Chapter Text
Nino prided himself on many things.
Like, yeah, he wasn’t an acclaimed reporter with a super-famous blog like Alya. Nor was he a model like his bro, Adrien. And he definitely wasn’t on Marinette-level of, well, the thousands of things she’d seemed to have done, including, but not limited to, designing a cover for Jagged Stone, getting chosen as the role of Ladybug in Clara Nightingale’s music video, impressing Chloé’s nightmare of a mom, you get the idea.
He was just a pretty average guy, he knew that. He has had some amazing opportunities provided to him, true, things that many would kill to have, but one of the things he was proudest of was almost laughably ordinary.
He was proud of being a good friend. In fact, he always tried to be the best friend a person could have.
He didn’t really have any really close friend for most of his life though, funnily enough. He was always a bit of a loner, that one dude who was always sitting at the back of the class, listening to music.
Then, he met Adrien.
When he first met the dude, he thought he was like Chloé. A rich, spoilt, and stuck-up brat who always got whatever he asked for, when he asked for it. Someone who was mean to everyone for no reason, just like she was.
How wrong he was.
Adrien wasn’t anything like that. He was kind, eager to please, and very, very sheltered. He had been surrounded by people like his father and Chloé and that awful cousin of his (Adrien said his cousin wasn’t always that bad, but seeing as he also defended his old man’s jerkiness on a regular basis, Nino could be forgiven for taking that with a grain of salt), yet he was still an awesome dude.
And he was his friend. Because as much as Nino tried to be the best friend possible to his bro, Adrien had done the same for him, too.
Because of Adrien, Nino wasn’t the loner at the back of the class anymore.
He always vouched that a person’s akumatised persona didn’t reflect who they really were, and were, at most, a combination between their negative emotions and Mothman’s horrific fashion sense (stolen word-for-word from Alya, sue him), but, c’mon. He was akumatised ‘cause he wanted to give his friend a birthday party. That had to count for something, right?
And so Nino, being the awesome friend that he was, noticed Adrien’s off-beat mood right off the bat. The dude was barely even hiding it. Even when he tried asking him what was up (Nino had a feeling it had to do with his bro’s stupid “father”, who barely even deserved that title), Adrien just waved him off, smiling and saying it was nothing.
Nino wasn’t going to give up that easily, so he tried his best to lift his friend’s spirit throughout class. Yeah, he may have been scolded by Miss Bustier for being too loud, but it was all worth it to see the grin on Adrien’s face again.
Later, after class was over, Alya had run off with Marinette somewhere. This bummed Nino out, because she seemed to be always doing something with Marinette nowadays, and the four of them hadn’t hung out in ages. He decided to look up the Ladyblog for footage of his time as Carapace instead, wanting to distract Adrien from whatever was getting him down by regaling him with tales of being an awesome superhero.
After wanting to tell him for ages, Nino was really happy his best friend now knew his identity. Did he feel guilty for telling him his identity that was supposed to be secret? Sort of. But it had slipped out in the heat of the moment, and he couldn’t find it in himself to regret it. He trusted his friend.
Adrien, however, had been acting weird ever since. Nino had asked him if he had said anything wrong before or during his akumatization, but Adrien had insisted it had nothing to do with him.
Nino had put the thought of Adrien’s recent gloom being his fault out of his mind a long time ago. Unless he was jealous of him being a superhero (something Adrien staunchly denied), then there was literally nothing else for him to be unhappy about.
Besides, his best friend would tell him if he did something wrong, right?
Right?
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Wrong, apparently.
And he found out in the most unexpected way possible.
Just as he was in the middle of telling Adrien about Carapace’s epic fight against Catastrophysicist, the akuma alarm went off. Just like Hawkmoth to send a villain during lunch break.
As Nino got up, he got a message from Alya, telling him to be safe. He sent back a message telling her that he should be the one to tell her that. It was bad enough when she ran after the heroes for blog footage, but at least then he could follow her to make sure she didn’t do anything too risky in her quest for her next scoop. Now, with her being a regular hero? A regular, secret hero? It was all he could do to hope she wouldn’t end up hurt too badly. He’d seen enough Ladyblog videos of Chat Noir dying to feel like his worries were justified.
He wondered how Ladybug coped with seeing her partner die again and again. Even if their relationship wasn’t romantic, it was obvious they did care for each other. Seeing a friend he cared about die, even if they were brought back after a while, seemed just as horrifying as watching his girlfriend die.
Speaking of people he cared about dying at the hands of an akuma, he looked up from his phone, intending to hide with Adrien, only to find said dude missing. This wasn’t a big deal, as Adrien regularly disappeared to who-knew-where doing akumas, except, this time, the akuma was after Adrien, something about being jealous of him or something. Which was also not a big deal, because lots of akumas had been after Adrien at some point.
It was just that, well, he had been hoping Adrien would feel safe enough to hide with him, what with him knowing Nino was a hero and all.
But it was totally fine! Maybe he’d pitch the idea to his bro next time, offer his protection. For now, it was probably best for him to hide.
A tremor shaking the building told him that, yeah, he really should find somewhere safer. There was a possibility the akuma might be after him too.
(Unlikely, but there was always a chance. Especially with the akuma after his best friend.)
