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forkanna · 3 years

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Sorry about the long delay in updates. My life's been a bit up and down of late; good things and bad. Hopefully things will settle soon. Either way, I hope you enjoy the new chapter!

CHAPTER NINE

This was definitely a new one on Rise Kujikawa. She felt like the world had turned upside down — again — and she was supposed to navigate her way without a map or a compass. Where to begin?

"What… are you- oh come on, liking girls doesn't make you a boy. Has that really been worrying you all this time?"

Ai blinked across at her for a few seconds. "What? Oh, yes, but… Rise-chan, I'm trying to tell you something pretty major. Aren't you paying attention?"

"Come on, you're not a boy! Regardless of why you think you are, so like, you can cut that out right now. Okay?" She reached over to take up her hand and squeeze it firmly between both of her own, trying to ignore the way Ai whimpered. "We're friends. If you never want to kiss me again, that's okay, but just wanting to kiss me a couple times? Does not mean you're a boy, or messed up, or me and you have to move to Ni-Chome, or anything. It's all good."

Ebihara remained quiet for a second, simply holding her friend's hand. Looking more than a little lost. "Well, Ni-Chome is right around the corner from here… and that's where… people like us go. Right?"

"Hey! There's no 'people like us', we're just people!"

"Ugh, I know," she burst out in irritation at herself, suddenly standing up and pacing back and forth in front of Rise. "I know! It's so stupid that I get in my own head about this, but I can't just enjoy anything. Why am I like this? Do I have no chill?!"

"Guess not." When Ai stopped to glare at her, she rolled her eyes. "Well, you really don't! I'm not saying it's bad or you're bad, but you do need to learn how to relax."

But she kept pacing. Rise had just about given up and assumed that was the end of the discussion, and that she should go back to trying to find another song to sing — when Ai suddenly knelt down in front of her, hands gripping the sofa on either side of the idol's hips.

"Wha- hey, what are you doing?!"

"Getting your attention, girl. I need you to really hear me."

"God, I hear you just fine! We just got done agreeing you don't need to make a big deal out of every-"

"My birth name was Aihiko," she pushed ahead stubbornly, such a fierce determination in her eyes that Rise had to fight down the instinct to cower. Even drunk, she could be a real force of nature. "And I always knew that didn't fit me. It just took me until really late in elementary school before I figured out why.

"What I told you and the others before was true. I was always bullied, always called 'Piggy-hara' because I was fat. Because I didn't fit in, anywhere. No matter how many times I looked at the sports clubs, at the manly men I was supposed to look up to, my parents told me I would become someday… I didn't want to. I wanted to be Taeko Ohnuki, or Utada — I wanted to be Sailor Moon. All the other boys would fight over being Red Hawk when we played Featherman; I was too happy to be Pink Argus, when nobody else would want to touch that character unless we were playing with another girl. My whole life, I knew… I just didn't have a word for it. Not until… Ikko."

When she didn't continue for a moment, Rise cleared her throat to prompt quietly, "Ikko?"

"The talk show host. Trans and fabulous. I could see right there on my television screen, in front of my crying eyes thanks to another day of bullying and shame, a woman who was born like me — living her truth, live and in colour in front of the whole country. And sure, those talk shows are a little corny, but to me, as a little boy who thought he was just going to be broken for the rest of his life? They looked like hope."

"Oh… Ikko, yeah. Think I've seen her on Shin Domoto Kyoudai, and um, Onee MANS. Yeah." Rise was struggling to keep up mentally. She felt like any second now, the whole thing was going to come crashing down around her ears…

"Believe me, I know this is a lot to take in," she said with a sigh, brow creasing in concern for her friend. Which Rise thought was encouraging. "But once I realized who and what I was, and we were now suddenly filthy fucking rich, I asked my parents to help me be who I always was. Ironic that my mother was against it and my father was only too happy to help, but I mean, life is weird. And I have never really looked back… until now. With you."

"With me? Wait, wait… I feel like I'm losing my mind a little bit here. Do I have this right? You were born as a boy — which there's no way I can believe, just look at you! But because of some talk show host, and a bunch of mean kids who were jerks to you, you decided you didn't want to be a boy anymore?"

Ai grimaced. "That is… an oversimplification, but essentially, yes."

"And now you think you made the wrong choice because…" A hard swallow. "Me. Because you like me." Ai gave a small nod. "Whoa."

"You don't believe me." Her head fell forward until it was resting on Rise's shoulder. Now that they were so close, she could feel how badly her friend was trembling. "I should have known. Stupid. Why do I always think I know better, and things will go differently? Do I have brain damage? Maybe that's it, maybe it's brain damage and I need to be admitted to some kind of facility with padded walls and electroshock."

"Shut up already, wow…" Her hand came up to gently caress over Ai's hair. "Listen... It's not that I want to be skeptical. I can tell you aren't just screwing around, but come on, how do you expect me to believe any of this? You are gorgeous! And Ikko, she's also really pretty but I can tell she was born a boy. You? No way. It's just too crazy to be possible — and if you only knew some of the things I've seen, you would know I don't say that for no reason!"

Ai nodded glumly. Defeated. That was really the only word for it, and Rise felt awful, but she also couldn't flick a switch and suddenly not have that healthy dose of skepticism. Who would believe a story like this right out of the gate with absolutely zero proof right in front of their eyes?

"Sorry," Rise finally whispered in a small voice.

"Why? Nothing to be sorry about. In fact, I know you won't get it, but you really helped me today."

"Huh? How did I do that? By not believing you?!"

"Exactly." Standing up again, she brushed off the front of her long skirt studiously. "If it's so inconceivable to you that I could have been a boy in a past life, then I guess that means I'm not crazy for pursuing my dream — living life as who I am inside. So I guess… thank you."

That sinking feeling swirling around in Rise's stomach was getting stronger. Maybe Ai wasn't kidding. But that was insane! Sure, Naoto had been able to hide her gender for a little while, but it wasn't as easy going in the other direction. If Ai were a boy in disguise, she would be doing things to hide certain aspects of her anatomy. Such as…

Such as a frilly lace collar around her neck. At all times.

"Is… what's… under here…?"

Her fingers barely came in contact with the collar when Ebihara took a step backwards — and literally tripped over the coffee table, sprawling on her back on the carpet with a ghastly yelp. Rise hurried around to crouch over her.

"I'm sorry! God, I'm really sorry, are you all right?!"

"Y-yeah," she groaned, even though she was holding her head, which indicated that no, she probably wasn't.

