#Marinette pick up the fucking phone already

[darkwitch1999]

Simpleman AU: Marinette's Voicemail

So in my last post about this AU, I mentioned that Marc tried to call Marinette thirty times after being left alone with the kids for WAY over an hour like she promised but kept getting sent to voicemail. Today while I was at work, I started thinking about what the voice messages would sound like as Marc desperately tries over and over to get a hold of Marinette. I wasn't going to write out thirty voice messages since I figured it would get repetitive and boring, but I did write out the highlights to give you a general idea of how Marc slowly breaks down with each attempt. I apologize in advance if this sucks.

Marinette’s Voicemail: You have thirty-one new messages. Playing messages…

Voicemail #1:

Marc: Hey, Marinette! It’s Marc. I hope everything’s going okay with Adrien’s costume. The kids are doing fine. Everything’s fine. I was just wondering if you happen to be on your back now. Not that there’s any need to rush back that is! Take your time! It’s just been a little over when you said you would be back and I just wanted to check in to see if everything was okay on your end. But you’re probably busy finishing up Adrien’s costume right now, so I’ll get out of your hair. If you could maybe call me back when you start heading back, that would be great. Thanks.

Voicemail #2: 

Marc: Hi, Marinette! It’s Marc, again. Everything’s okay over here. No need to worry about the kids, they’re doing okay. Just checking in to see how you’re doing. I…uh noticed that you are staying a bit longer than expected…n-not that there’s a problem with that or anything. Please take all the time you need. Just please be sure to call me once you have finished up if that’s okay. 

Voicemail #5: 

Marc: U-Uh…hey Marinette. It’s me again checking in. I-I’m sorry if I keep bothering you…just wondering if you’re coming back soon. I-I mean…things are still fine…ish. The kids are getting a bit… “restless” and I may have sent Nathaniel out on an errand so I am kind of by myself…but everyone’s still alright. Please call me back as soon as you can.

Voicemail #10: 

Marc: H-Hiiiii Marin-...NO! Manon put that down! Ella! Etta! I told you two to stop running in the house! No, no, no, no! Chris, I said no touching my mama’s bat!

Voicemail #11: 

Marc: H-Hey Marinette…sorry about that last message. The children have gotten a tad bit more “restless” since the last time I called. Any chance you are almost back and just forgot to call me? I mean…that’s totally fine. I wouldn’t be upset or anything but if you do get this message…please call me.

Voicemail #15: 

Marc: Marinette….heeeyyyyy…so I know I said in my last few messages to “take all the time you need”, but by any chance would you be able to cut your flirting with Adrien short and come back, please? I would really appreciate some help, please. I mean…things are still somewhat under control here, but I could use a hand…

Voicemail #16: 

Marc: MARINETTE!!!!! EVERYTHING’S OUT OF CONTROL!!!!! PLEASE HELP ME, I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!!!!

Voicemail #18: 

Marc: (Marc called Marinette accidentally while he was banging his head on the phone) Idiot! Marc, why do you have to be so stupid, stupid, STUPID!!!!! You just HAD to kick Nath out of the house! “Oh, don’t worry, Nath! I can handle these kids and Marinette will be back soon anyway. I’ll be fine, I swear.”. Idiot! Idiot! IDIOT!!!! What were you thinking?!

Voicemail #19:

Marc: Um…hey Marinette. Uhh…can we just pretend that the last call didn’t happen? Yeah, I think I might have butt-dialed you by mistake while I was talking about…uh…something else. I-I swear nothing that I said was directed towards you. Anyway, please call me back soon.

Voicemail #21:

Marc: MARINETTE! PICK UP THE FUCKING PHONE ALREADY!!!!!

Voicemail #23:

Marc: MARINETTE, I SWEAR IF I GET SENT TO VOICEMAIL AGAIN, I WILL CALL ADRIEN MYSELF IF I HAVE TO AND TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL!!!!! DO NOT TEST ME! ANSWER THE FUCKING PHONE!!!!!

Voicemail #24:

Marc: H-Hey…Marinette. Look, I’m sorry if I was rude during my last couple of calls. I-I am just feeling a bit…overwhelmed and a little stressed…please don’t hate me. I swear, I wasn’t seriously going to tell Adrien. Please just call me back already…I-I…don’t know how much longer I can hold out for…

Voicemail #29:

Marc: M-Marinette…I-I’m at my l-limit…I-I don’t know what else to do! Everything is not okay! Everything is falling apart! Everything is CHAOS!!!! The girls and Chris are running wild and I don’t know how to make them stop! (Marc’s voice starts to break) Aimé is never like this! H-He’s…a-always so well behaved! He’s such a good kid! Aimé! I-I…love you s-so…much and I’m s-sorry if I never tell you enough how much of a good boy you are…

Aimé: Marc, are you sad?

Voicemail #30:

Marc: (shaky, hyperventilating breaths and sobbing are heard)......

Aimé: Marinette? It’s Aimé. Can you please call my big brother? He’s very upset right now.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Bonus⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Voicemail #31:

Hello, Marinette. I know that you are busy foolishly attempting to flirt with Adrien, so I’ll make this short. I’ve got a message…no, a warning for you all right. There is no more Marc! Reverser is back in town! And I’m coming for you, bitch! See you soon…(evil laughter)

Marinette’s Voicemail: End of messages…

So yeah...Marinette's screwed. Please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions. I'll also answer any questions regarding this post or this AU in general if you have any.

@nerd-chocolate @andromeda612 @artzychic27 @princessbutterflysposts @arny20252 @imsparky2002 @msweebyness

#miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #ao3 writer #marc anciel #original character #nathaniel kurtzberg #akumatized villains #reverser #mlb fandom #original anciel characters #chris lahiffe #ella and etta #manon chamack #marinette dupain cheng #marinette salt #marc anciel headcanon #mlb headcanon #miraculous headcanon #mlb marc #mlb nathaniel #mlb marinette #marc x nathaniel #voice message #Marinette pick up the fucking phone already #ask anything #Marc needs help #babysitting #babysitting is stressful #panic attack

[ggomos-maribat]

Fox DCW: The Birth of Inari

As part of the anticipation for BDBWM (and a little break before continuing my WIPs), here is a short one-shot set before the events of Fox DCW, considering the parts published so far.

Marinette sets her hand on top of the handles of her suitcases. Thirty minutes passed already. She's fairly certain her brothers are supposed to pick her up from the airport, but they aren't answering her calls or messages. Not even Stephanie or Cass. She tried reaching her father as well, but he's also unresponsive. Alfred isn't in the manor because of errands.

She taps the news and sees why her family got busy. Multiple Rogues have gone out into the city, causing trouble in multiple separate locations.

Marinette sighs, shifting on the steel bench. It's not like she can't go home by herself; it only takes one cab ride. But she knows the others will worry their butts off if they find out that she went home alone.

So what am I supposed to do? Wait for them? She huffs away a strand of hair. Damn, I should've intercepted the Rogues before I went here.

--

Red Robin presses two fingers on her earpiece right after taking out a Scarecrow henchman. "Hood? Why do I feel like we're forgetting something?"

" Shit! Pix—I mean, M!"

Red Robin also hisses out a curse. They got so occupied with the alarms ringing around the city that they forgot to pick up Marinette!

"Who's available?" He groans.

"Still in the hostage situation with another birdy!" Nightwing says.

"Stuck in a puzzle room," Robin pipes up.

"I have, like, Two Face to beat up. Can't leave this alone now," Red Hood grumbles. "B?"

"That was supposed to be your job," Batman reprimands gruffly.

--

After some words with Tikki, Marinette decides to go home on her own. Judging by the patterns of the attacks, it's only a matter of time before someone targets the airport too. She lugs her bags behind her and goes to the taxi stop.

Besides, I can take care of myself if I get into trouble, She says inwardly.

Marinette gets a ride, stuffs her things inside, and relaxes in the backseat. She's sure that the driver will try to scam her with a larger fare but she doesn't mind anymore as long as she gets home to rest.

She stretches as she looks out the window. In hindsight, if they knew about my identity, I would've saved time and just teleported to the manor.

What she thought would be a smooth ride suddenly goes awry. The taxi turns into a street which has been ruined by Mr. Freeze. The car skids along the path and hits a wall of hard ice, flipping the entire vehicle upside down. The driver leaps out of the door before impact.

--

Red Hood reloads one of his guns, bolting towards the direction of the crash. "Fuck, I think I saw Pixie."

"What?! Where?" Nightwing looks around and then follows him.

"In that fucking taxi that just flipped over!"

"She probably got tired of waiting and got her own ride!" Red Robin yells.

" What?!" Batman exclaims. Unfortunately, he's on the other side of the city. "Nightwing, Hood, go check on her. Red Robin, stay and take care of Freeze."

Red Hood doesn't need to be told twice. He practically stumbles into the frost-layered taxi and rips the door open.

It's empty.

"Are you sure you saw her?" Nightwing asks from beside him.

--

As soon as Marinette realizes what's happening, she whispers a unifying transformation and casts an illusion to hide herself. She uses a portal to throw her luggage back to her empty room in Paris and ducks behind the debris when she sees the vigilantes dashing towards the taxi.

"You think I imagined it?" Red Hood says annoyedly. "Someone call her. Who has their phone on them right now?"

"You're the one with pockets, Jay," Marinette hears Red Robin say from the comms.

"Tt. No names on the field," Robin chastises. "I do not have my phone right now."

"Me neither!"

"Same here."

"You guys are idiots! How can you forget to pick her up from the airport?!" Marinette winces, hearing Spoiler screech through the comms.

"Hello? There's a lot of Rogue attacks right now," Nightwing scoffs. "You're drowning in ketchup and mustard right now, aren't you?"

"Orphan has her phone!" Spoiler gasps out. "Hold on, I'll make a call!"

Marinette bites her lip. She also doesn't have her phone while she's transformed, and she can't exactly detransform at that time. She watches with dread as her brothers wait for her response.

"Not answering," Spoiler says after one tense minute.

"Focus on the Rogues for now," Batman orders. "The sooner we finish here, the sooner we get home. I'll try to reach Agent A and ask him."

Marinette slumps against a wall as they return to their fights. She needs to go home and craft an alibi with Alfred, but she doesn't feel like leaving her family alone. She makes a quick recharge and twirls her flute around.

"Not using the Ladybug?" Tikki pops out from behind her shoulder.

"Maybe not right now, Tiks." She pats her kwami's head. "I'll be using the ring and necklace. You can take a rest."

She hops up a rooftop, making sure she's still invisible. What's a good name? Hmm . . .

Inari?

--

"I've got it. This one is the right door."

Just as Robin turns the knob, Inari darts forward and purposely swipes her feet under his. He stumbles backward and sees that the door he chose is actually brimming with traps: lasers, blades, and cages.

Robin's expression twists into bewilderment, and then he scans the room. After a moment or two, he stands up to make his way to the other door. "Nevermind, I choose this one."

--

"Wait, Hood! I lost one of my sticks!" Nightwing calls after Red Hood breathlessly as they run away from the ticking bomb.

"Oh sure, let's go back to the building that's about to explode to get your buzzy stick," Red Hood quips, sliding down the railing. "It's there on your back."

Nightwing pulls his escrima stick out. "I swear I left this one!"

--

Red Robin is thrown onto another windshield. He feels tired down to his bones already. "Should not have drunk that much coffee today," he mumbles.

He hurries back to the upper floor but finds all the goons unconscious or groaning on the floor.

What the heck?

But he shrugs it off and hops to the next floor instead. I'm not complaining though.

--

"Marinette!"

The boys run into the manor, still bruised and cut from their battles. They collectively sigh when they see their little sister taking out a tray of cookies from the oven.

"Oh hey guys." Marinette waves, tugging off her apron.

"How did you get home?" Bruce strolls in, the only one who looks clean and properly dressed.

Marinette shrugs. "I got a cab. All of you weren't answering your phones."

"Did the cab go straight here?" Jason questions.

"Yeah . . . why wouldn't it?"

Dick elbows Jason on the side. He whispers to him aggressively and Jason whispers back.

"You seem really tired." Marinette beamed. "I prepared snacks and drinks. Should we pop in a movie in the lounge?"

Tim walks forward and wraps her in a tight hug. "Yeah, we're all exhausted. Thanks, you're the best."

Taglist: @tinybrie @sinoffalsejudgement @its-maemain @kamarallil @toughluna @golden-promises @whatamoodhoney @trippingovermyfeet @m4ster0fnone @alexizlazy @plz-excuse-my-inner-gay @maybeanalien0-0 @imchaotic-dontmindme @ev-cupcake @flowers-n-fandoms @crusherccme @ji-nk-ies @depressed-bitchy-demon @duskyashe @multplelifes @authorpendragging @iloontjeboontje @thatonecroc @user00000003 @paradoxaloccurance @kking13 @laydeekrayzee @chaos-inperson @astol07 @the-coffee-fandom @nerd-nowandforever @nightmarewasteland

On AO3

#fox dcw #maribat #maribat batfam #maribat fanfic #maribat marinette dupain cheng #dc x mlb #mlb x dc

[artzychic27]

Omigod, the Carrie Prom scene but it's Marinette and Kim pulling a prank on Marc after the Akuma Class (sans Nathaniel) organizes a rigged vote for Anciel as Prom King. Marc loses it and happens to get akumatized and uses his psychic powers for revenge.

Marinette: Look at how he's smiling now, that stupid little cow.

Well the real fun has not started yet!

Kim: I've had up to here with all your demands!

You’ve left us all with blood on our hands!

Now, I realize you’ve got a bone to pick!

This was never a joke, this trick is pretty damn sick!

Marinette: I've got one last little beat

And then my plan's complete

For a night that he'll never forget

Givin’ it. Givin’ it.

*Lila is walking through the ballroom when she notices Nino looking guilty while swapping the ballots*

Lila: Nino, what are you doing?

Nino: Uh, Lila! Hi! I didn't expect to see you here tonight!… Nice dress.

Lila: What are you up to?

Nino: Nothing!

Lila: What's going on?!

*Before Nino can say anything, Alya is already dragging him onto the dance floor*

Alya: Stick around, Lila. It's gonna be the best prom night ever.

Givin’ it. Givin’ it

Oooh

So we're closer, closer, slower, closer!

Nino: Mme. Bustier, I've collected all the ballets! Here you go! *Hands her the ballots*

Mme. Bustier: Why, thank you, Nino! This is all so exciting, isn’t it?!

*Lila continues to glare daggers at Nino before moving to see where her classmates are. She approaches Max, who’s texting, and snatches his phone*

Max: Hey!

Lila: ‘Is everything set?’ I do hope you’re not planning anything awful, Max. Oh, and with a cryptic group chat that has… Twelve people.

Max: I-it’s nothing! *Snatches his phone back*

Lila: … If Marinette’s planning something, and you’re all in on it, so fucking help me-

Ooh, feel the heat

You and me and me and you!

It looks as if we're gonna make it!

Marinette: I believe in getting even

That's what I believe (You know how to terrify me with the way that you think)

Marc: Finally, (You ain't seen nothin' yet, you ain't seen nothin' yet)

Finally, (You ain't seen nothin' yet, you ain't seen nothin' yet)

This is great

We're getting there but not quite

We're not quite there

A night we'll never forget

This is great

So grab your date and hold tight, hold tight (Hold tight!)

This is great

The night's about to take flight, take flight

A night we'll never!

No, never!

We'll never forget!

*M. Monlataing and Mme. Mendeleiev are up on stage with a mic*

M. Monlataing: Attention students! We give you this year's king and queen of the Prom...

*Everyone's attention turns to them except for Marc and Nathaniel who are too distracted by each other to even care. M. Monlataing opens the envelope*

M. Monlataing/Mme. Mendeleiev: Reshma Leghari and Marc Anciel!

Reshma: OH, GODS! I WON! *Grabs Lacey and kisses her before running up on stage*

Lacey: … Oh, my God. I’m totally Bi.

*Marc, upon hearing his name, turns to the stage, shocked then looks back at Nathaniel, who encourages him up onto the stage. He runs up and joins Reshma*

Students: Hail Alma Mater

Oh, mother we salute you!

*Mme. Mendeleiev hands Reshma her flowers and she smiles at Marc, who smiles back*

We proclaim our devotion!

And we set our dreams into motions!

Ooh...

*Lila smiles proudly at her friend, but then her attention is caught by a movement overhead. She looks up to see a rope leading to a bucket placed precariously on a beam right over Marc*

Lila: Oh my God! *Desperate for help, she finds Mme. Mendeleiev and pulls her away from the coronation ceremony* Mme. Mendeleiev!

Mme. Mendeleiev: Lila? What’s wrong?

Lila: Please, listen! Something terrible’s about to happen!

Mme. Mendeleiev: Lila, if you’re trying to ruin this for Marc-

Lila: No! I swear! You’ve got it all wrong! It’s not me-

*Nathaniel walks over to them*

Nathaniel: Lila, what’s going on?

Mme. Mendeleiev: I knew better than to trust any of them- I warned you two! Get out! *She pushes them out the door...*

Lila: NO! *She pounds on the door but to no avail, helpless to stop Marc’s oncoming humiliation* OPEN THIS DOOR!!

Nathaniel: Lila! What the hell?!

Lila: Nath, I saw Nino swapping the ballots, I-I think Max was texting the class, and there’s a bucket over Marc!

Nathaniel: What?!

Lila: Marinette is behind this! I know it!

All our heart's beat true

Alma Mater!

Marinette: Kim, pull the damn cord! PULL IT!

*Kim hesitates, so Marinette yanks the rope for him, and the pail tilts, pouring the red paint down all over Marc, some splatters on Reshma*

Everyone: …

Aurore: Oh. My. God.

Jean: IS THAT BLOOD?!

*Some students begin screaming, while the rest of them are laughing Marc, meanwhile, is shocked into stillness*

Reshma: *She faces the audience, pissed*WHAT THE HELL?!

*With all of the commotion, no one notices the Akuma fusing with Marc’s sash*

Marc: *He brings his hands to his face, and sees the paint on them. His expression becomes terrified* Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! *He grips his paint-soaked hair as Shadow Moth speaks to him. His expression changes from horrified, to furious*

I will not cry

I’m okay

I tried so hard

To play their way

Stop it. They’re all lies!

Since she was born, my life has been a living hell!

(A living hell!)

His name is Nathaniel Kurtzberg, mom.

He’ll have me home by midnight!

An eagle’s just another bird!

Until he can spread his wings!

Open your heart!

Let the power in!

Marc: They’ll make fun of you!

They will break your heart!

Then they’ll laugh at you (Malice)

Watching you fall apart! (Anciel)

*Marc covers his ears as he hallucinates the students and teachers all pointing and laughing at him*

Marc: DOESN’T ANYBODY EVER GET IT RIGHT?!

DOESN’T ANYBODY THINK THAT I HEAR?!

*Marc’s face turns blank, yet there’s still an enraged look in his eyes. As the black and purple mist encase him, every exit door slams shut, and the lights flicker on and off until the bulbs blow out. Glass from the bulbs rain down, injuring a few students. Everyone rushes to the main entrance to try and open the doors, but they suddenly stop, turn back to face Marc in his Akuma form, and drop to their knees*

Malice: PAYBACK FOR YOUR SINNING’S!

*He points to every one of them with his scythe*

JUST BEGINNING!

BEG FOR YOUR SALVATION

FROM DAMNATION!

BEG OR

*His powers take control of the speakers, and he belts out a scream that deafens half of the room*

HE WILL BURN YOU!

HE WILL BURN YOU!

*Malice strikes the floor with the end of the scythe, electricity spreads around the gym, causing the lights to short-circuit and catch on fire next to some decorations. The fire quickly spreads around the room. Students scream and scramble around trying to escape. Alya, Nino and a few other kids start running for the doors, but Malice notices this attempt. He reaches out his hand and squeezes his fist and many of the students are thrown forward against the walls, hard enough to leave cracks. Louis grabs a chair and tries to take Malice out but he grabs the chair with his powers and bashes it against his head, cracking his skull open. Rose and Juleka try to run, but fall to floor and die in mere seconds as students trample over them. Malice looks up at the sprinkler system and dents the pipes until they break, making water rain down on the floor, then he pulls wires from the stage. Only a few people realizes his plan and get on top of tables before Malice throws the wires onto the wet floor, electrocuting Adrien, Ivan and many others. He turns to see Kim and Marinette attempting to escape*

Marinette: TIKKI! SPOTS-!

*Malice keeps them frozen in place, looks them dead in the eyes, raises his scythe, and slashes Marinette right across the chest. For Kim, he has some wires wrap around his neck, tighter and tighter until he fall to the floor the same time as Marinette. The fire spreads around him as students wail and eventually die. Malice stretches out his arms, and the door flings open. He slowly walks out, walking through the electrified water and not being harmed. He slowly walks out as if in a trance, not even paying any mind to the looks of horror across Nathaniel and Lila’s faces. Once he’s a few feet away, the entire building explodes into flames, and he walks away*

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #nathaniel kurtzberg #marc anciel #lila rossi #marinette salt #carrie #carrie the musical #answered ask #ask me stuff #mlb au #favoritism au #this got angsty fast

[ladyofthenoodle]

Turns out that Tumblr's ask box is way too small to post 500 words, so just: "you will never sleep alone (i'll love you)", the last section after they wake up (or all of it if you prefer, I'm just picking that section because of the word limit) for the DVD commentary thing!

here's the first 500 words after they wake up:

If Chat Noir did end up having nightmares that night, Marinette never heard a peep. She’s always been a deep sleeper, so maybe she’d just slept through it, but— She would’ve woken up if he’d screamed. So if he’d had any nightmares, they weren’t scream-inducing, at least.  Which was good. She didn’t want him to have nightmares of any kind, but especially not scream inducing. Without thinking, she squeezed him tighter. Her eyes shot open. She’d squeezed him tighter. Meaning she was already squeezing him. Meaning, at some point throughout the night, one of them had destroyed the pillow barrier, and in the absence of its protection, her arms had found their target. She released him like a hot pan she’d lifted without gloves, complete with an accompanying yelp of surprise— one that caused him to roll over and blink the sleep from his eyes. She squeezed her own shut, seconds too late. “G’morning,” mumbled Adrien Agreste. Slowly, she opened her eyes again. Adrien fucking Agreste. This couldn’t be real. It had to be some sort of hallucination. There was no way her Chaton, who she’d searched and searched for all these years, had been just a phone call away, all along. No wonder he didn’t want to vacation as a civilian. “Marinette?” he asked, stretching like the cat he was. “You’re not transformed,” she whispered, and watched his eyes grow wide. “This should be interesting.” Plagg emerged from behind Adrien’s head. “I told you I loved you!” she shrieked, shooting up out of bed.  Adrien’s mouth opened, gaping at her. Right, probably not the most important detail here. “I—” He started, and then shook his head, following her out of bed. “You did. Thank you.” Marinette blinked. “Thank you?” He nodded. “For loving me. For telling me. Even though you’ve moved on… it’s—well, it means something to me, that you did.” Absolutely zero percent of Marinette had moved on. She’d mistakenly thought maybe she had, but… Maybe Wuthering Heights hadn’t been the worst comparison, after all. Or maybe she’d just been wrong about why it didn’t fit. She still didn’t know why he’d left without a word. In fact, it made less sense than it did last night, because Chat Noir had disappeared months before Adrien’s father died. “When did it happen?” she asked, desperate. “The thing that is giving you nightmares, when did it happen?” Adrien averted his gaze to look at Plagg. Plagg sighed, but nodded. “It was right before his father came out with those creepy rings. You know the ones.” She did. For about a year, it seemed like almost everyone had an Alliance ring. But sometime after Gabriel Agreste’s death, they’d been discontinued—a decision rumored to have come from Adrien himself, who’d inherited not only the company but the rights to his own image as well. From the pain etched across Adrien’s face, though, she could tell the Alliances were not the reason. What else had happened that day?

the ending of this fic is probably the easiest part to write commentary on, since it's where the fic really diverges from the original. but of course, i had to keep the classic trope of them waking up cuddling despite the pillow barrier! it's a classic for a reason. and seemed especially appropriate for marinette here, who despite her resentment towards chat noir, really has missed him and would want to be close to him.

the wuthering heights line was fun for me, because as much as adrien and marinette bear almost no resemblance to the characters in that story, there's something to the idea of marinette immediately thinking of that story when she's trying to compare her and chat noir to the romantic literature movement. because that story is about being separate from someone you loved due to lack of communication, and while adrien is very much not heathcliff, he still left thinking of himself as a monster while she longed for him. so marinette is more accurate than she realized, not just because her connection to chat noir was undeniably romantic, but because he'd also left her without talking to her about what upset him.

which brings us to the realization of why he left! in the original story, adrien had quit being chat noir the parkour streamer because he'd blamed himself for his mother's death, but that doesn't work in canon since her death is different. i suppose i could have gone the route of having him blame himself because his mother died making him with the peacock miraculous, but him cataclysming his father worked even better (both for the angst and for a convenient way to have hawkmoth out of the picture without ladybug ever learning who he was or knowing for sure he was gone).

as for what happened with gabriel, he never learned adrien was chat noir. once chat noir disappeared, he started to ramp up his plans, which meant things were really rough on ladybug for a while. but after a while it became pretty clear he was not going to draw chat noir back out anytime soon, and he only had a few months left, so eventually he stopped and decided to enjoy the time he had left with his son. this of course fucked adrien up even worse which is why it's been SO long, i had to give him enough time to mentally recover!

thanks for the ask!

for the director's cut ask game

#trainsinanime #ask game

[wisconsin2002]

In my opinion miraculous has been doing pretty decent with season 5. Chat Noirs Been a freaking badass this season so far. Marinette seems more mature in a way

( I like that for her I really like that for her. Marinette was once one of my favs and to see her get constantly dunked on by the writing as the seasons went on just hurt)

and the material (up to this moment) is handled okay.

