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zambie-trashart · 4 years

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Superkids: Prologue

Because of an anon asking me if I had any ideas for some damianette kids or adrijon kids I had to make them. So now I feel like a gotta write a good enough story for them too.

Background info:

Sophia Agreste-Kent: daughter of Jon Agreste-Kent and Adrien Agreste ten years old refers to Jon as ma at home but pop in public and Adrien as father or dad

Luna Wayne: daughter of Marinette Wayne and Damian Wayne 13 years old

Lucas Wayne: son of Marinette Wayne and Damian Wayne 15 years old

Ryan Graham: son of ? 14 years old

.........................................

Sophia pulled her hair back and smiled at herself in the mirror like her father told her to. It was her first photo shoot and she was nervous. She had never considered herself pretty in fact, boys threw dirt at her all the time but ma said that was just something boys did when they wanted attention.

“Pull yourself together, it’s not like he’s going to be there,” Sophia said to herself and looked out her window and saw a girl with short blue tinted hair and crazy eyes.

“What’s up Agreste-Kent?” Luna asked her best friend chilling on her window.

“Getting ready for my first photo shoot dad’s orders,” Sophia said and Luna hopped into the bathroom.

“Uncle Jon always said you’re hair looks better down, why are you wearing it up?” Luna asked grabbing Sophia’s head and carefully slicing the holder and brown locks fell over Sophia’s shoulders.

“Hey!” Another body found it’s way through her window.

“Luna, come on mom says it’s time for school,” Lucas said one leg dangling out the window.

“Whatever, keep your hair down!” Luna yelled front flipping out the second story window and landing on her feet.

“You are crazy Luna Wayne!” Sophia yelled at her friend who stuck her tongue out and Lucas just walked away not saying a word.

Sophia walked down the stairs of the new Agreste Manor. Her grandfather had been imprisoned for being Hawkmoth so her father sold the old one and built a new manor in Gotham six miles down the road from Wayne Manor.

“Sophia! Come on you’re going to be late for school!” Jon yelled up at his daughter grabbing a backpack and stepping out of Adrien’s office. Adrien walked out too chuckling at his husband.

“She has a photo shoot today,” Adrien said and Jon dropped the backpack and sat down. “You seem exhausted darling, you should take a break from patrolling for one night,” Adrien said wrapping his arms around his husband from behind.

“I know, I’m only twenty eight and I’m working myself harder than I ever thought I would in my entire life,” Jon said looking up at Adrien who smiled softly at his husband.

“Maybe it’s time we tell her,” Adrien suggested and their daughter walked down the stairs two seconds later wearing a dress designed by Marinette for MDC + Agreste fashion line. Adrien had decided to combine their fashion lines cause they were friends and Jon didn’t need his husband and cousin bickering back and forth.

“Tell me what?’ Sophia asked eyeing her father and “mother” carefully.

“Later, for now we’re going to be later and that’s your aunt’s thing,” Jon said and the three walked out to the garage.

***

Luna sat in the car with her brother who was looking out the window with his permanent scowl on his face. Their mother often asked herself why she “popped one out that has to be so much like their father”.

“I said no Luna, you can’t tell Sophia about her powers, they might not even manifest,” Marinette said from the front seat and they arrived at school.

“Uncle Jon and Uncle Adrien are never going to tell her though,” Luna whined wanting a new partner, her brother was smart but he was too grumpy for her.

“Her birthday is tomorrow, she’s turning ten. I’ll talk to Jon about it but if he says no then we wait until next year,” Marinette looked back at Luna’s disappointed face. “I’ll talk to him at the shoot today don’t you worry Luna,” Marinette said and the kids got out of the car.

“We have to tell her,” Luna said to Lucas and rolled his eyes.

“We can’t tell her, she’s not ready yet,” Lucas said echoing his mother’s words.

“Fine, I’ll tell her myself,” Luna said storming off and running into a tall blonde boy who reached out a hand to help her.

“Luna Wayne right?” the boy asked and she nodded. “Ryan Graham.” She smiled at him.

“Thanks for helping me up, what grade are you in?” she asked wondering if he was a freshman like herself.

“Ninth grade, you?” Ryan asked and she gave him a look. “Right, ninth.” They walked down the same hall and into the same class.

***

Sophia stood in white flats and a navy and maroon dress in front of a water fountain. Marinette ran in fashionably late as always.

“Jon, we need to talk,” Marinette said pulling her cousin away. Adrien set up Sophia for some photos. They got through about two photos when Sophia started hearing something.

“You need to tell her about her powers,” a voice said and a sigh followed.

“I know Mari and I was planning on doing that tomorrow, she might not even have them.” The voices were cutting in and out and there was a loud ringing in her ears. She didn’t even realize that she was screaming until she was being held by her father and ma was running over.

“Tell her today, but once she gets back to normal, I’ll call Damian to pick up Lucas and Luna,” Marinette ran away with her phone. Adrien held Sophia as she cried. Why was everything so loud all of a sudden? What wasn’t ma telling her?

***

Luna sat in class looking at the boring lessons on the board. The intercom told her she was being dismissed and she was happy but what for? She saw her father standing there and Lucas walked out behind her.

“Father, what’s happening?” Lucas asked getting into the front seat.

“You’ll see.” Luna started bouncing in her seat. “Kent wasn’t this much of a pain when he changed,” Damian whispered to himself driving toward Agreste Manor.

They arrived and stepped inside hearing screaming all the way from downstairs. Adrien and Marinette were wearing soundproof headphones. Adrien pulled his phone out and so did Damian.

She started seeing through walls and hearing voices.

Damian nodded and the screaming died down a little so they took the headphones off. Jon walked down the stairs with his sweater untucked, hair everywhere, and glasses off.

“I’m never having another kid,” Jon said one eye twitching. Sophia walked down the stairs wearing her ma’s glasses and headphones. Jon had curled himself into Adrien’s arms head in his chest and let out a groan.

“You did good babe,” Adrien said patting his husband’s head.

“Really, in front of the kids?” Marinette asked and Adrien just shrugged.

“Sophia?” Adrien asked and she looked over at her father.

“What?” she asked and Adrien gestured to sit down.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but you have powers. See your pop or ma as you call him is half alien. His father is Superman saving people who need help and pop saves people too,” Adrien said to Sophia who looked back and forth from Jon to Adrien.

“So grandpa is...” Sophia started before smiling wider than humanly possible.

“Your pop and grandpa aren’t the only heroes. I was a hero in Paris named Chat Noir in fact everyone in this room is a hero. Aunt Marinette is Lady-Red, Uncle Damian is Batman, Luna is Minibug, and Lucas is Robin. Of course your father is Flamebird and Uncle Connor the new Superman,” Adrien said and Sophia’s eyes lit up.

“But there’s something important about this that you can’t tell anyone. Recently one of the jewels that gives normal people powers has gone missing. It’s called the moth miraculous, I have reason to think that someone stole it from our house, I am giving Luna a chance to be the old me and she’s been training. I was hoping that your pop would tell you tomorrow but your father said that he is willing to give you the miraculous of the black cat so Luna has a partner,” Marinette said and Sophia was freaking out.

“What’s the moth miraculous do?” Sophia asked looking up at Marinette.

“It can create powers beyond imagination, they can be taken at will and controlled. I just hope that we can get it back before anything too bad happens,” Marinette said and the family sat down.

***

Ryan walked home into a dusty large apartment. “Father! Mother! I’m home!” Ryan called out. “I befriended the Wayne girl like you said!”

“Good job son!” a man yelled from the shadows.

“We’re so proud of you!” a woman cooed. A man in a gray suit and a woman in a red romper and hair in two ponytails in the front of her head stepped out of the shadows.

“You’re becoming a true part of the Graham de Vanily-Rossi family,” the man said hugging his son. His mother held out a broach.

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

..................................................

I can’t even think about who the parents might be? Also family tree time Lois is Sabine’s cousin making Marinette and Jon second cousins making the kids third or fourth cousins which at that point I don’t really think counts. Adrien and Felix are cousins.

