Archive of Our Own

"Adrien.”

He looks up from his plate, where he’s been pushing around potatoes and carrots for the last several minutes. He seems lost in thought, not quite here, but it’s this kind of behavior that had prompted Kagami to ask for a meeting. The restaurant is noisy around them, but they’re stuck in their own bubble for now. She takes a deep breath, runs through all of the information she read about online, and finally takes the plunge.

“We’ve been close for a long time,” she starts, repeating the internet page line-for-line. “And you’re very important to me. I’m glad I had a chance to become your friend.”

And while he looks slightly confused, Kagami could kick him for the bright, dazzling smile he sends her way. It shines through like sunshine on a cloudy day, and it rips her heart open and asunder. It only makes all of this that much harder to say.

“You’re important to me too, Kagami.”

“I know. But…” And for the first time in a long time, she hesitates. Adrien goes stiff.

Good. He’s not as oblivious he seems.

“But this doesn’t feel right anymore. I want to stay friends, but I think we should break up.” 

He sits there, stunned, his hands and face going slack and his fork tumbling onto his plate with a clatter. Even in his shock, Kagami can’t help but think he looks cute: like a startled kitten, like something you want to protect and yet approach with caution. She takes another deep breath and tries to remember what else the article told her to say. 

“I’m sorry if this is hard to hear, but I don’t think you are as invested in this relationship as I am. This isn’t the way I wanted things to be. So I…” And again, she hesitates, because this time her throat feels tight and her eyes sting and her chest hurts. “So I’m letting you...go.”

His surprise fades to confusion, loss, and some sort of indignation. Like he can’t quite believe that she pressed for this relationship and now she’s the one ending it. The Kagami of three months ago wouldn’t have believed it either, but here she is. Breaking up with the boy that she thought would be the man of her dreams. Yet now that she’s had the opportunity to get to know him better, Kagami realises that he’s anything but. 

She thought Adrien was thorough. Instead, he’s rash and reckless.
She thought Adrien was selfless. Now she understands that he’s emotionally greedy.
She thought Adrien was perfection personified.

Yet she has come to realise how much he hates being perfect.

“I…” He’s at a loss for words, floundering as he tries to come to terms with what she’s said. “I can try harder.”

Those aren’t the words Kagami wants to hear. She sits still, watching him, her heart twisting as he tries to fix what was broken before they even got together.

“I can invest more of myself,” he insists. “I’m over her now. So I can learn to lov-”

She doesn’t want to hear that word from his mouth. “No,” Kagami interrupts him. “You’re not. I’ve seen the way you look at her. It’s the complete opposite of the way you look at me.”

His shock spirals even further, and Kagami wonders why. From what she understands, it’s clear to most of his friends who he’s in love with. And it was apparent to her too after watching them interact. How she somehow got to date him first is a mystery to her, but she chalks it up to her forward personality.

“You’ve seen the way I...look at her?” He repeats, confusion and amusement dancing across his face.

“Yes,” Kagami chokes out. “It’s obvious that you’re fond of her. I think you two would be good for each other. You’d have my blessing.”

Now he looks more lost, and Kagami wonders if Adrien is oblivious to his own feelings. It would explain a lot about his personality, especially about why he acts so differently in public versus when they’re alone together. Has he not realised how he treats the girl he truly loves? How he’s always treated her?

“You...really think so,” he says slowly. “Really really?”

“Really really,” she repeats, as much as it hurts her. “But I think you should wait to ask her out.”

His face contorts as his befuddlement increases.

“Kagami,” Adrien says cautiously, drawing out her name as he slowly pushes his plate to the side. He leans forward, his face suddenly serious. “Who do you think I’m… fond of?”

A rush of doubt floods through her. Is she wrong? Is everyone wrong? No, they can’t be. Too much evidence is piled up against him. They have to be right. So Kagami takes a deep breath, lets her name fill her lungs, and breathes it out - as if saying it will make everything fine between them, as if letting the truth come forth will mend her broken heart.

As if she’ll be happy with knowing that maybe he’ll come to his senses, and he’ll be happy for once. As if she’ll be overjoyed if her best friend and the boy of her dreams finally get together. As if she’ll ever be satisfied without him.

“Marinette.”

“Marinette?”

