Marinette's fingers trembled and her heart raced, staring at the Makara in front of her. Around her dozens of green plants sprouted. They seemed to come from the Makara-anything it touched became a patch of green, but the Makara moved incredibly slowly. The leaves from the plants grew non-stop. A few officers were stuck back half a block back, still attacking the shrubs with high powered weed-wackers and herbicides.

There was no Akuma in sight. Maybe Hawkmoth was still asleep. She didn't blame him. She would be, too, if she could. She cautiously stepped forward and crushed a plant under her foot. She felt the slime stick to the bottom of her foot, like slug slime. It was cold, and it felt as uncomfortable as stepping in water with socks on. Her skin crawled-that was gross.

A sharp smell wafted into Marinette's nostrils, and her heart sped once again. She'd never felt like this, and it scared her. She glanced behind her. She swore someone was following her. The anxiety of that possibility made her want to curl up in a ball and cry until her mom came and made everything alright. She jumped and swung her yo-yo at a noise on her right. It was just loose rock which tumbled down a building.

The Makara inched forward again, and another patch of green grew from under its feet. Marinette could only see to the top of its knees. It was huge, and she didn't feel confident enough to throw her yo-yo up to find its face.

She shrieked when a blur of black touched down next to her. She could barely see him, but she knew he was there. Her eyes slid across the horizon. Something was there, worse than the Makara, she was sure of it.

"Calm down, Marinette," Tikki sighed. "This isn't like you."

"Another advanced Makara?" Cat Noir covered his nose and looked at the plants around them. "Do we know what it does?"

Marinette wrung her hands. He was awfully late. She'd already been there for fifteen minutes. No one had made any progress in defeating the Makara.

"Uh, we're not sure," she glanced at the Makara, a cold sweat trailing down her back. "But we know it has to do with the plants."

Cat Noir snorted and glared at the Makara. "I can tell you exactly what it does-it's making everyone a nervous wreck. It's fucking annoying."

Marinette gaped at him. She'd never seen him so angry. "Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not fucking alright," He turned and glared at her. She stepped back and swallowed. "Do you know how little sleep I've been getting lately? And apparently everyone in the whole house cares more about my sleep cycle than anything else about me! I can't have my eight hours of sleep interrupted again, it's starting to affect my complexion!"

A few officers crept up to them, using them as a shield. Marinette glanced at their guns. Was the safety on? What if they accidentally shot at her?

"I'm, uh, your complexion?"

"My face is my life," Cat Noir narrowed his eyes at her. "These damned Makara ruin everything. First they destroy my family, and now they're ruining my sleep schedule? A night attack, is this for real? No fucking way I was woken up at three thirty in the morning to fight a damned Makara, I'll have bags under my eyes for days."

"Uh, I'm sure your face-is still pretty?"

"It-is," Cat Noir bit out. "And it's my job to make sure it stays that way. These Makara are not helping."

He glared up at the Makara, and Marinette nervously bit her lip. She hesitantly threw her yo-yo, attempting to tangle the Makara's legs in the string. She was so nervous that the yo-yo missed. It hit a crumbling building, completely destroying it. Because of magical physics, the yo-yo bounced back and hit her in the face. She fell back into a patch of green. She gasped, unable to see anything but the tops of the plants.

Suddenly it became very hard to breathe. She gasped, and it still wasn't enough. She laid there for minutes or hours, fingers numb and heart pounding through her chest. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't see-she was going to die. She gasped and hyperventilated, and the plants shook gently, as if mocking her. Their scent drifted down to her, and the impending sense of doom grew stronger. She wouldn't be able to make it out of this, she just knew it.

"You're fine," Tikki assured her. "It's just the Makara's power. You need to get up, Marinette. Cat Noir needs you!"

Oh God. The idea of standing exhausted her. The thought of helping Cat Noir as he fought the Makara? Inconceivable. She couldn't do it. Her heavy breathing rustled the leaves above her, and they waved the scent back to her. She was getting lightheaded, and felt like she was going to pass out.

