Miraculous Ships

Perfect Hands (DJWifi

It was late at night, or more like extremely early in the morning. Nearly three in the morning, to be exact, but the people sitting on the roof didn't seem to care. They sat next to each other in silence as they watched the movie playing on the small screen between them, barely paying attention to each other.

A cold wind swept through, causing the pair to shiver. Alya stood up, reaching for the blanket she had left lying over the basket of food she had purchased at Marinette's bakery for the movie night with one of her best friends. Marinette and Adrien had both declined the invitation, saying they already had plans, which left Nino and Alya as the only ones who actually showed up.

That didn't matter too much, though, because Nino and Alya had been friends for long enough to have fun together, even without Adrien and Marinette. It had been years since the group first met, and they had all graduated high school together.

Another movie ended. "Do you want to watch another one," Alya asked.

"I think we should probably go back inside." Nino stood up, offering his hand to Alya. She grabbed his hand and he pulled her to her feet. Alya grabbed her phone and a few of the blankets, while Nino grabbed everything else they had brought onto the roof, which was only a few smaller things. As they walked, Nino held Alya's hand again. Alya was a little confused, but pushed it away.

"Have you ever noticed how your hand fits just perfectly into mine," Nino mused, looking down at their joined hands.

"Maybe it's because we were meant to be," Alya replied, squeezing his hand a little tighter. It had been a long time since she had felt this happy, or this at ease. She found it surprising she felt like that when was around Nino, but she didn't question it.

Nino sighed, "Maybe it is... too bad we waited so long to realise." Nino thought about all the times he had been with Alya, and all the times he had thought of her as nothing more than a friend, or even a sister. He knew that he was just trying to convince himself that he didn't have any romantic feelings for her, but he was lying to himself. Nino even tried to tell himself Alya liked someone else.

Alya had forced herself to do something similar, repeating that Nino liked Marinette in high school, and probably still did. There was no way he was more than a friend, right? But now, she kind of couldn't bring herself to say he was just a friend.

"Alya." Alya looked up at Nino. She realised how much he had changed since they were at school, how much she had changed, how much everyone around the had changed. They had grown up and gotten more mature. Marinette, Adrien, Nino and herself had almost gotten to the exact places they wanted to be in; good jobs, friends, a place to live. So much had changed, it was like everything was different. Except her feelings. Her feelings remained the same as they had been.

"Why didn't we realise earlier? All this time and we didn't even see our own feelings for each other." Alya hoped and hoped she was right about how Nino felt. If she completely misunderstood his words she would never be able to face him again. She wouldn't even be able to go near him as Rena Rouge!

"I don't know. I guess for the same reason we never realised who some of the heroes were until now."

"You know who the heroes are," Alya questioned, suddenly panicking about Nino knowing she was Rena Rouge. What if he hated her for not telling him, or even worse? She looked at Nino, "How did you figure it out?"

"It was easy, once I knew where to start. I just had to look closely at the people around me and see who was like the heroes." Nino thought back to when he first started to suspect Alya was Rena Rouge. They were so similar, both stood up for what was right, no matter what. There was also those few things that both Rena and Alya did, just subconscious actions that Nino could have noticed from a mile away.

Alya ran a hand through her hair. She had recently cut it short, and Rena Rouge's hair had also changed at the same time, no longer being tied into a ponytail. Was that something else Nino had noticed?

"There was also a certain hair style that gave me a hint," Nino said as he brushed Alya's hair behind her ear, his eyes following the ombre hair to its tips that were sometimes white, sometimes not.

Alya remembered something, just an inkling of a theory she had when they were teenagers, but this was her chance to find out. "Do you know who Carapace is?"

"With one hundred percent certainty."

"Really? Because I have some suspicions about who he is." Alya had leaned closer to Nino, a smile on her lips. Nino gulped but held his ground. He wasn't going to lose to Alya about this now, not when he had so much information he could use.

"Is that so?" Nino matched Alya's devious smile.

"That is so. Why? Are you getting nervous that this is all just a simple illusion?" Alya knew she was teasing him, she definitely knew that she was dancing on a fine line between revealing her identity and confirming Nino's theories. If he was wrong, she was screwed. Ladybug would find out and would take Alya's Miraculous back, making sure she never saw it again. Ladybug had, after all, been very clear when she said that identities must remain a secret from all civilians, or she would lose her Miraculous.

Nino smirked again, knowing that both of them were playing a dangerous game, risking their Miraculous and their hero selves, but at that point, he couldn't care less. "Why? Is there a secret that you're protecting?"

"Shouldn't you know, Turtle?" Now was the moment. Either Alya was right or she lost her Miraculous, and the question had slipped out without her even thinking about it?

"I should, Fox."

Alya's eyes widened. Nino was Carapace, and she had been right for the whole time the superheroes had known each other. Maybe Ladybug wouldn't get mad at her since Nino was a Miraculous Holder too? They could both protect each other ad themselves, so no one had to be worried about Hawk Moth trying to hurt their partner, but would Ladybug see it that way, or would she say it was too dangerous in case one of them got hurt when fighting an Akuma?

"Ladybug is going to kill us, isn't she?" Nino leaned back and laughed, taking in Alya's shocked face.

"She is. Did you get threatened to keep your identity secret, too?"

Nino thought back to when he got his Miraculous to keep permanently. "Yeah, she threatened to throw me off the Eiffel Tower and see how well my shell worked before she took it away," Nino replied, remembering exactly how serious Ladybug had looked at the time.

"I just got told I would lose my Miraculous forever." Alya was confused as to why Ladybug had threatened to throw Nino off the Eiffel Tower, but only told her she would never be Rena Rouge again.

"She also told me to stay away from her best friend unless I was going to say how I felt, but I don't know her best friend would be."

"Oh my god... Marinette is Ladybug! That's why she threatened you. She knew we liked each other and wasn't going to let me get hurt... wow."

"Are you serious? Marinette has tripped over her own feet more times than I can count, and you think she's Ladybug?" Nino laughed, "What if this is just like when you thought Chloe was Ladybug?"

"I have never been able to play the flute out of transformation, no matter how hard I've tried, but when I'm Rena I can play almost perfectly. Maybe Marinette gets super agility?"

"I guess that's possible. Who's going to ask her?"

"I'll ask Marinette if she's Ladybug, you can ask Adrien if he's Chat Noir."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because we need to know if Adrien and Marinette are really the same people, or if Marinette is dating two different people at the same time."

"I really don't think Marinette would do that, do you?"

"Not really, but we also need to find out if Chloe is Queen B."

"Where are you getting these identities?!"

"There are only so many blondes that have had the same hairstyle for however many years that Queen B has been around."

"Okay, we're going back inside before you start with your theories about Hawk Moth." Nino grabbed Alya's hand and they began to walk back inside, holding everything that they had dropped on the ground when they had been having their little stare off earlier.

"Our hands really do fit perfectly together, don't they?"

"Definitely."