He remembered Alya telling him about a closet in the corridor where the science lab was. Apparently, being a regular superhero had led someone who already revelled in secrets to find out more of them, including the places in the school which were safest to transform in.
Maybe he could hide there. It’d be pretty safe, and if they needed Carapace, then there’d be no problem finding him and giving him his miraculous without his identity being in danger. A pretty solid plan, if he does think so himself.
With shaky steps (because the ground was still trembling beneath his feet), he rushed towards the corridor. The akuma had messed up the school’s layout somehow, but he got lucky when he made a wrong turn, and reached the edge of the corridor in just under a minute.
And the corridor was empty too, but not for long. As he stopped for a moment to catch his breath, he saw Adrien rushing in through the other end of the corridor. And going into the closet he was aiming to hide in.
But before Nino could say anything, or maybe go join Adrien and hide with him this time, there was a flash of green light under the closet door.
And out came Chat Noir.
Nino threw himself against the wall, hiding behind the bend. Did Chat Noir have enhanced senses or something? He really hoped not.
He really didn’t want Chat Noir to know that he may have just found out his identity?
Because he did. Find out Chat Noir’s identity, that is.
No matter what he did, he knew there was no alternative explanation.
Adrien was Chat Noir.
Adrien was Chat Noir.
As Chat Noir (who was Adrien) vaulted off, Nino decided to just go hide somewhere else. He did not want to stumble across any other revelations today. Not when he still had to process the one he just had.
Like, his best friend was Chat Noir.
Nino could already feel a headache coming.
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Turned out, Carapace wasn’t needed for dealing with the akuma, and, for that, Nino was grateful.
He was also grateful that Adrien had to leave immediately afterwards for a photoshoot, although he felt a bit guilty for being glad of that.
But, how was he supposed to talk to Adrien casually, knowing he was Chat Noir?
Logically, Nino knew that Adrien was still the same person he always was, regardless of whether he donned a cat suit or not. But, to him, Adrien suddenly seemed like a whole different person.
Chat Noir was sheltered, oblivious to social cues, and somewhat socially awkward.
Adrien moonlighted as a pun-making flirt in a leather cat suit.
Was Adrien’s whole shtick as Chat Noir an act? After all, with his home life, it made sense if he overcompensated for acting as Adrien The Brand™ by acting over-the-top.
Or was his demeanour as Adrien an act?
How much of the shy, sheltered model he had become best friends with was him? How much of the bold, ever-flirtatious Chat Noir was him? How could a person be two completely different people at once?
And, more importantly, why did he separate those parts of himself? In front of his friends, no less? Didn’t he know that they, that he, would accept him no matter what?
Was it because of what his father might think, if word of how his son was acting got to him? Was it because he was worried about his friends judging him?
Or was it because…
Ladybug rejects him because she thinks he’s obnoxious, and she’s right!
…they already had? Or, at least, his self-proclaimed best friend had.
Ugh.
He had told Chat Noir, to his face, that he was obnoxious and annoying.
He had thought Alya was cheating on him with Adrien, who literally went to her house to check if she was actually in love with him.
…And he could feel another headache coming on. Great. Just what he needed.
In his room, Nino leaned back in his chair. He’d been trying to think of what to do ever since school ended.
Should he tell Adrien he knew his identity?
Because, on one hand, Adrien’s reaction to finding out his and Alya’s identities (and why didn’t he find that weird back then? Or did it just seem obvious with the benefit of hindsight?) was enough for him to tell that his bro thought that anyone finding out anyone’s identity was a bad thing.
But on the other hand, well, he deserved to know.
And there was also the fact that he was horrible at keeping secrets, so it was probably best to tell him on his own rather than try to keep it from him, possibly breaking his trust in the process, because Nino was not confident at all that he’d actually be able to keep his revelation from Adrien.
He would have to keep this a secret from Alya, though. And, well, everyone else, but Alya was the most dangerous. She’d sniff out that he was keeping a secret from a mile away, and he could not let that happen. Not when it was his bro’s secret he’s protecting this time.
(He ignored the part of his brain that was reminding him that he didn’t have such issues when telling Adrien Alya’s identity. He resolved to untangle that mess some other time.)
He got a notification from the Ladyblog, this time with Alya showing a compilation of a bunch of times Chat Noir sacrificed himself.
A bunch of times Adrien sacrificed himself.
He couldn’t bring himself to even sit through the first minute, wanting to throw up.
Yet, strangely, it was that video that gave him a plan, and the determination to do it.
The plan was simple: Help Adrien.
Whether that be by rebuilding his confidence (that he himself may or may not have affected), give him excuses to be able to go transform, or maybe even by somehow convincing him to not sacrifice himself anymore.
Nino admits that the last one is pretty unlikely, but he could at least comfort him after?
He’d made a plan before, to sneak into Adrien’s house while his father was away. And, while that may have ended up being the cause of Party Crasher, they still got an awesome party out of it.
So he’d do his best to help his best friend, and hope it all ended up good in the end. All’s well that ends well, right? So Nino just had to do his best to make sure it ended well.
He’d figure out how to spill the beans to Adrien when the time came.
Maybe not his best plan, but it was a work in progress that he still had time to polish.
By tomorrow, Operation Help Adrien With Both Superhero Business As Well As Regular Best Bud Helping Now That You’ve Found Out His Identity Anyways (he’d think of a better title later) would be a go.