If secrets were weights Nino weighed a million pounds, he felt like even moving his head was a struggle. Or maybe that was just how exhausted he was... damn he was tired. He and Adrien had been up incredibly late, trying to get adjusted and sneaking into Nino's apartment to get his weird floating god cat some cheese. Overall it had been incredibly weird and he still couldn't quite cope.

Nino slowly looked over, glancing at his best friend working quietly beside him. Adrien was taking notes, working diligently like he totally wasn't a superhero, like he absolutely didn't run around in a leather suit.

But Nino knew. He knew his friends surprisingly cat-themed secret.

Thinking about it out of context like that had quickly become one of Nino's greatest joys. Imagining Marinette as Ladybug had become inevitable but just thinking about posh, practiced Adrien Agreste in a full leather body suit and cat ears was just too much sometimes. I mean sure when he was suited up he was actually pretty cool and could destroy pretty much everything, actually no literally everything. You can't touch that, it's always going to be pretty cool, but the cat ears thing was just really really funny if you thought about it on its own. And the tail. Adrien running around with like, a tail-

"NINO!" a sharp voice suddenly shouted, making most students in the class jump but especially the poor boy the anger was focused on. For a second Nino was almost positive he had spaced out for half the day because only Ms. Mendeleiev was ever so harsh with students, but no it was typically calm sweet Ms. Bustier that got in his face then.

Nino gulped in fear, leaning back in his seat as the teacher planted her delicate hands forcefully down on his notebook, leaning forward and forcing him to retreat into himself slightly almost like a turtle.

Her red bun was a little messy, her entire posture tense as she attempted to reign in her almost entirely unreasonable irritation.

"Nino," she said again, a little more rationally this time, standing up straight again and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Please. Please focus, I am tired of watching you space out, ALL of this is going to be on the test."

Nino was staring at her frightfully, nodding quickly and grabbing his notebook to emphasize his intention to change his ways. Ms. Bustier huffed once before spinning on her heel, stalking stiffly back to the board and continuing to almost shout facts and information through her lecture.

Nino was staring obediently forward, waiting until she was well and distracted herself before turning to Adrien, hiding his mouth with his notebook as he mouthed, 'Dude whats up her butt?'

Adrien glanced to the side to catch the movement but just shrugged, not wanting to risk catching their teacher's uncharacteristic wrath as well.

Nino would have looked backwards to silently complain to his friends behind him too but there was no way he was going to get shouted at again like that, seeing something so harsh come from someone who was usually so collected was frightening.

Nino jumped again when suddenly Ms. Bustier was by her desk, slamming the wooden pointed she had started using against the flat surface and announcing in a tired voice, "Enough of this. We're doing a group project. Each of you separate into groups of four it doesn't matter who just please work quietly so I can get some things done."

Everyone shot sidelong glances at each other before separating into immediate predetermined groups. Each student had the people they typically picked, and Adrien and Nino were sitting close enough to the girls that they could immediately turn around and avoid Chloe altogether, who went to go mooch off of Kim and Max.

The boy picked up chairs to sit on either side of the girls, forced to scoot in sort of close. Adrien sat next to Marinette because she was the closest and the poor girl almost died, but Alya distracted everyone as she leaned forward to say, "Dude what is up with her today? She looks like she's going to eat somebody!"

Marinette nodded, agreeing without saying anything because she was mostly focusing on maintaining even breathing patterns as Adrien got even closer, leaning over her slightly to talk in the common space of the group.

"Yeah you didn't deserve that man, and I saw her shouting at Ivan in the hall earlier it's like she's a totally different person."

"Must be something going on," Alya speculated, and everyone turned to look at Marinette as she managed a small strangled noise.

The designer quickly cleared her throat, doing her best to speak as she reported, "U-uh I saw someone shouting a-at her earlier too. Mr. Damocles, he looked really mad about something. I don't know what though."

Alya gasped, stage whispering dramatically, "Do you think some serious drama is up with the faculty? Maybe there was a huge scandal or something!"

