being so damn loud."

After slipping on his shoes and grabbing his phone, Nino left the room before Duusu had something snarky to say.

He didn't stop stomping until his mom tugged him closer by the arm. Saliha immediately patted him down, searching for injuries. Nino squirmed when her hands wandered too close to his belt. Saliha took his avoidance as an act of rebellion and fixed him with her unwavering, motherly stare. "You know I had to make sure myself that you're okay, right?"

"I know, I know," he assured her, fighting the urge to toy with the brim of his hat, as was his usual habit. He didn't think Duusu would appreciate it.

But Saliha stepped away. "Did you check on Adrien?"

Duusu shifted on his head, her curiosity spiking a burst of magic in the air. That had to be some side effect of the Miraculous. He'd felt her power before but never a distinct emotion.

Nino shifted from one foot to the other. He tried to ignore the discomfort of magic running up his spine. "Yeah, I did. Adrien's okay, just tired."

Saliha clapped her hands together and said, "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

The lie rose its ugly head, doubled in size since he hung up the phone. Nino's smile was strained. He had to get to the store and end this.

She wandered to the kitchen and the groceries she just brought back. Faziel was already there, picking out the pots and pans needed for dinner. Neither of them remarked on his strangeness, or the way he tensed so that his hat wasn't jostled. Duusu patted his head for the all clear.

"I, um…" Both turned to him, and Nino wished a hole would open up to swallow him whole. "I'm going to the store, so this is me, letting you know that I'll be back in a bit."

Did Adrien always have to make such lame excuses whenever he had to do something magic related?

Saliha resumed her chores, either ignoring or missing his roundabout babbling. "I told you I might need help getting dinner started, so you need to stay put. I know it's later than usual, but we had to wait for the store to get their shipment of meat. It was stuck in traffic when an akuma attack hit."

There had only been one other akuma attack apart from the one in the Jardin des Plantes.

Nino inched his way to the door with a rising blush on his face. Duusu couldn't be near them. He couldn't be near them in case he broke down and told them everything. "I'm just going to buy some snacks, like, right down the street. If you holler, I'll hear you." He paused with his feet on the mat, then turned sheepishly around. "I actually need some money."

Saliha appeared over the kitchen divider. "And what happened to your allowance from last week?"

"Field trip fees," he lied.

The side glance Saliha threw him was worse than any lecture he'd received. She didn't believe him as far as she could throw him.

Faziel popped his head out of the kitchen. When he saw Nino wasn't budging on his impromptu trip, he came out. There was a tense silence where they both recognized that that the last time they had talked they had fought over him going to Club République. A lifetime ago, the moment that led him to obtain the Miraculous currently hiding underneath his shirt.

Faziel seemed to relent and took out his wallet from his worn dress pants. "Why not?" he said with a small smile. It was rare for his dad to smile so openly. While Adrien's father was cold, Faziel was just more reserved, letting actions speak louder than words. "It's been a rough day for you, but it sounds like you've been rather responsible today. You talked to your friend and got home safely after that akuma attack at the gardens."

Nino numbly accepted the twenty euro banknote. He knew the moment Faziel shut his wallet that those scant moments where he yelled at Nadja Chamack hadn't been aired, or that some obscure camera footage hadn't shown him— Nino, not the masked stranger he'd become— emerging from a moving truck.

He hadn't been responsible, not really, but the threat of his parents somehow coming in contact with Duusu was enough to send him jogging out the door with the money in hand.

She was quiet all the way to the corner store. She laid on his head, her tail feathers curling and uncurling in a constant itch he couldn't scratch. Nino dawdled at the crosswalk. This late at night, there was no need to wait, but the more Duusu was quiet, the more time she had to figure out that he intended to abandon her.

"So those strings I saw today," Nino started even as the crosswalk sign beeped green, "what are those?"

Duusu peeked out enough for him to catch her voice. "They connect you to other Miraculous Wielders. It helps track Wielders across distances to check on their status and well-being through their emotions."

The question came from hours of listening to Alya theorize: "Could I find out Ladybug's identify with that?"

Duusu's tail feathers wagged the more questions Nino asked. "If you're close with the Wielder, then you'll be able to see these strings even when they are not transformed. Perhaps you'll be able to see your friend Chat Noir's string. But most important, the strings are used for your final attack."

