The Tale of a Ladybug and her Black Cat // Chat NoirXReader

21. Animan

(3rd person)

Nino stands watching across the school courtyard at the three girls sitting on the steps, his eyes resting on his most recent crush, Marinette who sits reading a magazine, while her twin sister and bestfriend sit on both sides of her. He watches as Marinette says something making the two other girls giggle, but is startled when Adrien appears behind him, to tease him, "FYI, Marinette's never going to fall in love with a statue." He jokes and Nino pulls Adrien behind the wall so they can hide.

"Shhh! You know I'm no good with the ladies, especially this one all of a sudden. I mean, dude, do I go up to her and crack her a joke? Shoot her a compliment? Invite her to the zoo? Play it serious?" He asks his blonde friend frantically.

Adrien snorts, "Nino, you're way over-thinking this. 'Invite her to the zoo', you serious?" He replies, making Nino rub his head, "Well, they have this really cool new exhibit there." Nino explains and Adrien puts an arm around his shoulder, "Listen, just be yourself, man."

"That's easy for you to say, Mr. Front-of-the-cover-Teen-Model-weekly. I'm not that cool." Nino tells him, as he brushes Adrien's arm off him. Adrien smiles at him, "You're cool too, dude, trust me — or you wouldn't be my best bud. Invite her to the zoo. She'll say "yes", I promise." Adrien assures him. Nino nods with confidence; and he starts walking over to Marinette, (Name), and Alya. But he panics at the last minute and runs back to Adrien, "What if I act like a moron-o-saurus, or she disses me or thinks I'm lame or—?"

Adrien just smiles at him, "Okay, I got your back." He tells him as he and Nino fist bump.

Later at lunch, (Name), Alya and Marinette are walking out of the school, while Adrien and Nino are hiding behind a banister. Hearing the girls, Adrien signals Nino and they come out of hiding.

"Oh, he's such a—" Marinette fawns as she holds the magazine in front of her, and Alya interrupts her, "Smartie, hottie, suavísimo, yummy-tastic spellbinder!" She guesses and (Name) laughs as Marinette replies, dreamily, "All of the above." before she bumps into Nino, dropping the magazine, "Huh?" She looks at him as he stands very still in front of them and Adrien appears from behind Nino, "Oh, so sorry." He says before he nudges Nino, "Right, Nino?"

"Sorry." Nino says flatly, making Alya and Marinette giggle, and as the two giggle, (Name) looks down to see the magazine pages with pictures of Adrien, wanting to save her sister from embarrassment she bends down to pick up the magazine before Adrien sees it, but he walks over to pick it up for her and they end up bumping into each other by their foreheads.

They meet each other's eyes, but before they could get lost in them, they both apologize, "Sorry." They tell each as they smile and (Name) grabs the magazine away.

As they straighten up Adrien suddenly gets an idea, "Sorry about that. How could we make it up to you? Any ideas...Nino?" He ponders but Nino doesn't answer, so he continues, "How about we all check out the...zoo today? Word is they've got a new..." he trails off as he snaps his fingers in front of Nino, who answers, "Uh, they-they got a new panther."

Alya smiles at the idea, "Awesome idea, right, Marinette? You love animals." She asks the girl whose staring at Adrien, "Uh, yeah. I, uh, I'm really into zoonimals. I mean, uh, anizools. I mean zoonimoos. I..." She stutters.

Nodding, Adrien turns to (Name), "Did you wanna join us?" He asks the girl and she thinks about it for a second before nodding, "Cool. Say, after school, four o'clock?" He asks as he looks at Nino, "Nino, sound good?" He asks and Nino nods nervously, "Cool, four o'clock then." He says as he turns back to the girls.

Marinette smiles, "Four! Four o'clock." She tells them and Adrien nods before he pulls Nino and walks away and Marinette becomes lovestruck.

"Yeah..." (Name) trails off as she looks at her dazed twin. Alya waves a hand in her face, "Uh, Earth to Marinette? You do realize the guy you're completely crazy about has just asked you out, right?" She asks her, and (Name) frowns a bit, but hides it with a smile.