*picture isn't mine* Enjoy! 

"It's actually forty-two." Nathaneal said as Marinette doodled on her notebook, not caring or knowing what was happening in her math class that half of the things she learned weren't useful in her life. "How did you get eighty three?"

Marinette raised her head to look at the boy who awfully looked like a tomato. "Because I don't know math. It's all too confusing."

"Its easy if you pay attention." Nathaneal said, leaning over to see what Marinette was drawing. "And not drawing black umbrellas while the teacher explains everything."

Marinette scowled, then a smile rose to her face. "Says the boy who's failing chemistry because he's drawing me."

Nathaneal turned bright red, just like a tomato and shrugged it off with a little smile. "You actually draw really good, if you want my opinion as an artist."

Marinette remained quiet and focused on her math procedures as the teacher passes their table, the whole class silent. She leaned next to Nathaneal and whispered closely, "Thank you. I didn't the umbrella to come out nicely. I hate them now."

Nathaneal trailed his eyes up and met hers. "Why? Is there something wrong with rainy days?"

"No," Marinette said, her eyes saddening with a darker color. "Not for other people."

Nathaneal didn't reply to her and Marinette was sure she crept another boy out. It had been three weeks since she and Adrien broke up and the absence of him killed her again and again. How could she move on when he was the only reason she wanted to move at all? To think that he was sitting on the other side of the room, talking with Lila who somehow became his best friend was like a bullet straight through her heart. 

Alya spend much of her time with Nino these days, but Rose and Juleka would include her and hug her mostly every time that saw her, thankful she was back with them. Most people didn't want to talk with her because they thought she faked her death. Why would she do that? Nathaneal here who was brave enough to sit down next to her where most of the seats weren't taken, realized how insane and hopeless she was.

"Okay class, I'm going to grade your papers. Hand them to the person in front of you." The teacher demanded and Marinette stacked Nathaneal's paper with hers and handed them to Max and Kim who were sitting in front of them. Max locked eyes with Marinette and sort of understatement flashed before his eyes like they were again those young teenagers fighting for a spot in the tournament. He smiled at her. A true smile that nobody had given to her in a long time. It broke some part of sadness Marinette held close to her chest. She, relieved, smiled back at him.

"Here," Nathaneal said handing Marinette a little piece of notebook paper as they bell rang. She grabbed her things and stuffed them in her backpack, eager to go home as she saw what Nathaneal had drawn. It was her, splashing around in the puddles, the Eiffel Tower in the distance with the words, 'Using umbrellas in the rain is stupid.' She had to admit, she laughed out loud over how ridiculous it sounded, in not using umbrellas.

"Marinette!" Alya said happily, tackling her in a hug. "You're laughing! What's that miracle?"

Marinette showed Alya the paper and her bewildered expression made the situation funnier Marinette's stomach hurt. "You don't get it, that's the best part."

"Did Nathaneal draw that?" Alya asked and Marinette nodded as her laughter ceased, but her smile remained. Alya pulled her back in another hug and this time, Marinette hugged back and squeezed tightly. Alya was there, maybe Marinette couldn't see her, but Alya would always be there for her no matter what hell Marinette crossed through. "It doesn't matter. I'm just happy you're happy. I'm going to study with Nino in the library. Want to join us?"

"No, thank you." Marinette said politely looking down at her sketch that brought another laughter up her throat, but died on her mouth. "I'll see you tomorrow."

As Marinette left the classroom trying insanely hard not to turn back and see Adrien exit with Lila, she heard Alya sigh in relief and talk to Nino about how Marinette was moving on. Moving on? She didn't understand what those two words meant. She wasn't moving on, she could never move on from an anchor that would always pull her back. How can you escape a maze your head made? 

She could never move on, not with Adrien who's eyes seemed brighter than heaven's light. Tikki's absence also drowned her. Everything seemed easier and positive with Tikki at her side. Marinette was sure that if Hawkmoth still remained to be alive, she would've been akumatized plenty of times now. She was only starting to leave the school when the pounding rain came down and started to stain her clothes and hair. 

"Are you serious?" She yelled up into the sky like there was some god above that was mocking her. She sighed in exasperation as she looked down at her heart was pulled back into the black abyss that was slowly consuming her. Nathaneal's sketch was destroyed because of the rain and suddenly, she was crying. Every tiny detail that would've just destroyed her smile, destroyed her happiness now.  

