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goggles-mcgee · 4 months

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A Little Birdy Told Me 20

AO3

Beginning Last Chapter

Summary: Damian continues to try and get more information about the akuma class and Marinette while Dick is having an off day and just wants it to get better.

Only one brother gets what they want.

CH 20:

Damian may have jumped the gun on that one.

He admitted that, willingly, in the privacy of his own mind.

“To Dupain-Cheng? I mean sure but why would you like to know.” Chloe asked with narrowed sharp eyes.

Bourgeois was sharp, as were all his acquaintances so there was no point in lying, though he was confident he could do so flawlessly, his acquaintances had proved to be somewhat trustful. They all kept secrets if asked unless it was something trivial which confused him to no end. Allegra could ask they don’t tell anyone what she shared with them when it came to her having trouble mentally or her parents fighting but the group would tell almost everyone in the group how Claude had a crush on so-and-so from class-whatever. Richard said that is just how teenagers and friends are but it didn’t make sense to Damian and he tried many times to make it make sense. The only thing that made him feel better is the fact his father also didn’t understand. When he was in med school he told him how his study group kept his fear of bats to themselves but when he admitted to not being a fan of some musician that that information was shared and laughed at, but he stated clearly that the laughing wasn’t at him, just at the information as a study group member had explained. Again. It was strange, but Damian felt like this wasn’t one of those moments that they would share his information with others.

“It goes without saying that what I tell you does not leave this table,” he began, “I know I said that if I knew something I wouldn’t tell, but given Bourgeois’s forthcoming, I too can be a little forthcoming. Dupain-Cheng is now a ward of my Father for the rest of the exchange.”

Vogel nodded and glared at everyone at the table as if to ward them off even thinking of telling anyone what Damian was saying. It was…nice and appreciated. Vogul reminded him of Cassandra sometimes and it always left him feeling warm yet wrongfooted. The blonde wasn’t his sister but sometimes she felt like it and that also confused him. Nonetheless he gave Vogel a small nod of appreciation. “After the events at Wayne Tower and what followed, it was decided that my father take care of Dupain-Cheng for the remainder of the trip and actual chaperones are being flown in. The original plan of having the class merge with ours has been effectively thrown out the window and negotiations are being made where to place everyone as they will be separated. Dupain-Cheng and her friends will join our class but it hasn’t been decided where Rossi and her sycophants will go.”

Allaway pursed his lips together and looked deep in thought, it was like he was trying to organize everything that was said and unsaid. He was someone who liked puzzles and mysteries. “You guys are building a case?” It was posed as a question but Damian knew the other boy better. It was a statement. Damian simply leaned back in his chair to give Allaway his attention, it took the boy some time to voice his thoughts so Damian waited before responding. “The question is, who is the case against?”

“I would think that obvious by now Allaway.” Damian scoffed.

Allaway stared at Damian intensely until he let out a deep sigh, “Yeah, I know, I was saying it to be dramatic.”

“You’re always dramatic.” Damian countered.

“No. That’s Claude.” Allaway shot right back.

“Guilty!” Hardy sing-songed. Damian conceded. Hardy was always dramatic. Every announcement he made to the group or even the school was so rich in dramatics that Damian wondered if the boy practiced what he said every day to make sure it was the perfect amount of dramatic or if it was something instinctual. Damian felt like it was the latter. Sometimes Hardy’s dramatics confused him but Vogel was good at explaining what the dramatic boy was saying, she was basically the Hardy Translator.

“We are getting off topic.” Bourgeois sighed. “You really want to know everything that witch did to Dupain-Cheng, Wayne? Then you better buckle in and take notes.

Damian nodded and pressed the hidden button on his watch that Lucius Fox and his son Lucas upgraded at Bruce’s request, that would record the rest of the conversation. Though he did take out a notebook and pen, he never wrote in pencil, writing in pencil showed you were not confident in your writing or knowledge. He was trying to break out of the habit though as it was one Ra’s made sure ‘stuck’ with his heir. His grandfather would never settle for anything less than perfect and the one time Damian took a test in front of his grandfather and used a pencil, he was punished. Damian hid a wince at the memories of that particular lesson and instead stared at his watch, it was a replica of his Grandfather's watch , the one he wore when he was murdered. It was a bit morbid but it was the thought behind it that made it one of Damian’s most prized possessions.

It had been a little after he had been…introduced to his father and a little before his father’s seeming demise at Darkseid’s hand that Bruce had taken Damian aside into his study to talk to him. Damian thought it would be another reprimand of his methods but had been surprised when Bruce handed him a small box with a bow on it. He had been so hesitant, so wary, so suspicious that his father had gently taken the box from him and opened it to show a watch. A rather nice watch though Damian had noted its somewhat dated design. Like someone had purposefully made it look vintage. “ It’s made to look like my father’s watch, your grandfather, though I have no doubt you were…informed of my parents before you came here -”

“ I know everything about you, Father, and my grandparents .” Damian had interrupted, eager to prove his knowledge, his worth.

“ I don’t doubt that, Damian, but you were told about them by people who did not know them. That makes all the difference. There is time for stories so you get to know them like I knew them but this is the first one I will tell you. ” Bruce had looked sincere yet a bit uncomfortable, Damian had chalked it up to his father’s weakness of not getting over his parent’s death. Such a weakness was not allowed in the League, but Damian had said nothing of the fact even if he could. Richard had been teaching him just because you could doesn’t mean you should. It was confusing but his father seemed to agree with the sentiment so Damian was doing his best to learn it.

His father continued. “ When my father was ten, his father bought him his first watch. I never met my grandfather, but when I was young, my father told me grandfather wanted to start a new Wayne tradition. When the heir of the family turned ten, they would be gifted a watch. I’m afraid that the reason is lost in time and forgotten memories but my father wanted to continue this tradition. I got my watch on my birthday and 9 days later my parents died. My father had been wearing his birthday watch that night .”

Damian hadn’t wanted to interrupt but he did want to touch the watch and his father seemed to understand that so he passed back the gift and watched as Damian had caressed the face of the watch with his thumb.

“ I admit that I have bought your brother's watches as well but I know you are struggling to accept them. I won’t lie and say I understand but I want to feel connected to them, to me, to this family. I wasn’t able to give you a watch on your birthday but I am giving it to you now. I had this made for you in the image of your grandfather’s watch because I want to show you how important you are to this family and me. I could have easily given you a new watch as I had your brother’s but you deserve a connection to your roots. I hope you like it. ”

Damian had only nodded but the small smile his father gave in return had filled him with such warmth he hadn’t known what to do other than let his father put the watch on him. Later, Alfred would explain that Bruce had the watch built with many hidden features to keep Damian safe and to make sure his son wouldn’t be without a way out of a situation. The watch was made to resemble the Rolex Submariner that Damian had seen in a case along with a broken pearl necklace and some loose grimy pearls. He knows they were keepsakes of his grandparents that Bruce kept in a protected case in the Cave. He didn’t really believe it would make him feel any more connected to the Wayne name than him already being Bruce Wayne’s biological son but wearing the watch and seeing the original in its case when he was down in the Cave actually did make him feel connected in a way he couldn’t explain. Thus it became one of his most prized possessions much like his first straight double edged sword his mother gave him for the earliest birthdays he could remember.

Damian inhaled slowly then exhaled to bring himself out of his memory before he looked up at Bourgeois and gave her a short nod. “Proceed.”

___________________

Dick was doing all he could to relax and show Marinette the company’s botanical gardens as it was something she had wanted to do. It was good to see her smile and flit from plant to plant like a little honey bee or something, but Dick couldn’t get rid of his tension completely. He was always like that after dealing with Two-Face even if it wasn’t the usual confrontation between the two, i.e mask to two faces but it still left him feeling the same. Angry, restless and most annoyingly, scared. He wasn’t the same little scared Robin but dealing with Two-Face always made him feel like he was. He thought he worked past all that! But seeing Marinette in his arms with a gun pressed to her head brought uncomfortable flashbacks of a different tiny black-haired blue-eyed child. A child who got cocky in his skills as Robin and helper of Batman. He could still feel the long-since healed injuries throb in phantom pain. Dick couldn’t help the flash of another black-haired blue-eyed child, older than the first when he learned that being Robin wasn’t magical or whimsical. Thinking of that never did him any good, if anything it brought about an enormous amount of guilt and anger that Dick didn’t know what to do with.

“Mari-gold?” A very familiar voice pulled Dick out of his thoughts and he cursed himself for being so distracted.

“Ivy!” Marinette shouted out in glee as she ran to hug the woman she had seen fairly recently. It made Dick smile though, this kid loved with her whole heart and it was something he admired.

“Now what are you doing here, Sapling?”

“I came here with Mister Dick and Mister Tim. Though we lost Tim pretty early on.” Oh yeah, they did. Though Dick was willing to bet Tim just went to the coffee shop nearby, he seemed to have a built in radar for knowing where they were no matter what part of town they were in. It was kind of funny though since Tim wasn’t even a big fan of coffee, he more so just needed the caffeine. The guy preferred tea but he was really particular about which places made the best tea, specifically a good ol’ Dirty Chai.

“And what brings you to the Gardens today, Ive?” Dick asked, deciding to partake in the conversation.

“Oh just making sure they are doing okay and to give the workers a restock of my special fertilizer.” That made sense, Ivy was, on-the-down low helping the Wayne Botanical Studies team. While Harley helped them more with their night time business, Ivy was content to help in the more official business. With the occasional helping hand stopping a threat if they “got in over their heads.” Her words.

“You make your own fertilizer?” Marinette asked. Look, Dick was also curious about that but after finding Ivy and Jason talking one night with these big-ass smiles on their faces, all teeth, he was like 80% sure that fertilizer was some of Jason’s…problems. But there was no way in hell that Dick was going to try and confirm that, and he sure as hell would not be telling Bruce that little theory.

“Yes! It takes time but it-”

“My Passion Lily! I got your Matcha Lemonade and look! I found a wild Wayne.” They were interrupted by Harley, which was not a surprise, and she was dragging a resigned looking Tim with her.

Ivy merely huffed out a laugh at her wife before taking the offered drink with a kiss to Harley’s cheek. “Thank you, Peanut, I also found a wild Wayne and a little Sapling.”

“Mari-Doll!” Harley squeaked out before almost knocking the poor girl off her feet in her hurry to smother the girl in a hug. Surprisingly they didn’t fall over.

“Hi Harley!”

“You guys saw each other the other night?” Tim said, confused.

“And?” Marinette and Harley asked in unison. It made Dick giggle and helped relieve him of more of his pent up tension.

“Well since we're all here, why don’t we walk around together?” Dick offered. “Bruce wanted Tim to get some fresh air so try not to let him sneak off again.”

Tim gave an offended squawk which had Marinette laughing once more. “I’m fine!”

“Yeah, okay Timmy-Boy.” Harley said with a scoff as she laced her arms together with Ivy and Marinette. “And I’m the Queen of England.”

“You do need some time outside the Manor Tim. It’s not healthy to stay cooped up.” Ivy said as she happily walked with Harley and Marinette. Though she did grab Tim by the scruff of his shirt and manhandled him toward Dick. He looked very much like a cranky kitten.

“What is this? Pick on Tim day?”

“I believe Damian has that scheduled for next month.” Dick wished he was joking.

Marinette obviously noticed he wasn’t if her raised brow was anything to go off. “Oh?”

“He stepped on Titus’s tail three months ago, on accident.” Dick explained. “But Damian is very good at keeping grudges and he’s very good on cashing in on favors.”

Tim merely whined in response and Dick couldn’t help but pity his brother for a second before he remembered how Tim used him as a human meat shield when Condiment King randomly joined in on a fight against some robbers. Apparently he was also planning on robbing the jewelry store after keeping a low profile from his then-recent prison break. Needless to say it took Dick forever trying to get the mustard smell out of his costume once again and had to beg Alfred for help once again. Even though Alfred refused to help with cleaning anything CK contaminated, it spiked his blood pressure or something like that. Dick thinks it’s because of all the first times he helped clean them up when the rogue had been new on the scene. That had been a long month and Dick had seen how Alfred got more and more annoyed each time they came home covered in mustard, ketchup, you name it. It was awful. Truly. So Dick didn’t feel all that bad. Stephanie was already coming up with a list of things to tease Tim about. She specifically waits for the days Damian declares will be Pick-On Drake Days so she has lists on lists compiled for that very reason. She hoards them and never shares until the scheduled day. Duke surprisingly joined in too and started making his own list.

“He’s very dedicated.” Marinette giggled out.

“That’s one word for it.” Tim grumbled.

From there they had a good time touring the different gardens with Ivy acting as a somewhat tour guide and Dick could see it was really helping Marinette unwind as well. The interview with Jim and Harvey had really gotten her tense which was totally understandable, it would be intimidating for anyone. Tim tried to escape a couple times but after Dick teasingly asked if he should get Tim a child-leash and Ivy offered to make one out of vines he stopped. He even seemed to be relaxing a small bit. It was nice, really and it seemed to be something that Dick needed too without realizing it. Eventually they went out for lunch and after they went their separate ways. The drive back to the Manor had been nice too, normal traffic and a nice playlist helped. Tim and Marinette had even made some good conversation, though Dick got worried at the mention of PowerPoints. He hoped it was nothing serious, but the fact that Tim found someone as obsessed with planning and making PowerPoints was a little frightening. Maybe more than a little, Dick could only take so many Tim PowerPoints. He loved his brother, dearly, with his whole heart, but his PowerPoints were long and…thorough. He even tested people on the more important ones with a freaking Kahoot match. Cass and surprisingly Damian always won those.

