I own nothing not even this computer, please read and review as it gives me a reason to continue even writing this thing. It helps me know if I am doing any good. Now onto the story! Nathaniel chapter!

"Man your room practically screams how much of a shut in you are." Kim said as he sat down at Nathaniel's desk without asking. Nathaniel collapsed on the bed, his pale skin was slick with sweat making him look a little slimy.
Kim had insisted that all four of them sprint towards Nathaniel's house, he would have normally said no but the bigger boy had grabbed his bag and sprinted ahead so he really had no choice but to follow or else loose all of his drawings. On top of that Kim didn't actually know where Nathaniel lived so they had spent a good ten minutes running around Paris without a clear destination in mind. When Nathaniel finally noticed his house and got them into it everyone had sweat through their shirts and were red in the face.

"We could have gotten -puff-here much faster-pant-if Kim had just carried Nathaniel." Nino said as he leaned on his knees, man he was out of shape. He had to take care of that. Especially when he spent all of his time hanging around with Adrien, who was just taking short quick breaths before standing straight, completely fine once again. Adrien took that moment to look around Nathaniel's room. He had never been there before, he didn't think a lot of people had.

The room was small, with just a very small bed, a wardrobe and a desk with a lamp on it. There was one window that looked out onto the street. There were however many many many many many hand drawn pictures everywhere. Some experimented with paint, others had charcoal outlines, still others were just pencil and paper. There were thick folders and binders each labeled with a certain date or a subject.

The predominant ones had the names of classmates, large buildings, body parts and different colors. There were also many flash drives scattered around on the top of the desk, as if he saved what he drew from his computer pad and uploaded them onto those. It was all very impressive just how much the boy drew. Adrien wondered if the boy was so introverted because he was an artist or vice verse. Either way Adrien was impressed with how much effort must have gone into each piece of work.

"Just leave me here to sleep it off. We can do your crazy plans tomorrow." Nathaniel said curling up on his bed and scooting so his back faced them. Kim stiffened as if he had just been snubbed, not taking anything that Nathaniel said seriously Kim instead stood up and aggressively shook the small bed that Nathaniel was trying to disappear onto.

"Come on! Sit up!" Kim shouted, Nathaniel obviously complied. Anyone in that situation would do the same thing when there was a guy who could bench press your weight aggressively shaking your bed.
"Okay now then. Everyone take off your shirt I want to know what I'm dealing with here." Kim said authoritatively before shrugging off his own hoodie.
"What?" Nathaniel said grasping his own jacket even tighter around himself. Nino simply face palmed and shook his head.

He then reached out and grabbed Adrien's shoulder before he could follow the other boys directions.
"Dude. No. Don't do that. It's crazy."

Nathaniel just looked between Kim and the other two boys in confusion and blushing red. He didn't have many guests over, especially ones that got naked within thirty seconds of walking into his bedroom. He felt too timid to actually tell the bigger athlete to put his clothes back on. He ignored his clammy hands and did keep his own clothing on though. He couldn't tell if that was a victory or not.

"Does he do this often?" Nathaniel called over to Nino, he seemed like the only one in the entire room who was acting with any semblance of normalcy.
"He's tried to get us to take our shirts off over the past few days. It's weird. And very uncomfortable."
"No it's not! This is how guys bond! Shirtless!" Kim responded flexing his bicep and admiring the feel of the skin rippling over his muscle.

"I have never taken my clothes off in front of Adrien before you started this stuff up." Nino deadpanned in response. Kim snorted through his nose and turned to look back at Nathaniel. He needed to pay attention to this boy, that was the one that he had come all this way for after all.

"Okay then my little buddy. We need to get you in shape to actually try and flirt with the girl of your dreams tomorrow. So first off do you have a style?"
"I can't even tell what he's saying anymore is this gibberish?" Nathaniel called around Kim to the other two boys. He was just throwing all of his questions at Nino, he seemed to be the only one in the room who would be able to answer properly. To his surprise however it was Adrien who answered.

