Finding yourself in a state of extreme panic is not uncommon when you're a procrastinator. When you're not procrastinating and actually accomplishing things, you feel pride. What you don't feel is existential dread and looming failure.
Nino wished he hadn't procrastinated.
The student radio station puts on a carnival and a concert every year, and each radio host is tasked with helping to organize it, create their own posters for it, as well as bring in an act. While he had been more than helpful in class, sharing ideas and brainstorming with his other classmates, he had been lackluster in his own preparations. He didn't have a poster design created, and he sure as hell didn't have an act yet.
Which brings him to his current state, of trying to unstick two of his fingers held to the sound board with superglue. In the process, he somehow managed to knock over a tube of glitter onto the floor of the recording studio. He groaned as he watched the small flecks seep into the dark blue carpet, silently thanking the fact that he chose to play a six-minute song so he would have exactly 4 minutes and 17 more seconds to solve his problems. Nino picked up his phone with his free hand, and dialed a number.
Alya's phone started ringing as she was scrolling through her news apps, popping up a very unflattering photo of Nino as he was sneezing as the contact. Snorting in amusement at how the photo really never lost its charm, she answered. "What's up, babe?"
"Uh...quick question, how do you get super glue to unstick?"
She brought her free hand up to her face, to squeeze the bridge of her nose. "Nino...what were you even doing with super glue?"
"It was for the poster project. I figured I could just work on it while I was here, but I've now, uh, spilled glitter all over the floor and my hand is stuck to the soundboard," he rushed out.
He was met with the sound of silence for a brief moment, and then he heard his girlfriend start rustling around. "I'll be there in ten. Try not to glue yourself to anything else."
_
Ten minutes was too long. After deciding to share his rather unfortunate incident with his listeners and putting on a few songs so as to not have to take any calls about how dumb he was from Queen Bee (which was a frequent occurrence) his knight in shining plaid arrived with a bottle of nail polish remover and paper towels in hand.
"Heyyyyyy," he said, grinning sheepishly while waving with his free hand.
She marched over to the soundboard and immediately got to work, grumbling under her breath about how she doesn't know why she even puts up with him and how ridiculous he is. Within a few short minutes, the acetone in the nail polish had made it possible for his hand to come free. Nino almost wept for joy.
"Babe, I love you and for the next twenty-four hours to show my appreciation I will buy all of your meals."
Alya smiled. No matter how ridiculous Nino could be or how much his antics reminded her of her little sisters, she really did love him. He made her feel content. Safe, even. He felt like home.
She quirked her head teasingly, "While that is a good offer, I demand more payment. Let me sit in as a special guest host on your show for the rest of the night. I think a certain bug and cat could use an intervention. An Alya-vention, if you will."
Nino shook his head. "No way. Don't intervene! It's funny how thick the romantic tension is over the air. I don't need it to turn into awkward tension."
"Listen, I want Marinette to be happy. You do, too. And even though you won't let me meet your best friend who's verbally romancing her every night of the week, or even tell me his name, I think they'd be good for each other. Why won't you let me meddle?"
"Because meddling-Alya is troublemarker-Alya. Let the girl have her peace for a little while longer. I think if they met, her head might actually explode. But I'm not saying anything else. Crap, the song's about over. Go put that pair of headphones on if you're gonna be my assistant for the night."
As the last sounds of Jagged Stone's guitar led off, Nino turned his microphone back on. "Jagged Stone, always a favorite of mine and everyone else who has good taste in rock legends. Well, my girlfriend came and bailed me out. Nail polish remover. Who knew, right? Anyway, in repayment, she's guest hosting for the rest of the night on the Ni-T: Extraterrestrial Night."
Alya's judgemental laughter filled the speakers of everyone listening in. "I am so sorry about that name. That one was all him. He's got a thing for Spielberg movies."
"Who doesn't?" came the indignant reply.
"Not everyone has the same movie taste as you, you know."
"And they're wrong."
"Whatever you say. So, let me fill you in, as Nino's savior and ultimate-awesome-lady. The glue? Was for a poster project. Care to explain to your lovely listeners and I how you got yourself stuck and why you were making a poster to begin with?"