"I just wanted to ask about that collar," Rise said while helping her sit up. "But I didn't mean to scare you, I probably should have asked before I reached for it."

"Yeah, you should have. But it's no big deal." The phone buzzed again. "Ugh. It's getting late, we probably shouldn't ask for more time. This way we can maybe slip back in before final period and avoid catching hell."

"Hah! No way can we make it back in time, I really don't think so. But keep dreaming."

"Always," Ai offered with a slight smirk.

~ o ~

But as her friend answered the phone and she started gathering up their things, Rise's brain was swirling with far too many thoughts. They followed her out of the karaoke establishment and all the way back to the train platform, into the car itself. At least it wasn't as crowded as it would be if they caught a later train, even though they still had a good hour and a half left in their trip. Her poor young mind was plagued by a thousand questions, anxieties, and just random thoughts that were so unwelcome but wouldn't seem to go away for anything.

Could all that craziness actually be true? No. It was so impossible and ludicrous. Yet Ai had said every word with conviction, and no trace of uncertainty. Either this was one of the most convincing scams of all time, or…

Could she really be a boy?

Just glancing over at the flawlessly beautiful profile of Ai Ebihara was seemingly enough to put that possibility to death. Impossible. Even though Rise knew that there were women out there who had been born different, and she very vaguely understood the concept, she didn't know any of them personally. Any she had seen in popular media were various degrees of feminine and pretty, but still obviously not born the way she was; there were readily apparent differences. None of which she observed when looking at her new best friend. How was she supposed to believe such a wild story?

But she couldn't completely let go of how earnestly Ai had looked at her when confessing about her alleged condition. If she really were full of shit, she probably would have never tried to sell it so hard; what did she have to gain by it? Anything? Not as far as she could tell, no matter how she tried to look at it. There was no impetus for her to make up such a wild tale.

So then… crazy as it was, if she had nothing to gain by lying…

'No way, though!' she screamed internally, clamping her eyes shut for a moment as the train bumped along toward Yasoinaba. 'She's so perfect, she's prettier than me. Why is she doing this to me? Why lie? I don't know what to think anymore!'

Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand slipping into her own. Rise peeled open her eyes to see her friend, this beautiful woman who she was suspecting of horrible lies, smiling gently over at her with a concerned expression. Her heart melted. It didn't clear up any confusion at all, but she couldn't pretend this girl was being cruel to her for no reason. Not when she looked at her like that.

"You okay?"

"Y-yeah! Great! Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because I'm a horrible bitch for dropping a bombshell on you," Ai supplied quietly. "You should be pissed."

"Nope. I mean… okay, I do have a question." When there was no reply, Rise continued, "Why didn't you just show me?"

"Show you what?

"You know…"

Ai blinked at her friend's reddening features for a couple of seconds until she got it, and her lip curled. "Oh, what the fuck? You want me to just flash you?!"

"NO!" A few people turned to look at the two of them, and she double-checked that her hat was hiding her trademark hair again. "Not here! And I didn't say I wanted you to, I'm just, y'know… wouldn't that have been the easiest way? To prove what you were telling me?"

"Yeah, I guess so, but that seems really gross. Besides…"

When she didn't finish her thought, Rise nudged her with her elbow. "Hey, c'mon, don't chicken out now. We literally just made out so I don't think there's any reason to be shy anymore."

"I mean, okay, but it's not about feeling shy. I was going to say I had hoped you would believe me."

Damn. That really cut her to the core. But she couldn't even get upset about it, because as Ai said, she hadn't been holding back because she was shy. Obviously, she wasn't sure it was kind of her to issue a pseudo accusation like that. Her own fault for digging.

"Y-yeah. I can see why you would think that, but I mean, I've just never thought about anything like this before. It doesn't have anything to do with you! Yukiko or Chie could tell me the same exact thing and I would be just as skeptical. Does… I mean, do you hate me?"

"No," Ai whispered with quiet urgency, gripping her hand tighter. And Rise gripped back; she needed the comfort, and wanted her bestie to know that none of this meant she was going anywhere.

"You're sure?"

"Really, really sure. I'm sad you didn't believe me but I can't deny you have a point; as great as it is to know I look good enough to pass even when I'm telling you about it point-blank — seriously it's a huge relief, you will never know — I guess this is the one downside."

Rise tipped to the side until her head was resting on Ai's shoulder. She still felt dizzy. This was a nightmare and a dream, and she just wanted to go back to yesterday. Before she had been told impossible things that had to be true, because it was actually stranger that they be lies. It was like some kind of…

Magic.

"I'm being stupid," she finally breathed aloud as the revelation hit her like a bolt out of the blue. How could she have been looking at this so backwards?!

"What?"

"Nothing," she whispered. "Just… I've seen some pretty crazy stuff in my life. You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Ai definitely wouldn't believe her. "And I'm sitting here, thinking it's too weird that you might have been born a boy? That's so dumb!"

Clearly taking that in a slightly different manner, her friend chuckled and said, "There you go. I mean, you were in the entertainment industry."

"It's not like it is in the west, Ebi-chan. Like… a little, but when I toured the U.S.? Lots of people like that, all the makeup artists, and… you know, that Lady Gaga?" Ai shook her head. "She's really big over there, I have one of her albums somewhere."

"Bring it over, then. I mean, if she's queer, I want to hear her."

"Well, I don't know she is, but she has this whole… you know, dressing like a drag queen, big feathers and meat dresses! Crazy stuff!" They both laughed together, relaxing into the closeness. Like it should be.

"Either way, bring it," Ai said, interrupting her weird stomach-upside-down moment of realising what she had just been thinking. "I mean, don't expect me to choose her over Mariya, but…"

Rise giggled and whispered, "Or me. Because you're not a fan of my trash music."

"HEY! Shut the fuck up, I never said- UGH, you are a pain in the ASS." An airy sigh as she kissed the top of Rise's head. "You're lucky you're so cute."

Full blush. Rise was glad for her sunglasses and hat or she would have died of embarrassment. Biting her lip, she reached up to pull Ai closer, almost snuggling into her as best she could on the uncomfortable train seats. All she wanted was for the world to fall away, leaving them to revel in the escape from their reality. Their escape into each other.

"I'm scared."

"Me too."

"Really?" Rise whispered. "I'm… I don't even know… what to think. Are we lesbians? Or, because you were a boy, is it just…"

"Honestly? I don't know, either. That's why I was freaking out earlier. But now, I…" She cleared her throat and said, almost fearfully, "I think 'lesbian' could be the right word. Though I did really like Yu… ugh, I'm a lost cause."

