Chapter Text
There were times that Nino Lahiffe was fairly certain he should be well compensated for being best friends with one Adrien Agreste. This was one of them.
The blonde-haired model had been ranting for fifteen minutes, ever since class had let out. He was working himself up into a positive tizzy, and it was all over the stupidest freakin’ thing. Nino had accepted ages ago that his best friend was a socially awkward, emotionally stunted (oblivious) shut-in who Had Issues – that was all but promised when your father was Gabriel Agreste and the first time you really became involved in a typical social setting was the beginning of the school year. He would have understood if his best bro had been ranting about something normal, like – God forbid – a certain blue-eyed girl or something (either because Chloé was annoying him again or Marinette still couldn’t really form sentences around him – Nino wasn’t really picky by this point).
But this? This was just ridiculous.
“Dude, chill!” Nino finally snapped, grabbing onto Adrien’s shoulders and shaking. Adrien’s mouth snapped shut with an audible clack of his perfectly sculpted teeth. “It’s just an informative speech – no one said anything about it having to be a talent! You just have to tell us how to do something, man!”
“But that’s just it!” the blonde heartthrob cried. He grabbed Nino’s shoulders in turn, leaning closer with desperation in his eyes. “Nino…I don’t know how to do anything!”
God bless him, Nino’s only reaction was a twitching eye. A lesser man probably would have slapped the blonde.
“Then just tell us about something, geeze!” he shouted. “And what do you mean, you don’t know how to do anything? Dude, what about all your extra-curriculars? Like…I dunno, teach us some Chinese. Show us how to fence. You know karate, right? Show us some defensive moves – it’s not like we don’t need ‘em in this city. Like just do something, man!”
“I…” when Adrien’s voice trailed off, his eyes widening in horrified realization, Nino decided that his best friend was, without any shadow of a doubt, an Idiot.
“Look, Mademoiselle Bustier gave us an entire week to get the presentation together – and it only has to be five minutes!” Nino groaned. He grabbed Adrien’s shoulder and pointed across the courtyard, where Nathaniel was sitting nose-deep in his sketchbook. “I heard Nathaniel say he was thinking about telling us how to draw something.”
“Which is a talent he has,” Adrien pointed out, and Nino rolled his eyes so hard they actually stung. He turned Adrien again, a little rougher this time, and pointed to where Rose was giggling over something with Juleka.
“Rose was going on to Alya about how she’s going to tell us about the language of flowers!” he cried. When Adrien continued to stare at him like he Didn’t Have a Freakin’ Clue, he groaned and slapped a hand down his face. “Look, dude, you’ve got a week. Actually, a little longer – aren’t you going next Tuesday? You’ll be fine.”
“Adrien!”
They looked up to see Nathalie standing by the gates, waving the model over. Nino saw him wince again.
“I forgot about the shoot…” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. Nino clapped a hand against his shoulder and chuckled.
“Hey, if you’re so hell-bent on showing us a talent, you could always show us how to strike that perfect Teen Heartthrob pose!” he laughed. He was joking, of course, but the bewildered look Adrien gave him was too tempting to pass up. “Though on second thought, you’d probably cause Mari to have a meltdown if she was in direct line of your Smolder.”
From the way his face scrunched up, Nino could tell his best friend was still Totally Clueless (which meant, unfortunately, he owed Alya a coffee).
“What are you even talking about, Nino?” the blonde sighed. “Besides, modelling isn’t a talent – it’s…work. And why would Marinette care about my smolder? I don’t even have a smolder!”
Nino chuckled again as he patted his shoulder on their way to the car. He shook his head and said, “Oh, trust me, Agreste: you have a Smolder.”
As he waved a still-panicking Adrien off, Nino couldn’t help but think the next week was going to be fun.