"I wish I could choose what my character looks like."

The living room of the Couffaines' house was cozy. It was more simple than what Marinette had expected from Juleka, but she'd found out that Juleka and her parents had a deal. If she and her brother wouldn't touch the other parts of the house, they could do whatever they wanted with their rooms.

When they had gone to see her room earlier, Marinette had really been impressed. It was covered with shades of purple and there were posters and merchandise for horror movies everywhere. Marinette had almost been scared to be there, but not in a bad way.

The only reason they had returned to the living room was because that's where the TV was. They couldn't kill zombies without a screen.

"I know, Mari," Juleka said with her usual quiet voice. "You've been saying that for the past three hours." She rolled her eyes with an amused expression. Their three hours had passed by in what felt like three seconds, and they were only going to play more.

"I'm sorry! I just really appreciate character design," Marinette laughed. It was Juleka's game but Marinette had quickly gotten a grasp of it. It was probably because she spent way too much time playing video games at home.

"Like how you designed your character to look exactly like a certain blondie in the last game we played?" Juleka said innocently, but the teasing was obvious.

"Let's not go down that road," Marinette said. "Because there's definitely more than one blondie we could discuss."

Juleka seemed to give up after that comment. She shrugged and focused on the game. Unlike Marinette, whose thoughts had now started swirling around Adrien Agreste.

You'd think after two years of liking him, her feelings would have calmed down a bit. Nope. And there hadn't been much progress either. The only time they hung out was when Alya and Nino were with them, and that wasn't often.

The reason Marinette had gotten so much closer with Juleka could be connected to how Alya had started spending more time with Nino, and less with Marinette. Of course, Juleka was an awesome person, but Marinette couldn't help but feel a little bitter on how she and Alya had drifted away.

"Wohoo," Juleka's quiet but cheerful sound made Marinette pay attention to the game again. She'd lost.

"I demand a rematch," Marinette said while smiling. She was usually on the winning side.

"Not yet." Juleka stood up. "I'm going to enjoy my victory for a little. I'll go grab us something to drink. Coke or Pepsi?"

"Coke," Marinette said and got up aswell. "I'll come with."

"You stay right here," Juleka forced her to sit down. "I'm not letting you near our chocolates."

Marinette laughed and waited until Juleka had disappeared to the kitchen before opening up her purse. Tikki was taking a nap inside. Marinette questioned how she was able to sleep with all this noise around, but concluded that she would leave her alone.

The sudden sound of a guitar made Marinette look above her. The music was coming from the second floor. It wasn't bad, but it was really loud. So loud that Marinette wondered how the neighbours felt about it.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" someone yelled.

Marinette was confused for a second before she understood that she hadn't heard wrong, and it was Juleka who'd loudly cursed from the kitched. Marinette blinked. That was not something she'd heard the timid Juleka do before.

The music only got louder. Juleka nor the player were anywhere to be seen and Marinette just awkwardly sat on the couch.

Listening a bit more closely to the song, she started liking it for real. It was fierce and beautiful at the same time, there was a great balance.

Soon the music stopped. Marinette was just about to start searching her way to the kitchen when she heard steps from the staircase. She turned around to see who was coming.

A boy, probably a bit older than Marinette, made his way into the room. He was carrying a guitar and he had blue hair tips. Man, this family really likes dyeing their hair. When his bright eyes met Marinette's, he raised his eyebrows before giving a polite smile.

"Oh, hi," he said.

Marinette realized she was practically hiding behind the couch, so she stood up and walked to the boy. "Hi? I'm Ma-Ma-Marinette." She cringed at herself for being nervous. Usually she could handle meeting new people, but this time she'd been too surprised by the boy's presence.

"Right, Juleka told me about you. Sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier," he said and shook her hand. Shaking hands wasn't something Marinette would normally do when meeting teenagers, but he made it seem like a casual thing. "I'm Luka."

Marinette could totally believe this was Juleka's brother. He sort of had a punk feeling to him, y'know? Marinette noticed a design on his white T-shirt.

"Is that Jagged Stone?" she let out. She could recognize the face anywhere, even if it was just in the form of a silhouette.

Luka glanced at his shirt and Marinette witnessed his expression light up. "Yeah! You know him?"

