Luka Couffaine wasn't close to many people like others suspected him to be, but he did care deeply for those he was close with. He loved his mother and sister with everything he had.
Of course he wondered about his father, often why he left them. Luka couldn't remember the man very much, but he did remember his mom being a mess for a short time. How hard it had hit her and for a moment she flattered in her step, but she got herself together for his and Juleka's sake. Luka knew then he would never forgive his father for leaving, never bothering to try to find the man. Instead he stepped up and be became the man of the house.
Growing up he didn't have time to focus on making friends at school or being close to anyone. Instead he had made sure his sister had a friend since her shyness was something she always had that hindered her confidence. It was only harder with their mom doing different odd jobs to pay the bills, often with her playing gigs late into the night and early mornings.
Instead of hanging out with friends after school, Luka had gotten an under the table job and a small music shop. He was the one who really cleaned up the store and occasionally helped stock the records and CD albums. He used that money to help buy Juleka a few things that their mother couldn't afford, and used the rest to help his mom.
He would never say he regretted doing anything for his sister and mom, it gave him the time to learn to play the guitar and pick up on people's emotions when he did have the free time. He was good at staying away and out of trouble because of it. It was nice to watch Juleka grow up and make her first friends- to see her come out of her shell little by little.
Yet it never eased the loneliness that resided into his heart. The primal need to have something he could call his own and fill a void that not even family could fill. He was not close with anyone really, not until Juleka brought a group of her friends over and he meet Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
She was a very special girl, and he knew that the moment he laid his eyes on her. Of course he had heard the stories about the lovely and sweet Marinette, but meeting her was a whole other story. He knew who she was as a person, what she had done for others that made her a good person and an even better friend. Yet there was something in her eyes that betrayed everything he had heard about her.
People had painted Marinette as this perfect girl, the girl who could do anything for anyone and he saw the weight of those expectations in those beautiful blue eyes. After all he saw the same look in his own eyes every morning and night when he was alone. It only made him want to know the girl more, and so he was able to some how manage it.
The ice skating rink showed him more of her than he could imagine, how she cared for Adrien so deeply and yet was unseen. He often caught her at the moments she seemed her loneliness, and maybe that's what made him so protective of her. For the first time he cared for someone who wasn't his family. He didn't like seeing her sad or upset like the time her designs were stolen.
Over the past few months he had grown closer to the baker girl, gotten to really know her as a person. He knew her hopes and dreams and her fears. He always noted how she was so happy and cheerful, full of life but it never matched her tune that belonged to her aura- to her soul. How it sounded so pained, and he knew something was wrong. And he got that confirmation when she broke down in front of him for the first time outside the park.
"I'm not fine at all. I'm so tired Luka, of all these responsibilities. Of having to put up a front all the time. Of never being able to be who I truly am."
He saw her cry and despised every second of it, and slowly he started to learn the deep layers of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. How she was slowly growing lonely, how her friends (including his sister) believed lies about her despite knowing her for years. He saw the lights dimming in her once so vibrant blue eyes, especially as she told him what it was Adrien had advised her and never had he felt such anger. It took Marinette calming him down to prevent an akuma.
"I'm okay." Marinette whispered, holding his face in her hands with tears in her eyes. "But I need you to calm down, please Luka."
"Friends don't do that to each other." Luka muttered darkly, fists curled.
Marinette gave a half hearted humorless laugh, "I don't think I can call many people my friend anymore, but I have you at least."
Meeting her eyes, Luka searched for something he wasn't sure he was searching for. His hand reached up and cupped her cheek, thumb rubbing her cheek as he leaned his forehead against hers. "You'll always have me mmm-Marinette."
Luka couldn't help but pull her into a hug at that time, and when she told him about Chloe's offer he was all hands for supporting her leaving Paris for New York. He knew she needed a clean break away from Lila and her class that only tortured her soul. She needed to be away to heal, but she also needed time away to feel.
