Ed notes: So just a reminder, this is a Lukanette AU inspired by Dash & Lily. Many thanks to LBSC Discord for their encouragement and support.


For the Lady's Favour

A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction

By Mintaka14

Chapter Four – Out of Tune


Luka noticed Marinette the moment that she walked into the club where he was playing, and the resulting fumble on his guitar strings was uncharacteristic enough that it threw Juleka and Rose for a moment. Ivan, bless him, just kept on drumming, and they pulled themselves together before most of the audience had even noticed the rough notes.

Under cover of Rose's bridge, Juleka swung her bass around to frown at him, and hissed, "What the hell was that?"

But his attention was fixed on Marinette, who was making her way through the crush of bodies. The moment their set finished and Rose had screamed a thank you! at the crowd, Luka ripped the guitar strap over his head. He swung himself off the stage and pushed through to where he'd last seen her.

"Luka!" That smile of hers lit up her face, and the heady rush of it almost swamped the adrenaline of the performance. "I didn't know you were playing tonight. You were incredible!"

Luka could feel himself grinning like a fool, and tried to dial it back. "Except for that stuff-up in the middle of All That Glitters is Awesome."

"Oh, I liked that one! I didn't even notice a mistake." Her smile grew even brighter. "Was Rose the one who came up with that title?"

Luka opened his mouth to respond, then flinched as someone slugged him in the arm, and he half-turned to glare at his sister.

"Punk ass idiot, I've never heard you flake like that before in a performance. What is up with you tonight?" Juleka growled back, but it faded into a mumble as she caught sight of Marinette. "Oh, hey."

"You guys were fantastic," Marinette beamed at her. "I was just telling Luka how much I enjoyed that glitter song."

From under the curtain of her purple and black hair, Juleka shot him a sidelong look. "I didn't know you knew Luka."

"Oh, we met a while back," Marinette told her, unaware of the silent exchange going on between the siblings. "Luka was the one who delivered something that someone ordered for me at his café, and we've hung out a few times since then. I don't hold the lack of caffeine against him, or the sugar coma that hot chocolate sent me into."

The mischievous little glance she flicked in his direction made his heart stutter, but it didn't go unnoticed by Juleka. He ignored the suspicious glare his sister turned on him.

"You seem to have recovered," he teased back, and then Juleka's elbow dug into his ribs.

"Time to get your head out of your ass. We're on again," she muttered. "Later, Marinette."

Luka backed away reluctantly, with one last smile for Marinette before he spun around to follow his sister through the crowded club. Juleka was moving fast, but she slowed up a little as they drew closer to the stage, and she let him catch up with her.

"You are such a dumbass," she told him. "You're into Marinette?"

"I thought you liked Marinette."

"I do. But I'm the one who's going to have to listen to all the sappy heartbreak songs while you get her out of your system."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he said drily. Luka swung himself up onto the stage, and reached down to haul his sister up with somewhat unneccessary force. Juleka rolled her eyes at him, and slung the strap of her bass over her head, settling it into place.

"You're not the one who's been through all the plans and schemes to get Adrien to notice Marinette. Like the time we did this whole thing in the park near where Adrien was doing a photo shoot, or when we had this whole thing with the flower code names, and the rickshaw," she went on relentlessly. "Or the time –"

"Okay! I get it," he cut her off. "Marinette's into Adrien."

"So into him. She almost got arrested trying to deliver a birthday present to his house once, but to be fair, that was one of Alya's plots. Most of them are."

"Alya really wants to get Marinette and Adrien together, doesn't she?" Luka said a little sourly.

"I think it's her mission in life," Juleka responded, but then Rose bounced up to the mic and Juleka shifted away to take her place for the next song. Luka sighed. His fingers moved mechanically over the frets, but it took him longer than usual to sink into the music.

Every time he glanced up from his guitar, he could see Marinette, her blue eyes raised to watch the band, and he'd send a smile out just for her. From the stage, he could make out a few more familiar faces in the crush of bodies, including Alya and Nino. Alya was making faces and gesturing over the crowd, trying to get Marinette's attention, but Marinette hadn't seen her yet. She seemed to be too caught up in the music to have noticed her friend, or Adrien Agreste, who had come in some time during the set. Luka could see him scanning the club as if he was looking for something.

