Miraculous Moments [Miraculous LadyBug Fanfic]

Slow Dance

"Uhg," the prissy child gagged. Her arms were crossed in front of Nathanael, chin held up high and proud. "Why should I dance with you? You're not even that good."

The droopy haired kid frowned at her. "You never saw me dance, so why are you telling me how good I am?"

"Because I can." she said, turning her head away with her hair flipping onto her shoulder. "And I say you're a bad, bad dancer."

"I am not!" Nath whined. "I never saw you dance too, so maybe you're as bad as me."

"Am not!"

He smiled and crossed his previously out stretched arms. "Well, I never danced with you, so how would I know?"

"I'll show you," she said. Her hand snapped out and grabbed his arm, dragging him back to the rest of class.

On the dance floor, they tried to follow the instructions of the teacher. She counted the beats of the steps and helped every other group with their posture. Nathanael saw Chloe looking at her feet more than him. He frowned when she tried to step forward stepping on his foot. He stepped to the side, she went back. "Chloe," he whispered. She looked up and scowl on her face. "I'm supposed to lead and you follow me."

"I don't follow anyone," she said.

He rolled his eyes. Taking a huge step forwards, his chest was pressed against hers. Within seconds, she pushed away. He let go of her hands and stepped aside. "You're a bad dancer." She followed him and yelled how he was in the wrong. He took a step back. She followed. He stepped beck to where they had been; she wasn't done talking. He smiled and grabbed her hands. "Not that hard to follow, right?"

She turned red, infuriated.

---

Her patients was wearing thin as the new girl stumbled into their class. She kept stepping on toes and falling and slipping. All her dance partners laughed, but Chloe just rolled her eyes. At least she had a good partner.

"Nathanael?" the teacher called. The boy stopped his dance with Chloe and looked up. "Can you help teach Marinette how to dance?"

He nodded, looking back at Chloe who frowned. Their hands dropped with her head as she muttered, "you're still mine." He nodded again, not smiling or frowned as he let go of her.

Chloe watched as he grabbed the new girl's hand, smiling. She giggled at him, he giggled back. Chloe turned her head away and stalked off.

---

Gym began and everyone scrambled for dancing partners. Chloe sat out as she always had. Nathanael walked up to Marinette, extending a slow hand. Chloe fumed at the gesture that was once hers. However, the girl shook her head, muttering something and walked off with the new kid that wore his headphones around his neck.

She saw her boy sigh and walk up to her. With a pout, she asked "What about Marinette?"

"She decided to dance with the new kid." He looked back at her and smiled. "She likes to help people, got it from me I guess."

Chloe scoffed. "So you're here to dance with me because you wanna 'help'?"

He nodded. "And you're the only one without a partner." She felt a jab in her chest.

He extended his hands. She took them and spat, "you're still not that great of a dancer."

"I know."

---

Nathanael drew in his notebook. His figures began to take shape and dance on the page. He held up his arms, staring at his hands and shoulder just to get it right. He switched his hands to draw the other one.

"What are you doing?" asked a disgusted voice. He looked up to see Chloe staring down at him.

He stared back up. "Drawing?" he said unsure.

"Why are you holding an imaginary ball?"

"I'm just referencing—"

"Real artists don't need references." she scoffed.

Nathanael flinched, staring down at his paper. He frowned, covering the drawn hand with his own. "What would you know?"

"Because I've met a real artist who could draw whatever he wanted to from his mind and didn't need to stare at his own hand." she said with her head held high. "You should meet him sometime. Get some lessons and then draw me."

The boy abruptly stood up and left. He walked across the park, just as he was about to leave he saw a garbage can. He stared at it and his book for a good moment.

He then walked away with a few missing pages from his notebook.

---

Nathanael scowled at his new notebook. There weren't any lines for guidance. His eraser kept smuggling his marks and his pencil was too light of a shade. Just as he was about to finish a square, the teacher yelled. His grip and jaw tightened and his hand jerked in anger. A harsh line erupted out of no where and ruined everything.

He was forced to put down his work and join gym. He sulked as the adult forced kids to choose their own partners. He glanced at Chloe. She was looking around and he immediately began to look away.

He felt a tap on his shoulder and saw a tiny Marinette looking at him with bright eyes. "Hey. Nathanael, right? Remember me?" He didn't frown, but was too nervous to smile. Instead, he nodded. She giggled. "You taught me how to dance. Since it's our first unit I thought maybe I could have the master of dance stay my partner for the time being."

He smiled at the name, 'master of dance'. "I'm not an expert," he said. "I'm better at drawing than anything else."

"Really?" She asked, her interest peaked. "I've been drawing a bit myself. I mostly draw girls, mostly go into what they wear more than their faces though."

Nathanael chuckled. "I've been trying to draw hands and feet for a month without reference. It's hard and I'm staring to hate drawing a bit more."

"It can't be that bad," she cooed.

"It is."

"Show me after our dance."

He smiled and took her hand.

"This is amazing!" she sees after class. She flipped through all of his pages. He couldn't smile or frown again and stayed silent. "You said you didn't use references?" He nodded. "Wow," she sighed. "I couldn't do that in a million years. Even my dresses come from some inspiration."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "Inspiration?"

She nodded with a sweet giggle. "And I usually use what I'm inspired by as a reference. That way, I know what I'm doing wrong in comparison."

He took his notebook from her and smiled. He set it down an took out his pencil. With every other glance, his hand scribbled line and lime with curves in between. Marinette watched with intent as he loomed over his page.  His pencil twirled between eraser and tip faster than she could with her own. Slowly, he backed away and she gasped at his drawing.

It was a portion of her face, her eye and nose. Her cat like eyes was bolder by a strong action line of lashes. Her iris was sharp and intense despite the color being grey. Her eyebrow was slightly raised and her nose was turned up. Shadows melted all of it together. All detail put together on a sketch the size of her thumb.

"It beautiful."

---

I intended this to be a Nathanael/Chloe fic, and then it became Marinette/Nathanael. Shame, I know.

I do feel like this could be the start of how Nathanael came to have a crush on her though. Her awe in his skill and being impressed by his talent would help him want to continue to impress her (or to feed his ego). This develops into a crush and viola! A ship is built to sail.