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A gloomy Saturday afternoon darkened the streets of Paris. A gentle drizzle blanketed the racing cars and damp umbrellas. A threat was lingering in the air; a storm brewing and looming. The electricity in the wind promised chaos.
Nathalie perched on the loveseat nearest her favourite window in the Agreste mansion. It had just enough potential for sunlight and just enough obscurity for casual viewing pleasure. With a warm coffee and romance novel in hand, she couldn’t think of a better way to spend her Saturday. She took a comforting sip from her mug, a gift from Adrien last mother’s day. It was her favourite mug of all.
Nathalie would never admit it, but a sweet tale of love was her favourite kind of story to read. Passion, romance, tragedy, redemption. It woke her heart up to new wonders that she could only hope to experience one day. Oh, how desperately she wished to be loved. If she could put at least some sunshine into someone’s day, she’d be happy. Be a beacon in the dark, and a hand to hold.
Her eyes drifted from the words on the delicate pages to the blur of dashing bodies running for shelter outside. Wet. Cold. Threatening.
She was warm, she was dry, she was safe. And most importantly, she felt loved.
She had awoken from a peaceful nap earlier to her favourite blanket draped around her. Nathalie supposed Adrien caught a glimpse of her short slumber and made sure she wasn’t cold. It was a deep red thing, soft to the touch and familiar to her fingers. She brought it closer to her body, revelling in the simple scent of Gabriel that engulfed her. Home.
She was home.
Then, thunder shook the house in an angry growl. Nathalie startled, a splash of coffee tipping over the rim of her mug and onto her -Gabriel’s- blanket. Her lips formed a dissatisfied frown. The blanket would have to be washed, Nathalie surmised, but the smell of belonging would be washed away too.
A clutter and clash from the kitchen made the woman perk up.
”Shit-“
“Mr. Agreste?” she called, keeping as still as she could to listen for any movements. “Are you alright?”
When no response came, Nathalie placed her hardback novel on the small table beside her. Page 58, she made a mental note. Her beverage discarded, Nathalie stood from her comfy spot in search of the sound.
The soft thuds of her socks on the hardwood floor were vaguely reminiscent of childhood memories, childish thumps that brought joy to her heart. Nathalie remembered the giggles of children waiting for the flash of lightning to set fire to the sky. She hoped her sister was watching the storm unravel with the same fondness as she was.
All the sunshine was swallowed up by the clouds overhead. The power was sure to go out any second now.
The kitchen was empty when she arrived. The sky’s hue projected into the room, wrapping the walls in a dark embrace. A lone plate and fork lay discarded on the floor, causing Nathalie’s brow to furrow in worry.
“Sir? Where are you?” she tried again, beginning to search all the rooms on the ground floor. The kitchen was empty. The atelier was empty. The dining room was empty. Empty, empty, empty. Nathalie’s concern grew.
Before she could burst out into a full sprint, a soft sound rang in her ears. She slowed; attentive.
Breathing.
Her heart clenched in her chest as she reached the bathroom, rapping her knuckles on the door lightly so as to not alarm the man inside.
“Gabriel…” she tried again, with the softest voice she could muster.
She pressed her ear up against the cold wood. A quick shuffling noise from the other side of the door confirmed her suspicions. A cough masked his crumbling composure. Gabriel was inside.
“Everything’s fine, Nathalie, you can leave.”
Nathalie latched on to the waver in his voice and tried the doorknob. The sharp sting of the cold metal shocked her palm. Locked.
“I’m not leaving until I see you,” she sternly told him, still using the soft and caring voice only the Agreste’s ever heard. “I need to know you’re okay.”
Silence.
This is what Nathalie gets for loving a stubborn man, she supposed.
“You know I’ll pick this lock if I need to.” she warned. She meant no malice, only promising in an unspoken way that she wouldn’t leave him.
A defeated sigh echoed throughout the space, the empty corridors, and the even emptier house. It was a heavy and tired sound. Gabriel’s reluctant hand unlocked the door much to Nathalie’s relief.
When Nathalie laid her eyes upon Gabriel, her heart shattered.
