I will love again

Part 38 - Too calm

A week had passed and nothing had happened. Nathalie couldn't help but worry about that, while Gabriel just waved it off.

"It's too calm", the assistant told Marinette, when they were working together at her desk. Though Nathalie was twice as old as the teenager, those two women had become close friends. Marinette, being who she was, had soon noticed the older woman's issues, when it came to handling her emotions and had started to help her with that.

Nathalie on the other hand helped the girl not only with the things she had to learn to become a designer herself one day, but also with the things she struggled with. Like her security settings on her devices or sometimes even some topics from school, the younger one didn't understand after she had missed quite a lot while fighting, well...Hawkmoth...and.....her. So it was partly her bad conscious and partly being grateful for not telling her secret, which made the pregnant woman slowly open up to the girl. Oh, and speaking of being pregnant, she even felt a to her new, motherly love for the teenager, just as she always had for Adrien, only this was more intense.

The young model, despite knowing, that Nathalie really cared for him had been pleasantly surprised, when she had started to hug him each morning before he left to school. He had gotten so used to it, that he didn't like to leave the house without a hug from his 'mother'.

He knew, that she wasn't really, but she had taken care of him even when his mum was still around, because she often was just as busy as his father. And if she wasn't busy, she was sometimes abroad for weeks, until her recent movie was done.

Then she took a few weeks off. The first she was asleep almost all the time. But then she spent all of her day with Adrien. He even was allowed to cut back on his schedule then, so they could do things together. That's what he missed most. His alone time with his mum.

Nathalie had tried to take over back then, but as she was used to tight schedules, working hard, learning most of the time and things like that, it wasn't quite the same.

But even at the age of thirteen he had understood, that she tried her best.

Marinette giggled, when he told her, that what seemed totally normal for his girlfriend, was a big step for his father's assistant and his own former tutor.

"She usually isn't the hugging type. Just like my father, since my mum disappeared", he told her, "but lately, since they got closer, not only my father turned 180°, but even Nathalie seems more open to show any emotions, you know?"

"Hormones!", Marinette had almost blurted out back then, but just n time remembered, that she was the only one knowing about the assistants pregnancy at that point and quickly swallowed her words.

Sitting next to the visibly pregnant woman right now, she remembered that moment with her boyfriend and chuckled quietly.

Seeing Nathalie's expression, she apologised:

"Oh my gosh, I am sorry. I did not laugh about what you said. I just remembered something, and, oh Nathalie, please don't cry, I really am sorry!"

Marinette jumped to her feet and hugged the woman, who had suddenly began to sob.

"I-It's alright, Ma-ma-marinette. I-I am j-j-just a little n-nerv-vous b-because of the whole A-A-Amélie thing. She is p-p-probably already p-planning her r-r-revenge!" Nathalie took a deep breath. "Don't put any attention to the crying, it's just one of the stupid side effects to that pregnancy!", she explained with an angry smile. "But it's so sweet of you, that you care so much", her voice got high pitched while she spoke and soon she started sobbing again.

Without another word the teenager took Nathalie in her arms and just let her cry. Gabriel had watched the whole scene with concern and was about to come over to them, but Marinette shook her head.