Work Text:
Marc Anciel’s room was a mess. A big one.
Multiple different shirts were displayed on his bed, varying from those that seemed formal and could be seen at fancy events to simple t-shirts, either plain or with some design on them. A tank top or two also found their place in this chaos. A few pairs of jeans didn't fit on the mattress so they were thrown around the bed, all of them being almost the same with slight differences.
His desk was now covered not only with notebooks and multiple pages scattered across, but also with a small make-up pouch — eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, lip gloss and such spilling out of it onto the wooden surface.
In the middle of the room, still dressed in pyjamas, stood Marc, groaning at the sight of the mess he was the culprit of.
He spent the last hour, or maybe two or more, thinking about what he should wear tonight. Call him dramatic, but such a date doesn't happen every other day.
It was his and Nathaniel's first anniversary.
It still felt surreal to admit that they indeed have been dating for a year now, but it was true. And they had to prove it to themselves, the easiest way they could think of was going on a proper date to celebrate.
Obviously, it wasn't that easy, judging by the state of Marc's room and his own mind, still not sure how to approach this night.
Should he dress up? It was a date after all… But both of them usually showed up to their previous ones looking rather casual… But it was an anniversary, a big event in their relationship…
He groaned again, tired of all those ‘buts’ and ‘ifs’ circling around his mind. He wasn't even close to getting ready and he was supposed to meet with Nathaniel soon.
“Okay,” he muttered under his breath, not caring that he's speaking to himself out loud “whatever… ugh, just get anything done at least…”
The only thing he was sure of that he would wear tonight, no matter what else he'd pick out, would be the ring-made-into-necklace that Nathaniel gave him half a year ago.
He remembers that day vividly, and can recall that he was stuck in the exact same situation as now. That aside, he reminisces that his boyfriend gave him a ring, calling it an engagement ring jokingly before promising he'd actually do it properly some day, and for now they had a little promise ring.
That was undoubtedly one of the cutest things that they'd done in their relationship. The only downside to that was the fact that Nathaniel decided to pick the size of the ring at a guess, without properly taking any measurements, sure that it would spoil the surprise. This, in turn, led to the size being too big. Marc, who couldn't bear the sight of his boyfriend being devastated, assured him that it's fine and he'll figure something out.
So he put the ring on a chain he had laying around and wore it from time to time on his neck as a necklace. Nathaniel was more than happy to see his boyfriend's solution to this problem, insisting he wear it more often, especially on important occasions.
And because of that promise he gave the other, Marc was determined to find the necklace and wear it tonight. He knew where he put it, so at least it wouldn't result in him making another mess while searching through every drawer…
He laid down on the floor, close to his bed, and reached under it until his fingertips met a familiar cardboard box. After a little bit of squirming to reach it, he managed to pull it out fully, sitting up immediately and opening it up.
The box was simple, a dark blue one with nothing more than a little red heart-shaped sticker on it. Its contents were far from simple, though.
Okay, maybe at first glance no one would pay attention to anything inside, but to Marc every little thing meant the world.
Inside of the box you could see multiple scraps of paper and some other stuff, all from different stages of his and Nathaniel's relationship, reaching even far before they called each other boyfriends, or even friends to begin with. All neatly organised as well.
Yes, he kept every little thing, varying from doodles and quick notes to full letters and jewellery. He's a sentimental person, sue him.
Marc just stared at the content of the box in awe for a moment, before carefully pulling out each thing so he could find the ring-slash-necklace.
He took a stash of scrap papers, ripped out of some notebook into his palm, carefully so as to not crumple them more than they already were. He gently slid his finger through them in order to take a good look at each one. Obviously, the necklace wouldn't be between them, but he just wanted to see the beginning of his relationship with Nathaniel.
The notes he was holding were simple, mostly reminders about meetings in the art club that he quickly wrote down for himself or that Nathaniel slipped into his bag during a quick chat during break. Or praises about his writing and validations of his skill, encouraging him to not run away from the sessions and keep creating his thing. All from the time they called each other partners, purely working on their comic.
That was until Nathaniel gave him his phone number on a small pink scrap.
“Here, it'll be easier to contact each other through a phone and not by searching through the halls like a maniac.” He said while passing the note towards Marc.
“Oh, yeah, uh, you're right.” He replied while carefully putting the note into his pencil case with shaky hands.
“You can also just text me when you want. You know, let's not limit all of our hangouts to comics… Not that I don't enjoy it of course!” Nathaniel quickly assured with a laugh.
Marc could only look at him with wide eyes, before stuttering out “Yeah… let's hang out sometime.”
“Great! Text me when you can and we'll schedule something. I really want to get to know you, Marc.” The redhead said with a big smile, packing his supplies as it was getting late.
That was the moment when Marc first thought of Nathaniel as his friend, not just a comic partner.
Technically, he could throw this out, as he already had Nathaniel's number saved in his phone for quite some time, but he never thought of doing so. Once again, he's a sentimental person and this was the second most important milestone in their relationship. Hell would freeze before he got rid of this little pink piece of paper.
Marc rummaged through the box some more before pulling out a comic strip made by Nathaniel during one of their hangouts as friends. Actual friends.
Neither of them could wait long before scheduling some outing after properly exchanging numbers back then. First ones were a tad bit awkward and too focused on their comics before they actually explored other topics about each other's lives.