As they made their way into the manor Dick was pretty much planning on taking a good, lengthy nap to catch up on the sleep he hadn't gotten last night. His brain felt fried and scrambled, like it couldn’t decide whether to sink into the depressing thoughts from before or just remember the good time at the gardens they all had, even Tim surprisingly had a good time. As he sunk into the couch in the family living room his mind seemed to settle on both. His eyes closed and he saw Marinette laughing and smiling at their afternoon activities, then it would flash to her being held against Two-Face. He could hear the rogue’s laugh deep in his bones, then it changed to the Joker’s unique cackle. Marinette changed from her to him to Jason at blinding speeds. He could hear Marinette’s voice firm and confident in contrast to the fear in her eyes when she told him there was no time and that she would lead Scarecrow away. He could hear her yelling and telling Alfred she and they weren’t safe. He heard his own cries and shouts mixed with Two-Face’s voice. He could hear what he imagined Jason sounded like when the Joker beat him to death. He could hear the accusations of others about his jealousy of Jason being adopted.

That unfortunately brought up memories of the talk he had had with Bruce once upon a time about Jason and adoption. It felt like he had had to fight not only tabloids but even Bruce about nonexistent hatred. Dick never hated Jason, but he had been so caught up in his anger with Bruce that he let it affect his and Jason’s relationship. He had just been so angry and it wasn’t an excuse but sometimes it seemed like he was even trying to justify his actions to himself. Though there was some jealousy and hurt there that he didn’t know what to do with, okay he did know what to do but the fact it would have to involve talking to Bruce and Jason was not something that sounded fun nor easy. He liked a good challenge but that idea sounded impossible. Like yes, he was Bruce’s son now but for so long he was just a ward, like Marinette was now, he called Bruce dad, they lived together, they fought crime together, they took care of each other, and yet it took years for Bruce to adopt him. But Jason? Dick knew Jason was Bruce’s son, his first son, his favorite son. Jason got the Bruce Dick had always wanted and it had hurt. Jason’s death had impacted Bruce more than his parents. That was a fact.

And…And Dick had no idea where this was all coming from. He knew he didn’t know Marinette well as her class’s tour guide but seeing her held against Two-Face, mere centimeters from danger had thrown him. She reminded him too much of himself and too much like Jason before his death. She wasn’t a Robin, she would never be a Robin, but she had been a hero like one. She saved her people as fiercely as a Robin protected Gotham and its people. She took the weight of her world on her shoulders, much like a Robin. She was a child turned soldier due to circumstance just like a Robin. Marinette was a Robin in soul with no Batman to guide her and maybe that was for the best but looking at how lost she looked when she spoke about the ‘akumatizations’ in Paris, Dick wished she had had her version of Batman. A mentor who could aid in the fight, who shared the knowledge and responsibility. Yes, there were other heroes, they were like her version of Teen Titans, but that’s just it she was just barely a teen, a child, when she took up the mantle of hero. And from the pictures Tim showed the family of the other heroes, it wasn’t hard to guess that the other ‘Holders’ were teens themselves. Seeing as Adrien was also a teen and a former hero.

Dick, in a weird, roundabout way, felt responsible for Marinette. As soon as she looked at him with hope, determination and fear in her eyes he was hit by a wave of protectiveness for her. She looked at him like Damian did when he first complimented and criticized his work as Robin, he and Marinette had also pulled off a plan as smooth and seamless as Dick and Damian had been when they were the Dynamic Duo. Or as Dick liked to call them, The More Dynamic Duo. He knew his family was kind of freaked out by how well Marinette and Damian seemed to get along, but not him, sure he teased a bit but he just had a feeling they would be friends. Damian had been trying to get himself out there and make friends and he did have some! He just called them acquaintances right now but Dick knew it wouldn’t be long till they were bumped up to friend status. Though Jon would always be Damian’s best friend even if they weren’t in the same school anymore. They still video or phone called every day and they played games with each other online. Which games? Dick could never remember but the point was, Damian had grown and was very capable of making friends, it just took him some time.

Speaking of time , Dick thought as his gaze lazily glanced at the clock on the wall. If he slept now, he knew he would not go to bed after patrol tonight. So with much reluctance he pushed himself up and off the couch. He figured he could see if Marinette wanted some company and maybe the two of them could get some tea and snacks from Alfred and tour more of the manor when they were done. It would help in the long term of Marinette’s stay so it was productive! When he got to her room he saw that the door was slightly open but it was still he knocked, if he could dodge a Pennyworth Lecture he would even knock his own bedroom door. As he did so though, the door opened more and with it came an overwhelming energy that left him feeling suppressed yet energized. He wasn’t around magic a lot anymore, but it always left him with the same feeling so he ditched being a gentleman and waiting for an answer and just barreled into the room to see what looked like a closing portal.

“Shit!” That would be a dollar in the Swear Jar, but that wasn’t important. What was important however was the fact Marinette was missing, a portal had seemingly opened in her room and closed, and…and there was a note on the bed?

‘Dear Any Wayne That Finds This,

Actually, are you all Waynes? I never asked, I should have asked. Anyways, please don’t freak out if you come to my room and I’m not here. Ladybug needed my help back in Paris and opened a portal to get me there. I shouldn’t be too long and hey! Maybe I’ll be back before anyone reads this but if I’m not then just don’t worry. Ladybug will return me once the akuma is dealt with.

-Marinette who is very sorry if someone does end up reading this and is pleading they don’t worry or get angry.’

“Double shit.” Dick said as he read over the letter.

That was another dollar for the Swear Jar.

_________________

Dick “Flying” Grayson @toflyistofall

Oops.

____

Bruce Wayne @therealbrucewayne

RE: Dick “Flying” Grayson @toflyistofall

Oops.

Richard John Grayson-Wayne. What did you do?

_____

JBIrd @sidesteppeddeath

RE: Bruce Wayne @therealbrucewayne

Richard John Grayson-Wayne. What did you do?

Ha! You got full government named Dickie! @toflyistofall

_____

Dick “Flying” Grayson @toflyistofall

RE: JBIrd @sidesteppeddeath

Ha! You got full government named Dickie! @toflyistofall

Oh come on! I didn’t even add tags! How did he respond so fast?

#hahaimindanger

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disaster-biraven · 4 months

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Masterlist

Hello! I'm Ollie (they/them), also known as Aquila or Vela/Vel. I love Maribat and am a majority Timari shipper. If you like my writing, feel free to tell me so on discord! You can find me in both these servers down below!

Ao3 ~ Timari Server

Sent to you - Ao3 Timari Soulmate

Sorry doesn't fix everything - Ao3 Daminette Hanahaki

Irides on tile - Ao3 Marinette x Your Choice Hanahaki

Is it okay if I still love you - Ao3 Timari Hanahaki

Popcorn and Camellias - Ao3 Dickinette Hanahaki

Mignonettes - Ao3 Stephanie x Marinette Hanahaki

The taste of Dahlias and Copper - Ao3 Jasonette Hanahaki

The Lazarus Problem (ongoing) Ch1 Ch2 Ch3 Ch4 - Ao3 Jasonette Childhood Friends to Lovers

Love Notes - Ao3 Timari Masquerade/Secret Admirer

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justrandomfanfictionskh · 1 year

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A Blue Bird and a Black Cat pt1

Selina decides that Marinette would be better as the Cat than Adrien. Five years, later Dick is very confused about this Lady Noire ao3

Five months ago Selina had expected to waltz into the Louvre, liberate a particular Ming dynasty Jade Cat, and waltz out. She had not expected to be stopped by two teenaged heroes, who clearly had no adult supervision. She had definitely not expected them to be quite so skilled at fighting, despite their obvious lack of training. And she had most certainly not expected them to leave their fight in favor of chasing a strange blue child on a flying carpet! She had not gotten the Jade Cat, or even entered the Louvre that night. However, the next night she had gotten her answers.

The small girl in the ladybug suit explained everything as simply as she could to the rouge, and what Selina heard was both intriguing and horrifying. The idea that a mad man was vilifying children in order to serve his purposes, and enslaving people made her hiss and spit. What was intriguing was the young heroes. Especially the cat boy. Not to mention the girl's response to her reaction. She seemed amused and almost...gratified by such a blatant display of disgust. When Selina asked why the Justice League had not gotten involved the girl just sighed and Selina watched as a huge weight settled on her shoulders.

"We tried calling them, but they didn't believe us. I don't know if it was because we weren't talking to the right people, or the magic interfering. But it's almost impossible to prove our claims, because the government is actively suppressing the information so that foreign relations aren't strained, and the magic involved means that there is no lasting damage, or casualties, and the identities of the users are protected through the magic. So proving anything we say in order to get the help we need is next to impossible. Besides do you really want to see Superman, or Batman, or worse, Wonder Woman akumatized? No thank you?"

Cat Woman hummed thinking softly. She snapped her fingers when an idea came. "I know lets make a deal!"

"I'm sorry?" Ladybug asked.

"A deal! I make them with Batman all the time!" A half truth but the young hero didn't need to know that. "I get you Hawkbitch, and you let me take the Jade Cat!"

Ladybug eyed her suspiciously before saying, "You honestly want me to believe that you can find Hawkmoth? and then you really think I'm just going to let you walk away with the Jade Cat? A priceless artifact? Are you crazy?"

"I'm from Gotham," Cat Woman said dismissively, "But that's not the point. The point is, that I can deliver! I get you the name of your villain. You utterly destroy him. And then I walk way with the most precious kitty in France! What do say?"

"I have been looking for Hawkmoth for almost five years, five years, and you think you can just find him like that?" she snapped to illustrate her point. But Selina just smirked.

"If you think it's impossible, then what do you have to loose? I'll even sweeten the deal, I'll leave Paris, no...I'll leave France, and I won't come back until I have a full file detailing exactly who this Hawkbitch is, including admissible proof of his identity. What do you say?"

If this was Superman, he would say no. If this was Batman, he'd think about it and then also say no. Wonder Woman was to experienced to get this deep in the hole. And the rest of the hero community that well but she expected that they would all refuse such an offer. She expected the girl to do the same, but once again her expectations were over thrown when Ladybug said, "Ok. You have a deal. Get me Hawkmoth, and you can attempt to steal the cat. But you have to leave first thing in the morning, and you cannot, I repeat, cannot come back until you know who Hawkmoth is."

Now five months later, Selina smiled into her coffee. All she had to do was casually mention to Bruce that there were unsupervised heroes in Paris, and he was on the case like a cat on a mouse, or a bat on a bug. Whichever you prefer. Still she did not want to reveal herself to the heroes just yet. Because she...was curious.

While waiting for Bruce to crack the case, Selina had decided to do some light browsing on exactly who these heroes were. Their identities were apparently protected by magic, which Selina could easily believe. She had seen Ladybug's face that day as clear as the moon in the sky. But like the moon, her memories of the girl's features were obscured behind clouds. But after using a French IP address and watching something called The LabyBlog and The BugCast, Selina had become determined to discover the identities of the young heroes for two very important reasons. One was to rip that ring off of the mangy, feral, tomcat's finger for daring to disgrace the noble and divine species of felines with his carless and flippant ways. And two was to invite Ladybug to have a little Gotham fun. The girl was clearly too stressed for words, but it wasn't hard to see why. With a partner like that and the responsibility of resurrecting the dead, Selina would have cracked years ago. But this girl hung on, and for that the girl disserved a break, without having to worry about akumas, or villains, or anything but the joy that came from bashing in a deadbeat's jewels.

But after a week of searching and stalking, she had gotten know where. All she could confirm, was that Ladybug, and probably Chat Noire lived somewhere in the vicinity of this lovely patisserie. Not a lot to go on, she knew, but it was better than nothing. And besides, the coffee was wonderful. The pastries were divine. And there the sun was shining. So she really couldn't complain. The sun never shone in Gotham.

As she took another sip of coffee and looked over at the park where children were playing, she smiled thinking about the current Robin. He was probably too old and too scarred to enjoy the park as a kid. But perhaps one day, he could enjoy the park with a kid. Maybe a little brother, or a little sister. She smiled mischievously, but her thoughts were interrupted by a small cough.

"Oh I'm sorry, excuse me, I didn't mean to disturb you. You were probably really deep in thought, and hate being interrupted, and think I'm annoying, I'm so sorry! This is so rude of me, and you probably hate me, and don't want to talk to me. But I needed to ask you something, but you don't have to answer, in fact it's probably best if---"

"It's alright child," Selina said with a low chuckle and a soft smile. "I understand, now what is your question?"

"Oh, ok," the young girl said softly, "Um, if you're finished with your plate, then I can take it inside for you?"

Selina arched a brow and examined the girl. She was small, and extremely nervous, which made Selina think that she was probably 12 or 13. However, any careful examination of her features revealed that the girl in actuality was probably older. Perhaps 16 or 17. But it was difficult to tell. First of all her black hair that shone blue in the light was tied up in pig tails (a decidedly younger preference). Secondly, her big blue bell eyes were shining with all of the nervous energy her voice conveyed (the poor girl probably had anxiety and had never been taught how to manage it). Thirdly, her clothes, which were objectionably fashionable and stylish, seemed to convey a softness and timidity that only hung around small children. Selina found her pretty, in an innocent, cute, fairy kind of way. Which combined with the over abundance in nervous energy, convinced Selina that this child should never enter Gotham, unless she quickly received a shot of pure confidence in the next hour or so.

So Selina smiled her warmest smile and said, "Of course you may my dear. Please. Now tell me are you just being kind, or do you work here?"

