gone in an instant (or here 'til the bitter end), by @sunfoxfic
AO3 link; POV Adrien Agreste, AU - No Miraculous, AU - Bands, Fluff, Aged-Up Character(s) (Adrien's 17, Luka's 18), Teenage Rebellion
Luka, known in the music scene as Viperion, has dragged Adrien out to a party to show him what rebellion is like. Chat gets a little overwhelmed, but that's okay.
Viperion climbed onto the roof, hauling himself up through the window with his upper body strength. The December air must have been biting at his bare skin, and the sheen of sweat from his intense performance on stage could only make that worse, but he still sat next to Adrien.
"You should go inside and enjoy the party," Adrien said. "Have fun. Really."
"Was this not your scene?" Viperion asked. He pulled up his hood, the cobra-shaped lip covering his blue hair almost entirely.
"It was alright," Adrien said. "I had a lot of fun. I'm just... tired."
Luka smirked at him for the briefest of moments, then looked back to the city skyline. The band played at an abandoned warehouse on top of a gorgeous hill, and Adrien wondered how a place like this could even exist in Paris. It felt as close to natural as the city could ever get — maybe not in that it was untouched by humankind, but in that no one had incentive to manufacture it.
They looked out over the city of lights. The orange glow of streetlights shined in Luka's eyes.
"It can be exhausting, can't it?" Luka asked rhetorically. "I forget how tired I can get. Man, this is a gorgeous view."
Adrien rolled his eyes and smiled a little. "You're nowhere close to tired, are you? You should get back inside. This is your scene, and you deserve to enjoy it. I'm happy alone."
"I didn't take you here to be alone."
"You took me here to enjoy the party, and I'm not doing that anyway."
"I took you here" — Luka stretched his arms out above him, then settled one along Adrien's shoulders, pulling him close — "to get you some life experience. And man, there's no experience like seeing Paris from this angle at night... Really helps you to understand why it's called the City of Lights."
Luka looked up at the sky, and Adrien took that brief moment to admire him. He was all angles and hard surfaces — he had a straight nose, a hard jawline, no cheekbones in sight. It wasn't really attractive, not to the normal eye, but the familiarity had another layer of comfort to it, to Adrien — just how distinctive it was.
He'd never find comfort like it again, so for now, he would soak it up.
"I'm glad I came tonight," Adrien said. "I had fun."
"Even if you ended up on the roof?" Luka asked.
"Especially because," Adrien said, and he buried his head into the fleshy warmth of Luka's neck.
