Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Look,” she said, storming into his apartment, “I need you to be discreet. And strong.”

“Will it really kill you to knock, Chloé?” Nath asked, putting the book he was reading away and getting up to meet her halfway into his living room and prevent her from entering father into his flat.

“Well, it’s you who never locks the door and anyway, this isn’t relevant now. I have a problem and you must help me. Let’s go!”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Nath retorted. “It’s your problem, so deal with it yourself. Now be a dear and leave my flat, Chloé.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Nath! Just do what I tell you!”

“No,” he answered, turned his back on her and back to the couch, hoping against all reason that Chloé would just leave him be.

But, of course, he didn’t have such luck, because she exclaimed “But whyyyyy?!” and followed him, stomping loudly and making him wonder if it’d be easier to just do what she asks of him. After all, Chloé Bourgeois was a very persistent person with a very loud voice. But she also was an extremely unpleasant person and he was not to be bossed over by her.

“Because I don’t want to, Chloé. It’s that simple. You just mind your own business and I’ll just mind mine and we can both be happy.”

She walked over to the couch and stood in front of him, arms crossed, impatiently tapping her leg on the floor.

“But you must help me! Look, daddy’s coming to visit me and he’ll be here in a few minutes and if you don’t help me I’ll be in major trouble, so let’s go!”

“I’m sorry, Chloé, but I don’t really care. Please, leave,” sighed Nath. Maybe if he closed his eyes and wished really, really hard, she would disappear.

“Look, if you don’t help me, I swear I’ll pee under your door tomorrow morning and you know me, I’m that petty! So get your ass up and follow me!”

Ok, so no, she won’t disappear, and yes, she was that petty. Well, maybe she won’t exactly pee on his door mat, but she’ll certainly find a way to get back at him. At least he can go and see what that problem of hers was. He can always come back to his apartment. And lock the damn door this time.

The problem turned out to be a man. A man lying on the floor of Chloé’s living room and not showing any signs of being alive.

Nath couldn’t help but to exclaim, “Holy shit, Chloé, did you kill someone?!” just to receive a blow on the shoulder from her.

“Stop staring already! He’s not dead! Any anyway, I didn’t do anything to him, it was a cruel twist of fate.”

Well, it didn’t seem plausible that she had nothing to do with an unconscious man in her own apartment, but maybe the less he knew, the better. If the man dies, he would be able to honestly tell the police that he knows nothing and has nothing to do with it. Though he strongly suspected that Chloé was set on making him have something to do with the man.

“Okay, I’ve seen enough, I have to go now,” he said and tried to turn back and run away home, but Chloé swiftly blocked the exit and grabbed his arm.

“No! You can’t!”

“Look, I believe you that he’s not dead,” said Nath, hoping to reason with her, “but I don’t see how I can help you. I’m not a nurse and it seems that he really needs one right now. Call the ambulance, ok, Chloé? They’ll help you, I’m sure. And I can just go home, and it’s gonna be ok, Chloé, now let go off my arm, please.”

“No! You don’t understand! I can’t leave him here so that my daddy sees him, how can’t you see it?! Can you even imagine how pissed off he’d be if he comes to visit me and finds an unconscious man in my apartment? And it doesn’t matter that Lorenzo is gay as a rainbow, daddy just won’t understand and he’ll get so angry, and he won’t let me stay here or he’ll cancel my credit card, and don’t you understand, this is gonna be a disaster!” She finally stopped to catch her breath but then nervously continued, “So anyway, you need to take him to your apartment and hide him in there until daddy leaves, ok?”

“No way! Also, does you dad really still believe that you’re a pure and innocent flower?” Nath asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“Of course he does! And I am!”

“Yeah, sure, you’re just the epitome of innocence…” Nath muttered under his breath, but unfortunately loud enough for Chloé to hear.

“Are you mocking me?!” she exclaimed, almost choking on air.

“You’re very observant, Chloé,” Nathanaël couldn’t help but smirk at Chloé’s indignant reaction.

And then he realized that he was looking her right in the eyes, smile still on his lips, her hands still clutching his arm. A feeling akin to embarrassment made him yank his arm out of her grip and head to the door, saying, “Sorry, Chloé, but I don’t think I can help you here.”

“Wait!” she called after him and for some reason he did. Was it the anxiety in her voice that made him stop? Was he starting to see Chloé Bourgeois as an actual human being? Well, he certainly did seem human that last time, crying in his hallway, but still, she was Chloé Bourgeois. He was starting to feel angry with himself for being so soft, didn’t he know too well what a little spoiled brat she is?

And yet he stopped and waited, turning to face her. Chloé was silent for a few moments, and then said in a really unhappy voice, “Okay. I really hoped I won’t have to resort to this, but I guess I don’t have any choice. Please.”

“What?” He couldn’t believe his own ears. Did Chloé Bourgeois just say ‘please’ to him? Wow, this really was something.

“Please. I need you to help me. I promise you that he’s not dead and he’s not gonna die on you, so please take him to your apartment, Nath!”

As he was dragging the man into his apartment, Nathanaël wondered that on earth made him agree to help Chloé Bourgeois out in that stupid and crazy scheme of hers. Anyway, it’d probably do her good if her father got angry with her for something like this and stopped indulging every wish of hers. And at least she could’ve helped him to drag this friend or whatever of her into his apartment and put him on the couch. But, of course, it was below her, and all she did was to promise him she’ll come back as soon as her father leaves. And then Chloé hurried away to her flat and he was left alone with an unconscious man he’d never seen before in his life and a very bad feeling in his chest. A presentiment that Chloé Bourgeois chose him as a potential candidate for the now vacant position of her highness’ page-boy.

If only he’d locked the damn door that day two weeks ago.

Chapter Text

There was a girl in his apartment. That was wrong, very wrong.

He was sitting at the computer, trying to start an assignment, when the door to his flat just swung open and a girl burst into his hallway, shutting the door behind her.

It took his a couple of seconds to get up and ran to the hallway and then a couple more to recognize the girls face. Now this was not only wrong, but also scientifically impossible.

The girl was Chloé Bourgeois.

“What the actual fuck?!” he exclaimed, trying to make sense of whatever was happening.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered.

“That’s my question!”

“Tsss! Be quiet!” she darted forward and put a finger to his lips, looking at him with her eyes wide open. Nath was going to protest, but then heard a male voice in the hall, yelling: “Open the door, Chloé, I know you’re there!”

 The sound of the voice made Chloé visibly flinch, so Nath nodded, agreeing to keep quiet, and put her hand away from his face.

For a few moments they just stood there, while Nath was trying to fit the girl in front of him in the image of Chloé Bourgeois he knew so well. It was not an easy task, because she looked so unlike herself, the perfect, cold, proud and polished princess Chloé from high school. The girl in front of him had no trace of a princess in her – she looked disheveled, her hair in a messy bun, her face free of makeup, clearly tired, her eyes a bit swollen, dark circles underneath. And she was – he couldn’t really believe his eyes, but it had to be true – she was wearing a onesie?! Very cute bee onesie, Nath noted to himself, though not exactly Chloé style. Stop! This was not the moment to be thinking about Chloé’s onesie, even if she looked adorable in it. Back to reality, Nath, back to reality.

What on earth could’ve made Chloé Bourgeois look like this? And why was she in his apartment?

“Look, Chloé” he said in a low voice, “you really must help me out, because I do not understand what’s happening, like, at all.”

“It’s my ex-boyfriend!” she whispered.

“I’m sorry?” If that was her answer, it only made matter worse in terms of comprehension.

“My ex-boyfriend is here! Under my door! Which happens to be just next to yours!”

“Okay. Then why are you behind this door?”

“God, are you dumb? Because I can’t let him see me, not like this!”

Oh yes, an insult. Good old Chloé, always a little bitch.

“So you decided that you need your secret hideout, which just happens to be my flat, or what, Chloé? Your explanations are really not helping!” Why was he even talking to her? Shouldn’t he have hustled her out already?

“No, I didn’t,” she whispered vehemently. “Ok, look. I just broke up with this son of a bitch, so I’m really not in the best shape right now, and I accidentally broke my phone yesterday, so I wanted to use the one in the hall to order some food. Anyway, as I left my flat I saw this… my ex come out of the elevator, so I panicked and tried to hide, and I just pushed the closest door and it was unlocked and it turned out to be your door and anyway, you should lock your door if you don’t want visitors.” She blurted all that out frantically, without stopping, and now was looking at Nath, waiting for his reaction.

Okay, this made a little sense, but Nath had no intention of being dragged into Chloé Bourgeois drama. It was bad enough that she turned out to be his neighbor, since he liked that apartment. But, as everything in life, it was bound to have a drawback, and it seemed that the drawback was standing right in front of him.

“I’m sorry for you and your boyfriend,” he said finally, “but you have to leave my place.”

Yeah, sure, like he could ever feel sorry for Chloé. And it was probably good riddance for her boyfriend, whomever he was. What on earth can make anyone want to date this girl, honestly? Still, Nath had to try to be polite with Chloé, even if he didn’t want to.

“What? I can’t! Why are you not understanding!”

“Well, I just don’t, and I don’t really think I need to understand. Look, Chloé, the door is just behind your back, bye-bye!”

“But I can’t leave! He’s still outside!”

“Great, you’ll just talk it all over, now bye!”

He tried to push her lightly toward the door, reaching his hand out to grab the knock, but the blocked the door with her body, not letting him open it.

“I can’t leave and let him see me like this!” she exclaimed in a loud whisper. “I can’t! I have my pride!”

“That you do have, yeah.” Nath agreed more for himself than for Chloé. “But really, I’m sure you’ve had better days,” he made a noncommital hand gesture towards her whole disheveled outlook, “but I just don’t see what’s the big deal. Breakups are tough for everyone, he’ll understand if you don’t look perfect, it’s not the end of the world. If I can survive seeing you without makeup, he can, too.”

“You just don’t understand!” Chloé exclaimed and with horror Nath saw her eyes well up with tears, “He cheated on me with Sabrina!” and she broke down in sobs.

That was a disaster.

Chloé Bourgeois was crying in his apartment and, to make matters worse, he was feeling sorry for her. He’d never imagined that he could feel sorry for Chloé Bourgeois, but even with how she treated Sabrina (and virtually everyone else), he wasn’t sure she deserved it.

“Okay, come in,” he heard himself say, “you can wait here for a little bit until that guy leaves.”

Sure, it wasn’t how he imagined the day going, but she was crying and he couldn’t exactly throw her out in that state, could he?

She followed him in the apartment, and landed on the couch, still crying. Nath sat as his desk, uncomfortably, trying to determine what to do now. Was she waiting for him to comfort her? Hell no, he wasn’t able to do that for dear life. What would he tell her, anyway? Anyway, it didn’t seem like she wanted him to do anything, so he decided to just ignore Chloé and let her have a good cry.

“Do you have tissues?” she sniffled.

He threw a pack of Kleenex on the couch and tried to block her out of his mind. Maybe she’ll just sit there very quiet and then leave, and he won’t even notice and this nightmare will be over.

For a few minutes she indeed was quiet, except for some sobs here and there, but then he heard a faint voice from the couch, “Nath, do you by chance have anything to eat? I’m still hungry…”

An annoyed answer was ready to leave his lips, but then he looked at her, eyes red from tears, curled up on his couch, just like a small hurt child, and he just sighed.

“There’s some pizza left, I think, but it must be cold already.”

She mumbled something that sounded like, “That peasant food again,” and gave another sob. Nath preferred to pretend he didn’t notice, saying, “Kitchen is that way. Help yourself, Chloé.”

She got up and headed for the kitchen. Nath felt a little uneasy at the thought of Chloé rummaging through his kitchen alone, but he had absolutely no desire of helping her and anyway, she couldn’t do much harm in there. He was surprised, if not proven wrong, when in a minute or so he heard her calling, “Hey, don’t you have a corkscrew? I can’t find it.”

Why the hell would she need corkscrew for pizza?

When he got to the kitchen it turned out that Chloé had found a bottle of wine in his fridge and wanted to open it. Well, he didn’t really think that Chloé really intended on making herself feel at home.

He snatched the bottle out of her hands and put it back in the fridge, saying, “I don’t have one – I always forget to buy it, but I really don’t think you need wine right now.” Her eyes went all teary again, which meant that he had to fix the situation fast before she started crying again. “I’ll make you something better,” he suggested, “I cup of hot cocoa is all you really need. Come back to the sofa, I’ll bring it to you.”

God, was he really going to make hot cocoa for Chloé Bourgeois? But then, what choice did he have? He didn’t like her, but it was easier to not like her when she wasn’t crying. Her tears made him extremely uncomfortable, since he couldn’t bring himself to comforting her and he wasn’t used to having people cry around him.

He come back to the living room with two cups of hot cocoa – one for Chloé and one for himself, walked to the couch and hold out a cup for her. She took the cup, but instead of thanking him, complained, “You forgot to bring the food.”

As if he should’ve expected anything else from this girl.

He sighed, came back to the kitchen, microwaved the pizza for her and brought it to the living room, secretly hoping that she’ll choke on it.

“Here, your highness.” He put the plate in front of her and sank in the chair, holding his cup of cocoa. She took a bite, look at him and asked, “Don’t you want me to tell you what happened?”

Eh?

“Not really – I mean, you already did, kinda…” he stuttered.

“I walked on them! Him and Sabrina, having sex! And we’ve been dating for three month already! And Sabrina, how could she?! We were friends!”

“Well, you seem to have a habit of barging into people’s rooms… Maybe you should try knocking first?” he said without thinking and realized that he’d made a big mistake when she threw a cushion at him and burst into tears.

Okay, that was partially his fault, so he’ll have to do anything. Even if those words were terribly difficult to say, even if he wasn’t sure he really meant it, he said, “Look, I’m really sorry for you. I’m sure it must be a really hard time for you right now, but in reality he didn’t deserve you and you’re lucky you got rid of him. You can make better than a cheater and a liar. And with Sabrina it must’ve been a low blow, since as far as I know, she’s your only friend, but you can make new friends. Better friends. You shouldn’t cry because of people like this, Chloé.”

“Do you really mean it?” she asked, stifling a sob.

“Yeah… Yes, I do –‘’

‘’—I mean, about me making better friends? Do you think it’s possible?”

“Oh – yes, I do think so.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yes, I promise – as long as you try to be nicer to people, too. Now stop crying, Chloé, and eat,” he said. She wiped her yes, took a slice of pizza and curled up on his couch. They just sat in silence while she was eating, Nath sipping his cocoa and hoping that he won’t get involved into the Chloé Bourgeois drama any further.

“Can you look if he’s still outside in the hall?” she asked.

“Yeah, sure.” Nath got up and walked to the door. He looked outside and was relieved to see that the hall was empty.

“He left. You’re free to go.” Nath told her.

She got up after a slight pause and headed for the door. As she walked past him, she stopped and said, “Buy, Nath. And thanks, I guess. For not laughing at me.”

“Bye, Chloé. And you’re welcome.”

As the door closed behind her, he wondered if Chloé Bourgeois can really change.

Chapter Text

Nath was brought back to reality by the sound of a man groaning – it was Chloé’s friend, who finally came to and was looking around, apparently struggling to understand where he was.

“Hey,” Nath said, walking over to the couch and standing beside it so that the man could see him. “How are you feeling?”

“Who are you? And where I am?”

“I’m Nath, Chloé’s neighbor and you’re at my apartment. I don’t know what happened to you, but you were unconscious and Chloé’s dad decided to come over, so she asked me to move you to my place. It doesn’t make much sense, but that’s all I know.”

“Nah, I think I understand. I guess I really can’t do cartwheels.”

“Cartwheels?” repeated Nath, taken aback. Did the guy damage his head or something?

“Yeah, I was trying to prove to Chloé that I can do cartwheels, but I haven’t done it since high school and I guess I forgot how… I think I hit my head on her coffee table.”

“Are you feeling okay? Does your head hurt? You know, you could have a concussion or something.”

