The Weight of Jade

Anxious Waiting

"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."