"Oh my god, you have to send that to me!" Alya squealed to Nathanaël as Marinette came into the classroom one morning. Curious, Marinette made her way up the steps to Nathanaël's desk where he and Alya were looking at something on his phone.
"What're you guys doing?" Marinette asked, leaning on the desk.
"Marinette, you've gotta see this picture Nath caught!" Alya said, snatching the boy's phone out of his hand (not without protest, of course). She stuck the phone in Marinette's face, where a picture of Ladybug was presented.
But, not a normal Ladybug photo. Oh, no. Instead, the picture showed Ladybug from the day before in the park, sitting in the grass, a flower's bud stuck in her mouth. She was looking directly at the camera, eyes wide in confusion.
Of course he'd taken a picture of that! Marinette was too naïve, having believed he was just texting! Great.
"Seriously, Nathanaël, send that to me!" Alya whined, shaking the boy's arm.
"OK, OK, what's your number?" Nathanaël asked, if only to get the blogger to leave him to draw. Maybe she'd take Marinette with her and then he wouldn't have to worry about looking like an idiot in front of his crush. That would be nice.
"…Marinette, what's my number?" Alya asked, blinking up at the girl.
"You don't know?" Marinette snickered. Alya protested, proclaiming that she had to remember so many other numbers and codes and digits that her own number wasn't important enough. "Well, don't ask me! I just put it in my phone and let it go!"
"Then get your phone out!" Alya said.
"I-I left it at home. It's charging!" Marinette said, hoping that no one noticed her phone in her back pocket. She needed to get this picture out of sight and away from the Ladyblog. Far, far away.
Alya groaned and pulled herself from the bench, slinking down to hers and Marinette's shared desk. "Fiiiiine, after lunch, then!" she resolved, plopping down and dropping her head to the desk. Marinette giggled and bid Nathanaël goodbye before joining her best friend.
Lunchtime rolled around and Marinette had a plan. It wasn't a very good plan, but it was the best she could come up with.
Nathanaël was always one of the last people to leave class, so Marinette held back for a moment. As he started making his way down the steps to leave, Marinette stood, effectively knocking them both to their bottoms. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Nathy!" Marinette apologized, cursing her own clumsiness.
"It's OK, don't worry!" Nathanaël insisted, scrambling to pick up his bag. Almost everything had spilled out: his notebook, textbook, and the drawings he'd been working on instead of doing schoolwork. Not to mention his phone, but that was covered by all the papers.
Marinette scrambled to help him, shuffling papers into a big pile and handing them to the poor boy. "Again, I'm really, really, sorry!" Marinette apologized again, grabbing her own bag. Nathanaël dismissed her apology and scrambled out the door, a blush on face.
"What was that all about, Marinette?" Tikki asked, zipping out of the girl's purse.
Marinette presented the boy's phone proudly, a hand on her hip. "Now, all I have to do is delete the picture and plant the phone under my desk, so it looks like we just didn't see it!" She swiped the phone, which then showed his lock screen.
Tikki spotted the lock, eyeing her Chosen as the girl started to melt. "How are you going to-"
"I'll figure this out!" Marinette shouted, running out of the room.
She'd officially locked herself out of Nathanaël's phone for 30 minutes. Which, while stressful, let her think of any possible four-number combination would be needed to unlock the phone. Finally, the phone let her try again. So, Marinette tried her next few combinations: 4444, 1235, 7174, and 9635. Nope. She had one more try. Then, she'd have to go back to school and hopefully not be forced to explain why Nathanaël's phone was locked for the next hour.
Oh, god.
With her one shot, she tried her last idea. 0826.
The screen flashed open and for a moment Marinette thought of getting to her feet and doing a victory dance. But, she had a photo to delete. Marinette pulled up the photo album quickly and scrolled past the drawings saved to his phone to find the picture. Deleted!
Satisfied, Marinette relocked the phone and let out a relieved sigh.
Tikki floated by her shoulder disapprovingly, shaking her head at the girl. "What?" Marinette questioned defensively. "That picture was humiliating!"
