The bus ride was agonizingly long and uncomfortable. Chloe ditched the bus within ten minutes and called up a private ride instead when Mme Mendeleiev told her she couldn't skip out on the field trip, and Marc was starting to wish he had the money for a private ride, because this was starting to really get on his nerves. The bus was noisy and crowded, and even though he and Nath had both chosen seats at the very back where they didn't have to share with someone else, the smooth, paved roads were far behind them, and every bump on the road hit them with maximum force.
And yet Nathaniel still somehow managed to sleep through the whole thing. Marc had never found himself so capable of falling asleep anywhere, and the chances of him successfully achieving even a minute of shut-eye with all this noise were very near impossible. He could only hope that tonight made up for the ride. Marc dared to let his imagination race with the possibilities, reminding himself not to set his hopes too high and expect anything, but dreaming far ahead of himself all the same.
Wishing for the millionth time that he'd thought to bring headphones, he put in the one earbud out of the pair that still worked, covered the other ear and turned the volume all the way to the top. He turned away from the window, the cloudy skies and dark trees on his side becoming unbearable to watch, and shifted his body so he was sitting lengthwise on the bus seat, facing Nathaniel's seat on the other side. Marc leaned back against the window and kicked his legs up so his shoe soles were almost against Nathaniel's, then closed his eyes and relaxed, letting his imagination run free.
He'd almost forgotten about the rowdy mob of people occupying the rest of the bus, almost drifted away to the point he'd forgotten they were going somewhere at all, until his head painfully bounced against the window on one final bump, bus jerking to a stop. Marc winced, rubbing his head and pulling the earbud out, and sitting up so he could see what was going on up there as Mme Mendeleiev stood up to give them directions. He only glanced away to see Nathaniel getting up himself, looking around confusedly until his attention snapped to the front.
"Everyone listen up!" Mme Mendeleiev commanded. "You all know who your partners are, stay with your partner throughout the entire afternoon, you'll have time to break apart and mingle later, but don't dare go exploring unless at least one person is with you! Am I understood?"
Chants of "Yes, Mme Mendeleiev" echoed through the bus and Marc mumbled it himself quietly in accord.
"Good," she said. "You know what to do, I should be able to trust you enough to exercise common sense and complete the tasks you have been assigned to do. You are all aware of what's off-limits so please be smart and we can all have a safe and fun trip!" She smiled encouragingly, much to the caution and terror of the students, and descended as the bus doors opened.
Nathaniel sat up, stretching. "Here already, huh?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. Marc tried to ignore the sleepy flush in Nath's cheeks and the adorable way he spoke when he still wasn't fully in the moment.
"Er, yeah," Marc answered. "You'll be with Alix, then," he said uselessly, wondering why he was trying to make conversation like this. Maybe because he liked hearing Nathaniel talk- no. There was no point of getting himself all worked up when the school trip had barely begun.
Nathaniel nodded, leaning back in his seat. Alix shouted for him from wherever she was at the front, and they both looked up to see. Marinette was waving at Marc to come join her, so he bade one last glance at the redhead before gathering his things and joining his partner.
Although Marc would theoretically ideally have partnered with Nathaniel, and Marinette with Adrien, he had to retrospectively appreciate he'd picked Marinette. Although it meant less time with the person he'd have liked to spend the most time with, there were things that had to be done before the day ended, and Marc was sure they wouldn't have been able to get them done this efficiently and relaxedly if he'd been with Nathaniel instead. Plus, he and Mari didn't often get a chance to interact like this, and he wasn't going to complain about working with his good friend. Though that didn't stop Mari from looking wistfully over at Adrien and Kagami.
"Plans for tonight?" Marc asked, half-teasing. That was another thing he would have never dared to do if Nathaniel had been there. Marinette laughed.
"I wish," she admitted. "What are the chances a guy and girl'll end up with their sleeping bags next to each other out of almost 50 people? What about you? Don't you have certain hopes for this trip?"
Marc chuckled too.