The man dismissed him with a wave of hand. “Nah, I’m fine. I guess.” He sat down and felt his head, wincing a little bit. “I’ll survive. I’m Lorenzo, by the way.” He held his hand out and Nath shook it. “So, Nath, why haven’t I ever heard about you from Chloé? It’s not like her not to mention an attractive neighbor.”

“Well, I’m not sure I’m on her list of attractive neighbors.”

“Why not?”

“Well, we’re more of ‘ex-classmates who have nothing in common and just happen to live next to each other’, I think.”

“So you’re her ex-classmate?” Lorenzo asked, suddenly becoming more animated. “What was she like in high school?”

“Ehm… Not nice?..” How can he really describe what Chloé was like, given that this man is supposed to be her friend? He can’t exactly tell him that she was a terrible person back then, right?

“Oooh, that’s intriguing! Tell me everything! What not nice things did she do? Was she pretty back then? Do you have a photo? Did she wear braces? Did she have – “

At that moment, the flat door flew open and Chloé barged into Nath’s apartment.

“My dad had an urgent call and had to leave, so I came here as soon as I could – oh, you came to!” She exclaimed, seeing Lorenzo. “Great, let’s go, I can give you a ride home.” She walked to the couch, took Lorenzo by the hand, helped him get up and led him to the exit.

“Hey, maybe you’d better get him to hospital, he could have a concussion…” Nath suggested feebly.

Chloé dismissed his words with “Oh, don’t you worry, he’ll be fine,” and left, telling Lorenzo, “You should be glad you hadn’t broken my table, really, you and your stupid ideas…”

The door shut close behind them, leaving Nath alone, thinking that at the very least he deserved a thank you. Well, what did he expect from Chloé? That was so typical of her. Anyway, now she was out of his hair and that was good enough for him. He sighed and went back to his book, trying to remember what page he was on before she appeared.

After a few minutes of unsuccessful attempts, he realized that concentrating on the book was impossible, closed it and decided to go out and buy some products for dinner.

When he returned home an hour later, there was a post-it note on his door, saying, “Hey, I forgot to thank you for helping me out today. Take this as my gratitude. Chloé.”

She also left a paper bag on his door handle. Nath looked inside – there was a box of cupcakes. He smiled, took the bag and the note and entered his apartment, thinking that maybe Chloé isn’t half as bad now as she was in high school.

 For the next couple of days he hadn’t seen her. Which was a relief, he told himself. A huge relief.

The cupcakes were nice, though.

He woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of thunder. There seemed to be a heavy storm outside; the rain was hitting his window loudly, a lightning flashed, followed by another deafening roll of thunder. He found his phone and looked at the time. 4:26. He lied back and closed his eyes, but couldn’t fall asleep again – the rain and the thunder were too loud, almost making him uncomfortable. He just laid awake, trying to remember when was the last time they had a storm that heavy before.

Suddenly he heard some noises in the hallway – a door opening, the sound of footsteps and then a voice.

“Nath! Nath! Where are you?”

He recognized the voice. Chloé.

“What the fuck,” he thought and got up, heading to the hallway and trying to turn the bedroom light on. It didn’t work, for some reason, so he found the door in the dark and left the room, coming to meet the visitor. She was standing in the hall, holding a phone in her hand and using it as a flashlight.

“Chloé, is that you? The light is to the left from the front door, turn it on – ”

“The lights don’t work – nothing works, actually! Nath, why nothing works?” It was too dark to see the expression on her face, but her voice sounded worried.

“Well…” he said. How is he to know, actually? Who did she think he was, a maintenance worker? “I suppose, it’s because of the storm, something has happened, probably, so the electricity is off, I don’t know.”

“When will it be on again, then?” she demanded.

“God, Chloé, how would I know?! I have no idea, but I guess they’ll fix it soon enough.”

“And how long is that?”

“I just told you I don’t know! Maybe a few minutes, maybe a couple of hours, your guess is as good as mine.” He was getting a bit annoyed with her questions, honestly. Besides, her being in his flat in the middle of the night didn’t really make much sense.

“Why are you here, anyway?” he asked.

“Oh, you know – I was just worried, I mean, the lights are off, and so I thought, maybe you can help, so well –“ A lightning flashed, followed by a loud roll of thunder, and Chloé inched forward, closer to him. She was rambling and her voice sounded nervous – it can’t be, thought Nathanaël, surely Chloé can’t be afraid of darkness – or was it the storm? To him, she always seemed the type of person whose only fear was a bad hair day. Surely, she can’t have such a childish fear as darkness, can she?

“Are you scared?” He asked

“I’m – I’m not scared! I’m just… uncomfortable.”

Oh, really? He couldn’t resist teasing her.

“Well, if you’re not scared, you can go back to your place, right? Good night, Chloé, and thanks for coming by.”

“No! – I mean, it’d be a shame to go back so soon. I mean, we haven’t kept in touch since high school, and it’s been such a long time, so maybe we can just… you know… chat?”

He snorted. Yes, it was just the time and a place for a little chat. Just two childhood friends reminiscing their golden years at half past four at night.

She was definitely scared.

“What are you afraid of? Darkness? Or the storm? Or both?” He asked, unable to hide his amusement.

“I just told you I’m not scared!”

“Both then.”

She didn’t answer.

“All right, you can stay until the electricity is back on,” he said. “But let’s grab something to eat, I feel hungry.” He turned to go to the kitchen, but the apartment was so dark he wasn’t sure he’d be able to find his way without walking into the furniture, so he closed the few steps between himself and Chloé and reached his hand out. “Hey, give me your phone. I left mine in the bedroom and it’d be hard to find in the dark.”

“Why do you need it?” she asked, defensively. Did she expect him to look through her selfies, find the ugliest one and post it online?

“I just need a little light to move around, so that I won’t trip over my couch or something,” he explained.

“Oh, okay,” she gave him the phone. Figuring that she’ll have even more problems finding her way around the apartment than he would, he took her hand and led the way to the kitchen, using the phone’s flashlight. He was a bit surprised that she didn’t protest, but she just followed him, her hand so small in his, but surprisingly hot to the touch.

“You hand’s cold,” she complained.

“Yeah, it’s always like this. My hands just never get warm, I’m already used to it,” he said, reaching the kitchen and throwing some light at a chair as that she could sit down.

“That’s terrible,” she answered absentmindedly as he walked over to the window. The streetlights weren’t working, either. It seemed that the power went out on the whole street.

“I hope the blackout will be over soon.” He started moving around the kitchen with her phone in hand, trying to find something to eat. “Well, I can’t offer you tea or cocoa since we can’t heat water now,” he said, rummaging through his cupboard and finding a box of cookies. “And I don’t really have anything else, except…” he trailed off, opening the fridge and flashing its insides. “Yeah, except milk. So, how about milk and cookies?”

“Ewww! Milk is gross. What are you, five?”

“What are you, five, says a person who’s afraid of the darkness.”

“I’m not afraid of the darkness!”

“Yeah, sure. Besides, I believe, drinking milk would’ve done you good. I don’t think you’ve grown an inch since high school, Chloé.”

“My height is perfect, thank you!” she answered indignantly, “It’s you who’d grown all… tall and lanky. Anyway, I can’t believe you’ve fallen a victim of pro-milk propaganda.”

“It’s good for your bones. So, do you want it or not?”

“I’ll pass, thank you. Milk is only good in cereal, how can you drink it like that?”

“Perfectly fine, Chloé. Anyway, your loss.” He poured himself a glass of milk, grabbed the cookies and sat down, turning the flashlight on her phone off, leaving them in complete darkness.

“So what do you want to chat about?” he inquired.

“Are you teasing me again?”

“Just a little bit,” he confessed. Actually, there was a question that’s been bugging him ever since he found out that she was his neighbor. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah.” There was a certain hesitation in her voice.

A lightning flashed, and for a second he could see her, sitting opposite him and hugging herself, but then it became all dark again. A faint thunder followed, making Nath think that the storm was probably calming down.

 “Why did you move here? I imagine you’d been pretty comfortable at the hotel, not having to do anything for yourself.”

She was silent for a few seconds, mulling his question over.

“I just wanted to have something I could call my place. Sure, life at the hotel was great, but it always felt so impersonal, and while this apartment hasn’t the ideal conditions, it still feels more like home. Besides, I wanted some privacy. So I decided to move.”

“Do you like it here?”

“It’s...”she stopped for a moment, looking for the right word, “very quiet.”

“You mean, lonely?”

“No, not lonely, not exactly. I’m used to being alone, but you see, in the hotel there always were people around, and a lot of noise, it just always felt so alive. And here… Sometimes, when I’m alone, the silence makes me uncomfortable. It just feels like… I don’t matter, like if I stopped existing, nothing would change, the universe won’t even notice.”

“And you need the universe to notice you?”

“Don’t you?”

“I guess I do,” he said.

Don’t we all want to mater? Still, it made sense that Chloé needed constant attention from the universe, that’s what she always sought as a teenager. To be in the spotlight. Nath, on the other hand, never wanted to be the center of everyone’s attention; he’s always preferred looking at other people rather than being looked at. Besides, Chloé always seemed to have too much energy in her to be able to enjoy the peace of being in the background. Even though she was a self-centered bitch in school, she always had the fire in her, and it was something to appreciate. He never had that drive in him, and it was almost impossible to understand how she seemed to have unlimited energy in her, even if she only used it to mess with people.

“Hey”, she said, interrupting his thoughts, “do you hate me?”

“Eh?” That was out of the blue.

“You must’ve hated me when we were at school.”

He thought her question over. “Well, you were a total asshole back then, so of course I didn’t like you. But I don’t think I hate you.” He was silent for a few seconds, but then continued. “I just… I don’t know if I can totally trust you on not being a jerk – at least yet.”

“I’m trying… It’s just so hard to be nice sometimes.”

“Maybe you’ll get used to it if you try long enough.”

“Maybe.” She didn’t sound to hopeful.

It was weird, talking to her like that, even more so because he couldn’t see her face in the darkness. The storm subsided and in the quiet of the night, her voice was small, almost soft. He would’ve never imagined having a normal peaceful conversation with Chloé Bourgeois, yet it felt right, somehow. It turned out she was an actual human being somewhere deep inside, and that human being was not too bad.

A few minutes later Nath heard his fridge came to life. He got up, saying, “Did you hear that? The electricity must be back on.” He walked to the switch and turned it on.

Bright light filled the kitchen, making him squint. It took him a few seconds to get used to the light and be able to look at Chloé. She was looking a bit startled, as if she was suddenly woken up.

She rose up abruptly, saying, “Well, I have to go now. Thanks for keeping me company, Nath.” She left in a hurry, as if she was embarrassed by being here with him.

As the door closed behind her, Nath sighed and decided it was time for him to go back to bed. He fell asleep thinking that understanding Chloé was rather difficult, since she just came and go whenever she wanted, not really caring about his opinion.

When he walked into the kitchen in the morning, he saw her phone lying on the counter. She must’ve forgotten it when she left. He’d have to return it to her.

After the breakfast, he put on a t-shirt and jeans, brushed his hair and left his apartment. He walked the few steps from his door to hers and knocked softly. There was no answer, so he pulled the handle; the door opened. It seemed, he was not the only one who never locked his door.

He walked into her apartment, calling out her name, but got no answer. She wasn’t in the living room nor in the kitchen, so he headed for the bedroom. He opened the door, trying not to make too much noise and found her in bed, still sleeping, hugging a giant teddy bear. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

He left the phone on a table in her living room, accompanied by a note, saying: “You forgot this in my apartment last night. I figured you’ll need it. P.S. Your teddy bear is cute. Nath.”

Teasing her was just too much fun to resist.

Chapter Text

It was Saturday night, and Nathanaël was doing some sketches while desperately trying not to think about an assignment that he absolutely had to start writing that very evening, when somebody knocked on the door. Surprised, he closed his sketchbook and walked to the door. Who could it be? He wasn’t expecting anyone, and Chloé definitely wasn’t the one to knock. He opened the door and saw a short, dark haired man who flashed a broad smile at him. It took him a couple of seconds to recognize the man – it was Lorenzo, Chloé’s friend.

“Hello, Chloé’s attractive neighbor! You remember me?”

“Um, yes, you’re Lorenzo –“

“Exactly! So tell me, my buddy, do you like horror movies?”

My buddy? It was the second time he saw the man. It seemed that he was a good match for Chloé, they both seemed to have a habit of starting conversations right from the middle. Still, it was impolite not to answer his question.

“Yes, I do,” he said.

“Cool! Then you’re invited to join me and Chloé this beautiful evening and watch a movie with us. You’re in?”

Any other evening Nath would’ve said no. But the assignment was looming over him, and his heart of a true procrastinator decided to seize the chance not to do it. Watching movies with Chloé was a good enough excuse for him, so he agreed.

“Sure,” he said.

“Amazing,” replied Lorenzo, flashing an even broader grin at him.

Opening the door to Chloé’s apartment, Lorenzo yelled, “Chloé, that’s me! And I found us company!”

“What company? You didn’t tell me – oh, Nath, hi.” Chloé emerged from her bedroom, wearing pink t-shirt that said “flower power” in big letters, and grey sweatpants. Her hair was up in a bun, her makeup – a bit smudged at the end of the day. She seemed surprised at finding Nath in her flat.

Nath only managed to reply with a “hi” when Lorenzo interrupted him.

“Yes, Nath here is gonna be our company for the evening. The more the merrier, right?” he said.

“I guess,” replied Chloé, raising an eyebrow. “Come in, Nath.” Then she followed Lorenzo to the living room, asking, “Did you bring the food?”

“Of course! I brought you everything – a movie, a dinner, a man. I’m the best friend in the world,” Lorenzo said. Nath walked in the living room, following Chloé. For some reason, Nath felt embarrassed at Lorenzo’s answer, so he decided to take a look around Chloé’s flat.

He had already been to this flat twice, but he didn’t stay long enough to get a good look at it. Her flat was very neat, way cleaner and more organized that his was. But at the same time it didn’t feel completely habitable. The furniture was expensive and elegant, but it lacked personal touch. There were no paintings or posters on the walls, nothing that could show what the owner of the flat was like. Or almost nothing…

In the corner of the room, he saw a small bookshelf, filled with comic books and young adult novels, but the thing that interested him the most were not the books.

“Ooooh, are these action figures? Chloé, I can’t believe you’re still such a nerd!” he exclaimed, coming closer to the shelf.

“What do you mean ‘still a nerd’?” Chloé asked, walking over to him. “I’m not a nerd! And I never was one!”

“Oh really? Didn’t you have an obsession with superheroes when we were in school?”

“It was not an obsession!” she answered irritably.

“Yeah, right. And I have to admit, your comics collection is pretty impressive, too. Tell me, do you have a superhero alter ego? What’s your superpower?”

“Shut up or get out,” she said. “You come to my house and then you have the gall to laugh at me!”

Nath heard a chuckle and turned around. Lorenzo was looking at them, grinning with inexplicable glee in his eyes.

“Are we gonna watch the movie, kids?” he asked, still grinning. “Or I can call Bruno, he’ll come over and it’ll be a double date.”

“No! It won’t!” Nath and Chloé exclaimed in unison. Lorenzo laughed at them, making Chloé purse her lips.

“All right. Anyway, Bruno hates horror movies and probably won’t come.” Lorenzo pulled a DVD case from his backpack and walked over to the DVD player

“And what movie are we watching today?” Chloé asked a bit too loud and hurriedly walked past Nath to the TV.

“Oh, it’s one of my faves. It’s called American Mary. Here.” He offered her the disk box. She took it and read the summary.

“Sounds like it can potentially be very gross. Especially knowing your awful taste in movies.”

“Thanks for the compliment, sweetheart.”

“Do you know this movie, Nath?” Chloé asked.

“I’ve heard about it, but haven’t seen it,” Nath said. One of his favorite artists on the Internet mentioned this movie a lot, and even did a few pieces on it, but he never got around to actually watching the movie. Until tonight, apparently.