He went on to account how he was making the poster for his class to advertise the concert that the radio station holds after term is over, to celebrate all their hard work but to also teach them how to recruit acts for things in the future.
"And, well, I kinda forgot to recruit an act. Anyone know where I can get one on short notice? I'm supposed to submit it tomorrow. Along with the poster. Which I still haven't finished."
The phone line started lighting up, and Alya patched the caller through. "Hey, what's up?"
"Hi. Um, it's me, the Illustrator. I was just going to say...did you need help with the art? Once you get an act I can make you a poster really fast. I amgoing to art school and am pretty good at graphic design. It's even my name here. Also, why didn't you just make a poster online?"
Nino sat in stunned silence. "Man… I didn't even think about that. But yeah, I would absolutely love your art expertise. If you wanna hang around for a little while, we might find an act. I'm sure someone who listens has a garage band or knows a garage band who could play. Just send an email with the file to ni-no-ni-maybe-ni-yes on GMail. Don't judge the username. I thought it was cool. And it seems like we're getting another caller, so let's see what they have to say."
"Hey, yeah, you've got an act now. You can thank me later."
"Aww, Queenie Bee, don't tell me you're volunteering?"
"Ugh, of course not. Why would I want to be onstage in front of a bunch of radio-listening basement dwelling nerds?"
"...you do realize you're listening to the radio right now, right?"
"Anyway, you have Jagged Stone. And no, this isn't a prank. I don't care enough about you to prank you. He owed me a favor anyway."
Alya and Nino stared at each other across the desk, slack-jawed.
"This is the part where you say you're welcome, you know."
"Wow, that was super nice of you. Thanks, Bee."
"Whatever. Bye!"
The radio went silent for a second. And then Nino breathed out. "Holy crap, did we just get Jagged Stone to come play for our carnival?"
Alya nodded. "Well, Q.B. did. But that's still pretty cool. And it didn't sound like she was doing favors like that for anyone else. So! End-of-term concert. Jagged Stone. Who all's gonna be there? I can't wait to meet everyone."
There were calls coming in quickly. Cupid saying he was excited for Jagged, Rose saying she would bring her girlfriend because she would love that sort of thing, Gamer excited to have a social activity to leave the house for, and Timebreaker was only invested to see if the Ladybug and Cat boy were gonna hook up. That comment found Nino and Alya howling with laughter, tears pouring out of their eyes as Alya crowed, "Man, I sure hope so!" into the mic.
Marinette smiled at the antics of her two best friends on the radio. She was happy that Alya was having a good time. As she bounced around cleaning up her kitchen, she stuck her head into the fridge to put the eggs away.
When she reemerged, she could hear nothing but loud laughter and Alya saying, "Man, I sure hope so!" She was kind of upset about whatever she missed because she could've used the laugh, but she would just ask tomorrow. She reached a hand towards the dial to turn the radio down, but then she heard the unmistakably smooth voice.
"Yeah, Nino. I'm really excited. I'll be there. Jagged Stone is my favorite artist," which made her smile.
As much as she was at odds with this stranger sometimes, she still felt like they could be good friends. Even with all the incessant flirting he did. It was exhausting, yeah, but it was also kind of charming. It wasn't rude or suggestive. It was just funny. The playful kind of banter they had was about as close as Marinette had gotten to any semblance of a relationship in almost two years, which was kind of sad. Well, unless you counted the small conversations she would have with Adrien Agreste when he walked by her desk at work. But her shyness at his overall beautiful-ness really put a damper on anything serious happening, when simple things like a "Hey, how are you?" turn into a "How, hey are you?" in her mouth. As Ladybug, with this Chat Noir boy, she could let loose a little. No expectations, no faces. It made things like harmless flirting a little easier. And it seemed like they had a lot in common. She really should focus on what he's saying.
"But," he trailed off, hesitation in his voice, "I actually called to ask someone else a question. Ladybug, if you're out there listening...would you like to be my date to the concert?"
Marinette was thankful she lived alone. Her mystery boy just asked her on a date. She screamed.
Chapter Management