Marinette opened the door to the classroom just moments after class had started. For once, she only slept in a few extra minutes, so she wasn't incredibly late as she'd been before. But, if her teacher noticed, it would be straight to the principal's office this time. She sighed in relief as she plopped down on the bench beside Alya.

"Good to see you actually joined us this morning, sleepy head," Alya teased quietly. Marinette shoved her shoulder and giggled, overjoyed she'd gotten away with the sneak-in.

"Alright, you will be working in pairs to do the reading," Mme. Bustier started as the class cheered, "But I will be assigning the pairs." She seemed to relish in the collective groans. Chloe got to her feet to protest, but she was shut down before she could even get one word out. "Chloe, you will work with Nino."

"Ah, why her?!" Nino whined. He shied away from the glare sent by the teacher, and apologized before gathering his things to switch seats. He knew there was no way Chloe would move seats to be beside him, so he just made it easier on everyone and saved them an argument.

"Sabrina, you will work with Kim. Max, Nathanaël. Mylene, Ivan. Alya, Alix. Rose, Juleka. Marinette, Adrien. Now, all of you switch seats and start reading on page 248." As she finished, Mme. Bustier took her papers and made for the door, "I'll be making copies of your next assignment if you need me," she said before closing the door behind herself.

Alya smirked as Marinette got to her feet, whispering a 'good luck' to her best friend as she moved to seat with Adrien. Alya knew it would be interesting to see just how much Marinette could actually manage to say if she was reading, but she also knew she couldn't just sit there and listen. She had to work with Alix. Sigh, why must school interfere with fun?

Poor Marinette, on the other hand, was internally having a bit of a meltdown. She had to work with Adrien! How was she going to do this?! "H-hey," she managed to squeak out as she slid onto the sit.

"Hey," Adrien said back, offering a smile. Curse that smile, actually. It was half of her problem!

"You want to take turns every paragraph, or every page reading?" Adrien asked, scooting ever so slightly closer. Marinette flushed at their proximity, and the ability to speak fled. Crap.

"Sure…" she said, looking anywhere but at Adrien.

He snickered, "Which one?"

"Oh! Um, I…every page?" She wasn't doing too badly! She didn't stutter that time! Score one for Marinette!

Adrien knew better than to have Marinette read first. He'd learn a lot about the girl and her strange behaviors over the months, and one of those things was that it took a while to get her to warm up. But, once she was comfortable enough to drop the stutter and blushing, she was cool as a cucumber. Well. Maybe more like a pickle.

Nevertheless, he shifted to face the girl and moved his book closer to the edge of the table to start reading. And as he read, Marinette followed along. It was quite boring, as most school-book poetry tended to be, but the way he read it kept Marinette entranced.

Halfway down the page, Marinette started to rub at her nose. It burned and felt quite tight, so she hoped the rubbing would loosen something. Which it did, and she felt the feeling of blood fill her nose. Great, a nosebleed. She groaned and held a finger to her nostrils, pulling it back after a second to see the damage. Lucky for her, nothing got on her finger.

Adrien stopped reading, so Marinette took over at the top of the page. As she read she could feel the wetness falling over the rest of her nostril, but she was just glad it was on only one nostril this time. But, as she kept talking, proud of her speaking ability in front of Adrien, a drop fell onto her hand.

Adrien spotted it and his eyes went wide. He looked up at Marinette's face as she sniffled and his draw practically dropped. "Marinette, you're bleeding!" he shouted in pure fear. How did that happen?! Why was she bleeding?! Did she punch herself in the nose?! How had he missed that?! Her upper lip was tainted pink and drop hung from her nose that she wiped it away.

"I noticed…" Marinette laughed awkwardly.

"You should go to the nurse!" Adrien fussed, putting his book on the desk and pulling himself closer. He snatched her face and forced her to look at him as every pair of eyes in the room landed on them.

"No, i-it's fine!" Marinette insisted. "Th-this just happens sometimes!"

"What?" Now he was very confused. She was bleeding! That didn't just happen sometimes. Marinette pulled her chin from his hold and ducked away when he went back to examine her further.

"I get nosebleeds a lot if the air's too dry!" Marinette tried to explain. "Probably just forgot to turn on the humidifier in my room last night. No big deal!"

Adrien didn't seem convinced, his brow furrowed and hand poised as if he were going to grab her wrist and yank her to the nurse by force. Seriously, the boy needed to calm down. Marinette sighed and wiped her nose again, glaring at Alya as the girl snickered. She had half a mind to wipe the blood on Alya's shoes while she could. Only then did she notice how everyone was watching them. When she met their eyes, Marinette could see the look of disgust on most of their faces. They probably remembered the nearly daily nosebleeds from kindergarten, and didn't want to be part of that half-hour debacle.

"Well, if you won't go," Adrien started, drawing the girl's attention back. "Then at least lay your back on the desk…"

Marinette nodded, knowing if she didn't comply with something, he'd probably force her to the nurse. She turned around on the bench and laid her head against the table, then wondering how exactly she was going to read.

"Be right back," Adrien said before he darted out the door.

"Where is he going?" Marinette asked as her head popped back up. She stared at the shut door, so many questions flooding her mind.

Alya snorted and dropped her head down, "He was so scared of little nosebleed!" she laughed.

"I'm not sure you can call Marinette's nosebleeds little,"Alix snickered. "Considering last time this happened it took an hour for it to stop and she still wouldn't go to the nurse."

"It wasn't even that messy of one!" Marinette defended. Then the door opened, and her head snapped back to see Adrien. He stood over the table with his arms crossed, lips pursed, and eyebrows knitted together, and it took a moment for it to register to Marinette that she'd moved her head. "Whoops…" she tried, giggling awkwardly.

"Lay your head back," Adrien fussed. Marinette obeyed, then Adrien placed a wet towel over her nose. "Cold water is supposed to stop these things, right?"

"Uhh…"

"I think I read that somewhere," Adrien plopped back down and picked his book up. By this time, most everyone had returned to their reading, not wanting to see the train-wreck mutual-pining mess work their magic. "I'll finish reading, you can just listen and not move."

"Can't I just hold this and read my-?"

"Nope. Stay."

Inspired my own ability to bleed profusely at the worst times.

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