Undiscovered Melody |COMPLETED|

Chapter 13

After school the next day, Luka waited in the common area for Marinette to see if she wanted to do something. As he stood there, a strangely large number of Marinette's friends passed by, some smiling at him, one giving a thumbs up, a few others congratulating him, a knowing 'hi, Luka' from Alya. Eventually, Juleka came up to him, grinning.

"Do you have something you need to say to me?" asked Juleka innocently.

Luka couldn't help rolling his eyes at how him dating Marinette could possibly be such important news, but apparently it was. "Okay. Yes, you were right. It didn't even take 24 hours for the whole school to know."

He saw Rose approaching and couldn't help but smile at the joy on her face.

"It's so exciting! I knew the two of you were perfect for each other!" said Rose.

"Thanks, Rose," said Luka.

"Ready, Juleka?" Rose asked.

Juleka nodded and Luka looked at Juleka inquiringly.

"We have a project we're working on. I'm going over to Rose's to start planning it. See you at dinner?" said Juleka.

Luka nodded.

"Bye!" said Rose and she linked arms with Juleka and they walked toward the door.

As the crowds started to thin out, he finally saw Marinette. She was racing down the stairs, arms full of books, and stopped suddenly at seeing him, but then rushed over to him, looked around to see if anyone was watching and gave him a quick kiss.

"Everything okay, Marinette?" asked Luka.

"Yes! But, I totally forgot I was supposed to work on my art project after school today! I need to go home and get my supplies to bring them back. Want to keep me company?" she asked.

"Sure. Can I carry something for you?" he asked as he eyed the pile of books in her arms.

"Yes, thanks," she said as she offloaded the books into his hands. He accepted them and put them under his arm. He then offered her his other hand. She smiled tentatively at him, still feeling a bit weird with making their relationship public, but then took his hand and they headed toward the door.

"I was going to ask you if you wanted to do something, but you seem really busy, so maybe another day?" said Luka as they set off on the short distance to Marinette's house.

Marinette gave him a grateful look. "Thanks for being so understanding! I am feeling a bit overworked at the moment. I would love to do something together soon, though, I just can't give you a specific 'when' yet."

"That's okay," he said as they crossed the street to the bakery. "I'm flexible."

Marinette opened the door to the bakery with Luka following behind.

"Hi, Mom! Dad!" said Marinette. She walked toward the back of the bakery and gave her parents a little wave.

"Aren't you supposed to be working on your art project today?" asked her mom as she gave change to a customer.

Marinette grimaced. "Yes. But, I forgot. I'm here for my stuff. I'm already late!" She started up the stairs, taking two at a time.

"Hi, Luka," said Marinette's mom. She reached into the glass case and put a few macarons into a bag and handed the bag to Luka. "A little something to keep up your energy- it can be hard to keep up with Marinette sometimes. Running from thing to thing. I don't know how she does it!"

"Thanks!" said Luka as he accepted the bag. "She is pretty amazing."

"I'm glad that my daughter is dating someone who appreciates her so much! I've always said that everyone loves Marinette, but I had yet to meet someone who is willing to say it out loud!" said Marinette's dad, closing the refrigerator and walking toward Luka.

"Don't embarrass the boy, Tom," whispered Sabine to her husband.

"I'm not embarrassing him. Am I?" asked Tom, directing his gaze to Luka.

"No, sir. Marinette is truly unique. But, I think that she left without me. I'm going to try to catch up," Luka said as he headed up the stairs. When he was halfway up he thought he saw a small flash of red and black appear at the top of the stairs and then vanish around the corner. But, when he reached the next floor, he couldn't see it anywhere. There was also no sign of Marinette, so he went up the next flight of stairs.

 He eventually came to her room and was so surprised by what he saw that he stopped walking and just stared. The whole room looked different. He wasn't sure why at first- none of the furniture had been moved, evidence of the work she had made on the new dress she was creating was strewn about the surfaces, the partially finished dress was on the mannequin in the corner. But, the walls! The photos and pictures were all different! She had photos of her with her friends, lots of photos and drawings of things related to Kitty Section, photos of her family, but there were no signs of Adrien, except in the group photos. And he saw a photo that was a duplicate of one of the Kitty Section ones, but it was cropped to just show her and him together. His heart soared! Removing those posters and photos of Adrien was the most amazing thing he could imagine her doing for them- it showed him that she was really going to try to make their relationship work.

Luka suddenly heard a noise near the ceiling and saw one of Marinette's feet starting down the hatch from the rooftop. He watched as she climbed down the ladder carrying another armload of things, this time some material and a few notebooks. Luka saw an empty tote bag hanging on the chair by her desk. He set down his cookie bag on her desk and then grabbed the tote and waited at the bottom of her bed, holding the tote open for her.

As soon as Marinette's feet touched the ground, she turned around and saw Luka offering the bag, so she put her things in it and gave him an appreciative smile.

"Thanks! I can't believe I left all of these things outside. The weather had been so nice yesterday that I went up there to start planning the project but then I had to—" She stopped abruptly. "Well, anyway. I forgot that I left it all there. Thank goodness it didn't rain!"

"That was lucky," said Luka while wondering exactly what it was that Marinette didn't say. That did fit with the time that he saw Ladybug fighting the supervillain on the bridge yesterday, so maybe that was it, but he wasn't going to put her on the spot. She had enough to deal with right now.  "I see you redecorated a bit," said Luka instead as he eyed the walls.

Marinette's eyes traveled along the rows of new photographs and then she blushed. "Yes. It was time."

"It means a lot to me that you did it," he said. He gazed at her intently, wanting to make sure she realized how much it did mean.

Marinette's heart sped up at his gaze and she felt an overwhelming desire to kiss him. She angled her head up and he leaned down and gently touched his lips to hers. Luka's kiss wiped everything else from her mind. She reached up and put her arms around his neck and stepped closer to deepen the kiss, while Luka set down the tote bag and put his hands at her waist. They continued to kiss for many minutes until Marinette unexpectedly jerked back.

"Time! Oh my gosh. The time! I'm so late!" Marinette said and then she turned and raced toward the stairs before stopping and then turning back toward Luka.

"My supplies!" she said as she bent down to grab the bag at the same time that Luka did, causing them to clonk heads.

"Ow!" said Marinette as she touched the top of her head that had come into contact with Luka's.

"I thought that was only supposed to happen before we get together," Luka chuckled as he rubbed at his forehead.

"Well, I have heard somewhere that you think I'm unique, so I guess we can expect that our relationship will be a little different than normal," said Marinette aiming her gaze briefly at her purse. She smiled wryly and then grabbed the tote bag and sprinted toward the stairs.

"Yes, I think it will be," said Luka. He walked over to pick up his bag of macarons, agreeing that Marinette's mother might be right about him needing something extra to keep up with Marinette, and then he started down the stairs after her.