Tag list is open

JPS: @loveswifi @ash-amg @wannajointhecrabcult@mochegato@mochinek0 @toodaloo-kangaroo @thatonecroc@liquid-luck-00@ive-tumbled-down-a-rabbit-hole@moonspiritwolf1

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years

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Stalker X Stalker, Part 7

First

Perma tag: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Stalker x Stalker taglist: @aespades @jayjayspixiepop @blueslushgueen @fan-written @seraphichana @nerd-nowandforever

No I didn't get carried away with writing domestic fluff and forget to do the one thing I was supposed to with this chapter I'm a professional and would never do that

It took a long time for Tim and Cass to convince Marinette that, no, it wasn’t a trap, it was just a normal Halloween Party. It took even longer to explain what a Halloween Party really was, because apparently it wasn’t a huge deal in France.

But, eventually, she got it:

“Okay, so every Rogue and vigilante has to go to his Halloween Party in stupid costumes… or else?”

Tim nodded. “Rogues have to go because he’ll be insufferable, we have to go because otherwise we’re leaving a bunch of Rogues alone together without supervision.”

“And it really is just a Halloween Party?”

Cass flashed two thumbs up.

Marinette still looked a little confused. “And we… we want to babysit the Rogues?”

“They mostly behave themselves. Again, Crane can be insufferable when he wants to be and they have to spend a lot of time with him in Arkham.”

“I guess that’s cool then…” Then, a thought seemed to occur to her because she brightened up. “Is Nightwing coming?”

Tim nodded, suddenly a lot more wary. “Yeah, both he and Flamebird drop by for most holidays, anyway, so they might as well… why?”

She blushed a little. “I kind of wanted to see if I could get him to train me. I think his fighting style is pretty cool.”

Tim was not jealous or annoyed that Marinette might like two of his brothers more than him. He was fine if she liked Cass more, because Cass was, well, Cass. But Dick? Damian? Come on!

At least he had a month before the party to prepare himself.

For now, he glared at Cass, because she was laughing at him behind her hand.

Then he remembered that Marinette was still there and was watching the two of them interact with a vaguely confused expression and he pulled himself together: “I don’t know if he can teach you much since he’s usually in Bludhaven, but I used to be obsessed with the guy and I know all his moves by heart.”

She tipped her head to the side, considering, then smiled at him. “Sure. Thanks, Red, I owe you one.”

He tried to hide his relief behind a smile. She smiled and blushed, so he was pretty sure it worked.

Marinette smiled as she scrolled through the Batinternet on her phone (they’d finally given her the password! She no longer had to waste data!). The batkids were all working on the computer, trying to hack into their father’s files to see their Christmas presents.

She didn’t get why they were doing it then, it wasn’t even Halloween yet. Still, they insisted that Batman was always prepared well before the holidays hit. She was curious about what they’d find, if anything, so she waited as Red Robin hacked their dad’s files.

Loud cheers erupted from the others, which meant they must have found something.

“... right, Ladybug, yours is easiest to get into… he probably didn’t expect you to try… he’s getting you an Xbox and a bunch of games to go with it.”

Her gaze shot up and she surged to the front of the group to see. “Really?”

Red Robin pointed at the screen and she blinked a few times. Yep, that was a customized Xbox. Wild.

Then her shoulders slumped. “Damn, I was only kidding. If I knew he was actually going to get it I would’ve asked for a Playstation.”

She continued looking at all the ‘random’ games Batman had bought her (he was suspiciously good at guessing what she liked), completely oblivious to the fact that she had accidentally started World War III right behind herself at the casual mention of a thing she wanted.

She glanced back at them once during their fight and they straightened instantly, innocent smiles in place. The hand Red Robin had in Robin’s hair turned into a hair ruffle. Black Bat had turned the way she gripped the collar of Spoiler’s shirt into pulling her down for a hug. Signal’s eyes stopped glowing under his domino. She smiled a little and turned back to the screen to look at the rest of the games. Fighting resumed.

Or, at least, it did until Marinette saw the file name.

Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

“I knew you fuckers took my blood,” she hissed irritably.

She wasn’t exactly scared, the bats seemed generally well-intentioned, just paranoid, but that didn’t mean she liked it. They stole her blood to figure out her identity without asking.

They all tensed up behind her and looked at each other awkwardly.

Robin was first to snap out of it. He swatted Red Robin over the back of the head. “Look what you’ve done, Drake.”

Marinette blinked and then pulled her gaze back to Red Robin. “Drake?”

The batkids looked at each other awkwardly. Except for Red Robin, who was glaring at his youngest brother.

Spoiler was the first one to come up with an excuse: “It’s an older codename. We told him to come up with something original since everything else he’s used has belonged to someone else first… and that’s what he came up with.”

She considered whether Drake really confirmed that Red Robin was Tim Drake-Wayne. On one hand, yeah… but, on the other hand, was he really that stupid? Would he really use his own last name for a codename?

She supposed that, in all her time knowing Tim and Red Robin, he had never shown himself to be original. Smart, sure, but a little unoriginal.

So, yeah, Tim was almost definitely Red Robin.

But she was prepared to ignore it for now. Every bat seemed tense at the idea of her learning their identities, so she played dumb:

“It’s not that bad of a codename. Dragons are pretty cool.”

She could feel Black Bat still staring at her, but everyone else relaxed almost imperceptibly.

“He didn’t base himself off of dragons, he chose male ducks,” Robin informed her.

She blinked. “Why the hell would he choose ducks?”

Signal snapped his fingers and started pulling out his phone. “Oh, Mari -- can I call you Mari? -- you should see his outfit.”

Red Robin realized he was about to get murdered for his younger self’s outfit choices and tried to snatch the phone away.

Unfortunately for him, while he was concentrating on Signal, Black Bat had sidled over to Marinette. She tugged her arm to pull her attention from the two fighting boys and then showed her the picture.

Marinette stared at the ugly cockroach outfit for a long time before taking a deep breath: “Alright, first of all...”

Tim… he was fine.

Okay, no, he wasn’t.

The tracker was better, he would admit. She had even started wearing more red and black so she could wear the necklace more (something that made him feel all fuzzy inside), but she wasn’t wearing it every day and he couldn’t exactly tell if the necklace was there because she was home or if it was there because she’d worn a different outfit.

So, he only had one solution: randomly dropping by to do chores with her.

It started off with the ‘might as well’ principle. They were already out for photography and getting ideas for outfits, why not pick up some groceries while they were on their way back? She could even carry more since there were two of them.

He quickly dropped pretenses, though. The one time every few days that they hung out wasn’t enough to keep her in the house, and even if it was she clearly wasn’t fond of staying inside for long periods of time. He started dropping by every day to just go out with her.

He could tell his family was getting a little suspicious about what he was doing, Steph and Cass both narrowed their eyes at him whenever they saw him leaving the office at a normal time and once he had caught Duke following him to see where he was going… but it was fine. They weren’t going to complain about him actually getting some sort of down time.

And, he had to admit, it was nice. Not only did resting his brain for an hour or two a day do wonders for his mental health, he just… enjoyed doing chores with her? He didn’t think he would. He’d expected to like it the first few times, the novelty of going on his first grocery shopping trip or figuring out how a laundromat was always going to make it interesting and new for a bit, but it didn’t seem to be wearing off.

He was pretty sure that was because of the person he was doing it with, though.

He smiled as he watched Marinette half-climb the supermarket shelves for a bag of Takis.

“Need help?” He called.

“Nope!”

He watched her jump a few times on the lowest shelf before, eventually, climbing up another shelf.

Tim winced and surged forward to support her weight a little.

She huffed and grabbed the Takis. He set her down.

She crossed her arms. “I said I could get it.”

“I trust you. The shelves? Not so much. Do you want to die crushed under a bunch of chips?”

Her halfhearted glare morphed into a grin. “If I die any other way you have to promise to resurrect me so I can do it again.”

He rolled his eyes. “How about I resurrect you and you try not to die again for a while?”

“Hm… I guess that’d be alright.”

Then, at the laundromat, Tim saw a bunch of Two Face’s henchmen. How did he know that they were henchmen? The black and white suits kind of gave them away.

