Seek

[peppermint_shamrock]

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.

Hours later, after he was feeling less like absolute crap, he hopped on his moped to meet up with Alya.

“Okay, start from the beginning,” he said. “An actual wizard? Magic wand and spells and cauldrons and all that?”

Once, Nino would’ve dismissed the idea as completely nonsensical, but considering that they lived in a city routinely under attack by supervillains possessed by magical butterflies, wizards and the like didn’t seem so far-fetched.

“Well, not so much magic wand,” Alya conceded. “Not that I saw, anyway. But he had a cauldron all right, and he definitely made a magic potion that sobered Marinette and I both up instantly. And,” she tapped her phone, “I tried looking it up, even, and there’s nothing like what he gave us anywhere on the Internet. And Marinette is definitely being weird about it, so I know something’s up.”

Nino nodded slowly. Marinette acted weird about a lot of things, in his opinion, but Alya knew her best friend better than anyone, and if she said it seemed like Marinette was hiding something, then she probably was.

“So where’d you meet this guy? How’d you meet him?”

“Well, it started with the Akuma…”

Nino had figured that much; he’d lost track of Alya when the Akuma had come barreling through the place. He’d assumed that she’d gone to film for the Ladyblog, as usual, but when he’d checked, there was nothing more than a post acknowledging that the situation had happened. No footage.

“Marinette wasn’t in any state to get out of there by herself; so, being the good friend that I am, I helped. I was going to take her home, but, well, that’s when the weirdness started. She started directing me down all these random streets. I don’t know why I humored her, but I guess I was pretty drunk too. She seemed to know where she was going despite how drunk she was…and I guess she did. We ended up at this…healer shop massage parlor place? I think?”

“And you don’t remember how to get there?”

“Not really. And who knows? Maybe it’s one of those magic shops that appears and disappears at will.”

“Have you been to a shop like that?” Nino asked, skeptically.

“Well, no. But you know, the kind you see people in movies buy cursed artifacts from and when they try to return it it’s like the place never existed?” she said. “…I’m just saying, it’s a possibility.”

“Sure.”

“Anyway, Marinette knocks, and maybe this was just the alcohol but I swear the door opened on its own because the guy inside was nowhere near it. Marinette stumbles right in, announces that she’s drunk as though it wasn’t completely obvious, and plops down like she’s been there before. At the very least she and the old guy knew each other because he addressed her by name and almost seemed…disapproving of the state she was in, though he wasn’t exactly angry, either.”

“So you think he’s a wizard because of the door?” Nino asked.

“Not just the door,” Alya said. “He then set out this cauldron and had me get him a bunch of odd ingredients from around the place. Roots and plants and magicky sounding stuff. I don’t remember exactly. Then, when it was done, he scooped some up and gave it to Marinette. And as soon as she drank it, bam!” Alya accentuated her words by slamming her hand against the bench. “It was an immediate change, she’s back to normal, no longer stumbling around – well, not more than she usually does, anyway – and she apologizes, thanks him, then runs out the door like she left the oven on!”

“And after that?”

“I went to go after her, though I obviously couldn’t keep up, but the guy offered me some of the potion. It had the same effect on me – drunk one minute, completely sober in the next…”

“Wait, you just…accepted a weird drink from some weird guy that you’d just met?” Nino interrupted, alarmed, but not exactly surprised.

“What?” Alya said. “He’d made it right in front of me, and Marinette had already had some and was fine – better than fine – and she obviously knew and trusted the guy, she’s usually a good judge of character…besides, it’s hardly the riskiest thing I’ve ever done.”

That much was certainly true. Not that that did much to soothe Nino’s worries. He wasn’t sure which of them would die first, her from recklessness or him from the stress from her recklessness, but he was pretty sure they’d both end up in early graves. At some point, they really needed to have a talk about this…

“I’m fine,” she insisted, kissing him gently on the cheek.

“Says the girl who’s seeing wizards.”

“One wizard. Or at the very least, a mysterious old man who whipped up an instant-sobriety potion and who Marinette refuses to explain anything on who he is or how they met.”

