#bri writes

Nathaniel’s ears were still burning from his mother’s tirade after he and the others were called to Principal Damocles’ office to explain their ‘trespassing’ in the butterfly house – and that was because she never stopped, not even when the sun had set and risen the next day.

“I always knew that other Bourgeois girl was trouble, but you never listen to me! The same rotten apple from the same rotten tree. And now look where you are! Almost a week’s worth of detention!”

“Shirel, ease up on the boy, will you? I’m sure he feels bad enough as it is.”

Nathaniel kept his eyes down on his bag in his lap, periodically slipping his phone out to check his messages between Marc and him.

Nath: hey

Nath: are you okay?

Nath: Mom was way out of line back there

Nath: None of this is on you

Nath: I shouldn’t have made you lie about us for so long

Nath: I’m sorry

Nath: Marc?

Nath: I’m not gonna let Ray get away with this.

Nath: Marc?

Nath: Rainbow?

All of his messages to Marc were left on read. Much was the same in his attempts to talk with Zoe. Only Marinette replied to his horrible hidden messages, but they were pretty vague all around, with only one bit of news from all of their separate interrogations (they kept them apart so they couldn’t come up with a ‘new story’ or something like that).

Mari: I think they were talking about suspending Zoe.

Mari: I’m not sure if that’s true. And I’m not sure how long she’ll be gone if it is.

Mari: I haven’t heard from her since yesterday

Nathaniel didn’t reply. He couldn’t. For one, he simply couldn’t believe it all went down so hard and so fast, and for two – he was supposed to be grounded and was supposed to have his grandfather’s old flip phone that could only receive phone calls from his parents.

He swiftly tucked his phone back into his messenger bag the second his mother’s stony gaze met his through the rearview mirror.

“I don’t want you talking to any of them at school today.” His mother said flatly.

“What?!” Nathaniel exclaimed. He nearly fell out of his seat.

“Dear, isn’t that a bit dramatic? I mean, he practically has all of his classes with them!” his father remarked.

“Then he isn’t allowed to have any of them over for two weeks!” Her voice was starting to get loud again. “We’ve been too permissive with who he chooses to associate himself with, and now look! Getting roped into these ridiculous schemes and ending up in detention!”

“That isn’t fair!” Nathaniel muttered through gritted teeth. He balled his fists up in his lap.

“We’re only trying to make sure you’re safe and that you’re surrounding yourself with good people, Nath,” his father said, being ever so careful with his words as he spoke.

Nathaniel could see his father’s eyes glance up at him in the rearview mirror as well, though he couldn’t tell if his father wanted to say something else. His window to do so shut soon after the car pulled up to the front of the school. The two of them turned in their seats to face Nathaniel. Any hints of anxiety or apprehension in his father’s face melted away and were replaced with his usual, easygoing smile. His mother’s expression remained hard.

“Have a good day at school today, kiddo!” his father chirped.

“We’ll be picking you up after detention today,” his mother added. “At four-thirty.”

“I know…,” Nathaniel grumbled, his cerulean eyes drifting out of the car window.

He caught something familiar and bright red dart across the sidewalk and race up the steps of the school. His eyes blew wide open, and a lump formed in his throat.

Nathaniel grabbed his things off the floor and kicked the car door open with his foot.

“ ‘kay, see you later! Bye!” Nathaniel said, jumping out of the car. He slammed the door shut and raced up the steps after the figure in red.

“Marc! Wait!”

Marc didn’t stop. It took all of the athleticism that Nathaniel had – which outside of his hero suit wasn’t much - to catch up to him. He stuck out his hand, grabbed a handful of air before he finally caught Marc’s hand in his.

Only then did Marc finally stop.

Marc glanced over his shoulder, but Nathaniel could barely see his face from how much his head was being swallowed up by his hood.

‘He hasn’t worn that in a while…’

“H-hey…” Nathaniel stammered, his mouth tight from trying to force a smile.

“H-Hi…” Marc mumbled, turning to Nathaniel. He kept his eyes down on his boots the whole time.

“I…I texted you last night. Not sure if you got any of them…”

Marc chewed at the corner of his mouth. Nathaniel couldn’t help but notice his makeup starting to crack and smudge at the corners of his eyes.

Marc nodded slowly, still avoiding Nathaniel’s eyes.

“S-Sorry, I…I was dealing with some stuff last night. I…I must not have seen them.”

Nathaniel chewed the inside of his cheek. His grip on Marc’s hand grew tighter.

“How did things go with your parents…? Are they –”

“Pissed? Yeah,” Nathaniel chuckled, bitter. “I’m actually supposed to be grounded right now.”

Marc hummed.

“Did they…Do they know about us?” Marc asked. “Do they know why we were really up there yesterday?”

The lump in Nathaniel’s throat grew bigger. His mouth was as dry as a desert. He shuddered, his fingernails digging into his palm as he shook his head.

“No, I…I just told them…I –”

Nathaniel searched for the words – what had he told them? Not the truth, that’s for sure. He couldn’t bring himself to tell them the real reason he stopped at Marinette’s house and then whipped back around to school and went up to the butterfly house with Zoe and the others that afternoon. He couldn’t tell them about all the times he was in the butterfly house before then, and how Ray-fucking-Pugnant tainted every single one of those moments by keeping them for blackmail to turn them further against him –

All because Ray wanted a tragedy to eat popcorn and laugh at.

Nathaniel was still searching for the words, mouth opening and closing like a dying fish.

Marc squeezed Nathaniel’s hand. He finally looked up at Nathaniel’s face. His emerald eyes were glassy with emerging tears, but a small smile was starting to work its way onto his trembling lips.

“Hey, you…,” Marc paused and swallowed hard. “You know I love you, right?”

Nathaniel’s heart plummeted. His lips pressed into a tight, thin line, and he nodded.

Marc nodded right back, and he drew in a sharp breath.

“Good, that’s – that’s good. I’m – I’m glad you know that…Um,” Marc’s voice broke apart. The tears he had been trying to hold back finally spilled over, and he crumbled.

Nathaniel stepped forward and opened his arms. Marc immediately fell into Nathaniel’s arms and sobbed into his chest. Nathaniel hugged him close, grabbing handfuls of his red hoodie as if the damned thing was all that was left to keep them both standing.

“I -I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Marc cried.

Nathaniel shook his head. “No. No, you – you don’t need to apologize for anything, Rainbow. I’m not gonna let Ray fuck up what we have. We’re gonna figure this out!”

“How? He still has the photos, he already got Zoe suspended, and got us all in trouble, so now no one is going to believe us! It’s over! He won, and now, you’re gonna get in even worse trouble with your parents–”

“I don’t give a shit about that!” Nathaniel exclaimed, his face burning and his heart ready to explode out of his chest as he took Marc by both of his shoulders. “I don’t care what they say or do to me –”

“Yes, you do, Nath –”

“I won’t anymore –”

“You should,” Marc argued. “I don’t want you to ruin your life because…because of me. And I don’t want to make you put yourself in danger because of me, either.”

“Marc –”

“I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”

Every inch of Nathaniel ran cold. The world seemed to shatter around him, and all of the noises surrounding them were vacuumed out of existence. Marc continued, more and more tears spilling over his eyes, but Nathaniel couldn’t hear a single word coming out of his mouth. He just stared, Marc’s words cutting into his chest like a knife. 

‘I don’t think we should see each other anymore…’

And after that, everything and everyone just sounded like they were submerged underwater, right up until the bell rang and Marc spun around in surprise. He slowly turned back to Nathaniel, his gaze down at the floor again.

“I have to go…,” he mumbled. “I…I just want you to be safe. I know things aren’t the greatest with your parents – especially around…this. And I don’t want to make things worse for you. Who knows? Maybe…Maybe he’ll get bored or something and leave like Chloe did. Maybe…we’ll figure something out.

Marc chuckled, his voice cracking into a million pieces as more tears sprang from his eyes and ran down his face. He did a quick scan of the foyer and pecked a quick kiss to his cheek, grabbing hold of Nathaniel’s freckled hand and pressing another kiss to his knuckles.

“I love you,” Marc said, his voice teetering on a cliff’s edge. “I love you so much. More than you'll ever know…”

“Marc –”

“I’ll…I’ll see you later!”

Marc whipped around, his hand falling out of Nathaniel’s, and he ran upstairs to his classroom.

Nathaniel was the only one left on the first floor. He stood still as stone, his eyes stuck on his empty hand. He didn’t even notice the hot tears falling down his face until a few of them landed in his open palm.

It all hit him like a tidal wave –

He and Marc were over.

Whatever dirt Ray had on him was apparently so bad that Marc couldn’t bear to wait before the clock on the deadline ran out, and he just…ended it.

They were done.

The end of Marc and Nathaniel came just like that.

“Hey!” 

A whistle came from above. Nathaniel snapped his head up. His eyes immediately narrowed when he saw Ray staring down at him, his Cheshire grin wide across his face.

“Shouldn’t you be in class right now? I’d hate for you to get another week’s detention for trying to skip class –”

“Screw you!” Nathaniel screamed. 

He turned on his heel and stomped into the bathroom in the far corner of the first floor. He ducked into the first stall his bleary eyes landed on, and the second the heavy door shut behind him, his back slammed into it, and he slid down to the floor, sobbing loudly into his knees.

His heart fell out of his chest and shattered against the floor into a million tiny pieces. He couldn't remember the last time he felt such immense pain ripple through him so fiercely – Ray would have been better off striking him down and tap dancing on his corpse before he was even cold.

Ziggy escaped from Nathaniel’s hairclips and covered around his head, their hooves tightly clasped together and their big eyes filled with big, sympathetic tears in their eyes.

“Oh, Nath – I’m so sorry!” They exclaimed. “My heart is breaking for you and Marc!”

Nathaniel sniffled loudly. “I can’t believe it…it’s over. We’re over.”

“But it can’t be over! You’re Marc and Nathaniel – partners in everything you do!”

“It’s not up to me anymore, Ziggy. I can’t make Marc be with me anymore, no matter how much I wanna be with him…”

“There has to be something we can do –!”

“There isn’t, Ziggy,” Nathaniel choked. “We tried looking for the cameras, we tried looking for the cameras, we tried talking to the adults, and it didn’t fucking work! They won! And now…”

Nathaniel couldn’t say it again. He refused to believe it was all true, and he couldn’t bear to say it any more than he had to, and set it in stone and lose Marc forever – even though, as far as he was concerned, he already did.

Ziggy, however, shook their head.

“They haven’t won yet, Nath! Cocky villains like Ray and his friends always get sloppy somewhere! They get so full of themselves, they forget about the little things and leave something behind. There’s something out there that you and your friends haven’t seen yet that will stop Ray – I know it!”

“Ziggy, there’s no way…” Nathaniel stopped.

His brows arched high up on his head as the gears in his head started to turn, and something clicked into place.

In his spiral of what little evidence he had against Ray and all that he lost and all that he still stood to lose, he almost forgot one of, if not the most important, he had in his corner: his friends.

And his friends all had something in common that could aid him in forming the plan in his head:

Serious problems with Ray and his friends.

Nathaniel wiped his tears and snot away with his sleeve, a newfound determination burning away the hopelessness that had nearly succeeded in swallowing him whole.

He picked himself off the floor, grabbed his things, and stormed out of the stall with Ziggy in tow.

“Where are we going?” They asked, landing on Nathaniel’s shoulder.

“Class, Ziggs. We’re going to class, and we’re going to talk to my friends so we can put a stop to all of this bullshit.”

Ziggy recoiled a bit at Nathaniel’s swearing but started to smile with resolution. Nathaniel started to smile too. Maybe it was a bit premature – he wasn’t even sure that his search and the bare bones of a plan he had would amount to anything – but at the very least, he had a chance, and he had his friends in his corner.

And in that moment, that was all he needed to walk out the door and get himself to first period.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

By the time lunch came around, Nathaniel was armed with a scribbled-on receipt, a handful of files on his phone, and a lump the size of a grapefruit stuck in his throat.

