"Oooh they're gonna do it," Nino said quietly as he leaned casually on the railing of the stairs in the school courtyard. His attention was focused on the front doors of the school, where just inside stood his three friends, two of them standing very close together.

"There he goes," Wayzz's voice chimed in, the kwami lifting the brim of Nino's hat ever so slightly to watch as Adrien took a nervous yet firm step towards Marinette, draping his arm over her shoulders as she leaned into his chest.

"She's starring," Nino cooed in a singsong tone, watching as the girl who had been dominating his thoughts all day froze completely in place. Alya was rigid, her phone dangling comically in one hand as she gaped.

"Do you think she's still processing?" Wayzz chuckled, glancing down when he heard Nino snort.

"You'll know when she's done," Nino said through his laughter, trying to smother the sound with his hand but the gesture was futile, because soon a disbelieving scream of "WHAT" shattered the air and he lost it completely.

Nino and Wayzz both doubled over in laughter, the kwami letting the hat fall and rolling onto his stomach in a desperate attempt to hold on as Nino howled.

The DJ peered up through watery eyes to see Alya practically lifting the newly announced couple off the ground, crushing the life out of them both as she went ballistic. It was an absolutely hilarious mixture of world shaking excitement and indignant rage, mostly directed towards Marinette.

"How long has this been going on?! You better hope this is the first day you two have been together or I am going to-" and on it went, Alya shouting such things between hugging Marinette and threatening Adrien.

"Adrien looks a little scared of her," Nino noted as he used the railing to straighten himself, still chuckling a little. "See I told you she was scary."

"Well perhaps," Wayzz allowed, still giggling to himself.

Nino kept watching from his place by the stairs, happy to stay well out of it until the new couple turned and looked at him over their shoulders, reacting to something Alya had asked.

"Uh oh," Nino said aloud, his eyes darting between Alya bouncing in place and Adrien gesturing him over. "I should have practiced my surprised face. Should I go for a gasp or too far?"

"Too far," Wayzz coached quietly, "but a sharp intake of breath and loudly proclaimed congrats might be in order."

"What's an intake of breath if not a gasp?" Nino questioned out of the corner of his mouth as he started walking. Wayzz could offer no more explanation as the distance slowly closed, Nino running through possible lines until he arrived.

"Yeah?" he asked evenly, adding a quizitive look at Alya's excitement for affect.

Alya was standing next to Marinette, pretty much directly across from him in the awkwardly squashed circle they had created where he stood between the not-yet-announced to him couple. She was grinning impossibly wide, both hands on Marinette's arm as she watched him intensely. Really intensely actually... it was hilarious. He only ever saw her get this excited over... well she got excited over a lot of stuff but this was usually reserved for, ironically, superheroes. And maybe a really really fluffy dog. Probably not, mostly superheroes.

"Nino?" he suddenly heard, Nino jolting in place and turning to look at Adrien like he had completely forgotten he was there.

Sorta had actually... woops.

"Uh what?" he asked with a sheepish grin, Adrien rolling his eyes and chuckling before speaking again.

"Marinette and I have an announcement."

"You do?" Nino couldn't help but ask a tad theatrically, earning a warning gaze from Marinette he could feel without even turning to look. "Do go on."

"Well," Adrien said with a chuckle, scooting around Nino to do much the same move he had when talking to Alya. His arm settled easily over her shoulders. "Um as of today, Marinette and I are a couple."

Nino gasped, absolutely overdoing it with the shock and awe only to have it melt into a haughty smirk. "I'm just kidding, I'm not surprised in the slightest. It's about time really."

Adrien stiffened, eyes widening and looking a little hot under the collar and Marinette snickered into her hands. Alya immediately started laughing, stepping to Nino's side and planting her hands on her hips.

"Seriously, only took you guys forever!" she said with a teasing lilt in her voice, Marinette now looking caught out.

"Alya!"

"What? We're right," Alya defended herself.

"At any rate," Nino tried to defuse the teasing with a bit of seriousness, "Congrats bro. You guys deserve each other."

"Absolutely," Alya agreed, grinning for another moment before her eyes narrowed and Adrien flinched under her suddenly intense gaze. "I don't care if we're friends if I ever get a phone call from her at 3:00 AM where she's crying her eyes out because of something stupid you said all your daddy's guards and more can't keep me from you. Got it?"

Adrien paled slightly, stepping back behind Marinette who sighed and rolled her eyes as he said, "Yes Mam."

Nino snickered, trying to look tough as he glared at Marinette. "Yeah and- and you... well I won't do anything to you but I will be very upset, and likely disappointed. Relations will be strained."

