Marc loved dancing, always had and always would. He enjoyed moving to the music and just letting go of himself. Which is why when Clara Nightingale announced she was looking for background dancers in Paris he spent a good three days psyching himself up to go and audition.
Marc had never been confident in himself about… well, anything, so auditioning to be a background dancer in a music video was far outside of his comfort zone. In honesty, he wouldn't have gone to the auditions if his mum hadn't of talked him around to it again about an hour before he had to leave the house.
Standing in line was torture though, watching the other, arguably more talented, dancers audition was making Marc's stomach do flips. He was about to turn around and leave when the mayor stormed in and announced that the video couldn't be filmed in Paris.
That in itself was both a get out of jail free card and a punch to the stomach for Marc. Luckily for him he didn't have time to worry about it because minutes later he and everyone else in the line were forced to run for cover as Frightningale attacked. Which is how he wound up squatting under the stage next to a cute boy with bright red hair he vaguely remembered seeing around school.
"Of course it's Chloe again," the Pink haired girl also squatting with them muttered, peeking out from the stage to try and see what was going on without being seen "The little brat always throws tantrums when she doesn't get own way."
"Ladybug and Chat will handle it." The red haired boy stated with certainty in his voice.
"Well yeah, of course." The pink haired girl replied, moving back to the centre of the stage and away from the edge where she could be seen.
They lapsed into silence and Marc wished he had his notebook to distracted him and not just his barely charged phone.
"My name's Nathaniel by the way," the red haired boy broke the silence and Marc quickly snapped his attention to the other boy instead of the floorboards "And that's Alix." the pink haired girl gave a two fingered salute in greeting.
"Marc…" Marc responded quietly.
"Were you here to audition Marc?" Nathaniel asked, smiling at Marc in what Marc assumed was meant to be a comforting way. Maybe his nerves showed.
"Uh, yeah... well no. Uh… I was going to but I… I decided against it…" Marc trailed off lamely, focusing his eyes back on the ground.
"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Nathaniel prodded.
"I'm really not all that good, you know? And I'm definitely not dancer material, background or not."
"You don't know that," Alix chimed in "Don't you think Clara has a better idea of who's good enough to be in her videos then you do? You should let her decide if you're good enough."
"Yeah," Nathaniel agreed, nodding "You never know unless you try right?"
"It's not just that," Marc mumbled "it's the idea of being in a music video, a music video that will be viewed thousands of times, if not more, and will be on the internet for the rest of eternity an-" Marc cut himself off by shaking his head frantically "What about you two? Were you going to audition?"
"Oh god no!" Nathaniel laughed "At least, I'm not. I only came to support Alix, her girlfriends made her come with them."
"Trust me, I was not keen on the idea," Alix complained, huffing as she flopped backwards so she was lying down "Dancing in a music video isn't really my style."
"Understandably," Marc agreed before looking back at Nathaniel "Why aren't you auditioning?"
"Same reason really. I'm not much of a dancer, I prefer just observing."
"I tried to make him audition with me," Alix started "I walked in on him dancing in his room one time and he's really good for someone that spends most of their time sitting down or napping-" Nathaniel gave Alix a playful punch "but he won't have it."
"That's a shame, if you're good you should try." Marc mumbled as Nathaniel rolled his eyes at Alix before looking back at Marc, eyes slitted in thought.
"Tell you what," he started, keeping his eyes locked on Marc in an uncomfortable way "you wanted to audition right?"
"Well… yeah, kinda…" Marc mumbled.
"I'll audition if you do."
Marc was glad he wasn't drinking water right then or he would have done a classic movie spit-take on the other boy.
"B-but I can't! I can't be online! I-I'll make a fool of myself, I'll mess up the choreography and then I'll never be able to watch the video ever or even listen to the song again because I'll know that I messed up and I'll have to be homeschooled until the people from my school forget that ever happened-" Marc rambled, not stopping for a second to take a breath as his hands fiddled with the sleeve of his hoodie. He was so caught up in worst-case scenarios that he didn't notice Nathaniel move behind him and grab his hood until the fabric was pulled over his head, effectively cutting off his tangent.
"There," Nathaniel nodded, moving so he was back in front of Marc "Now you're a little more hidden from view. No one will be able to clearly see your face so if something goes wrong and it somehow makes the final cut of the video then all you have to do is change your clothes and no one will even know it was you."
Marc lifted the hood slightly so it was no longer covering his eyes and he could see Nathaniel smiling at him and catch Alix's eyeroll.
Alix mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'bisexual mess' before Nathaniel gave Alix another, slightly harder, punch.
"So what do you say?" Nathaniel prompted "Up for auditioning now?"
Marc took a second to mull over the idea, pulling the hood a little more securely in place before nodding.
"Only if you are."
Marc was very pleased to be able to run back to his house that day and tell his parents he had made it into the video.
His mum didn't need to know that it wasn't her pep talk that convinced him in the end but the near stranger who would probably forget Marc existed in a few days.
Marc wouldn't forget Nathaniel though, he was sure of it.