Walking into the cafeteria, his whole body trembled like an earthquake, and he was sweating bullets, but he forced his legs to march forward where they once would have either collapsed under the weight of him or turned tail in order to save himself from the idea of embarrassment and ridicule.

But he wasn’t running. Not when everything he loved and cared about was on the line.

When Ladybug gifted him the Goat Miraculous, he made a promise not only to her but to himself and everyone he cared about that he would stand tall and he wouldn’t let anything happen to them – no matter how big or small the problem was.

He had been making good on his promise so far, and even if the remaining pieces of his heart wanted to rip right out of his chest, he intended to see it all out to the bitter end.

The second he stepped through the threshold, his eyes immediately landed on two people – Marc and Ray.

Marc sat at a table at the very back left of the cafeteria with his hood pulled up and down over his face, far away from all of their friends. To his upper right was Ray, having a hushed conversation with Nelson and Loïc, who sat on either side of him as though they were his guards.

Nelson noticed Nathaniel first. They locked eyes, and Nathaniel was surprised to find that Nelson wasn’t cocky or even quietly full of himself with that small smirk he typically sported whenever he won – much like his leader.

Nelson turned to Ray and whispered something in his ear. Ray looked up and immediately met Nathaniel’s gaze, and the second he did, Nathaniel started to burn. When Ray flashed his cocky grin again and started to rise from his seat, it took everything in Nathaniel to keep himself from walking right up to Ray and knocking his teeth out.

He dug his nails into his palms and kept walking toward the center table, keeping his eyes forward. He only stopped when Ray stepped directly in front of him, his forehead hitting the center of Ray’s chest. He did not need to look up to know that Ray was still smiling down at him like he was nothing more than a roach underneath his nice Oxford shoes.

“ I see your boyfriend – well, I suppose he’s your ex-boyfriend now. I see that he was smart enough to come to his senses. Did the right thing for everyone and himself. So, what say you? Remember: I can make one call to your mother’s receptionist and you’re done for –”

“Go ahead and call. I don’t care anymore.” Nathaniel said plainly, sidestepping Ray, and continued on his path forward. “I don’t care about what happens to me – but you’re not going to keep torturing my friends like this just because you think it’s funny.”

Ray scoffed behind him. “Is that right?”

“Yup,” Nathaniel said, popping the p.

He turned his head toward the long table by the window where his friends sat. He caught Alya’s attention and gave her a nod. She nodded right back and pulled out her phone, aiming it right at Nathaniel.

Nathaniel drew in a sharp breath. He walked right up to the tables in the dead center of the cafeteria and ascended onto the very center table. Everyone started to turn their heads in his direction as his footsteps made the table shake and clang.

Ms. Mendeleiev, the lunchtime supervisor for the day, spotted Nathaniel from her little corner across the room and immediately started marching in his direction.

“Nathaniel Kurtzberg – get down from there!” she exclaimed.

Nathaniel paid her no mind. His eyes went around the room at all of his friends and his classmates until they found their home in Marc’s emerald green ones.

He was standing up now, stumbling toward Nathaniel through the crowd of gathering people.

Nathaniel wanted to cry, wanted to jump off the table and run to Marc at full force and take him into his arms.

But he remained firm. He drew in a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and cupped his hands around his mouth so his voice could carry better across the room.

“Hey!” he shouted. “There’s something important I need to tell you guys!”

Ray watched from behind the crowd, his arms crossed over his chest and his cocky smirk still plastered across his face.

Adrien inched closer to the table. “Nath, what’s going on? Is everything alright?”

“No, it’s not,” Nathaniel replied aloud. He gestured a hand out to Ray. “I’m sure we’re all familiar with the things our good buddy Ray here has done to us, aren’t we?”

Everyone turned their heads in Ray’s direction and glared daggers at him. He made a face at them.

“Yeah, we know ‘em,” Nino replied to the crowd. “What’d he do this time?”

Nathaniel’s eyes remained hard and steady on Ray as he spoke.

“So glad you asked – he’s been spying on us. And it’s not just him and his friends watching from another room or eavesdropping on our conversations. I mean, he’s been spying on us with cameras that he’s been hiding and moving around the school. And he’s been taking pictures and videos of us in private without us knowing.”

A collective gasp erupted from the crowd. Ray went stiff as some of the crowd started walking backward, glowering at Nathaniel. 

“What the fuck?!” Someone shouted.

“He’s been watching us?”

“What a perv!”

“-And he’s been using the photos to try and blackmail people – including me and…someone I really care about. And, Max and I have found that he and Nelson have been actually trying to edit a lot of those photos to look worse and send them to our parents and post them online.”

The crowd erupted into shock and anger again. In the blink of an eye, Kim got right in Ray’s face, grabbed a fistful of his shirt, and lifted Ray off the ground.

“Put me down, you animal!” Ray exclaimed.

“Kim, stop! Let him go!” Marinette exclaimed.

“Not until he tells me why he thinks it was a good idea to stalk and try to blackmail my friends!” Kim shouted.

“Oh, please - like I care enough about your pathetic little lives to do all of that –”

“You care enough to try and break up Kim and Ondine,” Nathaniel retorted. “And a bunch of other of our friends. And you certainly cared enough to try and break up me and my partner.”

Ray scoffed and rolled his eyes. “We went through this whole song and dance yesterday. Even if we did do half of the things you’re claiming we’ve done, you have no proof of any of it!”

“Actually, we do.”

Max shouldered through the crowd with Markov hovering close by his head. In his hand was a plastic bag with crushed-up electronic parts and a mess of wires and bits of shattered glass.

“We found these in one of the trash cans in the library,” he continued, holding up the bag. “It’s one of the cameras. Marko and I also figured out they were the unknown devices that have been trying to connect to the school’s networks over these past few weeks. They’re so cheap, they couldn’t even connect to the wifi for more than a few seconds. It’s why we just thought it was a glitch or strangers passing by and their phones trying to connect.”

“Further analysis is still required –” Markov cut in, floating over to Nathaniel. “-but so far, I have identified at least four other unknown devices that have been trying to connect to the school’s private network.”

The crowd was in an uproar. Kim lifted Ray higher off the ground as everyone started becoming increasingly agitated, yelling at the top of their lungs in anger. 

Ms. Mendeleiev tried to muscle through the crowd, shouting, “That’s enough! All of you! I will not hesitate to send all of you to detention!”

“Y-You still have no proof that it was me!” Ray stammered. “All of these are just – just baseless accusations!”

“They would be –” Max dug into his pant pocket and unfurled a crumpled-up receipt with scribbles on the back. They looked like words, but they had been warped by the wrinkles in the paper, so it was hard to see from far away. “-if you hadn't had one of your friends write this really mean note to be on the receipt.”

Every inch of Ray’s face was drained of color. He whipped his head back to the table where his friends once were, but they had already gotten up and were rushing across the opposite side of the cafeteria to make their escape. If it weren’t for Ivan blocking them and stopping them with his stony glare, they probably would have.

“The faulty lock you used to frame Zoe with,” Max continued. “The one you put up on the door to the butterfly house? That’s on here, too. It has the lowest ratings out of all the ones from the store you bought it from. Same with the camera. But I’m pretty sure you knew that.”

“And Markov found the computer you and Nelson used to make the deepfakes of us, too,” Nathaniel said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe next time, you don’t use the computers in the school’s library to commit your crimes.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Guess your friends didn’t clue you in on the privacy laws in Paris,” Alya chimed in. “It’s against the law to create deepfake images of minors, no matter what your intentions were.”

“It’s also against the law to take photos and videos of minors in a private area without expressed parental consent,” Max added. “Meaning anyone you recorded in secret can and definitely should report you, and you and your friends can be sued for it.”

“What – What about her?” Ray pointed to Alya. “She’s been recording us this entire time!”

“Alya has already received expressed consent from the school and most of the student body to record material for her Ladyblog,” Max explained.

“Which is exactly where this video is going once we’re done here!” Alya exclaimed. “But don’t worry! If it really bugs you, I can just blur you out. It’s not like it matters, though – everyone that does matter already knows who you are and what you did.”

Ray reworked his mouth, trying and failing to find the words to argue, or save himself, or something – but all that came out of his mouth was a mess of mumbling and half-arguments.

Nathaniel kept his narrowed eyes locked in on Ray, his rage burning every muscle, every nerve, every cell in his body. His hands curled into fists, and it took every ounce of energy and self-restraint to keep them cradled in his crossed arms and for his feet to remain planted on the table instead of running up and wiping that look on that smug bastard’s face himself.

And so, he stood firm.

“I’m not gonna let you do this to us anymore,” he said. “I’m so sick of hautey-tautey assholes like you coming in here and thinking you can play with people like they’re puppets! And I am so fucking sick of you asshiles getting away with it ‘cause – what? Your dad is some rich guy who rubs elbows with other rich guys? Give me a break!”

A few people from the crowd cheered in agreement. Ray audibly scoffed.

“Please – like you’re one to talk, Mr. ‘my-mom’s-a-famous-architect-with gold-lined-pockets –”

“It’s not about the money, dickhead! It’s about the fact you tried to ruin my boyfriend's and my lives just because it’s funny for you!”

Ray’s eyes blew open wide, and so did Marinette’s and a few of his other friends who picked up on what he said faster than he did once the words left his mouth.

When it had finally struck him, when he finally realized what he just admitted in front of the crowd of his half-listening classmates and friends, his eyes instantly fell on Marc, who had made his way to the front of the crowd during the commotion.

He stared up at Nathaniel, eyes and mouth wide in surprise.

Nathaniel kept his gaze on Marc, the rage that scorched him front he inside out starting to recede and morph into something softer – less like a house fire spreading through a neighborhood and instead into that of a simple candle’s flame.

Nathaniel released a long, slow sigh through his nose. His eyes never left Marc’s as he spoke again, his arms more relaxed and falling at his sides.

“I don't want people like you to keep others from being happy just because you want to,” Nathaniel continued. “They don’t deserve it, and I sure as shit don’t either. I want to be happy, and I’m not going to let you take that away from me anymore than you already have.”

He descended from the table and walked right up to Marc. He took Marc’s gloved hands in his, their fingers interlocking. Marc continued to stare, dumbfounded.

“Nath –”

“I’m not gonna make you get back together with me –” Nathaniel said, biting back the tears that pushed against the space behind his eyes. “-I know you want to keep me safe, and I know whatever Ray and Nelson are trying to blackmail you with or make up about you is really difficult and it’s hurting you a lot. And the last thing I ever want is to hurt you. But I need you to know that… no matter what happens, you are the best partner I’ve ever had. You’re the best boyfriend I’ve ever had – well, you’re the only boyfriend I’ve ever had.”

They both couldn’t help but share a small chuckle, both of them teetering on the edge of crying.

“...You’re one of my best friends in this entire world, and…no matter what happens or how things change between us, I…I–”

Nathaniel felt his throat tighten and the words start to gum up his mouth. He sucked his teeth, squeezing Marc’s hands a little harder than he had intended to. He couldn’t let it all go unsaid again, as it had so many times before.

Even if it wasn’t the end of them as a whole and just the end of them as a couple, Marc needed to know – Nathaniel needed Marc to know how much he mattered to him, how even though their time together as one was short, he still savored and adored every second they spent together.

“I…I love you, Marc. I love you so much –”

It was Marc who grabbed him by his overalls and kissed him, clinging to his straps with a vice grip. Tears streamed down his face, and Nathaniel wasn’t too far behind in that. His head spun, and his heart hammered hard against his chest, so hard he was sure the force of its pounding would crack his whole middle right open.

When Marc managed to pry himself away from Nathaniel’s face, he captured Nathaniel in a bone-breaking hug. Nathaniel could feel Marc’s heart thundering as he melted into Marc’s embrace, his chin landing on his shoulder.

