#platonic jasonette
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It’s a Learned Trait
This is my Secret Santa gift to Night_ngale on Ao3! This story is inspired by this photo by @mumblesplash on Tumblr (yes I got permission, and thank you for it!):
For Night_ngale on Ao3:
Marinette had been having a wonderful day with her parents in Gotham, New Jersey. Her parents had just finished a catering job there and today they had decided to go sightseeing to all of the tourist attractions. They had taken her to the zoo, to the aquarium, to the museum, and now they were heading to a bo-ton-tanicel-al…. botanical garden! Both of her parents were holding her hands and smiling brightly at her as they walked the busy streets. It was such a nice day, absolutely nothing could ruin it for her!
Then an explosion happened, and there was running, and a ringing noise in her ears that just wouldn’t stop, and everything was moving too fast.
Screams filled the air along with scary high pitched giggling that sent shivers running through her spine. She clutched tightly to the pair of hands that held onto both of her’s just as tightly, if not tighter, as they fled the crowded streets. Then they could feel the cool shadow of something big that was coming from up high. She looked up and felt herself freeze up as a massive piece of concrete broke off of the building they were under and fell faster and faster and faster exactly where she and her parents stood. She tried to move, she tried to get herself to run away from the danger that she knew even at her age meant that she would no longer be able to wander the Earth; but she couldn’t. The people kept shoving past her and her parents, keeping them in place as everyone pushed and shoved to get far, far away from the ensuing chaos. The crowd was too thick, the screams were too loud, the rubble was too fast. The next thing she knew was two pairs of different sized hands shoved her forward away from the massive pieces of falling debris that was right above them. She turned to look behind her to see her parents' horrified expressions as they too stared up at the ginormous piece of concrete that was hurtling towards them and so many more people. People kept almost stepping on her and crowding her vision of her parents and they moved before she could blink.
Before she could even process what happened next, someone had picked her up and moved her away before quickly covering her eyes. A few seconds later a loud crash was heard and the ground shook so hard she would have fallen over if the person hadn’t been keeping her upright. Once the shaking was over the person that had rescued her picked her up, holding tightly onto her as they moved their hand up and the sound of something being shot through the air sounded just above her.
“It’s ok, I’ve gotcha.”
Said a deep gruff voice, though she could barely hear it as the cold wind whipped past her ears biting at her skin. Her knee length pink dress hugged her legs as her brain refused to function and process the events that had just occurred. She felt her feet touch solid ground, but her legs didn’t seem to want to hold her as her brain continued to stay offline. She couldn’t think, couldn’t comprehend, and would the ringing in her ears just stop! Where were her mama and papa?! What happened to them?!
It sounded like someone was trying to talk to her, but she was underwater and she couldn’t hear a thing, she couldn’t even see what was in front of her clearly. Her entire body felt like it was weighted down, the pressure slowly crushing her. She couldn’t even think, her brain was just too quiet and the ringing was too loud! There was too much, too much noise, too much quiet, too much information yet not enough at all! She kept going down deeper with nothing to ground her fleeting thoughts until she felt something heavy being placed around her shoulders. Her eyes slowly began to register her surroundings and, after who knew how long, she was met with deep light teal eyes that were filled with worry. Their face was obscured by a red mask, but she could still make out most of his features. He had dark black hair with a white streak in it. She didn’t know why this was important, all she knew was that she had to keep looking at him. It was like if she looked away from him then everything would get all fuzzy again and she wouldn’t be able to think, and the ringing would take over her again even though it was still there! Why can’t it stop, just make it stop, she wanted her mama and papa! Where were they?!
“Hey, things will be ok.”
The masked man gently stated. He kept eye contact with her, watching her to make sure she didn’t start to hyperventilate and that she wouldn’t go into shock. He carefully pulled the jacket around her full body, carefully pulling her limp and dysfunctional arms into the jacket’s large sleeves. He gave her a small reassuring smile while smoothing out the sleeves on the jacket, pressing the warmth of it onto her. “Can you hold onto this for me? I’ll be right back, ok?”
She simply nodded her head and held onto the jacket tightly like it was a lifeline. He slowly grabbed a helmet that was on the ground near his legs and put it on. “Don’t move ok, you’re safe now.”
He looked back at her then ran and jumped off…., oh, she was on a roof. When did she get on a roof? She hadn’t noticed. She stood completely still, her mind causing the cacophony of noises to fade in and out. She could hear screams and bangs, then nothing. She could hear fighting and laughter, then the ringing came back. The sounds often came close to the roof she was on; the fear of it made her legs so weak she eventually collapsed onto her knees as she clutched the jacket tighter than before. Eventually her brain finally seemed to grasp the reality around her causing tears to start falling down her cheeks and sobs escaped her lips. Her parents were dead, she was rescued, but th-they’re d-de-dead!
Sobs wracked her small frame as the noises continued on for she doesn’t even know how long. Every time there was a noise louder than the rest she pulled the jacket even tighter around her small body expecting the worst. She wanted to escape, she wanted to hug her parents, she just wanted to go back home to Paris. She wanted to go back to the bakery and eat the desserts her parents made, see Nino and Kim and play games with them, she wanted to go to the pretty gardens at the park and lay with the flowers.
They were supposed to be happy, they were happy when they saw the pretty fishies, they were happy when they saw the amazing artifacts in the museum, papa had held her on his shoulders so she could see the giraffes better when they had taken her to the zoo. Everything had been so perfect, why did everything change so fast? Why did her mama and papa have to leave her like this? Why was there no rain when such a terrible tragedy had just occurred like in the movies?
There was a soft thump that made her wrap the jacket even tighter, if that was even possible. She didn’t want to get hurt, she just wanted her parents back. “Hey, thanks for holding onto that for me.”
The man from before said. She looked up, her eyes watery, making his figure blurry. She saw him take off the helmet and set it down. He looked sad and remorseful as he slowly sat next to her, but never reached out to touch her, instead remaining a comfortable presence. “You from here?”
She slowly shook her head no. “P-Paris.”
Her voice was cracked and broken. Her parents had her study English with her French studies because of all of the tourists that came by. Not to mention Mama said that if she wanted to be famous then she had to know English. How would she get back to Paris? Who would take her? How was she supposed to survive without her mama and papa?! She couldn’t, she needed them, now they’re gone and she’ll die here because she has nothing without them.
“Paris is a nice place. Have any friends there?”
She nodded again, the movement causing the drops on her cheek to drip onto the ground. He stayed silent, waiting to see if she would do or say anything further. She was glad he let her take her time, she was tired and her brain was still too loud and fuzzy to really understand his questions immediately. Dejectedly she replied, “N-Nino and K-Kim are my friends. Th-they stand up t-to Chloe f-for me. Everyo-one else is too scared of her an-and her daddy.”
He reached out to touch her, but quickly pulled back. He wanted to comfort the small child, but he wasn’t sure how she would respond if he touched her. She looked so small curled up in his jacket, it would have been cute if it weren’t for the circumstances that led to the scene in front of him. “Sounds like you’ve got some good people lookin’ out for ya.”
He said, trying to sound reassuring. She gave a small smile and nodded, “Y-yea.”
“Why don’t we go somewhere safe. I know someone who will take care of ya for a bit, okay?” Red Hood asked carefully. She nodded again and was about to take her arms out of the sleeves of the warm jacket, but before she could fully take it off the man stopped her. “Keep it, I’ve got a lot of others back home, and this is gonna keep you safe, ok?”
She nodded slowly, letting him adjust and zip it up so the warmth that still lingered in it was all around her. He slowly stood up, projecting his movements so as to not scare her before he extended his hand for her to take. She looked at it hesitantly, slowly reaching out and taking hold of his hand as she wiped her cheeks with the sleeve of her free arm. Her hand was so small that when he closed his her entire hand was encompassed by his own. He gently pulled her back onto her feet making sure she was stable before letting go. “Hop on my back and hold on tight, ‘kay?”
He said softly–just like her mom used to when she was hurt–crouching down with his back facing her so she could climb on. With a brief moment of hesitation, because what if this was a trap like Mama and Papa had warned her about, she carefully climbed onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck and gripped onto his shirt. It was a bit hard as there seemed to be something hard sewn into parts of it, but it was okay. He slowly got up and made sure her legs were wrapped tightly around his torso so she wouldn't slip or fall off. When he was sure she was secure, he grabbed something from one of his pockets, angled it. There was a loud bang, like the one she had heard when he had first grabbed her, though that memory felt like it was from so many years ago, that startled her accompanied by a whiz as it shot into the air. He pulled on the device he was using to make sure it was taught and secure, then he ran and jumped off the building.
Marinette screamed in fear and buried her face into his shoulder, holding him even tighter than before. She kept her eyes shut, feeling out the rhythm of run, jump, fall, swing. Eventually she started to feel a little more comfortable swinging through the air, that was until they started to fall again. She screamed again louder than the time before and heard the noise of the man’s device again before she felt the taut jolt that signified they were soaring through the air once more. Slowly, she tilted her head up and saw how amazing the city looked with all of its shining lights so high up in the sky with the setting sun sinking behind the tall buildings. Wasn’t it just past 13:00 though? She had just eaten lunch with her mama and papa; hadn’t she…?
Suddenly the lights weren’t as amazing as they were before, they were dull and full of sorrow and loss. She didn’t want to look down just in case she saw them, they wouldn’t look the same. She didn’t want to look down because then she might fall, and she didn’t want to fall. Heights have always been scary. She held onto the man tighter, scared that if she loosened her grip even the smallest amount, she’d fall.
They continued on in that fashion for a few minutes when the man with the red helmet set her down on a balcony. It was plain with a swirled black metal guard. The roof was bland and lifeless with nothing decorating it other than the fence, she didn’t like it. “I’ve got a friend here. He’ll watch over you for a while, okay?” She nodded slowly, unsure of whether she should be relieved someone would take her in or scared that this was all some sort of trap. She watched and listened as the man climbed down a fire escape and began to tap on a window.
Tap
…
Tap tap
…..
Tap tap tap
Then he stepped back and waited. Another man with red hair opened the window with a small smile, “What’s up Hood?” He asked in a casual voice.
“I need you to watch someone for me.”
The red-haired man raised a brow.
“Her parents didn’t make it in the last battle with Joker. Lots of debris, and I don’t feel like having serial-adopter-bats see her.”
“Makes sense. Where are they?” The other man asked with a small nod, looking around the escape. The man in the helmet held up one finger and climbed back up to her.
“Can you come with me please?”
Marinette gulped, unsure of what she should do. But the man has been really nice to her so far, and he’s even letting her keep his jacket. Slowly she reached out and took his offered hand, letting him help her down the fire escape to the window.
“Hey,”
The other man said in a soft tone,
“What's your name?”
She looked down, anxiously twirling her foot from side to side. “M-Marinette.” She replied quietly, voice strained.
“That’s a nice name, how old are you?” His voice was soft and gentle and it made her feel a little more at ease.
“Nine.”
“Wow, you’re pretty old, huh? I’m Roy, do you want to come in and eat something? I just finished making some sandwiches.” She looked back at the man that had brought her here and saw him give her a small nod. She nodded back and shyly followed the red haired man into the apartment building. “Do you want some water?”
She nodded again, standing near the island counter. She looked back at the window where the man in the helmet had been only seconds before, only to see that he was no longer there. The man nodded and quickly got a cup from a cupboard and filled it with some tap water before placing it on the counter near her with a small plate that held what looked like BLT. “I have a roommate, he should come by soon. Just as a heads up, ok?”
She nodded, carefully climbing up to the barstool and sat down. Marinette looked at the sandwich and started picking at it. She really wasn’t that hungry, but it would be rude to not accept her host's hospitality. Her mama had taught her the importance of respecting people that were trying to help her, especially when she was at her friend’s home. Tears she thought she had run out of started to resurface as she thought of her mama. She sniffled and wiped her eyes before more could escape.
Roy looked at her worriedly. From what he had read from the text Jason had sent him, her parents were caught by falling debris from one of Joker’s bombs that the bats hadn’t been able to dismantle in time. He had been able to pull her away, but her parents along with a bunch of other civilians weren’t able to make it out of the way in time. Jason said that he had managed to cover her eyes and take her away before she could see anything, but he knew that wouldn’t be enough to stop any type of trauma from forming.
The girl was so small, he could only imagine what must be going through her mind. Not to mention she was only visiting from Paris, she wasn’t even from Gotham. Apparently her parents were catering for one of Bruce’s events, and that was the only reason they had even traveled here in the first place.
“Hey, do you want to watch a movie? I’m sure we could find something you’d like.” She didn’t respond right away as she processed what he had asked. It didn’t matter though, he’d give her all the time she needed.
“R-Ratatouille?” Was her small reply. A smile graced his lips, as he asked,
“Is that your favorite Disney movie?” She shrunk in on herself and nodded with a small,
“Mhm.”
“That’s a great movie, let me ask Jason to pick it up when he comes back. He should be here soon anyways.”
“Okay.”
Her voice was so quiet, but he could hear the joy in her voice. He quickly texted Jason to pick up the movie when he was done debriefing with The Bats and started to make another sandwich since she was eating his, not that he minded of course.
• • •
Jason walks in with a bag full of gummy candy, popcorn, a box of different flavored macaroons, and one Disney movie in its unopened case and plastic wrapping. He was thankful to see that the small girl was sitting at the counter drawing. He wouldn’t know what to do if she were still crying. “Hey, heard we’re takin’ care of another kid? I bet Lian will be happy to have a new friend when she comes back from her sleepover.”
He called out into the apartment as if he had no idea what had happened only a few hours before. The little girl startled from her seat, quickly turning to look at him with her large bluebell eyes. He really needed to keep her away from Bruce, she was perfect Wayne material and he refused for her to be tainted by him and the rest of his adopted child army.
“Yea, Red Hood dropped her off due to….” He glanced at the girl sympathetically, “The incident that happened earlier.”
Marinette shifted uncomfortably and went back to drawing with a furrowed brow. There was a heavy silence that filled the room until Jason said, “Well, I bought a bunch of snacks and was told to buy a movie, so….”
Marinette looked up again and hopped off the chair nearly tripping. She quickly stood up embarrassed as both boys stared at her in worry.
“You okay Marinette?” Roy asked carefully, walking towards her. Her cheeks turned a slight red as she nodded.
“Y-yes, sorry. I’m really clumsy.” Her voice held a French accent that only made the little girl even more adorable. Jason gave her a wide smile and gently handed her the plastic grocery bag.
“Here you go.”
She carefully took the bag with a small, “Thank you”, and started to look through it. Her eyes shined with childlike glee at the macaroons and they shined even brighter when she pulled out the blue-ray disk. She quickly ran over to Roy and showed him the movie asking if he could put it into whatever he uses.
It was interesting to see Roy smile and ruffle her hair. He looked calm and happy, used to the role of caretaker. Gently he took the disk, removed the plastic before opening it up, and walked over to the TV in the main room next to the kitchen and popped the disk in.
“Hey, I’ll go grab some blankets. Do you want to take your shoes off Marinette?” He asked gently as he moved toward the linen closet. She nodded and slipped them off with a slightly flushed face. She watched as Roy sunk down on the couch where he patted at one of the seats. Cautiously she walked toward the coach sitting in a rocking chair a few feet away from Roy. You could never be too cautious, at least that’s what her mama used to say. “Used to”, that felt wrong.
When Jason walked back into the room he watched as the small girl hugged her legs close to her chest, face hidden behind her arms. It was a heartbreaking sight, a sight that felt familiar as it pulled against his heartstrings as he remembered doing the same thing around the same age.
“Thanks Jaybird.” Roy whispered as he took the blankets from his hands. He hadn’t even noticed that he was approaching. He was out of it today, and not in a good way. The opening narration of Remmy the Rat began to play through the speakers as Roy slowly and carefully wrapped a weighted blanket around the young girl's shoulders. He watched as Roy talked to her quietly for a few moments, never initiating touch, waiting to see what she would say or do. It was always interesting to watch Roy act like a father as he treated his kid far differently than either of his dads had treated him. After a few minutes Roy stepped away, back to his spot on the couch not saying another word as the young girl collected herself before looking up to watch the movie with tear soaked cheeks that stabbed at Jason’s heart.
