Written in response to this ask from lalunaunita on Tumblr:
"Hi! Can I ask for #7, platonic/friendship, with Nathalie and Gabriel? Hope so, have a great day."
"Foolish woman, you're supposed to run away from rampaging akumas!"
Nathalie arched an immaculate brow at her employer, and tugged her torn, soot-stained blazer into place. "Sir, you're the one who told me never to let any harm come to your master sketch book, under any circumstances."
"My sketch b—"
She held it up calmly, and he realized that what he'd taken for her tablet was actually his scketch book. "I believe it may have been slightly damaged, but it's in excellent condition, considering."
The usually unflappable Gabriel Agreste stared, dumbfounded, at his assistant. She lowered the book with a frown.
"Sir? Are you alright? Were you injur—"
"Damnit, Nathalie, I don't care about the book." He knocked it carelessly from her hands and pulled her into a hug. "I almost lost you."
The equally unflappable Nathalie froze, every bit as stunned as her employer had just been. In all her years of working for him, the man had never done more than to shake her hand on the day she'd been hired. And now he was hugging her?
What was the protocol here? Hug him back? Wait for him to recall himself, and pretend it hadn't happened?
"S-sir?" Her voice came out in a squeak, and she winced.
He stiffened and released her as if he'd been burned, his eyes wide and an uncharacteristic blush staining his cheeks. He cleared his throat, and arranged his face into its normal, neutral expression. "In the future, please refrain from endangering yourself, regardless of the reason. I would hate to have to train a new assistant, Nathalie. It would be terribly inconvenient."
She blinked. "Yes, I suppose it would be."
"Indeed." He inclined his head, and turned on his heel to stride to the waiting car.
She stared after him for a moment, utterly bemused by the events of the last five minutes.
"Will you be joining us, Mlle Sancouer?"
She jolted, straightening her ruined blazer once more. "Of course, sir." She slid into the car opposite her employer, and turned her face to the window to hide her smile.