Chapter 5

"Okay, how do I look?"

Green eyes appraised him, their owner slowly nodding in approval. "Looks good."

Red baseball cap, blue shirt, and a pair headphones around the neck. It was the perfect 'average boy' look that Nino was trying to achieve. Except...

Adrien narrowed his eyes, perplexed by the added accessory to his friend's face. "Wait. What's with the glasses?"

Werewolves, just like vampires, had heightened senses. Furthermore, they didn't need glasses to see.

Nino shrugged. "I thought they looked cool."

The blond shook his head with a scoff, smiling. "You look cool, man."

"Thanks. So, basically, I go in, befriend Marinette, and watch over her, right?"

"Yep," Adrien replied, nodding.

"What does she even look like anyway? And don't give me the mushy dialogue, just give me the facts."

The vampire huffed irritably, not even bothering to hold back on a glare directed at his best friend.

"She has black hair and blue eyes, she's about 5'5, oh and she has these cute little freckles running across her nose," Adrien answered, grinning giddily at the end.

Nino rolled his eyes, but returned his attention back on Adrien as soon as the vampire's eyes narrowed and almost seemed to spark dangerously.

"But you wouldn't know that unless you got close enough to see," the blond murmured darkly, the words not just a hidden threat, but a silent promise of what would happen should Nino get that close to her.

The werewolf gulped audibly while Adrien returned back to his cheerful self and laughed.

"Don't worry, I trust ya, bro."

"Good thing," Nino muttered, still a bit freaked out by his friend's sudden mood swings.

"So, are you ready?" Adrien asked, donning a smile and clasping his hands behind his back, as though he were a proud parent sending their child off to school for the first time. He felt like he was, in a way.

"As I'll ever be," Nino groaned, yawning afterwards. "I still can't believe you're making me do this. No one should be up this early."

"I am and I'm not tired at all," the blond returned cheekily.

His friend glowered. "That's because vampires hardly need any sleep, you bastard."

"Careful, you might actually hurt my feelings," Adrien joked, smirking gleefully.

For what felt like the hundredth time, Nino found himself scowling at the young prince. "I'm about to hurt more than your feelings."

"Aw, come on, you'd never hurt me. Just as I'd never hurt you." He gave a warm smile for a few seconds before speaking again, "you'd better get going, you're going to have to run fast to make it. Here's your schedule."

He held out his hand with the paper in his grasp, Nino took it and stuffed it in the bag he carried over his shoulder.

"Yeah. See you after school." He turned to leave, only pausing mid-way to look back at Adrien. "I never thought I'd ever be saying those words again," he remarked bitterly.

The vampire chuckled and bid him good-bye.

...

Nino looked up at the looming building in front of him, seeing the many high schoolers gradually making their way inside. Most of them traveled in groups, as they talked and laughed the whole way inside.

A brief pang of loneliness hit the werewolf. This would've been so much easier if Adrien was there, he'd be guaranteed to have someone to talk to. For the first time in his whole life, he felt alone.

At home he always either hung out with Adrien, his family, or other members of his pack. This place felt like a foreign land to him, there was absolutely nobody he knew.

He sighed, before breathing deep and locking eyes with the top of the building in determination.

He was here to watch over Marinette. He wouldn't let Adrien down just because he was acting like a puppy.

So, with a sudden burst of confidence, he straightened his shoulders and marched on towards the entrance. He received a couple curious looks from various students, probably since he was new, but he kept on moving forward until he would reach his destination.

Stopping in front of a door, he took out his schedule and peered down at it to make sure he had the room number right. He did, and so he opened the door and walked in.

Nino gulped and plastered on a smile as the students looked him over, probably wondering who the hell he was and why he was there. During that time, his eyes surveyed the room, looking for a girl with black hair and blue eyes.

Hmm...nope, nope, nope...

Finally, his gaze settled on the only girl who hadn't been staring at him. Her head was bent down to what looked to be a sort of tablet, her hand held a pencil and was scribbling something on it with her tongue poked out of her mouth in concentration.