"Oh?" the girl said a little confidence edging its way into her voice, "My parents own this patisserie! And I like to help out where I can. I hope you enjoyed everything!"

"Oh I did," Selina said. "I truly believe this is the best cup of coffee, that I have ever had. You must compliment your parents for me..."

"Oh, Marinette!"

"Selina."

Marinette's smile was now so bright and genuine, that it was contagious. And Selina found herself watching the girl out of the corner of her eye for the next half an hour she was there.

Benevolent and sanguine feelings rolled through Selina, as she watched Marinette clumsily and skillfully clean the outside tables. The girl was entertaining, as she seemed to be a mass of contradictions. One minute she was graceful. The next she was flailing. One minute she was nervous and shy. The next she was talking animatedly with someone she knew. One minute she was day dreaming. The next she was stressing over the smallest details of the tables. Selina was amusedly endeared to the young lady. But she didn't have time to be distracted. She needed to find Ladybug, and give her the Hawkbitch file. However, just as she was finishing her drink something happened that made Selina bristle and hiss.

Marinette was just wiping down a table, when something caught her attention and made her tense. This caught Selina's attention, because it was a different kind of rigidity than her pervious bouts of nervousness. When the girl had addressed Salina she had been fidgety, but upright and clear. Now, Marinette was hunching over, curling in on herself. Her hands, which had flitted about with the need to move, now stilled, and...Selina blinked and almost turned to directly stare at the child. Marinette's hands were shaking and her eyes...oh her big, beautiful, clear, bluebell eyes, where fading as if something was slowly draining away the life in them Selina felt her own shoulders tense as she watched. She knew those actions. She had seen those signs. She recognized those defenses. She did not have to consult Harley in order to recognize a victim of abuse.

Selina settled back as casually as she could and began to watch the pedestrians. One of these people was this bright young woman's abuser, and Selina was determined to discover them. None of them stuck out, everyone kept walking past, or into the bakery. Then a group of teenage girls caught her eye. Unremarkable in and of themselves, just a group of five or six teenagers, probably coming from a shopping spree. They were laughing and talking without a care in the world, but there was something about them that made Selina's hair stand up on end. So she examined them closely. Her eye fell on the girl who was front and center of the group. Her hair looked as if she was trying to imitate sausage links, and her style was decidedly gaudy. The girl walked with an air of entitlement, and obnoxiousness that even a cat would find insulting. Especially since she was not carrying any of the shopping bags and was walking ahead of the group, thus giving the impression that the girls around her, were not her "friends" but her ladies-in-waiting. And though she never looked down at the people around her, she watched them through narrow calculating eyes that reminded Selina of Lady Shiva. Selina did not like that woman.

Selina kept one eye on Marinette, and one eye on the approaching group, sat back, and watched. And what she saw made her quietly hiss into her now empty mug. The lead girl (Selina heard her called Lila) took one look at Marinette and smiled predatorily. She then redirected everyone immediately from their previous goals, to the bakery and sat down at a table Marinette had yet to clean. She then proceeded to cry and sob, blaming Marinette for forcing her to sit at an unclean table, while the rest of the girls began to yell and berate the poor girl for the injustice. Marinette said nothing as she quietly cleaned the table, letting the screams and sobs wash over her without even making a noise. As Marinette attempt to walk away with the dishes, Lila very blatantly tripped her. This time Marinette did not use her graceful reflexes to contradict the clumsiness but silently fell to the ground shattering all the plates. The other girls at the table then began to scream at Marinette for attempting to hurt Lila by dropping plates on her head.

Selina could not hear this Lila's voice, from where she was sitting, but the affects of her gross, and obvious manipulation and abuse made Selina want to scream and claw her eyes out as she watched. The sweet charming girl silently and cautiously pick up every shard of ceramic as the other girls screamed and surrounded her. The commotion drew out the two adults that Selina had seen behind the counter. Knowing these to be Marinette's parents, Selina decided not to kill a minor, trusting them to defend their daughter. The yelling stopped for about five seconds when they appeared. Long enough for Lila to say something through her hands, and for the bakery owners to turn on their daughter and begin to reprimand her and not the other girls. Selina had to bite her tongue against a scream as she watched the previously bright and kind girl that was Marinette silently stand up and slink back into the bakery without ever making a sound. When she passed, Selina felt stabbed, because her beautiful blue eyes were rendered dull and grey in the wake of her abuse.

Once Marinette was gone, Selina watched as her parents filled the group's table with the best free pastries with growing hatred and disgust. Selina shook her self she could not get akumatized. She could not risk all of her plans falling apart, because of one incident. However, she smirked deviously. There were other ways to punish bullies and abusers. But as she walked past the table, something happened that completely other threw all of her expectations once again. This was becoming a pattern in Paris.

Marinette blinked at the woman in her room. "What the hell?!" she exclaimed. Cat Woman smiled mischievously and removed her cowl throwing Marinette into even more open mouthed confusion. Mme. Selina is Cat Woman! her mind screamed. Marinette stared at the new patisserie regular in shock and horror, as the older woman chuckled at her reaction.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Ladybug, but I had to be sure of you identity before I could give you this." She held up a thick manila folder with the word Hawkmoth written on the side, and the word Hawkbitch scribbled on the front.

Marinette held up her hands in protest. She had to breath. Her mind was swirling, and she could barely process all of this new information. Mme. Selina was her new favorite customer. She came in almost everyday and always had a kind word for her. Cat Woman was a thief who stole priceless artifacts. She had known Selina for about three weeks now. And Cat Woman was a world renowned thief. A thief who knew her identity...Marinette took a deep breath before she could spiral and closed her eyes. This was not helping.

Ladybug, she thought desperately, I need to be Ladybug. She took a deep breath and settled into the mindset of the hero of Paris. Ladybug could save the day. Ladybug would save the day. Ladybug can deal with Cat Woman with ease. Ladybug would make sure that nothing went wrong. She felt her energies settle into calm, heavy, order as confidence and surety took over her bones. When she opened her eyes, Cat Woman was watching her with undisguised curiosity and fondness. Ladybug could not understand it. She cleared her throat.

"So how did you discover my identity?"

"Well it wasn't easy," Cat Woman said dismissively. "But lets just say, you were perhaps a little too tired after that last akuma. Neither you nor that filthy alley cat noticed that I was following you. But then again he never notices when I follow him." She spoke of Chat Noir with disgust, as if he were the epitome of everything wrong with the world. Ladybug let the information settle in the back of her mind before she continued.

"So you're here about our deal. Hawkmoth's identity in exchange for a free attempt at the Louvre." It was a statement, but Ladybug was curious to see how Cat Woman would respond to it.

"Yes," Cat Woman said with a smile, "But also no."

"No?" Ladybug said with unaffected surprise. "Don't you want your Jade Cat?"

"Hmm," Cat Woman mused as she eyed Marinette's room. "I think I remember saying that I want the most precious kitten in all of France. And at this point I don't think it's the Jade Cat."

Ladybug sighed and crossed her arms. "Do I want to know?"

Cat Woman smiled sardonically. "Lady Noire."

Ladybug blinked. That was not the answer she was expecting and it almost rocked her out of her persona. She recovered by giving Selina a very pointed look and said slowly, "Lady Noire? The persona I take when I wear the cat miraculous?"

"Mmhm," Cat Woman hummed with a smile.

"I don't understand."

"Well it's quiet simple really. I don't like that tomcat running around with the black cat miraculous. As the original, feline identity I take anyone who attempts a feline persona very seriously. And I don't like the reputation he is giving us nighttime predators."

"You do know that the black cat hero is older than most civilizations."

"All the more reason to take his miraculous from him. He doesn't deserve it, not with the way he treats you. Come now kitten, you can't tell me that you haven't ever questioned his suitability for the role. He's skilled, yes. And he's passionate. But he's hardly capable. How often does he leave alone in a fight? How often does he get distracted or impede your abilities? How often has he assaulted you?"

"Woah, Chat Noire has not assaulted me," Ladybug declared.

"Oh so you like it when he kisses you're hand, and calls you pet names in professional settings? Or how about when he decided he was in love with your civilian identity? Did you like him coming up to your balcony every other night? Based on how often the CCTV cameras caught him here, I assume he had an open invitation? You did invite him to sit on your balcony for hours on end, correct?"

Ladybug stiffened. She couldn't deny it. She couldn't deny any of it. She couldn't deny her wish that Chat took things more seriously, or was more reliable. It was becoming more of a question of if he would even show up! And when he did appear, she often found her self watching him as much as their enemy. When he decided that he was in love with Ladybug, she always had to make sure that there was at least five feet between them so that he wouldn't try to pull her against him, "Because that blast was going to hit you m'lady!" he would always say even as his hands began to wonder. And when he decided he was in love with Marinette, she could barely go out on her balcony to water her plants without him trying to corner her, or get into her space. She used to love lying back in her bed, and watching the sky out of her sky light. Or going out on her balcony at night to let the cool air wash all of her troubles away. But now there was paper over the glass, and she had to lock the window the moment the sun went down in case Chat Noir decided to shift his attentions again.

She looked away but Cat Woman moved so that she was in her line of sight. Ladybug looked at her and saw something she had not seen directed at her in a long time. Not since Luka and Juleka left with their father for his world tour, and Kagami had been sent to a fencing camp by her mother. It was sympathy, understanding, and a righteous fury on her behalf. Ladybug shifted, she could feel her mask slipping, and she was almost tempted to call on her suit in order to cement it in place, but Cat Woman wasn't done.

"You know," she said softly, "I had plans to steal you away as the new cat holder, before I ever realized you were Ladybug." Marinette started and stared, but said nothing. She did not trust herself. Selina continued, "That first day we met. I saw what those girls did to you. What your parents did to you, and I'll admit I was almost akumatized. But I wasn't because the moment I went over to steal that Lie-la's wallet, rip her knock-off designer bag, and spill coffee in her lap, something happened. The moment I heard her voice I started to believe her. Despite everything I felt and witnessed, I started to believe that she was right, and you deserved what they did to you." Ladybug stiffened, but said nothing, she was too confused and too conflicted. So Selina continued almost conspiratorily. "And that's when I realized. That Lie-la is a meta!"

Marinette gasped. Her mask had slipped. The Ladybug persona was on the floor. There was no recovering it. The realization and the understanding hit her like a truck as the reality fit everything into place. For years she had wondered how Lila had done it. How had she turned everyone who had always loved and supported her through thick and thin against her as if she was a rat in the pantry. But it made sense. Lila was a meta! She was controlling them. Marinette never stood a chance. She looked up and saw the gleaming satisfaction in Selina's eyes as hope and vindication filled Marinette's. And Selina continued,

"It's the only explanation. Because I know what I say. I know what they did to you. And over the past few weeks I have seen who you are as well. You are kind, and generous, and beautiful. So how could anything she said be true, even if I believed her when I heard her voice. I knew right then and there, that very first day what was happening. But Marinette...I also knew right then and there that the only way for you to be free of them, of her, would be to escape. The only way you're going to be able to get out of this toxic dumpster fire of a life is to run away from it as fast and as far as you can. Now you're 18. You'll be graduating soon. And with this," she tapped the almost forgotten file, "You'll be able to put the mask aside. You can choose how you want to escape. All I ask is that you let me help you do it...It is your decision Marinette. I'll make sure that it is only your decision. If you let me."

Marinette breathed deeply, her scattered and shattered mind desperately trying to put all of the pieces together. She tried to summon Ladybug. She tried to shut down. She tried everything, but that did not stop the buzzing in her head so she just stared, at the woman in front of her. The woman who was offering the only thing her heart could ever want. As she stood and stared the kwamis began to slink out of their hiding spots, but only Tikki came up to comfort her and pull her out of her deepening spiral. "You're unbalanced, Marinette," the kwami whispered. "And I'm sorry, I don't know how to help you. I can only offer you creation and order, and I'm afraid you might have a little too much of that right now. Please, please, please, let this woman help you! We, all of us, will support you no matter what."

And with that, Marinette fell to her knees and began to cry. And she didn't stop not even when the small hands of her kwami were joined by the warm, tight embrace of a human. So she knelt and cried, as sixteen deities protected her, and a warm, kind woman embraced her.

(let me know if you want to be tagged for this fic.)

#maribat #miraculous ladybug #batfam #batman #dcu fic #marinette dupen chang #dickinette #dick grayson #nightwing #ladynoir #lila salt #class salt #adrien salt #ptsd problems #mlb x dc #dc x mlb #since when did selina have a clone?

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faunrasthewinterelf · 1 year

Text

Calm After the Storm Pt. 3

Bio-dad Bruce Wayne

This a really short chapter, written a couple months ago now, i went through a pretty mentally taxing time and lost track of the fic itself. Ill have more up soon, so keep an eye on that! I’m also moving this fic to AO3 after this chapter, and the tag list on tumblr will be utilized to let everyone know when an update is added to the fic!

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Marinette had been right. The walk to the restaurant had been much longer than promised. Lila had broken down in tears when questioned, explaining how she was ‘so sorry, I didn't mean to drag you all this far!’

Everyone rushed to reassure her that they don’t mind, and the class continued. After a long day of walking around the Wayne Enterprises Building and not being given time to adjust, by the time the class finally got to the restaurant, Marinette’s side was aching. Chloe had had to press the Blunette to her own side to support the girl when her side tensed up and she began limping.

Sitting and ordering had been a relief. But the break had barely lasted an hour, before another long walk back to the hotel commenced.

