#adjustment: plotlines

She smiled back, though her eyes drifted away to where the bus had previously been. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed; after all, even regardless of Adrien, she’d very much wanted to go on the trip.

She dropped her gaze to her lap, her free hand gripping at the fabric of her capris. The memory of the bus getting away from her hurt, but not quite as much as the questions in her head.

Was this how it was always going to be? Her chasing after Adrien, friendship or otherwise, just to fail over and over again? Was it even worth it? She’d worked so hard to get Adrien on the bus just for none of her friends to work to get her onto it.

Well... none, except for one.

Marinette turned to Luka, who was eyeing her with concern. She smiled at him, briefly setting the fan aside so she could throw her arms around his waist and press herself against his chest..

“M-marinette?” he called, stiffening at the motion.

“Thanks, Luka,” she whispered. “Thanks for always looking out for me.”

He didn’t respond at first, but before she could worry that the hug was excessive, his hand came to rest on her back, returning the hug.

“You’re welcome, Marinette. You deserve it,” he whispered in return. His fingers briefly twitched against her back, followed by him asking, “What are you going to do about New York?”

She faked a scoff. “I don’t need New York! I can still have fun here, with you!” She paused, pushing off his chest as she realized, “Oh! And Kagami! It’s been forever since we’ve hung out! I should go call her!”

She was about to get up to retrieve her phone, but stopped as she glanced back at Luka, his breathing still noticeable. Her gaze wandered to her hands on his chest, after which she plopped back down, returning to their former hug.

“But... I’ll worry about it later, once you rest up,” she assured, “Your heart’s still beating fast from biking so hard.”

She heard a weak hum of acknowledgment from above her. “...Yeah.”

