Stitches • Marichat

Chapter Nineteen

    "Adrien!" The soaked and exhausted blonde turned to the sight of his best friend running across the school courtyard up to him, his hand waving wildly. Why was Nino still here? Adrien watched the brown-eyed boy make his way to him, before said boy hugged him tightly. Adrien bit back the groan as his friend squeezed a sore spot on his shoulder, instead returning the display of affection. He was glad to know that Nino had been safe.

    It had been while they were working in pairs that Aquafiend had attacked, and Adrien had been with Nino, as per usual. He'd forgotten that they were separated very quickly, so he could transform into Chat Noir, but Nino didn't known that. For all he knew, Adrien could have been boiled by Aquafiend. He could hear Plagg grumble in his pocket from the sudden pressure of being squashed against Nino, but his complaints ceased as Nino pulled back.

    "Dude, I was so worried about you! Alya said she hadn't seen you or Marinette, and with your luck, I had figured you would've ran directly into Aquafiend." Nino rambled. Nino eyed him as he noticed the teen's sopping mop of blonde hair. "And by the way you look, I feel that it's safe to say I was right."

    Adrien smiled sheepishly at his friend. Seeing Nino's smirk, Adrien snapped his head side to side, showering his friend with the little droplets of water that had clung to his golden halo of hair. Nino sputtered, holding his hands in front of his face to protect it from the attack before laughing and conceding. But as he was doing this, it had finally registered to him that Nino said he and Alya hadn't seen Marinette during the fight. A pang of worry struck him in his gut, and he needed to have an answer, to know for sure that she was okay.

    "So? Did you guys ever see Marinette?" Adrien knew that she was fine, like she always was. But this akuma had been different. This akuma had been practically the incarnation of her worst fear. What if she had been scared? Adrien quickly shook that thought out of his head. No matter how scared she was, she didn't need him to keep running to her. She was strong, and she didn't always need him to be the one there for her. Right?

"Yeah, Alya said Marinette texted her that she was home already."

    Nino watched his friend's inner-struggle. Adrien had always been good at concealing his true feelings with a mask, but when it came to certain topics, Nino could always tell when he was confused and didn't know what to do. Like for physics, or other classes Adrien's good at, (because Nino knows that the blonde is really a genius,) he would always scratch the same spot on his shoulder if he didn't understand something. But recently, there had been something new, a slight twitch in his brow. It was something he hadn't really had a full grasp on until a few weeks ago at the Avatar performance. Marinette.

Honestly, Nino was kind of disappointed in himself. He thought he knew his best friend like the back of his hand, and yet... Some days, it was almost as if Adrien was a different person. And to think that he didn't know that Adrien was in love with Marinette made him feel stupid. He felt as though he should have seen it a few months ago, when Adrien dragged him so they could spy on Marinette while she was with Nathanael. Looking back on it now, he had no idea why he was thinking the way he was. He had thought that Adrien was just trying to protect a friend, albeit a friend that he had been attracted to as Adrien had accidentally revealed. God, he truly felt like an idiot now. But he wasn't going to allow himself to be an idiot to Adrien's feelings any longer.

"Adrien, are you okay?" The bone-tired blonde shifted his iridescent eyes to his concerned best friend, immediately feeling guilt eat away at his stomach. Had he ignored something that Nino had said?

"Yeah, I just-" Little did they know, Adrien did both of them a favor as he stopped himself from finishing the sentence. Nino didn't say dude or bro. He caught Nino's dark brown eyes, the first time he had looked his best friend in the eye in weeks. Instead of feeling the shivers of panic and disgust and anger like he had feared that he would, Adrien had felt vulnerable. And it hit him like a brick in the face. He had been so coped up within his own fear, he was reflecting them onto Nino, and Alya, and everyone else who had brown eyes like Sandman. Adrien didn't know if Nino saw something or just plain knew, but the teen dragged him away from the courtyard and into a nearby classroom that was empty.