Adrien leaned back, carefully checking where Ms. Bustier was before saying, "That doesn't sound right, what would Ms. B have done? She's so nice!"

"Not right now apparently," Nino said sullenly, falling quiet as their teacher walked past them, roughly tossing down four worksheets. Well as roughly as paper could be tossed.

The group waited, carefully watching the obviously on edge red head retreat back to her desk before starting to work, the whole class quietly chatting.

"We've already done these worksheets," Adrien pointed out, the familiar questions apparent almost immediately.

"She's probably so frazzled she didn't even look, I mean look at her! Something is definitely going on," Alya whispered excitedly, carefully watching their teacher for any kind of clues.

"Don't snoop Alya," Nino said almost out of reflex, knowing the sentiment would be lost as he pushed his worksheet away. No point in pretending to do it if it wouldn't even be graded.

"I'm a reporter, snooping is in the job description!" she shot back instantly, and he rolled his eyes. Never gained any ground with that one. He had to admit he was curious too but ever since he had become the guardian of a fair few secrets himself he appreciated Alya's nosey tactics less by the day.

"Marinette do you remember this one?" Nino heard Adrien ask quietly, looking over in time to see Marinette sputter in surprise. Adrien was still filling out the sheet, going through with the charade for lack of anything better to do and Nino watched with a small smile as she tried to coherently give him the right answer.

Everyone was so god damn blind.

Part of Nino's exhaustion was thanks to his sleepless night, and almost all of his sleepless night was thanks to the existence of the most infuriating thing he could possibly imagine.

The love square.

Oh you've heard of love and you've heard of squares but nothing was as stupid or as complicated as this.

Marinette loved Adrien, he could see it in every bashful look and hear it in every stuttered word. And Adrien was blind to it, and he saw that in every friendly smile and confused expression whenever she would flub a word. Marinette was Ladybug, he knew that pretty damn well, it had been a major fact in his life for a while now. She was Spots, the great and powerful. Adrien was Cat Noir, a relatively new fact that just made everything way more ridiculous, and everyone in Paris knew Cat Noir loved Ladybug. Ladybug wouldn't look twice at Cat Noir because she was really Marinette who loved Adrien. And Adrien, apart from being freaking stupid would never give Marinette the chance because he was really Cat Noir who was in love with Ladybug.

See that? See how freaking ridiculous that was?

Watching those two absolutely ridiculous idiots stare at each other and not even- it was the most frustrating thing in the world, it was beyond frustrating it was driving him crazy.

How in the hell was he supposed to be Alfred when he wanted to bash his own brains out on the desk. Look at them. Look at how close they are to each other just kiss, just- just do it just go for it just kiss. Right now, in class, screw everything. Why was this even a thing, was this a test? Was this a test of patience? Was he passing?

Nino was busy glaring at his stupid friends while Alya spied, so he didn't even notice that the door had opened until Alya nudged him, gesturing to their more typically grumpy science teacher as she entered the room with a smug grin.

Ms. Bustier looked up, instantly grimacing as Ms. Mendeleiev waltzed over towards the teacher's desk, grinning all the way.

"Caline," Ms. Mendeleiev greeted unprofessionally, gesturing towards the door. "Mr. Damocles wants to see you in his office, but I'm sure you're not surprised. I'm here to babysit."

All the students watched, immediately uncomfortable with seeing the teacher they generally liked being talked down to by a colleague of hers. Did teachers seriously act like this in front of students? This was just petty.

Ms. Bustier stood up from her desk with a folder in her hands, ignoring her co-worker entirely and stalking out of the room without a word. Ms. Mendeleiev was even snide enough to make a comment about Ms. Bustier taking her keys since it was unlikely she was returning.

Their science teacher took over, watching over the kids as they continued to pretend to work. Everyone was whispering about the weirdly tense scene they had just witnessed.

"That's just lame," Marinette was commenting, looking at the classroom door with an upset look. "I don't know what she's in trouble for but teachers shouldn't act like that."

"It's unprofessional if nothing else," Adrien agreed, also looking concerned. "I hope she's not in way too much trouble. I can't imagine her doing anything wrong."

