Work Text:
"Hey Alix," Marc waved as he walked into the art room, setting his bag down on a free table. Alix waved with her free hand, while she added another layer of aerosol paint to her mural, flicking her wrist back and forth to shade in the space. Marc started to set up his project, taking out his notebook, some scrap doodling pages and his pencil case. But as he finished laying everything out, he paused and had another look around.
"Is Nath here?"
Alix set her can down and removed her mask, giving a shrug over her shoulder.
"I dunno. I figured he was with you."
"He said he finished up early and would meet me here."
Alix scratched her chin for a second, then snapped her fingers.
"Ah. I got it."
She wiped her hands on a damp cloth she kept near her paints and swiftly walked over to one of the storage closets. She held her ear close to it for a second, then nodded and pulled the door open.
"Voilà," she deadpanned, showing Nathaniel slumped at the bottom of the closet, head leaning back against the wall and snoring softly.
"Last night he told me he would go to bed after finishing what he was working on," Marc sighed. Alix shook her head at that.
"That's why you have to specify a time frame. He can get absorbed in stuff for hours."
"So I see. I'll consult your guidance next time, O Great Nathaniel handler."
Alix smiled at Nathaniel's sleeping face, before closing the closet again and going to sit down at Marc's desk. Her paint needed to dry before adding more details.
"So what have you cooked up this time?"
Marc cracked the closet door open again so Nathaniel could get some air, and joined Alix so he could share his latest script with her.
As the bell rang for the end of the school day, Marc waited patiently outside Nathaniel's classroom. His class was always let out a little early, and he would always walk across the courtyard to wait for Nathaniel. And he got to see a bunch of other friends too. Rose would always smile and share some lines of a new song she was writing, Ivan would pat his head affectionately as he walked past, and Marinette would check in on how he was doing.
Usually Nathaniel was among the last students to leave because of where he sat in the room, but Marc kept waiting and waiting, counting the number of people leaving until it was just one left. Adrien was reading a form with a half concerned look on his face, and only looked up when he almost bumped into the other student.
"Oh! Hi Marc." Adrien quickly shoved the papers into his bag so he wouldn't have to think about them. "You're looking for Nathaniel?"
Judging from how fast he switched topics, it was clear he didn't want to talk about whatever that was.
"Yeah. He's not still inside?"
"I didn't see anyone. And you didn't see him leave?"
"Nope."
Curious, Adrien turned and walked back into the class with Marc following close behind. And after a quick sweep of the room, they found where he was.
"Usually the joke is there was a kid napping in class, not after it," Adrien offered as a silver lining. They were both staring down at his bench in the class, where he was curled up asleep with his head on his bag.
"You say that like this isn't a joke. Some meta three part joke in a crack fic."
"What was that?"
"Nothing,"
"Right, I think that's me done for today." Marc leaned back in his chair and stretched. Two hours was long enough to work on an assignment for today.
Everyone else in the study group took that as their cue to also pack up and finish. But as books and pencil cases were being tucked away in bags, Max noticed a discrepancy in the number of people there.
"It appears we're missing someone."
Immediately, everyone looked over at the empty space where Nathaniel would be. Oddly, nobody had seen or heard him leave. They were all so absorbed in their studies.
Marc packed away Nathaniel's notes while the group split up to search the library for him. They checked around every shelf, in all the corners, outside the room, no sign of him.
At least until everyone noticed Juleka just staring out a window and pointing. And Marc broke the library volume rule for the first time.
"How did he get on the roof?!"