"You have to go to school, Nino," Wayzz repeated with a sigh, not even looking at his charge as he went about feeding Will. However, he could still hear Nino rolling back and forth on the mattress, whining to himself.

"I can't, I'm sick. I have a flu," Nino said, burying himself under his blankets, still in his pajamas.

"No," Wayzz corrected. "You have a girlfriend. It's not the same thing."

"She isn't my girlfriend!" Nino shouted, throwing the blankets off and revealing his flustered expression.

"She disagrees," Wayzz said with a chuckle, turning to regard him and crossing his arms. "Or did I misread the message where you agreed to take her on patrol?"

"Don't read my texts," Nino muttered, rubbing his eyes beneath his glasses and slinging his legs over the edge of his bed. He was red in the face as he checked the time, fidgeting again before grabbing a pillow to groan into.

"If you send all your messages while transformed I can't really help it," Wayzz sighed, still smiling.

"Well messaging her as me," he said as he threw the pillow clear and gestured to himself, "isn't really an option. Because she doesn't know who I am, which is one of many reasons this is ridiculous."

"Oh relax," Wayzz said with a chuckle, going about his business and patting Will on the head. "This is good! Alya is a nice girl."

"I don't know how this happened," Nino groaned, dropping his head in his hands. "I went from telling her it wasn't safe to be seen with her to- to-" he faltered, face growing more heated.

"Dating her?"

"It's one!" Nino shouted, a little more reckless since his parents had left early that day. "One date, we aren't dating, and it isn't even a date it's just patrol. I'm taking her on patrol so she'll stop nagging me."

"You called it a date first," Wayzz pointed out, flying in Nino's direction to hover near him. "I understand your hesitation but as long as you're careful--"

"She just like, she was just talking like it was already a thing? And, I was all confident or whatever and I was rolling with it, but then as soon as I got home I'm like--I can't do the girl thing, Wayzz. I can't. I'll die."

"Boys are also an option."

"Not the part that's the issue, buddy," Nino hissed through his teeth, looking up to glare at the rather smug turtle. "I'm pathetic at this! She's scary!"

"Scary?" Wayzz said in confusion, crossing his arms. "She's forward. At most I'd call that intimidating. She's a girl who knows what she wants and goes after it. I find that respectable."

"But--why does she want to?" Nino said in completely genuine bewilderment.

"Do you not want her to have an interest in you?"

"No, of--ugh," Nino ran his hands roughly through his hair. "Of course I want her to, I just didn't... expect her to? Alya's great, she is, she's amazing and... alright yes. I admit it now, I was flirting with her. I was. I...she's cool. She's fun you know? We're friends. But like, I actually did it and now I don't know what to do. I cannot just go to school and sit one seat ahead of her like 'Oh hey, I totally didn't get your number in a super flirty that kind of way like, last night. Nope. Business as usual.'" Nino stood up, pacing his room and still not ready for school, which he should have left for a while beforehand. "I was confident because she didn't know it was me; it felt different. But now she like... wants to hang. And so do I. And I'm freaking out about it."

Wayzz was quiet for a moment, watching Nino as he dwelled in agitation.

"It is early yet," Wayzz said gently, drifting forward to put his hands on Nino's shoulder. "You are worrying yourself for nothing. Talk to her if you want to, see her if you want to. I think it is obvious now to even yourself that it isn't that you don't want to go through with it, it's that you're unsure of how." Wayzz paused, smiling to himself where Nino couldn't see. "These things are often simpler than humans make them. Do you want to spend time with her?"

Nino didn't respond, not looking at the kwami and instead focusing on nothing in particular. Thinking.

"Yeah," he finally said, falling silent.

"Then do so. She wants to spend time with you as well, so she will. What progresses shall be natural, so don't obsess. For now, you need to go to school."

"There's no way I'm going to be able to be normal," Nino said in a dazed voice, Wayzz drifting off to find Nino a clean pair of socks and hopefully kick him into gear. "I'll have to avoid her."

"If you must," Wayzz said with a heavy sigh, dropping with a small thud into a sock drawer as Nino finally started to get ready.

"Oh, hello Nino. You're joining us after all today?"