Had she looked up, she would’ve seen him blushing.

~~~~~

Marinette shifted uncomfortably at the entrance to the park, looking left and right in anticipation. “Do you think she’ll really show up?”

Luka placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Did she say she would?”

“Yeah, but she sounded... off? I don’t really know. She just didn’t seem that happy, which--I-I mean, she kind of already has this kind of monotone so I don’t think anyone can tell normally but--” She stopped herself, then nudged him. “Maybe you’re just rubbing off on me.”

He grinned. “I don’t think she has any reason to be mad at you, Marinette. Adrien wanted to go, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, but I’m sure she wanted Adrien to stay.” She slumped. “And it’s not like I can blame her or anything, since she would’ve been all alone if I’d made it to the bus. It was just, Adrien seemed so sad about his father, and--”

“No, you’re right,” a voice interrupted.

Marinette jerked her head up, gaping as she saw Kagami standing a small distance away. She looked around, noticing how unsurprised Luka seemed - had he stayed quiet on purpose? - then turned her attention back to Kagami. “U-um, what?”

Though her gaze was firm and serious as it always was, there was a sadness in her voice. “Adrien had no interest in staying with me. I couldn’t even get him to smile like he usually would.” Her head dropped to face the ground as she continued, “It’s for the best. Had he stayed behind, he likely would’ve kept thinking about how badly he wanted to go. I didn’t want that for him.”

Marinette fidgeted, unable to help feeling bad regardless of how right Kagami would’ve been. She glanced at Luka for a quick boost of reassurance, his eyes giving her an encouraging look.

She took a breath, steeling herself up, then turned her attention back to Kagami and walked towards her.

“Well... I’m glad you’re here,” she exclaimed, “because it means we can hang out!”

Kagami glanced up at her, a brow raising in confusion. Marinette could tell that things were awkward, but forged on nonetheless.

“We can have fun without Adrien! And then--” She paused to wrack her brain for possibilities, then spread her arms out. “... and then you can tell Adrien about everything we did! Yeah, and he’ll regret ever leaving you to go to New York!”

She wasn’t sure exactly how convincing she looked, but she knew it wasn’t much, not helped by the fact that she was surrounded by the two most observant people she knew. She could only stand there, looking as confident as possible while Kagami gave her the blankest stare imaginable.

Then, suddenly, Kagami brought a hand to her mouth, stifling a hint of what may’ve been a chuckle. She stood straight, tilting her head to the side in mild amusement. “Very well. We’ll try your idea.”

Marinette blinked, somewhere between excited and surprised. “R-really?”

Kagami nodded. She then cast her gaze over to Luka, who approached and offered her a polite nod as a greeting.

“I don’t think we’ve ever talked before,” Luka observed.

Kagami confirmed, “We haven’t.”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

She looked him up and down, then squinted slightly. “I don’t know you well enough to say that yet.”

He didn’t look at all offended by the comment, merely shrugging as if to say, “that’s fair.”

Marinette glanced back and forth between the two, then brightened. Grabbing one of Kagami’s hands and one of Luka’s, she stood proudly in the middle and exclaimed, “Okay! Who’s up for orange juice?” She peeked over at Luka specifically. “Luka, when me and Kagami became friends, we stopped at a place for orange juice and it was so good! Did I ever tell you?”

He shook his head, but smiled, and Kagami’s expression assured that the new topic was welcome.

With that, the conversation became casual, and Marinette led the two along the sidewalk to the place she was speaking of.

(optional bonus that, since the whole class but Lila went, there is actually an extra seat that they’d reserved for her before she backed out when she thought Adrien was going to stay behind)

- During the scene where Ms. Mendeleiev offers Marinette her seat, Luka moves in after the switch has been made, chiming in to offer Marinette his seat so she’s not uncomfortably crammed in between two adult men. She’s surprised at the offer, but thanks him and swaps with him, earning a nice window seat in return.

- At nighttime, Marinette wakes up (her head probably slipped and it hit the wall; didn’t hurt but she’s awake now) and slips out of her seat to go check on Luka to see how he’s doing. She giggles at the popcorn Mr. Damocles has dropped on him, finding it cute, then carefully reaches over to wipe off the pieces. She turns to leave, but her earlier motion brushing the popcorn off wakes Luka up. He gently calls her name and slips out of his seat to join her; she tries to apologize but he just smiles and assures her that it’s fine.

