Chapter Text
Nino had never really understood the phrase ‘blood running cold’ before. Sure, he’d been in shocking situations – he felt he dealt with most of them pretty well (notoriously: he was locked in a panther’s cage for half a day with his crush’s very intimidating best friend – and walked out of that one with a girlfriend.) He thought he had a pretty good grasp on everything around him; he was good at reading people, attentive to his friends, and level-headed.
But the first time Nino’s blood ran cold was whilst he was having a conversation with Lila.
As always, Lila had brilliant stories to tell from all the places she’d been and all the people she’d met. Often, Nino would sort of tune out this sort of thing from people – yes, it was pretty cool that she’d met Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale and Prince Ali (and she even said she could hook Nino up with XY once – get him a boost into the music industry.) But Nino was never really one for bragging. After a while, it got boring, and with it being the only conversational topic Lila could seem to hold…
But today he was listening because Alya was snuggled into the crook of his elbow, hanging off every word of Lila’s latest recount with Ladybug (her alleged BFF) and hey, Nino was always a sucker for her. With Lila, the topic of conversation always stayed on one straight path – Lila. So of course it was no surprise when she continued listing all the other celebrities she was close with (for the gazillionth time), when she slipped up.
“And I know Marinette said she designed a pair of custom glasses for him or something?” Lila began, brushing her hair behind her shoulder and smiling softly. “Well I hate to break it to her, but those glasses sell online – which is definitely where Jagged got them from. And, when I saw him the other day, I asked him if he knew a Marinette Dupain-Cheng – and he said no! What a liar Marinette is, right?”
And in that very instance, Nino’s blood ran cold.
Time to get one thing straight: Nino and Marinette (and Kim – but he was irrelevant at the moment) had been friends since they had consecutively exited the womb two weeks and a day apart. All the way through primary, they’d had a weekly ‘play date’ at one of their houses. This tradition ended for college, but they still had their biweekly dinner at each other’s house to keep the friendship alive.
And a couple of months ago, Jagged Stone had been a visitor for a dinner at Marinette’s house – with his fiancée, Penny. Nino had barely stuttered out four words the whole night (and Kim, the absolute dick, was not helping with the teasing faces for three hours straight.) But Marinette and Jagged had been thick as thieves all night – like family. And, right at the end of the night, when Kim had asked Jagged whether he could also get a pair of glasses like those – Jagged had stated he’d copyrighted the design so that his would be the only ones in existence; to make them ‘special.’
From besides him, Alya gasped, sitting forwards slightly. A buzzing began to fill Nino’s ears. “No,” Alya mumbled, “Mari’s not like that. You don’t understand – she worked for weeks on that design. There are- there are videos of her and Jagged, together…”
“Videos are very easy to manipulate, Alya,” Lila checked her nails. “You know this – you’re a journalist.”
“Mari locked herself up for weeks to get that design done – Jagged personally shouted her social media out.”
“A hacker, maybe? I bet if we looked, the post wouldn’t still be up.”
Alya faltered, eyebrows furrowing adorably. “But… Mari would never…”
“Lie?” Asked Lila, her venomous eyes meeting Alya’s. “I guess you were wrong. You should really confront her about this. I just hate liars.”
Nino’s blood began to boil. Lie. Lie. Lie. Oh, the irony. What else had Lila lied about?
Jagged Stone didn’t have a kitten (he’d known this since the dinner but gave Lila the benefit of the doubt – what if he’d had a kitten in the past?)
“Marinette – she has no reason to lie.” Said Alya, crossing her arms. “Right, babe?”
Nino’s throat felt as if it were stuffed with cotton wool. “Y-yeah,” he stuttered out.
The expulsion – when everyone in the class alienated Marinette for being a bully despite Mari being the kindest person any of them knew. That was a lie?
Lila’s lips downturned slightly, and a flash of something murderous flashed behind her eyes before she blinked it away. “Well, you never know. Maybe she’s lied about a lot of things.”
