cheering up Jake

|2 days later|

"Do you think it's a good idea to show up at his home unannounced?" Rose asks, heading to the chinese healing shop Juleka saw Jake at two weeks ago.

"Yes. He seems lonely and you're the best one to help with that." Juleka replies in a mumble.

"Oh thank you Juleka. That's too nice." The happy girl says smiling brightly and hugs her best friend.

"Come on it's right over there." Juleka says, pointing at the shop where the two girls see Jake carry a heavy looking stone statue on his shoulder.

"He's stronger than he looks." Rose says impressed, almost having stars in her eyes.

"Seems that way, come on let's see if he has time." Juleka says, gathering her nerves and grabs Rose's hand, entering the shop, catching both men's attention.

"Oh, Jake I think you have guests over." The old man says, smiling at them from his seat on a pillow with some tea in front of him.

"Yeah. Do you have time or are you busy?" Rose asks quickly, seeing Juleka get nervous.

"Sure. Want to come up to my room?" He offers, the blonde nodding eagerly, pulling her dark-haired bestie along.

"Be careful not to reveal anything. There are some rare artefacts in this household." Master Fu tells Jake before he can follow the girls upstairs.

"Sure, like you old man." Jake jokes, making the man's kwami laugh, but only receives a disapproving look from his grandfather.

"Ah you've found it already." Jake says, arriving in his room with the two girls standing in the middle of it.

"Sorry. Are we intruding?" Juleka asks quietly.

"No. My grandfather just doesn't like me very much. Beats me why he was so adamant on me coming here." Jake tells them, putting down some pillows for them and himself.

"Want something to drink?" Jake offers, receiving a happy nod from Rose.

"I hope lemonade is fine. Gramps doesn't really drink anything other than tee so we don't have much diversity I'm afraid." Jake tells them, fetching glasses and a bottle of cold lemonade from the kitchen area across from his room.

"Your house style is very interesting", Rose says.

"Gramps Fu is old fashioned that way. This is a typical asian styled house." Jake replies, setting down the drinks in front of them and sits down across from the best friends.

"So, why are you here?" Jake asks curiously.

"You seemed lonely and I wanted you to meet Rose." Juleka says, looking in her lap.

"It's that obvious huh?" He asks with an embarrassed chuckle.

"No. I had no idea before Juleka mentioned it." Rose says, hugging her friends side.

"Well I appreciate the gesture. I really do but I don't think I'm really the greatest company." Jake tells them.

Juleka mumbles something but none of the two understand her.

"What were you saying Juleka?" Rose asks, looking at her friend.

"I said I - I always enjoyed your company Jake." Juleka blurts out, breathing heavily afterwards.

"Thanks. I know it's not easy for you to say stuff like that so I'll treasure this moment." Jake says with a kind smile.

"Hey, do you like Ice cream?" Rose suddenly asks Jake, not picking up on the intense eye contact the other two are sharing.

"Who doesn't. Why?" Jake replies.

"We should go looking for Andre's ice cream stall." Rose suggests excitedly.

"Who's that?" Jake asks.

"You don't know Andre yet? He's only this great ice cream vendor who knows just what taste you like and who is a good pair for you. He's the ice cream matchmaker." Rose tells Jake.

"Is she for real?" Jake asks confused, Juleka nodding with a smile, looking at her giddy best friend.

"Alright, let's go. And just ignore Gramps Fu when we get downstairs." Jake says, taking his skateboard and helmet, before leading the girls downstairs and out of the shop.

"So where is this Andre's shop?" Jake asks.

"He posts hint on his page, but he always changes locations." Rose says, showing Jake pictures of the park he and Juleka met in.

"Hmm, but where could that be?" Rose asks aloud.

"I think Jules...ka and I just know the place." Jake says, leading the small group towards the park, noticing Juleka eyeing his skateboard curiously.

"Are you a dragon fan perhaps? You have a cool design on your skateboard." Juleka compliments him, looking at a red dragon shaped symbol on a green and black background.

