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Chapter Text

Contrary to anything Alix might tell you, Nathaniel absolutely did not have a crush on his comic book partner Marc Anciel. Yes, he was sweet, kind, sorta cute, and his writing was amazing but Nathaniel did not have a crush!

“What do you think about this?” He asked, showing his latest draft of the comic page to Marc.

Marc smiled, “I like it! You’re really improving!”

Nath smiled at the compliment, his chest swelling with pride. Marc had always complimented his work, even when they first met the first thing Marc did was shower his art with affection. You would’ve thought that Nathaniel would get tired of it but it still gave him a rush every time.

“Thanks!” Nath quickly scanned his partner's work, “Your writing is really improving too!” he said, eager to return the compliment.

Marc blushed, or was that wishful thinking? Nathaniel didn’t have time to contemplate because an oddly strange breeze interrupted their conversation. Both boys stood up and frantically attempted to grab the papers before they flew away.

Before Nathaniel could remark on the sudden change in weather, a figure that looked like they had robbed Barbie's valentine collection appeared.

“I am Heart Wreaker!” They exclaimed to the small crowd in the park, “For now on, no one will have to live in fear of rejection! Everyone will confess their love to each other! Even Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

Ah, another Ladynoir shipper. They’d seen these kinds of villains before, desperate fans in need of confirmed romance between their two favorite celebrities. Honestly, these were some of the most annoying.

The akumatized villain leaped down from their preach and started waving the plastic wand in their hands. A pink, heart shaped ray struck random civilians. Said civilians then started intensely making out with someone who was probably their crush. Nathaniel observed a woman robotically march over and kiss a man who was holding hands with his girlfriend. Both disappeared in another pink flash of light.

“Can’t you see love is in the air tonight?!” Heart Wrecker cackled as zapped person after person. Each person they zapped seemed to make the beam larger.

Nathaniel immediately started grabbing paper after paper and hastily shoving them in his portfolio. Marc grabbed his hand.

“Nath! We have to go!” Marc said, attempting to tug him away.

“No way! All our stuff is here! Last time we left during an akuma attack we lost all our progress!” Nathaniel protested, still stuffing paper into his portfolio. If an akuma forcefully ripped up the papers, Ladybug could fix it like she always did. However, if the boys left the papers and the wind blew them into the water, that was not covered by magical ladybug insurance. Needless to say, Nathaniel was not eager for a potential repeat.

“Hurry! She’s coming closer!” Marc said, stubbornly refusing to allow Nath to put their work above his safety. Honestly, if it wasn’t so endearing, then he would’ve brought up Ladybug and her magic insurance policy.

“Going away so soon?” Nath looked up in fear as he realized that the villain was upon them. Marc desperately tugged on his arm to little avail.

“Who are you to run away from true love?!” The villain cried, waving her wand and spewing the pink beam of social embarrassment and self consciousness towards him.

“Nath! Look out!” Marc yelled, shoving the older boy away.

Nathaniel landed on his butt, but briefly recovered. After his eyes adjusted from the light, he could see the ravenet standing eerily still. While he was one of the first to be hit, this reminded him of accounts of people who were influenced by Zombizou. When they weren’t chasing people, they were standing still, waiting for someone who was uninfluenced to walk by so they could activate like sleeper agents and start chasing them.

“Marc?” Nathaniel asked.

Marc slowly turned to face him. Instead of the usual beautiful emerald, his eyes were a disturbing shade of hot pink. Again, Nathaniel was having Zombizou deja vu. Shadow Moth was seriously running out of ideas for love-themed villains.

“See? There is such a thing as love at first sight!” Heart Crusher cackled from their preach on top of the tree before leaping away.

“Marc,” Nathaniel asked slowly, never taking his eyes off from where the akumatized villain had departed, “what did she mean by love at first sight?”

He didn’t look at what his comic partner was doing until too late. Without his realizing, Marc had moved closer to him, closer the little distance between them.

With surprising agility, Marc forcefully grabbed Nathaniel’s arm. Out of instinct, Nathaniel jerked away. (Nathaniel couldn’t tell if it was his natural instincts or his akuma-influenced lifestyle that caused him to squirm but given the situation he was grateful).

“Marc! Stop it! This isn’t you! It’s whatsherface! You’re under her influence!” Nathaniel yelled, while dodging his partner's attempts to grab him.

