21 August 2019

Prompt: Hope (Word)

Fandom: Miraculous Ladybug

Character/Pairing: Juleka Couffaine & Luka Couffaine, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng

Rating: K Plus / PG / All Ages

Notes: Juleka is ninety percent sure Luka's about to get his heart broken, but she hopes she's wrong. (I had this great idea to do this a certain way, and then Today Happened, and I just sat down like "ugh just finish the theme". Not entirely happy with the ending, but was kinda rushing because yaaay back to work tomorrow! Have I said thank you yet for all the feedback and how much y'all are liking this? 'Cause really. Life has been CRAZY and I haven't really had time to sit down and reply to comments, but y'all have been making me smile so much. So thank you, really. I love that y'all are enjoying these.)

Rose was gushing beside her, going on and on about how awesome their first official concert was, but Juleka wasn't paying as much attention as she probably should have been. Ivan and Mylène were occupying most of Rose's attention, anyway. Juleka's was directed elsewhere.

Specifically: her stupid brother.

Her stupid brother who couldn't stop looking at a certain pigtailed friend of hers.

Her stupid brother who probably wasn't aware of the goo-goo eyes he was shooting said friend every time she wasn't looking.

Her stupid brother who was going to get his heart broken because, even if Marinette was shooting shy little looks back at him every time he looked away, she was head-over-heels crazy for someone else.

"Oh, Juleka, wasn't tonight just the best?" Rose gushed, latching onto her arm. Juleka narrowed her eyes at Luka as he sent another dopey smile Marinette's way, and she took a drink to hide her frown.

"Yeah," she mumbled, her frown deepening as Adrien said something to Marinette that made her spazz. "The best."

– V –

"Don't ask Marinette out."

The song that had been floating through the room – the same one Luka had been playing since the music festival last week – cut off in a discordant clang. His grip on the neck of his guitar was oddly tight, as were his eyes as he tried not to glare at her.

"Excuse me?" he asked. He was annoyed, but so was she. She just wasn't sure who she was more annoyed at: him, for being Stupid, or Marinette, for being Marinette. (…which was unfair, because Marinette couldn't help being awesome. She just was. She wasn't actively encouraging Luka's crush. She was just being a friend. Being nice. All the same, Juleka was annoyed.)

"You're crushing. You're crushing hard," she said. She wanted to look away, but she forced herself to maintain eye contact. The way she rubbed her arm was the only visible sign that she was as uncomfortable as she was. "Stop it."

"I'm not…what's it matter, anyway? I can have a crush," Luka said. He was smiling again, but there was an edge to that smile that said he was about as uneasy as she was.

"She's in love with someone else, Luka," Juleka said. She closed her eyes and sighed, hanging her head. "You're gonna get hurt."

"That's my choice then, isn't it?" he asked, and the softness of his voice made her look back at him. He was looking at the edge of his bed, a fond smile on his face. "I know, Jules. I saw how she looked at him. But…I can still think she's amazing, can't I?"

"She's gonna break your heart," she sighed, looking away again, "and she's my friend, and I don't want to have to hate her because you're stupid. So stop being stupid."

He didn't have anything to say to that, and she'd said all she could. So she left him in their bunk, still playing that song she was starting to get sick of.

She had to meet the girls, anyway. Alya had come up with another brilliant Team Adrinette plan to share with them, and she was late.

– V –

Juleka didn't outwardly react when Marinette came back down below decks and told them she had asked Luka to join Adrien, Kagami, and her at the ice rink. She did, however, pull Marinette aside as everyone was leaving and ask if she really thought that was a good idea. Marinette had been confused and said Luka was just a friend, and wouldn't a buffer be good? So Kagami and Adrien could have time alone, and she would have a distraction from their date?

It was the first time Juleka had wanted to actively strangle her, but she'd just shrugged and said, "I guess. Whatever."

She'd thrown a pillow at Luka when Marinette was gone and he came down, smiling like an Idiot.

Luka came back from the date earlier than she'd expected, but that probably had something to do with the akuma attack at the ice rink. He was still smiling, but he looked more resigned, and that turned something in her stomach.

"You ok?" she asked as he entered their bunk. He flopped down on his bed with a sigh, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling.

"She's in love with Adrien," he sighed. She frowned and looked back to her French homework. "She is so in love with Adrien."

"I told you," she mumbled, filling out another exercise. Anything to distract her from the uncomfortable way her heart was twisting.

"And I am so in love with her," he said. She bit her lip and refused to look at him. She didn't say what she wanted to. She knew it wouldn't help.

I told you not to.

– V –

She was annoyed at Marinette, too. She could admit that now.

Because Marinette still claimed to be in love with Adrien, but she was spending an awful lot of time at the Liberty. And maybe it was because she honestly enjoyed their music and wanted to help (ok she was designing their costumes and sets and yeah, she'd kinda joined the band at some point and had to be there), but Juleka saw the little looks she kept sending her brother. The conversations off to the side. The little coupley things they kept doing that would have been fine if it were Ivan and Mylène or Rose and her but it was Luka and Marinette and Marinette said she was still in love with Adrien and…

She took a deep breath. And another one. And one more, just to be thorough.

Marinette was giving Luka hope, and Juleka didn't think that was very fair of her. It was even worse because she really didn't think Marinette realized she was doing it.

She was also fairly certain Marinette was the reason her brother had gotten akumatized. Neither had really spilled the details on that yet, and she'd been outside the studio with the others at the time, but she'd seen the footage as the battle waged.

She gave Luka a look as he walked up to the stage, but they already had their masks on and she was fairly certain he missed it. She saw Marinette watching them – watching him – and blushing, though, and that annoyed her, too.

