I can't promise that I will be better about posting more consistently, but I will definitely try my best. Thank you so much for all your support and for reading my little stories.
Blowing you kisses,
TrustMeImANerd
P.S. As always, feel free to message me or comment with ideas.
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With the sounds of a handmade mixtape coming from the headphones hanging around his neck, Nino was strolling down the hall, next to his best friend, hands in his pockets. For a moment he was lost in the music, feeling the beat throughout his body and letting his heartbeat shift so that he couldn't distinguish between it and the beat of the music he was listening to.
Glancing up, he caught the look on his friend's face and rolled his eyes. He glanced down at the blond's hands and saw that he was holding his phone and looking down at it with starry eyes and a lovelorn look. When he looked closely at what it was that his friend was looking at, he wasn't surprised to see the LadyBlog's most recent post, filled with details and pictures from the akuma attack that had happened last night.
As he watched his friend, Nino saw him click on a picture of Ladybug, causing it to enlarge, filling his screen, before he held his finger there for a moment, saving yet another picture of Ladybug onto his phone. This one was an image of her pulling herself through the sky on her yoyo, her lip quirked up in a grin, having just won the battle and reversed the destruction in Paris.
"Dude, Adrien..." Nino spoke to his friend, rolling his eyes at the other boy's obsession. "Don't you already have enough pics of that girl on your phone?"
Scoffing, Adrien swiped his finger across his screen to switch to the next picture. "What kind of question is that, man?" He saved the new picture to his phone as well. "Every picture with Ladybug in it is a picture worth having."
Nino just rolled his eyes. He honestly didn't know why he kept trying to convince his friend that his love for the superheroine of Paris would lead nowhere, given the variety of differences between them, the primary one being that she has a secret identity and he does not. But no matter what he said, Adrien never took Nino's arguments seriously and he never let go of his infatuation with Ladybug.
Letting out a weary sigh, Nino looked back at his friend who was lost in his own world. "Seriously..." The brunette shook his head in resignation. "You've got it..."
As Nino was speaking, something else in the hallway caused him to trail off, distracted by what he saw.
"Yo, Marinette!" It was Alya calling out to her best friend.
Suddenly Nino's eyes were locked and he couldn't tear them away from the beautiful redhead. He found his eyes tracing the way her hair laid against her face and her shoulders, the way that the smooth transition from auburn to almost orange made her eyes pop, with the aid of her glasses and the beauty mark on her forehead. And oh, those eyes! There was always a smile in her eyes, no matter what, and it had an effect on Nino.
"Check this out!" Nino heard Alya say to Marinette, holding her phone between the two of them so that they could both see what was shown there.
As usual Marinette was eager to share in what her friend had to show her and bent her head so that her and her best friend were both looking down at the phone in Alya's hand. But Nino's attention, and his eyes, were still glued to the blogger.
Without thinking, Nino was still finishing the sentence that he had started when addressing Adrien. "Real..."
Just watching Alya and seeing the way that her smile lit up her whole face, seeing the way that her smile affected him, the chill that ran down his back, the butterflies that seemed to have woken up and started flying around his stomach that now felt cramped and shriveled for some reason, made him somehow feel eager, excited, nervous, and scared all at the same time. Despite this, he over and over found himself looking at her and suffering through these feelings just so that he could appreciate her beauty.
His attention focused on the redhead across the hall, Nino had gradually slowed down until he came to a full stop directly across from where Marinette and Alya were chatting. Adrien was so lost in his own fantasies that he stopped next to his best friend without even realizing he had done so and without thinking about why.
So, there the best friends stood, frozen in place in a hallway full of students going to and fro, each staring at a different girl.
"Bad." Nino finished his statement almost angrily as he was hit with a realization. He was a hypocrite.
Adrien responded as if there had been no awkward pauses in what Nino was saying. "Yah, I do," he spoke in a singsong voice. Adrien was so consumed with his thoughts of Ladybug that nothing else mattered, not even the fact that his best friend was acting extremely odd.
Placing his clawed fingers on top of his head and squeezing, Nino squatted low to the floor, overwhelmed with what he had just realized. He was a hypocrite. While he insisted on bagging on Adrien for his infatuation with Ladybug, he had been experiencing similar feelings for the girl who had sat behind him since the beginning of the year.
While Adrien was visibly taken with Ladybug, obsessing over her in a myriad of ways, Nino had been trying to quash the feelings that he had for Ladybug's number one fan and self-proclaimed reporter of all things hero.
Finally looking away from his phone and the pictures of Ladybug that it held, Adrien was surprised to find Nino at his feet, looking as if he was about to tear his hair out, despite the hat that he was wearing. "You okay, Nino?" he asked innocently.
Despite not responding verbally to his friend's inquiry, in his head Nino heard screams, all coming in on top of each other. How did you just realize this? one voice reprimanded. You think Adrien's the one that's got it bad? another voice mockingly called out.
YOU... LOVE... HER... kept ringing in his head, eventually drowning out all the other thoughts. That's what it came down to, Nino realized. Using the word love was intimidating, but he couldn't keep lying to himself.
Over the last few weeks, since he had been locked in the empty panther cage with Alya, he started to notice her more and more and to admire her, and now he realized that he really, really wanted her. He wanted to be with her, to hold her hand, to wrap an arm around her when she was scared, to kiss away any tears that she might shed.
"Argh!" Nino visibly shook his head, still looking at the floor. It was one thing to admit that he had the world's biggest crush on the owner of Paris' LadyBlog, but it was something totally different to think about kissing her in such an intimate way. He had to shake these forbidden thoughts before things got out of hand.
Looking up, his gaze was again drawn to Alya, particularly her soft, pink lips. Yup, it was official, things had already gotten out of hand. The only thing he could do now was approach her and get it all off his chest. He had to tell her everything and he had to convince her to go out with him and he had to kiss her senseless, kiss her until they were both weak in the knees and his feelings had been made clear.
Reaching up, Nino grabbed Adrien's elbow and used it to drag himself up off the floor. Without even looking at the blond, he stood up, squared his shoulders, and determinedly made his way across the hallway. This was the moment. This was when he bared his soul to the beautiful, generous, smart, talented blogger that was Alya Césaire. And he wouldn't let her leave without a kiss, even if he had to plant one on her right there, in the middle of the hall.
