19. Faith(2)

Their food and coffee was ready to go a minute later, and they left, striding down the street in silence as they each recharged, lost in their own thoughts as they discreetly fed their kwami.

After about five minutes, Nino glanced over at Marinette.

“I’m sorry about accusing you of being in love with Chat Noir,” he apologized.

Marinette glanced at him, and he could tell she was waiting for more. This made him frown.

“I’m not sorry for what I said to him,” he stated point blank, sighing as Marinette’s brow furrowed in discontent. “I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. You know that, ‘Nette.”

Marinette looked away from him.

“It wasn’t your place to say that stuff to him.”

“Why? ‘Cause I’m new?”

“Because you don’t know him.”

“Well you sure as hell weren’t saying anything to him.”

“I was going to.”

The uncertain note in Marinette’s voice was very telling. Nino said nothing, and after a moment she sighed, pausing on the sidewalk and bringing him to a halt with a hand on his shoulder.

“Look…I get you were just trying to protect me. And I appreciate that,” she assured him, giving his shoulder a squeeze, “but, on the off-chance that he shows up again, just…please, let me handle it, okay?”

Nino frowned. He didn’t like it, the thought of Ladybug handling Chat Noir on her own; despite what she said, her judgement was clouded when it came to that cat, though Nino had no earthly idea why, when he knew for a fact that she and Adrien were supposed to be something…even if they hadn’t bothered to define it to their friends…

Marinette sighed when Nino didn’t say anything for a moment.

“You don’t have to trust him, Nino. Just trust me. Can you do that?”

…Well, when she put it that way…

“I don’t get it…but you got it,” he agreed, and Marinette rewarded him with a smile. Returning the gesture, Nino checked his watch. Nearly seven o’ clock. He sighed.

“We’re gonna have to cancel that party.”

Now Marinette’s features crumpled in concern.

“You really think she’s not gonna show up?”

“The door slamming wasn’t exactly subtle,” Nino said dryly, the sarcasm implemented only to disguise his broken heart. God, seeing her so soon after she had dumped his ass had been trying. “And I don’t exactly appreciate the fact that you left me alone with her after the fact.”

Marinette cringed in apology.

“I’m sorry. I thought giving you two some time together would help.”

“How?” Nino huffed, shoving his free hand in his pocket. “She doesn’t know who I am.”

“Yeah, but maybe you could’ve advised her as Shell, maybe nudged her towards a reconciliation.”

Nino frowned down at Marinette.

“That’s manipulative,” he told her, and Marinette’s face flushed red.

“Well…yeah, I guess it is,” she admitted with a sigh. “Sorry.”

It was quiet for a moment as they resumed their walk, Nino dwelling on his brief meeting with Alya as Shell. It had only taken the mention of him for her to start crying, showing Nino just how much he had hurt her with his lies and deceit. He had never hated himself more than in that moment, for making her cry, and for being unable to do anything to help her.

His one small comfort in this mess was that she was safe; she had to be, since he hadn’t seen her around after he’d ordered her to go home. It appeared she’d taken Shell a little more seriously than Nino—

“Nino.”

The urgency in Marinette’s voice was not comforting. When Nino glanced over at her, she pointed into the night sky. Nino searched where she pointed, at first seeing nothing. He didn’t get it…was she trying to show him the stars?

Just as he was about to ask what he was supposed to be looking at, abruptly, he saw it: the light from a nearby streetlamp briefly illuminated the dark wings of an akuma, flapping rapidly through the air, clearly intent on possessing its next victim.

Nino and Marinette looked at each other for a split second.

And then they took off running, coffee cups tossed to the side as they hastily excused themselves around confused civilians in their pursuit of the akuma.

A hero’s work was truly never done, it seemed.

Alya was a coward.

Here she sat, out in the cold, staring at her phone, Nino’s contact information highlighted on the screen. He was literally one press of a button away—she suspected there was a good chance he was free now, because she’d been following the news all evening—and yet she still couldn’t bring herself to call him. Why?

‘Well, what am I supposed to say to him? ‘Hey Nino, sorry I broke up with you earlier because you’ve been keeping things from me, but now that I know you’re Emerald Shell, everything’s cool, wanna get back together’?'

Alya snorted to herself. Yeah, that conversation would go over well.

