Nino Lahiffe blew through his bubble wand, watching the sphere of soap glisten in the sunlight before it popped abruptly. He stood in the courtyard, leaning against a cement pillar as he waited for his friend. However, two new arrivals to the school caught his attention. 

"Adrien, huh? I'm Alya. Nice to meet you! Now, let's find someone to show us around..." A brunette with dyed ends was dragging around a blonde boy with a bemused expression, studying everyone's faces curiously. "Uhh... you! Hey!" She caught sight of Nino and apparently decided he was worthy of showing them around, dashing towards him while pulling the blonde behind him. 

"Sup. You two are the new dudes, right?" Nino pushed up the brim of his cap with a thumb and extended a hand. "I'm Nino."

"Alya and Adrien. Nice to meet you!" Alya shook his hand first, a wide grin on her face. Adrien shook his hand second, a friendly smile on his face.

"Same to you, dudes. Welcome to-"

"NINO!"

The three's heads whipped around simultaneously, rather hilariously to be honest, to see a grey and pink and white blur jump at Nino, causing him to spin around with a laugh. The blur turned out to be a short girl, blue-black hair and eyes bluer than the crystal clear ocean. Her plush, pink lips were open in bubbly laughter as she hugged Nino, feet off the ground. Alya and Adrien watched in confused amusement as the two friends greeted each other.

"Mar-bear! How was Shanghai? How's your grandma?" He grinned, setting the petit girl on the ground. She bounced on the balls of her feet, excitedly beaming.

"She's great! In fact, she even remembered you aaand..." Dragging out the last word, she held out a large white bag, a huge, giddy smile on her face. "She remembered how you like filming..."

Nino gasped, grabbing the bag and reaching in it to pull out a box that held a... "A professional camera! Marinette Dupain-Cheng, your grandma is awesome!" 

She flipped her midnight blue hair, well, tried to, tied up into childishly cute twin tails as it was. "I know. Runs in the family." Throwing him a dazzling, smug smile, she turned to the two new people. "Hi! I'm Marinette, nice to meet you!"

Alya, snickering slightly at Adrien's adorable starstruck look as he stared at the pretty, bubbly girl. "I'm Alya, this dork is Adrien." She saved her new friend, snickering again as he nodded absently, eyes still trained on Marinette.

Nino chuckled, watching Adrien jerk out of his reverie and embarrassed, rubbed the back of his neck while a red flush crept up his neck with an awkward laugh. He watched as Marinette blushed lightly but giggled, holding out her fist. Adrien blinked at it, confused.

"You pound it." She explained, and when she got no reaction, she held it out to Nino, who met it with a fist of his own. "See? It's a greeting. Sometimes you do this, but only if you're feeling it." She then opened her hand to mimic an explosion and copied the sound. "Try it!" She again held out a fist to Adrien. He smiled and bumped it with his own, before mimicking an explosion. Marinette erupted into giggles, enticing a laugh from the blonde boy too. 

Alya, meanwhile, had been watching while leaning on her newest friend, Nino. She smirked, tipping her head towards him. "Wanna bet they're dating by the end of the year?"

Nino scoffed. "Please. It'll definitely be by the end of the first semester." 

"50 euros."

"Deal."

~*~

Nino watched again the video on the newly founded Ladyblog, set up by the lovely Alya, in awe as the two new heroes took down the villain. It was like a comic book! Now all it needed was his best friend under the mask!

...Wait a minute.

Nino paused the video and zoomed in on Ladybug's face, thanking the stars for enhancing, and studied it closely, squinting. Bluebell eyes, midnight hair... freckles, same skin tone... Even the same pigtails! Nino's eyes widened in disbelief as he sat back in his chair, air leaving his mouth in a whoosh. 

Ladybug was  Adrien Ag.... no wait that's Chat Noir. Whoops. Carry on. As you were. You saw nothing.

Ladybug was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, his childhood best friend!

