With one last deadly look Gabriel let go of him and continued his route to find Nathalie.
Martin just laughed at his partner's behavior before actually deciding to follow Hawk Moth.

*meanwhile with Nathalie*

Tom still couldn't process what happened to his victim, but once Catalyst pierced him with her terrifying eyes the black haired man exclaimed in terror:
"H-Holy fuck...w-what happened to you?!?!"
"None of your business! Now don't even dare come close to me or-!!"
But before Nathalie could finish her sentence Hawk Moth interrupted by entering the scene.
At first he was obviously relieved that he managed to find Nathalie but once he looked up and there was no sight of Tom, he became angry and frustrated.

This bothered him so much that he completely forgot about the real reason as to why he was here, but once he turned his his head it was already too late.
Martin was quicker than Gabriel and the brown haired man was already comforting the de-transformed Catalyst...Nathalie.
"Nath don't worry, we're here, you're safe."
"I-I k-know b-but-..."
"Just leave her alone Martin! She needs some time to process things."
Gabriel said from afar whilst looking at both (compared to him) 'young people'.
Nathalie smiled towards her boss since that's exactly what she wanted to say but Martin only gave him a cold nod before continuing to speak:
"Do you want me to carry you home?"

Once again the younger man got interrupted by Gabriel:
"Are you insane Martin?! Do you think she wants to be touched after this?!"
"Oh shut up, and leave us alone!!"
"Absolutely not!! She's just as important to me as she is to you!!...So Nathalie, would you like to take my miraculous and travel home?"
The designer kneeled down in front of her before taking off his purple brooch and holding out in front of her to which Nathalie reacted with another smile.
She even managed to quietly mumble:
"T-thank you, sir."
"No problem."

And with that she transformed on her own whilst Gabriel was left with Martin.
"Give me that!" The designer snatched away the blue peacock brooch from Martin and placed it onto his own blazer."Now hold my arm!"
"What am I? Five?"
"Oh so you want to be left alone? In London?"
"No but-..."
"Stop complaining Martin!! You really do sound like a 5 year old!!"

*later*

After they've arrived in Paris Gabriel took back both miraculouses and placed them into the secret little cupboard.
Once he  locked the jewels up he looked over at the brown haired man and without a warning grabbed the collar of his shirt:
"Not a word about this! Do you understand?"
"Yeah yeah I know, 'if anyone finds out, you'll be behind bars, and so will I.'"
"Good, you managed to memorize at least one useful thing."
And with that Gabriel let go of him.

Now Martin was about to reach and grab Nathalie's hand but she quickly pulled away.
"What do you want?!" The shocked woman asked, her voice more than afraid and almost trembling.
"I just want to go home...with you."
Martin replied innocently but Nathalie just shook her head:
"Go without me."
"But Nathalie-..."
"She said go! Do as told Martin!"
"Shut up Gabriel!"
"Make me you bastard!"

Both men had an intense staring contest which Nathalie watched.
She was very intrigued in the whole fight but at the same time she didn't want any conflict so within seconds she needed to break up the tension:
"Stop it!! Martin you just leave and Gab-sir...can you please drive me home?"
"I can also drive you-"
"She wasn't talking to you, was she?! Leave already or I'll have you kicked out of my house!!".

Finally Martin left, but before he did so; he 'blessed' Gabriel with his deadly stare that clearly meant "I hate you!"
The designer shrugged and just completely ignore his rival who seemed to be acting like a grumpy toddler.

"Fucking imbecile." Gabriel shook his head whilst giggling "I can't believe he managed to be with you. Nathalie next time don't lower yourself down onto his level."
"Sir please, he is nice most of the time. Except whenever you're around, don't take that personally though."
"I won't, don't worry. Now, do you want me to drive you?"
"I don't, I'd much rather stay. I was just too afraid to say that in front of...him."
This absolutely shocked the designer
But also bothered Gabriel a bit since he didn't know if she only wanted to stay because she found comfort in him or it was something more?...
Either way the grey haired man was happy to offer his help.

"You want to stay? With me? For the night?"
"Yes."
"In the same bed?" But as soon as he uttered that he gave himself a punch before continuing to speak: "Apologies that sounds wrong. Of course I didn't mean it in an
inappropriate way, I just didn't think you'd like to be so close after-...I'm sorry."
Gabriel had stoped talking and everything in the room went quiet.
He was more than convinced that he had done something wrong, but before the designer could formulate his apology Nathalie stepped a bit closer and looked up at her boss.
She made some fearful eye contact with him as she carefully spoke:
"It's fine. You're thinking completely reasonable things and I appreciate your kindness but it's different-" She hesitated for a bit, but once Nathalie came across her boss's teary expression she felt as if it was a duty to speak on: "-I know I can trust you. I know you'll protect me." The young assistant smiled up to her superior who had to wipe his own tears away before giving her a smile back.

