A/N: Hello! I'm sorry It's been a week since I update: But real life…. Real life is hard. Being an adult is hard. Work has been keeping me and has been taking away the normal 2 hours at night that I can write. I stayed up until 2 in morning at night to write this, and then finished it this morning. I wrote this all in one day, but I hope to get a lot more written tomorrow. I have been staying with students to help prepare them for finals. They are going to come first before writing. So it could be another week before the next chapter comes out. Get ready for the ride that the next chapter will bring.

Thank you all so much for your kind words, support, and patience. You are so kind.

Traditional Twist

Chapter 38: A day at the Race

Marinette was exhausted after spending time figuring out the balance of her new power. Tikki seemed equally famished and was consuming cookies with lightning speed.

Adrien lightly joked at famished pair. After enjoying some well catered food, Adrien shared the news of the race with his partner. Marinette of course rolled her eyes at Alix and Kim's need to compete. It was obsessive and observed. Everyone assumed it was the feminist in Alix that screamed to be equivalent and beyond to the jock.

"Did Nino say who was going to be there?" Marinette asked.

"Aside from him and Alya, I assume the entire class." Adrien watched as Marinette leaned back in her seat. Her eyes wandered off and the distance. Adrien let her get lost in the silence for only a short while before pulling her back to the conversation.

"Something on your mind?" He asked

"I think I will meet you there," Marinette concluded.

"You don't want to go with me?" The model posed with his best hurt face.

The blue haired girl lightly punched the model in the arm. "Oh get over yourself. I left the Bee miraculous at my house. If Nathaniel is there, we can talk to him."

"Then we can maybe have the team together to organize a plan to take on Style Queen next time."

"That's if Nathaniel is good for the Bee miraculous. I know he could hold a miraculous, but I don't think it would be the safest to just give it to him."

"What makes you think he may not be a good fit?"

"I was thinking back to when I was with him on his birthday date. There was, almost something controlling him. I think it was Hawkmoth."

"Yeah, that's how the akumas work."

Marinette shook her head. "This was different. He was negotiable. He was almost complacent. The akuma didn't really change his personality to an extreme one like Nino or Alya. I worry if that means he's just suppressing all those thoughts then.

"Nathaniel is just introverted. Not every villain will be loud and in our face. In fact, that's what makes Hawkmoth so difficult to fight. He hides, only puts his energy into one person at a time, and then reverts back to the shadows. Nathaniel not be as loud and boisterous as other akuma victims doesn't mean he can't be trust worthy."

Marinette hummed in agreement. "Your right. But I still want to talk to him. We are building a team now. This person needs to be someone ready for action and that we can trust."

Adrien nodded. "Right. I think since we will know their identity, we should know theirs. If we give Nathaniel the miraculous, we are giving him our identities too."

"That sounds fair, but I think if we did that to Nathaniel he would run off."

"Then is he really as strong willed as you think?"

"Definitely. He is the only person I'd seen before my dad to try and go against what Hawkmoth wanted."

"Then go get that box, and I will meet you at the race."

Marinette smiled in agreement. She called to Tikki to transform her, and hopped out of the window. Adrien watched as she glided off towards the bakery. He turned to walk out of his room, when Natalie appeared in the door.

"Natalie," Adrien said surprised. "What are you doing here? I thought you were still in Milan finishing my father's work."

"I was," Natalie grinned as she entered. "Your father did not realize how much was completed. I wasn't finished with all final touches within an hour of his departure. I was able to fly home only a few hours behind him. I met with your father before coming to find you."

Adrien wasn't sure how he felt. It was nice that Natalie was home, but she was now another person who could potentially need to know more information. "Oh, well I'm here; in my room."

The secretary looked relieved. "Thank God you're still here. I was worried you may have left."

"I was just about to leave actually," Adrien said warily. "There's a race at the school; between a few class-"

"Don't go!" Natalie shouted.

Adrien was shocked. He was used to the assistant being any more than stoic. The fact she was panicking made the blonde's heart race. "Why not?"

"When I was pulling in, Your Uncle. He tried to get in. And now he is just waiting outside, but we don't know where. He hasn't showed up on any of the security system."

"You don't think dad would-" Suddenly the power went out and a red light filled the room. Steel shields covered the windows, and a buzzing alarm was sounded.