Adrien doesn’t miss the underlying tone of regret in Kagami’s voice when she says her name. She says it like a prayer, like a curse, like it’s the answer to everything. 

And quite suddenly, it is. 

“Marinette,” Adrien repeats. He feels his eyes widening, his jaw dropping, his chest tightening, but he ignores it all for the roaring epiphany that thunders through his skull. His whole body feels like it’s been bathed in ice water, but his chest is burning like he’s on fire. Grief and regret had hit him earlier, but now, he’s overwhelmed and drowning. Drowning in realisation, in exultation, in love. 

He gazes at Kagami, his head swimming.

“How long have I been…?” He asks, his mind unable to phrase the question he needs to ask. He’s already rooting through his memories, trying to find the exact moment he would’ve slipped and fallen into this hole, but Chat Noir has been so blindsided by his Lady that Adrien can’t pinpoint it.

“For as long as I’ve known you, if I’m being honest with us both.” Kagami answers, and Adrien leans back in his seat, staring unseeingly at the ceiling. 

“I…” He doesn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

He hasn’t known that he’s so in love with Marinette that it was slowly eating into their relationship. He hasn’t known that Marinette is starting to consume his thoughts the way that Ladybug once did. He hasn’t known anything until Kagami dropped her name between them like a hot ball of iron. Kagami watches him, her face passive, but Adrien knows that she is hurting. And here he is, across from her, already healing, already wrapped up in the love of someone else.

“What’re you going to do?” Kagami asks him, her voice quiet but firm. Adrien shrugs. 

He wants to run out of here, find the nearest florist, and then run to Marinette’s with the largest bouquet he can purchase and still carry. He wants to shower her in praise and affection and small kisses. He wants to take out his heart, lay it beating and bleeding on a silver platter, and offer it to her.

Something tells him he’s moving a little too fast. Probably those slowly developing social skills.

“I...I don’t know,” Adrien says. He feels clueless. “If we just broke up, I can’t…” 

He can’t go to Marinette immediately. He understands this, oddly enough; if he went straight to Marinette after being dumped by Kagami, she’d think he was using her as a rebound, even though Adrien now knows that Kagami was the replacement for Ladybug. He had tried to switch targets and-

Well, he had switched successfully, just not to who they both thought he would.

“You can’t ask her out right away,” Kagami finishes for him, and Adrien winces in response. Her eyes are hard and her jaw is set, but if she’s mad, she’s hiding her anger well. If anything, Adrien realises, she’s remorseful. “Perhaps you should wait. Think about your own feelings… Make sure they’re genuine.”

She has a good point, Adrien concludes, but the ache filling his heart is easily comparable to the ache that he once felt for Ladybug, and he has no doubts about the genuinity. 

“Thanks, Kagami.” Adrien says with a slight smile. “I’m sorry that I couldn’t make this work between us.”

Kagami bites her bottom lip, a rare display of weakness in her otherwise tough exterior. “Just promise me that you won’t hurt her like you hurt me,” she growls. “You dare break her heart-”

Adrien holds up his hands in defense. “I wouldn’t!! I’d never dream of such a thing! Do you know how many people would be after me?!”

Alya. Nino. Her parents. Kagami. All of her friends. Luka.

Luka.

A memory of her and him standing close together, her small hands strumming guitar strings and Luka’s long fingers changing chords, creating music that was bad but also silly, their laughter more melodious than the notes…

Kagami follows his thought process through the flicker of various emotions on his face. She frowns at him, sighs, and then stands up.

“You hesitated.”

She pulls out a folded euro and places it on the table. “For my portion,” she clarifies, and Adrien nods in understanding - to which statement, he’s unsure. He’s numb and cold and filling up with dread, with fear, with pain-

“But,” Kagami pockets her wallet as she stares down at him, and Adrien looks her in the eyes as her lips try to twitch up into a smile. “I don’t think it’s too late.”

Adrien swallows thickly, slowly nods his head, and forces out a small, “Thank you.”

Kagami leaves him alone after that. It takes Adrien several more minutes of wallowing to finally wave down a waiter and pay for the meal. After that, he goes outside, stands under the awning, and runs through his memories of Marinette. 