“…Maybe.” Said Alya. “I should talk to her.”
“Watch out, though,” Lila reached out to grab Alya’s hand from across the table – and Nino’s skin boiled as if it were his own. “Liars who get away with it for so long are usually much better at it.”
Alya nodded. “You’re right. I’ll be careful, and I’ll talk to Mari after school.”
Lila let go of Alya’s hand, settling back into her seat, the slightest of smiles on her face. “I only want what’s best for you,” Lila begun. Hook. “I wouldn’t want you to have a toxic friend – you know that, right?” Line.
“I do,” Alya sighed out. “Thank you, Lila. For everything.”
And sinker.
Nino felt sick.
Looking back on it, it was like she’d gone from new girl to queen bee (no pun intended) within a week just because of her stories. She’d started in the middle of the year with a group of classmates that had all been together for a minimum of two years – with no allies, and nobody to count upon. So she’d built up her reputation, through it earning indisputable friends. Marinette’s friends.
But why would Lila target Mari? Marinette was easily the kindest, most selfless girl in the school – even to the girl that had been spreading lies about her all year. Gods – Lila had been spreading lies about Marinette for the past year and a half – and Marinette had sat there, taken it, and been only kind in return.
How did she do it?
By the end of the school day, Nino had decided that he needed to take down Lila Rossi for good. How? Well, he supposed he needed a team to back him up.
First on his list? Le Chien Kim – protector of Marinettes all around.
Kim was always very easy to find after school – listen out for a girl and a boy yelling at each other, and you’d found the dynamic duo of Alix and Kim, competing. Today, they were on the school’s basketball court – Max was sitting silently on the side as Markov kept score of the one-on-one.
Nino watched as Kim flawlessly dunked another basket over Alix’s head, whooping boyishly as he did so. Kim had always been good at sport – but the last time Nino asked, they had been ten, and Kim had certainly not been at good at basketball as he was now.
“Kim?” Nino called across the court. Three heads turned his way – two very quickly turning back to what they were doing. Kim smiled, beginning to walk over.
“Nino! What can I do for you?” Kim grabbed a bottle of water, chugging it as he walked.
“It’s… kind of a situation we need to talk about privately.”
“Oh.” Kim looked back at Alix and Max. “Code two?”
“Code one, dude.”
Kim stopped; water bottle dropping to his side. “Well, shit. Let’s go.”
“Hey!” Alix yelled as Kim caught up with Nino to exit the gym. “Where are you going? We aren’t finished!”
“Play with Max!” Kim responded. “I’ll be right back!”
‘Codes’ were a system that the trio (Nino, Kim, Mari) had come up with after Mari forced them to all watch an entire season of Pretty Little Liars. There were three, and it was simple – Code three was something they could handle themselves but may want help with; a scraped knee, a lift home, advice. Code two was something moderate that required assistance, but not immediately; deeper advice (or in the times they’d pulled it – ‘come-visit-me-in-the-hospital’ -Kim, yearly from 6 to 13 for some broken bone or other.) And a code one was dire; the SOS message itself.
At the time it had felt cool to have a secret system (albeit one they never used – they didn’t really have a stalker) but now it was a nice feeling to know that even if they didn’t have deep conversations about their crushes at the latest hour for ten year olds to be up (hint: think midnight) there was still something that connected the three of them. Even if Nino hadn’t been keeping up on Kim’s basketball achievements.
The two buys entered the bathrooms adjacent to the locker rooms, and Kim began opening stalls, checking for people. Nino fidgeted with his cap; taking it off, combing his hair back, and placing it back on, only to repeat. Kim finished fairly quickly, turning back to Nino.
“What’s up?” He asked, turning to Nino. “Code one? We’ve never used that before. This better not be a joke.”
“It isn’t,” Nino sighed. “It’s… complicated.”
“Where’s Marinette?” Kim asked. “Don’t these things usually concern the three of us?”
