Chapter 3: Surprises and Secrets

Disclaimer; Nico was the name that I originally had for my OC, but then a friend of mine told me that there was a character from Percy Jackson who already had that name. I honestly didn't know this until someone told me. So I looked him up and was like "omg! Hot!" But I thought that his last name was cool so I decided to use that as for my OC's last name. I'm just telling you so that no one files me for copyright or something. Nico Di Angelo belongs to the rightful author of Percy Jackson. Nico belongs to me.

"Marinette! Just relax." Tikki told her friend as the girl paced around her room.

"No Tikki! Nico and the others have to be 'The Hunters'! Their clothes, the way that they look at people." Marinette pretty much yelled at the little creature. She stopped her pacing and ranting when Tikki flew in front of her face.

"Mari! You shouldn't judge people when you just met them. You judged Adrien, and look, he turned out super nice." Tikki stated.

"You're right Tikki. But I'm still going to keep an eye on them, Nico the most." Mari swore that she heard Tikki giggle and whisper 'jealous' but she let it go as she raced downstairs and out the out the door, after saying goodbye to her mama and papa.

"Marinette, you're late." The teacher told her as she ran into the classroom.

"I know. Sorry." Mari sighed as she took her seat next to Alya. Alya, on the other hand, didn't even notice her BFF sit down, she was talking to Scarlet.

"Oh! Hi….. Marinette, was it?" Scarlet asked as she tried to greet the girl that had sat next to them.

"You got it right, and also, Hi!" Mari said with a smile. As class started up again Marinette pulled out some pieces of paper and began taking notes about the new kids. Spook wasn't making trouble or anything that would make you think that he was bad, he was just kindly helping Rose and Juleka with their homework. Flame was listing to Kim brag about how fast he was and how many sports he did. Flame had to have had the patience of a saint to sit there and really listen to what came out of Kim's mouth.

'Nothing out of the normal so far.' Marinette thought as she continued to look around. Next, she turned her head to look at Tsubaki. She and Nathaniel had their heads down and from the looks of it, they were looking at a sketch book. Nath was smiling as Tsubaki was whispering and drawing on the page that the sketch book was open to.

'I don't think I've ever seen Nathaniel smile like that except that time when he was akumatized.' Mari thought to herself as she felt a tinge of guilt hit her. Would Nathaniel have been different if she'd given him a chance? Shaking the thought from her head, Mari continued her personal mission. Scarlet was the next one on her list. Scarlet wasn't bad, she knew a lot about tech, how it worked, and how to get into things that only college students would know about.

'Wait! Tech! Didn't one of the Hunters use tech as a weapon?!' With that in mind, Marinette wrote Scarlet's name down and the fact that she knew a lot about tech. Last person to watch was Nico. When Marinette looked in front of her, she couldn't tell if she was heartbroken, sad, angry, or if she was all those things at once. The heartbreak feeling came when she saw Adrien lay his hand on Nico's. The anger came when Nico brushed his hand away. What girl wouldn't want Adrien Agreste to hold their hand!? The sadness hit when Adrien moved closer to the girl and began to talk to her about something that she couldn't hear.

'Why would he try and talk to her if she turned him down!? I would never turn him down!' Mari thought angrily as she stuffed the piece of paper into her bag. About 6 minutes later class ended.

"Hey Mari. Scarlet and I are going to the park to do a project. Want to come?" Alya asked as all 3 of them walked out of the room.

"Um…sure." Marinette agreed. Maybe a trip to the park would take her mind off of everything.

"H-hi Nico." Adrien said as he walked up to her.

"Oh, hey. Look, sorry about what went down in class. It's just that, I wasn't expecting it and with the way I grew up, you'd understand why I reacted the way I did." Nico said as she looked at the ground.

"Well then, tell me. We can go to the park and talk about it." Adrien stated with a hopeful smile.

"Sure. Why not?" Nico replied. As they walked to the park they saw Nathaniel and Tsubaki.

"Aye! Baki!" Nico yelled as she and the other girl ran to high-five each other.

"Where are you guys going?" Nath asked

"The park. You guys?" Adrien said back.

"We're going to the art store!" Tsubaki said in a cheery and childish voice.

"Alright you two lovers. Have fun!" Nico smiled when she heard the two yell that they weren't lovers. Once Nico and Adrien made it to the park they found a bench by the fountain and away for everyone.

"So. From all of the girls in the class that I've talked to so far, every one of them said that you're some model for your old man." Nico stared off.

"Yeah. It's not as fun as people think it is." Adrien replied sadly.

"Tough. Feel like venting?" Nico asked as she put her arms behind her head and leaned back on the bench. Well, that question lead to a good 45 minute rant from Adrien about everything from his father not caring, to his mother's disappearance.

"You weren't ALLOWED to go to school!?" Nico shouted in disbelief.

"Yeah! Then he got mad when I said that I wanted friends!" Adrien told her as he absent mindedly twisted her hair in his fingers. At some point in their conversation Nico had laid her head on Adrien's lap because 'the bench dug into her back' she explained.

"Hey, over there," Nico said as she sat up to see better, "Aren't those the two girls and Scarlet that sit behind us over there?"

"Oh, yeah. That's Marinette and Alya." Adrien told her. He didn't want to worry about them. He wanted to know about Nico's life. She had sat there and listened to him talk about how he felt, she had really listened.

'She's been the only one who listened to me. Not hear me, but really listen.' Adrien thought happily to himself.

