Chapter 7: Hurting

"If you see somebody that's hurting, don't look away. And if you are hurting, even though it might be hard, try to find that bravery within yourself to dive deep and go tell somebody."

-Lady Gaga

Struggling II

Hurt.

He could hear it in his voice and see it in her eyes.

They were both hurting and Luka was scrambling to figure out how to help them.

Marinette was hurting on all fronts. Her schedule kept her so insanely busy that they barely saw each other. When they did, he would just hold her while she snuck in a quick cat nap to catch up on her sleep. When they didn't, they texted and video chatted as she moved around her room doing homework and sketching. He really wanted to know what kept her so busy but she was already stretched so thin that he didn't want to stress her out more by asking. This hurt her because she was adamant that their lack of time together was unfair to him, but he made sure to tell her that every moment with her was meaningful and made him happy.

Her Adrien situation was hurting her as well. She had assured Luka that she liked him so much and she wanted to be with him but her feelings for Adrien weren't budging. It didn't matter if she avoided him or hung out with him to get used to him. Luka understood perfectly how she felt. Before they got together, his feelings for her were quite the same: unmoving, unchanging, and stubborn. It hurt her because she thought her indecisiveness was hurting him. He assured her that she wasn't because love was unpredictable and she shouldn't feel sorry for how she was feeling.

Speaking of Adrien, he was hurting too.

The phone call after the party opened a flood gate of raw emotions, repressed feelings, and hidden insecurities. He had so many feelings.

Adrien felt sad. His mom had disappeared without a word to him. He didn't know if she was gone or gone. His father was also gone: constantly off on business trips, fashion shows, board meetings. From what Luka could tell, this left Adrien with a fear of abandonment as he also worried that all the awesome people he'd met this past year would leave him or get tired of him at one point.

He was angry. Gabriel, despite being gone most of the time, ordered him around constantly and didn't listen to a word he said. Photoshoot. Catwalks. Commercials. Ads. Music Videos. And he expected for Adrien to always be perfect and never question or make suggestions. Adrien didn't want to be perfect and he was so tired of pretending to be so.

He felt alone. He'd made so many great friends but he couldn't truly get close to them because his father would disapprove unless they were from affluent families like Chloe or Kagami, a girl in his fencing club. He didn't want to get too close to anyone only to have them be "encouraged" to stay at arms length.

Adrien felt so many things and it made Luka ache to know that he'd been dealing with it all by himself. A one time phone call became a weekly call which soon became an every other day call as Adrien opened up more and more. Whenever they met in person- band rehearsals, hangouts, whatever- Luka couldn't stop himself from engulfing Adrien in a hug. Adrien, who had shared that there was a lack of physical (and emotional) affection he got from his dad, accepted them every time.

All of this left Luka at such a loss.

Two people he'd grown to care a lot about were hurting and there was little he could do to help.

So he did what he could. He held Marinette tightly during their rare shared moments and reassured her that everything would eventually balance out so she'd be able to take a break. When Adrien called, he listened and affirmed and comforted him. He shared solutions with both of them when he was asked and gave hugs and cuddles when words weren't enough.

Luka knew he couldn't take their hurt away, but he would try his hardest to ease their pain.