Archive of Our Own

They can't figure out why he keeps doing it. 

Nino hasn't talked to Marinette this frequently in years, but even together they can't figure out why Chat Noir seems to want to stay with them so badly.  If Ladybug's out then Chat's with her, inevitably, Nino's seen him excuse himself hastily and leave through the window when he realises Ladybug is out without him, but otherwise there's not a whole lot that seems to drag him away from Nino or Marinette.

Nino's gone to eat dinner with Chat Noir still watching a movie in his room before, because unless Nino is at Alya's he can't get away with skipping family dinner, and when he came back Chat Noir hadn't left even though the movie was long over.  Nino had found Chat Noir curled up asleep on his bed, instead.

That was around when he'd first started texting Marinette more. 

It had been weird enough when Chat followed him home that first time.  Nino hadn't even realised that he was being followed until he'd gone to his room and found Chat Noir crouching at the window, tapping hesitantly at the glass, ears tipped hopefully forward and tail giving hesitant little flicks as he blinked at Nino through the rain cutting paths down the dirt outside.

Nino hadn't stopped to think before letting him in. 

He's wondered a lot of times since then what Chat would have done if Nino hadn't opened that window, though. 

Gone back to Marinette's, seems to be the mostly likely answer.  Now that Nino's frequently finding the hero outside Marinette's admitted to him that Chat Noir has been visiting her a lot more than she'd let anyone know.  Alya hadn't known- and Nino isn't surprised by that, since the first thing Alya had done when he'd told her Chat Noir was coming over was beg to come interview him. 

"Dude's not coming here to be interviewed," Nino had pointed out.  "He knows who you are, Al, he wouldn't be showing up at a stranger's window for that."  Nino had carefully not mentioned who else had been finding Chat Noir outside their room.  Marinette obviously has reasons she hasn't brought it up before, and while she doesn't seem to mind that Nino knows- she seems relieved, if anything- it's noticeable that she still hasn't mentioned it to Alya at all.

It had taken Nino entirely too long to talk Alya out of showing up at his own window right alongside Chat Noir, so he isn't planning to push Marinette on the topic anytime soon.  

Even if Alya had backed off once Nino had explained a little more. 

Chat Noir really isn't here to be interviewed.  Nino's still not entirely certain why Chat Noir is here at all, although between how often the hero drops by and how many times Nino's checked in with Marinette to find that Chat Noir is with her instead he's started to come up with some possible reasons. 

He doesn't like very many of them. 

Marinette likes them even less, judging by the way Nino can count on a text from her any time Chat Noir is with him.

Nino doesn't like that, either, because that implies that Chat Noir both doesn't sleep much and doesn't go home much. 

"Hey, uh."  Chat Noir shifts now, still draped across Nino's legs like an oversized cat, and turns towards him with a slight catch to his smile.  "Are we gonna watch the movie, or-" His tail twitches, the buckle on it thumping on Nino's bed.  "Should I go?" 

Nino shakes his head and sets his phone back down, exhaling hard.  "Sorry, dude, I just got distracted.  Yeah, 'course we can watch the movie."  He pauses.  "Are you sure you don't wanna watch Akira, dude?" 

Chat Noir makes a face before twisting back towards the laptop screen.  In the process he somehow manages to nudge himself even closer to Nino, which Nino frankly hadn't thought was possible.

He finds himself eyeing his phone again.  There are questions Marinette won't answer, but for the most part she's better at reading Chat Noir's moods than he is, and Nino's pretty sure now that this is a mood and not just Chat being Chat. 

And Nino had been at the battle today, if only at the edges this time. 

It's not been a good day for anyone. 

He really wishes he'd been in the battle.  He'd never wanted his shield so badly.  If he could have gotten Shellter up in time-

He's not sure he could have, as quick as it had happened, but at least he could have tried.  It had been so much worse to only be able to watch, because he's too breakable without the suit to have gone into that battle and he knows it.  Even Alya had known to stay back once the battle turned vicious.

Even the suits wouldn't have been enough protection if they'd been hit head on.  They have far too vivid proof of that.

"I've seen Akira," Chat Noir says, voice muffled now as he also nestles further into Nino's crumpled blankets.  "I haven't seen this." 

Are you sure you want to see this, Nino wants to ask, but he swallows it back.  Chat read the movie's summary before insisting on it, he knew what it was about when he picked it.

It isn't like Nino can clearly articulate why he's uneasy about Chat Noir's movie choice, anyway. 

"All right," he says instead, and hits play. 

In the end he's not sure watching a different movie would have mattered. They're not very far in when he realises Chat Noir's breathing has gone deep and regular and even. Nino flattens his palm across the span of Chat's back, feeling the reassuring rise and fall, and picks his phone back up. 

And finds himself frowning down at it, because where he'd usually have at least a handful of messages from Adrien there's nothing.  There are some nights when he doesn't hear from him, but Adrien's been out of class for a photo shoot for the past three days and that usually has Nino's phone lighting up whenever there's a spare moment.  He thinks Adrien's telling him the truth about enjoying most of his photo shoots but that doesn't mean he doesn't get bored during them.

They upset Nino a whole lot more than they do Adrien. 

It takes him a while to figure out why. 

It's just- Adrien's smart.  He knows Adrien's smart.  He's seen his grades, and when Nino's having trouble with a subject it's Adrien he goes to, because Adrien's patient and good at teaching and somehow makes things make sense to Nino better than anyone except maybe Chat Noir. 

Adrien likes modelling, or he says he does, and he seems to believe it and Nino wants to believe him. 

But Adrien also has problems with realising he's worth something, and it makes Nino really, really uneasy that Adrien's so used to having his appearance valued so much more than the rest of him.  Adrien laughs it off when Nino tries to awkwardly bring it up, but he needs Adrien to know that he's loved for more than what he looks like.  He's not always sure that Adrien does know that.

Nino's still not welcome in the Agreste Manor, not without extenuating circumstances, but he's talking to Marinette a lot more already because of Chat Noir and it's pretty much impossible for them not to talk about Adrien sometimes.  He knows from Marinette that Adrien's dad has professional photos displayed and that he'll talk about them proudly.

But she says something about it had made her uneasy, and when she thinks about it later she realises what it was.

He'd been praising the photos.  He hadn't been praising his son. 

Nino's not surprised to hear that, but he wishes he was. 

