Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Nathaniel fiddled with the medication in his hand. He hated the newly prescribed one he was supposed to take. The mood stabilizers were slightly larger than what he was used to and he always felt like he was choking on the pill.

He put it down, wincing. It’d be fine if he skipped it for today, right?

---

When Nathaniel was abruptly awoken from his before-class nap, he was not expecting to see the same rock monster Ivan was turned into yesterday standing there. 

Stoneheart (That’s what he called himself, right?) roared at him.

Nathaniel blinked sleepily at the giant, before speaking up.

“Wow, you look like you could rock my world.”

Stoneheart paused.

“Excuse me, I’m only here for Mylene.”

Nathaniel laughed, placing his head back down into his arms, “Yeah, Mylene would totally say something like that to you if she had the confidence.”

Mylene squawked, before Stoneheart picked her up in his hand, eliciting a scream out of her.

Nathaniel yawned, “Yeah, yeah, go on and kiss already.” He faced downwards towards the table, slowly starting to nod off, even as Chloe was taken as well and Stoneheart escaped with the two girls.

Alix strolled up to Nathaniel’s side, “What the fuck?”

The artist looked up, “Hm?”

“You just!” She waved her arms around, “Flirted with… whatever Ivan turned into!”

Nathaniel blinked, humming, “Maybe I’m bi.”

“THAT IS NOT THE THING YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE TAKING FROM THIS!”

---

Nathaniel laid down, sprawled out over his couch. He drank out of a water bottle, watching the news.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir: Paris’ newest superheroes!” An image of the two mentioned showed up on the screen.

Nathaniel drank some more water, idly thinking about the two.

‘Ladybug’s cool. She’s hot and could kick my ass. What more could I ask for in a woman? On the other hand, Chat Noir is super handsome as well. He could turn me to dust and I’d thank him. Both of them could probably crush my head like a watermelon between their thighs.’

His thoughts paused.

‘Am I fantasizing about a boy? Shit, I am bi.’

He continued analyzing the heroes and their traits in his head.

‘It seems like Ladybug hasn’t entirely come out of her shell yet, considering she hesitated at the Eiffel Tower. Her power is also super random. Hope she can come up with good solutions.’

‘Chat seems impulsive. Valid. I wonder what would happen if he used his power on a person. Oh, I could volunteer!’

Man, it had only been a couple minutes of him being a bi disaster and he could already tell this was going to be the norm.

---

Nathaniel winced at the medication laying innocently on his counter top.

“Shut up,” He muttered to the inanimate object.

Chapter Text

Nathaniel stood awkwardly near the edge of the crowd at Adrien’s party. Bubbler had put on a slow dance music track. He walked up behind the DJ stand as everyone else started grabbing a partner and dancing.

“Hey.”

Bubbler looked up from where he was sorting through his other records. His design was causing Nathaniel to vomit on the inside but it’s fine. He couldn’t blame Bubbler for something Hawkmoth did. But when Nathaniel finds Hawkmoth, it is on sight.

“What’s up dude? Sick party, right?”

Nathaniel winked at the akuma, shooting him finger guns, “I’d party with you any day, if you know what I mean.” Bubbler blushed. (Or at least, he assumed he did. It was really hard to tell with these designs.) The redhead smiled politely at the akuma. He extended a hand, “Why don’t you join us?”

Bubbler looked at the hand then Nathaniel’s face, “Excuse me?”

“It’s a party, isn’t it?” Nathaniel continued, “Why not have some fun?”

Bubbler blinked, still confused. Nathaniel huffed, walking forward and grabbing Bubbler’s hand. The akuma didn’t get a chance to react before the artist was pulling him away from his stand onto the dance floor. To no one’s surprise, the rest of the crowd slowly moved away from the pair.

Nathaniel turned back to Bubbler, still holding his hand, “You’ve slow danced before, haven’t you?”

The other person stammered over his next words. “No,” He finally managed to say. Nathaniel hummed.

“Well, it’s not that hard. I’ll teach you!” He grinned, “Okay?”

Mildly (Okay, more like strongly) surprised by the new confidence Nathaniel seemed to be emitting, Bubbler didn’t object as Nathaniel started teaching him how to slow dance. Noticing how the akuma was distracted, most of the party members ran away. Chloe and Adrien stayed, although it was obvious Adrien was dying inside and wanted to leave too.

“Okay, move your feet like this.”

Bubbler simply followed the instructions, still astounded by the artist in front of him. Hawkmoth started talking to him. 

“What are you doing?! You’re supposed to be getting the miraculous!”

Oblivious to the one-sided conversation happening in front of him, Nathaniel continued his explanation of how to slow dance.

“Put your arms here,” Nathaniel guided the akuma’s hands to the usual positions people put them while dancing, “And then to dip someone, you just do this.”

“What?”

Before he could react, Nathaniel shifted Bubbler in such a way to be dipping him. He smiled innocently at the akuma. Adrien and Chloe stopped dancing to gawk at the pair.

The dance (which was more of Nathaniel directing Bubbler) was interrupted by a ladybug patterned water bottle hitting Nathaniel in the head. He jolted, dropping Bubbler onto the ground and immediately reaching up to rub the injury, “Ow…”

Bubbler collided with the ground, grunting. A shout from the crowd of students revealed who had thrown it.

“It’s Ladybug!”

Cheers filled the yard as Ladybug stood tall and proud on the roof of a nearby building. Using her appearance as a distraction, Adrien bolted, soon finding a place to transform.

“You’re fucking thirsty,” She muttered below her breath, staring at Nathaniel. Luckily, she was standing far enough away that he couldn’t hear her.

Bubbler growled, getting up, “Took you long enough!” He turned to glare at Nathaniel, “You’ve been distracting me this whole time!” With a quick flick of the wrist, Bubbler’s bubble wand was pulled out of its container, pointing threateningly at Nathaniel, “You’re just like the adults! Trying to take away our fun! I should send you up there with them!”

Nathaniel winked, “You don’t need bubbles to take me sky high.”

Bubbler sputtered, concentration dying for a couple seconds. Within those seconds came one call.

“Cataclysm!”

Chat Noir ran up, pressing his glowing hand to the bubble wand. Bubbler squawked as it disintegrated in his hand. Ladybug made quick work of purifying the akuma and casting the cure. She turned to Nathaniel, letting Chat Noir help Nino.

“That was… very reckless of you.” She had to pretend she didn’t know he was basically the shyest kid at school (Well, besides Marc). “Why did you do that, Mr…?”

“Nathaniel Kurtzberg,” The artist had the damn nerve to curtsy like he hadn’t almost been sent up into space.

“Um, well, you probably shouldn’t do that again,” Ladybug continued on, regardless.

“Okay!” The boy chirped.

---

Nathaniel rubbed his head, walking into his bathroom. It was a long day today, what with being forced to go to a party held by an akuma. His inner introvert was crying at the reminder. Nathaniel’s eyes landed on the medication on the counter.

“Oh, right, I forgot to take them today. I really do need to set up an alarm…”

Chapter Text

Nathaniel laid down on the park’s ground, looking up towards the sky. A muffled groan escaped his closed lips.

He rolled over, using his arms as a makeshift pillow to rest his forehead on.

Every thought and action felt like he was being dragged through sludge. He was on his way home, but his body decided to just give up on motion and collapse.

So far, this day was totally going great. A fashion contest he wasn’t taking part in, Alix hanging out with other people for the day, and literally crumpling to the floor while walking through the park.

Great.

Nathaniel looked up. A pigeon pecked the ground innocently in front of him. He outstretched a hand. “You. I vibe with you.” It stared at him, cocking its head. “Don’t look at me like that.” The thought never even crossed his mind how insane he looked talking to a pigeon.

It cooed before hopping away. Nathaniel pushed himself up as he watched it start flying out of the park.

“Noooo,” He droned, standing up, starting to walk after the pigeon.

Well, more like speed-walk. That pigeon flew fast . 

Observations about the city were filed away for later. For now, he was just going to catch up with this damn bird.

Nathaniel was finally able to catch up with it near a statue in the middle of the city. He jumped up, despite how much his body screamed for him not to do so. His arms swiped out to grab the pigeon. The action was successful. He dropped down on the floor, sitting down, hugging the pigeon in his arms. The flapping of the wings made it a little difficult to hold, but it was a small price to pay for salvation.

“Let him go!” A man standing on the statue (huh, since when was this place a hot spot for pigeons?) screeched at Nathaniel. 

The artist hummed, flopping to the ground side-first, pigeon still in his grasp, although it seemed to have calmed down significantly. “My friend now.”

The man blinked at him, jumping down from his perch. He strolled next to Nathaniel, “Ah, a fellow pigeon lover! Want to join me?”

Nathaniel blinked, “Sure.” 

Idly, he wondered why the man looked so weird.

 “I am Mr. Pigeon! And I am retaking Paris back for the pigeons.”

...Acted weird too.

“That’s nice,” Nathaniel muttered, staring at the pigeon in his hands. It cooed, before attempting to yet again wiggle free of his hold. He decided to let go of it. Nathaniel turned his body to be facing up towards the sky again. With a quick glance around the area, a conclusion was very quickly reached.

The pigeons really loved this statue, huh?

If asked, the energy he was containing right now would be the ‘Look at all those chickens’ vine.

Nathaniel glanced up at Mr. Pigeon (Strange name, although to be fair, it matched with everything else he knew about the man. He guessed you had to like pigeons with a last name like that.), who was currently conversing with a bird.

Eh, not the strangest thing he’s seen. He literally slow danced with a super villain earlier that month.

Mr. Pigeon looked down at Nathaniel, “Want to come with me?”

Nathaniel shrugged, “Sure.” With that confirmation, the boy suddenly found himself being lifted off the ground by a flock of pigeons. Huh. So this was happening now. He didn’t protest at all, simply letting Mr. Pigeon onto the flock as well and sitting there quietly at the flock started flying up and away.

Was this guy a pigeon whisperer?

---

When did Ladybug and Chat Noir get here? Why were they in a cage?

Perhaps zoning out wasn’t a good idea at the moment.

“Why are you with an akuma?!” Ladybug shouted from her position in the cage.

Nathaniel blinked, rubbing his eyes, looking up at Mr. Pigeon. Damn, he really did need to take a nap. “He’s an akuma?”

Ladybug sputtered, “YOU ARE SITTING ON A FLOCK OF PIGEONS!”

...Huh. He was.

In hindsight, this really should’ve been obvious.

Nathaniel leapt down from the pigeons to the roof, causing Mr. Pigeon to let out a squawk of indignation. The akuma also jumped to stand next to Nathaniel, “What’re you doing?”

Nathaniel reached up to grab Mr. Pigeon’s whistle, “I assume this is the akumatized object?”

“Yes?-”

The artist yanked down on the object, freeing it from his neck. Nathaniel rubbed his eyes, walking over to the cage, waving his hands to make the pigeons fly away. He handed the whistle through the bars, placing it in Ladybug’s hand.

She quickly smashed it on the ground, purifying the akuma that flew out. The heroine quickly called for a lucky charm, using it for a cure of the city.

Mr. Pigeon collapsed on the ground, transforming back into a regular man. Nathaniel recognized him. He had seen him quite a few times, feeding pigeons in the park.

Ladybug sighed, rubbing her forehead, “This is the second time Nathaniel. I can’t believe I have to specify this but, avoid akumas.”

Nathaniel hummed, simply too tired to say more than that. Honestly, he really should take a nap once he gets home.

Chat Noir and Ladybug split up to return each civilian back to their homes. Nathaniel waved goodbye to Chat Noir (Maybe one day he could muster up enough courage to actually flirt with the hero. There was a big difference between flirting with akumas who wouldn’t remember anything and heroes who would .)

He collapsed into his bed, not a single thought drifting to the medicine he forgot to take. Again.

Two times is a coincidence, three times was a pattern.

It seems the pattern has finally started.

Chapter Text

There was some perk to being invisible, he supposed. After all, Nathaniel got to watch his crush (Crush? Was that the right word to use? Sure he’d like to date Marinette and all, but they were barely friends through the art club. Could he really like someone he didn’t really know? ...Nevermind, Ladybug and Chat Noir exist.) flail over Adrien.

Damn, he really didn’t have a chance, huh?

He glanced back down at his sketchbook, continuing the drawing he was working on. Idly, he remembered he should take his meds. Wouldn’t want a repeat of the past three akumas. Nathaniel reached into his bag to grab the medication. Marinette’s parents’ bakery was just across the street. He could probably pop in, buy a drink, then take them in the bathroom. A small amount of shock spread throughout his body as his hand tried to grab something that wasn’t there.

Nathaniel took a small break from his work to shuffle through his bag.

Shit, did he leave them at home?

Well, that was great. He should probably go home and get them, but it would be fine if he just finished his art first, right? With that thought in mind, the artist returned to sketching his picture.

Nathaniel’s head shot back up once he heard screams and wind. 

Surprisingly, the carousel was now covered in an ice dome. Nathaniel’s eye trailed up to the floating girl in the sky.

Yep. Definitely an akuma.

She was across the park from him so Nathaniel could probably run and get out in time. 

...He was invisible enough to just sit there and not get blasted, right? 

Luckily enough for Nathaniel, the answer to that question was yes, the akuma did not notice him at all, instead choosing to blast people trying to run.

Dang, why are akuma so rude? People are just trying to survive and you decide that’s enough to try and kill them? Rude as hell.

He kept his head ducked down, trying to seem as small as possible. 

“Hey ice queen!”

Nathaniel perked up at the hero’s voice, twisting his body around. At their current position, what with the angle he was looking up and the way Chat Noir was squatting, he had a direct view of the other’s…

Nathaniel gave an appreciative whistle under his breath. Chat Noir was definitely an attractive hero, especially from this viewpoint. If this whole superhero thing doesn't work out, Chat Noir could be a great underwear or pants model.

“What’s with all the terrorizing? Why don’t you pick on someone your own temperature?”

“My name is not ice queen, it’s Stormy Weather!”

One of the more creative ones so far, in Hawkmoth’s defense. Nathaniel was still down to throw hands with him though, just over his naming and designs. Add in the terrorism and Nathaniel was about ready to murder the guy with his bare hands.

“Listen, I’m feline more generous than usual today. So cool down and we’ll call it quits, okay?”

...Did he seriously think that was gonna work?

Without a single moment of hesitation, Stormy Weather’s face dropped and she sent a blast of wind at the hero, sending him hurtling away, screaming. Which like, fair. He would’ve done the same to be honest.

Nathaniel peeked out from the park bench he was hiding behind, peering through the fence at the akuma, “Wow, you really blew him away. Maybe I could be the next victim on your list?”

“Not this bitch again,” Stormy Weather heard Hawkmoth grumble through their connection.

She pointed her umbrella at him, “Not interested in boys.”

“Oh. Oh!” Nathaniel popped up, “I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” He waved his hands around in the air, “Uh, not that I’m homophobic or anything, I’m bi myself. Boys are hot. Uh, not that you would know. Think! I mean, think. Uh-” He slapped his hands to his face, “I’ve been talking too long.”

Stormy Weather snickered.

Meanie.

His mind came up with a plan. Granted, it probably wasn’t a good plan, in both execution and concept, but he was going to throw it out into the world anyways.

“Yo, if you can blast him towards one of the heroes so I can get it,” He covered the left side of his face with his left hand, winking (could she tell it was a wink with his bangs in the way?) at the akuma, “Haha, just kidding… Unless?”

Stormy Weather stifled a laugh with her hand, “Alright then, hope you don’t mind being a hostage.”

Nathaniel fist pumped the air, “Hell yeah!”

---

Ladybug and Chat Noir looked up towards the TV. Stormy Weather stood there, holding Nathaniel up by his wrist. 

“Hey, heroes!” The akuma sneered, “Got myself a little hostage. Get yourselves over here, now.” A grin spread across her face as she threw Nathaniel out of frame (Not without a small shriek from the boy). “And now for the weather!”

Ladybug crossed her arms, “Hm. She just gave away her location.”

“Well? Shall we get going, m’lady?”

The heroine nodded, “Yes.”

---

The heroes kicked open the door to the recording room, noticing immediately how it was empty inside, Stormy Weather’s snickers echoing throughout the room.

“It’s a recording!” Ladybug called out.

They both froze as a cackle rang out from behind them, washing over them like a cold wave. The heroes turned around, seeing Stormy Weather (and Nathaniel, a couple feet away from her) proudly standing there. She raised her umbrella, sending a lightning bolt towards a light above them. Ladybug and Chat Noir rolled away from the object crashing and shattering on the ground.

As they did that, the lights throughout the studio shut off. Chat Noir looked up, looking straight ahead towards the akuma as she grabbed her hostage by the wrist and flew away, the boy screaming curses in another language all the while.

---

Nathaniel took a deep breath and calmed down from the surprise grab from the akuma.

Stormy Weather snickered at the boy, “Well, I do still need to use you as a hostage.”

The artist rolled his eyes, thankful she couldn’t see it in the dark, “Yeah, yeah.” He stayed quiet for the rest of the duration of the chase sequence, only letting out a quiet yelp upon being lifted up in the air.

Ladybug and Chat Noir burst out from the door. 

Stormy Weather cackled, “You airheads! You fell right into my trap!” With a wave of her hand, the hail storm around them worsened. “There’s no way out! Party’s over, fools!” Her statements were accompanied by several hand and arm movements, uncaring of the hostage in her grasp.

The heroine shook her hand free of Chat Noir’s and walked forward, “We’re just getting started! Let the boy go, Stormy Weather!”

She sneered at them, “You can have him!” Nathaniel didn’t get a chance to react before he was being hurled towards the ground.

Suddenly, he empathized with Chloe when she was being thrown by Stoneheart.

Chat Noir slid forward across the floor to catch Nathaniel in his arms. The hero stood up, peering down at the boy.

“Hey,” Nathaniel whispered with a small smile. The hero probably wouldn't have noticed if he winked.

“Hey,” Chat responded, with a wink of his own.

“GUYS!” Ladybug shouted, before calling for her lucky charm.

Chat placed Nathaniel down gently besides the door, sending yet another wink, “Stay safe.”

The artist only sighed in contentment as he watched the heroes get ready for their battle.

---

With a toss of the towel and a call of “Miraculous Ladybug!”, ladybugs swarmed the city, reverting all the damage back to normal.

Stormy Weather laid knelt on the ground, turning back into Aurore. She leaned back, sitting up, “What am I doing up here?!”

“Pound it!” The heroes shared a fist bump. Chat strolled over to Nathaniel, helping him up.

“You certainly always appear often.”

Nathaniel smirked back, “Maybe it’s just cause I wanna see you.”

Chat chuckled, “I’m flattered.”

Ladybug took a deep breath before screeching, waving her hands at Nathaniel, “HOW DO YOU ALWAYS GET INVOLVED?!”

He simply shot her some finger guns, trademark of the bisexuals, back.

Chapter Text

As Nathaniel watched Alix hand her brand new watch (When did she get that? Was it from the lunch she and her dad were having? Oh, he was so interrogating her later) to Alya, he had a small twinge of jealousy. He was her best friend. Why not hand it to him?

Then he was reminded it was seconds before a race and she probably just handed it to the nearest person. It was nice to see Alix being so responsible.

After all, there was nothing that could happen to the watch with it being held by someone else.

---

Something happened to the watch. Whoever had it (Alya? Marinette? Adrien? Chloe?) dropped it and Alix ran over it. 

Honestly, it wasn’t that hard to hold a watch. A pocket watch. To put in your pocket .

Maybe extended exposure to akumas was doing something to his class.

He should probably focus less on the dumbness of his class and more on the akuma who just skated in front of him.

Nathaniel squeaked, falling to the ground. He glanced up at Timebreaker, who had the butterfly mask on her face.

She clicked her tongue, “You gonna flirt with me?”

Nathaniel immediately recoiled, face scrunching up in disgust, “Ew, no. You’re like a sister to me.”

With that statement, Timebreaker reached down and tapped his chest.

He shot her a look of betrayal, “You fucking gremlin.”

She simply shot him a smug smirk, “Don’t worry, you’ll be alive in the past.”

As Nathaniel faded from existence, he had one singular thought.

I hate this fucking family.

---

Nathaniel shuddered as Alix and Kim finished their first lap. It felt like a cold wave ran down his body. A quick look around showed some of his classmates having that same shiver.

“Did something happen?” Juleka murmured, at his side.

Nathaniel bit his lip, “I feel like… something did . I’m just not aware of it.”

Maybe it was because he skipped taking his medication that day. Probably was. He really needs to stop doing that.

“My watch!” A voice that sounded suspiciously like Alix’s shouted. Nathaniel jumped at the noise and turned around to watch a figure jump down from a ledge in front of them as Ladybug shouted something about a watch.

A watch?

With a shriek from Chloe, Alix’s watch slipped from her hand, shattering into pieces of the ground.

Oh.

Oh fuck.

---

Chat knocked away one of the Timebreakers. He turned to Nathaniel who was hiding for once in his damn life behind a ledge. “Aren’t you going to flirt with her or something?”

Nathaniel’s face dropped to a deadpan stare, “No. Absolutely not.”

Chat cursed under his breath. Guess they couldn’t depend on Nathaniel being a distraction this time.

Ladybug One pulled him aside from a grab from Timebreaker Two. Or One. It was hard to tell.

“It’s a watch, come on!” Chat whined.

“It wasn’t a normal watch, idiot!” Timebreaker One(?) snapped. “It was a gift!”

“Aw, Alix,” Nathaniel murmured, standing up from his hiding spot. Each person paused in their movement. Nathaniel leaped over the ledge, walking over to Timebreaker One. “I know how much getting a gift destroyed hurts.”

The artist shrugged, with a sheepish smile, “Remember that time some bullies ruined the sketchbook you got me for my tenth birthday? I cried for an hour.” He finally made his way next to Timebreaker One’s side. “We never did end up fixing it.”

Nathaniel’s head rolled from one shoulder to the other, “But it meant a lot that you stayed with me to make sure I felt better. Maybe we could trade positions for this one. You’re one of, no, you are my best friend. You’ve been it since childhood,” He beamed, “Anything I can do to help, I’ll do.” 

The akuma and the boy stared at each other. Nathaniel smiled, “Want a hug?”

Timebreaker One blinked, “Uh-”

“Too bad, you’re getting it anyways!” He cheered, draping his arms over his shoulder and pulling her in for a hug. Nathaniel hummed happily even as the heroes and the other akuma stared.

“How is he not gone?” Ladybug Two whispered, squinting her eyes. Her allies simply shrugged.

“I think it’s cause he’s touching her and not her touching him,” Chat explained.

Nathaniel looked up from his improv cuddle session with an akuma, making eye contact with the second Timebreaker. He reached up a hand, making a grabby motion towards her. The akuma pointed a finger at herself questioningly. Nathaniel nodded, making a more intense imitation of the previous motion.

She skated her way over to him. He quickly reached over, locking his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into the hug. The heroes watched as the three of them laughed.

“Omg, I’m finally surrounded with people shorter than me,” Nathaniel snorted out.

Timebreaker Two laughed, jokingly punching him.

It was at that moment everyone remembered her powers.

“Aw fuck,” Nathaniel stated, body already starting to freeze and voice starting to fade, “I can’t believe you’ve done this.”

As his body vanished into the air, the two akumas stared shocked at the empty space their best friend once was. In the short time the akumas were distracted, the two Ladybugs threw their yo-yos to grab the skates.

---

Alix blinked her eyes open as the black mist turned her back to normal. “Huh?” She quickly got up.

“ALIX!”

Before the girl could react, she was getting a tackle hug from Nathaniel. Alix was luckily used to this as it happened a lot over the years of their friendship. 

“Are you okay?” He asked, worry written across his face. She shot him a reassuring smile.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

Nathaniel sighed in relief, burying his head in her shoulder, “Ah, thank God.”

Ladybug walked up to the two of them, “Here.” She extended her hand, containing the watch, “I think this is yous.”

Alix gasped in excitement, taking it back. “Sweet! How did you fix it? Thank you!” She clutched the watch close to her chest, looking down and sighing. “I should’ve never given it to someone else to look after. It was my responsibility. My bad.”

Nathaniel’s smile twitched at that statement. Surely, Ladybug was going to refute that, right?

“Responsibility isn’t something to be taken lightly.”

“Okay, no,” Nathaniel stepped between the two. “You are not about to pin this on Alix.”

Both girls made a small surprised noise, along with everyone else watching.

