Chapter 18

I heard the reverberating footsteps

Synching up to the beating of my heart,

And I was positive that unless I got myself together,

I would watch me fall apart.

"You look terrible."

Chloe didn't even spare the speaker a glance

"Thanks. I worked hard on the 'depressed' look this morning. I'm sure it'll catch on later this season." She rolled her eyes.

After what had happened the night before she was absolutely exhausted. So exhausted in fact that she'd had to forgo a majority of her makeup in order to make it to school on time. Which, more than likely, was what Nathanael was commenting on. But, since she had no patience to spare, she did her best to ward him off before he became too nosy for his own good.

"Geeze," Nathanael said as he put his things on their shared table. "What's up with you?"

Or at least tried to.

"Doesn't matter." She started angrily swiping through her phone haphazardly in an attempt to look busy.

"Well, considering that today is our first in-class work day for our project… I'd say it matters quite a bit."

She slammed her phone onto the table and started to roughly rifle through her bag. She set her journal down just as hard as her phone, flipped it over to one of the sketches that she'd done on Tuesday when she'd still be grounded, and pushed it over to his side of the table, nearly knocking his belongings off in the process.

"Here," she said with one of her steeliest glares.

He spared the notebook a small glance, but then matched her look with one of his own.

"Look, you don't have to tell me what's going on, but the least you could do is be civil with me."

Chloe opened her mouth to retort with something, but at that moment Mrs. Rousseau clapped her hands to gain the classes attention. Throughout her explanation of what a 'work day' would mean, Chloe remained resolutely facing forward, arms crossed tightly across her chest.

She knew that, technically, her behavior wasn't all that great. But, for some reason beyond her understanding, he'd been overly… talkative since their little run-in at the thrift store over the weekend. He'd greeted her almost every day and even tried to make small talk with her.

Which, all things considered, was really odd and made her cautious. Because, in her experience, when people suddenly found an interest in Chloe outside of the activity that she was participating in, they were interested in one of three things: money, fame, or connections. She'd had some luck when she'd made friends with Sabrina and Adrien as neither had ever asked for any of those things, but she could feel her guard going up and up every day.

By the time that their teacher was done explaining everything, Chloe was so wound up more than she had been at the beginning of class. If she wasn't careful then one wrong word and it was likely that she'd snap.

And she didn't want to find out if it'd be in anger or sadness.

"You have a good start with these sketches," Nathanael said as he, thankfully, immediately got down to business. "With a bit of clean up I should be able to work with it. Do you have any ideas for what order we should put the miraculous in or which percentage you'd like to do for them? Or how you'd like to position them?"

Chloe knit her eyebrows together. "I hadn't really thought much past doing the miraculous…"

"It's okay. I'm a bit stuck on all that too." He frowned. "I tried sketching a bit myself, but I don't like how it looks."

He flipped open his own journal and slid it towards her. There was a sketch with all of the three heroes' miraculous with the heroes standing behind them, another with just the miraculous together in a jewelry box of sorts, and another with busts of the heroes clustered together, looking in three different directions.

She bit her lip as she looked between his much more detailed sketches — could they really be sketches with how well done they were?— and her own much simpler work. She knew that Nathanael was quiet artistically talented, but to see his work so up close to her own made her feel… inadequate.

A feeling that she absolutely despised.

"You should just do the whole project," sure said as she pulled out her phone like a security blanket.

"Chloe, the whole point of this project is two things coming together."

"Well, then you should do the drawing and I'll color it."

Nathanael sighed as he pulled his sketchbook back. "Chloe, your drawings are fine. Besides, seeing how you placed the earrings is way better than what I could do"

"Doubtful."

"Look. I get that you're intimidated by my sketches."

"No I'm not! I just—"

"Don't have as much practice as Nathanael does." Mrs. Rousseau said patiently. Both students started in surprise. "Sorry, I couldn't help overhearing and thought I should intervene.

"Chloe. I think you're being a little unfair. "

She immediately bristled.

"Now, now. Let me finish." Mrs. Rousseau brought her hands up placating. "Your attention to detail and drive for perfection is admirable, but I think you're being unfair to yourself right now."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're trying to hold yourself to a standard that you have yet to achieve. You wouldn't expect a toddler to run a marathon before they learned to run, would you?"

"No..."

"Then how can you expect yourself to be perfect at a skill that you're just starting to get the grasp of?"

Chloe huffed and refused to meet Mrs. Rousseau's eyes. She knew for a fact that the teacher was right in her own way. But, she was the mayor's daughter and a superhero now. If she wasn't the perfect picture of both then what was she?
"I don't expect you to admit as such, especially with so many of your peers eavesdropping in on our current conversation." The lull in conversations around the room immediately picked back up as the others in the room pretended that they hadn't been listening in the first place as their teacher gave everyone else a knowing look. "But please consider what I've said and give yourself a break.

"Nothing you create has to be perfect in order for it to be considered a work of art."

