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"I'm thinking of confessing to Luka."
The girls' heads darted up at the words. Marinette stiffened, but didn't take it back, opting to squeeze her hands together on her lap rather than let her nerves show.
It was time to say it, she figured. Everyone had gotten together for a sort of "reminiscing" party - Rose would use any excuse to get everybody in one place, really - and they were even adults now. She was still fighting evil as Ladybug, but she had a better handle on it than when she was a teenager. Maybe it'd be a little more work than if she wasn't a superhero, but she could still try for the kind of relationship she'd always been denied when she was younger.
She'd long grown out of her lousy crush on Adrien (complete with a well-imagined slap to the kwami of love, if there was one), as well as out of her dream of the three kids and a hamster. At least for now, she wanted to live in the moment and be happy.
Luka made her happy, and she wanted him to know that.
The girls, however, didn't seem to agree. They exchanged glances with each other around the table, all showing various expressions but none of them that Marinette could define as "good." The only possible exception was Juleka, who seemed more conflicted than anything else. Marinette didn't think much of it though; this involved her brother after all, so it was natural to be hesitant. Really, she'd only said anything to the girls at all because she secretly wanted Juleka's approval.
"What?" Marinette asked when everyone continued to stay silent.
Alya leaned back in her chair with her arms crossed, and although Marinette couldn't see her lower body due to the table, she imagined the legs being crossed as well judging from the subtle shift in posture. "Girl, Luka's crush on you was ages ago."
Marinette frowned. "I know."
Alix scratched the back of her head, her hat tipping forward from the motion but going ignored. "Do you think he's gonna still be in love with you after how into Adrien you were?"
"This isn't about that," Marinette insisted a bit curtly, her fists clenching in her lap. Honestly, she'd wanted to say something like, "Adrien was so long ago," but didn't bother. Despite such a silly crush having happened when she was in her early teens, the girls never let her forget about it, whether to tease her or be under the genuine belief that she still had feelings for Adrien somewhere. It just wasn't true and made her all the more upset when thinking about how Adrien hovered over her even if she wasn't the one bringing him up.
She wasn't stupid either, wholly aware that Luka might not feel the same anymore but wanting to confess anyway. He'd always been incredibly understanding and receptive to how she felt, so he'd be surprised at the very worst. Even if he rejected her, she still hoped that they could spend more time together, regardless of if he was willing to see if his feelings could come back. The party even provided the perfect opportunity for that, as she could confess once he arrived - so long as Ivan and the rest of Kitty Section didn't swarm him - and then they could spend the rest of their time hanging out.
Mylene waved Alix off as if silently scolding her, then turned to Marinette. "We say this with love, Marinette, but you can't expect Luka to put his heart in the freezer for you."
"I don't."
Juleka, rubbing her arm and reminding Marinette of back when they were teens, finally tried to speak up, "Um—"
"Oh!" Rose exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "And have you seen him and Zoe together? They're so cute! They both have the crazy shoes, the highlights, the ripped pants, and those accessories on their wrists!"
Marinette slumped in her seat, failing to see how any of that was relevant to forming an actual relationship, but gave up trying to convince the girls. Seeing Juleka sinking down in her seat, no longer taking part in the conversation, she wished she could more easily do the same.
Maybe it was a bad idea to tell all of them. She should've kept it to Juleka alone.
Alya looked ready to say something else, but her eyes darted upwards without warning, the rest of the girls following suit. Hurriedly, they'd gathered themselves up, offering Marinette a wave before walking off.
Marinette stood, taking a few steps in preparation to chase after them, but stopped when she felt a presence behind her. An arm came around to her front, holding a red rose so close to the point where it nearly touched her, and she took it as a natural reflex to having something handed to her.
"There's no need to be discouraged, m'lady," Adrien's voice ran out. "Our friends are just looking out for you. We're different from everyone else, and that makes us special."
She glanced Adrien's way without looking directly at him. She was already feeling bitter and he wasn't helping. "What do you mean?"
"We've been a team since the beginning and we've always stuck together. I've loved every moment of fighting akuma with you - you know that - but we're still living double lives. No one else can go at the pace we go when they only live one."
She grit her teeth, biting back a response. Her and Adrien's situations weren't anywhere near comparable regardless of whether or not he was right that they were both living two lives. He adored being Chat Noir, but she hated being Ladybug and everything that'd come with it.
"I'm your loyal, patient partner, so I'll wait for you forever," he continued. "That's the magic of our connection. We were the only ones chosen, and destiny tied us together. There's no one else who can have with you what I have."
His voice then lowered to a whisper, his breath misting off her ear as he talked. She was sure that he'd intended it to sound dreamy and warm, yet she could only shudder from the chill going up her spine.
