The sun was up, the chairs at the cafe were surprisingly comfortable, but Adrien still wasn't having a particularly good time. The food was delicious, but he was too distracted to enjoy it. Something was wrong. Specifically, something was wrong with Marinette, and she wasn't telling anyone about it. She wouldn't even look at him, which hurt a little. Was it something he'd said or done, then? Did she just not trust him that much? And then, of course, there was Wayne.

"So, Agreste—you're the model." The boy said, making it more of a statement than a question.

"Yeah." Adrien replied. Something about the Wayne heir's cocky attitude just didn't sit well with him.

"Got a lot of fans, I'd imagine." Wayne continued, picking up the pickle from his sandwich plate and staring intently at it for a moment before popping it into his mouth.

"Yeah, tons of 'em. We got trapped in his car by a crowd of them once." Nino said, smiling. "Ah, that was a day…"

"Hey, don't forget who got you out of that mess." Ayla said, grinning.

"Oh, how could I ever?" Nino said, smiling back.

"That many, hm? If you've got so many fans, I'd be surprised if there wasn't at least one nearby right now, this very second." Wayne said, staring absently past Adrien.

"Ah, I guess so." Adrien replied, not really sure what he was getting at. Wayne smirked.

"I'm just saying, there's probably at least one of your biggest fans in class with you every day, all things considered." The black-haired heir said, picking up his sandwich. Nino and Ayla had already begun to eat, but Adrien wasn't feeling very hungry and Marinette hadn't even responded to the waiter, just staring intently at her plate and shuddering every so often instead, which—though admittedly Adrien did not know her very well—seemed unlike her.

"Sure… I guess? What're you trying to say?" Adrien asked. Wayne glanced over at Marinette, who froze solid for some reason. This exchange made Adrien uneasy.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Wayne said, still smirking.

"Uh, okay." Adrien replied. "Do you have fans? You seem like a pretty important guy." He asked. Wayne actually laughed at that, though it wasn't so much a laugh as a restrained chuckle.

"No, no. I prefer to keep my affairs private." Wayne said. Affairs…? That phrase should have been innocuous, but he'd said it with just enough emphasis to make Adrien wonder.

"Hey, so, Damian—can I call you Damian?" Alya asked. Wayne looked like he wanted to say no—which made Adrien realize that the unease he'd been feeling was beginning to bloom into dislike—but after a second of contemplation Wayne replied,
"If you must."

"Wonderful! So, Damian, what's it like to be the son of an American billionaire?" She asked. The Wayne heir's face remained impassive.

"Often excessively taxing when reporters are involved." Wayne replied, his words making Alya visibly deflate a little.

"Oh—ah, why's that?" Alya asked, ever ready with the follow-up question. The Wayne kid smirked, which made Adrien frown.

"Well—" the Wayne kid reached down, grabbed a rock off of the ground, and threw it up and behind him without looking. Adrien could only blink in confusion. He, Alya, Nino, and even Marinette all stared—everyone aside from the Wayne kid—completely at a loss. They followed the rock's arc high through the sky and as it curved back towards the ground, and they heard a crunch as it landed behind a car on the far side of the street, followed by an anguished cry of "Noooo—my camera!"

"—most simply do not comprehend the meaning of privacy. tt." Wayne finished.

"H-how did you—" Alya began to ask. Wayne froze her with a look.

"There are many who have tried to pry into my personal life. All have met with failure, but I am well aware of their tactics. Try if you like, but I will not be catalogued like some primitive primate in some pathetic little zoo." Wayne replied. Alya looked insulted.

"E-excuse me? I'm not some paparazzo trying to steal your dirty laundry—I was just asking a simple friggin question, not fishing for an interview!" She exclaimed, crossing her arms.

"The phone with the open recording app you've been hiding behind your sandwich tray says otherwise." Wayne said, reaching out and shoving the tray aside to reveal the incriminating phone.

"Hey, dude, take it easy," Nino said, frowning.

"Take what easy? This invasion of my personal privacy? I could sue." Wayne replied. That coil of liquid dislike that had begun to seep through Adrien was definitely beginning to freeze solid and harden.
"Whoa whoa whoa—that's going too far." Nino said, frown deepening as Alya blanched.

"You can't be serious. She didn't mean any harm." Adrien seconded.

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. That is ultimately my decision to make, I believe." Wayne replied, smirking slightly. Adrien felt a dash of loathing jolt into the dislike, and resisted the impulse to scowl. He'd met this boy's kind before—people who went after others just because they could, lording their power over everyone else. It made him sick.

"You don't have grounds." Marinette said, her voice quiet but suddenly full of confidence. Her eyes were trained on Wayne's as he turned to look back at her, hers full of what struck Adrien as uncharacteristic irritation.