He was just wondering whether it was worth it to try and call Duke over so they didn’t risk something happening when he realized that Marinette had slipped over to them.

But she wasn’t concerned as she offered some of her detergent. “Hey, if you need to wash lights and darks together like that… you’re going to need a different detergent. I know those are cheap but there’s a reason for that.”

“Isn’t that just an old detergent problem?”

“No, separating every single color into a different load is. But, if you want to do pure black and white like that… you don’t want to risk it.”

Then she turned and glared at another goon, who was pulling their luckily still okay clothes out of the washer.

“You’d better not be putting that in the dryer.”

The sheepish look on the henchman’s face was answer enough.

She huffed. “That is airdry only why would you do that --?!”

And that’s how they ended up friends with -- and possibly under the protection of? -- a bunch of henchmen. Tim had to admit, they were really nice when he and Marinette weren’t trying to get them thrown in jail. He almost found himself slipping and hoping that Frank managed to achieve his mob boss dreams. He actually did offer to babysit Sam’s kids while she had a shift because she seemed very stressed.

“Tim, darling, do you even know how to take care of kids?”

Tim didn’t know whether to blush because she had called him darling oh my god or due to embarrassment at that massive oversight.

“Uh… would you be willing to help?”

Marinette gave him an exhausted look. “I’ve only ever babysat one kid at a time without their older sibling being there to help.”

He quickly changed the offer to paying for a babysitter. Sam was thankful regardless.

When everyone had finished laundering their clothes to Marinette’s satisfaction, the two of them headed back towards her apartment.

Tim changed the position of the laundry basket on his hip so it didn’t dig into him as much. “You know, you didn’t have to help them.”

She snickered. “First of all, you’re absolutely wrong. I couldn’t just sit by and watch them ruin their clothes right in front of me!”

He rolled his eyes, trying to hide the fond smile on his face. “And second of all?”

“Secondly…” She let him into the house and closed the door behind him. A cheeky smile formed on her face. “Well, they’re henchmen. Don’t you think it would be a good idea to have them on our side in case things go wrong rather than indifferent to what happens to us?”

It was here, with her smiling in front of him, intelligence sparkling in her eyes and the necklace he gave her hanging from her neck, that he realized that he was going to fall in love. He might not be there yet but, if they continued doing things like this, he was sure he would.

He wouldn’t mind that, he thought, as she leaned forward to take the basket from him, pressing a kiss to his cheek on the way over. He watched her disappear to her room, no doubt to fix whatever damage he had done while carrying it that would be invisible to anyone but her. He shoved his hands in his pockets and went to start up the coffee machine.

There are no botanical gardens more beautiful than the ones in Gotham. Whether that was because Poison Ivy herself tended to them or because they were kept in tip-top shape to appease her, Marinette didn’t know. Whatever the reason, it was gorgeous and Marinette had gotten quite a few different ideas. She pretty much had an entire spring collection planned out…

It was unfortunate that she’d gotten ideas for a spring collection in the middle of autumn, but she was ignoring that.

Now, they were sitting on her couch. They needed to relax after all that walking around on top of a rather exhausting night the night before (Scarecrow had broken out of Arkham to start preparing for his Halloween Party). She was completely in his space in an attempt to mess with him. It, unfortunately, didn’t seem to annoy him as he lazily rested his head on top of hers.

She huffed a little but allowed it.

He fiddled with the settings on his camera, biting his lip.

She looked down at the camera and asked: “How’d you get into photography?”

“... it’s a kind of personal story,” he said carefully. “A little sad, too, I guess.”

She tried to pull back, an apology on her lips, but he just rested an arm around her shoulders and held her close.

“It’s fine.”

She nodded as much as she could with the head resting on top of hers.

They were silent for a long time. She tried to relax herself. There were no akumas in Gotham, it was okay to accidentally upset someone and it was okay to ask them if they wanted to elaborate. They were people, people are supposed to feel sad sometimes. It’s healthy.

She took a deep breath before curling more into his side. “Would you like to talk about it?”

The arm around her tightened almost imperceptibly. “I… I guess I can, sure.”

“You don’t have to,” she said quickly. In fact, she might be a little more comfortable with that. Emotional conversations weren’t a Parisian’s forte.

But he sighed and shook his head. “It’s fine. Our relationship can’t progress all that healthily if we never tell each other anything.”

Yikes. Way to accidentally call her out on the fact that she hadn’t formed a healthy relationship in years, Tim.

“Not that I’m all that great at healthy relationships,” he said after a minute.

At least she wasn’t alone, she supposed.

“No easy way to say this, I guess… my parents weren’t the best. They’d go on trips -- they were archaeologists -- and I’d be left home alone, usually for months at a time.”

She cringed internally and took his hand in hers, rubbing comforting circles into his palm.

He sighed lightly. “So… I was lonely, obviously. I started by taking pictures of my parents. Sometimes it was all I’d have of them for months. They could leave, but the pictures weren’t able to.”

She felt him bury his face in her hair.

“I started following the bats after a while. I don’t know if it was because I wasn’t sated by pictures of just the two of them and decided to expand, if it was because they had a happy family despite a distant father and I wanted that for myself, or if it was because I wanted my parents to find out and be worried about me, or a mix of all of that… but…”

She slowly moved the camera off of his lap and pulled him into a hug. “But?”

He was silent for a bit, thinking over his answer. He shrugged and wrapped his arms around her. “It was an old coping mechanism. A way of feeling connected to people when I couldn’t actually be.”

“‘Was?’ What changed?”

He laid back on the couch and she allowed him to pull her down beside him. “People around me… started ‘leaving permanently’.”

She winced. Oh.

“It hurt a lot more to look at the pictures after that. It just felt like a reminder that I was alone.”

She frowned. “But… you’re taking pictures of me, now.” Her eyes widened. “Shit, did I accidentally trigger --.”

He shook his head quickly. “No, no. Well, kind of, but it’s okay! Every time they’ve died, it was because of some sort of shortcoming on my part. I think I’ve learned from all my mistakes. You… I won’t let you get hurt, okay?”

Marinette didn’t know how to respond. On one hand, she was pretty sure that she should be assuring him that, even if she did end up dying, that he shouldn’t blame himself… on the other hand, she had no intentions of dying and she was pretty sure it was nearly impossible for her, so maybe it was a good thing that he had chosen to protect her of all people? Maybe the problem would solve itself?

She didn’t know.

She carefully took his face in her hands, pulling him to look her in the eyes. “I’m not going anywhere, okay, darling?”

He gave her a tentative smile. “I sure hope you’re right.”

He had been asked to stay the night. Her excuse was that she was almost done with an outfit for him and she wanted to give it to him the second it was done and, by the time it would be, it would be too dark to go out safely.

Tim kind of felt bad that he had worried her but he wasn’t going to turn down the offer of staying over and watching her finish the outfit.

But, first, food. They dropped a million takeout menus on the desk. A long silence stretched between them as they looked at all the options.

“... what do you want?” Asked Marinette.

“I’m not in the mood for anything in particular, you?”

She sighed. “I don’t know, do you want anything?”

“I don’t want anything, what about you --?”

This continued on for about three minutes before Tim got a brilliant idea. He dialled Damian’s number and put it on speaker.

“Drake. Why are you calling? Have you been hurt?”

“No, Dami, I’m getting takeout and I was just wondering if you had any ideas.”

Marinette gave him an affronted look, but he clapped his hand over her mouth before she could warn Damian that, no, he wasn’t buying food for him he was just going to be an asshole.

“... I suppose I wouldn’t be averse to Chinese.”

“Thanks, Dami! Hope you can get Alfie to make that for you.”

“What do -- ?”

Tim hung up on his very confused younger brother.

Marinette frowned as he removed his hand from her mouth. “That wasn’t nice of you, that’s a kid.”

Tim was not about to get beaten by his brother in both identities, thank you very much.

“Alfred can cook better than anyone in the world, he’s not going to suffer.”

She snorted. “I doubt he can make food better than…” She picked through the takeout papers for a few moments before holding up a menu. “... this place!”

