Miraculous Games

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Nino sat alone in Adrien's room, wringing his hands together as he stared at the black TV screen. The Miraculous Game's footage had been lost and the news networks were desperately trying to get it back online. On top of that, the entire Agreste household was already a chaotic mess. Ever since Adrien had left, the mansion had been flipped on its head. President Agreste was harsher than usual, barking orders at servants and his assistant, Nathalie. Nino had retreated to Adrien's unoccupied room, not only to escape the craziness of the house, but to also ponder.

Where had Adrien gone?

From what he had heard, no one had found him. He wasn't in their district, the neighboring district, or even the one on the other side of that one. He had just disappeared.

Nino took a deep breath and pulled off his hat. It was a plain, white servants cap that he had been forced to wear ever since day one. He couldn't help but remember how Adrien had teased him about it. Smirking, Nino tossed the hat onto the coffee table and rested his back against the cushions.

It wasn't like he was worried about Adrien, he knew that he could handle himself, but the fact that he hadn't told him - his best friend - that he was going to run away stung a little. Nino had snuck food to him and risked his job so Adrien could eat, but in return, his friend had dropped him like a sack of unwanted potatoes.

He wasn't hurt by that, but he was concerned. Something was up. There was something Adrien wasn't telling him. The minute Nino had heard that his friend was missing, that was the first thing that had come to mind; something didn't quite add up.

Now that Gabriel Agreste was out of the house, Nino realized that now would be as good a time as any to start an investigation. Why should he hide away when he could figure out what happened to his best friend?

Getting to his feet, Nino scanned the room for anything suspicious. Nothing jumped out at him at first, but the more he looked, the more his eyebrows knit together. No, Adrien wouldn't hide things in plain sight. Servants, including himself, went through his room and cleaned it every day. If Adrien were to hide something, it would need to be in a place that the other people in the mansion didn't know about.

Nino strolled across the room, looking at the bookshelves as his mind came up with ideas. Maybe there was a secret hallway between a bookshelf and a wall? No, that couldn't be it. Too cliche. Could anything fit inside of the skating ramp? No, that wouldn't work either.

Deciding that there couldn't be anything in the main room, Nino decided to walk into the bathroom. He remembered something about the bathroom window being unlocked when he had searched the room the day after Adrien had left. Maybe there was something there, some clue that he had overlooked.

Nino closed the bathroom door behind him, then scratched his head as he thought. Where would Adrien hide something?

He smiled as an idea came to his mind. Walking over to the bathroom sink, he bent down and opened the cabinet door. As it swung open, Nino expected to find some sort of buried treasure, but all he saw was foundation, a charger, soup, and-

Wait. A charger? Under a sink?

Nino reached inside and pulled on the cord. It didn't give, seeming to be plugged into the wall. He yanked on it again, following where the cord led. Unsurprisingly, it seemed to have fallen out of one of the side drawers. Furrowing his eyebrows, Nino analyzed the end that he held. It seemed like something plugged into it, like some sort of hand-held device. It was black with a small insignia of a green paw print on one side. Fiddling with it, he figured that it didn't go to any tablet or phone that he had ever seen. It honestly didn't make any sense.