God this is turning out to be so much longer than I was expecting. I just want to address all the things that Marinette was upset about in the first chapter.

So here we go!

—

After class let out for lunch, Miss Bustier's class was oddly silent as they went their separate ways for lunch.

Marinette heard Lila try to tag along with someone several times, only to be turned down.

"Sorry Lila, I need to talk to my mom about something."

"Not today, I'm meeting with a friend."

"I'd just like some alone time, my head hurts."

Though the excuses were vague enough, Marinette saw them for what they were.

Reconsidering loyalties, just as Miss Bustier had warned. And probably a little bit of 'if she turned on Adrien like that, what's stopping her from turning on me?'

Critical thinking, as she had put it. In the aftermath, Lila might still have some friends. But as long as the truth came out, that's all that mattered.

"Hey, Marinette?" Adrien asked, hand on the back of his neck.

"Yes?"

"Uh, I had a text from Kagami. She wants to have lunch with me. It sounded serious."

"I bet she just wants to talk about yesterday."

"Honestly, I'd like to wipe yesterday right off the board, if I could." Then he gave a little half smile as he caught her eye. "Well, most of the day at least." He reached up to touch her face, brushing his thumb over his lips. "Other parts are just unforgettable."

Marinette blushed heavily, diverting her eyes.

Adrien tried to hide his smug grin. All it took to get his lady flustered was to flirt without his mask on. She was a total sucker.

"I'll see you later, Sugar Wugar Bear." He grinned.

"Mmm, still not good enough. Keep trying." She flirted back, still with the bright blush on her cheeks.

Marinette took her time stopping at her locker, putting her books away, and strolling out of school. She'd go home, have a nice lunch, and maybe even get the chance to hide some of the more embarrassing photos of Adrien she had hanging up before he noticed them.

Plans changed, however, when Marinette came out of the building to see Luka standing at the stairs. He gave her an easy smile. "Hey Marinette, wanna do lunch?"

May as well. Adrien was having his hard conversation with Kagami today. "I uh...sure?"

"Cool." And he reached out to take her hand.

Marinette, however, pulled her hand away, a bit too harshly. There was no way he missed it.

He frowned at her. "Did I do something?"

"What? No! No, you're fine! I just...um, look, we have to talk."

"What about?"

She rubbed the back of her head, feeling more and more awkward as the seconds rolled on. How do you break up with someone you aren't even dating? "Um...well, you see...Luka, you're really nice, and I appreciate you always being here for me. But, I'm still in love with Adrien. And I can't be with you."

"Then I'll wait."

"No, no don't do that." She breathed.

Luka exhaled harshly, sounding like he was only barely hanging onto his patience. "Marinette. I really think you need to move on. Adrien doesn't like you. That may sound harsh, but I just hate seeing you so miserable."

"But he does like me. He loves me."

"Then why did I see him and Kagami leave together?"

"He's having the same conversation we're having right now. A lot...a lot of stuff happened yesterday."

"You were talking to him? Even when we're together?"

"Luka, we aren't together. We never were."

"Yeah, well it was implied. You knew I liked you!"

"And you knew I was in love with Adrien!"

"Yeah, but he wasn't reciprocating! I thought it was understood that you were getting over him so you could date me!"

"I never said that!"

"You sure acted like it!" He spit.

Marinette hadn't seen Luka so mad since XY stole his music and her costumes. It was frightening to be on the receiving end.

"So what? All the time I spent with you, everything I did, it meant nothing?"

"I didn't say that either!"

"You knew I liked you, but you never gave me a real chance!"

"I don't have to!" She cried. "Just because you like me, doesn't mean you get to be first in line to date me! It doesn't work like that! You know that!"

She hated to yell, especially at someone who was heart broken, but this was possessive behavior and completely out of character for someone as calm as Luka.

He stared at her with tears in his eyes.

"I don't owe you anything, Luka. You gave me love and support when I needed it, but I didn't ask you for it. Expecting something in return is...kinda neck-beardy."

He scoffed. "I'm not being a neck beard! I'm just upset because I feel like you wasted my time. If you were never going to like me back, why did you drag me on?"

"I didn't know I wasn't going to like you back! I mean—I did like you! I just—not as much as I like Adrien. I'm sorry. I know that this sucks. I didn't mean to waste your time. That's just how it happened."

He shook his head. "You were obviously still talking to him though. So you weren't really trying to get over him."

She bit back a growl of frustration. "Adrien's my friend too, okay? I had a moment of weakness yesterday, and he took care of me. Then I confessed. It just—came out of me. I hadn't confessed to him before, so he couldn't reject me before, so I didn't have a reason to get over him. I just assumed he loved someone else. There, happy?"

"No."

"Look, Luka. You deserve someone that can love you wholeheartedly. I could only give you a fraction, and that's not fair."

He was quiet a long time. Then breathed out. "Yeah. Whatever. I'll see you around."

"Band's practice is tomorrow right?"

"Yeah, but...maybe you should skip...for a while."

"Oh. Okay. Um...I understand."

He turned away. "I'll take a rain check on lunch. I'm not feeling hungry anymore." And he briskly walked away before she could catch up to him.

"That was so weird. I've never seen Luka act like that before."

Tikki looked up to her. "Well, that's the thing with love. It makes people act weird."

"This is my fault for leading him on, isn't it?"

"It's like you said, Marinette. He comforted and supported you, but you never asked him to do it. He was supposed to be doing that without the expectation of being reciprocated. Somewhere in there, he thought you'd return the favor sometime."

