See the Light
A Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction
By Mintaka14
Chapter Two – Chasing Down a Daydream
"Luka's not seeing anyone," Rose said conspiratorially as Marinette pinned a swathe of calico dress pattern into place on the tiny blonde girl, and Marinette couldn't help the involuntary glance in Luka's direction. "Not that he hasn't had his share of girlfriends, and a couple of boyfriends too, for that matter," Rose went on.
"I'm sure he has," Marinette said coolly.
"They've never lasted more than a few months, though," Rose told her, and said with studied innocence, "I think he's still waiting for the right one to come along. Or to come back."
Marinette ignored that, and focused her attention on how the rough bodice was sitting. The neckline was still not quite right.
"Deny it all you want, but I know there's something in the air with you and Luka. I can feel it. My Sparkly Sense is tingling."
"Your Sparkly Sense?" Marinette said, a little louder in disbelief than she'd meant to be, and Luka looked up. Her eyes met Luka's over Rose's shoulder, and he gave her a quick grin. Marinette rolled her eyes back at him.
"Like Spidey Sense," Rose was saying, "only more sparkly. It's never wrong."
Luka went back to playing, and Marinette found herself watching his hands as they moved over his guitar. There was something indecently hot about the leather cuff and bracelets around his slim, strong wrist, and she got dizzy just thinking about those callused musician's hands of his. It turned out that Rose wasn't the only one getting ideas, and Marinette clamped down hard on that particular little daydream before it could get out of hand.
Rose saw romance everywhere she looked, but that bridge had been well and truly burned. Luka had moved on long ago from whatever damage Marinette had done to him, and there was no way that he could ever feel like that about her after the way she'd broken his heart all those years ago, even if she was willing or able to try and start anything again. She considered herself fortunate that he was willing to let her back into his life as a friend.
"We're just good friends," she muttered, and the piece of calico she'd been pinning shifted as Rose folded her arms. Marinette glanced up into Rose's wide blue stare and one raised eyebrow. Rose flicked a glance back over her shoulder at Luka, and turned back to Marinette.
"Just friends, huh?" the blonde girl said, and Marinette put her hands on her hips.
"Don't start," she warned her friend, keeping her voice low. "We tried the whole relationship thing, remember? Do you really want to put Luka through all that again?"
Rose rolled her eyes. "That was ten years ago! You were fourteen."
"And nothing's changed," Marinette said firmly. Rose didn't look convinced, but Marinette started unpinning the back of the rough gown so that she could step out of it. "I think I've got enough to work on with this dress for now."
Rose reached for her tunic and leggings, tugging them on over the slip she'd been wearing for the fitting, and Marinette folded the calico gown, careful not to dislodge any of the pins or markings. When Juleka came over for her fitting, Marinette said, "Your girlfriend is a compulsive romantic," and Juleka grinned at her.
"Yeah," the taller girl said, and held out her arms with professional ease while Marinette set up the pattern around her. "My life is full of unicorns, and I have glitter in places I didn't know existed."
Marinette pulled a face. "I did not need to know that."
After Rose's constant fidgeting, it was so much easier to work with Juleka, who was used to holding a position while seamstresses buzzed around her. The mock-up started to take shape much more quickly this time.
"And somehow my wedding is turning into a fairytale extravaganza," Juleka complained, but she didn't sound too distressed about it. At least Juleka got to be a little bit Maleficent, Marinette thought, eyeing the gown and picturing it in the shimmering black metallic fabric she planned on using.
"Luka said that Jagged's going to be at the wedding," Marinette said, taking another pin from the band on her wrist and frowning critically at the calico pattern piece she'd just adjusted on Juleka. On the other side of the room, Rose had started making something that involved a lot of glitter and offering the occasional critique on whatever Luka was playing.
"He's the one who got us the venue," Juleka said with a shrug. "Or rather, Penny did. It's amazing how easy it is to make things happen when you've got Jagged Stone's wife and personal manager organising it."
"And you don't…?" Marinette broke off, not quite sure how to finish the question.
"It never bothered me like it did Luka." Juleka shot her brother a look, and Marinette followed the direction of her gaze. "And if a lingering sense of guilt means Jagged wants to spring for a château on a vineyard estate and a weekend in Bordeaux for all of us, I'm not going to stop him."
"A vineyard in Bordeaux? That sounds lovely."
"Yeah," Juleka said softly, and her eyes went to Rose, surrounded by glitter and black craft paper. "Yeah, it does."
Marinette knelt and busied herself with the fall of the calico pattern while Juleka stood there patiently in her slip. The strains of Luka's acoustic guitar made a pleasant background as he drifted from one song to another, breaking off occasionally to call out something to Juleka or ask Rose's opinion, and then sliding into something else. Somewhere along the way, he started singing scraps of the songs, and Marinette found herself caught by the soft, husky burr of his voice.
Luka was still the same sweet boy he'd always been, but older. Sharper. Hotter, she had to admit. The kindness that had always been in his eyes was still there, and that indefinable sense of grounded calm had only grown stronger. Luka wore maturity well, and gave the impression that he had nothing he needed to prove to anyone.
