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Luka didn’t really know what happened. He just started seeing Chloe hang out with his sister’s friends and, as a result, she would come to the Kitty Section rehearsals. He heard about her a lot, never really properly meeting her and now he was eager to know why she was here, and more importantly, why she was so quiet.
He knew it happened some time after she was akumatized, and he heard Juleka talk about it a little, but he never felt like questioning his sister on someone else’s business. Especially since, despite Chloe coming along, she only seemed to ever talk to Marinette as everyone else was avoiding her. She didn’t look like she minded too much - most of the time she would be visibly deep in her thoughts, flinching every time Marinette would try to talk to her.
So with all that in mind, he decided to just find a good time. And it finally came. After one of the longer rehearsals they all decided to chill at the boat for a little bit, watching as the sun started to set over the city. She stood a little bit away from the others, looking in the water below.
“Hey. Chloe, right?”
Chloe looked up at him, raising her brows, realising that he, in fact, was not Marinette.
“Yeah. And you’re… Luka?”
“At your service” Luka bowed goofily and looked up at Chloe, as she tried to hide a smile.
“You really don’t have to” she said, her voice quiet, almost drowning in the other sounds surrounding them. Thankfully, Luka was Juleka’s brother.
“I know” he smiled, as he stood up straight again “I would never serve anyone I wouldn’t want to serve”
He watched as she visibly tried to suppress a blush and thought to himself that she would certainly be the type to hide this behind strands of her hair if only they weren’t in a tight ponytail.
She turned her head back to the water and sighed.
“Sorry, I just… I don’t know how to say it and not be rude, but I really don’t want you around. Not that there’s anything wrong with you, it’s just that… I don’t want to ruin everything even more, beyond what I’ve ruined already”
He watched her look in the direction of everyone else, together, laughing and talking, like it was nothing.
“You can’t ruin something that is yet to exist” he shrugged, trying to reassure her “but let me talk in a language I speak way better than words”
He took her by her hand and led her over to the instruments. There, he took his guitar.
“From what I’ve heard, your whole life you felt like this” he gently, carefully played a tune that sounded… regal. That was the best word Chloe could find, “but now you feel like this”.
A sad, slightly off-tune melody. Chloe suppressed a gasp, wondering, how did he manage to capture in music something she was afraid to think in words.
“But here’s the thing, Chloe. No matter how you feel, it’s you who makes a decision on who you’ll be. Even if you aren’t fully free yet, you’re still free enough to reflect on who you want to be. What music plays in your heart”
He put his guitar away and smiled at her, and as she felt her heart beating out of her chest she wondered if it was him, his words or being on a boat that made her head spin so much.