THE COTTAGECORE MARI AU PROMPT THAT NOBODY ASKED FOR
Pairing: Daminette (edit: they’re like 19/20 in this, post high-school)
Rating: It has mature themes, you have been warned. But it’s pretty tame at the same time. Violence + Sexual Themes
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Mari is diagnosed with PTSD and anxiety disorder after she quite literally removed her beloved city’s supervillain (and her dear partner’s parent) from the plane of existence. Like she removes the suffering from the mind all of Paris and has Gabriel written off in a car accident a year after his wife’s disappears. Only the her Court (Adrien, Kagami, Zoe, Alix, Max) and the Order remembers - her and Adrien decide not to pursue a relationship. They’re both healing and better off friends - siblings in everything but blood.
Lila, who was not punished due to her not really being a miraculous holder and upsetting the balance, continues to slander Mari. Her class isn’t hostile but has no desire to interact with the “new and mean Marinette” Lila was painting her to be. It’s still a huge betrayal given the fact that Mari was supportive and very generous to these people.
So here’s how her new housing arrangement works: have you ever wondered how Gina can afford to travel around the world without a job? Yeah, I think she came from money. Like, old money - real estate old money to be precise. Passive income and such. Hearing about her Fairy’s situation, she offers an unused property at the countryside of Metropolis.
Marinette’s therapist and parents approve of her vacationing there for the summer when they realize that her stressors and triggers where all environmental. So off our girl goes!
Note: She does not have the mother box with her anymore, just Tikki, Plagg, and Kaalki. (She does have unrestricted access to it as the Grand Guardian though - she trains with the Order once a week in Tibet until she doesn’t)
Mari is aware of the Supers and was relieved that the Kwamis don’t show up in x-ray visions and with the fear of them eavesdropping she learns FSL to communicate with them.
The townhouse and the verdure around the property inspires Mari to start a garden. The quiet oddly soothes her and when she feels lonely she goes into town or the nearby farmer’s market where she charms the locals. She meets the Kents - they love her! Martha enjoys baking with her. Lois uncovers her identity as Jagged and Clara Nightingale’s exclusive (and reclusive) designer - they bond over fashion trends and the gossip surrounding the industry. Clark and Jon were another story.
She figures them out having sensed the same soul in Superman and Superboy in this father-and-son duo. They x-ray her as a precaution and finds the mysterious cracks and evidence of past injuries that should have killed her. There’s a very anti-climatic reveal that Martha and Lois are not privy to with respect to Marinette’s wishes.
At least one Kent would be in her home during the day. The Kwamis are free to roam around when it was Clark and/or Jon visiting. She ends up bonding with Jon who also grew up too fast (metaphorically and literally).
She ends up extending her stay in Metropolis indefinitely. Her parents also decided to open a branch of their patisserie there which Mari managed. They visit her as often as they could.
Mari was dismayed to find that no, Metropolis had no schools with both a fashion and business degree - that’s how she ends up in Gotham University.
Jon tells Mari about a Damian - a friend of his.
J: He’s…. uh… he has a big heart.
M: …
J: He’s a bit of an asshole(?)
M: Ah.
Mari meets Damian who reminds her of Kagami - antisocial and proper. They share a few business classes and are both members of the art club.
Mari is still this ball of anxiousness and has only allowed Mia “Maps” Mizoguchi and Katherine Karlo into her life, the former she learned was close to Damian - she didn’t mind when she and the girls met up with Damian, he was quiet, honest, and minded his own business. Through their hangouts Damian finds out about the friendship between Jon and Mari.
He’s hesitant to befriend her at first due to the conflicting rumors about her: due to her timid personality she had a split reputation. One side called her sweet, shy, and kind. While the other calling her arrogant, high-maintenance, and rude. He soon finds out that the latter half were spread by cliques who’s offer of friendship she declined and men she rejected. He was glad that he relented to Maps’ insistent invitations - she was a decent person to hang out with and it didn’t hurt that she was pleasing to the eye. (She also enjoyed sharing her vegetarian salads with him - he starts appreciating it more when he learns that she picks the vegetables straight from the garden she grows.)
As her luck would have it, a robbery unfolds at one of their favorite coffee spots. Mari and Damian - who were both pretending to be civ - try to find a way to protect their friends. The robbers recognizes Damian as a Wayne and takes him and another GU(a school for rich and affluent people’s children) kid and takes Marinette too who had stood in front of her friends.
They’re gagged, blindfolded, and carted off to who knows where. Damian discreetly activates a distress signal and the bats spur into action. Mari, aware that she was sturdier than Damian, draws the men’s attention to her (she purposely pisses them off and gets beaten up when they start to pester Damian).
M: [removes her gag somehow] Really? A ski mask? And in black? How boring can you get?
*Damian shaking his head furiously in the background*
Kidnapper(KN): Shut up, girlie!
M: You know I always wondered how Kidnappers could have a secret a warehouse as a hideout. It’s not like you can afford the rent—
KN: Are you trying to get yourself killed?
M: You’re backed up by some politician aren’t you?
KN: H-How the fuck did this bitch know?
M: There’s literally a stack of campaign papers behind you.
KN: Wha—
M: That’s some shit graphic design by the way. I’ve seen grade schoolers that can do better.
KN: [points a gun at her] Shut up or I’ll blow your brains out.
M: You wouldn’t.
KN: The fuck do you know—
M: You need me alive to get ransom from my parents.
KN: …Nobody said you had to be in one piece though.
M: Touché—[get slapped hard]
*Damian basically starts convulsing in the background*
M: …Damn. You punch like a cunt—[And the kidnappers basically start to rough her up]
The bats arrive in five minutes and it’s Red Hood that finds them first. He sees these mf’s beating up a woman and goes ballistic(pun intended). Red Robin and Spoiler has to forcibly restrain him when he starts to use his fist instead of his guns.
