Sparkles16238: Glad you've enjoyed the story so far and what I'm doing with Nino's character!
Ira19: Man, reading your comment was just... it made my week! Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying the plot! The reveals are only a small part of this fic, so yep, we're not stopping now! There's way too much to cover. And as for the theories... well, I'm not saying anything. You're just going to have to wait and find out! Luckily, this chapter will answer some of your questions. =D
Chapter 13
Régalien touched down on Alya's balcony. He pushed open the French doors into her bedroom with his shoulder and then stood there, his mind finally catching up to the harried beating of his heart. The last of the adrenaline trickled down until the strong sting of exhaustion wormed its way to his limbs. His knees threatened to send him to the carpet, arms shaking. The room began to spin and tilt as he glanced around, making sure they were alone.
"Alya," he whispered down to her, one hand tangled in her hair. Gravel peppered her curls, rough against his glove. "Are you awake? You okay?"
She said nothing, did nothing, and Régalien wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Despite the exhaustion consuming him, he hugged her closer. Her perfume wafted up to him, strong and comforting among the craziness of it all.
Taking in a huge breath, he imagined, for the blink of an eye, that they were on a lunch date, far away from akumas and Miraculouses and Hawkmoth's disgusting magic. Him, the boyfriend that he should be instead of the lying vigilante he had become.
Régalien passed her desk littered with Ladyblog drafts, her discarded backpack by the closet, and laid her down on her bed. Alya immediately curled in on herself, bringing in her comforter to her chest and searching for one of the many pillows by her headboard. With shaking fingers, he removed her glasses and laid them on her nightstand.
Her face was smooth, free from the ugly creases of anger and hate. Dry tear tracks stained her cheeks. Régalien got as far as brushing away the gravel on her forehead and shirt collar before her breathing picked up, and he stepped away, arms raised and on the balls of his feet, ready to flee to some dark corner.
Alya settled into sleep again.
Régalien wandered over to Alya's computer chair and straddled it, arms resting on the back. He laid his head on his arms, his only respite after a rollercoaster of a night. Eyes heavy with exhaustion settled on Alya's sleeping form.
"I can't leave yet," he said to Duusu's prodding. "I have to make sure she's okay."
And leaving met running into Ladybug and Chat Noir.
Régalien buried his face into his sleeves.
What on God's green Earth possessed him to get in their faces like that? Sure he could trust Master Fu as far as he could throw him (sans Miraculous), but this?
Though now with Alya safe and nowhere near Master Fu, Nino didn't actually feel that sorry for leaving Ladybug and Chat Noir in the dust. What were some hurt feelings when Alya's life was on the line? Let them be angry. Let them feel betrayed. Maybe he hadn't been the best boyfriend since this whole Miraculous thing exploded in his face, but he would be damned to let her down when it really mattered.
Duusu's prodding was insistent, demanding, and— was that desperate? Régalien had hoped to wallow in his thoughts a little while longer, but the night had been cruel. Duusu needed a break just as much as he did.
Checking to make sure the door was locked and the balcony curtains drawn, Régalien dropped the transformation. The pain in his wrist flared, and Nino muffled his yell by burying his face into his sleeves again. Dammit, he would really need to take a look at it after he got home.
Duusu flew up to settle on his head. Her tail feathers swept his forehead, sending a static of magic racing down the bridge of his nose.
Duusu huffed near his ear. It seemed impossibly loud, and Nino froze, lifting his head. His eyes darted to Alya on her bed. When she didn't stir, he relaxed enough to whisper, "You know she's not supposed to hear us, right?"
He got a sharp tap on his noggin. "Next time you de-transform and transform again, you have to give me a warning. I'm not as young as I was."
He settled his gaze on Alya's sleeping form. "I have carrots in my pocket. Dig in."
Duusu used his t-shirt to climb down and rummage through the pocket of his pants. When she took the first bite, he realized she had chosen the most obnoxiously loud snack as her go-to fuel. Nino closed his eyes and wished to be smote on the spot.
"Real smooth of you going off on Ladybug and Chat Noir back there," she said through her mouthful.
Nino, unfortunately, was still among the land of the living and thus, forced to answer. "They just weren't listening, and there was no way I was going to let them take her to Master Fu. And no, I don't trust him," he added when Duusu raised her head to protest. "I trust you, but not him. He's been keeping too many things from me, and if he's such a guardian, then he should be more straightforward about these things."
"He knows what he's doing," Duusu said, but it had none of the heat he was expecting. Was she trying to assure herself just as much as him?
"And I knew what I was doing, even if you think it was foolish," Nino told her.
Duusu sighed ,much like Alya did during their interview a millenium ago. "You're not a fool," she insisted. "Fools panic and flee. A fool wouldn't have used the Grimoire to try to fix this mess."
Nino sat up straighter. Maybe it was the exhaustion, but did he hear that right? Just to make sure, he scooped Duusu and held her out in front of him. "But what about not going to Master Fu's?"
Duusu traced the lines on his palm in contemplation. "I have to admit, Master Fu would have had no idea that that spell existed in the Grimoire. After all, he cannot read it. Maybe he would have found another way. Maybe not."
"Thanks," because he didn't know what else to say. He had gone in, ready for her to chew him out.
"And Ladybug and Chat Nor will also realize this. They are smart kids."
"I just hope they don't get here," Nino muttered.
"You can leave. I don't sense anything in her anymore."
Nino shook his head, his mouth inexplicably dry. Staying meant that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't the flaky boyfriend Alya thought him as. Staying meant that he could avoid running into Ladybug and Chat Noir for at least one more night.
Duusu knew, by the way she kept silent and stared at Alya with almost reverend silence.
Besides, he was a mess, barely able to string two thoughts together without going into a tangent. Alya, Hawkmoth, his powers, and secret identities… They were songs on loop, except the songs changed mid-verse. If he ran into Marinette and Adrien tonight, there would be no chance at a fruitful conversation.
In his second trigger-happy moment of the night, Nino took out his cell phone and added Adrien and Marinette into a group chat. Though they were friends, seeing a group chat of the three of them— with no Alya— looked so out of place.
We'll talk about what happened tomorrow morning. Before class. Apparently Nino was on a roll because instead of immediately closing the chat and throwing his phone across the room, he added, fighting the hot throbbing in his wrist, Alya is safe and sleeping. You don't need to come and check up on her.
With that, he closed the chat, pocketed his phone, and tried not to think about it. If their Kwamis were anything like Duusu, they would see the message, even if they were still transformed.
So instead Nino concentrated on Alya and the steady rise of her chest while Duusu settled on his shoulder. He reached out with his magic, but just like earlier, he couldn't feel Hawkmoth's string anywhere. He wished he had thought about looking for such a thing before this whole night started.
"Hey, Duusu?"
"Mhmm," she answered, mouth full of carrot.