(except Luka. Literally don't know what they were thinking making Luka figure out both Ladybug and Chat Noirs Identities in a pretty decent episode in season 4, and the next we see of that they barely elaborate on it and have the fucker LEAVING PARIS?!!! QUE MAMADA?? And Juleka wasn't added to the conversation becaaause? )

*sigh* anyways I digress.

But oh my goodness😂 bro I-

Were the writers that wrote fucking derision just doing this?💀:

Cause that's what it felt like. Chloé's the reason for Marinettes trauma and past stalkery behaviour now? 😂 Bitch please.

Wasn't Astrucs excuse when people were talking about Marinettes creepy behavior and stalker tendencies was because she's a teen girl and teens do stuff like that or some shit?

What changed?

And you can make the excuse that he didn't wanna spoil that part of her past, but in that case why respond at all? Why not just stay quiet and let people figure it out? Literally makes no sense.

(Bro responds to every tweet I swear to god. 😩 You can say "miraculous is cacapoopoofart" and Thomas would still take it seriously. Like damn brother sorry my little niece grabbed the phone for five seconds. )

Like dude this is a pretty big reveal for Marinettes character that you'd think they would handle more carefully! But... I digress again.

The flashbacks were pretty cool too but also dissapointing cause that's where things really fell flat with the writing and at times just felt straight up random and made up.

This entire episode is such a rewritten contradiction to what the writing had set out to do in the beginning. Especially with Chloe and Kim.

Like Kim's just a shitty guy now after you show him being a pretty neat dude for most of the seasons and even give him a lover? 💀 TF? Why wasn't this brought up In season one or two? I mean his crush on Chloe was brought up but not the fact that he was a freaking douchebag. And why the hell did they revert him back to a pick me boy for Chloe in this episode? 💀 They even have him speak nice about Chloe for no reason(IN FRONT OF HIS GF BTW!) and have no remorse for what he did to Marinette at all despite his dislike for Chloé after he moved on from his crush on her. And he feels no remorse at all? Really? And if it wasn't bad enough, bro gets off easy with a slap on the wrist and a half-assed apology. Like bro wha-💀

And Chloé's the source of Marinettes trauma? Again I can't get over that. 💀

Okay okay okay

Look

That's not too hard to believe if the way they were going at it was believable.

It ain't.

Being anxious about rejection is one thing right. And yeah it can cause trauma to kids no doubt, I've been through it myself.

But bro

Look me dead in the eyes. And tell me with a straight face that fucking Chloe and Kim's prank was what caused Marinette To be doin all THIS!

LOOK ME DEAD IN THE EYE AND TELL ME CHLOE AND KIM CAUSED THIS TO HAPPEN!

I think tf not.

You know what I think? I think the writer's Chloe spite is so strong that they decided to use one of Marinettes character writing flaws and give it a fucking alternate universe level size rewriting to fit the "Chloé's a shitty person for no reason and always will be" Narrative that they created and just can't let go off.😩

And at this point I already know the writer's don't care for Chloe. Right off the bat. Hero or villain, good or bad. They don't care for her character at all. I mean they're making her live with her neglectful ass mom cause now they decided that the bitch should be the one to turn over a new leaf and become an actual responsible mother. Right when her daughter hit rock bottom because of taking after her BS priveledged lead example of maternity and morality.

(hell her writing was perfect for an anti villain in the making story but I guess we'll skip over that too. What else is new 😮‍💨)

She's nothing but a punching bag used to show the audience that no matter what, Chloe will always be Astrucs punching bag to try and prove to other peoples potential development, thoughts and ideas for her wrong. And now thanks to that. That's turned her into a literal contradiction of her own character.

*sigh* well atleast Astruc doesn't really write anymore in season 6. Chloé's character cannot go back to what was and I don't expect her to but they can at the very least write her an actual goal as a villain Instead of just making Marinette the vain of her existence for no reason.

Didn't Chloe literally say in season 3 that she didn't care all that much about Marinette?

I find myself asking again.. What changed? 💀

Also am I supposed to believe that Marinette is so traumatized by Chloé's pranks and antics?.... but yet she gave her a miraculous??

Also didn't Marinette go to the pool place before In past episodes and have absolutely no panic attacks or issues at all?

Am I actually supposed to believe all of this? Because I don't. It doesn't sound believable and the writing sure as hell doesn't do it justice either.

Madre mía. I'd say more but I'm rambling at this point.

This episode was just basura. Some good interesting things and attempts, but mostly basura. For every step forward it took, it also took like five steps backwards.

Would I say it's the worst episode? Nah. It had redeeming qualities.

Unlike this time wasting pile of dog shit that I'm convinced whoever wrote it was fucking doing this :

#mlb salt #ml salt

[celestiall0tus]

Miraculous Salvation - Chapter 17 - Fear

Beginning || Previous || Next

            Tikki grinned and chuckled as she watched the mayhem unfold from countless news feeds and social media sites. The city was under fire, the avatar of fear ran wild, and Adrien had been found. She looked up at the group before her. Marinette and Bridgette had settled into a civil conversation with Luka while Alya twitched and fidgeted. She could keep them all here and in the dark, but what was the fun in that? Especially with the avatar of fear roaming free of its chains.

            Tikki let out an exasperated sigh and chucked Luka’s phone at him. “I’m bored!”

            Luka grumbled as he took his phone. He froze seeing the news and social media feeds. “What did you do?”

            “Oh, don’t be silly, Luka. I had nothing to do with any of that. I would never do anything that’d compromise the safety of the people. But you certainly are by staying here. Who knows how many lives have been lost already due to your negligence.”

            Luka winced. “I… I didn’t think….”

            “I can’t imagine you do. There’s never a thought in that empty head of yours, is there? Well, except your mediocre works you call music.”

            “Enough! We’re wasting time! The people need us,” Alya yelled.

            “Oh? But wouldn’t you rather sit this one out? The avatar of fear is already cut loose, free of his chains. Would you ladies want to face your deepest fears?” Tikki asked.

            “Bring it on,” Marinette said.

            “Not you,” Alya and Bridgette said.

            “What? Why not?”

            “Why not? Are you kidding? In your state, you’d be a prime target. Easy pickings. You’re staying here,” Bridgette pointed out.

            “But I have to be there for the people. How else am I going to rebuild my strength if the people are killed? What’s more is couldn’t I rebuild it by being a hero that the people can count on? Isn’t that what you wanted? For me to embrace what I am and get my strength back?”

            “What? Ab-!” Bridgette started.

            “Absolutely!” Tikki cheered.

            Bridgette grabbed Tikki’s arm. “Fuck you, Creation. There’s no way I’m letting my cousin kill herself.”

            Tikki glared at Bridgette for a moment before a wicked grin twisted on her face. “What if I promise no harm will come to her? Would that make you happy?”

            “I-!”

            Tikki snapped her fingers, then removed Bridgette’s hand. “There. All done.”

            “What did you do?” Alya demanded.

            “I did as I promised. No harm will come to Marinette. Now, let’s get going.”

~~

            Felix moved through the city with the monsters behind him. He struck fear into the hearts of the people that made them easy pickings for the monsters. He looked up again, hoping for the heroes to arrive, but saw little ladybugs. He tilted his head as one landed on his nose and dissolved. He was plunged into a void with a red misty light swirling around him.

            “There you are, little bat. I have an offer for you. You want to make your master happy? Bring him the little bee hero. She’s worth so much more than any jewel. She’s sure to buy you more freedom, little bat.”

            Felix gasped as he returned to the city. His mind raced and heart leapt at the prospect of a chance to appease Colt. To earn more favor and reward. He fell back behind the horde of monsters to hide within the shadows. He crept along with them until the heroes arrived.

            Lincina and Fawn were the first to arrive. They focused on gathering the monsters until Tigrix and Dracone arrived. Tigrix took over corralling the monsters while Dracone shifted to nature form and grew a cage. They worked to keep the monsters caged as Vipress arrived with Bunella and Metal Bug. Hot on Metal Bug’s heels were Aegis, Muridae, and the bee hero.

            Felix grinned. He transformed into a bat and flew into the middle of the cage. He hid amongst the monsters as he produced a potent fear aura that covered the area in a black fog. Most of the heroes panicked save for Muridae and Tigrix. He disregarded them as he drew on the fear of the others and looked into their hearts to their greatest fears. He flew to the ground, transformed, and slammed his scythe into the ground. Black, formless blobs emerged from the fog. The heroes cried out as each blob ensnared them. They each froze in fear as visions of terror consumed them.

            Felix moved out from the cage towards the bee hero. He reached to grab her but was sent flying a short distance. He got his bearings and faced his opponents, Muridae and Tigrix. He could see Muridae’s fears, but not Tigrix’s. He sneered but had a hunch on what he could use. He slammed his scythe on the ground as a small army of shadow warriors came to life. He issued a silent command to hunt down the heroes’ family and kill them. He held his weapon at the ready.

            “Your move, heroes. Me, or your loved ones.”

            Muridae froze as she looked out into the city for the shadows. Tigrix snorted and rushed Felix. He dodged her wild attack and drove his scythe into her, gouging out her side. Tigrix took a sharp breath, then coughed up blood.

            “Not fast enough,” Felix taunted.

            Felix flung Tigrix off his blade into Muridae. Muridae crashed into the pavement as she was brought back to the battle. She looked around frantically and eyed Felix beside Bumblebee. She started towards Bumblebee when Felix raised his scythe and held it.

            “A choice. You can fight me and lose everything, or you let me leave with the bee and you keep everything you love.”

            Muridae froze. She could take Felix. She had the power to overthrow him on her own, but what of the others. Even with her powers, could she save everyone? Could she save her family across the city from being killed by the shadows? Could she prevent Tigrix from bleeding out? Could she free everyone from his grasp? Could she save Bumblebee?

            At the thought of Bumblebee, Muridae’s body moved on its own. She charged forward as she manipulated time around her, slowing it down. She hurried over to Bumblebee and placed a hand on Bumblebee’s forehead. A light flashed and Bumblebee was freed of the fear hold.

            “What… what happened? What’s going on?” Bumblebee asked.

            “Please, command me to let you go. Please, give me permission to not save you,” Muridae begged.

            “I don’t understand.”

            “Fear plans to take you, and it’s you or my family. Please. I can’t lose them.”

            Bumblebee looked at Felix and paled. “Ok. Ok. Muridae, let him take me.”

            Compulsion rolled over Muridae that calmed her. She smiled and hugged Bumblebee. “Thank you. We’ll save you, I promise. Just… be careful.”

            “No. Don’t come after me. For the sake of our friends, the city, and your family.”

            Compulsion fell over Muridae again. “But what do I tell Aegis?”

            “That I went willingly to save everyone. That if it means less bloodshed, I will give myself over. She won’t like it, but I hope she’ll understand. If she presses you more, tell her in confidence.”

            “Understood. Anything else?”

            “No. Let’s see me off.”

            Muridae nodded. She ended her powers and grabbed Felix’s scythe. He fought with her until he saw Bumblebee rise.

            “Enough. I’ll go with you,” Bumblebee announced.

            Felix eyed Bumblebee suspiciously. “Just like that?”

            “I’m no fool. If there is a way to avoid more bloodshed, even just for this day, I will take it.”

            Felix considered and nodded. He snapped his fingers and the shadows that lurked around the Cesaire family vanished. Muridae sighed in relief seeing her family safe again. She turned as Bumblebee left with Felix and everyone else came out of the fear stupor. The pair vanished as Aegis approached her.

            “Where is Bumblebee?” Aegis demanded.

            “She went with the enemy willingly to save our friends from Fear,” Muridae answered.

            “But she’s in danger! Who knows what they’ll do to her. We have to go after her!”

            “No. She also commanded me not to go after her. I would recommend you don’t to avoid encountering the avatar of transformation and fear.”

            Aegis stiffened. “Transformation? He’s there wherever Fear is taking Cousin?”

            “Yes. It’s best we bide our time rather than rushing in like fools.”

            “And if he weaponizes her?”

            Muridae chuckled. “What’s worse? A bee that’s lost all her power or an avatar form spider?”

            Aegis grimaced. “Fair point. So, just trust Cousin?”

            “Yes. Unless she says otherwise or we see an opportunity, we leave her for the time. Understood?”

            Aegis nodded. Muridae looked past Aegis as the holders started to gather around.

            “So, what do we do?” Bunella asked.

            “We finish these monsters and head home. We prepare for the true start of their plan now that they have the two that they were searching for. We must be ready for what comes next,” Muridae said.

            Everyone nodded. They took care of the caged monsters before they all dispersed.

~~

            Colt sat at his desk as he worked away on paperwork. A thud and swish stole his attention. He glanced up at Felix still in his avatar form with Bumblebee at his side. He sat back in his chair.

            “What have we here? Another toy? I thought you only enjoyed men.”

            “I am Bumblebee, avatar of devotion. I agreed to come to save those near and dear to my heart,” Bumblebee announced.

            Colt’s eyes widened and he looked at Felix. “Leave us.”

            Felix bowed his head and left.

            “Pull up a seat. Let’s chat. And you change out of that ridiculous ensemble. No need for such costumes here,” Colt said.

            Bumblebee took a seat as her outfit changed into a one shoulder black and gold gradient dress. Beads lined the strap and her left side that sparkled like rhinestones. Her hair unfurled from its bun and fell around her in a beautiful wavy mess.

            “Well, well, look who we have here. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

            “How do you know me?”

            “How could I not? You’re quite famous in this mansion. Two of my associates are tearing each other apart as we speak for your favor. While another demands your death.”

            Marinette gulped. “The… the black cat, right?”

            “Correct. Nasty business that was. Cost me my little toy for a few days. But I digress, we have business to discuss. You are well aware of this lovely game we play. Unfortunately, you don’t fit into the grand scheme of my plans. However, you can help me.”

            “Help you with what?”

            “Why, it’s quite simple, really. You are devotion, the ultimate loyalty. You come above all else in this world to those bound to you. Your word is law.”

            “And?”

            “See, I have a pair of teens your age that need reeling in. You put them under your thumb, directing them to act as I want through you. In turn, you get to live, and you get the beginnings of your strength back. Perhaps even set you on the path to becoming a proper avatar.”

            “I… I’ve never done things like that. Not… not willingly.”

            “That’s not a problem. It’ll come as naturally to you as all our powers do.”

            “I guess? I suppose I can see what I can do.”

            “Then we have a deal? You reel in the troublemakers and act as my mouthpiece and neither you nor your loved ones will die. How does that sound?”

            Marinette considered. She didn’t like the idea of using her powers. She didn’t want to make people loyal to just her, but she had to do something. Bridgette and Alya were right. She couldn’t afford the luxury of hesitation or resistance. She couldn’t deny her powers and what she was anymore. This wasn’t like when she was younger, when she was unsure and desperate. She had more power than she realized, and it was time to learn to actually use it.

            “Very well, but before I fully agree, I have conditions.”

            “And what would those be?” Colt asked.

            “I be allowed to go to and from this residence for modeling and brand that I need to rebuild after the encounter with the spider. I assume you’ll want me to stay here, and I have no qualms with it, but please inform my parents so they are aware of what’s going on.”

            Colt hummed. “Very well. I can accept that.”

            “Good. Now I’ll-.”

            “Not yet. Hold a moment.”

            Marinette sat back down. Colt snapped his fingers as a plain paper transformed into a formal contract.

            “Sign here and you’ll be free to go about business.”

            Marinette snorted and took the contract. She read over the terms and conditions, but didn’t see anything contradictory or added in. Everything they had discussed was on the paper.

            “Worried?” Colt cooed.

            “Only a fool signs a contract without first reading it,” Marinette remarked.

            Marinette took a pen and signed her name. Uneasiness rolled through her as Colt took the contract and tucked it away.

            “Very well. Your first task is to make the two teens, Chloe Bourgeois and Adrien Agreste, utterly loyal to you. Now, go.”

            Compulsion fell over Marinette as her body moved on its own. She yelped as it headed to Felix’s room where Chloe remained unconscious. She fought to regain control as her powers were used and a new bond was forged between her and Chloe. She moved on to Adrien’s room. She crossed the space to where Adrien lay unconscious. She forged a new bond with him before she headed back to Colt’s office. She sat back down and looked at his face that wore a shit-eating grin.

            “What did you do?” Marinette demanded.

            “Actually, my dear, it’s what you did. You signed the contract in which one of the terms was you’d do as I commanded. Innocuous enough, especially considering you need to direct them with my orders, until you remember you are Devotion. You cannot go against what is stated in a legally binding contract and must carry out all that is here.”

            Marinette’s jaw dropped. “You fucking bastard.”

            “Oh, stop it. You’ll make me blush. Now, go on. Get settled in, then you can go about your business. Oh, and we’ll be keeping this between us. Not a word to anyone.”

            Compulsion fell over Marinette again that made her sick. She buzzed angrily as she moved on her own again. She left the office and headed through the mansion to a vacant room. She stepped inside and sat on the bed. She dug her nails into the bedspread as her anger flared.

            Marinette felt like a fool. She didn’t consider the repercussions of that in the contract. She didn’t think how binding it would have been and the effect on her. She cursed herself for being so foolish. Now she was bound in a contract, condemned to do as Colt demanded with no hope of fighting. At least, not on the surface.

            The gears in Marinette’s head turned as a plan was spun. She couldn’t betrayal Colt, so she wouldn’t. That didn’t mean she could work on something in between the lines, but she’d need to be careful. Colt was no fool and she couldn’t underestimate him. Though she could undermine him.

            Colt had mentioned that two of his associates had been fighting over Marinette. She assumed that was Audrey Bourgeois and Gabriel Agreste given everything so far. She knew Gabriel wanted her for his brand, but Audrey would too. Perhaps she could strike a deal with both of them. Give Colt some peace from their arguing while entering new contracts. Any clauses and terms that are contradictory should either be nullified or hopefully canceled out.

            Marinette nodded and stood. She moved about the mansion when she saw Audrey stomping towards a closed door with a rooster kwami beside her. She hung back when she heard Audrey screaming with a man that sounded like Gabriel. She grinned, approached the door, and knocked.

            “Come in,��� Gabriel said.

            Marinette strolled in and stood by the entrance. Audrey and Gabriel froze with their jaws agape.

            “Hello. You’re Audrey Bourgeois and Gabriel Agreste, yes? I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Colt had informed me that you two had been fighting over me, so I came to see if I could help.”

            Audrey shoved Gabriel onto the floor and beamed. “Why, yes! Darling Marinette, I have a deal for you. One far better than this wayward drunken shell of a man. You be the face of my brand as a whole. Imagine the two of us as the heads of new, inventive designs. We could be revolutionaries and usher in every new trend.”

            Gabriel scrambled to his feet, pushing Audrey aside. “Out of my way, harpy woman. A deal was struck earlier. Tell me, did Nathalie meet with you?”

            “She did. Our meeting was interrupted by the attack,” Marinette answered.

            “What did she offer you?”

            “She offered me a position as a designer. However, I have a better idea.

            “Go on,” Gabriel encouraged.

            “To my understanding of… certain circumstances, you two are to be working together. So, perhaps, a marriage of brands. Show the public that you two are working together to create something new. I can assist as a designer on Gabriel’s brand to ensure it matches the quality of Audrey’s, while being the face for Audrey’s brand seen modeling with Adrien, the face of Gabriel’s brand.”

            Gabriel hummed. “It’s not a bad idea. We are supposed to be working together through this venture. Us squabbling isn’t helping matters. This might make things easier on everyone, including each other.”

            “Ugh, fine. I suppose that’ll work. But I want a formal contract written up by Nathalie. I would also like to review it once it’s done and before anything is signed. And for copies to be made,” Audrey demanded.

            “I’ll see to it. Miss Dupain-Cheng, would you write out a list of your personal terms? I’ll send it over to Nathalie so she can include it in.”

            “Could I have Nathalie’s number, mayhaps? I would like to speak with her about earlier,” Marinette asked.

            Gabriel nodded. He grabbed a scrap of paper, wrote it out, and handed it to Marinette.

            “Thank you. I’ll be sure to let her know my terms when I speak with her.”

            “Wonderful. Is there anything else we go do for you?” Gabriel asked.

            “No, thank you. By your leave, I’m going to head back to my room.”

            “You’re staying here?” Audrey asked.

            “Yup. Colt’s orders.”

            Gabriel and Audrey exchanged glances while Marinette slipped out. She hurried back to her room as she punched in Nathalie’s number to her phone. She sent a message introducing herself. She waited before Nathalie called. She took a deep breath and answered.

            “Hello?”

            “Hello, little bee. What can I do for you?”

            “Would you be available to speak in person?”

            “Would this be about the agreement you made with the two buffoons?”

            “Yes. I wish to relay my terms directly to you. It’s of the utmost importance.”

            “Very well. I’ll pick you up this evening. I’ll be sure to inform Colt of this to avoid suspicion.”

            “How do you-?”

            “Hush. There are eyes everywhere in that mansion. Behave and be a good little girl. Step out of line and he’ll punish you. Play your cards right and you walk away with yourself intact. Understood?”

            “Yes, ma’am. I’ll see you later. Thank you.”

            “Anything for you, little bee. See you soon.”

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #au #miraculous au #alternate universe #mlb fanfic #fanfiction writer #fanfiction #fanfic #salvation au #salvation #marinette dupain cheng #felix fathom #colt fathom #alya cesaire #gabriel agreste #audrey bourgeois #nathalie sancoeur #bridgette cheng

[mochegato]

One Last Dance

“Let me get this straight.”  Dick sat down across from Roy, eyes digging into him intently. His chair scraped loudly along the floor causing both men to wince and shoot their eyes to a closed door down the hall.  After a quiet beat, Dick returned his eyes to Roy.  “You kissed her... and then ran away," he said slowly, enunciating each word slowly.

Roy opened his mouth then closed it, quirking his head awkwardly to the side before speaking again.  "I mean... that's not how I'd..." he mumbled.

"... from her," Dick clarified.

"Okay, I didn't run from her.  You know that,” Roy objected sharply.  All uncertainty that had been present in his voice before was replaced with annoyance. He looked down the hall longingly.  "I had something important to do."

Dick followed his gaze, his eyes settling on the closed door again.  “It’s been a few months.  You still haven't told her?” he asked without taking his eyes from the door. It was more of an observation than a question and no accusation in his tone.

“No.”  Roy’s voice was heavy, weighing down his mood and body.

He looked like he hadn’t slept in days and Dick wasn’t sure if that was due to his circumstances or the situation with Marinette. But avoiding her like he had been definitely wasn’t helping the situation.  “Right...” Dick started slowly.

“And it may have been a bit more than kissing…” Roy cut in, grimacing before Dick could react.

Dick looked at him incredulously.  “How much more?”  He asked the question but wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer.  The guilty look on Roy’s face was enough to confirm Dick’s suspicions.  “Really?” Dick demanded, the quietness of his voice in no way dampening its harshness. He leaned in closer to make his voice louder, because if he had his choice, he would have yelled.  “And you couldn’t pick up a fucking phone?”

“I didn’t… there was…”  He groaned and ran his hand over his face and into his hair.  “I needed to focus and talking to Marinette would have taken too much of it away.  I didn’t have it to spare.”

“Roy…” Dick growled.

“I know.  Trust me, I know,” he admitted.  “I fucked up. I know I did.  But now I’m ready to tell her everything and then let her decide how she wants to go from there.”

