#maribat fic

[ggomos-maribat]

Double Lives

Damian was certain that his wife was keeping a secret from him.

He trusted her with his life, of course—Marinette had kept a number of things from him in the earlier stages of their relationship, like her experience and trauma in Paris. He knew not to pry, and eventually she opened up. He was glad that some burden was taken off her shoulders.

But this was different. She was deliberately trying not to get caught; she took care to hide her phone from his view, and there were days she'd come home very late. When asked, she'd get irritable but also nervous around him. Damian didn't want to assume things right off the bat, but he did hope she would finally grow comfortable to talk it out with him. And so he resisted using his ‘resources’ to peek into her life—what kind of distrusting partner would he be if he did that?

He knew, too, that he was being awfully hypocritical. He was still yet to sit her down and reveal his vigilante alter ego to her as well as his family's. Damian would swear he planned to rip the bandaid off when they got engaged. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, out of the fear that she'd leave him. As far as he knew, Marinette wanted a normal quiet life after living through the Evil Butterfly Man's reign of terror. Telling her his identity would just put a target on her back, if there wasn't any already after she became a Wayne.

He couldn't imagine his sweet innocent wife exposed to the horrors of vigilantism.

Still, even though he had his own secrets, it felt quite frustrating not to know hers. That was what Damian was thinking one dark night when the door finally opened, signalling her arrival from work.

“Damian?” Her eyes widened. “Why are you still up? You shouldn't have waited for me.”

“It's alright. I couldn't sleep anyways.” And I will be sneaking out for patrol later. He stood up to kiss her cheek—

But froze upon seeing a red mark right at the base of her neck.

Marinette hummed tiredly. “Next time, don't wait for me if you're tired, okay?”

“. . . What's that on your neck?” He dared to ask.

Her hand immediately flew to the spot on her skin. For a split second, her expression changed into a hint of annoyance. “It's—it's . . .” she stammered, “I accidentally hit myself.”

“You hit yourself?”

She nodded meekly.

Damian stared at her for a moment. There was one thing he knew about his wife: she was a bad liar. But she was expert at omitting things, partly because she probably knew he wouldn't interrogate her further. He knew that she was aware it was the vaguest of explanations but she never tried to elaborate.

He mustered out a smile. “Be careful next time.”

She let out a nervous laugh and squeaked out a ‘yes’.

“By the way.” He took a deep breath, “I visited your office this morning.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, and your secretary told me you hadn't punched in for the day yet.”

The silence between them was thick.

“Ah . . .” Damian could practically see the gears turning in her head. “That was . . . erm, I had to run an errand before work! Yeah . . .”

“I see. I was hoping to have lunch with you earlier but it seems that you're busy nowadays.”

She cursed in French under her breath.

“I'm really sorry, Damian.” She fidgeted with her fingers. “I'll make time this week. I promise.”

She hurried off to their bedroom, leaving Damian with his thoughts.

He really really didn't want to assume the worst. But his heart was racing and when he looked at the signs, they were clear as day. His mind started to spiral a little, wondering where he could've gone wrong, wondering if he didn't spend enough time on her or if she felt that he wasn't giving enough effort.

But he pushed all those thoughts away and followed her to bed.

***

One Saturday afternoon saw Robin and Superboy in the Watchtower's breakroom, talking about Damian's predicament. He hoped his friend could at least contribute an objective outsider's perspective in his dilemma and encourage him to broach the topic with Marinette.

“She's cheating,” Superboy deadpanned.

“She's—she's not,” he argued back, “Perhaps I am just reading too much into it . . .”

“Um but the hickey? The late night escapades?” Superboy frowned. “I don't know about you, but I don't think there's any other explanation for it.”

Robin bit his tongue. No, it's not possible. He loved Marinette terribly, and he knew—he could feel the same love from her if not more.

His friend sighed, “Look, I know it's hard to believe. Even I don't think M can be . . . unfaithful but you should confront her about it.”

“I can't. I can't face her like that when I am still keeping a secret of my own.”

“Then tell her you're Robin. A secret for a secret, hm?”

Robin didn't even want to think about how messy that conversation would be.

“It's all just about communication,” Superboy continued. “If you're worried she won't accept you, take my mom and dad as an example—”

He stopped talking, indicating that he sensed another presence nearby. Just on cue, a fuming Ladybug stomped into the breakroom, heading straight to one of the refrigerators.

The two men watched as she muttered angrily while looking around for food—Robin could see the clear exhaustion on her tensed figure. The Parisian heroine had joined the Justice League after the Hawkmoth fiasco became public; the heroes were quick to recruit her but not before she voiced out her complaints about the League neglecting her city. Though she hadn't revealed her identity to anyone, she had formed bonds with the other heroes her age, not excluding Robin and Superboy.

Superboy winced when she kicked the fridge door.

Ladybug did a hundred eighty, showing both the fires of hell and sleepless nights in her blue eyes. “You don't happen to have an extra stock of Kryptonite, do you?”

Superboy looked at her warily. “What happened this time?”

“Your dad assigned me to another magic-involved mission!” She tugged at her hair, sitting beside them. “I thought I made it clear I didn't want to be involved in too many missions especially if it's non-miraculous related ones!”

“You could . . . tell him that?”

She shot a sharp glare at them. “You don't think I did? They're insisting it's miraculous related when Constantine hasn't even confirmed anything! Just because Paris was terrorized, it doesn't mean miraculi are going to pop out from everywhere! These missions are affecting my normal life!”

It was a common complaint for heroes who had alternate civilian lives, but Robin was a bit surprised that she was that open about her feelings.

“And—and Batman too!” She pointed a finger at Robin. “I know Monsieur Furry's guilty about the Paris thing and all and me not having a mentor but he keeps checking on my progress after missions liked a damned helicopter parent! “

Before either of them could reply, she continued ranting, “I was going to meet an important client yesterday but they just had to call me in to help with the mission! And then it goes on until freaking midnight! What about my precious sleep?! Then Zatanna accidentally used a spell on me—it hit my neck and now it looks like a hickey!”

Her head dropped onto the table. “How the fuck do I fucking explain that to my husband?!”

Robin and Superboy looked at each other, wide-eyed.

“You—you haven't told your husband that you're a hero?” Superboy asked carefully.

Not lifting up her head, she replied with a muffled voice, “Of course not! I can't do that to him! He's already exposed to enough danger because of his last name! I just can't tell him ‘ hey mon amour so I'm actually that heroine from Paris on top of my emotional PTSD!’”

Robin swallowed. That was Marinette's name for him.

It ticked too many boxes.

He started to subconsciously connect the dots: catching his wife absent at work at the time the magic-wielding team of the JL was away on a mission; Ladybug sharing that she finally linked up messages from her yoyo to her personal phone; his wife coming home late, tired and fatigued from head to toe when all she was supposed to be doing was designing.

“I'm sure he'll come to understand your circumstances,” Superboy consoled.

“He won't.” The heroine sat up, revealing that her eyes were now welling up with tears. “He probably hates me right now because I'm sending the wrong signals. What if he thinks I'm just taking advantage of him for his money? His family already hates me! What if he's filing for a divorce right now?”

Robin felt the nudge from his friend, as if to tell him to do damage control. Superboy abruptly stood up, spouted out an excuse about being called by someone, and left the room to the two of them.

Ladybug sniffed, “Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear all of that.”

“It helps to get your problems off your chest.” Robin awkwardly patted her head. In truth, she was really Marinette, he wanted to pull her into a hug already.

He coughed. “Why—why do you think your husband's family hates you?”

“Oh . . . I don't know, but his father’s always distant. Whenever I'm at a family dinner, they're just very quiet,” she replied sadly. “I know they're good people but I felt like I didn't belong somehow. My husband keeps saying they adore me though.”

Robin wanted to sigh out loud. His father still had his guard up because he believed she was a civilian, hence there was a side of her family they could never show her. It was always quiet due to Alfred's stern lecture about behaving in front of Marinette lest they accidentally spill something they shouldn't.

“It sounds like your husband cares a lot about you,” he told her, “Don't you think he would trust you if you told him the truth?”

“But I can't! I don't know where to begin!” She pursed her lips. “He's always been good to me and he never steps the line even if I'm obviously lying. I just . . . I thought I could tell him before we got married but I was too scared and I didn't want to ruin what we had.”

“But he won't think any differently of you, would he?”

“No . . .”

“Then you have nothing to be afraid of.” He smiled a little. “It may come off as a shock at first but he will accept it in time. You will be stressing yourself out even more if you keep thinking about the worst scenarios.”

She stared at him. “When did you get so wise?”

“Ever since I started thinking about what my wife was doing.”

She tilted her head. “Huh?”

It was unmistakable. Those gleaming blue eyes were Marinette's.

He was such an idiot.

“She keeps coming home late, hides her phone every time I'm near,” he listed, gauging her reaction. “Last night, I found out she hadn't come to her office even when she said she was working, and I caught her with a strange mark on her neck.”

Her eyes slowly widened as she seemed to come to the same realization. The heroine's gloved hands flew up to cover her mouth. “Damian?” she whispered.

He checked if the coast was clear and slowly peeled off his domino mask to show his full face. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you habib –”

He was cut off by her warm lips, her arms winding around his neck. Damian immediately melted into her touch, relieved that they finally divulged their secrets. He wouldn't have to be worried about introducing her to the hero world after all.

He was extremely relieved, in fact, that he hadn't noticed his father and eldest brother stroll into the room.

“ROBIN! Are you cheating on your wife?!”

Robin pulled away from Ladybug, withholding a sigh of exasperation. He put his mask back on and turned around to see Batman looking constipated and Nightwing utterly shocked.

"How could you do that to—to . . ." Nightwing cried out.

"Leave us." He glared.

"Robin—" His father's voice was tinged with disapproval.

"Leave. Us."

Fortunately, the two scurried off. Damian faced his wife, who seemed as flabbergasted. He was worried since it was her identity that was at risk, unless he embraced the unexpected cheating allegations.

"Oh my kwamis," Ladybug said softly, "I called my father-in-law a furry ."

"It's deserved." He rubbed up and down her shoulders. "What do you want to do?"

"Oh um . . ." She ducked her head. "Maybe go home and I'll—I'll explain everything from the beginning."

***

Damian had to recount his life story after his wife shared hers whilst they cuddled in bed. After they talked, he was surprised to learn so many new things about her—he thought he had her memorized already, even before they exchanged vows. At the same time, he was mentally kicking himself for thinking that Marinette was never closely involved in the war against Hawkmoth.

Of course she was Ladybug.

Of course she was a hero.

So while she was spiraling at the number of times she'd unknowingly mocked her in-laws in the suit, he was regretting not telling her the truth sooner. If they'd opened up years ago, he would've stayed by her side during missions, helping her deal with the troubles of having a masked alter egos, and sharing his own experiences with her. A stronger bond would've formed between them, because they both understood the hero's life after all this time.

Not long after, she finally decided she was ready to tell the Waynes who she was. ‘It would do more harm than good if I kept hiding it anyway,’ she reasoned. He did agree, since she was part of the family, both as Ladybug and Marinette. The others would surely be overjoyed (and less overprotective) if they found out that she was a hero. What Damian found strange, however, was Marinette seemed to worry that Bruce's opinion on her would change and he'd become ‘distant’ as Batman as well.

“Remember, Batman is afraid of you,” he had reminded her over and over again.

(And Batman would be ecstatic to discover that Ladybug was his daughter-in-law, but Damian would never tell her that. The caped vigilante had grown fussy over the Parisian heroes as his way of ‘making up’ for the Paris incidents . . . But at the same time, he cowered ever so slightly when Ladybug raised her voice on him. Damian's siblings blamed Ladybug's black hair and blue eyes for triggering the adopt-itis.)

And so Damian and Marinette decided to arrange a family lunch to break the news to everyone. It was then Damian remembered that there was one issue he hadn't resolved yet.

“If you don't tell Marinette today, I'm telling her.” Dick glared at him from across the table.

Damian glanced at his watch. His wife wasn't present yet, and had sent him a message about picking up pastries from Paris first.

“Tt. That would mean revealing our identities, Richard.” He crossed his arms.

“Just because you have the mask on it doesn't mean you can do that to her!” Dick argued. “Does Ladybug even know you're married?! ”

“What did he do to Pixie-pop?” asked Jason.

“He---he—” Dick was once again trembling in anger and disbelief.

“We saw him kissing Ladybug.” It was Bruce who replied. “Damian, I never expected this from you. You will have to talk and apologize to Marinette.”

“You did what?!” Jason stood up so abruptly that the utensils clattered.

“What the fuck?” Tim exclaimed.

Stephanie gasped. “What the hell Damian?”

“Holy shit,” Duke whispered.

Damian could only stare at the entryway of the dining hall, hoping that Marinette would arrive soon. If he was left with his family any longer, they'd be beating him up and disowning him.

“I have . . . a reason,” he said through gritted teeth. He couldn't exactly tell them right off the bat, since Marinette wasn't there yet.

“Open . . . open relationship?” Cass frowned.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared at the ceiling—a portal— and from it, a figure dropped down, much to everyone's shock. Ladybug, unified with the Horse miraculous, grinned at them with an armful of boxes filled with croissants and macarons.

“Ladybug?” Bruce gaped.

“Your daughter-in-law actually.” She lowered the sunglasses, showing her narrowed eyes. “And your worst fucking nightmare.”

“W---What?”

Damian could barely control his laughter, seeing his father frozen.

She detransformed completely and scowled at Bruce. “This is technically your fault, furry old man! If you didn't keep agreeing to send me on those magical missions, I wouldn't be so tired and caused a misunderstanding in the first place.”

Damian didn't have time to shield himself from the eruption of noise on the table. With his wife's theatrical reveal, everyone was in different states of shock. Tim stood up quietly to face a wall with a blank stare, entertaining another existential crisis. Duke choked on the water he was drinking. Jason was crouched on the floor miserably with his hands over his face, perhaps because of the times he complained to Marinette about Ladybug's uptight methods. Dick's jaw was completely unhinged, and he was slapping himself every minute or so. Stephanie passed a hundred dollar bill to Cass.

And Bruce. Poor Bruce was paler than their porcelain plates, speechless and unmoving.

Damian exchanged a wide smile with his wife. He loved her so much.

#maribat fic #maribat fanfic #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maribat #daminette #maribat marinette dupain cheng #ggomoz #maribat damian wayne

[ew-selfish-art]

Okay so ignore me, a Maribat shipper using the Dcxdp fandom for my own gain but like y’all keep doing de-aged Danny plots without considering something. Yes it’s great for those paternal and found family vibes but you know what it can also be used for: shipping.

This is heavy on the maribat vibes so skip if that’s not your thing:

> Danny, early 20s, pretty solidly being an everyday hero, left amity and kicks it on his friends couches when not in the GZ because going home is no longer an option. The town is basically rigged to find phantoms ecto signature

> Danny becomes a part of the JL and is fast friends with Kon and Jon but warms up to Damian over the years. He just thinks “huh what a weirdly spicy guy” and enjoys the chaos of befriending him. They have regular conversations about animal conservation and video games. Damian has always played the newest one, and he’s always down to best Danny

> Ladybug has also joined the JL and is very skittish about making friends since she’s trying really hard to keep her identity under wraps. She eventually warms up to Danny, talking about you guessed it, old video games, and she brings him like, so many snacks, that it helps him rewrite the normalcy of having food attack him. He starts to notice that she is her own flavor of chaos gremlin and they get along thick as thieves

>Here’s the thing, Robin has an great Admiration for (aka huge crush) Ladybug and only Danny has noticed. Ladybug is oblivious, Damian thinks he’s undetected and Danny might combust from the amount of times he’s now tried to set them up. The rest of the JL just, meh, doesn’t really see it.

> Danny gets a note from CW that the GIW are honing in on his ecto signature and something needs to change quick, or he’s going to pull him from the dimension for his safety. Well, the note mostly says: find this artifact and it’ll change your frequency. Take a bird with you.

> Danny initially recruits Tim to go as Red Robin but then he can’t bring himself to wake the bird up when found asleep at his desk. Robin steps in and says he’s free so long as the mission doesn’t take more than a day.

> Danny is de-aged, the artifact is lost, Damian is now barely functioning as a young 8yr old Danny opens up a portal to get them back to the watchtower before he detransforms and gets a bit younger. He looks like he’s seven and if his powers are linked to the aging cycle- then no powers for danny.

> ladybug enters the watchtower trying to escape a team member who needs to get a clue about the fact that she needs to detransform every now and then, goes into her normally empty meeting room, and as the magic washes off her - boom portal and Danny and Damian appear. Marinette is so fucked. Everyone is floundering and then Danny gets an idea about how this can still turn around to be an ideal outcome for all three of them.

> Danny decided now is probably the best time to pull a Cupid gambit: joint parenting. He demands that ladybug be the one to help portal them back to Gotham. Congrats, you guys are going to help me wait out this spell. Ladybug feels like she should just run from this whole thing, her identity is already compromised, but then Danny begs her for her help since it’s magical

> Just, Damian and Marinette trying to jointly manage Danny while trying to sort out aging him up- CW leaving vague notes here and there about why he’s not going to help them reverse the spell- Danny having so much fun going between Gotham and Paris with his “parents” and trying to nudge them together

>hell yeah they fall in love.

> oh and then Dani shows up and quickly gets Danny to sort himself out. The Dummy forgot that shapeshifting was a thing he could do.

#maribat #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne #damian x marinette #ml fanfic #mlb x dc #dc x dp fic #dc x dp #mlb x dp #danny phantom #maribat fic #de aged danny

[sugarfluff59]

Marin Dupain-Cheng strolled confidently through the bustling halls of Francoise Dupont High School. His charisma and effortless coolness drew the attention of every girl in sight. The once shy and reserved boy had transformed into a magnetic force that left the female population of the school enamored.

Dahlia Wayne, daughter of Gotham's billionaire Bruce Wayne, had transferred to Francoise Dupont for a change of scenery. She had heard about Marin's legendary coolness and couldn't help but be intrigued. However, when Dahlia laid eyes on Marin, her composed demeanor faltered, and she found herself captivated by his charm.

As Marin navigated the sea of admirers, Dahlia struggled to find the courage to approach him. Her friends, noticing her newfound bashfulness, decided to take matters into their own hands. Lila, an ambitious girl with a reputation for bending the truth, devised a plan to win Marin's heart.

Lila, armed with a concoction of flattery and deceit, approached Marin one day after school. She complimented his style, praised his talents, and spun tales of her own adventures. Marin, though appreciative, remained unfazed by the attention. Unbeknownst to Lila, his heart already belonged to another.

Meanwhile, Dahlia watched from afar, her heart sinking with each word Lila spoke. Jealousy brewed within her, and an unfamiliar sense of competition ignited. Determined to make her own mark on Marin's heart, Dahlia sought the guidance of Alya, Marin's best friend.

Alya, a trustworthy confidante, listened to Dahlia's feelings and agreed to help. Together, they orchestrated a plan to showcase Dahlia's genuine qualities. They arranged for Dahlia and Marin to spend more time together, hoping the shy heiress could break through her shell and reveal her true self to Marin.