He tries not to say anything around Adrien, because Adrien obviously loves his father and if anything that makes it hurt worse, but he finds himself venting to Marinette in the middle of the night a lot. (It's possible none of his friends have healthy sleeping habits.  It's possible that Nino doesn't, either).  He almost vents to Chat Noir, too, but something always stops him. 

Maybe the way Chat Noir never wants to go home.  Venting to him about someone else's family seems cruel, in that light.

Nino checks his phone again, thumb tracing through his lock screen in a familiar, compulsive pattern, but there's still nothing.  He knew that, because his phone shows his alerts when it's locked, he would never change that setting, but he checks anyway.

It's late.  It's possible that Adrien was just tired from the shoot and fell asleep before sending anything.  That happens rarely, but it does happen.  Nino's only been to one shoot and he'd only been to that one because Marinette had snuck him in with her, because as far as they can tell Nathalie still has standing orders to keep Nino away but the Gorilla cares far less.  Nino's liked the man since that day, because the Gorilla had seen them sneaking in and had only nodded them in the right direction. 

There's a reason Nino knows that the Gorilla collects superhero figurines.  He's asked.  The Gorilla had seemed surprised to be spoken to, but it hadn't taken him more than a moment's consideration to gesture for Nino's cell phone.  Nino had handed it over nervously, sure it was about to be snapped in half, but instead the Gorilla had punched in a number and handed it back. 

He doesn't talk to Nino very much and Nino is still too unnerved to initiate conversation very often, but the Gorilla sometimes sends very brief updates if Adrien's supposed to be out of touch.  Adrien usually isn't actually out of touch, because he can always use the Ladyblog chat, but Nino still appreciates the heads up. 

Once the Gorilla had texted him a picture of Adrien at the end of a shoot, slumped in a folding chair with his head hanging low and obviously struggling against tears.  There'd been no message but the words 'Fix this.' 

Nino's pretty firmly in the Gorilla's corner ever since that one.   

But he hasn't heard from the bodyguard recently, and he's really starting to consider texting him himself, because he hasn't heard from Adrien since the day before yesterday.  That's unusual, for Adrien.  Unusual enough that Nino's wants to go over there and-

And what, he's not sure.  It's not like he knows any good ways to get past the Agreste security system.  He's still not sure how Adrien gets past it, now or back when he was still fighting to get enrolled in school. 

(Nino really hates Adrien's dad, and he's not sure Nathalie is a whole lot better).

Alya probably has some good ideas for how to get past security, and Nino would be willing to bet that Marinette does too.  He knows either of them would be willing to help him for Adrien's sake. Their other classmates would, too.  

Chat Noir shifts in his sleep, reminding Nino that Adrien's not the only one he's worried about.

(Chat Noir could definitely get him in through the security- but that's not at all a fair thing to ask of him). 

Nino swallows and leans back, absently running his hand across Chat's back like he would with an actual cat, and then bites back a laugh when Chat Noir arches into his hand with what sounds an awful lot like a sleepy purr. 

There's still no messages from Adrien, so Nino sends Marinette another text instead. 

ni_noway: dudes purring in his sleep

clefairy used metronome!: he does that

Nino pauses, staring at that message, as it dawns on him that Chat Noir must have actually slept at Marinette's before for her to know that. 

Well.  Dude doesn't seem like he gets a ton of sleep otherwise, with how often he's at one of their places or the other at night. 

ni_noway: he barely saw any of the movie he passed out like right away

Marinette's answer comes much slower this time.  It's late enough that Nino would feel bad about keeping her up, if he wasn't well aware that she'd already been awake.  The akuma have all come later this week, and that's shifted what feels like the entire city's sleep schedules, and neither one of them had been sleeping well to begin with.

clefairy used metronome!: that was a pretty bad fight earlier. he's probably still worn out.

Nino's breathing stutters for a moment, his hand clenching against Chat Noir's back.  It's only when Chat starts to stir, letting out a sleepy mrrp noise, that Nino forces himself to relax again. 

'Pretty bad' doesn't really cover it. 

It's not like Nino hadn't known that Chat Noir is all too willing to sacrifice himself for his partner.  It's not like he's the only one who knows that.  He thinks his class might know that even better than the rest of Paris, because Alya and Mme. Chamack don't manage to record every fight (despite their best attempts), but their class has been targeted a lot.  A lot more than Nino usually wants to think about, really. 

Nino'd run fast enough to get away from Timebreaker.  Fast enough to find a hiding place with Juleka and Max. 

Fast enough that they'd seen that second Ladybug, had seen the panic on her face as she stopped her partner from diving into the line of fire. 

Timebreaker's victims had been fading away.  Vanishing. Dying. 

It hadn't taken the three of them long to work out why Ladybug alone seemed to have followed Timebreaker back in time, why one of her first acts was to stop her partner from rushing in. 

It hadn't been hard to figure out that Chat must have been hit.  That she must have lost him. 

That's the only time Nino's ever heard Max curse. 

(Juleka had been cursing too, but Nino's known Juleka almost as long as he has Marinette and Kim and Ivan.  He's heard Juleka curse plenty of times.  No one who doesn't know her just as well will ever believe him, but he has). 

Nino had started paying closer attention, after Timebreaker, and-

Chat Noir tries so hard to put himself between his partner and danger that he's never out of danger. Never. 

Nino's only been Carapace a few times, but a few times is enough to know that those battles are a lot more terrifying to be in than they are to watch, and enough for Nino to realise how well he understands that bone-deep need to throw himself between his friends and anyone who's threatening them. 

Because Nino's felt it too. 

But-

Nino had felt it then, specifically, during that particular battle when he'd seen Alya and Chat Noir in danger and he'd promised to protect Alya less than an hour before.  It had thrummed through his blood like lightning, like that same promise given form. 

There's a dread that snakes through him whenever he lets himself think about how Chat Noir must feel like that all the time. 

No, 'pretty bad' doesn't begin to cover the fight from earlier. 

Alya had actually reared back at the sight, fumbling frantically to shut off her phone's camera and stop recording.  There are some things even Alya doesn't want to broadcast. 

Unfortunately Mme. Chamack's cameraman had been slower- she hadn't wanted him to stop filming at all, but the man had refused to record anything further. 

By then the footage of Chat Noir, broken and bloody and unmoving at the akuma victim's feet, had already been online. 

