Chapter Text
Marinette treasures her words closely.
Some of her friends have phrases that they had taken years to adjust to, usually because the words are profane or insulting. Marinette, luckily, has no such issue. Her words speak of empathy and love, of support and kindness. They speak of a future with a good person, a rock that she can rely on. She is so, so hopeful, and just as excited.
They are written in scratchy handwriting, curly but messy. The loops in the e ’s are as big as the o ’s themselves, and the g loops into a neat little spiral. She has spent literal years overanalyzing the character and personality of each line, and will continue to do so for the years to come. It is one of her favorite pastimes, and she bets that she will still do so even after meeting her soulmate.
On her left wrist, over where her pulse thrums through her veins, her words say “I thought you might need some help.” During late nights and boring history classes, Marinette daydreams about the context in which they may be spoken. Maybe she’ll be a lost tourist on a busy street and her soulmate will approach her with an offer for directions. Maybe she’ll spill her textbooks in a busy hallway and her soulmate will bend down to help her pick them back up, and she’ll look up and they’ll lock eyes, and, and, and -
Who needs television shows and rom-coms when reality has the potential to be so much more than that? Whether a romantic or platonic soulmate, there is just so much in store for her, and she’s so excited to experience it.
“No way do you actually sing scream rock, Rose,” Alya says in disbelief during lunch at school. “I don’t think I’ve ever even heard you raise your voice a little.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Marinette says, laughing. The three of them are sitting together at lunch, saving seats for Juleka and Ivan as the others finish up some conversation elsewhere. “Rose squeals so loud that it could break a wine glass whenever something even mildly excites her.”
“True,” Alya concedes. “But still, scream rock? I thought you liked pop music, girl!”
“I do,” Rose says and laughs, too. Luckily she doesn’t take Alya’s disbelief as any sort of offense. She takes almost everything in stride, barring princes and fairytales. “But I like singing scream rock! It helps keep my stress levels down.”
That’s probably the most Rose-esque reasoning ever, so Marinette doesn’t find herself very surprised. “I’d love to hear you sing sometime,” she says. "I like music." Maybe she's not really a scream rock person herself, but she isn't opposed to it, either. No time like the present to give new music a taste!
Alya brightens at the concept of a concert, as if she hadn’t considered that it was a possibility before. “That’s right! We should totally go to one of your rehearsals.”
“If you’re comfortable with it, of course,” Marinette adds. “Trust me, I know how personal art can be.”
“Of course I’m comfortable with it,” Rose says, but she looks grateful. “I’m sure Juleka’s brother would be, too. I don’t know if Juleka and Ivan will be… but I’ll ask, and I’m sure they’ll agree in the name of good practice. We’re going to be trying to get real gigs soon, you know! You guys would be a great starter audience. We have a rehearsal next week, you two should totally come! We could invite Adrien, too.” She nudges Marinette under the table at that.
“Great,” Marinette says, excited. She’s never actually been to Juleka’s houseboat before. It’ll be fun to see where her friend spends so much time!
Something about Marinette’s first interaction with Luka is weirdly charged. She stumbles over her words from the get-go, and he keeps looking at her, as if expecting her to say something, but she has nothing notable to say. Maybe he has social anxiety and has trouble leading conversations. She can definitely relate to that at times.
After everything, after Captain Hardrock is unleashed and then contained, she decides to talk to him once more before leaving for home. They had fallen into a fantastic rhythm, after all, in a way that Marinette has very rarely had with anybody else. Everyone else is conversing, yet still quiet from the shock of the day. She notices Luka fiddling with his guitar, separated from everybody else, and decides to talk to him.
“Hey,” she says. “You okay?”
He blows a raspberry with his lips. Perhaps it was a stupid question on her part. “Yeah. I mean, it’s never fun to watch your mom… you know. But it’ll be okay. I’ll be okay. How are you?”
“I’m fine,” Marinette says, trying to separate Ladybug’s version of events from Marinette’s. All it really takes is one slip of the tongue. No pressure. “I’m just glad that everything got resolved alright. I think that you handled everything really well - better than I would have.”
“Oh, I don't know about that last bit,” he says. He offers her a smile, something small but genuine. “And it was nice meeting you. I’ve been looking forward to it.”
“It was nice meeting you, too! Does that mean that Juleka talks about me a lot?”