"Well, I mean, you know," he said, flushing slightly. "Probably not gonna happen, but uh, I have some hopeful dreams," he shrugged vaguely. Marinette grinned at him impishly.
"Still more hope than me," she said, studying the trip itinerary. Marc gaped at her for a subtle moment.
"How would you know what I wanted to do?" he challenged, only slightly wary.
"Mm..." was all she gave in response, not at all helping his nerves.
Was he that obvious? Marc shrank in on himself, feeling suddenly anxious. Marinette glanced at him and looked up.
"Relax, I'm just playing with you," she assured him. He looked at her with uncertainty, and she smiled reassuringly.
"Whatever you say..." Marc mumbled under his breath, before his attention was diverted by the list of things that had to be done before tonight.
***
"Dude! You should have seen his face! It was freaking hilarious!" Alix told the group that had gathered around the campfire. Nathaniel sat next to her, nodding along amusedly while clearly attempting not laugh.
"What happened?" Marc asked, taking a seat next to Nathaniel and trying to act casual.
"Kim- I don't even know what he was doing- he ended up in the lake somehow and good thing Ondine was there with Lila- Ondine had to literally go in and get Kim out," Nathaniel explained, smirking slightly.
"But I thought Kim was a swimmer?" Marc asked in confusion.
"I know!" Alix said. "Apparently Max was using Markov to take a sample of lakewater for some test, I think Kim wanted to know if it was safe to swim in, but then it fell in and Kim tried to save it?" she finished with a laugh.
"Okay, in my defense, Max designed that piece of equipment himself! Who knows how much it was worth?" Kim countered, arriving at the site with a towel around his neck, shirt open.
"Did you figure out if it was safe to swim in or not?" Nathaniel smirked in spite of himself. Marc didn't remember Nath being this energetic or confident before.
Kim glared at him.
"I did, actually. Ondine and I are going to have a race tomorrow after breakfast," he informed them.
"That's great, Kim!" Marinette told him encouragingly, sitting down next to Marc so he was squished slightly against Nathaniel. He flushed.
Adrien arrived after that, Alya quickly convincing him to sit beside Marinette, and Marc was squeezed even closer against Nathaniel. He squirmed slightly, shrinking in on himself, until Nathaniel noticed and moved slightly over on his own side to give him more space. Marc wasn't sure if he was thankful or disappointed at the gesture. At least he still had his comfort in personal space, he supposed.
"Kay, guys," Kim said, once the whole class plus some others had gathered around a recently lit fire. "Let's play truth or dare."
He was met with general discordance, and groaned.
"Come on, you guys are no fun," he complained. "What do you wanna do, then? Play hot potato and sing songs around the fire? What are we, six?"
"That sounds like a great idea!" Alya said brightly, much to Kim's chagrin, and they began a half-hearted chorus of Smelly Wolf and 99 Bottles. They were on bottle 69 when some immature boys started smirking, and the singing ended rather soon after that.
"Why don't we play Never Have I Ever?" Kagami suggested. "It's less wild than Truth or Dare but it's not something boring a ten-year-old would play."
The others seemed to agree with that. Marc feeling a knot suddenly growing in his stomach, but nodded along with the rest. Nathaniel didn't seem to have a problem with it, and Marc didn't want to look like a wimp.
"I'll start," Alix volunteered. "Never have I ever fallen into a lake on a school trip."
Half the group laughed at that, Nathaniel included, and Kim glared, putting down a finger. Markov closed one of his metal digits, too, out of respect for Kim, justifying that it had been his own apparatus that had fallen and caused Kim to go down too.
Next was Nathaniel. "Never have I ever, uhh, been on the very top of the Eiffel Tower, I guess?" he shrugged. Some people nodded, a surprising number having to put down a finger for that. Lila looked annoyed.
Marc swallowed when it was his turn, felling the others' eyes on him expectantly. "I, uh, never have I ever..." he searched his mind for ideas. "Drank a cup of something that wasn't what I thought it was," he decided finally. The others were initially confused, then broke out into groans and laughs and remarks.
"Dang, Marc, way to expose me," Nathaniel whispered, and Marc felt his cheeks grow warmer in embarrassment.