Gabriel stood, dishevelled, lacking his usual confident composure. His hands held a slight tremble as if the ruthless howl of wind outside was shaking them. His chest heaved but he tried his very best to control it, not wanting Nathalie to worry. Nathalie was already worried.
“What happened?”
Gabriel’s lips formed the ghost of words but the shame he felt forced them back down his throat. Nathalie waited patiently, her eyes letting him know she didn’t mind.
“I don’t-“
A roar of thunder echoed throughout the mansion, angry and seething. A beast with a mission. Gabriel, without thinking, grabbed for the comfort of Nathalie, eyes wide with fright.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Flash!
The power suddenly disappeared with the strike of lightning, shrouding the house in bleak shadows.
“You’re… afraid of storms,” Nathalie finished for him, no judgement in her voice. The embarrassment of the statement brought him back to the reality that he was still gripping her arm. The blonde man shrunk back, feeling ashamed.
“I’m not afraid I just…” There was a distant rumble of thunder and a flinch from Gabriel. “Don’t like them.”
Nathalie thought for a moment, watching as her boss reacted to the crescendo of sound. She had an idea that would either help him, or get her fired.
She decided to take that risk.
“Do you trust me?” she asked carefully. She looked up at him from beneath the frames of her glasses, hoping he could see the flames of sincerity burning in her blue irises.
He tossed a suspicious glance her way, no doubt confused as to where this was going. But when he realised Nathalie was not going to offer more context, he gave in.
“Of course I do.” He sighed.
“Good. I have an idea,” she extended a hand towards Gabriel. “Come with me.”
Gabriel was not a shy man. He was calculated, and cold, and oftentimes insufferable but he never shied away from a challenge. But with Nathalie’s small hand beckoning him with the unknown idea in her skull, he felt his pulse ring in his ears. He wanted to take it, grab it and not let go, but what would she think of him then?
After a few moments of hesitation, Gabriel threw caution to the wind and placed his calloused hand into her softer ones. It feels right, Gabriel thought, but it’s wrong. A stab of guilt ruptured his gut, allowing the horrible pool of iniquity to poison him. He had Emilie, he shouldn’t need Nathalie. He had Emilie.
As if sensing his inner turmoil, Nathalie offered an encouraging smile and began leading the man back to her favourite window, her favourite loveseat, and her favourite blanket. Through the hallways and corridors and empty rooms, it was time to return to somewhere full of life and wonder.
She began to speak, her melodic voice a much needed distraction from the ruckus outside.
“I love storms,” she started, while Gabriel stared at her incredulously. “Whenever there was a storm when I was a kid, my sister Caline and I used to run all the way up to the attic. It was the only room in the house with a big window, a skylight. We found it one day when we tried to escape the sound of our parents fighting. It’s my job as her big sister to protect her. It got violent sometimes.”
Nathalie trailed off and looked into the distance. Her blue eyes were unfocused, reminiscing on times long gone yet still relevant to her life today. Worry lines appeared on Gabriel’s forehead. It saddened him to know a heavenly soul such as Nathalie had to be shown the worst of humanity so early on in life. He decided at that moment that he was never going to let Nathalie feel fear like that again.
“We’d listen for the claps of thunder and laugh at each other because no matter how many times it happened, we’d jump in fright each time. The best part was trying to catch a glimpse of lightning, though.”
Gabriel and Nathalie don’t talk about their pasts. Ever secretive, they leave their childhoods behind them, where they should stay. This new openness was something Gabriel clung to, catching and collecting each word that fell from Nathalie’s lips. He stores the information away for later, wrapping it up in a pretty little bow inside his mind. Pretty and red like the streak in her hair.
“I’m sorry you had to go through that…” Gabriel whispered.
Nathalie shrugged.
“Don’t be.”
That didn’t help Gabriel feel any better.
Gabriel scanned his surroundings, wondering where Nathalie was taking him. The heavy glare of his wife’s portraits bore into his skin, her green eyes following their movements. He gulped. He wondered if Nathalie could feel the paintings watching them. He regarded her once and her calmness told him all he needed to know. She couldn’t feel the accusations being thrown at them. The awareness of his hand in hers was driving him mad. Sin.
Sin. Sin. Sin.
“What I’m trying to say, Gabriel, is that there’s a certain beauty in chaos. I’m going to show you how to find it.”