He squinted at the menu. “... I really hope you can speak Mandarin.”

“You’d be hard pressed to find a language I can’t speak, Timmy,” she said, absently dialling the number.

Well, he supposed that explained how a person from France knew ASL and could speak English like a native. Damn. Now he kinda wanted magical god-earrings so he could speak every language in existence.

She spoke cheerfully to the person on the other side of the line for a moment before turning to Tim. “What do you want?”

“Uh… shrimp fried rice?”

She rolled her eyes and flicked his nose. “Alright, fine, white boy.”

“It’s a safe option okay --!”

She wasn’t listening to him explain why fried rice was the best choice for him because she was relaying the order to the person on the other side of the line. She hung up with a smile.

“Food will be here in about three minutes. Do you rich people have small bills or do you just use them for tissues or something?”

He raised his eyebrows. “They go down to a hundred, right?”

She pressed her lips together thinly, clearly unsure whether or not he was joking.

He snickered and shook his head. “Nah, I think I have twenties and fifties…”

“Yeah, that won’t do. We’re going to get robbed,” she said, reaching into her purse.

“We? Didn’t know I lived here, too,” he joked.

She barely even glanced up from where she was counting money. “Honestly, with how often you’re here, you might as well move in.”

He choked. He wanted to say something smart or funny or smooth, instead all that came out was: “You --? I --? Uh --!”

She snickered behind her hand. “Love, relax, I’m just kidding. You don’t have to leave your fancy mansion with all your siblings --.”

“Wait, don’t make living here sound even better. I will do it purely to get away from them, don’t test me.”

She rolled her eyes with a grin. “Maybe that's the plan, you’ll never know.”

Tim had exactly zero idea whether they were joking or not anymore. The tone and reactions made him pretty sure they were kidding, but… what if they weren’t?

He was just gathering the courage to ask when the doorbell rang, pulling their attention to the food. She continued counting for a second before running to the door and swinging it open.

He walked up beside her awkwardly as she chatted politely to the guy to take the food inside. He knew, logically, that Marinette was actually way stronger than he was… but his stupid brain saw a thin, short woman in need of someone to help her carry things. So, he took it from the guy with a smile.

The delivery guy glanced Tim up and down before asking Marinette something. She laughed and gave a shrug. Tim did not know what was going on but he felt vaguely insulted.

He was definitely learning Mandarin after this.

The moment the door closed he whined about being insulted. She looked amused.

“You know what he said?”

“... no,” he admitted.

Her lips twitched.

“... you’re not going to tell me, are you?”

She snickered and leaned over the two bags of food in his hands. “So, you got the fried rice, right?”

“Mariiiiiiii.”

“Your food is going to get cold.”

“Beeeaaaan,” he complained.

She raised an eyebrow at him, a blush spreading across her face. “Bean?”

He grinned, feeling heat creep to his own cheeks. “I don’t know, I couldn’t think of anything for a nickname. First thing I thought of was coffee beans, so: Bean.”

“Wow, you’re such an addict,” she teased.

He continued pouting at her until she gave in.

She leaned forward to press a kiss to his nose. “He asked if you could use chopsticks or not so he could get you a fork if you couldn’t.”

He felt the blush on his face deepen. “Oh… I can’t.”

“That’s fine.” She grabbed a tote bag from the floor of her pantry and pulled out a set of plasticware.

He blinked. “... you keep plastic forks?”

She shrugged and tossed the bag back in her pantry. “Plastic forks, grocery bags, napkins, a few sets of chopsticks…”

“... why?”

“Some of us are minorities, darling.”

“What --?”

She hummed tunelessly as she worked.

Tim had fallen asleep on her shoulder. Had most of this been an elaborate plot to make him finally get some sleep? Possibly.

She didn’t feel all that bad, though. With how much he overworked himself both as Red Robin and as Tim Drake-Wayne… honestly, she was beginning to doubt that he slept at all. And, really, if a vigilante coffee addict with a magically enhanced physique is worried about your sleep schedule, you’ve got problems. Intervention was needed.

Don’t get her wrong, though, she was going to make up for lying to him. She’d move him to her bed and leave a cup of coffee for him on the bedside table. Maybe she’d even make him breakfast, it depended on how tired she was in the morning.

But that was for when she was done. For now, she was working on the last part of the outfit: she needed to lace up the corset. His posture needed a little work and she didn’t have the heart to tell him that to his face.

… besides, corset vests are cute. She wished more guys would wear them.

She smiled to herself as she pulled the last bit of lace through and tied a loose knot. Done.

She looked down at Tim. Loose strands fell in his face as he slept. The tiny wrinkles in his forehead disappeared, making him look much younger. His lips curled into a slight smile at whatever he was dreaming about.

He looked so genuinely at peace. She hated that that was abnormal for him.

She couldn’t help but worry a little about what he’d said earlier. He’d claimed that the reason he had gone up to the top of that building the day they’d met (as Tim and Marinette) was to scout out a location for photography, but now that was seeming like a lie because he apparently preferred taking pictures of people over locations… so, why was he up so high? He’d known it was illegal to be there, so she doubted he thought anyone else would be…

She swallowed thickly.

She didn’t think his mental state was that bad… but, just in case it was, she waved Tikki over for a bug and sewed it into one of his sleeves.

Tikki was looking at her disapprovingly. Marinette ignored her.

It was Ladybug’s job to make sure everyone was doing okay mentally, and she wasn’t going to fail a person she cared about of all people.

His head slipped from her shoulder onto her stomach and she sighed, trying to lightly push him off without disturbing his sleep. It didn’t work. He made a quiet sound in the back of his throat and buried his face in her stomach, his arms wrapping around her tightly.

Well, this is her life now.

… she supposed it wasn’t so bad, though.

#stalker x stalker #shutterbug #timari #maribat #timmari #timinette #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #red robin #tim drake #yes it's all just maladaptive coping strategies #it's ME what'd you guys expect

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j3ssisam3ss · 3 years

Note

The Meaning of Family - 9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic? and/or 7: Where did the title come from?

Alternate Versions: Oh, yes, there were (are?) absolutely alternate versions of TMOF. For example, in the original, Adrien went completely off the rails and killed Tom and Sabine. I think in that same version I had Bruce written as neglectful of Damian, borderline abusive. There was going to be a pretty significant portion of the plot dedicated to dealing with unhealthy relationships (Marinette's with Adrien and Damian's with Bruce).

But then I looked back through my work and was utterly horrified by how I tortured my characters. So that led to version two of the story, where basically everyone was either good or got a redemption arc. It was like a bad My Little Pony episode.

Needless to say, that version didn't stick around either.

The version you see on AO3 is a relatively equal mix of the first two versions, but I've fleshed out the plot and characterization a lot more. Without going into spoiler-land, I'll say that I'm really happy with the way things are shaping up in my brain - if only it didn't take so long to write it down!

Title: In truth, I chose the name 'The Meaning of Family' because that's the theme of the story. While TMOF is a story about taking down a supervillain and romance and making a city a little brighter and a girl finding her biological parents, the underlying emotional conflict of the whole story is trying to define what family is, what it does. It's Damian, struggling to realize that Dick's love is unconditional. It's Marinette, wondering why Flamebird (Kori) would risk her life for Ladybug without knowing who's under the mask. It's Bruce, trying so hard to protect his children because he can't lose them again.

I chose the name 'The Meaning of Family' because in the midst of writing the action and romance and drama, I want to remember:

Family is more than blood. More than shared traits. More than genetics.

Family is love. Family is sacrifice.

Family is a choice.

#oh boy that got deep #was not expecting that #maribat #ml x dc #daminette #maridami #mar'inette #maribat tmof #mari is mar'i

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phis-corner · 3 years

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How about #34 and #9 on the fluff/angst list?Ship is yours to decide

34- “Please don’t do this.” 9- “You meant too much to me.” | Platonic Timari

Note: reverse robins au, where Tim was the one captured by Joker instead, choosing to take his own life instead of break under torture. Marinette, having given up LB post Hawkmoth’s defeat, chooses to take up her dead brother’s mantle after seeing Bruce spiral. She is also Bruce’s biological child in this au.