• • •
It was around the middle of the movie that little Mari fell asleep. She had slowly begun to relax as the movie progressed until she had blinked a few times very slowly, then her eyes fell and stayed shut. She was emotionally exhausted from the day and had simply passed out, poor kid.
Jason watched the kid, but not in a weird way. He was worried, and he didn’t know what to do. The kid was stuck here, despite the fact that she’s not a citizen, and from what little information he could find with little time at his disposal, he couldn’t find any family that could take her now that she was an orphan. Jason wondered if this was how Bruce felt when he had met all of them before he decided to make them his little band of misfit toys. He often felt this way when he saw Lian, but it was never as strong of an emotion as he felt now for this child he had only met a few hours ago.
“You look constipated; which means you’re trying a failing to show some form of deep emotion. So spit it out, what’s going on in that thick skull of yours?”
Roy asked quietly, turning his head slightly to give him a side eye before turning back to the movie. Jason rolled his eyes and let out a long frustrated sigh. “I don’t know Roy. There’s just a lot going on, especially after the last attack.”
Roy quickly paused the movie and turned to look Jason in his eyes. There wasn’t any pity in his gaze, but there was empathy and an openness that showed he wouldn’t judge.
“It was Joker’s fault. So many people died because of the Joker, her parents,” he firmly gestured to the sleeping girl with tear stained cheeks sleeping on the small chair, whisper yelling so as to not wake her; “are no longer alive because of his actions today and Bruce still won’t get rid of him.” Jason took in a deep shuddering breath, he needed to control himself, he couldn’t let the green creep in. That wouldn’t do anything, it wouldn’t do any good for anyone, especially right now.
“I’ve tried to kill him,” Jason admitted shakily, “I’ve tried, but he always finds a way to stop me. I don’t understand how he cares for that-that creature more than his own- than me.” A heavy silence fell between them only broken up by the gentle snores to their right.
“I don’t want her to feel this way, I don’t want her to go through the same pain I went through at her age.” Jason continued. When I was trying to find out any information on her, a potential family member that could take her home I found that her grandmother on her dad’s side died in a motorcycle accident, her grandfather died of a heart attack, on her mom’s side it looks like her mother was disowned for unknown reasons, which means that they probably would not take in her daughter. That leaves her with Social Services, and despite Bruce’s efforts I still don’t trust it; or as a street kid.”
Roy contemplated everything that Jason had just told him. They had been through a lot together, in fact Jason and Star were the reasons that he was still alive, the reason he believed that he was doing a good job at being a father, they helped him keep going when everyone else had given up on him. Roy glanced at the sleeping girl, then back to Jason. Jason looked at the girl the same way Roy looked at his own daughter, with a sort of protective love. Roy could tell that Jason cared about the kid; he probably saw himself Marinette. It only made sense that he would feel extra protective around the girl as no one would want the same trauma that you’ve faced placed onto another.
“Well, what do you think is the best thing to do Jason? I know for a fact that you’re not going to be letting Bruce or any of the other bats, besides maybe Oracle, anywhere near her. If what you say is true, and she really has no family that will willingly take her in, then what’s your plan?”
Another sigh escaped Jason as he leaned his head back so that it was hanging off the couch. “I don’t know Roy, maybe we can drop her off in Metropolis and let her be taken care of there. They have a better system and I’m sure she would be adopted by someone that would love her.”
Roy nodded, he could see the good in the plan, but there was something else. Jason was still frustrated and didn’t like the idea. “But?” He prodded.
“‘But’,” Jason said emphasizing the ‘t’, “the thought of doing that makes my skin crawl in all of the wrong ways.”
Roy hummed. This isn't some easy or light hearted task. The kid had just lost both of her parents in the most sudden way possible, then she was taken away from the area and to the house of complete strangers, and to top it off she may never be able to return to her home country; but if she does she would be put into the foster system with no stability ot time to heal. Of course she also had the possibility of being taken in by her grandparents in China, but there was a chance that they would treat her poorly since they had disowned her mother, and they may only take her in because of obligation. Nothing about this was easy, none of it was simple. If Jason wanted to somehow become her legal guardian then he would need to earn her trust, he would have to either legally become alive again or find a believable identity that would allow for him to adopt her.
There were just so many variables, and it was too late for this conversation, yet not late enough.
“Lian’s coming home tomorrow, we can figure this out while they play.”
Jason nodded, mostly to himself. “You’re right. We need to give her more time to process everything, I still need to process today.”
“Did you have a panic attack?” Roy asked worriedly. Now that he was thinking about it there must have been lots of explosions, even if most of them were disabled. Then there was the clown and how he just paraded around on the rooftops. Jason had had a few before when he returned back to the apartment after a Joker breakout, it was horrifying. Jason just gave him a sad, strained smile.
“No, thankfully.”
“Right,” Roy said as he slowly stood up, stretching his arms up dramatically. “Well let's move her to Kori’s room tonight. She’s still visiting Tamaran.”
Jason nodded, following suit. Slowly he approached the sleeping girl, televising his movements despite the fact that she was still asleep before gently picking the girl up. Roy watched with a gentle smile as he slowly walked to Kori’s room, trying not to wake her as he brought her to bed. He had watched Jason do the same thing with Lian, playing the role of older brother perfectly. Now, it looked like he might be stepping into a new role. The same role that Roy carried right now. But who knew what would happen. As Roy settled in for the night in his own room a sudden thought came to his mind. Jason was always complaining how Bruce had a “type” or MO for the people he really cared about; and that was that they needed to have black hair and/or blue eyes. The girl that Jason saved and now is attached to has black hair and…blue eyes. He quickly turned into his pillow and started laughing his butt of, hoping that no one would be able to hear him. A couple tears slipped down his cheeks as he thought to himself, ‘so it’s a learned trait after all.’
Taglist:
@maribat-secret-santa @aespades @adrestar @astrynyx @doll246 @queenz-z @toodaloo-kangaroo @crazylittlemunchkin @seraphichana @miraculous-ninjabird @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
#maribat#maribat secret santa 2022#protective jason todd#jason todd#marinette dupain cheng#child!marinette#adult!jason#roy harper#platonic maribat#platonic jasonette#jason may or may not adopt mari#dc x mlb#mlb x batman#angst#fluff#character death#not major#marinette needs a hug#jason needs a hug#Marinette needs therapy#merry christmas#happy holidays#can’t believe 2022 is almost over#Roy and Jason are not dating#They are brothers#in spirit#the best family#is found famliy#can’t change my mind
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During a simple mission that unexpectedly went wrong
Jason, cracking knuckles: Well, time to enact our motto: violence works!
Marinette, distracted: Okay sure, whatever
Marinette: ...
Marinette: Wait no come back, that's not the one we agreed to at all!
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Marinette: Why is coming up with ideas so hard?
Jason: Creativity is a spring and sometimes the beavers say fuck you.
#incorrect maribat quotes#maribat#platonic jasonette#featuring some shit my older sister said when i asked why wroting was so hard#ali-kitkat's writing#ali-kitkat writes
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Secretary!Marinette AU Masterlist
Well, lots of people like this au, and I have made many contents for this au alone and I think it's enough to make a master list! So here we go.
Fanfiction:
Managing Life [1][2][3][4]
Fanart:
Marinette & Batfam Doodle Dump
Marinette & Damian Doodle Dump
Marinette & Dick Doodle Dump
Marinette & Dick art
Marinette & Bruce Doodle Dump
'Get Help' Comic
Prompts:
How It Started
Expanding The Idea
Secretary! Marinette AU Part 2
Secretary! Marinette AU Part 3
Secretary! Marinette AU Part 4
Secretary! Marinette AU Part 8
Secretary! Marinette AU Part 9
Scenarios:
Bruce and Mari
Mari and Joker
#Managing Life AU#Marinette as Secretary#maribat#Managing Life Masterlist#Secretary!Marinette Masterlist#Secretary!Marinette AU#Marinette Dupain Cheng#mlb x dc#dc x mlb#mlb x batfam#batfam x mlb#marinette x batfam#dickinette#dc x miraculous#platonic daminette#platonic brucinette#platonic timinette#platonic jasonette#platonic maribat
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Maribat promt
After a shitty day of patrol and getting into an argument with the bat, Jason heads home to his apartment only to find a magical three year old girl with black hair and blue eyes playing with a black cat and a strange ladybug plushie on his couch.
#maribat#fatherhood#jason todd#red hood#batman#batfam#Marinette#ladybug#Jason is father material#Damian is favorite uncle#Marinette is a little shit#platonic jasonette
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Marinette: Bye Damian! Bye Dick! Bye Tim! Bye Jason! Bye Damian!
Dick: You said 'bye Damian' twice.
Marinette: I like Damian.
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Chapter 6
(Yes, Marinette and Damian disconnected Audio only before they went to her hotel, so no Tikki reveal sorry!)
Prev First Next
—*—*—*—*—*
Back at the Batcave, Robin was the first to change, sit through debrief, and go to sleep. Nobody questioned him, knowing full well his motives. The other vigilantes however, despite being back in their civvies, were not so quick to end the night.
“You all heard that, right?” Jason asked. Oracle, also known as Barbara Gordon, rolled her eyes. She backed up in her wheelchair and turned to face everyone else.
“What, the part where Marinette made you coo when she essentially defended you and said she still thought of you as a good person?”
Jason rolled his eyes. “I mean yeah, that part was pretty nice. But I’m talking about everything she said about Paris,” the man clarified, leaning back in a chair so that the front two legs lifted off the ground. “She was geared and ready to continue listing examples of Akumas. I doubt she even listed half of the ones that were centered around or targeting her. And having to go through all of her classmates becoming villains, even temporarily?” He shook his head. “That kinda shit doesn’t leave anybody unaffected.”
“Especially what she said about the mermaid monster Akuma,” Tim agreed, pulling up a story on the computer. “I’ve pulled up the reports from both the Ladyblog and the AkumaWatch app. They seem to agree on everything, so I think this was back when the Ladyblog was still reliable,” he pulled up a video taken by the girl who ran the Ladyblog, Alya Cesaire. Marinette’s former best friend and current classmate. The commentary was all in French, but Tim had went ahead and added quick English subtitles for everyone. The wonders of having a supercomputer. The video was taken from a high roof, and showed the water flowing so high that it completely covered most buildings. It would have definitely caused enough pressure to break open windows and fill those buildings on the inside too.
“Woah! It looks like they can transform!” The voice of the reporter said in French, pointing to the distance where two blues of red and black hopped onto a building. The girl zoomed in, her phone’s camera just barely able to show an out-of-focus Ladybug and Chat Noir with different patterns to their uniforms and fins. The cat-themed hero managed to pull an entire car, and as they soon sound out, temporary supervillain Syren, out of the water all on his own. “Aqua suits! That’s so cool!”
It was obvious, however, that the girl’s voice shook a bit. She kept the camera purposely pointed as high up as she could while still catching the heroes and the destruction of the possessed item on screen. There were blurred images all across the surface of the water, which the heroes knew to be censored bodies.
“Only a couple thousand out of two million Parisians survived, that’s what Marinette said,” Barbara breathed, eyes wide. “Seeing it like this really makes it all real,” she clenched her jaw. They all continued watching as what was simply dubbed as Ladybug’s Miracle swept through the city in a shockwave o ladybugs, and the water disappeared. They watched as Alya aimed the camera down and caught very alive people popping up in the streets or on top of cars, wherever they had been right before getting carried away by the vicious waves.
Every hero in the Cave saw people of all ages down there, shimmering back to life. From month-old babies to old men and women.
It was both wonderful and horrifying.
After the video ended, the entire cave was silent for a long moment. Jason was the one that spoke up, to no one's surprise.
“What the fuck?” He growled, no longer leaning back in his chair. Both of his fists were clenched. “This has been on the internet for almost three years! How did we not see this before? How did we never know?” He asked, to which nobody had an answer. But the Bat himself had a hand on his chin as he studied the freeze-frame that the video ended on. Chat Noir and Ladybug fist-bumping.
“Maybe,” Bruce said slowly, as if tasting the words. “It’s time one of us visits the Paris branch of Wayne Enterprises. Ladybug and Chat Noir have been protecting the city for almost four years, it’s likely they know something about why the news hasn’t spread,” he mused. “Meanwhile, I will look into the League records. I never heard about a supposed prank call from France, meaning another piece of the puzzle is there.”
“There’s a problem with that though,” Tim pointed out. “Paris is essentially being held emotionally hostage. Anyone we send will have to be extremely capable of pushing down their negative emotions or transforming them into something positive. The last thing Paris’s heroes need is a supervillain with years of combat experience. Besides that, HawkMoth can telepathically communicate with his Akumatized villains. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that he can read their minds.”
“So not only would Paris’s heroes have to fight someone much more experienced than them, but our identities would be exposed,” Dick completed the thought, arms crossed. “That rules out Jason or Damian for sure. Which of us would be the most capable of avoiding strong negative emotions?”
When the First Robin looked up, it was to a raised eyebrow from his adoptive father and three fingers pointing straight at him from his brothers and Barbara.
“We can set up a flight for you for the day after tomorrow,” Bruce said with a grin that seemed way too smug for Dick, who was still gaping at everyone in betrayal. “Ask for the time off, okay? I can smooth things over if you need me to.”
“Oh, come on!” Dick threw his hands up. “I can be broody and mean!”
He was thoroughly ignored as everyone left to sleep for the night.
“Guys! You know what, fine, Paris is a gorgeous city. It’ll be like a vacation! Oh my god I just proved them right.”
—*—*—*—*—*
That night in the Mindspace was… well, Marinette’s insomnia reared its head and she entered it around three AM to find a very unamused Robin waiting for her.
“Honestly?” He asked, gesturing to the Tv screen. “You couldn’t have put some of the work off for tomorrow?”
Suddenly Marinette was very glad she didn’t talk to Tikki while working on her dress. The little Kwami had passed right out after the stressful day they both had.
“I have trouble sleeping sometimes,” she admitted shyly, shifting from foot to foot. “Sewing helps me relax. I want to be a fashion designer,” she explained, letting a soft smile overtake her lips. “I’m actually making my own dress for the Wayne charity gala at the end of the month.”
Robin’s eyebrows shot up over his domino mask. Once again, he was in his normal pajamas besides the mask that he donned after entering the mindspace. “Really? That’s pretty ambitious,” he told her, eyes going back to the screen. Then again, the snippets that he saw on the screen looked incredibly well done. Marinette’s face twisted up a bit in apprehension.
“Maybe a little,” she conceded. “But I’ve designed for Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale. Even Gabriel Agreste and Audrey Bourgeois have asked for me to collaborate with them for a few pieces. Jagged and Clara commission me pretty often nowadays, and Jagged is a lot like an uncle to me now. I also design for local newscasters and other minor celebrities around town, and my best friend’s band Kitty Section,” She rambled, getting more passionate as she went. Robin actually found himself pretty impressed. The elder Agreste and Bourgeois both were notoriously hard to please names in the fashion industry, so to gain not just one but both of their attention and respect was a huge accomplishment.
“Perhaps I was incorrect then,” Robin amended. “With a portfolio like that, designing for the Gala is just the next small step up. I will look forward to seeing what you create,” he said honestly. His soulmate blinked, obviously caught off guard, before blushing furiously.
“Oh, uh, um, th-thank you!” She blinked again, the blush fading as she focused on the second meaning behind his words rather than just the flattery. “Wait, you’ll be at the gala?”
Robin had to hold back a smile. “It is a month away. I suspect by then you will have earned my identity. Soulmates tend to move faster than unbonded couples.”
Marinette gaped again. “Well. Uh. Thank you? I think. Wanna spar?”
It was Robin’s turn to be caught off guard. “Excuse me?”
“Do you want to spar?” She repeated, speaking at a normal pace instead of a tongue-twisting one. “Part of the reason it took so long to fall asleep is the adrenaline. It didn’t, uh, completely fade yet. And I’m still a little angry, but not enough to be dangerous in a spar.”
“I know,” Robin soothed, his calm tone a direct contrast to Marinette’s flustered rambling. “I felt the vibration when you were angry, both at GothCorp and on the roof when you punched the wall. You calmed down considerably fast, but the initial anger you felt at the woman lasted quite a while. It was very odd,” he tilted his head. “It left me very on edge. I cannot say I enjoyed it very much, but it was quite effective in getting the message across.”