"No," she snapped at her, looking up into her eyes. "Hey. You're the number one hottie of Yasogami High. Everybody says so."

"They say I'm a bitch, too."

"So? You've earned being a little bit of a bitch for a while. But I do think it's time to put the bitchy-pants away and start being Ai Ebihara again. Or, um…" Then she laughed in embarrassment.

"What?" she asked, brow furrowed in preemptive fear.

"I forgot already. Your real name; you told me, I just… you're Ebi-chan, I can't remember it."

"Oh. Well, it doesn't matter, because that's not really me anymore. Like you with 'Risette'; you cringe every time anyone says it. Even just now."

"Huh?! No, I didn't!"

"You so did, Rise-cheese."

The pop star puffed out her cheeks angrily as she glared up at her best friend. Then she pouted extra hard. "You can't make fun of me. It's mean."

"Thought you said I earned the right to be a bitch," Ai teased with a half-smirk.

"Not to ME! And I also said you can stop now! Hmph." Then she turned away from her, folding her arms over her chest as she glared away into the compartment.

"Oh wow, dramatic." But when Rise didn't turn back after a minute, she grabbed her upper arm and shook it slightly. "Come on… you can't really be this mad." More silence. A little desperation began to enter Ai's voice. "Rise… wait, wait, you're pissed off because I called you 'cheese'?!"

"I'm not cheese." But she did peek over her shoulder, and saw Ai looking legitimately conflicted. So she laughed awkwardly and turned back around, raising a hand to smooth over her hair. "Sorry… hey, I'm sorry. I was just messing around."

Ai dipped her head, expression just as conflicted as before. "This… is hard. Wow. I knew it was dumb, and you were being dumb, and I wanted to give you more shit, but my heart just started hurting, and…"

That was quite a wealth of feelings. Rise felt a little worried; would Ai really be able to handle what they were getting themselves into? Would either of them? Unable to hold back anymore, she threw her arms around her and pulled her in for the tightest hug she could manage.

"Ebi-chan… we'll be fine. Don't be so down, don't… don't lose track of what's good between us. How we fit together."

"Yeah?" she asked shakily. "You mean, how we have nothing in common, and didn't know each other before the past few weeks, a-and… and why would you even like me?"

"We have a lot in common. We like singing, and daifuku, and Korean dramas. And we both know what it's like for people not to be able to see you for who you really are; to make a lot of assumptions about you based on your appearance." Her brow furrowed, even while she was speaking. "Oh… and I guess that was even worse for you when you were a kid, huh? If you were a boy… and you felt like a girl inside… is… I mean, did I say that right? Do I know what I'm talking about?"

The softest chuckle floated out of Ai's lips as she pushed her face against Rise's neck. The nose and lips felt warm, and soft, and a little moist where she was speaking against her skin… creating goosebumps in the wake of the breath. "You're saying everything right. You always do. Probably an idol superpower."

"Maybe," she admitted with a light laugh, some of her anxiety beginning to melt away. "But I promise I'll only use it for good. I'll do my best!"

"God, you can't even turn it off. So gross!"

"You don't have to call me 'gross'! That's not nice!"

"Hey, I'm totally nice. What would you do without me being so 'nice' you want to punch a baby?"

When Rise pulled back, the most horrified expression on her face at that last bit of imagery, Ai burst out laughing so hard that she had to double over, arms wrapped around her middle. The mirth was catching; Rise giggled until she snorted like a pig, then was covering her face with both hands in shame while her supposed best friend guffawed openly at her. And she wouldn't have had it any other way, mortifying as it was. At least it meant the worst was over.

Wasn't it?

To Be Continued…

#we'll face ourselves #saphir de lune #forkanna writes #persona 4 fanfiction #rise x ai #p4 fanfic #jess the writer #yuri fanfiction

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flightfoot · 4 years

Text

The Poly Love Interests: Luka and Kagami in “Hold Me By Both Hands”.

Setting up Luka’s and Kagami’s relationships with Adrien and Marinette is a particularly tricky task; unlike with most of the other major characters in Hold Me By Both Hands, they were introduced in season 2, which means that they first appeared well AFTER @angelofthequeers diverged the story from canon. Because of this, there’s no scaffolding already in-place for them when the story begins. For Alya and Nino, for instance, it’s possible to just take their pre-existing relationship in canon (since they got together in season 1) and all the relationships they already had with other characters, and just drop them into the story. Same with Adrien, Marinette, and Chloe. All of them have firmly established backgrounds and relationships with the other characters before the fic starts.

The one exception to that is Lila, since TECHNICALLY the fic diverges at the start of Volpina, rather than actually at the start of season 2. However, Lila’s role doesn’t require as much relationship building – she’s an antagonist, and not a very well-developed one in canon. She just kinda has to do antagonistic things and have some sort of goal, and that’s sufficient. Plus, she’s fairly easy to slip into the story without crowding it. As an antagonist, she provides conflict for the protagonists to overcome, spurring the plot and character development. She just has a fundamentally different role from most of the other characters, one that has a very low threshold for needing character establishment and development, while also providing her ample screentime in order to develop her, without crowding other characters out.

Kagami and Luka are different. As Love Interests (and ones that move onto full-on relationships at that) they have a far higher threshold for character establishment and development. They need to not just be useful plot devices, as antagonists can be, used to spur on other characters and the plot, but be major characters in their own rights. Furthermore, with the romance angle (and with Miraculous Ladybug already revolving around the relationships of its two leads), in order to put them anywhere remotely close to equal footing with the Love Square in relationship development, they need a LOT of screentime and development – a difficult task, especially when taking into account how many OTHER subplots are going on in the fic already, and just the sheer length of it.

As it was, Angel kinda ended up taking shortcuts with developing Kagami and Luka and establishing their initial relationships with the other characters, so that they could get to establishing the poly relationship between the four of them, which DID get a lot of development. Understandable (I’m a fic writer too, I’ve definitely glazed over parts of the story I’m not as interested in to get to the parts that I really want to write) but it did hurt the establishment of the poly relationship some.

Kagami was first introduced during (or rather after, since Angel skipped to the aftermath rather than showing the episode itself) Riposte, which appears to have gone roughly like it did in canon. Nothing too notable there.

Shortly afterwards – I’m guessing a few days, maybe weeks later, it’s within the same chapter so it can’t have been TOO long – Kagami and Adrien sneak away from their assigned lesson with their fencing teacher (since he’s sick and forgot to cancel).

This is Kagami’s first on-screen appearance in the fic that serves to establish her personality and relationship with Adrien.

