Love in Another Universe (Gabenath)

Confessions

A loud thump against the glass door of the balcony area of his bedroom, alerts Gabriel there's someone there. He slowly walks towards the door with his fingers pressed against his miraculous, ready to transform if necessary. Fear slowly creeps in as he's completely unaware of who might be on the other side.

When he finally gets close enough, he sees the figure of someone collapsed on the ground. He quickly opens the door, falling to his knees in order to see who lies on his balcony floor.

He turns the body, and immediately recognizes Nathalie transformed with the mouse miraculous. She's nearly unconscious, her blue eyes behind the gray mask are barely opened and a strangled moan abandons her throat as she tries to tell him something.
———

"Help me..." she's finally able to pronounce.
She runs her tongue across her overly dry and bruised lips, and continues to mumble incoherently.

"Nathalie! Can you hear me?!" Gabriel frantically calls. But her eyes are already closed so all he can do is lift her off the ground and take her inside. He places her on his bed and removes the miraculous from around her neck, causing her transformation instantly to drop.
His heart sinks in complete horror and shock. Nathalie's seriously injured, more than before. He can't even imagine what happened for her to be in such a terrible state.

"Nathalie?" calls Mullo in an anxious voice. The kwami runs her tiny palms over Nathalie's cheeks, trying to get a reaction from her.

"What happened to her?" Gabriel asks the kwami.

"That monster... he caught her when she was trying to run away and nearly killed her. She barely had enough time to escape before he tried to strangle her."

Tears fall from Gabriel's eyes, he can't believe what he's just heard. He can't even imagine the hell Nathalie's been living all this time. He feels guilty, he should've been there, ready to protect her from that monster.

"She's really weak, Gabriel." says Nooroo. "You need to call a doctor."

———

The doctor tells him that Nathalie needs a lot of rest, and prescribes her medication for the pain.

When Nathalie finally wakes up, she's disoriented and fearful. She finds Gabriel sitting on a chair right beside the bed she's lying on, and when she looks at his face she can see how worried he is.

"Nathalie?" He calls, seeing her eyes flutter open. "How are you feeling?" He asks. Nathalie looks at him for a few moments, trying her hardest not to cry. It's all so difficult for her, and seeing Gabriel's worried face makes her hurt more. She didn't want to put him in danger, and she knows that being here is doing just that, but she has nowhere else to go.

"I... don't know if I should be here." She finally replies, completely ignoring his previous question. He shakes his head as soon as those words leave her mouth. Gabriel doesn't want to let her go anymore, he needs to protect her from that man, but Nathalie's resistance makes everything so much harder.
"Please Nathalie, don't say that. You are where you're supposed to be, away from that man and close to me." Gabriel gets up and sits down beside her. He takes Nathalie into his arms, and holds her with all his strength, wishing to never let her go.

———

Nathalie's throat feels extremely dry and sore. She's in desperate need of a glass of water but doesn't want to wake Gabriel up. He only just fell asleep, after taking care of her since she arrived at his balcony door, hours ago.

She's very careful to remove the sheets from her sore body to then slowly get off the bed. Before she exits the bedroom, Nathalie looks at Gabriel's sleepy face and a feeling of guilt quickly falls to the pit of her stomach.