Day 2. Text messages

'Can you help me with something?' Nino asked from his place on the couch.

Marinette wiped her hands onto her apron and put away the vegetables she'd been peeling for casserole. 'Sure. What do you need?'

He passed her his phone and took her place at the kitchen counter. 'Can you delete these for me? Everything that's in there.'

She looked at the screen and the long string of messages exchanged between Nino and Anna. 'Are you sure you?'

Nino started scrubbing carrots. 'Yeah. That's part of my healing I guess.'

She started browsing through the history of conversation erasing texts as she went and trying not to read too much. She was methodical and soon moved to other catalogues to track and delete any content from and to his ex that she encountered. It was weird doing this for him. She knew him and Anna decided to stay friends, but after so many years as a couple, not to mention so many years of permanent crisis, it would take time for them to get back to the ease they had before. Marinette had been there too. Sometimes really weird things could bring you comfort. Anything that worked was fine by her.

Then she spotted a bunch of unsent drafts with her number. They were the oldest messages in all of the folders as well as the only starred ones.

'What is this?' she shoved the phone into Nino's face.

He chuckled fondly, fixing his glasses. 'Just a few texts from our collège times.'

'That old?' Marinette checked the dates. Indeed, these were from ten years ago. 'And you've kept them all this time? Moved them between accounts?'

Nino scratched his chin. His cheeks colored with a lovely shade of amber. 'Eeee… I dunno…,' he drawled, 'I just didn't feel like deleting them. They're incredibly cheesy so you might want to skip them,' he added trying to take the phone from her.

'No way!' Marinette instantly snatched the device and pulled it to her chest. 'Now I wanna read them even more!'

She started scrolling through the texts and giggled under her breath, feeling like a fresh teen again. 'Oh my god,' she covered her mouth to stifle a snort. 'Did Adrien help you with those?'

He snickered himself, looking at the screen over her shoulder. 'Yeah. He was the ultimate wingman.'

'No wonder you were so stressed at the zoo,' Marinette grinned at him.

'Oh that was a disaster,' he covered his eyes in mock shame. 'I can't believe Adrien actually invited you on a date with me.'

'And I had no idea it was a date with you,' she supplied joyfully and bumped into his hip.

'The first and the last one of our dates,' he added dramatically and then paused. 'Do you ever…'

'What?'

He shook his head. 'Nevermind,' he said. 'Let's get back to our dinner.'

'Do I ever what, Nino?' Marinette put her hands over his, effectively preventing him from chopping the vegetables.

'Do you ever wonder what would happen if I did confess that day?' he whispered. 'If there was no akuma?'

She had. Lately much more often than she'd cared to admit. But he didn't mean it the way she did. He was referring to the beginning of his relationship with Alya. His first relationship failure. That was part of the grieving process, she knew. And she was determined to help him no matter what.

'Nah,' she scrunched her nose. 'There was an akuma, and a legion of other akumas afterwards. What happened, happened. Better not to dwell on that too much,' she added, forcing herself to smile.

Nino nodded thoughtfully and returned to preparing the food. Marinette cast a glance at Tikki who was watching them from behind a small chessboard, where she was currently winning against Wayzz for the fourth time in a row. The red kwami tilted her head as if she could read her Chosen's mind. Marinette felt the heat rushing to her cheeks. She'd better take her own advice. Nothing good would come from dwelling on what might have been.