"Should I have?"

"Relationships work when you give without expecting to receive. And they build when both are willing to give. But as soon as you turn into a taker, relationships crumble. Friendships, however, aren't based on anything but commonality. You both had different expectations for your relationship, and you didn't meet his. It's not your fault, because you didn't come into this friendship at the level he was at. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"His expectations were too high?"

"Pretty much. He was at the romance level, and you were at the friendship level. Different levels of effort."

"Okay. I think I get it..."

"You wanted to nip this in the bud anyways. You knew you didn't like Luka the way he liked you. You've done him a huge favor."

"It doesn't feel like it."

"Sure! Right now, after he pointed a finger at you and said some mean things. But, you set him free!"

"Still, I should probably keep an eye on him in case he gets akumatized."

"You don't need to worry about that, Marinette." Tikki hummed.

"What do you me—oh! I had completely forgotten! Gosh, I'm so used to worrying about that..."

"So now just let him go. You beat Hawkmoth, so now he can grieve in peace!"

"I had nothing to do with Hawkmoth."

Tikki shrugged. "Maybe you didn't, maybe you did."

—

So far, they had talked about the weather six times. And that was only after the endless loop of 'how are you? Good. How are you?'s. Adrien was beginning to suspect this might be the most awkward lunch of his life.

The waiter came, and took their order, and then Kagami fell into business mode. She folded her hands in front of her. "First of all, I must apologize for putting you into this very tricky situation."

"Wait, what? Kagami, you didn't do anything wrong."

"On the contrary, Adrien. I know you weren't aware of this. But I was aware of your feelings for Marinette, and Marinette's feelings for you. However, it seemed like neither of you were making any moves on the other, so I took advantage of the situation. I had hoped you would get over her, but I should have known better."

He blinked at her a few times. "Wait—you knew she liked me?"

"It was obvious. From the first day we met, in fact."

His face colored brightly, embarrassment clamping on him like a vice. It was obvious? And he never noticed? Who else knew?

"So I apologize." She said simply. "I should have known not to get in between you both. It was inevitable one of you would crack. So, who confessed? You or her?"

"Um, well, her first…"

"I figured as much. I don't think you were quite aware of your feelings. More of a subconscious crush, as compared to her obsession."

"Obsession?"

"Yes. She can barely keep her hands off of you. You really didn't notice?"

His mouth fought to form words. "Compared to all the other girls that can't keep their hands off of me, no, I didn't."

"I see."

"So…you're not upset?"

"Oh, I was. I cried my eyes out yesterday. But I brought this on myself, so I can't be pitied."

"No, Kagami, I pursued you—"

"After I rather sternly told you to switch targets. Or else you would have continued to moon over her."

Technically, he had been in love with Ladybug, specifically. But it seemed sub-consciously, he found her out anyways, if he was mooning after her. Or he really was just that fond of Marinette.

Secret identities were too confusing.

"I owe Marinette an apology too, but I suppose that will come later. I'm sure she'll feel awkward around me for a while. Not that she needs too, I'm over you, after all."

"What? Really? Already?"

"I like to win, but I'm not a sore loser."

"Oh…okay."

"So are you official with her yet?"

"Not quite. I wanted to clear the air with you first."

"I understand, and I appreciate it. She probably needs to do the same with Luka."

"He's a pretty cool guy, he'll probably take it well."

"We can certainly hope."

The waiter came back with their drinks, and then they were alone again.

"Oh, you said something about class drama. How's that going?"

He groaned, laying his head on the table. "It got worse today…but also better? Lila—you remember Lila, right?"

"How could I forget?"

"Well, she's been making Marinette's world miserable with these…very specific lies. Enough to discredit Marinette, but also give her extra work as class rep. She kind of had a meltdown yesterday, and when I helped her out, Lila decided to target me instead. Apparently, I'm a sex offender."

Kagami started laughing. "If anyone believes that, they're an idiot. Or someone has a really low threshold of what they constitute as sexual harassment."

"Apparently, I groped her. See? I have the black eye to prove it."

"I was wondering where that came from, I figured you'd get to it."

"It actually…it came from my father," he said sadly.

"On accident?"

"No."

"That's awful. But…not that surprising. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I mean, it's not, but I appreciate your sympathy."

"So what happened with Lila?"

Adrien stirred his drink with his straw. "She told our classmates, and they tried to kick me out of class. But our teacher wouldn't allow it. Chloe suggested we talk about it, and Miss Bustier agreed it was a good idea to get both sides of the story out so people could make their own conclusions."

"Not really fair if you wanted to keep your fight with your father private."

"I weaseled my way out of it. But now it's up to everyone else to decide if they believe me or Lila." He took a sip. "My father's threatening a lawsuit over it."

"Typical."

"Well, I don't really want to be thought of a sex offender all throughout my school years. It would kill me. My guess is that Lila is going to find a way to weasel out of her lie before it actually goes to court."

"Most likely, but by then, no one will believe her anymore. If you're going to lie like that, you can't back out. It doesn't work like that."

"With any luck, she'll skip the country and we can be done with her."

Kagami gave him a soft smile. "Sounds like you and Marinette both have had a crazy few days."

"You have no idea."

"Then I'm glad you can find comfort in each other. I hope I can have that one day too."

"I mean...Luka should be available soon."

"A guitarist, hmm? I'll have to think about it."