It was dark out now. Ms., Bustier, suddenly acting like a responsible teacher, began ushering her students to move quickly. Marinette, with her side stiffening up and her limp beginning to worsen, wouldn’t be able to keep up. Chloe, refusing to leave her friend's side, helping to support her friend, frowned at the classes back as they turned the corner, several blocks ahead of her and Marinette, and vanishing from their point of view, leaving the two girls behind. At night. Alone.

Marinette was simply breathing through the pain, blinking away tears as the dull ache spread through her waist, down her hip and up her rib cage slowly. She needed to get back to the hotel as quickly as she could, she had a Healing Balm from the Grimoire of the Guardian, several doses ready for exactly this reason. She couldn’t do much beyond limping forward, leaving heavily on the tall form of Chloe, who was snarling under her breath, in French, about their class and useless teacher.

The cracked sidewalk stretched on before the two young women, the stuttering steps of one echoing down every alley they passed, and Chloe kept a sharp eye out. In the two blocks they had to travel, Marinette was too distracted to help keep an eye on the surrounding area. As the two girls passed each alley, Chloe tensed, hauling Marinette higher up so she could move faster past the openings, eyeing the shadows she could see in the darkness further in. The Hotel was in sight, less than four buildings away, when a figure stepped out of the alley, putting themselves between the two girls and their safety.

Marinette looked up when Chloe stopped and tensed up further, and tightened her arm around Chloe’s waist as she took in the man in front of her. He was large, both tall and in width, and imposing. He had a slimy smirk on his face, eyeing up Marinette’s body as Chloe took a couple steps backwards, trying to put more distance between her and her friend, and the man.

“Well, well, well.” His voice was scratchy, catching on the ‘W’ as he leered at the two. “What have we here? A pretty blonde girl, and a little dark haired one! Aren’t you two just, … perfect”

Neither of the two girls said anything as Chloe slowly lowered Marinette to her feet, stepping in front of the smaller, injured girl. Chloe brought her hands up, lowering her body into a mock stance just to keep herself loose and ready for whatever this man was going to do.

His grin widened and he started laughing, his eyes lighting up like he was excited as he moved his hand to his back and withdrew a gun. Chloe’s eyes were trained on the man’s face, but Marinettes were narrowed, looking into the direction of the alley. She placed one of her hands on Chloe's shoulder and squeezed.

“Oh, I love it when they fight back.”

“Well” interjected a new voice, from somewhere in deeper into the alley,

“So do I.”

A gun shot rang out, and the mugger or whatever let out a yell as he was forced to drop his own gun. He brought it back close to his chest as he stumbled away from the alley way, away from the even taller figure stepping out of the darkness. His gloved hands holding a gun, pointed at the fleeing man. He had on a brown leather jacket, armored gray shirt below the jacket, emblazoned with a red bat across his chest, dark pants and plenty of pouches along his hips and thighs. The leather jacket had a red fabric hood hanging down from the collar, and a full face helmet of the same color covered his head.

As soon as the loud noise rang out and she registered the movement from beside her, Chloe whipped around and scooped up Marinette, carrying the smaller girl back a couple steps into the indented doorway of a café, hovering over Marinette as the exhausted girl leaned against the door frame.

A couple more gunshots rang out before the two girls heard the sounds of running. The heavily modulated voice from before lets out a string of curses before a dull GA-CHUNK rang out, and the man/hero was whisked off by the whirr of a grapple. There was another thud as someone else impacted onto the sidewalk by the two girls hiding spot.

“Hey, it’s alright you two, you’re safe now! The Red Hood is pursuing your attacker.” It was a cheery voice compared to the one of their attacker. Chloe leaned around the corner to get a look at him. Only slightly taller than her, roughly 6’ compared to her 5’9. He had darker skin, his hair cut short and black domino around his eyes, white lenses blocking out his actual eyes. He had on a tight, lightly armored suit with blue highlights and a blue bird insignia across his chest, two batons strapped to his thigh, and a slim belt with small pouches along his hips.

She narrowed her eyes at him before moving forward. With all the walking done today, and the stairs and the sudden move that they had to do to get away, Marinette was exhausted and her scar hypersensitive. Chloe kneeled down in front of Marinette and hoisted her up into a piggyback before turning and facing the hero who stopped to help them.

“Are you two alright? Is she hurt?” his hand was moving up and towards them and his brow furrowed in concern as the hero began moving towards them. Chloe raised her chin, eyes narrowed.

“She has an old wound. It scarred badly and she has difficulty moving. We were trying to get back to our hotel after dinner with our class, but she was moving too slow to keep up, and I refused to leave her behind- I’m sorry, who are you?” Chloe took one step back, angling herself so she was between the hero and her friend.

The man in front of them had a dark look on his face for a second as Chloe spoke, before clearing his face of emotions and taking a deep breath.

“My name is Nightwing, I’m a local vigilante working under Batman, that man was a smuggler we were tracking, and we stepped in when we saw him holding you two at gunpoint,” the newly introduced Nightwing held his hands up in front of him, “ I’m going to escort you back to your hotel, alright?”

Chloe eyed Nightwing suspiciously before turning her head, looking at the top of Marinette’s head as the smaller girl rested her head in the crook of her neck, before looking back at the vigilante.

“Our hotel is just right down there,” the blonde girl gestured with her chin, before walking towards Nightwing, warily passing him as the man grinned, turning as Chloe walked past and keeping some distance between himself and the girls.

“So,” he began, glancing at Marinette as they walked. “You mentioned you were walking with a class? I can’t imagine you’re from Gotham, what with your lovely accents!” He gave a joking wink as he said it, bouncing slightly.

“We’re not.” Marinette lifted her head, giving the vigilante a look, “we’re here on a class trip, for a month.” The Bluenette gives a pained smile as she speaks. The small group reaches the steps for the girls hotel, but before Chloe could carry Marinette up the stairs Nightwing placed a hand on Chloe’s arm.

“Just, one last thing. Please, keep in mind that Gotham is not Paris, it's much more dangerous.

He shakes his head before giving one last smile, turning to start running away and pulling a Grapple on his belt, looking back one last time he waves a goodbye before swinging off, into the night.

Due to Lila getting the class to go out for dinner, dinner itself going long, and the walk back to the hotel, by the time the two girls got back into their hotel rooms, all the rest of the class was settled in. Madame Bustier hadn’t even responded to the message Chloe sent to let her know that the two girls had returned safely.

Before Chloe and Marinette could go to bed, they had to call Luka and Kagami. That discussion lasted an hour, and another 45 minutes was spent massaging the excess healing balm into Marinette’s scars and doing short pain reduction spells. By the time the two girls fell asleep, they barely had four hours left to rest.

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@too0bsessedformyowngood @thecc11andme @ramos123 @eyeballing-stuff @atramentias @dorkus-minimus @wegetitethan @liawinchester67 @alyssadeliv @thewitchwhowaited @superbwhispersconnoisseur @kitsunebell @aestheticnpoetic @officiallydarkgeek @night-fallz @literaryhiraeth @poodapup @iamablinkmarvelarmy @spider-person95 @roseisred

I’ve learned that only the first 20 tags actually work, if any of you aren't interested in being tagged anymore let me know and ill swap you out with other people! so currently, Tag List is closed for Calm After the Storm

#calm after the storm #maribat #bio dad bruce wayne #marinette dupain cheng #blink and you miss it red hood #nightwing #miraculous ladybug

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akinatrix · 9 months

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Okay i get that alot of people make alot of well written but sometimes weird crossovers and alternate universes but can someone please explain how bruce wayne IS marinette dupain-cheng? 😭 i somehwat understand the maribat fanfic but cmon BATMAN BEING LADYBUG?

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lily-drake · 1 year

Note

[Bio!dad Dick] when Dick had amnesia and became 'Ric Grayson' He hooked up with a traveling Sabine. He later discovers when looking into his old things when he was Ric he had been contacted by Sabine who told him he has a daughter named Marinette (maybe 5 years old now?idk), during his time as Batman (with Bruce 'dead', Tim missing, and Damian being well Damian) Dick makes the hard choice to stay out of his daughter's life to keep her safe from the world he lives in, but watches from a distance when he can. Before he knows it more years pass and he wants nothing more than to meet her but feels like it's to late. However everything changes when he goes down for patrol and finds one of his brothers at the batcom with a file of Marinette open, and the words 'Master Fu, ex-guardian' 'Mutlimouse, Known' 'New Guardian?'. And files on a Ladybug hero who bares a striking resemblance of his daughter.

Ric Rolled

Note, Ric/Dick is 21 at the beginning of the story while Sabine is 23.

Ric Grayson liked his job as a taxi driver. He learned a lot about the people in his city and even people from outside of it. But he always felt like he could be doing, or rather was meant for something more. Ever since he had left the hospital once the bullet wound was healed, he felt like he was missing something important from his life. It was his 21st birthday, and he decided to celebrate it at one of the nicer bars in his city.

“Hello, is this seat taken?”

A gentle voice spoke from beside him. Ric slowly turned his head and saw a beautiful woman with charcoal black hair, silver eyes, her makeup was done naturally, and her dress was a beautiful red and gold knee length qipao.

“No, you can sit here.”

He replied, gesturing toward the seat on his right side.

“My name is Sabine.”

She spoke as she gestured for the bartender. He didn’t respond, just took a sip from his glass.

“So what’s brought you here tonight?”

Sabine asked in a honeyed voice. Ric thought about whether or not he should answer that question, his already addled brain found nothing wrong with it though.

“It’s my birthday.”

“I see. You celebrating with anyone else?”

“Afraid not ma’am.”

“I see.”

Her voice was like that of a siren. Enchanting and full of life.

“Let me buy you a drink, whatever you want.”

Ric smiled at the lady and nodded.

“Thanks.”

“Of course. No one should spend their birthday by themselves.”

One drink led to another, which led to another, which led to a night that Ric hadn’t imagined he would have. When he awoke, he was alone, only a note.

Thanks for last night. Hope we can meet again one day, Ric.

~Sabine

Ric let out a groan, his head pounding up a storm. He wasn’t going to be able to work today.

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3 years later

Dick Grayson stared at the screen in front of him in shock. He remembered bits and pieces of his time as Ric Grayson, but he liked to pretend that those three years of his life never existed. But as he stared at the information in front of him, he wasn’t so sure he could ignore it for much longer. Turns out he had a daughter, and it had to be his because “Ric Grayson” was listed as the father on the copy of the birth certificate that he had been sent and the girl–his daughter– was just barely 2 years old.

Sabine had sent him a letter, but he had never seen it before as he had moved on from being Ric by that time. It was pure luck he even stumbled upon the letter in the first place when he was cleaning up the rundown apartment that he had stayed in. The overwhelming feeling of need that he felt at the thought of meeting the little girl, Marinette, was so overwhelming he couldn't think of anything else. Even breathing felt like a chore. He imagined being a real father, teaching her to read, watching her color, listening to her stories, he could even teach her gymnastics. It was a wonderful fantasy. But that was it, a fantasy. One that came crashing down with the sound of a katana slicing through a training dummy.

He shook his head as reality came crashing in around him. Bruce was dead, Tim was missing and probably hated him, Jason left the city, and he needed to make sure that Damian was being taken care of, he needed to be Batman and protect Gotham. He took a single minute to mourn what could have been before he stole himself and closed the files. She would be safer and happier without him. From what he saw Sabine was in a relationship with another man in Paris. He could watch after her from a distance, but it would be better if he was as far away from her as possible. It seemed everyone he loved got hurt in some way, and he would make sure that nothing would happen to her by keeping his distance.

_________

8 years later

Dick stared at his phone. There was a picture of a young girl at a sewing machine with the brightest smile. She had hair as black as Sabine’s and his eyes. She was growing up so fast and now that everything was working out he desperately wanted to meet her. But it has already been so long, it was probably too late now. She had Tom as her dad now. He had another daughter now, he and Kori had finally tied the knot, and now they had little Mari’. It wasn’t intentional, in fact it was Starfire that had named her that. It made his heart hurt when he thought of his other daughter. He often wondered if his girls would get along with each other if they ever met.

He sighed as he set down his phone and looked around the cave. He was in Gotham for the weekend just visiting his family—which was finally happy (well, as happy as they could be) together— with his wife and daughter. Star would be down soon, she was just putting Mari’ to bed. Star knew about Marinette and often encouraged him to reach out, and though he was thankful for her support, he was still too scared to approach her.

He could hear the fast click clacking of the Batcomputer’s keyboard, and as Bruce was upstairs he knew that it had to be Tim. Slowly he walked down the stairs to make sure that his brother hadn’t been down here for a consecutive 56 hours again. He had been getting a bit better at taking care of himself, but he knew Tim and which meant that if Tim found something overly important all of Tim’s own needs would be put aside until he was sure that he had finished everything.

“Tim, how long have you been down here?”

He asked as he carefully approached his baby brother from behind. Tim didn’t answer, he just kept clicking and moving things around on the screen. There was strike one, Tim may not always answer, but his shoulders would often either scrunch up or relax. And as neither of those reactions happened he may not have heard him showing how tired he was as Tim was one of the most aware and attentive one out of all of them.

Dick got closer to the screen and looked up to see what was so important to Tim. There files upon files of absolute chaos and destruction filling the screen. It looked horrifying and Dick couldn’t believe that it was real as if this was anywhere on Earth or even in space they would have heard about it by now. On the top and bottom right monitors there were files of three different people open at the moment. On the top there was an image of a girl with strikingly familiar blue eyes, dark raven hair, and a face he was staring at only a few minutes before.

Marinette Lenoire Dupain-Cheng

Identity (Known): Multi-Mouse (First)

New Guardian?