"S-sorry," Marc mumbled. "It just came to mind," he shrugged.
"You probably know how many times I've accidentally drank paint water, huh?" he asked playfully. Marc swallowed- of course the first thing that came to mind would have been linked to Nath somehow. Typical.
"Okay, okay, but guys!" Adrien called out over the rest of them, and they quickly silenced, more or less. "How do you know you haven't ever drank a spiked drink. How would you know, huh?" he asked, and they all broke into energetic chatter about conspiracy theories and whether or not milk was really milk or actually just water and some other foreign substance.
Marc sighed into his hand, wishing he'd picked something else. Now everyone else was discussing something else and he and Nath were both silent.
"What do you think?" Nathaniel poked him gently, and he looked up. "Is juice really juice? I water really water? Are you sure what you were talking about?"
"Who knows," Marinette answered for him, leaning over. "It's all just one big hoax perpetrated by the illuminati," she whispered, and Nathaniel noded seriously.
Marc found himself awkwardly in the middle as they went off discussing some of the wildest conspiracy theories he wouldn't have ever been able to imagine himself. What were those two even high on?
It barely felt like any time had passed at all until Mme Mendeleiev shouted over the group and informed them it was getting late and they should be getting out their sleeping arrangements before it got dark out. Nathaniel set off to locate his own bag, and Marc headed over to the sheltered structures to change into his sleeping wear, quietly praying he found a spot near Nathaniel before the site filled up. He ran back to the field just in time to catch Nathaniel rolling out a sleeping bag, and stopped, staring.
"What?" Nathaniel asked, noticing Marc watching him intently. Marc didn't say anything, just watched him in surprise. "What, my pajamas? I'm a comic book fan, don't you know me yet?" he smiled, slightly unsurely, Marc could tell.
"N-no, I think it's awesome you still wear Marvel pajamas," Marc said quickly before Nathaniel's confidence disappeared and Marc was left forever guilty.
Chloe apparently didn't think the same. She had stalked over with a rather pretty bag of personal items in one hand (Marc would never bring something that expensive on a camping trip), followed by Sabrina who was carrying a large uninflated air mattress and comforter. She took one look at Nathaniel and clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
"What are you, ten?" she asked. "Who the heck wears those to a school trip? You've got some nerve, wearing those in front of the whole grade."
Nathaniel looked down, Marc swallowing nervously, until both sensed Chloe audibly freeze.
"A-Adri-chou..." they heard her say, voice distant, and Marc's gaze snapped up. "What are you wearing?!"
Nathaniel looked up too, and followed Chloe's gaze to Adrien who was set up not too far away, wearing the brightest red and black-polka-dotted onesie any of them had ever seen. Marc stared.
"Something wrong?" Adrien asked unconcernedly.
Chloe gaped at him for a good thirty seconds before gathering herself and sashaying off to a different part of the site. Marc couldn't help himself from giggling. Nathaniel looked at his own pajamas with a small smile, then at Adrien, who offered him a wink and a thumbs up. The redhead grinned.
They entertained themselves by observing the others' interesting pajamas- mostly generic and typical of their age, but some truly iconic. Max's night wear still had glow-in-the-dark decals that grew apparent as the sky darkened. Wayem's pajamas were straight out of one of the Adrien advertisements all over Paris, but he was grateful not to find himself alone- at least four other boys were wearing the exact same ensemble. Juleka's pajamas, although not looking very comfortable, were a level of gothic style that made even Marc envious. He wondered if he could pull off black lace as well as she did.
And then, it was too dark to even make out who was wearing what. The trees cast shadows as twilight neared, and Mme Mendeleiev finally re-appeared to shout at them again for not being calm and peaceful. Marc lowkey suspected she had been waiting for it to grow dark so no one would comment on her pajamas, and deal with the same as M Damocles suffered for his owl-themed pajamas.
