Title: Shifting Oceans
Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug, Bleach
Characters: Nino, Adrien
Chapter: 10
Word Count: 1712
Warnings: nothing
Beta: ToxicAngel13 on AO3
AN: I have a mother. It is a good thing. I'm hoping to get my schedule back to something of a normal one.
Here's hoping. For now, enjoy!
Nino was playing a game on his phone absently as he waited for Adrien to arrive at their meet up. His friend had sent him a message on Thursday to meet up with him on Saturday since Marinette was working at the Bakery that day to cover a sick worker and Adrien was free to finally talk.
He had already transferred out of the school just that Monday and everyone had found that out via his and Marinette's Pictor when they had posted pics from their week at the academy yesterday.
It had been kind of surprising to have gotten a call from Adrien after nearly two weeks where they hadn't really talked all that much, but Nino understood why his friend had started to distance himself from everyone. But the fact that Adrien had popped up with a new number Thursday and told him not to tell anyone had been the real surprise. From what Adrien had said that night on the phone was that he didn't want to deal with the bombardment of calls or texts once some new info dropped. His old number was still active, but it was also just shuffling all calls to his voice mail.
After yesterdays' performance by Lila? Yeah, Nino could understand why they had left and changed their numbers while keeping the other's active but ignored. The crocodile tears had been real this time which had shocked him.
He was just glad that Adrien had always pushed him to keep going to his auditions and creating, to not hold out on someone to do those things for him. Since it had come from Adrien, who worked the business just as easily as his father and had his own contacts, that said a lot. Adrien had been right that when you did something yourself, even with some help, it felt better and tasted sweeter in the end.
"Hey! Nino!" Adrien called out, waving at him with his large bodyguard standing out of the way but close by. Nino smiled and waved back, turning his phone off and tucking it away.
"Adrien! Bro!" he called in return. He stood and gave the other a hug before holding him out at arms length to look him over. "Dude, your style changed on me."
"Yeah, well...Marinette kind of raided my closet last week and told me that if I dared to come to school in something that was so pretty boy boring while we're going to the Rose Academy, she'd find a way to crochet a rope to string me up with," Adrien admitted. He laughed softly and rubbed the back of his head. "Marinette has actually been wearing a new outfit line that she's been working on. They're based on all of the Miraculous Heroes and she's working on a matching male and androgynous lines."
"Yeah? I'll have to check out her new Pictor for her work when I get home. I've seen a couple of the female styled pieces. They're good," Nino said, blushing slightly. "I actually got the money to commission a Turtle based shirt for my little brother finally," he admitted.
Adrien chuckled slightly as they sat down at the out door tables. "Yeah, so she told me. She's finally going under a new name online and finding it makes things a lot easier," he said. "She hasn't been harassed by anyone lately."
"Lila hasn't found her yet?" Nino asked, Adrien nodding his head.
"Nope, not yet," Adrien sighed as he looked over the menu and gave his order to the waiter that came by. "Marinette soft blocked her from everything and locked all of her personal accounts in the process. Closed her original work Pictor with a long explanation about why she was shutting it down once her current commissions were done," he continued.
Nino frowned as he pulled out his phone to find Marinette's old page. It was indeed closed for business with a two panel explanation with the explanation in the description box. It went over how over the last year her page had been inundated with hate and spam comments from various bot accounts or accounts that had a connection to a certain someone that she wasn't naming for her and her families safety. Due to that, her posts didn't have the reach, everything screwing her over in the algorithm and therefore was un-useable for the time being.
All comments would be locked after a month's time and her inbox would not accept any new DM's, only the ones that she was in active conversation with.
"Well, damn. What a fuck up," Nino sighed. He shook his head as he checked the comments under the post.
He frowned slightly at finding that Alya was calling the post bullshit and that the person behind the brand was just looking for attention. And that she had gotten knocked down a few pegs by the rest of the commentators. He had wondered just why she had locked her account for the last three weeks but now that he knew, he was disappointed in his girlfriend.