“Yeah, well, that’s the thing… it’s kind of about Marinette. That’s the problem.”
Twenty minutes and a full explanation later, and Kim was seething in a way that only he could – looking constantly as if he were about to punch you. He probably was, too.
It was sort of comedic how differently they all handled their emotions – especially rage. Kim got all violent, Nino tended to go silent (which, apparently, was absolutely terrifying) and Marinette (the absolute angel who barely got angry anyway) tended to get all shouty and usually cried a bit due to the strength of her emotions. Maybe it was their polar opposites that made them click in the way they did. They didn’t have to be friends post baby-age, but they’d stuck.
“I am going to kill Lila,” Kim said, cracking his knuckles for the tenth time.
“No. We can’t kill her,” said Nino. “You could beat her up, though?”
Kim nodded. “If I see her tomorrow, I don’t think I’ll be able to stop myself.”
Nino let a brief smile come to his lips, before it dropped again at the severity of the situation. “Listen…” He said. “We shouldn’t kill her, or beat her up, or even let her know that we know yet. We should construct a plan, and expose her.”
“Good idea,” said Kim, pulling out his phone. “I’ll send a text to Alix – she can put it on the class group chat, and we can-“
“No,” Nino interrupted. “No texts. Remember that one time when Marinette called Lila out on her lies? Nobody believed her. And suddenly her two childhood friends are rushing to her defence? I hate to admit it, but we’re probably the only ones who see through this bullshit – and that’s because we’ve known Marinette so long. But because we’ve known her, our word is biased and we’re just defending her because her parents are friends with our parents. We can’t.”
Kim ran a hand over his face. “Fine. What do we do, then? Everyone is under her spell.”
“I know. Rose, Juleka, Ivan… hell, she’s even got Alya wrapped around her pinky finger. We should act normal. Gather evidence. Wait it out… and then strike.”
Kim’s frown slowly turned into a grin. “That sounds great.”
“Deal?” Nino asked, holding out a hand to shake. Kim took it.
“By the way, you and Alya…?” Kim asked as they begun walking back to the gym.
“Yeah, we’re a thing. We’re almost at two years.”
“Aww, congrats dude!”
“Yeah… what about you and Alix?” Nino opened the locker room door, revealing the basketball court.
“Me and Alix? What do you mean?” Kim whispered, looking at Alix and Max bickering from the other side of the court.
“A thing?”
Kim shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s complicated.”
Nino chuckled. “We need to do a three person sleepover like we did in the olden days, just to catch up.”
Kim chuckled. “Hey, once this shitstorm is over, I’m totally up for that. We gotta do it at Mari’s house though, she has-“
“-Free snacks,” the both of them chorused, chuckling.
“Alright, Nino. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Nino nodded. “You too, Kim. Act normal!”
Kim began to walk back towards Alix. “Oh, fuck off. I’m incredible at drama. You should practice in the mirror!”
The next day, as Nino was very right to assume, came quickly. He’d spent the entire night mindlessly doing homework, and staying up wondering how to call Lila out on her lies. He’d come up with a couple of plans:
- The humiliation method – call Jagged Stone and Prince Ali in school and get them to confess to not knowing one Lila Rossi. Pros: Lila gets a metaphorical bitch slap, but Cons: she’ll probably be akumatised.
- Wait for her to reveal herself – liars always slip up. Pros: Nino and Kim don’t directly hurt anyone, Cons: Lila has been successfully lying for two years; she’s pretty damn good at it. How long with this take?
- Divide and conquer – approach one classmate at a time and ‘turn them.’ Pros: Lila will probably get a physical bitch slap (Rose? Alya?) but Cons: what if nobody believes it?
- Have Lila expelled for bullying – record her lies against Marinette and go straight to the principal. Pros: no idiotic teenagers to convince, Lila is gone forever, Cons: recordings. Isn’t that illegal?
Nino drew up the list, sending it via WhatsApp to Kim. They very quickly eliminated methods 2 and three (risk factor outweighs the pros), which left them with one final decision.