Luka looks at her, really looks at her. It makes her feel uncomfortable - perceived in a way that makes her believe that he sees right through her. “That’s not everything.”
“Oh?”
“I - Do you not-?” He stumbles over his words, but then shakes his head. He smiles again, but this is something completely unhappy. Marinette frowns, wondering what she could be missing. Did she say something wrong? “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m just shaken up over what happened today, that’s all. I’m talking nonsense.”
“No worries,” she tells him, relieved that the issue is something that she can comfort him about. “I think I’d be in similar shape if my parents got akumatized.” She tries not to think about how, in today’s climate, it’s more of a when than an if. “If you ever need anybody to talk to about it, I’m always happy to lend an ear!”
The sentiment doesn’t seem to make him feel any better, but maybe he's just keeping a poker face. “Thanks, Marinette.”
Before she leaves the Liberty, she gives him one last glance over her shoulder. Juleka has her hand on his back, saying something too quiet to hear, and Luka nods jerkily and goes back inside the houseboat. He looks at Marinette in return, offering her a weak grin. She waves one last time.
Marinette can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong during the whole walk home. Tikki asks her if everything is alright, and she distractedly says yes, but it feels like a lie even as it comes out of her own mouth.
Juleka knows something that Marinette doesn’t.
That much is clear. Marinette tries not to let it bother her too much, because chances are, it has nothing to do with her, and she’s trying to be less nosy. Her therapist says that she would benefit from not wasting mental energy on overanalyzing the energy and vibes of others, and instead, try to take people at their word when they say that they’re okay.
On their Girl’s Night Saturday sleepover, which has rotated to be at Marinette’s house this week, Juleka talks more than usual. She talks about anything and everything, almost as if she’s uncomfortable with every silence that spans for more than a few seconds. It’s so unlike her. After all, Juleka had been the one to indirectly teach Marinette that comfortable silences were okay. After about an hour of Remember when we did this… and We should watch this, Marinette realizes that the constant stream of consciousness means that there is a specific topic that Juleka is trying to avoid, and she is trying to ensure the conversation stays far away from it.
Marinette doesn’t know what the topic is, and probably will only find out if she accidentally stumbles upon it. She has no clue to what it could be, though, so she can only hope that she doesn’t accidentally set off some waterworks.
She manages not to for the entirety of the sleepover, but she still doesn’t understand what’s going on. It’s not until the sleepover has already ended and Juleka is on her way out the door that Marinette gets any sort of hint.
Something about the way her friend looks while she packs up her belongings and heads down to the bakery floor makes Marinette want to say something. “Juleka,” she says, wringing her hands. It’s clear that she doesn’t want to share about whatever is bothering her, and prying would only chip away at the healthy boundaries that they have spent the past few months solidifying. “You’ll… call me if you need anything, yeah? Or come over to the bakery and we can talk over coffee?”
Juleka smiles, something sweet and sad all at once. “I will if I need to,” she says, and glances over at Rose and Alya. The two of them are having their own conversation, pointing at something on Alya’s phone. As if deeming them properly distracted, Juleka says, “It’s… not really my problem. I’m kinda secondhand sad, if that makes sense?”
Marinette nods seriously. “Of course it does. It’s hard watching those we love go through hardship.” After she says it, she feels a bit embarrassed, because it is quite obviously therapist-speak. She doesn’t know if Juleka goes to therapy, though, so maybe her friend won’t notice.
“I knew you’d understand,” Juleka says. “You’ve… really come a long way, you know that? You’ve got a good outlook on things now.”
“Aw, thanks,” Marinette replies. She feels a little silly for being embarrassed at all - this is Juleka. Juleka would never judge her for taking care of her own mental health. “I appreciate that.” She’d certainly worked hard on it, after all. Learning how to be a better friend was an ongoing process that never truly ended, but she had certainly been putting in the work.
The bell above the front door jingles, and Marinette and Juleka both turn to see Luka walking through the door. “Morning, girls,” he says with a wave and a smile. Something about it makes Marinette smile, too.
“Hey,” she greets softly. She’s excited to see him, especially after how much of a help he’d been the last time that she’d seen him. He seems happier now, too, if first impressions are accurate. “Welcome to the bakery!”
“Thanks,” Luka says, making his way through. He steps right up to her and Juleka, giving his sister a smile. “Did you have fun?”