They all went their separate ways after (politely) refusing Bob Roth's offer, but they went part of the way together. Luka stayed back with Marinette until she had to turn off towards the bakery, and when he was once again walking even with Rose and her she thwapped the back of his head.

"You're an idiot," she said.

"Juleka!" Rose squeaked, horrified. "Luka, are you ok? That was so mean!

"Nah, it's cool," Luka said with a shrug. "She's right. I am an idiot. I deserved that."

He walked a bit ahead of them the rest of the way, humming that stupid song again.

– V –

"I think Luka likes me," Marinette told her at school the next day. They were waiting for the others to join them in the canteen, and it was the first time in a while Juleka had been entirely alone with her. Marinette didn't say it like she was bragging, or excited, or anything, really. She sounded bemused. Like she couldn't believe Luka liked her.

"…yeah," she said, mumbled, hoping Marinette wouldn't actually hear her. Marinette frowned and nibbled on her apple slices.

"…would you get mad if I said I think I like him, too?" she asked. Juleka sighed and picked at her orange.

"Only if you don't mean it," she said. She looked up at Marinette, frowning, and hoped she saw how serious she was. "Only if you let him know and still love Adrien and break his heart."

Marinette was quiet after that, but then Rose was bouncing over with her lunch with Alya and the others behind her, and their lunch wasn't very quiet at all.

– V –

"Hey, Jules?"

She looked up from the tablet she was watching with Rose and popped her earbud out. Luka was absently strumming that song again, but it was slower. Sadder. He was watching the street by the river, as if he was waiting for someone.

"Yeah?" she asked. Rose giggled beside her.

"Has Marinette said anything about coming by? She hasn't been around in a while," he said. He was still picking at his guitar distractedly, refusing to meet her gaze. "I tried texting her, but…"

"She's been really busy," Rose piped up. She didn't look up from the screen, grinning at the baby hedgehog that was spinning in a kitchen sink. "I asked her if she was going to swing by a practice soon, but she's been swamped. Babysitting, and helping at the bakery, and she's been getting a lot of commissions. She wanted to come by yesterday, but Alya roped her into an Adrien thing, and – oof! What was that for, Juleka?"

If Luka had caught what Rose had said, which Juleka knew he had, he didn't show it. He stopped playing, though, and hoisted himself out of the chair he'd been occupying for the better part of the evening.

"Luka? Where are you going?" Rose called as he made his way off the ship.

"Getting some macarons," he called, waving them off. "Got a craving."

Juleka tried not to roll her eyes.

– V –

He came back a few hours later with a pink box full of macarons. He announced his presence by chucking one at her head.

"You suck," he said as he plopped down at the kitchen table. Anarka raised her eyebrows at him as he bit into a macaron, but he seemed content enough. Juleka picked up the cookie he had tossed at her and, with a shrug, took a bite. "You shouldn't eat that. You don't deserve it."

"What did I do?" she asked, eating the cookie anyway. He offered the box to their mother, who grabbed a few before making her exit. (She had always believed in letting them sort out their own squabbles with minimal interference. Giving them liberty and all that.)

"You told Marinette to stay away from me," he said. Her stomach dropped to her feet. He made it sound like she'd been defending his honor or something. (Which, sure, maybe she had been, but still.)

"That's not…I didn't mean it like…" she tried to say, but he laughed and tossed her another macaron – not at her head that time. "What?"

"Relax, we're good," he said. He smiled at the bakery box, and she noticed he was idly tracing the T&S emblem. "But…next time I say I like someone, can you just let me like them? Even if they're gonna break my heart?"

She looked down at the macaron, remembering the day Marinette's dad had taught their class how to make them. Remembering the day she'd told Marinette to stay away from her brother. Remembering how Marinette was a good person who had actually listened.

Remembering that her stupid brother was an Idiot who could make his own choices (even if they broke his heart).

"Yeah," she said, biting into the cookie. "I guess."

– V –

If you asked Marinette, their first date was that day at the ice rink, when she was still in love with someone else and he had just wanted to spend more time with her.

If you asked Juleka, their first date was the summer before they started lycée, when Luka had 'kidnapped' Marinette from the middle of a girl day to check out some boutique opening from a new designer she'd been following. (They spent maybe half an hour at the boutique. The rest of the five hours they spent walking around the city. He bought her dinner at a bistro, and they had a picnic by the river.)

And if you asked Luka, it was that spring day her second year of lycée when they were all sunbathing on the upper deck of the Liberty and Marinette (who had been ogling his shirtless back rather unabashedly as he kicked Ivan's butt in table tennis) had asked him if he was ever just going to kiss her already.

…he did, and then they'd left the others to wander around the city for half the night. They came back with blue and pink ice cream and dopey grins that made Juleka think Marinette wouldn't be so bad for him, after all.

– V –

"I changed my mind," Juleka said from the back of the room, smiling as she saw Rose bouncing by Marinette's side. Alya laughed and told her to stop – Marinette's hair was in a precarious state, and Rose's bouncing was bound to ruin all of her hard work. Marinette caught her eye in the mirror and raised a manicured brow, though she was still smiling.

It was hard not to smile on your wedding day.

"You know," Marinette said loudly as Rose and Alya continued to fuss, "I've been thinking a pixie cut would be kinda cute."

"Don't you dare!" Alya gasped, tugging the bit of hair she was trying to curl.

"What did you change your mind about, Juls?" Marinette asked once the other two had settled a bit. Juleka smiled and walked over to her side. She held her hands and leaned her head on her shoulder, smiling at her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

"I don't think you're going to break Luka's heart after all," she said. Marinette giggled and leaned her head against Juleka's. They both ignored Alya's fussing.

"That's gonna be you, sis," she said, squeezing her hand, "if you aren't front and center in most of the photos."