One of the first things that Angel hints at, in the first page she’s on-screen, is how isolated Kagami normally is – even more than Adrien in some ways.

“Because he’d get in trouble every time I snuck away if he didn’t,” Adrien says. “And…I think he knows this is the only freedom I get. He’s always been on my side.”

“Oh,” Kagami says softly. “That must be nice.”

Adrien frowns at her. “You don’t have a bodyguard? What about your driver?”

“We don’t have a driver. Our car is self-driving and responds to Mother’s voice, since she can’t drive herself.”

“Huh.” Adrien takes a moment to thank the heavens for Gorilla. God knows what he’d do if he was stuck with a self-driving car that wouldn’t be programmed with a shred of compassion. “Come on! While he’s not looking!” (Chapter 21)

This was a good way to quickly establish that Kagami’s isolated in somewhat similar ways to how ADRIEN’S isolated. There’s not much detail here – not a whole lot of info on her relationship with her mother or whether she’s had friends before, for instance – but most people reading the fic aren’t flying completely blind, and DO already know that Kagami’s really isolated, and at least canonically, does not currently have any other friends, and likely never did (though Angel does make it so that Kagami has had friends before; but that comes up way later).

But just having Kagami say softly how nice it must be to have a bodyguard – an adult – on his side, who allows him some freedom – it conveys that she’s in a similar situation, but WITHOUT that little bit of support and human contact, as small as it is.

It also emphasizes Adrien’s situation a bit, with the emphasis on the “shred of compassion” – because Gorilla’s the only adult regularly in his life (besides Fu in this fic, I guess, though even he’s not too present on that front) to SHOW him compassion – his father certainly doesn’t, not without some sort of ulterior motive, and Nathalie… Nathalie’s iffy. Gorilla will actually stick his neck out for Adrien. Nathalie, not so much.

Kagami lets out a giggle as Adrien grabs her hand and bolts down the street, weaving between the bustling Parisians who are thankfully so wrapped up in their own lives that they don’t notice who he is. Wow. Is that the first time Kagami’s laughed? It’s so…weird being able to empathise with someone, to actually know what it’s like to be in their situation rather than just sympathising from afar. And she’s so…radiant when she laughs like that, just like when Marinette laughs. (Chapter 21)

That whole exchange up above gave Adrien a nice ‘hook’ with which to relate to Kagami, to deepen their bond more than a typical friendship, to give their relationship a special sort of dynamic, even so soon after having met. It’s not enough to really develop it on its own, but shows how it might develop later.

Adrien also has an initial, fairly superficial attraction to Kagami here – which makes sense, he seemed to have some in Riposte as well. The boy has a type.

I say it’s superficial because well, he doesn’t know her well at all yet, so it’s nothing deep right now – but it could grow to be deeper later.

Though the bit about how radiant her laughter is makes me wonder – because by this point Chat’s realized that he loves Marinette and he thinks about her in the same sort of terms as he’s thinking about Kagami now, but- how long did it take for him to consciously realize that?

Is he just better attuned to recognizing his own romantic feelings towards others now, so he can better recognize that he’s feeling similarly towards Kagami, and he just gets crushes super quickly? …Okay knowing canon that actually seems likely. Took the boy like, fifteen minutes to confess his love for Marinette in Oblivio after all.

It’s definitely still just a mild crush at this stage though – he empathizes with Kagami and likes what he’s seen of her, but there’s been no big ‘Wham’ moment like with Ladybug or even Marinette, and there hasn’t been time for his feelings to slowly grow as he sees more of her and gets to know her.

Adrien has at least been very perceptive when it comes to Kagami’s family situation, with being able to recognize how similar Kagami’s earlier sentiment in Riposte was to his own feelings regarding his father, a finding that he quickly shares with Kagami, though without explicitly mentioning his father.

“Interesting? This is just a normal day!” Adrien says. “At least you’ve only got the crushing weight of parental expectations without getting mobbed on the streets!”

“That’s…true. Is it that obvious that my mother’s like that?”

“Considering your speech to me before you were akumatised? Kinda, yeah.” (Chapter 21)

It appears that the episode REALLY went pretty much identically to in canon. I looked up the transcript for the episode on the ML wiki, and I believe that this is the line Angel is referencing;

Adrien: (Momentarily stunned by her appearance.) Let's do a... decisive match? (As he speaks, he notices Kagami's ring.) Kagami: What's the point? You won. There's no such thing as a second chance in my family. Goodbye. (She gets into her car, which drives off.)

This is very much a familiar feeling to Adrien, a familiar sentiment which makes it easy to see why he took Kagami’s line earlier in the chapter about his bodyguard the way he did, correctly identifying that she doesn’t really have a compassionate adult looking out for her and giving her any slack, further deepening his identification with her.

My first time reading this exchange between Adrien and Kagami, with Adrien referencing the speech Kagami made in Riposte, I hadn’t actually remembered that line though, as it’d been awhile since I’d watched that episode. I remembered the general sentiment, but not the actual wording, so while I still had the idea of what Angel was going for, it didn’t land quite as well. I didn’t feel like pausing reading the chapter and looking up the transcript at the time I was first reading it, especially since I understood the gist of the exchange well enough. That being said, it would probably have been helpful to have that line repeated in some way within the fic itself, both because people like myself may not have remembered exactly the exchange Adrien’s talking about, and because Angel’s fic rewrites season 2 and 3 episodes anyway. There was no guarantee that Riposte went exactly as it did in canon, word-for-word, and the only reason the reader knows that it DID occur that exactly, is that Adrien’s reference here to Kagami’s speech before she was akumatized makes no sense otherwise. The reader is obviously supposed to know what he’s talking about, and the only way we could know that is if it was the same as canon.

Adrien’s fans spot him and chase after him and Kagami, prompting Luka to interfere.

“It’s him! It’s Adrien!” The speaker is one of the people down at the edge of the Seine, who’s looking right at Adrien and Kagami as he speaks. Adrien’s about to start planning a slow, painful demise for this arse, but the guy looks up over his shoulder and adds, “He just doubled back!” (Chapter 21)

Side note: still find it hilarious that Adrien’s first impression of Luka is that he’s an arse, even if it’s immediately proven wrong.

“Thank you,” Kagami says to the boy when Adrien says nothing.

“Y-Yeah. Thanks,” Adrien adds shakily. “I know I should be used to it, but it’s still terrifying.”