M: [bleeding and bruised] And that’s how you deck someone, you amateurs.
D: [who was released by Black Bat is confused, mad at himself, and in awe] You blithering idiot! Why the fuck would you aggravate our captors like that?
M: [delirious] It was either you or me Damian. Can’t have your pretty face damaged now, can we?
D: [Is floored and very concerned] And what of yours?
M: … dun worry—my assets are…elsewhere… [passes out from the pain]
D: …
Later, his family would tease him about the flirting when he isn’t all sensitive about the incident.
Winter break comes, most of the Batfam visits the Kents(they have a penthouse/some ridiculous property in Metropolis) as a tradition. The Kents went to visit Gotham and stayed at the manor last year.
(Batfam who went: Bruce, Dick, Jason, Steph, Cass, and Damian)
They visit Mari too. Dick and Steph are absolutely thrilled about her cottagecore lifestyle. So much so that they match her aesthetic and begin helping out in the garden - they send pictures to Alfred who request they bring back fresh produce.
Jon and Jason plot to get Damian and Mari together. Unbeknownst to them that Damian was already resolute on courting Mari like the decorous man that he was - he didn’t know what he was doing but Mari’s flush when he initiates flirting tells him he’s doing okay.
Because of his childhood, Damian was never the type to be touchy but imagine his shock when he finds out that one of his more prominent love languages was physical touch. He realizes he’s touch-starved almost immediately when Mari starts giving him small touches like a hand against his bicep, she had a fondness for touching his hair which never failed to deliver a shiver down his spine, and hugs from her are comforting - she felt like home.
Meanwhile Mari does not have any idea how she survive the early stages of Damian’s advances. He was blunt and did not pull his words with insults but it apparently translated to him being verbally open with his affections.
M: I always wanted to be the Knitting Fairy while growing up.
D: Does it not please you that you became a garden fairy instead?
M: Huh, that doesn’t sound so bad.
D: Well, you certainly look the part.
M: [turns into the same shade as the poppy beside her]
And then when the tension between them became more prominent he wasn’t shy with dropping innuendos too.
M: [open’s the door for Damian, haggard from lifting sacks of garden soil] Oh, I didn’t know you were coming so early. I’m a bit of a mess. Sorry.
D: [Tilts his head] You say that as if I wouldn’t appreciate you sweaty and tousled after a rigorous activity.
M: [self-combusts]
And when the touching began?
M: Damian, what color do you think looks better with this shade of blue?
D: [places a hand on her side while looking over her shoulder] I think the a more neutral cream would do.
M: [stops functioning]
Their first kiss?
Pulled straight out of a book that Marinette only read in the privacy of her bedroom.
They’re teasing each other, it evolves to a game of cat and mouse with Damian skillfully evading her. She corners him by turning on some of her sprinkles. He gets wet, growls in the way he would in Mari’s dreams, and pulls of his shirt. She’s too distracted by the hard planes of his stomach to notice him prowling towards her like a beast moving to claim his prey. He picks her off the ground with ease - he’s a foot taller than her - and takes her to the sprinklers.
(I’m going to write this part out properly, maybe to inspire myself or a potential adopter of this prompt)
“Nononono!” Marinette shrieks as the first round of water splashes her. She writhes but Damian had her arms held down her sides.
“All is fair in love and war, Ya Amar.” She ignores the endearment in favor of closing her eyes as the sprinkles rotate in their direction again. But she knows what it means. Ya Amar. My moon. His moon. The water had nothing on the chill that ran down her spine
The water stars seeping into her intimates and she’s soberly aware that the light fabric of her dress would betray her. It doesn’t take long for Damian to discover that fact, he releases a strangle sound. She opens her eyes, he snaps his eyes from where he was clearly looking at her chest. He scrambles to drop her.
“Shit— I’m sorry. This was not my intention—“ he starts but she’s faster. Her now free arms grasps his shoulders and without a second thought, she drops her lips to meet his. Damian inhales sharply and he tilts his head, temporarily breaking the kiss before raising her higher and pulling her by the back of neck - he kisses her with hunger and passion that has Marinette melting further against his chest.
She wraps her legs around his back and he moves to tightly grasp both the back of her thighs. She would worry about bruises later when she didn’t have Damian’s tongue caressing her own. He drops them to the ground and Marinette does not release her hold over his waist. She whines against his lips when she feels the consequences of their activity.
His hands start wandering as he greedily collects and files the sounds that leaves her lips. He begins to trail kisses down her neck to the neckline of her dress that now clung to her body like a second skin giving him his first peek at the maddening shape of her body. And just when he trails a finger against the underside of her breast a loud noise pulls them apart.
Jason finds them and the sight in Mari’s garden has him dropping the shovel he was asked to bring over.
J: Fuck! No, don’t stop! Hell—I’ll leave—I didn’t see shit!
D: [moving to cover Marinette who covered her face in embarrassment] Fuck off, Todd!
J: I’m sorry! [slams the door shot]
D: Tt.
J: [shouts from inside the house] Use protection!
D: Todd!
They started officially dating that day and Jason had no reservations in sharing that he definitely cockblocked his little brother much to Mari and Damian’s horror.
Both keeps the PDA to minimum in school but it was very clear how amorous they where in “private”. There is a table in the art hall that Mari can’t quite look at without blushing to her roots.
She finds out he’s Robin after her first encounter with his alter-ego. He confesses his past when she confronts him. There’s fear of abandonment in his eyes when he gazes at her after his spiel but she kisses his worries and doubts away. She even goes to show her appreciation for his years of service to Gotham.
