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Nathaniel saved his digital art file and set down his stylus. “Okay,” he said, turning to face Queen Bee. “Start from the beginning.”
The superhero perched on his mattress rolled her eyes. “I already told you everything.”
Nathaniel shrugged. “And I’ve told you not to try to talk to me when I’m drawing. What is it this time?”
Queen Bee pouted for a moment. “It was hard enough saying this once,” she muttered. “Okay. So you know about the Heroes’ Day gala, right?”
“Right,” said Nathaniel, keeping his expression neutral. Everyone knew about the Heroes’ Day gala. And the last thing he wanted was to feed into Queen Bee’s melodrama.
“Right, okay.” Queen Bee swung her legs, scuffing the heels of her costume along Nathaniel’s carpet. “Well, this year someone clever and intelligent must have the mayor’s ear, because he said all the superheroes are invited.”
Nathaniel widened his eyes at this. “That’s huge! It could be our—your foot in the door. We’ll finally make Paris understand the truth!”
Months of work—designing the official Queen Bee logo, helping her sanitize her social media presence, and carefully selecting places for her to volunteer around the city that didn’t involve too much talking to people—were finally about to pay off. If the gala went well, even Ladybug might be forced to recognize Queen Bee as a real superhero. The thought made Nathaniel giddy.
“I knew you’d understand!” Queen Bee fluffed her hair. “Here’s the catch. I can’t show up looking like I’m second fiddle to Ladybrat. She has Chat Noir, so I need a date too.”
Nathaniel considered this. He frowned. “I’m not sure they’re dating.”
Queen Bee rolled her eyes. “That doesn’t matter. For a superhero nerd, you sure don’t know anything about superheroes, do you? It’s about the optics . I need a guy on my arm, and he has to be at least 70% as hot as Chat Noir. That’s what I came to tell you. You’ll do. I’ll handle the tuxedo and the mask.”
Nathaniel blinked. “Absolutely not,” he said at last. “You remember our agreement. We don’t talk in public. If someone asks if you know me, you deny it.”
Queen Bee did her best puppy dog eyes, but Nathaniel had long ago grown immune.
“No,” he repeated.
Queen Bee gave an exaggerated shrug. She made a show of smoothing Nathaniel’s quilt. “Fine. I’ll ask Adrien Agreste. You know, the model? He’s even hotter than Chat Noir.”
Nathaniel felt his face reddening. This was obviously a ploy to get him to change his mind, and it was working. Marinette liked Adrien better than him, too. Even though his heart was healing from that rejection, he couldn’t take another girl he liked doing the same thing.
Wait.
He stared at his hands. How long had he liked Queen Bee? She was infuriating! Looking back, though, he saw how it had happened. He had been so proud watching her grow from a self-centered person with powers she barely understood to a real superhero, someone the people of Paris should be proud to call theirs. Queen Bee wasn’t perfect, but maybe he’d be proud to call her his, too.
Taking a deep breath, Nathaniel waited for his heart to stop racing. “I’ll go,” he said, fighting to keep his voice casual. “Someone has to keep you from clawing Ladybug’s eyes out the first time she makes a mean remark.”
Queen Bee smirked. “Or you could help me dunk her head in the punch bowl.”
Nathaniel shook his head. “If you don’t want me to publicly dump you on the dance floor, you’ll be nice to Ladybug the whole night. No matter what she says, we have to take the high road. Deal?”
She sighed. “Deal.”
Nathaniel ran into Ladybug at the snack table. They reached for the same cupcake at the same time, and both of them froze.
“You’re Queen Bee’s… friend,” said Ladybug.
“Her boyfriend, yes,” said Nathaniel. He resisted the urge to reach up and check to see if his mask was still fastened securely. “Jacques.”
After five akumatizations, he should have been used to seeing Ladybug up close, but it was always startling. She and Queen Bee had the same aura of deep, constant power radiating from their skin. Sometimes Nathaniel wondered if Ladybug was really human.
Ladybug gestured for him to take the cupcake. “You know her identity, then?”
Nathaniel shook his head. “As I told the reporters, I’m not here to answer questions about myself.”
Ladybug nodded. “Of course.” She gave Nathaniel a penetrating look. For a moment, he thought she recognized him. “Be honest with me, Jacques. What does she want?”
The question startled Nathaniel. He added several canapés to his plate to have an excuse to break eye contact with Ladybug. “She wants to be accepted, I think,” he said at last. “When we met, I didn’t like her. I only helped her because she really needed help. I didn’t want her getting hurt or killed. But she’s changing.”
Nathaniel looked up into Ladybug’s piercing blue eyes, and he wasn’t as afraid of her anymore.
“She isn’t perfect, but she wants to try. I think she’s on her way to becoming a real hero.”
Ladybug picked up a cupcake and took a bite, chewing slowly. “Six months ago, I would have told you Queen Bee was beyond redemption. Are you the one who changed that, Jacques?”
Nathaniel looked out across the dance floor to where Queen Bee was talking to Chat Noir. As he and Ladybug watched, Chat Noir cracked a joke and both of them burst out laughing. Nathaniel smiled.
“I think I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said at last.
Ladybug smiled back at him. “That’s how I got my miraculous, I think. Come on. Let’s go join our partners.”
People stared as Ladybug and Nathaniel crossed the room. They stared more when Ladybug, in full view of the well-dressed crowd, greeted Queen Bee, shook her hand, and suggested that the three superheroes coordinate their evening patrol schedules to better protect Paris.
Nathaniel had always thought of himself as the guy in the chair, the sidekick no one ever saw. At this party, in this moment, it was as if everyone saw him for the first time. And when Queen Bee smiled at him and him alone, he didn’t care about anyone else.