Plus qu'un ami

As he stood outside of the Tsurugi residence, Luka had to admit to himself that he was feeling a little nervous. A cool wintery breeze passed through causing him to shiver and reminded him that he shouldn't stay outside for much longer.

He had made sure to arrive right on time for the dinner Kagami had invited him to during their winter midterm break. She had said that her mother was insistent on meeting him, this "good friend from Paris" that she conveniently never mentioned until she went to school in England. Luka had almost chuckled at how the usually calm Kagami seemed frazzled by the idea of her mother meeting him and launching some sort of inquisition on him. He had assured her at the time that he was fine, but now, dressed in a button-down shirt covered by his coat, and dark, not-ripped, jeans, he was feeling a bit on edge.

Taking a deep breath, he rang the doorbell. A butler initially answered, but before Luka could get a word out, he felt himself being yanked into the mansion by Kagami. She dragged him past the vestibule and through the mansion past of a sizeable staircase where Kagami fairly ripped his coat off and shoved it in a closet. He barely got a glimpse of the interior of the mansion before he felt himself being pinned against the wall with an intense gaze focussed on him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked. "Are you ready for this? Do we need to go over the practice questions again?"

Luka's brain took a few seconds to process that he was kabedonned against the wall by his friend that he was slowly developing feelings for. He eventually said the first thing that was on his mind:

"I-uh, brought some whisky?" he sheepishly held up the bottle that he had brought with him. "We didn't have any good wine, so it either this or rum-,"

"Be serious, Luka!"

Luka took a second to gaze into her intense eyes, remembering how she had tried to coach him in what to say to her mom on the train over to Paris. The thought of Kagami holding up the cue cards she had made came to his mind before he burst into laughter, releasing some of the built of tension.

"That's the thing, Kagami," Luka placed a hand on Kagami's tense shoulder. "You've been taking this entirely too seriously. It's just dinner with a friend," he flashed her an easy-going smile.

Disappointment briefly flickered across Kagami's face.

"Right," she casted her eyes downwards. "A friend."

"Here, take a deep breath and hold it for five seconds before slowly releasing it," he instructed her. "Do this a couple times until you've calmed down."

Kagami complied, taking a few moments to compose herself. Luka was right, she was making a big deal out of a simple dinner. Her mother had met some of her other friends before, so why was Luka any different?

"Better?" Luka asked after a while.

"Better," she gave him a soft smile.

"Kagami! What are you doing? Aren't you going to introduce your guest?" The voice of Tomoe Tsurugi startled the both of them. Quickly releasing Luka from his trapped position, she pulled him to stand by her side to face her mother. Slipping her hand into his to ground herself, she took another long deep breath before she spoke.

"Mother, this is my friend, Luka Couffaine."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Madame Tsurugi," Luka gave Kagami's hand a light squeeze.

"Likewise," her mother responded, with a slight smirk on her face.

"That wasn't that bad," Luka remarked to Kagami as they strolled along the streets of Paris just when the street lights were turning on. They left the dinner early using the excuse (that Kagami thought up beforehand) that they were meeting friends to visit the night festival with together.

"Yeah, I guess so," Kagami responded absently. Her mind was on the brief moment when Luka was left alone with her mother when she was asked to clear the dishes, even though they had people to do that for them.

"Hey, Luka, did my mother say any thing weird to you when you were alone with her?" Kagami was straight to the point with her question. She wanted to make sure that her mom didn't say something offensive to her friend that she cared a lot for.

"Not at all. Why?" Luka was curious.

"Just making sure," Kagami breathed a sigh of relief.

The truth was, Tomoe Tsurugi did say something to Luka. More like, she asked a question. A particular question. A question that Luka answered truthfully, from his heart. And that answer was apparently satisfactory for her. But Kagami didn't need to know that… yet.

"I think your mom approved of me, despite everything," Luka said.

"Yeah, I-," Kagami interrupted herself, "What do you mean despite everything?" she questioned.

"Well, you know," Luka shrugged. "Despite me."

"What do you mean by that? What's wrong with you?" Kagami narrowed her eyes at him.

"Well, nothing really," he started. "It's just that I'm so different from you." Kagami started to frown so Luka tried to explain himself further, "Well I don't dress or act in a conventional way—" Kagami clapped her cold hands against his face to stop him.

"And that's what I like about you!" she boldly proclaimed

A beat passed before she continued.

"Luka, it's obvious that we're different people. Very different in fact. But you're a great person and you're my friend because you are you and no one else." At this point Luka's cheeks reddened.

"And if you ever think about changing who you are because someone thinks you're not good enough, I'll kill you," she threatened.

Luka burst into laughter at this, and even Kagami's serious expression eased into a smile.

"Okay, I'll keep that in mind, Ojou-sama." Luka covered Kagami's hands that were still cupping his face with his own.

For the both of them, time seemed to stand still at this moment. As she gazed into Luka's eyes, Kagami could have almost sworn that she could hear something in the distance. Faint notes of a song seemed to emerge from the depth of the dazzling blue eyes that stared down at her. Luka, on the other hand, was lost in the melody that he had become quite familiar with by now. The symphonic sounds were clear and well defined at this point, compared to when he first started to hear them. It almost felt like this invisible orchestra was starting to influence his thoughts and actions.

Suddenly, Kagami broke eye contact. Her gaze shifted to something, rather someone behind him. Naturally, they broke apart as they turned to face Adrien approaching them. They waved him over, seeing that he just arrived, and soon after Marinette joined the group and they commenced touring the festival together.

Adrien couldn't believe what he saw earlier. They had all originally planned to meet up with each other at the same time, but something he saw caught his eye caused him to stay rooted to the spot he was.

Luka and Kagami, from what it seemed, had arrived before him, perhaps together. But before he could call out to them, he witnessed Kagami grab Luka's face. Not being close enough to hear what they said, he couldn't tell what was happening. He had hoped that Luka's personality hadn't gotten on Kagami's nerves too much, but Plagg had suggested another… interesting alternative to say the least.

"Who would have thought that those too would be having a moment together," he had commented.

"Who? Luka and Kagami?" Adrien had forced a laugh. "No, those two are just friends—," the venomous look that Plagg gave him stopped him short.

"Look, I'm not one to add romance where there isn't any, but open your eyes for once, Adrien!" his kwami fairly shouted at him.

"Shh! Okay I get it Plagg," Adrien quickly scanned to make sure that no one heard.

"There are just some things that indicate that a friend maybe wants to be more than a friend, whether they realise it or not," Plagg said pointedly.

Adrien flinched when he realised that his mind unconsciously drifted to Marinette. Wanting to avoid the topic further, he indicated for Plagg to hide in his jacket and he slowly approached Lukagami before he was eventually spotted.

Maybe, he thought to himself as he observed Luka and Kagami, whose eyes seemed to never stray from each other for too long, Maybe Plagg is onto something here.