Bug Bites

Chapter | Five

Luka Couffaine wasn't close to many people like others suspected him to be, but he did care deeply for those he was close with. He loved his mother and sister with everything he had. 

Of course he wondered about his father, often why he left them. Luka couldn't remember the man very much, but he did remember his mom being a mess for a short time. How hard it had hit her and for a moment she flattered in her step, but she got herself together for his and Juleka's sake. Luka knew then he would never forgive his father for leaving, never bothering to try to find the man. Instead he stepped up and be became the man of the house. 

Growing up he didn't have time to focus on making friends at school or being close to anyone. Instead he had made sure his sister had a friend since her shyness was something she always had that hindered her confidence. It was only harder with their mom doing different odd jobs to pay the bills, often with her playing gigs late into the night and early mornings. 

Instead of hanging out with friends after school, Luka had gotten an under the table job and a small music shop. He was the one who really cleaned up the store and occasionally helped stock the records and CD albums. He used that money to help buy Juleka a few things that their mother couldn't afford, and used the rest to help his mom.

He would never say he regretted doing anything for his sister and mom, it gave him the time to learn to play the guitar and pick up on people's emotions  when he did have the free time. He was good at staying away and out of trouble because of it. It was nice to watch Juleka grow up and make her first friends- to see her come out of her shell little by little.

Yet it never eased the loneliness that resided into his heart. The primal need to have something he could call his own and fill a void that not even family could fill. He was not close with anyone really, not until Juleka brought a group of her friends over and he meet Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

 She was a very special girl, and he knew that the moment he laid his eyes on her. Of course he had heard the stories about the lovely and sweet Marinette, but meeting her was a whole other story. He knew who she was as a person, what she had done for others that made her a good person and an even better friend. Yet there was something in her eyes that betrayed everything he had heard about her.

People had painted Marinette as this perfect girl, the girl who could do anything for anyone and he saw the weight of those expectations in those beautiful blue eyes. After all he saw the same look in his own eyes every morning and night when he was alone. It only made him want to know the girl more, and so he was able to some how manage it. 

The ice skating rink showed him more of her than he could imagine, how she cared for Adrien so deeply and yet was unseen. He often caught her at the moments she seemed her loneliness, and maybe that's what made him so protective of her. For the first time he cared for someone who wasn't his family. He didn't like seeing her sad or upset like the time her designs were stolen. 

Over the past few months he had grown closer to the baker girl, gotten to really know her as a person. He knew her hopes and dreams and her fears. He always noted how she was so happy and cheerful, full of life but it never matched her tune that belonged to her aura- to her soul. How it sounded so pained, and he knew something was wrong. And he got that confirmation when she broke down in front of him for the first time outside the park.

"I'm not fine at all. I'm so tired Luka, of all these responsibilities. Of having to put up a front all the time. Of never being able to be who I truly am."

He saw her cry and despised every second of it, and slowly he started to learn the deep layers of Marinette Dupain-Cheng. How she was slowly growing lonely, how her friends (including his sister) believed lies about her despite knowing her for years. He saw the lights dimming in her once so vibrant blue eyes, especially as she told him what it was Adrien had advised her and never had he felt such anger. It took Marinette calming him down to prevent an akuma.