He knew the moment he met Ladybug face to face who she was under the mask (a secret he'd keep even in death), and it made sense why Marinette was the way she was. Why she kept everything neatly contained in her heart and plastered a smile onto her face. Why she designed less and slept more. Why she was losing interest in everyday things and why Ladybug was more aggressive in akumas.
Marinette was tired. She was angry and upset and she could only take those feelings out in battle. She needed to be free of all these of all these responsibilities. Of having to put up a front all the time. Of never being able to be who she truly was safely. Marinette deserved that much.
"Penny for your thoughts Couffaine?"
Luka looked up from the park bench he sat at to peer up at Kagami Tsurugi, his guitar tucked under one arm comfortably as the girl in front of him held two coffee cups in hand. He lowered his guitar and slid over to the other side of the bench.
"I was wondering if she made any knew friends out in New York yet." Luka responded truthfully as he took a cup from Kagami.
They were an unlikely friendship, they both knew that. They had different views and different personalities. Both grew up in opposite types of households, both had different expectations set on their shoulders and it was thanks to Marinette they were friends. It all started with three ways face time calls when him and Kagami tried Marinette at the same time and she added them both into a single call.
"She mentioned a boy named Peter inviting her to meet his friends." Kagami simply mentioned, sipping her coffee cup watching how his shoulders tensed every so slightly. "I think she was nervous to tell you about a new guy friend, given your chemistry with her."
"Chemistry?" Luka repeated, eyebrow raised.
"You like her, even I can see that." Kagami sighed, setting her cup to rest in her hands on her knees. "She was to scared to admit her feelings for you, and we all knew she had them too-"
"I told her she had a home here for whenever she was ready." Luka admits softly. "I think that was too soon."
"As in with you? Here?" Kagami nodded her head, "Bold."
"She might meet someone out there or like New York and what the city has to offer." Luka vented, sipping his tea. "If that were to happen then I'll be happy for her and support her choices. Even if that isn't me."
"You two are too much alike." Kagami muttered, "Putting other people first. Foolish but admirable."
Luka chuckled, "Yeah well what's up with you and Adrien?"
"He's been acting..strange." Kagami admits, a shrug rolling off her shoulders with ease. "I think he realized he messed up this time, took a cowardly way is trying to figure it all out. No one can tell him or the others how to fix the situation."
"Do you think she'll forgive them?" Luka couldn't help but ask.
"I would honestly wish she wouldn't but she's Marinette. She will, because she's too good for this world." Kagami offered a small grin to Luka. "Will you show me the tune you plan to swoon her with? Maybe I can help you win the girl."
Luka laughed, "I'll show you a tune I was working on but she's a person. She can make her own choices."
"Well show me so I can tell you if you should show her on face time or not. Hurry up, I have a half hour."
The infinity stones were something intriguing to Marinette, but the more she read about them the more she understood the need to keep them spread apart and hidden. They weren't the miraculous jewelry, but something else entirely. They were dangerous, without a real consequence depending on the uses they could possibly be used for. There was no loop hole, no cost.
"There's two on earth?" Marinette asked again, wrapping her head around what she had learned so far.
NASA lied about how many other life forms and planets there was out there, and how many different civilizations were there as well. Stephen had immersed her into a world she only wanted to know more of, and for once in a long time she was eager to learn something. Usually she wasn't one to read, but as Stephen stacked books on books in front of her on the desk she sat at the more she found herself deep diving in them.
"The time stone that is here with me and the mind stone is in a secured spot with another one of the avengers." Stephan tells her, and Marinette nodded her head.
"The Avengers, are they all here in New York?" Marinette questioned, looking up from her book. "I know Tony Stark is here, and Tikki told me it was imperative I stay clear from any governmental agencies. The miraculous have to stay secret."
Stephen couldn't tell his young student the truth, that was a part of his duty of knowing. The time stone could show him many different realities but he knew the truth of this one reality Marinette described. It had been decided the moment she met Peter Parker that the fate of the Miraculous and Infinity Stones were intertwined. It was why he had to make sure she understood and learned everything he could teach her.
"Then that's why we are teaching you the Mystic Arts. No one would question a magic user." Stephan says, "Maybe your age."
