Welcome back! Thanks so much for reading this far, I really appreciate it!

This chapter is also kind of short, but I think I'll leave it here for the day. I want to get a bit further in the writing ahead of here before I post the other chapters I have written.

~anipwrites

Honestly? He should have been expecting it.

When was Chloe not teasing him? In fact, when was Chloe not teasing anyone? But it appeared that this week, he was the main target of Chloe and Sabrina's torments. And they seemed to be fascinated with fruits and vegetables this week.

"Hey, Tomato Face!" Chloe shouted, slamming a hand on his desk and disrupting him from his drawing. Nathanael let out a sigh and looked up, his desk partner Lila looking just as irritated. Before he could stop her, the blonde snatched up the drawing he was working on and turned it over to look at it. "What are you drawing? More dumb pictures of Marinette? Remember what happened last time you drew Marinette?"

Nathanael had to fight to keep his rage from boiling over. Yes, Chloe, he did remember what had happened the last time he had drawn Marinette. And that picture wasn't even of Marinette, was she blind, it was clearly of Ladybug! Ugh, this wasn't the first time Chloe had called him out this week, but it was the first time the entire class had turned to look at him. He could feel their eyes boring through his skull, burning with curious intensity as they watched the interaction. Dammit, Chloe!

"What's the matter, Carrot head? Too ashamed to admit it?" Sabrina taunted. That's it.

"Okay, no, I'm not too ashamed to admit it, there's nothing to admit. I was simply waiting for you two to realize that the drawing you're holding isn't even of Marinette, it's Ladybug, they're two completely different people. Or are you blind, miss Bourgeois?"

Nathanael heard Kim let out a long 'oooh', and a few people's hands flew to their mouths to prevent themselves from doing the same. Chloe and Sabrina took another look at the picture and their eyes widened when they realized that it was Ladybug, hero of Paris, and not Marinette, hero of his heart. Then Chloe turned red. Was it embarrassment? Fury? The world may never know-

"Well, it wasn't any good anyways, no wonder you couldn't tell!" she scoffed as she tore the paper in half, then in half again. Nathanael couldn't help but wince with each slow, torturous rip, as if it were ripping into his soul. He had worked so hard on that sketch, he was going to actually color that one, but now all of his efforts were for naught.

"Hey!" he barely noticed when Lila stood up and snatched the paper from Chloe. "Leave him alone! What did he ever do to you?!"

Chloe let out a laugh. "Well, little miss liar, since you're new here, you don't know that this creeper broke into my room in the middle of the night and tried to torture me!"

"What?" Lila turned to the redhead behind her, an eyebrow raised. Nathanael felt his cheeks heating up with embarrassment. Yes, it was true, but not in the way Chloe was implying it to be!

"I-I… I… it wasn't me. I mean, it was me, but I wasn't… myself. I was the Evillustrator, I was akumatized by Hawkmoth, I would have never done such a thing of my own volition!" Lila looked sympathetic. Everyone knew she had been akumatized a few weeks ago, and everyone also knew she was still pretty bitter with Ladybug. But she was more than capable of sympathizing with akumatization.

"Oh yeah?! Then, why do you remember everything you did so well?!" Nathanael couldn't hide his wince. Everyone else in class got awkward, more awkward than they were before, quickly averting their eyes. Most akuma victims could barely remember what they even looked like, felt like, or did when they were possessed. Nathanael was able to draw an entire comic relaying what happened, a full two weeks afterward. It was strange, it was weird, unusual, and perfect bait for Chloe to use against him. "The only reason he could possibly remember all of that is because he wanted to do it! You wanted to torture me!"

"No, I didn't-"

"You wanted to force your dumb crush to go on a date with you!"

"I didn't force-"

"You wanted to drown Marinette and Chat Noir!"

"Chloe-" Adrien began to oppose, but once Chloe was on a roll there was no stopping her.

"I swear, I-" Nathanael could feel the pressure in his chest rising as panic began to set in, his heart racing. No one would listen, no one believed him, everyone thought he was some kind of monster!

"And you wanted to work for Hawkmoth!"

"I didn't, Chloe, I didn't, please-!"

"Wanna know, Lila the Liar?" Chloe pushed Nathanael out of his seat and grabbed the sketchbook out of his hands, opening it so all the loose pages fell out. And right there, on the first page, was a drawing of the Evillustrator. "Read all about it!"

"No!" Nathanael jumped to his feet and managed to grab the book back, scooping all of the pages littering the floor into his hands, and ran for the door, to the shocked gasps of everyone. Nathanael Kurtzberg skipping school was unheard of. Sleeping in class? Sure. Drawing instead of taking notes? Always. Flat-out skipping? No way.

And it almost didn't happen.

Right when Nathanael whipped open the door, Miss Bustier was about to come in. She stared, wide eyed, at the child about to leave.

"Nathanael, where are you going/?" she asked, concern etched across her face. Nathanael ducked his head, hugging his sketchbook protectively to his chest.

"Out," he muttered.

"Out? Nathanael, class is about to start, you can't just-"

"I can't stay here!" the short artist forced his way out the door past Miss Bustier and raced down the steps, not even stopping when Mr. Haprele called out after him. Soon, the young boy was out the door and off like a rocket. Miss Bustier couldn't bring herself to do anything but stare; she was wearing heels, so she couldn't go after him very well anyways. She could deal with what caused such a reaction in the first place instead.

With a sigh, she crossed her arms and turned to look at her remaining students, almost all of who looked ashamed. Chloe and Sabrina did not, however, but she didn't want to assume they were always up to something. Sure, it was almost always them who were up to something, but no need to place the blame with no knowledge of what happened.