Ladybug had made a terrible noise, a noise Nino never wants to hear again, before springing to crouch over her fallen partner and swipe angrily at the akuma victim.  It's not possible to hear that awful sound on Mme. Chamack's recording but that's not where Nino had heard it.  Alya had been there.  Nino had been there. 

Nino can still hear the flood of anguished grief in that wordless cry, ringing in his ears. 

Ladybug had swallowed it back after mere moments, the grief seeming to move from her voice to her eyes as she started to taunt the akuma, nearly too low to hear. 

Nearly.  Not entirely. 

She hadn't moved away from her protective hunch over her partner, luring the akuma closer to her with a combination of taunts and threats and pointed references to how easy it would be to grab their Miraculous if they would just come a little closer.  A little closer.  A little closer yet.  

All the while she hadn't left Chat Noir's body for a second.

Nino's hand clenches against Chat's back.  He forces himself to relax again when Chat Noir lets out a sleepy whine of protest, but Nino can't keep himself from smoothing his hand across Chat's back again only seconds later.

Nino's phone vibrates. 

He snatches it up, trying to smother his anticipation before he can get his hopes up too high. 

It's not Adrien. 

Adrien's fine.  He's fine.  He's just been at a photo shoot and he's probably exhausted, he's fine, Nino can stop worrying any time now. 

He hasn't heard from Adrien in two days.  Adrien never goes that long without at least a text.  A meme.  A cat gif.  Something.  Radio silence isn't like him. 

Maybe his dad took his phone.  Nino wouldn't be surprised at that.  He's pretty sure Adrien knows how to get around the blocks on his computer- Nino's seen those blocks, and while they're annoying they're not all that complicated, so he doubts they actually stop Adrien from getting on to whatever sites he wants or from contacting people. Besides, Max has been at that computer now, so whatever restrictions are even still there have all kinds of workarounds built in that didn't exist before.

It hadn't taken Nino real long to notice that the controls on Adrien's computer were set to block any kind of messaging programs.  By the wide-eyed, slightly incensed look Max had shared with him while Adrien was bent over his keyboard, he's not the only one who'd noticed. 

Max had updated the Ladyblog's forums and direct messaging shortly after that.  Nino's pretty sure it would take a much more robust program to keep Adrien from those than his dad can install (or pay someone to install, more likely). 

It's always possible his dad caught on and found a better parental control program.  That's frustrating, but not anything they can't solve by sneaking Markov in again.  It still shouldn't keep Adrien from the Ladyblog system- or, for that matter, from the class chat Max had also set up through Markov and the Ladyblog. 

And that brings Nino right back to sneaking in to get Adrien. 

Nino can't stop worrying about Adrien. He's tried.  He can't stop. 

He can't stop worrying about Chat Noir, either. 

Chat takes a lot of hits for Ladybug, but not like he had earlier.  Today had been-

Akuma have killed people before, Nino knows that.  He hadn't (he'd been afraid to check for months, but he hadn't), but others have.

Timebreaker had.  So had Syren.  Alix and Ondine had discovered that fairly quickly, and Nino's not sure if Ondine took it worse because of the scale or if Alix did because it had been her friends.  No one takes it well.  

It's not anywhere near as common for someone to actually kill Chat Noir. 

Nino doesn't even like thinking those words, but-

The livestream had cut off, as quick as Alya could manage.  Mme. Chamack's cameraman had thrown his camera to the ground just before she'd finally asked him, her voice as shaky as Nino's legs had felt, to turn it off.

Nino hadn't wanted to see either, but he'd been there, and he couldn't seem to pull his eyes from the unmoving heap of black and blond and red, too much red, laid out at Ladybug's feet.  Not even the enraged, wordless howl from Ladybug before she'd started taunting the akuma closer, close enough for her to snap out her yo-yo and yank the akuma to her had snapped Nino out of it. 

He'd wondered at first why Ladybug hadn't chased after the akuma instead.

He'd realised that she'd been standing over her partner the whole time, refusing to leave him.  Nino's sure, because he'd been staring and hoping and willing himself to be wrong, that Chat Noir hadn't been breathing.  He'd seen that last desperate gasp for air, and then there hadn't been any more, and there was far more blood than Nino had ever wanted to see at all but especially not splashed all over a friend. 

Alya had contacted Markov when Ladybug had just started purifying the akuma.  There aren't any images from the tail end of that battle left online, because Markov had scrubbed them all at Alya's urgent request. 

The image is still, unfortunately, burned into Nino's brain. 

Alya's texted him, too, asking him if he's seen Chat Noir tonight.  She doesn't ask, normally, not anymore, but Nino can't blame her this time. 

Chat Noir had gone to Marinette's place before his, and Nino knows that because he'd sent Marinette message after anxious message asking if she'd seen Chat.  He hadn't really relaxed until Marinette had sent him a photo back of Chat Noir sitting on her chaise lounge, giving him a goofy grin and a victory sign. 

Nino's grateful she took the time to take a picture.  His hands hadn't stopped shaking until he'd seen it, seen Chat Noir so obviously alive and well.  He doesn't think a message alone would have been enough to reassure him.  Not with that image of Ladybug trying to protect Chat's still body etched just behind his eyelids. 

Yeah, Nino's not going to sleep tonight.

And Ladybug had spirited her partner away as soon as the rest of them had proof he was back on his feet, off to wherever the two of them go to lick their wounds, but Nino knows for a fact that once Chat Noir had resurfaced he'd spent what was left of the day bouncing between Marinette's place and Nino's.

Chat's not just not going home, he's showing no sign of wanting to. 

(He's clinging to people, to company, in a way that Nino finds uncomfortably familiar).

Chat's making little snuffling noises in his sleep, ears twitching as he ducks his head and cuddles closer to Nino.  Nino might have been uncomfortable with that, once, but not now that he's friends with Adrien.  He has too much experience now with his friends seeking the reassurance of touch. 

His phone's still dark.  He reopens his conversation with Marinette, careful to keep an eye on any of his alerts.

ni_noway: dude fell asleep like, right on top of me. my legs are asleep but i dont wanna wake him. tho he DID do that like, cat activation noise earlier and that was pretty entertaining

clefairy used metronome!: dont tell him he gets kinda lowkey anxious about the cat noises 

ni_noway: wait seriously i thought he was pretty into the whole stray cat theme

There's a pause where he can see Marinette typing.  It stretches out for long enough that he's starting to worry.

clefairy used metronome!: ... i dont think the stray part is on purpose

Nino shifts uneasily, eyes flickering between Marinette's message and Chat, draped snoring over his legs.  Nino seriously can't feel his legs but he's not about to move anytime soon. 

