#platonic damianette

[mochegato]

If You Bring a Friend to Dinner...

Kon eyed the multiple laptops Tim had scattered around himself as he lounged on the couch in the manor’s living room, not as hard as he was side eying Tim’s outfit, but he was still eying the technology situation hard.  “Why are you researching this today?  And why aren’t we doing this in the cave?”

“I’m bored and you know Bruce’s rule about suits in the cave,” Tim answered without taking his eyes off his screen except to switch to looking at a different laptop’s screen.  “Also, I’m not changing.”  He motioned to his quite comfy, oversized, fluffy dark hoodie, which gave the impression of an adult version of a toddler’s bear coat.  The only thing it was missing was little ears on the hood.

“Lazy,” Kon scoffed and collapsed onto the opposite couch, feet hanging over the arm.

“Comfortable,” Tim corrected, now looking at the third laptop.

“You look ridiculous. You should be embarrassed,” Kon grumbled.

This finally made Tim stop and look up.  “Of all the things I’ve done, this is what you think I should be embarrassed about?  Buddy, this isn’t even in the top hundred this year alone,” Tim scoffed.  “Besides, I'm not going to see anyone but you and my family today and I don’t care what any of you guys think.”

Kon opened his mouth to tell him that was probably a good thing because what he thought was that Tim look like a spoiled, sorority girl going through a bad breakup.  But instead of passing on this vital knowledge, he snapped his mouth shut and lifted his head to angle it toward the rest of the manor.  “No way,” he muttered under his breath.

Tim sat up straight, immediately switching to mission mode and scouring the Watchtower’s feed scanning for any crises popping up anywhere in the world.  “What is it?” he demanded, his blood pressure steadily increasing with each negative result.

“No way,” Kon repeated again.  He bolted up off the couch and flew out the door toward the west wing, moving so quickly, it was close to being literal.  Tim rushed after him with absolutely no hope of catching him even if he hadn’t taken a few extra seconds to carefully displace his laptops.

Kon skidded to a stop at the end of the west wing’s hallway barely missing colliding into the two figures that had stopped in the middle of the hallway, the woman clearly didn’t let her significantly smaller stature hold her back as she stood staring up the other man, hands on her hips with a cocky smirk on her lips while the man didn’t look chastened in the least.  The woman eeped and jumped back at the sudden intrusion while the man sighed heavily, the amused uptick to his lips dropping instantly.  “What are you doing here?” he glowered.

“And good to see you too, Damian,” Kon grinned.  He took a step to the side just in time to avoid Tim bowling into him as he rounded the corner but grabbed his arm to help him skid to a stop before running into the other two.

Damian leaned back and crossed his arms as he glowered at their dumbfounded stares.  “Oh good, the peanut gallery.”

Tim and Kon would have responded any other time, heartily dished back the attitude Damian was giving them, but they were too dumbfounded at seeing Damian with a friend other than Jon, a female, non-hero friend, to really register his words.

The woman waited a few beats, looking back and forth between them before deciding to take matters into her own hands.  She grinned at them and held out her hand.  “Hi!  I’m Marinette.”

Tim stared at the hand, still too dumbfounded to register what was going on.  He leaned back closer to Kon, “What the fuck is happening right now?”  He meant to whisper, and technically, he did, but it was still loud enough to travel crystal clear to both Marinette and Damian.

“It’s a hand… you shake it as a greeting,” she explained slowly.

Tim blinked a few times before he reached out and shook her hand woodenly.  He looked over at Damian while still holding her hand, eyes wide in shock.  “You brought someone home.”  He didn’t realize he was still holding her hand until she chortled quietly at his astonished tone, only then letting go of her hand and offering her a sheepish smile.

“Obviously,” Damian retorted.  He pretended to flinch when the woman elbowed him in the ribs and sighed dramatically.  “This is my friend Marinette Dupain-Cheng.  Marinette, this is…”

“She’s a gir…” Kon cut in.  His eyes darted to Damian for just a second before returning to the woman in front of him.  “You're a girl,” Kon stated to her, meeting her eyes with an incredulous stare as though she should understand why that was so problematic to his world view.

She straightened instantly and her eyes hardened.  “Yeah, well spotted.  Good job.  Now do something impressive, like figure out what you are.  I'm guessing cryptid,” she snapped with a coldness he hadn’t anticipated from someone dressed in so many pastels.

He blinked like he was really seeing her for the first time and leaned back to better view her with an assessing once over and raised an amused eyebrow as his lips curled up in a smile, “Nah, that's usually Tim.  He dresses for it and everything,” he motioned toward Tim’s hoodie.  “I’m a different type of legendary beast.”  He waggled his eyebrows at her.  “I’m more one of the tall, sexy creatures that visit maiden’s dreams.”

“No, you aren’t,” Damian declared.

Marinette crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back, her eyes narrowing.  “Like a Liderc maybe,” she scoffed. 

Kon hummed in mock consideration and took a step closer to her.  “Is a Liric…”

“Liderc,” she corrected.

“… tall and sexy?” he finished leaning closer to her.

She pushed him back with a smirk and a finger to his chest.  “Not exactly… more like a little superhuman…”

“Supernatural,” Damian corrected quickly.  He shook his head curtly for Tim without bothering to look over and see the questioning glance he knew must be on his face.

“…creature,” she continued without acknowledging Damian’s interruption with a nonchalance indicative of well-established prior experience, “hatched out of a pod…”  Her smug expression dropped and her eyes unfocused for just a second before she turned to Damian, missing the way Kon’s face froze, “pod?”

“Egg,” Damian answered.  He waited until she’d turned back to Kon before meeting Tim’s eye this time and curtly shaking his head.  Tim raised his eyebrows higher and bobbed his head incredulously.  Damian subtly shrugged then nodded.  Tim’s face stretched in an impressed glower as he returned his attention to the conversation between Marinette and Kon with a renewed interest.

“…egg…” she continued oblivious to the silent conversation behind her, her smug expression fully back in place.

“Pod was more accurate,” Tim snickered just loudly enough for Kon to hear.  Kon huffed and shoved his head away.

“…that flies around and attaches itself to single women,” she finished.

Tim doubled over, the sound of his roaring laughter echoing down the long hallway.  Even Damian grinned at her description and Kon’s flabbergasted expression.  “I thought…” Tim stopped to gasp for breath and grabbed onto Kon’s shoulder for support, “I thought you hadn’t met her yet.  She seems to know you pretty well.”  Kon scowled and shoved his hand off his shoulder, taking a small measure of enjoyment from Tim almost falling over with the loss of support.

“It also helps form the Hungarian word for nightmare,” Damian added with a smirk.

“See, there you go, she thinks you’ll visit her dreams,” Tim chortled and patted Kon’s chest.  “Sounds like you were right after all.”

Damian’s smirk quickly dropped.  “There will be no dream guest appearance except between us,” Damian insisted.  He tugged Marinette a bit closer and into his side, moving her further away from Kon.  “Let me know when Jon arrives.”  Marinette glared at him pointedly.  “I will not say ‘please’ no matter how hard you stare,” he stated, deftly avoiding her eyes and starting to move them out of the hallway.

“I’m not your assistant,” Tim growled.  Damian stopped and raised an eyebrow at him and smirked.  “You got something to say?” Tim asked sharply.

“Oh, I finally get to meet Jon?” Marinette asked, a bit louder than necessary for their proximity, and moved between the two, directly into Damian’s line of sight.

“Yes,” he confirmed as he finally lowered his eyes from the broken staring contest.  His face softened as he continued moving them out of the hallway again.  “He will be here in a little bit.  He said he had something to do first, then he’ll be over and will stay until the New Year’s party tomorrow.  He was quite excited to meet you as well.”

She quirked her head to the side slightly.  “Will he be here in time to…”

“He will indeed,” he cut in sharply.  He frog marched her away from the bedroom wing and toward the east wing before she could ask anymore questions.

“Wait!  Damian, you haven’t introduced us!” Marinette objected and tried to turn around toward the men but had to settle for vaguely motioning over her shoulder.  “I don’t even know their names.”

“Yes, good observation,” he praised with only a hint of condescension in his voice and a bit more force in his hands.

“Damian!” she tried to twist to smack his chest but his hands were unyielding.  “That’s rude.  I don’t want to start out by being rude to your family.”

“First, they are not both family,” he scoffed.  “Second, you called one of them a Lidrerc and I’m being rude?”

“Yes!  That’s different.  And you know it,” she huffed.

He eyed her skeptically but shook it off.  “Third, I tried and they interrupted.  It is their fault if they did not get a proper introduction.  Fourth, and most importantly, they are a waste of our time and attention, and I assure you they will not think of this as a reflection on you.”

“Damian!” She gasped and succeeded this time in twisting under his arm to confront him.

The only concession Damian was willing to give to indicate how impressed he was with her ability to break free from his grasp was a raised eyebrow.  The rest of his face remained stoic, if a little exasperated.  “I’ve known them for almost 10 years now.  I stand by my evaluation,” he intoned as he turned her around again and continued to push her down the hallway.

“I’m so sorry,” she called over her shoulder as she attempted to give them a parting bright smile and wave.

“I’m not,” Damian called just as loudly but without taking his eyes off the path ahead of him.

Tim scoffed and shook his head at their retreating backs.  “He brought someone home… a girl… and she seems…nice… and normal… and nice,” he murmured incredulously.

“Oh, she seems very nice,” Kon agreed, watching just as intently, but focusing considerably more on one of them in particular.

Tim smacked him in the chest.  “No,” he ordered sternly.

“What?” he asked in mock innocence that he couldn’t have pulled off even fresh out of the pod.

“Damian’s friend… well, friend.  You know, I’m not sure what that is,” he motioned vaguely toward the east wing, “but you will not interfere.  Damian doesn’t make friends.  This is big.”

“I haven’t done anything… yet.”  He winked at Tim and started back toward the living room.

“Kon…” Tim started warningly.

“Come on, I’m not going to intentionally hurt him no matter how much of an ass he usually is.”  He grinned devilishly back at Tim.  “Tell you what, you go start the research on her we both know you’re going to do, and I’ll grab some food from somewhere.  I can tell you what I heard them talking about when I get back and why he brought her.”

Tim sighed and jogged to catch up with him, smacking him upside the head as soon as he did.  “Stop listening in on people’s conversations outside of missions.  It’s creepy.”  They made it all the way back to the living room before he broke.  “But since you heard it already, tell me everything when you get back.”

Kon grinned and shrugged on his jacket.  “I’ll bring back Batburger.  That feels like a spilling the tea kind of food.”

><><><><><><><><>< 

“I know where the art room is, you know.  I don’t need an escort,” Jon pointed out as he followed closely behind Kon and Tim on their way down the east wing’s hallway.

“Oh, we’re not escorting you,” Tim corrected.  He met Jon’s eyes over his shoulder with a look that did not comfort Jon at all.

“We’re tagging along,” Kon clarified, giving Jon the same look, which was considerably more concerning for Jon when coming from Kon.

Jon eyed them suspiciously.  “Why?”

“Curiosity,” Tim answered at the same time Kon said, “Interest.”

Jon’s eyes narrowed further.  “Uh huh.  That’s not fishy at all.  I’m not remotely concerned now,” he grumbled.

“Nah, I researched her,” Tim assured him.  He moved to the side and slowed his pace just a fraction to match Jon’s.  “She’s clean.  Seems like a good kid.  Might even be good for Damian.”

Jon nodded unsure how to respond to Tim’s candor.  “Good, well, that’s… that’s good.”  He started to say more, to compliment Tim on looking out for his brother but before he could figure out how to form the words, Kon snorted.

Tim raised an eyebrow.  “What?”

Kon waved him off like it was nothing, but the tightening of his jaw indicated otherwise.  “Nothing.  She's just complementing the composition and contrasts of his art and how talented,” he spit the word out like it personally offended him,“and he is absolutely preening at it.”

Jon smiled.  “It’s good to know she’s supporting him.  He really likes her, which of course he won’t say, but he talks about her a lot.”

“Really?  I hadn’t heard anything until today,” Tim noted curiously.

“Not too surprising,” Jon shrugged.  “Doesn’t really tell you anything about his life, does he?  Dick maybe, but you…”  He let the sentence trail off.  They both knew what Tim and Damian’s relationship was.

Tim grunted a sound similar to an agreement but suddenly smacked Kon upside the head.  “And stop listening in on other people's conversations.  It's creepy.”  They took a few steps before he leaned slightly toward Kon and lowered his voice as though Jon couldn't still hear him and said, “But let me know if he does anything embarrassing.”

Kon grinned and nodded at him with a wink, but his face quickly dropped into a pout as he scowled at the door just a few steps down from them.  Tim looked from Kon to the door slowly, suspicion permeating his expression as he slowly opened the art room door, fully expecting the worst, which is why the fluffy sight in front of him was such a relief.

Damian and Marinette were standing in front of one of his paintings, her head on his shoulder and his arm around her waist whispering to each other as she pointed to different points in the painting.  Tim looked back at Kon as he stepped into the room and snorted at his deepened scowl at the sweet sight.

The noise knocked the two out of their little bubble, seemingly affecting Damian more than Marinette based on the speed at which he dropped his hand and jumped away from her, causing her to almost fall.  He reached out to push her back into balance but instantly returned his hand behind his back and straightened up to his full height before them.

“Jon, it is good to see you.  Glad you could make it,” Damian welcomed.

“Of course,” Jon said warmly and hugged Damian, which Damian allowed to happen, but didn’t return.  “I’m here for you.”

“We didn’t get that greeting,” Kon chortled.

“No, we did not,” Tim agreed.  “It’s almost like he doesn’t want us here.”

Damian glared at them over Jon’s shoulder.  “It’s not almost like it,” he corrected curtly.  He returned his attention to Jon and continued before they, or Marinette, could respond to or chastise him.  “Jon, this is my friend Marinette.  Marinette, this is my friend Jon.”

Marinette smiled brilliantly, lighting up the entire room, and hugged him.  She backed away just far enough to not share breath.  “It’s so good to meet you!  I feel like I know you already.  Damian talks about you all the time.”

Jon blushed deeply and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking away sheepishly.  “Thanks.  It’s really good to finally meet you, too.  He talks about you all the time, too.  Like non-stop.  I can’t wait to spend time with you and get to know you better.”

Marinette, whose smile couldn’t get any bigger, got warmer instead.  “Absolutely.”  She kept his gaze for a few moments before shifting it over his shoulder to the two figures standing behind him and waved.  “Hey again!  Sorry we didn’t get to meet earlier, because Damian is rude,” she added pointedly with a glare to Damian added in, to which Damian shrugged unashamedly, “and didn’t introduce us.  “I’m Marinette.  I believe I heard your name is Tim?” she asked uncertainly, waiting until he nodded before continuing.  “So, you must be Tim Drake, yes?”

“I am” he grinned and ventured further into Damian’s art room than he had ever been allowed to venture before to shake her hand.  “Nice to meet you… officially.”  As soon as she turned her attention to Kon, he smirked at Damian, fully enjoying the glare Damian was shooting him.

Marinette stepped closer to Kon and held her hand out.  “And based on the leather jacket, that would make you Jason Todd?”

Kon sputtered and Tim burst out laughing.  “Uh… no, not Jason,” Kon corrected.

Marinette’s face dropped almost as fast as her hand.  “I am so sorry.  It is nice to meet you...”