Alya's eyes were clouded with thought, her hand on her chin as she speculated. "Maybe she's taking the fall for something? Probably something Ms. Purple Spikes did and is getting away with."

The others nodded, agreeing in one way or another and falling into silence, everyone sneaking out their phones or something similar to pass the time. Nino just went back to silently stewing, glaring at his stupid idiot friends and their stupid idiot love complications.

'You love each other,' he thought to himself, his gaze switching between Adrien and Marinette. 'You're both totally in love. Please just be together already.'

Nino's eyes widened slightly, a light bulb flickering on in his mind and a grin slowly spreading across his face.

"Hey Adrien," he suddenly said, gaining their small group's attention since he was the only one talking. "You busy tonight?"

Adrien looked at Nino innocently, not really detecting anything was up but Marinette absolutely did, turning redder by the second.

"Uh no I don't think so, I was just going to be in tonight after the photoshoot."

"When is that over?" Nino probed, strategically not meeting Marinette's burning gaze and focusing on Adrien. "Do you think you'd be free by 8:00? Maybe 8:30?"

Adrien raised an eyebrow. "Yeah it would be over by then but I don't know if I can leave the house. My dad is out of town so he doesn't really like me going out when he's not in the city."

Nino's eyes lit up, and his grin became more self-satisfied. "Oh cool, so you'll be in and like, in your room. And just like, you know just saying, no one really checks on you after saaay 8:30?"

Both Alya and Adrien were looking at him in confusion, but Marinette was now staring directly down at her lap, typing furiously. Nino ignored the vibrations in his pocket.

"Yes? But I can't leave," Adrien reminded him, and Nino just nodded.

"Yeah I know, I was just making sure that you were available and unattended at around 8:30, just so that was out in the air. No big deal."

Adrien just stared at him, totally lost as Nino leaned back in his chair and pulled out his phone. He didn't even read Marinette's all capital messages, just going to Adrien's name and typing out simply, 'I was letting B know when to go pick you up. Your little date is gonna be tonight.'

There was a slight delay as the message made its way over, but when it got there Adrien actually jumped in his seat, instantly flushed and looking all around him. Just like his typically blind self though his eyes totally missed Marinette.

Nino glanced down at Adrien's reply, feeling his eyes on him the whole time.

'A- So she IS in our class!'

'N- Stop it. She'll be there at 8:30, even if I need to drag her by her own yo-yo.'

'A- YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT AND EXPECT ME TO ACT CASUAL'

Nino snickered to himself, putting his phone away and considering actually doing his own worksheet when very very faintly, he heard a scream.

Everyone looked over at the door, instantly tense. They could have misheard but... well when you live in a city like theirs you listened for that sort of thing.

"Hear that?" Adrien said, forgetting his own dilemma for a second and focusing eagle eyed on the door.

"Was that a man?" Alya asked, already prepping her phone. "Was it one of the teachers?"

All the students were antsy, looking around and ready to run as soon as something weird happened again, but they didn't really get the chance.

Nino screamed in fright as his backpack started to move, the coarse fabric of his messenger bag rubbing against his exposed arms as it snaked up to his torso, the strap elongating and binding him to his chair painfully. It was so tight he could barely move, his head whipping around to see that similar things were happening to every other student. It happened so fast that every student was caught in their chairs, their backpacks or purses wrapping around their legs and chests until no one could stand.

Everyone was screaming now as the door opened, and Nino felt a chill go up his spine as he heard a familiar voice call, "Class! Class! Settle down! Everyone take you seats, oh!" A gentle laugh, "You already have. So well behaved, thank you for sitting. The lesson will start shortly."

Nino was struggling to breath, but he looked over and saw a tall slender woman stride into the room. Her hair was dark red, unfurled and falling down to the back of her knees. There were braids spaced evenly throughout it, three or four marking columns down the back, notches of the braids marked with pens or pencils. She was clad in a completely blue skintight body suit apart from a flare of gentle dark blue lace that trailed over her shoulders and down her arms like a shawl. She actually looked... elegant, the blue of the body suit marked with letters and numbers, notations and printed text decorating her calves and spilling onto her white boots. Her face was adorned with beige reading glasses, the chain hanging from them swinging as she walked. It was her, undoubtedly. Ms. Bustier.