Nino sighed in defeat.

“Fine. So how’re we gonna find this guy?”

“I was thinking we’d just drive around the general area and hope I recognize the shop,” she said.

“That sounds more like a date than a plan,” Nino said, his lips twitching upward. Alya put her hand to her chest in mock offense.

“Why, are you accusing me of inviting you here under false pretenses, Nino Lahiffe?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he teased. Alya scoffed.

“When have I ever not just asked you on a date when I wanted to go on a date?” she asked.

“I believe you called our last date a ‘stakeout’,” he said.

“It was a stakeout! We just…got distracted.”

“Why invite me to your stakeouts, then?”

“Maybe I happen to find your company enjoyable,” she said, leaning in close.

“Yeah?” Nino said, breathily. “I could say the same for you.”

“So it’s a date?” Alya asked.

“It’s a date,” he confirmed.

They hopped on the back of his scooter, and Nino enjoyed the way that Alya leaned into his back as they cruised along the streets. Even if it meant going along with some wild-goose chase, was there any better way to spend a weekend than with his girlfriend?

Their search – or rather, Alya’s search, Nino was just driving, after all – proved fruitless for some time. At one point, they stopped to get food.

“I’m seriously considering the disappearing shop now,” Alya said, pouting as she poked grumpily at her food.

“Hey, if he’s really a wizard, then he probably has ways of not being found if he doesn’t want to be found, right?” Nino offered, already finished with his own meal.

“But Marinette found him.”

“Or he found her.”

“Hmm…” Alya acknowledged, frowning. “But why? Why Marinette? Nino…do you think my best friend is magic?”

He shrugged. “With Marinette? Who knows. She’s certainly strange at times, but aren’t we all?”

“I don’t even know where she went last night after she took the potion. I never caught up with her. She claims she just went home, but the urgency she had when she ran off. Or even in leading me to the place in the first place…”

Nino didn’t know what to say. Alya had a lot of crazy theories, and it seemed hard to believe that there was anything out of the ordinary about Marinette, but the way Alya laid everything out did seem like something was up.

“…and the most frustrating part about it is that I feel like I should know! She’s my best friend, I should know her well enough, but it’s like I’m missing something obvious.”

“I don’t know what to tell you,” Nino said, hating the feeling of helplessness he got from not being able to help Alya.

“I just…” Alya paused, food halfway to her mouth. “Wait! I remember! I think I know where the shop is!” She dropped the food back down, and quickly threw it away before snatching up Nino’s keys and bounding out the door.

Glad they’d already paid, Nino chased after her. Because as much as he loved his girlfriend, he was not letting her drive his scooter. Not after he’d seen how she drove Marinette’s motorcycle on the one (and only) occasion she’d convinced Marinette to let her have a go. He broke into a sprint and just barely grabbed the keys out of her hand as they both hopped onto the scooter.

“Go! Go!” Alya said eagerly. “Before I lose it!”

“I think you lost it a long time ago,” Nino said teasingly. Alya bopped his shoulder as he started up the moped.

“Not what I meant. Come on, that way! I’m sure I know where it is now.”

The ride was more purposeful than their earlier one, as Alya directed him down the streets with growing enthusiasm. Eventually, she cried out:

“That’s it! Right there!”

He slowed to a stop, parking the moped against the curb, and barely scrambled after her as she jumped off and ran towards the buildings.

Alya stopped short of the door, and looked over at Nino as he caught up. He shrugged. The place looked rather unassuming, but what did he know? If Alya thought this was the place, well, she would know better than he would, wouldn’t she?

Alya took a deep breath, and knocked.

The door opened – not on its own, as Alya had described earlier, but the man who opened it certainly could be taken for a wizard. Short and elderly, but with eyes of unusual clarity, and dressed in a gaudy floral print shirt, he peered out at the pair of them, guarded in expression.

“Hi,” Alya said quickly, as though she was afraid he’d slam the door in their faces. “I’m Alya Césaire, you helped me and my friend Marinette last night? I have some questions, and Marinette isn’t answering them.”

The old man looked at the pair of them warily, and Nino felt a little uncomfortable under his gaze.

