GOLD

Nine

Marinette went to her grandfather's to discuss how the battle went. He spent the time waiting for Marinette, feeding his koi fish. Marinette immediately started yelling at the old man  for giving a unqualified person a Miraculous especially the one of destruction.

She had asked once when she was in middle school if she could give her best friend a Miraculous. He had made a big deal of how a Miraculous holder must be trained in the ways and then he goes and does something like this? Inconceivable!

Master smiled through Marinette's tangent. "And here I worried you wouldn't like him." He threw more food at the fish watching as their funny looking mouths gulped down the feed.

"It's not that I do not like him. He can take orders and he's far better then the girl who found the Ladybug Miraculous."

"You sure you don't like him because he's a flirt?"

"LAOYE!" She scolded as her cheeks became red. "How could you possibly know that?"

"The news." He had watched the news live on Luka's phone. He didn't own a television for they would ruin the authenticity so he borrowed a smart phone. He would prefer to use Marinette's but one kwami often stole Marinette's phone. Now that kwami had a new Master giving Master Fu the opportunity to use his granddaughter's instead.

The news reporter, Nadja Chamack had thanked an amateur reporter for footage of the new hero, Scarlett Lady. She did not once mention ChatNoir or Marigold. "Saw you two in the background. I definitely picked a good one."

"Did you think of how a pain, Plagg is? What if he convinces ChatNoir to use his powers for personal use?"

She was going to miss that

"Xiāngxìn wǒ shǔbiāo." Words that Marinette heard quite often. These words meant more to her spoken in her grandfather's native language then they did in her's.

"If I have too." She sad as she joined her grandfather on the finely carve stone bench. She pulled her hood over her head and took a depend breath. She needed time to comprehend everything. "I guess the only good news if you spout that whole fate nonsense again, It won't apply to me."

"And who's fault is that." Master Fu added as he tapped his cane on his leg preparing to reprimand his granddaughter.

Marinette knew that she should choose her words carefully or she would get smacked. "At least I didn't loose two Miraculouses."

Her snarky response was rewarded with a whack. "Ouch!" She said as she rubbed her shin.

"Don't sass me, Shû."

Luka Couffaine walked over to the two. He had his sleeves rolled up exposing  black snakes coiled around his forearms, tattoos that he had gotten due to a dare. He wore a floral bandana and a apron to match. Marinette couldn't help but to laugh since he looked more like a housewife then a punk rock musician. "Its dinner time."

"Those look better on you then they do on me." She laughed as she had inherited the old fashioned apron and bandana from her grandmother, Meiying Cheng.

"Isn't that Juleka's?" Luka asked as he pointed to her sweater.

"Whaaaat? Nooo. I wouldn't take her things. Pffft... do you even know me."

She had a habit of stealing her friends' clothes. If one of them came over to her house and forgot something she considered it hers. Finders keepers losers weepers.

"Get your a-" Luka's sentence was cut off by Master Fu hitting him atop of his head with his cane. Master Fu disliked vulgar words, he thought about a swear jar for Luka but thought this was the fastest way to teach him to dodge.

"What the f-"  He grabbed the cane before Master Fu could land another blow."-uck old man?!"

"Impressive." Master Fu praised as Marinette blinked and missed Master Fu moving from sitting quietly to standing on the back edge of the bench.
"Even Shû doesn't have these good of reflexes."

The three headed into the temple. Master Fu kept on singing praises on how Luka's training was coming along.

"If he's so good then why didn't you give him the Cat Miraculous?" Marinette said arms crossed clearly jealous that Luka was better at all this.

"Who would feed me if he wasn't here?" He replied as Luka put a plate infront of hem only to have Master Fu chuck the egg rolls off the plate as if he was a three year old. "Why do you insist on poisoning me?"

"It's a different recipe."

"You can't make decent an egg roll."

"You ate the ones the Marinette said she made without a hitch. And I'll let you in on a little secret. I made those. These are the exact same recipe."

As the boys bickered about the egg rolls the shoji doors opened. Standing out of breath was Nino. He immediately hugged his best friend. He had thought something bad had happened to her when she wasn't answering her texts or calls. This was the last place to check and if she wasn't there he did not know what he would do. She had promised to go out for slurpies and then there was a monster.

"You want to come in for dinner?" She  asked as she stared intently at her egg roll wondering if it was rude to take a bite while in the the middle of a hug.

"Why did you answer your phone?" He asked. He knew she turned her ringer off on her phone when she was at the temple however she usually sent a text here and there complaining about chores.

"I haven't checked it. Been busy.... gardening. Yup... gardening."

Nino's brows furrowed as she didn't have a speck of dirt on her. He had seen her garden before and usually she was a mess. "Are you lying to me?"

"Want dinner? It's egg rolls and Dakgangjeong." She said avoiding answering his question.

"Sure." He said hoping that eventually she would confess her secret. He was one of the people in her support system and she felt a little bad not telling the truth.

He couldn't help but chuckle at Luka. He actually thought if he ever wanted impress Marinette that he would have to look like Luka with the dyed hair, piercings, and tattoos. "Did you loose a bet?"

"Yes." Luka replied. He had lost a bet with a sister.

Before Nino sat down he thanked Master Fu for having him. "Can you believe there's superheroes and supervillains now? It's like we're living in a comicbook." Nino said trying to make conversation as he could sense tension between Luka and Master Fu.

"Alya likes heroes too. She could be your Marvel movie buddy." She suggested since she missed most movie premieres due to her busy schedule. "Although, watching you cry because of Endgame was entirely worth skipping school for."

"You cried too."

"Ya, but I don't cry to a certain Queen song." She teased as she pushed the chicken around on her plate. "I saw you chickened out in following Alya."

"Just because you do that have fear doesn't mean I don't."

"As Alya said if theres a supervillain there's a superhero."

"I had no idea if she would even save the day." He didn't notice that there was three superheroes. He only new of Scarlett Lady which he briefly passed earlier as he looked for Marinette.

Luka glared at Master Fu who attempted to whistle away his guilt.
"I had no doubt she could save the day unlike a certain unnamed old fart." Luka had watched Master Fu chuck his phone into the pond when Marigold was captured by Stoneheart.  "How did the superhero defeat him?" Luka made sure his questions were vague now that Nino was in the room.

"I assumed you were both watching the news."  Marinette replied.

"Let's just say my phone is now in a bag of rice."

Marinette laughed at Luka's predicament. "You know who has a working phone and Juleka's number?" She asked as she pulled out her phone and took a picture of Luka's attire. "This girl!" She relished giving Juleka blackmail on her brother. To add fuel to Juleka's side of the fued.