"Thanks buddy," Adrien's monotone voice reached him, sending the whole group into another fit of laughter. However Nino had to admit, it did feel good to see Adrien pull her to him from behind, affectionately wrapping his arms around her stomach as she leaned her head against his chest.

It was like a universal thing, something that felt good because you know it should work and it does. It was something that just made sense, and it felt good to finally see it all out in the open.

"Well that went well," Marinette said with a nervous laugh, Nino and Alya trading a confused glance as Adrien's face suddenly darkened.

"Is something... up?" Nino asked slowly, watching as Adrien glanced away towards the entrance of the school.

"I was hoping to wait..." Adrien said with a subdued voice, Marinette sighing quietly as she reached up to gently hold one of his arms.

"It's better not to." She looked up at where Nino and Alya stood, both now very uneasy. "We wanted to be forward about us, we wanted to be able to be seen in public and talk about it at school. But uh..." she fidgeted a little, Adrien almost unconsciously holding her a little closer as he took a deep breath.

"Chloe goes to school here," he answered for her, a slow sense of understanding settling over the friends. "And she isn't going to be pleased. And when she isn't pleased she goes to her father, and if he isn't pleased about something about me-"

"He'll go to your father," Alya said softly, silence falling over them.

Adrien was quiet for a while, glancing out the front doors every once in awhile to check for his car before he spoke again.

"Nothing he says will stop it," he said firmly, trying to sound upbeat. "He knows I'm too stubborn for that. But Marinette is right... it's smarter if I tell him myself instead of letting Chloe rat me out. I'm happy, I just hope that's going to be enough for him."

"We're going together," Marinette spoke up, turning a little to look up at him. "I'm not scared of him. I bet it's going to be much better than you're expecting."

Adrien didn't respond right away, meeting her eyes for a moment before smiling softly.

"Well your luck has always been better than mine," he answered playfully, glancing outside again as the flash of a high end silver compact caught his attention. "As long as we're together father can say what he likes, it won't change a thing."

"Exactly" she said with a smile of her own, stepping away from him but grabbing hold of his hand only a second later.

"Keep us updated," Alya said quickly, Marinette nodding gratefully as Adrien gently pulled her away.

"Yeah," Nino agreed, catching Adrien's eye. "It'll be cool man, don't sweat it."

"Yeah," Adrien said, his voice firm and his smile twitching slightly bigger when Marinette squeezed his hand in support. Adrien and Marinette headed towards the entrance, looking over their shoulders one last time to wave goodbye before heading down towards Adrien's car and out of sight.

Nino was still, a worried frown settling in place as he adjusted the strap of his backpack. He had had the unfortunate 'pleasure' of Gabriel Agreste's company himself on several occasions, and it always felt like the next was worse than the last.

"It will be fine," Alya suddenly said, scaring the crap out of him as she all at once reminded him that she was there but she didn't seem to notice. "Marinette is probably the most presentable girl at this school. She's polite, talented, adorable, and studying the same field Gabriel Agreste made his fortune in. If he can just get over the fact that she isn't an heiress he'll see that they're absolutely perfect for each other. Right?"

Alya turned to look up at him, a little surprised to see how totally... wired he looked, and misread it as apprehension.

"Relax Nino! They'll be totally fine you'll see."

"W- yeah, of course," he hurried to agree, taking a small step away he hoped she didn't notice if only to give himself a little breathing room. He didn't realize how close the two of them had been standing before.

He swallowed, knowing she was obviously expecting more. "You're right. Marinette can be shy sometimes but I'm sure she knows she's got to hold her ground against someone like him. Her and Adrien will be fine as long as they're together... they're just stronger that way."

Alya nodded, crossing her arms and keeping quiet for a time. After a few seconds without a reply Nino glanced down.

She had her weight cocked on one hip, phone gripped in one hand as she stared out the front entrance where their friends had gone.

She nodded slowly, her eyes bright as she said, "Yeah. They're just stronger that way." She paused for a moment, looking up at meeting his eyes in a way that caught him off guard. "Well put."

"R-right," he stammered, reaching up to adjust his headphones and quickly looking away. She seemed surprised but he knew himself too well to think the conversation was going to make it much farther. "Welp," he said rather smoothly in his opinion. "I'm out. Got a bunch of homework to do before tonight."

"Homework?" she questioned, forcing him to look over his shoulder as he tried to gun it for the entrance. "You behind? We barely got anything today except the reading if that even counts."

"Eh well, uh," he stalled, laughing nervously. "Got some extra reading to do. Some studying, you know."