“She did what was responsible!” He continued to argue, “Alix gave it to someone else so they could make sure it was safe. It’s not her fault the people who held it are dumbasses.”

“Hey!” Alya shouted from the crowd.

“I said what I said!” Nathaniel snapped at her before continuing, “It’s a literal pocket watch! All of them had pockets! Marinette has a fucking bag , for crying out loud!”

Ladybug coughed, ending the conversation quickly for whatever reason, “Ah. Sorry, Alix. I shouldn’t have blamed you.”

Alix waved a hand, “Don’t worry about it, LB.”

“Alright, so I’ve been wondering this since Nathaniel hugged your akuma,” Chat started, only to get interrupted.

“YOU DID WHAT?!”

“It’s nothing.”

“Are you two dating?” Chat finished his question.

Nathaniel choked on his spit while Alix gagged.

“God. God, no,” Nathaniel winced. “We’re childhood friends, basically siblings. Just… ew.”

“Don’t ever imply that again,” Alix warned, bloodlust in her eyes.

“Yikes, okay, I was just checking-”

Chapter Text

Nathaniel cursed under his breath, walking through the Louvre. In his rush to get to the statue unveiling, he had left his medication at his house, and he had promised Alix he was going to hang out with her this afternoon so he couldn’t go back and get it. He’d feel too bad.

Nathaniel paused as Chat Noir walked out of a hallway in the Louvre carrying the Mona Lisa in his arms. They stared at each other for a short moment.

The silence only lasted for a second before Nathaniel decided to be a goddamn idiot again and flirt with the thief, “Instead of stealing that boring old painting, why not steal the real masterpiece instead?” The question was finished with a wink and a wave of the hand gesturing towards himself.

Chat Noir blinked at him, cheeks slowly heating up.

Nathaniel snickered. Chat Noir didn’t usually get this flustered when he flirted with him. The hero would normally banter back.

Copycat was very confused. Why was this guy flirting with who he thinks is Chat Noir? Are they dating? Oh, they probably were. That explains a lot.

Actually, wasn’t this the guy that always appeared during akuma attacks? He had been used as a hostage before. Stealing a person would cause more of a scandal, wouldn’t it? The akuma shook his head, getting rid of the red tinting his cheeks and smirked, placing down the painting, “If you insist.”

Nathaniel yelped as the hero grabbed him, throwing him over his shoulder. “Didn’t think that’d actually work,” He muttered. The artist went limp in his grasp, idly wondering where he would take him. He waved to the phones of people recording them as the pair walked away.

---

“Breaking news! Chat Noir has kidnapped a boy!”

Adrien immediately shot up in his seat in his car.

“What?!”

“According to this phone footage, he attempted to steal the Mona Lisa before deciding to take this boy instead.”

Adrien watched, his mouth agape as the copycat grabbed Nathaniel and started walking away.

“It seems the boy said something to him beforehand, but it is unknown what he said.”

...Knowing how Nathaniel acted during these things, it was probably a flirt.

As the car screeched to a stop, Adrien immediately threw the door open, muttering under his breath, “Nathaniel, what mess have you gotten into this time?”

---

Roger waved his finger accusingly at Chat Noir, “Where is the boy?”

The hero put his hands in the air, “Whoa, whoa, watch the Cat-titude! An impostor took him, not me!”

“Likely story!”

“He’s telling the truth!” Someone shouted. Chat quickly saw the owner of the voice run up to them. Alix held up her phone, showing some text messages between her and Nathaniel.

“He said he’s at a studio.” She switched apps to Google Maps, showing the address of where Nathaniel was. 

“The sculptor,” Chat muttered under his breath. In hindsight, it probably wasn’t a good idea to lie about having a relationship with Ladybug to someone who had a high admiration of her. “Thanks Alix!” He shouted, using his baton to launch away.

As his feet hit the rooftops of Paris, Chat called Ladybug. “I know where Nathaniel is!”

---

“You know, I’ve known you’re not Chat Noir for a while.”

Copycat paused as he finished locking Nathaniel into the convenient cage he had in his studio. 

How did he know?

“Chat Noir usually flirts back with me.”

His mind started racing a mile a minute, reaching the conclusion that yes, this twink boy and the hero were in fact dating, as Nathaniel continued speaking. “Also your voices are like, so different. Mostly the second reason to be honest. So like, what’s your official name?”

“Copycat.”

“Huh. Weird name to shout in bed, but I’ll deal with it.” Copycat sputtered, face going bright red.

“Get away from the hostage!” The real Chat shouted, dropping down from the ceiling. Copycat quickly gained his composure, sneering before throwing a box with a fortune cat on it.

“DON’T TOUCH THE BOX!” Nathaniel shouted, before yelling in a bunch of gibberish Chat couldn’t understand. He took the advice of the words he did understand and dodged the box.

Copycat scowled before rushing forwards Chat Noir, “Cataclysm!” He swung his hand at the other blonde. 

While watching the fight, Nath idly muttered to himself. “What happens if Copycat’s timer runs out? Does he turn into Chat’s real civilian identity?”

The other two people in the room stopped fighting. Copycat stood there, “Do I?!”

“Wait, what even got you akumatized to make you want to turn into a teenage superhero?!” Nathaniel continued with his questions out loud.

“I need to prove I’ll be a better match with Ladybug than this alley cat will ever be!” Copycat snarled, pulling out a newspaper clipping tinted purple out of his pocket using his uncharged hand. Probably where the akuma was.

“Uh, about that I lied,” Chat murmured, looking away.

“You lied?!”

“ABOUT US BEING IN A RELATIONSHIP?!” Ladybug shouted, also jumping down from the ceiling.

“Sorry!” Chat apologized, while Ladybug tried to grab the photo with her yo-yo. Copycat pulled back before the yo-yo could connect, moving into a fighting position.

“Lucky Charm!” A red spoon dotted with black dots fell into Ladybug’s hand. “A spoon?” She didn’t get a chance to develop a plan before Copycat kicked it out of her hand, the item flying across the room. The akuma tackled Chat to the ground. Ladybug noted internally that he was still holding the paper.

“I wonder what cataclysm will do to a person.”

Nathaniel’s eyes landed on the spoon that landed near the cage. It was close enough he could grab it.

“Hey, asshole!”

Copycat snatched the spoon thrown at him from out of the air, “What was that supposed to do?!” His question was answered as dust fell through his closed hand. He sighed. “Well played.”

Ladybug quickly used her yo-yo to grab the picture, pulling it towards herself. She caught it in her hand, tearing it in half. The akuma fluttered out, Ladybug quickly capturing it. Copycat collapsed to the ground, turning back into the sculptor (Theo was his name, right?) from the park.

Theo looked around confused, “What am I doing here?”

Ladybug looked at Chat Noir, tilting her head to gesture towards Nathaniel, still stuck in the cage Theo had for whatever reason. 

As the heroine talked to Theo, Chat walked up to the cage. Nathaniel smirked at him, “My knight in leather armor.”

Chat winked, “Here to save you, my dude in distress.”

...Nino was rubbing off on him.

The artist simply snickered, “Well, I’ll be in distress until you get me out. Any bright ideas?”

“Oh, yeah,” He raised his hand in the air, “Cataclysm!” With a swipe of his arms, the bars of the cage turned to ash, falling to the ground. Chat pulled Nathaniel out with a grin. 

“Can you take him back to his home?” Ladybug asked. 

“Got it!” Chat wrapped his arm around Nathaniel’s waist. “Shall we go?”

“Yeah, can you drop me off at the Louvre? I promised Alix I would hang with her.”

“Of course!”

Chat took great enjoyment in watching Alix screech at Nathaniel for having no self preservation.

Chapter Text

Nathaniel laid down on a bench in the Louvre main hall, feeling tired as all hell that day. He placed an arm over his eyes, groaning. Alix said she’d meet him here. Where was she?

His arm slipped off his face, falling down to dangle besides the bench.

“Nathaniel, get up!”

Nathaniel blinked before he was pulled up by Alix. “What’s up?”

She gestured around at the giant bubbles surrounding them, with an exasperated look.

“Oh.”

Alix tugged at him to get off the bench. He obeyed quietly, before slumping his body onto hers.

“Nath!”

“Sorry,” He muttered, burying his face in her shoulder, “Tired.”

She patted his head in sympathy, “Alright, but we gotta go.” He hummed in response.

“What is this?” A voice bellowed from behind them. Alix turned around slightly to look at the origin.

“Oh. Oh no.”

Pharaoh was standing there, Alya unceremoniously tossed over his shoulder, live-streaming the whole time. The akuma picked up Nathaniel by the back of his jacket, “You remind me of something.”

Alix kicked his shins, “Let him go, Jalil! Your nerd theories have gone too far.”

“Who is Jalil?” Pharaoh asked, before tossing Alix aside with a kick. She landed inside one of the bubbles, her speed slowing down like she was in a cartoon of some sort. 

‘RIP Alix,’ Nathaniel mourned in his head, ‘You served us well.’

He was suddenly raised up, becoming face to face with the supervillain holding him. In the background, he could hear Alya describing what’s happening, like the viewers couldn’t tell already. Nathaniel blinked tiredly, yawning. He really wanted a nap at the moment, not gonna lie.

“Ah, so I was right!” Pharaoh roared, Nathaniel wincing at the volume of the shout, “You are obviously a cat’s spirit in a human form! Cats are Ra's eyes. If I perform my deeds before him, Ra will surely see and bless my actions!" He tossed Nathaniel over his other shoulder, continuing his walk to the outside.

Alya tilted her phone towards him, “It seems the akuma has captured yet another person! This time, a classmate of mine! Tell me Nathaniel, you’ve been involved in quite a few akuma attacks at this point. What’s your reaction to this one?”

The artist groaned, going limp, “I’m so tired. I broke one of my inking pens today, then I got yelled at for drawing in class directly afterwards, then I got kidnapped again by someone who’s basically my brother! Today sucks!”

“Basically your brother?”

Nathaniel waved a hand in the air, “Childhood friends with the Kubdels. Apparently this guy is Jalil. Scrawny nerd boy.”

Their conversation was interrupted by Pharaoh tossing them both on the ground outside the Louvre. “Anubis, give me mummies!” He yelled, head shifting to match the god’s image. The akuma swiveled around, turning civilians innocently standing around them into mummies. “Soon, we'll be together again, my Nefertiti! My long-lost love!”

Nathaniel huffed, falling backwards onto the ground, “What even got him akumatized?”

“Um, I think his dad didn’t let him use an artifact to try and resurrect someone.”

Nathaniel blinked, “Resurrection?” His expression turned somber for a small moment before returning to normal.

Alya turned to the Pharaoh, tapping him, “ Uh, excuse me, Pharaoh, but, uh, what exactly is going on?

“I'm going to carry out the secret spell, to bring Nefertiti back!”

“Ahh, hmmm. Gotcha! You're talking about the spell on the papyrus, right?”

“Correct! The one hundred mummies and the offering!”

Nathaniel huffed under his breath, “These aren’t even a hundred mummies.”

“Offering. What offering?”

Pharaoh gestured up towards the sun, “To persuade the sun god Ra to give me my sweet princess, I must give him something in return. A pure soul!”

Nathaniel squinted. Was this akuma even Jalil or did Jalil get possessed by the soul of the dead guy? He didn’t remember his name. Sue him.

“Dude, that's hard to come by.”

“But I've already found her! You look so much like her!” Pharaoh proceeded to caress Alya’s face, which gained a disgusted wince from both teens present.

“Say what?!” Alya shrieked. She turned to Nathaniel for help. He shot her a peace sign.

“You’re on your own.”

“Wow, thanks, great help!” She snapped back.

“But first…” Pharaoh sidestepped the reporter, picking up Nathaniel by his arm, “You.”

Nathaniel blinked, “Eh?”

Alya huffed, speaking in a mocking tone, “You’re on your own.” He shot her a glare.

“The Gods will surely hear out my plea if I give them a gift beforehand!”

“Gift?” Nathaniel’s eyes widened, “Oh. Oh, I’m the gift, aren’t I?”

---

The two superheroes peered over the edge of a nearby roof, staring down at the crowd of mummies surrounding the akuma and his two hostages. 

Chat winked at Ladybug, “Maybe I could call you the mummy of our future children, eh?”

“...That was a stretch and you know it.” The cat hero wilted in response. 

---

While Alya was a bit miffed at Nathaniel for telling her to deal with being sacrificed herself, she wasn’t going to just stand there and watch him be killed. Her eyes locked onto a figure spinning a spotted yo-yo. “ Whoa, back up! Who's that goddess chick with the black spots! There, on your papyrus!”

“Ladybug, my sworn enemy! My nemesis may have kept me from carrying out my ritual five thousand years ago, but she will not stop Nefertiti from coming back to me this time!”

“What?” Nathaniel deadpanned. Oh shit, had he been crushing on someone immortal this whole time?

“Five thousand years ago?!”

“Oh, sacred Ra, god of the sun, I Pharaoh, offer to thee a sacred cat in the form of a human’s body!” The staff at Pharaoh’s side glowed brilliantly as it started floating upwards. The akuma threw the boy down to the ground. Mummies descended upon the artist even as Alya tried to fend them off. 

A ray of light shot out from the staff, landing a direct hit on the Louvre. The entire structure glowed before it concentrated into a single beam racing up into the sky. 

Both Alya and Nathaniel stared in shock as dark clouds immediately began radiating out from the beam. 

Pharaoh and the mummies started chanting about bringing back Nefertiti as Nathaniel was carried away towards the beam. 

Nathaniel attempted to break loose of their grip, with no avail, before going slack, “Today sucks.”

“Hey there, you bunch of bandages!” The redhead looked to his left to see Chat Noir crouching on a lamp post. “What do you say we wrap this up?”

“Oh, thank god,” Nathaniel muttered under his breath. “Pretty boy has come to save the day.”

“Seize him!” Pharaoh screeched, multiple mummies chasing after Chat Noir in response to the command. Chat leaped away, jumping between lamps. “ Wait, this looks... like a trap!”

“Well, no shit,” Nathaniel muttered, before he was scooped up by Ladybug. He melted into the hug she used to hold him. 

“Ugh, at least I still have the pure soul!” Pharaoh turned to Alya next, grabbing her by the arm and stomping towards the beam of light.

“Help me, Ladybug!”

Ladybug placed Nathaniel on a roof.

He sighed dreamily, “That was the longest hug I’ve ever gotten from someone I don’t consider family.”

The two stared at each other. 

Ladybug pointed downwards towards the Louvre, “I’m… going to save Alya now.”

“Yeah,” Nathaniel muttered, embarrassed, “You do that.”

She jumped off the roof as Nathaniel sunk down into a ball, thoroughly wanting to sink into the Earth.

---

Well, seeing your classmate almost be sucked into a cloud of darkness in the sky certainly wasn’t usual, but it was interesting at the very least. Although, as Ladybug swung away, Nathaniel had to wonder if anyone was coming to get him down or if he would have to wait for the authorities.

“Your ride is here.”

Nathaniel turned around to see Chat Noir leaning on his baton, swinging his belt-tail in his hand.

The hero held out a hand, “Shall I get you down?” The artist stepped closer, reaching out to accept the hand, before going limp and burying his face in Chat’s shoulder. The blond steadied both of them, “Woah, there.”

Nathaniel made a muffled sound, “It’s been a long day. Let me have this.”

Chat stood there, letting Nathaniel rest on his shoulder before dropping him off at the Louvre entrance.

Later that night, Adrien would wonder why he let Nathaniel stay there instead of just getting him down immediately.

Chapter Text

Since Chloe had come in looking smug as hell and Alya was nowhere to be seen, Nathaniel could only guess she had something to do with the journalist’s disappearance. 

The broadcast with… uhhh…. Lady Wifi, he believed, and Mr. Damocles only furthered his suspicions, along with confirming Alya got akumatized.

Oh well, at least they got a free day out of it.

---

He opened the door to his apartment, calling out, “I’m home!” before chuckling to himself. It’s not like there was anyone to listen to the yell.

Nathaniel wasn’t sure if it was a blessing or curse that his dad, the rich bastard, left him in Paris with a huge apartment. On one hand, it’s a nice apartment he doesn’t have to pay for because his dad is in charge of that. On the other, it gets incredibly lonely at times. At least the latter part wasn’t that bad. Alix often visited and the artist visited his mom on weekends, albeit without his dad’s knowledge, but then again, when did his dad know anything about his life, what with him being on business trips all the time and only in the city for a couple days every few months. The only reason Nathaniel didn’t stay with his mom full time would be the apartment being closer to school, and Nathaniel slept in way too often to be farther away from the school. 

Upon walking into the living room, Nathaniel made eye contact with his dad, who was sitting on the couch. “What’re you waiting for?”

“You.”

Nathaniel blinked, before slowly pointing to himself confused.

“I’m having a meeting with the mayor to discuss some business with him. You’re coming along. Make acquaintances with his daughter. It’ll be better for us in the long run.”

Nathaniel’s face scrunched up in disgust. Why would he ever consider tolerating the girl who had bullied his class for years? Then his dad was telling him to get changed with an angry tone and it was going way too fast and they were out the door before Nathaniel could even get a word in about his medication, sitting innocently on his desk.  

--

Without a second word, Nathaniel was shoved into a hotel room. The door was shut and he could hear as his dad and the mayor went off to have their meeting. He sighed before walking farther into the room. 

Nathaniel heard some noises and peaked his head around a corner. He quickly stuck a hand over his mouth to stifle the snicker when he saw Chloe in a Ladybug cosplay messing with a yo-yo. After she wrapped it around herself and fell to the ground, he started wheezing and leaning on the wall for support. 

Chloe looked up, enraged, “What are you doing here?”

Nathaniel tried to respond between his fits of laughter but the only coherent words he was able to get out was “ Oh my god .”

“Tell anyone and you’re dead!”

That only made Nathaniel laugh harder. His fits of giggling weren’t even fazed by Chloe’s phone ringing loudly from her bag. He quieted down as her phone glowed bright pink even as the blonde threw it across the room and an akuma popped out of it.

“Well, hello there, Ladybug .”

Chloe screamed and tried to run away only to be stopped in place by a flying pause button that attached itself to the girl and froze her in place.

“Oh shit,” Nathaniel loudly said out loud, not even thinking about the fact he could’ve escaped because Lady Wifi hadn’t noticed him yet. She turned to him, surprised, before her look of shock melted into one of confidence.

“Aha! Since you’re friends with ladybug and Chat Noir, this only further proves my theory that Chloe is Ladybug!”

Nathaniel wheezed, “Friends? With Chloe? You and I both know how insane that is. Besides, you think she’s Ladybug? Ladybug saved Chloe during Stoneheart!”

“I.. uh… didn’t think about that.”

“You haven’t been thinking since you thought that Chloe was a superhero. She’s bullied us for years ,” He shook his head, “She can’t possibly be Ladybug, dummy.”

Lady Wifi fumed, stomping her foot, “I’ll show you!” She swiped a record button off her phone and in front of Chloe, “Everyone thinks the girl beneath the Ladybug costume is a little angel. Think again, people! The real Ladybug is…” With a flourish, Lady Wifi ripped off Chloe’s mask, “Chloe Bourgeois, everyone!” Nathaniel rolled his eyes from where he was standing.

Ladybug and Chat Noir soon kicked open the balcony doors. Lady Wifi blinked, looking at Chloe, then back at the superhero duo. She huffed, placing her hands on her hips, “Who are you?” Chat Noir started posing in response to the question while Ladybug just looked tired, specifically at Nathaniel.

“You always end up involved in these things.” Nathaniel simply shrugged.

Lady Wifi groaned, glaring at Chloe, despite the fact Chloe couldn’t react or even see her, “But I thought you were Ladybug!”

“Told you so,” Nathaniel muttered under his breath. Lady Wifi growled before pointing her phone at him. He didn’t get a chance to react before he was pulled into the phone… somehow. The akuma turned to the heroes, showing off her screen, now featuring Nathaniel inside the phone, “Tell me your identity, Ladybug! Or he gets it!”

“G...Gets what?” Nathaniel asked from where he was being held hostage.

“...I’m not sure yet, but something bad!” Lady Wifi swiped across her phone, canceling the record and pause buttons surrounding Chloe. Nathaniel jumped back from where he was standing, instincts making him move despite being out of harm’s way. He bumped into several pink icons behind him. Turning around to look at them closer, Nathaniel noticed they were icons of all the powers Lady Wifi had. A recording button, a pause button, a lock button? He hasn’t seen her use that yet. “Ladybug, let's find out who you really are!” 

He looked up at her from inside the phone, noticing her flinging pause buttons at the retreating superheroes. “Hey, you want to be an investigative reporter, right? Well, I’ve got something you can investigate.” The redhead winked at the akuma, finishing the flirt off with some finger guns. She simply stared at him before shaking the phone vigorously.

“You realize that doesn’t do anything to me besides shake my view, right?”

Lady Wifi huffed, obviously wanting Nathaniel to go flying when she shook the phone.

“Dang, you don’t even know your own powers? Yikes.”

“That’s not it!”

“Then why do something useless?!”

“Shut up!” She snapped, running after Ladybug and Chat Noir.

“Wow, great response,” Nathaniel snarked as Lady Wifi continued shooting pause buttons at the heroes before running away because she couldn’t get a signal. The phone was magic , how did that even work?! 

He watched silently as she locked all the doors except the one leading into the hotel’s restaurant.

“Dinner’s over folks!” The akuma shouted, slamming the door open and scaring all the guests, “Scram! But leave your phones on the table!” Terrified, the diners all placed their phones in the center of their tables and scrambled out of the room. Nathaniel shivered as the odd sensation of being pulled into a phone yet again rushed over him, Lady Wifi joining him in the hiding place this time.

Nathaniel stayed silent as Lady Wifi jumped from phone to phone, taunting Ladybug, before bursting into laughter once the heroine started breaking the phones. “You seriously didn’t think of that? That’s such an obvious solution to the problem! The problem didn’t even need to be done in the first place!”

Lady Wifi looked down and growled at him, “Quiet, hostage.”

“Oh, I’m so scared!” He stuck his tongue out at her as she ran into the kitchen. Nathaniel switched his attention to the outside world to the three icons floating near him. He wondered what they did. 

As Lady Wifi started talking about revealing Ladybug’s identity, he reached out warily to touch the lock button. Seeing that nothing happened, Nathaniel decided to throw all caution to the wind and start spamming the button.

---

As Lady Wifi finished her speech, she reached out to pull Ladybug’s mask off, only to be interrupted by lock icons flying out of her phone, which she had left on the counter for the momentous occasion of revealing the identity of Paris’ heroine, and landing all over the room. Both girls flinched and yelped. Lady Wifi dove to the ground and crawled over to where her phone was shaking. She grabbed it, quickly swiping across the screen to cancel all the lock icons.

Including the ones holding Ladybug down.

“Lucky charm!” A red spray can patterned with black spots fell down into her hands. Lady Wifi snarled and leapt at Ladybug, who reacted with her instincts, spraying whatever was in the bottle into her eyes. For once, it wasn’t an incredibly convoluted plan. The akuma shrieked, hands flying up to cover her eyes, despite the damage already being done.

Chat suddenly swung down from the service elevator. 

“Chat, her phone!”

“Got it!” He called, jumping towards the abandoned phone on the floor, “Cataclysm!”

The phone crumbled to dust, Nathaniel appearing in a rush of pixels on the ground as the akuma flew out. Ladybug swung her yo-yo to grab the butterfly, quickly purifying it and casting the cure, returning Alya to normal. 

She groaned holding her head, looking up. The reporter lit up upon noticing her idol, “Ladybug!” Alya quickly shot up, “Can I get an interview?”

Ladybug grimaced, “My timer started. I’m sorry. I should probably go.” Alya deflated.

“Aw, come on, can’t you make an exception? Better yet, reveal your identity! ...Chl-”

“She’s not Chloe,” Nathaniel muttered. Alya jumped, spinning around.

“When did you get here?!”

“When your akuma held me hostage.”

“Oh,” Alya sheepishly smiled, “Sorry?”

“It’s fine.”

The girl turned back to Ladybug, “So, Ladybug, mind sharing your identity for the people?” She held up her phone. 

Nathaniel blinked, “You’re joking right?”

Alya looked at him, confused, “Why would I be?” Ladybug shot him a relieved look as she rushed out of the kitchen, Chat following her.

“Your blog is public. Everyone can see it. Including Hawkmoth . Are you going to risk her and her loved ones’ lives for some extra views?”

