The Lucky Notes Bar was known for its musical groups, especially the ones who came around each week.
The interior was calming; big couches, a long bartable and enough barmaids and barmen to serve a full house and even half of a second one. The wallpaper looked fresh as new, the brown and dark green merging surprisingly well together despite the owner's doubts.
The patrons of the bar were always looking forward to whoever was supposed to be performing that day, and when there were new acts they were all the more excited.
This gave Marinette her confidence in that her idea was not for naught. She was stuck at home while her parents were vacationing in Nice for their anniversary, and while they'd said that nobody could come up without them knowing beforehand, they hadn't declined anything else. (They hadn't accepted anything else either, but not accepting is as good as not declining, as long as they haven't actually declined anything, which they haven't.)
Her outfit was a cute one, and it was definitely out of her comfort zone. She was wearing a white formal shirt, with a dark green snakeskin corset tied over it. She wore dark green ripped jeans, with black stiletto heels. Despite her better judgement, she left her hair down and, looking at it in the mirror right then, she realized she'd made the correct decision. Her dark blue strands were lightly curled, and she had a parting that suited her face better than pigtails ever did. She had on a smokey eye look, with black-ish lipgloss. She had on blush and highlighter, allowing her cheekbones to pop. If she'd contoured just a bit more, she'd be classified as Tim Burton character, and the thought made her laugh a little.
She wasn't taking her usual crossbody bag, the one she always wore to school. She was taking her new black clutch, big enough to fit Tikki and a couple snacks. Tikki was resting in there now, as Marinette was looking over herself one more time before deciding she looked good enough to leave.
She grabbed her phone and texted the groupchat, jittery nerves mixing with excited energy in her stomach.
Mari: hey guys! i'm ready for our night out
Jules: gr8! rose & i will b thr soon
Al: can't wait guys. mari, you ready? ;)
Mari: heh, yeah. as ready as i can be, at least
Ro: you'll do fine! try not 2 overthink otherwise u'll back out b4 the fun
Mari: yep, gotcha
Gami: You'll do awesome Marinette.
Jules: come down
The bluenette grabbed her clutch and rushed down the stairs, careful to not trip over any loose floorboards or anything so as not to ruin her outfit. She double-checked herself right before opening the door, making sure her makeup and outfit looked presentable enough. Deeming them right, she walked out and locked up the bakery for the night, knowing she'd enter through the back door so as not to alert anyone.
She got in behind Juleka on her motorcycle, declining the helmet the purplenette offered her. "I don't wear one with Luka anyway; I like the wind in my hair," she explained at Juleka's raised eyebrow. Satisfied, Juleka started the cycle and they were off.
Mari tried not to overthink as Rose adviced, so as not to back out completely. She'd prepped herself for this ever since she wrote the song, since she wrote it for this purpose. She'd wanted to say something normally to him, but since he was so musically inclined, she'd decided to try a hand at songwriting and performing. With Rose's help, she'd gotten the lyrics and with Juleka's help, she'd gotten the beat down so she could actually get a feel for how it would turn out.
All her preparation had led to this, and so she would NOT back out at the last minute, and she WOULD see it through. She could do this.
They got closer to the Bar and she found herself smiling, as she was a regular here as a patron and this would be her first time actually being a performer. She couldn't wait to see the looks on the guys' faces as she walked into the backroom, knowing they'd be confused as hell.
She didn't really sing, after all.
Adrien was tasked with getting the guys to the bar, and having done that already, he was getting bored. He'd ordered beers for the guys already, and having finished those, he ordered beers for the ladies.
He'd had to deal with mixed feelings of his own for the past couple months, but now that he'd sorted them out (and talked with the respective ladies), he'd gotten the closure he'd needed and he'd relaxed way more. He'd quit modeling for his father, due to the latter's disappointment, and he'd gotten a job as an actor. His experience voice-acting Chat Noir in the Ladybug and Chat Noir movie had gotten his foot in the door, but his modeling and natural good looks had made his way through.
Trying to ignore the boys' raised voices at what was going on and why they were here, Adrien glanced out the window and flashed a relieved smile at Marinette and Juleka. He saw Kagami and Alya and Rose swinging around to park and smiled satisfactorily.
As Marinette pulled open the door and walked straight to the bar, Adrien couldn't help but glance at Luka. He smirked; Luka's jaw was dropped and his gaze was filled with hidden love and open lust. Well, they'd both be open soon enough.
Her legs seemed to go on forever in those heels mixed with those jeans, and her cuffed sleeves made way for her pale and slender hands, adorned with the charm bracelet Luka'd gotten her for her eighteenth. The boat charm caught the light and he smirked at Luka's drool, shoving him under the table and telling him to wipe it away. Laughing at the middle finger Luka threw at him, he missed Juleka's question and asked her to repeat it.
"Did you get drinks for us?"
Adrien nodded, waving to the still full beers and the four empty seats around their table. "Yes ma'am."
She flashed him the finger (the second one he'd gotten) and sat down, motioning for the girls who'd just entered to join her.
Luka's gaze was still fixed on Marinette, who was now holding a drink and gulping it down fast enough to rival Alya's drunken state. She must've needed it for confidence, as her back grew straighter and her strut was more sultry as she walked to the back room. Luka's eyes held confusion and and hint of anger, which confused Adrien. Why would he be angry? Shaking it off, he sipped his beer slowly until the lights dimmed and the sound of a mic stand scraped against the wood of the stage.