"Master Fu said that the Cure prioritizes people above everyone and everything else." Nino picked at the leather on the chair's back in thought.
"Yes," she replied, stopping her chewing.
Nino could admit to himself that there were a lot of things he didn't know about the Peacock Miraculous, or the Cure, but there was no denying that tonight there had been no akumatized butterfly. This twisted anger had come from within her. Not swiftly but with all the fury of a demon clawing its way to the Earth's surface.
In a first, Nino directed his powers not outwards, but inwards. With invisible fingers, he grazed the ball of power that had become part of him since he first used the Miraculous. Hot to the touch, it was the first thing he felt when he woke up in the morning and the last thing that soothed him to sleep. Nino rummaged past it, deeper, and…
There.
Hawkmoth's magic. That anger that rose whenever life overwhelmed him and losing himself to his emotions was preferable to continuing.
Now as a Wielder, that anger— that piece of Hawkmoth— was slime to his magic. Viscous and all-encompassing, it brought up his ire at Gabriel Agreste for denying his best friend a simple celebration, his anger at his parents for berating him for the umpteenth time for his hobbies.
Alya moaned, and Nino physically recoiled, hitting the edge of his desk and painfully bringing him out of his inner turmoil. Alya then groaned in the tell-tale way people usually do after a long night of studying into the ungodly hours of the morning.
Nino's hastily whispered Wings Up! was muffled by the creak of bed springs. When Alya placed her glasses on her nose and blinked the world back into view, Régalien smiled a small smile. Awkwardly perched with one knee on the chair and the other foot on the floor, propping him up, he figured he looked just as disheveled as she was.
"You…" she began.
"Was totally not watching you sleep or anything." Régalien stood up completely, then used his good hand to steady himself against the desk when his legs ached with the static of blood rushing back into limbs that had fallen asleep.
Alya canted her head. In the dark, he made out the beginnings of a grin. "You totally were."
"I wanted to make sure you were alright. After," he gestured blindly to the sleeping Paris outside her balcony.
"After I interviewed you and blacked out?"
Régalien met her eye. "You don't remember?"
Alya scooted to sit up on the side of her bed. She swung her legs and looked entirely too carefree for someone who had been trapped in the throes of Hawkmoth's magic. "I remember feeling frustrated that you were such a downer on yourself. Then, nothing."
Régalien picked at the peeling leather of the chair. How much should he say? Not remembering was a blessing and more than he could ask for.
But he was already lying to her so much that she deserved every bit of truth he could give her. "Something…. happened, with Hawkmoth. He was reaching out to you somehow, like when he akumatizes people, except there was no item he akumatized. You were just getting really angry."
There was still a working theory, but he rather not have his theory published on the Ladyblog.
Alya hummed. Her gears were already turning to piece together this latest mystery. "Angry at what?"
"At me, for being so hard on myself, for telling you to go home."
"Sounds like me, just dialed up to eleven."
Régalien laughed because yeah, it was Alya to a T, and she had no idea how much he knew that.
"You're better now. I don't sense Hawkmoth's hold on you anymore," he quickly added. He straightened, wiggling fingers and toes to dispel the worst of the static. It wouldn't do him any good to fall and face plant in front of the love of his life.
Then he was standing there, with Alya seeing him clearly under the fairy lights strung along her headboard. Régalien forced himself to move. There was only so much luck one bird could hold at one time, and his well was running dry.
"Hey," she called out when he turned the knob of the French doors. When he met her eye over his shoulder, she leveled him with a piercing gaze. "You didn't tell me how I got better."
Unable to resist her probing gaze, Régalien turned his back on his exit. "I used a spell to take away the anger."
Alya's eyebrows rose. Curiosity was strong enough to push her to her feet and towards him. Régalien started forward, ready to catch her, but she pushed his arm away to look up at him. "You used a spell? On me?"
Régalien hastily unclipped the Grimoire to brandish it, inevitably enlarging it to its full size. Alya jumped, but her thirst for anything magical kept her in place. His explanation was on the verge of a ramble. "Super safe, I swear. This book has been around for ages, and only the best spells are recorded here."
"You recorded all these spells?" She marveled at the amount of pages.
"No, uhh, it's basically past wielders of the Peacock Miraculous. It's basically what I use for Seeing Eye. That's my final attack and— " Régalien suddenly clamped his mouth shut. Didn't he learn from earlier to keep his mouth shut? "You can't put this on the Ladyblog. We don't know how much Hawkmoth actually knows about me, and if this is something that could give him the edge, we could be toast."
"I won't," and she put a calming hand on his shoulder.
Régalien held still, and she mercifully removed it— only to run it down the cover of the Grimoire, eliciting a shiver from him.
Eyes entirely on the book, Alya's smile threatened to split her face in half. "So all that fancy footwork you do is…"
"... for a spell."
Alya's fingers hovered over the carved title, then her hand fell back to her side when he stiffened. "Well I'm glad you had it with you when we met."
Régalien shrunk and clipped it back on his belt. It settled comfortingly at his hip. "Me, too."
In the blink of an eye, Alya closed the already small gap between them and wrapped him in a hug in a rush of warmth and brimming gratitude. Her hair graced his cheek. Fingers brushed against his costume.
Just as soon it started it was over, leaving Régalien reeling and wanting more. One more hug, just to double check she was back to her old self.
"Thanks for saving me."
Régalien mirrored her smile, then eventually felt it as his own. Alya's happiness was infectious, her own little ray of portable sunshine.
Maybe his secret was prematurely out, but Alya was safe.
Alya punched him lightly on the shoulder. "And here you were, being so negative. I don't think anybody else could have done what you just did."
First Duusu, then Alya. Maybe he had been too hard on himself. Sticking around and doing that spell was a far cry from the peacock that had run away from Iron Lung.
"Here." Alya reached past him, her arm brushing against his, and unlocked the French doors.
Régalien stepped backwards into the cool, Parisian air. He didn't know how much time had passed between the start of patrol and now, but there was no chatter, no cars, and when he extended his powers to the streets below, there was no one else besides them.
His tail feathers brushed the balcony's rails, but he still couldn't up and leave Alya without saying something more— though there were no words that could replace the truth he was hiding from her. "I promise I won't be coming over or anything."
Alya leaned against the door frame. Clothes disheveled and hair mussed, but she was the picture of beauty right then and there. And safe. Whole and undeniably safe.
He almost missed her words. "Maybe you should, so we can finish that interview. It was totally unfair that the moment I catch you for an interview, Hawkmoth decides to show his ugly face." Alya raised a finger— not that Régalien dared to interrupt her. "You just have to wait for me open the doors this time."
"Of course, totally reasonable!" Okay, he really should leave before his words started to raise some red flags.
He clambered onto the balcony's rails, still entranced, still counting his lucky stars that she was alright. Régalien offered a quick wave and left her alone.
