Work Text:
When Nathaniel was little, he hated being in his room.
Anytime he got in trouble for things like making a mess and not cleaning it up or causing a scene in the grocery store, he would plead and cry with his parents to not be grounded and shut in his room for the rest of the day. Even though he had all of his toys and coloring books in there, the thought of being alone scared him. Even when his father would come in to try and comfort him, the thought of him still being just a little angry at him would upset him.
Though that was all in the past, and now all he wanted was to be in his room.
Especially at the moment.
The night before, he had been in the shower and accidentally made the mistake of leaving his phone inside his room instead of taking it with him. He had been getting a lot of text messages from Marc, causing his phone to be buzzing a bunch, and that was what prompted the redhead's mother to investigate the noise.
And also discover her son's relationship with the ravenette. Which made her go berserk. It was the most mad he had ever seen her get, even more mad than she had gotten over him and his boyfriend's comic book.
"I thought we already had this discussion, Nathaniel. You have to stop with this nonsense! I don't want you to see that Marc boy ever again!" she had yelled.
The artist now laid awake in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He knew he needed to get up for school, but he felt too tired, and his head hurt from crying himself to sleep. He also didn't want to face Marc, whose texts he had been ignoring since the night before. He felt terrible about it, he felt like he was doing something wrong, he knew he was doing something wrong, but he couldn't help that his mother's words were getting to his head.
Maybe they really weren't meant to be together. Maybe his mother was right for once. Even if he loved Marc more than anything, and he knew that he did too. He knew he would never stop loving him.
He picked up his phone, reading the thread of texts the writer had sent him.
8:21PM - "are you okay???"
8:22PM - "nathhhhhhh!!!"
8:24PM - "are you mad at me? :c"
9:07PM - "i'm sorry if i did anything that hurt you. i really didn't mean it. please talk to me about it at school tomorrow."
10:56PM - "i'm going to bed. good night, my love."
2:48AM - "i love you so, so much, mon chéri."
Nathaniel looked over at his alarm clock. 7:24AM. He slowly pushed himself out of bed and started to get dressed. Once he was all ready, he swung his bag over his shoulder and exited his room. He passed by the living room and said a quick goodbye to his dad, before his eyes lingered on his mother, who paid him no mind. She obviously didn't want to talk to him after the events of last night, and neither did he. He exited his house and began his walk to school.
Marc couldn't think of anything he had done in the past week that could've upset Nathaniel.
He was sitting at a table in the library, his notebook open in front of him and his pen in between his teeth. He was trying to make up of list of things that him and his boyfriend had done together so he could further dissect it, but none of it made sense. His eyes would turn to the library entrance every time the door opened, hoping it was his boyfriend, but it never was. He was debating on texting him again, but he didn't want to annoy him if he already was with him.
The bell signaling that classes would start in five minutes eventually rang, and the ravenette stood up with a sigh as he exited the library, putting his notebook in his bag as he walked to his first class. As he walked, he spotted Nathaniel walking to his own class. Marc immediately changed his direction and walked towards his boyfriend. To his surprise, the redhead picked up his pace and sped past him. The ravenette stood there in shock for a moment before quickly getting annoyed.
"Why is he being so stubborn?.." he thought to himself, before walking to his own class.
Up until noon, Nathaniel continued to ignore Marc and not talk to him. He didn't even sit with him at lunch. He sat in one of his classrooms, telling the teacher that he just wanted to get some of his work done. For the rest of the school day, he knew he wouldn't see Marc, which he was partly glad about. Though, when he was leaving school, the ravenette was already outside waiting. When the redhead was in sight, he immediately grabbed his hand and dragged him to the side with an annoyed expression.
"Hey, what's wrong with you today?.. Why are you ignoring me, Nath?" he asked.
Nathaniel didn't say anything but pulled his hand away. The writer looked at him with confusion and hurt.
"Did I do something? Is that why you're being stubborn?"
"No, of course not..."
"Then what's wrong?! Just please talk to me!"
"I don't think we should see each other anymore."
Marc's eyes widened and he muttered, "W-what?.."
"I'm sorry, Marc. It's for the best..." the artist spoke, walking away.
This time, the ravenette didn't attempt to chase after time. He just seemed frozen in shock. Nathaniel wanted nothing more than to hug him, but he held back and kept walking. But as he did, he thought.
Was it really for the best?..
The ride home from school was torturous. Marc always took the city bus, meaning he would be surrounded by other people. He was already a very introverted person and didn't enjoy talking to people he was unfamiliar with, so today was worse, especially since he was actively trying to hold back tears.
He was still so confused. Why did Nathaniel break up with him so suddenly? They had been fine yesterday morning. What had changed? Did it have to do with Ms. Kurtzberg? But he'd tell him if it was that, right?
Did he just not love Marc anymore?
That thought is what made a few tears slip out. It made so much sense to him. The way he had been distancing himself, the way he had been giving short answers with no emotion, the way he had refused to hold the ravenette's hand. He had lost his feelings for him.
He eventually got home, and walked inside. His mother was on the couch, reading a book. She looked up at him and smiled softly, but her smile quickly dropped when she saw the tears streaming down her son's face. Before she could say anything, he sat down next to her and fell into her arms as he began to loudly sob.
"N-Nathaniel doesn't love me anymore, maman..." he muttered, clutching her sweater.
"What are you talking about, mon fils?.. He adores you..." she gently spoke, beginning to run her fingers through his hair to soothe him.
