9 Discovering Something New

"Marinette! Did you forget about meeting up at the mall again?!" Alya screamed teasingly through the phone at me as I sat up in bed and looked at the clock.

Holy moly! It's already 10 am! I threw myself out of bed and ran into the bathroom, "I'LL BE THERE IN TEN MINUTES ALYA I SWEAR I'M SO, SO, SORRY! I GUESS MY ALARM DIDN'T GO OFF!" She laughed at me as I was running around the bathroom looking for my hairbrush and toothbrush. She hung up while laughing as I jumped into the shower.

The day after Christmas, I saw Luka, Juleka, Rose, and Alya walking around from house to house giving out thank you cards to the people who donated to Toys for Tots. We got to talking and decided to hang out before the New Year at the mall to get discounted Christmas goods. The one thing I couldn't have predicted was what would happen when I ran through the fancy, glass doors of the mall.

"I'm so sorry I'm late you guys! I didn't think I would sleep in that long..." I scratched the back of my neck and laughed nervously at the four of them. Juleka and Rose weren't bothered by my late arrival seeing that they just laughed it off and continued talking. Looking back at Alya I could see she had her Cheshire cat grin on as she sighed and pulled me along.

I looked back and smiled at Luka as Alya started talking about where she wanted to go first, "It's alright Marinette, you're here now." Luka scratched his head and smiled awkwardly admitting, "I thought you'd feel weird about me tagging along so you decided not to show." He smiled at me earnestly and finished with, "I'm glad that wasn't the case."

I looked back at him blown away by his confession but then realized I was falling forward and hit the ground. Shaking my head, I looked behind me to see a potted plant and Luka stretching out his hand to me. "Th-thank you." I grabbed his hand and he, with no effort, pulled me to my feet and pushed the pot out of the way and we continued to walk.

I heard someone clearing their throat from beside me and looked over to see Alya nudging her head and pointing her eyesight to the space between Luka and me. Looking down I spotted our hands still linked and immediately flung my hand up and jumped away, "I-I'm so so so smorry! I mean slorry! I MEAN SORRY OH MY G-!" I looked over and straightened myself out from the embarrassing outburst. "Ahem. I meant to say that I didn't realize I was still holding your hand. L-let's go guys..." I took one last peek and his face to see a blush plastered onto his cheeks. He chuckled but then covered it with a cough and his knuckles.

What a sweet boy.

I looked back to Alya to cool my blood down. We started talking about where to get our dresses for the New Year's party at Chloe's when I didn't hear Juleka or Rose talking anymore.

Turning around, the two of them were nowhere in sight; Only Luka standing a few feet away looking around the humongous building. "U-Uhm, Luka? Do you know where your sister and Rose went?"

He looked around and shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes they're in their little world." He chuckled and walked beside me, "they'll be fine, I'll text them to meet up with us in about an hour how's that?" I smiled and looked at Alya.

"Sounds good, now let's go find those dresses before they're all gone, girl!" Alya dragged me along with Luka following nonchalantly behind.

I whispered to Alya, "What about Luka?" She looked at me confused and started to laugh.

"What about him? He can help us pick some out for you! Plus," she got close and whispered, "I think he likes you girl! This is a perfect chance for you to get back out there after that falling out with Adrien!"

She pulled me along to a fancy dress store while evilly laughing out loud making me and everyone else around us suspicious.

Jeez, Alya! I don't want to get involved with boys anymore, they've been nothing but trouble for me lately!

I look over to Luka as he walks into the dress shop not giving the girls drooling over him the time of day until he makes eye contact with me and flashes his million-dollar smile. "Maybe..."

What'd you say, Mari?" Alya peeks through a rack of dresses and eyes me.

"U-uhm maybe blue for the party?"

What am I doing?!

"Try this one on! I'm sure this will look great!" Alya threw another red dress at me from over the dressing room I currently was trying to hide in. "And I want to see it this time Miss Dupain-Cheng!" She huffed out of the space and went on searching again.