Now the simple urge to hug her was slowly taking over Gabriel's body but his mind refused to move even just a tiny bit.
So he stayed right where he was before quietly whispering:
"I-...thank you Nathalie. That means a lot."

*later*

Gabriel was searching for a pijama pair that he could give to Nathalie and luckily after just a few minutes the designer managed to find one which would suit her a lot, so with a smile he placed the clothes in her hand:
"Here, I hope these are good."
"Thank you, I'm sure they're wonderful."
She happily uttered before walking away to the bathroom where she could change.

The young woman began slowly taking off her actual clothes but as she did so she felt more and more guilty.
Finally, once the assistant was only left in her underwear Nathalie stared at herself in the mirror, looking upon the heart that was burned into her abdomen.
She glared at the wound with teary eyes and couldn't help but sob a little since it hurt as she put on her pijama pants and the fabric brushed along the heart.

"Nathalie is everything alright?" Gabriel's worried voice which came from outside brought her back to reality.
"Y-yes sir. Everything is fine."
She mumbled lies, but whatever. It's not like Gabriel would care 'that' much about what she was saying...little did she know that he actually did care. He cared a lot!

Once Nathalie managed to put on her pijama she walked out of the bathroom acting as if nothing had happened, but even without her saying a word the designer knew something was wrong.
Nathalie carefully laid down in bed next to Gabriel, still making sure that she was an acceptable distance from him.
And after that she turned off the lamp:
"Good night."

Gabriel replied the same:
"Good night"
But he was still suspicious of what was wrong with her.
Despite knowing that she's been through hell these past couple of days the designer just wanted to hold her as close as possible.
He even wanted to tell her some things he hasn't told anyone yet, but for now Gabriel knew it would be best if he wouldn't bother her, and instead just let his assistant get her well deserved rest.

Hours passed by and Gabriel was still up, looking at the woman sleeping next to him.
Suddenly she began to uncomfortably move around which caught the man's attention.
And almost as if he couldn't control his own movements his arms automatically pulled her closer to him.
So now Nathalie's fragile sleepy body was all compressed in his arms.
It felt so wrong yet so right, he didn't know if he should let go of her...or not.
Her mumbling and moving had stopped so Gabriel just assumed that she liked being in his arms, but he was still scared of what would happen once she would wake up.

As he was holding her so close his hand unintentionally brushed along something rough, he moved his palm back which earned a little sigh from Nathalie.
Now the designer noticed that whenever he would move his hand along that region of her abdomen she would let out a small sigh, but overtime they became whimpers.
"Sir please stop that!" Nathalie whispered in pain, and although she still didn't open her eyes it was clear that she was tearing up.
Gabriel immediately stopped moving his hand on her request, but still kept it on the same spot.
Although he felt extremely sorry for hurting her even just a tiny bit he was also more than curious about what hurt her so badly.
"I'm so sorry, but if I may ask..what was that?

Nathalie inhaled sharply before thinking about how she should formulate her sentence, and after a minute or two she managed to say:
"It's just a scar, no need to worry about it. But I'd greatly appreciate if you would take your hand off of it."
"Of course, sorry."
And with that Gabriel moved his hand a little up, but yet again he could feel the exact same roughness on her skin.
"This scar is all across your stomach?"
"Y-yes."
"I haven't seen it before-...I mean when we-...you know-...but I wasn't exactly looking so maybe-...my eyesight is really bad anyway-"
"You're right-...it's wasn't there before...." Nathalie replied looking back at her superior who had his face buried in his palms as he was trying to hide his vibrant red blush "...Tom gave it to me."
And just as soon as Nathalie had said that Gabriel sat up on the bed with one quick movement:
"What?! What did that bastard do?!"
"Well-...he did-...this-..." Nathalie carefully lifted up her pijama shirt to allow Gabriel at having a look.
"Oh my-...Nathalie." The designer gasped at such a horrific sight. "H-he did that?"
"Mhm."

Without even a warning instead of Nathalie Gabriel was the one who fell in tears, and as he did so Nathalie looked at the crying man beside her in shock.
"Sir? Is everything-"
"No Nathalie! It's my fault! Everything is my fault! I was the reason he took you and did that. He probably did even worse thing but I just don't want to imagine it...I'm so sorry for this all. You certainly deserve none of it."
Now the designer stared at the floor in shame and punched himself quite hard, he was about to do it again when Nathalie held his hand back.
"Sir you did nothing wrong, in fact you only helped me escape. There's no need to beat yourself up with guilt."

Gabriel hesitated, but as he felt Nathalie's delicate hands caressing his face he eventually nodded and smiled back down at her:

"Nathalie I promise-"
"Shhh I want to sleep, it's been a long day."
She pulled the blanket over him and gently pushed Gabriel back down so he wasn't in a sitting position anymore.
"Good night sir."
And with that she laid back to her own side of the bed leaving Gabriel all by himself.
"Good night Nathalie."

To be continued-

I don't like this chapter but I don't know how to fix it...so just ignore this shitty writing.