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lily-drake · 1 year

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It’s a Learned Trait

This is my Secret Santa gift to Night_ngale on Ao3! This story is inspired by this photo by @mumblesplash on Tumblr (yes I got permission, and thank you for it!):

For Night_ngale on Ao3:

Marinette had been having a wonderful day with her parents in Gotham, New Jersey. Her parents had just finished a catering job there and today they had decided to go sightseeing to all of the tourist attractions. They had taken her to the zoo, to the aquarium, to the museum, and now they were heading to a bo-ton-tanicel-al…. botanical garden! Both of her parents were holding her hands and smiling brightly at her as they walked the busy streets. It was such a nice day, absolutely nothing could ruin it for her!

Then an explosion happened, and there was running, and a ringing noise in her ears that just wouldn’t stop, and everything was moving too fast.

Screams filled the air along with scary high pitched giggling that sent shivers running through her spine. She clutched tightly to the pair of hands that held onto both of her’s just as tightly, if not tighter, as they fled the crowded streets. Then they could feel the cool shadow of something big that was coming from up high. She looked up and felt herself freeze up as a massive piece of concrete broke off of the building they were under and fell faster and faster and faster exactly where she and her parents stood. She tried to move, she tried to get herself to run away from the danger that she knew even at her age meant that she would no longer be able to wander the Earth; but she couldn’t. The people kept shoving past her and her parents, keeping them in place as everyone pushed and shoved to get far, far away from the ensuing chaos. The crowd was too thick, the screams were too loud, the rubble was too fast. The next thing she knew was two pairs of different sized hands shoved her forward away from the massive pieces of falling debris that was right above them. She turned to look behind her to see her parents' horrified expressions as they too stared up at the ginormous piece of concrete that was hurtling towards them and so many more people. People kept almost stepping on her and crowding her vision of her parents and they moved before she could blink.

Before she could even process what happened next, someone had picked her up and moved her away before quickly covering her eyes. A few seconds later a loud crash was heard and the ground shook so hard she would have fallen over if the person hadn’t been keeping her upright. Once the shaking was over the person that had rescued her picked her up, holding tightly onto her as they moved their hand up and the sound of something being shot through the air sounded just above her.

“It’s ok, I’ve gotcha.”

Said a deep gruff voice, though she could barely hear it as the cold wind whipped past her ears biting at her skin. Her knee length pink dress hugged her legs as her brain refused to function and process the events that had just occurred. She felt her feet touch solid ground, but her legs didn’t seem to want to hold her as her brain continued to stay offline. She couldn’t think, couldn’t comprehend, and would the ringing in her ears just stop! Where were her mama and papa?! What happened to them?!

It sounded like someone was trying to talk to her, but she was underwater and she couldn’t hear a thing, she couldn’t even see what was in front of her clearly. Her entire body felt like it was weighted down, the pressure slowly crushing her. She couldn’t even think, her brain was just too quiet and the ringing was too loud! There was too much, too much noise, too much quiet, too much information yet not enough at all! She kept going down deeper with nothing to ground her fleeting thoughts until she felt something heavy being placed around her shoulders. Her eyes slowly began to register her surroundings and, after who knew how long, she was met with deep light teal eyes that were filled with worry. Their face was obscured by a red mask, but she could still make out most of his features. He had dark black hair with a white streak in it. She didn’t know why this was important, all she knew was that she had to keep looking at him. It was like if she looked away from him then everything would get all fuzzy again and she wouldn’t be able to think, and the ringing would take over her again even though it was still there! Why can’t it stop, just make it stop, she wanted her mama and papa! Where were they?!

“Hey, things will be ok.”

The masked man gently stated. He kept eye contact with her, watching her to make sure she didn’t start to hyperventilate and that she wouldn’t go into shock. He carefully pulled the jacket around her full body, carefully pulling her limp and dysfunctional arms into the jacket’s large sleeves. He gave her a small reassuring smile while smoothing out the sleeves on the jacket, pressing the warmth of it onto her. “Can you hold onto this for me? I’ll be right back, ok?”

She simply nodded her head and held onto the jacket tightly like it was a lifeline. He slowly grabbed a helmet that was on the ground near his legs and put it on. “Don’t move ok, you’re safe now.”

He looked back at her then ran and jumped off…., oh, she was on a roof. When did she get on a roof? She hadn’t noticed. She stood completely still, her mind causing the cacophony of noises to fade in and out. She could hear screams and bangs, then nothing. She could hear fighting and laughter, then the ringing came back. The sounds often came close to the roof she was on; the fear of it made her legs so weak she eventually collapsed onto her knees as she clutched the jacket tighter than before. Eventually her brain finally seemed to grasp the reality around her causing tears to start falling down her cheeks and sobs escaped her lips. Her parents were dead, she was rescued, but th-they’re d-de-dead!

Sobs wracked her small frame as the noises continued on for she doesn’t even know how long. Every time there was a noise louder than the rest she pulled the jacket even tighter around her small body expecting the worst. She wanted to escape, she wanted to hug her parents, she just wanted to go back home to Paris. She wanted to go back to the bakery and eat the desserts her parents made, see Nino and Kim and play games with them, she wanted to go to the pretty gardens at the park and lay with the flowers.

They were supposed to be happy, they were happy when they saw the pretty fishies, they were happy when they saw the amazing artifacts in the museum, papa had held her on his shoulders so she could see the giraffes better when they had taken her to the zoo. Everything had been so perfect, why did everything change so fast? Why did her mama and papa have to leave her like this? Why was there no rain when such a terrible tragedy had just occurred like in the movies?

There was a soft thump that made her wrap the jacket even tighter, if that was even possible. She didn’t want to get hurt, she just wanted her parents back. “Hey, thanks for holding onto that for me.”

The man from before said. She looked up, her eyes watery, making his figure blurry. She saw him take off the helmet and set it down. He looked sad and remorseful as he slowly sat next to her, but never reached out to touch her, instead remaining a comfortable presence. “You from here?”

She slowly shook her head no. “P-Paris.”

Her voice was cracked and broken. Her parents had her study English with her French studies because of all of the tourists that came by. Not to mention Mama said that if she wanted to be famous then she had to know English. How would she get back to Paris? Who would take her? How was she supposed to survive without her mama and papa?! She couldn’t, she needed them, now they’re gone and she’ll die here because she has nothing without them.

“Paris is a nice place. Have any friends there?”

She nodded again, the movement causing the drops on her cheek to drip onto the ground. He stayed silent, waiting to see if she would do or say anything further. She was glad he let her take her time, she was tired and her brain was still too loud and fuzzy to really understand his questions immediately. Dejectedly she replied, “N-Nino and K-Kim are my friends. Th-they stand up t-to Chloe f-for me. Everyo-one else is too scared of her an-and her daddy.”

He reached out to touch her, but quickly pulled back. He wanted to comfort the small child, but he wasn’t sure how she would respond if he touched her. She looked so small curled up in his jacket, it would have been cute if it weren’t for the circumstances that led to the scene in front of him. “Sounds like you’ve got some good people lookin’ out for ya.”

He said, trying to sound reassuring. She gave a small smile and nodded, “Y-yea.”

“Why don’t we go somewhere safe. I know someone who will take care of ya for a bit, okay?” Red Hood asked carefully. She nodded again and was about to take her arms out of the sleeves of the warm jacket, but before she could fully take it off the man stopped her. “Keep it, I’ve got a lot of others back home, and this is gonna keep you safe, ok?”

She nodded slowly, letting him adjust and zip it up so the warmth that still lingered in it was all around her. He slowly stood up, projecting his movements so as to not scare her before he extended his hand for her to take. She looked at it hesitantly, slowly reaching out and taking hold of his hand as she wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of her free arm. Her hand was so small that when he closed his her entire hand was encompassed by his own. He gently pulled her back onto her feet making sure she was stable before letting go. “Hop on my back and hold on tight, ‘kay?”

He said softly–just like her mom used to when she was hurt–crouching down with his back facing her so she could climb on. With a brief moment of hesitation, because what if this was a trap like Mama and Papa had warned her about, she carefully climbed onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck and gripped onto his shirt. It was a bit hard as there seemed to be something hard sewn into parts of it, but it was okay. He slowly got up and made sure her legs were wrapped tightly around his torso so she wouldn't slip or fall off. When he was sure she was secure, he grabbed something from one of his pockets, angled it. There was a loud bang, like the one she had heard when he had first grabbed her, though that memory felt like it was from so many years ago, that startled her accompanied by a whiz as it shot into the air. He pulled on the device he was using to make sure it was taught and secure, then he ran and jumped off the building.

Marinette screamed in fear and buried her face into his shoulder, holding him even tighter than before. She kept her eyes shut, feeling out the rhythm of run, jump, fall, swing. Eventually she started to feel a little more comfortable swinging through the air, that was until they started to fall again. She screamed again louder than the time before and heard the noise of the man’s device again before she felt the taut jolt that signified they were soaring through the air once more. Slowly, she tilted her head up and saw how amazing the city looked with all of its shining lights so high up in the sky with the setting sun sinking behind the tall buildings. Wasn’t it just past 13:00 though? She had just eaten lunch with her mama and papa; hadn’t she…?

Suddenly the lights weren’t as amazing as they were before, they were dull and full of sorrow and loss. She didn’t want to look down just in case she saw them, they wouldn’t look the same. She didn’t want to look down because then she might fall, and she didn’t want to fall. Heights have always been scary. She held onto the man tighter, scared that if she loosened her grip even the smallest amount, she’d fall.

They continued on in that fashion for a few minutes when the man with the red helmet set her down on a balcony. It was plain with a swirled black metal guard. The roof was bland and lifeless with nothing decorating it other than the fence, she didn’t like it. “I’ve got a friend here. He’ll watch over you for a while, okay?” She nodded slowly, unsure of whether she should be relieved someone would take her in or scared that this was all some sort of trap. She watched and listened as the man climbed down a fire escape and began to tap on a window.

Tap

…

Tap tap

…..

Tap tap tap

Then he stepped back and waited. Another man with red hair opened the window with a small smile, “What’s up Hood?” He asked in a casual voice.

“I need you to watch someone for me.”

The red-haired man raised a brow.

“Her parents didn’t make it in the last battle with Joker. Lots of debris, and I don’t feel like having serial-adopter-bats see her.”

“Makes sense. Where are they?” The other man asked with a small nod, looking around the escape. The man in the helmet held up one finger and climbed back up to her.

“Can you come with me please?”

Marinette gulped, unsure of what she should do. But the man has been really nice to her so far, and he’s even letting her keep his jacket. Slowly she reached out and took his offered hand, letting him help her down the fire escape to the window.

“Hey,”

The other man said in a soft tone,

“What's your name?”

She looked down, anxiously twirling her foot from side to side. “M-Marinette.” She replied quietly, voice strained.

“That’s a nice name, how old are you?” His voice was soft and gentle and it made her feel a little more at ease.

“Nine.”

“Wow, you’re pretty old, huh? I’m Roy, do you want to come in and eat something? I just finished making some sandwiches.” She looked back at the man that had brought her here and saw him give her a small nod. She nodded back and shyly followed the red haired man into the apartment building. “Do you want some water?”

She nodded again, standing near the island counter. She looked back at the window where the man in the helmet had been only seconds before, only to see that he was no longer there. The man nodded and quickly got a cup from a cupboard and filled it with some tap water before placing it on the counter near her with a small plate that held what looked like BLT. “I have a roommate, he should come by soon. Just as a heads up, ok?”

She nodded, carefully climbing up to the barstool and sat down. Marinette looked at the sandwich and started picking at it. She really wasn’t that hungry, but it would be rude to not accept her host's hospitality. Her mama had taught her the importance of respecting people that were trying to help her, especially when she was at her friend’s home. Tears she thought she had run out of started to resurface as she thought of her mama. She sniffled and wiped her eyes before more could escape.

Roy looked at her worriedly. From what he had read from the text Jason had sent him, her parents were caught by falling debris from one of Joker’s bombs that the bats hadn’t been able to dismantle in time. He had been able to pull her away, but her parents along with a bunch of other civilians weren’t able to make it out of the way in time. Jason said that he had managed to cover her eyes and take her away before she could see anything, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough to stop any type of trauma from forming.

The girl was so small, he could only imagine what must be going through her mind. Not to mention she was only visiting from Paris, she wasn’t even from Gotham. Apparently her parents were catering for one of Bruce’s events, and that was the only reason they had even traveled here in the first place.

“Hey, do you want to watch a movie? I’m sure we could find something you’d like.” She didn’t respond right away as she processed what he had asked. It didn’t matter though, he’d give her all the time she needed.

“R-Ratatouille?” Was her small reply. A smile graced his lips, as he asked,

“Is that your favorite Disney movie?” She shrunk in on herself and nodded with a small,

“Mhm.”

“That’s a great movie, let me ask Jason to pick it up when he comes back. He should be here soon anyways.”

“Okay.”

Her voice was so quiet, but he could hear the joy in her voice. He quickly texted Jason to pick up the movie when he was done debriefing with The Bats and started to make another sandwich since she was eating his, not that he minded of course.

• • •

Jason walks in with a bag full of gummy candy, popcorn, a box of different flavored macaroons, and one Disney movie in its unopened case and plastic wrapping. He was thankful to see that the small girl was sitting at the counter drawing. He wouldn’t know what to do if she were still crying. “Hey, heard we’re takin’ care of another kid? I bet Lian will be happy to have a new friend when she comes back from her sleepover.”

He called out into the apartment as if he had no idea what had happened only a few hours before. The little girl startled from her seat, quickly turning to look at him with her large bluebell eyes. He really needed to keep her away from Bruce, she was perfect Wayne material and he refused for her to be tainted by him and the rest of his adopted child army.

“Yea, Red Hood dropped her off due to….” He glanced at the girl sympathetically, “The incident that happened earlier.”

Marinette shifted uncomfortably and went back to drawing with a furrowed brow. There was a heavy silence that filled the room until Jason said, “Well, I bought a bunch of snacks and was told to buy a movie, so….”

Marinette looked up again and hopped off the chair nearly tripping. She quickly stood up embarrassed as both boys stared at her in worry.

“You okay Marinette?” Roy asked carefully, walking towards her. Her cheeks turned a slight red as she nodded.

“Y-yes, sorry. I’m really clumsy.” Her voice held a French accent that only made the little girl even more adorable. Jason gave her a wide smile and gently handed her the plastic grocery bag.

“Here you go.”

She carefully took the bag with a small, “Thank you”, and started to look through it. Her eyes shined with childlike glee at the macaroons and they shined even brighter when she pulled out the blue-ray disk. She quickly ran over to Roy and showed him the movie asking if he could put it into whatever he uses.

It was interesting to see Roy smile and ruffle her hair. He looked calm and happy, used to the role of caretaker. Gently he took the disk, removed the plastic before opening it up, and walked over to the TV in the main room next to the kitchen and popped the disk in.

“Hey, I’ll go grab some blankets. Do you want to take your shoes off Marinette?” He asked gently as he moved toward the linen closet. She nodded and slipped them off with a slightly flushed face. She watched as Roy sunk down on the couch where he patted at one of the seats. Cautiously she walked toward the coach sitting in a rocking chair a few feet away from Roy. You could never be too cautious, at least that’s what her mama used to say. “Used to”, that felt wrong.

When Jason walked back into the room he watched as the small girl hugged her legs close to her chest, face hidden behind her arms. It was a heartbreaking sight, a sight that felt familiar as it pulled against his heartstrings as he remembered doing the same thing around the same age.

“Thanks Jaybird.” Roy whispered as he took the blankets from his hands. He hadn’t even noticed that he was approaching. He was out of it today, and not in a good way. The opening narration of Remmy the Rat began to play through the speakers as Roy slowly and carefully wrapped a weighted blanket around the young girl's shoulders. He watched as Roy talked to her quietly for a few moments, never initiating touch, waiting to see what she would say or do. It was always interesting to watch Roy act like a father as he treated his kid far differently than either of his dads had treated him. After a few minutes Roy stepped away, back to his spot on the couch not saying another word as the young girl collected herself before looking up to watch the movie with tear soaked cheeks that stabbed at Jason’s heart.

• • •

It was around the middle of the movie that little Mari fell asleep. She had slowly begun to relax as the movie progressed until she had blinked a few times very slowly, then her eyes fell and stayed shut. She was emotionally exhausted from the day and had simply passed out, poor kid.

Jason watched the kid, but not in a weird way. He was worried, and he didn’t know what to do. The kid was stuck here, despite the fact that she’s not a citizen, and from what little information he could find with little time at his disposal, he couldn’t find any family that could take her now that she was an orphan. Jason wondered if this was how Bruce felt when he had met all of them before he decided to make them his little band of misfit toys. He often felt this way when he saw Lian, but it was never as strong of an emotion as he felt now for this child he had only met a few hours ago.

“You look constipated; which means you’re trying a failing to show some form of deep emotion. So spit it out, what’s going on in that thick skull of yours?”

Roy asked quietly, turning his head slightly to give him a side eye before turning back to the movie. Jason rolled his eyes and let out a long frustrated sigh. “I don’t know Roy. There’s just a lot going on, especially after the last attack.”

Roy quickly paused the movie and turned to look Jason in his eyes. There wasn’t any pity in his gaze, but there was empathy and an openness that showed he wouldn’t judge.

“It was Joker’s fault. So many people died because of the Joker, her parents,” he firmly gestured to the sleeping girl with tear stained cheeks sleeping on the small chair, whisper yelling so as to not wake her; “are no longer alive because of his actions today and Bruce still won’t get rid of him.” Jason took in a deep shuddering breath, he needed to control himself, he couldn’t let the green creep in. That wouldn’t do anything, it wouldn’t do any good for anyone, especially right now.

“I’ve tried to kill him,” Jason admitted shakily, “I’ve tried, but he always finds a way to stop me. I don’t understand how he cares for that-that creature more than his own- than me.” A heavy silence fell between them only broken up by the gentle snores to their right.

“I don’t want her to feel this way, I don’t want her to go through the same pain I went through at her age.” Jason continued. When I was trying to find out any information on her, a potential family member that could take her home I found that her grandmother on her dad’s side died in a motorcycle accident, her grandfather died of a heart attack, on her mom’s side it looks like her mother was disowned for unknown reasons, which means that they probably would not take in her daughter. That leaves her with Social Services, and despite Bruce’s efforts I still don’t trust it; or as a street kid.”

Roy contemplated everything that Jason had just told him. They had been through a lot together, in fact Jason and Star were the reasons that he was still alive, the reason he believed that he was doing a good job at being a father, they helped him keep going when everyone else had given up on him. Roy glanced at the sleeping girl, then back to Jason. Jason looked at the girl the same way Roy looked at his own daughter, with a sort of protective love. Roy could tell that Jason cared about the kid; he probably saw himself Marinette. It only made sense that he would feel extra protective around the girl as no one would want the same trauma that you’ve faced placed onto another.

“Well, what do you think is the best thing to do Jason? I know for a fact that you’re not going to be letting Bruce or any of the other bats, besides maybe Oracle, anywhere near her. If what you say is true, and she really has no family that will willingly take her in, then what’s your plan?”

Another sigh escaped Jason as he leaned his head back so that it was hanging off the couch. “I don’t know Roy, maybe we can drop her off in Metropolis and let her be taken care of there. They have a better system and I’m sure she would be adopted by someone that would love her.”

Roy nodded, he could see the good in the plan, but there was something else. Jason was still frustrated and didn’t like the idea. “But?” He prodded.

“‘But’,” Jason said emphasizing the ‘t’, “the thought of doing that makes my skin crawl in all of the wrong ways.”

Roy hummed. This isn't some easy or light hearted task. The kid had just lost both of her parents in the most sudden way possible, then she was taken away from the area and to the house of complete strangers, and to top it off she may never be able to return to her home country; but if she does she would be put into the foster system with no stability ot time to heal. Of course she also had the possibility of being taken in by her grandparents in China, but there was a chance that they would treat her poorly since they had disowned her mother, and they may only take her in because of obligation. Nothing about this was easy, none of it was simple. If Jason wanted to somehow become her legal guardian then he would need to earn her trust, he would have to either legally become alive again or find a believable identity that would allow for him to adopt her.

There were just so many variables, and it was too late for this conversation, yet not late enough.

“Lian’s coming home tomorrow, we can figure this out while they play.”

Jason nodded, mostly to himself. “You’re right. We need to give her more time to process everything, I still need to process today.”

“Did you have a panic attack?” Roy asked worriedly. Now that he was thinking about it there must have been lots of explosions, even if most of them were disabled. Then there was the clown and how he just paraded around on the rooftops. Jason had had a few before when he returned back to the apartment after a Joker breakout, it was horrifying. Jason just gave him a sad, strained smile.

“No, thankfully.”

“Right,” Roy said as he slowly stood up, stretching his arms up dramatically. “Well let's move her to Kori’s room tonight. She’s still visiting Tamaran.”

Jason nodded, following suit. Slowly he approached the sleeping girl, televising his movements despite the fact that she was still asleep before gently picking the girl up. Roy watched with a gentle smile as he slowly walked to Kori’s room, trying not to wake her as he brought her to bed. He had watched Jason do the same thing with Lian, playing the role of older brother perfectly. Now, it looked like he might be stepping into a new role. The same role that Roy carried right now. But who knew what would happen. As Roy settled in for the night in his own room a sudden thought came to his mind. Jason was always complaining how Bruce had a “type” or MO for the people he really cared about; and that was that they needed to have black hair and/or blue eyes. The girl that Jason saved and now is attached to has black hair and…blue eyes. He quickly turned into his pillow and started laughing his butt of, hoping that no one would be able to hear him. A couple tears slipped down his cheeks as he thought to himself, ‘so it’s a learned trait after all.’

