"OH MY GOD I'M SO SORRY!"

Nino tore around the corner, skidding and almost losing his balance but his momentum kept him moving forward, the poor terrified boy screaming his lungs out as he outran a furious tornado of paper filling the hallway behind him.

"Physical violence will NOT be tolerated!" a woman's voice screamed behind him, echoing through the almost deafening sound of paper whipping in an invisible wind.

"What do you call this then!?" he somehow found the nerve to shout, flying down the stairs and towards the main entrance of the school. He racked his brain for ANYWHERE in Paris that was deserted, anywhere there wasn't people to put at risk but nowhere came to mind. Paris wasn't really a place for empty spots in the middle of the day, so he just ran, bursting out the main doors still screaming and running through the street.

He kept up the pace, aware the whole time of his crazed teacher flying behind him. He only managed to stay ahead by constantly changing direction, running through traffic as cars skidded to a stop and horns blared violently in his ears. But he didn't care much for them, he was focused on not dying in a papery grave.

In retrospect, which he had little of at that exact second, just punching an akuma probably wasn't the best plan. However it had been the ONLY plan, and the only option for driving the enemy away from both his friends and the incognito heroes who needed to save the day. Preferably they would save the day any second now because DJ's weren't always known for their athletic prowess, but he had enough incentive from not dying to keep his legs moving.

Nino turned a street corner, even more panic spearing through him as he saw no immediate places to dodge, no doorways or alleyways. He couldn't win in a straight shot she was way too fast, and just like that he was slammed into the ground.

Nino gasped, his hat flying off and his headphones breaking in half from the force of his fall. He could feel paper grabbing at his limbs, encasing everything below his neck until he couldn't even move.

Two blocks, that's what he had bought his friends. He hoped like hell that it was enough, because now he could see the shadow of his teacher standing over him and his heart pounded in his chest as he fought off a whimper. If he was going to die from papercuts and sharpened pencils he was going to do it like a man.

"Oh god don't kill me!" he shouted as his body was lifted from the ground, his macho resolution falling away almost instantly. He was levitating it seemed like, turning in the air to face his teacher as she glared at him.

"I expected more from you Nino this behavior is NOT acceptable at school or anywhere else for that matter, before you point out that we aren't on school grounds. I won't let this go unpunished, however I have some very important lessons to teach and you are only compromising my schedule. So you'll be coming with me."

"W-with you like as friends or?" Nino asked, not much hope in his voice as she leveled him with another glare, lifting both of them into the air and starting to fly back towards the school. "That's cool, I understand I did hit you, and I'm mega sorry about that but uh, needed to be done."

"Don't you rationalize your behavior with me young man," she hissed, and he would have flinched if he could move even an inch in his casing.

Nino could barely look around but he prayed and prayed that his stupid stunt had gotten her far enough away or at least distracted enough to release the other students. Maybe just given them enough time to escape. It would be some pretty bad news if he was just stuck now.

"Might I make a suggestion Educator?"

Nino felt sweat break out on the back of his neck, his whole body instinctively cold as he heard a deep and amused voice suddenly speak from somewhere near him. It was sort of muffled and distant, but it was there.

"Yes Hawkmoth?" he heard Ms. Bustier, or apparently the Educator because THAT was a supercool name. Well, he was Bubbler so... probably couldn't poke fun. He was more focused on the fact that he was definitely listening to the big bad give instructions to the still pretty bad but not as bad bad guy.

"He made a fool of you in front of your precious students, so make use of him. Ladybug and Cat Noir can never resist a civilian in harm's way, take advantage of their compassion and use the boy as leverage. That should be more than enough revenge for such a heinous disruption."

"Oh good thanks for that..." Nino almost whimpered, wriggling fiercely to try and free himself to no avail.

Great, Alfred had just gotten promoted from butler to hostage, incredibly helpful of him. He had just given his friends another problem.

He heard Ms. Bustier's voice giggle in a feminine but still creepy way. "What a persuasive teaching tool, I'm sure we can teach those heroes some manners."