Yeah, he didn't need to know that. But Nino did ask, "So is it normal to hear drums…?"

Duusu slapped her paw against his forehead in realization. Nino batted at her, but she didn't seem to notice. "Oh! So you heard drums! Interesting, but fitting."

Nino finally crossed the street. When Duusu didn't elaborate, he bit the bullet and asked, "Dude, you gotta give me more than that."

"Right." Out of her stupor, Duusu settled to explain, even as Nino approached the store's entrance. "So, each Peacock identifies each Wielder differently to eliminate confusion during battle, and these traits fall under an umbrella of the Peacock's interests. One of my Peacocks was a wine connoisseur in Spain. Each Wielder, or string, he associated with a different wine. Looks like yours might be instruments. I'm sensing a musical background?"

That was… actually kinda cool. It made sense that Hawkmoth— and by extension, his akumas— were just a mess of chaotic drums. What were akumas than just an amalgamation of destruction on a stage? He wondered what instrument Adrien would be.

No, he couldn't think like that. He was not going to become a superhero.

Duusu scuttled back inside the safety of his hat when he entered through the sliding doors. Nino went through the motions of wandering through the aisles of the store with a basket hanging off his arm. As he picked through baggies of frozen vegetables, Nino stopped. With one bag of baby carrots in one hand he had to step away for a second. Nino glanced at the shoppers around him.

They all shuffled from aisle to aisle in a glazed state. He broke away from the vegetables to meet their eyes. Nino tried to identify something within them, a spark of energy, of conviction to protect and serve.

Nino wandered the aisles. There was a general air of frustration that hung around the people who idled in front of the shelves. When he encountered parents towing their children along, Nino didn't get the sense of protectiveness he expected to get.

When nothing clicked, he let out a sigh at his own foolishness. He could slip the Miraculous in a cart easily, but he wouldn't trust none of these dead-eyed strangers hunting for a late night snack to spare him some change, let alone keep his best friend safe.

He was stuck with the Miraculous, with Duusu.

"Are you alright?" Duusu whispered, flattening against the crown of his head so that he could hear her. The concern was there but fleeting, an afterthought. When he didn't say anything, she pulled at his hair.

Nino batted at his hat. "Would you stop doing that?" he whispered. He should have stayed with Adrien until he caved. He should have thought of something else to convince him that he needed help. Then he wouldn't be stuck with a Miraculous and a bird.

"Did you get my plant yet?" Duusu asked near his ear. Nino hunched his shoulders but otherwise complied by walking to where the shrubs and succulents were. There wasn't much he could do about it.

By the time Nino walked out of the store with two bags of carrots and a potted fern, his mind was twisted into the most complicated sailor's knot. The store had been a bust. Maybe he could use tomorrow's lunch time to hit up a café and look for another potential hero. Nino would even donate the fern, free of charge, as long as they took this cursed object and its resident away from him.

He managed to get to the stairs of his apartment building. Another full minute later, he saw Alya waiting on the steps to his floor.

His heart fluttered with a thought: wouldn't she make a better superhero than him?

She finally noticed him when he walked up and almost dropped the plant on her head. Alya peered up. There was a burst of joy with her smile that he felt through his new powers.

"Where in the world were you at nine o' clock on a Monday night?"

Nino held on to his epiphany like a lifesaver. Alya was smart, brave, and Adrien's friend. She was meant to be a superhero, no doubt about it.

"The convenience store?" When she didn't say a word, he elaborated hopefully, "For snacks?

Alya leaned closer, elbows on her knees. "Is that why you have a potted plant? Do you plan on going vegetarian on me?"

Duusu's weight reminded him to watch his words. He had to do this in a way she wouldn't realize his intention was to ditch her with the girl waiting at his doorstep. "Sorry, babe, I fell asleep the moment I got home."

Alya studied him for a little while longer, and Nino resisted the urge to fix his cap. Then she took out her phone and patted the spot next to her. "Okay, now that I know you are still among the living, you need to see the footage of today's battle."

Nino bit his bottom lip, not sure if he wanted to see Adrien being batted around the Jardin des Plantes. Still he sat down. Duusu was inches from her. If she could see how amazing Alya was in the midst of battle, then she would have no choice but to pick Alya.

Alya would be perfect. Duusu would love her.

Nino leaned back, tipping the brim of his hat enough to create a pocket of space Duusu could see from.