Nino opened his eyes the next morning with the crushing realization that school was something Ladybug and Chat Noir attended.
And that he attended, and wasn't that the world's biggest problem right now?
That brave I don't care about their feelings, and I did the right thing streak he had going on last night seemed to have left him sometime between stumbling through his window and face planting into his pillow. It had been nice while it lasted.
"I should say I'm sick," he said to Duusu in her potted plant. Nino studied the off-white paint on his ceiling. His head then lolled to the side, where his left arm lay on the bed. His wrist felt warm and tender, but oddly enough he couldn't feel his mattress sheet. Was it so swollen that it was numb?
"But you're not sick."
Nino raised his head to give her a glare. She was a fuzzy, blue blur against a bigger, green blur. Maybe if he lost his glasses for the day? Was that enough to get him a day off?
"Yeah, I am. I'm sick and tired of tap dancing around what I'm going to say to them."
Duusu flew to his nightstand and presented him with his glasses. So much for that plan. When the world cleared up, Duusu was there in all of her holier than thou glory. "Doesn't that mean you should get it over and done with as soon as possible?"
Fools panic and flee.
Nino attempted to roll and start yet another grueling day of school when his wrist reminded him that it wasn't going to be that simple. He cradled it in his hand, and that's when he felt the fresh bandages. They extended from his wrist, up to his elbow, and down to wrap securely around his palm. Two clips held everything snugly without it being painful.
Luckily he was right-handed and didn't need his left hand to write. But how could he grab his daggers with this on? Would he still need it when he transformed? Still, he figured he had little say in the matter with the Cure on the fritz.
"Thanks for bandaging me up," he told Duusu offhandedly as he began to gather— one-handed— the papers strewn on his bed that he would need for school.
She raised her head feathers in surprise. "I'm afraid that wasn't me. I cannot do something so skillful with these." Duusu waved her fingerless paws. At his gob smacked expression, her smile was soft. "I suggest you thank your mother for it."
Nino ran his fingers over his new bandages. She… did this? When he was asleep? His dad must have told her about his wrist. It had been worse than the last time she saw it.
"Did she see you?" he blurted out. He didn't remember a damn thing after collapsing into bed.
Duusu made a face. "Of course not. Besides, she was much too concerned about you to worry about anything else."
Just what needed: his mom coming too close to his secret life. After shoving his papers into his backpack, Nino reached for his shirt and pants laid over the back of his chair, trying not to think about whether his mom saw his Miraculous or the discarded bags of baby carrots.
"You're right," he said, changing out of the raggedy t-shirt he used to sleep in and into a more presentable wardrobe. They weren't exactly meet one's Maker clothes but they would have to do. "I can't avoid them forever."
Duusu beamed in delight. "That's my peacock!"
Even with his bandages, tugging on his shirt and pants was torture and pulled on whatever muscles he messed up. Duusu had to resort to helping him. At one point, she crawled under his shirt to help straighten his collar and headphones enough to hide the small bandage on his neck.
Fully clothed, Nino checked his phone, but found no new messages in the group chat. He left his bedroom before Adrien and Marinette miraculously decided to type.
Nino was out in Paris with only a hurriedly caught biscuit in his hand as breakfast— he avoided his mom in the kitchen, too afraid to find out what she exactly knew. He half-expected to be carted off by Ladybug or Chat Noir to discuss things privately, but when he reached the front steps of Collège Françoise Dupont with both feet on the ground, he started to wonder exactly which party was the most nervous one here. Yeah, maybe he should have mentioned a location, but weren't two heads better than one?
Ladybug and Chat Noir's strings wound through the crowd of students to meander somewhere in the school's courtyard, a wavering symphony of woodwind and brass. He gave both of them a tug, but Marinette and Adrien remained inside the school's courtyard. Worry and guilt left his palms tingling. A talk as far away from everyone else as possible would be better than having the likes of Chloé eavesdropping.
Were they avoiding him? Could they feel the strings as civilians?
Nino glanced at the time on his phone. Ten minutes before first period began. He definitely didn't have all day, and the thought of going through eight hours without having the talk was enough to make him antsy. No talk meant they couldn't talk about his working theory, the one that somehow survived his night of worrying and exhaustion.
They needed answers. For Alya.
"Fools panic and flee," he said to himself. He had hoped that Marinette and Adrien would have taken the plunge, but it seemed he had to take the reigns here.
With a purpose he only carried as Régalien, Nino climbed the steps, strings curled around his fingers. Everybody else's voices faded into the background. When he brushed shoulders with someone, Nino was quick to sidestep away from the distraction, bandaged wrist held against his chest.
He found Marinette and Adrien in the shadows of the staircase leading to the second floor. Nino gave the strings an almighty tug and, in sync, their heads popped up. A sharp pang of their worry cut through Nino's mind.
"Hey," Adrien said with all the casualness of a flying mallet.
"Hey?" Nino marched up to them, stepping into the darkness. Without their masks and weapons, he was emboldened to continue. "Is that really all you have to say? Not, holy crap I can't believe it's you?"
Marinette tilted her head to face him. He hadn't outed her last night, which actually made things even more awkward. "Yeah, that, too." She closed her eyes, seemingly gathering her wits. "Nino, we should have…" She glanced at Adrien, before continuing in a small voice, "We should have answered your message. Especially because you found out it was me, too."
She scowled not at him but at her knees. Between she and Chat Noir, Ladybug had always been the do things by the book one on the team. Finding out through text, of all things, that someone knew her secret identity? Nino didn't need his Miraculous to see how it was eating her up.
Adrien finished for her with the same air of exhaustion. "It was just a… very long night." Then, with an undercurrent of concern through his string, "How's Alya?"
Nino breathed out and tried to calm down. "She was fine when I left her last night. Doesn't remember anything after she lost it on me, so no need to worry secret identities and stuff. Not sure if she's coming today."
Adrien and Marinette were seated shoulder to shoulder, and being the third wheel on the bench was not going to be the best way to get the conversation started. So Nino motioned them to the second floor with a tilt of his head.
Marinette nodded, resigned. "Yeah, that would probably be better."
It wasn't until Adrien stood up that Nino noticed the cane. It was quite simple: metal, rubber tip on the end, and just long enough to reach the top of his thigh when he stood up. Only the polished, wooden handle hinted at it being something specifically requested by Gabriel Agreste and not the local pharmacy.
Nino moved to help just as Marinette offered her arm, but Adrien shrugged them both off. With his cane on his left— uninjured— side, Adrien held his head up high. Though he couldn't stand as straight as when he had been Chat Noir, he had every bit of last night's determination.
"After you," he said to Nino.
Nino led the way, one step a time, resolutely looking forward and not at the glances Marinette and Adrien were surely trading behind him. He hesitated at the steps leading to the school's second story, but Adrien continued on, right hand on the railing, left hand leading his cane carefully upwards. Only Hawkmoth himself could stop the boy, Nino reasoned.