"Lock down?" Adrien's voice faded with the remainder of the sentence. .

Natalie looked concern. Her pupil were small with fear. "I need to go help your father. Adrien, stay here, I will send the Gorrilla.' She ran out of the room.

Plagg flew out of Adrien's jacket. "Not going to lie kid, I have a bad feeling."

"Me too," said Adrien. He let out a sigh before flitching at a surprised voice in his head.

"Where are you?" he heard Marinette ask.

"I'm stuck at home," The model responded. "My dad put the place on lockdown because my uncle is nearby. I'm going to stay here to see if I can help."

"Do you want me to come back?"

"No. You need to talk to Nathaniel. I'll let you know if I need help, but we need to prepare for hawkmoth."

"Okay," the pigtailed girl agreed. She had already returned home, gotten the bee miraculous, and made it to the school. She walked over to the field where the rest of her class was crowded around the side of the track.

Outside of the track, Marinette saw her class grouped together on teh side as Alix and Kim stretched in the middle of the running path. Her eyes scanned the group to see if Nathaniel had chosen to come and be a spectator to Alix and Kim's newest competition. She saw the red haired boy standing between Juleka and Ivan.

"Yo! Marinette, over here." the pigtailed girl turned her head to hear the voice of Nino caling towards here. She found him and Alya standing next to each other; waving her over to come join.

Marinette rushed to join up them. "Hey, Nino! Hey, Alya! Glad I found you two."

"Us too," Alya said with a wink. "Glad you could make it. Where is model boy? We thought he would be coming with you."

"He's um… dealing with a family issue," Marinette explained.

"That sucks," Nino expressed. "He needs to get away to process all that change, ya know?"

"Yeah. I hope he can come soon." Marinette frowned.

"Cheer up girl! The race is about to start. And everyone but Adrien is here. Even Lila came to watch." Alya pointed to the girl who was standing with her arms crossed, leaning against the fence. "And Chloe and Sabrina are here as well."

"Wow, the whole class really showed up."

A black haired boy in a green shirt stepped out. "Racer take your positions." Max was very keen on starting any sort of event properly and on time. He took it upon himself to be teh timer, and starting announcer.

"Ready to get this started?" Kim asked as he walked towards the starting marker..

Alix skated next to the jock, flashing a snarky grin. "I'm always ready."

Max cleared his throat. "The rules are simple. The first to complete three laps around the track will win the bet. If Alix wins, Kim has to join the school's ribbon dance team. If Kim wins, Alix has to join the Mylene in the theatre."

"Why did they make this bet? They don't seem to bad." Marinette leaned over to rose.

The pixie haired girl turned with illuminated with excitement as she turned towards Marinette. "They both want to join the football team. Kim says he would be the best goalie, while Alix says she'd be the best forward. There's only one spot on the team."

"So instead of competing with each other on the field, they would rather race the entire thing out?" Marinette questioned.

"They want to settle this off the field so neither one of them gets hurt by not being as good as the other," Mylene chimed in. "They don't know who is better in football, but they know they are equally good at racing."

"Isn't that so sweet?" Rose cheered and spun into Juleka. "They don't want to mess up their friendship over some silly elective."

Alya smirked. "That is pretty sweet." She winked at Marinette who smiled. They all turned back towards the two friends racing.

Max began to count the two racers down. "We will begin in 3...2...1...go!"

The started off strong. Both shooting down to the first turn with lightning precision. Kims arms were pumping as fast as they could. Alix was pushing her wheels against the ground with her legs. As they rounded the first bend, Alix began to take the lead. Just as she had pulled ahead, a rock that was resting on the track crossed paths with the green roller skate, and Alix flew forward; tumbling on the ground. The three green wheels in her skate rolled towards passed her head.

"Alix!" The group shouted and ran towards her.

Kim halted as he saw the crash. He was the first to Alix's side. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Alix said sitting up. She looked to the group of concerned friends. Before staring at the wheel that had popped off her skate. "My skates are not though. She took off the skate and her foot plopped to the ground. "I guess I'm joining theatre. I can't finish the race."

Kim reached a hand out and pulled Alix up. "Naw, you just have a broken skate. We can fix it right up."

"I have some tools in my bag," Aly called out.

"I think I have a few bolts and such in my locker as well," Max added.