Marinette laughed, nodding. Her own buzz of warning from Robin earlier had been very brief and low, barely a blip on her radar but enough to be felt. He had most likely just been upset for a moment. Marinette, on the other hand, had been burning up with her own fury.
“So, spar?” She asked again, smiling widely. “Maman says a good spar is one of the best ways to get to know a person,” she coaxed, leaning forward a bit. “Please?”
Robin snorted, standing up and stretching his arms. “You did not need to plead, I was about to accept either way. I could perhaps benefit from a new sparring partner.”
Marinette whooped, going to her half of the room. To her slight surprise, a new pink punching bag hung off to the side along with a few high bars for gymnastics. Taking a second, she turned to see that Robin’s own half of the mental world also had a few new additions. Weights, probably just for the familiarity of it, a few training dummies, and a punching bag of his own.
Neat! The girl thought excitedly, the last vestiges of anger draining away to be replaced by wonder. Soulbonds are so cool!
Shaking her head, she walked around to her sewing station and thought for a second. Her pajamas weren’t exactly a good outfit for a spar.
“Uh, how do we change clothes in here?” She asked, turning her head to look back at her soulmate. He, unsurprisingly, had already figured it out. The teen was now in exercise shorts and a perfectly fitting black tank top.
Marinette’s brain momentarily fizzled out.
Those arms! No, the legs! No, oh Kwami, I can see his abs. Shirts that tight should be illegal! Ohhh He has broad shoulders. Am I dead? I think I’m dead.
“Marinette? Are you listening?” The girl jumped, her object of torment suddenly standing with his arms crossed a few feet away.
“Huh? Oh yeah, totally. Just, uh, zoned out for a second.”
“Yeah,” he said with a raised eyebrow that just screamed disbelief. “I was saying that you simply imagine yourself in the outfit you wish to wear. This world is molded by our minds, after all.”
“Right. Easy. Got it,” Marinette nodded a little too fast, closing her eyes and imagining her usual exercise clothes. Black basketball shorts trimmed in red and a red tank top shone into existence, replacing her pink-and-white polka-dotted pajamas. Her hair, which was down from her taking out her pigtails before bed, was up in a messy bun on the back of her neck er head. Once down, she opened her eyes and gasped in joy. She turned to look at herself in the full length mirror next to her sewing station.
Behind her, she had unknowingly left her soulmate in a situation he was wholly unaccustomed to.
Perhaps I should have expected this, he thought sluggishly, feeling really caught off guard. His mind flashed to the memory of her punch splintering odd a few shards of solid brick. But her arms didn’t look that toned in her blouse earlier. Then again, she was wearing long sleeves, he had to stubbornly keep his eyes respectfully above the hips. He knew if he didn’t, his gaze would linger far too long on her muscular thighs. Turn away. You are being indecent he scolded himself, deciding to retreat to the sparring mat first.
After a second to recover from having caught Robin staring at her in the mirror— well, we ARE soulmates. It would be awkward if the attraction wasn’t mutual— Marinette joined him. Seeing as their bodies were not actually physical at the moment, they could skip stretching. Any hits they took would hurt momentarily to simulate the real world, but no actual damage would be taken.
“Ready?” She asked first, receiving a predatory grin in response.
“Are you?”
They both stood at the ready, their legs braced shoulder width apart and their arms tended but at the ready. To his shock, Marinette moved first.
The petite girl lunged, a very familiar high kick brushing uncomfortably close to Robin’s nose as he side-stepped the strike and attempted to grab her ankle. Marinette pulled her leg back too quickly, though, easily going right back into a defensive stance. Robin took the moment to get in close, aiming rapid punches at Marinette’s chest and torso. The girl proved to be just as flexible as she was strong, however, twisting around the wider strikes and batting away the ones she couldn’t avoid with her open palm. Each blocked punch sent a sharp sting through her hand, letting her know in no uncertain terms that she could not let even a single of his hits land.
The second Marinette saw an opening, she grabbed Robin’s bicep and heaved him over her hip. Instead of hitting the mat hard though, the seasoned vigilante tucked into a roll and popped right back up, leaping straight back at his soulmate. One of her punches glanced off his shoulder, forcing him to quickly recover his footing before he stumbled.
There’s that strength she showed earlier he noted. If that had been a direct hit, she might have dislocated my shoulder.
Robin leapt over Marinette’s head, slamming one knee up towards her back. The smaller teen was able to avoid a direct kit, but Robin’s knee still managed to clip right under her left rib cage. Instantly, she felt herself gasp for air. Mon dieu, that’s ridiculous! She thought, quickly hand-springing back to gain some distance as she caught her breath. My body gets a little sturdier outside the suit the longer I use the Ladybug Miraculous, but if he had hit me straight on I would have been down!
Both teen heroes were already slightly out of breath, staring at each other from opposite sides of the mat. They didn’t notice right away, but they each had the same breathless smile overtaking their face. They jumped back in towards each other at the same time.
Their spar was a flurry of punches and high-kicks, flips and ankle-swipes. They landed hits and got hit. Marinette got hit less often than Robin, purely due to her acrobatics and flexibility, but Robin’s tolerance for punishment was leagues (ha, bad joke) higher than Marinette’s. Even though he took more hits, he was in better shape than she was. Therefore, even though each of their strikes carried roughly the same force, it was clear Marinette was the one slowly losing ground. Marinette didn’t have her indestructible suit or enhanced abilities to help her out, at least not beyond what prolonged use of the Ladybug enhanced, but she was holding her own very well despite it.
It was almost twenty minutes —the mindspace making normal stamina levels irrelevant— before Marinette finally managed to grapple Robin and send them both tumbling onto the mat. They wrestled for a long moment, finding their physical strengths almost matched, before Robin finally managed to wrap his arm around Marinette’s throat and pin her legs with his own.
They were both gasping for breath by that point and, even though she lost, Marinette found herself laughing in glee. Robin’s grip loosened briefly before he completely let go, unwinding himself from her and standing up. He didn’t laugh like she did, but he was grinning widely and let out a few soft chuckles. He extended his hand down to his still-giggling soulmate, who grabbed on and allowed him to help her up.
“That was great!” She gushed. “I mean, sure, it stinks that I lost. But I’ll get you next time!”
“I fear you might not be wrong,” Robin admitted with another soft chuckle. “Not all of that was martial arts,” he said, clearly questioning her fighting style casually. Marinette rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
“Ah, yeah. I took gymnastics as a kid. And my friend Kagami has been trying to teach me how to fence, but I just end up using those movements in melee instead. I’m okay with a foil, but I’m nowhere near the best. Kagami says I’m a natural, but I think she’s just sparing my feelings. And, uh, the whole parkour thing I mentioned.”
“Right. Parkour,” Robin agreed with a nod that Marinette knew meant he didn’t believe her but wouldn’t push. For now.
Marinette’s lips slowly widened into a devilish grin. “Hey, do you play Ultimate Mecha Strike Five?” She asked slyly, and Robin narrowed his eyes through his mask.
“Why do I feel like agreeing would be a mistake?”
“That’s a yes!” Marinette cackled and dragged Robin over to his couch. “Come on, let’s play!”
Seeing as both of the were asleep and their other senses inaccessible through the Tv, it allowed them to load the game. Surprisingly enough, Robin actually put up a decent fight.
Unsurprisingly, Marinette still won. Five times in a row.
“Alright,” Robin put his controller down, glancing over at an all too smug Marinette, crossing his arms. “Let's recap; I’ve discovered the situation in Paris is bleaker than I thought, you are surprisingly strong for your frame, you are much better of a fighter than you let on, and you have a vengeful streak.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Marinette cooed, her hand over her chest as she fluttered her eyelashes with false innocence. Robin just deadpanned at her. “I am completely innocent! An angel! I would never stoop to petty revenge over losing a spar!”
“Uh huh,” Robin said blandly. “Let’s revisit this argument when you decide to be more truthful, ‘Angel’.”
“Anytime, birdboy.”
—*—*—*—*—*
Thankfully, the next few days weren’t as hectic as the first twenty-four hours. Robin did have school and vigilante business to see to, so he and Marinette only met in their Mindspace for the rest of the week. Which wasn’t bad, even on nights when one or the other stayed up so late that they only had three or four hours in the mental world. Somehow, despite their brains remaining constantly active, the magic is the soulbond always left them more refreshed when they awoke than they would normally feel after that amount of sleep. And Marinette had her own things to do with her class, which included a brief (and very therapeutic) two-day visit to Metropolis since it wasn’t far away, to broaden the sights they could see. When they got back, they had one full rest day where they and a buddy could visit anywhere they wanted, provided they stayed within three blocks of the hotel and called to check in with Bustier every two hours.
The class, used to recovering from terrifying circumstances, had almost completely recovered (as much as could be expected, anyway) from their GothCorp nightmare by the time they returned from Metropolis. Lila had quietly thanked Marinette the day after the attempted robbery, but followed the thanks with a threat to never make her look weak again.
So, suffice to say, the liar was back to her usual tricks after the brief reprieve of the Metropolis visit as well. Milder than usual, sure, but still back to normal.
Meanwhile, Richard Grayson had seemingly spontaneously asked for vacation time in order to help his adoptive father out with company business in Paris. He landed in the City of Lights the same day that the Parisians got back into Gotham. He quickly realized that this trip would take more than just a few days. In fact it wasn’t until Friday, exactly one week after Damian had met his Soulmate, that Dick found the ability to track down the Parisian heroes.
Akuma alert sirens rang all around the city, confirming for the experienced hero that the natives had gotten accustomed to the constant havoc. Those who had been around since the beginning of the Akuma terror ran towards shelters with practiced speed.
It was the perfect distraction for Dick to change into Nightwing and take to the rooftops. Upon reaching the Eiffel Tower, the blue clad hero saw a bizarre scene. A male dressed in an aqua colored, snake-themed uniform and a petite female in a red, black, and gold uniform with a spiral down one leg were facing off against…
A… Giant… Cat lady...
Not even a giant half-cat person. She was a legitimate fifteen-foot tall old lady in classic Cat Lady attire. Knitted cat-embroidered shawl, cat-eared knitted beanie, a crochet needle that she was using to hypnotize cats and change their size and species. Her skin was bright orange with shiny silver tiger stripes, and her face had giant black glasses in the shape of a domino mask.
It was really, really weird. She had two twenty-foot panthers and a lion that was half the size of the Eiffel Tower growling at the two heroes who, surprisingly, didn’t look very affected at all by the fever dream they were facing. Smaller house cats were all slinking out of the nearby streets to ominously surround the two heroes, their eyes all glowing bright gold.
“You know, Chat would be making so many puns right now,” The red hero, Ryujo if Dick remembered correctly, mused as the two analyzed their options.
“He would also be making a lot of ‘family shouldn’t fight’ jokes,” the surprisingly zen male replied, flipping up and out of the way onto a nearby roof. “This should be easy, but I will provide backup if you need it.”
“Don’t worry Viperion, I got this,” Ryuko brushed off. “Water dragon!”
The hero turned into water before Nightwing’s eyes, swirling around the square. The water scared off the smaller cats, and the lion recoiled slightly, but it and the panthers lunged anyway, trying to catch the stream of water. The floating river easily avoided every strike, winding around the old lady’s crochet needle when they weren’t looking and snapping it in half.
A purple butterfly, exactly like those Dick had seen in the videos he and the others watched as research and exactly how Marinette had described them, fluttered out of the broken object. A quick flash of yellow darted onto the scene, a bee-themed woman carrying an ornate pot with Chinese engravings on it flew over and trapped the butterfly in the pot.
“There!” She said triumphantly, smiling wide. The crazy cat woman faded away, shrinking down into a cute little, completely normal, old lady with her gray hair in a high bun.
“Oh dear,” she brought a hand to her cheek. “Where am I? What happened?”
Nightwing watched as the heroes comforted the victim, watching as Queen Bee and Viperion left in one direction and Ryuko, whose choker had started beeping, left in another.
He followed the two paired up heroes.
—*—*—*—*—*
#maribat#mlb x dc#ml x dc#dc x mlb#dc x miraculous#damimari#platonic jasonette#damian x marinette#marinette x damian#maribat fic#the hero’s game
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2022 Secret Santa Gift Exchange
For: @lifeexperience hope you enjoy!
Marinette was a simple child of parents who loved her, but not each other. Some of her friends at school had parents just like that, but they were divorced. But her parents never actually married, so they didn’t get a cool word. But really, all it meant was that she had to split her time between her Maman and her Dad. Unfortunately for her, her parents had decided to live a whole ocean apart. So she couldn’t just visit on weekends like her friend Max could. But it was finally summer again, and she was finally back in Gotham. Glancing around, Marinette grins widely the second she spots Alfred.
“Alfie!” She cheers, running around the other people in the baggage claim area. Alfred’s lips twitch up into a small smile.
“It’s nice to see you again, Miss Marinette.” He says. Marinette grins widely, pointing to the new gap in her teeth.
“Look! I lost another tooth.” She says. Alfred raises an eyebrow.
“Have you already received a visit from the tooth fairy?” He asks. She nods, holding Alfred’s hand as they walk through the parking lot.
“Where’s dad?” She asks, swinging their arms.
“Do you remember Mr. Kent?” Alfred asks. Marinette nods. He came to the manor a lot more than her dad liked, but she didn’t mind cause he usually brought his son Jon with him. “He and your father are in the middle of a meeting, and he couldn’t step away.” Alfred explains. Marinette resists the urge to ask if Jon was there too. Hopefully it was just a super quick meeting and then her dad could hang out with her. She knew that he was always super busy. He worked at a really big company, and he had a bunch of kids, and he was Batman. But he was still a good dad, and she knew he tried.
“Is Cass home?” She asks, buckling herself into her booster seat (Alfred insisted, even though she tried to convince him that ten was plenty old enough to use a normal seat; apparently she was too short).
“I’m afraid Miss Cass won’t be home for another week or so. Your brothers should all be there, though Master Duke and Master Tim won’t be staying for long. They’re going on a weekend trip with a few friends.” He explains. Marinette hums in surprise. It was really rare for Tim to leave Gotham for something not hero related. She’d have to make a bet with Damian to see what the odds were that Tim and Duke were actually going on a secret mission that they hadn’t told anybody about. It seemed much more likely. Marinette zones out on the rest of the car ride, just watching as her favorite city passes by. She liked Paris and spending time with her Maman, but Gotham had always felt more like her home. Gotham was where her dad and brothers and Alfred were. It was her home. As the manor appears out the window, Marinette grins at the sight of her dad waiting for her outside. The second the car stops, Marinette is out and running to her dad. She launches herself at him and sighs happily as he picks her up and wraps her in a big hug.
“I missed you too.” He says softly, giving her one last squeeze before setting her down. “How was the last week of school?” Marinette sighs dramatically, grinning when she sees the moment her dad spots her new missing tooth.
“I lost another tooth! And Alix didn’t even pull this one out for me.” She says happily. Her dad sighs, but she can tell he really wants to laugh.
“You two are going to cause so much trouble one day, aren’t you?” He asks. Marinette shrugs.
“Depends on if it’s fun or not. Where’re the boys?” She asks, leaning slightly to look past him.
“Tim and Duke are packing, and Jason’s in the library. Last I checked, Dick was also in the library attempting to convince Jason to go do something else.” Her dad says with a small smile, the same smile he always got when he mentioned Jason. The memories weren’t super clear, but she did have some memories of when Jason died. She probably purposefully blocked out most of it, though. (Or that’s what Max thought, when she’d talked to him about it once; he was super smart). That was a rough summer. Tim hadn’t come around yet, and her dad and Dick were both really, really sad. And angry. As much as they’d both tried to hide it from her, she heard them yelling. And she saw the reports of what Batman was doing, even if the news only had stories and never any actual pictures of what Batman had become. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t get her dad back to who he was before Jason died. She spent most of that summer baking with Alfred and drawing in the library on the couch where Jason used to read her stories. By the time she came home for Thanksgiving (a holiday she knew her dad didn’t care about, but one he celebrated so that she could have an excuse to come to Gotham more) Tim was there.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Marinette frowns when she realizes there was a brother missing.