“I love you too!” Marc exclaimed, grabbing handfuls of Nathaniel’s shirt.

Nathaniel couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out across his face. He buried his face in the crook of Marc’s neck, his tears and some snot staining Marc’s hoodie.

“I love you so much,” Nathaniel repeated.

“I’m sorry!” Marc sobbed. “I-I was scared, and I didn’t want you to end up hurting because of me!”

Nathaniel shushed him, rubbing gentle circles into Marc’s back.

“It’s okay. I know.” he pulled back to get a better look at Marc’s face. His mascara had completely smudged onto his cheeks and caked the corners of his eyes. “You don’t have to be scared anymore. And even if they don’t do anything about them…Well, I guess we’re just gonna have to be scared together.”

Marc chuckled. He leaned forward and pecked a kiss to Nathaniel’s lips, then pressed their foreheads together.

Nathaniel smiled. 

Even though he knew that he and Marc would probably just be high school boyfriends, destined to grow apart or break up for real later on in life as they grew and things between them changed and got more complicated – especially since there was still the matter of Nathaniel’s double life sitting on the back burner of his mind.

But he also knew right then and there that he loved Marc, and he wanted to be with Marc for as long as he could and was allowed to.

Marc’s eyes drifted to the side, his brows rising.

“What?” Nathaniel asked.

“Uh, seems like we forgot about our little audience…”

Nathaniel followed Marc’s eyes, and sure enough, there were a lot more eyes on them than there were a few moments ago.

Alya had long since lowered her phone and stopped recording, but the gaping mouth and wide eyes of her and their other friends reminded both boys that they weren’t alone. The heat from Nathaniel’s face ran all the way down to his neck.

He cleared his throat and flashed a wry smile at all of them.

“Uh…h-hey guys,” Nathaniel croaked. “Forgot you all were there for a second. Heh…”

Rose was the first to really say – or, rather, squeal – something. She clapped her hands, a grin stretching wide across her face as she ran full speed at them and enveloped them both in a bone-crushing hug. The others followed closely behind her.

“You guys!” she exclaimed, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. “I can’t believe you were dating this whole time!”

“We were wondering when you two would get together. Now we’ll be able to go on a double date!” Juleka said as she trailed behind her partner.

“Aw, man! That means I owe Kim 20 bucks!” Nino groaned. Alya elbowed him in the side. “Ow!”

Nathaniel felt his whole body unclench as more and more of his friends and some of their other classmates patted them on the back and congratulated them on their rekindled relationship. A wider smile played across his face.

“Thanks, guys. And…sorry for not telling you sooner. We — I — wanted to wait for the right time and –”

“Dude, you know you don’t have to apologize, right? We know that this is kind of a big deal for you,” Nino said.

“You didn’t feel like you had  to come out to us, did you?” Mylène asked, putting a gentle hand on Nathaniel’s shoulder. “We wouldn’t want you to feel pressured into telling us…”

Nathaniel shook his head. “No, no. I mean – I didn’t feel pressured by you guys. Not at all. We were actually talking about doing something more…personal? Something more lowkey once we started telling people in like a couple of weeks. That kinda went out the window ‘cause of all this, so I kinda had to readjust…”

“Oh, Nath…we’re so sorry,” Rose said.

“Don’t worry about it too much. It’s not your fault.” Nathaniel turned his head and nodded in the direction of Ray. “It’s mostly his.”

Ray rolled his eyes and huffed a sigh.

“Yes, yes – I was about to ruin your lives, and you’ve defeated me by making one big song and dance about it on the internet. Bravo! Now call off your brute here!”

“Kim, put him down,” Nathaniel said. “I don’t want you burying yourself in deeper shit because of all of this.”

“I’m not letting him go until he promises he’s not gonna try and pull this shit again!”

“You know he probably will, but that doesn’t mean you have to stoop lower to teach him a lesson.”

“Please, Kim. Just let him go!” Ondine pleaded from across the room.

Kim sucked his teeth and reluctantly released Ray from his grasp. Ray stumbled back on his unsteady legs. No one from the crowd came up to help him.

Ms. Mendeleiev cleared her throat, having finally worked her way through the crowd and to Marc and Nathaniel. She tried holding her head up high to maintain some level of authority, but the way her face twisted in discomfort, how stiff her arms were at her sides, and how white her knuckles were from clenching so hard – she was just barely keeping it together.

Nathaniel drew in a slow breath through his nose. He turned around to face her, trying to keep himself calm and even as he spoke.

“I know, I know. This got way out of hand,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “And if you’re here to take me to Damocles, I’ll go. But you can’t stand here and look at me and say that I’m the only one who deserves to be in there. Especially with everything we’ve just said and shown you.”

“Nathaniel –”

“If I have to go down, I want them to come with me,” Nathaniel continued, pointing at Ray and his friends. “And not to be a huge jerk about it, but I’m not gonna go quietly if they don’t.”

“And neither will we.” Marinette chimed in, hand in hand with Adrien. “Things like this – with Ray, with Lila, with Chloe – it’s been going on way too long, and we’re sick of it!”

“We’ve told you a million times about the things they’ve been doing, and you haven’t tried to stop them or even given them detention once!” Sublime shouted.

“You all said that things would be different,” Alya said, arms crossed. “We were promised that we wouldn’t have to live in fear or deal with crap like this, and now look! We’re being secretly recorded and blackmailed by three assholes who get to walk free because their parents have money in their pockets. Does that seem fair to you, Ms. Mendeleiev?”

The crowd was in an uproar again. Ms. Mendeleiev put both of her hands up and shook her head.

“Alright – Alright!” she shouted, and most of the crowd fell silent. It took her a few long minutes to speak again, but before she did, she clicked her tongue and pointed to Nathaniel. His heart jumped.

“You just…” she sighed. “Just enjoy what you can of your lunch. If I need you, I’ll come and get you.”

She put her hand down and turned on her heel in the opposite direction, marching towards Ray. 

“Raymond Pugnant, Loïc Stompet, and Nelson de Glusset – I need all three of you to come with me to see Principal Damocles. Immediately.”

Nelson and Loïc’s faces dropped in surprise, like it had been the first time in a while (or maybe ever) they'd gotten called out and been in actual trouble. Ray, however, remained as unfazed as ever. His cocky smirk even managed to worm its way back onto his face. He shrugged and shook his head. He couldn’t help but chuckle, too.

“You really think this is gonna do anything, Olga?” he taunted, narrowing his eyes at her. “The minute my father hears about this, he will ruin you. And your stupid little school will sink all the same once he stops writing those checks –”

“I’m sure we’ll survive,” Mendeleiev interrupted, putting a hand up. Her eyes took her through everyone in the crowd. “Alya, could you forward that video to Principal Damocles and I as soon as you can, please? Max, I’d like whatever you and Markov have collected on these boys as well.”

Max gave her a nod. “Right away.”

“Now, are you coming on your own, or do I need to get Mr. D’Argencourt to come up here and help me escort you to the principal’s office?”

Ray threw his hands up, lackadaisical, still smirking and smug like it was all just a game – another round of chess he would inevitably win either by using his silver tongue or his dad’s deep pockets.

“I’m coming, I’m coming…” He said, shuffling past the people in the crowd.

He kept making faces at everyone as he passed, mostly at his more sullen friends who joined him at his sides, as if to comfort them or let them know that they would make it out of the whole ordeal with so much as a flyspeck on their records.

The cafeteria was still and silent the entire time Ms. Mendeleiev led the three boys out in an almost single-file line. She led them out into the hallway, staying behind for a few moments to look at Nathaniel.

He didn’t know why she looked at him like that with those big, sad, almost puppy-dog eyes. He didn’t know if she was looking to him for recognition or pity – maybe it was some attempt at a silent apology.

He didn’t know, and frankly, he did not care. He couldn’t give her what she was looking for. He didn’t have much forgiveness for her or any of them, for that matter.

It was the same story, just a slightly different cast of characters. He could only hope that his plan and Alya’s video would rewrite some of the ending and maybe fix all the things with their school.

The second the four disappeared into the hallway, Marc’s hand slid into Nathaniel’s, and he appeared right next to him. Nathaniel couldn’t help but smile, and he squeezed Marc’s hand tight. The rest of their friends flocked to them, once again congratulating them on their relationship and making sure they were okay. That made Nathaniel’s smile grow even wider, his chest warm and fluttery. He had to take a deep breath to keep himself from crying again.

Alya stepped forward, her phone clutched tightly in her hand. Their friends grew quieter the closer she got to Marc and Nathaniel.

“Hey,” she said. “I don’t mean to interrupt here, but uh – I thought I should let you know that I did catch a little bit of the end with you –”

“Oh, oh. Uh,” Nathaniel stammered. “I-I guess I should’ve figured as much. I didn’t really plan this out too far, you know?”

“If you need me to, I can edit it out before I upload the first half to the Ladyblog –”

“If it’s not too much to ask. I know I just kind of came out to everyone in our whole school, so this’ll sound kind of stupid, but I’m not exactly looking to air my dirty laundry to all of Paris yet…”

Alya shook her head. “No worries! I wouldn’t want to put anything as sensitive as that everywhere, and never would without your permission anyway”

Nathaniel sighed and smiled softly at her. “Thank you, Alya. That means a lot.”

“Of course, Nath. Hell, it’s thanks to you that we might actually get Damocles to listen to us and get those guys out of here!”

“You sure this is gonna work though?” Nino asked. “I mean, he barely listened to us when we were telling him about all the bullshit Chloe and Lila were doing to us - and most of that shit happened right in front of his face!”

“He’s gonna have to listen if he wants to keep the lights on and the name of this place squeaky clean,” Alya said, her fists resting on her hips. “Ray’s pockets may be deep, but he’s nowhere on the level of government conspiracy and potential hostile takeover as Chloe was. The real big bucks that are keeping this place above water are from the Agreste Brand and Tsurugi Tech - and I don’t think they’d take too kindly to their heirs being recorded and having their images used without their permission.”

“There’s also a certain officer of the law who wouldn’t like that his daughter was potentially being stalked by three male classmates,” Nathaniel remarked, then muttering the rest mostly to himself. “If he ever got his head out of his ass long enough to do anything about it…”

“It’s just gonna have to be a waiting game for now,” Marc chimed in. He gave Nathaniel’s hand a tight squeeze. “But at least someone out there will know what’s been going on here and someone in here is finally trying to do something about it.”

Nathaniel shrugged at that, though he was still smiling.

Rose clapped her hands together. 

“We can think about all of that later! Right now, we wanna know all about you guys!”

Marc and Nathaniel shared a confused glance with one another.

“Uh, us?” Marc asked, arching a brow.

“Yeah, you. You guys have been dating all of this time and expect us not to ask questions. Especially since we’ve all been waiting for so damn long for the two of you to get together?” Alya said.

“No way,” Nathaniel said with a chuckle.

“Dude, if it weren’t for those two lovebirds taking up all the airtime –” Nino said, pointing to Marinette and Adrien with his thumb. “-We’d be coming up with one of those dumbass schemes to get you guys together!”

“So spill! When did it happen? Who confessed first? Or did you both do it at the same time?”

Marc couldn’t help but laugh at Rose’s questions.

“It was actually Nath who told me first. At the end of the year party.”

“Seriously? Nath confessed first?” Marinette questioned, a little too surprised for Nathaniel’s liking.

“H-Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Nathaniel exclaimed.

Marinette put her hands up. “Nothing! Nothing! It’s just…you’re not usually the type to take initiative with something that big! Honestly, when I was running around and saw you guys together, I thought Marc was the one who finally worked up the courage to ask you!”

Nathaniel’s face flushed cherry red. He turned his head away and shrugged.

“Yeah, well – sometimes things change. And I figured…you know, everyone else was getting all lovey-dovey and close, and there was all of this romantic stuff happening, so I thought that the party would’ve been a good place to tell him that I…you know?”