Kon stepped forward with a small smile and opened his mouth but before he could comfort her Damian pulled her back closer to him and tried to physically angle her toward Jon and main part of the room.  “His name is unimportant,” he stated firmly, making no doubt that the conversation was over.

Jon shook his head, exasperation bleeding from his expression and tone.  “It’s the holidays.  Be nice, Dame.”

“I don’t see how the time of year should affect my behavior,” Damian sniffed.

Marinette dropped her head into her hands and let out an exasperated sigh.  “Damian…”

Damian sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.  “Fine.  That is Jon's brother.”  He tried to angle her toward the room again, but Kon took her hand before he could, moving so quickly, it was dangerously close to exposing his identity.

“Kon.  My name is Kon.  And it is really nice to meet you, Marinette.”

She raised her head slightly and looked up at him, causing her to look through her lashes to meet his eyes, unintentionally taking his breath away.  “Nice to meet you, Kon.”

“No, it’s not,” Damian grumbled and pulled her away from Kon, settling her on his other side next to Jon instead.  He turned to face Kon full on standing between him and Marinette.  “We were in the middle of something.”

“We were just about to go play a game,” Marinette added, popping up over his shoulder.

“We were not.”

“I’d love to play a game,” Jon cheered.  Marinette grinned brilliantly at him and clapped like the decision was made.

Damian groaned dramatically and motioned toward the hallway.  “Fine.  The game room is down the hallway.”

Marinette nodded and started toward the hallway but froze mid-step.  “You have a room just for games?”

Kon chuckled, taking more pleasure than he should from the fact that she’d stopped directly in front of him.  “Rich people,” he shrugged.

She nodded contemplatively like that explained everything but suddenly popped up.  “Oh!  I know!  Do you have Candyland?”  She looked back to Tim and Kon with a wicked grin.  “I get the feeling that's a game Damian would absolutely hate.”  She made a noise somewhere between a squeal and exclamation and twirled in excitement at the prospect of Damian playing the game, heading out the door in full confidence he would follow her.

“It's pure luck!” Damian exclaimed following after her as expected.  “There is no skill involved at all!”

“That's the point,” Jon chuckled.  He jogged up to them and slung his arms over both their shoulders.

“What's the point if you can't win through your skills,” Damian grumbled.

“It's just supposed to be for fun,” Marinette chided.

“That does not sound fun,” he huffed petulantly.  “It sounds like a children’s game.”

“It is a children’s game,” Jon laughed.

Damian stared at him incredulously.  “Then why are we playing?”

“Because you’re just a big kid,” Marinette snarked, her smirk only growing in response to Damian’s aghast look.  She turned back toward Tim and Kon who had stayed next to the art room door watching their interactions in wonder.  “Did you guys want to join?

“They are far too busy,” Damian assured her hastily and loudly.

“Nah, we’re completely open,” Kon grinned.  “And I’ve never even heard of Candyland.”

Marinette gasped loud enough Kon didn’t need to use his superhearing to detect it even from down the hall.  She tried to turn back to them but Damian reached around Jon to keep her facing forward.  “Damian, he’s never even heard of it!  We have to let him play now.”

“We do not.”

“Oh, come on, Dame, it will make it more fun,” Jon insisted.  His voice and eyes were filled with an excitement that Marinette seemed to feed off of, her own smile growing at Jon’s response.

Damian looked between them, his petulant frown staying firmly in place, but he let go of Marinette’s arm and continued forward, knowing full well she and Jon would take it as an agreement.  “Including Drake has never made anything more enjoyable.”

“Come on,” Tim snickered.  “Now I have to play.  Plus, I bet she's right about Candyland and I want to see Damian restraining himself from ripping the board in half as he pretends to be normal for her.”

><><><><><><><><>< 

As it turns out, Marinette was, in fact, correct.  Damian absolutely hated the game.  If he had laser vision, the ice cream turrets on the Candy Castle would have been eviscerated.  “This is stupid,” he groused as Marinette’s piece landed on the final rainbow square.  He punctuated his displeasure by crossing his arms and pushing away from the table.  He could have handled Marinette winning once, but three times was uncalled for.

“Cheer up, Damian,” she tried consolingly.  “It’s just for fun.  It has nothing to do with your skills.”

“It’s a game of luck, remember,” Jon chimed in, which was easy for him as his pieces were usually not far behind Marinette’s while Damian kept getting picture cards that inevitably sent him back toward the beginning of the board.

“Yeah,” Damian glared at Kon, “luck.”

Kon looked to the ceiling innocently and mimed whistling.  At the same time, Marinette reached up to touch her earrings guiltily, “and I do tend to be a bit lucky.  Sorry.”

Kon opened his mouth to ask if meeting him was an example of getting lucky, but before he could say the line that would definitely end in him getting hit with kryptonite-laced brass knuckles, Dick bounded into the room.

“There you guys are!”  He smiled at all of them, but his eyes kept darting back to Marinette.  He couldn’t stop moving, shifting from foot to foot and rubbing his hands as he waited exceptionally impatiently for her to be introduced.

Damian finally stepped up for the task, standing tall in front of Dick and motioning toward her.  “Marinette, this is my brother Richard Grayson.  Richard, this is my friend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Marinette, it is nice to meet you,” Dick grinned, his grin widening as he looked between her and Damian.  He took her hand with both of his to shake it, pumping it so hard in his excitement he was almost lifting her off the ground.  “Please call me Dick.”

“And you,” she agreed breathlessly.  It took a few moments after she reclaimed her hand before she could speak again.  “He speaks very highly of you.”

Dick’s eyes sparkled as he watched Damian sidle closer to Marinette, dipping his head just slightly to catch her eye, raising an inquisitive eyebrow and only looking away again once she nodded back to him, but made sure to put his arm around her again.  “He speaks of you at all,” Dick grinned, “so I know you must be important to him.”

Marinette blinked and plastered on a smile.  “Thank you.”  She waited until he’d dropped her hand before adding a quiet, “I think.”

Kon joined her on her other side and smirked.  “Don’t worry, when Damian is involved, that’s a compliment.”  Marinette pursed her lips and bobbed her head to the side nodding after a moment in agreement.

“Now, the reason I was really sent in, not that meeting you wasn’t absolutely at the top of my list,” he added to Marinette.  “Dinner is about to be served.  Alfred would like us to start getting seated.”  He glanced over at Kon and eyed him for a second before adding, “you should lose the jacket before Alfred sees it at his table.”

Kon glanced down and looked back at him with a raised eyebrow, but finally nodded.  “Right.  Be right back.”

“Take your time,” Dick called as he replaced him by Marinette’s side.

“Don’t worry, I’ll put the game away,” Tim called after them.

“Thank you!” Dick called back to him.  “So, you’ll get to meet almost the entire family.  Cass and Stephanie are living in Hong Kong, but we hope they’ll make it for tomorrow.  Hey!” he called out after a large man shoulder-checked him.  “And that is Jason.”

Jason turned around and did a double take at Damian’s arm around Marinette’s shoulders.  He looked up from the display to look between them.  “What in the fuck knuckles…”

“Dude…” another man mumbled as he shook his head.  He sighed and looked back up with a strained smile.  “Sorry about him.  Hi, I’m Duke.”

Marinette grinned at him and reached out to shake his hand.  “It’s okay.  I’m Marinette and I do like Pink and making pies, so…” she shrugged then snickered at Damian’s bewildered look.  “But there is an important difference,” she met Jason’s eyes pointedly but not unkindly.  “We are just friends.”

Jason raised an eyebrow but nodded and moved to take a seat on the far side of the table.  “Impressed.  Honestly did not think you’d know that one.”

She scoffed.  “I have some pretty depraved friends.”

Jason mock gasped, drawing his hand to his chest to accentuate the scandal of the situation.  “Depraved!  Depraved?  Liking that movie makes you depraved?”

Duke patted him on the shoulder as he took a seat next to him.  “Sounds fair.”

“Oof,” Kon grunted as he walked in.  “Hate to think what that says about me.”

“Probably something pretty accurate,” Damian clipped.  “Marinette, you remember my father.”

Marinette straightened instantly at the figure walking in from the opposite side of the room.  “Of course.  Nice to see you again, M. Wayne.”

“And you, Ms. Dupain-Cheng.  Welcome to our home.  I hope your showing went well,” he answered warmly.

“It did, thank you,” she smiled back.

“Are you an artist?” Dick asked as he took his seat next to Duke, to the left of the head of the table.

“A designer, actually,” Marinette offered.

“A brilliant designer,” Bruce corrected.  “I was quite impressed,” he assured Marinette firmly as he took his seat as well.

“I’d love to see it sometime,” Tim smiled.

Marinette blushed brightly but nodded with more confidence than she felt.  “Okay.”

She eyed where Tim had sat, two seats away from M. Wayne, and Kon making his way to sit between him and M. Wayne, and knocked her arm into Damian, looking pointedly at the last seat next to Bruce.  Damian nodded and cut in front of Kon to take the seat.  Kon blinked at him but quickly changed course to sit on the other side.  Jon stepped up next to Marinette and looked between the two remaining seats, one next to Kon and one next to Jason.  He looked at Marinette questioningly.  She shrugged and took the seat closest to her, next to Kon.  Jon nodded and sat next to Jason.

Tim leaned around Kon to verify that was really where Marinette had sat.  He was about to offer to switch spots with her so she could sit next to Damian, but Alfred entered at that moment and started serving the food.  As it turned out, she was fine where she was.  Marinette integrated with the family easily, laughing and joking with all of them.  It may have worked out better that way anyway as it gave her the chance to chat with Jon and Kon about Metropolis and get more information on the city before she decided if she wanted to move there after graduation.

The dinner was going amazingly so naturally it had to get cut short.  Everyone in the family knew something was wrong the moment Alfred entered mid-course.  “Sorry to interrupt, sir.  But there appears to have been an incident at Wayne Enterprises.”  Alfred leaned over and whispered in Bruce’s ear.  Whatever he said must have been really bad because he immediately stiffened, but in the blink of an eye, it was gone.  He gave Dick a pointed look.  He nodded at him, then bumped Duke and nodded to Jason.

Bruce stood up quickly, dabbing his mouth with his napkin, quickly followed by the other three men, although they didn’t bother to wipe their mouths.  “So sorry for the interruption, Marinette.  Please continue your night.  It was very nice to see you again.”  He was gone before Marinette could say goodbye.

Damain stood and moved over to Marinette whispering in her ear too low for anyone but Kon and Jon to hear.  She squealed and hugged him, giving him a kiss on the cheek before he straightened up.  Jon rounded the table to clap him on the back as well.  Damian nodded to the two of them then followed the others as they made their way out the door at a considerably slower pace than Bruce.

“You don’t have to come, Dame,” Dick whispered just outside the door.  “We have four people, we’re good.  If we need another, we can call for Tim.  Stay and keep your friend company.”

Damian glanced back into the room.  Marinette was smiling at something Jon was saying, which apparently required him to use both hands in uncoordinated movements.  He snickered at the scene.  “No, she will be okay where she is.  I won’t ignore my duty.”

Duke shook his head.  “We really need to work on your skills, man.”

Damian looked at him affronted.  “My skills are impeccable.  It’s your skills that need honing.”

Duke opened his mouth to respond but shut it and shook his head instead.

><><><><><><><><>< 

The mission had taken considerably longer than the family had anticipated, but seeing as it was a rogue team up, it wasn’t entirely surprising.  The only thing that was surprising, was the fact that Damian wasn’t acting like more of a constipated gremlin.  In fact, he was positively beaming, well, not glowering, which for Damian was roughly the equivalent of beaming.

Nobody knew what to make of it.  The mission had taken him away from his friend for almost the entire night and he seemed… happy about it.  Nobody who had seen them together earlier doubted he cared about her, so the fact that he was so blasé about having left her behind for so long, even to do something he valued so thoroughly, was confusing.  Even now as they walked into the living room, he wasn’t leading the pack to get to her sooner.

Which was a small mercy because it meant he didn’t have to be the first to see what they were seeing.  “What the hell is going on!” Dick roared.

Marinette’s head jerked away from Kon, their lips separating with a pop.  She eeped and tried to jump away from Kon, but he held her tight against him, allowing her to bury her face in his chest to hide her bright crimson cheeks.

“Oh damn,” Duke mumbled, eyes wide in surprise.

Kon kept one arm right around her and waved with the other.  “Hey guys.  You’re back early.”

“That’s all you have to say?” Jason hissed.

Kon scrunched his face slightly and looked to Dick for a clue, but his expression was just as thunderous.  He quickly shifted to Tim who shrugged, just as confused about the reaction as Kon.  “Uh… sorry I didn’t help?” he offered.

“Oh, no, its okay, you were too busy helping yourself,” Dick seethed.

“Helping my…” Kon trailed off.  He gaped at Dick and opened and closed his mouth a few times but before he could formulate how to respond Damian finally came in, his eyes down as he focused on dusting off his shirt, missing the way the entire room had stopped to watch him.

It took several more steps before he finally sensed the hostile atmosphere of the room.  He froze mid-brush and slowly lifted his head to take in the scene, just as slowly panning across the room until it settled on Kon’s arms around Marinette.  He lifted his eyes up, pausing momentarily at her hands on his chest.  His eyes snapped to hers.  “What are you doing!  How could you do this to me?” he yelled.  Marinettes eyes widened in shock and confusion while the rest of the room except Kon moved to comfort Damian.  “That is the wrong brother!”

“Excuse me?” Conner growled.

“Uh… what?” Duke asked uncertainly.

“You were supposed to end up with Jon not him!” he growled, moving in Marinette’s face and motioning harshly toward Kon.

Dick’s hands that were still perched from having been rubbing circles on Damian’s back slowly retracted.  “Wait.  I thought... why would you want that?”

Damian huffed and crossed his arms over his chest again, evoking the image of a child throwing a temper tantrum.  “Because it would be extremely convenient for me if my two best friends were dating.”  Tim had the misfortune of snorting when everyone else in the room had gone frighteningly quiet.  Damian’s eyes shot to him.  He pointed at Tim accusingly.  “She was supposed to end up with my idiot not your idiot.”

“That's why you brought me?”  Marinette asked.  “You said you wanted me to be here to support you while you spoke with your father because I made you feel better.  But you were just trying to pimp me out?”  Kon’s grip on her tightened at the hurt lacing her voice.  Damian’s eyes zeroed in on the movement and Dick had to adjust to holding him back instead of comforting him.

“I was not pimping you out!” Damian objected more annoyed than concerned.  “There was no payment involved and sex was entirely up to you.”

Marinette stared at him incredulously.  “Oh, thank you for that,” she snapped.

“You’re welcome,” he nodded, seemingly satisfied with her gratitude.

“She's not... isn't she here with you?” Jason asked carefully.

“Yes, she is here with me as my friend.  I brought her here so she could meet Jon and start dating him,” Damian gritted out.

“So... you two aren't dating or pre-dating?” Dick asked again, hoping Damians answers this time would somehow make more sense.  He had been so absolutely confident that they were just dancing on the edge of dating.

“Obviously.”

Dick stared at Damian, his answer not making the situation make more sense.  The room was completely still for a few moments before Duke finally broke the silence.  “What is pre-dating?”

Dick blinked at him.  “It’s when… it’s like before you’re dating.”

Duke shot him the flattest look he could manage.  “Yeah, thanks, got that from the ‘pre’ part.  I know how the English language works.”