Adrien and Alya and Nino and all the other faces in the club didn't hold his attention for long, not when Marinette was watching him like that and bouncing along to his guitar riffs. He would never in a million years admit to hamming it up, just a little, just to see the way her blue eyes grew brighter and her smile grew a little wider.

He played for her, and when the second set finished Luka ignored his sister's dark looks and whatever it was that Rose was saying to him and gravitated back to Marinette. She'd managed to find a table, and at her gesture of invitation Luka slid in beside her, leaning in to hear what she was saying over the noise around them.

"I'd heard Rose and Juleka and Ivan talking about their band in class, but I had no idea Kitty Section was so good. I wish I'd come to hear you all play before."

"I'm glad you're here now. What brought you to the gig tonight?"

She held up the piece of paper in her hand, and he could make out the flyer that he'd put on the noticeboard at the café, before she turned it over to show the message and the black pawprint on the back.

"At least the mystery guy's taste in music is better than his taste in hot drinks," Marinette said, tucking the flyer into her handbag.

"I'd hope so." He took the bottle of water she handed him with a soft thanks. "So you're into pop metal?"

"I'm into a bit of everything, I guess. Except overproduced stuff like XY. I like stuff that's real." The way she wrinkled her nose at that was adorable. "So, are unicorns and glitter your usual musical style of choice?"

Luka laughed. "I admit, that's much more Rose's influence. I lean more towards rock, but there's usually something in most types of music that speaks to me. Classical, pop, country, baby metal, you name it, I'll give it a go. There was a serious Disney phase when I was younger that drove Ma crazy."

"You're kidding," Marinette grinned.

"No, seriously, Ma threatened to toss me overboard if she heard Let It Go one more time. Jules put her fingers in her ears every time I sang it, but I had the last laugh, because Jules ended up falling for a die-hard Disney princess, and now she's stuck with it. You should hear Rose when she unleashes her inner Elsa."

Marinette's laugh rang out like music, but the music faded as she glanced over his shoulder, and Luka turned to see Adrien edging through the crush of people towards them. The model lifted a hand to wave in their direction.

"Oh, hey, Luka! And Marinette. Alya didn't mention that you were a fan of the band too."

Marinette's smile turned strange, but the blond boy didn't seem to notice. He flashed a friendly smile at Luka, but it was distracted, his attention elsewhere.

Adrien's gaze slid past Marinette even as he was asking her how she'd been, and she could feel her response scrambling in her mouth, the words tripping over themselves as she fought the urge to cry. Why did she always end up making an idiot of herself? She was over him. She was so very over him, but this kept happening.

Alya insisted that the way her lungs constricted and her intestines tied themselves in painful knots was true love, but Marinette wasn't convinced anymore. Back when she'd first become infatuated with Adrien, that swooping breathlessness whenever she thought of him had felt exciting, but now it just felt horrible. No matter what Alya said, Marinette was pretty certain that her reaction to Adrien had long ago changed from crush to crushing humiliation.

She couldn't even say hello without stumbling all over herself, and she glanced at Luka. What on earth must he be thinking about her? Marinette could feel the heat of mortification climbing up her cheeks, but Luka's eyes were on her, full of concern and a soft understanding.

"Always the same old Marinette…" Adrien began, with an overly sympathetic smile that made Marinette want to crawl out of her skin. Luka cut him off before he could go any further, and Marinette shrank back in relief to recover herself.

"So what brings you here tonight?" Luka asked, and Adrien gave an awkward little laugh, one hand going to the back of his neck.

"Oh, you know, the music. Everyone's been talking about Kitty Section, so I thought I should check it out, and you guys are really good. I was hoping… well, it doesn't matter," Adrien trailed off, his gaze drifting away from them to skim over the dancefloor. "You've got a good crowd here tonight. Lots of… people."

Marinette heard the dry note in Luka's voice when he said, "Thank you," but she was pretty sure that Adrien hadn't picked up on it. She stayed silent while they exchanged mechanical civilities, until Adrien seemed to run out of things to say.

"Great show, Luka. See you at school, Marinette," Adrien said, his attention already elsewhere. She wondered what, or who, he was looking for. Whoever it was, it wasn't her.

"See you," Marinette managed, and then Adrien was gone and Marinette could breathe again.

Once he was well out of earshot, Luka asked gently, "Are you okay, or shall I change the subject and pretend he was never here?"

"I'm fine. Really. I didn't know you knew A-adrien." She hated the way she tripped on his name even as she tried to sound casual and disinterested. She didn't think that Luka was fooled for a minute, but, sweetheart that he was, he took her cue.