Nino stopped in the doorway of his classroom, blinking in a mixture of distraction and exhaustion. It took him a second to even notice it was Ms. B who was talking to him, or that he had pretty much derailed a lecture by walking in almost twenty minutes late.

"Uh, sorry," he offered lamely, shrinking into his seat quickly and gluing his eyes to the desktop.

"Well," Ms. Bustier said with a small sigh, "Adrien can give you the notes so far. As I was saying..."

Her typical teacher tone picked up as normal, but Nino didn't hear any of it. Yeah, he was really tired but to be honest that was almost 0% of the problem. It had a lot more to do with who was sitting behind him, and how he was very, very carefully not looking at her. Even though it wasn't hard, considering she sat behind him and he'd probably have to make an effort to get caught staring at her.

He jumped a bit in his seat when something hit his arm, but it was just Adrien's notebook as his friend slid it over. Nino didn't miss the questioning, slightly concerned expression Adrien was sporting. And something else too.

Nino didn't meet his eyes, silently taking the notes and dragging out his own notebook to carry through with the charade.

Nino couldn't help but feel like someone was staring at him, aside from Adrien who was not backing down. Usually his friend got the hint when Nino wasn't up for talking at the minute, but he consistently tried to get his attention through class.

"The answer would be 1865 Madame, when it was initially published."

That was pretty much the only thing Nino heard through the entirety of class, and it was not lost on him that the only reason he even got that much was because it was said by Alya. Probably in response to a question, or something similar but he didn't know.

He really didn't know what he was going to do.

He had just sort of...offered. He figured she'd be interested in seeing the whole patrol route, she knew the start and ending points but not everywhere they checked. That was superhero related, which was what she liked, right?

Nino sank a little in his seat, thoughts buzzing like trapped flies in a glass jar and equally as irritating.

You're setting yourself up for disaster man, one of them hissed. What exactly do you think is going to happen? What even can happen? As soon as she finds out you're just Nino, she's gone. You only barely caught her attention because you specialize in green spandex and stupidly dangerous hobbies; she's never given a damn about regular Nino. You only matter to her because-

He tried to keep himself from thinking it, but the effort barely slowed it down. So in the middle of class he sank a little farther, cringing from the sharp words.

You only matter to her because of the mask. Take that away and you're nothing special.

Nino's head dropped slightly, fingers curling tightly around his pencil. A harsh dark line cut through his useless notes, and he felt Adrien glance over but he didn't acknowledge him.

So there it was. He liked her, he knew he did. It was stupid trying to pretend he didn't. And she liked Jade... which was fair, he guessed.

Jade was the important part.

'No.'

"Jesus Christ," Nino said aloud, jerking in his seat and immediately biting his tongue as he locked eyes with the teacher.

"Excuse me?" she questioned, tone sharp as he floundered.

"What?" he replied in confusion, his whole body heating up. "Sorry. Uh... s-stubbed my foot. Toe."

"Foot toe?' she sighed, a majority of the class chuckling to themselves as she sighed heavily. "Please don't be a distraction Nino, you were already late."

"Yup," he said shortly, earning a glare from Ms. Bustier before she decided to ignore him.

Adrien was giving him a questioning glance himself but he ignored him. Instead he was focusing on the gentle weight on his head he had nearly forgotten about.

'The telepathy thing is a no-no at school, Wayzz, unless you're helping me cheat again,' Nino thought as sourly as he could manage, aware of Wayzz's gentle pats from his hiding place in his hat.

'Your reaction wasn't my fault,' Wayzz replied, his tiny weird feeling fin like hands pushing through Nino's hair and directly touching his scalp. 'You scare easily.'

Nino thought something a tad unkind before Wayzz said, "Do not swear.'

'This is my head! What are you doing listening in anyways I told you to stop that when there wasn't a test.'

'I don't approve of that particular study habit,' Wayzz thought, tone clearly stern. 'And call it intuition. I had a feeling you'd be stewing, so I thought I'd correct you.'

'I'm not stewing,' Nino thought bitterly, shifting in his seat in a futile attempt to shake Wayzz's hands off, but the kwami was undeterred.