Nino’s secret identity was clearly important to him; if he was keeping secrets from her, then it had to be because he felt it was necessary. And he said it himself: he wanted her to be safe. Naturally, this meant that she couldn't appear to know too much about his superhero activities, or it would put the both of them in terrible danger. Of course, his slip earlier kind of threw that out the window, but even so…

And more importantly, after the way she’d stormed out earlier…would he even want to get back together with her? She could tell she had hurt him so very deeply—it was obvious in the way Shell spoke about her, though she hadn’t known he was talking about her at the time, the cheeky bastard. Could this be solved with a simple apology? Wouldn’t it seem strange if Alya, the queen of holding grudges and pulling receipts, turned around and forgave him, just like that?

Alya groaned, clutching her phone in between her hands, her forehead resting against the top. She hated this. She absolutely hated this. She wished she could go back in time, slap some sense into herself, and prevent this whole thing from happening. She wished she could stop the world for a moment, so she could find the answer she was so desperately searching for. She wished…she wished…

“Alya!”

Alya’s head snapped up, blinking in surprise. She thought she heard a strange whizzing sound behind her, but that didn’t matter; Nino was at the corner, staring at her, breathing as if he had just run all over Paris trying to find her. Alya jumped to her feet, staring at him, and seeing traces of Emerald Shell in his face. She opened her mouth, but could find no words to articulate what she was feeling, how glad she was to see him, that he seemed to have popped out of nowhere just to find her—

Words were unnecessary; Nino rushed forward all the same, and the strength of his hug positively melted Alya. She let out a sigh, clinging to him tightly, determined not to let him go anywhere without her, not anymore.

“I saw what happened on the Ladyblog,” Nino prefaced as he pulled back. She blinked at the lie. Odd…if he was bothering to fib now…did that mean that he didn’t realize he had slipped earlier? Did he really believe she was honestly still in the dark about what he had been up to?

Despite the lies he told, the earnest look of Nino’s eyes could never deceive her. He didn’t know that she knew. He still thought his secret was safe, that his story was viable.

Alya had to hold back a snort. The Ladyblog. Yeah, sure, right. As if he bothered to watch her videos before now.

Well, if he wasn’t going to say anything…

“Are you ok—”

Alya didn’t let him finish. She yanked him down by the collar of his coat and kissed him, letting the fierce joy she felt at seeing him burn through her and into him. Nino stiffened in surprise, but was only too happy to reciprocate a minute later, his arms locking securely around her as he picked her up, her feet momentarily leaving the sidewalk as he kissed her. Wow, he had gotten stronger…

When they finally broke for air, Alya let her eyelids flutter open, and she snickered at the dazed look Nino wore.

“Uh…wow,” was all he said as he put her down, and Alya giggled. That was her line. Oh well.

“Nino,” she began, stroking his cheek, “I’m so sorry. I never should’ve—”

“No, babe, I’m sorry,” Nino cut her off, though he clung to her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. “I know I haven’t been up front with you lately—”

“That didn’t give me the right to yell—”

“I’d be pissed too, if it were me—”

“And to accuse you of fooling around with Marinette—”

“And I know I haven’t been there for you lately—”

“I’m so sorry, baby, please—”

“I promise to be better, babe, please—”

“Take me back?” They asked at the same time, after babbling over each others’ apologies. They took a moment to blink at each other in incomprehension, and then burst out laughing. A separate giggle from theirs startled Alya, mostly because it came from above them. She looked up, to the building next to them…

And Ladybug was inexplicably standing there.

“Sorry,” she apologized, grinning as Alya gaped up at her. “Maybe I should come back another time?”

“No, no, now’s good,” Nino assured her, and Ladybug obligingly hopped down from the rooftop, returning her yo-yo to her hip once she was finished with it. “Babe, you’ve met Ladybug, right?”

He was being so cheeky right now, Alya noted, quirking a brow at his innocent-looking smile before turning to face Ladybug and her equally as innocent face.

“Of course,” Ladybug replied, smiling warmly at Alya. “Nice to see you again. I’m glad to see you’re safe. And, as I understand it, someone has a birthday coming up?”

“I spent the evening tracking her down after the mess with the Chat Noir supporters happened,” Nino said, and Alya smirked to herself. Yeah, uh-huh, sure. “Thought it’d be a nice surprise for your birthday…and it’s part of my apology for being such a dick, lately.”

Alya turned to smile at him.

“Good call,” she praised, and Nino beamed.

