Nino felt nervous. He was sitting at the park right outside the Dupain-Cheng bakery, waiting for Marinette to arrive.

The moment they had stepped out of the Metaverse - as he had learned that place was officially called - Luka and Marinette had ordered him to act natural at school and that everything would be explained after class that day.

That didn't stop him from nearly leaping out of his skin the second he spotted Lila sitting next to his girlfriend in class. When asked if he was okay, he made a quick excuse that he thought he saw a spider. The mention of eight-legged creepy-crawlies nearly had Kim leaping onto his own desk with a shriek, and Nino had to quickly assure the jock that it was just some dust.

Even during class though, he just couldn't focus. Every time he looked at either Lila or Alya, his mind immediately flashed back to the women in the Palace. It did give him some time to think, though. Now that he knew Lila's nature, he took a fresh look at the class, and things had indeed changed. He noticed Juleka was dying her hair less and less often, Mylene was constantly adjusting her clothes or looking in a mirror wherever there was one, and Adrien… remembering the way his bro looked in the Palace made him feel sick.

Even with the public knowledge that Adrien was dating Kagami, he noticed Lila constantly hanging off of Adrien as if she were the one dating him. Plus, it was clear from the look on his bro's face that Adrien wasn't comfortable with Lila doing that. Nino wanted to think that maybe she didn't notice the expression either, but the way Lila's nails seem to dig into Adrien's sleeve? No, she noticed, but just like her Shadow, she didn't care. And maybe Adrien was so used to Chloe doing stuff like this that he didn't know how to ask her to stop?

All of these observations just made him feel sick all over again. What on earth happened to him to make him not notice these things before? Especially with Marinette, a friend he'd known from childhood? Who he was crushing on before his relationship with Alya. How come he never noticed what was happening? Or maybe he did, and just didn't want to admit it? That was even worse.

He could only pray that he could salvage some piece of their friendship again, and build it back up from there. He'd failed Marinette - and Ladybug, by extension - once; he wasn't planning to do it again.

The faint sound of voices caught his attention, and he looked to see Marinette conversing intensely with Luka. Then he watched her take her earrings off... and hand them to him. Once they were in the guitarist's palm, he nodded and switched them out with the earrings he was currently wearing. A flash of red light later, in Luka's place was a male Ladybug-looking hero. With one final nod, he turned, threw out the yo-yo, and swung away from sight as he careened towards the rooftops.

Once Luka (or whatever he was called now) was out of sight, Marinette's gaze wandered over to Nino. With purpose, she approached the bench he was sitting on and sat down on the other end of it.

Not even greeting each other, there was an awkward silence, both of the teens wondering who should start talking first.

"...So…" Nino tentatively started, "...the blonde dudette… Panther was it? Is she Bombshell?"

The second that question left his mouth, Nino felt like banging his head against the wall. 'Seriously, Lahiffe?! The first real conversation you're having with Marinette in forever, and the first you ask her, Ladybug, is about your replacement?!' he ranted in his head, burying his face in his palms.

"...You probably would have figured it out eventually," Marinette sighed after a few seconds, "But yes, that was Bombshell. Her real name's Ann."

"Oh… cool. She's a… she's a good fighter," Nino attempted to compliment.

"Yeah," Marinette nodded, "yeah, she is…"

Some more awkward silence dragged on. If they were inside, Nino was sure that they would be able to hear a pin drop.

Nino awkwardly rubbed his elbow, eyes glancing between his childhood friend and his lap. Finally, he breathed out heavily and decided to simply take the leap.

"Listen… Marinette," Nino he started, "...what we saw in that place? Is all of that really true?"

"Whether you believe it or not Nino, yes," Marinette said solemnly, "That's the Lila I've been trying to warn you - no, everyone - about since she first started her crusade in class. And…" she sighed again, "Look, I'm not mad about the fact that you believed Lila. I mean, most of our class has done some crazy stuff already. Juleka, Ivan, and Rose are a band, Adrien is Gabriel Agreste's son, Alya runs the Ladyblog, our class has all done amazing things already. So, at first glance, it doesn't seem too unusual for Lila to be extraordinary either. No, I'm not mad because you thought she did all of that stuff… What really hurt though? It was the fact that you, all of you, believed the worst about me!"

