Work Text:
Nathanäel was sketching behind the rubble to keep himself busy when he heard the sniffling. His eyes widened and he pushed his sketchbook into his bag, getting on his hands and knees to crawl towards the sound. He had thought he was alone in this section of rubble that had once been the school. But it sounded like someone else was there.
It had been a few hours now since that massive Akuma had started destroying everything, completely demolishing their school. At least the majority of the school had been outside when it happened. It was after class had ended for the day, and Nathanäel had only been sticking around to work on his art project where it was quiet.
Nathanäel heard the soft crying get louder and he crawled his way through the wreckage till he could hear the noise right behind a sheet of drywall.
“Hey, are you okay in there?”
“Chat Noir?! Ladybug?! Is that you?! Help me out of this-” the plea stopped mid sentence as Nathanäel kicked the drywall out of the way to reveal a dusty and tear stained Chloe Bourgeois. Her face twisted up in unpleasantness and she turned away, folding her arms and saying,
“Oh it’s just you. Why are you here, you can’t do anything to fix this.” Nathanäel rolled his eyes and crawled towards her saying,
“I wouldn’t want to sit in this mess by myself.”
“Well maybe I WOULD.” Chloe snapped, turning herself away from him.
“That’s too bad.” was all he replied with, sitting up against the wall and pulling out his sketchbook again. He sketched in silence for a few moments until he felt her turn forward again, leaning against the wall beside him. He waited just a little bit longer to be safe and then said quietly,
“Are you alright Chloe? You sounded upset.”
“Wh-What are you talking about?! I- M-My hair is covered in dust- it’s a mess- th-that’s why I’m upset- you don’t understand what’s important to me!” she spluttered, and he watched her grab her wrist and look away nervously. Chloe always kept her cool during these Akuma attacks. He’d always taken it as stupidity, but maybe she really was just brave. If they were trapped as a class she’d be the only one in the group to whip out some nail polish and take care of herself, telling everyone else to calm down because Ladybug would help them out of whatever mess they were in. She never… ever got upset like this. Only outraged.
He looked down at her wrist again. She was shaking.
“Chloe, let me see your wrist.”
“Wh-What?! No! You can’t see it- it’s fine! I don’t know what you’re- Aaaah….” she bit off
her yelp with a small moan as he gently took arm by the elbow to bring it closer to him.
“A-All you know is how to doodle, you don’t even pay attention to anything else- so don’t you dare try to fix my wrist- you’ll only hurt it more!” She threatened, looking panicked until he looked up at her and stared her down.
“I study anatomy for figure drawing reference, Chloe. I’ve been told about injuries before, I can help you.” he said calmly, and she gulped, still staring back at him until she broke away nervously to look at her wrist resting in his lap.
“Well we know Ladybug’s magic will fix all of this… when they finally win the fight… so you shouldn’t need to go to the doctor but for now-” Nathanäel took out some of his paint stained clothes from his bag of art supplies and dutifully wrapped them around her wrist, ignoring her dramatic moaning.
“Okay, try not to move that and it should help.” Nathanäel said quietly, letting her take her wrist back and picking up his sketchbook again.
They sat in more silence until he noticed Chloe looking over his shoulder as inconspicuously as she could, though his peripheral vision caught it in a heartbeat. He didn’t call her out on it though. He didn’t like when people watched him draw, and he certainly didn’t like Chloe seeing what he was drawing, thanks to all the awful comments she’d made last time, but she wasn’t doing any harm then.
He realized that she was hurting and upset, and needed a distraction, so he pushed away his insecurity and let her watch him.
It did make it hard to draw though.
He sketched a circle for a head. he started building the chin around it… and then he stopped when it refused to work out. He drew another one… and another… and another. Sometimes he’d get a little farther until he had to quit because their face looked uncomfortable or lopsided. Finally when the page was almost full of unfinished sad drawings, Chloe muttered,
“Jeeze, I thought you were good at art.” Before he could look up at her with an annoyed face she spluttered, “I mean- I- I thought you were SUPPOSED to be good at art- you’re just- like- not even okay- I mean- Sure you have SOME talent- but you could never be as good as-”
He snapped his sketchbook shut and she fell silent simultaneously. He glared up at her, only feeling slightly annoyed because she technically had given him a compliment in her strange twisted way, but he still wasn’t happy. He studied her face for a moment, and saw that behind her almost blank face with slightly furrowed brows and lightly pursed lips, she looked a little nervous. Nervous about the cold expression on his face.