A collective ‘aw’ erupted from the crowd, and Nathaniel continued to duck his head down as far as he could, cursing the fact that he no longer had his old blazer’s lapels to hide behind.

Still, he found himself smiling as his friends went back and forth about how it all happened, and how Nathaniel could have possibly found the time and patience to tell Marc his feelings with all the insanity happening around them that night, all while hand in hand with his boyfriend.

It all felt so…normal again. It felt good again, and even if it was only going to be this good and normal for a few more minutes, maybe an hour if they were lucky – Nathaniel reveled in it. 

And so, he let it all play out - let the calm before the eventual storm settle over the scene for a little while longer and soak in the presence of all the people who loved him and were willing to almost instigate a riot on school property just to defend him against one tall, blonde asshole who almost made him forget that there were good people in the world, and they were all in his corner.

This way, in this brief moment of peace, he would never forget them or their love again.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

An hour and a half after Alya uploaded the video to the Ladyblog, a revolving door of parents came barging into Françoise Dupont to give Damocles an earful and for some, the numbers of their lawyers.

By the second hour after the video was posted and garnered just about half a million views, the new mayor and Roger appeared on their doorstep.

Towards the end of the school day, when they were all trying to stumble through the rest of literature class with the shouts of various family members tearing Denis’ ass in two traveling through the school, Marc received a note from a sheepish secretary from the front office letting him know that his week-long detention had been canceled entirely.

And just a few minutes after that, a mass email was sent out to the entire student body saying that everyone was free to go 30 minutes early as they dealt with “internal issues regarding their faculty and some select students,” and they were to avoid passing by Damocles’ office as they left school property.

Of course, a few of Marc and Nathaniel’s classmates tried catching a glimpse at the carnage occurring in Damocles’ office, but they were immediately turned away by the remaining faculty standing guard in the hallway.

Marc didn’t care much to take a look himself. He took off the second his class got dismissed in search of Nathaniel.

A few of his classmates got pulled out of class by their less-than-pleased parents, and he wouldn’t put it past Shirel to pluck her son out of art class and out of this subpar school once she knew the truth.

He also wouldn’t put it past her to try and separate the two of them once she knew the whole truth if Alya accidentally didn’t edit out the second half of Nathaniel’s speech/procclaimation of love to him.

So, Marc scoured the school for Nathaniel. He checked all of their usual haunts - the art room, the courtyard, their usual table in the cafeteria, the rooftop garden. He even mustered up the courage to head over to the butterfly house and see if Nathaniel was waiting for him there and a way to poetically reclaim their once sacred space that had been tainted by that horrible villain –

But then Marc remembered that a., Nathaniel was probably stuck in class the entire time, and b., they closed off the butterfly house after the incident the day before – so of course, the second he got to the fourth floor and found it closed off by the yellow tape, he knew for sure that Nathaniel was not and most likely never there.

He tried not to freak out – the last time he let himself freak out this bad, he threw out what was left of his rational thought out a seven-story window and dumped his boyfriend for a whole four hours.

But he couldn’t help himself. The past two days had been such a whirlwind, with the ground beneath him shifting left and right with every step he took. The guilt made him shake, and the absence of Nathaniel made his chest want to quake and crack open.

His footsteps grew quicker as he traveled back into the main part of the school. By then, most of his friends had either gone home or were waiting just outside on the sidewalk for the bus or a ride from their parents.

He felt his stomach start to turn.

‘Where did he go…?’

“Marc!”

Marc whipped around, his heart caught in his throat.

Max waved to him from the other side of the inner courtyard, jogging to him with Markov floating closely behind.

“Max! You’re still here?” Marc questioned, straightening his shoulders in an attempt to compose himself.

“Principal Damocles needed Markov and me to collect the rest of the cameras Ray and the others hid around the school,” Max explained. “He also wanted us to see if any of them left evidence on the school computers –”

“And let me guess - there were tons of it?”

Max shrugged. “Sort of. They were smart enough to keep whatever other photos and things he had on us on an external drive or one of his personal devices. I don’t think they’ll be keeping those hidden for much longer now that Mayor Bustier is trying to get the authorities involved…”

Marc’s brows shot up high on his forehead. “Oh, wow…”

“Yeah. They’re not messing around this time.” Max paused, then shook his head. “Anyways – we did find something, and we need to talk to you about it. It…it might have been about you.”

Marc’s stomach twisted. He swallowed hard, his throat dry as the most desolate desert in the world.

“What…what was it?” Marc rasped.

“It was a text conversation from a now-deactivated Zoo account,” Markov interjected, whirring closer to Marc. “The user claimed to be an old classmate of yours whom Nelso was attempting to contact for information regarding your past…”

Marc planted his feet hard into the ground and gripped the strap of his tie-dye messenger bag for good measure. The room was starting to spin, and Marc’s face felt flushed.

“They talked back and forth for a bit before Nelson and the other party deactivated their accounts. Markov was able to recover the conversation – but I haven’t looked at it!” Max put his hands up. “I swear! And we didn’t show anyone else! I wanted to come to you first before we showed anything to Damocles since, you know, it’s personal –”

“Delete it.”

It came out so flat and so cold that Marc didn’t even register that it was his own words, or even his own voice, until he saw the surprise across Max’s face and Markov’s screen.

He almost choked. He sucked his teeth, adjusted the strap on his shoulder again, and tried to compose himself. His cheeks burned red.

“I-I’m sorry, Max. I –” he coughed. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that. I just…I would rather it be deleted than have anyone else see it. Things for me back then were…rough, and –”

Max put a hand up. “No need for an explanation. If you want it gone, it’s gone. No questions asked.”

Marc softened a bit, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Thank you, Max. I appreciate it. And again, I’m really sorry about…whatever that was back there.”

Max nodded, relaxing a bit himself, much to Marc’s slight relief.

“It’s okay, really. No hard feelings. Markov and I will get to work getting rid of –”

“Already done!” Markov chirped, followed by a cheery ping. “I figured I would save you both from the discomfort in doing it all manually by simply erasing the evidence myself!”

Marc breathed a sigh of relief, but his chest remained tight.

“Thank you, Markov. That was very kind of you…”

“You’re welcome, Marc!”

“Marc!”

Marc whipped around, his once dower expression blossoming into a smile.

From across the way, Nathaniel stood just outside the school’s front entrance, waving and grinning big.

Marc couldn’t help but melt. He turned to give Max a quick hug and a ‘thank you’, gave Markov a gentle pat, and spun around. He full-on sprinted to meet Nathaniel at the front of the school, enveloping him in his arms and even managing to pick Nathaniel up and spin him around.

Nathaniel let out a squeak, then a laugh as Marc gazed up at him.

“There you are!” Marc exclaimed.

“H-Hey! It’s good to see you too, Rainbow!” Nathaniel said, still laughing a little.

Marc couldn’t help but grin at the nickname, especially when it was accompanied by the softness of his voice and how the afternoon sunlight crowned his head and freckled face like the halo of an angel.

“I missed you!”

“Yeah, I can tell. Can you put me down now so I can kiss you like a normal person?”

Marc smirked.

“Who says we can’t kiss like this?”

Nathaniel’s face flushed a bright red. He turned his head to the side, smiling sheepishly into his shoulder.

“You’re ridiculous…”

Marc lowered Nathaniel toward his face and pecked a kiss to his lips. Nathaniel chuckled, reaching out to cup Marc’s face, and he pulled him into a deeper and longer kiss – the kind they could have indulged in for hours if they were alone. The kind that managed to push back the sea of dark thoughts trying to pull Marc again, that felt like the first time all over again, that held Marc in a harbor of unending love and affection that he never wanted to leave.

After what had to be a good few minutes, they managed to pull away from each other, and Marc finally lowered Nathaniel to his feet.

They were so lost in each other’s eyes that they didn’t speak for the longest time. They simply stared and smiled at each other, hands intertwined.

Finally, Marc ended up breaking the silence.

“I thought you left.”

Nathaniel nodded back in the direction of the school.

“My mom’s still in there raking Damocles over the coals. And, you’ll be happy to know that – as far as I know – I am officially ungrounded and allowed to hang out with all of my friends and my lovely boyfriend again without my mom trying to tear my ass a new one!”

Marc tried not to get too excited. 

When Shirel Kurtzberg was upset, she tended to change her mind on a dime, and Marc didn’t want to get his hopes up about everything going right when the rug could be pulled out from under them at any second.

“Really?”

“Mm-hm!” Nathaniel replied with a nod. “Annnd my dad says we can hang out for a bit while they sort things out in there as long as we stay around this and the next block!”

“Wooow. They’re really letting us run wild today, huh?”

“Oh, shut up. It’s better than never seeing you again. So, you wanna get boba with me? Work on Sun Heart and Rain Piercer for the next hour or two? Or maybe just…talk for a while?”

Marc smiled warmly, squeezing Nathaniel’s hands.

“I’d love that…”

Nathaniel beamed.

“Great! Let’s get going then!”

Nathaniel moved to turn around, but Marc pulled him back toward him. Nathaniel’s brows furrowed in confusion as Marc’s smile started to falter.

“Something wrong, Rainbow?”

“I…I’m sorry,” Marc said, his eyes dropping to Nathaniel’s hands. “About earlier. About just about ending everything back there, I…I was a huge coward back there. Giving up on us like that –”

“Hey, hey,” Nathaniel cupped Marc’s face in one of his hands. “It’s okay. Ray and his friends were playing with some really personal things of ours, and you…you were just trying to protect yourself. Protect us. I can’t really be made at you for that.”

Marc’s stomach twisted again.

‘Would you say the same thing if you knew the truth?’

“Still, I…I’m sorry for throwing it away like that. You deserved a lot better than that –”

“Marc, seriously. It’s okay. I’m not mad about it. Sure, it hurt for a while after it happened, so if you want me to forgive you for that, then I forgive you. But it’s okay. We’re okay. We can talk about it, but I’m not gonna lord it over your head for the rest of our lives. Right now, all that mess is over. I forgive you, and that’s that!”

Marc chewed at a raw spot on the inside of his cheek. He had to swallow back the self-loathing that was sitting on his tongue and tried to savor whatever victory he and Nathaniel secured that day.

He still had his partner, his secrets, though it pained him to hold on to them for so long, were still safe, and – for now – Nathaniel still loved him.

And that was good enough for him.

Marc squeezed Nathaniel’s hand, leaned forward, and pecked a kiss to his cheek.

“C’mon. Let’s get boba. I’m buying.”

“Marc –”

“I’m buying us boba, and that’s that!” Marc replied with a playful smile.

Nathaniel rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say, Rainbow.”

Marc chuckled a bit as he pulled Nathaniel along and to the new and mostly mediocre boba shop the next block over, reveling in the small bit of normalcy and happiness they were allowed before Nathaniel’s parents called him back and they would have to go back to being ‘best friends’ in front of them for a while.

But Marc was fine with that.

It was fine because this time around, they had great friends, great classmates, and they had each other.

And for Marc, that was all he ever wanted.

He pants beneath the mask, like a dog, and humps the air next to you like one too.

"I said–"

"Butcher," hitched breath, low timbre. Ghost's heavy tongue slurs across your callsign in the fucked-out drawl reserved to when you ride him to tears, "Butcher, fuck– please..."

Half hard and delirious—if he were any more capable of forming words you think he'd beg for you to curl your fingers inside him. Right there, love, tha's it, don't stop... don't you fuckin' dare stop–

The mask sits crooked across his nose. You imagine his face all screwed up under that, imagine that the muscles in his jaw work hard to contain the desperation with which he keeps pleading with you and fail to do so all the same.

Ghost bucks his pelvis and almost the entirety of his lower body. His knee misses your cheek by mere millimetres—you've just about had it.

The groans and pants turn wet now, and pained. Spine arched up and towards as though he cannot decide which relief to seek; agony or touch. Ghost bends at the waist finally, away from where you kneel next to him, but your hands are as relentless as they've ever been.