“See? It’s a cinematographic masterpiece. I know it, Nath knows it, all the right people know it.” Lorenzo said and then turned to Nath. “So, Nath.” He sat on the couch and gestured Nath to join him, but Nath chose to sit in the armchair besides the couch. “Last time you started telling me about what Chloé was like in high school. I still want to hear all the exciting details. Chloé’s been hiding her school friends from me for too long. I only personally knew Sabrina, but we don’t talk about Sabrina anymore, and anyway I’ve always thought she was kinda creepy. So, as you can imagine, I’m dying to know all of Chloé’s deep dark secrets. Tell me the naughty stuff, my guy.”

Nath was feeling a bit overwhelmed with Lorenzo’s energy and didn’t know what to answer, when Chloé solved the problem by throwing the DVD case at Lorenzo.

“Stop that already! You’ll never know any of my deep dark secrets.” She looked at Nath nervously, as if afraid that he’ll start revealing all the bad things she’s ever done in her life.

He didn’t feel like it, though. Instead, he decided to voice the question that’s been bothering him for a while now. The dynamics between Lorenzo and Chloé was too different from her dynamics with Sabrina; Chloé let him tease her and didn’t seem to want anything from him. Nath was used to the thought that Chloé was only nice to people if she needed something from them, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Besides, Nath thought that Lorenzo was a nice guy, a bit too energetic, a bit overfamiliar, and he definitely smiled too much, but still nice. Did Chloé manage to find herself a good friend for once?

“How come you two are friends?” Nath asked.

“Oh, we’re university buddies,” Lorenzo replied. “It may surprise you, but business majors who are interested in fashion are really scarce. So we have to stick together, Chloé and me. By the way, you’re a student too, right? What’s your major?”

“Art.”

“Oooh, cool! Chloé, do you like his art?”

“I… I suppose it must be good,” she said, looking a bit embarrassed.

She supposed? But he didn’t show her any of his art; of course, he posted some of his digital stuff on the Internet, but he didn’t use his real name there, so there was no chance she could’ve known.

“What do you mean? Don’t tell me you haven’t seen it.”

“I’ve seen it! Back when we were at school.”

“That’s atrocious. You are Nath’s worst friend. You two desperately need to catch up on things,” Lorenzo commented.

“Oh, shut up or we’ll never watch the movie!” Chloé exclaimed, visibly uncomfortable. She took the remote control, sat on the couch besides Lorenzo and pressed play.

It turned out both of them liked to comment on the movie while watching it. Nath wasn’t against occasional remarks, but their commentary barely ever stopped. The movie looked good, though, so he made a mental note to watch it alone sometime.

“Ew, this is gross. How can you enjoy something like this?” Chloé said, looking at the screen without even flinching.

“Sorry, hun, you made me watch The Princess Bride, so this time it was my turn to pick. Stop complaining.”

“But The Princess Bride is a great movie!”

“Yes, but I made me watch it four times! Every man has his limit, Chloé.”

“Ew. Eww. Ewww! How am I gonna sleep after that? You know I’m a very impressionable and sensitive person.”

“Well, if you get scared, I guess you’ll have to come over to your lovely neighbor.” Lorenzo smirked. “Right, Nath? Will you protect Chloé and maybe cuddle her a little bit if she can’t to sleep tonight?”

Nath felt the color rise to his cheeks.

“Shut up!” Chloé said, looking embarrassed, too. “Anyway, it’ll be your responsibility, since you always make me watch something scary.”

“Oh, I know that despite the fact you’re always complaining, in reality you enjoy them.” He looked at Nath and added, “I can always tell if she really doesn’t like something or is just being bratty.” He winked at Nath.

The wink was totally uncalled for, Nath thought and looked at Chloé, who was, for once, concentrating on the movie. Around Lorenzo, she looked even more different from her high school self than he could imagine. She was so relaxed, her haughtiness disappeared, and instead there was some softness in her, unexpected warmth in her smile and lightheartedness in her jokes. She laughed at something Lorenzo said and Nath suddenly realized why it was so hard not to stare at her. She was beautiful. Of course, she’s always been pretty, but he never found her beautiful. Not like that. There always was something in her – her pride, her cold manner, her callousness – that held people off and made her attractive, but not beautiful. But this Chloé, the messy bun and sweatpants Chloé, she was beautiful. She was real.

He left after the movie ended, despite Lorenzo’s attempt to stop him. Chloé wished him goodnight with an irritated expression on her face. Was she angry at him? At Lorenzo? As something else?

She puzzled him.

Next evening he walked into Chloé’s apartment, hoping she will help him. She was sitting on the couch, watching a cooking show. He could tell she’d already taken a shower, since her hair was down and a bit wet, and she was wearing a sleeping gown. A blue silk sleeping gown that left her shoulders bare. The image was distracting, although Nath had no business being distracted by Chloé’s shoulders. Or her collarbones. He swore in his mind and tried to look at something else. TV screen, for example. He didn’t come here to stare at Chloé. He had a reason for being here.

“Do you have a coffee machine, Chloé?” he asked.

“Of course I do, but why?” she replied.

“You see, mine is broken, but I desperately need some coffee, so can I use yours?”

“Sure, but why would you need coffee now? It’s 10 pm already, will you be able to sleep afterwards?”

“The thing is, I actually need it so I don’t fall asleep,” he said. She raised her eyebrows, turned off the TV, got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen. He followed her. Absolutely not staring at her legs.

“Explain,” she demanded.

“Okay, so I have an assignment that I need to finish, and it’s due tomorrow, which means that I’ll be writing it this night.”

“And when was this assignment given to you?” Chloé asked, turning to face him.

“Three weeks ago,” he confessed, embarrassed. Mostly embarrassed by the fact that he was thinking about how her face was pretty without any makeup, too.

“And when did you start?”

“Um... A couple hours ago?”

“You do realize you’re not supposed to do it the night before?” she asked, rolling her eyes up.

“Yeah, well, I’m not perfect. Sometimes I procrastinate.”

“But it would be much less stressful if you’d finished it on time, you know. Besides, you shouldn’t study at night; you’re most productive in the morning.”

“Thank you for advice, Chloé,” Nath said sarcastically. “But I really only need coffee.”

“Okay,” she said, but still gave him a very judgmental look. “Here’s the coffee machine, you’re free to use it.”

“Thanks.” He said. She took a cup from one of the shelves and held it out for him. While he was making himself coffee, she was looking at him as if trying to solve some problem in her mind.

“How much do you have to do?” she finally asked.

“Quite a lot, I think. I guess I’ll have to work for four or five hours.”

She sighed, as if giving up on him. But then she said something he didn’t expect to hear at all.

“You can work here, in my apartment. In case one cup isn’t enough.”

“Really?” That would, actually, be better. But wouldn’t he be bothering her?

“Don’t worry, I can watch cooking shows any other day,” Chloé said when he voiced that concern.

“Well, then I’ll take your offer. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He went to fetch his laptop and notes. When he came back, Chloé said, “I cleared some space on the desk for you.”

She was being extremely considerate today. Well, he should take advantage of her good humor while it lasts. He made himself another cup of coffee and sat at the desk. Chloé took a book and cuddled in the armchair with a cup of tea.

Her desk was neat and organized, just like her flat, but at least she adorned it with flowers. Artificial flowers, he realized. Roses, daisies, some small white flowers. He wondered why she preferred artificial flowers, but decided not to ask. He had to focus on the assignment.

He was working on it for about half an hour, when he heard a chuckle and turned back in the chair to look at Chloé. She was reading, absolutely absorbed in the book. He never noticed how expressive her face could be. He could easily tell how she was feeling about whatever she was reading – and it seemed that she really liked it. Her whole face was lit up with delight, a smile playing on her lips, small wrinkles in the corners of her eyes. She was looking so damn adorable, he thought. He bit his lower lip, trying to suppress a smile, when suddenly, finally feeling his gaze, she looked up at Nath, startling him.

Fuck, she caught him staring at her like an idiot. By the way, how long has he been watching her read?

She raised her eyebrows in silent question.

“You seem to like the book,” he said.

“Oh, it’s amazing. I love it.”

“What’s it called?”

“It’s called Silber, and it’s actually a trilogy. The author’s German, her name’s Kerstin Gier and I love her so much. These books are so good, I just feel fifteen again, you know, when life was all about having crushes on cute boys, you know, with blushing, and heart fluttering, all that.”

“You never struck me as blushing and fluttering kind.”

“Well, even if I wasn’t, I still think that’s what being fifteen feels like.” She smiled and then asked him, “Anyway, have you finished your essay or whatever?”

“Not yet. I’m actually thinking about just bullshitting the rest of it,” he confessed.

“Nath, this is really not how you’re supposed to do your assignments!” Chloé exclaimed and looked at him angrily, pursing her lips, so he raised his hands in mocking defeat. “Okay, okay, I’ll do my best.”

He returned to his assignment, Chloé returned to her book. He concentrated on the work and didn’t notice what Chloé was doing until she placed a cup of coffee on the desk in front of him. Surprised, he looked up at her.

“I’m going to bed, but I figured you’ll need another cup. You can stay as long as you need, I don’t mind,” she said.

Somehow, this little gesture made him feel good. It was as if she cared for him. Even if just a little bit.

“Thanks. Goodnight,” he said and smiled at her. She smiled back.

“Goodnight.” She turned and headed for the bedroom.

Suddenly, Nath remembered her giant teddy bear. He just couldn’t resist the urge to tease her about it.

“Oh, and say hello to the bear,” he said.

“You’ve seen Rory?” she asked, taken aback.

“Oh, his name’s Rory? Cute.”

“I can’t believe I was trying to be nice to you. This is outrageous,” she said, but he could see that the corner of her lips turned up a little bit. She shook her head in mocking disbelief and entered the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

He smiled and turned back to work.

After he finished the assignment, he got his things and left as quietly as he could. Before leaving, he felt an irresistible urge to peer in the bedroom, just to check if she was sleeping with Rory again. It turned out she was.

Chapter Text

“Chloé!” Nath called and knocked on the door – or, at least, tried to, which was tricky, considering the fact that he has holding a heavy box in his hands. There was no answer, so he called again, “Chloé! Open the door, please!” What if she wasn’t home? He hadn’t considered that possibility.

But then he heard noises inside and after a few moments Chloé opened the door. “Nath, you know you can just – oh, what’s that?” she asked, looking at the box.

“A present for you,” Nath replied, walking past Chloé into her living room and putting the box on the coffee table.

“A present? For me?” Chloé asked, walking after him, her eyes already shining with excitement. “Why? What is it?”

Nath smiled at her, opened the box and pulled out a portable record player. He set it on the table, saying, “You complained that your apartment sometimes gets too quiet. This should help.”

“A record player?” she asked, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Exactly. I’ve got the music, too.”

He took the records out of the box and gave them to Chloé, then put the box, now empty, aside. She looked at the records for a few seconds, then said “Juliette Gréco? Mireille Mathieu? But isn’t that, like, old?”

“That’s not old, that’s classics,” he corrected her. “Besides, that’s the whole point of a record player.” He took one of the records from her hands and put it in the platter. “This one is easy to operate, you only need to push this button, see?”

He pressed the button and the music started playing. “It works on the batteries,” he continued, “so you don’t need to connect it to the power.” He showed her how to use it. Her initial surprise at the sight of his present soon gave way to genuine excitement.

“It’s amazing,” she said, looking at the needle with fascination that Nath found extremely adorable. She seemed to like his present, and he felt excited, too.

A new song started playing, and he turned to Chloé and bowed to her half-jokingly, holding his hand out, asking her for a dance. She raised her eyebrow at him, but then smiled and gave him her hand. He wasn’t sure she’d agree to dance with him, damn, he wasn’t sure why he even asked her to, but he was glad that she did.

He put his hand on her back, feeling the heat of her body through the thin fabric of her dress, pulling her closer. None of them was a particularly good dancer, but it didn’t matter that much.

She smiled at him, swaying with the music, and asked, “Where on earth did you find a record player? I thought they were extinct.”

“They are not, actually. I got it from a friend of mine; she’s an artist, too, and she is moving to Toronto, so she’s been giving away some of her stuff. I don’t know, I saw that and I just thought about you.”

“That’s so sweet of you,” she told him, smiling with such joy he felt an urge to kiss her, but had to resist. As they were dancing, not saying anything, just looking each other in the eye, he felt his whole soul awaken, as if he’s been cold for so long and suddenly felt the hot touch of summer sun on his skin. It was the heat of her body, the cheerfulness of her smile, the warmth in her eyes. He wanted to kiss her, to feel the softness of her lips, the taste of them, but something stopped him. This is not a girl you should kiss, he told himself, when she suddenly stopped dancing and let go of him. He took a step away from her, trying to understand what he was just about to do. Did he really want to kiss Chloé? No, no, that must’ve been a mistake. It was just the spur of the moment thing, nothing else.

She wasn’t looking him in the eye, and he was thankful for that. He needed a few moments to collect himself.

“Thank you,” she said finally. “It’s wonderful,” she gestured at the record player.

“You’re welcome.”

For a few moments neither of them said anything, but then, just as the silence between them was growing to be uncomfortable, Chloé broke it, saying, “Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you. Will you ever show me your art?”

He didn’t expect this question. The thought about it for a few seconds. Nath didn’t like showing his art to the people he knew outside of his art classes. He was more comfortable showing his art to the strangers than to his friends, and although he didn’t like this habit of his, he couldn’t fight it. He’s always been a pretty secretive person, especially about his art. And now Chloé was asking to see it, and a couple of weeks ago he would’ve said no without second thought. But things have changed, and he knew that Chloé has changed, that she was not a person to laugh at other people’s art anymore. And, strangely, he wanted her to see it. He wanted to know her opinion of it, and he wanted it to be favorable. He couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when hew opinion started to matter to him, but it did. Which meant that he had to show her his art.

“Sure,” he said.” I can do it right now, if you want, or we can appoint a date.”

“Oh, I’m ready. More than ready, to be honest.” Chloé looked relieved, as if she didn’t really expect him to agree. Sometimes she looked strangely wary around him, and he couldn’t understand why.

They left Chloé’s apartment, the record still playing, leaving Juliette Gréco to sing alone in the empty room.

“By the way, are any of these yours?” Chloé asked as they entered Nath’s flat, gesturing to the numerous drawing and prints on his walls.

“No, mostly not. Just a few over there,” he replied, gesturing to the corner above his desk.

Chloé immediately headed to that corner. “Which ones?”

“The ones over there”. He showed Chloé the ones that were his. She studied them for a few moments.

“I like this one,” she finally said, pointing at a charcoal drawing of a ballerina. He did that one a few months ago, and he liked it although it lacked in terms of technique.

“You can have it,” he offered, words leaving his mouth before he could really think about it. What if she complimented it just to be polite, and now he was imposing on her? What if she didn’t want it at all?  

“What? No, I didn’t mean that!” she protested. “I mean, I like it, I really do, but you don’t have to give it to me.”

What did he have to do now? Well, he already offered it, and there still was a chance she did like it. He asked himself whether he really wanted her to have it. The answer was yes.

“Oh, that’s not a big deal. Your flat really needs something to make it look more habitable. So you can take it. If you want, that is,” he added in the end, enable to fight his embarrassment.

“Then I’d love to,” she said and smiled, as if trying to encourage him.

“Here,” he took the drawing down and gave it to Chloé.

She touched the paper very carefully, like it was something valuable to her. Maybe she wasn’t just being polite. Hopefully, she wasn’t.

“Thanks. Now I feel like I owe you,” she said, still smiling at him. “I tell you what, let me at least buy you a dinner sometime, ok?”

“Sure,” he smiled back.

“This weekend I already have plans, but maybe next week…” She trailed off, then put the drawing on his desk and took one of his sketchbooks. “So, what do we have here –”

As soon as he saw which one it was, he exclaimed “No!” he snatched the sketchbook out of her hands. “Not this one!”

