"You're gonna stare a hole in that mirror hon."

Nino glanced back to where Alya sat curled up on her bed, typing away with quick glances at a stack of papers now and then. "Do you think maybe I should start working out some babe?" He asked, looking back at himself in the mirror and puffing up a little.

He heard her stop typing then instead of an answer,"What's brought this on?"

"Nothing! Nothing. Just thinkin' it might be a good idea. Gotta keep up in case we're needed right?" Nino tried to imagine himself a little buffer, it wouldn't take much.

"Nino…" She could always tell when he was lying, sometimes before he could. "Is this about this morning?"

Her correction made him think. "Maybe a bit," he admitted. Nino turned around to face his girlfriend, suddenly feeling a bit sheepish.

She graced him with a smile and a shake of her head. "You are too much sometimes."

"You saying you were the only girl who didn't think Luka looked hot today?" Nino protested.

Alya scooted her work off her lap and leaned back on her hands,"oh, he was absolutely gorgeous. Confident, poised, stylish, enough to make any girl turn to jelly inside." Nino winced with each pronouncement but Alya wasn't done with him. She leaned forward onto all fours. "And you," she stalked down to his end of the bed, reaching out and hooking his shirt with her fingertips to pull him closer. "Are my cuddly little snuggle bear." Hand over hand she raised herself up as she reeled him in. "You make me love you even when you're being a total doofus." She finished with a light kiss to his already burning cheek.

"Sorry…" Nino conceded.

Alya grinned, folding her arms on his shoulder as she knelt on the bed. "An actual superhero wasn't enough to pry me away from you, no matter what any movie says. What chance do you think a musician in tight pants has?"

Nino gave a soft, relieved laugh at that. He wrapped his arms around Alya and squeezed. "It's not that I don't believe you babe. I just wake up every day knowing how lucky I am that I have you, and some little voice in my head is always whispering that luck runs out eventually."

"Well, you got the first part right," Alya traced a fingertip along his collar. "But the same goes for me, so let's just be lucky together and forget the rest."

Nino smiled, not a conscious reaction but a natural outpouring of the warmth that welled up inside him. He reached up to brush one hand along Alya's hair and follow the curve of her face,"You're the best." He finished with a quick kiss before letting her go.

Alya sat back on the bed and regathered her things. Nino sat down and reached for his bag, he did have work to do too even if she'd pulled his mind other places. He was breaking out physics when Alya mentioned with an exaggerated casualness ,"I asked Chloé to help us with our little Adrienette problem."

Nino replied smoothly,"Oh, right, yeah. I gotta remember to get back to them on that."

"What?" casual went to shock and she nudged him with her bare toes,"You knew? How?"

Nino blinked, then talked it out, rocking a finger back and forth as he connected the dots. "Well... I'm betting Chloé told Luka, and then Luka told me… and so I know." He grinned at his now pouty girlfriend.

"I was hoping you'd be shocked! I thought it was kind of a big deal." She crossed her arms and huffed dramatically.

Nino couldn't help but tease. "You mean, I got ahead of you on something?" She gave him the stink eye but he added,"Can I write it on the calendar?"

That broke her out of her pout and she threw her pillow at him,"Doofus!" Nino took advantage of the situation to turn, tucking the pillow behind him and leaning back onto her bent legs.

Alya wiggled her toes against the small of his back as he settled in, "And this is Luka, as in the same guy you were jealous of for the last thirty minutes?"

Nino shrugged in his reclined position,"Luka's a cool dude."

Alya reached out and pulled off Nino's cap, ruffling his hair. "Don't ever change." She stuffed his hat back on his head. "So what did you talk about?"

"Mostly some ideas he had for how to get them together. He seemed pretty stoked about it. He was talking up a bonfire bigtime."

"We've tried dragging them to parties before."

"Yeah, I told him that. He said bring lots of couples, and have it out somewhere far away so there's no way they can get away." Nino paused,"He said some other stuff about fires too, poetry stuff."

Alya hmmed behind him. "There's something to be said for wrangling them somewhere they can't escape. It's almost impossible to do in Paris. He might be onto something." She prodded his ear lightly with a fingertip. "What was the poetry stuff?"

Nino hedged. "Aww, you know. Just romantic stuff." he opened his book to try to hint at working again.