Her reveal happens when she unceremoniously drops a vial in Jason’s hand claiming that it would remedy the effects of the Lazarus pits with continuous use - it was completed after a year in the making.
Cardinal joins the Batfam occasionally as part of Batman’s contingency plans. They respect her choice as a retired super-soldier and try to keep her out of the business which she appreciates. She is officially initiated as a member of Justice League Dark as an informant/magic specialist and a wildcard.
Years later, she legally inherits the property from Gina when she and Damian get engaged. Damian moves in with her and she lives her cottage life all while being a reclusive designer that comes out once in a while for fashion week.
FIN
AN:
Maybe there’s a Lila take down somewhere but I don’t have the energy to write her at all. We all know its Damian and Tim that makes sure she never sets a foot in high society ever again.
Ig add some details about learning to healthily cope with her anxiety disorder under the guidance and love of her found family? (I have a similar illness but me and my therapist are still figuring it out so I have little idea how to write this) Her PTSD does not need further discussion (miss ma’am had to kill someone) but her anxiety disorder stems from the fact the she’s a person who’s in charge of world-ending powers - everyone and even yourself can become untrustworthy. She starts to get nervous from misreading body languages and everyone is suddenly out to get her.
batfamily twitter but it’s tim drake being a rapscallion
In no particular order:
- The batfam have their own language of chirps, trills, tweets, and whistles, and they use it in front of other ppl (civilians, the jla, whatever) and the other ppl go “what the actual fuck”
- Bruce throwing the batarang at Jason Todd’s neck actually Does Damage™, and eventually the other members of the family find out and lose their shit
- “Hey Tim?” “Yeah?” “Where’s your fucking spleen :)” “Lost it.” “LOST IT??”
- Damian calling his brothers Akhi :)
- “How many kids do you HAVE??” -The entire Justice League
- Jason going to Titans Tower, seeing Tim, saying “is anyone gonna parent that” and then not waiting for an answer.
- Literal Toddler Tim Drake informing the Batfamily that yes he knows everyone’s identity, and really if you didn’t want people to figure it out you should stop showing off your extremely niche skills during patrols Nightwing.
- “Dude your son is a crime boss.” “Ex-crime boss :/”
- A Batfamily member hearing someone talk about their civilian identity (bc, yknow,, they’re famous) and just having to Deal With It because what the fuck else are they supposed to do??
- The Justice League hearing about Batman and assuming he (& his family) are demons or vampires or some other cryptid, and then meeting him and finding out he’s just Some Guy.
- The batfamily learning the origin of the name Robin
- The Justice League meeting the Batfamily and specifically learning who Red Hood is, and one of the heroes nervously asks “Didn’t the second Robin.. die?” and Jason just goes “yeah lol”
Guess I'm the burgler for 13 dwarfs off to the Lonely Mountain i go
Part 1
Summary: Flowers fluttered past her, carried by some kind of impossible breeze. One smacked her in the face. (Or the Ouran High School Host Club AU. Or the Keysmash AU for the cultured people of the MGI server.)
Marinette literally just wanted to find a quiet place to study.
The library had been full of people that apparently didn’t know that they were supposed to ‘sh’. The classrooms were locked. All of the clubrooms had clubs going on (which, duh, but it was still disappointing).
So, she made her way through the school, considering just giving up and resigning herself to doing her work on the floor even if she knew it would leave her with a back that ached for the next several days…
And then her eyes landed on a room at the end of the hall. The door was ajar, but she could only hear a faint murmur of conversation and the quiet clinking of porcelain.
She considered it for a few moments before sighing to herself and hiking her bag up higher. It was either this or beginning the painfully long trudge back to her house immediately after her gym class. She was already sore, she just wanted to relax for a few minutes.
So, she pushed the door open wider.
Flowers fluttered past her, carried by some kind of impossible breeze.
One smacked her in the face.
She brushed it off of her nose, only to find herself blinking up at the most popular person in the school.
Richard Grayson-Wayne smiled at her, pretty as ever with his perfectly gelled hair and perfectly pressed clothes. She suddenly felt a very strong urge to check her reflection in a mirror and sniff herself to make sure that her after-gym shower had been enough.
“Oh, are you a new guest?”
“Guest?” She repeated, a little dumbly. Forgive her, for he had taken her by the hand and started leading her inside and she was confused.
But then she glanced around.
Everything in the room was needlessly extravagant and expensive, but so was the rest of Gotham Academy. That wasn’t what she focused on, though.
Horror seized her as she realized what, exactly, she had stumbled into.
Because, as she looked around, she recognized more and more of the school’s most popular kids, and all of them were attending to the many people (usually girls, but not always) crowding them. And she remembered what, exactly, Richard Grayson-Wayne’s extracurricular was.
She jerked her hand away, eyes wide. “Uh, no, I think you’ve got the wrong idea, sir,” she said. And then internally freaked out because why the hell did she call him sir? He was two years older than her! Damn it! She could feel her face flushing in embarrassment.
He smiled and brought his hand up to cup her cheek. “Am I not your type? You can take your pick of the others, you know.” He smoothly moved to loop his arm around her shoulders and lead her further into the room. “What are you into? Women? Men? Both? Strong people? Smarts? A sense of humor or a mischievous streak? A stoic type? A princely person?”
“Um, listen, I was just looking for a place to study,” she said, slipping out from under him and taking a few careful steps backwards.
He smiled. “Of course you were,” he said in that tone people used when they were only humoring you.
She gave an awkward little laugh, still doing her best to back away from the situation in the most literal sense she could. “Seriously, I’m just going to go –.”