Work him until the glint of tears in wide brown eyes catches your peripheral and has you scoffing.

That makes it worse, somehow, if the completely out-of-it state of him could even get like that.

"Fuck's sake, Simon, if you don't hold still already…," you trail off, wrist tight with the effort to keep the angle that ceases the bleeding while he writhes to and way from you. He keens at the sound of his name, all of him drawn taut before that, too, snaps.

(Ebb and flow, a familiar tide set out to drown you all the same.

An ocean cannot escape its nature. Why had you ever assumed he could?)

He isn't really listening anymore, you can tell by the amount of blood coating your hands, seeping into your sleeves slick and heavy. Your lungs fill with the stench of it, iron and salt at the back of your throat. Ghost's movements grow sluggish right as you think that, maybe, this can be salvaged.

Fuck it, you think, and your legs move before you can stop yourself. thrown unceremoniously over his middle before you bracket his hips, knees stretched apart and no longer touching the grimy safehouse floorboards.

He goes infinitely more slack with the weight of it. You, hips flush to him like so many times before. An image worth reminiscing about—overshadowed completely when you force two fingers right into the depth of his torso. Seeking, applying enough pressure to allow your free hand to procure a roll of gauze from your pack. No more flailing around.

Later, when you sit alone in the infirmary and file away each of his noises for later times and and a dark bedroom, you will tell yourself it was a purely medical decision, that you needed to make sure he would stay awake right there, beneath the weight of you on him.

(The truth is uglier than that; more devout. You like taking him apart, like that he delivers himself into your hands time and time again.

That he is so willing to bear the meathook you cleave into his flesh if it doubles as the needle crafting his sutures.

The taste of him isn't much different from this memory.)

"See how easy that was? Behaving yourself?"

You can't help but give the hard outline of his cock a teasing swivel of your hips as you peel yourself off his broad thighs. He moans in anguish at both the contact and subsequent loss of it. And he nearly growls when your two finger retreat methodically from the wound in his flank and return almost immediately with a hard push, push, push.

It must feel somewhat hellish against the bruised and broken ribs laughing up at you from his deathly pale chest, all this movement, but you have the hole in his flank to tend to, the one gushing blood even against the white cloth you press into it.

The gauze is rudimentary first aid at best, and too bright in your narrowed field of vision but your last AAJT went to a Private evaced hours ago. This is all you have—and if the pleading groans coming from below you are anything to go by, you aren't the only one falling into a natural rhythm.

You are a creature of habit just like him, the routine of your hands in him and his hands in you and you on him and him all over you is nothing if not that; practiced and familiar and always reoccurring. It will not differ this time around. It can't.

(But it does, no?

A final round of prayer. Are you not tired of hiding behind your own altar?

You've seen Simon come apart beneath you before, willingly—lamb to slaughter, to surgery, to salvation. Are you sure this isn't what an ending looks like?

... can you be?)

With everything that has happened to Ghost?

The whine he lets out as you brush your bare digits across the flayed edge of the wound just this once, for him—because it's him, because you cannot deny him when he sounds so close and so broken, even when it makes no sense to you—is a balm to the evil voice in your head.

Marc didn’t remember when or how he ended up at Marinette’s place.

One minute, Nelson was confronting him outside of the boy’s bathroom with photos of him and Nathaniel and some texts from a few of his old classmates about him and his ex; the next, he was being escorted up to Marinette’s room with leftover danishes and tea.

He felt bad for intruding on her and Zoe’s study session, but he couldn’t stop himself from collapsing into a puddle of tears on Marinette’s little couch. He felt especially guilt-ridden after he finally managed to get his story out through all of his blubbering and ended up leaving Zoe fuming and pacing the room.

“Those fucking dickheads!” she exclaimed, slapping her pencil case off of Marinette’s desk as she spun around for her fifth lap of stomping back and forth. “I can’t believe they would stoop so low! Actually, you know what? I can believe it, because it’s fucking Ray!”

Zoe let out another aggravated yell. It made Marc shake, and he couldn’t help but hug his knees tighter to his chest. He slowly started to rock back and forth in a futile attempt to soothe himself. He dragged his sleeve across his wet face, but more tears ran down as a shuddering breath escaped him.

“H-He said i-if we didn’t help them –” he sniffled loudly. “ - And if we didn’t break up, they’d hurt Zoe and the others, and they’d, they’d leak the photos and, and send them to Nath’s parents…”

“That fucking sicko!” Zoe exclaimed.

“Zoe!” Marinette scolded, crouching down next to Marc and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Marc. We’re not going to let them do this to you, or Nate, or anybody else! We…We can go to the Principal – and Sabrina’s dad!”

Zoe scoffed, loud and bitter. “Oh, please. Ray could drag around a corpse right in front of their eyes, and they wouldn’t bat an eye! Shit, they’d probably find a way to blame Marc and Nath for it.”

Marc clamped a hand over his mouth to stop the broken sob that erupted from his throat. A tidal wave of shame crashed over him, and it was already trying to pull him deep under.

It was naive of him to have so much hope; to believe that Paris would be any different than his life back in the country, and it was stupid of him to think he could ever be happy with Nathaniel without…

Without it coming back to bite him…

He thought he was being careful and safe when he purged every last one of his old social media accounts and made new ones, being extra sure to keep everything private and block every single one of his old classmates that popped up in his recommendations.

He was so sure that none of them would’ve given a shit about him after he left. And he was certain that Maël wouldn’t want anything to do with him or anything surrounding him –

But that was just wishful thinking on his part.

“What am I supposed to do?” Marc hid his face in his hands. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. And I don’t want to break up Nath either – I love him!”

“We know,” Marinette said, rubbing circles into Marc’s back. “We’re sorry that you guys couldn’t tell us on your time…What they’re doing is cruel, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure they don’t get away with this.”

Marinette wrapped her arms around Marc and pulled him close to her chest for a hug. Zoe, after exhaling most of her fury through her nose, came to Marc’s other side and did the same, tucking his head underneath her chin.

They sat like this for what felt like forever, with Marc quietly sobbing into Marinette’s shirt while the girls held him tight.

A soft knocking came to Marinette’s door. The trio’s heads perked up, and Marc could see that only a handful of minutes had passed instead of the hours he assumed he’d lost.

“Marinette,” her mother called. “You have another visitor!”

“Now’s not really a good time, Mom,” Marinette said back.

“I don’t know – I really think you should come down and see who it is.”

Marinette’s face scrunched up in confusion and mild annoyance. She stood and walked to the little trapdoor. She threw it open, and a head of bright ginger hair and freckles popped up into the room. Marinette fell back on her hands with a yelp.

“Nate!” Marinette exclaimed.

“Is Marc here? I thought I saw him come this way…” he asked, his head whipping around the room until he locked eyes with Marc. His face lit up. “Marc!”

Nathaniel shot up into the room and scrambled across the floor – almost like he was a feral animal. He lunged at Marc and pulled him into his embrace. Marc, in turn, grabbed at his shirt and overalls with a white-knuckle grip, as if letting his fingers go slack for a single second meant he would lose his partner forever.

“Natty…,” Marc whimpered, burying his face in the crook of Nathaniel’s neck. “I-It’s awful. I-I’m sorry –”

“No, no. You don’t have to be sorry for anything. We’re gonna figure this out, okay?”

“How?”

“We’ll go back to school, find those stupid cameras, and take them to the cops! Or, leave them out for Ladybug, or one of the Miraculars to find so they can deal with them!”

Zoe shot up from her spot on the floor, excited.

“Yeah -Yeah! Let’s do that! Mari, you and Alya are pretty close with Ladybug, right? Why don’t you call her up and have her come by to help? She can even come with us to the police station –  then Roger’ll have to listen to us and do something about this!”

Marc’s head perked up. The shame and guilt that had been trying to drown him slowly started to recede, but just as quickly as it started to recede, it rolled back in when he saw the hesitance on Marinette’s face. She went stiff.

“I-I don’t know, guys. How do we know that Ray and the others haven’t already taken the cameras down? Or deleted the photos from their phones and moved them somewhere else?”

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Zoe said. “If we’re wrong, we’ll figure something else out! Let’s just go to the school, do a quick sweep, and if we don’t find anything, then we call Ladybug!”

Marinette opened her mouth to say something, but Zoe was already getting her things and heading for the door. Nathaniel held out a hand to Marc.

“Let’s give it a shot, yeah? Figure it out together,” he said, with a small and hopeful smile starting to tug at the corner of his mouth.

Marc hesitantly reached for his partner’s hand. Maël’s voice poked at him from the back of his mind.

‘Why don’t you tell him about us, Marc? Why don’t you tell him what you did?’

Marc’s hand trembled, and he recoiled. Nathaniel’s brows arched in surprise.

“Are you okay?” Nathaniel asked slowly.

Marc swallowed hard. He forced his hand to grab Nathaniel’s despite his vicious shaking, and he made his head nod and his lips curl into the most convincing smile he could muster.

“Y-yeah,” Marc finally choked out. His mouth was dry as a desert. “Just…Just feeling a lot right now.”

Nathaniel nodded in understanding. “I know. All of this is a lot. But there’s hope. Ray hasn’t won yet. He always overestimates the success of his own plans. We just gotta find out where he’s hiding those cameras.”

Nathaniel squeezed Marc’s hand. Marc gave a half-hearted squeeze in return. Nathaniel pulled him to his feet and gathered their things, moving to follow Zoe out of the room. Marinette let out an exasperated sigh but followed behind the others.

“Mom! We’ll be back!” she called as they descended the stairs and started walking out the door.

Guilt gripped Marc again, digging its claws deeper into his chest.

If they knew what Nelson was lording over him, if they knew the ‘truth’ about him, would they still want to help him? Would Nathaniel still proudly hold his hand and march into battle with him if he found out about Maël and everything that happened back then?

Would Nath still love him after he realized what a ‘perverted coward’ he was? The one they tried to make him out to be?

Marc shook his head and tried to banish the thought from his mind.

Nathaniel and the others wouldn’t have to reevaluate anything; they wouldn’t have to see the messy mosaic that was Marc’s past because Marc would make sure they would never hear a single word about any of it.

They were going to stop Ray and his posse before they ever got the chance to ruin the beautiful and real thing he was building with Nathaniel.

He refused to let them ruin his relationships with the lies that tried to drown him so long ago.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

The butterfly house always closed an hour after school let out on Thursdays, so it was no surprise when the group arrived to find the doors locked and an additional electronic padlock holding it shut.

“Do you see anything that might look like a camera in there?” Zoe asked, arms crossed over her chest as her eyes scanned the greenery beyond the iron-wrought bars.

Marinette stood on her tiptoes to get a better view of the inside. Her head bobbed up and down, and she squinted her eyes as hard as she could as she searched the inside.

“Nothing from here,” she replied with a sigh.

“I thought I heard one when I was leaving down the stairs,” Nathaniel said, pointing toward the staircase with his thumb. “I can check around there.”

“And Marc and Mari can check the rest of the hallway,” Zoe said. Her eyes remained on the inside of the butterfly house. “I’ll keep looking around here and see if I find anything.”

“You sure, Zo? One of us can help you out. It’s fine with us…”

Zoe waved them off, shaking her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got this covered. You guys go on ahead! We don’t have a lot of time here!”

The other three exchanged hesitant glances as Zoe went around the butterfly house in search of a camera, or perhaps another way inside.

Marinette turned her attention to Marc, nudging his side and beckoning him to come close. Nathaniel leaned in close as well.

“You take the left, and I’ll take the right,” she whispered. “Just so I can keep a close eye on her.”

Both boys nodded in agreement. The group dispersed to their self-assigned spots on the floor. Marinette stayed close to the right side, where Zoe started to linger. Nathaniel immediately went for the staircase while Marc stayed to the left side of the outer hallways, searching along the walls and the ceiling for even the smallest hint of a secret camera or recording device. Maybe the glint of a lens, or even an impression made in the dust built up in the corner to let him know that something was there and watching them.

