11:15AM
(Two hours before lunch break)
After being left on the Fontaine du Palmier fountain by the taxicab Lucas dragged his single wheelie baggage towards Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie, which was basically one minute by walking. He smiled at his surroundings, he had to admit that this neighborhood was pretty, and he was impressed at the size of the Le Grand Paris hotel, he had no idea his cousin lived near a luxurious hotel, he has heard about it because his grandma stayed there three years ago when she was on a business trip.
When he arrived to Place dos Vosges, a park surrounded by apartment buildings with one of them being Marinette's, he was relieved to find a place where he could relax if things got too overwhelming. He crossed the park to the other side, and then he saw the building, and he was a little mesmerized.
The entrance to the bakery featured white walls, with white rectangles slightly outset from the walls, outlined in gold. The windows are tinted dark black with the letters in gold. Six of the windows (appearing in pairs) had a golden design, each depicting a peel, grains of wheat, and a croissant as the logo. In the center of two of these pairs was an arch window, outlined in white. Above each arch was a small rectangular clear window. The door is similarly styled to the outside walls, with the same black window, gold lettering, and white outline. Above the windows and door was a white overlap with ridges, gold lettering, and a black background.
He grinned, it was so aesthetic. He reminded himself to compliment his uncle and aunt about it. But now it was time to enter, and from the looks of it the bakery was empty, but he could see two figures behind the counter. Upon entering the bakery, to his left there was a collection of glass display cabinets, showcasing delicious looking treats and on top of the cabinets he saw small displays of baked bread, ready to sell. He noticed the floors were ornately styled, with repeating designs of lilies and fleur-de-lis and the walls were a wood near the entrance and brick farther back. To his right there were more displays, and further along was the register, he glanced up and peels hanging from the ceiling above, and a cast-iron oven in the background. Also in the back were various sacks of flour, and a door that Lucas presumed that led upstairs to the Dupain-Cheng home, or in this case, his home for a while.
"Lucas? Is that you?" a very gentle voice asked from the register.
The bluenette could only nod nervously as he closed the door behind him.
"Lucas! Oh my goodness let me look at you," he watched his aunt smile widely and made her way around the register to him. He was shocked about how much she looked like his own mother.
Sabine was short and had a short black hair with blue highlights, just like his own hair, and she had beautiful gray eyes. Lucas noticed that she was wearing a white Cheongsam with a red, black and gold plant design; with her Cheongsam she wore a pair of periwinkle white pants and a pair of black and white dress shoes. When she placed her hands on his cheeks and kissed both of them as a form of greeting, he saw and felt a silver band on her ring finger, confirming to Lucas that she was indeed married to his uncle, but still had her last name like his own mother.
"Look how much you've grown! You look so handsome, and just like your mother!" she gushed, and Lucas tried not to blush under her bright expression.
"Thank you Aunt Sabine, it's really nice to see you again." He genuinely was happy to see her, even if it was in certain circumstances, "I…uh your bakery it's amazing! And it still has the same sweet smell I remember from when I was a child." Lucas complimented quickly
"Thank you dear, now why don't you go upstairs and settle in your room? Your uncle will be right there, we're just finishing up a batch of chocolate croissants." She patted his cheek affectionately.
He followed her into the kitchen behind the register counter and spotted his uncle taking out a metallic batch filled with delicious smelling croissants, he tried not to drool on the spot as Tom placed the batch on the island in the middle of the bakery kitchen.
"Lucas! So good to see you my boy, I'm sorry I can't greet you better!" Tom happily said as he sent his nephew a smile.
"It's all right uncle Tom," Lucas replied as he placed a foot on the steps that led upstairs, he pulled his wheelie baggage up and huffed a little, it was heavier than he thought.
"You need help with that?" Tom asked worriedly as he saw his nephew struggle a little.
"N-No! It's fine, really!" Lucas quickly stated as he pretended to go up the stairs in a casual way. Last thing he wanted was to pass as a weakling in front of his uncle and aunt.
Sabine however, let her motherly instincts take over, "Sweetie it looks a little heavy and you also have your laptop case, let me help you?"
Lucas gave her a sheepish smile, "To be honest is not that heavy, really, I'm fine but thank you anyways!" he quickly said as he went up the stairs.
Tom and Sabine exchanged a concerned look, but both go quickly into work when new customers entered the bakery.
Upstairs, Lucas was huffing as he finally ascended the last step. The door to the Dupain-Cheng's apartment was already open so he shyly stepped inside, as if he was entering a stranger's home, and looked around.