- While on their way to the back of the plane, Marinette trips slightly on Alya’s foot (as Alya is sleeping on Nino and her foot was partly in the aisle; Marinette didn’t bump into it earlier because she didn’t have to move to the side for Luka back then). Luka steadies her and Marinette covers her mouth to suppress a yelp, then they keep walking to the back.

- Still, the movement woke Alya up and she glances back to look at Luka and Marinette watching the sunrise together. Confused, she nudges Nino so the both of them can look together. Alya comments that she’s seen Marinette making “lovey eyes” at Luka (referencing “Captain Hardrock” and “Frozer”), but Marinette is so OBVIOUSLY into Adrien and “can’t be honest about her feelings.” Nino chimes in that he’s having “best bud struggles” too because Adrien is still as sheltered as ever and “won’t come out of his shell.” They get the idea to perform “Operation New York” as in the original and think that it’ll be totally easy with no roadblocks whatsoever!

- Meanwhile, Marinette and Luka have their talk about her getting her “clarity.” Marinette sighs and admits that it feels like people are going to talk about her and Adrien no matter what she says/does (which tips Luka off that something’s wrong), to which Luka replies with a smile that he promises not to bring up Adrien for the rest of the trip unless Marinette does so first. She agrees to that, even giving him a “thank you” hug that he eagerly returns.

- On the ride to the place everyone’s staying at, Alya tries to engage Marinette in conversation about Adrien, clearly smug and feeling confident that it will be easy, but then she realizes that Marinette isn’t paying attention and is idling on her phone. Alya nudges Marinette, earning her attention, but when Alya starts talking about Adrien again, Marinette’s phone goes off and she looks back down at it, now giggling. Alya, now annoyed, asks Marinette if she’s even listening, which gets Marinette to look up and really give Alya her attention. “Oh, sorry about that. I was texting Luka.”

- Alya is just, “?????”

- Yes, this special is very much going to be Alya and Nino suffering to try to get Adrien and Marinette alone together and constantly failing. You’re welcome.

- No sliding door lock-ins because that’s dumb and the special is dumb for thinking it. Also, when Alya goes to mock “tease” Marinette about her Adrien crush in front of Sabrina, she turns to realize that Marinette is with Luka talking to Miss Mendeleiev about where he’ll be staying since he’s not technically with the class, and/or Luka is talking to some of the New York people about how amazing Marinette is ala Jagged Stone.

- Later in the night, everyone sneaks out to the party (bonus if someone comments that they “never took Luka for the type to sneak out” and Luka just grins like, “You clearly haven’t met my mom.”; double bonus if Luka stumbled into Aeon and Jess’ room with Marinette and Adrien, so Aeon was all “those two are--!” before seeing Luka and being confused) and a few party-goers ask Marinette and Luka if they want to dance to the energetic music. Marinette grins nervously and insists that she’s clumsy and will just end up falling all over people (a few pout and complain that “it would’ve been fun” but drop the subject).

- Cue the superhero hot dog vendor (a description I never thought I would say but here we are) handing out hot dogs. Aeon (foreseeing what will happen; it does pain me to still put her in the roll of “love square shipper” but I’m trying not to change what characters do or how they act unless I’m specifically adding things, meaning the main change is just that Luka’s here) and knowing that Luka interfered earlier, sees the guitar case on his back and quickly requests that he play some music alongside Jess since they both play guitar. Luka agrees, assuring Marinette that it’s alright and he’s not interested in having hot dogs since he’d just get crumbs on his guitar.

- Alya and Nino grin because they’re finally going to do something here!! As in the original, the hot dog vendor only has two hot dogs left and Alya and Nino split them in half, handing two halves of the same hot dog to Adrien and Marinette, who eat their respective half.

- Marinette yelps as her feet leave the ground and Luka’s head darts up on alert. He immediately abandons his guitar, his hand reaching out and catching hers as pulls her back down (or at least as down as she’ll go while still floating). He looks up at Adrien - as if to consider helping - but Adrien doesn’t want it and seems to be having fun trying to figure out how to fly, even muttering to himself about how he wish Kagami were there because they could’ve done “air fencing.”

- Luka looks back at Marinette, ensuring that she’s okay. She’s staring up at Adrien, expression mixed, then looks back at Luka, his presence grounding her as she calms down. She almost seems to forget that Adrien is there, focusing on her current flying capabilities and how light on (off?) her feet she is.

- “Oh...oh!” She gasps, realizing with a grin. “I can’t fall over if I’m floating! Luka, dance with me!”