"Reading on what?' she asked with a raised eyebrow, watching as he not so subtly fled the scene."

"Uh, you know. Stones... Geology... Later!"

Alya stood on her own, watching in bewilderment as Nino all but left a cloud of smoke behind him. Eventually she couldn't help but mutter to herself, "...geology?"

Fortitude, Cunning, Truth, Cooperation, and Diligence. The five values of the lower stones. Each of the lower stones has darkness and light, where they can be wielded to their true potential and also made to compel the evil within it's wielders. For each of the values there are their lies.

Apathy, Manipulation, Arrogance, Control, and Selfishness. Each of these five stones find balance within the world, but the two stones above find balance within each other. Whereas the lower stones have no direct counterpart, the stones of creation and destruction were created in direct offset to each other. All stones are connected, but the powers of creation and destruction cannot be separated. Though the stones may not always be near one another, when one is activated so too is the other.

Nino drew the book closer to him, laying its solid weight in his lap as he looked over the passage again, once in the writing of the book, then in the translation made in his own handwriting in the notebook beside him.

"Fortitude... cunning... truth, cooperation, and diligence," he muttered to himself. "Lower stones... Wayzz?"

Nino turned, scanning his room to find Wayzz lazily kicking across the surface of his tank, looking up when he was called.

"Are we starting a new passage?" he asked, lifting himself into the air and shaking water from his antennae.

"No, not yet I'm still looking through this one. I know we can only go through a chunk at a time but I think more sinks in when we do it like this."

"Whichever way is easiest. Soon enough you'll find you can read it yourself but for now I am more than happy to translate."

"Well yeah that's what I wanted to ask about," Nino said, looking back at his notebook. "When you said this part meant 'lower stones' is that a literal translation? I knew there was ranking but it seems weird that they would be addressed like that."

Wayzz paused, thinking over the question. "Well yes it is rather literal. In the text there are several language barriers present when the name for the five stones is spoken. Translated from the characters is the word 'Quin' which comes from the Latin word 'Quinque' which I believe means five. Once written in the text there was the added line 'of the' which would word for word translate to 'of the five.' I figured just referring to them by rank was more straightforward."

"...right," Nino said slowly, not really feeling like his question was answered even if it probably was. "So the character looks pretty similar to the next time you said 'lower stones' but there is like an added curve here? Around the bulk of the character," Nino explained, gesturing to the character he meant with the eraser of his pencil. He couldn't help but watch the drops of water falling from Wayzz anxiously as the kwami flew forward and looked over his shoulder.

"It is still in reference to the five, except the literal meaning is 'five of seven' and speaking of them in terms of the whole."

"Oh, oh oh okay," Nino said in understanding, marking the two characters down with that brief explanation. He was happy to have that wayward curve explained, because now it was fairly safe to assume the next passage was talking about the seven as a whole since it appeared in almost every line.

"I admire your attention to detail," Wayzz said with pride in his voice, drifting back towards his tank with a smile.

"Well diligence is one of the values listed so I figured it wouldn't hurt," Nino said with a weary chuckle, already having a headache after only two hours into his studying.

"Fortitude..." he murmured to himself, creating a bullet point list in his notes. "Probably the turtle... cunning is the fox. Truth is probably... the peacock if only cause diligence doesn't make sense for the peacock. The butterfly is definitely cooperation because it's bad part is control which would mean Hawkmoth. Then the bee is diligence... which makes sense. Bee's work hard."

Nino paused, his pencil hanging above the paper as he glanced down at his own miraculous.

With Jade Turtle came the danger of apathy... why apathy?

He could see that... sort of. Especially if that same Jade was a guardian as most of them were. It would be easy to draw your head into your shell (har har) and stop giving a damn completely. If you were a guardian you could look at all the greatest powers in the world at the drop of a hat. He could see how anything else would struggle to compare.

He tapped a flat rhythm idly against the book, frowning to himself as he rubbed at his temple. He had briefly rested his face in one hand when he heard suddenly, "Nino, let's take a break."

"Hm?" he said, lifting his head to see Wayzz holding Will and watching him with a smile.

"You've been working hard and it's nearly dinner time. You wouldn't want to skip a meal with such an important patrol coming up."

Nino blinked, an uneasy feeling settling in his chest as he looked at his floor. "Eh... yeah you're probably right."

"Don't be nervous," Wayzz said cheerily, "it will be great! Although," Wayzz added with a slightly teasing tone, "I believe you are forgetting something of importance."

