Two weeks later, their comic was everywhere. Marc and Nathaniel's fame had gone beyond the school walls and into the streets of Paris. People even made hashtags about them; most of them good.
Most of them.
"Who took this picture?" Nathaniel showed Marc an Instagram photo of his face covered in Marc's lipstick.
Marc laughed at the caption. "'Hashtag bromance?' That has to be Adrien."
"I don't think his father would let him on social media. Too many predators." Nathaniel growled and made claws for emphasis.
"Hey Rainbow-Tomato." Alya called.
Nathaniel walked to her, showing her his phone. "Any ideas who did this?"
"No idea." Alya laughed. "But seriously; everyone thinks you're a couple."
"Hashtag stereotypes." Marc muttered.
"Not that." Alya said. "You two are always together."
"So are you and Marinette." Nathaniel said. "I thought I've discussed this."
She shrugged. "We have our different interests—wink wink—and no one knows any of yours. They're bound to assume things. My advice is you either start dating other people or each other. Just saying, by the way."
None of them spoke for a long time. They didn't see until break.
"Chloé asked how my 'loser boyfriend' was doing." Nathaniel said, frowning.
"So?" Marc asked, doodling on his Nathaniel book. "It's Chloé. She has to say something mean to survive every day."
"Don't you get it?" Nathaniel turned Marc's head up. "You watch reality tv. For more views, the people give the audience what they want."
"Are you trying to say you want us to start dating?" Marc asked.
"I'm saying you should give them something to talk about." Nathaniel said. "So I'm saying we should date, but not for real."
Marc frowned. "That would be lying, Nathan. I may be into fiction, but I don't do lies."
"Fine." Nathaniel pouted. Next he sprung up. "Wait; I have an idea. Not to lie-y this time."
"Mhmm."
Nathaniel got a serious look on his face, though it didn't really reach his eye. "For confidence camp, you should kiss me before class."
Marc blushed. He admitted Nathaniel was cute and totally kissable; but kissing him for attention, or at all, was far out of his moral compass.
"No." He said. "It—doesn't it sound like a Chloé thing to do? "
"It doesn't have to be on the lips." Nathaniel said. "Besides; two seconds tops and we can be on our ways. We'll be more popular, and it'll be worth it."
He rolled his eyes. "To sum up; I kiss you on the cheek, then we split. Capisce?"
"Absolutas!" Nathaniel said.
"I spoke Italian and you spoke Spanish." Marc observed. "I have a feeling we're not on the same page."
"I understand completely." Nathaniel's obvious eye glittered like a madman's. "Five minutes left on the clock. Let's do this?"
Maybe they were on the same page; they both started at their lunches.
After much delay, they ended up at the door of Nathaniel's class.
"Um—bye." Marc kissed Nathaniel's cheek.
Nathaniel chuckled. "That's all you've got, Rainbow?"
Before he could answer, Nathaniel forced his mouth onto Marc's. He could feel everyone watching. He could hear mumbles, whispers.
He took a step back, trying not to make a scene, and half-walked, mostly-ran to his class.
"Hey, Markie." Nathaniel greeted.
Marc looked angry. "Hey."
"Why so glum?" Nathaniel asked. He was in quite a good mood. Everyone was talking about how cute he and Marc were together—right before the akumatization
"School stuff. Then I got turned into a chess piece" Marc said. "Why did you do that?"
"Do what?" Nathaniel asked.
"Kiss me when I didn't want you to." Marc explained. "I didn't need that. I didn't need anyone talking about me and you or anything. You said you understood, but you didn't."
Nathaniel raised his hands. "Since we're being straightforward, I did understand; I just didn't like your plan. The last time people talked this much about me was when I turned into Evillustrator. I kind of like the attention."
"Attention is sometimes good." Marc said. "The way you're getting it, though, isn't. We can't have people believe what isn't true. That's lying, and I hate that."
"Lying is kind of how we met."
Marc laughed. There was the boy he made a comic with.
Suddenly he stopped.
"What?" Nathaniel asked.
Marc showed his right hand, or more his right hand in Nathaniel's left hand. "You're kidding me, right?"
Nathaniel decided not to point out the pun. "I have absolutely no idea how that happened."
"You're walking four spaces behind me." Marc said. "Four letters in hand, four letters in my name, and two divided by the eight letters of your name is four. It makes sense."
"I know we're not even fake dating, but can you do my math homework?"
"Enough."