Underneath all her panic was intense confusion. What was she supposed to do? She'd never felt this much fear, this much stress over nothing. She couldn't fight nothing. All she could do was lay there and worry about it.

Cat Noir's hand reached in and grabbed her. His other hand covered his nose to keep the fumes of the plants away from him. He was glaring at her. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, hard. Her teeth clicked together. She was still so dizzy from hyperventilating, and being suddenly pulled up and shaken like a maraca was not helping. She grabbed his arm to steady her, but he pulled away.

"Snap out of it!" He ordered. "I refuse to let you act like this. Come on, I need your lucky charm. Make a sword-I want it to get bigger or smaller when I need it to change size. The closer it is to a fencing saber the better."

"Lucky...charm." Speaking louder than a whisper seemed like a bad idea. She squeezed her eyes shut and her fingers grew warm.

"Hurry up," Cat Noir urged. "I need to go to sleep. I can practically feel the pimples emerging from my face."

"You're...not helping," she said shakily. "I need quiet."

"Well I need a fencing rapier!" he snapped. "Looks like we're both out of luck, huh?"

"Here," she held it out to him. He snatched it from her hands. Officer Claude moved next to her and helped keep her steady.

"Deep breaths," he said. "You had a panic attack under the plants. Officer Madeline had the same problem a few minutes ago. You're going to be very tired for the rest of the night."

"He was so mad at me," she whispered, watching as Cat Noir jerkily wielded the saber. "He's right. I should be there, helping him."

"You'll faint, and then you'll die." Officer Claude held her back. "You've faced plenty of Makara on your own before. Let him return the favor."

"I feel useless," A strange feeling crept through her body, and it coated her throat and stomach. "And if I don't do something soon, something really bad is going to happen."

"That's the plants talking," Officer Claude said. "Take regular breaths, you're still breathing too irregularly. Follow my lead."

Marinette did her best to follow his overemphasized breathing pattern. Every once in a while, Cat Noir's impulsive battle with the Makara caught her attention, but Officer Claude kept turning her back to him. She wondered why he wasn't affected. She asked him to try and distract herself from Cat Noir's battle.

"Oh, I feel it alright," he chuckled humorlessly. "I used to be in the military. We felt this level of stress all the time, I'm used to it. You've never felt like this before, which is why you're reacting so strongly to it. I'm betting Cat Noir's had experience with this before, and getting angry and impatient is his way of coping with it."

In the background, Marinette could hear the Makara begin to dissolve. It sounded like the air leaking out of a tire, and occurred just about as slowly. This Makara was so slow in general, it was strange.

Officer Claude continued to breathe with her, and Cat Noir stalked over to her. Officer Claude stood at her side, and Marinette felt vulnerable. It was such a disgusting feeling-like little pricks were running up and down her body, like someone was watching her, like someone was pouring ice over her head. She hated this feeling almost as much as she hated the way Cat Noir was looking at her.

"Where the hell were you?" He threw the rapier into the ground. "We're partners, remember? First you take three days off, and now you sit in a ditch and cry while I go off and do all the hard stuff? Get it together, Ladybug. That's pathetic!"

Tears welled in Marinette's eyes, and she knew she was about to cry. Her throat thickened, and she opened her mouth to speak, but then the Makara finished dissolving. The stench in the air was completely replaced by a fresh, summery scent. An officer a couple hundred meters away reported that they were finally having luck chopping down the plants.

Marinette's mind cleared, and the tears in her eyes dried. Cat Noir's face paled. Officer Claude walked away whistling. Marinette kept her gaze on Cat Noir. She would never allow anyone to speak to her the way he'd spoken to her, not even him, no matter how much she liked him.

"What did you say to me?" She demanded, stepping up to him. Cat Noir's eyes softened, and he reached towards her.

