SALTY DAMINETTE BECAUSE I CAN (first fic lol) - AussieWaffleGeko (2024)

Chapter 1: Crossing the line drawn in the ash...

Chapter Text

“Tikki, Spots off…”

Marinette falls to her bed with a groan, todays akuma wasn’t hard, just kinda time consuming, time she didn’t have to spare. Marinette was tired. So f*cking tired… between being class-president of bunch of people who hate her to being the Guardian to a bunch of tiny gods who are now floating above her in worry. Marinette didn’t really have time to be tired, so she simply told her anxious brain to kindly f*ck off and let her rest for three-god-damn-seconds before she got a start on her latest commission. Oh, did she forget to mention that she is also running her own fashion business with one of the world’s best rock musicians as her main client? Yeah, her life is a living hell at the moment. Which is why these next couple of seconds of rest would do her wonde-

“Marinette someone is trying to contact you through the Miraculous.com call centre” Tikki’s high pitched voice interrupted her short-lived rest.

“And it looks kinda important pigtails” the nasally voice of Plagg exclaimed.

“aaaarrghhh” Marinette groaned as she removed her face from her cushioned bed, she sat up and made her way down her ladder to the computer on her desk.

Now why is Plagg in her room, you may be asking yourself? Well, let me be the bearer of bad news, Chat’s Miraculous had to be confiscated almost a year ago, after he crossed a line he really shouldn’t have.

Flash back time because I’m the author and what I say goes ;)

Also this next couple of Paragraphs are gonna get violent so skip to the end of the time skip if you don't wanna read that sh*t :))

It was on a fateful day of one of the worst Akuma’s since Syren. Chat was running late as always while Ladybug has had to revert to using the Mouse Miraculous to stay on top of this akuma, by using her multiples she was able cast an illusion hiding most of her multiples as to they tried to save the remaining civilians in the area, while having to use Sass’ miraculous to repeat any fatal mistakes she made in the process. Now why is this akuma almost as bad as Syren? Well, you see this akuma had been making people burn alive from the inside out, what caused this akuma you may also be asking? Ladybug had no f*cking clue. All she knew was that by using Barkk’s Miraculous power the Akuma was in lighter that was being used to light people on fire.

The smell of burning flesh, and the screams of anguish was even more nightmare fuel for the struggling Ladybug. But she couldn’t help but worry about what had happened to Chat since he hadn’t shown face all fight. Did he get caught before he could transform, did he burn alive, did he scream like the others had? She hoped against all hope that the mangy cat was ok (even though these days she was worrying less and less about her partners wellbeing), hopefully he didn’t die a painful deat-

“Miss me milady?” Chat called as he landed right beside where she was currently hiding and trying to plan a safe way to get a hold of the akumatized item.

And of course, the dumb cat managed to call attention to her hiding spot so that the akuma saw her and Chat.

“Chat her Akuma is in the lighter, we need to make a pla-” ladybug tried to tell him before he rushed headfirst toward the akuma

“goddammit” Ladybug thought bitterly, “could he just wait and listen just once” she turned to go save the idiot she had the displeasure to call a partner from being burnt alive just to see him call on his cataclysm and not hit the lighter the akuma was holding, but the akuma herself!

“CHAT” Ladybug screamed as she watched in avid horror as the akuma victim screamed in utter agony as she dispersed into dust… Now that is going to haunt her nightmares for as long as she lives.

“What? that was much easier than whatever convoluted plan you were going to come up with” he said casually as he picked up the pink lighter and dusted off the ashes that clung to it like a horrific paint job. Ladybug just stood there in shock, her partner- NO- he is no partner of hers. He just killed the victim… HE JUST KILLED A CIVILLIAN and was showing no outward signs of regret or sympathy.

“Cat got your tongue milady. What no kiss for your knight in shining armou-” she didn’t let him finish that sentence instead she took three shaking steps towards him and slapped him hard across the face, making him stumble and fall to the ground in shock. “What the f*ck milady, I just saved you and the rest of Paris, I’m the hero you aren’t supposed hit me!!” he whined as he spat blood onto the cracked scorched ground beneath him.

Ladybug was livid, she had never felt more anger as she had that day, coursing through her veins as hot as the Akuma’s fire. She wanted to pummel him into the ground he was lying against nursing his newly bruised cheek. She could deal with Chat sexually harassing her on a daily basis, she could deal with Chat complaining to her as Marinette about Ladybug’s prudishness and how it was unfair that he was getting turned down, she could deal with Chat rocking up late to akuma battles, she could deal with Chat getting taken out of akuma battles, but this was something that if she couldn’t just ‘deal with’.

“Chat Noir, you just killed a civilian, do you not realise that?” she had said, venom dripping from every word. Chat not getting the memo that Ladybug was furious with him shrugged nonchalantly saying “so what? Your Miraculous Ladybug is going to bring them back anyways, and they won’t remember a thing! Win win,”

Ladybug couldn’t believe this was happening… No wait, she could. Considering how Chat had been acting as of late it was totally in-line with what she should have expected; running late to attacks, sulking on the sidelines when she said something he didn’t like, rushing head in without a plan, flirting after/during the attack, leaving her to clean up his mess afterwards… Well Ladybug had had enough.

“Chat Noir, I as guardian of the Miraculous here-by renounce you as a suitable holder of the Black cat miraculous of destruction, and forbid you from talking about or using a miraculous ever again”

She could still remember how his face went from being confused to angry within a span of seconds, before finally settling on pain, as the ring was forcibly removed by the curse leaving a burning scar on his finger where the ring had laid. A flash of sickly green overtook the overgrown man-child leaving an angry Adrien in its wake. And in that moment Ladybug was almost angrier at herself for not seeing it earlier. Of course, the dumbass Chat was her classmate with the spine of a jellyfish. Keyword “almost” because in that moment, surrounded by burning bodies, buildings and piles of ash ladybug and her multiples stood around the pathetic boy as he tried to grab the newly materialised Plagg from the air. Keyword “almost” because Plagg looked as angry as she was at the boy, he took one look at him and then turned without saying a word, he picked up the ring and flew towards Ladybug, sorrow clashing with the anger swirling in his large green eyes.

“He should have never been trusted with that power” He spat “Fu was wrong about him; he only cares for himself and his so called ‘freedom’. I am so sorry you have had to put up with him all these years alone”

Adrian looked shocked and then angry at Plaggs words, as if what he had just said was as outrageous of a lie as Lila’s “I got tinnitus from saving Jagged Stone’s kitten from an aeroplane runway” lie.

“Plagg, I command you to bring the ring to me this second” Adrian commanded, his voice full of confidence, as if he thought that it would work. Plagg just simply turned around to face the boy and spat a big ol’ glob of stinky cheese spit straight into his eye without hesitation. Ladybug would have laughed if not for her current situation. She gently took the ring from Plagg as she re-merged with her multiples, leaving multi-bug standing before the Agreste boy. She then grabbed the lighter and stomped on it, breaking free the akuma, capturing it and purifying it, before calling her miraculous ladybug…

End flash back

Shaking her head from those dark memories she turned to look at the computer, “whose calling Tikki?” she asked the sweet Kwami,

“The Justice League”

“sh*t”

Chapter 2: The justice league get a clue

Chapter Text

Timothy Drake was bored, and when he was bored he would crack cold cases, but there were no more cases to crack, so he took to organising the Leagues computer because he was soooo bored... as he sat cross legged on the swirly chair in front of the enormous computer, he decided that it could be running three milliseconds faster than it was, so he thought to go through the trash of the computer. As he was deleting nameless files and files that were no longer relevant, he accidentally opened a video that was nearly 5 years old. Damn maybe he did need more coffee if he was accidentally double-clicking things now. Since he was BORED he thought that he may as well watch the random video…

The video was like watching a bad child’s cartoon that was filmed shakily on said child’s phone. A stone monster had been turned into multiple stone monsters, a girl dressed in red and black spandex and a boy dressed in a leather catsuit saved the day and all damage was reversed back to normal, but not before the main antagonist made himself known through black magic butterflies. Just as he was about to write it off as bad writing and CGI, Wonder Woman walked in with her mug of coffee (it was the early morning after all (and yes, Tim had been sorting and organising the computer all night)).

The sound of shattering porcelain shocked Tim so much that he fell right out of the swirly chair that he had made himself comfortable in. Turning around with a groan he looked up to see Wonder Woman frozen in shock, staring at the screen. Looking back up to the screen to see what was so interesting only to find the video paused on the two hero’s bumping fists. Still not understanding what had Wonder Woman frozen he voiced his thoughts, asking what had her so shaken up.

“What is the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous doing back in circulation” Wonder Woman all but whimpered.

“…what?” Tim stuttered, “You mean to tell me that this video is real!”

Snapping out of whatever trance she was in Wonder Woman looked down at Tim, who had decided that the floor was now his home and was not getting up and picked him up off the floor and put him back onto the chair that he had previously called his home. “Tim, if the Ladybug and Black Cat miraculous are in circulation a world ending event is either in the process of occurring, in the process of being stopped, or has happened. We must offer our assistance immediately, since the wielders look to be but children” Wonder Woman stated seriously.

Scratching his head Tim said “errrrr, about that we may be a little late to help them, if it’s still going on at all…” Wonder Woman’s head snapped to Tim

“What do you mean” her voice deadly quiet

“I found this video in the trash on the computer while I was organising it… this video is around 5 years old…” Tim said inwardly cringing, “this should end well” he thought sarcastically

“WHAT?!” Wonder woman shouted, “nonononononono” she thought “This can’t be happening, how did we miss this” she started to frantically pace the length of the computer room, “we must call an emergency meeting at once” she stated hoping that she was not too late to offer her assistance to her sister, “find out if this is still going on, NO- find out all information possible on this immediately, this is now top priority, I shall gather everyone in half an hour. I expect you to have found out all you can on the situation by the time the meeting starts”

Nodding frantically Tim swung around to face the computer once again. “Well, at least I’m not bored anymore”

Wonder Woman stood in front of the entire Justice League with a face that could have intimidated a stone statue. Nodding to Tim, she got him to pull up the two websites that where only accessible via VPN. As Tim pulled up the LadyBlog and with it the cover page which had a photo of the two heroes on it, someone could be heard laughing from the group. Turning her head to the noise Wonder Woman spotted Green Lantern trying to hold in his laughter. Nudging Batman he chuckled, “I think your boy has finally lost it if he is believing these videos”

Wonder Woman saw red, fast as lightning she was holding the glowstick up a foot off the ground by his ear she said “you have seen this video before…”

Gulping and trying not to cry out as she held him steadfast by his ear he whimpered “Yeah I saw them, they’re a load of bull though. I mean even I could come up with a better plot line and graphics”

“Them…” Wonder Woman ground out. “You’ve seen multiple of these videos, and you did not go see if there was anything real about them”

Seeing how mad Wonder Woman was and wanting to keep his ear he responded simply “I mean when I got like the 5^th call from the supposed superhero, I ended up calling them back and telling them to stop prank calling the League and if they did it again or sent any more crappy videos that they… would be… fined…” Green Lantern trailed off as Wonder Woman grew angrier by the word.

“Get out of my sight before I f*cking kill you.” She said with a perfect calm that had Green Lantern wanting to puke. He sprinted out the room as he was not one to test her patience.

“Now!” Wonder Woman clapped, startling everyone in the room, “Tim would you be as kind to show and explain your findings”

“Sure thing” Tim replied, a little shaken from Wonder Woman’s actions towards her co-worker moments ago.

“First I should explain what an Akuma is, how they happen, who the heroes are, and what their powers are.” Tim said looking to the heroes gathered “An Akuma is a civilian who felt a negative emotion, whether that be anger, sadness, jealousy, frustration, literally any negative emotion. The civilian becomes ‘akumatized’ and gets transformed into a super villain with powers based off whatever caused them to feel their negative emotion. When this happens the ‘akumatized victim’ is no longer in control of their actions, as they become a puppet to their emotions and the main villains Hawkmoth and Mayura.”

“The villains use civilians to do their dirty work?” came the horrified mutter from Nightwing as he slowly took in the situation.

“Yes,” Tim continued, “the heroes Ladybug and Chat Noir then have to find the ‘akumatized object’, which is the object being used to control the victim and destroy it thus destroying the connection between hawkmoth and the victim. The hero Ladybug then captures the corrupt butterfly used to control the victim and purifies it so that it doesn’t multiply. Then if any damage was done, she uses her power, ‘Miraculous Ladybug’ to return the damage back to how it was before the fight.”

“They look so young, the heroes” Superman says quietly, “that’s a lot of pressure to win put onto a kid’s shoulders” murmurs of agreement spread through the heroes and vigilantes.

“The main heroes consist of Ladybug and Chat Noir, sometimes they are joined by temporary heroes for assistance in a particularly rough battle, but for now I am just going to go through our main heroes’ powers and personalities” Tim continued, whilst agreeing that the heroes looked way too young to be dealing with what they are.

“Ladybug is the leader; she is the one who has to come up with plans to defeat the victim. Her power Miraculous Ladybug has two parts, the first part is that she gets an item that she needs to help her defeat the super-powered civilian. Now to preface Ladybug has stated in an interview that her power gives her what she NEEDS not what she wants, so her plans tend to be convoluted and revolve around the use of the random object her power has given her. The objects range from a shoelace to a car jack.” Wonder Woman new this already but she also knew that if you weren’t smart enough to figure out a way to use the object, it was basically useless.

“Her second part of the power is more interesting and important. It reverts all and any damage caused by the akuma, this includes building damage, wounds civilians may have acquired and death” Wonder Woman’s head snapped to Tim’s at that last part. That was not a part of her power. She should know her mother was a wielder. What does that mean? Is this wielder more powerful than her mother? “What is this wielder sacrificing to bring back the dead?!”

“Chat Noirs power,” Tim continued, oblivious to Wonder Woman’s internal freak out, “is that of destruction called ‘cataclysm’ where anything he touches turns to ash instantly, this power is useful for destroying objects that would be impossible to destroy otherwise, like objects made out of metal. Chat Noir himself is in my opinion, not a very good hero” Tim said somewhat timidly afraid of being judged for judging another hero. The group of heroes started to murmur and shift at his statement, before they could argue Tim continued “Let me explain, he never takes things seriously, puts himself in danger needlessly, and always relies on ladybug, putting even more pressure on his partner. In the videos of the fights, he constantly flirts with Ladybug, even after she tells him to stop. More recently he doesn’t even show up to fights, leaving ladybug by herself. And when he does show up, he either immediately gets incapacitated or gets in the way of ladybug. There have been accounts of civilians seeing him sit on the sidelines, watching his partner fight and when asked why he wasn’t joining in the fight he said, and I quote ‘well if milady needs me then she will just have to agree to go on a date with me! Since she hasn’t agreed, I am going to sit out until she comes to her senses and gives me a chance’” Wonder Woman was furious. Tim looked furious, everyone looked furious. How dare this child use his power in such selfish ways!

“Are. You. f*ckING. Kidding me!!!” Red Hood shouted!

“I know…” Tim said with a defeated sigh, “Ladybug seems to be Paris’ first and last line of defence, and her alone.”

“What are the websites you have pulled up Red Robin?” Batman questioned, trying to keep everyone on track. Wonder Woman was thankful for that because she herself was still stuck on Chat Noirs actions.

“This is the LadyBlog, this blog is run by a Parisian known as Ayla Césaire and in the first year this blog was the main source of information regarding the local heroes and their fights, this included hand filmed videos of the fight, as well as articles on any information available about the heroes and their powers. However, at some point this blog turned from an informative source to a tabloid with obviously made-up stories, and theories on the heroes’ identities even after the heroes explicitly said to not find out their identities for their own safety and the safety of Paris” Tim explained, switching to the other website that looked a lot more professional and less like a fan made blog Tim began again “This is Miraculous.com. It is run by Marinette Dupain-Cheng, this website contains very informative recounts of attacks, their level of danger, what to do if they attack again. As well as safety and wellbeing tips and tricks to prevent citizens from becoming akumatized or staying safe during an akuma attack. This includes links to meditation apps, links to free therapy sessions for victims or people how have been caught in attacks. As well as links to chats where you can talk to people who have experienced or been through the same thing you have. Each video is subtitled as well as having an option to have the fight described out loud making the information very accessible to all who seek it.” Looking around as Tim was talking Wonder Woman saw impressed faces, she too was impressed by the professionalism of the website, even if it was run by a teenager, same as that tabloid blog.

“It also has a link to download a free app that alerts the person of an akuma attack, also designed by Miss Dupain-Cheng, this app not only alerts the person, but allows them to upload information about the akuma such as its whereabouts, its approximate threat level and what it looks like. It also apparently sends all necessary information to the heroes so that they can defeat the victim as quickly as possible, as well as acting as a warning to people in the area, so that they can evacuate if need be.” This information shocked Wonder Woman. A teenager, the same who designed the incredibly useful website also designed the akuma alert app? Just who was this kid…

“Is there any way to contact the heroes directly?” she asked, hoping for an affirmative.

“There is a way to contact Miss Dupain-Cheng, and under her number to call is an explanation saying that this was not her personal number, but a number to only be used if the heroes needed to be contacted urgently, as she has a way to contact the heroes.” Tim explained uncertainly, since he was not too sure on how effectively this way of communication worked. “Do you want to try it now or after I have gone through some of the more serious attacks?” Tim asked, trying to delay the inevitable video call, (social anxiety is a bitch) Wonder Woman looked out to the group of weathered heroes and vigilantes as if to ask them.

“I would like to know how serious the situation is before acting” Batman said sternly.

“Ok…” Tim said, taking a deep breathe, Wonder Woman looked at Tim, he looked like he was in pain at the thought of going through whatever he found. “What did he find that is making him not want to go through it again” she thought worriedly.

“Let me preface this by saying that Akuma range on a danger scale from levels 1 to 5. Level 1 being an akuma that can be taken down in less that 5 minutes, or an akuma that causes very little damage or disruption. An example of a level 1 akuma is a ‘Mr. Pigeon’ he had been akumatized around 37 times before Miss Dupain-Cheng approached the man, he told news sources that she suggested he moved out of Paris, when he brought up that he couldn’t just leave his pigeons, she told him that she was sure that his feathered friends would follow him anywhere, since he was so kind to them. Mr Xavier Ramier, the akuma’s civilian identity, was so frequently akumatized because he hated how the people of Paris treated the pigeons, and how he constantly got in trouble for feeding them. He now runs a pigeon sanctuary on the cities limits” Tim explained, once again that girl Marinette was mentioned, “just how involved is she” Wonder Woman thought.

“Level 5 akumas have only occurred three times” Tim breathed, not looking forward to going through the events.

“None of the attacks have any solid film of the fight, only spliced together photos and short videos showcasing the damage and destruction. Each video has a warning at the start, warning the viewers of its content, saying that if the viewer is young or easily disturbed that they read the article on the attack rather than watch the video.” Tim paused as Beast Boy got up and left the room, followed by raven who mumbled that she was going to go make sure he was ok, “the video I am going to show you is of an akuma called Syren who appeared in the second year of the attacks…” Tim trailed off, pressing play on the video. Wonder Woman turned to watch the video and became more and more horrified as the video continued.

Content warning, cause sh*ts about to go down, if you feel uncomfortable with reading graphic depictions of violence, I recommend skipping the next paragraph – sincerely, Geko.

The first clip was of a little kid about to blow out his birthday candles at a restaurant when suddenly a tidal wave of water hit the glass front of the restaurant, shattering it. Water flooded in people’s mouths that were open and screaming in terror, the water was dark and murky, the bodies that could be seen where broken from the sheer force of the wave that hit. The video was muted so there was no sound, to the relief of the heroes gathered. A new clip played, this time from the perspective of a roof top. This perspective showed the entirety of Paris flooded, with only small groups of people on the roof tops. Blurred out objects floated in the water, assumed to be the bloated bodies of civilians who could not reach safety in time. Suddenly the voice of a girl started talking, “Syren is the first level 5 akuma occurring in year 2 of Hawkmoths rein. The death count was around 2 million, with only a few thousand survivors. If she occurs again, make your way to a roof top or a high place as quickly as possible. She took 2 hours to defeat,” the girl continued as the clip played. Ladybugs swarmed the camera and suddenly the water was gone, and the previously dead bodies were alive once more, “let me remind you that when you die in an akuma attack you will not remember it, but anyone who saw you die but survived will, be kind to your loved ones. Tell them to seek help if they have witnessed your death, or if you yourself have witnessed a loved one’s death.” Said the girl in a serious tone, before softening slightly, “Ladybug may fix the damage done by the akuma, but the mental scars stay. As you may know there are now free therapy sessions available to those who have suffered through these traumatic experiences, remember you are not alone in this.”

End of graphic scene, hope you are all doing ok if you read through it.

That is where the video ended.

“Anyone else feel like the narrator knows more than she is letting on” Robin said with suspicion in his voice,

“The narrator is Miss Dupain-Cheng, and in my opinion,” Tim said, “she sounds like she is trying to not only convince the listener that they are not alone, but herself…” Thinking back on it Wonder Woman noticed that Red Robin as well as Robin were correct in their statements. Marinette sounded rather serious throughout the narration like she knew what she was talking about, but near the end she seemed to force some happiness and hope into the statement, which would have been encouraging to anyone listening, but the Justice League where not anyone.

“She sounds so tired” Wonder Woman wondered out loud, getting nods and hums of agreement in return.

“The other videos fall in the same line, with Miss Dupain-Cheng narrating the events, the other two level 5 akuma’s include, Skeletron and Little Miss Burnalive. Skeletron raised the skeletons that laid in the catacombs that run under the city, these skeletons attacked anything that moved, killing them, Skeletron occurred 3 years into the war on hawkmoth. Miss Burnalive used a lighter to burn everything from the inside out, she occurred during year 5, she was also the last akuma fight Chat Noir attended before he was retired.” Tim summarised. Wonder Woman felt sick. When she saw that the miraculous were back in circulation, she had no idea how bad the circ*mstances would be.

“We should contact the Heroes. Or is it Hero now?” Superman said.

“Still heroes” Tim said, “there have been temporary heroes joining the battles that Chat Noir didn’t attend.”

“Ok, so do we call now or…” Nightwing trailed off.

“I believe we should call now” Wonder Woman said with certainty, “we need to help them now, better late than never”

“Ok, I’ll call the number now” Tim said as he clicked the number on the website.

It rang twice before the line was picked up, and the face of a girl that couldn’t be older than Robin appeared on the large screen on the computer.

“Hello! My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, how can I help you?” the girl said cheerfully, but her eyes betrayed her, they looked so tired, and almost annoyed? at the group of heroes before her. “Oh, hello justice league, so you’re finally taking an interest in Paris are you” she said with a bitter undertone, a couple of the heroes flinched at what the girl was insinuating.

“We would like to get in contact with your heroes so that we may offer you some help” Wonder Woman stated calmly, “why does this girl seem so bitter at the thought of us helping her heroes?” thought Wonder Woman, “would have thought she would be more excited at the thought of help”.

The girl’s expression changed from faked happiness to annoyance back to fake happiness so quickly it gave Wonder Woman whiplash. She let out a dry chuckle devoid of any humour,

“You want to help?” she asked, “stay out of my city, do not contact me again asking to help, or I’ll have to fine you” Marinette’s voice dripping sweet venom before she hung up on them with a false smile.

“What just happened…” asked Nightwing slightly dazed.

“Call her again.” Batman growled, seemingly angry at the girl who had just denied their help.

“What authority does she have to deny our help!” Wonder Woman huffed, “just wait until I get in contact with ladybug, and she hears about this” she thought to herself smugly.

“Are you sure you should call them back…” Green Lantern said from outside the doorway, having heard the call with the girl, “because she just said exactly what I told her hero five years ago…” he mumbled out, feeling embarrassed.

“Call. Her. Again” Batman threatened, Tim not wanting to get in trouble with his father pressed the call button again. It rung twice again before being picked up,

“So how big do you want your fine to be? In the thousands, maybe hundred thousand so you really feel it” Marinette told the heroes with a dry sarcasm.

“Put us through to Ladybug now.” Batman threatened the girl, the girl, to Wonder Woman’s shock, did not even flinch at the so-called Bat Glare,

“No” she said, her eyes boring straight into batman in an unwavering gaze.

“What do you mean No” Batman gritted out,

“I mean no, you wanna hear it in French, Non” she replied in a fed-up voice, her hand moving to the hang up button again.

Her response made Wonder Woman’s anger flare up at not being able to help her sister, so she unfairly took it out on Marinette.

“What gives you the right to deny us!?” She all but yelled at the girl on the other side of the screen. This caused the girl to flinch slightly at the volume, the motion was something that Wonder Woman didn’t notice, but the other heroes in the room certainly did,

“What gave you the right to deny us help when we asked you” Marinette said softly in reply, her voice contrasting with her hardened eyes. Her statement silenced the League of Heroes, Marinette’s gaze simply scanned them as they sat there in silence, contemplating her words. Before she spoke again, “that’s what I thought. You’re not calling to offer assistance to Ladybug, your calling so that you can tell her that you are giving her the gift that is your help, a gift that she cannot deny.” She told the heroes unflinching at the glares she got in return.

“We know when our help is needed and when it isn’t” Superman said with an air of superiority. Marinette laughed at this, making Superman flinch back a bit in surprise. The laugh in Wonder Woman’s opinion was cruel and cold, there was no humour found in that laugh.

“oh, do you now?! where was this ‘help’ when our heroes were young and inexperienced. Where was this ‘help’ when Syren drowned all of Paris in only the second year of attacks. Where was this ‘help’ when the mass akumatization happened for the second time. Ladybug and Paris may have needed your help in the beginning, but we are well past that now. Ladybug is stronger and has more knowledge on these attacks than any of you ‘big time heroes’ do. And us civilians have learnt how to manage our emotions better. She managed without your so-called help before, so she sure as hell will manage without it now” Marinette told the Heroes, her voice raising slightly as she spoke, until it broke in that final sentence, a tear falling from her tired eyes, she wiped it away as quickly as it fell. Before the heroes could comment on her rant she spoke again. “Look, if you really want to help, I guess you need to talk directly to ladybug about it. I’ll ask her to call you, if she doesn’t, please don’t bother her, she doesn’t have much time. If she does call… well just do as she asks or I swear to all that is good in this world I will find out how to give out fines, and I will fine you all.” And with that she hung up.

“Well, that went… well?” Red Robin said uncertainly

“I guess we will have to wait for Ladybug to contact us now” Wonder Woman said, still slightly reeling at the girls’ words. “Why was she so bitter!? What does she mean, ladybug doesn’t have much time, does she mean that she’s busy, or is she close to breaking”?

Little did Wonder Woman know, it was both.

Chapter 3: Marinette does her research and checks her sources

Chapter Text

Taking a deep breath and pasting a fake smile on to hide how tired she was, Marinette clicked the answer button “Hello! My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, how can I help you?” she said as cheerfully as she could muster at her current state, “Oh, hello Justice League, so you’re finally taking an interest in Paris are you” “whoops, didn’t mean to say that out loud” she thought, “oh well, serves them right for turning me away all those years ago” she shrugged internally not really caring all that much what the heroes thought of her as a civilian.

“We would like to get in contact with your heroes so that we may offer you some help” Wonder Woman said kinda condescendingly, as if talking down to a child, which Marinette supposes she is. Marinette couldn’t help but chuckle at the famous heroine’s tone and words “so NOW they want to help do they?”

“You want to help?” she asked, “stay out of my city, do not contact me again asking to help, or I’ll have to fine you” she told the heroes hanging up. This caused Plagg to cackle as he floated in the air beside her Tikki on the other hand,

“Marinette, you know that you could use their help. Especially when it comes to finding more evidence against Hawkmoths civilian identity!” the small good exclaimed looking at Marinette’s smug face in exasperation.

“Yeah I know, I just want them to understand how much their absence hurt, and how they are no longer needed for the defeat of Hawkmoth. Sure, we could use their help, but we don’t need it anymore Tiks.” She said to the little Kwami, “Plus knowing their self-righteousness they are going to call me back no matter what I say-” Marinette didn’t get to finish as her computer began to ring again. She gave Tikki a look of ‘see what I mean’ before answering once again, putting up a false confidence in herself,

“So how big do you want your fine to be? In the thousands, maybe hundred thousand so you really feel it” she said having a bit of fun with the heroes, whilst also seemingly pissing them off if Batman’s glare was anything to go by.

“Put us through to Ladybug now.” The seasoned hero told her, “this is the bat glare? Seriously?? Thought it would be scarier” Marinette shrugged internally at his glare.

“No” she told Batman and the other heroes, staring at them in her best disinterested gaze. Apparently that wasn’t the reply they wanted as most of the league bristled at this.

“What do you mean No” Batman growled out in a deep, ‘threatening’ voice, “he’s trying too hard to be scary! I mean Augie was scarier as his akuma, and he was a literal giant baby!” Marinette thought to herself. Then Batman’s words registered and Marinette couldn’t resist replying,

“I mean no, you wanna hear it in French, Non” she told them reciting the meme with a little change to it, adding a bit of Marinette flare! Her response also got Plagg to. Fly up to her bed and smother his cackles in her pillows. Plagg wasn’t the only one who found her response funny apparently, as she saw Nightwing hold in a snort, Red Hood’s shoulders were shaking in silent laughter, Red Robin looked like he was trying not to smile, and surprisingly Robin’s lips quirked up slightly. Marinette was so busy looking at the people who were laughing or trying not to laugh that she didn’t notice how angry that same response made Wonder Woman until it was too late.

“What gives you the right to deny us!?” Wonder Woman yelled at Marinette, making Marinette involuntarily flinch away from the loud tone of the heroes voice. The Kwami’s froze, looking to Marinette in concern. Marinette simply told her emotions to f*ck off and replied softly to Wonder Woman.

“What gave you the right to deny us help when we asked you” Marinette said thinking back to when she got denied oh so long ago. Apparently this wasn’t the response the league was expecting either if their silence was anything to go by, “typical heroes thinking that people are always in need of saving” she thought sourly while gazing upon the large group of silent heroes and vigilantes before her, “that’s what I thought. You’re not calling to offer assistance to Ladybug, your calling so that you can tell her that you are giving her the gift that is your help, a gift that she cannot deny.” She told the group bluntly.

“We know when our help is needed and when it isn’t” Superman told her, his voice in the same tone as you would hear from a Karen getting told to leave a store. Marinette found his response rather funny.

“Oh, do you now?! where was this ‘help’ when our heroes were young and inexperienced. Where was this ‘help’ when Syren drowned all of Paris in only the second year of attacks. Where was this ‘help’ when the mass akumatization happened for the second time. Ladybug and Paris may have needed your help in the beginning, but we are well past that now. Ladybug is stronger and has more knowledge on these attacks than any of you ‘big time heroes’ do. And us civilians have learnt how to manage our emotions better. She managed without your so-called help before, so she sure as hell will manage without it now” she. Ranted to the heroes, something breaking in her when she said that she could manage. Without their help, “I don’t want to do this alone anymore” her broken thoughts told her in soft whispers, normally Marinette ignored these whispers, but this time she decided to humour them. Wiping away a tear that had fallen without her permission she continued before the heroes could even open their mouths to reply, “Look, if you really want to help, I guess you need to talk directly to ladybug about it. I’ll ask her to call you, if she doesn’t, please don’t bother her, she doesn’t have much time. If she does call… well just do as she asks or I swear to all that is good in this world I will find out how to give out fines, and I will fine you all.” And with that she hung up. Breathing out in frustration she turned to the Kwami’s that where hovering around her, “looks like we have some research to do guys!” she said with a fake cheer, before immediately groaning, “sleep is for the weak, Sleep Is For The Weak, SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK” she chanted in her head trying to fight the tiredness that was bone deep at this point, “and I, am oh so very weak…”

“Look on the bright side Marinette!” Tikki started optimistically, “now you might actually get some help and end this whole war sooner than you thought!”

“I suppose that is good, I’ll just have to set down some boundaries with them first, they gotta actually listen to me if they want to help so desperately” Marinette said, hoping that she wouldn’t have to actually fight the JL to not interfere, she was way too tired to fight trained heroes. Then a thought occurred to her, “if Green Lantern shows his face at the meeting, I might actually kill him for turning me away all those years ago”

“MARINETTE!” Tikki scolded, while Plagg just cackled and the other kwami’s nodded solemnly agreeing with her.

“What!?” Marinette said incredulously, “he was probably what started the whole issue of me asking for help with this superhero business!” Tikki opened her mouth to respond but was interrupted by Plagg,

“You know she’s right Sugar cube, I mean freckles here barely asks US for help… AND WE’RE GODS!!” said Plagg suddenly serious after laughing his tiny black ass off.

“I know, I know,” Tikki said tiredly, obviously annoyed that Plagg was making sense, “But no killing!!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Marinette said non-committingly, “I’ll probably just roast him on his outfit choice or something instead” she said with a small smirk, making Plagg laugh even harder than before.

“Looking forward to it kid” he said in between chuckles.

“Anyway, you said that we needed to do research Grand Guardian?” Wayzz said softly, trying to get Marinette’s ADHD brain back on track,

“Oh yeah!” she exclaimed, “I am going to find the identities of the ‘big leagues’” she said referring to the founders of the Justice League.

“Not that I don’t love the chaos you are radiating right now kid, but why?” Plagg questioned, slightly out of breath from laughing.

“Well, what’s the bet that they have already tried and failed to find out my own identity. Plus, I need some black mail to keep them out of Paris y’know, when they inevitably try to take over my whole operation I have going on right now” Marinette reasoned, then another thought occurred to her “hey Tikki, how come my identity is so impossible to find out?” she asked suddenly, Tikki looked down uncomfortably, in fact all the Kwami’s looked kinda uncomfortable at the question.

“Well, there is a glamour that prevents people from connecting the dots, so even though looking at Marinette and Ladybug side by side should be like looking at the equation 1+2, they are going to get 7.” Tikki explained, but Marinette had a feeling there was more to it, so she said so,

“Yes, there is more to it pigtails, but you’re not going to like it, and it will probably make you feel like sh*t” Plagg said gently warning her not to press. But Marinette didn’t really give a sh*t about anything anymore, so she pressed.

“The glamour will not work if the person cares more about the person behind the mask so to speak…” Tikki said sadly,

“…oh, right, so basically no one cares more about Marinette than they care about Ladybug” Marinette summarised, trying not to let how much the thought hurt show.

“Oh Marinette!” Tikki exclaimed floating up to her face and wiping away her tears, “oh, I’m crying” she thought, “sh*t”. “Shhhh it’s ok, I know people care for Marinette a lot, but Ladybug is a hero, and everyone always loves the hero, that’s why the glamour works so well!”

“Right, yeah that makes sense, plus I’ve been kinda on the outs with everyone I know cause of Lila, I mean even my parents have been talking about kicking me out when I finish school” Marinette chuckled bitterly, “but that’s an issue for another day, let’s get to finding out these identities!” she said swiping away any remaining wetness from her cheeks.

“Good thing we record all the video calls huh” she said to the kwami’s, while going through her computer files until she found the recorded video of her second, longer call with the Justice League.

“Now let’s see…” Marinette said squinting at the computer “let’s start with the big guns first” Superman looks to be the easiest, lives in Metropolis, fights without a mask in spandex and a cape “a cape!! The absolute idiot” Marinette thought, channelling her inner Edna Mode. “Without needing to take into account armour, I now have his body measurements and his face since he didn’t wear a mask, seriously did he shapeshift or something to protect his civilian identity?” scouring the internet she looked for civilians that did heroic deeds in metropolis, surely that would lead her somewhe-

“Hold up, found him” Mari said slightly disappointed that it wasn’t all that hard, and also very disappointed in Superman himself, did he really think glasses of all things would protect his identity?! AND he is married to Louis Lane as his civilian-self, Clark Kent, and it is well known that Louis had a thing with Superman at some point. “God dammit”, she thought, “found the Superboy’s too” she said aloud to the kwami’s, Johnathan Kent and his brother Kon Kent. Honestly it really should be harder than this, the only difference between them and their civilian forms are that they wear glasses!!

“Ok, I got the Supers, now onto our one and only Wonder Woman” Marinette said as she moved onto the Amazonian Warrior,

“Oh, that one’s easy!” Tikki exclaimed, “Her mother was a Ladybug, Hippolyta was her name, and her daughter’s name was Diana is my memory serves me right”

“Oh, thanks Tikki! I was not looking forward to trying to find her, since she doesn’t really have a set city that she protects” “now time to find her last name” cause Marinette is never one to do things half assed. After a few google searches using the name Diana as a keyword she found a one Diana Prince, who looked extremely similar to Wonder Woman.

“Do these heroes have any idea what ‘Secret identity’ means?! Your identity has to stay a secret I mean it’s in the name!” Marinette said exasperated while spinning on her chair. Sighing she moved onto Batman, “finally someone who understands the meaning of secret identity” Batman stood covered in an armoured suit, with a cowl covering the majority of his face, not even revealing his eye colour.

“This looks like it’s going to be a bit of a challenge Grand Guardian” said Longg,

“Indeed Longg, but no need to worry, let’s get started on the general things we know,” Marinette started, confidant in her problem solving abilities, “Batman has a team of around 6 people, all varying ages, but they all seemed to start when they were kids, so either batman adopted them all, or he just found some random kids and decided that they were going to become heroes” Marinette deducted, “Batman’s city is also Gotham, so we can narrow down our search to someone rich who has a lot of kids and lives in Gotham”

“Why do they have to be rich?” Kaalki asked curiously, wondering if she could land a wielder from the BatFam if they were rich.

“Well, they have to get all their tech from somewhere, right? I mean none of them have superpowers, so they must have to either be able to build their own tech, or buy it” Marinette explained logically, “So now all I gotta do is type into google; rich big family in Gotham, aaaaannddd…” Marinette trawled as she waited for google to do its thing,

“Found them”, the Wayne family, Bruce Wayne had the same build as Batman, and all of his kids matched that to Batman’s sidekicks. “Damn,” Marinette said, “thought that would have been harder…” leaning back in her chair cracking her back she checked the time, 1:23 am, “whoops” she thought. “Do I contact them now as ladybug or tomorrow?” she asked the kwami’s

“How about you contact them now and organise a time and place to meet tomorrow night?” Tikki suggested.

“Sounds good Tiks, any objections to the plan?” Marinette asked the other Kwami’s, getting head shakes in response, “ok cool, you ready Tikki?”

“Good to go Marinette” Tikki exclaimed, happy to transform again.

“Alright, Tikki, Spots On!”

Chapter 4: Ladybug organises a meeting, it goes as well as you would expect…

Chapter Text

Sitting atop the Eiffel Tower always made Marinette feel strangely calm, being able to see her city sleeping peacefully without any akumas always made her feel better, knowing she was doing an alright job by herself…

Taking her eyes away from the lovely view of her city Ladybug opened up her yoyo and called the number for the Justice League. “Weird, this feels like déjà vu, hopefully they actually listen to me this time” she thought sombrely to herself. They picked up on the second ring.

“Hello, someone said that you wanted to talk to me?” Ladybug said with an air of professionalism that had a hint of exasperation mixed in.

“Ahh yes, hello Ladybug, I am Wonder Woman, to my left is Superman, and to my right is Batman” Wonder Woman introduced, “we were wondering if we could discuss the Paris situation and what we can do to help with it”

“What made you change your minds?” Ladybug asked, cause honestly, she needed to know whether or not they were taking her situation seriously, or if they might still believe Green Lantern.

“Pardon me?” Wonder Woman said confused.