“What about Damian?” She asks. Her dad frowns as Mr. Kent smiles, and that’s when Marinette remembers Damian talking about his new friend, Kent. Her eyes widen. “Is Jon here?” She asks, resisting the urge to just run towards the manor. Her dad opens his mouth to respond, but Mr. Kent cuts him off.
“They’re in the game room closest to the living room.” He says. Marinette squeals out a thanks before rushing off. Time to see Jon!
---
Bruce’s eyes narrow as he looks at one of his oldest friends. Clark just laughs, shaking his head.
“You know she would’ve found them eventually, Bruce.” He says. Bruce huffs.
“That doesn’t mean you had to just send her off to him.” He argues. Clark raises an eyebrow, the amusement clear on his face.
“They’re kids, Bruce. It’s not like they’re going to get married tomorrow-” Clark starts to say, but Bruce cuts him off.
“Or ever.”
“That’s not what Jon said.”
“Clark-”
“Bruce, breathe. Last time they talked, Marinette apparently told Jon that she was going to marry him one day. It was very matter-of-fact and, need I remind you, they’re children. Plenty of kids have crushes that never amount to anything. And besides that, they’re friends, Bruce. Neither of them have many friends that know about everything. You really gonna take that away from either of them?” Clark asks, crossing his arms. Bruce sighs.
“Fine. But we will revisit this conversation in a few years.” He says. Clark chuckles, but agrees. Bruce, who knows how determined his daughter can be, doesn’t laugh.
---
“Jon!” Marinette squeals, running into the room. Jon turns around and grins, opening his arms. Before Marinette can throw herself into the hug, Damian steps between them, frowning. Marinette skids to a stop, raising an eyebrow at her older brother.
“What is the meaning of this?” Damian asks, looking between them. Marinette huffs.
“I was trying to hug my friend.” She says, arms crossed. Damian raises an eyebrow, crossing his arms too.
“Kent is my friend, Marinette.” He says firmly. Marinette’s eyes narrow.
“He was my friend first!” She counters. Damian turns to Jon.
“Well, are you going to say anything?” He asks. Jon’s eyes widen.
“Well, uh, I-” He stammers over his words.
“Leave him out of this! Can’t you see you’re stressing him out!” Marinette yells at her older brother. He scoffs.
“Oh, I’m stressing him out?” He asks. “What about you? Rushing in here and trying to hug him with no prior warning?”
“Jon happens to like my hugs.” Marinette says firmly. Damian snorts humorlessly.
“Are you sure he isn’t just being nice?” He asks. Marinette feels her cheeks turn red.
“Actually-” Jon starts.
“Stay out of this, Kent.” Damian warns. Marinette rolls her eyes.
“Why are you such a know it all, all the time?” She asks, trying hard not to scream.
“Why are you such a little baby?” Damian taunts.
“That’s it!” Marinette shrieks before letting out a battle cry. She rushes towards her brother, fists flying. Every time he dodges, she shrieks. She wasn’t trained like he was. It wasn’t fair! Suddenly, arms are around her, lifting her away from Damian just as Damian is restrained by Dick.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is going on in here?” He asks, looking between them. Marinette glances back, stopping kicking when she realizes Jason is the one holding her back. He was officially her favorite brother at the moment.
“Marinette is acting like a child simply because Kent is now my friend.” Damian tuts, tilting his nose up. Marinette’s eyes widen and she immediately starts thrashing around again in an attempt to go kick the heck out of her brother.
“You are the worst! That’s not what happened at all!” She argues.
“Cool it, kiddo.” Jason says quietly. Marinette shakes her head.
“No! He’s being mean, and I’m gonna beat him up for it!” She insists. Damian snorts, but immediately stops at the look Dick gives him.
“Alright. You two clearly need some time apart right now. Jason.” Dick nods towards the door and Marinette’s eyes widen.
“This isn’t fair! Why does Damian get to hang out with Jon? He’s probably hung out with him all day! He’s my friend too!” She complains, going limp in Jason’s hold. Jason sighs, taking her out of the game room and towards the library.
“Just breathe, Mari. I’m sure you’ll get to hang out with Jon a ton this summer. He’s over here all the time now.” Jason says. Marinette’s face falls into a frown. Before Damian came, Jon never wanted to hang out at the manor all the time. Even when Marinette was in town. Did he….was he really her friend? Or was Damian right. “Okay kid, if I set you down, do you promise not to go beat the shit out of the Gremlin?” Jason asks. Marinette nods.
“I uh, I think I’m really tired, Jay. I’m gonna go take a nap, okay?” She’s trying really hard not to cry. Jason frowns, but nods.
“If you’re sure. Hey, you know you can talk to me, right?” He asks. Marinette nods, and gives Jason a half hearted smile before she heads upstairs. Was Jon really her friend?
---
An hour later, Marinette’s door creaks open slightly. She glances over and waves half-heartedly at Jason. He frowns.
“Hey kid, are you okay? I thought you were gonna take a nap.” He says. Marinette shrugs.
“Not tired anymore.” She says. Jason’s eyebrows scrunch together.
“I was gonna head home,” He starts, and Marinette feels her shoulders slump even more. “But, if you want, you could tag along. I was gonna make spaghetti for dinner.” He adds. Marinette perks up immediately. Damian may want to hog Jon (who may or may not be her friend), but Jason was always there for her.
“Can we watch Little Women? The one with Winona Ryder?” She asks, Jason grins and nods.
“Sure thing, kid. Grab a bag and let Bruce know. I’ll wait outside.” He says. Marinette nods and quickly packs up a backpack, then hesitates. It was only her first night back home. If she asked her dad, she ran the risk of him saying no. And then she’d have to eat dinner with Damian. And Jon. Nope. No, siree, she wasn’t going to risk that. Grabbing a piece of paper from her desk, she scribbles out a little note. It’d be fine, and if he was mad at her…well, he probably wouldn’t be mad. She was leaving a note! Just in case, she hurries down the back stairs and out the side door. No need to risk running into her dad. She’d talk to him tomorrow.
---
Bruce lets his shoulders relax as he walks in and sits down for dinner. Clark had left just after Marinette arrived, but he’d had League business that couldn’t wait. Which meant dinner was the first time he’d be able to actually sit and talk to his daughter since her visit at Easter. Looking around the table, he frowns.
“Has anyone seen Marinette?” he asks. Tim glances around, then shakes his head.
“Uh, no. Actually, I haven’t seen her all day. Wasn’t she coming home today?” He asks. Bruce nods, trying to push down the worry welling up.
“Little D?” Dick says, and Bruce glances at Damian, narrowing his eyes.
“Damian. Care to explain?” Bruce asks. Damian purses his lips and tilts his chin up. A move he got from his mother.
“She was acting like a child. We argued and Todd removed her from the game room.” Damian says simply. Bruce sighs, pinching his nose.
“What was it this time?” He asks, shaking his head. It never seemed to fail. Every time Marinette came to stay, she and Damian found something new to fight about. It never lasted for long, but he’d come to accept it as an undeniable truth. The sky was blue. Grass was green. Damian and Marinette argued. Simple.
“I hardly see how that-”
“They were fighting over me.” Jon blurts out. Bruce raises an eyebrow.
“Excuse me?”
“Well, I’m friends with Damian now, too. And so he was mad when Mari was trying to hug me, and then she yelled back at him since we were friends first and I tried to stop them but they kept fighting so Jason and Dick made them split up and then I didn’t get to say anything else to Mari and so she probably hates me now.” Jon rambles, eyes wide as his lower lip trembles. Bruce resists the urge to groan. Of course they were fighting over Jon.
“Shall I go get Miss Marinette from her room?” Alfred asks.
“No, I’ll get her. Damian, tomorrow we’re going to have a talk about friends. And the fact that multiple people can be friends with the same person.” Bruce says firmly, heading towards his youngest daughter’s room. He knocks.
“Mari? Sweetie, it’s time for dinner.” Bruce says. He frowns when she doesn’t answer. “Mari?” He calls, knocking again. Bruce purses his lips. Perhaps she fell asleep? He knocks one more time before gently pushing the door open. He doesn’t panic at the empty room. He’s completely calm and collected. The paper that catches his eye on her desk, the letter letting him know that she’d be back the next day and not to worry- that’s what makes him panic. Flashbacks of five years ago. An empty bedroom. A note. A crumpled form in the middle of an explosion. Steadying his breath, he rushes downstairs. He wouldn’t go through that again. He couldn’t.
“Master Bruce-”
“Marinette’s gone.” He says, clutching the note like a lifeline.
“What?” Jon squeaks out, his eyes wide. Bruce turns to Dick.
“We have to find her. Dick, will you call Jason? The rest of us will head to the cave. Everyone needs to be on comms and suited up in twenty minutes.” Bruce instructs. And not even the familiar feeling of directing a mission can bring him calm. Not while his daughter is missing.
---
Marinette sips her chocolate milk, shaking her head at the tv.
“You know, sometimes I wonder how Jo and Amy are able to like each other again after all the times they kinda suck and are kinda awful towards each other.” She says. Jason raises an eyebrow.
“Yeah?” He asks. She nods.
“Yeah. But then I remember all the times that we all fight, and I kinda get it.” She sighs. Jason snorts, shaking his head. The landline rings and Jason reaches over and grabs it.
“Hello.” He says simply. Marinette looks away from the movie, instead watching her brother’s face as shock quickly covers it. “What? No- I- Dick, shut the hell up and breathe. She’s fine. No, she is. She’s with me. Well- I- I thought B knew. Yeah. Mmhmm. Call the calvary back, she’s fine. She’ll be back tomorrow morning after breakfast. Because I promised I’d make pancakes. No, not for you Dickhead. Uh huh. Bye.” Marinette quickly turns her attention back to the movie, hoping he doesn’t try to talk to her about it.
“I wonder if I could wear a dress like that to the next gala.” Marinette muses, hoping it’ll be enough to change the subject. Instead, the movie pauses and Marinette sighs.
“So. Are we going to talk about this? Or am I just going to give you a little lecture?” Jason asks. Marinette pouts.
“Why do we have to do either? Why can’t we just finish watching the movie?” She asks. Jason lets out a long breath.
“Do you remember when I died?” He asks bluntly. Marinette flinches back, looking at her older brother with wide eyes. He winces. “Sorry, kid. But I promise it’s important.” Marinette frowns, eyebrows scrunching together.
“Well. Yeah, I- I kind of remember it. It’s not super clear, but…I remember.” She says, pushing down the wave of sadness that wells up inside her. It was one of the hardest times of her entire life.
“I don’t know how much you remember of that time, but I ran away first. I was determined to figure out who my birth mom was, so I left. And do you know what I did?” He asks. Marinette shakes her head. “I left a note. I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving, not even Alfred. I just left a note. And we both know how that ended up.” He says. Marinette’s eyes widen.
“That’s what I did to dad. I just left a note- I thought- I didn’t want him to tell me I couldn’t go. I didn’t think it would-” She stops, trying hard to stop her tears. Jason opens his arms and she throws herself at him, crying. “I’m sorry.” She says.
“It’s fine, kiddo. I know the whole Jon and Damian thing really upset you. But- and I’m gonna sound like a fu-freaking hypocrite here- but you’ve gotta communicate.” Jason says. Marinette sniffles, and leans back.
“Do you think dad’s gonna be really mad at me?” She asks timidly. Jason shakes his head.
“No, kid, I don’t think he will. I think he’ll be too relieved to be mad.” He says. Marinette starts to respond, but a tap on the window makes her jump instead. Jason immediately leaps off the couch and heads for the window. “Of freaking course.” He huffs before throwing the window open. Marinette frowns, until a familiar person steps in and her eyes widen.
“Mari!” Jon calls, running over and giving her a big hug. Marinette blinks a few times, before she relaxes and returns the hug.
“What’re you doing here?” She asks once he pulls away.
“Yeah. I’d also like to know.” Jason says, walking over and crossing his arms. Jon laughs awkwardly before reaching back and scratching the back of his neck.
“I uh, I was worried about you.” He says. Marinette feels a smile creep onto her face.
“Really?” She asks. He nods.
“Course I was. You’re one of my best friends.” He says. She raises her eyebrows. “Yeah, uh, I already told Damian that people can have more than one best friend. I think your dad’s gonna talk to him more about it tomorrow, but I didn’t wanna stop being your friend.” He says.
“Still best friends forever?” She asks, holding out a pinky. Jon grins and links his pinky with hers.
“Forever and ever.” He says simply. And he was right.
When Marinette and Jon get married fifteen years later, it surprises no one.
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Marinette: What's disrespectful is that you're still treating me like I'm seven!
Jason: So what are you now, eight?
Marinette: I'm seventeen!
Jason: Well, you look eight.
#maribat#dc x mlb#mlb x dc#maribat incorrect quotes#marinette x batfam#platonic jasonette#timari#timinette#dukette#daminette#maridami
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Unexpected Discoveries Lead to Unexpected Consequences
Chapter 2
Previous
This was not nor had it ever been part of any of his plans. Nope, he had never meant for this to happen at. All. Yet! Here he was. He can’t even believe himself.
“Talia, I have known this girl for two weeks, but I swear to G* that if anything happens to her while I am gone with my next trainer I will kill everyone in the stupid base and then myself.”
Jason immediately stated upon returning from France with Marinette in toe next to him. She gave Talia a shy smile and wave before moving back to hide behind Jason once again.
After their little heart to heart in the apartment upon their first meeting Jason knew he couldn’t leave this small, innocent child behind to survive on her own. He had let her sleep in the bed, as it was a single room apartment, and he slept on the couch. That same night he was woken by bloodcurdling, heart-clenching screams. The bond was being pulled incessantly in sharp, painful jolts, and it was filled with so much pain and anguish that it almost made him buckle over in pain. He raced over to the bedroom and found Mary (“My real name is Marinette”) struggling against the blankets, still obviously asleep. Racing over to the bed he tried his very best to wake her up gently, whispering that she needed to awaken. Unfortunately, it didn't work and Jason swore that his heart was going to be torn out of his chest. Running out of both strength and patience he began to shake her by the shoulders.
“Mary, you’re having a nightmare and you need to wake up!”
Nearly silent sobs left her lips. Jason's heart yearned to comfort this child as the tugs against his heart continued in their frantic manner as if the bond itself was begging for someone to soothe the pain. Now Jason knew this would be a terrible idea if this was to wake up to this, but well, it worked on his mom when she was too far gone trying to chase a high. And while this wasn’t the same thing, maybe it would still work.
Kneeling at the bedside Jason began to softly run his fingers through Mari’s now clean hair, easily removing any knots out of her still slightly damp hair. He did his best to send soothing tugs and ripples through the bond in hopes that it would calm her. Thankfully the movement seemed to do the trick as Mari began to relax into the covers and had soon stopped crying. He could feel her unconsciously leaning into his hand, and he refused to take away the obvious comfort she found in the contact. He stared at the girl’s gentle features, truly taking in her form. She was frail and thin, there were dark and heavy bags under her eyes, and her skin, while slightly tan from being in the sun for long amounts of time, was unnaturally pale. How was he supposed to leave her when Talia came to pick him up? The kid needed stability, someone to look after her, and he did not trust any foster care system in any way shape or form. Jason sighed to himself and desperately wanted to hit his head against a wall. Why was this his life?
So here he was now, at Nanda Parbat, with a small 13-year-old child standing behind him, threatening Talia al Ghul of all people to protect his new baby sister while he was gone. Because G* knew that if something happened to this angel of a child on his watch, all Hell would break loose.
“I see you’ve picked up a stray.”
She said flatly after his outburst, only giving Mari a small glance before staring at Jason once again. Her face was void of any emotion, but he could see the ever so slight glint of curiosity hidden behind the indifference in her eyes.
“Look,”
Jason sighed, pinching his nose between his gloved fingers.
“Trust me when I say that I had no planes on doing this.”
“But?”
Talia asked when he didn’t continue with a raised brow.
“But, the kid's been through some sh* and is honestly like a lost duckling. (“I am not.”) She wouldn’t stop following me around even when I told her that I’m bad news. (*huff*). And if this continued she was going to get herself killed, or worse.”
Jason shivered. He remembered how quickly and mysteriously kids would disappear. And IF they were ever found, well, they were never the same again. Always haunted, always on edge, always silent, eyes clouded over like they had seen the depths of Hell and were forced to come back to Earth. He would never be able to live with himself if he saw that same look on this kid in front of him.