"Ladybug, I'm so-"

"You called me pathetic." She remembered the nights she'd spent with him when he thought she was Marinette. He was so kind, so helpful and understanding. Was that all an act? Was this what he was really like? Her disappointment at this revelation quickly turned into anger. She wanted so badly to just snap and start screaming at him, but she held herself back. She had a feeling their partnership would never be able to recover from that. Her voice trembled as she struggled to keep control over her volume. "Where do you get off acting so high and mighty-is that what you've been thinking this whole time? That's disgusting. We're partners, yes, and that means one of us takes over when the other's having a hard time, or incapacitated-and obviously, I was having a hard time." She felt like a rubber band stretched too tight.

"No, it's not like that!" he snapped back. "Listen to me before you rush to make judgments, will you? Some day that might bite you in the ass." Marinette pursed her lips, recalling her abhorrent treatment of Adrien. She'd been so sure she knew who he was and what he was thinking. She'd been completely wrong.

"The damned Makara's plants induce stress. See?" He crushed a leaf under his foot, and the scent, though fainter than before, made her heart beat faster for a moment. "You felt it, too. You were flat on your back forever because of it, but that's not you inside, is it? The Makara got to me, too. And I'm generally in a bad mood when I'm woken up in the middle of the night anyway. Give people a break, would you? We're humans, not robots who can be programmed with good manners, or whatever you expect of us."

His words shot straight through her. She did that a lot-she expected perfection from those around her and allowed herself to have bad days because she knew what she was going through. Why did she never give others the benefit of the doubt? She looked at Cat Noir, and a surge of aching affection rose in her. Even now, when he had every right to be furious with her, he was standing in front of her and telling her what was wrong with her, how she could fix it. He was so patient and understanding where she was quick-tempered and inconsiderate. Had she really thought he was hiding a horrible personality under a perfect facade? Why was she always so quick to jump to conclusions?

"You're right," she said. "I am judgmental, and I'm quick to call people out when they act like assholes. I should apologize-but I won't. Not until you say sorry first."

He sighed, ran his hands through his hair, "Me? What do I have to say sorry for?"

"Your entire attitude tonight!" She threw her hands up in the air. "You were so mean, and then you came up to me screaming in my face-you'd better could yourself lucky I have a reputation to uphold, I don't let people get away with that shit when I'm a civilian."

"I already told you, it wasn't my fault!" Cat Noir pointed at his face.

"That's a shitty mindset," Marinette glared at him. This new side of Cat Noir was annoying as hell, but somehow it grounded him, and made him more human. It became easier to take him off the pedestal she'd placed him on, and made them equals. "If you're going to have the nerve to tell me to watch what I say, you'd better be willing to check yourself."

"Ladybug, I'm tired,"

"Well newsflash, Stud-everyone else was sleeping, too. You're not special, and I want an apology."

Cat Noir paced. Four chimes beeped in Marinette's ears. He was going to have to get over himself, and soon. He faced her and pursed his lips. His voice softened. "You're right. I'm being unfair, and I'm an asshole. I'm sorry."

Marinette sighed, and the anger seeped out of her. "It's alright. You were right when you said I expect too much out of people. You made a mistake, and it's not like I've never done that before. So, I'm sorry, too."

There was nothing left to say. Marinette swung home and crashed into bed. She almost didn't wake up when her alarm clock rang an hour later.


Adrien trudged to school, arriving close to twenty minutes late. He didn't care. He was exhausted. Stress and adrenaline from his fights with the Makara and Ladybug buzzed through his body for hours last night. He hadn't slept a wink after he'd arrived home, and it clearly showed on his face. He'd applied a thin layer of concealer under his eyes that morning to keep Natalie from keeling over from shock.

He'd demanded a few weeks ago that she stop checking his sleep cycle, but he was sure if she saw the dark smudges under his eyes, she would never give up checking on his sleep again. In fact, he could almost imagine her getting up and physically checking on him in the middle of the night, just to make sure he was asleep.

He walked through the doors to his homeroom, and the class turned to stare at him. Chloe raised an eyebrow at his appearance, but he was focused on another girl. He strode to Marinette, who was using her arms like a pillow, and blocking out the light from the room.

"Can I have some coffee?" he nearly begged her. He'd seen her give it to others in the past, and he really needed an energizing boost this morning. His own household didn't have anything with caffeine in it.

