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mae-dwrites · 5 months

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A Bundle of Heliotropes - Chapter 3 - Lull

| Ao3 | Wattpad |

When Marinette woke up her room was quiet. It was quiet?

Marinette sat up in alarm and scrabbled to get out of bed, “Tikki?”

No response. Her panic started to grow, “Tikki.”

“Guardian, do not panic,” Sass floated to her, making the girl slip and hit her head on the ladder. Sass winced while Marinette rubbed her head, hanging upside down on the ladder. Sass floated down to her face, “The ressst of the Kwami are down stairss with your parents.”

Marinette blinked as she took in the words she noticeably relaxed before pulling herself up to get on the ground. She rubbed the back of her head with a small frown, she felt almost as embarrassed as she was irritated with the injury.

Marinette looked to the snake kwami with mild confusion, “Why are they down there?”

“I don’t know everything, I do know Tikki sssaid that she would talk to them in the morning if they would like,” Sass explained, “eventually otherss joined her asss they got bored up here. None of usss wished to wake you, but there wasn’t much to do that would keep usss quiet. Ssso we joined Tikki, and I stayed ssso that you would be lessss likely to panic.”

Marinette nodded, “Thank you Sass, I appreciate it a lot.”

“Of courssse Guardian,” Sass bowed his head.

“You can join everyone else if you’d like,” Marinette said smiling at the snake. Sass nodded before phasing through her floor to downstairs. Now that Marinette was more awake when she strained her ears to listen she could barely hear the sound of voices from downstairs.

Marinette yawned despite herself and stretched. She pulled on a sweater before having another stretch and rubbed her face. Marinette came down to see the island covered in foods prepared, all things the Kwami enjoyed or favored. Usually the Kwami would be rambunctious when they didn’t have to be careful, but all the Kwami were relaxing, eating, or talking to her parents.

Marinette blinked as she took in the scene before her.

Tikki, Sass, and Longg sat on the coffee table munching on their respective snacks while Trixx and Pollen sat on Sabine’s head; they were listening just as intently to the conversation as some of the other Kwami. Mullo sat in the mother’s hand. Stompp, Daizzi, Barkk, Ziggy, and Orikko all rested contently at various levels of her father.

Lastly Xuppu, Kalkki, and Roarr sat on the island, Xuppu playing around the food but careful to not make a mess. Kalkki made an annoyed but amused neigh as she munched on a sugar cube.

Marinette looked around the room searching for Fluff, she found the time bunny on the shelf observing the scene. A small smile on their face as they munched on carrots, her piercing eyes flicked to Marinette.

Marinette was used to the Kwami after all the months of the group residing in her home, especially with spending most of her time with them. Fluff was chaotic in nature, but time also held order in her delicate chaos.

“Good Morning Fluff,” Marinette smiled and nodded.

“Is it morning? May it be noon? Or tea time? Why is it not dawn,” Fluff sprouted out what would seem incoherent. It was best not to overthink her maze of words.

Marinette’s smile softened, “Sun high, clear sky.”

Fluff beamed at the response and floated over to the Guardian, she nuzzled and rubbed the top of her head on Marinette’s forehead. Marinette giggled the bunny’s fur and whiskers tickled her with affection.

“Good morning sweetie.” Tom and Sabine said in unison.

Marinette looked over to see her parents now facing her. Her father radiated pride and his eyes were glassy, it made Marinette swallow. Her father always wore his heart on his sleeve but very rarely did she see him cry. Seeing her father look at her like this made her heart tight and want to fall on the floor and let it all wash over her, but of course, she didn’t do that.

She looked over to her mother, a woman who always kept cool but was a gamut of raging and unfiltered emotions. A woman who felt everything so wholly under the surface. A small understanding smile was set and Sabine’s eyes crinkled as she took in her daughter.

A strong and confident young woman, her heart ached looking at her now. Her heart had hurt before looking at her, but that was when she was worrying, scared of what would happen to her baby. Now she knew it was far worse than she’d allowed herself to even entertain.

“Good morning,” Marinette smiled back feeling nervous as she looked at Tikki. Her Kwami hadn’t said anything about speaking to her parents. While she believes there was a reason, Marinette feels like she should’ve been there.

Many Kwami sprouted shouts of Guardian and Marinette excitedly, some even coming to her and flying around her talking in rapid succession. The bakers laughed at the magic beings.

Sabine motioned for Marinette to join them. Marinette couldn’t help that her insides swirled as they usually did, although this time was certainly different in multiple aspects.

“Marinette,” Sabine started making said girl straighten up, “we have been speaking to Tikki to better understand what we can and where she can speak of.” Sabine nodded to the Kwami as she floated happily to Marinette.

“While we don’t like it we understand the need to keep secrets surrounding all of this, and that you even telling us is breaking the rules. We,” Sabine stopped for a moment to clear her throat; she took one of her daughter’s hands, “appreciate you for telling us. Even if it’s rather unconventional.”

Sabine chuckled while Tom brought his daughter into a comforting side hug.

“But we do think we need to figure out our own system or set of rules,” Tom spoke up.

Marinette looked at her father taking in their words carefully, she nodded.

“I understand and I agree,” she said thoughtfully, her brows down as her mind went miles a minute thinking over possible ways they could go about this. Marinette soon grabbed out a piece of paper to help sort her thoughts out.

The family and minigods spent the morning discussing her leaving classes, the bakery, her friends, and more. She had permission to say her parents needed for an emergency, or to just straight up leave the class no questions asked.

As they spoke the more they relaxed, joked and simply enjoyed their time together. Marinette was far more relaxed than she had in years.

“It’s not like they can just chase me,” Marinette joked to her parents as a knock sounded on their door. Marinette gasped and leaped across the room as Kwamis hid, “Nino’s birthday.”

Marinette looked back and didn’t see a single Kwami, her parents gave small reassuring smiles. A rapid knock sounded followed by an impatient voice. Marinette finally opened the door revealing Alya and Nino, their eyes were red and puff but they held the biggest smiles on their faces.

The dread that had been previously there faded away, Marinette looked between the two, “Did-”

She was cut off by Alya yanking hers and Nino’s intertwined hands in her face, “Yes.”

Green turtles with black lotus flowers resting on top of the shells sat between their thumb and pointer fingers. Marinette noticed Alya’s turtle was darker in shade but aside from that they were just mirrors of the others.

Marinette pulled them into a tight hug telling them how happy she was for them.

---

“Here dear, eat something,” Ma Kent said sliding a slice of pie to Damian.

“Thank you Ma Kent,” Damian nodded taking the fork from the older woman.

“Of course, dear,” Ma said with a sweet smile. She turned to cut a slice for herself, “I remember when I got my mark.”

Damian took a breath; of course, Jon had mentioned it to his family. Well, his father must have talked to Clark of course, and Tim to Kon. Damian hadn’t gone out of his way to find out if Tim had told Kon, but Damian did not doubt his reasoning for it was sound.

Ma continued to recount fondly how her sister had teased her and her friends had thrown a party, and when she had met her dear Jonathan.

Damian could not hold malice toward the woman, she only knew so much, but she knew enough. He was sure Ma was just trying to ease any “nerves” or “fears” he had about meeting his soulmate.

And he was not “nervous” or “scared.” That is simply prosperous. He had concerns about meeting them.

What if they were a civilian?

A beat.

What if they weren’t a civilian?

Damian paused for half a second, but that was enough.

“Damian?” Jon who had been doing chores around the farm was now next to him.

Damian blinked. What was worse, he hadn’t actually thought about it. He hadn’t wanted to think about any of it. He never let himself entertain anything related to soulmates, his soulmate. He should have, he should have been planning.

“Dear,” Ma Kent spoke softly in a question.

Damian stared at his half-eaten pie, his brows barely drawn together.

The young vigilante cleared his throat, “I am fine. Just had a thought.”

Ma Kent smiled and gently rested a hand on the boy’s, “It won’t be easy will it?”

Damian looked up to her, sometimes he forgot how similar the woman was to Alfred at times. All observing and knowing.

Ma gave a light squeeze, “I’m sure they’ll be just fine.” Her eyes flickered between Damian and Jon, “Clark was worried too when he got his, no matter what we said.” She fondly shook her head recounting the days of her son.

“Whoever it is, they’ll fit right in,” she stated as a matter of fact.

Damian ever so barely pursed his lips as he looked away for a moment, when he looked back at the woman and nodded with gratitude, “Thank you Ma Kent.”

Robin’s cape flittered behind him in the slight breeze, the smog-filled sky hiding the moon from the beautiful chaos of the city. His family was spread across the city, Robin was awaiting instructions from Oracle for the area he had already run through twice that night. A few muggings around, so simple for him to handle.

For as much as he would like to rest after being up for so long he wasn’t ready to go yet, but he would be called home for the night soon.

The sound of heels made him turn around, not even five meters away from him stood Talia al Ghul.

“Darling you need to be more aware of your surroundings,” Talia chastised with an unsatisfied smile. She looked to her son’s hand where it lay on his katana. Talia straightened in realization, she held a small frown and her eyes softened, “Oh Dami. I promise I’m not here to fight.”

The mask did not hide how Robin looked her over before slowly removing his hand from his weapon. He straightened and raised his chin as he looked at his mother.

“What is it you want,” Robin stayed put, not wanting to let his guard down.

“My blessing,” Talia took a small step forward. “Not that you need it of course, and Nyssa would not approve,” she waved her hand as though to dismiss her sister from the conversation, her disdain bleeding into the words.

Damian looked his mother over again, trying to find the deceit or hidden agenda. There was none to be found.

“Blessing for what exactly Mother,” Damian asked, adding the title hesitantly. He knew what she meant, but he wanted to hear her say it.

Talia smiled amused, “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.” She knew he hadn’t, but she knew what he wanted. What she had wanted so long ago. “Blessing to let them live.”

She could see him relax, her smile became fond as she looked at her son-

An “oof” came out of Talia, a sound she never made, as her son’s arms hugged her. She reached her arms up holding her precious son close. When he pulled away she held his face, a near pout on her face as she looked up at him,

“When did you get so tall dear?”

Not that his mother could see it, he looked away.

“Robin, there looks to be a kidnapping in process a block away from your current location,” Oracle stated through his comm.

“On it,” Damian stated. He turned to leave but looked back at his mother, “Thank you.”

Talia only nodded before leaving him, her heels not making a sound as he leaped from rooftop to rooftop.

---

Ladybug’s leg hung off the Eiffel Tower between the bars, laying on her back she watched what stars she could make out with the monument lit for the night. Her hand absentmindedly rubbed her collarbone, her breathing was long and slow.

She was used to her suit changing little bits as she grew up, almost every few months something new changed. She remembers when Chat and her would freak out about it, making jokes about growing into the suits.

Ladybug rolled her eyes fondly.

Alya would rant for hours about the suit changes and chase her during Akumas just to get photos to show every little change she noticed.

She now sported a short cape garment over her shoulders down to her elbows; black on the outside and red on the inside keeping the famous ladybug colors prominent. When it separated it mimicked the way a ladybug’s wings spread when they would take flight. Tikki had been ecstatic over that; loving how much more her lovely insects were represented than just colors; while Alya had deep-dived into ladybugs and other beetles.

Her suit had inverted from her abdomen to her thighs, it helped to work with her hiding from Akumas in dark places. Her suit had become thicker and adjusted to give her proper traction on her soles and heels.

A quiet thump sounded near her, she stayed where she was at ease knowing who was there. Alya usually went home after patrol so she could be there in case her sisters bargained into her room, they did so often; the littles when they had a nightmare or Nora to ambush Alya. All out of trust and love.

A mischievous smile came into her view blocking the sky. His wild hair whipped in every which direction it could. His mask had slowly grown to look more like a second skin on his cheekbones, temples, and lower forehead.

Ladybug believed it was him growing to keep his identity a secret more over time.

“Why hello m’lady, a fine evening is it not?” Chat grinned, his cat ears twitched making his dangling earrings swing.

Ladybug smiled contently, “It is.”

Chat Noir brought himself down with his legs crossed, Ladybug lifted her head and he scooted forward so her head was on his lap. Chat brushed her bangs back gently, careful not to nick her with his sharp nails. Ladybug let her eyes close, the slight breeze brushed over her face.

“Is something wrong,” Chat asked. Her eyes snapped open, Chat frowned, she blinked a few times before replying with a light nervous laugh, “No, no, of course not.”

He obviously didn’t believe her but decided to let her have this, “While I’d hope not, especially since I found this present on patrol.” Chat said back to his puckish attitude.

