Nathalie was unsure how to act at first but as she soon realized that grabbing her phone to call anyone for help would take way too much effort and would maybe even worsen her situation. So with that the assistant could only act as if nothing would've happened, and so she did.
The woman ended up continuing her journey home, exactly like she would've done so on a 'normal' day, except that this time she had a 'guest' following her.

"Wow, I really wouldn't have thought that it would be this easy to get you." Tom smiled whilst excitedly walking beside Nathalie who only scoffed as she heard him utter such nonsensical bullshit.

"Really?" She returned "I wouldn't have thought that you would kidnap me, again."

"Well...you're wrong there. I am not kidnapping you now. In fact, you didn't even fight back or try to escape, so...Look Nathalie this might not be exactly 'legal' or the right thing to do but since you're such an easy thing to control I-"

"-PARDON?!?!" She turned to him furiously, and before Tom could've even reacted the assistant grabbed a hold of his shirt, with that pulling him onto her level, which wasn't that much lower, but it was still made extremely dramatic by Nathalie's actions "DID YOU JUST CALL ME A 'THING'?!?!" AN 'EASY THING TO CONTROL'?!?!"

"I-...uhhh I mean-."

"AT LEAST PUT SOME RESPECT ON MY NAME IF YOU'RE GONNA USE ME." She shouted, then turned away acting completely 'normal' once again.

Now the dark haired man was a bit concerned, maybe Nathalie became even more insane then him, or maybe he became less insane?

Well one thing was for sure, something must've changed since the last time they've met because the dark haired woman was no longer that innocent looking assistant, suddenly she was the scariest 'thing' he's ever met.

Nevertheless Tom didn't back off, he still continued to follow her, but now not because he wanted to use her, now only because he was intrigued.
What more could've changed with her in those couple of months they've spent apart?

He wanted to know, and was about to find out as Tom wasn't the kind of person to give up.
He usually got what he wanted.

In the meantime Gabriel over at the Agreste mansion was getting ready for his dinner with Nathalie.

He had already washed his hair, and put on his best cologne, however there was still one more thing left to do.
The designer had to pick out an outfit, and according to him this was the most difficult thing, since by now he had almost ever suit he owned laid out on the bed.
Yet he couldn't pick one.

"Nooroo what's your opinion?" The grey haired man asked, a bit frustrated as his time was running out and soon he'd need to pick up his assistant. Nevertheless he was patiently waiting for his kwami to answer.

"Sir I don't have an opinion." The purple creature answered staring back at his owner who suddenly broke out laughing, hysterically.

"Nooroo! Of course you do! Come on now tell me!!"

"But Master...I-...if I say something you w-won't l-like t-then-"

"Oh god." Gabriel sighed as he saw that his kwami was getting awfully anxious by just a simple question, and he was to blame for it, the designer himself had terrorized Nooroo into thinking everything he did was wrong.
However now more than ever he regretted every decision he made which included magic.
It simply destroyed him and everything around him.

"Master?" The small creature's voice brought him back to reality "Master are you alright? Did I say something wrong? Is it my fault?"

"What? Oh no...Nooroo I'm so sorry. You didn't do anything bad, it was me. I ruined you."

"You? Master how? You couldn't have...you're perfect-"

"NO!" Gabriel yelled making the tiny creature flinch "No...I mean no I'm not perfect" He sighed now looking at the kwami with teary eyes "I also have my flaws and the fact that I simply took out my anger on you shows that. So I'm sorry  I made you feel the way I felt when I was...younger...always wrong and never right."

"S-so...I-"

"You Nooroo my friend aren't wrong, in fact most of the time you're right, especially when you tried to stop me from doing ridiculous stuff like akumatizing all of Paris."

"S-so-..."Nooroo's unsure voice still was waiting for a proper answer or command which the designer gave quite soon after.

"So tell me," he began "which of these suits would be almost appealing to Nathalie?" Gabriel smiled at his kwami, with that giving the purple creature some confidence to respond.

"W-well master...y-you surely can't go wrong with-"

"So" Nathalie closed the door after both her and the dark haired man have entered the apartment complex "...you...don't want to do anything with me?"

"No Nathalie." He plainly responded before taking a careful stroll around the assistant's home "not now."

"Not now?"

"No, right now I'm more interested in why you've changed."

"Changed?" She questioned almost being a bit offended, as if change would've been a bad thing "You think I changed?"

"Well yeah...you became...meaner I'd say."

"Meaner really?" Nathalie scoffed "Haven't you ever considered that maybe it's because I'm trying to get you away from me! Maybe I'm not mean all the time, only when I'm around your irritating face!"

"Ouch." Tom mumbled feeling hurt, though to both individuals' surprise he didn't hurt her, yet. The man simply looked the woman deadly straight in the eyes and with that basically gave her a warning signal, which Nathalie mostly ignored because of her already raging anger.

"Ouch? Ouch yeah ouch, I bet it was ouch, but you know what I hope you get such an ouch that you'll die from it!"