“Sorry, maybe it's windy up here or something” Ladybug sassed before repeating “What. Made. You. Change. Your. Minds?”

“Oh um,” Wonder Woman stuttered eloquently, seemingly offended. Unfortunately, Marinette was too tired to care, it was getting close to 2 am and she had school in the morning. At least if she gets anything out of this call it’s going to be the faces of the big-time superheros after being sassed, “I mean Superman looks like he sucked on a lemon, and Batman seems to be trying his best to intimidate me into submission” Marinette thought to herself, while looking at the founders of the Justice League.

“Ok, since you still seem to be confused on what I am asking, I’ll explain my reasoning ok? Ok.” Ladybug started, getting more tired by the second, “the last time I called this number was over five years ago now, I was very new to the job and desperately needed a bit of help, even if it was just some guidance or reassurance that I was doing ok as a newly minted superhero. So, when bright-eyed mini me finally got a call back from the big league imagine my devastation when I was told to, and I quote ‘Stop playing dress up, and stop calling. This line is for important emergencies only, not dumb prank calls made by some teenager playing make-believe for attention. Do NOT call again or send any more of your poorly put together videos. Or else we will fine you 4 thousand dollars for wasting the time of the real heroes. Goodbye’. Now that I have re-phrased the question, what made you want to help the child playing make believe, and why now? almost 6 years later hmm?” Ladybug said clearly tired and just wanting to set up a date and time for a meeting as quickly as possible so she could get at least 4 hours of sleep before having to go to her hell of a school.

“I am going to kill Green Lantern” Wonder Woman seethed, “that’s… not the reaction I expected…” Marinette thought surprised by the amount of anger shown on the Amazonian’s face.

“Wait a sec,” Ladybug said standing up, “You mean to tell me that you had no idea about what was going on in Paris, and that f*cking glowstick just decided for you that the JL was just not gonna get involved?!” Ladybug started pacing the top of the tower.

“pfffft” Superman tried to hold in his laugh at the glowstick comment.

“No, we had no idea, and we are sorry for leaving you all alone for so long” Batman said gruffly, although his hard glare had softened considerably once she voiced that she thought the whole JL left her alone.

“If it’s possible, can we meet up with the Guardian of the Miracle Box so we may discuss Paris’ situation with an adult” Wonder Woman asked, causing Ladybug to stop pacing and stiffen. (This did not go unnoticed by the other heroes on the other side of the call)

“How do you know of the guardian?” Ladybug asked guarding her expressions carefully, choosing not to react to the other half of Wonder Woman’s offensive question.

“Well as you may know, my mother was a wielder of the ladybug miraculous and she was given her miraculous by the guardian, so I was assuming that you had the same happen to you, and so you must know of the guardian, or at least a way to contact them” Wonder Woman explained carefully, not too sure on why this was such a touchy subject for the young heroine.

“I see” was all Ladybug said in response. “Do I tell them I am now the guardian, or do I just say that they were unable to make it” Marinette thought to herself, “you should tell them that you are the grand guardian now” said a voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Tikki. “Well, I guess you should probably know that a little less than two years after I was given the mantel of Ladybug, I was also given… the mantel of Grand Guardian” Ladybug said cautiously, not knowing how the other heroes would react.

“Excuse me?” said Wonder Woman incredulously, “But you are still a child! Guardian ship is a lifelong commitment full of hardships and challenges!” Ladybug bristled at being called a child again, “how dare they call me a child, I have been through more sh*t than any of them combined” she seethed to herself.

“Look, I have been fighting akumas every day for the past 5 years, getting on 6, and have been looking after 19 pocket sized gods for almost 4 of those years, I know what I am doing… but you make a good point, I am only a child so what do I know of hardship and commitment” Ladybug said, her voice turning icy, stunning the heroes on the other line.

“I did not mean to offend y-” Wonder Woman frantically started to back-peddle before being interrupted by Ladybug.

“You know what, forget it. I have school in the morning, and it’s like 2:45 am here in Paris. So, are we going to set up a time and place to meet up or not?” Ladybug sighed tiredly not having the energy to fight with the hero.

“Yes of course, how does 10:30 tomorrow night at the watchtower sound?” Superman asked.

“And how will I be getting to the watch tower exactly” Ladybug said, “I really need to wrap this up so I can go get at least some rest before hell in the morning” Marinette thought bitterly,

“We will send you the co-ordinates of the tower, will you be able to make your own way here if we do that?” Batman asked.

“Yeah, that should be fine. I will see you tomorrow at 10:30 pm Paris time. Goodbye and goodnight” Ladybug said before hanging up. Sighing Ladybug relaxed her posture, “time for bed” she thought before swinging away to her balcony.

One blissfully Nightmare-less sleep later...

Marinette awoke groggily to the sound of one of her many alarms. Groaning with eyes still closed in an attempt to stay asleep, she reached over to her phone and pressed the snooze button.

“Come on Marinette, you gotta get to school early remember?” Tikki said flying up to the sleepy Marinette.

“Jus- five more minutes-” Marinette mumbled into her pillow while trying to shoo Tikki away.

“C’mon Kit, you know how important it is for you to get their early, now get your ass out of bed, I’m hungry!” Plagg exclaimed thinking with his stomach.

“Ok, ok, I’m uuuup…” Marinette said lazily as she stretched and cracked her back and joints, still stiff from going swinging around Paris then straight into bed to sleep. “Huh, was too tired for nightmares last night apparently” Marinette’s sleep ridden brain helpfully supplied, at least that’s a plus side of being so tired you want to sleep for eternity.

Crawling out of bed and down the ladder Marinette wandered over to her closet and put the first things she saw on which just so happened to be a hoodie and trackies, she had given up looking presentable at school anymore, “not like I got anyone to impress” she thought bitterly. Putting her now long hair up in a messy bun, and letting her bangs hang nicely framing her face she walked over to her coffee machine she had set up in her room and made her classic 'enough caffeine to kill a cat' coffee and chugged it as she made her way down the stairs that led up to her room from the kitchen/living room of her family home.

“Hello Marinette” greeted Sabine coolly, ah yes, that’s right, her parents don’t like her all that much at the moment, “how could I forget…” Marinette thought, reminiscing on the time before Lila got her manicured claws into her parents. The days where she would wake up late, and her parents would shake their heads fondly at the girl while giving her some freshly made pastries for breakfast and a kiss while telling her that they loved her as she frantically ran out the bakery to school.

“Morning Maman,” Marinette said softly, hoping against all hope that if she tried to stay polite and friendly to her parents, they would see that she was still their daughter. Unfortunately, that hope had been wearing thinner every day since she had overheard her parents discussing kicking her out a few of months ago. “Any spare pastries I could have for breakfast?” Marinette asked cautiously, not really wanting to have to make her own breakfast today.

“No.” Sabine said glaring at her daughter,

“Oh, ok.” Marinette said even softer than her greeting, with her eyes down she made her way around the kitchen to the fridge and got out some milk, and some cereal, making herself a small bowl of cereal, hyper aware of her mother tracking her movements. Suddenly her mother let out a large sigh,

“Marinette, you are finishing school in a couple of months, so Tom and I have decided that if you do not pick up your game and stop bullying that poor girl and your classmates we will have no choice but to either kick you out, or make you start paying rent” Sabine said was a tone of finality, leaving no room for argument.

“Oh, ok... Sabine” Marinette said, that last string of hope snapping. She knew this was coming, she had known for months, but now that it was a reality… she didn’t want to think too hard on it, she just had to remain emotionless so that Hawk-ass-bitch wouldn’t try to get in her head (again). Sabine reeled a bit at being called her actual name, she was expecting at least some fight back about it, not just this quiet acceptance that is being displayed in front of her.

“How long do I have until I have to leave?” Marinette asked emotionless, making Sabine uncomfortable,

“Oh, um” Sabine cleared her throat before continuing sternly, trying not to let the emotionless face of her daughter get to her, “You have until your last exam”

“I see.” Marinette said in reply, “good thing commissions pay well” she thought bitterly, she should have enough money saved to rent a nice enough place, and she should be able to get through the rest of the school year before having to go into designing full time to make ends meet. Standing up Marinette walked her bowl over to the sink, giving it a quick rinse before putting it in the dishwasher. “Goodbye Sabine, I will see you and Tom later tomorrow night to discuss specifics on my new time limit here. Tonight, I am going to process this new information” and with that Marinette walked out the door, down the stairs, and out the bakery, not looking twice at the man she once called her father as she passed him.

The walk to school was a quiet affair, as Marinette was rather early. “Good, nobody is here yet” she thought as she stuck her head into the classroom before walking in and up to her seat in the back. Why is she here so early you may be asking yourself? Well, you see a couple months after Lila decided to grace the class with her presence almost three years ago, her classmates decided that the best way to deal with a supposed bully was to bully them in return. So, Marinette learned the hard way that if she was late, she would get called names, and would have to dodge all the legs that had been stuck out on the stairs for the sole purpose to trip her up. Her solution, get there early enough that there simply was no one there to trip her up. Besides when she gets there early, they all just ignore her completely; giving her the cold shoulder. Unless Lila had told another particularly bad lie about Marinette bullying her again. On those days Marinette’s class likes to glare at her throughout the lesson, and then corner her afterwards either at lunch or on her way to another lesson. “Please, please. In the name of all Kwami, let it not be one of those days” Marinette prayed as it got closer to the time her classmates normally started trickling in.

“Good morning, Marinette!” Mlle Bustier said cheerfully, completely ignoring her obviously tired student’s mood. “I’m glad you are here so early! I have something I need you to do as class president”, now this could mean anything from organising a fundraiser by herself, to her being put in charge of telling her classmates when important dates were coming up. Honestly, anything that the teachers normally would do, y'know, except for marking tests and assignments.

“What do you want me to do now Caline,” Marinette said, having lost all respect for her teacher years ago when she let Lila continue to lie without consequence. Caline’s eye twitched and her smile became strained, but she continues nevertheless,

“Well. As class president and my model student, it is your job to organise the class’ end of year trip, a break before you all start studying hard for your exams” Caline said, with emphasis on model student, as if she was trying to remind Marinette that she was meant to set an example for her classmates, “like they would follow my example now, anyway” Marinette thought, momentarily bypassing the enormous job that was just placed on her shoulders.

“Wait what?!” Marinette exclaimed as her brain caught up with her. Those trips were meant to be huge! Like go touring London for a couple of weeks huge. Like going on a luxury cruise huge. Like the teachers and school organise the trips huge… why was she put in charge of organising it!!

“Yes well now that that’s out of the way, please get started, it is meant to be in a couple of weeks.” Caline supplied helpfully. “Great now I not only have to find a place to rent, talk to the Justice League and organise a partnership with them, but ALSO organise only the biggest trip every kid looks forward to as they get older! all within the time frame of a month or so"Groaning Marinette dropped her head to her desk while whispering sarcastically in the best impression of Heather Chandler,

“Well f*ck me sideways with a chainsaw!” earning two quiet giggles from the tiny gods in her purse. The giggles making Marinette break into a rare soft smile.

The smile did not last long,

“Oh actually, uncle Jagged said that Penny was just his manager and nothing else! In fact, I’m not supposed to tell you this but, he is currently dating a famous popstar called Verosika Mayday, she’s from America, so you probably haven’t heard of her” Lila said in a light voice that grated on Marinettes nerves like how silverware scratching against porcelain plates would be like to others.

“No way! What a scoop!” Ayla exclaimed excitedly already typing up her latest tabloid on her phone.

“Are you sure dudette, Penny and Jagged seem pretty in love to me…” Nino said trailing off when he saw Lila start to show the tell-tale signs of her on coming crocodile tears.

“Nino are saying that I am lying!” Lila exclaimed fat tears already welling up in her eyes. “Seriously how much water does she drink to be able to cry that often” Marinette wondered.

“No, No! of course not! I probably just didn’t see it right, y’know glasses and everything” Nino back-peddled momentarily taking off his glasses as if to showcase his bad eyesight.

“Oh, I’m so glad you believe me Nino! You are such a great friend!” Lila said jumping to give Nino a hug while pointedly looking at Mari when she said the word friend. “Yeah sure, cause it definitely still hurts Lila, it’s not like it’s been 3 years since any of them where my friends” Marinette thought looking away from the fake display of friendship. “Three, two, one…” she counted down,

“Oh, Nino have you ever thought about getting contacts! You must be super blind to have to wear those enormous glasses! You would look so much better without them! I mean take it from me,” Lila continued, belittling Nino under the false sense of a compliment, she had been doing that more often as the years went on, until it came after almost every sentence. “Before I volunteered for this new type of eye surgery that will be used to help all the poor orphans in Africa who can’t afford glasses, I had to wear these super ugly glasses around too.” Lila Lied. Pulling out her notebook Marinette put another tally into the ‘Lies told about medical issues’ column. “Damn I should probably start a new page, this one is almost full” Marinette thought idly, used to her mildly offensive lies by now. Deciding it was best to just tune her out for now Marinette started to brainstorm ideas for the class trip she was supposed to organise now while her class trickled in, fawning over Lila as she told her tall tales animatedly.

“Let’s see…” Marinette thought, trying not to focus on the commotion just a couple of steps away from her. “Maybe there are some opportunities I can apply to, or competitions I can win so that I don’t need to go to the extra effort of fundraising, especially considering we should have been fundraising since the start of the year…”

“Alright class let’s begin!” Mlle Bustier said, interrupting Marinette’s train of thought, oh well, she’ll just start researching when she gets home. Now it is time to sit in class and passively learn until her incompetent teacher decides that it was enough for one day and sends them all on their cheery way home.

Chapter 5: Batman wonders if Ladybug would be open to adoption…

Chapter Text

“I almost blew that, didn’t I…” Wonder Woman said dejectedly, she had really wanted to make a good first impression on her new sister.

“Did she really believe, for 5 years, that we had left her alone, not believed in her, thought she was lying, all while she was fighting an emotional terrorist…” Batman said in a rare showcase of emotions, he was horrified at the thought. “She had school to go to… just how young is she!” the Dark Knight thought, “too young to fight alone” his mind supplied helpfully.

“She also said she had school in the morning” said Superman, voicing Bruce’s thoughts.

“Even though she is still a kid, she seems to have been forced to grow up fast, I would not advise telling her that she is too young to deal with her situation alone” Wonder Woman advised, having learnt her lesson

“Y’know Bruce, I think her glare may be even worse than yours!” Superman chuckled uncomfortably remembering the way her glare had made him feel like he was the scum of the earth.

“The Bat-Glare ™, the blue eyes, the dark hair, troubled past and attitude problem, between her and that Marinette girl we might have a couple of new baby sisters!” a deep voiced piped in,

“Jason, I do believe I told you to go home.” Bruce said, scolding the boy, even though he knew that telling him what to do was a worthless endeavour.

“And miss the call with the unknown superhero! Nah…” said a rather tired voice. Sighing Bruce pinched his nose,

“Tim what have I told you about hacking into and watching important calls that are none of your business” Bruce asked rhetorically.

“Look B-man, we wanted to know more about the girl, y’know before we inevitably end up training her, and she becomes our little sister” said another voice,

“Did none of you go home” Bruce asked clearly exasperated, turning to Dick, who in return smiled sheepishly. “I mean they’re not wrong, I was thinking of offering to train her” Batman thought, annoyed that his children seemed to know his emotionally-stunted-self well enough to predict what he was going to do next.

“No, we did not go home father, we also live streamed the call so that Alfred could watch it as well” even his youngest stayed to watch the call. What was he going to do with this family of his own making? Ignoring the chuckles of the two clearly amused heroes behind him, he decided to ask for his kid’s opinions on the subject matter, considering they thought they played a big enough role to stay and watch the call with the young heroine.

“Actually,” his eldest started seriously, “I think that she needs therapy desperately, Tim showed us some more footage he managed to scrounge up from traffic cams on the level 5 akumas, two of which she seems to have taken care of, alone…” Dick said, his protective older brother instincts showing.

“I thought she had temporary heroes to help her?” Wonder Woman said concerned.

“That’s what I thought too,” Tim started, looking slightly hysterical, “what did he find” Bruce thought, getting worried.

“Turns out the Temp heroes she gets to help her, ARE HER!!” Tim exclaimed, frantically typing on his phone, suddenly some grainy footage from a traffic camera was pulled up on the monitor. Turning to watch the footage Batman was safe to say, horrified…

Righteo guys! There is about to be some pretty graphic descriptions on violence and death, so if you don’t like that sh*t, skip the following paragraphs. DON’T WORRY, the reactions of the Batfam and Co. will be shown after the scene is completed! – Sincerely Geko

Through the grainy and footage, a barren landscape could be seen. In place of the Eiffel tower was an enormous pile of ash, the buildings still standing looked like they were on the verge of cumbli- Oh and there goes one…

Standing in the middle of this barren and burning landscape where the forms of Ladybug, and her temporary heroes surrounding a downed Chat Noir.

The scene looked to be that out of a horror movie, with bodies still burning around them, providing the only light source that allowed the viewing heroes to see the furious face of the young heroine. Then in a sudden flash of neon green light, contrasting harshly against the orange glow of fire, Chat Noir turned into a boy. While the camera angle may give the vigilante and hero audience a good view of Ladybugs face, it did not give them a good view of Chat Noirs…

Then suddenly the boy lunged for something, seemingly grasping at air. Ladybug simply scowled at the boy, before suddenly the boy recoiled scrubbing frantically at his eyes, Ladybugs scowl softened as she seemed to look at the air, before holding her hand out as a ring suddenly dropped into her grasp.

Then a series of multicoloured flashes occurred, similar to that of the previous cat hero, each coming from the respective temp heroes, the light surging towards Ladybug who’s costume suddenly changed. Instead of her red and black spandex suit (her newest one) she now wore a red and grey suit, with different coloured lines trailing the length of her, down to her boot like pattern that started halfway down her calf. Then just as suddenly as the suit changed, she bent down and picked up something that could not be seen on the grainy traffic cams, before dropping the object and stepping on it. She then repeated the movements that she displayed at the end of every attack, Ladybugs covered the camera, and she was gone, along with the civilian Chat Noir. Leaving a clear view of Paris, as if the city had never been a hellscape to begin with…

And that is the end of the kinda-graphic depictions of death and violence, NOW, time to see what our resident heroes think!

“I’m going to throw up” Superman said, looking a little green in the face. Wonder Woman was crying, soft sobs escaping her every so often. Dick handed her some tissues

“Don’t worry,” he said reassuringly, “I had the same reaction when I saw it first” Dick continued, a bit misty eyed after re-watching the gut-wrenching footage.

“Well now that you have seen that sh*t show!” Jason exclaimed, trying, and failing how much the footage was affecting him, “what are we going to do about it?”

“Tim, do you know how long Chat Noir had been acting up before he was ‘retired’” Bruce asked seriously, “I have to know how long she was truly alone in this war” he thought, starting to feel the desperate need to take the girl behind the mask and swaddle her in a blanket and just let her cry.

“Well,” Tim started clearing his throat, about to launch into the specifics before he was angrily interrupted by a clearly furious Damian.

“That mangy cat has been getting in Ladybug’s way since day dot! Constantly running into battle without thinking about the consequences, always leaving his so called ‘bugaboo’ to clean up his messes!! He started showing up late and sitting out of fights to sulk in their second year of fighting, leaving her all alone!! How could he do that to his partner! She has basically been forced to not only become a hero but become multiple heroes so that she can keep up with these akumas. Which, may I point out have been getting harder since the start of this year! There has only been two level 1 akumas so far this year, TWO!! She has been fighting difficult akumas by herself and has been handling it as best she can given her circ*mstances. It’s absolutely deplorable what she has had to put up with from that mangey stray!!” Damian seethed. Bruce was slightly shellshocked by the emotional rant that had just come out of his youngest and most emotionally closed off kid.

“What Damian said,” Tim added on.

“Demon Spawn has a crush on our new superheroine” Jason stage whispered behind his hand to Bruce.

“I do not, Todd. I simply admire her quick wit and ability to stay in control of her emotions” Damian said confidently, while shooting daggers at his brother. Jason responded by sticking out his tongue at the teenager, causing Damian to reach for his katana.

“Enough.” Bruce said sternly to his most troublesome boys before he ended up needing to take one of them to the hospital.

“So, to summarise,” Dick began, “this tiny kid has been battling an emotional terrorist for the past 5 years practically by herself, and has been completely by herself for 3 of those years when her mentor shoved the role of guardian ship onto her shoulders? While juggling her schooling and keeping her identity a well-hidden secret!”

“Sounds about right” Superman chimed in, slightly startling Bruce who had been so caught up in the reactions his children had to the superheroine’s situation, “I forgot they were here” he thought turning around to face the other main founders.

“Well, there doesn’t look to be anything we can do about it right now until she comes around later. So, let’s all go home and prepare for the meeting.” Batman stated to the group of heroes and vigilantes.

“Right, meet here 5 minutes before the meeting is due to start?” Wonder Woman suggested nodding her head.

“Sounds good, see you then.” Superman said, leaving to go back to metropolis and to his family to rest a bit and take in all the rather disturbing information. Following Superman's lead Batman ushered his brood towards the Zeta Tubes. “Time to head home and rest before the upcoming meeting with the toughest heroine I might ever meet” he thought to himself, bitter about Ladybugs situation, but also impressed with her capabilities “hopefully she will let us help…”

Time is simply a human construct, hence the time skip!!

Tim was sitting at the BatComputer with coffee in hand, still too wired from learning about the dire Paris situation, going over some newer cases that were sent through by Commissioner Gordon for him to solve. When he got an email. Now instead of dismissing it as another useless email for Wayne Industries like he normally would, he promptly spat out his coffee.

Coughing and spluttering he pulled up the email in full.

Subject line: Martha Wayne class exchange trip, for the akuma class of Paris

“The girl who designed that awesome website and app is a part of that class” Tim thought, already getting excited at the prospect of meeting her.

Dear Mr Wayne,

My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I am the class president of the ‘akuma class’ as my classmates like to be referred to. I am writing to you because I have been put in charge of organising the end of year class trip we go on as a kind of break before we start studying for our last exams. I saw that you have a competition where students around the world can submit an essay detailing their classmates’ accomplishments and the good deeds, they and their classmates take part in. Hence why attached to this email you will find a detailed report on all the accomplishments my classmates have made, and the good they have done within the community.

I am going to be honest with you sir, my class and I have been through the ringer during our last 5 years of schooling. You may not know this, but Paris has been suffering under the hold of an emotional terrorist who controls civilians that feel negative emotions. We are commonly referred to as the akuma class because every single person in my class has been akumatized at least once, including our teacher. My classmates and I desperately need a break from trying to keep our emotions in check, so please take the time to read my essay, and take us into account for the competition.

Sincerely,

Marinette, class president of the akuma class.

So many thoughts were going through Tim’s head as he read the email. But the thing he got stuck on was the wording… Checking his suspicions, he opened the 5-page essay and quickly skimmed it. “Yep,” Tim thought slightly frustrated, “she completely left herself out, as well as any accomplishments she may have achieved in the past 5 years under that villains thumb” he said aloud to the cave. Another thought occurring suddenly, he quickly whipped his head to the computer, and made his way onto the Miraculous.com website, going to the search bar and typing in the girls name.

“Are you f*cking kidding me…” he muttered quietly looking at the words sitting above the blank page, ‘No search results found, try different key words’ “she hasn’t been akumatized” he said aloud, completely at a loss on how to react, “her entire class has been akumatized, some more that once! Including her teacher, she has had to watch her friends and teacher become puppets to a sick minded supervillain, and she hasn’t once broken!” Tim thought, half of him was impressed by her control over her emotions, the other half was devastated for the poor girl, because she hasn’t been able to properly feel any negative emotions for the past 5 years.

“Who hasn’t been akumatized?” a gruff voice came from behind him, shocking Tim out of his thoughts, making him turn toward his adoptive father. Instead of explaining what he had just found Tim said,

“What are you doing back down here? Aren’t you supposed to be resting before the meeting with Ladybug?”

Sighing Batman looked down at Tim and said,

“It is time for the meeting Tim, now who hasn’t been akumatized?”

“Oh. Right.” Tim said quickly, “You remember Marinette Dupain-Cheng right?” Tom waited for a confirmation before he continued, “she just sent through an email about the class exchange program we do and asked that we take her essay into account for the competition!” Tim said excitedly, suddenly remembering that he was going to meet her!

“What does this have to do with akumatization” his father asked, trying to keep him on track.

“Well get this, her class is known as the ‘akuma class’ in Paris, because everyone in her class has been akumatized at least once, including her teacher!” Tim paused for dramatic effect, “everyone, except her.”

Chapter 6: The batboys finally meet the bug

Chapter Text

“Aaaand sent!” Marinette said pushing herself away from her desk, stretching her back, she looked at the time on the clock, “Just in time too, Tikki! Kaalki! You guys ready?” Marinette called to the two Kwami’s,

“Yep!”, “Sure am!” the Kwami’s responded.

“Alrighty, let’s go over the plan once more real quick, we have five minutes before we have to be there, you ready?” Marinette asked the Kwami’s getting nods in response, “Ok Kaalki, you are going to be merged with Tikki for us to teleport, and then once we are in the watch tower, we are going to un-merge, you can either stay by me and help explain some key concepts, like what kwami’s are, or you can hide in my hair and wait for the meeting to be over, and then we will re-merge and portal home.” Marinette quickly explained to the Kwami again.

“And a pile of sugar cubes will be waiting for me when we get back, right?” Kaalki clarified,

“Yep! Plus, a couple for when we get to the watch tower that I have in my yoyo” Marinette confirmed for the Kwami.

“Alright! Then I am good to go!” exclaimed the excited Kwami.

“Ok Tikki, spots on! Tikki, Kaalki, unify!” Marinette said, transforming. Ladybug pulled up her yoyo and checked the co-ordinates the JL sent her last night, then she opened a portal to the watch tower…

Safe to say that Ladybug was a little caught off guard by the amount of people that were waiting for her.

“Errr, hi?” she said, “I thought this meeting was with the founders of the league, not Batman and his brood”

“Oh my god you’re even smaller in person!” squealed Nightwing rushing over to give her a hug, the sudden movement making Marinette tense unconsciously. This made Nightwing stop in his tracks.

“sh*t” Ladybug thought, trying to relax again before anyone else noticed that she basically flinched that the thought of a hug. Unfortunately for her, she was too late, everyone in the room noticed, and now they were even more concerned about the girl behind the mask.

“Um,” Ladybug cleared her throat, “I didn’t realise that we were bringing our partners, otherwise I would have brought mine” she chuckled dryly, trying to lighten the tense atmosphere. Again, unfortunately for her, it only made the whole room tense more.

“Kwami, why is everyone so tense…did I say something? I mean I refrained from calling the brood ‘sidekicks’” she thought, getting slightly uncomfortable at the lack of response she was getting. “You know what, f*ck this, if they don’t wanna talk then I’m leaving” Ladybug thought sourly.

“Okay… since you guys obviously don’t want to talk. I’ll just head back…” she trailed off, turning around to make another portal.

“WAIT. Wait. Sorry, we’re sorry. We just- we’re still processing that you have been all alone all this time.” Wonder Woman exclaimed, coming to her senses, (she did not want to make a bad second impression).

“I’m not alone… I have temporary heroes help me all the time” Ladybug said as calmly as possible, turning around. “There is no way they found out I’m completely alone, right?! I was so careful of where and when I remerged”

“Yeah, about that…” Red Robin trailed off rather sheepishly, “I may have hacked into some traffic cams and seen-the-scene-of-when-you-retired-Chat-Noir” he said rushing the words out.

“Arrrhhh, God dammit!! I thought that cam was dead!! I mean literally everything was on fire, so I kinda just assumed I was safe from prying eyes.” Ladybug said, frustrated with herself. This seemed to take everyone by surprise, (she knew there was a traffic cam there, does she know where all the traffic cams are? Is that why they couldn’t find her de-transforming anywhere else.)

“You’re 18…” Superman said suddenly, making everyone stiffen.

“Excuse me…” ladybug said her voice becoming sharp,

“You’re only 18! You are way too young to be dealing with this! And you haven’t had any training and- oh my gods, you have been dealing with this alone since you were 13…” Superman suddenly ranted. Ladybug bristled,

“Did you- did you just carbon date my bones?” oh ho if they wanted to play dirty, they were gonna get dirty. “Are you trying for clues to my identity, cause if you are, you do not want to play that game with me, Mr. Reporter” she said her voice becoming venomous, a warning not to try her.

“How do you-” Superman begun,

“And for your information, I skipped a grade, so I am only 17 mother f*cker.” Ladybug informed the group harshly.

“Ooooo, I like her! You are officially now my baby sister!” Red Hood exclaimed, ignoring the tension in the room.

“Do you- Do you know all of our identities?” Red Robin asked curiously, without a hint the malice Ladybug expected.

“As if you didn’t try and find out mine as soon as you realised an unknown hero was working in Paris” Ladybug said, trying to scoff, but honestly, she didn’t really want to offend that Bat boys. “No, Bad Marinette. We are not getting attached, do you really think you could deal with getting betrayed again…”

“You got me there.” Red Robin shrugged honestly, “but I want to know whether or not you got all of us!!” he said, looking excited by the fact that she may have discovered all of their identities within the last 24 hours.

“I- Well, I mean yeah, I guess…” Ladybug started, “I guess my thought process was that I would need some kind of blackmail to keep you guys out and Paris” She tried to justify.

“What?! Why can’t we come and help you in Paris!” Wonder Woman exclaimed seemingly getting frustrated that Ladybug didn’t want their help.

“That’s why.” Ladybug said, gesturing to Wonder Woman’s tense form, “Look, I may have been fighting supervillains for years, but they were all civilians who were just having a sh*tty day. I know my own capabilities, and I don’t think I would be able to defeat an akumatized Wonder Woman, or an akumatized hero full stop!” Ladybug explained, hoping they would understand her situation. “Chat blanc was hard enough, I don’t want to think about what a fight with a trained superhero would look like” Marinette thought, trying not to remember how terrified she had been during that fight.

“What if we gave you assistance from outside of Paris” Robin said carefully while stepping towards her looking at her softly? “Wait what? I thought Robin was meant to be the so called ‘ice prince’” Marinette thought as she did a double take. “He’s kinda cute- WAIT, NO BAD MARINETTE!!!”

“Yeah, what demon spawn said pixie, we could help you figure out who your villains are, or if that’s taking over too much, we can give you some training, or even a place to let go of your emotions if it ever gets too much” Red Hood suggested.

“Pixie?” Ladybug asked.

“Yeah! Y’know, the tiny magic girls. It fits you perfectly” Red Hood said grinning, not that she could tell with that helmet over his head.

“I’m not that short…” she mumbled in return; this is not how she had imagined this meeting going.

“Yes, yes. We can help you outside of Paris, ect, ect. Now who do you think I am?!” Red Robin said, still stuck on the fact that she may be as smart or smarter than him. (He really wanted to play video games with her if she was that smart, maybe she might be a challenge)

“I wouldn’t want to just out your identity like that…” she said, giving a pointed look at Superman who looked away from her glare sheepishly.

“Nah its fine, we all know each other’s identities anyways” Red Robin said waving off her concern.

“Why aren’t you mad at me?!” Ladybug blurted out. She was getting confused, Fu always said that her identity had to be the most well-kept secret in the world, she would be very mad if someone went to the effort of finding it out without asking her first, “I found out all of your identities and planned to blackmail you all with them!”.

“I mean, I personally am annoyed that the Justice League left such an awful impression on you that you thought that you would need blackmail, but I don’t think we’re mad that you took precautions” Nightwing explained gently,

“Yeah, if anything, I’m mad because you still haven’t told me who you think I am” Red Robin said sounding exasperated.

“Timothy Drake-Wayne” Ladybug said, ripping off the band aid.

“…Holy sh*t…” Tim said softly, shaking off his shock he turned to Batman. “B-man where are the adoption papers, I know you have them, I need to fill one out straight away, she needs to become my little sister” Red Robin rambled not noticing Ladybugs shock at being claimed as their little sister, twice!

“Wait, you’re being serious?...” she said softly suddenly realising that they actually wanted her, “why would anyone want you for a little sister, you’ve ruined any and all relationships you’ve had over the past 4 years... why can’t they see that you are broken. Nobody wants you, why else would everyone be so quick to turn on you. You’re better off without anyone. everyone is better off without you” Her brain told her harshly. Then a bright flash overtook the room.

“Bug, its ok, you’re ok. They were just excited; you are a wonderful person don’t forget that” Kaalki neighed softly, flying up to her face, wiping away the tears that escaped her eyes while she was stuck in her head. “sh*t, I was crying” Ladybug suddenly thought, wiping away any wetness that remained on her cheeks, she took a deep breath and pushed the negative emotions that had threatened to consume her down, becoming emotionless again.

“Sorry about that, this is Kaalki, they are a Kwami, and they’re who allowed me to come here today” she said, choosing to ignore the concerned looks she was getting from the other heroes.

“Can I hug you?” Nightwing asked, ignoring ladybugs attempt to change the subject.

“Yes,” she wanted to say, “hold me so that I don’t have to hold on myself… Hold me until I shatter, hold my broken shards, then gently put me back together again” Instead, she said,

“No.” This caused Nightwing to reel back a bit, “that would be very unprofessional of me, I have already acted immaturely during today’s meeting, so I shall try to be more professional from now on” she continued sternly, voice devoid of any and all emotion. “Now, I would like to preface this discussion by saying that I believe I know who Hawkmoth and Mayura are, I just need some more evidence to back me up before I confront them. Are you capable of helping me with that?” She asked the group of heroes, who were still dazed from the sudden change in attitude.

“Yes, I do believe we can help you with that Ladybug” Batman said, recovering the fastest, “who do you suspect?”

“Gabriel Agreste as Hawkmoth and his assistant Nathalie Sancoeuras Mayura”

Chapter 7: Damian wants to help

Chapter Text

Damian couldn’t help but feel helpless while looking at the heroine, when his brothers told her that she was wanted as a baby sister, she looked shocked, and hurt. But then when Drake started talking about adoption papers, she looked even more shocked and then confused. Her beautiful- her eyes, he mentally corrected himself, then glazed over. She had started to shake, taking short steps away from the group he was a part of. His cold, frozen heart then shattered at her ever so soft “wait, you’re being serious?...”. It was like she thought that she was under deserving of their kindness. “Does she feel how I felt when Grayson first gave me a nickname” Damian thought, he still remembers thinking about how he didn’t deserve the term of endearment because of all he has done. Kindness shouldn’t be shown to monsters right. Then the girl started crying, not really making the motions of crying, just tears falling from her blue eyes, no sniffling, no hiccupping sobs, no shaking shoulders. Just a quiet stream of tears. Suddenly a flash overtook the room and her suit changed. A strange creature that vaguely resembled a horse flew up to her catatonic face and started frantically wiping away her tears.

“Bug, its ok, you’re ok. They were just excited; you are a wonderful person don’t forget that” the horse creature reassured the heroine. “Why does she need to be told she’s a good person? Of course, she’s a good person, she has been keeping Paris safe for 5 years by herself!” Damian thought to himself.

Seemingly realising that she was crying the hero lifted her tiny, gloved hands to her face and wiped away any wetness the creature may have missed. When her hands were removed Damian felt sick. While her face may not have shown much emotion while she was crying, her eyes held a world of hurt and pain that Damian was no stranger to. Now though, her eyes looked almost grey. They held zero emotion. As if she hadn’t been crying in the first place.

“Sorry about that, this is Kaalki, they are a Kwami, and they’re who allowed me to come here today” Ladybug said, gesturing to the ‘Kwami’ beside her. “How does her voice not even waver” Damian thought, she was showing no signs of having been crying. The only evidence that he had not imagined the hurt in her eyes was the fact that they were slightly red and swollen.

“Can I hug you?” Grayson asked quietly. This caused Ladybug to tense and look Nightwing in the eyes. Damian felt his breath catch in his throat, and he was sure he wasn’t the only one as he felt his brothers stiffen along with him.

Her eyes seem to scream at them, telling them that she was broken, that she was going to shatter if she allowed herself to feel anything more than a slight frustration at the world. They told a story of a girl who grew up too fast, a girl who has been hurt too many times to count, a girl who has seen things that had broken her so much that she was being held together only by the pressure of being a superhero, the last and first line of defence for all under her care. Her eyes made Damian want to take the girl behind the mask and tell her that it was ok to feel. To teach her how to feel good enough again, teach her how he had learnt to feel when he moved in with his father. “Why do I want to help her so badly” he thought to himself, having never felt an urge to help as strong as this before.

Just as he was about to come up with a totally reasonable explanation (the hero had them all under a spell obviously) she suddenly spoke,

“No” she said, this caused his older brother to stumble backwards in slight shock. Before Grayson could convince her to reconsider, she continued, “that would be very unprofessional of me, I have already acted immaturely during today’s meeting, so I shall try to be more professional from now on” her voice now as emotionless as her eyes. “Now, I would like to preface this discussion by saying that I believe I know who Hawkmoth and Mayura are, I just need some evidence to back me up before I confront them. Are you capable of helping me with that?” “So, she knows who her villains are but doesn’t have the resources to find the correct evidence to take them down without question” Damian thought to himself. “How did she figure it out?”

“Yes, I do believe we can help you with that Ladybug” his father said, seemingly recovered from watching the hero shove her emotions so deep not even their villain could touch them. “Who do you suspect?” his father continued.

“Gabriel Agreste as Hawkmoth and his assistant Nathalie Sancoeuras Mayura” Ladybug said, her voice certain but still devoid of emotion.

“When did you figure this out?” his father asked.

“Well, I first suspected Gabriel was Hawkmoth no less than a year into being Ladybug. But then he got akumatized, thus eliminating him as a suspect. Then it was revealed Hawkmoth had a partner that could have akumatized him to throw us off and he became a suspect again” Ladybug said, as if she was simply stating facts. Which Damian supposed, she is.

“Ok, but you seem confidant that it is him, why?” his father asked again making Damian realise that she had only listed what made him a suspect, not what had convinced her that he and his assistant were the villains.

“a couple of months ago I lost control of my emotions for a split second too long. He was in my head, so I decided to make use of the situation. I asked for his motive, he said that he wanted to use the ladybug and black cat miraculous to heal his wife. Once I had the information I needed to confirm my suspicions I simply broke my akumatized object and purified the akuma.” Ladybug stated nonchalantly, this seemed to anger Wonder Woman for some unknown reason, since all Damian could think of was the fact that she said that she felt her emotions for a split second too long, “does that mean that she’s had to fight off her emotions before the butterfly touched her before, if so, how many times has she done it to know how long she is allowed to feel before she had to cork up the bottle and shut the emotions away again…”

“That was incredibly irresponsible of you! You could have been compromised! What were you thinking!!” Wonder Woman shouted causing everyone to flinch at the sudden harshness of her words, Damian knew she was angry at herself because she wasn’t there to help Ladybug in her time of need, but instead she lashed out. Ladybug though, she just looked at the Amazonian, her gaze turning stony.

“I was thinking,” Ladybug started with a calm voice. “That I simply wanted to end it all, I had had just about enough of being alone, of fighting alone, that I just wanted it to end. Then instead of ending it the selfish way, I found a way to end this constant state of suffering for everyone” Ladybug said. “No, she can’t be implying what I think she is” Damian thought to himself desperately, not sure if he wanted an answer. Drake seemed to want one though.

“What was your akumatized object?” Drake asked, his voice trembling slightly at the thought of her answer.