Nino felt like an ice cube had slipped down his back, and his throat clogged up as Marinette continued.

"Nino, from all the years you have known me, have you ever heard or witnessed me do any of the things Lila was accusing me of?! Yes, I'll admit, I can get jealous sometimes and get carried away with things, but I've never tried to intentionally hurt anyone! And if I did, I always tried to fix it the best way I could!"

Nino couldn't say anything, so he just nodded sadly. The Marinette he knew always put other people first. Like when Adrien had started getting interested in Kagami for the first time, Marinette, for Adrien's sake, tried to help him ask her out. She went out of her way for everyone all the time. Nino felt like a piece of shit for ever having doubted Marinette. Lila… the thought of how clever she was, how she'd fooled him, how she'd almost turned him against the ball of sunshine that was Marinette … it made his blood boil.

"...So, how did you find out she was lying? Didn't you try to tell Alya and I about it once? Oh, fudge - we never let you finish…"

Marinette sighed again, "I'll admit, some of my actions that led up to it were a little out of jealousy at first. But then…"

Marinette went on to explain to Nino what had happened that day. How she had followed Lila to this same park outside of school, watched her buy a Fox Miraculous replica, and then throw the book she'd stolen from Adrien in the garbage… Nino was enraged. Then when he learned Lila had started claiming she was a descendant of a Fox hero to enamor Adrien with her? Nino was livid, more than he could ever remember being.

Shaka Zulu's voice echoed out a Save your rage for her Shadow Self in his mind. Agreeing with him mentally, Nino calmed down - best not become an akuma again.

Then after Lila had started that tirade, Marinette had apparently had enough, transformed into Ladybug, and confronted Lila about it, with Adrien-

"Whoa-wait a sec!" Nino suddenly gasped, "If Adrien was there… so he knew all along, too?"

Marinette cringed. She didn't want to drive a wedge between Adrien and his best friend, but…

"Yeah… he does," she admitted.

"...Given what I know about his shitty dad," Nino said after a moment of thought, "that doesn't surprise me as much as I thought it would. Don't get me wrong, Mari, I'm horrified, but I understand his reasoning."

"Don't tell me you agree with him!" Marinette cried out.

"Hell no! I said reason, not excuse, didn't I?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, cocking her head.

"Well… you know how Agreste Senior is like, super harsh on Adrien? All he knows to stay safe from his pop's wrath is to lie down and take it. Plus, didn't he pull Adrien from school simply because he lost something of his?"

"Yeah. That was the book that Lila stole," Marinette confirmed. Things were making more and more sense when it came to Adrien being such a doormat- "and the same one I returned the next day and said that I took."

Nino stared at Marinette like she'd just grown an extra set of eyes. "What?! Mari, that's not just stupid, but reckless! Considering you want to be a fashion designer someday, Gabriel could have easily ended your career right there and then!"

"Don't forget that I used to have a crush on Adrien, Nino," Marinette reminded him.

"Okay… but why take the fall? Why did you let Lila get away with it?"

"...Honestly, I felt bad for her at the time. I had already chewed her out as Ladybug, and that got her akumatized. To further everything, I had no idea how horrible she was… I was like Adrien is now, I guess."

"Well, you have my back now, Marinette," Nino assured her, "no matter what form you take."

"...Thanks, Nino. I'll admit, it will take a while for me to completely forgive you and trust again, but I'm glad that Lila's threat isn't being completely-"

"Wait… Lila threatened you?!" Nino interrupted incredulously.

Marinette looked a little sheepish. She honestly didn't want a lot of people to know about that. She looked down at her hands, fiddling with her cuticles.

"Mari… did she threaten you?" Nino asked again, a little more forcefully this time.

Marinette hunching her shoulders even further was all the answer Nino needed.

"...When?" he growled.

Knowing Nino was likely going to keep asking until she complied, she answered, "In the bathroom… at lunchtime, her first day back."