Dick glared at him.  “You are so fucking lucky she didn’t tell me before,” he growled lowly. Roy looked down at the table, unable to meet Dick’s eyes or contradict him.  He knew Dick was right.  If Dick had known, suspected Roy had treated Marinette like he had treated other women in the past, Roy wouldn’t be able to walk or talk for weeks after.

But he would have been wrong.  Marinette wasn’t like any of the other women Roy had known. She was not a casual fling.  She was brilliant.  Amazing.  She was far too good for him and yet she gave him a chance and he’d blown it.  A mistake he was desperate to rectify… if she would let him… if she still wanted after she heard what he had to say.

Dick stared at him intently as if he could read Roy’s mind if he stared hard enough.  He groaned and threw his head back.  “Okay fine.  Let’s do this.  What do you need from me?”

Roy’s eyes shot up to Dick’s in surprise and his face split in a wide grin.  He clapped his hands and rubbed them together, his eyes now shining with hopeful excitement.

><><><><><><><><>< 

Marinette looked around the gala excitedly.  The gala had hardly started and yet she was having one of the best nights of her life.  The room was beautiful.  Every detail was taken into account.  Whoever planned it had thought of everything.  She’d already danced with several people, some of whom were actually fun to dance with.  But the best part had been the clothes.  Most of the people attending had money and clearly had no issue spending it on quality clothes.  Marinette could have spent weeks just studying the clothes.

She didn’t notice Roy approaching her until he had reached out to lay a hand on her shoulder.  Marinette turned to him with a smile until she realized who it was, her smile dropping and her eyes widening in alarm.  She looked around quickly, eyes darting for an escape.

Roy took a step back to give her some space but kept his eyes focused on her.  “I was hoping you would do me the honor of a dance.”  He sent her a charming smile, but it faltered when her panic seemed to increase.  “Just one song.  One last dance and then I’ll disappear,” he promised quietly.

Marinette looked around anxiously before ultimately agreeing.  She could easily decline without causing a scene, but she didn’t want to let him beat her. He wouldn’t beat her.  He didn’t want to be together, that was fine.  She could move on.  It wasn’t the worst thing someone she trusted had done to her.  And it was just one song.  She could last just one song.  She could keep it together for that long.  Just one last dance, like Roy had said.

She delicately laid her hand in his, allowing him to pull her onto the dancefloor and set her hand on his shoulder, while he set his free hand on her hip.  Marinette kept her eyes on his jaw rather than his eyes as they started to move, but her eyes furrowed as it caught on a new, long, freshly healed scar running down his neck and over his collarbone.  “That looks like it hurt.  I don’t remember that one.”

Roy’s hand shot up to his neck.  “Yeah, it’s new.  I got it a few months ago.”

Marinette nodded, doing the mental calculation in her head.  A scar he got just after he left her.  A scar he got right when he ghosted her.

He tried to meet her eyes, but she wouldn’t look up.  “I’ve missed you,” he said quietly.

The comment served its purpose though.  Marinette’s head shot up to finally fully look at him. But whatever response he was hoping for, all she gave was a scoff and immediately looked away again.  They continued to dance for a few more refrains until Marinette couldn’t take the silence anymore.  “You made a promise,” she finally said, voice so quiet Roy had to strain to hear it.

“I did,” he agreed.

Marinette looked back up at his frank admission, having expected him to try to deny it or defend himself.  “And then you broke it,” she continued.

“I did,” he agreed again.

“You said you wouldn't leave.”  Her eyes searched his this time, searching for some explanation or maybe guilt, some kind of remorse or understanding. His eyes looked pained but resolved.

“I did,” he nodded.

“And then you left,” the longer she spoke, the more broken her voice sounded and the more pained Roy looked.

“I... did.”

“And now you're asking me to give you another chance.”  He hadn’t said the words, but they both knew what this was, why he was there.

“I am,” he agreed, standing taller.

“Why should I?” she asked, almost pleading for reason.  Her eyes were desperate as tears built up behind her eyes.

“I won’t do it again,” he vowed.  He stared into her eyes trying to make her see how vehemently he meant it, down to the core of who he was.  The song ended and Marinette started to pull away, but he held her tight. Tight enough to halt her progress but not enough that she couldn’t break free if she wanted to.  “I’m staying right here.  I’m not going anywhere,” he breathed.

“You said that before.  You lied,” she choked out.

“I have a daughter,” he finally blurted out.

Marinette froze, no longer swaying absentmindedly to the music.  She blinked as if the movement might jar the facts into making sense, but it didn’t work.  “What?”

Roy took a deep breath before continuing, pulling her closer like her touch could ground him.  “We discovered her on a mission quite a few months ago.  Her mother is…” he took another deep breath.  If he was going to do this, he’d have to tell the full truth.  “Her mother is Cheshire.”  Marinette gasped but didn’t say anything.  “It was short lived.  We cared about each other, but it was never going to last.  We both knew that, and we didn’t keep in contact.  And when I saw Lian…”

His eyes unfocused as if he was remembering something until he shook his head and focused back on her.  “I got a call that night with information on how to get her. I left so I could take her, keep her safe, and then when I got back, I was focused entirely on her, making sure she was okay.”

“Roy…” Marinette started quietly, not sure what to say next but feeling like she had to say something.

“I didn’t want you to get involved, get sucked into it.  I thought I was protecting you.  But it was wrong.  I was wrong. I never should have cut you out.  It was just too much.  There was too much, and I couldn’t focus on it all and once I’d made the decision, too much was happening to go back on it,” he explained quickly.  Once the words started coming out, he couldn’t stop them.

“I really cared about you, Marinette.  I still do.  I couldn’t believe you gave me a chance, a chance I definitely didn’t deserve, and I never wanted to hurt you.  I’m sorry. And maybe I don’t have the right to ask for another chance, to ask you to date me now that I’m a father.  But I had to try.  I had to…” he looked back up at her desperately.  “I couldn’t just walk away.  I had to try.  You mean too much to me.  You always have.  You make me too happy.  And maybe you never want to see me again, and that’s fair if that’s how you feel.  But if I can salvage this.  If there is something I can do…”

He pulled her against him, delicately wrapping his arms around her waist.  She rested her head on his chest, unsure how to react.  “Just tell me what I have to do.  Is there anything I can do?  I’ll do anything… almost anything.  Anything I can do without hurting Lian.”  His voice was desperate.

Marinette swayed with him for a few more beats before pulling away just enough to look into his eyes.  “You can start by introducing me to Lian,” she whispered.

Roy grinned brilliantly.  Hope flared in his chest for the first time that night.  “Yeah?”

Marinette didn’t return his smile.  “I’m not saying yes to dating… yet.  But I do want to try to be friends again.  And then we can see where the relationship goes.  And friends know each other’s children.”

Roy’s smile faded slightly as she spoke but warmed up again by the time she was done.  “Yeah. I can… yeah.  That sounds fair.  I’d like that.  It’s more than I thought you’d give me.”  He squeezed her closer hesitantly, but strengthened his embrace when she returned it, laughing with gratitude.

“What the...” Wally stepped up behind Dick as he watched the couple dancing and laughing together almost hysterically.

Dick flinched back to look at Wally.  “Hey,” he grinned at him moving to wrap an arm around his waist.

“Did you know about this?” Wally demanded incredulously, motioning aggressively toward Marinette and Roy.

Dick scoffed as he looked over the couple with a bright smile.  “I helped make this happen.”  He looked back to Wally out of the corner of his eye.  “You're late.”

Wally smiled and held up a boutonniere.  “I was buying flowers for you, or rather, a flower.”  Dick grinned as Wally pinned the flower on his lapel.  “Would you do me the honor of a dance?”

Dick’s grin widened.  “Anytime.  Anywhere. Missed you.”

Wally wrapped his arms around Dick’s shoulders. “Missed you more.”  He looked over at Marinette and Roy again and shook his head.  “But maybe not as much as they did.”  He turned back to Dick with a stern look.  “Spill.  I want all the details  What the Hell did I miss?”  Dick laughed but leaned in closer to catch Wally up on all the details he’d missed over the last few days.

#maribat #roynette #TTT2022 #all the prompts #it's happy I swear

[justmywritingstuff]

Speechless Changes~Number 5

Summary:

When you always have done whatever it takes to get your goals, it's very hard to change or surprise people--even harder to leave them speechless.

In other words, the six firsts of Shadybug and Claw Noir's relationship that left someone speechless.

AO3

Warnings: language, panic attack

Word Count: 6.9k+

Author's notes: Hi! Sorry this one took a bit longer with work and the holidays and everything, but this part is at least a bit longer to make up for it. It's going to start as a little fun but then it's going to be a very quick tone change. Also a slight look into how I picture some of the other characters in this universe that probably won't really come up in this series. It came out a little choppy, but I really like it--I based some parts of it on something that really happened, so it's a little different. Lots of POV shifts in this one, so remember a line break means a shift in POV! Enjoy!

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

Number 5: Alya (first time they find the words for what they are)

Adrien is not off to a great start today. His photoshoot this morning was a complete mess and he no doubt would probably get an earful for his behavior later, nothing new there, but it threw his plans for the rest of the day for a loop.

He’s running late because of the stupid photoshoot and it’s very important to him that he manages to finally befriend Nino as Adrien with a ridiculous movie, if it works, it’s well worth skipping his Chinese lesson today. He’s tried several times already but something always happens, one of the Supreme’s minions starts terrorizing the city to get his and Shady’s attention, he got the address wrong and couldn’t ‘accidentally’ bump into Nino, he did something embarrassing and would rather die than be in public.

Why is this so hard? He’s just trying to coincidentally bump into Nino right when he’s walking home from school at the street by the movie theatre and coincidentally have tickets to see Nino’s favorite movie on the day Nino just so happens to be free because Adrien memorized his schedule…he’s aware how creepy it sounds when he says it like that, but that’s literally his most logical and least fucked up route.

Since he can’t join Nino and Marinette’s school until the next school year, he needs to improvise a way to meet Nino that isn’t ‘oh hey, you should be my fucking friend because a me from another universe told me we’d make great friends and I have shit social skills, so I really want that! Wanna see a movie I know is your favorite with me?’ Yeah, no, that isn’t an option, that’s how he gets sent to a mental institution and never sees his Bug again—even Plagg agreed that was a terrible idea.

He considered for a bit asking if maybe Marinette could find a way to stealthily introduce them to each other, but she’s just as socially inept as he is and is trying to do something similar with Alya—granted she’s made more progress than he has, but still not a great option for this.

Today is the day that it would finally work if he could just get to the right spot in time. His plan is perfect, he’ll literally bump into Nino by ‘accident’ and drop his movie tickets, Nino would pick them up and they would start talking and then he would casually mention that he had an extra ticket and invite Nino and wa-la! Friendship!

At least, that’s what he keeps telling himself as he’s run-walking to the spot he’s supposed to ‘accidentally’ bump into Nino. If his stupid photoshoot hadn’t run late, he would have had time to get there on time and not worry about missing his chance.

He turns the corner, seeing the street he plans to cross to look more casual when running into Nino—cross the street, turn to the right, walk right into Nino’s walking path and into Nino because he’s checking his phone, he’s gone over the plan in his head hundreds of times. He hopes he doesn’t say the wrong thing and embarrass himself, he might die and crawl into a hole if he fucks this up.

He sighs in relief as he sees Nino walking the way he walks every day, distractedly looking at his phone like always. He takes a deep breath and crosses the street putting his plan in motion, this is going to work.

He turns to the right and pulls out his phone and the movie tickets, but right as he does so, a pigeon flies into his face.

He leans back in surprise, trying to get away from it, and loses a bit of balance. His nose starts to itch and he sneezes so hard it hurts, and the momentum from his sneeze propels him forward—falling face first to the ground in the most ungraceful, embarrassing, and ridiculous way he ever could.

He prays to every divine entity in existence that Nino didn’t see that. If he did, he’ll never want to be Adrien’s friend because Adrien is too much of a dumbass. If he’s lucky, Nino will just keep walking because he was too busy on his phone to notice and Adrien will take his idiocy to his grave—Nino never needs to know that it was Adrien.

—

Nino isn’t doing anything today, normally he’d go meet with Betterfly or hang with Alya, but Alya is helping Marinette with something and Betterfly didn’t need him until later, so today is a do-nothing-and-play-videogames-by-himself day. Maybe he should make more friends he can hang out with for days like this?

He got along fine with his classmates, but he didn’t really spend time with any of them outside of school. Neither did Alya, really, they’re both always so busy working together with the resistance that friendships were kind of harder to keep. He hopes that she and Marinette might be good friends, Marinette has always been quiet and kept to herself (which he couldn’t really blame her with everything with Chloe), but she had been a bit more receptive of other people lately and her and Alya could probably get along pretty well. Nino, however, didn’t really have any great options to consider in that department. Nathaneal is completely antisocial, Ivan is too cheery and always with his scary girlfriend, Kim is a jerk who tries to hang with Chloe, and Max is always busy with his robot death matches.

He sighs as he walks home from school about to pass by the movie theatre. He just wants some dude who will chill with him and watch a dumb movie or something every now and then.

He puts his phone away and looks up to see some guy on his phone that looks incredibly familiar walking toward him. Is that…Adrien Agreste? The angry model dude?

Before Nino can be sure of that, a random pigeon comes flying directly towards the guy’s face. The guy leans back like he’s terrified of the thing and then sneezes so hard he’s pushed forward, falling face first into the concrete.

On the one hand, Nino should make sure he isn’t hurt or anything, that should probably be his first thought as someone who fights with the resistance for hope and all that. On the other hand, though, that is the funniest thing he’s ever seen. So, laughing his butt off is what he does first.

“Dude,” Nino says as he closes the distance between them between laughs, “I’m s-sorry. I’m trying really hard not to laugh. Dude, are you…are you okay?”

The guy groans and slowly raises his arm up to give a weak thumbs up, causing Nino to laugh again.

“Here, dude.” Nino says, finally calm enough to speak. “Let me help you up.” He grabs the guy’s arm and helps to pull him up. Now that he’s face to face with the guy, he’s certain it’s the model guy, Alya is gonna have a field day with this when he tells her. “Hey, aren’t you that Adrien Agreste guy?”

Adrien’s face turns a deep red and he nods. He grits his teeth and turns around, sprinting away at full speed.

“Huh.” Nino says to himself, confused at whatever just happened.

He looks back to the ground and notices the guy had dropped something. He kneels down to pick it up and sees that it’s two movie tickets for next week to his favorite movie that Alya refuses to watch with him.

“Weird guy.” Nino says. “Great taste in movies…maybe I can meet him next week to give him back his tickets.”

Nino puts the tickets in his pockets, hoping the guy is okay and will still come to the movie theatre next week so he can give them back to him. Nino did say he’d like someone to see a dumb movie with…maybe this Adrien guy would let him tag along?

—

It was a terrible, horrible day, the worst day that Adrien’s had in a long time. It was the kind of day where one bad thing happened after another, each worse than the last. He lost his temper at a photoshoot that went longer than it was supposed to, he missed one of his lessons, he had badly embarrassed himself in front of Nino when he tried to invite him to the movies, and to top it all off he had to follow his embarrassment with Nino immediately with a long difficult conversation with his father.

Truthfully, the other stuff was bad, but talking to his father is what really pushed him over the edge.

Before the other universe, he would deal with a bad day with incredible violence or screaming matches with Shady, anything he could throw his anger at really. Now though, whenever he has a bad day, all he wants is to spend time with Marinette and just be around her—whether as Adrien or Claw, he didn’t care as long as she’s there. If she’s there with him, then that’s all that matters and he could be okay.

He thought that being contacted by Betterfly at this time at night would mean exactly that, that one of the Supreme’s minions is running rampant and he and Shady could go beat someone up then she would sit with him, and they would talk or kiss for hours and the world would feel less shitty because he was with her. He was excited for some super-powered person to be out and about fucking shit up, he wanted that. Is that a fucked-up thing to want that to happen? Yes. But, that’s his life, he has to find happiness or whatever somewhere. So, that’s what he was hoping for when Betterfly contacted him.

This, however, is not what he wanted after the day he had.

He didn’t want to listen to Betterfly lecture him and only him on all the things he’s trying to be better at. He didn’t want to listen to how much hope can make things better and what a great job he’s doing. He didn’t want to hear this man who is good and kind and cares about everything tell him how much he worries and cares about him and all the things he’s noticed while they fight for a better world. He didn’t want to hear a stranger tell him how he’s doing a great job when his own father just spent all his time ignoring him and tried to lecture him on how he was worried about him making mistakes and hoping that he would change for the better. His own father ignored him and ignored the pain he felt about his mother then had the gall to look him in the eye and tell him that he wanted him to change because of a stupid Chinese lesson.

Before speaking to Betterfly, he would have dealt with everything he was feeling like it was anger. But with the way Betterfly is almost saying the perfect opposite of what his father told him, what he’s feeling is starting to feel more and more like pain.

How could he sit and listen to a stranger that reminds him so much of his father go on about how much he’s improved and changed when his own father had told him how disappointed he was that he hadn’t? That thought in itself is too much, he can’t do it.

“I can’t be here.” Claw growls in the middle of Betterfly’s sentence. He stands from the chair across from Betterfly in the debriefing room.

“I’m sorry.” Betterfly says. “Did I say something insulting? I swear, I didn’t mean—"

“You didn’t.” He answers with clenched fists.

He knows it’s not Betterfly’s fault, he knows it really isn’t and that Betterfly means well. But, he can’t help but think of his father around him and right now he can’t be here because of that. He can’t think of his father right now, he can’t let himself get dragged down that rabbit hole. This isn’t anger, this is him about to fall apart into a shit ton of broken pieces and that can’t happen—not here.

He grits his teeth and walks to the door.

“Is something wrong?” Betterfly asks, sounding genuinely concerned.

He can’t be here, he can’t deal with this now. The longer he stays and listens to Betterfly complimenting him and saying things he wishes his father would say, the harder it is to breathe.

“I can’t be here.” He says again as he steps out the door, barely holding it together.

He doesn’t know where he’s going, but he just needs to leave.

He bumps into someone in the halls of the resistance headquarters as he’s trying to keep his feet from giving out under him, but his vision is starting to blur so he pays no attention to whoever it is. His breathing is picking up and he doesn’t know what this is, but he just can’t focus, he needs to get away to somewhere, away from everyone. Before long he finds himself in a secluded room in the resistance’s headquarters, one that led into the sewers nearby.

His hands shake as he grabs his baton from behind him, he can hardly see what’s in front of him but it’s like his shaking hands are working on their own as they use his baton to call the one person he needs to see more than anything.

“Hey fleabag,” Shady’s voice answers. “What’s—”

“M-M-Marinette?” He barely croaks out.

“Stay where you are.” She responds immediately. “I’m coming.”

He nods, even though he knows she can’t see it, and slides his back down the wall. He hugs his knees to his chest and covers his ears with his hands.

Everything is so loud, even the silence is deafening, and he can feel himself shaking as tears form in his eyes.

He hates it. He hates himself for losing it. He hates that his father’s voice is always in his head. He hates that his father ignores him. He hates that his mother is gone. He hates that he feels so alone and empty sometimes. He hates that this feeling never really goes away.

His chest feels tight and for a moment he’s afraid he’s having a heart attack, or maybe the disease from overusing his powers is coming back. He doesn’t know what’s going on, he just knows that everything feels wrong.

—

Marinette needs to be Shady tonight, she needs an escape from the day she had. It wasn’t the worst of her days, but with Chloe and her parents, it was definitely a long one and she needs some fresh air. She isn’t expecting Adrien to join her as Claw, though she certainly is hoping he might, she just wants to see where the night will take her.

Her yo-yo vibrates and she smiles, seeing Claw’s familiar face on the screen. She’s excited he happened to be out at the same time as her, maybe they could have a relaxing night together just the two of them until sunrise since she hadn’t seen him all day like she desperately wanted.

“Hey fleabag,” Shady says, answering her yo-yo. “What’s—”

She’s interrupted by a barely audible croak on the other end from Claw, “M-M-Marinette?”

“Stay where you are.” She responds immediately. “I’m coming.”

She checks his location on her yo-yo and immediately starts jumping over rooftops and sprinting to get to him faster than she’s ever gone before.

She and her partner aren’t normal when it comes to a lot of things, whatever it is that they are is one of those things that can’t really be explained to anyone else. So, to pretty much the rest of the world, the things that they both did or said weren’t easy to see the meaning of. To her, though, her partner is a puzzle that only she can put together, a book she knows how to read.

One thing that has always—always—been a big part of their ‘more’ situation is that their real names are never said lightly, even if they aren’t in the costumes, they always use one of their hundreds of nicknames for each other. She never questioned it, it’s just one of those things they never really needed to talk about. But the unspoken rule between them has always been that the use of one of their real names meant it’s time to be serious, time to be a bit vulnerable together, time to be honest, or that something is very very wrong. Hearing her partner’s broken voice saying her name like that…she knows that something is wrong and she doesn’t know what, but whatever it is, she knows she has to get to him fast.

She finally yo-yos her way to the resistance’s headquarters and into the secret entrance. She checks his location frantically as she runs down the halls, running past Betterfly, Nino, and some of the other members. She crashes into Alya for a moment, which brings them both to the ground.

“Hey!” Alya says.

Shady doesn’t answer, she’s already getting up and continuing her sprint to find her partner—she’s so close and she’s already taken way too long to find him. She couldn’t stand the thought that something is terribly wrong and he’s all alone.

She turns down several different halls at full speed until she finally finds herself in a secluded room that leads to the sewers where Claw is against the wall, shaking with his head against his knees. She’s never seen him look so broken, so vulnerable.

She sits beside him and pulls his head against her heart, holding him like he might slip away.

He takes a shallow breath and slowly wraps his arms around her, still shaking—he seems like he might be crying, but if he is, she wouldn’t dare comment on it.

She gently pets his hair as his grip tightens. She can feel him sobbing against her chest and every inch of her body is screaming at her to help him, to stay with him forever.

“I’m here.” She whispers. “Stay with me. Breathe.”

She’s never seen him like this before, which, unfortunately means she doesn’t know the right way to help him. She would give anything to take away whatever is wrong, she’d take it all on herself if she could—there isn’t a thing in this universe or any other for that matter that she wouldn’t do for him. She doesn’t know what happened or why, but she hopes the words she tells herself when she falls apart on her worst days are enough to calm him down too, that’s all she can do for him.

“I’m here. Stay with me. Breathe.” She repeats with a slight squeeze to show him it’s true.

His breathing slows down, getting less erratic, and he starts nuzzling into her chest as he seems to calm down.

“I’m here.” Shady says as she pets his hair and kisses his head. “I promise I’m here.”

Shallow breaths against her chest send vibrations through her whole body as she lets him rest in her hold. She couldn’t tell you how long they stay like this, it could be seconds or hours or days, but she doesn’t care—she would stay like that for months or even years if it meant that her partner would be okay.

As Claw’s breathing finally evens out, he hugs her tighter like she isn’t close enough to him. She couldn’t blame him, when she sees him after she breaks down it feels like he’s never close enough…not even when there’s nothing between them but skin.

“I-I’m not fucking crying.” He says into her chest.

“Course you’re not.” Shady answers.

They were taught by the Supreme and everything else in this fucked up world that crying meant weakness, and despite the fact that they both know now that isn’t true in the slightest, it’s hard to unlearn things like that when it feels like the whole world is falling on you. So even though she knows that he is crying, she would never dare contradict him if he says otherwise and God help anyone else that fucking dared to comment on it.

Claw hums and nuzzles into her chest again. He presses his ear to her heart, listening to her heartbeat as she sees him close his eyes.

She takes a deep breath so he can feel her chest rise and fall, so he knows that she’s there with him and he isn’t alone.

“…You haven’t asked.” Claw whispers after a long bit of silence, his eyes still closed as he leans against her.

“Do you want me to ask?” Shady whispers back.

His lip quivers and he tightens his grip on her.

“…No.” He says weakly.

“Then I won’t.” She answers.

She keeps petting his head, trying to give him as much comfort as he needs.

If he wants to tell her, he’ll tell her when he’s ready, if not then she’ll still be there to keep his head out of the water no matter what. The two of them are anger, violence, always have been and maybe always will be. What people often forget she figures, is that also means they’re angry and violent to themselves, so they break harder when they hit the ground. She knows that’s how she’s always been, it’s how she keeps going—she’s so broken that she breaks all at once over everything instead of all the time. People like her and Claw…one small thing could break them into millions of pieces because they spent so much time trying not to be broken. She’s never seen Adrien like this before, so she knows something set him off that broke the dam. Whatever happens or happened, she’s there and would never leave him to deal with it on his own.

