Undiscovered Melody |COMPLETED|

Chapter 9

The next day, Luka and Marinette stood in front of the museum display showcasing Jagged Stone's costumes throughout the years. Marinette couldn't keep from giggling over one specific outfit of Jagged's. The costume was the one from the Croco Duo album and it was supposed to look futuristic, but she thought the shoulder decorations that were like a mix between shoulder pads and epaulettes were fairly ridiculous. She supposed the outfit was like an early incarnation of his current costume- it was as if the neon green and black striped pants and matching jacket from the past had eventually morphed into his current black sequined jacket with yellow edging and yellow epaulettes and his yellow and black striped pants. There was a certain similarity in all of his costumes. The changes over time were definitely more subtle for him than a lot of the other rock stars featured in the exhibition.

Luka glanced down at Marinette, enjoying hearing her laughter. There had been too many tears yesterday and all for something he couldn't really do anything about to help her. But, he was glad that being here with him today seemed to make her happy.

"I'll have to tell Jagged that you spent the afternoon laughing at his costumes," said Luka.

"Don't you dare!" said Marinette, giving him a light smack on his arm. "Though you could let him know that if I'd been his costume designer he could have avoided that neon green striped number there." She pointed at the one she'd been laughing at.

"I had wondered which one was so funny. It might have been a challenge for you to design for him then, though," said Luka.

"Why? Did he used to be really difficult?"

"I don't really know if he was difficult, but it would have been challenging because you weren't even born yet. In fact, I'm not sure I was even born then, though that's around the time when my mom was in the band, so it was probably pretty soon after that," he said.

"I have a hard time picturing your mom and Jagged together," said Marinette, wondering what Jagged and Anarka really looked like then. She'd seen photos of them online, but they hardly seemed real.

"Me, too," he said. "Juleka tried to get Mom to show us photos from them- the real them not the performing them- but she's resisted so far. I'm not sure why."

"How's she dealing with all of this coming out?" asked Marinette. "How are you doing with it?"

"Well, Mom's been kind of staying back from it. I think she's waiting to swoop in in case Jagged hurts us. She seems like she's expecting it to not go well. I'm sure she must have her reasons for thinking that, but she's not sharing them with us." He moved a few feet to the right and stopped talking when some other museum goers wanted to see Jagged's costumes.

Marinette linked her arm with his and pulled him to a bench quite a few feet away from the costumes so they wouldn't be overheard.

"And how are you doing with it?" Marinette asked again.

Luka thought about her question. "It doesn't feel real, yet. Having spent all of these years without a father . . . it isn't easy to make a space in my life for a person who didn't exist before. He's been great so far, so it's not that. I just don't know what to expect from him or what he expects from me. We don't really know each other. How do we go from strangers to family?" asked Luka.

"I think these feelings and questions are normal. I had something similar with my grandfather," said Marinette. "Since before I was born, he'd chosen to leave my family out of his life, just because he didn't like how my dad did his baking! And he never seemed to even want to meet me. Not too long ago I pushed my way into his life because I saw how sad my dad was about the broken relationship and I wanted to try to fix it. While I felt like something was missing in my life because I had this grandfather I didn't know, I hadn't really left a space for him. So, we've had to sort of make space for each other in our lives and slowly learn all of the things we had missed out on before- things we didn't even know we were missing. It's been a slow process, but I'm really glad I'm getting the chance to know him."

"So, it's basically like any relationship then? Spending time together turns strangers into . . . not strangers. Learning about someone helps you to make space for them in your life and helps you to decide whether you can rely on them to be there for you when you need them," he said.

Marinette nodded. "Building relationships isn't always easy, but it's worth it."

"Yes, I-" said Luka, before being interrupted by a ding from Marinette's phone.

Marinette scrambled to get her phone out of her purse. As she read the screen she started to frown.

"Is everything okay?" asked Luka.

"Oh! Um. . . yeah. My parents . . . they just got a really big order that they need to fill, so they want me to come home right away to help. I'm so sorry! I really wanted to see the rest of the exhibit with you! But, well . . . anyway. Bye!" she said as she hurried toward the exit.

Luka watched Marinette rush toward the doors, her demeanor completely changed by the notification. He couldn't help but wonder whether there was more to it than she said. He stood up, deciding he didn't want to see the rest of the exhibit right now. He'd save it for another day when he could go with Marinette.

As he pushed open the museum doors and stepped outside he saw Ladybug rushing along the rooftop across the street. A minute later she was joined by Cat Noir and then they were quickly out of Luka's sight. Seeing the superhero pair made him remember his time as Viperion not so long ago. While he was happy that he had been able to help out to defeat Desperada, he wasn't sure that he would want to be on call the way that Paris' main superheroes always had to be. It must be difficult to live two separate lives, he thought. How could those two manage school and relationships in addition to their practically daily duties?  His thoughts drifted to his time with Ladybug, especially the time right before being given the Snake Miraculous. He'd come upon Ladybug and Adrien in an intense discussion and then Adrien had recommended giving the Miraculous to Luka. Ladybug had kissed Adrien on the cheek and then seemed to look longingly after the teenager when he ran off to hide. If he wasn't mistaken, Ladybug liked Adrien. Adrien seems like a nice guy but why do so many teenage girls, including Ladybug, have a crush on him?

The mysterious melody that he had heard before swirled through his brain again, but instead of being about Marinette it seemed to be about Ladybug this time. What was he supposed to be paying attention to? He shook his head and set the thought aside for now. He knew it would eventually make sense to him.