And, with that, Mrs. Rousseau moved on.

They didn't really get much more progress done on their project. Instead they each stewed over what their teacher had said and whatever else went through their minds. For Chloe that was the perpetual heartache as she caught glimpses of Sabrina laughing at something that Alya was saying. It hurt to see her doing so well while her heart was breaking over and over again, but there wasn't much she could do besides.

Eventually class ended and Chloe knew she should care about how little progress they had made, but she didn't really have the energy.

There was a tap on the table in front of her.

Looking up, Chloe found Nathanael standing there awkwardly.

"What do you want?" Chloe tried to pour as much bite into her tone, but she was pretty sure that it was more pathetic than intimidating.

"Meet me out front after classes get out today."

Her eyebrows knit together. "Why?"

"We got absolutely nothing done today and I, for one, don't want to do all of this last minute."

"Shouldn't we meet at the library then?"

"There's some activity going on today. Besides, my lunch sucked today so I want to get a snack at this café nearby."

"Fine. But don't expect me to pay for you."

"I don't know where you got that idea from." He scrunched his face up. "I'm more than capable paying for myself."

"Well from the looks of it I'd say—"

"If the two of you don't move onto your next class you're going to be late," Mrs. Rousseau interrupted.

Chloe exchanged a look with her partner before making a mad dash to the door.

As a general rule, Chloe did not, in fact, hang out with her classmates after school. She had to deal with each and every one of them for eight hours a day and therefore she didn't need to spend any extra time with them outside of a few exceptions.

So, it was much to her chagrin, that she found herself waiting for Nathanael outside of the school.

"This is dumb," she muttered under her breath.

"I think this will be good for you," Lyssa said with a small pat to her hand. "Nathanael seems like a nice boy and—"

"What?!" She shot a glare at her kwami.

Nonplussed, Lyssa shrugged. "It's just a statement. No reason to get defensive."

"You know how that sounded and I have no such feelings towards him. To imply as such is utterly ridiculous."

"If you say so…"

"Oh, hey." Chloe zipped her bag shut tight and hoped that she didn't look nearly as crazy as she felt. "I didn't think you'd actually stick around."

"Of course I did. If I fail a class Daddy will ground me again."

He rolled his eyes. "I'm sure that would be the absolute end of the world if he did." He kept walking and didn't look back to see if she was following him. "Now c'mon I want to get a good seat."

"W-wait up!"

It didn't take too much to catch up to her classmate, but his pace was absolutely brutal on her. Perhaps she really should start working out more as a civilian…

There wasn't any real reason to rush. The café wasn't too far away from the school and there wasn't any sort of rush happening in the small establishment either. But, Nathanael didn't slow down until he was in line at the counter. Once there he turned to Chloe.

"I'm getting a hot chocolate, do you want anything?"

"What, are you going to pay for me or something?"

He shrugged. "I thought I'd at least offer since you probably weren't expecting to go here when you left for school."

Chloe felt both a bolt of embarrassment at Lyssa's earlier insinuation and anger at the slight to her pride. How dare he think that she couldn't pay for herself!

"If I want anything, I'll pay for it myself," she said through her nose. Besides, if he paid then she would most certainly never hear the end of it from Lyssa and that would be a problem all its own.

"Suit yourself." The person in front of them stepped to the side and Nathanael ordered for himself.

As he made conversation with the male barista, Chloe opened her purse in order to retrieve her wallet. As soon as she unzipped it, Lyssa handed her the credit card that her father had given her with expressed permission that she could buy whatever she needed while he was away on business. She gave a small nod to her kwami in thanks, zipped the bag back up and then stepped up to the counter herself.

"I'll have a vanilla caramel latte with soy milk, two shots of espresso, and nothing else. No whip cream, no foam, no nothing. Understand?"

The barista, a boy around their age with partially spiked black hair in the back blinked in surprise. "I-I-I'm sorry. Can you say that one more time?"

"I'll have," she drawled out much slower than necessary. "A vanilla caramel latte with soy milk, two shots of espresso, and nothing else. Capiche?"

The barista quickly tapped in her order into the display. "A-and what size will that be?"

"The largest one that you have."

"A-A-Are you sure?" His eyes blew wide as he looked from her to Nathanael. "Our largest size is 32 ounces!"

"Yes I'm sure. That's why I said it." She crossed her arms.

"O-okay," he said "That. That'll be. Um, ten?"

Chloe slid her card through the reader without a second thought.

"Can I get a name?"

"Chloe."

"We'll call your—your name when we're done with it. With your drink."

Chloe barely stayed long enough to listen to the barista speak before she went off in search of a table, slipping her card in her purse as she went. She wasn't surprised when Nathanael didn't follow her. She could have stood and waited as well, but she didn't feel like making small talk with him or anyone else. Instead she put her head down on the table and allowed herself to zone out some.

She already regretted sticking around after school

"I get that you're upset or something, but you really don't have to take it out on Marc," Nathanael said as he sat across from her. Picking up her head she watched as he set her drink down beside her as well.