She collapsed to her knees and buried her face in her hands, leaving Nathaneal's beacon of happiness for her besides and letting the rain consume her. Here, she had died. Here she had lived and killed again. There was this voice roaming around her head she decided to call Timothy that would tell her how to feel, how to act, how to think. What was it telling her now? To stand in the middle of the road and expect a car to hit her and snatch what was left of her life away, joining the other part of Marinette up with the stars.

"Did you took the drawing thing too serious?" A bashful voice asked. Marinette shook her head, not daring to meet Nathaneal's eyes anymore. He knelt beside her and grabbed her hands, pushing them away from her face. He stared into her eyes and his smile faded. "Why are you crying?"

"Your-your drawing," Marinette said through sobs and a mess of tears. "It's gone because of the rain, I'm-I'm sorry."

Nathaneal smiled and cupped her face, with his thumb he removed the freshest tear that came down her cheek. Being so close to him put her mind at ease like there wasn't a suicidal Timothy, that were wasn't Hawkmoth akumatizing her, that there wasn't any bad threat out in the world coming and getting her. Being so close to him...not even Adrien could make her thoughts. "I can make another drawing for you anytime, Marinette, but if we don't move you're going to get sick."

"Anything to miss school." Marinette replied, looking down at her hands like she was a monster. "I'm sorry you had to see me like this I..." Thinking back on the balcony that day where Chat Noir had broken into sobs in her arms he had said the exact same thing and thinking of him made her sobs fresh and heart-breaking again.

"Hey, no, don't cry. I don't know what to do when people cry." Nathaneal said and she was suddenly in his arms and he was rocking her back and forward and Marinette couldn't breath and everything around her disappeared. Her head rested on his chest and she could hear his heart-beat. Did she have one? Was her heart still pumping blood even though it was shattered to pieces? "I really don't know what happened to you and I want to know, but if you don't want to tell me and just need a pair of arms, my arms are there for you."

"Thank you." Marinette said, her voice lost in the pouring rain. They stayed for what seemed hours until Nathaneal broke apart and took his jacket off. Suddenly, her hair was dry, no more raindrops would touch her hair because of the shield she had. She looked up to see Nathaneal's jacket safely on her head.

She laughed at took off her own jacket, putting in on his head now they traded jackets.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Marinette said sweetly. "Don't lose that jacket, I created it with my own hands."

Nathaneal looked at the sleeves like they were brought down by an angel. "I won't. I'll protect it better than my life. See you tomorrow, Marinette."

She nodded and walked away from him as Nathaneal grabbed his bike and peddled away. Marinette entered her bakery, her parents working non-stop because of Chloe's birthday party. It was the rumor that spread around the school like wildfire. Everybody was talking about it and making sure Chloe would give them an invitation. She didn't care. She didn't care as long as her father paid her parents well for making 5,000 cupcakes individual with perfect shaped, silver Eiffel Towers and yellow icing at the bottom and 1,000 cupcakes of individual flying bees with the same icing.

"Do you need help?" Marinette asked her parents but they shook their heads, sweat dripping down their foreheads. "Call me if you can't continue."

She walked up the stairs to her room and threw herself to her bed and waited for the world to slip her away. She counted the days to see Tikki again, the only person Marinette wanted to talk desperately. She needed to talk to someone who could listen to her, who would give her close advice and would promise her everything would be okay. Most people like they were withering away...

Her phone buzzed. Marinette picked it up to see a text of Adrien. How are you?       

She almost laughed at how ridiculous he was behaving. Today in chemistry he asked her if she needed a pen. Adrien clearly didn't understand she was trying so hard for her heart not to break in seeing him smile. How could he smile? It's like their break up didn't mean anything to him, like Marinette was just another thing to flicker away. 

She shook her head, tears already blurring her vision as she blocked his number. If they were going to break up and if she needed to surpass him, she couldn't hold any more memories of him. Around her room not one picture of Adrien was around, she threw them all to the trash even though her intentions were to burn them. Adrien wanted to remain friends, but friendship couldn't hold her heart like their love did, if it every existed. 

She had to move on.

Let him go, Timothy said. The sickening voice in her head that was starting to annoy. In fact, let everything go. Tie a rope, kick a chair. Simple.     

She wasn't going to listen to the voice anyway, but sometimes it was much harder to ignore. Suddenly, she jumped, startled as a rock smashed her window. Her parents called down to her but she told them nothing was wrong, that her craft box only fell. They didn't reply back which only meant they bought it.

Marinette quickly opened the trapdoor leading to her balcony only to see an injured man, clutching his bleeding side that has clearly been impaled, a look of pleading in his eyes as words managed to slip away from his lips, "Help me."

Without another word, Gabriel Agreste collapsed on her balcony.