During maybe the third or fourth meet up they went to some coffee shop close to school, this time with the intention to work on their comic some more. Ironically, they didn't get any work done and talked for hours on end about their interests besides comic books. And they realised they had a lot in common. Way more than they previously thought or could ever imagine.
Even when they finished both their drinks and cake slices, they couldn't leave the table as they were so deep in their conversation getting up seemed like it could break it up.
At some point it was only Marc talking about his passion for soccer, both for watching the games and playing them himself.
“And all of us were so sure it would be the end for us. There's so little you can actually do with only 5 minutes of time after all.” Marc was in the middle of retelling one of his greatest matches of all time, red in the face from emotions buzzing in him and gesturing excitedly.
Nathaniel in the meantime held his head barely above the table, covering himself with his hair. The other stopped talking for a second, sure that he was boring the redhead to death, until he looked up at Marc with a questioning look.
“Why did you stop? Come on champion, did y'all win? Don't keep me waiting!” He exclaimed with a spark in his eyes as a visible sign of interest in the topic. Well maybe he wasn't that fond of soccer itself, but he still wanted to know about his friend's success and his passion.
Only then did Marc notice that the redhead was scribbling something on the back of the receipt for their order while he talked. He stretched his neck out to get a better look at it.
It was a little comic with Marc as the main character. Nathaniel was illustrating that match right as he was listening.
“Hey,” he waved his hand in front of his friend's face with a giggle “I can't finish it if I don't know what happened!”
“O-oh, right! Uh… so where was I…”
After Marc finished talking about how his team won, thanks to him, Nathaniel handed him the comic strip. It was short, four panels squeezed into the small space of a receipt, but it meant the world to him back then and still did now.
He couldn't really see their order from that day due to the ink fading, but the drawings held up well. You still could see little doodles of Marc getting hold of the ball and scoring the final goal which resulted in their victory.
A smile found its way onto his face as he re-read the short comic yet again, remembering both that game years ago and the hangout with Nathaniel slightly over a year ago.
The necklace! He still had to find it in this box, it must've been there, there was no other place where he could've left it.
His fingers stumbled upon more shiny material, yet again forcing him to forget about the main objective of his search for a moment.
He pulled out a cinema ticket, back from the time when he and Nathaniel went to see the new Ladybug and Chat Noir movie.
“Thanks for coming with me, I'd hate to see it alone or drag someone not interested…” Nathaniel said while they were waiting for the movie to start, stuffing his mouth with popcorn.
“I couldn't give up seeing this, come on!” Marc exclaimed before lowering his voice upon seeing the flares some people sent him. “And I love spending time with you… and the heroes! Perfect mix, you know…” He covered his tone he deemed too affectionate with a light chuckle. He was also saved by the lights turning off, signaling the movie will start soon.
That was around the time he realised he was in love with Nathaniel, yet still too shy to even dream of confessing. His friends encouraged him to do it all the time but he couldn't force himself to actually do it.
That was until the graduation ball was just around the corner, alongside with Nathaniel finishing school. And Marc knew he couldn't wait much longer and let the other go like a friend.
Although he didn't have any physical thing from that night, he was certain he'd never forget it with how important it was for him and their relationship. He vividly remembers every detail from the decorations and overall atmosphere of the ball to the specific moment they were left alone and could finally share their feelings with each other.
The necklace! God, he kept getting sidetracked from it.
He could already see the smaller box in which he kept the necklace and yet his hand unconsciously brushed past it and picked up an envelope instead.
Inside he kept neatly folded letters from Nathaniel, again organised by the dates.
They were mostly reminders about the art club and later their dates, yet some were more tender. Expressions of gratitude for staying with him through hard times, wishes when Marc was feeling unwell, short declarations of love.
Nathaniel would always swear he had a terrible time with putting his thoughts into words — that's why some of the letters had more doodles than words — and yet Marc always felt like melting whenever he opened his locker and was met with another paper sheet.
He looked through each one, even if he knew every word by heart already, just to feel the warmth of love wash over him.
‘…I don't say it too often…’
‘…miss you…’
‘…thanks for sticking up when…’
‘…I forgot to mention…’
‘…sorry for…’
‘…love you…’
He was so focused on giving each letter proper attention that he didn't hear his phone buzzing on the desk at first. Just after a few seconds he got up from the floor and took it into his hand, immediately picking up the call when he noticed Nathaniel's name on the screen.
“Hey, Nath!”
“Marc, how long are you gonna keep me waiting?” Nathaniel asked with a soft laugh.
At that, Marc ran towards his room's window from which he could see the street in front of his house. And just like predicted, the artist was already standing in the middle of the sidewalk looking up to meet the other's eyes.
“Don't tell me you're not dressed yet!” Nathaniel shouted towards him, hanging up the phone call. Marc could only smile awkwardly at that before turning around to look at the mess he turned his room into. He totally lost track of time when he browsed through the box.
“Wait a moment! Uh… come inside! I'll be ready in a minute!” He shouted back at the other.
Before he went downstairs to open the front door he quickly crouched down and reached inside the box one more time. This time he actually took the necklace out and put it on.
He took the ring connected to the chain between his fingers and smiled at the memory attached to it.
He held onto it tightly as he went to greet his boyfriend, promising he'd get ready faster if he'd help him pick out the outfit for the night.
And who was Nathaniel to decline such an offer.
He ignored the chaos in Marc's room, focused more on the box left on the floor with its contents scattered around. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of it. And his smile got even bigger when he saw the necklace with the ring already on Marc's neck.