“Oh… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—“ she said, looking a bit offended.

“No, I’m sorry. Look, just not this one, okay?” he said, embarrassed by his reaction, taking another sketchbook from the desk and giving it to Chloé.

“What, do you have some pervy stuff in there?” she joked, opening the sketchbook and slowly turning its pages over, looking at the drawings.

No, but I have your portraits in there.

Over the past few days he’s been drawing Chloé quite a lot and he certainly didn’t want her to find that out. Somehow, he felt like these portraits were his vulnerability, the one he mustn’t admit in front of her.

“Yes, some really disgusting pervy stuff,” he replied.

“Okay, then I don’t want to see it,” she said. “But I really like the ink ones. Especially this one.” She pointed an ink drawing of a woman, sitting sideways in an armchair in a circle of light, holding a cigarette in her hand. The drawing was really simple, but Nath liked how it turned out. He thought he did a decent job on the woman’s bored, unsatisfied expression.

“Oh, I did this one as an illustration for the book I read once. The female character, she was burdened by the relationship she had with her boyfriend, she felt like she didn’t love him anymore and she just grew more and more bored being with him. And I don’t know, I just liked this mood of hers.”

“Did she break up with him?” Chloé asked.

“Yep, and she went traveling around Europe, looking for adventure.”

“Good choice,” Chloé answered and continued looking through his sketchbook, commenting on some of the other drawings. Nath’s initial nervousness finally disappeared. She genuinely seemed to like his art, and he felt both relieved and happy about it. He told her details about some of the pieces, encouraged by her apparent interest.

“I paint too, but mostly at the studio,” he was saying, when suddenly she exclaimed  “Oh no! What time is it?”

Nath looked at his watch. “Quarter to six.”

“Oh shit! I’m supposed to meet Lorenzo in fifteen minutes! Shit!” She swiftly put the sketchbook back at the desk, took the ballerina drawing and hurried to the exit, saying, “I’m so sorry, I have to run, but thanks for the drawing, I really like it, but I have to go, bye!”

And just like that, she was gone. 

The blood was everywhere. “Shit, shit, shit!” Nath muttered, when he realized he didn’t have bandage or anything else. The blood didn’t seem to stop, which meant he needed help.

He ran into Chloé’s flat, nervously calling out her name.

She appeared in the hall, asking “Nath, what’s the matter? You sound worr – oh god, you’re bleeding! No, no, no, don’t you dare bleed over my carpet!” she exclaimed, looking at his hand.

“I’d be glad to, but I can’t really control it!” he replied in a rather unfriendly manner, but really, he was almost dying there, and was he less important to Chloé than her carpet?

“Come here.” Chloé grabbed his hand and pulled him to the bathroom. She put his hand over the sink and took a good look at it. “Wow, this looks really bad. Okay, first we’ll have to try to stop the bleeding. Ok, wash it while I fetch the first aid kit.” She ran the water and hurried out of the bathroom. She came back a minute later with a kit. “Is it getting better?”

“I’m not sure, but I think so.”

“Okay, give me your hand.” She put a bandage over the cut, pressing it firmly. “Okay, now we’ll have to wait to see if the bleeding stops. It seemed really bad, do you think that maybe you need stitches?”

“I hope not.”

“What happened?” The blood started to seep through, so she added another layer of bandage on top, still pressing the cut firmly.

“I cut it with scissors.”

“That bad? What were you trying to do, chop off a finger? Like a weird Van Gohn wannabe?”

“No. I was trying to open a bottle of wine,” he confessed.

“With scissors?”

“Yeah. I still don’t own a corkscrew, I don’t know if you remember, but I told you once –“

“Nath, that was like a month ago!” She exclaimed, shaking her head at him, apparently judging him for his lack of domestic skills. “Are you telling me that you had a month to buy it and didn’t manage to do that?”

“I forgot!” He was the one in pain here, he really didn’t need her reproaches on top of that.

“I have no idea how you’re still alive if you can’t do even the simplest tasks,” Chloé said.

“I’m doing very well, thank you! Well, except for this,” he added, after she threw an expressive glance at his hand.

“Yeah, I can see that. I think it’s stopping, though.” The stain of blood on the bandage she was holding stopped growing. “But let’s wait a couple more minutes.”

They waited a bit, then she removed the bandage.

“God, I think that’s pretty deep, are you sure we don’t need to go to the hospital?” Chloé asked.

“Well, it isn’t bleeding anymore, so it should be fine.”

“Well, if you say so.” She disinfected the wound, then put a fresh piece of bandage over the cut. “This should help, though I really think we’d better go to the hospital.”

“It’s gonna be okay,” Nath said. At least, it wasn’t his dominant hand, so he still could draw. This was the only thing he worried about.

“All right, if you say so.” She let go of his hand, took the first aid kit and headed out of the bathroom.

Nath followed her, then turned to the hall, intending to go back to his apartment. “Thanks for the help,” he said to Chloé.

“Wait, where are you going?” She stopped him.

“Back to my place, where else?”

“Don’t even think about it. What if you start bleeding again? You’re not going anywhere.” She led him to the living room and made him sit on the couch. “Besides, once you mentioned it, a glass of wine sounds really great. Where did you leave it?”

“In the kitchen,” Nath said.

“Okay, wait here, I’ll fetch it.”

She left before he could answer anything and came back a few minutes later with his bottle of wine.

“I cleaned your countertop a bit. Washed off the blood. It looked really disgusting,” she told him.

“Ehm, thank you.” He hadn’t thought about the mess he left in the kitchen. And he didn’t think she’d clean it.

“You’re welcome.” She walked into her kitchen, found a corkscrew in one of the cupboards, opened the bottle and poured the wine into two glasses. Returning to the living room, she gave one of the glasses to Nath and asked, “Does it hurt?” looking at his bandaged hand.

“A bit,” he confessed.

“Ah, I’m sorry. Here,” she carefully took his hand and pulled it to her lips, planting a soft kiss on the bandage over the cut. “Is this better?”

Nath suddenly forgot how to speak. Or to breathe.

“Yes, thank you,” he finally managed to say. He looked at her, but she avoided his glance, as if she, too, was embarrassed by what had just happened.

She cleaned her throat and took a sip of the wine. “Remember how Lorenzo told us that we need to catch up with each other? I think he was right.” She got up and moved over to her desk. Nath noticed that she put his drawing above it. So she did like it. Good. “I realized I don’t know much about you,” Chloé continued. “Like, I know you’re an Art major and that your art is really good, but that’s basically it. Tell me more about yourself.”

Tell her what? “Well, but that’s pretty much everything you could know about me. And thanks for the compliment. But I don’t really have much going on in my life.”

She frowned. “Okay, let’s try it another way. Say, I ask you a question, then you ask me one, how about that?”

“Okay.”

“So…” she thought for a few moments, then asked, “Do you keep in touch with someone from our class?”

“Yes, with a few people, but mostly with Marinette, Rose and Juleka.”

“Oh, are Rose and Juleka still dating?” she asked. He was surprised she remembered it.

“Yep.” He knew that they started living together as soon as they graduated high school. This way they could stay close to each other even though they went to different universities.

“That’s impressive,” Chloé said. Then her face turned sadder, and she continued, “I used to have Sabrina, and I see Adrien once in a while, but that’s it.” She pursed her lips, took a sip of wine and continued, “Your turn to ask.”

“Why business major?” Nath asked. He always imagined Chloé pursuing a career in fashion or maybe choosing something where she could be the center of everyone’s attention, but certainly not business.

“Oh, that’s because of my father.”

“What, did he make you choose it?” Nath frowned.

“No! Of course not. I just… You know, he always cared for me, so I wanted to pay him back somehow.  And I thought about his business, you know, the hotel and all, and how he probably would like it to stay in the family, so I decided to study business, so one day I’d be able to take it from him. You know, to continue the work of his life and all.”

That made sense. Yet, there still was something bothering him. “But do you enjoy it?” he asked. “Because I’m sure your dad wouldn’t want you stuck up with a job you don’t like.”

“Actually, I do,” she confessed. “I didn’t expect that myself, to be honest, but I like studying business. I guess, it runs in the family.”

“That’s good to hear,” Nath said. And it was. For whatever reason, he didn’t want Chloé to be discontent with her life.

After the first bottle of wine Chloé found another one, and that’s when it all got out of control.

Two bottles of wine, and she decides to play a record. They are dancing again, but this time it’s slower, and they’re closer, and the sun is setting, making the world around them so peaceful and calm, as if the whole universe is reduced to Chloé’s apartment and there’s no one else left but him and her. “Your hair is like fire,” she says, gently pulling it away from his eyes, and he doesn’t kiss her. He’s such a fool. For not kissing her or for wanting to kiss her, he doesn’t know anymore.

Later, Chloé is lying down on her couch and Nath is sitting on the floor beside her, and he’s telling her about his art. “I draw things I find beautiful,” he tells Chloé and thinks about all the sketches of hers he’d done in the past few days.

The record stops playing and they’re left in the silence, but it doesn’t feel uncomfortable at all. She’s playing with his hair when he forgets himself, catches her hand and kisses her softly palm. Instead of pulling her hand away she just laughs quietly, and the twilight makes them feel together, truly together, like as if they finally could understand each other completely.

Three bottles of wine and it’s dark outside, but they don’t turn on the light. Chloé grows tired and stops speaking and just purrs when he asks her something. And he’s so tired, too, and then somehow he’s on the couch with her, and it’s such a pleasure after sitting on the hard floor for so long. He wraps his arms around Chloé, her body feeling so warm and soft against his. She’s already asleep, and he kisses the top of her heard and drifts away, too, thinking that she smells so sweet – of honey, and summer, and home.

Chapter Text

She was being crushed.

It took her hangover brain a few moments to understand what was going on – where she was, what (or rather who) was crushing her and what woke her up. Then it all came together and panic hit her like a tsunami.

Because she was on her couch, and Nathanaël Kurtzberg was lying on top of her, and somebody was calling out her name, and then that somebody came into sight, and she felt that there was no way of fixing what had happened.

“Chloé, where are you?” the person called, then turned around and finally saw her. “Oh, Chloé! I – I –“ he stuttered, looking at her. The position she was in probably wasn’t what he was expecting at all. For a few moments, he looked at her in stunned silence, as she was trying to push Nath away and get up.

“Adrien, what are you – no, I mean, that’s not what it looks like –“ And that was when Nath groaned and woke up, too. She pushed him one last time, and he sat up, allowing her to get up as well, so she jumped off the couch immediately, and stood, looking at Adrien with her eyes wide open with alarm.

Chloé took a deep breath to say something, to explain what was going on, to somehow magically resolve everything, but there was nothing to say. She shut her mouth without uttering a word and just stared at Nath and Adrien helplessly. Nath was sitting on the couch, blinking and rubbing his forehead, then looked up and saw her and Adrien standing in front of him.

“Shit,” he whispered. Which wasn’t very eloquent, but expressed Chloé’s feelings quite accurately.

“Chloé, I didn’t know, I swear I didn’t mean to – but you told me to come today –“ Adrien mumbled; then he looked at Nathanaël, too, and an expression of utter surprise appeared on his face as he recognized him. “Nath?” he asked and looked back at Chloé in disbelief.

There they were, staring at each other, the fact that just a few moments ago Chloé and Nath were sleeping on her couch together lingering in the air between them.

Talk about awkward situations.

Chloé felt like she might cry. As if that would help.

She took another deep breath. “Adrien, that’s not what it looks like,” she said helplessly. Where  does she even starts explaining? Does an explanation even exist?

“I – I’m sure it’s not, and I’m so sorry, I’m so, so sorry, I didn’t mean to, but you told me to come over this morning, and nobody answered the door, but it was unlocked, so I thought I can come in, and I’m so sorry, I never meant to…” Adrien babbled, looking down on the floor.

“Fuck,” whispered Nath and buried his face in his hands. Again, not very eloquent. Again, very spot on.

“Why won’t you just get out?” Chloé exclaimed, looking at Nath. She regretted that almost immediately as the words sounded harsh, but still, his presence didn’t make anything better. Maybe if she were alone with Adrien, she could somehow convince him that it was just a big mistake, a misunderstanding, nothing more.

Nath immediately got up and left without saying another word, and as Chloé heard the front door shut behind him, she fell on the couch, covering her eyes with a hand. Maybe it was just a bad dream, she told herself; but it was too real for a dream, and too shitty.

Her salvation came unexpectedly in the form of a faint meow. Chloé looked up at Adrien, who promptly put a bad he was holding on the floor and opened it. A black cat stuck its head out of the back, looking at Chloé and meowing again.

“Oh, Félix, I’m sorry, are you all right?” asked Adrien, addressing the cat.

Félix! That’s right! That was the reason Adrien was in her apartment right now. She suddenly remembered everything.

Félix was Adrien’s cat, and since Adrien had to leave Paris for a couple of days, Chloé volunteered to look after him.  Of course, today was Sunday, and Adrien promised to come over and leave Félix in the morning, then come back on Wednesday.

“Oh my god, Adrien, I forgot it was today!” she exclaimed. Adrien looked at her with a worried expression in his eyes.

“Will you still be able to look after him?” he asked.

“Oh, absolutely! I’d love to! It’s just that last evening things kinda spinned out of control, so I lost track of time and wasn’t expecting you this morning, but don’t worry, I’ll do my best! I’ll take good care of Félix and protect him with my own life, I swear!” she said energetically. She practically had to beg Adrien to leave the cat with her, since 1) she had never taken care of another living creature before in her life; and 2) her apartment didn’t allow pets.

“Yeah, I kinda figured you weren’t expecting me,” Adrien said, raising an eyebrow at her. Chloé groaned. She probably had the worst luck in the world. Getting drunk with Nath was a big enough problem in itself, but Adrien seeing them like this made matters a thousand times worse. “Chloé, I know it’s none of my business, but I have to ask what’s going on. Nath is probably the last person I’d expect to see with you… like that. Or even to see with you. Since when are you two… em, whatever it is that you are?”

Chloé sighed. She wasn’t even able to understand what was going on between her and Nath herself, let alone explain it to someone else.

“We’re neighbors,” she said. “Aaand, I guess we’re also friends now? It’s a bit weird, but about a month ago I found out we were neighbors and then we started spending time together, and I never imagined I’d say this, but I actually enjoyed it. And yesterday… It was just a big mistake, we got drunk and we fell asleep, but I promise you, that’s all! Oh, Adrien, it was such a big mistake!” she exclaimed, afraid of even thinking about the possible consequences of said mistake.

“Are you sure? I believe it if you say that you’re just friends, but are you sure?” Adrien asked.

“Yes! Yes, absolutely!”

“Okay, if you say so.” He hesitated for a couple of seconds, then sighed and continued with a mix of guilt and embarrassment in his voice, “Look, Chloé, I don’t want to offend you, but please, don’t hurt him. Okay?”

“I never intended to!” She bit her lower lip. Honestly, she expected Adrien to have more faith in her. If even Adrien was doubtful about her motives and intentions, could she ever count on anyone else to give her a chance to be a better person? She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She shouldn’t get angry with Adrien, she knows he meant well. She opened her eyes and looked at Adrien, smiling faintly, telling him know that she could see where his concern was coming from.

“Anyway, you’ll look after Félix, will you? Here, I wrote down everything you need to know.” He gave her a piece of paper with printed instructions. Chloé took it without a word. She will take care of Adrien’s cat, of course, but it wasn’t the main thing on her mind at the moment. Still, she had promised Adrien to do it, so she’ll be responsible.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Can you keep me informed? Like maybe send me photos of Félix when you can?” Adrien asked.

“Yeah, sure. No problem.” Well, maybe it’s her first time looking after a cat, but how difficult can it be? Seriously, Adrien doesn’t have to worry that much.

“Thanks. Then I’ll be going, I still haven’t finished packing for the flight. I’m leaving you everything you might need, it’s in the bag. If anything happens, message me. I’ll be back on Wednesday.” Adrien scratched Félix’s hears, then then put his arms around Chloé, and she hugged him back. “Bye, Chloé.”

