Chapter Text
“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴
𝘝𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥
𝘛𝘰𝘰 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘱 𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦
𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘪𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥…”
Adrien Agreste had never really had any form of freedom for most of his life, even before his mother died. It could have been the fame his parents both had, or maybe it was the paranoia of his controlling father, Gabriel. At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter. He always wanted freedom, no matter what the cause was for his lack of it. Adrien was homeschooled for the majority of his life until his freshman year of high school, last year, when his father finally let him go to public school. He made some friends, and most importantly, he finally got a taste of freedom.
Then, suddenly, one day he helped an old man stand up after tripping in the street, and he came home that day to a black box on his desk, and he opened it, curiosity coursing through his veins. There was a black ring with a green glowing paw print on it, and a three-inch-tall, round-headed, and smelly cat-like creature came flying out of the box. His name was Plagg, and he gave Adrien the power to be Cat Noir, a superhero, alongside his partner Ladybug. This all happened a year ago, and he’s so used to saving the day now. Somewhere along the way he fell in love with Ladybug, with her charm and confidence. She’s never felt the same way, but Adrien can live with it as long as he gets to see her for every battle. That’s enough for him. It fills the lonely void inside of him that has been there since birth.
Now he finds himself at school at his lunch table with his best friend Nino, Nino’s girlfriend Alya, and Alya’s best friend Marinette. He’s known each of them since he started going to public school last year, and he couldn’t have asked for better friends. Nino always knows how to cheer him up, Alya always has an interesting opinion on almost anything, and Adrien thinks it’s really cool, and Marinette always seemed quiet and awkward, which Adrien found endearing.
Even after a year, Marinette hasn’t changed all that much. Adrien steals a glance in her direction, and, to his surprise, she’s already looking at him. She quickly averts her gaze and begins twisting her hair with her fingers. Adrien furrows his eyebrows and looks away, confusion written on his face. Marinette’s always been a bit, well, odd. This seems different. It’s been different for months now. He wonders distantly if he did something wrong or if she’s going through something at home, but he’s too worried to ask about it. So instead he busies himself in a conversation with Nino about his last date night with Alya, who chimes in every minute or so to clarify something Nino said that was exaggerated.
“Hey!” Alya says, interrupting Nino in the middle of his story as he groans in annoyance. “Juleka told me that Luka is transferring here next week. Something about his mom getting a new job and not being able to homeschool him anymore.”
Marinette spits out her drink, wide-eyed. “What?! Alya, why didn’t you tell me this?” She yell-whispers.
Alya puts her hands up in defense. “Chill, girl! I just did!” Marinette groans and puts her head in her hands. “Besides, Juleka just told me this morning. I rest my case.” She puts her hands down and lets Nino continue his story.
Adrien thinks back to the few times he met the black-and-blue ombre-haired boy, and he wonders how hard it’s going to be for him to try and adjust to such a huge change. As someone who has been through it, Adrien sympathizes with Luka immensely. There’s also the fact that it’s been almost a month since the start of the year, and he’ll need to catch up on the material they’ve been learning. Adrien gets an idea, and after dinner that night he gathers up his math and science notes from the start of the year and transforms into Cat Noir. He makes his way to Luka and Juleka’s houseboat, de-transforms in a nearby alley, and knocks on the side of the boat since there’s no door. Juleka walks towards him, her purple hair covering her left eye, and furrows her brows.
“Adrien? What are you doing here?” She says, quiet and soft like usual. Adrien smiles at her.
“Uh, I thought maybe Luka could use my math and science notes from the past month to get caught up to speed.” He replies, shifting awkwardly on his feet.
“Oh. Yeah, his room is way in the back. You can go give it to him if you want.” Juleka says, and quickly walks back to her room and shuts the door. Adrien was planning on just having her give the notes to Luka, but he doesn’t mind talking to him himself. He walks over to Luka’s door and knocks.
“Who is it?” Luka declared, his voice muffled behind the door.
“It’s Adrien Agreste, Juleka’s friend from school. I heard you were transferring to Francoise Dupont, and I thought you could use some notes to get caught up!” Adrien replied, raising his voice so Luka could hear him through the door.
“Oh! Yeah, of course! Come on in!” Luka exclaimed.
Adrien opened the door and set the binder filled with equations and term definitions on Luka’s twin bed. Luka was sitting up on his bed, his head leaning against the wall with his white and black electric guitar in his arms as he looked to be tuning it. He looked up at Adrien and smiled, his eyes crinkling slightly as he did. Adrien smiled warmly back.
“Here,” Luka patted the spot next to him, “sit down.” Adrien did as he was told and sat down. He grabbed the binder to his left and handed it to Luka. He took it and opened it.