Pupil of ex-Grand Guardian: Wang Fu

Age: 11

Ethnicity: Asian-American

Location: Paris, France

Mother: Sabine Cheng

Birth Father: Ric Grayson

Step-father: Tom Dupain

Dick gulped as he read through the data. He hadn’t told his family about Marinette, but now they would know. He had told Starfire before they had gotten Married, and he was so relieved when she still accepted him, still loved him despite his mistake and cowardness. But he kept reading. He would have to process that his daughter was a hero, a hero at the same age he was. That his efforts to keep her out of this type of life were all in vain and that it didn’t matter now. That he was a failure. He started reading again.

Wang Fu

Identity (Known): Ex-Grand Guardian

Belonged to “The Order of the Guardians”1

Age: Unknown

Ethnicity: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Father: Unknown

Needs to be further investigated

Then there was the final one.

Ladybug

Identity: Unknown

Age: Unknown

Origin: Unknown

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Relatives: Unknown

Source of power: Earrings

Power: Creation and restoration

Danger level, high. Need more data.

Tim studied the girl before him. He didn’t like what he saw. He looked at the picture of Ladybug, then the picture of his daughter, then the picture of his daughter in a mouse themed suit, then back to Ladybug. Dick was going to be sick, he was going to pass out, he was going to have a panic attack. He should have just been part of her life. Maybe if he had been in it she wouldn’t have had to become a hero. Maybe it was because he stayed out of her life that she unintentionally followed in his footsteps. He was a terrible father, how would he tell them, how would he tell her? What was he going to do now?

“Dick! Dick, you need to breathe! Come on Dick, please breathe with me.”

There was a distant voice talking to him, but it was so hard to hear over the raging voices in his head. What was he supposed to do now? It was too late for him to just insert himself in her life.

“No it’s not Dick. It’ll be okay. I won’t tell anyone, it’s your news to share.”

That was a nice thought, but there was no way that the others wouldn’t figure it out now.

“That may be true, but they’ll respect your boundaries and wait until you feel comfortable enough to talk about it.”

The voice said. Dick tried to breathe, he could feel his hand against something hard yet soft, and he clutched onto it. He could feel a gentle beating against his hand and slowly he began to even out his breathing all while the voice seemed to rattle on, saying things that he couldn’t seem to process as he focussed all of his efforts into simply breathing. How pathetic, he couldn’t even breathe right.

“You’re doing so go. That’s right, deep breath in, then a slow long breath out.”

Dick leaned forward until his forehead was resting against Tim’s shoulder, silent tears that he hadn’t even realized were falling leaking onto the boy's shirt. He could feel Tim’s arms slowly wrap around him as they both sat on the floor, silent except for the chittering of the bats and the light drip of water from the ceiling.

“What am I supposed to do? It’s too late to meet her, and now she’s in danger, she’s like us. I stayed away to keep her away from this life and it was all useless. It didn’t matter, I could have been in her life all this time but I didn’t and now-”

Dick let out a shuddering sob, unable to finish the sentence. Tim was frozen; he didn't know what to do. He could count on one hand how many times he had actually seen Dick cry. It was always so strange and foreign and he never really knew what to do. So he held Dick even tighter, rubbing his older brother’s back as he cried. He could feel someone’s gaze on them from above and slowly looked up to see Jason and Bruce, eyes wide in shock at the scene. Bruce snapped out of it first, racing down the stairs until he was at Dick’s side only a few moments later.

“Report.”

He barked panickedly, unsure of exactly what to do to help his oldest son.

“Dick found something out and he’s in distress. I’m not allowed to say what about as it’s his business to tell.”

Tim replied automatically, but he never let go of his brother though he glanced over to the Batcomputer.

Bruce looked over the data on the screen and nearly short circuited when he stumbled across the name of the father for Marinette/Multi-Mouse before he glanced down at his son. He understood the distress of his son when he had just discovered that he in fact had a child. Not knowing about Damian until he was ten because Talia had hidden his existence from him had been heartbreaking. He could only imagine what it felt like for Dick who loved those he was close with and trusted with all of his being.

Slowly Bruce bent down glancing at Tim who slowly nodded and backed away a little, but Dick only held on tighter with a slight whimper. Tim looked like he was in pain himself.

“It’s okay Dick, Bruce wants to give you a hug too.”

But Dick didn’t let go of his little brother. The little brother he nearly lost to Ra’s, to The Widower, to Lady Shiva, to the Joker, to so many people. He clung onto the boy even tighter, he didn’t want to lose anyone else.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stay here with you.”

Tim whispered softly, pulling Dick closer.

“You’re going to have to pick both of us up B, he’s not letting go, and I think bad things will happen if I try to move away again.”

Bruce grunted in his ‘I understand and I’m really worried’ way and carefully picked up both of his sons, moving them towards the upstairs family den. Jason had already left to get Alfred, worried about his big brother, but unwilling to admit it.

“We’ll figure everything out, you’ll get to meet her. I think that she’d love to meet you. You could just take Star with you, we could watch Mari’ for you. I’m sure everything will work out, don’t give up. It’s never too late Dick.”

Dick didn’t know how much he believed those words, but Tim was right. He needed to go visit her, he needed to make things right. But until then, he would hold onto the family he had now, because they loved him and he loved them. He loved the daughter that probably didn’t even know existed, and he protected the people he loved. So he would need to protect her, and in order to do that, he would need to finally meet her. He would never give her up, he would never let her down, and never again would he desert her.

Taglist:

@aespades @adrestar @astrynyx @doll246 @queenz-z @toodaloo-kangaroo @crazylittlemunchkin @seraphichana @miraculous-ninja @dorkus-minimus @mysticsoulgirl @ritacrow-blog @snow-leopard-777 @fidget-eep @sometandomstuff333 @lady-phoenix-of-tardis @shreeing @achaoticmess1 @miraculous-ninjabird @liquid-luck-00 @buginetye @stainedglassm @prettylittlebutterflie @laurcad123 @iloontjeboontje @heartsong18 @raeuberprinzessin @when-no-wings-do-broomsticks @jennifer-rose123 @moon5608 @corporeal-terrestrial @skitarii-alpha-c6-555 @saltysugarysembei @phantom120 @kking13 @depressed-bitchy-demon @a-slytherinish-gryffindor

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azurezfiction · 2 years

Text

Maribat prompt:

Dick Grayson infiltrates Marinette’s class as the teacher once discovered she’s Bruce’s daughter (and the Batfamily’s newest little sister). Instantly sees the dumpster fire it is and begins making some changes.

Also Lukanette. Because Lukanette is love.

Thoughts?

#miraculous ladybug #mlb #maribat #luka couffaine #marinette dupain cheng #dick grayson #nightwing #batfamily #Lukanette #ml salt #Lila salt #Alya salt #maybe Adrien salt

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trying414 · 9 months

Text

MARIBAT PROMPT

Okay so I am super far behind on Batman WFA, and I decided to catch up.

I just read (S2) Ep. 81 - Holding Hope (Part 2)

And the little girl's name was Chloe

The little blonde girl

With the ponytail

WHAT IF THAT WAS CHLOE BOURGEOIS?!

Either pre-adoption by Bourgeois or post-losing Bourgeois???

That was all. Someone else can take it and run with it.

#batfam #dc batman #wfa spoilers #batman wfa #batman wayne family adventures #wayne family adventures #batfam wfa #wfa #wfa webtoon #maribat prompt #maribat #miraculous #miraculous ladybug #chloe bourgeois #dick grayson #nightwing #holding hope

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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 9 months

Text

Stale(mate)

Summary: A pact written in blood.

(Vampire!au Dickinette. Vampire!Mari says ACAB. As a cop, Dick thinks this is very concerning.)

It started, as all cases of serial killers do, with a single body.

It was a particularly alarming scene, one that haunted the few officers that had borne witness to it for the next several days. Not because of the murder itself, though that was frightening on its own. When the man’s head had been lifted to check for a pulse, they were given a perfect view of why his neck could no longer support it – for there wasn’t much neck left at all. Deep claw marks poked their way through his shirt, curling themselves in his skin, leaving gaping wounds in their wake. Gunpowder residue suggested that the man had shot at his attacker, but there was no bullet at the scene, and no blood. Not even his own. Despite the cruelty involved in the murder, it was clear that there was a method behind the madness, because he had been bled of every last drop, and said blood had been stolen away.

This wasn’t why the police had been so shaken, though.

It was because the man was one of their own.

It was because, in the officer’s hand, stiff with rigor mortis, was a slip of paper, with one simple sentence in curling, elegant script:

The police department has been dirty lately, but don’t worry, I will clean it up for you all.

Needless to say, the case quickly became a high priority.

Everyone on the force was called to inspect the scene. Invited to take pictures of evidence. Begged for theories.

Dick Grayson knelt in front of the body. His lips were pressed into a thin line, but not quite out of disgust or concern like his peers’.

No, his eyes found their way to the hand that had been clutching the note. It had been taken away for the sake of evidence, but the words were seared into his mind regardless.

The man in front of him had been a dirty cop. Dick had known that even before this had happened, but he had never been able to get any hard evidence. Nothing that couldn’t have been explained away, at least.

Now, it wasn’t necessary.

The words on the slip of paper echoed the ones he had told himself when he had joined the Bludhaven PD. The promise he had made to himself. That he would find evidence on all of the dirty cops, that he would clean up the force.

It seemed like someone was going to do all of the hard work for him.

He put the thought out of his mind. He might agree with the reasoning, at least on some level, but he figured that agreeing with a potential serial killer wasn’t exactly the way to go.

He shook his head. He would focus on this case, get this murderer off the streets, and then go back to his true goal.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

How do you catch someone who leaves no clues behind?

The night it happened, Dick had been staying late, pondering this very question. More cops had been found dead, all drained of blood, all looking as if they had had a run-in with a wild animal, all with their throats torn out. He had stared at the many pictures of all of the different crime scenes that lay strewn across his desk, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair, trying to find any semblance of a clue. But there wasn’t any.

His attention had been stolen away.

Maybe this should have been the first sign.

It shouldn’t have been all that interesting, shouldn’t have held his gaze longer than a few seconds. A cop was bringing in a woman. Based on the gem-covered, short dress with a low v-cut, and the fact that she was clearly on at least one substance, Dick figured she had probably come from a bar. Nothing new. Not worth the ruckus that had started up the moment she had come in, and certainly not worth a second glance from him in particular.

“Drunk and disorderly,” the cop holding her hands behind her back announced to the too-curious room.

Her eyes were sharp when they swept over the room. This should have been the second sign.

The third sign came quickly, the moment she spoke. For there wasn’t nearly as much of a slur to her words as the strap of her dress hanging from her shoulder and the dazed look on her face might have suggested:

“C’mooooon,” she complained, leaning back against the officer, digging her heels in to make it harder for him to take her to one of the holding cells, her head turning to nuzzle into his neck. “Can’t we just keep this between you ‘n me? I’ll make it worth your while…”

The officer’s face flushed red. Her mouth came to press against his pulse point.

Her lips curled into a kind of grin. But not the kind of grin you might expect from someone who was about to get out of jail. Dick had seen that look before. That was full of relief, or sometimes smug, but this was different. No, there was something malevolent there.

She whispered something, and this was the final warning.

Because the officer’s eyes widened in abject terror.

Dick started to rise, his hand finding its way to the gun at his hip.

He never got the chance to even try.

She dug her teeth into his neck and pulled, yanking his artery right out into the open. Blood spurted, splashing everyone in the nearby vicinity in red.

Including her, but she didn’t seem all that concerned. She held the rapidly dying man close to her, her head still tipped back against his shoulder, her tongue poking out of her mouth as if she was concentrating hard on something.

Finally, he was allowed to fall to the ground, and she showed off freed hands. The handcuffs still hung from one of her wrists, but she was no longer limited to only her teeth.

A bullet slammed into her stomach, and she stumbled just slightly with the force of it, but didn’t seem all that affected. She reached down to pick the bullet out of her dress, and then presented it for all to see. There wasn’t a single speck of blood on it.

“Someone’s gonna be paying me back for this dress. I liked it.”

This wasn’t their main concern, though, because the woman launched herself at the cop who had dared to shoot her.

She didn’t even bother with her teeth this time. Instead, she slashed her throat with long claws, and the woman gave a silent scream as she went down, frantically trying to hold the blood in.

She didn’t pay her any mind, instead turning to her next victim.

Dick just… stared as she made quick work of the precinct.

He couldn’t quite bring himself to jump directly into a losing battle. He knew better than that. The only effect the constant gunfire seemed to have on her was annoyance. If she wasn’t concerned about a bullet, then there was little he could do to stop her. She was fast, invulnerable, and (if the desk she threw at the people running for the doors meant anything) stronger than a normal person could reasonably fight off. Fighting her was stupid, and so he didn’t.

And, beyond that… well, he had already admitted, even if just to himself, that he agreed with her goal, even if her methods were hard to agree with. He couldn’t quite bring himself to try and stop her when she was doing what he had been struggling with for months now.

She was efficient, if ruthlessly so.

Before long, he was the only person left alive.

She slowed to a stop. Her hair was a mess, her bun on its last legs, strands falling in her face messily. Somehow, this didn’t make her look like a mess at all. Somehow, even the blood spilling down her chin just added to the strange, unearthly beauty that he couldn’t seem to look away from.

Her lips pulled into an amused smile.

His eyes caught on her teeth, dripping red. On the long canines that might have poked out of her mouth even when her lips were closed, on the other sharp teeth that could tear him to shreds in a second. She ran a tongue over her teeth, her eyes gleaming with something that was distinctly inhuman. Something more.