"Isn't it romantic, lovebug?"
No, she thought, eyes shut tight as her hand unconsciously tensed. A thorn from the rose's stem pressed into her skin, causing a trail of blood to flow down onto her palm.
It's not romantic at all.
Fighting against the cold night air, Marinette hugged her knees to her chest as she sat on the sidewalk just outside the ice rink from all those years ago. She still recalled Luka's hands on her waist, the warm smile when he offered to take her out onto the ice, and how the warmth of his hand permeated their gloves to reach her own hand.
Extending her hand out, she turned the rose back and forth in her hand, eyeing the multiple thorns that almost seemed like a metaphor for the roadblocks on her way to a happy love life.
No, there weren't enough thorns for that.
She wished it could've been different; wondered if it could've had she gotten with Luka earlier on. Had she gone on the subway with him, maybe they would've been together earlier. Maybe she would've been so used to dating him that she'd be able to plan better, or he would've seen that her having to leave was an anomaly rather than the norm for those specific dates that had always seemed to spite her.
She didn't have any expectations that Luka would feel anything in particular for her nowadays, but Adrien's words still stung. She could never truly have anyone but Adrien himself, because so long as the butterfly was still on the loose, there wasn't any other soul going at her pace.
And certainly not Luka, who always seemed to be ahead of everyone else in emotional maturity at the very least.
Then, almost as if summoned with her thoughts, Marinette caught familiar shades of blue and black out of the corner of her eye. Looking up from the rose, she saw Luka standing there, seemingly out of breath as if he'd just been running.
"L-luka?" She straightened in surprise. She'd left the party before he'd even shown up, so how...?
"Jule told me that you left," he explained like he'd read her mind. "I was worried that something happened."
"How'd you know I was here?"
He could only shrug, averting his gaze and adjusting his jacket from the run he'd apparently gone on. "It took a few tries to get it right, but after a while, I just... followed your song."
It was a very "Luka" answer, one that she understood without him elaborating further. He reasonably wouldn't know how she felt yet, so all he could go off of was whatever little information Juleka might've given him.
"Are you okay?" He approached, kneeling down to be more level with her. "You don't have to talk either if you don't want to."
Not immediately answering, she hugged her legs to herself a little tighter and brought the rose back in with them. Luka's eyes followed it, then widened in shock.
"You're bleeding..."
She looked over, having forgotten about the wound she'd accidentally given herself. The way she'd turned her hand upon moving had caused a few drops of blood to drip down onto the road, thus making Luka aware of the injury.
He searched himself, almost in a panic, then directed his gaze to her purse. "Can I borrow your sewing kit?"
"Ah." She supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that he remembered that she carried it everywhere with her. "Sure? Why—"
Given that her hand was still bleeding, he reached over to her purse himself, saying a few short words to Tikki as he reached inside to pull out the little set of supplies. He opened it, pulling out a pair of scissors that didn't really fit his larger hand. Still, he set the kit aside and grabbed at one of the rips in his pants.
Marinette realized what was happening and held her hand out, dropping the rose in shock. "L-luka! You'll ruin them!"
"They're already ripped," he said dismissively. Not giving her any time to argue, he cut a long piece of fabric along his pant leg, the tear looking blatantly different from the rest of the pre-made ones.
After cutting the torn piece in half, he set the scissors aside, then took her wrist and used one half to clean the blood off her hand as best as he could.
"I'll take better care of it later when I can," he promised, "but this'll have to do for now."
She blushed at his delicate touch, wondering how she wasn't supposed to fall deeper in love with him when he fretted over her like that. He worked slowly and steadily, ensuring that he was doing everything as properly as he could. Pressing her lips together, she found it hard to continue staying silent about how she felt about him.
"I'm just... coming to terms with a few things," she admitted, figuring that was enough for a conversation starter.
He glanced at her, then focused back on the wound. "Like what?"
She gave a half-hearted shrug. "Love, I guess. Just that I probably can't have a boyfriend unless it's..." She gestured at the fallen rose.
"What?" His expression shifted somewhere between confused and disgusted. "Marinette, you should be allowed to be with whoever you want."
"That's the problem!" She sighed. "I'm Ladybug, and now—then, it was already too late. I wasted away so many years on being a superhero, so no one else is going at my, um..." She looked down at his hands delicately tying the other half of the fabric around her wound, though Luka untied it upon being dissatisfied with how he'd done it. "...my tempo?"
The corners of his lips twitched at the music dialect, though he suppressed the emotion easily enough. Looking at her seriously, he argued, "Everyone goes at a different tempo, whether they have a double life or not, and I'm sure whoever this guy - or girl - is would happily love you back, especially if they loved you honestly before."
