The Weight of Jade

'I am Jade Turtle'

"Yeah, tonights all about relaxing. And sometimes just getting out and taking Paris by storm is a pretty chill way to do that, right?"

Wayzz watched him, his charges eyes still clear to him despite the barriers between them. The kwami didn't respond at first, his gaze shifting to the miraculous on Nino's wrist that rested on the edge of the tank, but instead of guilt or unease or anything else he had associated with it...

It just made him smile even more.

Wayzz pushed off the stony bottom of his tank, kicking his way to the surface so he could look Nino in the face as he proudly declared, "Nothing would make me happier my friend."

And Nino grinned back, before finally he said, "Then lets go."

---

Cat Noir stood a short distance away from the crowd, for now out of sight as he and his Lady waited for the ceremony to commence. To step out now would be to cause a commotion, everyone eagerly awaiting the man of the hour who, as it stood, they had no idea where to find.

Cat glanced over to Ladybug as she leaned against the alley wall, crossly tapping away on her yo-yo with an adorable pout on her face.

"He answer yet?" Cat asked needlessly, her posture already providing the answer but he felt compelled to anyways, looking back towards the crowd they hid from as they jostled for position on the bridge.

"No," she sighed harshly, flipping her phone closed and pushing away from the wall so she could pace irritably. "He can't bail on this! The ceremony is for him!"

"You weren't there for ours," Cat pointed out with a smirk, his bravado dying instantly when she whirled to face him so he instead laughed nervously. "Because something came up, I get it. But maybe he's busy too?"

"He wasn't busy earlier!" she exclaimed, continuing to pace. "You know when I made the joke that he would run and hide in his room as soon as he got a statue I wasn't actually being serious."

That made Cat Noir snort, the boy significantly less agitated then she was. He simply shrugged, grinning to himself as he continued to watch the crowd. "You know I can't help but notice that his crowd is bigger than ours was. What's up with that?"

"Do you have any idea where he could be?" Ladybug asked with a sigh, ignoring his observation and watching as her boyfriend considered the options.

"Well," he remarked slowly, ticking off the places on his fingers as he named them. "Knowing him. He could very well be in the river below the bridge silently panicking about the press. He could be in his room being lectured by Wayzz, he might be suited up hiding on a roof somewhere but, most likely? I'd say he's with Alya."

Lady stopped dead, pausing for a moment before she walked over to Cat to lean past him, observing the crowd herself now.

"She's not with the press?"

"Nope," Cat said with a smile, not even needing to look to confirm what he had already checked. "The reporters are all up in the front to film us when we arrive, and I haven't seen her so much as in the spectators."

Lady only blinked once more before she sighed heavily in relief, Cat Noir looking surprised and raising an eyebrow at her to elaborate.

"Well, if she's with him then he's definitely going to show up. There is no way Alya would let him skip on this, she'd drag him here herself if she had too. We've got nothing to worry about."

Cat Noir laughed happily at that, letting his merriment devolve into a chuckle before saying, "God, when do you actually think he's going to tell us? I'm pretty sure he knows we're on to him, but he's ignoring it because he's stubborn like that. It's been like a month since that date of his, are they dating for sure now or what?"