Everyone on the Liberty boat cheers as soon as they see Luka and Himawari, he puts her bag down on a table while the raven head is being greeted by Marinette and the others.
"Hey Himawari, having some alone time with Luka, I see?"
"Uhm…no, not really…" she stammers "Anyway, cookies?"
Her cookies are well-received by everyone, mostly because it's less sweet than the usual ones that Marinette's bakery sells. Japanese doesn't like overly sweet things, they enjoy the mildly sweet flavor with a hint of bitterness, like how dark chocolate is used to make desserts that are related to chocolate. Himawari loves the taste of dark, bittersweet chocolate and surprisingly hates milk chocolate, it's way too sweet for her taste bud.
She steals a glance at Luka, who is enjoying her matcha cookies with his sister, and smiles to herself. At least he likes her cookies…
Putting all of that aside, she walks to the table and takes out her drawing tablet, she is running out of time after last night's dinner fiasco. Adding small details, scanning through the dialogues, finding small mistakes and fixing them, etc. She puts all her effort and concentration into the 20-page manga that is soon to be released on the public site.
She is so focused on her work that she doesn't even realize the smooth guitar tune near her. Luka has sat on the lounge chair close to her this whole time, playing a tune he thinks suits her current situation. Because Adrien and Nino haven't arrived, the Kitty Section still has some spare time before the band practice.
While Marinette is talking to Rose and Mylene, Alya steals a glance at the pair sitting on the deck of the boat and smiles to herself. At least this time, her best friend is not that oblivious to distract the older male and her new friend from their bonding experience. Juleka quietly walks to the brunette, tapping on her shoulder and smiles as Alya points towards Luka and Himawari. The younger Couffaine really wants her brother to be happy and she thinks that her new classmate has done a fine job of keeping him accompany.
Himawari sighs as she takes off her glasses, giving the amethyst orbs some time to rest. Her eyesight is getting poorer as time goes by and she is not ready to permanently damage her vision. Looking up, the raven head surprises to see Luka who is still lounging on the chair with his guitar, eyes closing while playing the instrument. She is amazed at his talent to play the guitar so calmly like that, even with his eyes close, Luka has not missed a single note.
Blushing at the sight, she quietly pulls out her sketchbook and draws a few lines with a pencil. Her vision soon comes to life as Himawari slowly and carefully sketches the figure of the young boy sitting near her, smiling at her achievement. A hand tap on her shoulder making her startled as she turns around to see Alya and Juleka smiling mischievously at her.
"Such a nice drawing, right Juleka?"
"Yeah…"
She blushes, hiding her face behind the sketchbook as amethyst orbs shine when looking at him. The brunette giggles, finding her new friend is awfully adorable.
"You really like him, huh?"
"Ah…" biting her lips, Himawari shyly nods as she can feel her face begins to heat up.
"Good luck to you then, Himawari. We're rooting for you!"
Juleka smiles at Alya's comment and slightly rubs the raven head, acknowledging her feelings for the older Couffaine as well as showing her support for the girl to pursue him. Himawari beams at them, face blushing in various shades of pink as she holds her sketchbook tightly to her chest.
"Wow Luka, such a nice tune."
Marinette's voice brings the young boy back to reality as he looks at the bluenette with a smile on his lips. The Chinese-French girl sits down next to him, close enough that their shoulders almost touch. Alya frowns at the scene, not happy with her friend for ruining such a sweet moment and Juleka just pats gently on the raven head's shoulder, silently telling her to ignore it.
Himawari sighs and turns to the other side, not wanting to anything that happens between Luka and Marinette getting all cozy with each other. She needs to return to her own work and finish it so her friends can review it as soon as possible. Putting on the glasses and turning on her tablet, Himawari tries to shift her focus on the drawing screen but the idea of the other two sitting and smiling at each other has become a big distraction.
"I know this manga…" Juleka speaks up in a soft tone causing Himawari to look up "I've been reading it this whole time."
"You have?"
"Yeah, it's amazing. I love the storyline and the characters a lot."
Himawari's pout turns into a bright smile as this is the first time a French girl compliments her work. Juleka immediately sits down next to her and becomes very excited to know that the raven head is the author of the manga she's reading. Alya looks a bit confused and when her shy friend tells her to search up Himawari's pen name, Sunflower Field, to read her works, the brunette is slowly getting drawn into the manga that she is currently on her site.