The boy snickers behind his hand. Adrien idly notes that his nails are painted deep black and his dark hair is dip-dyed teal and that Gabriel would have an aneurysm if Adrien ever painted his nails and dyed his hair like that. He’s the antithesis of everything that Gabriel holds dear. Dear lord, this boy is just perfect. (Chapter 21)

Luka made one HELL of a first impression, and with Adrien’s background especially, it makes sense why he reacted the way he did. Adrien seems to romantically attracted to people standing up for others, especially against some larger, more intimidating opponent – I suspect because they’re modeling the sort of behavior that Adrien WISHES he could do with his father. Combine that with Luka looking like the sort of person Gabriel would hate, and well – it’s no wonder that Adrien gets a huge crush on Luka immediately, far more quickly and obviously than he does with Kagami. Funnily enough, the way he crushes on Luka here is reminiscent of the way he started crushing on Ladybug, while his crush on Kagami is more similar to his crush on Marinette – before she saved him from that akuma anyway and he fully, consciously realized he was head-over-heels for her.

Also, Luka’s pretty.

And then Luka plays a heart song for Adrien, and he falls for him even more.

The boy snorts. His teal eyes, alight with amusement, draw Adrien in like a magnet, scrambling his brain and leaving his mind momentarily blank. “That’s okay. You’re just socially awkward.” He strums a note on his guitar, something both off and yet perfect, something that punches Adrien in the chest and leaves him momentarily fumbling for breath.

“H-How did you do that?” Adrien finally forces out when he’s able to speak. The boy smiles.

“I can hear people’s heart songs,” he says. “Yours sounds delightfully perfect but if you stop to listen to it, there are little flaws.” The boy strums a few more notes that are both the same and yet so different to what he’d played before, in a way that Adrien can’t even begin to articulate. “Small imperfections. Ones that you wouldn’t see on the surface.” (Chapter 21)

Considering how often Adrien’s placed on a pedestal, seen as “perfect”, but not as a person? This is really important. Even Marinette’s fallen into that trap before.

But Luka can see it right away… and also because his sister’s Juleka and she talks about Adrien sometimes, so that helps. Luka’s observant, not psychic.

Being seen for who he is, as a person, with imperfections and flaws? Being told that it’s okay to mess up a little, it’s fine? That he’s just socially awkward, but not making it out like Adrien is bad or has done something wrong or disappointing? That’s just so DIFFERENT from the sort of thing Adrien would experience with his father, driving further home that Luka’s the antithesis of Gabriel – and causing Adrien’s heart to flutter even harder.

And Luka considers Adrien to be a friend immediately, something that Adrien just adores.

“Thanks again for saving our butts,” Adrien says to Luka.

“My pleasure. Any friend of Juleka’s is a friend of mine.”

Warmth pools in Adrien’s gut. “Friends? Really?”

“Of course, if you want,” Luka smiles. “And I promise I’ll never ask you to have my babies.” (Chapter 21)

Adrien LOVES his friends, he cares for them a lot, and he treasures any new addition. To have someone just come up and say “of course I’ll be your friend, I already consider you a friend, if you’re down for that?” He hasn’t had that kind of experience since Nino befriended him. Combine that with Luka saving his butt and really seeming to see him, even just the first time he’s met Adrien in-person? Not too surprising that Luka ends up being his bi awakening.

“Glad to see that you’re so responsible about it,” Luka says as he punches his number into Adrien’s phone. Adrien does the same with Luka’s phone and although he’s tempted to add Kagami’s number too, there’s no point in risking the wrath of Tomoe Tsurugi; it had been enough of a battle to get himself added to Kagami’s phone, and Tomoe wholeheartedly approves of him. “Your future wife will be lucky to have you.”

“Or husband,” Adrien blurts out. Why did he say that? It’s not like he’s ever really shown an interest in boys before, and he’s in love with Marinette…but the way Luka isn’t even fazed by that and instead just smiles is making Adrien question a lot of things about himself right now. (Chapter 21)

Something else to note here; while Kagami technically meets Luka here as well, she has very little actual interaction with him during this sequence. The only interactions she has with Luka directly are when she thanks Luka for saving her and Adrien:

“Thank you,” Kagami says to the boy when Adrien says nothing. (Chapter 21)

Which Luka doesn’t actually respond to directly, instead responding to Adrien’s “thanks”.

And here, where Kagami introduces herself:

“I’m not surprised,” Luka says. “She’s pretty quiet until you push a guitar into her hands. And you are?”

Kagami immediately straightens and bows slightly. “Kagami Tsurugi,” she says, shaking his hand. “I’m a friend of Adrien’s, though I don’t attend Françoise Dupont.” (Chapter 21)

Kagami and Luka technically met here, but there’s no development in their relationship – they were just introduced so they each know the other exists. The whole conversation that unfolds, with Adrien as the focal point, makes sense and is realistic, but while it provides a good foundation for Adrien and Luka becoming friends – and later something more – it doesn’t provide that same foundation for Lukagami. Which helps explain why Angel doesn’t actually GO the Lukagami route, despite it seeming like an obvious path, with the later poly relationship.

Next chapter and Adrien’s made plans to meet up with Luka.

“I’m sorry, Adrien. I know how much you were looking forward to it.”

“Yeah, well…I’d better go practice. Maybe if I’m up to his standards, he’ll let me come near the end. Better than nothing, right? And I was really looking forward to seeing Luka.”

“Luka? Who?”

“Juleka’s brother.” (Chapter 21)

Just generally nice to see that Adrien’s kept in contact with Luka, and has been trying to foster their friendship. Interesting departure from canon as well, where Marinette met Luka before Adrien did.

Speaking of which, Marinette goes down below to get Luka, since everyone’s waiting on him. It goes pretty similarly to how it did in canon.

She jumps again when she realises that he’s opened his eyes and is staring straight at her with a smile. His eyes are the same shade of blue as his mother’s, also matching the teal tips of his black hair, and he’s wearing ripped black jeans and a short-sleeved blue jacket over a white Jagged Stone shirt.

Holy crap. He’s gorgeous.

“Hey!” Marinette blurts out. “My name’s Mama – Ma-Ma-Marinette!” Oh god, she’s stammering again. Why is this her life? She takes a deep breath to compose herself and pushes on. “Your mum sent me down here. The groove – ah, the group’s waiting for you.” (Chapter 21)

She immediately finds him physically attractive, which – fair, like I said before, he’s definitely pretty. Nothing deep, it’s just an immediate “Crap, he’s cute” reaction.

The whole scene is copied from Captain Hardrock exactly, until this exchange, after the scene in canon had ended:

“Did I really –? Oh no! At least Adrien wasn’t here to see that. He’d never let me live it down, the dork.”

“Adrien?” Luka tilts his head. “You know him?”