The living room had dark wooden floor and white walls and when Lucas squinted enough he noticed the slightly outset rectangles designed into it. Then in the center of the room was a pale pink corner couch, with a small white coffee table in front of it. Behind the couch there was a dark brown reading lamp. The couch was facing a black screen TV on top of a dark purple cabinet stand and on its left was a brown bookshelf and a large window with white drapes. Behind and to the right of the TV there were more windows also styled with white drapes. He looked at the white vase next to the TV and he realized that his mother had the same one on her bedroom.
Walking a little closer to the couch, he saw the kitchen. It had large, oak-trimmed windows with white polka dots on pink background shades. The kitchen had white counters and a white dishwasher, two sets of dark oak cupboards, a stainless steel sink, a blue refrigerator and a very clean oven. Lucas thought that Tom or Sabine really liked having a clean kitchen. On the counter next to the sink he saw a microwave, various spices dressings, tin utensils holders and another two set of cupboards but this time pink. The floor had a rug with a repeating pattern of circular pink flowers inside grey square outlines with a white background. The dining table had also a dark oak, with dark oak and three white-topped stools surrounding it and hanging from above the table was two rectangular prism lights, with a cubical cream and pink surrounding. Next to the dining table was an Asian tapestry, depicting petals falling from a lily and Lucas smiled at it, it was really beautiful. ´
He looked at the white stairs that led to the attic, or if he recalled Marinette's bedroom. He decided not to go up there for private reasons, but he did look at the white door next to the pantry. Was this it?
Sighing, he turned the knob and opened the door, and inside was indeed his new bedroom.
The first thing he noticed was how bright it was, probably because of the big window that was on the wall that he was facing, and it also had white drapes opened, letting the sun in. The walls that he faced, on the ceiling to his right were white, but the wall to his left was painted dark cherry. The floor had white wood, and for a moment Lucas appreciated how shiny it was. As he stepped further inside, he saw a small one door white cabinet closet with three drawers underneath, he deduced that the clothes that he sent were already in there and his cheeks flushed a little just by imagining his family putting away his underwear. To the left of the closet, the twin corner bed was covered with a light brown comforter, the two pillows matching it and a small lamp was fixated on the far left corner of the bed, right next to the wall – perfect for reading at night. What Lucas noticed was that the space under his bed was connected to the closet. On his right there was a desk attached to the wall with a purple chair in front of it, Lucas placed his laptop case on it, next to the small, black reading lamp. Above the desk was an empty shelf also attached to the wall and above it another one, both were white.
Looking around, Lucas thought that this room was a drastic change from the one he had in Portugal, of course that that one was now catching dust, or maybe being turned into an office or a guest room.
He didn't want to think about it.
All Lucas could think about right now was how much he actually liked this change. So what if the room was small? His French family did their best to turn this pantry into an actual bedroom. And even though his father payed for the furniture that was in this room, Lucas was thankful that they put it all together and even painted the walls. He placed his wheelie baggage next to his desk, and sat on his twin bed. Lucas chuckled, this was also a big change from his king sized bed. Looking out of the window he saw that he had the view for the park, another positive thing about this room.
Standing up quickly, he walked out of his room and went down the stairs to the bakery, he thought it was a good time to re-approach his uncle and aunt and maybe offer some help, he didn't had experience in working in a bakery but his mother taught him how to make certain pastries and cakes and he was also good at accounting since he used to work on his father's restaurant during summer time.
As he entered the bakery he noticed a beautiful, small cake decorated as a galaxy on the island counter, as he approached it curiously it said 'Happy Birthday!' with dark blue frosting.
"Ah Lucas, there you are!" it happened so suddenly, Lucas felt his heart drop when someone pulled him from the floor into a hug. Tom was a tall and stocky man, and he wasn't squeezing Lucas painfully, but the bluenette still felt a little scared even though he tried to hide it with a smile.
"U-Uncle Tom, hi, yes here I am! It's so nice to see you again haha," Tom placed him down and patted his hair.
"How did you like your room?" Tom asked expectantly. Lucas could see a little anxious look on his emerald eyes.
"It's perfect, and I appreciate that you guys put away my clothes already, it wasn't necessary but I appreciate it." He stated, genuinely thankful.
Tom grinned brightly and was about to say something when Sabine walked in, "Tom, dear we have a problem!"
"Yes?" Tom immediately asked.
"The galaxy cake we made for the birthday party, the mother can't come get it, but she already payed for it. I told her I'd give her money back but she wouldn't accept it because it was her fault. She did give me an address but I cannot leave when the bakery is so full!" Sabine explained, feeling antsy.
Tom hummed, "Well I can't leave the kitchen dear, perhaps we'll just have to cancel it?"