'You are constantly stewing, it's your default state,' Wayzz contradicted. 'You're being silly.'

'Leave me alone,' Nino thought irritably, dragging his fingernail across the soft wood of his pencil.

'Please stop torturing yourself, Nino. I understand why you have your doubts, but they're unfounded. Alya is your friend and Jade is NOT the superior half of you. You are Jade and Jade is Nino; stop thinking of them as separate.'

'I can't even have my thoughts without being lectured?'

'When they're stupid? No, you can't.'

Nino grimaced.

'How long did you help with Ladybug and Cat Noir to just go back on every scrap of advice you've given when you're involved yourself? I suppose you think their relationship is hollow or false.'

'What? I didn't say that what are you-'

'Alya has interest in Jade because he is humble, personable and kind. She likes him because she feels like she really knows him, that he's a friend. Jade isn't some hyper exaggeration of yourself; you are the most genuine hero I've ever known. Nothing changed when you put on the mask. It's a miracle she doesn't know it's you.'

'Leave me alone okay! I can be stupid in my own head if I want!' Nino snapped at him, grimacing outwardly and trying to resist getting into an argument with his hat. He knew Wayzz was right, but he also knew that Wayzz knew that he knew he was right, and that annoyed him. He had a right to be irrational in his own thoughts if he wanted to be; he was under a lot of pressure.

'Letting yourself get carried away with poisonous thoughts is never good, even if they are never spoken aloud. That might even make them worse.'

'If you keep spying you are staying in my bag I swear to god.'

Wayzz sighed heavily, grumbling an exasperated Fine before withdrawing his hands in a slight huff. Nino couldn't muster up the extra brain power to feel bad, even if he could practically sense Wayzz stewing now on his own.

He appreciated the help, he did, but he also wished that Wayzz would just let him be stupid for awhile. He was incredibly unsure of himself and being constantly wrong didn't totally help.

He knew every scrap of advice he had given Adrien, and he was also very aware that it completely applied here, except in this instance Alya was Adrien and he was Ladybug which was weird. It was the exact same thing and didn't require months and months of thoughtless dwelling in order to get it across, but one day of thoughtless irrational dwelling wasn't a lot to ask.

Nino fought off a sigh as class continued, dragging his nail across his pencil and steadily focusing on stripping it of it's thin yellow paint. He had made a small pile of the tiny paint chips by the time class finally concluded, sweeping them absentmindedly to the floor as he procrastinated rising.

Now that a small chunk of time had passed he did feel bad for being harsh to Wayzz, who he knew was only trying to help. He was contemplating finding a quiet corner to sneak off to and apologize when a hand sporting a small silver ring dominated the desk in front of him.

Nino looked up to see a slightly... bashful looking Adrien leaning on his half of the desk from the front, already packed and standing and he looked down at him.

"So uh... class is over," Adrien started, most of the student's gone by now but a few still straggling behind, Marinette and Alya among them. "You going to tell me what an idiot I am?"

Nino blinked once, meeting Adrien's sometimes way too green eyes and staring blankly before saying, "Uh. No?"

Adrien seemed surprised, taking back his hand and running it through his hair as he laughed nervously, shooting a glance most likely at the girls behind them. "Well I wouldn't blame you. Uh... it's sorta accurate."

"Yeah?" Nino said slowly, already completely lost and not feeling too up to trying to catch up as he finished packing his bag. He stood up, heading towards the door and very strategically not looking at the girls as he did so. Adrien seemed surprised again.

"W-well uh," Adrien stammered, now pretty confused himself as he looked once more behind Nino before slowly following his friend. "You know. Kind of obvious, right? Like, uh... as soon as you said 'in our class' I probably should have caught on, right?"

Nino's brow furrowed, the DJ looking over at his friend and nodding a little to make it look like he got it when he was mostly just looking for a quiet place. Adrien looked baffled yet again, which wasn't terribly reassuring because he was sort of relying on Adrien knowing what the conversation was about since he definitely didn't.

"Um," Adrien tried again, getting more uncomfortable by the second as he followed his friend, neither concerned with their next class. "Hehe, uh, we're not really sure how to break it to Alya, like the Us thing. Should be pretty funny right?"