“We can go to school and see what bullshit we can record Lila sprouting in one day.” Nino suggested, rubbing at his eyes. They ached – whether it was from lack of sleep, as it was now 4 in the morning, or the light of his phone – he couldn’t say.
“I don’t know,” Kim said. “I kind of like the idea of publicly humiliating Lila and watching her reaction.”
“But what if she finds a way to save herself? She’s good at this – she’s been fooling all of us for almost two years. We don’t know what she’s capable of.”
Kim’s heavy sigh came out sort of grainy over the phone line. “You’re right. Okay. We’ll record around her – see what shit we can dig up – and if it fails, and only if it fails, we go straight into plan B. Comprendo?”
“Capiche, dude,” said Nino. “Now get some sleep. It’s almost half four.”
“Says you, dick. Close your eyes. Want me to sing you a lullaby?”
Nino chuckled. “No, thank you – unless your voice has improved in the last year or so.”
“Alright. Night.”
“Night.”
The next morning, the bags under Nino’s eyes felt heavy, but the boiling blood in his veins gave him enough energy to race through his morning routine. He got downstairs to his mother desperately trying to cook eggs for Chris, his younger brother, who was glued to the TV.
“Morning,” said Nino with a grin, placing a kiss on her cheek. “I don’t need breakfast today.”
“No?” His mother chuckled, looking back at him. “Then who will eat all this food?”
“I’m sure Chris can take care of it,” Nino said light-heartedly. “Right Chris?”
“What?” Chris yelled obnoxiously from the other room. Nino rolled his eyes.
“So why are we not eating?” His mom turned off the frying pan, turning to face her son. “In a rush?”
“Yes, actually. I’m going to see Marinette before school.”
“Oh,” she said. “That’s… interesting. I thought you were closer to that Adrien boy now?”
Nino nodded. “Well, I am, but this… thing happened at school yesterday, and I wanted to walk with Marinette today.”
His mother frowned. “Is she alright?”
“Fine!” Nino said a little too quickly, an awkward laugh bubbling out of his throat. “She’s fine, I just… miss her a bit, you know?”
His mother shrugged, plating the eggs. “Well you’ll see her this Sunday for food, but… never mind. Say hello to Tom and Sabine for me? It’s been too long. Oh, and take some money for breakfast there!”
“I will!” Said Nino, slipping on his trainers. “See you later!”
“Bye!” Chorused his mom and little brother, who had probably clocked the smell of scrambled eggs and paused his TV show to eat. Nino shut the door, shivering slightly at the frigid Parisian air.
Breathing out and laughing softly at the dragon breath he formed, Nino began to walk very swiftly towards the bakery. He had to get there before Marinette left – so with a half hour till school begun, he was making good time with his speedwalking.
However, precisely 8 and a half minutes, a thousand dragon breaths and a pause for his sore muscles later, Nino realized two very key facts. The first: he was dangerously unfit. Not even ten minutes of walking at a slightly elevated speed? And two: that he should not have speedwalked, because now there were 21 minutes until school, and Nino was sitting very awkwardly in the bakery after Mari’s parents had said she was not awake yet.
Of course she wasn’t awake. It was Marinette. If she could wake up and get ready with five minutes until school, she would. Nino had been graciously given several distractions by the Dupain-Chengs in the form of pastries (all free – which he felt sort of guilty for, but was also sort of used to.) Now he played the waiting game.
Except the waiting game was very boring, and Nino lasted maybe a minute before he took out hos phone.
N: I’m at the bakery. Nette’s asleep.
K: As usual. Want me to come?
N: I think I’ve got it handled. Plus 2 is more suspicious than 1 right
K: don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious, don’t e suspicious
N: stfu u tiktoker
N: Jeez didn’t think they’d take u 2
K: Hey say that to my 3.6 million likes
N: I will
“Nino?”
