Won't Tell a Soul

Keeping Secrets

Once again Nino was steadily on route to the school, his headphones on and producing the tempo to which he walked. It was a slower jam then he was used to, a recommendation from Mari this time around, so it actually took him a little longer to get there. He was just one of those guys where walking out of beat with the music annoyed him, unless it was way too fast cause he wasn't going to run.

Man it sure was nice out. What with the like... birds. And people. And the sun.

The song was pretty good, he had never heard the band before. He would probably look them up when he got back home.

He was getting pretty close to the school. Where he would learn maybe and... be.

Holy crap he couldn't even act casual in his own thoughts this was going to be a disaster.

Nino pulled up short a block before the school, ducking into an alley way and throwing his headphones down onto his shoulders with a groan. This was going to be bad, literally the only thing he could think of was knowing something no one else did, something crazy and really cool. But he knew what the main issue was. His main problem was Adrien.

He as painfully transparent to his best friend, Adrien could read him like a book. To everyone else maybe he would just come off as a bit weird but Adrien would know something is up. Nino had literally no hope of fooling him, he was going to have to accept that. The only thing left now was to just make sure he didn't figure out what exactly it was. But then there was the problem of Adrien knowing he was deliberately hiding something. Would he be mad? They told each other everything... he didn't like the idea of Adrien thinking he was pulling away or something. He was sure to jump to that conclusion, Nino knew him way too well. Adrien was a lonely guy, he didn't have a lot of friends and hadn't ever been close with many people. He could probably count the people he had opened up to on one hand, so seeing his best friend keep secrets?

Nino sighed heavily, feeling something sort of... cold in his chest. He knew he couldn't say anything, and his reasons were incredibly compelling, but that didn't mean it felt good. To think that was probably what Marinette had to deal with for every person in her life... damn that was a rough deal.

Nino took a moment to breathe deeply, straightening his cap and replacing his headphones before heading out again towards the school. He wanted to be there waiting for Adrien, the simple morning routine feeling slightly more important now.

Nino switched the song to one of his usual ones to pick up the pace and managed to make it up to his usual spot without screaming "MARINETTE IS LADYBUG" so that was good. So far things were going pretty smoothly. Not that literally anything had happened yet that couldn't have gone smoothly.

Nino found himself totally blocking out the music, watching the street like a hawk as he obsessed over what he was going to say to Adrien. What did he usually say to Adrien? It had to stick to what he normally did or he would be given away. He probably said like... 'Yo'. That sounded like him. And good morning? No, that was off. How are you? He didn't usually ask that that bluntly did he? Maybe like a... 'hey man' or something... couldn't do 'Yo' AND 'hey man' that was weird. He should pick-

He jumped a little when he saw Adrien's car pull up, used to having a little more time but maybe he had just been panicking that much. He still hadn't picked his greeting when Adrien got out of the car, closing the door behind him and waving to the driver before heading straight towards him. Had he already seen him or was just expecting him to be there? Was he casual?

Adrien walked up the steps and met Nino's eye, freezing him to the spot as he smiled.

"Hey man," Adrien said warmly, looking dumb perfect like he always did. Nino was a little relieved he had used one of his two possible greetings, it made picking much easier.