"I love him. Well, his work. I've been following him for years," Marinette gushed. She really needed to buy more merch. "You ready for his new album?"

"Heck yeah," Luka said and put on a blue hoodie he'd picked up from the stand next to him. He seemed to be going somewhere. "But I really hope it won't be the same as last year. It really lacked their sound and was way too poppy," he groaned.

Marinette laughed a little. "You an elitist?"

Luka stopped tying his shoes for a second. He looked up at Marinette and flashed a more genuine smile than the first one. "You a casual?"

"I happened to like their last album." Marinette leaned on the coach and watched as Luka continued getting ready to leave. "Jagged Stone's vocals were really great and the lyrics were super creative."

"Hey," Luka glanced at Marinette again and lifted his arms up. "All I'm saying is that it could've used a little more guitar."

"That was you playing, right?" Marinette made sure.

"Barry here?" Luka pointed at his black and white instrument. Marinette decided not to comment on the guitar's name. "Yeah. Did you hear it?"

"Barely." Marinette rolled her eyes at his cheeky question. "You're pretty good."

"Thanks," Luka said as Juleka walked in with the sodas.

Juleka placed the drinks down on a coffee table. "Sorry it took so long, I had some trouble with the ice," she said and turned to glare at her brother. "Stop playing that thing so loudly, show-off."

Right then Marinette heard a beep from her phone and she jumped from the sudden sound. With her clumsiness, it was to be expected that she should properly stand instead of leaning on the coach. Marinette tried to stay balanced but she fell backwards and her back landed on pillows.

"Are you okay?" both Juleka and Luka asked. Before Marinette could react, Luka had offered his hand to her. Without saying anything, she grabbed it.

This was already the second time within five minutes that Marinette was holding this guy's hand. It was a little weird, but at least his hand was warm. Marinette noticed that he had black nail polish. The dude really seemed to still be living his emo phase, but in all honesty it didn't look that bad.

"I'm glad there was a sofa behind you," Juleka said.

"Me too." Marinette was back to standing firmly on her two feet, so she let go of Luka's hand. "Thanks. And sorry. I'm not usually this clumsy."

"She totally is." Juleka smiled warmly.

"Don't worry about it." he smiled. "And sorry, Jules. An artist has got to do what an artist has got to do," Luka said as he placed the guitar on his back and opened the front door. He looked at Juleka and Marinette. "Band practice, see ya. Nice meeting you, Ma-Ma-Marinette."

Before Marinette could wave at him, he'd already closed the door. Juleka shook her head. "Sorry about my brother."

"Nah, he seemed chill," Marinette assured. She just wished she'd known that he was in the house before so she could've made a better impression. He was her friend's family member, after all.

"So more zombies?" Juleka took a sip of her soda. It hadn't stayed on the coffee table for long.

"Let me just check my phone." Marinette had a bad feeling. She made sure Juleka wouldn't notice Tikki by only slightly opening her purse. She saw an email from Chat Noir.

Marinette sighed. She'd wanted to have one day just to relax with Juleka. One day when she wouldn't have to worry about the messy state of Paris. But she knew what she had to do.

"I'm really sorry, Juleka. It's my mom, she needs me at home." Having done this for two years, Marinette had become numb to lying to the people she cared about.

"Oh." Juleka's smile dropped. "It's fine, I get it."

Marinette looked at Juleka with an apologizing expression. Juleka smiled again. "Really. More soda for me, right?"

"Ugh, you're such a great friend," Marinette pulled her into a hug. Juleka wasn't much of a hugger, but she'd also said that she didn't mind it. "I'll make this up to you," Marinette said as she ran through the door.

Once she was outside, she searched for a place with no eyes. When she found a good spot to hide, she gently woke Tikki up.

A/N:

Ayo! I'm back with my new project. This is my first story with Luka, aaaa. Whether you love him or hate him, I hope you're in for the ride! :)

I will take the liberty to edit characters like Luka and Juleka, simply because I feel like there's not enough to them in the show :'D I'll be keeping what I find to be their core elements ;) The world will also have some changes (and it has passed 2 years since the pilot), so be ready for this to be sort of an AU and have some OOC behavior.

I hope I can execute my plans well! xd Thanks for reading!