Seek

Alya is absolutely certain she met an actual real-life wizard, and since Marinette is refusing to answer her questions, she enlists Nino's help to find him again.

Written for DJWifi December Day 21 prompt - Aged Up

AU where the akuma stuff starts happening when the characters are university-aged.

AO3 Link

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Nino’s phone rang far earlier than he would’ve liked it to, painfully offensive to his already painful headache. Groaning, he first tried shoving his pillow over his ears and ignoring it. Just as he began slipping back into a light doze, the noise blared out again. This time, he swiped his hand out and knocked the phone to the ground.

On the third time, he recognized the ringtone, and reluctantly dragged himself out of bed to answer it.

“So I’m pretty sure Marinette is friends with a wizard,” came the voice barely a moment after Nino had pressed the ‘answer call’ button.

“Alya,” he groaned, rubbing his temples with his free hand. “Can this wait? I’m hungover right now.”

“Well, I’m not,” she said. “Thanks to Marinette’s wizard friend.”

“Good for you,” he grumbled. “But unless he can cure me, it’s too early for this.”

“He might,” Alya said. “Though it wasn’t a hangover cure, it was an alcohol cure. But first I need to find him again.”

“And you need my scooter.”

“And your brain.”

“My brain,” Nino said, “is in pain. Give me a few hours.”

“Alright then,” Alya agreed. “I guess I’ll go try to pry information out of Marinette again. Who knew that girl could be so evasive?”

She hung up, and Nino made his way to the kitchen of his apartment to get water, rubbing his temples the entire time.

Next time Alya wanted to scheme to get Marinette to confess her feelings to Adrien, Nino was definitely shooting down any that involved drinks with higher-than-usual alcohol content.

( Continued... )