“We did have fun,” Marinette says. “Are you here to get a morning snack, too?”
Luka studies the pastries behind the counter. Juleka touches his shoulder, mumbles something about grabbing her bag from upstairs, and leaves the room. “Maybe. These all look super good. No wonder Juleka spends so much time here.”
“If you want anything, just let me know,” she says. “I give free samples to my friends.”
“We’re friends?” Luka asks.
“Of course,” Marinette says, surprised that he’s asking. She had figured that fighting his akumatized mother together had been a good bonding experience. “Wait - do you not want to be? I don't want to force you to be my friend - I mean, not that I think being friends with me is something bad...” She fights the urge to bury her head in her hands.
“I’d like to be friends,” he replies, and for a moment, there’s that sad look again - the one that had been there after Captain Hardrock. It’s gone before she can think too long about it, so she lets herself believe that it’s a trick of the light. “Yeah. Being friends sounds good.”
“Now I think you might just be saying it for the free pastries,” she teases, relaxing once Luka decides not to mention her word vomit.
He laughs. “Yeah, you caught me. I’d sell my soul for a good raspberry macaron any day of the week.” Marinette can hardly blame him. She would do a lot worse for a good raspberry macaron. “You know,” he says. “You should come to all of our rehearsals. You’re a fantastic audience, and between you and me, I think you make Juleka more comfortable. It’s so much more fun playing music when there’s someone to perform to.”
Marinette thinks about her several time commitments - art commissions, freelance fashion design, Ladybug, the bakery shifts, schoolwork, being class president - and wonders when she’ll get the time to go to their rehearsals twice a week. “I’ll try to come to as many as I can,” she promises. “Your music inspires me for my own art.”
“Hey, trying to make it is all we can really ask, anyway,” he says. “If our music inspires you, you should bring your sketchbook to the next rehearsal.”
That’s a great idea. “I think that I will,” she replies, feeling warm. She’s learning that Luka is very easy to talk to.
“Luka,” Juleka says, descending from upstairs with her sleepover bag. “Are you ready to go? Mom texted and said that she wants us back in twenty minutes. Apparently she bought movie tickets.”
“Yeah,” Luka replies absently, perhaps not giving Juleka his full attention. He’s still looking at Marinette. “It was nice to see you," he says to her. Something about him is so... honest. It's like he doesn't believe in empty compliments, and yet he compliments everyone still. It's a type of optimism different than hers: calmer, more grounded in stability.
“It was nice to see you too,” she replies with a smile. They don’t usually have their weekly sleepovers at the Liberty due to a lack of space, but now she’s hoping that the next one will be there. She likes Luka. Perhaps with time, they could be great friends. “I’m excited to go to the next rehearsal.”
“I’m excited to have you there,” he says. He hesitates, as if not knowing whether or not he should say something, and then he does it. Marinette recognizes the anxiety over word choice, having had a similar feeling while thinking about approaching Juleka earlier, so she gives him a reassuring smile. “You know, when we first met, um, before my mom got akumatized…”
“Yeah?” she prompts, trying to be encouraging. Maybe he’ll apologize for making fun of her stutter again. It’s not a necessary apology, considering that she’d forgiven him the moment that he’d apologized, but perhaps it’s still weighing on him.
“When you introduced yourself to me, you said-”
“Luka,” Juleka interrupts. “I’m sorry, I know you have stuff to say, but we really need to go home now. Plus… it isn’t really the time or place, is it?”
Luka straightens up and clears his throat, and whatever moment between them is gone now. He looks around at the other girls, who are making quiet small talk as they scroll through their phones and wait for Luka and Juleka to finish their goodbyes. Even if they made no effort to eavesdrop, they can still probably hear everything. “Right,” he says. “Bye, Marinette. See you soon.”
“Bye,” Marinette replies, voice more timid than her intentions. “Have fun at the movies.”
Marinette is late for school again.
It’s the second time this week, and if she makes it three, she’ll have detention on Friday. And that can’t happen, because if it does, she’ll miss Kitty Section’s next rehearsal. She just can’t miss it, not when she has new costume designs to show everybody!
Shoot, shoot, double shoot. She’s so late now that her only hope for getting there on time would have been to take the bus, but the last one had been ten minutes ago. Maybe she should just accept her fate and focus her energy on not being late again. She can set alarms for the rest of the week as she walks. It makes her nervous cutting it close like this, though, not when an akuma could pop up at any moment and force Marinette to be late.