Chat Noir trusts him enough to fall asleep on him.  Nino hasn't been trusted with anything- anyone- that important since Ladybug had handed him the Turtle Miraculous. 

After today, after that battle, Nino wishes he could cast Shellter around them both even now.  His room doesn't always feel as safe as it used to, because akuma can and do go for people in their homes, but Chat Noir's presence alone dulls that fear and Nino wishes he could keep Chat safe in turn.  He's not sure, given Chat's terrifying sacrificial tendencies, that Chat Noir really understands that he's important to more than just his partner.  Nino's not sure sometimes that Chat understands how important he is to his partner.

He scans for butterflies again at that thought, not noticing until it's way too late that he's let his hand drift up over the planes of Chat's back and glide across his neck to start ruffling his hair.  It's surprisingly soft and by the time Nino finally snaps back to reality he's petting Chat Noir, running his fingers soothingly along Chat's ears as they twitch and flick and the hero is emitting a low, purring rumble that relaxes Nino as much as the petting seems to relax Chat. 

Nino's phone lights up. 

He reaches for it immediately, pulled out of his quiet contentment in an instant, but his shoulders slump a little when he sees the name on the display.  

He glances down at Chat Noir, but he doesn't show any sign of stirring even as Nino brings the phone up to his ear.  "Hey." 

"Sorry!" Marinette squeaks, and Chat's ears flick once even though she's obviously trying to keep her voice down.  "I didn't mean to hit call."  Guilt creeps into her voice as she adds, "Did I wake him?" 

"S'that Marinette?" Chat Noir mumbles, reaching blindly for the phone, and Nino gives it to him rather than tell him no. 

Chat Noir fumbles for a second until his hand closes over the phone, and then he squints down at it before turning an accusing look on Nino.  "S'not Marinette.  S'a phone." 

Nino hastily takes his phone back before Chat Noir can drop it, trying not to laugh as Chat curls back up across his legs.  Chat's ears are trained back towards him now, and there's a slightly sulky set to his shoulders that wasn't there before, but he clearly still isn't very awake.  "Hey, Marinette.  Does that answer your question?" 

She's not making any attempt to stifle her own giggles.  "Did he see any of the movie?" 

"No.  No, I'm pretty sure that he did not."  Nino pauses, watching as Chat Noir's shoulders relax again, slowly.  One cat ear stays tilted towards the phone.  Slowly, the rest of Chat Noir tilts that way too, like Marinette's voice is his true north.  "...Dude, are you seriously going back to sleep?" 

Nino's only answer is a very loud, very obviously fake snore that has him and Marinette both snorting with laughter. 

"Okay, dude, that's very convincing," Nino says, laughter spilling into his words, into the gentle movement of his free hand as he cards it through Chat Noir's hair and the hero shrugs himself impossibly closer.  "You've convinced me.  I am convinced." 

Chat Noir fake snores again, and from this angle Nino can see that he's fighting not to smile. 

"I'm coming over there," Marinette announces, abruptly, and Chat Noir's tail gives a startled lash that he couldn't possibly hide even if his ears hadn't shot straight up at Marinette's words.  One of them flickers briefly backwards, into Nino's suddenly still hand. 

"You are not," Nino says, because he doesn't know what else to say. 

"Yes," Marinette declares. "I am.  I'll be there in like ten minutes, don't go anywhere." 

"Marinette-"  Nino doesn't get any further than that, because she's hung up on him. 

He stares down at the phone, rotating it once, checking his call history and his messages again to make sure he hasn't missed any.  He has it set up so that he shouldn't ever miss any incoming calls, not even if he's already on the phone, but he still has to check. 

He's also asked Markov to take a look at it so he knows he can't miss any incoming alerts but he still has to check. 

Chat Noir's propped himself up on his elbows again, looking much more alert.  "Marinette's coming over?" 

Nino looks at his window.  Because the apartment is on the fifth floor.  And it's the middle of the night.  And his parents are not going to be thrilled if they realise Nino's room is full of superheroes and classmates, so the front door is out, and he has no idea how Marinette is getting here. 

He looks back at Chat Noir, who tilts his head inquisitively.  His eyes are gleaming in the light from the laptop, lit up with hope, his ears still trained towards Nino's phone and his tail twitching happily. 

He looks full of enthusiasm.  Full of life. 

It strikes Nino that if Chat had stayed at Marinette's instead of coming here, Nino would be the one finding some excuse to leave for Marinette's.

He looks away, back down at his phone, and realises he's clenched his fist too tightly around it.  Relaxing his hand takes real effort. 

Chat Noir's watching him stare at his phone again. 

Nino checks again.  There aren't any new alerts in the last minute and a half.  He grits his teeth, knowing he's being ridiculous, and feels Chat Noir's eyes on him as he carefully sets the phone down.  He doesn't want to risk an akuma coming for him if he keeps checking it this obsessively. 

He still makes sure to turn the volume up first.  Just in case. 

He can tell Chat wants to ask, but a knock at the window arrests them both. 

Nino turns, slowly, to stare at the window.

It has not been ten minutes.

Chat Noir is going to have to get up for either of them to go let Marinette in, because he's still sprawled across Nino's lap and Nino's legs are still very much asleep after being pinned so long. 

"That was quick," Chat says, his voice still a little thick with sleep.  He rubs at his eyes with one clawed hand, wincing a little.  "Aren't you gonna let her in?" 

"You sorta need to move first, dude," Nino says, dryly, and then just as Chat Noir goes tense- probably preparing to finally shift position fully- they both hear a click. 

Nino looks.  Nino looks, because he's never learned better than to look, not even after all the things he's seen and been through with others. 

Marinette's already in through the window, throwing off a heavy, patterned jacket that Nino doesn't recognise before toeing her shoes off and beelining for the bed. 

"Nino, you need better locks," she tells him, before catching an armful of very happy Chat.  "Oof! Hey, I'm trying to be serious, here."

Nino throws both hands in the air, flumping backwards into his pillows as he does.  "Sorry that I don't lock my bedroom window, the one that faces an alley, on the FIFTH FLOOR."

