Adrien's unfocused green eyes stared blankly down at his hands.

He had lost his cool back there...if he hadn't realized it at the last second, it wouldn't have been pretty.

Why can't I keep my cool? Adrien thought bitterly. Since when did my homicidal thoughts for my father spread to Chloe and her dad?

What is wrong with him? If things keep going on like this, he'll go insane...at least he hopes not.

Adrien is shaken from his thoughts once more as Nino sits beside him on the couch. "Yo! How you holding up, buddy?" he says brightly.

"Chloe's going to die." Adrien deadpanned. Nino raised his hands.

"Whoa, whoa. Hold on there, Friday the 13th. You need to chill out before you actually kill someone." Nino shook his head.

"Close the window, would you?" Adrien asked. Nino shrugged, climbing back onto Adrien's bedside table, pulling the window shut.

Returning to his seat, Nino sends a sideways glance at Adrien. "You're pretty quiet today. You're not planning an actual murder are you?"

Adrien shook his head. Nino sighed. "Oh, ok. I thought you had become unstable, my friend." he laughed wryly.

Nino then remembered something, as if someone had tapped his brain to get it working again.

"Hey Adrien?" he questioned. Adrien looked at him.

"Is there something going on with you and Marinette?" Nino asked curiously. Adrien narrowed his eyes at him.

"No...why? Aren't you dating Alya?" he replied stonily. Alya would kill him if he....and Adrien would help.

Nino nodded hurriedly. "I am! I am, I just thought.." Adrien's glare lessened and curiosity replaced it.

"You thought what?"

That question was the start that Nino was waiting for.

"Well, I thought that you and Marinette were secretly in a relationship or something, because- dude, hear me out," Nino paused, seeing the incredulous look on Adrien's face.

"Its a widely known fact that the two of you are notoriously late for everything. I thought that it was just because you're always busy, and Marinette is a klutz. But you've been caught coming home late- really late, I'm guessing, from everyone's reactions. And you've been coming to school tired- but...so has Marinette! And you two always disappear for hours, always at the exact same time. And then you both show up with terrible excuses- minutes apart from each other." Nino smiled.

"I realized the possibility of this problem earlier, and that would make it so that your actions finally caught up to each other and crashed together- literally, in your case dude. So I came to two conclusions as to what is going on. When you two disappear, you're together. Or, you guy's really are just that busy. But nobody can be the exact same amount of tired and late on the exact same days, and be doing separate things. Its just not possible." Nino finished his rant smugly.

Adrien looked on at his friend, who continued to look proud of himself. Adrien shook his head with a small laugh. "Alya is really rubbing off on you. Good."

Nino quickly turned from smug into a unsettled, disgruntled look as he realized his friend was right.

"I thought I was going to have to keep my secret from you, but it seems like you get closer every day..." Adrien stated.

Nino raised his eyebrows in shock. He was right?

"But it's not what you think."

So he was wrong...

Adrien sighed deeply. "First off, Nathaniel is Marinette's boyfriend." he sent a pointed glare at Nino, who shrugged. "Not my fault you looked so comfortable straddling her on the floor."

"Why would I try to get a girlfriend who already has someone? And plus I already have a girl I love, and I have no chance there either..." Adrien spoke softly.

Nino opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off.

"I know, I know...why didn't I tell you a while ago? Its...not just about a girl. What's funny Nino, is that you are mostly right...so far. I am in fact sneaking back in from meeting with a girl, though it's not Marinette, it's the one who I am in love with. But she does not love me, and our meetings are 'strictly bussiness'." Adrien drawled the last two words out mockingly. He sighed.

"Nino, do you really want to know what I've been doing?"

Nino looked taken aback. "W-Wait! So you're telling me that all I had to do to get you to open up, was to think of a conspiracy theory about Marinette?!" he laughed.

Adrien gave him a sharp, withering glare, under which Nino quickly composed himself.

"Oh, um. Yeah, I really want to know." Nino continued.

Adrien sighed. I really don't feel like explaining this...

"Plagg...you can come out."

"What? Plagg?"

Nino was shocked as a tiny black cat flew out from the bedside table that he had walked over so many times.

"Wha- you have a cat?- WHAT THE- THAT THING IS FLYING!" Nino screamed as the tiny cat shot at his face.

"FINALLY! I was getting tired of waiting in there and I'm already out of cheese and- OOOH, this ones so COLORFUL!" Plagg said excitedly, smiling at Nino. Nino screamed and fell off the couch, landing at Adrien's feet, his back to the coffee table.

"WHAT THE HELL- ?! IT TALKS! WHY IS IT TALKING!? THAT THING IS NOT A CAT!" he pointed at the floating kwami, who swooped down to him.

"WOW! With all these bright colors, something has to taste good!" Plagg licked his lips. That orange thing around the boy's neck has to at least be slightly edible...

Plagg launched himself at the poor boy, zooming all around him and biting at random things on the boy. Plagg bit down hard on Nino's hand, getting a yelp of surprised pain. Nino panicked and violently shook Plagg off his hand.

Plagg flew off Nino's hand only to knock into said boy's hat, knocking it off his head. The hat flew up, only for Plagg to catch it by the rim and try to bite it.

"Blegh! This tastes terrible!" Plagg  pouted and threw the hat away from them both. Plagg landed on Nino's head, now pulling on his extremely curly hair, which was exposed.

"GAH!! MAKE IT STOP! OW! ADRIEN, CALL OFF YOUR THING!"

Adrien found this situation very funny, and was beside himself in laughter.