Alya leaned forward far enough to pinch the shell of his ear and give a little tug. "Out with it…"

Nino sighed, then put on his most comedic Luka tone, but after the first word his nature wouldn't let him keep up the mockery and it became a decent impression. "A big fire is like a portal. It transports you somewhere removed from this world when you gaze into it. In that place you can do anything, be anything, experience anything, and there is no world beyond the moment to judge you for it. Married to the flames you are free. Life, death, warmth, pain. Everything is there and no heart can remain unmoved."

Alya's first reply was soft. "You remembered all that?"

Nino shrugged, slightly sullen,"yeah."

He felt Alya flop back behind him, her voice still soft. "It really was poetry."

Nino hmphed,"I knew you'd react that way. The guy does that to girls just by talking."

He felt Alya shift, she sat back up behind him. "He does." She placed a hand on either side of Nino's face and leaned forward, peeking at him upside down. "But you were the one who remembered it and shared it with me." She grinned. "And you get to reap the rewards."

"Thanks Mrs. Dupain-Cheng."

"For the hundredth time, call me Sabine." Marinette's mother stayed at the foot of the steps watching mindfully as Adrien juggled the plateful of snacks she'd given him, his bag, and knocking up on the trapdoor to Marinette's room.

The door wooshed open almost immediately. Marinette stood grinning for only an instant before a flustered,"Mo-om!" slipped out and she bent down to take the teetering tray from Adrien. He lurched to try and keep it upright at the same moment and their heads bonked together briefly. Marinette ended up with two handfuls of scones and Adrien caught the plate under one arm while catching a half dozen macarons wedged between his arms and body while trying to balance on one foot.

Hiding a pleased little grin Sabine bustled up the steps to put a hand on Adrien's back to balance him. "Oh dear," she added innocently while plucking a few of the macaroons from his arms.

Marinette bit into one scone to hold it and snagged the plate from Adrien to put the other on before piling macarons on as well, freeing him. "I'n fo fowwy." Marinette blinked. She transferred the plate to one hand, took the scone out of her mouth with the other,"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Adrien smiled serenely on the outside while holding a warm laugh down on the inside. Just friends. He rubbed his forehead. "Osmosis might actually be the best way for me to learn physics anyway."

Marinette pinked lightly. "Come on up. We'll figure out how many newtons per square thingy that took, together." She shot an exasperated daughter look over his shoulder then stepped aside, holding the door open.

Adrien took the last few steps up and into Marinette's room. Even with their recent study sessions it still felt slightly like intruding being up here. He'd been able to track little changes.

The pictures were a big change. The very first time a while ago he had been here, so many of them had been of him. Shots from his commercials and ads. Most of the pictures still had him in them, something that gave him hope, but he wasn't alone anymore. In place of ads, snapshots of friends hanging out. Ice Cream at André's, jamming with Kitty section, she even had that unflattering shot of him asleep in the theater still up. He would really have to try and swipe that some day.

Her crafting corner had a lot more design tools mixed in with the physical supplies. Draft sheets for what looked to be a dress had marks and notes all over it. Framed on the wall were two sets of accessories; Marinette's first two lines, already sold out. Adrien had a set of each at home stashed away. Adrien stepped over to look at the dress draft a little more closely. "A new project?"

Marinette eeped and dashed around in front of him to block off the design. "It's horrible right now please don't look."

"I don't think I've ever seen you come up with a bad design, Marinette."

She fidgeted nervously. "You only ever see the finished results, not the work in progress."

Adrien tried a smile, just a touch of smirk mixed in like he'd seen on TV. "Hey, some of my favorite people are works in progress."

Marinette giggled a little too loudly and her eyes darted to the side. "We really should work on physics before you have to get home right?"

Ah well, it was worth a shot. Adrien gave up the exchange and stepped back over to her desk, unshouldering his bag. Marinette quickly moved to sit beside him, tension visibly leaving her.

Her features shifted from nervous to that animated vitality he'd come to appreciate. "I was so lost when they started splitting weight from mass. I really hope you can explain it better than the teacher did."