"You should start," Marinette replies, unruffled, as Chat winds his arms around her waist and lets out a muffled purr.  She ruffles his hair just behind the same place Nino had, beside and behind one of his ears, and Chat's eyes slit with pleasure.  His purr rumbles louder.  "C'mon Nino, I thought we agreed on visitation rights." 

"That's not-" Nino finds a spare pillow and pretends to threaten to hit Marinette with it.  Chat Noir hisses, back arching, when he sees Nino and stays tense until Nino drops the pillow and holds up empty hands.  "Listen, dude, I did not agree to this whole shared custody thing.  This is, this is a thing that happened to me, I had no say in it happening." 

Still curled around Marinette, Chat Noir makes a sad noise, his ears flattening.  Marinette coaxes both ears back upright immediately, scratching behind them and saying something soothing too quietly for Nino to hear, and then she glares at him over Chat Noir's head. 

"Sorry," Nino says hastily, holding both hands up defensively and ignoring the whisper of suspicion in the back of his mind.  That whisper's been there since the first night Chat Noir had followed him from Marinette's and he doesn't think it's a good idea to pay attention to it.  "Sorry, dude, you know I didn't mean it like that." 

Chat turns, one of Marinette's hands slipping to his shoulder as soon as he relinquishes his grip on her waist, and Nino winces at the full-bore sad kitten eyes he's getting.  "I didn't actually ask you about this." 

"If I had a problem with it, I would not keep opening the window, dude."  Nino shifts too, reaching out without knowing why until his hand curls around Chat's upper arm, tugging him closer.  "Okay? You're always welcome." 

There's a terrible expression of guilt and longing that sweeps over Chat Noir's face at that, one that has Nino and Marinette catching each other's eyes immediately. 

Marinette doesn't wait to be asked before climbing onto the bed.  Nino might have found that more awkward, before Alya and before this whatever-it-is between him and Chat Noir, but by now it would be a lot more awkward for Marinette not to join them. 

They do not fit well. 

Nino's bed is not large.  Marinette scoots up against the headboard with him, leaning up against his side, and Chat Noir gives them both a grin that's still a little wobbly before he sprawls across their outstretched legs with a deep sigh. 

"Dude," Nino says, trying not to shift too much, because he's not entirely sure his knee won't end up jabbing Chat right in the stomach. "That cannot be comfortable." 

"I've seen him sleep in worse places," Marinette says dryly, and she doesn't appear to notice the incredulous look Nino gives her at that.  

Nino settles back against the headboard with a sigh of his own.  "You're the only one that can reach the laptop now, dude.  So if you wanna watch anything after all that's on you."  He doesn't tell them that they have to be quiet.  They don't, actually, Nino's dad isn't home tonight, but he wouldn't have to tell them anyway. Chat Noir is never too loud when he's here, and Marinette has even more practice than Nino at hiding Chat in her room.

Sometimes Nino really wishes his life was a little less weird.

Sometimes.  Surprisingly, not often. 

(Besides, he understands why Marinette's here.  Chat Noir's lazy sprawl means each rise and fall of his chest, each time he takes a breath, is impossible to miss, and the reassuring warmth of him is all that's keeping Nino from reliving that terrible moment earlier when he'd realised he couldn't see Chat breathing). 

"Maybe I changed my mind about the movie."  Chat Noir gives them a lazy smirk, bringing his arms up under his head and turning sideways just enough to make himself more comfortable.  Nino recognises the deep rumble that colours Chat Noir's voice, a subsonic purr that means he's building up to a larger one.  "Maybe I'm good here." 

Marinette rolls her eyes at him, leaning away from Nino long enough to reach across Chat Noir's back and snag the laptop for herself.  "Fine, alley cat, then Nino and I will watch the movie and you'll just have to try to figure out what's going on from-"

Nino's phone rings. 

Nino's phone isn't in his hand. 

His head jerks around, searching, and when he finds it on the floor, where it must have fallen as they rearranged themselves, he nearly dives off the bed for it.  Chat Noir moves quickly closer to Marinette, clearly startled, but Marinette only looks at Nino with an odd expression for a long moment. 

His phone's stopped ringing.  Missed call.  He hadn't gotten to his phone in time and he's missed a call. 

He hasn't missed a call since he'd met Adrien.

Nino doesn't get back up off the floor, doesn't do anything else before he unlocks his phone with shaking hands.  He can feel Marinette and Chat Noir watching him, silent and unsure, but he has to check first. 

Missed Call From Alya

Nino exhales so hard he's dizzy with it, feeling his heart rate start to slow as he returns the call. "Alya? What's up?" 

"Hey, babe."  Alya sounds tired.  He really doubts she's been sleeping, because she saw the battle today more clearly than anyone but Ladybug.  Nino hadn't been filming and Chat Noir is in his room right now and he's still not going to be sleeping. 

"I, uh, I have kind of a dumb request," Alya says quietly.

"What is it?" Nino asks, finally moving to scramble back up onto the bed, letting Chat and Marinette help him up.  In less than a minute they're all three huddled together again, but it doesn't feel the same as it did before.  It feels less like warmth and comfort and more like huddling against the dark.  It makes Nino think of camping, the way the campfire can be so many different things in so short a timespan.  How it can be a gathering place, full of light and laughter- or a last fading beacon in the night, a final port of safety against the storm.

He shakes his head, hard, not sure where that came from. 

"Is Chat Noir over there?"  Alya asks.  "Because Marinette's not answering me, and I know I said I'd leave you alone about it, but I know he goes over there a lot too, and-" She stops, and he can almost hear her counting down from ten.  "If he's okay with it.  Can you send me a picture?  I, um."  Her voice wavers in a way he's only heard it do when they try to talk about Zombizou or Oblivio.  "I can't sleep. I keep- I keep picturing the fight."  He knows the sound of her breath hissing out between her teeth.  "Every time I close my eyes. It's all I can see."   

Nino's eyes find Chat Noir's, but Chat's already nodding, twisting over so that Marinette can take a picture of all three of them to send. 

Nino waits, but it's not long before he hears Alya's familiar laugh, more uneven than usual.  He thinks she might have been crying when she called, but he's not about to call any attention to that.  "I see none of you invited me." 

"She can come!" Chat Noir says quickly, propping himself up on one elbow.  At a pained noise from Marinette, whose leg he's just jabbed his elbow into, he swiftly slips back down onto his side.  Quietly, he repeats, "She can come." 