The video started out with a burst of civilians rushing past the camera. Nino strained to follow Alya's path through the winding sidewalks and the flurry of people. He thought he spotted the bench they talked on just before all Hell broke loose. Alya kept on going and finally stopped long enough to aim her camera at the battle happening outside the webbed museum.

There was Chat Noir nursing a hurt shoulder. There was Ladybug briefing him and starting the attack on Araignée and her legion of zombies. Even with the screaming and the jostling, Alya's camera phone stood rock still.

He knew he was supposed to be paying attention for something specific, even though Alya had been pretty vague about what exactly that was, but Nino's mind was split in so many different directions that it was hard to grab onto one thing.

Get Duusu to understand that Alya was so much better than him.

Find the right words to tell her about this amazing opportunity she couldn't bare to pass up.

Nino searched for the words, but eventually the battle drew him to the video. Ladybug and Chat Noir flipped, leaped, sprinted across the camera with only the briefest of glances to their surroundings. No lamppost and no bench was off limits. Nino leaned forward. Try as he might to shove the fact away, Adrien was still Chat Noir, battling for his life.

Alya raised her eyebrows when the video ended. "Did you see it?"

Adrien as Chat Noir? He wish he'd never had. "Remind me again what I was supposed to see?"

Alya rewound the video to a specific part and let it play. Nino watched, but his mind was on what he would say to Alya. She would jump at the chance. Adrien would be in great hands. Hawkmoth wouldn't know what hit him.

Nino's mouth went dry as he prepared his spiel.

Alya analyzed the video, thumbs poised to pause. Moving colors lit up her face like the brightest star. Just as Ladybug called out her catchphrase to fix the city's damage, Alya paused the video and said, "Look. Don't you think there's less ladybugs than usual? Usually they cover the whole screen when I record, but now it's like, half of that." Alya encompassed the swarm of magical bugs on the screen with two fingers to prove her point.

Nino leaned in closer. He'd been too busy trying not to die to pay attention to the ladybug population. He couldn't say whether there were less ladybugs than usual, but he trusted the reporter that would wait in a rain-drenched alley just to catch a snippet of the battle.

"What do you think it means?" If Duusu heard how analytical Alya was, he would be delighted to make her a hero.

"Maybe Ladybug's powers are being affected by something? Maybe it leads back to why Chat Noir was still injured after the battle with Slip-N-Slide." Alya shrugged and gnawed at her bottom lip. Another puzzle for her to solve. If only he could pass on what Adrien had admitted back at the tent. It was pretty much what Alya already figured out, but to know that the heroes themselves shared her theory would delight her.

If Nino didn't mess this up, Alya would hear it from Ladybug and Chat Noir soon enough.

"You're really brave. You know that, right?" He didn't have to lie to be convincing. "I doubt that Chamack lady was brave enough to see all of that."

Alya leaned into him and held her phone aloft to glare at the still video. "Ughh, I should have taken a nap like you. Her report made me nauseous. She just went on about how Ladybug and Chat Noir need to do more interviews to keep the trust of the people of Paris."

She rewound the video. Her words blurred until Nino concentrated only his pitch to make Alya the new Peacock Wielder. Alya was stronger than he was. She wouldn't get hurt like him. She was smarter. Quicker. Adrien was one of her dearest friends.

The video was shoved in his face. "Look, just look at this." And there was Chat Noir being thrown into the nearest stone railing. The metal bent under the impact, throwing him roughly to the cobblestone of the gardens.

When she looked up Nino's remaining resolve shriveled. Compelled to see more of her shining face, Nino tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

Alya put her phone down. He felt her excitement fizzle tangibly in the air between them. "Nino?"

Alya could not have the Peacock Miraculous. If he had to watch her get hurt like that, Nino didn't think his heart could bare it.

Nino pulled her into an unprompted hug. Head on his shoulder, Alya huffed, then chuckled. "We just saw each other day. Am I going to get this reception tomorrow?"

He laughed along with her. It was incredibly bittersweet. The only person he could trust with the Miraculous was too precious to put in harm's way. Duusu peeked from his hat, then eventually flew to face him while he still held Alya.

Looked like Duusu was going to be his burden to bare.

The next morning, waiting in his empty homeroom, Nino tapped his tablet pen against the desk in a vain attempt to stem the flow of nerves. His other hand massaged his forehead. Headaches, aches, and magic. Somehow he still held himself together.

