Miraculous Ladybug: Short Stories

Artistic Affection

This is going to be a very subtle Nathanaël and Marinette story. You are more than welcome to skip over this part and ignore it. All I ask is that you remain respectful in the comments. Thank you and please enjoy!

Still feeling completely humiliated from the previous day, Nathanaël quietly hid himself from view in the back of the classroom. He held his science book up as he ducked his head down behind it. Hopefully, he would appear just as invisible as he usually did. Ever since he first realized that he was crushing on Marinette, he immediately knew that he had a very slight chance with her. The situation became even worse, though, with Chloé  revealing his secret and with his akumatization. Before class that morning, Nathanaël was devastated as he say to watch a news report on his television screen about all of the chaos he caused the previous night. Not only did he practically harass Marinette as Le Dessinateur, but he was also awful to her after she tried to help Chat Noir get the possessed object to Ladybug. All Marinette was trying to do was save him, but his akumatized self did not seem to understand that. Surely, Nathanaël managed to ruin whatever chances that he did have with her.

Marinette walked into Ms. Mendeleiev's class with her best friend Alya by her side. She could hear subtle whispers about yesterday's incident throughout the entire classroom. Even though nearly everyone had been akumatized at that point, the possessed villains always became the gossip on the next day at school. Feeling somewhat responsible for not capturing his akuma sooner, Marinette decided to go talk to Nathanaël in an attempt to comfort him. Without telling Alya of her plan, Marinette began walking directly towards the back of the classroom. As she did so, she could practically feel the entire class's eyes burning a hole into her back. Marinette approached the red head anyway with a warm smile on her face. "Hey, Nathanaël. Would you mind if I sat here today?"

Nathanaël lowered his book to take a peek at whomever was speaking to him. "O-oh, M-Marinette! N-no, not at all!" The red head scooted himself over a bit so that Marinette could sit down right beside him. The girl instantly became comfortable in her new temporary seat by laying out all of her belongings onto the desk. Nathanaël glanced around the room and noticed that the entire class was glaring at him and Marinette. He leaned in towards Marinette just a bit and lowered his voice, "They're all s-staring at us, you know."

Marinette picked her head up and saw all of the wondering eyes. "Just let them stare." She shrugged her shoulders before turning her head to face Nathanaël. "They'll get bored eventually. Listen, Nathanaël, I really wanted to apologize to you."

Nathanaël's eyes went wide with surprise. "Apologize to me? Marinette, I should be the one apologizing to you! I don't remember what happened, but on the news, I-"

Marinette rested her hand on his shoulder, "Nate, I was there and remember all of it. You had to have been the kindest akuma victim I have ever seen." She grinned as she began to see the red head cheer up a bit. "Granted, you did do some questionable things, however, most of which were for the right reasons. There was a point when you stopped by my place where I had asked for you to not harm Chloé. Nathanaël, you did exactly that. The only reason why things got worse was because I relied on Chat Noir rather than just trying to save you myself. I only aggravated your akumatized self, so the remainder of the night was all on me." Marinette felt that if she took some of the blame for herself, it may help to relieve some of Nathanaël's stress.

Nathanaël lowered his head in shame. "Mari? I didn't...I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Marinette giggled a bit, "Nate, I'm completely unharmed!" She threw both of her arms in the air, but had to stop after wincing a bit. "Except for a bruised rib or so."

Resting his head in his hands, Nathanaël's voice began to crack, "Oh my gosh, Marinette, I am so sorry."

Marinette quickly caressed the boy's back in an effort to reassure him, "Nathanaël, I'm fine! You weren't trying to kill me like someone else I know." She shot Max a nasty glare from across the room.

Nathanaël sighed, "I just wish that I could, uh, make it up to you. I feel really bad about everything I did." He picked his head up to face Marinette directly.

The young girl paused before a grin crept upon her face. "Um, actually, you could." Nathanaël stared at her in confusion as he waited for her to continue. "Nathanaël, I could really use your artistic eye for some designs that I have been working on. Do you want to come over to my place after school today? I can have my dad make us some of his famous croissants!" Marinette's eyes lit up. One might think that she hadn't had company in ages.

Nathanaël relaxed his muscles and smiled at the girl's kindness. Of course, he couldn't help but blush. "Uh, s-sure. I'd l-love to, Marinette."