"Oh this is amazing, Himawari!"
"Thank you, I never thought that you read my work, Juleka." the raven head smiles "It makes me happy to see that you enjoy my manga."
"I usually read the superhero genre but now, this soft romantic theme will be added to my top-tier genre." Alya proposes "This is amazing!"
It's a lie if Himawari said that she's not flattered at all the praises and compliments. Juleka can openly compliment her works like that like a string orchestra playing right next to her ear, the feeling of accomplishment is amazing, nonetheless.
"Hey, you girls are having fun without me?" Marinette shifts her attention to the group "What are you guys talking about?"
"Look at this, girl. This is a masterpiece!"
"Woah, are you okay, Alya?"
The bluenette is very surprised to see her best friend shed a tear at something she read online. Curiously, she snatches her friend's phone and scans through the screen, only to slowly read the content of the manga that Alya is currently reading.
Himawari sweatdrops and tries to focus back on her incompleted work. The girls have moved away to show their friends the hidden gem that they have found online which makes the raven head giggles in amusement. She turns her attention to Luka, who is peacefully changing the tuners and smiles. At least she has some alone time for herself again.
The guitarist checks his string and then notices a pair of amethyst eyes fixed its gaze on him, he turns in her direction and smile, which makes Himawari startles in response and shyly waves back at him. She shifts her focus on the tablet again, the digital pen in her hand keeps moving on the screen.
Reflected against her glasses, Luka can see a bit of her drawing on the screen before stands up and steps closer to her. This is the first time he sees her in glasses, it seems like she only needs them whenever she draws on the tablet. The cool breeze runs through the boat, causing her sketchbook to open and his eyes immediately land on the drawing in front of him. Luka covers his mouth, unable to hold back his pleasing smile as he looks at the sketch of himself on the paper. However, the sketch of himself is not the only thing that catches his attention. Himawari has worn her hair in a low ponytail today with her signature blue ribbon, when the wind blows, the soft black locks flow with the cool breeze, creating such a beautiful sight.
Hearing noises at the back, Luka turns around to see Adrien and Nino have finally arrived and how Marinette is flushing and flabbergasting at the sight of her crush. Chuckling to himself, the guitarist taps gently onto her shoulder and she turns to him immediately. Himawari blushes at him, wondering why he's calling her.
"They're here now, you want to go out there and listen to our practice session?"
"They?" she seems surprised at first before realizing who he's talking about "Ah, Adrien and Nino…"
Luka holds out his hand and the raven head blushes again, taking the hint to grab onto his hand and stand up.
"Thank you."
Rose stands right next to Juleka and giggles as she witnesses the whole scene, claiming that it's so romantic that Luka has offered Himawari a hand. The pair comes closer to the group as they announce the practice session will begin soon.
Marinette is currently in her La la land as Adrien just compliments her designs on the Kitty Section new poster which causes the girls to giggle at the bluenette's reaction. She's stammering on how amazing it is to have the blonde model join the band as a guest member, however, her sentence is missing and mixing a few words here and there causes Adrien to laugh in response.
His laugh, well… It doesn't stand well as the bluenette frowns in embarrassment. Nino stands beside the blonde and nudges him a bit, knowing that his action doesn't mean any harm but to Marinette, she sees it as a negative reaction. Luka steps up to her immediately, keeping her accompany as the bluenette smiles at whatever they're talking about.
Himawari's gaze follows him, sighing to herself when Juleka walks to her with Rose, offering an appeased smile. Alya facepalms, pulling her boyfriend's arms and whispers something in his ears. Nino turns to her, eyes open wide in surprise, they have to be the cupid of not 1, not 2 but 4 people? Seriously?
Himawari walks next to Juleka, her eyes fixed on the blonde model as once again, she sees it. The hint of annoyance is masked perfectly by the happy-go-lucky smile, Adrien Agreste is indeed the best model for masking his true feelings so easily like that. She wonders if anyone knows about this, if Nino, Alya or even Marinette knows about this side of him. She can see right through him, the irritated eyes that land on the pair as he looks at the bluenette and laughs at Luka's joke.
