Thief | Lukadrien

Part 6 - Marinette's Dilemma

"Plagg, claws out!"

"F*ck, here we go again," the kwami complained as he was sucked into my ring. Once transformed, I popped open the window and slipped out. I used to be worried that other people would see me leaving, but Paris is apparently pretty oblivious to this kind of thing.

I raced across the rooftops and tumbled into an alleyway beside my destination to return to my civilian self. I walked into the bakery and instantly felt better as I was hit with a wave of sweet aromas.

"Hey, Mrs. Dupain-Cheng!" I greeted. "How are you today?"

"I'm quite alright, thank you! And, how are you, dear?"

"I'm good! I'm here to see Marinette? I was going to give her a Chinese lesson."

"Oh, yes! She told me about that a while ago. You can go right on up, but you'll need some of these first," she said, then handed me a tray of croissants. "Enjoy!"

"Thanks, Mrs. Dupain Cheng!"

I made my way through the house and up the ladder to Marinette's room, carefully balancing the tray of food. I knocked on the trapdoor, then lifted it slightly.

"Marinette?" I called. "You in here?"

"Gah!" she cried, stumbling out of her chair.

"You ready for that Chinese lesson?"

"Chinese lesson? Oh... OH! Right! I totally didn't forget about that."

I climbed into the room and set the croissants on her desk. She looked distracted as she rummaged through a stack of schoolwork, likely looking for the booklet that I gave her last time.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

That didn't sound like the Marinette I knew. She seemed... frustrated, and angry.

"We can talk about it, if you want."

She sighed, and set down her papers. She didn't look up at me, just stared straight in front of her.

"Do you ever look back at something, and wonder how you could have been so stupid?"

"Yeah, all the time."

She smiled weakly. "Well, I trusted someone I shouldn't have. I gave them something that was so important to me, but they took it and ran, and I have no idea how to get it back. And the worst part is, I see this person every day, and I'm constantly reminded of how they betrayed me, but they're never going to know what they did."

I thought about that for a moment. What could she be talking about? Was this important thing that they stole a physical object, or was it a metaphor for something else?

That's when it hit me. Marinette was talking about her heart! Someone must have taken it, but maybe they didn't return her feelings?

"I don't know what to do," Marinette whispered, burying her head in her hands.

I pulled her into a hug. "I'm here for you, Marinette. Whatever you need. If you want to break into their house and make them pay for what they did, I'm 100% behind you."

"Thanks," she laughed. "Although, I don't think breaking in is the best idea. That would draw too much attention."

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, and it's also illegal."

"That too."

"You know, we don't have to practice Chinese if you're not up for it today. We can do something else instead, or I can just leave you be."

"Can you stay? I like the company."

I beamed. "Of course!"

"I'll get a video game set up. Now, how are you?"

"I'm okay," I shrugged.

She didn't look convinced. "What's on your mind?"

I pulled up another seat to Marinette's desk. "It's nothing, I just... I got asked out today."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I really like them, but I don't know why it feels so different than other crushes I've had. I blush uncontrollably when I'm around them, and I lose control. I don't like losing control of myself. It's the only thing I actually have control over."

"You sound like me when I had a crush on you," she giggled. "You must really like them."

"You had a crush on me?"

Wait, was I the one who broke her heart? Jeez, I really hope not.

"Yep. I liked you for a long time, but those feelings stated to shift over to someone else. I thought he liked me back, even. But then he lost my trust, and I lost my crush."

Oh, thank goodness. I wasn't the one who caused her pain. But now I was curious to know who this other guy was, and what he did exactly to make Marinette lose feelings in an instant.

"Do you want to go egg his house or something? My offer still stands."

"No, that's okay," she chuckled, turning on her computer screen. "His place would be hard to hit, anyway. It's constantly rocking around."

Rocking around? What did she mean by that? What kind of house rocks around?

Oh.

OH.

"Was it Luka?" I asked, but then immediately regretted it. I should have allowed Marinette to tell me when she was ready.

"H-how did you guess?"

"He's the only guy I know who lives on a boat."

"Fair enough."

Okay, now I really want to know what happened between them. It's not that I wanted toe pry, I just wanted to be sure Luka wouldn't break my heart as he did to Marinette.

"I don't really want to talk about this anymore," she said.

"Sure, no problem," I said, picking up a controller. "You ready for a death match?"