Adrien angrily squinted at Luka’s face when he approached him. Luka could visibly the gears turning in the blonde’s head as he tried to see past the blurriness in his eyes.

    “Luka!” Adrien roared with laughter, swinging an arm around his shoulder.

     The raven head’s eyebrows pulled together. Did they not have a tense conversation only five hours ago? And this Adrien, it was like the one he knew when they were in high school. The Agreste that was a lightweight and the kind of person that giggled at everything while drunk.

     “I have a secret to tell you,” Adrien whispered yelled, looking around to make sure no one was listening. Satisfied that no one was, he leaned into Luka’s ear. “I’m a little drunk. But you can’t tell anyone, or my girlfriend will kill me.”

     Girlfriend? Luka was fairly sure the two weren’t together anymore. Shaking his head, Luka knew that shouldn’t be the focus of now. It was the slurred words of a drunk man. He should be worrying about how he was getting the blonde back to his own house.

       “I won’t tell,” Luka smirked and winked. Didn’t want to upset Adrien while he was in a good mood.

    Nodding his head enthusiastically, a smile stretched onto his perfect lips. Luka walked them to the exit, holding his breath the whole way to see if the blonde would stop him. It went pretty smooth until they were right before the doors.

    “Where are we going?” Adrien stumbled as he pulled away. 

     “To see Ladybug.” Luka blurted, biting the side of his cheek.

    It was the best thing he could come up with it. It wasn’t a lie, but Ladybug probably wouldn't appreciate him getting sidetracked with someone rather than Chat Noir. This was about finding her friend, not about his social life.

     But he couldn’t leave him here, right? It’d be cruel. Rude or not, this was Adrien. Marinette cared about him with or without fights. So the raven head slung Adrien’s arm back over his shoulder.

    “I like Ladybug. She has the prettiest hair.” Adrien hiccuped, leaning fully on the other male.

    The cold air hit them both at full force. Luka recovered quicker, slightly more accustomed to being in the cold. Adrien was shivering, his teeth her clattering and he huddled closer to the guitarist.

     “You’re not wearing a jacket.” Luka sighed squeezing his eyes closed. He unzipped his jacket with one arm and slipped it off, slinging it over Adrien’s shoulders.

     “Luka!” His name was called behind him and a swoosh followed it with the sound of feet hitting the concrete.

     Blue eyes turned to meet those of a female. Ladybug was panting, she was focused on Luka, and didn’t even notice Adrien until he giggled her name.

    An emotion flashed over face, one which Luka didn’t understand before it was replaced with a poker face. Had it been pain? Grief? Whatever it was, it was bothering her. And he didn’t like it.

    Ladybug opened her mouth to speak, but screaming cut her off. What a time for an akuma to come up, no? 

    A groan escaped the heroine's lips. Chat Noir was right in front of her, drunk off his arse. In what possible way would this turn out okay? Adrien needed to be put somewhere safe, with him in this state she’d have to ask Luka to help her. He wouldn’t deny it, she knew that, but she couldn’t take Adrien to Master Fu and just leave him here alone for a few minutes. That would be too much of a risk. 

    “Luka, I’ve already asked for so much more from you. But I need one more thing.” Her bottom lip worked its way between her teeth, pulling Luka’s attention to them.

     “Absolutely.” He agreed, feeling Adrien shuffle at his side and giggle about nonsense.
 
    It couldn’t be good how much he caught Ladybug worrying. How stable was her mental health? Didn’t she need to stop and rest for a while?

   “I need you to bring Adrien somewhere safe. I don’t care where I just need to make sure he’s safe. When you’re done with that, run far as you can get to the Eiffel Tower, I’ll meet you there with the snake miraculous.”
------
   Getting Adrien to safety shouldn’t be a hard task to do, right? Wrong. Luka had to stagger as he forced the mostly limp body to follow him, just managing to tuck both of them in a dark corner when the akuma came near.

     As seconds trickled by, Luka narrowed his eyes at the akuma, taking in details about it. Its skin was creamy white, but not the natural kind. A crown sat crookedly on its head, the same color as the rest of it.

     He noticed it had something clenched in its hand. What it was was hard to distinguish. Something that could easily be covered by a hand was an obvious trait, but that was all the information he could gain.

   As if sensing someone’s gaze, the akuma paused and turned its eyes to Luka and Adrien’s direction. Luka held his breath. The akuma shouldn’t be able to see him from this angle. Darkness cascaded over them thanks to the buildings, making it nearly impossible to tell the difference between a garbage can and a man.

     That didn’t stop his worrying though. Humans had much more than six senses, being able to tell when someone was staring at them being one. And this was a person with powers forced upon them to do bad. The senses were probably heightened. 

      Luka immediately became alarmed when he heard a slight hum escape from Adrien’s throat, meaning he was about to talk. A cold hand clasped over drunken lips, as Luka bit clenched his teeth. Please please please say it didn’t hear that.

      At that moment everything froze. The air in Luka’s lungs, the movement of the akuma, Adrien’s head laid at an awkward angle.

     They were in trouble, the akuma knew they were there. Luka moved Adrien behind a stack of beat-up boxes as gracefully as he could. He flinched when he heard the click click click near them.

    Luka had one job and that job was to get Adrien to safety. If diverting the akuma the other way then that was what he would do. 

   Putting on the act of an innocent scared civilian shouldn’t be so hard. Fear already gripped his throat with icy fingers and he struggled to swallow against it. The guitarist stumbled backward, “accidentally” making to make noise as he tripped over empty paint cans and crashed into boxes.
  