Her birthday sits at the forefront. He had gone out of his way to make her a gift, afterall. He hadn’t done that for Nino, for Kagami, and definitely not for Chloé. He has money, resources, connections; he could’ve bought his friends whatever they wanted. Yet Marinette… Adrien recalls traversing through the craft store, picking out beads and string, sitting at his computer for hours trying to assemble something that looked like the charm she had given him. And once he had finished, he had been insecure enough to ask others for advice. As if Plagg or his father would’ve understood the importance of such a gift.

The next fragment is Heroes’ Day. Standing up for her, listing her achievements, calling her their ‘Everyday Ladybug’ - gosh, how had he not seen his love then?! And then she had kissed his cheek, shyly thanked him, and he had been so stunned, so immobilised, that he hadn’t spoken for several seconds.

Adrien slowly lifts his hand to cradle his cheek, the same one she had once kissed. He stares at the street, but he may as well be blind for how much of it he actually sees. Only the brief honk of a familiar car snaps him out of his thoughts.

In the backseat, he ponders their near-date at the ice rink. While he had asked for her help with Kagami, he recalls being more worried about Marinette - especially when she had fallen. Yet thinking about the double date reminds him of Luka, and he squirms in his seat.

He’s not jealous. Adrien understands that he had his chance to notice her, and Kagami is right: he hesitated. Luka hadn’t. Luka had instantly recognised how incredible, how beautiful, and how wondrous Marinette truly is and had not delayed in telling her so. If anything, Adrien is jealous of how in tune Luka is with his emotions to have recognised love for when he felt it.

He scrolls through his phone, through his social media, through his pictures, looking for all the evidence he can that he’s been in love with her all this time. He’s still looking at class photos when they pull up to the mansion, and Adrien gets out of the car while flicking his finger across the screen.

His bodyguard closes the car door behind him and opens the front door for him. Adrien doesn’t grace Nathalie with a greeting when he passes her, and she just gives him an odd look as he walks up the stairs, staring at his phone. He’s scrolling now through his Instagram page, tapping the few pictures of Marinette he’s posted and looking at them. He tries to remember that sunny, winter’s day in the park when he had interrupted her sketching process: how much he had wanted to talk with her, how much he didn’t want to disturb her, how eager he was to pull her to his side…

For the rest of the day, Adrien ponders what he’s going to say to her. When he’s going to say something to her. Why he would bother saying anything to her at all.

Yet opportunity presents itself sometime at dusk, when a text message from Nino pings his phone. Adrien's staring at the Ladyblog on his computer, contemplating his emotions, and his gaze slowly drifts to the device.

He doesn't reach for it until it pings again.

hey dude, alya and i are chilling w/ some friends tomorrow

if ure free, ure welcome to join us

A surge of hope rushes through his chest. 'Friends' is highly likely to include Marinette. It’s way too soon to ask her out, but it’s not too soon to start being a better friend to her. Adrien stops himself from asking if she'll be there. 

Yeah, I'll ask Nathalie in the morning.

🙄 hope u can make it

Adrien really wants to go: if not to see Marinette, then to inform his friends of the breakup. They deserve to know, and Adrien feels terrible for not telling Nino right away. But, he reasons, he'll tell him tomorrow.

"You can go," Nathalie laments after tapping around her tablet. She’s standing on the opposite side of the dining room while the morning sun shines weakly through the windows. "But it has to be after your photoshoot."

Adrien exhales in relief, a smile flashing across his face. "Thanks a bunch, Nathalie." 

She hums and turns away, not happy but not displeased. Adrien considers it a win.

Nino and Alya and Marinette arrive at the tail end of his photoshoot to pick him up. For the last few shots, Adrien is vibrating from excitement and jittery from nerves. When the photographer finally dismisses him, he darts to Nathalie, who takes one look at his pleading expression and waves him off.

“Make sure you change back before you leave.”

He grins.

“And call your bodyguard afterwards!” She scolds him as he goes to change. He waves back over his shoulder to show her that he heard.

It’s the fastest he’s ever changed clothes in his life, and he almost feels bad about how he puts them on the hangers, ruffled and off-center. Nino is waiting outside for him when he exists, and the two share their secret handshake while Adrien grins brightly. 

“Hey dude!”

“Hey, Nino!” 

He shares a brief hug with Alya before turning his attention to Marinette. He tries to control his gut reaction to pick her up, spin her around, hold her close, but he knows that the hug he gives her lasts a little longer than the one he gave her friend.

“How’d the shoot go?” She asks innocently, her face as pink as his.