“A present,” she restated surprised, she shouldn’t be really.

While he didn’t know when her birthday was he did know it was close to the beginning of May, and that seemed to be enough. The first year he had scrambled to get her a present, it had been a very simple one a keychain with a paw pad. Small and cute, easy to hide, also was so basic he wouldn’t figure out her identity if he saw someone with one.

The previous year he had bought her a paw print plush (he had a theme so far) and a bouquet of yellow roses when he had been much more bent on the just friends train. But he had also bought her four bolts of velvet after she had talked about how much she wanted to use it and experiment with it. Marinette hadn’t touched it for months too scared to make the wrong thing or ruin the expensive material; she hadn’t made anything with it till this last Christmas, and that was only with two of them.

She was almost dreading what he’d gotten her thing year with the drastic change between the two years.

Chat Noir nodded eagerly, he took out a moderately sized bag. Ladybug relaxed a bit as she sat up, seeing that he hadn’t gotten so big this time around.

“You want to take a guess,” He asked as she sat up.

“Not really,” she said offhandly.

“You sure,” he pressed, leaning forward.

Ladybug giggled, “Yes I’m sure chaton.”

His ears flattened as he handed the bag over to her, “Fine.”

Ladybug smiled at the feline hero as she took the bag from him.

She took tissues out tossing them playfully at her partner; he glared at her which only made her smile wider. Ladybug looked in the bag to pull out a yellow bouquet of roses, she looked at him exasperated.

“Didn’t I tell you to stop giving me flowers?”

“And yellow roses mean friendship,” he said pleading, “I double-checked this time, you’re not making me second guess this time.”

Ladybug gave him a “seriously” look before lightly whacking him with the bouquet. He hissed at her making her whack him again.

“Rude,” he squinted at her.

“You’re rude,” she stuck her tongue out at him. She grabbed out a small baggy with two little paw charms on hair ties. She smiled at the simple gift, “I love them.”

She reached back in while Chat beamed. She pulled out two envelopes, one white and one purple. She raised an eyebrow at her partner.

“It doesn’t matter which one you open,” he waved, his voice revealing his nervousness.

Ladybug set the purple one down before opening the white one. She noticed Chat tap his fingers on his knee as he watched her.

She took out the pink page that was written in his neat handwriting.

You didn’t happen to get your mark?

There was a box for yes and no.

Ladybug frowned, she knew her kitty’s birthday was coming later in the year. She swallowed as she looked up at him.

“Chat,” She started. He looked at her, his cat eyes piercing her heart. Full of fear and hope, she knew she was about to break his heart. She swallowed again and opened her mouth but no words came out.

She nodded with tightly sealed lips. She blinked tears away rapidly in a poor attempt to not cry. She watched as he made an inaudible, “Oh.”

He covered his mouth as the tears ran down his face.

She quickly put everything back in the bag and setting it aside she pulled Chat into a hug.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” She murmured into his hair and rubbing circles on his back.

“I just wanted one of my best friends,” he hiccuped out. “Just a friend was all.”

“I know,” Ladybug gave a squeeze. “I’m sure whoever it is will be your friend first.”

And if they stayed there longer than normal, it wasn’t like Paris would know.

•

Taglist:

@stainedglassm

@angie500

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marauderundercover · 2 years

Text

Baby’s First Hero

AO3

Clark’s eyebrows shoot up as his jaw drops. When Batman had said he wanted to tell Clark who he was under the mask, Clark had not been expecting…this.

“You seem shocked.” Batman- no, Bruce freaking Wayne, says. Clark swears the other man’s lips twitch slightly, as if he’s suppressing a smile. Clark scoffs.

“Well of course I’m shocked. You’re- Bruce Wayne is- you’re smart.” He says, stumbling over his words. Bruce quirks an eyebrow up.

“Yes. I am.” He says simply. Clark huffs.

“I can’t believe you’re a freaking billionaire.” He grumbles. He should have at least suspected it, but as far as he knew, none of the other heroes in the League were rich. Which, again, he should’ve guessed that at least one of his teammates had some money. Another thought hits him and his eyes go wide.

“What?” Bruce asks, obviously hesitant.

“You’re a dad. Robin isn’t just a sidekick, you’re- wow.” He says. Bruce winces slightly and Clark suddenly remembers the articles about Dick Grayson. About the boy whose parents died tragically and the billionaire playboy who adopted him. “That’s really awesome, Bruce.” He adds, not missing the tension that had appeared in Bruce’s shoulders. Before he can say anything else, his phone rings. Smiling apologetically, Clark pulls it out and hits the answer button.

“Clark! How’re you doing, little brother?” Tom asks, immediately making Clark smile.

“I’m fine. How’re you guys doing? How’s the baby?” He asks. Tom chuckles.

“We’re all fine. Sabine and I were actually invited to a baking competition in DC. And we were wondering if you would want to watch Marinette for a couple of days.” He offers. Clark blinks.

“Really? Me? Like, by myself?” He asks.

“If you’re up for it. If not, I’m sure I could get my mom to watch her. But I know you aren’t able to come to Paris as much as you want, so I wanted to give you the option.” Tom says. Clark doesn’t even think about the logistics. Like the fact that his niece, who isn’t even a year old, will need around the clock supervision. Something that would be difficult for a superhero journalist to provide. He doesn’t think of any of that though. Instead, he just says:

“I’d love to watch her.”

---

“You really didn’t have to come with me to pick her up.” Clark says, arms crossed as he stands next to Bruce outside of the terminal. Bruce shrugs.

“You seemed panicked at the idea of taking her home in a cab. I have plenty of cars, and Dick’s at a friend’s house today.” He says, keeping his head slightly down. The man had sunglasses and a hat on in addition to an outfit that was far more casual than he’d ever seen ‘Brucie Wayne’ wear in public before. Clark wasn’t sure if the man’s disguise was obvious to everyone, or if Clark just thought it was obvious because he knew the man was trying to hide. Either way…

“Clark!” A familiar voice calls, making Clark glance up and grin widely. He walks towards his brother quickly, immediately hugging the man before giving Sabine a smaller side hug (since she was holding Marinette and he didn’t want to crush her).

“How was your flight?” He asks, and Sabine smiles.

“Surprisingly, quiet. Marinette slept almost the entire time. Though I’m afraid that means her schedule may be a bit off for you.” She says apologetically. Clark just grins.

“It’s fine. I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” He says, before glancing back at Bruce who was standing awkwardly where he’d left him. Clark nods towards his brother and sister in law, and Bruce hesitates slightly before walking over.

“Hi.” He says quietly. Clark rolls his eyes, grinning.

“Tom, Sabine, this is my friend Bruce. Bruce, this is my brother and his wife.” Clark introduces the three, grinning at Bruce’s awkward attempt at a smile. He’d quickly discovered, after the reveal that Bruce Wayne was Batman, that ‘Brucie Wayne’ was very much an act. And that the man in question was actually very awkward, especially around strangers. How he had managed to pull off the ‘airhead socialite who loves parties’ for so many years was beyond Clark.

“Nice to meet you.” Bruce says. Tom smiles.

“You too. I’m glad Clark has some good friends up here. I know Martha and Jonathan were worried about him living in such a big city.” He says before glancing down at his watch and wincing. “We’ll have to catch up more when we pick Marinette up. I don’t wanna miss our next flight.” He says apologetically. Clark just waves it off, taking Marinette gently as Bruce takes the bag that Tom held out.

“Don’t worry about it. Let me know when you guys land safely, okay?” He asks. Tom nods, giving one last wave before he and Sabine walk away. Clark turns to Bruce, a thought suddenly entering his head.

“Uh, Bruce?” He says. Bruce raises an eyebrow. “Did you think to bring a carseat?”

---

It turns out that although Bruce didn’t think of a carseat, Alfred had. Apparently Alfred Pennyworth was Bruce’s butler/father figure/caretaker/advisor. He was a man who wore many hats. Lucky for them, because he would not have wanted to wait at the airport with Marinette while Bruce went out to try and find a carseat that would work for her. Setting Marinette down on a blanket with a few toys, Clark smiles and takes a step back.

“Thank you, for everything.” He says. Bruce nods.

“It was no problem. I do have one more thing, though, before I leave.” He says. Clark raises an eyebrow.

“What is it?” He asks. Bruce sighs, raising a finger up.

“I left the bag in the car. I’ll be right back.” He says, before slipping out of the apartment. Clark shrugs, plopping down on the ground next to Marinette, who simply giggled at him.

“Hey Sunshine, are you excited to spend time with your Uncle?” He asks, laughing as she coos and babbles back at him, crawling towards him. Just as Clark is beginning to think Bruce jumped in his car and drove away, he walks in.

“Sorry about that. Dick called to remind me about the onesies.” He says. Clark frowns.

“Onesies?” He asks. Bruce nods.

“When I told him that your niece is a baby, he insisted that we buy a onesie with my symbol on it, a onesie with your symbol on it, and a onesie with Diana’s symbol on it. So that she could decide on the best hero.” He says. Unable to stop himself, Clark laughs, shaking his head.

“That’s amazing. How do we do it?” He asks. Bruce’s lips twitch, a small smile forming on his face.

“According to Dick, we have to set them out next to each other and then let her crawl to them. Whichever one she picks will have the ‘honor of best hero’ until there’s a new baby to pick.” Bruce says. Clark snorts.

“Is he hinting that he wants a younger sibling?” He asks. Bruce shrugs, laying the onesies out on the floor.

“We can’t sit by them or the results would be biased.” He says. Clark nods in agreement, setting Marinette back a couple of feet from the onesies before moving to stand by Bruce and the door. Marinette glances up at them, giggling before crawling forward.

“What do we do if she picks Diana?” Clark asks. Bruce hums lightly.

“I suppose we have to tell her. Dick certainly would, and I don’t think either of us could actually lie to her.” He says. Clark snorts. His friend definitely had a point. Watching his niece head immediately towards the blue onesie with his symbol on it, Clark tries not to smile too widely. His smile falls as she pauses, tilting her head as she starts to change direction and head towards the Bat symbol. Glancing at Bruce, Clark doesn’t miss the smile on his friend’s face. He definitely doesn’t miss as the smile starts to fall, making him look back at his niece. She’d completely stopped just in front of the onesies. Clark holds his breath as she grins before lunging forward and grabbing the red onesie, giggling.

“Do we have to tell her?” Clark asks with a sigh. Bruce just nods.

“Unfortunately.” He says. Clark sighs again, but can’t stay upset. Not with his adorable niece giggling like a madman as she cuddles the red onesie. Maybe he could convince Diana to come meet her at some point.

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mochinek0 · 4 months

Text

Family Secrets

Damian couldn't believe his eyes. He had seen pieces of that costume when he lived in the League, but never did he expect to see his mother, disguised, in Paris! He carefully kept an eye on her as she walked into a bakery. He felt his own breath hitch as a young girl came and hugged her.

"Nonna!" she cried.

'Grandmother?'

"Hello, My Leetle Fairy." his mother replied, hugging her back.

"Are you having fun on your travels?" the girl questioned, "Where did you go this time?"

"Egypt." his mother declared.

The girl smiled, "Did you see the pyramids?"

His mother brought out a keychain of a pyramid and handed it to the girl.

"It's great!" the girl smiled, "I'll keep it on my desk so when I see it, I can think of you."

"I wish you could come with me." the disguised Talia declared.

"Maybe when I'm older?" the young girl answered.

Talia tapped the young girl's nose, "Possibly, but we know very well how hard you work."

"Mom!" announced a man, who seemed the size of Bane, "How are you?"

Damian watched on in shock. He was aware that his mother was much older than she appeared. Hearing someone around his father's age, refer to his mother as a maternal figure was unsettling.

"I'm fine, Tom." she answered.

"Would you like to put your bag down and rest?" he asked.

"Nonsense." his mother replied, "I may look older, but I'm fine. I wanted to see if Marinetta would like to take a ride around the city with me."

"Yes!" the girl cried.

Damian watched as they both got on a motorcycle and drove off.

It took awhile, but Damian finally spotted them near the Seine, eating ice cream. The girl was looking down at something, in her lap. His mother's eyes connected with his and he knew he had made her.

"I'll be right back." Gina spoke, kissing Marinette on the head.

Gina walked in Damian's direction.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"Do you plan to kidnap her, Mother?" Damian questioned.

"Of course not!" Gina snapped.

"Who is she?" he asked.

Talia sighed, "Your niece; she's your age."

"So the man who called you mother-"Damian began.