"He comes into the café sometimes. He's in your class at Dupont, isn't he? Jules mentioned that."

"Yeah, he's in our class." Marinette blew out a breath, and admitted, "I used to have a crush on him. Pretty stupid, right? As if someone like Adrien Agreste would ever even look at someone like me."

Luka turned to follow the oblivious blond as he moved through the crowd - looking for his lady, no doubt – and glanced back to find Marinette's blue eyes following the same path. She turned back to Luka and the smile she gave him was a little off.

"It's fine," she insisted. "He was never going to see me as more than a friend, and we're barely even that. Maybe I'm just not cut out for romance."

Luka bit back his instinctive, aghast rejection of that idea, and said, with a reasonable pretense at calm, "What makes you think that, Marinette? Your mystery guy seems pretty keen on showering you with romance."

Marinette's shoulders hunched. "I'm beginning to wonder why I ever let Alya talk me into the whole thing. It was kind of fun when we played Ultimate Mecha Strike online together, but he keeps pushing to meet in real life, and I'm beginning to feel like we don't have a whole lot in common. The last challenge didn't go so well," she admitted. "Apparently he'd set up this whole rooftop picnic thing last Tuesday, but I couldn't go, and he got a bit upset that I didn't turn up."

"But… didn't you tell him you weren't free that day? I remember you saying you were meeting up with some friends."

Marinette shrugged unhappily. "Yeah, but I guess he didn't get the note, or thought maybe I'd be there anyway."

Luka knew for a fact that Adrien had collected the note she'd left for him. The model had come in during Luka's shift.

"The whole afternoon was a disaster anyway," Marinette said. "Adrien was supposed to meet up with me and Alya and Nino, and we were all going to get icecream together, and I'd thought…" she trailed off, her eyes drifting away. "It doesn't matter. He didn't show up, and I was never going to be able to talk to him properly anyway."

Luka was speechless for a moment, trying to put together the whole mess. So Adrien had bailed without warning on the plans he'd made with Marinette and her friends – and, hell, that explained the odd, jittery way she'd been acting the last time he'd seen her in the café – in order to host a picnic even after his Ladybug had told him she already had other plans. And Marinette had been hurt both ways.

Luka's nails cut into his palm, and he deliberately and carefully unclenched his hand.

"And the mystery guy still wants us to meet in person. I'm pretty certain that he's here somewhere tonight," Marinette said, and Luka resisted the impulse to turn and look at Adrien.

"Do you want to know who he is?"

"No! Yes… no. I don't know!" She dropped her face into her hands and groaned. There was a long moment of silence.

"What if he's disappointed when he finds out who I am?" she asked the table in front of her.

"He couldn't possibly be that stupid."

"Luka!" Rose bellowed over the noise in the club. "We're on!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Luka muttered, and glanced back at Marinette. "I have to go," he said reluctantly. He didn't want to leave her looking like that. "Any requests?"

"Anything at all?"

"Anything," he said, and was rewarded by the thoughtful look she gave him, and the flicker of a smile.

"What if I asked for Let It Go?" she suggested demurely, and he laughed.

"I think Rose would love you forever."

And Rose did give a little skip of excitement when Luka murmured the change of plans in her ear. Juleka, on the other hand, gave him a scandalised look, but it was worth whatever retribution his sister would visit on him for the way Marinette's mouth dropped open when she recognised the first chords, and the way she doubled over in kinks of laughter.

There was a ripple of confusion from the crowd as people started to work it out, and a surprising number of voices singing along by the time Rose belted out the chorus, but Luka's attention was completely on Marinette.

She was still giggling, as he came off stage at the end of their set and slid in beside her.

"I've never heard Disney quite like that," Marinette told Luka, and he grinned back at her.

"I told you you should hear Rose when she unleashes her inner Elsa."

"And you give Jagged Stone a run for his money on guitar. Do you sing, too?"

"Not with Kitty Section. That's Rose and Jules' thing. Kitty Section's really their band, and I'm the annoying big brother Jules allows to tag along because they need someone to fill in. They write the music, and I do whatever they tell me to do."

"But you write too, don't you?" Marinette pushed. "Didn't you say you write your own music? I'd love to hear some of your songs sometime."

Luka ducked his head, reaching for the bottle of water on the table. In the dim light of the club it almost looked like he was blushing. "If you want to."