Her back hit something and she whipped around, her eyes wide, just in time to watch a vase pitch itself off a pillar.
She reached for it. Her fingers just barely brushed the handle. And then it hit the ground.
The porcelain shattered upon impact.
She stared at the shards, her hands resting on the pillar it had just been resting on as if trying to replace it, wishing that she could simply put the pitcher back together by sheer force of will. The color drained from her face as it slowly began to sink in that this was reality, that she had just broken a vase that had to be expensive considering everything else at this school was.
Marinette slowly turned back around to find everyone looking at her, their attention pulled by the loud crash. She swallowed thickly, her gaze flickering between the broken vase and Richard rapidly.
She needed to say something. Anything.
“I mean. It was kind of ugly.”
Anything but that!
At least someone was amused. A woman with blond hair – Stephanie Brown, she remembered her being on the news a while back – turned her head to snicker into her hand.
She cleared her throat. “No, sorry, that was weird to say. I’ll – I’ll pay for it.”
A dark-skinned boy made his way over, frowning lightly. The glittery, gold makeup dotted across his cheeks like freckles seemed to shine as he looked her over. She recognized him to be one of the kids in her science class, but his name eluded her. “Aren’t you a scholarship kid?”
“She is,” an unfortunately familiar voice chimed in. Her eyes narrowed in on Tim Drake. He was glaring at her over the rim of his rich kid teacup.
Marinette’s face suddenly remembered how to circulate blood, but it had overcompensated in its rush to fix its mistakes. A blush rose to her cheeks. “Okay, and? What of it?”
This got another laugh, but this one sounded different. A little colder. Someone clicked their tongue. A boy with tan skin around in his chair, stroking a cat in his lap, like some kind of D-list Rogue. “Then can you really afford it?”
She glanced at the vase again and shrugged. “I mean… probably? It can’t be more than a few hundred, can it? It’ll be a bitch, but –.”
A woman wheeled over, her wheelchair coming to a stop just in front of the pillar Marinette was still leaning against in the worst attempt at acting natural anyone had ever seen. She recognized her as one of the library assistants. Barbara Gordon didn’t even bother to look up from her phone while she ruined Marinette’s life with a mere sentence: “We were about to auction it off for charity, and the starting price was fifty thousand USD.”
Marinette choked on air. “Fifty… fifty thousand?!” She repeated. She barely fought off the urge to scream about how it wasn’t even a nice looking vase. She figured yelling at the people she was suddenly indebted to was, probably, not a great idea.
A guy in a leather jacket gave her an empathetic look. She pretended not to notice for the sake of her own sanity.
“That’s a joke, right?” She tried, ignoring how desperate she sounded even to her own years.
A woman lazing in the window shook her head, black lipstick-covered lips just barely curled into a frown.
“Any chance I can pay this off in parts?” She asked, resisting the urge to start doing math on her fingers to figure out exactly how much she was going to have to give up to work all of this off. She would do that later, when there were no eyes on her. “I – I don’t have a job right now, but I can get one, I promise, I’ll find a way to pay you back –.”
Richard clapped his hands together once, but this time his smile held no real warmth. “Don’t worry, I can think of a job that just opened up.”
*****
“Marinette, I left you alone for ten minutes,” Adrien said, pinching the space between his brows. He was currently messing with chemicals, so touching his face was not advisable, but he was wearing gloves so he was still, at least, more safe than 99% of other high school students would be.
“It was closer to an hour and a half,” she mumbled, watching the beaker in front of her bubble. She was very dedicated to lab safety, thank you very much.
“How did you even manage to become the – did you say you’re the host club’s dog? What? Like the kink?”
She groaned. “I can’t think of a less literal translation, okay? It’s like… they want me to clean, set up events, help them with clothes, serve drinks and food…”
“Servant? Assistant?”
“Sure,” she said, throwing a hand up frustratedly. “But could we maybe focus on the rest of my problem instead of the fact that English isn’t my first language?”
He gave her a mildly amused look that she didn’t return. And then he sighed, picking up his mortar and pestle again. “Okay. Well. I could always –.”
“If you say you want to pay off my debt for me I’m pouring this down your throat.”
He cleared his throat awkwardly, obviously not too fond of the idea if he was preemptively touching his neck. “I see. Well. Then. I guess we’ll be seeing less of each other.”
“Thank fuck for that.”
He elbowed her in the side. “Don’t think you can get out of doing your half of the presentation.”
She groaned and burrowed into her Batman hoodie. “But if I do the presentation I have to dress up…”
“Yeah? I have to dress up every day, make sure to always have an entire section of my backpack devoted to skin and hair care products in case of emergencies, bring extra clothes to school, and –.”
“Shut uuuuuup I get it,” she huffed, moving her now-luminescent pink liquid off its burner. “Rich people have their own problems or whatever.”
“We do. Like making sure we make good connections while in school, something you –” he poked her cheek. “– need to work on. Maybe this host club thing will be good for you. Help you put yourself out there or whatever.”
“You just want to laugh at me.”
His lips twitched into a grin. “True.”
She scowled. “Put down the mortar and pestle.”
He seemed to want to say no, he wasn’t stupid enough to not know why she wanted him to put it down, but then thought better of it. He resigned himself to his fate, sighing and setting it aside.
She tackled him off of his chair.
*****
Marinette was pretty sure that they were making her set up the auction she had accidentally ruined purely to spite her. Like, sure, setting up everything was technically her job, but the chances of this being her first assignment were abysmal.
She forced herself to breathe through it. Go to her happy place. Four in. Murdering the Waynes but also keeping her scholarship. Four out. Good.