During dinner the previous night, over a plate of meat and potatoes, Nino accepted his fate. No one else would look out for Adrien as well as he would, and there was no way he was going to risk Alya's safety. He was Adrien's best bro, after all. At the end of the day, he was the only logical choice.

Did he like it? No. Was it a thing now? Yep.

When the headache eased up, Nino wrote down another superhero name in his digital list of possibilities. Starting it was the only thing that had kept Duusu from dragging him to the nearest rooftop to train last night. He planned to make the list as long as humanly possible. As he had explained when faced with her pout, genius was a process, and one could not rush the process.

(He wasn't planning on being in the superhero business for long, just until Adrien saw some sense, but he still wanted his name to be good.)

Duusu curled up near the crook of his neck, partially hidden under his shirt. Her feathers were warm, almost too warm for it to be comfortable. There was that spark of magic he was getting used to. Nino had tried getting her to sleep in his schoolbag, but there was only so much convincing he could try when he had to rush to school. Alya, luckily, had to interview the librarian for one of her other classes, and hadn't stuck around in their homeroom.

When Nino began drumming his fingers in thought, Duusu piped up, "That's loud."

Nino gave the edge of the desk a particularly hard tap. "You're loud," he grumbled in his sad attempt of a comeback. Even Chat Noir could do a better a job. "I thought you didn't want to be seen?"

Duusu rolled her eyes and settled against his neck. She glanced up at the ceiling. "I don't, but I can sense people coming quite easily from here." Duusu gave him a sidelong glance. "You're going to learn how to do that."

He shouldn't be encouraging her, but curiosity was a strange creature. Nino kept on tapping in the hopes that it would cover their conversation in case anyone walked in. "I'm going to learn how to be a security system?"

Only Alya's and his parents' emotions were strong enough for him to tell whether they were in the room. Everyone else was a fog of a general sense of something, and that was only if he concentrated on them.

"You're going to learn how to extend your powers to sense the emotions of not just the people you're close to but to the population around you." She sighed. "Whenever you decide to transform again."

Nino rolled his eyes, ignoring the jibe. "Wow, that sounds like the best power ever. Totally going to wreck some akumas with that."

Duusu hopped down onto his desk. "Too bad you feel that way. Seeing Eye is a very powerful attack."

"Seeing Eye?"

But Duusu slipped down into his bag as the classroom door opened.

Ms. Bustier walked in, then stopped when she spotted Nino. She glanced at the empty classroom. "You're here quite early."

Nino put his stylus down. He was silent, waiting for Ms. Bustier's eyes to go to his bag. Magic fizzled in the air, a distinct sense of curiosity from Duusu. Nino wetted his lips and silently exited out of his list. He tried to reach out with his powers to Ms. Bustier. It was trying to stretch a brand new rubber band. It started a dull ache in his temple.

When all he got from her was something that was either tired or annoyed, he finally said, releasing the mention tension, "I couldn't sleep."

Ms. Bustier sat down at her desk. The curiosity faded away as Duusu deemed her too normal to bother with. "I understand. Yesterday's akuma attack came at such an inopportune time. Did you make it home okay?"

"Yeah." Nino went back to fiddling with his stylus until the rest of the class filtered in. When Nino tried to extend his powers again, the same buzz of magic from earlier in the school's courtyard filled the air, but it skittered from one spot to the other as students dispersed to their desks. Other than Adrien and Marinette— who rushed in right before Ms. Bustier closed the door— there was no else whose emotions he could feel. As students took their seats, Nino let his mind wander back to him before the ache turned into a full-blown headache.

He wouldn't admit aloud that he was enjoying this, but at least the morning hadn't been dull.

Adrien sat next to him. "Hey," he said timidly.

Nino chose that moment to pull up every relevant textbook from his schoolbag. Adrien made a noise, but Nino continued to slowly stack everything he might need for the class. That didn't erase the same, damned string he'd noticed on Chat Noir the day before. It was a lot fainter out of the mask, and it could have been just the glare of the overhead lights if Nino didn't know what it was.

"Nino?"

When everything but Duusu and his laptop were on his desk Nino finally said, "I didn't tell anyone."

Adrien's relief was palpable, like the lowering of volume on TV static. "I knew you wouldn't, but still… thanks."

