Sorry about the wait! I have started the next chapter so I should be posting again next Sunday.

Nathaniel Kurtzberg had always been rather timid. He lived for his art, and since meeting Marc, the red haired teen had begun to come out of his shell. On a day such as this, normally he would have been with the raven haired young man, but Marc was busy with his maman so was otherwise indisposed. The artistic teen had never met Marc's parents, but his dark haired and shy school friend had assured him that they would be as fond of him as he would be of them: when they finally did meet.

Nathaniel assumed that Marc's parents both had high profile jobs. Whenever he had been to Marc's upscale apartment, the space had always been on trend. There was always a full fridge of food that Nathaniel was encouraged to help himself to, and, although the space was decorated minimally, there was always a sense of warmth when he entered. Nathaniel's home life was completely the opposite, and Marc had noticed and assured the young man that it would get better.

His mother was currently off with her third husband, and Nathaniel had no idea when she would be back; the name of his biological father remained a mystery and his aunt had been the only adult who had stepped up to ensure he was well looked after. His aunt was a lovely woman, but she was expecting her first child and the one bedroom flat she rented was definitely not going to be big enough to fit him and a newborn baby in. The cot bed, which was already set up, took up almost half of his bedroom, and his uncle was beginning to get a bit testy when the subject of when his mother would be returning was brought up.

Nathaniel knew his loving aunt would not throw him out, but the redhead was aware that it just would not be feasible for him to stay with them: their bedroom was also a small sitting room which had a minimal kitchenette running along one of the walls. The caring woman was always busy too, trying to sort out work and finances before taking time off to welcome her first child, and the teen struggled with being pushed into the background once more. It was almost as if he had no place in this life, and until Marc had come along, the talented artist had debated whether or not it was worth sticking around.

He could feel that the time was coming where he would need to be able to stand on his own two feet: sales of his comics had been ample enough to give him a small income for necessities but it would not be enough for financial stability. With his aunt having another mouth on the way, he did not feel like he could continue to rely on her support, and with the woman who gave birth to him God knows where, the teen needed a plan. Nathaniel was starting to depend on the success of his and Marc's comic books being picked up by a publisher in order to support himself, even though his raven haired good friend had told him his parents would welcome him into their home.

The redhead was a little sceptical though, as he was still to meet the two people that had raised such a wonderful young man. That was why Nathaniel was sitting in the park waiting for Lila.

Marc had always been polite to Lila, but it was no secret that the young man thought that her claims of having all the connections she had developed at such an early age were bogus. However, Marc was not with him that day, and Lila had been more than happy to meet with him to discuss introductions to some bigwigs that she had met while travelling. She had been spending the morning organising a fundraiser with Alya, but the supportive Italian had finished up early to come and meet him.

What was the worst that could happen?

The not-so-nervous-anymore teen reminded himself that he, himself, had connections with celebrities, so was it really so unbelievable that Lila did too? Sure, his connections were through other people mostly, but Adrien had always been kind with him and Chloé was the mayor's daughter, although not so nice; Marinette had her connections with Jagged Stone; not to mention that Juleka was his freaking daughter, and Rose was constantly in touch with Prince Ali… even Alya was rubbing shoulders with Nadja Chamack and her mother was one of the best chefs in Paris.

So why would Lila lie about her own connections knowing that people in her class could easily find out if she was telling tales?

As he waited, Nathaniel took out his sketchbook and buried his head while doodling a new hero design. It was easy for him to get lost in fantasies of saving the day and getting recognition for it when there was so little attention paid to him in real life. The escape it gave him was a welcome break from the regular rejection he felt elsewhere, and he desperately hoped that Lila would have good news for him.

"Hey Nath!"

He looked up from his rough drawing to see Lila striding over to him with an apologetic smile on her face and the teen's stomach dropped. She was clutching her phone in her hand and Nathaniel figured the brunette had not long ended a call with one of her connections which probably had not gone very well.

He raised his hand with a small wave, "hey Lila, is everything okay?"