- He’s caught off-guard by the enthusiastic request, then chuckles and nods in agreement, happily taking her other hand as well as he guides her to the other people dancing.

- Cut to the next day when the group is going to the museum. Alya and Nino are absolutely exhausted because Luka has consistently gotten in her and Nino’s way, which leads to them coming up with the new scheme with Aeon and Jess.

- Nino sends Adrien to the planned room and Alya goes to send Marinette, but Luka catches on and casually asks Marinette if he can go with her. Alya cuts in to “playfully” dismiss Luka and tell him to stop “hovering over Marinette,” leading Marinette to slowly walk off with one longing look back at Luka.

- Luka intentionally waits for Alya to not be watching anymore, then follows after Marinette.

- Episode plays out mostly as normal, though because Marinette has to carry Luka off to somewhere safe, she’s not as easily able to go off after Chat until later since she had time to cool down. Aeon doesn’t die but Paris is still a wreck because Chat Noir didn’t show up, leading to the same Chat Noir quitting scene (just with Ladybug calling out Chat here instead of mid-battle) as before. Adrien still ends up having to leave and Alya still snaps at Marinette, which leads to Marinette chasing after Adrien (mostly due to just mounting stress and pressure and the loss of her partner).

- As Marinette lies on the pavement, Luka shows up, soaking wet because he had actually never gone back with the rest of the class; he’d run off when Ms. Mendeleiev explained to him that Marinette was missing. He panics when he sees Marinette lying motionless there, running up and quickly checking her for injuries and to ensure that she’s breathing. She just leans forward and hugs him without warning, defeated but happy to have him with her.

- Marinette slowly explains the situation, Luka looking horrified when she starts talking about what Alya was shouting at her about, and he listens all the way up until the end before pointing out, “You didn’t have to like him that way to want him to stay.” “W-what?” “Marinette, you can be Adrien’s friend and still want him to stay in New York with us. It didn’t have to be any deeper than that.”

- His words cause Marinette to realize something; she - and definitely her friends as well - had put so much weight to everything she did for Adrien just because of her silly crush that of course she couldn’t see him as a friend. With all the insistence that getting him permission to go to New York and wanting him to stay was due to her crush, it was all she could focus on. She can want things for Adrien and want to do things with him regardless of her feelings for him, and she doesn’t have to put a name to those feelings either; she’ll never be able to truly move on if she keeps equating any good feeling towards Adrien with crushing on him.

- That done, Luka helps her up and they slowly walk back to go inside, though stopping as they see that Ms. Mendeleiev is at the front of the building chewing out Alya and Nino; both of them for sending Marinette and Adrien away from the group for fake tasks at the museum, and Alya specifically for sending Marinette after a car in the rain. Ms. Mendeleiev states that they’ll talk about it more inside but everyone should get back to their rooms for now.

- Marinette heads back to her room alone (as she shared a room with Alya but Alya’s getting a talking to at the moment) and is later visited by Uncanny Valley, who explains that she’s needed. Marinette - now with renewed confidence in how she feels thanks to her revelation - doesn’t say that she “can’t imagine Ladybug without him” and instead states that she and Chat Noir are partners, and a partner doesn’t abandon the other. She did it once herself, a long time ago, but she was ready to face her mistakes afterwards and she hopes that Chat Noir is too.

- Cue return of Chat Noir (no LadyNoir hug because no Chat, you have to earn that back) and the battle plays out as usual. Adrien still has to go home and Marinette sends him a text for later saying, “I wish you could’ve stayed,” but with a smile on her face, confident that this really is a friend thing and that’s all it needs to be.

- Marinette and Luka end up sitting together on the plane ride back to Paris, right behind Juleka and Rose. It’s nighttime, but neither can sleep and Marinette decides to use the private time to thank Luka for what he said (really, all the things he said), but Luka assures her that any improvement is all on her and he’s just happy to be around for it. She chides him for his modesty and tells him to take the compliment because he deserves it (they’re just flirting at this point), then slips out of her seat and into Luka’s, lightly jabbing at his chest with a finger while insisting that he accept everything’s he’s done for her. He laughs and replies that he’s happy to do that and is just glad seeing her smile.