I got reaaaally into reverse robins, and this is the result.

TW: suicide mention

Her father and Alfred are being increasingly shifty about the Red Hood, abruptly stopping conversations when she enters the room and changing the subject when she brings up the mysterious man who’s been picking off the corrupted people in this city.

So she makes a plan to look into it in her own time, carefully watching and observing to find a free time slot, and seizes the opportunity.

Dad is at a WE meeting because Lucius threatened him with no gadgets for a month if he didn’t show again, Alfred is asleep (because he is actually human, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary), and Damian is in Bludhaven with Jon, both working their respective day jobs as an officer in the BPD and a journalist.

Marinette silently logs into the Batcomputer, bypassing the security on Hood’s file with a little help from Oracle (hey, Steph was being kept out of the dark too, and they were both curious.)

She reads the basic information, and scrolls down to the DNA section.

Her blood runs cold when she sees the information listed there, because how can it be a match?

He’s dead.

Dead.

Captured by the Joker, tortured near the breaking point, before taking his own life with a shard of broken glass to preserve their secrets.

She watched them lower his body into the ground. Watched as his friends and family stood there, under the clear blue sky, which seemed too pretty for such a terrible day.

Watched as his teammates broke down around his grave, as Bruce’s face crumpled when everyone else is gone.

Watched Damian, two weeks later, finally show up and leave a single purple hyacinth, kneeling in front of the headstone and tracing the letter with a single finger, head bowed, before leaving.

She searched up the meaning of the flower. I am sorry, please forgive me.

She mourned him.

Mourned a brother, so kind and intelligent, who never really knew how much he meant to all of them.

She has her own suspicions about how he was captured in the first place, but pointing fingers would do more harm than good.

Her father spiraled again, after he died.

She didn’t want to do it. Didn’t want to introduce a new Robin, and slowly let the world forget about the second. Robin should have died with Tim.

But Batman will not stop, and as long as he keeps fighting, he’ll need a Robin to hold him back.

Marinette dons the costume, two months after they bury him, and tries to forget that this uniform, his spare, still smells like him.

She’s wearing a dead boy’s clothes.

Alfred helps her make a new one after that first night.

Eventually, he does accept her as Robin. He trains her harder than he did both Damian and Tim.

She pushes through.

And now, four years later, there’s evidence proclaiming that he’s alive.

Alive, and on a killing spree, weeding out Gotham’s corrupt at the very center, strategically taking people out to topple the system.

A laugh escapes her, even as her shoulders shake with tears, because the methods are so familiar, so Tim, that she doesn’t know how she didn’t notice earlier.

She asks Jason to cover for her that night.

He agrees without any questions, seeing the serious look on her face. Marinette has never been more grateful for the boy she and Dad found stealing the tires of the Batmobile.

After Batman leaves (Robin is benched until Red Hood is taken care of, whatever that means), and she pretends to go to bed, she opens her closet and pushes against the hidden panel in the back wall, revealing a spare uniform.

Robin escapes out her window, even though she knows that Alfred will have been alerted by the window opening.

Too bad for them, though, because she removed all the trackers except the emergency beacon, which can only be activated from her side.

The Red Hood is elusive, but she knows his tricks. She keeps up with him as he turns corner after corner, jumps from building to building, until he stops on the roof of Wayne Enterprises.

“Robin.” He says, helmet filtering out any signs that it’s her brother underneath. “But you’re not really Robin, are you? You’re wearing a dead boy’s clothes.”

She can’t help it, she flinches at how casually he speaks of his own death.

“Tim.” She tugs at the uniform, which has never fit right, despite it being tailored to her exact measurements. “What happened to you?”

“What happened? I died, that’s what happened.” The helmet comes off with a click and a hiss of air, and then it’s just her brother, older, eyes violent green, face twisted into a sneer. “I went off to follow the lead on the Joker myself, since Big Bird shut the door in my face and told me it wouldn’t amount to anything, got myself captured, and ended my own life to preserve their secrets. But you should know all of that, Replacement.”

The nickname is like a dagger to the heart. “I never wanted to replace you, the same way you didn’t want to replace Damian.” She says steadily, staring straight into his eyes even as her heart skitters frantically. “I was keeping Robin’s legacy alive.”

“Robin should have died with me.”

“You know as much as I do that Batman needs a Robin, and Batman would not stop fighting as long as he lives.” She replies. “I never wanted to be Robin, Tim. It’s been four years, and it still feels like it doesn’t fit. But there was nobody else to do it, no one else to bring him out of that spiral.”

Tim is silent for a moment, so she continues.

“Come home, Tim. Please. We’ve all missed you so much. Dad isn’t the same anymore. No one is. We can be a family again.”

“Don’t you see, Marinette? I was never meant to be Robin, either. I was just that one annoying kid who wouldn’t leave Bruce alone, the one who blackmailed him into letting a second Robin out onto the streets. Even after I moved in, I was just that one kid who never really belonged, the outsider trying to insert himself into a family, pretending that Bruce cared for me as much as he did his biological children. Bruce only allowed me to stay in the Manor because I knew his secret. Damian made no effort to hide his disgust around me. You- you were the only one in that house who treated me like an equal.”

He draws a gun and points it at her, and she hears the safety click off. “But you’re Robin. He shouldn’t have made another child Robin. He should have said no, let the legacy die.”

“Tim,” She pleads. “Please don’t do this.”

Something in his eyes waver for a moment, fading to blue, before they harden into acid green again. “You meant too much to me. Let’s see if you mean enough to Batman too, enough for him to arrive on time.”

The gun goes off with a bang, and she feels the bullet enter through a crack in her armor, burying itself in her torso. The pain is nothing new, but overwhelming all the same as her entire body seems to be on fire.

The last thing she does before everything goes black is calibrate the beacon to send the signal to Nightwing only, before smashing the button with all her remaining strength.

I hope Flamebird gets them here on time.

There are two reasons why she chooses to send it to Nightwing, and Nightwing only. One being because Damian doesn’t know that Tim is alive, and despite everything, he deserves to.

The other?

She doesn’t trust her father to make it.

permanent tags

@wannajointhecrabcult @miraculous-simmer7 @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @fantasyislive @chocolateherringtacofan @junarvion @susiej1118 @aestheticnpoetic @toodaloo-kangaroo @ladybug-182 @itsmeevie01 @g-arya @souleateralicestein @nightstarblue @i-is-mysterious @moonystars14 @vixen-uchiha @the-flapdoodle-noodle @labschaos @nathleigh @jalaluvsu @kaithehero @iamablinkmarvelarmy

unspecified @momothefemur @indecisive-mess-named-me @laurcad123 @ilovefluffbutsmutisalsogreat @sassakitty @fusser90

#maribat #platonic timari #ambiguous ending #my writing

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ao3feed-harleypeter · 4 years

Link

by AlexTealGold

Why does Batman not like the tale of Nightwing and Flamebird? Everyone else loves the story... and does it have anything to do with the secret life of villains? The fact all his adopted kids look like they are related to him? Or is it something to do win the memory block covering almost everyone? What really went down in Gotham? A story that is not really compliant with canon, but me being unable to think of my own characters without being too much like Marvel Or DC...

I really just wanted to test how many universes I could use in one story...