Marinette is so distracted by her mission to get to school on time that she doesn’t even notice Luka on his bike until he stops right in front of her. Startled, she looks up at him and sees him smiling at her. “Hey,” he says. “Need a ride?"
The tension leaks out of Marinette’s shoulders and she resists the urge to give him a hug. Maybe he has a thing about germs - or maybe it’d just be weird considering they barely know each other. We're friends, she thinks to herself. Funny how you can be friends with somebody that you still don't truly know. “Oh my gosh, yes,” she says. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. Will it make you late, too?”
“Nah, I’ve got this period free,” he says. “I was just on my way back from dropping off Juleka.”
“Great timing,” Marinette replies. “I’m definitely going to give you as many free pastries as you want next time you go to the bakery.”
“You don’t have to do that,” he says, but he sounds excited. Little does he know that she’s already planning out which ones to give to him. Hopefully he likes the taste of blueberry, because she wants to make a joke about how the blueberry macarons match his hair.
“I want to,” she insists, catching his eye. Something in his expression turns into something softer, and for some reason, the question on her lips is have you met your soulmate? She swallows it, knowing that it’s a rude question to ask, and shakes her head lightly. Wanting to say something else, she starts, “I-”
A deafening crash sounds off in the distance, making both of them flinch in surprise. The crash is followed by a handful of screams, which are then cut off by another crash. Marinette’s heart sinks. So much for getting to school on time. Hopefully she’ll be able to say that she was stopped by the akuma chaos and at the very least, it will be written off as an excused tardy.
“That sounds like an akuma,” Luka says, and the police sirens have started before he even gets the last word out. “It sounds like it’s pretty close to the school… I don’t think I’m comfortable taking you there anymore. Do you want me to take you back home?”
Marinette allows herself a moment to bury her head in her hands and think. There’s no good excuse to get out of this - not when police have already responded. Luka is going to think that she’s weird for the rest of her life, and she’s just going to have to deal with it. Maybe they won't get to be the type of close friends that she'd hoped they'd be, but she must be okay with that now. Darned Ladybug sacrifices.
“I have to go,” she says. “Um, I’m - thank you for offering the ride. I appreciate it. I need to go.”
“Wait!” Luka says. He reaches out, as if to take her arm, but she’s just out of reach. His arm falls back to his side. “I really think that we should stick together and go to safety.”
“I’m sorry,” she replies. It's easy to double-down now that the sentiment is out in the open. “I really need to go. I’ll see you at the rehearsal on Friday.”
She leaves him there in the street, ducking through a street corner so that she’s no longer in his line of sight. “Stupid akumas,” she says. “Stupid Papillon.”
“Don’t worry, Marinette. There’s no way that Bustier will dock you points for being late during an akuma like this,” Tikki says, and it’s meant to be encouraging, but it doesn’t make Marinette feel any better. She doesn’t think that being late is the problem anymore.
“That’s true,” she replies, half-hearted. “Well, time to get this show on the road. Tikki, spots on!”
As Ladybug, she runs into Luka again. It seems like he has also made his way towards the akuma, despite his desire to get to safety earlier. He’s sitting outside of the school with a handful of worried parents and family members whose students are probably still unaccounted for.
Ladybug almost goes right by him, but he grabs onto her arm before she can. “Wait,” he says, releasing her almost immediately. It's something she feels grateful for, considering the amount of people who manhandle her until she sufficiently answers their questions. If only they knew they were grabbing and tugging on a teenager. The part of her arm that he had touched feels warm, still. “I was with Marinette. I - I don’t know where she went, she left right after the akuma showed up. I don’t know where she is.”
It’s unnerving, seeing the usually-calm Luka so freaked out. Is he really that worried about her? “She probably went home. You should get out of here, too.”
He shakes his head. “I called her ma and she said Marinette wasn’t there. I’m not leaving here without her.”
You barely know her, Ladybug wants to say. Excluding Captain Hardrock, they’d had less than five conversations ever. She just can’t understand why he’s so frantic about her now, especially to the point where he had called her mother. Ladybug is already thinking about excuses to tell Maman when she gets home. “I’ll keep an eye out,” she promises. “I’ll tell her you’re here if I see her. Just get into cover. Please.”
“I will,” he says. Ladybug wonders why it feels like he’s lying to her face.