- Eventually, the subject shifts to Juleka and Rose, who are once again sitting in the same seat, all cuddled up and sleeping together. Marinette asks playfully if Juleka and Rose are like that back on the Liberty, to which Luka nods and answers that they are, all the time. They have a good giggle about it, with Luka explaining that they’re very close (possibly giving some exposition on how long they’ve been “together” which is obviously referring to dating but could be seen as friendship by writers who are chickens).

- Marinette thinks about that for a moment, fingers briefly twitching, then she settles a little closer to Luka, asking quietly, “Do you think we’re that close?”

- Luka gapes at her in response, needing a moment to study her expression - which is more confidence than he’s ever seen her show before - and make sure that she means what he thinks it might. Once he’s certain, he gives her an almost shy smile, replying, “I’d like us to be. What about you, Marinette?”

- Marinette turns more towards him, one of her hands falling upon his. She leans up, and the camera then cuts away to Juleka and Rose in the seat in front of them, smiling and cuddling closer to each other (a very obvious hint that Luka and Marinette kissed because the show is allergic to people kissing if it’s not the love square so fine, I’ll get creative)

The beginning of the episode is mostly fine but no friggin’ Adrien pictures are needed. Not only does it break continuity (remember how Marinette had no Adrien pictures at all during basically all of Season 3? how is this season making me miss Season 3???), but it’s not like Alya can’t think of Adrien with or without any sort of prompting.

Alya still brings up the Adrimi break-up and Marinette still goes to comfort Kagami, who - and this is important - is happy to be checked on even though she’s over Adrien. (Like, really, why does the narrative and Alya essentially roll their eyes at Marinette for being worried about Kagami??)

Marinette still plans on taking Kagami to the pool, but neither know that Adrien is there. On their way, they see Xavier Ramier pacing on the sidewalk, seeming to be talking to a pigeon perched on his arm. Marinette and Kagami glance at each other, Kagami not knowing who the guy is and being generally uninterested. Marinette decides to approach, asking him what’s wrong, and Xavier explains that he has to help with a commercial for Adrien Agreste. Kagami sours at the name, mumbling about how Adrien is everywhere, but Marinette is intrigued; she’d been so busy that she hadn’t even heard about this (which really shows how much she’s overworked herself; something Adrien-related would probably be all over the news).

Xavier expresses that he’s nervous because he has a lot riding on this; Bob promised to talk to the mayor about making a pigeon sanctuary, and that’s his dream. Still, he tries to calm himself down, afraid of getting akumatized again and burdening Ladybug. Marinette falters at this, feeling bad and remembering how many times he’s been akumatized, then makes a comment about how it’s not his fault, it’s Ladybug’s for not finding a way to stop this. Xavier is caught off-guard, but defends Ladybug (much to Marinette’s surprise). He compares Ladybug to his best friend, the pigeon Edgar, who took a while to fly for the first time but is now the most intelligent and talented of all the pigeons. He adds that it’s not Ladybug’s fault that he gets akumatized; it’s the akumatized person’s fault.

This solves a big problem in the episode, which is that it allows Ladybug to downplay her abilities without making any argument against it, essentially saying that she’s not good enough and it’s all her fault.

Anyway, Marinette is comforted by the words and Xavier invites them along to the commercial showing since they were nice to him (bonus if some of the pigeons like Marinette and that’s another reason, double bonus if they also like Ladybug), seeing that they were on their way to the pool and they could always swim after the filming. Marinette and Kagami are pretty sure that’s not allowed but hey, they get to swim just by themselves and that’s cool. Kagami does get a bit of a jab in at Marinette for being “too soft” and helping strangers, but it’s a fond jab and not a malicious one.

Gorilla lets them in, but Marinette and Kagami keep their distance, partially so as to not interrupt and also because Kagami doesn’t want to talk to Adrien (Adrien awkwardly waves but Kagami ignores him). This leads to a conversation about the break-up, with Marinette talking about how “love is crazy and you’re not supposed to think about it,” but Kagami tells her that that’s exactly the problem; she was so focused on getting Adrien that it blinded her and caused her to just get more hurt when Adrien disappointed her. She also looks at Marinette, pained, and vulnerably admits that the thing that she regrets most is that Adrien damaged their relationship before they became friends.

