Part 20: Kats and Creativity

Note: Now, dear readers, I know that we've got a new character and new ships and whatnot, but I've been shipping Nathaniel with Kat since I started this, so I'm sticking with it unless Kat decides otherwise (and no I am not crazy, I just sometimes pretend fictional characters are real. It helps with planning). Plus...well, you'll see ;)

Okay, so I'm going to start this out with just a little prologue:

I don't know how much time it took between these episodes in the show, but I'm going to assume it was a few weeks, and just to make everything easy, let's just assume that Kat sat out of hero work for a while to let her arm heal. It was difficult, and sometimes nerve racking, but she got through it. The only reason she didn't ignore Adrien and Marinette's suggestion to let her arm heal was because they got Nathaniel to keep her entertained. She and Nathaniel had quite the art party, Kat is now ambidextrous with art and weapons, and Nathaniel got her into the art club/class thing.

——More or Less After the Events from Glaciator to Reverser——

Kat thoroughly enjoyed art club (I googled it, and it is indeed a club). She loved going in and writing sometimes when Nathaniel painted, or she'd draw with him. They had made an impressive dragon using charcoal and sharpie during the last few days, and had just finished the day before.

Today, Kat was fine with laying under a table (which was amazingly gum-free) and writing to her heart's content. She had a few stories in the works, and a whole lot of ideas. She only looked up when Marc came in the room.

Kat watched, interested in what was going on. When Marc ran from the room, she nearly followed, but didn't because Marinette had gone after him. She felt like he was in good enough hands, and eagerly got back to working on her story.

——Later, at the Dupain-Chengs——

Kat pursed her lips in concentration. She repeated each punch, each kick, everything, over and over again. Adrien had just left for fencing practice, she knew, and Marinette was up on the roof watching a little meeting she had set up. A minute later, Mari sprinted down and out the door. A little bell went off in Kat's head, but she silenced it, figuring that Mari could handle herself.

After a while, Kat took a break and checked the news. Reverser was attacking, so she hurriedly changed. She didn't get to the actual fight, though, because she had to stop a certain police officer from beating up another officer.

Finally, they stopped fighting and went home. She had a horrible feeling that she knew the Reverser, and when Marinette got back, she found out she was sort of right.

"Okay, so that was Marc from art club then?"

"Yeah. I felt bad, but he and Nathaniel aren't mad at me, so I guess it's okay. And look, they made a comic book together." Marinette handed Kat the book. Kat smiled.

"That's so cute! I love this. The story line's awesome, Nathaniel's art is amazing, the word choice…" Kat trailed off, realizing that she had found a kindred spirit in Marc. She turned to Marinette. "I'm going to make him my friend. I'll introduce myself tomorrow at art club."
"That's a great idea, Kat. Maybe you can write something with them, too."

"Oh, I would love that." Kat gave the comic book back to Marinette, and sighed contentedly. Tomorrow was gonna be awesome.

——The Next Day at Art Club——

It didn't go quite as she planned. In fact, it didn't go at all how she planned. When she introduced herself, Nathaniel thought she was flirting with Marc, and Marc seemed a little put off by her. In addition to that, she bumped into an empty easel, which set off a strange, yet impressive, set of events that ended with three people, including Marc, being covered in paint. Kat apologized, eyes wide.

"I am so sorry, Marc, Alix! I'm so so so sorry!"

"No worries," chuckled Alix after inspecting her own artwork. "No harm done."

"My-my notebook," Marc stuttered. The bottom quarter of the book was soaked in bright pink paint. Kat gasped, and immediately felt horrible. She knew how much a writer's notebook could mean to them.

"I-I...Marc?" Kat's voice broke as Marc dropped his notebook and ran from the room for the second time in as many days. Tears started to roll down Kat's cheeks as she picked up the ruined notebook. Marinette put her arm around her paint spattered friend.

"It'll be alright, Kat. You'll see."

"I didn't mean to," Kat cried. Nathaniel held out a tissue to her. Even if he was a bit peeved because he thought she was flirting with another guy, he still liked her. She took the tissue. Marinette patted her shoulder.

"Come on, let's get you cleaned up, and take you home. You'll feel better after a nap."

Clean close, a good amount of crying, and a nap later, Kat woke up feeling much better. The only problem was that it was now five in the morning. Her nap had turned into a full night of sleep. Marinette softly snored in her own bed. Kat sighed and got up after trying to go back to sleep and failing.

She ended up downstairs, feeling miserable again, but channeled her misery into helping Marinette's parents prepare the food for the day. Mrs. Dupain-Cheng noticed Kat's mood.

"What's wrong, Kat?" She asked.

"I messed up really badly yesterday. I want to fix it, but I don't know if Marc will even want me to."

"Who's Marc? And what happened to Nathaniel? I thought you liked him."

"I do. But he thinks I was flirting with Marc. Marc is just someone I wanted to be friends with, but I messed up big time. I covered him in paint, ruined his notebook, and I know how much a notebook can mean to a writer. I'm...I'm a writer, too. I started when my mom first left for her sister's. Mostly, I write sci-fi, or fantasy, and a little, er, creative twisting of already existing literature."

"What was that last one?"

"Fanfiction. I write fanfiction."

"Oh, that's nice. So what will you do about your little situation?"

"I don't know," Kat said miserably.