“Same as always,” he answers honestly, hoping his blush isn’t as bad as it feels. They start to walk away from the crew and into the city. “But that’s fine. How’s your day been?”

“Pretty good, actually! I finished up the reading homework this morning and had some time to sew before Alya came over.”

Alya and Nino are watching them carefully, and Adrien reminds himself not to stare too hard at Marinette while she talks. He has yet to come clean about his breakup with Kagami, and he doesn’t want them to get the wrong idea.

“That’s great! What’re you working on?”

She twirls a bit of her hair before tucking it behind her ear. Her fingers graze her jawline on the way down, and Adrien can’t help but follow the motion with his eyes. He swallows.

“A birthday present for a friend. He’s done a lot for me, so I’m putting as much time into it as I can.”

“That’s great,” Adrien praises her. Her kindness knows no boundaries. He chooses to ignore the pronoun; he doesn’t want to know who it’s for. “Who’s it for?” He hears himself ask.

“Oh, uhm…” She shuffles, nervous. “Just a friend.”

For some reason, those words hurt a lot more than they should.

“I’m sure he’ll love it.” 

“I hope so!”

The four of them fall into light and amicable conversation, but it isn’t until they’re walking along the Seine that Alya asks the dreaded question.

“So, how’re you and Kagami doing?”

Adrien flinches, and three sets of eyes catch it. Abruptly, all four of them stop as Adrien awkwardly shuffles his feet and puts his hands in his pockets. He bites his lip.

“We…” He peeks upwards, meeting Marinette’s curious stare. Her eyes are as blue as hydrangeas, maybe forget-me-nots, or possibly bluebells, and Adrien forgets himself as he runs through his mental list of flowers, trying to find the perfect shade to match the beauty of her eyes. 

Her head tilts to the side, and Adrien remembers where he is. 

“We broke up.”

“What?!”

All hell breaks loose.

Alya is the first to pester him for details. “Why?” She demands, her tone accusing, but Marinette and Nino both glare at her until she backs down. “Why?” Alya asks again.

Marinette turns her brilliant eyes back on him, and Adrien doesn’t speak until Nino nudges him.

“I... She said…” Adrien fumbles with his words. If he confesses that he wasn’t devoting himself to the relationship, Marinette would think him a poor boyfriend. If he admits that he’s in love with someone else, Marinette would think him shallow. What can he say that is both honest and doesn’t ruin his chances with his newfound love?

“We wanted different things,” he finally blathers out, the words feeling more like sand in his mouth than saliva. “We had different expectations.” Adrien looks away from all of them, taking one hand out of his pocket to rub at the back of his neck. “We weren’t-” I wasn’t- “-meeting them.”

“So instead of talking it out, you broke up?” Alya asks, skeptical. Nino frowns in agreement, and Marinette shushes Alya for intruding further into the delicate matter. 

“We...tried,” Adrien reluctantly admits. They hadn’t, not really, but Kagami is the kind of person who knows what she wants and when she wants it, and Adrien wasn’t the kind of person to fight her. Especially not now, after she has opened his eyes to Marinette. “We’ve agreed to remain friends, for now.” 

All of them look worried, weary, worn. Adrien figures that Marinette is concerned about Kagami, since they’re good friends, and she’s tossing her phone between her hands like she wants to send her a text. In an attempt to diverge the conversation, he starts walking, following their route along the Seine.

Nino catches up to him first, and Alya and Marinette linger behind them, talking quietly. “Dude, are you sure you’re alright?” His best friend lays a gentle hand on his shoulder, and Adrien sighs.

“I guess,” he mumbles. “But...there’s more.”

“More?”

“Kagami thinks I’m fond of...someone else.”

Adrien glances back over his shoulder, and Nino follows his gaze to Marinette. A brief flicker of confusion precedes the wide-eye understanding that dawns across his face. Both boys look forward again.

“No shit…” Nino mumbles. Adrien rarely hears him curse, but he nods in agreement, shoving his hands further into his pockets as his shoulders hunch.

“I don’t know what to doooo,” Adrien whines. Nino pats his shoulder and drops his hand.

“You could ask her out,” he offers simply. “You’re pretty smooth when you wanna be.”