Marinette reflects on this. When she thinks about it, her “dream” had been to have a house, three kids, and a hamster (referencing back to what Alya said before), but that depends on... well, depending on someone else; a romantic interest. She eyes Xavier, seeing him work so hard with his pigeons to try and achieve his own dream, and wonders how much time she’s spent on trying (and failing) to get Adrien’s attention. It unnerves her and it takes a grab of her arm from Kagami (a little too rough but it got the job done) to snap her out of it.

Basically, her dream should be about her and what she wants to do, yet she’s been relying on someone else for it.

(For the Lukanette lovers out there, yes, this could hypothetically be the moment where she realizes that things weren’t “all about the crush” when it came to Luka, as Luka wasn’t a vacuum that sucked up all available attention to himself.)

The episode plays out as normal, though obviously with just general shenanigans between Bob, Xavier, and Adrien that causes them to mess up without Marinette doing anything. Xavier does his job perfectly but Bob is demanding and tends to shout and mishandle the birds, which causes them to be startled, Adrien’s allergy not helping matters. When Xavier inevitably gets akumatized (bonus if Kagami, inspired by Marinette’s efforts, tries to go after him for some tough love rather than Marinette trying to comfort him), the hero stuff works out the same with the exception that Alya hasn’t figured something out with the grimoire, only that she has a hunch/lead on something but hasn’t connected the dots yet.

Cut to the end of the fight, where Rena Rouge goes up to Ladybug to show her the grimoire pages. She talks about the ladybugs and points to a few particular pages that have objects that aren’t in Ladybug’s arsenal, and she feels like it means something. Ladybug is skeptical, saying that she’s already seen those pages and can’t make sense of them, because said objects seem to be different/better/worse based on the particular Ladybug, and thus there’s no pattern to it.

Then, it clicks with her; the ladybug is the miraculous of Creation, and some are better at creating than others. She’d always been locked on one thing at once, like being just class representative or just someone who pursues Adrien, but she’s so much more than that and also a lot of things at once, and she was so focused on being “a guardian who needs to figure out the grimoire” that she forgot that she was also Ladybug, and a creative Ladybug who has figured out the strangest lucky charms over and over again. The reason all those objects are different in the grimoire is because the ladybug can make them and the ladybug is only limited by their creativity.

Cue Charm Bug transformation, along with Ladybug creating the magical charm to give to Xavier. The transformation is also more narratively appropriate, as Ladybug throws her arms back when her pigtails get longer, which could be seen as her “spreading her wings.”

After Adrien leaves, Marinette watches the car go and comments to Kagami that she too is sad that they hadn’t become friends earlier. She adds that she also decided not to focus on love anymore, and thanks Kagami for helping her in that. She pulls out her sketchpad from her bag and talks about her dream of becoming a fashion designer, leading Kagami to decide to tell Marinette about the fact that she draws.

 I imagine it would start as Chloe actually already being in class when Marinette gets there (since she was late, so it makes sense). She debates to herself on if her seat is really worth it, like does she really want to deal with Chloe?

Meanwhile, Rose and Juleka are talking and Rose is disappointed because she’s all about making friends and Juleka hasn’t made any friends. Juleka insists that she’s tried, but Rose is convinced that it’s her fault because she keeps hanging around Juleka, which doesn’t encourage Juleka to branch out. Rose looks around and, seeing Marinette debating on where to sit, decides to intentionally sit somewhere else, dramatically blowing Juleka a kiss for good luck (as Juleka fumbles to protest).

Back with Marinette, Marinette sneaks past Chloe to search for an empty spot, managing to find one next to Juleka. Marinette tries to greet her, but Juleka is shy and pretending that she didn’t hear her. Sighing to herself, Marinette pulls out her sketchbook and decides to work on her fashion stuff while she waits for the teacher to arrive.

“...Um.”

Marinette glances over, seeing that she properly caught Juleka’s attention now. Marinette looks at the sketchbook, then to Juleka, as if saying, This...?

“That one... looks cool,” Juleka mumbles vaguely.

Marinette blinks, then slides the sketchbook closer encouragingly. “Really? You don’t think it’s too... subtle?”

“I’d wear it,” she argues.

“Really?”

Juleka hums in response. “I-I don’t stand out much anyway.”

“Ugh.” Marinette huffs, briefly facing away from Juleka. “I’m so jealous. I wish I didn’t stand out that much.”

They both pause, glance at each other, then smile. Marinette then opens up her box of macarons to offer Juleka one.