"...Lila had said she was going to the nurse's office to have her wrist looked at…" Nino thought out loud, "but she followed you instead? Then she threatened you?"

"Not at first," Marinette explained, "first she was trying to 'make peace' and win me over," she suddenly cringed, her mind flashing back the Trophy Garden in the Palace. She needed to find a better phrase to use next time, "but I told her I knew she was lying, and that I wasn't going to fall for it, and if she really wanted to be friends that she had to stop lying. That's when she threatened me…"

Nino breathed slowly through his nose to try and stay calm, "...And, if you want to tell me, what did she say?"

"She said…" Marinette rubbed her arms anxiously and swallowed, "she said I would lose all my friends, and wind up alone. That I was either with her or against her. She said… she'd give me until the end of the day to make my choice, and hoped it was the 'right' one. She left me alone after that… then I was almost akumatized."

If Nino wasn't horrified before, he was now. "Wha-an akuma came after you?!"

"Yeah… I was able to shoo it away with Tikki's help, but yeah…"

"Why…? Why didn't you say anything about that?!"

She looked him in the eye, "Would you have believed me if I had? Lila could have easily spun it that I was jealous or I was being over-dramatic."

Nino wanted to argue that getting akumatized, or almost akumatized in this case, was not something people would joke about or make up. But… looking back at his behavior - at everyone's behavior - that day… would he really have?

A faint sound of a yo-yo zipping above drew their attention to the sky. They barely saw Luka - or whatever he was calling himself right now - pull the yoyo back towards him, tap the yoyo, and release a white butterfly back into the air.

So that explained why Marinette gave him the earrings. How many had they attracted already from this one conversation?

"...I'm shocked that Adrien is still staying quiet after you were almost akumatized," Nino muttered, his brow furrowed.

Marinette tensed again, which didn't go unnoticed by the DJ.

"...Mari, Adrien does know, right?"

"...I didn't tell him about the akuma," she whispered, "or about the threat."

"...Why didn't you tell him?" he asked, trying not to sound accusatory.

"Because at the time, his advice did make sense a little…" Marinette said, "how Lila would eventually lie herself into a corner if we waited her out. But that was before…"

"...Before she got you expelled," Nino whispered in realization, "Holy fudge, she got you expelled on purpose, didn't she?"

"A-yup…" was all Marinette had to say, popping the 'p' at the end.

"...Wait a second, but didn't she apologize the very next day or something?" Nino asked, confused, "Saying it was all a mistake?"

"...So Ms. Bustier never told you guys?" Marinette asked, mostly to herself, "Lila made up another lie saying she had a condition that made her make things up all the time. A 'Lying Disease' for lack of better terms."

Nino scowled. Okay, now this was getting ridiculous…

"Apparently Adrien convinced her to do it," she added.

"Adrien? Did he tell you that?"

"No… I found out the first time I ended up in Lila's Palace. Her Shadow told me. Apparently Adrien had promised to play nice if she found a way to get me back into school. Not that that really changed anything. Lila still lied about me to you guys, and accused me of all sorts of things, but nothing bad enough that I would get expelled again."

"God… I am so sorry. What I did was incredibly wrong… I should have known better..."

Marinette almost instinctively said 'Yeah you should've,' but she held her tongue. Nino felt bad enough already and although it hurt, she didn't want to rub more salt in the wound. Instead, she did what they used to do in èlèmentaire when Chloe's bullying was especially bad that day…

She pulled him into a powerful hug.

"...Like I said, Nino," Marinette said, "it'll take a while for me to forgive and trust you again, but it's a good start."

The boy sniffled and wrapped his arms around Marinette as well, burying his face into her shoulder as he began to cry.

o~o

AN: So... Nino knows the truth now. He knows how much he messed up, but he's determined to make it up to Marinette as best as he can. The road to forgiveness will be long and possibly painful, but Nino's willing to pursue it.

I don't remember if I mentioned this last chapter or not, but Nino will always have a special place in my heart. I don't know what it is, but I really like his character, so I couldn't resist giving him a redemption arc. Will any other classmates receive redemption...? Stay tuned to find out!