Nino looked up quickly as soon as he said her name, paying attention for the first time in the past few sentences and spooking the model with his sudden focus that dwindled almost as quickly as it came.

"Right," Nino said slowly again, turning a corner and feeling a slight wave of awkwardness as Adrien continued to follow him. Like he wasn't against Adrien being there but he had kind of been hoping to talk to Wayzz by himself...

"Uh, Nino," Adrien asked, reaching out and grabbing his friend lightly by the shoulder to slow him to a stop in the empty hallway, confusion cloaking his features. "Are you okay man? You aren't uh, gloating like I figured you would."

"Gloating?" Nino asked, his bewilderment obviously coming off as genuine enough to confuse Adrien even more.

"Well, like maybe not gloating but sort of like... 'You're stupid, haha. I knew and you didn't, you're so blind you loser' sort of thing."

The two boys stood in the deserted hallway for another few seconds in complete silence, each one staring at the other in absolute confusion before Nino finally said, "Alright I'll be real with you I have no idea what we're talking about."

Adrien blanched, mouth opening and closing as half-made unfinished sounds slipped passed his teeth. His expression wasn't outraged but it was fairly incredulous, his hands lifting from his side to gesture helplessly at the air.

"Wha- are you serious?" he asked, looking around and pointedly gesturing to the emptiness of the hall. "No one is here Nino you don't have to like, pretend."

"I'm still super lost," nino admitted again, shifting a tad impatiently. Adrien was flabbergasted.

"I- last night?" Adrien tried, searching his friend's face for any hint that he was joking. "Really big turning point in my life?"

Nino stared blankly, and he was suddenly aware of a faint snicker coming from his hat.

"The thing that's sort of a huge deal?" Adrien tried again,"Marinette?"

"Yeees?" Nino attempted, very clearly still lost as a new snicker came from Adrien's pocket.

"I'm dating Marinette now?!" Adrien said in exasperation, looking for any kind of reaction as Nino blinked again.

"Yooou were already dating Marinette?" Nino said hesitantly, lips pursing when Adrien dropped his head into his hands.

"Yes," he said in a massive sigh, head still in his hands, "expect I didn't know that until last night?"

Adrien looked up, watching Nino carefully as his statement hung in the air, until finally, after a massive pause, Nino's eyes widened.

"Oh," he said suddenly, "OH. RIGHT."

"Nino!" Adrien groaned, Plagg and Wayzz collapsing into laughter in their respective hiding places as Nino rubbed at his tired eyes.

"Oh dude I completely forgot that was going on I am so sorry," Nino said genuinely.

"Like, I guess it wasn't your thing anymore but like, how did you forget!?" Adrien said, laughing a little too, but still incredibly confused. "It's sort of a big deal for us man!"

"I am so sorry, I'm a jerk seriously. My bad, bro," Nino said, grabbing Adrien by the shoulders as he did. "Congrats, on the knowing thing. You're right, you are stupid but so is everyone else so it's cool. Mazeltov."

"What's up dude?" Adrien countered, expression shifting into concern now, even if he was still a little amused. "You've been really distracted, it's not like you to forget something like that."

Nino sighed himself, dropping his hands and pinching the bridge of his nose with one hand before speaking.

"I've got a lot going on right now, I didn't mean to space."

Adrien seemed about to ask when nino interrupted him, hoping that Wayzz would understand the stall in an apology and spinning the model to face the way they had come and marching him down the hall. "Don't worry about it," Nino continued as they walked, "It's not important; I can deal. Right now we should go find Mari cause you're right, you guys are gonna need to tell people."

"W-well we don't know how we want to handle it yet!" Adrien said nervously, painfully aware of the fact that Nino was deflecting and how he wasn't very fond of it. Nino looked ready to strangle someone during class, he didn't want to sweep it under the rug. However, Nino wasn't leaving him much of a choice as he rapidly moved them towards public again.

"Do what you gotta do but do me a favor," Nino said with a chuckle, trying to escape his own whirlwind of complications in favor of Adrien's. "Please don't tell Alya I knew first. She'll murder me, and that will make things hard for me."