i hope u enjoy! arts r mine,,
warning/s: none? maybe language idk. um also, i don't know how to write emotions anymore so beware of the cringe !
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"Nath, are you done? I'm getting tired."
Nathaniel spared Aiko a glance before going back to the paper again. His fingers guided his pencil in sketching his best friend's pose. The silence was awkward until he said, "Just stay put."
You were just walking in the hallways when you heard Nathaniel's voice. You followed it and it lead you to his classroom. You stopped at the entrance when you saw a girl posing; her hands spreading her skirt and she pushed her legs together in a seemingly formal way. You then saw the other person in the room, doing his best to finish the sketch on time.
Aiko, just taking notice of a stranger in the room, turned to you. "Oh, hey. You wanna come and help Nathaniel, right?" She didn't waste no time and picked up her backpack filled with scratch and sniff stickers. "Bye, Nathaniel!" Aiko sprinted off, greeting you on the way out.
"H-hey! Wait, Ai! I'm not even halfway finished, come on."
You slowly walked towards his desk. You took a glance at it and it nearly took your breath away. His sketches looked amazing, looking like the Aiko she just met. "Is this for the students so they could attend Marinette's stand?" You referred to the stack of sketchbooks piled in front of him.
He didn't look at you. "This is for Marinette's sake!" He said with so much passion and determination. He kept on dragging across the paper, making thin and thick lines.
You only looked at him weirdly. "Maybe you should go home and rest. It's getting late." You didn't want to tell him that you're concerned though.
"Later. I'm almost done," he said it almost frantically. He carelessly shaded over the paper.
"Ugh. Come on, you can finish that later anyways." You urged him to go home, slightly getting frustrated at his stubborn behavior.
Nathaniel kept silent but he was still drawing. You almost wanted to electrocute him and maybe dragged him to his house while he's unconscious until the two of you heard a booming voice from the hallway.
"Students, you should go home and rest. It is already late."
You and Nathaniel saw that it was Mr. Damocles standing at the door, his demeanor slightly scary yet tired. You gave Nathaniel a look that says, I told you so. He only rolled his eyes and began packing the sketchbooks. Finally the both of you made your exits, after saying goodbye to the principal.
The walk towards the gate of the school was quiet until he faced you with a hopeful look. "Can you please come to my place and be my model?" You gave him a blank look and remained unmoved.
/////
He turned on the switch to his own room and he invited you to step inside. With sock-clad feet, you walked around. "Nice room," you said, inspecting the wall covered with drawings. It had it all; from the anatomy practices to comic strips and chibi styled drawings. He was clearly passionate about his thing.
"You w-want anything?"
You shook your head meekly. He nodded in response but still exited the room. Your gaze moved to the other side of the wall where it had nothing but a colored picture of the girl with blue pigtails sitting by a sunset and below that picture were notebooks leaning against each other. You picked a random one; the yellow binder, and began reading it.
A few minutes later and you gotta admit that this book had you intrigued. You were about to flip the page when you heard a shrill voice. "Hey, don't read that!"
You peek your head out of the binder and saw him dropping all the snack on the ground and charged towards you. You immediately stood up and jumped to the bed.
"Give it to me!" Nathaniel grabbed a hold of the book and it was now in a game of tug of war. "You can't read this!"
"Just let me read a bit!"
"No! Give it!"
"Let it go! I wanna read it."
"You can't!"
You groaned in frustration but you didn't give up. "I'll shock you!" You threatened as you placed your hand in his face.
He paused for a bit, looking at your palm then your face. Nathaniel was hesitant at first but then he began to pull on it again. "Don't lie to me!"
The war continued. You really wanted to read the comic, and the threat didn't work. "If you won't let me read it, then I'm going home!"
Nathaniel stopped and his face was confronted. He looked as if he was begging you not to come home. You were unperturbed, however, giving the binder another tug, as if you were being serious. He frowned hopelessly and let go of the binder almost carelessly.
While standing on this bed (because you thought that maybe he'd snatch the notebook away again), you opened it and resumed your reading. It displayed a sketched beach with the sunset at the back. You could recognize that the boy by the shore was him, collecting trash.
You read it silently.
That evening, the teacher asked the students to clean the beach that was littered with trash. But no one seems to be doing it. The boy holding a trash bag looked at Kim and the rest of his friends playing by the water. Their laughs resounded through the beach.
He only shook his head at their stubborn behavior, wishing that they should just be eaten by merciless sharks. He dragged the heavy bag on the sand, while he wiped the sweat forming on upper face. While doing so, he heard a sudden 'clank' in his bag. Curious, he stole a glance behind him to find out who would just place a used can in his trash bag.
The person just stood up with their hand on an empty bottle and the other was on her bangs trying to keep it from flying away. "I'll help you," she said with the most beautiful and kind voice.
Nathaniel only stared at her as she kept on picking up trash.
Even with separate tasks, Marinette came and helped me with this.
Time has passed when Marinette spoke, "Imagine living here alone. I think it would be vintage."
Nathaniel's ears perked up and looked at the bluebell-eyed girl just as the wind picked up and it managed to knock the hat off her hair.
"No, nevermind..." She bashfully smiled.
He stared at her and began to admire her features. At that moment, I felt like I want to treasure this moment forever.
The two of them quietly smiled at each other.
"Did you draw this a long time ago?" You asked him. He didn't answer but you continued reading it anyway.
Marinette placed the tied garbage bag in front of them and stretched. "Phew! That was so tiring," she said with a yawn.
Nathaniel only grinned and placed his thumb and finger in his mouth. It produced a whistle sound. All of sudden, a giant whale resurfaced by the shore and it showed its huge teeth with... braces? Nonetheless, Nathaniel heaved the bag and threw it into the animal's mouth.