Lucas saw the opening and he spoke quickly, "I c-can take it!"
Both looked at him, "Lucas, sweetie you just arrived and you must be tired…" Sabine sighed.
Lucas was in fact, not tired. Perhaps it was the adrenaline of arriving to a new country or just the fact that he wanted to be useful to his family or maybe he wanted to be alone with his thoughts for a while, whatever it was Lucas wanted to deliver this cake. No matter what, maybe if he did this he could show his uncle and aunt that he was prepared to help when they needed him to. Besides how hard can it be to deliver a cake?
"Please… I want to do this. I'm not tired at all… let me help." He didn't want to sound like he was begging, that could pass as annoying and he was already too nervous about screwing everything up.
An exchange of concerned looks happened between Tom and Sabine, and when the man nodded with a smile, Sabine sighed in defeat.
"All right, if you think you can do it that would be very kind of you, Lucas." She turned towards the cake and grabbed it, ready to box it for delivery, "The place isn't that far, I'll write you down the address. It's five minutes by foot, so you won't have to walk much." She kept saying as Tom helped her place the cake inside the box, carefully enough it was in and so was the lid that Tom had placed.
Tom then placed the box inside a pink bag designed with the bakery's logo. At the same time, Lucas received a small piece of paper from Sabine with the address and unlocked his phone to type it on his GPS app. The street showed up quickly and Sabine was pleased to see that it looked direct enough for her nephew not to get lost.
Lucas carefully grabbed the bag from Tom and made sure to be attentive when carrying it, always making sure the cake was straight. Last thing he wanted was to deliver a flattened cake and put their bakery's proud name into shame.
Tom and Sabine walked Lucas to the door before he went on his own, he wasn't nervous because there would be no language barriers and his GPS was always trustworthy. For some reason Lucas could get lost easily so recently he downloaded this app for his own safety, after all he was new in this large city.
The first thing that he noticed when he walked straight ahead from the bakery was Marinette's school on the other side, he kept staring at it for a few seconds as the building got left behind, thinking about tomorrow and how anxious he already felt about introducing himself to his new schoolmates. What if they don't like him? If Marinette does… then he'll have at least someone to talk to at school because Lucas didn't want to become a loner.
Sighing, he focusing on his pacing and on the address and he found himself feeling like a tourist. Which he technically still was since it hasn't been twenty-four hours, but the truth was that he was about to become a temporary citizen soon.
When he arrived to Hotel de Ville about two minutes later, he crossed the street to the street on his left and continued going forward from there, crossing a corner. He glanced at the GPS and nodded to himself, he was on the right path and when he checked the cake he assured himself that the delicious treat was also fine.
When he passed by a McDonald's building, he stopped in front of the apartment building next to it. Checking the door's number, and reassuring that this was the correct address, he breathed deeply before pressing the floor's number to alert the customer that he had arrived.
"Hello?" a feminine voice sounded from the communicator.
"Yes hello, I'm here to deliver a cake from Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. I'm their nephew and they sent me…" he greeted while using his professional voice. When he worked on his father's restaurant over summers his father taught him how to sound and look professional even though he was nervous and all Lucas had to do was think about the proud look his father would give after a customer left happy.
"Oh my goodness! Really? That's great! You saved the party, thank you so much! Please do come in, the door is open please do hurry!" the voice exclaimed jubilantly.
The door buzzed open and Lucas smiled, "I'm on my way up, Miss." He stated before stepping inside the building.
Delivering the cake had been a successful mission, and after making sure the kind lady signed her delivery receipt he bid her goodbye and wished her daughter a happy birthday. After stepping inside the elevator again to leave, Lucas looked at himself in the mirror inside and couldn't help to finger gun at his own reflexion as a form of celebration.
When he stepped out of the building he couldn't help to realize that he knew his way back without the help of the GPS, so he decided to go explore a little on his way back, maybe walk inside a few stores or window shop? Lucas didn't know but he was feeling pretty confident about roaming freely.
As he waited by the curb for the traffic light to go red for the cars on the crosswalk, he couldn't help but to overlook on the people on the other side. A mother with their son, a young couple probably on their way to lunch… he checked his phone and saw that it was already twenty past noon. While he thought about how time passed quickly, he looked at another person standing on the other side.
An elder, Asian man wearing a red Havana shirt, and that made Lucas snort a little. If he was being honest, it kinda fit the short man well, but he could imagine himself wearing it – that would definitely make Lucas look more like a tourist than ever.
When it turned green, people finally started crossing, including Lucas. He was focused on not snorting when the Asian man was about to pass next to him when something so sudden happened. While every car had stopped on the red light, a motorcycle was coming in fast, and police sirens could be heard approaching it.