She carefully made her way back and forth, setting everything in their respective spots, at an inching pace – she was not going to add more debt by breaking something else. Then she went around making sure the lights shined on them just so to make them seem shinier (“rich people are like magpies,” she had been informed with a sage nod). Finally, she checked that all of the notecards were in order and that the mics were all working.
She spun around in the middle of the room, going over everything with a critical eye, and then nodded once to herself.
She headed to the ‘dressing room’ (it was a closet they had repurposed).
“I’m done, Richard.”
“Dick,” he corrected lightly, leaning in to check his teeth.
She raised an eyebrow. “Sorry?”
His eyes widened and he whirled around, holding his hands up in a half placating, half surrendering gesture. “Nonono, I’m not calling you that, I’m saying that’s my name. Dick. Short for Richard.”
“I know. I’m just sorry.”
Dick sputtered. Damian made a wheezing sound that might have been a laugh.
Unfortunately for Damian, the wheeze drew Marinette’s attention. She groaned. “Oh my god, put the cat down, you’re in a suit for fuck’s sake,” she hissed. She looked around until she found a lint roller, and then thrust it towards him. “Trade me.”
Damian looked affronted. “I’m not putting down Alfred.”
She had to force herself to ignore the fact that he had named his cat Alfred of all things, she needed to concentrate on what was really important: threatening him.
“You are going to put down Alfred. I suggest you do it willingly.”
It was Dick’s turn to snicker at his brother’s misfortune.
Neither spared him a glance, too locked in their staredown. Marinette had thought for a moment that Damian was going to actually try and throw hands, but at least she would still be winning in that case because he would have to let his cat go to do so.
Eventually, Damian heaved a long-suffering sigh and handed off the cat. She set Alfred in her hood just so she could cross her arms over her chest while she watched Damian struggle with the lint roller for a solid seven minutes. She might be indebted to these people, but damn if she wasn’t going to be passive aggressive about it.
Dick grinned, leaning his arm on her shoulder. She felt short, in that moment, but it wasn’t her fault that the man was freakishly tall.
“You’re the best hire we could have ever had,” said the man who was unaware she was considering kneecapping him to make herself seem taller.
Not that she was going to tell him.
“I’m being held captive.”
“Same difference,” he joked.
And, despite herself, a tiny smile made its way across her face. His happiness was strangely contagious. No wonder he was so popular in the host club.
She reached up to tap him on the nose. “You haven’t done your stage makeup yet.”
He yelped out a curse and then ran to look for the makeup brushes, muttering under his breath about how that was what he had forgotten.
*****
Marinette stumbled into the library, a hand absently rubbing an ache between her shoulder blades. Her eyes locked with Babs’.
“Is it in ye –?”
“No,” Babs said, still tapping away at her computer.
Marinette slumped against the doorframe, letting her head knock against the wood. Maybe it would give her good luck.
“Life is a tragedy and I’m nothing more than Shakespeare’s bitch.”
The woman sighed and pushed up her glasses to rub an eye. “I’ll check it out for you when it comes in. Give it to you during the host club.”
Her posture brightened instantly. “Really?”
“Yeah, just don’t lose it. I have a perfect record when it comes to turning my books in on time and I don’t want you to ruin that.”
She grinned and did a mock salute. “Aye-aye.”
*****
Marinette absently stacked the plates, cups, and spoons on top of each other to take them into the next room for a quick wash. She kind of liked finding the optimal ways to stack things, it was like a very high-stakes game of Tetris. She carefully picked up her tower and was pleased to find that it didn’t shake in the slightest.
Only to blink when Jason stood up, holding a tiny stack of his own.
“Let me help.”
She stared blankly for a moment before she finally caught a quiet gasp nearby. Her eyes flicked in that direction and found a customer practically cooing over the basic human decency Jason had displayed. She sighed a little. Right, they had an audience. She pulled a slightly wobbly smile to her face.
“Sure. Thanks,” she said carefully. In the end, even if it was just to forward his image as a ‘baddie with a heart of gold’, it was still help and she wasn’t intent on saying no just to be petty.
Or, at least, that was what she had thought until he had kept doing it. Almost every night, without fail, he would help her clean up after everyone. Even if all of the guests were gone by the time he got away.
She finally gave in one day, her hands almost elbow deep in the sink water:
“Why do you keep helping me? You know that this isn’t your job, right?”
He gave her a strange look for a moment.
And then he gave the slightest of smiles. “I was poor, once, too.”
She nodded slightly. They went back to work with a quiet sense of solidarity.
“Also, you take too long to wash dishes on your own.”
She splashed him with the sink water.
He gasped, puffing up in his mock offense. “Hey! These pants are supposed to be cared for! They’re hand wash only!”
“Then this is perfect,” she said, grinning. “It’s totally deserved.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So is this.”
He used the cup he had been washing to scoop up some water and dump it over her head.
She stared at him for a full minute in stunned silence. And then a grin broke out over her face.
He suddenly looked like he was considering running away.
In the end, they finished the day more clean than the dishes, but hey. It’s the thought that counts.
(Just kidding. Sanitation doesn’t work like that. They overloaded the dishwasher to fix their mistakes.)
*****
Marinette sighed and set the cake down on a table, then turned to leave.
She stopped short when she saw Tim in the doorway, his bag half off his shoulder where he had been about to fling it away from himself like he did every day while opening up the clubroom.
“How’d you…?”
She shrugged and held up a keyring. “Asked the janitor.”
His brows furrowed momentarily, as if he were thinking, but then he just shook his head to dismiss the thought.
“Why do you have a wedding cake? Did you have a Vegas wedding or something?”
She groaned internally and forced herself to straighten up to her full height. “My parents are bakers. The wedding they catered today didn’t end up happening. Bride got cold feet – uh, literally, she was murdered, y’know? – and they said to give this to my friends.”