     The akuma laughed and slowly followed, like a tiger stalking its prey.

    “You shouldn’t run, it won’t protect you. You’re on her side, I can see it in your aura. Ladybug is the Queen in this game, you are a bishop. You can refer to me as Sovereign. No matter my name, you mean something to Ladybug and I’m going to use it.” Sovereign cackled upon seeing Luka attempting to catch his balance.

        “In this little game, pieces will always have to be sacrificed. I’m willing to see what she’ll give up for you.”
    
   Luka repressed the questions on the tip of his tongue and tried to keep his eyes wide with fear. Was the akuma confusing him with Chat Noir? Luka shouldn’t mean much of anything to the heroine. Then again, this was an akuma. Anything and everything that left its lips could be a lie.

     “But-but why would you want to bother me?” He cried out as he finally reached the end of the alley. “I’m just a civilian, I’ve not had the luck to really get to meet her!”

    Blue eyes briefly scanned the area he left Adrien to make sure he was well hidden and quickly turned his eyes to focus on another spot.

        “Even if that is true, you are one of her pawns and you have no other choice other than to play.”

     Why wasn’t he attacking? Why was it keeping this conversation instead of putting Luka’s life in mortal danger? Not that the raven head didn’t appreciate the change, but what was behind it? What was the plan?

     Luka took in his surroundings realizing he wasn’t too far from the Eiffel Tower. If he ran now, he’d be able to make it in less than ten minutes. 

     He began to stumble through the streets, having to slow down at some parts to make sure Sovereign was still behind him.

    The Eiffel Tower came into view and he picked up his pace.

     One hundred yards.

       Ladybug had to be somewhere.

      Ninety yards. 

        Where was she? She couldn’t be too far, right?
     
     Eighty yards.

     Was it him or did the clicking of heels get closer and closer, no matter how hard he pushed his legs?

      Seventy yards.

    The pit of his stomach begins to bubble with fear and anxiety. Where was she?

      Sixty yards.

     Luka could almost feel Sovereign breathing down the back of his neck but he couldn’t go any faster.

   Fifty yards.

      A laugh escaped Sovereign’s lips as his arm jolted out and wrapped around Luka’s neck, pulling him to a stop.

    Luka struggled for breath, his nails clawing at the arm around him. Black dots began to fill his vision as his lungs burned.

  He tried to call out for Ladybug, but with the arm digging into his windpipe could only let out a strangled sound as he danced on the edge of consciousness.  

     Quickly, so quick Luka didn’t have time to comprehend it, he was thrown to the ground. His lungs screamed as he sucked in much-needed gasps of air. He brought his hand to his throat feeling the tender skin.

    “Luka, are you alright?” His eyes followed the female cry and he saw the familiar Ladybug pattern.

    Luka managed to croak out a raspy “Yes.”

    Ladybug’s eyes flashed, she didn’t believe it. But she couldn’t focus on that. She had to figure out a way to give Luka the snake miraculous without having Hawkmoth see it and find a safe for him to transform.
     
    Her yo-yo created a high pitched whistling as she spun it and calculated the amount of time she possibly had and the amount of space between them and the nearest building.

    Luka staggered to his feet, fighting back a cringe as he swallowed. He could see the gears turning in her head as she took slow steps towards him.

     “Okay.” He heard Ladybug whisper to herself as she turned back to Sovereign. “You play chess, right? This right now is a game?” Luka could see her chewing on the inside of her cheek.

    “Very much so.” Sovereign purred.

     “I’d like to play.” The words shocked him. Why would she want to? There was no reason for her too. No one she knew was at stake.

     “I assume you know the rules?” Sovereign twisted something between his fingers.

    “Of course.”

     The akuma was distracted. Luka used that chance to bolt to the side. He fought against the burn in his legs and practically lunged into an ally way. He opened the pitch-black box and squinted his eyes at the teal light as he slipped the bracelet on.

    “Sass, scales form!” Sass didn’t have the chance to talk before he was pulled towards the bracelet.  

    In a matter of seconds, Askook was rushing away from the buildings. He approached Ladybug and Sovereign.

    “No Chat Noir?” Sovereign raised an eyebrow. “No matter. This snake will do. Another bishop. It’s a shame your little guitar friend couldn’t stay.” He shrugged before his lips curled upwards into a wicked smile and life the object in his hand to the sky.

    A fog-like substance began to swirl around them in a blinding speed before the two heroes were forced to close their eyes. Once the roaring of the wind slowed down, Askook blinked at the scene before him.

      A chessboard, thirty-two white squares, and thirty-two black squares. The akuma stood in the spot of the king and was surrounded by white chess pieces.

     He was surprised to notice that actual people were standing around him. The color was completely absent from them, leaving thirty people with outfits, hair, eyes, skin, and weapons the color of the night sky.

    Luka recognized all of them. Rena Rouge, Carapace, Chat Noir, Ryuuko (he was pretty sure that was what Kagami went by several years ago), Queen Bee, Bunnix, Monkey King, Pegasus, and eight others.

     He looked down at his own body, and he was immersed in the same color. But when he looked at him he could still see the green in his bangs.

    Sovereign cackled from his spot as his pale eyes zoned on Ladybug.

  “Now to play.”
______________________________________
                    Author's notes:
     Hello lovely little readers! "The words you say by me and @kokichiko Has been updated! I also wrote a Miraculous Ladybug one-shot called "You Don't Have to Try." I hope you check it out!

     Fluff ideas? Don't forget to comment and vote! I love hearing what you have to say even if you're correcting a grammar error! Buenos días o noches!