"Mhmm." Nino busied himself with opening up the scant notes from their trip to Jardin des Plantes. "Not my secret. Not my business."

The class chatter fell as Ms. Bustier called for class to begin. Adrien reached out for more with a look, but Nino angled himself away to focus on his tablet, head craned down. His Miraculous dug into his stomach.

Stupid Adrien. Stupid selfless, blind Adrien.

Somehow during note taking, Nino's fingers tangled itself in Adrien's string. There was the distinct sound of trumpets flowing from it, subdued by bold: Adrien and Chat Noir. He followed Ms. Bustier's pointer even as a spark of frustration and guilt hit him from Adrien's string. Nino shook his hand to get the string away, but as the class went on, the feeling of guilt settled over their table like a thick fog. Nino breathed through his nose in a vain attempt to ignore it.

Nino had never heard a guilty trumpet before, but this was certainly it.

Suddenly, people were moving. Class was over.

Nino dropped his tablet and grabbed his book bag. He shoved everything in it without consideration for Duusu. The sooner he left the sooner the sound of trumpets would quit following him.

Nino caught Duusu's knowing glance from the shadows of his bag. Frowning back, he shouldered his bag and stomped out the class. Hiding behind a pillar, Nino used both of his hands to massage his temples.

Duusu peeked out of his backpack. "The sooner you train the sooner you can get a handle on this. It shouldn't be this overwhelming."

Nino flicked his eyes upwards, only for Duusu to fly up to meet his eye. "I'm not ready," he shot back.

Duusu flew under his hat at the sound of footsteps. Nino took the stair's steps two at a time, head down and trying to dislodge Duusu with each bump. His backpack was fine, but his using his head so much was just a step too far.

Duusu curled up for the ride, not the least bit dissuaded. "You can't be scared forever."

There was the faint sound of a trumpet, followed by a sense of frustration. Nino turned around in time to see Adrien at the top of the stairs. Their eyes met, and Adrien's frustration grew more persistent. Nino entered the classroom with an incoherent mumble. Adrien was the entire reason he was stuck with Duusu. Nino could act like an asshole for a while, as far as he was concerned.

They sat together for Madame Mendeliev's Chemistry class. Nino suffered through another hour of Adrien's one-man band of emotions. By the end of it, Nino broke his stylus.

"I helped you through yesterday's fight," Duusu told him when Nino sat down for his third class of the day. "And I'll help you through training."

Even though Adrien didn't have History with him, Nino's eyes were still glued to the classroom door. He gave Duusu a careful nod. She settled in with one last pat on the head.

The buzz of emotions in the room weaved with Madame Mendeliev's lecture. Nino managed to get through a page of notes. He glanced around him with a self-satisfied smirk he wished Duusu could see. As long as he kept his distance from Adrien, he could handle the magic in his head.

Nino had so much time to concentrate, in fact, that he opened a new note on his tablet to keep track of everything new going on with these powers. He tried to write everything on Arabic, even with his shaky spelling. Not like anyone other than his parents would notice if they read over his shoulder.

Hero = string with an instrument. Can easily feel emotions through them without having to try. Too loud right now! Hard to ignore.

Close friends and family (and Duusu!)= no string but easy to read emotions. Still loud but bearable. Easier to ignore.

Strangers and acquaintances = no string, no emotions unless with concentrated focus on them. Potential headache.

Nino continued to contemplate as he walked out to grab lunch. It didn't seem like a lot, but it certainly felt like it. He was pulled out of it by a prickle of annoyance that was not accompanied by trumpet fanfare. Nino glanced, already suspecting who it was.

Alya waited for him at the school's stairwell. She pursed her lips. "I'm not going to say anything."

Pocketing his tablet his tablet in his backpack, Nino intertwined his hand with hers. "You just did."

They separated themselves from the crowd of students. Alya tightened her grip, grumbled, and finally said to the sky, clearly at her wit's end, "I already said everything about the Adrien thing."

Nino definitely did not want to talk about the Adrien thing during lunch.

"Hey, guys! Wait up!"

Nino turned around to find Marinette catching up with them. Alya smiled back, though her iron grip on Nino's hand told him their talk wasn't over. "Did you want to join us?"

Marinette stumbled to a halt. She gave a quick smile back. "Actually I need to go home and finish some things." Marinette glanced around the street, then back at them. Her smile was strained. "I just wanted to tell you guys to be careful. Ladybug and Chat Noir haven't found that second akuma yet."