“It’s when you’re laying the groundwork.  You haven’t actually asked them out yet but you both know it’s just a matter of time,” Dick clarified, his hands waving around in a pattern that seemed to accentuate his point in his mind but seemed completely non-sensical to everyone else.

Duke studied him.  “Do you both have to know?  What if it’s a surprise to the other when the one asks them out?”

“Still counts,” Dick answered at the same time Jason said, “That’s one-sided pining,” and Tim said “That’s just real life.”  They stared at each other in confusion.

“Hold up!” Kon cut in.  “I’m not an idiot.”

Damian scoffed.  “Based on how long it took you to figure out I’d insulted you; you appear to be mistaken.”

“You thought I was dating him?” Marinette asked, finally breaking away from Kon’s chest, though his arms were still resting lightly on his waist to direct the question to the rest of his family.  “We said we were just friends… multiple times.”

“Yeah,” Dick started slowly, “but I thought... right.  No, we knew that,” he finished as casually as he could manage.

She wiggled out of Kon’s embrace, much to his enjoyment, so she could step closer to Damian and smack him on the chest.  “I told you they would think we were dating no matter what we said.”

Damian rolled his eyes.  “And I told you they would figure it out.”  He motioned vaguely toward the rest of the room without taking his eyes off her. “Look at that they have.”

“Hey guys!” Jon greeted everyone as he tucked his phone in his back pocket.  “Welcome back.  Oh hey, you two finally separated.  Nice.  Perfect timing.”

Damian stared at him for a few seconds before rounding on Marinette.  “You've ruined the entire plan,” he growled at her.  “You were supposed to be here not separating from him!”  He motioned toward Jon.

“Well, you didn't tell me the plan, did you?” she hissed back.  “It helps to have collaboration on a plan when you INFORM YOUR COHORTS WHAT THE PLAN IS.”

“Yeah, Damian,” Jon added.  "It wouldn't have worked anyway.  I'm dating someone else."

“What?” Damian exclaimed, rounding on Jon.  “When did that happen?”

“A few weeks ago.  I was going to introduce you at the party tomorrow.  I just got off the phone with him,” he motioned toward his pocket.

“You cannot be dating someone,” Damian scoffed.  “I didn't approve of anyone.  I haven't done research on them.”

Jon and Mari let out matching scoffs.  "I don't need your approval to date someone," Jon reminded him.

"We are not chess pieces you can move around at your will to suit your whims," Marinette chided. Damian glared at her, a calculating look in his eyes.

"She was not issuing a challenge," Jon cut in before Damian could make any plans.

Damian huffed and rolled his eyes.  "You're more like checker pieces anyway.  Maybe even Candyland."

“So... you're not mad about...”  Dick motioned between Mari and Kon.

“Furious,” Damian huffed.

Mari rolled her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder.  The fact that he didn’t shrug her off signaled to the rest of the family more about his state of mind than any words either Marinette or Damian had said up until that point.  “But he'll get over it.  Are you guys going to join us for the movie marathon now?”

“You just missed Trading Places,” Jon nodded.

“We missed Trading Places?” Jason gasped.

“I mean, they pretty much did too,” Jon grinned, looking pointedly at Marinette and Kon.

Marinette batted at him, her cheeks blushing profusely, but Kon grinned proudly.  “He’s not wrong.  So, I’m okay with putting it on again.”

“Mon Dieu,” Marinette whimpered.  Kon wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed the crown of her head.  But Damian pushed the two apart with a harumph.

“We will get popcorn while you guys get things set up,” he announced as he pulled her out of the room.  Marinette grabbed Jon’s hand and pulled him along with them.

“So... you and Marinette…” Dick started carefully.

“Yeah…” Kon hedged nervously.

“Congrats,” Duke cut in before Dick could say anything.

“She seems like a good kid,” Jason agreed.

“She's our age,” Kon grumbled.

“But Damian's friend, so a kid,” Tim grinned.

“No.  I'm dating her so we won't be calling her a kid.  No matter what Tim says, I’m not creepy, and that would definitely be creepy,” Kon ordered, voice firm.  He looked between Jason and Tim to make sure they heard him then narrowed his eyes at them.�� “But what is creepy?  You two agreeing.”

Dick chuckled and popped up between Tim and Jason, throwing his arms over their shoulders.  “Fair.  Now come on, we need to get the room set up.  Jason, get out the blankets.  Duke, you’re on pillows.  Tim, Kon, and I will work on a plan to keep Damian from killing Kon.”

“I appreciate that,” Kon nodded.

“We got your back,” Jason nodded.

“If only to keep Damian from stabbing you in it,” Duke grinned.

Kon’s appreciative gaze turned flat.  “Thanks.”  Duke snickered as he dropped more pillows on the couches and chairs.  “Come on,” Kon implored, “he brought a beautiful, brilliant, creative, kind woman he wasn’t interested in dating home for the holidays.  He should have known something would happen.  You guys don’t bring people home because of that, right?”

Dick scoffed and threw a pillow at Jason who ducked easily under it before dumping his blankets on one of the chairs.  “I just assume he’ll go after them after we’ve broken up.”

“Hey,” Jason objected.  He threw one of the blankets at Dick.  “I only did that once… that you know of,” he added under his breath.

“What was that?” Dick asked, eyes narrowed.

“Nothing,” Jason said innocently.

“I don’t think we have the same taste,” Tim shrugged.

“I don’t bring anyone around for entirely different reasons,” Duke snorted.

“What reason is that?” Jon asked with a knowing grin.

Marinette and Damian followed closely behind carrying trays.  “We come bearing popcorn!” she cheered, holding up her tray with several bowls of popcorn.

“And candy,” Jon joined in, holding up his own tray with bowls of candy.  “And drinks.”  He motioned with his elbow to the tray in Damian’s hands, who grumbled and rolled his eyes rather than holding up his tray.

“Oh, this looks great!” Marinette squealed and started distributing the blankets.  Jon and Damian angled one of the couches toward the television before plopping down on it.  Marinette was slower to move, her eyes darting to Kon who grinned at her attention.  He reached out to pull her over to the couch he and Tim had just angled toward the television as well, but before he could Damian yanked Marinette down onto the couch with him.

Kon huffed but Marinette broke down in giggles.  When she finally stopped, she scooted closer to Damian and looked pointedly at the space next to her she’d just left free, a space just big enough for someone to fit in snugly.  “Let’s get started,” Damian huffed.

“Can’t wait,” Marinette agreed quietly, her attention squarely pointed away from the television and on the man next to her.

Kon grinned and threw his arm over her shoulders.  “Me either,” he agreed.

Damian made a retching sound and turned his whole body toward the television.  “Disgusting.  Never bringing a friend home again.”

#maribat #marikon #konnette #platonic damianette

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Marinette: I'm leaving. I can't just sit here and do nothing.

Damian: Alone?

Marinette: You can't disobey grandfather.

Damian: And you can?

Marinette: He doesn't care about what I do.

Damian: That won't remain true if you do this.

Marinette: I'll deal with it. Alone.

Damian: Leave you alone? Perish the thought, you'd die without me.

Marinette: We'll see about that.

#mgi mixer #maribat #sibling daminette #platonic damianette #i think thats all? idk lol

[nightlychaotic]

We're Both Upside Down

woooooooooEEEE

The low long whistle from down the hall was faint but recognisable, bringing a faint smile to Damian as he whittled back. EEEEooooooooow.

The door opened slowly, and closed softly as the young woman entered his room, before arching back into a backbend. Damian stood from where he was sitting before doing the same and looking at her.

“We’re both upside down,” he noted.

“And I bet you’re going to fall down first.”

“Tt. No you will.”

“Will I now?” she asked, swiping lightly at Damian’s hand’s. The young boy dodged her blows, but lost his balance in the meantime, falling out of it. “I told you.”

“You do not play fair.”

“Life will not play fair with you. I’m simply helping to prepare you for it. You turn 10 soon. Big changes are coming for you.”

“How do you know?”

She smiled, righting herself, and offering a hand to help Damian up.

“Call it intuition. And when has it ever been wrong?”

—-----------------------------------

The box sitting on the table next to the mail that morning, addressed in a delicate script that pulled at old memories of Damian’s, was unobtrusive. Waiting for him among the other letters addressed to the Manor. Damian looked at it for a moment, wondering who might have sent him something.

He walked right past it the first time on his way out of the house before circling back to pick it up. Curious to what he may have received in the mail, and even more so why it would be coming from Budapest of all places, placing it in his bag.

He’d barely made it to school before being stopped. Damian tensed as he looked at the obstructor, now holding his backpack. One of the League.

“Your mother and grandfather send their regards.”

“I send them mine as well.”

Damian glared at the assassin, not hesitating in going onto the offense, blocking attack after attack, at the advantage being slightly more willing to injure and maim the other. He ripped the backpack from the assassin’s hands, ripping the zipper.

The zipper on Damian’s backpack flew open, the package sitting in there landing and breaking free from the cardboard a locked jewelry box flew out. Damian wasted no time, embedding a shuriken deep into the assassin’s achilles tendon, scooped up the box and was off.

Once back at the manor, he threw the box in a duffel bag, and started throwing some clothes, weapons and spare uniform into the bag, zipping it up, leaving his room and running straight into Richard.

His older brother took one look at Damian’s appearance and the duffel bag, before raising a brow.

“Where are you going?”

“Budapest.”

“Why?”

“I need to investigate. I have something the League wants. I need to figure out what’s so special about it.”

“Investigate what?”

“Tt. That is none of our business.”

“Fine but I’m coming with you.”

“No you are not.”

“Too late. Let’s go.”

“Richard, no. This has nothing to do with you.”

“You’re my little brother. I’m going. Unless you want to explain to Bruce why you’re flying to Budapest on a Tuesday instead of sitting in class.”

Damian looked at his brother letting out a deep breath. “Very well.”

—-----------------------------------

Damian stood in front of the doors, quickly trying to pick the locks.

“I know you are out there,” the voice that came through the door was muffled, but the French accent was still discernible as it stopped him in his tracks.

“I know you know I’m out here,” he said, tucking his lock picks away and drawing his sword. Opening the door open slowly, he checked the main foyer, pushing the door shut with his foot.

“Then why are you skulking about like it’s a minefield?”

Damian kept his sword up, moving from doorway to doorway, checking for her or any sight of her or any traps.

“Because I don’t know if I can trust you.”

She chuckled. “Funny, you know I was going to say the same thing.”

“So, are we going to talk like grown ups?”

He stepped around the corner into the living room as she moved to meet him, mirroring each other.

“Is that what we are?”

Damian moved forward as she moved back, neither breaking eye contact or wavering as the distance between the two remained the same. She gave a small nod towards his sword as she retreated.

“Put it down before I make you.”

“You put yours down.” Damian shot back, softly, as she stumbled slightly, moving into the kitchen. “Watch your step.”

She gave a soft chuckle, corners of her mouth turning up for a split second. The two came to a stop, sword tips nearly touching as they stood apart. Damian made the first move, binding and pushing her sword out of the in an attempt to grab the guard of hers and disarm her. She grabbed his hand, pushing it away as she kicked his sword hand, disarming the both of them. Lunging forward she grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him close, swinging him under her arms so she was behind him and drove him into the doorway. Pulling him back and throwing him into the opposite side of the doorway right after, placing one hand on each of his shoulders.

Damian grabbed her upper arm with on hand, and her chin with the other, and pushed, steering her back, lifting her up and slamming her into the cabinet, before dropping her down onto the counter, as she pushed some space between them briefly as Damian readjusted his grip, pushing her down so she was laying on the countertop. Avoiding her feet and arms as she tried to hit him.

“Stay down. Stay down. Stay Down!” He pressed.

She screamed, grabbing a plate from the sink and smashing it over his head, causing him to stumble back, taking advantage of his distraction to stand, grabbing a dish towel and whipping it towards him.

Damian caught it. With a yank he pulled her closer, grabbing the dish towel and wrapping it around her neck and pulling her back to the counter. She brought her foot up, pressing off the counter, leaning back, and throwing Damian through the air and into the door. He bounced off, slamming into the ground. She rolled into a crouch, looking at him.

Damian picked himself up as she stood. Moving back she grabbed a knife from a container next to the sink, and started towards him. He shook his head, retreating slightly into the living room and grabbing a heavy duty stapler off the desk.

She charged, swiping the knife at him. Once. Twice. He ducked out of the way both times. Third attack he swung the stapler in a counter attack. The two blocking the other’s attack. She pushed, moving him back, disengaging from their bind, and swiping at his stomach. He pulled away, as she locked his arm in hers. The two looked at each other for a second before she twisted, throwing him down onto the ground. He landed on his back rotating and kicking her feet out from underneath her. She came up to kneeling, swiping once more with the knife, Damian, hitting the back of her hand with the stapler, disarming her, before letting the stapler fly.

Wrapping his arm around the back of her head and standing. She gripped his chin, both yanking and pushing the others head back. She pushed, breaking his hold on her and grabbed him around the middle, picking him up. Ramming him into the wall. He ripped the curtain off the window as she backed up and moved, slamming him against the wall again.

He wrapped the curtain around her neck, vaulting over her shoulders and landing as she grabbed the other end of the curtain and got it around his neck. He pulled, throwing her over his leg onto the ground, with aid of the curtain, as she tugged, pulling him down with her. The two pulled, bracing one foot on the other to try and gain leverage against the other. Straining.

“Stop,” he whispered. She continued to pull, not relenting as her face continued to grow red. Damian furrowed his brows.

“Hudna. Trêve,” he said softly, calling a truce. Looking her in the eyes, he gently let go of the curtain showing his hands were off and pulled them back.

She rolled over, gasping for air, pulling the curtain away from her neck as she regained her breath.

“You’ve grown up.”

She looked at him for a moment, pulling the curtain off her neck as she stood.

“No shit. So have you,” she replied walking away into the kitchen.

“You had to come to Budapest didn’t you?”

She looked over at him as she pulled out a bottle and two shot glasses.

“I came here because I thought you wouldn’t,” she replied, pulling open the bottle. “But since you’re here, what bullet does that?” she asked, gesturing towards the holes in the wall. Damian turned to look at them

“Not bullets. Batarangs.”

“Ah, right.”

She poured the shots, downing one as Damian placed the jewelry box and photograph onto the table.

“If you didn’t think I’d come here, why’d you send me this?”

“You brought it back here?” she asked, slamming the glass down and pushing past him out of the kitchen, making her way swiftly into another room. Damian followed her, pocketting the picture once more as he left.

“I’m not here trying to be your friend, but you need to tell me what that is.”

“It is a jewelry box. The tethers for miniature gods called kwamiis. The jewels allow the kwamiis to transform the wearer granting them with powers in accordance to their abstract concept.”

“Maybe in English next time?”

“Magic jewelry gives mystical powers.”

“Tt. Real mature.”

“Why don’t you take it to one of your magical Justice League friends? They can explain it to you. John Constantine, maybe?”

“We don’t really talk most of the time.”

“Great. Perfect. Where’s a magic user when you need one?” she muttered, pulling clothing out of a wardrobe and shoving it into a bag. Damian glared at her.

“I don’t want to be here. I was in school. You could have gotten me killed.”

“Well, what was I supposed to do? You're the only vigilante person that I know. That’s the whole reason why I sent it to you,” she said, straightening. “I kept checking the news hoping to see that “The Batman takes down hidden Assassin League” listed among the headlines.”

