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When Nico woke up, it wasn’t to the sound of his alarm block blaring in his ear, instead Tikki shouting in his face and shoving at his cheek. Nico tried to ignore the repetitive, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” but when his tired mind finally caught up to the situation, he jumped out of bed crying, “Akuma!” His foot catching on one of the sheets, he tripped up and landed flat on his chest, chin smashing into the ground.
“No Akuma,” Tikki responded, now tugging at his hair. “School! You can’t be late again, remember? You have to hurry!”
Nico groaned, turning his face into the floor. “School can suck my--”
“Nico,” Sally’s voice called from downstairs. “You had better not still be sleeping.”
Nico groaned again, but this time pulled himself off the ground as he did so. “I’m up,” he shouted back, moving to pull a few articles of clothes out of his closet. As he got changed, Tikki flew around his room, struggling to gather all of his things into his backpack - some of those textbooks were too heavy for a human to carry, let alone some little fairy (or whatever Tikki was, she’d never really told him).
He hurried down the stairs, accepting his lunch in a brown paper bag from Sally as he walked past. As he stepped into his shoes, Sally told him, “Percy’s already left, so you’ll have to be quick to catch up to him. Oh! And there’s a box of candies on the counter in the shop, take those for your friends.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “I don’t have friends, Sally.”
Sally crossed her arms. “You’ve got Jason and Piper and that new boy, what’s his name?”
“Will.”
“Exactly, that’s three friends,” Sally said. “Now hurry up, before you’re late again.”
“Yes, mom,” Nico said quietly, opening the door.
He had almost gotten away when he heard, “I love you, Nico!” from inside the apartment.
He sped downstairs into the candy shop that Sally owned below their apartment. Just as she’d said, there was a small box of candies sitting on the counter right by the front door to the shop. Nico snagged the box before heading outside, walking quickly down the street towards his school.
He could see the directions from a block away.
The front of the school was surrounded by red and pink heart balloons, the doors plastered with paper hearts, and a few people stood outside the door, selling little boxes of chocolate and red roses, for the others who’d forgotten about Valentine’s Day.
Like Nico.
Or, well, he hadn’t forgotten entirely, but the Valentine was still sitting on his desk at home, all wrapped and ready to go.
“Tikki,” Nico whispered, drawing out the name. “Why didn’t you tell me it was Valentine’s Day? If I give Will that gift a day late it’s gonna look stupid and cheap.”
“I’m sorry, Nico,” Tikki responded, fluttering out of his backpack to sit on his shoulder. “I didn’t know that was today. Maybe you can buy him something from them.” He didn’t have to look down at her to know that she was pointing at one of the vendors in front of his school.
“I don’t have any money, Tikki,” Nico reminded her. “I used it all on Will’s gift.”
Tikki apologized again before flying back into his backpack as Nico walked up to the front steps of the school building. He kept his eyes down, not wanting to look at any of the decorations for longer than he had to, but froze when he heard a car pull up in front of the school.
Nico turned around, already knowing who would be getting out of the vehicle, but watched anyway.
He didn’t know much about Will Solace, other than the few things that everyone knew - that his mom was a famous singer that wasn’t around all that often, that his dad was out of the picture and no one knew why, that he had beautiful blue eyes and golden hair and millions of freckles--
And he was walking toward Nico.
Nico’s feet were frozen to the ground, but he at least had the mind to look back down at the ground so he didn’t look as though he were staring.
As soon as Will had walked past, Nico let himself breathe. He realized that he would never get anywhere with that boy if he never spoke to him, but he never could. He always ended up sounding like an idiot, stumbling over his words like he’d never spoken English a day in his life. He’d been hoping that today would be the day that he could speak without making a fool of himself, but now that he’d forgotten Will’s gift in the first place, what was the point?
He probably would’ve stayed planted in that spot if not for an arm being slung around his shoulder and pulling him up the steps and into the school.