But his eyes couldn’t help but drift back to Zoe as she pulled on the bars of the door in search of a weak spot.

He knew Zoe and Ray had a history of some kind that went back to her time living in New York. He wasn’t sure how bad things were – she didn’t like to go into detail about her life before Paris, and Ray was an especially sore spot she didn’t want to pick at unless she had to.

No one ever pushed. Marc most definitely did not try to pry any secrets out of her; with the amount of secrets he was holding close to his chest, he didn’t really have the right to go and look at his friends’.

But something was…off with Zoe. The boiling rage that seemed stuck to her and burned hotter than his and Nathaniel’s combined, the red-tinted tunnel vision that refused to leave without something to crush within her fist and plop it down on Principal Damocles’ doorstep, the newfound aggression…

Maybe he was just way too much of a passive doormat. Maybe everything that Ray had done just hadn’t hit him yet, and he was simply coasting on this feeling of superficial sadness until the other shoe finally dropped, but…

The person fluttering around the corner of his vision wasn’t the Zoe Lee he had come to know. It wasn’t the girl with the funky shoes who seldom swore and didn’t seem to have a single wrathful bone in her body –

Or, maybe it was. Maybe it was the part of her from New York and all the years she had to deal with Ray and his revolving door of cronies unlocking that box, sparking a long simmering rage that was sleeping inside of her –

…Maybe he was blowing this all out of proportion.

He turned back around to continue to search for evidence. He got on his knees and searched the floor. When he didn’t find anything there, he continued to feel around the walls and search the ceiling. He checked the elevator shaft, hanging off the bars and dangerously close to the long drop right under him.

His heart thumped hard against his ribcage and drummed loudly in his ears. His eyes traveled up and down, scanning the intricate iron-work patterns, yet once again coming up empty-handed.

He quickly swung his legs back over to the safety of the fourth floor with a defeated sigh. He turned towards the staircase and caught a glimpse of Nathaniel, scrutinizing the top left corner of the wall at the very bottom of the first set of stairs. He walked over to the staircase, descended the stairs, and came up behind Nathaniel.

He was still too busy scowling at nothing to notice Marc inching closer behind him.

Marc smirked playfully. He leaned forward, pursed his lips, and blew a puff of air to the nape of Nathaniel’s neck. Nathaniel shivered and jumped with a yelp. He spun around; Marc couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

Nathaniel huffed. His cheeks were a bright red, but there were also the inklings of a smile trying to pull at the corners of his lips.

“Not. Funny,” Nathaniel said, struggling to remain deadpan.

Marc giggled into his hand. “Sorry, sorry! I just thought you could use a break…”

Nathaniel sighed. His face fell back into a frown.

“There’s nothing here. I know I heard something when I left, I swear! But I can’t find anything! He’s been here – I know he has! I swear to God –”

“Hey, hey –” Marc cupped Nathaniel’s face in his hands and guided his face to meet his eyes. “Breathe…It’s like you said; Ray’s been caught doing this stuff before. Even if we don’t find anything here, we might find a clue somewhere else…”

Nathaniel hummed, mumbling to himself. “Yeah…I hope so.”

Marc’s smile grew tight. ‘I hope so, too…’

“Hey, I…I need to tell you something.”

Marc’s stomach flipped, and his heart skyrocketed into his throat. The voices crept back into his ears.

‘He knows.’

‘He knows what you did.’

‘He knows you’re just a pervert…’

Marc forced his head to nod. His stomach clenched as he tried to force the simple word out of his mouth.

“Okay.”

Nathaniel grabbed both of Marc’s clammy hands and held them up and close to his lips.

“You mean a lot to me. You mean way too much to me to let go of what we have just because some blonde douche bag said so.”

Marc’s brows arched in surprise.

“No matter what happens – no matter what Ray or anyone else does, or tries to do – I’m not leaving you for anything.”

“But, Nath – he’s gonna tell your parents. He’s gonna tell your mom –”

“I don’t care!” Nathaniel exclaimed, though, by the tremble of his hands and his voice, he cared a lot. “If she has a problem with it, she can sit and fucking rotate! This – you and me, together – it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. When I’m with you, it feels like…Like I can finally be myself, you know? And I feel safe with you, and happy with you! Like genuinely happy!”

Marc’s stomach twisted into taut ropes. He wanted to fall into Nathaniel’s arms and cry about how much he adored being with Nathaniel. How their partnership, their friendship, and now their new relationship dug him out of a dark hole he got buried in. How being with Nathaniel – as dramatic as it might have sounded – made him believe in love again. Made him believe that he could be loved by someone the way Nathaniel loved him…

But his secrets said otherwise, and his lies were right behind him, holding the shovel and waiting to put him 6 feet back under.

“N-Nate –”

“Marc, you… You mean a lot to me and I…I –”

“What are you boys doing up here?”

Marc and Nathaniel whipped their heads to the right of the landing just as Principal Damocles, Ms. Mendeleiev, and the devil himself rounded the corner to ascend the next set of stairs. Ray already had a shit-eating smirk on his face, and Nathaniel couldn’t stop his face from twisting into a scowl.

“You–”

“Boys, what’s going on here?” Principal Damocles asked, taking a step forward. “You know the butterfly house is closed at this time.”

“It’s as I said – they’re trying to break in to engage in their weird little ‘escapades’”, Ray said, still smirking and staring both Marc and Nathaniel dead on.

Ms. Mendeleiev shot Ray a look of disgust before turning her attention back to Marc, noticeably tenser than usual. Her brows knitted tightly together, as slightly pleading with Marc for it all to be the lie they knew it was.

Marc immediately shook his head. “No! That’s not true at all!”

“Whatever Ray told you is a lie!” Nathaniel exclaimed, pointing to the boy in question. Ray remained unfazed. “We’re only here because he’s been trying to blackmail us!”

“I haven’t the slightest clue as to what you could mean –”

“Oh, cut the crap! We know what you’re trying to do, and we know you came back here and took down the cameras!”

“Cameras? What cameras?” Damocles questioned, turning to Ray.

Ray threw his hands up. “Once again – I have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.”

“He’s lying!” Nathaniel shouted, taking a step forward.

“Nath, calm down –”

A loud thunk and a metallic clang echoed from up the stairs. Everyone whipped around. Ms. Mendeleiev and Principal Damocles pushed past the others to investigate. The boys followed suit.

“What happened?” They heard Marinette exclaim, panicked.

“I-I don’t know!” Zoe stammered. “I just grabbed it, and it fell apart in my hands, I –”

“What is the meaning of this?!”

The boys could barely see over Damocles' broad shoulders. Once they managed to muscle through the two teachers, Marc’s heart fell into the pit of his stomach, and his mouth gaped open like a fish out of water. So did Nathaniel’s.

Zoe was on her knees. The electric padlock that was on the door had been reduced to pieces in her hands, bits of shrapnel scattered across the floor in front of her. Her eyes were wide and frantic, darting from person to person until they landed on Ray – where they darkened with rage. Tears started to prick at the corners of her eyes. Marinette crept out from the far corner, slowly turning her head to face with equal shock and panic.

“Zoe, what –”

“Wait, no! I didn’t –”

“Wooow, Zoe,” Ray said, pushing past the others and walking right up to her. “Guess you haven’t changed much since New York. Though I’ve gotta say – this is a new low, even for you. I mean – dragging your friends along to destroy school property. How sad…”

“That’s enough, Ray!” Ms. Mendeleiev exclaimed, her voice tight and teetering on the edge of a shout. “You’re not helping!”

“Miss Lee, I need you and your friends to come with me to my office. Immediately,” Damocles said, stepping forward. “We’ll be contacting your parents to get this issue sorted –”

“Wait!” Zoe shot up from her spot on the floor. “They had nothing to do with this! It was my fault!”

Marc whipped his head at Zoe. “Wait, no – that’s not true!”

“It is true!” Zoe shot him a look. “It was all my fault! I dragged them into this. They didn’t want to, but I made them come with me! They didn’t do anything wrong! Please, don’t punish them –”

“Ms. Lee.” Damocles raised a hand to stop her from speaking further. “While I appreciate your honesty and your willingness to defend your friends – there are still questions to be answered, and I need someone here to give me a clear idea of what happened here today. Now, if you would all follow me, please.”

Ray rolled his eyes, but he still couldn’t help but smirk to himself as he happily followed behind Damocles down the stairs. He couldn’t weasel his way out of this one, not if he wanted to keep up with his crappy, unassuming do-gooder schtick to save face.

Zoe slowly shuffled after them. She kept her eyes down at her colorful sneakers.

From that alone, Marc knew that it was all over.

<- Previous Part

Nathaniel didn’t expect so much to change between him and Marc when they finally got together and made things official.

He always tried to keep his expectations at a reasonable level when it came to his feelings and his relationship with Marc – it was his first ever relationship with anyone, let alone another boy, after all. 

Nathaniel tried his best to never let the fairytale scenarios and romantic movie scenes that often inspired their work override the reality they were ultimately stuck in. He didn’t try to tread unfamiliar waters, didn’t try to push boundaries, nor venture too far past the hand-holding and lingering hugs they shared in public once things became more intimate between them. He tried not to read too much into the longing looks Marc gave him from across the halls, or the cafeteria, or just a few feet away from Nathaniel, sitting cross-legged in his bed while they worked on their comics together…

Even when he managed to stutter out his confession at the end of the year party after the countless roadblocks and akuma shenanigans, Nathaniel couldn’t help but try to hurt his own feelings before Marc ever could. He reminded himself that Marc could always say no. There could have been someone else Nathaniel never even met who did a better job at keeping Marc’s gaze than he ever could. There could have always been a chance that it would all fall apart before Nathaniel finished his sentence –

But the second Marc said yes, and their lips collided under the fireworks at the end of the night, realism went out the window, and everything shifted.

They weren’t just Marc and Nathaniel – best friends and Françoise Dupont’s local comic creators. They were Marc and Nathaniel – partners, best friends, storytellers, artists, comic creators, heroes (though neither of them really knew about that part yet), boyfriends –

The door had opened, the line crossed, and things weren’t the same anymore – but, in a good way. In an honest way, where they didn’t have to dance around those longing looks or accidental touches. Where they could get a lot in each other’s eyes without trying to guess what any of it meant. Where going to a cafe or sitting by La Seine to draw and talk weren’t just ‘hanging out’ but dates. Where they could just be, and laugh, and talk, and love, and kiss –

Kissing. That was a whole other ballgame that caught Nathaniel completely by surprise, more than becoming a full-time hero did.

And it had quickly become his favorite surprise.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

It was halfway through lunch before Nathaniel saw Marc again. He thought once they got together, he wouldn’t be searching for Marc everywhere, but that couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

Marc occupied Nathaniel’s thoughts 24/7. He searched for him in every room and could hardly sit still in class nowadays without staring at the clock and waiting for the bell to ring so he could bolt out of the room and see his boyfriend again.

The only things that managed to keep his attention were his art and the rest of his friends, and thankfully, on this day, Mylène and Rose were there to help on both of those fronts.

“We’re looking for something a little softer and dreamy – like Sun Heart and Rain Piercer, but also a little more like…?” Mylène’s eyes searched the lunch table for the words. She exchanged a glance with Rose, hoping she had an answer.

“Just like the drawings you did for Marinette!” Rose cheerfully exclaimed. “You know, the storybook ones for her Knight-In-Shining-Armor party scheme?”

Nathaniel tried to hide his grimace. While their party-crashing plan wasn’t their best moment or idea, he got some pretty good art style practice and two really nice illustrations that still hung in some elegant photo frames above his desk.

“Yeah,” Nathaniel agreed with a nod, excitement already building in his chest at the idea of getting to start a new fantasy art project. It’s always been one of his favorite genres. “I can do that, yeah!”