She walked away, swiping her katana and sheathing it, kicking Damian’s over towards him.

“Come on. We’ve got to go,” she told him, snatching the jewelry box up off the table and shoving it into her bag as the faint scritch against the lock could be heard. “Don’t they think to check the door first,” she asked softly, shaking her head as she ducked out the window and onto the fire escape. She didn’t wait for him before taking off.

“Where are we going?”

“East side of the building. Three blocks down.”

“I am closer. Next left. Two blocks”

She shook her head a little before relenting to his directions, picking up the pace as one of the assassins began following.

“Go,” she hissed, turning and throwing a knife with deadly accuracy, dropping the assassin.

She caught up to him easily, coming to a stop above a small alleyway. Damian frowned looking down at the four assassins surrounding his brother.

“Tt. Richard is in need of help.”

“Richard?”

“Father’s eldest ward. Refused to let me go alone.”

“Replaced me so easily? I’m hurt,”she said before dropping down, landing on the assassin behind Richard. Damian watched for a moment before dropping down behind her, helping her and Richard take down the few assassins around them.

“Friend of yours, Dami?”

“Yes. From back before I came to live with father.”

The last assassin dropped at her hands before she spun to face the two of them.

“Which one is yours?”

“Left. Blue car,” Damian replied, moving with her.

“Wait- You can’t drive-” Richard’s protests were cut short as Marinette held up his keys and slid into the driver's seat. “When-”

“You can’t just steal a guy’s car,” Damian said softly, trying to hide his amusement.

“I’m not. I’m taking your brother’s car. And he’s in the passenger seat now,” she replied, taking off as soon as Richard closed the door.

She looked over at him for a second as she weaved through the traffic, a small smile gracing her lips. “So you’re my replacement?”

“Replacement?”

“Damian never spoke of me?”

“I can’t say he has.”

“I was his caretaker back in the League. A pseudo older sister,” she told him with a small wink.

“And does said caretaker have a name?”

“Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Nice to meet you Marinette. I’m Dick. It’s nice to meet someone from his past who isn’t Talia or Ra’s al Ghul.”

“And you as well. It is nice to see someone has been taking care of Damian in my absence.”

“I do not need a caretaker.”

“Oh I think you do. After all, you came all the way to Budapest because of a package I sent.”

“I’m sorry you sent me magical jewelry with no note which the League desperately seems to want. Pardon me for trying to get some answers.”

“Answers you were meant to get from someone else such as John Constantine. Not me.”

“And how was I supposed to know that?”

“Your father is ‘The World’s Greatest Detective’ or whatnot. I would expect you to investigate before charging straight to Budapest.”

“Would either of you like to catch me up on what’s happening?”

“No but I would love to know where to drop the two of you off.”

“You aren’t coming with us?”

“And bring the League closer? No thank you.”

“Airfield on the outskirts of the city,” Damian spoke up from the back seat, arms crossed. “And you will be coming with us.”

“I’m not going to, Damian,” she replied before cursing softly under her breath and turning in the opposite direction they wanted.

“The airfield is the other way-”

“It’s not safe.”

“What do you mean it’s not safe?”

“It’s not safe. I don’t know call it my intuition. One of us will most likely end up fatally injured that way. The other two not much better. We’ll go this way, sneak in around the back.”

“Marinette-”

“When has it ever failed you Damian?”

Damian huffed, looking out the window as she drove. She and Dick idly chatted while she drove, Dick pulling some laughs out of Marinette every so often.

Eventually they made it into the airfield undetected. The three of them got out of the car, Damian seemingly vanished as Marinette shook her head, turning to Dick.

“It was a pleasure to meet you Dick. Damian seems to have disappeared into the plane,” she said looking around. “Tell him it was nice to see him again. I’ll miss him but you look like you’re doing a pretty good job of keeping him out of too much trouble.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

“I shouldn’t. It’s to-” her sentence was cut short as she crumpled to the ground, Dick lunging forward to catch her as Damian stood over her.

“What the hell, Damian?”

“She is coming with I have questions and it will be safer for her. Besides, she’s the one who taught me how to do that. She’ll be proud more than anything else.”

Dick shook his head. “You're not serious.”

“I am. Hurry up. The League will be here sooner than later and we need to be gone by then.”

Dick frowned at his little brother as he scooped Marinette, and brought her into the jet, making sure she was safe before the small group took off towards Gotham.

—-----------------------------------

“Grayson I forbid you from flirting with her.”

“Oh we’re back to Grayson now?’

“That is my sister. I will not allow you to debauche her.”

“Pseudo sister,” Marinette spoke up as she entered the room. “Dick is more than welcome to debauche me if he so wishes.”

“How are you feeling?” Dick asked.

“As if I just had my own move used against me. Well executed. Could have done it a bit harder, caused some pain upon waking, but not bad. Never had it used against me before.”

Dick just blinked at the small interaction between the two as Marinette started rummaging through their fridge, emerging with a juice box and punching the straw into it as she leaned against the counter.

“So. I opened the jewelry,” she started.

“And?”

“I’m now it’s Guardian apparently so that’s fun. I get to protect the tiny chaotic little gods from falling into the hands of people like Ra’s. Something I didn’t particularly want but I suppose I signed myself up for anyway.”

She took a deep sip of her juice box, tossing it in the trash before grabbing a new one, opening it and letting out a breath.

“I am going to go talk to your father. Trying and pick his brain for some ideas and magical contacts he might be able to give me.”

She walked swiftly out of the kitchen leaving the two brothers alone.

“Steph is going to be pissed,” Dick said softly with a grin.

“Tt. Brown would stand no chance against Marinette,” Damian churlishly replied, falling into silence as he leaned, arms crossed back against the wall.

Dick moved, taking a seat a bit closer to where his brother was standing, the two of them just sitting in silence for a few minutes.

“You’re hoping she’ll stay in Gotham,” Dick observed. Damian gave him a soft glare, before lowering his head.

“She is the closest thing I ever had to a friend back in the League. Of course I don’t want her to leave,” he said softly.

“Have you told her this?”

“Tt. No. She was raised in the League, taken in after they killed her parents. I’m not going to hinder her first freedom of going to explore.”

“She cares about you. Still wants to look out for you.”

“No, Grayson.”

“Well, what if I married her?”

“You’re already my brother and I view her like a sister.”

“Well then I can be double the brother.”

The words had barely left his mouth before Damian was one him. Dick scrambled back dodging out of the way, barely managing to avoid his youngest brother’s ire.

“Damian. Stop trying to kill Dick,” Marinette’s voice rang out, Bruce towering behind her, as the two watched, barely hidden amusement on their faces.

“How long have you two been standing there?” Dick asked.

“Since you proposed marriage.”

Dick’s face turned bright red as he glanced away. Marinette’s light laughter echoing through the room as she moved, pressing a light kiss to his cheek.

“While I do find you attractive, let’s slow it down a notch, hmm?”

“I think I can make that work.”

“What is with my family and assassins?” Bruce muttered softly, watching the two of them, before speaking up. “Marinette will be staying with us for the time being as we figure out more about the Miraculi and her new found duties as Guardian, while helping her to adjust to life outside the League.”

Dick grinned, while Marinette looked over at Damian, giving a slight nudge with her head, before leading him out of the room. The two moved in silence, through and up the house til they found themselves out on the roof. Marinette sat down, hooking her legs over the peak of the roof, so she lay upside. She looked over with a small grin. Damian shook his head, joining her in that position.

“We’re both upside down.”

“So we are.”

“I am not going to be the first to fall this time.”

“I’d be disappointed if you were. How about we see if neither of us fall this time?”

“Tt. Fine,” he agreed, a small smile forming.

The tow sat there, upside down for a few minutes before Marinette spoke up, looking over at him.

“You no longer kill?”

“I do not. Not really since I joined Father. Though I will not guarantee I won’t stab someone,” he confirmed.

She gave him a small smile. “I’m glad to hear that. You seem happier here. Far better than you ever were in the League.”

“What about you? This is your first time free from the League, isn’t it.”

“It is. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t odd. Though I am excited to explore some of my own interests for the first time.”

“I am glad you will be staying with us.”

“Me too, Damian. Me too. Not the happiness that you relied on kidnapping but impressed anyway. You’ve grown.”

Damian gave a small laugh before studying her for a moment.

“You aren’t really going to date Grayson are you?”

She laughed. “I fully intend to if he is up to it. Which his suggestion of marriage from earlier would seem to imply he is.”

“I forbid it.”

“You can’t forbid me, Dami. I thought you’d be happy. Then I’d officially be your sister and not just a caretaker.”

Damian’s protest fried in his throat as he thought about what she and Richard had said.

“I suppose that’s true. But Richard really?”

“What can I say? He’s handsome. Speaking of Dick- where is your brother. I want to try going on a first date-” she cut her sentence off short, unhooking her knees and sliding down the roof, flipping off elegantly as Damian moved to give a lighthearted attack. She landed softly, looking up at him with a grin. “You are going to need to do better than that, Dami, if you intend to stop me,” she called up. “Maybe you are getting rusty after all.”

Damian furrowed his brows as he unhooked his knees, sliding down the roof after her, landing as she took off, her light laughter echoing as she disappeared into the grounds, Damian not far behind her.

Bruce smiled as he looked out the window at the two. His son, clearly determined in chasing down an old friend, was possibly the most relaxed he’d seen him be in a while. He turned away from the window as a low long whistle was heard through the grounds. It’s inverse answering right behind.

#maribat #dickinette #platonic damianette #mgicivilwar2022 #MGI Civil War 2022 #no beta this is war

[purple-goo-writes]

It’s Genetic? Apparently

Just Little Gremlin Damian adopting Marinette as his older sister okay.

Like the Bats go to Paris either for vacation or possibly investigating the rumors of a supervillain and teen heroes in Paris. And meeting Marinette, who stops a mugger or does something else badass while Damian is watching. And then Marinette offers him a macaron while making sure he is alright and after eating the sweet, Damian being like “ A little naive but a formable warrior if trained right. Father will be pleased with another capable daughter in the clan.”

Marinette is like 17 and Damian is 12. 

And just wholesome little bro Gremlin Damian and Older Sister Marinette with Damian just randomly showing up to hang out with Marinette after she helps him (even though he didn’t need it) and Marinette being like Okay i guess i have a little brother now.

Also Damian trying so hard to keep Marinette from meeting the rest of the batclan outside of those he approves of meeting her- mainly Cass and possibly Dick (Depends on if he has done something to embarrass/annoy Damian)

(No Lila- She moved or just transferred schools. Not a lot of salt- cause the main focus is the sibling antics not the salt or shit going on. Hawkmoth is going down cause Robin doesn’t take some middle aged supervillain targeting Marinette to turn her into a villain lightly. and Marinette is over her crush on Adrien and they are Just Friends.)

Possible Timari (Damian hates this so much because he doesn’t like sharing his fav sibling. 

#Maribat #platonic damianette

[buterflies-and-ladybugs]

Up-Grade

Notes: I want to say a big thank you to the MGI discord for being so encouraging and helping me continue writing.

AO3 1 2 3

Chapter 4:

"Come on Mari"

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

"You- you killed him!"

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

"Jason Todd-Wayne, the second adopted child of Bruce Wayne, was murdered by the Joker in…"

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

"What's wrong Miss?"

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

"Why did you have to leave"

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

Nettie woke up to the sound of crashes and screams. Mom and Jay were fighting again. It probably has to do with her, but maybe she could block it out. Just a few more minutes…

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

Marinette was sitting clutching the ripped pieces of her first fully homemade outfits, but she couldn't tell Jay. He would say something and Mom would be upset. If Mom got upset she would get "so high she is practically in space" as Jay put it once. When Mom is high then Jay has to do more work to take care of both of them, and he would probably get in trouble for it.

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

Mom was dead. Nettie has to be strong now. Everything was fine. All she had to do was keep her head down. Don’t let Jay find out about the bruises, or anything that she had to do. Jay has enough on his plate. Don’t make him worry over how her curse abilities were acting up again. Just keep going.

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

“Nettie stay here ok I don’t want you to get caught in this”

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

“We are your new family. Don’t forget it brat”

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

“Mari! Mari are you ok?” a voice echoed through her thoughts.

“Claude. Get away, I don’t want to hurt you too!” replied the blue eyed girl.

“Mari I won’t leave you, my friend. If I left you I would be a terrible host brother, plus I have to repay you for saving my ass yesterday.” earning a small giggle from the girl who was still scratching at her skin.

“Can- Can I please have a hug?” whispered Marinette.

“Of course,” replied the brunette, opening his arms which were quickly full of the raven haired girl.

“I- I- I’m so sorry. You probably hate me now because I punched that Wayne boy and then there were so many people I-” she rambled before she realized Claude was snickering. “What are you laughing at?” she said defensively.

“Marinette I can assure you that you are not the first to punch Damian, and you will most definitely not be the last. I kinda hate to say it, but he does have the title of ‘Ice Prince’ for a reason.” Claude stood up and offered her his hand. “Now as much as I dislike math I think I did promise Mr. Loyd that I wouldn’t completely miss his class showing you around, so we may have to cut it down a bit if you're still up for it.”

“I- I think I am. Thanks Claude” Marinette replied, taking his hand.

“It should be a ten minute walk if we rush a bit” said the brunette before he began to fill the silence with talk of funny cat videos he saw. And soon the two of them were laughing clearly into the dirty air of the bustling city.

Once Claude had given her the basic tour, with a map included of course, and she was feeling more comfortable with being back at school, or at least as comfortable as she can be considering the circumstances. They ended up going to Mr. Loyd’s math class together, and Claude fulfilled his promise with the bell ringing 5 minutes after they entered, barely allowing time for her to get to a seat and take out her notebook.

Math was followed by French, and Marinette was quick to discover that Damian Wayne was in her class due to the teacher, Ms. Sanderson, assigning her seat next to him. Although, one of Claude's friends, Allegra if she wasn’t mistaken, is also in this class.

Once class began, they were assigned to talk with their seat partner in French to practice communication. Turning to Damian, Marinette began to speak in fluent French “It was wrong of me to punch you earlier. Even if you were acting like a complete prick …” earning her a “tch” in response to her statement. Continuing she said “I know you are … acquaintances, so as Claude’s friend I want to at least be civil. We can be frenemies.”

Considering her offer, Damian tilted his head to the side “I suppose that I can stand being in your presence for the sake of the others.” After taking in his answer she nodded her head and stook out her hand. “How about we reintroduce ourselves? I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and you are?”

“Damian Wayne.” As soon as he said that a small squeal was heard from the person sitting behind Damian. Turning to face her Damian quickly said “Eavesdropping Holloway?” getting a snort and a quick, sarcastic “Me. No. Never.” from Holloway.

Taking a closer look at the apparent eavesdropper Marinette couldn’t help but appreciate her style. She was tall with long blonde hair tied back in an elegant braid. She had silver glasses which accentuated her deep grey eyes that stood out against her tanned skin, a simple, lavender cropped sweater over light wash, high-rise jeans. The girl offered out her hand “My name’s Allegra Holloway, and yours is?”

“Marinette, which I’m sure you totally didn’t hear earlier.” the raven haired girl sarcastically replied with a wink, gaining a giggle from Allegra. “You’re Claude’s friend, right? He told me you would be in class here.”

“That would be me. I can’t believe Damian actually agreed to being frenemies with you.”