Nino looked up at the calling of his name. Mari’s father, Tom, was beckoning him over. He stood from the table for two he was at, pocketing his phone and walking over.
“What up, Mister Dupain? How’s it hanging?”
“Very well, Nino, thank you. I was actually hoping to ask a favour of you. Marinette still isn’t awake, it seems. Maybe you could go up and warn her?”
Nino nodded. “No problem, dude. See you in a minute!”
Nino took the familiar path all the way up the building to Marinette’s bedroom – frowning a little at the nostalgia the actions brung. “Marinette?” Nino knocked on the trapdoor. “Marinette? You awake?”
No response. Nino sighed, pushing the trapdoor open and entering her room. “So… pink,” he said, standing up. She obviously hadn’t painted it since he’d last been up here, then. “Mari? It’s time to go, dude. You’ll be late for class.”
He looked around a little – at the desk, strewn with design papers; at the photos (about half were solo shots of Adrien – but she’d equalled it with other models, looking more at the outfits. Her real friends’ photos were framed next to her computer. Nino smiled, looking on one very close to the front – of him, Mari and Kim, back in the day were Mari was the tallest, Nino wore all black and Kim’s two front teeth were missing. His heart clenched slightly.
He missed that.
“Marinette?” He asked. “Don’t make me come up. I will. Are you seriously still asleep?”
A cold breeze passed Nino, and he shivered slightly, beginning to climb. “I’m gonna get you,” he said quietly. “In three, two…”
He reached the top of the ladder, springing up onto the bed. “One!” He called loudly, grabbing what he thought was her body – the lump under the sheets. But the lump was very soft, and detached from the rest of the ‘body’ once pulled. In fact, Nino pulled the sheets off entirely – finding no Mari, and an assortment of pillows to mimic a body shape.
“Mari, you sly fox,” he chuckled to himself, prodding at the sheets. “Sneaking out at night? Is this why you’re always late?”
Nino replaced the blankets, fashioning them back into a body, and retreated down the ladder.
N: Mari, I came to visit but u weren’t in ur room?? And ur parents didn’t see u leave, and the window is open… sneaky.
N: But, seriously. We should talk.
Shutting off his phone, Nino began descending back through the house, emerging in the bakery. “She wasn’t there,” he said to Mr. Dupain, who frowned in confusion. “Maybe she left early?”
“She did say she had that fabric order to grab, dear…” Sabine placed a comforting hand on Tom’s shoulder. “Maybe we just missed her?”
Tom nodded, grabbing two croissants and making quick work of wrapping them up. “One for you, and one for if you see Marinette – the silly girl probably forgot to eat.” He chuckled. “Thank you, Nino.”
“Thank you, Mr. Dupain! Mrs. Cheng! Have a nice day!”
N: Mari, your parents think you left early to buy fabrics. I don’t know what’s up, but if that wasn’t it, I want some explanation ;)
When Nino got to school, Kim was waiting. Kim, who always waited in the classroom because he was allergic to the cold (and Alix was in the classroom) Kim. The taller boy spotted Nino and began walking over hastily, arms crossed to try and conserve warmth.
“Where’s Mari?” Were the first words to spill out of his lips.
“I don’t know. She wasn’t in her room. Her parents think she left early to buy fabric?”
Kim shrugged. “She’s not in the classroom.”
“And you aren’t either…?”
Kim shook his head. “That snake is in there. I can’t even look at her without feeling like I’m going to punch her.”
Nino hummed in agreement. “Just… find your happy place. Look at Alix or something.”
Despite the cold (or maybe because of it), Kim’s face heated slightly. “I… Alix and I… we aren’t a thing.”
“But you still like her, right?”
Kim shrugged. “It’s complicated.”
“Yeah, yeah, Mister Teen Movie Cliché. We should get to class. Avoid Lila – especially if you feel like you’ll punch her. I’ll record.”
With a swift nod, the two begun to head into the building together – an unspoken and yet strong bond burning them together.