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Marinette flinches for the third time in an hour, and Nino's chill evaporates.
"Alright, dudette, that's it!"
Three heads swivel his way, and Nino curses his poor timing. Adrien so rarely gets to attend library study sessions in person, and this is probably going to end things on a down beat. Alya's eyes are gleaming, and setting off her curiosity, admirable as it is, really won't help anything. Marinette might cry. Or she might kick his ass. Neither are events that need an audience.
Unfortunately for all of them, Nino's at the end of his rope, and the only option worse than things going down now are things going down never. This year has been big for him- he's done with letting bad shit happen and doing absolutely nothing about it all the time.
Alya breaks the silence, fearless and insatiable as always. "What exactly are you talking about?"
He smiles thinly at her, and feels her surprise as a physical sensation when he turns his attention to Marinette. Mari doesn't seem much better. Clearly, she has no idea what he's talking about. He hates this already.
"What is going on with you this year?"
"Me?" Marinette points to herself.
"Yeah, you."
Marinette flounders for something to say. "I- Nino, I don't- don't know- what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about different you are this year! At first, I was really happy for you, yeah? So much more outspoken and- and you were totally killing it, Marinette. You still are, okay, but-"
"There's no 'but' to that, Nino," Alya interjects. "My girl is awesome, end of story."
Nino loves his girlfriend. Nino even really appreciates how loyal she is to her friends, but just this once, he needs her to let him lead. "Alya," he turns to her. Her eyes widen at whatever she sees on his face and he hates that but this isn't about Alya, and it's not even really about Nino, so he forges ahead. "You know how much I love your nosiness-"
"Inquisitiveness."
"-and I know you love your friends, but just this once I need you to shut the fuck up."
"Excuse me!?"
"I mean it! Let me say what I need to or I'm seriously gonna implode or something."
He turns away from her. He thinks he sees Adrien shrink out of the corner of his eye, which Nino hates even more but he'll have time to reassure his best bro later. Marinette is flushing with anger, just as protective of Alya as Alya is of her. Nino cuts her off before she can start.
"Look," he pleads. Mari eyes him carefully. "I'm worried."
"Why?" She sounds lost. Nino steels his resolve to see this through.
"Nettie," he says gently. Soft and careful. "I'm not new, remember? Something clearly happened to you, I just want to know what it was."
Marinette leans back into her chair, as far as she can get without standing up, and crosses her arms. She says, "So I'm a little more confident than last year. I don't know why that's such a bad thing."
"That's not the change I'm talking about, and I'm pretty sure you know that, dude."
She looks away, intent on stubbornness.
"You're almost never where you say you are," he starts, tone as casual and non-accusatory as he can make it. She opens her mouth, but he beats her to it. "Nope. Stop. You're not, and sure, whatever, maybe the most honest girl I knew has picked up a new bad habit. That excuse doesn't work for the spacing out, or the twitching, or-"
"What do you mean, twitching?" Adrien's question is so soft Nino almost doesn't hear him. That might be by design or he might not have meant to say it out loud at all.
Regardless, Nino pauses, and addresses him directly. "Marinette jumps at practically everything. That's not normal, my guy."
"I do not," Marinette huffs.
Nino scoffs right back. "Oh yeah, my bad, not everything. Just cats, flowers, loud noises, someone surprising you, someone holding your hand-"
"That's not true!" She yells. It's good they're in one of the side rooms. He imagines they're soundproofed specifically for instances of teenage yelling. "I love holding hands with my friends! And I don't twitch at cats, or- or flowers-"
"You do though!" He insists, staring at her. "You hear a meow and you twitch! You pass by certain flowers and you twitch! Kim shouted a hello at you and I thought you were gonna collapse on the spot!"
"That's ridiculous, and proves nothing- you know I've always been clumsy."
"You didn't stumble, Marinette, you flinched. And don't even say you didn't because-"
"It wasn't-"
"BECAUSE I've sat here and watched as Alya hands you flashcards, and every. single. time. that you weren't looking at her when she did, you know what you did? YOU FLINCHED."