Did Marc have a crush on him? No, that couldn’t be right. Nathaniel wasn’t anything interesting, what could Marc possibly see? The villain must be playing matchmaker. Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe they really wanted to see Ladynoir happen and the other couples were randomly created for their power? Yeah, totally.

Nathaniel was too distracted, (his mind was racing in two different directions), to notice that he’d backed himself into a tree until too late. Marc took advantage of the situation by grabbing both of Nathaniel’s wrists and pinning them by his head.

“Marc!” Nathaniel pleaded, Marc’s eyes still that ugly shade of hot pink. 

Nathaniel could feel his face going as red as his hair. This was not how he pictured his first kiss. Then again, he didn’t picture his first date being akumatized and forcing Marinette into it. Shadow Moth and his akumas really needed to stay out of his love life.

Nathaniel couldn’t really do much, being that the sheer closeness of their faces had rendered him immobilized. Marc leaned in, his face creepily expressionless, and closed the distance.

Time had passed. Nathaniel didn’t know how long they had been standing like that, minutes, hours, or maybe a few seconds. The only difference was the twinkling sound of Paris’s magical insurance provider hard at work. There was also Marc.

His eyes had returned to their normal shade of green. His face however, was several shades too red to be considered normal. Nathaniel was certain that his face's color matched Marc’s. Both boys stared at each other for a moment. 

“Hey, Marc.” Nathaniel said weakly.

Marc still had a face of sheer horror but he managed to stutter, “H-hey Nath.”

Another moment of silence. 

“I’m going to go. My moms-” Marc mumbled.

“Yeah, okay. Cool. See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow.” Marc turned and walked away, throwing his red hoodie over his head.

Nathaniel knew two things, both contradicted each other. 1) He absolutely did not have a crush on Marc Anciel.

2) He wanted to kiss him again

Chapter Text

Nathaniel watched the video with mild interest. It featured Paris’s super heroine dodging heart shaped beams that were as wide as buildings and that were increasingly getting more absurd in size. Chat Noir was there too, making puns per usual and smacking people with his stick. Nathaniel wondered how Alya got this footage, was she insane enough to be hiding on a nearby balcony or was this news footage she’d simply recycled. Knowing Alya, both were highly probable. 

“So, where were you doing the akuma attack?” Nathaniel asked, as casually as he might ask if she’d watched the game last night. 

“I was in the Louvre. The akuma didn’t even pass by. I didn’t even know it was happening until the ladybugs came by!” Alix said, throwing her hands up in the air as if she’d missed a great opportunity.

“Shame. I’m sure Ladybug would’ve used you as a shield.” Nathaniel teased.

“Hey! She would not! We both know she’s too nice for that.” 

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I would’ve.” 

Alix picked up a nearby rock and chuckled it at his head. Nath dodged while laughing.

“So where were you?” She asked, her body language accusatory.

“I was in the park.”

“With,”

“With Marc.”

“Did you get hit?” Alix asked, way too hopefully for his taste.

“No,” Nathaniel paused, enjoying Alix’s moment of disappointment, “but Marc did.”

The pinkette practically lit up. She paused doing laps on her rollerblades and skated up to where Nath was sitting. Nathaniel expertly trained his eyes on his phone, not daring to meet Alix’s gaze.

“Did you-” Alix asked, “did you kiss?”

Nathaniel’s face flushed, betraying his answer.

“Oh my god! Yes!” Alix yelled, doing a victory lap around Nathaniel.

“It’s not like that!” Nathaniel told her, his face still red, “we’re just friends!”

“He kissed you!”

“Because of the akuma! Maybe the villain was playing matchmaker or something!”

“Nath,” Alix said, grabbing his shoulders, “he kissed you. On the lips.”

“The akuma was-”

“The akuma made people confess to their crush. Marc got hit by the akuma. He confessed to his crush.” Alix pointed at his chest, “You.”

She smiled her Chersire cat smile that made her look delirious with her blue eyes and pink hair. Or maybe that was just Nath’s brain short circuiting.

“But I don’t-” He sputtered before Alix cut him off.

“Please, you’d talk about him nonstop if you could. Don’t think I don’t see how you light up when he compliments you! I’ve been doing that crap for years but you only light up when Marc does it! And don’t even get me started on those ‘comic book’ dates!”

