Same notes as before

It was a rainy day in April, so Luka and Marinette sat in his room on his family's houseboat the Liberty. Juleka had gotten a girlfriend before Luka and had put up enough of a fight for her to get her own room, that their mom cleaned out what she had made a storage room. Which were great feet in and of itself. Luka had replaced Jule's bed with a futon so he had a couch in his room and a bed for his friends to crash on. He sat on the futon and strummed his guitar while Mari was curled up on his bed sketching her life away. She always sketched best when he played for her.  He'd been playing with his eyes closed for about half an hour. His phone beeped. He stopped play, and when Mari didn't object he checked his phone. 

He saw it was a notification for the Lucky Lady Blog. Seeing as his Mouse hadn't complained about the lack of music he opened the notification, it was a new post for the Lucky Lady herself. 

Hey Everyone! I hope you're having a great week! Last week, my best gal friend talked, and she reminded me it's almost prom dress time! I know some of your school do big nights for prom and other do big nights on grad, Now you guys know I'm all about the limited drops and don't make custom work often for profit. But since prom and grad, I'm going to make three unique designs for some gals who follow me. But here's the deal, I want these dresses to mean something, so each design will be auction off and the money will go to charity. Then MCD Designs will take her measurements and I will create the dress. Here is a sketch of the first retro dress, thanks Viperion for the helpful inspiring tunes! 

Luka smiled as he put his phone away, Lady Luck had been taking him a lot more often in the last few months. She and Mari must be close if she wanted her friend's boyfriend's music to succeed so much. He heard his Mouse yawn, they'd been creating for over two hours and hadn't really talked, they had dates like this sometimes, it worked best for both of them. Her brand was building notoriety and after his EP dropped Jagged wanted him to be working on some new stuff and maybe join him on the road for a tour. After she yawned he realized he was worn out. Maybe a nap was in order for both of them. 

He walked across the room. She was humming the song he's been playing, maybe that's why she hadn't noticed he'd stop playing, she was hearing in her mind. He smiled, it was sweet she knew his songs so well. She was sitting in such a way he could walk behind her. So he was just about to wrap his arms around her shoulders and tell her break time when he looked down at her sketch pad. And he saw it, it was the dress Lady Luck had just posted. But how?

"Mouse?" He spoke softly but didn't hide the curiosity in his voice. 

"Eeck!" She squeaked. So much like a mouse, he laughed. But now was not the time for cuteness. 

"Marinette, why did Lady Luck use your design in her post today? She's not using you is she? I'll spill if she is you should get credit for your own work." He spoke softly but firmly. 

"No Vie, it's not even possible for her to steal my designs." She whisped. 

"But Mous." He stopped mid-sentence. She had closed her book and saw the cursive writing of the Lady Luck sketchbook he'd seen in hundreds of posts.  "You're?" She simply nodded. She opened her mouth to respond. But he put a figure to her lips. "Nap first. Talk later." He took the sketchbook from her hand and placed it in her bag, so Jules wouldn't see it if she came in to take a picture of them sleeping together. Then he scooped her up and repositioned her on the bed with him and the curled up. He set a 45-minute timer on his phone.

Just before he slipped into his temporary slumber, he heard "Thank you for not freaking out Vie." She nuzzled in closer. He simply kissed her forehead in response. 

***

After she and Luka woke up from their nap, they sat holding hands on the bed, it was how they had all their important talks. Not that this was huge, but it was a secret she'd been withholding. "So your Lady Luck?" Luka started. 

"Yep started the Blog in grade eight, when I made some modifications to a 50's pattern I'd found in my grandma's stuff. And the Blog just grew slowly from there. But I realized that I'd boxed myself in a coroner, Lady Luck was a retro design. So in grade 10 after I got over Adrien, I started MCD Designs to have more freedom and used my notoriety as Lady Luck to push my own brand as I'd already done for other designers." She shrugged. 

"That's pretty cool, how have you kept it a secret so long?" He kissed her hand, their sign for I'm proud of you. 

"Simple most people don't own both a Lady Luck design and an MCD design and the ones who do, don't pay enough attention to notice how similar they are. Honestly, I thought you notice with the rick I took with your jacket." She smiled. 

Luka glanced at his already well-worn jacket hung over his desk chair. He raised an eyebrow, she let go of his hands and he went to grab it. When he sat back down he compared the stitchings on it to the sweater he was wearing. "Alright the stitching is identical, but what risk?" 

She took the jacket from him, and showed him the back, "See there a mouse hidden in the curled up with your snake." She smiled, "And I accidentally sewed MCD into the jacket seam rather than LL." She giggled, "I thought you'd see for sure."

Luka then looked and was shocked to see she was right. "Well, that makes me all the happier knowing that my favourite jacket and sweater are sewn by my favourite girl." He kissed her happily. "I love you," he whispered into the kiss. She sighed in agreement. He then took her hands back in his, "Now I have something to tell you, Jagged asked me to join him on tour in the fall, I know we agreed I was taking a gap year anyway so I could save for school and so we could go together, and likely drop out early together." He winked, its true they had softened joked they didn't need school, but at the same time they had promised their mothers. "Would you be mad if I went?"

"Luka no of course not! Yes, it would be hard but you need to live your dream, this could be really big for you!" She kissed his hand. 

"Okay, then I'll go, but Jagged says I should keep my girlfriend a secret, I know we haven't really advertised all that much because we don't use socials personally. But would you be okay with that?" He looked down like he was ashamed. 