"Your grandfather wanted me out of the way. He was looking for a male successor to take over." Talia began to explain, "He kicked me out of the League, briefly, and I had some semblance of a normal life. I fell in love with a baker. Tom is our son, before I ever met your father. Essentially, he is your older brother."

She sighed, "Everyhting was fine and I was happy, until he sent someone to exterminate us. Before I killed him, I learned my death was a test. Kill me and become successor to the League. I returned with his head and threw it at your grandfather's feet. He looked at me and said he would allow me back on one condition."

"What was it?" Damian asked.

"I had to leave my family." she admitted, "I said I understood and would be back in three months. I knew he would never stop coming after us."

"Why three months?" her son questioned, "You were already there. Did they not know of the League?"

"Tom was getting married and no, my family knew nothing about the League. I returned and told my family I would be 'traveling in my old age'. A few years after he got married, I came back to a three year old granddaughter. Your grandfather found out and forbid my return."

"Grandfather is dead." Damian spoke.-changing subject

"I've been stopping in more." she declared, "They aren't like us. They're not like your father. They know nothing about my past, aside from divorcing a man, who made me happy. I tell them I'm traveling around the word. I wear a wig and makeup. At some point, I will have to stop visiting all together since anyone else will grow old and pass on. The League........you lose sense of time when there. Two years ago, I thought she was still three. She was turning fourteen."

"What about the man?" her son asked.

Talia smiled, "Reminds me of your grandfather, actually. He's all about 'traditions', so perhaps it was for the best."

"Nonna!" Marinette cried out.

"Please, Damian, leave them alone." his mother whispered.

Damian watched as his mother walked away. He had never known her to beg for something.

"My Leetle Fairy, are you ready to go back home?" Gina asked, "Do you have new inspiration for your designs? I can't wait to see the clothes you create this time."

Damian watched as the girl put her sketchbook away.

'Clothes? Designs?'

He smiled softly. She was an artist, like him. He watched as his mother got on the motorcycle with his niece. What surprised him was seeing his niece glare at him. Damian chuckled.

'Mother may not see it, but she is a lot like them. A little fairy.'

"Damian, a Fairy is someone who helps people who are lost in the dark. It's not always in a literal sense; it can be figurative."

The young Al-Ghul turned and walked in the opposite direction.

'Fairy is a suitable name for my niece. I wonder how Mother would feel learning her true nature? A Fae who lures in her prey.'

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comics-and-fanworks · 1 year

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Idea for you class salt after the class is out of school and in the real world.

Marinette's phone gets broken so badly she needs a new number. She only tells a few her new number no one from her old class has it.

Some of her old class goes to bakery to ask why she hasn't called them back when they called her. They get told her phone got broken and all that.

The class member goes okay tell her to call me when it gets fixed or replaced it is important.

Only her parents forget and when said class member comes back later is told that but is also told Marinette has a new phone now. But not a new number.

Classmate rushes out to call her so she can fix their problems like always only it goes to voicemail as the person whom has her old number is like I don't know this person calling me. It goes on and on till it gets bad and the person with the new number goes to the police with worry over the threats they are getting.

Should I be worried for myself or the person they are trying to reach

It comes to a head when alya talks max into hacking the location of the phone and they go to have a talk with Marinette only it's not her

Thank you so much for the request! It's my first one so I went a bit overboard and wrote a lot! So sorry it took me so long to get to this! I'm taking organic chemistry over the winter so that has been kicking my ass. The first draft was deleted, so hopefully, this is a better version! Thank you for your patience with me!