Talia seemed to understand where he was coming from and simply nodded. Her expression gave none of her thoughts or feelings away though.
“I see. Well, I have arranged for you to go to Germany to learn how to put together and dismantle explosives. If this goes well Jason, this should be your last trainer. I will take your youth under my wing until you return. She will be protected and trained, so when it is time for you to complete your goal you will know she will be taken care of and will know how to properly take care of herself.”
Jason could hug her, but he refrained. He didn’t want to get stabbed, thank you very much. He smiled and nodded his head in thanks.
“Thank you Talia, I owe you one.”
“One of many.”
Talia said, a ghost of a smile somehow showing through her still emotionless face.
“Yea, yea.”
He replied flippantly before turning back to Marinette who had been basically strangling his shirt between her small boney hands. Gently he pulled her in front of him and kneeled so they were level with each other while sending warm calming ripples through their bond. He placed a gentle but firm hand on her shoulder and began to explain what was going to happen.
“Pix, please look at me.”
Marinette looked up from the ground and looked him in the eyes while she nervously chewed at her lip.
“You’re going to leave me?”
She asked sorrowfully. He could feel the tension and despair in the bond making Jason feel guilty. Jason softened slightly and shook his head, continuing to send his reassurance and care back.
“Yes, and no. I’ll be back soon, and Talia is going to keep you safe. I’ve got to go to this place to learn some stuff, and when I’m done I won’t leave ya again, I promise.”
“And I can’t come with you?”
She asked sorrowfully. Jason shook his head quickly,
“No Pixie. It’s way too dangerous for you. But Talia here is going to help you learn how to protect yourself here. It’ll be okay.”
“And you promise that you’ll come back?”
She asked, almost begged really. She was sending out so much hope and worry that his heart was starting to ache. He didn’t think he would ever get used to this strange bond, way of communicating really.
“I promise.”
Marinette nodded, her eyes hardening with conviction and complete trust that Jason knew he would rather die again than break.
“Okay. I’ll work hard till you come back, big brother Jay-Jay.”
Jason smiled and rolled his eyes before ruffling her hair.
“Yea, yea. How about you get to know Talia,”
He leaned into her ear and whispered just loud enough so that Talia would hear him.
“She may seem all scary and heartless, but she has a heart deep deep down. I promise.”
Marinette giggled softly and Talia rolled her eyes. Jason smirked at her before pushing himself up and standing next to Mari with a hand on her shoulder. He nodded to Talia and gave Marinette one last squeeze before he turned and left towards his room where his bag should be. He would have to leave soon, he had no doubt that there was a plane or helicopter waiting for him at this very moment. Besides, it would be good for Marinette to learn from Talia; and if she introduced the small girl to Damian so the kid would have a friend, it would be 10x better.
__________
When Jason returned to Nanda Parabat four months later he was definitely surprised at what he was witnessing. He had been searching for the small girl when he had heard fighting coming from one of the training rooms. While it made sense, he had still wanted to see what was happening and hadn’t been expecting what he was witnessing. He watched the battle unfold recognizing the two in an instant. Marinette was dressed in the traditional black League training robes with a light green bandana tied around her arm to signify that she was under the protection of Talia. He watched as Marinette, armed with two 12” daggers, fought against Talia confidently standing her ground far better than he would have thought possible. Talia obviously wasn’t going easy on her, but Marinette seemed to be dancing around her, her eyes narrowed with full concentration. Talia had definitely taken the training request very seriously, and so had Mari. She was starting to grow into a more lean and gymnast-like body, like Di-Nightwing’s. She held herself with much more confidence than she had before he had left and moved with grace that she definitely didn’t have before. He had seen the girl trip over literally nothing.
She had definitely grown a lot while he was gone, she was maybe two or three inches taller than the last time he had seen her. He didn’t see any signs of serious injury in the way she moved, so the League was safe for now…unfortunately.
He continued to watch the two fight and studied the different forms that Marinette used. She was using more offensive than defensive attacks, and it was obvious she was trying to redirect Talia’s strikes back to her. She was resourceful with how she used her daggers, none of her strikes were lethal(thank goodness), but sadly it wasn’t enough. Her stamina still wasn’t what it could be due to who knows how long of malnourishment, and it was obvious she was tiring out. And that was all Talia needed to finish the fight as she rounded one last kick that Marinette just couldn’t dodge in time causing her to fall flat on her back. Talia held her katana to her neck, and Jason sent a jolt of panic course through him. There may have been a decent amount of space from the blade and Mari’s throat as it was spar, but it still made his skin crawl to see that happen.
“You lasted longer this time. Good job, Marinette.”
Talia said calmly as she moved the sword back into the sheath at her side and held out a hand for Mari to take. With a bright smile Marinette accepted the gesture and quickly got back on her feet.
“Thank you Talia, I couldn’t have done it without your help.”
“I don’t know Pixie Pop, I think you could have done it at some point even without her.”
Jason called out casually from where he was leaning against the doorway. Marinette’s head snapped over to Jason in surprise, unlike Talia who had probably sensed his entry even during the fight.
“Big brother!”
Marinette practically screamed as she ran towards him. Jason was able to catch her right before she slammed into him, picking her up by the armpits and spinning her once before he set her down again. Her arms wrapped tightly around him; Jason was quick to reciprocate the gesture with a roll of his eyes.
“Jeesh kid, we’ve literally known each other for like three weeks. You get attached to people way too easily.”
He said in a joking yet serious voice. It was sweet if not slightly concerning.
“Not true, I’ve felt your emotions for the last five months. I know you better than you think.”
She mumbled into his chest. Jason sighed once more before just picking her up and holding her against his side. Even if she had grown a few inches, she was still small.
“So, nothing happened while I was gone?”
He asked Talia with a raised brow.
“No. She wore my colors, the others knew not to touch her without my express permission. She is a quick learner and a sharp student. I’m glad you found her, she could be an excellent asset.”
“I’m glad to hear that, but she’s not staying here. Thank you for training and protecting her Talia. We’ll be heading to Gotham soon.”
“Well then, I wish you luck with your goal Jason.”
Talia said calmly, resting her hands behind her back.
“And I’m thankful for all the training you’ve given me and her, Talia. I’m ready to take on the big Bat himself now.”
Talia gave a sharp nod and turned away. Jason finally set Marinette back down so she was standing in front of him and sighed,
“Come on Pix, I know you’re dying to tell me everything. You can chatter my ear off while we pack your things.”
And just like that Mari began telling him all that she had learned and all that she had experienced with the League. He was glad it wasn’t too terrible, and that she had really worked hard with her training and studies. Her eyes sparkled a bright happy blue and she practically danced around the room collecting the few things she had so that they could begin the flight to Gotham. Turns out that had met Damian, he even sparred with her. She didn’t win, little demon brat had said some rude things, but helped her with her form. His heart felt warm from all of the joy she was sending through the bond and it was infectious. He missed his little pixie.
When they arrived on the plane Marinette settled into the seat next to him and leaned against his side.
“Jay?”
She asked quietly.
“Yea Pix?”
There was a small pause but Jason just waited patiently for Marinette to continue.
“I’m ready to tell you what happened.”
Jason paused for a second. From what he had heard of her nightmares, and felt, something terrible must have happened for her to be on the streets.
“You sure? I don’t want you to rush into things.”
She nodded silently, with a firm and sure look on her face.
“I’m ready.”
She took in a deep breath and slowly blew it out, trying to calm her buzzing nerves. He tried to reach out through the bond, to understand what may be going through her mind, but he couldn’t feel anything. It was like there was a wall between the two of them, and that scared Jason more than he would ever admit.
“Mama and Papa ran into some financial trouble with their bakery. A liar, I’m pretty sure she was a meta, lied about it and said that it was infested with rodents and bugs. She said that she had seen a rat running through the kitchen, even though there was no way she could have been back there, and that she had found a fly baked into her peach tart! Of course everyone believed her, even though she had no definitive proof everyone. Still. Believed. Her! One of my old friends ran a popular blog with their mom, and she posted Lila’s lies on it a lot. Soon after, other news sponsors reported on this supposed incident as well. And soon after, few people ever came in again. Mama and Papa were so worried, I once walked in on them crying together and I didn’t know what to do, so I left.”
Her voice had taken on an almost airy lilt. Her eyes were glazed over as she talked, her breath hitching ever so often. But no tears fell, and no sobs came. Jason didn’t interrupt.
“Papa got a loan from the Akuma Gang because the banks refused to give one to my parents. In the end they were unable to pay back the money, and they burned down my home with everybody in it. I was at a small party with who I thought was my last friend, but it was a set up. When it happened, I-I was on my way home and they tried to-to…”
The dam broke and tears flowed down Marinette’s cheeks, sobs shaking her body. Jason pulled her closer to his side, whispering words of comfort into her ear, telling her that she didn’t have to finish if she wasn’t ready, while gently rubbing her back. Once she got her sobs under control she continued.
“They tried to kidnap and take advantage of me.”
The green began to overwhelm his vision as it screamed for blood and vengeance for the girl he considered his little sister. He hadn’t felt this Pit crazed, this angry in so long, it was almost frightening. But he was too angry to be frightened.
“I was able to escape them, but I had nowhere to go. I didn’t trust CPS because the Akuma’s could pay them off to have me basically delivered to them. I had no friends since the liar took them all away. I couldn’t go to school because the son of one of the members goes there and he definitely would have taken me. He does whatever his father wants, no matter what. I had to live on the streets and try to stay out of sight while still trying to survive.”
Another round of sobs left her mouth as she burrowed farther into Jason’s chest. She was shaking like a leaf and all Jason could do was listen to and hold her. He wanted to fly right back to Paris and burn it to the ground. Tear every person that even thought about hurting her limb from limb. Paint the streets in the blood of the revolting, abominable filth that dared to ever hurt this child. Our child the Pit hisses possessively as it continued to wrap around his brain and take control of his thoughts. He let out a small breath doing his best to clear it so he wouldn’t accidentally hurt Marinette.
“It’s going to be okay, Pixie. I promise, I won’t let that happen to you ever again. I’ll keep you safe, I won’t leave you alone to suffer ever again. I promise.”
Jason carefully pulled her atop his lap, slowly rocking her side to side gently as her cries petered out to sobs, to hiccups, and then silence as she fell asleep against his chest. He gently placed a kiss to the top of her forehead and sighed. Kid didn’t deserve any of that. He renewed his vow, the vow he had made only a few months ago. He would protect her, and he would make sure that she would never go through anything like this ever again. He’ll never let her feel powerless, afraid, or alone again. That’s what a big brother is for after all, right?
-END-
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#maribat#platonic maribat#platonic jasonette#jason todd#marinette dupain cheng#protective jason todd#the league of assassins#talia al ghul#pre red hood#training#tiny marinette#child!marinette#homeless!marinette#jason will protect this child at all costs#angst#fluff#mlb x batman#dc x mlb#hurt/comfort#bigbrother!jason#no miraculous au#cute#It’s an adventure
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Marinette: You aren't coming with me?
Jason: I'm not your mom, Pixie.
Jason, handing her a lunchbox: Here are your sandwiches. I'll pick you up at five.
Marinette:
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What.the.actual.baguettes Bruce?!
This was meant to be a short fic to get the idea out of my head. It grew.... Oops
Masterlist
.........................................
The chaos finally rested on the battlefield. World weary, drained from the prolonged battle, the heroes slowly regrouped together to take stock of the end. Red Robin had come with the bat’s this time rather than the scattered remains of young justice, so slowly started to limp towards his siblings. He could see Kon with Kara fussing over Jon who he waved at and nodded to Bart who was near the other Speedsters.
The big three founders were all huddled together supervising the villain of the day with a petite woman who looked exhausted. The battle had been hard and Bruce, no Batman, ended up reluctantly calling in the Justice Leagues ‘last resort’. The last resort was led by the petite woman and her team were a welcome relief tipping the battle into their favour finally. Her team were currently scattered around searching for survivors and any lost stray villain underlings.
The woman picked up her yoyo of a weapon, which she now treated as a phone, and nodded to whatever she was hearing and hang up to throw the yoyo into the air with another battle cry. Ladybirds flew our righting the damage, mending wounds, setting the battlefield to how it was moments before the first weapon fired.
Red Robin blinked in surprise at it all as his leg was surrounded and finally less battle damaged with only the hints of pain where it was previously.
“I hate magic. It’s fricking creepy!”
Red Robin raised his eyebrow at Red Hoods comment, though he didn’t disagree, hobbled closer to him. As the magic wash faded the woman in question’s costume fell away leaving her standing there in what looked like pyjamas looking very out of place next to the giant founders towering above her.
“Yeah, it’s unusually for B to have this, magic or whatever as a last resort. I thought his typically avoided backup plans that didn’t involve him or something based on understandable science.”
Nightwing stated leaning against Red Hood while staring in confusion at their father. Red Hood shoved Nightwing off his shoulder roughly to watch Red Robin. Red Robin instead of joining in the banter was focused, puzzling out, what was happening with the big three. He could feel Hoods concerned gaze on him as he froze in shock when the woman turned to stare at the ex-Robins, her eyes narrowing as she storms up to Batman.
Ignoring Superman and Wonder Woman, she grabbed Batman’s cloak, yanking him down to her height growling at him in a manner very similar to Hood at times.
“You promised that you would keep an eye on him.”
“I am keeping an eye on him.”
“B! That.is.not.what.I.meant.and.YOU.know.it. So, I’ll say again. What.the.actual.baguettes.is he doing here?!”
“He refused to stay out the field.”
The punch that followed echoed around the area as Batman clutched his jaw clicking it. Wonder Woman placed a hand on Superman’s shoulder stopping him from interfering as Batman cautiously let the tiny woman hiss at him.
“You’re the croissant adult!”
“Ladybug...”
“Oh, mille feuille! If CPS wasn’t so bad, I’d have called them on you years ago! Argh!!”
“Ladybug...”
“Why hasn’t it been sorted! You insist on dancing about in lyrca wearing underwear on top of tights and ploughing money into Gotham like it’s going out of fashion, So,” jabbing her finger into his chest forcefully, “why that macaron hasn’t CPS been reformed! And the people using it!”
“...Ladybug...”
She ignored his potential response as she turned and marched straight towards Red Robin, who still had not moved since her de-masking. Signal having made his way towards the collective of ex-Robin looked on worriedly as she muttered about ‘irresponsible, self-indulgence, no impulse control rich kids’.
“Should... Should we be worried that she just punched ‘the Batman’ with no regrets.”
“Nah, I kinda like her. She ain’t putting up with his cack!”
“Hood! B... I...”
As Nightwing flummoxed, the identified Ladybug stood in front of Red Robin and started to fuss over him in a motherlike manner with tunnel vision solely focused on the young adult in front of her.
“M, I’m ok.”
“Shhhh mon chou! I need to check. I’m so sorry I left and didn’t take you with me. I should have pushed harder to stay or keep you.”
If she held super powers, superman laser beams would have been aimed at Batman with the glare she sent him over her shoulder as her blonde partner made his way towards the big three, most likely to try and smooth over the unexpected attack on Batman.
“The person I asked to keep an eye on you is blind and I should have reported him to CPS if they weren’t so awful.”
Tim shook his head in fondness letting her examine him to her ensure his health met her satisfaction, ignoring his siblings' questioning faces from behind her. Once she was done, she fiddled with her small pink bag which he’d not noticed beforehand and pulled out a macaroon and stuffed in his mouth.
Rolling his eyes at her antics, Tim crunched upon the macaroon and wrapped his arms around the woman, resting his head on top of hers just sighing. He took in her familiar vanilla scents and the flavours of almond and pistachio macaroon dancing on his tongue. It was like coming home, though it felt strange to now tower over the short woman, he finally felt he could relax. Everything about her was unconditional. He didn’t need to be Timothy Drake (-Wayne). He didn’t need to be (Red) Robin. He didn’t need to be the perfect heir, the perfect student, the perfect vigilante. She was happy with just him.
“M, he has looked after me. He took me in when my parents died. I’m ok.”
“He did an awful job at it. I should have stolen you when you turned up with your suitcase packed too instead of telling you to go back to your ice queen mother.”
Tim didn’t respond and just held her closer as he melted into her hug. The constant buzz of worry he’d learnt to ignore finally quietening.