"Yeah. Haha, you got me." He says nervously, having forgotten about the design Trixie made for him back in America.

"Did you make it? It's really well done. I'm sure Alix would think so too." Rose asks excitedly.

"No actually a friend back home made it and uhh send it to me." He lies, since he has no other explanation to why he would have had the design beforehand.

"Too bad. Still it looks cool." Rose says.

"There he is. Andre!" Rose then says taking off ahead of the two, getting an vanilla and Stracciatella ice cream from the man.

"Hello Juleka, oh and I see you and Rose brought a friend." Andre says, preparing the usual ice cream for the girl consisting of raspberry, chocolate and blueberry, Juleka having a slight frown on her face while she accepts the ice cream.

"I'm Jake." Jake introduces himself with a handshake.

"Nice to meet you Jake. The first time is on the house." Andre says with a bright smile, preparing an ice cream with a double scoop of strawberry and mint on top.

"Thanks." Jake says accepting the ice cream and heads over to the two girls, Rose already happily digging into her ice cream while Juleka looks at hers with a sigh.

"So Andre is nice. Though I think he swapped our orders." He says, swapping his ice cream with Juleka's, making her look at him and the dessert excitedly.

"It's plain as day that you don't like those flavors to me." Jake tells Juleka, licking over his ice cream with Juleka also enjoying her treat for the first time since she started visiting Andre every now and then, always hoping the man would prepare her another ice cream.

"Thank you." She says with a grin.

"Here, now you can even see the ice cream." Jake chuckles, taking an hair clip from Rose's purse and clips it on the blue bang covering her face.

"You have beautiful eyes you know." Jake compliments her.

"Oh my gosh Juleka you look so cute." Rose shouts excitedly, rarely seeing her friend like this.

"Thanks." She mumbles, trying to hide behind her ice cream.

"Thanks for today. I am lonely without my family and my old friends. We had a special relationship kind of. They knew everything about my life, something that'll be hard to share with people here." Jake explains, enjoying his ice cream.

"Why?" Juleka asks curiously, guessing he means his identity as dragon.

"I'm sure people would understand. I think I would understand whatever it is." Juleka says, sounding convinced of something for the first time since he knows the girl.

"Thank you. But sadly it's not only my decision to share parts of my life. My gramps has a right to decide on this for now at least." Jake says.

"For now? Are you moving back to America?" Juleka asks worried.

"No. I just think that at some point I should look for my own place here, even if Gramps is my legal guardian." Jake tells her.

"I know how you feel I live on the houseboat you saw. But I don't even like water." Juleka confesses with Rose coming back over to them, having said goodbye to Andre who is relocating.

"This place has some nice memories, for me at least." Jake says, putting down his skateboard and finishes his ice cream.

"Yeah. Me too." Juleka says, thinking back to the countless drawings of him she made.

"Hey. I just got an idea. You should talk to Alix. She's a roller blader I'm sure she knows a place where you could go with your skateboard." Rose says, seeing him play around with his board a bit with his feet, still sitting next to Rose.

"Yeah. That'd be amazing. I have been looking for a skaterpark." Jake says.

"I think we should get going though, it's going to rain soon." Jake tells them, smelling the rain in the air with his superhuman senses.

"It looks sunny out though." Rose says confused.

"Just trust me on this." Jake says, taking both girls hands after he secured his skateboard on his back.

A couple minutes later, the three drop of Rose and Jake brings Juleka home, the rain starting to come down when they reach the house boat.

"Come in or you'll catch a cold." Juleka says, ushering Jake into her home, closing the door to the deck quickly.

"Sorry about the mess. My mom insists. She says that it's good for a free spirit and unrestrained flow of inspiration." Juleka explains a bit embarrassed.

"Juleka you're back. And you brought a friend?" Juleka's brother Louka says.

"This is Jake. Jake my older brother Louka." Juleka says.

"Nice to meet you. I wasn't aware Juleka has a brother in all honestly." Jake says.