“Yep. Normally, it’d be impossible for me to meet all my fans for their birthdays and things like that…but I figured, for my number one fan, why not?” Ladybug said airily with a lighthearted shrug. “Oh yeah, that reminds me…”

She extended her free hand, where something folded rested. After an encouraging nod from Ladybug, Alya took it, unfolding it.

It was a Ladybug poster, one she’d never seen before: it must’ve been a new printing. And while that was impressive itself, the thing that drew her attention was the scrawling in the corner, in cramped, messy handwriting that read, “To my #1 fan Alya: Happy 22nd Birthday!”

The signature was a circle with a cross going through it, and five dots strategically placed within it. Ladybug’s pattern.

And, if Alya squinted…she could just make out the familiar curves of the y’s in handwriting she had known for years. Marinette’s handwriting. She had tried to disguise it, clearly, but it was still just discernible, because Alya knew what to look for.

Grinning from ear to ear, Alya pressed the poster to her heart, beaming at Ladybug.

“Thank you,” she gushed, and Ladybug returned her smile ten-fold.

“So, do you have any plans tonight? I can’t hang out for long, but I have a little time to spare for the all-mighty mod of the Ladyblog.”

“Actually,” Alya said, glancing over at Nino. “We have a party to get to.”

“Oh, that sounds fun!” Ladybug enthused as Nino sighed in relief.

“Yeah. You should come! You could meet my best friend Marinette,” Alya proposed, inwardly snorting at the way Ladybug’s smile seemed to freeze in place. “She’s a really great friend: apparently, she and my boyfriend have been busy planning this surprise party for me for a while.”

“I would love to meet her,” said Ladybug, giggling in a manner that was just a tad nervous, “but like I said, I don’t have a lot of time tonight…in fact, I should probably get going right now, things to do…but have fun at your party! Happy birthday!”

Alya snickered to herself as Ladybug took off, disappearing over the very rooftop she had appeared on and vanishing into the night, leaving only a streak of red behind. Call her crazy, but she had a very funny feeling she’d be seeing her later…

Nino’s touch brought her back to the moment, and she smiled as he brushed her hair out of her face, the movement tender as always.

“You called me your boyfriend,” he pointed out, smiling a gentle smile that warmed his whole face. Alya stared at it, committing what she never fully appreciated until now to memory. She never wanted to see Nino make the painful expressions she had seen earlier ever again…especially not because of something she had done.

“I did, didn’t I?” She said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I guess old habits die hard.”

Nino chuckled, leaning down to kiss her, pressing his cheek to hers, simply for the pleasure of it.

“Does that mean you forgive me?”

“Only if you’ll forgive me, too.” Alya replied. Nino laughed again, the sound warm, just like him.

“Already forgiven, babe,” he assured her, turning to grin at her. Alya smiled and kissed him again.

“Then what are we still doing standing around here? Let’s go.”

Arm in arm, they headed down the street, relishing each other’s company. It had been a long time, and their relationship had nearly been torched to the ground in the span of a couple weeks…but from the ashes arose a new understanding and appreciation of each other, and Alya was grateful. She wasn’t thrilled that there would now have to be secrets kept between her and Nino—because if he wasn’t going to tell her who he was, she wasn’t about to push the issue—but despite that, her faith in him would not be shaken, never again.

“By the way…what happened to your lip?”

“Oh, ah…I tripped.”

Silence.

“Remind me to get you some ice for it when we get to the party,” Alya said, and Nino let himself breathe again. He didn’t know what had occurred in their time apart to renew her trust in him—maybe time was all she really needed—but he was grateful. And the Ladybug thing seemed to have won him brownie points, so he was grateful. Thank god Marinette had allowed him to take the credit instead of her...and thank god she managed to catch the akuma flitting towards Alya just before it made contact. He owed her big for this.

As Alya snuggled closer to him, Nino smiled, looking around as he appreciated the beauty of the night. It was therefore very jarring when he suddenly spotted a familiar figure perched on a rooftop across the street.

Chat Noir crouched there, his gaze on the distance, head turned in the direction that Ladybug had fled. Nino was tempted to stop and stare, but he didn’t want to bring the cat bastard to Alya’s attention, and so he kept walking, keeping a careful eye on the former hero.

