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★ ─── 悪役
Standing, seething, at the front steps of the school was certainly not the attitude [Y.Name] wanted to greet his friends with first thing in the morning. One part of his mind told him rather simply to just not let his encounter with Fu get to him as much as it had, which was hardly helpful at all; the other, much smaller part, however, reassured him of his newfound plan. Of all that was yet to come.
And it was that small part that managed to finally settle him. He inhaled deeply every time he took the steps two at a time, and focused himself, breaching the entrance of the school with a fresh, satisfied smile.
Some heads turned when they saw the motion in the corners of their eyes. [Y.Name] felt a calm wash over him at the familiar faces, and he waved.
He noticed his friends standing together at a corner of the basketball court, chatting before Nino caught sight of him.
"Hey, [Y.Name]," he called, throwing his hand around over his head as if he hadn't already had his attention. "Where have you been, man? You missed our first class."
The teen glanced between both boys now in front of him with a sheepish expression. "Sorry, I just had an appointment this morning. I'm fine though, really. It's nothing to worry yourselves over."
"A text would've been nice," Adrien added, though the words didn't hold as much weight as he probably meant them to, with him chuckling to himself. "But I'm glad you're alright."
[Y.Name] huffed a short laugh through his nose. "I appreciate the concern."
The blond takes a breath when it becomes apparent on his face that something else came to mind. "Oh, hey, so Nino and I were planning on meeting up later at the library to catch up on some studying, if you wanted to join us?"
"The... the school library, right?" he asks.
Adrien gives him an odd look in response, eyes narrowed and brows pinched. "Yeah...?"
An awkward cough pulls them out of their weird staring contest, both turning to Nino, who was nervously scratching at his neck. "Ah, about that... sorry, dude, Alya invited me out earlier. We're gonna go to the movies after school."
[Y.Name] glanced over in time to see Adrien frown. "But we were talking about this a couple of days ago?"
"The movies are just better," Nino shrugs. There were many things [Y.Name] could think to say, but he remained quiet. "Besides, I wouldn't be much help with studying, anyway. You're already heaps smarter than me. What could I possibly help you with?"
"I... I would still want you there, Nino." Adrien explained quietly. He started watching people off to the side, not wanting to make eye contact. "If you don't want to, that's fine. Thanks for letting me know."
It was obvious that he was upset by it, despite how he tried to play it off. [Y.Name] then lifted his hand. It's movement was restricted to his side as he battled over whether it was a good idea, before he took a gentle hold of Adrien's forearm. The blond jolted slightly at the contact, peeking down before meeting his gaze. He seemed unnerved (surprised by the simple, raw compassion in the other's eyes).
[Y.Name] smiled softly, empathetically, and said, "I'll be there. Were you just heading to the library after classes were over?"
"I—" Adrien swallowed the lump in his throat, finding his eyes drawn back to where [Y.Name]'s hand rested. "Yeah, that's the plan."
[Y.Name] noticed what he kept looking at and let his hand drop back to his side. "Sorry, was that uncomfortable?" He didn't get a clear-cut answer prior to noticing the person missing from beside them. "Where did... oh."
He found Nino walking up the stairs towards their class with Alya and Marinette, visibly joking around even from a distance.
"Does he really not want to study that badly?" the shorter teen laughed—finding his friend's antics amusing—though it was still faintly bitter in its tone.
"I guess that's fair. It's certainly not a strong suit for everyone." [Y.Name] offered a final, fleeting grin. "I'll meet you after classes then. Speaking of, we should probably head off to those now, before we're late."
A silent agreement fell over them as the two started sprinting toward their classroom, shoving and pulling to beat the other there.
[Y.Name] tapped his pen against the page of his notebook languidly, staring at Adrien. The blond was writing something rather furiously, glancing back and forth between his paper and textbook. He was so absorbed in whatever he was writing that [Y.Name] started slowly taking things from around him and hid them under the table; first was one of his pens, then the entire pencil case and his drink bottle. He even took his phone from his pocket and signed into it before he gave himself away by laughing just a little too loud.
Adrien looked up at him, taking a bit too long to realise what he was snickering over. "Wh—hey, give that back." He snatched it up from his hands and put it away, which brought his gaze down to the table. "Wait, where—"
That was when he lost it. [Y.Name] burst out into full-blown laughter, so hard that it was completely silent, tears running down his face. His head dropped into his notebook, the bounce of his shoulders becoming the main tell for what was happening.
Adrien just watched as it all happened, cheeks flushing. "It's really not that funny."
[Y.Name] pulled the items out from where he'd stashed them, still wheezing. "I dunno. I reckon it was pretty funny."
"You know, you're supposed to be studying too, right?" Adrien replied instead. "Did you bring anything with you?"
"Yeah, yeah, I did, hang on." He leaned over to his bag and pulled out a random textbook, opening it over his notes with a grin.
Adrien got right back into it, albeit looking over at his belongings every now and again to make sure they were still there, prompting [Y.Name] into doing something too. He read over the open pages of the text, completely random but still stuff he could recognise. Not that it mattered.
He moved the book to one side and shielded his book from view as casually as he could, resting his head on his palm to block his friend from seeing anything he was writing.
Taking out a pen, he clicked it open and brought it down to the page, only for his hand to stop just shy of making any contact.
Where the hell does he even start?
He sighed, rubbing at his forehead. Any single person in the city could technically be the supervillain. Hawk Moth has never made a public appearance, and anyone who's ever been akumatized forgets the encounter immediately after, making them useless for questioning, leaving him with little to no leads for anything.
Instead, he jotted down every little thing about the villain that he could; the butterfly theme, their probably reclusive personality (given how they wait around all day for people to get angry at things), an adult—.
[Y.Name] readjusted himself in his chair, peering down at the dot point. If that were true, then on Adrien's birthday, they wouldn't have been with all the other adults in Paris, floating up into space. And, while it wasn't really the greatest lead in a general sense, he clearly remembered never seeing one particular person.
His breath caught in his throat, eyes shifting back over to Adrien.
Things might be a little more complicated in the Agreste household than he thought.