"He means do you have a sort of quirk? A distinctive move you do when you want to try and get their number or something." He looked around before he grabbed a binder and opened it up hoping to find some sort of reference. "Like asking if you could draw a picture of them, ask if they want it and then boom, you have yourself a conversation starter." Adrien pulled out a picture of Marinette, she was wearing her typical clothing but her eyes were significantly larger like from a Japanese anime and her hair had a distinctive shine to it.

"Sort of like this one. This is super good. Could I please keep this? I'll pay you for it." Adrien said admiring the artwork, he liked fine art, and having a picture of a friend was always nice. And on top of that it was a picture of a friend drawn by another friend! Double whammy!
Nathaniel opened his mouth and flipped it closed like a gutted fish, he had to say no, he wanted to say no, so why couldn't he just say no? It was probably the way that Adrien looked at the picture. Nathaniel knew that look, that longing deep in the very back of the eye, he had seen it a dozen times before, sometimes from people just walking along the street, sometimes they were with another person and sometimes they were not. He had seen it in the eyes of his classmates when some of them looked at each other. Like Ivan with Mylene or Rose at Juleka. He knew that look well.

"So? Do you have a flirting style or not?" Kim interrupted Nathaniel's daydream rudely elbowing him in his ribs. The two winced, Nathaniel from being hit right in the beef by the bigger boy and Kim from glancing against a very sharp bone. Nathaniel was all skin and bone underneath those clothes.
"I-I-I don't. No I don't." Nathaniel replied timidly and rather embarrassed, he had never gone on a date, he had never asked a girl out, he had never even flirted before. He just sort of drifted through taking his drawings with him and that was all. He tried to interact with as few people as possible, it was easier that way, life was quieter.

"Well let's change that then. Look girls...they're like a game." Kim said standing up and forcing Nathaniel to follow him, dragging him along in a pace around the entire room "They say one thing and mean another, they want one thing but tell you another. So how are guys supposed to win? By having them expect one thing and us doing another. What I have done over the course of my lone illustrious career dating women-"

"That's a lie." Nino spoke loudly enough to be heard over Kim.
"Shut up. Anyway, in my long career of seducing women, not girls mind you but women-"
"Another lie, don't forget what happened during Valentines day dude."
"I said shut up!" Kim responded back at Nino. Nathaniel and Adrien just stood looking between the two bickering boys. Finally Kim returned to Nathaniel calmed."As I was saying, you need to swoop girls off of their feet, put them a little off balance. And the best way to do that is to insult them, make them feel like dirt and then bam! They're putty in your hands."

"Do you just have a horrible home life or something? That advice is terrible. Nathaniel don't listen to him." Nino quickly walked over and nudged his way between the two boys. "Girls aren't a game, at least not one you can win. And no offense but with no prior experience I would say that your best bet would be hope that theres an Akuma attack and you somehow get the chance to bond during it. Like in a cage or something."

"And my advice is horrible. 'ooooh ooooh don't try anything Nathaniel! Just get tossed in a cage for a few hours and bond over trauma Nathaniel!'" Kim said squeaking his voice upwards and putting his palms to his cheeks.
"Dude I don't sound like that!" Nino said indignant and turning to glower at the bigger boy.
"You totally do man! I am great at impressions!" Kim said self-assured. The two glared at each other, Nino silently happy that he had taken his shirt off, now that he was aware of Kim's trick with his clothing (and how it was all angled so that your eyes were naturally drawn to his package) he was pretty sure he could avoid it and keep the staring contest going on.