Alya's curiosity piqued, and she unwittingly dragged Nino closer to the conversation. "Iron Lung?"

Marinette frowned. She gave the surroundings another cursory glance. "No, the other one he was fighting."

Nino's breath caught in his throat. He glanced down at his hidden Miraculous. He really should have caught the news before running out of the apartment like an idiot. Why didn't Alya tell him that people thought he was an akuma?

Alya perked up. "So he's out there somewhere. Well, if we run into him then my footage will be a lot better than those street cameras."

Marinette groaned. "Alya, akumas are dangerous. Just, you guys be careful."

"How many…?" Nino cleared his throat when both of them turned their attention to him. "How many people saw the second akuma?"

Alya was already flicking through her apps on the phone. "They showed the footage from the street cameras in the morning news. It was a pretty big deal since there hasn't been an akuma loose since Stoneheart." Alya zoomed in on a video titled Blue Akuma Still at Large! "You really need to get read the news more, Lahiffe."

Marinette glared at what she could of the screen. Her anger sizzled over her, so uncharacteristically Marinette that Nino visibly drew back. If even sweet Marinette thought of his unnamed alter-ego with such vehemence, exactly how did that footage make him look?

At Alya's insistence, Nino glanced at the play button on the black-and-white CCTV footage. Behind the button, he saw the paused footage of the overturned truck and what had to be Iron Lung near the cabin. When the video played, he saw Iron Lung destroying the cabin door by door until not-Nino popped up from inside the truck.

Even from a bird's eye view, Nino felt the small gasp escape him. It didn't look like anything like him, but his body swayed with the movements on the screen, remembering exactly how the battle went. There was no sound, no color, so Chamack's narration kicked in. She refereed to him as the "blue akuma" who probably got on the wrong side of Iron Lung. When he fled— his backpack an unrecognizable blob against his body— she took the time to comment on Ladybug and Chat Noir's lack of planning when faced with two akumas.

"I get it," he said when she lowered the video. Nino took a deep breath to push away the twin feelings of anger that stemmed from Marinette and Alya. If he didn't focus on them, it would go away.

"No wonder Ladybug and Chat Noir don't like interviewing with her," Marinette murmured darkly.

Ignore. Ignore. Nino rubbed the bridge of his nose under his frames and asked, more as a distraction than anything, "Alya, does everyone actually think this second person was an akuma?"

"What else would he be?" The black and white video replayed automatically. Nino caught himself glancing down.

When he saw himself crash against a car he forced his eyes back on Alya. "But they were fighting each other."

"Nino," she started, locking her phone, "akumas are driven by feelings of anger and injustice. I don't think it's that much of a stretch right now that two akumas had a disagreement. Now come on, let's go to that café we went to last week."

She brushed past him, and he had no choice but to follow, with Marinette bidding them goodbye. Nino came up beside Alya. "One battle is hardly enough time to say anything for sure."

Alya shoved her phone back in her pocket and huffed. "Time is precious. If the answers aren't going to pop in front of our eyes then we have to come up with them." She glanced around her and finished with a smirk, "So if that akuma comes about, I'm not going to wait around."

Nino trailed beside her. Duusu tugged at his ear, and he sighed to try and get his point across. He hadn't even picked his superhero name, and his reputation was already going up in flames.

Guess that list was going to be done sooner than he'd thought.

So why not piano for Adrien? Well, trumpets have been frequently used as part of a hero's theme/leimotif, most notably stemming from Superman's theme/leimotif. Nino sees Adrien as a hero, so a trumpet fits. Also, I can't recall a time where Nino has heard Adrien play the piano, so I don't think he would unconsciously associate him with a piano in this fic.

Also, in this fic/AU, the Peacock Miraculous is not cracked or damaged. Nino won't be suffering through the effects that Nathalie was in canon.

And lastly, Duusu is female in this fic. It'll make the writing flow a bit smoother when both Nino and Duusu are in the same scene. Besides, the show flip flops between male and female voice actors, depending on the language.

Fun fact! Bird's Eye View was the original name for this fic. I just thought it was a bit too wordy.

Next chapter will be up Saturday! I'm celebrating my birthday tomorrow, so probably no writing/editing for me until after that.

Comments are always appreciated! :D