"It'll dehydrate you," she mumbled, not looking up. "It'll dull your glowing complexion."

"My glowing complexion," he snorted, leaning down. "You're just pretending to care about that because you don't want to share."

She looked up at him for the first time and gave him an impish grin. "Guilty." Still, she unscrewed the lid to her thermos and let him have some. It was rich and sickly sweet. Caffeine and sugar, both mixed in one drink. Natalie would have a heart attack.

"Are you done with...that?" Mrs. Bustier questioned from the front of the classroom. "We do, uh, have a lesson?"

"Why are we even here?" Alix questioned. "There was a Makara attack last night. Doesn't that mean we don't have school today?"

"I don't make the rules," Mrs. Bustier sighed, then she brightened. "Let's play a game!" Everyone groaned. "It's called: 'no more asking Mrs. Bustier any questions.'"

"Hey, that sounds a lot like the game Mrs. Mendeleiv likes to play," Nathaniel called from the back of the room. "Did you guys learn it at the same summer camp?"

Mrs. Bustier looked like she was going to throw down her piece of chalk and cry. "The rules of the game are in the title. 'No more asking Mrs. Bustier any questions.'"

"Are those all the rules?" Kim asked. Nino raised his hand and spoke before Mrs. Bustier could stop him.

"Is it true that if the teacher if out of the room for fifteen minutes, the students are dismissed from school?"

Suddenly the classroom was a flurry of sound, and questions were fired at Mrs. Bustier almost non-stop. She ran out of the room, not even giving her usual excuse of needing to use the restroom.

"I've started the timer!" Max called. Adrien took a last sip of coffee, handed the lid back to Marinette, and leaned against her table. Chloe wandered over to him.

"You're looking nice today, Marinette," Adrien complemented. She exchanged glances with Alya, then raised an eyebrow at him. He gestured to her outfit. "Where'd you get it?"

Like someone injected her veins with pure coffee, she perked up. She stood and showed the entire ensemble. "I don't buy my clothes," she said happily. "I make it all."

"Very nice," he said. "I especially like the pockets. Each side reminds me of a butterfly without hitting me over the head with it. Turn around?" She happily did so, explaining that the jacket was actually inspired by the butterfly which possessed the Akuma. "I like the embroidery on the back," Adrien complemented. "It reminds me of wings without ramming it into me that I'm looking at a butterfly-inspired jacket."

"Ten minutes left!" Max called. The class raised its volume, hoping to scare Mrs. Bustier away if she dared return.

Marinette beamed at him. "I'm so glad you noticed! No one ever notices!"

"Are you sure about the denim on denim, though?" Adrien questioned, eyes flickering from her denim jacket down to her skinny jeans. "The pants are tailored excellently, by the way."

"Of course I'm sure!" She sounded offended. "Denim on denim is in, and if you wear it with enough confidence, it will always be in!"

"I'm not sure. I think it would work better if one denim was darker than the other denim, but since both your denims seem to be cut from the same cloth, they match in color. I'm just not sure how well it works."

"You know," Alya said from the side, completely surprising him. He'd forgotten she was even there. "That was terribly said. If that was written out, it would be awful to read. You repeated 'denim' so many times, it made my head spin. A good writer never repeats the same word too many times in one paragraph."

"Well, its a good thing no one's going to read what I say, then," Adrien said, confused. Chloe poked her head into the conversation and added her two cents.

"That's not always true," she declared. Alya raised an eyebrow at her.

"Oh? And how much do you know about writing?"

"I know plenty," Chloe sniffed. "I'm not an idiot. Think about body parts. How many ways can someone describe eyes before it gets dumb? 'His brown eyes,' 'her blue orbs,' 'beautiful green spheres,' 'the windows to the soul.' Sometimes if you try and change up the diction too much, it sounds stupid."

"Yeah, for eyes, sure, but what about…"

Their conversation continued, but it interested Adrien about as much as watching a blank computer screen did. He turned back to Marinette.

"Turn around again?" he asked, and she did, trying to show off her design. "I really like the pockets." She turned and looked at him with intense disappointment.