“Félix’ll be all right with me, don’t worry,” she promised. “Goodbye.”

After Adrien left, and Félix set out to exploring her apartment, Chloé decided to read the instructions he left for her. Anything to keep her mind off Nath.

Only that her brain won’t  listen to the voice of reason. Her thoughts kept coming back to Nath, to the last night, to this morning. What does she do now? She should go talk to him, should she? She can’t just pretend nothing happened. They both know it was a mistake, right?

Maybe if they just talk it over and mutually agree that it was a mistake and nothing else, they could go back to where they were before. And where were they before?

Okay, let’s say they were becoming friends. They can do that, right? Just two friends who live next to each other and hang out together. She could live with that. Now she just need to convince Nath that yesterday meant nothing and they can just both feign temporal memory loss.

After a few minutes of walking circles around her apartment, Chloé finally mustered the courage to go over to Nath’s. She turned the doorknob, but the door to his apartment was locked. That was weird. He never locked his door. She knocked, but nobody answered. Chloé put the ear to the door, but there was not a single sound inside. Did he go out? Without seeing her first? But surely he knew that they needed to talk things over, and that it was important.

She frowned. Did that mean that he doesn’t want meet her?

The thought of Nath not wanting to see her hurt. Badly. Did it mean that the last night wasn’t just a mistake, but it was the end? Maybe he never wanted to be her friend, he just didn’t have the heart to tell her that? And things went out of his control, because she was too pushy, but now he finally regained sanity and was, in his evasive way, trying to say that he didn’t want to see her, to talk to her, to have anything to do with her. He never wanted to get close to her, and he didn’t want to fix their relationship. He wanted to get away from her, to never see her again.

Chloé felt her heart sinking in her chest. Why did it hurt so much? He was just her neighbor, right? Just her neighbor. They could just go on with their lives without each other. Right? Right?

She felt like she might cry. She took a deep breath and dug her fingernails deep into her palms. If Nath doesn’t want her, so be it.

Why should she even care?

Why does she?

Next day was Monday, and during their class together, Lorenzo looked at her worriedly and asked if she was all right. “Of course”, she said. Which was a lie, but she didn’t want Lorenzo to know what had happened. She didn’t want him to know that she waited for Nath to come back all day long, listening for the sound of his front door opening, but never heard anything. She was pathetic and she knew that, but she’d rather die than admit that in front of anyone else. Even in front of Lorenzo.

On Tuesday Lorenzo took a good look at her under eye circles and asked if she was okay one more time. “I said I’m all right!” she exclaimed irritably. She was perfectly fine, even though Nath didn’t seem to come back on Monday, too. His door was locked, his apartment silent. She began getting angry with him. Honestly, he could’ve just told her to get out of his life instead of hiding from her like a coward.

Besides, she wasn’t just getting angry, she was getting worried, too. Did he return for night at least? If not, where was he? Was she so bad that he was ready to inconvenience himself just in order to avoid her? Well, it wasn’t her problem. She doesn’t care at all if eats well or sleeps well or comes back at all.

The voice of Lorenzo interrupted her thoughts. “Whatever, I’m coming over today,” he said.

“I don’t want you to.”

“That wasn’t a question.”

If anyone could be more stubborn than she was, it was Lorenzo.

Lorenzo came over in the evening with bags of groceries and announced that he’ll be making dinner. It was a foul trick, since he knew for sure that Chloé can’t say no to his cooking. Lorenzo was an extraordinarily good cook, and letting him meddle in her affairs was actually a reasonable price to pay for his pasta.

“Where did the cat come from?” Lorenzo asked, walking straight into the kitchen.

“A friend of mine asked me to look after him for a couple of days.”

“Hey, pretty boy,” said Lorenzo, rubbing Félix’s ears, then looked at Chloé. “Just keep him away from me while I’m cooking, right? And don’t touch anything yourself, too!”

“Alright,” mumbled Chloé, sitting down at the table so that she won’t get in Lorenzo’s way. They both had already found out that she was of no help in the kitchen; she didn’t particularly enjoy cooking, either, so she was thankful that she didn’t have to do anything and could just play with Félix.

“So will you finally tell me what happened?” said Lorenzo, taking a knife and starting to chop vegetables.

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Well, then you won’t get any food tonight, sweetheart.” Lorenzo stopped chopping and turned down, looking at Chloé. She knew him well enough to understand that she had to choose between 1) telling him everything and getting to eat delicious pasta; or 2) not telling him anything, not getting anything to eat and being nagged for the rest of the evening. She sighed.

“It’s a long story.”

“Well, we have time. First tell me what happened, then give me all the details,” he offered.

“Okay.” Chloé took a deep breath. “I slept with Nath.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!” Lorenzo spun round, flinging his hands up.

“Don’t yell at me while holding a knife, Enzo, for the love of god!”

“Don’t say stuff like this all of a sudden!” Lorenzo exclaimed, pointing a knife at her.

“Put the knife down!” she ordered. He pouted, but did as she said. “Okay, now calm down and listen.”

As Lorenzo went back to cooking, Chloé told him the whole story, trying to make it sound as innocent as possible. She intended to leave the part about Adrien out, but there was no way to explain why Nath had to flee so fast in the morning, so she had to tell Lorenzo about that, too.

“And well, I haven’t seen him since Sunday, and today is Tuesday, so I guess he’s been avoiding me because he doesn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore.”

“Of course it’s nothing like this, Chloé! I’m sure he’s just been busy or something, why would he avoid you? It doesn’t make any sense. You two just need to talk things over and then you can just start dating, and everything’ll be good, you’ll see,” Lorenzo said in a soothing voice.

“Dating?” Chloé was so baffled by this thought that for a couple of seconds she was at a loss for words. “No-no-no-no, we’re not gonna be dating, no way!”

“What do you mean ‘no’? Why?” Lorenzo asked, visibly surprised. Did he really expect that Chloé would agree?

“Because!” she exclaimed. “I don’t want to date him!”

“But why? You two are great together! Don’t be silly, Chloé,” Lorenzo said in a condescending tone that made her blood boil.

“Well, maybe the fact that you think I look good with some guy isn’t actually a valid reason for me to date that guy!” she shouted at him.

“Well, maybe you should stop pretending like I’m the one being stubborn here!” he yelled back.  “I’ve seen your past boyfriends, and let me tell you, Chloé, you always kept pretending to be someone else around them, and you only dated them for the sake of dating, and that’s why you were so bored with every single one of them! And I don’t know what’s different about this guy, but you let yourself be real when you’re with him, and I don’t often see you just having fun with somebody, and doesn’t that mean something? He seems to be a decent person, and I just don’t understand what makes him so undateable for you. You never seemed to be so determined not to go out with someone before. Anyway,” he added in a calmer voice, “even if you don’t want to get together, he’s still your neighbor, so you’ll have to deal with this situation sooner or later. You can’t just go on ignoring him forever.”

“I can try,” she said stubbornly. Lorenzo looked at her sarcastically. She knew she was being childish. “Okay, you’re right, but I just don’t want to deal with it.”

“Chloé, sweetheart, tell me, what are you afraid of?”

“I’m not afraid of anything! I just don’t want to date him! I only want to be friends with him, that’s all,” she said, sounding absolutely not convincing.

“Do you not like him? But he’s nice and handsome, why wouldn’t you—”

“No, it’s not that,” she sighed, resigning. “I just – I don’t think we’ll work out.”

“Why not? And why don’t you want to try? What’s your deal with him?”

Ah, if only she could explain and make Lorenzo see why it was impossible for her and Nath to become a couple – but it was all too complicated; her infamous past and her present insecurities were balled up so tightly in her mind she could barely understand it herself. She just knew it was never going to happen.

“He knew me in high school,” she finally said, “and well… I was kind of a bitch back then. And I was a bitch to him, too, so I just don’t think he can ever fully forgive me and, you know, like me.”

“But if he can accept you as his friend, he can surely accept you as someone more,” Lorenzo tried to reason with her.

“I don’t know! I just don’t know!” she exclaimed. Getting emotional turned out to be a huge mistake, as she regretted her next words the very second they left her mouth. “I’m just scared. Oh, Enzo, I’m so afraid, but I think I may be falling in love.”

Surely she wasn’t thinking straight. No way could this last sentence be true. No way.

“Oh, Chloé, sweetheart,” Lorenzo said gently, walking to her and giving her a warm hug, “but that’s wonderful! This is exactly why you need to date Nath.”

“No!” she cried out, almost in panic.

“Okay, you lost me. Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to fall in love! I don’t want to give my heart to anyone, even to him!”

“But Chloé, you don’t even know what you’re losing.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want to know. Please, just don’t pressure me anymore, right?” she supplicated.

“Okay. As you wish.” Lorenzo said, but Chloé didn’t like the expression in his eyes. There was something sly about how he looked at her before returning to cooking.

Chloé finished setting the table for dinner, when Lorenzo suddenly said, “I forgot something in a car, gotta go get it really quick, I’ll be back in a couple of seconds” and was out of the door before she could stop him or even fully understand what he was doing.

About half a minute has passed before her apartment’s door flew open again and Lorenzo walked in, saying “Yes, just hurry,” and followed by Nath.

Chloé froze, looking at him. Catching her eye, he, too, froze in his tracks, blushed and immediately looked down, avoiding meeting her gaze. It took Chloé a couple of seconds to realize she’d stopped breathing and was staring at Nath in silence. How? How did Lorenzo manage to find him and lure him here? A weird feeling, akin to pain, appeared in her chest. Control yourself, Chloé, you’re being ridiculous, she told to herself.

“Okay, children, I need to go now, so be good and sort things out between you two, alright?” Lorenzo said in a sing-song voice, addressing both of them. Chloé threw an angry glance at him, but he just smirked, apparently satisfied with himself, and walked out of the door.

For a few moments they just stood there, not saying anything. Chloé took in Nath’s appearance. He wasn’t looking too good: his t-shirt was wrinkled, his hair disheveled, and the circles under his eyes were so dark as if he hadn’t slept at all since she last saw him. She hurriedly smoothed her own hair, hoping her makeup wasn’t smudged.

Finally, Nath broke the silence. “I gather there’s no emergency?” he said, still looking at his own feet.

“Huh?”

“Lorenzo said there was an emergency and you needed my help. That’s why I came here.”

“Oh, I see. No, there’s no emergency. And you should never trust a word Lorenzo says, by the way.”

“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Then I’ll be going,” he said, taking a step back to the door.

What? No way he was going to leave her apartment without talking to her first. Or without at least looking at her first.

“Don’t go!” she blurted out. Did she sound desperate? Whatever, she had to stop him. “I mean, Lorenzo cooked a dinner, and believe me, you have to try it. He’s such a great cook, it’s actually the only reason I’m still friends with him even though he does stuff like this,” she pointed a finger and herself, then at Nath. “Just stay? We need to talk.”

He frowned at her last words, but at least stayed still and didn’t try to move again. That was when Félix jumped off the couch where he’d been lying and ran towards Nath, rubbing his head against his legs. Fluffy traitor.

“Chloé, why is there a cat?” Nath asked in surprise. “You know we’re not allowed to have pets in the apartment.”

“It’s only here for a couple of days. Adrien will take it back tomorrow.”

The mention of Adrien made them remember the thing they both tried to ignore and fall into uncomfortable silence again. In a desperate attempt to break it, Chloé was almost ready to remark on the weather, when  she caught sight of Nath’s hand, the cut covered with band-aid.

“Your hand!” she exclaimed. “How’s it?”

“Better. It’s not my working hand, so I manage just fine,” Nath said, rubbing the cut with another hand.

“Good.” Realizing was nothing else to say, so she headed to the kitchen, motioning him to follow her.

Chloé finished setting the table and they sat down to eat; finally, she was able to take a closer look at him, even though he still did everything not to meet her gaze.

“You look tired,” she said and reached her hand across the table to his face, pushing the bangs off his eyes. If he doesn’t want to look at her, well, she’ll make him. He startled when she touched his face, and blushed. To her surprise, she felt she was blushing, too. Had she ever seen his face without the bangs before? God, he was so handsome. Her lips parted slightly, her hand still lingering at his face. What was that? Did her heart just flutter?

Suddenly, Nath looked up, meeting her gaze, and Chloé’s breath caught in her chest. She swallowed and put her hand away. She wasn’t supposed to be doing that. Or to be feeling that.

“Get your shit together, Chloé!” she told herself, trying to steady her heartbeat.

In a new attempt not to meet her eye, Nath was looking at his plate. He finally tasted Lorenzo’s pasta; “Holy shit, this is amazing!” he exclaimed and started devouring it with the speed that was almost frightening.

“Where did you last eat?” Chloé asked.

“Umm, not sure,” he replied mid-chew.

Chloé pursed her lips. Wherever he was for the past couple of days, it wasn’t a health resort, that much was obvious. Which lead her to the next question.

“Have you been avoiding me?” she asked.

“No,” he answered hesitantly. “No,” he repeated, this time a bit more convincing.

“I wanted to talk to you, but you were away. I tried knocking on your door many times,” she confessed without thinking.

God, Chloé, did you have to admit that? Are you trying to make yourself as pathetic as possible in front of him?

“I – I was in the studio, painting.”

“All the time till today? I never heard you come back.” Shut the fuck up, Chloé, for god’s sake!

“Yeah, well, mostly.”

He seemed uncomfortable talking about that, but she still had to pressure him for answers.

“Mostly? Where did you sleep? Did you even sleep? Or eat?”

“I spent Sunday at my friend’s, last night I spent at the studio. I just came back home when Lorenzo ran in, claiming there was an emergency.”

“But you should’ve talked to me before disappearing like that! You just vanish for three days and then claim your were painting!” she snorted in anger.

“But I was!” he said defensively.

“Okay, whatever. We still have to talk. You know, about what happened.”

He didn’t answer for a couple of seconds, refusing to look at her. That little game of his was getting annoying.

“Do we really need to?” he finally asked. Chloé raised her eyebrows in a silent question, and he continued, lifting his head and meeting her gaze. “I mean, it wasn’t a big deal, we just got drunk, it happens. So why can’t we just, like, forget about it? Things happen when you’re drunk, they don’t matter anything,” he said in a suddenly calm and detached tone.

Wasn’t that exactly what she wanted? Then why was she feeling so disappointed, deceived even? He said that what had happened wasn’t important; even though his behavior somehow contradicted his words, she felt stupid. Does that mean that she was the only one who spent almost three days thinking about  that? What if he really was painting all the time he was away? Who knows these artists, with their sudden spasms of creativity? But if he really didn’t think twice about that night, that meant she totally overreacted. It meant she was the only one with confused feelings, and he – he obviously didn’t have her on his mind at all.

She felt hurt, as if she were rejected. But he was right, it was just a silly drunk mistake, nothing more. She just wasn’t thinking clearly for the past couple of days, that’s all. She must take Nath’s offer and just pretend that night never happened. Chloé took a deep breath, hoping her voice won’t shake.

“Okay. Sure. Nothing happened.” She faked a smile; Nath smiled back. “We can still be friends, right?”

“Absolutely,” he said.

It was fine. Everything was just all right.

Only when he was leaving, he wished her goodnight and then, without any warning, leaned forward and kissed her forehead. It was a quick, gentle kiss, and for some reason her mind just went blank when he did that. Her breath caught in her chest, her heart beating like crazy. She’s been building and strengthening the walls around her heart for so long, and yet he crushed them with so little effort.

Had she been able to pay any attention to the things around her, she would’ve noticed him blushing before hurriedly running away to his apartment; but she wasn’t. The walls of her heart were crumbling down, leaving her so unprotected, so weak, so defenseless.

And maybe that was the reason she couldn’t argue with Lorenzo, when she called him later in the evening.

“We decided to stay friends,” she informed him.

There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

“Well, aren’t you two just really dumb,” Lorenzo said finally, and hung up.

And in her heart of hearts Chloé felt that he probably was right.