“What can I say? I am just that amazing.” The girls stared at each other before quickly breaking out into laughter. Though it was soon silenced by Ms. Sanderson, the girls quickly became friends and got along great.

Soon, Marinette’s fears were beginning to calm, especially since Claude promised to meet her for lunch. She was waiting at the base of a specific set of stairs talking with Allegra, comparing their schedules, when Claude came by talking with a blond haired boy with striking blue eyes. He was wearing a smokey grey vest with black buttons over an ivory button down shirt with a black tie countaining blue accents to match his eyes. He had on slacks to match the vest, and black dress shoes to finish off the outfit. His hair was styled, but simple enough that it looked natural, and he held himself with an air of confidence and grace.

Claude looked up and upon seeing them immediately came over. “Mari. You don’t know how refreshing it is to have you here. Felix was being so mean to me!” fake sobbing Claude put his arm on her shoulder.

Laughing, she heard the blond, who she assumed was the previously mentioned Felix, say with a deadpan expression “It's only because you messed up 5 + 7. We are in a Calculus class. I hope you can understand how ridiculous that is.” which only caused Marinette to laugh harder.

“I- I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” she said, addressing Felix before she took Claude’s hand off her shoulder. “Come on Claude. If you're going to mess up like that, at least text me next time for the answer.” she said sarcastically, getting a startled laugh in return.

Felix held his hand out “I’m Felix ✨Le Blanc✨, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Shaking his hand, Marinette gave him a smile and a quick “you too” in response.”

“Oh Le Blanc, I see you met Dupain-Cheng” said Damian’s voice from down the hall, in a way close enough to Chloe’s that she never wanted them to meet.

“Hello Wayne” said Marinette in tandem with Felix causing Allegra and Claude to laugh.

“We should go get lunch, unless you want to stand here looking like idiots the whole lunch period?”

So they headed out to get lunch. These were some amazing people. Maybe, just maybe she could let down her guard for once.

(No I did not forget the tag list. Many of the users changed so I am restarting it. Please let me know if you would like to be added to it.)

#up grade #maribat #platonic damianette #miraculous ladybug #felinette #felix x marinette #platonic jasonette #triggering themes #i hope yall enjoy

[neakco]

When I Found You Bonus (2)

First Second Ao3

Bruce notices Damian's absence.

Tim Is A Chaos Child

Marinette had discovered the mini-fridge stocked up with food and water after a couple of hours and looked towards her best friend. “So how long does it take to fly from New Jersey to Paris in a helicopter?”

He looked sheepish while Damian yelled from the front, “A regular helicopter or ours specifically? Because I promise you that father's helicopter is far superior.”

Marinette narrowed her eyes in suspicion and turned from the tiny fridge. “Lets start with a regular helicopter and go from there.”

Tim blushed, “Well the fastest military helicopters can fly at 160mph so about 23 hours.”

“Fastest military helicopters?” She sat back and blinked a few times as she processed that. “And this is faster?”

You could hear the smirk in Damian’s voice as he answered, “Of course. I managed about 220mph on the way to pick you up. We are taking our only going about 200 right now though.”

Marinette did the conversions in her head, or tried before pulling up a calculator on her phone. “So at 322km the trip should take 18 hours. And you took 17 hours to come get me.” She paused to type in some more numbers, “Neither of you told Bruce anything and you will have been gone for a day and a half. How has he not sent one of the supers looking for you?”

“We told Alfred.” Tim shrugged before returning to his laptop and work he was apparently doing for Wayne Enterprises.

She sighed and walked up front to Damian. “Don’t you have school or something?”

“Tt, why do you think I agreed to come. I am being allowed to finally drive something and getting Drake in trouble while avoiding the asinine task that is school.”

“When you put it that way…” She trailed off and looked out the window for a moment. “So tell me how your pets have been since my last visit.”

Damian broke out in a rare grin. “So Batcow got bored the other day.”

Marinette smiled, hopefully Hawkmoth would be nice for two days so that she could actually take this time to mend.

At the same time Bruce had just got off the phone with Damian’s school.

“Alfred?”

“Yes Master Bruce?” He was setting down a sandwich and some tea.

“Did you not drive Damien to school today?”

“Of course not sir. He hasn’t been home since yesterday evening.”

“Can you fetch Tim and let him know I need him to take over at the office while I trace Damian?” Bruce started to stand but stopped when he saw Alfred shake his head.

“Master Timothy has also been absent from the manor since yesterday evening.”

Bruce paled as all the possible scenarios to cause 2 of his sons to disappear flashed through his head.

“I believe that the Wayne helicopter is also missing Master Bruce.” Alfred finished picking up the tea and food he knew was now going to be ignored and left.

Bruce sped to the cave to trace his sons. He was even tempted to call Jason but remembered last moment that he was recovering from what Jason was calling a less comedic sharknado.

Tim's tracker lead into the depths of the batcave telling Bruce that he had probably tossed it over the ledge, again. Damian’s led to the North Atlantic. The helicopter had a satellite phone that Bruce decided to dial. Hopefully one of his kids answered.

Tom looked up from his computer, “Hey Damian, what time is it back home?”

“It should be just after noon, why?”

“Phone's ringing.” He stood and stretched, “It took Bruce longer than I thought. I needed to check that I actually had the right time.”

Marinette looked at both brothers, “Are either of you going to answer or do I have too?”

Tim walked to the phone with a grin and put a finger to his lips before answering on speaker. “You've reached the Wayne Helicopter, how may I help you today?”

“Is there a reason you and Damian are currently over the ocean?”

Marinette had to cover her mouth so she didn’t laugh. Bruce sounded both concerned and angry.

“I suddenly had a craving for French pastries and you know that no one dies them better than the Dupain-Chengs.” Tim's grin was slowly growing at the anguished noises coming from Bruce.

“And why did you require your brother?”

“He wanted to stop me from taking the helicopter. So I had to take him along. Don’t worry, I got him pastries too.”

“Tim.”

“Don’t fret Bruce, I have a box with pastries for everyone.”

Even Damian had a small grin now and Marinette was barely quiet.

“That is not what I meant. Why did you feel the need to leave without telling anyone? And why didn’t you just take the tubes?”

“I told Jason, but he was battling something with a lot of teeth at the time.”

“You told Jason? The one person that rarely comes to the manor.” Bruce made some frustrated sounding mutters. “That doesn’t explain why you didn’t just take the tubes.”

Tim's grim could rival Joker's at this point, “Well Marinette isn’t authorized for the tubes yet.”

“Marinette isn’t….Did, did you kidnap your friend from France?”

“Of course not, I only kidnap family. I told her I was coming to pick her up. How else do you think I got the pastries.”

There was a sudden click and the line went dead.

Tim looked to Marinette and Damian, “I think that went well, how about you?”

Marinette’s only answer was to release the plethora of giggles she had been holding back.

Damian turned to look back, “Father is most definitely going to ground you from patrol.”

Tim laughed as he sat back at his laptop, “He can sure try, but he only has control over Red Robin.”

Marinette looked up between her giggles, “I am not lending you Trixx again. I don’t think Gotham can handle that again so soon.”

“What about Wayzz?”

“If Drake gets Wayzz then I get Longg.”

Marinette shared a look with Tikki, “No promises. It is up to them if they want to go on patrol with you.”

“Fine.” Both brothers chorused out.

As the quiet radiated warmly around her she thought back to what Tim had said about a platonic love song and smiled. She may not have the romance for the stars, but she had this and that was definitely enough for now.

Taglist: @novemberandmay

Again, you can thank comments for this.

I apologize for Bruce and Alfred, I don't tend to write characters like them very often.

#maribat #platonic #platonic timari #platonic damianette #best friend

[the-witches-you-couldnt-burn]

Epistle from a Friend

Collab with @jumpingjoy82 for @tylindel

Chapter one

Ao3

Chapter two

“Hello?”

She sucked in a breath and her hands began to shake and she ended the call. While they were friendly as children, that couldn’t be said for now. It had been more than five years since they last saw each other, let alone talked, now they were little more than strangers.

She sighed, collapsing on her loveseat.

“What was wrong?” Tikki asked, flitting around Mari’s head, fretting from her friend. “Why didn’t you say anything back?”

Taking a calming breath, she opened her eyes. “I just couldn’t, ok?”

Her phone chimed again. The girl lifted the screen up to her face, squeaked, and then instinctively yeeted it across the room. Tikki swooped under the device and thankfully redirected it to land on a pile of dirty clothes. The screen went dark once more as silence befell the room.

“He called again, Tikki! What should I do? I’m not ready!” Hands covering her face, pulling at her fringe.

“Well, you did call him first Marinette.”

“You know me Tikki!” She stood and began to pace around the room. “I’m impulsive!” She swivelled mid-step, turning to face Tikki. “And I’m clumsy! I don’t make the best decisions.”

“So,” Tikki landed on her holder’s head. “If you aren’t ready to talk to him, maybe try texting him?”

The kwami held onto the bluenette’s locks for her immortal life, as the girl cried, thanking Tikki for her genius whilst diving for her phone. The grin she wore decreased as her phone chimed again, this time with a text.

A text from Damian.

Damian: This is a private number. Who is this?

Damian: State your business

Marinette groaned, slamming her head into her fluffy pink rug. Why does fate hate her?

‘I can’t call him, I certainly can’t text him. So what should I do now?’ Her blue eyes traversed her room. She gazed upon the package he sent her, the fabrics he specifically chose, and the tissue paper even had small cherry blossoms. He did all this for her, why could she talk to him? Why was she so scared?

He even wrote her a letter. ‘Wait. . . He wrote me a letter.’

She shot up from her place on the floor. Jumping on her cushioned pink and white gamer chair, she spun towards her desk. She gathered what she deemed necessary for Mission ‘Childhood Friend’, and with her pink gel pen, she started writing.

Hearing his phone vibrate with an incoming call, Damian looked up. Most would just text if the matter wasn’t too urgent, and being a part of the family that he is, Damian generally didn’t have to worry about outside people getting ahold of his number.

With a final scratch of his pencil, he grabbed his phone within the next second. Looking at the screen, he hesitated a moment, as no contact showed up, and the location was showing from France. Paris, to be precise.

Shrugging his shoulders, he went ahead and answered it, as any of his siblings could have gotten a phone as well as a number from there at some point in time, which wouldn’t be too out of character considering their nightly activities.

When he answered the phone, however, as soon as he said hello, the person on the end of the line hung up. A flash of anger went through him. Who would dare hang upon him with not a word having been said?

Mulling over it some more, he thought back to the package he had sent about a week ago. He remembers how his father had given him the ‘assignment’ to find something ‘pleasant’ from his childhood. It had been quite the hassle to get things mailed off without anyone except for Alfred noticing, but he had done it.

The entire ordeal had slipped from his mind and no, he didn’t spend any time stressing over the fact that he may not get a response. The longer he thought about it, the more it made sense. The number was from Paris, after all, so that was easily explainable as she lived in Paris.

Before putting too much into the thought, he sent a message, as he could never be too sure that it was Marinette that had called him. It could quite easily be someone else completely.

Damian: This is a private number. Who is this?

Damian: State your business

He waited a few minutes, still receiving no reply. Taking the chance to call back, he waited until the last ring was heard.

The person you called has a voicemail box that has not been set up yet. Please try again later.

Knowing better than to throw his phone down, he slid it into his pocket. Taking a few calming breaths, he thought back to the day Marinette had quite literally fallen into his life.

“Hi,” he had heard, a whisper from the tree behind him, “do you want to play with me?”

Before he had had a chance to look up and around, a rustle of the leaves were heard, making way to a lithe girl falling down. Where he had thought she would crash down onto the ground, she landed gracefully.

“You’d be the perfect partner!” She had said. Damian, unable to keep his bout of curiosity at bay, had inquired about what exactly she would need a partner for with her only response being, “Because I can’t trust these adults, and you look like a good spy! So, what do you say?”

When he accepted, the only reasoning he had was that her child-like nature would be beneficial in reaching his objective.

“Fine, but you will have to be of some use, as I am not of that height yet.”

With a beaming grin, she had pulled him along, to which he had to resist the strong urge to remove the hand which held his own.

“Ok, lots of people are shorter than me, especially Kim!”

Rather than questioning who this Kim person was, he stayed quiet, allowing things to go as they were.

Damian sighed, hands in his pant pockets, hanging his head. Maybe he was looking for something that was never even there. Would she remember him? They were acquainted, maybe even. . . friends? She had called him “her perfect partner” or was it “the perfect partner”? He groaned in frustration, his fist swung into his room frame. His non-bleeding hand picked up his school bag.

He hurried to the door, hiding his fist in the sleeve of his school blazer. “Master Damian.” Damian cursed under his breath. He knew he wouldn’t get far, he swore that Alfred was the embodiment of the all-seeing eye. He swivelled around, Alfred stood at the dining room table. The elder pulled out a chair and gestured for Damian to sit.

He sat and Alfred left the room before returning with the large first aid pack (they used to have a small one but quickly realised a large one was necessary).

“Have they replied yet?”

Damian shook his head. His eyes were entranced by Alfred wrapping the bandages down his wrist and up to his thumb.

“I’m sure they will soon.”

Damian looked up, bewilderment on his face. “How are you so sure?” He whispered.

Alfred straightened his back, looking at the young man in front of him. Damian was in his last year at the academy and had grown into a person the whole family was proud of. “Because anyone who you interact with is exceptional.”

Days went by, turning into weeks, turning into a month. March the 6th, the day of the mysterious call. He checked the tracking and his package arrived that day but there had been nothing since.

He had several late-night conversations with Alfred about this. Alfred said there is a possibility that she was disturbed by him knowing her address. That thought made his chest hollow.

He arrived home to anarchy. Dick and Jason were standing on opposite sides of the table, arguing. Tim was holding a gun with a computer screen, thanks to Dick’s shout he was about to determine it was an x-ray gun. Babs was sitting with her computer, typing away, her eyes showering the screen. Cass and Steph stood to the side, giggling as they recorded the fiasco on their phones.

Damian stood in the doorway, what happened this time?

A phone was shoved in his face as something intelligible was screamed out of Steph’s mouth. “. . .Care to comment?!”

The yelling turned towards Damian. His brothers yelled over each other; words like “demon”, “who would” and “abroad” were thrown around. Damian’s eyebrows scrunched as he took a step back, bumping into something.

“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?” Bruce’s voice boomed, Damian stepped to the side, allowing Bruce a full view of the chaos.

Silence overtook the room before the yelling started again. Alfred cleared his throat and appeared from behind the Wayne's head. “I believe what they are trying to say, Master Bruce, is that Master Damian got a package from overseas.”

Damian’s green eyes locked onto the package that he hadn’t seen before. It sat on the table between Dick and Jason. He walked closer, it was the box he sent to Marinette.

His chest tightened. The address information had been stamped as ‘returned’, but it was taped differently. Hope sparked within him as he peeled off the tape and opened the box flats.

He was so focused that he was numb to the silence. His family watched as his desperation grew. Their youngest sibling paused and picked up an envelope.

It sat on black tissue paper and there was pink wax that sealed the letter. He ran his finger over the wax imprint, it was a bundle of grain tied with a bow; the design of Boulangerie Patisserie.

The letter was written in light pink on an inky black card. He smiled, she still liked to keep a certain ‘aesthetic’ it seems.

