There was something about his new hair that was so... freeing in a way. Adrien looked in the mirror, his hair freshly dyed. Several green streaks ran through his blonde, in a similar way to the pink in Draculauras hair from monster high. In fact that's what gave him the idea, when he mentioned to his friends he was going to add some colour and wanted suggestions, Marinette said he should do streaks. And then showed him a picture of her childhood Draculaura doll she used as a mini manikin for her fashion designs as an example.

It looked good, really good! And now his hair had grown out a bit longer it looked exactly how he'd imagined it. He's stopped cutting it aside from keeping his fringe in shape after they'd gotten the miraculous back, so it'd been a while. It was down to his shoulders now, and he liked to take the side pieces and tie them back.

Something about this style was so... enlightening to him.

"Adrien! Luka is here!" He heard his mum call out.

Immediately he rushed out of the bathroom and down the stairs, exited to show Luka his new hair. It was the first thing he noticed as Adrien jumped off the bottom step and landed before him.

"Woooaahhh! It looks so good!" Luka smiled.

"I've been enlightened on the world of hair dye, I love this!" He replied.

"We kinda match now with similar shades"

Both Emilie and Adrien had their hair done last night by Nathalie, they all had fun with the little family hair salon. Emilie had a purple streak put in on the opposite side as Nathalie's red streak, they matches in an opposites way.

"Tell you what though, that many streaks will mean some upkeep" Nathalie spoke up from her place at the dining table where she was working from her laptop.

"Yeah yeah I know, I'll keep on top of it" Adrien replied.

"It looks great kiddo, I'm glad you like it"

Oh yeah, Nathalie had gone full mum now. Calling him kiddo had become a regular thing. Not that Adrien minded, he was glad to have her as another mum.

After teasingly being told to behave themselves, the boys headed up into Adrien's room to work on some music. By now Pretty when I cry was almost done and all that was left was to mix it all together. So they planned on doing just that, and then moving onto the next song on the album titled Paris' sweetheart.

Pretty when I cry was about how corrupt the modelling industry was. How even when he was breaking down in tears from the pressure he still had to look pretty for the camera. And Paris' sweetheart was kind of a follow up about how he was seen as this perfect, innocent and pure being by the media but he was still a normal person with flaws like anyone else.

The past few weeks the boys had recorded the vocals, the instrumental and backing vocals. They were getting close to finishing the first track, only having to mix it. Then they were going to send it to the friend group so they could listen and get an idea for a music video. They'd all wanted to help out, and of course Adrien let them.

As they sat at his desk and edited the track, they chatted about other work on the album they had to do.

"Do you have any ideas for cover art?" Luka asked.

"I asked Nathaniel for help on that since he's the visual artist of the group. Gave me some suggestions and I think something along the lines of the typical teen idol image with a darker twist would be good" Adrien explained.

"Hm... maybe a bunch of glamorous stuff surrounding you but the classic mascara tears on your cheeks. And all the stuff around you is more messed up the closer you look like a newspaper with articles about scandals and a diary with sad entries"

"Ooh, that's a good idea. I'll have Nath draw up a draft if he can"

The topic of classmates and music reminded Luka of the other day at the music shop, and he felt the need to tell Adrien. Although conveniently avoiding the surprise guitar.

"Oh yeah, the other day I went to get new strings for my guitar and you will not believe who I saw in the shop" Luka said.

"Who?"

"Lila"

"Ugh. Her? What was she doing in there I didn't think she played any instruments?" Adrien asked.

"Lying to the cashier. Apparently she was a backing guitarist for my dad and is your personal therapist"

Adrien gave Luka a confused look, he wasn't surprised Lila was lying to strangers but exactly why he didn't understand.

"That's the weirdest thing to lie about... why is she- ugh I don't get it. If it's fame she wants she can't leech off me anymore since dads in jail with a disgraced reputation. She also knows she can't manipulate me because I see through her bullshit and have made that very clear. So why is she still lying about me? And your dad of all people?" Adrien pondered.

"I have no idea, but she's got some serious problems" Luka replied.

"I know, talk about a pathological liar. She's clearly really mentally messed up. And I don't say that in a mean way, I'm mentally messed up too. But she's clearly not taking it well"

"She needs help, I doubt she'll get any though"

Adrien already didn't like her and Luka had a bad gut feeling about her. She was clearly up to something but neither of them knew what it was and it really unsettled them.

"Let's just hope she doesn't snoop into our relationship and start lying about that too" Luka sighed.

"Oh god I hope not. No one needs to know what he get up to behind closed doors" Adrien replied.

"I don't want the internet talking about our trauma, personal our special occasions... our sex life"

"Definitely not that last one"

Making sure to save their progress every few minutes, they were making good progress on mixing the song. They figured they could probably have it done by the afternoon and ready to export into an MP3 file if they kept up the flow they had right now. It was sounding good, exactly how Adrien was hoping. As they worked Luka couldn't help but notice Adrien playing with the ends of his hair, one of the green streaks being twirled around his fingers.

"You really like your new hair huh?" Luka commented.

"It's so... I don't know. There's something about long hair and streaks that just feels right you know? Like this is really me" Adrien replied.

Luka had noticed Adrien was a bit more focused on looks recently. But not in a 'I have to look perfect' way. More of a 'what is really me?' way. The longer hair, the shift to a more personalised style rather than his fathers brand, the softer silhouette of his outfits... It made him wonder if things were starting to shift in Adrien know his dad wasn't controlling his every move. He was finding himself more.

Of course Luka would support him no matter what, he loved Adrien to death. And he was bi so it didn't matter to Luka what Adrien ended up as.

He had a feeling the egg would crack soon for Adrien, but he didn't want to push him. It was clearly Adrien was just starting to discover his identity. His sexuality and dreams of music were just the beginning. Whatever Adrien settled on, Luka would be there for him every step of the way.