Alya bit her lip, slipping her electronic back into her pocket, “I guess I didn’t think of that.”

“You haven’t been thinking at all today.” Alya gasped, offended. “I mean, thinking Ladybug was Chloe? When Chloe was saved by Ladybug when Stoneheart threw her?”

She opened her mouth to retort before quietly closing it again, thinking over what Nathaniel just told her. “Fuck, why have I been so dumb today?”

Nathaniel patted her back in sympathy.

Chapter Text

His day was going great so far. Being caught drawing in class, then being publicly humiliated with the reveal of his failing grades, Chloe made fun of his crush on Marinette, and he skipped taking his meds this morning. All on his birthday!

Was it any surprise when he got akumatized?

---

Evillustrator watched from the second floor of the library, snickering as he tormented Chloe. 

It’s not like she didn’t deserve it. Fucking bitch. 

He was surprised no one noticed him until he made those berets. He was literally just standing on the second floor of the library, not hidden at all. Maybe constant exposure to akumas really was doing something to the mental abilities of the school.

When Ladybug and Chat appeared to fight him, Evillustrator was able to slip away undetected.

Maybe having zero presence in a room was sometimes a good thing.

---

Marinette looked nervously at the akuma kneeled in front of her.

He held out an invitation, “Oh please, Marinette! It'll just be you and me.”

“You say that like it’s supposed to be a pro,” She muttered, before speaking up. “Don’t you have a crush on Ladybug? Why are you asking me to come to your party?”

Evillustrator faltered, “Um. I can explain the questions later. Please come.” He gave her a pleading look.

Oh well, at least she could contact Chat Noir and tell him about the akuma’s plans. 

(And thankfully, Chat Noir cleared up her misunderstanding with Sabrina and Sabrina now knew that Marinette was part of a plan to defeat an akuma.)

---

Evillustrator hummed happily, drawing musical notes that floated off his tablet, making a melodic tune. Being friends with Nino during the previous school years gave him some basic music knowledge.

Marinette tapped her finger nervously on her lap. He wondered why. It wasn’t like he was going to hurt her or anything.

“So, are you going to answer my question?” Marinette cautiously asked, “I mean, I always see you talking with Ladybug and Chat Noir on the news.”

“About that,” Evillustrator took a deep breath, “I think I’m polyamorous.”

“Poly… what?”

“I was researching it earlier,” The akuma went into depth, “It’s just wanting a romantic relationship with multiple people as far as I’m aware. So I have a crush on you, on Ladybug, on Chat Noir-”

“WHAT?!” Chat shouted, standing up on the boat’s roof.

Evillustrator stood up suddenly, turning towards the hero, “What?! When did you get here?”

“Marinette, now!” With that command, the girl leapt for the pen in his hand. He dodged, grabbing her and flinging her across the boat. Chat Noir jumped down next to her to make sure she was okay.

“What the actual fuck?” The akuma huffed, “I made this entire romantic boat ride for us to enjoy together, then you brought the local superhero to crash it? On my birthday too! Fucking rude ass motherfucker.”

“S-Sorry?” Marinette tried to apologize, jumping once a box fell over her and Chat Noir, boxing them in.

“Can’t believe a hero doesn’t support polyamory,” Evillustrator angrily muttered, flipping around his pencil and holding its end to the tablet.

“What? I never said that,” Chat refuted, “Being poly is fine.”

“Oh, so you aren’t a bigot.” Evillustrator swiped his pen across the tablet, erasing the side of the boat, “Still doesn’t erase the fact that you flipping crashed the party.” He jumped away, leaving Marinette to comfort Chat through his claustrophobia. 

---

Marc didn’t expect much when working at a convenience store late in the evening. He certainly wasn’t expecting an akuma slamming open the door, stomping over to where they kept the ice cream and taking containers out, falling on the ground on his side and pouting while shoveling ice cream into his mouth using a spoon that appeared out of midair after the akuma doodled something on his tablet.

“A...Are you okay?” He asked after around ten minutes, moving around the counter and walking towards the akuma. He didn’t seem all that dangerous.

“I invited a girl on a date and she brought a superhero to crash it, all during my birthday,” The akuma sulked, shoving another spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. 

“Can you blame her?” Marc said without thinking, “I mean, you are a villain right now.” He froze, noticing the akuma staring up at him. Oh fuck, he totally crossed a line, and now the akuma was going to kill him-

“Eh, you’re probably right,” He remarked, sitting up. Marc relaxed. “I, uh, probably shouldn’t have trapped them in a box and left them to drown.”

“You what?!”

“Look, akumas aren’t known for making sound decisions.”

Marc looked at the boxes of ice creams strewn around him (seriously how did he eat that much, it hasn’t even been that long), “I can tell.” He paused for a moment, before continuing, “What’s your name?”

“Evillustrator.”

"Evillustrator?" Marc leaned against the wall, "Is that a pun on illustrator? Did Hawkmoth actually make a good name for once?"

Evillustrator snorted. He looked towards the side, resting his chin on his hand, “Don’t know what I’m supposed to do now though.”

“Just like, do you, man.” Marc replied, walking back to the counter in case a new customer came in, “You can enjoy yourself without anyone else. You don’t need other people to dictate your happiness.”

The akuma hummed, standing up. "Thanks for the advice, pretty boy!" Evillustrator cheered, drawing on his tablet. Marc flinched back as piles of money appeared on the counter in front of him.

He turned to the akuma, who was already out the door.

"That's... that's economic inflation."

…

Marc blushed, holding his face in his hands, “He called me pretty.”

---

Chat dodged a spinning saw blade.

Evillustrator pouted at the hero, “Guess what? I've got a different green eyed boy who respects me and he's prettier than you!"

Chat snapped at Evillustrator, “Oh yeah? Then what's his name?”

Evillustrator paused. “I forgot to ask.”

“Oh my god -”

---

Nathaniel looked up from where he was kneeling on the ground, “Huh? Where am I?”

“Pound it!”

The artist glanced around at where he was. It looked like someone’s bedroom. Probably Chloe’s, since she was there sitting on the bed.

“H-How long has it been?” Nathaniel stumbled up onto his feet, looking out the window towards the evening sky. 

“Almost the entire day,” Ladybug answered.

He missed his birthday. 

Nathaniel let out a shaky breath, “Oh.”

Chat walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder, “You want a ride home?”

Nathaniel leaned onto the hero’s chest, “Please.”

---

Chat dropped down on Nathaniel’s balcony, letting the boy crawl out of his arms and into his room.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, seeing a ton of unread messages.

Nathaniel

Hey ho

Pick up

Where the fuck are you

Bro I thought we were celebrating your bday??

Your family's getting worried where are you

Nath

Nath if you're ignoring me in favor of something else I swear

... I hope you're having a fun birthday

Wherever you are  

Nathaniel scowled at the last two messages, muttering under his breath, "A bit late for that." He sent both her and his mom a message explaining everything. Nathaniel didn’t feel like doing much else today. He turned to Chat Noir, “Oh, wait, before you leave, do you want a snack or something?”

Chat beamed, “Sure! I’ll just… use the restroom real quick. If you have cheese, can you bring it?”

Nathaniel pointedly ignored the flash of green light from the crack under his bathroom door, opening the door and sliding him a cheese stick (it was the only thing he had) before shutting it again.

Chat walked out a moment later, looking reenergized. Nathaniel was surprised. It was just one cheese stick. He coughed, “Um, sorry for being akumatized by the way.”

“Don’t apologize!” The hero responded, “It happens to the best of us.”

Nathaniel sat down on his bed, “Wish I didn't get akumatized on my birthday though.... and it's too late to celebrate…”

Chat hummed, sitting next to him, “Do you watch anime?”

Nathaniel looked up, stars in his eyes.

---

Nathaniel yawned, sitting up in bed, hand aiming vaguely towards his phone to turn his alarm off. 

Once fully awake, his eyes landed on a note by his phone.

You fell asleep while we were binging MHA so I tucked you in! Happy Birthday Nathaniel

It was signed with a cute little paw print.

Chat Noir left him a note? And tucked him in?

Oh fuck, he was falling even deeper .

---

Alix rubbed Nathaniel’s back as he put his stuff away, “We can celebrate your birthday this weekend, at least? Since you missed it because you were akumatized.”

Nathaniel shrugged, “I guess.”

There was a tap on his shoulder, making the redhead turn around. Adrien was there holding a gift bag, “Happy belated birthday!” 

Nathaniel accepted the bag from the model, peering down into the bag.

“I heard it was your birthday yesterday, so I got you a gift!” Adrien explaining, beaming happily.

“You got me copics.” Nathaniel stated.

“Yeah, I heard they were really good!”

“Adrien, these are really expensive.”

“Nathaniel, my family is loaded,” He placed a hand on Nathaniel’s shoulder, “It’s no problem! You deserve it after missing your birthday due to being akumatized.” Adrien retracted his hand, walking away with a friendly wave.

Nathaniel stared after him, a blush on his face. Alix facepalmed, “You can’t fall in love with everyone who’s nice to you.”

“It’s not that,” Nathaniel pouted, hitting her on the shoulder, “It's not just that! It's that he remembered it was my birthday when everyone else basically forgot about it. I mean no one has even said happy birthday to me besides you two!” Nathaniel sighed happily, holding the gift bag closer to his chest, “He’s so sweet.”

“Oh my god, Nathaniel.”

---

Behind the lockers, Marc was listening in on the conversation. He had wanted to learn more about the akuma from the convenience store and here was a boy who was akumatized on his birthday yesterday.

“Nathaniel, huh?” He muttered.

Chapter Text

“Hey Nath, aren’t you still crushing on Marinette?” Alix asked as they arrived at school together.

Nathaniel shrugged, “I don’t think so? Honestly I think I just convinced myself I had a crush on her because she was nice to me.”

Alix raised an eyebrow, tilting her head towards Adrien.

Nathaniel sputtered, “That’s different.”

“Sure it is.”

Adrien walked up to the pair, “Um, do you guys know why there are adults with some of the students?”

Alix blinked, “You mean their parents? It’s career day.”

Adrien tilted his head in confusion, “Career day?” 

“Mhm,” Nathaniel hummed, rocking back and forth on his heels, “Parents come in and talk about their jobs.”

Adrien’s eyes lit up, “Oh! I should call my dad and ask him to come!” He paused, looking at the other two, “Where are your parents?”

“Opening up a new exhibit at the Louvre,” Alix shrugged. 

Nathaniel bit his lip, “My dad is… on a business trip.”

“Oh. Well, you’ll see him when he gets back right?”

“Yeah.” Adrien’s technically right, even though the moment he’s describing won’t happen for another couple of months.

Adrien pulled out his phone, walking away, supposedly dialing his father. Poor boy. If Bubbler had taught him anything, his father wasn’t likely to answer.

Alix nudged him, “Take them yet?” Being friends for as long as they have meant she would occasionally check in to make sure he was taking his meds.

He nodded. She snickered. “No running off with akumas today then?”

Nathaniel pouted, “Shut up.”

---

Plagg was having the time of his life. The bracelet Chloe had brought to school was fun to play with. All up until the bracelet got stuck on his head, and the bag was tipped over into the aisle, leading Marinette to trip over Chloe’s stuff and flinging him over to Adrien’s feet, the bracelet still firmly affixed on his head. While struggling to remove the jewelry, he could hear the enraged girl start accusing Marinette of stealing it.

And then he remembered he could phase through objects.

So Plagg simply went intangible, slipping through the bracelet. While everyone was distracted by Chloe throwing accusations, he dropped the bracelet back in her bag.

As the kwami returned the bracelet, Adrien’s eyes followed him. He already knew damn well what had happened.

Adrien sighed, coughing and speaking up, “Chloe, you should check your bag again.”

The girl huffed, turning towards her childhood friend, “What?! Dupain-Cheng obviously stole it!”

“Just… check again… please?”

Chloe scowled, walking back towards her purse and digging through it, “It’s not going to be here.” Her face fell and she slowly pulled out the bracelet from her bag.

The class immediately started booing.

“I bet she had it the entire time and just wanted to cause a scene!” Alya shouted.

Nathaniel huffed from where he was standing, being in the hot seat only a few seconds ago. “Of course, did we expect anything else?”

Chloe stared down at the item in her hand, shocked, “But… I…” Her expression switched to a snarl, turning back towards her classmates, “The thief put it back in my bag while I wasn’t looking! It wasn’t here before.”

“IT WaSn't tHEre BefoRE,” Alix snickered.

Chloe flushed red in embarrassment, “Daddy! Tell them they’re wrong!”

“But, sweetie, it was in your bag! And nobody walked towards it! So-”

“Ugh!” She threw her hands up in frustration, slipping the bracelet on her wrist and storming out of the room, “None of you understand!”

Without a second glance back, Chloe stormed down the stairs, fully intent on calling her driver and going back home, uncaring of Mrs. Bustier’s calls to come back.

A butterfly fluttered its way near her, dissolving into her bracelet.

Confessor, I am Hawkmoth.

Your desperate plea has been silenced by both family and friends alike.

 However, I believe you. Accept my pact and you shall have the power to draw out the secrets hidden within the hearts of others, and all I ask for in exchange are-

“Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous. I know. And I accept.”

Bustier’s class watched in silent horror as Chloe was overtaken with black mist.

---

Chloe turned around, although she wasn’t exactly Chloe anymore. She had large white wings, almost angelic, which was completely opposite towards her personality. Her skin was akin to marble from a statue. The akuma was wearing a white chiton. All in all, she looked like an angel. Not like the accurately biblical angels, but the normalized ones.

Marinette slowly separated herself from the group, “I… need to use the restroom.”

As she inched towards the aforementioned room, Chloe turned towards her, “You’re not going anywhere.”

“Chloe, let’s talk about this-”

“My name is not Chloe, it’s Confessor!” She screamed, pointing the hand with the bracelet on it at the designer, “And you’ll be confessing soon enough!”

A blue beam shot out of her hand, landing a hit on Marinette, who flinched back although there was no actual force from the beam.

“Tell me how you stole my bracelet and returned it!”

“For the last fucking time Chloe, I didn’t steal your gaudy ass bracelet!”

With the akuma shocked into silence, Marinette took the opportunity to dash into the restroom.

---

“...Well, then. Guess it wasn’t her.”

Considering she was akumatized right now, it probably wasn’t Chloe either. Confessor turned towards the class. Nathaniel tapped his feet nervously.

“Was it the last person who had the bracelet? Hmm, Sabrina?” 

The bespectacled girl in question flinched, looking terrified. She was quickly hit with a beam.

“I hate you!”

Everyone froze. The wide grin on Confessor’s face quickly slipped off. Alya almost dropped her phone while recording everything that was happening for her blog, though recovering in time to not let the device fall. Sabrina quietly shook as she continued her truthful rant.

“I hate how you think of me as nothing more than a servant. I hate how you isolated me so I have no friends. I hate the fact that because I'm isolated I'm forced to be your friend. I hate how I haven’t had a chance to be someone beyond your friend! I hate how I haven’t been an individual for years at this point! I! Hate! You!”

By the end of her screaming, Sabrina was hunched over and there were tears in her eyes. There was a beat of silence before she took a shaky breath before running off.

“Sabrina!” Mylene called out, running after her, Ivan following. Roger also traveled along with them, not about to leave his daughter alone after that breakdown.

Confessor looked after the girl running away into an empty room, looking more like a timid child than a dangerous villain at the moment. She shook her head free of the guilt, turning to Nathaniel, “You had a drawing of the bracelet! It must’ve been you!”

The boy standing in the back of the crowd flinched. It seemed that when hit, you would spill anything, not just what Confessor wanted to know. And Nathaniel didn’t particularly feel like dealing with being forced to tell the truth today. It’ll be fine. He’ll just fade into the background like normal.

That plan ultimately failed when Confessor threatened everyone to get out of the way and reveal him.

Nathaniel recoiled as the beam hit him. Without a single second passing, he opened his mouth and spit out the truth. 

“Sometimes I don't take my meds on purpose because the only time I really feel noticed by anyone is when they're trying to keep me from rushing into akuma battles.”

The entire class seemed startled by this, Adrien and Alix most of all.

Nathaniel bit his lip, before the power made him continue, “I come up with excuses to myself, like I forgot them on the counter this morning, or I just can’t find them in my bag, even though I could if I looked a little harder.”

“I notice you.”

Nathaniel turned around, staring at the person who said that. Adrien reached out for the artist, who promptly turned on his heel and ran down the stairs and out of the school.

Plagg bumped into his holder’s chest as a sign he should transform and defeat the akuma quickly to comfort the boy. Adrien dashed away from the crowd, also ducking into a restroom.

“Plagg! Claws out!”

---

Ladybug and Chat Noir dropped down in front of Confessor, who had a faraway look in her eyes.

She turned towards the heroes, biting her lip. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

With Hawkmoth screaming in her ear, Confessor took the bracelet off her wrist and dropped it into Chat’s hand, who took the opportunity to cataclysm it.

A black mist surrounded Confessor, turning her back to Chloe as it melted off. 

Ladybug coughed, “Hey, you were akumatized-”

“I know. I remember.”

“Getting akumatized?-”

“The whole thing.”

Both heroes’ eyes widened in surprise at this. All akuma victims up until this point had always lost their memory of the incident. Chloe took a step back from the two, before running into the locker room, hands wrapped around herself.

“Interesting,” Chat muttered, before his ring chimed. “Ph, I gotta go! See ya!” He hopped away on his baton, detransforming near the back of the school.

Now to find Nathaniel.

---

Nathaniel sat on a park bench, legs pulled up to his chest, head tilted down. He didn’t move from this position, not even as the ladybugs from the cure washed over his body.

If he could disappear right now, that would be great. 

“Nathaniel?”

The artist looked up, seeing Adrien standing a few feet away.

“Can I… sit down?”

Nathaniel shuffled so there would be space for the model to take a seat next to him. 

"Sooo," The blond said as he sat down, "You okay?"

“Mm. As okay as I can be about dumping all that dumb shit on everyone.”

“Hey, your emotions aren’t dumb Nathaniel.”

“Yeah, well everything else is.” The artist rolled his eyes, uncurling himself, “Here I am, not taking my medication just because I want attention.”

"It's totally fine for you to want to be noticed more. That's human nature," Adrien gently held Nathaniel's hands in his own, "And I’m sorry that we made you feel like you didn’t matter.”

Nathaniel stared at Adrien in awe, feeling his cheeks heat up. “I. Um.” The artist quickly removed his hands from Adrien’s before his face could start matching his hair.

“Do you… want to go back?” Adrien tilted his head towards the school. “I mean, it’s fair if you don’t want, considering what just happened-”

“Yeah, I can go back.”

“You sure?”

“Mhm,” Nathaniel nodded, “Besides, Alix’s probably worried sick.”

The two boys stood up and walked towards the school.

---

Sabrina sank to the floor after running into an empty classroom. She hiccupped, trying to control the tears streaming down her face.

This was it. No more friends.

Chloe knew she hated her, the class hated her for helping Chloe, she had no one .

“-brina! Sabrina!”

The girl was shocked back into reality seeing her dad and two of her classmates sitting in front of her. Mylene made eye contact with her.

“Take deep breaths. Concentrate on your breathing. Stay in the present."

What? Why were they here?

“Are you okay?” Her dad asked her.

Mylene and Ivan turned to look at him, eyebrows raised.

Ivan turned back to her, “Hey, you’re not gonna be isolated because you’re friends with Chloe. Or well, used to.”

“I’m not…?”

Mylene shook her head, “We’re sorry that we made you feel like you couldn’t come to us if you needed to get away from her.”

“You’ll always be free to hang out with any of us, Sabrina.” 

“Please don’t be afraid to go to an adult if you need one, sweetie,” Her dad calmly said, “Especially since you’ve been in this toxic relationship for a while.”

Sabrina sniffled. Her dad opened his arms open for a hug, and she gladly took the offer.

---

Chloe slammed her head against her locker door.

She just wanted to find out who stole her bracelet. She didn’t want two of her classmates to suddenly spill their intrusive thoughts!

Chloe groaned as she buried her face in her hands.

Was she really that bad of a person?

Was she horrible enough that Sabrina, her one actual friend, hated her?

“Hey.”

Chloe turned around, seeing Nino enter the room. 

“You good?”

“What do you want?” She scowled at him.

“Woah there, even if you’re an asshole, you don’t deserve to be alone after being akumatized,” Nino held up his hands, “So how you feeling learning Sabrina hates you?”

Chloe growled, “Why does she hate me?! I’m amazing!”

“I mean you heard her. You don’t see her as a person. You see her as a tool.”

The blond flinched at this, “I don’t just see her as a tool!”

Nino shrugged, “That’s what she feels like. Maybe you should try showing her that sometimes.”

Chloe shook in place before slamming a fist into the locker besides her, taking a deep breath, before her body slumped against the locker, “Am I really a bad person?”

“I wouldn’t say you’re evil, evil, considering you’re wondering about it. Evil people don’t ask themselves if they’re evil,” Nino replied, “But you’re still pretty bad. You’ve been bullying us for years.”

He turned around, walking towards the exit, “If you really want to be a better person, you need to stop acting like a bad one.”

Chloe was silent as Nino finally left the room.

---

Nathaniel and Adrien finally walked inside the school again. By the looks of it, class had ended and there were students milling about the courtyard. Chloe ran up to the two, meeting at a staircase.

“God, I’ve never done this before,” She grumbled, rubbing her face with her hands. “I’m… sorry.”

Nathaniel just stared at her with his mouth agape, “You said sorry ?!”

“Is it that hard to believe?!”

“Yes,” The artist deadpanned.

Adrien stood awkwardly off to the side, “Did you need something?”

“Can’t I just say sorry?”

“Well, excuse me, Mrs. ‘I bullied the entire class for years’ for thinking that you had an ulterior motive,” Nathaniel rolled his eyes, shuffling a bit to slightly hide behind Adrien.

“Please, like you all didn’t deserve it,” Chloe snapped back.

Adrien glanced at him, before looking back up at Chloe, “Hey. It didn’t feel good being humiliated like that, right?”

Chloe attempted to make eye contact with him before eventually looking away, “No.”

“How do you think the people who you make fun of feel then?”

Chloe stared blankly at them.

“It doesn’t feel good at all,” Nathaniel murmured. “It’s already hard just looking at myself and thinking ‘I could do so much better than this’ and then have you backing up that sentence when you make fun of me.”

He looked up at her, “I hear your apology. I accept it. But I don’t have to forgive you.”

Adrien slightly nudged Nathaniel and the two started walking away again.

Chloe quietly wrapped an arm around herself.

She really needed to try and be better.

---

Marc had found a character looking like the akuma he met the other day on the school website. It was a drawing submitted by Nathaniel Kurtzberg. So it seemed the boy in the locker room was the akuma.

Marc constantly daydreamed about the boy taking him on romantic dates (according to the Ladyblog, that was what happened with the akuma) and kissing his hand and other mushy stuff. Sure, he didn’t actually know Nathaniel, but he knew the akuma, and those were basically the same person, right?

Marc only realized that he was putting this boy he’d never met before on a pedestal when he overheard his conversation with the model and mayor’s daughter. The artist was not just someone who would make a great boyfriend. Nathaniel was just like him, having insecurities and anxieties too.

He really should try talking to him one day.

Chapter Text

Chloe stared down at the poster that had just arrived in her room. It was one of the ads for the perfume Gabriel was releasing.

Her original plan featured her tricking Adrien to sign it so it would look like he was saying he loved her.

But now…

She rolled it up, chucking it into her closet, never to be seen again.

Chloe was going to be a better person. And that was going to start with her apology hangout with Sabrina after school today.

---

Chloe stared down at the boy kneeling in front of her on the bridge. She glanced back at Sabrina, who looked about as awkward as Chloe herself felt. The blonde turned back to Kim.

“Leave us alone. We’re busy.”

With that, she gently took Sabrina’s wrist and started walking away.

“C...Chloe.” Sabrina turned back to look at Kim, who was now crouched over on himself, “Don’t you think you were a little… rude?”

“I wanted to hang out with you and he was cutting into that time!” Chloe stated.

“He literally confessed and you just left him by himself after telling him to leave you alone.”

Chloe stopped walking, causing Sabrina to stumble into her back. The girl groaned out loud, burying her face in her hands, “Fuck. I’m still shit at this whole ‘being nice’ thing.”

Sabrina patted her back, “Let’s go back and try to apologize?”