Cut to Kim holding Max in a choke hold, having fun until Ivan said, "Hey, did you guys hear that?" From the waters were sharks gliding through with a fast rate. Kim screamed when one of the sharks ate him alive, along with his other friends who were also devoured by the kind and wholesome specie.
The whale happily swims above the water and into the sunset, carrying two individuals sitting by each other. "I can't get tired of staring," remarked Nathaniel.
Marinette hummed in approval. "Yeah, the view is very pretty."
He turned to her and confidently said, "I'm not talking about the view."
She blushed upon hearing that and avoided his gaze, only playfully pushing his shoulder. "Silly."
The two of them remained quiet after that. As the whale continued to bring them to the sunset (as a sacrifice jkjk), he scooted closer to her and she didn't mind it one bit. The cloud slowly form heart shapes around them and they both sighed in relaxation.
Nathaniel chuckled timidly as he scratched the side of his head. "Well, it isn't always like the story.. Don't be so immense to it."
You ignored him and smiled slightly, gazing at the pages. If you have his drawing skills, you'd probably do the same thing and draw fantasy stories with Adrien. You looked at Nathaniel mischievously and he stared back at you looking all innocent yet confused. You stood up from your position and walked towards your bag that was on the floor. Nathaniel only watched you from his bed. "I mean to give this to you long ago," you said while you rummaged for something inside your backpack. You brought out the green binder. "I found this in the bin."
Nathaniel took it from you and his eyes widened. Memories began to flood as he saw the almost too familiar green notebook with a number 24 on it. It was now full of mean writings on the cover. It was worn and dirty, clearly went through some horrible stuffs. He gave you an exasperated look. "Why did you keep this?"
You were unbothered. "Marinette didn't even get to read the whole thing, you know."
It managed to calm him down slightly. You turned around and grabbed all the colorful notebooks sitting on his shelf and carried it to him.
"Make her read all of this."
He was already disagreeing with your idea. He shook his head frantically. "No. Don't. No way." He tried to push the books away but you stood your ground.
"Why-"
"I just- don't. Please, no-"
You took a step forward. "If I knew that someone loves me this much, I would be quite happy." Nathaniel hesitated and you placed the binders on his lap. You sat on the empty space beside him. "Believe me. I'd know because I'm a girl."
He chuckled halfheartedly. He opened the first page of the book. You only stared at him as he reached for pencil on his shirt's pocket. "Everyone loves Marinette." He smiled a bit. "Someone like me can only draw her face; her eyes, her hair... it makes me happy enough."
"So dramatic."
He smirked weakly. "It's true."
Filling the awkward silence, you leaned towards the paper. "You draw it so pretty, though." Nathaniel leaned back slightly and noticed your change of tone. You didn't notice him as you pointed at the owlish-looking man. "He looks so much like Mr. Damocles." You brows furrowed at the person beside the principal. He looks wack; his eyes were so far apart, his nose looked like a ballsack, and his lips were drawn so poorly on purpose. "Uh, who's this? The medal-wearing guy?"
Nathaniel wanted to burst into laughter. "T-the school's 'heartthrob'-"
"Adrien?!" You gave him an accusing look. He was doing his best to hold his laugh. "Damn you!" You forcefully took the paper and pencil from him and turned away. You hastily erased the face and began to draw your own rendition of Adrien's perfect features. His gorgeous eyes, his detailed jawline, his button nose, and the fine shape of his lips-
"Do you know that Adrien is secretly gay?"
You gasped and turned to him for a second before facing the paper again. "That's not true!"
Nathaniel scoffed. "The guy is gay! He's into modelling and he hangs out with Nino a lot."
You elbowed his side. "You don't know what you're talking about. Stop it."
He went quiet as you were almost finished in drawing. Suddenly, you heard a whisper. "Gay." You clicked your tongue in annoyance as he laughed to himself. You added your finishing touch and arranged the papers neatly before giving it to him. Nathaniel saw the result.
He couldn't contain his laughter as he mocked Adrien's sketched face. You looked at him, hurt, but the more you looked at it, the more you knew that you had no talent in art and the drawing sucked. Your thought cut off when you heard his laugh again. "That's Adrien?!" You started to chuckle. Nathaniel attempted to copy off the pose in your drawing. With his eyes going back and his teeth showing up widely. You smacked his arm as you let out a hysterical laugh.
While he's still laughing, Nathaniel pointed, "You change into a different person when you smile!"
"Really?" You said with a hopeful smile. He nodded. You turned serious. "Is it a good, or a bad thing?"
"Uh..." He stuttered as you looked at him reassuringly. After a while, he gave you a comforting smile. "I should start drawing or you'd go home late." Your eyes widened as you nodded blankly. He picked up his materials and the both of you started.
////
The junior skimmed through the pages full of sketches of a girl posing. "It's much better than I thought."
Nathaniel smiled at that. Hopefully, he could get all of the class to participate to the stand and make Marinette proud. "If you're still not interested in this subject, I can help you get credits from your other activities..."
He then noticed everybody perked up at the word 'credits' and whispered to one another. At one second, they stood up, and the next, they were huddling in front of him. They stood a bit away from him so he wouldn't hear about their conversation. One of the kid spoke in a somewhat maniacal voice, "We could use him. He has potential."
"Why not make him do our outdoor activities?" Most of them nodded in approval.
In sync, they all faced him. "We have made our minds. We'll go to the stand if-"
Nathaniel cut them off with a knowing laugh. "Okay, I've heard them all."
The students gave him a comforting, yet anxiety-inducing wide smile.