At the top step, Nino took his seat. Marinette and Adrien took either side of the one just below, their backs against the railing and their faces turned towards him.
Without their masks, they were unsure, fidgeting with their pants or jacket. Nino realized, with an acute sense of shock, that he had been the one calling the shots. He was the one who revealed his identify, and he was the one who messaged them about meeting up before class started.
Duusu prodded his scalp to get him talking, but Nino was enjoying the squirming a bit too much right now. After a week of being the one stumbling around the whole magic business, it was nice to feel in charge.
"So let me start off by saying the obligatory 'holy crap I can't believe it's you,'" Adrien said in a rush of words. He couldn't stop staring, mouth slightly agape as the truth hit him in an amalgamation of shock and elation.
Nino spread his arms. "Here I am."
Elation won out, and Adrien's grin was luminous. "Of all the people it could be…" He laughed that laugh he had only heard in their gaming sessions. "Dude, its you!"
Rather than jump for joy, Marinette buried her face in her hands. Her words were muffled, but her guilt was clear as day, even without his magic. "Nino, oh my God, the way we talked to you!"
"It's fine." Nino shrugged as nonchalantly as possible, but when Marinette peeked through her spread fingers, his shoulders drooped. They were supposed to be telling the truth here. With the last of his holier-than-thou attitude trickling away, he admitted, "Yeah, it did kinda suck sometimes. Not gonna lie."
The lack of trust. The simmering hostility he could always feel through their strings. Definitely not the joy ride the heroes in comic books made it out to be.
Adrien threw his head back to study the open roof of the school. His Adam's apple bobbed with unsaid words as his glee turned solemn. "And you knew I was Chat Noir the whole time."
"He did?" Marinette spluttered, looking from one boy to the other. She raised her hand to nudge Adrien, then lowered it when she remembered that if he lost his balance he wouldn't be getting back up. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Adrien opened his mouth, closed it, and came up with the excuse of, "Well there wasn't a right time or…" He shirked underneath her suddenly fiery gaze. "I was going to tell you."
This time Nino chuckled, resting his arms on his knees. Being in the know could be kind of fun. He gave them his best Chat Noir grin. "Oh and that Marinette was Ladybug. For quite a while now, actually."
Marinette inhaled sharply. "What?"
Nino spread the fingers of his right hand as an answer, then realized they could neither see nor feel them. "The strings. After we got to know each other, they lead me straight to you guys."
She narrowed her eyes. "You said you couldn't feel them as a civilian."
Ninio huffed. He wiggled his fingers, switching from frantic flute to unsure trumpet. "I wasn't really getting a warm welcome, so could you blame me for keeping some secrets?"
Marinette said nothing, only nodding in understanding. She studied his fingers and tilted her head, as though if the light of the sun shone just right she would see the string that linked her with him. Nino tugged on her string with his index finger, eliciting raised eyebrows from her.
She admitted after a beat, "Definitely helps the whole protector of the Wielders role you got going on. It makes sense you can sense us both in and out of the mask."
Adrien nodded along.
Nino switched the strings from finger to finger in contemplation. There was a span of silence where the superheroes of Paris struggled to continue. Marinette and Adrien rotated from glancing to the Miraculous that peeked from under his shirt.
Finally, Nino admitted, "Last night, with the whole Alya situation, I just snapped. I didn't expect to just come out and reveal myself to you guys, at least not yet." When they raised their eyebrows, he amended, "I wanted to wait until I was more comfortable with this whole superhero thing."
"So what happened?"
Nino swallowed, but he knew he had to go through the hardest part of this identity reveal shenanigan. "There was just no way I was going to take her to Master Fu's. Not Alya."
Marinette straightened. "But we don't know what made Alya act like that. Or why Haw— "
The bell for first period chimed through the courtyard. Nino winced. There went their time. At least most of the topics he wanted to cover this fine morning had been said.
Marinette shot both him and Adrien a sharp look. All business. "Let's meet up by the front steps during lunch and try to get to the bottom of this. Alya deserves it."
Adrien saluted. "Yes, ma'am." Nino settled for nodding.
They went to their first class as a couple of normal teenagers. Adrien made it to the bottom of the stairs before he accepted Nino's arm for support while Marinette trailed behind. She was close enough to help if needed but far enough where no one questioned why Marinette and Adrien were going to class at the same time. Last night, Chat Noir had mentioned things were awkward, but just how awkward, Nino guessed he would find out soon eventually.
The moment Adrien's cane entered the room, there were a million and one questions flying in his direction. Rose fluttered on the sidelines with the most palpable sadness Nino had sensed from a classmate, while Juleka tried to keep from rushing to the door. Alix and Kim kept interrupting each other's questions until they ended up shoving each other in their attempt to get Adrien's attention.
"Adriikins!" Chloé wailed above everyone else. She hurled her bag at Sabrina so she could fly down the stairs and to the front door in a mad dash of overpriced flats. "What happened? Who hurt you? I can have my father— "
Nino intercepted her path before her approaching hug sent Adrien to the hospital. "Step off, Chloé."
She pulled up, completely affronted and with a sneer that would put Hawkmoth to shame. "And who do you think you are? You might be the pity friend that Adrien picked up here, but I'm his longest and best friend."
Her scowl was nothing to Diamantte bearing down on him in white-hot fury, or Verglas appearing from the mist with his claws of ice. Nino faced Chloé head on, every bit of peacock pride bringing him to his full height.
"If you actually care about Adrien, then you'll let him get safely to his desk. Want to talk to him? Do it after class when Ms. Mendeleiev isn't waiting for us."
"Yes," Ms. Mendeleiev cut in from her desk. She clapped her hands to bring their attention to her. "Nino, please assist Adrien to his seat so we can begin, and Adrien, your father messaged me about your situation. No need to talk to me after class."
Nino absolutely preened under Chloé's scalding glare. He turned on his heel to lead Adrien up the steps. Afterwards Nino slid into his own seat and dutifully took out his textbooks and tablet. Duusu, now in his bag, met his eyes with the biggest smile he had ever seen on her. Joy radiated off her like a furnace.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool," he whispered back.
The world hadn't ended in a ball of flames. Nino hadn't run to the school rooftops the moment they he spotted Adrien and Marinette. To top it off, he'd stood up to Chloé of all people. Alya wasn't in class, but he rather have her resting at home than struggling through Chemistry.
Nino basked in the awesomeness for the first half of the class. Then Marinette and Adrien's emotions began to seep into his awareness. At first he shrugged it off with a couple of taps of his stylus. When they kept getting sharper, Nino decided to distract himself by testing his working theory from last night.