"The butt pockets?"

"Yup. And the butt itself."

She rolled her eyes and flopped back into her seat.

"Two minutes left!" The class started packing up. Alya and Chloe were struggling to talk over each other, for some reason rapidly quoting Shakespeare at one another.

"What a nerd," Adrien and Marinette said at the same time. They glanced at each other, surprised. He grinned at her, and Marinette reluctantly smiled back. It still took his breath away how her face changed when she allowed herself to look happy. The corners of her eyes lifted, her cheeks plumped up, and she looked so much more at ease than she normally did. It made his heart do somersaults to know that he had said something she found amusing enough to smile at.

"Fifteen minutes have elapsed!" Max's voice rose over the class.

Kim whooped. "We can leave!"

Chloe and Alya were still talking or arguing or something. Adrien tried talking to Marinette, but she was on her phone. Nino came up behind him and clapped him on the back.

"I bet you're not expected back home for a few hours," he grinned. "Wanna hang out?"

"Uh," he glanced at Marinette. She didn't even acknowledge him. Nino gave him a knowing look and tapped Marinette on the head.

"You free to hang out today?"

"I have plans with Kagami," she said. "If she can come along, sure."

"This works out great," Nino said, pulling Adrien up next to him. "You've got your plus one, and I've got mine."

"We were planning on going to our favorite cafe. Is there anywhere else you guys had in mind, or are you fine joining us?"

"There are cafes opened the day after a Makara attack?" Adrien questioned. Marinette nodded.

"Some businesses can't afford to close. They don't usually get a lot of business, but for them, any customers are vital customers. Kagami and I like their milkshakes. The food is pretty good, too." Marinette grabbed her stuff. "Walk with me to the bakery. I'll drop my stuff off, then I'll guide you guys to the cafe."

"Awesome," Nino grinned. "Dude, looks like you're playing hookie for the first time, and I get to be here to witness it."

"Technically, he's not 'playing hookie,'" Max appeared out of nowhere, and Nino looked less than ecstatic to see him. "According to the school rules, he is legally allowed to leave, and since there is nothing binding him here, there is nothing for him to play hookie from."

"Max, Dude, you seriously take the fun out of everything."


Nino liked to consider himself friendly. He tried to make friends wherever he went. It was never hard for him to strike up a conversation, and learning about people fascinated him. He liked hearing their perspective on things, and tried to expand his mind with every new interaction he had. He found it helped keep him a balanced person, and influenced his music to keep it from going static. So, when Marinette mentioned meeting up with one of her childhood friends-a friend he'd never met before-he was over the moon happy. Since the Makara attacks had started, it wasn't as easy to meet new people. Heck, it was hard enough to keep in touch with friends he'd already had, let alone make new friends.

With the police mainly focused on the giant monsters which were beginning to attack more and more frequently, other crimes were becoming more common. It made folks nervous to meet new people; no one knew if it was a kidnapper or murderer or something equally bad. It was hard not to blame the police for the spike in crime, but at the same time, Nino knew they were at the end of their rope. People liked to think of the police as an entity, and it was easy to forget about them as people. Nino liked to remind himself that, even if they signed up to be civil servants, they were still people, and they couldn't do everything that was demanded of them.

The point was, he was stoked to have the opportunity to meet someone new. If they were friends with Marinette, they already had common ground, and he wouldn't have to use something lame like the weather to start conversation.

"That's Kagami," Marinette pointed at a girl standing in front of a cafe. The girl looked up from her phone and waved at them. Kagami was another short Asian girl, but not as short as Marinette, and probably not Chinese. If Nino had to guess, he'd think she was Japanese. Her hair grazed her ears, and the bangs framed her brown eyes. For a guy like Nino, who wasn't necessarily tall, it was nice to hang out with two petite girls, especially when he was also hanging out with the six foot tall blonde Adonis known as Adrien Agreste.

"Oh, right, introductions." She looked at Nino. "Friend, meet other friend." Then she looked at the blonde model next to him. "Adrien, meet Kagami." Nino shook his head.