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ggomos-maribat · 11 months

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Secrets, Masks, and Family Gatherings

Cross posted from AO3

It had been nearly a year since she moved to Gotham City, but the skyline seemed new each time she went out for night patrol. Ladybug zipped to another building with Red Hood to gain a higher vantage point. Her wings fluttered slightly with the breeze behind her.

"All clear here." Red Hood pressed on his comms.

"Okay. We'll wait for an update from Robin and Spoiler then we're finished for tonight if there aren't any problems," Batman replied.

"Yeah, it's a miracle we get to finish up early." The vigilante rolled his shoulders and stretched his arms. "So LB . . ."

"This small talk again?" Ladybug groaned.

Red Hood put his arms up. "Hey, I'm just curious."

"What is it now?"

"I was just wondering what made you transfer to Gotham." He perched on the ledge right beside her. "You defeated your city's villain, right? You had nothing to do anymore."

He's not wrong. She often thought about it herself. Her past and responsibilities clung to her like unshakeable nightmares. Ladybug knew the moment she gained guardianship that her life had no chance of reverting back to 'normal'.

"I think you know how it feels," she said.

"How what feels?"

Ladybug sighed, slumping. "When we defeated Hawkmoth, I thought we could finally rest easy. But I couldn't. I was restless, and between that and taking care of the aftermath, I realized I was missing the superhero life." She shrugged. "That's why I'm here now---it's inescapable. As the guardian, I decided it was better for the Miraculi to be used for good instead of sitting unused."

"Ah, classic PTSD like all the Bats." Red Hood nodded.

She snorted. "But that doesn't mean I still live a restless life. In fact, I've gotten used to life in Gotham."

"But why Gotham of all places?"

"The Miracle Box told me something. I can't divulge anything more."

"Just like you don't divulge anything about your civvy life."

She rolled her eyes, elbowing him on the side, which caused him to flinch dramatically. Bats and their nosiness. "Hey, we're not that close yet for me to reveal my identity. And it's a fair game. I don't know any of you either."

"I'm surprised B hasn't dug up anything on you. And he has contingency plans for all the JL members."

"I told you, the glamor protects us."

At first, she'd been hesitant to work with the vigilantes and at the same time, Batman had been wary around her especially when she was entering their territory. But she had gotten to know them well over time, despite not knowing who were behind the masks. She could also tell they'd grown to trust her like one of theirs.

"All clear near Crime Alley," Spoiler reported over the line.

"Good. Thank you for your help tonight, Ladybug. Everyone else, back to the cave."

Ladybug stood up abruptly. "Thank you too. I'll join the Signal during the weekend. He mentioned he might need some help."

"Oooh, you seem in a hurry to get back home." Red Hood tilted his head.

"No, I'm not spilling anything about my plans for the night," she huffed. "And I need to go because I'm hungry and my timer's running because you forced me to use my Lucky Charm to win that bet with Red Robin."

"The look on his face was priceless."

Ladybug threw her yoyo. "Good night, Hood."

After double checking that none of the others had followed or tracked her, Ladybug detransformed and walked back to her apartment building. She could practically hear the coffee calling to her; she'd drown in it endlessly whenever patrol nights ran late and she needed commissions to finish afterwards.

In the empty elevator, Tikki hovered up to her shoulder. "It's a good thing patrol ended early, Marinette."

"It's not a good sign, Tikki." She smiled grimly. "I think something big's going to happen. A massive breakout or a big plan by the Rogues."

The kwami hummed. "You can try to get plenty of rest before that happens."

"No promises. I have twelve designs I have to submit to Audrey by next week."

Just as she headed to her apartment door, her phone rang a familiar customized ringtone. Tikki also gasped in excitement upon seeing the caller's name.

Marinette tucked her phone between her ear and shoulder while jamming her keys through the doorknob. "Hey, Adrien. What's up?"

"Hey Nette. Done with patrol?"

"We finished early tonight. The Rogues are suspiciously silent. How are you? How's Plagg?" Marinette stepped into the room and Tikki turned on the lights.

"Currently pigging out on cheese. As always." She could almost see her best friend's eye-roll. "Anyway, I called to tell you that I'll be visiting Gotham on Friday. Wayne Tech is partnering up with our brand and Chloe and Kagami are coming with me."

"That's great news, Adrien! I'll bake something special---or should I take you out to a restaurant? I know some good ones near my place."

Adrien chuckled. "Pick anything you want. I'll tell Chloe to send you our schedule so we can reserve lunch or dinner with you and----no, Plagg! I'm not telling her to buy extra cheese!" He heaved out a breath. "At night we can have a short . . . run. You can introduce me to your new partners."

"They're not my partners. It's just you, kitty cat," Marinette said pointedly. "We're just allies."

"You gush about winning prank wars against them."

"It's fun being around them but that's it!"

He laughed. "It's okay. I'm glad you're enjoying your time over there. Send my regards to Damian."

A knock suddenly sounded on the door.

"Speaking of Damian, I think he's here. Gotta go, and say hi to Plagg and the others for me!"

"Pfft, you keep stroking his ego."

With one last goodbye, Marinette threw her phone on the couch and ran to the door. She hadn't expected her boyfriend to drop by, but she was glad he could make time for her. She knew Damian was as busy as her and she was worried he'd end up not taking care of himself like she always did.

"Dames, I thought you had work at the company for the whole night." She gave him a tight hug and a light kiss as soon as she opened the door.

Damian pecked her cheek, winding his arms around her waist. "They let us go early and I thought I should surprise you."

"Good, because I'm surprised," she beamed. "Are you staying the night?"

"Of course, habibti."

Damian Wayne had been an unexpected addition to her Gotham life. They had met in the park while they were working on their sketches---him, a portrait drawing and her, an inspired dress design. Before she knew it, she was with someone who she believed she could spend the rest of her life with. Damian was her support, her confidant in all aspects except her secret identity (though the thought of finally telling him had crossed her mind too many times).

"Are you hungry? I haven't had dinner yet and I was just thinking of cooking instant ramen . . ."

"We can have dinner together, but . . . there is something I need to talk to you about." Damian rubbed her arms, gazing at her intently.

Marinette's heart quickened as she subconsciously thought about all types of bad news. Did he get hurt? Did I do something? Is he going to break up with me?

"Habibti, love, I can already read your thoughts." He kissed the tip of her nose. "It's not anything terrible."

"What is it?"

Damian took a deep breath. "I think it's time for you to meet my family."

Marinette felt her jaw drop. "Your . . . your family? Are you sure about this?"

For the longest time, Damian had expressed his distaste at the thought of her meeting the Waynes. At first, she'd thought that it was the status difference, but he seemed more worried about his father and brothers doing something crazy.

On the other hand, they had both flown to Paris four months ago for Damian to officially meet her parents and friends. It had gone smoothly, and Damian was convinced that the opposite would happen if she met his family.

"Yes. I've thought about it." He sat down with her as she ran her thumb over the back of his hand. "They're already asking about you and if I stall for any longer, I know they will start prying into your life."

"Oh . . ."

Damian had talked about his brothers before, and Marinette saw them sometimes in news and tabloids. In her impression, they didn't seem too bad.

"But don't worry," he assured her, "I will be with you the whole time. We'll have lunch at the manor tomorrow---"

"Wait, tomorrow?"

"Is it too sudden? I worked with your free schedule and---"

"No, no, I'm definitely free tomorrow." Her eyes widened. "Let's meet them tomorrow. It just caught me off guard. I have to prepare my outfit and buy a gift and----oh no, what would your brothers like? What about your father and Alfred?"

Damian smiled gently. "You don't have to concern yourself with that. You’ll make a wonderful first impression."

"But---"

"I have to warn you about my brothers instead." His lip curled. "They will be a handful."

She laughed a little. "You already warned me a million times."

"Because I can't overstate how troublesome they'll be."

Instead of her reply, Marinette's growling stomach echoed in the room. She blushed as Damian pulled her from her seat, kissing her cheek. "It seems that we have an emergency to take care of first. I'll help you cook."

---

Marinette smoothed down the remnant wrinkles on her skirt. She'd chosen a simple pleated dress to wear to her first family lunch with the Waynes. At the same time, the car pulled up in front of the Wayne Manor. It was just as intimidating as she remembered---she'd only ever been to the manor once, to wait for Damian.

"Nervous?" Damian touched her hand.

"Should I be?"

"Never," he replied firmly. "If anything, I should apologize ahead of time. Also, there is no reason to be nervous. If they aren't busy acting insufferable, they'll be impressed by you."

Though the words were warm, they did little to calm her heart. These were the Waynes, royalty of Gotham. She even found it hard to believe that she was with Damian in the first place.

"Come on." Damian helped her out of the car and guided her to the front steps. He pushed through the large wooden doors and they were both met with a broad-shouldered man rushing down the main hallway.

"Todd," Damian called out. "Where on earth are you going?"

The man---Jason, she assumed---stopped, glanced at them, and gave her a quick once-over. Marinette noticed the motorcycle helmet he held on one hand.

"Demon brat." Jason tilted his head. "I have work to do."

"But lunch---"

"I promised to drop by. I didn't say I'll stay." He gave Marinette a single nod and went off.

"I bet he had another fight with Father," Damian muttered under his breath. Marinette squeezed his hand.

"I'm sorry," he murmured.

"Don't apologize. Let's go," she told him softly.

Damian led her to the dining hall where the others were already sat around the table. Curious stares burned through Marinette, making her duck her head away. Damian himself was unfazed, wearing a half-scowl as he helped her to her seat.

"Master Damian, Miss Marinette, welcome." Just in time, Alfred strolled in with the food. She gave the butler a meek smile.

Then, she took a look at the Waynes one by one. The poised Bruce Wayne was at the head of the table, his presence the most prominent in the room. Across from her was Dick Grayson, who looked like he was studying her. Positioned beside him were Tim and Stephanie, both whispering to each other. Finally, Barbara was at her other side, offering her a small smile of comfort.

"I'm glad to finally meet you, Marinette," Bruce greeted. "Damian talks a lot about you."

Marinette momentarily eyed the array of silverware near her plate which she did not know how to use. "The pleasure is all mine . . . sir."

"Please call me Bruce." He gestured to the food at the center. "Go ahead and help yourself. Alfred cooked a feast for us."

She cleared her throat. "Thank you, Bruce."

"How did you both meet?" Tim questioned.

"In the park, Drake. We were both drawing. I already told you," Damian butted in.

Tim waved him off. "I want to hear it from her, not you."

"I---"

"It's okay, Damian." Marinette nudged him a little. "I was sketching in the park when Titus came to me. Damian was drawing a picture of me while I was absorbed in my designs and accidentally let go of his leash. Titus led me to him and it all started there."

"You design?" Barbara asked.

Warmth crept to her cheeks. "It's my dream to become a fashion designer. I just do a few commission pieces here and there. I'm trying to take small steps to reach my goal."

A quick glimpse at her boyfriend told her that he was radiating all the pride in the world.

"Little D mentioned you came from Paris?" Dick sipped on his drink. "Why did you decide to leave?"

"Oh, please don't get it all wrong. I know Paris earned a bad rep after the Hawkmoth fiasco but that was years ago. I just decided to move here to find more opportunities for myself," Marinette answered smoothly.

"Why Gotham of all places, if I may ask?" Bruce chimed in. "Admittedly, this isn't the friendliest city in the country."

"Father, stop with the interrogation," said Damian.

"It's okay, Dames, I don't mind. Promise." She squeezed his hand under the table.

"Fine. But do not answer anything if you're not comfortable."

Marinette looked at Bruce. "One of my friend's parents who works in fashion suggested Gotham. There's a low competition among the designers here so it might be easier for me to make a name for myself."

"That's not a bad move actually," Tim remarked.

"So back in Paris, did you get to meet any of the heroes?" Dick leaned in.

"Grayson," Damian warned.

"That's---"

A sharp ring blasted out, cutting off her statement. Bruce fished out his phone, a muscle on his face twitched, and he abruptly stood up. "There's an emergency at WE."

"Emergency?" Tim peered at his phone as well.

"Yes, Tim. You're needed. Also Stephanie." The eldest Wayne looked around the table and uttered monotonously. "I apologize for cutting this short. We have an urgent matter at the company---"

"Father."

Bruce shook his head. "This absolutely cannot wait, Damian."

The three filed out of the room in a flash. Marinette, stunned at the sudden interruption, saw Dick also checking the emergency.

"Sorry, Babs and I need to go." He stood up and picked up his coat, going around the table to help Barbara. "It's nice to meet you, Marinette."

"Let's go out for drinks sometime, okay?" Barbara reached over and patted her shoulder before they left.

The disappearance of the Waynes left her fidgeting with her fingers and wondering what the big emergency could be. She peeked at Damian hesitantly. "Do you need to go too?"

His jaw clenched. "I think so."

"You can go." She cupped his cheek, pecking the other.

"I can't tell you---"

"I know. I won't ask, I promise," she assured softly. He didn't have to explain anything to her; she'd gladly wait for him to open up. "Go."

"I'm sorry."

"Damian."

He pressed a firm kiss on her forehead. "Alfred will drive you to your apartment. I'll come to you later, alright?"

"Okay."

She could hear Alfred offering her food to take home and guiding her to the car, but it was all a blur. Marinette knew she had nothing to do with what happened yet she was afraid that it would sour Damian's relationship with his family. Her fists clenched around her skirt as she looked down, feeling Alfred's keen eyes checking on her through the rearview mirror.

"Please do not take it personally, Miss," Alfred said softly.

"Yes. Thank you," she whispered.

Finding nothing better to do than to check her phone, Marinette noticed the numerous alerts plastered all over her screen. Arkham breakout. Fuck. No wonder it was so quiet last night. There were a number of messages from Red Hood (which was directed from her burner phone), asking her if she could help.

Marinette looked out the window. Sure enough, there seemed to be a racket coming from the other streets.

"Umm, excuse me Alfred?" She searched for a safe alley to transform. "Can---can you drop me off at the cafe over there?"

"Are you certain? There are Rogues running around the city at this time."

"I'll stay inside. Don't worry."

Fortunately, the butler did what she asked and she made a beeline to the cafe as soon as she stepped foot out the car. Transform. Connect comms. Head to the upper east side. The same words ran through her head.

Her phone rang suddenly right before she could say her transformation words.

"Adrien! Can't talk right now. Arkham breakout. Big emergency," she said hurriedly into the phone.

"Oops. Need backup?" He asked.

"Maybe not. I don't know." She massaged her temple. "Can I ask you guys to standby? You can take your power-ups just in case."

"That's fine. Stay safe," Adrien said, "How did lunch go by the way?"

"Gah! Not now, kitty!"

"Right, right, right. Emergency in Gotham. I'll hang up now."

Marinette sighed. "It was a disaster, by the way. I'll text the details later."

"Aaaand Chloe's yelling at me to spill right now. You should go."

---

Ladybug swiftly landed beside Nightwing when she arrived and the Bats had just finished capturing Penguin and his men. On the next rooftop over, she could see Robin with Batman---they were loud enough for her to deduce that they were having an argument but she couldn't make out the exact words.

"What's up with them?" Ladybug frowned. She had always known Robin as the cold, closed-off one in the group but it was her first time encountering a complete outburst.

"Personal stuff. Happened earlier," Nightwing replied briefly. "I'm surprised you came. I thought you had an appointment today."

She bit her tongue. "Uhh, it got cancelled."

Batman told Robin something which had him storming off, grappling away to another direction. Their comms buzzed to life.

"Ladybug, team up with Robin. The Riddler's in the next avenue," Batman ordered curtly.

Ladybug turned to Nightwing with wide eyes. The stress was obvious in the sag of his shoulders and tight grip on his escrima sticks.

"He's mad at all of us," he explained. "It's better if it's you who joins him."

Ladybug only nodded, throwing her yoyo to follow Robin. Her curiosity was growing by the minute, but she focused on thinking of ways to calm down her fellow vigilante. If he became too riled up, he could lose focus and get injured.

She followed him close enough for him to hear her. "Robin, you have to slow down."

"No, I have to get back as soon as possible."

"Get back to where?"

She only received silence.

Frustrated Robin equals not a good Robin. Ladybug leapt to match his pace and blocked his way. He glared at her. "Move."

"Look, this is the Riddler we're facing. He's still dangerous and if we're not careful, we'll get caught in his traps."

"I don't care. I just need to get this over with. Stay out of my way."

When he pushed past her, she had half the mind to wrap him in her yoyo and deliver him back to Batman for a time-out. She huffed as she followed him. You're not the only one having a bad day, grumpy boy. Robin anchored his grappling gun to a faraway building and at the second he jumped off, he careened to the side, swept away by an elaborate trap by the Riddler.

Before she knew it, Ladybug was after him. Her teeth gritted and her legs ran a mile as she groaned out loud. "This is exactly what I was just talking about!"

They were trapped in an empty little box with a puzzle lock on its door.

Ladybug released a shaky breath.

The worst argument I've had with one of the Gotham vigilantes was when I interfered with Red Hood's mission and he got overprotective. She stared at Robin, who was relentlessly kicking the metal walls. But that might change today.

"Robin," she called out. "I understand that you're mad at the others but it doesn't mean you can act reckless while you're in that suit."

"No. You don't understand." He raked a hand through his hair. "I told them. I already told them and they still . . .Do you know what they did?"

She opened her mouth to reason with him again but he beat her to it. "I only wanted at least an hour. No interruptions." Robin clicked his tongue. "For them, there is nothing more important than capturing these criminals even if there are other heroes who will help. And Father had to be the first to run out."

Ladybug gaped. She knew the Bats were somewhat of a family but it was Robin's first time referring to Batman as a father. "Are you sure you should be telling me---"

"Yes, so you know how unfair they acted earlier." He twirled his katanas, looking for a simple way out. "I only wanted them to meet my girlfriend. I brought her home. And they all left for this. Father didn't give a sincere apology and my brothers either don't care or are suspicious of her."

Wait . . .

She thought she'd stumble back, but her feet were surprisingly still planted on the ground. Lunch. Earlier. Girlfriend. Shit. Her breath was knocked out of her lungs as she processed Robin's words.

Damian's words.

She wanted to laugh. All this time, she'd been anxious about telling him the truth when he was already living the same life as her. The Waynes, the sudden emergencies, staying out late. Merde, it all makes sense now. It was ridiculous how she didn't recognize her own boyfriend.

"It was a mistake after all. I shouldn't have invited her to come," Robin sighed. "They're wary because she's a civilian---she'll be my weakness if anyone finds out about our connection. They know that, which is why they don't approve."

Her first instinct was to tell him that it wasn't true, but an identity reveal would be too much given their current situation. Ladybug pieced her words with care. "I'm sure they'll listen if you tell them how you feel. Your girlfriend will understand too."

"We don't communicate healthily, in case you haven't figured that out."

Her heart was still drumming against her ribcage. Damn it. Marinette would work better in consoling him. Ladybug's just a colleague. "I know. But a few words can go a long way. Tell them you'll be careful. Ask them to help protect your girlfriend if anything ever goes wrong."

As Robin lowered his gaze, an urge to come up to him and hold his hands washed over her. She counted the seconds of silence that passed. It looked like he was thinking deeply about it.

"I apologize for getting you involved," he said. "And for mindlessly telling you about my personal life."

She laughed nervously. "Ah . . . it's okay to vent out sometimes."

Yeah, and your story definitely did not reveal your whole identity.

Robin turned towards the puzzle lock. "Should we attempt to crack the code in his puzzle?"

It wasn't a simple coded lock---it was a six-wheeled puzzle that was embedded onto the door. "By the looks of it, it will take us hours if we go through that route. I think I have a better idea. Are there any cameras here?"

He surveyed the small enclosure. "I see two by the corners."

"Good. Break them and cover the lens." Ladybug touched her earrings while he did what she said. I have spare cookies in my purse. That should do. "We can't unlock the door by ourselves, but Tikki can phase through and let us out."

"The tiny god-being in your Miraculous."

"Yeah, that's Tikki." She smiled. I'll have to introduce them sometime. "Close your eyes?"

After making sure that the cameras weren't functioning and he couldn't see her, she detransformed, motioned to the puzzle lock and sent Tikki out.

"Before we were trapped, I saw other civilians captured in similar boxes," said Robin. "Riddler should be camped east."

Marinette crossed the gap between them and tapped on the back of his hand. GOOD. RIDDLER FIRST THEN FREE OTHERS.

"Morse?" Robin scrunched his nose. "Are you also cautious about revealing your voice?"

YES.

"Tt. That is too much. Most of us don't even use a modulator." He shifted. "I doubt that I will be able to recognize your voice."

She pursed her lips. We'll see about that.

---

Ladybug was lounging on the top of Wayne Tower as the vigilantes finished up catching the remaining inmates. She used the time to fully wrap her head around her discovery. Damian. Robin. One by one, she also pieced together the identities of the others. It was so stupidly obvious all this time.

She heard a familiar zip of the grappling gun. It wasn't Red Hood who she expected to check on her but it was Robin.

"The Rogues are secured. There are rumors that the Joker orchestrated the entire thing but he wasn't around during the attacks," Robin reported. "The injured civilians are being rushed to the hospitals. No deaths."

