08 August 2019

Prompt: Colors (Word)

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Character/Pairing: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng (unrequited)

Rating: K Plus / PG / All Ages

Notes: S3; angsty fluff. I swear I never meant all of the prompts to be MLB, but it seems the plunnies are happy in this sandbox.

Luka is blue.

It's everywhere: his eyes, his hair, his clothes, the water his home sails on, the open sky he strums his guitar under on sunny days. It's in Marinette's eyes, the endless sea he could get lost in if only she'd let him. It's in his heart, the melancholy he feels as he watches her run after Adrien outside the ice rink. It's in his veins, the ice steeling through him as Bob Roth threatens to ruin her career before it's even truly begun.

It's in the paint that spills over him when he trips carrying the new speaker above deck. It's the pallor of her skin as she realizes her mess has potentially caused him harm, and it's the warmth of his laugh – like a sun-kissed lake in August – as he tells her he's fine. And it suits him, doesn't it? And the blue is chased away by pink as she blushes and looks back to the banner she had been painting for Kitty Section's next gig (blue and pink and green and violet, a punky rainbow dancing around a unicorn cat).

It's in the peace that comes over her as she sits in on their rehearsals, when he breaks away and it's just them sitting on the deck and he can play her heart tune again. It's changing, warming, happy, and he thinks he'd be happy if they could just stay like this. It's the glimmer that comes to her eyes, like the sun on the water, as she asks him if he meant what he said, at the television studio. It's the hope when he tells her he meant it then and he means it still. It's the disappointment when she just hums and looks back to her sketchbook.

…it's the flicker when he spots the new design she's playing with for his mask, and the heart she absentmindedly doodles beside it.

It's the icing that's smeared on her cheeks from the Bastille Day cake she's making for the party her parents are throwing, the one in the park that all their friends and family have been invited to. She's done so much for his band (they've started calling her their unofficial fifth member), and he just wants to spend more time with her, and her eyes twinkle like stars when he offers to help carry things to the lunch. One thing leads to another, and then the cake is fine but the icing is everywhere, and all he sees is blue as he wipes a glob from her nose. Blueberry, he thinks with a smile as he licks the icing from his finger.

It's the soaring of his heart in an endless blue sky as she leaps at him, and it's in the stain of their mouths as she kisses him and the icing smears.

– V –

Marinette is pink.

It's the soft dusting of her cheeks, the blush of new love hidden by blue icing as she kisses a blue boy in her parents' bakery on Bastille Day. It was in the innocence of Rose's smile as she invited her to the concert during the music festival, and it was in the fluttering of her heart the first time she heard Luka play. It was in the neon lights that washed over him during that concert, as his eyes kept wandering to where she cheered next to Alya.

It's in the dress she wears on their first date, the one that flutters around her knees when they pass a busker in the street market and he spins her in a sudden dance. It's in her laugh when he kisses her again, because she lets him and he can and she's realizing she likes kissing Luka. It's in the bruising of his lips when he pulls back, and it's the skipping of her heart when she thinks she could kiss him forever.

It's the warmth of their skin as they lay out on the deck of the Liberty, Luka absently strumming on his guitar as she absently sketches his profile. It's the disappearing space on her walls, the territory reclaimed by the removal of Adrien's pictures vanishing again as pictures of Luka take their place. It's the strap of the bracelet she makes to hold the Jagged Stone pick he gave her the first time they met, and it's the blush when Jagged sees her newest accessory and crows. It's the giddy, happy feeling when Jagged and Luka have a jam session in her bedroom as she fits Jagged for his latest commission and Jagged tells her she's got a keeper.

It's the tips she dyes in her hair one weekend during a Kitty Section sleepover at the Liberty, and it's the feeling of belonging as Rose (with her own fresh, lilac tips) grabs them all in a selfie she's quick to post on the band's Insta. It's the flush of approval when Alya sees her the next day and cackles, welcoming her to the Fun Hair Club.

(Sometimes, though, she's red. It's the spotted suit she dons daily to protect Paris from possessed butterflies. It's the fury tinting her cheeks as Lila spouts another lie and is believed again, and Adrien still does nothing to stop her. It's the hurt as she has to reject Chat Noir again because there's still someone else, even if it's not the same someone else, and every time she has to break his heart is harder than the last. It's in the gleam of Reflekta's dress as she returns, more dangerous than ever, and in the pounding of blood in her ears as Luka accepts the Snake Miraculous and says he'll always be ready to help her, Marinette.

It's in the shame as she tells Master Fu someone has discovered her secret identity. It's the tiny screaming monster in her gut as Luka asks if she trusts him. It's the flame that burns the shame away when he kisses Ladybug and says he loves her with or without the mask, that he'll protect her secret with or without his own mask. That she's safe with him.

But mostly…she's pink, and it's the floating feeling of acceptance and security as she realizes that someone can see her beyond the mask and love her anyway, that maybe – just maybe – Marinette is enough, and she really is the Everyday Ladybug Adrien had once called her.)

– V –

Adrien is green.

It's the nausea, at first. The uncertainty. Marinette hates him? No, she doesn't – they're friends. And isn't that what he wanted? He considers her a good friend, and he's elated to learn she feels the same – so why does he have the lingering doubt? It's the subtle tilt of his stomach when he sees her leaving with Juleka, Rose, and Ivan at the end of the day, but he tells himself that's only because he really enjoyed playing with Kitty Section and he's sad that his father won't allow him the time to continue practicing with the band. Agrestes are soloists. It's the rolling when Juleka's older brother starts meeting her at the steps of the school at the end of the day. It's the uneasiness when they arrive at the Bastille Day picnic, their lips smudged blue and cheeks stained pink, and Nino laughs that they can't stop making 'moon eyes' at each other.

It's the dropping out from under him, the feeling that he's missed out on something he didn't even know he was able to miss out on.

It's the jealousy he doesn't know enough about to recognize until Nino calls him out on it. Because he liked Luka – he really did – when they had first met. He had appreciated Luka's help at the ice rink, even if the nausea had been there at the extra attention he'd paid Marinette (which was dumb, because he was there for Kagami, and Luka was there for Marinette, so shouldn't Luka be spending the attention on her?). He'd had fun at the Clara Nightingale shoot, when Marinette had texted him to join them. He'd even appreciated the mini concert Jagged Stone had asked Luka to join the day his bros had thrown him a surprise party.

But it's in the jealousy, and the jealousy is there, and he doesn't see it until Nino asks him what his deal is. It's in the glint of his eyes every time he sees them together. It's in the clenching of his fist every time he notes how easily Marinette talks to him when most of the conversations they'd shared were stuttered and jumbled. It's in the anger – irrational as it all is – when he overhears Marinette tell Alya that yes, they're dating, and yes, she's moved on from…

It's in the bitterness when Ladybug tells him yet again that she's in love with someone else and they're actually dating now and he realizes that he spent so long chasing someone who would never love him back that he completely missed the girl who did.

He remembers when he first started at Françoise Dupont, when he first made friends outside of Chloé Bourgeois, and green was a revitalization. A fresh spring day, a rebirth after the darkness that had followed his mother's disappearance. When green was the feeling of growth, of freedom as he branched away from his father's control. When green was happiness.

Now, he sees Marinette with her pink and Luka with his blue and Adrien is…Adrien is not green.

Adrien is blue.