“I can’t, not now. What kind of impression would that give?” Adrien throws his head back, staring at the sky as his hands pull loose from his jeans. “‘Hey, Kagami just dumped me, want to be my rebound?’” He snorts and crosses his arms. “That would go over well.”

Nino flinches, but he sees the point that Adrien is trying to make and lets it drop. They walk in quiet, and Adrien glances at the river as his arms unfold. They’ve been following the Seine for a while now, and he’s hit with a suspicion for where they’re heading and who else they’re meeting.

It’s become a popular hangout location for all of them lately. Between Kitty Section practicing as often as they can for their upcoming local gigs and Mme Couffaine’s welcoming and encouraging personality, the houseboat is something of a meeting place for much of his class. He’s stopped by it before, to say hello to Juleka and Luka, but the boat moves from dock to dock and isn’t always in the same place.

Today, it sits at a bend in the river, so none of them see it until they’re rounding the corner and it’s right there. Dread twists and knots itself in Adrien’s stomach as they approach, and he’s suddenly wishing he hadn’t come. Should he back out now, claiming a headache? Or that his father wanted him back home? But he’s already here, Nino and Alya are already climbing on board, and a symphony of voices are already happily greeting them.

So Adrien swallows his negativity and carries onward.

Marinette stops him.

“Hey,” she says, soft and sweet and gentle. “Is everything okay? You look…” She hesitates. “...You don’t have to be strong. Breakups are hard.” Marinette finishes instead.

Adrien does his best to send her a smile, but it wavers upon his own face.

“Thanks, Marinette. You’re always supportive, and it means a lot.”

She flushes pink and Adrien’s heart stutters.

“Well…” She starts, a smirk stretching across her face that has Adrien hesitating. “I had my ion both of you, and if you two had had good chemistry, I know you would’ve found a solution.”

There’s a stretch of silence between them, where Adrien stands stunned and speechless and Marinette grows steadily redder. His shock gives way to a choked giggle, and soon, both of them are laughing and clutching their sides, bending over and leaning closer together, lost in her joke.

“Do you periodically make jokes like that?” Adrien says through his wheezing.

“Only when all the good ones argon.”

She barely gets it out, but Adrien is so impressed, he dissolves into laughter all over again. It hurts in his chest, there are tears in the corners of his eyes, but he can’t bring himself to care. How has he never seen her before? Why did it take Kagami to open his eyes? How is she so perfect?

“I’ll slap my neon that one,” Adrien shoots back, and she’s giggling again. When she unexpectedly snorts, Adrien is so startled that all he can do is continue.

“It was sodium funny!”

She snorts again, and again, interrupting her giggles and snickers and making her blush, and she’s gorgeous-

The next few puns on the tip of his tongue trip over themselves. He can’t say them, they’re too flirty so he needs to hold back, but his heart is racing and she’s looking at him expectantly, and Adrien wants to tell her everything he’s just discovered. Like that her freckles are delightful, her nose is adorable, her eyes are so splendid and phenomenal...

“I wish I was adenine,” Adrien starts. “Then I could get paired with uracil.”

Marinette stops laughing, and her face cutely scrunches up as she tries to figure out the joke. He hasn’t quite told it correctly, and he’s not sure if he wants her to understand it or not. Yet before he can find out if she knows that A and U are nucleobases in RNA, Alya and Nino call out to them from the houseboat. 

“Are you two coming or what?”

“Yes!” Marinette squeaks, rushing past Adrien to hop across the bridge. He turns to watch her, smiling, amazed that someone outside of Ladybug has made him laugh like that for the first time in forever, but then his heart sinks into his stomach and his smile freezes. 

She greets her friends with la bise, air kisses to both cheeks, for Rose and Juleka and Mylène. They all exchange happy greetings as Adrien slowly makes his way across the bridge, but he’s barely watching because right behind the group of girls, hanging back and watching in amusement, is Luka.

Their eyes meet, and Luka smiles and gives Adrien a small wave. Adrien swallows and waves back, but his chest is tight. Luka’s smile starts to fade and his gaze turns questioning, but Marinette pulls away from Juleka to excitedly tug Luka into a hug instead.

If Adrien is fond of Marinette, Luka is enamored. His face fills with adoration and care and something gentle, something kind; his eyes speak for his emotions more than his mouth as he whispers for her a quiet, “Hello.”