The group of students began to plan and split up to help fix Alix's skate. Marinette felt a buzz in her pocket and looked at her phone. She saw a text from Alya.

Alya: I have most of the class working on fixing alix's skate. Now is the perfect time to get Nathaniel alone.

Marinette nodded at the screen on her phone. She looked up to see Lila, sitting at the steps, Chloe and Sabrina standing where the group had been originally spectating the race,, and finally, Nathaniel walking over to a shaded spot on fence. He pulled out a pencil and sketch pad and began drawing. He was in the most isolated spot he could be to have the talk Marinette wanted to have.

She quickly walked over to the artest. When she was a few yards from him she called out to him. "Hey Nathaniel, can I talk to you?" The red haired boy looked stunned as Marinette walked up to him.

He nodded his head softly. "S-sure Marinette. What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about when you were akumatized. I hope I'm not being too intrusive."

The pencil Nathaniel was holding halted it's sketching. The red head boy looked up with sorrowful eyes. "Oh, um… okay. What do you want to know?"

"All of our friends when they were akumatized," The pigtailed girl sat beside the artist. "They were not conscious like you were. You tried to fight with Hawkmoth. I remember your powers stopped working, and your hand was hurt. Did Hawkmoth do that?"

"Everyone else doesn't remember being akumatized. I remember a good amount, and it makes me sick that I would not be able to control what was going on in my mind completely."

"It's not your fault."

"Isn't it though?" The arrest asked. "I was at least somewhat aware. Shouldn't I take as much blame?"

"I don't think you need to. You did fight back. You disagreed. That is more than most people." Marinette began to nervously twirl her hair. "Wouldn't you want those powers back if you knew you had full control over how they would be used?"

"Absolutely not." Marinette flinched at Nathaniel's immediate answer. "I would never want power like that again. Truly great people deserve that kind of power. Even if I hadn't be akumatized, I would never have want that much power again. I don't trust myself."

"Oh, thank you for telling me Nathaniel." She flashed a fake grin before thinking to her partner. "He doesn't want powers. Nathaniel doesn't even trust himself."

"No problem," Nathaniel said finally relaxing. "It's a difficult topic for me to talk about. May I ask why you wanted to in-"

"Wow! Adrien is gone one day, and you are already playing with others guys." The familiar tone interrupted the red head. Marinette turned to see Lila standing a yard's length away. "You are just a sad little attention whore, Marinette."

"He is my friend," Marinette growled, and glared at the girl. "That is clearly something you just don't understand."

"Yeah, back off Lila," Nathaniel chimed in.

"I will, once I get a picture of you two for the tabloids. Then no one will think Adrien is really the sweet boy he is." She reached in her bag and pulled out her cellphone the take a picture. As soon as it was out another hand reached in a snatched it away. Lila screamed. "Give that back."

"Oh please, when you have to result to a tabloid you are extremely desperate." Chloe dangled the phone above her head and out of the reach of Lila. "What, will no actual news station believe you either?"

"Give me back my phone!" Lila demanded.

"Are we sure it's yours?" Chloe glanced at the device above her head. "You make lies up about everything else. I should call my father right now to have you suspended for what you were about to do to Adrikins."

"Your father is a push over if he can let you dictate his decisions," Lila hissed.

"Oh please, my father loves me. He listens to me because he loves me. Does anyone love you? No! And that's why you keep giving Marinette a hard time. Stop being a jealous wannabe and move on." With that Chloe flicked the phone over Lila's head. The device hit the ground and shattered.

"My phone!" Lila yelled and ran over to the ruble. "You broke my phone!"

"Whatever, you can't prove it, and no one will believe you. My daddy will believe me. Now shoo. No one here wants to talk with you."

The brunette's brown eyes glossed over with tears as she glared at the blonde. "You'll regret this," Lila said before running off.

Chloe placed her hands on her hips and turned to Marinette and Nathaniel. "What a loser."

"Thank you, Chloe," Marinette said. "You really got her to back off."

"Yeah, it was no big deal." The blonde made eye contact with Nathaniel. "Shoo! I want to talk to Marinette, so you need to leave."

Without argument the artist got up and left. Chloe replaced his seat and sat down next to Marinette. "OKay. Since Adrikins isn't hear to tell me, you will have to. How was your date?"