Flicking Marinette and Adrien's strings to the side, Nino focused on a seething Chloé. He wiggled past the outermost anger tinged with embarrassment— had he really caused that?— to dig deeper.
And there, he sensed Hawkmoth's string wrapped around her in much the same way it lay coiled in his own chest. There, a deeper sense of embarrassment, one strong enough to betray even her heroine, reached out, clawing past another piece of magic that was… Ladybug's?
Nino reeled back before that foreign anger sunk its claws in him, and he moved on to Sabrina. When he detected Hawkmoth and Ladybug's magic twined around her as well, Nino couldn't help but wonder: how did he miss all of this?
After that, Nino got as far as Alix when his head protested. Fine, no more deep diving for now. At least he had more info to add to his theory.
Nino tuned back to the class. Marinette and Adrien were too busy keeping up with their notes to pay their thoughts much attention. So Nino tried to focus on the class as well. He wasn't doing so hot in Chemistry.
The moment they were assigned some individual reading, Nino was plopped back into Marinette and Adrien's roller coaster of Hell. Joy. Guilt. Up and down and up and down and—-
"You guys have to take a damned chill pill," he hissed at them after class. It seemed no one tried to question Adrien about his injuries after Nino's little spectacle at the beginning of class. Which was perfect because Nino's headache currently occupied his full attention.
Cornered against the wall, Adrien and Marinette shared a confused glance.
"What do you mean?" Adrien asked.
Nino threw his head back because of course he had to make things awkward an hour after they had their little heart to heart.
"Just," he started slowly, working through his headache, "stop feeling so happy and guilty and worry. With you guys so close together, it's like a freaking tsunamic for me."
Adrien rubbed the back of his neck and found a decidedly interesting crack in the floor. "You feel all that?"
"Yeah, I do." Nino frowned. He couldn't tell them to stop feeling all of these things. He wasn't the warden on emotions. Nino was just the lucky winner in the sensitivity category.
"I know you feel guilty about the things you guys said to me when I was," he made a vague motion with his hand to avoid spilling his secret to anybody eavesdropping, "but that was on me, too. I made mistakes. Like, holy crap did I make some mistakes."
They didn't say anything, letting him put in his two cents, and honestly, it was the best thing ever. They were listening to him without him having to raise his voice or drop his transformation.
Like teammates.
"I forgive you guys." And there, the guilt waned, backed off to let him breathe. "I seriously do. How could I not when you forgave me for something worse?"
Adrien could have crumbled right then and there if it wasn't for his cane holding him up. Where Chat Noir's expression had been touched, Adrien was a word away from being shattered. He started forward, and Nino automatically moved to catch him in case he tripped, when Adrien wrapped him in a one-armed hug: the only hug he could manage with an injured side.
"I've said it once, and I'll say it again," he told him, "I'm not mad at you. You did your best. And now knowing it's you? I definitely know you only had our best interests at heart."
Marinette joined in on the hug. Their combined hug was a lot like Alya's: safe, comforting, trusting. "What did we do to deserve someone like you as our peacock?"
Nino laughed into her shoulder. "Wished on a falling star?"
She let him go with a look she reserved for Chat Noir's puns.
They went off, Adrien off to Fencing— or his official study period until he got back on his feet— while Nino and Marinette took off to their next class. Moments later, Alya's rising voice was enough for Nino to run into the classroom.
He skidded to a stop behind her. "Alya, you're here."
She turned to give him a once over. "And you are, too," she deadpanned.
"I mean, I didn't see you in first period."
Alya led him to their table by a hand. Her normal, warm hand, and not the burning coal she had been the night before. Her steps were steady, strong, but her eyes flickered to each corner of the room. Nino, the paranoid boyfriend he was, used his magic to search the classroom, but there no incoming akumas, no student succumbing to Hawkmoth's control.
When they reached the back of the class, she ducked her head before telling him, "I overslept."
Alarm bells clamored in his head. Alya was as punctual as they came. Nino tried to meet Marinette's eye, but Alya sat him down and took up his entire field of vision.
He settled for clearing his throat in a decidedly calling-for-attention tactic so Marinette could eavesdrop. "Overslept?"
Alya tapped a nervous rhythm on the case of her phone. "Something happened last night," she admitted. "I'm not sure what, exactly, since I was out for most of it. But I'm pretty sure it had to do with Hawkmoth."
Nino lay his hand on hers, stopping the frantic tap tap. He took her fingers in his. Without his gloves, he felt her smooth skin and the hint of the moisturizer she used every morning. "And you're alright?"
Alya hummed in thought. "Tired, and if I turn my head too fast the room spins. But other than that? Peachy."
He began to nod, relieved by the very real and healthy Alya in front of him. Then Nino prodded, "And exactly what happened?"
Or what exactly did she remember? Was there a chance, however slight, that she saw him transform in her bedroom and she had just been humoring him during their conversation?
Alya's eyes flitted to her hands. For a horrible, gut-dropping moment Nino couldn't breathe. If she saw it was him, then—
Alya lifted her head enough to glance around. They were alone in the back of the class with only Marinette and a couple of students occupying the tables at the lower steps.
In a rush of nearly-silent words, Alya spilled. "Hawkmoth did something to me, and Régalien was the one who saved me. He carried me back home and told me after I woke up."
Nino let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He let her go to settle his hands on his backpack. "I'm glad you told me, babe."
Despite the hot flush in her cheeks, Alya still had the energy to weakly glare. "You're not very worried about how another guy was in my bedroom," she said hesitantly, so hesitantly that he wondered if it pained her to do so.
Nino shrugged and hope it wasn't too casual or too forced. "Alya, he saved your life. I don't care if he was the hottest guy in Paris."
"Well he wasn't."
Ouch. "Thanks, babe."
Alya tapped her chin in mock thought. She stared him down over the rim of her glasses. "That honor goes to XY. I mean, have you seen that hair?"
Nino flicked her glasses, and she immediately became an irate bundle of glares. He ducked to avoid a retaliation and concentrated on picking the correct textbook for the class.
Him, jealous of himself? Nino wondered if Marinette and Adrien ever ran into something like that.
Without Adrien and Marinette's combined feelings hurtling him down a mountain this time, Nino had time to think, really think about what happened to Alya and what he'd so far theorized. There was so much, really, that he started a new note tab on his tablet to keep his ideas organized— Nino spared a smile at his last note about his powers. How time had flown.
Nino was on a roll, and not even his rusty, Arabic spelling could slow him down. His stylus screeched across the face of the tablet with each revelation, or what he could conclude was a revelation. Adrien and Marinette would need to take a look at it.
"Don't think yourself into a coma," Alya teased him when class let out. "It would be hard to set up a proper date otherwise."
Right, it was his turn to plan their Saturday date. Another bullet point to his long, long list.