“You didn’t shoot,” she said.

He swallowed thickly, and then mentally cursed himself when the motion drew her eyes to his neck. “I –... it wasn’t helping anyone else,” he said.

She hummed, pursing her lips in a way that was definitely mocking him. “Did you know your heart rate increases when you lie?”

“Well, my heartrate being fast isn’t all that surprising. I am a little scared of you.”

She laughed, and her teeth glinted in the light. “That, at least, is true.”

She walked towards him, her steps slow and languid, as if she had all the time in the world.

She did.

She came to stand in front of him, and he almost laughed aloud at the height difference between them. You would expect a serial killer to be tall, strong, imposing. She was strong, but if he hadn’t known any better he would have walked right past her on the street without being any the wiser. If not for the blood staining her front, he might have thought her pretty. Maybe he still did, but not in the way he usually found people pretty, but instead like a waterfall. A force of nature, a gorgeous thing you can’t quite tear your eyes away from, something that will pitch you off the side of a cliff, down hundreds of feet towards your doom.

Her gaze flicked downwards, to the gun pointed at her heart. It was useless, they both knew, but he couldn’t bring himself to let go of it. Maybe it was because he was human, but he couldn’t give in, couldn’t lay down and die. Not entirely. He wanted to fight. He wanted to keep her from truly trying to fight him.

Too pale blue eyes (bloodless, he realized dully) zeroed in on the nameplate on his chest. Her gaze, briefly, flicked to the side, as if considering, but either she didn’t care enough to dwell on it or her thoughts raced faster than he could ever hope to comprehend, because she found her way back to his eyes within a second.

She leaned into his space. A hand came up to cup his chin, and he only just stopped himself from flinching.

If she wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t be able to stop her. If he couldn't hold onto his life then, at least, he would hold onto his pride.

A finger came to rest against his pulse point, and even he could feel just how fast his blood was pumping beneath it.

He didn’t have much pride left, but he could at least have this. The knowledge that he hadn’t screamed and cried and tried to run away like everyone else.

“Officer Grayson?” She said, and a faint accent hung onto her words as she sounded out the name, but he couldn’t quite care about figuring out where it was from when a fanged mouth was nearing him. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you, so I’ll let you off for good behavior.”

“You’re pretty close for someone that’s going to be letting me go.”

She hummed, an impossibly low sound that almost reminded him of a purr, and then tilted his head to the side with her hand. “Well, something tells me that your shock might wear off soon, and I want to be able to clean up in peace.”

This was all the warning he got before her teeth sunk into his neck.

Have you ever been put under anesthesia?

A sudden rush, a buzzing in your head drowning out all thoughts you could have in just a second. No matter how hard you thrash, no matter the amount of panic making your heart race, your eyes droop against your will. Within seconds, you’re gone.

That was what it was like.

Not that Dick passed out, per say. No, he was very much awake. He just… couldn’t bring himself to do much of anything. Not even stand on his own two feet. If it were not for the arm wrapped around his waist, the hand cradling his chin, he would have collapsed instantly. The gun slipped from his fingers and somewhere, distantly, he recognized that it had gone off, but he didn’t really care.

Lips detached themselves from his skin, and she carefully lowered him to the ground.

She smiled, swiping away the stream of blood sliding down the side of her face with her thumb.

“Sweet,” she mused.

“Mm,” Dick said, though even he wasn’t sure what he had been trying to say. He felt… floaty. He had never been one for drugs and had never liked the taste of alcohol enough to get anywhere near blackout drunk, but he suddenly understood why people were so into them. There was something relaxing about not being able to hold a thought longer than a few seconds, freeing about the idea of all of his worries falling away into nothing. He was almost scared of how he would feel after the weird floatiness was gone, but he couldn’t even bring himself to care about that.

All he could think about was the pleasant little smile on the woman’s face, sharp teeth dripping with blood and something that had a deep purple tint.

He lifted a heavy hand towards her.

She snickered and batted the hand away with ease. “Mm indeed, Officer Grayson. How about you get some shut-eye, hm?”

That sounded like a good idea.

He thought about thanking her for it, but he drifted before he could.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

Dick, obviously, had a lot of things to explain when he awoke, his head pounding and in desperate need of something to eat.

Luckily or unluckily, the footage of the incident had been wiped. As had the blood. He wasn’t sure how she did it, because the murders had been bloody and she’d made no attempts at all to try and mitigate that… but his concern was more with how he would have looked on camera. He hadn’t made any attempts to stop her, and had allowed her to put him to sleep without any hints of a struggle. It would not have looked good.

But it also didn’t look good to be the new-ish recruit who was inexplicably the only one left alive during a mass murder.

Thankfully, his blood tests exonerated him. His inability to react was attributed to high traces of a sedative that had gotten into his system. The two pinpricks in his neck were said to be the injection sight and, thanks to the awkward positioning that would require him to contort quite a bit to take it himself, they just assumed he was dosed by a rowdy criminal he had arrested earlier that day, and that it had kicked in at a bad time.

Within a few hours, he was let go to go and sleep off the last of the ‘drug’, given a few days' grace before he would need to give a witness statement…

But he didn’t sleep.

He couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Because it was his job. She was a case that he needed to solve, and it had suddenly become far more difficult. It would take careful planning to take her down. There was a very high chance that he would die trying.

And…

Because of the way she had made him feel. Even hours later, he couldn’t seem to stop craving the feeling of her teeth sinking into him. It hadn’t even hurt. The second she had broken the skin, he had been enveloped in a warm feeling that he couldn’t help but want to go back to. It was as if all of his problems had melted away in that second, and who wants to have problems? Wasn’t it only natural to get a taste of that kind of freedom and then crave it from then on?

As long as he didn’t let it affect his search for her, then it didn’t really matter.

He gripped his phone tighter, the veins in his arms bulging.

It might even help.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

It had been three weeks, but there she was.

If he hadn’t seen it in person, he wouldn’t believe it.

A real-life vampire.

Standing in the sun. He supposed it wasn’t all that surprising to see that she didn’t die like in the stories. The idea of something as powerful as her crumbling away into ash over something so trivial seemed impossible.

If she had noticed him, she didn’t show it. Humming a playful little tune, her head bobbing to music playing in her earbuds, her sundress flowing in the wind, her mess of keychains clinking together as she locked up her apartment… she looked human, in that moment. Like any other person who was just going about their day. She had a job as a tailor. A couple of friends that she would meet up with later. A pet cat that was already meowing and scratching at the door, begging for her to go back in for ‘just a couple more’ pets. She was so… normal.

Maybe the reason they were seen as creatures of the night was less about that being their domain, and more about how difficult it was to see her as anything but human during the daytime. It was hard to conflate the image of her dripping in blood with the girl who looked so alive.

Dick’s breath caught in his throat.

She paused just slightly. She didn’t move, didn’t even stop humming, and yet the air around her changed. Her smile stretched wider, showing off the fangs that had been plaguing his mind for weeks.

But the sun softened even that edge. Glittery lipgloss glimmered on her lips. Sunspots decorated the bridge of her nose. Even the lifeless blue eyes he had noticed on that first night seemed bright when reflecting the sunlight.

She clapped her hands together by her face as if she was just so delighted to see him. “Officer Grayson, sweetheart, how have you been?” she greeted him, as if they were old friends, as if he hadn’t shown up at her house uninvited and she hadn’t killed a majority of his coworkers.

“Awful,” he hissed.

Which was true. His skin had taken on a pallor, sweat beaded his brow more often than not, and his hair hung limp around his face. Whenever the few coworkers he had left asked, he would say he was sick, but that wasn’t quite right. He just felt… antsy. Like something was crawling beneath his skin, trying to claw its way out. He needed to keep moving. If he didn’t, his mind would stray back to the floaty feeling that the vampire had given him, and how that might help calm him down.

“Yeah, you look it,” she teased, taking a few short strides in his direction. “That venom did a number on you. Maybe I used too much…?”

She reached a hand out, ready to grab him by the chin, looking so damn concerned that he almost believed it, but he caught her wrist before she could.

The handcuffs hanging from one of his belt loops were burning hot in the few places where they touched his leg. Which was to be expected on a day as hot as this, where he had to unbutton his shirt and roll up his sleeves for fear of heat stroke, metal does get hot… but it was more than that.

The handcuffs that his department used were plated with silver, or at least a pure enough alloy of it for the cuffs to give vampires pause. Back during her siege on the precinct, she had forgone the use of her superhuman strength when getting out of the cuffs, having to get out the old-fashioned way by stealing the key. If there was any chance of subduing her in a way that was still in line with his training as a police officer, it was through this.

He needed to arrest her.

And yet.

He needed answers more.

He knew where she lived, anyways, so it wasn’t like she could up and leave that easily.

He could spare a few moments to ask why he felt so terrible. Why all of his thoughts were plagued with thoughts of the purple venom that she had injected into him.

“What did you do to me?”

She inspected him for a minute, blue eyes boreing into his own, and he couldn’t help but look away.

She must have found whatever she was looking for regardless, because she answered him: “I used some venom – er, vampire venom, though I think you know that much at least – it was just to calm you down. It’s supposed to be used to subdue our…” she glanced to the side “food while we eat it – think like a rattlesnake or something, but a little more enjoyable for the food… less neurotoxin more vague high feeling… usually people like me tend to take more time when eating, I just tend to be on a bit of a time crunch, so I don’t really use it for that… it does make a good sedative for getaways, though, which is why I did that…”

He stared at her. It stood to good reason that she had never explained venom before, vampires were secretive in nature, but the explanation was so scattered, as if she was coming up with all of it on the fly.

How had he ever thought her a threat?

How was she?

“Now,” she said. “As fun as explaining that was, I do have to pay the bills, so –.”

“Why did you let me live?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes. “I’ve already told you. It’s because I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.” Her lips twitched. “You’re ‘one of the good ones’, if you want to explain it terribly.”

“Why should that matter? I’m still food.”

“You’re not food. And, just so you know, I’m not a monster, either.”

He went quiet.

She smiled.

“Ciao,” she said.

Her teeth sunk into his arm, and that was just about the last thing he remembered before he was back to floating. His skin felt like it was buzzing where she held him, dragging him back toward his car. His vision was a blur of bright skies and a brilliant smile.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

Dick groaned when he came to properly. He was laid across the backseat of his own car, the hand she hadn’t bitten pillowing his head. Which meant both of his arms were numb, great. His eyes struggled to focus on the ceiling of the car. Possibly because there wasn’t much to focus on, but more likely because his vision was generally blurry. His head ached, and he realized that, fittingly, he could count out his racing pulse with every throb in his temples.

Okay, admittedly, he had been a little unprepared.

But he could prepare himself now. He knew about her safehouse and, even though it was very likely that she was abandoning it now, it should give him a good idea of the kinds of places she would stay in.

And, if he could get into one of her safehouses when she wasn’t there, then he could really prepare.

He moved to let himself out of the car so he could go in and inspect the place.

… it was a cop car. The backseat is reserved for criminals to be taken in, and couldn’t be unlocked from within for fear of a criminal jumping out during a red light. He kicked the door in frustration.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

“How old are you?” Dick asked the next time he saw her at the precinct. It was a slow day, with only a few cops, none of whom were nearby, and only one ‘prisoner’, so no one paid any mind to their chatty coworker.

You could ask why he wasn’t trying to warn anyone, but he knew it wouldn’t do any good, and he still didn’t have anything that would stop her in her tracks, much less get rid of her for good.

As callous as it might have been, his current objective had shifted. He needed to make sure she didn’t go on a killing spree while he was on the job again. He couldn’t take her down if he was sitting behind bars for collusion.

So. Keep her talking.

“Why do you care? This isn’t Twilight, y’know, I’m not going to fight a werewolf for you,” she said, leaning against the bars.

“You know Twilight? You have to be young, then,” Dick said, a ghost of a smile dancing across his face at the small victory.

She gave a quiet laugh. “Every vampire knows Twilight, trust me. I swear, I may be killing people, but it’s just rude to ask if I sparkle in the sun when I’m trying to do it!”

He tried to imagine that, for just a moment, and a laugh bubbled out of him. “I see.”

“Ugh, if another edge lord tells me that they want me to turn them so they can be with their people or whatever, I’m going to step out into the sun.”

There was a moment of silence, and he could almost feel her hesitation, the words hanging in the air, waiting for her to acknowledge them.

“Twenty-six.”

“I mean, like… actually,” Dick groaned.

She snickered. “I’m serious. I was born twenty-six years ago, in Paris, to this lovely French couple. Humans, just so you don’t ask.”

He mulled this over. She was… twenty-six. At maximum, she had twenty-six years of being a vampire under her belt, and that was if she had been turned as a newborn. If her age of turning was her physical age, then he would guess that she had had maybe two or three years as a vampire.

She had been a human for… most of her life.

How would he feel if he had gone from human one day, to a bloodthirsty monster the next? How could he live, knowing that the only way to do so was to make a meal of other people?

He had the sinking feeling that he would react much the same as she had. Grab the worst people he could get access to, and chow down. Because the other option was to starve, and starving was one of the worst ways to go.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to think about that. “Humans?”

“Mhmm,” she said. “Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng. They were great.”

Dick didn’t miss the use of were.

“How would they feel about their little girl going around killing people?”

She scoffed. “Well, I’d like to imagine that they would be glad I’m not dead, too.”

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

The vampire hummed as the door swung open. She glanced behind herself, making sure that she wasn’t being followed, and then swept a leg out to catch her cat before he could sneak past. She scooped him up by the scruff of his neck, giving the cat a tired look.