“Are you sure? We don’t want to dump all of this work on you so soon! We don’t even know if they’ll pick up our idea for the Spring play.” Mylène said

Nathaniel waved off the concern. “Don’t worry about it! If anything, it’ll be good practice for me! I haven’t drawn in that style since then. I wanna see if I’ve gotten any better!”

“I’m sure they’ll turn out great, Nath!” Rose cheered, clapping her hands together. “You’ve always been a great artist! We’ll be happy just to see all the awesome ideas you draw out!”

Nathaniel could hardly hide the sheepish smile on his lips or the blush that bloomed across his face at her words.

“Aw. Thanks, Rose. That means a lot –”

“Excuse me.”

Nathaniel’s face erupted into a wildfire at the sound of Marc’s voice and the tap of his painted finger on Nathaniel’s shoulder. He whipped his head around eagerly, his cerulean eyes trailing up to meet Marc’s brilliant green ones, and the near ear-to-ear smile stretched across his face.

“Hi,” Nathaniel said with an almost dreamy kind of sigh.

“Hi there,” Marc said back, chuckling.

“Hey, Marc! Haven’t seen much of you today!” said Rose.

“Sorry about that. I’ve just been caught up with this group project for Ms. Mendeleiev.” Marc’s eyes went over the two. “I’m sorry – Am I interrupting something?”

“Not at all! We were just seeing if Nate could help us with our pitch for this year’s Spring play!” Mylène explained.

“Did you need something, Rai - uh, ah – Marc?”

Marc folded his hands behind his back, slowly rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, his mouth fighting against the giddy grin trying to break out across his face.

“I was just wondering if I could steal you away for a lil’ bit? I need to talk to you about our ideas for the next arc of Sun Heart and Rain Piercer…”

Rose let out an excited squeal as she and Mylène grabbed each other’s hands and exchanged looks of elation, not noticing Marc’s right hand going to hold his left arm, or the knowing glance he was giving Nathaniel out of the corner of his eye. 

Nathaniel’s heart knocked hard against his chest. He shot up from his chair, the legs screeching against the floor. The girls whipped their heads back to him. His freckled face burned in embarrassment. He tried to paint on an unassuming smile as he scooped up his messenger bag and turned to Marc.

“Yup! Mmhm! We can talk! You wanna head to the art room?”

Marc nodded happily.

Nathaniel turned back to the girls. “Sorry to cut this short –”

Mylène waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it! You guys focus on your story. We can’t wait to see what you do for the next act!”

Nathaniel gave her a thumbs-up. Marc gingerly grabbed Nathaniel’s wrist and started pulling him along.

“I’ll send you the Pinterest board we have after class!” Rose said.

“And I’ll start the sketches once you do!” Nathaniel called back as he and Marc made their way out of the cafeteria.

They walked casually through the halls side by side, occasionally greeting their classmates and other friends they passed by. Nathaniel kept his free hand firmly around the strap of his bag. Marc seemed to be doing the same, his other hand never moving from Nathaniel’s wrist.

They arrived right outside the art room. They lingered just outside the doorway, taking a peek at the other handful of students on the inside, hanging out and working on their own projects at the other tables and benches.

They watched them for a few seconds, waited for the hallway to be mostly empty, and then turned to look at each other.

Smiles broke out across both their faces. They grabbed each other’s hands and took off running in opposite directions in a flurry of laughter.

They turned the corner and ascended the staircase to the Butterfly House on the fourth floor of the school.

It was the only spot on campus that was mostly empty at lunch, thanks to the ‘No Food or Drink Inside’ rule. It was especially desolate on Thursdays, since Thursdays were literature and arts-heavy class days.

Their speedy footsteps echoed around the stairwell (they never took the elevator. Too slow, too open, and too many chances for people to spot them), only being drowned out by their rising laughter.

They reached the fourth floor. Nathaniel did a quick scan of the space around the butterfly house to ensure their privacy, but was interrupted by Marc running ahead and pulling Nathaniel through the double iron-wrought doors.

The loud clang of the doors colliding and their boisterous laughter sent a flurry of the colorful little insects into a frenzy, darting and fluttering away to the very top of the greenhouse as the boys stumbled inside.

Their giddiness persisted. Nathaniel’s cheeks ached as if they were about to turn purple from how much he was smiling. He reached his pointer finger up to Marc’s peachy, shimmering lips and shushed him. Marc reached up his finger and did the same, shushing Nathaniel while giggling.

They continued back and forth like that until Nathaniel clamped both his hands over Marc’s mouth. Their laughs stopped. Nathaniel’s smile slowly started to fall as he became lost in the layers of green in Marc’s eyes, framed by his electric blue and red eyeshadow. They suddenly dropped down and lingered on Nathaniel’s lips.

Nathaniel couldn’t help but smirk at that. Guess he wasn’t the only impatient one.

His hands slowly moved from Marc’s mouth to cup his face. He smiled, warmth blooming through his chest and around his fluttering heart.

Marc smiled back, and Nathaniel’s heart damn near exploded out of his chest. Marc closed the gap between them and pressed his lips to Nathaniel’s. That set every inch of Nathaniel alight, and he couldn’t stop himself from melting into a puddle.

Kissing was something Nathaniel didn’t expect to become so obsessed with. He could never tell if it was his mind trying to save him and hide the fact that he was actually a terrible kisser, or all the fairytales and rom-coms and shojo manga making him feel extra fuzzy about it everytime they did, or – maybe it was just because it was Marc, and he adored Marc with every fiber of his being – but ever since their first kiss, Nathaniel was left buzzing for more.

No matter how short or long, whether to each other’s lips, hands, cheeks, foreheads, hair – Nathaniel was always left wanting more. He could drown in floods of Marc’s kisses, and it still wouldn’t be enough.

When they were like this, it was magic; lightning caught in a bottle, a once-in-a-lifetime event, akin to seeing the Northern Lights or an ancient comet flying across a starry sky.

Kissing Marc, being with Marc, Marc himself – they were all things Nathaniel couldn’t get enough of, and couldn’t foresee getting old for him.

Snap!

Nathaniel’s eyes shot open, and he broke their kiss, pulling away from Marc. His head spun around the butterfly house, going up and down to find the source of the noise.

“Something wrong?” Marc asked.

Nathaniel didn’t answer right away. His eyes continued to travel around the greenhouse for signs of other human life, but all he found were frightened, fluttering insects.

“Hey,” Marc repeated, guiding Nathaniel’s attention back to him. “What’s wrong?”

Nathaniel stared dumbly at Marc for a few seconds, opening and closing his mouth as he searched for the words.

“I thought…I thought I heard something – someone,” he finally replied.

Marc’s brows shot up high on his forehead. He turned his head left and right, doing his own quick scan of the floor before he eventually came back to Nathaniel and gave a shrug.

“I don’t see anyone,” Marc replied. “If you want, we can stop.”

“Only if you want to.”

“I asked you first,” Marc replied with an awkward chuckle.

“A-Ah,” Nathaniel couldn’t help but put his head back on a swivel to search for the shuttering sound.

‘That couldn’t have been a butterfly…’

Marc hummed. He leaned forward and pecked a kiss on Nathaniel’s cheek. Nathaniel turned his head back to Marc and found him smiling warmly at him.

“We don’t have to keep going,” Marc said, taking Nathaniel’s hands in his, and he brought them close to his chest.

“You sure?” Nathaniel pressed, pouting a tiny bit.

Marc nodded, pressing a few small kisses to Nathaniel’s knuckles. “Those were the rules. Plus, lunch is about to end in a couple of minutes anyway.”

Nathaniel dug in his overall pockets for his phone, and before he could confirm Marc’s suspicion, the five-minute warning bell sounded through the hallway. The butterflies shuddered at the hard sound, and they darted out of sight.

Nathaniel sighed. “Crap. Sorry, Rainbow. I should’ve come looking for you earlier…”

Marc shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. We were both busy, both lost track of time. It’s not a big deal.’

“Do you wanna try again tomorrow?

Marc shook his head. 

“I can’t. I really need to finish this project with Aurore tomorrow –”

“Then what about Saturday? We can go out, catch a movie or –”

“Nath!” Marc captured Nathaniel’s face between his hands, an airy laugh escaping him as he booped their noses together. “Relax! I can go a day or two without kissing or meeting up like this all the time. It’s not gonna kill me or anything…”

Nathaniel bit down on his lower lip to stop himself from saying he might just keel over without Marc.

He wanted to cringe at how insane he was being. Is this what real love does to people? Made them insanely enamored and obsessed with their partners to the point of needing them around at all times, lest you combust from the lack of affection?

Nathaniel almost shuddered at his own thought; he was starting to sound like one of the characters from the cheesy romance manga he and Marc liked to read together.

Worse still, he was starting to sound like Marinette.

“Naaaaathhh…,” Marc called him back to Earth with his sing-song voice.

Nathaniel sighed,  his face softening into a smile. “You’re right… You’re right, I’m – I’m sorry…”

“It’s fine, Nath,” Marc said softly. “If I’m not busy this weekend, we can go out. If that offer still stands–?”

“Yes!” Nathaniel paused and cleared his throat. “I mean – yeah. Sure. Whatever’s cool with you.”

The second bell rang. Both boys exchanged looks of surprise and slight terror.

“Shit!”

The boys grabbed their things off the floor and raced out of the door. Nathaniel went for the stairs. Marc dashed for the elevator on the opposite end of the hallway.

Before they descended, they spun back around to face each other. Nathaniel felt his face burn bright red again. Marc turned his own shade of scarlet. He put up a hand and gave Nathaniel a small wave. He took two fingertips, pressed them to his lips, and blew Nathaniel a small kiss.

Nathaniel’s heart fluttered wildly inside his chest; he was sure his face was as red as his hair by then.

He caught Marc’s kiss with his free hand and held it close to the center of his chest, letting his giddy grin break out across his freckled face.

“See you,” Marc said. It was almost too soft for Nathaniel to hear it over the sound of the iron-wrought elevator doors starting to shut.”

“S-See you,” Nathaniel stammered, the second part of the message getting stuck in his throat as Marc descended in the elevator. ‘I love you.’

He hasn’t been able to say it since he first confessed to Marc months back. Every time he’s tried to since, the words either died halfway up his throat or gummed up his mouth before they even made it through his teeth.

He did love Marc – he loved him more than anything, and it killed Nathaniel that he couldn’t tell him that in the way he wanted to, the way Marc deserved to hear and know that he loved him.

He would have to figure out what to do about that later. Once he watched Marc disappear completely, he turned on his heel and bolted down the stairs to his last classes, brushing off another odd snapping sound that flew past his ears.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

The first photo came in at the end of the day.

Nathaniel was at his locker, gathering up his things. His ears were still ringing from the verbal lashing Mr. D’Argencourt gave him when he stumbled into the gym almost fifteen minutes late with his gym clothes in utter disarray and only one of his approved workout shoes on, so he didn’t hear when the first notification from Zoo came in. Or the second shortly after.

But, around the fourth, fifth, and maybe even the sixth ping, Nathaniel huffed, annoyed, and dug his phone out of his front overall pocket. He figured it must have been Mylène and Rose sending the references and inspo boards for their play concept, so he didn’t pay too much attention when he opened the message.

It wasn’t until he threw the rest of his art supplies into his bag that he managed to look at his phone for more than a split second and felt his heart fall from his chest into the deep pit of his stomach.

There were eight photos in total – six were from that day, with them kissing in the butterfly house, and two blurred ones of them on the rooftop garden together, just a few weeks after school started.

Every inch of Nathaniel’s body grew cold. Before his brain could process what it all meant, a new message appeared at the bottom.

You two should really be more careful.

Nathaniel’s eyes darted to the icon, and he went to search the account, but found nothing. No photos, no followers, and no one following them back. Not even a carbon copy username.

“What the fuck…” he muttered, whipping around to search for the culprit.