“That is none of your concern” Ladybug simply said instead of answering the question. Before he could press her for a proper answer Ladybug continued, “so, can you help me find the evidence I need to take Gabriel and his assistant down or not?” she asked looking towards Batman.

“We will begin looking for evidence as soon as possible” his father said in the soft tone he would talk to Damian in when he had his nightmares.

“Good, is that all you wished to talk about concerning the situation in Paris?” Ladybug questioned in a professional tone, as if she had not just said that she confirmed who hawkmoth was by considering ending it all…

“How are you able to revive the dead?” Wonder Woman blurted out. Ladybug looked at her in confusion, the first emotion she had shown since crying.

“It’s part of my power, the miraculous cure.” Ladybug told Wonder Woman, while the Amazonian just frantically shook her head,

“My mother could never revive the dead. How can you? What are you sacrificing to do that?” Wonder Woman asked in desperation, this all seemed to be new information to the teenage heroine as she took a step back in shock and said in an unsure tone,

“I- uh- I don’t- I’m not sure? Tikki said that I am the first true Ladybug she has had in centuries. And the kwami’s have told me that my soul resonates well with all of them, which is what allows me to wield them all at once.” Ladybug told Wonder Woman.

“you’re able to wield all of them at once? I thought you just duplicated yourself and then wore the miraculi on your duplicates” Wonder Woman murmured in shock

“That wouldn’t work. The duplicates don’t have a soul for the miraculous to connect with, sure they have thoughts, and they feel pain. But they have no soul, because their soul is technically mine” Ladybug explained, her voice going back to emotionless and strictly professional. “anything else?” she asked looking at Damian and his brothers,

“Yeah actually, are you sure you don’t want training, or a place to be able to let go of your emotions for more than a split second?” Damian felt himself asking before his brain could catch up with him. Ladybug turned to him, and her eyes softened.

“That is very kind of you to offer, but the sooner I am able to catch Hawkmoth, the sooner I will be able to feel again. I also may not have had professional training that you all have had, but I have had what I consider to be training, and that has been enough for me” she chuckled dryly at the end, as if remembering the reason why was something she found morbidly funny.

“Are you sure pixie? I mean you just admitted you don’t have official training, and sparring is a good way to let off steam” Todd suggested gently trying to convince her to reconsider the offer. She stiffened a little at the nickname but declined the offer all the same.

“If you change your mind, let us know, ok?” Grayson said slightly desperate to help. “at least I’m not the only one who feels the desperate need to help her” Damian thought to himself.

Sighing Ladybug said, “Ok, I will let you know if I need to let off some steam” a slight curve of her lips could be seen when she agreed. Damian counted that as a win, they got her to smile a little. It made him feel a little fuzzy on the inside when her soft smile turned towards him. “Thank you, really. Please contact me when you have all the evidence you can find, for now though I need to leave so that I can get some sleep before school tomorrow” she said, transforming back into the suit she was in when she arrived, she created a portal and walked through it.

Back at the Batcave

After getting changed out of his suit Damian immediately made his way to the Bat computer with the intention to end Ladybugs suffering as quickly as he could. Only to find an email open next to an open 5-page document that looked like an essay, as well as an open tab to Miraculous.com that was basically a blank page telling the person who was using the computer beforehand to use different key words to find whatever they were looking for. Assuming his coffee addicted brother was the last to use the computer he called out to him.

“Drake is any of this vital information at the moment, or can we start looking for evidence to put Agreste behind bars for good?”

Drake looked over to him, and then looked at the screen, his eyes widening as he did so.

“Oh gods, I forgot about that. Yeah, that’s pretty vital information, not for ladybug, but it could help us understand the Paris situation better” Drake explained, not enough for Damian to understand his reasoning though, so he asked his brother to clarify,

“What are you going on about Drake.” Damian said snapping slightly at the vague answer.

“Do you remember Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” Drake questioned pulling up another chair to the computer.

“Yes, the girl how designed and runs the Miraculous.com website, designed the Akuma Alert app and stood her ground against the world’s best heroes” Damian stated not knowing where his brother was going with this.

“Well, she sent this email asking about the student exchange. In this email she explained how in Paris her class gets called the ‘akuma class’ because of their ridiculously high rate of akumatizations, hell even their teacher has been akumatized.” Drake explained, “She explained that she, as the class president, was put in charge of organising her classes end of year school trip”

“Isn’t that the teachers job?” Damian questioned incredulously

“I know, that’s what I thought too. But throughout the email her wording seemed a little off, she talked about her class as if they were separate from her.” Drake continued, pulling up the essay properly, “and sure enough, she didn’t mention herself once in the entire essay on her classes good deeds” scrolling through the essay, Damian could see that drake was right.

“Why didn’t she mention herself?” Damian voiced, slightly confused, “She created a rather informative website, that probably helps a lot of people, and an app that probably saves a lot of people”

“That’s what I thought too! She hasn’t mentioned any of her accomplishments, or anything good she may have done for her community! But her strangeness doesn’t end there” Drake continues, getting almost excited, “well, another part of wording in her email got me thinking too, and get this! She has never been akumatized!” Drake said throwing his hands up, in a gesture that suggested he couldn’t believe it.

“I thought you said her entire class has been akumatized?” Damian questioned, not really believing it himself, “her life must be perfect to have not felt a negative emotion for 5 whole years” he reasoned with himself.

“Yeah, well she worded it funny, saying that everyone including their teacher has been akumatized at least once, she didn’t say, ‘we have all been akumatized’, she said ‘her class has all been akumatized’.” Drake explained.

“And this is vital information that could help us understand the Paris situation how?” Damian asked, choosing to bypass the feeling of being impressed with this new girl, “what is with him and being impressed by strangers lately” he thought to himself slightly frustrated.

“Well, it would mean we could work closely with the class for a month or so, get to observe them. It would give us a civilian point of view on the situation… I also kinda want to meet this Marinette girl and see what’s up with her.” His brother explained, albeit sheepishly at the end there.

“Looks like a certain class is making a trip to Gotham then.” The deep rumbling of his father’s voice said from behind him.

Chapter 8: Marinette gets an email back, but it’s not what she expected

Chapter Text

Now, Marinette may have told the JL founders plus the BatFam that she was going home to sleep before going to school. What she really meant was that she was going to spend the rest of her night working on the latest commission from her uncle jagged at her sewing suite.

The sewing suite was gifted to her by Chloe when she heard through Sabrina that Marinettes parents had confiscated her sewing machine two years ago. Chloe had transformed her old suite, after moving to New York, into a sewing studio for Marinette to use whenever she wants as long as Chloe gets discounted commissions. Marinette now makes a wardrobe for Chloe every season, free of charge. Chloe keeps telling her that, ‘that is no way to run a business’, but Marinette ignores her. She’s just thankful Chloe gave her an entire studio to work from. Away from her parents…

Jagged had wanted the most ‘rock and roll’ jacket she could make, which honestly just meant a black, pink, and purple colour scheme, some stitching that she made sure catches in the light to make the jacket have cool rock and roll symbols, or lyrics from his songs show up, and then just adding a sh*t ton of metal studs. So yeah, she basically spent the night, instead of having a probably nightmare filled sleep, sewing different sized metal studs onto the jacket, while her Kwami’s looked upon her worriedly.

She knew the Kwami’s were worried about her mental state after having to explain how she found out for sure that Hawkmoth was Gabriel Agreste, since she didn’t even broach the subject with them when they asked her about it. Look, the day she lost control was the day she heard her parents discuss kicking her out. This was after she had had a particularly bad day in school, with her class deciding that they would spend their lunch time by basically beating Marinette up, to the point that she was late to class for the first time in literal years. Only to come home to her parents taking one look at her and scoffing. Apparently, while her classmates were beating the sh*t out of her, Lila had gone to her parents and explained that she had over-heard Marinette in the bathroom talking to herself about faking being beat up by Lila to get her parents to believe her. Yeah, safe to say she was not having a good day that day. So, in a manic fit of absolute helplessness Marinette decided to take her frustrations at the world out on herself…

The Kwami’s don’t know what happened in Marinette’s head when she was talking to Hawkmoth, since she had just sat there, bloody sewing scissors in hand, staring into nothing, then she broke the sewing scissors in half and held her hand out to the butterfly. The butterfly became purified when it landed on her hand, and it stayed with Marinette until she eventually fell asleep from the emotional exhaustion. Only for her to wake up and have to go to school the next day covered in bruises and cuts. Self-inflicted and otherwise.

When Wonder Woman had called her irresponsible, Marinette felt her heart shatter a little bit, especially since that that was the first akuma out of the literal hundreds that had come for her to actually get her. “irresponsible” Marinette repeated in her head, “yeah, that’s sounds about right. Some one who isn’t responsible, someone who doesn’t take something seriously. Yup, sounds like me” Marinette thought beginning to sour, until her brain helpfully reminded her that she was back in Paris and couldn’t get mad right now. “Plus, she was probably just taking her frustrations out on me like everyone else does.” Marinette tried to reason with herself. “No, I can’t excuse what my classmates have done to me” Marinette muttered to herself quietly hand sewing a small metal stud in place of a button. “Lila isn’t telling them to bully me back, that’s all their own doing” …

Marinette’s notification sound startled her slightly out of her designing daze. Feeling as well rested as if she had slept on the concrete outside the bakery. Looking up at her computer she finds herself startled to see a response email from the Wayne’s. “Or should I call them the BatFam” Marinette thought idly, opening the email.

Dear Miss Dupain-Cheng,

Under normal circ*mstances your essay would have been submitted too late to be taken under consideration. But due to your circ*mstances you and your class are in, as you mentioned in your email, we have decided that you and your class will be taking part in this two-month exchange that takes place in a month’s time.

If you do not already know, the schedule for your trip will consist roughly of the following: the first month you shall participate in an internship at Wayne enterprises. Then the last month will be a school exchange at Gotham academy where you will participate in lessons and any extracurricular activities you may want to be a part of.

Of course, all of the expenses, such as accommodation, food, and plane fairs will all be organised and paid for by Wayne enterprises. You and your classmates may bring extra money to buy such things as souvenirs or pay for whatever activity you may wish to participate in on your free days.

Personally, I look forward to meeting you, and working with you in organising this trip Miss Dupain-Cheng.

Sincerely,

Timothy Drake-Wayne, Co-CEO of Wayne enterprises.

“Well, that was easier than I expected” Marinette said aloud to the Kwami’s, she had thought that organising an entire trip would have been a lot more difficult than it ended up being. “I guess the whole trip being organised and paid for by the BatFam made my life a little easier” Marinette thought to herself. “But what did he mean, ‘I look forward to meeting you and organising the trip with you’” Marinette asked the Kwami’s who of which had gathered around the computer to read the reply.

“I’m not sure Marinette, but you should probably start getting ready for school” Tikki suggested.

“Yes, your right Tikki, gotta inform my ‘lovely’ teacher about how I basically got our class an awesome trip within a single day of her giving me the task.” Marinette said while shoving a stress knitted jumper on. “Ooooo, can’t wait to hear how Lila is gonna make this about her” she thought in amusem*nt while getting Kaalki to open up a portal to her room above the bakery. Cause honestly, that’s all Lila was when she wasn’t trying to physically hurt Marinette, just some sick form of amusem*nt for the stressed class-president.

Putting her coffee that only consisted of espresso shots into her to-go cup the size of her head, Marinette headed downstairs, grabbing an apple from the fruit basket in the kitchen and completely ignoring her DNA donors she made her begrudging way to school.

Surprisingly she wasn’t the first to class, Adrien was. Not bothering to interact with the cowardly boy, Marinette simply continued walking up the steps to her seat in the back of the class. Adrien for some reason decided that today of all days, he would like to not be ignored for once in his pathetic little life, so he tried to make conversation.

“Hey Mari! Lila told me the most outrageous lie last night! You would’ve gotten a good laugh out of it” He awkwardly chuckled, “so get this, she was telling everyone how your family is kicking you out! I didn’t believe her of course because your family is literally picture perfect!” Adrien continued smiling as if he told the most hilarious joke.

“Actually, Agreste, my parents are kicking me out. I got till our last exams. So, for once Rossi wasn’t lying out her arse” Marinette informed the blond irritably, completely ignoring the way he cringed at being called his last name.

“Wait actually?!” Adrien exclaimed standing out of his seat, “why didn’t you tell us! We could’ve helped you!” the model said while making his way up to Marinette’s seat.

“We?” Marinette snarled,

“Yeah! Me, Nino and Alya! I mean I know you’re on the outs with Alya at the moment, but I’m sure if you just apologise to Lila everything will go back to normal!” Adrien explained “then we can go up to your parents and explain the misunderstanding!”,

“On the outs? Agreste, I haven’t been friend with Alya, or any of you for that matter, for years” Marinette deadpanned at the boy.

“Of course, we’re your friends Mari-” Adrien started condescendingly

“Do Not call me Mari. We are not friends. Friends, as I have explained to you many times in the past 3 years, do not let others lie about them. Friends do not leave each other for the wolves. Friends don’t sit quietly by while the other gets beaten to a bloody pulp.” Marinette scoffed at the boy, feeling her anger start to rise.

“Come on Mari, your just being dramatic! Plus, your strong, you can take a bit of negative criticism, Lila can’t, and we can’t have her getting akumatized” Adrien said is a disappointed tone, as if he expected Marinette to know better

“Oh, for f*cks sake Agreste” Marinette sneered, “what about me huh, what would happen if I got akumatized?! What would you and your precious high road do then huh!?” she said staring the model straight in his eyes. Adrien stayed silent, until he spotted a butterfly phase through the window next to Marinette’s desk.

“Look out!” he shouted. But he was too late as the butterfly fused with the pencil Marinette was holding. Marinette herself froze, turning emotionless as soon as the butterfly connected.

“f*ck. Off.” Was all she said before she snapped the pencil in two. She then gently cupped the butterfly in her hands before releasing a pure white butterfly out the window. Adrien during this time stood next to her desk slack jawed.

“See!! That’s why we have to take the high road!! Look at how strong you are, if you were Lila, you would have been an akuma already!” Adrien exclaimed excitedly.

“didn’t I tell you to f*ck off?” Marinette said, tired of this constant back and forth, “honestly why do I even try anymore” she thought sourly.

“You told Hawkmoth that” Adrien said, co*cking his head to the side clearly confused.

“No, Hawkmoth was in my head, so I told him in my head that if he sent out another akuma for me I was going to come after him personally and sew his mouth shut with my eyes closed so that it would be the messiest work I have ever done, thus scarring him for life” Marinette stated plainly, ignoring the pale completion the boy looking at her took on. “I told YOU to f*ck off” she said, “so why, pray tell, are you still standing by my desk?” she continued, sweet venom dripping off each word. Adrien apparently didn’t have a sense of self-preservation anymore and went to continue to try and convince Marinette back to the high road strategy that was working so well for him. But then Mlle Bustier walked in and Marinette interrupted whatever bullsh*t he was about to spout next.

“Ahh, Caline. I organised the class trip just like you asked, I will email you the details so that you can tell the school board that we will be leaving in a couple of weeks for a two-month exchange in America.” Marinette said in a bored tone, to her teacher who was staring at her ‘model student’ in shock.

“Oh, well that’s great news Marinette! Would you mind organising all the forms that your classmates and I will need to fill out before hand? Also, where did you get this exchange to and how?” Madam Bustier said, ignoring the slight her student threw her way by simply adding to the already too heavy load on Marinette’s shoulders. Luckily for her teacher, Marinette grew up in a bakery lugging enormous bags of flour, so she was used to having a lot of weight on her shoulders.

“Already done Caline.” Marinette stated, pulling out a large file of paper she had printed out the night before, “and I won the opportunity by writing a 5-page essay on this classes accomplishments and good deeds done for the community. The entire trip is funded by the lovely people at Wayne Enterprises, hence why we are going to be in Gotham for 2 months.” Marinette explained in a bored tone while making her way down the stairs towards her teacher’s desk. “Here’s all the paperwork that needs to be filled out by a teacher; do you want me to go get Mlle Mendeleiev to fill it out for you?” Marinette asked in the most condescending tone she could muster while dumping a pile of paperwork on her glorified caretaker’s desk.

“Ah no need Marinette, I’m sure I can fill it out on my own” Caline gritted out with a strained smile. “I shall inform the class on the trip you won us when they all arrive, until then why don’t you go sit in your seat.” She continued with a grimace.

“sure” was all Marinette said in reply. She shoved past Adrien who was halfway down the stairs on his way to his own seat. Slumping down in her seat she rested her head in her arms while she waited for the rest of her class to rock up. She didn’t have to wait long, since everyone showed up at the same time, as if her class went everywhere that lying harpy did, oh wait…

“Omigosh, guys I totally forgot to tell you what I saw the other night!” Lila’s ‘sweet’ voice was heard as she walked into the classroom, “Oh maybe I shouldn’t tell you, Marinette already hates me enough”, “she’s not lying there” Marinette thought to herself amused, “let’s see where this one goes”.

“Don’t worry, we won’t let Maribitch touch you, you can trust us.” Alya said glaring at Marinette’s head.

“Oh, well, the other night when I was giving handmade blankets to the homeless in the pourer streets of Paris, y’know, where Kim lives” Lila started, “oooo already got a slight at a classmate in there, damn Lila’s picking up her game” Marinette cringed.

“I saw Marinette walking around alone, and I thought to myself, she may not like me, but I can’t just let her wonder those streets alone, she could get herself killed!” Lila exclaimed in false concern,

“Oh girl, you are too kind. Honestly Maribitch would deserve getting roughed up a bit after everything she has put you through” Alya said the girls surrounding Lila humming in agreement.

“Ouch, ok that one hurt a little” Marinette thought to herself, normally her classmates weren’t this vocal about their dislike of her. Just physical.

“Yeah well just as I was about to call out, she walked up to these two huge men, and started touching them. They seemed super into it too, I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing, Marinette was selling her body to these men who were like twice her age!” Lila fake whispered,

“Oooo slu*t shaming, that’s a newbie” Marinette thought, rolling her eyes, still with her head in her arms.

“So not only is she a bitch, but also a total whor*!” Alya exclaimed loudly, glaring at Marinette’s head with a new heat. “Wow Marislu*t, didn’t think you would sink that low” Alya said her voice soaked in distain. Marinette on the other hand without lifting her head, flipped the gaggle of girls off, getting scoffs and offended snorts in return that had Marinette smiling to herself.

“Quite down now class, and Marinette please be kinder to your classmates.” Mlle Bustier reprimanded her, “so she tells me off for flipping the girls off, but when they were calling me a whor* it was all fine and dandy?! Gods, I hate this class.” Marinette all but scoffed to herself.

“Good. Now I have an exciting announcement to make! Your class president managed to win us a class exchange trip to America Gotham for 2 months!” Mlle Bustier exclaimed in excitement. Marinette feeling the eyes of her classmates on her, lifted her head to look at them, then mock bowed.

“Oh, my Damiboo must have taken what I said into account!” Lila exclaimed, “here we go” Marinette thought bitterly.

“Damiboo, Lila are you taking about the Damian Wayne! Ice prince of Gotham!!” Alya exclaimed scrambling to get her phone out.

“Of course! Don’t tell anyone though, he is trying to keep the paparazzi off my back until I’m ready, he really is such a sweetheart.” Lila cooed, “I was talking about our class trip, and how it probably wasn’t going to happen because we have such a lousy class president, and that I would organise it myself if only I wasn’t so busy helping out orphans and adopting strays” Lila continued painting herself in an angels spotlight as always, “when he suddenly suggested that he could take care of the trip for me so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it!”

“Wow Lila! We totally don’t deserve you! Can I get an interview with you about your boyfriend the infamous Damian Wayne?” Alya said, already recording on her phone.

“Of course!” Lila preened as the phone’s camera was pointed at her, “anything for you Als, what are best friends for!” she said with a pointed glare in Marinette direction, to which. Marinette rolled her eyes in return.

“So, how did you first meet the ice prince and how did you manage to melt his frozen heart?!” Alya said, in complete ‘reporter’ mode.

“Well, it all started when I was seven and my mother took me to a Wayne Gala. And I was standing off to the side waiting for my mother, who is the Italian ambassador, to finish talking to the Gotham ambassadors when I felt a tap on my shoulder. Oh, Alya you should have seen him, he was so shy and bashful when he asked me to dance. He told me that I was the prettiest thing he had seen all night!” Lila cooed as she told her tall tale, “We instantly hit it off, and have been in an on and off again long-distance relationship ever since!” Lila said, smiling at the camera in her face with a lovesick smile, “dear Kwami, if she wasn’t such a bitch, she would be a great actor” Marinette thought to herself, half impressed with the girl’s acting skills.

“Sure, we have our fights, like all healthy couples do, mostly about him not wanting me to continue picking up stray animals, since he absolutely hates them because of how disease ridden they can be. And I know that he is simply looking out for my health, but how could I say no to all those poor sweet animals that needed my help!” Lila continued, “Honestly, his sisters always joke about how we are basically married at this point, since we act like an old married couple!” she continued with fake amusem*nt.

“Now if only she could find a better script, she might be a good actor, but by gods she could not get a job as a director.” Marinette chuckled to herself, “everyone knows that Damian Wayne spear headed like every major adoption centre in Gotham, he f*cking loves animals. It’s about the only thing the media knows he loves. And that he has brothers, not sisters, excluding Cassandra and Stephanie” Marinette thought idly to herself. Thinking back on how Robin acted towards her last night, blushing slightly she thought sarcastically, “yeah real ice prince that one”.

“Damn girl! Do you think you could score me an interview with the Wayne’s when we go over there… hey wait, Mlle Bustier! When are we going over to Gotham?” Alya asked the teacher.

“Next month!” Mlle Bustier said excitedly. The class in response got excited by the fact that they would be going to the crime capital of the world in less than two weeks. All the while Marinette completely zoned out as she realised that she now had a new deadline.

She had to defeat and lockup Hawkmoth and Mayura within two weeks, or else risk the BatFam working out her identity due to her disappearing from Gotham to go take care of Akumas.

“f*ck…”

Chapter 9: Marinette and her parents have a talk.

Chapter Text

Marinette had never been so happy for an akuma to interrupt her school day, cause honestly her classmates had been looking at her in a way that had Marinette feeling like she would go home sporting some new bruises. Instead, she was simply going home after fighting an akumatized kid that failed their history test. He was only a level three akuma, so she was able to defeat him without becoming multi-bug. He was a relatively gross akuma, since he would just scream ‘let there be cake!’ at people while turning them into cake, while everyone around the cake-ified person should suddenly feel the impulse to eat said cake-ifiied person. “I think people might stick to eating ice cream cake for the next week or so” Marinette thought to herself, considering the people eating the cake, were aware that they were actually eating a person. “gross” Marinette shuddered.

Marinette walked into the bakery to see her sperm donor erasing any and all cake off of the menu with a scowl on his face.

“That akuma was great for business non?” Marinette exclaimed loudly to Tom, who in turn grimaced along with the people in the crowded bakery.

“Marinette go upstairs, we are going to have a talk with you once we close up here” Sabine called coldly from the back of the bakery where the kitchens were.

“Alright Sabine” Marinette called back just as coldly.

Instead of waiting for her parents to finish up in the bakery for the next hour in the living room, Marinette made her way up to her room. Opening her trapdoor, she was greeted by Wayzz flying up to her face and saying, “Grand Guardian, do not react, but we believe someone may be watching us through your webcam above your computer.” They said seriously, motioning to her computer, where her webcam had a tiny red light flashing on it, indicating that the device was on. “Huh, that’s mildly concerning” Marinette thought to herself. Grabbing her phone, she started typing out questions for her Kwami’s to answer,

“It’s been on for about an hour Grand Guardian” Wayzz answered,

“Yeah, the camera has blind spots so you can feed us in those” Mullo answered her next question,

“Yes, we’re sure that they can’t hear or see us, cameras can’t pick us up remember!” Sass said when Marinette asked another question,

“No, we have no clue who it might be-” Longg began to answer before being interrupted by Kaalki,

“Well, I think it’s probably one of the bat boys!” the horse Kwami exclaimed.

“We know you do.” Chorused the other Kwami’s exasperatedly.

All the while Marinette sat in her chair in front of her computer, looking like she was texting someone. She did giggle a little at the Kwami’s attitude toward the horse kwami’s theory. But to whoever was watching her through the webcam it looked like she had just gotten a funny text. As she was going to continue asking the Kwami’s questions via the notes app on her phone, she heard a call from down the stairs…

“Marinette come downstairs we need to talk.” Came the cold voice of Sabine Cheng. Marinette despite herself flinched slightly at the tone her mother decided to use.

“I’ll be down in a second” Marinette called down emotionlessly. “I forgot that I have a time limit on my stay here” she mumbled to herself and the kwami’s, forgetting that she had a third party listening in momentarily.

Marinette found her ex-parents sitting at the dining table waiting for her to join them.

“Sit down” Tom said in the coldest voice Marinette had ever heard from him. so, she sat down across from the couple, waiting for one of them to start the soon to be uncomfortable situation.

“Marinette, as I told you yesterday, if you do not become kinder to your classmates, or start helping out more at the bakery, we are going to have to force you to move out or force you to start paying rent.” Sabine started, glaring at her daughter, daring her to speak up. “We were going to give you until the end of your schooling to prepare for this, but considering recent developments brought to our attention, we are now giving you until the end of next month.” Sabine continued. Marinette, ignoring the glare her ex-mother was giving her exclaimed,

“What!? Why did you change the time limit! I haven’t done anything to provoke this-!” Marinette said in desperation, “why is the universe so against giving me a break to just adjust to this sh*t” a resounding slap broke Marinette out of her thoughts.

Bringing her small hand to cup her cheek shakily she turned to her parents’ furious faces,

“Not done anything to provoke this?!” Sabine roared, as Tom lowered his large hand that had just been across Marinette’s now red face. “That poor girl Lila came up to us during the Akuma attack crying, saying that she had only just escaped your grasp! She was covered head to toe in black and blue bruises!” Sabine screamed at Marinette,

“The poor girl told us how when she saw you going into class to get the answer sheet for the next test, that you beat her up until she promised not to tell anyone what she saw! She was trembling like a leaf trying to explain to us, how you were going to use the cover of the akuma to get the answer sheet to cheat on your next test!” Tom boomed at his daughter in disgust.

“So yes, we are shortening your stay here, because we want you out of this house as soon as possible. We don’t want to be associated with you anymore Marinette, so the sooner you leave the better!” Sabine told her, her voice dripping in distain for the child she created.

“I see…” Marinette whimpered out, unshed tears sitting in her eyes, “don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.” Marinette chanted in her head. “I’ll make myself scarce until I find a place then” she told the adults softly; encase she provoked another violent reaction. Marinette then bowed to the still angry adults before making her shaky way upstairs to her bedroom.

Falling into her desk chair Marinette withheld a sob that threatened to escape her throat. Instead, she checked her cheek in the camera of her computer, surprised to find it already on, before remembering someone was watching her. Pushing that thought out of her mind Marinette continued to check on her face.

“that’s going to leave a nasty bruise” Marinette chuckled wetly to herself, her cheek was bright red and had an indent the shape of Toms handprint on it. The slap was so hard it caused her lip to split, and the soon to be dark bruise was already turning a sickly green. Marinette poked it, hissing slightly at the pain that blossomed from her cheek.

“Why me…” Marinette asked the room softly, letting her tears fall, because honestly, she couldn’t care less about akumas right now. “Why do I have to be the one to deal with this sh*t. Why does the universe f*cking hate me!!!” Marinette whisper screamed, full body sobs escaping her, she could feel the kwami’s settle in her hair to try and comfort her as much as they could. Marinette continued to sob until the tell-tale flapping of an akumas wings resounded in the air. Marinette stiffened. Took a deep breath and shoved her despair and frustrations down deep before turning to the akuma and holding out her hand.

“Come here little akuma,” she hiccupped softly, tear stains still fresh on her cheeks. The akuma gently flapped over to her hand, landing ever so softly in her palm. Thinking as positively as possible Marinette held the akuma as it slowly purified. Marinette looked that the now white butterfly sitting in her palm and spoke to it softly. “You can stay here for a while if you like? Ladybug told me that when she followed one of you guys that you get eaten by birds pretty quickly, because of your colour. So, you are welcome to stay here where its safe.” The akuma seemed to respond to Marinette’s words by softly fluttering up to her bruising cheek and landing there, walking up her face to settle down in her hair, next to all the Kwami’s that had made a temporary home there. Chuckling at the magic butterflies out of the ordinary behaviour Marinette had calmed down a bit.

“Speaking of a safe place to stay.” She told the little butterfly, “I need to find a nice enough place to rent until I finish school. Wanna help me find a place little guy? I got a bit of commission money saved up thanks to uncle Jagged so it shouldn’t be too bad” she told the little butterfly as she brought up a rent website, to which the butterfly quietly flapped its wings in response. Marinette’s ring tone suddenly played her favourite song of Jagged’s startling her slightly. “Speak of the devil” Marinette chuckled slightly wincing as she smiled at her phone.

“Hey Uncle Jagged, how’s it going?” Marinette greeted, trying to put as much enthusiasm into her voice as possible.

“Nettie!! My favourite rockin’ niece!” Jagged’s excited voice all but shouted over the phone.

“Hey Nette,” Penny added in,

“Hi aunt Penny, did you get that dress you asked for in the mail ok? Anything I need to change?” Marinette greeted Penny warmly, before questioning her aunt in all but blood how her new dress was fairing.

“Yes, I got the dress I commissioned you for, and it is as gorgeous as the designs you sent me before you made it. Honestly Marinette it’s a work of Art, I got so many compliments when I went to the Gala with Jagged.” Penny chuckled at her nieces worries, before thoroughly complimenting the girls’ skills.

“I’m so glad you liked it!” Marinette said relieved.

“Now.” Jagged begun, “Unfortunately we won’t be able to come to Paris to pick up the rockin wardrobe you made for me for a while.” He said with less enthusiasm.

“Oh? How come? Is everything ok?” Marinette questioned worriedly.

“Everything is fine Nette, we’re just visiting Jagged’s hometown for a couple of months or so” Penny reassured Marinette, her calm voice, soothing Marinette’s jaded nerves.

“Wait, you guys are going to Gotham for a few months? When!?” Marinette said in excitement,

“We will be there for three months Nettie, starting next week.” Jagged informed his favourite designer, sounding kinda confused at his niece’s enthusiasm.

“Awesome!!!” Marinette squealed spinning in her desk chair. Her enthusiasm no longer being faked, “I’m going on a class trip to Gotham for 2 months, next month” Marinette explained to her uncle. Now it was Jagged’s turn to squeal.

“that’s so totally rock and roll Nettie!! Oh, I can’t wait to give you the tour of where I grew up!” Jagged said excitedly, making Marinette giggle slightly, hiding her wince.

“That’s enough Jagged, you don’t want to overwhelm the poor girl” Penny’s calming voice was heard as she tried to calm the rock star down. “that’s all we had to really say Nette, we can’t wait to see you in Gotham. Also don’t think I didn’t notice that slight wince. You will be telling us what that lair has done to you when we meet up. I would force you to tell me now, but we have to be on a plane out of London in around 15 minutes.” Penny stated seriously.

“Just tell us when you want that fox skinned, and I’ll be there” Jagged said seriously, slightly shocking Marinette.

“It’s fine guys really. ‘Tis but a flesh wound’” Marinette said poshly, trying to lighten the mood. It worked a little,

“Alright Nettie, we’re here for you, remember that ok? Love you” Jagged said chuckling slightly,

“Love you too uncle Jagged, see you soon” Marinette said, reluctantly saying goodbye to the only family she really had at the moment.

“Love you Marinette, we will see you in Gotham” Penny said softly,

“Love you too aunt Penny, see you” Marinette said before Penny hung up, leaving Marinette alone with her thoughts once again.

A light fluttering broke Marinette out of her daze,

“Oh, I forgot about you little one. I guess I better get to finishing up uncle Jagged’s jacket so that its ready in time for the school trip huh?” She asked the little bug that had now settled itself on her computer. Smiling softly at the harmless creature, Marinette thought to herself, “Maybe life isn’t so bad at the moment”

Chapter 10: the BatBoys now have ‘two’ troubled children they want to adopt

Chapter Text

Tim was a paranoid mother f*cker, that’s why he was currently hacking into 17-year-old girl’s webcam. Yup, it was because he was paranoid. Totally not because he wanted to know if her room gave him any clues to her personality that he couldn’t find on the internet. Yeah, he was just paranoid by the fact that she hasn’t been akumatized! Yeah, that’s it! She could be working with hawkmoth for all he knew! Excluding all of the witness reports that have been made by akuma victims about the kindness she has shown them after even their own families were afraid of them because of what the victim did when they were akumatized. Yup total villain behaviour! (Tim was not giving a very convincing argument as to why he wanted to spy on Marinette, but he was too late to back out now)

About an hour into spying- “I mean surveillance” Tim interrupted his thoughts. The girl came into frame, sitting down on her pink desk chair, looking at her phone. Obviously texting someone. The person on the other side of her phone made her giggle slightly, until her head snapped up and in the direction of where she had come from. Tim heard a very faint “Marinette come downstairs we need to talk.” From who he presumed to be her mother calling. “Why does her mum seem so angry with her” Tim thought with furrowed brows at Marinette’s mothers voice, his brows furrowed further when Marinette flinched slightly at the sound, before saying “I’ll be down in a second” then causing Tim to furrow his brows so much that his expression may become permanent she muttered, “I forgot that I have a time limit on my stay here”. “The hell does she mean by that!” Tim thought feeling slightly alarmed. He thought coming into this that he would see a happy go lucky girl with an optimistic view on life, living under the loving care of her parents. Not whatever the hell this is!

He turned up the sound so that he could hear the conversation that was occurring downstairs from Marinette’s bedroom. And gods, did he wish he hadn’t, because this girl’s life was f*cking awful by the sounds of it.

“Sit down” said a cold masculine voice, “probably her father” Tim’s brain supplied helpfully,

“Marinette, as I told you yesterday, if you do not become kinder to your classmates, or start helping out more at the bakery, we are going to have to force you to move out or force you to start paying rent.” Said the cold feminine voice from before. “They are forcing her to move out because she’s not kind to her classmates?” Tim thought, getting confused. “that’s not very good parenting”

“We were going to give you until the end of your schooling to prepare for this, but considering recent developments brought to our attention, we are now giving you until the end of next month.” Said who Tim assumed to be Marinette’s mother, in an even colder voice than before.

“What?!” Tim exclaimed! “They were going to kick her out after her exams!! Are you kidding me!! And now she only has a month to find a place to stay!! What is going on!” He thought furiously to himself.

“What!? Why did you change the time limit! I haven’t done anything to provoke this-!” Marinette exclaimed with a hint of desperation in her voice that broke Tim’s heart slightly, “this poor girl” Tim thought to himself. *SLAP* Tim jolted back from his computer at the noise of skin hitting skin.

“Not done anything to provoke this?!” Her mother yelled making Tim flinch, and he wasn’t even the person that was being yelled at.

“That poor girl Lila came up to us during the Akuma attack crying, saying that she had only just escaped your grasp! She was covered head to toe in black and blue bruises!” Marinettes Mothers muffled screaming came, “that doesn’t make sense?! The akuma only lasted around three hours! That’s not enough time for someone to be beaten up, and to have their bruises turn black and blue!” Tim thought confused. “Are her parents screaming at her for something she didn’t do??” He thought horrified if that was true.

“The poor girl told us how when she saw you going into class to get the answer sheet for the next test, that you beat her up until she promised not to tell anyone what she saw! She was trembling like a leaf trying to explain to us, how you were going to use the cover of the akuma to get the answer sheet to cheat on your next test!” her dads muffled voice boomed. “Oh, my gods, they are… f*cking hell” Tim thought becoming more horrified by the second.

“So yes, we are shortening your stay here, because we want you out of this house as soon as possible. We don’t want to be associated with you anymore Marinette, so the sooner you leave the better!” Marinette’s mothers voice said, full of disdain. Tim was becoming misty eyed at what her mother had said, hitting a little too close to home.

“I see…” Came the barely distinguished voice of Marinette. “She sounds so broken”

“I’ll make myself scarce until I find a place then” she said so softly that Tim barely heard it.

“…sh*t…” Tim said aloud to his office, “this poor, poor girl” Tim’s thoughts were interrupted by said girl coming into view of the camera once again. Tim gasped, as he looked at the girl as she fell into her desk chair.

“She’s barely holding it together… how on earth hasn’t she been akumatized yet?!” Tim exclaimed to his empty office.

Tim watched in horror as the girl examined her cheek in the camera of her computer, giving him the perfect view of what he heard happen downstairs. On her cheek was an enormous red, already bruising handprint, her eye was slightly puffy from the slap, and her lip was badly split.

“that’s going to leave a nasty bruise” the girl chuckled to herself while poking her cheek, hissing slightly at the pain. “Oh gods, she almost seems used to this sh*t” Tim thought, absolutely heartbroken at the sight of this incredible girl, only to have his heart shatter when she continued,

“Why me…”, big tear drops fell from her blue eyes as she stared at her ceiling, as if looking for an answer, “Why do I have to be the one to deal with this sh*t. Why does the universe f*cking hate me!!!” she whispered, her voice full of so much raw despair and pain that Tim felt his heart break over and over, tears were now running freely down his face. “How hasn’t she been akumatized” He thought as he watched helplessly as she sobbed. His question was soon answered when he spotted the black and purple butterfly phase through her window.

“Look out!” He yelled out of pure reflex, tensing as she did, thinking that she had heard him. Only to realise that she had heard the akuma. Tim watched in awe and horror as this young girl went from being absolutely distraught to becoming basically emotionless within one breath. She turned towards the butterfly, away from the computer, and held out her hand to it causing Tim’s breath to catch in his throat, “what does she think she’s doing!!” he thought desperately,

“Come here little akuma,” she said ever so softly. And to Tim’s astonishment the Butterfly did as she said and landed in her outstretched hand. Then to Tim’s absolute awe he watched as the butterfly transitioned from a black and purple colour to a pure white.

“You can stay here for a while if you like? Ladybug told me that when she followed one of you guys that you get eaten by birds pretty quickly, because of your colour. So, you are welcome to stay here where its safe.” Marinette spoke softly to the butterfly as if it could understand her, snapping Tim out of his awe.

“Wait Ladybug tells civilians about what she does? Is Marinette her civilian aid? Is that why she created the miraculous.com website and the akuma alert app?” Tim’s thoughts were going a mile a minute at this new information. Then the butterfly actually seemed to respond to the broken girl’s soft words, as it fluttered up to her swollen cheek and made its way up to its hair causing the girl to chuckle lightly. This chuckle healed Tim’s broken heart slightly. “Goddamn this girl is strong” he thought to himself.

“Speaking of a safe place to stay.” She continued to the little butterfly, “oh that’s right, her parents are dicks.” Tim thought sourly to himself.

“I need to find a nice enough place to rent until I finish school. Wanna help me find a place little guy? I got a bit of commission money saved up thanks to uncle Jagged so it shouldn’t be too bad” she explained to her new friend who seemed to be peacefully keeping the girl company in her hair.

“Wait did she say uncle Jagged, as in famous Rockstar Jagged Stone!!” Tim’s thoughts squealed. “Oh my god she said commission money! Does that mean that she is…” Tim trailed off as Marinette’s ring tone started playing one of Jagged Stones best songs.