After distracting themselves with talk of unrequited crushes, and "if only I'd known!"s being exchanged back and forth, the Parisian duo fell into a comfortable silence while walking through the streets of the city. They had both managed to adequately distract each other from the issues going on back in the Agreste household, and were silently contemplating where they would go from there. This was technically a first date between them, but the fact that they already knew quite a bit about each other had taken away any awkwardness between them.

Also, the son they shared was proof for them of how successful their relationship was going to be, so being together already had a feeling of normality in a strange way.

Adrien had learned about the many embarrassing escapades Marinette had been a participant in to try and get him to notice her; and Marinette found out about his extensive collection of Ladybug memorabilia. The blonde had also become privy to her taking all of his pictures down off her bedroom wall, and insisted that they take some selfies to replace them. Adrien internally decided he was going to tease her about her little crush on him in their early days of knowing each other, and would make sure their future kids knew about it too.

Marinette and Adrien strolled idly through the park with their shared ice cream. When André had spotted them walking hand in hand towards him with dopey grins on their faces, the bubbly man had already prepared a cone for them on the house. He seemed to enjoy the way they both bashfully blushed when he sent them on their way with a knowing wink and kind smile, and they had enjoyed the unexpected selection of strawberry, lime and dark chocolate chip ice cream he had expertly selected for them. Although the day's events had been completely unexpected, everything seemed to be falling into place.

"So why do you think Hugo became akumatised?"

Marinette raised her eyebrows at Adrien's totally unexpected question as he casually licked the ice cream cone before offering it to her. The dark haired Parisian automatically licked as she pondered the question, finally answering with a shrug.

"I honestly don't know." Marinette thought about her answer for a moment, "I guess that whole scenario had not played out before, so he had no warning… plus, " she began to add pointing a finger in the air, "he knew who we were and that even if we had not saved him, Bunnix would've come back and probably sorted-"

Marinette stopped dead in her tracks as she watched Lila sit down next to a familiar redhead.

"What?" Adrien followed her line of sight and his green orbs instantly narrowed. "Well, I wanted a distraction from what's just happened but I could've done without seeing her today."

Marinette rolled her lips and tilted her head as she thought back to earlier on in the day. "I think… this is meant to happen," she let out an assessing breath while chewing on her lip and glancing sideways at the blonde holding her hand. "You probably don't remember, but Hugo was pretty enthusiastic about getting everything boxed off earlier, and Bunnix said-"

"'Back for Nathaniel…'" Adrien finished thoughtfully, "but why?"

Marinette shrugged again and leaned into Adrien's arm while speaking quietly, "why don't we go and pay them a visit?"

A questioningly raised brow was all that answered her and she rolled her eyes in response. "Look, we don't even have to make ourselves known, we can just wander over, and hover a little away and pretend to be-"

"You were never really any good at sneaking up on me Princess," the blonde teased, earning a playful slap to the chest as he leaned in close to her. "Hey," he chuckled at her pout, "I'm just saying you're not always subtle."

Marinette muttered something about being subtle enough for him not to notice and Adrien had to laugh at that comment: it was somewhat true.

"Why don't we just be quiet and see what we hear on the approach?" She finally offered, gaining a resigned eye roll from the blonde.

"Okay, but remember what else Hugo said about us leaving it a little before we announce anything."

The ravenette smirked at him teasingly, "we're just friends, remember," she ignored how Adrien deadpanned at her in annoyance, "we just so happen to be sharing ice cream and holding hands, that's all."

"How many times do I have to point out that you also insisted that we were just friends?"

"Details," Marinette waved him off casually while trying to suppress her need to tease him further. "Come on Kitty, something tells me we're gonna be interrupting something rather important."

"Right behind you M'Lady."

So what is Lila up to? I'll admit now that I have no idea what Nathaniel's back story is, so I apologise if it's incorrect. Thank you for reading, and I hope that you're enjoying the story so far!

Thank you for the reviews, follows and faves =^.^=

Take it easy =D

Lady Rhi X