The plan unfolded with various encounters – casual conversations, shared interests, and even a few accidental meetings. Slowly, Marin began to notice Dahlia's genuine kindness and unique personality. His heart, once immune to the charms of others, felt a subtle shift.

As Marin and Dahlia's connection deepened, Lila's attempts to win his affection grew more desperate. She spread rumors, fabricated stories, and even organized a grand gesture to catch Marin's attention. However, Marin remained steadfast in his growing fondness for Dahlia.

The climax of the story unfolded during the school's annual masquerade ball. Lila, determined to make a grand impression, planned an extravagant dance routine to capture Marin's heart. The entire school gathered in anticipation, including Marin and Dahlia.

Lila's performance was indeed impressive, but as the applause echoed through the hall, Marin's eyes sought out Dahlia. The heiress, dressed in an elegant mask, stood in the shadows, her eyes filled with a mix of vulnerability and hope. Marin, captivated by Dahlia's authenticity, approached her with a warm smile.

The two danced the night away, oblivious to the whispers and stares around them. As the final notes of the music echoed, Marin and Dahlia shared a heartfelt moment, sealing the beginning of a genuine connection.

#marinette dupain cheng #maridami #miraculous ladybug #maribat fic #malemarinette #daminette

[fleursroses]

Of boys and boxes

Holy shit I reached 250 followers yesterday!! Genuinely I want to thank you so much. So, in honour of that here's finally the fic I said I'd write back in like October (whoops). It's inspired by this post by @ggomos-maribat​, so if you're wondering why you got tagged in this, it's because you asked to in case anyone wrote something for it. I hope it lives up to your expectations!!! I will also post this on AO3 and reblog with the link. But for now, enjoy <333

However Marinette thought it would be to be the Guardian of the Miracle Box, she couldn't exactly say it would even come close to reality. Sure, the whole thing surrounding Hawkmoth that got her in the situation in the first place generally sucked a lot, but in a way she knew what she could expect. Then Shadowmoth happened, and Monarch, who eventually all turned out to be Gabriel Agreste, the fucking dad of her longtime crush and partner Chat Noir. Yeah, talk about killing the mood. 

Okay, if she was being honest, at that point the feelings for either had been fading for a while, mainly due to all the stress being Guardian put on her life. Sometimes she couldn't help but resent Fu for all that he, although not necessarily on purpose, had forced her to go through, from losing her childhood so early without any guidance, to making her feel like she wasn't allowed to have feelings without putting the world that was laid upon her thin shoulders at risk. It never felt fair though, because she knew Fu had had to go through the same thing. At least she still had some sort of support network. 

Still, the whole thing left her too traumatised to really want to pursue Adrien any further, or anyone else for that matter. This was fine by her, and although he was a bit disappointed, Adrien understood and respected her feelings on this matter. She was glad she could still have him by her side, despite it not being the future they had both dreamed of. 

However, being left with a bit too much time on her hands, Marinette had decided to focus more on her duties as guardian, wanting to fully uncover its secrets without the threat of having all the kwamis being stolen from her again hanging over her head. And as much as she wished Fu had trained her more, she didn't think he had known about... certain connections the miracle box had to various organisations either. Wasn't that just her luck?

It had been 3 years since Hawkmoth had been defeated, and Marinette had spent most of that time travelling all over the world. Every so often she would return to Paris again though, to meet up with her old friends. They would go out for drinks and Marinette would tell all about the classes she followed online to get a business degree, as well as tell about where she had been and what she had done as Guardian. She had to admit, it was nice to finally be able to talk about being Ladybug, even if the group who knew was still only really small. Or rather, it was nice to have the possibility. In reality, she was so used to being secretive, out of sheer habit she sometimes forgot to mention things other people would undoubtedly have told their friends. 

It would go like this: One of the times she was back after a particularly long 5 months away, Marinette invited Adrien, Alya, Nino, Kagami and Chloé to hang out at the bakery with her. Just as she was telling a story about the crazy commission she had gotten from one of Jagged's friends, something she occasionally did to help keep her afloat while she was abroad, she got a call from an, to her friends, unfamiliar name. Apologizing to the group, who assured her it was fine, she answered. Her and the guy on the other end held a short civil conversation, ending with Marinette promising she would drop something of his by his place at her earliest convenience and then ended it just as quickly. When asked about the other guy, she just said "Oh that's just Damian, I met him in Tunisia," and then immediately went back to her story again, as if nothing had really happened.

Yet, this Damian continued to show up in conversations after that. Over time her friends gathered that although they had met in Tunisia, he was apparently American, had a big family and a preference for the same martial arts Marinette did. She didn't talk about him all that much, mostly just mentioned him every so often, like when Alya accompanied her to her favourite fabric store while she was still in the neighbourhood. 

"And so this creep comes up to me all macho like I didn't just pepperspray one of his friends right in front of him- Wait Mari check this green satin out, don't you think it would look nice on Adrien?"

Marinette came over and inspected the fabric, and while picking up the roll noted "I think it's a bit too dark for him, but I think it would look really good on Damian instead. He has this weird thing about green as a family colour or whatever, maybe I can make him something?"

Alya looked curiously as Marinette whipped out her sketchpad and sketched out a whole suit while lost in thought. She didn't take it personally, she knew this was just how the other girl could sometimes get when particularly inspired. Interested, she noted that it had been the thought of Damian that did it this time. But then again, Marinette's mind sometimes worked in the strangest ways, and Alya knew better than to pry or interrupt her. So, she just picked up the story where she had left it, knowing it would eventually find its way into Marinette's brain.

"Anyway, at the end the dude was totally crying and I hadn't even done much yet, you'd totally be proud of me girl-"

In the end, Alya couldn't shake her curiosity. Trying to google the guy didn't help much when she didn't have a surname, and look, she just wanted to know the guy was alright. Not that she didn't trust Marinette's judgement, on the contrary, but it would be nice to have a bit more to go off on. Asking Marinette straight up didn't help much either, only getting her vague answers. But as she offhandedly mentioned it to her friends when Marinette was away again, she found they were also eager to bring up their curiosity. 

"We don't even know what he looks like! But she likes him enough that she makes him fancy clothes of her own volition!" Chloé lamented dramatically. Although she would never admit it, she was a bit miffed she couldn't find out anything about Damian either. Even her sources couldn't tell her anything, and they usually never failed her. 

"I think we should just be happy she is designing again, no matter the reason."

 They all fell silent at Kagami's words, remembering how bad the period after Hawkmoth's defeat had been. It was only then Marinete's cracks had visibly begun to show to all of them, partly through several months void of the usual creative outlets and other emotions in general. It had been... rough, to say at the least.

"Still though. I don't think she has designed this much for one person since, disregarding Jagged's commissions. And she doesn't even talk about him! I mean, when I'm alone with her she always talks about all of you like you hung up the moon. I don't think she has talked about one person she likes as little as... as Luka."

Nino looked at his girlfriend incredulously. "Are you seriously suggesting Marinette has a crush on Damian? She barely ever even sees him."  

Alya simply shrugs. "I mean, probably not, but it can't hurt to think of all bases, right? But okay, what do you think about this: he is a secret assassin and Marinette made him normal by the power of friendship and now she has to constantly like, check up on him to make sure he doesn't go back to the darkside. No, listen, hear me out-"

Somehow, although they didn't know it, reality had been even stranger. Or well, if they had met years ago Alya could maybe even have been right, but as it was Damian hadn't been part of the "dark side" for a very long time, nor was he in danger of going back. Maybe that would have been sort of preferable to Marinette, but she still supposed her situation wasn't that bad, even though, yes, she was technically speaking kind of stuck. Trying to explain this to her friends was... a feat. 

This is all to say they had found out. It happened when she had invited all her friends over to New York to attend a fashion show she had been allowed to design a small piece for when accidentally gaining attention from yet another designer. When afterwards they were just taking a stroll through the city, all talking excitedly, a beautiful woman had come up to Marinette and taken her aside to talk without paying any heed to her friends. For some reason, they started talking in Mandarin. It wasn't a very long conversation, which ended by the woman patting Marinette on the head and walking away again. 

When she turned around, she found all her friends staring at her, dumbfounded. 

"What?"

"How the hell do you know Talia Head?" Chloé demanded. 

Somehow, Marinette only looked at them blankly, like she had never heard that name in her life. Like she hadn't literally just been talking to the actual CEO of LexCorps. When Chloé told her this, recognition slowly dawned on the other girl.

"Right, Talia. I forgot she's doing that now. Hm. I wonder who she has designing for her, I should ask her..." 

This time, she pulled out a notebook the others hadn't ever seen before, filling it with the strangest characters. There seemed to be some structure to it, possibly making it a language, but it wasn't one any of them had ever seen before.

Later, Marinette would chalk it up to her unfortunately being distracted, but when Alya asked her how she knew Talia then, if it apparently wasn't for her currently being one of the most well known business persons in the world, she just replied "She's my mother-in-law?" like this was a known fact. 

As several voices shrieked "YOU'RE MARRIED??" Marinette suddenly remembered she had not, in fact, told her friends about her marriage yet. 

"I mean, yes, more or less? It happened when I went to China again, and I met this League of uh. League of Assassins. But their leader knew a lot about the Miracle Box and he told me he would share everything with me if I married his grandson. Also that I would probably die if I didn't, but honestly I had hit a dead end so I really needed his knowledge, you know? It's fine though, I don't even know if it's like, legally binding. Also we didn't have to do anything besides be married, so. Pretty good deal actually!"

"HE WHAT-" "ASSASSINS?" "MARINETTE"

It took a lot of time for her friends to settle down, and to accept that she was fine and not under constant threat of being assassinated. It was a whole ordeal. Eventually though, it was Adrien who settled it by quietly asking her whether her husband at least treated her well. 

"I mean, sure, I guess? He's chill. Also, I am provided with so much more knowledge now, I feel like you're not properly considering that pa-." 

She was interrupted by a strange noise coming from her phone. She glanced down, fully prepared to ignore it for the more pressing matters at hand, but upon seeing who had texted her she decided to reply anyway. 

"Hang on, he's texting me, I need to answer this."

Random American dude???

My family just found out that I got married. They're being really annoying about it.

Snorting, she texted back, knowing her friends were still watching her every move.

Vous

Funny how that works, my friends did too just now

I blame your mother tho

She then showed her phone to her friends. "See? Damian and I are fine." 

It was Alya who made the connection first.

"Wait, if you've actually been married to Damian all along, and your mother in law is Talia Head…"

"MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG DID YOU MARRY DAMIAN FUCKING WAYNE?"

Taglist:

@nerd-nowandforever @prettykittytanjiro @toughluna @meira-3919 @taewinterbear95 @maanae @hammalammadamdam @swaggermcjagger @countessdragon @starscreamlover @snorlaxly-tired @illusionwolfwriter24r8 @kaitense1 @wildcardjoey @dramatic-squirrel @leftguard66 @mimblizzy @mikami1992 @tinybrie @theg0ddesspersephone @psychicdelusionwerewolf​ @folk-ever-lore​  

#maribat #daminette #maridami #mlb x dc #maribat fic #fleur writes

[marsrize]

The unexpected stepfather

I have this idea in mind:

We've already seen Bruce have so much love interest. What if Talia got married, too? Why does she have to stay faithful to Bruce? There are other men on Earth than this guy…

So I thought: what if Adrien Agreste became Damian's stepfather?

*****

I can just see the kid's face when he gets an invitation to the mansion: he's invited to his mother's wedding to a guy he didn't even know existed.

He decides to confront his mother.

Talia simply explains that he's the one who cut her off first. She had tried to talk to him about it, but he was never around to listen.

Damian then meets his mother's future husband. He comes face to face with a Golden Retriever. The guy is kind, extremely polite and smiles. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS GUY? Even Jon isn't that cheesy! Most important : How on earth did his mother fall in love with such a guy? He was the antithesis of his father.

Damian decided this guy was a murderer in disguise who had brainwashed his mother. He was determined to prove it. So he stayed with his mother for a while. He informed his father beforehand, but told him he'd take care of the problem himself. Bruce wasn't sure, but decided to trust his son.

Three months later, the wedding took place. Damian was present. He informed his father that he needed more time.

It's almost the end of the year. Damian still hasn't returned. Bruce decides to go and see what's going on.

He discovers that Damian is still with his mother. Even more intriguing, he's getting on well with Talia's new husband.

Bruce needs to investigate this new guy. His son is in danger.

So…. What happened?

#adribat #dc x miraculous #maribat fic #maribat #miraculous x dc #mlb x batman #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maribat fanfic #miraculous x batman

[soulmate-game]

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

[marauderundercover]

us against the world (pt 2)

Prev

“Miss Dupain-Cheng?” Mr. Weston calls. Marinette sits up straight, wincing slightly. She totally hadn’t been falling asleep in the middle of history class. American history was so…interesting. Why ever would she fall asleep? 

“Um, yes sir?” She says uncertainly. 

“I have a note for you from the office.” He says, holding a sticky note up. Marinette feels a wave of cold wash over her. Why would the office have a note for her? Was she in trouble? Did something happen to Penny or Jagged? Swallowing thickly, Marinette walks to the front and takes the note from him, hands shaking as she sits back at her seat. Opening the note slowly, her shoulders relax as she reads it. The last two weeks at Gotham Academy had been pretty average. And if she was being honest, she was kind of constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Luckily, the note wasn’t that. 

Ms. Rolling called. She’s stuck in traffic and Mr. Stone’s plane has been delayed. Miss Dupain-Cheng is to catch a bus home.

“Are you okay?” Bruce asks quietly, his voice barely audible. Marinette gives him a small smile before sliding the sticky note towards him with a short shrug. His face twitches into a frown briefly, before he flips the note over and scribbles something on the back. 

You live in Bristol, right? 

Marinette nods, and Bruce scribbles again. 

Would you like a ride home?

“Mr. Wayne and Miss Dupain-Cheng, need I remind you that the weekend does not start for another three minutes. Until that bell rings, I expect you all to be paying attention. This is something that you will need in the future.” Mr. Weston insists. Marinette feels her eyebrow twitch, but she stays quiet. She wasn’t exactly sure how the dates of the American revolution would help her in the future as the Guardian or a fashion designer. Or anything, really. But that wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have right before the bell rings on a Friday. 

“Sorry, sir.” Marinette says, silently hoping that Bruce will stay quiet. His lips press into a thin line and she can practically feel the outburst boiling just under the surface. Before he can say anything though, the bell rings and Marinette lets out a sigh of relief. Bruce rolls his eyes, shoving his books into his bag and raising an eyebrow at her. 

“Well? Would you like a ride home?” He asks again. Marinette frowns. 

“I wouldn’t want to be a bother-” She tries to say, but Bruce shakes his head. 

“It’s fine. Besides, Alfred would have my head if he knew I was going to make my friend take the bus all the way to Bristol.” He says. Marinette’s mouth twitches up into a grin. 

“Friends?” She asks, a hopeful spark in her chest. Bruce’s eyes widen slightly before he nods slowly. 

“I- er- yes. Yes we are.” He says. Marinette’s grin turns into a full smile. 

“Awesome. Well, friend, let’s get going.” She says, slinging her bag onto her shoulder. Bruce huffs, but it’s the closest thing she’s heard to a laugh from him in the two weeks she’s known him, so she accepts it without complaint. Following him outside, he opens the backseat of a very nice car and sticks his head in. 

“Afternoon Alfred. Would it be alright if we drove Marinette home today? She lives in Bristol as well.” He says. The man in the front seat turns and gives her a small smile. 

“Of course, Master Bruce.” He says simply. Bruce climbs into the backseat, sliding all the way over so that Marinette can also slide in. Shutting the door, Marinette smiles at Alfred. 

“Thank you for the ride home, sir.” She says. 

“Well of course, Miss Marinette. Where is it we’re taking you?” He asks. Marinette rattles off the address and Bruce raises an eyebrow. “Well, it appears you live in the manor on the immediate right of Wayne Manor.” Alfred says. Marinette’s eyes widen as she turns to Bruce. 

“I can’t believe we’re neighbors.” She says. Bruce nods. 

“Lucky for you, I guess. If you ever need a ride to or from school, you could join us instead of taking the bus.” He offers. Marinette tries not to laugh at the mention of luck. Despite everything she had feared, it seemed that Gotham was better luck than Paris ever was. 

---

“-until the day you learn how to start a normal conversation, I will have to be right there to fix the messes you make.” Bruce sighs, shaking his head at Harvey. Marinette raises an eyebrow, arms crossed as she leans against her locker as she catches the last part of their conversation. 

“Let me guess, Carissa Livingston again?” She asks, grinning. Bruce nods solemnly as Harvey just groans. 

“I don’t know how we always end up going down a weird rabbit hole every time I try to talk to her.” He says. 

“It’s likely attributed to the fact that you continuously find increasingly random ways to start conversations with her.” Bruce says. Marinette snorts, and Bruce tilts his head. “Now that I think about it, you do that with every girl besides Marinette.” Marinette turns to Harvey, raising an eyebrow as he flushes pink. 

“I’m hurt, Harv, really, I am.” She teases. “Why don’t I get the fun, bizarre topics?”

“Oh- uh- well, Bruce-”

“Thank you, Harvey. Come on, Marinette. Alfred should be waiting for us.” Bruce interrupts, quickening his pace as he herds her towards the door. Marinette laughs, shaking her head as she turns back to wave at Harvey. 

“Sorry Harv! See you Monday!” She calls over her shoulder. She loved being friends with Harvey and Bruce. It was easy. It didn’t hurt. 

“Mr. Stone and Ms. Rolling will be gone until later tonight, right?” Bruce asks as they walk out the door. Marinette nods. 

“I tried to convince them that it would be fine if they just stayed at a hotel and come home tomorrow instead, but Penny insists that I shouldn’t stay home alone overnight.” She explains. Bruce’s eyebrows scrunch together and he frowns, obviously thinking hard. 

“Do you want to come have dinner with me and Alfred? We can drive you home after. That way you don’t have to eat alone.” He suggests. Marinette grins. 

“Are you sure that would be okay with Alfred?” She asks. Bruce nods, opening the car door and scooting over so she can climb in too. 

“Alfred, could Marinette have dinner with us tonight?” He asks. 

“Of course, Master Bruce. Miss Marinette, you are always welcome, my dear.” Alfred says, and Marinette can’t help the warm feeling in her chest. She’d only been in Gotham for a few months, but it was already home. 

Tag list:  @stainedglassm  @laydeekrayzee @doll246 @queenz-z @deathssilentapproach-blog @literaryhiraeth @unoriginalmess @crazylittlemunchkin @buttercupsbitch @toodaloo-kangaroo @kking13   @babylovebug18 @bookwalmartav @maybeanalien0-0

#maribat #maribat marinette dupain cheng #maribat bruce wayne #brucinette #maribat friends to lovers #maribat harvey dent #maribat alfred pennyworth #maribat fic

[mae-dwrites]

A Bundle of Heliotropes - Chapter 1 - Marking

| Masterlist | Start: Here <3 | Next |

| Ao3 | Wattpad |

After two people have turned 16 they get a soulmark, a near-exact, or complementary, mark or as some referred to it as a tattoo. This can be anywhere on the person, sometimes they're simple, small, or inconspicuous on occasion. Other times they take up a great deal of space, elaborate pieces of work, their meaning so clear much clearer more often than not.