TW: swearing, minor threats of violence

~~~~~~

"Well shit," Marinette's day was already bad, but this was just throwing salt into the wound. She had started her day with her phone blowing up with requests from her (former) classmates and friends. Ever since she returned from College they had gotten right back to their usual B.S. "Mari I need a new dress for a meeting with Prince Ali," "Marinette! I told my team you'd design some sick jackets for us and you'd have them done by our next swim meet!" "Girl! I need three new outfits! Adrien and Lila are taking me with them to a fashion show and this is my chance to interview some top designers! Oh sorry, you're not invited." She was up to her neck in demands and requests, to the point she was seriously considering closing her commissions, not like her former friends paid her anyways. THEN Hawkmoth decided that she hadn't suffered enough, she had to deal with Volpina, Frozer, AND Prime Queen and it was not even lunchtime. Volpina was easy enough to take down, why Lila was akumatized is anyone's guess. Frozer was a bit trickier, and since Chat had no plans of showing up she had to bring in Ryuko and Viperion. The trio ended up fighting Prime Queen, who was convinced that LadyNoir would still happen and the Cat Hero's absence was due to a lover's quarrel. Marinette was finally able to return to the alleyway she had transformed in... only to find her shattered phone. It must've fallen out of her suit's pocket (she had redesigned her costume since returning to Paris, she wanted a more mature, fashionable look) when she was rushing to get to the battle.

"Great! Just Perfect! This is just what I need now!" She sighed picking up the shattered phone. There was no way this was salvageable, the impact of hitting the ground had practically broken the thing in half. Tikki knew her chosen was stressed, between being Ladybug, being the Guardian of the Miraculous, building a blossoming fashion empire from scratch, and having to deal with her former friends' constant demands it was only a matter of time before she lost Marinette to Hawkmoth's akumatization. The goddess recognized that this was just the opportunity she needed to help her chosen, and she would start by helping Marinette cut off the people hurting her most. "Marinette! I have an idea! Why don't you get two phones? One can be your work phone, and the other can be your personal one. That way you won't have to worry about your work stuff getting lost in your personal stuff. You can get new numbers for both too!" Marinette looked at the Kwamii with some confusion, "Why would I need to change my number?" Tikki sighed, "Marinette, they haven't been very good friends to you, they haven't even been your friends for a while now. Think about it, your former classmates don't talk to you unless they want something, they expect you to use your connections to benefit them but won't return the favor, and they promise you and your time to other people without your consent. That isn't right babybug, friends don't treat friends like that. They don't even pay you for your time, effort, and the cost of materials!" Marinette knew that Tikki was right, but she was still hesitant, "But..." "Would Kagami text you expecting you to make her something and refuse to pay? Would Luka text you telling you that he promised another musician you'd make their wardrobe by their next concert? Would Kagami and Luka use your work to get ahead, and then refuse to extend the favor? No, they wouldn't! Those are healthy friends babybug, you can give them your new number, I know they'll understand!" Marinette thought about it for a moment and decided that Tikki was right. With a renewed conviction she made her way to the nearest tech store to begin to take control of her life again.

Adrien was frustrated, he had been texting and calling Marinette all afternoon but she wasn't answering! That wasn't like his princess, so something had to be going on, but there wasn't an Akuma on the news, Ladybug, Viperion, and Ryuko defeated the three earlier today. He did feel a little guilty that he didn't go to help, but he was busy! He had modeling shoots all morning and then joined Lila and Alya for lunch discussing their upcoming trip. The topic eventually turned to the Wayne Gala that was approaching as well, with both models confirming they had been invited. Well, Lila had only been invited because she was an official Gabriel representative, but she didn't need to know that. The brunette was currently making a big show of bringing Alya as her plus one, which brings Adrien back to his current predicament. When he arrived home, his father told him that he had to invite Marinette Dupain-cheng as his plus one no matter what. Both Agrestes had been shocked when she had rejected Gabriel's offer to join his company, but her answer had been reassuring, "I greatly appreciate your offer but cannot accept it in good conscious. Adrien has been my friend for years and I would hate to potentially harm his, the company's, and my reputation by accepting. I am worried it could be misconstrued as me gaining the position, not by my own talent, skill, or merit but because I had a connection to someone with considerable sway." His father didn't seem to pick up that the last bit was about Lila, but seemed content. In fact, Gabriel had complimented Marinette's business savvy and remarked how good it would be if she followed in his footsteps by building a fashion house from scratch. He had mused that it would be even better to have the two great fashion houses merging together instead of just taking Marinette in as a designer. Now that Miracle Design Clothing (MDC) has risen to compete with the likes of Gabriel and Style Queen, his father had decided now was the time to begin winning Marinette over.

Adrien would never admit it to his father, but he had his own motivations for being so on board with the plan to invite Marinette to the Wayne Gala. They were now in their mid-20s, and everyone in Paris wanted to know everything about the Agreste Heir's love life. Lila had hinted multiple times that Adrien was dating her, so much so that the media was beginning to spin her narrative. However, Adrien wasn't entirely out of the running yet. He knew that the Wayne Galas were always a media frenzy so if he, a fashion empire heir, showed up to the Gala with Marinette, a rising star in the fashion world, on his arm the media would quickly assume they were dating. It was a brilliant plan, Marinette was charming, beautiful, intelligent, and incredibly talented. His father held her in high regard, and he knew that if Gabriel approved of him dating anyone, it would be Marinette. Besides Adrien had a trick up his sleeve, he knew Marinette was in love with him, or at least that was what Alya had told him. She told him about Marinette's crush right before the ravenette left for college, hoping to embarrass her former best friend. Their old class still believed what Lila had said about Marinette being a bully. In their get-togethers they would often mock the designer's success, reassuring Lila that the only reason they talked to her was to get stuff from Marinette. While it upset him a little to know Marinette was being taken advantage of, a larger part of him felt like she deserved it since she didn't listen to his advice about Lila. Oh well, it was her own fault. Adrien was brought out of his thoughts by Alya's shriek.

"OH MY GOSH! The Waynes just announced the Designer they got their Gala outfits from, and it's Marinette!" Adrien choked down a laugh at the sour expression Lila wore, as Alya continued to read, "The article says that Marinette and Timothy Drake Wayne met while they were in college, and he thought her designs were so incredible that he referred her to Bruce Wayne himself! She's considered a family friend and received their order along with an invitation to the Gala! Why didn't she tell me any of this??" 'Maybe because you only talk to her when you want something' Adrien thought as their former classmates began to text. Alya was trying to call Marinette, most likely to scream at her for not letting Alya in on such a big story, but she couldn't get through. "Ugh! Marinette is ignoring me! Who does that stupid bitch think she is?" Lila's eyes sparkled as she saw a chance to jump in and control the narrative, "I know right? You'd think she'd be more grateful after I introduced her to Timmy- oh I've said too much," She batted her eyelashes and made a show of covering her mouth. "YOU introduced Marinette to the Waynes? Girl you've gotta give me the details!" "Well, Marinette was going to college in Milan, and I happened to be there for a modeling shoot," That part was actually true, Adrien was sick and couldn't make that shoot, "We happened to bump into each other at a cafè, and Marinette apologized to me for how awful she was to me in our youth. She told me that the only reason she did what she did was that she was jealous and felt threatened by me, you were right Alya." That was how Lila worked, she mixed a little bit of the truth with what someone wanted to hear, which caused the lies she told to pass by noticed. "Anyways we had lunch and caught up, she was showing me some of her amazing designs," as much as it pained Lila to admit it, Marinette was truly talented. In fact one thing she regretted was not working harder to deceive Marinette back when they were still in school, if she had known Marinette would be so successful she would've fought like hell to take the spot of Marinette's Best Friend away from Alya. She would've been MDC's top model, instead of having a stagnating career as just another practically nameless model for Gabriel. "I remembered my dear friend Timmy, we met when my mother was stationed in Gotham, he had told me that the Wayne family needed suits and dresses for their upcoming Gala and that Gabriel was too busy." Another partial truth, Lila didn't know any Wayne, but she knew Gabriel was too busy being Hawkmoth to make their outfits. "I gave him Marinette's number as an olive branch because I had thought she changed, but I guess she was lying. Oh and Alya? Adrien? Please don't mention my friendship with the Waynes, I don't want people thinking they can get to them through me." Lila smirked as both Adrien and Alya promised her they wouldn't say anything.

When Marinette told them she was cutting off her former friends for good, Tom and Sabine were over the moon. They knew about the Lila situation and all its complexities after the faux fox tried to infiltrate the bakery and convince them their daughter had stolen her necklace. They almost fell for it, until Tom remembered that Marinette had been helping him in the bakery during the time Lila said their daughter took the necklace. He had sternly told Lila that there was no way Marinette could have done it, and even offered to show her security footage that proved Marinette was not the thief. Instead, the brunette stormed out of the bakery, and Tom and Sabine knew they had to talk to their daughter. After a bit of gentle prodding, Marinette broke down and told them everything. She told them about Lila, her classmates, and Adrien, and she told them about everything they were putting her through. They were horrified, and that feeling was solidified after Lila got Marinette expelled. After their daughter's name was cleared, that useless principal was trying to dodge removing it from her record, until Sabine threatened to contact the school board about how their daughter was expelled without an investigation. They did everything they could, but it seemed Lila had everyone else in her pocket, and it seemed to stay that way once Marinette returned from college. She had swung by the bakery and explained that her phone had been shattered while she avoided the akumas, and she was taking this opportunity to change her number and cut those leeches off. Sabine and Tom promised that they would say nothing because it was only a matter of time before her former friends wound up at the bakery because of the radio silence from Marinette.

The chiming of the doorbell confirmed their fears. In stormed Marinette's old class, with her former friend Alya leading the pack. They could see Lila hiding in the back, and decided it would be better to say nothing. "Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng! We have a problem and thought you could help us. We've been trying to get in contact with Marinette all day, but we can't reach her and we wanted to make sure she was okay." Sabine smiled as she tried to hold in her rage. They weren't here because they were concerned, those brats wanted something. It would appear that Alya and co didn't know that Marinette's parents knew Lila was lying or what they did, so Tom decided to answer in a way Lila couldn't twist. "Oh, she came by earlier today and let us know that her phone was broken. She dropped it during one of the Akuma attacks, and it was pretty smashed up. She told us to let you know if you came by since she would be off the grid until it was fixed. It might be a while though, it was almost as bad as the time it got caught in the bread mixer!" His answer seemed to calm the group down, typical clumsy Marinette strikes again. "Ok, well can you please let her know to reach out to us once her phone's fixed?" The two nodded and promised they would, and watched as the group of adults left. Sabine turned to the freezer, "They're gone! You can come out now!" The two chuckled as their daughter slowly poked her head out of the walk-in freezer, ready to dash back in at a moment's notice. Yeah, they're glad Marinette was finally cutting those people off and the bright glow in their girl's eyes confirmed it.

The Gala was in a few weeks, and Marinette was STILL radio silent. Adrien was pacing back and forth in his room, trying to figure out what to do. Her social media was most likely controlled by an assistant like his was so he couldn't message her there, he couldn't get into her studio without an invitation or employee badge, and he realized he had no idea where she lived so he couldn't even pay her a visit or send a letter! "I don't know what to do! No one has heard from Marinette and her parents promised they'd talk to her about it!" "Maybe she finally got tired of your bullshit and decided to cut you and the rest of those users off," Plagg snapped from somewhere in his room. After The Paint Incident, Plagg's attitude towards him seemed to change. He snapped at Adrien more, called Adrien out on his behavior, and started giving Adrien harsh (and desperately needed) advice. Other than that, Plagg was getting on his case about slacking off on his duties as Chat Noir, claiming that his behavior was a disgrace to the legacy of the Cat Miraculous. Adrien was getting fed up with him, hadn't the stupid cat heard the saying 'if you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all?' "Marinette wouldn't do that! We're her friends!" "Some friends. And some friend YOU are. You knew Lila was lying and let her wreck Marinette's school life, get her expelled, and continue to lie to everyone. You told Marinette to shut up and take it, news flash kid, the high road does not mean stay quite and let people hurt you! YOU currently know that YOUR friends only care about what they can get from her and that Lila is planning to pull some bullshit at the Gala, but all you're concerned about is making sure karma doesn't bite you in the ass!" Plagg roared. It was hard to argue with the little god without sounding like a hypocrite, but Adrien was going to try. "Well... When Marinette agrees to go to the Gala with me I can fix everything! She likes me, so we can get together, and I can get Lila to apologize! Once everyone knows they're on good terms things will go back to how they should be!" Plagg was paying more attention to the cheese he was juggling, but he did glance back at Adrien, "One, IF she decides to go with you. Two, she may not even feel that way it's been years. Three, How are you going to get a narcissist to admit to wrongdoing? Four, How does Lila apologizing change how your ex-class treat Mari when that's how they treated her before Lila showed up?" Adrien chose to ignore Plagg and tried calling Marinette again.

Alya was STRESSED. The Gala was coming up and she needed a new dress that would wow everyone and make her stand out from other reporters. She had already secured her Press Pass, and because she was Lila's plus one she could actually get into the Gala. The only other reporters with that privilege were Clark Kent and Lois Lane, close friends of the Wayne Family. Lila offered to get her a Gabriel Original but she turned it down, both girls shared a sentiment that Gabriel's designs had really been declining. "I think it was the loss of his wife. She was his greatest inspiration, and especially with Hawkmoth on the loose, I can understand not wanting to leave your house. Maybe he's just out of touch," Lila had told her, and Alya agreed. What she needed was a Marinette Original, something to show she was in with both designers. She was thinking of something fox-inspired, to pay homage to her time as Rena Rouge. She'd talked to the other girls about why Marinette had never told her she would be designing for the Waynes, and they reassured her, "Well, maybe she thought you wouldn't be interested or were too busy?" Rose offered. "You didn't really report on fashion until Adrien and Lila took you to that fashion show. Maybe she thought you wouldn't be interested." Juleka suggested. "Als, you're overthinking it! Mari didn't tell you because she couldn't! A family like the Waynes has wicked good lawyers, they probably made her sign an NDA." Alix concluded. They were probably right, Marinette would have told her if she could have, and Alya needed that dress. So there she was at Tom and Sabine's bakery again, asking about Marinette. "Oh, she just called this morning! The damage was too severe, so she had to get a new phone." Sabine told the young reporter, who thanked her lucky stars. As she left the bakery, she sent a text 'Mari's back!'