Nathaniel just grasped the front of his bangs and pulled at them nervously. Insane, everyone in this entire world was insane except for him and now he was stuck here with some of them arguing in his room. He felt a soft light touch on his shoulder. He turned to look at Adrien who was smiling at him warmly and sympathetically.
"They're a lot to handle. But I have some of my own advice if you don't mind me giving it." Nathaniel sighed and shrugged.
"I've listened to everyone else's, why not?" He wondered why everyone was so invested in his dating life all of a sudden, and on top of that what exactly it was all going to lead to in the future. He was hoping it meant another shot at Marinette, maybe get to meet a few new people and come out of his shell. But of course things were leaning more towards the side of worst case scenario, not uncommon in the class that he was stationed in at school. Everything bad always seemed to happen to them, as if there was an enormous bad luck magnet set right in the middle of them and their lives.

"Well I have always been a fan of big dramatic gestures. Sharing a sundae, giving away an umbrella during a rainy day, things like that. Don't be afraid to try it out sometime on the next girl, hold out a chair or offer them a rose." Adrien said the last word softly to himself and was absentmindedly caressing his thumb with his free hand. Nathaniel looked down at the ring on Adrien's hand, he had never noticed it before, he should add it to his drawings next time he sketched him. Or maybe try some hands with rings on them.

Adrien shook his head and got out of his funk before turning his attention back to Nathaniel.
"All I'm saying is be confident and act like a gentleman, those two things can get you pretty dang far in the dating department or the flirting department."

"Yeah if you want to be an anime loving geek." Kim responded before turning his attention away from Nino and back to Nathaniel, the entire reason why they were even there in the first place.
"Look I have to keep you on the right track, and the right track in this case involves you taking off your shirt so that we can see how much muscle and sinew is on your tiny little body!"

Nathaniel yelped and jumped back as Kim reached forward and tried to grasp Nathaniel's shirt hem and pull it upwards.
"Dude seriously drop it!" Nino shouted trying to keep the boys clothing on him, and hopefully keep Kim from either getting sued for sexual harassment or from accidentally scarring their classmate.

"Man you guys are weird." Adrien said as the three of them wrestled for control. Suddenly they heard a snickering. Everyone in the room froze and attempted to locate where it was coming from.

It was finally clear from his shaking tuft of red hair sticking out from his shirt that it was Nathaniel. Kim slowly released him, he didn't often get laughter from his actions, this was different for him.
"Dude? You okay?" Nino asked anxiously and reaching a hand out as if afraid to touch Nathaniel. He simply waved him off and wiped at his eye, his chuckle was very low but very light, as if it were not used in public often.
"Sorry. I'm sorry...hahaha...it's just you guys are so over the top. And way too excitable."
"Yeah...I guess we are a bit." Nino responded before he too began to chuckle. Adrien let out a few laughs of his own. Kim simply stood towering over the three boys, not able to see what was so funny about the whole situation.

"Adrien wait!" Nathaniel said running down the steps. He had a picture in his hand, he quickly shoved it out to the blonde boy .

They were all leaving after spending most of the day with Nathaniel, trying to talk him through a few techniques, gently critiquing him and then applauding when he actually got something right. He stopped them once or twice to put a few lines on a piece of paper but once Kim began complaining that they didn't have time for one of his sketches he stopped and sheepishly returned to the project at hand. Now they were all leaving after going through his closet and finding what it was he was going to be wearing the next day."I saw you looking at this one, you wanted it right?" Adrien took the picture and grinned widely and goofily at the picture of Marinette, it really was very good.

"Thanks Nathaniel, this is great!"
"Thank you. And you're welcome." Nathaniel waited awkwardly on his front porch before returning back inside.
"That sure was nice of him." Adrien said folding the picture up and carefully putting it into his bag.
"How come he gave you something and not me?" Kim said angrily as the trio walked down the street.

"Mainly because your advice was horrible and his was sweet." Nino spat back and the two fell back to arguing. Adrien ignored them and just smiled off into the sunset, he had half a bag of sweets in his backpack and a picture of MArinette, it had been a good day. He wondered if he should text her that night, to say thank you, and maybe how she was doing.

I own nothing not even this computer please read and review.