12: Teams

"N-No!! Please, come on, I'll help you, just don't... Don't take my akuma away! I need it!!" A voice yelled as you came down the stairs. You furrowed your eyebrows as you entered the living room. Fader was clutching his hair and pacing around, a neon purple butterfly outline lining his eyes. He continued to pace around, waving his arms frantically as he protested about his akuma being taken away, not noticing your appearance.

You had let him stay the night, downstairs of course, since you were too tired to be bothered. You didn't really know why he needed to stay the night; he was perfectly fine, but he did anyway. Now that you thought about it, that was an extremely stupid move and you shouldn't have done that, but he didn't do anything to you, so it was okay. You walked into the room.

"What's going on?" You asked bluntly. He jumped slightly as he glanced at you.

"Nothing. Nothing happened. I'm going to go now; I need to fight Ladybug and Chat Noir. I've recovered completely, so it's fine." He mumbled, spinning on his heel and walking over to the door.

"Oh, okay. You ate?" You asked as you entered the kitchen.

"Uh-huh." He nodded. You heard the door open, then he spoke once more, "I'll make sure I'm there to pay for those windows!"

"Alright, sure!" You called back with a smirk, before you heard the door slam behind him. You let out a laugh. "He's so going to be de-akumatized..."

You headed up to your room. It was another school day, so you needed to get ready. You woke up early, so you could take your time. You changed your clothes quickly out of habit, since you usually got ready last minute, and then gathered a few things. You didn't have too much homework today, but you got a backpack anyway. You didn't understand how some people got through school without these things...

Once you had finished getting ready, you decided to check Alya's ladyblog. Nothing was going on there. You did the same with the news only to find the same result. So Fader hadn't made a move yet... You decided you would enable notifications on Alya's ladyblog. You hadn't before as you weren't too interested in akumas, but now... You were curious, especially with what happened to you.

You played on your phone for a while before deciding it was a good time to go to school. You could just watch videos before class started. You grabbed your headphones and walked to school. You got there quickly. It was an average, sunny day with no disruptions and the typical cheery atmosphere. How boring...

You headed into school, nothing out of the ordinary happening. No one noticed you. You sat at your desk, browsing random things on your phone. Nathaniel was beside you, though you didn't pay too much attention to him until he started to talk to you.

"Uh, h-hey, Y/N..." Nathaniel gulped. You turned to him with a wave.

"Hey, Nathaniel." You smiled.

"Uhm, we have to pick a group for the art project..." Nathaniel mumbled. This caught your attention.

"Art project? What art project?" You asked in confusion. You were listening during the last art lesson, so you should have known this...

"A-Ah, it's going to be assigned later today! The teacher told us last week about it, but we haven't made groups yet... I thought I could ask you..." Nathaniel trailed off. You let out a small huff with a smile.

"Alright, sure. Who else do you have in mind?" You asked. Nathaniel opened his mouth, only for no sound to come out. He silenced for a moment, before continuing.

"U-uhm... I didn't decide the last person, but Marc is already in our group... We're not sure about the last two people..." Nathaniel mumbled. You shrugged.

"I'm not so sure either. Maybe we can just find someone on the spot during art." You spoke. Nathaniel nodded.

"Y-Yeah, I guess we could..."

"So you're the only one left, huh..?" You huffed with a smile. Everyone had grouped up, and your group hadn't got a fourth or fifth member. The only person left was Max.

"I'm not good at art. I always get picked last for it in group projects..." Max mumbled, glancing away. Kim came up to your group.

"Huh?! You got to be with Nathaniel?? Let me join!" Kim gasped, pointing his finger to himself as he yelled. Max's eyes widened before he crossed his arms with a hmph.

"You abandoned me, but now I'm with a better group. You can't change groups anyway, you're already listed down." The boy spoke. The two continued to argue. You, Nathaniel and Marc inched away.

"So, uh, the project... What's it about again?" You asked with a slight laugh. You weren't listening...

"Oh, we just have to make posters to go around school about encouraging phrases and stuff. It'll be easy." Nathaniel smiled. You nodded.

"That's it? ...Couldn't we just print some out from the internet..?" You spoke. They shook their heads.

"No, it has to be made by us. We do get graded on this... The teacher said to make a range of posters, like simple ones and detailed ones. They can be digitally drawn or drawn in real life, but it doesn't matter." Marc continued. You nodded.

"So I guess you can come up with encouraging phrases and stuff? I'm good with landscapes and shading things, so I guess I can do that... I can sort of draw peo, and it's okay, but not as good as your comics." You replied.

"I'll do the simple doodles and stuff, maybe comic strips too... If we do comics, Marc will need to help me with the story." Nathaniel replied. 

"Nathaniel, it's only a small comic strip. You can do that easily..." Marc sighed. Nathaniel had drawn comics before, but apparently they weren't that good story-wise. 

"I still need ideas."

"I guess..."

"So, what should Max do?" You spoke. The two turned to you, then thought.

"Well, Max could research what we should do for the posters? Then he could help me with the phrases, and we could try help out with the art after, since this is an art project..." Marc spoke hesitantly. "...Maybe we shouldn't touch your art. We might mess it up."

"Well, I'm doing mine digitally, so maybe you can help with base colors if you really want to." You shrugged.

"Oh, you can do the same with mine!"

"Huh? What's going on? Have you planned everything without me?" Max asked, finally joining your group.

"We've got the jobs down. Let me write them..." Marc spoke, scribbling down in a notebook. This was enjoyable. It made you happy... But you had a feeling that being in a team would be troublesome...