Sorry I'm so late with this chapter. I don't have an excuse: I just suck. And sorry it's so short!

Thanks as always for your support!


Day Twenty-Five: Mermaid

It was the day after Hallowe'en, and Marinette was preparing for the 'Cleansing Move Night' she and the girls had organised every year since they were eleven. It was a tradition born when, after an entire evening of horror movies Alix had swiped from her parents' collection, Rose had been so traumatised she couldn't sleep until a Disney marathon.

Now, they would spend Hallowe'en watching scary films, and the day after cleansing their movie palate with kids films. This year, they were to be at Marinette's house, having spent the night before bundled in Juleka's room.

They'd slept in a pile of blankets and pillows on the floor. Despite Luka's offer to house her in his room, with that ridiculously hot crooked grin of his, Marinette had insisted on staying with the girls.

"I've known them longer," she'd said, prodding his nose to push his face away. "It's tradition."

"So you won't hang out with me at all?" The whimper he gave had been a little over-the-top and elicited a giggle from her.

"Nope."

But his room was right next door to Juleka's, and whenever their films reached a tense moment he would suddenly begin to play something totally inappropriate as loudly as he could. More than once, Juleka had punched the wall, and eventually stormed out of the room to berate him. By his laughter, she hadn't succeeded in being intimidating.

Marinette had felt a little bit bad that he hadn't been allowed to join in, and so had let him come over for a bit to help her set up—but the girls were firm in saying he could not join in because he wasn't a girl. He would have come by earlier to hang out during the afternoon, but an akuma attack saw that plan down the drain.

Thus, at 6pm, she was running around her room, hurriedly laying out snacks around the pillow fort she'd constructed. Luka, who had been banned from bringing his guitar, was plucking at the ukulele Tom had dug out of storage and offered to him.

No rich guitar chords now, just the joyful twanging of the ukulele. Despite it being a different instrument, with a different number of strings, he seemed just as proficient playing it.

"Once you know how music works, you can play most instruments," he said when she commented on it. "Well, as long as you know the technique. Guitar's not that different from the ukulele...just don't tell anyone I said that."

"Why not?"

"Because ukuleles are a joke to most musicians," he replied, playing a cheerful little tune. "But they're fun."

Finally, with everything ready, they decided to test out the pillow-fort-come-viewing-area while they waited for 6.30pm, when the other girls would arrive and Luka would be kicked out. Marinette leaned against his shoulder as he continued noodling on the ukulele, and eventually she began to recognise chord sequences he'd played on the guitar. There were a few tunes and pieces he returned to several times, a comfortable pattern for his fingers to fall into whenever he daydreamed.

She remembered when she used to take flute lessons, years ago now, and as soon as she learnt how to play Frère Jacques she would go through the entire thing every time she practised.

"What was the first thing you learned to play?" she asked.

Luka shrugged; his playing didn't slow. "I can't remember. Kids tunes, probably. Or maybe an easy rock song. Four chords of pop, possibly?"

"Four chords of pop?"

He played four chords in quick succession then grinned. "They're used in most pop songs. You know Pachelbel's Canon in D?"

"No…"

"Famous bit of classical music. Where the chords come from. Oh." The tune changed to something familiar, vaguely Caribbean that matched the ukulele. "I the entire soundtrack to The Little Mermaid. Not the first thing I learned, but I did pick it up pretty quickly."

"The Little Mermaid? I didn't think that was your sort of film."

"Hey, I like romance films about fish ladies as much as the next teenage guy! Besides, it was Juleka's favourite film as a child. She used to watch it all the time. Like, every day. Might be why we ended up on a houseboat, actually. You know, to be kind of mermaids."

"That's pretty sweet," she commented. "I didn't know Juleka liked it so much...but I do remember a couple of years ago she insisted on us watching it after Hallowe'en." She laughed awkwardly as she remembered that night. "The girls teased me so much about that film...kept saying it was just like me and Adrien."

She wasn't sure what she expected Luka to say to that. He might have laughed at how ridiculous she and her friends had been back then, he might have rolled his eyes at their silly antics, he might even have mumbled something in a quiet fit of jealousy—although she really couldn't see him react like that at all.

What she didn't expect was for him to stop playing and adopt a thoughtful look and tap his chin. "I can see why," he eventually said, dropping his gaze to her face.

Marinette pouted and gave him a light shove. "Don't say that!"

"What? It's true," he pointed out. "You know, the pining from afar, not being able to talk to him…"

Marinette slapped her hands over her face to hide the fierce blush flooding her cheeks. "Stooop. How do you even know all that…"

"You didn't hide it well," he said. "Aaaand Juleka may have mentioned a few things too… You know, before we were dating? She was trying to get my to give up on you because you were so in love with Adrien."