“Yeah, he’s one of my best friends. You’re the guy who saved him from being mobbed, right?”

Luka nods. “He wasn’t ready for a child just yet.”

“Uh…what?”

“An inside joke. One of his fans was screaming for him to have her babies.”

Marinette shudders. “Ick. I can’t believe I used to be like that.”

“That’s not the impression I get.” Luka plays a few oxymoronic notes, somehow both chaotic and gentle. “You have a passionate heart. You just struggle with your chaotic brain. You’re not the kind of person to behave like that.”

“Seriously, how do you do that?” Marinette complains as blood rushes to pool in her cheeks and stomach.

“Just like I told Adrien, I can hear people’s heart songs,” Luka says. Whoa. Seriously? That’s…how is that possible? “And just like I told Adrien, I talk to Juleka. You’re a funny girl, Marinette.” (Chapter 22)

The little joke that Luka threw in there was funny, without seeming out-of-character, since he’d tried a joke with Marinette just before this – but accidentally made fun of her stutter and made her feel bad, which he didn’t intend.

I’m glad he talked to Juleka about Marinette, because otherwise it would seem that he was either psychic, or just making blind assertions without having a clue what he was talking about, regarding what Marinette was like around Adrien.

Marinette’s immediate attraction to Luka here seems pretty superficial in contrast to Adrien’s attraction to him – the bulk of it seems to have come from his physical attractiveness and him playing some really nice music on the guitar, from his looks and skills, rather than him as a person at this point. This is mostly an indictment of canon’s treatment of Lukanette rather than Angel’s handling of it however, since half of the scene is lifted directly from Captain Hardrock. Angel’s expansion of the scene at least adds a little more dialogue, a little more chance for Marinette to get to know him as a person, than canon did. It just seems like a fairly shallow attraction in contrast to how Angel handled Adrien’s attraction to Luka.

Lukanette fans probably wouldn’t mind much, since this was enough to get them to ship it in-show, but it doesn’t really give non-Lukanette fans much reason to start shipping it.

A few chapters later, and Marinette’s struggling with the realization that she’s in love with both Chat Noir AND Luka.

The problem is Luka Couffaine. Specifically, how Marinette’s insides flutter and tingle whenever she’s around him. Which totally isn’t fair. Aren’t you supposed to be in love with one person and be with them and only them?

To be fair, Marinette isn’t actually with Chat Noir. And yeah, there’s plenty of infidelity in the world, when someone decides that another person is hot and yes please, I’ll have some of that.

But that’s the problem here. It’s not just that Luka’s attractive. It’s that smile of his that’s so soft, like he’s reading your very soul when he looks at you. It’s how he looks so at peace when he’s sitting there, strumming on his guitar before Kitty Section’s rehearsals (that Marinette has definitely attended only because she’s friends with Rose and Juleka and Ivan, thank you very much). It’s how he never has a harsh word about Juleka, even when he’s doing his brotherly duty and teasing her, and how she immediately looks to him every time she’s starting to stress, such as when her guitar string had snapped and one of Ivan’s drumsticks had fallen overboard. (Chapter 25)

Problem is, this still doesn’t sound like an attraction that’s based on a lot of substance. It still largely seems to be based on Luka looking pretty and being talented at playing the guitar. Him being kind to Juleka is nice, and an actual sign of who he is as a person, but it’s still not a lot – and none of this is based with actual interactions with him, just observing him.

It feels a lot like Marinette’s attraction to Adrien earlier in fact – but without Marinette becoming as obsessive, and without knowing Luka as well as she knew Adrien, even back then. So to see her calling it “love” and equating it with her feelings for Chat Noir, which grew out of friendship and lots of time spent being with each other, interacting with each other – it feels out of place. Especially since it’s repeatedly been hammered home how Marinette’s initial attraction to Adrien slipped into being more superficial at times, and occasionally thought of him as more of a pedestal or an object. That’s part of why she’s refusing to acknowledge that she’s still in love with him after all – she wants to make sure she sees him as a friend and person first.

But with Marinette being attracted to Luka’s looks, his talents, and then what little she’s observed of his interactions with Juleka (which doesn’t seem to have been all that much at this point, she just hasn’t had much time to get to know him)? Without getting to know him as a person through interaction more, but mostly through some light observation? It feels like Adrien Crush 2.0, but more superficial. There doesn’t seem to have been much basis for a close friendship so far, much less actual love.

Adrien and Kagami arrive on the Couffaine’s houseboat soon afterwards, causing Marinette and Kagami to meet again for the first time since Riposte.

An awkward silence falls on the boat as everyone sneaks looks at Kagami, who just stares right back evenly. It’s understandable, since she’s a newcomer and none of them know her, but in Marinette’s case, it also just might have something to do with how she’d panicked and ruled in Adrien’s favour back at fencing tryouts. Does Kagami hate her for it? Or had Adrien talked to her about it?

“Um – hi!” Marinette decides that she might as well take the first step. “I’m Marinette!”

“Adrien’s friend, right?” Kagami says coolly. Marinette’s cheeks flush, although she can’t decide whether it’s because Kagami most definitely dislikes her or because the way this cute girl is narrowing her eyes at Marinette is doing something to Marinette’s insides. Something that she most definitely doesn’t want to think about right now. (Chapter 25)

Much as with Luka, Marinette’s attraction here is quick and superficial at the moment. She hasn’t recognized it as attraction just yet however, especially since she’s ALREADY caught up in freaking out about loving Chat Noir and Luka at the same time.

Being the only other person on the houseboat who doesn’t play an instrument, Kagami seems to naturally gravitate towards where Marinette is sitting cross-legged near the cockpit, safely away from the side of the boat, sketchbook once again open. As Kagami sits next to her, Marinette offers her a small smile and Kagami hesitantly smiles back. Then Marinette’s eyes are inevitably drawn to Luka, who’s just strummed a sweet chord, and he catches her gaze and winks at her, and she’s forced to stare down at her notebook so that she doesn’t spontaneously combust on the spot.

No. No. This can’t be happening. Marinette has a crush on Chat Noir. That’s clear as day. So, why must her insides flutter and tingle at the way Luka smiles and winks, charming and mellow with no effort or annoying flair at all?

To be fair, Marinette isn’t actually with Chat Noir. And yeah, there’s plenty of infidelity in the world, when someone decides that another person is hot and yes please, I’ll have some of that. But Marinette can’t love two people at once. That’s rubbish, and it’s needlessly complicated, and Chat Noir was here first, so he’s her first choice, especially since she’d only met Luka the other day. (Chapter 25)

Again, attention is drawn to how she’s attracted to Luka’s “smiles and winks”, and along with the reference with infidelity, with deciding another person is hot – another more superficial quality - and that they want to have some of that, it just doesn’t seem like Marinette’s crush on Luka is based on really knowing him as a person.