When the akuma is defeated and Marinette comes out of hiding, armed with half-truths and pleasantries, Luka takes one look at her and hugs her. Marinette allows herself a moment to be surprised before hugging him back. Perhaps she hadn't had to resist the urge to hug him earlier after all. “I was worried you got hurt,” he says.
“Even if I did, Ladybug would have made it all better,” she says to him. It seems like it was the wrong thing to say - instead of relaxing, Luka’s face scrunches all up, as if she has just confirmed his worst fears.
“I just - I -” Luka trips over his words, as if trying to explain why he is so distressed. “I’m just glad you’re okay,” he says. Perhaps it reminded him of Captain Hardrock - or maybe even Reflekta. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
Marinette is happy to oblige.
Syren had been awful, both for Paris and for Ladybug’s relationship with her partner, but she supposes that the good on the other side is the fact that Chat Noir has met Master Fu now. Chat has seemed less tense, less quick to snap. It’s a good change, one that she’s glad has been made.
So when she walks into Master Fu’s house and sees Chat Noir inside, talking to the older man, she isn’t super surprised. There is a notebook tucked behind Fu, unopened. “Now I know why I was told to come suited up,” she says upon entry, waving to Wayzz. “Unless there’s danger…?”
“No,” Master Fu says, and beckons her down to join them. She does so, kneeling down beside them. “Though I suppose there is always danger while Papillon is still afoot. That might be the better explanation.”
Fair enough. It's not what she'd meant, though. “What did you wish to talk to us about, Master?”
“I will cut to the chase, then, as they say. I have assessed the current situation and no longer believe that leaving the two of you alone as the only permanent heroes is in our best interest. The two of you are determined and capable, but to be willing is only half the battle. I believe that we should establish at least one more permanent hero.”
“What about Rena Rouge and Carapace?” Chat Noir suggests. “The two of them have already had practice with the Miraculous. There wouldn’t be too big of a learning curve.” It’s an unsurprising suggestion - Ladybug is well aware of how well he gets along with both of them. To be honest, Ladybug thinks that it has something to do with how Rena and Carapace are superhero soulmates. Chat never really has given up hope that when he and Ladybug meet as civilians, their words will line up and they’ll live happier ever after. She has a sinking feeling in her gut that it won’t be the case. Ladybug supposes that that could happen, maybe, but she’s definitely not going to count on it. That’s how hearts get broken, after all.
“I dislike the notion of either of them becoming permanent heroes,” Fu says, blunt but not unkind. “Ladybug knows their identities. This is fine for those who do not keep their Miraculous, but dangerous for those of permanence. I encourage you to continue utilizing the support of Rena Rouge and Carapace, but as temporary heroes only.”
“Then Ladybug and I would be on a balanced field for once,” Chat Noir says, and Ladybug winces at the tone of his voice. They’d talked things through after Syren, but there was still some residual upset there. Sometimes, they both just pretend things are fine until they actually are, but nothing really gets resolved that way. “That sounds purr-fect to me, then.”
“However,” Master Fu says, retrieving the notebook from behind him and flipping to an open page. There are two pens attached to the notebook’s spiral, which he also removes. He rips one out, and then another. “Though I do not wish for you to know this person’s identity, I wish for the two of you to recommend those who you deem worthy.” He slides the pieces of paper over with the pens. “Please, write down some names of those you know that you would work well with. I can guarantee nothing, but I would greatly appreciate your help.”
Chat Noir begins writing immediately, but Ladybug has more of a difficult time making her decision. Alya and Nino both would have been no-brainers, but they’re already temporary heroes. Adrien, she supposes, could be a hero, though she wonders if he would actually be able to leave the house to fight, considering his dad’s strict supervision. Is that a risk that she’s willing to take?
Ladybug considers Luka Couffaine. They had worked together flawlessly during Captain Hardrock, and the few interactions that they’ve had since have all been positive. She thinks about how worried he’d been about her during the last akuma, about how he’d been desperate to do anything to help. Perhaps he could be a great ally against Papillon.
She writes down dozens of names, in the end, as many as she can to limit her ability to guess who the hero could be when they arrive. She glances over at Chat Noir’s list out of the corner of her eye and sees that he has written a plethora of names, too - at least thirty, from where she’s sitting. Out of all the names that she writes, however, Luka’s is the easiest.