Merry Christmas, Xycopathic! I hope you enjoy your Secret Santa gift! I got pretty excited when one of your requests was for this particular friendship, as I'd never written them hanging out before, and coincidentally I've been on a bit of a friendship writing kick! I don't even think I wrote Kim just being friends with even one other character before, so it's really nice to get to write him hanging out with them. I threw in background mentions of KimDine and DJWifi, hopefully that's okay. I stuck like glue to the canon pairings for them, just in case. (I combined the Adrienette request with the friendship one, so there's background of that too.) Hopefully, I did your requests justice, and I hope this story brings a smile to your face. Happy New Year! Have a very wonderful and Blessed day and rest of your week, alright?
Moments like these make it seem as if all of Paris is on a stand still, as if time has completely stopped for the City of Love, and Marinette's grateful for every kind of break that she can get. With the pigeons outside of her house being the only hint of noise elsewhere, she finally moves closer to two friends that she hasn't hung out like this with for a while.
"I'm sorry about cancelling last week." Marinette feels as if the apology were elastic, something that slips out and away from her, though she means it with every fiber of her being.
"It's cool." Nino shrugs, "An Akuma happened, so Alya dragged me along to help film it."
"Plus, we'd rather you be safe than hurt." Kim shrugged, eyeing the controller in front of him, looking either like he'd rather be swimming or playing the video game. Marinette couldn't decipher which of the two held her friend's attention.
"I just feel really bad about it." Marinette answered, plopping down in between her two friends and grabbing her controller.
"Don't worry about it." Nino shrugged, "Besides we're just here to watch you completely destroy us at Ultimate Mecha Strike."
"You're good players too." Marinette insisted, though she knew as soon as the game started, so did her competitive streak, and they'd lose in the long run.
"You went to a Gaming Championship! You're a pro!" Kim told her, "We're lucky to be your friends." He grinned over at her, as if he didn't dread it every time that he lost against her.
"So did Max." She tried, "And Adrien."
"So two of the best players in Paris are dating each other." Nino teased her, controller hanging limply from his hands.
"Don't." Marinette groaned, though she couldn't keep the glowing smile off of her face; it still felt like a dream come true that she and Adrien were dating.
"You promised Alya a double date." Nino reminded her casually, "She wants to go to the zoo."
"She's a romantic." Marinette teased, though she knew that Alya hated to be called one and that Nino would text his girlfriend about this particular conversation later.
"Make it a triple date." Kim called out, "Ondine doesn't know you all that well, but it might be fun."
"We're not going to the pool." Nino countered, though he looked a little amused, "I'm not a professional swimmer."
"You're alright." Kim was grinning; he had to be teasing Nino.
Marinette shook her head, "I'll try to find a time that works for Adrien." She almost wanted to sigh; it felt impossible to go on a date with Adrien most of the time. Either his dad had him doing something else, his dad said, 'no,' or something else came up. She often felt like a busy ladybug, with all of the nightly patrols with Cat Noir or the Akuma fights, and she could always afford to be patient with Adrien. He had an even crazier schedule after all.
Plus, she didn't want to see him get hurt either. Though sometimes she wondered if he'd still blush around Ladybug, if the two of them were in the same place at the same time, but that felt more like a morbid curiosity, than something she should test out.
Besides even Cat Noir turned over a new leaf, as he'd almost entirely stopped flirting with Ladybug; any time he flirted now, it was more playful than serious. Sometimes she almost missed the way they used to be, though she always tried to push the thought aside when it came cropping up.
"That's tough." Nino grumbled, "I haven't played video games with him in three weeks!"
"It is." Marinette agreed; her smile a little soft with sadness now. She knew eventually they'd all be older, and it would become much easier, but the wait right now felt almost excruciating. Patience is a virtue, indeed, and extremely hard to come by as a teenager.
Kim shook his head, though he looked amused, "I haven't hung out with him outside of class for about five months now."
"Dude, you're not his best friend, and you don't ask him to hang out that often." Nino retorted, more playful than full of bite.
"And you're not dating him." Marinette added, puffing up her cheeks to let him know that she's just teasing him as well.
"I know, I know." Kim drawled out.
Marinette shook her head, "You prepared to lose?"
"Not losing." Kim retorted, playful and competitive smile back on his lips.
"I'm going to win!" Nino tightened his grip on his controller, and Marinette booted up the game.
It wasn't until five games later that they finally came up for air to enjoy some baked goods that her parents had just made that day. Hanging out was always a lot of fun.