They delved into numbers, rates, ratios, conversions, and vectors. An ever more insistent part of Adrien's mind pointed out to him as they shifted from working over two textbooks to a single notebook. It made him aware each time Marinette's chair scooted a little closer, or when she leaned in to scrawl the final part of an equation in the margin to save using a whole new line. It noted that she must be trying a new shampoo. The strawberry scent had a slight chemical tang to it that wouldn't come from anything in the bakery. Adrien closed his eyes a moment as Marinette tackled the next problem solo first. Just friends.

Time ticked steadily down and his work became progressively sloppier. It had a habit of doing that lately. The longer they were together the more Marinette relaxed and the more she relaxed the more he fell-.

Adrien shook himself. Marinette glanced at the time. "Oh jeez, I'm sorry I didn't realize. You'll be late to your next lesson at this rate won't you?"

Adrien reset his brain. She had touched him when she turned to glance at the clock. It was just a fleeting brush of the hand she had been writing with, but that part of his mind was already feeding him details of the event. "Oh, don't worry. My tutor's actually out of town. I've been doing independent study and had already gotten ahead for today. I didn't want to have to worry too much while we were together." Just friends.

Marinette pinked and scooted her chair back, tucking her hands under her legs,"Am I really that bad at Physics?" she deflected with a sheepish grin.

"Better than I am at design." Adrien glanced at her craft corner again. "Are you going to do more men's clothes soon? I still have my Marinette Original hat. Extremely Limited edition."

She blushed deeper,"ohhh you kept that?" she squirmed but kept her hands stubbornly tucked. "It was my first attempt. I think I'd be embarrassed to enter it in a competition now."

"Good thing I did keep it then. I'd be missing out."

She blushed further, he was coming to enjoy causing that. Marinette bit her bottom lip and glanced anywhere but at him. "It kind of depends, I guess. I decided to stick with dresses for this first line because I've done more work with them. It's so much harder when you are designing for sale. You can't just do what you like and what looks good. Your work needs to be repeatable and low labor enough to be profitable." She finally pulled her hands out to spread them,"So many things I kind of knew but never really understood before."

In that little speech she had switched from blushing to animated again. It was like watching the sun rise in the morning. He knew he should probably be leaving but just as before, he didn't want this to end. Just friends. "I guess having an in with someone who can advertise for you is a blessing and a curse isn't it? Do you still get to do any designing for fun?"

The question kept her animated. "Oh I do, I make sure to give myself a few hours of slotted 'me' creation every week. If it all becomes business then where's the fun?" She stood and walked over to the corner, picking up some soft looking fabric in a warm orange,"This is going to be a sweater dress when I am done with it." Marinette buried her cheek in the cloth,"Nice and cozy."

"I can't wait to see you in it."

That line made her eyes snap open wide and the color rise again. Before it could get too bad Adrien rushed to continue,"But, with all these new things, plus still doing all the rep stuff at school, and I heard you were joining the yearbook now too. It just seems like a lot to tackle all by yourself with no one to fall back on."

Just friends.

Shut up you.

Marinette didn't take the meaning though, or maybe she did but he really was just indulging wishful thinking. She set down the fabric and gave him a classic big energy Marinette smile,"Oh I know, but I love being busy. I always want to try everything, and if it's hard then I just have to work that much smarter to see it all through."

Adrien let it pass for the night. He picked up his textbook and gave her a strong model's smile over his now familiar dejection. "That's why everybody loves you Marinette. You always give it your all."

Her own smile softened and she said,"Look who's talking." stepping back over. "You spend time teaching me, and I know your own free time is precious."

Adrien zipped up his bag and shouldered it,"Hey, it's one of the few things that is mine, and so I can spend it how I like, and I do." He flashed another grin that put just the lightest of pink to her cheeks rather than a full blush. He froze the image in his mind. That was a much happier memory for the evening.

Marinette followed him down. As she unlocked the door out of the bakery he said,"See you at school tomorrow?" and felt the lameness of it in his bones.

"You bet!" she replied in a chipper tone that suddenly turned nervous again. "Take care, and have fun studying Chinese."

Adrien paused in the doorway "Maybe next time I'll teach you my favorite phrase."

Marinette perked,"What is it?"

Adrien put a finger to his lips,"You'll just have to find out later."

She rewarded him with a pout and a smile, shutting the door as he stepped through. One last wave through the window and she turned out the shop lights heading back up.

Adrien watched her go and murmured under his breath, "It's Wǒ ài nǐ"