"You don't live here," Marinette points out to him, rubbing a circle behind one of his ears in silent forgiveness.  "You don't get to invite people over." 

"Didn't you just invite yourself over?  Like, just now?" Nino says, before returning his attention to Alya.  "Dude, if you wanna come over here then go ahead, but I have no frickin' clue how Marinette got to the window." 

"I climbed," Chat Noir says helpfully, holding up his claws. 

Marinette holds up her bitten-short nails in mimicry and informs Nino, "I also climbed." 

"I'm-"  Nino sighs.  "I do not care how anyone's getting in here anymore." 

"Good, because I'm climbing," Alya says, and then hangs up. 

Nino stares at the phone with a distant, unnerved certainty that his girlfriend's going to be the next one to climb in through his fifth floor window. 

Wait, no, he's perfectly okay with that. 

He also checks the phone again, just in case he somehow missed another call while he was talking to Alya.  He hasn't, but he turns the volume up before setting his phone down this time. 

"Nino," Marinette says. 

He doesn't reply. 

"Nino."  She puts a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look over at her.  Her eyes are a lot more understanding than he'd expected. "You still haven't heard from him?" 

He leans into Marinette's hand, which also pushes him further into Chat Noir.  Chat's gone very quiet, watching them both now with his ears pinned back and his tail still.  "No.  No one has."  Nino pauses.  "You haven't-" 

"I would have said," she assures him, and the dark only mostly hides her blush.  "I don't think any of us would have heard from him before you, though." 

"Heard from-"  Chat Noir's voice cracks. 

Alarmed, Nino's gaze darts back to him, but Chat's staring down at his blanket now.  He takes the edge of it between his claws, worrying at it, and Nino should probably be concerned about how sharp those claws are against the cloth but he can't make himself care.

"From my best friend."  Nino doesn't expect those words to hurt to say, but they do, and he's not sure why.  "He hasn't been in class for a few days, an' I'm getting worried, he doesn't usually- he never goes this long without sendin' me some kinda message, you know?" He shakes his phone slightly as though that'll help, a habit he'd picked up sometime in the past few months.  "Even if it's just a cat meme.  Something."

The fight earlier had made it worse.  It's too strong a reminder of how serious the attacks actually are, something that gets lost sometimes under how ridiculous most of them feel. 

It's too easy to picture Adrien slumped in Chat Noir's place. 

Nino had checked on all his friends that he could reach after that battle, only to find several classmates already messaging him, the class chat alight with everyone's screennames all at once. 

Almost everyone.

Chat's ears are still pinned back.  "Maybe he doesn't have his phone?" 

"That's- that's probably all it is," Nino admits, slumping further into his friends.  "And I know that, I know his dad probably just, like, took the dude's phone and he's probably been too busy to get to his computer and-"  He stops and tugs away from Marinette to press the heels of his hands against his eyes.  "And I still can't stop worrying." 

Chat Noir's ears don't flicker back upright, and his eyes are very wide.  "It's that important to you?  That you haven't heard from him?" 

"Yeah."  Nino clutches his phone with both hands and draws a little closer to Marinette, aware that he sounds far too defensive.  "Yeah, it is.  I worry about the dude, okay?  His dad's not great and it's not like him not to send me something and I know he's really alone at his place and-" Nino forces himself to stop before he can't, taking a deep breath, and says quietly, "Yeah. I worry about him.  I worry about him a lot." 

"Oh," Chat Noir says softly, eyes still blown wide.  He looks bewildered.

Marinette reaches out, not for Nino but for Chat.  She wraps a hand around his arm and tugs him closer until he's sprawled in her lap, looking up at her, and as Chat's ears do flick upright Nino hastily looks away and back down at his phone. 

Marinette says something very softly to Chat Noir.  He responds just as quietly and Nino tries really, really hard to ignore how comfortable the two of them are with each other. 

It's a little easier when he remembers that Chat Noir had been sprawled trustingly across him earlier, too.

He's proud that he's someone Chat trusts that much.  He's scared that he's someone Chat trusts that much. 

He's scared that he'll let Chat Noir down, somehow.  He's also scared that Chat will suddenly realise that he's made a mistake in trusting Nino. 

There's a rapping at the window before he can follow that line of thought, and Nino turns to give his girlfriend an incredulous look, because he knows it's her.  He knows it's her because no one else is going to be at his fifth floor window rapping out 'shave and a haircut.'

He can't actually say that anymore, can he.  Because he would not be surprised to see either Marinette or Chat Noir do the exact same thing now. 

Marinette squirms free long enough to open the window, then drops back closer to the foot of the bed so that Alya can join Nino up against the headboard.  Chat Noir draws his legs up under him, huddling against Marinette so that they're all in a loose circle on the bed. 

They don't fit. 

They didn't fit before Alya joined them.  They definitely do not fit now.

Chat Noir is neatly curled into a compact ball at Marinette's side, more catlike than ever, and Alya is leaning heavily into Nino's side, and Nino's legs are tangled with Marinette's and Alya's both, and he wonders if Chat knows how loudly he's purring right now.

Chat loves touch.  Loves cuddling, loves to be hugged.  Nino knows better than to comment on just how much Chat Noir loves physical contact, because Nino's used to Adrien and Adrien uses every possible excuse to slide close even at their desk during class, and Nino would never tell either of them to stop.  They both seem to need it so badly. 

He knows why Adrien needs that reassurance.  He can guess why Chat does. 

"You know," Marinette says, breaking the silence, tilting her head at Alya in a way that eerily echoes Chat Noir.  "This might make it a little difficult to watch a movie." 

Alya shrugs, moving Nino along with her.  "Hey, podcasts are a thing.  Games.  Nino's got games.  Who wants to play Sheriff of Nottingham?"

"You only want to play that because you cleaned everyone out last time," Marinette says, playful with a hint of accusation. 

"What's Sheriff of Nottingham?" Chat asks curiously, and Nino sighs internally, because now there's no way they aren't going to play. 

They don't even make it through a single round before Alya says, abruptly, "Adrien should be here."

Chat Noir drops his cards.  He doesn't cover them in time to keep Marinette from taking a glance at them that she doesn't even try to hide.

"Can't raise the dude," Nino says, aware that he sounds despondent by now.  "It's been days.  Dude, I'm about ready to go over there and break in."  He eyes his window.  "Which apparently everyone else can do better than me."

"You should see Kim and Rose," Marinette tells him immediately, which is the opposite of reassuring in so many ways.  "They can get into the weirdest places." 

