Work Text:
Lila readied herself, before walking into the art room, perfect kind smile plastered on her face. She had heard of a boy from another class some of her classmates were friends with, and Lila wanted to make sure that she had already charmed him before Marinette went around trying to expose her again.
She would've asked Nathaniel to introduce her, since he was the one who told her about Marc in the first place, but he got a headache that morning and spent the day in the nurse's office. Lila was pretty sure he ended up falling asleep, missing all his classes.
The people she knew greeted her with loud exclamations of joy, excited she was interested in their little club. She waved off their offers to join, saying she was just looking around. Her eyes finally landed on an unfamilar face, the person focused on reading the comic in his hands.
Lila glided over, taking note of the title and the journal splayed out besides him, full of writing, smiling as she greeted him, "Hi! I'm Lila! Who are you?"
He squeaked, ducking his head behind his book, "Oh, I'm Marc. Nice to meet you."
She sat down besides him, immediately jumping into a conversation, "I noticed you were reading the Mightyllustrator and Reverser comics. Do you like the art style?"
Marc nodded brightly, "It's amazing! The expressions convey so much emotions, and the movements are so dynamic, and you can really tell the personality of each character from a glance from their body poses! He put so much thought into them!"
"You know I'm actually friends with him!"
Marc nodded along as she burst into a story of a hangout with the illustrator, idly wondering why she was referring to Nathaniel while dodging his name the entire time. They both knew him in real life, after all.
"Actually, we were talking about the writing the other day."
Lila smirked to herself as she noticed Marc perk up in interest. Now to spin a lie and offer to introduce Marc and give him the opportunity to work on the comic with the illustrator whose work he adores so much.
"He said it was terrible. That the storylines were too complicated to make sense and the characters were either unlikable or overpowered."
Marc's breath caught in his throat, eyes widening as Lila continued on, each insult to his work Nathaniel told her stabbing him in the heart. He glanced down at his journal, running a hand over it.
Was it that bad? Even then, Nathaniel didn't tell him any criticisms. Did he think Marc was too sensitive to take them? And yet, the artist was completely fine with telling all these things to someone he's not even that close with. His voice wavered as he asked, just for confirmation, "He said that?"
Lila beamed at him, seeming so happy as she destroyed his hopes of a misunderstanding with an energetic, "Yeah!"
He stood up, grabbing his journal and dropping the comic on the table, nausea coursing through his body, "I... I need to go." Marc ran out without a second glance back. Lila turned around, confused why he seemed so upset. She scanned the room, suddenly realizing how everyone was staring at her with horrorified or scandilized expressions.
"What happened?"
"Why would you say that to him?!" Alix shouted, storming over to Lila, "What went through your mind to make you think that was okay?!"
Lila flinched back, baffled at why Alix was so angry at her, "What do you mean?"
Rose sniffled, "That's so mean! How could you just insult Marc's writing right in front of him? Nathaniel would never say anything like that!"
"What does Nathaniel have to do with this?" She asked, trying to salvage the situation by deflecting.
"You said that he was the one who told you all of those insults," Juleka clarified, "...Which makes it a little suspicious that you're confused."
"I said the illustrator of the comic said that, not Nathaniel!" Lila refuted, firm in her defense. She gave a little huff of triumph that made everyone go silent.
"You're lying about knowing him," Alix stated, eyes wide as she stared at Lila.
Marinette leaned against the back wall of the art room, giving a little smile as she made eye contact with Lila, "Which brings into question the rest of her connections." With how much she lied, it was only a matter of time before a contradiction happened. The dominos of her exposure were starting to fall and Marinette was enjoying every second of it.
Nathaniel walked into the art room with a smile, quickly going stiff upon noticing the atmosphere. He coughed a little, bringing everyone's attention to him, "Where's Marc? He said he was going to meet me here so he could show me the script for the next issue."
Lila quickly connected the dots in her head, growing pale as everyone explained the situation to Nathaniel, a mixture of frantic babbling and quiet glares towards her.
---
Marc dashed into an alley, leaning against the wall with heavy breaths. His body shook with the force of his tears, muffling his cries with his hand.
God, he was so dumb. Why did he ever think his writing was good enough for Nathaniel?
He held his journal, full of stories he used to be so proud of before this moment, close to his chest. A butterfly fluttered down from the sky, its purple hue showing the poison it contained, phasing into his notebook.