Adrien nearly dropped his phone when he got the text from Alya, before excusing himself to run upstairs and call Marinette. The phone rang, and rang, and rang, before the call was answered, "Hello? Who is this?" A woman's voice answered, but certainly was not Marinette. Adrien was floored, he was sure he dialed the correct number. "Um hi. I'm looking for Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I'm a friend of hers and was calling to speak to her." "Oh really? Well if you're her friend maybe you can explain to me why the second I had this number activated my phone was bombarded with calls and texts demanding things from dresses, to invitations to some Gala, and all kinds of other demands." Wait, had Marinette changed her number? No, she wouldn't have. "Listen, lady, I don't know if you find this funny but I KNOW Marinette wouldn't change her number. If you're her assistant you better give the phone to Marinette NOW or I'll see to it personally that you're fired!" Marinette should really have taken care to not hire such incompetent people. It was unfitting of an eventually-to-be Agreste. "I don't know who you think you are but I will make one thing clear: I DO NOT KNOW A MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG!" The line went dead. Adrien pressed the redial button, and felt his stomach drop as the call didn't go through, he had been blocked. From the way the group chat was blowing up, he could guess the others were getting the same response. Lila was going on and on about how Marinette was abandoning them in their time of need, and adding fuel to the fire. Adrien decided he was going to do damage control. He had thought a bit about what Plagg had said and realized that he needed to show Marinette that he was still on her side, besides it would be tougher to get everyone to make up if they were mad at her for something her crappy assistant did. He sent the chat a message, 'Guys relax. The woman on the phone wasn't Marinette but has her number, so she's probably a new assistant! Miracle Design Clothing has really exploded since the Waynes announced she made their outfits for the Gala so Marinette probably hired some help and the lady didn't know who we were. We can try again later.'

Lea Dubois was having the roughest week in all of her fourty-three years. She had gotten a new phone, since she her old one was stolen, and decided to get a new number with it. Not even a couple of minutes after activating her phone it began blowing up with calls and demands for a Marinette Dupain-Cheng. After a particularly snobby boy threatened to get her fired from a job she didn't even have, Lea decided to do some snooping and figure out who this Marinette Dupain-Cheng was. Googling the girl's name directed her to a Miracle Design Clothing website, and after scrolling through she found a tab labeled, "Founder." Clicking on it, she saw a picture of a smiling young woman with shiny black (almost blue) hair and sapphires for her eyes. She was a truly gorgeous woman, and from what Lea read very talented. That explained the demand for clothing. She decided to check social media next, and quickly found articles about how the rising star had been personally invited to the Wayne Charity Gala! That explained all the calls from people claiming to be Marinette's friends and demanding to be taken to the Gala, to that one girl who demanded an interview and a dress for the Gala. Lea went through the messages that quickly went from demanding to insulting and toxic, and thought to herself, 'I see why that girl changed her number, I hope she knows these people aren't her friends.' She decided to look up the people who had called her, and see what she could find out about them. A girl named Alix and a boy named Kim were both athletes, although both played for the minor leagues of their respective sports, but it did explain the requests for jersey designs. A boy named Ivan and two girls named Juleka and Rose had been calling about outfits for their next concert, apparently they were in a band called Kitty Section. Lea vaguely remembered that it was a popular group, before their lead guitarist was kicked out and went solo. Two girls named Sabrina and Mylene had asked her to create costumes for a production in the Théâtre du Châtelet, a boy named Max called asking for a suit for his new tech reveal, and another boy named Nino asked her to design a couple of album covers!

A few other people called, but they seemed to be genuine friends. One standout was a boy named Nathaniel who had called twice, once to congratulate Marinette on her work with the Waynes and invite her to an event for his comic. The second time was to apologize to Lea when he found out Marinette had changed her number. He had also apologized for the harassment his (and apparently Marinette's) former friends had been throwing at her. He explained that when they were younger, Marinette didn't know how to stand up for herself, and was pressured by her teacher to constantly put her needs on the back burner to help her classmates. Nathaniel told her it had gotten better when Marinette left for college, but now that she was back in Paris, things had gone back to the way they were. Instead of their teacher, the role of pressuring her had fallen to three people, Lila Rossi, Alya Césaire, and Adrien Agreste. That last name caught her attention, could that have been the bratty boy who threatened to fire her? "Sweetie I hate to do this to you, but if you have time could you meet me in person? We have a lot to discuss, and I'm beginning to worry for Marinette." Nathaniel had agreed and had said he was bringing a couple of Marinette's friends, her real friends. "They've been harassing us too, maybe we can look into getting a restraining order or something." And that was how she ended up in a cafe sitting at a table with some of the most impressive people she'd ever met. There were Nathaniel Kurtzberg and Marc Anciel, the power couple of comics. She hadn't read comics since she was a little girl, but her nephews talked nonstop about the Ladybug comic the two had started in collège. Olympian fencer Kagami Tsurugi, and hit rock artist Luka Couffaine. There was academy award winner Zoé Lee and fortune 500 company founder Chloé Bourgeois.

The group exchanged pleasantries and got right to business, "So we heard from Nathaniel that you got Marinette's old number and that your phone has been blowing up with all the shit she used to get," Luka said. Lea nodded, "Yes. They refused to believe that she'd changed her number and one man even threatened to get me fired! I don't know what job he thinks I have that he can influence, but I digress. " "Ugh. That sounds like Adrien alright. I swear it was like a switch flipped in his head during Collége, he's acting like I used to," Chloé had come to terms with the kind of person she was, and had taken the steps to apologize and change for the better. A part of that was she swore never to touch a Miraculous again, she had become aware enough to realize that when given that much power she would be tempted to fall back into her old ways. "It's telling that their first reaction to being cut off is to harass an innocent person instead of reflecting on their actions and what lead them to that point," Kagami said, "I think we owe you an explanation since you have unfortunately been dragged into this." Lea nodded, that sounded good. "They weren't always this bad, well they weren't always this blatant about it. For a long time, Marinette was happy and popular, hell even when I bullied her she didn't seem bothered. Then Lila Rossi transferred. That girl is the type to convince people that two plus two equals five, you know what I mean," Lea nodded, her ex had been like that. "Well anyways, Marinette saw through her bullshit and called her out for it, so Lila declared war. Before anyone could process what happened, Lila had convinced the class that Marinette was the Devil's spawn. She even managed to get Marinette falsely expelled, and while that was reversed, it was the moment Marinette realized she couldn't rely on her classmates. Alya was an up-and-coming journalist and her best friend, but if she couldn't bring herself to fact-check this girl's stories..." Chloé paused to take a sip of her drink, and Lea thought of something, "Maybe Alya did fact-check and knew Lila was lying. I did some research before I came here, and I know that Alya ran the Ladyblog. I also know that her videos featuring Lila are her most viewed videos, but when I looked at the comments I noticed that a ton had been deleted. Maybe she knew but saw how much attention her blog was getting, and chose to ignore Lila's lies, or maybe she believes them, I don't know." The group continued to chat about their situation and were snapped out of it when the door to the cafe was flung open.

Alya was gonna kill Marinette when she found her. How dare she hire someone and not tell them who she was?! How dare she do that to her friends?! Doesn't she realize they need her? It didn't take much to convince the others, specifically Max, to ping the location off of Marinette's number and track it down. If she was going to be bitchy and ignore their calls and messages and hire some dumb assistant to annoy them, they were gonna make her pay! They had tracked her location to a cafe in the fashion district and were waiting for the last of the group to arrive. "I don't understand why she's being so petty," Lila whimpered, fighting back tears, "You all have been nothing but kind to her even when she's been such a nasty person!" "I don't understand it either," Sabrina said, "It's like a switch flipped in collège or something." Well whatever it was, they weren't gonna let her get out of this! Once Kitty Section had arrived, the group stormed into the cafe ready to give Marinette a piece of their minds! To their surprise, Marinette wasn't there. Their old friends turned enemies were there and sitting with them was a middle-aged woman, was she the one who had been answering from Marinette's number. "Where's Marinette?" Alya demanded. Chloé and Kagami lept to their feet. "She isn't here, and unless someone is dying you are not getting in contact with her!" Chloé was a lot less polite about it, "Wow, I'm surprised none of you got the memo. You've been cut off!" The older woman turned to face them, and Adrien snapped at her, "You! Are you Marinette's assistant or something? Get her here now!" Oh, that was it, Lea walked right up to him, ready for war. "I will do no such thing because I am not her assistant! I did not even know who Marinette was until you people began blowing up my phone with demands! I have never met more selfish people! And you," she pointed at Lila, "I've heard all about you and what you've done to that poor girl!" Lila began to sob, wailing about how she didn't do anything, and that she had been trying to mend bridges with Marinette by introducing her to the Waynes.

"Woah, Woah, hold on! You did NOT introduce her to the Wayne Family," Luka stood up and walked over, Lea noticed how Kitty Section seemed to shrink under his gaze. "Marinette met the Waynes at a fashion show in Gotham that Jagged Stone took us to. She met Selina and the two hit it off like a house on fire," Luka pulled out his phone and showed off pictures of a much younger Marinette with a woman who could have passed for her mother. "Notice the date? She was in high school when she met them. Here she is at Selina and Bruce's wedding. Know why she's there? She designed Selina's dress." The dress was a stunning white with elegant black lace. The top resembled the head of a cat, and if you looked close enough you could see little cats and bats hidden within the lace. "Marinette's been the Wayne Family's go-to designer for YEARS. Hell, the Waynes were at her graduation party, and the opening of Miracle Design Clothes Studio, and have been to every major life event she's had since she met them." Luka showed them More photos of Marinette and the Wayne family. "I don't know how you could introduce her to people she's known for years," Luka said, "Not to mention Stephanie tells me they're desperate to either adopt her into the family or have her marry into it," Marc added. All eyes were on Lila now, she had told them all that she'd introduced Marinette to Timothy Drake Wayne and that was how Marinette got the job, but with all this evidence it was clear her lie was dead in the water. Lea turned back to the group, watching as the realization crossed their faces that Lila had lied, and had most likely lied about various other things. Turning back to the people she had met she said, "It was very nice meeting you all. Please pass on my concerns to Marinette, and let her know if she ever needs friendly advice, she knows what number to call,"

The Wayne Gala was very... Awkward for Adrien. After their failed attempt to confront Marinette, Lila got exposed, and in the excitement, it came out that he knew about what she had been doing. Simply put he was excommunicated from the group. They figured that if they cut him, Lila, and Alya (who had doubled down on Marinette being the problem until it came out she knew Lila lied and had said nothing to protect her views) out that they could apologize to Marinette and she'd take them back. Their pleas on social media brought attention to the situation, and Marinette's friends and parents were more than happy to tell the world what happened to their favorite designer. When he, Lila, and Alya walked into the Wayne Gala, they turned heads but not for the reasons any of them had hoped for. People were polite to their faces and when speaking to them, but Adrien could hear them whispering behind his back. He needed to talk to Marinette, if he could smooth things over with her then maybe, just maybe this could be salvaged. However, the Wayne Family seemed to personally take offense to his plan, because whenever he saw Marinette (and she stood out in an absolutely jaw-dropping sparkling red mermaid cut dress) she was whisked away before he could say anything. First, it was Selina, who lead her over to some of his father's former clients and proudly told them the story of how she met the young designer. Then it was Bruce Wayne himself who came to introduce her to the Kents, who much to Alya's dismay didn't even glance her way. Finally, it was the Wayne Kids who were determined to dance with Marinette all night, Adrien swears Jason was smirking at him. Eventually, she broke off from the main party with Tim and the two were chatting on the balcony. This was as close of a chance as he would get.

Marinette was having an amazing night! She met so many amazing people and made so many new contacts! She even set up an interview with Lois Lane! She could feel Alya fuming on the other side of the room, and tried her best not to think about it. She knew Adrien, Lila, and Alya were at the Gala, and she knew what had happened a few weeks before. While she was happy Lila was finally exposed, she had moved on. She got to dance with each of the Wayne siblings, but her favorite dance had to be with Tim. When Selina had introduced her to him, their reaction to each other was to freak out. Tim was over the moon to meet the designer he'd followed for years, and Marinette was ecstatic to meet the young Wayne CEO (whom she may have had a bit of a crush on). The two had exchanged numbers and talked constantly, building up a close friendship. As time went on her crush on him grew as well, but she was too nervous to risk their friendship and say anything. Eventually, when she thought her feet were going to fall off, Tim led her over to the balcony. There they talked quietly about anything and everything when a cough interrupted them. There was Adrien, with a charming smile, but Marinette had learned not to be fooled. "Hello, Adrien. Enjoying the Gala?" Marinette asked, she knew he was up to something, and from the way Tim looked at him, he could sense it too. Marinette decided to take control of the conversation, "I heard what happened. With Lea Dubois and the phone number and everything. To put it lightly that certainly wasn't your best moment." "Well, I... I never thought you would change your number, so it kinda threw me for a loop. Anyways, I wanted to apologize for the part I played in all of this. I really dropped the ball and it lead to you getting hurt I never intended for that to happen," "Yet you continued to let Marinette's former friends use her for free things?" Tim butted in, holding up his phone and showing various text messages between Adrien and his friends. Adrien's face darkened, "How the hell did you get those?!" Tim just threw his head back and laughed. "I'm a tech prodigy. Finding texts is a piece of cake. I started looking after Nathaniel told me about what happened in the cafe. I also found the texts between you and your father, and no I won't let you use my girlfriend as a publicity stunt. We were gonna announce our relationship tonight-" Adrien turned around and stomped off before Tim could finish his sentence. Marinette sighed, he really hadn't changed. Turning back to Tim she asked, "Since when are we in a relationship?" The raven-haired boy blushed a little, "Well Unofficially since your graduation party, but neither of us knew it at the time. Officially now... If you want. If not that's cool and we can just pretend this never happened. Damn Adrien! I had a plan for this but he had to show up and ruin it!" Marinette chuckled and brought Tim's hand up to her cheek, smiling up at him fondly, "Officially now is fine with me."