Marinette stands so harshly her chair tips onto the ground. Alya shouts in surprise, Adrien's eyes are wide, and Nino plants his feet. Mari rushes toward the door, but she has to go through Nino first, and Carapace is used to standing his ground. She tries to slip past but he grabs her arm. She pulls away harshly, but all that does is give Nino more time to get more in her way. Her eyes dart around the room before giving up and glaring at him. Nino wants to cringe at the panic blooming in her eyes.
"Marinette," he pleads. "You're not sleeping."
She backs away, slowly. Long strides that get her away from him, yet the distance does nothing to hide her shaking hands.
"What happened, ma chère?"
Marinette looks away from all of them, staring at nothing but the wall. Her voice is harsh when she says, "You know I hate lying."
Nino nods, "I do."
"So stop," she stops. When she clears her throat it sounds painful. "Stop asking me a question I can't answer so that I don't have to."
Fuck that. At this precise moment, here is nothing in this room right now other than her. His steps are much steadier than his breathing as he strides toward her. He gets right in her space, and she doesn't twitch because she saw him coming, and everything hurts.
He reaches out to her. He doesn't get a word out before she's ducking under his arm and running for the door. She gets all the way there before Nino tugs her back.
"God Dammit! Let go!"
"No!"
Marinette elbows him. Nino catches her arm and wraps around her, locking her in place. Marinette makes herself dead weight, loosening his grip for a second- the second is all she needs to turn around and slam him into the table.
"WOAH!"
"HEY!"
Right. Other people are in this room. The table is, also. Ow.
"Stand down," Nino groans. He's talking to the other two. He knows Marinette will not, in fact, stand down.
"Drop it, Lahiffe," Mari grits out.
His eyes start watering. He isn't going to cry, but man, he really wants to. He's not even sure he wants to, necessarily, but it would probably make him feel better.
"Nettie," he soothes. "You can talk about it. No one's going to be upset with you."
She doesn't quite meet his eyes, but she's looking at his face, at least. "I can't talk about it."
"Marinette-"
"Nino," she interrupts. Her hands are still pressing his shoulders into the table, but the aggression from before is nearly all gone. There's tension in the way she's holding herself, but her voice is just sad and- regretful?- when she repeats, "I can't talk about it."
Can't. There's only so many ways he can think of that make that make sense, and he deeply hates every single one.
He deflates. Sensing his defeat, Marinette backs off. To his shock, she stays close, even as he straightens up from his backbend. He settles with his hands behind him, leaning against the edge of the table, and she stands just shy of between his knees.
"I just," he starts helplessly. "You're not the only one trying to do better this year, yeah?"
She finally meets his eyes again, heart on her sleeve. He feels absurdly shy for a moment.
"I see you, okay? Something happened to you. You can't talk about it, fine, but you're not sly, Marinette."
Oh hell, now her eyes are watering. Nino sucks at this. Just as he's about to look back to ask Alya for a save, Marinette starts giggling. High, barely there, giggles, and wonder of wonders, Marinette smiles at him.
"I..." Her eyelashes flutter. "I would tell you if I could, Nino. I didn't think anyone would really notice. I mean, I know that the mess I've been recently is different from the mess I normally am, but there's so much going on, and that stuff you pointed out is all quieter than the big changes, and everyone in class has their own stuff going on-"
"I get it," he says. She blushes at her own rambling, but he couldn't be happier about it. "But dude...man, this is hard." Nino takes a deep breath. Marinette refocuses, bracing herself. "I know that we weren't close the last couple years, and that's mostly my fault-"
"No, Nino-"
"No, it was. I didn't want to get caught up in Chloé's grudge against you, and you dealt with it by yourself for the most part, and that was super uncool. It was. I'm trying to be cooler this year, so when I noticed how you've been acting...I didn't want to let it slide. Not this time."
Marinette is definitely tearing up, now. She's grinning brightly, though, so Nino thinks they'll be alright. He's sure of it when she hugs him tightly.
"Thank you. For checking in," she whispers.
"I noticed." It's all he feels he needs to say. He lightly puts one arm around her shoulders and puts his other hand at the back of her head. Since they're both out of words, Nino stands steady and holds her protectively until Marinette stops shaking.