It's easy to claim that guitars and pianos are not an ideal mashup, and it's easy to claim that it's hard to be friends with a guy who has a crush on the girl that you sort of like. It just didn't come up all that often, and who couldn't appreciate Luka's friendship in their life?
Luka was the sort of person that Adrien didn't have to act perfect around nor did he have to be flamboyant to hang out with his friend; all that he brought along was himself and at times, the messy awkwardness of life with all of it's flaws and pains and at other times, his sense of humor and an ardent love of puns.
Today, Luka's teaching him guitar, slow and gentle. It's easy to fall into rhythm as he listens, nowhere to be yet. Adrien's fingers feel unsteady as they slip and tumble down the guitar, and yet Luka's patient with him.
"Here." Luka shows up a chord again and how to play it, "That's the D Chord." It's easy to follow his instructions, and yet Adrien's fingers are still slippery as he carefully plays the note that Luka teaches him over and over again, dutifully ignoring the slight wobble of the note.
"Thank you for teaching me." Adrien mutters as he plays it a few more times, just trying to get used to it, "How do you read Heart Songs?"
"Lots and lots of practice." Luka sits down on his bed, relaxed, "I learned to read Juleka's first. I wanted to be there right away if she needed me." It seems easy to admit, and yet the personable quality to what he says makes Adrien quiet up.
"Has it helped?" It's soft as he sits by his friend, guitar a quiet spectator in his arms, as he listens intently.
"Yeah." Luka smiled and yet, it's the type of smile that says that joy may be a part of it, but there is something more beyond that joy, "I'm glad that I stopped to listen."
"Me too." Adrien shifts to look back up at his friend, "Has anyone else needed you to hear her?"
Adrien can't get Marinette out of his mind today, even though he feels like he should be thinking of Ladybug, and this is a roundabout way of asking, but he wants to make sure that she's always okay and that if Luka marries her, he'll take care of her.
"Not in the same way." Luka shrugs, and Adrien thinks both back to Marinette and pauses to think of Anarka, realizing guitily that he hadn't wondered if Luka was needed to comfort his mother at all.
"Oh." Adrien sighed.
"It will be okay." Luka responds as if reading just a hint of melancholy in Adrien's heartsong. It's just been one of those weeks that he wished he was closer to his father or even had a friend that he could fully vent in like Ladybug, except identities always tended to get in the way.
"Here." Luka holds out his arms, so Adrien hands the guitar back over to its owner and prepares himself to listen.
The first note is melancholy with a touch of almost unexpected joy. The next speaks and breathes in calm, the calm that Luka seems to bring everywhere with him, and yet the song flutters back and forth between the emotion building up in Adrien's chest that wants to spill out, and the steady joy of having a listening friend by his side.
Adrien can't even hate the lone tear that runs down his face at the song, at the gesture, and at just how carefully Luka listened to the feelings that Adrien couldn't quite voice. Even as he stops playing, he says nothing about the tear and Adrien relaxes all over again, back to the steady silence of before.