They both stay quiet for a long time as she comforts him and he calms down.

“I-I missed a lesson today.” Claw finally says.

“Oh?” Shady answers, letting him speak on his terms and only answering to show him she’s listening intently.

“I get angry a lot…have a nasty reputation for it.”

“Hmm.”

“I cause trouble and chaos sometimes.”

“Yeah?”

“But I’m trying. I’m trying so fucking hard.”

His voice comes out scratchy at the end of his sentence and she leans her head against his.

“I know.” She says, and she did, she knows how hard it is.

“He-he can’t stand me.” He chokes out. “All of that and all he cares about is that I missed a lesson…that I’m going down a bad path and need to be better.”

“Oh.”

“And then Betterfly…he-he’s proud of me and…and…” Claw trails off and squeezes Shady again, clearly fighting fresh tears.

Shady grits her teeth and tightens her grip on him, realizing what set him off.

Betterfly had pulled him into a lecture about how much he improved and was doing good…which in itself, would probably be whatever on a normal day. But he missed a lesson today, which meant that likely sometime today before Betterfly lectured him about the good he is doing, his dickhead father had lectured him about how he needs to change and be better.

How could he not see how hard Adrien is trying? Marinette definitely isn’t the best person for advice with a parent—she couldn’t even bring herself to talk about the issues she has with her own—but when it comes to Gabriel Agreste, she wishes she could just grab him by the shoulders and scream in his face ‘Hey fuck-head, your son is a fucking masterpiece work of art who’s doing his best and you’re an asshole for ignoring him. Stop being a fucking dickhead.’ It broke her heart to know that this man could make her fearless partner crumble so easily and didn’t even think for a second that he was doing it—it’s enough to make her want to cry.

“Maybe he’s right to ignore me.” Claw says. “Maybe I’m not worth knowing.”

Oh, hell no. At that, her heartbreak turns to rage and protectiveness. Shady is not letting her partner think something like that about himself for a single second.

“Hey, listen to me.” She says as she grabs his cheeks to bring his eyes to hers. “You are amazing exactly as you are, if your father doesn’t see that, then fuck him.” She leans her forehead against his. “You are the reason I can see the world getting better, the reason I’ve come this far. You are incredible, and if the rest of the world can’t see it, then screw the whole damn world. You’re trying to be better and you’re making a difference.”

“But I’m a—" He tries but Shady cuts him off with a kiss to his lips.

She pulls back a bit so she can look him in the eyes so he knows how badly she means it.

“What you are is my partner, my best friend…my everything more and inbetween.” Shady says with determination. “You are so important to me, and I love you more than anything, so know that I’m here at your side no matter how shitty things get because I’m with you no matter what.”

He blinks at her, taken aback by her sudden bluntness. He leans back into her chest and pulls her into his lap so she’s straddling his hips, holding her in his arms. It’s something he’s done before, usually when his lips were on hers like they were animals and things were about to get incredibly heated, but this time she knows it’s just because he needs her close—nothing more and nothing less. He moves his head up to her shoulder, resting his face in the crook of her neck like he’s trying to memorize her scent.

“Hmm.” He says into her neck, his voice scratchy from crying. “You always smell like fresh bread…it’s how I know I’m home.”

She hums in response, melting into his arms. They had never said that out loud before, it had always been another unspoken thing between them—for them, home would always be a person and though they don’t know when it became the case, they both know that home is each other.

He’s calmed down enough that now all he wants is to be with her, just have her close to him—it’s the clingy protective side of him that comes out when the lights are low and their voices are silent, the side of him that pulls her closer when they sleep next to each other like he’s afraid he’ll wake up and she’ll be gone, the side that no one but her gets to see.

She moves a hand up to the back of his neck to scratch his head comfortingly and a low purr rumbles from his chest. She smiles, she already knew that he purrs sometimes, but he isn’t always aware that he’s doing it. Normally, she might tease him about it when he stops, but given how he’s feeling today, she decides to let him do anything he pleases without any remarks as long as it helps him.

Claw takes in an uneasy breath and nuzzles his nose into her neck.

“That’s the first time you told me you love me.” He whispers like he might start crying again.

She blinks, suddenly realizing what she had said to him. She didn’t even realize it…it had just slipped out. She could deny it, say she meant something else in case it was a mistake, but then that would be a lie because she meant every word. As frightening as saying her feelings out loud is, when it comes to Claw, she thinks he deserves to hear it—even if he doesn’t say it back.

“Yeah, I guess it is.” She says back.

“Did you…did you mean it?”

“…You know I did, Cat.”

He sighs and she can feel the slight smile he has against her shoulder.

“I love you too, Bug.”

She lets out a sigh she didn’t know she was holding in.

They always had trouble saying how they really feel, they left so much unspoken and were so unsure of themselves that direct communication like this is rare. This isn’t how she pictured this…she always figured they would say something in the heat of battle or when one of them got hurt. She never would have thought it would happen when he had been crying into her chest and it would just slip out as easily as a hello. She’s relieved he said it back, but there’s no fireworks, no dramatic declarations, no big emotional ‘I love you, I love you’s. It simply is and was, as nice as it is to hear it, she didn’t need that and she didn’t think he did either—they both already knew.

They stay like that in silence for a minute, content just to be.

He hums a tune she doesn’t know then pulls back from her shoulder, resting his forehead against hers as her hands move to his chest.

“That’s what we are…you are.” He says, breaking the silence.

“What?” She answers.

“I’ve been trying to put words to what we are, but nothing seems to fit for how much we mean to each other. I call you my partner but…girlfriend, lover, friend…none of those feel right for what we are, but what you called us? That sounds perfect to me.”

“What?”

He looks down and moves one of his hands from her back to her hands, entwining their fingers as they both look at them.

“My everything more and inbetween.” He says as he meets her eyes.

She smiles at him and pulls his hand to her lips, gently kissing his knuckles.

“Yeah…” She says, “I like the sound of that.”

—

“Hey!” Alya growls as Shadybug crashes into her in the Resistance headquarters.

Shady doesn’t answer, she’s already getting up and continuing her sprint to wherever she’s running to so panicked.

Alya huffs in aggravation and quickly gets up, following after her. She can’t be up to anything good to be running like that in their headquarters.

Despite what Nino told her and the fact that he’s suddenly very supportive of Claw Noir and Shadybug being a part of their team, Alya is having a hard time believing that the two former villains could ever be anything but evil. After whatever happened when Nino was alone with them in the debriefing room, he’s been cheering them on and acting like their advocate. He keeps trying to tell her to give them a chance, that they’re just teenagers like them that are trying to be better—though they’ve been helping the Resistance, she hasn’t seen anything to point to them being more than murderous brutes.

She follows Shadybug down several different halls, barely keeping up with her. Shadybug finally stops in a secluded room and Alya stays by the entrance, trying to catch her breath and not let Shadybug know she’s there.

Alya expects to stumble on Shadybug meeting with one of the Supreme’s minions or find her with a beaten hostage or see her dragging a dead body or some other terrible villain thing that would explain why she was running to get here. The last thing she expects to see, however, is Claw Noir against the wall, shaking with his head against his knees. She blinks, not sure if she can trust her eyes, he looks so…broken.

Shady sits beside Claw and pulls his head against her heart, holding him gently like you would hold a kid. He takes a shallow breath and slowly wraps his arms around her, still shaking—he seems like he might be crying.

Alya blinks, confused. Shady wasn’t running to hurt someone or deal with something she did…she was running to Claw. She…she cares about him? How could that be?

Alya thought they hated each other, even with the weird incident with Nino, she couldn’t see them NOT hating each other. Not even two days ago she saw them screaming at each other before Shady had tackled Claw, she left before anything else happened, but she imagined things got very violent. But with the scene in front of her…maybe Nino has a point?

She watches as Shady gently pets Claw’s hair and he sobs against her chest. It seems like a private moment that she shouldn’t be there for, but she’s never seen them look so incredibly…human. She can’t bring herself to look away and poises her ears to listen, the reporter in her needing to know more even though she should probably leave them be.

Claw’s breathing slows down, getting less erratic, and he starts nuzzling into Shady’s chest as he seems to calm down.

Shady says something in a whisper, something Alya tries and fails to hear.

“I’m here.” Shady says as she pets Claw’s hair and kisses his head—at normal volume now, so Alya can actually hear. “I promise I’m here.”

Claw’s breathing finally evens out.

“I-I’m not fucking crying.” He says into Shady’s chest.

“Course you’re not.” Shady answers.

She hears Shady take a deep breath, then more whispering she can’t hear.

“…No.” Claw says weakly, loud enough that she can hear it but soft enough that she has to strain her ears to do so.

“Then I won’t.” Shady answers.

Shady and Claw stay quiet for a long time as she continues comforting him and he calms down.

Alya doesn’t know how long she watches them sit in silence, and frankly, she really should go. This seems like something incredibly private, and even if the two of them are supposed to be these ruthless and crazy villains, this seems like something that comes from pain and Alya can’t help but feel a bit heart broken at the sight of a broken boy who looks like his world is crumbling. She should leave, she really shouldn’t eavesdrop on them in a moment like this, but she can’t bring herself to move from behind the wall she’s watching them from.

“I-I missed a lesson today.” She hears Claw say after awhile.

“Oh?” Shady answers.

“I get angry a lot…have a nasty reputation for it.”

“Hmm.”

“I cause trouble and chaos sometimes.”

“Yeah?”

“But I’m trying. I’m trying so fucking hard.”

His voice comes out scratchy at the end of his sentence and Shady leans her head against his, his scratchy voice pulling at Alya’s heart strings like a kicked puppy.

“I know.”

“He-he can’t stand me.” Claw chokes out. “All of that and all he cares about is that I missed a lesson…that I’m going down a bad path and need to be better.”

“Oh.”

“And then Betterfly…he-he’s proud of me and…and…” Claw trails off, clearly fighting fresh tears.

Alya’s heart breaks a little more at that. What is this poor boy dealing with at home? Is that why he’s so angry all the time? Because of what his civilian life is like?

If Claw is dealing with this kind of thing, maybe Shady is too, maybe that’s why they’re always at each other’s side, because at least they have someone who slightly gets it. Before, Alya tried not to admit it, but Shady does sometimes remind her of Marinette, her new friend. Marinette is a bit socially inept and has a temper, but Alya could tell that she was dealing with something that puts her in a bad place (Alya assumes it’s the pressure of working for her parent’s bakery way more than she should), and she’s been trying really hard lately to come out her shell—like how Shady might be trying to be better, to be good.

She sees Shady grit her teeth. Shady must have a really good idea of what he’s dealing with at home, maybe that’s why she fought so violently sometimes—she’s protective. Actually, thinking about it…all the times Shady got too violent against one of the Supreme’s minions, Claw had gotten hurt or hit. This is dangerous, seeing them like this, seeing them in such a human way. Alya’s already starting to doubt what she knows about them, it’s dangerous to let her guard down so easily.

“Maybe he’s right to ignore me.” Claw says. “Maybe I’m not worth knowing.”

Oh, now that’s messed up. Is he talking about his dad? Before Alya is able to think about that, she sees Shady’s face flash with anger.

“Hey, listen to me.” Shady says as she grabs Claw’s cheeks to bring his eyes to hers. “You are amazing exactly as you are, if your father doesn’t see that, then fuck him.” She leans her forehead against his. “You are the reason I can see the world getting better, the reason I’ve come this far. You are incredible, and if the rest of the world can’t see it, then screw the whole damn world. You’re trying to be better and you’re making a difference.”

That doesn’t sound like something you’d say to someone you hate. That almost sounds sweet enough to be a confession of affection. She’s comforting him and building him up, even if it is a bit intense, she seems so angry that he would talk about himself that way. Maybe she’s starting to genuinely care about him?

“But I’m a—" Claw starts to say but Shady cuts him off with a kiss to his lips.

WAIT. THAT WAS A KISS. Alya just watched the two people who hate each other more than anything KISS. Was Nino right? Are they dating?

Shady pulls back a bit and looks Claw in the eyes.

“What you are is my partner, my best friend…my everything more and inbetween.” Shady says with determination. “You are so important to me, and I love you more than anything, so know that I’m here at your side no matter how shitty things get because I’m with you no matter what.”

At that, Alya’s mouth opens completely and she’s gaping at them like a fish, completely speechless as they don’t even really react to the bombshell Shady just said that’s taking a wrecking ball to Alya’s brain.

Claw blinks at Shady and leans back into her chest, pulling her into his lap so she’s straddling his hips, holding her in his arms. He moves his head up to her shoulder, resting his face in the crook of her neck.

“Hmm.” Claw says into her neck, his voice scratchy from crying. “You always smell like fresh bread…it’s how I know I’m home.”

Claw whispers something Alya can’t hear. Not that it really matters, her whole world view is shifting as she witnesses all of this.

Shady hums and says, “Yeah, I guess it is.”

“Did you…” Claw hesitates. “Did you mean it?”

“…You know I did, Cat.”

Claw sighs and says, “I love you too, Bug.”

Alya blinks, finally snapping herself out of it.

Nino was right…they, they’re together. More than that, they’re in love. They aren’t the crazy vicious villains (okay, maybe they are a bit a crazy and vicious, but not as much as Alya thought) that Alya knew them to be. They’re just two people who are messed up because of their lives and who are trying their best. And they love each other, maybe just starting to feel each other in something new and complicated that they don’t understand. Whatever the case—new relationship or not—they genuinely care about each and that in itself meant there’s more to them than just being evil murderous villains.

Claw hums a tune Alya doesn’t know then pulls back from Shady's shoulder, resting his forehead against hers as her hands move to his chest.

“That’s what we are…you are.” Claw says, breaking the silence that had Alya’s mind reeling.

“What?” Shady answers.

“I’ve been trying to put words to what we are, but nothing seems to fit for how much we mean to each other. I call you my partner but…girlfriend, lover, friend…none of those feel right for what we are, but what you called us? That sounds perfect to me.”

“What?”

Claw looks down and moves one of his hands from her back to her hands, entwining their fingers as they both look at them.

“My everything more and inbetween.” Claw says as he meets her eyes.

Oh. Wait. Oh no.

Shady smiles at Claw and pulls his hand to her lips, gently kissing his knuckles.

“Yeah…” Shady says, “I like the sound of that.”

Oh God. Oh no, no, no. She shouldn’t have heard that. They’re not dating, no, that’s not what they are. They’re existing for each other like there’s no one else in the world, like nothing matters without the other.

Alya turns around with a blush on her cheeks, anxiously trying to leave the couple without either of them noticing.

How is Alya supposed to look them in the eye knowing that they’re the most beautiful thing together? She’s in love with them as a couple, freaking ‘everything more and inbetween’. Who says something like that after having a breakdown? How is she supposed to cope with the fact that the two most violent bloodthirsty people she’s ever known make a couple so sweet she wants to cry?

And just like that, Shady and Claw go from being two people Alya could never trust to becoming the two people in a relationship that Alya is determined to protect.

#speechless changes #claw noir #shadybug #miraculous ladybug #fanfic

[intercoursefluids]

Believe Me Chapter 6

“Where should we put her? We were supposed to fly back today so we didn’t get a room or a bed for her.”

Damian sets his jacket down on the couch, moving to pull the covers of his bed back and gesturing for Jon to set her there.

“She can have my bed, I doubt that I will be using it tonight anyway. I have some work I need to do. Cesaire, if you wish to do the same I have no problem with you sharing my bed with her. I understand that she is your best friend and you likely want to remain to ensure she is safe.”

Alya nods, planting herself right beside Marinette on the bed.

“Glad you said so because I was going to be staying whether you said I could or not.”

Jon spoke up again after he had finished rearranging Marinette on the bed.

“Wait, why don’t I just put her on my bed? She’s my sister after all.”

Damian cracked his neck, stretching out his back as he replied.

“You stress eat, I know for a fact that you were eating in bed and there are probably crumbs everywhere. It's gross.”

Jon grumbles, complaining that it isn’t that bad even as he shakes out his blankets.

The door opens again a few seconds later, Clark rushing through and making a bee line for Marinette as Bruce closed the door behind them.

Clark reaches a hand out, probably to brush a few of the loose strands of hair from her face.

He gets interrupted by a cell phone smacking his hand, looking over to see Alya glaring at him.

“Who the fuck are you?”

“Who are you?”

Clark blushes as she curses at him, Alya leaning over to cover Marinette’s sleeping form with her body.

“Name’s Alya, I’m her best friend and I will not let some random man touch her while she’s sleeping.”

Her glare is on par with one of Damian’s own family members in mask and Damian spots his father nodding approvingly to the side.

Clark reels back, just noticing how it may seem to her and starts trying to apologize, continuously tripping over his words as he does.

“I am so sorry! I am her- well, what I mean to say is I’m her- She’s my-”

Alya’s eyes widened in understanding, rolling over Marinette and onto the floor sticking a hand out for him to shake.

“Nevermind, I can recognize that sputtering anywhere. You must be Mar’s Bio-Dad, as I said earlier, I’m Alya, her best friend, you should probably get used to seeing me around every now and again.”

Clark takes a deep breath, shaking her hand with a tired smile.

“Nice to meet you, is she okay?”

Alya sighs, rolling back over the still unconscious Marinette to get back to her side of the bed.

“Yeah she’ll be okay, probably won’t wake up for a few more hours, she's a really heavy sleeper by the way, you don't have to be quiet. I have a video of what happened if you want to see it?”

She holds up her phone, syncing it to the hotel room Tv with some kind of app.

Clark nods and she hits play, everyone taking a seat to watch the video of Marinette’s akumatization.

________________

(Back in America with Lois, Conner, and the rest of the bat family. Alfred is on a video call on Jason’s phone)

Lois sighed, weighing out two different options for adult bunk beds with Cassandra and Stephanie who both insisted they went with her while all of the boys went to grab groceries that Marinette may like.

Lois had just decided on a queen over queen when she got a call from Conner.

“Hey Mom? Do you know what kind of cream cheese she likes?”

Lois groaned, they had this conversation several times already.

“No Honey, I don’t know what kind of cream cheese your sister will like. I don’t know anything about what she may like, that is why we are getting her a variety of things, remember?”

Lois smiles, hearing Tim and probably Jason quietly laughing at her oldest son from over the speaker.

“Shut up! Not you Mom, sorry. Do you think she will be offended if I grab her a baguette? I know she was raised in France so I’m not sure if it will be comforting or if she will hit me with it.”

“I guess we'll just have to wait and see, now hurry up and finish over there, I picked out a bed and need you boys to help carry it, I also want you all to help me pick out some simple furniture for both Jon and Marinette, you can get new stuff too Kon, you and your brother are both starting to outgrow yours.”

Lois hears shuffling on the other end and the rattling of a shopping cart before Conner seems to remember that she is on the phone.

“Oh, right. Bye Mom, see you soon!”

He hangs up before she even gets to reply.

“So, you excited?”

Lois smirks a Steph beside her, nudging her to get her to stop resting her elbow on her shoulder.

“Yes, I am. Still sorta surprised that Bruce wanted to help pay for the new furniture for the kids. Did Alfred tell him to?”

Cass crosses her arms shaking her head no as Steph takes over explaining.

“Nah, when Clark came running in, practically sobbing, over you guys’ long lost daughter and started freaking out about how you two weren’t prepared for another kid and needed to get stuff for her, B practically threw his credit card at him.”

Cass nods, moving to stand in front of Lois so she can clearly see her while she signed.

“When dad doesn’t know how to help. He remembers that money fixes almost everything.”

Steph snorts, nodding in agreement as Cass falls back into step beside her.

“Exactly, if you hadn’t accepted the help he probably would have begged until you did.”

Lois snorts, spotting the boys running up to them while Conner tries to fix his hair, he probably used his super speed to put everything away at the house already.

“I may have my pride, but I am not arrogant, Bruce is a literal millionaire going on billionaire. Him deciding to pay for the new furniture and the trip to pick Marinette up and bring her back won’t even make a dent in his bank account.”

Conner and the rest of the Wayne boys finally reach them, each boy bending over so Lois can give them kisses on the cheek/foreheads.

“Hey, do you want us to take the bed now or do you want to wait until we have everything else too?”

Lois pats Dick on the back as she passes him by.

“Let's wait until we are done okay? I can send one of you to rent a Uhaul and we can take everything in tha- oh, give me a moment, your father is calling. Hello?”

“Lois? Honey, I have some good news and some bad news. Are the rest of the kids with you? Or at least Conner so I don't have to tell him next?”

Lois takes a seat on one of the sofas they were walking past, preparing herself for whatever was coming, gesturing for the rest to do the same.

“Yes, everyone except Barbra is here, she had lunch with her dad today. DO you want me to put you on speaker?”

Clark confirms and Lois does, shushing the kids as they start to question what was going on.

“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?”

“Good news.”

She wasn’t ready to know if anything bad happened to one of her babies overseas.

“Marinette helped defeat a magical supervillain today and we should be home either tomorrow or the day after.”

Lois took a deep breath, several questions running through her mind but the most prominent was: “I’m fucking sorry? She did what?”

Tag list:

If you request to be added to the tag list please specify if you want to be tagged for this specific fic or just in general

@Toodaloo-kangaroo

@Ev-cupcake

@Vroomtaka

@rosesandsailboats

#maribat #ml x dc #marinette x damian #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maridami #Siblings Jonette #believe me

[ritacrow-blog]

-daminette

-introverted mari

-the usual class, adrien, lila, Alya! Salt

-Chloe redemption. She appoloises but leaves for New York a few months later due to bullying from the class.

- To distract herself from all the negatives in her life she immersed herself in work.

-has trust issues with strangers. Supportive Friends (Luka, Chloe and Kagami) and Parents.

-designs and sells her designs under MDC

-Solves cold cases while hunting down hawk-moth as "Nettie". (and because of this, hacking becomes a secret talent of hers) and reports her findings to the chief of police. Sabrina's dad (I forgot his name). Using Ladybug as the messenger. Ladybug explains to the Chief that she found someone to help track down hawk-moth, but doesn't want to be known. And that she is only giving acting as Nettie's messanger for cases that she just so happens to "accidentally" come across while searching for hawk-moth. So he sees Nettie as a "Robin Hood" just without the stealing part.

-She hangs out with Kagami but also learns how to use a Katana from her as an excuse to give to her mother. Like: learning how to teach people and is using Marinette as her Guinea pig student. Which Marinette then starts to enjoy. Especially when she needs to vent and just cut something down. And she eventually gets really good at it.

-the bullying gets worse

-by this time she's already gathering evidence against Gabriel and Natalie. Also finds out that Chat noir is Adrien. (she isn't very surprised). And makes a promise to herself that she will take them down before the school year ends.

-She goes to the Chief as ladybug to report what Nettie found. So they plot.

-stealing the miraculous from Adrien first before finding Kagami to be her Black cat for the final battle. And Luka as Python (different costume for identity reasons). They sneak into the Manor going straight to the lair where she found Adrien's Mom via CCTV. Heals her (let's pretend that LB has healing abilities. Ya?) and explains everything that is going on while Panther and Python search the area for the miraculous just in case. LB talks ladybug into getting Gabriel to surrender and she agrees. But Gabriel and Natalie storm in already transformed to fight. Not noticing Emily at first. When he finally does he stops. While Angry at them she convinces Gabriel and Natalie to stand down and surrender the miraculous to ladybug and face proper judgment.

-Ladybug, Panther and Python escort Gabriel and Natalie to the police waiting outside and Emily to get herself checked by the medics. Adrien is still asleep and unaware in his room. He will definitely be having quite the shock in the morning. His miraculous is gone. His mom is alive. Emily knows about him being Chat noir through LB. Is now under Emily's strict supervision.

-The last few months of school are loud after the news. Court hearing scheduled a week after the last day of school. Gabriel reveals Lila's role. Lila tries to get out of it but is proven guilty with evidence provided by Nettie. Bye-bye Liela~

- the class find out about what lila did and try to find Marinette to apologise.

-Marinette forgives but doesn't accept them as friends anymore.

Alya: "so now that we're friends again. Think you could get me that interview with Ladybug about the Hawk-moth case?"

Mari: "No"

Alya: "Thank you so mu-... What?... Why? We're best friends! True bestfriend help each other out!"

Mari: "exactly. Best friends help each other out. But where were you when I was bullied by lila. Heck the whole class. How about the harassment with Adrien. When I was clearly over him. We're not best friends alya. Not even close to being a friend"

Alya: "when did you get over adrien??? I thaught you were dating Luka to make adrien jealous."