He sighed and pulled his fingers through his bangs hanging in front of his eyes, pulling it back from his face for a moment before turning himself to face her.
She didn’t move, only stared at him.
Nathanäel pulled out his sketchbook after studying her face for a moment or two, and then began to sketch.
She fidgeted a little, but stayed still, as most people do when they realize they’re being drawn.
“What makes you think you can capture this beauty?” she scoffed while he looked down at his picture, but quickly shut her mouth when his eyes rose to look at her face again.
A tiny smirk pulled at the corners of his mouth. She didn’t want to mess up his drawing by talking. She wanted him to draw her.
Most people did, and he especially expected it from self absorbed Chloe.
“I’m not trying to draw your face.” he said quietly, and he saw her lean forward a little to try and see what was on the other side of his sketchbook, but he only leaned backwards more.
It was a few minutes in silence before he turned around the paper and said, pointing to his drawing,
“I just wanted to draw your eyes. They’re very… pretty.” he almost stopped himself from finishing that compliment. He didn’t want to make her ego bigger, but he also didn’t want to lie. Her eyes were some of the prettiest he’d ever seen. They were hypnotizing ocean blue, so vibrant they didn’t even seem real. He’d almost wondered if they were contacts the first time he’d seen them until he’d seen a baby photo of her on the day they’d all had to bring photos of their childhood. Those eyes were really hers. And he’d be lying if he said he’d never attempted at drawing them before.
It wasn’t fair that someone so mean could have eyes that beautiful… But maybe that was a little rude to think.
Nathanäel watched her expression after he complimented her, and he saw what he expected. Her snooty expression and haughty exclamation of,
“Well of course they are.” But before she did it, there was something strange that happened. She had just stared at him for a moment, her brows furrowing for a split second and her mouth open in surprise.
She looked down at the drawing and he could see her cheeks turn the slightest little shade of pink. Then he thought about how no one really gave her sincere compliments unless they were Sabrina. The others seemed to be fake but required.
Maybe she could actually tell the difference.
“Well I drew them in pencil, but now it’s time to color them.” Nathanäel said as he reached into his bag for his colored pencils.
“Hmph. They- They probably won’t look like my eyes. You draw Marinette so much they’ll probably look like hers!” Chloe said snootily, looking away from the paper.
Nathanäel turned bright red, lowering his face so that his ginger hair slipped over his eyes.
“W-Well just because you guys both have blue eyes doesn’t mean they look the same. Marinette’s eyes are like… baby blue…” he stopped when he saw her bored but smirking expression, and he turned redder and instead pulled out some pencils. “Y-Your eyes practically glow, they’re closer to these colors!” he spluttered, feeling angry over her slight teasing.
He then colored in silence until he said quietly,
“Do you know why I like Marinette?”
“I have absolutely no clue.” she answered blandly.
“Marinette is kind to me. I’m not exactly a class favorite… and I know it’s because I keep to myself. but she always makes me feel welcome.” Nathanäel said with a smile, and Chloe frowned.
“Well she doesn’t do that to me! She’s so rude to me!” Chloe said gruffly, kicking the drywall at her toes.
“I think you’re both rude to each other and should drop it. But to be honest, it usually starts with you insulting someone… She’s very protective.” Nathanäel said honestly and Chloe made an exasperated huffing sound and looked away, trying to fold her arms but then wincing at the movement of her wrist and just frowning hard instead.
“Hey, look at me.” She turned, her eyes a little wide and nervous as her frown refused to move from her face, and she looked back at him. He stared at her for a second and then returned to his drawing, adding a deeper blue color to the tops of her eyes. “Thank you.” he then added, and she pouted, fidgeting on the spot.
He was darkening the eyelashes when Chloe said loudly,
“Well if you like Marinette so much, why don’t you ask her out?”
He sighed, and carefully erased some stray pencil marks before answering,
“I’m nervous. But also, I know she’d say yes just to be nice but… she likes Adrien.”
“W-Well Adrien is MINE s-so-” Chloe stuttered, and he was surprised by how uncomfortable she sounded.
“Why do you like Adrien, Chloe?” he asked her, glancing up for a moment before adding her dramatic eyelashes to his picture.
“Ah- I- He’s handsome- and- obviously the only one on my level here! He’s rich like me so- so…” she trailed off as Nathanäel frowned.
“Do you think that’s why Marinette likes him too? Because I don’t think that’s why.” Nathanäel said cooly, and Chloe gulped.