"Oh please do!" another female's voice rang out and Nino instantly cheered in joy. "My cat's got terrible people skills and he won't use the litterbox."

"You keep it in the laundry room and the dryers too loud."

Nino could feel himself violently being turned around as the Educator whirled to face her enemies, angling Nino in such a way that he could just see a sarcastic grinning Cat Noir standing on a nearby rooftop just below them. He felt a giddy laugh slip out, extremely happy that he was going to live and that also his plan had worked. They were both there, a flash of red catching his eye, he had actually helped.

"How you hanging in there Nino?" Cat Noir called up, the Educator huffing in professional frustration.

"I'm good," he responded, his voice shaking a little as he noticed just how stupid high they were. "She broke my headphones and I lost my hat."

"Oh I'm sorry bro. Least you're alive."

"Enough interruptions!" Ms. Bustier cut it, a flash of black in the corner of his vision as she brandished her folder as a weapon. "I won't have you get in my way!"

"Sorry Mam' but school's out of session!" Ladybug's voice called out, and Nino's whole world lurched sharply to the right as the akuma dodged an attack Nino hadn't seen. Just like that they dropped rapidly, Nino screaming out of instinct as he felt weightless for a second, convinced he was plummeting to his death before they were rocketing off again, a flurry of paper whipping around them to deter Ladybug's yo-yo.

Nino continued to scream, pride be damned, as a fight took place that he could barely see. The only thing he was really involved in was when Ladybug called out, "Don't worry Nino we're going to get you out of there!"

To which he replied in a high terrified voice, "Take your time!"

Nino's position as hostage gave the akuma almost no advantage at all because she hadn't had enough time to capitalize on it, so Nino was mostly propelled along behind her as she sent out one attack after another. Nino saw Cat Noir flash past him as the fight was brought onto a rooftop, baton brandished as he went for the folder. Nino could hear his friends strategizing, calling out to each other and planning their next move as well as a fair few puns from Adrien, or well he was Cat right then.

The next thing Nino knew he had fallen, his encased body sliding along the roof tiles and towards the edge of the roof. He had been screaming (well he had been screaming the whole time mostly but this was particularly loud) as his face suddenly pitched downwards and he was faced with a long drop onto a hard sidewalk. However as he was falling he never quite made it there, and all at once he was shooting away from the ground, crashing and rolling back on the rooftop so hard that some of the paper around his arms was actually knocked loose.

"Are you okay!?" he heard Marinette's voice calling out, but he was so turned around and disoriented that he didn't manage a response. Everything was happening too damn fast... he had no idea where anything was.

He vaguely heard, "Stall her! I'm getting him out!' before his body was being lifted again, his stiff limbs starting to hurt as he was awkwardly pitched over someone's shoulder.

When Nino was finally focused again he yelped in fright as he saw that yet again he was nowhere near the ground, flying through the air while being held by Ladybug, his friend getting a few blocks away before sliding down to street level and setting him on the ground.

That alleyway was the first stable thing Nino had looked at in a while, and though he still had trouble moving he was way safer there then he was anywhere else.

Ladybug's face filled his vision and her face was contorted in worry as she shook his stiff barely moving shoulders.

"Nino are you okay!? Seriously respond!"

His heart was thumping erratically in his chest, his head filled with 'Oh my god I didn't die,' as he looked into Marinette's sweet, scared, masked face.

"I'm good B," he finally said, managing something sort of like a smile. "Go get the bad guy I'm fine."

"Are you hurt?! What were you thinking pulling a stunt like that!? Your plan was just punch her and run!?"

Nino was starting to get more grounded now, enough so that he actually huffed in indignant irritation.

"Hey that punch and run plan was more than you had! I got you out!"

"We should have just waited for Cat Noir to show up!" she shot back, gritting her teeth when he used his limited motion to shake his head.

"Wasn't gonna wait around for that, the important thing is it worked, I'm fine, and you have somewhere you need to be, so GO!"

