Something new

chapter 37

"So, (Name), did you decide on a group already?" Nino asked the yawning student next to him in the locker rooms. "Not really.. but me and Adrien decided to be in a group together. So I just need one or two more people." they told the boy whose music could be faintly heard from his headphones that were resting on his shoulders. Nino liked what he was hearing, in fact so much he wanted to tease them and maybe get something out of them.

He wiggled with his eyebrows at them.
(Name) told him to go fuck himself.

Nino ignored their harsh command and instead put an arm around their shoulder, "Aside from the fact that you took away my group partner, how come you wanted to be with Adrien of all people? I thought he annoyed you?", the boy asked his annoyed friend, who seemed to be even more annoyed now for hearing the same questions over and over again.
"Nino, where's your girlfriend? Shouldn't you be hanging out with her?", they asked rolling their eyes and locking their locker up, completely erasing Nino's question out of existence.
"Oh she's already on her way to the cafeteria with Adrien.", Nino said smiling at the mention of Alya. (Name) raised an eyebrow though.

"And where's Marinette?"

"Overslept again."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

After the exchange of Marinette's whereabouts, Nino asked where Nathaniel was, if not with them or Mark. They only groaned, "He's skipping school today." The two teens were already on their way to the cafeteria by now. Nino offered (Name) to sit with them since Nathaniel wasn't here anyway.

Of course (Name) had the option to walk all the way to the art rooms where Mark was most likely located, but they thought that Mark could do fine on his own for one day, so they sat down on the same table as Nino.

Everything goes after plan.
Nino and Alya smirked at each other, unbeknownst to the other two, the couple wanted to test them.
And Alya already got Adrien into talking about the perfect topic.
So when Nino and (Name) sat down, (Name) was a bit confused on why the other two were talking about Marinette.

"You could talk about anything, but the moment a word like 'cute' is mentioned, you best believe the next ten minutes are gonna be about how cute Luka is.", Alya laughed and Adrien snickered along, he soon sighed though and let his hopeless romantic slip up.
"It's kinda cute though, right? Like just by the mention of the word 'cute' a person popping into your head. I wish I had that."
Nino smirked and glanced over to (Name), who was still trying to figure out what the topic is and how Adrien suddenly came to that conclusion.
Nino then butted into the conversation, "Oh it's like that with me and Alya too, though. Everyone does that when they like someone.", he smiled, holding Alya's hand on the cafeteria table.

"I mean when I think of the word nasty an image of Chloe immediately pops into my head. Does that mean I like her?"
Nino punched their shoulder lightly and Alya rolled her eyes.
"Have you ever considered thinking of positive words?", she giggled at them while they were rubbing their shoulder in pain.

"Adrien, does no one come to mind when you think of the word beautiful?"
Adrien was silent for a moment, as if he was thinking for a second, and then shook his head.

"(Name) what about you?", they only shrugged as a response. "My mother's beautiful. Does she count?"
Alya awed, Nino sighed and Adrien envied them.

"You know what this isn't working with either one of you.", Alya eventually sighed and gave up.
Nino then decided to go back to talk about the group projects.

The four talked about how they visualize their own groups, and what they hope their topic is going to be.

But even though Adrien was attentive in the conversation, he couldn't help but glance at (Name) every now and then.

Because when he thought of beautiful, he indeed did think of them for a small second.
But for some reason he didn't want to say that, because he knew Nino thought he was crushing on them already.
And that wasn't the case.

Adrien wasn't crushing.

He shook his head, they're not even his type.
But what even was his type?

He glanced over to them. There's nothing wrong with thinking they're good looking.
He finally thought to himself and let it rest at that.

_________________________________

"Plagg, what do you think of when you think of the word beautiful?"

"Camembert."

"You're not helping, Plagg."
The blonde boy sighed in his bed.
Even though he accepted his little thought already, for some reason it still kept bugging him.

Plagg groaned annoyed, Man he's acting like a preteen on her first period.
"What's your deal with it anyway? You that mad that you couldn't think of anyone?", the Kwami teased him, not knowing that the irritation came from thinking of a person and not from NOT thinking of one.

Adrien sighed, ignoring what his Kwami said.
Why's it bothering me so much anyway? It's nothing new to me that (Name) is quite good looking.

So what if they are the first thing that comes to mind when someone says beautiful? No harm in that.

His thoughts were arguing, but he didn't even know about what. It wasn't weird. Why does it feel weird to him then?

"My mind is so full again.."
Out of instinct, the first thing he thought of was transforming and visiting (Name).
But today he hesitated.

Instead, Adrien grabbed his phone and called (Name).

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Adrien. I'm kinda bored and thought maybe we could hang out?"

"Sure, why not."

"Great! Let's meet at the park!"