When Marley wakes up the next morning, Nero isn't there.

He frowns, looking around the completely dark room. It's 7 o'clock in the morning and the alarm is still going, but there is no glow—because yes, there is a very subtle glow off of Nero at all times—across the room that allows him to find his way to the light switch and turn it on. Which means Nero is missing.

Marley throws his legs over the side of the bed and stands up, wobbling a bit but finding his footing. He makes his way across the room with a bit of trouble and turns the light on.

Yup, Nero's gone. Huh.

Marley knows he should be happy that his asshole roommate is not here, but for some reason he feels strangely... on edge? No, that's not right. Empty? No, no, that's too intimate.

Odd. He feels odd.

Marley decides to go with his normal routine, heading to take a shower and getting dressed. Brushing his teeth and not even attempting to tame his hair, the usual. After he's done with that he starts making his way to his research group. He's not even halfway there and he's stopped by a hand wrapping firmly around his bicep and tugging a bit.

He turns his head and finds Eli staring at him with a narrowed look. Great, perfect way to start off his morning. Fantastic, he absolutely loves this girl.

"Where's Nero?" she asks, her naturally low voice already putting Marley on edge. Yeah, her and Nero definitely belong together.

"How should I know?" Marley responds, raising an eyebrow. Her gaze darkens, if that's even possible. It's not like Marley even said anything that rude. She probably just gets pissed off by the sound of his voice.

"I don't know, probably because you live with him." She bites out, and Marley has to try really hard not to roll his eyes. Don't get him wrong, he still has that adrenaline rush he gets every time he's being less than kind to someone. He can practically hear his heart in his ears every time he talks to someone like this. He decides to ignore it, and mostly succeeds.

"He was gone when I left, that's all I got."

She nods her head and disappears, letting go of his arm a bit rougher than necessary.

Surprisingly, Marley doesn't see Nero his entire research group period. Supervisor Hookler doesn't seem all that surprised, if a bit more smug than usual. Marley seriously hates it when he's exiting the room, walking with Lola, and identifies the twist in is gut as worry.

For Nero.

Could it have something to do with last night? Nero was stopped in the hallway by that one guy... whatever his name is. He seemed really suspicious of him, too. God, did Nero actually get sent to Director Olucard? If so then Marley can't help but feel a bit guilty, even though he's not sure what he's guilty of.

None of Marley's questions are answered when he gets to his classroom. In fact, he only has more when he spots Nero recilined in a chair in the corner, right next to the teacher lady (Mrs. Anderson, Marley thinks). He doesn't look as angry as usual, mostly just bored. That is, until his eyes land on Marley. Yeah, there's the scowl he's used to.

It's then that Marley remembers a punishment listed in the manual he'd read when he'd first arrived here. Something about having to help out in classrooms.

Wow, did that guy actually report Nero? What a tool.

Marley walks over to his usual spot, grabbing his papers and books and taking his seat. Lola doesn't show up for some reason. It stresses Marley out a bit, but he decides not to dwell on it and moves on to focus on his stuff. Sadly, it's a lot of world history and math. Marley opens up his book and finds that all he has to do is a guided reading activity.

He's surprisingly able to breeze through it without really reading anything, which he's ashamedly proud of. He still has to read two chapters but the guided reading was minimal effort so he counts that as a win.

To his utter dissatisfaction, math is not such a breeze. Angles. Sweet Christ, end him now. This is absolutely not going to end well for him, he's about to fail this whole unit, and Lola's not here to-

Could he ask for help?

Marley turns his head to the direction of Mrs. Anderson, only to find her already helping another student. Shit. Should he just walk over there and ask her to help him anyway? Even though she's busy? He feels like that would be rude.

But he really doesn't get this, and he knows that he's not going to if he doesn't ask for help.

It's then that he spots Nero, who is still in the same chair. He's reading a book, unsurprisingly.

Should Marley...?

No! Absolutely no-of course not! What the hell is Marley thinking?

Marley gets up and walks over to Mrs. Anderson. Oh well, sorry if he's rude, he really does not want to even talk to Nero, let alone ask the guy for help. Mrs. Anderson's tutoring some girl that Marley doesn't know, so he waits for her to stop talking and turn to Marley. She raises her eyebrows in expectancy, and he knows she wants him to state his business.

"Can you help me with my math?" He didn't even bring his papers. Whoops.

Marley sees Nero look up from the corner of his eye and fidgets with his shirt.

"Mr. Accardi, please assist Prince Marley with his wor–don't tell him all the answers and leave."

Shit, Marley should've seen this coming. Every time he doesn't want something to happen, it happens. A higher power out there must really hate him. Nero doesn't look much happier about it, either. His eyes are narrowed at Mrs. Anderson, who has since moved on, and he slams his book shut. Well, this is going to be a blast.

Marley walks back to his desk and sits down, organizing his papers in a way so Nero can help him. A minute later, a chair is being pulled up to the side of Marley's desk and a dark figure is taking a seat in it. Marley can feel the irritation radiating off of the man and he really wants this to be over. Sadly, there's still forty minutes left.

"What is it, Nocona?" He asks, voice betraying exactly how much he does not want to do this, not that Marley hadn't already figured that out.

Marley looks up and meets Nero's eyes, red and blazing as ever. He looks down at his paper, then back up. "Exterior intersections, I, uh..." Red, electric eyes. Hypnotic. "I don't understand them–any of them."

Nero's face scrunches up in a way that shouldn't be as attractive as it actually is. Wait, what the fuck? Marley, you really need to stop-

"How? It's three formulas." Nero doesn't even have to look at Marley's paper to know that. Like he just knows it right off the bat, by heart. Marley is both impressed and annoyed.