"That's not funny anymore," he mumbled. He'd only introduced Marinette to his classroom friend like that one time and he was like, seven, and for some reason she could not let it go. "I'm Nino."

"You're Nino?" Kagami looked surprised. Marinette led everyone inside. "I always imagined you...different, somehow."

"Marinette talks about me?" Nino leaned closer and grinned. "What does she say about me?"

"She says you're one of her closest friends." Kagami said matter-of-factly. Nino blinked and looked at Marinette who was scowling at her.

"Do you always have to do that?" she complained. "You're always going around spilling my secrets. Why?"

"That was so sweet of you, Marinette," Nino held his hand to his chest, "I'm genuinely touched."

"I can't tell if he's genuinely touched or not," Adrien murmured to Kagami. She shrugged at him, either also unsure, or uncaring.

"Yeah, yeah," Marinette mumbled, pulling out a chair for herself. Kagami took the seat next to her. "Like you wouldn't say the same for me."

"What would you say about me?" Adrien questioned, sitting across from her. Nino sat next to him and across from Kagami.

"I'd say you were annoying as hell, and that you'd probably like the Italian sub."

Adrien's face crumpled like a kicked puppy. Nino mentally shook his head in pity. The guy had it bad. Nino honestly wasn't sure what he saw in Marinette, but Nino probably wasn't the right person to have an opinion about this. He'd known Marinette for years, and she was more like a sister than an actual girl to him at this point. She might have been smoking hot and a total catch, but he just wouldn't be able to see it past all his memories of her tattling on him and pushing him in mud puddles until he cried.

"You like her," Kagami spoke to Adrien, clearly surprised. Nino laughed at the distressed look on his buddy's face. Marinette rolled her eyes.

"He's just a friend, Kagami, he doesn't like me."

Adrien cleared his throat, clearly mortified, and his neck turned red. Nino reached over and patted his back in a totally bro-friendly way.

"You're wasting your time," Kagami stated, reading through the menu. "She already likes someone, and he's more than a bit cooler than you."

A waiter came to take their orders, but Nino barely paid him any attention. His dude looked heartbroken, and Nino wouldn't let him suffer alone to stutter over his choice on the menu.

"And you, sir?" The waiter asked. Nino pointed at a random spot on the menu.

"I want that. Oh, and orange juice." The waiter moved onto Kagami, and Nino leaned closer to Adrien. "You ok, Dude?"

"I didn't know she liked someone," he sounded completely dejected. That type of expression should never be on such an angelic face. "Do you know who it is?"

"I'm not sure, but apparently he's cooler than you." Nino winced and quickly backtracked. "Sorry, sorry. We don't know that for sure-Kagami could be wrong, you know?"

"I'm not wrong,"

Kagami must have had super hearing. Or maybe Nino wasn't as good at whispering as he thought.

"Why does this always happen when I go out to lunch with you and new people?" Marinette demanded. "It wasn't funny the first time, and it's not funny now." She turned to the guys. "Would you guys sit up. Your little testosterone huddle is weirding me out."

"If you don't want me to say, why don't you tell them yourself?" Kagami invited.

"Why should I? I don't want to say, and they're not interested."

"I'm interested," Nino piped up. Marinette glared at him, but he shrugged happily back.

"Unless you're ashamed of it?" Kagami challenged. "Or you don't actually like him?" There was a pause, and Nino couldn't think back to a time the atmosphere had ever been this tense when a girl asked another girl who she liked. Marinette clenched her teeth, but eventually looked to Nino.

"Cat Noir." She raised her chin in the air and stared him down, daring him to laugh at her. He bit back a smile. All that heavy tension...for a celebrity crush?

"The superhero?" Adrien questioned from next to him. Marinette watched the waiter bring drinks to their table. She thanked him, and Nino knew she was genuine, but she somehow made it sound like she was mad at the poor guy. The waiter practically ran back to the kitchen.

"Yeah. I like him. So?"

"Nothing," Adrien smiled wide. "What exactly do you like about him?" Well, he got over her fast. Or maybe he just really liked talking about superheroes.