When Marinette Dupain-Cheng was younger she couldn't wait for her mark. She hadn't cared what it would look like because no matter what it would be beautiful, because this was her way to her one in the Universe.

When she fell in love with Adrien she was sure it was him but slowly felt as though she was wrong as she failed to confess or even have a normal conversation with the blond. Why would the Universe give her someone she couldn't even talk to?

This led to her officially letting him go and giving Luka a wholehearted try, that was until he got his soulmark. Akumas, being Ladybug, and Guardian duties had already been putting a strain on their relationship so Luka getting his mark was just the icing on the cake, and Marinette thought it would be better for them to break up and remain friends.

Marinette spent months of hopeful vs. hopeless, and as her birthday drew near a feeling of dread came upon her. The day came when she woke up with her collar area burning with her mark.

It was beautiful, just below the center of her collarbone a circle resting with elm branches coming from it going across to end at her shoulders. In the circle was a giant ladybug, along with robins sitting on the branches of her tree.

Looking in the mirror left her almost breathless, she brought her hand up to the mark almost scared to touch it. For fear if she touched it would fade the canvas of her skin forgetting what had been.

The only problem was it was far too telling. A ladybug? As if that wouldn't reveal her. She couldn't show this, not without someone realizing what the ladybug truly represented.

She could show Alya, she had told her identity at the beginning of the school year. She trusted her not to blab about it, especially when a few months ago Alya was going through the Ladyblog rewatching her videos and trying to see if any of them could be of help. Then she stumbled upon her interview with Lila to realize that she couldn't possibly be best friends with Ladybug when that was in fact her. She apologized to Marinette when she realized her mistake and how it took her this long even after Marinette had already told her and proved she was Ladybug.

“Marinette!” Tikki’s voice broke through her trance. The Kwami had been admiring her mark, while it wasn't the biggest or the flashiest. It was certainly something to admire. Big and flashy had never been Marinette’s forte, perhaps her soulmate and her had that in common?

“Sorry Tikki. I just,” Marinette glanced into the mirror again looking at the branches and its’ birds. “I can't believe it.” The teen said the last bit breathlessly.

“Guardian, as beautiful as your mark is,” Wayzz floated up. “You’re going to need to hide it. Someone could put it together, even with the quantum masking.”

“Wayzz is right,” Marinette turned to face Tikki as she spoke. “We can't count on the Miraculous magic to hide your identity when a mark so clearly refers to your heroine persona. While our magic is ancient that doesn’t mean it’s entirely dependable either.”

“You're right,” Marinette sighed. “I can show Alya at least. I'm sure she's gonna freak.”

Marinette wore a shirt that covered above her collarbone, unable to wear her usual white tees. She wore a light pink top so that if the shirt got wet the mark wouldn't be seen through the fabric. Marinette had already been making it a habit not to wear her usual whites anyway, with how many times Lila had caused “accidents” that ruined them. It wasn’t like she was dumb enough to keep wearing something that would be affected the worse.

Marinette already knew that Lila would try to say she must not have a soul mate if she wasn't willing to show her friends. Honestly, Marinette could care less about that, as Lila probably wouldn't share hers either when she got hers later this year. Not to mention there were others in the class and friends that had been getting their marks recently and not all of them wanted to share. Also, Marinette might be the younger between her and them, if her getting the mark on her birthday was anything to go by. Which it was.

Marinette made her way downstairs while tying her hair back, over the last few months while she still was late for things she had gotten better at waking up early. It made her friends excited, that's for sure. Marinette was proud, she may not get all the hours of sleep needed for a person her age but at least she started her day earlier.

She grabbed an apple and made her way down the stairs. She didn't want to risk Lila trying to claim she had done something when she was least likely to have. So she made her way as quickly as she possibly could, despite her having more time to get to school; it helped to get there as soon as she could around a certain time. As the more people around to see her the less likely Lila could make her claims.

Marinette passed through the bakery giving her maman and papa hugs and kisses before snatching up croissants into a bag to share with some of her friends. Mainly Alya, Nino, and Adrien of course every morning hung out with her. Many of her other friends would sometimes join them, sometimes they were in a rush or just forgot to grab something to eat.

Everyone mostly “played nice” as Adrien tried to keep it. While Adrien seemed to play peacekeeper along with Alya they both had very different reasons. Adrien being so Lila wouldn't say anything to his Father and risk his freedom, and while they understood that it still hurt when Adrien sometimes took more of Lila’s side in the conversation, even if it was for the sake of “keeping the peace.” Over the months Chloé, Kagami, and Marinette had been able to convince Gabriel to be more free with his son, even Natalie had surprisingly shown support. But Adrien still turned the arguments in Lila’s favor a good chunk of the time.

Alya on the other hand had been slowly sliding more to Marinette, so as to not cause Lila into a fuss. Alya hated it, that much was clear, but it seemed as though Lila didn't notice as long as the Créole teen was spitting articles of her amazing life. Alya had made a separate blog to “support her friend” but what Lila hadn't noticed was that the writer’s name wasn't Alya but a pen name. But it had come to light for Lila that Alya still cared about Marinette and wasn't entirely leaving her. Alya gave excuses, true and false, but we're good enough for the Italian. But Lila taking notice had only been a recent thing.

“Marinette!” Alya shouted as Marinette made her way into the courtyard. Some people turned to see the dark-haired teen make her way to her friend, some of those students happened to be Max and Rose. Score, Marinette couldn’t help but think as it meant if Lila tried to say something they would most likely doubt her, especially if she was with Alya.

“Hey Alya,” Marinette smiled before hugging her best friend. As she pulled away she wasn’t even halfway out before Alya was practically buzzing.

“So?” Alya stretched the word out while bouncing in place. “Did you get your mark? Or is it not there? And if there isn’t one then that’s okay girl! Remember your soulmate could be younger than you and hasn’t turned sixteen yet. And even if you don’t get a mark I won’t think any less of you, it just means that you're free to choose your own destiny and-” and before Alya could continue rambling, something that she had picked up from the Asian girl, that Marinette cut her off.

“Alya! I got my mark,” Marinette laughed before finally letting go of the other girl’s hands. Alya’s face slowly went from blank to pure glee. She grabbed Marinette’s shoulders and shook her, “You. Me. Bathroom. Now!”

Alya dragged her to the bathroom, while others would be upset at the other’s demanding antics Marinette just laughed. Alya pushed the bathroom door open and surveyed the room, “Which stall is empty?”

Some girls gave her weird looks, but those who were friends or knew the girls personally giggled or simply smiled. One of them pointed to the one at the end. Alya declared “perfect” and brought Marinette in with her. Some of the girls said happy birthdays to Marinette while giggling as Alya dragged her into the stall. As Alya shut the stall door it could be heard some girls going “Oh” as they realized why the two went into the stall.

“Show me now girl!” Alya cried, the stall at the end wasn’t as small as the others but it certainly wasn’t one as big as the one closer to the door. Alya had mentioned that her mark might hint at her heroing, as a theory. It wasn’t uncommon for soul marks to represent someone’s work or passions, so it was safe to assume that Marinette’s could reference Ladybug.

Marinette pulled her arms out of her shirt before taking it off, her tank top left a perfect view of the mark. Aside from the straps, it’s not like it really mattered. Alya let out what had to be the loudest squeal Marinette had heard come out of her, and she had let Alya try many Miraculi on just for the fun of it. That sleepover had been the loudest squeals and laughter that came out of Alya to date. Till today that is.

“Are those tree branches? And robins?”

“Yes, and yes,” Marinette said before bringing her shirt back on. “Elms if I’m not wrong. But I studied plants for that one nature-forest-themed fashion competition.”

Alya finally opened the stall back up when Marinette had her shirt situated, and with Wayzz and Tikki away. Alya just seemed to be radiating from excitement. If Alya was the type to jump up and down when excited that would be exactly what she would be doing now. Though Marinette had a feeling it had to do with how nervous Alya was for Nino’s birthday.

Nino’s Birthday was just four days away, Alya’s was last month. She didn't get a mark so she held out hope that Nino would be her soulmate, while being soulmates didn't necessarily mean it was romantic you couldn't blame the girl. As for all they knew, Nino or Alya may have a romantic bond with someone else. With how close they were and how much they loved each other it made sense to be scared of such possibilities.

Marinette was honestly scared hers wouldn't be romantic, not that there was anything wrong with a platonic bond. But for Marinette, it just meant finding someone to have her big house with three kids and a hamster would be much harder.

Marinette subconsciously touched where her mark lay, What if they don't like that I'm the one they're soul bound to?

“Marinette!”

The said girl looked up to see Adrien, Nino, and Kim waiting for her. A smile came on her face as she saw them. Kim waved at her overdramatically before raising a sign that read “Happy Birthday To The Bread Child.”

Alya and Marinette laughed at the sign, it had been a joke between mainly Kim and Marinette that she was “The Bread Child”. When they were in early collège their class had done a project about names and their heritages. From then on Kim liked to joke about her father’s last name.

Her other friends had slowly made their ways into the joke calling her bread-related nicknames. Adrien and Nino were the worst, as they were puns. It honestly made Marinette think their favorite hero was Chat Noir rather than Ladybug.

“Happy Birthday!” Nino and Kim shouted at their long-time friend.

“Happy Birthday Marinette,” Adrien smiled at her. The girl's insides swirled around a little at his smile, it was charming, one of his real ones even. Despite letting go of her crush on him he still made her flustered from time to time.

“Thanks you guys,” she felt a bit embarrassed but she couldn't care. Her friends always made her feel like that on important occasions, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

“I'm assuming by Alya’s face and that she was practically skipping her way over here that you got your mark?” Kim raised his eyebrows at his short friend. Though most people at Françoise Dupont were shorter than Kim.

“Yes,” her cheeks flushed as she admitted it.

“That's amazing dudette,” Nino said in his usual fashion.

“Can you show us?” Kim looked between the two girls.

Marinette swallowed before opening her mouth to speak, “I don't want to lie to you but I want to keep it myself. I would love to show it but for now, I would like to keep it to myself.”

Marinette looked everywhere but her friends while she said this. They were gonna think she was selfish, or that she hates them when she doesn't! But because they think she hates them they’ll start hating her, and they’ll all leave her. She’ll have no friends because they’ll tell everyone and then she won't ever make friends for the rest of lycèe. Since no one likes her she’ll never get to be a famous and successful designer, and when she finally finds her soulmate they’ll think she’s horrible and hate her because she has no friends and that she's a failure. And then she’ll be alone for the rest of her life. She’ll never get her big house for her hamster and three kids, and-

“Marinette!” Her friend's voices snapped her out of her panicked state.

“S-sorry!” Marinette cried.

“Marinette, it's okay,” Nino said.

“We understand and we won't push you to show us,” Kim pulled Marinette in for a side hug. “We would never hate you for being private.”

“Exactly!” Adrien said with a reassuring smile. “It's your decision. Also soulmarks are very personal things, it only makes sense if someone decided not to share theirs.”

“It’s in your full right to decide who you want to share your mark with,” Alix said from behind Marinette. Marinette would have jumped if Kim hadn't been hugging her right then. “Honestly I don't think I will share mine with anyone when I turn sixteen next year.” Alix admitted before continuing in a joking tone, “Unless it’s something sick like a dragon or snakes. Then I would show that sucker off for all it’s worth!”

Everyone laughed at Alix’s statement before heading to their classroom.

|

When Damian Wayne first didn't get his mark he thought maybe he didn't have one, and he was fine with that. Even pleased one could say. As it would be one less person to care about, to protect, or to be used as a weakness.

His family reassured him that his soulmate probably just hadn't turned sixteen yet. Truly that didn't, as the League had certain beliefs around the topic. All Damian saw was that it was the Universe giving him that one person that anyone could use against him.

Lo and behold they would be right; just a few months later would he wake to his shoulder blades burning as a mark finally made itself upon his body.

Damian looked at his back with the mirror in his bathroom. It was…magnificent. It was the only word that could come to mind that held everything he felt about it, the young Wayne couldn't help but look at it.

A circle between his shoulder blades with tree branches that went across his shoulder blades and stopped just as it went to wrap around, clearly cherry blossoms were the branches that came out, ladybugs in flight or resting in the branches. While it made no sense it was still a beautiful sight. In the circle was a robin, its back to the viewer and its head turned up so you could see its face, as best you could with how the view of the mark portrayed it.

Damian swallowed, his body showcasing the form of nervousness without his consent. He couldn't help it though, looking at made his chest tight and his fingers flinching, desperately wanting to touch the mark. His arm made its way up and his hand came down-

He clenched his jaw as he turned his hand into a fist and brought it away. He huffed leaving the bathroom, and his face became a scowl. As he got dressed two parts of him berated him. He took a moment to calm himself, it’s just a mark. But it wasn't like a regular tattoo, it couldn't come off.

It was one of the reasons you, internationally, couldn't get a tattoo until you were eighteen, because you were one: a minor. And second, you didn't get your mark until you were around the age of sixteen to nineteen. At least that was the average range of the current day, there were some larger age differences here and there, but it wasn't as common now. Guess the Universe seemed to catch on to how humans had been viewing age differences in recent times.

Damian didn’t understand why the Universe had decided that soulmates would be part of the staple of its rules. An absolute that had become the conclusion long ago that no matter what you were bound to meet your soulmate, in one life or another. At least that was according to magic users and what the League had from hunting down certain magic users.

So under no circumstances could his family find out about this mark. He may have come a long way from who he was when he was ten years old but even still he did not wish to entrust them with everything. While they were family, his most trusted, and partners, he couldn't stand them over insignificant things. This mark did follow under the file: “Keep Out Of Knowledge For Long As Possible.” or as he formally called it “My Business.”

It was his business, and as it was his business it meant his brothers would poke and pry their way into said business. Damian stifled a groan as he made his way down the hall. Damian could only hope his brothers would stick to their recent “level 1: giving space” tactic, but that would only last for so long. He might as well enjoy the peace that came with it.

“Damian we're going skating after school!” Grayson exclaimed upon the young Wayne entering the dining room.

As much peace that would come with the level 1 space.

-

Being Tagged is always an option.

#another fic!! woo #a bundle of heliotropes #maribat #maribat fic #maribat fanfic #maribat marinette dupain cheng #maribat damian wayne #maribat daminette #daminette #soulmate au #daminette soulmates

[fauxnormal]

Todd had a seemingly heavy duffle bag over one shoulder and a banker's box in hand. Weapons? Severed heads? Art supplies ?

Speculation was futile.

"You have about 10 minutes?" he asks.

"Not r-" Damian responds as Jason moves into the room anyway.

"Good! I'll make this as quick as I can. Damian, I'm a simple man. I like to eat, read, fight, and fuck. Not necessarily in that order."

Todd paced as he spoke.

The duffle hits the floor with a low whump. Probably not severed heads, the sound wasn't right. Jason puts the box down on Damian's desk.

"Very little of that is new information. How is this relevant and what do you want? I have something I need to get back to-"

Damian stopped talking, maybe if he just let Todd say what he had to say Damian could get back to what he was doing.

Todd took a breath and started to lecture.

The assassin prayed for death.

Nope. No such luck, still alive.

This was, the much dreaded "TALK".

Damian took another breath in. Still alive. Clearly, Damian was praying to the wrong gods.

Todd was convicted of his righteousness so there would be no easy escape such as Damian sloughing off his mortal coil.

Shit.

Could be worse. It could be his father.

#maribat #jaysteph #daminette #the talk #stephanie brown #jason todd #damian wayne #dc x mlb #maribat fic #work in progress #marinette dupain cheng #marinette dupain-cheng

[ggomos-maribat]

Tim Drake didn't particularly like the occult.

But Constantine said the two were their best bet against the demon uprising. The magic-user, howeover, refused to contact them himself, claiming that it was a bad idea to involve them, that they were better off dealing with the problem on their own than . . . outsourcing. Unfortunately, Tim (and the rest of the Batfamily really) was stubborn. If they had potential allies to help them, wouldn't it be worth to take the risk?

This mission to contact those people then dragged him to a downtown bar to talk to famous designer Marinette Dupain-Cheng, who he was ninety-five percent sure was one of the two Constantine was talking about.

Tim told himself that perhaps a little bit of sweet-talking would do. His hand inched closer to hers on the tabletop, but she immediately pulled away. "This night has been fun, Monsieur Drake." She smiled sweetly. "But I don't think my husband will appreciate me staying out late."

She showed him a glowing band on her finger, which Tim completely missed when they met. He, too, pulled away, cheeks turning pink. "Uhh, yeah, sorry 'bout that. Don't let me keep you."

Although Marinette had slipped out, he still had a mission to do.

He decided to follow her.

He knew of her potential danger, signified by the fact that she was walking on a dark, deserted, Gotham street by herself. He held his breath when she stopped right below a flickering lamppost.

She turned around, plump red lips stretching into a sinister smile. "That's quite sneaky of you, Monsieur Drake. Why don't you be direct with what you want, hm?"

And he took a step out of the shadows, dropping his act. "We need your help."

"Who told you about me?"

". . . John Constantine."

Her nose wrinkled. "That soul-whore? Figures."

Tim definitely didn't show it, but the way she stood, her mere presence was unnerving like a beast waiting to pounce. But at the same time, she was so unfairly beautiful even in the darkness.

Marinette smoothed down her hair. "What makes you think we're willing to help?"

Tim's eyebrows raised. "'We'?"

A sudden chill arrived with the wind, summoning goosebumps all over his skin. The lamp switched off in a blink, and when it turned on again, a shadow had appeared beside Marinette, which morphed into a human. Or at least he thought it was a human.

"Yes, 'we'," a new voice said. "She and her husband."

Fuck. The man was dressed in elegant clothes, a perfect match with his wife. His hair was slicked back but with strands softly falling on top of his ethereal eyes. Tim swore those were fangs under his pale lips, sharp like the gaze he was shooting at him. Both his deep blue eyes and Marinette's seemed to shine under the moonlight.

Tim was officially scared. He never did like the occult, but goddamn, the occult was causing his bi-panic.

#maribat fanfic #dc x mlb #mlb x dc #maribat #maribat fic #maribat marinette dupain cheng #dc x miraculous #danny phantom au #ggomo's prompts #stories ggomo will never write #tim drake/marinette dupain-cheng/danny fenton #marinette and danny are married #heheehhe #such a persistent brainrot in my head but alas i've got too many wips #if someone writes this i will love you forever

[calico-kiwi]

The Coffee Trials

Chapter 1: a sleep deprived coffee addict walks into a cafe

Fandom: Maribat (Miraculous Ladybug x DC)

Tags: Tim Drake/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Original Character, fluff & Shenanigans, no plot & no update schedule

Work Summary: Both Tim Drake and Marinette Dupain-Cheng are incredibly successful and busy people. Two people who both view coffee as their lifeblood. When they find themselves needing each other to obtain ultimate coffee rights at their favorite cafe, two total strangers become allies. And friends. And perhaps eventually… something more.