Ladybug didn't break her gaze at the horizon. "That's good."

". . . Ladybug?"

"Yeah?"

He sat next to her. "The people in Paris . . . did they get used to these kinds of incidents as well? When Hawkmoth was active?"

"With an akuma attack nearly every week, yes you can say we had no choice but to get used to it."

"Was there a lot of animosity towards Parisians after the truth got out?"

"Only a little." She looked down at her hands. "Mostly we receive pity. The press made it clear how the akumas affected everyone's lives."

"My girlfriend . . . came from Paris too. I always wonder what it was like but I never wanted to pry."

Damian . . . She bit her lip. She had been dodgy about the topic, but she should know better than to withhold her feelings about it. Damn it, this will be so awkward when he finally finds out.

"You're worried about her safety," she said.

Robin nodded. "I wonder if she feels afraid during Rogue attacks. Or just living in Gotham. I never want to find out that she was in a dangerous situation and I wasn't there to . . ."

"You don't have to worry. If she's from Paris, then she's strong. Everyone in my city had been on the edge of death one way or another. Our instincts were sharpened. We can block out our fears and emotions." Ladybug looked up at him. "I'm sure she can handle danger."

"But it's different here. There's no magic to bring things back to normal. It's permanent." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I won't know what to do if something happens to her because of me."

"I think . . . you should ask her first---"

"I should break it off with her."

"What?!"

Ladybug nearly slapped a hand over her mouth. I said that too quickly. Thankfully, Robin didn't seem to notice anything.

"I've been thinking a lot," he continued. "I can't bring myself to tell her about this. About me. The mere fact of her knowing puts a target on her back."

Dear kwamis, please keep me from pushing my boyfriend off this rooftop before gets the chance to find out about me.

"Wait." She began slowly. "Don't you think she deserves to know before you try to make that decision for her?"

"What am I supposed to do?" His eyebrows furrowed. "I . . . I expect her to react badly. I've learned from today that I should keep her from getting involved any further. It's either I drag her into this dangerous life or I keep hurting her with my lies."

"You shouldn't start assuming things without trying first. I'm sure she trusts you and she'll come to understand everything in time. There's always a compromise." Her lips spoke the words before she could think. "You're not doing any good by cutting yourself off all of a sudden."

"If I end it now, she can eventually move on and stay safe. Nevermind how I feel," he argued, "I can let her go and she'll be safe."

"When I told you about how Parisians are strong, that's not what I meant." Tears pricked the back of her eyes as she raised her voice. "She can stay in a relationship with you and keep herself safe because she's strong. Can't you trust her as much as she trusts you?"

"I can't risk it. She's important to me."

"If she is, then talk to her. If you don't give her a chance to decide, you're not any better than your father or brothers."

"How would you even know how she feels?"

Ladybug's face contorted into a sharp glare. "I just know. I know better than anyone, Damian."

Anger morphed into shock as he stared at her. ". . . What did you just call me?"

She made a quick sweep of the area to make sure that they were in a blind spot. Then, she wasted no time standing up on the ledge, shuffling until the balls of her foot touched the edge. Then, "I'm not defenseless, merde. And I really wanted to wait until the end of the day but . . . Tikki, détransformation."

Marinette watched Robin's face go through a storm of emotions. His jaw hung slack and his fists uncurled while he stood up to look at her.

". . . Marinette?" he breathed out.

She gently touched his cheeks with both hands, peeling off his mask to reveal his glistening eyes. "I can't believe you wanted to break up with me."

"Marinette . . ." He pulled them both away from the ledge and held her, mumbling 'I'm sorry' over and over again. His head was buried on her neck, with his hands pressed against her back.

"You. It's you," said Damian. "Of course it's you."

"It's me." She rubbed down his back. "For record, I only found out because---"

"Because I told you what happened."

She chuckled. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, habibti." He pulled away a little to touch her cheek. "I was going to make a stupid decision."

"Are you upset that I kept this from you?"

He shook his head, kissing her head. "I can't and I don't have the right to be. I was keeping my secret from you as well."

"Come on, let's go home first. Then we can talk about . . . everything."

---

Ladybug swung into the night with a weight lifted off her chest. She and Damian had a long talk about their identities and relationship. They'd both agreed not to tell the other heroes until they were ready to. For her, it was better that they kept their secrets between themselves first and slowly ease into revealing the truth to her friends and his family.

She breathed in the breeze. Robin wasn't anywhere to be seen, but a group of vigilantes were. Nightwing. Hood. RR. What are they doing there?

The three immediately fell into a hush when she landed next to them.

"Hey, LB," Red Robin greeted.

She put her hands on her hips. "What are you doing?"

The brothers shared a look before Red Hood spoke. "Robin told you about his girlfriend, right?"

"Yeah . . ." she trailed off, dragging the syllable.

"We think something's up with her," said Nightwing.

"I'm sorry?"

"Sketchy stuff," Red Robin explained, shifting on his feet. "Well, we can't tell you who she is---secret identities and all---but she's from Paris. She's friends with Hawkmoth's kid."

Ladybug scoffed. "Adrien? He's not like Hawkmoth. I know him personally and he had nothing to do with that man's crimes. Trust me."

"Hmm, yeah but she's also close with the mayor's daughter. That one who also sided with Hawkmoth."

"You mean Chloe Bourgeois? She's proven that she's changed." And unbeknownst to the public, she was a hero again, this time under another alias.

"But she's so secretive. There's definitely something going on with her." Nightwing rubbed his chin. Ladybug wanted to bang her head in the nearest wall or groan to the heavens.

"What's wrong with being secretive? Aren't you guys the same?" she narrowed her eyes.

"That's not the main cause of our suspicion," said Red Hood.

"We weren't convinced about her reason for moving to Gotham, so we dug around," Red Robin continued, "She said something about more career opportunities but that's just a cover. We found classified files on superheroes in her apartment, including info on Justice League members. I bet she already knows about Robin's identity."

"You snooped in her apartment?!"

"It was an investigation," Nightwing snorted.

Her eye twitched. A secret had never felt so difficult to conceal. "I can't believe you'd break the privacy of a civilian just because you had baseless assumptions."

Red Robin winced. "Uhh . . . if you put it that way . . ."

She crossed her arms. "No, I know what this is really about. You're being overprotective of Robin; you can't accept that he now has a significant other and you think he's being naive about his choices. You think he's going to get hurt badly." She paused for effect. "Because you don't want him to repeat the same mistakes as you all did."

The look on their masked faces told her that she had hit the target better than any therapist they might have encountered.

Red Hood was first to deny. "We're not protective of the brat. We're trying to eliminate a potential danger."

"His harmless civilian girlfriend?"

"Think about it, LB. Why would she have sensitive files on the heroes?" Red Robin asked. "You can't deny that that's suspicious."

I don't know, maybe because she's a hero herself?!

Ladybug sighed heavily. Damian is really going to kill them when he finds out. "Does Batman know about this?"

"Nope, but we'll tell him when we gather enough evidence," Nightwing answered. "We're just trying to get Oracle to crack into her laptop. The security on it is so heavy, it's insane."

Why is it a curse that I asked Max to protect my laptop? There are files on the Miraculi in there!

She discreetly took her yoyo and put it on the recording function. "Let me get this straight. So you're all investigating and prying into the life of Robin's girlfriend without the knowledge of Batman even at the cost of your identities and everyone's safety?"

"We're not risking anyone's safety---"

"It's more of research but---"

She pursed her lips. "And you broke into her apartment, went through her things and currently you're trying to hack into her personal computer?"

"Regular vigilante work---"

"Good, we're on the same page then." She smiled widely. Sinisterly. "Tikki, détransformation."

Pale. Pale faces were all she could see as the three vigilantes were engulfed in utter shock. Marinette held her smile, clasping her hands together behind her back. I can't wait to see how they try to make it up to me. Mon dieu! I'm going to mess with them.

And as a cherry on top, Robin arrived at the scene, immediately putting her behind him when he saw that she was in civilian form. He directed an accusatory glare at his brothers. "What is going on here?!"

#maribat fanfic #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maribat #maribat fic #daminette #established daminette #damian x marinette

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seekinghelp-adhd · 6 months

Text

Chance Encounters (Maribat idea I'm throwing around)

Marinette moves to Gotham to pursue fashion. She has to finish her last year of high school at Gotham Academy and do an internship over the summer, but if she does she gets a massive scholarship to Gotham University. They were more than happy to help out Jagged Stone's famously young personal designer. Obviously, this puts her in classes with Damien Wayne, who barely talks and only ever calls his brothers by their last names.

Jagged insists on setting her up in a penthouse for her stay in Gotham, but Marinette argues that being a single girl living in a fancy penthouse is like asking one of the Gotham rogues to kidnap or rob her. They compromise on a nice apartment with a state of the art security system, one owned by Wayne Enterprises. Another tenant on her same floor, Jason Todd, stops by to scope out the new neighbor. He seems nice enough, but he keeps calling his older brother "Dick" and Marinette can't tell if that's his name or just an insult. Apparently he does this whenever someone new moves in to see if he’ll have to move. Marinette tells him to let her know if he does, Because she says if he doesn’t feel safe living in this building anymore, she definitely wants to leave. Jason is amused by this and decides she can stay.

It doesn't take long for Marinette to encounter Gotham's bad side. After a few months of living there she's seen plenty of rogue attacks. She's been lucky enough to stay out of it. After all, if the villains aren't magical there's nothing her Miraculous Cure could do anyway. Her luck is apparently starting to run out though, because now she's being held up at knife point in an alley. She obviously takes the guy down after years of being Ladybug and calls the cops. Dick Greyson is the officer on scene. He's incredibly friendly and is super impressed that she managed to take the guy down, but Dick has seen corrupt cops take people in for self-defense if it means someone else owes them a favor. He gives her his personal cell in case anything like this ever happens again.

Through all of this, Marinette has been spending more and more time with Damien at school. Marinette is hesitant to trust all the smiles and niceties around her after Lila's manipulation and wants to truly get to know someone before she puts any trust in them. Damien is the only exception. She was warned of his reputation as the "Ice Prince" of GA before meeting him and found talking with him to be incredibly refreshing. There was absolutely nothing fake or over the top about him. He was straightforward and down to earth and Marinette found comfort in that. She decided that she trusted him on day one. Likewise, Damien finds her skeptical attitude toward the other students to be incredibly validating. Growing up in the League, everyone was always pretending, even to the other assassins. You had to act a certain way around the right people, and manipulation was the key to survival. Marinette seems to notice people trying to take advantage of her and recognize when someone just wants a favor, and he respects that. Regretfully, and to Jon's great joy, Damien finds that he thinks of her as a friend.

Word eventually gets out that Marinette is Jagged's designer. This is, of course, entirely Jagged's fault. Some good comes out of all the extra attention, though, when she learns that the co-CEO of Wayne Enterprises is a fan of hers. He makes a commission for a new suit and, upon learning of her situation, offers her a position as his families personal designer over the summer to meet her internship qualifications for GU. They set up a meeting in person for her to take measurements once her midterms are over.

When everything is going well though, something has to throw a wrench into things. The Batfamily raids one of Black Mask's warehouses late one night, and Red Hood takes a few too many bullets and a pretty big hit to the head. The kevlar took most of the hits for him, but he's badly bruised and nursing a concussion. It's the concussion that causes him to stumble into the wrong window of his apartment building and scare his new neighbor half to death. Marinette does what she always does and helps the vigilante without question. To do that though, she has to take off his helmet. She assumed he would have a mask underneath or something. He does not. Marinette is not as surprised as she probably should be, and Jason is pissed when he wakes up. He realizes after a while that this isn't her fault. She's been taking care of him since he was too stubborn to go to Bruce, and if she wanted him or his family dead she could have done something about it by now. He decides to put a little trust in her, but keeps an eye on her just in case. This is what clues him into the situation. In her time here in Gotham, she's managed to meet all of the Wayne brothers aside from Duke, and she has no idea they're even related.

Jason, of course, finds this absolutely hilarious and wants to see just how far this madness can go. He sends Duke to her favorite coffee shop. He refers Marinette to the same dance studio as Cass. Marinette, completely on her own to Jason's disbelief, enters the same Ultimate Mecha Strike tournament as Stephanie and absolutely destroys her. Jason lives for the chaos and Marinette is completely oblivious.

Eventually, after a few AO3 tags (slow burn, feelings realization) Marinette and Damien start dating. Damien feels guilty for hiding that he's Robin from Marinette, but he knows that he'd be sharing more than just his own secret and doesn't want to betray his family's trust. He realizes that if he wants to share everything with her, his family has to trust her as well. She'll have to meet them. He tells Marinette all of this, and she shares that she's been keeping her own secret as well. Marinette hasn't told him about Ladybug even after Tikki has given her blessing, and she's been feeling guilty about it as well. She encourages him to tell her whenever he feels ready and assures him that she can wait until then. She trusts him, and she asks for that same trust in return.

Damien trusts her of course, and everything goes back to normal for about 30 seconds. Then, Damien starts trying to prepare her for the chaos she's about to find in his dining room that night. Little by little, Marinette starts to realize that she already knows every single person he's talking about. Only, that means so much more than she could have realized, because if Jason is Red Hood and his brother "the Dick" is Nightwing, then that means Dick Greyson is Nightwing and Damien's older brother, which makes Damien Robin, and oh no she thinks she knows exactly what that secret is that he didn't want to share yet.

#miraculous ladybug #batman #batfam #dc comics #dc universe #miraculous fanfic #marinette dupain cheng #damien wayne #maribat #daminette #fanfic #fanfiction

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1moonflame8 · 28 days

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Help

So I am looking for a Damianette.

Marinette runs away to Gotham because of Lila lying to everyone and she had to escape.

She bonds with Jason and if I remember right he takes care of her.

Damian is both afraid of her and sees her as a goddess.

She gives Bruce the biggest smack down ever and it causes Damian to move in with Jason and Marinette.

This is what I remember. Can I have some help finding this fanfiction please?

#marinette dupain cheng #maribat #batfam #jason todd #crossover #help request #damian wayne #daminette #dc x mlb #miraculous ladybug #batman

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mochegato · 5 months

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Thank You, But No

“Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!” Marinette uttered in a combination of mutters under her breath and exasperated groans. She was running late to meet Tim for dinner, which admittedly, wasn’t new or surprising, for either of them. It had become so common for one of them to be late, they had a punishment for it, whoever was late had to pay for the meal, or the next one if they missed the meal entirely. Which was fine for M. Co-CEO of a billion-dollar company, but she could NOT afford another dinner. Not even a Batburger dinner.

Not that Tim would force her to pay. He’d brush it off and pay with a smile, but she didn’t want him to have to because he was being generous, which of course he always was. He was the single most generous, thoughtful, considerate man she’d ever met, and she’d met Adrien, Luka, Nino, and her dad, so that was saying something. He was brilliant and funny and understanding. He was an absolutely amazing person and even better boyfriend.

Which isn’t to say they didn’t have issues… such as their propensity for getting wrapped up in whatever they were working on and being late for dates or missing them entirely, as mentioned previously. But they always made it up to each other and made sure the other knew how important they were. Or at least they tried. Maybe they weren’t as successful as Marinette had thought. That would explain why there was still an underlying feeling that something was off. It was tiny but niggling.

That feeling always stopped her from feeling too secure in their relationship and her actions. She wanted nothing more than to build a life with Tim, but that niggling was holding them back. They were just short of fully trusting each other. She knew why she was holding some things back. She wasn’t ready to tell a man she didn’t fully trust about the nineteen little gods and innumerable troublesome monks that came with being with her. But she couldn’t figure out what was holding him back if it wasn’t that her constantly being late made him doubt her commitment.

So she needed to get to the restaurant before him, but everything that afternoon seemed to be colluding against her. She’d narrowly avoided having to go to the warehouse or to a customer to handle random issues several times throughout the day, the issues seemingly getting increasingly significant as the day went on. She’d spent the entire day putting out fires and now was running late.

But! She was only a block from the restaurant. She could see the awning as she ran and although she was late, she was still earlier than Tim typically was, so there was a very good chance she would be able to beat him. She grinned as she picked up speed, weaving between people as she flew toward the crosswalk.

However, that is when Gotham struck. Just as she reached the street corner, a car exploded in front of her. Everyone immediately backed away and lowered themselves closer to the ground as they edged away from the explosion. Marinette, however, froze after crouching down rather than backing away.

She studied the scene taking in every detail, searching for anyone in need of immediate help and calculating where her help would most be needed. But nothing appeared to need attention. The explosion was controlled and concise. Only the car itself was damaged. She couldn’t even see any bodies, not even the driver.

She cautiously moved closer to the exploded car waiting for the rogue’s next move. But nothing happened. She stood warily and moved slowly toward the restaurant. In all likelihood, it would still operate as normal. The incident wasn’t large enough to garner Bat attention. The cops would appear eventually. Nothing that any Gothamite would take note of the next day, really.

She kept her movements tentative as she crossed the street. Something seemed off, something she couldn’t quite identify and it was disconcerting. It almost came as no surprise when she felt herself suddenly drifting off into a black void mid-step.

><><><><><><><><

Sensation flooded back to Marinette with a drawn-out groan. Her head was fuzzy. Her limbs were weighed down. She snuggled into the luxurious sheets wrapped around her. She loved these sheets. They were silky and soft and… she shot up into a seated position, eyes wide… and they were definitely not something she would be able to afford.

She instantly fell back onto the bed with a whimper, clutching her now throbbing head, and looked around through her fingers. It took a few seconds for the scene around her to register. She was in a grand room. Her entire apartment could fit in this one room. She eyed one of the paintings on the wall. Just that painting alone was worth more than everything in her apartment combined.

There was only one family she knew personally who could possibly have a room like this. She sat back up slowly to examine the room again. It had to be Wayne Manor… some hidden, supremely pretentious room in Wayne Manor. Oh no! Did she pass out and Tim found her and took her home to Wayne Manor! Instead of his own flat for some reason… Oh, this was a catastrophe. It was so embarrassing.

She collapsed back onto the bed with an embarrassed groan, her eyes clamped shut. There was a lot more gold than she had ever seen in Wayne Manor before. Why would he have taken her to Wayne Manor and this room? What was she supposed to get from this? There had to be a message in this bizarre behavior, right?

“Finally awake I see.” Marinette’s eyes shot open. That was not Tim’s voice. That wasn’t even a male voice, so it definitely wasn’t Alfred’s voice or one of Tim’s brothers either. She sat up warily, eyes darting around rapidly to find the source of the voice, which was considerably more difficult than it should have been in the cavernous room. She froze when she finally located it.

A tall, lithe, impeccably put together woman sitting in a shadowy corner leaned forward, but didn’t say anything, choosing instead to stand gracefully and observe Marinette impassively. After a few long seconds under her scrutiny, Marinette shifted uncomfortably in the bed, pulling the opulent sheets tighter around herself. Her gaze broke away, nervously taking in the room around them in greater detail, now knowing with certainty that they were not in Wayne Manor. “Where am I?”

The woman stalked closer to Marinette, her movements intimidating in their precision and control. “Somewhere far away from any heroes. Somewhere nobody can find without a guide. Somewhere not even your dear Detective would be able to find you.” Her voice was without the cruelty Marinette would have expected considering the content of her statement.

It was that contrast more than anything that made her register her words. “Who’s ‘my detective’? Do you mean Sabrina’s dad! He’s not a detective! He’s just an officer. And he can’t even find his badge half the time. Sabrina has to stop over and find it for him most mornings. Saying I’m somewhere he can’t find doesn’t narrow it down. It could be his guest room… except for the whole,” she motioned to the gilded room.

The woman studied Marinette with a complete lack of emotion on her face except for a single brow arching. The effect was like being completely transparent before her, which was a feeling Marinette was familiar with from that glass akuma. But this was worse. This felt more invasive, more revealing. “Interesting.”

“I’ve never had someone creepy say that to me and not have it mean something bad,” Marinette observed petulantly.

The woman’s lips seemed to strain to stay in their perfect pout. “You may want to keep your mouth closed if you value your tongue.” Despite the war on her lips, her voice was even and commanding, bordering on cold.

“You guys may have kidnapped the wrong person then,” Marinette grumbled.

“Oh no, no, I don’t believe we did,” she hummed, her eyes twinkled with something Marinette couldn’t identify.

The urge to reach up and feel for her earrings was overwhelming, but Marinette refused to give in. If they didn’t know who she was already, the movement would signal the truth. It was a clue Marinette was not willing to give. A blank façade fell across her face. “And I would recommend speaking clearly and sparsely when you are brought to the throne room,” the woman advised.

Marinette’s façade immediately dropped as her brows furrowed. “The what now?”

“My father is not known for looking kindly upon fools,” she continued as if Marinette hadn’t spoken.

Marinette blinked at her. “Did you just sa…”

“You will put those on,” the woman interrupted sharply and motioned toward the clothes laid out on the bed. “There are no cameras or microphones in here, so you don’t need to worry about that, if my word means anything to you.”

“It doesn’t,” Marinette answered instantly but did turn in the direction indicated, noticing the clothes for the first time. Even without touching them, she could tell they were extremely high quality both in the fabric and in production. It would easily be the nicest, most ornate outfit she had ever worn. It was truly an inspiration for her. However, it would also easily be the skimpiest thing she’d worn in public other than her bikini. It was so tight and skimpy, it looked like something a comic book artist designed for a female superhero. It was most definitely not what she wanted to wear when she was brought to face whoever was behind all this. “Thank you, but no. No, I would prefer not to.”