Kagami and Marinette have a conversation, where Marinette talks about her difficulties with her crushes on Luka and Chat Noir, and her confusion about what to do about them. I don’t want to recount the whole conversation since it’s fairly long, but… they’re really able to sit down and talk about what love is, along with Kagami introducing Marinette to the concept of polyamory.

It feels like Kagami and Marinette are talking as people and friends first, rather than as potential love interests, getting to know what the other person’s like and their perspective on the world, in a way that wasn’t there for Lukanette. Kagami gave some of her (exclusive to this fic) background, for instance.

“Your astonishment is cute,” Kagami laughs. “It’s called polyamory. A girl I had a crush on back in Japan told me that she was polyamorous. She said that so long as you’re completely open with your partners, there’s no reason why multiple relationships can’t work.”

“A girl? You’re gay?”

“I rarely develop romantic feelings but when I do, their gender doesn’t matter. And I’m asexual. But my mother doesn’t know, because I’m not sure whether her reaction would be positive or negative. And it will stay that way.”

“Of course!” Marinette hastens to say. “I wouldn’t dream of telling her. Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me. But, uh…asexual? I don’t know anything.”

“Of course not, if you haven’t had any reason to suspect that you’re not straight,” Kagami says. “I’ve only known for a year or so, after I realised that I liked Rin, but I didn’t want to do anything physical with her. The thought of it…didn’t repulse me, but it didn’t excite or interest me either. I wasn’t drawn to her in that way at all. That’s when I realised that I was asexual, and I’m not attracted to anyone in that way.” (Chapter 25)

Even just this snippet is a lot deeper than Marinette’s attraction to Luka. It gives a lot more depth to Kagami, letting her tell her on story, making her feel like a character with agency and her own thoughts and feelings. Luka… doesn’t really have that. He mostly seems to exist for other characters, without having much in the way of desires or history of his own. It fits with his portrayal in canon thus far – he’s woefully underdeveloped – but leaves him feeling like more of a receptacle for the other characters thoughts and feelings, than an actual person.

With Adrien, Luka seems to have more agency and act more like a character in his own right, but not so much when it comes to Marinette.

Speaking of Adrien, he has his OWN dilemma to struggle through.

Just like Marinette, Luka Couffaine’s creative soul shines brighter than the sun. Just like Marinette, Luka makes Adrien’s insides tingle and burn with as little as a smile. And yet, with as many similarities as he shares with Marinette, Luka is also nothing like her. Where Marinette is a hurricane, forceful and mesmerising and drawing people into her tempest of passion, Luka is a tsunami, appearing perfectly serene and soft on the surface with that stormy soul underneath, until it’s too late to realise that you’re about to be swallowed. And Adrien hadn’t realised until now, until there was no chance of escape. Not only this, but after their adventure that had resulted in meeting Luka, Kagami’s also starting to creep up on him like a thunderstorm, visible and foreboding on the horizon but not quite close enough to warrant action. At least, not until it’s too late to act, just like Luka’s tsunami but almost deadlier since she’s not yet registering in his brain as anything more than one of his closest friends underneath all the carefully deliberate suppression. (Chapter 25)

Adrien waxes lyrical more, which honestly I am DOWN for. Boy’s a hopeless romantic. It’s more cryptic than Marinette’s realization of feelings earlier, but since his feelings and perspective on Luka and Kagami have been developed more, that’s fine. He can be a little more oblique about his feelings.

The comparison to Marinette is interesting, though I don’t totally agree with it. It took ages for Adrien to realize he liked Marinette, while he realized his feelings for Ladybug, for instance, right away. If anything his feelings for Luka are like his feelings for Ladybug were, while his feelings for Kagami are like his feelings for Marinette, with how she’s slowly creeping up in his heart. I can see why he compared his immediate, massive attraction to his feelings towards Marinette though, since he DOES have that level of massive romantic attraction towards her NOW, even if it wasn’t so apparent initially.

Oh, and as if Adrien needs MORE reason to crush on Luka, when they talk about how Gabriel’s trying to keep Adrien away from his friends, he makes THIS declaration:

“I appreciate the offer,” Adrien says. “But elbow-dropping my father will probably make him lock me up again.”

“Then we’ll find Ladybug and Chat Noir and stage a grand rescue,” Luka says. If it wasn’t for the fact that Luka’s vow had pretty much set Adrien’s insides on fire, Adrien might have been more concerned about the fact that Chat Noir can’t really stage a grand rescue of himself. (Chapter 25)

Adrien just LOVES someone caring about him that much, standing up for him, defying his father, and making grand gestures in general. Adrien being this deeply attracted to Luka is no surprise.

Several chapters pass without Luka or Kagami making an appearance. Next time one of them shows up, Ladybug’s giving Kagami a Miraculous.

They have a long, in-depth conversation, which again I don’t want to repeat all of, because well, it’s long. But there’s some good give-and-take and here, with both of them airing their insecurities and giving support to each other.

“You’re autistic?” Ladybug gasps. “So am I!”

“What?” Kagami’s head whips around to stare at Ladybug. “You – but you’re –”

“An awkward mess outside the mask,” Ladybug says and squeezes Kagami’s arm. “I mix my words up all the time. I melt down and flip out whenever I’m really stressed or losing control of the situation. I have to plan out what I’m going to say before I talk to people about important stuff, otherwise I turn into a blabbering mess. I have to bounce or fidget or do anything to stim because I can’t sit still. I’m clumsy. I’m obsessed with fas – uh, my special interests. I can never seem to be where I should be because I just can’t manage myself, even before I became Ladybug.”

“Oh.” Kagami tilts her head and ever so slowly reaches out to pat Ladybug on the shoulder stiffly. “You get it. I have to script my conversations as well. And…well, I don’t have meltdowns and I’m very organised, but…mostly because Mother would be extremely disappointed in me.” (Chapter 34)

It’s a nice reversal of their earlier conversation, with Marinette (or rather Ladybug) providing support and advice mostly, instead of Kagami doing so – but still having it be a conversation with a lot of give-and-take. But this is a subject that MARINETTE’S more confident and knowledgeable about, while KAGAMI’S insecure about it, which is a reversal from their positions when talking about polyamory earlier. It’s just a really good conversation in general! It still feels a little rushed with how deeply Kagami is supposed to be ingrained into their friend group when she’s only had a handful of appearances on-screen, but the few times she HAS appeared, she’s made an impression on Marinette at least, so it doesn’t feel nearly as rushed as it could have.