She may have had the black hair, but he couldn't be definite it was her yet until he knew her name.

Luckily, there was an empty bench right in front of her. Nino didn't waste time and walked to it to sit down, the other students meanwhile having gone back to their own business.

He swiveled around to get a better look at the girl. She hadn't reacted at all to his presence, instead choosing to continue drawing whatever she was working on in the sketchbook.

He cleared his throat, impatient to know whether it was her or not.

"Um, hi."

The girl flinched and squeaked in surprise as snapped her head up to lock eyes with him.

Nino blinked as he found himself staring into a pair of brilliantly blue eyes, eyes that he had never seen any vampire or werewolf possess. Her skin was a pretty peach color with a natural blush lighting her cheeks. Thick, black eyelashes fluttered as she blinked inquisitively at him with her head tilted slightly to the side.

"Uh, hi," she greeted shyly. "Are you new here?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I am. I'm Nino."

"I'm Marinette," she offered kindly. "Sorry I didn't notice you before, my designs can sometimes distract me." She giggled uneasily, as if worrying of making the situation awkward.

Ah, so this was his best friend's Loved One. Now he understood why he had fallen for her so hard; her features were flawless and so far she seemed really nice. She was the total opposite of Chloe.

"Sometimes distract you?" A voice cut in, repeating Marinette's words. Nino turned to see another girl slide in the bench beside Marinette, eyeing the two with an amused grin. "Girl, you're always distracted by your designs."

"Not all the time," she argued, fighting back a laugh.

The new girl's grin turned wicked. "Yeah, maybe not when you're meeting with-"

"Alya!" Marinette interrupted hastily, a blush turning her cheeks a deeper shade of pink. "This is Nino, he's new here."

"Hey," Alya greeted, smiling. "What's up?"

His hazel eyes appraised her, noting she was very attractive. She also seemed to be very mischievous from what he could gather, what with her insinuating Marinette's meetings with Adrien. They must be best friends, Nino deduced. He couldn't guess why else Marinette would tell Alya about her rendezvous with 'Chat Noir', since she didn't seem like the type of girl to flaunt something like that.

Nino shrugged. "Not much, considering I'm new here."

Alya nodded, understanding. "Ah. Don't worry, I was the new girl in sophomore year. You'll be fine after a couple days."

He smiled. "Thanks."

"So, made any friends yet?"

"No," he answered, frowning. "The only people who talked to me so far were you guys."

"Well, congrats, 'cause you're making two friends right now!" Alya announced proudly, wrapping an arm around a giggling Marinette, who nodded her assent.

Nino smiled widely, looks like this was going to be pretty easy. "Awesome!"

"So, what kind of music you listen to?" Alya asked, gesturing with her head towards his headphones.

"Anything that Jagged Stone produces," the werewolf replied confidently.

He saw excitement light up in Marinette and Alya's eyes, the girls turning to grin at each other, before they resumed their attention back to him.

"I think we're gonna be pretty good friends," Alya remarked with a smirk.

...

Adrien had been true to his word, Nino ended up having every single class with Marinette. The blackette didn't think anything of it, only commenting on how much of a crazy coincidence it was.

"Yeah, crazy," Nino had replied, trying to sound as much in awe of it as she was.

She invited him to sit with her in the classes she didn't have Alya with, in which case he'd sit somewhere close by. The only other time he couldn't sit with her was in science class, where only science partners sat together.

Since Nino was the odd one out, he would have to join a group so that there would be three people instead of the usual two. The teacher, Ms. Mendeleiev, allowed him to pick a group to join, not wanting to waste any more classtime bothering with something as trivial as that.

As such, Nino joined Marinette's group. She was partnered with a shy, red-haired boy named Nathanael.

As the class went on, Nino noticed the glances Nathanael would sometimes send to the oblivious girl. He would give a small smile until Nino made eye contact with him, at that point the smile would disappear and his cheeks would begin to burn as he ripped his eyes away to stare at his tablet.