“You will put it on, or you will wear nothing,” the woman warned firmly, “which I’m sure my father will also enjoy, both the result and the process of stripping your current clothes from your body scrap by scrap.”

Marinette’s eyes widened with every word, absolutely confident in the honesty of her words. She looked back at the clothes that she would be wearing. “Right… I will… put those on.”

“Wise choice, you may yet survive the night,” the woman nodded and turned. “The dressers will be in soon.”

“I know how to…” Marinette ripped her eyes from the clothes to the woman, but she was already gone, “… dress myself,” she finished lamely to the empty room. She finally allowed herself to reach up to her ears with a groan at the lack of earrings. She was going to have to do this, whatever this ended up being, without her powers and then somehow search what she was positive was a ridiculously large complex for her earrings.

She let out a long, deep breath and started putting the clothes on by herself. “It’s not like I’m a designer or anything,” she grumbled. “Not like it’s my entire job to come up with an outfit, accessories, hair, and makeup. What would I know.”

><><><><><><><><

Okay, so maybe she didn’t know what was expected for this particular occasion, because just like the room, there was considerably more gold involved in her outfit, accessories, and even makeup than she would have ever used on her own. And in all honestly, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to get the hair accessories actually stay in their artfully styled placement, especially with all the sharp movements she kept making around the women helping style her and the guards escorting her to their destination, the throne room, if the woman was to be believed, which Marinette was inclined to do, about that fact at least.

As soon as she entered the room, pushed at the end of a few very sharp swords was actually a far better description, she had to fight her jaw dropping. She’d thought the last room was ostentatious, but this new room made the last room look like a cheap, roadside motel that hadn’t been updated since the 70’s. The room was covered in gold details and ornately carved, deeply stained woodwork. The ceiling was far above her like the grand entryway of Wayne Enterprises. Operas could be properly sung in this room. Centered against the back wall, a raised platform towered, demanding attention in its size and ostentatiousness.

A single chair sat at the apex with an ancient man seated, just as impeccably dressed as the woman earlier had been. A step down and behind the chair was a line of other chairs, a few fille empty. One of the seated figures was the woman she had seen earlier. As before, the woman gazed impassively upon her, like Marinette’s discomfort and fear was beneath her consideration. The two others in line only vaguely resembled one another, some not at all, but Marinette surmised they were all his children and the empty chairs for even more of his children.

She stopped at the bottom of the short staircase to what must have been considered the throne and waited to be acknowledged. The man, who had to be the father the woman had spoken of earlier, stared at her with a similarly intense gaze as his daughter, but significantly more sinister and creepier. She had to stop herself from fidgeting under it.

The longer it went on, the more uncomfortable it became until she had to say something. “Um… hi,” she offered uncertainly, adding to her discomfort with a small, awkward wave.

“Hello…” he responded. His voice was exactly what she had expected from his appearance, bold but empty and dripping with smarm. “… Guardian.”

Marinette lifted her head slowly, eyes wide in horror. “Oh no,” she gasped, barely louder than a breath.

“Welcome to my throne room,” he stated with no indication of warmth or welcome in his voice. “You, my dear, you have the immense honor of becoming my bride.”

Her eyes somehow managed to widen even further at his words despite her actions being sluggish, the world around her not quite registering as real. “Oh… no. No, no, no, no… no. No, thank you, no. No, no. Thank you but no. No, no, no, no…” she shook her head woodenly then looked back up at him and pursed her lips. “Noooo.”

“You will join me, and I will make you my queen.” The sinister glint in his eye and eerie curl to his lips suggested he believed this was an incredible honor. Marinette could not quite see what proof he had to back that up, but she suspected he was one of those men who based their personal value on delusion rather than evidence.

She was sure a statement like the one he had just uttered was supposed to be a request, but it was stated like a command. A statement of fact, like ‘the sky is blue’, ‘water is wet’, ‘this situation is messed up.’ “Que…Oh, no. No, I’m not really the royalty type. Queen? I wouldn’t be… I hate velvet!” she finally exclaimed. She stomped her foot and crossed her arms over her chest to accentuate her point.

His vile smile dropped, his lips instead forming into a hard, thin line. “I realize you may believe you are unworthy of me. Your ability to realize your inferior status is one of the reasons you will become a perfect wife.”

“Oh… no,” she muttered, shaking her head, her eyes unfocusing. “Adrien warned me something like this would happen if I moved to Gotham.”

“But I assure you,” he continued, completely oblivious that she had said anything, or that she was no longer listening, “you are not as far beneath me as you may believe, Guardian. With your given powers and my natural strength and intelligence, we will have many strong brilliant children.”

Marinette’s eyebrows disappeared under her bangs. “Oh… no. No, thank you. No. I think we should reevaluate that decision… maybe tweak it… just a bit. I can’t… I’m already dat...” She stopped short, offering a strained smile instead. It was a decidedly terrible idea to mention Tim to a madman.

What she wouldn’t give to have Tim there with her. She wanted nothing more than to be able to bury her face in his chest and have him wrap his strong arms around her. But at the same time, she couldn’t imagine anything worse. He was safe where he was, far away from what was happening to her. No, she didn’t want Tim with her. What she wanted was to get out of that room, find her earrings, and get back to Tim’s embrace and not leave it for a week.

She shook her head to try to concentrate back on where she was. “How about…” she forced air out of her lungs, “no. No, no, no. You have kids!” She motioned toward the seats behind him. “You already have MANY kids. You do not need me to have ‘many.’”

“I need better,” he bellowed.

Marinette gasped and straightened up to her full height, which granted, even if the man had been on the same level as her and standing, would not have been much against the towering man, but she refused to accept his statement unmatched. “Okay, rude. I think maybe they need a better father.”

“Silence!” he thundered. His voice echoed throughout the chamber with a ferocity and strength, she was surprised nobody except her flinched.

The woman from earlier almost imperceptibly shook her head, just enough to catch Marinette’s eye but not enough to catch anyone else’s. “Right. Silence. Shutting up, sir,” Marinette grumbled grudgingly.

“Start the ceremony,” he commanded.

In the blink of an eye, Marinette was shoved forward and up the stairs, tripping frequently on her skirt she hadn’t been given time to gather up, a skirt that managed to cover almost nothing of her legs but still drag under her feet, until she was next to the ancient man while another man in a significantly less ornate outfit was ushered into the room in front of them. “Wait, now?” she exclaimed, looking around frantically. She could not get married! Not like this. Not to him. It was supposed to be Tim. They were supposed to build their relationship, develop their trust, then get married.

No, this couldn’t happen. “Oh, no. No, this is all happening a bit f…” the word died in her throat when quicker than she could track, a dagger dug into her throat, hard enough for beads of blood to appear at the knife’s edge, but only that much. She wasn’t sure if the restraint was luck or because he didn’t want his ‘wife’ to bear visible scars, and she was not willing to find out. Especially considering he was able to do it without standing and she still had no clues where her earrings were.

The new man cleared his throat and looked between the two of them anxiously, his eyes begging Marinette for forgiveness she was too dazed to be able to give. He cleared his throat when she didn’t respond and continued anyway. “We are…”

“Skip to the important part,” the ancient man growled. Marinette tried to back away from him but the guards behind her must have anticipated the response as before she could move a millimeter, she could feel the points of their swords digging into her bare shoulder blades.

The man offered a strained smile. “Isn’t the entire ceremony the imp…” he froze as the dagger that had been at her neck, suddenly appeared at his, drawing rivulets of blood.

“Do you wish to continue your insolence?” her soon-to-be-husband hissed. He waited a few beats while he stared down the petrified man. “Do you?” he demanded louder. When the man shook his head sloppily, the dagger disappeared so quickly Marinette couldn’t say where it went.

The other man’s eyes darted between the two of them again, sweat mixing with the blood running down his neck and staining his collar. “Do you…”

“I do,” the ancient man barked impatiently.

“Right…” The other man nodded anxiously and turned to Marinette. “Do yo…”

She shook her head so rapidly the man in front of her blurred. “Oh… n…”

“She does,” her betrothed cut in loudly.

“Okay, yeah, I suppose that can… can count,” the other man stammered. He was slowly inching away from the couple, putting as much space between him and them as he could before he was able to sprint out of the room, and Marinette had never been more jealous of anyone in her life. “I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

“What?” she exclaimed. No. No, no, no, no. No. She could not be married. Not to this man. This was not the future she planned. Her heart sank as the man’s lips puckered and he pulled her closer against his body.

His predatory grin dropped when an explosion sounded nearby. “What,” he seethed. He glared at the wall closest to the explosion like it was solely responsible for the disruption and hissed when the sounds of fighting carried into the room. “Impossible!”

The sounds increased in volume until it was so loud, they could almost make out the words being screamed in the fight. It quickly became apparent the fight would breach the throne room in moments. The ancient man shoved Marinette away with such force, she sprawled on the floor and scrambled to keep from falling off the stage, but his eyes never left the door to check on her, not that she would have expected him to. He pulled out his sword from wherever he had secured it, she still wasn’t sure where that was, and wielded it in preparation.

“Father,” the woman from earlier said quietly but forcefully, “we must leave before he comes.”

“I am not afraid of him,” he hissed, his eyes still glaring at the door in anticipation.

“No,” she agreed, but Marinette could see the roll of her eyes behind her father’s back. “But a battle that need not be fought is a foolish one.”

He hissed and tucked his sword away as he whirled toward the back of the room, rushing with his daughter toward a hidden door, his other children already long gone. “How did he know?” His voice was lower than it had been since she met him, but still managed to carry through the room.

The woman pointedly ignored Marinette as she moved behind her father. “Likely a tracker. Did you check her for a tracker?”

“Of course I checked for a tracker!” he thundered and turned on her, attempting to stare her down.

The woman raised an eyebrow but refused to cower at his vitriol. “Then I suggest having your men do a better job next time.”

The man growled but moved through the door his daughter had been urging him toward with a final flourish of his cape. And just like that, he was gone and the room empty as his guards had all disappeared without a sound and through some mysterious, possibly magical means, because they certainly hadn’t gone through the door at the front of the room or the door the man and his daughter had disappeared through.

She searched the room for their escape route, hoping to follow their lead. Following that man and his family seemed like an absolutely terrible idea. The last thing she needed was him remembering she existed and trying to take her with him. Going out the front door would lead her straight into the fight, which without her earrings, seemed like a worse idea. But she needed to get to her earrings and she needed to get them now, before anyone else found them. And that was all assuming the man didn’t realize she was Ladybug as well as the guardian and take the earrings with him.

She started down the stairs swiftly, intensely inspecting every centimeter of the side wall as she moved. She had just caught a slight irregularity in the wall when the front door slammed open and several figures rushed in. She squawked and attempted to find a place to hide, but she had managed to position herself directly in front of the stairs when the door opened. She could not have selected a more exposed location in the room if she tried. Even if she’d been at the top of the stairs, she would have been closer to the back door and would have had the chance to get to it before they could get to her.

It took a full few seconds for her to register that the figures rushing toward her were not a threat. In fact, she recognized them. The Teen Titans were there. The Teen Titans had come to rescue her. She furrowed her brow. No, that couldn’t be right. There was no way they’d come just for her. There had to have been something else going on and she was just a collateral bonus.

Red Robin rushed ahead of the rest of the team, directly toward her. He reached her in mere moments and reached out for her like he was afraid she would disappear if he didn’t, but he stopped just short of touching her, his hands hovering over her body as though he would be able to sense any damage that way. “Marinette! Marinette, are you okay?” She blinked at him and nodded numbly. Maybe she was wrong. There was no way for them to know her name if she wasn’t the objective. “Are you sure?” he asked again.

She quirked her head to the side to consider his voice, his lips, his expression as he examined her. The way his brow furrowed just slightly and his lips pursed a touch, like he was afraid of showing too much emotion and giving away his hand. She wished she could see his eyes. She could almost picture the frantic darting of his panicked blue eyes hidden behind the white lenses of his mask.

Her eyes widened as her subconscious realization became fully conscious. “Oh my… Oh no. No, no, no. Really?” she exclaimed, taking a step back to get a better look at him and yep, there was definitely protective padding built into the suit, but she knew those arms, she’d spent a good half an hour tracing her fingers over the edges of those biceps, triceps, and deltoids just the night before.

“Mar… Mademoiselle?” he asked cautiously.

She closed her eyes and dropped her head back with a heavy sigh. “I’m never going to live this down.”

He raised an eyebrow at her response, but his eyes quickly zeroed in on her newly exposed neck, almost reaching toward her neck, but diverting his hand to run through the hair she’d brushed out of his face that morning. “Are you sure you’re okay, Mademoiselle?”

“Mademoiselle? Really?” She righted her head to look him in the eye, raising an incredulous eyebrow at him until his shoulders fell slightly and he smiled sheepishly.

He finally allowed himself to reach out and touch her, starting by tenderly tracing the skin around the cut on her neck, his touch so tender and cautious, she almost couldn’t feel it. She slowly stretched her neck to give him a better view without ever taking her eyes off his, waiting for him to satisfy his fears and assure himself of her safety, knowing he wouldn’t be able to move on until he had.

His eyes slowly moved from her neck to her clavicle, arms, stomach, and legs, his fingers trailing the path his eyes forged. His brow furrowed at the goosebumps that trailed his fingers. His eyes jumped up to meet hers, realization dawning. He quickly removed his cape and draped it over her shoulders. “It’s insulated,” he murmured. “I know how cold you get.”

He pulled the cape closed around her and ran his hands down her arms a few times, his eyes never leaving hers. He took a breath and slowly reached up to remove his mask. The look in his eyes took her breath away. There was such a depth to them, almost boundless with emotion, almost limitless with devotion. “How did you know?” he asked softly, close to a whisper.

Marinette cupped his face tenderly. She gently traced the skin around his eyes where his mask had sat. “I’d know you anywhere,” she answered in the same breathless tone.

He searched her eyes, hoping it conveyed all the relief he felt at finally having her in front of him. “I’d find you anywhere,” he whispered. Her eyes suddenly watered and she collapsed into his arms, body shaking as she cried and digging in deeper when he wound his arms around her.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m here. You’re safe,” he repeated over and over in her ear like a mantra. He kept repeating it until her tears eased. He pulled back just far enough to meet her eyes. “I’m here and you’re safe. I’ll always rescue you. I’d tear the world apart to protect you.”

She was no longer crying but her eyes were red rimmed and broken. He suddenly felt overwhelmed again and pulled her to him to reassure himself she was still there. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry he took you,” he muttered into her hair.

She shook her head. She could feel his lips rub against her hair with each shake. “It’s okay. It’s not like it was your fault.”

He pulled away to meet her eyes again so he could convey how earnest he was. “It… Marinette it was,” he affirmed, regret and guilt bleeding from his voice. “He knows who I am and… has a bit of an obsession with me. He took you because of me.”

She met his eyes firmly. “He didn’t. It wasn’t about you. He thought I would produce good kids for him.”

Tim jerked his head back and wrinkled his nose at the thought. “Ew.”

“Right?” she exclaimed with a false lightness.

“But Marinette…” He groaned and removed a hand just so he could run it through his hair and immediately settle it back at her waist. “…you have to know, you came to his attention because of me. It really was my…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she repeated more forcefully. “It wasn’t Tim. I can’t exp…” she let out a frustrated groan and met his eyes with renewed determination. “It wasn’t your fault. I need you to believe me even if I can’t say why. Not yet. Not here. But soon.”

He shook his head, his lips pursed unconvinced. But, instead of focusing who to blame, obviously him, he focused on her; her safety, her health, her emotions, her in his arms when he was terrified he might never see her alive again. His eyes traced her face, his fingers trailed after in a tender embrace until he slid them over to tuck her bangs behind her ear. “How are you? Really?” he whispered.

Marinette dropped her head onto his chest again and nuzzled into his arms, letting his warmth and security seep through her skin and into her bones. “It was horrible. I didn’t know when I would see you again.”

He tightened his arms around her as if it would protect her against that possibility. “I’ll always come for you,” he reassured, his voice just loud enough for her to hear… and Superboy, but that was irrelevant. “Are you hurt anywhere else? Was it just your neck?”

She shook her head against his chest, refusing to reduce any contact between them. “No, nowhere else.” She suddenly jerked back and looked up with wide eyes. “But he… we’re married.”

Tim blinked at her. “Wait, what?”

She shook her head blankly as her mind started running through the repercussions. “He… there was a ceremony,” she rushed out. Her words were coming out so quickly, they almost merged into a single word. “There was a ceremony and a holy person, I think, that didn’t want to but he did…”

“Did you say I do?” Tim cut in before she could spiral too deep.

She shook her head as she blinked, her mind still racing but on a different track now. It was all a bit cloudy, but her mind ran through all the events of the past hour as well as she could remember it. “I didn’t… it didn’t seem to be an important factor.”

“Then you’re not,” he assured her confidently.

“But…”

“She married?” he asked over her shoulder. Marinette whipped around but Tim kept her in his arms, pulling her closer when Marinette squeaked and tried to jump away from the figure behind her.

“No,” the woman from earlier confirmed. “Father skipped through that part. Don’t worry my dear. You’re not my stepmother. You are uncorrupted.”

“Uh…” Marinette tried to edge away from her, unsure how to respond. But Tim held her tight, which had to mean he didn’t think she was a threat; Marinette however still wasn’t convinced.

“And I’ll keep him away. I’ll convince him he is wrong about you… though we both know he’s not, don’t we? Speaking of, here are your things,” she handed Marinette a Hermès bag filled with her clothes, “all of your things,” she said pointedly. Marinette took the bag and looked in warily to find her clothes, but more importantly, her earrings at the very top.

“Thank you,” Marinette gushed, offering the woman a smile for the first time.

The woman nodded. “Keep the bag and the outfit. You’ve earned it.”

“Oh… no,” Marinette deferred and held the bag out away from her. “No, thank you.”

The woman scoffed. “The bag is mine, go ahead and keep that for yourself. No association with my father. Used Bruce’s money, actually, so no guilt.” Marinette was so overwhelmed by everything happening she almost didn’t register Tim’s snort at the woman’s comment. “Sell the gold from the accessories or donate it. I suspect that’s the kind of thing you would like. Father won’t notice.”

“Thank you, Talia,” Tim offered with a nod.

“You’re welcome, Tim,” the woman, Talia apparently, nodded back. “Keep her safe. She’s more valuable than you know.”

Tim looked down at Marinette, his gaze swimming in adoration. “I intend to.” When he looked back up the woman had disappeared again. “Should I be worried about that? About her interest in you?” he asked Marinette lowly.

“I am,” Marinette grumbled. “It’s probably the smart move.” She leaned her head back on his shoulder and let out a relieved sigh when he tightened his embrace and guided her out of the compound and toward their plane.

“She’s the one that told you where I was?” He nodded without looking at her, his eyes scanning the area to ensure all threats had been removed. His team seemed to have fallen into step behind them, keeping a bit of a distance to give them privacy, but Marinette could feel their eyes darting to her frequently. “She mentioned Bruce. You know each other well?”

He nodded. “A bit too well sometimes. Other times…” he kissed her temple letting his lips linger and pulling her closer when she melted into it, “other times I couldn’t be more thankful for her.”

Marinette cocked her head to the side with a hum. “She’s a bit creepy. Sexy!” she added quickly. “But creepy… which is usually a combination I hear about from booktok men, not real women.”

Tim snorted “Booktok, huh?”

“Zoé,” Marinette shrugged. “I know far more than I want to.”

“Ah, yeah, I can see that,” he snickered. He urged her on ahead of him up the plane’s rear ramp, following close behind her, making sure he had at least one hand on her at all times. He waited until she was at the top before speaking again. “She’s Damian’s mom.”

Marinette whirled on him instantly. “She’s what!”

“Yep,” he answered, popping the p.

“With Bruce?” she clarified.

He let out a deep sigh. “My family is a bit of a mess. This is really just the tip of the iceberg.” He shook his head and motioned toward some seats, finally removing his hand to pull out a strapped in container, pulling out a few blankets and pillow. “Ready to go home?”

She nodded tiredly and collapsed back against him, sagging against him until she would have fallen down if he hadn’t wrapped his arms around her waist. He sat down, pulling her down into the seat next to him and wrapped the blankets around her with tender, gentle movements.

She watched him move, her affection for him growing with each soft pat and caring rub. “Will you stay with me?”

Tim looked up from the blankets to meet her eyes with a fond, understanding gaze. He brushed her cheek softly and opened his mouth to respond but closed it quickly with a furrow of his brow. “Why don’t you stay with me? Forever?” he added hesitantly.

She blinked at him. “Tim! Are you…”

“Yeah, yeah, I am. Asking you to move into my home, I mean. Well, no, it would be our home,” he rambled. “I’ve wanted to ask you for so long. The only thing holding me back was,” he motioned toward his suit and then around them. “And now that you know…”

Marinette stared at him; mouth slightly ajar in shock. Her mind tried to process all the possible implications, the benefits and dangers. Was it too soon? They hadn’t been dating too long, but they’d been dating long enough for her to know him and know that she loved him and that’s what mattered, wasn’t it? The emotion, not the time.

Was it too dangerous? If she moved in with him, it was going to be difficult to hide the kwami, and yeah, he was probably in a better position than most to understand what it meant to be a Guardian, but it still wasn’t a secret she was willing to share. He would only be the third person she’d ever told. Alya and Adrien were the only people she’d told and the prospect of adding another person to that list was terrifying.