"Yeah, can they get into the mansion?" Nino's cards are resting on his phone.  He shifts them sideways to just enough to check, but he doesn't have any new messages.  "Can they get us into the mansion?"  

"I don't know," Marinette admits.  "They'd try." 

Nino eyes the window. 

"You're seriously considering that?" Chat Noir asks.  His voice is very soft, much softer than Nino's used to hearing it.  "You'd break in to get him?" 

Nino shrugs, defeat settling over him like a heavy blanket.  "To break him out, yeah.  I don't, uh, I don't know why he hasn't been answering me, dude."  He blinks, his face suddenly hot, and rubs the bridge of his nose.  "But there's- the place has a hell of a security system." 

Chat takes a deep breath, his ears and tail going still, and offers, "I can go check on him."  His voice wavers a little as he adds, "I might be able to get him over here.  Pretty sure I can't make it back here after I get him, though." 

Marinette knocks her shoulder against him.  "We want you here too, though, kitty."  Her eyes widen slightly, and Nino tries not to notice the way her eyes flick to him and Alya.  "Er, Chat." 

"Oh."  And that's the same lost tone from before, as Chat Noir glances between them all, ears twitching nervously and one hand grasping the buckle on his tail.  "But you're worried about your friend, right?  I'm sure you'd rather-" 

"Dude," Nino interrupts tiredly.  "Do not finish that sentence.  Yeah, I wanna see my bro, but that doesn't mean we don't wanna hang out with you.  Besides, I think you'd get along with Adrien really well."  His lips quirk in a grin.  "You can nerd out over anime together." 

"Please do not encourage this," Alya tells him.  "Please." 

"Alya, I caught you watching Hunter x Hunter, like, last week," Marinette says dryly. 

Alya levels an arm at her, stabbing one finger forward and nearly knocking Marinette's cards askew.  "That is valuable akuma preparation.  That is studying all kinds of possible abilities that an akuma could have, that is, that is research.  One day there will be a damn shrike akuma and you will thank me." 

Nino snorts, tries to hide it, then gives up and starts laughing. 

Chat Noir's giggling.  He catches himself, but only in time to let a contented purr rise in its place. 

Flushing and averting his eyes, Chat slides out from Marinette's side and climbs to his feet.  "I'm gonna go get your friend."  He doesn't look at any of them. "I can't come back tonight, but I'll see you tomorrow?"  His voice lilts hopefully. 

Nino and Marinette exchange glances. 

"My place or yours?" Nino asks Marinette, and now Alya starts laughing.  

Chat Noir agrees to meet them at Marinette's in the morning, though, and when he does dive back out the window Nino's struggling not to get his hopes up about seeing Adrien tonight.  He'd have settled for a cat meme, at this point, but actually spending some time with Adrien would be even better. 

Even if he does really wish Chat Noir had stayed.  He's kept Chat for hours already, though, and presumably the dude does have to go home eventually.  As badly as Nino had needed to know that Chat's okay he doesn't think Chat staying longer would have made any real difference in that reassurance.

"He was cheating," Marinette comments, leaning over to flick through Chat Noir's cards and ruffle through his item pouch.  "Oh, wow, he was really cheating." 

"Marinette, you were cheating," Alya says dryly.  "You weren't even trying to hide it." 

"Pretty sure all of you were cheating, honestly, but I don't think it matters."  Nino leans back, not caring if he upsets his part of the game, and watches his window. 

He must blink at some point, because he doesn't see Adrien until he's already trying his best to climb in. 

Nino springs to his feet before he's finished realising what he's seeing, reaching out for Adrien and pulling him into the room so hard that crashes into Nino's chest and knocks them both over and onto the bed.  Cards and game pieces scatter everywhere. 

"Ow," Alya says, shifting so that Nino's elbow isn't digging into her thigh.  "Hi to you too." 

Marinette had dodged in time, somehow, and was busy blushing as she stared at Adrien in his pyjamas.

Nino had not been sure that Adrien owned pyjamas. Adrien's admitted to sleeping in his clothes most of the time.  He says it's because you never know when there might be an emergency and you'll want to be fully dressed, but Nino keeps thinking that there has to be more to it than that.  Whatever else it might be, though, isn't something Adrien is willing to share. 

Adrien's pyjamas are unsurprisingly Ladybug themed, a faded shirt and drawstring pants both made out of some unbelievably soft material and spotted in the same patterns as Ladybug's suit. 

"Heard you were having a party without me," Adrien says, his tone joking, but his eyes tell a different story. 

Alya waves at the scattered spread of the game.  "Take Chat Noir's place, he was losing anyway." 

Nino looks at the tiny, tiny space next to Marinette, the spot that Chat Noir had so easily curled up in, and then looks at Alya. 

She grins at him.  It's a little more reminiscent of a predator baring their teeth than he would like. 

Alya's going to have to learn to live with disappointment, though, because Nino has no intention of letting go of Adrien any time soon.  Nino's good sprawled across the middle of the bed like this, feet hanging off one side and head hanging off the other, his arms full of Adrien because Adrien had hugged him as soon as they'd hit the bed. 

There's a game marker digging into Nino's side and Adrien is too skinny to really hold comfortably like this and Nino does not care. He hears Alya taking pictures with her phone and he doesn't care about that, either. His own phone's fallen somewhere in the chaos, but Adrien is here so that's fine. He can find his phone again when Adrien has to leave.

"Dude," Nino says, slightly out of breath with the weight on his chest. "You haven't been answering your phone."

"Don't have it," Adrien says, mouth twisting unhappily downwards for a split second. "I was trying to text you during the shoot and Nathalie confiscated it, I haven't been able to get it back yet." He shifts, but only slightly, withdrawing his arms from around Nino only to fold them in between the two of them instead.

Alya leans forward, resting a hand on Adrien's back with a speaking look at Marinette. "What about the Ladyblog?"

Adrien groans, settling more comfortably into his sprawl on top of Nino. Nino's still relieved enough that Adrien's here that he doesn't protest, even though he's starting to worry about his breathing. "Father wasn't happy about Nathalie catching me texting at work, so I don't have a computer right now, either."

"Max's programs-" Nino starts, brows furrowing.

Adrien shakes his head, his hair brushing against Nino's chin, and Nino closes his eyes on a grin as he hears both of the girls choke.