And Marinette kisses Luka on the cheek, an actual kiss, while her hand cups the opposite side of his face. And Luka looks surprised, but he’s also pleased, and he doesn’t hesitate to return the action: Something Adrien had failed to do when she had once kissed him.

His stomach feels like it’s in knots, like it’s on fire, like someone has kicked him down. It feels like drowning and falling at once, and his head swims with fear and regret and rejection. Kagami was right; he hesitated, and in the meantime, Marinette fell for someone else. It’s in her face, her eyes, her smile: she’s helplessly in love with Luka, just like he’s helplessly in love with her.

It feels like Ladybug all over again.

Adrien can’t help but wonder if this is his fate, to love others who can’t love him. His father, distant and seemingly uncaring. Ladybug, his best friend and first love. And now, Marinette, brave and strong and kind. He wonders why he couldn’t have loved Kagami like she deserved, why he couldn’t have just been satisfied with what he had…?

It hurts all over again when Marinette and Luka break away, and the older boy calmly approaches him and holds out his hand.

“Hey, Adrien. Nice to see you again.”

Everyone is watching them. Can they see the storm in his head, the jealousy and fear in his eyes? Can they hear the rapid beating of his broken heart, the rush of boiling blood in his veins? Do they witness the way his hands shake as he reaches up and grasps Luka’s offer of peace?

The name spills from his mouth like poison, like tar, thick and choking and even more difficult to swallow. It sounds like despair, dread, and horror. He feels inadequate just saying it. Yet he’s also pleading, begging, hoping.

Hope is all Adrien has now.

“Luka.”

“Luka?”

Marinette approaches him later on that evening. Band practice for Kitty Section is over, but Luka’s still fiddling with his guitar, tuning the strings and checking the fretboard for nicks and scratches. Luka scoots over and pats the spot next to him as his heart flips in his chest.

Even when she’s concerned, she’s still adorable.

“What’s on your mind, Marinette?” He asks her, laying the edge of his palm over the strings so they won’t vibrate. He can tell she’s mulling over something from the way she cutely nibbles the inside of her lip and fidgets with her fingers.

“It’s Adrien,” she confesses, staring straight ahead at nothing. “He was doing so well, but now…”

Luka frowns. He’s noticed something wrong with Adrien since he arrived onboard, and the blond boy has been cold and distant most of the afternoon. He still engages in conversation when prompted, but not even Nino was successful in pulling him from his shell.

“What happened?” Luka asks quietly, slowly lifting the guitar strap over his head so he can devote his attention entirely to her. He admires her devotion to her friends, the way she’s so caring and giving. He knows he would never be able to match it.

“He and Kagami...broke up,” Marinette reveals as Luka carefully lifts the guitar out of his lap and places it back in its case. He flinches in sympathy.

“That sucks.”

“They’ve decided to remain friends, but I’m worried he’s...hiding something.”

Oh, he definitely is, Luka thinks, but he keeps that to himself. He knew that emotion brewing in Adrien’s heart because he had felt it once, long ago. Jealousy, rejection, loneliness...

Luka’s been struggling with those feelings again, all night. He doesn’t want to lose her, but at the same, he wants her to be happy.

“Have you tried talking to him?” Luka asks, closing the case and finally turning back to her. He examines her face for clues to her own feelings, but she’s just worried. It doesn’t mean anything, but it makes his mind reel.

“I tried to cheer him up. Nino says he likes jokes, so…”

That certainly explained the laughing fit they had interrupted early, and Luka grins at her. 

“He seemed to really enjoy that,” Luka encourages her, his voice quiet. Her blue eyes flicker to him, but she goes back to staring at the other side of the room soon after.

“He’s hurting,” Marinette whispers. “And I...I can’t help him.”

That’s not true, Luka growls inside his head. That’s not true at all.

He can see the tears lingering in the corners of her eyes, and gently, he lifts his hand and brushes them away with his thumb. She jumps in surprise, but she lets him do the other eye as he moves closer. When more start to gather, she gives a strained giggle and presses her palms to her eyes instead, dislodging Luka’s hand.

“Do you…” Luka struggles for a moment, looking for the right words. He’s never been good at this. “Should I go talk with him?” He asks instead.

Marinette pauses. “Why you?”

“I’ve gone through break ups before. Maybe I can, I dunno, empathise.”

She mulls over the offer, and then she nods.