Was she in the right place mentally to make the decision? And if she wasn’t and if she made the wrong choice, would it destroy their relationship? If she said yes just because she was in need of some stability in that moment, but then after a few weeks needed space, would going backward in their relationship harm it? But then, it really wasn’t an in the moment decision. She’d wanted to take the next step in their relationship for a while but had been too afraid. It felt like Tim was hiding something and now she knew what it was.

But all the processing meant Marinette was dead silent for a while too long. Tim’s arms loosened around her, not dropping, but not as tight as he started backtracking frantically. “I mean, if you need some time… This was probably the wrong time. I shouldn’t have…”

The uncertainty in his voice kicked Marinette into action. “Tim?”

“Yeah?” he asked tentatively. She could feel his hands clench almost like he was fighting pulling them back.

She pushed forward and placed a firm kiss on his lips, pulling away after a moment just far enough to whisper against his lips. “Shut up.”

“Yeah, I can do that,” he grinned moments before he pulled her closer to kiss her deeper. He wound his fingers into her hair as hers found his shoulders to hold him against her, reveling in the feel of him, the assurance that he was there, it was him and not someone else. He seemed to need the same assurance, his hands running over her and squeezing her frequently. They didn’t part until one of his teammates passed them and cleared their throat to remind them they were not alone.

Marinette settled back into her seat with a giggle and rested her head on his chest with a contented sigh. “Please take me home… to our home.”

He grinned and dipped down to place a tender kiss against her forehead. “Are you sure?”

She smiled brilliantly. “Oh, yes. Yes, please.”

#maribat #timari #timinette #Timari January #Timari January 2024 #prompt - tender

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fanbliss · 8 months

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So Marinette moves to Gotham for ( insert reason) and a few weeks later finds a kid with blue eyes and black hair in her studio/ apartment sitting on the counter with a half empty cookie jar and a cookie in his mouth looks like a deer cought in headlights one night, the night that she was finally sent to sleep by Tikki because she's been awake for four days and just walks over to the kid and puts him on her lap and falls asleep on the couch.

#dp×dc×mlb #maribat #jason todd #marinette is a badass #mominette #dp x dc crossover #Danny accidentally got deaged in another universe #he snuck in to get some food #cookies are the only reason he stayed #tired lady has mini gods in a box #he like the cat one #Jasonette

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fanfic-recs-01 · 2 months

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Miraculous LadyBug Fics

This is a list of Miraculous Ladybug fics I like on AO3, if you have any recs for me feel free to send me some!

Fair warning his is mostly going to be Felix/Marinette and Damian Wayne/Marinette.

Updated 5/15/24

Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Felix Graham De Vanily

Hey, Little Songbird by charlietheepic7

~Really, Felix couldn't believe his cousin sometimes. Marinette was talented, beautiful, kind, and had a crush on Adrien bigger than the mansion, yet Adrien was blind to the treasure right in front of him. "Just a friend," indeed.

Well, if Adrien wasn't going to do anything, it wouldn't matter if Felix... snatched her up?~

Welcome To The Back by Geeeny

~Marinette Dupain-Cheng sits alone in the back. Until she doesn't.~

birds of a feather by WithLovePoohBear

~When Mme Bustier’s class gets a new student, Marinette might just finally find true friends who love and support her for who she is.

But more accurately, she finds her home.~

Pen Pals by That_Kwami_plagg

~Marinette and Felix have been Pen Pals for two years. She tells him everything. All of the abuse, lies and manipulations. He became her sanctuary, and her his. What happens when Felix moves to France? Can he help her through her struggles, or will he be another victim of Lila?~

Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Damian Wayne

She’s Sunshine, She’s Grace, She’ll Punch You in the Face by Brinxiethebear

~Marinette struggles to stay happy nowadays but what better way to change your mood than with a change of location? Adrien gave up his miraculous so he could start fresh. After all, his dad was in prison for being the super villain Hawkmoth and his other caretaker Nathalie died from over use of a broken Miraculous. So now Marinette is the guardian of the miraculous. ~

for us to collide by LadyLiterature

~The story of Marinette stumbling upon the illustrious Wayne family over and over again, as well as the more infamous Bats, over the course of her many visits to Gotham. She, of course, charms the whole lot of them and finds that the same is true in the reverse.~

A Robin and His Lady by ProudGeek4Ever

~Marinette lost her friends to Lila, Adrien was long forgotten and Chat Noir kept getting more irresponsible. Being a teenage superhero was stressfull, but Marinette's life takes a turn for the better when a chance meeting in Gotham changes everything. Damian changes everything.~

No, Mr. Wayne, You Can't Adopt Me! by ggomoz (ggomo_springtime)

~Bruce's personal assistant is scarily competent---she seems to know the best decision at each time, predict emergencies, and is an expert at handling all of his children. But what if there's more to her than meets the eye?~

More Than One Secret by Tyshian

~Marinette Dupain-Cheng has Secrets. Damian Wayne has Secrets. The pair together have Secrets.~

Reunions are... interesting if you’re a Todd by crazyjc

~Alright, this is based on laraceleste's Tell Me More where Jason Todd is Marinette’s big brother with one exception—Marinette didn’t know where Jason was after she was adopted until after he died when she was ten. They were apart for three years here, as GCPD got her at 7.~

It's Just Indifference by dontyoublink

~Marinette thought she would just get some inspiration for her designs when she headed to the park. As luck would have it, she also meets four (interesting? unique? slightly insane?) Americans. Frisbee, ice cream, and much-needed conversations ensue.~

World's Greatest Detectives, My Ass by Appleberry84

~Marinette figures out the Batfam's identities and decides to torture them.~

Leave it Behind by ShannonEsmerelda

~Marinette Dupain-Cheng has grown tired of Paris, and the miracle box was no longer safe there. It'd been active in the country for too long, seen too much damage. She needed to find a place for both her and the kwami's to heal, while still having the ability to be a hero. So, why not Gotham? The city had enough crime for both her and the bat family without getting in each others way, right? Right?~

Report to HR by SimplyAnotherWriter

~Look; Bruce liked Marinette. If the girl hadn’t already had loving and adoring parents that had spotless records and nothing incriminating about them whatsoever(Bruce had checked long and hard), he probably would have adopted the girl just like he had the others.

However, things wouldn't remain this perfect if Damian continued to try and mess it up by SCARING the poor girl!~

The Sun Who Lit Up The Night Sky by FandomQueen10325, leaping_lizard_babe

~4 months after the defeat of Hawkmoth, the akuma class wins a trip to Gotham. While they are there, Marinette keeps attracting bad luck, and can never seem to stay out of trouble. The Batfam is very interested when they learn about what had happened in Paris, so they question ladybug.~

Travels of Passion by StarShine583

~When people as famous as the Waynes come to visit your city, the most you'd expect to get from them is a quick little smile. A hand shake if you're in the right place at the right time and extremely lucky. Marinette didn't really expect to get either, and she certainly didn't expect to get what she actually got.~

Of Birds and Bugs (revising and rewriting) by orphan_account

~Marinette was a busy girl. Between her idol work as NeTi, and her duty as Ladybug, it was hard to do everything else, like being a good class president. Still, she was able to pull through.

Somehow, the class get's a trip to Gotham, sponsored by Bruce Wayne himself, and it looked like Marinette would be able to take a break for once.~

Dinner at Wayne Manor by littlefleetinglight for

~In the front hall standing in a line was Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim and Damien; in that orders, with Alfred standing in front of them like an officer in front of his troops.

“Now, when Ms.Marinette arrives there will be no inappropriate language, no crude gestures or noises, and there will be no interrogation. Do you gentlemen understand?”~

#SunshineOfGotham by sixtyeightdays

~All of Gotham knows Marinette, the Sunshine who's made her way into everyone's hearts. But so what if all of Gotham knows Marinette? Does her class know that they know Marinette? Of course not, why would they! But, well, let's see how they find out.~

Rockin’ the House by littlefleetinglight for

~It was another charity gala held by the Wayne Family; this one was raising funds for art programs across the world, and because it was for art there were artists of all types from all over, including the famous Rock’n’Roll artist Jagged Stone…and his guest.~

To marry an Assassin by PL_Panda

~Marinette wakes up in a cell and later is forced to marry a member of the League of Shadows, who is also less than willing. Exactly what she was pulled in? And of course there is magic involved, so no cancellation. And apparently in Tibet ancient orders can marry minors off just like that. This was definitely not Damian's day. Or Week. Or month. He got married with a random girl...~

Who Needs Words? by AKP31E

~After the defeat of Hawkmoth and the retirement of Suhan, Marinette’s life is just getting crazier. She doesn’t know how a soulmate could ever fit into her life, and sometimes she thinks the two letters on her wrist are just the universe’s joke to her, but she knows better than to bank on it. Her soul mark isn’t even a word. Who is going to say “Tt” to her?~

History Repeats by DesertSnowQueen

~When Kitty Noire makes an appearance in Gotham, she finds herself drawn to a certain little bird whose brothers are far too entertained by this turn of events~

Magical Girl by Judysupremus

~Marinette accidentally portals into the batcave.~

The Power of Luck by FridayFirefly

~The Ladybug Miraculous had quite a few side effects, none more powerful and unpredictable than the power of Miraculous Luck. When Marinette's family relocates to Gotham, Marinette finds her Miraculous Luck leading her down a path she never would have expected, a path that leads straight to Damian Wayne.~

The events on a Saturday Morning by orphan_account

~Marinette and Damian have been in a long distance relationship for over a year with (most) of the Batfamily not knowing at all until a young girl stumbles through a portal on a Saturday morning.~

Friendly Sunshine In Gotham by M1dn1ght_Star

~Marinette is happy to be back in Gotham after a visit with Jagged several years ago. This might just end up being the perfect way to expose Lila once and for all, as a nice bonus to seeing her honorary family and boyfriend again.~

Daminette Soulmate AU by keeptellingyourselfthat

~Tradition says that your soulmate will have another tattoo, something that relates to you. When they meet you, it is said that the tattoos start glowing a bright gold.~

Calling for Help by Dramatic_Squirrel

~It's been a month since the Battle of Miracle Queen and Marinette has been struggling alone under the pressure of being the new guardian. With her training yet to have been completed, Marinette makes her first official decision as the new guardian, to ask the Justice League for help.~

serendipity by keeptellingyourselfthat

~The last time Damian AL-Ghul saw Marinette was when they were twelve. He didn't think he would see her again. So, it's a huge surprise when he stumbles upon her in WE while exposing the liar of the class from France.~

In The Wrong Bed? by San_fics

~“Like I said,” Jason yawned. “Eventually everyone in this family goes crazy.”

“I'm not crazy!” Damian protested. “She was here!”

“Maybe you just had a very realistic dream?” Dick suggested.

“I’m perfectly capable of distinguishing dreams from reality, thank you very much!” Snapped Damian. “She was real and she was in my bed!”~

Cat Cursed by TheStarfishAlien

~The Cheng family carries a curse. Every other generation carries a second form, that of a cat. Their dual nature makes it difficult for those with the curse to fit in with society. Some flee permanently into the form of the cat, while others try their hardest to pretend that their cat form does not exist. Very few find a balance in the middle.~

Secrets, Masks and Family Gatherings by ggomoz (ggomo_springtime)

~After nearly a year of being together, Damian finally decides to introduce Marinette to his family.~

living among the regular people of the world trying to blend in by another_cancer

~Marinette was an assassin named ladybug that was supposed to kill Damian, but she didn't and now they meet again years later.~

New but True by yannowhatigiveup

~Damian and Marinette are kidnapped from their lives to be betrothed to one another. Unfortunately, they were separated and missed the other greatly. Once realising that Marinette is in Gotham for a school trip, Jon, being the good friend he is, reunites them.~

Eons & Eternities by Utopian_angel

~After dedicating many life cycles to an endless conflict between chaos and order, Ra's Al Ghul decides to use his last chance to form a union.

A union between their respective heirs that will last for eons & eternities.~

Use Your Brain by Judysupremus

~Marinette and her class go to Gotham. What happens when she has to rescue Chat Noir from Batman?

The is silly, potentially crack.~

An Awkward Reveal by Miraculous_786

~Who can blame Edward Nygma for being protective over his adopted daughter?

The very daughter who was dating Damian Wayne right under his nose.~

The Bride that can Break Bones by LovesWifi

~Marinette and Damian are betrothed and that's all you need to know.~

Senses by Alexiessan

~Marinette never thought that she would be among the 0.1% of the population to have a soulmate, and yet, here she was.

She wasn't ready for her life to change drastically because of it.~

A Welcoming Change by Brinxiethebear

~Damian Wayne always saw himself in a certain light. He was calculating and cold and he always took his work seriously. He was what others would call the Ice Prince. He was a loner and by choice. The only people he ever really tolerated talking to was his family and his only friend, Jon. Mainly he just spent time with his pets.~

Never alone by Alexiessan

~For a moment, ever since Lila came into her life, Marinette thought she would lose everyone dear to her. Turns out, if she keeps trying, she can do anything and make everything turn out for the better.

Contrary to her belief, Marinette was never alone.~

#marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne #daminette #felinette #miraculous ladybug #fic recs #felix graham de vanily

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ledalasombra · 1 year

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The Granddaughter

Chapter 1 - Reunion

The motorcycle cut through the city traffic passing through different scenarios from the fashion district to the noblest region, stopping in front of the big gates of the Wayne mansion. She rang the intercom looking at the mansion in front of her through the gate.

“How can I help you?” She was slightly startled by the sound of the intercom that didn't take long to be answered.

“Ahn... I'm here to see Alfred Pennyworth? Sorry, this was a little awkward” She took a deep breath, removing her helmet “My name is Marinette Pe… Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I am here to talk to Alfred Pennyworth.”

Marinette can hear the sound of something breaking on the other end of the line, frowning “Monsier, is everything alright?

“Marinette? When did you arrive in Gotham?” There was a pause and she sighed lightly “Enter and follow until a little after the main entrance. There is a place where you can stop the bike. I'll meet you there.”

“I'm on my way...” she replied, giving a slight smile, knowing that she managed the feat of surprising him. She replaced the helmet quickly, redirecting the bike to the indicated place, looking with great admiration at the whole place. The front gardens and the mansion building were beautiful. She removed her helmet after getting off the bike, attaching it to the bike and grabbing her purse afterward.

“Grandpa!” She said, hugging him next with a wide smile on her face and her eyes full of tears “it's so good to finally be able to see you!”

Alfred smiled as he hugged the young woman in front of him. She was so much like her mother Julia that he felt as if he had been given a new lease on life.

“I didn't know you were coming to Gotham... Sabine and Tom didn't tell me anything. Let's go inside, I'll make us both some tea, and in the meantime we'll talk and I'll finish up dinner.”

“ Can I help you?” she smiled while holding his arm “ This place is amazing grandpa! So much to be inspired by... The architecture, the details and that garden! Wow, that place is beautiful!” She spoke with eyes shining like a child, as they walked through the halls of the mansion.

Alfred gave a slight smile at the enthusiasm of the granddaughter he hadn't seen in almost a year. And despite the long time without seeing each other, the bond between them was strong. They constantly spoke through voice and video calls, she sent constant photos about everything that happened in her life and Alfred was happy about that. Everything he lacked with Julia, all the closeness and trust he would have liked with his late daughter, he gained with his granddaughter. Not even the distance allowed them to be separated or absent from each other's lives. Though only Bruce knew of her existence, they shared a unique family bond. He would have liked to be physically present in Marinette's life, but he knew it wasn't fair to make a 4-year-old child live in the chaos that was Gotham, the chaos that was the Wayne family.

When they reached the kitchen, Alfred indicated a chair for her to sit on, immediately putting the water on to heat, then bringing all the material to prepare tea for both of them.

“And then, mademoiselle, to what do I owe the honor of your visit? Why didn't you say you were coming to Gotham? I would have picked you up at the airport” he asked sitting down opposite her, she immediately took his hand. Alfred smiled at the gesture, knowing how much she liked and asked for physical contact.

"If I had, it wouldn't have been a surprise." her smile fell quickly, becoming slightly anxious “shouldn't I have come? Oh, I'm interfering with your work, aren't I? Oh my god I should have warned you and not just knocked on your employer's door...”

“It's okay my dear, I'm sure Master Bruce won't mind. He will certainly want to meet you” she said patting her hand lightly, seeing her expression calm down.

“I came to see how you were doing and to give you the news that I've moved on to the University of Gotham” she said extremely excited about the matter “and I start classes next month! I arrived in the city two days ago and it's been so busy. Everything is so different around here...”

“I thought you liked living with Sabine and Tom? I thought you were going to do Esmond, as you commented several times…”

"Paris has been my home for years, but I can't stay there after everything that's happened... With the whole Hawkmorth affair and I don't have that many friends to lock me up there..." Marinette looked at her grandfather with sad and tired eyes, taking a deep breath. She had already told him everything she could and what had happened to her from the beginning. Alfred was her only blood family, all she had that was related to her mother. For years, even apart, she formed a relationship of trust and friendship with her grandfather, telling him practically everything. She trusted him as much as she trusted Tikki and hoped that one day she would be able to open up to him the only part of her life he wasn't yet aware of.

The young woman took a deep breath, hearing the noise coming from the kettle and getting up “let me prepare it. I brought an herbal preparation that my old Mandarin teacher taught me. I know you don't like just any tea, but for some reason whenever Master Fu made it for me I was reminded of you.” she said as she walked over to the stove, bringing the kettle over to the table, failing to notice how her grandfather made her back stiff and tense with the comment.

Alfred watched his granddaughter take a can from inside her bag, opening it carefully, giving a slight sad smile with the memory that came through the aroma of tea. She put a little of the mixture on the porcelain, adding the water next, looking at the clock so that she wouldn't waste the preparation time. He was intrigued by the name quoted by his granddaughter. It couldn't just be coincidence, but he saved that information for now.

“And what happened to him?” he asked seeing her give a sad smile.

“He passed away in London together with his wife 2 years ago. I visited them from time to time, they were quite old.” she sighed looking at the clock again. “According to him, the secret of a well-made tea is not only the herbs used, but also the time for it not to become bitter and, above all, the energy we put into it when we prepare it. He helped me a lot when Hawkmorth came along, especially with my anxiety attacks. He helped me with some self-defense classes as well. In return I helped him with the massage shop schedule and some shopping.”

Alfred drank some of his tea and smiled. It tasted great and took him back to a past he hadn't told anyone about. He looked at the can that was on the table, smelling the herbs, realizing in his memory the same preparation he hadn't seen since his youth. He took a deep breath looking at his granddaughter weighing what he should say or not, taking her hand he saw her eyes go towards him.

“When I was in the war many years ago, before I met your grandmother Marie, I met a man named Wang Fu.” He paused, watching his granddaughter hold her breath, “he made that same tea and said that, like everything else in life, nature requires balance. For a good tea, we need good leaves, which require time and patience, the latter being a virtue. I confess that this was a quality I lacked at the time” he smiled slightly at the memory “We met a few times, until one day he found me seriously injured. He took care of me for 3 days until I was able to recover.” she paused, adjusting her posture, “Fu was a rather peculiar man, you might say. He followed the war from afar, although he tried not to intervene. In those three days that we were together, I met his fiancée, Marianne. She was part of the French resistance, just like her grandmother.” He paused with a sad look on his face, patting his granddaughter's hand lightly, "He gave me a second chance, which completely changed the course of the war."

Marinette took a quick breath at the two words spoken by Alfred and he couldn't help but show his surprise when he heard what her granddaughter mumbled. “Sass?” she spoke Kwami's name almost instinctively, bringing her hand to her mouth right after. She saw Alfred smile slightly, placing her hand between his two.

“Certainly he was very agreeable company for several months, until the war was over. Wang Fu said it was too dangerous to remain where he was and left a few days later with our mutual friend.” he smiled slightly patting the hand he was holding “We kept in touch after many years. It was Fu who told me about the existence of his mother, Julia, who until that moment was unknown to me. He was a great friend and is an irreparable loss.” Alfred make a pause, looking Marinette in the eyes “But what intrigues me at the moment my dear is how you met him and know that name.” he said letting go of her hand, hearing a faint alarm coming from the direction of the oven. He got up then to check on dinner.

Marinette was speechless upon hearing her grandfather's story. She held her teacup in both hands, trying to center herself and think of what to say. At least that explains the protective aura coming from Alfred that she always felt when she was with him. She takes a sip from her tea, and close her eyes quickly, sucking in air and concentrating. When she opened it she could see Sass's aura around her grandfather, letting a tear flow. Alfred, like Luka, was one of the true holders of Sass, which explained so much on her mind. She got up going to the island in the middle of the kitchen and pulling the bench to sit down, seeing the door open then, turning her attention to the person who entered.

"Alfred, I'm going to need..." Bruce stopped talking as soon as he saw that Alfred wasn't alone. He adjusted his posture giving his charismatic smile, watching the young woman who was sitting, apparently talking to the butler. "I didn't know I was interrupting, sorry Alfred."

Alfred finished removing the dinner that was almost complete from the oven, seeing the door open and hearing Bruce come in, he sighed deeply, shaking his head, and approaching his granddaughter, putting his hand on her shoulder.

“Master Bruce, let me introduce you to my granddaughter Marinette Pennyworth Dupain-Cheng. Mari, this is Bruce Wayne. Every male in our family has worked here at some point.”