‘The cold anger his mother showered around the mansion chilled Tim to his core. His mother was fuming. Miss Marinette according to her was a harlot who was trying to weasel her way into the elite, using the Drakes as if they were nothing.
He didn’t understand it, Miss Marinette regularly met her friends with her cultural greeting, she had explained what a la bise was to him. Her friends were really nice to him, often asking him about his interests and what he was up to at kindergarten.
They tease Miss Marinette and about being mother and son when he snuggles into her when he was starting to feel tired, which seemed to be one of the issue of her behaviour at gala’s that Mother had; allowing the Drake heir to act his age, that Miss Marinette didn’t deny or push that he wasn’t her son. None of it made any sense.
Apparently last night was the final straw according to Mother and that Miss Marinette was too ‘loose’ for her son to be around. That her flirting(?) was inappropriate. That too many of socialites spoke to her with a familiar ease which was a detriment to Drake Industries and that she HAD to go.
Tim understood all the words, but it just didn’t make sense.
Asking Mother why she was upset was a HUGE mistake. Telling her that Miss Marinette acted like his mother (as she did based on his understanding, she collected him from school like the other mums, she cooked him dinner, she read to him and put him to bed like all his friends mothers did) was a definite bad move as Mothers frosty glare froze Tim’s soul. Her cruel response was to tell him he was old enough to not require an Au Pair and the coddling anymore that he would be over seen by the housekeeper Mrs Mac instead before sending him to his room.
Creeping down his wing (which he shared which Miss Marinette, the opposite side of the mansion to his parents) Tim peeked through the door crack of Miss Marinette’s and listened to the one-sided conversation as Miss Marinette argued with someone on the phone while chaotically throwing items into her bag with a frustrated energy.
“This is your fault!!”
“Because it is!!”
“Ignore me! Like you’ve done so for years!”
“Yes!!! I’ve lived here that long and manged to slip you’re notice and now you owe me this big time.”
“I didn’t need you to know.”
“That was the past!”
“Misma, haven’t you noticed the change?”
“Yeah - not all your doing you lycra clad baguette!!”
“... it’s gonna get worse now too...”
“I can’t!”
“Why?! You’re asking me why?! Oh, mille feuille! Because I’m being fired because of you and your interfering nosy face!”
“I can’t B. Not unless I want to be blocked and banned.”
“They have influence too. And given I worked for them and the field they work in, I’m pretty sure that they have that upper hand. Given my task, I just - I can’t risk it.”
“... I’m not going to misuse them, especially after everything. What’s happened happened. It’s set in stone, this has to happen now and it's all your fault!”
“Can you promise me, please. I wouldn’t asked unless I had to. As one last favour for old time sakes.”
“I love him. Please. Keep an eye on him, please. I need to know he’s safe.”
“He’s my son in all the ways that matter. Please Bruce.”
“Thank you, that’s all I ask for.”
Tim watched as she ended the call and throw the phone on the bed and put her face in her hands. The soft sobs that echoed around the room sent his stomach twisting. She cared for him. She wanted him safe. She was making sure that someone, even at a distance, was going to look out for him. Even if she didn’t work for his parents. None of his memories of love were fake. She truly cared. Insisting a Bruce looked out for him.
Based on the previous night, Bruce was likely to be Bruce Wayne who had slipped into his parent’s conversation. They had insisted Tim played Timothy Drake to meet some of the investors of D.I, so Miss Marinette stood in the background waiting and ready to take him away once he had performed his purpose. When they were distracted, Bruce had whisked Miss Marinette onto the dance floor.
He knew his mother was angry that Miss Marinette had left her station so that Mother had had to deal with Tim for that one dance, but it really wasn’t Miss Marinette’s fault, she could hardly refuse the gala’s host a dance. Tim understood his mother upset that Miss Marinette’s outfit had stolen some of the gossip attention to begin with. She was fuming that there were more whispers about Mr Wayne dancing with the help. The comments on how Tim’s dark hair and blue eyes matched the dancing pairs seemed to have her narrowing her eyes and gritting her teeth.
Almost as quickly as the tears came, Miss Marinette’s stopped, as she took a huge sigh and forlornly looking around the room and restarted to pack again. Biting his lip, Tim’s body felt wrong, a whole set of unease settled in him so slipped away to his room to muse.
In his room, Tim sat on his bed wrapping the blanket Miss Marinette had made him and stared into space. All the warmth and stuff he cared about within the room came from Miss Marinette. The bestest, softest blanket. The stars positioned in real constellations on his ceiling. The books that he was actually interested in and not what his parents thought he should be interested in. Actual toys, to play and use. Everything that made it feel like a home rather than a museum the rest of the house felt like.
Tim’s mother may think that he was too old to have an Au Pair, but he didn’t feel like that. He liked having someone to talk to who listened to him about his day. Who encouraged his interests (and knew what they were). He didn’t want to live in an empty museum by himself. Father had said she had until this evening to leave, which meant if Tim moved now, he’d be able to pack a suitcase too with all his key possessions and join Miss Marinette. Mother and Father shouldn’t mind since they were never around. It’d also make Mrs Mac’s life easier too.
With his decision made, Tim smiled to himself as he got to work.’
“I wanted to go with you. You were more a mother to me than she was.”
“Hmmmf! Should have got Fe to look into rules about me adopting you instead. Then I wouldn’t have to have asked an idiot to do instead.”
Tim glanced over her head to see Felix and Batman approach the group. Batman waved the other hero families away indicating he had it handled, wanting them to focus on the villains they’d just taken down. His siblings on the other hand were curiously watching the events pan out. He was sure if they could get popcorn they would have by now and watch like the rubberneckers they were.
“It was nice that the person leaving me didn’t want to go for once.”
“Oh mon Chou!” Marinette pulled back and looked at him, “They hurt you didn’t they. *He’s* hurt you too, all of them. I’m sorry I left you sweetheart. I’m not going to leave you this time.”
She pulled him further into her arms if it was possible, the pair sharing the pain of leaving but slowly healing.
‘His bags were all packed just like how his parents usually had them. Tim, with care, took them down the stairs to the grand entrance and placed them next to Miss Marinette’s surreptitiously. His parents would never notice the small cases with the rest of Miss Marinettes belongings.
With Marinette coming down the stairs with her last bag, Tim ran and launched himself into her arms holding her close. Her hugs always felt like home. Her floral perfume never managed to hide the smells of freshly baked treats. The thought of having them and being with her permanently sent a small thrill down him.
“I’ll miss you mon Chou. I promise that I’ve asked someone to keep an eye on you and I will come back as soon as I possibly can. I don’t want to leave you. Never my bebe.”
“Timothy! This behaviour is unacceptable. Come stand with me and your father and unhand that woman.”
His mother spat out with such hostility that Tim flinched at her words, clinging tightly to the one person he knew solidly cared for him.
“Oh darling, mon tresor, you need to let go. I love you darling, but I can’t take you. I don’t want to leave you bebe, but I have to. Please, mon Chou, you have to go back to your parents.”
Tim shook his head into Miss Marinette’s shoulder, tears silently streaming down his face as he felt her breathe hitch and body shake as she tried to supress her own threatening tears.
“Timothy!”
He felt the claw like hands reach his shoulder and wrench him away from Miss Marinette. His mother towering over the pair in full icy glory. Her nails dug into his skin she tore him further apart to stand near his father. Miss Marinette carefully and ‘apparently’ calmly stood with dignity and gazed at his parents, her eyes softening when she met Tim’s own watery blue eyes.
“Thank you for allowing me to work for you both. Timothy is a wonderful child, and I will miss him. Goodbye!”
His parents held a firm grip on Tim as he sobbed watching his maman pack her bags into a waiting taxi and drive away.’
“Marinette, my Duchess, you’re not adopting strays. This one has a home already.”
“But Feeeeeeeeeeeee!”
Shifting her hands up to his head, Marinette pulled Tim down and kissed his forehead in her motherly fashion before letting go to look at Felix with a pout. Tim held a tender grin upon his face at her behaviour reminiscent of how he remembered her being. His regular tension easing into a relaxed stance more akin to what he was like all those years ago.
“Sup Replacement. Gonna explain what’s happening?”
The laser sharp look Red Hood got from his comment from the woman in question had him gulping as her aura screamed protective mama bear. Having met many of those in crime alley, he took a step back as could predict what a powered up one could do. Nightwing moved subtly, along with Robin to support Hood in case things went sour.
“Oh right, well, ummm, guy’s I’d like you to meet Miss Marinette or M, my Au Pair before my parents fired her due to B interacting with ‘the help’. She stole the show upsetting them.”
“...”
Tim sighed at his siblings' blank faces as they tried to understand what he was saying. Was it really that hard to read between the lines? They had all experienced Gotham’s elite and socialites' shark-like behaviour. Just because Bruce was not like that doesn’t mean they hadn’t seen the cut throat nature that occurred.
“My Mother didn’t like to be upstaged. M could do that with ease, grace and have the elite and business partners eating out her hand without even realising it. Mother hated that she worked hard to get that kinda respect and well, M is just M. That gala was her final straw.”
“Lies, mon Chou. I worked for it. I just was in Gotham while she globe-trotted making it easier to make those connection.”
Before Tim could reply and sing M’s praises further and probably fall into a disagreement of each of them singing other’s strengths. Felix placed a calming hand on Marinette’s shoulder as Batman who was brooding in the background deflated for some reason.
“Nice to meet you again Timothy. I must say you’ve grown into a formidable man. Wayne Enterprise got incredibly luck with you at the helm.”
“Fe, shhh, I’m stealing him. I need Max so I can ferry him away and go … chat... with Alfred and Bruce.”
Felix raised his eyebrow at her comment while Batman gulped in a very unlike Bruce or Batman like manner.
“Really now. And how are you planning to steal a very prominent and public figure?”
“Same way I did Adri, with love and affection while obliterating the opposition by tearing them a new one!”
“Ahh yes, fighting words again. Should I be worried by the Bat’s heart eyes on you again.”
“No love, he’s a flirt and doesn’t know what’s good for him until he’s lost it. So, *I’m gonna make him understand*”
“... La... *cough* Marinette...”
Bruce (as despite being dressed as Batman, was very much in a Bruce headspace) look flustered and worried. Tim took pity on Bruce remembering the strange lingering gaze he gave him and Marinette at the gala, remembering the strange fondness for ladybirds in the garden and his current Bruce-man state.
“You don’t have to do that M. I... I know my value, my place.”
Felix looked at Tim sharply now and his siblings with Bruce making a choking noise with a critical eye before nodding to himself. Nightwing shared a concerned look with Signal and Blackbat at Bruce-man's behaviour, hoping they had a clue as to what was happening. Felix pressed a gentle kiss into Marinettes hair with a frown aimed at Bruce.
“I’ll be back with Max my love.”
“Not to be a downer or anything but could someone tell me what is happening?”
“Spoiler, umm, this is M my ex au pair. B got her in trouble, so my parents fired her. I tried to go with her, had a suitcase packed and everything. When my parents said to say goodbye, I did it to them and ran to M asking if she needed help getting our suitcases to the car... my parents didn’t take it too well...”
“Your parents are not parents mon Chou. They’re DNA doners and I’m doing right from my mistake back then.”
“Mistake?”
“M want’s to take me with her properly this time. And doesn’t have my Mother to grab and pulling me away.”
“Tim, sweetheart, why didn’t you say any of this when you first came to the manor?”
“Because you knew B. I knew M asked you to keep an eye on me, so it wasn’t hidden. I never needed to sneak out to take pictures or be Robin, my parents weren’t there. You must have known this, you promised her on the phone you’d be there.”
Bruce let out further pained noise as Marinette lips tightened at his unsettled expression.
“You didn’t know about the child abuse. Despite the fact I tipped you off. YOu, YOu, Croissant!!!! Abandonment and neglect!! Come on now Bruce!!”
“I check if he was ok at every gala he went too and took him in after his mother died and his father was in a coma, Mare... And I tried to put him off being Robin. I knew you’d not like that, but Alfred kept encouraging it.”
Marinette growled a deep angry sound as two portals appeared next to her. She grabbed Tim, pulling him into another quick hug, and she shoved him to one of the portals into the arms of a red headed woman with a man with headphones and another blonde male. Before the portal closed another Asian looking woman stepped out. Everyone bar Marinette and Bruce tensed.
“Felix suggested I came with you before you blow a gasket Mari-hime.”
“Ta, Kagami.”
Marinettes hands shook as she breathed heavily though her nose trying to centre herself as Tim’s portal closed leaving a concerned bat family, a calm cold woman and a hot head woman trying to calm down from being on a warpath.
“Alya, Nino and Sunshine are looking after the boy. Plagg wanted to join you with Tikki but Felix is banning him. Something about you being trouble as a cat and likely to cause too much destruction.”
“Hmmm, probably right. Did you grab any more macaroons Gami?”
Kagami passed Marinette a box which she slipped into her purse before rounding her attention to the remaining bat family who were in a defensive stance waiting on Batman’s commands, though the glances sent they sent to Nightwing suggested that most seemed to think that Bruce was compromised.
“You’re a complete unproven loaf Bruce! Child soldiers really?! After everything I told you and Alfred! You should be ashamed.”
“Marinette! They chose this life, I tried to stop them and when it failed, I trained them so at least I could keep an eye on them like you asked me too. I’m tried! I promise.”
“Your promises mean nothing at the moment. I filled my side of our agreement! I’ve stopped Gotham sinking further from afar since you caused me to leave. I helped stop the end of the world (again) and kept the balance and you can’t even look after a small collection of children.”
“Haaaa, small collection, he has an adoption problem lady!”
“So does Mare, she has a habit of adopting emotionally stunted rich kids as siblings to mother...” Kagami tilted her head at the Batman, “except this one it seems.”
“I do not!”
“Agreste, Graham de Vanily, Culpa, Bourgeois, Couffaine-Stone, Kante, Myself... now Drake.”
Spoiler looked at Hood raising her eyebrows in growing concern as to what was happening. By now it was just them left in a fully non damaged park, with the Supers taken the remaining villains back to the Watchtower with the Wonders escorting them and Speedster, Arrows and Green Lanterns taken off elsewhere now. They were trained experts as a family, and the ‘last resort’ had just stolen one of their own, but they had no support in it went wrong, and despite these two looking non-threatening, they had seen how dangerous they could be just earlier.
“Luka’s not stunted!”
“He communicates with music and not words.”
“... fine! I don’t agree but that’s not the point! This, this baguette is dense! Bruce! Round your family into the portal, we’re going back to your emo den. We’re due a conversation, and this one needs to be done with Alfred, about being the ADULTS and about PARENTING! Just cos mob bosses and villains wearing fancy dress seem to be your focus doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to the experiences of the average Gothamite. Sheesh! With how many baby soldiers you’ve created I sure you could have had one specialising in child endangerment!”
“I like her!”
Bruce grunted at Hood’s comment, knowing his son was smirking underneath his helmet, but signalled to his family to walk through the portal back to the Batcave, dreading the impending dress down he was about to receive. Bruce could see Spoilers eyes dancing with humour since the cat comment had been dropped and Robin eyeing him suspiciously with eyes darting between him, Marinette and the siblings that seemed to reflect similarities to the older pair. Hopefully the dressing down will distract them from the ribbing and challenge they may pose.
“And speaking of balance.”
“We’ve not spoken of balance Marinette.”
“Shh, I’m talking Bruce, I know you try and actually do a lot of good, but you do realise that being morally grey sometimes would help solve some of the misma issues you know.”
Jason’s head turned back to look out of the portal at Bruce and Marinette with focused interest as Bruce was ushered through by Marinette with Kagami leading the rear.
“Marinette... please...”
“Just saying, maybe a few... mmm... extreme fancy dress monsters removed would help balance the city out a little more. Less loss of those considered good to balance the bad?”
Kagami laughed at Bruce’s distressed expression, knowing that Marinette was deliberately prodding him as her mother henning feelings hadn’t really subsided with all the young vigilantes around. Her strong opinion of parenting never really fades after all the mess Gabriel and Fu caused. He maybe the Bat, their past meant nothing to her if he went against her own morale code, Kagami predicted all hell was about to be let loose. As the portal closed, whispers of a shout could faintly be heard.