"She doesn't talk much about her family." Louka says, shooting his sister a grin.

"Could you both look away. I need to change clothes." Juleka requests blushing heavily.

"No problem Jules." The two say almost in unison.

"Jules?" Jake asks in realization.

"Yeah. I call her that sometimes." Louka says.

"Funny since she doesn't like me calling her that." Jake chuckles.

"It's no surprise to me. My sister is a very private person. I'm surprised she brought a guy over honestly." Louka says.

"So do you go to the same school as Juleka and I?" Jake asks.

"Oh, not anymore. I already graduated." Louka says.

"What are you doing then?" Jake questions.

"I'm studying music." Louka says, motioning to the guitar on his back.

"Kids I'm telling you there is an Akuma in the water. So don't go swimming here." A woman says, entering, being a bit soaked from the rain.

"Who are you?" She asks Jake surprised, with him and Louka standing facing away from her children's bedroom.

"Jake Long. I'm Juleka's classmate maam." Jake introduces himself.

"Hah, call me captain." She tells him.

"So, you go to school with my Juleka. How's she doing in class?" The woman asks.

"Uhh not sure I only came to Paris like 2 weeks ago." Jake replies.

"Really? Are you also a traveler at heart?" The woman asks intrigued.

"No. My grandfather just wanted me to come stay with him and help him with his shop and my parents thought it'd be a nice change of scenery from the streets of New York." Jake informs her.

"You speak French pretty well for an American." Juleka's mother says.

"My mother taught me since I was little due to our family here." Jake explains.

"That's nice. Well it's nice to meet you, but I have to do something now." The woman says, giving Jake a quick hug before disappearing through another door.

"Jules, are you done already?" Louka asks his sister.

"Uhh, yeah sorry. Thanks." She mumbles, stepping out of the room with Louka going inside to his bed and writes something down for a song.

"Pretty unique family you have." Jake says smiling.

"What does that mean?" Juleka asks offended.

"It's a good thing. Believe me. My dad is the total opposite of my mom too as am I with my little sister. She's the over achiever and I just want to live my life to the fullest." Jake tells her.

"You have a sister?" Juleka asks surprised.

"Yeah Haley. Her favorite free time activity was teasing me because her grades are better than mine. That's at least something I'm not missing." Jake says with a chuckle.

"Why do you think your grandfather doesn't like you?" Juleka asks.

"Because he doesn't. I remind him of his painful past." Jake says, thinking about the story his mother told him about how Fu created a monster that ate almost all of the kwami boxes except for the one he saved along with the monks who took him in. And that Fu was actually there for his birth but the next day he left and never showed his face again, only advising his mother to give him up or prepare him for a lot of hardship.

As luck would have it his mother chose the latter with Jake having become a kind of leader for the supernatural creatures in New York with help of an old magical dog.

"I miss Fu dog." Jake sighs thinking about one of his best friends and kind of mislead mentor back in New York.

"Your grandfather's dog?" Juleka asks.

"No just a special dog I knew back in New York it's actually a coincidence they are both named Fu." Jake says.

"Maybe your grandfather will let you get another dog?" Juleka suggests.

"It wouldn't be the same." Jake says shaking his head with a small smile.

"Anyways. I'm curious why are you always so quiet, shy and flustered? You are easily the most beautiful girl in class and are actually kind unlike Chloe for example." Jake asks Juleka, the two sitting on a couch in the living room area on the ship.

"That's just me. I can't help it." Juleka sighs.

"Anything I can do to help boost your confidence?" Jake asks, pushing her bang back behind her ear again, looking her deep in her eyes.

"No. I don't think so." Juleka says looking away embarrassed, brushing away his gentle hand.

"Juleka..." Jake starts to say but the girl goes to the door, opening it with the rain having stopped.

"I think you should go now. I'm sure your grandfather is waiting for you." Juleka tells him quietly.

"Alright. But don't think I've given up on getting you to show everyone just how great you are." Jake tells her with a smirk, picking up his skateboard before leaving the houseboat.