Chapter Summary: Tim walks into his favorite cafe to find things are not as they should be.

ao3 Link, Next Chapter

Read the first chapter below the Keep Reading!

Tim loved this smell. He worshiped it. It was so ingrained into his soul that he could describe it as no way other than divine. Well, perhaps he could describe it as heavenly. Sweet ambrosia. Nectar of the gods. 

Yet above all, it was simply... lovely.

It was the smell of a reliable constant. It smelled like home. Not because home smelled like it but because the smell elicited that feeling of home.

As he approached his favorite café, his body began to ease. Not only was the café itself his favorite, but it had his favorite drink. And truth be told, his favorite coffee dealer, and dare he say personal barista. (And yes, it was quite a dare to say such a thing, because if Tim ever outright called them his personal barista, they’d cut him off.)

The bell above the door softly chimed as he entered. He was instantly treated by the smell of coffee and the warm welcoming energy of the café. 

He dragged his eyes over the faded and chipped walls painted in a warm cappuccino brown. He didn’t need to look at the black chalkboard menu hung on the wall behind the registers. He could say his order in his sleep.

His eyes wandered to the various seating areas and tables within the café. It was a hodgepodge of all colors, styles, and decorum. Almost like a lost and found. Though all were in good condition and seemed to just fit . 

He briefly took note of a new face. She was sitting on the old leather couch in the corner to the right of the registers.

Continuing to walk towards the register, he felt himself smirk. Looking very bored, holding their head in one hand and aimlessly drumming their fingers against the counter with their other, was the man of the (the being Tim’s) hour.

Tim’s very own coffee dealer and personal barista. 

The glitter of the barista’s night sky-themed ballerina nails sparkled as she tapped them against the counter, and they didn’t seem to notice Tim until he was almost at the register.

When she did notice, however, her bored expression turned almost sinister with the way she smiled and the way her eyes twinkled. They straightened their posture and moved to be more centered behind the register.

Something about their “cat who’s caught the canary” expression and current mischievous demeanor planted a seed of dread in Tim’s stomach.

“Why hello and welcome to ‘Carrie’s’ valued customer. May I take your order?” they said. They twirled a strand of the dyed white hair that was loose from their high ponytail around their finger. It was a faux attempt to look innocent and they both knew it. 

Tim narrowed his eyes and replied, “Same as always Skye.”

Skye’s shit-eating grin grew wider, and her hand dropped so she could place them both on the counter and coyly lean forward.

“Sorry,” they apologized, though it held no hint of remorse. “Just to be clear, what drink would be the one ‘ same as always ’?”

Tim was silent for a moment. ‘Oh something’s definitely off here,’ Tim thought to himself.

“The one only you know how to make, and that I order every night, and have been ordering every night for almost two years.”

“Yes, but what is the drink called? So I know I have the right one,” Skye said cheerily.

Tim didn’t have enough drugs (caffeine, he’s talking about caffeine) in his system for this. “It’s not actually on the menu, which you would know because it’s a-“ Tim makes air quotes as he continues. “Skye SpecialTM”

“We always refer to it as ‘The Motherload’ though. Which is cringe as fuck and we should change it, by the way.” Tim looks at Skye expectantly.

And Skye stares back at Tim as if they’ve won.

“Well,” Skye starts, “what exactly is in this drink? To jog my memory,” she says, absently waving one of his hands in the air.

Tim sighs, and all but bangs his head against the counter. He instead settles for burying his head in his palms. “You are so fucking lucky I refuse to piss you off in fear of you revoking coffee privileges.”

Skye laughed. “Damn right! Don’t ever call my Skye SpecialsTM cringe ever again you fucking oaf.”

Continuing, Tim adds, “Also how the fuck am I supposed to know what you put in your goddamn magic energy potion? I don’t even know how you can make the shit you do and not have any illegal ingredients.”

Skye raises an eyebrow. “Bold of you to assume what I make doesn’t have illegal ingredients.”

“ Skye .” Tim says incredulously, his frazzled and strained voice matching the slight look of panic in his sky-blue eyes.

“Hey don’t worry dude, I swear I’m not running some Breaking Bad type operation. Besides, we live in Gotham, this is one of the worst possible places to get into drugs. No shot I’m chancing anything.”

Tim just sighs before once again asking for his beloved drink. He really doesn’t have the mental capacity to deal with this.

“Skye, darling, one of my favorite and most gender people ever, I fucking BEG of you, serve me the fucking drink. The one that tastes like heaven and grants me godly energy.”

Skye gives a devilish grin. “Oh!” they exclaim. “ That drink! Well, why didn’t you say so.”

Tim actually bangs his forehead against the counter, and Skye laughs at her friend's misery.

“ ~Skyyyeee~ ” comes Tim’s grumble, muffled by the cold countertop he’s still smushing his face against.

Skye giggles, and ruffles her friend’s wavy black hair. “Gosh, you’re so dramatic. And stand up, you’re gonna get drool on the counter or something. Can’t make drinks if I'm stuck cleaning up, now can I?” they ask with a raised eyebrow

With that, Tim lifts his head off the counter, but immediately follows the action by propping his elbows on it and clasping his hands together.

“ Please just make the damn drink,” Tim begs.

Skye shrugs. “Sorry sweetie, we’re out.”

“ WHAT?! ”

Tim’s mind breaks a bit, and Skye holds back the snort that almost comes out at the sight of Tim’s eye twitching.

“Skye,-“ Tim begins, sounding like he’s bargaining for his life back, which in Tim’s eyes, he is. 

“How in the actual fuck is that possible? How can you be out ? You only allow one Skye SpecialTM per shift. And even if , and that’s a big if, another customer ordered one, who else other than the two of us would you possibly be ok giving that much caffeine to?”

Skye, who had stood calmly and patiently listening to Tim’s spiel, which she always finds quite endearing (the crazed and deranged look in his eyes added a nice touch) just smiles. 

There’s no malice in it this time. But Tim’s known Skye long enough and well enough to see the brewings of a chaotic plan spread plainly across their face.

“You see my little lovely bean addict, I have found a new regular. Not only that but she’s already passed The Coffee Trials.”

At the last piece of news, Tim’s eyes widened.

“She completed The Trials,” Skye continues, voice dropping to a whisper, “In 10 days.”

Tim’s jaw drops. “How long has she been coming to the cafe?” he whispers back urgently.

“Well,” Skye begins, “she stopped by once around two months ago. Came back around a week later, and her visits became more frequent until she started coming every other day. She just passed The Coffee Trials five days ago, so she passed ‘em last Saturday.”

Narrowing his eyes Tim asks, “If she’s a regular, when does she stop by? You only work from eight to one, and I don’t get here much later than you do. I mean kudos to her if she gets here after I leave but…”

Hopping onto the counter so her legs dangle over the side and she’s sitting facing Tim, Skye nods sagely.

“The first time she came here, and I remember this interaction vividly cause it was so wonderfully chaotic, she burst into the cafe panting with only 15 minutes before my shift ended.

This, of course, did not phase me, and I asked her what she’d like to order as if a beautiful french woman running into this establishment at 12:45 a.m. entirely out of breath with a tiredness so obviously bones deep and soul-crushing that I offered her a free pastry was normal.

She apologized for basically barreling through the doors before sheepishly explaining this was the closest place open that served coffee and wasn’t someplace like Mcdonald's. 

She knew we closed at one, which is why she was in such a hurry. She then apologized to me a second time for bothering me so close to when we closed.

I would have been annoyed, but I was too amused and charmed to find it in me. So I told her no worries, made her order, and gave her a free croissant with her coffee. 

She told me it was some of the best coffee she’s ever had, thanked me, apologized a third and final time for the night, offered to help clean and close up, which I refused, and then left.

She must have found herself in a similar situation to the first night she visited where she desperately needed coffee because around a week later, she stopped by around 12:30ish.

She asked for something else, I gave the poor tired sweetie a free toasted bagel with strawberry cream cheese, and she once again complimented the coffee, thanked me, and left.

This continued for a bit until she just came by pretty often, each time around midnight, and we hung out a bit. She ordered something new every time, which I liked. You know how I love to experiment.

I told her that I was a bit of a hobby mixologist and thought mixology was cool, and that because I can’t drink yet I instead have honed my mixology skills in the art of coffees and teas. She then asked what some of the craziest concoctions I’ve made have been.

At this point, I’ve known her for around two months, and I’ve been seeing her super often. I know enough about her to feel comfortable around her, and so I trust her with the sacred information  that is The Coffee Trials and Skye SpecialsTM.

She is, predictably, thoroughly intrigued. And also concerned. Because you know as well as I do that it is definitely not a legal amount of caffeine that I put in those drinks. Like I could not serve those to customers. Make for the homies? Hell yeah. To sell? I am breaking the law and can be sued. I do not have the money to be sued, man.

Anyways, she asks if she can partake in The Coffee Trials, and I oblige. It’s mostly to humor her and let me tell you, I did not expect her to succeed so fast. She beat it as fast as you did. Which is to say, the fastest I will allow anyone to beat it.

I’m not trying to overdose people here man. In case you don’t remember, during the coffee trials there is a rest period between stages, and the attemptee is cut off three days before, during the trial, besides the drink you’d need to ingest to pass each stage, and three days after.

She does the trial no problem. Like, scarily without any problems. She now has access to the Skye SpecialsTM. Oh, and, she’s drinking The Motherload right now.”

Tim would’ve spat out his drink if someone else hadn’t beat him to ordering it. “She was already here ?!”

Skye hums while they swing their legs back and forth. “Actually, as if it isn’t already information overload, she’s still here. The little missy is sitting right over there,” they say, jutting out their chin in the direction of the ‘new customer’ Tim had seen sitting in the corner on the sofa when he walked in.

“You should go talk to her. Go say hi to the pretty lady. Try your best to not screw it up and all that. I think you two would get along swell,” Skye encourages with a smile.

Tim tries his best to not stare at the stranger (who has become much less of a stranger to him in the past few minutes) quietly sipping her coffee (which should be his coffee) and typing something out on her laptop and then switching to a sketchbook that she furiously sketches in before repeating the cycle.

“What do I even say,” Tim asks exasperated. “Besides, how do I fix the fact I no longer have my preferred amount of caffeine or favorite drink.”

Skye raises an eyebrow before scoffing. “Ok, mister antisocial-” They’re interrupted by a muttered ‘says fucking you of all people’ from Tim. “FAIR BUT UNCALLED FOR. Anyways, I was going to say that I have a proposition.”

Trying his best to hold in yet another sigh, Tim continues. “ But ? There’s always a catch with you, you chaos gremlin.”

“Says fucking you of all people. You’re the most chaotic chaos gremlin I know. And the catch is that I’ll only tell the two of you, yes the two of you, if you’re the one to bring her over here so I can explain.”

Tim scowls, and starts grumbling while walking over to  ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶e̶t̶i̶t̶i̶o̶n̶  the stranger before Skye grabs his shirt collar and yanks him back towards her, whisper-yelling a rushed ‘wait!’.

“Do you want a drink first? You can still order from our normal menu, you know.”

“I feel like whatever shenanigans you’ve got in store for us is going to make me want to bash my head into the wall, so maybe just some nice hot tea. That has the caffeine of course. Some earl grey how I like it?”

Skye salutes before swinging their legs back over the counter, hopping down with a, “You got it boss!”

They press a few buttons on the order screen before announcing, “That’ll be $4.96 oh valued customer who we treasure very dearly.”

Tim rolls his eyes but hands Skye a five-dollar bill, telling her, “Don’t worry about the four cents,” and stuffs another ten in the tip jar that’s sitting in front of the register.

Skye’s eyes soften, and Tim hears a whispered “Thanks,” before they put the bill in the register and head off to make Tim’s tea.

Tim looks back over at the woman on the sofa. She’s still lost in her own world. Her hair reaches a quarter down her back and is the most dazzling shade of black he’s ever seen. It’s almost as if it glows a faint blue. It’s a little hard to tell from the way she’s sitting, but Tim guesses she’s a few inches over five feet. She has a small but impressively lean build, and no he is not staring at her biceps.

It’s not until he feels something hit his face that he looks away from the stranger and focuses his gaze on the balled-up napkin that had been thrown at him and then fallen to the floor.

“Your drink good sir,” Skye says. She holds out a to-go cup with the label of a tea bag dangling out of the cup but held in place by the lid.

For what feels like the millionth time tonight Tim sighs. He grabs his drink, mutters a quick thanks, and walks toward the mystery girl. He hears a whispered ‘Knock ‘em dead tiger!’ followed by snickering from Skye but just ignores it.

It’s not until he’s standing in front of the stranger, her beautiful bluebell eyes staring up at him, that his brain finally processes what he’s doing. ‘I can’t believe this,’ Tim thinks to himself.

Running on enough caffeine to give doctors a likely cause of death if he were to keel over right then and there, and with less than 5 hours of sleep in the past several days, Tim figures he has nothing to lose.

So after a few seconds of awkward silence where the woman in front of him seems very confused and concerned, Tim spoke. “Um, hey, sorry to disturb you but there’s something I kind of need to talk to you about. Mind if I sit?”

> Next Chapter

AN: Forgive my many spelling mistakes, I have the horrible tendency to only write for this fic in the dead of night. i have this fic on ao3, but I realized I never posted it to tumblr as more than a link. if you wanna keep up with it, but dont wanna subscribe to it on ao3, just ask to be added to the taglist either through this post or an ask to my blog and I'll keep you updated!

#kiwi shares their thoughts #kiwi's got a pen #maribat #mlb x dc #shutterbug #timari #dc x miraculous #dc x miraculous ladybug #dc x mlb #miraculous x dc #miraculous ladybug x dc #timari fic #timari fanfic #timinette #timinette fanfic #timinette fic #maribat fanfic #maribat fic #shutterbug fic #shutterbug fanfic #dude i am no going tag crazy like i did with the other one that shit is tooooo over the top rn

[sugarfluff59]

Guys I have an idea for a new daminette fic.

Ok, so what if Marinette decides to go to Gotham University rather than ESMOD or any university in Paris after defeating hawkmoth, because she needs some time away from the toxic environment. And you know the usual her losing all her friends due to Lila except for Adrien (he finally realised his mistake and came around), Chloe, Luka and Kagami.

They will all be about 18-19 years old, and all are very successful already. Marinette will be a singer, designer, model in secret so nobody really recognizes her or knows that she is filthy rich.

She is very pretty and smart, and when she starts studying at Gotham University many boys (good and bad) are in love with her and try to win her heart and make her theirs.

Damian in this fic is only sweet and caring toward her and cold towards everyone else as he fell in love with her on first sight, and thus also tries to make her his girl, and is kinda obsessed with her.

This fic, will not really involve much about the bats and miraculous as Marinette renounced her guardianship and gave the miracle box back to the Order which she had restored. So basically, she does not remember being ladybug in this fic and her memory is altered by other memories which never really happened because of the miraculous magic to cover up the gaps.

She will be a very girly girl in this fic who kinda needs to be protected and Damian was assigned as her protector by Bruce secretly as she is staying with the Waynes, because she was adopted by Jagged Stone and Penny Rolling (who asked Bruce to be her host during her stay in Gotham), after her parents fell for Lila's lies.

Anyways that's all, and since I don't possess a single writing bone in my body, I hope someone likes my idea (which is honestly inspired by multiple different fics) and decides to write it.

#daminette #marinette dupain cheng #damian wayne #gotham #adrien agreste #kagami tsurugi #luka couffaine #chloe bourgeois #maridami #maribat fic #marinette is adopted #miraculous ladybug #dc universe

[fleursroses]

Heyy so do you guys remember that fic I posted here back in April and said I would post it on AO3 as well? Yeah ok so it has been almost 8 months but I finally did it! So, if you want to read a fun little story about the miraculous squad slowly finding out about Damian and Marinette being married, why not have a look? 🥰

#maribat #daminette #maribat fic #mlb x dc #fleur writes

[marsrize]

Marinette, Lex Luthor's mother

It's a crazy idea, but let's imagine that Marinette and Felix are Lex Luthor's biological parents.

Marinette was a loving mother. Lex loved his mom more than anything. He had a deep respect for his dad. However, his family life was chaotic, mostly because Felix was an asshole (to others, not to his family). As a result, they had many enemies.  

 One day Lex's parents disappeared in a plane crash, leaving him an orphan. As he was a very intelligent boy, he was adopted by the Luthor family who wanted a child. He was then 16 years old.

 Angry, abandoned and alone, Lex became increasingly unstable. The loss of his parents left him with a big hole in his heart. To avoid suffering this kind of pain, he will close himself and think only about himself. All that matters is him. The rest? They are only pawns to serve him.

He eventually succeeded in taking control of the Luthor empire. He drove out his adoptive parents. He had no feelings towards these people.

  Several years passed.

 During another alien invasion of Earth, Lex's parents were resurrected by mistake.

  They will discover what their "baby" has become. Felix is laughing out loud. Marinette is FURIOUS.

Lex is going to be yelled at like a little boy for hours, in front of the heroes. And Lex won't have a say in the matter. He is too shocked to see his parents alive and especially.... He's not crazy to stand up to his mother. Even his father Felix, had NEVER dared to oppose his mother. "Father....mother?" "(Chuckles) I can't believe you've become a villain cliché. *holds his stomach*... Oh kid, daddy is so proud.(Laughs)" "....." "Felix... Stop laughing." "*cough*" "I said .... Stop laughing." "(suddenly shuts up)" Lex swallowed. Marinette slowly turned to Lex, then approached him. Suddenly she pulled his ear toward her.

"You little brat!!! You' re in deep trouble! I DIDN'T RAISE YOU LIKE THAT!"

The Justice League stood there in absolute silence, completely fascinated by the scene before them.

Marinette forced Lex to apologize. (And Felix during all this time, observes his wife while doing his best not to laugh. He doesn't want to have the wrath of his terrifying little wife against him.) No one will take him seriously after this.

#mlb x dc #dc x miraculous #dc x mlb #mlb x batman #prompt #maribat fic #maribat #maribat prompt

[soulmate-game]

Yes, I know AO3 is back up. But I gotta finish what I started.

—*—*—*—*—*

The Heroes’ Game

Prev ….. Next.

Chapter 2:

“There has to be a way to turn this off,” Marinette seemed to be talking mostly to herself. After the bat boys made sure the three traffickers were picked up, they relocated Marinette to the empty rooftop of a building they owned. Not that she knew that, but it was the best way to insure nobody came up to see them. The smaller girl was pacing, despite the disorientation that came with seeing herself pace as she paced. Robin seemed to feel that same disorientation, rubbing his forehead in what could have been pain but was probably annoyance as well.

Batman and Nightwing could only watch as words tumbled out of the girl’s mouth faster than they could comprehend all of them. It was such an odd sight; a silent Robin brooding in place and rubbing his temples while the small Asian girl in pigtails rambled and paced.

They could hardly believe they were soulmates, but if Robin hadn’t denied it yet then it had to be true.

“At least it isn’t a physical mark,” Batman managed to interject into Marinette’s panic. She looked up at him, instantly cutting off her verbal vomit. “But how about you two explain exactly what your mark is so we can understand?”

