Alya and Nino

"Hey guys," said Alya.

"Alya!"

"I've been asking other students about this morning's recent akuma attack and I was hoping I could get your two-cents on what happened."

Alya was of course talking about the most recent akuma attack that very morning. Their grouchy math and science teacher Ms. Mendeleiev found out that she received a pay cut by Principle Damocles and wound up akumatized. Having been turned into the Periodic Elemental - a witch-like villain with a purse full of magic potions - she nearly destroyed the school trying to get to the principle. Luckily Lordbug and Chat Noir managed to contain the mayhem and free the akuma in her make-up brush-turned flying broom before anyone was seriously hurt.

"I'm not sure what I would be able to tell you, Alya. I spent most of my time out looking for the proper authorities," Adrien lied.

"Y-Yeah, and I was hiding in the bathroom. I didn't even see the fight until it was over," said Marion.

"Really? And you two were not just spending the sudden free-period making out in the locker-room the whole time?" Alya teased.

Alya knew that Marion had a crush on Adrien ever since she confessed these feelings to his newest friend and Alya has been trying help them get together ever since. This was especially hard since Marion's nerves would always somehow get in the way (not to mention that Marion was not sure if Adrien would have been in to guys). When Marion told his friend that he finally confessed his feelings to Adrien and has since started dating him (leaving out the whole "Lordbug and Chat Noir learning who each other are" part), he was pretty sure her excited shriek would have cracked all of the windows in his room.

"You still going on about this morning?" Asked Nino who just came up the steps.

"Every detail counts when reporting, Nino."

"Right..."

"So what were you doing when Periodic Elemental threw hydrogen bombs in the air?"

"I hid in the bathroom. Best I could think of.

"So did Marion. You guys are no help."

Nino's eyes landed on Marion and Adrien's arm holding on to his shoulder. It has been a few weeks when Adrien told him that he was dating Marion. He didn't have a problem with it, but he had a hard time not thinking about it sometimes. He never pegged Adrien in being into men, but he never thought he would end up dating Marion of all people.

A while ago, Nino developed a crush on Marion. Maybe it was because he was nice, maybe it was because they both held a mutual contempt for Chloe, or maybe it was because Nino thought he was a girl the whole time. Marion inherited most of his features from his mother and he was very feminine in both look and habits, and Nino never really noticed when someone referred to him with "him/he" pronouns. It was an honest mistake, really. Adrien tried helping him ask Marion out (knowing that Marion was a man but not really judging), getting him alone with him at the zoo before the zookeeper was akumatized into Animan. Not really remembering how he would up in that empty gorilla habitat with Alya, but what he did remember was when Alya broke out into hysterical laughter before telling him that Marion was a man, and it all suddenly felt obvious to him in hindsight.

Nino wasn't a homophobe or anything like that, but that didn't mean he did not feel some kind of relief when he would up dating Alya from then on.