"What about next weekend?"

He made a bit of a face. "I'll be working at the Grand Paris next weekend."

There was only one event at the Grand Paris the following weekend that Marinette was aware of. There was only one event in all of Paris that weekend, as far as Marinette was concerned. Her eyes went wide.

"You're playing at the Fashion Gala?" she gasped.

Luka laughed. "I'm flattered you think I'm good enough to have scored that gig."

"Of course you are!"

"I'm just waitering, I'm afraid. I'm on call when the hotel needs the extra staff for an event, and the pay's worth stuffing myself into a shirt and that stupid bow tie they make us wear."

"But you look so cute in the bow tie," Marinette teased him, and Luka laughed again. "You'll have to tell me all about it. All the new designs, and everyone who is anyone in fashion, and you get to see it all."

"So, if you're going to grill me on the designers later, what should I be looking out for?" Luka asked her, and leaned on his elbows, throwing in an interested question or two whenever she paused for breath. She only realised that she'd been rhapsodising over fabrics and styles to a guy who probably had no interest in either when Luka chuckled over something she'd said and asked if it counted as 'fashionably distressed' if he wore it to clean the boat sump.

"I'm sorry, I'm probably boring you with all this stuff," she said, although he gave a tiny shake of his head in answer to that. "It's just, I've always dreamed of getting an invite to the Gala one day. I'm so envious."

"It's a lot less glamorous when you're holding a tray, believe me."

Someone flung their arms around Marinette from behind, and she let out a shriek. The instinctive arm she flailed out narrowly missed Alya's nose.

"Girl, you've been avoiding me! I've been trying to get your attention for the past ten minutes."

Marinette flicked a guilty look at Luka. She'd been a little preoccupied, and hadn't even realised Alya was there.

"Interesting choice of songs, by the way," Alya went on, her attention finally taking in Luka's presence.

"I loved it," Marinette protested, and Alya snorted.

"You would. I really wonder about your taste in music sometimes."

Marinette's eyes met Luka's, and she made an apologetic face as he raised an eyebrow. She was relieved to see a smile twitch at the corner of his mouth in response.

"I need to steal Marinette for a minute," Alya was saying, and Marinette frowned.

"Alya, I'm talking to Luka."

Alya flipped her hand dismissively. "He won't mind. This is girl talk."

But Marinette minded. Her frown deepened as Luka stood up.

"It's okay," he told her. "I've got to go help pack up our gear anyway. I'll see you later, Marinette."

As she watched Luka walk away, she could have cheerfully strangled her best friend in that moment. Alya, of course, was oblivious to Marinette's murderous thoughts.

"So-ooo- Tell me everything!" she was saying with a suggestive lift of her eyebrows. "It looked like you were having a good time tonight."

"I was," Marinette grumbled. In spite of the way it had started, it had been a very good night, and Marinette found herself smiling again. "I had fun, and Luka and the band were incredible. I had no idea he was so good –"

"I mean, I saw you talking with A-a-adrien," Alya drawled, and Marinette's smile faded.

"He was just being friendly."

"Looked like it was a whole lot more than that."

It really hadn't been, and Marinette felt a residual twist of embarrassment all over again.

"It was just hello. I think he was looking for someone else, but he wasn't really interested in talking to me or Luka for long. He was just being polite."

Alya didn't look convinced, but she mercifully changed the subject as she collected her jacket and they headed towards the club exit. "So your mystery guy got it right with the date tonight. What's next?"

"I don't think I'm going to do it anymore," Marinette told her, and Alya came to halt, pivoting to put herself in front of Marinette.

"Oh no! You are not bailing out on me now," Alya demanded. "Not when things are going so well."

"Going well? Alya, we've got nothing in common other than we both play Ultimate Mecha, and honestly it stopped being fun a while ago."

Alya waved that away. "Don't you want the boy of your dreams to sweep you off your feet?"

Marinette had a sudden flash of Luka smiling down at her from the stage, his music stealing her breath and his eyes on her.

"How do I know he's the boy of my dreams? I don't even know him. I don't know anything about him other than he can play Ultimate Mecha Strike, he has a sweet tooth and likes puns, his taste in music is alright, and that he probably has more money than he knows what to do with," Marinette said, thinking of one of the challenges that had left her feeling uncomfortable and very out of place in an upmarket restaurant. When she'd told Alya about that one, though, Alya had just told her that it was really romantic, and that she wished Nino would take her somewhere like that, so Marinette didn't bring it up again.

