Adrien's POV

I invite Nino over at school, and he says he doesn't have any plans.

So I text Mom to tell her it's a go, and she sounds excited.

I remind Nino to be careful to not mention anything about y/n or secret identities.

"Don't worry, Dude. I'm a vault!" He reassures me.

Before I know it, school is over and Marinette is once again telling me goodbye as I wait outside.

Thankful The Gorilla is always punctual, I wave goodbye as I leave.

He grunts a hello and takes me home.

Nino isn't going to be coming over for a few hours, but I can tell Mom has been busy.

There's a nice tablecloth, flowers, candles.

You'd think the Queen of England was coming.

It almost looks like something I'd set up for y/n and I as a date.

I guess Mom is where I get all my romantic-ness from.

Certainly couldn't be my father.

I can't recall one time he set up a nice dinner for their anniversary, they always just went out.

But I've already planned out the date I want to take y/n on for our first anniversary, when it's months away.

Maybe all the time spent around Plagg and his cheese had taken it's toll on me.

For all her effort, I don't know where Mom is, so I head up to my room to get started on homework.

But of course I run into Felix first.

"Is your girlfriend coming over?" He asks.

"No. Mom still doesn't know about her, right?"

"Not unless you've told her. Why does she have the fancy stuff out?"

"No idea. My friend Nino is coming, I guess she just wants to make a good impression."

"Whatever. Anyway, my mom and I are going back to London for the night, she wants to check on the house or something. She's got business to attend to."

"Cool. See you later then." I say, then slip into my room.

Plagg flies out of my bag, quickly running for cheese.

"How long did it take for you to finish that whole wheel I put in there for you?" I ask him.

"That's not important! What is important though, is restocking! I've only got like, 30 wheels left! That won't last long!"

"Maybe you should be more sparing with it. Mom will pay attention more than Father. She'll notice if I buy 500 things of cheese."

"She'll just assume you've figured out the best food on Earth!"

"Right. Well, I'll let you get to your cheese, I have math work to do."

"I don't get why you humans do all this school stuff. I've never been a student a day in my life, and look how smart I am!"

"Right. Who invented the lightbulb?" I ask something fairly easy.

"That wasn't an invitation for a history lesson! Besides, that was probably one of your questions and you're gonna use me to cheat!" He dodges the question and hides in his cheese.

I laugh at him, then do my work until I hear Mom calling me.

Once I get downstairs, she looks me over and asks if I'm going to change.

"Uh, no? I wore this to school, and I doubt Nino changed either."

"OK then. Is this him?" She asks, gesturing to the camera at the gate.

"Yep, open it up! I'll get the door!"

I go to greet Nino, and I was right about nobody changing.

"Wassup, Bro!" Nino says.

"Hey, Dude!" I respond, bumping his outstretched fist.

"So Mom went all out, not sure why, but just roll with it, I guess." I warn him.

"Not a problem. Would she be cool with the term "Dudette"?"

"Probably."

Then Mom comes in, with happy hellos.

"Sup', Dudette!" Nino says, not bothering with formalities.

"Oh, um, sup'!" Mom replies.

We laugh, then go get seated.

"So. What are we having?" I ask.

"I haven't prepared anything yet, I thought you could decide for yourselves!"

"Fine by me! I know what I want. You?" I ask.

"Yes, I've already told the chef what I'd like. How about you, Nino?"

"This place is like a restaurant! Uh, can I get a pizza?"

"Dude, that's what I wanted!" I laugh.

So we discuss toppings for a minute, then I go to the kitchen.

Hopefully things aren't too awkward for them.

When I return, they still seem relaxed, so I guess it went fine.

We talk until the food arrives, Mom asks Nino some questions about his DJing, which he happily talks about about.

She answers some questions about what happened to her.

We talk some during the meal, but Mom is so used to proper manners, it's a bit limited.

After dinner we chat some more, until Nino says he has to get home.

I walk him out, so he can get past all the security fine.

"This was fun. Your mom is way cool!"

"Yeah, she's way better than my father."

"I would have to agree. But dude, we might have to make this a tradition, that pizza was wicked good!"

"Right? I'll ask about it!"

"Cool! See ya tomorrow, bro!"

"Bye, Nino!"

I go back inside to find Mom cleaning up.

"He's nice." She says.