Marc's hand dropped from his mouth, eyes staring straight ahead at the wall in front of him as Hawkmoth finalized their connection.
"Reverser. Someone who you thought you knew has been hiding a darker side all along. I'm giving you back the power so nobody will be who they say they are. All you have to do is get me Ladybug and Chat Noir's miraculous."
"I'll make him regret ever decieving me," Marc muttered, journal dropping from his grip onto the ground, expanding into a glider as he stepped onto it, body morphing into Reverser yet again.
---
Nathaniel bit his lip as he wandered out of the school with Alix, "Guess Lila wasn't all that nice after all." They had left her to be lectured by the rest of the art club while they went to look for Marc.
Alix pat his back, "Focus on that later. Let's find your boyfriend."
Nathaniel flushed red, shoving Alix, "We're not dating!"
She snickered, regaining her balance quickly, "But you want to."
The artist's cheeks stayed a bright red as he huffed, muttering, "Well, obviously. But that's not important right now."
Alix rolled her eyes fondly, before her gaze peered past her friend. A second barely passed before she reached forward, pulling him back from an airplane hitting where he was just standing. Nathaniel stumbled back, Alix helping steady him as Reverser flew into sight, venomous glare focused on the artist.
Alix muttered swears under her breath as she dragged Nathaniel along with her, running away from the akuma.
"Get over here now!" Reverser shrieked, chasing them, "Nathaniel!"
The redhead turned back, trying to talk to him, "Marc, calm down-"
"Calm down?!" The akuma shouted, "You say all that shit about my writing behind my back and you expect me to calm down?!"
"It was a lie!" Nathaniel yelled, ripping his hand free of Alix's grasp, standing still and staring Reverser in the eyes. "Lila was trying to cozy up to you. That entire conversation was a lie."
"Pff, right," Reverser scoffed, "Why would she insult my writing if she was trying to get me to like her?"
Nathaniel groaned, rubbing his face, "Look, it's complicated. But there is a way for me to prove it." He gestured towards himself, "Reverse me."
"What?!" Alix cried out behind him, "Hey, don't sacrifice yourself!"
"I have nothing to hide about my opinions of his writing," Nathaniel explained, "So if he reverses me, nothing will change."
Reverser narrowed his eyes at him, airplane forming in his hand, "Let's test that theory then." Before he could throw it, a yo-yo wrapped around his wrist, yanking him off his glider. Reverser yelped as he tumbled towards the ground, Ladybug leaping up and catching him as Chat used his baton to shoot up and destroyed the glider.
Marc blinked, confused as Ladybug placed him back on the ground. Nathaniel immediately ran up, Ladybug stepping back to let the two talk, ushering Chat and Alix away. The artist took a deep breath, before simply saying, "I need to talk to you."
Marc flinched back, biting his lip. This was it. Nathaniel was going to tell him to his face how much he hated his writing and he was going to kick him off the comic and everyone would make fun of him and-
"Marc," Nathaniel slowly interlocked their fingers, bringing him back to reality. "After our first issue, we could've easily left that as a one off comic. I could've left and started my own original idea again. But I didn't. All your storylines blend together perfectly and plot twists are always foreshadowed enough to not be out of nowhere but it's not super obvious. You write the characters so well, they're all relatable and never lean too much in one extreme. I love your writing Marc."
He looked at the ground for a moment, before looking back up with a smile and a blush across his cheeks.
"I love you Marc."
Marc didn't know how to respond besides staring dumbly in shock. Nathaniel took a step back, fumbling over his words, "Sorry, this is probably a lot to take in-"
The writer approached him quickly, reaching up to cup Nathaniel's face in his hands, making the artist face him, "I love you too. C...Can I kiss you?"
The artist rubbed one of Marc's hands with his own, breathlessly responding with, "Go for it."
They leaned together, lips slowly pressing in a gentle kiss. Marc idly corrected their position so it didn't get interrupted because they hit their faces. With this being Nath's first kiss, it's only natural for him to not know how to tilt his head to not bump their noses together.
Marc will just have to kiss him a lot more to get him used to it.
The heroes and Alix cheered silently from around the corner where they were watching.
And Lila? This wasn't about her. She could suffer with the consequences of her actions, but all that mattered right now was the boys and their newfound relationship.