"No, I don't have a computer," Adrien clarifies, and from this position it's really obvious when he goes tense. "As in, it's not in my room, Nathalie unhooked everything and took it out while I was at the second photo shoot."

Nino catches a growl behind his teeth, but he hears Alya snarl and Marinette let out a hiss and Adrien flinches anyway.

It's Marinette that Adrien looks to first, and Nino's a little worried about that, but it's quickly obvious that Marinette's too offended on Adrien's behalf to have any trouble being around him right now.

"They shouldn't do that," Marinette says, her voice hitting a pitch Nino's pretty sure he's only heard around Chat Noir before. "That's not right."

Adrien shrugs, making Nino let out a pained grunt. Wincing guiltily and rolling off Nino, crowding the bed even more, Adrien says, "It's just grounding. No computer and no phone, that's pretty common, right."

From the way he's not meeting anyone's eyes as he says it, Nino's sure Adrien knows better than that.

"Yeah, most of us go to school all the time," Alya says dryly, hauling Nino up and settling him beside her again. Adrien stays where he is, twisted up between everyone else and biting his lip. "It's a little different when those are your only ways to talk to us, sunshine."

"I should be back at school in a week," Adrien protests, and Nino bites back a curse.

"A week, dude?" He says instead, nudging Adrien's shoulder with his foot until Adrien scoots closer to Marinette, over where they can all see each other.  There are still cards and bits of the game scattered across the bed and onto the floor, but no one cares.  "Thought you were supposed to be done after this weekend." 

Adrien's smile doesn't reach his eyes.  "I thought so too.  I guess Nathalie didn't give me the updated schedule." 

"You had one job, lady," Alya mutters in Nino's ear, making him twitch slightly.  "One.  One job." 

"I dunno if that's, like, entirely accurate," Nino says out of the side of his mouth, acutely aware that Adrien is close enough to hear them if he's paying enough attention.  Luckily for them, Adrien seems to have turned that attention to Marinette.  "Doesn't she do a bunch of stuff for his dad, too?"

"Ask me if I care about Adrien's dad," Alya says flatly.  "Go ahead, Nino, ask me that." 

"Dude, preaching to the choir."  Nino's focus drifts back over to Adrien and Marinette. 

"You can call one of us if you need to get out," Marinette's telling him, that same ferocity that both helps and hurts her against Chloé evident in her voice.  "Call any of us.  We'll come get you, or we'll find someone to help us come get you." She pauses, eyes dropping to the cards scattered haphazardly across the bedspread and onto the floor.  "I know it's not fair to keep asking Chat Noir for help but we can ask him to show us how to get you out." 

"There were a lot of acrobatics involved." Adrien kicks over onto his stomach, folding his arms under his head.  Alya wastes no time in stretching out, draping her legs over his back.  Adrien doesn't seem to mind.  He only shrugs a few times to settle Alya in place.  "And the security system can get pretty tricky." 

Marinette's staring at Alya's legs draped over Adrien.  She's not going to respond until she's either rebooted or realised that touching Adrien is perfectly acceptable and, honestly, something Adrien is only ever going to be thrilled about. 

"We have Max," Nino says, when he realises no one else is going to.  "We have Kim and Alix and Rose.  We have Markov, he likes you. We have, like, the whole class, really.  We can get in, dude, we can get you out.  Just-" He takes a sudden, sharp breath, spotting the flaw in his plan.

"Let you know?" Adrien's smile is sad.  "Through what, smoke signals?" 

Alya shrugs.  "We are going to come running if we see smoke at your place." 

"We'll figure something out," Nino promises, his heart aching. "Even if it's just, like, ancient pagers or something, dude, we'll figure something out." 

In the end, they each find themselves with a walkie talkie courtesy of, again, Max and Markov.  They look like toys, each of the two sets has one designed after Ladybug and one after Chat Noir in them.  Alya and Adrien both claim the Ladybug ones immediately, which is fine by Nino. Judging by the grins they trade as they each take one of the Chat Noir ones he  thinks Marinette may feel the same way. 

Nino loves his friends.  He loves his girlfriend.  He does.  He loves them all, he loves Alya with a fierce protectiveness and he loves Adrien maybe a bit more than he wants to think about too closely and Marinette has been his friend for years and he's maybe not entirely over his crush on her. 

He thinks he might love Chat Noir just that tiny bit more. 

He's not planning on admitting that anytime soon.  Or, you know, preferably ever, to anyone, although he's had more than enough knowing looks from Alya by now to know that it isn't the secret he had hoped.  

Their walkie talkies are meant for kids, because they were the cheapest, if not the sturdiest.  They're supposed to have only a two or three mile range, but after Markov has been at them the range improves so vastly that Nino's honestly not sure where it ends.  Out of the city, maybe, at this point he wouldn't be surprised. 

It's not perfect.  It's not always guaranteed that their precautions will be enough, that they'll still be able to contact Adrien. 

(Adrien's so drawn to the class chat, to talking to everyone, to finally finally finally having the social interaction he's admitted to having wanted for so long, and his dad thinks nothing of taking it all away from him given the barest sliver of a reason. 

No wonder Adrien tries so hard not to upset anyone.  He's learned from experience just how harsh the consequences are). 

It's not perfect, but it's better, and the next time Adrien drops off the grid Nino raises him on the walkie talkie easily the same night.  The time after that, Chat Noir is over again and Nino can't reach Adrien, but Chat offers to go get him without being asked. 

"You don't have to," Nino says, when Chat offers.  "Seriously, dude, thanks, but you know I'm friends with you 'cause you're Chat, right?  We're not friends 'cause you're a hero, okay, we're friends 'cause you're you." 

The grin Chat Noir flashes him at that, full of life in a way Nino still needs to see sometimes, makes it clear that Chat does understand. "If I didn't want to do it, I wouldn't have offered." He stretches, every lithe muscle on display, and doesn't bother to suppress his purr.  He's been relaxed more and more around Marinette and Nino both and it's a lot rarer for him to be embarrassed by any cat traits now.  "I'll go get the Agreste kid.  I'll have him back here in five minutes, ten at the most." 

Nino nods and watches Chat dive out his window, extending his staff as he goes.  He knows he won't see Chat Noir tonight, because Chat never comes back when he's gone to get Adrien.  

Nino checks his phone as he waits for Adrien and tries not to think about how completely impossible it is to get Adrien back here as fast as Chat Noir always does.