Bruce flashed a wide smile that Marinette found forced, but ignored in favor of Alfred. However, what bothered her was the aura that emanated from him. She closed her eyes briefly, taking his hand towards the man in front of him, giving a slight smile.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Mr Wayne. My grandfather spoke a few times about you.” she said squeezing his hand.

“The pleasure is all mine, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Alfred told me about you, although he is very secretive about his own family.” Bruce responded with great enthusiasm, which made Marinette tilt her head slightly and Bruce slightly raise his eyebrow.

"Marinette, please behave yourself..." Alfred caught her attention with a slightly raised eyebrow, looking at her and then at Bruce. His granddaughter just sighed, looking at him.

“I'll ignore it this time. I have to go, I have dinner with Uncle Jagged tonight and if I don't make it on time, I'm sure I'll get several calls from him coming to the restaurant.” She saw Alfred nod, realizing he recognized the name from conversations they'd had earlier. She went to the table, picking up her bag and stopping again in front of Bruce who looked at her intrigued. “It was a pleasure to finally meet you. I hope we can talk more properly next time” She gave a slight smile and turned her attention to Alfred. “I need to use the restroom before I go.”

“As soon as you leave the kitchen, it's the second door on the left.” He watched her leave, turning his attention back to Bruce, “Master Bruce, I'm going to ask you two important things: the first is that you be original with her, Marinette can see right through all this media act. Second and most important, my granddaughter has had some very difficult things in her life and I would like you to make a big effort not to start an investigation into her life. She is a strong and very sensitive person, you will realize that over time...”

#mlbxdc #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #daminette #damian x marinette #maridami #maribat #marinette x damian #damianette #damimari

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 5 months

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Lollipops

Timari January Day 1: Lollipop

By @maribat-calendar-events

Listen, when Marinette Dupain-Cheng opened up a clinic, she had been expecting a lot of things.

Children, since she was officially in pediatric care. You know, the branch devoted to treating children.

Eventually, she expanded to consider her patients might include henchmen, as well. And she had been mentally prepared, perhaps, to possibly meet their bosses, if they wanted to thank her for their services in person, though she had doubted this.

She had not, however, been expecting to look a vigilante dead in the eyes (domino mask, it didn’t matter)... or, at least, not like this. She had been expecting to get approximately one glimpse of their usual suits and then have a fist obscure most of her vision. Not to see him hunched over in one of her chairs, hugging the knife buried in his side.

“... hi,” she said, glancing behind herself at the Scarecrow goon she had been about to lead out the door. “I can get to you in a minute.”

The vigilante didn’t say ‘okay’, but he didn’t say ‘no’, either. From what she had been told, this wasn’t uncommon. Introverts, the lot of them.

She quietly closed the door and pointed the goon towards the exit, and waited a few minutes with her ear against the door to make sure he hadn’t gotten immediately jumped by a second, secret vigilante. Once she was reasonably sure that the henchman had gotten away to safety, she went back to the vigilante who was, apparently, in her care.

He was… still in that chair. Stab wounds will do that to you, she supposed.

She hesitated as she eyed him up and down.

This was Red Robin, she was pretty sure, though he could have been Robin or Red Hood or really just any other male vigilante in Gotham… they all looked the same. She wasn’t going to say it aloud, though, she didn’t want to risk being wrong. Embarrassing.

Also, she was pretty sure she was on thin ice right now. Getting his name wrong might just screw her over.

Thankfully, he was aware of her presence immediately, and she didn’t have to call his name to get his attention.

She sent him a slightly nervous smile. “You do know this is pediatric care, don’t you? I was trained to treat children.”

“The guy before me wasn’t a child.”

“He has a kid,” she said. Technically, this was true.

“Was the kid here?”

“I plead the fifth. And the fourth. And any other applicable laws that might help me right now.”

He snorted. “I’m not a cop.”

“You still get people arrested, I’m not going to risk it.”

He lifted his hands in a kind of ‘I surrender’ gesture, only to wince. He quickly went back to applying pressure to his wound, which was probably for the best.

Marinette shook her head to herself, sighing. “I’ll bring my equipment over here. I’d rather not have to carry you.”

“I can still walk,” he said.

He moved as if to stand. She grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him back down, giving him a cold look.

“Don’t do that. Christ.”

He groaned and slumped back in his chair, pouting like the child that she was supposed to actually be getting. How had her life come to this?

You say ‘ohmygod why are you bleeding on my doorstep oh my FUCKING GET INSIDE’ to a henchman one time and suddenly it just becomes your thing.

She sighed internally as she went about collecting her things and then sighed externally when her eyes flicked to the security footage. She had put a camera next to the door a while back, when she had first started taking henchmen. She didn’t use it often, she really just had it to make people at least hesitate before trying to steal things.

Anyways, the point is, Red Robin was not in the chair she had left him in.

She made sure her next footstep was audible, before feigning a pause to make sure she had everything she needed.

By the time she stepped out, he was back in his chair, looking for all the world as if he had never left.

Marinette hated life.

She was quick in stitching him up. Perhaps quicker than was strictly medically advisable, but whatever. This wasn’t meant to be permanent or anything, this was just to last him until Batman could, like, magically fix it. Or whatever that cryptid of a man did. Marinette, frankly, preferred not knowing.

She pulled back, wiping bloody hands on the towel around her neck.

“Normally, I’d say to take things easy for the next few weeks, minimum, but considering…” she shrugged. “I dunno. Just try not to pop those.”

He tilted his head to the side consideringly for just a moment.

And then he laughed. “No promises.”

“It was worth a shot.”

He jumped to his feet, and she cringed just slightly. But it wasn’t like she could stop him if that was what he wanted to do. She could only mumble a few curses under her breath and move to leave so she could close up shop.

Red Robin lingered for just a few seconds longer than she expected him to.

Marinette narrowed her eyes at him briefly. She figured it was probably best to just ask him outright whether or not he needed to go through some files. He was going to do it regardless of her wishes, and she liked pretending to have free will.

“So, is my clinic up to par with your standards?”

Red Robin didn’t bother denying that he had had ulterior motives for visiting.

Instead, he held up a candy he had grabbed from the jar on her desk.

“For sure. You guys have lollipops.”

#maribat #timari #timinette #timmari #shutterbug #tim drake #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #red robin #new year new me :)

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mochinek0 · 5 months

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Daminette December 2023: 16-Pet Store

Marinette thanked the kwamis for giving her an advantages around animals. She had moved to Gotham and was working part time at a pet store. Her new apartment still didn't allow animals, but she could still play with them.

Marinette looked up from her desk as an owner and his dog walked up to the counter.

"This is Titus." the boy announced.

"I can take him from here." Mari spoke.

"I insist that I take him to the back." he stated, "You look new. Titus has specific taste."

Marinette rolled her eyes and grabbed the leash out of his hand.

"Come on, Titus." she smiled, "Think you can prove your owner wrong and go by yourself like a good boy?"

Marinette turned and Titus willingly walked along side her to the back. Neither saw Damian's shocked expression. Damian had trained Titus himself. He knew Titus wouldn't trust anyone so easily.

'Something is wrong here.'

When Damian returned, his anger only grew. The same girl had brought Titus back out for him. Titus stood towering over her and licked her cheek. She had smiled and reached behind the counter and handed him a sealed dog biscuit shaped like a bone.

"The ingredients are written down on the back." the girl declared.

Damian turned it over and sure enough there was a sticker on the back.

"The font is misleading." Damian spoke, "It appears to be handwritten."

"It is." Marinette replied, "I made them. I make all the treats."

Damian looked at it again and shoved the treat in his pocket.

"Titus. Come." He spoke.

Titus followed obediently.

'I'll just run analysis on this and see what kind of underground network she is apart of.'

Damian had found no hidden agenda through the biscuit. All ingredients were perfectly healthy for Titus or any dog. He had handed it over to Titus in disappointment. Titus ate it happily.

'Traitor, but I know who won't betray me.'

Oh how wrong he was. Marinette carried a happily purring Alfred the cat in her arms.

'I should bring Goliath. She'd likely be frightened. I would win and she would no longer have power over my pets. I could do that, but then Father would be upset. He already doesn't like Goliath and finds him to be dangerous. This would only further his thinking.'

"Cupcake!" a voice shouted from behind him.

"Uncle Jagged!" Marinette smiled, placing Alfred in his carrier.

Damian turned to see Jagged Stone and his famous pet crocodile walk in. He watched in surprise as she disregarded the reptile and hugged the Rockstar. After, she turned towards the croc. Damian was ready to pull her away, but the croc rolled over and she scratched his stomach as if it as a dog. He was speechless.

'Maybe bringing Goliath would be a mistake. I need to learn her secrets.'

Marinette looked at Damian as he handed over his resume.

"You don't need the money." She spoke, "So why?"

"I prefer animals to human company." He answered honestly.

Mari smiled, "I say anyone who doesn't is a liar."

Marinette turned away and took the resume to the back. Damian realized he had smirked when she left. He quickly brought him emotions under control.

"I don't think there would be a problem, but I'm sure my boss would want to cover her ass, if you somehow got hurt on the job." She declared, coming back.

"Explain." Damian insisted.

Marinette sighed, "Make sure that if you got injured, while on the job, that she isn't sued by a Wayne."

"I would be fine." he growled out.

"And your father?" she asked.

The Wayne heir sighed, "I think his only concern is that I don't bring more animals home." making her giggle.

'Did I pass?'

Damian was called back to the boss' office. He knew they wanted to know his angle; why he wanted to work there. His siblings ad gone through it before when they got jobs. Damian took out an envelope and slid it over the desk.

"Inside is a viable check worth $10,000." Damian stated, "Pair me with Marinette Dupain-Cheng as my mentor. If I am not paired with her, I'll report the check as fake."

The vet just looked at the signed check and nodded, absent-minded. As Damian went looking for Marinette, he heard the boss call out that they had a quick errand to run.

Damian observed how careful she was with the animals. There were times he thought she was trying to flirt, by acting clumsy, but he quickly learned that wasn't the case. Other workers would ask if she had fallen that day or if she needed a bandaid.

Marinette waved off the concern, "It'll just be another bruise. I probably wouldn't notice. I can't keep count."

If he caught her, she'd say thank you and continue ignoring him. Damian had learned from the other workers that Marinette fixated only on the animals. They invited her many times to hang out or even grab a bite to eat after work. Some offered to pay, but the answer was always no. They had later learned that in the past, Marinette's friends had backstabbed her. As a result, she was friendly at work, but once she was off the clock, she didn't give them a chance to get to know her.

"I would like for you to come to my home." Damian declared.

"No. Thank you." Marinette answered, getting ready to leave for the day.

"I have animals." he spoke.

"I've seen them." She replied, "Titus and Alfred, correct?"

"You haven't seen Jerry or Batcow." he remarked.

Marinette froze as she was tying her shoe.

"As in-" she began.

'Gotcha.'

Damian smirked, "Batcow is an actual cow and just so you are aware, Jerry is a turkey."

He could see her trying to figure out how to answer him. Ignore him or see animals she had never seen before.

"I'd like to see the cow." Marinette whispered, embarrassed, "This doesn't mean were friends, all of a sudden!"

"Of course not." Damian agreed, "Just colleges, who share a love of animals."

Marinette smiled as she walked out the door.

TAGLIST: @maribat-calendar-events @animeweebgirl@a-star-with-a-human-name@meme991001@vixen-uchiha@abrx2002@alysrose-starchild@fandom-trapped-03@dood-space@moonlightstar64@saltymiraculer@marveldcedits20@09shell-sea09@icerosecrystal@animegirlweeb@insane-fangirl-of-everything@blueblossombliss@nickristus-dreamer@megawhitleycalderonpaganus@missmadwoman@meira-3919@princessdaisysolosyourfaves@blep-23@fangirlingfanatic@darkhinauniverse@ravenr22@im-a-satanic-ritual@ravennm84@bianca-hooks123@a-slytherinish-gryffindor@starling218

#daminette december 2023 #daminette #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne #titus the dog #alfred the cat #damian x marinette #marinette x damian #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #pet store #goliath #jerry the turkey #batcow #damian gets a job #damian stalks marinette #mochinek0

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batsandbugs · 1 year

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Daminette Headcanon #??

Meet cute/meet disaster opportunity in Gotham. So Marinette is new to the city, and her stash of fabric and notions is completely depleted because she had to downsize when moving across the Atlantic (she had way too much stuff to ship with her.) So she's trying to find Gotham's fabric district which does exist... but it's frequented mainly by villains or henchpeople who need fabric for their costumes. Otherwise, everyone just buys online. Marnette though needs to see her stuff in person, needs to feel the fabric and test stretch and shit. So she's struggling down the street burdened by like five bags and a whole bolt of fabric and Damian (overachiever that he is) is doing an early evening patrol as Robin, and sees this little slip-of-nothing girl walking out of a fabric store that is definitely only frequented by villains and is a front for a local gang, and thinks 'oh, this is a new villain and/or she's being blackmailed to create new outfits' and so he prepares to swing down and interrogate her. Now Marinette, total badass that she is, can handle herself (yes, all her friends and family told her she shouldn't move to Gotham, but she's a hero too and Gotham ain't got shit on Hawkmoth) and she knows this isn't the best part of town, but it's the only place that has fabric stores, and the prices are really good so of course, she's gonna stock up. She knows she looks like an easy target but she is not. But bad guys don't know that, so a pair of idiots come up to her on the street and start harassing her and trying to rob her. One goes to hit her, and she totally backhands them and then knocks them both out flat in under 30 seconds. Not a hair out of place and all of her purchases are still safe and sound. And Robin is shocked up above (and kinda turned on) and is now definitely thinking that this girl is the newest up-and-coming supervillain, and he hears her mutter, "these fools have nothing on Paris." And so he swings down, intrigued, and wanting to know who this new danger is. He doesn't want to be too sus at first though and asks if she's fine (Richard would be proud of how far he's come at interpersonal skills) Of course, Marinette knows who the local heroes are (she doesn't want to step on anyone's toes after all) and so is very friendly at first, and basically says, "I'm okay and don't need any help, after all, you don't survive long in Paris if you can't handle yourself, but it's nice to know Gotham's heroes are looking out." And Robin doesn't know if that's meant to be a threat or sincere. And so he offers to walk her home because that's what a hero would do with a normal civilian right?? Not one that he was trying to gauge what their notorious schemes are, right?? But Marinette easily agrees, and in her mind, is just happy to get a read on the local heroes, and just chats with Robin the whole way home about Gotham and what amazing styles she can get from its local design and architecture. And Damian is so?? confused??? Is this girl an artist? IS she a villain artist?? What kind of schemes are going to happen here. And so he obviously has to know more about this amazi- he means potentially dangerous woman, and so when he sees her safely home asks to maybe, visit? Again? And Marinette is all like 😁😁 Sure, happy to help Gotham's heroes however she can. Damian is like 'perfect, I have managed to open a line of inquiry into a potential threat, now I just need to visit often- I mean monitor her carefully to figure out her plans' and Marinette is just like, 'The Gotham heroes are much more welcoming than I thought they would be. I got fabric, beat up some baddies, and made a new friend all in one evening!'

Their falling in love is kinda inevitable.

#damianette #daminette headcannons #daminette #maribat #marinette is a artist #marinette dupain cheng x damian wayne #damian x marinette #mlb crossover #maridami #damimari #ml x dc #marinette dupain-cheng x damian wayne

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ggomos-maribat · 10 months

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4 | in which a boy becomes jealous of his niece

Part 4 of No Mr. Wayne You Can't Adopt Me! | Masterlist

When Bruce heard that Diana and Clark were both in the city for work, he decided to kill two birds with one stone and invite them for lunch and a meeting in his office. He even had Tim in attendance, so he could give his opinions for the League-related discussions. They were deep into intergalactic affairs when a knock rapped on the door.

"Mr. Wayne?" Marinette called out from outside.

Bruce wondered why she was knocking, since she knew he had guests over. Marinette never disturbed him if he had guests. Is there an emergency?

Tim was quick on his feet as he opened the door for her. Marinette's head peeked out, looking a little shy. "Sorry to interrupt, but I've got something to show you urgently."

Bruce gave an apologetic smile. "Can it wait until later—"

Tim cut in, "It's a casual meeting, B, let the girl in."

With Clark and Diana's gazes on him, he conceded and motioned for Tim to let his assistant in. The girl carried her tablet inside, setting it up on the table in front of them. "There was an intruder last night in your office. I managed to extract the audio feed and sync it up with the video footage."

The glint in his son's eye already gave Bruce a foreboding feeling. Tim gasped dramatically. "An intruder? How scary!"

"I'd like to show you so you can confirm his words." Marinette pursed her lips. "Batman visited last night."

"Batman?" Clark's gaze wandered off towards Bruce.

The assistant nodded solemnly and pressed a key to play the video. "He came in late at night to 'retrieve something' but I did suspect he was stealing."

Like the nosey coworkers they were, the two League members immediately slid towards either side of Bruce to get a glimpse of the screen. Bruce's encounter with the knife-wielding Marinette was caught clear as day on the camera—he started to feel heat rush to his cheeks.

Tim attempted (and failed) to mask his laughter with a cough while Diana didn't hold back at all, letting out a chuckle as they watched.

"I think that's enough of—" Bruce stretched his arm to pause the video but Clark moving to hold back his wrist was faster.

"No, it's important to see the whole thing, Bruce," his sly friend told him, "This is a security breach."

"He's right, Mr. Wayne." Marinette's eyebrows furrowed. "He slipped in so easily; our security system must be faulty if he was able to go inside without triggering alarms."

Bruce bit on his tongue and wished he could say something. But his assistant's blue eyes shone with so much innocent concern and worry that he couldn't stay firm. He leaned back and let the video finish, with amusement clear on Clark and Diana's faces and Tim wheezing behind him.

He cleared his throat. "Thank you for bringing this up, Marinette, but Batman is right. We had a prior agreement so he's allowed in the office."

"But why associate with Batman at all?" She tilted her head. "Is he one of your lovers?"

Bruce was pretty sure Tim just choked on air.

"We both save the city, in our own ways that is." Bruce internally cringed at his explanation. "I think we both have the same goals and I'm happy to help him if it means Gotham is safe."

"No offense, but he's a recluse. You can do better, Mr. Wayne."

Bruce glanced at his two fellow founding members. "I'm sure he's got some friends of his own."

"I don't know." Clark pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "I've talked to Superman a few times and according to him, the Bat is a weirdo."

Marinette's eyes widened. "Weird how? Oh, that reminds me . . ." She pulled out something from her pocket: the same Batarang Bruce had thrown at her. "He pinned my sleeve to the wall! It's going to take forever to mend."

Bruce looked away guiltily.

Clark shook his head in faux disappointment. "That's awful. Superman says he's always like that—cold like a stone wall, very grumpy, and protective over his secret identity."

"It seems that Batman was very much caught off by your presence, Marinette," Diana added.

Tim was already silent-laughing by Bruce's desk, knocking his fist on top of it while holding his middle.

"Sorry, Marinette, we have other things to discuss here." Bruce forced out a smile again. "I'll tell Batman not to come unannounced again. Thanks for telling me right away. If you'd like, I can pay for your blazer to get fixed."

Marinette pocketed the Batarang and picked up her tablet. "Sure, but to be honest, I'd rather have a personal apology."

"I agree, Bruce, he should show some remorse." Clark nonchalantly sipped from his drink.

"I'll—I'll make sure he does that."

***

Bruce was sitting in his office's lounge with stacks of binders and envelopes scattered all over the table. Sat across him was Marinette, who was helping him organize the upcoming hectic schedule for the company. He pointed to an empty spot on the paper calendar. "What if we put the grand opening on the sixth? That would give us enough time to prepare."

Marinette spoke slowly. "Why on the sixth?"

"It's free, isn't it?"

She decided to continue to stare at him wordlessly, waiting for something to strike him. He only stared back dumbfoundedly at first but after a few beats, Marinette saw the exact moment the realization dawned on him.

Cue the panicked Bruce Wayne.

Marinette went back to scribbling on her notebook. "How can you forget the birthday of your only grandchild, Mr. Wayne?"

"It slipped my mind." Bruce visibly gulped. "I haven't prepared a gift yet."

"It's a week away."

"Yes . . . yes I'm aware."

She gave her subtle but pointed look. She should've predicted this, in all honesty—Bruce seemed to be extremely swamped both inside and outside work the past few days. But she expected him to have the date marked on his personal calendar at least.

"If I start on the handmade gift tonight, there should be enough time for me to finish by the sixth," she told him.

He pursed his lips, "No, I can't possibly ask that from you. It wouldn't be a gift from me if it's you making it."

"Do you have other ideas then?"

Bruce came up with a blank. He shook his head, clearly in distress.

"Then allow me to make it, Mr. Wayne," she insisted as she clicked her pen. "If you're the one to pick the design I'm sure she will love it."

He breathed out, practically slumping on the sofa. "Thank you, Marinette, you're a lifesaver."

"That's not the magic word."

"I'll pay double your—no I'll pay triple your salary. That should cover the materials cost and work for it."

Marinette nodded in satisfaction. Triple was already a lot more than her usual commission prices. She looked over the scheduled events and tried to work out another suitable schedule. "I'll have the design options ready by tomorrow—I'm thinking of a thick cardigan—so please get her measurements from Mr. Pennyworth."

