Marc x Nathaniel Stories

Painbow

"And so, the British..."

Nathaniel was trying not to fall asleep from the boring lecture. He usually stays up by sketching, but he's already gone through three sketchbooks in just one month, now nothing was keeping him from dozing off in the middle of class. He did have another sketchbook with him, but that was for the Ladybug comic.

He looked up at the clock sitting above the door... Just seven minutes left, he could do this. Why couldn't his bangs have been even? Then he could fall asleep without anyone noticing

"And the war brought..."

Gotta stay up... Five more minutes... Nathaniel turned his head slightly and looked out the window. It had just stopped raining, little droplets were running down the glass windowpane, and the sky looked a little grey. The only thing that stood out from the dreariness was the bright rainbow in the sky... It reminded him of Marc. The boy's name was literally 'Rainbow'! If you took out the M.

Now that was keeping him awake. How could he sleep when Marc was on his mind? His smile, his gentle voice, the graceful way his pencil moves whenever he was writing. The mere thought of the boy brought a faint smile to Nathaniel's usually stoic face.

RIIIIING!

At the sound of the bell, Nathaniel snapped out of his thoughts. Class was over

"Class dismissed. Have a good day, everyone."

Nathaniel gathered his belongings and made his way down the stairs where Alix was waiting for him, "You goin' to art club?" She asked, but the smirk on her face meant she already knew the answer

"Yeah, I'm going."

Once they left the classroom, Alix, with a smirk still on her face, turned around and mimicked kissing someone. Her hands went up and down her back, "Oh, Marc. I love you so much." She said in a low voice, mimicking Nathaniel "I love you so much, babe."

Nathaniel rolled his eyes at his shorter friend's antics and playfully slapped her arms, making her stop

"Okay! Okay! I'll stop!" She said through her giggles, then she turned around and saw the familiar bright red hoodie coming down the hallway. "Go get him, Romeo." She sends the redhead a wink before running off to the art classroom

Nathaniel fixed up his hair, straightened his blazer, and approached the writer. The closer he got, the more he noticed something off about Marc. His hair was a little messier than usual, and he had a tired look in his eyes

"Marc?" The taller boy flinched, Nathaniel became worried, "Rainbow, are you okay?" Marc seemed less tense after hearing his nickname

"Y-yeah. I'm fine." His eyes shifted as if he were looking for someone, "Let's just go-"

"Marc, please tell me what's wrong." He took Marc's hand in his, "You flinched when I said your name. What happened?"

"... just the usual stuff." He admitted, "They threw notes at me," He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out said notes, "telling me to die, calling me some stuff, something about conversion therapy, I look like a girl...", He sounded so bored, like he'd done this a hundred times, "They're not even being original anymore." He crumpled up the notes and put them in a nearby trash can "Come on, let's get to art club."

Nathaniel's mouth hung open slightly. He stayed like that for a moment until he finally found his words "Rainbow, how can you just let this go?", he asked, "This isn't right."

"Nath, I'm used to it." He admitted, "I-It's fine. Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"Please? For me?"