He was never one to really want people around, not even back when he was a surgeon. His life had always revolved around his work, and he had lost sight of that when he got into his accident. Discovering the mystic arts had changed his life, gave him a bigger purpose and this was part of it.
He had learned that everyone in this world had their role, their own parts to play in fate. Some people's parts where a bigger role to play than others and the teenager that currently sat at the desk was one of those few selected ones to play a bigger role. She was a Guardian of sacred items that had to be protected. She struggled with her self identity and her role in this world. Somehow he saw himself in her.
Stephen knew he would teach her all she could and teach her mystic arts as a form of protection. It wasn't necessary, both he and Tikki knew Marinette was sent here to learn about mystic arts and take from their teachings. Not to actually learn to weld it and become one with the mystic arts. Yet he saw that she needed to heal, and maybe this would help her heal the way it helped him.
"Now tell me again what's going on in Paris." Stephen stated, because as far as he knew nothing was wrong in Paris. He would have at least seen something, but not until Marinette was already here in New York, which meant one of the miraculous was blocking his sight.
"Someone has gotten a hold on the butterfly and peacock miraculous, causing akumas to run wild off people's negative emotions." Marinette says, and for the first time she feels a weight slowly coming off her shoulders. She was finally able to tell an outsider. "I've seen death after death and my city destroyed, and because of Tikki I'm able to fix all of it."
"Do you know who has the two miraculous currently?"
Marinette shook her head, "No. I don't know who has the two miraculous. Master Fu has been guiding me in learning to be the next Guardian and it's caused a rift between my partner and I. A rift that is slowly taking him away from me."
"Your partner has the black cat miraculous correct?"
"Yes." Marinette gave a sad smile, "I think it's because he was kept in the dark. I don't know how to fix it. Or fix anything for that matter."
Tikki floated up in between Stephen and Marinette, "Marinette was emotionally compromised in Paris in her civilian life, and it was a big risk to her safety and identity if she stayed any longer."
"Tikki." Marinette sighed, frowning.
"She's young." Stephen reminded, "It isn't fair to expect her not to be human and be okay all the time. The stress of a double life can be taxing, but eventually the issue will have to be fixed once Marinette is emotionally ready. Most of the time it will be when she isn't ready to go that she has to go back."
"She's healing." Tikki agreed with a nod of her head, "But she needs guidance on how to lead. On understanding the bigger things in this world we cannot see."
Stephen wasn't a good leader, who could never say that. There was a difference in being a good leader and saying you are one. Yet his time with Ancient One did change his life and his views in a way he never believed anyone could. Then again he had believed in the world of medicine before the world of magic. The possibilities in this world was endless. He was no leader, but he could teach.
"Then we'll just have to get you ready to go back to finish what was started." Stephen says, looking at Marinette. "We can start with the basics of the Mystic Arts, and that meditation. That will help you control your emotions."
"You believe me about Paris?" Marinette breathed out, because she wasn't sure how anyone outside Paris would react to that kind of story. She knew more people would think it made up, unless they experienced it for themselves.
"I have no reason not too." Stephen answered, "But right now we must start your training. Turn to page thirty-"
"These are all poses-"
"And they are a vital part in learning." Stephen cuts her off as well, "Mystic arts is more than just learning the abilities. It's also understanding the history of them and what they can do. Page thirty."
Marinette sighed, turning the pages and letting her eyes scan the page as read. Yet she knew that he was right, she would have to go back to Paris eventually to stop Hawkmoth. It was her duty as Ladybug after all.
Le Grand Paris was not a hotel with high security, though that was not a common fact many knew about the luxury hotel it was a fact that Chloe knew. Somewhere deep down she knew her father was into some shady business. Meetings he went too weren't for the city or had anything to do with being mayor or anything to do with his campaign. She always knew there was more to the arguments her parents had growing up that led to this distance and strain in their marriage.
She just never wanted to accept that it might all be true, but how could she not when all the evidence was in her face? The type of people that came into this hotel, the sudden surges in money the hotel fluctuated. It was hidden and no one could say shit because her father was the mayor.