***

Marinette was running in heels. Sweat clung to the nape of her neck as she caught her breath in front of the manor gates. The rude taxi driver had dropped her off a good distance away from her destination, making her horribly late for the party when she had an important package to deliver.

She stared down at the gift bag with a neat little bow hanging from her wrist. Bruce had told her that he was going to be late to the birthday party and tasked her to get the gift there first . . . without much excuse for his tardiness. And when there was a flimsy excuse, it only meant that he was attending to something Batman-related.

After fixing her appearance and checking her reflection through her phone, she ventured into the back garden where the Wayne family had set up a modest party: a few family friends had been invited, standing around the long banquet table with finger foods and there were some picnic blankets laid around. The weather seemed to be in good favor just for Mar'i Grayson, who squealed and jumped into Marinette's arms the moment she saw her.

"Marinette!" The girl beamed. "You're here!"

Well . . . Marinette wasn't invited in the first place. She was there thanks to Bruce. Behind Mar'i, she saw Dick whispering to Kor'i with a frown, probably voicing out his disappointment that Bruce wasn't there yet.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." She smiled back.

Mar'i looked around. "Where's grandpa?"

"Uhh, your grandpa's running a little late today but he had me deliver this!" Marinette held up the bag, drawing out a look of wonder from the child. "Happy birthday, Princess."

The girl was already bouncing on her heels. "What's in it? What's in it?"

"Why don't you open it to find out?" A new voice said.

Marinette hoped no one heard her sigh of relief. Bruce had just appeared, but his tousled hair and wrinkled clothes indicated that he dressed himself in a rush.

"Grandpaaaaa!" Mar'i ran to her grandfather and he easily lifted her up.

"Happy birthday, sweetheart. I'm sorry I'm late." Bruce tapped the tip of her nose.

The girl giggled. "It's okay, there's still cake for you!"

"Why don't you open up your gift?"

Marinette moved aside and watched with anticipation as Mar'i peeked into the bag. She couldn't help the smile tugging on her lips when she saw green eyes lighting up in delight. Mar'i held out the soft pink cardigan adorned with patterns of a figure resembling Silkie, along with a little crocheted bag in the shape of a star.

Even though Bruce nearly forgot the date, he picked out a fitting design.

"I love it!" Mar'i gasped, immediately slipping the cardigan on. "Thank you, grandpa!"

With her job done, Marinette retreated towards the refreshments table where, to her surprise, Damian offered her a glass of water. His gaze seemed to be trained on the gift, which Mar'i was proudly showing off to the other guests.

"Is that your handiwork?" He asked.

"Do you want one too?" Marinette teased after she downed the whole glass. "I'll make one for you on your birthday if Mr. Wayne forgets yours too."

He snorted. "I didn't say that. And Father will not forget my birthday."

"You sure about that?"

"You will be reminding him either way anyway." Damian sipped on his own drink. "You didn't have to make the gift for the sake of covering up Father's mistake."

"He paid me well, so it's fine."

"Still, he should've been the one who made the effort."

"He's right, Marinette, you didn't have to." Dick came up to them, handing a slice of cake to Marinette. "Old man's tendency to forget isn't new."

Marinette gave a grateful smile as she took a bite of the pink-and-purple frosted cake. "It's alright really. I wouldn't have offered to help but I didn't want Mar'i to celebrate without a gift from Mr. Wayne."

"It must've been a lot of trouble." Dick briefly looked at the wrist brace around her hand.

"Ah, this isn't from making the cardigan. Don't worry," she lied.

"I heard he only asked for the cardigan," said Dick. "What about the bag?"

Marinette's gaze traveled towards Mar'i again. The girl was stuffing her new bag with candies from Roy as her mother fixed her hair. "Just an accessory to match the cardigan. Consider it a gift from me."

"Thank you, Marinette." Dick nodded, looking at his daughter with a soft expression. "And I'm sorry for all the trouble on behalf of Bruce."

When Dick left (presumably to pull Bruce to the side and talk to him), Marinette noticed the side-eyes Damian was giving her. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You strained your hand making the cardigan didn't you?" he asked.

She put a finger up to her lips. "Let's keep that a secret between us."

#maribat fanfic #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maribat #maribat fic #maribat marinette dupain cheng #NMWYCAM #PA!Marinette

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hauntedbythefanficsofmypast · 7 months

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BatMom- Tim Drake

Masterlist

Part One

Part Two

Tim Drake, her Genius Bird.

She had not been prepared for her third bird, no, the boy came crashing into her life quite unexpectedly. In fact he had sought her out one night as she was trailing behind a depressed and hurting bat. Marinette had to admit the little bird had some spunk he had practically thrown himself off the building when he saw her.

Ignoring her reprimanding him over dangerous stunts like that, and he just pulled out a picture.

A picture of her, Dick, and Jason-her sweet babybird-a picture she had never seen before.

Soon after pulled out another one, this time of Lady Noir, Robin, and the newly named Nightwing, it was his first patrol after finally letting go of Robin. Two things ran though Marinette’s mind as she stared at the pictures.

1-I’ve never seen these before, Alfred would have given me copies.

2-He knows.

It was after he lowered them, that she recognized him. Tim Drake, the shy little boy that was Bruce’s neighbor.

'He shouldn’t be in Gotham. Janet and Jack are currently in France. Why isn’t their son with them?’

Tim looked up at her before placing the photos in her hand giving her a small smile.

“I knew you wouldn’t let me fall, Miss Marinette, you never let them fall.” This caused her to flinch, she still blamed herself for what happened to Jason. Tim had noticed and knew he had to plead his case before the hurting mother closed in on herself. “Just like how you won’t let Bruce fall completely into the darkness. You can’t do it alone though.” He said softly, grabbing her free hand in his own attempt to be comforting. “Batman needs a Robin, without one he sinks into the darkness.” Marinette turned looking away from the boy, slightly anger burning in her chest. It wasn’t directed at Tim though, no it was at herself.

“Robin is gone kiddo, we can’t keep living in the past.” She said and stood up, ready to summon Kaalki so that she could take Tim back home.

“Jason wouldn’t want you to blame yourself, and he wouldn’t want Bruce to self-destruct.” Tim said determined, not flinching when Lady Noir turned her neon green eyes on him. “Dickie needs to be his Robin again.” He pulled out another two pictures, this first one older and more worn.

It was her and Dickie out on his first patrol, Batman stood behind them in the picture. She was Ladybug, a rare sight, Ladybug rarely showed herself in Gotham, and Dick was in his first Robin body armor. They sat on the edge of a building, feet dangling as they ate ice cream.

She had insisted on it, stating that they had to celebrate and Batman had simply grumbled knowing better than to argue with someone even more stubborn than him. The second picture was Ladybug and Robin again, but this time it was her tough little bird and Nightwing sat on her other side. They all sat eating ice cream, smiling and enjoying their time together. Lady Noir let out a soft ‘oh’, she missed her babybird so much. “You need a Robin too, a Robin to help you.” Lady Noir stared at the picture before sitting down a fake nail carefully rubbing over Jason’s face.

“My baby boy.” She whispered softly a sad smile on her face before she looked up at Tim. “May I keep these?” Tim nodded vigorously, smiling as he moved closer.

“I have more pictures in my room at Drake Manor!” He said, scoffing his foot against the ground and looking down abashedly. Lady Noir nodded looking up at him with a gentle smile.

“I’d, I’d like to see them please, Mister Drake.”

“Just call me Tim”

“Very well, Tim.”

Tim was on the right track, Batman did need Robin, but Dick had already flown. He started making a name all his own, but this time he’d get to help in training their next bird.

The start had been rocky, Bruce hadn’t wanted anything to do with him. He had even snapped at Marinette accusing her of trying to replace Jason.

That had landed him in a fight he couldn't win, Marinette had thoroughly beaten him for it before snapping at the man verbally. Alfred had taken his anger out in a less violent way but extremely unpleasant way.

Bruce had to endure burnt food for what felt like months.

Marinette had taken the boy under her wing from the moment she had found out he was completely alone at Drake manor. She didn’t report the Drakes right away however, instead she took Tim in, giving him his own room. She went through the entire manor, taking pictures of all the rooms absolutely covered in dust. Showing that only three places were taken care of Tim’s room, the kitchen, and the library. She then reached out to all former employees, including the Nanny that had been employed just a year previous. The amount they had to say left Marinette very happy and unhappy. Happy for it was more to add to her case, a case that her lawyer was more than excited to work on. It wasn’t a surprise, Adrien had always loved it when she brought him hard cases that needed a lot of work. Unhappy because of what poor Tim had gone through.

Since taking him in Marinette and him had slowly grown closer, however she still refused to let him go out as Robin. Which annoyed the young boy greatly because it was clear Robin was still needed. Dick was the one that provided him the help he needed.

For a year Dick would pick Tim up every weekend claiming they were going camping, when in reality they were going to the old Titan’s tower. He had trained Tim for a year and then he had given Tim his own Robin uniform. Telling him to be safe and let him know when to expect his first patrol, already in fear of Marinette’s reaction.

“The woman is scary ya know?”

“But you love her.”

“I do.”

When Lady Noir first saw a new Robin flying she nearly snapped until she noticed her first bird trailing behind. Instead of rushing in and snatching her bird up she decided to follow him. The entertainment of watching the bird drive the big bad bat up the wall made it worth it. It took half an hour for Batman to finally call it quits and call a family meeting, or well, he called it a team meeting but pot meets kettle.

“Did you do this?”

He immediately rounded on Marinette which caused an immediate glare at him as she crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. Dick and Tim were tense watching the two questioning if they should speak up. It took a rather hard hit to Dick’s rib cage by Tim for their eyes to snap to Dick.

“Ya so it may have, possibly been me.”

He said giving them his most charming smile, Bruce’s face didn’t budge but he saw Marinette’s lip twitch just slightly. Which calmed him only a little, the night was long and ended with Bruce agreeing to take Tim as his Robin. He had tried to get the kid to stay at the manor but Marinette refused.

“Not gonna happen Bruce, you can pick him up every night from me, two buildings over from my penthouse. Now come on Dickie, we need to get ice cream.”

———————————<3————————————

Tim Drake, His Parents Return.

Tim had flourished under Marinette’s care; he was only twelve and yet he was one of the smartest people she’d ever met. Everything she decided to teach him he learned in less than a week, and as they progressed he learned even quicker. So much so she couldn’t keep up with him. Her boy was incredibly smart, probably smarter than Bruce as well.

He had already surpassed her with his knowledge in technology and science. The only thing he could not surpass her in was her talent in fashion. He had attended multiple Galas with her at this point and knew almost everyone in the fashion industry by name. He also knew those to watch out for and those to treat with high regards. For instance, to avoid Lila Rossi at all costs, they had not been able to dig up solid proof of her working with Hawkmoth so she still ran free. He knew could trust Adrien Agreste with his life and that the man would do anything to help him or Marinette, granted. Finally he knew to always give respect to Audrey and Chloe Bourgeois, but if they overstepped a boundary it was imperative for him to stand up for himself. Neither women respected people that allowed themselves to be walked all over, that’s why they held Marinette in such high regards.

But it was his attendance to those Galas that brought his parents attention back to him. The night they arrived at Marinette’s penthouse she had been ready for a fight. She had Adrien there already, having sent Kaalki to get him. Tim sat on the couch finishing his homework glancing up every so often at the two adults whispering together.

“Mari, there is nothing we can do until the police are involved, and you know they can take him. You can't leave him in the dark about this.”

“I don't want them to take him, Rein. There must be something we can do.”

“Not right now, I have pulled up everything I could, but if you refuse to let him go they can charge you with kidnapping. You need to tell him Mari.”

“Fine”

Marinette stood walking over to Tim, she slowly kneeled on the ground by the couch. Tim refused to look at her, he already knew what was coming and didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Tim.” She said softly calling for his attention, he simply shook his head, burying his face deeper in his textbook. Marinette’s heart broke as she slowly reached up, taking the book from his hands. “Tim, I need to talk to you.”She took his hands in hers, kissing his knuckles softly. “Please look at me TimTim.” He hesitated before looking into her eyes, tears brimming his own. “Tim, you are going to have to go with them.”

“I don’t want to, please don’t make me.”

“I don’t want you to either Birdie, but if I keep you they can charge me with kidnapping and that will hurt our case.” She slowly pulled the bird into her lap cradling him against her chest. “I promise you Tim, you won't stay with them long. I will not stop fighting until you are released into my care. I have Bruce, and Commissioner Gordon on my side, not to mention Adrien who is one of the best lawyers in the world, as well as Bruce’s large list of lawyers. I will get you back TimTim, it will just take me a little time.” Tim wrapped his arms around her waist crying into her shoulder. Marinette stroked his back, rocking slowly as she held back tears, she hated this, all of it.

“I am moving in with Bruce until this is over, Adrien is coming with me, and Dick is finishing the week off, then taking a Leave of Absence from Bludhaven PD. He will be at the manor too and will be sneaking over to Drake manor to see you.” Tim nodded before pulling back, wiping at his eyes, only stopping when Marinette pulled his hand away. She began softly dabbing under his eyes, a gentle smile on her face. “Let's get your school work together okay?” They put away his work, sending each other teasing little comments and lightening the mood. Adrien watched his best friend with a soft smile, as she completely relaxed. Their peaceful atmosphere was interrupted by a sharp knock on the door. Marinette gave Tim one last tight hug as her housekeeper slowly made her way over. Mrs. Reynolds turned looking at her young employer, her hand hovering over the door knob.

“You can still run. I know the Horse God can take you anywhere Miss. I can say you’re not here.” Marinette smiled at her shaking her head even though she wanted nothing more than to take him and run.

“Non, Mrs. Reynolds, we can not run from everything. The barbarians are at the gates, and I fear it's time to face them.” She gently brushed Tim’s hair down, nodding for the women to open the door. Janet was the first to enter storming past Mrs. Reynolds nearly knocking the women over, Jack following behind her.

“You! Give me my son back! How dare you take him from his home, and make it look like my husband and I are unfit parents!” Janet said, beginning to get in Marinette’s face, expecting the smaller woman to back up, but Marinette stood her ground looking unimpressed.

“Oh no, you did that to yourself Janet. You and your husband are unfit parents, and don’t worry soon everyone will know it. Adrien if you’d please.” Adrien stood up making his way over and held out a neat stack of papers to Jack as he looked at Janet.

“You may be taking young Tim home tonight, but I promise you, he will not be there long.” Adrien smirked, pushing his glasses up; he didn’t need them he just thought they made him look mature. “You see I already had Commissioner Gordon get a search warrant for your mansion. Given you two just arrived back in the states, you were already much too late to have the mansion cleaned up in time.” Jack and Janet’s confident looks slowly dropped as Jack took the papers. “I promise you this, Tim will not be in your care for longer than a week.”

“Enough I am not scared of new money! Give me my son now!” Janet snapped glaring at Marinette who simply stared back at the women. She turned away looking down at Tim with a soft smile.

“Go with them, I promise we will have you back soon TimTim.”

Tim nodded before walking towards Janet and Jack, tensing when Janet gripped his arm dragging him out of the penthouse.

“We’ll get him back Marinette.” Adrien said softly while Mrs. Reynold’s closed the door, Marinette nodded before turning and heading towards the balcony. Plagg slowly floated up resting on his kitten’s shoulder.

“Just let her be for a bit, Adrien. She needs time.”

“I know Plagg”

Marinette walked out and stared down at the entrance to the building watching until Tim and the senior Drakes finally exited. Janet still dragged him as they headed towards their limo, a tear fell as she watched her bird forced in. She pulled out her phone dialing Bruce’s number.

“Brucie, they took him. Ya could you send Alfred please, I-I don’t want to be here right now. Thank you.”

It wasn’t until four days later Marinette saw her TimTim again. Her, Bruce, and Adrien sat with Commissioner Gordon and a Social worker discussing the case. When Dick burst into the room carrying Tim in his arms pure rage clear in his eyes. “I swear to the lord above if you don’t get him out of that house I am going to commit murder.” Dick sat down in Marinette’s lap much to the amusement of everyone in the room. Both boys curled in the smaller woman’s lap as she wrapped her arms around them. “The nerve of that woman! How dare she! How dare she think she could get away with it too!”

“What happened, pretty bird?” She asked softly, running her hand through her eldest’s hair, calming him slightly.

“She slapped him mom! She slapped him and blamed this all on him! I went over to check on him and their housekeeper let me in and immediately rushed me to the living room! The woman was begging me to get him away from them! I entered the room right as she slapped him, while Jack watched drinking bourbon from his arm chair!” Marinette reached up with one hand tilting Tim’s face towards hers showing the bruises.

“Oh baby.” She whispered softly, her eyes tearing up. Bruce frowned, turning to the shocked social worker and determined Commissioner.

“Enough proof?” The social worker nodded, pulling out her phone and typing on it.

“I am giving you and Miss Dupain-Cheng temporary custody of Tim Drake until the trial. At which you will both be given the opportunity to adopt him.”

“Good.” Bruce said, turning to look at his boys and their mother, only wishing that their second bird was there with them. Soon enough Marinette and Tim were splitting their time between the manor and their penthouse.

———————————<3————————————

Tim Drake, The Titans.

Restarting the Titans had been Marinette’s idea, Tim wasn’t so little anymore, in fact he was now taller than her by eight inches and was fifthteen. She knew her little bird needed to spread his wings, much like her first did. However he needed a little push, and she was more than happy to push him, with her eldest’s help of course.

It was one Saturday morning when the newest Titan’s were called together, Robin the third, Wonder Girl the second, Impulse, and Superboy, of course they had no idea why they were there.

Nightwing had them under the impression that it would be a temporary teamwork when it happened. You see, Cyborg knew that something was going to happen in Jump City and agreed to see how they worked together. Of course the original Titans and Ladybug along with Chat Noir were watching to make sure nothing happened if the team self-destructed, but they were all pleased that they worked as if they had been together for years. Ladybug slowly lowered herself to land beside Nightwing and Starfire, as the team celebrated their win. Until Robin noticed his mother and brother’s smug looks, putting the pieces together rather quickly.

“So this was your plan? You wanted to test us all together as a team, I knew something was up when Nightwing pulled me out of Gotham for this team up. However I did not think Ladybug was also behind this, along with Chat it seems.” Ladybug waved her hand with a smile, looking up towards the building she had come from where her old partner resided. He grinned waving down at the currently shocked new Titans. “Well he wanted to stretch his legs for a bit and I wanted to see how my bird would do with a team. What do you think, Robin, Wonder Girl, Impulse, Superboy? I have all your mentors' approval, how would you like to be a team together under Nightwing and Starfire’s supervision?” Nightwing startled looking at his mother in shock.

“Hold up, under my-” He paused seeing the look Ladybug was giving him before nodding vigorously much to Starfire’s amusement. “Yes, yes under mine and Star’s supervision.”

Robin gave him a deadpan look before turning back to Ladybug, the two sharing a silent conversation.

‘Are you trying to get rid of me?’ His eyes glancing down at the ground then back up.

‘Never. You need some time with others, not Bats’ She shifted onto her right leg leaning towards the others, placing her left hand on her hip.

‘And if I say no?” His nose twitched slightly.

‘I will accept it, but be sad.’ Her head tilted to the side, slight frown.

‘Fine, I will try for you.’ He crossed his arms, meeting her eyes.

‘Thank you.’ She smiled at him.

Robin turned towards the others stating that he’d be willing to try if they would, and soon after the new Titans were formed.

“Hold up, no one's gonna comment on their freaky silent communication?” Beast Boy asked, causing laughter to ring out from the old and new Titans.

Soon Tim spent every weekend in Jump City, and while Marinette missed him, she was happy because her bird was finally making real friends.

———————————<3————————————

Time Drake, Joker Jr.

“Three weeks! He has been gone for three fucking weeks!” Marinette snapped, slamming her first against the wall of the cave. “Three weeks and we have no leads to where my boy is!” Tears fell from Marinette’s eyes as Batman removed his cowl and moved over to her. Marinette hugged him, needing someone to stabilize her and bring her back down to earth. “Three weeks...three weeks.” She whispered weakly, cherishing this rare moment of Bruce’s comfort.

“We’ll find him Marinette, Dick and Barbara are out there now, and we need to be out there too.”

Marinette was silent before nodding and pulling away.

“You are right. Tikki, spots on!....Tikki, Plagg, Unify!!”

Bruce slipped the cowl on and soon they were both in the Batmobile speeding through the streets of Gotham.

Lady Noir was jumping over an alleyway when a familiar high pitched voice called out to her.

“Sweetie! Sweetie! Ah geez, what-a the bird brats call ya again? Oh! Oh! Miss Noir! Or is it Mrs. Noir?” Lady Noir’s eyes narrowed as she dropped into the alleyway taking in Harley Quinn’s beat up appearance. She dropped down ready for a fight when to her surprise Harley threw her hands up. “Wait-wait! I’m not here to fight ya see! I swear it! I need your help Miss Noir and I can help you in return! Mista J has gone too far this time, and it affects your third bird!” Harley was wringing her hands together looking at the ground before back up at the hero. “You know just as most do, I’m not all there there in my old noggin. But I could never-would never hurt kids to the point that my Puddin has, first your second bird boy and now this one. I needed to stop him but I wasn’t strong enough! I thought I wouldn’t be able to do anything! But then! Then I remembered you! Oh geez Miss you gotta hurry before he hurts your boy for good!” Harley pleaded tears in her eyes as she grabbed the shocked heroine’s hands. “Save him before he is too far gone like me.”