“Perhaps Marinette had reasons for keeping her silence,” he said. Privately, Nino thought that was about the worst thing he could’ve said if he’d wanted Alya to go away. And sure enough, Alya caught on that like a hawk.

“So there is something going on, isn’t there? I knew there was something unusual about that cure you gave us. Is it magic? Are you magic? Is Marinette? Is this like a secret society thing? Can I…?”

“You are very inquisitive, Miss Césaire. An admirable trait, certainly, but one that will get you into trouble in the future.”

Nino gave a short laugh.

“Oh, I can tell you it already has, dude – er, sir. More than once.”

“Hmm…” the old man said. To Nino’s surprise, he stepped back and smiled in a way that put Nino at ease. “Persistent, too, hmm? I suppose I’d better let you in, or I’ll be dealing with you for weeks to come,” he continued lightly.

“Yes!” Alya said victoriously under her breath. Nino smiled fondly, because as insane as this whole venture was, Alya’s enthusiasm was endearing.

The old man closed the door behind them and gestured for them to take a seat. Once they had, he spoke.

“You are curious because of the alcohol cure, and your friend’s familiarity with me. You’re wondering who I am,” he surmised. Alya nodded eagerly. “I doubt that I’ll be able to answer your questions to your satisfaction.” Alya’s smile faded, but Nino could see that familiar look of determination in her eyes. This man may not have known it, but he had just issued Alya a challenge, and if Nino knew her – and he did, quite well – she wasn’t going to back down easily. It was one of those things that he really admired about her.

“However,” the man continued. “I can tell you some things. You may call me Master Fu, and I am in the business of healing – meditation, massage, ancient remedies…I’m no substitute for a doctor, of course, but I do what I can. The remedy you and Marinette took is one example.”

“Yet you gave it to us for free,” Alya said. “If you’re running a business, why is that?”

“As you’ve guessed, I’m a friend of Marinette’s.”

Alya didn’t look convinced. Nino didn’t know why…it wasn’t that unbelievable, after all. Marinette could befriend (almost) anyone she ever met. She’d befriended Jagged Stone for crying out loud. Some old wizardy healer dude didn’t seem all that unlikely after that.

“But why was it so important she come here last night and get sober? I mean, not that I’m complaining or anything, that stuff was great – but why is she being so evasive about it? She acted like I wasn’t even supposed to know you exist,” Alya said.

“That,” Master Fu said flatly, “is one of the things I can’t answer.”

Alya’s eyes narrowed, and even Nino found himself getting suspicious.

“Can’t because you don’t know, or because you don’t want to tell me?” she asked.

“I am certain that Marinette will tell you everything when it is safe to do so,” Master Fu said, in lieu of answering.

“Hang on, safe?” Nino cut in for the first time, feeling protective for both Alya and Marinette. “Are you putting our friend in some sort of danger?”

“What would put her in danger is if I were to answer your questions,” he said firmly. “Already you know too much by knowing that there is something to know. For her sake, it would be best if you left this alone.” His tone was not threatening or unkind, but it was firm. Alya protested, of course, but eventually, she was reluctantly talked into agreeing to not bother Marinette further about the matter.

“I’m glad that Marinette has friends like you,” Master Fu said as they left. The door closed behind them.

“Just what have we gotten ourselves into this time, Alya?” Nino asked as they walked back out to his scooter.

“’We’?” she said, dryly. “I think I’m the one who got us into this.”

“We’re a package deal,” Nino said. “When you’re headed for trouble, I’m gonna be right there with you. You should know this by now.”

“Yeah,” she said. She stopped and turned to face him with a soft smile as she put her arms around his shoulders. “I really should, huh?”

“We’ll be alright, in the end,” Nino said reassuringly. “And so will Marinette. I’m worried, too, but we’ll be there for her, even if we can’t know what’s going on.”

“Oh, I’m still gonna find out what’s up,” Alya said with a small snort. “I only agreed not to ask Marinette about it, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna investigate.”

Nino smiled, and he swayed with her there, neither ready to get on the moped just yet.

“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”