"Oh no what!" Nino said a tad frantically, gently putting the book aside so he could stand. "I've been obsessing about this all day! Should I bring something? It's just patrol but..."

Wayzz interrupted him with a laugh, setting Will down on his log before zipping out towards his charge.

"I'm sure it will be nice, even if it will be with all four of you as it stands."

"What?" Nino said, tilting his head and staring at Wayzz in confusion. The turtle only floated there with an amused expression before Nino went still, eyes widening.

"Oh crap." Nino groaned sharply, burying his face in his hands before he said, "I didn't even think about the other two."

"You still have time if you would like to tell them you have it covered," Wayzz comforted him, darting forward to lift Nino's phone from the bed. "Tell them you'd like them to celebrate finally being together and that you'll handle patrol on your own. It is easily fixed."

"Nice catch little buddy, you get split pea for that one," Nino announced as he took the phone. "Go find a can while I call, no one else is home so you're good."

"I'll start the water for your macaroni," Wayzz said with a chuckle, gone in a flash as Nino blew out a lungful of air and lifted his phone to his ear.

Nino waited, tapping his foot at twice the tempo of the ringing as he waited. It rung and rung and rung again, and just as he was getting annoyed there was a voice on the other end.

"Hey Nino!" Adrien's voice greeted him and Nino smiled.

"Hey man, sorry if you're busy."

"No it's good I'm in the car," he explained vaguely and Nino nodded to himself.

"Alright you don't gotta say one way or the either out loud but just letting you know I've got patrol tonight so don't worry about it."

"Woah wait why?" Adrien asked quickly. "You did it yesterday! You don't have to me and uh... we're good to go with you. You can even just take it off if you want."

"No, no man I insist. You guys should celebrate and stuff, uh well. If there is still something to celebrate? You never actually called me about what went down with your dad."

Adrien's voice hesitated and Nino felt a chill of unease before he heard, "It went like... unnervingly well. Can't say now but uh, yeah i'll tell you later but it's good i think, at least for now. Which is weird."

Nino breathed out a sigh of relief, Adrien's chuckle making him think the whoosh of air was probably audible but it was actually a load off his mind.

"Well good you guys don't deserve him giving you crap. That's why I've got patrol okay? So don't worry."

"Dude are you sure? Like-"

"I just uh, need the time to think," Nino covered quickly, cutting his friend off as he paced his room. "Running around and stuff is good. Keeps me busy and all."

Adrien was quiet for a little, before finally, "...well. Alright if you really want to. But if something is wrong tell me okay?"

"Yeah I'll call you guys if there is any trouble," Nino said, his tone relieved as he started walking out towards the kitchen.

"Not what I meant and you know it," Adrien stated firmly, Nino frowning to himself before Adrien spoke again. "I won't push but its obvious man. I love you bro I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Love you too," Nino said simply, his face neutral now even as Wayzz peered at him over a slowly boiling pot of water. "See you tomorrow."

They traded last goodbyes before Nino hung up, taking a slow breath as he leaned onto the counter, distractedly watching the water churn.

He could feel Wayzz watching him but he didn't look over, too busy thinking through what he was meant to say to his friend. Part of him really wanted help with the whole girl thing, and he knew Adrien would be there for him, but part of him also wanted to figure it out alone. Not to mention all the guardian crap... he hadn't even told the duo about all that yet, not that he really had the chance. As was often the case, way too much happened all at once.

He knew the thing that should be forefront on his concerns was taking over the mantle for arguably one of the most important people in the world, but it wasn't.

It was him worrying about how he couldn't actually look any better or worse in a turtle themed super suit and how that probably killed the date vibe a little.

Nino thumped his head lightly against the tile countertop, groaning to himself now that he didn't have his studies directly distracting him.

"What am I going to do man," he muttered into the tile, hoping Wayzz would hear him. "I can't do this, why did I ask."

"Because you like her," Wayzz said simply, almost sounding exasperated if he didn't know better. And a little winded.

Nino looked up to see Wayzz hovering a tad precariously over the boiling water holding the much too large for him pasta box, Nino lunging forward to snatch the kwami back and grab the box from him.

"Let me do that little man," he blurted out. "I don't even know how you actually got the water boiling to start with."

"Stop worrying," Wayzz said, undeterred as he resigned himself to watching Nino pour the uncooked pasta in.

"You like her, she likes you. The matter is simple, now just go through with the date."

Nino muttered something unintelligible as he pouted, leaving to find a spoon to stir with. It sounded vaguely like, 'Don't tell me what to do,' but Wayzz couldn't be sure.

It made him laugh anyways.