“Maybe that’s what he needs,” she mumbles. “Someone who understands.”

Reluctantly, Luka stands up and starts to head out, but Marinette’s voice stops him just before he leaves the room.

“Luka?”

He turns to look at her, his heart beating fast.

“Thank you,” she says softly. “You’re a good friend.”

It twists, shrivels, and suddenly he can’t breathe.

“Anything for you, Marinette.”

He goes to find Adrien before he can change his mind. Before he lets jealousy consume him and guide his actions. Before he can lose focus on the end goal. Luka walks up the stairs, puts his hands in his pockets, and looks around the room. The first head of blonde hair he spots is Rose’s, and he taps her on the shoulder as he passes.

“Where’s Adrien?”

“Up top,” answers Adrien’s friend, Nino.

“He wanted some space,” Rose clarifies, and Luka nods before heading to the deck.

Sure enough, Adrien is there, alone, leaning against the railing and watching the water. The sun paints the scene in pinks and oranges, a melody all its own as symphonic as Marinette, but the emotions that puncture the atmosphere are heavy. Their weight is burdensome on both of their shoulders, but Luka inhales deeply, shifts his stance, and moves forward.

“Hey,” he starts off, wincing at his own lame attempt at a greeting.

Adrien glances his way, but his eyes narrow. 

“No offense,” he grumbles. “But I want to be alone right now.”

“I get that,” Luka states, stopping just short of the railing, a good two meters away from Adrien. “But uh, Marinette asked me to talk with you. One guy to another, y’know?”

He can see that Adrien doesn’t know. That Adrien is confused and hurt and not willing to open up. Luka plows onward, fidgeting with a loose string in his pocket.

“Look, uhm…” He looks out over the river, sighs again, and pulls his hands out so he can copy Adrien’s stance: leaning on the rail, hunched over.

“You’ve finally noticed her, haven’t you?” Luka says quietly. 

Adrien startles, looking at him full on, but Luka won’t meet his eyes. Instead, he takes another deep breath.

“I love her. I love her a lot. She’s been the music in my head for so long that I don’t know how to change the station. She’s a lovely harmony, a major chord, a perfect fifth. But…” Luka looks from the water to Adrien, whose face has settled into something either confused or hurt or both.

“But I can’t ever have her. She doesn’t love me the same way that she…”

Luka stops, and Adrien tilts his head. 

“That she what?” He asks, just as quiet. 

“It’s not for me to say,” Luka admits. “But how you’re feeling now was how I felt when I first saw you.”

Luka watches all of the pieces connect in rapid succession in Adrien’s head. He watches them fall into place, rearrange, shove together and break apart. He witnesses the exact second that Adrien stumbles upon the truth.

And he’s sure that Adrien sees the way that Luka’s heart breaks even further.

“I could never win in a competition against you,” Luka continues his honesty. “I...won’t force her to choose. I only ask that you do the same.”

Adrien nods, struck speechless as he tries to reason through all of the feelings soaring through him. Luka can practically hear his heart hammering, but maybe it’s just his own blood pounding in his ears. 

“What’re you going to do?”

“Should I tell her?”

Luka shrugs. 

“That’s up to you, Adrien.”

For a split second, he teeters on the edge of indecision. Yet his face soon falls into determination and bravery.

“I’m going to tell her. Now.”

Luka bites back a protest as his throat closes up.

“I...won’t stop you. I had my chance, after all.”

Adrien rushes across the deck, and Luka lets loose another sigh. He slowly pushes back from the railing, and he follows the younger teen down to the lower deck. Adrien is asking Alya, frantically, where Marinette is, and Luka shuffles his feet awkwardly. He doesn’t know how to feel about the fact that Marinette and Adrien’s first kiss might happen in his bedroom.

He doesn’t know how he’ll move on from this, if he’s honest with himself. But Luka knows that he’ll be satisfied if Marinette gets her happily ever after; he wants her to be happy, and Adrien will work hard to make sure she never wants for anything. He could romanticise about what might’ve been, but Luka’s made his choice now. He will have to live with it. 

Marinette must’ve heard Adrien asking about her, because she finally emerges from the bedroom with a curious, hesitant look. Adrien turns to her, brilliant as the sun, and he rushes forward with a smitten look on his face. The name that drops from her is cautious, tentative, hopeful…

“Adrien?”