She turns to Alya, who is having a small personal conversation with Nino, and sighs. She will have this small talk with the brunette later, right now, she has a practice session to enjoy. Himawari sits down with Marinette and Alya on both of her sides, holding the sketchbook and the pencil tightly in her hands. The raven head looks up to see Luka as he is checking his guitar one last time and then asking Adrien if he needs anything. Both boys seem to have a normal conversation so maybe the problem only comes when Marinette is involved? Himawari raises her brow, not wanting to distract herself from listening to the live performance, and decides to ignore the reason and focuses on the scene in front of her.
Luka smiles and pulls down the big fabric to reveal a giant speaker, smirking at the thing as if it is one of his most precious possessions. Mylene hands out earplugs for everyone, telling them that they should wear them to prevent any further damage. Himawari giggles at the comment before wearing the earplugs, she then looks at the band again, her eyes fixed on the older boy.
"Himawari, it's a bad manner to stare at someone like that." Alya whispers in her ears teasingly and smirks as she blushes immediately.
"You're just too cute, Himawari." Marinette smiles "And Luka seems to be very happy when he's with you."
Alya and Himawari both sweatdrop at her comment, it seems like the bluenette is either too naïve to realize that she has messed up a lot or she is just outright oblivious to everything. The brunette sighs heavily as the raven head slightly pats her friend's shoulder, not knowing how to respond to her comment. Marinette stares at them, questioning their behavior, did she do something wrong?
"I…I have nothing to say…"
"Hey, what does that even mean, Alya?"
"Now now…"
Himawari smiles softly as she tries to separate Marinette from jumping on her best friend to ask her about what she just said. Alya shrugs her shoulders in response, too tired to counter-argue the bluenette's statement.
"Hello everyone! We're the Kitty Section and today, we will rock your world with our hit song, I love Unicorn!"
Luka strums a note on his guitar, which is connected to the speaker, and the sound that's coming out of it is loud enough to break all the glasses on the houseboat. Everyone, except for Himawari, is frozen in their seats. The sound that blasted through the speaker is way too loud which causes Nino to fall from his own seat but the band doesn't seem to mind as Rose starts singing the band's signature song.
Himawari looks at everyone on stage with an awe expression, especially Luka as he plays the guitar skillfully to the point that makes her think that he's the one that leads the whole band throughout the song. They make eye contact and he smiles, but Himawari isn't sure whether it's her or Marinette that he's smiling at, thus lowering her head instead of looking at him. The bluenette, smiling and waving at her friends, giggles in excitement because Adrien winks at her. Alya sits on the side, smirking at the raven head as she guides her face to look at Luka.
"Be confident!"
She looks at the brunette who is jamming at the song then turns her gaze to the older boy, amethyst eyes once again meet the aqua orbs and he smiles again, this time, turning his attention fully on her. The raven head returns the smile with a beaming expression, listening to Alya's advice to be confident and it works, because instead of looking elsewhere, Luka's gaze is fixed on her. The brunette nudges her side, smirking mischievously at the sight while Marinette's arm wraps around her shoulder as she screams out in excitement.
The pencil in her hand begins to move, one line then two lines then the drawing finally comes in as a whole. Alya glances down at the sketchbook, smiles at the drawing of Luka then looks at her friend, whose eyes spark in delight. Another drawing is done and this time, it's the Kitty Section as a whole band, jamming to their signature song.
Luka strums the guitar on stage, and a hint of amusement shines in the aqua orbs as he sees Himawari's pencil moving around the paper. The girl seems to be very happy, her face lit up with all the positive vibe as Marinette and Alya wraps their arms around her and sing to the song. This causes her to drop her pen and sketchbook as the petite girl struggles to get out of her friend's hold to get her drawing materials. The pencil rolls to the stage and Luka immediately walks down and grabs it for her.
With the jamming music in the background, Himawari blushes as he hands her the pencil, moving closer to whisper something in her ears and walks back to the stage. The raven head bites her lips, the whole body shakes in excitement as she nods her head and returns to her seat.
"Himawari! What did he say to you?"
"Uhm..nothing…he just told me to be more careful…"
She smiles at her friend, bringing her hand to her cheek as the warmth of his breath is still lingering on her skin.
Show me your drawings after this…
She places her hand on her left chest, feeling her heart beat at a fast pace and her whole body burns up in embarrassment.
He's going to be the death of me one day…