"Ouch!!" He now shouted with anger whilst walking closer to the assistant, who he soon after grabbed "That was really mean!!"
With that Tom strongly pushed Nathalie against the wall, and although he didn't do anything yet, he simply held her in place, and by every second that passed he tightened his grip around her arms.

"Wow, how predictable." The dark haired woman laughed trying to scare him off, except this time it didn't work, he didn't care or let go, Tom kept his stone cold glare which was obviously directed at her. And as he didn't stop Nathalie became increasingly worried, she just didn't want to show it.

"Predictable?" His voice brought her back into reality "Interesting word choice, so I guess now I'll have to do something you couldn't predict, right?"

"I-"

"Oh what now? Before you were acting so strong and I almost thought you changed...but you broke, hah you broke character, love!"

"Don't call me that!" The assistant yelled as she not only got annoyed but also scared by how suddenly confident the dark haired man got.
In fact she only because more and more anxious once his behavior reminded her a lot of what he was like when they last met, horrible.

"Why, love?" Tom chuckled "Is only your lover Gabriel allowed to have that word in their vocabulary??"

"No" she shook her head vigorously "shut up!"

"You see now, now you're acting like I thought you would. How predictable!" Tom laughed, with witch some tears were forced out of Nathalie's eyes.
However before anything further 'torture' could've happened, thankfully a knock was heard at the door, and the dark haired woman didn't even need to yell "Enough stop!".

Tom automatically let go of her and hid somewhere in the room whilst Nathalie went to open the door, behind which she knew her superior would stand.

"Nathalie!" Gabriel cheered as he saw his employee, however once he came across her face and took a closer look he could see that the assistant had just cried a little bit before because her eyes were red and irritated whilst her whole face looked hurt and scared. "Nath is everything okay?" Then he looked down to see that she was still in her work attire, and then, in that exact moment the grey haired man knew something was wrong. So without asking any more questions he stepped inside the apartment and attempted to pull his woman close. Except that when he tried to reach for her arm, she flinched and pulled back.

"Sir!" She stepped away to stand a painful distance from him "W-what a p-pleasure to see you!"

"Nathalie? Is everything-"

"Fine! Yeah! I'll just go get dressed please give me a second, you look splendid by the way, burgundy really suits you!" Without saying anything more the assistant turned to walk to her bedroom where she halfway shut the door, leaving her boss as a completely flustered mess.

He tried to hide it though.

"I-..." Gabriel cleared his throat "well thank you." Then he awkwardly smiled whilst also blushing a bit from the compliment.

In the meantime as Nathalie was selecting which outfit she should wear, behind the door next to her was Tom, hiding, and also watching her every step.

"That looks nice!" He whispered once she came across a dress, but in that same second the woman turned to look at him and with a disgusted face she immediately put back that specific piece of clothing which he liked.
Then she suddenly slammed the door of her closet shut and walked back out to where Gabriel was waiting for her, looking exactly the same.

"You know what sir...I-...I'll just go like this."

"Oh..." he stared at her confused "I-I mean you look wonderful as always s-so-"

"Let's go!" Said she before grabbing his arm and dragging the designer out of her apartment as fast as she could.

-

As they were walking down the stairs and Nathalie kept her strong grip around her superior's arm he noticed that the hand by which she held onto him was a bit more red and perhaps irritated, therefore this got the man thinking that his assistant accidentally scratched her arm, or someone grabbed her.

"Nath?" Gabriel quietly began "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes sir." the woman answered, and continued walking "...go ahead."

However as soon as Nathalie uttered that her boss grabbed onto her shoulder and with a swift movement pulled back the assistant.

Now she was fixed in one spot, staring right into the man's cold grey eyes, and waiting for what he was about to say next, extremely impatient.

"Did someone do this to you?" The designer pointed with his other hand to her bruised arm.

"No sir."

"Are you lying?"

"No sir."

"You're lying, I know."

"Sir!" She exclaimed rather shocked that he could guess the truth, but after all they did know each other for many, many years, so this shouldn't have been too odd for the dark haired woman.
"Oh sir no!" Nathalie ended up crying and falling into the arms of her superior who without hesitation began comforting her.

"Shhh it's alright, you're safe with me from whoever monster did that, okay?" He laid his arms around her, protectively "No one will hurt you ever again! Understand?"

"Mhm." A quiet and weak response came from her which absolutely teared the man apart, but he couldn't just fall to pieces the same time his assistant did. So with a depressing sigh Gabriel sniffed his forming tears away and continued to gently rub the back of Nathalie who was now painfully, as well as uncontrollably sobbing in his arms, this just hurt him more.

"It'll be fine Nath, do not worry, not even for a second. I'll protect you! I'll keep you safe no matter the cost."

"B-but sir-"

"No! Don't argue. This is my job.
This is in fact the bare minimum I can offer you after all those years of your service to me. So for once let me help you, okay?"

To be continued-