“Yeah, don’t leave us hanging,” Nightwing agreed with a smile. Sure, it was incredibly inconvenient and not at all ideal for one of them to meet their soulmate in uniform. But, none of them exactly had a say in that. The best they could do was roll with the punches and Nightwing wasn’t gonna let a little right hook from Fate keep him down for long.

“It’s annoying,” Robin surprisingly answered first, lowering his hand to cross his arms over his broad chest again. Marinette turned to him, just then realizing that Robin hadn’t looked away from her for longer than a few seconds since their bond had first formed. “Our vision is cut in half, like a two-player game screen. One side is my usual point of view, the other side is the point of view through her eyes.”

Batman and Nightwing tensed, processing. Marinette didn’t notice, considering she had narrowed her focus back onto the concrete of the roof below her and decided to contribute to the explanation.

“I think that’s exactly what it is,” she agreed, unknowingly making everyone look over at her. “I didn’t notice it before, but— look, Robin. In the bottom left hand corners,” she pointed to something only Robin and herself could see. “It says Player One and Player Two. In red and—oh, those are hearts instead of colons.”

“So much for hoping this was at least platonic,” Batman groaned, running a hand over his face. He was happy that Robin had a match, sure, but that didn’t exactly make things easy. Nothing to do with superheroes and their soulmates was easy.

“I think…” Marinette narrowed her eyes as she focused on the red font. The spot after the colon had a flashing cursor. “I think it’s waiting for us to introduce ourselves,” she looked up to her newly found soulmate with expectation. He avoided meeting her eyes, and said nothing. Puffing out her cheeks, Marinette decided not to be put off by his behavior and straightened her spine. Taking several confident steps forward, she held out her hand to him. “Hello, Robin. My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and I am from Paris, France. My class and I are here on a month-long field trip thanks to one of us winning the Wayne Enterprises scholastic competition last month.”

“Wait a second,” Nightwing interjected, eyes narrowed behind his mask. “Are you being humble? Because the guest speaker at the Wayne Gala at the end of the month is the winner of that competition and her name has already been released as Mari—“

Cue the frantic arm waving and full face blush. “Ah-Ah-Ah yeah, that’s me. But I don’t like to brag, so I didn’t want to say it! You know, I didn’t want to come off as full of myself or a-anything. It’s really embarrassing having to make a speech,” Marinette’s head dropped at the reminder. “Ohhhh, I’m gonna make a total fool out of myself! I should tell Monsieur Wayne I’m not comfortable making a speech. Yeah— oh, but how could I possibly just say; ‘sorry, Mister Wayne, But I am a chronic clutz prone to embarrassing myself and think that making a speech at one of your galas would be a huge mistake,’ oh I sound so lame—”

“Hey,” Robin’s voice cut through the rambling, and Marinette looked up. “Look. It has your name after Player One now. Stop thinking about useless things and focus on how to shut this off. Soulmate or not, we can’t have you finding out who we all are after only a day.”

Nightwing walked over and threw an arm over Robin’s shoulders, even though the older male was still focusing on Marinette out of the corner of his eye. Most people would be offended by the way Robin spoke, blunt and sharp at the same time. But Marinette hadn’t started rambling again, instead the girl stood calmly. Her breaths came slow and regular once more, and her eyes held a scarily familiar focus. Maybe they really do belong together. Huh. Who would have thought his soulmate would be so adorable? And humble. Kind of a mess though, but a cute mess. “Hey, the girl introduced herself and you didn’t even shake her hand. Come on, fill in your name Player

Two!”

Robin scowled. He had already deduced that being Player Two was likely due to the fact that Marinette had been the one to initiate the contact that awakened their soul bond. Didn’t mean he liked being second in any respect. His soulmate was also a wreck. All the rambling and random switches in and out of panic. It was aggravating, but…

But he watched the stern focus in her eyes as she thought about how to temporarily shut down the connection they had. And he had been watching her the whole time. Analyzing her body language. She was easy to rile up, sure, but her panic was never all consuming. Robin could see that her feet always remained firmly planted, her stance fluid and firm. She was always ready to defend herself, whether she knew it or not, regardless of the surface-level panic she might have been experiencing. Even after only twenty or so minutes of interaction, Robin could tell that Marinette Dupain-Cheng was not a 2-D character. She was layered, with secrets and complexities that he was willing to bet few people saw or knew about. Maybe that’s why he walked over to her, and extended a hand that she readily grasped after a brief moment of disbelief.

“... I’m Robin.”

He watched the twitch of her eyebrow in exasperation, hiding his amusement under a perfectly developed poker face. The writing on the bottom of his POV’s side filled in; PLAYER TWO: ROBIN.

“Great,” Marinette deadpanned, looking very unamused. “What if that never changes, huh? I’m not asking you to reveal your identity or anything. Soulmates or not, you don’t owe me something that important. Especially not right away. But you could have at least given me the first letter of your real name or something.”

“You’ll have to earn that,” Robin retorted with a cocky grin. To his pleasant surprise, Marinette responded by cracking her knuckles.

“You know, this layout looks suspiciously similar to a combat video game,” she hinted heavily. Robin adjusted his stance and his smirk widened into a grin.

“Oh? You’re right. Ready to lose?”

“No,” Batman interrupted, one heavy hand suddenly on both of their shoulders as the teenage soulmates snapped out of the challenging connection they had made. “Not today. Miss Dupain-Cheng—“

“Just Marinette, please, Monsieur Batman.”

“... Marinette. You said your class left you behind at the hotel, right? Any idea where they would be now?”

Marinette pulled out her phone to look at the time, frowning. “It’s been about an hour. They’ll probably stay at the museum for another hour, and then they said we would all get dinner at the restaurant across the street.”

Batman nodded, filing that information away. “Good. Then we have about an hour for the two of you to figure out your bond before we need to drop you off in front of the restaurant to rejoin your class.”

“And have a chat with your teacher about taking roll call and properly taking care of her students while in the most dangerous city in the world,” Nightwing agreed, furious at the fact that any student would be left behind to potentially wander such a dangerous city, like Marinette did. Though, considering who her soulmate was, she probably only felt safe to wander due to confidence in her ability to protect herself. Confidence that they all saw was fairly valid.

That being decided, the two soulmates sat down. Batman, knowing it was unnecessary for both him and Nightwing to watch over the teens, left to resume patrol. Nightwing stayed. Someone had to watch the teen’s backs as they focused on figuring out their bond.

And that led to Marinette and Robin both sitting cross-legged and staring at one another without a clue about what to do. After a minute of silent staring, Marinette shifted and her nose scrunched up.

“Uh,” she said as she was struck with her usual timidity at the awkward situation. Here she was, sitting and trying to figure out her soul bond with a guy she just met. One of Gotham’s heroes, no less, which really was more of a relief than anything. At least he would understand her once she eventually revealed herself as Ladybug to him, and she understood him. She shifted her weight again, unable to move her gaze from Robin’s emerald green eyes. “How about we just… start by meditating? That should help, right?” She watched as his green eyes widened slightly in disbelief, and saw herself fidget again from his point of view.

“You meditate?” He asked, clearly not having expected that. Marinette sighed, relaxing into the change in conversation.

“Yeah. I mean, most of Paris meditates now. When your emotions can be used to turn you into a temporary supervillain because of a crazed maniac with a magic artifact, you tend to look for ways to manage your emotions and keep yourself from being vulnerable.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Nightwing asked, and Marinette could tell that he was shocked even despite the mask. “What are you talking about?”

It was Marinette’s turn to be confused, her brows furrowing as she looked between the two males and realized mon dieu, neither of them know what I’m talking about!

“Oh my god,” she said in English. “Paris, we’ve been attacked by a supervillain for the last three years,” she said slowly, but still no recognition. In fact, that only seemed to shock the heroes more. Marinette’s face grew more grim as she decided to completely fill them in. “Three years ago, one of my classmates randomly turned into a huge rock monster. Because of it, Paris’s primary two heroes showed up for the first time to defeat him. When he turned back into a normal boy, the true villain projected himself in front of the Eiffel Tower. His name is HawkMoth. He got hold of a magical artifact called a Miraculous. His Miraculous allows him to corrupt something, in his case butterflies, and use that corrupted object to take advantage of people experiencing negative emotions. His corrupted object takes advantage of those negative emotions to turn the person into a supervillain, giving them powers and essentially brainwashing them into causing havoc. He bargains with them, convincing them that he’ll allow them to get their revenge in exchange for them bringing him what he wants,” Marinette took a breath. “The Miraculous That the two heroes of Paris use. It’s where the get their own powers,” she explained. “Ladybug, the leader, uses the Ladybug Miraculous. It holds the power of creation. Her partner, Chat Noir, uses the cat Miraculous, which holds the power of destruction. If you combine the powers of those two Miraculous, you can make a wish. They will literally manipulate reality in order to grant the wish,” Marinette looked down to her lap, clenching her hands into fists. Through her soul bond with Robin, she could see herself trembling in anger. “But it always comes with a price. The Miraculous uphold the balance of the world. If they grant a wish, they will also balance that wish. If you, for example, wish for the cure to an illness,” Marinette swallowed, “then maybe you will unleash a brand new illness that gets brought to your city by rats and wipes out around forty percent of the population in Europe.”

“The Black Plague,” Nightwing gasped. “That was from a wish made using these— Miraculous?”

Marinette nodded gravely. “Yes. A wish has also caused the sinking of Atlantis, the wipe out of most of the Native American population in North America from illness, it was the final straw to begin the First World War. You cannot make a wish without consequences,” she stressed. “That is why Ladybug and Chat Noir work so hard to keep their Miraculous away from HawkMoth. But they haven’t been able to discover his identity yet. Nobody has,” Marinette’s shoulders slumped. “Which means Paris can only endure as it gets hit every few days by a new supervillain and new powers. Luckily, one of Ladybug’s power is the ability to reverse any damage that happens due to a Miraculous. It will completely reverse environmental damage, magical effects, injuries, even deaths that occurred from misuse of a Miraculous,” Marinette didn’t notice how both men stiffened at that last admission. “But the most we can do is try to police our emotions as much as possible, keep ourselves from being overcome by negative emotions for very long, so that Hawk Moth doesn’t have the chance to use us. Thus, meditation.”

Silence reigned for a long moment before Nightwing punched the concrete under him, making Marinette jump. What—?

“How did we not know?” The older hero growled, making Marinette’s eyes shoot wide open. Huh?

“You really never heard about this?” She asked cautiously, frowning. “Ladybug called the Justice League for help back when this all first started, but she was waved off as if it was all a prank. She tried again later, only to get the same treatment. I thought you would have at least heard about that.”

Nightwing and Robin both shook their heads. “No,” the older of the two refuted. “Nobody from the League told any of us about a prank call, and usually we’d hear about that. Not many people risk prank calling the heroes of the world, after all. And that doesn’t explain how international news never covers that. Even if the effects are reversed, you’d think someone would report about villains in Paris.”

“Someone does,” Marinette said, tilting her head. “The Ladyblog used to be the only one, you can find it online. It started out as a really trustworthy source of information on everything happening in Paris with its heroes and Akumas—Which is what the temporary villains are called. But lately, the Ladyblog has been…” Marinette’s face twisted into a scowl. “...not the most reliable news source. But Ladybug herself started a new news app, AkumaWatch, that most of Paris has downloaded by now,” Marinette pulled out her phone to show them. Pulling the app up, she turned the screen so they could see. “This tab holds footage of past or currently occurring attacks. This tab holds resources for calming techniques, and sources for therapy or other emotional aid for anyone who needs it. This tab has self defense techniques and the location of all the Akuma Shelters in the city so people can evacuate as quickly as possible. And this tab,” she clicked on the second to last one, “is for anyone who sees an Akuma, which looks like a corrupt purple butterfly, to take a picture of it. This allows the Akuma Alert to narrow down the area that the attack begins in, so that people know where to avoid most,” she explained. “The last tab is for any PSAs or other public statements that any of Paris’s heroes or public figures have to say about the attacks.”

“You know a lot about this,” Robin mused slowly, Marinette fully aware of how his gaze remained on her face as she closed the app and put her phone away. Robin was equally aware of how she stubbornly looked anywhere other than his face. Marinette shrugged.

“I helped make the app. Besides, Ladybug occasionally lands on my terrace and we’ll talk when she doesn’t have something better to do. I wouldn’t say we’re friends, exactly, but I think she just likes having someone other than her teammates to talk to about everything with,” Marinette rubbed the back of her neck and smiled sheepishly. “I’m a pretty good listener.”

Robin and Nightwing traded glances, before they both looked back at her.

“Okay…” Robin said slowly. “Let’s try meditation.”

Eager to get away from the previous topic, Marinette easily agreed and both teens adjusted their posture, got comfortable, and closed their eyes.

As usual both of their visions went completely black, but only for a moment. Once they had both sunk into their meditation, their vision came back to show them in what they immediately, intrinsically knew was a shared mindspace.

No longer was their vision cut in half like a game. Instead they saw only from their own point of view, like normal, which was disorienting in and of itself after half an hour of seeing from two points of view at the same time.

The mindspace was mostly white, and it seemed to go on forever. But there were things there. Everything that belonged to Marinette was on pink space, like the floor or sometimes walls and ceiling of the area around that object decided to create a small piece of solidity to emphasize it. Solidity that happened to come in the form of pink. Pink floor in a patch of space, or a cube of pink floor, wall, and patch of ceiling. Likewise, the spots that belonged to Robin were backdropped by green. And the. There were spots that merged both colors, indicating that it was shared.

Like the giant sparring mat in the center of the room, where the floor beneath and around it was an attractive swirl of pink and green as if the two colors chased one another, creating a design that seemed wholly and completely right. Belonging just to Robin, though Marinette was able to walk over and gently run her hands over them, was a rack of weapons—primarily swords. There was also a couch, a computer, a large bookshelf, a wall of batarangs, and a TV that they apparently shared just like the sparring mat.

Amongst the pink items were things like a kitchen— a whole, fully stocked kitchen— a sewing station and matching rack of fabric, a computer of her own, a few potted plants, and a loft bed.

After taking the time to absorb their surroundings, Robin turned to Marinette to find, with relief, that they were both dressed exactly as they were in the physical world. Marinette wasted no time heading over to the shared television, a large flat screen, and sat down on the ground in front of Robin’s green-backdropped couch.

“What are you doing?” The boy asked in exasperation as Marinette turned on the piece of technology. “This isn’t the time to play around. We’re trying to figure out how to control this bond,” he reminded her. Marinette nodded, not looking back at him.

“That’s exactly what I’m doing. Look, our vision mimicked a video game, right? So where better to find clues than the mysterious TV in our mindspace. I mean, it technically doesn’t actually exist, since this isn’t the physical world, so it won’t have any normal channels or shows on it. The TV is connected to our minds. What better place to look for— I knew it!” She shouted in glee. Sure enough, when Robin walked up to her and sat down on the sofa that belonged to him, he saw it. The screen of the TV was split in half, but both sides were dark. In the bottom left of each side of the screen were the very familiar red words and heart-colons;

PLAYER ONE: MARINETTE DUPAIN-CHENG

PLAYER TWO: ROBIN

The TV showed the view from their eyes. It was the link between their mindspace and their vision in the real world.

“Okay…” Robin mused slowly, reaching forward to grab the green controller on the stand that held the TV. Marinette grabbed the matching pink controller. “So this works like a video game, after all.”

“At least partially,” his soulmate agreed. “It’s mostly a mind link, right? We share a mindspace, which isn’t too odd for soulmates,” even if it was on the rarer side of the spectrum, “But it looks like our minds are even connected through our physical vision. Here, let’s see if this game of life has any instructions,” the girl pressed the center button on her controller, which pulled up an Options tab on the screen. “Yes!”

“Here, let’s look at the list of controls,” Robin suggested, clicking the appropriate option on the screen. The “game title” was boasted in bright red at the top of the “controls” list;

Soul Team.

Marinette’s eyes widened at the title. “Oh,” she said, her voice surprisingly quiet. “It’s… like it’s saying that we’re each other’s backup, no matter what,” her soft voice echoed in the room, striking an odd chord in Robin. “We can always see when the other person is in danger, or what they’re facing, and go to help.”

“Look at this,” Robin pointed to one of the “controls” lines near the top. “Switch vision mode between Split Screen, Audio Only, Personal Mode, or Sleep Mode. It looks like we can only switch modes here, in the Mindspace,” he pointed out as he read. “We don’t have to agree on the setting, but aside from Sleep Mode, Which activates automatically when we fall asleep, any mode one of us chooses still affects us both.”

“Audio only just lets us hear what is going on around the other person,” Marinette read, humming in thought. “We can use that as a step two, right? Like, we can start on Personal Mode, where we only have our own Point of Views, but once we get more comfortable we can switch to audio mode every now and then.”

“Maybe,” Robin agreed reluctantly. Audio mode shouldn’t be too bad… possibly. Once again, his green eyes strayed to his soulmate. Completely unaware, for the first time in a half hour, of his stare, Marinette just continued reading about everything their soul bond entailed.

Analyzing her like this, Robin was just… calmed, in a way. Visually, Marinette was pretty. She had gorgeous sapphire eyes, clear like a pristine lake, and midnight black hair that shimmered blue in the right lighting. Sure, it was pulled into childish pigtails at the base of her neck, but it didn’t seem to detract from the surprising maturity in the girl’s posture. She was clearly a childish person at heart, and easy to excite if their interactions thus far were anything to go off of, but there was a hidden maturity there. A hidden knowledge, amongst her many subtle layers and complexities.

Perhaps that was the first similarity that Robin noticed between the two of them. She had what seemed like a very straightforward personality at first glance— the awkward, shy, clumsy, excitable girly girl, just like he was the cold, arrogant, mysterious bad boy on the surface. But she held more than that, secrets and deeper parts of herself that she kept hidden flawlessly. Robin doubted even her closest friends noticed much of what lies beyond the surface of her character.

“It seems like this bond is supposed to ease us into getting to know each other,” Marinette’s voice brought Robin out of his inner musings. “We can’t hear each other’s thoughts, no matter what, which is usually the feature that comes along with shared mindspaces. But we can adjust the level of privacy we allow one another, and we can meet here when we sleep. It’s less like the bond between gamers, and more like the bond is meant to act like an ice breaker. Like… an activity for us to get to know each other, almost.”

“Our soul bond is a team bonding activity,” Robin surmised in a deadpan tone, completely done with the logic of the universe and the way it liked to play with him. The laugh that Marinette let ring out only partially made up for his annoyance.

“Oui, Oui!” Marinette agreed emphatically before standing up frantically in realization. “Oh! I forgot to ask, do you speak French?”

Robin grinned and nodded. “I do, actually. I suppose that is at least convenient. My first language is Arabic, however. I don’t suppose you speak that, do you?”

Marinette’s shoulders slumped. “No. But I do speak Mandarin! And Cantonese, which is actually my first language. I’m still working on Mandarin, though. I’ve only been learning it for about two years, but I can hold a decent conversation.”