For a second, Chat did nothing. He just stared in that direction, and Nino wondered just how long he had been there, watching Ladybug. The thought made his skin crawl…until he saw the way Chat raised a hand, as if to reach for something…only to lower it a second later, clenching it into a fist. His cat ears flattened across his head, and misery crossed his features, his head bowing.

Nino stared.

No fuckin’ way…was that remorse he saw?

Chat seemed to heave a sigh, and then he stood up, standing tall against the night…save for the slump of his shoulders. As he turned to go, he caught Nino staring at him. His eyes widened by a margin, and as Nino watched, he raised a clawed finger to his lips, as if to shush him.

Nino raised an eyebrow, and Chat smiled a little before he leapt off the roof, out of sight.

What was that about? Was he afraid Nino was going to tell Ladybug he saw him or something…?

“Nino? What’re you staring at?”

“Nothing; thought I saw something, but it’s gone now,” Nino said, inwardly cringing at the half-truth. Ridiculous; he shouldn’t have to lie about Chat Noir…but strangely, it seemed indecent to mention him, as if he had caught the cat bastard in mourning, an accidental audience to pain he was not meant to see.

Huh. Maybe Ladybug had a point about how sorry Chat was…

Didn’t mean Nino had to trust him, though. Not yet.

While Alya did enjoy her party after the crazy day she had, it was honestly a relief to go back to Nino’s apartment and have a bunch of hot make-up sex to end the night. And Nino had been more than up to the challenge, even pulling out a few new moves that made Alya’s toes positively curl. If this was also part of his apology, then she certainly was not complaining.

It was as they were laying there, in a sleepy post-sex haze, the soft glow from Nino’s computer illuminating the room as music played softly in the background, that Alya rolled over, resting against Nino’s chest.

“Nino?”

“Mm?” Nino mumbled, his eyes closed, a hand trailing up Alya’s bare back to play with her hair. Alya shivered in delight at the contact.

“You and Marinette…” The hand in her hair stiffened, and Alya rubbed his shoulders, just to let him know that everything was fine. “You’re not up to anything illegal, right?”

The question made Nino snort, which was Alya’s intention, and he cracked an eye open to peer at her.

“No, babe. I can assure you ‘Nette and I are up not up to anything illegal.” He moved his free hand to her face, tucking her hair back behind her ear, his expression growing serious. “I’m sorry, babe. You don’t know how much. I really wish I could—”

Alya pressed her thumb to his lips, halting his speech with a smile.

“I trust you, baby,” she assured him. Nino smiled against her thumb, taking her hand and kissing her palm.

“Thank you, Alya.” He threaded his fingers through hers, tilting it so that the ring on her fourth finger glinted in his computer’s glow. “Mm. I still like the look of that ring on your finger.”

Alya rolled her eyes.

“I still can’t believe you had me find it by asking me to get a condom. You’ve been spending too much time with Adrien.”

Nino grimaced.

“Actually…I kind of forgot about it, after everything that happened today…I only remembered it was in there when you screamed.”

“…Are you serious?”

“Well, I was planning to propose on your actual birthday, just you, me, ‘Nette and Adrien at dinner somewhere…but I learned a long time ago that things never actually go to plan with us.”

Alya laughed at that.

“From the moment we were locked in that cage by Ladybug, I knew our relationship would be strange.”

Nino chuckled.

“True…hm. Maybe we should invite Ladybug to the wedding. She is the reason we had a chance to get together.”

“Yeah, after Adrien’s plan to get you with Marinette fell through,” snorted Alya, shaking her head. “What even was our life in Dupont?”

“Awkward adolescence,” Nino replied wisely, leaning in to kiss Alya’s cheek. “But I wouldn’t change a minute of it.”

Alya grinned.

“Neither would I.”

As they settled in to sleep, Alya stared at her engagement ring, unable to stop smiling. Well well…from being in a relationship, to breaking up, to being in a relationship again, to being engaged, all in a day…her life certainly was interesting. And that was excluding all the superhero shenanigans occurring right under her nose.

Nino’s light snores filled the room before long, and Alya closed her eyes, soothed by the peace of the moment.

Despite Nino’s proposal not going to plan…Alya was happy, having this moment with just the two of them, their engagement private, their own secret from the world.

Well, at least until Alya next saw Marinette. As the catalyst for her and Nino’s relationship, Marinette deserved to be the first person to know. It was only fair.

But until then, Alya would relish this secret of her own for a little while longer, before she went back to guarding secrets much more significant.