“Th-That’s obviously the only reason she’d like him! She just thinks that if they start dating she can get into the industry easily- even with her dumb designs and-”
“I think Marinette likes Adrien because he’s kind to everyone. He’s even nice to you.” Nathanäel said, trying not to come off too bitter, but it was hard to hold it back. Chloe made a little choking sound in the back of her throat and then said with a shaking voice,
“W-Well maybe that’s wh-why I like him too! M-Maybe he’s always been nice to me, ever since we were little!”
Nathanäel’s expression softened, and he smiled a little.
“See Chloe? If you’re nice, people like you better. We’re proof.”
She made more frustrated sounds and hunched over herself, putting her chin onto her knees.
“Do you know who Adrien likes?” Nathanäel asked Chloe after he finished erasing all of the stray pencil marks and went in with the colors to finish it up.
“I- I don’t know…” Chloe said, her voice catching and making him look up at her. “B-But it’s not me!” she choked, and she hid her face into her knees, shaking a little, and Nathanäel could see the tears dropping down on her injured hand.
He set down his sketchbook carefully and then leaned over and side hugged her.
“D-Don’t touch me!” Chloe snapped angrily, but he only pulled her a little closer to him, hoping she wouldn’t elbow him and sue him for harassment.
But instead Chloe only pushed her face into his nearby shoulder, shaking still and hiding from his eyes so he couldn’t see her crying.
“Am I really a bad person?” she said in a hurt voice and Nathanäel grit his teeth. He didn’t know what to say.
“Do you realize that when you treat people like they don’t matter it hurts their feelings? You made me turn into a Supervillain once because of that. Do you feel bad or sorry about any of that?”
She didn’t say anything for a moment and then she blubbered angrily,
“You tried to smash me with a giant shoe!”
“Chloe.”
“Okay, maybe I feel a little bit bad. I feel like you’re all overreacting, but… Maybe I get carried away sometimes…” her voice was rough and she wasn’t speaking very clearly but he still understood her.
“You’re not a bad person Chloe. You just make mistakes. If you realize that what you’re doing is wrong, then you’re not too far gone, right? I- I mean- like- if you’re going to try to be better, and fix things… then you’re just human.”
“Okay. You better not tell ANYONE about this.” Chloe warned darkly, and Nathanäel rolled his eyes.
“Oh for sure- I wouldn’t want to screw up your ‘reputation’.”
“No! It’s not just that! Do you know how much the paparazzi follows me around?! They just- they just do that to rich people! Seriously, if they found out I told you that, they’d probably have a field day and come up with entire articles on my secret boyfriend or some crap like that.”
Nathanäel turned red.
“Ridiculous.” he said weakly, already feeling embarrassed.
“I know! I would never date someone poor.” she said, and Nathanäel was about to push her away from his shoulder before she caught herself and added, “I mean… we- we’re not really that good of friends. It… It would be ridiculous because of that….. sorry.”
Nathanäel smiled.
“Well Chloe… I finished your drawing.” he said quietly, carefully ripping out the page of his sketchbook. She sat up, rubbing old tears from her eyes as she looked at the drawing.
“How much do you want me to pay you for it?” she asked, taking it from him and holding it carefully. He broke into laughter and she turned red, angrily glaring at him.
“What?!” she snapped, looking defensive.
“Chloe, you don’t have to pay me for it! It’s a present! I’ve always wanted to draw your eyes, so thanks for letting me.” he laughed, pushing his pencils back into his bag.
She turned redder.
“W-Well thank you. J-Just keep it safe till we get out of this mess.” she muttered, pushing it back towards him, and he carefully tucked it back inside his sketchbook.
“Alright. Speaking of which, has a battle ever taken this long before?” Nathanäel said in a concerned voice, looking at his watch to see what time it was. Their small space under the rubble was growing increasingly darker now as the sun lowered in the sky though they could not see it, and it was starting to get colder too.
“I don’t know, sometimes they last awhile. I remember the robocop fiasco lasted a whole day!” Chloe complained, having been dragged around herself because of it.
“I guess mine went into the night too… It was dark when I woke up. Hey Chloe, I never really apologized, and I know it wasn’t really me trying to smash you with a shoe and stuff but… I’m still sorry.” he said, holding out his hand. She eyed it with a frown until she let him take it saying,
“Alright. I forgive you. It was still your fault for getting upset though…. er….. I mean… I’m sorry I called you out on your drawing. I suppose it wasn’t fair to pick on someone who just wanted to be left alone.”