'Oh no...' Nino thought through his fear. It never felt good, seeing a villain. It might be terrifying but still, there was a person in there. A poor frazzled teacher, on edge and losing her patience.

"Okay class," she spoke calmly, opening a large black folder in her hands and adjusting her reading glasses as if to closer inspect its contents. "We have an important lesson. One about respect and hard work, and I will not tolerate disruptions. It's very important for everyone to learn, and it's best to learn from our mistakes." The thus far nameless woman smiled, looking to all the world like she was genuinely just teaching a lesson, not vengeful in the slightest. "So here to teach you from his own grand mistakes is your principal, Mr. Damocles."

Nino became aware of muffled shouting as something was dragged into the room through the open door, seeing difficult since he couldn't turn very far, but it was easy enough to make out from his peripheral. It was their principal alright, but... cocooned it looked like, restrained in thousands of pieces of paper binding him completely. He was dragged in by nothing it looked like, floating off the ground with paper shoved in his mouth so no one could understand what he was saying, but he looked afraid. Made sense.

"Y-you villain!" Ms. Purple Spikes decided to speak up, cowering on the floor and hiding beneath the teacher's desk, only the tips of her hair and the top of her glasses visible. "Villain!"

The akuma turned, sighing heavily and looking down on Ms. Mendeleiev with a genuine kind of disappointment.

"I said no disruptions," she reiterated calmly, extending the hand holding the folder. "But for your eagerness you will be included in the lesson today."

Nino swallowed in fear, only able to look on as all at once thousands of pieces of paper erupted from the black folder, overwhelming and completely swallowing his science teacher in a flurry of motion. Students screamed in fright as their teacher was overtaken, and then suddenly the tornado had subsided and in its place was a huge cocoon just like their principal's, Ms. Mendeleiev gagged and terrified.

Nino was shaking, the constraints of his backpack really starting to dig into his arms, his heart threatening to burst. Holy crap this was next level... this was bad.

The akuma stood straight, smiling calmly, her two cocoons floating on either side of her.

"Okay class," she started simply, still smiling. "Today we are learning about respect. I've always imagined it to be an inherent lesson but some people no matter how old they become never really grasp its meaning. It is hard to fully understand but I feel some people don't even try." Her eyes shifted over to Mr. Damocles and Nino felt fear spark in his heart for the old man. He was definitely in the middle of this. "You would think that a teacher who has worked tirelessly for you and your school would have earned some sort of decency but it would seem not. Do you see my class Mr. Damocles? Do you see how well they sit? They might scream but they are well behaved, they learn. My scores are high, my children enjoy coming to class. They respect me but do you? No. You didn't think twice of taking my class away from me, my students. The kids I've worked with since the start of the school year. You would so casually switch my rooms mid-year without even considering me, without hearing anything I had to say. You didn't care that I loved these kids, it didn't even matter to you. You just wanted my high scores in the upper grades. You didn't care at all."

She was getting gradually more emotional, ignoring Mr. Damocles' frantic muffled excuses. She was getting angry, in his face.

"You didn't even consider that I might get more from this that a paycheck."

"You aren't going to get away with this!!" a voice suddenly screamed to his right, and he tensed, instantly twice as terrified. Because it was Alya.

"You don't scare us! Cat Noir and Ladybug are going to save u-"

"NO MORE DISRUPTIONS!" Ms. Bustier's twisted angry form shouted, paper instantly flying from her folder and gagging Alya as well, hurting her somewhat judging by the pained scream.

Students were getting restless, fighting off screams to keep from being gagged themselves and Nino's teeth were clenched, his arms starting to tingle and hurt just from lack of blood flow. But Alya was right, Cat Noir and Ladybug were going to show up any second now, they we-were not going to do anything. They weren't going to be anywhere at all anytime soon because they were just as stuck as he was.