"What is that?" Kagami looked at Nino's drink with a disgusted look on her face.

"Um, orange juice," Nino said. "Have you never heard of it before?"

"I like how nice he is, and how patient." Marinette said stiffly. "What do you think about the mayor's plan to start construction outside the city for the people who have lost their homes?"

"Is that it?" Adrien asked, totally ignoring Marinette's question.

"No, it's hundreds of grams of sugar, artificial flavoring, and possible carcinogens squeezed into a liquid," Kagami looked nauseous as he took a sip. He smacked his lips, satisfied.

"Incorrect. It's orange juice. My favorite drink."

"I can't imagine why," Kagami took a sip of her own drink. "Water is supreme. It is the base of everything, and can adapt any flavor. It goes with every type of food but desert. You would die without water, but you could easily survive without orange juice."

"Woah, that was really deep," Nino praised.

"You like milkshakes," Marinette pointed out. "You like milkshakes even more than water."

"No, you like milkshakes more than water. And for some reason you keep thinking I do, too."

"Do you think he's cute?" Adrien really would not let the Cat Noir thing go. Marinette turned to him, agitated

"Yeah, so? He is. It's a fact."

"Yeah," Adrien sounded smug. "I've noticed there's more pictures of him on the Ladyblog. You're the one who asked Alya to include him more, right?"

"Water is fine, but orange juice is great. Yeah, you could survive without orange juice," Nino took another long sip. "But could you live without it?" He offered her a sip from his glass, and she looked at it disdainfully. He shrugged. More for him.

"You log onto the Ladyblog?" Marinette asked, reigning in her temper. "Do you like the banner on top? I designed that."

"It's cool," Adrien agreed. "I like how the right half symbolizes Ladybug and the left half symbolizes Cat Noir. Did you like him when you designed the banner?"

"Does that matter?" Marinette fumed. "Why the heck do you care so much about this anyway? Do you want me to ask about who you like? Well, fine-who do you like?"

"I could easily live without it. It's not good for you," Kagami said, clearly as used to Marinette's explosive temper as Nino was. Adrien chuckled next to them. It looked like Adrien wasn't intimidated by her fury either.

"Quit laughing! You're the one who wanted me to ask!"

The waiter trudged to their table, handed everyone their food and fled.

"You were right," Adrien said to Marinette. "I do like the Italian sub."

"Who cares?" Nino asked. "It tastes great, and that's why I order it. Most things you like aren't great for you, or necessary, but you go for them anyway. If I only did what I needed to to survive, I would sit in a cardboard box and drink water and eat oatmeal every day."

"You need exercise to survive and thrive," Kagami corrected him. "You would waste away if you simply sat all day."

"I'm not telling," Adrien hummed. "But I'll tell you if you guess right."

"I'm not guessing," Marinette growled, crossing her arms. "Because I don't care."

"Fine, I could stand every few hours," Nino allowed. "But that would be no fun. There would be no friends, no concerts, no music." He lifted his glass. "No orange juice."

"Alright, alright," Adrien sat back, not wanting to rile Marinette up too much. "I think the mayor's idea is great. Even if Ladybug and Cat Noir defeat the Makara and Akuma, the city is destroyed and tainted with magic-it'll be impossible to repopulate those areas, and expanding the city outwards seems like the only logical next step right now."

"But what is the use of orange juice and music if it does nothing for you?" Kagami questioned archly. Nino gaped at her.

"What's the point of music?"

"Uh-oh," Marinette said from across the table. "Not the 'point of music' speech."

"Kagami doesn't know the beast she awoke," Adrien agreed. They both watched as Nino internally struggled .

Nino couldn't put into words just how much music meant to him. The freedom of expression, the creativity and ability to show what he was feeling without having to commit and put to words what he was thinking-it had gotten him through years of his parents disapproval and dismissal. It had helped him find himself, and had been the first way he'd been able to connect with anyone. Hearing other artists put into their lyrics exactly how Nino was feeling kept him from feeling totally isolated from everyone and everything. In a sense, music was what kept him alive for a few years, and now, music was his life.

