Ed notes: This was inspired by watching Dash & Lily some months ago, although you don't need to have seen, or read, it to follow what's going on here, and this ML take on it goes in rather different directions. This is also an AU (a coffee shop AU, by accident, at that) and won't have any miraculous action. It's also a Lukanette Endgame fic.

For the Lady's Favour

A Miraculous Ladybug Fanfiction

By Mintaka14

Chapter One

Alya made soothing noises while Marinette moaned softly.

"It was just a setback," Alya reassured her.

"It was a disaster was what it was," Marinette mumbled into her desk, and wrapped her arms over her head. "Why does it always have to be so hard? Maybe the universe just doesn't want me to be with Adrien."

"I am not letting the universe dictate to us!" Alya insisted, and anyone watching would have felt for the universe in the face of Alya's expression. As it was, Marinette didn't look up.

"I'm just so tired," Marinette muttered. "I'm tired of trying so hard to just speak to him without turning into a babbling mess. I'm tired of trying to get him to notice me."

Alya patted her on her back.

"Why can't someone chase me for a change? Where's a knight in shining armour when you need one? Every anime heroine has one, why can't I?"

Alya's hand slowed. "You might be onto something there," she said thoughtfully, but Marinette didn't hear her.

"Someone willing to do brave deeds to win me," Marinette said wistfully. "Go on quests, and do stuff to prove that I'm more than a good friend."

Alya was sitting out of her line of sight. It sounded like she was writing something, but when Marinette turned to look Alya waved her away.

"You were saying about brave deeds?"

"I'd settle for a cup of coffee and someone who actually wants to spend time with me."

"Got it," Alya said, and Marinette swivelled around at the sound of tearing paper, but Alya had folded whatever it was out of sight. She reached across Marinette and snagged an envelope from the stationery drawer. As an afterthought, Alya snatched up a tiny sticker of a ladybug and added it to the envelope.

"Listen, I've got to meet Nino in a minute," Alya told her a little guiltily. "You gonna be okay? I can come back later…"

Marinette waved her away with one hand. "I'm fine." She sighed. "It's not like I'm not used to crushing humiliation."

She was engulfed in a hug, and then Alya whirled away to the staircase, the envelope in her hand.

"You will be fine," her friend insisted. "Trust me."

The door clicked shut, and Marinette frowned.

"Why did that sound so ominous?" she asked the suddenly silent bedroom.

…

Once the afternoon rush in Café des Fleurs started to settle, Luka paused to flick his blue-dyed hair out of his eyes and glanced around the tables. Everything seemed under control for the moment, no one needing refills, no empty tables that needed to be cleared. Most of the faces that afternoon were new to him, but one of the tables near the counter was occupied by three teenagers laughing over something.

The blond boy looked familiar, and Luka frowned, trying to remember where he knew him from. He wasn't a regular customer. The kid with the headphones around his neck and the amiable expression was, though, and Luka remembered Nino because he had good taste in music and sometimes stopped to chat whenever the counter wasn't too busy. Nino's girlfriend, the sharp-eyed girl with the glasses, was pointing at the noticeboard beside the counter, and Luka turned to look.

The envelope pinned to the board that she was gesturing at hadn't been there at the start of his shift, he was sure of that. He'd put up a flyer for his band's gig on Friday, and there definitely hadn't been an envelope of any sort there then. In fact, he could have sworn it wasn't there before Nino and his girlfriend arrived in the middle of the afternoon rush.

He narrowed his eyes, leaning on the counter, as the girl unpinned it with overdone surprise and handed it to the blond boy.

"I wonder what this is, Adrien?" she asked disingenuously.

Radiant. Carefree. Dreamy. Adrien the Fragrance.

Luka's eyebrow rose as he made the connection. Huh. That explained why the blond boy was so familiar. He'd been plastered on every billboard in Paris, and played out on every media site for what felt like months. Pretty enough, Luka supposed, but a little too synthetic for his taste.

"Are you brave enough?" the girl was reading from the envelope. "Well, are you going to open it, Adrien?"

"What if it's for someone else?" the blond boy responded, turning it in his hands.

"There's no name on it. Go on, you should open it."

Egged on by his friends, Adrien opened the envelope, and Luka watched the the boy's eyes go wide as he read the letter inside. He was looking for all the world as though every Christmas had come at once. And Nino's girlfriend was trying to suppress a satisfied, and rather smug, smirk.

Luka bit back an amused smile, and turned away to deal with another customer, too busy to pay them any more mind for a while until he looked up from the coffee he was pouring to find the blond boy standing in front of the counter.