She stood there for a second, glaring at him but obviously conflicted. She looked nervously back the way they had come before finally she sighed, turning away from him and prepping her yo-yo.

"We'll stop her, you should be freed once we cleanse the akuma but don't leave. I want to see you right here when I get back to talk about your plan of action."

Nino likes to think he would have said something snarky and funny if he had been given the chance, but she was off again like a shot. He was suddenly alone, barely able to move and in an awkward, uncomfortable position in an alleyway.

"That happened way too fast," he muttered aloud to himself, trying to shift his weight a little. "Everyone just needs to chill."

He sat there in silence for some time, his stiff, plastered body slowly sliding down the wall until he was laying on the ground with his face pressed uncomfortably against the dirty slightly smelly ground. He sighed.

"Please hurry..."

Nino had pretty much zoned out, quietly contemplating how mad his friends were going to be and how best to defend himself. There wasn't really much of a defense though he had socked Ms. Bustier in the face and hit the road with a crazy supervillain on his butt. Was it irrational? Definitely, however it worked out so whatever. Also, he had come to the conclusion that the miraculous cure spell should totally fix his headphones so in the long term everything was coming up Nino.

He was only forced to lay cramping on the ground for about ten minutes before he felt the paper evaporating from his limbs, a sharp red light washing over him and healing even the discomfort from being frozen for so long.

Nino sighed out heavily in relief, getting to his feet and brushing himself off, very pleased to find his hat and headphones replaced.

'Should probably wait for B... Adrien will be worried too though. Can't see them both though, maybe he's detransformed already and I can message him... Would school be canceled? The fuss was only in our class probably not. Damn, was kind of hoping to go home but I should head for school.

...Am I in shock? I'm taking this very well. Eh, maybe I'm just tired, or maybe my brain just broke from all the screaming I did.'

Nino was still, standing in the alleyway not moving at all.

'Yeah shock I think. Welp. Whatever.'

Nino slowly reached up, putting his headphones on and plugging them into his phone. And to the slowly building tempo of Electric Feel he slowly pounded his forehead against the alleyway wall.

He got a good ways into the song before he was interrupted, singing quietly to himself to sooth his frazzled nerves.

"I say ooo girl, she shock me like an electr- aaAHH" he shouted in fear, convinced he was being attacked again as he was suddenly grabbed by the shoulders and turned around, his headphones falling to his shoulders as he was faced with Ladybug's wrath.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?" she said immediately, pushing a finger into his chest and forcing him to back up against the wall. A small involuntary noise of fright escaped him as she started to rant, her words almost unintelligible as she waved her hands around her in anger, absolutely besides herself. Nino found himself just watching her face, now over the initial 'Oh god don't hurt me' and moving on to 'man she can talk really fast.'

"You can't just do that I wasn't there to back you up right away what if she had done something really bad you would have been a hostage! That'sexactly what I've wanted to avoid with all this! I know we were in a rough spot but-"

"Hey you said it," he cut in, stunning her into momentary silence as he crossed his arms, frowning at her. "You were in a tough spot. People were in danger and you needed to be out and about so I got you out and about. You're welcome."

Her mouth dropped open as she shouted indignantly, "Do you expect me to thank you!?"

"Hell yeah I do I almost died!" he responded immediately, still frowning and staring at her seriously.

He watched her struggle with the thought for a moment, battling with her anger at his recklessness and the cold hard truth that she would have been screwed without him.

Score for Alfred.

"Thank you," she finally said, the sentiment a little forced but genuine enough that he grinned, however his cheer was lost again as she went right back to being angry. "But if you ever-"

Suddenly she was interrupted again, this time though it wasn't Nino who did it. Instead it was someone shouting in the street, sounding frantic and urgent.

"NINO," it was screaming, heading in their direction. "Dude where are you!?"

Nino tensed, staring into Ladybug's eyes for a full second as he rapidly assessed the situation. Because he knew exactly who that was, and he also knew the voice wasn't coming from the rooftops, so the likely hood that it was his friend's super alter ego was fairly low. Meaning that in about 0.2 seconds there was going to be an Adrien, and he had a Ladybug.