“I forgive you too.”
They smiled, Chloe a little begrudgingly but still genuinely. It was quiet for a few seconds more until Chloe hastily added,
“And-I’m-sorry-I-graffitied-your-drawing-as-well-”
“YOU DID WHAT?”
—-
“Uuuugh…. that was by far the LONGEST battle we’ve had to deal with!” Ladybug groaned, and Chat Noir nodded.
“It’s nearly 4 AM!… I’m just glad the wreckage fixes itself… otherwise we’d have a real big mess to clean up.” he added, looking at what the time on his staff said.
“You said it. I’m going to go home and let my parents know I haven’t DIED.” she yawned, and he nodded, yawning as well.
“Goodnight Ma Belle….” he mumbled sleepily, and she gave him a kiss on the cheek, making his eye’s widen, full of sleep but surprise.
“Goodnight Minou….” she mumbled back, looking even more tired as she walked away from him. He shrugged, figured he was dreaming, and went towards his own home.
They both tried to ignore the thought that they had school tomorrow. Or rather- in just a few hours.
—-
Nathanäel awoke to sniggering and he rubbed his eyes blearly, yawning. He could feel someone close against him, their head tucked under his chin cozily. His neck hurt from leaning against the wall for so long.
“What is…” he yawned, his eyes opening uncomfortably to light. What he saw was multiple phones recording him.
“He’s awake! Hey Nathanäel, I thought you were staying after school for an art project…” Nino’s laugh filled his thoughts and he rubbed his eyes some more.
“What? I was… but that Akuma destroyed the school… I got caught in the rubble with- oh.” he looked down to see Chloe rested against him, sleeping soundly with dark circles under her eyes. “Okay, it was a rough night- don’t make fun of us.” he said in annoyance, rolling his eyes and the kids laughed, pulling away from the two of them. “Seriously- she’s going to be so embarrassed, just go leave us alone…” he sighed, his face turning red as he covered his eyes.
“Okay- Okay, we know, we’re just joking. It must have been unbearable for you!” someone else laughed, and he frowned a little, looking down at the girl who was so tired she hadn’t even stirred.
“No, it wasn’t actually that bad at all. Now shoo.” he said flatly, making the smirks of his classmate’s faces disappear and they walked away, warning him that their teacher would be there soon to start class.
He then carefully tapped on Chloe’s shoulder, trying to move out from underneath her so she wouldn’t be so upset.
“Chloe? Hey Chloe wake up, everything’s fixed now.” he said quietly, and her eyes opened immediately, looking up at him.
“Wh-What?! Were you awake?!” he stammered as she sat up and stretched.
“Yeah, I was wondering how you were going to explain everything to them.” she still looked sleepy and she rubbed her eyes saying, ‘I- I’m glad to know I wasn’t unbearable last night.” She smiled at him and Nathanäel was so taken back by how beautiful her eyes looked crinkled up into a real smile that he just kind of gaped at her.
“W-Well of course- I mean- ah-”
“Ew! Look, your dirty rag got paint all over my arm, I’m going to get poisoned from these oils!!! Or worse- dyed!” she interrupted him with a loud complaint, unwrapping her now healed armed, and throwing the cloth at Nathanäel.
He was surprised for a moment but then he caught the smirk on her face. He smirked right back at her.
“Maybe it’s a sign you should start wearing more colors rather than yellow, Chloe.” he teased, and she let out an offended scoff, pushing him by the shoulders gently.
“Here’s your drawing.” he said softly, pulling it out of the sketchbook and pushing it towards her but she shook her head.
“I don’t want it to get smashed. Why don’t you bring it over to my house yourself later? I wouldn’t even think of accepting a gift that was wrinkled in the slightest.” she sighed, and he only shook his head with a grin.
“Sure thing, Chloe.”
“Thank you, Nathanäel.” she returned, glancing at him sideways with a tiny smirk.
The two took their seats, both pulling out their phones to let their parents know what had happened to them and that they were okay, just at school, and the rest of the day passed with them sneakily trying to steal glances at one another.
Nathanäel trying to see her so he could draw her some more, and Chloe to check if he was doing just that.
-
And in the front of the room, Nino and Alya had changed the seating chart and dragged Marinette and Adrien together so they could both sleep in peace without disturbing the other teens. They were both mumbling stuff like, “My Lady” and “My Minou”, but no one paid them much thought.