"Who's Marc?" She asked as she picked up her drink.

"The barista? Didn't you see his name tag?"

"I didn't bother looking."

"Ugh, you're hopeless." He took a drink of his hot chocolate before pulling out his sketchbook and a box of supplies. "Look, if we can get some actual work done, then you can go and do whatever."

"Fine." Not that she was in any particular rush to go home to an empty suite, but she still pulled out her own sketchbook. Turning to the page that they had been at earlier. "Where should we start."

"Let's decide what ratio we'd like for each of the miraculous then we can decide on other pieces of it."

"Okay." Chloe wasn't sure if he expected more of a fight from her, but she let him ride out his surprise before speaking again. "What."

"Nothing." He shook his head. "Do you have any preference on how much of each one you want to draw/shade?"

"No."

"… Ok. Do you have a preference on how much color each one has?"

"No."

He let out a very loud sigh.

"Chloe…"

She let out an annoyed sound of her own. "You asked if I had a preference and I don't. I don't care, Nathanael." Her voice started rising. "Look. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it. What part that don't you understand?!"

All she could hear was ringing in her ears and echoes of her own voice bouncing off the walls of the small café. There was probably a silence as well as they dissipated, but she couldn't hear it over the sound of her own ragged breathing and the sound of a closing door and footsteps—

"Chloe?"

Her head whipped up to find Nathanael looking at her with something akin to concern in his face. Was it sincere? She couldn't tell from how blurry he looked, though. And, if she was being honest, she didn't care to find out.

"I-I need to go home." She clutched her purse, grabbed her bag, and stood abruptly. She needed out. Now.

For a moment it looked as though Nathanael was going to insist that she stay and work on their project. But, then, what fight that had gathered in him escaped him in one short sigh. He gathered his own things, both of their drinks, and stood beside her.

"Alright. I'll walk you home."

Chloe blinked in surprise.

"I'm perfectly capable of—"

"I'm going that way anyways." It was probably a lie, but she didn't have a whole lot of energy to refuse him. "C'mon."

They made their way out, stopping only for Nathanael to wave at the barista and bid him adieu. As soon as they exited onto the busy street, an awkward silence fell between them. There was probably something that she was supposed to say right now, thank you, sorry, who really knew. But instead she bit her lip and trailed behind her classmate turned project partner.

There was a bit of a walk from the café to her father's hotel, and she couldn't say that it didn't help some. The boiling emotions that had threatened to spill out of her in the café had cooled significantly. Everything still sucked a lot, but between the air and the exercise it helped clear her head some.

The constant company wasn't terrible either.

She knew that they really should start on this project. There was no telling what Hawk Moth would do between now and the deadline. And, without Sabrina as a safety net, she wouldn't be able to put it off too long. That, and she was pretty sure that their teacher wouldn't fail her if she didn't do her part.

And Chloe didn't like failing.

It wasn't too much longer that they came to a stop in front of the Le Grand Paris Hotel. The torrent of people parted around them, continuing forward like a river that had come upon a rock. Neither moved to go their separate ways.

"Look—"

"I want to do all of Queen Bee's Miraculous."

Nathanael blinked in surprise.

"I don't care which one you want to do more of or which one should be half and half, I just really want to have hers all sketchy. I…" She looked away. "I think it'd make sense since she's still starting out."

He hummed. "Y'know that makes a lot of sense. If that's the case then it'd probably make sense to do have Ladybug and Chat Noirs be the seventy-five percent ones and Hawk Moth's be half and half. It'd probably keep the set balanced."

She nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

They lapsed into silence.

"Y'know..." He trailed off. She looked back up at him. He was looking at her and she expected to find condescension or worse, but all she could find was open honesty. "I think you should get out more."

"I get out."

"No not…" He made a frustrated noise. "I mean I think you should join a club or something. I don't know what's going on exactly between you and Sabrina, at least without you or her talking to me, but you can't just have one best friend and everyone else be your supposed enemy. It's not… It's not a good place to be."

He gripped the strap of his bag a bit harder.

"I know we aren't close or anything, but I just thought I'd give you a bit of friendly advice since this whole break up between you and Sabrina is obviously messing with you pretty badly.

"We weren't…" She swallowed around a lump in her throat. "We weren't dating."

Nathanael looked at her in surprise. "Well, if you're close enough to someone I'm pretty sure it hurts just as much." He cleared his throat. "Anyways. Just think about it?

"Okay."

He nodded. There was no telling how seriously she was going to take his advice, but it was enough to placate him. "Alright. I'll see you on Monday. Take care."

And, with that, he turned and made his way back towards his own home.

A/N: So I struggled a bit with the ending of this chapter because Chloe wanted nothing more than to run away and not look back... but it just didn't seem like that's what was actually going to happen. I hope that this came out alright and that you enjoyed it. Thanks so much for being patient and for reading. Please let me know what you think!