And all at once Nino knew how to get away scot free.

From Adrien's perspective one second he had been running down the street, desperately looking for his best friend, and the next he was being grabbed by the arm and pulled into the darkness of an alleyway.

Adrien skidded to a stop, almost losing his balance and falling headfirst into a trash bin before he steadied himself. He looked up, relieved to see Nino standing there safe and sound, apparently having been the one to grab him. However not a second later he was distracted, because right there just a few feet from them was Ladybug, and he was absolutely Adrien just then.

Nino's scheduled rendezvous for the two of them came flooding back to mind, and abruptly Nino was the only one without an extremely red face.

"Uuuuh, uh," Adrien stuttered, trying to swallow and failing, forgetting his intention to throttle Nino for his stupidity in the face of actually seeing Ladybug look flustered.

She was standing right there, in an alleyway having obviously been confronting Nino like he intended to. God she looked so caught off guard, her eyes wide and face red beneath her scarlet mask, her arms close to her chest as she stared at him.

Adrien was frozen, barely registering that Nino was talking, lamely and off-handedly introducing the two of them like they were complete strangers. For all they thought the other knew they were strangers, but how could they be. What two strangers stood frozen like this, staring at each other at a complete loss for what to do? Adrien Agreste faced with Ladybug, the girl he now knew... for whatever insane reason liked him.

"Cool to meet a hero huh?" Nino's voice slowly reached him, sounding smug for some reason as he slowly stepped away. "You guys should talk I bet you have a lot in common. Well you know this alley is kind of small and I don't want to crowd it up. Haha threes a crowd am I right? Yeah so I'm just gonna head back to school, you kids chat have a nice time and I'll see you guys later!"

Nino took a step away, taking advantage of the fact that the two of them were well distracted with the face of their crush and trying to escape before Adrien managed to snap out of it somewhat, whirling around to grab him by the shoulder.

"Hey no you don't! You don't jus- you can't just run off I'm still pissed at you!"

Nino stared at his friend, not even trying to hide his huff of irritation.

"You're mad at me for saving the day? Oh no, how terrible and short sighted of me."

Adrien blanched at Nino's irritable snark but still glared, green eyes flashing in anger. "Don't say that you could have died!"

"Didn't," Nino reminded him, looking past Adrien to see Ladybug still red faced and frozen to the spot. Nino withheld another sigh, grinding his teeth together. Try and help and he gets scolded, what was the deal man? "Uh hey buddy I sort of just introduced you to your long time crush you really gonna stiff her like this?" Nino grinned, "Seems sort of rude broski."

Adrien tensed so hard Nino could have sworn he would break in two, his face flushed such a startling shade of red Nino was almost concerned. If Adrien had looked mad before that was nothing compared to now, and Ladybug looked about half a second away from fainting as Nino just grinned cheerily.

"It's stunning I know, shes amazing I get why you always talk about her so much but hey don't let me crowd the scene! Haha yeah you guys chat and uh hey I can't hang or nothing tonight I know we had talked about it. So I guess you're free with nothing to do tonight, if there is anything anyone wanted to do with that information. You know just if that was something you wanted to consider."

Nino stretched, smiling at how freaking mortified Adrien looked but eh, Nino didn't feel that bad. His friends had had the nerve to scold him for helping so this was payback enough. Plus they were too slow to do anything on their own. He had almost been held hostage and murdered by his teacher, this was fair.

"N-Nino!" Ladybug managed to stutter out, but he was exiting the alleyway now, walking backwards and waving.

"I'll be at school! Got to get that learning done you know but you take your time Adrien I'll cover for you. Cause I'm cool like that so I'll see you later! Bye!"

"NINO!' two voices shouted after him but he was already sprinting away, deserting the two of them to survive each other's company as he fled towards campus. Adrien was absolutely going to show up not long after him with murder in mind so he might as well make some distance. He couldn't help but snicker to himself. He had finally gotten them in the same area, he really was the greatest wingman.