Damian nodded, tilting his head. “I am fluent in Mandarin, but my Cantonese can use some work. We can benefit each other in that respect, at least.”

“So we have plenty of languages to choose from!” Marinette said cheerfully, punctuating her words with an excited clap. “That should make it easy to keep people from eavesdropping on us all the time, at least. If we ever spoke to each other in front of my class, for example, Cantonese would be best to use. They all speak French, for obvious reasons, and several are fluent in English, and one of them is fluent in mandarin, but I don’t think any of them know Cantonese. After I help you get fluent, maybe you could teach me Arabic?”

And for the first time in Damian Wayne’s life, the sparkle of excitement in a girl’s eyes completely drained his will to argue. Grimacing, the boy agreed to teach her Arabic after they helped each other become fluent in the type of Chinese that they, respectively, needed help with.

This is a problem, Robin thought in despair. She’s already becoming a weakness.

—*—*—*—*—*

#maribat #mlb x dc #ml x dc #dc x mlb #dc x miraculous #platonic jasonette #platonic dickinette #platonic timari #romantic daminette #daminette #damian x marinette #damimari #marinette x damian #maribat fic

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Hi! I love, your work, by the way! I was wondering if I could get a Tim x Adrien story. With a side of childhood friends to lovers? Like Tim and Adri met at one of the Drakes Parties? But also I want a side a relationship reveal, but with Class Field Trip to Gotham City salt. Also, also Tim and Adrien already know each other superhero identities.

Basically all of Lila's lying, Tim x Adrien's relationship, is revealed at one of the Wayne Gala's.

I have never shipped Adrien with anyone because I have zero grasp of his character and I gave this my best shot. I lost control of the plot somewhere and It turned into this monster. I know you guys might ask me to continue this but my answer is no. And Class Redemption because why not?

[Masterlist]

-------

THE STORY OF THEIR LIVES

Ten-year-old Adrien smiled as the old lady pinched his cheeks. Even in Gotham, he can't escape the obsession old wealthy women has with his ‘chubby’ cheeks.

While she commented on how cute he was (at least that is what Adrien thinks she is talking about, he had slacked in his English lessons a little bit and she was using the English word for cute a lot), he scanned the lavishly decorated ballroom for signs of his mother.

She would be more willing to distract the nice lady than Père while Adrien made his escape. Instead, he locked eyes with another boy around his age.

“Help me!” Adrien mouthed to the other boy in English.

Tim was ecstatic at meeting another child his age at the boring gala his parents made him attend and concerned when they started asking for help.

Once he got a glimpse at who was holding the other boy hostage, he winced in sympathy. Ms. Milson may look like a feeble old lady, albeit dressed in more expensive clothing than your average grandmother, but her hands are like crab pincers which Tim had been the victim of many, many times.

Tim recognised the other boy as Adrien Agreste, French model for his father’s, Gabriel Agreste’s, brand. Said blonde’s cheeks were turning a worryingly red and Ms. Milson took no notice as she continued to coo about how cute he is.

Once Adrien realised that Tim was looking at him, he widened his eyes so comically and mouthed at Tim for help. His pleading green eyes, similar to that of a sad kitten, made Tim cave in to help despite the potential damage Ms. Milson will inflict on his cheeks.

 Tim sighed and tried his best to make sure his smile didn't look like a grimace, “Ms. Milson.”

“Timothy, darling, where have you been hiding? I have been looking for you everywhere …” Ms Milson babbled on as she predictably reached for his cheeks after letting go of Adrien’s. Tim tried to stay still and not flinch at her approach.

Holy crab pincers, Batman. It hurts so bad. Why was he doing this again?

Adrien, behind Ms. Milson, rubbed his cheeks and gave Tim a bright smile in gratitude which made Tim’s stomach feel funny.

Are all models this pretty? Honestly, he could see why Gabriel would openly try to break child labour laws and use such a pretty face.

“... and you have grown so big. Timothy dear, have you met this boy yet? He’s your age. His name is…erm….what was it again, dear?”

“Adrien Agreste, Madam,” he replied.

“Well, Adrien, this is Timothy,” she said as she pulled said boy’s cheek and Tim grimaced from the pain, “and his parents are the one hosting this lovely gala.”

“Oui.”

“Ms. Milson, can Adrien and I go play?”

“Of course, dearie,” She finally released Tim’s cheek from her grip and gave it one last pat, “I remember when my boys were your age. Oh look, there’s Richard. I haven’t seen him in a while. He’s growing up into a rather smart young man. You boys go have fun now.”

By then, Tim had already grabbed Adrien’s hand and dragged him across the room, out of Ms. Milson’s sight.

“Sorry, about dragging you, Adrien. But if we don't get out of there, she will come pinch us again.”

“It’s fine. No cheeks being pinched is good.” Adrien said in a slight mix of French and British accent.

“I was afraid that you might not understand me.”

“I have a family in London so I learn it but there are some things about English that I find confusing.”

“Don’t worry, even Americans sometimes find the language confusing.”

They stood there and stared at each other. Tim used that opportunity to study Adrien. His blonde hair was well-combed and all of his clothes were all obviously Gabriel branded. So another reason for Gabriel coming was to promote his new line. 

“Do you want to be friends?” Adrien bursted out asking.

“Yeah,” Tim absentmindedly answered, deep in thought about his observations of Adrien before registering the question, “Huh, I mean, sure. We can be friends.”

“Adrien, what are you doing here?” A blond woman who is likely to be Adrien’s mother called out due to their resemblance.

“Mama, this is my new friend, Timothy.”

“Nice to meet you, Madam. My name is Timothy Drake. My parents are the hosts of today’s gala. I hope you are enjoying your evening.”

“Such a polite boy. But you don’t need to be like that with me. Are you boys having fun?”

“Timothy was going to show me around.” Adrien exclaimed, before lowering his head and quietly asked, “Can I go with him, Mama?”

Emilie smiled and bent down to pat his head, “Of course, you can, mon cher. Stay inside the mansion at all times. I will be staying in the Ballroom the entire time. Come find me when you want to go back to the hotel.”

“Okay, Mama!” Adrien smiled brightly, causing the funny feeling in Tim’s stomach to increase and his face felt hotter. Tim held out his hand (why was it sweating so much? ) for Adrien to grab.

Emilie tried to resist the urge to squeal as she watched the two boys walk away, giggling like the children they are supposed to be. She was going to persuade Gabriel to let Adrien keep in touch and be friends with the son of the Drakes.

------

Adrien tuned out Lila’s voice as he stared out the airplane window of his first class seat. Lila was also somehow in first-class and she was making as much use of it as she could. As soon as the seatbelt sign was off, she had spent every second of her time sitting next to him, stating that first-class chairs were big enough for two. All of his requests for her to go away fell on deaf ears. (Does she actually have tinnitus or is it selective hearing?)

Many of the other passengers had put in earplugs or headphones to avoid her but Adrien had not much luck as Lila stopped his every attempt to do the same. 

On paper, the class was on their way to Gotham City for their school field trip. As an Agreste, he got a seat in first class and unfortunately along with Lila, who by some miracle managed to get his father to get her in.

The truth was that it was just a cover for the Miraculous Court, who were sitting in business class along with the rest of their classmates, to get into Gotham to escape Shadowmoth’s scrutiny and discuss with the Bats about the Paris situation. For Adrien, it was an excuse to see his boyfriend, Tim Drake-Wayne again. Or also known as Red Robin.

The two boys had kept in contact over the years. Tim began to reach out more after he learned about the akuma situation and patiently endured Adrien’s crush on Ladybug. Luckily, one identity reveal later, Marinette and Adrien decided that they were both better off as friends. Marinette had long moved on from her own crush on ‘Adrien Agreste’ and in the suits, Chat Noir no longer flirted around Ladybug.

Soon after, Tim and Adrien confessed to liking each other and started dating in a long distance relationship.

After a long talk with the rest of the Miraculous Court, they agreed to let Adrien tell Tim about his identity. They thought that as a Wayne, Tim would be able to connect them to Batman and get them the help they needed. It hasn’t been long since the Court was formed and properly established. Between school and the akumas, they don’t have the proper manpower or resources to investigate Shadowmoth.

The second identity reveal was more chaotic than the first.

—--

Adrien, transformed as Chat Noir, was nervously standing in front of his computer screen where a shocked Tim was frozen for the past few minutes.

“Tim?” Adrien asked worriedly, “I know this is a lot to spring it much on you and you might not believe it-”

“No. No. Babe, I believe you. It’s just… wow, my brothers are not going to leave me alone if they find out about this.” Tim looked down thoughtfully and tried to process the fact that his boyfriend wears a leather catsuit on a regular basis to battle.

“Tim, are you okay?”

“I am fine. So you are Chat Noir. I know that but my head can’t seem to get around to that fact.”

“Oh. Wait. Plagg, claws in.” Adrien said and a green light flashed over him. Tim takes a double take as the camembert on Adrien’s desk starts floating.

“On second thought, I think I should get some sleep if I am hallucinating floating cheese.”

“Tim! What have I told you about your sleep schedule.”

“Relax, Adrien,” a nasally voice was heard, “your boyfriend’s fine. He just couldn’t see me because kwamis don’t show up on cameras. Remember Kwami Buster?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Who was that?” Tim asked.

“Plagg, he’s basically a god that allows me to transform into Chat Noir. Cameras can’t seem to work on him and that’s probably why you think that there is a floating cheese besides me.”

“Right. Right.” Tim placed his head in his hands, “So to recap, you are a cat-themed superhero. Specifically one of the main heroes that are fighting that Butterfly Man.”

“Shadowmoth.”

“Okay. And you are powered by an invisible god.”

“He looks like a black chibi cat actually. You can’t see him because of the cameras. I think there’s a picture Marinette drew of him somewhere. Hold on.” Adrien went out of frame for a moment before returning with a sketch of Plagg.

“Wow.”

There were points in Tim’s life when he thought that things can’t get weirder and they did. His boyfriend confesses to being one of the heroes that the JL had been trying to make contact with for the past year but couldn’t, due to a frustrating combination of magic and politics. That is making its way to the top ten weirdest.

“Tim?” Adrien’s hesitant voice brought him back from his thoughts.

“I am fine, Adrien.” Tim reassured, “It was a lot to process but I believe you. You should be glad that I have made this line so secure that even Lex Luthor would have trouble listening in. I don’t think you would like your father knowing about this.”

“Oh thank kwamis. Well, the other reason I am telling you this is because I need your help contacting Batman. As a Wayne, you probably know how to do that. At least I hope you have a way.”

Oh. Tim wanted to laugh.

After many months of failing to get into contact with the Miraculous Court, an opportunity simply landed on Tim’s lap in the form of his boyfriend. Now, he had a decision to make.

“Tim?”

“Adrien, I also have something I have been keeping a secret.”

“It can’t be that you are also a superhero, right?” Adrien joked, “Cause what are the chances that both of us are heroes.”

Adrien’s smile faded, upon seeing Tim’s completely serious face.

“No. No. No. No way. Non. Non.”

“Adrien, I am Red Robin.” Tim interrupted Adrien’s denial session. Cackling was heard through the speakers which Tim assumed was from Adrien’s floating cat god.

Adrien went silent for a moment before asking, “Who’s Red Robin?”

It was Tim’s turn to be shocked into silence. His boyfriend didn’t even know who his hero identity. Granted, he never talked about the Bats of Gotham in detail to Adrien besides mentioning that they ‘save’ him a few times and his family’s alter egos weren’t as public as the Parisian heroes. But still.

Tim slapped his hand to his forehead in despair, “My boyfriend doesn't even know who I am. Granted, I am not that much of a big deal but that hurts.”

“I’m sorry,” Adrien apologised, “I only know about Batman and his sidekick, Robin.”

“I’m fine. Don’t let Damian know that you called Robin a sidekick.”

“Your brother is Robin?”

“My entire family is in on it.”

“Is Alfred Batman then?”

Tim laughed.

“Come on, Tim. I want to know who he is.”

“It’s Bruce.”

Adrien felt his brain trying to process the information. “What?”

“Bruce Wayne is Batman.”

“Are you sure you are not making fun of me for being honest and telling you my superhero identity?”

“Nope. Completely serious. I am the hero, Red Robin. If you search up about the Teen Titans or the Young Justice, you will see my name beside them. I am best friends with the older Superboy and Kid Flash.”

They spent the rest of the call, talking about their alter egos.

—--

After months of planning over video calls to somehow get most of the Miraculous Court out of Paris so they can discuss the Shadowmoth problem. A class trip to Gotham was what they came up with.

Adrien was jealous of Marinette, Kagami and Luka who went ahead of the class a few days prior, using Jagged Stone’s tour as a cover.

Marinette had came clean to her parents about Ladybug and they pulled her out of Dupont to be homeschooled. (The official reason was so she can focus more on her career since Jagged named her his favourite designer and she had more work. The real reason was so she can focus on taking down Shadowmoth.) She was there as Jagged’s costume designer.

Luka had persuaded his father to take a detour in Gotham so it coincided with the class trip and Kagami was a tagalong as Luka’s girlfriend. How they managed to persuade her strict mother Adrien didn’t know. 

Chloe and Zoe had stayed behind, partly because the sisters didn’t want to go to Gotham and partly so there would be someone to hold off the akuma until the others portaled back. The final three members of the Miraculous Court, Alix, Alya and Nino, were in business class with the rest of the class.

“Adrien~” The sickly sweet voice which felt like bugs crawling up his skin, called for his attention, “Can you tell this lady who I am so I can get my drink?”

There was an attendant who looked frustrated and tried her best to hide it behind a professional smile. Adrien knew that look all too well, seeing it on many of his co-workers’ faces when Lila was on set for a photoshoot.

“What seems to be the problem?” Adrien asked the attendant, a practised smile on his face.

“The young lady wants wine but we can’t do that because she’s underage.”

“See, Adrien, she’s being unreasonable. I already told her that I am 18 and I can drink.”

“Lila,” Adrien said gently, “I am sure the nice lady is working hard to make sure you are comfortable but unfortunately, it is the law in America that the drinking age is 21. She doesn’t want you to get in trouble.”

“But, Adrien-”

“ You can drink when we get back. It’s only for a few days. You don’t want to get kicked out of this trip for causing trouble. Right, Lila?”

“Fine. Can you get me a soda then?” Lila asked the attendant, who nodded and walked away in relief. (She was gonna tell the others to be watch out of the entitled girl in first class)

“And can you get out of my seat please?” Adrien interrupted, “I want more leg room to myself right now so I can sleep.”

Lila dropped her smile and her lips began to tremble, preparing to cry and cause a scene.

Adrien looked at where Gorilla was sitting. The bodyguard was getting ready to intervene if Adrien wanted him to. He gestured to show Gorilla that he had it handled.

“This flight will take hours and I think both of us having our own space instead of being cramped in one seat for that long will be more comfortable.”

“But Adrien, I want to be together with you.”

“And I don’t.”

“Adrien, how could you?” Lila started crying.

“Lila, we aren’t even dating. I don’t like you getting into my personal space. I only tolerate you because you are my classmate and for some bizarre reason, my dad deemed you good enough to be my friend.”

“I thought we had something,” Lila sobbed.

“Hey, girly,” a dark-haired man from a seat over snapped, “The guy’s reasonable in wanting his own space so quit your whining and get over your delusions before I drag you back to your seat and gag you.”

Lila immediately went silent and looked at Adrien with an expectant look. He simply tilted his head in the direction of her seat. Lila turned to find the man glaring at her.

Knowing she lost, Lila slowly went back to her seat.

Adrien sighed in relief and turned towards the man with a look of gratitude,

“Thanks a lot for the help.”

“No problem. She was getting on my last nerves too.”

“I am sorry that you had to deal with her.”

“It’s fine. Us bros got to stick together on things like this.”

Finally, peace and quiet. Adrien put on his earphones to listen to the playlist Nino had made for him and enjoy the rest of the flight.

------

Tim rocked his heels nervously as he waited for Adrien and his class to show up. Bruce had put him and Dick in charge of the tour of Wayne Enterprises for the Dupont class. Dick was there to do the actual tour guide duties while Tim was there to pass on the meeting details to the Miraculous Court by discreetly blending in with the class.

And also because he was a sap who missed his boyfriend. Jason and Dick would never stop teasing him about how he spent 40 minutes in the bathroom to get ready. Was it wrong to look good in front of his boyfriend who he hadn’t physically seen in 1 year, 3 months and 23 days?

The bus carrying Adrien and his friends finally arrived. Dick elbowed Tim in his ribs to focus because Tim couldn’t stop staring at his love. Adrien immediately brightened when he spotted Tim besides his brother. Tim had to wonder if Gotham was sunnier than usual.

Unfortunately, their moment was interrupted when a brunette girl latched onto Adrien’s arm, blabbering about why ‘Adrien-boo’ didn’t help her when she needed help getting off the bus. She reminded the Waynes of the gold diggers who would throw themselves at Bruce and only viewed him as a trophy and money dispenser.

Adrien had an uncomfortable smile as he tried in vain to make the girl let go of his arm. She instead doubled down and gripped harder on his arm, making him grimace. The rest of the class was oblivious of Adrien’s pain as they huddled around the two and cooing about how cute they look and underhandedly berating Adrien for not helping Lila out. Thankfully, the one Tim recognised as Adrien’s best friend, Nino, stepped in while his girlfriend, Alya, smoothly redirected the class attention to the tour.

Dick gave them a bright smile and introduced himself as the tour guide. He shook hands with the teachers while Tim made his way towards his boyfriend, careful to not be noticed. He found Nino fussing over the marks on Adrien’s arm a little bit away from the group who were distracted by the fact that they were meeting the eldest Wayne child, Richard Grayson. Seeing the marks, Tim saw red.

Tim was aware about the girl, Lila Rossi.

She was a manipulative liar who had been causing a lot of trouble for the Miraculous Team by trying to isolate Adrien from his friends and slandering the rest of them with false lies. She also nearly got Ladybug akumatized which made the over-stressed Marinette finally decide to tell her parents about the Miraculous to ease the burden. However, once her main target and who she perceived as a ‘rival’, Marinette, was gone, Lila was hell bent on making Adrien hers.

Gabriel, the only person who Tim thinks can beat his parents for ‘Worst parent of the year’, had employed that snake as a model because apparently she was a good influence on Adrien and the reason why Adrien’s actual friends are no longer allowed at his house.

Overall, Lila was a person that should be taken care of immediately. Already, Tim had formulated many plans to get rid of her, preferably somewhere as far from Adrien as possible.

While Dick started the tour and Lila left Adrien in favour of trying to gain favour with a Wayne, Tim sidled up next to his boyfriend who was in the back with his friends.

“Hey, love.”

Adrien lit up and hugged him, “Tim!”

Nino and Alya gave the two thumbs up before shielding the two boys with their bodies to give the couple some privacy and prevent Lila from seeing.

Tim hugged him back and gave him a peck on the lips, “Are you okay?”

“Great. I am doing fine.”

Tim did a small frown at the answer. He laced their fingers together and slowly brought Adrien’s hand up to his lips which made Adrien’s cheeks turn pink at the gesture.