"Shut uuup," she whined. "It's so embarrassing…"

"You wanted three kids called Emma, Louis and Hugo—"

"Luka!"

"—and a hamster with undetermined name. I suppose that would be the kiss and the wedding at the end of the film."

"Well, luckily, I never made it that far," she mumbled.

Luka chuckled and wrapped his arm around her to pull her into his chest as he pressed a kiss to her hair. "Sorry. It's just...kinda cute now I look back on it."

"Ssshhh." She weakly slapped shoulder. "It's over now, anyway. No Little Mermaid ending for me and Adrien."

"Probably not a bad thing," he said. "You do know how the original story ends, right?"

"Umm…"

"I mean, the whole story was a bit different. I can't remember all the details, but I know it ended with the prince marrying someone else, and the mermaid gives him up and accepts her fate. She throws herself into the ocean and becomes sea foam. Or she might have turned into an angel thing? It was weird."

"That's...that's pretty sad…" Marinette frowned. She knew most fairy tales were quite different in their original forms, but she usually found it was due to unsavoury details being edited out for a younger audience. But at least the endings remained mostly unchanged. Still happy, the princess still married the prince, or the beast turned back into a man, or the prince found the scullery maid he'd danced with at the ball. But…

"That's the nature of mermaid stories," Luka said, shrugging again. "They don't usually end happily. In Scotland mermaids are called selkies, and instead of half-fish, half-human, they're seals that turn into beautiful women when they go on land and shed their seal skin. There are a few stories about men stealing a selkie's skin and forcing her to become his wife, and no matter how much the husband loves the wife, and sometimes she loves him back, but she always leaves in the end. Sometimes they have kids and she leaves them too. Sometimes she returns to the sea to be with her first husband, if she was married before."

"I prefer that story," Marinette sighed.

"You prefer literal kidnap over sacrificial love?" he teased, hand dropping to her waist, fingers pressing against her stomach. "You're a strange one."

"No, I mean—" she paused as she tried to work out exactly why she liked it more. "I mean it's nice that the mermaid—selkie—gets to go home again afterwards. Be with her actual husband. You know?"

"I guess. Not sure Disney would be able to twist that into a family-friendly film though," he joked. "The polygamy might be difficult to work around."

"Well, I still prefer it," she mumbled. She didn't really want to admit why. But it made her feel better about being compared to the mermaid. Because was some human prince, who stole her away when he stole her seal-skin, then Luka could be her true love, waiting for her return.

But she couldn't tell him that.

So, when he turned to her with that gentle, probing look, she buried her head against his shoulder again to conceal her blush. "You have to go soon, remember…."

"Sure I can't borrow a dress and pretend to be one of the girls?"

Marinette tried very hard not to picture Luka in a dress, but it was futile. It didn't help that the dress her mind conjured up was form fitting and sleeveless, and beneath his hoodie he was packing some impressive biceps.

"No!" she squeaked, pushing him. "Absolutely not! You have to go!"

"Fiiiine..." He let out a dramatic sigh and began standing up, forcing Marinette to dislodge herself from him. "If you don't want me, I'll go. Anyway—" there was a thumping from downstairs— "sounds like the others are here."

Luka left the ukulele on her desk and, with a quick kiss on the lips, he bade her goodbye. Not a minute after he'd disappeared down the trapdoor, Alya and the other girls burst into her room, arms crammed with bags of sweets, drinks, and DVDs. Soon enough, they were bundled together in the pillow fort as Rose inserted the first disc.

"Hope you don't mind, but Rose thought that a Disney marathon would be fun this year," Mylène whispered.

"Alya!" Alix yelled. "No phones during movie night!"

"But I need to get this blog post up!" Alya complained, ceasing her hasty typing to glare at her. "The akuma battle today was unreal! At least, I think it was...Viperion got away pretty sharp so I think he must have used his power. Who knows what he stopped this time?"

"I'll be more impressed when he learns to fight properly," Alix grumbled. "He just stands around and watches half the time…"

"That's because his power relies on watching," Marinette pointed out.

"Still…"

"I don't mind his fighting," Alya said, frowning at her phone again. "But his...existence has started up a rival ship! Viperbug. Blegh. I can't believe people would so quickly abandon the good ship LadyNoir for Viperbug."

Marinette rolled her eyes. Of course Alya was annoyed about the rival to her previous ship. Because all superheroes were good for was shipping wars, and that's all Paris cared about.

(She was exaggerating, of course. But it was so frustrating when half the headlines and all of the comments were about who Ladybug should date.)

"Guys!" Rose cried. "Shh! The film's starting!"

No one was quite sure why, as a group of animated sailors began singing Fathoms Below, Marinette suddenly turned bright red and slammed her face into a pillow.