"This is the fourth phone you've stolen, Marinette," Tikki chastised. "You have a problem."
Marinette huffed and got to her feet, stuffing the phone in her bag. "We have to get back to class before Nathan, c'mon," she said, holding out her purse. The kwami flew inside, and away Marinette went.
Marinette ran into the classroom, flinging herself around the doorway. She took Nathanaël's phone out of her bag and tossed it onto the floor, sliding into her seat just in time for Nathanaël to walk in with Alya on his heels.
"I must have missed it when I dropped my stuff…" he mumbled, dropping to his knees at the bottom of the steps. He quickly found his phone and unlocked it, backing away from Alya when she peaked over his shoulder. "…Where did it go?"
"What do you mean?" Alya asked.
"The picture's gone," Nathanaël explained. "But…how?"
"Maybe you accidentally deleted it when you were showing Alya earlier," Marinette suggested. He gave a little nod and backed out of the camera roll.
"Then it should be in the trash folder…"
"The what?" There was a trash folder? Why?! Yeah, it'd be helpful if you did accidentally delete something, but it was the opposite of helpful when you spent your entire lunch break trying to break into the phone and delete the picture for sole purpose of it staying deleted. Crap!
"Here it is," Nathanaël pulled up the photo and restored it, thanking Marinette for the tip. She just internally groaned.
Alya received the picture, and straight to the Ladyblog it went. Now the whole world could see the superheroine eating a flower and looking very confused. Marinette just wanted to crawl into a hole. Preferably a dark, tight, warm hole, in the ground 20 billion feet down. That would work.
Nathanaël couldn't help but wonder how, exactly, he'd deleted the picture. He never even came close to the delete button. Not to mention he would have had to confirm the delete…
The only other person that had been near his phone was Marinette. Surely she wouldn't have touched his phone, let alone gotten into it! That was ridiculous! Maybe…maybe Chloé had, somehow. No, no she would be teasing him for his phone background being of a fennec fox he'd drawn. And if she'd gone through his images, she would have so much ammo against him. There were many saved doodles of Marinette, Ladybug, and random doodles that didn't have much thought put into them.
Then…only Marinette could have touched his phone. Did that mean she had seen all of his drawings? Oh, no. Just the thought of that sent the poor boy scrambling for his seat, a blush taking over his face.
Marinette kept her head down for most of the second half of the day, even choosing to ignore Adrien when he and Nino started talking about going to see a movie later that day. Alya suggested she and Marinette join them, but Marinette declined. She made plans with the underside of her chaise instead, intending to not move from under it until Tikki made her. Maybe the Ladybug picture would blow over by then? Doubtful, but hopeful.
After class, Marinette was surprised to find Nathanaël standing right beside her. "Nathanaël!" she screeched, flopping back down in her seat. "What do you need?" she asked, trying to play it cool.
"Did you see all the drawings on my phone?" he asked quietly. Marinette had barely heard him, and it took a few moments for the question to truly register.
"What do you mean?" Marinette asked.
"I know…I know you took it, I-I'm not mad or anything! I-I couldn't be mad at you! Just…did you look at all the drawings?"
Marinette blinked, wondering at first how he'd figured out she had taken his phone. Then, she wanted to know why his saved sketches were such a big deal. "I didn't really look, to be honest," Marinette said, hoping to reassure the poor boy that everything was fine. He let out a breath, and Marinette started to feel genuinely terrible for taking his phone. "Why's it such a big deal?" she asked.
Nathanaël looked away, clutching his notebook closer. "N-no reason," he said. "I'll see you later, Marinette!" And, just like that, the boy was gone.
"What's so bad about a few drawings?" Marinette asked aloud.
Tikki popped open her purse to put in her two cents. "There's probably some of you, Marinette. Since Nathan has a crush on you, it would make sense."
Marinette nodded. She really did feel bad about taking his phone, since he still ended up sending the picture to Alya. All her efforts were in vain, and all it did was upset Nathanaël. Whoops.
Good job, Marinette. You take his phone, and look at him. He has anxiety.
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