Title: "You Could Say I'm a Fan"

Author: Veritas Found

Rating: K Plus / PG / Most Ages

Characters/Pairings: Luka Couffaine, Marinette Dupain-Cheng; Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Summary: It's Halloween on the Liberty, and Luka is stuck on Candy Duty. Juleka's throwing a party for her friends, after all, and it just wouldn't be cool for her older brother to crash. Luka finds he doesn't mind so much when a Kitty Section trick-or-treater swings by.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Notes/Warnings: Hey guys Airi's joined the Dammit Club. xD This is 100% spawned by her Halloween comic "Costume", because I couldn't get the idea of Marinette stealing Luka's jacket out of my head. Did this sprint-style instead of working on what I was gonna do today because I wanted to post it for Halloween. xD

"You Could Say I'm a Fan"

Behind him, the party was in full swing. Luka had to smile at that. His baby sister may not be the most outgoing person, but when it came to Halloween…she was in her element. She thrived during October.

So it shouldn't have surprised him when, a few weeks ago, she had said she wanted to throw a Halloween party. Luka could take or leave the holiday – he wasn't one for scary or spooky – but he had helped her decorate the boat every year for as long as he could remember. Between their ma and Juleka, the Liberty was usually the talk of the Seine. Still, Juleka wasn't exactly what he'd call a party person, and beyond her decorations she usually stuck to Candy Duty or went out with Rose. So ok. He was a little surprised when she'd said she wanted to throw a party.

"…are you sure?" he'd asked, blinking. She'd shrugged, not looking up from her cereal.

"Not a big one," she'd said. "For my friends. The class." She'd paused, considering as she chewed. "No Chloé. No Dingo. I want this to be my party, Lu."

He'd snorted and snapped his bike helmet on. He'd be late if he didn't get going.

"Ok," he'd said, bending to kiss her head before he left. She'd shoved him off, grumbling, and he'd laughed. "Just let me know what you need."

What she'd needed – beyond manual labor and the procurement of snacks – was, apparently, for him to get lost. After he'd helped her set up he'd gone to change into his costume (because of course he couldn't hang around at a Halloween party and not dress up, even if the most effort he was willing to put into it was a torn, 'blood'-stained shirt and a stuffed snake tossed around his neck). As soon as he came back above deck, she shoved the candy bowl in his arms. He blinked down at the large black bowl – decorated with dancing skeletons, of course – and frowned.

"Candy Duty," she said. There was a gleam in her eyes that he didn't trust. Behind her, Rose (dressed as a Fairy Unicorn Princess) giggled. When he opened his mouth to protest, she pointed to the gangway. "My party, Lu. No gross older brothers allowed."

He pressed his lips together and tried not to glare at the candy. He had been hoping, when Juleka had said the party was just for her friends and classmates, that meant a certain aspiring fashion designer would be in attendance. He'd been more than hoping to spend some time with said designer that night.

But, alas, it looked like he was getting kicked out.

"…you owe me," he sighed, turning on his heel and heading off the boat. He saw Ivan and Mylène approaching as he hopped off the gangway.

"Hey, Luka!" Ivan called with a wave. He was wearing his usual jeans and skull shirt, but his face had been painted to look like a skeleton. Just spooky enough to suit the night without scaring his timid girlfriend, Luka thought. He waved back and kicked an old wooden crate over to the gangway. Ivan gave him a high-five when they reached him. He grinned at the bowl of candy. "Jules kick you out?"

"I'm not cool enough for her party, I guess," Luka said with a shrug. He held up a candy bar, and Ivan laughed as he took it. "Have fun, guys."

"We'll sneak you in later, if you want," Mylène offered with a kind smile. She was dressed as a nymph, a garland of fake leaves and white flowers that matched her toga-styled dress crowning her head and scattered in her braids. He waved her off and shook his head.

"Nah, it's cool," he said. "Tonight's Jules's thing. I'll be out here with the emergency sugar stash if you need a break, though."

His friends headed aboard, and Luka plopped himself down on the crate and settled in for what he was sure was going to be a long night.