"Music is like, everything!" He exploded. "It's the single thing which can connect everyone! It's been passed down from ancient times to now, it's been found in like, every single culture ever! There's a reason all forms of humanity have discovered and perfected their own style of music. There's culture in it, a way to learn about how someone was feeling. It's been scientifically proven that music can physically affect the way you feel. Slow tempo, slow heartbeat; fast tempo, fast heartbeat. That's just the basics of it. Music lasts in the memory a lot longer than anything else. Show an old person a song from when they were a kid, they'll remember the song. Show them some dumb newspaper article, they probably won't know what you're talking about. Music is a way to document the present, to hope for the future, to show others exactly how you're feeling, and get them to feel that same way, even if it's just for a few minutes. And you're trying to tell me it's unnecessary?"

"I suppose I never thought of it like that," Kagami mused.

"You can enjoy things and also have them be necessary for life," Nino said. "A fulfilling life doesn't need to be full of just work. There has to be enjoyment in it for it to be balanced."

Kagami hummed as she stirred her pasta.

"This has been fun, I guess," Marinette stood up. "But I need to leave. My parents need me to work a shift at the bakery."

"I'll go with you!" Adrien said. "I'll get Gorilla to pick me up from your bakery. I need to go home and prepare for my fencing class anyway."

"You fence?" Kagami asked. Adrien nodded and told her his fencing studio. Kagami blinked. "That's where I fence," she said. "How have I never seen you there before?"

"I used to go on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays," Adrien said. "Now I'm going on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It was a scheduling thing."

"I will be seeing you on Tuesdays then, it seems."

"So you kids are off and leaving us with the bill?" Nino asked Marinette. She slammed a few euros on the table. "Jeez, no need to be so rough," Nino laughed. She smiled a little and gave him and Kagami good-bye hugs. Adrien waved and left, too, following after her like a love-struck puppy. Dude had it bad.

"You fence?" He asked Kagami. She nodded, placing her money on the table and standing. He joined her, strolling down the street with her.

"I have since I was young. My mother insisted I learn."

"You any good?"

"I am better than everyone I have seen in the studio, and I assume I am better than Adrien as well." Kagami said. If anyone else had said that, Nino would assume they were an arrogant prick. With Kagami, though, it just sounded like a fact. "Everyone in my family has been a master fencer, and my mother requires the same of me."

"Woah, 'requires?'" Nino asked. "Sounds harsh."

Kagami nodded. "It is, but I understand. She expects the best, and being harsh is the fastest way to reach perfection."

"I can kind of see how you and Marinette get along," Nino said. "You guys are both so blunt, but you're so formal and polite about it, it's hard to tell if you actually mean what you say."

Kagami smiled. "Marinette is interesting, to say the least, and she's one of my best friends. Sometimes I wish I could be more like her-free to pursue my own passions. But that will not be tolerated in my family."

"That seems kind of pointless," Nino mused. "To be so good at something, but not even like doing it."

"It might seem pointless to you," Kagami's voice hardened. "But it's my life. You don't need to understand."

"Sorry," Nino backtracked. "I didn't mean to offend or anything."

Kagami nodded once, and her anger seemed to disappear. They kept walking, but the silence grated on Nino. He wanted to talk more, to get to know her better.

"Want to hear my music?" He asked. She looked at him.

"Which artists do you listen to?" She asked. "I might have heard of them."

Nino shook his head. "No, I mean…" He was suddenly nervous, holding his phone, full of his music, and his feelings from the past couple of years. "This is my music. I made it. Do you want to listen?"

Kagami nodded again, just once. Nino handed her a headphone, and he played his first song. He jammed to the beat, and he enjoyed the song, like always, but he was also nervous. He knew people listened to his songs, but he'd never seen anyone react to his work. Nino suddenly felt a new appreciation for Marinette. She, too, was a creator. She designed her clothes, made them, and then wore them. She saw reactions to her work all day, every day. He wondered how she did it. He watched Kagami's face closely.

"It's very good," she said. "Do you have more?"

They listened to his music the entire way to her fencing studio.