"Vie, I think it's fine, no one at school knows where dating if it wasn't for that practice room we never would have met. I never see you in a day. It should be easy to hide for now." She kissed him slowly and softly. They would be just fine. 

***

Summer came and went, Luka, left on tour leaving Mari his old hoodie. She looked at the photos from prom, they'd gone together, but Luka's band played the whole time so they were never on the dance floor together. But they shared smiles and a living room dance party with her parents. He'd been on the road for three months, sending her a new Spotify playlist every few weeks to keep her inspired. She didn't have a spare this year as she'd take a college-level class. But Alya and Nino did not share a lunch with her so she hid in her and Luka's practice room. No one had bothered her for those three months. Then one day Adrien walked into her practice room. 

"Adrien! What are you doing here!" She pulled out her earphones. 

"Hiding from Chole, Kagaim and Lila." He fidgeted. Like he was hiding something.

"I didn't think we had the same lunch?" 

"Oh, I dropped a class last week, Father said creative writing was a waste of my time, and I could have a photo shoot during that time.  Today is the first day I don't have one, and the girls found me quicker than I thought. So I was just gonna hid in one of the practise rooms till class started. But they all were locked."

"Ya, teach makes ya get a key, too many things started walking away. So he only gives them to students he trust. I'll put in a good word for ya. Tell your dad you found a place to practice music then practice creative writing." She shrugged. She really just wanted to get back to her music. 

"Thanks, Marinette that would be great! Actually, I've been hoping to run into you." 

"Well Cat Noir, you know you have a Lady Luck fitting on Saturday, you could have talked to me then. As well as shoot for MCD, thanks for stepping in my way, I know it's not easy to get your father to agree, so thanks for the school project help." She teased. Adrien's father refused to let him were anything that wasn't his brand. So he had a screen name for his mysterious model self. 

"Ya no problem there. Well actually, that's what I wanted you to talk about. See I figured out something I shouldn't have." She closed her book and looked up, clearly she wasn't going to get to draw anymore. "See I was looking at my Lady Luck stuff and the latest MCD design you gave me for that shoot and well I noticed that it's identical, even where you sign is the same." 

"Ah." Was all she could say she knew if anyone would figure it out, it would be Adrien, see he'd been obsessed with Lady Luck pretty early on. Being one of her first followers and buying something from every drop, and when she launched MCD well he'd always been supportive. "Well please keep it to you're self okay? Once I graduate I'll announce their one in the same and turn Lady Luck in to a retro line that happens yearly just in time for proms and grads." 

"Would you go out with me sometime?" He asked rather suddenly. 

"Um no, I have a boyfriend you see." She smiled uncomfortably. 

"No, you don't." He said matter of factly.

"Excuse me?" 

"If you did, Alya and Nino would know. And I asked them, they both got excited, saying it was about time I noticed your feelings." He crossed his arm. 

"Well, those feeling no longer exist. They haven't in over a year, I met my boyfriend last year but due to both of us having secrets only our families know. We'll go public when we are ready." She stood. "I'll let you hide here for the rest of the hour, but tomorrow meet me at the top of lunch and we will get you your own room." She left without a word. 

He never did believe her. He even got Alya to doubt her, Nino on the other hand defended her, saying she'd never lie. And if she had to keep it secret they should respect it. He even got her some nice noise-cancelling headphones. So Adrien couldn't bother her from his practice room next door. After showing Alya her playlist from Luka Alya believed her. Even if she didn't know this boy's name. But they had agreed to go on a double date when they could. 

Adrien was on her case for a date for months. Asking her where this supposed boyfriend was, and why he'd never met him. It drove her crazy. But the end of the year was fast approaching, which meant prom. Marinette thankfully had been thinking ahead and made her three custom dresses ahead of time and found a tailor she trusted to alter them for the winners of her auction.  She had her own dress to make. 

It was a deep green, with a snake embodied on the front. With a little mouse on her shoulder. Luka unfortunately couldn't be her date like they'd planned. "Sorry my melody mouse, a tour date got rebooked and I can't change it. I'm just the background guitarist who sometimes opens the show. Wish I could be there to show that boy who's your man." 

She giggled, "It's okay Vie, Kim said he'd be my date if just to get Adrien to leave me alone." 

The night of prom came and Kim was good to his word until his girlfriend Ondine who had been at a private school came home to surprise him at prom. Marinette couldn't blame him though, after all, she'd help set it up. Adrien who was being bothered by those same three girls kept trying to get her to dance with him so she could see they were meant to be. He was practically begging for a shot at this point when over the speakers Mari heard My Boyfriends Back start to play. That was their song, it couldn't be? She turned to see Luka in his favourite jacket with dress pants, white button-up and black tie, walking towards her from the DJ booth. She ran to him. He picked her up and spun her around. He kissed her like no one was watching. 

"Your dress is perfect! I'm almost glad fang wrecked my suit jacket. 

"What happened to the show?!" She asked breathlessly. "You're supposed to get here till late tonight! I was gonna meet you at the bus stop!"

"Never existed. I just want to surprise my girlfriend." He smiled and kissed her again. 

"Vie everyone will know." She whispered, seeing students already taking photos, Luka wasn't famous per se, but still made a name for himself. 

"Let them, the world needs to know, this Mouse is mine." He took her to the dance floor and danced with her till he had to carry her home.