C'est la vie. MLB x DC au

Chapter 4: Comfortably Numb

"I'm telling you, I'm gonna kick Ivan's ass the next time he brings a broken vinyl claiming he bought it that way," Luka told Adrien as he passed him a pile of CDs.

"Why do you care so much? It's not your fault." Adrien eyed him as he straightened his name tag on his shirt. "We're just two teenagers who work in a record store. Leave the conscience of worrying for later on." He joked.

"Adrien, it's not hard for Ms. Mendeleiev to fire us, she's already not very fond of us and you know that," Luka said seriously.

"You also know I need the money right now, my mom's in a tough spot and my dad is nowhere to be found." He went on and Adrien sighed.

"Yeah... I just need you to understand that, no matter what happens, I'm always here to help out, figuratively and literally. My father is an ass so the least he can do is use his money for good cause. Anyway, besides finances, I'm here." Adrien told him and Luka patted his back with a small smile.

"Thank you." He said.

Just as Adrien was about to respond the little bell on the door rang and a tall boy with a sour expression walked into the store. The pair of boys exchanged looks before Luka spoke up.

"Hey, Ivan. How can we help you?"

"Well, you know, for such a prestigious and well-known record store, most of your types of vinyl are crap." The boy said and dropped a broken record on the table in front of the two best friends. Luka growled but thankfully Adrien stepped up before he could say anything.

"Hey, Lu, why don't you go in the back and look for that REM album we were talking about? I'll help Ivan out." He said with a short, awkward laugh. Luka clicked his tongue.

"Yeah, sure, okay." He said at last and let the blonde teenager deal with their trouble of a customer. Adrien turned to Ivan and found him staring unbothered.

"So, you were saying something along the lines of our records being crap, right?" He smiled warmly and Ivan blinked.

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Luka rode his bicycle back home around 5 o clock. When he reached the front door, he let it fall to the ground, removed his helmet, and picked up a paper bag with two Radiohead records.

Mari is gonna love these. He thought when he picked them from the alt-rock section before he left the record store.

Just as he was about to enter his house, he spotted Chloe sitting by herself on a bench just across the street, observing the water of Seine flow. He frowned and started walking towards her.

"Hey." He said when he reached her. "Can I..?"

"Oh, uh, yeah sure." She responded gently.

"How's your granddad?" He asked out of both politeness and genuine concern. He'd known Mr. Bourgeois his entire life, he was there for them when his father left him and his mother.

"Well, he's breathing. Good sign." She said and Luka sighed.

"It's my Grandma that presents a challenge. She has this praying mentality, which is really awkward since I don't do that whole God thing. My whole life has been proof that there's no one up there to protect me, care for me, so why should I believe?" She stated and Luka eyed her carefully. He felt for her, even though he had no clue of what she'd been through.

"Anyway." She chuckled snapping Luka out of his rêverie. "Whatcha got here? Let me see." She said eyeing the paper bag. Luka pulled out the records with a smile.

"It's.." for Mari "it's just me trying something new." He lied. Chloe laughed.

"I get that you're really into music, is that right?" She asked.