Nino's POV

Come on. I mean, I know the dude was dense, but that dense? After Alya explained it all to me, the fact that Adrien had rejected Marinette and left the girl heartbroken, I was left speechless.

Come on. Everyone knew that Marinette had a crush on Adrien except, surprisingly, Adrien himself.

I would be okay with that, in fact I had long ago accepted that. Until, one crucial detail emerged. He may or may not have a teensy, weensy little crush on the person he had just rejected.

He just had to go and make things more complicated for himself, didn't he. Leave poor old Nino to try and salvage the remains. Adrien's great and all, but really. Come on.

As I arrived at school, I stood near the front door, in my usual spot waiting for Adrien to arrive. When the familia sleek silver car pulled up, I casually walked down the stairs, greeting him with a fistbump.

Adrien didn't look too great. He had dark bags under his eyes, and his usually perfect hair was a tad scruffier than usual.

"Dude, what happend?" I asked, almost in awe of the fact the Adrien Agreste was looking less than perfect.

"I just had a bad night's sleep Nino." he said tiredly hanging his head and looking away from me.

"Aha." I replied, totally unconvinced, "Does this have something to do with the fact that you rejected Marinette by any chance."

He turned completely to stone looking me with shocked and guilty eyes.

"Come on dude." I replied, done pushing him for the day, placing a comforting hand of his back and leading him into the classroom.

Alya was already sitting there tapping away on her phone she looked up and spared me a glance before turning her frigid gaze towards Adrien. He flinched when he met her eyes and quickly turned them down cast.

I sighed. Marinette was absent, and in her absence Alya just kept a furious glare burning into the back of Adrien's head for the whole day. She didn't come to sit with us like she had the other days when Marinette was absent, rather she went and sat with Juleka and Rose.

At the end of the day after Adrien had run off to fencing, I cornered Alya.

"Alya, what was your problem with Adrien all day?"

Her eyes, which had previously been calm turned enraged. Her posture turning stiff. She looked livid.

"You haven't seen her Nino, she's even worse then after the Akuma incident. She's broken, like a puppet with her strings cut."

"Well Adrien's regretting it too, I actually think he might've had a bit of a crush on her."

Instead of calming her down this just made her more furious.

"Yeah, well maybe he should have thought before opening his stupid mouth then shouldn't he?" I had rarely seen Alya this angry, but I couldn't back down.

"Ever think that maybe he's hurting just as much as she is?"

"He can't be, because Marinette has not just only had her heart broken, but one of her best friends tell her she is inadequate, so I'm pretty sure if I was Marinette, I would be a whole worse off then I am now, we're just lucky she hasn't been akumatized again." she fired back.

I sighed, I refused to give in to her, but at the same time she did have a point. I pulled her into a hug, and she collapsed against me with a shudder. Just like that the furious tension between us dissolved.

"Why do our best friends have to be such obliviots?" she asked, her voice muffled by my chest.

"Obliviots?" I asked, laughing.

"Yeah," she responded, turning her head up to look at me, "oblivious idiots." We collapsed into laughter, and drifted off into comfortable silence.

Damn I love this girl.

Adrien's POV

I would have stayed home from school if that had been an option. Father had made it very clear from the beginning that if I skipped school for anything other than a serious health issue or for something that he approved of he was taking me immediately out of public school and returning me to home schooling.

When Nino questioned me this morning regarding Marinette I nearly choked on my own spit.

A crush?

It was far more than just a crush, I was in love, and I had ruined every chance I had with her and hurt her along the way.

I couldn't just go comfort her as Chat, I had ruined that as well. The one day I had been dreaming of since we first started saving Paris had finally come, and I didn't believe her.

I needed to stop moping, my fencing instructor was already getting frustrated by my lack of focus, and anything less than perfect got reported to my father, I really needed it step it up.

I threw myself into it. Throwing my anger and frustration away at the opponent. At first it was fine, the strength I got from it worked, but soon I was making rash mistakes, throwing away easily won matches.

Suddenly the coach was at my shoulder, shaking his head at me.

"Go cool down Adrien. Your head's not in it."

I stalked away into the change rooms, throwing my foil to the ground and sitting down, panting I put my head into my head.