The party guests slowly started trickling in. Luka recognized most of them, but there were some – like Alix, who had come dressed as a mummy – that he didn't immediately clue in on because of masks. As it got darker, more trick-or-treaters began to show up, and he was just preoccupied enough to not notice when some of the guests showed up – like Adrien and Kagami. (They had dressed up in red robes and a green and white schoolgirl uniform, respectively, and Adrien had white ears sticking out of his hair while Kagami had a bow strapped to her back. When he'd finally noticed them, he thought they looked familiar, but Luka couldn't quite place where he knew the costumes from.)

He still hadn't seen Marinette. He wondered if he had just missed her, or if she was late, or…maybe she had decided not to come anyway. He knew she liked the costume part of Halloween (the idea of dressing up, the chance to design something new), but she was like him: she wasn't big on scary. Maybe she'd worried Juleka would go overboard and decided it would be safer to stay home. He frowned as he looked down at the bowl of candy, kicking his toe against the pavement. He hoped he'd just missed her in the last rush of trick-or-treaters. At least then he could still catch her later…

"Happy Halloween!"

He jumped at the voice and looked up. It was familiar, but the speaker had obviously used a lower register than they normally would. He blinked when he saw the trick-or-treater, and then he was laughing. He was looking at a slightly shorter version of…himself.

"Wow! Great costume!" he said, nodding in approval. Beneath the Kitty Section mask – which was a perfect copy of his own – the trick-or-treater beamed.

The costume was perfect, the mask and breastplate an exact replica down to the very last detail. Their hair was longer than his and done up in high pigtails, but the tips were still dyed blue, and it was just mussed enough to pass for his usual laid-back style. Black skinny jeans covered their legs, and they'd even gotten his jacket down – which…was surprising, because he'd gotten that thing ages ago and hadn't seen anything like it in years. (Which had been part of his panic when it had gone missing earlier in the week: it was his favorite, and he wasn't looking forward to breaking a new one in.) Even the shoes looked like a pair of boots he had stashed under his bed. Overall, the attention to detail was really impressive.

"Thanks," the trick-or-treater said with a laugh. They reached up to adjust their mask, and Luka noticed a black ring on their finger. The black nails – except the pinky, which was painted…pink? He chuckled and shook his head.

"Are you a fan? I didn't think we were popular enough to have people dress up like us," he said. The trick-or-treater giggled, and Luka's eyebrows quirked. He knew that giggle…

"You could say that," they…she said, lifting the mask. His eyes widened when Marinette grinned at him. Her cheeks were turning pink in a blush, and his heart stuttered in his chest. She bit her lip to hold in another giggle. She had dropped the low voice, which he guessed had been her attempt to sound like him. Or keep him from recognizing her. Or…she was dressed up like him. "I'm a big fan, actually. I love Kitty Section almost as much as I love unicorns."

She giggled again and bent down, pressing a lingering kiss to his cheek. His face burned beneath her lips.

"The guitarist is my favorite," she whispered by his ear, and his brain promptly shut down as she pecked his cheek again and ran aboard, her laugh echoing behind her.

…wait.

The guitarist.

…he was the guitarist.

He…was her favorite?

…of course he was her favorite. He knew that, right? They were friends. They'd been friends for a while. They'd been dancing around being more than friends for a while. So did that mean…her showing up like this…in his costume, saying he was her favorite, did she…

…wait. The missing jacket. The boots that looked exactly like his own. Had she actually stolen his clothes to make her costume?

His heart was still threatening to give out on him as he gawked after her. AND she'd kissed him. Well. A cheek kiss, but that was still –!

A throat cleared behind him, and he blinked stupidly as he turned back towards the street. There was another trick-or-treater in front of him. A kid. A kid dressed up as a vampire, cape and fake fangs and everything, watching him expectantly as he held up his bag. When Luka still failed to respond, he frowned and shook what Luka realized was a pillow case.

"Trick or treat?" the kid said, and from his tone Luka had a feeling it wasn't the first time he'd said it. He shook his head and smiled – beamed – at the poor kid, whose eyes bugged open as Luka proceeded to dump the entire candy bucket into his pillow case.

"Happy Halloween, kid," he said, ruffling his hair before he dropped the empty bucket on the crate. The kid spluttered after him as he jogged after Marinette.

Juleka would have to deal.

He had his own treats to get that Halloween.