"Alright, class, does anyone want to explain to me what happened to nathanael?" she asked sternly. Before a full three seconds had even passed, each and every hand was pointing at Chloe and Sabrina, the former of whom let out an indignant 'hey!' before pouting. Caline Bustier couldn't help but sigh. "Of course…"

Nathanael could run as far as he wanted. Hell, he could run all the way to his house, he could run all the way to the other side of Paris, all the way out of France if he wanted, but he could not hide from the problems burning at his head. He couldn't stop the tears threatening to spill from his eyes, no matter how much he wanted to. Sure, the streets were near-empty of tourists and citizens right now, but it would still be utterly humiliating if he started to cry. To let himself succumb to Chloe's taunts again, to admit that she was right, that everything she said was right…

Before he knew it, he found himself sitting on the edge of a fountain, the tears beginning to fall. He tried to fight them back, but the more he fought against them, the more that came rushing forth. So he just let it happen. He needed a good cry. He hadn't let himself cry in a long time, he needed it now. With his book clutched tight to his chest, he let himself cry, wiping the tears away with a sleeve or the hem of his shirt when they got to be a bit too much.

How long had he sat there crying? Five minutes? Ten? Thirty? Had anyone seen him? It didn't matter to him anymore. He was satisfied. He had let everything loose in a way that drawings and paintings simply could not do. The purest form of emotional release was crying. Art was a close second, but still a synthetic relief compared to a good cry. Or at least, that's how he reasoned it to himself. Dead god, if any of the boys at school saw him crying, it'd be all over for him...

What now? He definitely wasn't going back to school. Not with the twosome of terror hounding him at all opportunities. He stood, and with a final sigh and a wipe of his eyes, he walked away from the fountain.

He played with a pencil in his hand as he ventured down the sidewalk. The very same pencil that had, not but a month or two before, held a dangerous and powerful akuma. Why hadn't he thrown it away? Well, he didn't exactly have enough money to be tossing away perfectly good pencils. What could a student do at 9 in the morning in Paris without getting caught by the police? Nathanael Kurtzberg simply didn't have a clue what. Perhaps the Eiffel Tower? No, no, it cost money to go up there… so the Jardins du trocadero. It was his favorite place to hang out after school; it couldn't be too bad during school hours, right?

Nothing interesting happened as he walked down the street, headed to the garden. Of course, he wasn't expecting anything interesting to happen either. Sure, sometimes tourists got a bit wacky, but no mischief more common in other cities ever seemed to happen anymore. Crime was way down, now that Ladybug and Chat Noir were here. The police were great, but muggers seemed to fear the red yoyo and silver staff of Paris' heroes more. Not that he was complaining.

At the Jardins, however, was a different story. The Jardins were his garden of inspiration, quite literally, and before he knew it he was drawing a picture. It was Ladybug and Chat Noir atop the Eiffel Tower, their usual hangout spot. They were the only ones allowed at it's very peak, probably because they were the only ones capable of getting there. But the lines he drew began to feel unnatural and tense, instead of the soft delicate curves he was trying to go for. He felt a pressure building in the air around him, and suddenly he couldn't focus on the drawing itself. He knew exactly what this was.

Someone was watching him draw.

Nathanael did not like having people watch him draw.

He whipped his head up, wondering who the hell could possibly be so interested in him to stare at him for so long. Tourists? Maybe. Cops? Hopefully not.

He was not expecting a clown. But a clown was what he got.

The sight of this clown almost made his heart stop, and his blood ran cold. He-it certainly seemed like a he-had wild red hair whipped about in an almost Albert-Einstein like fashion, but with a few patches missing. He had a masque of white makeup on his face, only interrupted by the black rings around his eyes, a round clown nose, and the big, grinning red lips on his face. His outfit was black with white stripes, and a few suspicious-looking red stains on it. And he was holding balloons.

Now, Nathanael had always been a bit afraid of clowns. 'A bit' was an understatement, he hated and feared clowns with a passion. Any other time, he probably would have gone running the other way. But yet… even as this creepy clown smiled a big, yellow-toothed smile… he felt the urge to come closer, and closer… As the clown's hand went up to their nose, Nathanael didn't even feel himself standing up. The sound of his sketchbook falling to the grass below was unimportant. All he wanted to do was come closer… closer… yet closer…

"Hey, man, look out!" Nathanael blinked and jumped back as a biker whizzed past, falling back into a sitting position as he and the bike barely avoided each other. His tailbone hurt as he hit the asphalt of the track hard and-

Asphalt? Wasn't he just sitting on the bench over there? And what was his sketchbook doing on the ground, his drawings were going to get messed up! He rushed back to the fallen book and found that luckily, it hadn't taken any damage. But, why would he have just left his book on the ground and gone to the bike track for no reason-

Clown.

He choked down a gasp in his throat as he looked back up at where the clown was before, only to find it gone. It was like the guy had disappeared into thin air. Nathanael felt his heart begin to pound in his chest, the feeling of cotton in his throat as he struggled to even out his suddenly-quickened breathing. He did not feel safe here anymore, so he booked it.

Another glance down at his phone. 9:30. At 9:25, he had gotten a text from Rose. How did he not feel his phone buzz? Oh well. Might as well read it.

Rose: [Chloe and Sabrina got chewed out by Ms. Bustier and sent to the Principal's office. Are you going to come back to school? We're super worried.]

Come back to school? No way. Nathanael let out a huff and sped up his walking. He had already committed himself to skipping the entire day. He'd come back tomorrow, but not today. He quickly expressed his sentiments in a text before shoving the phone back in his pocket. Now what would he do with his time?

He looked at the streets around him, trying to decide if there was anything he wanted to do in particular. He had missed breakfast this morning… maybe he could go to a cafe…

Then he heard a shriek, and turned to find a falling brick from a construction site, right above an old man.

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Have a nice day!