The Art of Love (Marcaniel Story)

Chapter 4

Everyone was still searching together for Nathaniel after school, even Chloé was helping. She had become a lot nicer since being akumatized into Penalteam. Unfortunately Lila was helping to.

Out of everyone in the class, Max, Sabrina, Chloé, Kim, Juleka, Rose and Marinette have know him the longest. They headed towards the Kurtzberg family's apartment and Marinette knocked on the door.

When it opened, the class were surprised to see Mrs. Kurtzberg and Nicolas ready to head out. Nicolas stopped with a look of suprise and shock.

"Oh...!" He gasped but then smiled. "Hey, Marinette. What can I do for you all?"

"Who's there, Nick?" Came the call of his mother before she joined and saw Nathaniel's classmates in the doorway and hall. "Hello, Marinette and co. What can we do for you?"

"We were wondering if Nath was here...?" Rose replied, only to watch as the family's faces fell.

"He didn't come home. We were just about to head out and look for him. He's never this late and it has us worried." Nick replied.

"We've been searching all day. We have no idea where he could be." Max continued as the large group left the apartment complex. "We've checked all his favourite hangout spaces but he's not there."

"That's concerning..." Nicolas said with a downcast expression. "Is there anywhere else he likes to go that he's told you about?"

The group shook their heads. Something then clicked in Alix's head.

"Wait! I totally fucking spaced!" The group turned towards their friend. "I noticed in one of his drawings, when we were hanging out at the Louvre, that he had drawn himself in a small park. He told me that it was a place he recently discovered on a walk when he accidentally wandered outta the city into a small surrounding town!"

"That's great, Alix!" Kim beamed as he placed one hand on his hip and the other on the latter's back, causing them to stumble slightly. "Where is it?"

-
Nathaniel clutched his green art binder close to his chest as he walked along the cobblestone streets of the small town. His eyes were red from crying as he had another small panic attack in the locker room before art. Needing to get out and not be around people at the time, he had to escape to somewhere secluded. So he went to the small town that he stumbled upon one day. He loved that place. The town set a different scenery for his comics.

Finding the park he felt safe in, he sat down by the base of the tree, placed his bag by his side, pulled out a sketch book, pencils and pens, before closing his eyes and turning his gaze to the sky.

He breathed in the warm summer air. He turned his gaze to his sketchbook and began to mark lines along the paper. He enjoyed getting lost in his own little world; one that he could create. That's what he loved about drawing. He could make whatever he wanted. If only he had the words to say what he really thought... If only he had someone to add words to his sketches...

Wanting to add some different vibes to his drawing, he put on his, new specially modified, headphones and clicked shuffle on his playlist. He slumped further against the tree as the song 'Wonderland' by Anson Seabra, was the first song to take over his mind. His favourite song to be honest, so he clicked the loop button instead.

He didn't know how long he was there for but he knew he was tired. He packed up his drawings and just listened to his music as it lullabied him to sleep.

-
The class were asking the locals if they had seen Nathaniel when Myléne called out to them.

"I Found Him!" Her left hand was cupped around her mouth while her right was pointing at him.

The class ran over only to find him asleep.

"Nate..." Nicolas said softly as she saw him peacefully sleeping. He picked up his brother's phone, paused the music, took of the headphones and put them in the boy's bag. "You had us worried sick...!" Picking up his brother, koala style, he turned towards Juleka. "Could you pick up his bag please, Jule?"

The latter nodded and picked up his bag and Rose jumped in and picked up Nathaniel's art binder. As the group walked behind Nicolas and Mrs. Kurtzberg, Marinette noticed something different about Nathaniel. Upon closer inspection, she stuffed a gasp and lowered her voice to a bush as she grabbed Alya, Nino and Adrien's attention.

"What's wrong, Mari?" Alya questioned as she lowered her voice to match the blunette's tone of voice. "And why are we whispering?"

"So no one will hear us...!" The four of them fell behind everyone else, putting a little distance between the group and themselves. "I think I know why Nathan has been acting so weird."

"Why Dudette?" Nino questioned, intrigued.

"Nathaniel has hearing aids...!"

"What...?!" Adrien gasped. Deep down, he  felt extremely bad, knowing that it was probably his fault, as Cat Noir, for the cause of Nathaniel's newfound deafness. Hiding his guilt, he continued. "Well we can't tell anyone else. If Nathan didn't tell us then it means that he doesn't want anyone to know just yet."

The other three nodded. When they got to the Kurtzberg family's apartment complex, they handed off Nathaniel's things before going their seperate ways. As Marinette walked home, Tikki peaked out from her purse.

"Are you alright, Marinette?" She asked sweetly.

"... Not really..." The latter began to tear up as realisation crashed into her. "Nathaniel is deaf because of me...! I wasn't a good leader during the fight against Blast Bomb...! I was to busy helping Rooster Bold that I wasn't watching Chat or the villain! Nathaniel put himself in harm's way to fix my fuck up...! And now he has to pay for the damage by having no hearing...!"

"Oh Marinette...! Don't beat yourself up about it...! Lots of Heroes have made mistakes and that's how we learn. And besides, a true hero doesn't wait for others to tell them what to do, they act upon their instincts. That's why you did the right thing, giving Nathaniel a miraculous to fight against Penalteam that time." Marinette looked down at the Kwami. "Basically; a hero doesn't need to wear a mask or a cape or a superhero costume to earn that title."

"Thanks, Tikki..." Marinette sniffed as she pushed open the door of her family's bakery.

She wandered upstairs to the small apartment and sat down with her parents and watched the TV as she drifted off to sleep.

Two chapters in one day?

Wow...

Guess I was bored.

Heh...

Anyways, hope you enjoyed!