#vixin-unchiha #adrien salt #lila salt #maribat #marinette deserves better #marinette dupain cheng #class salt #timinette #tom and sabine sugar

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alien-slushie · 2 years

Text

Another Maribat prompt! I tried to write this one but it wasn't working out for me 😭, so I thought I'd post the idea here so maybe someone would have better luck than me.

Another "Marinette is shipped off for BioDad!Bruce Wayne" storyline because I really like those ones, but with a little 💥flare~💥

Prompt: Because shes constantly getting in trouble Sabine and Tom send her to Bruce to straighten her out. Bruce read her school files but didn't look too deep because he didn't think a school would be so incompetent not to research bullying, and thievery claims, and he is not impressed. Right out of the gate, before Marinette can even enter the house, he lays down the rules. And of course he told the others, warning them so they wouldn't be swayed. So, there Marinette stands, in a unfamiliar country, in a unfamiliar house(manor), with unfamiliar people staring at her like shes a wild, unpredictable animal(they didn't even give her the decency of letting her prove herself) after her parents, friends, and school basically turned their backs on her, and something just snaps.

She was Marinette Cheng, upcoming fashion designer, and weilder of (and Gaurdian of) the Miraculous. If they wanted to treat her like a wild, unpredictable animal, fine then, she'd give them what they wanted! But it was well known that if you corner a injured animal, they will fight, and fight she does.

Marinette is coldly polite with them(except Alfred, Jason, and Seline who she happily greets, and chats with because they treat her normally), until they treat her badly, and then all gloves are off. And boy does she know how to hit them right where it hurts. They hurt her? Well shes going to hurt them right back.

Bruce watches her likes shes going to steal something from the manor when she just stopped to gaze at a picture? She loudly wonders what her 'grandparents' would think about the untrusting, emotionally shut off batchelor Bruce had become. Damian sneers at her while she sketches in the garden? Marinette gushes about how lucky she was that her parents had at least kept her around because they loved her instead of seeing her as a weapon for their own means. Dick suspiously questions where she got the money to afford 3 MDC originals? Marinette cant help but wonder what it feels like to be continuously replaced by stronger, smarter, and blood related siblings. Tim questions why she would take answers to a test when she could get high marks if she just tried after it's his turn to check her homework? Wow Marinette sure is glad she doesn't want any part of Wayne industries because she would hate to be used as a pack mule who's only use is to do the paperwork Bruce doesn't want to do.

But sometimes the injured animal, after fighting for so long, just can't fight back anymore, at which point they can either surrender, or run.

Bonus Points if: Marinette is the Black Cat and Gaurdian rather than the Ladybug, and Cat Woman + Marinette bonding both in and out of the suit.

A/N: You can change this in your rendition of this prompt, but I have a reason that Alfred, Jason, and Seline were spared. Alfred knows all and treats Marinette like he would anyone else, Jason is really carefree and can tell when someone is just trying to defend themselves(plus watching his families insecurities get poked at by a little girl is hilarious), and Seline warned Bruce not to go in guns blazing and recognized her defense mechanism for what it was as soon as she had seen Marinette's eyes during the first interaction between Bruce and Marinette(plus Seline + Marinette step mom and daughter bonding).

Like with all the prompts I post, this is free to use, but PLEASE send me the link to the finished project so I can check it out.

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dessarious · 5 months

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Misconceptions, Miscommunication, and Misinformation Pt105

So I tried to put my tag list on this and it keeps giving me an error about too many characters in the text block (did it even before I pasted the draft in) so I'll try to figure out where the problem is before I post anything else.

Beginning Previous

"Mari, look at me, sweetheart." Her Papa's voice made her blink. When had he come in? She looked over to find him kneeling next to her, worry written on his face.

"I'm sorry, I was thinking, what were you saying?" Everyone around her was exchanging looks. That couldn't be good.

"Mari, you were completely nonresponsive for close to fifteen minutes. Why don't we go upstairs and talk?" That explained the looks, at least.

"It's okay, I'm fine." She couldn't really place the look on his face.

"Maybe so, but it's been a long time since we've spent any one on one time together. I thought we could talk, or even just play UMS."

"Feel like being taken down by a little girl, do you?" That got a shocked snort, before he laughed. Really laughed. It felt like it had been a long time since he'd done that.

"Only by you, sweetheart. But, I might surprise you. I've been practicing." He whispered the last part with a conspiratorial wink, and she giggled.

"You're going down, old man." He laughed again, and she realized how much she'd missed it.

"That's my girl. Let's go make sure you live up to that confidence." He picked her up, and she caught the worried frowns from everyone else before he carried her upstairs.

"I didn't mean to upset you Papa. I really was just lost in my thoughts." The smile he gave her was understanding, though a bit strained.

"I know, sweetheart. I just wish you would share more of those thoughts with us. You've always taken after me with the way you internalize everything. I want you to know that you can talk to us about anything. We understand why you had to keep certain things secret, and may still need to sometimes, but we'll listen to everything you're willing to say."

"I don't want to worry you. I've already put you both through so much." All the things that happened since she took down Hawkmoth were bad enough, but she'd been causing them problems far longer. Her Papa set her on the couch before kneeling down in front of her again.

"Mari, we're your parents. Worrying is part of our job. Being there when you need us is part of our job. Your job isn't to make us feel better or tiptoe around our feelings. Hawkmoth is gone. There's no chance of me overeating and locking you in a tower of thorns." She couldn't help but giggle at his dry tone. "We want you to be happy, and we want to help you. Not to mention, what hurts the most is feeling like you're pulling away from us." His voice cracked and tears were threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Oh, Papa. I'm so sorry." She tried to pull him into a hug, but he grabbed her hands instead.

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, and I know that children grow up and leave the nest. Of course, we weren't prepared for it to be this soon, but that's beside the point. We just want to support you, but we can't do that if you don't let us back in."

"I just... I didn't want to make things worse for you. All of this happened so fast and I know you haven't had a chance to process it all yet. I didn't want to make things harder for you." Her Papa just rolled his eyes.

"I'll say it again. We are the parents. Honestly, the less information we have, the more we worry. Not to mention, we know you too well to believe that everything is fine just because you're smiling. I know we haven't been as present as we should have been in the past, but we wanted to give you space. If I had any idea what you were actually going through, I would have done something."

Mari felt herself wince. She knew that both her parents would have helped, but it wasn't a chance she was willing to take after the Weredad incident. She honestly was afraid to even think about what her mother would have been like to fight.

"I thought I could handle it on my own. I didn't mean to seem so distant." He was rubbing his thumbs along her knuckles. "Do you think I should forgive everyone?"

"Define everyone." His words had a hard edge, and it took her a moment to realize he was probably thinking about Gabriel.

"Did Chloe tell you about our run in with Nino?" Her Papa nodded. She figured she had more than enough time to tell them when she was trapped in her head. "Is it fair of me to blame them for being weak-willed enough to let others make their decisions for them? Isn't that the same as blaming Hawkmoth's victims for what they did?"

"It's not the same, Mari, you know that. Hawkmoth's victims were completely taken over. Once he was in, they were no longer themselves, and they didn't remember anything after. Your classmates let themselves be led. They let someone else make decisions for them despite everything you've done for them. You don't owe anyone forgiveness. At the same time, it's not healthy for you to hold a grudge. If you want to cut them out of your life entirely, I wouldn't blame you, and we'll support whatever decision you make. Be more cautions in the future, but don't let what happened fester inside you and turn you into a different person."

That made sense. It wasn't about forgiving, or even forgetting. It was about learning from the past, but not letting it determine your future. She should be able to do that. Right? She finally managed to lean in and hug him.

"Thank you Papa. I promise I'll be more open."

"We love you sweetie, and we'll be here for you, no matter what happens." They stayed that way for a few minutes before he pulled back. "Now, are you ready to take on your old man?"

————————————-

"I warned you." Mari's voice was smug as she looked at her father's confused expression.

"I know you haven't had time to practice. How are you beating me this easily?"

"Ladybug reflexes." The dry look he sent her said that was bullshit, but she just shrugged.

"In that case, I need to teach Chloe how to play and see if she can beat you." Mari giggled.

"You just want to teach her so you can win again." He rolled his eyes but she could see the smile trying to form. "You should offer, though. Chloe's parents never really taught her anything. I think she'd like having you or Maman teach her something, even something small. But maybe you could suggest teaching her how to cook or bake. I think she'd be happy you trust her enough to offer." Her father started muttering, but the only words she caught were mayor and catacombs. Probably for the best.

"You think she'd enjoy cooking?" He sounded a bit skeptical, and she could understand why.

"I think she'd enjoy learning to be more self sufficient. But once she has the basics down, I think she'd actually like cooking itself. It's a part of life that's fairly easy to control. What?" She wasn't certain what to make of her Papa's frown.

"We need to find a way to get you both into therapy, and keep Chloe away from her parents as much as possible." Well, she could agree to the second.

"Papa, you know that therapy isn't a good idea. What's the point if we constantly have to lie or tell half-truths? But I think Selina plans on running interference with Chloe's parents. She really doesn't like them."

"Well, I'm glad someone's on her side that actually has the power behind them to do something." He muttered for another minute. "But there has to be something we can do about therapy. You both need it, and I'm not just going to ignore that. There has to be a way. Have you talked to the Kwami about some sort of magic that would make it so the person couldn't talk about what you told them?" It was her turn to frown at him.

"I don't like the idea of taking away someone's freewill, even if it's just a little bit. It's not something I want to get comfortable doing." Tikki popped up in front of her.

"What about a memory spell? If they go to talk to someone about anything you and Chloe have told them, they'll lose all memory of talking to either of you." That was better... sort of.

"That might work, but how do we find someone that can deal with both sides of things? I mean, it's not like anyone specializes in secret identities."

"Technically, the Justice League does have someone for that, but I doubt they'd agree to take you on as a patient, given the current climate there. I know someone who could do it though, if you'd be okay talking with a former rogue." Mari jumped. When had Selina and the others made it upstairs?

"You mean Quinn?" Damian sounded skeptical, at best.

"I do. Even you have to admit that she and Ivy have gotten better. The only time they did anything big in the past two years was that factory that was completely destroying the habitat for some endangered plants, and Ivy did try to go through proper channels first. She only escalated when it was obvious people were being paid off to look the other way." Damian grumbled at her, but otherwise didn't disagree.

"Quinn? As in Harleen Quinzel?" She'd studied other heroes and their villains extensively in the beginning, trying to find someone she could ask for help. Fu had nixed the idea as soon as she told him, but she'd gotten a lot of information. Damian nodded at her. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. She's made a lot of progress and I don't want to be responsible for making her regress."

"Well, you see, that's the thing. If she and Ivy were to come here, we could keep an eye on them. Not to mention it would take them out of that toxic environment. So really, you'd actually be helping them heal as well." Mari wasn't certain what to make of the look Damian gave Selina when she finished. It did make sense though.

"Are they even allowed to leave the US? Or be in France for that matter?" Damian didn't sound like he was protesting, just confused more than anything else.

"Neither one of them has any active warrants out, and surprisingly enough, they've never been charged with anything in France either." That got looks from just about everyone.

"Can they be trusted?" Mari looked to Damian for the answer.

"You can always do a failsafe so they can't talk to other people about you, or wipe their memory if they try. But I know they are in possession of information that could be disastrous if it were to get out and have kept their word to keep it to themselves."

"I suppose we could try."

"Great! They'll be flying over with Barbara." Damian raised an eyebrow at Selina.

"My father agreed to this?"

"Not yet, but he will."

"Is this one of those 'better to ask forgiveness than permission' things?"

"No, this is more of a 'get him to think it was his idea' thing. Don't worry, I've got this." Mari was certain Selina's confidence was well founded, despite Damian's dubious look. She just wasn't certain how to feel about therapy now that it wasn't an impossibility. When she looked at Chloe though, her partner just looked relieved. She'd quit her other therapy when she found out Mari was Ladybug, for fear she might say the wrong thing. Given everything that happened since, especially with her parents, Mari was glad she'd get that outlet again.

Beginning Previous

#maribat #marinette dupain cheng #tom dupain #damian wayne #chloe bourgeois #sabine cheng #selina kyle #everyone needs therapy #father daughter bonding

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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.

_________

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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hellishere7980 · 1 year

Text

IMW Chapter 5

Ensuring she left no incriminating notes behind, Marinette took a final glance around her childhood room. She reached for Kaalki's glasses and called out, "Voyage!" Grabbing her suitcase, Ladybug stepped through the portal and arrived in her design studio. Jagged Stone had arranged this space for her when he asked her to design and create his full tour outfits. He believed she would need a dedicated place for her work, offering her the studio as payment because he felt her prices were too low for his rock-and-roll image. The best part was that her parents were unaware of its existence. Only Marinette, Jagged, and Penny knew about this hidden sanctuary. Jagged owned the flat, refusing to accept rent and covering the utilities himself.

The studio was a two-story apartment with an expansive open floor plan. A beautiful kitchen stood to the left of the large living room, while a spacious bedroom and bathroom were situated nearby. Tinted windows overlooked the Seine, even granting a view of the Couffaine boat house on clear nights. Adjacent to the front door, a staircase several workbenches not only for embroidery but also for creating accessories. She could now expand her list of offerings to include these products. Additionally, a state-of-the-art graphics table allowed her to design posters and other computer-aided design projects. The studio encompassed everything she needed for her business, including ample space for fabric storage.