She'd been relieved to see that he still dyed his hair. That shade of ocean teal was one she always associated in her memory with Luka, although he wore it in a longer undercut now that shadowed his face when he wanted it to and left her itching to run her hands through his hair and tangle her fingers in it until she could see those eyes go as dark as the open sea.
She found herself following the angular outline of his jaw, which had lost the softer edge of his teenage years, and she wanted to reach out and run her fingers along the shadow of stubble there now, down to oh god those shoulders and the swell of his biceps with the ink that coiled around his arm and along the sinews of his forearms.
The fashion designer in her that always paid attention to people and what they wore couldn't help but notice that Luka still wore his clothes with an easy air. He wore a shirt and tie with the same casual indifference that he wore his favourite band shirt, and, if Marinette was any judge, a complete lack of interest in how he looked in either. It really wasn't fair how attractive that indifference was, or that he looked so stupidly hot no matter what he put on.
Right now, he was wearing an old tshirt and a sleeveless hoodie that had seen better days, the heel of his heavy black boot hooked over the crossbar of his chair and idly tapping along with whatever it was he was playing on his acoustic guitar.
Marinette found herself imagining the staff and school parents, and probably more than a few of the students themselves, who probably swooned over him, and wondered if he noticed them. She drew a swift, sharp breath and suppressed the pang at the thought. Nice as it was to be back in his life, and as easy as it was to fall back into that closeness that they'd had before things had fallen apart in their teenage years, nothing had fundamentally changed. She still couldn't ask him for more, and she certainly couldn't give him more. No matter how much, a tiny fragment of her whispered slyly, you might really, really want to.
He laughed at something Rose said, and suggested, "Fine, Miss Disney Princess, what about this one?"
The guitar shifted and rippled into something else, and Luka sang, "All those days, watching from the windows," with a laugh in his voice. He broke off to tell Rose, "But you might have to grow your hair out for that. Or is Juleka going to be Rapunzel at your fairytale wedding?" and then he picked up the melody again.
Marinette didn't realise that she'd been singing along, or that Luka had dropped back to a soft hum, until she felt Juleka tap on her shoulder. Juleka pointed behind her, and she looked around to find Rose staring at her with huge, excited eyes and her hands clasped under her chin. Luka's hands stilled on his guitar, and he gave her a warm smile.
"That. Was beautiful!" Rose squeaked. "You two sound so good together. You have to sing that for us at the wedding!"
Marinette shrank back a little, her eyes going to Luka.
"I can't sing."
"You sound just like Mandy Moore!" Rose insisted, but Marinette was pretty sure that that was just Rose's enthusiasm speaking.
"You've got a nice voice," Luka said more moderately from the chair where he was bent over his guitar. "Sweet, with a little rough around the edges. It's nice." The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile as he strummed a random chord. "And you can sing on key."
Luka couldn't lie to save himself when it came to matters of music, no matter how much he might want to spare a friend's feelings, and Marinette felt a little reassured.
"I'm already making your wedding dresses," she told Rose. "Isn't that enough?"
"It's just one little song," Rose pleaded. Those big, Bambi eyes were dangerous, and Marinette could only hope that Rose used them for good and not evil. "One little song. Hardly anything. Please?"
Marinette shot Luka a surreptitious glance, but he was focused on the soft music he was playing again and all she could see was the fall of his blue dyed hair and the sharp line of his jaw. She sighed in surrender.
Rose beamed triumphantly. "Oh, this is going to be so good!" She clapped her hands together, and got a look of cunning that left Marinette feeling uneasy. "You two are going to need to practise together. We'll leave you to work it out."
And she hauled Juleka out of the room, towing the taller girl with surprising strength. The door closed firmly on Juleka's protests, and Luka and Marinette exchanged glances. Marinette couldn't help laughing, a little helplessly.
"Rose is not subtle."
"Ro's the eternal romantic. I think she's decided that if she throws us at each other hard enough, the magic will happen. She'll get over it."
The guitar strings sang At last I see the light, and he raised an eyebrow at her in a question.
"You really want to do this?" she asked him. "I'm not a singer."
"You can hold a tune, and you know most of the words already." Luka's smile grew wider. "I'm a pretty poor music teacher if I can't get us through one song."
She let out a small huff, and Luka's eyes grew soft with concern. "If you don't want to, I'll talk Rose out of it."
"Is that even possible?" Marinette muttered, and Luka chuckled.
"I have my ways."
Marinette considered it for a long moment, then, against her better judgement, she shook her head. "I might as well give in now as later," she told him. "The things I do for my friends."
"Tell me if you don't want this," he insisted. His ocean blue eyes were still on her, giving her that look that saw more than they should, and Marinette remembered sixteen year old Luka telling her You can tell me everything, or nothing if you prefer as he held her while she fell apart. And she'd wanted to tell him everything. She'd come within a breath of spilling all her secrets and risking the safety of everyone she cared about to keep him.
Looking into his eyes now, Marinette had a bad feeling that the man Luka had become would be even harder to walk away from than the sweet sixteen year old boy he'd been. So it was just as well that Rose and her Sparkly Sense was way off base.
"What have I gotten myself into?" she sighed.