Dear Damian,

I apologise for hanging up on you, yes that was me. Sorry!

I do remember you, our second meeting was quite eventful. I was trying to put a baby bird back in its nest, you were in the tree and tried to stab me with a stick. I still laugh thinking about it.

I wonder if I’m still taller than you :P

Oh! I read that you met your father! How is he? You looked up to him so much when you were small (smaller?).

I love the gifts you sent me. The fabrics are gorgeous, they’ve given me so many new ideas. I included one in this package, I hope you like it.

Your old (taller) friend, Marinette

P.S I’m glad that you consider me a “pleasant” part of your childhood, I think the same of you too. Sorry, I reused your box, it had the return address. Let’s talk soon, ok?

A chuckle escaped his mouth, his family was shocked, and they stole glances at each other. He shook his head as he placed the letter down and moved the tissue paper. He froze before he pulled the item out to get a better look at it. It was made of the dark green fabric he sent. It was double layered with a lighter translucent green that shimmered in the light. The two layers were stitched together with embroidery of a robin.

‘Did she know?’ He thought, a strange nervousness flooded his psyche.

A tag hung with twine was a pale white against the darkness of the forest green. He held it up so he could see her pink writing.

The baby bird from our second meeting was a robin. He’s grown so big and now has a family of his own just like you (Unless you’re still short)! Robins mean hope, renewal and rebirth.

He tisked and pulled out his phone. His family by now had crept out of the room, leaving him mostly alone.

———06/03/2022———

Damian: This is a private number. Who is this?

Damian: State your business

———Today———

Damian: Marinette I’m 5”10

Damian: and growing

Marinette: SHORT UNTIL PROVEN TALL

Taglist:

@toodaloo-kangaroo @to-be-honest-i-dunno @achaoticmess1 @prettylittlebutterflie @adrestar @iglowinggemma28 @lilyoflothlorien @hammalammadamdam @slytherin-batbitch @nullsleepy @laydeekrayzee @twsssmlmaa @vroomtaka @dorkus-minimus @miraculous-mystery @ann0631

#maribat #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #damian & marinette #marinette x damian #damian x marinette #damianette #daminette #platonic daminette #gift fic #epistle from a friend

[xxcalypso-phoenixheartxx]

I need help in finding a fic

The fic has platonic jasonette and lukanette.

Romantic damianette if i remember correctly

Black cat marinette. Luka is a hero two

Bodyguard Jason

Both Marinette and luka move to gotham

I remember tim as red Robin hitting their window

Jagged is involved some how believe he is just mention

#platonic jasonette #marinette deserves better #maribat #damianette

[emu-lumberjack]

Don’t Answer the Phone Tired pt.1

It's been a long week for Damian and Marinette, between fighting Akuma's as Robin and Ladybug then dealing with Liela all day. Both are thoroughly exhausted so who can blame him for not checking caller ID?

-------------------------------

ok so this one does have a planned sequel, but I’m gonna work on the follow up to A Quick Meeting first. Again thank you @ozmav for the inspiration from your Maribat au. I love playing around with it, I also am posting all my stories to my Ao3 account, the unoriginal name of Emu_Lumberjack if you want to read it over there too.

Read part 2 here

Read part 3 here

Read Part 4 here

Read part 5 here

It had been a long week and all Damian wanted to do was go to sleep curled up with his angel of a girlfriend Marinette. They had been dating for months, she had asked him out about a month after he came to Paris. Two days after she found out he was Robin and he found out she was Ladybug. He hadn’t told his family yet, afterall who knows what Grayson would do if he found out he was dating Marinette Dupain-Cheng. The MDC, Jagged stone’s personal designer among many of her other accomplishments. The duo were sitting on the deck outside Marinette's room, they had planned to watch a movie on his phone but fifteen minutes in and she was snoring softly curled up next to Damian with his arm around her shoulder. Her blue-black hair had been freed from it’s twintails, Damian brushed some stray hairs out of her face. It had been a long week for her especially.

They had been working with the Miracle team: Chat Noir, Ryuko, and Viperion because Hawk Moth was creating more akumas than he had before and they were up almost every night. Then for Marinette, Damian, and Adrien dealing with Lila and the class was a waking nightmare. It had been two years since Lila came to Paris, and the hate she seeded against Marinette had only grown. Marinette dealt with online harassment from her former classmates and whenever they saw her at school they would throw paper or pencils at her.

Damian was well aware of how is angel was treated and the only reason he hadn’t pulled the “Wayne” card was because Marinette insisted she could handle it herself, what she did as ladybug made him certain she could handle the asshats herself, it didn’t mean he didn’t want to protect her though. Especially after days like today.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lila had started a new lie, saying she was best friends with the Waynes and actually was looking to ask out Tim the second youngest, but was scared because they were childhood friends and she didn’t want to ruin the relationship. Damian could not fathom why someone would make up such a blatantly false lie, or why someone would want to date Drake. He was just about to march over there and smack her with enough lawsuits to bury her for over a year, until Marinette put her calloused hand in his and shook her head no.

“Marinette whats wrong?” Lila asked, innocent as a storm cloud.

“Nothings wrong, Lila.” Marinette responded quietly

“Really because it looked like Damian had to hold you back there. Wait, are you jealous of me? Really Marinette I would expect more of you, some of us are just lucky enough to have connections.” Bitch Damian thought. Usually he wasn’t one to call women names, only using them for his mother, but Lila was the exception.

“Lila I could seriously care less about who you do or don’t know. I’m happy with Damian and my sewing work.” Marinette had regained some of her confidence and Damian could see the fire in her eyes, the one usually gone when she was around Lila.

Alya came up behind Lila and loudly proclaimed, “Oh. My. God. Marinette come on! What is it with you and being jealous of Lila first it was with Adrien,” Marinette scoffed, “now with Tim?” Alya was the one who hurt Marinette the most when she joined with Lila, but now Marinette realized just how toxic the faux reporter had been. Dragging her around, not listening when she said no, and refusing to look at the facts.

“Alya I’m not jealous, and I’d like to remind you Adrien and I are like siblings now.” Marinette turned to leave when Alya put a hand on her shoulder stopping her.

“Why are you leaving. We’re not done here.” A sneer crossed the girl's face.

“Alya, please take your hand off of my shoulder. I’m leaving because it’s lunch break and I said I’d meet up with Kagami and Luka.” Her voice was calm and cool, no hint of warmth for the person she once considered a sister.

Alya removed her hand, only to shove it back pushing the Bluenette to the ground. Damian lost it. Within seconds he was in between the two girls and seconds later had Alya pinned to the cold cement.

“If you ever. Ever. touch her again I will bury you.” He said loud enough for her ears only. Fast as he had attacked he got up and went over to Marinette. “Angel are you ok? How can I help.” The fire that was just in his eyes changed to concern.

“I’m fine Damian, let's just go.” Marinette was hiding her eyes from the rest of the crowd, because even though she said she was fine there were still small tears threatening to become a torrential downpour if she wasn’t careful. That's when the akuma alarm began. “Anyway I think we have an akuma to fight.”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The obnoxious Hamster Dance song was what woke Damian up from his dream. Marinette was still asleep next to him, bleary eyed he looked at his phone. Who the hell would be calling at this hour he thought. Swiping right he answered the call with a brisk “What the fuck do you want.”

“Good to hear from you, kid.” Oh. Shit. Damian woke up as if Alfred had dumped ice water on him, because on the other end was Richard Grayson. Grayson who was the biggest gossip of any of his siblings, his siblings who didn’t know about Marinette. “Wait. Hold up. Is that a girl next to you?” Grayson asked, acting innocent but the laughter in his eyes told Damian all he needed to know about what was going inside the eldest Wayne’s head.

“Grayson I do not have a girlfriend.” Damian’s face grew red.

“Bullshit.” A soft voice came out next to him. So Marinette’s not as asleep as she seems.

“Ohhhhhh! I cannot wait to tell Tim, and Jason, and,” he paused, “oh my gosh the girls are gonna have a field day…” Dick kept going on as Damian tried to sputter out sentences in rebuttal. Marinette now fully awake was shaking with laughter next to him. Finally after a solid three minutes Damian finally was able to sputter out a sentence, “I. Am. Going. To. kill. you.” Grayson just started laughing and Marinette smiled at him. Even when he was threatening death he was cute, it didn’t hurt that his bed head was adorable. With a few more scattered insults in Romani Damian turned off the chat.

“Well Angel it looks like we’re going to face a worse danger than any Hawkmoth could throw our way.” He said solemnly.

“Oh really? And what's that?” she asked sweetly

“My brothers.”

#Maribat #Damianette #marinette dupain cheng #Miraculous ladybug #ml x dc #Lila salt #alya salt #platonic adrienette

[verymuchimmortalcat]

Maribat March Day 30: Goodbye

ao3

@maribatmarch-2k21 

At the beginning Marinette's 12 and Damian's 9. And by the end she's 14 and he's 11.

Damian was arguing with his sister as she haphazardly threw things into a bag. She was leaving, not on a mission but for good.

“Not for good Damian. I’m just leaving the League you’re at liberty to join me. I’m not against it.”

“But Mother and Grandfather wouldn’t want you to leave,” trying to sound as convincing as possible even though he wasn’t sure if he believed it himself.

Marinette scoffed, “if it was up to Grandfather, I wouldn’t be alive. You and me both know that. I wouldn’t be shocked if half the League knows it. Mother probably wants me alive for whatever long twisted plan she has in mind. Though, I doubt she still does with my refusal to kill.”

“Mother said she might take me to meet Father soon-”

She inhaled sharply, “That's half the problem here. You know more about him then I do. You are actually told things about him. All I know is what Mother thinks of him. Mother’s opinion does not matter to me. Nor do I actually know if she is right.”

“But you’re a much better fighter than I am, they wouldn’t want you to go.”

“I’m also a girl. The League doesn’t want a female heir, otherwise Mother would have been named heir long ago and we wouldn’t be here.”

“But-”

“You’re grasping at straws here Dami. Like I said feel free to join me.”

“Mother-”

“I know Damian. You don’t have to come. But I am leaving.”

He holds back tears, Mother says al Ghuls don’t cry.

She continues, “If you ever do get out of here, I’m going to try to find Sabine Cheng, remember her?”

He nods mutely. He remembers the woman. He hadn’t seen a lot of her. But she had taken care of Marinette from birth. He remembers Marinette once telling him she was more of a mother to her than Talia would ever be. It makes sense that she would try to find her.

“It won’t be hard to find me with the Batman’s resources after all. And I promise you I’ll be there the second you call. This isn't goodbye.”

Damian doesn't believe her.

She hugs him tightly, murmuring an, “I love you little brother,” into his hair. He feels her grip loosen around him and before he can look up, she’s disappeared into the shadows.

.oOo.

Marinette makes it to Paris. Sabine had told her once that she had always dreamed of going there. When she walks into the Dupain-Cheng Bakery for food the last thing she expected to find was that the Cheng in the name was from Sabine’s. An understandable mistake really, anyone who had known Sabine during her time in the League wouldn’t have expected her to open up a Bakery.

Sabine sees her first. She freezes when she’s swept into a hug. Her assassin instincts telling her to injure the offending person. And then Marinette realizes it’s Sabine and melts into the hug. Her tiredness taking over as her months long search comes to an end. There are tears all around. Leaving her husband to take care of the bakery, Sabine takes her upstairs into their home and plies her with sweets.

Marinette is enrolled in the near-by school. She makes friends with the students there. Then she gets the Ladybug Miraculous and for the first time in her life is grateful her League training. She creates a plan for Cat Noir’s training and they both work on making sure they don’t accidently end up busy during those times, to the best of their capabilities. Sabine figures it out almost immediately and offers any help she can. And Marinette with the support of her friends and family, embraces the responsibility of the Ladybug mantle.

.oOo.

There was a coup in the League. Mother had left him with Father so he could continue his training. Damian had to find Marinette. This was all that ran through Damian’s mind when he first was thrust upon the Wayne Family.

He knew he needed the Batcomputer to conduct his search. But his Father was yet to accept his existence, let alone allowing him access to the batcomputer. Damian decides he has to prove his worth. So, he attempts to kill Drake, surely if he can defeat him Father would consider him acceptable and help him find his sister.

He is reprimanded. Told that this is not the League and that, “Bats don’t kill.” He remembers ukhti’s face then, frowning in disgust at the thought of killing. And his father looks him in the eye and asks him if he understands, Damian realises Marinette shares their father’s eyes.

He thinks about it a lot more after that, what ukhti would consider acceptable and what she would not. Grayson says it’s a massive improval and Damian can’t bring himself to say, “I’m only doing what my sister would do.”

Then Father dies, and while Damian now has access to the Batcomputer he can’t bring himself to introduce the topic to Richard. Knows Richard will see Father in Marinette more than he ever will in him, the same way Damian sees his sister in Father. So, he looks into Sabine Cheng. Finds that his sister is living with her and is using the name Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She seems fine, so Damian doesn’t call. He remembers her promise, knows that she’ll be there the second he needs her. He’ll give it time and then he can bring it up with Richard.

.oOo.

Lila appears a year after Ladybug. But Marinette was trained to be an assassin, and quite literally has lady luck by her side. And while her friends find Lila’s stories wonderful in the beginning, they slowly realise that’s all they are. Stories.

A few months after Lila’s appearance. Hawkmoth is taken down. But Marinette and Adrien keep their miraculous. Master Fu takes the rest of the Miracle Box with him to London, so he can spend his days with the love of his life.

Adrien and her become closer friends than before. Fighting for their city's safety everyday would do that. Tom and Sabine take him in and it’s like having a brother again. And Marinette wonders if Damian’s still in the League. Maybe she should bring it up with Sabine, if they could take him away from the League.

.oOo.

Before Damian can talk to Richard, Drake comes back with proof Father is alive. Damian’s first worry was that he’d have to start from the beginning yet again but when Father comes back, he acknowledges Damian’s presence and calls him his son.

Father’s busy. Damian keeps trying to bring up Marinette but he never seems to catch Father at the right time.

He notices Damian trying to talk to him more often, and invites him on a mission to Paris to check out some relatively new heroes.

Ladybug shows up almost as soon as Batman and Robin take to the roof tops of Paris. She looks annoyed and says to Father, “I don’t know what you think you’re doing here-“

Damian doesn’t register the rest. He knows that voice. It’s been years since he last heard it, but he’d never forget. The next thing he knows he’s darting forward from where he’s hidden behind his Father and has tackled ukhti in a hug. He hears their father’s confusion behind him but he couldn’t care less.

.oOo.

Marinette lands on the rooftop, annoyed. She has no idea what Batman’s doing in her city. Father or not, he doesn’t know that anyways, but it doesn’t give him an excuse to come to the city uninvited. Marinette has barely begun to speak when she’s tackled into a hug. Familiar arms wrap around her, and she can hear Damian sobbing as she brings him closer once she gets over her initial shock. She’s crying too. Well, all the plans for getting Damian out of the League won’t be necessary now.

Marinette leaves the League mainly because of

1) The way she was treated by Ra's and Talia as a pawn, she didn't want to play along with their schemes

2) She didn't want to kill

a continuation (it’s only on ao3)

#maribatmarch2021 #maribat #bio dad bruce wayne #bio siblings!au #platonic damianette #sibling!damianette #my writing

[mental-dilemma]

A Quick Meeting Part 4?