Marc sighed happily, laying back on his sleeping bag, as more and more torsos dipped down and out of view, more and more students lying back to fall asleep. The stars were coming out now, and the sight was truly incredible- most of the students just wanting to lie back and enjoy the view. That was what they were here for, after all. Taking a break from the bright glare of the City of Lights, and appreciating the natural view for what it was. Marc thought back to what Mme had told them- this wasn't even close to the truly natural, unadulterated night sky. If this wasn't even comparable, Marc wondered how that must look. He glanced over at Nathaniel, expecting the redhead to have fallen asleep by now, but Nathaniel was wide awake. Marc partially sat up in surprise.
"You're awake?" he whispered to the redhead. Nath blinked and turned his head.
"Yeah," he whispered back. "I'm lowkey nocturnal, I sleep in the morning and the day, and then I'm wide awake at night and don't fall asleep until like 3am," he explained.
"Yike," Marc said, pulling his blanket over his shoulders after a sudden unexpected breeze. "What do you do?"
"I usually draw my comics then," Nath answered, supporting his head on one arm. "Some reason I work better then than during the day."
Marc nodded in understanding, leaning back slightly.
"The stars are beautiful tonight," he murmured, wondering suddenly why that phrase seemed so familiar. Nathaniel quietly smirked, looking at him with a mischievous look in his eyes.
"You know what else is beautiful?" he asked quietly, almost daringly, and Marc's breath caught in his throat. He had to force his mind to go quiet, because this couldn't possibly be heading where he thought- hoped- wished it was heading.
"Wh- What?" Marc asked, not daring to breathe.
Nathaniel hesitated for a moment (which didn't help Marc's nerves at all), smirk slipping slightly. Marc couldn't read his expression very well in the dark, but Nathaniel's eyes seemed to be darting nervously.
"Uhh..." Nath started.
"Y-yeah?" Marc asked carefully.
Nathaniel closed his eyes for a full five seconds, then opened them again, looking Marc dead in the eye. Marc's stomach fluttered nervously.
"You," Nathaniel breathed, and Marc didn't even have to silence his mind because it abruptly crashed and shut down right then.
"M-me?" he repeated softly, sounding stupid even to himself.
Nathaniel barely nodded, as much as he could in this position. Their gazes were locked, Marc couldn't break away even if he tried.
"Really?" Marc asked again, not at all believing him.
"I've liked you for a while, now, I just- uh...." Nathaniel said very softly, trailing off.
"Me too," Marc responded, voice unusually steady. "I like you too." He wasn't sure why he kept repeating things but so long as he wasn't messing up his words this time, he could give in to a bit of stupidity, he supposed.
"So...you like me...and I like you...and we're here, camped out, under the stars, confessing to each other while everyone else is falling asleep," Nathaniel summarized unhelpfully, for lack of anything else to say. Marc nodded mutely.
"Yeah, unless I actually have fallen asleep and I'm dreaming, that's what we're doing," he said, willing himself to stop being repetitive.
Nathaniel didn't say anything for a few moments, then broke into a wide smirk, all but laughing.
"We should make a comic book out of this or something," he said. "Romantic goals, amirite?"
Marc chuckled quietly.
"I can't tell if you're being silly or serious right now," Marc laughed in both humour and relief.
"Both?" Nath shrugged. "Neither? What do you say?"
"I'd say," Marc said, poking Nathaniel gently in the arm, "this is all some crazy dream I'm having and I'll wake up in the morning and none of this will have happened at all."
"Do I feel real?" Nathaniel asked. Marc frowned, thinking.
"It's crazy realistic, but for all I know, you could be one of the best dreams I've ever had," Marc said honestly.
"Then why don't we make it the best?" Nathaniel offered, leaning in and closing the space between them.
Marc pulled away after fifteen seconds, breathless.
"Did that feel real?" Nathaniel asked.
Marc shook his head vigorously, mouth hanging open in surprise. Nathaniel chuckled and sighed, picking up his pillow to swat Marc with it playfully.
"Go to sleep, dork," he said affectionately. "Maybe when you wake up I can try again and prove it to you."
But Marc didn't fall asleep. Marc lay with the widest of smiles on his face, eyes closed, seeing stars.