They turned around, seeing a black and red figure shoot up into the sky with wings.

Both girls simply stared at the akuma before turning around.

“Hiding spot. Now.”

“Right behind you.”

---

Marc looked at Nathaniel and his pink haired friend as they walked out of the school. The writer has been hyping himself up since the beginning of the school day.

‘Today, I’m going to have an actual conversation with Nathaniel!’

Marc kept trailing after Nathaniel, just trying to work up the courage to talk to him. He spent so long doing this, the writer ended up following the two all the way to the Louvre, to the point where the skater had ended up skating in a different area as Nathaniel stayed behind to sit down and draw in his sketchbook.

Marc stood a couple of feet away, holding his arms, staring at the artist.

This was his first impression. He couldn’t mess this up.

But what if he did? And then Nathaniel hated him and would never talk to him and he would never be able to tell him about the experience at the convenience store (he actually ended up quitting that job. Every time he stepped foot in there, Marc would always lose focus thinking about Evillustrator) and it would be terrible-

“Excuse me?”

Marc snapped out of his thoughts, looking up at Nathaniel standing in front of him.

The artist waved, “You’ve kinda been staring at me for a while. Did you need something?"

"Oh. Um," Marc looked down at the artist's sketchbook, "Your drawings!"

Great! Now he would be able to talk about the akuma! Nathaniel drew Evillustrator and posted the drawings to the school website as a way to cope with being akumatized. If Marc brought up those drawings, then he could bring up his meeting with Evillustrator!

"Oh you noticed me drawing here?" Nathaniel thumbed through his sketchbook, "The Louvre is such a great source of inspiration, you know?"

Or not.

Nathaniel eventually ended up pulling Marc into a conversation about art that he enjoyed far more than he thought he would. Marc made a mental note to search up some things he had been talking about as it actually intrigued him.

In the middle of talking about an artist that he really admired, Nathaniel slapped a hand to his forehead, “Oh, jeez, we’ve been talking this whole time and you don’t even know my name.”

"My name is Nathaniel." 

"I know." 

Nathaniel blinked, a little shocked, "You do?" 

Tell him about Evillustrator. 

TELL HIM ABOUT EVILLUSTRATOR- 

"Oh, I guess that makes sense," The artist mused, drumming his fingers against the book bag strap across his chest, "I have been involved in a lot of akuma attacks."

 "Yeah!" Marc stuttered out, screaming internally. It should not be this hard to tell a pretty boy that you knew his art.

"Oh, shoot, I just remembered I have homework. I have to go," Nathaniel shoved his sketchbook inside his bag, moving towards the exit, "Bye!" 

Marc waved him goodbye with a dumb smile on his face. 

He talked to him! He actually talked! And he was actually measuring up to his daydreams pretty well! 

…

 Marc buried his face in his hands, "I forgot to tell him my name."

---

Nathaniel was proud of himself. He had been taking his medication more frequently! With this, he was sure to stop being involved in akuma attacks (which Nathaniel was seventy percent sure was just an unorthodox way of self harm, but that’s an entirely different thing to unpack on a different day.)

The artist jumped as an akuma dropped in front of him after taking one step out of the Louvre.

“Hey, Nathaniel.”

Wait, I recognize that voice.

Nathaniel squinted, “Kim??”

“Hawkmoth told me you flirt with a lot of akumas.” He pointed his bow at Nathaniel, “And well, that just won’t do. Love is dead!”

“Not even if I told you you were cute?”

Okay, so flirting was just a stress reaction now?? You learn something new every day.

“Um, well,” Dark Cupid lowered his bow, raising a hand to rub the back of his head, “You think?”

Nathaniel snickered, “Well, you apparently get flustered real easily.”

Dark Cupid shook his head, “No! No love! Love is bad!”

“Perhaps, I could show you a different perspective?” 

The akuma huffed, “Oh, please, like you could.”

“Give me a chance?” Nathaniel pouted, “Or are you just scared that you couldn’t carry me, despite the fact I’m super light?”

What was he doing, this was stupid, the akuma was just going to shoot him-

“You know what? Fine.”

Dark Cupid turned around, spreading out his wings.

“Get on.”

Nathaniel blinked in surprise.

Oh shit, that worked??

The artist scrambled onto the akuma’s back, not wanting to find out what would happen if he bailed. 

He gripped onto Dark Cupid tightly, trying not to scream as they shot up into the sky.

---

Adrien stared at the pile of love letters on his desk, all from adoring fans.

None of which knew the real him.

He sighed.

Plagg nibbled on his cheese, “So you like Ladybug?”

Adrien buried his face in his arms on his desk, “I...I’m not sure.”

“Well, duh, you don’t even know who she is. She could be a totally different person under the mask. Maybe she’s putting on a nice persona to fool the public. You know, sorta like you.”

The model groaned.

“Maybe I should talk to her about it.”

“Hell yeah kid, communication.”

---

Nathaniel clung to Dark Cupid as they hovered above where Alya and Marinette were talking.

The akuma squinted at the two, “Huh. Candy apples? They dating? Good for them. Good for them.”

He aimed his bow at them, “And now to destroy that love.”

“No!”

Nathaniel slammed his hand into the bow, knocking the arrows off-course, startling the two friends on the ground as projectiles landed next to them.

“Those are our classmates, don’t be a fucking dick because you got rejected!”

“Excuse me?!”

“You heard me!” Nathaniel huffed, “Love is messy. It doesn’t always work out, but you should be happy for the people who are able to find relationships they’re happy in.”

Dark Cupid drifted in the air for a bit before sighing, “Fine. But I’m still going after Chloe.”

“Wait, why?”

“She made fun of me after I confessed to her.”

“You confessed to Chloe ?!”

“Shut up!”

Meanwhile, the designer on the ground made a quick excuse to her friend and ran away to transform.

---

Ladybug slid down the roof, throwing her yo-yo around a gutter pipe to stop her from falling to the ground. She hung there for a couple seconds, making sure Dark Cupid had stopped chasing her. 

“Um, Ladybug?”

She looked over to see Chat standing nervously on his baton. He outstretched a hand and helped the heroine stand on his baton.

“Chat? What’s up?”

“There was something I needed to talk to you about.”

“It’s going to have to wait. Dark Cupid-”

“Who?” Chat tilted his head like a curious kitten. 

“Akuma. I think he got rejected by a crush.”

“Oof.” Chat’s eyes trailed up to something behind her, “Look out!” He spun them around so the arrow aimed at Ladybug hit him instead.

“Chat!”

He released her, quickly ushering her to go before he started attacking her against his will.

With a heavy heart, she left her partner behind.

---

“No… problem.”

Chat accepted Dark Cupid’s hand. Nathaniel frowned slightly at the interaction.

He knew that Chat was brainwashed right now, but it was still hard to watch one of the city’s heroes turn to the dark side.

Nathaniel was praying for Ladybug to be able to save the day.

---

“I was wondering if you knew what happened to Kim, since I heard he went to confess to you before getting akumatized,” Ladybug explained to Chloe in the hotel lobby.

Chloe sighed, “I kinda… rejected him.”

Ah, so a broken heart kind of situation.

“You didn’t reject him,” Sabrina pointed out, “You acted like he was a waste of your time.”

Yep. That’ll do it.

Chloe rubbed her face, “I’m still learning. I’m…”

“Sorry?”

“Yep, that’s the word.”

As Chloe said that, Dark Cupid stormed through the door alone, “Bit late for that.” He aimed his bow at the trio of girls, making them scatter throughout the building.

---

Chat Noir and Nathaniel waited on a roof for Dark Cupid to chase Ladybug out of the hotel.

“Do we have to do this?” Nathaniel cautiously asked, “Aren’t you guys friends?”

“I want to tear out her tongue so she can never talk again.”

“...Jesus Christ.”

Chat sat, perched on the edge, like a predator in waiting. Nathaniel was just fiddling with his bangs and biting his lip.

“Hey, are you gonna remember this when the cure is cast?”

Chat turned to look at him, “Why would the cure be cast if we’re destroying her?”

“...But theoretically if it was, would you remember?”

“I… don’t think so?”

“Okay good,” Nathaniel rocked back and forth, “Soooo, can I dump something on you real quick?”

Chat shrugged, still glaring at the entrance of the hotel, “Go for it.”

“So I kinda have a small crush on you.”

Chat spun his head around, staring at Nathaniel in mild shock.

“It’s kinda been there since the beginning? But you’re really cool, and you make getting constantly involved in akuma attacks more fun, ya know? Yeah, that’s all I can really explain it as.”

“Huh,” His head rolled to the side, “Interesting.”

Nathaniel pouted, “That’s all you’re gonna say?”

“What am I supposed to do? Offer to let you kiss me?”

“Could I?” Nathaniel started blushing, “I mean on the cheek. And with your consent, of course. Consent is good.”

Chat hummed, “Go for it.”

The redhead beamed, giving Chat a quick peck on the cheek before pulling away just as fast. Neither of them noticed the black lipstick melting off Chat’s lips.

Chat blinked, before turning to Nathaniel, “Where are we? Where’s Ladybug?”

Nathaniel blinked, “Huh?”

The hero rubbed his head, “I remember trying to talk to her, but now we’re here.”

“Oh.”

So he didn’t remember.

“There’s an akuma that brainwashed you.”

Good for Nathaniel. His celebrity crush didn’t remember that cheek kiss.

Soon after that, Ladybug, Chloe, and Sabrina were chased out of the hotel by Dark Cupid, the akuma leaving the heroine behind so he could torment the civilians.

Chat dropped down quickly, bringing Nathaniel with him. 

“Hey, so I somehow got cured, so I’m back on your side!”

“Really?” Ladybug looked at Nathaniel, “What did you do?”

He blushed, brushing through his hair with his hands, “Nothing, we just talked.”

“...Sure.”

With the two heroes back on the same side, the akuma was quickly taken down before any more damage could be done.

---

“Pound it!”

Kim rubbed his head as he transformed back in front of the floral shop.

“Huh?”

Chloe walked up to him as Ladybug cast her cure, clearing her throat, “Uh, hey, about earlier. I sorta dismissed you because I was focused on trying to make it up to Sabrina. I guess I need to think about more than one person at a time. Sorry.”

“Did you just say sorry?”

“Why do people keep acting like that’s so crazy?!”

Sabrina shook her head from where she was standing a few feet away.

Chloe still had a long road to travel, but at least she was starting to.

---

Chat Noir sat on a roof, looking up at the evening stars. He waited for the telltale sound of Ladybug landing behind him.

He stood up and twirled around to face her, “M’lady.”

“Chat. You said you had something to talk to me about?”

“Yeah, it’s kinda weird, I guess. Please don’t hate me.”

She smiled, “You’re my partner. I could never hate you."

He sighed, “That’s a relief. Anyways, I was like ninety percent sure I liked you, as in like-like, when you did the whole standing up thing to Hawkmoth during Stoneheart.”

Ladybug stared in shock.

“And I was thinking about it, and I technically don’t even know you, so I couldn’t like you, but now I don’t know what I feel towards you, cause it’s like, positive, but how do I describe it as anything other than love?!”

“Chat.” She placed her hands on his shoulders, “I don’t know what people have been telling you, but just because you like a girl, it doesn’t mean it’s romantic. It could be admiration, or just friendship.”

He smiled, shrugging, “It’s what I’ve been told my entire life, by the media, by my parents, if you feel this way, you like her.”

“Well, I am telling you it could just be platonic.”

“Yeah, I get that now,” Chat pulled her in for a hug, “Thanks.”

She hugged back, “Anytime.”

Chapter Text

“You're suggesting we run, Officer Jones? After it devoured my family, my friends, even my beloved dog, Sniffles? Never! I won't run! I no longer fear it, I'm going to face it, then I'll-” Mylene cut herself off with a scream as her eyes landed on Ivan’s costume.

“Mylene, you keep getting scared of everything!” Chloe fumed, “Can you even be the main actress if you can’t suck it up?!”

“Chloe!” Everyone shouted.

Mylene sniffled, “She’s right! I’m just a scaredy-cat!” She ran out of the classroom crying.

“Look, she even said it herself! I’m right!” Chloe crossed her arms, “If Mylene keeps getting scared-”

“She’s an excellent actor!” Marinette countered, “She’s part of the theater club! That’s why we chose her!”

“Yeah, well the theater club doesn’t do horror things!” The blond argued, “Mylene keeps getting scared! She’s not cut out for this!”

Alix spun the clapperboard in her hands, “It’s been fourteen takes, maybe we should just get someone else to play the main character?”

Ivan huffed, “She just needs another chance!” He ran out after his girlfriend to comfort her.

“Look, I’ll apologize later, but if we want to help Lahiffe make his movie, we need to move quickly!” Chloe explained, “We got lucky that we’re allowed here on a weekend, but we only get the school until uh…”

“6 tonight.”

“Thanks nerd.”

Max opened then closed his mouth, “You know what? Kim calls me that all the time, I’m not even offended.”

“We can’t waste all our time on the first scene ,” Chloe continued her statement, “We should just get a different actress.”

“Who do you suggest then?”

“I don’t know, whoever wants to kiss Adrien, I guess.”

Adrien spit out the juice he was drinking that Rose had so graciously given him, “WHAT?!”

That sentiment was echoed by a large number of their classmates.

Alya snatched the script up from Chloe, “I didn’t write this!”

Nino rubbed the back of his neck, “Uh... I wrote it. It was just a little tweak. You know, to move the story forward.”

“You didn’t even ask for my permission!” Adrien shouted before Alya could say anything. “And Mylene is dating Ivan!”

“Yeah, what the actual fuck Nino?” Marinette muttered.

“In hindsight… Maybe not the best idea.”

“OBVIOUSLY!”

Adrien sighed as the class started shouting. Immediately, Juleka started applying blush on his face again. He tapped her hands, “Excessive powder probably isn’t good.”

She blushed, “Sorry, I just don’t get to do this a lot.”

“Oh? You enjoy doing makeup?”

Juleka smiled, nodding, “Mhm.”

“That’s so cool!” Adrien gushed, “I have so much respect for the makeup artists I work with. I have no idea how they do it! Do you think I could get you to come ghost me at one of my photoshoots so you can see how they work?”

Juleka lit up. She must really like the job. “That’d be amazing.”

“Yeah! I’ll talk to my dad, maybe he’ll finally agree for once. You already seem pretty good!”

---

Nathaniel shifted uncomfortably in place, holding the…. Whatever it was called in his hands. They weren’t even recording right now but Nino kept yelling at him whenever he tried to put it down.

Kim sighed, “This is stupid. I’m going to use the restroom.”

He placed down the microphone and strolled out the door.

Ivan had come back and was yelling at Chloe because Mylene was crying in the bathroom.

The argument was cut short by Kim’s panicked screams. Max was the first person to rush out of the room to look for his best friend. Everyone else followed.

In the courtyard, Marinette picked up Kim’s armband, “This is Kim’s!”

“Oh, so we’re in a horror movie now?” Chloe sighed, “Great. Just great.”

Nathaniel whimpered, “We’re all going to die.”

“We’re not going to die,” Alix reassured him, patting where he was clutching her sleeve.

“Hhh.”

Adrien slowly walked towards the stairs.

“Yo, Adrien! Where are you going?

The model turned around, “I left Officer Jones' jacket back there! Should probably wear it in all the scenes.” With that statement, he ran up towards the classroom.

Adrien was about to bend down and remove his shoe when he heard a voice.

“Hey, we really shouldn’t separate from the group.”

The blond turned around to see Nathaniel standing there.

“Oh, I just needed to get the jacket!” Adrien quickly went with the excuse he made, “Don’t worry, go back to the group!”

Nathaniel tilted his head, “Alright then, hurry up so we can go together.”

Adrien winced, shrugging on the jacket, “Actually, I have to use the bathroom. I’ll be with the gang in a moment, I swear!” He ran off.

The artist stood in the classroom, shaking his head, “He’s gonna get himself killed.”

He should probably get back to the group before the same thing happened to him.

As Nathaniel walked out, he spun back around.

When did slime get on the desk?

It flew up into the air, a pink and purple monster emerging from where the desk once was.

Terrified, Nathaniel did the one thing he could as its tail reached out to grab him.

He screamed.

---

“I hate this, I hate this, I hate this,” Nathaniel muttered continuously as he was brought into the basement by the akuma.

It threw him down into an open pod. The artist groaned as his body hit the ground. He looked up, leading the monster to roar in his face and Nathaniel to duck back down into the pod, looking petrified as it grew bigger.

That was the last thing he saw before slime spewed out of its mouth, effectively trapping him inside.

---

The next thing Nathaniel knew was some sort of song (Smelly Wolf?) was played and then the cure was cast. He immediately stood up once the pods were gone. 

The artist rushed over to cling to his best friend. Alix stumbled once his weight landed on her.

“I hate horror stuff,” He muttered, “I hate it so much.”

She patted his back, “I know.”

“I’m so glad it’s over... So glad.” 

---

As the class left the school, Chloe ran up to Mylene, “Hey, um, sorry for getting you… akumatized. I didn’t mean to be that harsh.”

Mylene raised an eyebrow, “Meaning you don’t think you were in the wrong.”

Chloe nodded, “You really should speak up next time.”

She blinked in shock, “What?”

“If you were uncomfortable, you should’ve just said something. Getting scared that many times. Definitely signs of trauma. Maybe from Stoneheart? Who knows, but still, say something next time.” Chloe crossed her arms, looking elsewhere. “So, yeah, uh, that’s it.” She turned around and started to walk away.

Mylene hummed.

She never acted like that during rehearsals.

Maybe Chloe was right and it was just repressed trauma.

Mylene should ask her dad for therapy. Getting kidnapped by a rock monster and getting shot at doesn’t exactly leave a person in great mental health.

Chapter Text

Chloe was chosen as class representative again. This time, by choice, and not by her blackmailing all the other runners into quitting.

In celebration, Chloe was throwing a party at the hotel.

“Jagged Stone is here?!” Rose shouted in excitement as everyone entered.

“Surprise!” Chloe did some jazz hands from where she was standing next to the rockstar. “Also got us some tickets to his next concert!”

The class shuffled in (Minus Adrien, who was at fencing practice) and started lining up to get autographs.

Chloe leaned in towards Jagged Stone, “You're, uh, fine with this right? I just wanted to do something nice for my class. I’m responsible for them now.”

He shrugged, “Nothing I haven’t done before.”

“Huh, she really is making an effort to change,” Nathaniel murmured, standing in line with the art club.

They conversed more as they made their way to the front of the line.

Jagged scribbled his name on the case, “Who do I make this out to?”

“Juleka Couffaine.”

He blinked, “Couffaine?”

“Mhm.”

Jagged stared off into space for a few seconds before snapping back to reality, finishing the signature and handing it to Juleka.

She walked over to the rest of the art club who already got theirs.

Rose was bouncing in place, “This is so cool!”

Juleka stared back at Jagged, humming. “Strange.”

“What’s strange?” Nathaniel tilted his head. 

“He seemed to recognize my last name-”

They were cut off by a shout from outside.

“O-ye, o-ye! Darkblade shalt speak now! Listen or be imprisoned!”

“Henceforth, my flag shalt fly over thy kingdom! Bourgeois, pathetic knave, come hither and do battle!”

The club looked towards the windows, seeing a crowd of knights steadily stomping towards them.

“Ah. Shit.”

“Wait, do I hear the sounds of crazed fans? I can totally get them under control.” Jagged ran outside with his guitar while the class stared at him like he was crazy.

Chloe stood on the desk, clapping her hands as Jagged was transformed into a knight, “Okay come on, we’re not gonna wait here and be transformed into knights. People who can lift shit, barricade the doors. Everyone else, get to the middle floors. If they break in, it’ll take longer to reach us. We’re not going up to the top in case they can climb the outside of the building. Let’s go!”

“Huh, she’s actually a good leader when she’s not being an asshole,” Alix said as Juleka began lifting stuff with Kim and Ivan.

“Woah, Juleka!” The Vietnamese teen shouted in surprise, “I didn’t know you could lift that much!”

The goth placed several chairs stacked upon each other at the building barricade, “I live on a boat. I have to help around. So I got used to moving things.”

Rose cheered, “You’re so cool!”

Juleka blushed, “Oh, um, thanks Rose!”

The blonde beamed at her, making the other girl turn even more red.

“She’s so in love,” Nathaniel murmured to Alix, watching the interaction.

“You at Adrien. And Chat Noir.”

He shoved her.

---

The class stumbled back down to the ground floor as the cure was cast.

“So! How’s everyone feeling after being forcibly transformed by the void?” Alya shouted.

General groans of discomfort was the answer she received. 

“Where have you two been?” Chloe asked as Marinette and Adrien walked downstairs. 

Marinette hummed, “I got transformed... into a knight.”

Adrien slid past her on the railing, “So did I! What a knight-mare!” Several people groaned at the bad pun.

The model landed on the ground next to Nathaniel. The artist in question squinted at Adrien, “When did you get here?”

Adrien turned to him, “Hm?”

“You were at fencing practice? You never entered through the door, I mean.”

“Oh, when I was turned back from being a knight, I was on the roof!” Adrien chuckled, “Pretty lucky, right?”

The redhead blinked, “Then where are the other people? There was a large group of knights climbing up the roof and I don’t see any of them coming down from the roof like you did.”

“Ahahah, let’s party!” Adrien ran off to join his friend group. Nathaniel stared after him, thoroughly confused.

“Weird.”

Chapter Text

Marc looked down at the two tickets in his hand, before looking back up at the artist standing a dozen feet away from him in the Louvre’s entrance next to a friend. 

‘Just. Ask him to go see the show with you. Talk a little more afterwards. Become his friend! Can’t be that hard!’

Nathaniel turned towards him, making Marc squeak and freeze up. The redhead smiled, waving.

Marc stared at him, before taking a sharp turnaround and running away.

Back to the plan of seeing the play with his sister.

---

Nathaniel’s hand dropped, much like the smile wiped off his face.

Alix leaned forward, trying to see what Nathaniel was looking at, “What’s up?”

“Oh, nothing, I guess I mistook someone for a boy I met before.” He shook his head, turning to Alix, “Are you going to the show tonight?”

“Yeah, Chloe got everyone tickets, would be a waste not to use them.”

“Life’s a lot easier now that she’s trying to be our friend and, you know, not trying to torment us 24/7.” Nathaniel looked over her head, squinting, “Hey, isn’t that Mylene’s dad?”

Alix turned around, “Yeah. I wonder why.”

“We should go wish him luck!”

“You sure?”

“What’s the harm?”

Alix shrugged, “Fair enough.”

They walked over to the man who was sitting slumped over on the bench.

“Hey sir! We’re friends with your daughter! We wanted to wish you good luck! I’m really excited to see it!” Nathaniel cheered happily.

“Isn’t it bad luck to say that? You’re supposed to say break a leg, aren’t you?”

“It can’t be that bad.” 

The two friends took multiple steps back as he stood up, black and purple magic washing over him.

“Oh. Oh, that’s bad.”

He turned towards them.

“Run, run, run, run -”

He wants to see the performance so badly? Why don't you give him a backstage pass!

Nathaniel yelped as he felt something wrap around him, making him take a hard hit on the ground. He groaned, being pulled backwards towards the akuma. Confusion swirled through his head as he looked down, not seeing anything. Nathaniel turned back, seeing the akuma pulling something invisible. With another look at his design, the artist sighed.

He’s a mime. Of course he is, why wouldn't he be?

Alix screeched and launched herself at the akuma, attempting to scratch at his face. The mime (they couldn’t really get a name out of him, could they?) let go of the invisible rope and Nathaniel was suddenly free. He stood up, looking at the Mime holding… something in his hand. 

He can only mime one object.

“Alix!”

As he shouted that, the mime slammed the thing he was gripping into Alix’s stomach, sending her flying a couple feet away.

A shrill shriek escaped Nathaniel. He didn’t get a chance to rush over to his friend before the akuma shackled him with yet another restraint.

---

This was totally how he wanted to spend his day. Getting dangled over a road by an akuma with an invisible rope while the heroes stood on the other side of the bus, unable to do anything without Nathaniel getting run over.

Fun.

The bus slowed to a stop at the Eiffel Tower, the mime jumping off and taking Nathaniel with him.

“Let him go!” Ladybug shouting, her and her partner following until the mime was cornered near the legs of the tower. The akuma yanked Nathaniel towards him, lifting the boy up by the back of his jacket. (Maybe Alix was right and he should eat more, this was now two adults who could do this easily.)