"Yeah. He was the first friend I made at school."

"Oh, that's sweet! He can come over anytime!"

"Cool. He said he really liked the pizza."

"Oh yes, we have the best chef!" Mom boasts.

"I sure think so. Although, he may be biased, his girlfriend's mom is a chef for the Bougouise Hotel!"

"Wow! Wait, what?" She says, her face suddenly clouding over.

"His girlfriend, Alya? Her mom is a chef at-"

"No no, I heard you, I just didn't know he had a girlfriend."

"Oh, uh, yeah. They've been together a year or so, I think."

"Huh. And here I thought you two were dating!" She laughs.

"What?!"

"Yes, why did you think I set up such a fancy dinner?!"

"Because you're fancy! Mom, Nino is just a friend."

"You sure say that a lot."

"Say what?"

"That everybody is just a friend."

"I do? Never noticed. Anyway, I'm not gay. I just don't like any of the girls at my school."

"But you don't ever agree that any of the young ladies I show you are pretty!"

"Well, I guess they're all pretty, just not my type."

"Then what is your type?"

Before I go on a tangent describing everything about y/n, I raise my hands in surrender.

"Fine, I'll tell you. I have a crush on Equina, the superhero who took you to the hospital. I just thought it was silly, because she's never really around." Hopefully this doesn't give anything away.

"Ahh. Are you sure it's just a crush? Because I always got the vibes from you that you're in love."

"It doesn't matter, she's never around."

"Oh well. You'll work it out, I'm sure!"

With that, she goes on about her business, as if nothing happened.

I've got to go see y/n, she's going to love this.

=============================

When you hear the usual knock at the balcony, you're surprised at how early he is.

"Hey, Kitty." You say as you open the door, finding him already detransformed.

"Hi, Angel!" He responds, giving Plagg some cheese.

"Y/n! He's trying to starve me! He told me I should eat my cheese in moderation!" Plagg says in distress.

"Oh no! What should we do about it?"

"Maybe you could get me some extra cheese? Adrien here clearly doesn't care." He says, looking down and you would guess intentionally drooping his ears.

"Oh please, I'm going to get you some more! It's not like you're out!" Adrien laughs.

"Hmph!" Plagg crosses his little arms, then flies over to your pillow.

"So, we have an interesting development!" Adrien says as he shuts your balcony door.

"What's that?" You ask, making sure your room door is shut and locked.

"My mom was thinking I'm gay." He says, making you snort.

"Are you?" You can't help but ask.

"I hardly think I'd enjoy kissing you so much if I was."

"You sure? Because Master Fu might give me the job back, for a reason like that." You laugh.

"If I were just into guys, would I do this?" He asks, slipping his arms around your waist and leaning down to kiss you.

"Eh, probably not. I don't know if I'm sure though." You say slyly.

He takes the hint and kisses you again.

"So why did she think that?" You ask, after splitting apart.

"Because she was telling me to invite friends over, clearly meaning you, but I just invited Nino over, so I suppose she took it as if I'd invited you, if that makes sense?"

"I'm not gonna need to have a talk with Nino, now am I?" You tease.

"I don't think so. I told her I have a crush on Equina, so that's cleared up with her."

"Well I'm sure Equina would be flattered. A little pony tells me she has a thing for you too."

"That's good to know. Maybe I'll ask her out."

"You probably should, I bet she'd like that."

"She would probably enjoy what my mom set up tonight, it was a lovely date."

"Oh, what a shame I missed it!"

"Yeah. She said it was a fancy date because she could sense I'm in love with someone and just assumed it was Nino."

"That obvious, are ya?"

"Looks like."

💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚🖤💚
Special thanks to Tajruff for the funny idea from last chapter! Also, since so many of you were interested, here's the description for the Soulmate AU I've been thinking about:

Paws and Halos

~Once a person turns 17 they get a mark on their wrist that is a clue to their soulmate~

Adrien Agreste always expected his mark would be the five spots that represent Ladybug, or something similar. So when his birthday arrived and his mark was a golden halo he was crushed, at first. Until a chance encounter with someone who has a green paw for a soulmate mark shows him that maybe the destiny he thought was his, wasn't as purrfect as he thought.

Idk why I'm obsessed with the whole Angel thing, but anyway, what do y'all think so far?