He raised an eyebrow. “So you brought it here?”
“Well, Adrien doesn’t have a cheat day for another two weeks, and if I ever have another slice of cake it’ll be too soon. This is kinda the last place I’ve got. Besides, it could please your guests.”
“Couldn’t you just give it out to the people in your homeroom?”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you want the cake or not? Because I have to go to class soon. Unlike you, I’ll get thrown out if I don’t attend every one of my classes, Drake.”
He snorted. “Aw? The scholarship student is struggling in her classes?”
“That’s not why, and if you really think that then you’re dumber than I thought,” she said, curling her fists at her sides.
A couple of complicated expressions flicked over his face, none of which she could get a good read on, but Steph’s head appeared over Tim’s shoulder before either of them could say something they regretted.
“Shut up and let the nice girl give us cake, Tim,” Steph said, smacking him over the back of the head as she brushed past him to get in the door. She grinned at Marinette. “Thanks for the food.”
Marinette gave a tiny smile in return.
She smiled even wider when, as Steph passed, she asked Marinette under her breath if she wanted to join her in throwing a slice of the cake into Tim’s face. As if it was even a question.
*****
Duke squinted at the needle in her hand suspiciously. His arm was already sanitized and the needle was prepped, it would only take around thirty minutes for her to get a sufficient amount of his blood to analyze. “Are you sure you know how to do this?”
She huffed. “Of course I do. Don’t be a pussy.”
“That’s sexist.”
“Okay? And not volunteering to help for my project is anti black.”
There was a beat before the pair of them broke into quiet snickers. Quiet, because neither of them wanted to get caught slacking off in the middle of their research class.
Marinette tapped the needle. “Don’t worry, if you’re good I’ll give you a cake pop.”
His smile almost seemed to light up the room. “Sounds like a deal. Stick me.”
(Later, she had found herself staring at his vitals with mild confusion. He almost didn’t seem human. And then she had quietly dismissed them as an outlier. Maybe she’d ask if he had been a victim of a Rogue attack recently when she saw him at their next host club meeting. Or not. That was kinda personal.)
*****
Marinette liked Cass. Neither of them really talked, but Cass didn’t talk much to anyone anyways.
Still, the girl was a soothing presence. Sometimes, when the days were slow or while they were waiting for the club to start, they could be seen sitting in the same window. Cass would listen to music. Marinette would do her homework or read a book.
It was pleasant.
At least, it was pleasant most of the time. It turns out a silent person can be a bad thing. Marinette now had a permanent chemical burn on the back of her arm because Cass had come up to her at the wrong time, had tapped her on the shoulder, and Marinette had flinched so hard in her surprise that she had ended up spilling an entire beaker over the back of her wrist.
She was pretty sure the seven solid, apology-filled minutes where Cass had helped her rush to the nurse’s office to stem the blood bubbling on her arm was the most she had ever heard her talk before.
*****
Marinette glared at her reflection, aggressively applying stage makeup to the area under her eyes. She would have to wash it all off right afterwards, stage makeup looks strange when up close and not under the effect of near-blinding lights. And then, after that, she would have to sit still while Adrien applied even more, but wildly different makeup to her face, for the second half of the conference where she would be forced to shmooze for the sake of funding.
But that was a problem for later. She needed to make sure everything was perfect.
Anything less than the best score in the school could throw her scholarship into jeopardy.
At least this was getting her out of her usual host club duties. Marinette and Adrien needed to present, so she would have gotten out for a few hours no matter what, but a solid number of the (actual, willing) host club members were in their age group. Duke, Tim, and Steph all had projects today as well.
They had canceled the host club for the day. Maybe the others would be attending the presentation, maybe not, she didn’t really care.
All she cared about right now was making sure she didn’t look like some kind of ethereal being made of light on stage.
A head dropped onto her shoulder and she rolled her eyes. “You look like a ghoul.”
Adrien grinned. “I think this is the best I’ve ever looked.”
“True.”
He gasped. “Rude.”
“I mean, you kinda set that one up for me,” she said, gently shoving him off so she could straighten fully. She patted down her deep red dress, checked her black heels to make sure they weren’t going to slip, and then turned to him. “Good?”
He hummed thoughtfully, tipping his head to the side. And then he shook his head, motioning for her to turn around. “I told you you needed to do something with your hair,” he said.
She huffed. “I did.”
“Letting it out of its usual pigtails is not ‘doing something’.”
“I mean… if you want to define the words –.”
He snorted. “Shut up. Let me fix this.”
She waited impatiently for him to brush her hair and pull it into a strict bun.
She scrunched her nose at her reflection. “I look like a teacher.” She pulled a strand out to frame her face.
He tucked it right back behind her ear. “Well, you’re teaching these people –.”
“You’re the most infuriating person I’ve ever met.”
“You’re looking in a mirror. Time to meet someone even worse. Nettie, meet Nettie.”
She pulled away the moment he was done. “The moment this is all over I’m beating your ass.”
“I mean, you kinda set that one up for me,” he mocked.
“I’m not kidding, Chaton. Meet me in the parking lot at 7pm.”
He only grinned, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his suit, and jerked his head to point towards the stage.
*****
Marinette and Adrien had chosen the safest possible option. Even if neither of them really cared about how the overexposure to chemicals had affected the average Gothamite’s physiology – they already knew that it would boost their immune systems in some areas, weaken it in some areas, and just generally cause a myriad of lung and heart problems, they weren’t stupid – it was something they knew was both a popular question at the moment and something that rich people would want to know so they could start finding solutions for themselves.