"What if they're you?" she challenged. She hadn't meant for her confession to be so blunt, nor be blurted out like it was, but it was already out there and she didn't try to excuse or take it back.
Luka, meanwhile, froze in place, his eyes darting up from her hand to meet her gaze. Even his hands, which had gotten into a rhythm of retying the knot over and over until he was happy with it, became entirely still.
Marinette waited patiently at first, though grew concerned when she suspected that he wasn't breathing. Slowly, she pulled her hand away, his hands hovering in place and still holding the ends of the knot like he didn't realize what she'd done.
"Luka...?"
He jolted, jarred back into reality. His hands pulled apart to continue what he'd been doing, but the knot merely tightened around nothing now that her finger was gone.
"Me?" he asked, his voice a little higher than usual.
She nodded, smiling shyly at him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I have a lot of regrets over everything that happened and it took me a long time to move on from them. It's okay if you don't love me anymore, or don't want to give us a second chance. I just wanted you to know how happy you make me, that's all. I know you've always—"
"Who gave you that idea?" he suddenly interrupted.
"What? What idea?"
He opened his mouth, but stopped, realizing belatedly the issue with the knot he made. Undoing it without even a hint of embarrassment, he held the fabric out to her expectantly, waiting for her to lift her hand again to clarify, "That I might not love you anymore."
"Ah... no one?" she replied, then hesitated before adding, "Well, I wasn't really sure. I didn't want to assume anything, but then I told the girls at the party and they said—"
He titled his head back and groaned, as if physically pained. "Please don't listen to them. Not paying enough attention to the ideas they were putting into your head was my regret."
She cringed at the memory. "I-I didn't mean to listen to them or anything! And—I still told you, because it was never about you loving me or not loving me anyway."
"Thank you," he said, sounding genuinely grateful. Then, as he tied the knot to keep the fabric wrapped around her wound, he continued, "and I definitely still love you, Marinette."
"Y...you do?" she asked, almost with a squeak attached to the end.
He grinned at her, and it was clear how absurdly happy he was. "You were worried about the tempo, but just because a song is slow doesn't mean it's bad. I just get to appreciate each note longer before the next one plays."
She actually squeaked that time. "B-but I don't have anything new to offer you!"
"You don't need anything new," he retorted. Taking her hand, he brushed his thumb across the fabric he'd placed there. "You are already more than enough."
She tried to keep down her smile, but it was hard when he wasn't making any effort to suppress his own. "I-I just—can't believe you waited this long."
He shook his head. "I was never waiting, because I didn't have any expectations that you'd like me back one day. It's just like what you told me; you make me happy, and that's all the reason I needed to keep loving you." Running his other hand along the fresh tear in his pants, he began, "Besides..."
"Besides?" she echoed, leaning in hopefully to prompt him to continue.
Her curiosity just made him smile wider. "I still enjoyed what we played, whether it was romantic or not, and being together is just another verse to add to our duet. I'm already glad to be your friend, and if you want me to be your boyfriend on top of that—"
She answered him by pushing herself forward, her hands sliding briefly across his shoulders so her arms could wrap around his neck. The fallen rose was crushed under her sole, going completely unnoticed as her lips met Luka's in a passionate kiss. Luka stalled briefly, needing to place a hand behind him to keep them both from crashing down onto the pavement, but then his arm went around her waist and he kissed back.
It was worth the wait, feeling as if their unfinished "project" from their first date was finally being completed. Marinette quickly found that she fit perfectly in his lap, and Luka made noises in the midst of their kisses that were just as embarrassing as hers. Even after they pulled apart, she nestled her head against his shoulder, her hum of contentment harmonizing with his own.
"I definitely don't feel like going back to the party," she murmured.
"Me neither."
After they'd properly cherished the moment, Marinette felt Luka shift and glanced down to see that he'd pulled out his phone to check the time. When she looked up at him questioningly, he gave her a reassuring smile in response.
"Do you want to take the subway together, Marinette?"
The question brought back the exact scenario she'd been wondering about before, and his soft eyes told her that he knew full well what he was doing. She even suspected that he'd been thinking about the same experience when he'd figured out where to find her.
"I'd love to," she answered, sealing the deal with another kiss.
She went to get off of him, figuring that his legs must've been getting sore from sitting on the pavement in addition to dealing with her weight, but Luka grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her down into another kiss. She didn't have it in her - didn't want - to protest, so she kissed him back. What started as a quick kiss turned long, then from one kiss to two, then more until they were both certain that they wouldn't be inclined to go anywhere so long as they were too busy making up for lost time.
"...We'll catch the next one," she decided.
Luka muffled his agreement against her lips.