The mime smirked, before winding up and throwing Nathaniel backwards, the boy in question getting rammed into the structure, collapsing to the ground with a low groan.

“Nathaniel!” Chat bounded over, leaning down next to the artist. “Are you okay?”

While the hero was checking on the civilian, Ladybug shot her yo-yo to attempt to grab the mime’s hat. He dodged, grabbing it and swinging her around, leaving her screaming as she was flung away.

The mime turned to the male duo and gestured a bow, aiming at Chat. 

“Look out!”

Nathaniel shoved him out of the way, gasping as the arrow landed.

Chat Noir saw red.

He turned to the akuma, who looked shocked. The butterfly mask was on his mask, meaning Hawkmoth was presumably talking to him.

(Actually, Hawkmoth was screaming because he didn’t expect anyone to be hurt, but Chat doesn’t know that.)

The hero screamed “Cataclysm!” before launching himself towards the akuma.

Ladybug managed to return in time to restrain him using her yo-yo. “Chat stop!” He didn’t react to her words at all, still fighting to reach and disintegrate the mime.

Nathaniel looked to his side, seeing a tear in his jacket, luckily missing his body. He waved a hand through it, seeing if the arrow was still there. When he was met with no resistance, he stood up and ran towards Chat, “Hey! Hey, I’m fine!”

Chat turned around, relief in his eyes. In the distance, Ladybug returned her yo-yo and shouted the magic phrase.

Taking the opportunity, the akuma swept Chat’s legs, sending him to the floor. His hand touched the ground, making it crack and break beneath them. A red and black spotted fishing rod snatched the hat off of the mime’s head as he tripped on the fractured ground.

“No more evil doing for you akuma!”

Nathaniel hummed happily as the cure was cast and his jacket was brought back to normal.

“Nathaniel!”

Chat Noir engulfed him in a hug, Nathaniel stumbling back a bit before regaining his balance.

“Don’t do that again! I thought you were dead!”

Nathaniel shrugged, “Better me than you. Paris needs you.”

Chat pulled back from the hug, holding Nathaniel’s shoulders, looking at him with soft eyes, “ I need you.”

Nathaniel blushed.

That couldn’t have been platonic. Or was he just overthinking this? Maybe his attraction to the hero was twisting his perception of the words? 

“To be safe! Yep!”

..So he was overthinking.

Damn him and his stupid fucking crush.

---

Ladybug and Chat jumped onto a roof to escape before they detransformed. She turned to her partner and smirked, “So. You and Nathaniel, huh?”

He looked at her, confused, “What do you mean? He’s just a friend.”

Ladybug sighed. “Nevermind.”

---

Alix was fussing over Nathaniel when Adrien walked up to the two.

“Hey, Nathaniel, I saw what happened on the news, are you okay?”

The artist nodded, “The heroes defeated the akuma.”

“Yeah, but you almost got stabbed,” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, “Actually, did you want to see the play tonight? To cheer you up! I have two tickets. My dad was supposed to come with me but he didn’t want to.”

Nathaniel blinked before snickering slightly. Adrien dimmed, “Is that a no?”

“Sorry, it’s just… Did you forget Chloe gave everyone tickets?”

“...Oh.” Adrien looked down at the ground, “Well this is awkward.”

Nathaniel smiled, “You’re fine.”

“Um, did you still want to sit next to me? It’d be cool if we could talk during breaks.”

Alix shook a shocked-silent Nathaniel when he didn’t answer. Snapping out of his stupor, Nathaniel furiously nodded, “Yeah, that’d be great!”

“Nice! I’ll see you tonight!”

---

“Oh, you’re here too?”

Marc jumped, “Nathaniel!”

The artist grinned, “You remembered my name! Nice to see you again.”

Marc gave a soft smile back, “Mhm.”

“Oh, actually, I didn’t get your na-”

“NATHANIEL!” The pink haired girl he saw earlier skated up and grabbed her friend by the arm, “Show’s about to start, let’s go!”

The redhead stumbled a bit as she dragged him away, waving goodbye to the writer before she dragged him towards the front seats.

Which like, lucky, Marc was only able to get seats in the back. 

---

Marinette squirmed in her seat next to Alya. She still had to explain the whole deleted video situation to her.

Her head shot up once she noticed Adrien sitting down next to her. Her crush!! Sitting next to her!! Marinette grinned widely at the model, waving energetically. She barely noticed Nathaniel sitting on the opposite side of Adrien.

The blond looked up, looking near the edge of the seats, “Oh hey, there’s Nino!” He turned to Nathaniel, “Let me say hi real quick. I’ll come back soon!”

He left quickly, rushing up to his best friend.

Marinette made a small happy keening noise, staring after Adrien with a dreamy look, with Alya rolling her eyes fondly behind her.

Nathaniel smiled, “He’s so nice, isn’t he? The sweetest person in the world. And cute too. And, uh-” Nathaniel cut himself off, looking down at his lap, face red, “I’ll just shut up now.”

Marinette stared at him shocked. Nathaniel liked Adrien? Alya snickered, leaning in to whisper into Marinette’s ear.

“Looks like you have yourself a rival, Marinette!”

The designer pouted at her friend.

She really has to try and set Chat Noir up with Nathaniel. Maybe then Adrien will be free for her to romance.

---

Exclusive Ladybug Interview!!!

Your favorite blogger has scored an interview with Paris’ very own beloved heroine! In this interview, she details the importance of trying to stay out of the way of akuma attacks, citing today’s attack as the reason why.

Chapter Text

For once, Ivan wasn’t shielding him from sleeping in class. Nathaniel was actually the one awake. Amazing.

He zoned off staring at the board. Nathaniel was shocked out of his drowsiness by Marinette crashing into the classroom, stuttering out an excuse as always.

He’s pretty sure the entire class was wondering where she actually was, because everyone knew she didn’t have a dog.

Rose then got caught for using perfume and her cell phone. The teacher caught her, confiscated her items, sent her to the principal’s office, and then blew up a cloud of perfume.

Which was actually pretty cool, he’ll give Mendeleiev that.

...Which doesn’t excuse her from yelling he was failing in front of the entire class.

Yeah, Nathaniel’s pretty sure he’s gonna hold a grudge against her for the rest of the school year.

---

“Chloe!”

The girl turned around to see Rose running up to her, pink letter in hand.

“Oh, please, could you give Prince Ali a special letter for me?”

Chloe wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Rich people were stuck up and perceived people not in their wealth class as inferior. Rose was such a sweet girl. She didn’t deserve having her idol break her heart.

“Are you sure he'd want to get something from you ?”

Rose sniffled, tears welling up in her eyes. She turned around and ran away, crying loudly.

...That was not how she wanted to say that.

Her driver honked, hurrying her to get in the car.

Chloe turned around, looking down and seeing a red plushie at her feet. She picked it up, looking it over.

A strange toy to be sure. Maybe the prince would like it. It was certainly unique.

“Chloe!”

Marinette jogged over, bending over and breathing heavily, “That’s mine. Can I have her- I mean it back?”

“Sure.” Chloe placed the toy in Marinette’s hands, before turning around and entering her car, going to meet the prince.

Marinette sighed in relief as Chloe’s car drove out of sight, looking down at Tikki, “Let’s get you to that healer.”

---

“Come on Nathaniel!”

The artist grunted. His dad was back from his business trips and dragging Nathaniel to some elite social event again. They were gonna be an audience to the prince Rose had a celebrity crush on and his interview.

He’d rather spend the afternoon drawing more comics without a story (curse his lack of a writing skill) but his dad was forcing him to go.

This better not place him in the middle of an akuma attack again.

---

Nathaniel was sitting in the audience, bored out of his mind, shifting occasionally.

He fiddled with the edge of his suit’s sleeve, being forced into it by his dad because they needed to make a good impression or whatever. 

The redhead and Chloe met eyes and silently nodded in understanding. She probably wanted to be here, but he definitely didn’t.

“We shall have to see if it fits with the Prince's busy schedule. We have very little time for festivities. His highness has many responsibilities.”

His dad stood up, clearing his throat.

“Your highness, I am the CEO of Corbin Industries. We can provide you weapons to annihilate enemies in combat!”

That was another thing. Corbin Industries was a company that mass produced weapons, usually giving them to armies and such.

Prince Ali gasped, as if he couldn’t comprehend what Nathaniel’s dad had told him, “We are not currently in any conflict. There is no reason to have these weapons! Everyone should strive to find understanding with words instead of fighting!”

His father faltered, “Ah. Of course.” The man sat down, embarrassed. Nathaniel snickered slightly. Karma for dragging him here.

There was a noise, like someone shot a puff of air. The artist glanced around the room. He didn’t notice anything though, although there was a putrid smell wafting through the room. People in the audience quickly took notice of the scent and its source, scooting away from Nathaniel’s dad. Through the crowd, Nathaniel noticed a green skinned girl with pink hair.

An akuma.

“I jinxed it,” Nathaniel muttered. He stood up and away from the audience, standing next to the group of people at the front. 

The woman standing next to the prince glared at him, “What are you doing?!”

She was cut off as a pink cloud surrounded the audience, all of them turning around and bowing, singing in unison.

“At your service, Princess Fragrance.“

Ali stared wide-eyed at the akuma, “Who-Who are you?”

Princess Fragrance smiled, “I'm Princess Fragrance and I've come just for you! In just a spritz you'll be mine, Prince Ali!”

She aimed her gun at Chloe, the tip of it cycling from pink through the rainbow until reaching green, and shot. Everyone immediately noticed the nasty odor spreading throughout the room.

Nathaniel turned to Chloe, squinting, “What did you do?”

“I, uh, may have told Rose that Prince Ali wouldn’t want a gift from someone like her.”

“What?” Prince Ali frowned at the girl, “Why would you tell her that?”

“His highness is one of the sweetest boys on the planet! For heaven’s sake, he does charities for children!”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking!”

Nathaniel sighed, “You really need to work on your bluntness.”

“I know .” Chloe huffed, “Fine, whatever, yell at me later, we need a distraction!”

Nathaniel murmured, “She won’t… remember this right?”

“Uh, the cure won’t let her.”

Prince Ali and his chaperone just looked confused.

“Okay,” Nathaniel took a deep breath, “JULEKA HAS A CRUSH ON YOU!”

Princess Fragrance paused, lowering her gun. “Excuse me?” She stared off into space, seemingly rethinking all her interactions with the girl, “...Huh.”

Well that wasn’t a bad reaction.

The mayor ushered the others towards the stairs, holding the door open for them and lingering before getting sprayed with perfume.

Chloe faltered a bit in running seeing her father get brainwashed but Nathaniel just grabbed her and continued pulling her down the stairs. 

“...So how’d you know Juleka has a crush on Rose?”

“Please, you’re really going to look me in the eyes and tell me you didn’t know?”

Chloe hummed, “Point.”

Princess Fragrance shouted, “Hey! Get back here!” She aimed her gun at them, before a yo-yo wrapped around it, yanking it to the side, making her shot miss.

Ladybug smirked from the doorway, “You’re not going anywhere!”

---

Chat waved to the group of people as they ran up to him from the stairs into the dining hall. Ladybug had given him instructions to lead them, especially the prince, away from the akuma. 

“Chat Noir!” Nathaniel visibly brightened up at the sight of the hero. 

Chat stuck his pole out of the window and extended it to the ground. “Emergency evacuation, everybody down!”

There was some fuss about the prince’s safety before the hero brought out some bowls to use as makeshift helmets. He held the baton from the window, gesturing for the civilians to slide down first.

Prince Ali shouted out joyfully as he slid down the baton. His chaperone and Chloe followed, the former screaming in fear.

Nathaniel reached out to slide down as well, but was interrupted by Chat wrapping an arm around his waist, picking him up effortlessly and holding him to the hero’s side as he returned the baton to its regular size, lowering them both to the ground.

Chat released him and Nathaniel could feel his face burning. The hero turned and winked at him, “Nice suit. You look meow -velous.”

Yeah, his face was definitely turning more red.

Prince Ali’s chaperone rushed over to her car, “Everyone get in! I’ll drive us away!”

Everyone shuffled into the car and they drove away from the hotel.

Nathaniel stared out the window, willing his face to return to its normal color.

Chloe squinted at the redhead, then at Chat Noir, before turning back and whispering, “ Him ?” as Chat asked for the windows to be rolled down since Chloe’s scent curse was still active.

“Shut up,” Nathaniel mumbled, shoving his face in his hands.

The artist zoned out until he recognized Chat Noir screaming to close the windows.

Nathaniel looked up at Princess Fragrance sticking her gun through the sunroof.

“Shit.”

His vision was soon flooded with pink.

---

He blinked, before looking around.

Nathaniel, his dad, the mayor, Chloe, and Ali’s chaperone were standing on a bridge.

The artist and Chloe turned towards each other.

“Brainwashing?”

“Mhm.”

“Ah, the schedule is a complete disaster! We are going to be late for everything! Where's the prince? Wait a minute, where am I ?”

“It do be like that sometimes.”

“WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!”

Chapter Text

Adrien smiled from where he was hiding behind some bushes. “Tell her you'll both be better off without me.”

“What’re you doing?”

Adrien jumped, turning around, “Nathaniel?”

The artist stood there, “Mhm. Why are you spying on Nino and Marinette?”

“Uh, well, it’s complicated.”

Nathaniel walked over next to Adrien, also peering over the bushes, “Oh, is this about Nino's crush on Marinette?

The model turned to him, confused, “You know?”

“Yeah, we sat in the back together before this year,” Nathaniel explained, “We were friends and talked about our mutual crush a lot.”

Adrien hummed, “Oh right, you like Marinette.” 

“NO!” Adrien jumped at the sudden shout from the redhead. Nathaniel coughed, before continuing, “Uh, I mean, it's not like I still like her, you know? Like I'm wayyy over that now!” The sentence was followed by a bit of nervous laughter.

Meanwhile, Marinette was staring at Nino, concerned, “Are you okay? You look… off.”

Nino shook off her worries, even as he heard Adrien and Nathaniel talking through the earpiece.

Fuck, his two love rivals? Together?

Well, Nathaniel just said he doesn’t like Marinette anymore and he’s pretty sure Adrien has never thought of Marinette in a romantic light before.

Maybe he actually has a shot.

---

As Adrien was guiding Nino towards confessing to Marinette, Nathaniel yawned.

Adrien turned to him, “You good?”

“Tired,” Nathaniel leaned over, placing his head on Adrien’s shoulder, “It’s fine if I do this right?”

Adrien felt his face heat up for some unknown reason, “Y-Yeah.” He looked down at a smug Plagg looking up from his jacket. “Shut up,” He hissed.

“It's y…” Nino swallowed as he comprehended what Adrien said, “Nevermind. I’ll tell you later.”

“Wait, no, that wasn’t towards you,” Adrien sighed, “Go ahead! Tell her how you feel!”

“Panther! Panther! Coming this way!”

“Get outta here if you want to live!”

Everyone jumped as Kim and Max ran past them. Looking over, they saw a group of animals released from their cages.

“We better ditch this place!” Nino told Marinette, the two running away from the table.

“Come on, let’s split up!” Adrien told Nathaniel.

“Eh? Shouldn’t we stay together?” 

“O-Oh, right, but I wanna get Nino and Marinette first!” Adrien started running away, turning back and saying, “Stay here! And stay safe!”

Nathaniel stared after Adrien as he disappeared from view before smiling, “He cares about me!”

“Why are you hiding behind the bushes?”

Nathaniel screamed, falling to the ground. He looked up to see a black panther jumping over the bushes and landing in front of him.

Animan stared at the teenager.

His animal instincts were telling him to protect the child.

“Come with me."

Animan walked towards where he could smell that athletic boy’s scent.

Nathaniel just stood up and went along with him, not wanting to get another akuma mad at him, “Okay then!”

---

Marc went to the park. He had heard about the new exhibit and wanted to go see the panther! Cats were cool!

But then there was screaming and he had just climbed a tree to hide and now he was just sitting there until the akuma was dealt with.

Not the best situation to be in.

As he was lounging, Marc looked down and saw Nathaniel walking next to the akuma, looking vaguely scared, although he was probably numb to being taken hostage by akumas by this point.

“Man, he’s really akuma bait.”

“...I could write a story about this.”

Well, Marc was stuck in a tree until the foreseeable future. He pulled out his journal and began writing.

---

“Alya!”

The journalist turned around at the sound of her dad’s voice. She only saw Nathaniel standing next to a panther though.

“Hey come on! Let’s find a place to hide!” Nino gently grabbed her shoulder, pointing towards the exit of the zoo.

The panther roared making all the teens jump.

“ALYA!” The voice came from the animal.

“Wh- DAD?!” 

“That’s your dad?!” Nathaniel and Nino shouted in unison.

Animan huffed, “Enough. Alya, get over here.”

Alya blinked, looking over to the artist. Nathaniel just shrugged, looking as confused as Alya felt.

“I’m rounding up children.” Animan stated.

“...Dad.”

He growled, “That wasn’t a request.”

Nino stepped in front of Alya protectively. Normally, Alya’s dad wouldn’t think of hurting her (or at least Nino hoped so), but since he’s akumatized now, who knows what could happen?

Animan transformed into a bear, roaring, and swatting Nino away like he was a fly.

“NINO!” Alya ran towards where Nino had landed. She knelt down next to the groaning boy, Nathaniel joining her.

Her dad coughed, “Alya-”

“LEAVE. LEAVE NOW. WHAT THE FUCK.”

Animan flinched back, taking a step back before transforming into an eagle and flying away.

Alya turned to Nino, “Are you okay?”

Nino blinked at her, “You have really pretty eyes.”

“...He’s fucking lost it.”

“Are you okay?”

Alya blinked, “You’re the one who just got attacked, why are you asking if I’m okay?!”

“I just wanted to make sure.”

Alya swallowed, slightly blushing, “Oh.”

The two started talking more, soon finding they had a lot more in common than they first thought.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel was sitting off to the side, on his phone, not wanting to interrupt their moment. 

Damn, so that’s what being the third wheel feels like.

As the ladybugs came and washed over the zoo, the sound of animals back in their cages echoing through the area, Nino was able to stand up again.

Alya coughed, “Do you… wanna go get some food? I liked talking to you. We should do it more often!”

Nino beamed, “You’re right! Hey, let’s go to the bakery! Mari’s parents make the best pastries!”

The two walked away together, conversation flowing easily between the two.

Nathaniel stood in place, rocking back and forth.

“I, uh, guess I’ll just go home by myself then.”

---

Marc hummed happily as he kept writing in his journal. He really hit the inspiration jackpot today! He was just pouring out words! It was amazing!

“Hey kid.”

Marc looked down.

“Why are you in a tree?” One of the zookeepers asked.

“Oh, I was hiding from the akuma!”

“The akuma…?”

“Is the akuma over?”

“The akuma’s been over for hours.”

“...Oh.”

Chapter Text

“Alright class, we’re heading to the Grand Paris luxury hotel for our work experience field trip!”

The class cheered from their seats on the bus.

Shortly after Bustier took attendance, they were off.

Nathaniel leaned over the seat in front of him where Nino was, “Hey, I saw you win the show! Congrats!”

Nino smiled, “Thanks.”

Alix also sat up to talk to the DJ, “Nice.” The two shared a fistbump.

Nathaniel smirked, “I bet Alya enjoyed it too. Didn’t you invite her to watch you?”

Nino sputtered, “Yeah, but-”

The skater made a bunch of kissy faces, accompanied by sound.

“Jeez, are you going to tell her how you feel anytime soon?” Nathaniel snickered. Nino looked at him, then pointedly tilted his head towards Adrien, who was sitting next to the DJ.

The artist gasped in faux outrage while Alix fell back in her seat, laughing.

Adrien remained oblivious as to what was so funny.

---

Chloe walked up to Marinette, “Hey, there was a limited amount of jobs available, so you’re gonna be a Gopher.”

The designer tilted her head, “Why can’t I work in the kitchen like, you know, half the class?”

“Limited space, the chefs need room to move around.”

“Makes sense.”

“It shouldn’t be too hard. Most of the requests are just special food items because they can’t eat a specific ingredient.”

“Oh, okay!”

Later, Marinette would be mocking that statement as she went to find a pair of sunglasses for the famous rock star staying in the hotel.

---

Nathaniel was partnered with Alix, Ivan, and Sabrina to work with the maid to tidy up the rooms. While traveling through the hallway to get to the next room, one of the guests walked out of his room.

The artist paused, blinking at the figure.

Was that… Was that his dad?

What was his dad doing here?

They made eye contact.

“...Oh. You’re here,” His dad coughed.

Sabrina blinked, “Do you two know each other?”

“He’s my dad.”

Everyone turned to Nathaniel, surprised.

“Why are you at a hotel?”

“I always stay here when I’m in Paris.”

The teenager blinked, “What about the apartment?”

“I don’t go there unless I need to.”

So this entire time, his dad had left him alone for months at a time, only coming back for a handful of days, on purpose? He could at least excuse it if it was because of business trips, but this…

Nathaniel couldn’t wrap his head around it. 

“Besides, if you’re there, there’s not much incentive for me to stay there while I’m here.”

The artist froze as his dad walked past him.

“Let’s go,” Nathaniel muttered, heading to the next room under the concerned glances of the group.

---

Adrien was stationed at the front desk with Chloe. The two had been spending their time sharing stories about their neglectful parents.

Bonding over shared trauma after all.

Adrien’s personal favorite story had happened less than a week ago.

“I've never noticed your ring before.”

“That’s because I don’t wear it every day Father.”

(It had been a lie, not that Chloe knew that, but Adrien needed to protect his identity.)

They were laughing and joking together when they noticed someone walk through the door and pass them. Chloe coughed to get his attention, but the person didn’t react.

Chloe groaned, “Damnit, not a difficult customer.” She hopped over the desk and walked up to the man wearing a black and blue morph suit. “Sir. Sir. You need to check in. Sir-”

“Oh, I don’t need to check in. I’m just here to get a picture of Jagged.”

“Sir, you can get a picture of him at the concert.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” The man turned around, revealing a mask with a camera on it, “Just look into the lens!”

“Chloe!” Adrien rushed over to try and push his childhood friend out of the way, but he wasn’t quick enough and ended up being caught in the blast as well. 

---

“Wanna talk about what happened?” Alix asked while she and Nathaniel were sorting pillows.

Nathaniel shrugged, “What’s there to say?”

“Maybe something about the fact your dad has apparently been neglecting you on purpose? Couldn’t you like, get him arrested for that?”

“Rich people.”

Alix was reminded of all the times in past years where Chloe abused her dad’s power to get out of punishments, “Ah.”

“I don’t really know what to think honestly,” Nathaniel sighed, “I mean, I always knew he was neglectful. I always assumed it was because he had a ton of business trips and thought work was more important than me. Which is still bad, obviously, but yeah. Now it’s just ‘I hate you so much I want to spend as much time away from you as possible’ and that’s just…” Taking a glance around the room and seeing no other work that needed to be done, Nathaniel took a seat on the couch, “Eh.”

Alix sat next to him, slinging an arm around his shoulder, “Hey. Your dad’s a bitch. Even so, it’s understandable you’re hurt by this. Cause he’s shitty. Fuck him.”

The artist snickered.

“Your living circumstances aren’t going to change from this. He’s still gonna be gone a majority of the time. All that’s changed is the context. And really, when have you ever paid attention to that? You’ve thrived without him before, you can do it again.”

He smiled, “Thanks, Al.”

“Anytime.”

Their conversation was cut off with Sabrina’s shocked gasp and a loud thump.

Everyone rushed over to where she was. Ivan quickly scooped up the unconscious girl, scooting away from the bed.

Alix blinked at the new arrival.

“Oh. There’s a crocodile now. Fun.”

“Does this mean there’s been an akuma happening this whole time?” Ivan asked, placing Sabrina down on the couch.

Alix nudged Nathaniel, “Look, an akuma you didn’t get involved in!”

“Shut up, I wasn’t in the one last week either.”

“Truly a miracle it happened twice in a row.”

He shoved her to the floor.

Chapter Text

Marinette beamed as she bounced her way into her room. Jagged Stone wanted her to make his album cover! This could do wonders for her future!

She should probably get started immediately but she wanted to share the news with her friends!

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS

The Brave : what’s up

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : JAGGED STONE ASKED ME TO DESIGN HIS ALBUM RUGJHFSG

The Child : Really? That’s awesome!

