Undiscovered Melody |COMPLETED|

Chapter 6

Luka and Juleka stared at the door to Jagged Stone's hotel suite, wondering whether they should knock. In their eagerness to talk to him, they arrived about 15 minutes early and weren't sure whether it was too early. They didn't want to seem over-eager or interrupt Jagged and so they continued to stare at the door.

"This is stupid," said Juleka eventually. "Why are we being like this? If this was any other situation we would have knocked right when we got here. And if we have to wait, we wait, but I don't like standing here like this. It seems like we're doing something wrong." She made up her mind and gave the door three swift knocks.

Juleka is right. What are we doing? thought Luka.  Things didn't normally bother him this much. In any other circumstance he would have been the one to take charge, but this whole situation made him feel . . . unsettled. He didn't like that feeling at all. He liked that he took things in stride and that very few things made his emotions swing around. He liked feeling that he was the one in charge of his emotions and that other people couldn't make him feel things that he didn't agree to. The last time his emotions had really felt out of control was when Bob Roth and XY stole Kitty Section's music and costume designs and Bob had threatened Marinette- it had been one of the only times in his life that he felt so angry that he had practically seen red, like those cartoon characters do. And this loss of control had led to his akumatization. He never wanted that to happen to him again- that blend of reckless power and feeling of powerlessness at the same time felt crazy.  While he didn't remember most of what happened, he did still remember that feeling.

The door opened, revealing Penny. She smiled awkwardly at them, making the teenagers wonder whether she didn't approve of them, and then let them in. It quickly became apparent, however, that Penny's awkward smile had nothing to do with them and everything to do with Jagged Stone. The rock star was standing self consciously in the middle of the room wearing an ill-fitting gray suit, with too long sleeves, that was decades out of date. His black and purple hair was combed and smoothed down and there was no trace of his usual eye make up to outline his green eyes.

"I tried to talk him out of it," Penny whispered to the teenagers as they walked slowly by her.

Luka and Juleka stared in fascination at this bizarre version of Jagged, unable to look away.

"I'll just leave you all to get acquainted," said Penny. "Let me know if you need me," she said as she tried her best not to laugh at the family reunion.

"Children. Welcome! Would you care to take a seat?" said Jagged formally as he stiffly gestured toward the couch.

Juleka walked toward the couch and sat down. Once her view of Jagged was obstructed she was able to get partial control back over her brain. "What are you wearing? And what happened to your hair?" she asked him before she could stop herself.

Luka joined her on the couch and watched Jagged tentatively take a seat across from them. Luka's mind had gone completely blank at the sight of Jagged in such a weird costume, well a weird costume for him, because really, it was pretty normal overall otherwise. But, now as he adjusted to Jagged's look, a thought popped into his head, one that he was pretty sure was right. It already made him appreciate what Jagged was trying to do.

"What do you mean?" asked Jagged, looking down at his outfit, suddenly wondering whether Penny was right about it after all. "It's my grown-up, father outfit. I look like the other fathers now, right?"

Juleka giggled, surprising Luka. His sister was not a giggler, but he found her giggle hard to ignore and he unexpectedly added his own laughter.

A deeply hurt expression flickered across Jagged's face, followed by a grimace before he took off the hated jacket, throwing it onto another chair. He then smiled ruefully. "Penny was right, wasn't she?" he said. He then silently berated himself. I should have trusted Penny. Penny was usually right. What was I thinking? In an attempt to be more comfortable in the foreign-feeling clothes, he rolled up the sleeves of the white dress shirt he was wearing, loosened the tie, and unbuttoned a few buttons near his neck, causing one button to pop off in his desire to release his squished neck as soon as possible. "I look ridiculous!"