“Speak of the devil” she said, wincing as she smiled at her phone fondly before she took a deep breath, plastered on the fakest smile Tim had ever seen and picked up the phone.

“Hey Uncle Jagged, how’s it going?” Marinette exclaimed. “Holy sh*t…” Tim thought. “Could this girl get any cooler and more awesome!” Tim was sooooo excited to meet her now, even more so than when he first sent her that email. So, Tim sat there watching Marinette interact with her uncle and aunt, all the while squealing silently at bits and pieces; “oh gods, they have nicknames for her, cuuuute!!”, and “Oh my gosh, Jagged is coming to Gotham for 3 months!!! I hope I get to meet him; I defiantly want to get his autograph while he is here” and can’t forget him fangirling over realising that Marinette was none other than the illusive designer LMF!! (Little MissFortune). Although Marinette making light of her swollen cheek did bring Tim back down to the harshness that is reality, reminding him that he sooooo had to show this to his brothers, he had to make sure that this girl was as protected as possible for the duration of her stay in Gotham.

Tim in that moment, (without fully realising it) adopted the small girl as his new baby sister.

POV switch up!! Damians time to shine ;P

“What is it you wanted to show us now Drake” Damian grumbled as he walked over to the debriefing table in the cave, sitting down in his seat and looking up to the Bat computer to see the visual of an all-pink bedroom.

“Damn replacement didn’t know you got off to watching little girls in their bedrooms” Jason sneered at his brother causing Drake to turn red, in anger or embarrassment Damian didn’t know.

“What is it you wanted to show us Tim” Grayson said trying to get Drake back on track.

“Right, well you may all remember Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The girl who created the Miraculous.com website and the Akuma Alert app.” Drake stated fast forwarding the footage on the screen,

“The girl who hasn’t been akumatized. Yes, Drake we remember her, what about it” Damian said, getting annoyed at his brothers theatrics.

“Yes well, I was checking in on her, because I suspected that she may be working with Hawkmoth, considering she hasn’t been akumatized, and well, this is what I found…” Drake trailed off, looking slightly heartbroken at the sight of the girl when she entered the frame.

Damian and his brothers watched in silence as she texted someone before they all tensed at the sound of a cold feminine voice calling for Marinette. None of the batboys missed the way she flinched at the sound. What was even more concerning about this reaction to her supposed mothers voice was what she muttered before she left the frame once again.

“I forgot that I have a time limit on my stay here”. Drake paused the footage there, looking at his brothers as if asking about their opinions on what just happened.

“Now before I continue the footage, I want you all to know that I may have only known Marinette for 2 and a half days, but I would die for her, and hopefully after watching this, you would too.” Drake said, his voice completely serious.

“Um, Tim, what does she mean, ‘her time is limited here’” Grayson questioned, Damian himself was wondering the same thing.

“It means that her parents were going to kick her out after she finished her final exams” Drake said, his tone cold, and obviously angry at the girl’s parents’ behaviour.

“Are you f*cking kidding me” Todd growled out.

“Why?” Damian questioned, “they would only kick her out if they had a reason” he reasoned with his brothers,

“Let me let them explain their reasoning” Drake said distain filling his voice as he pressed play.

“Sit down” said a cold masculine voice, “most likely her father” Damian thought.

“Marinette, as I told you yesterday, if you do not become kinder to your classmates, or start helping out more at the bakery, we are going to have to force you to move out or force you to start paying rent.” Said the cold feminine voice that had called the girl downstairs.

“So, what, she wasn’t nice to her classmates and now she’s getting evicted by her own family!” Todd said standing up to begin pacing, and honestly, Damian couldn’t blame him, “that is no reason to kick your child out of your home” he thought bitterly.

“It gets worse…” Drake said causing his brothers to pale slightly.

“We were going to give you until the end of your schooling to prepare for this, but considering recent developments brought to our attention, we are now giving you until the end of next month.” Continued Marinettes Mother.

“That is nowhere near enough time for her to find a place to stay!! Are you f*cking kidding me!!” Todd said, his pacing increasing in speed.

“She only has a month to figure out a place to stay, while getting prepared for her trip here.” Damian thought, “Todd’s right, that’s not enough time”

“What!? Why did you change the time limit! I haven’t done anything to provoke this-!” came the broken reply of the girl who had just been basically told that she has a month before she has to start fending for herself.

*SLAP*

The sudden sound of skin hitting skin interrupted any and all thoughts that had been going through Damians head. Looking at his brothers to confirm that they heard what he heard, he saw the horrified face of Grayson, the resigned angry face of Drake, and the pure uncontrolled anger in Todd’s face, his eyes glowing a slight green as the pits reared its head.

“Not done anything to provoke this?!” came the scream of Marinette’s mother, “That poor girl Lila came up to us during the Akuma attack crying, saying that she had only just escaped your grasp! She was covered head to toe in black and blue bruises!”.

Tim paused the footage there, “anyone else think that what her mother just said was utter bullsh*t.” He said, Damian nodded agreeing with Drake,

“Bruises don’t become black and blue until at least the day after the person got hit” Grayson said in a somewhat horrified voice.

“Exactly.” Drake continued, “The akuma that are talking about only lasted for 3 hours, which is not enough time for that Lila girl to become black and blue from bruises” Drake said unpausing the footage, letting it play once again.

“The poor girl told us how when she saw you going into class to get the answer sheet for the next test, that you beat her up until she promised not to tell anyone what she saw! She was trembling like a leaf trying to explain to us, how you were going to use the cover of the akuma to get the answer sheet to cheat on your next test!” came the muffled booms of Marinette’s dads angry voice.

“Are they seriously believing a liar over their own daughter!!” Todd exclaimed, becoming angrier by the second. Damian could only listen in his own quiet horror as he realised this girl did not have the perfect life he assumed she had when he found out she hadn’t been akumatized.

“How on earth has she not been akumatized Drake” Damian gritted out

“You will find out in a bit, just wait” was all his know-it-all brother said in return, frustrating Damian to no end.

“So yes, we are shortening your stay here, because we want you out of this house as soon as possible. We don’t want to be associated with you anymore Marinette, so the sooner you leave the better!” Marinette’s mother said.

“This poor girl…” Grayson said, close to tears.

“I see…” Came the barely heard voice of Marinette. “She sounds so tired… gods she sounds absolutely broken” He thought to himself.

“I’ll make myself scarce until I find a place then” she said so softly that Damian could only just make out the words.

Tim paused the footage once again.

“Jaybird, quick warning, you may want to go grab a target or a dummy to shoot, because what you guys are about to see absolutely broke me when I first saw it” Drake’s voice wavered slightly at the end. Todd, instead of responding like a normal human, grunted, and stormed off to grab a target and bring it back to the table so he had something to destroy if the pits overwhelmed him.

“Tim is it really that bad” Grayson said, concern leaking into his voice.

“Yes.” Was all Drake said in reply.

When Todd returned dummy in tow, Tim continued the footage. Damian felt himself stiffen at the sight of the girl as she re-entered frame. Her face had a giant handprint on it, that was red and swollen, making one of her watery eyes slightly puffy, that along with her bleeding and split lip, Marinette looked like she was about to break. Damian barely registered Todd as he began shooting the dummy, too caught up in looking at the fallen angel’s girls face. “Wait, angel… where did that come from” Damians brain suddenly thought, causing Damian to begin to blush slightly. Before he was distracted once again by the girl moving on screen

“that’s going to leave a nasty bruise” she said chuckling inspecting her cheek using the computer camera as a mirror, and then wincing as she poked her cheek.

Damian felt his heart break as the girl then looked at her reflection and began to cry, noiselessly at first, then it turned into heart wrenching sobs as she looked to the ceiling and said to herself quietly.

“Why me…”, pausing she took a breath, “Why do I have to be the one to deal with this sh*t. Why does the universe f*cking hate me!!!” she said, her voice turning into an almost silent scream at the end. Damians head snapped to Grayson as he heard heavy sobs come from his brother, then turning to watch his other brothers’ reactions through his own slightly misty eyes he saw Todd strangling the dummy so hard his knuckles where white, and Tim quietly crying looking at the broken girl before them. Then Drake stiffened, causing Damian to snap his head to the computer showing the footage of the crying girl.

“This… is why she hasn’t been akumatized” said Drake quietly. Damian simply watched in horror as the girl on the screen stiffened, her head snapped towards the approaching dark butterfly, Damian watched in fascination as she pushed all of her emotions down in a single breath. All of that raw sorrow and helplessness, gone. “Where have I seen that before” Damian thought to himself, then the girl reached her hand out to the akuma which had stopped when it no longer felt a negative emotion to corrupt.

“What is she doing!” Todd hissed, watching the screen in something akin to fear for the girl.

“Come here little akuma,” she said, holding her palm out to the corrupt butterfly. Grayson gasped as the boys all watched the butterfly approach Marinette and land in the palm of her hand.

“Holy sh*t…” Todd said in awe. “She has to be an angel” was Damians only thought as he watched the butterfly turn from black to a pure almost glowing white.

“You can stay here for a while if you like? Ladybug told me that when she followed one of you guys that you get eaten by birds pretty quickly, because of your colour. So, you are welcome to stay here where its safe.” The angel girl softly said to the white creature. Damian watched as the butterfly seemed to respond to Marinette’s words as it fluttered up to land on her swollen red cheek, then crawled up and settled down in her midnight blue locks. Tim paused the footage on the lightly chuckling face of the angel girl as she laughed at the butterfly’s antics, making Damian break into a small smile unconsciously.

“This is how I came to the conclusion that Marinette Dupain-Cheng is Ladybugs civilian aid” Drake said, breaking Damian out of his thoughts

“What?” Damian questioned.

Chapter 11: is it over? did we win?

Chapter Text

It had been about two weeks since her parents had first hit Marinette, and it had been a rough two weeks. With ladybug having to deal with six level 3 akumas and ten level 4 akumas within the last fortnight, all the while collaborating with the Bats to find enough evidence that Hawkmoth was Gabriel Agreste to hold up in court. And that’s just what Ladybug had to deal with. Marinette was busy organising the details of the trip with Tim while trying to find a place to stay. Halfway through the first week the Kwami’s suggested that she should look for a place out of Paris, since hawkmoth was soon about to no longer be in issue. This is why Marinette was currently looking at scholarships at different business universities across the world. Or more specifically Gotham, she was looking at Gotham specifically because she would not feel the need to play hero there anymore, she could have a real break and let the local vigilantes handle it. It also had an awesome scholarship program where she could get a decent place to stay as well as a good education she may not need to pay full-price for. Safe to say when Marinette found a good university she got a start on her portfolio, which had already been sent off to Gotham University to be assessed, she even had an interview booked during one of her days off when she was on the trip!

So, with that aspect of her life being dealt with, Marinette’s class decided that the fact that Tom and Sabine had taken to hitting their daughter whenever she acted out was f*cking hilarious. So Marinette’s school days consisted of her getting tripped in hallways, her locker getting stuffed full of band aids and plasters to poke fun at the fact she had a small band aid on her split lip, (not that she ever used her locker anymore after she once left her sketch book in the dingy thing only to find it torn apart and stuffed into the locker like confetti) as well as getting thrown insults like; “hey Marislu*t, my parents are in need of a new punching bag, so I gave them your number!” or “Maribitch, you might want to get some makeup lessons, cause what you have on isn’t covering the fact that your parents spank you” or Lila’s favourite and most irritating “Oh Marinette I’m so sorry my telling your parents that you bullied me got you hurt! Even though we aren’t very good friends, I have some good first aid skills, so just let me know if you need me when they hit you again ok!”

While her home life consisted of getting yelled at during dinner, or not being allowed to eat dinner, getting hit whenever her 'parents' thought she was acting out, and let’s not forget getting locked in her room with no escape.

So yeah, she was having a rough couple of weeks. Luckily last night, with only four days until they were due to go on the class trip, she finally had enough evidence to take Hawkmoth down. Hence why she was currently sitting on the fence line of the Agreste Mansion, with a police squadron quietly waiting outside for her to bring out the terrorist.

Taking a deep breath Marinette said to herself “It’s now or never” letting all of her negative emotions out of her bottle that she normally kept shut deep inside her, she watched as the giant butterfly shaped window opened as Hawkmoth felt her raging sea of emotions. “that’s my que” Marinette thought sarcastically as she swung through the huge window shattering the glass, surprising Hawkmoth mid evil speech. Quick as lightening she threw her yoyo at Nathalieas Mayura, hitting her in the side of her head – knocking her out cold. Before reeling back in her yoyo and throwing it again, this time to tangle up Hawkmoth before he could properly react to what was going on.

“Ladybug! But how did you find out!” Gabriel as his evil alter ego shouted at her,

“Gee, I wonder what gave it away” Marinette replied sarcastically gesturing to the butterflies sitting on the floor around her. “I wonder where you got these butterflies from huh. Maybe from a couple of butterfly sanctuaries that you happen to own??” She continued.

“I- er- but” Gabriel spluttered as Marinette approached the man-child.

“You know” Marinette chuckled darkly, advancing in on him. “All this!” she exclaimed gesturing to the room she was standing in, “Could have been easily avoided if you had just asked for help!!!” she yelled at him. “For Kwami sake, I wouldn’t have had to sacrifice my childhood for this sh*t if you weren’t such a stuck up, selfish, arrogant prick!!” Ladybug roared.

“I did ask for help girl, the doctors said there wasn’t anything they could do” Gabriel said, trying to insult the breaking girl before him.

“Not doctors DUMBASS! Me!! You ask me for help!! An issue caused by a miraculous can be fixed by a miraculous!” She told him angrily, reaching down to take off the broach that tied Nooroo to the sad little man before her.

“I know that! that’s why I was going to get the ladybug and black cat miraculous’” Gabriel said while trying to avoid Ladybug’s nimble hands reaching to undo the broach.

“Oh my god, do I have to spell it out for you!!” Ladybug said exasperated as she pulled on the broach, causing hawkmoth to detransform. “I am the guardian, if I fix the peaco*ck miraculous it heals both your wife and Nathalie. A wish on the other hand would have come at a price.” She continued lecturing the now silent man, “You love your son as much as your wife correct?” she asked, getting a nod in response, “well he would have died to bring your precious Emilie back. As well as causing an effect that could very well end the universe” Ladybug said coolly. This caused Gabriel to pale significantly. As Marinette left the man to stew in his thoughts she made her way to a still unconscious Mayura and gently took the broken pin off of Nathalie. Turning back to Gabriel she begun to curse him.

“I, Ladybug, holder of the miraculous of luck and creation, chosen of all Kwami, and grand guardian of the Miraculi hereby curse Hawkmoth, Gabriel Agreste, abuser of the butterfly miraculous, to never be able to hold a miraculous ever again, and to curse him to feel all the pain he has caused Paris until he repents for the terror he rained over this city in his five years of power.” Marinette’s eyes began to glow, and her voice seemed to double, one voice speaking in French and the other speaking in the tongue of the guardians. Gabriel collapsed to the ground as he felt excruciating pain blossom through his chest, gasping for air he looked up to the person he had broken, and almost killed. (Not knowing that in exactly 14 separate timelines, he had been successful). Ladybug simply looked at the man who had been the main cause of her pain and suffering, before walking over to the unconscious body of his assistant and shaking her awake.

“Ladybug!” Nathalie exclaimed as she woke, scrambling backwards and clutching at where her pin would’ve been.

“Yes, hello. Now take me to Emilie so that I may see what condition she is in” Ladybug said in a tired emotionless voice. Turning to her boss, who was no longer tangled in Ladybug’s yoyo, for confirmation and getting a pained nod in response Nathalie stood up shakily,

“Right, well follow me Ladybug” she said in her normal cold voice. Ladybug followed silently as Nathalie guided her to a portrait that opened up to an elevator. Stepping inside cautiously ladybug descended down under the mansion. Gasping slightly at the sight before her Marinette was in awe of the beautiful room that contained the glass coffin that held one Emilie Agreste.

“Dear Kwami…” Ladybug whispered softly as she followed the assistant out of the elevator towards the glass coffin. Looking down at the sleeping figure Marinette felt… nothing… surprisingly Ladybug just stood there looking at the figure who looked like she was having a nap, and hadn’t been in a coma for 5 years, and just didn’t feel. Didn’t feel angry at the woman for not heeding Duusu’s warnings. Didn’t feel sad at the thought of a mother missing seeing her son grow up. Didn’t feel jealous that she had someone who would burn down the world for her. She simply didn’t feel. She couldn’t feel, she was still hyper aware of the fact she still had work to do. So instead, she turned to Nathalie,

“Let’s go back upstairs”

“Of course, Ladybug” Nathalie said in return

The way back felt shorter to Marinette as she walked back into Gabriel’s lair to find him curled up on the ground still groaning in pain. Pulling out zip ties from her yoyo, (a suggestion made by Robin in their last meeting) she cuffed Agreste and his assistant while also cursing said assistant with not being able to use a miraculous ever again. Nowhere near as bad a curse as the one Gabriel was suffering but it was enough to prevent any of this happening again.

Walking out the gates of the Agreste mansion Ladybug handed the two terrorists over to the police, while telling the paramedics on site that she had found Emilie Agreste in a coma under the mansion. And her job was done… she could relax, and maybe-

“Wait Ladybug!” an annoying voice cut-off her thoughts, turning to look at the blond boy who had just run out of the house in his Pyjamas,

“What is it Adrien” Ladybug said tiredly,

“What’s going on! Why are the police here, why are they arresting father and Nathalie!?” the boy exclaimed,

“Your father and Nathalie were Hawkmoth and Mayura respectively and are now going to jail for their crimes. My job here is done, now if you excuse me” Ladybug said, prepping her yoyo to swing away before a hand held onto her wrist in a painful twist.

“Wait, Ladybug. You must be mistaken, sure my father’s not a great dad, but he wouldn’t be a terrorist!” the blond exclaimed desperately,

“Let me go Adrien” Ladybug said, ripping her wrist out of his tight grasp, “I am not mistaken, and I believe that the police are awaiting your statement on the situation, goodbye.” Ladybug said in a cold voice before swinging away into the night.

Sitting atop the Eiffel tower Marinette called the Bats to tell them how the confrontation went, and to say thank you.

“Pixie! How did it go! Did you bag the bad guys!” Jason Todd answered her call almost immediately. The Bats had taken to walking around without the getup when she called since she already knew their identities.

“All done!” Ladybug said with a bright false smile, “I was just calling to say thank you for all your help, couldn’t have done it without you guys” she said, her smile becoming slightly more genuine.

“Nah!! You would’ve handled it with or without our help kid!” Jason told her

“Yeah, all we did was speed up the process” Tim piped in as he walking into frame before plopping down in a chair next to Jason. “Now that Hawkmoth has been dealt with, what are you and your civilian aid gonna do now?” He asked her

“I don’t know, I guess retire- wait. Did you say civilian aid?” Ladybug asked the two boys,

“Yeah, y’know Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Your civilian aid” Tim said as if this was common knowledge. Marinette herself was very confused on how they came to this conclusion, so she asked them,

“And how exactly did you come to this conclusion?” She said, causing Tim to blush in embarrassment, and Jason to grin like a maniac.

“Well. Replacement here, spied on her because he wanted to know why she hadn’t been akumatized. And the girl said something about you telling her how the purified akumas get eaten because of their colour!” Jason told the heroine smirking at his brother who was looking at everything besides the heroine.

“So that’s who was watching me that day” Marinette thought to herself, embarrassed that they saw her at one of her lowest moments.

“Hey! I was just making sure she wasn’t working with Hawkmoth or something!” Tim exclaimed, pouting slightly.

“Right well. Marinette wasn’t my civilian aid. She just has an open balcony policy which allowed me and the other heroes to grab a bite to eat during patrol, or just a shoulder to lean on if it became too much. I stopped by her balcony quite often in the early days, so did Chat Noir. I didn’t want to involve a civilian in this whole hero business, so I only really kept things professional, unlike my partner who often went to her place to complain about how I wasn’t going on a date with him” Ladybug explained to the Batboys, not wanting them to think she involved a civilian into the hell that is her life. Even though she is technically said civilian.

“So why did she set up the Miraculous.com website and the Akuma Alert app?” Tim questioned as if his life had just been tipped upside down.

“Not sure” Ladybug answered vaguely, “guilt at not doing a good enough job as a hero,” she answered in her head. “Well, give my thanks to your dad and brothers when you see them, I am going to retire until I am needed again.” Ladybug continued, changing the subject from her civilian self.

“Ladybug wait.” Jason said turning serious, “are you sure you’re ok? I mean you just finished an almost six-year long fight that almost broke you-” he asked genuinely

“Did.” Ladybug interrupted feeling her emotions bubble up at kindness the bat boys had shown her over the past two weeks, “It did break me…” she told them softly, letting a couple of tears fall from her eyes.

“Oh Bug, do you want to portal over to the Batcave so I can give you a hug?” Jason suggested softly. While Tim just looked at her quizzically, concerned, but looking like he was trying to figure out a puzzle.

“While I could really go for a hug right now” Ladybug chuckled wetly, wiping away her tears, “I still have a broken Peaco*ck Miraculous to fix, so I really must get going.” She told them.

“Alright little lady. But don’t be afraid to teleport over for a hug ok? We will still be here for ya even if you retire.” Jason told her softly.

“Thank you, again, that really means everything to me. See you around Batboys” Ladybug said smiling a watery smile that never reached her eyes.

“See you around pixie pop” Jason said as she hung up. Ladybug leaned her head against the cold metal of the tower and took a deep shuddering breath before letting out a scream that had been threatening to tear out of her throat the entire night. The scream to anyone who could hear it, made their heart shatter and their hair stand on end. That scream was one of a girl who had died and come back to life only to save herself, too many times to count. That scream was one of a heroine who finally defeated the villain but lost in the end anyway. That scream was one of a child who was grieving their childhood and innocence that had been ripped away from them before they could begin to comprehend that they had it in the first place.
That scream was every single emotion that had been building up inside Marinette since she received the duty of hero of Paris, since she received the role of guardian, losing her mentor in the process, since she lost everyone she loved to a liar. That scream was guttural, full of raw sorrow and pain unimaginable.

And so, she screamed, and thrashed, and screamed. Until her throat was hoarse and raw, until she ran out of tears to accompany her screams, until her body shuddered in pain, until her hands were red with her own blood, covering the blood that already stained her fingertips with every reset, with every closed timeline, with every miraculous ladybug. She kept breaking until there was nothing left to break, until she felt nothing anymore. When she stopped screaming she stood up, slightly lightheaded from lack of air and adrenaline that had been rushing through her veins.

She couldn’t remember swinging back to her house, she vision had greyed, her heart no longer whole, her mind trying desperately not to slip into madness, the only colour she could see was red. The red that had forced her to deal with this alone, the red covering her friends as they died for her, the red of the swarm of ladybugs that always came at a price she had to pay, the red of the cold sharp metal of her sewing scissors that left red scars on her body. The red that she would cough up onto the feet of her classmates as they kicked her until she was blue.

But red was also the colour of hope for the people of Paris; red was the colour of her best friend; red was the colour of her suit that kept her whole when she didn’t have the energy to do it herself. Red was a complicated colour that she both loved, feared and hated.

Marinette felt herself look up and around. Her room was pink. The soft pink of childhood innocence Marinette held onto for as long as she could… a light red… as if she was destined to be red. Her hands shook as she held the peaco*ck miraculous, she could vaguely hear the other Kwamis saying that she shouldn’t heal the miraculous without help. Ignoring their warnings, or simply not hearing them, Marinette focused on a new colour.

Blue.

The blue of her cold dead eyes that held a deep pain indescribable, the blue of the raging ocean of emotions that was a constant threat to her life as it thrashed within the tight-corked bottle inside her, the blue of the bruises that couldn’t be healed after battle because she didn’t have enough energy to spare for herself.

The blue of Duusu’s soft feathers, the blue of a warm clear sky on a sunny summers day, the blue of a calm ocean to cool off in after a long day in the hot sun and sand. As she focused on these emotions, these feelings, she could feel her energy begin to drain into the broken miraculous, she could feel it trying to bleed her dry, but she did not let it. She held on tight to the miraculous, comforting it. Telling Duusu that it was ok to be broken, that they can heal without fear of being judged. She let Duusu take, and take, and take until they had enough energy to continue healing themselves. Because that is all you can do. Doctors don’t ‘fix’ people. They give people the energy and head start for them to start fixing themselves.

When Marinette felt Duusu’s miraculous snap back together, she knew her work was done, collapsing onto her chaise, she fell asleep praying to never wake up again.

If only she was so lucky.

Chapter 12: Damian tries to be a good brother, while Marinette is tired of being a ‘good classmate’.

Chapter Text

Walking into the sitting room fresh out of a nightmare Damian decided that the best way to spend the rest of the night would be drawing whatever came to mind. Instead, he finds one of his least favourite brothers looking at his laptop as if it held the answer to the universe but was unwilling to give it up. So, Damian who was trying to be a better brother of late decided to ask Drake why he was having a staring contest with a computer.

“Drake why are you up at 3 in the morning having a staring contest with your laptop” Damian said while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Drake who jumped slightly and blinked at his brother said in return,

“f*ck, Demon spawn you gave me a heart attack, can you not turn off that sneaky assassin sh*t?” Drake said eloquently while glaring at his brother.

“Sorry it was trained into me from birth, now what’s got you so focused that you have been up for what, 2 days now?” Damian sassed slightly to his brother. A sleepy Damian was a sassy Damian, (change my mind)

“Three days now Dames, and I’ve just kinda been stuck on this thing, and it’s really getting to me” Drake conceded

“Jesus, Drake” Damian grimaced, “ok you know what” he said sitting down on the couch opposite his sleep deprived brother, “how about you tell me what’s got you stuck, and then go get some sleep. And I’ll work on whatever it is your stuck on. I’m up anyway” Damian shrugged.

“Huh, look at you being a decent human being for once.” Drake said looking at his brother with a slightly proud look in his eyes.

“Ttt. Don’t get used to it. You just need to sleep, and this is the only way I know how to help ok” Damian scoffed, not letting drake know how his tone made him feel a little lighter, “especially after that nightmare…” Damian grimaced to himself

“Right well, you know how ladybug told us she didn’t have a civilian aid? And that Marinette was simply a normal civilian helping out her local heroes?” Drake explained.

“Yeah, she told you and Todd that when she called to say goodbye” Damian agreed, feeling a slight twinge at the thought of her last call being a goodbye…

“Well, the more I look into it, the less sense that makes?!” Drake exclaimed slightly.

“explain” said Damian confused.

“Look Marinette knows too much to just be another ‘helpful civilian’, almost all the last akuma victims said in interviews with the press that Marinette was one of the first people on the scene to help them and help them deal with the aftermath of an akumatization. She is even in a lot of the videos on Miraculous.com as well as the Ladyblog! She was almost always involved in the akuma attack, either helping out before ladybug showed up, or helping out afterwards!! Plus, she seemed to know how miraculous worked, especially hawkmoths miraculous. She told people who were dealing with mental illnesses or people grieving to move out of ‘range’ from Hawkmoth. As far as I can tell, she was the only civilian to know that Hawkmoth even had a range!!” Drake ranted, listing off good deeds Marinette did while Paris was under attack.

“Wasn’t she one of Ladybugs Temp heroes before she went solo?” Damian questioned, “wouldn’t that mean that she would know more about the miraculous that normal civilians?”

“I mean I guess… but the other heroes like Rena Rouge and Carapace never did any of the sh*t Marinette did after they got revealed! The only logical reason would be that ladybug didn’t want to lose another good teammate, so she made Marinette her civilian aid!” Tim reasoned,

“But ladybug wouldn’t lie to us, she hates liars” Damian told his hysterical brother, “I don’t see why this is such a big deal Drake. Ladybug said she wasn’t her civilian aid, she told you that she didn’t want to involve civilians in her hero sh*t” he reminded Drake

“I know, I know. I just feel like the two of them are connected somehow but I can’t for the life of me think how. The only explanation I can think of is that Marinette became what Babs became for us!” Tim tried to explain, running his hand through his greasy hair.

“Drake, how about you go have a shower and sleep on it. Maybe it will come to you once your clean and rested” Damian convinced his brother.

“Fine… I’m not crazy though right?” Drake asked him, wanting to make sure he wasn’t the only one feeling like he had accidentally vacuumed up the missing puzzle piece.

“No Drake, you’re not crazy. Honestly, I feel like Ladybug and Marinette are much closely connected than just a friendly civilian and a local hero. But we aren’t going to get anywhere with this until we get more information, which we will get in a day and a bit. When the French class come to stay. Now go shower, I can smell you from over here” Damian said, scrunching up his nose in a show of disgust.

“Ok ok, I get the picture. Leaving to go have a shower and a nap now” Drake said, holding his hands up in surrender while walking out of the sitting room. Leaving Damian alone with his thoughts and his sketchbook. If Damian was being honest with himself, he wasn’t excited to see the French class and have to deal with them for a whole two months. From what he could tell, the class was full of inane teenagers that got off on bullying their fellow students. The only person he was remotely interested in seeing was Marinette. She was… interesting…

Back in Paris..

Marinette walked into class even more tired than normal, she had just spent the last three days trying to retire as ladybug, only to have Paris to come back at her and beg her to keep fighting for them, encase another supervillain attacked them. Paris wanted her to become their ‘Batman’ and Marinette wanted none of it. She was tired and just wanted to retire in relative peace. So, then the people of Paris decided to turn on her, call her selfish for not continuing to protect them. The police who hadn’t properly done their job since hawkmoth arrived suddenly were expected to be police again, and they didn’t want that so they started to rally Paris, telling the citizens that they alone couldn’t protect Paris, that they needed Ladybug’s help. And so, the Parisians thought that pressuring their hero would be the best idea to keep them. Boy were they wrong, I mean honestly did they really think saying things like “Ladybug is just as bad as hawkmoth by leaving us” or “Ladybug is just being selfish, she never cared about us, just her fame!” and even, “I bet ladybug was secretly working with hawkmoth so that she could play hero!” would get their hero to stay! Nope! Marinette made her formal retirement video, after going to three separate press conferences and getting heckled out of them and posted it on Miraculous.com.

Honestly she was so glad she decided to move to Gotham after the trip, “f*ck staying here, Paris has become like a jealous possessive ex, that I want to ghost the f*ck out of” Marinette thought bitterly about her home city. “At least in Gotham, people don’t heckle their heroes” (most of the time).

Marinette had spent her weekend avoiding sleep (nightmares) and aiding in the healing process of Duusu as well as organising the final details of the class trip.

So yeah, Marinette was tired enough that she had slept in and was now ‘on time’ to class, instead of her normal ‘early’. Expertly dodging legs Marinette made her way up the stairs, but not before Lila called up to her, “Oh Marinette you must feel so useless now that your employer has gone to jail! I mean, oops” she said covering her mouth as if she spilled some sort of secret. “I am too tired to deal with this sh*t right now” Marinette thought, rubbing her temples, ignoring Lila completely.

“Lila are you saying that Marinette worked for hawkmoth?!” Alya exclaimed, standing up suddenly,

“I mean I may have heard her talking to him before…” Lila said meekly as if she wasn’t setting her bloodthirsty class onto Marinette. Stomping up the steps to where Marinette had sat herself down, Alya slammed her hands on her desk.

“What do you want Césaire” Marinette said coolly, not having enough patience or energy to be polite.

“Were you really working for hawkmoth?!” Alya basically screamed at her, causing Marinette to wince at the volume, “and smell, Kwami would it kill her to take a mint” she gagged slightly.

“I mean that’s probably why she was never akumatized” Lila piped in.

“f*ck off Lila” Marinette said in a tone so deadly it caused the whole class to become silent. Sighing Marinette continued, “Look, I am real tired of dealing with this class’ sh*t, I was only being polite to you all so you wouldn’t become akumatized and come try to kill me. Now though I don’t have to worry about that, so let me make this real clear to you all” she said, causing Alya to step back in surprise (this isn’t how this normally goes, her class thought).

“Leave. Me. The f*ck. Alone. I can single handily destroy all of your lives, since you all seem to forget that you used to come to me with your problems.” She sneered, “I know all of your dreams, and I can make them become your nightmares.” Chuckling darkly, she continued “You want to know why I wasn’t akumatized… because if that sh*t-stain ever tried to give me powers, even he would have feared what he had created. I would have been the cause of the f*cking Armageddon and the cause of hawkass’ death because I would have turned on him the instant I was finished with all of you.” Marinette finished. The entire class was now pale, and slightly thankful that she hadn’t been akumatized, because they knew deep down that Ladybug and her team wouldn’t have won. Lila on the other hand thought that she could somehow take advantage of Marinette’s rant, instead of heeding it as the warning it was.

“But Marinette why would you want to hurt us, we have been nothing but kind to you” she started crying, big fat tears ruining her makeup.

“Awwww Lila, its cute you think I still care… Ha! I got nothing to lose gurl.. You on the other hand, have everything. And you are going to lose. It. All.” Marinette said, her tone so venomously sweet Lila actually felt sick. Shaking it off Lila called Marinette’s bluff.

“Are you threatening me?! What did I ever do to you” She exclaimed sobbing, her shoulders bouncing off-time with her sobs, making the whole scenario look fake as f*ck.

“Oh, Lila, Lila, Lila… that was a f*cking promise, bitch.” Marinette hissed, causing Lila to shut up suddenly. Luckily for her, Mlle Bustier decided now was a good a time as any to grace the class with her presence.

“Alright class, sorry I’m late, I had to sort out some last-minute paperwork for the trip tomorrow! I hope you are all excited because this is going to be the biggest trip any class in this school has ever been on!” She exclaimed, seeming slightly smug.

“Oh, she defiantly bragged about this sh*t to the other teachers” Marinette thought, loosing even more respect she may have held for her teacher. The class did not seem to react the way Caline had expected since she decided it would be a good idea to hype the trip up even more, (to be fair the class was still recovering from seeing this new side of Marinette) “Max you must be excited to tour Wayne enterprises! And Myléne and Ivan aren’t you excited to see the botanical gardens! I heard they are run by a climate activist! Ooo and Nino, Rose and Juleka, aren’t you excited to see the natural history art museum, they have a whole exhibit for music!” Mlle Bustier said to the class with a slightly strained smile.

“Of course, they’re going to enjoy it Caline, I designed the whole first week of this trip! Normally they just make us intern at Wayne industries for two weeks before we go to Gotham Academy for the whole ‘student exchange’ part.” Marinette piped in nonchalantly, looking around she saw a lot of shocked faces looking back at her, “what?!” she said incredulously, “you may all hate my guts, but I want to enjoy this trip too. So what if I added some details you guys might like”, (honestly, deep down, there was a thirteen year old girl in her that said if she just kept trying they would see her. They would see that she was still herself.) Unfortunately, Lila thought Mari had had too much of the spotlight today sooooo…

“Actually, I’m the one who organised the first week of the trip, I got my Damiboo to help me organise it with his family… I can’t believe you would take all the credit from me Marinette. But its ok, if it makes your vile-little-self feel at least a little bit more accomplished then you can have the credit…” Lila trailed off meekly.

“I knew you would come through for us Lila! There was no way Maribitch could have organised all that for us, it just doesn’t make sense! Right Max!” Alya, ever the yes-man, exclaimed sneering at Marinette in the process. “This is what I get for doing my job well…” Marinette thought bitterly while eagerly awaiting Max’s stats, ever since Lila had told him that Markov was a robot that was just blinded by emotions after the sweet thing took Marinette’s side, Max’s grades had been dropping, as he fell into self-doubt, curtesy of Lila.

“Logically it would make sense that Lila was in fact the one who organised the first week of the trip since her boyfriend is Damian Wayne, and he has the power to do so. So, there is a high chance that Marinette is manipulating us into being her slaves again, like Lila said. And an almost 100% chance that Lila is telling us the truth.” Max said, nervously pushing up his glasses, “the facts don’t lie”

“Pfffft!” Marinette couldn’t hold her snicker at that last line. “Yeah, the ‘facts’ don’t. But the source does~” she thought, rolling her eyes at the glares she got in return for her little snicker.

Ignoring all the conflict as always, Mlle Bustier continued on with a bright smile, that dimmed slightly as she told the class some more news,

“Now you may have noticed that Adrien is currently absent.” Mlle Bustier begun, “so that’s why I have been feeling the lack of a disappointment filled stare” the retired hero thought idly.

“Well, he and his mother, who has made a miraculous recovery, are moving to London with the rest of his family. So unfortunately, this means that he will no longer be joining the class trip.” Caline said sadly.

“Poor dude not only did his father emotionally manipulate him, but also all of Paris…” Nino said dejectedly.

“Nino, you’re not still in contact with him are you! His father was Hawkmoth! How can you trust someone raised by such an awful person” Lila exclaimed causing Nino to stiffen, “Oooo this should be good” Marinette thought, Nino was super protective of Adrien cause his dad was such a dick to him.

“What are you implying Lila?” Nino asked in an emotionless voice.

“Well, you never know he could be manipulating you; he could be just like his father!” Lila exclaimed

“I’m sure Lila is just trying to look out for you babe, she knows that Adrien could never hurt a fly! She’s just considering all the possibilities” Alya jumped into the conversation, obviously seeing how Nino was now glaring at Lila like she was the scum of the earth, (which I mean, she is).

“Right! What I meant was that I think your such an incredible best friend, staying with him through all of this” Lila frantically back-peddled as she realised that Alya’s involvement meant that Nino was getting incredibly angry with her, I mean she had to keep up her reputation as class ‘good girl’ of course.

“See babe!” Alya said smiling brightly at her boyfriend,

“Yeah, I guess…” Nino said looking at Lila sceptically, glancing back a Marinette. “Wait, does he? No way…” Marinette thought straightening her back, while giving Nino a soft and unsure smile… Nino in return shook his head as if shaking off whatever caused him to look at Marinette and glared at her. Marinettes heart dropped, “right, I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up” she thought, that tiny spark of hope was snuffed almost as quickly as it had appeared. And it honestly hurt more than any of Lila’s latest insults. “God damnit, I thought I didn’t care anymore” she thought looking down at her desk, small wet dots appearing on the wood from her sudden tears that appeared unwelcomed to her eyes. Not wanting to look weak, she frantically dried her face and put back on her mask of stone-like indifference. While she collected herself, she missed Nino’s second look, and the shock evident on his face as he saw her shed those tears, then confusion when she suddenly became the Marinette he was so used to after all these years. The Marinette who no longer felt emotions…

Again, ignoring the conflict occurring within her class Mlle Bustier continued, “Now that all of the news is out of the way, lets continue our English practice for when we go to America tomorrow afternoon. Sighing Marinette let her head fall to the desk, she was already fluent in the language since Jagged had insisted that he teach her his native tongue. So instead of listening to her teacher talk about English grammar, Marinette took a much needed, if light, nap. Completely missing the scheming face Lila took on as she obviously planned on ignoring Marinette’s previous warnings.

Chapter 13: Gotham meets Marinette, but is the city ready for her?

Chapter Text

Marinette was the first on the bus, not trusting her classmates to not leave her behind on their way to the airport. Marinette was cautiously excited to see what Gotham was like. Sure, she knew that there were some pretty evil bad guys, but she also knew that there was some very reliable heroes too. Putting in her earphones, Marinette turned up her music so that she wouldn’t have to listen to Lila talk about her ‘Damiboo’ and how he was so sweet and how he called her, ‘piccola volpe’, this caused many around her to coo. Rolling her eyes, Marinette turned her music up even louder so that she wouldn’t have to listen to anymore of Lila’s bullsh*t. “Gods this is going to be a looooong flight” Marinette inwardly groaned. When they got to the airport Marinette got a text message from Tim. He had insisted that they exchange numbers encase something happened to her, so that he would be able to ‘call in some help’, which Marinette knew meant that he would put on his suit and come get her. ‘Hope you enjoy the flight; I made some changes to your details. You can thank me later (;’, “okaaayyy” Marinette thought, not getting the context of his text message. She would soon however as when they went up to get their tickets, hers had been moved to first class. This of course did not go unnoticed by the class as Lila immediately began to tell Mlle Bustier to get her to swap seats.