I have a continuity nitpick here though; back in chapter 25, Kagami talked about Rin, a girl she had a crush on, and what she told her about polyamory. But in this chapter, she talks about how she’s never had friends before.

“It’s just…” Kagami sighs and looks away. “I’ve never had friends before. I don’t know what’s appropriate and when it’s appropriate. If I make a wrong move, how do I know I won’t lose them? Unlike fencing, I don’t get to come back for a rematch. And unlike fencing…I don’t know how to navigate this.” (Chapter 34)

Did she not consider Rin a friend? She talks about Rin some more later, and it looks like she DOES consider Rin a friend, even though she didn’t get to spend as much time with her as she’d like.

My bigger issue with this chapter is that Ladybug never gives Kagami the “test” that she gives Alya and Chloe, with saying that she has to give the Miraculous back. She knows Alya better than she knows Kagami; if she’s going to conduct that test on Alya to check that she’s willing to give it back, then it seems unfair not to do the same with Kagami, like she either feels like she knows and trusts Alya a lot less than she knows or trusts Kagami, or that her crush on Kagami (which she hasn’t full acknowledged yet) is blinding her, which… okay, granted, that is kinda a thing with Marinette. It’s not acknowledged by the narrative that way though, as far as I can recall, so it comes off as an oversight.

A few chapters later, and Marinette starts realizing that she has feelings for BOTH Kagami and Luka, and confesses she has feelings for other people to Adrien – who thankfully understands, since he’s been feeling the same way.

“I’ve, uh…got the same problem. I’ve got a major crush on Luka. And, um…Kagami. And it’s getting to me, because I’m pretty sure I’m polyamorous and Tikki says that it’s perfectly normal and it doesn’t mean I like you any less, but I’ve been freaking out because what if you don’t approve, especially of Luka and Kagami, and I don’t want to break up with you or make you choose or anything, but I also don’t want you to think I’ll go and cheat and –”

“Marinette!” Adrien wraps his arms around her from behind and squeezes. “Oh my god. I can’t believe you like Luka and Kagami.”

“Is that a problem? I mean, I chose you first, so I’ll always –”

“Mari.” Adrien presses a kiss to the back of her head, and Marinette shivers and melts against him. “No. It’s not a problem. It’s just hilarious because, well…Luka was the other person I liked when I brought it up on our date. And I think I’ve been falling for Kagami too, for a while now.” (Chapter 39)

They both have known this for awhile, that they’ve liked more people – they just haven’t admitted it. Not surprised that Adrien was more transparent about who he liked here – he’s always worn his feelings on his sleeve, he isn’t known for being cagey about them.

They talk a bit about it, and decide that while they’re good with the general IDEA of being in a polyamorous relationship with Luka and Kagami, Adrien isn’t ready quite yet – especially since he’d have to stand up to Gabriel to do that.

Luka and Chat actually end up talking next chapter, with Chat seeking advice about polyamory… and it turns out that not only is Luka cool with the idea, he likes Chat and Marinette too… and he knows Chat is Adrien, and that he’s down with dating both of them if Adrien and Marinette would like that.

Also this happened:

Luka digs his nails into Chat Noir’s hand, then takes his hand away entirely and gracefully climbs to his feet. Chat Noir can’t help but flush when Luka holds out a hand to help him up, like he’s a damsel or something, but where other boys less secure in their masculinity might have felt degraded, it just makes him feel so loved and cared for. (Chapter 40)

So sue me, I was SOFT for this. This is why I actually sorta ship Lukadrien, despite not being a major fan of Luka personally; dammit I like someone being soft and gentle with Adrien. It’s why I like Ladrien, actually. Because seriously, the boy needs to be loved and cared for.

Marinette ends up confessing to Kagami later about wanting a polyamorous relationship, which Kagami is ALSO down for… so long as Marinette’s talked things out with the other people she wants to be involved with the relationship first, that is.

The four of them eventually talk things out some more, hashing out boundaries with their relationship. There’s this part here that nagged at me though;

“I’ve made my feelings clear as well,” Luka says. “I’d love to date both you and Adrien. But I understand if the relationship between you two takes priority –”

“Whoa, whoa, no,” Adrien says. “There’s no priority. You’re all equally important to me.”

“What he said,” Marinette says. “Adrien’s not more important just because I was with him first. We’re not gonna just shove you and Kagami aside when things get rough, Luka. That’s why we wanna be sure we’ve figured this out before we go jumping in.” (Chapter 41)

This is a good and healthy attitude to take when it comes to a polyamorous relationship, and one that I think is essential for making it work, but – well, this is where some of the general lack of development between all of them becomes a bit of an issue. Because while this is a good illustration of how to make a polyamorous relationship work – it doesn’t feel earned. ESPECIALLY when it comes to Lukanette. They like each other, but – they haven’t really been shown to TALK much, to really connect with each other, especially with any give-and-take. Though Lukadrien has that trouble a bit too – Luka provides support to Adrien, but it doesn’t really seem like Adrien can really engage Luka totally as an equal either. It feels like Luka’s more of a plot device for Adrien and Marinette, than a character in his own right.

Admittedly though, that’s a canon problem – that’s pretty much been Luka’s role to date. But it does make the whole “you’re equally important” thing feel unearned.

Kagaminette has probably the solidest foundation of the added poly relationships, with the give-and-take between Marinette and Kagami, the deep conversations, and the additional opportunities they’ve had to be around each other in different contexts, with Marinette picking Kagami to be Ryuuko. It still doesn’t have enough development to really make this feel totally right though, with the sheer amount of development the Love Square relationship has had by comparison.

Adrigami is in kind of a weird place here. It had a fairly solid starting foundation, and Adrien has at least clearly hung out with Kagami a lot, but they haven’t really talked or done that much together on-screen, so it seems like more of a background relationship than anything. Intellectually it makes sense with how they relate to each other and the amount of time they get to spend together, but since we don’t see that much of it, it feels like more of an informed relationship than anything else, where we’re told about them being super close, but don’t really get to see it happen as much.

Honestly, that was my biggest issue with this whole subplot regarding the polyamorous relationships; it felt like Luka and Kagami were being elevated to the same status as Adrien and Marinette, regarding their places in each other’s lives, without enough development of those relationships on-screen to truly earn that place.

#miraculous ladybug #hold me by both hands #fanfic analysis #my analysis #luka couffaine #kagami tsurugi #meta

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