Under The Surface

Secret Meetings

After school finished that day, Adrien was heading out to his car when Nino came up and asked Adrien to meet him and Alya at park as soon as he could. So, after he got home, he went up to his room and transformed, knowing his father wouldn't let him leave and left to go see them. He made it to the park within a few minutes but found no Nino or Alya. Guessing he was probably a little early, he detransformed back to Adrien and waited. While he was waiting, he noticed a tall boy with greenish, blue hair waving at him from across the way. It was Luka!

"Hey, Adrien, long time no see!"

Luka exclaimed, wrapping the blonde in a tight hug.

"Hey, Luka, how've you been?"

As the two boys caught up, Luka explained, having been on tour with his father Jagged Stone all summer.

"I really have Marinette to thank. If it wasn't for her, I would never have known who my father was. How is she doing, by the way? I haven't seen her since she left for China."

"She's been fine."

Adrien answered, a bit awkwardly. To be honest, Luka made Adrien uncomfortable, especially now. Luka was the only one who ever managed to actually get anywhere with her. Nino's words echoed in the back of Adrien's head. He was right. Luka was the only one to really 'date' Marinette, so why did they break up? His curiosity was screaming at him. It was just one little question...right?

"So, umm...Luka *cough*, can I ask you a weird question?"

"Shoot."

"Why did you and Marinette break up?"

Luka stared at him for a bit then let out a deep sigh and sat down.

"It wasn't really anything in particular. We just went our separate ways."

"Come on, there's gotta be more than that."

Adrien pushed.

"Well...Marinette was always a little secretive and always busy with some new project or event. I hardly ever knew what she was doing most of the time. 'It's better this way. It's unfair for me to drag you into my crazy life.' Was what she told me. I could never understand what she meant by that, but she could be a confusing person sometimes."

Adrien sat back pondering the boy's words. A little while later, Luka left to rejoin his father; and Alya and Nino showed up not to long after.

"So, what did you want to meet for Alya?"

Adrien asked.

"Well, it's Marinette."

"What about her?"

"Nino, you've been at Françoise Dupont the longest. How long have you known Marinette? I know Adrien and myself only met her on the first day of sophomore year but that's it really."

Alya continued, ignoring Adrien's further attempts at a question.

"Not much longer than you dudes. I transferred near the end of freshman year, and even then, I didn't really know her very well. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it just came to my attention that we all don't really know that much about her, other than the obvious, and...I don't know, I feel like she's...hiding something from us. Something Big! I can feel it."

"What do you think she's hiding?"

Alya shrugged. 'Marinette was always a little secretive and always busy with some new project or event.' Luka's words played back in Adrien's mind over and over. Against Plagg's arguing (and valid points) Adrien still had his suspicions about Marinette possibly being the spotted heroine of Paris, and he was finding that the more he learned about this girl the more his theory rang true. He just needed some proof.