“You really gotta get that alarm clock fixed, man,” Percy said. “You’re gonna get suspended if you’re late again.”
“I got up fine without my alarm clock,” Nico told him, trying to pull away but Percy held him tighter.
“So then it’s pretty boy that’s your problem,” Percy continued, nodding his head in Will’s direction. Nico noticed Will looking over at them, and hurriedly shoved Percy away.
“It’s none of your business,” Nico said. “Now leave me alone, I’ve gotta go to class.”
“And to your boy,” Percy called after him, only for Nico to throw one of the candies into his stomach.
Nico went off to class, dropping heavily into his front row seat and letting his forehead slam down onto the table.
“What’s the problem, man?” Jason asked from the seat next to him.
“I forgot--” Nico stopped himself, glancing behind himself, continuing only when he saw Will’s vacant seat. “I forgot Will’s Valentine at home.”
“But dude, today was the day!” Jason exclaimed, dropping a hand onto Nico’s shoulder.
“I know,” Nico moaned, drawing his arms up to cover his head.
The warning bell rang and the classroom began to fill up. Nico sat up, slouching in his seat and dropping the box of candies onto the desk between himself and Jason. “Sally made these. For my friends. I tried to tell her I don’t have any, but she didn’t believe me.”
Jason grinned, pulling the lid off the box before spinning around and holding the box out to Piper, behind him. “Look, Pipes, Nico brought candy for his friends! He’s finally admitting that we’re his friends!”
“Shut up,” Nico groaned, hiding his face in his hands.
“Can I have one?” Will asked as he sat down behind Nico, and Nico shot upright, like his spine had been shocked straight.
Nico turned his head to the side, keeping his eyes downcast as he said, “Uh, y-yeah, sure.”
He heard the rustling of tissue paper, the sound of Will taking a candy out of the box, and then a happy hum from behind him. “These are really good,” Will told him. “Who made them?”
“My guardian,” Nico answered quietly.
“Guardian?” Will repeated, and Nico glanced up just long enough to see Will’s head tilting (adorably) in confusion.
Nico felt his face heating up, and whatever words were in his head flew away, disappeared like the city’s damage after a Lucky Charm. Before he could stop himself, Nico blurted out, “My parents are dead.”
Thankfully, before Nico could make an even bigger fool of himself, the teacher entered the room and started class. Nico spun forward, slouching once again in his seat.
Jason leaned towards him and whispered, “Real smooth, Neeks. Maybe next time, you can ask him about his absent father!”
Nico punched him in the arm.
After dinner that night, Nico climbed up onto the roof of his apartment and transformed. He was supposed to be meeting Chat Noir for patrol at sunset, but he wanted to make sure he had enough time to run a quick errand, first.
With Will’s gift in one hand and his yoyo in the other, Nico flew across the rooftops of the city.
Everyone at Nico’s high school knew which house was Will’s. It was the largest in the city, far too big for a single teenage boy and his mother who was barely there. Nico, even without his huge, stupid crush on the blond boy, would’ve had the route to his house memorized.
He landed on the roof of Will’s house, just above his bedroom, and peered over the edge into one of the large windows. The room appeared to be empty, but a single window was propped open, close enough that Nico could swing down through it and land easily inside.
He dropped softly onto the balls of his feet, slowly examining the room - exactly what one would expect to find in the bedroom of a rich teenage boy - and his eyes stopped on a full-length mirror against one wall.
The first few times Nico saw himself in the ladybug print spandex, he was incredibly uncomfortable with his appearance. Now, he was just amazed at how different the costume made him look - it was almost understandable why people didn’t recognize him.
He tightened the ponytail in his hair, brushing the few lingering strands out of his eyes, and searched for the perfect place to leave the gift. He figured, nowhere better than in plain sight, right? So Nico placed the gift on Will’s pillow - definitely something he’d see before bed - and hurried back over to the window.