Mari: (-_-) "I'm not. I haven't had a crush in adrien for 3 years now. I got rid of everything related to him. And I set Luka up with Kagami. They've been dating for over a year now"

Alya: "what the hell"

-not wanting to have anything to do with the class anymore. She applies for her last year in Gotham Academy (let's just say that she likes their curriculum: includes fashion design, coding and programming, and a kendo club. Kagami successfully converted her into a katana welding badass)

-Mari gets permission from her parents to move in to her Nona's apartment in Gotham.

- She leaves without telling anyone from the class. Only her family, Kagami, Chloe and Luca know.

-She arrives in Gotham and encounters Scarecrow on her fist day there. Gets caught in the fear gas.

-She sees her old classmates. Hawk-moth. Mayura. Chat Noir and Chat blanc. The Akumas. Purple butterflies.

-fights while under the fear toxin. Attacks every "akuma" (goons) coming her way. Unknowingly fighting the batfam thinking that they're "akumas". Until Nightwing holds her down and Robin injects the antidote.

Mari: *muttering* fuck you hawk-moth and your disgusting purple butterflies. *faints*

Red Robin: What the fuck...

Red Hood: I call dibs on Pixi pop becoming my sister.

Batman:.......

Nightwing: *looks at Robin* please tell me you heard that too...

Robin:.......

-Mari wakes up in the ambulance. Feels fine so she just hops off and goes straight for her bags.

Nightwing: where are you going? You still need to get checked.

Mari: I'm fine. I've dealt with worse. I'm just gonna go and get my bags. I don't trust the security here.

Nightwing: hey! Wait!

Mari keeps walking to her bags. Picks up her katana and straps it to her back and grabs her luggage.

Nightwing: Hey! You still need to get checked anyways... And questioned...

Mari: *stares*..... Fine. But please Hury I want to get to my place before it gets dark.

Batman: how did you fight the fear toxin?

Mari: it's called fear toxin... No wonder I saw what I saw... *looks at batman* I'm used to having to deal with my fears. I've had to fight them head on in Paris constantly.

Red Robin: Isn't Paris a peaceful city?

Mari: *scoff* peaceful my ass. It hasn't been peaceful at all the past 3 years. I've seen enough deaths and magical shit to last me a lifetime.

Batfam:......

Mari: *sigh* sorry for my language. I'm just cranky from not having had any sleep in the past... 1,2,3,4,5... 6...oh shit... Anyways... Look I just landed I haven't had sleep the past few days. Got caught in the attack. Somehow fought them of. Lost consciousness... Not even sure why I even woke up considered my lack of sleep...and now being questioned... And... That pretty much it really.

Batfam:.....

Mari: what still not satisfied?

Robin: you mentioned having encountered enough magic and deaths to last you a lifetime.

Mari:..... I did?

Batfam:......

Red Robin: yes you did

Red Hood: *mutters* why do I suddenly feel like I'm looking at a female replacement....

Mari: Oh... Damn... I'm not even sure if the blackouts been lifted yet.

Batman: blackout?

Mari: the media blackout...it should be lifted soon. Not sure when....

*Phone notification rings*

Mari: speak of the devil... Here.

*she shows batman her phone*

He goes through the news and 2 videos of akuma attacks.

Mari: can I have my phone back and go now? It's getting dark.

Robin: how are you getting there.

Mari: a cab.

Batman gives her phone back

Mari: am I done here?

Batman nods

When mari is leaving...

Batman: Hood, Robin keep an eye on her and makes sure she gets to her destination safe. We're going back to the cave to look more into this.

When mari gets out of the cab. She feels like she's being watched and followed. Discretely looks around trying to spot who's following her. (ladybug sense is tingling~) She shifts her katana to her hip just in case. While going to her apartment. And instantly locks the door and checks the windows. Wonders if they followed her... Then she spots Robin on the neighboring building.

Mari: ah... Its just them... Welp I'm off to bed.

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

Robin POV

Robin: She knows she's being followed.

Redhood: I'm not blind demon spawn.

They watch her enter her apartment while on guard.

Redhood: one of us should probably pass by her window. Just to let her know we're not goons. Pixi looks wound up...

Robin: ill do it.

He swings by her window. They guessed right. She was keeping watch.

Robin: something isn't right...

Redhood: no shit sherlock.

Robin over the comm: she's in. We're heading back to the cave.

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

Batcave

-Siren, Gigantitan, Hero's day, mourning star (saw this in a fanfiction somewhere. Its a sad one)

Redhood: Holy shit...

Batman: How did we miss this?

Red Robin: found a call on the JL emergency call log.

Batman: play it.

Video call from Ryuuko on Hero's day. Showing the chaos, requesting for help, getting controlled, dropping the phone and walking away.

Batman: who answered this call?

Red Robin:.... Green Lantern

Robin: wait... Scroll up... Its the girl from the airport.

They play the mourning star akuma video.

Mourning star: a widow that had a miscarriage. Mourning the death of her husband and unborn child. The akuma kidnapping children and killing them infront of their mothers. So that they know the pain of losing a child. (I know it's depressing... I found this in a fanfiction. Forgot the title. And it was way more depressing than what I just wrote...) (ill skip this bit)

Marinette getting children to safety. Away from the akuma. Calming them down and getting them to hide in an abandoned building. Distracts the akuma by pissing it of and luring her away from the nearby preschool. (she's badass both in and out of the suit) then suddenly transforms into a mouse themed hero while on the run. Divides herself into smaller selves. And splits up each going down different alleyways. (she never becomes multimouse again after this: she got compromised again. Let's just say that she staged this bit to get halkmoth off her trail... In case he suspected her of being LB). Then not long after Chat noir shows up looking for LB. When LB finally shows up... He starts flirting and causing even more trouble. Akuma gets caught. Butterfly gets purified. Magical ladybugs fixing everything and LB punching Chat in the face. The end.

Redhood: he had that coming.

Robin: She was a hero? Are there others?

Redhood: why? Got a crush~?

Robin: *blush* no.

Red Robin: found one. Evillustrator. CCTV footage...

CCTV: Evillustrator breaking into the top floor of a bakery. Then leaving. Chat Noir showing up. Marinette answering the door. Chat Noir flirting. Marinette sarcastic acting. More chat noir flirting. He leaves. Fast forward. She leaves the bakery all dressed up (Robin's thaughts: she looks cute... WHAT THE FUCK BRAIN!!!! NO!) (I changed it a bit hehehe)

They shift to different CCTVs until she gets to her destination. Meeting up with the akuma (Redhood: what the hell... She went on a date with an akuma?) (Red Robin: wait look... Chat Noir) (Robin: *clenching his teeth and fists*) chat noir sneaking on the boat. And laying low. Mari snatching something and throwing it at chat. Chat messed-up. Mari gets trapped with chat in a glass box with the boat sinking. Chat trying to find a way to get out of the box. Mari just standing there until she gets fed up. Grabs the baton and extends it upward while grabbing chat noir's tail/belt and flinging him towards the pier. Gives back his baton. Chat flirts again. Kisses her hand then salutes. Mari turns away of cam. (Nightwing: did that count as a date?) (Redhood: yes) (Red Robin: no) (Robin's thaughts: strong, beautiful, smart, tricky ... Just what else do you have under your belt... Shit I called her beautiful...) (Batman: follow chat noir)

Shifting again to other CCTVs. Stopping on one viewing a hotel. Chat and Ladybug already on the scene. Doesn't take long after that for the battle to end.

Batman: we need to keep looking more into this...but right now. I'm going to the tower. And deal with Green Lantern.

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

-after this Robin makes sure to make Marinette's apartment to be part of his patrol route.

-Mari notices but doesn't try to call him over.

-he observes her and finds more things about her. (a designer, a gamer, a Baker and if her katana and fighting skills is anything to go by... Judo?)

-Mari knows that she's being observed so she makes sure the kwamis are hidden.

One night she decides to embroider on her balcony.

-curious... Robin comes closer to take a peek at what she was making... A dragon embroidery.

Mari: are you going to stay there or are you going to come down here and tell me what you need?

Robin:.... This place is part of my patrol route....

Mari: I noticed but I don't believe that that's all your here for.

Robin:...... you're one of the heroes...

Mari:........ *she looks at him* ex-hero... Retired hero??.... Who cares. I've been compromised.

Robin: I know... But it looked on purpose.

Mari:....... What do you want? Did you need something?

Robin:....... I don't trust you..... Your confusing...

Mari: I'd be worried if you did. Trusting people you just meet... Not a smart move.

Robin:.........

Mari:........ Anything else?

Robin: No. I'll be on my way.

Mari: wait hold on a second... Here (she gives him the extra macaroons she made) I'm a stress Baker. I made too much.

Robin:....... I thaught that we agreed that we didn't trust each other....

Mari: I don't. Not completely. But I also know your not a bad person. Protective sure. But that's to be expected considering your cutrent occupation...... Just take it.... You've been observing me the past few days. You should know by now that I'm not a horrible person...here I'll even take one. (she takes one and pops it in her mouth) see? Safe.

Robin: fine I'll take them to the idiots........thanks.......(then he leaves)

Mari: hmm... Now back to work...

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

Keeps going on like this for the next few months.

Until its time for the new school year to start....

(I'm sleepy right now. I'll continue this tomorrow. I'll edit this same post. I won't be making it separate)

#daminette #Introvert marinette #maribat #mlb x dc

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

A Failed Betrothal (4)

Am I doing this right? I mostly do write this when I am between the state of sleep and awareness. Hope you enjoy this.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1) (Part 3)

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

PART 4

Marinette came to a dungeon cell with two other prisoners. One of them was awake and he looked vaguely familiar. The other had an ugly red helmet that didn’t help with the headache she had.

“Do you know where we are?” She asked the handsome stranger with beautiful green eyes, her throat a little dry.

Wait. Handsome?

No bad Marinette. Don’t fall for fellow prisoners, no matter how cute he looks. Oh Kwamis, she was already screwed.

He still hadn’t replied. Maybe he didn’t understand French. She tried to ask again in another language before her enhanced hearing picked up the sound of footsteps. She faked unconsciousness. Later, she heard the iron door open. She looked through the tiniest slits of her eyes she could muster while the two held a staring/glaring match. Oh shit, that’s the fame Talia Al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s, head of the League of Shadows, and the boy she was glaring at had some resemblance to her, so he must be her son, Dennis? Daniel? Damon?

"Damian, I hope you know what you should do."

Ohh..Damian. Where had she heard that name before?

"To be forcefully married to that little girl. She is no one special. Why am I getting married to her?"

Ouch, that hurts. Well, Damian, just because I forgot your name does not mean you can call me a little girl. I can also kill you very easily and painfully.

“Well, Jason, you are awake. You can be the best man for the wedding.”

“No. I don’t know what game you are playing but you better release us. B is gonna find us and you will pay. Let the girl go. She is innocent in all of this.” Red Helmet, Jason, is officially not going on her hit list for his atrocious fashion choices. But that red monstrosity still needs to go.

"Ladybug may not seem like it but she possesses great power that my father converted for centuries. Speaking of, she should be awake by now."

Marinette felt her hair being yanked. A little pain was expected but the really sharp claws digging into her scalp was not. Making her cry and tear up.

”I am so sorry, kit.” Plagg whispered in the kwami language, loosening his claws.

"Tch, See, she is more pathetic than I thought. She is not powerful." Damian growled out.

Geez, thanks for the compliment, it’s not like you ever had a tiny cat dig its claws into your scalp out of surprise. (Damian once had a kitten thrown at his head and if he knew about Plagg, he would have been sympathetic.) Marinette started begging for mercy, hoping they would buy the helpless girl out of the suit that is ill-suited for the job she had been chosen for and had no idea on how to escape.

“Like I thought, weak. She is not deserving of the title of my wife.”

Oh kwamis, what did she ever do to have such a picky groom? The more he insults her, the less she wants to be married to him.

"Appearance can be deceiving. Despite her demeanor, she is the current wielder of the Ladybug Miraculous and the Current Guardian. The old Guardian, the old fool had promised her in exchange for his protection."

Great, another reason to stop her mother from killing a senile old man.

"That doesn't mean I want to marry her. She is not worthy of an Al Ghul or a Wayne. Look at her, crying at the slightest feeling of pain."

So that’s where she heard it from. The boy was the son of the daughter of a guy who leads a secret order of assassins and a man that owns a multi-million business. How even did a billionaire meet an assassin, ends up in bed with her and lives? Something to think about for later. She quieted down her sobs, (beat that acting, Rossi) kept her voice low to hatch out a plan with Plagg in the kwami language while the mother-son duo bickered.

“Hey, Plagg before you go, you think I can do that thing, the one which your one of your past holders from Japan can do.”

“You have a lot of potential for destruction but you have not used the ring for a long time yet so I am not sure.”

“I will give it a go anyways. Nothing to lose after all. See you later, Plagg.” Marinette smiled, one that drove fear into the hearts of even the bravest of people. Plagg returned it, already loving the new Guardian before zipping out of the cell to do some scouting. Using the enhanced strength the French superheroine got from prolonged use of the Miraculous, she yanked the chains of the walls and wrapped them around Talia’s neck, cutting off her air supply.

The League of Assassins thought that they could kidnap her and get away with it. But they were no match for the daughter of Sabine Cheng, the deadly Blue Reaper. A high ranking member from the group of assassins and mercenaries called the Guild of Night, who had semi-retired. Kidnapping her was a bad move to make as it meant they had declared war on the Guild, despite the reason behind her abduction having a completely different intention.

She whispered as such to the older woman in her tight grip, making sure the League would know how much they had fucked up. After dropping the limp body, she took a deep breath and tried channeling some of her energy for what she was about to do.

Well, here goes nothing.

She breathed out on the shackles, turning it to rust.

Success!

She introduced herself as Lady and concentrated the energy from before into her hand, forming inky black orbs of destruction in order to free her fellow captives. She felt a little drained from doing magic out of the suit and tried not to show it. Plagg returned, informing her of where the Ra’s and the Pits were. She grinned at the thought of showing old Ra’s who the boss is and made sure he regretted ever messing with her. She explained about Plagg as vaguely as she can, no need to let anyone know about the miraculous than necessary. Sure her plan sounds insane but the boys don’t know who they were with.

She would worry about that curse after she got out of Nanda Parbat. Although she could probably find something in the grimoire to reverse it, she was still an amateur at magic so it was best to have a professional to take care of it. Marinette didn’t want to be with such an asshole, no matter how striking he looks in those regal robes.

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

Picking off the League assassins, one by one was easy especially in her transformed state. She hadn’t appraised her suit properly but from what she had seen, it wasn’t like Chat Noir’s leather get-up. She was armoured in vital areas and her colour scheme was mainly black with green accents. There were vials that were probably poisons and pouches which she decided to look at later. She still had a long braid as a tail from her brief stint as Lady Noire and she wondered why her suit was different. While hiding in a niche she found, she called the bakery via the comm in one of her various pouches.

“Hello?”

“Papa, it’s me, Marinette. Do you know where Maman is?”

“She went out of Paris, talking about how this League must pay. I think she is meeting up with several of her old friends. Are you alright, my little blossom? I know you can take care of yourself but I worry.” The relief in Tom’s voice was palpable. However, she was right and the Guild was going to war against the League. Marinette was adored by nearly everyone in the Guild due to her strangely bubbly and cheery personality in the harsh and brutal lifestyle.

“I am fine, Papa. Did Maman use the Horse to leave? And how are my friends?” She knew they might be in a panic after her disappearance.

“I think she did. I didn’t see Kalki when I went to feed the kwamis. Your friends panicked when they found out you were kidnapped. But they are fine now, mostly worried about you. Took care of some akumas and senti monsters by themselves. I think your fencer friend, Kagami, knows more about the League than she lets on.” Of course, she does. Her mother was a member of the Guild before being blinded due to a mission. Kagami and her actually first met during a reunion party of sorts.

“Thank you, Papa. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She hung up and dialed the personal phone number her mother uses that only Marinette and her father knows about. She waited for the call to connect, trying to think of ways to stop her mother from storming into the League’s base of operation.

“Maman, it’s me. I know you want to attack the League right this minute. But I have a better plan. Can you get Tikki’s earrings from Alix? We can use them and the ring to destroy the Lazarus Pits. Make them really angry.” She peeked out of the niche she was hiding in. She had been there for a while and needed to move to gain some grounds.

“Where are you? And are you okay?” Panic and worry filled her usually composed mother’s voice.

“I am somewhere in Nanda Parbat and I am fine. I was nearly married off to Talia’s son but I am not now. I think.” Marinette replied. Better to rip that band-aid off before she showed up with her would-have-been-husband. She jumped out of the niche and looked

“Kalki, Full Gallop. Okay, we will talk about the ‘nearly married’ part later. What was this plan to destroy the Lazarus Pits?” Sabine thought she was already used to Marinette’s brand of craziness that was her normal but apparently, not.

“I am currently on my way there. Plagg said we need Tikki to get rid of them. Since the League pissed me off and by extension you and the rest of the Guild, I thought our first move against them is to destroy the Pits and a trail of bodies. By the way, can you get some cheese for Plagg?” Marinette ran through the halls, knocking out some poor sod with a whack on the head.

Silence. She thought Sabine had hung up when-

“Voyage. Alix, where are you? We need Tikki for one of Marinette’s insane plans. And Marinette, stay safe, sweety, I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”

“Bye, Maman. See you there.”

Marinette turned another corner, the last one before the path that leads to the entrance where the Lazarus Pits were. She only managed to find it with Plagg’s voice in her head, whispering directions and Tikki’s luck. Unfortunately, the luck ran out because the entrance had a lot of guards who had spotted her.

Crap.

She hoped her mother would get here soon. Thankfully, being transformed gave her a boost and would help her to hold her ground for a while.

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

Damian and Red Hood followed the trail of unconscious bodies and sounds of fights, trying to find Lady. Damian was impressed at the level of her skills to defeat many of the League’s assassins although he could probably do better. They relied on his memory to find the Lazarus Pits which was their best bet to finding her as she claimed to be able to destroy them. If Lady possessed such powers, they must find out whether she is a threat to the world or not. And also break the infernal curse they have.

Red Hood was silent mostly. He made a few jabs about how kick ass his ‘bride’ was and how the current Robin should not let her get away. Damian tried really hard not to just maim his adopted brother and also ignore that little fluttering in his chest that happened every time they saw an unconscious assassin left behind by Lady. The sounds of fighting got louder as they got nearer to the entrance. They turned the final corner to see Lady fighting against the guards who outnumbered her. But she seemed to be doing fine against them. Mostly.

One had slipped through her defenses and nearly stabbed her in the back if it weren’t for Damian grabbing one of Red Hood’s guns and shooting a rubber bullet to the neck. He jumped into the fight, grabbing the fallen assassin’s sword and taking out the knife he got from his mother. Jason joined in too, not going to let the two teens have all the fun.

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

“Thanks for the save, Al Ghul but I don’t know why you bothered when me being dead would solve your curse problem.” Lady said as the guards laid around them and they tried to catch their breath.

“It’s Wayne. I go by Wayne these days. Being an Al Ghul is not something I learned to be proud of. And as much as I don’t want this curse, your death is not worth that price.” he replied, “Although, I have to wonder why you would choose to die rather than live.”

She chuckled, “Okay, Wayne, to answer your question. Petty teenage drama makes death much more preferable. On top of that, I have responsibilities that I was practically forced into for doing one little act of kindness.” Her tone was joking but there was a touch of bitterness in it. It made Damian want to find out what caused it. Red Hood looked at her in concern. Lady went down the stairs, ignoring their reactions to her words. They followed her, not wanting to lose sight of her again.

The Lazarus Pits emitted a green glow that lit up the cave and cast strange shadows on the walls. At the edge of the glowing toxic green waters was a woman in dark blue clothing and strangely enough wearing sunglasses. Strapped to her sides were two Dao, ancient Chinese swords. She wore a vindictive expression on her face as she stood staring at the green lake, likely to kill anyone who gets in her way. Damian didn’t recognize the woman as part of the League but taking no chances, he got into a fighting stance and Hood did the same. Lady calmly approached the woman. He reached out to grab her to stop her suicidal nature when she shocked him by speaking to the blue-clad assassin in French,

“Hey, Maman, sorry I am late. I had a little trouble with the guards upstairs. You have Tikki?”

Lady’s mother rushed to hug her, “灵儿 (líng er), I am just glad you are alright. I knew you could handle yourself.”

How the hell did Lady’s mother get to the Lazarus Pits faster than them and snuck past several vigilant guards? Before Damian could question further, a red blur appeared and went to Lady’s face, hugging her cheek. It appeared to be the same size as Plagg but was red, looked like a bug and had a black dot on its forehead.

“Oh, Marinette, you are alright. I was so worried when your mother showed up, saying you were kidnapped and needed my earrings to escape.” Unlike Plagg’s nasally voice, her voice was sweet and shrill.

So, my bride’s name is Marinette. Such a unique name for an intriguing girl.

Wait what?

Wayne, stop thinking such ridiculous notions. That is probably the curse working. Resist against it. He will not be ensnared in the traps of such magic. He hoped that the curse will be reversed before he turns and act like those fools in Grayson’s idiotic shows or Todd’s ‘secret’ romance novels.

“I am fine now. See,” reassured Lady, “We actually need you and Plagg to reverse the Lazarus Pits to what it was before someone made the wish that resulted in them in the first place. Oh, I almost forgot. Plagg, claws in.”

Green light flashed, leaving Lady in her wedding robes (which actually flatter her body. Shit. Think of something else. Drake with a smug superior smile that needs to be wiped off his face. Grayson and his plans for ‘family bonding’) and Plagg to reappear.

“Cheese.” whined the cat-like kwami(?) to which the older woman held out a brown bag that smelled and made Plagg perk up in delight. He proceeded to open the bag, taking out a slice of stinky cheese, muttering about the greatness of camembert.

Todd cleared his throat and asked in English, “Umm...Pixie as much as your reunion is touching. Who’s the new lady?”

“Oh Right, sorry. Well, Red Hood, this is my mother, the Blue Reaper of the Guild of Night. Maman, this is Red Hood and the one next to him is my husband-to-be and Talia’s Spawn, Damian Wayne.”

Lady introduced them, also in English. Damian stilled in fear, recognizing the name. The Blue Reaper nearly became his mother-in-law. She was famous for her efficiency and ruthlessness. And gained her nickname from the blue clothing she often wore as she killed her targets. His eyes also widened at how his grandfather had gone a little too far now by kidnapping the Reaper’s daughter. There were other organizations that could possibly take down the League if it weren’t for the somewhat truce between Ra’s and the other leaders. The Guild was one of them and having the Lazarus Pits to revive their soldiers made the League a little more powerful. But if what the mother-daughter duo were planning succeeded, then the League was going to have one of its most deadly wars in its history and would probably never recover from.

“Tikki, Plagg, you guys ready?” asked Lady.

“Yes, Guardian.” They both replied and emitted a blinding red and green light which Damian shielded his eyes from. When it died down, the Lazarus Pits no longer glowed a toxic green and looked… like normal hot spring water.

“Oh. I wished I could see Ra’s face when he finds out.” Lady laughed. Plagg and Todd joined in.

“Pixie, I am beginning to like you.”

“Voyage. That being said, it’s time to go home, Marinette. Your father must be worried sick about us by now. I hope you boys can find your own way back.” A portal opened up, showing a cozy living room. Damian grabbed Lady’s wrist as she moved towards it.

“Wait, let us come with you. We need to contact someone to get rid of the curse on both of us. And we can also call our father to send us tickets for a ride home wherever you live.”

“Curse? Marinette, you never mentioned a curse in your call.” Blue Reaper said, raising her eyebrow.

“I will explain later. They can come with us and I am pretty sure Ra’s knows that we have escaped by now.” Lady grabbed the two brothers and dragged them through the portal.

She then threw herself onto the couch after releasing her hold on them and the two pocket gods went to comfort her after her ordeal. The Blue Reaper stood where the other portal was and fed a floating tiny gray horse, that must be the same species as Tikki or Plagg, some sugarcubes.

“You boys must be tired but the showers are upstairs and we might have some clothes your size. Dinner will be ready in an hour. You can stay the night if you want. Welcome to Paris.”