I peeked out from behind the curtain and saw Luka sitting there twiddling his thumbs. "Psst, Luka!" He looked up and saw my head and hurried over, looking a little worried.

"What's wrong Mariette?"

I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes pleadingly and whispered, "can you find me something that isn't, y'know...Red?" He looked back at me surprised then looked back into the store to see Alya pulling red dresses off of every rack she saw.

He chuckled and turned to me whispering, "but your Halloween dress looked amazing on you! Alya seems to think so as well..." I looked back at him and realized something very crucial to this situations.

"Luka...you were the only one that knew that was me that night." He looked at me with his mouth gaping. I looked down and began to play with the curtain and continued, "please don't tell her that was me either...It'd be complete chaos."

He lifted my chin with his fingers and softly spoke, "I promise." He backed away as I stared into his eyes and ignored Alya's hurrying footsteps approach the fitting room section. "What colors do you think will look better then?"

Alya walked in with a massive pile of red dresses swallowing her form. "RED! RED! RED! LUKA BELIEVE ME SHE LOOKS GORGEOUS IN RED!" Alya yelled at him question not realizing he was focused entirely on me.

"Black or maybe silver since it's New Year's, I think red is a bit too much for something like this Alya..." She dropped the pile and rubbed her temples in frustration.

"Fine, but I still want to see at least one of these dresses on you before we leave your God-given gift of being able to pull off pure red clothing!" She laughed and fished through her pile and threw a tiny dress at me. Winking she seductively said, "this one~!"

With that, she ran off to put the other's away. I looked down at the dress then turned around to see it up against my body in the mirror.

The red dress didn't fall anywhere past my knees and had thinner than pasta straps at the top.

Jeez...This girl knows how to make a scene when boys are around.

I peeked through the crack in the curtain to see two girls flirting with Luka. They were laughing together as he looked past them to where Alya was putting clothes away. Quickly, I put the dress on, slipping it over my hips and say that it hugged my curves perfectly. Without a second to lose, I pulled out my pigtails and ruffled my hair then swung open the curtain dramatically.

Looking up, I made eye contact with the blue-eyed boy sitting just a few feet away. "You look stunning Marinette." The two girls turned to see me standing outside of the dressing room I was just in, barefoot with a tight red minidress hugging my figure and my dark hair falling messily past my shoulders.

"Should I spin for everyone?" Chuckling, I watched as Alya sprinted over shoving the two girls out of the way to see me.

"See girl! I told you, you kill it in red! Why would you want to wear black," she shook me by my shoulders as she yelled this. "Don't you wanna see Chloe's jaw drop when you destroy her fashion game?" She laughed and twirled me around making me a little dizzy and nervous at the same time.

"I tried on your skimpy red dress, now go find a black or silver one like you promised!" I laughed as I walked back into the dressing room. When I heard Alya stomp away I looked through the curtain again to only see Luka standing there. "She'll never give up on this stupid red dress, you better not encourage her either!"

"Of course not, I respect you too much to make you dress in a color that you don't desire."

I looked at him awkwardly and inwardly laughed.

'Desire?' Where has this boy been all my life! He talks as if his opinion is a run of the mill kind of thing. He has a passion and mellow words that ripple off of his tongue like a leaf in a stream. Gently flowing organically not knowing where it's going next, but knows it's going the right way.

"Marinette? What are you staring at, is there something on my face or are you just tired from all the red surrounding you?" He chuckled as he felt my forehead.

Jerking away back into the dressing stall, I sat on the little bench and waited for my cheeks to settle. I jumped to my feet at the sound of a loud crash and a woman's screech from afar.

Damn! Always at the worst times!

"Marinette! Get dressed there's an Akuma out here!" I heard Luka outside and realized something...

He still doesn't know that I'm Ladybug even after that night...?