“It’s just my Tinnitus gets worse on aeroplanes and being in first class would allow me to deal with the discomfort quietly…” Lila told her teacher, begging with some sub-par puppy eyes.

“Well, you heard her Marinette, please be a good model student and swap seats with Lila” Caline told Marinette was a bright smile, expecting Marinette to go along with it. Ha! Boy were they wrong,

“No.” Marinette simply said in return, causing Caline’s smile to become slightly more strained,

“Marinette stop causing a scene and give Lila your plane ticket!” she said trying to grab at Marinette ticket to a peaceful plane ride.

“Actually Madam, Plane seats cannot be swapped or exchanged, especially first-class ones, so your student should have planned ahead if she has an ailment” The airport attendant spoke up, looking softly at Marinette in a show of pity, before glaring at her teacher. “Huh, so this is what it feels like to have someone on your side…” Marinette thought, smiling back softly at the airport attendant in gratitude. Lila simply huffed,

“Well, my mother is a very important diplomat, and I didn’t want to bother her. So, it would just make sense that Maribitch- sorry Marinette gave me her ticket, I deserve it after all.” She told the attendant in a tone that was generally used on people you saw as bellow you. “Kwami, could she just be polite for once…” Marinette winced, turning to the airport attendant,

“Thank you for sticking up for me, and sorry for causing so much trouble” Marinette softly whispered to the kind young lady behind the desk,

“It’s no worries sweetheart, in fact this is my first time dealing with a child-Karen. I can’t wait to tell my co-workers this story. And I’m sorry that you have had to deal with this. It’s certainly not a healthy school relationship.” The lady chuckled, smiling at Marinette in reassurance. Marinette felt the sudden urge to hug the woman, something she hadn’t felt in the longest time. Instead, she gave the worker a bright smile, (also something she hadn’t done for a long time) and thanked her again before she made her way to airport security. Completely missing the way her smile had made the worker beam with pride. Not knowing that the smile she had given the young attendant had made the workers day. The worker smirked at the baffled group of school students before her, feeling extremely satisfied with her work.

Marinette was glad she looked up the airports security rules and regulations as her scissors in her to-go sewing kit made it through the Xray with no drama, they were short and had a blunt top, meaning she could bring them aboard. She was also glad that she had learned how to change the shape of the miraculous box, and that it didn’t show up of the Xray. So, it simply looked like an empty box, that could be filled with thread that didn’t show up on the scan. Making her way to the loading bay she sat down and started back up her music, ignoring her class who talked loudly and obnoxiously in the quiet lobby, making Marinette cringe away from them as the other people waiting for the plane glared at her clueless class.

First class was called up to board, so Marinette quietly stood to go wait in line, shrinking away from the heckles and glares from her classmates, “I wish they wouldn’t do this in public” she cringed, as she felt the stares of the people lining up with her.

Sitting down and releasing a breath she didn’t know she was holding, Marinette sunk into the comfortable first class style chair as the rest of the passengers boarded the plane. As the plane took off Marinette turned the TV Infront of her on, planning on looking for some half decent movies to watch during the flight.

“No offense kid but your class is annoying as f*ck” said a rough feminine voice from the seat beside hers, shocking Marinette out of her thoughts.

“Oh uhh, none taken miss?”

“Reagan Ridley. Nice to meet you…” She prompted holding out her hand for a handshake.

“Marinette” The bluenette said taking the tired lady’s hand. “So, what were you doing in Paris?” Marinette asked, wanting to continue the conversation, “I like her…” Marinette thought, “what is with me and liking strangers today”

“Oh, this is a layover flight, I had some work that needed to get done in Russia, and now I have some work I need to get done back in the states” Reagan said casually

“What do you do for work? Cause I’m not gonna lie miss Reagan, but you are giving me total evil scientist vibes” Marinette half joked,

“Ha! I prefer morally grey scientist, but I get your point. The lab coat gave it away didn’t it” Reagan said tugging lightly at her coat.

“Yeah, that and you seem to be making some kind of device out of a phone charger and a lemonade can.” Marinette chuckled,

“Oh this?” Reagan said waving the device, “this is just my attempt to get my best friend to blow his cover and tell me to stop working and enjoy the flight” she said smirking.

“How did you know I was there?!” exclaimed the man in a tuxedo sitting behind Reagan,

“You’re not the most subtle Brett” Reagan said fondly, turning to the man behind her.

“I guess not” Chuckled Brett, “Hi! I’m Brett Hand! Nice to meet you” he said turning to Marinette with a large smile on his face, a complete juxtaposition from Reagans cold exterior,

“Oh, um, hi nice to meet you too, I’m Marinette.” She said shaking the hand that Brett held out to her.

“So, Marinette what is taking you to Gotham? And also, is your class the group of teenagers who are complaining about their classmate who wouldn’t give up their first-class ticket?” Brett questioned making Marinette cringe slightly,

“Yeah… that’s them alright. I got this ticket given to me by a friend in Gotham who helped me organise our class trip, it caused a bit of a riot, especially when Lila pulled the tinnitus card” Marinette grimaced.

“The obnoxious girl with sausage bangs has tinnitus?” Reagan asked disbelievingly,

“Yeah,” Marinette chuckled at the slight against Lila, “But only in one ear though.” She felt the need to clarify.

“Jesus Christ your class is stupid” Reagan grimaced with her,

“Tell me about it” Marinette sighed defeatedly,

“Well, let me know if you ever want them to mysteriously disappear, my job tends to involve sh*t like that” Reagan said in a serious tone,

“Reagan?!” Brett exclaimed slightly mortified,

“What?!” Reagan said back incredulously, “as if you weren’t about to offer the same thing!”

“I- touché” Brett caved.

“Not that that wouldn’t be awesome! But I unfortunately have too much of a conscience to make them disappear, plus you might get in trouble at work, and I wouldn’t want that” Marinette told the scientist smiling dejectedly,

“I like you kid, you got a good head on your shoulders, let me know if you ever need a job, I could use a competent assistant” Reagan complimented Marinette, causing her to blush lightly.

“I thought I was your assistant?” Brett pouted,

“No Brett, your my partner in running the group of idiots we call friends remember” Reagan reminded the man who Marinette could only compare to a golden retriever.

“Oh, right! I forgot” Brett chuckled embarrassed slightly, Marinette simply giggled at their dynamic.

“As much fun as that sounds, I already have a job I really enjoy, I make clothes for people” Marinette smiled at the pair.

“Jesus kid, Gigi would love you, well if you ever get bored of your job, you got a place at Cognito Inc. waintin for you.” Reagan said smiling slightly at the girl.

“Speaking of clothes, I couldn’t help but notice you have a rip in your pants. I could fix them for you if you have a change of clothes.” Marinette offered, because honestly that rip had been annoying her since she had noticed it, and her hands were itching to fix it.

“You don’t have to kid, I honestly barely notice it anymore” Reagan said, looking down at her pants

“I can have it fixed by the end of the flight if you get changed now?!” Marinette tried to convince the tired scientist.

“I got you Reagan!” Exclaimed Brett as he pulled out a pair of sweatpants for Reagan to change into.

“Alright, alright, but only because you seem so excited to fix them” Reagan conceded, pointing an accusing finger at the little designer.

“Awesome!” Marinette cheered quietly, “Is there anything you would like me to add to them while their getting fixed? Extra pockets maybe?” she asked, her head already swirling with ideas for hidden but useable extra pockets to put wires and whatever science-y sh*t Reagan was into.

“That would actually be quite helpful… thank you Marinette” Reagan thanked the girl softly,

Brushing off the praise Marinette said, “I should be thanking you! Now I won’t be bored out of my mind watching a sub-par film for the rest of the flight” Marinette casually explained.

“Even still, thank you Marinette” Reagan said again, getting up and out of her seat to grab the pair of trakies from Brett’s outstretched hand before walking to the bathrooms.

“You know kid, that’s probably the fastest Reagan has opened up to someone” Brett confided in her softly, gazing at where his best friend had disappeared to. “You must be something special, don’t know how your class could dislike someone like you” he continued looking at her

“Oh, um…” Marinette stuttered, not used to having adults complement her, after spending years under the care of her not so loving parents, and a neglectful teacher. “It’s really nothing Mr Brett…” Marinette trailed off, not really knowing what else to say to that. Brett just looked at her and did not like what he saw. He saw a kid that had not had a good past few years, and all Brett wanted to do was hold her in his arms until she forgot about whatever happened in her past to make her look so broken. Instead, he simply put his hand on her arm and squeezed it gently, before looking back to see Reagan come out of the bathroom. Causing Marinette to look back and take a deep breath, wiping her eyes that had become slightly misty, and putting back on a small but real smile back on her face.

“Here you go kid, have fun” Reagan said while dumping her green and worn pants on Marinette lap. Sitting back in her seat.

“Awesome! I’ll make sure to have these fixed as soon as possible, with some added secret pockets!” Marinette rambled getting her to-go sewing kit out of her carry on. Reagan simply chuckled in reply to her enthusiasm. Brett tapped his friend on the shoulder and started whispering to her quietly, Marinette tuned them out and got to work, first starting of the tear, fixing it seamlessly. Then she got out her extra fabric and started sewing the secret pockets. Missing the concerned once over Reagan gave her after Brett told her what had happened while she was in the bathroom. Meaning that Reagan only then realised that the girl who was expertly sewing pockets into her pants had eye bags as deep and dark as her own. Marinette in her designer daze, missed the almost silent communication that occurred between the two friends. (They decided that they were going to do anything in their power (which was a lot) to make sure the girl stayed safe)

As the hours passed by, Marinette working silently on the pants her new friend had given her, said friends watched her movements, mesmerized by her precision and grace with the fabric and needles.

“Done!” Marinette exclaimed holding the pants up Infront of her, inspecting her handiwork. “Now go try it on, I gotta see if it fits, or if it needs some adjustments” she said, shooing Regan back to the aeroplane bathrooms. When Reagan came out of the bathrooms, Marinette studied her with a keen eye, looking for any imperfections in her work, “So what do you think?” She asked the scientist as she sat back down in her chair after handing Brett back the pair of trackies she borrowed,

“They feel great! How did you get the pockets to not show? And they’re so big!” Reagan exclaimed studying Marinettes handiwork while putting her hands in her new hidden pockets.

“Now that is a trade secret unfortunately” Marinette giggled happy that Reagan liked it.

“Is this your signature?” Reagan asked looking at the seams that held her pockets together,

“Oh yeah it is, I kinda unconsciously put that in to all my works after the last time someone tried to copy my design and claim it as their own” Marinette told Reagan sheepishly,

“LMF… what does it stand for?” Reagan asked the little designer,

“Did you say LMF!!” Brett suddenly exclaimed loudly, causing both women to jump slightly, “as in elusive designer Little MissFortune!! Gigi has been trying to find you for years!!!” Brett continued excitedly.

“that’s me,” Marinette said awkwardly not expecting anyone to recognise her signature, “and I would prefer it to stay a secret if that’s ok.” She said to Brett with pleading eyes.

“Only if I get to brag about meeting you to Gigi!” Reagan said before Brett replied.

“Deal.” Marinette chuckled

“Haha yess!!! Gigi can suck my dick!” Regan exclaimed, making Marinette laugh even more.

“I’ll try to keep it a secret for you Marinette, but you should know that I am not the best secret keeper” Brett told the girl gently,

“That’s ok, as long as you and your friends don’t go telling everyone my identity, I’m fine with it” Marinette shrugged nonchalantly, feeling like she could trust these people she had only really just met. The conversation petered out from there, turning into small talk and sharing funny anecdotes about their respective works. Before the pilot made the announcement that they would be landing soon.

“we’ll be heading straight to work once we’re off the plane, so here” Reagan said, holding out a napkin to Marinette. Taking the napkin Marinette looked at it to find two phone numbers written on it, looking back up at the two adults in confusion, Marinette was about to ask why they were giving their numbers to her.

“We want to keep in contact with you kid, make sure you don’t get into any trouble” Reagan interrupted her before she could ask,

“Plus, Gigi would kill us if we didn’t stay in contact, she has been trying to get into your commissions for as long as we can remember” Brett added in chuckling at his co-workers antics.

“I- Thank you..” Marinette said slightly misty eyed at the thought that these people liked her enough to want to stay in contact.

“No worries kid” Reagan said nonchalantly before adding, “this way if you change your mind about your career choice, or want your class to disappear mysteriously, you have a way of contacting us about it” making Marinette laugh, causing the adults to smile softly at her.

They continued talking as the plane landed, Reagan and Brett making sure that she had put their numbers in her phone, making her text them so that they had her number in return. Before it was time to leave the plane. Marinette hugged the two adults, thanking them for making her plane ride enjoyable before they went to work, not noticing the way Reagan and Brett stiffened as she hugged the morally grey scientist. Slowly Reagan hugged Marinette back gently, looking at Brett over the shoulder of the young designer, her look saying ‘we are keeping her’ Brett simply shook his head fondly in return, knowing that as much as they both wanted to, they couldn’t keep her, the best they could do was stay in contact. Bidding eachother goodbye, the duo waved to Marinette as she went to go join her loud and obnoxious class.

After finally collecting her luggage, having seen her pink suitcase peeking out from behind a bin, Marinette made her way to where the bus should have been waiting. Only to find that not only was the bus not there, but neither was her class. “of course, they left me behind as soon as they got the chance” Marinette sighed tiredly. She pulled out her phone and typed the address of the hotel into google maps, showing her that her hotel was a good hour away from the airport, by car. So almost two hours by foot. It was also night in Gotham city. Now instead of calling Tim and telling him that her class had left her behind as she had joked with him about two weeks prior. She booked an uber, deciding that it was safer than a taxi. When her uber arrived, Mari was rather glad her driver was a woman, already feeling slightly safer in this dark dangerous city. She made casual small talk with the driver, avoiding the fact she was left behind by her classmates, not wanting to worry the stranger when she got a call from Tim,

“Hey Nettie! How’s the hotel room? Is it up to your standards? Is it far away enough from your classmates?” Tim barraged her with questions.

“er… yeah! Um, the hotel room is perfect!” Marinette lied, not wanting to worry the busy co-CEO.

“So, you like the king size four poster bed?” he questioned her in a rather specific manner, as if he was suspicious that she was lying to him, which she was, and she was a terrible liar.

“Oh yeah! The bed is so… big?” Marinette agreed uncertainly, “yeah, so big and four poster-y” Marinette grimaced at the horrible lie

“Uh huh.” Tim said through her phone, not sounding convinced at all. Marinette silently thanked her Uber driver when she got to her hotel continued to lie to the thoroughly unconvinced coffee addict.

“yawn gosh that plane flight really took it out of me” she continued, taking her suitcases out of the boot of the Ubers car, “talk-to-you-later-bye” she rushed out as she saw a very angry Mlle Bustier approaching her as she entered the hotel,

“wait Mari-” Tim started before she hung up on him.

“Marinette where have you been! Do you know how irresponsible you are being, running off for attention like that! You are meant to be my model student, and lately you have not been acting like one!” Caline lectured her student, not noticing the hotel staff look on in horror as they realised that the teacher didn’t just book an extra room but left behind a student!

“You left me behind at the airport!” Marinette exclaimed, tired of being blamed for everything her teacher did wrong. Making the hotel staff gasp, bringing Mlle Bustier’s attention to them, switching back into her French her teacher smiled grimly at the hotel staff before continuing to lecture Marinette, not knowing that the bouncer that had been put in charge of making sure the class was safe in the hotel could understand French,

“Enough Marinette. You are banned from going to the botanical gardens tomorrow, so that you can spend the day thinking about how your actions affect others around you.” Her teacher told her in a no-nonsense tone.

“What?!” Marinette exclaimed! “But Mlle bustier! I organised that trip so that I could get some inspiration while we were here! That was the part I was most looking forward to.” She told her teacher, trying to explain why she wanted to go, her teacher simply glared at her in return,

“Maybe you should have thought about that before embarrassing me in front of the hotel staff when they gave us an extra room key and you weren’t there to accept it” Caline told her ‘Model student’ disappointment and frustration filling her voice.

Knowing she wasn’t going to win this argument with her teacher Marinette hung her head in frustration and bitter acceptance,

“Ok Mlle Bustier, could I please have my room key so that I may go get some rest.” Marinette asked her teacher in a soft defeated voice.

“You may Marinette, just make sure this little stunt of yours doesn’t get repeated” she told her ‘misbehaving’ model student in a tone that would be considered condescending to most, and downright cruel to others before handing Mari her room key, and stalking off to the elevator grumbling about how embarrassing that was, and how she wasn’t getting paid enough to deal with this.

Leaving Marinette standing in the hotel lobby by herself in slight shock at her teachers attitude. Instead of following her teacher to the elevators she walked up to the front desk, where the receptionists tried to look like they hadn’t just been eavesdropping on her conversation.

“Hi,” Marinette said somewhat timidly, her confidence in herself even more broken after that lecture, “I just wanted to double check that this is my room key, and that it didn’t get swapped while I wasn’t here” she asked the receptionists in perfect English. The two receptionists looked at eachother in shock at the complete change in character this girl had showed them, going from righteously angry teenager to a bashful student, to now a timid but seemingly kind girl.

“it’s ok sweety, they didn’t swap rooms with you” the slightly older worker told Marinette in a calm voice that reminded Mari of honey.

“even though they tried ta’ change em’ up, we didn’t let em’ Mista Wayne himself told us that you were to be the only kid in tha’ room!” the other receptionist told the class president in a smug Gotham drawl.

“well thank you very much for sticking up for me, and not letting them steal my room.” Marinette thanked the workers sincerely, “I’m also sorry for any issues my class has caused you or any of the workers here in my absence, normally they just take out their frustrations on me, so without me here it must have been a mess” Marinette awkwardly apologised with a small self-deprecating smile on her face.

“Oh, they were nothing we couldn’t handle sweetheart.” The older worker told Marinette while sending a concerned glance at her co-workers, “this is Gotham after all” she continued with a chuckle, making Marinette giggle slightly.

“So, anythin’ we need ta’ know about tomorrow kid?” the younger woman asked, obviously referring to Marinettes earlier argument with her teacher,

“Oh, sorry about that.” Marinette apologised again, “yeah, um basically I’m not allowed to go on the tour around the botanical gardens tomorrow because I missed the bus here” she summarised for the two now angry receptionists. Seeing their anger Marinette went into automatic akuma mode, trying to calm them down before an akuma appeared, “but don’t worry! I can just go to the gardens on my free day instead! Plus, not going means I can sleep off my jetlag!” Marinette reasoned while realising that she wasn’t in Paris anymore, and that hawkmoth himself was no longer an issue either.

“I see. Well, if you’re sure sweetheart. If there are any issues tomorrow, or you want to go out to a café or something if you get bored, just give us a ring. So that we know your safe ok?” the older worker said having calmed down slightly.

“Yea! Bess an’ I are here all day tomorrow if ya need us!” said the younger worker said enthusiastically wrapping her arm around her amused co-worker.

“thank you Miss Bess and Miss Annika. It really means a lot to me that you both care. I’ll make sure to tell you if I leave the hotel tomorrow ok” Marinette promised the two women while looking to their name tags to get their names.

“It’s no worries sweetheart, now go up to that room of yours and get a good night’s sleep, and enjoy the sleep in.” Bess told Marinette in a motherly tone.

“Will do!” Marinette said enthusiastically, “see you tomorrow” she said in lieu of a goodbye, waving on her way to the elevator.

Once Marinette was out of sight the Hotel workers who were in radius of the lecture and conversation Marinette had with her teacher and the receptionists, gathered around the front desk.

“Ok who else thinks that that kid is the only teenager in that f*ckin class that actually deserves this trip” the janitor said in a condescending tone, remembering how some of the students had treated them when they were cleaning.

“Yeah, what Lake said,” came the squeaky voice of the bellboy, as she remembered how the students had just dumped their luggage on her cart without a word, glaring at her when she didn’t move as she had not been tipped.

“You lot don’t even want to know what that teacher told the tiny girl in French, I swear to yall I have never wanted to punch a woman more” came the deep booming voice of the bouncer, his fists clenching as he recalled the way the girl had hung her head, looking so defeated under the gaze of that vile teacher.

“alrighty! Looks like we got ourselves a f*ckin protection squad for te’ kid” Annika exclaimed looking around at her fellow co-workers, “spread te’ word, don’t let tha’ kid get left behind again, make sure she is safe and accounted for at all times!” she said getting nods in return from her now partners in protection.

Marinette, oblivious to the protection she was gaining from literally everyone she had met that day, made her groggy way to her hotel room which was on the floor above all her classmates. Marinette tiredly opened the door and walked in, kicking off her shoes and dumbing her luggage by her bed she fell to the mattress with a quiet *oof*

“Aren’t you going to unpack Marinette?” came the comforting high pitch voice of Tikki,

“Not tonight Tiks, I’m just going to sleep and then unpack during my new day off tomorrow” Marinette said, relaxing for the first time in years, snuggling deep into the clean sheets of her enormous king size bed. As she dozed off to the sound of the kwami’s coming over and snuggling with her she barely registered that the bed was lacking the four posters Tim had described to her in her Uber…

Bonus:

Tired and Hungry

@TaxiByDayUberByNight

If anyone encounters a teenage girl no taller that five feet with dark hair and blue eyes, make sure she stays safe cause I just Ubered her to her hotel at 12 o’clock at night!

#SheWasLiterallyLikeSunshine #TotallyWorthTakingTheGraveyardShift #NewWayne? #I’mConcerned #ObviouslyHereOnASchoolTrip #DidSheGetLeftBehind #MyPaternalInstinctsAreGoingIntoOverdrive #StillHungryAsf*ckTho

Uber is Life

@IWishICouldHireTheBatmobile

@TaxiByDayUberByNight is this the girl u just ranted to me about adopting, saying that u don’t give a sh*t if shes a wayne, cause shes urs now?

#SunshineChild #TooYoungForKids #CouldMakeAnExeptionTho #NewWayne? #AlsoStillHungry #PickUpFoodOnYourWayHome

Tired and Hungry

@TaxiByDayUberByNight

@IWishICouldHireTheBatmobile u really just gonna expose me like that, I thought I knew u better

#SunshineOfGotham #TooLateWe’reAdoptingHer #DontWorryI’mGettingMcDonalds

Chapter 14: Tim and Jason are not happy

Chapter Text

Tim was a paranoid motherf*cker, so of course he was going to sit atop of the Wayne Hotel and wait for the school bus to arrive to make sure Marinette made it to Gotham ok. Jason was also a paranoid motherf*cker, so of course he was going to join his paranoid brother in the stake out.

“Both of you stop being paranoid and get back to patrol” came the tired voice of Nightwing as he once again tried and failed to get his younger brothers back on task.

“Not until we know she is safe” Red Robin replied, “she was joking about being left behind during our meeting and I could hear some truth in her words. I just gotta make sure she didn’t actually get left behind” He told his brother, concern leaking into his voice.

Over the period of two weeks Marinette had managed to worm her way into Tim’s heart, he originally was only interested in her because she was like a puzzle he couldn’t solve. Now though he thought of her as a little sister. He could tell she was playing down how bad her bullying in the class actually went, and he was not happy about it. Because her playing down how bad it was meant it was so much worse.

Now why was his brother sitting atop the hotel with him you may be asking. Well, he had walked in on one of Tim’s facetime calls with the girl as she convinced him to let them go on a tour around Gotham for the first week. She saw him and said hi and introduced herself. Jason had asked if his insomniac brother was bothering her with all his questions, and she in response said,

“If anything, I’m the insomniac he has to worry about getting questions from! I mean we both know that sleep is for the weak. And he’s just weaker than I am.” She sassed Tim smirking as if sharing an inside joke.

“I fell asleep on call one time! I hadn’t slept in like two days!! Let it go bean!” Tim huffed throwing his arms up in frustration.

“Nope! I hadn’t slept in 4 days and was absolutely fine! Thus, meaning you are weaker than me” she replied grinning, her comment only just making Jason realise that she had eye bags so deep they looked drawn on.

“Jesus Christ kid, get some sleep you look about ready to sleep for years” Jason said to her in a half joking tone.

“Ha! I wish. Unfortunately for me I don’t have the time to sleep” she muttered.

“then make time kid, your eye bags are deeper than replacement here’s” Jason told the young girl on the laptop screen.

“No can do my friend, these bags under my eyes are designer! No way am I getting rid of them” she said in a joking proud tone.

“Getting back on track here bean, why do you want to go to Poison Ivey’s garden exactly? There are other much safe parks out there” Tim said trying to get his little sister back on track.

“Because it has the best range of beautiful exotic plants! Plus isn’t Ivey reformed or some sh*t? The park is about as safe as any other park in Gotham!” Marinette reasoned,

“She’s got you there replacement” Jason piped in

“Thank you Jason, see Timmy he has my back!” Marinette said, shooting Jason a grateful look that made him puff up in pride.

“His opinion on the matter doesn’t count.” Tim said shooting his brother an annoyed look, “Is there any way I can convince you not to go to this garden specifically” he said rubbing his eyes tiredly.

“Nope!” Marinette grinned popping the ‘P’

“I like you kid, when you come over to Gotham let me know when your free days are and I’ll take you to all the most dangerous places in Gotham” Jason told her, his eyes sparkling in mirth.

“Hell yeah!” Marinette cheered in return as Tim just groaned, “That way I’ll actually be able to buy one of those tacky ‘I survived Gotham’ T-shirts” she said humour dancing in her blue eyes. So yeah safe to say Jason had taken to sitting in on the meetings after that and all three of them had grown closer. With Tim and Jason basically adopting her as their baby sister that they would protect at all times. Especially when she denied a face time call just for a voice call instead. As this generally meant she was sporting some kind of injury that she didn’t want the brothers knowing about.

A minibus then decided to grace the two impatient vigilantes with its loud and spluttering presence, snapping them both out of their reminiscing.

As children piled out of the bus, grabbing luggage from its undercarriage Tim and Jason tried to find the blue haired shorty out of the crowd. Slowly getting more frantic as they could not find her or her tell tale pink suitcases. The group of students were chatting loudly in French, so loudly that the vigilantes above them were able to pick out snippets of conversation,

“I can’t believe her-” someone scoffed

“doing it for attention, could she get any more annoying-” sneered another

“hope she gets kidnapped-” a student snickered cruelly

“glad she’s not here to cause trouble-” scorned another

“Marinette’s behaviour is unacceptable, she shall be punished when she gets here” the students teacher said in a disapproving tone, causing the students around here to cheer, and start offering up possible punishments for their missing classmate.

Tim saw red. Jason saw green. Both were absolutely furious, Jason stalked over to a wall and started punching it while Tim called a now familiar number as the teacher and students entered the hotel.

“Hey Bean! How’s the hotel room? Is it up to your standards? Is it far away enough from your classmates?” Tim said trying to act nonchalantly as he listened for trouble on the other side of the line

“er… yeah! Um, the hotel room is perfect!” the missing girl on the other line lied. Tim could hear the sound of a car engine in the background, “is she in a taxi!” he thought alarmed.

“So, you like the king size four poster bed?” he asked her knowing all to well that the room he had booked her did not in fact have a fourposter bed.

“Oh yeah! The bed is so… big?” gods she was a horrible liar, “yeah, so big and four poster-y” she continued. Tim would have laughed at the horrible lie if he wasn’t so worried about her current whereabouts

“Uh huh.” He said, not convinced at all by her horrendous lie, and slightly distracted as a car pulled up outside the hotel.

“yawn gosh that plane flight really took it out of me” she said. Tim realised that she was in an Uber, as the blue haired teenager got out of the car and got her suitcases out of the cars boot. “did she really just say the word yawn?” Tim thought incredulously as he watched her wave goodbye to her driver before she made her way to the hotel. Then her small form stiffened.

“talk-to-you-later-bye” she rushed out as she stood stock still in front of the hotel, having seen something inside that she did not like,

“wait Mari-” Tim called before she hung up on him. “damnit” his thoughts hissed.

“she’s moving again, although she looks like she really doesn’t want to enter the hotel” Jason said from his side, making Tim jump a bit, having not noticed that he had calmed down and re-joined him at the edge of the roof top.

“I think her teacher is waiting inside for her” Tim speculated aloud.

“Marinette must have seen that and seen how angry her teacher is with her” Jason added onto the speculation.

“And why is her teacher angry with her?” came the gruff voice of their father from behind them.

“Jesus B-man, maybe try not to give us a heart attack while we are on the edge of a roof top” Tim exclaimed clutching his heart that was still beating erratically from the scare. Batman simply glared at his sons instead of replying. “she missed the bus to the hotel and had to find her own way here. We overheard her teacher saying that she was disappointed in her for being left behind” Tim started, seeing as his father was not going to say anything until they explained what was going on.

“Yeah, and by the sounds of it her classmates purposefully left her behind. And were actually happy when their teacher announced that she was going to punish Marinette” Jason added, “B-man, they were giving their teacher suggested punishments… it was not pretty.” He continued his voice turning slightly serious.
“Is she safe?” Batman asked his concerned boys. Becoming more and more concerned himself.

“Yes, from what we can tell she Ubered here, she just walked into the hotel” Tim informed their father, his tone also serious.

“what is their classes activity for tomorrow?” His father asked him

“they are going to the botanical gardens” Tim said in return

“you and Red Hood are going to go in your civilian form and check on her while she is there.” Batman told them, already planning on how to make sure this girl stayed safe.

“Yes Batman”, “Will do B-man” Tim and Jason replied in union.

“Good, now get back to patrol” he ordered his sons before grappling off into the night.

“Looks like we’re going on an impromptu excursion tomorrow Timbo” His brother said nudging Tim while putting his helmet back on.

“Looks like we are” Tim agreed as he swung after his brother onto their normal patrol route, “I just hope nothing bad happens between now and then” he thought sombrely to himself.

Chapter 15: Tim and Jason meet marinette face to face

Chapter Text

Marinette awoke from a dreamless sleep more relaxed than she had ever been in years, she rolled over while snuggling deeper into the covers of the luxurious bed she slept in, quietly sending her thanks to Mlle Bustier, for allowing the tired and retired hero to finally rest. Sure, she was a little upset by the fact that she wouldn’t be going to see the botanical gardens she had heard so much about from the Wayne boys, but she could always go another time. “Speaking of the Wayne boys” Marinette thought as she checked her phone. She had three missed calls from Tim, “sh*t” Marinette frantically opened her phone and saw the messages she had been sent when she was sleeping,

Hey Bean, Jason and I r going to the gardens, c u there?

Just got here, where r u?

Ur not with ur class, did u wonder off?

Mari I’m getting worried, r u safe?

Missed call from Timmy ☕️

Mari pick up, Jason and I r getting worried

Missed call from Timmy ☕️

Missed call from Timmy ☕️

Marinette pick up or I swear to coffee!!

Just as Mari was about to respond to his latest text, he started calling her, so she picked up.

“Hey Timmy…” she said cautiously, not sure if he would be angry at her or not.

“Marinette, thank god…” Tim breathed, “Jaybird, I got her!” He called out to his brother. “where are you Bean? We’ve been looking all over the park for you” he said, his tone telling her that he had been extremely worried for her.

“I’m ok Timmy, I swear. I got punished for something last night, that caused me to stay at the hotel today. I just woke up. I’m so sorry for worrying you” Marinette rambled, leaving out the fact she got left behind yesterday, even though she had a feeling that he knew she did already anyway.

“It’s ok Mari, did you have a good sleep in at least” Tim huffed good naturedly

“Oh my god Tim did I?!” Marinette said in a slight squeal, falling back onto the large bed, “I have literally never been this relaxed in my entire life!” she sighed in contentment.

“I feel like the fact you’re so relaxed in Gotham of all places isn’t a good sign about how rough it is in Paris for you kid” came the gruff humour filled voice of Jason over the phone.

“Good thing I’m never going back to Paris” Marinette sighed, her sleep addled brain not fully comprehending she had said that out loud.

“…Bean… what do you mean you’re never going back to Paris?” Tim questioned her, causing Marinette to realise that yes, she had said that tid-bit of information out loud.

Sitting straight back up in the bed, wide eyed Marinette stumbled over her words, “Oh, um- I just meant that I never want to leave Gotham- yeah that’s it, I just like it here so much already that I feel like I never want to go back to Paris ahaha” she chuckled awkwardly, trying not to let on how she was almost ready to complete her schooling over here online, or the fact she had actually gotten into the University she applied for. Nope totally not letting them on to that, not at all.

“Kid, what aren’t you telling us” Jason said in a suddenly rather serious tone,

“Nothing! I mean- I have secrets, but so do you! I mean not that I care if you have secrets!! I mean that I don’t have any secrets about moving to Gotham- I mean, I’m not moving to Gotham! That would be crazy, but not too crazy! I mean you guys live here so-” Marinette rambled, Kwami how on earth did she keep her identity a secret for almost six entire years! “aaaaand I’m going to stop talking now-” she whispered, slightly mortified. “Kwami I’m acting like I’m 12 again, what is going on?” she thought to herself, going bright red in embarrassment.

“Bean… are you moving to Gotham after this trip?” Tim asked her in cautious excitement,

“it was supposed to be a secret!” Marinette whined, “I wanted to surprise you guys when the trip was over by asking to hangout in Gotham, and I actually show up, even though my class would be back in France” she continued to whine, one hand covering her face, making her voice sound slightly muffled.

“Hey kid, I think you broke Timbo, he just handed me the phone so that he could collapse on the ground and just squeal. Can ya hear him” Jason said, sounding extremely amused by his brothers reaction. Listening closely to her phone Marinette could in fact here a distant squeal from her friend.

“Yeah I can hear him, so I’m guessing I made the right choice in moving to Gotham?” she asked Jason, slightly concerned that he wasn’t having any reaction to the news,

“Are you kidding kid! I’m so pumped that you’re moving here, imagine all the chaos we can cause together! We are going to have a blast” Jason said over the phone, his tone of voice allowed Marinette to easily picture his eyes sparkling in excitement at the thought of causing chaos with her.

“Ok, I’m glad you're excited” Marinette said letting out a relieved sigh. “Since It’s technically my day off, do you guys want to get coffee and officially meet face to face for the first time? She asked Jason.

“YES!” came the excited response of Tim, sounding slightly like he was still on the ground.

“Sure thing kiddo, we’ll come pick you up from the hotel. We can make a lunch out of it.” Jason said, being the reasonable brother for once.

“Okay, let me unpack and get my room sorted first, because I kinda just crashed once I walked in” Marinette chuckled looking at her room, seeing her shoes haphazardly thrown around the room.

“Alright Mari, we will meet you outside the hotel when you're all set and ready to go.” Jason told her,

“see you soon Jay” Marinette said,

“see you soon kiddo” Jason said before hanging up.

Stretching Marinette groaned “welp! Time to unpack” she got out of the most comfortable bed she has ever been in and began to open up her luggage. Putting it away methodically in the wardrobe she would be using for the next two months during her stay in Gotham if all went to plan. (A/N: it’s not going to go to plan >:3) while she was unpacking she felt the sudden absence of noise. “sh*t I forgot to let the kwami’s out” Marinette thought rushing over to her carry-on bag and opening it roughly, grabbing the Miraculous Box she was about to open it when,

“Wait Mari!” Tikki suddenly squeaked, flying up to her face, with Plagg following suit. “could Plagg and I just relax a bit without the other Kwami’s today?” she pleaded.

“Yeah Kit, Surgarcube and I haven’t had any alone time with each other in millennia” Plagg said while throwing his tiny arm around Tikki’s ‘shoulders’.

“What Stinky Sock means is that it is nice and quiet without the others around yet, so could we just stay in the hotel room for today?” Tikki said while elbowing Plagg slightly.

“It’s ok Tiks, I’ll let you two have some alone time while I’m out with the Batboys” Marinette chuckled while wiggling her eyebrows at the floating gods.

“Thanks kitten,” Plagg said purring and nuzzling Mari’s cheek while Tikki did the same to her other cheek.

“No worries you guys, I’ll let them out tomorrow. We have plenty of time to explore the hotel room, I’m sure they can wait a day.” Marinette said with a genuine smile on her face.

“Best Grand Guardian ever!” Plagg exclaimed, making Marinette giggle.

“I’ll just go get dressed and ready for the boys, then I’ll leave you two to it.” She said, gathering up her clothes and making her way to the ensuite.

Since it is quite cold in Gotham Marinette decided to wear a comfortable but stylish pair of auburn pants, a nice cream coloured knit, and a new light pastel pink overcoat, that had auburn cuffs to tie the outfit together. Grabbing a last-minute blush and cream beanie Marinette put on her heavy pink combat boots, grabbed her black purse and was out the door, phone and hotel key being stuffed into the purse that she had slung across her body.

Walking out the elevator into the lobby of the hotel Marinette saw the two boys waiting for her. Waving at them Marinette sped up her walking speed to greet them, before she remembered to also greet the hotel staff,

“Morning Bess and Annika!” Marinette called to the two kind receptionists, “I’m just going to head out for brunch and a coffee with my friends” she explained smiling.

“No problem sweetheart! Have a good lunch” called Bess, giving Marinette a warm smile.

“see ya’ later Mari!” Annika said, waving enthusiastically to Marinette, making her giggle slightly.

“Making friends and you’ve only been here for a day!” Tim said meeting Marinette halfway, “Gosh Bean you’re absolutely tiny!” he said in a cutesy voice,

“Yeah well I could still beat your ass so stay woke” Marinette fired back at him, puffing herself up to seem taller.

“Ha! You crack me up short-stack” Jason said affectionately going to give her head a rub. Unfortunately for Jason he wasn’t expecting Marinette to react the way she did, flinching out of the way suddenly and twisting his arm away from her. “Kid! It's me!” Jason said in a pained grunt, snapping Marinette out of her ‘attack first ask questions later’ haze.

“Oh my gosh, Jay I am so so sorry! I don’t know what came over me” Marinette said. Dropping Jason’s arm as if it burned her, backing up from the boys, “sh*t sh*t sh*t sh*t! Dammit why can’t I just be normal!!” Marinette scolded herself feeling like an absolutely awful person for hurting one of the only people to actually except her in years.

“Hey hey, it’s ok Mari, you’re ok! Look, barely hurt!” Jason said frantically trying to reassure the girl before him who had been backing up with fear clear in her eyes, “I’m fine! I should have warned you it’s my fault!” Jason said, grinning waving around the arm that she had held as a way to show her that he was fine.

“No, it is my fault, I’m sorry. I just- I’m not used to people touching me with good intentions..” Marinette mumbled, feeling like an idiot, “it’s just Jason. He’s not going to hurt me..” Marinette repeated in her head like a prayer, “they aren’t going to hurt me” taking a deep breath Marinette calmed her fast-beating heart, “Sorry Jay. I’m ok now” Marinette said with a shaky smile, completely unaware of the fact that all of the hotel staff had heard her last comment, and now the protection squad she had unintentionally gathered the night before was even more concerned.

