Stay by my Side

Stay by my Side - Chapter Eleven

Back in the art classroom, Marc and Nathanial caught Marinette as her knees buckled in relief, and carefully helped her into a seat. Once sat down, she sighed in relief.

"Thank you guys." She said.

"No problem!" Nathanial responded.

"I had no idea how believable her lies were!" Marc said, shocked. "If Nathanial wasn't here, I might have fallen for it." His eyes turned to his books. "I'll make sure to bring them all home tonight - and only bring in the ones I need per day. I wouldn't want to risk them getting damaged."

Nathanial nodded. "That'd be a good idea." He paused, thinking of something. "Hey, let's swap numbers. We could have a group chat for the three of us."

Marinette's eyes lit up. "That sounds like a great idea!" Marc nodded in agreement, and the three of them swapped numbers. Marinette wasted no time in making a group chat for the three of them to talk in.

GC: The Three Amigos

Hey!

MIGHTILLUSTRATOR: Hi! I guess this group chat worked?

STARWRITER: I guess so! That's awesome!

Yeah! Now we can chat whenever we like!

Marinette, Nathanial and Marc smiled at one another, pocketing their phones. As they did so, the bell rung.

"Hey, Nathanial, you should accompany Marinette to your last class, to make sure she's alright." At Nathanial's concerned glance, Marc chuckled softly. "I'll be okay!"

Nathanial nodded, and turned to Marinette as Marc left. "Shall we go?"

"Okay!" Marinette replied, excited to go to her next class for once - as hopefully Lila won't be in it. As they entered the classroom, Nathanial pulled her over to his desk - as he also sat by himself.

Adrien, not being stopped by Lila's dominating presence, glanced up and caught her eye. He smiled and waved, and she returned the gesture with a bit more enthusiasm than before. He continued to watch as her attention turned back to Nathanial, and they happily chatted for a while before the teacher entered the classroom.

Turning his attention back to the class, he wondered when Nathanial's opinion of Marinette changed. Not that he minded! He was happy that Marinette had some of her friends back...

... he should be happy...

... why isn't he happy...?

---TimeSkip---

"Oh, Chat Noir!" Marinette called, running over to him. "You're here again?"

"Of course, Princess, what knight would I be if I didn't check on you?"

Marinette giggled. "Oh, of course, what princess would I be if I didn't have a diligent knight by my side?"

Chat Noir sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, and laughed, before changing the subject. "Hey Princess, a little birdie told me you made some new friends today."

"Not exactly - they were already my friends, but hopefully now we'll be hanging out together more." Marinette said with a smile. "I feel like I can finally rely on people after so long."

"What about the people you used to hang out with? The... writer of the ladyblog and that weird model dude with the blonde hair?" Chat Noir asked, trying to give the impression that he didn't know either of those people.

"Oh, Alya and Adrien? You... you don't know who Adrien is, even when you worked with him to defeat Adrien's akumatised bodyguard?" She stared at him for a moment, confused, while a bead of anxious sweat trickled down his forehead. "I guess it's nothing. Anyway, Alya and Adrien... they seem to believe me, but... they're not actually trying to spend any time with me, so how can I believe that they genuinely trust me? Right now, Nathanial and Marc are the only ones I can trust."

"What about me?" Chat Noir responded placing a claw to his chest. Marinette laughed, and lightly shoved him.

"Kitty, I've only met you a few times, I'm not going to start suddenly telling you my life story!"

"Still..." Chat Noir looked towards the ground, all signs of playfulness gone, and Marinette suddenly realised this was bigger than she thought. "Just... know you can rely on me, okay? You can talk to me about whatever you need."

"I... okay..."

With that, Chat Noir smiled, wished her a goodnight, and jumped off the balcony back to his home. Marinette watched him leave, a small feeling of loneliness starting to creep into her chest.

"I wonder what he was really trying to say..."

Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

I've been thinking about it for a while, and even though I do really wanna write a small bit of Lukanette (of course there's going to be more Adrienette, Marichat etc) I don't think I'm going to make him transfer to the school. The most it'll be is a small scene I might write of Marinette trying to get advice from Luka maybe next chapter, I don't entirely know.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading! I think the next chapter may have a small bit of Lukanette and more cell phone texting, so look forward to that!

But for now...

Peachy out! 😊