“Really?”

The cat, being a cat, meowed.

She meowed back. As all cat owners must.

She closed the door behind herself without even bothering to glance back, instead concentrating on making sure her cat didn’t wriggle away. But, finally, the risk was gone, and she set him down. Immediately, he took off in the direction of his food and water bowls, meowing loudly for sustenance, and she laughed lightly, making a move to follow...

Only to stop cold.

Her welcome mat had been turned around while she was out.

Now, most people wouldn’t notice. And, if they did, this would make them immediately wary of who was there and why they would do such a thing.

But Marinette wasn’t a ‘people’ at all, and her expression immediately twisted. She looked back at her door, and found the doorknob had been turned upside down.

Dick’s heart pounded in his chest, and he had to hope that she would just assume it belonged to her cat.

Whether or not she was fooled, she seemed to have bigger problems.

For, you see, he had done some research on vampires and their houses, and found very little that he could use. But in the footnotes of an article about classic vampire mansions (which didn’t apply in this dingy little apartment), he found a strange detail: that, when someone you knew turned into a vampire, you were supposed to flip the doorknob upside down so they couldn’t get back in. Vampires were creatures of habit, the article claimed, and this would confuse them so much that they would have no choice but to leave.

She didn’t look like she was all that confused, admittedly, but she wasn’t making any moves to attack, nor leave. She stood perfectly in the center of the mat, trapped.

“Fuck,” she breathed.

He breathed out a sigh of relief.

Her head jerked to look at him and, for once, he got to see her when she had been thrown out of her element. There was no smile on her face, just pure terror.

It… didn’t feel as good as it probably should.

“The welcome mat?” she said, sounding genuinely offended.

“Well, you vampires aren’t supposed to be able to get inside without being invited,” he argued, coming out from behind the counter. “It’s only fair that I change the mat.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I was invited. This is my house. You are the one who showed up uninvited.”

He decidedly ignored her in favor of pulling out his phone. Trembling fingers scrolled through tab after tab on vampires, until he came upon the one he wanted:

An exorcism.

For just a moment, he hesitated. And not just because the video warned that you had to be a priest to perform an exorcism.

No, it was because she looked so human at the moment, her eyes wide and her fingers bunched in the fabric of her dress, anxiety rolling off of her in waves. Dick had killed people before, it was a part of his job, sometimes he had to make tough choices… but shooting someone was far faster than any of the methods for killing vampires that he had been able to find. Shooting someone was a split-second decision, something that could haunt you but ultimately didn’t give you enough time to regret, to have that horrible second thought.

This was more.

And, though he hated to admit it, there was another, less virtuous reason.

It was also because of that purple liquid she had injected into him. It was… nice. A horrible part of him was dangerously aware of the fact that she was trapped here, would starve without his help, and that she would likely do anything he asked once she got hungry enough. He could get a constant buzz, at the cost of a murderer’s freedom.

At least this jail was nicer than the one she would have gotten were she human.

He shook his head to clear it.

If he didn’t do this now, it would only be harder to quit later on.

He clicked play on the Youtube video, and then repeated after the kindly priest, chanting, a cross held out.

She pressed back against the door and started sliding down, but not in horror or because she was weakening. She looked… bored.

“Hey, an important thing to know about vampires: Christianity doesn’t mean shit to us. Christians are just liars who saw scared townsfolk and decided that they could capitalize. ‘Hey, look, we conveniently have all of the solutions to your vampire problems’.”

Dick… didn’t know what to do about that. Most of the solutions he had found were Christian-based.

But perhaps she was lying.

⋆♱✮☽🦇☽✮♰⋆

She was not. Dick had tried everything. Silver to weaken her. Garlic. Holy water…

He had even had time to feed her cat!

He sat on her counter, among aged wine bottles filled with blood (she had gleefully explained to him that the alcohol stopped the blood from coagulating, which he had not needed to know), scrolling through the internet frantically for something that might work.

She glared at him, her face half-buried in her cat’s fur. Like he had done something wrong. Sure, he had gone into this fully expecting the exorcism to send her crumbling into ash, but she had been trying to drain people of their blood, so he thought that this was kind of fair game.

Still, he bristled. Offended and defensive. “What, was I just supposed to let you go on killing people?!”

“They were going to die anyways, were they not?” she argued.

“Not for several years!”

“That’s the problem,” she said, rolling her eyes. She stroked her cat’s fur, scratching it behind the ear, and the cat purred as it leaned into her. “They would have used those ‘several years’ to cause harm. Wouldn’t it be better this way?”

“They have families! Those people were innocent, and now –!”

“Their victims were innocent, too. So were the victims’ families. But you never see people talk about them.”

Dick… didn’t quite have a retort for that one.

He sighed, running his hands through his hair. “They’re bad people, okay? I agree. But you can take them down using the system, you don’t have to kill them.”

“How’s that been going for you?” She said, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

Dick, once again, wasn’t sure.

“We have the same goal, sweetheart. I’m better at achieving it, obviously, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t work together. I can get all of the people you can’t get evidence on, you can get me schedules and stuff so I don’t accidentally incriminate you or anything. We could work.”

He shook his head. “I can’t let you do that.”

She sighed, tipping her head back to rest against the door. Her expression shuttered closed. “Then do me a favor and go through the actual process to kill me already.”

He perked up.

“Stab me through the heart with a wooden stake, use it to pin me to the earth until I stop moving, burn my body, and then scatter my ashes in a river so I can’t reform.”

“That’s…” Dick said, deflating.

“A lot. But still better than starving. So, prove you’re a good cop, do me a mercy.”

Dick hesitated, chewing on his bottom lip. He could tell she was manipulating him, but to what end? Was she really so scared of starving that she would advocate for her own murder? Or was this all just her version of reverse psychology?

Damn, his head hurt.

It was still hurting from the pseudo-hangover the vampire venom had given him, but this certainly wasn’t helping.

He combed his fingers through his hair, thinking hard. “I’m not going to let you starve...”

She raised an eyebrow.

“What? Going to start body snatching from the morgue or something?”

He snorted a little, shaking his head. “No.” He walked across the small apartment and held his arm out, wrist bared. “You need blood. I have blood. Problem solved.”

“I’m not going to be your pet, I hope you know.”

His lips twitched into something of a wry grin. “I know.”

“I could drug you out of your mind. You wouldn’t even know your own name, much less that you need to run. I may not be able to leave here, but it would not be difficult to make sure that you reach the same fate.”

“I thought you weren’t a monster.”

She grinned, sharp teeth flashing in the light. “Treat me like one, and I will deliver. When I get out of here, I will tear you to shreds. And I will make sure you feel every second of it.”

“I knew the risks when I got this job.”

“Funny. All of your coworkers used to say the same thing.”

He offered her his hand again, and this time she took it.

Teeth sunk into his wrist, and this time it hurt.

#maribat #tag team tournament #ttt #spandex flex #dickinette #i deeeeefinitely intended it to endt his way #carpal tunnel is not affecting my fics in any way #there is no extra arc #there is no war in ba sing se #dick grayson #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #nightwing #i hate that dick is canonically a cop #but also. i can use it for acab so

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adeva-eira · 2 years

Text

Dick: Hey Mars, what are you Dressing up as for Halloween?

Marinette: Why I'll come as the most atrocious, scary and hideous thing mankind can imagine!

-On Halloween-

Dick, in a sexy Unicorn outfit: *Glares at Marinette*

Marinette, in his Discowing suit: *grins*

Jason and Tim in the back: *laughing on the ground*

#dc x miraculous #maribat #marinette x batfam #miraculous x dc #miraculoustalesofladybugandcatnoir #marinette dupain cheng #dickinette #discowing #dick grayson #nightwing #halloween #i'm not sorry #i have no shame #no regrets

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goggles-mcgee · 1 year

Text

Wish Me Away: Hold Me Close & Hold Me Near

Beginning Last Chapter

Summary:

*waves* Hi

Bruce muses on his new life despite it only being a couple days since the family welcomed Marietta into it.

Nothing could have prepared Bruce for life with a baby, two days had passed and it felt like his life had been completely flipped on its head. She required a lot of attention and physical affection. The attention he had no problem with, it was the physical affection he was terrified of. Marietta was such a tiny little thing, she was so fragile that Bruce was so scared that the slightest wrong move from him could hurt her. Yet, sometimes the physical affection came so easily to him, so easily he felt like he was robbed of this time he could have had with Damian and found himself wishing Talia had told him about his son sooner. When she smiled up at him when he tried to feed her, it was almost instinctual to give her a kiss on the head, or when she babbled and held out a hand to him, he was compelled to coo and let her grab at his fingers. Hugging her is what scared him most, she was so small, so warm, and he had never understood what all those people said about the smell of a baby but he got it, and hugging her brought him such a feeling of joy and love that he couldn’t even put it into words. Bruce just felt scared of hugging her too tight because of all the new feelings of love that filled him.

Once she had fallen asleep her first night in the Manor, at her new home, he had been entirely too frightened to sleep in his large bed with her, but he and the boys made a pretty sturdy wall of pillows all around her as he stayed up to study. He bought parenting books, so many parenting books, from baby meal cookbooks, to psychology. He wanted to know anything and everything he had to about taking care of a one year old. And from the many boxes that arrived at the house he deduced he wasn’t the only one. The manor now looked like a bomb went off in it, one that filled the place with bassinets, diapers, baby food and snacks and so many freaking toys. Most of which came surprisingly from Alfred, Bruce had wanted to laugh but Alfred had basically said he had no room to talk. He was right. Bruce had kind of gone overboard when buying her clothes, it’s not fair that tiny versions of clothes were so cute and apparently brought him more joy than his own.

Cassandra had helped him choose a lot of the clothing as well, it warmed his heart the way she immediately took to being an older sister. The way she held Marietta and the way she hugged her was something that Bruce loved to see, because he could tell just how precious the baby was to Cass. He had many pictures on his phone of the two twirling in the dance room he had built for Cass. It was wonderful and Cass looked at Marietta with so much love, the excitement in her eyes was plain to see as well, though so was the fear, Bruce expected it was much like his own but something stronger. Cass feared hurting her new sister much the same way that Damian was, but whereas Cass spent as much time with Marietta as she could, it seemed like Damian was avoiding the baby. It didn’t take the ‘world’s greatest detective’ to figure out that Damian was frustrated at no longer being the youngest. Bruce wasn’t worried though, when Damian did interact with Marietta, he saw how gentle the boy was with her, even if he scolded her for drooling on him or not paying attention to what he was saying. He tended to hold her and tell her about their siblings and why they annoyed him that day, or classmates, or even just random people that he had a rough interaction with. It was an odd thing to bond over but Bruce was just happy Damian was trying.

Tim adored her as well, he read all the books Bruce bought and all the ones he himself bought. Within a night, the Manor had been baby-proofed and monitors had been added everywhere. It was like he was waiting to be a doting older brother, Bruce of course knew he and Damian got off the wrong foot and were better but he also knew they would never be as close as Tim and Dick, Tim and Jason or Dick and Damian. It was like a worse Jason and Dick situation when they were younger, both bitter for different reasons and both took it out on one another. There was no doubt in Bruce’s mind that both Tim and Damian loved each other, it was just a strained kind of love. Tim took her everywhere with him if he could, as did Jason, both bought baby carriers to strap to themselves and it was hard not to laugh when Bruce realized they had bought a Red Robin carrier and a Red Hood carrier respectively. Tim liked to take her down to the cave and work on whatever case he was trying to solve or tinker with whatever tech he and Lucius Fox were working on. He said he liked asking her questions and hearing her babble like she was giving feedback. Of course Alfred and Bruce made sure the boy baby-proofed the cave as well and made sure she had her own activities to do besides giving her older brother feedback on his projects. To the surprise of no one, Tim even set her up a little play-pen in the Cave, which maybe wasn’t the best thing but it still tugged at Bruce’s heartstrings to see.

Jason loved Marietta. It was honestly amazing to see just how fast the man adjusted to being a doting big brother. Of course Bruce already knew Jason was great with kids and with his younger siblings but it was another thing to witness it, especially with someone as young as Marietta. Jason loved to feed her which was always an interesting thing to witness, but boy was he good at it, she never complained when he fed her. He also read to her everyday even if he couldn’t be there physically, he would video-call, though his reading choices varied from the Well Loved Tales books he scored at a garage sale to classics he had in his room or brought from his apartment. It was entertaining to watch him read things like Cinderella to her and then go from that to reading her Pride and Prejudice. He made sure to get books with pictures for her and if they didn’t have pictures he would show her pictures he found on the internet to show her who he thought a character looked like, or an object in one of his classic books that he couldn’t describe. It was awfully endearing and Bruce and Alfred made sure to take as many pictures of the two as they could. Nap times they would often find the two together with Jason sprawled out on a couch, the floor, a chaise or bed with Marietta snuggled on his chest. It was those times that Bruce envied Jason.

Dick was also one that adjusted to having another younger sibling surprisingly fast, even if said younger sibling was younger than any of them have dealt with before. He never complained about changing her diaper, he just laughed and said they would have to get on top of potty training but only when she felt like it. He was incredibly gentle with her and patient and tried his best to help Damian get more comfortable with her. He was also the one who could get her to stop crying the fastest out of all of them, well second to Alfred. It was impressive, and yet it was another thing that Bruce found himself jealous of. He was the parent and he felt like he should be able to soothe her cries easily, but the truth was, he had no idea what he was doing. Sure, he had a lot of children, but he had not had any of them when they were babies, this was a whole different playing field and it hurt him that he wasn’t excelling at it. Of course, Bruce wanted to be the best father he could be, and he would admit that he, like his children, wanted to be Marietta’s favorite person. Both Dick and Jason would put her in the middle of them and coo at her and see who she would waddle or crawl too, they said it was a competition to see who her favorite was but most of the time she just laughed at them and would end up falling back on her bottom if she was standing. Damian found this highly amusing every time it happened and Bruce suspected so did Alfred.