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

Tag list: @alysrose-starchild, @buginetye, @lookatthestars1, @blackroserelina, @macncheesemonster, @mochinek0, @myazael, @tonicxworld, @thewitchwhowaited, @t1dwarrior-of-earth, @kissa-chan, @iwantasecretidentity, @theymakeupfairies, @user00000003, @woe-is-me0, @kashlyn, @mochegato,@moonlightstar64 , @greatcatblaze, @moongoddesskiana, @tazanna-blythe. @tonicxworld, @toodaloo-kangaroo, @frieddonutsweets, @local-witch-of-mn, @lady-bee-fechin, @iglowinggemma28, @indecisive-mess-named-me, @k-tea-and-coffee, @jayjayspixiepop, @all-mights-asscheeks, @idk-j-go-with-it , @loysydark, @thenillabean, @lolieg, @zalladane, @silvergold-swirl

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

(Part 5)

#damian x marinette #mlb x dc #daminette #maribat #Betrothal AU: take 2 #A Failed Betrothal #assassin marinette #sort of #assassin sabine cheng #definitely #Jason is just here for a ride #marinette is a little petty

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Into The Unknown, Part 1

... I have no self-control do not perceive me

Marinette stared at the pile of bright red, yellow, and green clothes on the ground. It was all she’d done in the five-ish minutes since she’d portaled onto the scene. Just… stared.

It wasn’t like there was much else to do, anyways. Red Robin was currently beating the absolute fuck out of the person that had the audacity to disintegrate his brother right in front of him. It wasn’t like she could even fix it because the witch had been out cold before she had been able to pull Red Robin off to get a hit in so she could use her lucky charm.

So, she stared.

It was weird. She could almost feel a person inside the clothes but… maybe that was the residue or the ashes or whatever gets left behind when you zap a person out of existence? She didn’t really want to check, to be honest. Gross.

Eventually, though, she hesitantly leaned down and brushed her hand over it, trying to find the energy and get rid of it because it was really uncomfortable --.

… oh hell no that pile of clothes did not just fucking giggle at her.

She narrowed her eyes and carefully lifted up the bottom of the shirt, only to yelp and fall back. She scrabbled on the gross Gotham alley ground until her back hit Red Robin’s arm and he was forced to pause or risk hitting a meta (which would not have been good for his health).

“What?” He hissed.

She swallowed thickly. “That’s a child.”

“... what?” Red asked, all the anger bleeding from his tone in his confusion.

“We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby,” she whispered… then, it sunk in more. “We let Batman’s kid turn into a baby.”

He straightened on top of the thing that was really more bloody pulp than person at this point. “What do you mean ‘we let Batman’s kid turn into a baby’?”

But she didn’t really get a chance to answer because the baby chose that exact moment to be sick of being suffocated under all the armor and pushed it off.

Red Robin gulped. Because, yep, that was Robin as a baby. Batman was going to kill them.

Except he wasn’t going to kill them. Because Batman doesn't kill. No, Batman would find something even worse and that would suck.

The baby -- Robin? Should she still call him that mentally? -- giggled at their pain. Like an asshole.

They were so fucked.

~

He’d let B’s favorite kid get turned into a baby. Was there a way to get unadopted? Because if there was it was totally going to happen. Or maybe his dad would just cut him off because he was 19 now and could just get kicked out.

No. Nope! Not going to happen. No. He could fix this.

“Okay. Okay okay okay. We need a plan,” he heard himself saying.

Ladybug scoffed. “We? I was barely even here, this is on you.”

“Leave me alone to deal with this and I swear to god I will tell B that you did it.”

She paled. “You wouldn’t. No way.”

“Yes way. So, help me think of something.”

The baby giggled and started crawling over and both of them averted their eyes because, unfortunately, the child did not get baby clothes to go with his random transformation. Baby Damian didn't seem to care as he reached them and started climbing on Ladybug since she was closest. At least it wasn’t him. He did not want to see his adoptive brother’s… ew.

Ladybug made a gagging sound and then quickly summoned a lucky charm. She kept her face turned away as much as her neck would physically allow as she fumbled her way through swaddling the child in a polka-dotted blanket.

And then her shoulders slumped a little. “Great. Great. This is… great,” she muttered, picking up the bundle o’ baby.

He let himself look down now that it was safe.

“Alright, we need to go to another dimension where time moves faster,” Ladybug said after a few seconds. “And then we wait for him to age… fifteen-ish years. Best way to not make Batman notice.”

“... what about us? We also age.”

“Huh…? Oh. Right. You’re human.” She pulled off the glasses she was wearing and blinked a few times before handing it over. “Congrats on your upgrade. The tiny horse god is named Kaalki. She likes cake.”

“The tiny --?” He let out the world’s manliest screech as his eyes landed on the floating bug horse hybrid thing holy shit no no no no no the sci fi movies didn’t prepare him for this shit.

Kaalki looked a little offended but then her eyes landed on the baby and she gasped. “Aw, baby humans are always so cute.”

“Great, Kaalki, you take it,” said Ladybug.

Kaalki did try, to her credit. It just so happened that the approximately one-year-old baby was a lot bigger than the… whatever she was. Tim was refusing to believe that this was a god. Too many implications. He already had something to have a breakdown over, he didn’t need another thing right now, thank you very much.

Tim rested his head in his hands but he had more things to worry about than the blood that he was accidentally streaking through his hair.

“Okay. Okay. We can go to another dimension and try and raise him. Maybe we can make it have a ratio of one month here for every year there so any differences could be blamed on that.”

“Ya!” Said baby Damian. He probably didn’t actually know what was going on but he sure seemed excited so that was cool.

Ladybug sighed and nodded. “Great. You get food and money and clothes and I���ll take this lady to the cops… and I guess I’ll watch the kid until you get back because your dad cannot know.”

They shook on it.

~

This may be the dumbest idea that she’d ever had, and that was saying something. She didn’t know if she could trust Red Robin on this one, they hardly ever worked together. What if he just left her alone with this kid and let her try and figure this out on her own?

No. He wouldn’t do that. He was the last person known to be with Robin. Robin going missing would be bad for him, too. And, besides, she was pretty sure that he was a duty-driven person based on what she’d heard, she just had to hope that he saw this as his duty, too.

She turned the baby in her arms to get more comfortable as she waited for him to (hopefully) come back.

Part of her wanted to try and find someone from this world to reverse this but she didn’t know any outside of her, Adrien, Alix, and (now) Red Robin. Not on a personal level. Not enough that she knew for sure that they wouldn’t blab to Batman about it.

So, no, this is what she was doing.

But she had things to do. So, she pulled out her yoyo-phone-hybrid-thingy and wedged it against her ear.

“Chaton,” she said the moment he picked up. “You’re alone, right?”

“Uh… yeah?”

“Great. I, Ladybug, relinquish the Miracle Box and name Chat Noir the new guardian.”

“WHAT --?!” He didn’t get to finish as a box dropped on his lap and knocked the wind out of him.

“Just for, like, a year and a half. Sorry. Bye!”

“DON’T JUST ‘BYE’ ME WHAT THE --?!”

She hung up and closed the yoyo, hooking it back to her belt and ignoring it when it started buzzing again.

She looked down at Robin, who was squinting up at her. She returned the squint. Why was this baby so quiet? She didn’t get it. Surely, he should have been crying at this point.

“Do you still… remember things?” She asked, hoping against all hope that maybe he had retained his memories at the very least.

Robin smiled at her, but it was the blank-eyed baby smile that meant he wasn’t really understanding her. She bit down a curse.

Great. So, she’d not only gotten a baby but she’d gotten a fucking weird one. Great.

~

Tim left a note for his family saying that he, Damian, and Ladybug were bored and were going dimension hopping. His family would probably be suspicious but, hey, at least it wouldn’t be his problem for a good fifteen years on his end.

And, yeah, he knew this was probably one of his dumber plans but… it wasn’t the dumbest. And he was always one to commit when it came down to it. One time he had faked being shot and dealt with crutches for an entire year just to convince Vicki Vale that he wasn’t Red Robin. He had no fears that he couldn’t see this through.

Ladybug, though? A total mystery. She did nearly everything on a whim as far as he knew. She hopped from city to city fighting crime for absolutely no reason outside of boredom and made up all of her plans on the fly. No, he was a bit concerned about her ability to keep doing it.

So, he went as quickly as he possibly could. There was no rhyme or reason to what he was grabbing. He was just… putting stuff in there. There was money and three watches to help them move between dimensions, yes, but there was also a fanta orange and a copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy and exactly seven pairs of socks.

… yeah, he had the necessities. Probably.

He nearly got out the door before he realized he was still in his crime-fighting gear and he quickly shucked it all off and tossed it into the tub so the blood wouldn’t track any more than it already had. He did not need to avoid Batman’s wrath only to end up on the receiving end of Alfred’s.

He pulled on the first hoodie and jeans he could grab and looked around to make sure he hadn’t left anything of importance.

Okay. Now he was ready to go.

~

Marinette was awkwardly bouncing the baby when Red Robin finally showed up.

… not that she would have recognized him if she hadn’t felt Kaalki hovering in his pocket. In her eyes, he was just a random white guy wearing shades in the middle of the night.

She glanced up at him and gave him an awkward smile.

“Ready?”

He smiled back and held out two watches. Neither fit baby Robin so she prepared herself to choke out a literal baby holy fuck what even was her life.

“Which dimension should we go to?”

“Preferably one without miraculi,” Marinette said. “I don’t want to know what happens if there’s two of the same god in a dimension.”

He nodded slowly. “Probably best if Batman doesn’t exist, either, he’d probably notice my existence.”

“... so… no heroes at all?”

“Looks like we’re going cold turkey,” Red Robin said in a tone that was probably supposed to be joking but just came out flat.

She pushed herself to her feet and waited as he scrolled through the millions of dimensions.

Finally, he came upon one and she added the coordinates to her and Robin’s watches.

She readied Robin’s watch against his neck and tried to ignore the kid’s sudden squirminess.

“3… 2… 1…”