"I would call her, but I really don't want her number to pop up to often on my list since I have it under a cousin's name as a secondary number," he said. "What about those guys in your pics? Who are they?"
"Well, Ichigo is Kagami's cousin on his father's side. Sado is his boyfriend and the guy is half-Japanese despite his looks and sheer size. The guy's father's side of the family is all huge. He's strong but going for music and art based business classes," Adrien said, smiling. "They're both kind in their own ways actually. Ichigo has like the patience of a saint and is helping Marinette learn some new techniques for her art. While Sado is really, really smart. Sado moved with Ichigo and his family but Ichigo's dad had to return to Japan for some things that happened. Ichigo's godfather apparently came over yesterday to play guardian."
Nino hummed as he relaxed, leaning back in his chair and staring at the sky as Adrien's chosen cup of tea was delivered and Nino's replaced with a fresh cup. "Man, what a change to everything," he huffed. Adrien hummed and stared out over the street outside of the cafe.
"Yeah, it is," Adrien mused before shaking his head. "How's Alya doing? Last I heard, you two were still doing good."
Nino sighed as he slumped, picking up to taste his coffee. "I don't know what to do. I love her, man, I really do, but she's so far up Lila's ass lately that I kind of feel like I'm second fiddle to Lila most days."'
"Yeah, I kind of noticed the way that the Ladyblog has been about the Paris Heroes to being all about gossip and whatever Lila has 'accomplished'," Adrien admitted slowly. "But I did see that she was pulling some things down though?" he asked.
"Yeah. Apparently Ladybug got really annoyed about the interview with Lila and stated that she never had been, and never would be, friends with Lila Rossi the last time that they were out and about. That Ladybug's best friend had always been and would probably always be Chat Noir," Nino said, shaking his head. "She sent in some anonymous questions to some of the more famous newspapers and news casters when they opened up questions to them and was always told that while the Ladyblog had started out as a useful tool, it had devolved into all about Ladybug's and Chat Noir's relationship. And then later on, a gossip blog and all about Lila. She decided that she should start to remove posts slowly. Then maybe make a post about getting back on the right track with things."
"Even though a new blog has appeared that is offering more?" Adrien asked. Nino nodded.
"Yeah, even though. She was talking with me that she might not only do blogs about the heroes, both past and present, but also the Akuma's, not naming names, but you know. Talking about where they popped up. How long it took them to be taken down. Their powers. Rating their strength and things. Also may offering some suggestions on what trains would be cheap and easy to grab to get out of the city for a day. And a list of 'Smash your Feelings' places to let loose," Nino said. He shrugged with a smile. "I can only hope that after that thing with Ladybug, Alya started to think clearly. Or at least being willing to look at what Lila has told her."
Adrien hummed, sipping his tea with a smile. "We can only hope. Did she spin a story about why father fired her?" he asked. Nino nodded. "I'm not surprised. She was fired and blacklisted though as a model with all companies. No agency worth their salt will dare to touch her with a ten foot pole since it has been proven that she doesn't follow instruction and refuses to take no as an answer it comes to something that she wants. Namely a rich and powerful husband on a short and very tight leash," he drawled.
Nino groaned and slumped further, head falling back again. "So, you two weren't really hiding your relationship from your father and the paps?" he asked, snorting.
Adrien rolled his eyes and crossed his legs. "My father has always and will always want me to marry someone who I love. Would he love if they were from the fashion world? Yes, he would. But he's not pushing it on me," he said. "Chloe does keep me updated on what is going on in the class though."
Nino cackled at that bit of information. "Oh man, you have your own spy network," he snorted out. Adrien smirked, smug. "Come on. I wanna get some pastries now and the only place that I would think to go for is where Marinette is. Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone. Talk to a good friend, apologizing for being such an ass, and get some of the best pastries in Paris," he said. Adrien nodded and stood with him, both males missing the Goth female who looked from around her book, frowning to herself.