Killer-Looking Sweetie : JAGGED STONE?! HOLY SHIT MARINETTE

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : I KNOWWWWW

BJ : Congrats dudette!

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : Nino. Nino why is your name that

BJ : I TRIED CHANGING IT TO DJ BUT I MISCLICKED

HardcoreLadybugSimp : lmao I won’t let him correct it

BJ : Perush

Redemption Arc of the Century : Perush

BJ : Perish*

BJ : i’m being bullied

BJ : @SunshineChild save me

SunshineChild : Perush

Trouble Magnet : IJGRSKG

BJ : WOW

BJ : pain 

Mom : Marinette that’s so cool!!! Congratulations!!

The Brains : poggers

The Brawn : why have you brought that into our good holy chat

The Brave : ‘holy’

Redemption Arc of the Century : anywhere else would be more holy than this

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : accurate

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : anyways I’m gonna go start working 

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : peace

Sweet-Looking Killer : bye mari!! Good luck!!

Trouble Magnet : if you still need tips on how to use the art program, you can dm me

Dad : There are bad vibes in the air today, i can feel it

Dad : akuma will happen.

Killer-Looking Sweetie : isn’t there always

Dad : fair enough

SunshineChild : shgujk let’s be positive!!! Maybe today Hawkmoth won’t be a little bitch!

Redemption Arc of the Century : oh my god, you’ve been corrupted

Redemption Arc of the Century : fuck yeah

The Child : guys yall should come take self defense classes with me

The Child : we get targeted so often, wouldn’t it be good if we knew how to defend ourselves?

The Brave : @Trouble Magnet

Trouble Magnet : UHGSJRKG I DON’T GET INVOLVED ON PURPOSE

The Brave : says the one who flirts with Akumas

SunshineChild : don’t you also flirt with the heroes

Trouble Magnet : SHSHSHHH NOT THAT OFTEN

Dad : ‘Not that often’ Nath-

Trouble Magnet : I-

Trouble Magnet : i can’t defend myself there

The Brave : haha loser

SunshineChild : noo that’s mean

Trouble Magnet : thanks ho

SunshineChild : NOOOO

---

Marinette fumed as she stormed out of the hotel, pulling out her phone again.

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : I’m pretty sure I just got played by Jagged’s manager

The Brawn : oop

SunshineChild : what happened??

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : The manager was like “Make Jagged’s album like XY’s!!!” so I did!!! And then Jagged was like “>:((( I hate it”

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : but he gave me a second chance so it’s not all bad I guess

Killer-Looking Sweetie : oof that sucks

Killer-Looking Sweetie : at least you can try again?? 

Trouble Magnet : why the fuck are you trying to rush it all in one day Mari rsughjkg

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : He said they had to have it by the end of the day

Trouble Magnet : the fuck???

Trouble Magnet : damn the non-artists and their ignorance of how long it takes to make shit

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : :(( I’m gonna get home and start working again

The Child : Hope Jagged likes your second attempt Marinette!!

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : Thanks Sabrina

---

Nathaniel sketched out yet another drawing of Chat Noir. His collection was growing.

He glanced up at where the news was playing on his computer, showing Ladybug using her yo-yo to steer the dragon, Chat Noir clinging onto her shoulders to keep balance.

The artist placed down his pencil, sighing wistfully, “Oh to be Ladybug right now.”

He’d probably be over his celebrity crush by now, except Nathaniel actually interacted with the hero regularly. With each one, his crush grew and grew.

Nathaniel slammed his head onto his desk.

He better get over this soon. A superhero and civilian dating never worked out well.

---

The Brains : Marinette Marinette about the album you designed

The Brains : did you make the sticker too?

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : mhm!

The Brains : How?? I don’t think you bought it, since ‘leather and sweat scratch and sniff stickers’ isn’t really something you can buy

The Brains : emphasis on the ‘sweat’

Complete Clusterfuck (Lovingly) : That’s for me to know and you to find out

The Brains : MARINETTE

Chapter Text

“This isn’t anything special Plagg,” Adrien rolled his eyes as he slid on his jacket, “I’m just inviting Nathaniel to hang out with me at Place des Vosges, just the two of us!” The model then proceeded to spin around his room, “And then maybe we can get some food together! Oo, maybe we could get something to go and then come back here to watch the ‘World’s Greatest Chef’ finale! If we have time, we could watch some anime, and-”

Plagg chuckled from where he was eating his cheese. He’d step in and make the kid realize his crush but Plagg hasn’t been in the human world for two centuries and he was desperate for some entertainment.

---

Nathaniel smiled at Adrien as they sat in the park together. It really was a nice park. Adrien enjoyed it a lot more when he wasn’t occupied with modeling.

“It’s nice you asked me to hang out.”

“Yep! Just a hangout between friends!”

Adrien might’ve had an ulterior motive for asking Nathaniel to meet him here. With the finals happening today, the loser was definitely going to be a target for akumatization. Maybe if he hung around Nathaniel until the last second, the artist wouldn’t be sucked into the chaos.

Their conversation was cut off by Adrien’s phone chiming.

HardcoreLadybugSimp: Hey Model Magic! Mind helping out Mari for a bit?

Adrien shot back a quick text confirming he could help. Nathaniel peaked over his shoulder.

“Oh, do you need to go?”

Adrien stared into Nathaniel’s blue eyes, wide with curiosity and a hint of sadness.

“You can come with me!”

The redhead visibly brightened up, “Nice!”

---

Nathaniel felt awkward. He was sitting in the passenger seat next to Adrien’s bodyguard while Adrien conversed with Marinette’s great-uncle in the back.

“Oh, my French very bad. Not like your Chinese.”

There were two surprised gasps from Adrien and Marinette and Nathaniel turned back in his seat to watch the conversation.

“I thought you couldn't speak French.”

“Uh, me too.”

“Oh, no, not good. My French not good.”

The redhead squinted, “Oh, now you decide to reveal you speak French? Not back when Marinette was struggling to talk to you?”

“Nathaniel!” Marinette hissed.

“Sorry, sorry.”

---

Marinette smiled as she watched the interview, Nathaniel rocking back and forth next to her.

“Sup, bitches.”

Both Marinette and Nathaniel jumped, spinning around.

“Oh, hey Chloe!”

Chloe shot them a peace sign, “Have fun at the show.”

“Aren’t you a judge?”

She shrugged, “I quit. I’m going shopping.” The girl started to walk away before swiveling around, “Wait, Marinette, what’s your clothes size?”

Confused, the designer gave her answer.

Chloe clapped, turning towards the exit again, “Nice. Thanks. See ya!”

Nathaniel chuckled as she left, “Damn, she’s really changed. If this was the same Chloe as the beginning of the school year, I feel like she’d say something racist.”

Marinette shuddered, “I hate that you’re right.”

Adrien walked up to the two, “Chloe’s not judging? Makes sense, she’d always complain about going on the show when we were younger.”

The girl turned towards him, smiling, “Thanks, Adrien. I'm totally sorry for bothering you for nothing. I really thought he couldn't speak French.”

“No problem Marinette. It was awesome to be able to practice my Chinese, especially with a Shifu.”

“A Shifu?”

“That means ‘Master’ in Chinese. Your Mom's Uncle is a great master!”

Nathaniel stood off to the side, pouting. He was really hoping to spend some time alone with Adrien. But it’s good Marinette and her great-uncle were able to bond. He looked around the lobby some more before zoning back into the conversation.

“He told me he was gonna put flowers in his Celestial Soup. He said he improvises on faithful things that come his way. The flowers he mentioned must be the ones you gave him!”

The artist hummed, “Hey, Marinette, what flowers did you give him?”

She rattled off a random flower species, “Why?”

“Are those… edible?”

---

It turns out they were not in fact edible.

The judges enjoyed the soup, but the addition of something inedible into the meal made them deduct a few points, leading to Wang Cheng not winning.

Marinette frowned as he shuffled away in shame. She slapped herself in the face, whining, “This is my fault! If I didn’t get him those flowers, he would’ve won!”

Adrien rubbed her back in comfort, as any good friend would do.

Nathaniel patted her shoulder, “Hey, don’t blame yourself for his actions. He’s the one who put those flowers in there, not you.”

The designer groaned. “I wanna go home.”

“Let’s wait downstairs for your mom’s uncle, alright?” Adrien consoled her.

“Yeah, go on, I’ll catch up when you guys are in the lobby, just gonna use the restroom real quick.” The redhead waved them off.

“You sure?” Adrien asked. He didn’t want to leave the artist by himself in the large hotel.

“Mhm. Yall two better not leave me to walk home alone like Alya and Nino,” Nathaniel puffed out his cheeks in mock outrage.

Adrien smiled.

Cute.

In a totally platonic way.

“We won’t, don’t worry!” 

The other two made their way towards the lobby, Marinette jumping away from the model once realizing how close they were, almost tripping over her own feet in the process, but they made it down without incident.

It was just a matter of a waiting game at this point.

And then of course an akuma happened.

“Everyone will be able to taste my soup! And then I shall be named World’s Greatest Chef! Cut off all exits!”

Soon after that command, the walls were coated with a sticky orange-yellow goop from outside. It squeezed its way under the door. The blond boy leaned down and scooped some of it up using his finger.

“Caramel?” Adrien licked the substance, “Mmm. It might taste good but it's totally indestructible. Looks like we're trapped inside.”

“ADRIEN, DID YOU JUST LICK THAT OFF YOUR FINGER?!”

---

Okay, so maybe trying to find his way around a hotel he hadn’t visited that often wasn’t a good idea. He was pretty sure he’s passed the same rooms five times at this point.

He was so damn lost.

Nathaniel walked through the hallways, trying to find the elevators, and came face to face with Alya’s mom and Alec Cataldi, both of which had orange eyes.

“Grab him! He shall make a great extra servant.”

Nathaniel only had one thing to say as Alec grabbed him and started dragging him away while Alya’s mom continued on to wherever she was heading.

“Motherfucker.”

---

Nathaniel stumbled as Alec shoved him in front of the akuma. From the looks of it, and the context of the competition rankings, it was Marinette’s great-uncle.

Kung Food pointed at the pool, “Now! Eat soup!”

Nathaniel squinted at the pots behind him.

“Hold on,” He glided past the akuma, looking into the container. “Are these. Are these wholeass lemons?” 

Kung Food huffed, “What would you know about soup?!”

“My mom taught me how to cook,” Nathaniel crossed his arms, “And besides it’s just common sense to not put whole lemons in a soup! Fucking Goku ripoff.”

“My French isn’t very good, I don’t understand what he’s saying.”

The artist squinted, “Wait, is your design actually based off Goku? Damn, Hawkmoth’s racist on top of being a terrorist.”

A butterfly mask floated about Kung Food’s head as he stomped angrily. “I’m not racist! Goku’s design was based off a Chinese myth! So is Kung Food’s and that’s why they look similar!” 

Nathaniel blinked.

“Yes, yes, I can talk through my akumas-”

“You’re a weeb?!”

---

Ladybug and Chat Noir crept out onto the roof, hiding and watching Nathaniel argue with the akuma.

“It’s always him,” Ladybug sighed, “What are they even arguing about?”

Chat stared silently, “Anime. They’re arguing about the best character in an anime.”

“...Just sneak up and destroy the hat.”

As Ladybug captured the butterfly that flew out, Chat turned to Nathaniel, “What was even happening there?”

Nathaniel pouted, “Hawkmoth has bad taste. Makes sense, dude is a villain.” He walked over to Wang Cheng, who was disorientated, “Marinette is downstairs. We should go.”

As the two walked to the elevators, Ladybug and Chat Noir jumped away to quickly go back to where they were supposed to be.

---

“Sorry you didn’t win,” Marinette told him, patting the chef’s arm as the group walked out.

“This teaches me to think more about my ingredients, I suppose,” He chuckled. Marinette smiled and laughed along with her relative.

The other two were trailing behind them. 

“It’s nice they’re getting along!” Adrien cheered.

“Because of you,” The redhead reminded, “There was a language barrier between them before you showed up.”

“Well, he ended up being able to speak French in the end, so I don’t think they needed me there.”

“And yet, he only started talking French after you talked Mandarin.” He shook his head, “You’re so kind. It’s one of the things I really admire about you. You just… care about everyone. I don’t think you realize how hard that can be.”

Adrien blushed, “Oh.”

“You’re really something, Adrien,” Nathaniel said.

Even if Nathaniel hadn’t been able to spend the day alone with Adrien, he felt it had been worth it. Adrien looked like he needed that compliment.

Chapter Text

Marc hovered around the edge of the library. There was an Ultimate Mecha Strike III Tournament going on. The top two players got to represent their school in a city-wide competition.

Maybe he should join? Marc wasn’t the best at the game, but he certainly wasn’t the worst. And even if he didn’t win, he could still have fun! And maybe meet some new people!

The door creaked open and he glanced over to see who entered.

Nathaniel Kurtzberg.

Shit, shit, shit, he was getting out of there.

And in his gay panic, Marc ran directly into a pole.

---

Nathaniel blinked as a red blur squeezed through the door and away from the library.

Strange. He swore he knew that person from somewhere.

“The tournament is now starting!” Damocles announced, “Who’s joining?”

Kim, Nino, and Max (obviously) raised their hands, and to his surprise, Adrien as well. Nathaniel also shyly joined.

Adrien beamed at Nathaniel as they both sat down to battle, “I didn’t know you played!”

The redhead shrugged, “I’m not as competitive, but I play casually.”

The model laughed, “Sorry then. ”

“...Sorry?”

The meaning of that sentence soon became clear when Adrien beat Nathaniel in less than a minute.

Adrien held out a hand to the boy he beat, “Good game.”

Nathaniel grinned, shaking the hand, “Good game.” He sighed, “Can’t say I’m surprised though. Besides we all know Max is gonna win. He's been training since the beginning of the school year.” Adrien hummed.

The competition went on until it was Adrien and Max facing each other in the finals.

“Good luck Adrien,” Nathaniel told him as he sat down to play, a small smile on his face.

The model was suddenly determined to win.

A tense two minutes later, Adrien cheered as he beat Max.

“I guess fifteen years of isolation beats out one year of training!”

Everyone went from celebration to dead silence. Nathaniel slowly walked up to Adrien, “I’m going to give you a hug. Because. I feel like you need one.”

Adrien smiled, accepting the embrace from the artist.

It was at that moment Marinette jumped out from around a bookshelf to join the tournament.

Somehow, she was allowed in and decided to battle against Max.

Adrien watched excitedly as the two fought, “Wow, she’s a really good gamer!”

Nathaniel hummed from his spot next to the model, “I don't know it seems kinda unfair.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“She literally just joined at the end,” Nathaniel continued, “I don't know if mental fatigue is a thing you can get but with how determined Max has been this entire tournament, his fingers are probably tired by now right?” The artist shook his head, “She doesn't have any of that. She just barged into the competition.” He looked up, staring into Adrien’s eyes for a moment, before blushing and looking back at the screen, “Oh, sorry, I'm rambling.”

Adrien hummed, now watching the match with a frown.

Marinette did end up winning in the end. But with Nathaniel’s introspection, now it just felt wrong.

Max ended up walking off, somber, but congratulating Marinette on her win.

For getting something he’s been training months for taken by someone who joined last minute, Max was surprisingly calm.

“Well, I guess I'll be coming over to practice. With my new partner. See you later.” Adrien waved, walking out of the room.

Maybe he should talk to her about it while they were practicing.

---

Marinette smiled as the two played together, “I’m glad we were able to be partners.”

With both this and him helping out with her uncle, they were bound to be closer by now! (Hopefully closer than Nathaniel at least. He went from crushing on her to being her love rival.)

Adrien smiled back, “Yeah, it’s fun! Although…”

Marinette paused the game, looking over to her crush, “What’s up?”

Adrien grimaced, “I don’t know, the school competition was…”

Should he say anything? What if Marinette got mad at him? What if she didn’t want to play and then quit the competition? Then they’d lose and then everyone would blame him for getting their best player upset enough to quiet and all his friends would leave him because he messed up and-

“It’s nothing.”

Luckily, Marinette’s parents came in and he took the opportunity to suggest a snack break in the park.

---

Nathaniel walked into the park, intent on practicing his landscape drawing skills some more, when he noticed someone sitting on the edge of the fountain.

It was the person from the library. Red hoodie, skinny jeans, black hair, fingerless gloves…

The clues clicked together in Nathaniel’s mind.

“Hey, Louvre boy!”

The boy jumped, spinning around, “N-Nathaniel?”

“You go to my school? I saw you in the library.”

“I-I guess so…”

“That’s so cool!” The artist cheered, “I can finally get your name!”

“Oh, it’s…”

He was cut off by people screaming.

Nathaniel turned around, only to be immediately zapped by an akuma.

---

Marc blinked, looking around. He was still in the park. It seemed like only a second had passed since the akuma showed up, but the sun was lower in the sky.

How long had it been?

Nathaniel groaned by his side, “Damn akumas.”

The writer looked over, “Are you okay?”

The redhead looked up at him and smiled, “Yeah. So your name?”

“NATHANIEL!”

Both boys looked over to where someone was skating over to them.

She stopped next to the artist, “Yo, I’ve been looking for you for hours. You good?”

“Akuma got me.”

“Makes sense. Anyways your mom was spamming me with texts asking where you were, so let’s go to your house.” With that sentence, she started dragging him away.

Nathaniel turned back to Marc, waving, “Uh, bye!”

People in the park respectfully turned away as Marc screamed.

Chapter Text

Class photos were… interesting.

Nathaniel woke up an hour earlier than usual just fussing over his appearance that morning because he didn’t want to be seen as the ‘kid who looked weird in the class photo and ruined the whole thing.’

That was probably the anxiety talking, but better safe than sorry.

He noticed Juleka was also looking nervous, although he didn’t know why. But nothing special seemed to happen until they were all on the benches.

The photographer’s camera ran out of battery and while he went to recharge it for a photo, Juleka ran off to the bathroom. Luckily, Rose brought her back in time for the photographer to appear again.

“I want you to flash your best smiles!”

Just before pressing the button, there was a loud noise.

And instead of taking a normal class photo, what he captured were the teens in the top row falling over the people standing in front of them.

Nathaniel felt the ground drop beneath him, causing him to stumble forward. Adrien quickly caught the boy, pulling him closer so he was standing on the second row. “Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah,” Nathaniel looked up into Adrien’s eyes, before realizing Adrien was basically hugging him, face burning red.

Nino stared shocked, before smirking a little at the situation his friends found themselves in.

The artist pushed himself away, fiddling with his bangs, “Thanks.”

Meanwhile, Alya and Sabrina had completely collapsed on top of Juleka, taking the girl down with them.

Chloe had fallen to the ground behind Damocles, groaning.

Everyone turned around. Marinette, stepping into her role of class rep once again, quickly made sure the people who had fallen were okay, although she did huff a little when noticing Adrien caught Nathaniel, “What happened?”

The principal swiveled around, “The third bench’s leg broke.”

Juleka frowned, picking herself up off the ground, “It’s the jinx.”

Rose turned towards her best friend, “I’m sure it was just-”

“I’m just invisible! Forget it Rose! Forget me .”

Juleka leaped over the front row, completely hopping over Mylene’s head (Which was actually pretty cool) and running towards the exit of the school (not as cool).

Rose immediately started chasing after her, shouting her name.

...This was definitely going to result in an akuma.

---

“Nobody's ever noticed me! But those days are over! But from now on, everybody will notice me because everybody will look like me! Time to get a new look! Soon there will be Reflektas everywhere!”

And there it was.

Nathaniel sighed, getting up to run away, as usual. Reflekta jumped into his path, pointing her laser at him, before waiting.

And waiting.

And waiting.

“...Did you want something?” Nathaniel asked, looking around.

“Aren't you going to say something?” Reflekta squinted, “Don’t you always flirt with the akumas?”

“I don’t do it on purpose!” The artist huffed, “It’s a reflex. Like the freeze-flight response. Besides, you’re not even interested in boys!”

“Oh,” The akuma said, “Thanks.” Seemingly thankful she wasn’t going to get flirted with, she hopped away.

A boy who was also running away from the chaos (Probably in a different class, he didn’t recognize the blond haired male.) stopped by Nathaniel, “What do you mean she wasn’t interested in guys? Every girl is!”

The redhead slapped a hand over the guy’s mouth, “Say that again and I rip out your teeth.”

He stumbled back, “Woah, dude, why so angry? It’s in a guy’s nature to flirt with girls.”

Nathaniel kicked his knee, making the guy fall to the ground, “HEY, REFLEKTA!”

“Hey! What the hell?! I don't wanna be a fucking girl!”

The redhead glared at the person, “Motherfucker, shut the fuck up, you’re digging yourself into a deeper hole.”

A beam came and transformed the male. Nathaniel looked up at the akuma standing a couple feet away.

“Thanks bro.”

Nathaniel gave her a thumbs up.

At that moment, a baton launched itself at Reflekta’s hand.

“OW, MOTHERFUCKER!”

Reflekta grasped her hand in pain, tilting it to look at the broken mirror, “Shit.”

---

School was certainly eventful. Marc was glad that Marinette allowed him to come visit her later that afternoon. He had to wait an hour in the bakery though because Marinette was doing something with her class.

“Every single time I try and tell him my name, something always happens!” Marc ranted, “I haven’t told you his name yet, but I know it and I’m suffering.”

“Mhm.”

“...Are you even listening?”

“That sucks.”

Marc huffed, “Oh come on, you complain to me about Adrien, I should be able to complain to you about not being able to tell the cute boy my name.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Marinette finished taping the class photo on her wall, “What were you saying?”

Marc blinked, leaning over, “That’s him.”

“What?”

“That’s the boy I’ve been trying to tell my name to,” The writer stood up, pointing to Nathaniel in the photo.

“Wait, seriously?!” Marinette said, “I could introduce you two!”

Marc spun around, sparkling (metaphorically), “Could you?”

---

Nathaniel swung his legs while sitting in the park. Marinette asked to meet there.

He really hoped this wasn’t some declaration of war over Adrien.

“Hey Nathaniel!”

The artist glanced over to where Marinette was approaching, dragging along…Louvre boy? She stopped next to them, taking a deep breath.

“So! You two know each other but he’s never been able to introduce himself, and we just figured out that I’m a mutual friend!” The designer stepped back and did some little jazz hands at her friend.

“Hey!” Nathaniel grinned, “Can I finally get your name?”

“I’m… waiting for something to go wrong.”

Nathaniel laughed, “Fair.”

The boy glanced around, before turning to him again, holding out a hand, “I’m Marc.” He beamed, “I said it!”

Nathaniel shook the other’s hand, “Nice to meet you properly, Marc. I hope we can become good friends.”

Marc nodded enthusiastically, “Mhm!”

(Marc’s heart was soaring .)

Chapter Text

Marinette sighed as she watched Manon leave, turning back to the Ladybug doll, sewing the arm back on. Her gaze traveled across the rest of the dolls until landing on the Mightyllustrator one. She used it as a villain while playing with Manon, but the character was meant to be Nathaniel’s reclaimed version of his OC.

Nathaniel had commissioned it from her shortly after his birthday, but she ended up just making it for free as a late birthday present. The doll she currently owned wasn’t even the final version. She wasn’t sure which style to make the plushie and made a prototype before making the finished doll.

Marinette was pretty sure Nathaniel still had his doll. She heard him say something about it to Alix as they passed each other in the hallway. Marinette adored the prototype design though and made even more in the same style, leading to her ever growing collection.

She had realized Nathaniel had a crush on Adrien a couple of days after he was akumatized. Those longing gazes and fond smiles from afar were easily recognizable. After all, Marinette did them herself.

They really were similar. Except Nathaniel probably didn’t get jealous every time he saw her and Adrien interact.

Marinette slammed her head on her desk, before slowly looking at the plush again, “Damn you and making me feel bad about my actions.”

If Nathaniel could interact with her with no ill will, she could do the same in return.

She turned around in her chair when she heard footsteps walking up the staircase. 

And of course, because the designer was weak to those baby doll eyes, Manon managed to secure a doll from her.

And if it was the Mightyllustrator doll… Well, character development isn’t a quick path. She could pay to be a little petty.

---

“Nathaniel!”

Nathaniel looked up at the writer from where he was admiring a painting, “Hey Marc!”

Marc beamed. Nathaniel actually knew his name now! This was such a huge thing after all those times Marc had gotten interrupted before introducing himself properly.

“How are you-”

The question was cut off as a white flash appeared at Nathaniel’s feet, making the artist scream and drop his sketchbook. The light consumed his body, leaving Evillustrator standing there. Marc took a step back, terrified.