“You made me promise to not lie about not sleeping,” Tim said, “So I wish you won’t lie to me about the wounds that girl inflicted on you.”

“Tim, it’s nothing.” Adrien tried to reassure his boyfriend.

“It’s not. I have seen this kind of thing on a lot of people from Gotham. I don’t want what happened to them happen to you too. People who leave these kinds of marks are bad news. Besides as your boyfriend, I have the right to be worried about anyone who hurt you. I want to unleash hell upon her but I am not doing it now since you guys suspect that she has a way to contact Shadowmoth. So what can I do for you?”

Adrien smiled gently, touched by his boyfriend’s sincerity and squeezed his hand, “I want Lila to leave me alone.” His voice, soft and vulnerable. “Everyone else in the class is pushing for me to be with her. Father is not helping. I wish he didn’t send Lila to breathe down my neck and report back my every move to him. I want to be able to relax without her hounding me when I want to be alone. I don’t want my arm to hurt because of her nails. I want to be able to hang out with my friends without having to sneak around. I wish I could say I love you to you in public and tell people I have a boyfriend without the worry that my father would lock me up in the mansion.”

"As you wish.”

Adrien snorted, “Does that make me Buttercup, Westley?”

“You are beautiful enough for the role,” Tim flirted, making Adrien blush.

The blond cleared his throat to recompose himself, “So about tonight?”

“We will meet you on the rooftop of your hotel.”

“Marinette, Luka and Kagami can portal over with the horse.”

Tim looked towards the group in front of them, “Would they notice if you were gone for a moment?”

“Alya and Nino would cover for me. I can tell Gorilla that I am meeting up with you.” Adrien said, wanting to know what Tim had planned.

“I can tell Tam to not let anyone into my office for a while. My office has a rather comfortable sofa. How about we spend some time catching up,” Tim suggested and he kissed Adrien.

Plagg peeked out of Adrien’s jacket pocket and interrupted them, “Hey, kit, if you are going to go lip-lock with your lover boy, I am going to join Trixx and Wyazz in blogger girl’s fanny pack. I heard that they were going to play cards.”

Adrien spluttered but didn’t refute Plagg’s request.

“Don’t cause trouble and I will leave some cheese for you to eat. Please behave, Plagg.”

“Yeah, yeah, just go enjoy your tryst.”

Adrien tapped Nino’s shoulder to grab his attention as Tim grinned. He texted Dick to drag out the tour as long as possible. 

Was it mean of him to throw his brother to the wolves while he go and make out with his boyfriend?

Yes.

But Tim never had any guilt throwing his brothers under a bus and wasn’t starting now. He dragged Adrien into his office which he had cleaned every surface beforehand in anticipation of this and dear god, Heaven has never tasted so sweet.

—---

Chat Noir paced back and forth nervously on the rooftop. It was easy to slip out when Adrien and Nino shared a room while Alya and Alix were the same and they had stuff pillows under the blankets in case one of the chaperones does a bed check. They managed to get up to the roof, unseen with the help of the Fox miraculous.

There was a slightly muted thud which he heard thanks to his enhanced hearing and alerted Chat Noir to the arrival of the Bats.

“Ti- I mean Red Robin.” Chat Noir ran and hugged his boyfriend.

Until he heard throat-clearing and realised it came from the Batman.

Chat Noir hoped that his embarrassment wasn’t visible as he slightly moved away from Red Robin.

“Ummm, bonjour, Monsieur Batman, sir. I- um We- errr,” Adrien stuttered under the intense gaze from Batman, “So anyways, LB called me and they were a bit late because Shadowmoth had the worst timing. Am I right?” He gave a nervous chuckle, “It’s one of the recurring akuma which are easier to deal with unless Shadowmoth gave them a power up. Which might take a bit longer. But they will definitely be here. Definitely. So um-” Adrien babbled, nervous because while he had experiences with Jack Drake and the Brucie Wayne persona, Batman was on a different level than the other two and he was losing his cool.

“Relax, Batman’s not going to hurt you.” Red Robin rubbed his shoulders.

Just then, like the miracle she is, a blue portal opened to allow three people Chat Noir was very happy to see pass through.

“LB! I am so glad you showed up.” Chat Noir hugged his best friend.

A cough came from where the two other heroes were standing from the sides.

“Sorry, I am glad to see you too. Viperion and Ryuko.”

“Yeah, sorry for being late,” Ladybug said in a professional tone, bringing her hand out towards Batman for a handshake, “Shadowmoth has been very active these days. Anyways, thank you for meeting us.”

Batman accepted it, “The Justice League has been wanting to make contact with you for a while now. Sorry that we haven’t been unable to find out about the situation in Paris until this year. We have monitored you from afar and I see that you have done a great job keeping the akumas under control by yourselves. What can we help you with?”

“Yes. First-” Ladybug stopped mid-sentence as she stared at Robin.

“Ladybug?” Batman asked, confused.

The heroine ignored him and glared at Robin who also looked confused.

“You!” Ladybug pointed at him menacingly, “Al Ghul, you fucking bitch. Why are you still alive?!”

Robin lets out a curse in recognition to which Batman reprimanded with a “Language”. “The same goes for you, Cheng. I thought you blew yourself in Taiwan,” Robin hissed.

“Whatever. You owe me for saving your life.” Ladybug retorted.

Chat Noir made a time-out gesture, “Hold on, you two know each other? And what is this about blowing yourself up, LB?”

Ladybug sighed, “I will give you the long story later but Al Ghul and I do know each other. That’s because we were once engaged.”

“WHAT?!” Everyone looked back and forth between the bird and the ladybug.

“Those weren’t rumours?” Red Hood said, voice filled with disbelief.

“You knew Baby Bat was married?” Nightwing turned his head towards Red Hood.

“I am not married, you idiots. Only engaged. Grandfather wanted to unite the power of the Chengs with ours so he proposed an engagement between the two of us.” Robin explained.

“The old man got too greedy. The engagement got cancelled and our clans had been feuding until the League’s fall.” Ladybug continued.

“Is this a Romeo and Juliet kinda thing?” Rena Rouge asked.

“Fuck no. I think we are cousins, something-times-removed through our grandmother or something.” Ladybug looked disgusted at the idea and Robin had a similar look of disgust on his face.

“And I am not marrying a child,” She added.

Robin scowled, “Just because you are three years older than me, does not mean you can call me a child. But I will express a similar sentiment about not marrying you.”

“That’s effed up. I thought Ra’s can’t get more crazy.” Red Robin shuttered at the thought.

“Hello,” Bunnyx cut in, “I thought we are discussing the Shadowmoth thing and not about what family problems LB and Robin has with the crazy grandpa.”

“Right,” Ladybug cleared her throat and went into details about Paris and what help they required.

—--

“Monsieur Batman, there is one last thing I need to talk to you about,” Ladybug said, her eyes telling him that it was important. The others had left for patrol, joined by a few of the Miraculous Court so the Bats can assess the Court’s ability. The only ones left on the rooftop were Batman, Ladybug, Chat Noir and Red Robin.

“Robin, you can come out,” Ladybug called out.

“Tch.” Robin appeared from where he was hiding after he had done his rounds, mad that he had been discovered.

“Chat, how about you go with Red Robin? It’s not about Shadowmoth.”

“You okay, LB?” Chat Noir gave her a look of concern.

“I am fine, Chat. Just family secrets.” She gave him a small smile as an apology.

“It’s fine. I get it.” Chat Noir reassured her and turned to Red Robin, “So about this place you said you would show me.”

“Oh you are going to love this.” Red Robin grabbed his boyfriend tightly and grappled away.

Once they were out of sight, Ladybug turned back towards the father and son pair, “Okay, I lied. It was about Shadowmoth’s potential identity. I just didn’t want Chat to know about this.”

“And you used me as an excuse to get rid of them?” Robin asked with a raised eyebrow.

“A very convenient one,” Ladybug replied, causing another round of bickering.

“Back to what you were talking about. This information is somehow related to Chat Noir.” Batman cuts in to which Ladybug nodded.

“I wasn’t lying when I said that it was family secrets. This will break Chaton if he knew,” Ladybug nervously said, “Since I started home-schooling and getting the support of my parents, I have been using my free time and family’s resources to investigate who Shadowmoth might be. We already know that he is in regular contact with Lila Rossi and Felix Fathom, Adrien’s cousin, is aware of who he is. There’s not much evidence but the only one with the connection with the two is…” She trailed off.

“You already have a suspect.”

“Gabriel Agreste might be Shadowmoth.” Ladybug revealed before going into more details about her theory.

Somewhere a little far from the rooftop, sitting together on a perch, hidden by the shadows, Chat Noir covered his mouth with his hands as tears flowed down his masked cheeks while Red Robin hugged him tightly to offer comfort.

—--

The saying ‘Curiosity killed the Cat’ could be said of Adrien.

There were many things he wanted to know. Everyone in his life had their own secrets and Adrien had come to learn that secrets were secrets for a reason.

Pushing Ladybug’s boundaries to reveal hers and her unwillingness to tell him anything had cost them their easy-going partnership and broken to the point of Shadowmoth nearly winning. It was then that they had their identity revealed to each other. Their friendship as Marinette and Adrien also took a hit.

Luckily, thanks to the two kwamis’ stubbornness, they were able to build their relationship to the way it was before although there was a bit of tension here and there.

Marinette learned to be more open with Adrien and other people instead of keeping it all to herself and Adrien learned to not be so pushy about revealing them and wait for them to be told when the time comes.

That said, Marinette’s family history is one of the things that everyone in the Court wanted to know about. They knew there was something off and there were times when something didn’t fit quite right with the image of a very friendly family that runs a bakery business. The Dupain-Chengs told all of them to keep it to themselves for their own safety.

However, the interaction between Ladybug and Robin had aroused his curiosity.

“Tim,” Adrien asked as they admired the Gotham skyline, “can you find out what they are talking about?”

“They still have their comms in so I can. I was going to do it anyway because I want to know what their deal is.”

After a few minutes, Ladybug’s voice can be heard through Red Robin’s ear piece which the two boys huddled around.

“...didn’t want Chat to know about this.”

“And you used me as an excuse to get rid of them?”

“A very convenient one.”

“What did LB want me to not know about?” Chat Noir thought out loud as the pair bickered.

“Back to what you were talking about. This information is somehow related to Chat Noir.”

Batman’s gruff voice cuts in.

“I wasn’t lying when I said that it was family secrets. This would break Chaton if he knew. Since I started home-schooling and getting the support of my parents, I have been using my free time and family’s resources to investigate who Shadowmoth might be. We already know that he is in regular contact with Lila Rossi and Felix Fathom, Adrien’s cousin, is somehow aware of who he is. There’s not much evidence but the only one with the connection between the two…”

Tim connected the dots about what the topic was about. He looked over at his boyfriend to find his cat green eyes watery.

“You already have a suspect.”

“Gabriel Agreste might be Shadowmoth.”

Adrien took in a sharp breath and choked. Tears started to fall. Tim caught him before he accidentally pushed himself off the ledge and held Adrien tight. Tim muted the comms and whispered a mantra of ‘It’s going to okay’ as he rubbed soothing circles into Adrien’s back. (A part of him idly wondered why the ones he dated have supervillain daddy issues.)

------

The next day, Adrien met up with Tim at the Gotham Museum of Antiquities. He had told Mme. Bustier and Gorilla that he was expecting to meet with a friend who lives in the city. It took a lot of work and Nino and Alya’s help to convince Lila and the class to leave him alone. Tim showed up in the middle of it and Adrien didn’t like the way Lila’s eyes lit up when Tim introduced himself.

“Adrien~ you didn’t tell me that your friend was a Wayne,” Lila gripped Adrien’s arm and leaned on it, “Why didn’t you want us to meet him?”

Adrien pushed her away and got closer to Tim instead. He positioned them in a way that used Tim as a human shield against Lila.

Tim  grabbed Adrien’s hand behind his back, hidden from the eyes of the class, and squeezed it in reassurance. He gave a glare to Lila who tried to make a grab for his boyfriend.

She took a step back at the sudden show of hostility.

The glare was replaced so quickly, that Lila wondered if she had imagined it, by the polite mask reserved for formal events and interviews.

“That’s on me. I told Adrien not to tell anyone about it. Didn’t want to attract unwanted attention and all that. The price of fame is big as I hope you will understand, Miss.”

“Oh, I am Lila. Lila Rossi. You might have heard of me.”

Tim lets his grin turn sharper, “Oh, I didn’t ask but I am very aware of who you are, Miss Rossi.”

Lila opened her mouth to say something, only to be ignored as Tim turned towards the rest of the class with a charming smile, “And if you guys don’t mind, I would like to join you on the tour.”

As predicted, Lila latched onto Tim while Adrien stuck to Tim’s other side.

Tim dropped his smile and gave her a cold look that can freeze the Sahara, “Miss Rossi, would you mind letting go of me?”

“You don’t mind Adrien touching you.”

“I have known Adrien since I was a kid. You however are a stranger and I don’t like strangers touching me.”

“But you are Adrien’s friend and his friends are also my friends.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t see the same and I feel rather uncomfortable with your advances. My boyfriend might not appreciate you hanging on to me.”

Lila made some excuses about Italians being affectionate and needing support in case she fainted due to her poor health. (No way was Lila letting a golden ticket go that easily. Famous people have paparazzi following them and a break-up might be bound to happen if there are pictures of Wayne with a girl in his arms floating around.)

The class backed her up but Tim wasn’t going to deal with this bullshit. 

“Well, if you are that concerned for your classmate, I have no choice but to help her out.” Tim sighed in defeat. Lila tried not to smile too widely and show her glee at the victory but the smirk on his face gave the girl an uneasy feeling.

The next minute, Lila found herself in a wheelchair pushed around by Gorilla while Adrien and Tim were nowhere to be seen and supposedly exploring the VIP section together which Tim had reserved earlier only just for the two of them.

Tim had gone up to the Receptionist desk and returned with a wheelchair that had an annoying squeaky wheel, muttering about getting better disability aids at the Museum. He managed to reason with the whole class that this was a better way in case Lila passed out and they would just have to bring her back with the wheelchair instead of dragging her unconscious body around.

Lila had tried to stop the boys from separating from the group but Adrien already had permission from his father to go hang out with Tim since Gabriel was not going to miss the chance to be on good terms with a Wayne. There was nothing she could do but sulk as she listened to the boring tour and cursed Timothy Drake-Wayne.

Meanwhile, Tim and Adrien were having a nice time, looking at the exhibition of the history of the entertainment film industry. Tim had used his connections as a Wayne to arrange the exhibition for their date.

After looking around for a fair while, Tim felt that it was safe to approach about what happened last night.

“So did you and Marinette talk it out?” Tim asked as he caressed Adrien’s face which had concealer on to hide his eyebags from crying and little sleep.

When Chat Noir and Red Robin returned, Ladybug immediately knew that they knew and took Adrien away for a private talk.

“I sort of get why she didn’t tell me. Like she said, there was little concrete evidence and it was just a theory. One of the many possibilities but just a little more plausible than the others,” Adrien replied, closing his eyes and resting his head on Tim’s shoulder while Tim wrapped his arm around Adrien to pull him closer. Plagg flew up into Adrien’s hair and purred.

“There is something else that is bugging you, isn’t there?”

“It just- It feels like she doesn’t trust me. Marinette had told me that she does but I can’t help and feel that way.”

“Why?”

“There was time during our first years as heroes and Ladybug thought that my father could be Shadowmoth because we found out that he had the Grimoire in his possession. Ladybug wanted to investigate it and I threw a fit because I didn’t want to believe my father could be the ‘bad guy’. Then, he got akumatized and we dropped the subject.”

“So because of what happened back then, you think Marinette doesn’t trust you.”

“From her point of view, I stopped her from pursuing one of the big leads we had since we began and I am the son of our prime suspect. It’s understandable if she wasn’t able to trust me completely.”

Plagg stopped his purring and somehow gave Tim a look that said, ‘don’t fuck this up’.

“I don’t think she thinks that way.” Tim soothed Adrien, “The way I see it, she kept it from you because she knew you would be hurt if you knew that Shadowmoth might possibly be your father and she was trying to have it confirmed to see if it was true or not by collecting more solid evidence. I would have done the same in her shoes.”

“You think so?”

“We love you, Adrien. Although her love is different from mine,” Tim kissed Adrien and touched their foreheads together, “we just don’t want to see you hurt. I already dated people with supervillain for fathers so this won’t change a thing. I will still love you because you are still Adrien, the one for whom I would give my everything to see you smile.”

“Tim, I love you too.” Adrien whispered as he returned the kiss.

“That’s my cue to leave. It’s getting to lovey-dovey here for my taste,” Plagg grumbled. The kwami was disgruntled to be ignored by the two boys and then took off through halls devoid of people for something to entertain himself with instead.

As time went out, the kisses became longer and heavier.

Adrien thanked Tim’s genius idea to reserve the exhibition just for the two of them. Between the vigilante work, akumas and the thousand miles between Gotham and Paris, they never got to do makeout sessions like this often and they were going to make every moment of it count.

—----

When Tim and Adrien showed up from their own private tour, Adrien looked a little flushed. Alya and Alix wolf-whistled while Nino put his fist out which Tim fist-bumped.

After a few quick whispers, Tim broke off and walked towards Mme. Bustier with whom he exchanged a few words.

“Attention, class,” Mme. Bustier called, “Tim has some exciting news for us.”

“Thank you, Madam. So this is a last minute change to your plans and we weren’t able to confirm it yesterday during your tour of WE but you are all invited to our annual Thomas and Martha Wayne Charity gala this Friday, which is two days from now,” Tim announced, causing the class to burst into excited chatter.

“Since I know that you might not have brought along formal wear, we have arranged a shopping trip tomorrow and contacted your parents or guardians to send you money to buy something to wear. We will also arrange for you to rent something if you want. That is all.”

Alix leaned towards Adrien and whispered, “Dude, your boyfriend is awesome.”

“I know, right?” Adrien agreed.

“Thank kwamis that Fluff made me ask Marinette to make a formal suit for me a month ago.”

“I think my father hoped that something like this might happen and that’s why he made Nathalie pack a tuxedo. Just in case.”

“Do you know why he invited the entire class and not just you?”

Adrien put his index finger on his lips, “You will find out in due time. Tim told me to keep it a secret. But here’s a hint. It starts with a L and ends with an A and rhymes with Liar.”

Alix mock-punched his shoulder, “You are making all the single people jealous.”

Adrien just laughed.

—----

On the day of the gala, Adrien found a suit delivered to his hotel room with a note.

It was from Marinette saying, ‘Tim ordered me to make this in a week. So you better wear it instead of what basic white monochrome piece your father made.’

Nino laughed when he read the note as Adrien opened the package to reveal a red tuxedo jacket with a gold floral pattern. Its collar and inner lining were black. There was a similar vest, a white shirt, a black bowtie and black suit pants. As he examined the suit, he saw robins and cats hidden among the floral designs.

[Dear god, help me how to describe clothes better.]

Adrien blushed when he saw the words ‘Property of Tim Drake-Wayne’ and a downward arrow stitched near the bottom of the jacket’s inner lining. Plagg and Nino both cackled at Adrien who buried his face into the jacket.