"Of course I have grounds." Wayne said, face alarmingly neutral. It reminded Adrien of his modeling expression, though he had no idea what emotions Wayne would be trying to hide at this moment.

"Not if we all vouch against you and there's no proof of the recording." Marinette said, calmly. Wayne actually blinked at that, with what Adrien supposed must have been surprise. Adrien couldn't help but stare at Marinette now, a little awed that she'd managed to come up with this counter so fast. She really was smart, wasn't she? He'd seen her designs—heck, he'd worn her hat. There was a certain cleverness in those stitches…

"A fair point. I suppose you're getting off with a warning today." Wayne said, brushing the corners of his mouth with his napkin. Adrien would have sighed with relief, but he didn't want to give this jerk the satisfaction.

"A warning? That's funny." A voice said, causing all of them to look over. Adrien felt his alarm and adrenaline spike.

"I'm not letting you get off with anything. I am The Green Diviner, and all of your secrets will be mine!" A strange, green-and-yellow striped suit wearing figure with the unmistakably twisted face of an Akuma victim said, grinning evilly at them.

Instinctually, Adrien grabbed the people on his side of the table by the waist—Alya and Nino—and dove away, just missing the flurry of pens that slammed into their table with a machine-gun-like staccato. Feeling a surge of panic, he looked desperately for Marinette and Damian—only to see that they'd both jumped away as well, landing with practiced grace outside of the damage zone.

"Huh." The Akuma victim said, cocking his head. "You're quick."

"Run!" Adrien shouted, pushing Alya and Nino in front of him as he began to sprint. He looked desperately for something to hide behind, shoving his friends towards a narrow alleyway.

"No!" Alya said, turning and running back towards where her phone had fallen. "My footage—"

The Akuma victim flicked his hand in Alya's direction, and a handful of pens whipped into her. Adrien felt a ball of dread drop into his stomach as she yelped, though it sounded more like one of surprise than one of pain.

"Give me your deepest secrets." The green-clad super villain said, grinning maliciously. Adrien ducked into a nearby building though an open door as Nino ran forward to try and grab Alya. Adrien immediately transformed as he began to hear Alya speak.

"I… I don't always like looking after my little sisters. I wish that Ladybug would be my best friend. I wish that I could be a super hero. I… have a s-s-serious c-c-c—" she seemed to be doing her best to resist that last one, and Chat Noir peeked out to see Nino trying desperately to pull her away from where she was rooted to the spot. The Akuma victim seemed to be taking notes, nodding intently.

"—crush on Nino!" She finally blurted out. "I've got a picture of him in my locker that I look at every day and I wrote a couple of love poems for him that I keep under my pillow and he's so nice and funny and caring and I keep dreaming about taking him on a romantic trip to Venice!" Alya finally blurted, before her face turned a shade of red so bright it seemed to emit a visible aura of heat.

Adrien, who had been about to make his dramatic appearance from the doorway, stopped and stared. He watched Nino's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates, fixed on the girl whose shoulders he still held. He looked at her like she'd just fallen out of the sky.

"Doesn't that just feel so much better?" The Green Diviner said, smirking. "Your turn."

Before Adrien could do anything, a wave of pens shot towards Nino—but something rushed between them. The pens were caught up in a whir of white cloth and thrown aside. Damian Wayne dropped the now pen-holed tablecloth and eyed the Akuma victim critically, apparently not afraid at all. Adrien had to admit it was a little impressive.

"tt. What kind of attack was that supposed to be?" The Wayne heir asked, settling into a fighting stance with surprising ease.

"One that comes back to haunt you. See, now my pens have found their true mark—you!" The Akuma victim exclaimed, pointing dramatically at Wayne as the pens he'd deflected rose again and turned to point at the boy from all directions.

Thankfully, a red-and-black blur knocked them out of the air.

"You should really keep your plans a bit more private, mister." Ladybug said from a nearby building as she tugged her yoyo back into her palm, looking—in Adrien's humble opinion— absolutely stunning. Even in combat she made is heart beat faster.

"Ooh—I sense so many secrets in you! Such knowledge for the taking." The Diviner said, turning to throw some pens at Ladybug—which Adrien's lady of course dodged with ease. As the Akuma victim turned, however, Adrien caught sight of the notepad at his side—a notepad that, he noticed, had the words 'Nino' and 'Venice' written on it, now. That had to be where the Akuma was hiding. In the meantime, Nino seemed to have gotten all of the pens out of Alya, but despite being free she still just stood there, refusing to look up from intensely studying her own feet. It was like she was trying to shrink into herself.

"Gah! Such acrobatics—you evade me so easily!" The Akuma fumed, missing Ladybug yet again.