Damian’s an exchange student in Paris taking it easy until an Akuma attacks and he gets to meet ladybug. -----------------------------------------

Ok before everyone starts pancking: I am Emu-Lumberjack I just decided to create a Sideblog for all my writing so that way those who follow me exclusively for that don’t have to deal with the chaos that is my main blog

also I’m sorry it’s taken so long to post this but just between school and work and school and just general exhaustion it’s been hard for me to write.

and as always all credit to the Au goes to @ozmav 

pt.1 

pt. 2

pt. 3

“I don’t suppose I could bribe you to drop the matter.” Damian said sitting down in Tim’s office. He and Ladybug were situated next to each other while Tim was on the other side of the desk.

“Nope.” He turned to Ladybug, “I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself, making sure Damian didn’t disappear and all that. Anyway I’m Tim Drake, Co-Ceo of Wayne enterprises and Damians older brother.”  

Ladybug turned to Damian and quietly said, “So does everyone in your family constantly talk like they’re trying to impress a victorian lord?” Damian snorted. Tim, unable to hear what she just said, looked to the two agape.

“At least I have a reason.” Damian responded, this time loudly enough for his elder brother to hear. “Anyway Tim is in CEO mode right now, which is pretty rare. Usually he’s a bumbling zombie dependent on coffee to function. In fact I remember one time when Dick took the last cup he----”

“I’d suggest stopping right there or I’ll tell her about the batcow incident.” Tim interrupted.

 “Did you just say batcow? Because I understand each of those words separately.” Ladybug said, and even though her mask still concealed half her face Damian could tell she was really confused.

“Don’t ask. Just don’t.” Damian said quietly.

“Anyway. I never caught your name and considering the fact that your in a mask I assume you’re a hero. Which is surprising because none of us knew Paris had heroes.” Tim cut the two of them off before more could be said.

“Yes that’s becoming a common theme I’m finding,” Marinette began. “My name is Ladybug in the mask. I have a partner, Chat Noir, but he’s currently indisposed, something about paint in his hair.” Damian stifled a laugh as Marinette continued, “We have been operating out of Paris for the last few years, early on we tried contacting the Justice league but Green Lantern told us not to prank call him.”

“Oh did he now.” Tim said, leaning his head forward.

“Yes he did. Thankfully my power allows me to reverse all damage done during a fight. Including any lives lost or monuments destroyed.”

“That sounds like a very useful power. I'm sure that the heroes of Gotham would love to work with you.” There was a twinkle in his eye that Damian knew meant Tim was concocting some scheme. He was about to jump in, but Marinette got there first.

“Yes I’m sure you would but the issue is we currently have our hands full here although from what Damian told me you guys sound much more fun to work with. At least the villains have better costumes.”

Tim noting her wording turned to Damian, “Did you tell her the family secret? You know what Alfred will do if he finds out.”

Damian smirked “I’m not an idiot Drake this was all her. She could rival you for deductive reasoning.” Marinette just sat there looking innocent.

“Well that explains why the two of you were sneaking around together, Ladybug should I assume Damian knows your identity as well?”

“Yep.”

“Well this is going to be a nightmare. But this just means  I can formally invite you to Gotham at least. Ha just leave it to the Ice Prince to leak the identity on his first civilian trip abroad.” Tim leaned his head back, closing his eyes.

“Actually it was you guys who tipped me off.”

Tim suddenly opened his eyes and looked her straight in the eyes. “Come again.”

“Well it was the fact that no one had spied Robin around Batman while Damian was in France. Then the fact that you were patrolling rather than him tipped me off that Robin might be on a vacation..” Tim just face palmed.

“Of course that would happen, how did we not see it coming.” He muttered to himself. “Wait, that begs another question: how did you two meet.”

Damian blushed and before Ladybug could respond he said “not important, there was an akuma. Now do you need anything else.”

“Actually yeah. Ladybug you mentioned the video you sent to Green Lantern, well Batman found it and wanted us to investigate. He didn’t know Green Lantern had seen it or otherwise he’d be on his way back to Ooa healing from a scolding from Alfred. Dick and Jason wanted to come but Bruce needed someone he could send discreetly and who better than the Co-CEO of Wayne industries who could just be checking up on the Paris branch.” Ladybug was impressed by the scheming having Dick Greyson or Jason Todd come in would stir up villain or media activity but Tim the third son wouldn’t.

“Well if you want we can meet up with my partner later and you can formulate a list of questions. Plus it seems you and Damian have some catching up to do.”

“There was a reason I came to Paris Ladybug. Being forced to talk to Tim was not one of them.” Damian made to leave only for a yoyo to catch his leg. Ladybug smirked at him. “Maybe a five minute chat couldn’t hurt anyone. Family reunion and all that.”

“Great then as long as everyones in agreement I can set up a time with chat later this evening for all of us to talk things through and get a strategy in place.”

“Are you sure about this having the league involved is going to cause a lot of chaos and even more dangerous villains could target Paris.”

“Tim I have dealt with so much crap the last couple of years that at this point I will take Darkseid over Lila…… Oh crap. We forgot about Lila.” Marinette looked at Damian who was coming to the same realization she was. He called out Lila in the bakery, and outed himself as a Wayne.

“Do I want to know?” Tim said rubbing his temples. He did not miss highschool.

“Lets just say school tomorrow’s going to be interesting, and I think we’re going to have to put the meeting on hold till after it. Ladybug and I are going to need to deal with school tomorrow, and caffeine isn’t gonna cut it.” Damian said.

“Then again if we aren’t lucid tomorrow might not be so bad….” Marinette began

“Do not even finish that, you even more than me need sleep. Between fashion, school and heroing you function off an hour.”

“You.. have a point. I’ll brief Chat on the situation on my way home. In the meantime I’ll leave you too to the brotherly bonding I’m sure you need.” she pulled her yoyo from her pocket, “See you tomorrow Damian, and whatever plan you hatch up make sure nit doesn’t include killing anyone.”

“Goodnight Ma--- Ladybug. And no promises.” The boy caught himself before revealing Ladybug's identity. She gave him the look of ‘don’t fuck up my secret identity bird boy’ before jumping out the window to run from rooftop to rooftop.

“So. how long have you had a crush on her.” Tim pulled Damians attention, and Damian was sudden;y very glad he had said nothing about not killing his brother.

--------------------------------------

“Do you think they’ll actually help this time?” Chat’s voice rang over the phone, Marinette had stopped behind one of the chimneys to talk to him in private.

“I don’t know, at least now they are actually considering it rather than just brushing us off as children.” Marinette was tired but they needed to have this chat now, there wouldn’t be any chance to in class tomorrow.

“Yeah, just don’t get your hopes up. They left us to fend for ourselves for 3 years and are only doing this now because of Damian if you didn’t know him then none of this would’ve happened.  

“Ok but why does that matter that it’s Damian? They could’ve been doing it because of Jon too.”

“Oh please, you're more dense than our class sometimes. Jon would’ve noted it then forgotten to tell someone, but Damian told Batman right away. Why do you think he did that?”

“Chat I am too tired for this.” Marinette could feel Adrien facepalming through the phone.

“Oh I am not spelling this out for you, this time you get to figure it out yourself.”

“Fine. but next time you need help on your calc homework don’t come running to me.” Marinette hung up on him and made her way home. The parisian streets were nice and quiet for her, no akuma meant maybe another hour of sleep.

Once she was out of the suit she let Tikki rest and got right to work on the new piece she was making for Jagged, he wanted to somehow have the score of his newest piece sewn onto the pants for his next concert, and she had to brainstorm.

Twenty minutes went by.

Then an hour.

Then two.

Finally she put up her pencil and put on her pajamas, as she was falling asleep Adriens words kept replaying in her head, and the meaning slammed into her like a truck. Pulling out her phone she sent one message.

Oh fuck off

tag list: @clumsy-owl-4178 @pawsitivelymiraculous @yuulxd @smolplantmum @inarachi02 @notmycupoftea26 @laurcad123 @unknownvsworld @jeminiikrystal @megawhitleycalderonpaganus

#The dilemma writes #Maribat #damian wayne x marinette dupain cheng #Damianette #Damientte #Chat noir #Kwamii #fics #fanfic #myfic #damian x marinette #platonic ladynoir #platonic adrienette

[mochegato]

Jason: you know Pixie Pop, we should hang out more often

Marinette: Aww jason, you want to spend more time with me?

Jason: starting now. We should start right now

Marinette:...

Jason: 😁

Marinette: you know you can't use me as a human shield against Damian, right? He'll just stab around me

#platonic jasonette #jasonette #damianette #damienette #maribat #marinette dupain cheng #jason todd #damian wayne

[procrastinatings-my-middle-name]

So I'm gonna write a daminette soulmate au (which, yeah, is nothing new, but it's been living in my head rent free so I might as well write it) and I have a few questions.

Why did Deathstroke rebel?

How long did it take Talia to reclaim the league?

Does anyone know how normal(or, as normal as an assassin is able to be, anyway) members join?

How old was Damian when he died again?

How long did he stay dead till his resurrection

#maribat #damimari #damianette #daminette #platonic dickinette #platonic timinette #platonic jasonette

[hoplesshipper]

Help I'm searching for that one maribat fic where Marinette or her family gave the batfam mugs with quotes on them. I think it had something to do with Christmas?

Idk, but I really liked the quotes and forgot to note them down.

#maribat #daminette #Marinette #marinette dupain cheng #i think the next tags are platonic #note *think* because i really can't remember anything else #jasonette #timari #dickinette #the next tags are cause people call the damian x mari ship by different names so #damimari #maridami #damianette

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Con Man's Daughter

Posting this because there isn't enough biodad! John Constantine content.

[Masterlist]

(Part 2)

-----

I feel like this should be a Damianette story or just platonic relationship after Jon got aged-up to seventeen and Damian wanted a friend his age but doesn’t want to admit it.

So basically there is this big bad in Gotham using magic that Batman was fighting at the time and enlisted John Constantine to help out.

John realizes that the villain is using a Miraculous.

“Oh. I think I know how he gets his powers. And lucky for you, Bats, I know an expert on this special brand of magic.”

And he did the smart thing and called up Marinette who at the time was already Guardian and was looking for other lost Miraculouses like in the Treasure Hunter AU I wrote.

He calls her at a really bad time. She was in the process of being chased by the guardians of the place. Monsters and evil spirits.

“Hello, Dad. What do you need and can you do it quickly?”

“Hey, sweetheart, it’s me. How is my little cupcake up to these days?”

“You called at a bad time.” Gunshots.

“WAS THAT A GUN I HEARD? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, YOUNG LADY?!”

“Somewhere in Japan. Getting a Miraculous. And why can’t you call me to check in on me and not ask me to help you with whatever mess you got yourself into.” More gunshots sounds and it was telling that Marinette was using a gun.

“Where did you get a gun? And don’t you have school?”

“It’s summer break. Don’t worry Maman and Papa know. Well, the fact that I am in Japan anyways.” Marinette sounded a little out of breath. Roaring and horrifying sounds at the other end. “Can we do this later?”

“As it happens, there is a villain going around Gotham with what I think is a Miraculous.”

Swears on the other end.

“Oi. Watch your fucking language, young lady.”

“How about a No and move the fuck back, old man. I am coming over right now.”

“Old man? I am not that old-” as a magic blue portal opens up in the Bat Cave.

And a red Chinese dragon comes out with someone riding it.

Its rider was a black-haired girl. She had a trench coat similar to Constantine's. I imagine her with a fedora. Like Carmen Sandiego style but not red. Sometimes red but only when she has to steal it from a museum or high security places and she leaves a name card with the name Carmen Sandiego. A sword strapped to her back and a dagger to her thigh.

She had a gun in her hand which she used to shoot the monsters as it was halfway through the portal and yelled out the spell to close it.

“Brilliant entrance but you are in lots of trouble, little lady. What were you thinking about going to another country unsupervised? And isn’t there still a butterfly problem in Paris?”

“One, I wasn’t unsupervised. I had Tikki, a billion years old being and a sort of god. Two.Well, it got boring trying to track Hawk-bitch down. And I found this legend about a guy with a Miraculous who disappeared in the temple and thought hey, more miraculous could mean another edge to defeating Moth-man.”

More bickering and John grounding Marinette who was acting very nonchalant about it.

Okay, at this point, I should say that Batman and Robin are in the background trying to make some sense.

Batman is surprised to find out that Constantine has a daughter who is also involved in magic like her Father but an apparently more specialised kind called the Miraculous. He is a little miffed that he didn’t know about John having a daughter. He did consider it weird at first that she had a slight french accent unlike her father’s Liverpool accent although she pronounced some words like he does.

He also connected some dots that she is also the Parisian heroine, Lady Rouge who Wonder Woman introduced to the League a while back and had declined to join the Young Justice or Teen Titans until everything in Paris was resolved.

Damian on the other hand was suspicious of the new arrival and came to the same conclusion as his father about the daughter thing.

Batman after a few minutes, clears his throat.

The Constantines stop arguing.

“Bonjour. Batman. Robin. Pleasure to meet you. I am Mari Constantine and yes, I am this homeless looking man’s brilliant daughter.” “Hey”

“Well, Mari. Your father thinks you can help us with this new criminal turning Gotham upside down. Literally in some cases. He said that you might be able to help us.” Batman said as he pulled up zoomed in picture of the Miraculous.

Mari looks through the Miraculous grimoire and tells them all about it and power-ups, basically the most effective thing to defeat the guy is to get the Miraculous off them. Plus a spell that would make the Miraculous ineffective if casted within a certain radius of it.

“Thank you for the information, Mari. Constantine, let’s go.”

Mari made to follow them.

“You young lady are grounded and staying here.”

“I don’t need another supervillain using the Miraculous which are my responsibility as Guardian to retrieve them for their own misuse and wreaking havoc on the city. And what if there is an akuma in Paris? I can’t go there if I am grounded in the Batcave although it is a cool place to hang out.”

“You can portal back to Paris but you are not going to follow me. Understood?”

“yes. crystal”

“Good. After me and Batsy get the Miraculous, you can do your Guardian duties.”

Damian snickers. Until Batman cut his mood short, “You are staying behind too. Robin.”

“But Father, why? I am much more capable than Constantine.”

“Hey!” Both father and daughter.

Damian is staying behind too because of the Miraculous power or other reasons and keeps an eye on Mari.

Damian stays behind and there were some protests about mari mad about having a babysitter and Damian doesn’t want to be a babysitter. Despite the two of them being around the same age.

“I got an eye on you so no funny business.”

“Okay, Dad, I am not going to have sex with Robin.” Mari said with a shit- eating grin. Robin definitely didn’t blush.

“I hate you sometimes.”

“I love you too, Dad. Go save the world. Byee.”

John eyes her suspiciously because she is not one to give up that easily usually.

He casts a spell to watch her as they leave. and which she totally knew about.

“So...I have one question.”

“Tt, ask and don’t bother me anymore.”

“Is Batman Bruce Wayne?”

Damian looks up, totally caught off guard.

“I am going to take that as a yes.”

Puts sword at her neck. “How did you find out?!”

“Opened up Google Maps and saw that we are under Wayne Manor. Connected the dots. Also I already knew when Dad made a bet with me once to find out Batman’s secret identity but he never did confirm it for me. And can you please not tell your father about this? I don’t feel like being interrogated by the Bat in the future yet.”

“Father must know about this.”