Nathalie slowed to a stop in a room Gabriel hadn’t even realised he had. The carpet smelled old but the dusted knickknacks and bookcases told a story of someone who took care of this place. Someone who loved this room. He looked at Nathalie.
Her eyes twinkled at the window, alight with wonder and intrigue.
“The lightning is about to strike any minute now, come here.”
She dragged him over to a dearly loved loveseat he can’t remember purchasing, then plopped down and pulled him to her. Gabriel froze.
He could feel her heartbeat against his ear, a soothing song he felt nothing but privileged to hear. Privileged and guilty. He shouldn’t indulge like this. Nathalie’s presence reminded him of how long it had been since he’d felt the touch of a woman. His skin called out to her skin, a desperate plea for more contact. Somehow, Nathalie’s skin replied, wrapping her arms around his tense body.
She leaned down to whisper in his ear.
“Relax. I’ve got you. You’re safe here.”
The words hit Gabriel like a tonne of bricks.
All at once, Gabriel melted into her arms. Her familiar scent filled his head with fuzzy warmth, a guilty pleasure he’ll take to the grave. Her heartbeat that was thumping in his ear quickened when she saw the vulnerability of the man bundled up against her. He was small right now, and he felt safe to be small in Nathalie’s arms. She fondly regarded the scene before her, taking a hand to his hair and threading her fingers through it gently. His muscles abandoned their tension, loving this closeness just as much as Gabriel was.
He hummed in approval. It had been so, so long since he felt physical affection like this.
Nathalie wrapped a red blanket around their entwined bodies, it smelled unmistakably of her and fresh coffee. Familiar. Gabriel breathed in deeply, letting the comfort seep into his lungs.
“It’s going to get loud in a few seconds,” the woman explained as Gabriel listened, like an intrigued child. It was endearing. “I’ll cover your ears for this part, but I want you to keep your eyes on the sky for me. It’s worth it, trust me.”
“I trust you.”
Then, a pair of hands covered his ears. All the sounds around him faded into far away echoes. Gabriel leaned into the touch and watched the place Nathalie told him to.
Gabriel knew the thunder passed when Nathalie startled and chuckled at her own reaction, just like how she told him she would.Thump-thump-thump. Her heart rate tried to adjust to the fright and Gabriel found himself smiling too. He suddenly resented her palms for blocking the noise, wanting nothing more than to hear her contagious laughter.
As Nathalie instructed, he looked to the sky and waited.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Flash!
A beacon of light torched the sky, gifting the streets of Paris with an electric buzz. All the nearby windows swallowed the split-second of light, the neighbourhood around them coming to life before dying again. Death and Rebirth. It was magical.
Nathalie removed her hands from his ears.
“Did you see that?” Nathalie beamed. Her face became a vision of joy, an infectious happiness Gabriel couldn’t help but return.
“See? Storms don’t have to be scary. They’re beautiful just like summertime sun, but in a completely different way. There’s always beauty if you open your eyes to it.”
The next time the thunder crashed, Gabriel listened.
Nathalie startled as she said she would, then laughed at herself for flinching. Gabriel watched the tips of her lips grow into a smile, his own lips mirroring the movement. Her laughter was everything he never knew he needed to hear. He offended himself by ever needing to cover his ears at all. He missed her laugh once and vowed to never miss it again.
Each bang, rumble, and crash made Nathalie laugh harder, and it drowned out the rest of the world.
Even better, Nathalie was closer to Gabriel than before, both physically and emotionally. Their legs tangled together in a web only they could make, and his arms found a home around her waist.
When the lightning hit the earth, Nathalie’s face lit up.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she whispered in awe.
Gabriel wasn’t looking at the sky. Instead, he admired the shadows on her face and the remnants of electricity in her irises. She was a bolt of lighting, brightening his world. She was exactly where she was meant to be. With him, together,
“Yes. It’s stunning.”
His heart raced as he looked up at her, a blissful expression plastered across her face as she drank up the view. Her stormy eyes lit up his empty skies, and suddenly summertime sun became his second favourite kind of weather.
He couldn’t wait for the next storm and he wished on whatever star was watching that it would be just like this. Just him and his beauty in the chaos named Nathalie.