"I have to say I'm a-green with you on that one, her moves are pretty divine!" Chat Noir said, pouncing onto the villain from behind. The man snarled, but Adrien had knocked him over, pressing his knees into his upper arms and effectively locking the villain down.

"It's the notepad!" Adrien shouted to his lady, who had leaped down only feet away. Her yoyo flickered forward, retrieving the notepad in an instant. It was one of those little impressive things she did that reminded him just how completely and utterly amazing she was. The satisfied smirk she now wore at their victory made his heart flutter as she prepared to tear the pad of paper in half.

"No, wait!" Nino shouted. They all looked at him in confusion, even Alya, who was still blushing redder than Marx. Nino looked at all of them, picked up a pen, and then stuck it into his arm with a yelp.

"I… I still feel bad about the whole Bubbler thing. I sometimes lie about having a gig when I want to avoid people and get some alone time. I know my parents don't approve of my musical career, and I feel like a burden to them sometimes… I—" he stared at the girl next to him—"have a crazy big crush on Alya. I wrote like five love songs about her, and I listen to them and daydream about going on dates to concerts or cruises down the Siene with her sometimes. I'm just too scared to ask her out because she's so amazing and smart and beautiful and I'm just some dork she knows from school." Nino finished, face now burning red.

Once again, everyone paused and stared—everyone including Alya, whose eyes seemed to be shining with some combination of shock, happiness, and disbelief.

"Now?" Ladybug asked. Nino nodded, and she ripped the notebook in half. The little Akuma began to fly away, but Ladybug caught it with her yoyo and with a shout of "Time to de-evilize!" She cleansed it of the evil magic and let it fly away. The Green Diviner dissolved away into a man who appeared to be just a normal papparazzo, who Adrien climbed off of. The man was holding a broken camera in one hand and looking around with the standard post-akuma daze in his eyes.

"Huh. That was easier than usual." Ladybug said.

"Of course—you're so pawesome, how could it go any other way?" Chat Noir said, throwing a grin his Lady's way. She just rolled her eyes.

"Would someone care to explain exactly what has just transpired here?" An irritated Wayne asked, scowling at the two of them. Both looked at him, then looked back at each other.

"Do we have to?" Adrien tried to convey through his eyes, and his Lady's small smile and shake of her head was enough of a response for him to understand completely. Both of them then turned and took off running in opposite directions.


Adrien circled back and came back out through the door of the building where he'd transformed. Now freshly de-Chatted, he took a moment to look around.

Nino and Alya were both standing next to each other, neither looking at the other, but neither moving away either. It sounded like they were making extremely awkward small-talk about the weather. Wayne appeared to be interrogating the de-Akumatized Akuma victim, who he'd somehow handcuffed to a streetlamp. Marinette seemed to be walking back from where she'd run before, and was just entering the far side of the plaza.

"Hi guys—what happened? Is everyone okay?" Adrien asked. Nino twirled faster than Adrien would have thought possible and practically sprinted to where Adrien stood.

"We're all fine! I'm glad you made it back okay—Chat Noir and Ladybug saved us big time!" Nino said, so loudly that he was practically shouting. Then, he leaned in a little.

"Dude—you've gotta help me out. Please!" Nino whispered, desperation in his eyes.

"Help you with what?" Adrien asked, looking up and past his friend as Alya practically flew over to Marinette.

"Marinette! I'm so glad you're okay—you missed a heck of a fight! Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day as usual, ahahahaha!" She proclaimed, equally too loud and cackling way too nervously, before leaning in closer to her friend. Nino gestured in their general direction.

"With—with her, man! Alya. We, ah, well, um…" Nino turned redder than he'd been before, almost unhealthily so. "Look, it's hard to explain, but I've gotta, I dunno, do something for her, man!" He finished. Adrien grinned a little.

"Sooo… finally getting around to wooing your crush, eh?" Adrien asked, somehow adding even more layers of red to the already complete redness that was the cheeks of Nino.

"No! Maybe. I mean… yeah. Yes. Definitely." Nino conceded, glancing back nervously.

"Don't worry about it, dude, I'll help." Adrien said, smiling. Nino sent him a relieved grin.

"Thanks, man… I'm not sure that I could pull this off alone." Nino said. Adrien's friend pulled out his phone, and then blanched.

"Dude—we've got ten minutes to get back to class!" Nino exclaimed, clapping a hand to his head. Adrien frowned, checking his watch—surely enough, it was almost time.

"We should get moving." Adrien said, motioning over to the two girls, who seemed to be deep in their own conversation. It didn't work. He glanced at Nino, who shrugged.

"Hey, guys!" Adrien shouted, causing both of the girls to turn. "We've got to get back to class!" He finished. Both of the girls pulled out their phones, then rushed over. They all began to walk back. After a moment, Damian followed, muttering something that Adrien couldn't make out.

With luck, they would all be back to class on time.