Watching Miraclebound

Shattered Echoes

"And you thought all of this up on a whim in the spur of the moment?" Adrien gasped, leaning forward to take the ring back from Nino who almost couldn't get it off fast enough.

He was looking a lot better, the DJ decided. The miraculous cure had healed him instantly. There were no traces of the wound and even the blood had disappeared from his clothes, though Nino wasn't sure if that was due to the change of holders or the cure. He chuckled, sitting back and swiping his glass of lemonade from the desk before Adrien could knock it off.

"Yeah, dude!" Nino laughed, leaning back on his chair and crossing his feet on the table, an action that his mother would have most likely smacked him with a ruler for. Or Chloe, but she was too busy fussing over her own appearance and complaining that she'd missed the entire fight. Well, Queen Bee could have done it in half the time! Nino snorted to himself. She had no idea.

"Mam would of killed you if you did that"

"And using Chris?" Adrien went on. "How in the world did you come up with that?"

"Honestly, bro," Nino confessed, resting his head on his hand tiredly. "I have no idea. I don't even remember thinking about it. I saw Nicholas and Chris were in danger and I just sort of reacted. I think Plagg might have had some influence on me, though." He glanced warily toward the ring once more while fiddling with his bracelet uncomfortably. Shortly after he had taken Ziggy back from Chris, he and Nicholas had returned to Tibet (with a little help from a certain override ability) and had hauled Grimm off to prison. Wayzz had called off Nino's transformations before he'd even had a chance to utter the words and the little turtle had darted off without a word. Nino didn't understand why he'd suddenly fled, but he had the terrible sense that he had done something horribly wrong.

"Part of being a Miraclebound"

He only wished he knew what the something was.

Adrien chuckled, slipping his miraculous back onto his finger and leaning back as well. "That's insane! I thought Marinette was the only one who could do crazy things without getting killed! Have you been taking lessons behind my back?" He elbowed Nino in the side, earning a chuckle from the darker-skinned boy.

"I think...honestly, I think it has something to do with the Miraclebox," Nino admitted. "I don't know how or why I did what I did. It just felt...like it was the right thing to do in the moment." But I don't think Wayzz agrees with me. Even in the midst of battle, he'd been able to feel the kwami's irritation bubbling over the moment Nino had gone against his recommendations and had recruited Chris to help them win. Nino hadn't even thought about it. He'd only reacted.

"It could also do with the Miraclebox"

He probably hates me now.

Adrien nodded. "M'lad--um--Marinette has told me about that before and I think you might be right. The Miraclebox is definitely full of secrets that none of us understand."

Nino raised an eyebrow at the blond's slipup. "Are you guys okay?" he inquired, repeating Adrien's former words right back to him. "You and Mari? I know...this wasn't the way you would have liked to reveal your identities. I hope I didn't cause you guys too much trouble."

Adrien blinked, gazing up at his best friend as Nino tried to retreat into his headphones, not nearly as productive without his hat to hide his eyes. "Yeah, it was definitely weird. I'm not going to lie. To find out that my friend and the girl I was madly in love with were one in the same was hard. But we've talked about it and we both agree that it's okay. And if we hadn't, there was no way we could have come to help you find Nicholas."