Work Text:
Marc stood in front of Nathaniel's apartment building, looking at himself in the reflective glass of the windows. He fluffed his hair, smoothed his jacket free of wrinkles, and spun in a circle to make sure that his jeans didn't have any extra tears that turned it from tastefully ripped to a fashion disaster.
Orikko peeked out from the space between his jacket and shirt, "Come on. Even if you notice something wrong, you won't be able to change it here."
"Don't. Say that," Marc said, wiping his sweaty forehead with the back of his glove. He stared down at his clothed palms, "Should I take off my gloves? Are they too much?"
Orikko sighed, watching Marc about to start spiraling further into his selfmade tornado of anxiety until Nathaniel walked out through the front doors.
"Marc!" Nathaniel waved happily. Marc felt his anxiety simmer down as he walked over to Nathaniel, interlocking their fingers. Nathaniel leaned forward, kissing his boyfriend on the cheek, "You look nice!"
"It's just my normal clothes," Marc laughed off, but his face flushed red all the same.
"And I think you look nice all the time," Nathaniel grinned a chesire smile, enjoying how flustered his boyfriend got at his words, "Sorry, I would've told you to come up on your own, but the elevator needs a keycard."
"Wow, rich people..." Marc murmured as Nathaniel pulled him inside. He already felt nervous as hell about this dinner with Nathaniel's parents, and they weren't even household names. It was truly a wonder how Marinette dealt with the anxiety of dating Adrien Agreste on the daily. Sure, he had had dinner with them in the past, but that was before they knew he and Nathaniel were dating! Even as they entered the elevator and the doors shut behind them, Marc was still falling apart internally.
"Nathhhh, I don't know if I can do this," Marc whimpered under his breath, reaching out to hold the artist's sleeve, "What if their standards for your boyfriend are higher than their standards for being your friend? What if they think I'm not good enough to date you?" He leaned against the elevator's mirrored walls, rubbing his hands against his face. "I'm gonna mess this up. They're going to ban you from ever speaking to me again. I'll have to flee the country."
Nathaniel laughed at Marc's dramatics, "If you do, I'll come with you."
Marc shook his head, shifting his weight to lean against Nathaniel's shoulder, "Noooo. I couldn't take you away from your loved ones like that."
Nathaniel crooked his finger under Marc's chin, lifting his head slightly so he could move his palm to cradle the other boy's cheek, "Aren't you included in that?"
Marc sputtered, face going bright red. A spew of incomprensible noises fell from his lips before he eventually mumbled, "Every so often, you pull off a move like that unknowingly. That's unfair."
"Is loving you a competition?" Nathaniel joked, "I'll be the winner every time in that case." He leaned forward to kiss Marc, only for the elevator to come to a stop. Frantically, they both jumped away from each other like startled cats, ending up on opposite sides of the room as the doors opened. For a heartbeat, they waited for someone to suddenly pop out and make fun of them for being so disgustingly in love, but nothing happened.
Marc laughed nervously, smoothing his hair with his fingers, "We- We should head in now...!"
Nathaniel coughed into his elbow, failing horribly to ignore his own blush, "Right!"
---
In hindsight, Nathaniel wished they had stayed in the elevator longer. While he appreciated the fact that his parents were trying, he wanted to crawl into a hole and die just about now. Hell would be a better location than this dinner table.
"So, Marc, did you start dating Nathaniel before or after... you know?" Aton asked, keeping a casual smile on his face despite the pointed question.
Marc laughed awkwardly, "Oh, we've been dating for a few months already."
"You were hiding your relationship from us for so long?" Shirel's eyes narrowed as she glanced over at her son.
His grip tightened on his utensil. "Sorry, mom," Nathaniel hissed through a clenched smile. "I should have told you ages ago. That would've had a much better outcome than what actually happened."
Shirel forced her gaze back to her dinner. The cold tension hung in the air like icicles hanging from the ceiling, the elephant in the room unspoken yet hovering above everyone's shoulders. It was eerily reminsicent of the shredder that still remained in the living room next door.
Aton coughed, leaning forward in his seat, "You know what, Marc? For being gay, your voice is lower than what I expected."
Marc blinked, "...Excuse me?"
Oh god.
"Gay men usually have voices that are high, right?" Aton continued talking, oblivious to the reactions of both boys, "I mean, we could tell you were gay just from the way you were dressed-"
Oh god. Kill Nathaniel now.
"-but the moment you opened your mouth? Man, I was surprised!"
"The way I was dressed?" Marc managed to say, despite the bewilderment on his face.
"I mean, the makeup made it pretty obvious," Aton waved his fork in the boy's direction, "I half expected you to wear a skirt too!"
"Dad," Nathaniel sputtered.
"What? I researched the gay community before this dinner!" Aton defended himself. "That's what you wanted me to do!"
'You clearly didn't!' Nathaniel wanted to scream, but kept it internalized in his mind to keep this dinner from becoming more of a disaster than it already was. Was it that hard for his parents to be normal about gay people for one day?
