Chapter 7: Joined at the hip, yeah, your sidekick needs you
Except:
“Let me guess,” Marinette pondered as she moved from the bedroom into the hallway, towards the kitchen. “Does it have something to do with a certain ex-model whose photograph I used to have plastered all over my walls?”
‘Of course! You were out with Adrien frigging Agreste, Marinette!’
Smiling to herself, she held the phone between her shoulder and ear as she filled the kettle with water, then grabbed her mug and dropped a tea bag inside, one of her stolen contraband from the hotel in London. “I was.”
‘And?’
She thought about how much she should actually give Alya. After all, the girl was away for the next couple of weeks and Marinette knew it would drive her insane if she didn’t know every single detail.
She walked over to the fridge and opened the door, spotting the beautiful sight of a T&S bakery box, and grabbed the milk. “Oh, you know, we did a little dance, made a little love, and pretty much got down to–”
As she shut the door and turned back towards the kettle, she froze looking into green eyes. Green eyes which weren’t human but were fully familiar.
She screamed.
She really, really screamed, causing the intruder to scream too.
They screamed backwards and forwards, Alya’s panicked tone on the other side of the phone backed by an enthusiastic pounding at her door.
“Alya,” Marinette whimpered, her eyes still on her partner standing right in front of her. “I’m going to need to call you back.”
The pounding on the door continued. Whoever was on the other side sounded like they were about to break it down.
‘Marinette, what’s wrong?’
“I’ve - I’ve –”
Chat Noir placed a finger over his lips, shaking his head and widening his eyes.
Right, it wouldn’t be the best idea to suddenly announce her partner was in her home. “I’ve just burned myself, silly me, you know what I’m like. I’ll call you back later.”
Viperion crouched behind one of the Eiffel Tower’s pillars. His laid back demeaner started to slip away as he watched the scene play out in front of him. Normally he wouldn’t let anything get to him, but everyone has their breaking point and he’d just witnessed his.
At first, he’d followed Ladybug to make sure she was okay but then he’d spotted Chat.
He didn’t hate Adrien or his alter ego but he didn’t understand why the blonde hadn’t fought harder to stay when Luka would rip out his heart for her.
Viperion knew he didn’t stand a chance against his blonde rivel. He’d watched over and over how Marinette tore herself apart in anguish at everything she’d lost, including Adrien.
It broke his heart that he wasn’t enough, but it didn’t stop him from loving the raven-haired beauty. Even if it wasn’t his name she called out in her sleep.
Viperion watched in silence as ladybug grabbed Chat’s face and kissed him. In that very moment he felt the weight of what he was about to lose, and it hurt. It hurt more that any physical pain he’d ever felt.
Having seen enough, he moved back into the shadows. Part of him wanted to yell and scream but what good would that do. Instead, he wiped his face with trembling hands and left as quickly as he could.
……………………….
Luka hadn’t slept and found himself walking along Paris’s empty streets with Sass. When he’d turned up at the Liberty the night before Juleka and Rose knew something was wrong straight away.
“Lu, you okay? I heard Adrien’s back.” Juleka asked, concern written all over her face. He wasn’t in the mood to talk and only shook his head before curling up on his old bed.
For the last two years he’d officially moved into the spare room at Sabine’s apartment above the bakery. He helped Sabine in the bakery when his studies let him and kept a constant eye on Marinette. His relationship with Marinette was complicated to say the least. They did everything a couple would do together but when it came to labels Marinette refused to commit. Sometimes he slept in her room and sometimes she’d crawl into his bed late at night when she couldn’t sleep.
Luka didn’t mean to walk back to the bakery but as if on auto pilot he’d ended up at the one place he wanted to avoid. Before he could retreat back to the Liberty, Sabine waved to him through the window. Taking a deep breath, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. Sabine was behind the counter filling the shelves for the morning rush.
“Oh, Luka honey thank god you’re here. I was worried about you. Marinette was awake most of the night. I think it was the nightmares again. Do you think you could check on her for me? She wouldn’t talk to me. I haven’t seen her this bad in ages.” She sighed before she rushed out the back to grab more trays.
Luka didn’t know if he was ready to see Marinette, but he hated how drained Sabine looked. The last three years had taken a toll on her. It had been a struggle to keep the bakery running without Tom.
In the early days after the akuma attack, Tom’s father had come out of retirement to help keep the business running until they could hire another baker. Alya, Luka and Nino as well as Marinette’s grandmother had helped behind the counter while Sabine had taken some time off to mourn with Marinette.
“I umm, sure.” Luka smiled weakly. He could never say no to Sabine and knowing Marinette could be spiralling again scared him.
Luka took the stairs two at a time. He’d already forgotten his own feelings. Now his only concern was Marinette. Moments later he pushed open the hatch into her room only to find it a disaster zone.
Marinette’s sketches were everywhere and her roles of fabric had been thrown across the room. In the centre of the floor a pile of old pictures Luka hadn’t seen before had been tipped out of a box. A lamp lay broken on the floor as well as broken glass from picture fames she’d clearly thrown.
The kwami’s were huddled together over the dolls house looking solemn. They looked at Luka with sad eyes and Barkk shook his little head. “The guardian is hurting, we don’t know how to help Luka.”
