When people looked at their group of four friends, they would see that Alya and Marinette were close. They'd see Nino and Adrien sharing a grin and a fist bump, as they laughed over a joke one of them had said. They'd see the designer mooning over their resident blonde model when he wasn't looking, or the blogger placed her hand over that of the DJ's underneath the secrecy of the table they sat at.

They wouldn't know that, even though Marinette loved Adrien, and was best friends with Alya, she'd known Nino the longest. The other two were new, but he'd been her close friend since preschool.

And he was also the only one that knew her secret.

It was a quiet day, at least for the DJ, as he relaxed in his room. Brightly colored headphones were clamped over over his ears, the other end plugged into his computer. The new mix played on the screen, the bar sliding down the score as it played. He frowned, pausing it briefly in order to edit it, switching the song so it played a little later instead. Listening to it again, he grinned.

Until something launched through his open window and crashed on the other side of the room.

He immediately stood up, headphones wrenched from his ears by the cord, as his chair fell back with the sudden movement. Bewildered eyes widened in surprise and fear as it took him a moment to recognize the figure, the red suit, the pigtails.. The yo-yo.

"Ladybug?!" He exclaimed, shock buzzing in his features. He couldn't move for a moment, as the scattered papers settled, but after a moment he realized something was wrong, because Ladybug hadn't gotten up yet. He rushed forward, quickly falling to his knees and placing a hand on the girls back, to help lift her up as she coughed. There were tears in her eyes, he noticed, and her free hand was pressed tightly against her side. After a second, he almost jerked back, startled. The red wasn't just her suit.

"Oh god, oh jeez.." He was panicking at this point, blood roaring in his ears. He grabbed a stray blue shirt on the ground, waiting until she reluctantly moved her hands in order to press it over the wound. She wasn't saying anything, why wasn't she saying anything? She was still awake. What had happened? How had he not noticed there was an akuma?

.., His phone was off, wasn't it? He knew he'd be working on music stuff all day, so he hadn't wanted any distractions.

"Nino.." His name slipped from her lips, and his head whipped around to face her once again. "I'm about to transform back…" He hadn't even noticed the beeping. Her earrings were on her last spot. Her voice was trembling. She was terrified. He didn't know what to do at all.

"I-I can get a blanket? You can hide.. How about…" She tried to move, but gasped with pain, and instead fell back in his arms. He almost swore in frustration.

"It's o-okay." Her voice stopped him as he was about to move, muscles tensed.

"But you're hurt! I-I have to get you to the hospital!" She shook her head quickly, almost wincing with the motion.

"No hospitals."

"But-!" She cut him off, bluebell eyes furious.

"No." He frowned, lips parted for another protest, but instead relented. "I trust you." His eyes widened as a bright pink light lit up the room, and he had to look away in order to not be blinded. He felt the suit disappear underneath his fingers, and he slowly turned his head back, heart thudding in his chest.

When he saw that it was Marinette Dupain-Cheng underneath the mask of Paris' superheroine, he didn't gasp out in surprise. He didn't exclaim his disbelief, because in all honesty, he didn't see how it could've been anybody else. All that matter now, was that one of his closest friends was hurt, and he needed to help. After making sure she was alright, he darted from the room to find some kind of first aid kit, unaware of the small red god that was speaking gentle words in her Chosens ear.

He asked her later, after he made sure that she was alright, why she had come to him in her time of need instead of anyone else. Her answer had been simple, even if she hesitated a moment before answering him, looking down at her hands the shy way she did, that she did a lot more often before Alya and Adrien came to their school two years ago. A lot more often before she became Ladybug, he realized.

"Why me?" He asked suddenly, and she looked up quickly from where she was lying down, tucked under the covers of her bed. "You could've gone to Alya, to your parents, I'm sure you could've gone to Chat Noir." She smiled sheepishly, twiddling her thumbs together.

"I don't even know who Chat Noir is." That surprised him.

"But I thought-"

"Everyone thinks that." She shook her head slightly, and then sighed. "I don't know Chat Noir. I'm terrified my parents would force me to stop being Ladybug, they'd be driven crazy with worry, I'm sure." She went quiet after that, hesitating.

"And Alya?" He prompted, a frown lingering on his face. She laughed bitterly at that.

"She's been trying to hunt me down for two years to expose my identity. I don't know what she'd do." He had to give her that one. His girlfriend certainly was obsessed with figuring out who Ladybug was, even though he constantly asked her to stop going to film the battles. A pang of worry struck his heart. He was always terrified for her. Now he'd be just as worried for Nette.

"So…?"

"Nino, I've known you for years. You understand why I can't stop being Ladybug." He did know. This is why he wasn't incredibly surprised to find out it was here. No matter how quiet she'd always been, how nervous she could be, how much self-doubt she used to have, there was a brave heart in there. She persevered, that's what made a true hero.

"I do."

"There wasn't anyone else I trusted enough to go to." The girl spoke quietly, looking down. The being he'd come to know as Tikki peered up from Marinette's shoulder.

"I told her to find someone she could trust with her identity." She squeaked, with a cute smile to accompany her words. He smiled in return. He couldn't help it, it was contagious.

"I'm just glad you're okay, Nette."

This was a month or so later from that moment, and the four friends were sitting around that table. A beeping sound went off on all their phones, and the Ladyblog's akuma alert showed up on the screens. Alya stood up quickly, and was gone in second with her phone clenched tightly in her hand. Adrien made some flimsy excuse of having to go home, his father ordered that he returned to stay safe during any akuma attacks. Nino's eyes glanced up to meet Marinette's blue ones, and he grinned though his gaze showed his worry.

"Stay safe, LB."