When Marinette first told her about the NDA's and how Paris was being hidden basically from the rest of the world, Chloe hadn't wanted to believe it. She didn't want to accept that her father was not the man she thought he always was or the fact that he was a factor contributing to the issue here in Paris. Yet she had too, because it made sense.
"He's left for the day, my queen." Pollen says, coming back into Chloe's room from the air vents.
Chloe knew she didn't have many chances in checking her father's office in the hotel, where he did most of his work. He hardly really left his office anymore and Chloe couldn't help but feel in her core that something was going to happen soon. Something she wasn't sure anyone was ready for.
Hawkmoth was abnormally silent, as if he was waiting for something too. She even discussed it with Chat Noir once on a patrol, how everything seemed to still.
"Her presence isn't here in Paris anymore." Chat Noir says, looking over the city lights from where they stood on a roof top. "Haven't you noticed the changes in the city?"
Honey Bee's eyebrows knitted together, "What do you mean by changes in the city?"
Chat Noir let out a huff, an annoyed one at that. "Ladybug is creation, and in that she brought luck to the city and everyone around her. She's like a beacon of life, anywhere she was seemed a little more lively. And ever since she left the plants in the city aren't as lively, crime rate is going up that isn't caused by an akuma, and luck isn't as prominent as it once was."
"You think you're causing this don't you?" She echoed the thoughts she saw running around in his green eyes. "Because the black cat miraculous is the embodiment of destruction and bad luck?"
"We balanced each other out." Chat Noir corrected. "This isn't me, I'm probably adding to the negative energy at not knowing everything going on. Her not being here has me on edge, she's my partner and I don't know of she's safe or not. With Hawkmoth being less active I can't help but think he's noticed she's not here either, which foils his plans."
"Foils his plans?"
"He wants to make a wish using the my ring and her earrings. He kinda needs her to be here with the earrings to do that." Chat Noir was frowning, deep in thought. "He would have to know she was keeping tabs on the city, and had to do something big enough to force her hand back into the city."
"It's just the matter of how." Honey Bee says.
Chat Noir looked over at her, "We've dealt with three akumas and she didn't come to purify the damages-"
"Which were minor."
"Not the point." Chat says, "I know, for whatever reason, you were the one who broke through to her. I noticed how she was changing, how angry she was. I noticed how unsteady she was getting in battle and how a trip to the temple was beneficial for her to deal with it outside any threat. But I need you to tell her to come back soon. I can't do this without her here as my partner, and neither can you."
Chloe knew right then and there that Chat Noir was utterly in love with Ladybug just by his tone and the worried look in his eyes. She could also tell how upset he was in not knowing, but she understood why Marinette kept everything to herself for so long and that was because of her fear of trusting others.
"My queen, time is limited." Pollen reminded, snapping Chloe from her thoughts.
"Let's go then." Chloe says and Pollen took her queue to hide in Chloe's blonde hair that was left down on purpose.
The hallways were empty, which was usual and so was no one being around her father's private study in their loft on the top floor that Andre keep for their family only. It wasn't hard slipping into her father's study because he wasn't there at all. Usually when he was home she'd never be able to get in, and she never really went in there to begin with- so she was a little annoyed when the study was locked.
"Let me, my queen." Pollen says, phasing through the door and opening it from the inside.
"Nifty trick." Chloe hummed, earning a smile from her sweet kwami.
Deciding to be fast in the mission of hers, Chloe slipped into the office and closed the door behind her. Her eyes settled over the room around her to find somewhere to start. She had to make sure she was careful to not alert her father she was even in there to begin with so this was going to be tedious altogether.
Sitting in his desk chair she began to go through the filing cabinet that she knew he store important files with information. What she was looking for exactly she wasn't sure yet. Going one by one was going to be time consuming because there was at least six to eight file cabinets in this office, but she did go through each.
One by one and the minutes ticked on by. Pollen was on standby for anyone approaching again in the air vents, since a look out would be a good idea in this situation. Chloe's eyebrows only frowned more and more as she read the files.
