Won't Tell a Soul
is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic written by TheLastPilot. It can also be read here on AO3.
When Nino runs headlong into the biggest most stressful secret he can imagine he is suddenly thrown into a world of secret identities and superheroes. Now that he knows Ladybug's identity, he's got to do what he can to help her out.
This fanfic's story would later be followed up in The Weight of Jade.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Big "OMG!": When Nino finds Marinette in Chapter 1.Ladybug: Oh my god.
Nino: Oh my god.
Ladybug: Oh my god!
Nino: OH MY GOD!
Ladybug: Nino shut up!
Nino: STAFHKSOIFHKS. - Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: The Educator turns her entire class into a captive audience, including Marinette and Adrien, preventing either from transforming. Nino, who is the only one to know both are in this situation, resolves it by punching the Educator in the face and running, getting her to leave the class alone so she can chase him down and punish him.
- Genre Savvy: Nino is stated to be this on the topic of superhero stories, even referring to himself as the "Alfred" to Ladybug's (and later Cat Noir's) "Batman."
- Hostage for MacGuffin: The Educator uses Nino as this on Hawk Moth's advice. Hawk Moth himself does this to Nino later.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Invoked by Nino when he tells Cat Noir to stop chasing after Ladybug: she chose Adrien, and if Cat really does love her, then he will respect her choice.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Causes much angst to Cat when he realizes Ladybug is crushing on Adrien, since Adrien feels smothered and shallow in his everyday life and as such frets about Ladybug liking more a "porcelain doll" than the real boy.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Nino has a small moment of it when his impassionated defence of Adrien's right to be happy reduces Cat to tears. Nino really wants the best for his friend but he never meant to trample on someone else's feelings for it.
- Nice Guy: Even if Cat Noir is competing with Adrien for Marinette's affection, Nino offers him a shoulder on which cry because a broken heart just sucks.
- Secret-Keeper: The premise of the fanfic is that Nino discovers that Marinette is Ladybug. He later becomes this to Adrien/Cat Noir.
- Stalker Shrine: Nino comes across this in Marinette’s room (of Adrien) while waiting for her. He texts her about it and calmly runs as far as he can, knowing that Marinette will not be amused by it."Oooh she's coming to kill me," Nino said aloud to himself, watching as Ladybug all at once vanished from the livestream. He had had a pretty intense laugh at watching her react and did feel sort of bad, but he couldn't quite contain the giddy giggle he had anyways.
It was just so funny.
"Welp," he said to himself in the empty room, slowly standing up and taking a deep breath. "Time to run." - Suspiciously Specific Denial: Nino accidentally lets it slip to Adrien that Ladybug is in their class while freaking out about him being Cat Noir, then quickly denies it and begs him not to think too hard about it.
- Villain No Longer Idle: Hawk Moth personally gets involved at the end to take Nino hostage.