"I know what you can do," Mr. Dupain-Cheng interjected, holding a bowl of dough. "Make some treats, apologize, and all will be fixed when they taste your delicious chocolate chip cookies."

"That sounds good," Kat laughed. She spent the rest of the morning baking, and left a half an hour early to get a few more things. Mrs. Dupain-Cheng gave her thirty dollars for it all.

——At School——

"Hi, Nathaniel," Kat chirped.

"Hi, Kat," Nathaniel replied, barely giving her a glance.

"Listen, I know you thought I was flirting with Marc yesterday, and I promise I wasn't. I just wanted to make friends. Marinette told me he was a writer too, and showed me the comic book you guys made, and I just loved it. I wanted to have friend I could maybe collaborate a story with. And I wanted to support him a little. He seemed really nervous about his writing the other day, and then he was akumatized. You know how much I like supporting people. Anyway, I just wanted to apologize. Here." Kat gave him the little bundle in her arms. Nathaniel opened it, gasped, and a smile plastered itself on his face. "Your favorite donuts, some new sketch markers, and a new sketchbook."

"You got these for me?"

"Yeah. I've also got a couple things for Marc, 'cause I feel really bad about what I did."

"It wasn't your fault, Kat."

"Yes, it was. And I'm going to own up to it. Would you make sure Marc is at art club today?"

"Sure."

"And by the way," Kat added as she sat down, "I really wasn't flirting with Marc. I think—I hope—that our relationship will be sort of like what Adrien and I have. Or just friends, if Marc doesn't want to be that close."

"I'm sure it'll be great," Nathaniel smiled, holding Kat's hand under the table.

——After School at Art Club——

Marc timidly walked into the art room with Nathaniel. He looked around at the students doing various art projects. Most of them stopped when they noticed him. He shrunk beneath their curious gazes. He finally looked to his right, where Kat was standing just as timidly.

"Hi, Marc," she said quietly. "Listen, I'm really sorry about what happened yesterday. It was all my fault. I didn't let myself get enough sleep, which made me really clumsy and maybe a little more intense than I should have been. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, and I definitely didn't mean to ruin your notebook. I know how much that notebook meant to you because I have at least eight notebooks full of ideas and stories and whatnot, and I would cry my eyes out if even one of them was ruined. And I know how hard it is to share your writing with others, so I tried to omit everything from memory."

"Wait, what? What do you mean?"

"Well, I sort of...well, here."

Kat gave him the wrapped box that was on the table next to her. He opened it to find three notebooks, a mechanical pencil, and a pen. Marc took the notebooks out and laid them side by side on the table. The first, still covered in bright pink paint, was his original notebook. The next notebook was covered in hand drawn designs, and a little square of paper labelled, "From the Mind of the Creative Marc Anciel". The third was similar to the second, but with different designs.

"Open the middle one," Kat said gently. Marc did. He gasped. "I did what I could. I don't know how accurate it is, because the bottom half of most of the pages was covered in paint, but I tried to copy it down word for word. The last notebook is just an extra one, for when you fill that one up. And the mechanical pencil in there is my favorite one. It's brought me a lot of good luck with writing, and maybe it will give you the same good luck. And the same goes for the pen. Can you forgive me?"

Kat stopped talking and waited. Marc stared at the notebooks, then looked up at Kat, then his gaze went back to the notebooks. Finally, after what felt like an eternity to Kat, Marc's face lit up and he threw his arms around her.

"Thank you!" He whispered. "Thank you so much!"

"It's the least I could do," Kat smiled as she pulled away.

Nathaniel elbowed Marc.

"You know, Marc," he said, "Kat is pretty good at art and writing. Do you think we could make a story with her?"

"That would be awesome," Marc replied, grinning from ear to ear. Kat grinned back. Their classmates cheered, and the three of them blushed.

"I didn't mean to make such a spectacle," Kat said quietly. "Sorry."

"It's all right," the boys said. The applause of the class died down and everyone went back to their projects, as did Kat and her boys.

"So you read all of my notebook, right?" Marc asked as they worked.

"Yeah," Kat replied sheepishly.

"So…"Marc shifted uncomfortably. "...What did you think?"

"What did I think? It's brilliant! I hung on your every word! You're a brilliant writer, and with a little more practice and a little editing, you'll be the best. Everything you wrote was just amazing. I would not only read what you wrote, but I'd watch a movie of it, read fanfiction for it, and write fanfiction for it! Though, I don't know if I'd be able to do it justice, but I'd try."

"Wow, thanks." Marc blushed. Kat playfully punched him in the arm.

"You're going to go far, hon. And Nathaniel and I will help you."

Marc smiled. He was beginning to think he'd found a kindred soul.

So, I hope you guys liked this. Please let me know what you thought :) And do my dear readers like being called dear readers? Cuz as a writer I love calling my readers 'my dear readers' because you guys are just amazing. As you know, this is my twentieth part of a continuing fanfic, and I just wanted to give you guys a shout-out for sticking with me for this long. (BTW, 'you guys' is just my way of saying things like 'y'all' and stuff like that. Sorry if that's a little annoying.) I know I'm bad at updating regularly, and I know it's hard waiting, but thank you so so so much for reading and putting up with my procrastination/forgetfulness. You guys are all just so great and I can't thank you enough, my dear readers.