The Art of Love (Marcaniel Story)

Chapter 10

Three days had passed and Nathaniel now had his hearing aids back in and could hear as good as someone in his situation could. Marc was back at school too. Marc... Nathaniel felt his face heat up and his heart start to beat rapidly; pounding against his rib cage, like an animal threatening to get loose.

4 months had already passed since they had began their comic.

3 months since he found out he had a deep desire for Marc.

2 months of procrastinating as to not confess.

1 month left to do so or he would deal with the consequences of unrequited love as Marc could get swooped off his feet by another.

Clenching his fists and taking a deep breath, he tried to think of a way to ask. Should he ask Marinette? Probably not the best oerson to ask, given her track record of failed attempts to ask out Adrien before the latter's Bi Awakening.

Maybe Adrien? Not really... He'd be restricted of communication because of his jackass father.

Maybe Rose and Juleka? On the posotive side; They've been together for a while now and are an open LGBTQ couple. But on the negative; Rose is prone to sharing gossip, even by letting it slip on accident and, although Juleka can keep a secret like no one Nathan had ever met, she does tell Rose everything.

Maybe Alix? They maybe Asexual but maybe she could help with a confession? If that was the case, Maybe he could aslo get Kim to help considering the latter was dating Ondine. And ontop of that, he could ask Max and Markov for a statistical outlook on the situation. Settling on that decision, he decided to catch Alix after school.

-

Nathaniel couldn't find Alix for a while but eventually found them, with Kim, Max and Markov, on a bridge near the Sen. Wnadering closer he saw André the Sweethearts Icecream Maker there, handing Kim and Ondine an Ice-cream. Wandering closer, Alix just so happened to look up and in his direction.

"Hey, Nathan!" Alix grinned, the others giving him a wave.

"Hey, Alix. Max, Kim, Markov. Hey Ondine."

"Hey little cuz." Ondine smiled. "How's Auntie and Nicolas?"

"Good. You? I dont need to ask about Auntie considering sheimy teacher."

"Fair enough, but I'm alright." she took one of the small spoons and grabbed a bit of Ice-cream.

"Nathaniel!" André beamed. "I can sense a desirable love in your heart, so an Ice-cream just for you!" he reached out and Nathaniel took it. He stared at it in wonder, a blush slowly dusting his cheeks and starting to make his face warm. André continued. "Mint for the eyes, Blackberry for the hair and peach for the lips. A perfect trio of flavours for the one you wish to have."

"It kinda represents Marc, dont you think, Nate~?" Alix purred, only for Nathaniel's face to suddenly flush with heat and face turn as red as his hair. "YOU LIKE MARC! HOLY SHIT!"

"Wait." Max replied. "How come you never told us this? But considering your friendship and relationship you share with your comic books, there was a 80% probability that you two would inevitably end up together."

"Then that leaves a 20% chance that he wouldn't feel the same and just reject me." Nathaniel replied flatly. "But Im not going into this with you guys. Remember the picnic incident where I was akumatized again? I dont want that to happen so maybe it would be best to not say a thing."

"But you gotta tell him, man!" Kim piped up as he gave the rest of his icecream to Ondine. "If you don't then you'll never know if he feels the same."

"But if I do and he doesn't like me back then things will just be weird between us..." Nathaniel took a small scoop of his ice-cream with a downcast look as he sat on the bench next to Max; as André disappeared and Alix was just skating around them on their rollerblades.