Which meant they might get funding from people that weren’t just Adrien’s Dad. Not only did Marinette not want to rely on him, grades and future teams/assignments were determined by how much funding you received. They were already at a disadvantage, Marinette’s parents weren’t rich and couldn’t make a sizable contribution like every other family at the academy could. They needed to win over anyone they could.
And they had done pretty well. Marinette had only stuttered and considered asking Adrien to anti-Bruce-Wayne her parents a single time.
They’d made up for it in the questions portion. The subject of chemicals was something they both knew an ungodly amount about, so they answered every question sent their way without a hint of hesitation. In the end, they’d gotten quite a few people to come up to tell them that they would be donating to their ‘cause’.
She hadn’t expected one of the people they had won over to be Bruce Wayne, though.
Marinette fought to not shrink back as the man that sponsored the scholarship program she used began to head her way. He was Gotham’s sweetheart, and a bit of a dunce, but he still held more power over her than she would prefer.
And he had his kids in tow. Even more people that could choose to ruin her life on a whim. Fun. She definitely wanted more of those.
She got a thumbs up from Cass, at least. Thanks, Cass.
As for the rest of the Wayne kids… they were currently looking at her like she had spontaneously sprouted an extra head. She made a tiny ‘what the fuck’ gesture with her hand, but they were too stunned to give her any kind of meaningful response.
Marinette looked to Adrien, and he looked back at Marinette, both of them making sure that they looked as good as was physically possible. They took the moment to share quiet ‘do you know what’s going on with them?’ looks, and ended up with nothing.
And then they threw a pair of identical smiles the Waynes’ way.
“Mr. Wayne!” She said with false cheer. “It’s so nice to see you! How is business going?”
He grinned. “It’s been great. You didn’t hear it from me, but I’m pretty sure our stock prices are about to jump.”
Adrien laughed lightly. “Oh? I’ll be sure to tell my dad to invest.”
Marinette wanted to die.
“Ah, yes, good investments are good,” the man said, giving him a daft kind of smile. And then he reached out and patted Marinette on the top of the head, making the tiny strand of hair tucked behind her ear fall back into her face. Luckily, the man didn’t notice. “Like her. Back when I first started sponsoring you, even I never could have guessed that you would become so smart.”
She forced a blush to her face. “Well, I’m just really good with chemistry. I’m just glad that it was accepted as being close enough to biology to count.”
“Our mutual love of chemical experimentation is what brought us together in the first place.”
Marinette leaned in conspiratorially, cupping a hand over her mouth to stage-whisper to the others: “Don’t let him fool you, he’s talking about the time he blew up his microwave.”
“For science! It was an experiment!” Adrien said with false offense.
Bruce chuckled good-naturedly and started rifling through his pockets for a checkbook. “Well, it would be wrong to give money to all my other kids and leave you out, don’t you think?”
Marinette stared at him for a moment, her fake smile fading slightly in favor of pure confusion. “Sir, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m not one of your kids.”
And, sure, she knew that Bruce Wayne’s kid situation was a little strange. There were only five actual Wayne kids: Dick Grayson-Wayne, Jason Wayne, Cassandra Wayne, Damian Al Ghul- Wayne, and Duke Thomas. There was also the weird gray area that was Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Barbara Gordon, all of whom had one or more living parents but often found themselves grouped with the others because of how close they were to the Wayne family.
But Marinette? Marinette was a scholarship kid that was being forced to be around them all. She had talked to Bruce Wayne a grand total of four times, and one of those times was happening at this exact moment.
Bruce Wayne blinked once. Twice. Three times. And then he smacked his palm against his forehead. “Oh! Right! Sorry, the others talk about you so much that sometimes I forget you aren’t my kid.”
Marinette sometimes wondered if a man could truly be this dumb.
“Ah, don’t worry, I’m sure my parents could identify every single one of them in a line up with how much I talk about them,” she said, forcing her sweetest tone even as her gaze cut to the Wayne kids in a way that screamed ‘I have talked about murdering you multiple times’.
The Waynes now looked like they had just watched her grow a third head and were now resigned to the fact that she could apparently grow more heads. An improvement? Maybe?
Bruce chuckled and patted her on the head again. “They are little scamps, aren’t they?”
“They’re sweet, though,” she lied through her teeth. “I enjoy every minute we spend together.”
“I’d hope so!” The man said cheerfully.
And then Bruce, the godsend, the best person to ever exist, wrote a check and dropped it in her donation box. Marinette only just refrained from pumping her fist.
Still, the smile Adrien and Marinette gave after that was far more genuine.
Adrien smiled. “That was very nice of you, Mr. Wayne.”
“Thank you, sir,” she said.
“Of course! And, please, both of you, call me Bruce.”
“I don’t think you understand how much I just… can’t do that.”
He chuckled and gave her one last pat on the head – Adrien looked like he wanted to cry a little as his careful work started to come undone for real – before heading off to do whatever it was rich people do.
His kids didn’t join him.
Marinette turned to Steph, Tim, and Duke. “Good job on your presentation, Duke.”
(Listen, she liked Steph well enough, but Tim was a dick and she would rather die than compliment his work. Especially not when he was her main competition at the school.)
Tim didn’t even seem to register the snub, for once.
This gave Duke plenty of time to snicker and tell her, “I totally bombed. My partner didn’t even read the note cards I gave her.”
“I mean, yeah, but you’re not supposed to say that.”
He could only shrug a little, somewhere between amused and annoyed.
Dick didn’t give her much time to register the motion, though, as he came up and rested his hands on her shoulders.
She blinked at him. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re weirdly touchy?”
“I – wha –?” He shook his head, and she wasn’t sure if that was an answer or if he was just dismissing the question. “You’ve been attractive this whole time?”
