Nino Lahiffe never thought he'd be a Miraculous wielder. It had been only a few days after school had ended, and he got all A's on his report card. To kick off the summer season, he decided to host an all nighter. In this all nighter, he traditionally stayed up til the crack of drawn, drank soda, ate junk food and played video/computer games. Now this wasn't all he did, but it was most of what he did. He did have good reason to celebrate though. Getting all A's had been one of his life's ambitions and he had just achieved it for the first time ever. After partying for several hours, the young boy fell asleep at 5:30am, just as the sun began to rise.
He eventually woke up past noon. He groaned groggily. He got out of bed, readjusted his glasses (which he forgot to take off) and looked at the time. The red letters on his alarm clock read 12:45. He then noticed a black octagonal box with red designs on it.
"What's this doing here?" he asked himself.
He opened the box, and his eyes were briefly blinded by a bright green light. He saw a green sphere for a moment before it faded, leaving a small green floating creature in its place. The creature looked at Nino amusingly.
"Woah. This is crazy. This must be a prank."
"This is not a prank." the creature said.
Nino blinked his eyeballs twice. "The turtle is talking."
"You stayed up too late, didn't you?" Nino nodded. "I can tell. You've got dark dark circles under your eyes and you look weary."
"Who... who are you?"
"I'm..."
A knock on the door was heard. Someone attempted to open it, but fortunately for the creature's sake, it was locked. "Nino! Are you awake?" his mother asked from the other side of the door. "The new guest will be here in less than five minutes!"
"Okay, I'll be out in a few!"
He scrambled, looking for a fresh set of clothes. He threw off his jeans and got into a pair of capris. He took off his shirt and traded it for a green one. "I know you're under a time limit, so I'll make this quick. My name's Wayzz, and I'm a kwami. You're the next Turtle Miraculous wielder."
"Turtle Miraculous?"
He looked at the box. It contained a black thread bracelet with a large green stone turtle on it. "Me? A... a superhero? This is so crazy..." He put on the bracelet, tightening it around his left wrist.
Wayzz said, "I'll explain everything later. Now go. Your family is waiting for you."
"Where are you gonna hide?" Nino put his hat on.
"I'll hide under your hat."
He flew under Nino's cap and he went out the door. He found his family standing in the living room. He turned to his mother. "I'm not too late, am I?"
"Oh, you're right on time. Our new guest has just arrived."
He looked at the new visitor. She was a girl with long brown hair the color of soil that reached to her waist and had eyes as green as grass. She wore a pair of green jeans, a pink sleeveless top and a green vest that extended to her elbows. On her feet, she wore pink open-toed heels. If you looked closely at her feet, you could see her toenails were painted pink. On her head, she wore a crown of fake flowers of multiple with a real violet entwined into it.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Lahiffe. It's so nice to be here."
"Welcome to our home... Ms. Gardener."
She chuckled warmly. "Oh you're being too formal. I'm Zoe. Zoe Gardener."
"So, where are you from?" Leah asked.
"I'm from Sydney, Australia."
"Wow, must be pretty warm there." Mrs. Lahiffe commented.
She smiled. "Yeah, it is. It's nearby the Indian ocean, so we get a lot of nice weather there."
"Well, we're happy to have you staying here under our roof." He smiled and turned to his eldest son. "Nino, could you show our new resident to her room?"
"Alright then."
Nino led Zoe down the hall to where her room was. It was a small room with a bed in the upper right corner. The walls were orange and the carpet was a cream-colored white. The window a few feet from the door was covered by orange curtains. The bedspread was orange with a white trim.
"I'm surprised the room hasn't been cleared out of the previous owner's stuff." Zoe stated.
"Yeah, we left the room the same as it was when Lila was here. She was the previous foreign exchange student under our roof." Nino explained. "We were unsure if we would even get another foreign exchange student here."
"I see." She looked at the orange walls and mused to herself. "Not bad, but I'd like this room catered to my needs."
"That can easily be done." Nino got out a notepad and a pen. "State me your requests and we'll work together to get them done as soon as possible."
"Okay. First off all, I want the walls to be painted pink. I would also like a floral pattern on this side. Red roses. Pink curtains and floral bed sheet set." She motioned to the wall with the door that led to her room. "I would also like a few pots of soil, rose and sunflower seeds, an assortment of flowers and an orchid plant. I would like floral bedsheets and a small rose-shaped pillow. I hope this isn't too much of a tall order."
"You really like flowers don't you?" he asked as he finished writing.
"Yeah, I do. I love flowers, especially roses. I've always been down to Earth and hands on nature kind of girl. If I don't look after Mother Earth, who will?"
"You have a good point. I'll get those requests in and see what can and can't be done."
He took the list of room redesign requests to his father and then went to the hall of visitors. This small hallway that connected the living room to the doorways of his room and his parents' room displayed every single foreign exchange that stayed under their roof. The plaques displayed their name, picture, the day they arrived, the day they left, and the country and city they were from. Suddenly Zoe gasped in terror.
Zoe stuttered. "Who... who the heck is..."
"Okay, who's the idiot that forgot to set the image back to Lila's normal form?" Nino asked the empty air.
He pressed the red button on the top of the gold-colored plaque and the image of Volpina smirking was replaced with a picture of Lila smiling.
"Who... who was that girl? And why was she wearing a fox costume with an evil smirk on her face?" Zoe asked.
"Her name is Lila Rossi. She's the second most recent foreign exchange student to live under this roof, and that form you just saw is Volpina, her akumatized villain self and her supervillain ego after obtaining the Fox Miraculous. I'm surprised you didn't recognize her."
"Why would I? I've never seen her before."
He looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "Haven't you seen images of her? Or read news articles about her and her former cohort Queen Bee?"
"I haven't read a news article in two years." she stated flatly.
Nino stood there, his mouth hung wide open. He stuttered for a few moments before slapping himself back into reality. "Really?" She nodded. "How come?"
"Well, I've been home schooled all my life, so I occasionally read the news. But reading too many bad news articles made me really depressed so I decided to stop reading them. My emotional state has greatly improved since then. I've never had any reason to read the news, so I just don't."
She has no idea about Ladybug or Cat Noir. She doesn't know who Volpina and Queen Bee are. Worst of all, she doesn't know who Hawkmoth is, or why he's a threat. the young boy thought to himself.
Suddenly a vision came to his mind. A silhouette of a young girl was holding a rose and crying. An akuma entered the rose and the vision ended. He couldn't help but think the girl in the vision looked very similar to Zoe. Unless... No.
That can't happen. Nino thought to himself. It won't. I'll do whatever it takes to protect her from akumatization. I'm not gonna let another innocent foreigner walk down the path of darkness, whether it be their own will or not!
While he was panicking on the inside, he somehow managed to look calm on the exterior because Zoe asked him, "You still there?"
He shook his head. "Huh? Oh yeah. I zoned out. Sorry Zoe."
"It's fine. I'll be in Leah's room if you need to speak to me."
"Okay."
Oh boy... he thought to himself. Being a Miraculous wielder and trying to protect an oblivious girl from akumatization. This is not going to be easy...