“I can help you go over the notes if you want.” Adrien offered, realizing that his notes probably wouldn’t help much without explanations of what certain things meant.
Luka nodded, “That would be great, thank you, Adrien. I really appreciate it.” He set his guitar on the stand next to his bed and scootched closer to Adrien. “Math and science have never been my strongest subjects, to say the least, so I was definitely going to need a tutor when I started next week. So, this helps a ton.”
“I’m glad it helps.” Adrien says as Luka sets the binder half on each other's laps. “Okay, let’s start with the first week of school…”
Adrien and Luka work on science first and are about halfway through before Adrien suggests they take a break. They begin talking about random things and get to know one another. Adrien learns that Luka loves strawberry ice cream and his favorite color is teal. Eventually the conversation shifts into their hobbies, and Luka stands up and shows him his guitar.
“I got this a few years back for Christmas. My mom knew how obsessed I was with music and thought I should give guitar playing a shot. I learned all the chords in just a couple of months, and I’ve been playing since then.” Luka explained, and Adrien reached out to slowly run his fingers over the strings as the melody rang in his ears.
“Wow, that’s amazing! I only learned how to play an instrument because my father insisted on it. He chose the piano. ‘Elegant and refined’ was the way he described it. I thought it was tedious and boring at first, but it grew on me. I think it’s been…” Adrien pauses to jog his memory, “Eight years since I started playing.”
“Well, I wish you got to choose your own instrument, but I’m glad you like playing it now! What would you have chosen to play if you had the choice?” Luka questioned, setting the guitar back on its stand as he sat next to Adrien on the bed.
“Definitely the drums. I’ve always wanted to be in a band, and I was obsessed with drums as a kid.” Adrien replies, thinking back to the day he heard drums being played for the first time at four years old and fell in love with the sound. The love he has now for the piano is more out of simple convenience than actual love for the instrument. If only he had gotten to choose, he thinks.
“The drums are pretty great! An old friend of mine taught me the basics this past summer. I could teach you what I learned if you want!” Luka says, pulling Adrien out of his thoughts.
“That would be amazing, thank you!” Adrien exclaimed, happy that Luka would take the time to help him like that. He always seemed kind to Adrien, but he never really noticed it until now. Luka really seemed to brighten up any room he was in, and Adrien would almost be envious of it if it weren’t for his more confident alter ego.
“Y’know, I think you would love some of the musicians and bands I like. Let me show you some songs from my playlist!” Luka pulled out his phone and handed it to Adrien. There were probably over two hundred songs in the playlist, and Adrien recognized ninety percent of them from his own playlists.
“Arms Tonite, Killer Queen, AND The Adults Are Talking are three of my favorite songs! You have insanely good music taste, Luka.” Adrien hands the phone back to Luka, who smiles down at him, his blue eyes twinkling a bit in the moonlight.
“And that’s an insanely good compliment, Adrien. You really know how to woo a guy.” Luka replies, sitting down on his bed next to Adrien again. Adrien chuckles a bit.
“I mean, I have been told that I have lots of charm.” Adrien replies, putting an edge to his voice to sound more cocky than he really is. Luka bursts out laughing, holding his stomach for a minute before his laughter dies down.
“Well, whoever told you that might be onto something.” Luka says with a playful smirk, opening up the binder again. They got back to work with the air of their previous conversation hanging in the air above them, slowly dissipating with the academic conversation taking over.
***
After a while of going over science notes, and after Luka seemed to be understanding everything pretty well, Adrien and Luka said their goodbyes, and Adrien was about to leave when Luka spoke.
“I have a quick question, if it’s not too personal.” Luka says, leaning against his pillows with his arms behind his head.
“Sure! I don’t mind answering a question.” Adrien replies, tilting his head for Luka to continue.
“Well… Are you and Marinette dating?” Luka questions. Adrien’s eyes go wide, and he knits his eyebrows together in complete and utter confusion.
“What? No, definitely not! We’re friends…” Adrien trails off, shocked that Luka even asked.
Luka chuckles a bit before replying, “Ah, alright then. Just curious. Have a nice night, Adrien!”
Adrien smiles and unknits his eyebrows. “You too, Luka!” He says while walking out of the room. He closes the door behind him and walks off the houseboat and down the street until he finds an empty alley. Adrien transforms into Cat Noir and quickly makes his way back home, sneaks in through one of his windows, de-transforms, changes into pajamas, and falls asleep with a soft smile on his face from a fulfilling day. The last thing he thinks about before sleep overtakes him is Luka’s bright blue eyes shimmering in the twilight.