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It wasn’t that mornings made her grumpy. She didn’t exactly love them either because she was a sane and normal person and, as a baker's daughter, having to wake up early for most of her life, fresh and ready to help her parents set up for the morning rush at the bakery, made her build up certain aversions.
So, the problem wasn’t that Marinette was not a morning person, but anyone would be livid if they got interrupted by loud noise just when she was about to get at least three well deserved hours of sleep after finishing a hard project. Honestly, who the hell plays music this early in the fucking morning.
She had been in bed for less than 5 minutes, barely falling asleep when she heard the strum of guitar strings over a heavy bass just beyond her bedroom wall. It wasn’t that she had never been bothered by noise but for god’s sake she was trying not to have a nervous meltdown. Whoever irresponsible piece of shit interrupting her only possibility at surviving the rest of the day, had to pay. Grunting loudly, she got out of bed still in her pajamas and the french braids she had not dared to take down just wanting to pass out on her bed, made her way next door where the devil herself lived and knocked loudly, ready to murder anyone who stood on her way.
On the other side of the wall, Luka Couffaine had just moved into a new apartment building, having left his mom so she could roam the seas freely by herself while he opted for getting his own place near the campus of the university he attended. He didn’t know anyone besides his sister, who had already moved in with her girlfriend in another apartment a few months ago. He certainly did not expect for one of his first interactions in this new place to be with a raging woman whose name didn’t even know. He had barely opened the door when someone started screaming at him.
“WHY ARE YOU MAKING SO MUCH NOISE. SHUT THE FUCK UP”
Marinette, sleepy and angry as she was, took her time to realize that the one receiving her wrath wasn’t the brunette she had come to despise, but instead blue eyes were looking at her with all the shame expected of someone being scolded like this.
“Where's Lila?” she said and the guy snapped out of his trance, confusion joining the shame in his expression.
“Lila who?”
“Don’t play stupid with me. Tell your girlfriend to shut the fuck up and let me sleep. Some of us have actual stuff to do” she said, immediately jumping to conclusions and storming right back to her door, slamming it shut with a force a woman as tiny as her could not possibly have.
Luka stood a little while by his door, trying to recover from the odd meeting with who seemed to be his new neighbor and embarrassed beyond words for having been so careless. He shook his head to get rid of the bewilderment, made his way back inside and carefully put his guitar on its stand. This new song would have to wait a bit more to get finished, as he really did not want to disturb any more people.
Three and a half hours later, the sun saw Marinette not exactly rested but not as willing to murder the entire world as earlier. As a university student, she was used to pulling all-nighters, one more sleepless night didn’t mean anything, what really bothered her was the audacity of her neighbor trying so hard to ruin her life in little ways since her bigger attempts failed all throughout middle school and high school. Now, not only was she going to be late for class but she was exhausted, having lost at least 30 minutes of sleep trying to close her eyes after the little incident that morning.
She opened the door ready to head to class only to find that the same guy who she had screamed to not many hours ago was about to knock. That was the last straw and honestly, she was about to run out of fucks. She addresed him with a hard stare and coldly said “what the fuck do you want, don’t you and your girlfriend have someone else’s life to ruin?” before trying to make her way past him.
“Would you please wait and listen to me” It seemed like a constant for him to be confused in her presence so when she lingered a moment at the hallway, he said “My name is Luka Couffaine, I just moved into the apartment next door, I have no Idea who that Lila you keep talking about is and I brought you coffee because I’m sorry, ok?”
Still suspicious, Marinette gave him a once over, noticing the leather jacket hanging from his arm. She sighed, took the thermos he was offering her and said “are you on your way out?”
“uhm yeah” Luka replied
“Ok let’s go. I’m late”
They talked on their way down the building, Marinette wanted to feel ashamed for the misunderstanding, but as tired as she was she really didn’t care that much. She told him about the girl who kept messing with her just to make her miserable and he joked about how dumb he had been for forgetting to check the density of the walls before signing a contract for the place. The coffee and friendly chatter was enough to wake Marinette up. They parted ways in the parking lot, where Luka offered her a ride on his bike ( because of course the fucker had to ride a bike ) which she kindly rejected with a playful excuse of not getting on vehicles with strangers, definitely not because she was scared of bikes.
She took his thermos back to his place the next morning, just as the sun was going up. The morning light casting a soft glow over the blue locks of his bed hair and suddenly, her brain went overdrive. How hadn’t she noticed how pretty he was?
“Hmm seems like you're the one waking me up now” he said in a raspy voice, causing her to let out a manic giggle at how flustered she had become in a matter of seconds. Damn that’s so cute , thought Luka.
It was inevitable for them not to become friends after that, their personalities matching and complementing each other so well. The months went by with him getting her coffee to help with her morning grumpiness and hoping it would make her hate him just a little bit less. Little did he know, she was already thinking higher of him, soon moving visions of green eyes and sunshine smiles and gold locks out of her head. She was getting fond of the blue of the sea and the music of his soul and he was getting fond of cherry blossoms and big bright smiles.
She was getting used to songs in the morning to help with her bad mood and songs at night when she would get home tired and on the brink of a breakdown after a hard review on a project. He would be there with enough spaghetti and a little melody to cheer her up or really, just his shoulder for her to cry on.
He was getting used to her pink cheeks and her artistic enthusiasm, fond of her song and the life she carried everywhere she went. Of the way her eyes lightened up everytime he sang for her and the way he could be himself around her not worrying about being too much or coming off too intense sometimes.
So it was even more inevitable what happened under the dusk just as the semester was ending, Marinette’s head resting on Luka’s lap while he was trying to find the missing notes of her song, both peaceful under a tree. Her presence was distracting and he switched his attention to her, catching her gaze bearer of a glint of mischief that never meant good for him, but made him so dizzy every time he saw it. It made him reckless.
“Have I ever told you you're the most beautiful thing in the world?” he said as he removed the leaves tangled in her hair.
It had all been leading to this, the way her smile couldn’t seem to get any bigger and her face burned with excitement. How she didn’t even get up and just extended her arms to grab his face, pulling his mouth to hers and getting lost in the possibility of new stories, and new music and love to create.
So really, it wasn't that mornings made Marinette grumpy as it was more a matter of circumstances. If you asked her, she wouldn’t mind waking up at 3am if it was his voice reeling her back in the land of the awake.