Nico launched himself out of the room, back onto the rooftops, and made his way across the city to meet up with a certain cat.
Nico was surprised to have beaten Chat to their meetup spot on the roof of a flower shop, but he didn’t mind the quiet time to himself, enjoying the smell of the flowers wafting up from below and watching the colors of the sky change as the sun continued to set.
Chat arrived almost ten minutes later, when Nico was lying on his back on the roof, watching as stars began to dot the sky, reminding him vaguely of freckles spotting across tan skin.
“You’re awfully late, Chat,” Nico called when he heard the other boy land on the roof.
“I’m pawfully sorry,” Chat responded, stretching out next to him.
“If you were really sorry, you’d quit with the puns,” Nico told him.
“C’mon, Ladybug, you can’t tell me you don’t love the puns.”
Nico’s head lolled to the side, leveling Chat with a blank stare. “I don’t love the puns.”
Chat held a hand against his chest, making a pained noise. “I’m hurt, Bugaboo. And on Valentine’s Day, no less.”
“Valentine’s Day’s not all that great,” Nico said with a soft smile, staring back up at the stars.
“What? Yes it is!” Chat exclaimed, sitting up and gazing down at him. “Valentine’s is full of chocolate and pretty flowers and expressing your love for the person you like! It’s a whole day for being happy and being in love!”
“Maybe it’s great for people like you,” Nico said, reaching up to tap the tip of Chat’s nose, smile fading away. “I just haven’t had the best luck, I guess.”
"You, Ladybug? The luckiest person in the city, doesn’t have good luck?” Chat leaned down, resting his chin on his hand. “What’s the problem, lovebug, the girl of your dreams didn’t return your affections?”
Nico scrunched up his nose. “More like the boy I like is way out of my league.”
Chat sat upright, breath catching in his throat.
Nico frowned, glancing away. “Don’t look at me like that. So I like boys, so what?”
“No, that’s not what I--” Chat started, stopping himself almost immediately. “Tell me about-- About him. Tell me about the boy.”
Nico looked up at him skeptically. “You’re not gonna make fun of me?”
“I would never make fun of you, Bugaboo,” Chat promised with a wide smile.
Nico stared into the sky, now filled with stars, and took a breath. “He’s got...freckles. A lot of them. And he’s blond, and nice, so nice. He’s--” Nico ground the heels of his palms into his eyes, wishing for once that the mask wasn’t covering his face. “He’s perfect.”
“Nobody’s purrfect, Bugaboo,” Chat told him. “And besides: blond, freckled, nice, and the closest thing to perfect? You must be talking about me.”
Nico laughed, shoving at Chat’s shoulder. “My perfect guy doesn’t make so many puns,” Nico told him.
“A true shame,” Chat said. “All the best boys make the occasional pun.”
“I don’t think I believe that.” Nico sighed, dropping his arms to his sides once more. “I got him a gift, I spent all the money I had - which was like, fifteen bucks - and then I slept in this morning and forgot it.”
“Does that mean the handsome Ladybug didn’t have a Valentine today?” Chat asked.
Nico rolled his eyes. “More like never had a Valentine.”
“So disgraceful!” Chat cried. “Not you, Bugaboo, all of the other boys that have passed up the chance to be your Valentine!”
“The other boys?” Nico said, sitting up. “Is that supposed to mean that you’re not passing up the chance?”
“Of course not!” Chat reached behind himself, holding out a heart-shaped box of chocolates, presenting them to Nico with a flourish. “Lovebug, would you do me the honor of being my Valentine?”
Nico stared wide-eyed at the heart-shaped box, eyes flicking up to Chat’s. “You-- You really came prepared, didn’t you?”
“Anything for my Bugaboo,” Chat replied, smile brighter than the moon shining overhead. He held the box out, pulling off the lid and setting it off to the side. “Have one.”
“We’re supposed to be patrolling,” Nico reminded him.
“The city can survive one night without us,” Chat promised.