Cataclysm

A promising future

If Luka had to define himself in one word, the one he'd pick would be ''chill''. He usually didn't stress to much about anything, a not very strict parent and quiet sister were part of the reason why, but he owed a lot of his lack of anxiety to his music. Playing guitar helped him define his own problems and bring them into a realm he could understand easily, making solving them a joy instead of a chore.

It wasn't working much today, though.

He had left his university applications on the table for the fifth time of the day to play guitar. No matter how long he thought and mustered about his future, he couldn't find the courage to finally decide what to do with his life. It didn't help that today was the last day to apply to one of his options, the music conservatoire his mother always wanted him to go to.

Luka loved music, but he had some doubts about making it his livelihood. He was almost certain that a future in that industry might not be what he wanted after all. Music was his way of communicating and understanding the world, the thought of also using it to produce the means by which he would live the rest of his life was daunting and not very pleasing. He knew himself enough to be sure that if he abused his love for music he would burn out quickly, and lose something even more valuable than his means of making money.

So he researched and got attracted to other ideas, other paths. And those were sitting on the table, next to the conservatoir invitation his mother procured for him. It wasn't even a matter of disappointing her, they already had a talk a long time ago about his feelings on the matter and, as usual, she understood perfectly what he meant. After all, she lived on renting various property around Paris rather than on her music.

But Luka wanted not just to make money, he wanted a purpose. Something that would feed his music the same way his music made his life meaningful. It was a cycle he knew he wanted so hard, the choices on the table were a daunting sight for him these last couple of weeks.

Sighing, Luka was about to pick up the papers to look at them for the sixth time when the bell of the boat-house rang. He welcomed the distraction with a shrug and got up to answer the door.

The mostly smiling group consisting of Alya Cesaire, Nino Lahiffe, Adrien Agreste and the wonderful Marinette Dupain-Cheng were standing on his front door. Luka could tell that they meant business, despite the smiles, by the way the reporter immediately asked if there was anyone with him on the house.

''Just me and my choices, come in'' Said the guitarist, holding the door open to let the four teens in. He was surprised by their sudden visit, specially because it was obvious to him now that they were not looking for their classmate, but for him.

''What can I help you guys with? I have juice if anyone wants some'' He didn't wait for them to ask and started pouring the orange liquid on four glasses. Marinette, Alya and Nino grabbed theirs first, Adrien hesitating but deciding to join them after a moment. Curious, Luka thought. Why was Adrien so uncomfortable? All of them would come regularly to the boat house when Kitty section was active, which stopped just a couple months ago, when they all decided it was consuming too much of their time with too little reward in terms of fun. They had decided to keep in touch and visit the Couffaine household just to have a good time, but it didn't seem to Luka that this was one of those occasions.

''My mom took Juleka to one of her modeling audiences, and they probably won't be back until a couple hours'' Said the older boy. The other four looked at each other, and then Marinette started looking for something on her bag.

Luka was not sure what to expect her to bring out, but the very recognizable for him little wooden box was not it. He couldn't help but gape at the implications.