“Marinette.”

“Juleka.”

Juleka then glances down at Rose, who’s beaming at her with an approving look. Juleka blushes and looks away, a little embarrassed by the attention.

The rest of the episode plays out in similar fashion, though Marinette and Juleka also pick up Ivan as a new friend. Ivan had actually gone to Marinette to thank her for encouraging him to confess to Mylene as, even if it didn’t work out at first, he’s glad he did it. Juleka also takes the time to mention that she “liked his song,” because she could hear his loud singing even from outside the room (which embarrasses Ivan but he takes the compliment anyway). This officially branches out the friend group from “girl squad” by adding Ivan into the mix.

I would even add Luka into the first episode to let him meet both Marinette and Ladybug, meeting Ladybug in part 1 when he’s worriedly looking for his sister and she has to take him to safety, then part 2 at the end where he’s there to walk Juleka and Rose home (Ivan joins and Luka is surprised that Juleka is openly talking like, “You should hear him sing.”). Marinette recalls him mentioning that he was looking for “his sister” and honestly hadn’t made the connection that said sister was Juleka.

Luka notices Marinette and Rose, Ivan, and Juleka all try to compliment her at once, overwhelming Marinette who only made friends with them recently and wasn’t prepared to be complimented!!

Luka approaches and thanks her for being such a good friend to his sister. Marinette insists that she hasn’t done anything and that Juleka is her first friend, so it’s not like she’s experienced or anything (even pulling out leftover macarons from the day before to show that she’d meant to make more friends and failed); and besides, he’s one to talk about her being a good friend when he was out there looking for his sister when there was an akuma running amok!

Luka blanks like you saw that?? and Marinette has to catch herself a little, explaining that she “just saw him from a distance.” Juleka actually leaves her quiet mode momentarily to scold him for running off into danger without her and Luka grins sheepishly as a replacement for an apology.

Luka then turns his attention back on Marinette, grinning wide and offering a handshake to her. “If you want more experience, I’d be glad to be your--” He looks back to count Rose and Ivan, then back at Marinette. “--fourth friend?”

“R-really?” Marinette hesitates, but smiles and reaches out, shaking Luka’s hand back. They share a mutually fond expression and Rose, Juleka and Ivan look after them with various looks (Juleka is intrigued, Rose thinks it’s adorable, and Ivan is curious). Marinette might also share her leftover macarons with them and wish them well (as she’s heading home to the bakery instead).

They all walk off after that, leaving Marinette smiling in place. Tikki pops out to insist that five is a perfect number for a group! There are even five spots on each side of the ladybug yoyo!

Marinette considers that, then looks off where the group left, imagining her and her four friends. “...Yeah. Five is plenty.”

She walks off, satisfied.

Marinette and Luka crushing on her won’t be officially confirmed until “Captain Hardrock,” meaning Season 1 is there to lay the groundwork for the show and establish the rest of the classmates as proper characters (as the Adrien crush usually wasted time and ended up overshadowing whatever classmate was there for the episode). Rose, Ivan, and Juleka are primarily featured during episodes involving the class, whereas Luka comes in during episodes that aren’t (such as “Guitar Villain”), giving Marinette a lot of one-on-one time with him.

Juleka’s arc mostly centers around her being more open and feeling like she relies on people too much, whereas Marinette’s would be more that she lets people rely on her too much, which is now furthered by her being Ladybug and having a partner who could easily choose to let her do all the work (hypothetically). Juleka and Marinette also have a shared interest in fashion and Juleka will eventually need to learn to be bolder if she really wants to become a model.

(there might even be a meta joke in there where Marinette sees that Alya runs the Ladyblog and is like wow I dodged a bullet by sitting with Juleka instead)

Both Luka and Marinette can also have their own shared arc about learning to be more selfish and invested in their own personal happiness, and then later on get meddled with by Kitty Section (where it’s a lot more mutual because they know that both Luka and Marinette are crushing on each other). The whole of Kitty Section itself also gets focus, all being assortments of sweet/kind that’ll ultimately lead to the best outcomes in the end.

The whole class also doesn’t need miraculouses and I’d personally have Kitty Section cover most of them (with people like Mylene getting a couple as well). Marinette not having a crush that takes over means more focus on her and her relationships on a deeper level and--