“I saw you looking at Scarlet here. An animal lover then? You can give her some belly rubs. She deserves it after helping me outrun those monsters.”

His silence was brought. To pet a dragon.

One thing after another and he ends up bringing out his pets-Jerry the turkey, Goliath the dragon-bat, Titus- and her introducing him to her other pets like a hellhound, griffin and other mythical creatures who mostly roam free but come to her when she calls for them and also the kwamis, at least the ones who came with her.

After 30 mins have passed, “So Robin how do you feel about disobeying our fathers?”

“I am in.”

“Depends. Are we going after the (villain's name) ?”

“Yes.”

Awesome montage of them getting rid of the spell John casted and flying out of the Batcave on their respective giant flying pets to the villain’s base.

Meanwhile, their fathers are not doing so well and are trapped in a death trap. John can’t say the spell because the villain made him unable to talk.

“At least, the kids are staying put.”

Cut to Damian and Mari jumping off their pets and onto the roof. Taking out the guards posted there and going into the building all sneakily and also taking out the guards that come their way.

They dropped into the room where their fathers and the villain is.

“Why am I not surprised?”

Villain starts an evil monologue about his mastermind plan to which Damian cuts it short by trying to cut him down with his katana. Mari goes to deactivate the death trap.

They are evenly matched with Damian’s training and the Miraculous.

Mari steps in as Damian was about to be killed. Taps on the shoulder of the villain and when he turns around, gives an awesome right hook that knocks him out.

Takes away the Miraculous and curses him. Wiped the dude’s memories of it.

“When I said stay in the Batcave, I meant stay behind at the Batcave. What point of being grounded, don’t you understand?”

“You mean, Oh, Mari, light of my life, my wonderful daughter, thank you for saving my ass. You are the best.’ by that, right?”

-----

Mari and Damian exchanged numbers and email addresses.

As she was about to leave the Batcave, “It’s been nice meeting you, Mr. Wayne.” and leaves with a wink.

John ‘ungrounds’ her for the look on Batman’s face.

-----

After this, Marinette and Damian become friends who bitch and vent to each other about their alter egos and various villains of their respective cities. (In codes, just in case) They also share updates about their pets and love of drawings.

They have that type of friendship where they trade favors. Mari calls Damian to Paris sometimes to help out with the akuma of the day and Damian sometimes calls her in when Bruce doesn’t let him go investigate a case so he can sneak out by magical means or as back up for when his brothers were too annoying to deal with.

It’s summer break so no missing school.

John and Bruce are aware of their friendship and some of the shenanigans the pair gets into behind their back.

-----

-----

Right. how this all started...

John and Sabine first met when the latter was still in college somewhere in France. John was tracking down a demonic entity which was targeting Sabine for some reason and she was the next target.

John saved her life and exorcised the demon. There was a heat of the moment thing and they had a one-night stand. There were a few more flings and hook-ups after that night.

And nine months later, Marinette Cheryl Cheng-Constantine was born.

When Sabine first found out, she called John to come over and he thought that it was a call for another hook-up and was very surprised to find out that it was not and that he was going to be a father.

They both like each other but do not want to be in a relationship together so they both remained as friends and John agreed after some strong-arming at the very least to meet his daughter before he goes to do his job. And pay for child support. And help Sabine during her pregnancy.

Pregnant Sabine was someone you don’t want to mess with. And John has never met a demon or anyone scarier than her.

He was at first not into meeting his child and there was a self-pity party he threw himself with how the child was going to live a bad life because he was the dad and how he destroyed every good thing in his life.

That’s why he is going to meet the baby once and leave maybe a letter and the occasional birthday present and stay out of their life. Forever.

The day Marinette was born and it took one look into her eyes for the HellBlazer to fall under the spell and all of his plans to stay out of her life to burn away.

At first, he tried. He really tried but he couldn’t do it.

Lasted 4 months before he came back, wanting to place protection spells on her and sigils around the house to keep away the forces of Heaven and Hell and other entities so they won’t use her against him as a bargaining chip.

Sabine calls him to babysit. He could have refused and Sabine would have easily found a babysitter. He moans and whines about how he is a great mage and not a bloody babysitter. Sabine retorts that it is actually called parenting since he is Marinette’s father. He grumbles but in the end, agrees.

The great John Constantine is wrapped around the little girl’s finger.

He was around for some of Marinette’s firsts. Her first word was “John”.

It made him cry. He wasn’t a good man and he doesn’t deserve someone this precious. His daughter doesn’t deserve someone like him as a father but fate made it that way and what can you do about it.

After an exhausting week of doing the usual and coming back from Hell, he saw that Sabine had sent him a video. It was Marinette taking her first steps.

Chas swears that in all the years that he has known John Constantine he has never seen the man look so happy.

------

When Tom came into the picture, John was there to take care of a toddler Marinette while Tom and Sabine went on dates.

Insert John threatening a much bigger Tom while holding a baby Marinette with wide eyes and hugging a teddy bear with the same coat as John’s. (It was something Sabine brought on a whim and to tease John when he came around.)

Tom is supportive and treats Marinette like his own flesh and blood.

John resolved to leave for good now that Tom would be there to be a father figure for Marinette.

That plan fell into the drain the moment he was going to leave for what was supposed to be the last time before Sabine pulled him back and knocked some sense into him.

His face was a big giveaway. Sabine knows that despite his claims of being a terrible father for Marinette, he was a good one and damnit she was going to make sure that Marinette would get to know her actual father.

Tom later made an awkward talk with John about how he was not going to replace John’s role as Marinette’s father.

Marinette was the flower girl at Tom and Sabine’s wedding. John was there too.

During bedtime, John would read her stories and use his magic to make it come to life. Although he would feel a little drained afterwards, it was worth it to see her smile.

Sometimes he told stories about his tamer adventures. (After cutting out some of the inappropriate bits)

------

When Marinette was about 5 or 6, Sabine was out on an errand and Tom was at home with Mari and helping her with her homework. There was a crash downstairs at the bakery. Tom went down to check it out to find John lying on the ground.

With a weak cough, he said, “Close the door. Close it.” Before losing consciousness

Tom did before a man with pitch black eyes slammed against it.

Thankfully John had installed heavy wards around the bakery when it first opened.

They held against the demon on John’s tail. Tom brought John inside and unsure of what to do, grabbed a rolling pin on the counter.

The man outside started pounding on the glass door and every time his hands touched the door, light glowed outwards, showing the invisible magic barrier around the bakery. Sparks and steams fizzled with every pound.

Despite the reddening and burns of his hands, the not-human didn’t slow down.

“ʝօɦռ....ʏօʊ ӄռօա ȶɦǟȶ ɨȶ'ֆ օռʟʏ ǟ ʍǟȶȶɛʀ օʄ ȶɨʍɛ ɮɛʄօʀɛ ɨ ɮʀɛǟӄ ȶɦʀօʊɢɦ ȶɦɛֆɛ աǟʀɖֆ. օռƈɛ ɨ ɢɛȶ ʏօʊ,” He laughs, the sound sends chills down the large man’s spine, “ȶɦɛʀɛ ǟʀɛ ֆօ ʍǟռʏ ȶɦɨռɢֆ ɨ ɦǟʋɛ քʟǟռռɛɖ ʄօʀ ʏօʊ.”

Tom knew that Marinette’s father was a con man. Come on, Master and Practitioner of the Dark Arts and Occult. But he was a good father nonetheless despite all his flaws and Sabine liked him enough so that was good enough for him.

Before today, magic was just the sleight of hands and use of fancy tools to sell the illusions. Now, with a could-be-a-demon knocking on his door to get to the father of the girl he sees as his daughter, he’s not so sure.

“Tom? Qu'est-ce qui se passe? (What’s going on?)” A little voice came from the stairs, “Dad!” Marinette padded across the floor to the body of her passed out father.

She shook him awake and there were a few soft slaps to the face.

“Dad, what’s happened?”

John mumbles, “Demon…. possessing some rich guy….. Exorcism…. Doesn’t like me very much…Don’t worry...wards going to hold.”

John manages to stand before falling down and Tom catches him before he hits the floor. He has a concussion. Tom turns to Marinette, “Go, Hide and don’t come out until It’s safe.” which she did

Unfortunately, a while later, Sabine returns from her night out and the demon upon seeing Sabine. “ɛӼƈɛʟʟɛռȶ..”

The demon possessed Sabine and the previously possessed dude hit the sidewalk with a thud.

“ɨռȶɛʀɛֆȶɨռɢ....” The voice coming out of Sabine didn’t sound like her mother which scared Marinette a lot. “օքɛռ ȶɦɨֆ ɖօօʀ օʀ,”the demon pulled a knife out of thin air, ,“ȶɦɨֆ ɮօɖʏ ɢɛȶֆ ɨȶ.”

Tom hesitated until the demon put the knife on Sabine’s neck and put enough force for a thin line of blood to be shown.

He opens the door and the demon knocks him out. Stepping over his unconscious body and looking down on it, “ʄօʀ ȶɦǟȶ, ɨ ǟʍ ɢօɨռɢ ȶօ ʟɛȶ ʏօʊ ʟɨʋɛ ʊռȶɨʟ ɨ ǟʍ ɖօռɛ աɨȶɦ ʝօɦռ, օʄ ƈօʊʀֆɛ.” and cackles. The sound was so wrong and unnerving and little Marinette tried very hard for her sobs not to be heard.

Too bad the demon had super hearing. “Come out, my little blossom. Maman is home. Why don’t you come out and give me a hug?”

It sounded so much like her mother and she nearly believed that it was her mother and not some entity in control of her body.

But she knew better from John’s stories of dealing with demons and how they would use the voice of loved ones to lure them out and into a trap. (Definitely not something one should tell as a bedtime story but Marinette was very different and had an unconventional childhood with John Constantine as her father.)

Wait...she got struck with an idea but she wasn’t sure if it would work.

Before she could do anything, the door of the cabinet she was hiding in was opened and she was dragged out.

The demon lifted her a few feet above the ground by the collar of her dress.

It heard Marinette saying something. “աɦǟȶ ǟʀɛ ʏօʊ ֆǟʏɨռɢ ƈɦɨʟɖ, ֆքɛǟӄ ʟօʊɖɛʀ?”

“Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica.” Marinette was now screaming the words at the top of her lungs. She repeated the spell over and over again with fierce determination.

John, being his paranoid self, taught her the spell for an exorcism, just in case. Demons spared no one, not even a girl.

It screamed “NO….” as Sabine’s body contorted in strange angles before a dark shadow seemed to be dragged down into the ground. It made a desperate attempt to possess John before it was pulled away and disappeared. There was no sign that there was a demon attack.

After John woke up, he managed to piece together that his 5-years-old (Sorry 5 and a half) daughter sent a demon back to hell.

He was a very proud dad. (He was a tad worried about the consequences from this event and demons hold one hell of a grudge. He wanted his daughter to live a very safe and happy life. The bakery’s wards also need an upgrade.)

He also got the job of explaining what he actually did to Tom. And lots of reassuring.

Sabine, on one hand, was not happy that Marinette knew how to do magic. That is until John told her that he did it just in case so she can protect herself and later it was agreed that Marinette can learn some Magic spells and charms to better protect herself and when she is older, she can decide if she wants to continue or not.

----

(Part 2)

#bio!dad john constantine #maribat #damientte #damainette #platonic daminette #maybe? #minor swearing

[buterflies-and-ladybugs]

Up-Grade

Notes: Hi everyone! I just relized I never posted chapter 3 on Tumblr so here it is. Enjoy!

AO3 1 2

Chapter 3:

Claude was expecting a lot of things to happen when Marinette met his friends. While her not liking them was one thing he did not expect her to punch Damian twice. Sure Damian could be ... Blunt but he hasn't even said anything the first time. The second time was kind of his own fault, but there was still a chance that this was salvageable; he would just have to find it in the dumpster fire of a first meeting. A very large dumpster fire, and the day started out so well to ...

[Two hours earlier]

Marinette was not excited for her first day back at school. While she was excited to meet Claude's friends, she didn't have the best experiences with school or Gotham so put them together and you have a recipe for disaster. What would happen next, she would meet Bruce Wayne or any of his children and punch him or her for stealing her brother. With her luck it may happen. She always seemed to have the weirdest sense of luck. For example, she once was able to save a man from getting hit by a car. In doing so, she lost the cookies for her class, but the man ended up being the one who helped her learn Miraculous magic and she got to meet the Kwami. The kwami were a mix between spirit guides and familiars. They wouldn't have to stay near the holder of their jewels which are almost all embedded into specific pieces of jewellery. However, their companionship came at a cost mainly protecting this reality from other possible apocalyptic endings.

Anyway, she was wearing her pajamas and eating a bowl of fruit and an omelette and The CoffeeTM when Claude came out.

"Mornin' Mari"

"Hey Claude. I made you an omelette with cheese and vegetables for you. It is in the microwave so it doesn't get too cold." Replied Marinette, earning her a face of shock. "What do you not like about vegetables? I can make you something else if-" she started before Claude grapes her in a bear hug.

"You're the best Mari. I wasn't expecting you to make something so I was surprised."

"That makes sense. I guess?"

"You guess?"

"Nothing, let's just get ready. I'm going to get dressed."

"M'kay." Said Claude between mouthfuls of food.

Eventually they were ready after Marinette was once again disappointed in his outfit. After a quick goodbye to Mrs. Kathrin they walked to school. Luckily it was just around the corner. As Claude and Marinette rounded the corner into the school while talking about UMS II which was coming out soon Claude spots Damian. Before Claude could say anything Marinette shouted

"You. Your A Fucking Wayne!" And punched Damian in the gut. If Claude was being honest she only went slightly lighter than yesterday.

"Marinette what the Hell. Are you ok Damian?"

"Wait, you're one of Claude's friends he talked about. Oh my goodness I am so sorry I completely let my emotions get the best of me I-"

"Tch. Don't be an idiot I am obviously Wayne and me and Claude are acquaintances at most, '' in his condescending tone.

That earned him a punch to his face. Which brought them back to the beginning. However things were only getting worse.

"What did Wayne do this time?" asked Felix's icy cold voice.

As soon as she saw him Marinette froze

"Mari?" called Claude and she ran.

"What happened? Who made Damian bleed?" Asked Jon who looked angry and amused at the same time.

"She broke my nose. I told you she wasn't an angel like you claimed Claude." Said Damian.

"What did you all do? I have to find her before something happens to her'' replied Claude who started running after her.

"Wait. Claude!" Said a voice but it was useless because they were already left in the dust.

Marinette's POV:

Marinette didn't know what happened. She was walking with Claude and she saw him. A Wayne. Now it wasn't in Marinette's nature to be impulsive most of the time, but she was angry. And you don't mess with an angry Marinette. She held herself back and when she realized that she may be hurting a random kid. Especially after Claude said something, and this kid Wayne had the audacity to call her an idiot. He definitely deserved what he got, but then there were more people. Too many people. All she could do was run. Just like always.

Run. Run. RUN.

From Claude, her demons, her mind. She just had to escape it all and keep running. Ignore the looks, and the voices just run. She had no destination in mind. All she had was instinct, and that is what brought her here. Back to her and Jays spot before-

You killed him

He was stolen. She hid in the corner that even the best hiders couldn't find. She decided to rest. And that was all it took for them to find her.

#up grade #maribat #platonic damianette #platonic jasonette #felix x marinette #felinette #triggering themes #i hope you enjoy