“Hey Bean, did you make everything you’re wearing?” Tim asked Mari in an attempt to change the subject,

“Yeah! I did! Made a whole wardrobe especially for Gotham! Well, everything except the shoes” Marinette said, giving Tim a grateful smile,

“Isn’t that an LMF Bag?” Jason asked her, inching his way closer to her, as to not scare her.

“Oh, um, yeah. It is” Marinette said awkwardly, looking around the lobby, her eyes meeting curious gazes that made her feel slightly uncomfortable, “shall we head to lunch!” she said instead of continuing her previous sentence, not comfortable with the fact so many people could find out that she was LMF.

“Yeah, let’s go! There is this awesome coffee shop near Wayne Enterprises that we are going to go to.” Tim said, motioning for Marinette to follow him to the car the two boys had parked out front.

“Yeah, the place does great burgers too” Jason cheered, joining his brother's side looking back to Marinette, tilting his head in a ‘catch up’ gesture.

Smiling in relief that he didn’t press for more answers in such a public setting Marinette caught up to the boys until she was sandwiched in between the two walking out the front of the hotel. And honestly Marinette had never felt more safe in the company of two people who weren’t gods before.

Tim opened the car door for Mari before climbing in behind her, with Jason taking the wheel. Tim pulled out his phone and motioned for Mari to do the same before he texted her,

‘I know ur LMF, I recognised ur designs when u showed them to me last week’ Tim looked up at Mari in question, as if expecting her to react badly,

‘I had a feeling u knew, but I didn’t want the hotel staff to know’ she texted in reply

‘Is it ok if Jaybird knows?’ Tim asked motioning his head to the front seat.

‘yea, it’s ok’ Marinette texted back smiling.

“so… where did you get the LMF bag kiddo?” Jason asked, awkwardly clearing his throat, his timing impeccable.

“I made it.” Was Marinette’s chaotic reply

“What do you mean you made it, Kid I know a designer bag when I see one.” Jason said in slight disbelief

“Well, I did tell you I made my entire outfit aside from the boots didn’t I” Marinette said in a smug tone, clearly having fun with giving Jason vague answers.

“kid-” Jason started before giving her outfit a once over in the rear-view mirror, his eyes widening slightly at whatever he saw. “No way.” He said softly in disbelief

“Yes way” the young designer giggled in return. “Little MissFortune, pleasure to make your acquaintance mister Jason Todd-Wayne.” Marinette teased in a posh British accent, all the while Tim was cackling next to her, making Marinette grin like a mad man.

“Replacement I swear to god if you knew that our little sister was literally the ONLY fashion designer I know and am a fan of. You can say goodbye to all of your not-so-secret coffee stashes around the manor” Jason threatened his brother, while Marinette simply sat there in the car revelling in the chaos.

“Jaybird I’m sorry” Tim said between laughs, “I thought you knew already” he chuckled, actual tears coming out of his eyes,

“Like sh*t you thought I knew!” Jason said in a hysterical voice, “I would have been bragging to the others about how we personally know LMF!!! Do you know how much sh*t I could get Stephanie to do for me just for that information!” he was basically yelling at Tim at this point,

“Chill out Jaybird and eyes on the road! You can still hold it over Steph’s head now that you know!” Tim reasoned still having not reigned in his giggles, since they were making an appearance every second word.

“I don’t know who Stephanie is but you can lord my identity overhead all you want Jay, on one condition” Marinette said with a smirk

“Marinette, my favourite sibling, my favourite designer, I would literally die for you. What is the condition, and I will pay double” Jason said dramatically causing Marinette to break out in a fit of giggles.

“the condition is…” Marinette paused for dramatic effect, “that you let me make you a new leather jacket” apparently that wasn’t the condition Jason expected because it caused him to swerve slightly on the road.

“Jason watch the road!” Tim yelled gripping his seat belt.

“Right, sorry sorry.” Jason said, “also Mari… DONE!! Take the jacket! Redesign it to be pink for all I care, if I’m getting a free commission from THE LMF it is f*ckin worth it” Jason said already shedding the old and worn leather jacket and throwing it back to Marinette, all without taking his eyes off the road. Marinette caught the old jacket as it was thrown back at her in amusem*nt,

“I don’t need it now dummy!” she said, “but I will quickly have a look over it while I’ve got it…” she muttered mostly to herself, pulling out her travel sketchbook and mechanical pencil out of her purse, she started on her preliminary sketches and notes, taking in details on the old jacket to take into account for the new one, like how there were bullet holes in the old one, or that the shoulders had repaired rips at the seams. Her mind was already whirling with ideas for the new jacket as she slowly became dead to the world in a designing haze.

“Marinette!” she heard, her body reacting before she could, she punched the sudden sound. Luckily Tim had been ready for the violent reaction and had caught her fist before it hit his nose. “we’re here bean, c’mon” he said, letting go of her hand and climbing out of the car. Blushing, Marinette followed suit, stuffing her sketch book and pencil into her purse as she climbed out before handing Jason back his jacket.

“how long was I out of it?” Marinette asked Tim casually,

“I only had to call your name like 3 times before you snapped out of it” Tim replied in the same casual tone. “anyways, Mari, welcome to heaven on earth!” Tim exclaimed dramatically throwing his arms in the air, gesturing to the quaint coffee shop they had just walked into. Marinette took a deep breath, the coffee shop smelt of fresh coffee, tea, and old books. It smelt like home, or somewhere that was always going to be home. Standing line Marinette realises just how hungry she actually is,

“oof, forgot I haven’t eaten in like what, almost two days now” she giggled, “I am sooooo hungry” she whined fainting dramatically against Jason.

“Looks like we are getting you a nice big burger then” he said chuckling at her dramatics, whilst shooting Tim a concerned look about the comment before she fainted in dramatics.

“Vegetarian please” Marinette said looking up and Jason, “with the biggest cup of coffee this place sells” she said grinning at Tim,

“Oh, Bean you are going to love this place, guess what they let you order!” he told her excitedly, “go on guess!”

“14 straight espresso shots into the biggest cup they have” Marinette guessed completely straight faced

“14 straig- wait you actually guessed it!” Tim said looking at her slightly shocked, “It’s not even on the menu cause only I order it” Tim told her

“Lucky guess,” Marinette said, “but that specific order is what I have every morning I go to school, just with some added red bull” Marinette informed the boys grinning at their awed and horrified expressions, “I call it ‘enough caffeine to kill a cat’” she said smiling, “which cat totally depended on whether Chat was annoying me that day” Marinette thought to herself with a snicker.

“RED BULL! You absolute genius!” Tim exclaimed,

“Marinette.. why must you give him these ideas…” Jason grumbled bringing his hand up to pinch between his eyebrows,

“you’ll be thanking me when it knocks him out cold” she whispered to Jason, “the first time I had it, it made me completely blackout, I slept for like 10 hours straight,” she informed the older brother quietly as Tim ordered his food and coffee, “your body's gotta acclimatise itself to the brew before its starts working” she said smirking at the even more horrified look on Jason’s face. Turning to the barista behind the counter to order, Marinette immediately felt sick, as the barista serving her was obviously checking her out,

“ahem, I would like a veggie burger and whatever coffee the idiot in front of me ordered” she said in a flat tone.

“sure thing beautiful, could I get a number with your name?” the barista asked her in an attempt to flirt, Marinette was having none of it.

“No.” she told the guy before her, “the name is Marinette” she said, her tone still flat and emotionless,

“Pretty name for a pretty girl, how do you spell that sweetheart” the barista asked greasily,

Leaning over the counter getting in the barista’s personal space, much to the workers delight she whispered, “F. U. C. K. O. Double F” in the most seductive tone she could manage, before she turned away from the man and said, “the man behind me will pay for my order, goodbye.” Without looking back, she walked to the table Tim had chosen while he was waiting for them to order. Sitting down with a sigh she sunk into the comfortable leather armchair that accompanied the nook Tim had chosen.

“what did you do to leave that barista looking so heart broken Mari?” Tim asked in a slight chuckle, looking to the now terrified barista who was taking Jason’s order.

“Let’s just say I don’t react well to people flirting with me, especially greasy blondes” Marinette shuddered, “anyway what coffee did you get, cause I got the same one, couldn’t be bother thinking about what to get while I had eyes stripping me.” She said in a fed-up tone.

“I got the 14-shot coffee we were talking about before, was his flirting really that bad?” Tim asked, slightly concerned about Marinette’s reaction to it

“you tell me, ‘sweetheart’” Marinette told Tim, mocking the worker from before while giving Tim a very intense once over.

“Never. Do that again” Tim said shuddering, “Jesus bean, please tell me you don’t deal with people like that all the time” he pleaded, hoping that she didn’t,

“used to deal with it nearly daily when Chat was still around” Marinette said nonchalantly, “He used to come to my balcony and call me princess, and how I deserved Ladybugs earrings because we were obviously ‘soulmates’ when him and his ‘bugaboo’ weren’t getting along. Which unfortunately for me, was almost all the time.” Marinette grimaced remembering the not so PG things chat used to try on her.

“Please tell me he didn’t go further than call you ‘princess’” Tim begged her.

“…” Marinette didn’t want to respond, “just please never call me princess” she asked him instead

“can do kiddo” came the grumbling voice of Jason from behind her,

“sorry I made you pay for my order Jay, I just wanted to get out of there” she apologised feeling slightly guilty for not just dealing with the icky worker and paying for herself

“Nah, I totally understand Nettie, that guy gave me the creeps, but don’t worry, big brother Jay set him straight” Jason said with a proud grin puffing up with chest,

“My hero in shining red leather~” Marinette sing-songed batting her eyelashes.

“but it did look like your message got through to the guy before I even did anything, what did you say to him when you leaned over the counter” Jason asked his eyes filling with curiosity and mirth,

“I basically told him to f*ck off” Marinette shrugged pulling back out her sketch book and giving Jason a quick once over, signalling that that specific topic of conversation was over.

The brothers were content to just watch her work on the designs and measurements for Jason’s new jacket as they waited for their food and drinks. Before they were interrupted by the front bell ringing and the stomping steps towards their table,

“Drake where the hell have you been”

Chapter 16: The 'Demon' meets the 'Angel'

Chapter Text

Damian was not having a good day. he had a late patrol where nothing happened, then the traffic on the way to WE was even worse than normal. So sue Damian for being tired and antsy and not feeling like working today. Every Wednesday he had to go work for Wayne enterprises and do business sh*t for his family, or more specifically, Drake. AND GUESS WHO’S NOT AT WORK!!!

Walking into WE already in a bad mood, Damian just wanted to sit down and do work. He was making his way to his office which was next to Drakes, when the receptionist, whom of which he really didn’t like, called out to him

“Mr Drake isn’t in his office today, so you are going to have to go to his meeting for him” she said in a nasally high-pitched voice, while popping bubble gum. Damian just in return glared hard at the woman, which she somehow took as an invitation to bend over the desk, in an obvious attempt to get him to look at her poorly covered cleavage. Damian was not impressed.

“Where would he be” He growled at the makeup caked woman,

“Dunno, maybe at his favourite coffee shop. I could take you. We could get a coffee together if you like” She said in a flirty voice making Damian cringe. He was 18, and this woman was in her late 20’s.

“No, you are not my type” He growled at her, “I shall go get Drake myself”

Shrugging the woman simply said, “Suit yourself,” and got back to sitting on her phone working.

Grumbling Damian was now making his way to the coffee shop that Drake frequents for his breaks when he remembers to have them. Or when he had run out of coffee in his office. As he was walking he had two people shove him, had three people try to pick-pocket him, and one person try to mug him. It was days like this in which he hated Gotham City. Now Damian was in an even worse mood than he was in when he woke up and was not happy that Drake of all days decided today was going to be the day he wasn’t going to show up to work so when he walked into the coffee shop and saw his brother sitting at a table in the corner of the café, Damian stomped up to him, ignoring any and all company his brother had at the table.

“Drake where the hell have you been” He gritted out, his frame tense showing just how irritated he was with his brother.

“Been to hell, not a fun place, don’t recommend” Came a soft feminine reply, making Damian turn his glare to one of Drakes companions. The girl in question did not respond to his heated glare, she kept her head down, seeming to ignore him, which just made Damian more irritated.

“and who the hell are you” Damian growled at the girl, “how dare she ignore me” his thoughts grumbled.

“Demon spawn, this is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Nettie, this is demon spawn” his other brother introduced, Damian turned to Todd, “Why is Todd having coffee with Drake?” Damian thought to himself, more confused than irritated. Movement made him turn his gaze from Todd to the now known girl, and as emerald met bluebell, all of Damians anger and frustration seemed to disappear, and he had to keep himself from gasping. “She is absolutely stunning”

“Nice to meet you, I’m assuming your name isn’t actually demon spawn” Marinette said in a soft cute voice, her giggles tinkling in his head.

“Uh- NO, I mean, no. My name is Damian, it’s nice to meet you too Marinette.” Damian stuttered, “what is wrong with me! Damian Wayne does NOT stutter!!” His brain screamed in his head, while his heart was thudding hard in his chest, as if he had just fought off a dozen goons, while his face seemed to heat like he had a fever as she grinned up at him “gods she is almost angelic”, “am I falling ill” Damian thought confused.

His brothers were just gaping at him, so he glared at them which seemed to snap them out of whatever shock, Todd grinned at him in a way that could only spell trouble, opening his mouth only to be interrupted by the groups server, bring them their food and coffee. The server with greasy slicked back blonde hair seemed to lean with intention into Marinette’s space making her cringe away from him

“Here is your coffee princess, would you like a boyfriend with it? Free of charge of course” the server said in what he obviously thought was a seductive voice, which to Damian just sounded slimy. All of Damians anger and frustration came rushing back up to the surface when he saw Marinette stiffen at the pet name, her eyes seeming to glaze over in.. was that fear? Damian couldn’t have his angel Marinette looking that afraid if there was anything could do about it, his body and mouth already moving before his brain could catch up, not thinking about the repercussions of his actions.

“Hey asshole, get away from her” He said in a dangerous tone, shoving the server out of Marinette’s space with his body, and placing himself in her space instead. Putting his hand on the back of her chair, having a feeling she wouldn’t like being touched at the moment, he glared hard at the server.

“why, are you her boyfriend or some sh*t” the server sneered stupidly standing his ground against Damian, looking down at Marinette, Damian could tell she was in no state to stand up for herself as she had seemed to completely shut down. His brothers where gently whispering to her, trying to get her to snap out of it. This made Damian even angrier, “how dare this absolute swine cause Marinette to go into such a state!” Damians mind said, suggesting all of the ways he could kill the server that was the obvious cause of Marinette’s distress, ripping his limbs off, cutting out his tongue, gorging his eyes out, ripping out his heart while forcing the oily man listen to the apple alarm sound on repeat for hours, so that as he dies a slow and painful death, the last thing he ever hears is that awful tune. As his brain was distracted his mouth decided to answer the man he now so dearly hated.

“Yes I am, and now, as I am sure she has already told you, f*ck Off” His tone as sharp as the knives he had hidden on his person. The Barista finally seemed to see just how furious Damian was with him and stuttered out an apology before skittering away like the rat he was. Now that the guy was out of Damians line of sight, he turned his attention to girl who had still not snapped out of her panic, her breathing was getting quicker, and her hands were starting to shake and grip at her clothes. Panicking himself, Damian did the only thing he could think of, copying the movements Grayson sometimes did when he was panicking after a nightmare, Damian bent down in front of the now shaking girl and held onto her hands in a firm, but gentle grip hopefully grounding her.

“You are ok, no one here is going to hurt you. The uncultured waiter is no longer an issue, look at me and just breathe Marinette” He told her in a stern but soft voice, making her blue fearful eyes turn to him, “That’s it, now breath with me, in 1, 2, 3, 4. Hold 1, 2 ,3, 4. Out 1, 2, 3, 4, ,5 ,6, 7.” Damian said in an even softer tone, he repeated these instructions Grayson had engrained into his mind to the panicking angel girl in front of him. As she slowly started to calm down she seemed to finally become conscious of her surroundings as her eyes seemed to focus on him more, “there we go, are you ok? Sorry for speaking for you when that waiter started harassing you. I’m sure you could have handled yourself, but I just couldn’t stand the guy.” Damian rambled slightly, trying to find an excuse for his actions.

“It’s ok. Thank you for standing up for me, I’m going to be honest, but I have no memory of anything you said to the guy while I was out of it” she chuckled slightly, her voice hoarse as if she had been screaming. “Sorry that you had to deal with him while I was panicking like an idiot, honestly it shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, I was just being stupid” She said in a self-deprecating tone looking down at her lap, and Damian was having none of that he let go of one of her hands and brought one of his own hands up to her chin, holding it so she had to look at him in the eyes,

“Do not invalidate your emotions, that guy was harassing you and you had every right to panic or get angry or get upset. What he said and did was not ok, you are allowed to feel upset about his actions” he told her in a stern voice that left no room for argument, looking into her beautiful blue eyes with an intensity he wasn’t sure came from the topic of his argument, or something else entirely. She matched the intense look, gratitude, confusion, sorrow, helplessness, and relief clashing in her eyes, as if they were trying to tell Damian her life story.

“Yeah that asshole deserves to get decked!” came the heated comment from Todd, snapping the two teenagers out of whatever trance they had found themselves in. Damian only then just realised how close their faces were and that he was still holding onto her chin, and her hand. He gently let them go as he blushed at their proximity, standing up and stepping out of her personal space, regretting it almost immediately. He turned to Drake who was looking between him and Marinette as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing,

“ahem, Drake we have a meeting soon, that is why I came here in the first place” he told his brother clearing his throat as his tone lost any and all softness it may have held for Marinette.

“sh*t, I forgot about that” Drake said, his voice slightly panicked, as he ran his hands through his hair. “You going to be ok Bean? I need to head to this meeting; would you like to come have dinner with our family later tonight?” he said as he turned to the now calm Marinette his suggestion seemed to make Marinette excited before she seemed to remember something,

“I would love to, but we as a class have to go out for dinner all together tonight” she told his brother in a sad tone, obviously not looking forward to having dinner with her classmates. Her response also made Damian realise that she was a part of the French class that would be here for two months, “that’s why her name was so familiar, she is the fallen angel girl from the footage Drake showed us weeks ago” Damians thoughts realised.

“Just ditch em’ and come join us! I’m sure everyone would love to meet ya kid” Todd said to the girl, trying to convince her to join the family dinner.

“you have no idea how tempting that is” Marinette whined good naturedly, “But I can’t give Lila or any of my classmates any more ammunition to use against me, so I shall have to suffer through my dinner” she continued in a dramatic tone. “she seems a lot more relaxed now, that’s good, I like her like this” Damians thoughts said in a gentle manner as he watched the angel girl try to hold in her chuckles.

“Well, if you change your mind, or something happens just text me and you can come join us ok bean” Drake said, his mouth full as he tried to stuff his face with the food he had ordered as fast as possible, the action making Damian grimace slightly, along with Marinette.

“Jesus Tim, you gotta breath too.” She said in a scolding, yet humorous, voice, referring to the fact he was still trying to fit more food in his mouth. “And ok, I’ll send you a text if anything goes wrong, now stop chocking down your food and eat like a normal person” she sassed his brother, who sheepishly swallowed and begun to eat more like a normal person.

“Sorry bean, just want to eat fast so that Dames and I aren’t late to the meeting.” Drake told her, trying to excise his atrocious manners.

“Speaking of which, we need to leave now, since the meeting is in 10 minutes” Damian said, looking from his phone to his brother, ignoring the warm feeling he got when Marinette sassed his coffee addict of a brother.

“right ok, let's go” Drake said as he swallowed his last mouthful standing up while grabbing his coffee. “please text me if they leave you behind again Bean, and yes I know about yesterday, you are a terrible liar” Drake added on, “left behind. What is he talking about?” Damian thought, bristling at the idea that Marinette had been left behind somewhere alone in Gotham.

“Fiiine, but I had it handled yesterday. I just didn’t want to worry you too much” Marinette said defiantly, albeit sheepishly.

“I know you could, and did handle it, but you shouldn’t have to bean, you can relax a bit here, we can look out for you, ok” Drake explained to the girl as she looked down at her lap, seeming to think on his words, “can I get a hug goodbye to get me through this boring meeting” Drake added on saying the word ‘boring’ in a dramatic tone.

“sure?” she said in reply, her tone suggesting that she was unsure a hug from her would get his brother through the meeting, Damian knew for a fact that it would probably get him through a meeting too, but he didn’t dare ask the angel girl for a hug as well, they had only just met! As she stood up to hug drake Damian realised just how small she was, and how perfectly she would fit in his arms I mean she was only just at his shoulder height, and Damian was still growing. Damian watched as the tiny angel girl gave his brother a hug, stiffening slightly at first before absolutely melting into the embrace, when she stepped out of his brothers arms, she looked back at him and shifted awkwardly on her feet,

“would you like a hug to get you through the meeting too? I mean- I know that we only just met an-” she started to ramble before Damian took a step towards her and said,

“I believe a hug from you would help me get through the entire week” his gaze and voice steady even though his heart felt like it was in his throat,

“oh- okay” Marinette said in a small voice, her cheeks turning a pretty pink as she took a step towards Damian until they were within hugging proximity, Damian having seen how she reacted to being hugged, let her initiate the action before he returned it. As she wrapped her small hands around his waist he felt a sudden urge to pick her up and hold her as close as possible to himself. Instead of giving in to said impulsion, he in return wrapped his large arms around her small frame, relishing in the closeness of her, the feel of her head resting on his chest, her small arms giving his waist a slight squeeze, the feeling of her entire frame relaxing against his. The feeling of normalcy and safety he felt holding her in his arms. Then he felt her start to pull away, giving her one last squeeze he reluctantly let her go, but she didn’t move out of his space, looking up at him she said in a teasing tone,

“that a good enough hug to get you through the week?”

“I am not all too sure, perhaps I shall need a top up later this week” he smirked in return, his response making her grin and laugh. It was the best sound he had ever heard.

“Ahem, Damian we need to go to this meeting now, see ya later bean!” Drake said pulling Damian away from his angel Marinette,

“if you are unable to make it to dinner tonight, then perhaps tomorrow night, as Todd said, I am sure everyone would love to meet you” Damian found himself saying as he was being pulled away by his brother.

“I’ll see if I can make it tomorrow night! See you later Tim! Bye Damian it was nice to meet you!” she called after them, Damian felt his face warm up as his name rolled off her tongue. Unfortunately, Damian didn’t have enough time to reply as his brother had finally succeeded in getting them both out the café.

“it was nice to meet you too angel” Damian breathed, a hint of a smile on his face.

“What the f*ck was that!!” Drake hissed at him, wiping the hint off of his face,

“what are you on about drake” Damian hissed back, ripping his arm out of his brothers grip which had been used to drag him out of the café.

“you know exactly what I am on about” Drake said frustrated with Damians out of character behaviour.

“I am sure that I do not Drake, now I believe we should hurry if we want to make it to the meeting.” Damian said walking in front of his brother at a faster pace, making Tim jog to catch up.

“Dames, stop.” Drake said tugging on his arm, Damian did stop, but he didn’t turn to look at his brother, “You hugged her.” He said, his voice accusing, “You don’t even hug DICK”

“I did not want to come off as rude and hurt her feelings” was Damians sharp response.

“since when have you cared about being rude or other people’s feelings! Especially girls you just met!” drake exclaimed, walking in front of his brother to look at him head on.

“we’re going to be late” Damian growled at his brother, moving to shove him out of the way.

“Oh no you don’t-” Drake said moving to stand in his way again, “I don’t care if we are late to the f*ckin meeting, I want to know what is going on in that head of yours!”

“well, I do care if we are late, I also do not want you in my head Drake, now let’s go.” Damian said shoving past his brother a little harsher than he needed to, he just didn’t know how to answer Drakes question… he didn’t know if he even had an answer. What happened in that café was like a fever dream where his past never happened. Marinette somehow made him feel like a teenager. A teenager that wasn’t a vigilante, an ex-assassin or even a Wayne heir. She made him feel like Damian. Just Damian, and he was not ready to explore what that meant for him, especially not with Drake of all people.

“at least answer one of my questions” Drake pleaded from behind him,

“that depends entirely on the question” was Damians vague response as he started walking up the steps of Wayne enterprises.

“how did you get her to snap out of her panic. Not even Jay or I could get her to snap out of it.” Drake asked with a softness in his tone, as he remembered how Marinette became unresponsive to anything and anyone, except Damian.

Sighing Damian thought that he may as well inform his brother on the techniques he used for her, encase it happens again, and he isn’t there to help.

“sometimes Grayson would have to wake me up from my nightmares when they became too much.” Damian started, still not looking at his brother, “when I would wake, I would never fully realise that it was just a dream and not reality, so Grayson would hold onto my hands to ground me to reality and tell me to breathe with him” he explained, remembering how holding his older brothers hands would help him realise that he wasn’t dreaming anymore. And how the breathing helped calm his erratic heart.

“Dames…” came the soft response of his slightly older brother making Damian tense at the amount of vulnerability he had just shown his least favourite brother.

“Ttt. I was a child then, I no longer need such assistance with my nightmares” Damian scoffed, finally turning to look at his brother as they waited for the elevator.

“yeah well, thanks for helping her anyway. It was very kind of you” Drake admitted making Damian feel warm and fuzzy, “kind” was all his brain could think of, one of his brothers had called him kind…

“I couldn’t just stand there… I felt so useless watching her panic…” Damian admitted as they stood alone in the elevator, “I haven’t felt that strong a need to help since ladybug cried at the watch tower…” Damian said his voice barely a whisper.

“I know. I feel the same. Especially with Marinette” Drake agreed softly, patting Damian on his shoulder as he walked out of the elevator to the meeting room. Damian stood in the elevator for a second longer watching his brother walk until he had collected himself a bit before following Drake to the meeting room. As Drake opened the door to the room Damian could have sworn he felt the ghost touch of Marinette’s embrace. “looks like that hug really is going to get me through the meeting” Damian thought to himself before walking into the threshold of the room.

Bonus:

Coffee addict number 1

@CoffeeIsLoveCoffeeIsLife

I remember seeing a tweet yesterday about a new Wayne and I think I just saw her in the coffee shop I am at rn, and guess what, she was with the other waynes! Jason and Tim. Guys family outing!!

#SheReallyIsLikeSunshine #SheJustSmiled #NowI’mLegallyBlind #NewWayne #SheSoSmoll #TimDrakeLooksLikeHeNeedsSleep #JasonToddIsAHunk #AllThreeOfThemCouldStepOnMeAndIWouldThankThem

Tired and Hungry

@TaxiByDayUberByNight

@IWishICouldHireTheBatmobile we were too late ):

#SunshineOfGotham #NewWayne #SheReallyIsSmoll

Cake is my one true love

@FoodAmiright

OMG i am in the same café and pls pls! tell me someone out there filmed the demon wayne defending sunshine against that café creep!!!!

#SunshineOfGotham #SheWasGettingHarrased #DemonSavedHer #TheyWereSoCute #NewShip #NewWayneButIt’sNotWhatYouThink

Katelin Rose

@KatelinRoseFromTheAshes

@FoodAmiright Dude I was filming the second I saw the Demon walk in!!!

Film of Damian defending Marinette from the server and him comforting her

#SunshineWasInTrouble #SheMustBeProtected #NewWayne #TheirConvosTho #BeenToHellDon’tRecomend #SunshineIsAQueen #CancelThePetnamePrincess

Cake is my one true love

@FoodAmiright

@KatelinRoseFromTheAshes oh my GOD!!! I didn’t even realise that he said that he was her boyfriend!! And the way he calmed her down afterwards my heart!!!

#SunshineOfGotham #SheShallBeProtected #NewWayne #TheyreSoCute #NewOTP #PowerCoupleOfGotham

Ray can’t draw

@WhyRHandsSoHard

@FoodAmiright and @KatelinRoseFromTheAshes You guys missed the best part!! THEIR NOT EVEN DATING!!!! He just said that to get the icky barista off her back!! I can’t!!!

#FakeDatingAU #SunshineOfGothamMeetsDemonOfGotham #WeAreMakingThisHappen #SoonToBeWayne #TheyHugged #jkfbnvkejnsvkjdnvkdabfv

Tired and Hungry

@TaxiByDayUberByNight

@IWishICouldHireTheBatmobile we still have a chance to be moms >:3

#WeSawHerFirst #MYSunshineOfGotham #IApproveOfTheDemonTho #TheyWereSuperCuteInThatClip #I’mAtTheShopsWhatDoWeNeedAgain

Uber is Life

@IWishICouldHireTheBatmobile

@TaxiByDayUberByNight we need eggs and soy sauce babe

#StillTooYoungToBeParents #WantedToBeAWineAunt #SunshineOfGotham #IAlsoApproveOfTheDemon

Chapter 17: The 'Angel' meets the 'Demon'

Chapter Text

“Drake where the hell have you been” said a deep, obviously frustrated voice, partially snapping Marinette out of her designing haze. Enough for her mouth to reply before her brain could think over what she was about to say

“Been to hell, not a fun place, don’t recommend”, and she had, one of the level 0 akumas whole thing was bringing hell up to the surface for everyone to live through, Satan was nice enough for a demon, but the heat and fire was unbearable.

“and who the hell are you” came the same deep voice, emphasising on the ‘hell’ as if to prove a point, during all this Marinette slowly began to come back to reality, the process helped along by Jason introducing her to the newcomer

“Demon spawn, this is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Nettie, this is demon spawn” he said in an amused tone with a hint of warning, “wait, ‘demon spawn’ is what Jason and Tim call Robin” She suddenly thought, Robin was the only bat who didn’t walk around without a mask even though she knew their identity. Moving her head to look up at the vigilante she suddenly froze, her heart began to thunder in her chest, “his eyes are so green, so deep. I could make an entire wardrobe out of that colour and never get sick of it” of course her intrusive thoughts about ‘demon spawns’ eyes turned to her wanting to make an entire wardrobe of clothes. Could you blame her though, this was the first time she had ever seen his eyes, “and oh Kwamis he’s hot…” Marinette’s intrusive thoughts once again popped in to say hello.

“Nice to meet you, I’m assuming your name isn’t actually demon spawn” she said with a slight giggle, feeling the need to at least say something to the Greek god of a man and- “is he blushing!!!!”

“Uh- NO, I mean, no. My name is Damian, it’s nice to meet you too Marinette.” He stuttered out. Marinette’s brain blue screened at the stutter, added with the soft sound of her name on his lips, she hadn’t had such an instant crush since Adrien! “at least I can still talk to Damian like a normal human though” Marinette’s thoughts supplied as she blushed, completely missing the way her two companions were reacting to Damians presence and behaviour towards her.

Then her food was suddenly placed in front of her, with the greasy blond barista from before leaning way to close to her. So close she could smell his dirty hair, “Holy sh*t this guy needs a shower, gross” Marinette thought sneering a little at the smell, then the guy spoke…

“Here is your coffee princess, would you like a boyf-” Marinette didn’t hear the rest of the meant-to-be-smooth line, the combination of blonde hair and that particular pet name sent her into a panic.

“Princess, princess, princess” her mind repeated each repeat sounding closer and closer to chats voice…

“c’mon princess, it’s just a kiss on the cheek” he would tell her when he demanded a kiss good luck for patrol. “Princess your overreacting, if you didn’t want me in here you should have locked it” he said the first time she found him waiting for her in her room.“Princess why did you lock me out, it hurt my feelings” he said the next week when she found him in her room again after he cataclysmed the lock on her trapdoor. “Princess hold still, your prince only wants one kiss” he would say as he held onto her with his sharp claws, forcing her to kiss him. “Princess look at me while I’m talking to you” he would say when she would just try to ignore him, his claws would dig into her face, leaving faint scratch marks, his toxic green eyes would fill her vision. “Princess… where are you~” he would singsong when she hid in her closet waiting for him to get bored and leave, she fell asleep in her closet more often than in her bed. “ahhh sleeping beauty, a true loves kiss really did wake you” he once said when she had fallen asleep at her desk, “you truly are a princess, and this weekend you are all mine” he growled that night as he pulled her close to him. “Princess wasn’t last weekend fun~ I want to take you away for the weekend again~ where are you hiding this time” was the last time she heard him call her princess.

“-u’re ok, no one here is going to hurt you. The uncultured waiter is no longer an issue, look at me and just breathe Marinette” came a distant voice, deeper than the one ringing in her head. Green eyes filled her vision, but they were different than she remembered, no slitted pupil blown wide, no toxic green where it should be white. Just a deep forest green surrounded by white.

“That’s it, now breath with me, in 1, 2, 3, 4. Hold 1, 2 ,3, 4, 5. Out 1, 2, 3, 4, ,5 ,6, 7.” Said the deep voice again, the sound becoming clearer as it replaced the slimy voice in her head. she felt a warmth on her hands, no cold leather or sharp claws, just warm big, calloused hands holding her own in a grounding grip. She began to follow the voices breaths and instructions, slowly her racing heart began to calm, now really looking Marinette saw that Damian was the one calming her down, his dark hair and olive skin a comforting sight after her mind was just full of blonde hair and slightly tanned skin.

“there we go, are you ok? Sorry for speaking for you when that waiter started harassing you. I’m sure you could have handled yourself, but I just couldn’t stand the guy.” Damian rambled to her, “he defended me…” was Marinette’s first thought, blushing slightly at the thought of Damian standing up for her,

“It’s ok. Thank you for standing up for me, I’m going to be honest, but I have no memory of anything you said to the guy while I was out of it” she chuckled awkwardly before realising that him defending her meant he had to deal with the yucky barista,

“Sorry that you had to deal with him while I was panicking like an idiot, honestly it shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, I was just being stupid” she said cursing herself for not just being a normal human and standing up against a harmless flirty café worker and making Damian deal with it even though he clearly had more important things to do today. A warm calloused hand came up under her chin, lifting her face so that she looked at him, making her realise that he was still holding her hands, and that both her hands fit comfortably in his one-handed grip… before her thoughts could derail and go down that rather steamy path the man in front of her spoke.

“Do not invalidate your emotions, that guy was harassing you and you had every right to panic or get angry or get upset. What he said and did was not ok, you are allowed to feel upset about his actions” his voice holding a stern softness to it, scolding her slightly while also showing that he cared. Making Mariette blush even more, his thumb moved slightly along her cheek, no claws in sight. The motion was soothing, making the designer realise that no one, not even Tikki, had ever gotten her to calm down so fast after such an attack.

“Yeah that asshole deserves to get decked!” a heated and angry voice interrupted whatever moment she was having with the kind man who had somehow calmed her down in less than 10 minutes. Unfortunately, Jason’s interruption also meant that Damian let go of her person, making Marinette want to reach out and grab a hold of his hands again, just to hold them and feel safe to feel again. She didn’t do that of course since Damian seemed embarrassed about his closeness to her, Marinette couldn’t decide if that was a good sign or not.

“ahem, Drake we have a meeting soon, that is why I came here in the first place” Damian said clearing his throat, Marinette didn’t really pay attention to what he said as she had lifted her hand to her cheek where his thumb had made slow small circles against her skin, not noticing how Jason watched her with a small sh*t-eating grin.

“sh*t, I forgot about that” came Tim’s frantic reply, “You going to be ok Bean? I need to head to this meeting; would you like to come have dinner with our family later tonight?” he offered, his nickname for her snapping her out of her slight daze, making her hand shoot back into her lap suddenly, causing Jason’s sh*t-eating grin to widen, not that she noticed. “dinner with the Wayne boys! And Alfred’s famous cooking!” Marinette’s thoughts squealed, making her eyes sparkle with excitement before her excitement was crushed as she remembered that she had a class dinner tonight at some fancy restaurant she couldn’t be bothered remembering the name of.

“I would love to, but we as a class have to go out for dinner all together tonight” she informed Tim with a resigned smile, he looked about as happy as she was with the answer

“Just ditch em’ and come join us! I’m sure everyone would love to meet ya kid” Jason said grinning at her, his eyes spelling mischief,

“you have no idea how tempting that is” she wined in return, “But I can’t give Lila or any of my classmates any more ammunition to use against me, so I shall have to suffer through my dinner” she finished dramatically throwing her hand on her forehead, unable to hold in the small laugh that escaped her when she thought about how Plagg’s dramatics were rubbing off on her.

“Well, if you change your mind, or something happens just text me and you can come join us ok bean” Tim said mouth full of the food he had ordered, making Marinette cringe slightly at the display,

“Jesus Tim, you gotta breath too.” She scolded him slightly, really not wanting him to choke on his food, “And ok, I’ll send you a text if anything goes wrong, now stop choking down your food and eat like a normal person” she said, knowing that she probably wouldn’t text him if something went wrong knowing her stupid self-conscious mind that would just tell her “Don’t bother him and deal with it yourself” Like it did when she got left at the airport.

“Speaking of which, we need to leave now, since the meeting is in 10 minutes” Damians soothing voice interrupted her thoughts,

“right ok, let’s go” Tim responded chugging his coffee and gasping for air while turning to Marinette again, “please text me if they leave you behind again Bean, and yes I know about yesterday, you are a terrible liar”. “I knew he found out about that. He probably staked out the hotel and didn’t see me get off the bus” Marinette thought rolling her eyes and saying,

“Fiiine, but I had it handled yesterday. I just didn’t want to worry you too much”

“I know you could, and did handle it, but you shouldn’t have to bean, you can relax a bit here, we can look out for you, ok” Tim responded in a soft but serious tone, trying to get Marinette to realise she wasn’t alone anymore. Making Marinette look down at her lap, “we can look out for you” her thoughts repeated the sincerity of his words making her reconsider her opinion on asking the batboys for help with her personal problems…

“can I get a hug goodbye to get me through this boring meeting” Tim suddenly continued, the request coming out of nowhere confusing Marinette slightly

“sure?” she said, not wanting to say no and offend Tim, the last time she hugged someone it was quick enough for her not to think too hard on it, and she initiated the hug. Tim’s arms were suddenly wrapped around her making her tense, “It’s just Tim” Her brain repeated as she began to relax into the hug, peaking around Tim’s form she saw Damian standing a bit away, looking at Tim’s back with what looked like longing in his eyes. So, when Tim let her go she looked at Damian and held her arms out slightly,

“would you like a hug to get you through the meeting too? I mean- I know that we only just met an-” she began awkwardly about to ramble before he cut her off with a small smile on his face.

“I believe a hug from you would help me get through the entire week” his smooth voice sent her brain into another dimension, causing 13-year-old Marinette to rear her head

“oh- okay” she stuttered as Damian took a step towards her, but he didn’t initiate the hug, to which she was eternally grateful for, she made the first move, wrapping her lithe arms around his waist, her head resting on his chest. Then his arms embraced her, and she just melted… she felt so incredibly safe and protected whilst feeling like she could take on her greatest fears. She felt years and years of repressed trauma disappear until she was just a normal girl hugging her brand-new crush. She never wanted to leave his soothing and warm embrace, but she knew that if she didn’t let go of him she would never get the joy of hugging him again. Letting her arms fall to her sides whilst still staying closer than necessary to him she looked up, “Oh dear kwami the height difference” her thoughts whispered breathlessly, mentally shaking away any less than PG thoughts she instead said,

“that a good enough hug to get you through the week?” Smirking up at him, chuckling slightly as she watched him realise she was referring to what he had said before the hug, the smirk was completely wiped off her face when he smirked back down at her “Holy sh*t that smirk is the hottest thing I have ever seen” she thought feeling her stomach swoop and heart rate pick up slightly,

“I am not all too sure, perhaps I shall need a top up later this week” he said his voice slightly husky, and Marinette could have died a happy girl then and there cause he got even hotter, and she didn’t know if she could handle him being not only smooth as f*ck but also soft and comforting like a childhood blanket.

