Wanted ✘ Luka Couffaine

chapter thirteen

"In my defence, you did say you've been playing here for years."

The burning red text revealing our scores flickers across the screen, a heavy contrast to the dark background. There's a drastic difference between them, one that I don't want to say out loud.

Kai laughs. "Or you're just terrible."

I place the gun down and turn to face the other way, the scores now out of sight. "I refuse to accept that possibility."

"Stubborn, are we?"

"I have a feeling you are too, Mr..." I drift off. The realisation that we don't know each other's last names yet suddenly hits me.

Feeling this too, Kai makes his way in front of me. "Cadieux." He reaches his hand out to embrace mine in a handshake. Raising it to his lips, he gives it a kiss, proceeding to wink at me after. As he lowers it again, he keeps our fingers interlocked.

The action happens too fast for me to process, but once it does, my face flames. "Agreste," I mumble.

This causes all the colour to drain from his face. "Agreste?" he repeats. "As in Gabriel?"

"I'm guessing you've heard of my father." I sigh. As soon as I say that name, everyone knows who I am. I'll have to accept Father's image will always be hanging over me.

By Kai's reaction, I imagine he's a fan, a little shocked to find out I'm Gabriel's daughter.

To my surprise, instead of questioning me about him, he looks off to the side and quietly says, "You could say that."

I really don't want to talk about Father any further, so I tug at his hand, still holding mine. "Let's check out that racing game. Marinette and Luka should be done by now."

Finding that game again, we see that Marinette and Luka are actually still glued to the seats. Just as we arrive, Marinette's midnight car speeds over the finish line and she jumps up as the screen mirrors her victory.

"Yes!" With a triumphant expression, she turns to Luka. "That's the third time I've won. You really are the worst at this game."

This takes me by surprise. I thought it would more awkward between them alone. Well, they had to feel at least a little comfortable with each other to start a relationship in the first place. Marinette mentioned she had feelings for Adrien before Luka. Looks like they never really faded.

In response, Luka rolls his eyes, but the smile on his face reveals he isn't as annoyed as he's trying to make himself out to be. "I am perfectly good at this game. You just happen to be a god."

That's when she notices us standing behind.

"Do either of you want to play against me?" she asks, the confidence from her wins radiating from her.

Kai looks my way, seeing if I want a go. When I shake my head, he steps forward — releasing my hand from his grip — and says, "Okay, let's play."

Luka gives up his seat, which Kai takes. He comes to stand by me as the two start a new game. I shiver a little as our arms brush. His lack of reaction makes me think he doesn't notice.

"You really can lose all your money in these places, " he says, tunnelling a hand through his blue and black hair. At that second, it looks so incredibly fluffy that I have to fight against my need to touch it.

What am I thinking?

"Yeah." My reply is minimal, but I don't know what else I can say without seeming awkward.

Luckily, he doesn't pay attention to this and continues, "These two might be here a while. Let's check out some other games."

"Okay," is all I manage to get out. Before I can internally curse myself for it, Luka sends me his signature grin. That alone makes all the worries melt away, and I find myself following as he wanders to another game.

This one features a little pixelated fox as the character you play as. The objective is quite basic at first, in which you have to simply avoid various obstacles. As Luka and I take turns playing through the levels though, it starts to have a darker theme. The nice meadow and the friendly fox face soon morph into a tangled woods and a hungry predator.

This arcade really does contain a variety of games, but the atmosphere is interesting and different to most arcades. At least, I assume so. This is the first I've been to in a while.

As we play, we have a chance to talk.

"Are you and Marinette... still together?" I wonder. Although it's an uncomfortable topic, I can't help but bring it up. It might be because I feel bad for both of them, but I want to check in. "It kind of seemed like that argument was a bad one."

"Yeah." Luka's lips tilt downward, but his eyes stay warm. That's the reassurance I need to tell me he's not mad at my question. "This is going to sound terrible, but that's our normal. We... fight like that all the time. It usually ends up with one of us walking out. When we see each other next, we act like nothing happened."

I turn away from the game and focus entirely on him.

"I know I'm not much of a help, but if you ever need anything, you can talk to me."

I expect him to smile and for us to move on, but his eyes flit away from mine. Anxiety settles in my stomach. I shouldn't have said anything. He probably doesn't need to be reminded of me every time he argues with Marinette.

This quickly changes to relief, though, as he says softly, "Thank you. It means more than you know."

The way the words slip out so unbuttered makes me appreciate the truth in them. A fluttery sensation eases through me and the overwhelming urge to grin makes me have to turn around so he won't see it.

Luka notices this. "Do you want to try another game?"

"Oh," I say, falling back into a normal smile, "What do you have in mind?"

For a second, he thinks, resting his head on his hand. I take this opportunity to drink in the details of him: his dilated pupils, the relaxed slant to his shoulders, the darker flecks of blue in his eyes.

"I didn't try the claw machine before."

I'm a little surprised at his answer. I didn't think he wanted anything from it.

Still, we find ourselves in front of it. Luka puts in the euro, places a hand on the joystick and moves it so it hovers over where the sheep bounced into on Kai's last go. In silence, I watch as the claw travels over to it, descends to trap the plush, and moves upward at a painfully slow speed.

Luka's confidence falters when the sheep slips so that it's only held from part of the claw, but it returns as it doesn't make a further move.

The claw reaches its destination with the sheep still firmly in place, and releases it into the box.

His face lights up at his success, and he goes to pick up the small creature. It looks so cute bundled in his arms, and its face is even cuter in person. This doesn't last long as he holds the sheep out to me.

Luka's hands make the toy plush appear even more toy-like.

"Here you go," he says. "All yours."

"Thank you!" Our hands brush as he hands him over, sending an eruption of chills up my arms. I pull the sheep close to my chest and hug him.

"No problem," Luka replies smoothly. "So, what's his name?"

"Hmm. He's not an alpaca, but I think I'm going to call him RJ." I unwrap my arms from the sheep and look him in the face again. He really reminds me of RJ. Meeting Luka's eyes, I add,

"RJ Couffaine."

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a/n: word count: 1340

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