14- mystery tune

                                    

                                          
I walked inside the boat alongside the shy emo girl that kept me company every Friday. 
                          
"You're later than usual" Luka looked up from his notebook.
                          
"The teacher had us do some extra work" Juleka explained heading to her room. "Good luck with your class" 
                          
She left me and Luka alone. I smiled to him shyly, grabbing my backpack strip with my left hand while my right hand held on to the guitar case. He waved his hand and closed his notebook. I was taking my backpack off when he interrupted. 
                          
"Y/n wait! I was thinking we could go somewhere else today" He smiled and looked around. "The weather is so perfect, it would be a waste to just stay here" 
                          
"What do you have in mind?" I slowly put my backpack on again.
                          
"The canal is always a good spot to chill" He suggested. I nodded in agreement, remembering the first time we had been there and I played my ukelele for him. 
                          
"Let's go then!" I smiled to him. He only had to grab a few things and then we were on our way. 
                          
While walking we talked. I can't exactly recall what we talked about, but I know it was something pleasant. In just an instant we had arrived, much quicker than what I remembered. 
                          
I carefully put my things down and sat on the edge of the stone. He stretched his arms and legs before joining me. I was already opening my notebook when he touched my arm to call my attention. 
                          
"I thought we could just play for fun today. You're doing great with the classes, you deserve a break" he showed me his honest smile, making me melt. His eyes were extra shiny because of the blue sky that reflected on the waters of the canal and, in return, in his eyes. He turned to the opposite side, unpacking his guitar from it's old case. I looked at his slender silhouette, analysing each unique characteristic. 
                          
It wasn't long before he had his guitar in hand. He strummed up and down to check if it was tuned. 
                          
"Hey, can you help me with something?" He didn't look away from his guitar, suddenly with an embarrassed face. 
                          
"Yeah, what do you need?" I asked, tilting my head to try to look at his face properly. 
                          
"I'm writing a very important song and I want to know what you think of it... I want you to be completely honest" His eyes were stuck on his hands. He seemed too ashamed to even move his gaze to me. I nodded seriously, noticing the peculiar new tone he was talking with. 
                          
He breathed deeply and whispered to himself "here we go". Then he started playing a very calm but nice melody. It shifted between long sequences of chords to long pauses and moments of quiet strumming. He looked very focused, feeling every note and trying his best to make it sound as good as possible. Midway he stopped abruptly and sighed looking down. 
                          
"I'm stuck..." He announced. 
                          
"It sounds nice" I smiled to him. 
                          
"But isn't it too slow?" He raised his head a bit, waiting for my opinion.
                          
"It depends on the vibe you want to convey. Right now it gives me peaceful and caring vibes" 
                          
"Oh... That's good, that's good..." He sounded a bit disappointed. "But I was going for a more bright and cheerful kinda of thing.... I don't know" 
                          
He sighed and sulked in his jacket. 
                          
"M-maybe just cut the long pauses or, hummm...-" I stuttered trying to make him feel better and help the best I could. Thankfully he interrupted my messy words.
                          
"It's fine, don't worry about it" he smiled, not letting his worries get to him. "I still have time to fix it. Thanks for the honest opinion, it will help me greatly" He raised his hand and gently pat my head. I stared at him in silence, processing his words and actions. I blushed and shifted my attention to the floor quickly. 
                          
We heard a voice in the distance shouting. We looked to the side where the noise was coming from and saw Andre, the ice cream man, setting his little cart with goodies on the side of the canal. We looked at each other, thinking the same thing. 
                          
"Hungry?" Luka asked. 
                          
"Yup!" I answered right away.
                          
We both grabbed our wallets and walked to the cart. Andre noticed us right away and smiled. 
                          
"Well if it isn't Luka and Y/n! Welcome! What will you have today?" 
                          
"Hi! I think I'll have the usual thanks" I took out my money while he grabbed his spoons. 
                          
"And if I remember correctly, you want strawberry with chocolate chips, blackberry and blueberry right? Or perhaps, you'd like to try a new flavour?" He raised an eyebrow to Luka while stealing a few glances at me. 
                          
"Hmmm... I think I'll stick with the old one, but thanks for the offer" He replied innocently. The man just looked at me with pity and then proceeded to get our ice creams done. I didn't exactly know what the meaning of it was but I hoped it wasn't serious. There were still so many things I had to learn about the city and it's people. I was yet to know the importance in Andre's ice creams, for some reason everyone cared a lot about them and the flavours he gave each person. 
                          
"Thanks Andre" "Thank you" We payed and headed back to our little ledge. Andre waved goodbye from his tiny cart with a big smile on his face. 
                          
We sat down eating our ice creams. There was a moment of silence, which should have been comfortable but I was to eager to talk to him to let it happen for longer than a minute.
                          
"Andre's really nice"
                          
It was the first thing that came to mind. It wasn't the best subject to talk about but it was a start.
                          
"Yeah, he is. So generous and kind, we're really lucky he works here" Luka turned around to take a look at him. 
                          
"I can't even imagine him angry" I chuckled while taking a bit of the top ball with my plastic spoon. 
                          
"I only saw him like that when he got akumatized... I'm glad it only happened once" 
                          
"Wait, Andre got akumatized?" I stopped everything to look at Luka waiting for answers. It didn't fit my head that the kind man that gave ice cream along with compliments had possibly turned into a monster and hurt people. 
                          
"I don't know if it's my place to talk about it... It was before you moved here" He answered quietly. I felt embarrassed for even asking it.
                          
"Oh yeah sorry... It must be terrible. I don't even understand how it happens but from what I've seen, it makes people act unlike themselves."
                          
"It really does... I don't remember much from when I was akumatized, just the feeling of hate and rage burning inside my head." He spoke with a serious tone. His mouth that usually had a slight tilt to it was straight like a line. 
                          
"I'm so sorry you had to go through that! It sounds terrifying" 
                          
After a bit of silence between me trying to find the words to say and him remembering the past, he chuckled and shook his head. 
                          
"Enough with the sad topic. Let's talk about something else" He looked at me with an expecting face, waiting for me to start saying whatever I felt like. 
                          
My heart beat faster. I felt so comfortable around him, I knew I could just say the stupidest thing ever and he would manage to care about it. Just because he was that kind, that caring, that lovely. He payed attention to what I said and genuinely enjoyed talking to me. And that alone was enough to make me fall for someone. But he wasn't just that, he was that and talented and beautiful and amazing and... And the only thing I could think about...