Duke was a little like Babs in the sense that he adored Marietta, but she made him nervous. He never held her long unless he was sitting down because he feared dropping her, if she was asleep that fear tripled because he said she was just dead-weight and would fall no problem. Though, he liked working on his homework with her and telling her about school. Sometimes he brought out her crayons and coloring books but that was rare since Marietta hadn’t yet grasped the concept that the canyons were only for her coloring books. Alfred lectured all of them about watching her during ‘coloring time’ after she found out that crayons work just as good on walls as they did on paper. Though Duke was nervous around her, Marietta always managed to get him to relax around her after enough time passed and the boy would play games with her, though the games mainly consisted of peek-a-boo and making silly faces at her. She loved it though and it seemed like no one could make her laugh more than Duke and his silly faces. Every time he made her laugh or giggle, Duke looked like he had just won an award or something and would give her the brightest smile in response. Of course he and Alfred had many videos and pictures of the two already.

Babs hadn’t met little Marietta face to face yet but she had seen the little one over the Batcave’s computer and she had looked smitten. She also promised to visit them soon, probably within the week which was great. Alfred had been wanting the young woman to visit the Manor more often, so her visit was more than welcome. Especially since it seemed like Marietta took a shine to her, even if it was just over video. Babs took to face-calling whoever she knew was in the Manor so she could see Marietta and hear her babble at her nonsensically with some actual words thrown in here and there. Though she hadn’t met the little one properly, Babs did send gifts that she ordered online and she sent everyone books on childcare. Bruce didn’t have the heart to tell her he had already bought the book she had got for him, he had just thanked her and used the new copy to take notes in. She seemed excited to hold Marietta and Bruce could honestly say he understood that feeling now, before he hadn’t, not really, but now it was like all he wanted to do was hold his daughter and show her to everyone. Thank goodness he had such good self-restraint. They, as a family, decided they wouldn’t go public with Marietta until Selina came back from Central City; she was setting up another animal shelter/rescue center after the success of the one in Gotham, then the one in Metropolis. This was her baby, her project, she was very hands on with everything that came with the business. Bruce felt so proud of her and he was also extremely happy his influence was good for something like this. When it got out that Bruce Wayne was investing in the Kyle Animal Rescue & Shelter Centers, many of Gotham’s elite followed. Though she wouldn’t admit it, he knew that Selina was grateful.

Stephanie had the habit of carrying Marietta everywhere she went when she was at the Manor, which considering the baby had only been there for about two days, meant Steph had been there everyday now. When she walked into a room and saw Marietta she would scoop her up and give the little one a shower of kisses which resulted in the most delightful giggles. Though Steph also had the habit of just…sniffing Marietta, when they asked her about it she just shrugged and said she loved the smell of babies. Which, fair, but she did it so obviously and made such a spectacle of sniffing the newest Wayne that you couldn’t help but laugh. It always made Marietta laugh as well so it was a welcome habit. Steph was also someone who liked feeding Marietta which Bruce could not understand as it was a time that he saw his baby daughter be truly stubborn, worthy of the Wayne name, which was something his mother would tease him with whenever he was stubborn. But like Jason, Steph could get the baby to eat whatever Alfred served for their meals. She said she liked to see the faces Marietta made when eating and she just liked to see just how messy the baby could get. Which was, astoundingly, a lot. She had many baths that she thankfully enjoyed.

Damian was complicated. There were moments he seemed to crave Marietta’s attention and other’s where he would avoid her altogether if he could. From what Tim, Alfred and the books told him, Damian felt ‘threatened’ as he was no longer the ‘baby’ of the family. The wording was ridiculous but maybe fitting for the situation. Damian was a child who adored having Bruce’s attention and Dick’s attention the most, though he would sooner play nice with all the kids at Brentwood Academy than admit it. When he held her, he no longer held her like a bomb about to go off, but he cradled her like one wrong touch and he’d break her. There were times that Bruce had walked past a room to see Damian hugging the little one to him with his eyes closed and hands shaking, it always felt wrong to intrude so Bruce would just continue to walk past. The boy also introduced his younger sister to all his animals, even Goliath who lived in the Wayne Farm. Damian built his own underground Cave beneath the farm to hide Goliath if the need arose, he called it the Underground BatFarm after Dick called it that once. So they all just referred to it as the BatFarm. Damian had simultaneously been overjoyed and annoyed that all his animal friends seemed to take a shine to the newest addition to the family.

Alfred was in love. Plain and simple. He doted on the baby so much that Bruce often wondered if the Butler/Grandpa/Adopted Dad ever did that to him when his parents introduced the two when he was born. He always served her food first at meals, he gave her treats when he thought no one was looking and if the boys weren’t around he took to carrying Marietta in his own carrier. It was always quite the sight when Alfred would walk into a room with a baby strapped to his chest. Though in a weird way, Bruce was getting used to it. What he couldn’t get used to just yet were the tiny creatures that called themselves Kwami. They stuck around Marietta like glue. They never left her alone, not even when she slept. It was very disconcerting to wake up and see two creatures sleeping on the pillow next to you first thing in the morning. Even if a family member was just going to change her diaper real quick, they followed. Their import on cheese increased an unhealthy amount and really Bruce had no way how they would explain those finances away if anyone bothered to look. At least Alfred usually baked biscuits. So there was no shortage of Tikki. Plagg was insatiable.

Even now, Bruce watched as the little black cat Kwami absolutely inhaled a wheel of brie. “You keep eating like that and we’ll run out of cheese before you know it.”

“Eh, you’re rich.”

Jason’s cackle was welcome but also Bruce felt like this was a serious matter so he did not appreciate being laughed at. “It’s true, Bruce. You are a very~ rich man.”

“That doesn’t mean that Plagg should demolish our entire cheese supply and have us order more in less than a week. It could be considered suspicious and we are trying to lay low.” He reasoned.

“I mean, it could be suspicious, or people think you’re on some weird new cheese diet and you accidentally start a trend again.” Tim piped up from his position on the floor where he kept pressing buttons on one of Mari’s toys which made her coo from her spot on her mat.

“Oh man, please not another ‘Bruce Wayne Original Trend.’ The amount of people I saw wearing their shirts backwards in Blüdhaven after his last ‘trend,’ is more than enough for me.” Dick complained from where he was laying on the floor tossing one of Marietta’s toy balls up and down.

“Father was very tired that day.” Damian defended, he was sketching something from his favorite spot in the windowsill. They were all relaxing in his office despite the fact he told them he had paperwork to do. “Though he should have had more decorum and noticed his mistake.”

So much for defending him.

“You humans are so weird with your clothes.” Plagg sighed loudly.

“You act like we never wore clothing once upon a time, Plagg.” Tikki teased.

That had Tim’s attention. He loved learning more about the beings that came as an added…bonus with their newest Wayne. “You guys wore clothes?”

“Well, duh! We weren’t always this adorable you know?” Plagg replied.

“Wait. You guys really weren’t always this itty-bitty?” Jason asked.

“We did mention we were basically revered as Gods in the past. Can you see these forms being worshipped?” Tikki fired back. When she got no reply, she looked unbelievably smug. “Before we were bound to the Miraculi, we tended to use a more human-like form. Hence the clothing. Though even that form was not our true form.”

“It’s been ages since we got to be in our true forms.” Plagg said wistfully.

“What are your true forms?” Tim asked with a twinkle in his eye.

Tikki chuckled softly. “They are…well, they are hard to explain. But it is because the ‘First Guardian-”

“The ‘Betrayer’!” Plagg interrupted with a shout.

“He saw our true forms, and I guess that’s what pushed him to create the ritual that bound us. He called us monsters. Creatures living amongst man. Honestly he just raved at us how he couldn’t believe that we tried to take advantage of the folk who worshipped us and that he was doing them a favor by binding us.” Tikki explained.

“Crazy loon.” Plagg scoffed.

Bruce shared eye contact with all his sons who looked just as disturbed at the information as him. Their true forms scared a man so deeply that he went to such lengths. He felt bad for the Kwami but he also could understand the man’s need for protection even if it was unwarranted. Bruce was always prepared, no matter the circumstances, but now it felt like he would never truly be prepared with the Kwami living with his family. They were truly neutral beings, and it was interesting to have them in the Manor, but when he and Jason got into another argument about the no-killing rule, Plagg and Tikki had looked at him like he was the wrong one. Or more accurately, like they couldn’t understand why he was arguing about it with his son. It was an issue, but not more so than the two beings announcing their plans about Paris.

“So today’s the day.” Jason brought up as casually as he could, which wasn’t as casual as the young man would have liked.

Plagg nodded. “It is.”

Bruce sighed.

“Oh Bruce, I know how you feel about it, but really it isn’t your place to tell us we can’t spread Karma across Paris. It has already been enacted and They have given their permission to all of us Kwami of the Miracle Box of Fortune & Fate.” Tikki explained once more, she wasn’t being condescending and yet Bruce still felt like she was.

“And I told you, I don’t understand that.”

“You don’t have to understand it. Just let it be.” She replied.

“Or better yet ignore it.” Plagg gave his two-cents.

“I can’t just ignore it. You told us you will be going to Paris to punish them!” He argued as softly as he could, not wanting to disturb Marietta who was still distracted by her noisy shiny toy.

“Not all, only those who deserve it and though Paris will no longer be protected by us, it doesn’t mean forever but they need to know. Which is why the announcement is also needed.” She argued back, though she didn’t even look affected by his words and that made his hackles rise more.

“Look. I know your whole ‘job’ is ‘justice,’ and that’s great.” Plagg interjected. “But justice is up to the interpreter and this, Karma, that’s our justice. That’s how we deal with offenses and crimes against us. You don’t have to understand it, but for your sake and Marietta’s sake, don’t try to stop us or talk us out of it anymore.”

“Are you threatening me?” Bruce growled which made Marietta whine.

“Bruce.” Alfred warned. “Calm yourself. You’re scaring the baby.”

Bruce cleared his throat and looked over at his daughter who was looking at him with her big doe-eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry Baby, nothing’s wrong. We’re just talking Sweetheart.”

“Master Bruce, I understand your feelings on the matter but at the end of the day this is their business and if you ever feel the need, I’m sure Paris would appreciate vigilante help if they ever need it.” Alfred said as he set down some tea for Bruce on his desk. And like every time Alfred was the voice of reason, Bruce felt the fight leave him.

“I apologize.” He said after a while.

“Sooooo, how are you going to make the announcement if you guys can’t be caught on camera?” Dick asked to break the tension.

“They have kindly lent me some of their power and my old power so I can retain my old human form.” Tikki explained. “If the announcement goes on longer than I can hold the form then Trixx can cast an illusion of my human form. Before the announcement though we will be going and giving out Karma to a select few.”

“I thought you were…uh, doing the Karma thing after the whole announcement.” Jason said.

“Oh, we are, but there are a couple of people who will get their Karma before the announcement.” Plagg said with a smile that shouldn’t look so frightening on such a tiny face and yet it was.

Quiet covered the family yet again until Damian spoke up from his spot, “Well, happy hunting.”

The two smiles shared between the Kwami somehow dwarfed the one Plagg had made just before and Bruce felt a shiver run down his spine. He sent a silent prayer out for Paris.

_____________________________________

Gabriel sat at his place at the head of the table and watched as his wife talked with Adrien and for the first time in a long time he felt completely at ease. His heart still raced when he acknowledged the fact he had no idea where Nathalie was and he didn’t know what to say when Emilie asked him where she was. Right now she believed that Nathalie was visiting her sister but the truth was he had no idea and it scared him. After The Wish, she and Dupain-Cheng disappeared without a trace. He didn’t understand where they were and his son’s complaints and worry over the girl were getting on his nerves. Neither had their Miraculous so Adrien complained about not being to check on her the ‘Chat Noir’ way, they figured that was their price for The Wish. Though it saddened him, Gabriel was willing to leave the Miraculous behind in exchange for his wife who was a bit different now that she was back but he just chalked it up to her being confused at being awake once more.

He impulsively reached out and took her hand in his. Emilie gave him a small smile back in return and he tried his best not to frown. She should be happier, she was finally reunited with her husband, he would think she would be overjoyed. “Adrien. I…called your school and told them you won’t be there today. We will be spending the day as a family.”

“Okay Father.” Adrien responded promptly.

Emilie looked as though she was going to respond but before she did the doors to the dining room blew open, they nearly came off the hinges. All three family members turned to look in shock and just to see what or who came through in such a fashion. Gabriel opened his mouth to shout at the insolence of it all but his voice caught in his throat when he saw four very familiar Kwami fly in. He tried to get out of his seat but found he couldn’t and from the looks of it, neither could Adrien or Emilie. It made Gabriel struggle against whatever bound him to his seat more. He tried to yell, to shout, but found he had no voice at the moment. Emilie looked so scared and there was nothing he could do about it. The Kwami flew until they were all floating above the middle of the table so all three Agrestes could see them. The red one, Tikki glared at Gabriel so fiercely that if looks could kill, he was sure he would be six-feet deep at the moment.

“Hello Gabriel. Let’s talk.”

Next Chapter

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