“Oh, camembert, Pigtails is evil. This is perfection. Why did Tikki get her and not me?”

“Quiet, Plagg, before someone hears you and comes in.” Adrien admonished him.

Plagg quieted down but snickers still escaped him.

“You have to admit that it’s funny.”

Adrien’s phone dinged and he checked to see it was a text from Marinette, ‘I better see you wearing it because I pulled three all nighters to finish it on time.’

“She must have worked a lot for her to be this pushy about it,” Adrien observed.

After changing their clothes, the boys headed down to the lobby after meeting up with Alya and Alix on the way. (Marinette had also sent the others MDC originals.) Only a few of their classmates were done but they all complimented Adrien on his suit.

The only chaperone following with them to the gala was Gorilla and the rest, including Mme. Bustier, had opted out for a spa day since the gala has good security and nothing to be worried about.

Soon, two limousines arrived and Tim came out of one.

The black-haired boy was wearing a suit, similar to the one Adrien was wearing except his colour scheme was black and the same green shade as Chat Noir’s eyes, instead of Adrien’s red, gold and black. However, his bowtie was a golden-yellow like Chat Noir’s bell. Adrien laughed as he realised that they were wearing each other’s colours.

“Tim!” Adrien happily greeted and hugged his boyfriend.

“Hey, Adrien. Your ride is here.” Tim resisted the urge to kiss Adrien’s hand. He couldn’t yet because of the Plan.

“Wait, we get to ride in a limo?” Kim asked excitedly.

“Courtesy of Wayne Enterprises.” Tim explained and then asked, “Where are the rest of you?”

On cue, the elevator door opened to let Lila and the rest of their noisy classmates out. Their chattering stopped upon seeing what Adrien was wearing.

“Adrien?” Lila sounded angry for some reason.

“Didn’t you say that Gabriel made matching outfits for the two of you to wear to the gala?” Rose piped up, confused.

Ah. So that’s explained a lot. The dress design itself was beautiful, made of purple silk and white laces and elaborate patterns. Adrien could say it was one of his father’s finer pieces. However, it still would have looked better on a mannequin than it would on Lila and just screamed expensive and pretentious. Adrien remembered the suit his father wanted him to wear and realised that it indeed would have matched the dress Lila was currently wearing.

Adrien straightened his suit and with the most innocent and clueless face he could muster, told them, “I was told to wear this one.” 

“Don’t you have another one? A spare one? One that is white?” Lila insisted..

Adrien tapped his chin for a moment as if in thought before replying with a, “Nope.”

Since he had enough fun out of Lila’s reaction, Tim clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention and announced, “Since everyone is present, it’s time for us to go.”

Lila’s complaints were unheard over the cheers of excitement as everyone walked towards the limos.

It went according to Tim’s plan when Lila threw another tantrum about not being in the same car as Adrien and stating there wasn’t enough room on the larger and more spacious limo the class was given while Adrien, Tim, Nino, Alya and Alix went on the other. Tim calmly explained that Adrien had only been allowed to name three people to go in the same car as him and Lila wasn’t on the list. Lila cried about her ‘Adri-boo’ not choosing her as she held Adrien in a desperate grip. However, Adrien had the courage to do whatever he wanted and face no immediate consequences since his father was thousands miles away in another country.

He pushed her off, “Lila, I never said this before but you make me uncomfortable. You may say that it’s because Italians are affectionate people or whatever but it doesn’t change the fact that I hate the feeling of you touching me everywhere. I also don’t like that you go around telling people that we are dating when we are not and you ignore me when I say not to do that. I also have someone else I like.”

“It’s Marinette, isn’t it?” Lila accused him.

Adrien rolled his eyes.

“Marinette isn’t even here. And no, it’s not her. He is someone very special to me.”

The class gasped in surprise at the reveal.

Adrien continued, “He listens to what I want and does everything to make me happy. He doesn’t care about my looks, or money, or fame. He only sees me as Adrien. Not Adrien Agreste the model. And I am very happy that he likes me back. So fuck off, Lila.”

Adrien hurried and got into the car while Lila stood there in shock. Alix, Alya and Nino quickly followed. (trying to hold in their giggles.) Gorilla got into the front passenger seat.

“We will see you at the gala,” Tim cheerfully waved at the class before closing the door and the limo drove off.

-------

Camera lights flashed as they exited the limo and reporters tried to grab their attention. While the Miraculous Team was used to it as heroes, it was different from the attention they were being currently given.

The class later arrived and were mostly flustered by the reception. Lila tried to ignore what had happened at the hotel and just enjoyed the red carpet moment that she believed was for her. However, there was less enthusiasm from the sidelines than she was pleased with. But you have to take what you can get.

Suddenly, the reporters stopped their barrage of light when they were given a piece of news in their earpieces and they rushed to the other end of the carpet near the entrance where Adrien and Tim were posing side by side, with arms wrapped around each other.

Lila’s heart stopped when she realised what the reporters were shouting at the couple,

“Tim and Adrien, is it true? Are you two dating? How long have you been together? Why come out now?”

Tim raised his hand for silence and the reporters quieted down like obedient dogs eager for treats, “You must be talking about that post Adrien made earlier this evening so to answer your questions,” He and Adrien leaned towards each other for a passionate kiss which had Lila screaming internally in rage and the crowd roaring in delight.

“I hope that will suffice.” Adrien threw out before Tim dragged him inside. Nino, Alya and Alix rushed after them to not be caught by the media burning with questions.

Around Lila, the class was in a similar state and interrogating her if she had known or giving her empty words of comfort.

Lila wanted to scream but she didn’t want to look like a mad woman in front of the cameras and tried to hurriedly get the class inside. “We should get inside. Then, we can ask Adrien what this is all about. It was so mean of him to pull a prank like this without telling us.”

The crowd started up again when Jagged Stone exited from the next limo in all his rock and roll glory. He was accompanied by his son, up and coming musician and heartthrob for teenage fans everywhere, Luka and his girlfriend, one of the youngest Olympic gold medalist fencers, Kagami. They were followed by MDC, Jagged’s favourite and mysterious designer, a young prodigy in a fashion world and whom many notorious and tough fashion critics only have praises and compliments for. Many have tried to speculate who she might be but to no avail.

The reporters erupted a flood of flashing lights at the rockstar’s group, Jagged Stone, drawing most of their attention. Lila seethed that she was outshone and the attention she ‘rightfully’ deserved was stolen by someone else. However, since there were cameras everywhere, she couldn’t act out but just continued to smile and wave despite no one focusing on her.

“It’s Jagged Stone!” Ivan pointed out. Most of the class turned around to look at the rockstar behind them who had a look of impatience.

“Can you kids move? You are holding up the line.” Jagged said impatiently.

“Hey, dad. Luka. Kagami. M.” Juleka waved awkwardly from where she was standing next to Rose and Jagged’s face morphed into a smile.

“Jules, my daughter. Why didn’t you tell me you were in Gotham? I would have come to see you if I knew. Anyways, I am glad to see you….” Jagged chattered on as he hugged Juleka who fist-bumped with Luka as a greeting while in her father’s embrace. The rockstar kept on talking about meeting Brucie again.

“Hello, M. Stone.” Rose greeted.

“Rosie, hope you have taken good care of my daughter.”

“Of course. And these are our classmates.”

Luka cleared his throat to get their attention and said, “ Dad, how about we move along so the people behind us can get in?”

The former Kitty Section members felt a little awkward, considering they broke up because Luka didn’t like how the class treated Marinette and falling so easily to Lila’s lies.

“Sure. Let’s go, kiddos.” Jagged walked past the class with one arm around Juleka’s shoulders and the other around Luka’s. Rose and Kagami followed closely behind. MDC, who wore a mask to conceal her identity, didn’t spare a glance to the class as she sashayed past in her gorgeous blood red evening gown.

Lila felt indignant about being ignored and tried not to show it as she followed the other group, cheeks burning from humiliation. Luckily for her, the class was in awe of meeting one of their favourite celebrities to question why Lila wasn’t mentioned at all during the conversation.

And MDC, there was something about the way the designer stare at her throughout the conversation between Jagged and the class that made Lila feel uneasy.

—------

The class stepped into the large ballroom, looking like they had stepped into a movie. Elegant crystal chandeliers hung from the ceilings, a pyramid made of champagne flute glasses, a buffet table laid out with mouth-watering appetisers to snack on, a fountain with a statue of a nearly naked woman pouring out water from her golden pitcher, classical music softly played by musicians from a balcony while rich and fancy danced, chatted and mingled among themselves.

Lila’s mouth was wide open in shock. The events she had been attending as Adrien’s plus one, thanks to Gabriel, weren’t as lavish as the one before her. While Timothy might be out, Bruce Wayne had adopted several over the years and she just needed to catch the attention of one of them. Then, she can go to galas like these all the time. With her becoming a legal adult that year, she won’t have to go through the tedious process of convincing her mother to move here. She could just apply at one of the local colleges.

Lila had unconsciously rubbed her hands together like a typical scheming villain which Sabrina noticed.

“Lila, are you cold?” Sabrina asked worriedly.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you were cold. You seemed to be rubbing your hands together for warmth.”

“Don’t worry. It's just a little chilly. I am fine.”

“Really?”

“Well, the truth to be told, I still can’t believe what Adrien did earlier. What was he thinking?”

“About him being boyfriends with Tim?”

“Yes! He pushed me away and told me that he didn’t like me. Now he is kissing a boy just to prove a point.” Lila covered her eyes as if to hide her tears, “He didn’t have to go that far to hurt me.”

Sabrina pursed her lips and said nothing as she rubbed Lila’s back to comfort her. She exchanged doubtful glances with Mylene.

Adrien’s declaration of not liking Lila had given the class the realisation that they had never considered his feelings when plotting to bring the two of them together. Right now, seeing Adrien contentedly swaying to the music with Tim made them feel guilty about how they treated him and only encouraged Lila to get closer to him.

—---

While the class might be gullible, they weren’t entirely stupid. The Wayne Gala was attended by many famous faces, many of whom the class admired.

After the initial starstruck awe of the situation faded away, it didn’t take long for the class to realise that Lila was ignored the people she claimed to know and have ‘helped’. Ignored wasn’t quite the right word. There was no hint of recognition when they look at Lila. Only smiling and nodding before walking away.

Then, Lila would tell them that the person was busy these days or they had something on their mind or she would backtrack and say that they weren’t as close as she had said. Lila really loved making excuses. Sometimes, the class had to point out who certain people are when Lila once claimed to have known them to be like ‘family’.

There was a sense of dread among the Akuma Class as the night went on. There was voice in the back of their heads that sounded a lot like Marinette whispering, “She lied. She lied to you. She can’t do what she said she can. She lied. She lied and you believed her.”

The doubts and suspicions built up. The class didn’t want to believe Lila would lie to them. If so, was she ever really the nice sweet girl they thought she was? While Lila went around trying to find a Wayne child to suck up to, the class exchanged quiet words about their suspicions.

“Guys, I don’t think Lila is who she says she is.” Sabrina blurted out.

“Oh thank human’s common sense, I thought I was the only one,” Max exclaimed.

He brought out his phone, “I had Markov run searches for if Lila had done anything she had said to have done in the past year based on Markov’s recordings of her claims. There’s nothing.”

“What? What do you mean, Max?”

“There should be at least some traces of Lila on the internet, like paparazzi pictures, a post mentioning or hinting at her involvement, some credit given to prevent copyright lawsuits or news articles on the events Lila said to have attended. There’s nothing. Not a single thing. I even told him to run facial scans on pictures of parties that many celebrities attended. Other than the ones that Gabriel was invited to, there is not even an accidental shot. Either Lila loves her anonymity so much that she will edit herself out of pictures which is unlikely given how much she loves being in the spotlight or she lied to us.”

“Marinette!” Mylene cried out in realisation, “She was telling us the whole time.”

“We should have listened when she told that Lila was lying to us,” Kim added.

“Oh my god, what have we done?! We made her drop out.”

Someone slow clapped, drawing their attention.

“I suppose I didn’t give you enough credit. You aren’t complete morons if you still have enough brain cells to work out that you were being played like puppets on a string.” Tim Drake stood before them, smirking like some evil mastermind about to reveal his schemes.

The class spotted Adrien hanging out with Luka, Kagami, a blonde girl in a stunning purple gown and an Asian girl in a gorgeous midnight blue dress.

“Tim. What are you doing here?”

Tim made a displeased expression and explained, “I was going to introduce you to some of your idols that I invited for this purpose and subtly shift the topic towards Rossi. One by one. So all of you will figure out that Lila Rossi is nothing but a lying snake. No offence to the snakes.”

“How do we know that you didn’t set the whole thing up?”

Tim rolled his eyes, “Oh please, some of these people have enough wealth of their own that I can’t even bribe them. It would just be a waste of everyone’s time. The most I did was just sent some invites and made sure that they would come. Can you believe how hard to was to get a hold of Tony Stark? And he didn’t even show up. I bet if any of you go ask any one of them if they knew Lila Rossi, they will say no. So either a whole lot of people are lying or your ‘friend’ lied to you. I don’t know why. For the popularity.  Fame. Or just some lap dogs she can use to get through school. I don’t know but I know that everything that came out of her mouth is not true.”

“Why are you doing all of this?” Ivan asked.

Tim held up two fingers, “Two reasons. Reason one is of course Adrien. He’s my boyfriend and I don’t want her around him. Reason two is also why I don’t want her around him. But first.”

Red heels clicked across the marble floor as they approached the group.

“Let me introduce you to the lovely Mademoiselle MDC,” Tim gestured behind him towards the masked woman who they saw with Jagged Stone earlier.

She removed her mask, revealing a familiar face that made the class gasp her name.

“Marinette.”

“Hello. It was nice seeing you again,” Marinette said in a way that reminded them of the evil smart assistant to Tim’s evil mastermind.

“We are so sorry,” Mylene apologised, “We drove you away because we didn’t want to believe you about Lila.”

Marinette gave her a small smile that didn’t look forgiving, “Save your apologies until this whole fiasco is over.”

She took out her phone and all of their phone dinged as they all received the link she texted.

“What’s this?” Kim asked as they all opened it. Sabrina dropped her phone in shock at the news articles about Lila’s past victims. Chills went down their spines as they kept scrolling, unable to look away in horror because this was someone they went to school with every day and smiled at them so innocently. They were all playthings to her.

“Lila wouldn’t. She wouldn’t do something like this.”

Marinette’s face remain neutral as she replied, “But she did. She just hadn’t had the chance to go that far yet. I got out before I became one of them.” Marinette pointed to the phones to show what she meant.

Suddenly, Tim and Marinette looked in the same direction and the class followed their gazes to Lila was making her way through a crowd towards them. Marinette put her mask back on and the two blended into the surroundings like they were never there.

Lila grinned, happy that Duke Thomas-Wayne, newest addition to the family, gave her his fake number. He was still a little green and awkward but she can work with it.

Now, today she just got ‘dumped’ by Adrien and got the class’s sympathy. She could play into that and milk it for all it’s worth for the last few months until graduation. Then, she could make an effort of moving on from Adrien and slowly introduce Duke as her new love interest.

The only problem might be Gabriel. He might terminate her modelling contract since she let something like Adrien’s boyfriend slip through. Once she managed to get Duke to be her boyfriend that problem might be easily solved. Bruce Wayne was said to love his kids, going to as far as to built a zoo for one of them as a birthday present. So if one of his kid asked for his girlfriend to get a modelling gig..

Lila sipped the champagne she managed to snatch from a passing waiter and mentally patted herself on her back. She drained the flute and made her way towards the class, a tad wobbly from the alcohol she had. She made sure her face was one of heartbreak and say she drunk out of despair.

However, the atmosphere around her minions were so chilly, that Lila almost immediately sobered up.

“Guys, there you are…” her voice trailed off upon seeing their glares. “What’s going on?” She tried going for meek and confused. The weak ones like Mylene wavered but Kim pointed at her with anger, “We know, Lila. Drop the act.”

“Know? Know what?” Lila tried to think, assessing the risk of keeping the act up or moving to another school and starting all over again.

“Lila, stop. We know that you lied.”

Lila stopped like they asked and grinned so smugly that the class felt like there was someone else instead of Lila in front of them.

Lila opened her mouth and hell broke loose.

------

A year later, Adrien laid in Tim’s arms and sighed in contentment. Finally peaceful days were upon them. With Batman’s vast resources, they were able to confirm Shadowmoth’s identity as Adrien’s father. The final fight was not only physically exhausting but emotionally draining considering who he had to fight. Both Marinette and Tim offered the option for Adrien to sit out since it might be painful for him while Tim fights as Chat Noir on his behalf. To which, Adrien declined.

In the end, he got another closure of what had happened to his mother and buried her. The Waynes helped with the media fallout of him being Shadowmoth’s son. Adrien was seen as Shadowmoth’s naive and sheltered son who had no idea what his father id although there were still some wary eyes when he goes out in public. He had donated most of the wealth Gabriel spent decades accumulating to akuma relief and therapy for the trauma his father caused the whole city. He only kept the amount that was left by his mother for college and savings to use until he found a source of income from a job he likes doing. 

The Miraculous Team announced their retirement but agreed to come back if the Justice League calls on them.

Marinette had gone to the Order’s Temple to complete her guardianship training and kept them updated with a reassuring text once a month. Luka and Kagami were engaged while Alya and Nino were each focusing on their careers and college before deciding to get married or not. Alix was the only one of them still using her Miraculous to do Bunnyx stuff. Chloe and Zoe were kicking ass and taking name as the Bourgeois sisters. A pair more terrifying than their mother.

The Akuma class or the part of the class that listened to Lila were steadily getting their lives back on track after the number the she-devil had inflicted on them.

As for the Italian herself. She was nothing but a distant nightmare.

The night of the gala of where she was exposed, it was attacked by Two-Face and Lila got shot while trying to escape. Luckily for her, she was only shot in the leg and just  needed a surgery and weeks of physical therapy. Lila was very upset about her perfect body being marred and the bloodstain on the expensive dress. The class gave her the cold shoulder so she had no one to help her with her very real disability as she recovered.

Lila’s mother went to the school to complain about how her daughter got shot when she was reassured that Lila would be safe and all of Lila’s lies came to light. Turns out Signora Rossi was aware of her lying habits but not that she had Lila was capable of forging her parent’s signature on documents and doctor’s notes, and the many months she skipped schools. That day, Signora Rossi came home to a anonymous thick manila envelope that contained evidence of Lila bullying and harassing people from the her past school and until now. The akuma fight was a tough battle but the Miraculous Team managed to defeat her within an hour.

By the end of next week, Lila was gone and Tim investigated into the matter to see she had been sent to some disciplinary school.

 Life was peaceful..

Until a portal opened up in front of the couple and spat out a very young black haired kid with green eyes dressed in a cat suit who looked at Tim and Adrien with wide eyes and said, “Papa? Daddy?”

#maribat #maribat fic #ml x dc #mlb x dc #adritim #Timdrien #Tim x Adrien #idk what the ship is called #lila salt #maribat class salt #maribat class redemption