She shook her hands out and asked for two beers, knowing that she wouldn't even get tipsy or drunk off of that amount but she'd get the liquid confidence she needed. She slowly sipped the first one, not in a rush to get to the stage and set up. When she finished, however, she noticed her friends sitting at the table as close to the front as they could get and she noticed Luka's outfit: an all black-ensemble, with teal sneakers. His nails were also painted teal, although she thought she'd caught a flash of pink on his ring fingers. She hid a smile behind her hand as she reached for her second drink, downing it as fast as she could before asking the bartender to lead her to the back, explaining she was the act of the evening when he'd raised an eyebrow.
She was behind the mic stand now, the spotlight and the eyes of the crowd on her. She thanked the Kwamis she'd decided to paint her face in light makeup and that she'd gotten her fakes done a couple days before. She'd never really had a penchant for fakes, always thinking her natural long nails would suffice. As her self-applied polish chipped within a day of application and as her nails began brittling down, she'd decided to go along with Chloé on her weekly spa visits. This past visit, she'd gotten green and black nails, the ring fingers a dark green and black snake. She'd gotten stiletto nails, grinning when she'd heard the noise it made against her phone whenever she typed. Tikki had had to get used to it for the first day, but she'd eventually gotten around to liking it, even wishing she could get some too (red and black of course).
As she cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair to calm her nerves, all eyes swiveled to her once again, having strayed when she hadn't said anything for the first couple minutes. She gripped the mic with her right hand and her left one twitched against her side, but the slight pressure against the back of her neck reminded her that she could do this and she had nothing to be afraid of.
The confidence from the beers seeped into her blood and she smirked sultrily as she began singing.
Are you gonna kiss me?
'Cause you're taking me home
It's four in the morning
Are we doing this wrong?
This weekend I saw you
Through eyes that are new
You got me falling for you
And I kinda want to
She grinned at Luka's gaze, already having gotten the hint that the song was about them. The heat in his eyes and the tension in his body (no doubt from holding back), pushed her to continue and she soon got into the stride of enjoying herself.
Tell me what you mean
Is it all me?
Start to overthink everything
When you're close to me, I can't breathe
We're already six feet deep
She started pacing the length of the stage, a sexy catwalk as if she was modelling in her own show while this song was playing overhead. She kept that image in her head (along with the feeling of his passionate gaze), and she launched herself into the chorus.
Let's fuck up the friendship
Come get in my head
Baby, cut the tension
I'm hung by a thread
Maybe it's something
But let's not pretend
Or maybe it's nothing
And this is the end
At this, her nerves won over for a slight second, before the reassuring gaze in Alya's eyes pushed her to get past her nerves and focus on the song. She could deal with the aftermath when she was done.
We could never be (Oh, no)
We could never be friends
We could never be (Oh, no)
We could never be friends
She'd written this song with the knowledge and confidence that they both liked each other, but they hadn't said anything out of the fear of ruining the friendship. Her goal in writing this was to say "fuck it, I'm saying this to you despite the consequences because I can't hold it in anymore." Her friends had agreed with her telling him about her feelings, but when they heard about her song idea, they'd pushed her to write one that was sultry enough but also obvious enough and one that she could just have fun with.
It got kind of scary
My bones always knew
Oh, I didn't mean to
Are you feeling this too?
She breezed through the chorus as if she'd spent hours rehearsing this before her final performance (she hadn't). She'd had the passionate and feral gaze in her eyes the whole time, hoping to convey what she hoped would happen after this and how bad she wanted, no, needed it to happen.
On the edge of my seat
I'll wait for the outcome
If we ever have one
Let me take the lead
You follow me closely
But come on and show me
Let's fuck up the friendship
Come get in my head
Baby, cut the tension
I'm hung by a thread
Maybe it's something
But let's not pretend
Or maybe it's nothing
And this is the end
We could never be (Oh, no)
We could never be friends
We could never be (Oh, no)
We could never be friends
No matter how hard she'd tried to deny her feelings, afraid Luka wouldn't reciprocate and afraid she'd ruin the friendship and easy camaraderie they'd had by her romantic thoughts, she knew deep down that pushing those feelings away wouldn't help it and she just had to face it and confess. Despite her doubts and the fear of judgement, she needed to get it out before it drove her insane. This was only backed by Tikki, her friends and even her parents (she couldn't keep it from them, no matter how hard she tried). She'd come to find out, along the way, that Luka liked her too and that knowledge had helped her in her process of coming true to her own self. He'd gotten closer to her, had touched her more often, had even kissed her on the temple and cheek, among other friendly places, and despite how oblivious she may've seemed to her friends' relationships, she'd known that his actions were not actions of a friend's. They were actions of someone who hoped his feelings would be reciprocated.
Her outfit was a little rumped and her feet hurt like hell from the amount of times she'd paced the stage as she sang, but from the look on her friends' faces and from the cheering of the overall audience, she grinned and ignored the pain. She got off the stage, handing the mic to one of the stagehands and walked to her friends' table. Grabbing Alya's half empty beer, she chugged it and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before plopping herself down in Luka's lap, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and letting him get comfortable with his hand around her waist before she suggested, "so? you care to fuck up the friendship?" The twinkle in her eyes mixed with hope, and a little ball of concern when he didn't answer for a while.
Before she could get up and walk over to Rose's side, and possibly drown her misery by getting drunk, Luka captured her mouth in a kiss and she found herself kissing back, entangling her hands in his hair as she tilted for better access. They ignored the cheers of their friends the audience (who seemed to be hooked on whether or not he would say yes) and lost themselves in their own world, happy to have moved into a better (and more passionate) part of their relationship.
He finally broke away with a dazed look in his eyes and kiss bruised lips, his hair mussed by her hands. "Hell yeah."