“Ahem, Damian we need to go to this meeting now, see ya later bean!” came Tim’s slightly frantic voice from behind Damian, beginning to drag him away from Marinette,

“if you are unable to make it to dinner tonight, then perhaps tomorrow night, as Todd said, I am sure everyone would love to meet you” Damian called to her his eyes having not left hers since Tim began to drag him away, and all Marinette could do was blush because “holy Kwami he wants me to come to dinner too!!”

“I’ll see if I can make it tomorrow night! See you later Tim! Bye Damian it was nice to meet you!” she called after the two brothers, Marinette only just caught the small grin and slight blush on Damians cheeks as he got dragged out the café door into the busy streets of Gotham. Sighing in a slightly lovesick manner Marinette stood next to her chair looking at the door of the café as if Damian would come bursting back through and hold her again.

“Hey Kid, you gonna eat your food before it gets any colder” Came the amused voice of Jason making Marinette jump slightly, before scrambling to get back into her seat.

“Right yeah! Sorry!” she apologised smiling sheepishly at Jason’s amused expression before taking a bite out of her now lukewarm veggie burger,

“so, Nettie. You ok? Timbo and I couldn’t get through to you and you kinda scared us” Jason said chuckling in an anxious way,

“Yeah I’m ok! Sorry for spacing out there and scaring you.” Marinette responded after she finished her mouthful and taking a sip of the also lukewarm coffee. “As I said before, never call me princess” she laughs trying to make light of her trauma, focusing on eating her food instead of Jason’s rather intense and concerned gaze.

“Kid…” he started, worry evident in his voice, before he could continue Marinette interrupted him

“I mean how dare he call me a princess I prefer queen or empress thank you very much” she said holding her chin up in defiance making Jason chuckle.

“Right, how dare he. And if he comes anywhere near you again let me know and your dutiful servant shall go behead him for you my majesty” he said bowing his head slightly at her making her laugh, ignoring the fact that he was most definitely serious.

Marinette and Jason finished their food in comfortable silence before she caught a glimpse of mischief suddenly lighting up the ex-mob-boss’ eyes. She narrowed her eyes at him, which just increased the amount of mischief and chaos in his eyes.

“so, demon spawn huh.” He said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at her, making her choke slightly on her coffee. Spluttering Marinette went to frantically defend herself before he interrupted her,

“don’t deny it Nettie I saw the way you held your cheek after he touched it” he smirked at her causing her to blush furiously.

“His hands were so warm though” she wined into her hands as she let her now bright red face fall into her palms.

“I’m sure they were kiddo, why else would you go in for seconds” he said sipping his own drink in smug satisfaction.

“You sir are not my real older brother; you have no right to tease me so!” she exclaimed pointing an accusing finger at the smirking man across from her.

“Pix, you wound me!” He said throwing his hand back onto his forehead, but instead of making her laugh as it was obviously intended, Marinette got caught up on his slip up.

“Pix?” she questioned, “that’s a new one” she chuckled awkwardly trying to seem casual at the slip up. Jason just blinked at her before seeming to realise something,

“Oh right, sorry Kid, that’s just what I called another kid, she reminds me a lot of you actually.” He said smiling at her, “that’s probably why I called you that, I would call her pixie cause she was small like you, but also seemed to be magical” he explained, a slightly sadder smile gracing his face, before he looked back at her and said, “also a bit like you I guess, you’ve gotta have some kind of magic if you can get the demon to call you by your fist name and hug you” he winked at her bringing the topic back to her hopeless crush on his brother.

“Jayyyyy stop it!!” she wined, “he’s probably called a girl by her first name before just not around you, and he has definitely hugged others before!” she said trying to justify Damians actions,

“I am not taking that bet Pixie” Jason said grinning at her

“Hey I don’t want to be called another girls nickname” she pouted slightly, while her mind was desperately trying to make sure he didn’t find out, cause this was honestly the closest anyone has gotten to relating her two identities.

“But it suits you both so perfectly! Plus, I keep accidently calling you pixie in my head and having to correct myself, and it’s getting tiring” Jason complained to Marinette, she was having none of it though, no way was she going to get outed by something as small as a nickname!

“Nope! Its either ‘Kid’, ‘kiddo’, ‘Nettie’ or something else, not ‘Pix’ or ‘Pixie’” Marinette said crossing her arms across her chest showing Jason that she wasn’t budging on the subject.

“Fiiiiine” Jason wined, before his eyes lit up again, spelling trouble for Mari, “Demon tamer it is then” he said smugness filling his voice.

“and that’s my que to leave, it was nice meeting you Jason I hope we never meet again” she said in a teasing tone getting up to leave,

“wait, wait Nettie I was joking, please come back, what will I ever do without my favourite sister-” he paused when Marinette went to go sit back down, “in-law” he continued,

“Disowned, who are you again?” she said actually leaving the table this time causing Jason to cackle as he stood up to follow her out the café.

Marinette made her reluctant way down to the lobby of the hotel, an hour before her class was due to leave for dinner. She was taking extra precautions as to not get left behind again. As she stepped out the elevator she spotted Bess sitting at the front desk, Bess spotted her as well if her warm smile at Marinette was anything to go by. Smiling back at the motherly receptionist Marinette made her way to the desk.

“you’re a bit early aren’t you honey?” Bess chuckled warmly with a tilt of her head.

“just taking extra precautions, as tempting as it is, I don’t particularly want to get left behind again” Marinette shrugged sheepishly admitting that she wasn’t looking forward to the dinner.

“Don’t worry too much about it sweetheart, the place you’re going does incredible food. My partner took me to the restaurant for our 10^th anniversary” Bess shared with her, reassuring that even though the company was less than ideal, that the food was worth it.

“that’s so sweet of them!” Marinette cooed at the worker in front of her.

“It was amazing” Bess sighed reminiscing, “They had been working double shifts to afford the dinner, but they assured me it was worth it. And I am tempted to agree with them” Bess chuckled, “the food was to die for deary! Even if I didn’t have my dear Elis with me it still would have been an amazing experience” Bess’ eyes held a sparkle as she thought about her significant other.

“that’s reassuring” Marinette said chuckling bitterly, “let’s hope the food makes up for the company” she continued with a grin.

“Yes, let’s. Now sorry I missed you at lunch I was on break when you came back, how was coffee with your friends?” Bess questioned the petite girl leaning on the desk.

“It was great! Company made up for the food in this case” Marinette chuckled, “Tim and Jason make me feel so welcome here” she continued softly, looking down

“so they should” Bess said in a stern tone, “we Gothamites stick together dear, I have a feeling your going to become one of us, so it’s only natural that we make you feel welcome” Bess grinned at Marinette while Marinette just looked at Bess in shock, “How did she know I am moving here after the trip” Marinette’s mind questioned softly, seeing her shocked and unbelieving face Bess continued, “Look Marinette dear, we at the hotel love you, and I’m sure any other Gothamite you come into contact with will love you too. Paris may not feel like your home anymore, but this place; despite its cold days, and harsh nights, it is home to people who feel like they don’t belong. It’s a bit of a safe haven for outcasts from the rest of the world.” Bess said wisely, gazing at Mari with a softness that made her want to curl up into a ball and cry.

“How did you know-” Marinette began wetly before Bess hushed her, not unkindly.

“Call it a mothers instinct sweetheart, I may not be able to bear children of my own, but that doesn’t stop me from helping kids in need.” She said taking a gentle hold of the teary designers hand, rubbing soothing circles on the back of it with her thumb. “and you my dear, are a child who has been in need and left alone for far too long. We can look after you here. You are safe, I promise” Bess said in a soft sad tone, as if she were comforting a child she found on the street.

“Yea! Ya got us now kid! And we ain’t letting you go!” Annika piped in as she made her way to the desk from the bathrooms. Making Marinette chuckle at her energetic tone, effectively distracting her from her more sombre thoughts.

“Thanks Bess, and Annika. You two have already made me feel safer than I have in years” she said with a bittersweet smile that made the two receptionists look at her in concern.

“well, enough of this mushy sh*t, I wanna know all the gossip about those Wayne boys that came and picked ya’ up kid! C’mon spill!!” Annika said, waving her hands as if to dispel any bad energy in the air before leaning on her hands and looking at Marinette imploringly. Annika’s plead bought up the memory of Damians hug, and soft words. Making Marinette blush slightly, ducking her head in hopes that the two women didn’t see it. Her hopes were for nothing as it seems both women have a keen eye,

“oooooo, was that a blush I saw! Do tell!!” Annika said in a teasing tone, while Bess just looked at her curiously,

“It’s nothing really!” Marinette said embarrassed waving her hands out in front of her.

“Those boys are a bit old for you sweetheart.” Bess said cautiously.

“huh? OH! Oh, no not Jason and Tim! God no, they are like brothers to me now aha” Marinette rushed out frantically.

“Then who’s makin you blush like that huh?” Annika said, drawing out the ‘huh’ in a teasing lilt. Knowing that she was never going to get them off her back if she didn’t tell them something Marinette decided to answer the nosey receptionists-Annika, truthfully.

“Damian…” She mumbled incoherently. What! She said she was going to answer them truthfully, not clearly!

“What was that sweetheart, I fear my hearing is not as good as it used to be” Bess teased her,

“C’mon Bess! You ain’t that old!” Annika exclaimed playfully nudging Bess with her shoulder, “Besides I didn’t hear the kid eitha’” she added on looking at Mari pointedly.

“I-gave-Damian-a-hug-and-he-hugged-me-back!” came Marinette’s rushed reply, blushing like crazy. She could almost feel the ghost of his arms wrapped around her, hence why her blush simply deepened in colour.

“wait wait, maybe I’m the one who’s got bad hearin, did you say Damian? As in Damian Wayne? Demon of Gotham?” Annika said incredulously, while Bess looked at the designer in slight shock before a small grin made its way onto her face.

“Demon of Gotham?! What an awful name! he was very nice to me and doesn’t deserve such an unpleasant title.” Marinette huffed indignantly, she could understand his brothers calling him demon spawn because they were his brothers, but people he didn’t know calling him a demon… Marinette was not happy with this discovery.

“Hey, Hey, calm down kid, its jus’ a nickname we Gothamites came up with, he was a total brat as a kid, but he has grown now. The name jus’ stuck unfortunately” Annika said holding her hands up in surrender. Marinette still huffed in distaste.

“Told you that any Gothamite to come in contact with you would love you sweetheart, Damian is no different it seems” Bess said pulling Marinette’s attention back to her, making her blush anew.

“Yea, honestly if anyone could melt the Ice princes heart it’d be you kid, you and that beamin smile of yours” Annika grinned at Marinette

“Ice Prince? Really?” Marinette dead-panned.

“another not-so-nice nickname I know, but it does kinda suit him still. Y’know, cold ta' everyone he meets, icy glare that could freeze over hell” Annika justified still grinning,

“cold ta everyone except you apparently” Annika’s grin turned slightly feral looking at Marinette’s bright red face. Marinette was going to retort when she was interrupted by an oh so familiar voice.

“would you look at this, Maribitch is on time for once” Alya sneered, her classmates snickering behind the ‘journalist’ at the jab. Marinette didn’t turn to give any of her classmates attention, instead focusing on Bess and Annika who were glaring at the group of teenagers that had just come out of the elevator.

“speaking of not-so-nice nicknames” Annika hissed lowly.

“they call you that often?” Bess asked concern lacing her words,

“Yeah that and-” Marinette begun her shoulders inching closer and closer to her ears as she felt the group move closer to her person.
“Invite any Gotham guys up to your bed while we were away Marislu*t?” sneered another voice the bluenette recognised as Alex. One of her more frequent physical bullies, she and Kim had taken to betting on who could cause the most bruises over the years as Lila kept painting Marinette’s portrait out of fake blood and fabricated tales.

“-that” Marinette finished with a sigh, referring to her other most popular title since Lila’s prostitute lie. One of her classmates newer favourite pass times was coming up with insults in English, when Marinette stupidly complained to her teacher the first time they did it Mlle Bustier simply smiled and said, “I’m so glad that you are encouraging them to practice their English Marinette, I’m sure that they are just teasing you or you’re just translating wrong, perhaps you need some more English practice?” Grimacing slightly at the unpleasant memory Marinette kept her back turned to her class.

“Ah, Marinette there you are!” came another unwelcome voice that made Marinette flinch slightly, the tone her teacher used meant that she had something impossible for Marinette to accomplish for her. Marinette reluctantly turned around to face her caretaker, ignoring the extremely concerned faces of her two friends behind the desk.

“Yes Mlle Bustier” Marinette responded weakly, feeling like if she disrespected her teacher she would not let the designer join dinner, and after Bess’ description Marinette did actually want to go.

“Just double checking that you informed the restaurant that was booked about all the dietary requirements your classmates have” the teacher said with a people pleasing grin.

“yes Mlle Bustier” Marinette sighed tiredly, she had set all of this up before they came to Gotham to make sure that she wouldn’t get caught off guard when her teacher didn’t do it herself like she was meant to. The child-like adult’s eyes gleamed at her response

“There’s the sweet and caring Marinette I missed! I knew I could count on you! You are my model student after all!” the red-haired lady said her tone oozing warmth. A warmth that felt like the warmth a fresh wound emitted to fight off infection. Hence why Marinette cringed at the seemingly nice complement.

“b-b-but Mlle Bustier…” came the nauseatingly timid voice of Lila making Marinette groan in frustration-internally, externally she was as emotionless as a weathered rock. “I wouldn’t want to ruin dinner w-w-with all my fatal food allergies, are you sure Marinette didn’t forget that I am allergic to gluten, carbohydrates, lipoproteins, actin, myosin, albumins, globulins, prolamins and can’t forget rockmelon and fish” Lila listed in a very rehearsed fashion as Marinette was positive she didn’t know what half of those words were.

“I just gave the restaurant a list of reported food allergies and dietary requirements, like Rose who is filed under vegetarian, or Max who is filed to be allergic to peanuts” Marinette said in a flat informative tone, addressing her teacher, “if it wasn’t recorded, filed or reported I would not know of it and thus would not have put it through to the restaurants chefs.” She continued stating facts and conclusions in a bored tone.

“I-I-I couldn’t b-b-b-b-bother my very important mother with all this though, she must have not p-p-put it on my school records” Lila whimpered out pathetically crying wolf. Making Mlle Bustier’s previously proud gaze turn accusing,

“Marinette, you know how busy Lila’s mother is, I expected you to make sure everyone could safely eat without worry of allergies or diet. You should’ve asked Lila personally about her diet.” The teacher scolded making Marinette sigh tiredly, “of course Lila is going to be my ticket to a foodless dinner” her mind said in a bitter, but not surprised, tone.

“Excuse me Madam, but how was she to know that one of your students was allergic to flour, egg yolks, red meat, vegetables, rockmelon and fish if it wasn’t recorded. She would have had no way of knowing unless the student whose allergies were not recorded told her themself.” Annika interrupted, her accent disappearing slightly as she addressed Marinette’s teacher. Marinette herself just looked at Annika in shock by the fact that she was not only defending Marinette but also knew what all those words were referring to. Bess seeing Marinette’s glance simply winked at the stunned girl before opening her mouth to speak to the now slightly embarrassed teacher as well.

“and is it not the teachers job to make sure that their students are able to eat safely, and that all their records are up to date? Not another students?” Bess accused with a warm but sharp smile.

“and who are you to comment on my teaching tactics! I have made sure that I taught this class for their entire schooling, I think I would know what I’m doing” Mlle Bustier huffed angrily making Marinette suddenly realise that her teacher had purposefully made sure that her class never changed, that she always taught them homeroom, that she could never escape.

“is that- are you- have you been blocking my transfer papers” Marinette whispered horrified that her teacher might be the one who had kept her trapped in the same room as her tormentors for literal years.

“well, I couldn’t have you moving to another class when all your friends are in this one! And we need a Marinette to take charge in this class. It would have been selfish of you to transfer” her prison guard told her with a grin, completely ignoring the horror that had turned to anger clear on her ‘model students’ face.

“friends…” Marinette whispered before she begun to chuckle, becoming more hysterical as she replayed Mlle Buster’s reasoning for putting her through torture. “friends don’t call me Maribitch or Marislu*t.” She continued laughing darkly,

“Marinette you know that is just them teas-” her teacher tried to interrupt, Marinette spoke over her,

“friends don’t take my sketchbook and tear it to shreds!” she spoke her voice warping slightly in anger, “Friends don’t film me being beaten to a bloody pulp and then post it on social media with the caption, ‘giving a bully what she deserves’!” Marinette yelled before slipping into French as she became more and more hysterical. “FRIENDS DON’T BREAK BOTH MY WRISTS AND THEN LOCK ME IN THE LOCKER ROOM FOR AN ENTIRE WEEKEND!!!” Marinette screamed, tears rushing down her face as she thought back to the third time they had beat her up. Her breath hitched as she remembered how she had pleaded Kim and Alex not to do it, how she had tried to tell Alya that she hadn’t given Lila arthritis after she got jealous of Lila’s designs. She sobbed as she remembered how Alya just sneered down at her, and nodded to Kim and Alex who, during Marinette’s pleading, had made a bet on who could break her wrists the worst. She screamed again as she remembered the pain of her wrists snapping at unnatural angles, the pain of sharp bone fragments cutting through tendons, the pain of watching her ex-friends snickering at her as they left the locker room and locked the door.

Suddenly Marinette was looking at the carpeted floor of the lobby and not the unforgiving concrete of the locker room. Her mind completely cleared as she compartmentalised the memory and shoved it away. She stood up, not realising she had crouched down to begin with. She wiped her eyes with hands that should be shaking and wrists that should be permanently damaged, thank whatever god there is that she had Tikki in that locker room. Looking her teacher dead in the eyes with an expression so emotionless you would think you were looking at a porcelain doll.

“I do not have any friends in your class Mlle Bustier. Not anymore.” Her voice as emotionless as her expression, giving everyone in the room whiplash at the sudden change between a hysterical sobbing girl and a stone-faced student. “Now if we do not leave soon we shall be late for the booking. I will inform the chef of Lila’s diet adjustments when we arrive so that they can make her something specific.” She informed her teacher who was looking at Marinette as if she was really seeing her for the first time in years.

“Marinette-” her teacher started softly, reaching to comfort her. The incoming hand made Marinette flinch involuntarily, rolling her shoulders to hide the flinch unsuccessfully, Marinette interrupted her teacher.

“the bus is waiting, let’s go.” She started making her way stiffly to the awaiting bus outside the hotel but not before turning slightly in the direction of the two horrified and worried receptionists, keeping her eyes on the ground Marinette simply nodded in their direction while saying in a softer voice “see you tomorrow Bess and Annika, thank you for talking with me”.

Once she had passed the threshold of the hotel she took a deep shuddering breath of cold pollution filled air, steadied her fracturing mind, and boarded the bus. “at least the food is going to be good”

Bonus:

Once the class had vacated the hotel Lobby and the bus had left for the restaurant the hotel staff crowded around the front desk again.

“Sterling. What was Marinette screaming in French?” Annika asked her expression grim and voice serious. Sterling looked green thinking about it, which an impressive feat considering his dark skin tone. Sterling simply shook is big head frantically, warning his co-workers that they did not want to know.

“Sterling, please tell us.” Bess pleaded with the bodyguard who was in charge of keeping the class safe while they were in the hotel. Bess’ desperation filled voice made him cave,

“she- her class- they-” he stuttered out in a deep voice, pain evident in its tone.

“what did that class of little monsters do to her” growled Lake as they held onto their mop in a grip so tight their knuckles were turning white remembering how the students had just snickered as the small Parisian broke down.

“Her classmates, they-” the enormous man tried again before his breath hitched slightly, “they broke both her wrists and they- and they” he continued tears falling down his face as he remembered how pained the small girls scream sounded, how she collapsed and curled up on the floor while holding her wrists tightly to her chest, “and they locked her in the locker room” he continued his deep voice wavering in anger and sadness, “they locked her in the locker room over an entire weekend” he finally translated for his co-workers, tears now a constant on his pained face.

“Jesus f*cking Christ” Came Annika’s breathy reply, her voice barely a whisper as her vocal cords refused to work in the face of such horror.

“that poor girl” sobbed Bess, her hands covering her mouth in an expression of absolute terror.

“how could anyone be so cruel!” yelled Lake heatedly, their face turning red in pure anger.

“what are we going to do?” asked a small unsure voice of Ella as she sat defeated in her luggage trolley.

“We tell Mr Wayne, that’s what we do” Annika spoke up determined.

Bonus #2:

Skye Isn’t Blue

@Sky’sNeverBlueInGotham

Gotta love Gotham where instead of bird calls waking us up, we get screams that are filled with so much pain that it hurts you too <3

#GottaLoveGotham #ThatScreamShallHauntMe #WorkingNightShifts #JustWokeUp #FML #CoffeeMachineJustBroke #Help #NeedCoffeeOrI’llDie #NVM #AlreadyDeadInside

Chapter 18: Marinette becomes a mum

Chapter Text

“Welcome to Gotham’s museum of fine arts, history and music!” said the classes tour guide excitedly, her peppy attitude contrasting starkly with her gothic like appearance. “My name is Elanor, and I shall be your tour guide for today!” she continued introducing herself with enthusiasm that was beginning to grate on Marinette’s nerves.

Under normal circ*mstances she would find Elanor a breath of fresh air, currently though, her warm words and can-do attitude was like smoke in her lungs. To say Marinette was having a bad day was probably an understatement. After an awful dinner where the food, as good as it was, did not in fact make up for the company as she had hoped. Adding said company to freshly re-opened wounds was a recipe for torture; her classmates wouldn’t stop imitating her break down and mocking her about her ‘sore wrists’ and asking if she needed help cutting her food. The entire duration of that evening had been her classmates throwing insults and jabs at her while she ate in silence. Then when they had finally gotten back to the hotel Marinette couldn’t bring herself to look at the workers that were giving her pity filled glances. Or in the receptionist’s case’s pity filled stares, trying to catch her eye and failing.

Within the safety of her hotel room she still did not break, on autopilot she had gotten into her PJ’s, brushed her teeth, washed her face, and let the Kwami’s out of the Miraculi Box. The Kwami’s to their credit had taken one look at their guardian and simply huddled around her. No words, no questions, just a silent show of support. As she had drifted off to sleep the Kwami’s had looked at each other worriedly, they thought that after the defeat of hawkmoth that they wouldn’t have to see their guardian shut down like this again, that she could just feel again. Of course, they were wrong, just feeling again is not an easy task after conditioning yourself to not feel for five years. The Kwami’s didn’t know this, they were entities that were basically gods, they didn’t quite know how to deal with the complex and deep-rooted emotions that their guardian was experiencing. All they could do was show that they supported her and hope that someone would come into her life that would help her learn how to feel again…

Her sleep unfortunately was not blessed with a dark, warm, dreamless abyss. No, instead she got to live out her worst nightmare, again…

Waking up with a scream in her throat and tears in her eyes Marinette was greeted with the concerned eyes of her Kwami’s.

“Same nightmare?” Tikki had questioned her sadly,

“Same nightmare.” Marinette had confirmed her voice hoarse, sitting up in the bed that felt too overwhelmingly large after such a harrowing nightmare Marinette had pulled her knees to her chest and silently cried. She had felt so empty, so alone. Even though she had multiple small gods trying their best to comfort her, the feelings kept growing until they became too much to deal with without her losing her composure and doing something she may regret. Taking a deep breath Marinette had uncurled and got out of the too-big bed she made her unsteady way to the balcony that led outside of her room and stepped out into the cold night air. The frigid wind had stung her hot skin, a soothing pain that grounded her. She had let her hair whip around her face, strands getting caught on her tear-stained face. She had stood there, watching the city, watching the colourless clouds, watching for any birds or bats. She stood on her balcony until her wind-swept skin became numb to the cold. She stood on her balcony until her body stopped trying to make heat. She stood on her balcony until she was on the verge of hibernation, as then and only then did she go back inside her hotel room. She remembered checking the time on her phone once she was inside, and seeing that it was almost five in the morning she had decided to use the remaining dark hours until her class was due to leave for the museum crocheting. She had taken out her wool that she had packed for exactly that scenario and she began making beanies of all sizes, most though, were all the sizes normally reserved for children.

She had crocheted until it was almost 9am, with almost 13 small beanies, and one larger beanie to show for her efforts. Since her class wasn’t due to leave for the museum until mid-day Marinette had decided she may as well make use of the beanies. After pushing a little good luck into each one she had gotten dressed in a comfortable pleated grey skirt that came to her mid-thigh, put on some black warm stockings, grabbed her favourite stress-knitted jumper, and put it overtop of her warm white collared shirt. She had put her hair up in a messy bun and grabbed a tote bag to carry her cargo of the day.

Marinette would then go to silently leave the hotel, still refusing to make eye contact with two very concerned receptionists, and just walk. She had walked until she felt a miniscule tug on her tote bag indicating exactly what she had been hoping for; a pickpocketer was trying their luck against her. Grasping the tiny hand in a firm grip Marinette had turned to face the dirty and scared face of a little boy no older than 10. She then bent down to eye level with him.

“hi, would you like a beanie? I have a few too many” Marinette had said in a voice soft as down while showing the boy the contents of her tote bag. The boy had looked at her in apprehension before reaching into the bag and grabbing a stripey blue beanie and tugging it down over his scruffy hair. Expecting that to be all Marinette stood up smoothly and began to walk again, that was until she felt a small hand wrap around hers and tug. Looking down Marinette had seen the little boy sheepishly pulling her in the direction of an alley way, he glanced up at her and then back down to the ground, not once letting go of her hand as he made sure that she was following him.

Silently this small boy had led her through a maze of alley ways until they arrived in what could only be described as a camp of some sort, children of all ages huddled together under makeshift shelters. Every single kid had stopped whatever they were doing and looked at Marinette with wide afraid eyes, until the small boy who had been leading her spoke up.

“she has free beanies, and there are enough for all of us. I don’t think she is going to hurt us; she seems… nice” he had said, blushing slightly at the attention. Marinette had taken that as her que to crouch down and open up her tote bag, offering a beanie to everyone who had wanted one. The first to approach was an older looking boy who was probably around 14, he had taken the larger colourful beanie and nodded in thanks. His action caused the other children to follow suit, and Marinette had found shockingly that she had the exact right amount of beanies for all of the children present. After her tote bag was emptied she pulled out her purse and had given each kid 20 dollars to spend on whatever they wanted. Marinette stood up and went to take her leave when she had felt a pair of tiny arms wrap around her waist form behind.

“Thank you Miss, Thank you so much” came a small voice, Marinette had turned slightly to see who had trapped her and found a small blonde-haired girl looking up at her with wide grey eyes. Smiling down at the small girl Marinette bent down to hug her back and had said,

“No problem little one, it should be me who is thanking you lot for helping me get rid of those extra beanies” she remembers looking over the small girls shoulder and seeing the other kids looking at her in longing, after the little girl left her arms she had kept them open. Marinette had not expected the gesture to start a group hug, but she had dealt with it gladly, she squeezed all of the kids huddled against her and felt infinitly better than she had when she had left the hotel.

As she let them all go the kid who didn’t come over for a hug, the eldest of the group sporting a colourful beanie had looked at her in confusion and conflict before he said,

“why… why would you help us, what are you getting out of this” his wording desperate for justification. Marinette remembers smiling sadly at the boy as she answered him;

“I know what it feels like to be alone, to feel like it is you against the world, to feel like living is hopeless. And if there is anything I can do to help people not feel like that, then that’s what I’ll do. Even if it’s just giving out some warm woollen beanies, I can only hope it’s enough to give you hope for a better future, that it’s not all for nothing, that one day your hard work will come to fruition, and you will be able to find a place where you feel safe and loved. Like this wonderful camp, you have each other, and now you have me. If you see me on the street just call out my name and I’ll try to help you with whatever you need. Whether that’s warm clothes, a meal, money, or just a hug.” She had told the children, her voice softer than it had been in years. A few of the children were sniffling quietly once she had finished, the eldest boy included.

“but we don’t know your name” said the small boy who had led her here.

“My name is Marinette, but my friends call me Mari. So, you guys can call me Mari too” she said softly wiping away a couple of tears that had fallen from a brunette girl who refused to leave her arm’s face.

“Thank you Miss Mari, for everything” the girl in her arms had said, Mari had simply squeezed the brunette in response before standing up.

“as much as I would love to stick around I have to head back to my hotel, but please if you see me around don’t be afraid to ask for help” were her parting words.

Now you may be wondering why Marinette is in such a bad mood after that heart warming display, well remember all that good luck she has pushed into those beanies? Well, she may have accidentally been giving all the children even more luck during their hugs, thus causing an imbalance, an imbalance that the universe took out on Marinette. To say her luck was bad on the walk back to the hotel is an understatement, she went to get a coffee only to have no more cash left, so she went to use her card which got declined. So, no coffee for her, that’s ok, she can deal with a morning without coffee right? Then she got tripped up not once, not twice, but on four separate occasions! Each time she fell to the pavement she further grazed her palms and knees, ruining her warmest pair of stockings. Then just when she thought her day couldn’t get worse a car sped through a rather large puddle soaking her through to the bone in dirty stale water. Her mood thoroughly ruined she decided to worsen it by looking at the time, it was 11am and her class was scheduled to leave at 12:30, she had about an hour and a half to get back to the hotel, have a shower, get changed, eat something (maybe) and then be early down to the lobby to make sure she doesn’t get left behind again, so she ran.

She just managed to get down to the lobby when she overheard Lila convincing Mlle Bustier to leave early, so she didn’t have time to eat, or get a coffee. All this lead to a now grumpy Marinette finding out that no, she cannot go without her morning coffee. Dealing with Lila and her sheep normally is hell, dealing with them caffeine-less is so much worse.

“-then I am going to let you all go and explore in your own time, we shall meet back here at 2 o’clock! Any questions?” Elanor’s cheery voice brought Marinette out of her musings, whilst making her shove her hands deeper into her hoodies pockets.

“Is there somewhere we can get food or a coffee?” she asked her voice having lost all softness it had held this morning, now she sounded like she was on the verge of death if she didn’t get a coffee in her soon. Because that’s exactly what she was, a coffee zombie.

“Yep! Sure is! Just next to the gift shop” came Elanor’s happy voice. “Any other questions?” she continued, not getting any she clapped her hands and said, “great! Let’s get started then!” Suddenly Marinette felt her stomach drop,

“somethings wrong” she said aloud

“What was that?” Elanor asked confused by Marinette’s sudden change in demeanour going from tired and grumpy to anxious and alert,

“Somethings wron-” Marinette started to repeat when suddenly a large explosion forced her body back against the wall winding her. Groaning she lifted her head to see if everyone was ok, then the lights went out…

“I protect, I stand tall, my purpose is to strike fear into all, what am I?” came a disembodied voice.

“a scarecrow.” Answered Marinette her voice just above a whisper. Then it clicked. “Just my f*cking luck”

Bonus:

“You wanted to see me B?” Tim said wondering why his father was calling him to his office.

“Ahh, yes Tim, I forgot to inform you last night since we were so busy with Scarecrow’s breakout that the French class’ hotel staff called.” His father paused taking a deep breath before sighing, “did you know that Miss Dupain-Cheng’s classmates broke both her wrists and then left her in their locker room for an entire weekend.”

“they WHAT!!!!” Tim yelled, not caring if someone heard. Mari, his little sister, his little coffee bean… “you’re kidding right?! Dad, you have to be kidding!!” Tim pleaded with his father, because just the thought of the amount of pain his little bean would have experienced is too much to even process.

“I wish I was Tim, according to the hotel staff she snapped at her teacher when she found out that they had been preventing her from transferring classes.” His father in a voice that promised justice, “apparently Miss Dupain-Cheng’s teacher justified it by saying that her friends were in her class, and that she ‘needed a Marinette to take charge of her class’.” His father continued before looking Tim dead in the eyes and saying, “The hotel staff said that her teacher, her caretaker, called Miss Dupain-Cheng selfish for even wanting to transfer.”

“…SELFISH!!! I have never met a more selfless girl in my entire life!!! What is her teacher on!!” Tim practically screamed as he began to pace the length of his father’s office, “I mean she constantly put her life on the line for others during akuma attacks! Do you know how much footage there is of her saving people?! I do!! Hundreds of hours!! And that’s just the footage captured on traffic cameras! She has been wearing herself thin to make sure that this trip is perfect for her classmates, even though they hate her guts!! THEY BROKE HER WRISTS FOR GODS SAKE!!!! And she STILL organised this f*ckin trip!!!” He ranted to his father, who was nodding along, agreeing with every point he brought fourth. “Oh gods…” Tim exclaimed in slight horror, suddenly stopping his pacing

“Tim? What is it?” His father asked, looking at Tim in concern,

“B… Scarecrow is out of Arkham… If he gets to Marinette…” Tim trailed off,

“she will have to re-live all of her worst trauma’s and then some” his father finished for Tim. A notification on his computer distracted his father for a second before he spoke up again, “Tim… where is her class meant to be today?”

“Gotham’s museum of fine arts, history and music why?” Tim informed his dad, “Why?” Tim repeated as his father paled slightly, “Bruce, answer me why do you need to know tha… No… please No don’t tell me…” Tim pleaded hoping to whatever controlled the universe that for once he wasn’t right about what his father was implying.

“Scarecrow is attacking Gotham’s museum of fine arts, history and music” His father said his voice full of concern, he looked at his son who was standing stock still,

“f*ck.”

Bonus #2:

Tim Drake

@NoNotThatTimDrakeTheOtherOne

Just heard my boss screaming in my other boss’ office… This is going to be a long ass day

#INeedToGetWorkDone #JustOverHeardPart #sh*tsGoingDown #SomeonesGotBrokenWrists #GetBetterSoon #I’mProcrastinating #BossTimDrakeDrankAllTheCoffee #WhyDoesHeDoThis #INeedMoreCoffee #ScreamQuieterPls

Chapter 19: Mari faces her nightmares

Chapter Text

Cackling Scarecrow walked through the plume of dust that was once a wall, his horrific costume on full display for the citizens trapped in the museum,

“what? Nobody like the riddle?” he said menacingly, daring someone to speak up. No one did. “ehh, I guess riddles are more Eddies style… Oh well!” He exclaimed suddenly pulling out a large syringe full of toxic looking liquid. “Now who wants to be the first to try out my newest serum!” he cackled manically as he surveyed the room, his gaze landing on Alya who was staring at the Scarecrow defiantly. “You…” he drawled lights flickering back on as he pointed at Alya. His goons came rushing in from behind him moving towards Marinettes class.“sh*t sh*t sh*t… think! Just gotta distract him long enough to let the BatFam get here!”Marinette thought frantically, her mind coming up empty as she searched the room for anything or anyone that could help. Then her mind came up with an option she wasn’t a fan of, but the closer the goons stalked the more it looked like that would be her only option.

“Wait!” She said as she ran to stand in front of her class, arms out in a protective stance. The goons stopped, surprised that someone was actually standing up to them.

“what do we have here? A brave little girl? Or a stupid one?” Scarecrow snickered at her,

“what are you doing?! Sit back down and wait for the authorities!” came a hissed whisper from Elanor, turning her head slightly Marinette made eye contact with the terrified tour guide and smiled at her reassuringly before turning to face the rouge once again,

“Ha! I don’t need to be brave against something I’m not afraid of” she bluffed, stalling for time.

“Oooo feisty and stupid. Well girly let’s see what youareafraid of then” Scarecrow responded, “Grab her” he commanded his goons. They grabbed her before she could react to the command, they dragged her towards the tall villain as she struggled still trying her best to stall for time.

“what’s your name girly, I like to know exactly who my test subject is before I use my newest toxin on them” he explained to her, leaning close enough that she could see a heavily scarred face through the holes in the sack he wore over his head.

“hmm” Marinette hummed pretending to think, “you know what! I seem to have forgotten it! Maybe I really am stupid” she grinned cheekily, having mastered the art of wearing an impermeable mask to hide her true emotions.

“Careful kid, that attitude of yours will attract unwanted attention” Scarecrow warned her seriously in a slightly hushed whisper leaving Marinette thoroughly confused,“did he justactuallywarn me?”her thoughts began before they were interrupted by the rogue speaking up again.

“Perhaps your friends aren’t so stupid” he said motioning to her classmates,

“pfffftttFriends!!Oh, gods no!! they hate my f*ckin guts!!” Marinette couldn’t help but burst out, making the villain look at her in confusion, “I bet you everything I own that if you told them that if they gave you my name that you would let them go. They would give you my address too just for sh*ts and giggles” Marinette told the tall man in front of her.

“I’ll take that bet” he said confidently, she protected them didn’t she, of course they would be her friends!

“listen here you lot. Tell me your protectors name and I’ll let you-” he didn’t even get to finish before Marinette heard her class call out,

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" they exclaimed in union.

“Please let us go” Whimpered Lila pathetically, shedding real tears for once in her life.

“Told you” Marinette said bitterly to the shocked scarred man in front of her, he turned to look at her concern and sympathy flashing across his eyes, but just as suddenly as the emotions appeared, they disappeared.

“well, I’ll be damned, I may be clinically insane but I’m a man of my word. You can go, goodbye little monsters” he told the class as they scrambled to their feet sprinting out of the museum. “why did you even protect them kid? They just completely threw you under the bus!” Scarecrow exclaimed still slightly shocked at the show of betrayal,

“eh, they’ve done worse.” Marinette shrugged indifferently.

Sighing Scarecrow said reluctantly, “as much as I actually like youMarinette, I am now extremely curious as to what you actuallyareafraid of” he moved to stick the syringe in her neck, “sh*t the BatFam still aren’t here, gotta stall more, c’mon Marinette think!” her thoughts frantically whispered,

“hey! Wait wait! Before you inject me with you potion-”

“Toxin, fear toxin” Scarecrow interjected

“same difference, I just have a few questions, I’m simply interested in how this potion is going to work on me” Marinette continued, hoping for Scarecrow tell and not show.

“why don’t I just show you” Scarecrow smirked, his eyes glinting in a way Marinette did not like at all.

“Dreams. Broken. Hopes. Shattered. Hotel. Trivago.” Marinette’s brain un-helpfully provided.

“Hold on! How are you going to know what I’m afraid of if only I can see what’s happening?!” she asked desperately, tilting her head away from the needle as much as she could whilst being held in the bruising grip of the psycho’s goons.

“Ahh, that’s where my extremely experimental truth serum comes into play my dear.” Scarecrow almost purred, “I will simply ask what you are seeing, and you will just tell me”

“I can just do that now!” Marinette exclaimed in a false chipper tone,

“really now? well, I’ll humour you. Tell me Marinette Dupain-Cheng what are you most afraid of?” Scarecrow questioned not moving the syringe away from her neck, meaning one wrong move and she might pierce herself on the sharp point.

“so many things! I am quite the little mouse you know!” Marinette began, smiling brightly. “I have this irrational fear of the sound of butterflies. I’m afraid of being locked in a place I can’t escape from. I’m scared of wearing sheer white dresses. I’m terrified by guys that have blond hair and/or green eyes.” Marinette listed off her biggest day-to-day fears.

“Ah.. but you asked for what I’m most afraid of right?” the ex-hero giggled in slight hysterics, “that would have to be… aha! Spiders!” she finished in a dramatic ‘got it’ tone, getting a few surprised giggles from a few of the hostages behind her. She even got a chuckle out of Scarecrow himself; she could also feel the goons holding her shake slightly as if they were trying to hold in laughter.