Chapter Text

On Wednesday morning, Chloé woke up to the annoying sound of the alarm. She turned it off, opened her eyes, said “good morning, Rory,” and finally got up. Still half-asleep, she walked out of her bedroom and headed for the bathroom.

She didn’t quite reach it, though, because to do so she had to walk past her kitchen, and this morning there was something (or rather, someone) in her kitchen that shouldn’t have been there.

“Nath? What the hell?” she asked, her voice still a bit hoarse from the sleep.

“Good morning to you, too, Chloé,” he replied nonchalantly. “Nice bedhead.”

Chloé’s hands flew up to her hair and she immediately ran to the bathroom to assess the damage.

“Okay, could be worse,” she thought, looking at herself in the mirror. Okay, her eyes were a bit puffy, and she could definitely use some makeup, but it could be worse. Besides, she reminded herself, she shouldn’t care so much about how she looked in front of Nath, it’s not like she was trying to charm him.

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, Chloé left the bathroom and headed to the kitchen. Nath was sitting at the table, having breakfast. In her apartment.

“Are you eating my cereal?” she asked, shocked.

“Still no good morning for me,” Nath replied with an exaggeratedly sad sigh.

“Hey, you’re in my apartment! Uninvited! So stop that and explain!” Honestly, the audacity… Did Lorenzo bite him?

“Okay,” said Nath, “so well, you know that I’ve kinda been away for the past few days, and as it turns out, I have nothing to eat in my flat. And I figured that you will be kind enough not to let me starve to death, so well, here I am.”

That made sense.

“Okay, you can stay,” she said, sitting down at the table, too, with a bowl. “Just pass me the cereal and milk.”

Chloé noticed that Nath was looking much better than last evening. He obviously got a good night’s sleep and the exhausted expression left his face. He was wearing clean clothes and had showered recently, judging by the fact that his hair was still wet. It fell in his eyes, and he put it away, then looked up at Chloé. Suddenly realizing she’s been staring at him, she recollected herself and started eating her breakfast.

“What are you plans for today?” Chloé asked.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I obviously need to go grocery shopping, but that’s all. Maybe I should just sleep some more.”

“Don’t you have classes today?”

“Nah, I’m skipping uni today,” he replied without a trace of guilt.

“What? You can’t!” she exclaimed. Was he planning to skip the whole week? Without any reason?

“Oh, come on, Chloé, it’s healthy to skip classes once in a while,” Nath said with conviction.

“No, it’s not!” she protested.

“Yes it is. Maybe some time we can skip classes together and go to a museum or somewhere. You know, when everyone is at work or at school, and the museums are almost empty, they feel so nice.”

“I’m not skipping classes!” Even though spending a day off with Nath seemed like an extremely nice idea.

“Since when are you such a responsible student, Chloé?” he asked, tilting his head.

She thought about it for a second. “Since I’ve been studying something I’m interested at, I guess.”

“Oh. I see.”

At that moment, Félix walked into the kitchen with a loud meow.

“Food morning, Félix,” Chloé and Nath said in unison.

“Ooh, we’re so cute together!” Chloé thought, immediately regretting that. She and Nath were not cure together, they were not anything together. She got up to give Félix his food, trying to distract herself.

“Have you ever had a cat?” Nath asked.

“No, never. You see, hotels are not the best place for animals, so I’ve never had a pet growing up. I mean, I suppose that if I really wanted a cat or a dog, I’d have made daddy get me one, but I didn’t. And you?”

“My parents have a cat, so yeah. I miss her sometimes; we used to study together.”

“Study together? With a cat?” Chloé asked, the logic escaping her. How would that work?

“Yeah, I mean, when I was preparing for my tests, I learned stuff and then told it to her. You know, to revise? She really knows a lot about physics now.”

Chloé laughed, and Nath smiled back at her. His hair fell into his eyes again, and he shook his head, trying to move it away.

“Your hair is annoying me,” Chloé said. She walked to Nath, holding out her hand. “Come on.”

“What? Where?” he asked in alarm.

“To fix your hair, where else,” she rolled her eyes and took his hand, making Nath get up and follow her to the bathroom. “Sit,” she commanded, pointing at the edge of the bathtub.

“What are you going to do?” Nath asked, still in a rather nervous tone.

“Nothing life-threatening, don’t worry,” Chloé said, taking her blowdryer and stood up in front of Nath, turning it on.

It turned out, however, that with Nathanaël even the simplest, smallest things had a tendency to backfire. Because just standing close to him and touching his hair did some weird things to her brain. Pulling her hand through Nath’s hair, Chloé looked town at him, and smiled to herself. She couldn’t see his eyes, only his red eyelashes, and she wondered if he found them being close to each other as exciting as she did. Because even if she was determined to ignore her heart, her body was misbehaving, too. She wanted more, she wanted to touch not only his hair, but all of him - to brush his cheek with the tips of her fingers, to run it down to his neck, to his shoulders... Lost in this fantasy, she stopped moving, and he looked up at her, puzzled.

And maybe it was wishful thinking, but his gaze seemed almost expectant, and god, he was looking so handsome, and it would’ve been so good to lean down and kiss him on the lips, but something stopped her. Maybe it was her last piece of sanity, maybe it was her pride, but it helped Chloé not to lose it; instead, she touched the tip of his nose, saying, “Boop,” and laughed at his surprised reaction.

Trying to hide her awkwardness, she turned the blowdryer off, pushed the hair away from Nath’s face and secured it with a couple of hairpins.

“Okay, done,” she said, trying to seem impassive. “That should be better.”

“Thanks, I guess,” he said calmly. Chloé pursed her lips; it seemed that she was the only one having problems with being composed when they were together.

“Anyway,” she said, turning away from Nath, “I need to get ready for classes. You can stay, if you want, but then you have to watch Félix so he doesn’t eat anything he shouldn’t. Yesterday he almost chewed the leg off one of my figurines, so keep an eye on him, okay?”

She headed to the bedroom; doing her makeup always had a soothing effect on Chloé, and today wasn’t an exception. There was no point overthinking what just happened, it wasn’t any big of a deal; it could happen with any other man, not only with Nath. There was nothing surprising if she felt attracted at him sometimes, it certainly didn’t mean she liked him.

By the time Chloé finished her makeup routine and got dressed for the day, she managed to fully collect herself.

Well, until the moment she left the bedroom and walked into the living room.

“What have you two dooone!” she yelled, looking at the mess on her coffee table. Last night she printed her assignment and put it there, so that she won’t forget it in the morning. And now that assignment was destroyed. Félix was happily chewing on some pages while Nath, instead of stopping him, was absent-mindedly doodling on the remaining pages. “I needed these papers! That’s my assignment and you ruined it! These papers were important! I give you love, food and care, and that’s how you repay me?!” She stopped to catch her breath and the meaning of her last words hit her. “Okay, the last part was cats-only,” she corrected herself, “but seriously, Nath is it so hard to do what I tell you?”

“Oh, it’s basically impossible,” he replied, not even trying to feign repentance.

“Hey, you could’ve at least pretended you were sorry!” she cried. “Don’t think that you do whatever you want just because you have a pretty face!”

“Oh, look who’s speaking!” he said sarcastically.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, you’re the one with the pretty face and bad temper!”

“You are – no, stop!” she said, the meaning of their last words finally catching up with her. What the hell did she just say? What the hell did he just say? Okay, better concentrate on his words, since she can always hit herself on the head later. “You think I’m pretty?”

He blinked, then looked away, apparently embarrassed by his own words, too. “Yeah, kinda… I mean, from an artistic point of view.”

That was all? There was no way in the world she was taking that feeble response as a testament of her beauty. “Oh, come on! Admit it!” she said, because yes, fishing for compliments was not below her.

“Hey, you said I was pretty first!”

Okay, she didn’t have a good come-back for this. She hoped that it slipped his mind, but apparently it didn’t. She needed to retreat. “I – I – I have to go, so get out!” Very graceful, Chloé, you really couldn’t’ve done it better.

“Oh, come on, I’m sorry, okay?” Nath said, making Chloé grateful for letting her go.

“All right,” she sighed, “let’s say I accept your apology, but I still need to stay angry at you for a couple of hours. Besides, I do have to go, so I think you’d better leave.”

“Okay. But you’ll let me know when you’re done being angry, right?”

Chloé rolled her eyes. “All right, I will, now go.”

“Bye, Chloé. Bye, Félix.”

He left and Chloé turned back to her ruined assignment. So she’ll have to print it again, which will probably make her late for class. Especially since she already wasted so much time this morning because of Nath.

She bent down and took one of the pages Nath had been doodling on. He made a couple of sketches of Félix, and admittedly, they were quite good. Chloé reminded herself that she needed to stay angry with him, but as she went to her desk to turn on her laptop, she took Nath’s sketches with her and put it in a folder. She can’t just throw them away, can she?

On Friday night Chloé thought it was time she finally treated Nath to the dinner she promised. Upon examining herself in the bedroom’s mirror, Chloé decided that she was looking positively lovely, and headed to his apartment.

She walked into his living room, calling out his name, and then stopped, as if hitting an invisible wall. Because Nath wasn’t alone. Which, by itself, wasn’t bad, but the people he was with were the ones she never wanted to see again in her life – Marinette and Alya.

Somehow, simple seeing their faces at them made her whole body tense up. She looked at Nath, but he was clearly caught off guard and didn’t offer her any help. “Hey,” she said uncomfortably.

“Chloé? What are you doing here?” exclaimed Alya with her usual vigor.

“I –“ Chloé stammered. What does she say? Her mind didn’t offer any acceptable answers.

“She’s my neighbor,” Nath said, finally collecting himself.

Huh? Chloé looked at him unbelievingly, snapped out of her stupor. That’s all? Well, that won’t do.

“We’re friends,” Chloé announced, looking at Alya and Marinette defiantly.

There was a moment of silence.

“Friends? Are you kidding me?” Marinette finally said. Then she jumped, looking as if things suddenly made sense for her. “Oh, Nath, is she the reason you’ve been behaving weird recently? Is she harassing you?”

What did she just say?! Chloé felt familiar anger rise in her chest. The years of hostility towards this girl, the one who always tried to take things way from her, Chloé Bourgeois, and now she was trying to insult her without any reason? Oooh, she’ll see!

“How dare you, you b—“

“Chloé!” Nath stopped her. She started at his sharp tone, but then he moved closer to her and put his hand on her shoulder. Looking down at her, he said, “Calm down, Chloé. And Mari, please, you’re mistaken.”

Chloé closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The angry words she was about to say were still choking her from inside. She was never good at controlling her emotions, and now these unsaid words were burning her veins like poison. But there wasn’t only anger, there was something else. For some reason, Marinette’s words hurt.

“Am I harrassing you?” she said, looking at Nath, unblinking, demanding an answer.

“I just said Mari was mistaken!” he protested, still holding her shoulder. “Look, I’ll come back in a second,” he said to Marinette and Alya, then lead Chloé to the hall.

“Look, this is not the best time,” he said, stopping and turning to look her in the eye. “I’m sorry for that, but I think I need to explain everything to them before we can put you all in the same room. I’m sure they’ll understand, and I know Mari didn’t want to insult you. Okay? Can you come here some other time?”

Chloé clenched her hands into fists, anger still boiling in her chest. If it was just for her, she would’ve walked back into that room and told Marinette all the evil words that were pulling her tongue, but Nath was asking her not to, so she took another deep breath and tried to collect herself.

“Okay, but you need to tell me this,” she replied dryly. “Am I bothering you?”

“No, no, it’s not like that!” he said hurriedly. “Of course, I’ve never expected to be your neighbor, but it’s not an inconvenience. Actually, I think I like it,” he said, smiling at her.

“You do?” Suddenly, all ill feelings disappeared, her heart light again. Of course, Marinette was wrong, and what did her opinion matter, anyway.

“Yeah. I enjoy spending time with you,” Nath said, looking her right in the eye and still smiling.

And that was when Chloé lost her mind for a second, because she took a step forward and hugged him. The good thing was that he hugged her back, so she probably wasn’t being inappropriate. The bad thing was how good it felt. How warm and comfortable his embrace was, and how she didn’t want to leave it. “Thank you,” she whispered into his chest. “That’s a nice thing to say.”

She felt something touch her hair. What was that? Did he kiss the top of her head? No, that was impossible, she was imagining thing. She felt herself blushing and broke the embrace, moving away from him.

“Okay then. I won’t keep you any longer,” she said quickly, avoiding looking at him. “See you tomorrow, maybe?”

“Sure,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’ll explain everything to them.”

“All right. Bye.”

“Bye.”

She swiftly turned and walked back into her flat, heading straight to the bedroom.

Falling on the bed, she said, “You know, Rory, maybe I am the blushing and fluttering kind.”

Chapter Text

When Nath returned to his apartment, Alya already had her phone out and was fervently texting someone.

“Whom have you messaged already?” he asked with a sigh.

She looked up at him somewhat guiltily. “Just Rose and Juleka. And Nino, maybe. But that’s all.” She put her phone away. “For now,” she muttered under her breath. Nath groaned.

“You could’ve waited until I’ve explained you everything, at least.”

Alya raised a finger. “Information is meant to be shared.”

“Not all informa—“ Nath started, but Marinette interrupted him.

“So will you explain what happened? Why was Chloé here? And what did she mean by saying that you two were friends?”

She said the last word with such disdain that Nath wondered if making them see Chloé in a different light wasn’t an easy task after all. He’s grown so accustomed to Chloé, he almost forgot about her rivalry with Marinette and just how unlikeable Chloé used to be in school. But it was years ago, right? Of course, Marinette won’t really hold a grudge against her for such a long time. Still, he wished Marinette and Alya had found out about Chloé some other way, after he had already prepared the ground.

He sat on the couch and rubbed his forehead, trying to find a way to make his friendship with Chloé seem logical and natural, only to realize that there probably wasn’t any.

“Okay, so about a month ago I found out we were neighbors,” he started, “and I don’t know, for some reason we just somehow became friends. I mean, once Chloé Bourgeois herself decides to befriend you, you can’t really run away,” he joked, but judging by their slightly alarmed faces, they weren’t in a mood for jokes. “I mean, she’s been nice to me, too, I know it may sound improbable at first, but she’s really a decent person now.”

“Yeah, sure, she seemed awfully friendly to me,” Marinette scoffed.

Nath winced. “Okay, she was caught off guard, maybe it’s her defense mechanism. But I’m telling you, she’s changed.”

“Okay,” Alya said, “let’s pretend we believe you. So you’re saying that you’re friends with Chloé Bourgeois out of your own free will?”

“Yep.”

“And you’re sure you’re in the right mind?”

“Yes, I am pretty sure, Alya.”

“And you two spend time together and actually have fun?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, Alya, that’s what I meant when I said we were friends,” Nath answered, mildly annoyed.

“Incredible,” Alya announced to the room. “You’re making no sense yet you sound convinced and show no other signs of insanity. It’s kinda spooky, to be honest. Like if we entered an alternate reality or something.”

“Are you sure she’s not playing some tricks on you?” Marinette asked in a concerned tone.

“I am sure! Look, I don’t know what else I can tell you!” Nath exclaimed, running his fingers through his hair in exasperation. “But it’s been what, three years? Even Chloé can change with time!”

“Alright, calm down,” Marinette said soothingly, shooting a rapid glance at Alya. “Just one last question, okay?” Nath nodded. “Your weird behavior recently… does it have anything to do with Chloé?”

“What weird behavior?” Nath asked, slightly alarmed. What did he do?

“Look, to be completely honest, we came here today because Rose and Juleka messaged us, asking if we knew what was going on with you.” Alya said in the same soothing voice as Marinette. “They said you crashed their couch last Sunday, without any warning, and then just disappeared and didn’t your phone for a couple of days. So they thought you were acting weird and asked us to come check up on you.”

Oh, shit.

