But I Know Bein' Reckless And Young Is Not How The Damage Part 1 - Marcaniel Fic
(A/N: Heeeeey. So, I am still working on this bullshit that I have been teasing since I got done with finals/during college. It's become a lot longer than I anticipated, and I don't wanna keep people waiting, and I am also not 100% sure what I have will fit into one post, so I have since decided to break it up into parts while I finish it up. The full version will be readily available soon on Ao3. If you wanna read it all in one go, you can do that hopefully soon. If not, here's part one of a fuckton, but hopefully just 3 or 4. Hope you enjoy! Page dividers from @sister-lucifer)
Pairing(s): Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Synopsis: A few months into their new relationship, Marc and Nathaniel have become utterly and ridiculously obsessed with each other. However, someone seeks to unravel the wonderful thing they have and ruin their lives with some of their buried secrets, testing their relationship and their patience all in one.
Content Warning(s): This work contains the following:
-Bullying
-Exploitation and blackmail
-Violations of privacy/privacy laws
-Stalking/Mentions of stalking
-Threats of outing a closeted queer character
-Swearing
-Out of character moments and writing
-Canon-typical incompetence from the adults and other characters
-Just really incompetent writing honestly
Reader Discretion is advised
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.
˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