Lucas had no time to react, but instinctively he grabbed the old man (that luckily was already walking next to him) by wrapping his warms around his small torso and tackled both of them as far as he could from the center of the crosswalk. He hoped that the other people had made it in time as well because when he felt the wind that the motorcycle driver had caused by driving at that speed behind him, he felt every hair on his body rise.
From that speed, both he and the elder could have been killed.
Many people gasped and the cars that were waiting for the light to go green moved aside on the curb to allow the police cruisers to pass through. And so they went, disappearing into the corner after that reckless driver.
Lucas breathed heavily as the adrenaline started to vanish; he turned to the Asian man and immediately helped him up.
"Sir! Are you all right?" he asked quickly, checking him for any injuries.
The man smiled calmly and nodded, "I'm fine, thank you. Are you okay?" he asked.
Lucas nodded, a little shaken, "Y-Yeah… I'm just glad no one got hurt."
"Indeed, so am I, here I think you dropped this." The man handed Lucas the delivery receipt, "It's a good bakery, whenever I go there only delicious things come out." He said, eyeing the logo on the receipt.
Surprised, Lucas grabbed it with a confused expression, not because the man knew about his family's bakery since his taxi driver told him it was really popular around Paris, "That's strange… I thought I had it safely pocketed." Even with the accident that just occurred that was no way that it could have slipped out of his pocket.
"Perhaps the involuntary movement caused by you made the paper slip out of your pocket?" The man suggested, "Anyways, I must go now. And thank you again, this moment made me realize how important life it. Don't you think?"
Lucas could only nod at him, still a little dazed from what just happened. He watched the seemingly vulnerable Asian old man vanish around the corner and just like that time seemed to keep going forward for the thirteen-year-old bluenette.
He wiped his jeans from the curb's dust and decided to not tell his uncle and aunt about what happened. He thinks that things were going great so why stop?
12:41PM
Lucas had returned to the bakery two minutes ago and the first thing he did was give the receipt to his aunt at the registry. Sabine thanked him with a box of mint and chocolate macaroons, which Lucas was elated to eat.
He went upstairs to take a shower and change clothes, Marinette would be home in forty minutes for her lunch break. With his aunt's guidance he figured out where to get a body towel and how to use the shower so ten minutes later he entered his new bedroom after showering, with a towel around his waist. He quickly closed his door and checked the time on his phone; it was thirteen to one in the afternoon, so he still had time.
He chose to dress up another pair of blue jeans and a turquoise colored hoodie, then he grabbed his white tennis and sat down on his bed to put them on, but as he did he let out a startled yelp when he felt something hard under him. He jumped up and turned around and in the middle of his bed was a box.
A… jewelry box? It was shaped like an octagon and it was dark wood, with red Asian symbols in it, Lucas doesn't remember buying any jewelry with this box? But he had to admit it was cool looking.
Shrugging, he grabbed it and opened to see if he could remember how he got it but as he did a bright light temporarily blinded him, making him drop the box with surprise and protect his face from whatever was causing the light.
A gasp was heard and when Lucas opened his eyes he met a pair of big, tawny eyes.
Both screams were heard.
Of course that Lucas immediately covered his mouth to suppress it, but his widened eyes continued staring at the creature floating in front of it. It couldn't be taller than his palm, but its brown body was long and its head was big with pointy ears, they were animals ears but… what kind? Not a fox and not a cat. Its arms were short, and chibi like, but its claws were long and pointy looking — Lucas gulped at that — and its legs mimicked its arms but he could see pink padded beads; the only difference is that they were slight longer. The creature also had a black tail.
And the most part that highlighted this creature was the black fur bandit mask that circled its dark eyes, white face and ears.
The creature seemed to look at the floor quickly, and a sad expression came upon its face.
"Oh no… oh no… it's happening again!" it squeaked gloomily as it floated down to the box, "Oh…" it whined.
Lucas slowly uncovered his mouth and gaped in awe at it, "U-Uh…" he managed to say, "What…who? Uhm… hello?"
The creature eyed the box, and Lucas finally payed attention to what was inside. It was a brown leather wristband, and he doesn't recall buying because if he did he would have remembered the floating small animal that came with it.
He squatted down to its level and grabbed the box, "Uh… what is happening?" he asked carefully, not really sure what do to. Lucas could scream, call for his uncle and aunt or call the police, but he felt like the only thing he could do right now was talk to it. Perhaps it wasn't even a dangerous creature.
It sighed, and looked at him with sad eyes, "Hi… my name is Muuri and… I'm the ferret Kwami, or better known as the cursed one." It talked. Its voice was small, but emotional.