They were gone in a whirl of blue light.

~~~~~

Next

@nathleigh @peachmuses

#yes i wrote timari parenting dami #for no reason #while in the middle of a completely different fic #but listen #... its cute?? #yeah no i have no excuse #i just wanted to write cute things ;-; #into the unkown #maribat #timari #timmari #timinette #shutterbug #tim drake #red robin #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug

[fairyaali]

hi bestie.. 😃

so um , i saw this prompt somewhere and i wanted to send it to my favorite blog ! ( you ) so here it is!!

adrien with a s/o who’s from america ( new york specifically ) and she has a very veronica lodge type past. meaning she’s very proper and rich and silvertounged but very kindhearted and sweet and extremely loyal.

but she has a past where she used to be a bully in new york and bullied people if they didn’t fit in , and was practically the it girl from a movie? does that make sense?

however shes changed , yet one day during a akuma attack , her whole past gets revealed and videos of her being a complete BITCH and it being played off as hot by her classmates gets shown to the entire of paris?

what’s adrien doing? is she going to comfort her or leave her?

👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

 I had so much fun writing this, but fair warning that it’s kind of angsty oops! thank u for the request nonetheless <333

Ship: Adrien Agreste X reader

Warnings: Swearing.

Tags: Angst oops

What should you do when your father is out on a business trip?

Throw a party.

And that’s exactly what you did. At least that’s what you used to do back in New York.   It’s something you were known for. Now since you’ve got the chance to start fresh with a new life in Paris you decided to bring an old tradition back with you and invite some friends over from the school you’re attending, and your boyfriend of course.

Adrien Agreste. You had no idea what you did to get such an angel in your life. You’ve been dating him for a few moths now and you could already see yourself becoming a better person around him. You came to Paris with the intention of leaving your past behind, starting new and fresh without the bullshit from your past. This was it. Nothing could fuck this up.

“Hey,let me help you.” You hear your Adrien say while you try to adjust the lights near the DJ stand.

“I got it.” You say and get on your tip toes to hang the last light. “There.” You say, a successful smile on your face.

“You really out did yourself huh?” You feel his arms wrapping around you from the back and you hum.

“Oh please Agreste, this is nothing compared to what I used to do in New York.” You say and turn around, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “I hope everyone likes it.” You say, more to yourself than to him.

“Of course they will, Ma belle.” He says and kisses your forehead.

You loved it when he called you nicknames, they just made butterflies burst around your stomach.

His soft hand reaches up to touch your cheek and he caresses it gently. You look into his green eyes which were soft and welcoming. He is so gorgeous.

Your noses touch and you sigh, touching his hand and smiling softly. “I hate to ruin the moment, my love but I have to go make a few minor changes before your friends come.”

He pouts at you. “But everything’s already perfect, can’t we spend some alone time together before everyone comes?”

You shake your head. “I promise you’ll have me all to yourself tonight , Agreste.” You smirk and watch as his cheeks glow red. You quickly kiss his cheek and giggle, walking away to the kitchen to make sure that everything is in place.

It didn’t take long before people started arriving.

“Claudia, start offering the drinks around to people.” You whisper to your maid before going to greet everyone.

A familiar bluenette appears, with an amazed look on her face while she looks around. You grin and walk towards her.  

“Marinette! You look stunning!” You say and give each other a friendly kiss on the cheek. She really did look stunning. You’ve never seen her hair like this before, let down and slightly curled.  She’s wearing a dress which perfectly hugged her body and the colour was gorgeous on her - A deep vermilion shade which complemented her fair skin. 

“Likewise.” She grins and looks at your dress. “Oh my god who are you wearing? This dress is gorgeous.” She gasps, eyes wide while she moved around to see the dress from the back and front.  You knew that she would comment on it, she had an eye for fashion after all.

“My father got this for me as a gift from South Korea. The designer is a family friend of ours.” You smile proudly. You didn’t want to brag about it but in all honesty you loved this dress too much not to show it off. 

You look to her side and see a blue haired boy standing kind of awkwardly next to her. “And you must be…?” You trail off, quirking an eyebrow at him.

“Luka, Marinette’s date.” He says nonchalantly and Marinette stops looking at your dress, straightening up with her face glowing red.

“Ah, I see. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Im-“

“I already know who you are.” He states and you furrow your eyebrows. You’re more than sure you’ve never met this guy before.

Marinette nudges him and you see him stiffen up.

“I mean, it was kind of a big deal when you came to Paris and everyone was talking about you so-“

Marinette sighs and grabs Lukas arm. “We’re going to get a drink, It was nice seeing you! Au revoir !” She says and walks away with Luka. You could hear her cussing at him from where you were standing.

Ah, of course. You knew that everyone was talking about you. The new rich bitch from New York who’s mother is in jail. That’s what everyone saw at first. Maybe they do still see it now. But maybe that’s why you fell for Adrien, because he never judged you in the first place despite all those rumors.

You turn around and see him, talking to Nino. He’s wearing the outfit you picked out for him.  Black shirt slightly unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled up, tan pants with a black belt around them and black converse.  His hair was messy but it looked so good on him and his cheeks were tinted a little pink, probably because of the few drinks that he’s had already.  Your eyes meet and he smiles at you. Right as he was about to come next to you, you feel someone tap your shoulder.

“Hi, Nadja Chamack. Did you move to paris because your mother is imprisoned for drug trafficking? Was your father denied bail?” The woman rushes to say while shoving a microphone to your face. You stare at her wide eyed. You didn’t know what to say.

“Hey, leave now before I call security, you shouldn’t be up here.” You hear Adrien say sternly while putting a hand on your shoulder.

“But was that the reason you came to Paris or was it because of the video that was spread of you-“

“Security!” Adrien shouts and two body guards grab Nadja and her camera man.

You stand there, dumbfounded as the body guards drag them away, the two cussing and struggling to get out of their grasp.

“Mon ange, are you okay?” Adrien asks, cupping your face with his hands, snapping you out of your thoughts.

 You look at him and clear your throat.

 “I’m fine, I need a drink.” You say and remove his hands from your face and start walking away.

He grabs your hand and looks at you, concern filling your eyes.

“No you’re not okay.” He says, kissing your hand and holding it gently. “What did they mean by video?” He asks.

Your body goes into full fight or flight mode.

“God Adrien! It’s nothing.” You snap at him. “just let it go, I don’t want to deal with this right now.” You remove yourself from his grasp and quickly walk away to the open bar.

You didn’t mean to snap at him but that conversation needed to wait until you two got more serious. You weren’t ready for it.

You grab a glass of champagne and down it, your face contorting because of the after taste.

You were about to get another one until you hear a scream.

“We want to know all your secrets! Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news!” A distorted voice says and you drop your glass on the floor when you see a dark purple monstrous figure coming your way.

“Shit.” You cuss and run away from the bar.

Everyone was screaming and trying to rush to the exit but everywhere was closed off with a purple like shield around.

You frantically look around to find a place to hide until you see a familiar blond with cat ears motioning to you.

Chat Noir. Thank god.

You were about to run to him until you started floating in the air, a purple bubble surrounding you.

You screamed and frantically hit it to try to escape but it was no use. 

“I got you now!” You hear the distorted voice say and let out an evil laugh.

You watch your phone float out of your hand and out of the bubble.

Fuck, fuck fuck fuck.

You were fucked.

The bubble that surrounded you explodes and you fell from it, right into the arms of Chat Noir.

“Hey I got you it’s okay” He says smiling at you and for some reason you were slightly comforted by him.

 Your eyes fill with tears and your throat begins to feel like it’s closing.

“She has my phone.” You croak out and your body starts shaking.

You see Ladybug swinging from the roof, throwing her Yo-Yo to try and grasp the villain but it was too late.

A screen appeared out of thin air and a video started playing -  you were in it, in your classroom in your school in New York. You knew exactly what this video was.

Your jaw clenched when it started playing.

“Awh look she’s crying guys.” You say in a condescending tone in the video. The girl, Sarah, was balling her eyes out in front of you while you smirk and stand in front of her, your arms crossed.

“H-How could you!” She sobs out.

“How could I what? Your boyfriend was the one with his hands all over me, I just gave him what he really wanted.” You say and chuckle.

“That’s not true he would never-“

“Cheat?” You cut her off, lean closer to her and put your hands on the desk in front of her. “hate to break it to you honey but he did.” You tell her and she sobs even harder.

“Maybe this will help you put you back in your place.” You say, grabbing her face, making her look at you. “You’re a nobody, a loser and you had the audacity to talk shit behind my back?”

Her lips quiver in fear and she was visibly shaking in the video.

“You think you could ever stand a chance against me? Think again bitch.” You say and let her face go, turning around and arranging your skirt.

“By the way, he’s a really good kisser. Such a shame.” And with that you walk away from her while people wolf whistle at you and mumble things under their breath.

You were still in Chat’s arms, he was looking at the screen, eyes wide and lips parted. It was like he was frozen. Tears were streaming down your face, you couldn’t move.

Everyone around you was mumbling and whispering things.

“She’s such a bitch.”

“I knew the rumors about her were true! She’s horrible!”

“This wasn’t the video I wanted! Where’s the proof where’s the-“ The villain gets cut off by Ladybug grabbing her microphone with the akuma in it and slamming against her knee. A purple butterfly emerges from it and she grabs it with her yoyo, turning it white.

    “Miraculous ladybug!” She chants and the place starts magically getting back to normal.

Chat clears his throat. “I need to go.” He mumbles and removes his hands from you. You nod and stare down at your shoes.

“Thank you for saving me.” You say, forcing yourself to smile.

He didn’t even look at you, he didn’t even say anything as he left.

Did he think you were horrible too?

Oh my god.

Adrien.

 After the villains were taken away everyone left without even saying goodbye to you.

You sat down on the platform near the DJ stand and hugged your knees closer to your chest.

You hear footsteps walk towards you and you look up. His green eyes meet yours but they instantly avert to the side.

“You know, when we first started dating, everyone was telling me about these stupid rumors about you and I never wanted to hear them because I never believed you could be capable of that.” He says, a frown on his lips.  “I never wanted to be so fucking right in my life but I guess I was wrong.”

You were trying so hard not to cry in front of him. You knew that this would happen when he found out, it was like a gut feeling. Adrien Agreste is a good person. He likes to be surrounded by good people and that video just showed that you might not be the good person he really thought you were. Your heart ached.

“I’ve c-changed Adrien.” You stutter in a small voice, scared that you would break down if you spoke too loudly.

“Have you really?” he questions, looking directly at you. He was disappointed in you. “God, why didn’t you tell me this before!” He rubs his face in frustration. You’ve never seen Adrien so worked up like this.

“Because I knew You’d react like this!” You say, louder this time as you get up. “For fucks sake Adrien! I told you my past wasn’t perfect and I know I was a bitch but I was young and stupid and I know it doesn’t excuse my actions but I’ve grown from my mistakes. I came to Paris with the mindset of becoming better, finding out who I really am and starting fresh!”

You watch him part his lips to say something but You cut him off.

“Look me right in the eye and tell me you’ve never done a mistake in your life, Adrien.”

His lips close and he averts his gaze away from you again.

  “I know I should’ve told you sooner but I was too scared of losing you. Y-you made Paris feel like my home, you’re the reason why I make better choices, you helped me find myself.” Tears start falling down your cheeks and you look down. “And if I haven’t changed then I wouldn’t be looking stupid and crying over you and explaining myself to you because im genuinely terrified at the thought of losing the first person in my life who I’ve genuinely fallen in love with.” You sob out.

There was silence, apart from the sniffles and sobs coming from you.

“What did you say?” Adrien asks you and you hear his footsteps come closer.

“What?” You sniffle, looking up at him, furrowing your eyebrows. Your eyes were puffy and red and so was your nose. You haven’t cried like this in ages.

“The last part.”

“I’ve genuinely fallen in love with you? “ You mumble and widen your eyes. Oh shit, you’ve fucked up again.

“I know it’s sudden and I don’t expect you to return it back and I don’t know why I just said that but-“ He cuts you off with his lips smashing against yours.

It was euphoric. Probably the most genuine kiss you’ve ever felt in your life.

He breaks away, your foreheads touching and both of you breathless.

His pretty pink lips curl into a small smile and his face cups yours, wiping your tears away with his thumb.

“I love you too.” He whispers and kisses your forehead. “I’m sorry I overreacted, I just didn’t want to be wrong about you but I believe that you’ve changed, I know you’re heart is pure.”

And that’s when you realized that yes, your heart was pure again. Clean from all the sins you’ve did in the past. You didn’t know if it was his green eyes, soft skin, perfect lips or maybe the way he looked at you that has cleansed you but maybe it took pure love to find a pure heart.

#adrien agreste #mirculous ladybug #adrien x reader #adrien agreste x reader #mlb #chat noir #cat noir #chat noir x reader

[mochegato]

Best Laid Plans

“This is without a doubt, the stupidest plan you’ve ever had.  Of course I’m in.”  Roy chirped. He suddenly fixed Jason with a serious look.  “But if Marinette ever finds out I helped, I will pour acid on your favorite guns.  I’m not taking any of the blame for this.”

Jason waved him off.  “She won’t.  It’ll be fine.  Get going. Make it sound good.”

Roy grabbed his phone with a huff and a roll of his eyes.  He punched several buttons before raising it to his ear.  Jason answered his phone silently and waited for the others to pick up. “Dick, Jason, Marinette, I got some intel on the case.  It looks like there is going to be some movement tonight at the Gotham docks.  We should meet there before to investigate. See if there’s anything we can use to get more insight.”  He nodded a few times.  “Right. See you in an hour.”

He turned to Jason.  “Okay, it’s all set up.  I’ll make sure you’re paired together.  Don’t fuck it up.”

“I won’t,” Jason scoffed with considerably more confidence than he felt.  But there was no reason to worry.  There was no way this wouldn’t work.  This was the perfect plan.  She would have no choice but to talk.  She couldn’t avoid it again.  They could finally, finally talk this through.  And then once they’d talked, everything would be okay.  They’d go back to the way they were before, or, the even better option, they could move forward.

The meeting time could not come quickly enough.  Jason’s body was strumming the entire hour.  He was incapable of staying still for more than a few milliseconds.  He darted around the apartment, fluffing and refluffing pillows, straightening already straight wall decorations, dusting already immaculate books, until it was time to go.

He made it down to the docks in record time and leaned casually against one of the container units as he waited for the rest of the team to arrive, forcing his body to not portray any of the tension pulsating under his skin.

Luckily, he didn’t have long to wait.  The rest of the team all arrived at the same time a few minutes later.  He sidled up next to Ladybug as nonchalantly as he could. “Hey,” he whispered.  She nodded to him but looked away quickly.  Arsenal looked between them and heaved a deep huff. “Right.  Let’s split up while we investigate.”

“We don’t know what to expect.  We should pair up,” Nightwing suggested.  He kept his eyes on the units around them, searching for any indications of danger.

“Exactly what I was thinking…” Arsenal started, the excitement from Dick playing into the plan without even realizing it leaking into his tone.

“I’ll go with Ladybug,” Red Hood interrupted with a resolute nod.

“No, you won’t,” Ladybug hissed to him.

“Arsenal and I will go this way.  Ladybug and Hood go that way,” Nightwing agreed, having not heard Ladybug’s objection a few seconds earlier, or not registering her words.

Ladybug opened her mouth to protest but Nightwing had already grappled to the top of a container and was running away, fully confident Arsenal would follow him.  She glared at his retreating back.

Arsenal looked between them and the direction in which Nightwing left.  “Right.  Uh… talk to you later.”  He waved awkwardly and jogged away.

Red Hood looked over to Ladybug.  “So… I guess I’ll go with Ladybug after all,” he crowed.

Ladybug huffed and stalked away.  “Let’s get this done.”

Red Hood sighed and followed after her.  It would be okay, he reminded himself.  As soon as they talked and she was able to vent her anger, they would be fine.  She just needed to get it out and he just needed to take advantage of the time together.

After a few seconds of walking in silence, he jogged over to one of the container units.  “Did you hear that?” he called out just loudly enough for her to hear him.  He pushed his ear to the walls of the container.  “I thought I heard something.”

Ladybug’s expression instantly turned to concerned.  She rushed over next to him and rested her ear on the wall, listening intently for a sound.  After a few seconds of not hearing anything, she finally noticed where she was, and how close to Jason’s face her face had ended up, close enough that if he wasn’t wearing a helmet, she would be able to feel his breath fanning out across her face.

She jumped away quickly, turning her back on him and pretending to scan the area for danger, so he wouldn’t see the blush blooming across her face.  “I don’t hear anything.”

Red Hood looked back toward the opening to the unit.  “I’m going to investigate.”

Ladybug nodded and walked a few steps away before heaving a deep breath and turning back to follow him. “Fine.  I’m coming too.  Someone’s got to keep you from killing yourself.”

Red Hood hung his head with a sigh but shook it off quickly.  Keep his mind on the goal.  He opened the door for her and motioned for her to go first.  “Ladies first.”

Ladybug scoffed.  “Must be pretty confident there isn’t anything dangerous in there if you’re willing to let someone else go first.”

Red Hood huffed at her reaction.  “I definitely wouldn’t let you go first if I thought there was.”

He had just made it past the container’s threshold when the door slammed behind him.  He whirled around and pushed against the door to no effect.  The door held fast even with him pushing his hardest.  Ladybug joined him in an instant and pushed alongside him.  “Son of a…” She kicked the door in frustration.

Jason looked around the unit using the infrared vision in his helmet.  “Empty.  It’s empty,” he reported.  “There’s nothing here.”

“So it was a setup,” she grumbled.  “Arsenal? Nightwing?  Can either of you hear me?  Nightwing?  Arsenal?” She groaned and opened her yoyo to get some light so she could look around.  “And some kind of com interfering tech going on.”

“Well…..”  Jason moved around trying to find the most comfortable position leaning against the wall of the container unit.  “Looks like we’ll be trapped for a while, anything you want to get off your chest while we’re in here?”  He shot her a cheeky smile.  “Or anything you want to take off your chest?  Or mine?”

Marinette’s eyes widened fractionally, trying desperately to keep from showing her distress.  She was surprised the screams going on in her head weren’t bouncing off the walls in the container unit.  This was too soon.  It was far too soon to be alone with Jason again.  And far, far too soon to actually talk.  Marinette glared at him, “You can dead lift 1000 pounds but you can’t knock open this door?  What use is your strength if you can’t even open a door?”

“That door was made to withstand thousands of pounds of pressure ramming into it in rough seas. I’m not going to make a dent.  If it would make you feel better for me to break my hand or dislocate my shoulder, I could try,” he offered.  He made a show of starting to get up without putting any actual effort in.  Marinette grumbled and turned back toward the door.  Jason chuckled and settled back against the wall.  “Now, as I was saying, looks like we’ll be trapped for a while. What should we do to pass the time?” His voice was light and airy and a direct contrast to the anxiety Marinette felt.

“Plan.  They can’t hear us through the coms, we can’t break down the door…”  She examined every part of the door hinge she could see with the light from her yoyo before moving on to study the rest of the unit, muttering observations to herself every so often.  After a while she huffed out an annoyed breath.

“Give up yet, Pixie?” Jason chuckled.

She glared at him. “You seem awfully unconcerned about being trapped in a container unit because of a trap.”

“Eh, Arsenal and Nightwing will figure out we’re missing soon and come looking for us.” He shrugged. “That gives us a few hours to do whatever we want, completely uninterrupted.  Anything you want to do?  Idle hands and all.”  He raised his hands to wiggle his fingers with a wicked grin.

“You’re no help.” She growled turning back toward the door.  “Fine.  Lucky Charm!” She called out throwing her yoyo into the air.  She held out her hand and watched as a toy bus landed in her hands. “A bus?  What am I supposed to do with this?”  She looked around the container unit for any clues to how she was supposed to use it.  After a minute of searching she finally gave up, hanging her head in disappointment.  

“Come on, Pixie.  Let’s just get comfortable and talk.  We haven’t talked in a while not since… It’s been a while.” He stuttered, the airy, teasing nature long gone from his voice.

She squeezed her eyes shut tighter.  It wasn’t that she didn’t want to move forward, it’s just that she didn’t know how to get there… or even if they could.  She let out a long breath and opened her eyes, still looking down.  She cocked her head to the side looking at her yoyo that was gleaming a brighter red than usual.  Her yoyo… and a bus.  She grinned as the plan formed in her head.  “I know what I’m supposed to do.”  She exclaimed proudly.  “Stay right there and don’t move.”

Jason’s hopeful expression fell.  He sighed and bit his lip.  He knew she didn’t want to talk but he didn’t expect her to be this resistant.  “Yeah, okay.”  He thought if she had an excuse to cling to, she could push through her anxiety and they could talk but Marinette was making it very clear she was not interested.  So, either it wasn’t a matter of anxiety, she wasn’t angry enough to push past yet, or she just didn’t want to move past this.

Marinette started swinging her yoyo around in a circle, moving it faster and faster until neither of them could see anything but a vague reddish blur.  She moved slowly forward until the yoyo was just a few centimeters away from the wall.  She took a deep, steadying breath and moved forward again, putting more force into her swings as the yoyo came into contact with the wall and the friction of the contact tried to slow the yoyo’s speed.

As soon as the yoyo touched the door Jason stood up and stared in awe.  He quickly removed his helmet to watch the sparks fly from the yoyo etching into the reinforced steel, with his own eyes.  After a minute, the container unit was flooded with light. Jason flinched at the sudden brightness, throwing his arm over his eyes to block it out.  Marinette slowed the yoyo until it finally fell still.  She turned back and grinned at him as she stepped through the hole.

Jason slowly followed her with jerky movements, still shocked from what he had just seen.  “How…  That shouldn’t…”  He looked back and forth between her and the hole in the container.  “How did a bus lead you to do that?”  He exclaimed loudly.

Marinette’s lips twinged up in a smile at his reaction.  “Once in Paris someone threw a bus at me and Chat and I had to do that as the bus was falling on us.  It created a hole in the bus so we went through the hole instead of the bus crushing us.”

“That is so fucking badass!” Arsenal yelled.  He threw his arm up in the air as he ran up to her, a brilliant grin on his face.

Marinette blinked at him a few times.  She looked back and forth between him and Red Hood suspiciously.  Her eyes narrowed at Red Hood when he looked anywhere but at her. Her narrowed eyes turned into a glare at Arsenal as the pieces started fitting together.  The glare didn’t lighten as Nightwing landed next to them. “You found them.  Did you guys see anything?  What happened?  We couldn’t raise you on coms.”

“Mission’s over for tonight. I think they got what we came here for,” she growled, never looking away from Arsenal.  He shrunk away from her, almost hiding behind Nightwing.  No longer able to focus her anger on Arsenal, Ladybug rounded on Red Hood with a dark glare.

Nightwing looked between the three of them, confusion etched on his face.  “What does that mean?  What is going on?”

Jason prepared himself for her to attack him, braced himself for her to unleash her anger at him.  It wasn’t the way he wanted it to happen but finally, finally she would blow up at him.  Finally, they could move on.  But instead of the explosion he was expecting, she seemed to implode.  Her expression shifted momentarily before she let out a long breath and marched away.  She only paused her escape for a moment in front of Roy.  She leaned in close to hiss.  “You better hide your arrows and hope not even Trixx can find them.”

Jason watched dejected as she left.  Her not reacting hurt more than blowing up at him.  Anger he understood.  Screaming he understood.  Lashing out he understood.  They all meant the person was passionate, they were emotionally invested, even if that emotion was anger.  But walking away?  He punched the container door in frustration.  It slammed shut violently, a new dent appearing and the sound reverberating through the docks.  Even worse, she seemed to pull all the pain inside, on herself instead of on him, where it belonged.

Roy sighed and turned from watching Marinette disappear in the distance to give Jason a sympathetic look. He patted him on the back and gently urged him toward the bikes.  Honestly, he thought that was going to work as well.  He absolutely did not see this result.  Marinette loved Jason… but then again, that was the problem, wasn’t it? She loved him more than he loved himself.  “Come on, let’s go get a few drinks.”  He nodded to Nightwing.  “You’re welcome to come too, if you don’t ask questions.”

“You guys go.  I’m not interested,” Red Hood grunted, finally seeming to come out of his haze from watching Ladybug leave.

Nightwing moved in front of him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.  “What are you going to do instead?”

“Go someplace you guys aren’t,” Red Hood snapped.  He shoved Nightwing’s hand off his shoulder and stalked past him toward his bike.  If she didn’t want to talk, then they wouldn’t talk.  He wasn’t going to force her.  He wasn’t going to kidnap her… He groaned loudly and hit his head against the handlebars of his bike.  Except that’s exactly what he did.  No wonder she ran away as quickly as she could.

He made his way back to his apartment at a considerably slower pace than he took getting to the rendezvous point.  He let his bike guide him back, taking round about routes while his mind wandered, thinking about nothing and everything.  That was it, wasn’t it?  That was the end.  At least there were sparks at the end, he groused to himself.

He had no idea how long it had taken him to return to his apartment, but it was still dark, so it was somewhere between fifteen minutes and ten hours.  He opened his door and threw his keys on the kitchen island with one hand and slamming the door behind him with the other.  He froze when he didn’t hear the normal clunk of the keys hitting tile. He slowly moved his far hand to his gun and flipped the light on with his other.

Whatever he was expecting, it was not Marinette perched on his kitchen island, holding his keys, and looking absolutely petrified.  She gently set his keys down as she took a bracing breath.  She opened her mouth to say something but snapped it closed as her courage failed her.  Jason stared at her frozen in surprise, his only movement the rising and falling of his chest and slowly easing his hand off his gun.

Marinette followed the movement of his hand distractedly.  When his hand settled lank by his side and there was no more movement to distract her, she looked back up to meet his eyes.  They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before she finally spoke, her voice fragile.  “You set that all up just to get us to talk.”

“Yes,” he breathed out. He waited for her to continue but she shifted her focus to stare at the floor in front of him, her brow furrowed in concentration as her mind tried to work through everything.  He stayed frozen, giving her the time she needed to work through it.  But after a few minutes, she still wasn’t speaking and his own anxiety started ramping up.  “You just… you weren’t… I mean it wasn’t your fault.  I’m not blaming you.  I just wanted to talk.  I just… I don’t want to lose you,” he said earnestly.

Marinette’s head snapped up and met his eyes, a sudden hardness appearing.  “Don’t you?   Are you sure?”

Jason’s eyes widened in shock.  “What the Hell kind of question is that?  Of course I’m sure.”

“Because you risk your life an awful lot for someone who doesn’t want to lose me.  I remember an awful lot of stupidly reckless stunts for someone who doesn’t want to lose me.  I remember you on a…”  She broke eye contact with him to look anywhere else.  She took a long breath before looking back at him with steely eyes. “And I remember you gunning to go out again.  Before you’d even recovered.  Into the same situation.  To let them do the job properly that time and really kill you.”  She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned forward.  “You know you lose me if you die, right?  And I lose you?”

Jason sighed and moved slowly closer to her, meeting her glower with an understanding gaze.  “I’m not risking it for no reason, Pixie.  I’m not reckless.  I’m not stupid.  I plan. I strategize.  I think through all the possibilities and anticipate the consequences and plan for those too.  I just don’t have good luck on my side to make sure it always works in my favor, like you do so sometimes it just doesn’t work out.”

Marinette gasped and Jason immediately cringed.  That was not the best way to have said that.  As soon as the words left his lips he knew that.  He waited for Marinette to yell at him for being the asshole he knew he was. But Marinette seemed to shake off his comment, quirking her head to the side slightly with pain leaking into her eyes.

“I know you’re not stupid,” she said quietly.  “I know you’re brilliant.  Which is why is hurts so much when your plans so often involve putting your life in danger.” She looked up at him with unshed tears pricking at her eyes.  “It feels intentional.  It feels like you think your life is less valuable than anyone else’s.  It feels like you’re looking for an excuse to leave me.”

All the breath evaporated from Jason’s lungs as his heart shattered.  He was in front of her in a second.  “Mari…”

She ran her fingers lightly over his jaw.  “I want a future with you, but I can’t keep wondering if today’s the day you let yourself die.  I can’t keep crying at your bedside with tubes hooked into you, wondering if you’ll make it through the night.  I can’t…” she wiped at her eyes, the tears finally breaking through.  “It feels like you’re just looking for ways to get yourself killed.”

Jason pressed his forehead to hers, squeezing his eyes shut to revel in the feeling of her skin pressed against his and her breath fanning out across his face.  “I’m not trying to get killed.  I promise you, I’m not.  I’m not looking for ways to sacrifice myself.  I protect my team.  I protect the victims.  I protect you.  That’s the job.”

“The job sucks,” she groused, resting her hands on either side of his neck, the only exposed part of him other than his face.

“It does,” he agreed with a small nod, small enough not to lose the physical contact between their foreheads. “Do you want me to give it up?  I would.  For you.  I would walk away from all of it,” he offered.

His voice was so earnest and raw, it almost hurt to hear.  Marinette shook her head slowly.  “I would never ask you to give up something you love for me.”

Jason pulled her closer until he was nestled comfortably between her legs, her chest pushing against his. “What do you want?  What can I do?  I’ll do anything you ask,” he promised.  He smoothed the hair around her face as he made his solemn oath.  “I love you.  I want to have a life with you.  A long, happy life,” he assured her.  “I need to know what I need to do to fix this.”

Marinette leaned away from him.  She searched his eyes critically and cocked her head to the side as she analyzed him, searched his soul to see if he was capable of what she needed.  “Would you treat yourself better for me?”

Jason pulled back in surprise.  “What?”

Her eyes became more resolute in response.  “Would you take care of yourself for me?  Would you protect yourself like you protect your brothers, like you protect Roy, like you protect me, for me?  Would you treat yourself like you’re as important and valuable and loved as you treat everyone around you?  I don’t want to be in another hospital room wondering if I’m going to be a widow before we’re even married.”

Jason searched her eyes, reeling from the adoration he found there.  Of all the things she could have asked, that seemed the hardest to fulfill. He was never going to not risk his life for hers.  He was never going to let her suffer when he could instead.  But, he could try, he supposed.  That was the best he could offer her.  That just had to be enough.

Suddenly her words registered in his head.  ‘Widow before we’re even married.’  He grinned breathlessly.  “That’s a Hell of a bribe, Pixie.”  He traced her face, his fingertips just barely touching her.  “I can try to be more careful.  I can promise to keep in mind what I’m coming home to.  I’ll always protect you with everything I am, but I’ll try to be safer.”

Her eyes softened.  “I just…” she whispered as she leaned into his hands, “I love you so much.  And I don’t want to lose you either.”

“You won’t,” he promised sincerely.  “I came back from the dead once.  I’d do it again for you.”

He pulled her against him and held her close, reveling in the feeling of her body against his, the way her body seemed to instinctually respond to his, the way it melded into his.  It was exactly what he had been missing the last few weeks.  It was what he needed to feel like himself again.

He took a few moments to memorize the feeling of her in his arms and the mesmerizing way she was looking at him before finally touching his lips to hers.  He kissed her softly, almost reverently, like he wasn’t sure if he really had permission yet.  He sighed contentedly as soon as his lips touched hers, where they belonged, doing what they were meant to do, kissing Marinette.

She followed his lead, taking the kiss slowly, languidly, enjoying the firm, insistent feeling of his lips again.  Her hands caressed his jaw and cheeks, gently encouraging him to come closer.  She hummed in appreciation as he followed her encouragement.  She flicked his lip playfully with her tongue as he pulled away.

She smirked softly.  “You really can’t keep resting on that whole coming back from the dead thing, you know.  Almost everyone we know can say that now,” she teased, but the affection in her voice and the love in her eyes was clear.