Nino waited for the sea of students to part around them. They threw one distracted glance, then left them. After all, Alya and Nino as a couple was old news. Only Marinette's gaze lingered until she, too, left the hallway, heading to the front steps of the school.
"Just…. thinking, about what you told me." Truths, however vague, made him feel better. "I feel like the heroes are going to look into this and find out exactly what happened to you."
"I hope so. I don't want anybody else to go through that. I don't remember what happened, but I know that if Régalien wasn't there it would have gone down really bad."
"Right place, right time." Nino reached down a string and felt Marinette's stewing nervousness. "Hey, babe, I have to run an errand for my parents during lunch time. I'll see you in a little bit?"
"An errand?" she asked as he was making his way backwards, towards the courtyard.
Nino waved his hands around and hoped he didn't look too loony. "Dad tried to call and pay for the electricity. They couldn't understand him, and he just hasn't learned how to do it online." Bold faced-lie. His dad could run circles around him when it came to the Internet.
Alya shrugged, and Nino turned to talk away in a panicked shuffle.
Sorry sorry sorry sorry, he said with each step. But the faster they met up to talk about this, the faster they could get to the bottom of what Hawkmoth was up to.
Marinette grabbed him by the wrist and led him down the front steps of the school, Adrien following at their heels after waving off curious eyes. Nino caught Adrien as he stumbled.
Then Nino almost fell because he had used his left arm, and his wrist fucking hurt.
"Your wrist…" Adrien said when his eyes wandered down.
Adrien got his cane under him and straightened, and Nino took back his aching wrist. "Remember that Diamantte attack and how Régalien got his wrist injured?" Nino modeled his bandaged hand and arm. "It kinda keeps getting injured, and the Cure is not doing me any favors."
He looked to Marinette, wondering if she remembered that was the wrist she had held him by last night, but she seemed too busy contextualizing the fact that her seemingly-defenseless-yet-not-defenseless friend had been battling alongside her against an akuma.
"It's fine, it's not that bad," he told her as her face paled and her string vibrated with concern.
Marinette's smile was tight. "Let's get going."
They said nothing until they sequestered themselves in an alley blocks away. Leftover takeout simmered in the dumpsters and dashed away whatever appetite Nino had.
"Show me," Adrien blurted out the moment they were deep enough to avoid the eyes of any civilians.
Nino finished kicking a discarded banana peel from the heel of his shoe and asked, "Show you what?"
Adrien ogled until he threw one hand in the air. "Your Kwami! Dude, my best friend has a Kwami, too! And I need to see!"
Nino's grin immediately appeared. "Doesn't curiosity kill the cat?"
The pun only made Adrien grin wider. "Come on, I want to see!"
Duusu's melodic laughter chimed from inside his bag. "Oh, go easy on the kid."
She flew up and, once at the center of their hodgepode circle, gave a glamorous twirl. Light caught the rich reds and blues of her tail in a dazzling display of color. Duusu finished by smoothing down her head feathers in a move Nino had never seen from her.
"Oh she's beautiful," Marinette crooned.
The peacock in question gave a trill of joy. "Duusu, at your service." She was basking in the attention, that shameless bird.
Adrien laughed. He held out his hand, and Duusu went over to him to be petted under his finger. "How did you end up with mister I can totally wear this shirt for three days straight?"
Nino groaned. "One time, man, one time."
Duusu watched them, and instead of a harsh reprimand to get back to business she watched them with a growing cloud of happiness. She laid a paw to her chest and the most hesitant smile graced her face, as though she wasn't sure if she was supposed to find the whole thing endearing or not.
The first tears prickled her eyes. Nino went out to take her before a breakdown occurred when a cry of, "Oh, Duusu! Don't cry!"
From Marinette's purse flew her own Kwami, a ladybug. It— she, he realizes— took Duusu in her arms and muffled any out-of-control emotions with a hug. From Adrien's inner jacket pocket flew out his own Kwami: a black cat who was trying its hardest not to smile.
The ladybug looked up at Nino from Duusu's shoulder. "Hello, Nino. I'm so glad to finally meet you in person! I'm Tikki."
Nino blinked the déjà vu out of his vision and nodded in acknowledgment. As Duusu regained control of her emotions, Tikki left to properly greet Nino. He cupped his hands so she could settle in his palms. While Duusu was electricity, Tikki was the sun on the warmest day of spring.
"So you're the the kid who took the ring," drawled Adrien's Kwami.
Nino's smile faltered. "I—" as Adrien and Tikki cried out, "Plagg— !"
The Kwami— Plagg— got into his face. This close, he was a ball of volatile energy ready to spill over. His eyes were a mirror of Chat Noir's, but while Adrien still retained the human in his, Plagg's were just a void of power he could get lost in. "Pretty risky thing for you to do, you know, knowingly keeping a Chosen's Miraculous away from them."
Duusu flew over to hover at Nino's side. There was a dangerous glint to her red eyes. "Plagg, you know as well as I do he was doing it because he was worried about Adrien."
Plagg shrugged, and all that power dipped from the air, leaving Nino only with a mild sense of unease. "Don't puff your feathers on my account. I know. I heard it all when the kid here admitted to it back at that fashion show. There's just not a lot of people who would actually find a Miraculous and not use it for their own, selfish intent."
"Thank you?" Nino said.
Plagg patted his cheek, leaving Nino with goosebumps. How did Adrien handle all this chaotic energy every day?
Tikki rose up to tap his nose in her own show of approval. "I may not have been there, but I can sense the protectiveness in you. The Peacock Miraculous is perfectly suited for you."
Two compliments from two different gods? He was on a roll.
"So," Nino said with a clap of his hands, "I have a working theory about what happened to Alya, and I need to bounce it off you guys and Master Fu. But," he said, "I would prefer if we don't go to his place. I… Master Fu hid things from me and honestly? His place is the last place where I want to go right now."
Marinette fingered the cuff of her jacket. "Nino, Chat and I were the ones who asked Master Fu not to tell you about how the Cure worked. We didn't want you to worry about something when you were still learning."
"I get it, I get it, but…" It wasn't just about that specific instance. Since the moment Master Fu saw him with the Peacock Miraculous, there was something that Nino didn't trust in him. Maybe it was how no one with that much power should guilt a kid into something as big as becoming a Wielder. Or how Master Fu expected Gabriel Agreste to guard two of the most important items in Paris when he couldn't act like a decent parent.
Nino finally said, "He's the Guardian. Whether you were the ones who told him to keep it a secret or not, he should be the one who decides what's good for the team. And I don't think he did a good job at it."
Avoiding his place might be more petty than anything else, but if Nino could exert some small ounce of power in this chess game, he would take it.
"Is that why you didn't want to take Alya to him last night?" Marinette asked.
Nino shook his head to dispel the what if that would never be. "I couldn't, not with Alya like that. How can I take her to someone I think messed up?"