SHE EVEN DID THE POUND IT THING WITH CHAT NOIR!!

WAIT. THE POUND IT THING.

CHAT NOIR WAS ADRIEN!!!!!!!!!!

HOW WAS ONE DJ SUPPOSED TO COPE WITH THIS?!?!

~*~

Nino slipped un-suspiciously into his seat, un-suspiciously glancing at an un-suspicious Adrien beside him and un-suspiciously looking behind him to un-suspiciously check if Marinette was there.

A complete lie, Nino had no idea how to cope. The only un-suspicious thing he did was throw a grin at Alya when she shot him a very suspicious look.

Huh. Suspicious sounds weird now. Sus-pi-shush. Sus-piiiiiiiiiii-shush. Sus-pi-shuuuussssshhhh. Sus-piiiiiiiiiiiii-shuuuuuuuusssssshhhhh.

Nino started chuckling hysterically under his breath while the word spun around in his head. Then it isn't really under his breath and the whole class plus the teacher is staring at him with creeped-out expressions.

"Nino, what is so funny?" Ms. Bustier folded her arms and regarded the boy who's desk mate was leaning away ever so slightly.

"THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE!!" He cackled, clutching his stomach and banging his head on the table. And at that moment, Marinette burst into the room. 

Before the blunette could speak, Ms. Bustier opened her mouth once more. "Marinette, can you please take Nino somewhere he can calm down?" Marinette spared a glance towards a what looked to be insane Nino. She raised an eyebrow and a corner of her mouth in confusion before grabbing his arm and gently pulling him to his feet, leaning away from him surreptitiously. 

Marinette dragged him out the door and into the hallway, where he leaned against the wall, tears streaming down his face from distressed laughter. Eventually she became frustrated and threw water on him. "Nino. Calm. Down." 

He suddenly shot up and gripped her shoulders, grinning madly. "I knooooooooooooow, Marinette! I know everything! You can't hide huge secrets from me!!" He whisper yelled, shaking her slightly.

Needless to say, she punched him out. 

~*~

Nino woke up with a groan and an ice-pack on his head. 

"Okay, crazy guy, what the hell were you going on about and why did you grab me?" 

He lifted his head to see Marinette sitting on her pink desk chair, arms folded and frown set. However, the somewhat threatening, aggressive pose was brought down by the glass of water and plate of cookies beside her, along with a consistently buzzing phone.

He smirked lightly. "Alya?"

She shrugged. "I did kinda knock you out."

"Yeah well, I had it coming." Nino fully accepted the fact that he did go overboard with some revelations. 

"Yeah you did. Now you get to tell me what you were on about." 

"I will... once you give me the cookies."

Marinette huffed good-naturedly and passed over the plate of cookies, of which Nino happily decreased the weight. "Talk, buddy."

"Yeah, so, last night- was it last night? Yeah, it was last night. Whew, time flies." Nino's subtle attempt at delaying the inevitable did not escape Marinette, whose slight amusement melted away. "I kinda, maybe, figured out Ladybug and Chat Noir's identity?" Marinette stiffened.

"Oh, really?" Her voice was considerably higher and cracked. 

"Yeah. They may be in our class."

Now he's just having fun.

"Uh-huh?"

"Yeah, I'm stringing you along Mar, I know it's you and that's why I've been freaking out all day but now I have come to terms with it! You and Adrien are so cool though, with all those moves, and the pound it thing, and saving lives- hey, why're you staring at me like that?" 

Marinette stood stock still, eyes wide and mouth open. "Adrien's... A-Adrien's..."

Nino finally realised. "Wait. You didn't... ohhhh shoot." He lifted a hand as if to say something, before deciding against it, pulling out his bubble wand and mixture, blowing some bubbles. "Well, that just means more people want you two to get together. You two should hook up, you're like, made for each other."

It was Marinette's turn to black out.

"I think I've done enough damage today. Hey Sabine, you think I could some croissants...?"