“So does that have anything to do with Chloé?” Marinette asked again, looking him in the eye. Nath looked away, embarrassed. Yes, that had everything to do with Chloé. It had everything to do with the fact that he couldn’t stop thinking about her and was trying to run away from admitting why. It had everything to do with him entering his own alternate reality – the one where he was in love with Chloé Bourgeois. The girl who turned out to be way sweeter, but every bit as bright and unattainable as he imagined her to be in high school.

“No, it doesn’t – I mean, it does a little bit, but it’s not because of something that she did, it was just me,” he stuttered, horrified to feel the color rise to his cheeks. Why couldn’t he be a better liar? He would’ve just told them that it was a totally different, Chloé-unrelated matter. Now he was only making things worse with the mumbling, and stuttering, and blushing.

“So is that a yes or a no?” Alya asked, frowning.

“It’s a no! And even if it’s a yes, Chloé didn’t do anything wrong this time, so please just let it go!”

“Okay,” Marinette finally took pity on him. “As long as you promise us that you’re all right.”

“I am!” Nath exclaimed, relieved to finish the discussion. “And as long as I remember, we were  going out for drinks, so how about we get moving?”

“If you say so,” Marinette said, getting up. Nath followed her example, but Alya stayed on the couch, looking at him with a puzzled expression. She bit her lower lip and looked Nath straight in the eye, as if trying to read his mind.

“Unless,” she said slowly, “you’re in love with her.”

Oh, Lord have mercy.

“Oh my god, you are!” Alya shrieked, looking at Nath, who could only open and close his mouth, unable to utter a single word, like a fish out of water. “Oh, this is bad!” she continued, her expression rapidly changing to concern.

“I know,” Nath moaned, falling back on the couch and covering his face with his hands. “I know.”

“But how did you –  I mean, it’s Chloé… Are you sure?” Marinette asked, beginning to stutter, too.

“I don’t know!” he exclaimed, looking at the girls desperately. “I don’t know how it happened and it doesn’t matter anyway!”

“How on Earth can it not matter?” Alya asked, raising an eyebrow at him. At least she was as collected as usual. Good to know someone had their shit together no matter what.

“Because I’m not gonna tell her, of course! I’ll just wait until it passes, I mean, Chloé and I, we’re friends, at least that’s what she says, so we’re gonna stay that way, no matter what. Do you really think I’m that insane to act on it?” Nath cried, clutching his head in frustration.

“I’m not gonna lie, that would be totally insane,” Alya noted.

Nath looked at Marinette, but she just shook her head. “I’m still processing the fact that you like Chloé,” she said.

Nath took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “This stupid crush is gonna pass sooner or later, and it’s not that big of a deal, anyway. I can control my feelings, so I promise you, no weird behavior in the future.”

“I just think that you need to be careful,” Alya said.

“Careful?” Nath asked, surprised.

“Yes, because let’s suppose for a minute that Chloé really is a decent person now,” Nath winced, but Alya didn’t stop. “She still doesn’t have a real reason to befriend you unless she feels bored or lonely. Which means that even you two are buddies now, it probably won’t last, because one day she’ll find someone new who she’ll find more exciting, and then she won’t need her comfort friend Nath anymore. Look, I’m not saying you’re not a great friend or that you’re not worth falling in love with, but I don’t believe you have that much in common with Chloé. Sooner or later she’ll find herself a more glamorous friend, which means that you need to take good care of yourself so you don’t have your heart broken. Am I right?” she asked Marinette.

“I suppose so,” Marinette replied in a low voice. “Oh, Nath, this is… I can’t find a word.” She looked at Nath helplessly.

“Me neither” he said, trying to smile, even though his heart grew cold and heavy with Alya’s words. Everything she said made sense, but it didn’t make it any less painful. Just a little over a month ago Chloé being a part of his life seemed the most implausible idea, but now her drifting away from his life felt equally impossible. But maybe it won’t happen soon; as long as he doesn’t jeopardize their friendship by letting her know he’s in love with her, he can still be her friend. Even if it’s only because they are neighbors, even if she’s just bored, but as long as she smiles at him with that unexpected gentleness, that will be enough.

“I really, really need a drink now, so can we just go to the bar already?” he asked, standing up and trying not to meet Alya or Marinette’s eyes.

“Sure, Nath,” Marinette said, putting her hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go.”

Next morning he was awoken by Hurricane Chloé, who burst into his bedroom, crying, “Wake up, sleepyhead! Rise and shine!” Nath tried to hide from her by burying his head in the pillow, but it didn’t help. “Wakey-wakey!” Chloé sat down on his bed and shook his shoulder. “Get up, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and we’re going on a picnic,” she announced cheerfully.

“Chloé, what the hell,” Nath groaned. “What time is it?”

“It’s time to get up! Come on, the weather is wonderful, we must go outside!” She pulled at his hand, trying to make him get up. Reluctantly, Nath sat up in the bed.

“Chloé, are you fucking serious?”

“Absolutely! Hurry and get up, I already packed everything we need. You’ve four minutes to get ready, I’ll be waiting in my apartment.”

Without giving Nath a chance to collect his thoughts and tell her that no, he wasn’t going anywhere, he wanted to sleep, she stood up and danced to the door. Before leaving his bedroom, she turned back and said, with an awfully smug grin, “By the way, nice bedhead, Nath.”

He groaned, but got up and went to the bathroom. Her cheerfulness was contagious; besides, it was evident that she wasn’t going to just let him be.

About quarter an hour later, he walked into Chloé’s apartment. She was sitting at the kitchen table, flipping through a magazine, but threw it away it as soon as he appeared.

“Finally,” she said. “Take the hamper and let’s go.”

“Where are we going exactly?” Nath asked when they left the apartment and headed for the elevator.

“Just a park I like. Don’t worry, I’ll drive us.”

“You seem awfully energetic today,” he noticed once they were in Chloé’s car.

“Well, why not. It’s warm and sunny, and I love warm and sunny. Maybe something good’s gonna happen today,” she said, smiling at him.

“You think so?”

She just shrugged.

Chloé drove them to a park just outside of Paris, where they found a nice spot under a tree. Nath laid out a blanket and they sat down. The place Chloé chose was really lovely, especially on such a nice day. It was so calm and quiet, except for the birds chirping, as if the time itself was going slower there. He looked at Chloé who was pulling out the food, humming something, and wondered how she would know a place like this. He didn’t have many answers when it came to her.

“By the way, do you need sunscreen,” Chloé asked suddenly, interrupting his thoughts.

“What? No, it’s okay,” he said.

“Are you sure? You’ve a pretty pale skin, you need to be careful.”

“No, it’s okay,” he repeated.

“Fine, whatever,” she said, shrugging. “It’s up to you, after all. Here, breakfast is served,” she said with a flourish.

While they were eating, Nath said, “I think you should go out with me, Alya and Marinette sometime."

Chloé looked at him as if he was crazy, but he tried to look confident.

“Just when I thought the day was going to be nice,” she muttered. “What exactly makes you think it’s a good idea?”

“Well, firstly, having a normal relationship with you ex-classmates is pretty cool.”

“I have good relationship with my ex-classmates!” Chloé answered indignantly.

“Really? Who, exactly?” Nath asked, unable to control his sarcasm.

Chloé looked lost for a moment. “Adrien,” she answered finally. “And you.”

“I am extremely flattered, Chloé, but it’s ridiculous and you know it.”

“Okay, even if it is, why does it have to be these two? Can’t we pick someone else? Anyone at all?”

“Well, theoretically, you can pick someone else, but there’s also secondly,” Nath trailed away, because secondly was a bit tricky.

“What’s that?” Chloé asked, still a bit defensively.

“Well… It would make things easier if you were on good terms with people I usually hang out with. Unless, of course, us being friends is a short-term thing,” he finished nervously. Alya’s words were really messing with his head, making him even more unsure about his friendship with Chloé that he was before. Not that Alya was wrong, but still, the things she said weren’t exactly a vote of confidence.

“Oh,” Chloé said, suddenly looking uncomfortable, too. “Well, then, I suppose, I have no other choice but to meet them. As long as they don’t accuse me of blackmailing you or anything.”

“They won’t, I promise,” Nath replied, relieved. “They were just worried about me, that’s all.”

“Worried?” Chloé asked sharply. “What, is anything wrong?”

“No, no, everything’s fine. It was just a misunderstanding.”

“Okay then,” Chloé pursed her lips. “But you’ll have to be on my side, not theirs, if anything happens.”

“Well, as long as you’re on your best behavior.”

“When am I not?” Chloé asked, feigning indignation.

“When you don’t let me sleep in the morning just because you want to go to a picnic, for example.”

“Oh, don’t pretend you don’t like it! It’s such a beautiful day!”

“Yeah, it is,” Nath admitted.

“Really, you should be thanking me for getting you outside,” Chloé said smugly, pointing a finger at him.

“Oh, thank you Chloé, you are amazing and I’m so grateful for everything you’ve done for me this far,” Nath said, pressing his hand to the heart in a mocking gesture. Chloé just rolled her eyes at him.

But she was absolutely right, the day was wonderful. Nath moved a little bit, so that rays of sun fell straight to his face, and closed his eyes. The sunlight was so warm and gentle on his skin, Nath felt the corners of his lips curl up involuntarily. A small laugh made him open his eyes.

“Sorry, but you look just like a cat,” Chloé explained, “I couldn’t help it.”

“I like it when it’s warm, too,” Nath said, a bit embarrassed. Suddenly, Chloé moved closer to him and, before he could understand what was happening, took his right hand in hers.

“Still cold,” she commented. He tried to pull his hand away from her, but Chloé didn’t let him. Instead, she placed his hand between her palms. “Even though my hands are smaller than yours, I’m sure I can make you warm,” she said, making the blood rush to his cheeks. The heat radiated from her hands and somehow went straight to his heart, making it beat fast and uneven.  

He tried to pull his hand away, this time successfully. Even her simply holding his hand made it hard to control his feelings. But as long as she wasn’t touching him, he was okay. Friends, he reminded himself. He turned away from Chloé and pulled out his sketchbook.

“Do you mind if I draw a little bit?” he asked.

“But your other hand must still be cold,” she protested, to his surprise.

“It doesn’t matter. I told you, I’m used to it.”

“Okay,” she shrugged, then laid down on the blanket next to him. “Then I won’t bother you, draw all you want,” she said, putting her hands behind her head and closing her eyes. “Just don’t draw on me if I fall asleep,” she said.

“You really shouldn’t give me ideas,” Nath replied with a smile.

Then fell into a silence that was surprisingly comfortable, even with Nath’s heart being a total mess and aching for something he could never have.

He was drawing Chloé. Of course, he was drawing Chloé; how could he even think of drawing something else, when she was lying just next to him, basking in the sunlight in all her shining beauty, her hair a halo of gold, a little smile curving her thin lips. Nath made a quick sketch, then another one. After a while he stopped drawing and just sat there, looking at Chloé, mesmerized, longing to move closer to her, to run his hand through her silky blond hair, to finally find out what her lips tasted like.

Suddenly, Chloé opened her eyes and looked straight at him, catching him off guard. “What are you doing?” she asked, squinting at the sunlight. Nath blinked, unable to find an answer, but Chloé didn’t need any, because she quickly sat up and snatched the sketchbook from Nath’s lap before he could stop her. “Oh, that’s me!” she exclaimed, looking at his last sketch. Nath cursed mentally, because he wasn’t planning to show it to her; now he could just hope that his feelings for Chloé weren’t completely obvious by the way he drew her. “Wow, I’m beautiful,” Chloé commented, shining with joy. “Oh, there’s another one! Wow, Nath, these are amazing, I love them!” she said, beaming at him.

And I love you, he wanted to tell her, but it was too impossible, too painful, so he just took the sketchbook back from her and muttered a thank you.

Once again, he was unable to notice when the things went wrong. Maybe it was on their way back home, when Chloé turned on the radio and then fell somewhat silent, as if thinking about something. But he couldn’t see the danger back then.

And even when they were back in their building, he could only feel slight uneasiness. And when Chloé said, “Come in for a minute, please, I need to check something,” he followed her into her flat without a second thought.

“What do you need?” he asked, looking at her, once they were in Chloé’s living room.

“This,” she whispered, took a step toward him, raised herself on tiptoes and kissed him.

And because he was weak, and because her lips tasted like summer, and because his heart suddenly grew ten times bigger and lighter in her chest, he kissed her back, pulling her closer in a tight embrace. Kissing Chloé was like touching a star with his bare hands, it burned him in the most amazing way possible. For a minute he forgot all his doubts, for a minute he stopped thinking about why he should have never done that and let himself drown in her sweetness and warmth.

But this minute passed, and the moment her lips left his, Nath’s heart sank in his chest, happiness turning to desperation. How could something like that happen?

“Well, that settles it,” Chloé said, breathing heavily. “I think I’m in love with you.”

“No, no, no, no!” he exclaimed, jumping away from her. “No!”

She looked at him, dumbfounded. “What do you mean ‘no’?”

“You can’t be in love with me!” His hands started trembling, his body growing cold with fear.

“Why?” she demanded, frowning. “Do you not like me back?”

“I do, but it’s not about me, it’s about you!” Nath exclaimed frantically. “Look, whatever you feel for me, it’s not love, even if you think so.” He took a shaky breath, trying to find words to somehow fix everything. “I mean, you can’t be in love with me! Because you’re you, and you’re so bright, and energetic, and full of life, and the person you’ll fall in love with will have to be someone amazing, someone hot, and rich, and striking, and whoever that will be, it’s not me. And yes, we have great time together, but you shouldn’t mistake that for love, because it isn’t, and you’ll see that soon enough, when you meet someone you’ll really like.” He closed his eyes for a moment, the pain in his chest almost physical. “And I don’t want to be some guy you date just because you haven’t found someone better yet, or just because it’s easy, or because you’re bored and want to be with someone, anyone. I can’t be that guy, because I have feelings, too, and I can’t let you toy with them, even if you don’t mean me any harm.” Nath took another deep breath. Chloé’s face looked so hurt, it almost made him break down, but he had to get things straight once and for all. “I’m sorry, Chloé, but you’re not in love with me, and I’m sure you’ll see it, too. if you really think about it.”

“But –“ Chloé started, but Nath interrupted her.

“No!” he shook his head sadly. “No, Chloé, no.”

It was a no, because he was afraid.

It was a no, because he wasn’t enough for someone like her.

It was a no, because loving Chloé Bourgeois meant having his heart broken by Chloé Bourgeois.

And without giving her a chance to say or do anything else, he turned and left.

Chapter Text

“It´s all your fault, so you must tell me how to fix it!” Chloé yelled at the phone.

“How is that my fault?” Lorenzo asked on the other end of the line.

“Because you told me I should go after Nath! And anyway, I say it’s your fault, so it’s your fault! Now tell me what do I do?” Chloé was angry. Very angry. And she refused to calm down, because anger fueled her, and god knows what she’d feel if she gave herself the time to take a deep breath and think.

“He really won’t open the door?” Lorenzo asked.

“No, I’ve been trying for like fifteen minutes, but he locked himself up in his fucking apartment and won’t talk to me!” Chloé kicked the door to Nath’s flat in frustration, yelling, “Get out, Nath, you fucking coward! Get out and face me!”

“To be completely honest, these are not the words to charm a man, Chloé.” Lorenzo commented. “You don’t want to scare him off forever, do you?”

“Oh, shut up!” Chloé hissed. “Do you have better ideas?”

“Well, what exactly did he say to you?”

“I don’t know!” Chloé exclaimed, exasperated. “It was just a bunch of shit about how he doesn’t think I really love him or something like that.”

“Then I guess you’ll have to prove that you’re serious. You know, with a romantic gesture or something.” Lorenzo suggested.

“What fucking kind of a romantic gesture can I make when he won’t even open his goddamn door!” Chloé exploded.

“I don’t know, Chloé, and stop yelling at me! You know him better, think of something,” Lorenzo replied, irritated.