Words: 4573, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of The Flock

Fandoms: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, Frozen (Disney Movies), Young Justice (Cartoon), Justice League - All Media Types, Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Superman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug, How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Big Hero 6 (2014), Tangled (2010), Moana (2016), more to be added - Fandom

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, Elsa (Disney), Wanda Maximoff, Pietro Maximoff, Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood), Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marc Anciel, Peter Parker, Hiro Hamada, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Anna (Disney), Moana Waialiki, Rapunzel (Disney), Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, Clark Kent, Justice League (DCU), The Team (Young Justice), Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Gina Dupain, Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, Martha Kent, Jonathan Kent, Joker (DCU), Harleen Quinzel, Penguin (Character), Selina Kyle, Talia al Ghul, Ra's al Ghul, Robin (DCU)

Relationships: oc / bruce wayne, OC Female character / Bruce Wayne, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III/Astrid Hofferson, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Artemis Crock/Barbara Gordon, Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Wanda Maximoff/Vision, Clint Barton/Pietro Maximoff, Chloé Bourgeois/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Marc Anciel/Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Michelle Jones/Harley Keener/Harry Osborn/Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Peter Parker/Shuri, Harry Osborn/Peter Parker, Harley Keener/Shuri, Michelle Jones/Shuri, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent, Jonathan Kent/Damian Wayne, Batman & Superman, Bruce Wayne / OC

Additional Tags: Female Dick Grayson, Kryptonian Biology, Krypton, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Same-Sex Daemons, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Superman backstory (kinda), Backstory, Magic, OC magic character, Batman's wife, BAMF Peter Parker, Trans Character, LGBTQ Character, Character Death In Dream, Polyamorous Character, Strong Female Characters, BAMF Female Characters

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #harley keener #peter parker #parley #parkner #keenker #spiderlad

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ao3feed-timkon · 4 years

Text

The Flock: A Split Gotham Team

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iDda3q

by AlexTealGold

I really just wanted to test how many universes I could use in one story...

Words: 4573, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of The Flock

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iDda3q

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #timkon

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ao3feed-birdflash · 4 years

Link

by AlexTealGold

I really just wanted to test how many universes I could use in one story...

Words: 2672, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of The Flock

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

#dick grayson #robin #nightwing #wally west #kid flash #flash #birdflash #dickwally

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ao3feed-mcufemslash · 4 years

Text

The Flock: A Split Gotham Team

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iDda3q

by AlexTealGold

I really just wanted to test how many universes I could use in one story...

Words: 4573, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of The Flock

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3iDda3q

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #mcu

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ao3feed-petermj · 4 years

Link

by AlexTealGold

I really just wanted to test how many universes I could use in one story...

Words: 4573, Chapters: 3/?, Language: English

Series: Part 1 of The Flock

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Other

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #spideychelle #Peter Parker #Michelle Jones #Peter x Michelle #Peter x MJ

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adeva-eira · 2 years

Text

So I am working on a LOT of MariBat ffs and Marinette is, obviously, different in every ff.

So I thought 'It'd be so cool if they could meet...wait.........I'm in control here....muhahahahahahahahahaha'

Cue me dying over here, at almost 6 am with 0 hours of sleep but with a new drawing. Yay?

These are their names based on how they're positioned(front to back, right to left):

Fennec

Pink Robin, Ladybug

Cardinal, Scarlet Panda, Batgirl, Stray Cat

Flamebird, Red Beetle, Supergirl

#dc x miraculous #maribat #marinette x batfam #miraculous x dc #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #marinette dupain cheng #supermari #genderbend #Marinette is Flamebird #genderbend Marinette Dupain-Cheng #i'm tireeeeed #send help #i'm not sorry #no regrets #alternate universe

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zambie-trashart · 4 years

Text

Land of the Free and Home of the Wayne pt 5

masterlist

Summary: Damian and Jon are curious about the girl who saved him. The students tour the Batman Museum.

...........................................

Damian looked expectantly at his friend who stood there trying to come up with something to tell his friend that would sound believable.

“I was just telling Jon how every room in this house is cool, even the closets,” Adrien said wrapping an arm around Jon’s shoulders.

“You could just say what you were really doing, you were obviously shoving your face holes together in there. Kent seems frazzled, his hair is messy, and he keeps adjusting his glasses. Your shirt is messed up and you look like you’re hiding something,” Damian said getting closer to the two who’s eyes widened. Jon should have known that he should have done the talking cause what he was about to do might be one of the worst things to do to a fellow gay.

“Yup, totally you got us. Night Adrien,” Jon said kissing him lightly before pushing him out the door and closing it. Damian just stared at him. “What?”

“Doesn’t seem like he’s your type,” Damian said grabbing a laptop and sitting down in one of the many chairs. “We need to find out more about this girl who saved you.” Damian typed in “red superheroine” and Supergirl, Wonderwoman and others popped up but Jon pointed to one that he hadn’t heard of before.

“Who’s Ladybug?” Jon asked and Damian clicked her name and the first cite to pop up was the Ladyblog run my Alya Cesaire. The most recent posts had Lila standing in the front of them probably saying something about how she personally knew Ladybug.

“This isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Damian said bookmarking the cite for later and clicking on a news cite that talked about the adventures of Ladybug and Chat Noir two heroes who fought against akumas who were created by a villain named Hawkmoth who was trying to get the earrings and ring of the ladybug and cat.

“So this guy can just create bad guys?” Jon asked looking over his friend’s shoulder.

“Seems that way,” Damian said and Tim walked into the room holding a mug of coffee.

“It’s like ten o’clock and you two aren’t on patrol tonight so go to bed you hooligans,” Tim said before opening up the clock to go down to the batcave. The two walked over to their rooms and made an agreement to continue their research the next night.

Jon’s alarm blared loudly that morning and he pulled on a collard shirt, blue sweater, dark blue jeans, and vans before running down for breakfast. He looked at Adrien before deciding to sit next to Marinette and Damian who were talking about fashion and Damian actually seemed interested in what she was saying. He looked at Mar’i across the room who was sitting with Tim again, she was on the phone smiling and twirling a piece of hair through her fingers. Was she... no she would have told Damian and Jon as soon as she made it official, she was just smitten.

The class all got back in the cars but this time Dick was the only supervising adult. They arrived at the museum and Lila was strangely silent. Jon just watched her out of the corner of his eye and Damian seemed to be doing the same. Dick was confirming their tour time, or at least he was trying to but the lady at the front desk seemed a lot more interested in knowing about him. Mar’i had to go up and intervene before Dick’s obliviousness got him in trouble.

The class entered the first room which was a tribute for the fallen heroes. Robin II beat to death, Batgirl was paralyzed from waist down by the Joker, Robin IV was stabbed by his mother, and Nightwing’s heart had to be stopped got disable a bomb attached to it. The students just stared at the statues all of them were graphic but they told a story.

The next room was a room full of Batgirls. Batgirl I to Oricle, Spoiler to Robin to Batgirl, Batgirl to Orphan, and Batwoman. Most of the girls were inspired by the towering females who all seemed to have wonder built into their statues.

Next was a bunch of Robins, a Robin with pixie boots to Nightwing, Robin to Red Hood, Robin to Red Robin, and a masked assassin to Robin. Damian stood in front of his statue soaking in what he could have been.

“Damian, you’re not like that anymore and you know it, you chose to be better,” Jon said placing a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Damian put his hand over the younger’s and the two walked into the second to last room which was Jon’s favorite.

Starfire holding Nightfire standing next to Nightwing. Superboy and Robin fighting Kid Amazo. Red Hood next to Artemis and Arsenal. Red Robin next to Flamebird (Chris doesn’t exist in this universe so I just figured that I’d use his name and give it to Conner just cause) Wondergirl, and Impulse. Jon walked off to talk to Marinette and see what she thought of the Robin and Superboy statues and the whole museum so far and since Damian was alone, Lila approached him.

“I’m really sorry for how I’ve been acting, I was wondering if you could forgive me?” Lila asked and Damian just huffed and went to walk away from her. Lila just pulled on his sleeve using his own momentum against him and pressed her lips to his. Most of the class cheered but Marinette, Jon, and Mar’i just stared mouths wide open. Dick didn’t understand what was going on but the last time he heard, he didn’t know that Damian had a girlfriend.

Damian ripped his arm back and walked out of the room back through all of the previous rooms and Jon chased after him. Damian felt something burning in his chest as he walked down the stairs and Jon tripped down and Damian heard something crack and looked back to see that his best friend was gone and in his place was a note.

Tell B to meet me on top of WE with the Cat’s Eye Nebula or you’re not getting Superkid back. Catwoman

..................................................