I looked up when the door of the change rooms clanged open and the coach walked in. He sat down beside me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Adrien, you know you can tell me anything right?" I felt a sarcastic laugh building up inside me, however I didn't release it. Agrestes stayed perfect even under pressure. That was something my Father had drilled into me for as long as I could remember.

Everyone thought that this was a simple question with a simple answer. It wasn't answered simply for me though.

I couldn't tell anyone I was Chat Noir, couldn't tell anyone the problems that came with that title. The only person I could tell other than my kwami, (who was extremely unhelpful) was Ladybug and I had screwed that relationship up.

Instead I settled for the ever familiar response of, "I know." and the coach, seemingly happy with this answer, patted me on the back and got up and left.

Marinette's POV

Alya had convinced my parents not to let me go to school. I had no idea what she said to them, but as soon as I came down stairs, they sent me back up with a tray for breakfast and told me that they were there whenever I needed to talk to them.

I truly had wonderful parents.

I didn't venture downstairs all day until my mind wouldn't leave me alone, so I decided to go and help in the store.

It was very busy down there, and when I started helping the customers, my mum just shot me a grateful look before being whisked away again.

Gradually the amount of customers dwindled, and as I was leaning against the counter a familiar red head walked in.

"Hi Nathaniel!" I greeted warmly despite how I was feeling.

"Hi Marinette." he replied softly, and he wrung his hands together.

"What can I get you today?" I asked, picking up the serving tongs and waiting for him to respond patiently.

"Actually, I didn't come here to buy anything."

Slightly surprised, I put the tongs down, my mouth forming a slight o.

"I came here to see if you were alright." he continued, leaving me smiling at him happily. It was nice to know someone other than Alya, Tikki and my parents cared about my well being.

"I'm fine thanks Nathaniel, it was really kind of you to come and see me just because I wasn't at school!"

"Um, about that, I didn't come just because you weren't at school, I came to see if you wanted to go to the school dance together?"

I felt something cruel and malicious twist inside me. I had been planning on asking Adrien to go with me to the school dance but after what had happened...

I looked at Nathaniel consideringly.

Why not? He could go with whomever he wanted, and so could I. I owed him no allegiance after what he'd done.

I looked up at Nathaniel from under my lashes.

"I'd like that." I said coyly, and when he smiled and blushed tomato red I smiled too.

Adrien's POV

The next day at school Marinette still wasn't there. However, an annoyingly chipper Chloe was.

"Adrikins!" she sang out as soon as I entered the premises.

"Yes Chloe?" I answered impatiently, looking around for Nino to save me.

"I was thinking about the school dance." the school dance. Ever since Chloe had found out about how other countries hold school dances she went on a riot. Convincing her Daddy to hold one at our school.

"Well," she continued, twisting one of her honey blond locks around , "I was wondering if you'd like to go with me?" she asked batting her eyelashes up at me. I spotted Nino standing over near one of the pillars with Alya. I quickly came up with a way to get out of it.

"Let me think about it and I'll tell you my answer later." I responded, hastily making my way towards Alya and Nino before she could pull anything else out from me.

"Make sure you give your answer to me quickly, I need to know so I can make sure we're matching!"

As soon as I reached where Alya and Nino were standing I breathed a sigh of relief. I fist bumped Nino and went to greet Alya only to find she was studiously ignoring me.

"Yo dude, what was all that about?" Nino asked, gesturing over towards where Chloe and Sabrina were standing.

"Chloe just wanted to ask me out to the dance." I respond, "And thanks for the help by the way." I added after a while.

Nino laughed.

"Why didn't you just say yes? would have saved you a lot of trouble, now she's going to be pestering you at every opportunity for your answer."

I sighed, not pleased about the fact that he was right.

"I know, but I kind of wanted to go with someone else." Nino quirked his eyebrow at this.

"Who's the lucky lady?" I cringed at that, if only he knew.

"I think you know who I'm thinking of Nino." I answered, and his eyes lit up.

"Marinette?" he asked and from beside him Alya snorted, finally turning to face me.

"As if you think she'd want to go with you after what you've done." she said, a vicious sort of glee in her eyes as she added, "And besides, she's already going with Nathaniel."

The green eyed monster twisted inside of my, making me shake. I stilled myself with conscious effort and later when Chloe asked if I had come to a decision, I said yes, and agreed to go with her.

Two could play that game.