There wasn’t a butterfly! What was happening?!

Evillustrator looked at Marc, huffing, “You’re not Marinette! I need Marinette! Where is she?!”

Marc choked.

Rude.

“What happened?!”

“I want Marinette!” Evillustrator stomped on the ground angrily, pouting.

That was actually kinda cute.

“She’s going to the movies with her friend. Why do you want her?”

Evillustrator beamed, “Thanks!” He then ran out of the room.

Marc stared after him, before quietly whispering out, “What the fuck.”

---

Nathaniel felt half-asleep. He could only vaguely tell what was going on. The world was fuzzy. His hand was moving? Now his body is moving. Is he in the air?

He just feels tired.

Damn akuma.

---

Marinette took back that line about being able to be petty. As soon as she and Alya had walked out of the car, Evillustrator had flown in on some wings before landing.

The akuma pointed at her, “Marinette! Give me those Ladybug and Cat Noir dolls!”

“Nathaniel?!” Adrien leaped his way out of the car as well.

Evillustrator groaned, “No! I'm Puppeteer! And I! Want! Those! Dolls! NOW!! ”

“Puppeteer? The dolls? I don't-I don't have them. They're at home! Why… Why do you want them, Puppeteer?” Marinette turned when she heard laughter besides her.

Alya snickered as she held up her phone to record the akuma.

“Alya!”

“Chill, I’m not gonna share it with anyone outside the class. It’s just funny.”

“You told me I could have them!” He whined, jumping up and down angrily, “I want them, I want them, I want them, I want them!!”

Alya started laughing while Marinette simply blinked, “...What?”

“Mommy took the doll you gave me away! So I want the others!” Evillustrator crossed his arms and smirked, “So give 'em to me now! Or you'll be super duper sorry!”

She gasped, “Manon!”

Evillustrator groaned, “You don’t even have them! I’m going to get them myself!” With that he turned around and flew out of the subway.

Shit, she needed to transform now …!

---

Nathaniel could feel all his sensations returning at once, followed by a large headache. “Ugh, god, I’ve never had a hangover, but this feels like what they describe it as.”

“Can confirm, feels exactly like a hangover,” Roger rubbed his head.

Alya and Nathaniel just silently stared at him.

Well that was a new fact they learned about their friend’s father.

“You kids okay?” 

Alya blinked, “Marinette’s probably looking for me!”

Nathaniel huffed, “I dropped my sketchbook at the museum.”

Chat walked up to the pouting artist, “I can take you to your house if you want.”

Nathaniel blinked, looking up at the hero, “Really?”

“Yep!” He scooped him up and turned to Ladybug, ignoring Alya going bright-eyed in the background, “I’ll take him home. Can you deal with everyone else?”

Ladybug simply smiled at the sight, “Yeah, have fun with your little ‘friend’ Chat.”

Chat looked confused but shrugged it off.

Meanwhile, Nathaniel felt like his face was about to burn off at any second from how hot it was.

Damn those cute green-eyed blonds…!

---

“Here you go!” Like on his birthday, Chat placed Nathaniel down on his balcony gently.

“Thanks,” He chirped, before fiddling with his bangs, “Um, if you wanted, you could stay over and we could binge anime again?”

Chat frowned, “Sorry, I’d love to, but I'm busy tonight.” He ruffled Nathaniel’s hair, “Stay safe, little tomato.” With that, the hero used his baton to launch himself away.

Nathaniel sighed dreamily, leaning on the balcony railing, putting his chin on his arms, “...I can't believe he called me a tomato.”

…

“Shit, my sketchbook’s still at the museum.” He pulled out his phone, “Maybe I can text Alix to pick it up for me…”

Marc : Hey! You got turned into Evillustrator again and dropped your sketchbook! I picked it up for you, I can give you it tomorrow!

God bless Marc.

---

Alya shoved the video of Evillustrator’s tantrum in Nathaniel’s face, “It was so funny!”

He blushed, embarrassed, “I was being controlled by a five-year-old. Give me some slack.”

“Nathaniel!”

The artist turned around and saw Marc running up to him, sketchbook in hand. 

“Here’s your sketchbook!”

He took it back with a grin, “Thanks Marc! You’re the best!”

Marc smiled, red dusting his cheeks, “It was nothing.”

In the distance, Adrien was feeling an unidentified emotion.

Chapter Text

Sabrina smiled as she walked towards the locker room to get her stuff. She paused as she heard Mylene and Ivan talking to someone from another class. Sabrina vaguely recalled Nathaniel complaining about him while taking the class photos in the park.

“Don’t say that about her!” Mylene argued.

“Am I wrong?!” The boy yelled back, “That little nerd with glasses isn't her own person! Hell, even after the mayor’s daughter stopped treating her like shit, she still follows you two around like a lost puppy! She doesn’t know how to think for herself! She’s a supporter but she’ll never be a main character!”

Ivan stepped towards the person, anger radiating off him. The boy scoffed. Sabrina took a step back, before turning around and walking towards the bathroom.

"They're right... By myself I'm just.... invisible ."

The charm bracelet she had gotten as a gift from Mylene jingled as she walked. She had charms for all her new friends on there.

An akuma phased into the jewelry.

---

“Have you guys seen Sabrina?” Chloe asked, turning around when Bustier announced free time, “She didn’t come back after lunch.”

Mylene bit her lip, “I don’t know. Me and Ivan haven’t seen her.”

With a quick look around the classroom, everyone also admitted that they hadn’t spotted her anywhere.

“I wonder where she is,” Chloe mused.

Bustier smiled, walking over to the blond, “It’s nice you’re worried about her. I’m also concerned.” She turned around to go back to her desk before bumping into something.

There was a loud clatter as objects were scattered. Everyone stared at the items strewn across the floor. Then they heard footsteps before the door slammed open and closed shut again.

“Ghost?!” Nathaniel shouted. Fuck, not another horror thing again. Horrificator was enough.

“I think it’s an akuma,” Adrien quickly reassured him, “An invisible one? I don’t know what they’re doing in here…”

Chloe walked over to the objects, picking one of them up, “This is Sabrina’s. She always carried these things around.”

“Sabrina?!”

“I guess that answers where she went…”

Mylene and Ivan turned to look at each other as the class broke into conversation. Alix squinted at them, “Do you two know something?”

“During lunch, Ivan and I were arguing with someone who called Sabrina invisible,” Mylene explained, “Sabrina might have heard that.”

Chloe stood up, “Are we just going to let her get away?!”

Max coughed, “The bell hasn’t rung yet, we’re not allowed to go-”

Chloe waved at Alya, who gasped, offended.

Bustier sat down, “I’ll excuse you.” She waved towards the door.

---

Marc swung the hall pass in his hand as he walked back to his class from the restroom. He jolted as Bustier’s door swung open and a crowd of students poured out.

The dismissal bell hadn’t rung yet. Why were they running out?

“Oh! Marc!” Nathaniel walked up to the writer. “Hey!”

“Why are you guys leaving class early?”

“One of our classmates went invisible. Akuma things. She ran out. We’re gonna try and find her.”

Marc hummed, “I hope you guys find her. Good luck.”

Nathaniel beamed, “Thanks Marc!” He turned to go down the stairs with his class, looking back with a smile.

The writer smiled back, fighting down the blush threatening to appear on his face, idly thinking of how cute Nathaniel’s grin was.

---

Bustier fiddled with the bucket she placed over her door. It was after school so theoretically no one should come into her classroom since her students went out to find Sabrina.

It was fine if she let them out early, only ten minutes before the bell after all.

“Bustier-”

The teacher flinched as her colleague was drenched in paint.

Mendeleiev looked up, “Why.”

She quickly grabbed a nearby towel and handed it to the other teacher, repeating apologies.

“One of my students got turned invisible. She was in here earlier, so I was thinking if she came back, I could cover her in paint so we wouldn’t lose her again.”

Mendeleiev paused in wiping the paint off of herself, “You really are something, huh?”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not, but I’ll take it as one!”

---

Adrien broke away from the group to transform into his hero persona.

Now Chat Noir, he jumped around the city, looking for any sign of the invisible girl.

“Chat Noir!”

Chat looked down from where he was perched on his baton. A familiar artist was standing there, waving his hands. He dropped down, “What’s up?”

“My class is looking for Sabrina too!” Nathaniel exclaimed, “We split up and said if one of us found her, we’d tell the others in our group chat! I wanted to come search with you so I could tell you if they do find her.”

The hero grinned, “Good plan.” He pulled Nathaniel closer to himself, “Hold on.”

Nathaniel wrapped his arms around Chat’s neck, nodding firmly

Chat tightened his grip on Nathaniel before leaping into the air.

Later, Ladybug would give the boys teasing stares although Nathaniel was the only one who recognized why.

---

Chloe ran, eventually sliding to a stop in front of the one place Sabrina always wanted to go.

“Where do you want to spend lunch?”

Sabrina brightened up, “There’s a botanical garden that I’ve been wanting to see!”

Chloe laughed in her face, “You really think I would listen to you? Hah! We’re going to the hotel like always!”

Sabrina deflated, “Oh.”

She grimaced at the memory. 

With a quick deep breath, she walked in. Chloe followed the path, looking around for anything that seemed unordinary. It really was pretty. She could see why Sabrina always wanted to go here. The blond wandered through the garden some more, pausing once she saw a floating flower over a rock.

There was a small sigh before petals of it started being plucked off.

Chloe stood silently as they drifted away in the wind. She coughed, “Sabrina.”

The flower fell.

“Wait, wait, don’t run!”

Chloe waited to see if the sound of retreating footsteps would appear. Hearing nothing, she quietly stepped closer to the rock, “I wanted to apologize.”

“...Apologize?”

“This entire thing was my fault from the start.” Chloe said, “You’re not obligated to forgive me. But know that you’re not invisible.”

“But…”

“Mylene told the class about the guy. He’s a dick. Don’t listen to him.”

Sabrina chuckled.

“You know, our entire class is trying to find you.”

“They are?”

“Of course. They’re your friends after all.”

Sabrina let out a small laugh.

“Let’s go find Ladybug so she can cure you.” Chloe held out a hand.

The akuma took it.

---

Nathaniel glanced at his phone while he and Chat were taking a break on a rooftop, “Oh!”

Chat leaned over the artist, wrapping an arm around his shoulder to look closer, “Did someone find her?”

“Yeah,” Nathaniel stuttered out, screaming internally from the close contact, “Chloe says they’re heading to the hotel.”

The hero removed his arm, using his baton to call Ladybug.

Nathaniel sighed wistfully behind him as he talked to his partner.

Wish that lasted a bit longer...

---

Ladybug dropped down in front of the hotel, “Chloe.”

Chloe turned around, holding something invisible in her hand, “Ladybug!” She turned towards her side, motioning towards the hero with her head.

Ladybug blinked before she felt something being placed in her hand. It felt like a bracelet. Chat Noir dropped in, carrying Nathaniel. The redhead jumped out of his arms. “Where’s Sabrina?”

Everyone stared at him.

“...Invisible. Right.”

Ladybug turned to Chat, “Activate cataclysm and open your hand.” After he followed her instructions, she dropped the object into his hand, dust falling through his fingers. A butterfly floated out.

She quickly captured and purified it.

Chloe caught a wobbly Sabrina, who looked around confused, “Where am I?”

“Are you okay?”

“I think so,” Sabrina stated, righting herself.

“Sabrina!”

The bespectacled girl was tackled in a hug by an energetic blond.

“Rose, don’t knock her over!” Juleka came running up. “You good?”

Soon enough, more members of the class started appearing, surrounding Sabrina and asking about her well being.

People cared about her.

At the beginning of the school year, she would’ve thought it impossible. How could they like someone who had been helping torment them for years?

And yet, here they were.

Sabrina chuckled, “You guys are too kind.”

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Text

“Marinette!”

The designer turned around and saw Nathaniel running up to her.

He slid to a stop, “Can I talk to you?”

She stifled a laugh. Nathaniel looked down at his shirt before also chuckling, “Yeah, I wore it. Don’t blame me.”

“Sorry, sorry.” The two walked over to a deserted corner in the courtyard. “What did you want to say?”

“About Adrien…”

Marinette stiffened up.

“You like him. And you’ve noticed my crush on him too, right?”

She slowly nodded. Nathaniel smiled.

“Even if we both like the same person, we’re still friends, right?”

“Of course!”

He extended a hand, “Nothing has been set in stone yet. We both still have a chance.”

Marinette blinked.

“I don’t want to be rejected, but I also don’t want you to give up. That wouldn’t exactly be fair. That’s really all I want. Us to be fair. No sabotaging. No quitting. We just keep going until Adrien reaches an answer.”

“Whoever wins Adrien gets him first,” Marinette chirped, accepting the offered handshake.

“We shouldn’t think about this as winning. He’s a person too. He can make his own decisions. And really, it's all up to him in the end. He could even reject both of us.”

She nodded, “You’re right. Best of luck.”

“You too.”

The designer went over to her best friend, who was showing Nino something on her phone.

“Sorry, Marinette, I was just showing my BOYFRIEND my new interview! Did you hear that, my BOYFRIEND, who I love VERY MUCH!”

Marinette giggled at her friends, “Nice to see you two finally got together. Took you long enough.” Nino and Alya made offended noises.

Nathaniel smiled from a distance.

I don’t think I would be mad if Adrien chose Marinette over me. I wouldn’t even be surprised. She’s so much better than me.

He shook his head free of those thoughts. Positive thinking! Like he told Marinette, nothing has been set in stone.

Nathaniel walked towards the library. He needed to return a book. As he entered, he passed by Marc who waved with a friendly smile, which Nathaniel obviously returned. The artist walked to the front desk to give the book back to the librarian. As he turned around to exit, he noticed Adrien looking down at a large book. Nathaniel quietly walked up, “Mind if I sit with you?”

Adrien jumped, covering the book with his arm, “Oh, your shirt!”

Nathaniel looked down at the ‘Hawkmoth fears me, Akumas want me’ text styled in the same way as a fishing shirt before laughing, “Yeah, Marinette made it for me as a joke. But I thought it was funny so I wore it.” He sat down besides Adrien, “What were you looking at? I mean, unless you don’t want me to know, I can mind my own business if you want.”

Adrien giggled, moving his arm off, “You can look.” Inside his jacket, Plagg was shaking his head at how smitten the blond was.

Nathaniel leaned his head on Adrien’s shoulder to get a better look. Adrien reached up, brushing the artist’s bangs out of his face, “Isn’t it hard to see like that?”

Silence.

“Nath?”

The person in question was bright red, screaming internally at the gesture. He managed to stutter out a question to change the subject.

“Are those butterflies?”

Ah, right, Nathaniel wouldn’t know what the butterfly miraculous looks like.

“Now we can get going on our history homework. It's so much more fun doing it together, don't you think?” The new student, Lila, sat down next to Adrien. She perked up upon noticing Nathaniel. “Oh! I totally didn’t notice until now! You're that boy who's always on the news for being involved in akuma attacks!” 

The redhead pouted, “I don't do it on purpose.”

“I mean, your shirt isn’t really helping that…”

Nathaniel shoved Adrien light-heartedly.

Lila’s eyes landed on the book, reaching over and yanking it closer to herself, making both boys jump. “What’s this?”

Adrien nervously laughed, “Just superheroes!”

Lila continued flipping through the book despite the model’s attempts to grab it back, eventually landing on a page that had a picture of another Ladybug themed miraculous.

“Oh, it’s Ladybug!”

“Yeah, can I have my book-”

“You know I actually happen to be very close friends with Ladybug,” Lila crossed her fingers, “We’re like this.”

Nathaniel tilted his head, “When did you become friends with her?”

“She saved me from an akuma who was destroying the street and we started talking and got closer!”

Makes sense. He and Chat Noir were also like that.

“We can chat about it if you want. Not here though. Why don't we meet at the park after school and I'll tell you everything,” Lila continued, batting her eyelashes at Adrien.

There was a loud crash, scaring the trio and causing them to stand up. They looked around, not seeing anything.

Weird.

Adrien’s phone chimed. He looked down at it, “I gotta go! I've got a lesson in 58 seconds.”

Nathaniel nodded as Adrien started to pack his things up, “Bye Adrien!”

The blond put on his bookbag before Lila walked up into his personal space, startling Adrien into dropping it.

“So, the park?”

“Uh, sure!”

Nathaniel knelt down, picking up Adrien’s stuff for him (Although he missed Lila pushing the book behind her legs, out of sight.) He handed it to his crush, smiling, “Here’s your stuff.”

Adrien beamed, taking it, “Thanks Nath!” He then ran out of the room.

The artist watched him go away with a dumb grin on his face. He turned around, seeing Lila attempting to walk away with Adrien’s book in her arms.

“Why do you have his book?”

She jumped, swiveling to look at Nathaniel, “He dropped it!”

“Oh, I can give it back to him,” He reached out to take it back.

“No!” Lila shouted, startling him. She cradled the book close to her chest, suddenly seeming bashful, “I-I want to do it. So I can talk more to him.”

Nathaniel shrugged, “If you want.”

She was going to be in their class and interact with Adrien anyways. There wasn’t really a point in stopping her.

Besides, they were going to be meeting in the park later.

At least, he thinks she invited him. Lila never made it clear whether he was part of the group or not. If he wasn’t, he would just leave.

---

Lila smiled as she threw the book away, settling onto the park bench. Perfect. That model was sure to fall for her now.

Maybe then she’d finally get the love she’d been wanting. She’d had past boyfriends too, of course, but all that love has felt lackluster. With a famous model, it was sure to actually make Lila feel fulfilled. 

“Hey Lila!”

She turned with a bright smile, almost letting it slip off her face when she noticed the redhead was there as well.

Nathaniel shuffled behind Adrien, “Um, I thought you invited both of us?”

Ah, right, he was there when she told Adrien to meet her here. Shit.

“I can leave if you want.”

Oh. He was doing her work for her.

Adrien turned towards the artist, “No, stay! I don’t see why you should have to leave! We’re all friends, aren’t we?”

Nathaniel blinked, before shaking his head with a fond smile, “Right. Friends.”

Lila sighed. She could burrow her way into Adrien’s heart later. It wouldn’t hurt to lie to the artist too. She scooted over, letting Adrien sit next to her on the bench. Nathaniel sat on the opposite side, leaning his head on the model’s shoulder. Judging from how Adrien only reacted by adjusting his shoulder so it was more comfortable for Nathaniel, this was a common thing.

“So as you both know, Ladybug saved my life, but we've become very close friends because of another reason. We have something very special in common- it's what I wanted to tell you about. I'm the descendant of a vixen superheroine myself, Volpina.”

Adrien and Nathaniel gasped in shock, the blond immediately asking if it was true and asking to see her miraculous. Both boys admired the necklace around her neck.

And then Ladybug showed up and started yelling at her.

---

“Miss Show-Off here was trying to impress you and everyone around her.” Ladybug whipped her head towards Nathaniel. “And why didn’t you say anything?!”

Nathaniel slid a little more behind Adrien, “I-I thought she was telling the truth-”

“We’re friends who see each other constantly cause you keep showing up during akuma attacks and you’ve never met her before today! Why would I know her?”

Adrien stood up, “You literally just said you’re friends with him! If that’s true, why would it be far-fetched for Lila to also be your friend?”

Ladybug faltered, “Well, I-”

Lila stood up, “How dare you?!” She ran away, angrily muttering to herself.

Adrien looked at her retreating form, concerned, before turning back to Ladybug, “Hey, what was that all about?! Uh, I mean, weren't you kinda harsh with her and Nath?” The artist was still looking down at the ground, shrinking in on himself.

“I… I don't put up with lies, especially when they're about me,” Ladybug swung away shortly afterwards.

“Jeez,” Adrien huffed, turning to Nathaniel, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Nathaniel stood up, “People yelling at me just makes me upset, ya know?”

“Valid,” Adrien looked around, “I don’t think Gorilla’s picking me up today. Wanna walk home together?”

The artist nodded and they were off. They talked and joked with each other. Adrien probably could’ve gotten home earlier, but he slowed down so he could spend more time with his very good friend.

The two paused as a meteor appeared in the sky, hurtling towards the ground. Nathaniel stared at it, mouth open in shock, “Oh god. This is how we die.”

Adrien took a step away from Nathaniel, turning on his heel about to go find a hiding place.

“Wait, Adrien, where are you going?”

“There’s a bunker at my house, but my dad won’t let anyone not in the family use it, sorry, bye!” Adrien spit out before running away.

Nathaniel sighed, “Rich people.”

---

Gorilla stared down at the artist standing in front of the Agreste mansion gates.

Nathaniel rocked back and forth on his heels, “U-Um, Adrien said that he was coming here when the meteor appeared. I wanted to see if he was okay.”

The man grunted, opening the gates. Nathaniel smiled, cautiously walking in. 

Gorilla led the redhead to Adrien’s room. Hopefully those two would sort out their feelings for each other there.

---

Nathaniel walked into the room, looking around, “Adrien? Are you here?” The room was huge. There was even a second floor! 

Jeez, his father can spend all his money on this but can never spend any time with Adrien.

"Nathaniel?!" Chat Noir jumped through the window, landing in the room.

The artist blinked at the hero, "What are you doing here?"

"What are you -” Chat shook his head, “You can't be here right now!" 

"What? Why not?" 

"Just,” Chat grabbed Nathaniel by the shoulders, throwing open the bathroom door and shoving Nathaniel inside, “Stay in there, don't come out!"

“Okay?”

Nathaniel rocked back and forth in the bathroom, hearing Adrien enter the room and have a conversation with the new fox heroine, who was apparently Lila. Huh. So she was telling the truth. He wondered why Chat Noir wasn’t talking before Ladybug (When did she get here?) started talking, calling Volpina an akuma.

He really hoped Adrien was okay.

---

Ladybug and Chat Noir clung to the framework of the Eiffel Tower, looking up at where Volpina was dangling Adrien.

“You're bluffing. It's another illusion!”

“Wanna bet?” Volpina released one finger at a time.

“No!” Ladybug shouted, reaching for her earrings.

"That's not Adrien!" Chat Noir shouted. He would know. After all, that is him. Although, it was nice knowing his partner cared so much about civilians. The hero chucked his baton at the akuma holding Adrien's body in her hand, the illusion dissipating into smoke upon contact. 

"Oo, clever," Another Volpina purred from above, this one holding a squirming Nathaniel by his collar. The artist was struggling, fingers attempting to move his collar to give him some room to breathe. "Although, I can assure you this one is very much real. What're you going to do?" 

Nathaniel looked terrified (for once during these akuma attacks). Every time before this he has always been able to wiggle his way out of danger through impulsive actions.

Not this time though. 

Chat stared up at him, equally as terrified. His body was frozen in fear at the thought of throwing his baton again, but this time, the hostage was real.

 "Why are you hesitating?!" Ladybug shouted. 

"The risk is too much, I can't do it!" 

Ladybug’s next action is to snarl at her partner, "And Adrien wasn't?! It’s probably another illusion!” She threw her yo-yo at the akuma, the weapon wrapping around her wrist.

That meant she was real.

“Wrong choice.”

And so was her hostage.

Volpina hurled Nathaniel away, the boy screaming as he fell.

“Nathaniel!” Chat launched himself off the tower, quickly catching up to the artist, grabbing him and pulling him closer as he used his baton to stop their descent. “You okay?”

Nathaniel let out a shaky breath, wrapping his arms tighter around Chat’s neck, burying his face in the other’s shoulder. “I kinda want to be on the ground right now.”

The blond nodded, lowering them down, letting Nathaniel step onto the ground before the artist let go. Chat took a moment to make sure he was okay before jumping back up to where Ladybug was staring at dozens of Volpina clones.

“Let’s get this over with.”

---

Lila stormed out of the elevator, clutching her necklace close to her chest.

“Lila.”

She jumped, turning to Nathaniel, “What are you doing here?!”

He huffed, “You threw me off the Eiffel Tower.”

...Oh.

“Hey, come walk for me for a second.”

“Okay?"

Ladybug and Chat Noir watched them walk away.

Chat hummed, “I’m not mad at you, by the way.”

Ladybug stared wide-eyed at Chat Noir, “You’re not?”

“Yeah, she literally had an illusion of Adrien right before that. It was easy to conclude that Nathaniel was an illusion too.” Chat grinned at his partner, “I probably would’ve thought that too if it was anyone besides Nathaniel.”