Marc took a second to compose himself, before finally speaking again, "That's... a bit of a stereotype. Not every gay man follows the same script. Some dress fem, some dress masc."
Aton nodded along as if he understood what those terms were. Shirel refused to interact with this conversation at all, continuing to eat her food in a polished manner as if cleaning off her plate would also clear away this topic. She's grown, without a doubt. Her past self would've started yelling at the slighest mention of queer people during dinner. Unfortunately, Nathaniel also knew that it took a while to confront and dismantle one's own biases. He had to deal with that himself, fighting the internalized homophobia she had instilled in him when he first started crushing on Marc.
"I personally don't mind wearing skirts or dresses, but I don't wear them on the daily," Marc finished. Nathaniel admired his boyfriend even more. The poor boy was being forced to educate his parents without any prior warning, and despite that, was doing so to the best of his ability. Honestly, the unending kindness from Marc was almost unbelievable. Nathaniel could feel himself falling in love all over again, something he doubted would ever stop. "It's not like we want to make our sexuality our entire identity."
"Then why wear clothes like yours?" Shirel finally spoke up. The light from above reflected off her glasses, completely obscuring her eyes as she muttered, "Wearing rainbows is a bit on the nose, don't you think?"
Marc swallowed even though there wasn't anything in his mouth, keeping his gaze downcast and on his plate. He pushed around his food with his fork, shrinking in on himself.
Nathaniel slammed his hands on the table, startling everyone seated there. "Well, this has been a lovely dinner." He started to gather his and Marc's plates, regardless of the fact that both still had food on them. "We'll be heading to my room now, if you don't mind!" His tone made it very obvious that his parents weren't allowed to mind.
His mind was spinning, the rush of rinsing their dishes and then dragging Marc to his bedroom passing by in a flash. He finally came back to his own body as he slammed the door shut, finally separating them from his parents. Orikko and Ziggy came flying out, the trio of them and Marc watching Nathaniel nervously as he leaned against his doorframe, heaving for breath even though he had barely physically exerted himself throughout that entire ordeal.
"Well... First dinners with the parents never go well," Marc attempted to joke. He wasn't even sure if his sentence was correct. It's not like he's ever met a boyfriend's parents before, given that this was his first ever relationship. Evidently, that didn't matter because Nathaniel fell to his knees anyways, fingers digging into his scalp as he let out a strangled cry.
"They're so, so stupid. I'm so sorry, Marc," He whined, hiding his face in his legs. Ziggy flew over to lay on top of his head. She leaned her cheek against his scalp, one of her small hands patting him gently. It looked like she had done this quite a few times today already.
Marc sat down with his back against the door, patting the ground next to him. Orikko sat on Marc's hoodie, watching Nathaniel with similarly concerned eyes. The writer waited patiently for Nathaniel to uncurl from his ball. He eventually scooted over into Marc's personal bubble, leaning his head against his shoulder. He squeezed the fabric of his jacket, scrunching it up, smoothing it down, and then repeating that process all over again. Marc didn't rush him, only putting his arm around his shoulder and waiting until Nathaniel finally started talking again.
"Please don't leave me," He weakly whispered, voice cracking near the end of his plea.
Marc barely had the self control to not react explosively at that, "Why would I?"
"You've put up with so much from me. I tore up your journal. I made you lie to your favorite sports announcer. My parents in general." Nathaniel hid his face in his hands with a heavy sigh, "I feel like I'm just waiting for the final straw to break the camel's back. That you'll finally realize that I'm more trouble than I'm worth."
"Hey," Marc gently grabbed Nathaniel's hands, pulling them closer to himself to squeeze them, "You're not trouble, Nathaniel. Sure, you've made some mistakes in the past, but you've obviously grown from them. And this dinner? It doesn't change my opinion of you at all. You're not your parents." He reached out to cup Nathaniel's cheek in his palm, smiling warmly at his boyfriend, "In fact, I think I'm even more impressed by you. I was lucky to grow up in a welcoming environment. Your parents make their... beliefs very strong, and you managed to find your own identity in spite of it. That's amazing."
Nathaniel blushed, brushing his hair in front of his face like its color would obscure how red he was becoming, "It's really not. Most of that came from growing up with Alix."
Marc shook his head, "You had your own strength. She helped you, yes, but she couldn't have done that without you wanting to change and grow too."
Nathaniel tried to bite his lip to hide his grin but it was no use. Marc also broke into his own smile seeing how giddy Nathaniel was getting. He stood up, extending his hand, "Come on, let's end this night on a happier note."
Ziggy flew in a loopy arc in the air, "Let's watch a movie!"
Orikko flew up to join her, "I want to finish the one from last time!"
"No way! That one was boring!"
As the two kwamis continued to bicker, Marc went over to defuse the argument. Nathaniel smiled as he went to grab his laptop. If this is where his life was at, then he wasn't doing too bad.