“Can she adopt me too!”
#maribat#dc x mlb#mlb x dc#maribat au#ml x dc#dc x ml#all platonic#platonic timari#platonic brucinette#platonic jasonette
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Managing Life (Part 2/?)
Summary: Marinette has been Audrey Bourgeois' secretary ever since she voiced out her dream of having her own business. Audrey thinks that she should learn more about the nooks and crannies of running a fashion business. However, fate has other plans for her, and honestly, what can our resident guardian could do to counter fate?
Disclaimer: I do not own MLB or DCU.
Pairings: Dick Grayson/Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Taglist: @timinette-is-bestbest, @peach-blueberry-pie, @tinybrie, @taewinterbear95, @its-maemain, @flyhighdreamer, @kokoroluna @kitsun3699 @lilfuturescarss @kaimodius @sinoffalsejudgement @night-ngale @laydeekrayzee @fauxnormal @stella17luna @plz-excuse-my-inner-gay @ae-vixrose (Tell me if you want to be a part of the taglist!)
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Bruce Wayne sighed heavily, he could feel a telltale headache coming from miles away. His personal assistant had given him a letter of notice and he had now just figured out how dependent he is on his assistant. Fortunately, he managed to beg, yes he had to beg, his assistant to wait until he could find someone to replace them.
Not to mention the death of his son, Jason, had hit him hard. He admits that he was too late but really what can he do? He wants to kill the Joker but that would mean going against his code. And killing the Joker wouldn't bring Jason back, no matter how much he wanted to bring him back.
Now, he has another son that somehow found out his identity and actually picked up the pieces and demands he takes the kid as the new Robin. Bruce is slowly moving on but the thought of his dead son is still a heartache that he wasn't sure would heal. Dick is trying his best but even he knows that the boy is falling apart.
He sighed heavily, he was tired and lost. Everything constant in his life is changing, slowly but surely and he is not ready. His head began to pound and he tried to soothe it by massaging the bridge of his nose.
His headache came again at the same time his phone rang and that almost made him whine. He picked up the call and cleared his throat. "This is Bruce Wayne speaking."
"Bruce darling! How are you on this fine evening?"
"Audrey...Why did you call?"
"Such coldness from you! Is Brucie Wayne a fake all this time? I'm hurt!"
Bruce groaned out, his head pounding like crazy, "I don't have time for this, Audrey. My assistant gave me their letter of notice days ago and I haven't found a replacement yet. If you have, Oh I don't know, a perfectly reliable assistant laying around in your office then I suggest we end this call because I am this close to breaking my phone for the tenth time."
She laughed at his misery. He could feel his eye twitch.
"I'm hanging up." Why he became friends with Audrey Bourgeois was always one of the many questions he has in his life. Somehow, the bossy blonde decided in Highschool that she would be friends with Bruce and she had stuck to that promise ever since. Honestly, Bruce has learned to not question the way of the universe.
"Wait!" She snorts and finally took a deep breath to compose herself.
"I might have answers for your predicament! My apprentice/assistant/secretary is looking for a new mentor! One that could teach her the ways of a big business should operate! Perhaps, I can introduce you to her!" She offered between her giggles.
Bruce frowned, to be completely honest he had done many interviews and none of the candidates is the perfect assistant that could replace them, he had nothing to lose. "I'm interested."
"Good, I'll schedule a dinner for the three of us at some point during your gala week."
"I hope you're not pranking me again. I had enough grievances lately that'll last a while."
Audrey laughed again at his misery. Why was he friends with this designer again? Right, she ordered him to be one.
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Marinette made sure that everything had been acquainted before she and Audrey leave Paris for the Wayne Gala. She made sure that the Secretaries of every division in the company know what was going to happen when she was gone for the week.
Fortunately for her, everyone in Style Queen respects her and her decision-making skills. How could they not? She was one of the reasons why Style Queen had been advancing at rapid speed during those 3 years when she became a permanent team member.
No messed up meetings, their profit margin had increased, their designs were always at the top of the chart, their galas were always a hit, and their fashion show had become one of the most awaited fashion shows in years, and to top it all off there has been zero firing and quitting during those 3 years. They didn't even need to pay for extra therapists for the emotional damage caused by Audrey!
A miracle? Yes. A blessing from the Gods? Definitely. Is Marinette the Messiah that the Style Queen company had been waiting for? Most Definitely.
Did the Style Queen employees made a cult to worship the ground that Marinette walks on? Allegedly.
Anyways, after confirming the things that needed to be done she called for a staff assembly and hand them folders as well as pdf files in USB about their schedule for the next week. She made sure that if anything happened in the company while she was away to immediately contact her.
Now, she stood in front of Audrey while listing off the things that should be done during their week in Gotham.
"Right Mme Bourgeois. our agenda during our week in Gotham is as follows, Monday, we'll check on our branch in Gotham, I also book that dinner with M Wayne at 7 p.m. Tuesday, we have a photoshoot in Gotham Garden, I also made sure to up the security in case the rogues decided to attack and a failsafe location outside Gotham so that we can continue our shoot peacefully.
Tuesday night will be your fitting for your gown and we will be doing that in your room. Wednesday will be reserved fully for the progress report with our company. Thursday will be reserved for the Wayne family fitting as well which will be done in the afternoon. I made sure to clear Friday and Saturday morning to afternoon. Saturday night is the gala and Sunday we will board the plane to Paris." Marinette finished while rechecking the schedule on her tablet.
"Fabulous! I know I can always count on you Marinette!" Audrey clapped her perfectly manicured hands and winked at her secretary.
"Of course, Are there any problems that you would like to point out from the schedule?"
"Non," Audrey answered nonchalantly. "So, Marinette. Have you made up your mind about what I said days ago?"
Marinette puts away her tablet and fixed the pink-rimmed horse kwami glasses that she decides to take today to match her outfit. "Actually, I did. You are right Madame, I need to spread my wings and take a leap of faith."
"Excellent! You will be coming to the dinner on Monday, yes?"
"I- Yes, you did order me to attend the dinner with M Wayne."
"Good! Now, have the rest of the day off! I shall see you tomorrow evening, yes?"
Marinette blinked slowly, "Yes, Madame. Uh... thank you." She bowed shortly and left the office without another word. She could actually feel that Audrey was planning something behind her back and she doesn't want to know what her plans were.
Well, a whole afternoon off, is a rare thing to occur. "Should I spend the rest of the day holed up in my apartment sketching or holed up in my regular cafe sketching?" She asked Kaalki who was hiding in her breast pocket.
"Why not take a stroll in the park? The weather is great today, Guardian!"
"An astounding idea! Let's go!" She cheered and made a brisk walk to her office. She packed up her things, say a few goodbyes to the staff that she met along the way, and left the building. She quickly made her way to a cafe nearby, bought herself a coffee strong enough that she was sure it could raise a dead body and walked to the park that Kaalki had mentioned.
There was an open seat near the park's walking trek and immediately bee-lined her way there, took out her sketchbook, and let the horse kwami make a comfortable perch on her lap. As the Great Guardian, she had managed to find the right spell to mask the kwami's presence with a layered illusion, even a former holder couldn't spot them since Marinette willed it so.
"So, Grand Guardian...Who is this Wayne person?"
Marinette hummed for a moment, trying to find the right answer. "Well, he's a businessman, he owns a multibillion company called the Wayne Enterprise, it has many branches across the world and they have many divisions as well, though none of them focuses on fashion. Which is unfortunate but I digress." She explained patiently.
"Whoaa, is he rich then??" Kaalki gushed excitedly.
"Well, he is a millionaire think he's going to be a billionaire soon. So yeah, I think you can call him rich."
The aristocratic kwami gasped loudly, "You should have him as your mentor! You could be a millionaire too!"
Marinette laughed merrily, "I don't think that's how it works but I'll consider that."
"Oh Guardian, I can already sense it! It must be fate! Perhaps you can even marry the man!"
The designer was drinking her coffee and spitting it out when she heard the kwami's excited ramble. She coughed a few times trying to regain her composure, "K-kaalki, that man is old enough to be my father! Besides, he has kids already!"
"What about his kids then?"
"A- K-kaalki! You will stay out of my romantic life! I-i can find a suitable person to date!"
Kaalki gave her a deadpanned look, "Yeah, uh-huh sure you do."
"Kaalkiii!!!" Marinette whined exasperatedly. "Can we please stop this conversation??"
The kwami just giggled and made themselves comfortable on her lap. Marinette huffed and rubbed her face tiredly, yeah she knows that her love life had been a disaster but she didn't need the little creature gods to butt in. She's perfectly fine on her own, sure it's lonely but if she has work to do it distracts her from feeling that loneliness.
Honestly, dating one of the Wayne kids. That's a laugh!
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Marinette sighed as she rolled her neck and heard a few pops from it. Traveling to Gotham is a pain in the ass and she hopes she doesn't have to do it again anytime soon. She had brought a couple of kwamis with her for the trip, not that she wanted to use them to gallop across the roof of Gotham City as a hero or vigilante, she just didn't want to leave them at home alone.
She was wearing the dragon's choker, Tikki's earrings, and the turtle's bracelet that she had charmed to change the designs so that it'll fit with her outfit. Wayzz gave her a wave of comforting magic towards their bond and Marinette stroked the bracelet gently in gratitude.
Thankfully, everything went smoothly. Marinette made sure the hotel room for Audrey is good enough for the bossy queen and after that she could finally throw herself on her hotel bed. Her head was pounding but she still picked herself up and began to unpack.
"Marinette! This town is oozing with an unlucky aura and chaos! I think Kaalki was on to something when she said something about fate!" Exclaimed Tikki as she observes the city through the glass.
"I told you!" Kaalki yelled from the other side of the room.
Marinette frowns to herself and decided to flare her magic to get a better sense of the City of Crime. Yep, Tikki was right, everything is oozing with bad luck miasma, and darkness surrounding parts of the city. Everything is gloomy and depressing, no wonder the people of Gotham are miserable.
"You're right, Tikki." She stood from the floor and walked to the big window overseeing the city. "It's coated with Bad Luck and Chaos."
"We should stay here and purify this mess!" Pollen offered while floating next to Marinette's head.
"I don't think we should be that rash. Let's see what fate got for us. In the meantime, does anyone wants to go with me to buy snacks?"
A series of 'yes' from the childish gods made her head lighter than before.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday starts out as a pleasant day for her, she managed to make all the snacks for the kwamis and bake the pastries that Audrey love so much for breakfast. Everything was smooth and it lifted Marinette's spirit. There was no schedule for today morning and Marinette debated to herself if she wants to go out and find inspiration for her design or not.
There's something about Gotham that made her blood pump in adrenaline and she's pretty sure it is her innate guardian magic telling her to go ahead and purify the city. She looked at the kwamis who are lounging and made up her mind.
"Hey Plagg, Do you want to come with me and explore Gotham before dinner?"
The cat kwami in question brighten up and zoomed across the room in excitement. "Alright!!! Let's enjoy the day with extra CHAOS!"
Marinette laughs and took off Tikki's earrings to put on Plagg's ring. She took her large canvas bag, her sketchbook, and her art supply. She made sure the kwamis are comfortable enough and told them to not make a mess when she was out.
Once she's out, with Plagg securely in her bag, she trusted her instinct and found herself entering a park. It was a nice day and looking around at the different architecture near the park she found herself an empty seat nearby. She lets Plagg perch himself on her shoulder while she dug out her sketchbook and start sketching away her ideas.
Not long after that she felt someone took a seat next to her, she glanced to her side and found a man nearing his 40s slumping next to her. She could feel the sorrow and sadness lingering around the man and Marinette being Marinette couldn't sit still.
Marinette could've sworn the man looked familiar and even though she became a very competent assistant to Audrey, she couldn't for the love of God remember the faces she had seen before. If they are known figures in the fashion world, she might recognize them but otherwise, she would forget them, rich or not.
The girl closed her sketchbook, which the man took notice of.
"I'm sorry, I'm not bothering you, am I?" He asked with a polite smile.
The girl shook her head and smiled warmly at the man, "Non, monsieur. I just couldn't help but notice how sad you are."
The man blinked, obviously shocked at her, and gave her a small weak smile. "I guess you can say that..." He chuckled mirthlessly.
Marinette hummed, "Are you grieving?" She asked quietly.
The man looked towards the park and she could see the dark aura around him seemingly trying to choke the man. He nodded silently and took a shaky breath. "My son." He muttered quietly.
She nodded in silence, she rummaged through her canvas bag and took out a charmed amulet that she had been working on with Master Fu before his passing. She looked away from the amulet and found Plagg giving her an encouraging smile. She knew that this was the right thing to do and so she cupped the amulet in her hands and said, "I'm sorry for your loss...No parents should bury their children."
The man sniffed and nodded, "Thank you."
"Though you have to walk this winding road, stumbling blindly in this dark path, there will always be a path of light that will help you find your way." She advised with a warm smile. Master Fu had told her that when she was grieving for the loss of her friendship and the weight she had to carry as Ladybug.
Slowly she reached out to take his hand and gently put the charmed amulet in it. "You just need to do the next right thing." She uttered softly and sent waves of comforting magic to the amulet. Hoping that it would lift the man's spirit and help him find hope. She then took her bag and left the man staring at the amulet.
Marinette quickly left the park and bought herself a coffee before returning to her hotel where she gets ready for dinner. Her heart felt full knowing she helped someone even if it was just a little bit. She hoped that one act of random kindness could lift a little bit of the bad luck aura in Gotham.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Wayne just wanted time to compose himself. He had a lapse of grieving thoughts when he looked at Jason's picture. So he left his office to find a place where he could grieve freely. The mansion still has memories of Jason and he couldn't stand the guilt that is eating him inside. He found a nearby park and took a seat next to a young woman who was busy sketching. He didn't really expect anything would come out of this walk in the park, but he was pleasantly surprised that the young woman beside him had given him a random act of kindness that had left him a bit speechless.
He was looking at the emerald amulet on his hand and somehow he felt lighter than he ever felt in the past few months. Odd. He decided to bench any negative thoughts to ready himself for the dinner reservation tonight.
TBC
-----
A/N: Next chapter would be the dinner! Stay tuned!
<Previous Chapter> <Next Chapter>
#maribat#platonic brucinette#platonic jasonette#dickinette#marinette as secretary#Managing Life AU#mlb x dc#dc x mlb#mlb crossover#mlb x batman#platonic timinette#platonic daminette#marinette x gotham#marinette x batfam#marinette x dick#maridick#marinette dupain cheng
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MLB Bio!Dad Constantine Recommendations
Con Man’s Daughter by @arty-shadow-morningstar
(Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6) (Part 7) (Part 7.5)
Batman is surprised to find out that Constantine has a daughter who is also involved in magic like her Father but an apparently more specialised kind called the Miraculous. He is a little miffed that he didn’t know about John having a daughter. He did consider it weird at first that she had a slight french accent unlike her father’s Liverpool accent although she pronounced some words like he does.
He also connected some dots that she is also the Parisian heroine, Lady Rouge who Wonder Woman introduced to the League a while back and had declined to join the Young Justice or Teen Titans until everything in Paris was resolved.
Curiosity Killed the Exorcist by @soulmate-game
“If those timelines are now-deleted, then I obviously don’t remember what’s so bad about telling me why you’re acting like I’m some hated family member you’re avoiding!”
Silence.
Pure. Fucking. Silence. As they all watch with front row seats as Marinette flinches at the word ‘family’.
Pure silence as Constantine’s shoulders drop at the sight of her flinch, realization slapping itself on his face.
“No.”
Locked Emotions by @musicfeedsmysoul12
This doesn’t actually have a title
So Marinette is angry and bitter and full of magic. She also does something super risky. Like John locking up his childhood innocence and such, she locks up her rage and anger and her knowledge of the truth. She doesn’t want to hurt anyone.
Becoming Ladybug is easy. She’s good at what she does and uses her own magic to help. John hears about what’s going on in Paris and goes looking. He sees Ladybug using magic and… that’s his family magic… oh.
Bio!Dad John Constantine by @multifandomscribette
(Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6)
They never developed a father-daughter relationship - neither particularly wanted one - but the mentor-mentee one worked out very well for them, and it did help both of them improve as people and ‘professionals’.