“Well, thanks for nothing!” Chloé snapped and hung up. She stamped her foot, angrily looking at Nath’s door. She will make him leave, and she will make him listen to her, no matter what it takes. She crossed her hands, thinking about what can she do except set his apartment on fire, which was a bit extra even for her. It took her a few minutes to come up with an idea, and then she pulled out her phone again. “Bruno?” she said. “Are you home? Great, I need a small favor…”

Bruno, accompanied by Lorenzo, appeared about 20 minutes later, most of which Chloé spent sitting on the floor under Nath’s door, determined not to let him run away to where she wouldn’t be able to ambush and catch him.

“Hey,” Chloé said, getting up and immediately reaching out for the guitar that Bruno brought her. “Today I’m really glad you live just a few minutes away.”

“What are you planning to do?” Lorenzo asked with an amused smile.

“Serenade him,” Chloé said. Admittedly, it could be either a very good or a very stupid idea, but she wasn’t able to think of any other options. And right now she didn’t really care whether she looked stupid or not.

“You’re kidding me!” Lorenzo exclaimed, beaming at Chloé as if she’d just given him a present.

“Yeah, because in reality I intend to smash down his door with this guitar.” Chloé knew that what had happened wasn’t Lorenzo’s fault, and there was no reason to be mad at him, but she still needed somebody to blame, so she couldn’t help but act a little cross with him.

“Okay, okay,” Lorenzo said, throwing his hands up, as if giving in. “Do what you want, I won’t bother you, I’ll be watching from over there, quietly.” He took a couple of steps back, pulling Bruno with him.

Chloé walked to Nath’s door again and knocked. He didn’t answer, which only made her angrier.

“Hey, Nath, you know what I’m gonna do?” she yelled through his closed door. “I’m gonna serenade you right here, where everyone in this building could hear me. I’m gonna profess my love for you so loudly, every single neighbor will know how totally head over heels I am for you, and it’s gonna be so scandalous you’ll have to date me, and I’ll have to date you forever, too, or leave the country, because I know that Lorenzo’s gonna be filming everything, and I’d be too embarrassed to show my face here, where everyone would know how much I liked you and how you dumped me once you grew bored with me. So I’m gonna sing about my love for you and I’m not gonna stop until you leave your goddamn apartment and listen to me and admit you love me too, and I’m not such a good singer, to be honest, so hurry up!” Chloé stopped, breathing heavily. She looked at Lorenzo and Bruno, who looked back at her. “And now, I guess, I’ll have to sing,” she said in a lower voice.

“Seems like it,” Lorenzo agreed. Just as Chloé expected, he already had his phone out and was filming her.

“Hmmm,” Chloé touched the strings of Bruno’s guitar. “I don’t know what to sing,” she confessed.

“Huh?” Lorenzo looked at her incredulously. “But it was your great idea!”

“Yeah, but I it was like… very general, I didn’t actually think about what I was going to sing!” Chloé replied, ignoring the guys’ snicker. She ran her fingers over the strings again. Well, maybe she should just improvise.

Nathanaël, Nathanaël,

I really haven’t thought this through

– she sang –

But oh, Nathanaël,

I think that what I feel for you is true.

Okay, judging by the fact that both Lorenzo and Bruno were laughing like hyenas, improvisation probably wasn’t her forte. Chloé rolled her eyes at them. “Guys, are you here to support me or what?”

“I’m here because you asked to borrow my guitar, so I have the right to laugh,” Bruno replied.

“And I’m really sorry, Chloé, I’ll try not to laugh anymore, please go on,” Lorenzo said, visibly struggling to keep a straight face.

Chloé sighed. “I can’t think of a single good song,” she complained. She leaned on the wall next to Nath’s door and for a few seconds just mindlessly ran her fingers through the strings.

Somehow  a song found her, and it felt right, and suddenly her fingers seemed to know what to play. Chloé took a deep breath, calming herself, letting her anger go.  After all, this wasn’t her angry song, this was her love song, and it was soft.

And I love you so 
People ask me how 
How I've lived till now 
I tell them I don't know 

But without her anger to support her, Chloé felt fear creeping into her chest. What if, by some awful, enormous mistake, her feelings won’t be able to reach Nath? This can’t happen, she told herself, she wouldn’t let this happen. She never learned to lose, and she wasn’t about to lose now, too.

I guess they understand 
How lonely life has been 
But life began again 
The day you took my hand

There wasn’t much she could do without her anger – just to sing and to hope that her voice doesn’t break, that she doesn’t break, that Nath hears her.

And yes I know how lonely life can be 
The shadows follow me 
And the night won't set me free 
But I don't let the evening get me down 
Now that you're around me

The door to Nath apartment opened and Chloé jumped, ending the melody on a painful note. Now that she was face to face with Nath, her mind going completely blank. It seems he was struggling for words, too.

“I thought you didn’t like old songs,” Nath said finally.

“It’s not old, it’s classic,” she replied automatically. No, this wasn’t what she needed to be talking about!

“I’m so sorry,” Nath started, but Chloé interrupted him.

“No!” she exclaimed, everything she wanted to tell him suddenly coming back to her. “No, first you let me speak, and you’d better listen! I don’t know what kind of bullshit you’ve been telling yourself, but if you imagine that you can decide whether my feelings are real or not, you’d better think again! Because I know my heart, and I know when it’s being serious, and I know that it chose to fall in love with you. And not because it was easy or whatever it was that you said, but because it’s you, because being with you makes me feel so happy, and so alive, and it makes my whole world so wonderful and warm and shiny as it has never been before.” Chloé was almost choking on her own words, overflown with emotions.  “So I mean it when I’m saying I don’t want some perfect man, I want you, and I think you’re pretty much perfect anyway! You’re talented, and kind, and amazing, and handsome, too, and this is me telling you that I love you, and I’m not taking no for an answer!” Chloé stopped, because there was nothing more she could say to him. She has just offered her heart to this man, and she couldn’t even dare to imagine what could happen if he didn’t want it.

“I’m so sorry,” Nath said again. Chloé felt as if she couldn’t breathe, but then he continued, “I’m so sorry for what I said before, and I’m sorry for not believing you before, but I was afraid, because I could not imagine someone like you loving someone like me. But I think I was wrong, and I know I love you, too, Chloé, I love you so much.”

And then he was kissing her, and she was kissing him back, laughing and crying into his lips at the same time, overcome with happiness and relief. And their second kiss tasted like her tears, but it was good, it was all good from now on, because he loved her, and because he was holding her in his arms, and because he was hers, and that was all she could wish for.

A few days passed, and when Chloé come back from university, she didn’t even hesitate to walk right into Nath’s apartment. She called out his name, but stopped mid-word, seeing him asleep on the couch. “He must be cold”, she thought, walked to the bedroom, took a blanket and returned to Nath. Covering him, Chloé noticed that he was holding something in his hands – a sketchbook. Chloé recognized it – it was the one he didn’t allow her to see the day he first showed her his works. Well, now he wouldn’t mind her seeing it, right? What’s the worst she could see there? Some kinky stuff? Well, if he was into something weird, she’d better know about that in advance.

She pulled the sketchbook from his hands and opened it. She almost expected to see something dirty, but there only were some usual sketches; Chloé was almost disappointed. She flipped one page after another, and then stopped abruptly. It was her, right? She turned another page. Yes, she was not mistaken; it was her face, drawn again and again by Nath’s hand. Her images covered page after page; Chloé caressed the paper with her fingertips, happiness feeling her heart. The sketches had a date to them, and god, was he thinking about her back then already? She sat on the floor nest to the couch, looking at Nath’s sleeping face and smiling. She could have never imagined loving anyone as much as she loved Nath, and yet she wanted to love him even more than she already did. She wanted to love him so strongly, so fiercely he would never feel as if he wasn’t enough again. She was so stupidly in love with this boy, she could barely believe it.

Chloé sighed and went back to the sketchbook, taking her time to look through it. Nath woke up about half an hour later.

“Hey,” he said, yawning, making her look at him.

“Oh hey,” Chloé replied, getting up and climbing on top of him, pushing the blanket away. Nath raised his eyebrows at this. “I know your dark secret, Kurtzberg,” Chloé announced, unable to erase a silly satisfied grin off her face.

“What?” he asked, surprised.

“You like me,” she replied, showing him the sketchbook. Nath winced slightly.

“Chloé, we’re dating.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“You literally serenaded me! I have proof!” Oh, so Lorenzo did send him the video? Of course he did, she told herself, why would she even doubt Enzo’s devotion to embarrassing her.

“Well, maybe I did, but I’ve seen the dates on these sketches and I can’t believe you liked me back then already.” Chloé laughed and put her hands on Nath’s chest. “I believe you deserve a kiss for that.” She leaned down and kissed him on the lips, feeling his heartbeat quicken under her fingertips. “Or maybe,” she continued, giving him a little kiss on the nose, “every one of those sketches is worth a kiss,” she kissed him on the cheek, “though I forgot to count them,” she finished, kissing his eyelids. She moved to kissing his jawline, when Nath stopped her.

“I think there’s something you’d like to see,” he said.

“Mm, what’s that?” Chloé asked, still distracted by his jawline.

“We’ll need to go somewhere, so you’ll have to get up,” Nath said with a teasing smile. Chloé immediately jumped off the couch.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“It’s a surprise.”

The place Nath wanted to show her turned out to be his studio. There was a couple of people there, but Nath just greeted them and let Chloé straight to one of the corners.

“Remember that time I kinda disappeared for a couple of days? Well, I’ve been working on this,” he said and turned one of the paintings over so Chloé could see it.

She had never seen any of his paintings before, but even if she had, she still wouldn’t be ready for what she saw.

It was a big painting, and it was her, all her – she was floating among the stars, asleep, flying through space and time. And she was like a star herself – as if she were shining, her hair a golden river, her whole body almost emitting light.

But it wasn’t just that – the whole painting was filled with love, with admiration, with gentleness, and she knew why Nath had never mentioned the painting before. His feelings for her was almost palpable here, passionate and strong like she’s never known them before.

For a minute Chloé just stared at the painting, forgetting all words, almost forgetting to breathe, too. She was overwhelmed by it, by the fact that someone could see her like this, by the fact that this someone was the person she loved most in the world.

“So?” Nath asked, staring at her intently, almost worried. “You like it?”

“Oh, I—I –“ Chloé stammered, unable to find words to express how she was feeling. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my life,” she said finally, and Nath visibly relaxed. Did he really think that she could not like it? There was no way in the world she wouldn’t like something he painted. “I can’t believe you did it.”

“You see, I’m not that good with words, and with explaining my feelings, but I think I can express it in my art, so I thought that maybe if you saw this, you’d know…” Nath took a deep breath and looked her right in the eye. “…you’d know how much I love you,” he finished, blushing. Chloé’s heart was beating violently in her chest, like a bird wanting to soar.

“I know,” Chloé said, taking his hand and intertwining their fingers. “I know.” She took another look at the painting and then added, with a mischievous smile, “And I think this one deserves waaay more than just a kiss.”

Chapter Text

Nath’s phone vibrated, making him look up from his sketchbook. It was a text from Chloé, saying she finally left class and was on her way to meet him. Nath quickly typed a reply, saying he was waiting for her, then looked out of the window into dull, rainy Parisian day. They’ve been dating for a few months now, and Nath had to admit that he’s never been happier. Once unimaginable, loving Chloé now seemed to be the easiest thing in the world; it was as natural as breathing, as a heartbeat.

He was sitting in a coffee house near Chloé’s university, where they were to meet once her classes were over. Nath leaned back in the chair, opening the camera roll on his phone and skimming through the photos. Chloé’s birthday was in a few days and he wanted his present to be ready in time for it. After spending an awfully long time thinking about what she’d like, what she’d want, he finally decided to give her a scrapbook – it was a silly idea, maybe, but he really liked it, so he had already found an album and started filling it with some of his sketches and photos of them together. Finding time to do so turned out to be tricky, though, since he didn’t want to work on it in a public place, and home – well, at home Chloé was almost always with him, and she wasn’t really into respecting each other’s privacy. He learned to live with it, though. They never officially moved in together, but then it didn’t seem to be necessary, since they assumed some kind of cohabitation from the first days they started dating. Their apartments just somehow turned into some kind of common space, which made Nath’s unfortunate predisposition to losing his stuff so much worse: was the thing he’d been looking for in his apartment? in hers? He never knew.

Nath’d already chosen the photos he wanted to print out, but decided to look through them one more time, thinking that maybe he’d missed something. He skipped through the everyday stuff, photos of them together, photos of Chloe he took without her noticing, that were like little sneak peeks into her personality. He skipped through the photos from that one time he decided to get a tattoo and Chloe went with him and got way more worried about the pain than he was, and kept asking whether it hurt or not, and that was so sweet of her, he didn’t even notice if it did. Then there were the photos from the party where Chloé finally made peace with Marinette and Alya, even though Nath saw her take a couple of shots of vodka first for extra friendliness. He remembered going home from that party; who would’ve known that drunken Chloé was so mesmerized by the stars and the moon. It was adorable, even though he was rather sure she was calling Venus the Pole star, which explained why she couldn’t make out a single constellation. It didn’t matter, though, because the night air was so fresh, and the moon was shining so bright, and Chloé was holding his hand, and she looked up at the sky and asked whether he believed in happiness. And he did, because how could he not, when the happiness was right beside him, and he was holding her hand, and he was looking her right in the eye, and he knew she felt it, too.

Another photo was from the day she decided to surprise him and make them a dinner – he never managed to make her confess what it was supposed to be, and it was impossible to discern from the dirt-like substance left on the pans. He remembered how angry she got; refusing to clean and telling him it was all his fault, somehow. He, jokingly, told her he’d clean if she kissed him, and then she did, and he had to scrub the pans off some something that was very obviously inedible and looked like his worst fears.

Nath skipped all the way to the very first photo he’d ever taken of her, the morning after the storm. She was sleeping, hugging Rory (who has since lost his place in Chloé’s bedroom and had to move to the living room in order to preserve his innocence); it was probably the first time he though she was cute, too. He had since learned that she was cute in a thousand other ways – for example, the way her eyes lit with emotion when she was talking about her favorite movie characters, or the way her lips curled whenever she saw a dog, or how she thought cuddling was the best was to deal with cold winter days (he though so, too).

Nath caught himself smiling like an idiot, thinking of the time she saw a girl with a puppy in her backpack and couldn’t talk about anything else for the rest of the day, telling about it to every person she knew as if it was the most important thing in the world. He tried to assume some decent and reserved expression, laying his phone down and staring out of the window into the grey rainy day. He knew Chloe hated this weather; she needed sunlight to be happy, but he preferred the rain. This way, no matter the weather, one of them was always satisfied with it.

He saw her the very moment she made the corner, maybe because on some level he always was looking for her now, or maybe because he knew her image so well by now he could find her in any crowd, or because she, as always, was a bright spot in the gray Parisian day. With that strikingly vivid yellow coat and red umbrella, she’d immediately stand out in any crowd. Yes, that was Chloé alright, Nath smiled to himself. She always needed to make herself seen and heard, with her bright clothes, loud voice, strong opinions (even if sometimes they were a bit too strong and he had to remind her to take a deep breath and calm down). He, on the other hand, had once learned to make himself almost invisible even with that unfortunately red hair of his. Yet he liked this side of Chloé, admiring the seemingly endless energy she seemed to radiate, but then, he liked each and every side of Chloé. Her dorky and goofy side, her self-confident and determined side, and, above all, her soft and vulnerable side, the one she so rarely showed even to him. But slowly, finally, she let him even to the most guarded corners of her heart – making him love her even more, if that was possible.

He looked at her walking fast and confident, the way she always did, and felt the warmth grow inside him the closer she got, because even when Paris was dull and rainy, she was his sun. And now she was going to enter the coffee shop, and kiss him, and maybe her hands will be a bit cold after being outside, and she’d already have something on her mind she’ll start telling him immediately, and she’ll look at him with this smile in the very corners of her eyes, and he’d be complete, and happy, so happy, because she’d be there, with him, always.