“I know Barkk it will be okay though. Can you please start cleaning up this mess and I’ll find her?” Luka asked before leaving the room to find Marinette.
The first place Luka looked was his room and sure enough he found her curled up on his bed with a fluffy blanket wrapped around her.
Tikki Marinette’s kwami floated in front of his face, holding up her little paw. “Shhh, she just fell asleep.”
Sass flew out of Luka’s hoddie. “My boy hasn’t slept at all either Tikki because of your selfish charge.”
“Sass, that’s not fair. Luka I’m sorry.” Tikki said looking deflated. “Nothing is easy when it comes to matters of the heart.”
“It’s okay Tikki.” Luka rubbed the little red kwami’s cheek then walked over to his bed.
Kicking his shoes off he lay down and snuggled in next to Marinette. She shifted unconsciously to mould herself to his side, her arm slid across his stomach and he felt her body relax. Brushing the hair off her face he kissed her forehead.
Luka felt himself drifting somewhere between consciousness and sleep when he felt her start to toss and whimper in her sleep. He was used to her nightmares by now and he tightened his arms around her hoping it would pass quickly.
Her whimpers turned into words and Luka felt his chest tighten.
“Please… stop… no Adrien… don’t go…”
It wasn’t the first time he’d heard it, but it didn’t make it any easier or hurt any less. Now Adrien was back Luka needed to talk to her. It was time for Marinette to choose. She had to let one of them go even if that meant breaking his heart.
………………….
A month passed, and Luka still hadn’t talked to Marinette about choosing once and for all. It’s not that he hadn’t tried. They’d talked about the kiss and Marinette had explained it as more of a goodbye than the start of anything. But it was still Adrien’s name she called out in her sleep.
There’d been awkward moments when Marinette turned up at events Adrien was also attending. Luka would watch Adrien try and catch her before she ran off. Luka took it upon himself to stop Adrien chasing after her. He wasn’t sure if he was doing it to protect her or to keep Adrien as far away from her as he could.
It confused Luka to no end, he wasn’t a jealous person and he wanted Marinette to heal even if that meant losing her. So why did he keep stopping Adrien. It led to more than one awkward and sometimes confrontational conversation with him.
Last night had been no different when Adrien ran into them at the bar Luka sometimes played at with his band. Luka was drinking with Marinette, Juleka and Rose after a long week of exams. Marinette’s nightmares had been getting worse, but she refused to talk about it. At the same time, she also refused to sleep alone which meant Luka hadn’t been sleeping.
Chloe and Adrien appeared out of nowhere and before Luka could stop him Adrien had sat down next to Marinette and begged her to talk to him. Seeing the panic on Marinette’s face Luka grabbed Adrien’s arm and pulled him to his feet.
“Get the hint Agreste. She doesn’t want to talk to you.” Luka hissed at him.
“It’s not up to you Couffanie. You’re not her boyfriend.”
Luka didn’t remember much after that. He hadn’t snapped like that since he was fourteen and been expelled from school. The next thing he knew Spencer and Marvin the bouncers were trying to break the fight up. Little did they know both Adrien and Luka were stronger than the average twenty-year-old and it was proving harder than it should’ve been.
It took Marinette putting herself in-between the two to break the fight up.
Marinette dragged his ass back home and cleaned his bloody nose all the while giving him a lecture on how she could look after herself and didn’t need him. It was their first real fight. Luka said things he didn’t mean and when Marinette broke down, he crumbled. The two ended up naked and tangled in his bed sheets. After the wild makeup sex, he had the first full nights sleep he’d had in a long time.
Now watching her sleeping next to him, he knew something had to give. His love for her was starting to turn toxic and he didn’t like the person he was becoming. He carefully slid out from under her naked body and found his pants. He knew what he had to do. He should have done it ages ago but he’d always told himself that she wasn’t ready when in reality maybe it was him who wasn’t ready.
Luka opened his wardrobe and reached up to the top shelve. His hand closed around the box hidden at the back.
“Lu, come back to bed. It’s only 7:30. You own me more snuggles.”
Marinette’s sleepy voice almost had him putting it back, but he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I need to give you this, my love. I hope you can forgive me someday but please know I did it to protect you.”
“Luka, what are you talking about?” Marinette asked, her eyebrows knitted together in concern as she sat up holding the blanket to her bare chest.
“After Chloe’s first trip to visit Adrien, she brought these home with her and every time after that. She gave them to me to pass on to you and I… well I didn’t. At first it was because you’d told me you never wanted to hear from him again. And then you were so angry at him I didn’t know if it was the right time and then… and then I guess there was never a right time.” Luka couldn’t look her in the eyes. He put the box infront of her and stepped back again stuffing his hands in his pocket.
Marinette lifted the lid and gasped. “Luka why? How could you make that decision for me?” Her voice sounded pained.
Finally, Luka looked at her. “I have no excuse. I hate seeing you tear yourself apart for him. If he really loved you Marinette like I do, he should’ve been the one here holding you late at night when you woke up screaming. I have to go, I have rehearsals.” And with that he grabbed his shirt and guitar and left the love of his life still naked and clearly in shock in his bed.