The Kwamis exchanged glances. Duusu genuinely looked disappointed. Nino waited for one of them to— more than likely, Plagg— to hit him upside the head for his blasphemy.
Marinette cleared her throat. "Alright," she said, "we can head to the hideout and call him from there. We have food there, anyway."
Tikki gave Nino a wide smile, Plagg a wave, before they vanished at the cries of "Spots on!" and "Claws out!"
Knowing Marinette and Adrien were Paris' local heroes was one thing. Seeing them transform under the mythical light of their Miraculouses was another thing altogether. Suits and masks appeared from nothing but sheer waves of green and red magic. Their stances changed, feet shifting for better balance, hands hovering over their weapons.
"Wow," was all he could say as the sparkles fell away.
Ladybug ducked under the attention. With Adrien's cane gone in whatever black hole their Kwamis created for their civilian clothes, Chat Noir used his staff to steady his weight and level Nino with an expectant raised eyebrow.
Duusu nudged him in the shoulder. "Come on, Nino," she whispered, all grins, "let's show them one better."
Nino met Chat Noir's stare head on. Challenge accepted.
"Alright, Wings Up!"
Ladybug and Chat Noir disappeared in a wash of blue light, yet it was over before he knew it. Royal blue clothes. A sweeping train of feathers. Régalien spread his fan before him and gave his captive audience a grandiose bow.
"Show off," Chat Noir said without heat in his voice.
"Says the model," Régalien retorted, then avoided Chat Noir's bop of his staff with a sidestep.
"Boys." Ladybug rolled her eyes, but her smile was fond.
They took to the rooftops, Ladybug with her yo-yo, Chat Noir with an extension of his staff, while Régalien used some well-timed jumps and a fire escape.
The journey to the hideout was uneventful, quiet, but decidedly comfortable. Régalien kept pace, matching their strides with his own, and crossed his fingers that this was going to be his new normal.
A united team. A team that listened.
They arrived at yet another alleyway, but with a dumpster slid out of the way, they entered their home away from home.
"We might need a night light around here," Régalien groused in the grimy pitch black after the dumpster was slid back into place.
"I think it's perfect," Chat Noir drawled at the front as he turned on the fairy lights and the floor lamps for them.
It was still the same hideout. Régalien took a deep breath and reflected just how much things had changed since the last time he was here two days ago.
Régalien jumped when Chat Noir and Ladybug de-transformed in front of him. Tikki and Plagg zoomed off to the minfridge at the back while Marinette helped ease Adrien onto the couch. They stopped when Régalien stood there, fully transformed and looking too much like a deer caught in traffic.
Régalien chuckled to himself. Right. Identities had been thrown out the window. "Well, Wings Down."
As the magic fizzled out near the soles of his shoes, Duusu zipped to his backpack to take out the bag of carrots he had just bought the day before. With the bag in her paws, she rushed over to where Plagg and Tikki were snacking by the corner.
"What does Duusu eat?" Marinette asked as she got them some sandwiches from the fridge. They had the tell-tale wrapping of her parents' bakery. "I can swing by later and put some of her snacks in fridge."
"The loudest, crunchiest carrots known to man," Nino complained, which earned him a harrumph from her.
Nino joined them at the worn coffee table in front of the couch. Just as Marinette sat down on the floor, Adrien waved his unwrapped sandwich in the air with a cry of, "Marinette, please open this for me."
She slammed her elbow on the table and faced him with a mounting sigh. "You know, at first I thought: how could sweet, kind Adrien ever be my partner, who manages to get in at least one pun every time he breathes. But now? I can't believe I never saw it."
Adrien let his head fall on the sofa's armrest with a dramatic flop. "The normal population cannot handle all this sass, so it's stashed away. Also, it's not nice to ignore someone with a cane."
Marinette took the offered sandwich, and with each layer she unwrapped she mumbled about how he wasn't God's gift to the world.
"Okay," she said, sticking the sandwich in Adrien's mouth with one hand and taking out her cellphone with the other, "let's call up Master Fu."
Before Nino knew it, Marinette had propped up her phone against her schoolbag on the table, and the other line was ringing. Nino's fingers were halfway into the bread out of sheer nervousness when Master Fu picked up. His face bobbed into view, Wayzz zipping around the frame— presumably helping him prop the phone up.
Wayzz's flying seemed more erratic than usual. His eyes shifted from the camera to something off screen. He worried his paws. "Master, should I check if he— "
Master Fu nodded. "Yes, please see him out. Our conversation is over."
Wayzz zipped off as Master Fu turned his full attention to them. He waited until there was the sound of a door closing to address them.
"This must be urgent," Fu said with a careful eye on the three and, most notably, on their bare faces. "But I'm glad to see the team has grown stronger since the last time we met."
Nino began to pat an erratic rhythm on his knee, working through his clambering thoughts one by one. They waved their greetings, some more stiffly than others. Nino swallowed the bite of sandwich then began, ticking off each instant on his fingers. "So Hawkmoth tried to control Alya— the Ladyblogger, you know— last night. Like, I totally felt his creepy control on her. And she was so angry—"
"Did she revert to her akuma form?"
"No," Adrien piped up from his seat, turning his head enough to face the phone. "Régalien managed to get a spell from the Grimoire to fix her." (And Nino hid just how appreciative he was for not outing his identity. It was the little things.)
At Master Fu's gaze, Nino couldn't tell exactly what he was feeling with a screen between them, but he could take a stab at it: patience, of course, just like before, but surely that couldn't be the only thing?
When the silence began to feel itchy, Nino shrugged as nonchalantly as he could. "Well, to absorb her anger. But she's cool now."
"That was some excellent quick thinking." And wasn't it weird how the praise made him feel two inches taller? It's what propelled him to start laying out his theory like a poker hand.
Straightening, Nino got out his tablet and swiped to the note-taking he had been doing. Adrien craned his head to look over Nino's shoulder and promptly pouted when he couldn't read it. "I noticed with Alya last night that Hawkmoth's magic came from within. I knew she was akumatized before, earlier last year. What I felt from her when I used Seeing Eye is the same piece of anger I feel sometimes because… well, I was akumatized, too…"
Nino felt Marinette and Adrien's eyes on him. Despite his Miraculous, this was something they had never experienced and something Nino had never opened up with them about.
He glanced down at his notes to avoid any lingering pity. "After I performed Seeing Eye on her, I couldn't feel that piece of Hawkmoth's string around her. And when I reached out to my classmates who had been akumatized, I felt that same piece of Hawkmoth in them, too."
Nino could see the gears turning in their heads; even the Kwamis floated closer, paws stained with food. Yet they all waited for him to finish. Nino tried not to let the pressure get to him.