Marinette gave John a ladybug charm that she made, endowed with a lot of luck, since she know he has a dangerous job, though she never told him about what it can actually do. He doesn’t know about her being Ladybug and she likes it like that.
Remember some chapters are longer than others (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
Taglist:
@macerunner @maribat-central @batmanzplan @doll246 @leftguard66 @multplelifes @nugget-consumer-9000 @lostinday @ramos123 @seacashew @jeminiikrystal @wolfy-kat @kashlyn @anime-rae @literaryhiraeth @creampuff-mlbfics-finished @luminous-carrot @vixen-uchiha @khneltea @atomicsoph @heckofhell @cao0227 @ellerahs @demonicbusiness @celestial-slytherin-blog @luciferge @just-a-bottle-of-chaos @daddylonglegsfacts @theravenclawfangirl @jintana-critical @secretlawyercolorscissors @g-arya @sandraf0612 @mariloki4 @the-dumber-scaramouche @ranger-jedi-knight @fangirling-101 @iglowinggemma28 @seraphichana @unabashedbookworm
#dc x mlb#mlbxdc#mlb x dc#maribat fanfic#maribat au#maribat#maribat fics#bio!dad John Constantine#maribat marinette dupain cheng#maribat damian wayne#platonic jasonette#lila rossi salt
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Work burned me out, middle management positions are draining. What was supposed to be an angsty oneshot is now… yeah I’m continuing it. Not a full series, just a two-parter… hopefully.
Edit: I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THIS CLUSTERFUCK OF AN EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER IS, but BUCKLE IN BECAUSE IT PROBABLY DOESN’T PASS SAFETY REGULATIONS! HOOOOO BOY
Part 1
—*—*—*—*—*
“…” she stared at the being in front of her, face frighteningly blank. Next to her, Bruce fidgeted.
“I’m not going anywhere, so you either gotta learn to love me real quick or get lost quicker,” the child snarked from where he was sitting upside-down on the bat computer chair. “And don’t call me Richard, my name’s Dick.”
“I don’t remember you working with a fetus, Batman,” Marinette slowly drawled, emphasizing the vigilante’s name despite none of the three of them being suited up. Dick shot up with a cry of indignation.
“I am not a fetus! I’m fifteen! I’ve been Robin since I was twelve!”
“Nope,” Marinette countered, unmoved. “I started out as Ladybug when I was twelve, and I was never as small as you,” she blatantly lied. Dick was already taller than her, which wasn’t much of an achievement considering that she was five-foot-one-inch tall. “You are six years old, tops.”
Dick let out an almost inhuman screech of complaint. Even as he rambled on angrily about how wrong she was, Marinette only nodded as if he proved her right about something.
“That was a good squawk though. Definitely a birdie.”
It took another twenty minutes before Dick ran off to tell on Marinette to Alfred, giving her and Bruce some alone time. With which she used to whirl to him and immediately hiss in equal parts fury and worry;
“Please tell me he wasn’t—“
“The timeline is gone,” Bruce reminded her, bracing her by putting both his hands on her shoulders. “He doesn’t remember.”
“Still!”
He let out such a heavy sigh that he seemed to deflate with it, his dark circles growing more pronounced.
“He wasn’t supposed to be,” he admitted softly. “When he turned sixteen, last time, I allowed him to form his own team of teen heroes. Supervised from afar by myself of course, not that they knew that. I had given them the order to stay back and guard their city, but they disobeyed me and snuck onto the battlefield anyway.”
Marinette rubbed at her temples, nodding. “Teenagers have a habit of doing that. This time around, can we ask Bunnyx to supervise them? She has all the energy of a teenager, so she’ll fit in, but the maturity of someone trusted to guard all the timelines.”
Bruce paused, thinking of what little he knew of the pastel rabbit themed hero, and then reluctantly nodded. “That… might be for the best. And giving them more opportunities to train with…” he hummed, hand on his chin. “I might actually change things up, in that case. Instead of jumping to put teens on their own in a tower, the old Justice League headquarters is more protected. And if we started with the ‘sidekicks’,” he gave very purposeful air quotes, “of other Leaguers, it would create a better support system than letting teenagers run around with… really, not enough regulation.”
“Gotta love hindsight,” Marinette agreed with a nod. “The whole teenagers by themselves thing only worked for my team because we were overly traumatized and each saw different apocalypses before we turned sixteen. Bunnyx could fix them herself back then, but still.”
“Best to do better by the new generation,” Bruce agreed with her unspoken statement. “I can still put that old team together again when they’re older, support their development elsewhere in the meantime.”
“Oh, and now that we’re done on that topic,” Marinette snapped her fingers before pointing to the staircase that Dick had disappeared up. “He’s going to make my life a living hell, isn’t he?”
Bruce groaned, offering her a lopsided grimace of apology. “He’s a menace,” he agreed. “He’s scared away any woman I’ve brought to the house, even though most of them are completely platonic. I have to make the press believe the whole playboy thing somehow, and inviting my friends over to chat is the easiest way to do so without breaking hearts for real. Dick hasn’t caught on yet,” Bruce rubbed his forehead. “His antics to scare away Selina Kyle are legendary already, and she’s sapphic. She couldn’t be attracted to me if I was the last man on earth.”
“Could have fooled me,” Marinette teased, suddenly impish. “She’s catwoman, isn’t she?”
Bruce narrowed his eyes, saying only: “Chat Noir. Year one.”
It was Marinette’s turn to grimace. “Point taken. But in my defense, he took way too long to realize he’s gay and watched too much anime at the time.”
Bruce let out one of his unfairly charming chuckles, changing position so that his arm was around her shoulders and pulling her to his side. She fit there surprisingly well, for someone almost half his size. She leaned into him, and the both just soaked in the comfort of one another for a long moment.
“You know,” Bruce started for a while. “If you want to stay in Gotham, we can make you another alter ego so that you don’t accidentally lure Shadow Moth here. Tell that fox of yours to make it seem like you’re in Paris and take some of the weight off of your shoulders for a change. Blackmail Constantine into charming some jars to keep the butterflies in until you can purify them.”
“Hmmm.” She closed her eyes. “Ladybird sounds nice. Fits with the bird thing that Robin has going for him.”
Bruce laughed. “That’ll really annoy him,” he warned, amused. Marinette’s close-eyed smile was pure mischief.
“That’s the whole point. I’m not letting a fetus win against me, bat-boy.”
—*—*—*—*—*
Marinette wasn’t speaking to Bunnyx. Bruce didn’t know what they had said to one another, but he could guess it had to do with Jason.
With his baby, who he just buried. The boy Marinette had thought of a son ever since he first brought him home. She had even smoothed things over between Dick and Jason, which he had considered nothing short of a miracle at the time.
But that miracle was nowhere to be seen now, with Marinette every bit as despondent next to him as he was. He wanted to be angry with her, he did, but he couldn’t. He had seen her blow up at Bunnyx, seen her try to hold her status as Grand Guardian over the bunny holder.
Bunnyx had simply said that she wouldn’t answer to Ladybug until after the grief passed then, and ran away into her burrow.
“Is this the payment?” He heard her whisper, her voice hoarse and broken. “For the do-over? We passed the old timeline. We took down Shadow Moth. Is this the price?” Tears dripped down her face silently, she didn’t seem to notice them. “Was I not a good enough mother? Should I—“ she stopped herself, shaking her head. He didn’t ask what she was about to say. Maybe he should have.
—*—*—*—*—*
Tim was great. He was too much like Marinette at times, which made Bruce’s chest ache, but he was a great Robin. A great son. His experience with Marinette proved priceless when it came to helping curb Tim’s overworking habits and caffeine addiction.
But not even Tim could find where Marinette had disappeared to, even with his detective skills surpassing Bruce’s already.
Tim was the first son of his that didn’t get to grow up with Marinette at all.
—*—*—*—*—*
“It’s fine, Baobei,” she whispered, stepping to the side. Behind her was the waterfall that hid the tunnel to the Batcave. “He’s not the one to blame. He did his best, even now he’s doing his best.”
“Then why does—“
“Because other people need him, and he has too big of a heart to turn them away,” her mouth tilted a little, smile lopsided and sad. “Timothy didn’t replace you. He just forced Bruce to live again. Bruce didn’t kill Joker, because he didn’t want to taint another child with the sight of murder.”
“And you?” The voice was dark, deadly, gruff. Older, and yet… so achingly familiar. She smiled at him again, soft and sad and… proud.
“I don’t have one,” she lied. She had tried, tried so hard. Bruce had gotten in her way first, and then the very same desire to not taint more children with the image of death.
But her baby needed a scapegoat, and she was willing to throw herself on the fire for him.
“That’s why it’s fine,” she repeated. “If this is what you want. Just, please. Let it end with me.”
This time, Marinette made sure she had the Time miraculous safely in her pocket. Nobody would interfere with this.
The bullet sent her into the flow of the waterfall, red flowing behind her like the carpet she used to walk down with Bruce whenever she released a new collection. She felt no regret as she closed her eyes and fell.
—*—*—*—*—*
The shot hadn’t been fatal. Red Hood might have been mad with Pit Rage, but his fondness for his only true mother figure was ever present. He simply wanted to see if she was serious about taking that shot.
His regret was immediate when she didn’t even try to dodge. The bullet had only grazed her shoulder, but she didn’t seem to notice that. She had been so ready to die— to let him kill her— that she had passed out before hitting the water. He dragged her to the Batcave, knowing he had a lot to answer for.
Bruce wished he could have found her sooner, found both of them sooner. But at least they were back.
—*—*—*—*—*
“… I mean,” she rocked on her heels. “You are growing a bit old for Robin…”
Tim glared at her, not appreciating the insight.
“Bruce is stuck in the timestream, and you aren’t doing a thing about it. I don’t hold your opinion very highly right now,” he snipped back. She snorted, glancing away.
As if that little stunt to “kill Batman” could ever fool her. She’d been there for the real thing, thanks, she could spot a fake a mile away. “He’s got Bunnyx going to find him. She owes me big time, let her do the heavy lifting for a change.”
“How many years have you held that grudge?” Barbara asked, eyebrows raised as she wheeled herself towards the bat computer. “Even Jason thinks you should have let it go by now.”
Marinette scoffed at the exact same time as a certain someone tutted next to her, making them look for a moment like a perfect pair.
Crossed arms, a scoff, annoyed glare? If a DNA test hadn’t already proven otherwise, they might have thought Damian was hers.
“Fetuses don’t get to judge me,” was her only argument before she turned on her heel and walked away.
“I am not a fetus! Lady Marinette, I am ten years old!”
—*—*—*—*—*
Bonus:
Jason was curled up around Marinette, despite being told numerous times not to crowd her on the med-bay bed. He argued that he shot her, so he gets to nurse her back to health.
Did she use her blood, tainted by years of use of the Ladybug, to purify his pit madness? Yes. Had he figured that out yet? Nope.
“Love you, Mom,” he murmured in his sleep. Marinette, who had been awake for about an hour already, smiled to herself.
“Love you, Baobei.”
#maribat#mlb x dc#ml x dc#dc x mlb#dc x miraculous#platonic jasonette#platonic daminette#platonic timari#platonic dickinette#brucinette#idk what this is#enjoy anyway
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Hanging By a Thread (4)
Prev
Bruce Wayne stares down at his phone, almost expecting it to rear back and bite him. It shouldn’t be this hard. And it wasn’t hard. He just had to call the mother of his son, that’s all. Ask when she was planning on coming to Gotham. And then ask her if they had a second child together. That was fine. Everything was fine. He had it perfectly under control.
“You’ve gotta actually hit the call button, old man.” Jason calls from the other side of the cave. Bruce glances at him and frowns. Jason was right, of course. This phone call had to happen. But he also couldn’t help the thoughts that’d been circling around ever since he’d decided to talk to Talia. There were a million questions running through his head, and he could feel the start of a headache. If Marinette was their daughter, why didn’t Talia tell him? Why didn’t she keep her? Why didn’t she bring her with Damian? Why doesn’t Damian know his sister? Why keep her a secret so many years after telling him about Damian? But instead of asking any of the questions that would certainly haunt him until he had answers, he simply says:
“Fine.” And walks to a secluded area of the cave, quickly hitting the call button before he can change his mind.
“Beloved. This is unexpected. Is our son okay?” Talia asks, answering the call almost immediately. Bruce takes a moment to breathe, letting Talia’s voice wash over him for a second. They weren’t together anymore, and they likely never would be again. But he’d loved her, once. He’d thought of spending the rest of his life with her, and despite the flaws that both of them carried, she would always hold a piece of his heart.
“Do we have a daughter?” Bruce asks, wincing slightly at his tone. He wasn’t trying to be difficult; he was trying not to get emotional. Talia’s silence was deafening, and Bruce can feel his shoulders slump. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“How do you know?” Talia asks instead of answering.
“Her parents in France sent her to stay with Alfred, because Paris is unsafe. Apparently, he knows her grandmother.” Bruce says, ignoring the twinge in his chest when he refers to someone else as his daughter’s parents. It’s not like he can claim the title, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Bruce raises an eyebrow as Talia swears in Arabic under her breath.
“Why didn’t they call me? Why would they- what kind of danger? Is she safe?” She asks the questions rapidly, and Bruce is once again reminded that Talia is a good mother. Their parenting styles may not align, but he knew that she cared for their children.
“She’s safe, now. Paris is under attack from a villain who controls people using their negative emotions. Her parents believed that it was best to get her out of the city because of the promise they made to you.” Bruce explains. Talia huffs.
“You would think that would include actually telling me when they decide to move her to a different country.” She complains. Bruce frowns.
“Do you communicate with them often?” He asks, and there’s a brief moment of silence.
“Not with our daughter. I haven’t spoken to her since she was an infant. Sabine, however, has kept in steady communication with me throughout the years. She’s given updates on our daughter’s wellbeing every six months, so I fail to understand why she did not say anything when this started.” Talia says, and Bruce already knows that this Sabine woman will be getting a visit from Talia very soon. Now he just needed to figure out a way to casually bring up the fact that Marinette was his daughter in conversation. Easy.
---
Jason’s eye twitches as he watches Bruce attempt to talk to Marinette. It was painful to watch and listen to. He wasn’t sure why Marinette was still in the room. If he was her, he would’ve run ten minutes ago. But no, the poor kid was stuck in the most awkward, nonsensical conversation ever. Even Bruce was afraid of Alfred’s wrath. Meaning, he couldn’t say anything directly to Marinette about being her birth father unless she brought up wanting to know her birth parents. Which, honestly, it didn’t seem like she did.
“Okay, that’s enough of that. Hey kid, wanna go do something that isn’t an awkward conversation with Bruce?” Jason asks bluntly. Bruce frowns and opens his mouth, probably to argue, but Marinette nods rapidly.
“Sure! I’ll grab my sketchbook and maybe we could go to the park?” She suggests. Jason shrugs.
“Fine by me, kid.” He says. She gives him a small smile before rushing out of the room. Jason sighs and turns to Bruce, raising an eyebrow. “Surely you can do better than that.” He says. Bruce turns his chin up and turns away.
“I don’t know what you mean.” He says. Jason snorts.
“See, sometimes you do shit like that and I’m reminded how similar you and the brat are.” He taunts. Bruce sighs.
“I was just trying to talk to her.” He says.
“Really? Cause from where I was standing, it seemed like you were trying to kill her with awkwardness. Seriously, B, it doesn’t matter if she knows you’re her dad. What matters is trying to actually make a connection with her. Talk to her, see what she likes. I have a feeling just being blood related isn’t gonna be good enough for her like it was Damian.” Jason says, crossing his arms. Bruce purses his lips, but his expression changes into the same one he uses when he’s working on a difficult case.
“Ready!” Marinette calls happily, bouncing back into the room with a small satchel slung over her shoulder. Jason grins.
“Okay, kid, ready to go explore Gotham?” He asks. Marinette nods.
“Please be careful, kids. Don’t do anything you’d normally do, Jason.” Bruce says, and Marinette raises an eyebrow.
“Isn’t the saying ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do?” She asks, and Jason snorts.
“It definitely is, but Bruce’s makes more sense. I’ll explain when you’re older.” He says, ruffling her hair. Marinette glares and sidesteps him, making Jason lift his hands in surrender. It was gonna be fun having a baby sister to annoy.
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