For months, Marinette had been retreating to this sanctuary after her sewing machine and materials were confiscated from her room. She began transferring her belongings to the studio, starting with her sketchbooks when they attempted to take those away as well. This place ensured she could continue working on her commissions. She was immensely grateful to Jagged and made a mental note to thank him when he returned to town.

Dumping her suitcase in the bedroom, Marinette carefully concealed the miracle box in the false wall she had created in the panic room next to her bed. Exhausted, she collapsed onto her plush queen-size bed, allowing sleep to whisk her away as the Kwamis flitted about the room.

After ensuring that Marinette was asleep, the kwamis gathered around Tikki with curiosity evident on their faces.

"Tikki, what was that shift in your presence earlier?" Wayzz asked, voicing the thoughts of the others. "It was strong enough that we all felt it."

Tikki hesitated for a moment, casting a careful gaze at her fellow kwamis. She took a deep breath before responding. "What you felt earlier was me helping with her spiritual awakening. My chosen has undergone a metamorphosis into a true holder and unlocked her natural magic."

The words hung in the air, causing the other kwamis to gasp in surprise. "But that... that's impossible," Wayzz replied, echoing the disbelief of the group.

"I know, and if it were any of my previous wielders, I would agree with you. But it has happened. I felt her magic awaken while she was transformed, and her suit has changed. However..." Tikki trailed off, her voice filled with uncertainty.

"But what, Tikki?" Barkk inquired, eager for more information.

"When Marinette's magic awakened, it wasn't a type I recognized. It was creation magic, but it also had elements of destruction. From the very beginning, when Master Fu gave me my miraculous and we first transformed, and even now, I know without a doubt that Marinette is a true Ladybug. But I think there's more to it," Tikki explained.

"Tikki, are you saying that she's not just a true Ladybug, but a true Black Cat? That's impossible! You and Plagg never blessed the same soul. And considering the fact that she can create full-sized clones with only a little help from Mullo, she would be a true Ladybug and Mouse," Wayzz rebutted, trying to make sense of the situation.

"After what happened tonight, I no longer think Marinette is a true holder at all. If I'm right, she's something far more rare and exceptional. She will be a better holder and guardian than anyone else, even across the multiverse. She's a once-in-a-lifetime, completely unique being. But before I can be certain, I need to talk to Plagg," Tikki concluded.

The kwamis were left utterly perplexed by Tikki's revelation. How could Marinette not be a true holder? She was able to use both powers from the beginning, and only true souls blessed by the miraculous could do that since they carried a part of the miraculous within their souls. Except for one kwami, none of them could grasp what Tikki was suggesting.

"For now, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day for all of us as we begin her practical magic training," Tikki suggested, trying to bring the conversation to a close. The kwamis returned to their box, with Tikki curling up on Marinette's neck, unnoticed by the others. Longg, however, couldn't take his eyes off their slumbering guardian. Before retreating into the box, he whispered two words to himself, "Natural Soul."

Across town, in the Agreste Mansion, a certain black cat kwami couldn't help but smile at the thought of his ring soon being reclaimed by pigtails. If what he had felt earlier was accurate, it wouldn't be long now. He would finally be free from the burden of this man-child he once called his Kit. Plagg was unlike other kwamis; he always paid attention to his holders' actions while transformed, despite pretending not to. It was his way of testing them, as he had seen too many wielders become corrupted by having his power at their fingertips. He knew exactly what Adrien had done—the way his hands and eyes wandered over Ladybug's suit mid-combat, the intentional brushes against her butt and breasts, all under the guise of saving her from harm. Even though those actions had resulted in him getting mind-controlled, Plagg was disgusted by Adrien's behaviour.

But now, if Pigtails had truly awakened her magic... there were ways to circumvent the requirement of both miraculous being active simultaneously for balance to be maintained. Plagg could only hope. As he slept, he purred contentedly, dreaming of the day he would be reunited with his chosen.

Morning arrived, and Marinette woke up, gazing at the unfamiliar ceiling. She tried to recall where she had seen it before, as it definitely wasn't her skylight. Then it hit her: she was in her studio, in her bedroom, lying on her comfortable baby blue bed sheets on her queen-size bed. Glancing at the clock, she saw that it was 6 am and time to get up. Carefully, she picked up Tikki, her kwami, and gently placed her on one of the beds, giving her a little pat on the head.

Walking into the kitchen, Marinette gathered the ingredients for French bread and put four loaves into the oven. They would be ready in about 20 minutes, giving her just enough time. Marinette was 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighed around 80 pounds, which was underweight for her age and height. After her parents, Tom and Sabine, started punishing her by taking away meals, Marinette had slipped into underweight territory. However, with the help of the kwamis, who made sure she ate every day, she had regained some of her health and reached a weight of around 100 pounds.

By the time she finished making breakfast for the kwamis, Marinette glanced at the clock again. It was now 6:50, and she started preparing her own sandwich. A smile spread across her face as she received a response to her emancipation email. The reply stated that the court date was scheduled for a week later and that Miss Gamora Lusinia had legal guardianship over her until then. Miss Lusinia's involvement ensured a speedy court date, and the evidence Marinette had gathered, including emails between her parents and the mayor regarding her sudden weight loss, assured her that her emancipation would be granted, as her lawyers had confirmed in their response emails.

#maribat #marinette dupen chang #alfred pennyworth #bruce wayne #jason todd #dick grayson #hellishere7980 #miraculous fanworks #miraculous incorrect quotes #miraculous lb #miraculous ladybug #ml kwamis #tom dupain #sabine cheng #betrayal #marinette is ready to kick ass

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ficfinding · 1 year

Note

#miraculous ladybug #bio dad bruce wayne #maribat #batman

Please help, I can't find this fic. I'm 85% certain I read it here on tumblr, but it could have been on ao3. ;-;

Marinette is Bruce Wayne's biological daughter, and when she was born, Sabine sent a letter with a picture of her newborn and a letter to Bruce, but he was on his training tour before becoming Batman. Sabine lost his number because I think her purse was stolen? So she couldn't call him.

The letter was stored with all the other ones Bruce got during that time, which was accidentally blown up by Dick when he was Robin by a stray exploding batarang.

Marinette grows up knowing who her birth father is, wanting a relationship with him, and researches everything about him and the kids he adopts.

Unfortunately, since Bruce never read the letter, he has no idea she exists, while Marinette watches over the years as he adopts more and more kids (her siblings!). She's hurt because what about her?

She's watched as he adopted everyone since Dick, and at first she thought he didn't want a girl, then he adopted Babs, Cass, and Stephanie. Then she thought he didn't want a biological kid, then he took in Damian.

But that was the last straw. Marinette realized he just didn't want her. Soon after that, Marinette asks her stepfather, Tom, if she could take his last name. Marinette's name is changed from Cheng to Dupain-Cheng.

Thank you for your help!

#Maribat #mlb #batman #bio dad bruce wayne

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adeva-eira · 2 years

Text

SuperMari/MariBat prompt:

Marinette is a Kryptonian. Or rather another Superman Clone, mixed with the DNA of Bridgette Cheng. She becomes useless for Luthor tho so he Orders a scientist to get rid of her. The scientist is like 'ok lol' and just SOMEHOW yeets Marinette to Paris where Tom and Sabine find Baby Marinette.

18 years later (the Events of Miraculous gonon as in the show) Marinette gets to Metropolis (The obligatory field trip), meets Superman and He's like....wait a damn Minute....

So he basically steals her and is like 'she Kind of IS my Daughter so-' and Lois loves her. Kon and Jon love her too. She's a Kent now.

They want her to be a Super but she despises the colors. Then she meet Nightwing and they become friends. Clark tells her about Nightwing and Flamebird and BOOM.

And....and ya....that's the Story behind this drawing. Should I do a FF about it? Idk maybe I will..,because I'm bored. Send help.

#marinette x batfam #dc x miraculous #supermari #maribat #nightwing #Krypto Marinette #miraculous x dc #Marinette is flamebird #because i can

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unkownsimoperson · 10 months

Text

Siblings be like:

Jason: Hey, that a new top?

Marinette: Yeah!! I actually-

Jason: Yikes..

Marinette: You little..

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Dick: *walks in, wearing Jason's whole closet* Okay, buddy boy, 'ere it is. You hide my favorite sweater, I'm wearin' everything you own.

Jason: That is so not the opposite of taking somebody's sweater!!

Dick: Ya know, it's kinda hot in here. I better not do any, I don' know, acro skills. *proceeds to do acrobatic skills*

Marinette: *laughing so hard to point she's rolling on the floor, her phone set up to film the whole interaction*

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Dick: ShE bRoKe Up WiTh mEeE. *😭*

Jason: *annoyed that he disturbed his reading time* You never had a girlfriend.

Dick: I know. I just wanted to see if you cared.

Jason: F#uck you.

Dick: Awww, love you too.

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Marinette: Welcome to dating advice with Marinette! Dick, what's your question?

Dick: How d'you tell if a girl likes you?

Marinette: She doesn't!!

✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

Bruce: My house, my rules.

Marinette: Ma knife, you life. *smiles innocently*

Bruce: Oh...

Dick: Oh..

Sabine: That's my daughter right there!!

Jason: That's my sister right there!!

#incorrect miraculous ladybug quotes #incorrect maribat quotes #maribat marinette dupain cheng #maribat dc #maribat mlb #maribat bruce wayne #maribat jason todd #maribat richard grayson #maribat sabine cheng

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mae-dwrites · 5 months

Text

A Bundle of Heliotropes - Chapter 2 - Apprise

| Ao3 | Wattpad |

Now Marinette hadn't been avoiding her parents, nope siree! She wasn't strictly talking about the bakery, her commissions, school work, and every other thing in between when she was with them. She wasn't avoiding them, nor was she avoiding the growing elephant in the house.

Wait. What elephant? There's certainly no elephant, because for there to be one in her home her house would need to be bigger! Unless you're talking about the metaphorical kind, which there was none. That would require tension, and avoiding something.

Marinette does not avoid things. No, never even! She handles things head-on!

Which is why this is a tactical maneuver! As her soulmark could possibly reveal who she was despite the magic, but by how much? That is unknown, so to show or not to show. To tell or not to tell. To lie or not to lie…

Marinette hated lairs…lies; everyone knew that. And being Ladybug kinda went against that, she’ll admit. The pure irony made her cry from laughing when she first started this whole Protect Paris thing. Tikki had tried to reassure her but it didn't really help most of the time, Marinette had gotten over it through the years.

“Marinette! Alya’s here,” Sabine called from the other side of the trap door.

“She can come up, thank you maman!”

“Hey Mars,” Alya said as she came up. Marinette looked over the documents Mlle. Bustier had sent her this morning. Mlle. Bustier was putting all the budgeting for the class on Marinette, much like she had been for the last few years.

Which she shouldn’t even have to be doing since all her friends and her should be in different classes for their career-based tracks, but with Akumas and the fear of causing more: students were forced to stay in their same classes. Which sucked for the most part, i.e. Lila and Chloé always being on her. Well, Lila more so than Chloé since last year.

“Hey Alya,” Marinette didn't look up at her friend, still looking at the notes.

“Girl you need to relax, let me help.” When Marinette didn't say or do anything Alya continued, “Better yet why haven't you told Mlle. Bustier to stop dumping this on you?”

Marinette finally huffed and pushed herself away from the desk space, “I did last year. She threw a fit at me. Remember that?”

“Mlle. Helper? That's what that was about,” Alya gapped at Marinette.

“I thought you knew that,” Marinette frowned, she had told Alya, hadn’t she?

“You were very irritated after that Akuma that you told Alya you would talk to her later,” Tikki popped up. “You might have forgotten to tell her if you didn't message her.”

“Okay,” Marinette mumbled to herself, almost a grumble of sorts even, as she turned back to the sheets in front of her.

Their class hosted two major dances this year and were going to host another one in the middle of May. They also had multiple fundraising events, their entire year had been doing events left and right to get enough money for them to go somewhere out of France. Marinette had come up with the idea that they spent this year raising money so that next year they could fundraise for some extra cash. They would go somewhere much cheaper and close by at the end of May.

Next year though? They still hadn’t decided, but the staff were supporting them thoroughly.

“Marinette,” Alya’s hand gently took the papers from the Eurasian. “You for one need to put your foot down, and hard this time. Even if it means we need to fight an Akumatized Bustier twenty times. You have so much already, I don’t want you to overwork yourself more than you already do.”

Marinette frowned back at her friend, who just frowned at her harder.

“Are you going to tell your parents?” Alya finally asked, her true reason for randomly popping by this time.

Marinette’s lips became a tight thin line, she wasn’t going to lie to Alya but she knew what she was going to say. Marinette’s head rolled back and squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to think about it or deal with it for that matter. She didn’t want to deal with anything she was dumped with these last three years honestly.

If she had never become Ladybug would she be unfit for her soulmate? Would they still work? Or maybe if she wasn’t Ladybug, wasn’t the Guardian, was just Marinette, whoever was her match wouldn’t be hers. Maybe she’d be with Adrien or Luka, perhaps it would be platonic instead.

Marinette’s lips went from tight to droopy, she swallowed as she thought over possibilities. She got pulled from it with a light squeeze on her wrist, she opened her eyes. Her vision now blurry, she blinked away her tears before looking at her friend.

Alya had a small, reassuring smile on her face as she carefully stated, “I think it would be better for them to know you’re Ladybug..”

This admittance from Alya was not unfamiliar to Marinette, they’d had conversations surrounding identities many times before. Marinette didn’t tend to handle them well, that was a recurring theme that made her avoid it more so. When she had asked Alya for the Fox Miraculi back she had thought it had made it clear where she stood on identity sharing.

That request had later led to a fight between the girls, Alya pointing out all the ways Marinette picked and chose her rules, and how she saw the difference between Chat Noir's involvement to that of either of them. It had been tense, to say the least.

But eventually, Marinette came forward and explained her side more thoroughly, though was careful to still keep the secrets the Order wished her to. It only left apologies and tears, and perhaps a bracelet.

Marinette’s gaze shifted to the bracelet on her best friend’s wrist before looking back up to look her in the eyes. The previous times they’d talked about identities it had been much calmer, but with soulmates coming up more and more Alya had taken to approaching the topic more.

Alya listened more and didn’t push Marinette past what she said she couldn’t handle, she dropped it when she clearly was over it. Alya’s face still held that same smile, so full of patience she didn’t have before. There was already acceptance in her eyes, acceptance for whatever Marinette said now.