It was obvious the guy had a crush on Marinette. He briefly wondered if he should tell Adrien about it, but ultimately decided not to. The guy seemed pretty harmless, it didn't look like he was about to confess his undying love and ask her out anytime soon. Why make trouble for nothing?

Besides, he fully believed that Adrien could successfully sweep her off her feet and she would refuse Nathanael if and when the time ever came.

...

During lunchtime, he had left Marinette with Alya and now waited on the school steps for them. He wasn't going to hover over Marinette all day, he wasn't going to be a creepy stalker or something.

He tilted his head up to the sky and released a breath through his mouth. He remembered everything the teachers were talking about in his various classes, therefore he was thoroughly bored in each of them.

Oh well. At least he didn't have to do any of the homework. That optimistic thought brought a pleased smile to the werewolf's face.

"Hey, you're the new kid, right?"

Nino snapped out of his mental musings, opening his eyes to see a buff, taller guy in front of him with short, dark brown hair with the locks at the front dyed blond, grey eyes, and wearing a red athletic sweatshirt.

Beside him stood a shorter, darker-skinned male, wearing a green shirt with suspenders and black glasses perched upon his nose.

"Yeah, I am," Nino admitted warily, wondering what these guys wanted. He could take both of them on if need be, but he didn't want to start any trouble, especially on his first day.

"I'm Kim, this is my friend Max." Kim gestured to his friend with his thumb, who offered a smile and a wave in greeting. "We wanted to see if you wanted to hang out with us for lunch."

Finally! Some guy friends he could hang out with!

"Yeah! Su-...no. Sorry, I can't."

Damn. He was all excited but remembered he had to watch over Marinette. Doing that didn't entail leaving the girl alone while he had lunch with some new possible friends.

"Are you certain?" Max asked, looking concerned. "By my calculations, you shouldn't have made any possible close acquaintances yet given your current time at this school, which is precisely four hours, five minutes, and 23 seconds."

Nino arched a brow, a bit bewildered by this guy's speech. It was obvious he was extremely smart, but the guy next to him looked to be a total jock. He didn't think jocks and nerds hung out with each other, but hey, it looks like the modern world may be improving after all.

"Max, don't scare him off with that science-y shit," Kim laughed, lightly shooting his elbow into Max's shoulder. The shorter man winced slightly but didn't voice his slight pain.

"It's math, actually, and-"

"Hey, Nino!"

The three boys rotated their heads to look at the most known girl duo in school racing down the steps with big smiles on their faces. Marinette and Alya stopped in front of the group, gasping for air.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Marinette tripped...again," Alya informed, snickering.

Marinette's cheeks flamed in embarrassment and annoyance. "I don't trip all the time!" She huffed.

"You're right, you don't trip all the time," Max informed lightly. "But this week alone you've tripped a total of three times, excluding the possible ones to happen while not at school, and it's only Monday. On average, you trip about-"

"Thanks, Max," Marinette deadpanned. "I think everyone understands how clumsy I am."

"Sorry," he returned sheepishly, earning a laugh from Kim.

"Hey, why don't we all go to lunch?" Alya suddenly offered. "At first it was just gonna be me, Nino, and Marinette. But do you guys wanna come with us?"

"Sure!" Kim replied, jovial.

"Let's go, then!"

A/N: Yay! Nino is making some new friends :)

Now, you all probably expected for Nino to freeze up as soon as he saw Alya, right? That's why I had to make it so he didn't ;) Lol but really, I did it because they're going to have a slow romance. He'll start to freeze once he realizes his feelings ;)

And werewolves do have mates, but they're not pre-determined by destiny or whatever. A mate is a werewolf's companion, chosen by them. It's pretty much like human marriage.

Also, no, Nino doesn't feel attracted to Marinette nor does he have feelings for her or ever will. He just acknowledges that she's very pretty. He knows that Adrien has fallen in love with her, and can tell that Marinette might be soon developing feelings for his best friend in return, so why would he want to jeopardize that? I know, you can't control who you fall for, but Nino just isn't even thinking about Marinette 'in that way'. He respects his friend too much to even try to do so. Does that make sense?

Till next time :)