DON’T KILL ME PLEASE I’M SORRY! *cries*

JPS: @wannajointhecrabcult @loveswifi @ive-tumbled-down-a-rabbit-hole @liquid-luck-00 @mochegato @thatonecroc @mochinek0 @toodaloo-kangaroo @moonspiritwolf1

Tag list: @abrx2002 @finallyaniguana@danielslilangel@chocolateherringtacofan @animegirlweeb @fleur-de-jasmin-fdj@pawsitivelymiraculous @justcourttee@ayamestudios@greenteacz@thornalchemist23 @vixen-uchiha@readeracctagmepls @tomanyfandomsinmymind @t1dwarrior-of-earth@michaelshadow7779 @i-is-mysterious

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 3 years

Text

Stalker X Stalker, Part 10

First

Perma tag: @nathleigh @peachmuses

Stalker x Stalker taglist: @aespades @jayjayspixiepop @blueslushgueen @fan-written @seraphichana @nerd-nowandforever @toodaloo-kangaroo

Marinette’s collection of vigilantes in her house was still growing, somehow. You’d think it would stop with just the ones that consistently lived in Gotham, but no.

Nightwing started dropping by whenever he was in town to try and teach her escrima. She wasn’t good with them because she wasn’t used to fighting people up close, but she didn’t really think that that was the reason why they were doing it.

Still, it was fun…

(Except for that one time they’d been heading back to her house and she dropped her phone down the drain and had to beg the rat-person -- she was pretty sure Nightwing had called them Ratcatcher? -- for help. It was very traumatizing. He’d given her a new phone but she was never going to recover emotionally from that day.)

And then, a few days before Thanksgiving, Flamebird had made an appearance.

The reason why was less fun, though.

She’d opened her blinds and stared at him for a few moments. He was leaning against her fire escape, hand pressed to his stomach.

“Hey, Robin, does Flamebird usually do the Napoleon pose?”

“The…? Oh, no, he does not.”

She sighed. “Yeah, I thought so.” She swung her window open. “Hi. Nice to meet you. What happened?”

“Got stabbed.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Okay, yeah, obviously, want to elaborate?”

“Got stabbed in the stomach,” he said, after a second’s thought.

So, no, then. She shrugged to herself and let him come inside.

“Right, Robin, go get the medkit out from under my sink,” she said, pulling a hairband from her wrist and tying her hair back.

Flamebird frowned. “Can’t you just undo everything with your magic?”

“Not magic,” supplied Tikki, popping her head out of Marinette’s pocket.

“FUCK,” yelped Flamebird.

Damian made the quiet clicking sound he made whenever he was about to say something rude but Marinette cut him off with a glare and pointed him towards the bathroom. Damian grumbled a little under his breath but obeyed for fear of being thrown out.

She turned back to Flamebird. “Also, that’s not how my ‘magic’ works. If I’m not involved in a fight…” She made a ‘poof’ motion with her hands. “No miracle cure.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Man, if I’d known that I would’ve just dealt with this myself.”

“Well, it is too late for that,” said Damian, who had come back out with a medkit. “Now, sit down, we will tend to your wound.”

And they did.

(Or, rather, Marinette did. It didn’t matter if she knew, logically, that he already knew how wounds looked and how to treat them, she just didn’t feel comfortable making him help. She sent him off to play with the cat and worked on dressing it. She’d made a mistake here by doing the normal routine while stitching someone up: asking about things they liked to distract them. He said he was an ‘avid reader’, she’d laughed and said that she probably wouldn’t know any of the books he mentioned because she hardly ever read in English, and now she was apparently in a book club. That was on her, she supposed, but it was still a little irritating.)

And that was all the vigilantes. They all came over from time to time. Sometimes they’d see each other and give each other awkward smiles or actively ignore each other, but it became a constant part of her life.

But it all came to a head one seemingly regular day.

She had been walking up the stairs to her apartment with Tim, ten bags of groceries loaded onto her arms and five on his (he was to open the door), and had nearly bumped into him when he stopped suddenly.

“Cass?” He asked, confused.

She raised her eyebrows just slightly. She’d thought everyone knew about each other but, now that she thought about it, because of the scheduling Tim wouldn’t really be around when everyone else came by.

He took Cass’s arrival in stride, though, fishing his key out of his pocket and pushing the door open.

He did not take in stride the fact that Duke, Damian, and Nightwing were all inside her house already. Duke was sitting on her counter, wrapped in a blanket as he scrolled through his phone. Damian was playing with Vanelope. Nightwing was doing stretches on her floor.

“Hey, look, more people that don’t live here,” Marinette said with only a hint of bitterness.

Nightwing glanced up. “You’re out of chips.”

“Already --?!” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “Fine. Fine. I got more, anyways.”

Tim snapped out of it. He closed and locked the door quickly before sending Marinette a pout. “Alright, I can get you cheating on me with Cass, but come on,” he half joked.

Marinette rolled her eyes. “If one of the people I’m apparently cheating with is a five-year-old --.”

“TWELVE.”

“-- then I think you have more things to worry about than my serial adultery, darling.”

“... guess that’s true.”

“Also, I only buy groceries with you, so you’re clearly my favorite concubine.”

Duke grinned. “Actually --.”

“Except for that one time I asked Signal to go find ricotta because I’d forgotten it,” she conceded. “I guess he's my second favorite.”

Cass pouted and raised her hand.

“She makes a good case for herself. You’ve both been demoted,” she joked.

Tim was still pouting. Probably has something to do with going from favorite to second favorite. Who knows.

She rolled her eyes. She had bigger problems. Like her food. There were frozens and she was not going to lose her food to something as stupid and useless as the air. She waved him along as much as she could with the bags digging into her arms and started putting things away.

She tipped her head back after a second to squint at everyone. They were awkwardly staring at each other, for some reason… oh, right, they technically didn’t know each other.

“Uh, introductions, I guess. Signal, Robin, and Nightwing, meet my friends. Tim, Cass, meet my annoyances.”

Tim perked up a little at being called a friend rather than an annoyance. Problem solved. Kind of.

He set down his bags and leaned close to her ear. “So, they don’t know you know?”

“Duke does,” she mumbled back. “I’m not going to tell them about it, though, I want to see how long it takes them to notice.”

He snickered. “I can get behind that.”

“Good. You didn’t have a choice in the matter,” she joked, leaning forward to press a kiss to his nose.

She could hear Cass groan a little at the obvious affection and both Duke and Damian cringed. She fought the urge to laugh. It was just a little kiss on the nose, they didn’t have to act like it was scandalous or gross.

But, apparently, it was gross enough for Damian to grab her arm to try and pull her attention away from Tim (and physically pull her away from him, she noted, as she was forced to take a half-step back from him).

“Did you get more of my gummy bears?”

She rolled her eyes. “Did you ask for them? Did you tell me you were out?”

He looked a little put out and she felt bad enough to give up the act quickly:

“Yes, kid, I got you your weird vegan gummy bears.”

He beamed and started sifting through her bags.

She smiled fondly and ruffled his hair, ignoring the knife that was sent her way for the action with practiced ease, then started putting things away.

Everyone except Damian made their way over to help. There were no ulterior motives, they insisted, even as she watched Nightwing slip a bag of chips into Damian’s hoodie for safekeeping and Duke pocket an apple.

At least Cass and Tim were reasonably well-behaved, she thought right before she watched him split an orange with her.

Tim squinted at the three people below him.

Jon had come to visit because a) the no metas in Gotham rule had more or less stopped being enforced due to constant complaints from the Justice League, b) Damian needed friends his age, and c) it was Christmas and Jon was so sure that this year was going to be the year that Damian finally understood the holiday.

And, because Jon had come to visit, so had Conner. The worst part of being an older brother that Tim understood all too well.

But, now, he looked down at the three people gathered at the bottom of the stairs.

They were apparently competing to see who could be the stupidest. Steph was standing on a banister, Marinette was trying to sit on a vertical bo staff, and Conner was doing a handstand on both of their heads. It was a little shaky, what with Steph’s barely restrained laughter and the fact that bos are not meant to be balanced on and Conner trying to do tricks, but they were clearly having fun.

Tim crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the entrance to the cave. Did he have a type?

Their comms crackled to life and all three went stock-still, grins wiped from their faces briefly as they listened to see what had happened.

“I am requesting the night off to have an outing with Superboy.”