"See? That's a whole lot of things you know about him. One more," Alya was cajoling now. "Just one more challenge, give him a chance, and I promise you won't regret it. Trust me, I've investigated him, and you two are perfect for each other."

"You really think so?"

"Trust me," Alya repeated, and this time it sounded like an order.

The thing about Alya in a small café was that it was hard to avoid overhearing whatever was going on. Heaven knows, Luka was trying. He really didn't want to know about the latest developments in Alya's grand scheme to bring Adrien and his mystery lady together. Whatever had happened since Luka had seen Marinette and Alya at the Kitty Section gig, it had lit a fire under Alya, and she was not happy about something.

"You have to do something spectacular, something that'll really knock her socks off," Alya insisted, sounding frustrated, and Adrien leaned back a little, out of her way.

"What's the big deal?" Nino asked.

"The big deal is, you want to impress her, right?" Alya said to Adrien, pinning him with a fierce glare, and he nodded. "You want to win your lady's heart? You've got to do something or you're going to run out of chances."

"I'm trying!" Adrien protested. Behind the counter, Luka focused on sorting the cutlery and stayed out of it. "I even set up this whole romantic picnic on a rooftop on Tuesday. I had roses, and fairylights, and I was going to tell her who I was. I had this whole thing planned out."

Had Marinette been consulted about this plan? Luka found himself thinking sourly. Given her take last night on the whole picnic thing, he was pretty certain the answer was No.

"But it was a complete debacle." Adrien was pouting now. "She didn't even show up."

Before he could stop himself, Luka said flatly, "When the lady tells you she can't make it because she has other plans, maybe take her at her word."

He clipped his mouth shut on anything further, but all of them were staring at him now.

"So that was why you didn't –" Nino swung back to Adrien, putting things together now, and Alya was frowning. "Dude, you could have at least told us you weren't going to make it. We waited for ages for you."

"I forgot. And anyway, this was more important," Adrien muttered, but he was staring at Luka. "How do you know she had other plans?"

Luka wasn't prone to anger. He tended towards a live and let live kind of philosophy, but the blond boy was straining Luka's calm.

"Maybe you should rethink this whole thing," he said tightly. "Meeting someone through anonymous notes sounds romantic in a movie, but real life doesn't work like that. You don't even know this girl."

"I know her!" Adrien insisted. "She gets me in a way no one has before. And when we finally meet, it's going to be perfect. She's perfect. We have a connection. I may not have seen her in person, but I'd know her anywhere."

Luka almost choked on that.

"Are you sure about that?" he said drily.

Alya shoved herself to her feet, growling something about wanting another cake, and she stalked purposefully towards Luka. As soon as she was within reach, she pressed her hands to the counter and leaned into his space, her voice pitched so that Adrien and Nino couldn't hear her.

"Look, what is your problem? You know Marinette likes Adrien, and you know that this whole thing is supposed to help get them together, so why are you trying to sabotage them?"

Luka drew in a slow breath, and said as calmly as he could, "I'm really not trying to sabotage anything here, but are you so sure that Marinette really wants this?"

"Of course she does! I think I know my best friend better than some barista who only met her a few weeks ago. She's so into Adrien that she can't even string two words together around him."

Luka couldn't deny that. It had been hard watching Marinette trip and stumble her way through that awkward conversation with Adrien at the band's gig, and her eyes had followed Adrien when he had wandered away without a backward glance. Luka kept his focus on his tasks as Alya spun back around and began heckling the boys to come up with ways to sweep Ladybug off her feet once and for all, but he couldn't help listening as they came up with one idea after another, each more over the top than the last, and every one of them something that Marinette would hate.

"Invite her to the Fashion Gala," Luka suggested quietly, and he could hear the flat notes in his voice, but it was for Marinette, so when the group turned to stare at him he said again, "Invite your mystery lady to the Gala."

There was no way Adrien Agreste wouldn't have a gold-plated invitation to the biggest fashion event of the year, and Luka could still see the light in Marinette's blue eyes, and the excitement in her voice when she'd talked about it. He'd do a lot to hear that note in her voice again, even if he wasn't the one putting it there.

"That's perfect!" Alya said, and spun around to Adrien with a sharp grin. "She'll love it. It's perfect."

Yeah, right. Perfect.

He was such an idiot.