Won't Tell a Soul

Cover for Me

"Coo coo coo cooo doodle doo

Chant this charm, you'll feel so good!

Coo coo coo coo doodle doo

The charm will make your dreams come true"

Nino was sat in his bedroom cross-legged on his mattress with a gamecube controller in his hands, blissfully relaxed as he deliberately ignored his homework in favor of playing the happiest game he could think of. Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. He was singing the lyrics to the cheerful upbeat theme song as he guided his character through an inexplicably chicken themed adventure, which was almost as entertaining a concept on its own as the actual game was itself. He seriously still couldn't believe this game was real, it was just- it was so ridiculous and colorful. And chicken themed.

"Nananananana," he continued to hum, bouncing slightly as he indulged in this pleasure. When people asked him what games he liked he'd probably say something cooler like Halo or something, because explaining that the plot of his favorite video game was to rescue the chicken gods and return daylight to the sacred chicken land was-

Well. No one needed to know about it is all.

Marinette would adore this game but maybe he should pretend to not know about it first. Or well, he didn't want to lie cause it was embarrassing Marinette would tease but she wouldn't care. Didn't matter right then though, she was way too busy to start a new game, she barely had free time as it was.

As Nino leaned against his bedroom wall and forged on through defeating the evil crow invasion his thoughts turned idly towards his friend. It had been almost two weeks now since he first found out, and yup Akuma attacks were just as awful to sit through as he imagined they would be. Thankfully it had been sort of quiet and there had only been one since then, but still. Dwelling on the fact that his friend was out there getting thrown through the air by a huge baddie and its henchmen had been one of the main reasons he restarted his Billy Hatcher file. Running through colorful chicken land calmed him down surprisingly effectively, and at the time it had been his main crutch besides checking his phone again and again.

The phone call from a number he didn't recognize set him at ease more than the game could ever manage though, and it was only when he got the call from the Bug Phone that he was actually able to breathe again.

The next time he had seen Marinette in person after the attack had led to a pretty tense conversation in the school's hallway, where she tried once again to explain to him that she was more than capable, and he acknowledged once again that she was totally right. Didn't mean jack though.

Thinking about school forced a sigh from between his teeth, disturbing the happy song and making him feel sort of tired again. It wasn't that anything specifically had happened, it was more so that nothing had if that made any sense. He just continued to know something no one else did, and it mostly succeeded in making the day seem just a little bit longer. Relations between himself and Adrien had been good, but there were a few times where Adrien would give him a questioning look, almost always when some kind of conversation in class had turned towards Paris' superheroes.

Nino sighed again, taking out his agitated frustration on a crow in the game. Poor little bastard was splattered before he even got an attack out.

Adrien hadn't forgotten about their weirdly tense morning even if he was leaving it alone, and Nino knew he suspected that something was different. He felt like Adrien was totally normal like 80% of the time and then someone for whatever reason would mention Ladybug and his eyes would slid over to him.

It wasn't accusatory or doubting, it was just... aware. Nino found himself hoping more than once that enough time would just make it go away.

Nino didn't look down right away when his phone vibrated, still stewing silently over a problem he couldn't fix. He ignored it again when it went off a little more persistently, but was finally pulled from his thoughts when it actually started to ring.