“Where is he?”

“Old Arkham, the first one. You need to hurry Miss, you and the rest of you birds and bats. I’ll stay here, I swear it-can’t exactly go far right now anyway.”

Lady Noir nodded before using her yo-yo to get back to the roof. Setting off her com as she went alerting the other three heroes out.

“The Arkham ruins now, and hurry.”

Lady Noir arrived after Batgirl and froze in horror at the sight she saw. Batgirl was currently fighting a miniature Joker while the real Joker stood and laughed. It wasn’t until the tiny Joker pulled a move only four others knew that realization sank in. That was her third bird. Joker had tortured her bird and created this. He took one from her forever and permanently scared the other. Lady Noir launched herself at the Joker landing a solid right hook to his face, sending the insane man stumbling. His laughter never stopped as he faced Lady Noir addressing her as the other two fought.

“Well, well, well! If it isn’t the other cat that prowls Gotham!!” Joker said laughing as he wiped blood from his mouth. “Tell me kitty cat! Have you met my boy yet?” He laughs, dodging a punch from her, leading them both towards stacks of crates. “He is just perfect!! HAHAHA!!! I really did a number on this one!” Lady Noir let out an animalistic growl lashing out and caught Joker’s shoulder. Ripping the clothes and drawing blood. “Ooooh! Kitty does have some claws!” He said stumbling back and leaning against the crate. He stuck his arm behind his back, acting like he was stabilizing himself. His fingers wrapped around the crowbar laughing even louder as his crazed eyes met Lady Noir’s unfocused ones. She advanced on him, lost in her anger and not thinking straight.

Joker let out a cackle as he swung the crowbar hitting her hard on her right side. She let out a pained scream, jumping back when he raised the crowbar for another swing. Noir gripped her side jumping back again ignoring the pain flaring in her side as she dodged the crazed clown. She kicked her leg up, hitting him square in the jaw before keeling in pain. She took a deep breath as the Joker got back up laughing at her. He stumbled slightly rubbing his jaw as he looked at her. “Oh come on kitty cat! Don’t you just feel like laughing with me! Look, your wannabe bat over there is losing! It’s a great show!! HAHAHA, shame you had to interrupt my show. You know, I have put up with you for a long while now. You’re getting in my way now, YOU AND THOSE STUPID BIRDS! I’VE HAD ENOUGH! It’s time to put you all down! Then you won’t get in the way of me and Batsy! Oh well I suppose one of those birds will get to live, though he’ll live as Joker Jr. First I’ll take care of you oh I’ll have so much fun beating you black and blue. Just like I did to the second boy blunder, except I’m going to beat the life out of your eyes!” He said before laughing and charging at Lady Noir. She continued to dodge him, using her baton to block a few swings. She spun out of the way before gasping at the sudden sharp pain, and dropping her baton. The Joker laughed using her momentary distraction to hit her again. This time hard on her right forearm, bursting out in laughter at the audible crack. She bit her lip holding back her scream, causing her lip to bleed. She jumped back again doing her best not to move her now broken arm. Joker followed her laughing harder until his sight of her was blocked by Batman. “Batsy!! Finally arrived to the party, late as always I see!!” He laughed, swinging the crowbar around with a mad grin. Batman glared at him while Nightwing dropped down next to Lady Noir standing defensively by her side. She grabbed his arm gently looking up at his covered eyes.

“Help your father.” She whispered, ignoring Batman and Joker’s fight, her eyes trained on Batgirl and her baby bird. “I have to help him so make sure your father puts Joker in a full body cast.” She nodded to him before gingerly making her towards the two watching Batgirl hold her own against him. She took a deep breath bracing herself before rushing him from the back. She grinned as he tried to turn to hit her but she already had her arm wrapped around his torso pinning his arms down. He struggled elbowing her and trying to scratch her through the suit, she let out a yelp when he hit her rib. Then bit back a sob when he began hitting it repeatedly, tears gathered in her eyes but she refused to let go. “Smart bird.” She gritted out, tightening her grip pulling them both to the ground. Batgirl took a deep breath watching Lady Noir hold her hurt bird. Joker Jr. froze at the nickname, tears beginning to fill his eyes as he started to elbow her hurt ribs even harder. Lady Noir let out a broken sob as pain erupted and soon began struggling to breathe. Her rib just punctured a lung, if they didn’t wrap this up soon she’d be in danger. “My baby bird.” She whispered softly criss crossing her legs so he sat in her lap. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve found you sooner. I should’ve protected you.” Joker Jr. stopped struggling and broke into uncontrollable laughter before tears began to fall. Soon laughter turned to sobs and he curled over her good arm gripping it tightly. “It’s gonna be okay, we’re gonna get through this together. You,the family, and me, we’re going to get through this baby bird.”

———————————<3————————————

Tim Drake, Youngest CEO of Wayne Enterprises.

They weren’t prepared in the least bit, and Marinette felt lost. Bruce, the Batman, one person she thought would fight till he was old and gray. Now he was gone and left behind his family and his newly introduced son.

They were struggling, bad, and Marinette barely kept them together. She nearly snapped when Tim told her he was taking over Wayne Enterprises. Her baby bird, seventeen, not done with school taking over an entire company. She stopped herself when Dick stepped in, her boys would be managing Wayne Enterprises together. Tim took over as CEO while Dick took over the publicity side. Together they moved into Marinette’s penthouse bringing Bruce’s birth son with them. Her smart bird was very disgruntled over that, upset because the boy tried to kill him and over how he talked to Marinette. Things weren’t smooth, the family was hurting, Marinette was hiding her bout of depression. Tim was getting no sleep, running the company and finishing school at night. Dick took over as Batman, running himself ragged trying to manage three jobs at once. Marinette finally put her foot down and Dick conceded taking family leave from BPD, and she slept in Tim’s room until he began sleeping curled up against her side. She hid her depression as best she could from a family of detectives and focused and took care of her boys. Alfred helped every step of the way, while also forcing her to talk to him about her own feelings. Alfred knew everything after all, her boys didn’t see the depression but he did. Mrs. Reynolds was at a loss for how to help them all, but did her best to keep them all on schedule.

The only real struggle they had was Tim being convinced that Bruce was alive. God did they want to believe it. Dick was too scared, worried that in the end it wouldn’t be true. Marinette because she didn’t know if this was denial or not. After long family talks including Damian who vehemently denied being a part of the family. They all agreed to support Tim in his search, and search he did even calling in favors from all over. Marinette was surprised by the amount of friends her TimTim had, proud wasn’t even able to describe how she felt. Her boy hadn’t even graduated yet but he was so far in life. She just wished Bruce was there to see him running Wayne Enterprises.

———————————<3————————————

Time Drake, Bruce is Found.

Life was better, much better than it was a year ago. Damian was still rough around the edges but was much closer to them. Especially Dick and Marinette, and he no longer tried to kill Tim. They were slowly healing, Marinette’s depression was gone and she had informed the boys of it half way through the year. They were not prepared to find out Bruce was stuck traveling through time. Marinette joined Superman, Green Lantern, Rip Hunter, and Booster Gold jumping through time in an attempt to get Bruce back. Only for Bruce to find them first and of course have a fight following him. Now, they were locked in a room monitored by Superman and encased in green thanks to Green Lantern. Unable to do anything as they stop Bruce's heart without even telling his family the reason why. She paced back and forth hoping Tikki would make it back in time with Kaalki.

“Mistress Marinette I must insist you sit down. You have been fighting all morning and you only just got back from jumping through time.” Alfred insisted, causing attention to fall on Marinette, all of them taking in how stressed she was. He led her over to a chair ignoring her protests and getting her to sit down. Tim walked over fidgeting with his computer still trying to get service. He groaned, shutting it with a snap while wiping his eyes.

“I don’t know what to do.” He whispered softly and held back tears. The people he thought they could trust had locked them in this room. Marinette reached out, pulling him down in front of her. Tim rested his head on her leg crying quietly as she ran her fingers through his hair. Dick shuffled over sitting beside him leaning back against Marinette’s leg. Jason moved sitting on the arm of her chair turning to look behind her at Alfred. While Damian took a spot leaning against Dick.

“It’s okay Tim.” She whispered softly a few tears slipping as Alfred laid his hands on her shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay. They’ll slip eventually, we just need to stay calm. Tikki and Kaalki will be here soon.” Tim huffed, leaning his head into her hand.

“But will Bruce still be alive when we get out? All this work, all this time and when we finally get him back his own friends want to kill him!” The family was silent before Tim turned to Dick meeting his eyes. “Dickie, you know them best, why are they doing this? Is this even them?” Dick winced as he wrapped an arm around Damian’s waist pulling him closer.

“I,” he started turning to look at the door. “I don’t know Tim. Clark wouldn’t even say anything to me, he just ignored me.” Marinette ran her fingers through his hair before turning attention back to Tim.

“We’re here Tim, we’re here and together.” Tim nodded, wrapping an arm around her leg turning his head to look at his brothers. He snorted at the mild glare Damian had sent him and the middle finger Jason was failing at hiding.

“Just putting it out there though, this is not what I meant when I said we should spend more time together.” Dick said, causing a few chuckles and a flick to the head from Jason.

“Not the time, Dickhead.”

“Jason! Watch your language!”

“Please the Demon Brat has heard worse.” He mumbled out not looking Marinette in the eye.

“Master Jason, you better apologize to your mother, young man.”

Jason groaned, throwing his head back dramatically at Alfred’s comment. He turns to Marinette, meeting her eyes.

“I am sorry for calling Dickie, Dickhead.” Marinette smiled softly nodding in response ignoring Tim’s snort of amusement.

“Mom?” He asked softly, pulling away and sitting up. He was quiet for a second before seemingly making up his mind. "After we get out, can we take a break? Like can we leave Gotham and the public eye for a while and go to the Temple?” Marinette was surprised at the request and before she could question him, he continued. “Stephanie, and Cass can handle it for a while, especially with Barabra watching over them, and if they need help I’m sure the Titans would be willing to help as well.” Marinette thought it over before looking at Alfred, sharing a silent conversation.

“We’ll go to the Temple once Tikki and Kaalki get here. Alfred deserves a vacation, and I think it’s time I begin training you in using the Miraculous. We’ll have Mr.Fox tell the press that we are going on vacation. The Justice League won’t be able to find us as well.” Her boys smiled, even Damian gave a slight smile at the idea and soon after Tikki flew into the room, Kaalki’s glasses held in her arms and her fellow Kwamii followed. Marinette stood quickly taking the glasses, placing them on. “Kaalki, full gallop!” She called out transforming and grabbing the Horseshoe off her back. “Voyage!” She called, opening a portal to the temple, ushering her boys through as she watched the green disappear. She jumped through as Superman appeared, but he didn’t reach the portal in time. The last of the Batfamily was gone. “Quickly Tim hack the WatchTower, and find Bruce’s status!” Marinette said, waving the Monk’s off as she reached Tim. He sat crisscross typing quickly. His eyes widening and tears beginning to fall giving it all away. “Oh...oh Bruce.” She whispered softly, dropping transformation as she fell to her knees pulling Tim against her chest. Dick, Jason, and Damian joined the hug soon after. Alfred nodded to the Monks asking for a bit of privacy before joining his family in all but blood.

A few months past and they hadn’t left the Temple once, all of them healing from actually losing Bruce. Marinette took her time training her boys with the Miraculous that fit them best.

Dick and Xuppu take to each other like long lost best friends, learning the ins and outs of their partnership flawlessly. Jason and Trixx took to each other after they caught the other sneaking around the Temple. Damian and Longg bonded over formalities and soon you could not find the two separated from each other. Tim, her smart bird bonded with Nooroo, helping the gentle butterfly Kwamii heal in ways Marinette couldn’t. She couldn’t be prouder of them, especially her little Tim. He opened Nooroo’s heart back up and she finally got to see the Kwamii that existed before Hawkmoth took him. None of them were prepared for when Bruce came to the Temple and refused to believe it was him until blood tests were done. Tim demanded an explanation, glaring at his father figure as he held back tears.

“You were dead! You were dead and they didn’t tell us anything! They-they locked us in a room and didn't even acknowledge us!” Bruce frowned, pulling Tim into a hug, comforting the young man as best he could.

“Bruce.” Marinette called, eyes soft as they met his own. “Tell us what happened.” Bruce nodded letting go of Tim.

“They had to stop my heart in order to dissipate the Omega Energy that remained inside me. I don’t know why Clark didn’t explain this to you all.”

“You’re back then, for good? No more jumping through time? No more wondering if I’m crazy, you're actually back and alive?” Tim questioned looking Bruce in the eye, hands shaking not wanting to believe it was all over.

“Yes, it's over, Tim. I’m back and I don’t plan on leaving again.”

———————————<3————————————

Tim Drake, Sexuality Crisis.

Marinette sat on the bed purposely not looking at her bird who had buried himself under his blankets. She kept focused on her newest book, waiting for him to pop out. Tim shifted slightly under the blankets and his head slowly moved out from under. Marinette held back a soft laugh as she watched from the corner of her eye. After a few moments his head was fully out and resting on her thigh. She slowly began carding a hand through his hair, scratching his scalp softly.

“Do you want to talk?” She asked softly using her thumb to change the page. Tim was silent as he stared at the wall, he shook his head as he placed a hand on her calf squeezing it. “Okay TimTim, whenever you’re ready.” He smiled softly nodding as he thought to himself, sitting in silence together.

"Mom," he said softly, looking up at her. "I think I like Bernard." Marinette closed her book looking down at him.

"Okay." She said softly, waiting for him to continue.

"But I also liked Stephanie. I liked both of them...is..is that weird? I mean like both of them like boys and girls??" Marinette brushed his bangs out of his face, shaking her head.

"Tim, this doesn't make you weird at all. It makes you human. Bisexuality is common although unfairly frowned upon. So you like both genders, who cares? It is your life, no one else's."

Tim smiled as he sat up and hugged her tightly.

"I think I'm going to ask Bernard out." Marinette smiled, returning the hug.

"Just be careful, your brothers already have the shovel talk ready."

"Already!?!?"

"Ya we all thought it was going to be Kon but you never cease to surprise us."

"Kon?!?"

"Ya I thought it was gonna be me too." Kon said from outside the window, causing Marinette to let out a bout of laughter.

"Kon!?" Tim jumped out of Marinette’s arms glaring at the window.

"What I thought I finally had my chance, and then this Bernard guy slips in, so unfair Tim-Tam." He says in good-hearted teasing, Marinette waves her hand giving Kon permission to come in.

"Why don't I leave you two to talk this out, I need to go stalk Jaybird and his new team anyway."

She said as she walked to the door.

"Take pictures!" Tim called, causing Marinette to laugh softly as she walked down the hall.

———————————<3————————————

Tim Drake, Coffee Addiction.

"An intervention.” Batman said finality in his voice as he stared at Lady Noir and Red Robin who were beating the life out of a for once terrified Joker. Matching cackles and a particularly hard hit to Joker’s groin had Nightwing cringing and nodding. Red Hood sat on a crate with a baggie of cookies helmet off as he ate.

“Count me out, this is therapeutic. Kick him in the balls again!” A quick thumbs up was all they got in response as Lady Noir and Red Robin kicked him simultaneously.

“Holy guacamole, how much coffee did they drink??” Nightwing muttered slowly backing away. “Ya know B, Bludhaven is really busy right now I should-”

“Don’t even think about it.”

“Damn.”

Lady Noir delivered one last punch to the Joker’s face before dropping him to the ground and Red Robin promptly maced him. She grinned, flipping her braid over her shoulder turning away from the screaming clown and wrapped an arm around Red Robin’s shoulder as they began to walk away.

“Let go after the Penguin next!” She chirped out excited only to be stopped when Batman walked over and picked her up holding her under his arm as he used Red Robin’s cape to make him stumble towards Nightwing. “Hey! B! Put us down! We have work to do!”

“No. Sleep time.”

“Oh you're one to talk hypocrite! If we go to sleep now, everyone goes to sleep now!” Lady Noir said, turning slightly to point a finger up at him.

“Lady Noir.”

“Everyone.” Lady Noir hissed out glaring up at him, Batman was silent before looking away.

“Fine.” He said as he carried her to the Batmobile Nightwing following with Red Robin. Red Hood trailed after them before voicing out the one thought on his mind.

“So are we gonna just ignore that RR, who definitely doesn’t share moms blood, inherited her coffee addiction?”

“Yaaa, we are definitely having an intervention.” Nightwing sighed, already making plans to get Harley Quinn available as the mediator.

———————————<3————————————

Tim Drake, Mom meets the Boyfriend.

Marinette was rushing around the living room straightening pillows, folding blankets, and brushing her boys hair down repeatedly no matter how many times she had passed them. “Ma, you’re gonna give me a bald spot at this point.” Jason complained only receiving a glare in response. He smiled at her cheekily before getting up from the couch and pulling her into a hug. "Come on Ma, if you keep pacing around you're gonna make Alfred think he does a terrible job cleaning." Alfred sniffed from his place besides the living room door.

"As if I could ever Master Jason, do not even insinuate that." Jason shot him a grin nodding in acknowledgment as he moved Marinette to sit in the chair besides the window. Bruce standing behind gazing out the window at the drive watching Tim’s car pull up.

"They're here, now boys remember Bernard is not from the hero community. On top of that he is a theorist of our identities, do not give anything away." Dick rolled his eyes sharing a look with Jason.

"Honesty B, we know this song and dance you don't have to worry." Damian huffed as he walked in with Jerry on a leash.

"Richard, father has every right to worry. Bernard is not one of us, there is no way to know what he could do if he finds out." Dick and Jason stared blankly down at Jerry as Damian walked over to Marinette. Bruce raised an eyebrow, his lips twitching in amusement as he watched Marinette lift Jerry into her lap. Damian gave a small smile as Marinette pulled him closer to her chair and ran her hand through his hair. "Ommii, Jerry wanted to see you." Marinette snorted softly cupping his cheek.

"Yes of course, it's not because Jerry will attack someone as long as you point at them." Damian sniffed, pulling an innocent look.

"Of course Ommii, don't make assumptions, that's beneath you." Marinette nodded, stroking his cheek before removing it, starting to gently run her fingers through Jerry's feathers. Bruce moved over, placing a hand on the back of her chair.

"You two spoil that turkey." He said, earning a reproachful look from Damian.

"Hush now Bruce, they are almost here." Marinette said, smiling softly as her and Damian shared a look.

"The family is this way Master Tim, you know Mistress Marinette is partial to this living room because of the gardens." Alfred's voice was heard approaching the door.

"Ah that's right! Your mom loves the gardens of Wayne manor doesn't she? Or well you said she loves every garden that is well taken care of but the Wayne garden is special." Tim’s familiar laugh rang out as the door opened and Alfred let them in.

"I do hold very fond feelings of the Wayne Gardens. Alfred and Damian take very good care of them." Marinette answered looking over Bernard with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes at his slight embarrassment. "Hello Tim" Tim grinned at her, grabbing Bernard's hand and pulling him over to her.

"Mom! This is Bernard, my boyfriend. Bernard, this is my Mom behind her my adopted father Bruce, my youngest brother Damian and in Mom's lap is his Turkey Jerry. My brother Jason is the one closest to the bookshelf and my brother Dick is the one upside down on the couch." Tim said shooting Dick a blank look that was returned with a grin.

"Richard."

"Yes Mom. Sorry Mom."

Dick was quick to correct himself on the couch but didn't lose his grin. Marinette turned back to Tim and Bernard with a gentle smile.

"Hello Bernard, it's a pleasure to meet you, Tim has told us about you."

"More like bagered on and on about you." Damian said, wincing when Bruce pinched his side.

"Ignore Damian, he likes to be a bratty younger brother." Tim said with a glare directed at Damian. Marinette held back a snort as she glanced between her two youngest.

"Ignore both of them Bernard, I think they like bickering back and forth." Marinette said teasingly as she stood up gently, setting Jerry on the ground. "It really is a pleasure to meet you! Tim has told us about you but getting to know someone in person is always better." Bernard grinned nodding as he walked closer.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss! Tim talks about you a lot!" He announced his smile brightening at the twinkle in Marinette’s eyes. "I'm happy to meet you all and can't wait to get to know the actual people behind Gotham's royalty." Marinette let out a loud laugh, nodding at the comment.

"Oh, we are just as crazy as the media shows, if not a little more! Come, come let's sit down, we still have sometime before dinner is finished. Tim told me you love going over conspiracies with him, I'd love to hear what you have been talking about." Bernard glanced at his boyfriend that was being held apart from Damian by a deadpan Bruce.

"Well, I totally think the Mr. Wayne is secretly Superman." Bernard said after they sat on the same couch as Jason. Marinette grinned brightly as she saw the horror full Bruce’s eyes as he tried to pretend he hadn't heard. Jason snorted, struggling not to laugh as he looked between Bernard and Bruce.

"Oh kid, you're my new favorite. I gotta introduce you to my partner Roy."

"That Oliver Queen's adopted son right? One of my favorite theories is that Mr. Queen is Green Arrow." Jason and Marinette were silent before Marinette made a face shaking her head.

"No Oliver is definitely too traumatized to pick up a bow and arrow after all that time he was missing. However, I definitely think he might be Batman, it's a great cover you know! Plus I have never seen them in the same place before!" Jason held back a laugh at the look of betrayal Bruce sent Marinette.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous fandom #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #miraculous fanfic #tim drake #mlb x dc #batman #batmom #themomtheyneed

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