He gasped in mock offense. “But I’m the original and the best.” He grinned smugly and winked at her. “I’m the GOAT.”

She gave him a flat look. “First, never say that again. Second, really?” she chuckled with only a slight trace of patronization in her voice as she wound one arm around his neck to draw him closer again.  The other grabbed his butt firmly.  “I always thought you were more of an ass.”

He grinned and settled further between her legs.  “At least I’ve got you thinking about my ass.”

Marinette scoffed.  “I’m always thinking of your ass… and your thighs… and your…” Jason stopped her with another kiss, no longer able to wait to continue what they started.  The kiss was harsher this time, more demanding.  She returned his intensity in kind curling her fingers around his jacket lapels and tugging him flush against her chest.  She wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him impossibly closer so she could feel his weight pressing against her and swallowed the moan he let out at her ferocity.

He wrapped his hand behind her head to brace her as he pushed harder against her lips, in a bruising, possessive kiss.  His other hand traced slowly down her side and thigh.  The whimper she let out rippled through his body, warming and exciting every inch of him like it was directly affecting him down to his very molecules.  “God, I love you so much,” he whispered against her lips.

Marinette smiled against his lips.  “I love when you say that.”  She captured his lips again in a heady, hungry kiss.  “I love you too.”

Jason grabbed her by her ass and pulled her until she was resting on his hips.  He attacked her throat, laying a line of kisses from her jaw down to her collarbone.  She arched into his lips, a needy moan escaping her lips and trying to splay her hands against his chest, her face wrinkling in frustration when she couldn’t feel him because of his jacket.   She growled at the jacket and unzipped it unceremoniously before all but ripping it from his body and tossing it somewhere.  Honestly, she didn’t care where it ended up.

Marinette let her hands explore his chest as his mouth explored hers.  Her hands wandered down to caress and massage his sides, his hips, his thighs, but she froze, pulling away from him.  He looked up at her in confusion, mouth still slightly parted in reparation for his next kiss.  Marinette smirked and pushed him away as she hopped down off the counter.  She slowly pulled her shirt off over her head as she walked backward toward the bedroom with a sultry look.  “Lose the guns, Love.  Not the kind of excitement I’m looking for tonight.”

Jason grinned and unbuckled his thigh holster straps quicker than he ever had and for the first time in his life cursed how secure and complicated they were.  He grunted through taking them off.  Maybe he should start using a different weapon.  “You coming?” Marinette’s voice floated from the bedroom.

“Not yet, but I want to be,” he grumbled to himself as he finally got the final strap off and bounded back to join her.

#maribat #jasonette #not smut but suggestive #Happy Birthday Meow

[marauderundercover]

Taking Chances Ch. 28: Summer Changes (School)

AO3

Prev

A week after the Disney movie marathon, Marinette was finally back on patrol. No thanks to her dad though. If it was up to him, she’d probably never patrol again. Luckily for her, (unluckily for him) her brothers were adamant on her coming back to the field. Which led to her current problem. Hanging upside down from a gargoyle near Wayne Enterprises.

“Ukht, what have you done?” Damian asks, and though she can’t see his face, she can tell by his voice that he’s exasperated. Join the club, she thinks, at least you’re not upside down.

“Why do you automatically think I did something?” She asks, trying desperately to turn around so that she can talk to him. It was really awkward talking to someone when you couldn’t see them but you knew they were near you.

“Because you are the one hanging upside down,” Damian says flatly. She huffs.

“It’s not like I want to be, Robin. It just kind of happened,” She says.

“And how exactly did it happen? I have never seen your yoyo betray you like that before. Not even in the videos when you were still very new.” Damian says, and she swears he’s smirking. He’s definitely laughing at her on the inside, and as much as she wants to be frustrated, she can’t. It wasn’t easy amusing her little brother (unless you were an animal) so she wasn’t about to ruin it.

“Hood made a bet relating to this exact gargoyle and I’d never been this way before and I just, I don’t know. Somehow I misjudged where my yoyo was going and next thing I know, I’m tied up and Hood is gone.” She says, sighing.

“Where did he go?” Damian asks.

“Over here so I could record the dumbass trying to untie herself.” Jason says with a snort, she manages to turn just enough so she can see him and stick her tongue out at him. He chuckles. “You’re the one who somehow tied herself up with a magic string, I’m just getting the proof so I can show Wonder Woman.” He says and Marinette’s jaw drops.

“You wouldn’t dare!” She screams, struggling against her yoyo, finally able to get the string to loosen slightly.

“Oh, I’d dare.” Jason says and Marinette just knows he has a huge smirk underneath his stupid helmet.

“But Wonder Woman is the coolest person ever and she can’t see me like this!” Marinette complains, trying not to grin when she feels the string start to move the way she needs it to. She ignores Jason’s next remark, instead focusing on the string and- yes! She free falls for a moment, laughing at her brothers’ panic before she swoops up and jerks Jason’s phone away from him.

“You little shit!” He calls after her, starting to chase her.

“You’ll get it back once I delete the videos!” She calls back, laughing as she continues swinging through Gotham, a warm feeling in her chest as she looks over the city that has quickly become her second home.

---

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” A voice screams, making Marinette jump out of bed with a yelp. She clutches her hand over her heart, glaring at her oldest brother.

“Are you trying to make sure I don’t make it past my fifteenth birthday?” She asks with a huff. Dick just grins.

“Happy birthday kiddo! I can’t believe you’re already fifteen!” He exclaims, picking her up in a giant hug. She wants to complain, ask him to let her down, but it’s nice, so instead she returns the hug the best she can. Until she glances out the window.

“Richard Grayson.” She says in a tone she usually reserves for enemies. She feels him stiffen, the hug turning into more of a restraint than a cuddle.

“Yes?” He says.

“Did you honestly wake me up, before the sun, because it’s my birthday?” She asks.

“Yes?” He says, his voice cracking slightly. She purses her lips and lets out a long sigh.

“Dad has a no killing rule.” She says, and suddenly she’s back on the ground.

“Oh would you look at the time, Mar’i needs another bedtime story loveyousomuchgottagobye.” Dick rushes out, practically sprinting out of her room. She just smiles and shakes her head. She’d learned intimidation tactics from Jason and Damian, who both claimed her size made her an easy target against bad guys. They were right, of course, so she was fine with a few extra lessons. Seems they were working. Deciding to call her Maman and Papa since she’s already awake, she frowns as it goes straight to voicemail. It would be nearly eleven in Paris, so the bakery shouldn’t be too busy. She quickly checks the Akuma Alert App to make sure she hadn’t missed anything while she slept. Nothing. So why weren’t they answering? She had assumed they would be waiting for her call since it was the first birthday she’d spent without them. Sighing, she lays back down on her bed, closing her eyes and trying to fall back asleep.

As she lays there, she frowns as a realization hits her. This was the anniversary of her birth mother’s death. Her mood instantly sours and her stomach churns. It was the first year that she could do something about it, the first year she could visit her grave. Quickly making a decision, Marinette throws on a pair of black leggings and an oversized black hoodie. Hopefully no one would spot her.

“Kaalki.” Marinette calls out quietly, not wanting to wake Tikki (who had somehow slept through Dick’s intrusion).

“Oooo, Guardian, are we sneaking out?” They ask, an amused smile on their face. Marinette frowns.

“Yes, but it’s for a good reason.” She says, and Kaalki snorts.

“Whatever the reason, I’m happy to be of assistance.” They reassure her. Marinette smiles and calls the transformation, opening a portal in the cemetery where her birth mother is buried. Her Maman had taken her once, right after telling her she was adopted. It was extremely hard to avoid being akumatized that day, and Marinette steels herself before dropping Kaalki’s transformation. Today would probably be even harder. Pulling the hood over her head to try and hide her identity, she glances around the cemetery, unsurprised to see the small place empty. Despite its small size, it was well taken care of, with beautiful trees adding shade and creating a melancholy feeling. Taking a deep breath, she walks over to the tombstone in the far corner, underneath the Willow tree. Bridgette Le. Died July 9th. Marinette barely notices the tears that start to form as she sits down, tucking her knees into her chest.

“Hi Mama. I-I’m sorry I haven’t really been by to see you much. Did you know I’ve been spending the summer with Dad? Sometimes, I wonder if you would’ve been okay with that. None of us really know why you left, why you didn’t tell him. I’m not blaming you, I just wonder if you would’ve been okay with me knowing him.” She talks, though she knows she’ll never hear a response. And she tries to pretend that fact doesn’t hurt her. “I have brothers. Four of them. They’re all great in their own ways, but they all also make me want to rip my hair out. Three of them are older, Damian’s younger than me. He kinda acts like a big brother at times though. And I have a big sister, Cass. She doesn’t say much, but she’s awesome. She’s in Hong Kong right now, so most of our conversations have been video calls. I have a niece, too.” Marinette stops, wiping furiously at her eyes. She didn't want to cry. At all. But knowing her birth mother would never be able to be part of her life, would never know any of these people like she did- it was hard.

“Guardian, please breathe.” Kaalki says, floating up to sit in front of Marinette’s face. Marinette blinks at the Kwami before listening to them. If they were worried, then Marinette was more lost in her head than she originally thought.

“And today’s my birthday. I was excited at first, and then I remembered the other thing that this day was. Remembered that it’s also the day you-” Marinette pauses, and grits her teeth. “I am so sorry, Mama. I am so sorry that I caused your death.” She chokes out, dropping her head onto her knees, trying to suppress the sobs threatening to break out of her chest.

“We need to go. Marinette, we need to go.” Kaalki urges, patting her cheek urgently. Marinette calls the transformation and falls through a portal, closing it quickly to keep the butterfly that was surely after her from following. She definitely didn’t need to test how far the victim had to be to be akumatized. The second she lands, she lets the transformation drop and the sobs break out.

“Shit Pixie.” Jason curses, and suddenly she’s wrapped in a warm hug, sobs tearing through her as she continues to apologize.

---

Jason Todd had been through a lot of weird shit. Waking up in a pool of green water after being fucking murdered by the Joker, was weird. Emotional baby sister falling through a portal into the room and sobbing? Also weird. But also heartbreaking. He grabs onto her and just holds her, desperately trying to give her some type of comfort.

“Shhhh, it’s okay Pix. I got you.” He mumbles, holding her close. Damian rushes in, sword drawn, face scrunched up when he sees them. Jason shakes his head, this wasn’t something that they could fix with a sword. He wasn’t exactly sure why his baby sister was crying so hard, but he had caught a couple of muffled apologies, so whatever it was, he didn’t think it was something that he (or Damian) could kill. Or, rather, maim, since she was against murdering people that were against her for some reason.

“Has anyone seen Mars, she’s not in her room-” Replacement starts, freezing as he walks into the room.

“Excellent situational awareness, Drake.” Damian mutters, glaring at him. Jason shoots both of them a glare, now was not the time to be fighting. Especially since the kid’s other parents were on their way to celebrate her birthday. If they showed up and she was sobbing, they’d take her home and never let them see her again. And Jason was NOT going to let that happen.

“Anyone know if M’s decided to not kill me yet?” Dick asks, walking into the room with a huge grin that falls the second he sees what’s happening. Jason resists the urge to roll his eyes. Apparently none of his brothers could read a fucking room. Instead of staying at the edge of the room like Damian and Tim, Dick walks over.

“Hey kiddo, it’s okay. We’re here.” He says softly. The kid pulls away from him, though he can tell it’s a little reluctantly, before launching herself at Dick, her sobs starting to die down. Jason lets out a short huff, running his fingers through his hair as he tries to think of what could have set her off. There were no akuma alarms, but she fell out of a portal. Which means she was out of the manor when she got upset. He watches as Dick pats her hair gently and whispers to her. God, he’s such a dad. Then again, he’s been mother henning him and their other brothers for years, so it’s not really a surprise.

“I’m sorry guys.” Marinette says suddenly, her voice small as she stays hidden in Dick’s arms.

“No need to apologize, Pixie Pop.” Jason reassures her. She finally pulls away from Dick and Jason’s heart, honest to god breaks at the broken look on her face.

“She died in childbirth, you know.” She whispers, and suddenly it makes sense. Why she was sitting there sobbing on her birthday, why she’d fallen out of a portal.

“That is not your fault.” Damian says firmly, walking over and standing face to face with Marinette, something Jason knew annoyed the girl. Damian was two years younger, but a little taller than her. She didn’t seem to mind now, though.

“But it was. If I hadn’t been born-” She starts and Jason frowns at the thought.

“The world would be a much shittier place.” He says with finality, not leaving room for her to argue. “Pix, you’re amazing, and the world would really suck without you. Never be sorry you were born.” Jason says firmly, stumbling slightly when she launches herself at him, wrapping her arms around him tightly.

“Thank you Jay.” She mumbles, and he can tell she’s crying again, but this time it’s not sobs, so he thinks it’s fine.

“Come on, let’s all watch a movie.” Repla- Tim suggests and Jason raises an eyebrow at the idea, briefly wondering what kind of movie he’d pick. They all pile on the giant sectional that Bruce had bought specifically for impromptu movie nights as Tim sticks the DVD in. Jason just snorts as the title card for “The Addams Family” comes on, settling back in the couch, ready to watch one of the greatest movies ever.

---

“Thank you again for flying us out here for her birthday.” Sabine says, smiling at him. Bruce returns the smile and nods.

“Of course, thank you for letting her spend the summer here. I know she’s appreciated the break from her classmates.” He says, his smile quickly fading at the confused look on both Sabine and Tom’s faces.

“What do you mean?” Tom asks.

“Marinette hasn’t told you?” Bruce asks, suddenly regretting bringing it up. Why hadn’t she said anything? They were her parents too. Sure, she’d made it clear they couldn’t know about Ladybug, but her class wasn’t a hero problem. They were a civilian problem.

“We knew that she wasn’t hanging out with them as often, and that she didn’t talk about her class as much as she used to. We just assumed that she was busy.” Sabine says, her face a mixture of sadness and anger.

“My apologies, I assumed she’d talked to you.” Bruce says, feeling as if he had crossed a line. Would they be mad at him, for her telling him something she hadn’t told them?

“She’s always looking out for others first,” Tom finally sighs, a tired smile on his face. “She probably thought she was saving us from being akumatized.” Bruce’ jaw clenches. Had Marinette really suffered in silence to avoid being forced to fight her parents?

“We can continue this conversation later, right now we should focus on her birthday.” Sabine says, placing a hand on Tom’s arm. He nods and Bruce makes a note to talk to the two about the possibility of her switching schools.

“She’s probably in her room.” Bruce says, leading the two towards the stairs.

“Actually, Master Bruce, the children are all in the informal sitting room. I believe they snuck down to have a movie night after Master Dick woke Miss Marinette to wish her a happy birthday.” Alfred says, Bruce watches his face and knows that’s not all, but doesn’t press. It had to be something that he couldn’t talk about in front of the Dupain Cheng’s.

“Of course they did. Thank you, Alfred. Alfred, this is Sabine Cheng and Tom Dupain, Marinette’s parents. Tom, Sabine, this is Alfred Pennyworth. He’s the man who raised me.” Bruce says, smiling at him. The three exchange pleasantries and soon Bruce is leading the two to the sitting room. He pushes the door open gently, careful not to let it slam. He spots a sword on the floor near Damian and quickly grabs it, moving it away. If he was woken up suddenly, he would still panic and attempt to fight his way out.

“She looks so peaceful.” Sabine whispers, and Bruce smiles, a genuine smile, he didn’t have to fake a smile when most of his children were together and safe and happy. Or, quiet, at least. It was rare.

“I’ve found them like this several times.” Bruce admits, pulling out his phone to show the two all of the pictures he’d taken of the kids piled together sleeping. Sabine and Tom smile widely at the pictures and Bruce quickly sends them their favorites.

“B, I swear to god, I can sense you in here. Let us sleep.” Jason mumbles grumpily.

“Sorry Jason, Marinette’s parents are here so it’s time to get up.” Bruce says, amused at the way his son’s hair was attempting to defy gravity. Jason looked around sleepily, waved lazily at Sabine and Tom, and then collapsed back on the couch. Bruce sighs. “Would the two of you like to have a cup of coffee while we give them a few more minutes to sleep?” He offers.

“That would be lovely.” Sabine says, and Bruce leads the two to the kitchen, hoping Tim (who had sat straight up after Jason flopped down) would take the hint and wake up the others.

---

Marinette sighs happily as everyone sits down at the table for dinner. The day had been amazing, despite the rough start. And her Dad had even flown her Maman and Papa out to spend the day with her. They couldn’t stay for long, they had the bakery to run after all, but it was still nice to see them. Marinette glances at the end of the table where a place was set, but no one sat.

“What’s with the extra plate?” Jason asks, turning to Alfred who was sitting in the chair next to it instead of his regular seat.

“It is for Miss Le.” He says, and she can almost feel everyone freeze. Her throat tightens, but she still smiles at him with watery eyes.

“Thank you, Alfred.” She says quietly. He nods.

“You are quite welcome, Miss.” He says. She clears her throat and looks back at her Maman, noticing that her smile was also a little sad. It had been all day, but Marinette was certain it wasn’t anything to worry about. Bridgette had been close with her Maman, surely she was just mourning her today, openly for the first time in a long time.

---

Marinette groans at whoever is trying to wake her up.

“Five more minutes.” She mutters, burrowing deeper under the covers. It was summer break, why wouldn’t anyone let her sleep?

“Come on sweetheart, your Papa and I want to talk to you and Bruce.” Her Maman says, and she immediately sits up. Was she in trouble? Had her Maman figured out the whole Batman thing? Had she figured out the Ladybug thing?

“Uh, okay.” She says, sliding out of bed and stepping into slippers. She wasn’t sure how serious the conversation was, but since her Maman didn’t stop her from walking out of the room in her pajamas, she relaxed slightly. It couldn’t be that serious, right? She follows her Maman into her Dad’s study, glancing wearily at the clock in the corner. Her Maman was often too observant. Hopefully she didn’t notice anything odd about the clock. They all sit in silence for an entire minute until Marinette can’t handle it anymore.

“Am I in trouble?” She asks hesitantly, looking between her parents’ faces.

“Of course not, we just- We noticed how different you are.” Her Maman says and Marientte frowns, furrowing her eyebrows. Different? She was different?

“How?” She asks.

“You’re happier than I’ve seen you in months honey. Your smile reaches your eyes, you talk freely, you seem peaceful.” Her Maman says softly, and Marinette blinks in surprise. Had she really been so easy to read in Paris? Had her parents really been able to tell? She’d wanted to hide it from them, not let them see how everything was piling on her, crushing her. She didn’t want to worry them.

“What do you- how-” She stumbles over her words, trying to figure out where she messed up.

“We didn’t know why until we talked to Bruce.” Her Papa says and she turns to glare at her Dad, feeling a little betrayed. He holds up his hands in surrender.

“Marinette, you didn’t tell me not to tell them about your class.” He reminds her, and she huffs.

“Guess we can cross mind reader off the list of things you can do.” She mumbles, making her Papa snort.

“It wasn’t just that though. We’d seen how restrained you had become, how you never went out with friends and you stopped talking about them.” Her Maman says softly. Marinette grits her teeth, hugging herself to try and hold herself together.

“I didn’t want to worry you.” She says, her voice barely audible. That wasn’t the main reason though. She didn’t want to fight her parents, and if they knew everything going on with Lila, they’d definitely be akumatized. She couldn’t fight them. Not if she could help it.

“What would you say about transferring schools?” Her Maman asks suddenly, and Marinette jerks her head up, looking at her with wide eyes. Transfer schools? It would be great, amazing, fantastic, but- but her classmates would still come to the bakery. Still give her the same odd looks they’d been giving her since they found out that she’s a Wayne.

“What school?” She asks, because yes, that makes a difference. Chloe had transferred schools not long ago, and Marinette did not want to trade Lila for Chloe. She’d rather not deal with either of them, if she was being honest.

“Gotham Academy.” Her Maman says, and Marinette feels lucky that she wasn’t drinking anything, because she would have definitely done a spit take. Gotham Academy? As in, live in Gotham year round? What-

“Are you giving me up?” She asks, suddenly hurt. Her Maman’s eyes widen and her Papa pulls her into a giant hug.

“Of course not honey.” He says, rubbing her back gently and squeezing her lightly.

“We asked Bruce if he thought Gotham Academy would be a good school for you. He offered to let you fly home some weekends, and any of the breaks you want. Or to fly us out here if you have time off school. You don’t have to say yes, and you don’t have to make a decision right now.” Her Maman reassures her as her Papa lets her go. Marinette turns to look at her Dad, his face unreadable.

“Would you really be okay with that?” She asks, and he nods.

“We all just want you to be happy, Marinette. Wherever that may be. And we’re all willing to work together to do that.” He says and she smiles, letting out a soft sigh.

“I- I’d need to think about it a little more,” She says, running through the idea in her head. It seemed perfect, besides the whole ‘bouncing back to Paris for attacks’ thing. But she’d been doing it all summer, it had been fine so far. And maybe, maybe, Hawkmoth would even be defeated by the end of summer. No matter what, things were changing and Marinette was trying her best to keep up.

Next

Tag list:  @maribat-bdbwm @vixen-uchiha @stainedglassm @liquid-luck-00 @laurcad123 @waiting247 @jayjayspixiepop @mizzy-pop @jjmjjktth @trippingovermyfeet @queenz-z @thepaceperson @iloontjeboontje @toodaloo-kangaroo @ritacrow-blog @deathssilentapproach-blog @kittenmywaythrulife @nerd-nowandforever @tazanna-blythe @jaybird-and-co @jumpingjoy82 @lady-bee-fechin @corporeal-terrestrial

#maribat #maribat fanfiction #maribat fic #mbdbwm2021 #maribat bio dad! bruce wayne month 2021 #maribat bio dad bruce #maribat bio dad au #maribat bruce wayne #maribat jason todd #maribat dick grayson #maribat damian wayne #maribat tim drake #platonic dickinette #platonic jasonette #platonic daminette #platonic timari #maribat marinette dupain cheng #day twenty eight school

[batsandbugs]

A Kiss With a Fist

AN: Hey everyone another fic coming at you! This is for the Maribat Drabble Exchange hosted by @eat0crow I’m so excited to be participating! My fic was for @pixiebuggiewrites​ who wanted a Daminette soulmate fic. Sorry I couldn’t squeeze anybody else in here it was already getting pretty long! I hope you all enjoy! You can also read it here on ao3! (Pictures are NOT mine)

Damian stormed away from the hotel, aggressively zipping his coat. He didn’t care where he was going, only that it was away from here.

He didn’t want to be in Paris. He didn’t want to watch out for incompetent amateurs. He didn’t want to ‘control your anger, Damian’. He wanted to be sent home.

The calm night taunted him, the Parisian streets were too bight and too clean, resembling nothing like his dark city. He missed patrolling, he missed his animals, hell, a part of him (a small, barely negligible part he would never admit to) even missed his siblings. But no, he was stuck here, under his father’s orders until the situation in Paris drew to a conclusion.

Considering it took five years for outside help to be even called in, he had no clue how long the mission would last. He still hadn’t met the so-called-heroes of Paris, but the research he conducted showed they were ill-trained, undisciplined, and relying on so much luck it was a fucking miracle their city wasn’t a smoking ruin by now.

He sighed, sticking his hands deeper into the pockets of his coat. He regretted not grabbing his gloves in his storm out. He’d been so irritated at his father that even though the man was on the other side of a screen, half-way across an ocean, Damian needed to physically leave to calm his anger. It left him little time to grab essentials for a chilly winter night like a hat, or gloves. He considered himself lucky for remembering to grab a coat at all.

He wandered for a solid hour, the cold sinking into his bones chilling the raging inferno that always seemed to bubble inside him. By the time he no longer wanted to scream at anyone, he was sufficiently lost, considering he hadn’t taken his phone with him either.

Coming to rest on a bridge he took a seat on a small bench. He puffed a warm breath of air into his chilly hands rubbing them together. Nighttime in Paris was so… different compared to Gotham. While big cities never truly slept, this was positively peaceful in comparison to what he was used to. He hadn’t even heard a single sound of ruckus or distress, which seemed strange considering the city was currently besieged by a magical butterfly terrorist.

Damian inwardly scoffed. Butterfly terrorist. True, being a Gothamite meant no room to judge, but he found it hard to think of a stranger string of words.

He sighed; Damian didn’t even know what his father wanted him to do here. Sure, he knew French and was a proficient fighter, but what could that even lend to the situation? They needed a detective, and, as much as he hated to admit it, Drake would have been the better option in that department. Unfortunately, he was off-world. Grayson was dealing with a problem in Hong Kong with Cass. Brown was paired with the rest of the Sirens taking care of Gotham along with Batman, and Todd…

Well, even he recognized what an awful choice Todd would be against a villain who literally used strong negative emotions as his weapon of choice. Damian had a temper; Todd was a ticking-time-bomb.

A high-pitched screech cut through the night air, before being noticeably muffled. Damian was on his feet and running before he even mentally acknowledged it. The thud of his boots on the cobblestone bridge sent small shocks through his legs. Another large clatter directed him off to a side street a couple of feet away. Three men had cornered a tiny slip of a woman, who held her purse like a weapon.

Damian saw red. “Hey, why don’t you pick on someone your own size,” he yelled in French. There was one benefit to being in a foreign city, Damian did not have to play the part of a clueless rich kid who couldn’t hold his own in a fight.

The brutes turned to him and grinned mean smiles. One guy stepped forward. “Come on man, we’re just having a little fun. You can join if you-” Damian cut off the disgusting words with a jab to the nose. Then he spun around, sweeping the second guy’s feet from underneath him, hitting him with a punch to the face to knock him out cold. The first guy hadn’t lost consciousness, but he was doubled over which allowed Damian to knee him in the stomach. Another punch to the face and he was out cold too.

He turned to finish off the last guy, only to see the woman roundhouse kicking him to the head. The burly man fell with a thud. The alley turned eerily silent, the only sounds coming from the sharp breaths of both Damian and the girl. His pulse fluttered fast; the heat of the battle warmed his chilled limbs.

A red purse laid on the ground near his feet. Picking it up he walked over to the small woman, no teen she looked about his age, who was still sharply breathing.

“Here, this is-” a blur is all he saw before a sharp pain spread across his nose.

Did she-

Did she just punch him in the face?

The shock of it sent him sprawling onto the ground, and he blinked away the tears forming in his eyes. Damian cradled his throbbing nose, anger bubbled once more under his skin before-

*Zing*  

The connection hit him like a train. A deep well of rightness spreading through him. He looked up through bleary eyes to find the woman staring at him in similar shock.

“You’re my soulmate,” they sputtered at each other.

Damian inwardly groaned. The League made initiates kill their soulmate should they ever find them to prove their loyalty. He grew up never wanting to find his soulmate, knowing they would serve as nothing but a distraction and weakness. Even when he joined his father, the idea seemed an unneeded liability. Sure, his brothers found their soulmates within the superhero community, but what were the chances he would too?

A small whimper escaped the mouth of the guy lying unconscious on the ground, knocked out by the woman the universe thought would be the perfect match for him. Damian tilted his head. She might not be a superhero, but maybe the universe knew him better than he first imagined.

“OhmygoshIamsosorry!” the flood of words spilled from his soulmate’s mouth, her face a deep shade of red. “I was just-”

“Acting on instinct and adrenaline? Appropriate, considering the threat you just faced,” he said without anger. “Your right hook is sufficiently adequate.”

“Um… thanks? Are you alright though?” She extended a hand to help him off the ground. He took it, his larger hand enveloped hers, but she showed a surprising amount of strength as she pulled him up. The contact sent another *zing* through his body, smaller and more subdued though. Damian found himself reluctant to let go.

“Yes, yes, I’m fine.” He suffered worse in training before. With the initial pain dissipated, all that was left was a dull throbbing that would be gone by morning. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” she said with a bright smile. He took the chance to finally observe his soulmate. She was small, couldn’t be more than 5’2, which meant at 6’1 he towered over her. She was of mixed descent, with dark hair spilling over her shoulders, and bright blue eyes. Her arms and legs were toned with muscle, and she held herself with grace and confidence. She wore a face of tasteful makeup and was clothed in a short red dress and a pair of strappy heels with no jacket in sight. He had no clue how she wasn’t freezing to death.

Her smile dimmed a bit. “Actually, no, I’ve had better days. Today has kinda been a perfect disaster; first I’m late for school, then I forgot my homework, and my class bully decided it was a pick-on-Marinette day. There’s a three-hour Akuma fight, involving mind-control, which is always a total drag. I finally get home to find my parents worried sick about me because I hadn’t answered my phone which got destroyed at the beginning of the fight. I go to my class’s senior Valentine’s day dance hoping to finally confess to the guy I’ve had a crush on for years, only to get humiliated because he already has a girlfriend, and everyone else in my class knew and decided not to tell me. When I get away not to cause a scene, not only do I forget my jacket, but I also get attacked by three bumbling idiots with more mouths than brains.” She chuckled, hollow and verging on manic.

Damian stood there, unsure how to take all of that. He filed away the fact she was being bullied, and that she commonly dealt with Akuma attacks. Both equally important, as far as he was concerned.

“Now, here I am, standing in front of my gorgeous soulmate I punched in the face, after beating up said earlier idiots, rambling my mouth off because I don’t know the meaning of the word chill. Yep! I’ve certainly had better days. Ohmygoshimatotalmesskillmenow.” She muttered the last part into her hands, but Damian understood her all the same.

He would come back to the gorgeous thing later.

“…Do you want my jacket? You look cold.” It wasn’t the smoothest thing he could have said, nor the most appropriate considering the mess of a day she’d had. However, the manners Alfred drilled into his brain came knocking and if he was cold with a turtle-neck long-sleeved shirt and a jacket, she must be freezing in all that… nothingness. He averted his eyes from her exposed skin, looking at her face instead.

His soulmate looked at him for a long moment, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

“You know what, yeah, a jacket would be nice,” she said in a tired voice. Damian shed his coat quickly, not minding the sharp sting of cold that hit him. He helped his soulmate into the sleeves and took an odd little pleasure in seeing how tiny she looked in the folds of his jacket.  

“I’m Marinette, by the way, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” She wrapped the jacket closer cuddling into the heat. “Sorry for kinda freaking out on you there.”

“The kind of day you’ve had has surely broken lesser mortals. Any coping method is your due. I’m Damian, Damian Wayne. It’s a pleasure to meet you Marinette.” He smiles, although the gesture feels odd, trying to appear non-threatening. While his soulmate (and maybe he was coming around to this faster than he thought possible) was obviously skilled at dealing with a variety of stressors, he didn’t want to add any more and risk her being akumatized.

“You as well Damian.” She shivered despite the added protection of his coat, as a gust of wind swept through the alleyway. “As much fun as this conversation has been, it might be best for us to get out of the cold.”

“Indeed. What will we do with these inconveniences?” he asked, poking one of the guys with the tip of his boot.

She sighed, picking her purse from the ground where he’d dropped it. “We’ll call the police to come pick them up. They’ll be cold, but fine.”

Damian scowled, “It’s better than they deserve.” He sneered at the guy who offered for Damian to join them. Join them in assaulting this tiny, bright girl, who’d been through enough. His soulmate. The bubbling rage began anew, and he wished he’d done more than just knock them unconscious, they deserved far worse for thinking, daring, to touch-

A small hand rested on his arm, dragging him out of his violent thoughts. “I’m fine Damian. Even if you hadn’t arrived, I would have been fine. I can hold my own in a fight. This is Paris after all.”

“Tt,” Damian scoffed. “Fine. We’ll leave them to their fates.” And if their fates happened to involve complete ruination of their online lives, credit scores, and secure information? Well, that was hardly his fault, now was it?

“There’s a good café opened late around the corner. Would you- would you like to go there?” Marinette asked.

Damian smiled at the tentative offer. “I would very much enjoy that, yes. I’ve been out for longer than I should, coffee would be great right about now.” She giggled and he felt his stomach flutter. Funny, giggling always annoyed him, but that bright clear sound... he could grow used to that.

Walking out of the dark alley, listening to Marinette talk to the police on her phone, Damian sighed. The streets no longer felt too clean, or the lights too bright. Yes, he was colder, and yes this was a complication, but for some reason, Damian could not bring himself to care.

Maybe Paris wouldn’t be so bad after all.

#fanfiction #damian x marinette #daminette #damianette #maribat writing exchange #maribat #marinette dupain Cheng x Damian wayne #maridami #damimari #marinette x damian