So many emotions passed through Lucas's mind, but he only asked one, "Kwami?"
Muuri seemed to change his demeanor as he smiled at his new master, "We're eternal beings that inhabit in Miraculous Jewels. And when someone is chosen to possess a Miraculous they're imbued with powers to save the world!" Muuri pointed at the wristband still inside the box, and Lucas grabbed it curiously.
He might as well believe in all of this, because if he was dreaming this had to be the coolest dream he's ever had.
Lucas stood from the squatting position and Muuri followed him, without hesitating he placed the wristband on his right wrist and he felt his arm tingle right away.
"B-By the way master… what is your name?" Muuri asked shyly.
"Master? You can just call me Lucas, Muuri." The bluenette smiled at the Kwami, as if this was just a casual encounter. He was trying not to freak out about the whole magic shenanigan.
"O-Oh… very well, Lucas! Maybe I ask you a question?"
"Of course," Lucas said, smiling.
"Have… you seen Ladybug and Chat Noir?"
Lucas blinked, "Oh… I did see them on the news when I was in Portugal, but I just arrived at Paris today and I haven't seen them in action yet. I hope I will though! Why?"
"P-Paris? We're in France? Oh! What year is this?" Muuri flew near Lucas's window and peeked outside.
"The year is—"
"Oh goodness, look how much it changed! It's all so modern looking!" Muuri spoke quickly; at least he didn't look meek anymore.
"Muuri… I have more questions. This is too sudden for me, I mean I'm still trying to figure it out if I'm dreaming or not…"
"You're not dreaming Lucas, this is real. But… I must warn you…"
Lucas wasn't listening to him; he was gaping at the wristband. It seemed so vulgar, so how could it be powerful?
"How do I do this? I mean what do I do?" he asked Muuri, interrupting whatever he was going to explain.
"A-All you have to say is 'Muuri, mask on!' but—"
"Muuri mask on?" Lucas asked, uncertain.
But what happened next startled him, immediately a maroon light emitted through the wristband and he watched Muuri being sucked into it as if he had fallen on a vortex, then there was a flash of bright maroon light with darker tones and instinctively Lucas closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he felt differently. He felt the weight of a mask covering his eyes, he touched it and gasped, "Whoa…" he tried to pull it out but it looked like it was glued to his skin, it didn't hurt but it was weird.
Lucas immediately found himself in front of the body mirror attached to the back of his closed door, and what he saw looked like a different person. His hair was no longer combed, but wildly messy, and his eyes. He was also wearing something different than his hoodie and jeans: he first wore a full piece suit made of a fabric he didn't recognize, the suit was dark brown. On his torso there was a sleeveless black vest and around his neck he had what it looked like dark grey collar scarf that covered his neck fully and around his waist and wrapping the middle of the vest was a matching belt of the same color. He noticed his "shoes" as if Lucas could call them that, it looked like he had ferret feet, with pink toe beads and everything. Surprisingly Lucas found himself walking comfortable with them. Once again he looked at his face and he noticed that he had a similar bandit black mask that Muuri had, and he gasped when he finally noticed the white ears with pink designed on the inside. His wild hair covered his normal ears so he didn't look as weird as he could have. Just to be sure, Lucas procured his human ears and found them safely, sighing with relief, he continued exploring the rest of the suit.
And what was left, was his tail. It was formed with the belt that was around his waist, perfectly fitting him. His mouth let out a shocked sound when he saw it moving and seconds later he figured out that he was the one doing that! How… it was like moving an arm, he would order his brain to do it and it would obey.
He did feel something slightly heavier attached on the end of his back, he grabbed it and to his amazement a wrapped whip was what appeared on his hand.
"No way…" he whispered to himself.
He unraveled it and the whip fell on the floor with a heavy thud, making Lucas cringe internally. He looked at the door and waited to hear if his uncle or aunt had heard that, and with his new ears he could indeed hear what was happening downstairs at the bakery. It was amazing! It was like he had super hearing!
And… his senses were really good. He looked behind him, at his window, and slowly a smirk formed on his lips.
Maybe he could test how powerful the suit made him.
A/N: So sorry for the late upload! This chapter was supposed to be longer but I am so sleepy right now, I probably made a lot of spelling mistakes but I really wanted to upload because tomorrow my internet is going to be cut and I don't know when I'll be able to be back so I hope you enjoy this!
Little fun thing: Researching about ferrets is fun.
Also: Thank you so much Farbi, ScruffydaDruid and NaLu and InuKag fore reviewing, and also thank you for the followings and favorites! I'll reply to the reviews next chapter.