Marinette opened her mouth to speak but closed it to clear her throat, having become dry in her emotional moment and lack of speaking. Alya let a quiet laugh out, earning her a half-hearted glare from Marinette.

“It wouldn’t be the worst plan,” Marinette finally said with a laugh. She didn’t like it, not one bit, but what choice did she truly have? Her parents weren’t pushy by any means, they respected her space and privacy. That had been one of the few things that made being Ladybug really easy, but they would want to see. If they didn’t realize it immediately they would put it together eventually.

“It really wouldn’t be,” Alya grinned.

“Perhaps you should plan how to tell them,” Tikki spoke up again.

“I think that is a swell idea,” Wayzz expressed from Alya’s shoulder. Alya smiled down at the green Kwami before looking over at Marinette, “That sounds good? Maybe it’ll help keep you calm?”

Marinette nodded, “Yeah. Yeah, we can do this.” Marinette wiped her eyes with a sniff. “That sounds good, let’s do it.”

“That’s the spirit!” Pollen cried from above them, making the girls laugh.

“This isn’t going to end well,” Marinette mumbled to herself. “They’re gonna throw me out,” she whined.

“That’s completely irrational. What happened to the confidence we had earlier?” Alya asked from behind her.

“I know, I know,” Marinette groaned before taking a deep breath. “This isn’t going to be a disaster. If it will Bunnix come out now.” Marinette held her breath for a moment. Alya groaned behind her.

“Marinette,” Alya grabbed Marinette by her shoulders. “I know this is hard but I think this would be very beneficial for you. Your parents love you, and no matter what they will support you.”

Marinette’s face still held a frown, “What if they’re disappointed?”

“Dis-disa-” Alya howled at the thought, “Do you know how our parents reacted when they found out you let us be temporary heroes? They were kinda mad at you for a moment but it also gave them some perspective of who you were. And after the worry mostly subsided they were really proud of us. Anark doesn’t shut up about it to other parents! So your parents are definitely gonna worry but they’ll be proud and support you.” Alya paused, holding Marinette’s hands, “Just start with your mark.”

Alya smiled at Marinette, it made Marinette’s chest go tight. Why couldn’t she be so sure? Why was she so scared? She knew those things, yet she was still so very terrified to tell her parents.

Three years. Three years and they never knew, or at least they never came to her about it. Three years of hiding, of following a rule that even Marinette sometimes found stupid. Three years of imagining telling them, ranging from welcoming her and supporting her to making them move or being told it was too dangerous to have her around. From the most realistic of outcomes to the worst, even if they were very unlike her parents.

Her parents loved her, she knew that.

Marinette held her breath for a moment.

This would be fine…yeah. Yeah! Bunnix would have stopped her right here and now if it didn’t go mostly right.

Marinette straightened up and gave an affirmative nod for no one but herself. She finally opened her room door and made her way down the steps. Marinette could sense the other Kwami making their ways down phasing into hiding spots, she felt Tikki in her pigtail and she knew Wayzz was likely close to Alya.

“Marinette! Alya,” Sabine greeted before asking, “are you staying for dinner? Staying over tonight?” The woman looked up from her pot, she tapped her spoon on the pot before putting it on the dublé. “Of course you’re welcome to but please check with your mother, I really don’t want her to relive her panic that one time.”

“Oh I’m just staying for dinner, and I already messaged her a while ago,” Alya reassured the older woman. “Marinette actually asked me to.”

Marinette felt her poke her in the back, she probably would have shot her a glare if she hadn’t been so nervous. She took a deep breath, “Yep uh, yep. I actually wanted to, to talk to you two with Alya.”

Marinette’s insides roared with trepidation, and she’d only said she wanted to talk!

“Of course sweetie,” Tom said beside Sabine. “Dinner’s almost ready, you want to set the table?”

“Of course,” Marinette made her way to the cupboards the familiar actions helped to ground her emotions. Alya tried to help her but the Dupain-Cheng household refused to let her, instead she was forced into a seat by Sabine as Marinette placed her plate and Tom came dishing her up. Alya crossed her arms in (lighthearted) annoyance of the sweet family.

Under the annoyed look love came off her, which was enough for the family of three.

When everyone was seated on the island and they’d all had some to start Marinette took a deep breath. She sent Alya a look that made the older teen feel the need to straighten up, just to simply show she was there whenever she was needed.

“So Maman, Papa, as I said there is something I wanted to talk to you about,” Marinette started, gaining her parents' full attention. “I believe it would be best for you to have an empty mouth.”

This made her papa nervous, she could tell as he tried his quickest to finish the bite in his mouth. Sabine though slowly lowered her fork with confusion a small frown on her lips.

Marinette swallowed and opened her mouth to speak but had to close it to center herself. Alya what she assumed to be a reassuring nudge with their knees. Marinette looked up at her parents with resolve.

“You know my birthday happened this week,” she watched her father grow concerned while her mother seemed to unintentionally lean forward. “Well I got my mark,” she trailed off for a moment, “And the thing is that I want to show you, but I believe you need to know something before I do.” Her voice almost sounded like it was tailing again but wasn’t quite.

Her parents stared at her as she sat there, not doing anything. She’d already put the start out, she’d gotten their attention on the matter and that meant no going back.

“Maman, Papa, I’m,” she struggled, gripping her fork tightly, “I’m, I.” She grew irritated with herself. It’s not that hard to say it, two words. That’s it, two simple words. Two simple, extremely life-changing words.

“Marinette, dear, it’s okay if you’re not ready. We’ll wait however long you want, you don’t ever have to show us,” Sabine reached out for her daughter’s hand. She had barely even grazed her hand when Marinette pulled away and firmly stated, “I’m Ladybug.”

Marinette squeezed her eyes shut. Finally, she’d said it, but the silence following was deafening. Moreso than any Akuma she’d fought, worse than getting a recipe wrong, worse than having to restart a project, worse than-

“Oh baby,” Sabine’s voice cut through. “Oh my baby,” she said softly rushing to her daughter. Arms encompanced the girl making her draw a quick breath, no sooner her father was quick to follow suit. Marinette swallowed as she slowly opened her eyes, staring at the empty seats. Her heart raced and she felt a bit lightheaded.

Overwhelmed. That’s it, she’s just overwhelmed.

Not by her family though, no not them. Saying it, her panic had come that’s what.

Marinette focused on the feeling of her parents' arms around her, the pressure that came with their love, the smell of the meal they’d made, the bakery coming off of them in waves…

Her maman murmured words she couldn’t quite make out into her hair, one hand smoothing her hair as the other held her. Her father’s giant arms encompassed her as she felt light tears drop onto her head.

A hand slid into hers. Alya, her mind supplied. Her best friend gave a gentle squeeze which she gladly returned. Marinette let her eyes shut as her own tears slid down her face, tears of relief. She took a deep, happy breath.

“My strong baby,” she made out before her mother kissed her practically on the ear. Marinette didn’t mind, she’d take it all.

Sabine slowly pulled away making Tom to take it as a cue. Sabine held her daughter’s face in her hands looking over her face seeming to be searching, searching for the trick, for the prank, for the lie. There was none, and no all she saw was her little girl. Who’d turned into a strong woman, had become…a solider of her people.

“Maman?”

Sabine’s eyes became glassy.

“I’m fine dear. What about you? How are you?”

Marinette swallowed giving a weak smile, “A lot better right now.”

Sabine squinted at her, “Tell me the truth.”

“It is,” Marinette insisted laughing wetly. “I didn’t like it, lying to you.”

“Oh sweetie,” Sabine said so simply, so thick with words she couldn’t ever know how to say. She looked over to Alya and smiled, “I’m happy you had someone.”

Alya sat up with pride, but not without blinking rapidly. Tom bombarded her with a hug as he wailed, “Thank you for being there for her Alya.”

Alya laughed, “I wasn’t there the whole time.”

“It doesn’t matter, we mean it all the same,” Sabine said still smiling. The woman sighed looking back at her daughter, “I suppose you’re gonna show us missy?”

Marinette laughed, “Of course Maman.”

---

Damian had been very careful these first few days of having the mark, but sadly his brothers’ occasional nonchalant attitudes had infected him at some point. Now that meant something a little different for every family member, but for Damian that meant being sure; leaving him to slowly become truly careless.

Why? Because Jason was busy tracking someone in Crime Alley, the person had left him on quite the chase. Tim had holed himself in the cave the past two days, soon enough he’d pass out or Alfred would cause him to. Dick was currently in Blüdhaven for the next few weeks. And Father was busy with WE as to be expected.

Damian was safe for the time being, he smiled to himself as he decided what to wear for the day. He didn’t want to change as he had promised Titus that he would take him to the park today, and his friend knew what those words meant very well.

His neck prickled making him straighten up. It must be Alfred, he must have slipped in and he hadn’t noticed. It was fine, Alfred wouldn’t say anything. And he could keep it a secret, and-

Cassandra stood behind him with a wide smile. She’d seen, she knew, she’d tell Stephanie and then it would be over.

“Cain,” he said carefully. “Don’t tell anyone.” Her face became impish, Damian felt his stomach drop. His eyes glanced down to her hands, she was holding her phone.

“You didn’t,” Damian's voice became strained as he eyed the device. His panic seeped through more than he ever allowed, but that didn’t matter because Cass would know regardless.

His sister stood before him in a calm excitement. She didn’t need to answer, she knew she didn’t need to, Damian already knew she had. His brothers would pester him, Dick would be hurt he didn’t tell him, they wouldn’t stop talking about it…They wouldn’t stop talking about it. He hadn’t even told Jon, Jon would be upset he wasn’t told.

Damian stood staring at her in panic and shock, Cass stood staring back with an almost eerie calm.

“You didn’t share,” she said simply. Damian’s phone started ringing.

Oh. Oh Damian was in for it.

Damian glared at Cass from across the table.

He’d turned his phone off for the day so he wouldn’t answer Dick, but Tim had tried to chase him as he left with Titus. He thought he could stall but not even an hour of being at the park with Titus and Jason strolled in. Damian had barely made it out of the park without being spotted.

Damian suspects Tim had called Kon which led to Jon finding out. Jon had flown to Gotham and face planted on his car. Now Damian needed a new windshield and hood.

He could feel Jon glaring at him as he sat right next to him. Dick had driven right back to Gotham and was currently giving the saddest puppy dog eyes from across the table. Damian ignored him as he stabbed his brussels sprouts.

He was going to tell Jon, maybe even Cass, and his brothers could learn it when they became significantly insufferable. Damian tried to tell Jon that he was planning on telling him, but Jon was focused on the fact that he wasn’t told and learned from Kon.

“What’s it look like,” Brown whined, dramatically stretching her arms on the table. It’s all she would say it seemed, Damian was beginning to wonder if she was finally going insane.

“Stephanie he doesn’t have to show us,” Father said for what seemed like the twentieth time. His father while he was composed was obviously just as hurt as Dick was, Damian could’ve sworn he’d seen him sending heartbroken looks at him.

“We’ll see it eventually,” Todd said, looking smug at the thought. “It’s only a matter of time.”

Oh how Damian wanted to leap across the table with his fork.

“You didn’t have to show us, just tell us that you got it,” Grayson spoke up still looking forlorn.

“When did this happen?” Drake asked, sadly he hadn’t passed out yet like Damian hoped. Damian spent a moment trying to incapacitate him with his mind-will alone. Perhaps he could convince Raven or another hero to teach him spells without father finding out.

“Only this week, it hasn’t been very long,” Damian stated plainly.

“And you couldn’t tell me,” Jon’s voice woven with betrayal on par with Dick and with offense laced in. Damian certainly felt bad for not notifying his closest confidant, and was slowly feeling bad he didn’t say anything to Dick. The only thing stopping him from succumbing to the feeling was that he saw it as his brother moping.

“Dude you’re like second on the list who gets to know,” Brown stated with a mild glare.

Jon frowned as he snapped back, “That would make you third then.”

“Excuse me?” Stephanie squinted at him slowly moving her hand across the table to reach for a utensil.

“I’m his best friend, you’re a family friend,” Jon said, almost seeming to want to start a fight at the table. Damian felt a headache coming on, and by the look on Bruce's face so was he.

“That’s how you started out, and I was here first you’re a newborn,” Brown fumed with a predatory look.

“Stephanie,” Bruce strained from his seat.

“Best friend,” Jon said, his voice suddenly dropping his usually predominant Metropolis accent to encomancing his Kansas’s one thickly.

“Jon I will call your father,” Bruce hung his head not even wanting to take in the visual of his not-child and nephew arguing.

“He’d agree with me,” Jon mumbled just loud enough for Damian to hear.

“No he wouldn’t Jon,” Damian said bored. Being upset with Cass would not solve his problems and Dick and Jon would get over it eventually.

Splat.

Damian looked down at the table to see Duke wide awake with mashed potatoes, gravy, and mushroom sauce dripping down his face and onto his suit. Damian frowned serving his brother; Duke, as he always has, does the dayshifts but he also stayed up for night classes he took college classes. At least he tried to get sleep between his schoolwork and working to patrol during the day, unlike Tim.

When Summer Break came Damian would be sure to take day patrols, while they weren’t his favorite he didn’t want to leave Duke to handle all of it. Jason occasionally joined which made plenty of rouges and lowlives think twice when they saw him or heard from others. Damian could probably put a few hours on the weekends to help lighten the load now while school was still in session.

Dick had rushed to help Duke almost immediately, the only reason Damian hadn’t gotten up himself. Alfred was soon with them presenting proper towels for the mess.

“Duke, what did I say about getting rest?” Selina’s smooth voice announced her presence, along with the happy babbling of Helena in her arms.

“Sorry, I’m trying, just today was busy,” Duke yawned at the end of his sentence. His suit appeared fine and with Dick’s quick action to wipe up any goopy mixture of the food it was safe to assume nothing important had been ruined. Alfred took the messy towels to dispose of them, he nodded to Selina as he passed her.

Damian got up and went to his stepmother, “Allow me.” He said simply referring to his sister.

“You don’t have to Damian,” Selina still handed the baby to him with a fond smile at both of them.

“Of course I do. She is my sister, and you shouldn’t have to be the sole caretaker. You’ll become too drained to properly take care of her,” Damian stated with a firm nod to Selina before making sure the baby’s head was well supported.

Selina's smile was soft as she kissed the tops of both their heads, “Thank you Damian.”

Damian hummed back taking his sister to his seat, he was glad he had eaten most of what was on his plate so he wasn’t trying to eat while he held his sister. Jon looked at his sister with the same wonder he had seeing anyone just younger than a toddler. His father kissed Selina as she sat down, they briefly spoke of their daughter before moving on to other topics that Damian ignored to give his attention to his sister.

She babbled excitedly to him trying to move her hands. Damian smiled at her while nodding seriously, “Fascinating, anything else to look out for?”

Helena reached her hands up trying to reach his face, which he gladly aided in her attempt to reach up. She tapped his nose and dragged her hand down to his cheek.

“She’s so cute,” Jon cooed forgetting both his food and his betrayal from his best friend.

“Very,” Damian agreed as the infant continued to tap his face. He gave a kiss on the top of his sister’s soft head, she made noises as though she was trying to speak again.

Damian’s smile softened, maybe he was thinking too pessimistic about it in the name of being a realist.

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