"Woah! Dude! Did I say something!? Why are you crying!?" Adrien was snapped out of his thoughts as he heard Nico shout in a panicked voice. He hadn't realized he was crying.

"Sorry. It's just that, no ones ever listened to how I really feel." Adrien said with a smile as he wiped his tears away.

"Ok then. Lets go say hi to Scarlet and her friends." Nico said quickly as she grabbed her bag and began to walk over to the other teens. She was happy that the kid had got his feelings out there and she wouldn't care if he cried or not because that was just part of venting. But they were in a park full of people and if teen girls were to see their, 'fav, super hot, teen boy model' as they say, crying they would go into full protective fangirl mode.

"Oh, look! It's Nico and Adrien." Alya said as she saw the two said teens coming towards them. Marinette looked up to see the two coming. When she saw Adrien her heart jumped and her face heated up. Her mood did a '360' when she saw Nico. Why was Adrien with her?

"Hey guys." Nico greeted.

"What are you guys up to?" Adrien asked when she saw Scarlet with some kind of tablet, Alya was on her phone, and Marinette had a notebook.

"O-oh! Umm….. We're morking, I mean w-working on a-a project f-for school! Hehehe!" Mari somewhat explained. A smirk found its way on to Nico's face when she saw Scarlet rolled her eyes.

"Alya said that she asked the teacher for some extra credit and she said yes. The project is doing a report about mythical creatures like dragons, ghosts, mermaids, demons-," Scarlet stopped listing things when she saw Nico flinch.

"We thought some fresh are would help us think," Alya said as she turned her phone around for Nico and Adrien to see, "I've been doing some research about demons and angels and found something awesome! Did you guys know that there was a family blood line richer than Chloe's? They're called the 'Di Angelo's'. It caught my eye because 'di angelo' mean 'angel of death' in Italian!" Alya explained as she scrolled the screen of her phone up so that it showed pictures of members of the family. Marinette was listening to what was being said but was also watching Nico. She noticed that when Scarlet listed demons Nico had flinched and when Alya mentioned the Di Angelo family, Nico's already pale skin seemed to turned even paler. Seeing this as a chance to prove that she's a Hunter, Marinette acted.

"So Nico," She started out as she stood and walked so that she was in front of the goth girl, "have you ever heard of the Di Angelo family?" She asked with a smug look on her face.

"Yes, I have." Nico answered as she took a step closer to Mari, put a little more space between her feet, and moved her right arm behind her ever so slightly. To an average person it would look like she was just shifting to stand more comfortably, but if Marinette was trying to start to something, Nico would end it.

"Oh, how about demons?" Marinette asked another question.

"Everyone's heard of those. We all have them. You just seem to use yours on others. A person's demons are there for them to deal with along with the help of their angels. You seem to not want to deal with your demons and now you're pushing them on others, so please, do us a favor and deal with them." Nico spoke in a monotone yet still domination voice.

"Snap." Scarlet whispered to Alya as they watched from the bench.

"You must have demons to then, and a lot for that matter. You know, since you have fangs and all." Marinette countered. A somewhat twisted smile made its way on Nico's face.

"What fangs?" She asked with a smirk then opened her mouth to show two rows of normal human teeth. No fangs.

"Nico, I think we should go now. You can come over to my house." Adrien butted into the argument.

"Ok, whatever." Nico replied like she didn't care but Adrien caught the slight shock in her voice when she said 'ok'. As Nico began to walk to the entrance of the park, Adrien turned to Marinette.

"Why would you say those things to her?" Adrien asked with a little bit of sadness in his voice.

"I-I was j-just trying t-to…. Uhhh!" Mari couldn't find the right words. She didn't mean to upset Adrien, she was helping him.

"Never mind. I have to go. It was nice seeing you guys." Adrien told the girls as he turned and jogged to catch up to Nico. Mari just stood staring at the two as Adrien linked his arm with Nico's and lead her in the direction of his house.

"Mari, are you all right?" Scarlet asked as she placed her hand on Mari's shoulder. She didn't get a reply though. What she got was a cry of sadness then next thing she knew, Marinette was running out of the park in tears.

" It's ok. Mari strong, she'll make it through this." Alya assured the red head.

"Ok." Scarlet said.

"Nice place man." Nico said as she sat on Adrien's bed.

"Thanks. Can we talk?" He asked.

"Sure, about what?" The girl asked as she laid back.

"Marinette said you had fangs, then you opened your mouth and there weren't any. So I was wondering if…" Adrien trailed off. He didn't know how to ask this. What if she did have fangs and asking about them would offend her? His questions were answered and with a little twist.

"Yes I do have fangs. No it wouldn't offend me if you asked about them. How do I know what you were going to ask? I can read minds." She explained and smirked when see saw the look of surprise on the blonde boy's face.

"But I can't read your mind like I do to others."

"What do you mean? Is something wrong with me?" Adrien asked.

"Pfft. Dude, I just told you that I can read minds and have fangs. You still think that there's something wrong with you? With most people I can read everything in their heads," Nico stood up from the bed and was now in front of Adrien looking straight up into his green eyes with her blue ones, "I can't do that with you and that bothers me."

"Oh." That was all Adrien could think of to say. Just as he was about to say something else the sound of something breaking caught both teens off guard. Adrien didn't know what to do but watch. There was broken glass on the floor of his bed room, 4 teens now in his room, and Nico was walking towards them.

"I was able to read one part of your mind though," Nico started, "so Chat Noir, want to be a Hunter?"