Chapter Text
"Two thousand and thirty one, Two thousand and thirty two, two thousand and thirty three, thou thousand and thirty...Crap! I got lost." Bunnyx groaned as she once again lost count, counting the various time windows, or Rabbit holes as she liked to call them, draped across her burrow.
Her older versions were taking some time off or something, because they haven't visited her in a while and the boredom was starting to drive her mad. Its not like she couldn't have a little dive into the past, but the pyramids were getting boring the fourth time around.
She was missing talking with other people that aren't herself. The last time she did that was when she talked with Ladybug while trying to stop the new holder of the butterfly miraculous and even that happened a while ago. Or a few moments ago. Time in the burrow was messed up. By now Bunnyx has lost track of time. She knows the year she was born in and the day she got her Miraculous. She also knows that she is still a teenager, but she has no idea when her Birthday is anymore. She's just winging it at this point.
"Man. life used to be a lot simpler." Bunnyx said. By now she has just started saying her thoughts out loud. Nobody would hear her anyways. "At least back then I knew what time it was. And even if I didn't I could just ask my friends." she sighed. "My friends..."
She thought back to her classmates. She was missing them to death. She missed hanging out with the girls, annoying her brother, spray painting in the art room while talking with Rose and Juleka, even her stupid bets with Kim that he would always loose, but that never stopped him. Bunnyx also hadn't gotten a chance to rollerblade in a while. She missed being Alix.
She pondered: which aspect did she miss the most? After some thought and playing with her pocket watch she came to the only logical conclusion:
"Nathaniel."
I couldn't be anyone else. she has known him since...well since forever. She doesn't remember a time where he wasn't by her side. How did they meet actually? Bunnyx got up. At least now she had an idea on what to use all of these rabbit holes for, instead of just counting them again and again.
Bunnyx made her way to the nearest window and started searching. She started from the day she was born and made her way up. She had to admit, she used to be pretty damn adorable. And pretty damn tiresome. It felt like she had springs for feet since straight out the womb. She never held still and it drove her parents mad.
She chuckled as she watched baby Alix run around like a madman screaming bloody murder and Jalil trying to keep her still. Since both of her parents were busy working, dad oftentimes took the siblings with him to the museum and then left poor eight year old Jalil to babysit. How he thought that bringing a small child, capable of moving fast and wrecking everything in her way into a museum full of priceless artifacts was a good idea was beyond her. But nothing ever broke, so it seems he was right.
She kept looking and finally found what she was looking for: on that day, she was about two and a half years old and it was another museum visit with babysitter Jalil. This time their dad was close by.
"Dad, what are you doing today?" her brother asked. He was always into his dads work, especially the Egyptian section and asked about his work every day, in the hopes to learn something new.
"Today I'm meeting up with an artist who plans to rent out a section of the Louvre for a gallery. Really important talk."
"Oh." Jalil had lost interest after he didn't hear the word Egypt.
"Mr.Kubdel!" it suddenly came from the other side of the hall. A tall man with chocolate brown hair, light blue eyes and a huge smile entered the room. He introduced himself as Alain Kurtzberg and shook hands with her dad. Then his eyes widened and he started looking down on his feet and then looked back the way he came.
"Is everything alright Mr.Kurtzberg?" Dad asked.
"Oh, I'm fine, I just lost something."
"What did you loose, perhaps I can help?"
"My son. Don't worry he doesn't like to distance himself from me. Nathan! You can come in! Don't worry its safe!"
Both dad and Jalil looked at him funny for it, Baby Alix barely comprehended what was going on around her and ate a candy she snuck in.
After Mr Kurtzberg shouted that, a small, hazel colored head peeked out from the entrance. Mr.Kurtzberg went over to the little head and grabbed his hand, leading him to the Kubdels. the little boy meanwhile, was hiding behind his Father and holding onto his pant leg as if his life depended on it.
"I'm sorry." the father said. "He's a little shy. And I know I shouldn't bring my child to work, but my wife currently works and Nathaniel over here doesn't do well in daycares, so I thought I could take him with me."
Alix's dad laughed. "Oh no, I don't mind, as you can see I do the same." he gestured to Jalil trying to stop baby Alix from touching poor baby Nathaniel, who was scared out of his mind.
From when they first met, Alix was intrigued by Nathaniel. Her mom didn't believe in daycares, so she didn't get many chances to interact with people her age. Besides, she couldn't comprehend back then how a person could not want to talk and interact with others, so someone extremely shy like Nathaniel was like an anomaly to her.
Alain Kurtzberg and Nathaniel came to the museum multiple more times to work out the details of the gallery and each and every time Alix tried to get him to talk. To her they were already besties, but it took a lot of scrolling for Bunnyx to find the moment they actually became friends.
By now Nathaniel had a habit of sitting in the corner and doing his own thing, away from the Kubdel siblings. Alix came over and asked: "Whatcha doin?" . He was immediately embarrassed, but he showed her his drawing. It wasn't that good, but for a two year old...it wasn't that good either. Look, every artist has to start from somewhere. But for small Alix, who could barely hold a pen straight it was a masterpiece.
She started gushing and praising it, wanting to show it to their dads and Jalil, but Nathaniel just threw himself on the ground and started crying at that. She really got an earful from her dad afterwards. But nonetheless, Nathaniel seemed to soften up a bit after that. He let Alix hang around him and slowly Alix learned where his boundaries were and learned not to push them. He still didn't talk, but she didn't mind and just babbled for the both of them. Nathaniel sometimes showed her his drawings and patiently listened to her word vomit, a relationship that still survived into their teenage years.
At this point Mr.Kurtzberg had finished with all the planning for the gallery, but since no one ever got this close to his son, he just pretended that he still had business open, just so the kids could interact more, even after the gallery has already taken place. And he did that for almost a year! God they were stupid back then!
But it worked. One day, Alix still doesn't know what flipped the switch, Nathaniel started talking. And Alix...just smiled and moved on like nothing happened. Nathaniel probably appreciated that.
Bunnyx smiled. She didn't even remember all that and she doubted Nathaniel remembered this either. But it felt good to know how their friendship started. Maybe she'll keep looking for other fun memories. Not like she had anything better to do.