Lucky – or, perhaps unlucky for him, he didn’t have to look very far.

He was immediately greeted by the beige and blue wall that was Ray’s chest. His phone was in his hands and brazenly open on the text conversation from the blank account. It even zoomed in on one of the photos of Nathaniel and Marc kissing.

Nathaniel went from cold to hot in a matter of seconds. He glared up at Ray, who returned his building fury with a sly, almost taunting smirk.

“Of fucking course it was you…,” Nathaniel hissed.

“You know, you both ought to learn to keep it down when you go on your little ‘escapades’, Ray said, holding his phone up and shoving the screen into Nathaniel’s face. “I’m surprised I was the first to catch you both with how loud you tend to be.”

Nathaniel lunged for the phone. Ray took a large step back and held it up to the ceiling with his long arm.

“Ah-ah-ah!” Ray tutted, waggling the pointer finger on his free hand. “Didn’t your mommy tell you how rude it is to take things that aren’t yours?”

“Didn’t yours teach you not to take photos of people without their permission, you creep?!”

Nathaniel made another grab at the phone. That time, Ray put his free hand on Nathaniel’s head, stood on his tiptoes, and held his phone high up in the air.

Nathaniel futilely clawed up at the sky. When he couldn’t grab it and wasn’t making any progress in retrieving it, he forced himself to stop and glowered up at Ray.

“The hell do you want?!” Nathaniel barked. “How did you get those photos?”

Ray gave a nonchalant shrug. “It’s pretty surprising what you can get online for dirt cheap. Just a couple of little cameras and a simple app, and you can become a photographer for less than a hundred bucks!”

Nathaniel’s stomach twisted. He thought back to lunch when he heard the shuttering sound in the stairwell and in the butterfly house. His face fell in shock.

“That was you?”

Ray hummed in confirmation.

“Unfortunately, you get what you paid for. The website said it wouldn’t make any sound when it takes pictures. I should get a refund…”

Nathaniel couldn’t help but gape at Ray’s continued nonchalance.

“What the fuck is your problem?!”

“You and your little ‘friends’ are my problem!” Ray hissed, the facade falling. “Throwing wrenches into my plans, being all gushy and mushy and disgustingly happy all the fucking time – it’s so damn irritating!”

“You…are you kidding me? You set up cameras to watch us and take pictures of us…because we annoy you? Because we’re happy?”

“Well, when you put it like that, it makes me sound like a maniac –”

“It’s because you are!” Nathaniel exclaimed. “You are literally doing all of this weird shit because you find it gross when people are happy –!”

“This is your mom’s website, right?”

Ray held his phone up to Nathaniel’s face. There, Nathaniel was greeted by the stern, cold profile photo of his mother on her equally cold and minimalist online portfolio. 

Nathaniel’s heart lodged in his throat.

“Her email’s at the bottom of the page, too. It’d be a real shame if, instead of trying to commission her for some of her work, she found pictures of her son’s dirty dealings with his supposed ‘best friend’ during school hours –”

“There’s nothing dirty about what we do, and you know that,” Nathaniel spat.

Ray shrugged again. “Sure. But she doesn’t, does she? And I doubt she’ll care either way. She would just see her supposedly straight son feeling up on another guy under her nose while he’s at school.”

Nathaniel’s hands squeezed into fists so tight his knuckles turned white, and his fingernails dug into his palms.

“What the fuck do you want, Ray?” Nathaniel demanded through gritted teeth.

“Help me take your little American friend down a peg or two for a little while, and I’ll delete the photos and leave you and your little boyfriend alone.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then not only will I send these photos to your parents, but I’ll spill all the secrets I’ve gathered on you and your annoying little friends.”

Nathaniel opened his mouth to shout at Ray again, but stopped at the sound of a pair of familiar, heavy boots bolting past the locker room. Nathaniel pushed past the taller boy and stumbled into the doorway just as Marc sprinted out the front doors in a flurry of tears.

“Marc, no…”

“Looks like he’s already had a little chat with Nelson…,” Ray said, stalking up behind Nathaniel. “His deal is the same as yours. You could also make things easier on yourselves and just break up! No use keeping photos of a couple that isn’t together anymore…”

Nathaniel spun around. He wanted to knock the sly smirk off Ray’s face, and he doubted many people would have any objections to him doing so – other than Principal Damoceles and maybe the other teachers.

“You’re fucking sick,” he snarled, voice tight.

He whipped back around and ran out of the locker room to find and catch up to Marc.

“You have until tomorrow to decide!” Ray called. “Before the end of the day! I don’t like to be kept waiting!”

Nathaniel did his best to ignore him and raced out of the school; the only goal in his mind to find Marc in the mess of everything.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Marc didn’t remember when or how he ended up at Marinette’s place.

One minute, Nelson was confronting him outside of the boy’s bathroom with photos of him and Nathaniel and some texts from a few of his old classmates about him and his ex; the next, he was being escorted up to Marinette’s room with leftover danishes and tea.

He felt bad for intruding on her and Zoe’s study session, but he couldn’t stop himself from collapsing into a puddle of tears on Marinette’s little couch. He felt especially guilt-ridden after he finally managed to get his story out through all of his blubbering and ended up leaving Zoe fuming and pacing the room.

“Those fucking dickheads!” she exclaimed, slapping her pencil case off of Marinette’s desk as she spun around for her fifth lap of stomping back and forth. “I can’t believe they would stoop so low! Actually, you know what? I can believe it, because it’s fucking Ray!”

Zoe let out another aggravated yell. It made Marc shake, and he couldn’t help but hug his knees tighter to his chest. He slowly started to rock back and forth in a futile attempt to soothe himself. He dragged his sleeve across his wet face, but more tears ran down as a shuddering breath escaped him.

“H-He said i-if we didn’t help them –” he snifffled loudly. “ - And if we didn’t break up, they’d hurt Zoe and the others, and they’d, they’d leak the photos and, and send them to Nath’s parents…”

“That fucking sicko!” Zoe exclaimed.

“Zoe!” Marinette scolded, crouching down next to Marc and placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Marc. We’re not going to let them do this to you, or Nate, or anybody else! We…We can go to the Principal – and Sabrina’s dad!”

Zoe scoffed, loud and bitter. “Oh, please. Ray could drag around a corpse right in front of their eyes, and they wouldn’t bat an eye! Shit, they’d probably find a way to blame Marc and Nath for it.”

Marc clamped a hand over his mouth to stop the broken sob that erupted from his throat. A tidal wave of shame crashed over him, and it was already trying to pull him deep under.

It was naive of him to have so much hope; to believe that Paris would be any different than his life back in the country, and it was stupid of him to think he could ever be happy with Nathaniel without…

Without it coming back to bite him…

He thought he was being careful and safe when he purged every last one of his old social media accounts and made new ones, being extra sure to keep everything private and block every single one of his old classmates that popped up in his recommended.

He was so sure that none of them would’ve given a shit about him after he left. And he was certain that Maël wouldn’t want anything to do with him or anything surrounding him –

But that was just wishful thinking on his part.

“What am I supposed to do?” Marc hid his face in his hands. “I don’t want to hurt anyone. And I don’t want to break up Nath either – I love him!”

“We know,” Marinette said, rubbing circles into Marc’s back. “We’re sorry that you guys couldn’t tell us on your time…What they’re doing is cruel, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure they don’t get away with this.”

Marinette wrapped her arms around Marc and pulled him close to her chest for a hug. Zoe, after exhaling most of her fury through her nose, came to Marc’s other side and did the same, tucking his head underneath her chin.

They sat like this for what felt like forever, with Marc quietly sobbing into Marinette’s shirt while the girls held him tight.

A soft knocking came to Marinette’s door. The trio’s heads perked up, and Marc could see that only a handful of minutes had passed instead of the hours he assumed he’d lost.

“Marinette,” her mother called. “You have another visitor!”

“Now’s not really a good time, Mom,” Marinette said back.

“I don’t know – I really think you should come down and see who it is.”

Marinette’s face scrunched up in confusion and mild annoyance. She stood and walked to the little trapdoor. She threw it open, and a head of bright ginger hair and freckles popped up into the room. Marinette fell back on her hands with a yelp.

“Nate!” Marinette exclaimed.

“Is Marc here? I thought I saw him come this way…” he asked, his head whipping around the room until he locked eyes with Marc. His face lit up. “Marc!”

Nathaniel shot up into the room and scrambled across the floor – almost like he was a feral animal. He lunged at Marc and pulled him into his embrace. Marc, in turn, grabbed at his shirt and overalls with a white-knuckle grip, as if letting his fingers go slack for a single second meant he would lose his partner forever.

“Natty…,” Marc whimpered, burying his face in the crook of Nathaniel’s neck. “I-It’s awful. I-I’m sorry –”

“No, no. You don’t have to be sorry for anything. We’re gonna figure this out, okay?”

“How?”

“We’ll go back to school, find those stupid cameras, and take them to the cops! Or, leave them out for Ladybug, or one of the Miraculars to find so they can deal with them!”

Zoe shot up from her spot on the floor, excited.

“Yeah -Yeah! Let’s do that! Mari, you and Alya are pretty close with Ladybug, right? Why don’t you call her up and have her come by to help? She can even come with us to the police station –  then Roger’ll have to listen to us and do something about this!”

Marc’s head perked up. The shame and guilt that had been trying to drown him slowly started to recede, but just as quickly as it started to recede, it rolled back in when he saw the hesitance on Marinette’s face. She went stiff.

“I-I don’t know, guys. How do we know that Ray and the others haven’t already taken the cameras down? Or deleted the photos from their phones and moved them somewhere else?”

“It doesn’t hurt to try,” Zoe said. “If we’re wrong, we’ll figure something else out! Let’s just go to the school, do a quick sweep, and if we don’t find anything, then we call Ladybug!”

Marinette opened her mouth to say something, but Zoe was already getting her things and heading for the door. Nathaniel held out a hand to Marc.

“Let’s give it a shot, yeah? Figure it out together,” he said, with a small and hopeful smile starting to tug at the corner of his mouth.

Marc hesitantly reached for his partner’s hand. Maël’s voice poked at him from the back of his mind.

‘Why don’t you tell him about us, Marc? Why don’t you tell him what you did?’

Marc’s hand trembled, and he recoiled. Nathaniel’s brows arched in surprise.

“Are you okay?” Nathaniel asked slowly.

Marc swallowed hard. He forced his hand to grab Nathaniel’s despite his vicious shaking, and he made his head nod and his lips curl into the most convincing smile he could muster.

“Y-yeah,” Marc finally choked out. His mouth was dry as a desert. “Just…Just feeling a lot right now.”

Nathaniel nodded in understanding. “I know. All of this is a lot. But there’s hope. Ray hasn’t won yet. He always overestimates the success of his own plans. We just gotta find out where he’s hiding those cameras.”

Nathaniel squeezed Marc’s hand. Marc gave a half-hearted squeeze in return. Nathaniel pulled him to his feet and gathered their things, moving to follow Zoe out of the room. Marinette let out an exasperated sigh but followed behind the others.

“Mom! We’ll be back!” she called as they descended the stairs and started walking out the door.

Guilt gripped Marc again, digging its claws deeper into his chest.

If they knew what Nelson was lording over him, if they knew the ‘truth’ about him, would they still want to help him? Would Nathaniel still proudly hold his hand and march into battle with him if he found out about Maël and everything that happened back then?

Would Nath still love him after he realized what a ‘perverted coward’ he was? The one they tried to make him out to be?

Marc shook his head and tried to banish the thought from his mind.

Nathaniel and the others wouldn’t have to reevaluate anything; they wouldn’t have to see the messy mosaic that was Marc’s past because Marc would make sure they would never hear a single word about any of it.

They were going to stop Ray and his posse before they ever got the chance to ruin the beautiful and real thing he was building with Nathaniel.

He refused to let them ruin his relationships with the lies that tried to drown him so long ago.