"H-he broke up with me... H-he wouldn't take my hand, he wouldn't even look me in the eye!"
"There has to be a reason... I'm sure he just needs some space, baby... Give him some time..." she spoke.
As he clutched his notebook in his hands, an akuma flew in through the open window. His mother saw it and immediately began to try and shoo it away with fear in her eyes. Unfortunately, it was too fast and the pest went into Marc's notebook, Chrysalis' purple mask appearing over his tear-filled eyes. Ms Anciel watched in horror as she quickly grabbed her son's shoulders.
"Nonono, snap out of it, cher! Don't listen to them! Listen to me! Listen to me, Marc!" she shouted desperately before yelling for her husband to come help.
The ravenette was clearly trying to break out of Chrysalis' influence. He didn't want to be akumatized again. He was supposed to be a hero, not a villain. He clutched his head in pain as he sobbed with both sadness and frustration. It eventually got too tough and he felt Chrysalis' power take over his body.
Once again, Nathaniel laid awake in his bed, staring intently at the ceiling. He was clutching his phone to his chest as he teared up. Marc's hurt expression was still stuck in his mind. He needed to apologize. He quickly unlocked his phone and started to type out a text, even though he really doubted the ravenette would ever forgive him. The redhead would never even forgive himself.
5:04PM - "i love you, marc. i'm so sorry. i really don't know what's wrong with me. i understand if you don't forgive me and don't want to talk to me ever again. just please know i'm sorry and i never want to hurt you anymore"
Almost as soon as he hit send, his kwami, Ziggy, hid in one of the drawers in his desk. He looked a bit puzzled, before he spotted the checkered figure in his window.
Reverser. Marc had been akumatized again.
And it was because of Nathaniel, again.
The villain did not look happy in the slightest. As he stood on his glider, he was glaring at the redhead with both an angry and hurt look in his eyes. He also had smeared eyeliner that was most likely from crying. He stepped off of his glider and slowly walked up to the artist.
"Y-you don't love me anymore, do you Nathaniel?.. That's why you're avoiding me... What went wrong, huh?! Was I that horrible that you couldn't give me an explanation?!" the ravenette shouted.
Nathaniel's eyes widened. Marc thought he didn't love him anymore?.. Oh, he'd really messed up.
"N-no, Marc, I do love you! I love you so much... I've been a horrib--"
"LIAR! You don't love me! If you really did, you wouldn't have broken up with me! You would've told me why you were ignoring me, why you were refusing any physical touch, you would've communicated with me!"
"I-I'm not lying--"
"Sure you aren't... Now you'll have no choice but to love me... REVERSION!"
The paper airplane came flying at the redhead fast, but he quickly dodged it. The ravenette kept throwing them, and Nathaniel grabbed anything he could to block them; a pillow, a notebook, a blanket. He'd throw the occasional soft stuffed animal at him aswell, not wanting to hurt the writer, even if wasn't quite him in there and he'd forget everything afterwards. He threw a larger stuffed animal that made the ravenette stumble back a bit, and the redhead quickly stepped forward and grabbed his hands so that he couldn't throw anymore paper airplanes.
"Marc, please just listen to me... please..." the artist whispered, rubbing his thumbs over Marc's knuckles.
The ravenette struggled under his grip, and he stiffened up slightly when Nathaniel placed a soft kiss on his lips, before he quickly relaxed and squeezed his hands. He looked into the redhead's eyes for a moment, wanting to kiss him again, but Chrysalis' mask appeared over his eyes and he yanked his hands back, clutching his head. The artist fell to the ground but quickly got back up and took Marc's face in his hand, gently rubbing his temples in attempt to soothe him.
"Come on, snap out of it! Please, you can do this! I know you can..."
"No! I can't! I-I'm too tired..."
Nathaniel's eyes widened and swiftly went to his desk, searching for a pair of scissors or anything that could damage paper. He eventually found a stencil cutter, and, knowing Reverser's glider was made out of paper, he cut through it, watching as the purple akuma flew out of it. Before it could escape, he trapped it inside of a jar. Marc turned back to normal, nearly falling to the ground, the redhead catching him in time.
"W-what happened?.. Nath?.." he stuttered, clutching the artist's hand.
The sun was setting at this point, and both boys were laying in Nathaniel's bed. Ladybug had already come by the collect the akuma and shout her "Miraculous Ladybug" to fix any physical damage caused (even though Marc hadn't done anything major besides break the window while leaving his house.) Before leaving, she had given the writer one of her magical charms to ensure he wouldn't fall under Chrysalis' influence again. As they laid there, the ravenette listened as the redhead explained why he had broken up with him like that and why he had avoided him.
"I shouldn't have done that... I-I'm so sorry, I was just scared... I don't know what went through my mind to think my mom was right..."
The artist smiled sympathetically before kissing his cheek and gently speaking, "No, I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions so fast... I should have never believed you had lost feelings for me. I just wish you would've told me instead of keeping it in. You know you can talk to me about anything, right?"
"Of course I do... But you shouldn't be apologizing to me. No, I should be apologizing even more... I really don't understand how you forgive me--"
The ravenette laughed, "Oh, shush... Of course I forgive you... I love you so much, Nath."
The redhead smiled widely before kissing him, "I love you too... Do you think I can be your boyfriend again?.."
"Let's just pretend the breakup part never happened..." he smiled aswell before he began smothering Nathaniel's face in kisses.