Miraculous Startline

Boys

"NINO! Have you spoken to Alya? I can't find Marinette anywhere!" Adrien yelled, crashing through the front door of Nino's home.

Nino was sitting on the sofa in the center of the room, his hands resting on his knees. He slouched back at the sound of Adrien's panicked voice.

Looking behind doors, and peering into rooms on his way to the lounge- Adrien impatiently waiting for a response from his best friend. When he was met with a deafening silence, Adrien finally stopped and really looked at Nino. Slouched in his seat, he was firmly gripping his phone with a concerned look on his face.

Marinette had decided to allow Alya to call Nino, in hopes of some sort of explanation. But after learning Adrien hadn't been to see Nino yet, Marinette just felt useless. Nino was her last hope of a logical explanation for all of this, and even he was clueless.

Nino, on the other hand, was furious. He could tell Marinette wasn't lying over the phone, but he really didn't want to believe her. He didn't think that Adrien could do something like this to Marinette. Nino had always had strong feelings for Marinette, which he initially mistook for romantic attraction.  He loved her as a sister, and their bond had grown because of it. With her and Adrien getting closer by the day, and him and Alya in the mix, they have become a quartet of best friends, their own little family. Of course Chloe was in the mix too, but they were the original four. Now, all that was compromised. So as Nino sat on the sofa, watching Adrien stare at him blankly, he struggled to keep his anger in.

"I'm going to ask you this once, and you're going to answer." Nino said, his voice flat.

"Nino I really don't have ti-" Adrien began protesting, beginning to pace in front of the coffee table.

"Shut up." Nino glared, his harsh gaze meeting Adrien's eyes.

Startled by Nino's reaction, Adrien snapped his mouth shut and stood shifting from foot to foot., waiting for Nino to continue talking.

"Did you, or did you not- kiss Kagami?"

"WHAT? NO!" Adrien yelled, glaring at Nino. He was supposed to support him, and now he was questioning his actions?.

"So what happened in the art room?" Nino questioned, standing and approaching Adrien.

"What? The art ro- who told you this?" Adrien asked, pausing to take a deep breath.

"That doesn't matter, answer the question." Nino insisted, stopping in front of Adrien and crossing his arms.

"You want to know what I was doing? Fine! I was dealing with this." Adrien said confidently, reaching into his bag and pulling out a pot.

Nino inspected the container, and sitting innocently inside was a purple feather.

"An amok?"

"Yup." Adrien snapped, shoving the container into Nino's hands before barging past him and falling onto the couch. "See why I need Marinette?"

"But Kagami- and the argument?" Nino stuttered, his brain trying to piece together a puzzle with more than a few of the pieces missing..

"Let me explain Nino." Adrien said, encouraging the boy to take a seat.

"Okay." Nino said, sitting down on the couch, this time leaned forward, intently listening to Adrien.

"I was mad at Mari after our fight, so I didn't want to talk to her. After she found me at our spot, I went to the school. I went to the art room and found Kagami there. We started talking and I knew something wasn't right- but I couldn't pinpoint it. Looking around the art room, I saw one of Marinette's projects- a suit for me. I felt horrible for the way I treated her, I think sometimes I get caught up in my own mind and forget I wasn't the only one who went through a lot. The suit made me think of all the horrible galas and events Gabriel used to force me to attend. Kagami was always so bland at these events, and that's when it hit me. Kagami was being way more expressive than usual, she wasn't herself. She was a centi monster."

Nino sat in bewilderment. His mouth glued to the floor and eyes wide with shock.

"So I got close to her, held her hand, and slipped off her ring. I transformed and cataclysmed it, grabbed an empty paint brush container and trapped the amok before it flew away and began multiplying." Adrien concluded.

"Yeah, weirdly that sounds more realistic." Nino stated, breathing a sigh of relief and falling back on the sofa.

"I need Mari to purify the amok, and to apologise..." Adrien sighed, his anger transforming to guilt.

"SHIT MARINETTE!" Nino yelled, jumping off the sofa and grabbing his phone.

"What's going on? Wait- does Marinette think I KISSED KAGAMI?" Adrien asked, flying off the couch.

Holding the phone in front of him and hitting speaker, NIno replied as the device began to ring.
"This is bad..." Nino said, pacing the lounge.

"Nino? Why would she think that?" Adrien asked, his voice shaking with worry.

As Nino was about to reply, a voice echoed out of the phone.

"Hiii this is Marinette. I'm sorry I can't take your call ri-"

Nino pressed the red button and cursed under his breath.

"Dude! Answer me!" Adrien urged again, grabbing Nino's shoulders and shaking him wildly.

Nino gulped, and pulled Adrien's hands off of his body.

"After your fight, on the rooftop." Nino began, preparing himself for the flip our Adrien was about to have.

"Yeah?" Adrien asked sheepishly- remembering their encounter.

"Marinette felt bad, so she went to find you..."  Nino continued.

"OH no no no no" Adrien repeated under his breath, turning away from Nino as realisation set in.

"She saw one of the teachers and so she tried to avoid them by going through the window..."

"She saw, didn't she? She watched the centi monster lean in, and me not pull away. And because she's my Marinette- she looked away just in time for me to transform. Meaning she thinks I went through with the kiss..." Adrien asked, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Yeah..."

~hello my loyal followers! What did you think? Crazy right? Look our for the special chapter on sunday... Gabriel's trail takes place and madness erupts in the courtroom... chapter 17 will be a good one- and i can now tell you the chapter title... "Court, Confessions and Confusion" !! I wonder what confessions will come up? Keep reading :) bugout~