She smirked, “You’re crushing hard.”

“Crush? I’m not-”

Ladybug chuckled, “With how worried you were for him, I’m thinking otherwise.”

---

The two teens strolled down the street. It reminded Nathaniel of when she was first akumatized and made that meteor.

“So why did you feel the need to lie?”

“Why the fuck do you think?” Lila snarked back, no longer needing to play the nice girl role. “Your entire class has a bunch of people in there with accomplishments. Adrien’s a model, Chloe’s the mayor’s daughter, Marinette has won a Gabriel Agreste fashion contest, you’re literally friends with Ladybug and dating Chat Noir-”

“We’re not dating!” Nathaniel squeaked.

Lila stared at him, rolling her eyes, “If you say so. Point still stands. How am I supposed to compete with that? Everyone would forget me within a week once the ‘new kid excitement’ wore off.”

“They wouldn’t do that.”

“Maybe before, but now that you and Adrien are gonna go around telling people I lied, they definitely won’t.” 

Nathaniel sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder, “Our class is…. Stupidly nice.” 

And I guess I’m part of that since I’m here.

“They’ll understand. And they’ll forgive you.”

Lila crossed her arms, “...You think?”

“They forgave someone who bullied them for the past five years. As long as you’re not an asshole, you’re fine.”

“Huh. Your class really is dumb.”

"You’re part of the class now. That description applies to you.”

---

Even after Adrien had gotten home, Ladybug’s joke had stayed in his mind. Maybe he was overthinking it.

"Why was I so worried about whether Volpina had Nath?" Adrien mused to himself.

"It's cause you care for him a lot, kid," Plagg said between bites of camembert, "As in like-like." 

"Pff, I've told you this before, Nathaniel's just a friend-"

"Kid." Plagg flew up in front of Adrien's face, hovering, "I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me you genuinely believe you don't have romantic feelings for redhead."

Adrien blinked in confusion, "He's just a..." His voice trailed off, "...Oh."

"There it is."

Chapter Text

“Uh, guys, we have bad news,” Chloe said out loud, as the class filtered into the room. She held up her phone, showing a text conversation with Adrien. “He got taken out of school.”

“Wait, really?” Nathaniel asked, “For what?”

“Losing this book that he took from his dad without permission.”

Nino sniffled, “He became more of a rebel. I’m so proud.”

“He’s also out of school , Nino,” His girlfriend nudged him.

“Yeah, uh, that’s not good.”

“Book…” Nathaniel turned to Lila, “Didn’t you have it?”

Lila shifted in place, “Uh, yeah, I took it to impersonate one of the heroes in there to impress Adrien with my lies.”

“Lies?!”

Lila blinked at the class who was staring in shock at her, “Oh. Right. I haven’t told you guys yet. I’ve kinda been lying about all my accomplishments…”

Rose tilted her head, “Why?”

“You guys were all just… amazing. I didn’t know how I could ever compare. So I lied. I wanted to be as grand as you guys were.”

“Aww, Lila!” Rose bounced over, giving the girl a hug, “You don’t ever need to be someone you’re not here. We’re glad you told us.” 

Mylene walked over, “I didn’t even notice. You’d be a good actor. Come over to the drama club sometime!”

“Drama club,” Lila murmured, seemingly thinking about it.

“Fuck.”

Everyone turned to Alya. She put her head in her hands, “I put her interview on my blog.”

Nino patted her back, “You’re still learning. This is a lesson to fact check, I guess.” She merely groaned, but acknowledged what he said.

“So where’d you put the book?” Nathaniel asked.

“I, uh, threw it away.”

“You threw it away?!” The entire class shouted, Marinette running in to see what all the commotion was about.

“How was I supposed to know it was important?!” 

“What’s happening?” The designer asked. Alya explained the situation to her. With a sigh of relief, Marinette said, “Oh, that’s good.”

Everyone stared at her.

“I-I mean, it’s good that we know how to bring him back! We just have to find it!”

“...In the garbage?” Lila asked.

“Yep!” Marinette turned on her heel and ran out.

“Well, you gotta admire her determination at least,” Alya stated.

“She’s skipping class!”

---

Ladybug looked up as Chat landed on the roof. She wasn’t able to say anything before he hugged her. “Thanks for kickstarting my brain and helping me realize I’m crushing on Nath.”

She patted his back, “Anytime Chat.”

He released her, “So, what’s this about Hawkmoth?”

---

During lunch, Nathaniel decided to go to the Agreste mansion and try to tell Gabriel what happened. Adrien didn’t deserve to be pulled out of school because he was a victim of theft.

He walked up to the mansion, jumping as the gate disappeared right in front of his eyes.

...Nathaniel’s seen weirder things.

He continued to enter the mansion, clearing his throat, “Mr Agreste?” Nathaniel yelped as Chat Noir jumped down from the second floor, scooping him up in his arms and jumping away from a book being used as a boomerang.

Chat looked down at Nathaniel, “This is the second time you’ve shown up here with no reason during an akuma attack.”

Nathaniel pouted, “I was trying to bring Adrien back to school.”

Chat’s eyes softened before Ladybug shouted to get his head back in the game.

“He shall never return to school, as he has lost my book of inspiration!”

“You fucking dick, someone stole it from him!” Nathaniel shouted.

Chat and the Collector both paused, turning to him before shouting “WHAT?!”

Ladybug took that opportunity to steal the book using her yo-yo, catching it in her hands and ripping it apart, purifying the butterfly that flew out.

Chat walked over to Gabriel, helping him up, “Are you okay, Faaa...sir?”

“Cat Noir, Ladybug, what happened to me?”

“You were akumatized by Hawkmoth,” Chat perked up, turning to Ladybug, “Wait. That means he isn’t Hawkmoth!”

Ladybug hummed, “Guess he isn’t.”

Nathaniel coughed, “Um, sir, I came over to ask if you could enroll Adrien in school again.”

“How could I do that after he lost my book?”

“He didn’t!” The artist shouted, “Someone stole it from him!”

Gabriel’s eyes widened, “Stole?”

“Yeah, she stole it and then threw it away.”

The man narrowed his eyes, “How do I know this isn’t just a lie to get my son back?”

“If I was lying to you, I would’ve just said someone stole it. I wouldn’t have added on the detail of Lila throwing it away.”

Nathalie ran down the stairs to Gabriel, “Adrien’s not in his room.”

“What?! Where is he?!” 

Chat looked nervous as he reassured Gabriel, “He… must be hiding?”

Ladybug nodded from beside her partner, “Chat Noir is right, otherwise your son would have reappeared right here.”

Gabriel sighed in relief, “Nothing must happen to him. He's too precious to me.” Chat smiled at this.

Soon, both heroes left and Gabriel turned to Nathaniel.

“I’ll think about it.”

The artist smiled, “Thank you.” He soon left as well.

Nathalie walked up to Gabriel, “Are you actually going to put Adrien back in school?”

“We’ll see.”

---

Marinette returned later that day to return the book, claiming she saw in the trash and thought it was interesting, but was only made aware of the fact it was Adrien’s after he had already been pulled out.

The next morning, Adrien was back at school, much to the joy of the class (and his fangirls, but he cared more about the class than those groups of people).

Adrien beamed at Marinette, “I saw you returning the book! Thanks!”

“Oh, it was you, Marinette?” Nathaniel asked as Marinette adopted a dreamy gaze at Adrien acknowledging her.

“I… dug it out of the trash cause I was curious.”

“Kinda weird, but it worked out in our favor!” 

She rolled her eyes and pushed him playfully.

At least the Guardian was able to take pictures of the book before she returned it.

Chapter Text

Chloe hummed happily as she sent out the invites to her party to the entire school. There wasn’t any specific reason for it. She just felt like it.

“Mr. Cuddly is so proud of you Chloe!”

Chloe looked up to come face to face with her favorite stuffed animal being held by her butler.

She blushed in embarrassment, looking away, “Yeah, yeah, I know, just don’t do it at the party."

“But that would make Mr. Cuddly very sad!”

Chloe winced. She really didn’t feel like public humiliation. “Just. Don’t.”

---

Kim motioned to Nino to start a slow dance. With a nod, the DJ complied. He walked away from the turntable and went over to his girlfriend, who was smiling mischievously.

“So, babe, we totally gotta get Adrien to dance with someone.”

Nino smirked, “I’m picking up what you’re putting down.”

“Marinette!”

“Nathaniel!”

Both of them stared at each other. 

“What are you talking about?!” Alya shouted, “Marinette’s been crushing on Adrien for, like, forever!”

“So has Nathaniel!” Nino argued back.

“You know what?” Alya held out a fist, “Rock paper scissors.”

“Deal.”

One game later, Alya was victorious and Nino got dragged into her scheme to get Adrien and Marinette to dance together.

Nathaniel watched from the sidelines. 

There goes his option for a slow dance partner. It would’ve felt weird doing it with anyone in his class besides Adrien and he barely knew anyone not in the class because of his anxiety.

Shame. Slow dancing was actually fun with the right person.

Marc walked over and stood next to the redhead. “Looks like everyone is having fun. Kinda wish I could join. But I don’t really have anyone to ask.”

“I mean, did you wanna dance? We could do it together.”

Marc flushed red, stuttering over his words, “Isn’t that kinda romantic?”

Nathaniel also blushed, just then realizing the implications of his question, “I mean, it doesn’t have to be if you don’t want it to be.”

The other smiled, “Platonic slow dancing then?”

With a laugh, Nathaniel accepted, grabbing Marc’s hand and walking onto the dance floor. “You know, I’m just now realizing the only time I’ve ever slow danced was with an akuma.”

Marc laughed, “I vaguely know. Let me show you.”

He took Nathaniel’s hand in his own.

---

Marinette was on cloud nine! She was dancing with Adrien! Adrien!

Although, her waltz partner seemed to be distracted. Marinette followed his gaze. Adrien was staring at Nathaniel, who was dancing with Marc. She bit her lip. 

“Hey, don’t you know it’s rude to ignore someone while you’re dancing?”

“Ah, right, sorry.”

Sooner or later, Marinette was going to have to acknowledge what she knew this meant. But she’ll ignore it for now and stay in the bliss of this dance.

---

Chloe sat at the bar, texting on her phone.

“Oh, Chloe! Why don’t you give a lucky boy a dance?”

She glanced up to see her butler waving Mr. Cuddly in front of her face. Chloe looked behind her, seeing the room staring at the two. There was a laugh somewhere in the crowd before it spread to the rest of the students. Chloe hunched in on herself as Kim shouted out, “Is that your teddy bear ?!” 

She stood up, walking around the counter, grabbing Jean by the sleeve and dragging him into the kitchen, taking a deep breath before screaming, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

“Chloe-”

“I TOLD YOU ONE THING. ONE THING. AND THAT WAS NOT TO PULL OUT MR. CUDDLY AT THE PARTY! AND WHAT DO YOU DO?!”

“But, Mademoiselle, I was only trying to help!”

“Your help only humiliated me!”

Jean held up Mr. Cuddly, shifting to that oh-so-obnoxious high pitched voice, “You’ve been so nice tonight! Surely you don’t mean that!” 

“Yes I do!” His face fell in shock, making the girl groan. “I’ll talk to you when I want to!” Chloe snapped, shoving the doors open and walking out.

The students seemed to have mostly forgotten about the teddy bear scene, going back to partying without a care, but the embarrassment was still burning brightly in her mind so she stomped over to a corner, sinking to the ground and putting her head in her hands.

“Chloe?”

She looked up to see Rose hovering over her.

“Are you okay?”

“Let me die,” She groaned. Rose sat down next to her.

“Is this about the teddy bear thing?”

“God, don’t remind me.”

“It’s not anything to be embarrassed about, you know. Stuffed animals are great! They just remind you of childhood! You can look down at them..." 

"She's going to have symptoms that will stay with her for life. Constant headaches and the like." 

Rose curled up in the hospital bed, still pretending to be asleep while her parents talked to the doctor. 

She pulled her unicorn plushie closer to her chest. 

"...And know everything will be alright."

"Shockingly optimistic outlook considering everyone made fun of me."

“Don’t worry, Juleka and I yelled at everyone for laughing after you went into the kitchen,” Rose beamed, “She’s such a good friend, isn’t she?”

Chloe sucked in a breath. Poor Juleka.

“Come here, Chloe!” 

Both blondes stood up, looking at Sabrina who was steadily approaching with a hair brush.

“Why do you have a hair brush?”

What followed afterwards was what one could only describe as chaos.

---

Ladybug released the butterfly from her yo-yo, “Bye bye, little butterfly.” She turned to Chloe with a smile, “Thanks for your help today.”

Chloe blushed, looking away, “I was the one who caused it, so it’s only fair.” She walked over to her butler, “Sorry for yelling at you.”

He bowed, “No need for apologies, Mademoiselle. I shouldn’t have brought out Mr. Cuddly when you asked me not to.”

Chloe tilted her head towards the door, “Let’s go back to the party. You can show them your cool bartender tricks where you throw the cups and stuff.”

Chat grinned as the two walked away, “She’s getting better. I’m proud of her.”

Ladybug nodded, “She’s come a long way from needlessly causing akumas.”

---

Adrien snuck back into the party, noticing how Nathaniel was still dancing with Marc, despite the slow dance being over.

But with the wide smile on Nathaniel’s face, he couldn’t find it in himself to be jealous.

Chapter Text

Nathaniel hummed as he sketched out a new drawing, using a picture of Adrien as reference, computer playing the live stream of the Ladybug and Chat Noir interview. 

“Can you confirm that you're dating here, tonight?”

Ladybug shook her head, “I'm very sorry Nadja, but we're superheroes. We're not here to answer such personal questions. Besides, we’re not interested in each other.”

“I suspected as much,” Nadja continued, looking down at the bracelet on her wrist, “Maybe not each other, but do you two have any lovers elsewhere? Like say for instance…” She tapped her tablet, a video being taken from the street, showing Nathaniel and Chat Noir in the distance, sitting on a roof, the artist leaning over to give a quick peck on the hero’s cheek, “A certain civilian?”

Nathaniel’s pencil shot across the page in shock, leaving a dark line crossed through the illustration. Startled, he turned towards his computer screen, where the heroes had a similar expression to his.

“Kiss?!” Chat turned to Ladybug, “When did this happen?”

“I don’t know!”

His phone rang at that time. Nathaniel fumbled with it, answering the call, “Hello?”

“NATHANIEL WHEN THE FUCK DID YOU KISS CHAT NOIR?!”

“On the cheek,” He weakly corrected Alix.

“THAT DOESN’T ANSWER THE QUESTION!”

Instead of giving her what she wanted, Nathaniel simply laughed nervously. The artist glanced back towards his computer, noticing how Ladybug was currently shouting at Nadja for being too intrusive and leaving the studio with Chat following behind, looking like he was going through the five stages of grief all at once.

‘Oh boy, that isn’t going to be fun to explain the next time we see each other,’ He thought as the show cut to commercial.

“Okay, so remember Valentine’s Day? I kinda got dragged along-”

“Like always,” Alix snickered.

“Shut up,” Nathaniel pouted, before continuing his story, “And Chat Noir got hit and I was just talking to him and ending up asking if I could kiss him on the cheek.”

“Confidence? From you?” Alix made a fake crying noise, “My best friend is all grown up.”

He rolled his eyes fondly, “Then he stopped being affected by the akuma afterwards? It was weird.”

The advertisements ended and the studio was back in view. Nathaniel turned towards the show, blinking when he saw a blue woman with red hair and accents.

“Welcome to a new show, hosted by me, Prime Queen.”

He simply sighed, “Of course.”

---

The two heroes landed on a roof, taking a deep breath. Then Ladybug grabbed onto Chat Noir, shaking her partner rapidly, “WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!”

“I DON’T KNOW!”

“YOU GOT A KISS FROM YOUR CRUSH!” She shouted, “CONGRATS, DUDE!”

“THANKS!”

“WHY ARE WE SCREAMING?”

“YOU SCREAMED FIRST!”

The two stopped once they noticed the large screen nearby playing a video.

“Don't be bemused, it's just the news!”

“Nadja?” Ladybug exclaimed in shock.

“Tonight, Ladybug and Cat Noir disappointed all their loyal fans by running out once the truth was shown.” Nathaniel’s room appeared on the screen. “I've prepared some trials just to see how far they're prepared to keep the truth hidden from us.”

---

Nathaniel was tied up, in a speeding train, about to die.

What else was new?

“The rules for my show are simple, admit the truth live on TV that Chat Noir is dating and in love with that civilian over there and I'll stop the train!”

Ladybug said something about superheroes not lying but all that was running through Nathaniel’s mind right now was ‘Oh god, people are probably watching this.’

His mantra of panic was cut off by Chat Noir helping him up and pulling the artist closer to him, “You win. We are dating.”

He choked on his saliva, looking up confused at Chat Noir, mind running a mile a minute.

What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck-

The hero shot him a wink so instead of questioning it out loud, Nathaniel simply nodded silently. The train slid to a stop, making everyone fall onto the ground.

“Guess you fell for me,” Chat flirted as Nathaniel groaned from where he had landed on Chat’s chest.

“Just untie me.”

Ladybug taunted Prime Queen some more to come and fight them herself as Chat undid the ropes bounding Nathaniel.

“Sorry about the whole ‘saying we’re dating’ thing,” Chat said, “We had to stop the train somehow.”

“Oh. Okay,” Nathaniel felt a twinge of disappointment. “It’s fine.”

"But I do have a question. What was with that video?" Chat whispered to Nathaniel, leaning over the other. 

The redhead blushed, "U-Um, well, during Valentine's Day, I wanted to show my appreciation for you always saving the city. So I gave you a platonic cheek kiss?" 

Chat deflated. Damn, he actually thought it was something romantic. Seems Evillustrator's comment about liking Chat Noir really was just a short celebrity crush.

The banter between heroes and villain continued until Ladybug and Chat Noir had to jump through the screen to save Alya.

“Are you okay being left here?” Chat turned around before entering.

Nathaniel shot him a thumbs up, “I’ll get off at the next stop. Go save her.”

With a nod, the heroes jumped into the screen, vanishing. Nathaniel sat down waiting for the train to move. After about five minutes, he realized Prime Queen probably scared the conductor out of the train.

Whelp. Guess Nathaniel was stuck here until the akuma was defeated.

Hopefully the cure brought him back to his room.

(It did, thankfully.)

(Later, Chat Noir stated on the news that they weren’t actually dating and he had just said that to stop the train.)

(Nathaniel was met with a lot of teasing glances when he walked into class the next day.)

Chapter Text

Kim stood in front of Nathaniel and Juleka, hands placed firmly on the balloon pump, “Ready?”

Nathaniel nodded, holding the balloon as it inflated.

“Hey!”

The three of them, Kim momentarily stopping, turned to see Marc approaching.

“Hey Marc!” Nathaniel greeted, “You were invited too?"

The writer nodded with a smile.

Kim meanwhile had returned to blowing up the balloon, but expanded it too much and caused it to explode, sending Kim flying backwards and the rubber being launched onto Nathaniel’s face. Juleka and Marc both jumped.

Marc leaned down, pulling the remains of the balloon off Nathaniel’s face, “How did you not flinch?”

“I don’t really get bothered by jumpscares,” He shrugged.

“Horrificator,” Juleka deadpanned, “Your screams were so loud, even from the courtyard.”

Nathaniel pouted, “There’s a difference between jumpscares and a horror atmosphere!” 

Marc laughed. At this point, he really only knew Nathaniel, but the writer was starting to warm up to the rest of the art club, although he still hadn’t joined yet despite Marinette’s insistence.

Maybe one day…

---

And then, like always, an akuma showed up to ruin everything. Marinette’s grandmother, apparently. She had tried sending her angels after the designer, but the class banded together to use the banners to restrain them.

“Marinette is cool, so don't touch her.”

“We won't let you hurt Marinette!”

“Leave her alone!” Marc added onto the chorus of shouts.

“Is that how you speak to your elders? How rude,” Befana pointed her gun at them.

“Motherfucker,” Nathaniel muttered, before they were all turned to coal.

---

Everyone blinked as the cure turned them back to normal.

“Ah, it’s evening now,” Max said, looking up at the yellow sky.

“I hope Marinette is okay,” Alya put down the plate in her hand.

Marc looked around at the class, who seemed to be going back and checking to make sure everything was alright, “Are you guys not freaking out?!”

“It happens too often for us to care anymore to be honest,” Alix shrugged.

Nathaniel patted Marc’s shoulders, “Sorry you got dragged into this. It’s usually just our class.”

“You people are all insane.”

“Aw, come on,” The artist grinned, leaning onto the other, “You love us.”

Marc swallowed hard, before laughing, turning away to hide the blush on his face, “Yeah.”

It’s just one person in this class though…

Chapter Text

Marc bounced his leg from where he was sitting on the stairs, watching the fencing team from a distance. He chuckled as Marinette stumbled over her words in front of Adrien. 

Marc adored Marinette, he really did, but it was just funny seeing how flustered she got near her crush.

“Hey, Marc.”

Marc yelped, swiveling around to see Nathaniel leaning over him.

“O-Oh, Nath! What’re you doing here?! Well, I mean, of course you’re here, this is school, and you have art club after school, which has probably ended by now and you’re going home, maybe, and I’m on the stairs-”

Nathaniel cut off his ramblings with a small laugh, “You got it. What about you?”

He gestured to where Marinette and Adrien were fencing, “Here to help Marinette.”

“By sitting on the stairs and doing nothing?” The artist joked, sitting down next to Marc.

“Moral support, mainly,” Marc chuckled, pulling out his journal, “It’ll be a good opportunity to write at least.”

“You write?”

He froze, “Uh, yeah.”

Nathaniel smiled, “That’s cool! Could I read some?”

“No!” Marc yelled, startling Nathaniel. He hunched over his journal, holding it close to his chest, “It’s, um, private.”

He really did not want Nathaniel to see all the stories he had written about him.

“Oh I get it,” Nathaniel said, “Sorry for bothering you about it.”

“It’s fine,” Marc mumbled.

“Might be a little late in asking, but can I sit next to you?” Nathaniel asked, “We don’t really get to see each other all that often.”

“Go ahead!” Marc said, perhaps a bit too excited, but Nathaniel didn’t pick up on it, taking a seat when Marc scooted over.

They talked more, Nathaniel taking a small break to wave at Adrien when the other had taken off his helmet, before going back to his conversation with the writer.

“Hey, you! Are you Mr. D'Argencourt, the fencing master? I wanna join your team.”

Everyone turned to the new arrival as they marched into the room.

“A new foe has appeared,” Marc murmured, Nathaniel snorting at the reference.

As the masked figure challenged Adrien to battle, Marinette walked over to them, “If he wins, then I’ll never be able to join the team!”

“Marinette, you literally have shown no interest in fencing before this day,” Marc said.

Marinette sputtered while Nathaniel snickered. The designer pouted, “You’re right, but you didn’t have to say it.”

“Do your best!” Nathaniel cheered. Adrien beamed under his mask at the support.

“Prêt... allez!”

The group watched the matches go on with no clear winner.

Nathaniel eventually got bored and started talking to Marc again. Marinette still watched in awe as they removed the cords and began again.

Adrien peeked past his opponent to see if Nathaniel was still watching. He huffed, noticing that he was more focused on the boy next to him. 

Maybe he should’ve declined the offer to fight. Then Nathaniel would be talking to him, and that’d be more preferable than the situation right now. 

The other person screamed, lunging towards him, “Pay attention to the match!”

The shriek brought Adrien back into the fight, his hero instincts coming into play as he quickly parried, doing a countermove in response and landing a hit.

The teacher cheered, “This victory is an honor to D'Argencourt Academy!”

Adrien held a hand out, pulling his mask up, “Good match!”

The other person took the offer, shaking it before walking away, taking her mask off. 

“Oh my god, she’s cute,” Marinette murmured, staring at her in shock.

With a huff, she took her sabre and stabbed it into the ground before walking out of the school.

Marc blinked, “I thought those were supposed to be flexible?”

“They are?” Marinette said, also confused.

---

“Hey, wait up! You left your sabre!” Adrien called out, running after her, clutching the forgotten sabre in hand. She turned around as he finally caught up, “We can do a rematch one day right? You were a good opponent! I’d love to fence with you more!”

“What's the point? You won.”

“This time, but what about next time?” Adrien smiled.

“There's no such thing as a second chance in my family,” She stated, turning around and getting in her car, “Goodbye.” It quickly drove off.