“Ha, well aren’t you a delight Marinette. But those seem like rather trivial fears to me my dear” Scarecrow huffed, “I want to know what your nightmares are made of” he drawled with an obvious grin in his voice, making Marinette’s blood turn to ice. But before she could so much as flinch, the needle was in, and the toxin was spreading.

Almost immediately she was transported to the hell scape she only ever saw in her dreams. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she collapsed to the scorched ground; almost as if she had been dropped. Staggering to her feet and looking around her all she could see was a wasteland littered with bloody bodies, some still breathing… “I can’t save them all, I can’t save them all, I can’t save them all” she repeated in her head as she looked at the broken people in front of her.

Marinette continued stumbling forward only for her foot to hit something soft, looking down Marinette gasped harshly. In front of her were the bloodied corpses of Luka and Kagami. No, not corpses, they were saying something;

“why didn’t you save us” they breathed, their dead grey eyes scrutinising her,

“why didn’t you warn us” they said, their mangled bodies twitching in pain

“WHY DID YOU KILL US!” they screamed, their bloody hands reaching for her, making her stumble backwards into something solid.

“tsk tsk tsk. If only you had given me your miraculous. All this would never have happened” came the condescending voice of Hawkmoth, his voice somehow able to be heard over her screaming teammates. She couldn’t breathe. Her head hurt. Her heart was beating too fast. “Something is wrong.” She said aloud, her voice wavering, “this isn’t how it happened” she continued closing her eyes, as she did so the screams became louder and louder until she finally realised that it wasn’t her teammates who were screaming…

It was her.

Opening her eyes, and glaring at hawkmoth she screamed, “this is all YOUR FAULT!!” she attacked the man whose expression turned from smugness to shock.

“YOU. TOOK. EVERYTHING. FROM. ME!!” She screamed punctuating her words with sharp punches to Hawkmoths face,

“I died 14f*ckingtimes!” she screamed at the man as she grappled with him on the scorched earth, “Do you have any idea what it’s like to feel yourself die! Only to be forced to continue living!” she cried pinning the man to the ground,

“I have been beaten to death” she told him harshly, continuing her punches ignoring the punches she got in return,

“I have been burnt to death 3 times” she told the now unconscious man, standing up only to find even more of him to defeat. Getting into a fighting stance she continued,

“I have drowned 4 times, twice in my own blood” she gritted out tears rolling down her cheeks as she dodged and knocked out the second Hawkmoth,

“I have been torn limb from limb” she huffed as she felt a bat hit her side,“since when did Hawkmoth use a bat- did I just get shot?”she thought blearily as she grabbed the bat and tore it out of the fourth Hawkmoths hands, swinging it back at his head knocking him out before turning to the Hawkmoth holding the gun and whacking him with the bat too,

“I have been eaten alive” she continued unable to stop herself from talking.

“I have even been killed by my own f*cking friends!” she laughed manically as she dodged and blocked kicks and punches, whilst landing her own, slowly whittling down the numbers against her.

“I’m like a f*cking co*ckroach! I can’t die! The universe won’t f*cking let me!” she sobbed her voice breaking as she finally beat the last Hawkmoth with a harsh combo of kicking him in the balls and then slamming the bat against his head. Breathing heavily Marinette stood surrounded by groaning or unconscious Hawkmoths, Hawkmoths that slowly began to change…

“no…” She choked at the bodies surrounding her, dropping the bat in dismay, “I- I had no other choice” she cried her gaze stuck on the body of the small akuma victim, a red and black polka-dotted dagger stuck firmly in their little chest.

“please, I didn’t want to do it…” she hiccupped falling to the ground in front of her worstmemorynightmare.

“there was no other way. Please- please forgive me” she begged tears streaming down her cheeks creating ravines in the dirt and ash that coloured her face. Her sobs tore through her body, making her gasp for air.

“you didn’t give me any other option, I had to- I’m so sorry” she wept, her tears mixing with the blood of the akuma victim, swirling together in a horrifying pattern she wished she wasn’t familiar with.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please- I cant- I just- I’m so sorry, please-” her voice broken and familiarly filled with guilt, sorrow, and fear.

Four thuds from behind her sounded, making her jump. Scrambling to her feet she sniffed, and got into a fighting stance, “I can’t die yet, I still need to fix this” she said, her voice wavering but determine as she waited for the four shadowy figures to make their move so she could fix this absolute mess.

They didn’t move.

Their stilled shapes triggered something in Marinette’s fear fuelled brain to focus slightly, “I’ve already fixed this” she mumbled confused, “something- somethings wrong” she continued, looking around at the multiple interchanging bodies as they swapped from Hawkmoth to the little akuma victim. Then it clicked. “oh…” was all she said, her fighting stance relaxing, “Scarecrow” she spoke again still looking at the bodies around her before movement made her head snap back to the shadowy figures. “BatFamily?” Marinette questioned squinting as her head throbbed trying to fight off the fear.

“@#$%$#@&*^$#@” said one of the figures,

“I um- look if you are the Bats then I suppose you should know that I am currently tripping balls and living my worst nightmare, all I can hear are screams of people dying, and I can’t… really see… anything… either…” Marinette trailed off blinking as her vision began to go fuzzy, her head pounding against her skull, the last thing she saw before she passed out was a shadowy figure diving to catch her.

“aurghhh” Marinette groaned softly, blinking rapidly as a too harsh white light invaded her blurred vision. Her head felt like it was full of cotton whilst also processing everything too sharply. Squinting she could make out the fact she was in an ambulance, why? She could not currently recall.“akuma?” her mind whispered groggily, the single word striking fear and panic into her heart and mind, because if she was this hurt that means she hadn’t finished the fight! Sitting up suddenly and feeling for her earrings, she made herself ignore the excruciating pain and nauseating sensation to focus on the cool, smooth, metallic touch of her earrings. Sighing in relief when she felt them she relaxed slightly, knowing that she could still fix whatever damage the akuma has already done while she was out… but she felt like something was off… she didn’t have the same sense of urgency as she normally does when she awakes during an akuma. “somethings not right…” she slurred slightly her mind slowly focusing on her environment.

“…I’ll say! You, little lady, should not be able to sit up like you currently are. IN FACT! You should not even be conscious!” a confused and shocked voice cut through her fuzzy head. The sudden noise making her move quickly into a defensive stance, sliding off whatever she had been sitting on.

This, on her part, was a bad move… you see Marinette had mastered the art of compartmentalising her pain to another part of her brain to deal with later while she continued to fight and strategize, but her body sometimes slipped and moved according to her pain levels and not how she wanted it to. Which is why she felt her legs buckle under her, making her fall before she could catch herself on the gurney she was on before.

“whoa, whoa. Yeah, no you should definitely not try standing up in your condition!” the voice chuckled in a concerned tone as the figure the voice belonged to, moved to catch her.

Now the ‘ladybug’ side of her brain wanted to fight off whatever was coming at her so that she could get some space to figure out what thef*ckwas going on. But the Marinette side of her brain, the human side, literally couldn’t fight off the figure considering her body wouldn’t, or refused, to respond to her brains commands.

The best she could do was say, “I’m fine. Let me go”. Now the figure would argue that she didn’t actually say this but slurred it since she currently was sporting a concussion to add to her vibrant list of injuries.

“you are not fine bean,do not tell me you are fine” they told her firmly, their hands gripping her shoulders firmly, pushing her back towards sitting on the gurney. The nickname ‘bean’ seemed to slice through her fog;“I’m in Gotham, scarecrow attacked, bats are here, Tim slipped up”the last thought made her slightly delusional mind smirk. Which considering the drugs the most likely pumped through her system, made her smirk at the vigilante that was beginning to come into focus. Red Robins eyes narrowed at her smirk.

“you slipped” her drugged-no-filter-mouth slurred at Red Robin, “and Iwillbe fine, just give me an hour and I’ll be right as rain” she continued to garble.

Realising she was in the presence of her pseudo brother, the ‘ladybug’ side of her began to ease up. Thus, causing all of her pain hit her at full force making her wince slightly. “ow…” she chuckled deliriously as she gripped her head.

“Is ‘ow’ seriously all you have to say about your current situation!” exclaimed Red Robin. “you have a concussion that should have made you unconscious for at least an hour andnottenf*cking minutes, you have bruising so severe that the paramedics had to check for internal bleeding” the concerned vigilante began to rant before being cut off by a very much in pain Marinette.

“it’s fine if the bleeding is internal! That’s where the blood is supposed to be!” she grinned, ignoring the way her lips split and begun to bleed again.

“for f*cks sake. Stop being a Gen-Z f*ck up and start being more concerned about your physical health!” Red Robin stressed at the still grinning girl.

“YOU SHOULD NOT BE AWAKE!!!” yelled a new voice, the loud noise making Marinette wince.

“shhhhhhh…” Marinette shushed at theextremelyconcerned paramedic that had stepped away for five minutes to check on the other victims of the attack, thinking their main patient would still be asleep when they returned.

“DO NOT-” they began before being interrupted by Marinette waving her arms in their direction and shushing them again.

“will you stop that!” they exclaimed trying to get a grip on her arms, wanting her to stop aggravating her injuries. “young lady you should be fast asleep, not sitting up andshushingme!” the paramedic said sternly whilst nodding their thanks at Red Robin who managed to get a grip on their patients flailing arms and holding her still.

“well, I’m wide awake and you’re being loud, hence the shushing” Marinette sassed the paramedic whilst ceasing her fidgeting as she figured that would just lead to Red Robin being annoying and trying to hug her to keep her still-“yeah no thank you, already too emotionally volatile to deal with people worrying about me, don’t think I could deal with a hug right now”.

The paramedic just looked at Marinette in astonishment, because how was this girl lucid enough to sass them??

“what do they feed you in Paris?! Is there a new drug that makes your body so strong that you are able to hold a conversation with a person while being in an undoubtably excruciating amounts of pain?” the paramedic sassed her slightly back, whilst indicating to the vigilante to move their patient around gently so they could run a check over her.

“Literally nothing, my parents are neglectful f*cks that like to hold the fact thattheybought the food and not me over my f*cking head” Marinette said back, immediately regretting it considering the way her pseudo brother stiffened considerably at the new information, “But that’s neither here nor there” She continued as if her stupid filter-less mouth hadn’t dropped that bomb on her company, “did anyone get hurt? Is everyone ok? Did I- did I hurt a civilian while under Scarecrows potion thing?” she asked completely serious, her voice trailing off slightly at the end in fear of hurting someone how didn’t deserve itagain.

The paramedic just gaped at the girl in front of them because, what theactualf*ck?! This tiny slip of a girl whose skin is literally a mishmash of already forming bruises and bloody bullet holes, isworriedaboutothersbeing hurt! In the state she’s in! the paramedic stayed silent for too long it seems though because the girls startlingly blue eyes begun to fill with tears.

“sh*t, I hurt someone didn’t I? my class was right, I’m an awful person, how could I hurt someone!? I swear I didn’t mean to!” the French girl in front of them began to ramble, fear quickly spreading through her posture and tone,

“Kid-” the paramedic tried to interrupt but the now shaking girl just kept talking,

“Please, you have to believe me. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone; I just couldn’t tell who was who in that nightmare! Please- I’m sorry, I didn’t want to do it.I didn’t have another choice, I’m so sorry” the girl was now sobbing hysterically, her breathing erratic and her hands shaking as they gripped her hair so tightly it looked painful.

“hey- hey now… its ok bean, you’re alright. No one got hurt. Not even the goons you took down are all too worse for wear” the vigilante moved to comfort the girl in a way that was screaming familiarity. If the paramedic watching the interaction knew for a fact that the vigilante obviously knew the girl then- well that was none of their business as far as they were concerned.

“Honestly bean the only person thatneedsmedical attention other than you is scarecrow with his broken nose and cracked ribs” the vigilante continued in a soft reassuring voice.

“I- I didn’t- I didn’t hurt anyone?” Marinette asked in a voice so broken that is made the paramedic clutch at their chest as they felt their heart physically break at the ruined words.

“No, you didn’t hurt anyone- on the contrary little one.” The paramedic said as they begun snapping out of their shock and revere of the girl, “Miss Marinette, you saved everyone” they spoke to the girl in a softer voice. “Please understand that if it wasn’t for you, us paramedics would be having a much rougher time” they continued, “that fear you were just feeling out of nowhere? That was remnants of the fear toxin” they explained to the now more relaxed girl in front of them.

“Remnants?” Marinette voiced her confusion, “I only got injected once” she said to explain her confusion as there shouldn’t be any remnants left after the antidote right?

“you only gotinjectedonce, but you gotshotwith toxin bullets 5 times” the paramedic explained whilst checking said bullet wounds which to their surprise were already beginning to show signs of healing- huh- “also there is always remnants of fear left in the victims of scarecrow after an attack, the symptoms wear off as the body naturally works the toxin out of its system” they continued to explain to the foreigner, their voice almost slipping back into a monotone at the statement they had repeated too many times to count, before reminding themself that this girl is still rather volatile.

“which is why you should be resting” came an exasperated sigh from the man next to the duo.

“I’ll rest when I’m dead… or after dinner… whichever comes first” Marinette responded cheekily lightening up the mood of the ambulance significantly.

“Jesus kid, are you seriously thinking about your dinner arrangements right now?” the masked man asked indignantly

“well, it’s not every day that I get to meet my pseudo-older-brothers’ family now is it?” Marinette said with a pointed look at the vigilante that the paramedic decided to ignore.

“we can reschedule dinner!” Red robin exclaimed in exasperation, at this the paramedic decided that now would be a great time to interrupt before they ended up figuring out the identity of the vigilante based off of their relationship with their patient,

“I don’t care if you go to dinner or not, just make sure you rest during it ok?” the paramedic rushed out, “now stop arguing with Red Robin and let me finish my check-up on you ok?” they sighed as Marinette simply nodded and cooperated with the rest of the check-up.

Bonus:

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 1/13

So, I’m gonna rant real quick about this tour I just held with a bunch of French students ok? Ok- the class itself was a mixture of teens all with an awful attitude except for one girl in the back who literally looked like she would rather crawl into a hole and die rather than be there- Which I mean same

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 2/13

you may be thinking, doesn’t that mean she has an awful attitude too? Well no- not really- the class’s awful attitude basically consisted of bitchy rudeness, the girl? She was just too tired to be nice- like when you want to be polite but don’t have the energy for it.

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 3/13

ANYWAYS, I was about to start the tour when said tired girl suddenly stiffens and goes “somethings wrong” LIKE WHAT THE f*ck, how was I supposed to respond to that??? And like some f*cking movie guess what happens next, yep you guessed it! Mother f*cking Scarecrow!!

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 4/13

So I’m sitting there f*ckin sh*tting myself because its f*cking scarecrow!! And while hes spouting his f*ckin nonsense I look over the class I’m touring and I catch sight of tired girl and I cannot put into words what her expression was like- f*ck me I just felt scared for her, yet safe because I knew she could protect me

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 5/13

Like what the f*ck?!? Shes a f*ckin KID!!! I should be protecting her not the other way around!! Then, THEN scarecrow decided to take interest in one of the kids in the class and I see tired girl stiffen, like f*ck-

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 6/13

I was frozen! I felt like I couldn’t breath as I watched tired girl move in front of her classmates and me- LIKE WHAT THE f*ck!!1! DOES THIS GIRL HAVE A f*ckING DEATH WISH!! I remember trying to get her to sit back down and wait for the batfam-

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 7/13

U WANNA KNOW WHAT THIS KID DOES!1!!! She f*ckin looks back at me and smiles… SMILES!!! LIKE SHE IS TRYING TO REASURE ME THAT ITS ALL FINE AND DANDY THAT SHES JUST OFFERING HERSELF UP TO A f*ckIN PSYCHOPATH!!!! You wanna know what she says to scarecrow?? Do u wanna know what this tiny, tired girl says!!!!

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 8/13

She says, “Ha! I don’t need to be brave against something I’m not afraid of” LITERALLY THE WORST THING TO SAY TO f*ckIN SCARECROW OF ALL PEOPLE!!! This isn’t even the worst part of my f*ckin day!! Cause while she is distracting scarecrow from the other hostages- myself included-

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 9/13

Her f*cking class are f*ckin whispering about her!!1!1 saying sh*t like- “wow she looks like she knows scarecrow” and “maybe she’s his long-lost daughter” and let’s not forget “shes as ugly and mean as him so it wouldn’t shock me if she was his abandoned love child” the f*cking worst one tho was “not even a villain could want her”

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 10/13

THE f*ck IS WRONG WITH THIS CLASS!!!!!1!! SHE JUST SAVED OUR ASSES AND THEIR INSULTING HER!!!11!1!! I just- u wanna know how I got out of there?? Tired girl. That’s how I got out of there. She suggested to Scarecrow that if he offered her class the chance to throw her under the bus for their own safety they would do it and make sure she got run over again and again.

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 11/13

The stupid class didn’t even let scarecrow finish asking for tired girls name before the ENTIRE CLASS, INCLUDING THE f*ckING TEACHER told the psycho tired-girls name!!!!! as fellow Gothamites u must feel my pain in knowing how dangerous it is to have villains know your name right?!

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 12/13

These sh*ts just served their saviour up to this f*cking sack-headed bastard on a f*cking silver platter, the said bastard let us go. The worst part tho, when we got out of there, the class f*cking left… yep u heard me, they left their classmate- who I could hear screaming- behind at the f*ckin museum.

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012 13/13

I have never wanted to become a rogue more in that moment than ever before, I would have gladly hunted those kids down and f*ckin tortured them the same way they left their classmate to torture…

Sophie McDougal

@SophieMcDougal1234

I made a twitter account to post this, but I feel like it relates to the posts above so…

Video of Marinette’s encounter with scarecrow

I was there for my siblings birthday, and he told me afterwards that he has a new hero.

#TireGirlIsHisNewHero #HerClassCanGoDieTho #HappyBirthdaySam #IsThisSunshineChild #IfSoThenSunshineOfGothamDoesntf*ckAround #SheWasABadass #MyNewCelebrateCrush

Goth girl with a soft side

@elanor5012

@SophieMcDougal1234, shes my hero too kid, the video ends before we find out if shes ok, shes ok right??

#SunshineOfGothamWasTired #PlsTellMeShesOk #IDidntSeeHerAfter #HowDidSheContinueFightingWhenSheWasShot #ICouldBarelyWatchThatClip

Sophie McDougal

@SophieMcDougal1234

@elanor5012 we got evacuated while she was fighting the last goon, but my brother and I stuck around to make sure she was ok. She got carried out of the museum by Red Robin and taken to an ambulance, so I think shes ok

#SheDidntLookGoodTho #LowkeyWasJelousOfHer #IWannaGetCarriedByRedRobin #SunshineOfGothomIsTiny #DidntRealiseHowSmolSheWas #HowDidSheSaveUs #ShesLikeFiveFootTall

Tired and Hungry

@TaxiByDayUberByNight

MY BABY!!!!! I SWEAR IF ANOTHER f*ckIN BAD THING HAPPENS TO HER I AM KIDNAPPING HER AND WRAPPING HER UP IN BUBBLE WRAP!!!!

#MyLittleSunshineNeedsToBeProtected #f*ckScarecrow #MyBabyIsABadass #SoProud #SHEGOTSHOT #NvmImKidnappingHerNow

Uber is Life

@IWishICouldHireTheBatmobile

Had to tie her up so she didn’t go kidnap sunshine

Image of a frantic looking woman glaring at the person behind the camera tied up red rope (if you know you know)

#ShesRightTho #SunshineNeedsToBeProtected #ProtectGothamsSunshine #EvenThoShesABadass #ShesStillSmoll

Chapter 20: It’s not a crush… (ok it might be a crush)

Chapter Text

Damian Al-Guhl-Wayne does not have a crush. He does not care what Alfred says! Crushes are for whiney prepubescent teenagers that aren’t trained assassins or vigilantes! He refuses to accept the blasphemy Alfred had told him when he asked if he was getting sick last night.

“Master Damian” he had said in that dumb posh voice of his (he didn’t mean that, he honestly found Alfred’s voice to be extremely soothing, he is just frustrated leave him be) “I do believe the symptoms you are describing to me are actually signs of a developing ‘crush’ on the girl you met today” Alfred had continued.

This is why everyone at his god-awful private school avoided him like the plague. They have all gotten rather good at reading his mood. All except for one, who had super strength and could tank a punch from the ex-assassin, Jon.

“c’mon Dames!! You gotta tell me what’s got you in such a grump!” Jon whined draping himself over Damian’s shoulders as the vigilante was trying to walk to his next class. Ok so maybe Jon can read Damian’s mood, he just wasn’t afraid of getting punted across the hall like a football.

Damian who was not in the mood to deal with the emotions swirling in his gut from yesterday resigned himself to the fact that he would be wearing his best friend as a cape for the rest of the day.

“tell me or I will tell Dick that you actually really like it when he hugs you” Jon said smirking, using information he gathered in their latest game of truth or dare.

Flash back because as soon as I thought of jon and damian doing teenager sh*t like truth or dare I just had to write out a scene (*￣▽￣)b

“Truth or Dare?” Damian asked Jon during their bi-monthly sleepover where they pretended to be actual teenagers.

“Dare!” Jon exclaimed confidently seemingly forgetting his lesson from Damians previous dare, (Damian had dared Jon to infiltrate the watch tower and eat all of Wonder Woman’s ice-cream in under 2 minutes. Jon got his ass whipped by Wonder Woman when he got caught, as well as a massive brain freeze)

“I dare you to go over to Titan Tower and tell Beast Boy that Raven secretly likes it when he wakes everyone up as a rooster because it reminds her of the countryside” Damian dared Jon, knowing that Raven absolutely hates it when Garfield does that.

Grinning manically Jon got up from the beanbags they were slouched in and flew to the tower at the speed of almost light. Not five minutes later he was back, once again slouched into a ridiculously comfortable bean bag.

“Done and done! Poor Raven” Jon chuckled in sympathy, wincing at the memory of waking up to those morning calls once or twice, “ok my turn! Truth or Dare Dames?”

“truth” Damian picked reasoning with himself that this was Jon, there was very little his friend didn’t know about him after so many years of friendship.

“truth huh…” Jon drawled, exaggerating his thought process by stroking his imaginary beard. “Let’s see… I’ve already asked you if you have a crush on anyone, as per our tradition of first truths” Jon mumbled slightly before he had a lightbulb moment. The grin that settled on his face was all Damian needed to know that the information he was about to give was going to be used as blackmail.

“out with it Jon” (when Damian finally admitted to himself that he saw Jon as his best friend Jon had been upgraded from ‘Kent’ to his first name)

“Ok, ok! Do you really hate Dicks random hugs, or do you shove him away to save face” Jon asked still grinning, although there was something softer in his eyes, knowing that this was probably one of those personal questions that Damian didn’t like answering. But rules are rules, so Damian answered.

“I shove him away to save face… I actually only like Dicks hugs. Cause he makes me feel safe, unlike with the others, whose hugs make me feel guilty and slightly claustrophobic” Damian told Jon in a no-nonsense tone, but his eyes betrayed the vulnerability he was currently feeling. Jon being the good friend he is didn’t press, and they continued their game until Alfred told them to go to sleep. And no one disobeys Alfred.

End flashback!

“You tell Greyson that and I will skin you alive with a kryptonite dagger and wear you as an actual cape” Damian gritted out the threat at the taller boy who still hadn’t moved from his shoulders.

“Or! And hear me out!” Jon exclaimed completely unaffected by the threat, “you could not go to all that effort and just tell me why you’re in such a bad mood instead!” Jon continued finally deciding to stop playing cape and instead walk backwards in front of his friend. In response Damian simply scowled at the boy who was more puppy that human or alien before groaning knowing the superhuman was not going to give up until he got the truth. “damn Louis and her reporter tactics, damn her for teaching Jon” he thought to himself cursing Jon’s mothers talents in journalism.

“Fine. I shall inform you at lunch, so just wait until then. Now we have to get to class, so move” Damian gave in, shoulder checking Jon as he walked past him into the classroom.

“RIGHT!!” Jon exclaimed loudly, slamming his lunch tray onto their somewhat isolated cafeteria table, “spill the beans” he continued ignoring the looks the slam and exclamation had gotten him.

“I can’t, beans are only served on Mondays, you know this Jon” Damian, being the little sh*t he is, replied is mock disappointment.

“You know that’s not what I meant” Jon groaned chuckling slightly at the response, making Damians chest warm with pride as it usually does when he gets someone to laugh. “I just wanna know what’s got your knickers in knots” Jon continued, not realising that once again he was giving Damian an out to a question he wasn’t sure he could answer.

“Jon, my underwear is not in knots, nor do I know how it could become knotted while I am wearing them” Damian could not help the smirk that crawled onto his face at the very literal answer he gave his friend.

“Stop that!” Jon exclaimed giggling slightly, “I just want to know why…” he trailed off his smile fading slightly. Damian frowned at this, then he saw Jon’s ear twitch faintly, indicating that he was eavesdropping on their classmates.

Rolling his eyes Damian clicked his fingers at Jon whilst saying “Stop being a gossip, we all already know that Brad likes squeezing Chucks muscles, they’re not subtle”

“shhhh, I’m trying to focus” Jon shushed him swatting lightly at the hand still clicking in his face. Instead of getting Jon’s attention back to the questioning Damian decides to make use of this distraction and hope Jon forgets about it. He was halfway through his cheese and tomato toasty when Jon went slightly pale and scrambled to get his phone. Swallowing his mouthful before talking- he’s not a heathen- he questioned what Jon is doing.

“Scarecrow attacked the museum” Jon said distractedly swiping and scrolling on his phone almost franticly,

“did someone get hurt?” Damian asked, suddenly feeling a sense of dread settle in his stomach. “is that why your freaking out?” Damian continued, only getting tense silence in return as Jon focused intently on his phone. “Jon!” Damian exclaimed making Jon jump slightly.

“huh, what?” Jon replied having not heard Damians questions, so Damian repeated himself, “errr, no. None of your family got hurt” Jon answered looking back down at his phone.

“oi! Don’t ignore me! Why did you phrase your answer like that!? Did a civilian get killed before father could show up or something?” Damian questioned again getting frustrated as the sense of dread would still not leave.

“no there were no casualties” Jon mumbled before, “Hah! Found it!”

“found what Jon?” Damian ground out getting tired of being out of the loop.

“huh?” Jon questioned looking up at Damian, seeing his scowl he frantically began to explain. “Oh right! Sorry, yeah Scarecrow attacked the museum for some reason, blew up a huge hole in the wall, he got caught and is now on his way back to Arkham.”

“how is this any different from a normal escape and capture” Damian sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I was getting to that” Jon replied with a mumble that sounded suspiciously close to the words ‘so impatient’. “One of the civilians being held hostage got most of the fight on camera” Jon continued ignoring Damians glower, whilst moving to sit beside him so that they could both watch the shakily filmed footage that was going viral.

“again, how is this different from normal fights??” Damian asked for the last time.

“because it wasn’t your family that fought him… it was another civilian” Jon said his voice full of horror and slight disbelief before tapping play on the clip.

Looking away from Jon’s furrowed expression, Damian turned his focus to the clip on the phone Jon was holding.

“Please let us go” somebody whimpered pathetically as the video began, the camera that was focused on a group of tourists (they were obviously tourists every Gothamite knows not to talk to the rogues) then moved to focus on Scarecrow. Jon sucked in a sharp breath at the scene, there standing in the rubble of his own doing, silhouetted by a rare beam of sunlight that shone through the blown-up entrance was Scarecrow, in all is masked, gangly gore. And Infront of him was a civilian, they were small, and their posture almost looked defeated, though it was hard to tell from the way their oversized hoodie obscured their form. They had two goons holding onto their arms in a bruising grip, almost being held up off the floor.

“Told you” came the bitter reply from the hoodie wearing civilian. Whilst Scarecrow looked over at what one could assume was the group of tourists the camera was on before in utter shock. “wait what?” Damians thoughts back-peddled, looking away from the footage for a second to see if Jon was seeing what he was seeing. By his friends confused expression he would assume that yes, he did just see Scarecrow of all people surprised enough by something that he lost his composure.

“well, I’ll be damned, I may be clinically insane but I’m a man of my word. You can go, goodbye little monsters” Scarecrow said moving his hand in a shooing motion towards the group of tourists.

“wait what?!” Damain exclaimed out loud this time as he watched the tourists scramble to their feet and run out the emergency exit.

“those bastards!” “what the f*ck!” “no way” “are they serious” “what the f*ck!!” “how dare they” came horrified angry whispers from the civilians that were obviously huddled behind the person holding the phone.

“why are they so mad that the tourists are safe?” Jon muttered, focused on the clip, voicing Damians exact thoughts. He got his answer when the camera panned back to Scarecrow and his hostage.

“why did you even protect them kid? They just completely threw you under the bus!” Scarecrow exclaimed obviously not as over the shock as Damian thought he was… then the words sunk in.

“the hostage protected the tourists…” Jon whispered horrified as they listened to the civilians behind the phone whisper agreements and mummer threats that were aimed at the ‘ungrateful brats’ as they were so kindly being described as.

“eh, they’ve done worse.” Came the nonchalant reply of the civilian as they tried to shrug whilst still in the bone crushing grip of scarecrows goons. At this came a mortified gasp from Jon and the civilians behind the camera, whilst Damian was focused on that voice… he had heard it before he was sure of it! So sure, that he almost missed what Scarecrow said, and honestly, he kind of wishes he had missed it because nothing could prepare him for the feelings that would come with it.

“as much as I actually like youMarinette, I am now extremely curious as to what you actuallyareafraid of” Scarecrow smirked moving to inject Marinette with his fear toxin. Damain was frozen, he felt like time stopped. That was Marinette, his angel, his potential crush, his potential new friend. She was the one that protected the tourists who he now can assume is her class. She just got left behind by her class while in the grip and focus of Scarecrow. Doesn’t her class realise this isn’t like an akuma attack?? There is no magical cure if she gets hurt, “or killed” his traitorous mind whispered, making the dread in his stomach feel like lead.

“I still can’t believe they gave him her name…” came a terrified whisper of what sounded like a little boy making the camera shuffle slightly as if moving hands, “I know, but it’s going to be alright, the bats will be here soon to save the day” came the voice of the older girl holding the camera. Then Marinette spoke up again, slightly out of frame as the girl comforted the boy off camera,

“hey! Wait wait! Before you inject me with you potion-” her voice was starting to sound more strained and frantic, causing Damians pulse to quicken, and not in a good way.

“Toxin, fear toxin” Scarecrow interjected sounding annoyed,

“what’s she doing!?” hissed Jon, obviously thinking the same thing Damian and quite a few civilians behind the camera where, why on earth would she be goading a villain that has a syringe centimetres away from her neck?

“same difference, I just have a few questions, I’m simply interested in how this potion is going to work on me” Marinette continued obviously not as worried about the goading as the two boys watching on were.

“why don’t I just show you” Scarecrow said, and Damian felt is breath catch, “no, I can’t watch her panic again. Not again.” He didn’t know how he would handle seeing her panic and not being able to do anything about it.

“Hold on! How are you going to know what I’m afraid of if only I can see what’s happening?!” Marinette asked desperately. That’s when it finally clicked for Damian;

“she’s stalling until the others get there” he whispered to Jon, not taking his eyes off the phone, but he could tell Jon also had a ‘lightbulb-moment’ as he registered the information.

“clever. But everyone was talking about her fighting?” Jon whispers back confused, but before Damian could even think of a reply Scarecrow is talking again.

“Ahh, that’s where my extremely experimental truth serum comes into play my dear.” Scarecrow answered the girl he was holding hostage, seeming almost happy to boast about this new serum, “I will simply ask what you are seeing, and you will just tell me”

“I can just do that now!” Marinette said in what most would see as a happy tone, but Damian could tell she was grabbing onto whatever stalling opportunity she could and would not be letting go.

“really now? well, I’ll humour you. Tell me Marinette Dupain-Cheng what are you most afraid of?” Scarecrow questioned her, but to Damians dismay he did not move the needle away from her neck.

“so many things! I am quite the little mouse you know!”

“she is quite little…” Jon murmured absentmindedly, while Damian was just plain baffled by the sound of a smile! In her voice.

“I have this irrational fear of the sound of butterflies–” an image of a girl crying with a red handprint on her cheek suddenly stiffening at the flutter of akuma wings flashes through Damians mind so suddenly it almost makes him flinch.

“I’m afraid of being locked in a place I can’t escape from.” Marinette continues her voice as chipper as ever. “I’m scared of wearing sheer white dresses.” A strange fear, but obviously a strong one Damian can tell by the way her voice waivers ever so slightly.

“I’m terrified by guys that have blond hair and/or green eyes.” She stated nonchalantly, as if what happened in the café was nothing but an inconvenience, something to brush off; while Damian could only remember the pure fear in her eyes at the sight and sound of that blonde greasy café worker, “I should have punched him square in the nose” Damian seethed at the memory.

“Ah.. but you asked for what I’m most afraid of right?” his angel his friend giggled her voice pitching higher with nerves, “that would have to be… aha! Spiders!” she finished dramatically,

“HA!” Jon suddenly bursts out, the tension in his shoulders leaving at the sudden and rather common declaration of arachnophobia. Snorts and chuckles make their way to Damians ears as he realised this was Marinette’s clever way to not only stall till his family arrived, but to also put the other hostages at a somewhat ease. His face felt warm as he thought about the clever and subtle play. She even somehow managed to get a genuine chuckle from Scarecrow who Damian had just noticed, had also been somewhat entranced by her speech.

“Ha, well aren’t you a delight Marinette. But those seem like rather trivial fears to me my dear” Scarecrow said causing Damian to unknowingly bristle,

“my dear?!” Damian scoffed under his breath, “who does he think he is”. So caught up in watching his angel the video, Damian didn’t notice the small, surprised glance Jon shot him.

“I want to know what your nightmares are made of” “Wait! No! Nonononono!” Damians brain panicked, his grip on the phone tightening till his knuckles were stained a bone white… but there was nothing they could do as Damian and Jon watched on in horror as her entire body tensed and spasmed as if she was given an electric shock before she went limp in the goons hold.

“drop her, I want to see what she does” Scarecrow said gaze solely focused on the limp girl before him, fascination and curiosity colouring his voice. She crumpled to the rubble covered floor as the goons let her go and moved to stand guard by the exits preventing any of the other hostages from escaping. Shaking like a leaf Marinette moved to stand up, walking towards Scarecrow while looking around the museum as if she had never seen it before, then she looked that the civilians, meaning the camera got a clear shot of her face as her breath hitched with a look of guilt, fear, and helplessness. Damian couldn’t help but hate the way her eyes were glazed over, reminding him too much of her panic attack the day before. But this time all he could do was sit and watch…

Whilst she was focused on her surroundings Scarecrow moved out of her way to stand behind her, watching her like some kind of lab rat, paying the other hostages no mind as his back was now towards the camera. The two boys watched as Marinette’s unsteady foot hit a larger piece of rubble, drawing her attention to it. Damian watched on helplessly as she began to breathe erratically in pure panic, before suddenly she was scrambling backwards away from the rubble as if she saw a ghost.

“sh*t” Jon swore as she stumbled directly back into Scarecrow, making the latter chuckle slightly before addressing the girl before him.

“how are you liking the new serum?! I upped the hallucinogenic properties! Shall we test how the truth toxin is working?” Scarecrow snickered smugly at the girl who simply stared at him in shock, “Now tell me Marinette what do you see?”. Damain felt Jon shudder at Scarecrows tone. Damian watched the screen as Marinette began to speak her breaths coming short and fast. Her eyes frantically scanning the environment of her nightmare.

Damian should have understood what she said… he knows she speaks French and English, and he knows both. The language she spoke in sounded so foreign he wasn’t sure if it was a language or just frantic sounds of panic and fear. He looked to Jon just as Jon asked

“what did she say?”

“I-” Damian faltered, “I don’t know..” he told his friend before looking back at the phone just in time to watch the girl he hasn’t stopped thinking about crumble to the floor in a crouch covering her ears and scream. Jon flinched at the sound, whilst Damian felt his heart shatter and bile rise in his throat. The scream was filled with so much pain, guilt, grief, and suffering that it actually cause Scarecrow to stumble back. The man whose whole gig was enjoying the sound of terrified screams was seemingly disturbed by this particular scream. Perhaps it’s because there was no terror in this scream. Just pain.

Then it stopped.

And she looked up directly at the villain before her.

And her face changed.

Her expression turned from terrified desperation to a boiling anger as she launched herself at Scarecrow with another scream, this one full of rage. As she tackled Scarecrow to the ground she didn’t even give him enough time to react before she was punching him, screaming foreign words that punctuated each bloody punch. Coming back from the shock of being attacked by the girl Scarecrow began to grapple with her on the gravel covered ground, earning both of them cuts and scrapes. All the while his angel Marinette was screaming at him in this strange language that sounded like a garbled mix of Arabic, Chinese, and English.

Just when Damian thought Scarecrow had her pinned she managed to flip their positions instead pinning the much larger fighter beneath her, she continued her sharp punches unaffected by the punches and kicks she got in return. She still babbled in this foreign language, her voice filled with pure anger and desperation before finally she knocked the villain out with a sharp punch to the temple. As she stood over the unconscious man still talking in a harsh tone, when the goons began moving. Damain watched in horrified awe as she got into a near perfect fighting stance, her hand moving to her waist as if the grab something, when it didn’t get a hold of what she was reaching for her gaze hardened as she brought her hand back up into her fighting stance.

Damian felt his heart skip a beat when one of the goons made to grab her and she effortlessly danced out of the way and knocked them out with a sharp jab at their neck. The mixture of emotions swirling inside him only confused him further as he watched her cry, tears falling from her bruised and bloody face; awe, horror, something warm and fuzzy, something sharp and cold all clashing in his chest as he watched Marinette fight, seamlessly dodging, and blocking attacks from multiple thugs at once.

He felt Jon wince as they watched a goon slam a baseball bat into her side. Marinette though, didn’t even flinch, just huffed out a breath and took the bat from her assailants hands and slammed it to their temple knocking them out cold. Damian sucked in a breath when she got shot though. The bullet, most likely filled with the new toxin, that tore through her bloodied and torn hoodie did nothing to stop her from whacking the shooter with the bat with so much force the burly man was sent tumbling to the floor.

Somehow she managed to keep fighting, kicking, striking, and blocking all while still yelling and crying in that unknown language, taking on the goons as they came at her, not even blinking when she got shot 4 more times. Then just as she landed the cruel finishing blow to the last goon…

The video stopped.

The two boys were left staring at the replay symbol on the screen in equal amounts of shock and awe.

“what the hell was that?” Jon whispered, looking wide-eyed to Damian as if he had the answers.

“That was… incredible” Damian whispered back in no little amount of wonder.

His mind replaying the way she ducked and weaved her way through her attackers as if it were a choreographed dance of bloody knuckles and bruised ribs. The image of her tightly coiled body performing an almost perfect snap-kick to the chin of one of the shooters, before she used her momentum and executed a stunning roundhouse kick knocking them out cold. The pure focused rage and desperation in her ice blue eyes lighting a fire deep inside him.

Then he remembered what it was like to have those eyes directed at him filled with the sparkle of joy and humour. He remembered what it was like to have those strong arms that were used to power her sharp punches wrapped around his waist in a gentle grip.

He remembered.

And then he blushed.