That's What You Get

After Marinette had met Luka, he often invited her to hang out. They had grown rather close in such a short amount of time. Luka had started to develop a crush on her. I mean who wouldn't. She was smart, funny, brave, and most importantly she was the most caring person he had ever met. It was after school one day, Marinette showed up at the boat and walked right into his room. He had debated all day on whether he should confess or not and once he saw her it had settled in his mind that he would.

"Hi Mari." He said as he got up to give her a hug. He had started calling her Mari a few weeks into their friendship, it was a nickname only he used.

"Hi Luka." She smiled, returning the hug. Her stammering around him had ceased to exist. She was comfortable with him. She did still have a tiny crush on him as well but her heart still went wild when she was around Adrien.

"How was school?" He asked her, picking up his guitar. He had been teaching her some chords recently because she had asked. The girl was talented and learned quickly.

"School was fun. We had some exciting experiments in Miss. Mendiliev's class." Marinette spoke excitedly about her day.

"I thought you were going to come with Alya and Nino today?" He mentioned questioningly.

"I was but they had an opportunity for a great date so they went and did that instead. I didn't want them to miss out." She said staring off into the distance.

"That is incredibly sweet of you Mari," He smiled brightly at her. What Luka didn't know was that it made her heart skip a beat whenever he used that nickname. "What about Adrien? You could have invited him to hang out." Luka casually mentioned. Marinette's mind went wild.

"A...he...Adrien...photoshoot...busy... I mean not like...He had a photoshoot." She finally managed to say. Luka was taken aback by her sudden inability to speak. There was the stammering that he missed, but it made him sad that it wasn't directed at him, but rather at a certain blond model. Tikki shook her head from the safety of Marinette's jacket.

"I see," Luka said, looking down at his guitar dejectedly. Marinette had hoped that she didn't ruin the day. "You like him don't you?" He tried to say in a teasing way but instead it sounded a lot sadder than he intended. Marinette turned beat red. That was enough of an answer for the boy, so he looked away once more and avoided eye contact.

"I mean...yeah he's my friend... and I like him...because he's my friend...and I definitely never noticed how cute and sweet he is." She stammered again. Her hand flew to her mouth because she had just dug herself deeper.

"Why don't you tell him?" He found himself asking, halfheartedly as he strummed his guitar absent mindedly.

"I can't do that. He's my friend. What if he doesn't like me?" She asked realizing she had definitely just admitted her feelings out loud to someone other than Alya, but it was okay, Luka was her friend, right?

"What harm could it do?" He said, making eye contact with her blue bell eyes and he prayed to the heavens that she could not see the sadness in his own. He obviously no longer had a chance with the girl but he wouldn't let that stop him from being the best friend he could be. The best friend he had been for the past couple of weeks.

"I've known him for a while and I'm barely even getting comfortable enough to spend time with him alone. I still stammer around him and I don't think he'd feel the same way. I mean, who would want to be my boyfriend?" She asked looking down at her feet. Luka's heart shattered. He couldn't believe this amazing girl was so insecure.

"Mari, Adrien would be an idiot for not accepting your feelings. You are incredibly sweet and beautiful." He told her, eyes wide. Marinette's eyes met his own once more.