Nathaniel was going to protest that he did light up when Alix complimented him, but then he realized that he actually hadn’t noticed it that much. Did he really light up when Marc complimented him? Well Marc was his comic book partner and it was important for them to have a strong bond. There were different kinds of ways people could bond of course, theirs were giving compliments. It was normal for your heart to flutter when your very close friend gave you compliments. Marc’s compliments caused a storm of butterflies in his stomach each time. Butterflies. Compliments. Marc.

Realization hit Nathaniel in the stomach.

“Oh my god.”

“Did it take you this long?!”

Nathaniel liked Marc Anciel.

“You’re as blind as Adrien,” Alix told him, “And he didn’t notice Marinette’s crush on him for nine months. And he was like, flirting back to her too for a solid chunk towards the end.”

Nathaniel barely heard her. His mind was too busy playing back every interaction with Marc ever. How could Marc still like him after Reverser? Did he like him before that? How long had Nathaniel been crushing on Marc? 

“Now what?” He said, mostly to himself.

“Now what? What do you mean now what?” Alix asked, “Now you ask him out.”

“What? Why-why do I have to ask him out?” Nathaniel stuttered. Him? Asking Marc out? He was lucky if he could actually talk to Marinette when he was crushing on her, how did Alix expect him to ask out Marc?

Then again, he never really interacted with Marinette much. He had always been the awkward wallflower in the back of the class. Being with Marinette had never been something he actually thought could happen, since he barely talked to anyone other than Alix. But Marc was real. Nathaniel could talk to him. But ask him out? Could he really?

“Well first off,” Alix began, as if she had an entire powerpoint planned. Who knows, maybe she did, “Marc is even shyer than you. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s not really as extroverted as Rose. Whatever confidence he had has probably been shattered after the park today. Second off, he probably thinks you’re straight since he knows you had a crush on a girl in the past.”

Nathaniel blinked, “How would he know I had a crush on Marinette? I never told him that.”

Alix shrugged, “You know that Friday you were out like a month ago?”

“What? The one day I was out you told him about my crush?”

“Eh, kinda? Marc was asking about akumaziations for his writing thing. Something ‘bout how he needed to get a better understanding so he could write it better.”

Nathaniel bit his lip. That sounded like a very Marc reason.

“So anyways, I mentioned how you and I have been akumatized before and he got interested. He asked and I told him it was because Chloe made fun of your crush in front of the entire science class. I didn’t use her name if that makes you feel better.”

“Alix! You can’t-” Nathaniel took a deep breath. The last thing he needed was another lecture on how allomantics made everything more complicated than it needed to be.

“Look, I answered his questions without revealing too much personal information.” Alix put her hands up in the air in surrender. He supposed it could’ve been worse, she could’ve shown him whatever Alya had on the Ladyblog.

“Okay.”

“But this is another reason why you have to be the one to ask him out.”

Alix squinted her eyes at him.

“Do you want to ask him out?”

Did he? He had barely acknowledged his feelings for Marc, he didn’t want to rush in. Then again, he did have feelings for Marc and any chance he might have with him had to be acted upon the next time they met after today.

“What do you think I should do?” He asked, then paused as he remembered who he was talking to.

“Well,” Alix rubbed her hands together, no doubt planning the worst getting together story she could think of, “if we go the Marinette way, we steal something of his and when we’re forced to return it we confess our feelings to him in the most dramatically awkward way possible.”

Nathaniel stared at her, “Then what?”

“Then she goes on about something involving a hamster.”

“I guess I already have step one done.” Nathaniel shuffled awkwardly.

Alix’s eyes went huge, next to street art and history, pranks and mischief was one of her favorite things to do. “You stole something?!”
“I didn’t steal anything! Marc just left his notebook in the park and didn’t pick it up. And it felt wrong to just leave it there so I took it.”

“You stole something!”
“I did not!”

“That’s what Mari says too, but we all know she’s lying.”

“What is Marinette stealing?”

“That’s not important,” Alix said, waving him off, “what’s important is that now you have an excuse to talk to Marc!”

Nathaniel decided to not mention that they always met up in the art room and talked to each other anyway. But Alix was right, at least now he had a conversation opener. Though, hey I have your notebook, want to go out with me? Didn’t exactly roll off the tongue. 

The very thought of tomorrow put butterflies in Nath’s stomach. He was going to do it. He was going to ask out Marc. If he didn’t chicken out last second. Who knew, maybe he could do it after all.