"Remember when you mentioned the Cure prioritizes people? Well, when I reached out to my classmates that were akumatized I also felt a bit of Ladybug in there, too. So my theory is," and Nino paused so they could all catch up, "is that the Cure is somehow protecting every previous akuma victim. Like, it's holding back Hawkmoth's magic back from akumatizing them or something. So every time there's a new akuma victim…"
Realization brought Marinette to her feet. "… the Cure gets divided even more." She let her fist fall into her open palm in the universal 'aha' gesture. Marinette looked to each of them with a manic gleam in her eye. "That's why it's getting worse, not better, with each akuma. There's always less Cure to go around."
Adrien tried to sit up more so he could take part in this newfound world order they suddenly found themselves in. He settled for having his back supported by an arm rest and the sofa's back. "But is Hawkmoth actually doing all this? Like, did he somehow try to control Alya last night?"
Nino worried the crust on his sandwich. "I don't know, but probably? I mean, why would that little piece of the Cure fail now when it was working fine for like, a year?"
Marinette started to pace in her miniature square of space. "You were also alone with her, so what better way to get a Miraculous than suddenly revive an old akuma?"
"If it happened to Alya, it could happen to other people that have been akumatized," Adrien finished the thought floating in everyone's mind.
"It's definitely possible. Past Butterfly Wielders have called on previous champions before," Master Fu mused. Even Wayzz, now sitting on Fu's shoulder, became more solemn.
The three teens shared a look. Their job just got a lot more complicated, and they still had class in half an hour. How could they pay attention in French when Hawkmoth now had a second way to go after them?
Nino scrolled down his notes. "I came up with a plan."
Marinette and Adrien snapped their heads at him.
"A plan," Marinette deadpanned. She finally stood still, crossed arms and boring holes into the shade of the nearest floor lamp. Screw the plan. Marinette was within an inch of jumping headfirst into whatever lair Hawkmoth hid in.
"I go around Paris and find any past akumatized victims, or AVs as I call them," Marinette mouthed the nickname to herself in sheer incredulity, "and use the same spell to extract their anger or whatever bad mojo they're feeling."
"No," Adrien said. In his haste to let Nino know just how much he detested the idea, he almost lost his balance and had to catch himself before his bad side hit the arm of the sofa. Before anyone could react, Adrien waved them off and continued to say, "No, that's a stupid plan. You just said that the anger made you act completely out of sorts. If our negative emotions affect you that badly, what about Hawkmoth's souped up anger he uses for every akuma?"
"But if we do this, then we'll probably get more of the Cure back. Right, Master Fu?" Without waiting for an answer, Nino continued. "It should go back to Ladybug."
Marinette's mouth opened and closed. She gesticulated with her hands until she pointed one accusing finger at him. Cross eyed, Nino watched the color rise in her cheeks.
"And when Hawkmoth catches wind of this, then what? He's going to come after you, specifically you." Her string went straight into worry territory. "We can't put you in danger like that."
Nino met her with a steady gaze. His whole spiel earlier in the morning, the fact that he, for once, was calling the shots, fueled his courage. This was Ladybug, but she was also Marinette.
"So what? If it makes it so Hawkmoth can't akumatize them again, then I can play a little cat and mouse with him."
Stiffly, she replied, "This isn't a game."
Nino showed his wrapped arm. "I kinda got the memo." As her worry rocketed, he lowered his arm and tried a different approach. "Look, I knew what I was getting myself into after I got over the shock of the whole superhero thing. I knew it was going to be dangerous, but I'm still here and I don't plan on leaving anytime soon."
He kept his mouth shut on exactly why he'd agreed to the whole Peacock Wielder ordeal. No need to stir the pot even more.
Marinette deflated, the last of her worry coming out as a sigh. "We can't keep you from doing this, short from taking your Miraculous."
Nino backed up against the coffee table's edge. Even Duusu fluttered closer. "Are you going to?"
Marinette plopped herself back on the floor. She chuckled when he flinched away. Instead of ripping away his Miraculous, she brought him into a side hug. "As much as I hate seeing you get hurt— especially now that I know it's you—, I'm not going to take away your Miraculous. Don't think I even can."
Adrien glanced between them. "So you're doing this? Going from victim to victim to victim before Hawkmoth can get to them?"
Silent until now, Master Fu put back his cup of tea on its saucer with an audible click. "I think this is the best course of action we have. Régalien is the only one who can sense Hawkmoth's magic other than Hawkmoth himself," he said.
Nino could get behind this Master Fu supporting his ideas thing.
"Marinette," Master Fu addressed, "you will need to be with Régalien when he goes to each victim," Nino muttered AV under his breath. "We need to ensure that the magic of the Cure goes back to you instead of it being redistributed to the rest of the victims afflicted by Hawkmoth."
Marinette fingered one of her earrings. "How do I do that?"
Tikki zoomed in to give Marinette a reassuring pat on the cheek. "Don't worry. We'll take a page out of Régalien's book and call the magic to us. I'll help guide you the first time. It will probably be similar to what Régalien does for Seeing Eye."
Duusu clapped her paws and snuggled up to Nino. "Oh, oh, should we make a mixtrack for Ladybug, too? It definitely helped you with your spells, after all."
Adrien gasped with all the drama of a soap opera star. For the second time that day, an accusing finger swung Nino's way. "That's what you were doing when you were humming and twirling your stylus in class."
Nino and Duusu grinned as one. "Good sleuthing, Sherlock," he praised.
Adrien rolled his eyes. "So we can patrol tonight and find someone to try this on." Adrien swept Ladybug and Nino into his infectious smile. "Guys, we can do this. We have a plan now. Hawkmoth won't know what will hit him."
Nino grinned along. "Good thing we know someone who keeps a very in-depth blog about akuma attacks. Pretty sure all those hits to your pretty head made it impossible to keep track of everyone who's been akumatized."
When Plagg had the audacity to chuckle at his Chosen's plight, Adrien turned his accusing— yet playful— eyes on Marinette. "Well she dropped me off the Eiffel Tower once, so all blame goes to her!"
Marinette raised herself on her knees to poke him in the leg. "You were being insufferable that day. What else was I supposed to do?"
Adrien retorted something with complete Chat Noir sass. Marinette kept poking him in the leg every time he shifted the blame to her throw Chat first, talk later method of resolving problems.
Only Nino caught Master Fu's parting piece of advice. "Don't be afraid to reach out for help. Or accept it, if it comes your way."
Nino nodded. It was easier to be polite behind a screen. "Sure, Master Fu."
Master Fu ended the call while Marinette and Adrien still bickered. Nino decided to let his teammates bond and talk strategy afterwards.
And here we have it! The reason the Cure is on the fritz. Now our team has a plan of action and are ready to tackle these problems. Let's see how it goes~
Also, I'm doing NaNoWriMo and trying to get 50K done for the second half of this fic. Updates might be a bit sporadic as I try to get a bigger buffer of chapters for posting.
As always, feel free to comment with your thoughts! =D