Most were legal documents, pertaining people she knew she's seen in this hotel. She could see that her father was in deep shit. Money laundering, fraud, fake passports for different people. Chloe couldn't help but wonder why her mother was still around her father, because she had to know. That's when the divorce papers caught Chloe's eyes, with both her parent's signatures and with it was another paper with Audrey's signature.
Chloe read it, and she had her answers. In order for Audrey to get alimony she had signed an agreement to keep everything she knew in the dark for double the amount. To keep it from Chloe herself as well. It sucked, and Chloe was finding out to much and gaining more question as she tried to process it all-
"Someone is coming up, My Queen." Pollen interrupted, and Chloe nodded her head and wiped at her eyes for tears she didn't even notice she had.
Trying to put everything away, Chloe saw a little check at the bottom of the file cabinet drawer, and carefully she took it out of it's hiding spot to inspect what it was exactly.
It was a routing number.
Fishing out her phone in a haste she snapped a few photos and began to put everything away for reals this time. At least now she had somewhere to start. Next was getting out of here and then was finding someone to help her trace the routing number and hope there was a name at the other end of the account.
Luckily a little of Marinette's luck was on her side as she left the office and sat in the living area, playing it off she was watching a movie when Andre came into the area.
"Hi dad." Chloe greeted, shoving her feelings down for now. She couldn't risk Hawkmoth or her father to get suspicious.
"Hi darling." Andre smiled at her, "I still have work to finish up in my office and then we can go get lunch."
Chloe forced her smile, "Okay."
And her eyes watched as he reentered his office, her body tense with nerves. Yet as the minutes ticked by and she didn't hear anything- she finally relaxed a bit to let out a breath. This double life shit was a lot harder than she thought it was. Chloe would have to give Marinette props for doing this for so long.
Natasha Romanoff had seen and been through too many things in her life to ever consider a normal life. She couldn't settle down or start a family, hell she didn't even know where the one man she cared for besides her partner was even at. It was why after S.H.I.E.L.D went under and she was out in the open with everyone else that she stuck to the shadows. She only did some odd jobs with Clint when Nick Fury and Robin could find some for them to do, and it kept her busy.
It also brought the two of them to their current mission in back in Budapest, which brought memories of how they first met. Now they were here in infiltrate a small terrorist group that was believed to be whatever was left of Hydra's influence. There were easy enough to take out for her and Clint, but there was nothing inside the hideout that indicated this was actually Hydra.
Clint was looking around the room that had multiple notes and theories for what seemed like hours. Everything was looking more and more like conspiracy theories about something called a Miraculous Jewel. "Think this is real Nat? Magic jewelry?"
Natasha was frowning as she walked up to a picture that was pinned to a wall of a young girl, who could be no more older than sixteen years old with bright blue eyes and pig tails. In the corner of the picture was scribbled a name, "Marinette Dupain-Cheng... why a teenaged girl? What makes her special if this is true?"
Clint plucked another photo from the wall, "Wang Fu." Clint studied the few notes next to the old man's photo, the frown wrinkles on his forehead deepening. "It says here that he is the current guardian and the girl is believed to be the next."
Natasha knew there was more to this world than bad people, terrorist and war crimes. Aliens and gods were real, she met them face to face. She knew that magic and powers were also a thing in this world, so maybe this was also real- just something hidden for a very long time. It was something to look into at least if a teenaged girl was a point of interest, that never lead to anything good in their line of work. The Maximoff siblings were proof of that, and while Wanda was a good person what had happened to her and her brother was not right.
What Hydra did to them as kids was not right, and Natasha wants to prevent that from happening to others. She knew Wanda would want to prevent anything that happened to her from happening to others and now that Clint had his own children he would be more inclined to stop any children from being harmed.
"Let's pack what we can up and take it back. Then we'll see who this girl and old man are." Natasha says, looking over and Clint who nodded.
"At least he looks wise." Clint noted, packing the photos away.
I surprised myself with writing this chapter, and while it's not the most exciting at least my pacing is going okay. I hope you liked this chapter! Thank you for the support on the story, it is very appreciated!