Radiant. Carefree… Damn. He was going to have that stuck in his head all day now. Hadn't his sister said something about going to school with Adrien Agreste, the model?

The boy tapped the envelope on the edge of the counter, and then slid it towards Luka.

"I don't suppose you saw who left this on the noticeboard, did you?" he asked hopefully. Luka sent a quick glance towards the table where Nino and his girlfriend wer sitting.

Pretty sure that was your friend's girlfriend. He didn't voice the thought, and, after all, he didn't know for sure. Were they playing some kind of prank on the blond model?

"Sorry, mate," he told Adrien. "But it can't have been that long ago. It wasn't there before the rush started."

Adrien spun around to eye off the busy tables, but there were mostly middle-aged office workers and a couple of families with very young children, and he slumped noticeably.

"She's not here," he muttered. He turned back to Luka with a smile that looked a little too practised to be genuine. "Thanks, though."

The girl leaned in as Adrien slid back into the chair beside her, and she seemed to be insisting on something. In the glimpses he had of the table between customers, Luka could see her talking hard at Adrien while the model scribbled something on a piece of paper in front of him with a look of deep concentration. Nino seemed to be staying out of it.

Luka was sliding a tray of coffee and pain au chocolat across the counter for the waitress to collect when Adrien approached the counter again, looking nervous now.

"Excuse me?"

Luka gave him an easy smile, and a raised eyebrow.

"Can I… put something on the noticeboard?"

"Feel free," Luka said, and then his attention was claimed by a woman ordering café crème to go. When he finally had a moment to glance up, Adrien seemed to be getting ready leave, and there was a folded piece of paper pinned to the spot where the envelope had been. Luka leaned on the counter, waiting for the next move.

Sure enough, as soon as the model was out the door and into the expensive-looking black car that had pulled up outside the café, Nino's girlfriend was taking down the note Adrien had left on the board. Nino didn't look happy about it, Luka noticed.

"Alya," the boy said, "are you sure this is a good idea?"

She gave him a dismissive wave of her hand. "It's fine, Nino. It's genius. You'll see."

They gathered their bags and headed for the door, neither of them seeing the sceptical lift of Luka's eyebrow as he collected up their empty cups and gave the table a wipe. The customers got stranger every day.

…

Marinette hadn't been expecting to see Alya again that afternoon, and when her bedroom trapdoor crashed open, the pencil swerved across the design she'd been sketching. Marinette muttered under her breath, and reached for the eraser.

"Tadah!" Alya announced, producing a folded page with a flourish and a smug grin. She held it out to Marinette. "You can thank me later."

"What?" Marinette turned it in her hands, frowning at the little paw print drawn in one corner. "Alya, what is this?"

"This is your very own secret knight. Go on, read it!"

"Alya, what are you talking about?"

"Remember you were talking about wanting someone to do heroic deeds for you? So you don't have to trip over yourself trying to get them to notice you?"

"Alya –"

"Just read it!" her friend said impatiently, and Marinette unfolded the page, reading the message inside.

'My lady, Your bravery in issuing the challenge shall not go unmarked. I would be honoured to try for your favour with heroic deeds …'

"Alya, what the hell is this?!"

Alya's grin grew wider and sharper. "Remember what you were talking about? Well, I just wrote it down and put it up on the public notice board at that coffee shop near the park. And someone took it!"

"Alya!"

Marinette stared at her friend in growing horror.

"How could you do this?! Someone wants to try for my favour? What kind of weirdo would do that? What kind of friend would do that? I don't even know who this is from! What if this is some creepy perv? What if –"

"Mari, calm down," Alya cut off her rising panic. "Look, you've got nothing to lose here. They don't know who you are, you don't know who they are, you never have to even talk to them in person if you don't want – it's perfect."

"Who – wha –"

"And of course I'm going to check them out for you, and make sure they're not some skeev," Alya added soothingly. She put her hands on Marinette's shoulders, leaning down to meet her eyes. "I've got you covered. And, hey, what if it's some really cute teenage boy who'll love you forever? All you have to do is send a note back and get them to do something to show they're serious."

Marinette's head was still spinning. "Like – what?"

Alya shrugged. "Coffee's always a good start. Coffee's a good first date, and you can find out a lot about a person by their taste in drinks. Ask them to send a coffee to wherever you want, and I'll even deliver your request to the noticeboard myself. You don't have to do a thing except wait for it to turn up. I've got you."

"Coffee?" Marinette found herself repeating stupidly, and Alya gave her a grin.

"Or something like that."

"I can do coffee. One drink can't hurt, can it?"