Bruce gave the grunt that meant ‘fine’.

The three relaxed now that they knew that everything was okay, quickly going back to their game. Marinette had added a surfboard. Steph was struggling with an exercise ball. Conner was slowly taking off fingers.

Tim sighed to himself. Yep. Dumbasses who can only be serious for truly important things -- and, even then, only for a few seconds at a time. That was his type. Someone, please, save him.

It had been a while since Marinette had gone out on her own (with the intention of staying alone, leaving for patrols didn’t count). Really, she normally wouldn’t, but she needed to pick up a piece of fabric she’d forgotten to get the day before and it wasn’t even a meter’s worth. She didn’t need help for that.

Besides, going by herself was much quicker. She was able to go by rooftop as Ladybug.

Of course, going as Ladybug had a risk to it that she didn’t realize until it was too late: responsibilities.

She groaned to herself as she made to jump to the next roof and her eyes landed on a person getting mugged in the alleyway below her.

She looked down at the bag with her fabric inside it and wondered if it was even worth leaving it there while she got rid of the attacker. Most of the time the people mugging people in Gotham were using fake guns. Even if they weren’t, muggings were common enough that most people had little on them and were only slightly annoyed when people tried to rob them. The person below was no exception, it seemed. They scoffed when the gunman poked their back.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going,” they said irritably.

Wait, shit, she knew that voice.

She squinted down into the darkness and, yep, she would recognize that almost unhealthily pale skin anywhere.

She dropped down into the alley between them and, to her slight surprise, it turned out the gun actually did have bullets in it. A shot rang out. She fell back a step, cradling her shoulder.

The gunman’s eyes widened. He hadn’t meant to shoot her. It had probably just been a split second reaction.

Unfortunately for him, getting shot really fucking hurts and she was going to take it out on him. Especially since he’d been trying to mug one of her friends. She glanced back at Tim, who was shaking and a little pale, and grit her teeth. Yeah, this guy was fucked.

Eventually, though, the pain in her shoulder, worsened by all the movement, got too unbearable and she rolled off of the mugger. She tied the man’s hands and feet behind his back with her yoyo and, after calling Miraculous Ladybug, called it a day. She’d get her yoyo back later.

For now, she pressed a hand to her ear. “Hey, Signal, I’ve got one for you.”

“You’re joining me for daytime patrols now?” He asked, his voice somehow brighter than the powers he had.

“Nah, just happened to come across…” She considered embarrassing Tim but decided against it when she saw her friend’s face. “... someone getting mugged while out today.”

He huffed a little but she ignored it in favor of relaying the address.

The perpetrator to be taken care of, she turned to the victim. She didn’t know whether the rules applied to people you knew, but she figured she might as well go through with the normal procedure. Tim liked procedure, it might help him.

So, step one: connect with the victim. She unzipped her hoodie and smiled brightly, making sure her eyes crinkled behind her mask.

Step two: check to make sure they aren’t going into shock.

Normally, she was able to skip this step. The miracle cure got rid of it if they had gone into it before the attack… but his eyes were somehow both fixed intensely on her like he was scared she’d disappear if he chanced a look away and extremely vacant.

She took slow, careful steps towards him, hand out to check his pulse.

Once she was close enough, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a hug. Marinette didn��t quite know what to do. The part of her brain still doing the normal procedure told her to hug back because this was a scared victim that wanted comfort, but the other part was tempted to push him off to check for a concussion… even though, logically, he shouldn’t have one because she had cast Miraculous Ladybug so her arm wouldn’t have a bullet in it anymore --.

Oh. She was stupid.

He’d watched his friend get shot and now he was freaking out. Like people are supposed to do.

She hugged him back, bringing a hand up to run through his hair.

“Would you like me to take you home?” She asked.

“My… my friend lives near here,” said Tim quietly, mindful of the fact that the mugger was still within earshot.

She nodded. “I’m going to pick you up, okay?”

He bit his lip so hard that she worried he’d break the skin and nodded.

She took him home and, with only a brief stop to keep Vanelope from escaping, set him down on the couch. She kept a hand touching him at all times as she gathered the blankets and pillows strewn about by all the visits the bats made. For once, she was glad she never really had time to clean, she didn’t want to let go of him when he was clearly so concerned about her.

Less than five minutes later she’d wrapped them both up as tightly as she could with as many blankets as she could reach. He rested his head against her shoulder, arms loosely draped around her under the blankets. Vanelope settled on their laps and started to purr; she made a mental note to give her a bunch of treats later.

But, for now…

She cupped his cheeks in her hands and waited patiently as he struggled to pull himself together enough to actually be present.

“Darling, I said I wouldn’t go anywhere. I’m not breaking that promise. Okay?”

He nodded slightly, finally releasing his lip to speak: “Okay.”

She pressed a kiss to his nose. A half smile made its way across his face.

“Now, how do you feel about Big Fish?”

He squeezed her a little tighter. “The circus scene is cute.”

She nodded her agreement. “I like the daffodil scene better, personally, but it is pretty cute.”

She turned the movie on.

Tim was sure he was overreacting. Of course he was. She hadn’t died, she wasn’t even hurt any more. It clearly didn’t bother her, he had ‘accidentally’ chosen that shoulder to rest his head on and she hadn’t so much as winced when he had. No, the only worry she had was about him.

So, he should be fine.

But he wasn’t.

She’d been shot and, for a second, he’d feared it would be another Darla situation. And he couldn’t deal with another Darla situation. He couldn’t. He had to believe that he was better than that high school Tim that had let all his friends die. Because if he wasn’t better than that meant he couldn’t have friends and he couldn’t deal with that either.

He didn’t want to be alone again.

No, he wouldn’t let that happen. He could think of a plan, surely. He was a planner, he found problems and he dealt with them. That had been his coping mechanism pretty much since birth and (if you ignore all the workaholic tendencies, independence issues, and General Trauma) it was working out pretty well for him. Can’t be sad if there’s work to do, after all.

Yeah. Work. He was good at work.

He bit his lip.

Alright, so the problem stemmed from his fear of being alone… which wasn’t going to be fixed anytime soon. Good coping mechanisms? In this family? Please. Next.

Alright, so the problem stemmed from his fear of her getting hurt.

Simple solution! Don’t let her get hurt!

… not as simple a solution as it sounded on paper.

She wasn’t going to stop vigilantism anytime soon. He wouldn’t make her, and she wasn’t going to do it on her own accord. Even if she decided to at some point Tim didn’t have much hope for it. Every person in the family had tried that already, it never worked. They’d say that it would be fine, that they were going to stop for their mental health or even just permanently end it… but family was family and how could someone sit back and watch family get hurt when they could do something about it?

So, that wasn’t going to happen. What other answers were there?

Well, he supposed that she had left on her own and that was the main problem. If she hadn’t left on her own then he wouldn’t have followed after her in secret and he wouldn’t have gotten attacked in the first place.

But he couldn’t be around much more without it being weird unless he…

He couldn’t…

Could he?

He figured it was worth a shot. And he should ask now. If she said no he wouldn’t have to worry about her thinking him weird, she’d just assume it was a request made while in the middle of shock and forget about it.

He hesitantly let go of his lip.

“Hey, Bean?”

She stopped pretending to watch Big Fish for the sake of giving him privacy. “Yeah?”

“Remember when… I…” He bit his lip, trying to think of a better way to phrase it, but he couldn’t. There really was no casual way to ask. He took a deep breath to steady himself. “Can I, maybe, move in with you?”

She stared at him for a moment, eyes wide, before quickly shaking her head.

He must have looked pretty put out, because she rushed to explain herself:

"You’re under emotional duress, darling, it wouldn’t be right to say yes.”

He nodded his understanding and it was silent for a bit before he eventually said: “But, if I asked tomorrow… would you say yes?”

She looked at him for a while, her face unreadable, before she gave him a hesitant smile.

“Well, I already said that you basically lived here. I suppose there wouldn’t be anything wrong with making it official.”

#stalker x stalker #timari #timmari #maribat #timinette #shutterbug #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #red robin #tim drake

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