That is way too oversimplified. Exterior angles are way more than that. At least... it feels like it

"What grade are you in, anyway?"

Marley looks down at the paper. "11th." 

"Shouldn't you have learned this by now?" Nero asks moodily, leaning back on the chair and crossing his arms. Marley frowns, continuing to fiddle with the bottom of his shirt because he doesn't have his keychain. He doesn't know what to do here. Why does Nero make him so nervous? Now that he isn't half asleep and in pain, he has run out of all the confidence that allowed him to talk back to this man. Well... unless Nero pisses him off again.

"I don't know," Marley replies, looking up again. His eyes settle on Nero's nose, and he finds a few freckles there. He wonders how he's never noticed them before, but then he remembers that every other time he's been this close to Nero's face he's been staring at the man's eyes and being threatened.

Nero leans over and turns Marley's paper to face him, examining it. "It tells you what to do at the top." He states, pointing to said top. He must think Marley's stupid. It's not his fault math is evil, okay?

Besides, all it gives him at the top of the worksheet is some picture examples with some formulas and a short description of exterior intersections. Sorry, but he has always needed someone to walk him through math. He just can't learn it on his own, no matter the resources.

"I know," he replies, because he does, "I just don't know when to use the formulas."

"There are pictures." he sounds so exasperated and Marley knows he's not that smart but he hates it when people make him feel reminded of that.

"I know, okay?!" He raises his voice a bit, there. Nobody really looks at him but Neros gets a crease in between his brows and Marley is not about to break eye contact. He's not going to show submission to Nero. He has in the past but he's putting a stop to it because this is all bullshit. He's sick of Nero Accardi thinking he can treat the prince of the Westhem like that.

"I just don't- I don't understand it. It's whatever, I'll figure it out." He never should have asked for help. he knew better. He slumps down and grabs the papers and starts plugging random numbers into the formula, not caring anymore.

"Why the hell are teenagers so dramatic?" Grumbles the literal king of dramatic.

Marley glares up at him, not caring anymore that holy shit he's glaring at Nero, "fine, how old are you?" He asks, because there's no way Nero can be much older than him. He looks like he could be a junior or senior in college, maybe. At the most.

"None of your fucking business, Nocona."

Marley leans back, crossing his arms. "Well you clearly know my age. So I want to know yours, Accardi." He's momentarily really proud of himself, that he remembered Nero's last name. But then he realizes it's Nero. Asshole.

"Everyone knows your age, dumbass." The absolutely disrespectful fucking douchebag- 

"And don't call me that." When he says that, he leans closer to Marley's face. He growls it, low, serious, eyes drilling into Marley, who is forgetting how to breathe.

There is no reason for Nero to be this close to his face right now. No reason. Back away, oh my god, please back away-

But he doesn't, and Marley has to force his body to comply when he huffs and leans back, crossing his arms over his chest and avoiding eye contact, goddammit. He really hopes he isn't blushing, even though is cheeks are warm and he's definitely blushing.

"This is telling you to find the measure of angle KLM, so you subtract 66 from 140 and divide it by two. Tell me why."

Marley looks up and spots Nero staring right back at him, jaw clenched but face otherwise unreadable. Wow, he's actually going to help him. Marley can't help but to be caught off guard, because he was fully expecting Nero to waste the rest of school giving him shit about his terrible math skills.

 Marley blinks, sits up, and looks down at the paper. He sees that Nero is talking about question one, and Marley's been attempting that one for the last ten minutes.

He leans forward and focuses on the formula. It doesn't give him enough, since this is a circle with a triangle sticking out of it and it looks like a bird face and it makes zero sense. "I don't know, the formula?" He guesses, not looking up.

"Well yeah," Nero frowns, licks his teeth, "but how did I know where to put the numbers?"

Marley squints at the problem, screws with his pant leg under the desk. "The formula?"

"Holy shit, are you actually this stupid?"

Nero is losing patience, and it's setting Marley on edge, which is why he throws his arms in the air and looks at his shit tutor. "I don't know what you want me to say!"

Nero glares at him for a moment, until Marley accidentally breaks eye contact, then he leans forward and takes Marley's pencil, scribbling something out on the paper in sloppy but legible handwriting. After he's done he puts the pencil back down and leans away. Marley looks down to see a formula written out with numbers plugged in in the places Nero said.

Oh.

Nero was just copying one of the examples on the top, but plugging in the numbers on the problem they are currently doing. It's so simple that Marley can't help but to feel beyond embarrassed. They're literally the exact same picture, just different angle names.

"Oh."

Nero narrows his eyes. "Now tell me the answer."

Marley plugs it into his calculator. "37 degrees?"

"Bingo." Nero deadpans.

They get through about seven more problems before the bell is going off and they have to leave. Nero doesn't say goodbye and Marley doesn't either and pretty soon Marley is in the hallway, on his way to meet Leilani. However, his plans are abruptly changed when he hears a female voice over the speaker say;

"Marley Nocona, please report to Supervisor Rellik's office."

Yup, just like that Marley's heart is racing and his palms are sweating and he starts to feel lightheaded. Like this day couldn't get any worse, now he gets to be tortured for hours.

Oh shit, he's about to be tortured.

He shakily changes direction, and begins walking towards the nightmare room on the first floor that he's been avoiding so much as walking past. Like just being near it would make them call him in there. Oh shit. Oh shit.

Suddenly, he begins to wish Nero actually had somehow electrocuted him to death. Really, he'd even take a coma at this point.

Fuck, Marley thinks, it's about to be a long day.