Marinette ignored the fact that Adrien had chosen to break down laughing. It was surely unrelated.
She looked up at Dick for a moment. “I mean… duh?”
“But…” Damian said, sounding almost pained. “Every time we’ve seen you, you’ve worn a hoodie and jeans.”
“Yeah, because I’m not really interested in looking good for – I don’t know – fucking Kyle from my Calculus class.” She huffed. “Besides. Nice clothes? Makeup? That stuff is expensive. Way too expensive to use when I’m not getting any kind of return, y’know?”
Steph nodded her agreement. Ah. Working class solidarity. It does exist, after all.
And then Babs wheeled herself closer, looking mildly amused. “And if you can get a return?”
Jason: My life has become a never-ending game of "Illegal or Just Frowned Upon?"
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Past Tense, Pt. 1"
Danny, after running away moving to Gotham a few months ago begins making little commentary videos on a social media app.
It was fine and all with mostly friends viewing them up until his meta gene activated. He didn't even know he had a meta gene and kinda figured any of the ghost stuff he did as Phantom would have activated it if he did have one. Nope!
His newest video started out with him wearing a red beanie, "Hey guys! You know how I just moved to Gotham a few months ago? Well, turns out I have the meta gene!" He takes a moment to let that sink in before continuing, "Most people get there abilities or whatever through a lab accident or an explosion or something and end up with like telekinesis."
"I, however, am hated by the universe and got scratched by a cat," he then yanked off the beanie to reveal two large cat ears, "and turned into furry bait. On that note if you have any tips on how to avoid Catwoman please leave them in the comments section. For my sake."
Dick stared down at his phone in shock. He needed to show his siblings this
In the meantime Danny has to deal with his channels popularity skyrocketing. "This is not what I want to be remembered for."
Bonus points if Danny gets one of those FMK questions that are all bats and he responds with, "Kill? A bat? Listen, if I get put into a death match with a bat the only one dying here will be me. I cant even do a backflip, what makes you think I could even touch one of them???"
Do you think Tim holds things over his brothers' heads whenever he wants something?
Dick- Aw, there's only one piece of pizza left
Tim- Mine
Dick- Or, we could split it
Tim- Or, it's mine
Dick- You know, sharing is caring, Tim
Tim- You know what else is caring?
Dick- Hm?
Tim- Not gaslighting your sibling into thinking he's insane
Dick- ...
Tim- Not taking Robin from him
Dick- O-okay
Tim- Trusting that he's been right about enough things in the past that maybe, just maybe, he's right about your father being alive-,
Dick- You can have the pizza, dude. Jeez
Yyyyy
Jason, seeing Tim laying across the entire sofa he wanted to read on- You can either move or be sat on, little man
Tim, not even looking up- Today is not the day. I fucking dare you to try me
Jason- Tim, move. I am bigger than you. I am stronger than you. I will crush you
Tim- Bigger, maybe.
Jason- Tim-,
Tim, locking eyes with Jason- How long did you last with Joker? Half hour?
Jason- Excuse me?
Tim, holding up three fingers- I dealt with Joker AND Harley. For three WEEKS. And survived
Jason- o.o???
Tim, getting cozy again- Get on my level, bitch
Yyyyy
Damian- You're delusional if you think you can beat me, Drake. I was trained by the best of the best!
Tim- The best of the best?
Damian- That's right!
Tim- When's the last time you checked on those 'best of the best' teachers of yours?
Damian- What are you talking about?
Tim- I'm talking about the fact that you might have been trained by them
Tim, leaning down to Damian's level- But I took them out
Damian- Wh-what??
Tim- Still want to spar?
It's not really well known, but Carrie Kelley is canon in DC comics.
A few years back, she was the Robin that came after Dick, but it was soon retconned and she was erased from canon.
But in Batman and Robin (2011), she makes an appearance.
Carrie Kelley, in new canon, is a college student who gave Damian acting classes. Nobody knew that he was getting tutored by her, but it was revealed to Bruce in a 'not pleasent' way.
In her first few panels, we see her trying to contact Damian because he had stopped showing up to the lessons and stopped taking her calls. This had upset her, as he was naturally talented (according to her) in acting. She was also worried about him.
Carrie, then, shows up at the Wayne Manor looking for Damian. However, she does not get what she was looking for.
Bruce tells her that he had sent him abroad for education and Carrie is not happy with that. At that time, we can see that Carrie knows Damian well enough to know that he wouldn't be happy getting sent to another country. She also blames Bruce for losing a great acting partner.
After Bruce leaves, we see Alfred converse with Carrie and offer her a job of taking care of Titus. Carrie happily agrees to it.
A few days later, she comes back to the manor and Bruce is visibly uncomfortable. It's clear that he does not want her here. Bruce asks her what she is doing in his house, and Alfred explains the situation.
Bruce and Carrie start talking a little as Bruce is curious about Damian's new friend. Carrie mentions a movie she made of Titus and also about an interview she had with Damian before he had started taking acting lessons. She also mentions that Damian was like a little brother to her and with him being blunt and true, it was easy to befriend him.
Bruce asks her for the the interview footage and Carrie makes a deal with him instead. She'd give him the interview footage if Bruce gives the movie she made about Titus to Damian. She also asks Bruce to tell Damian to give her a call. Bruce agrees to the deal.
Later on, when she leaves, Bruce keeps his promise and takes Titus' movie to Damian and places it onto his grave...
Jason: 'You'll never find the body' is such a boring threat. A better threat would be; 'You'll never stop finding the body.'
Tim, bored: Or just say, 'They'll be finding parts of you for at least four months...and you'll still be alive for three of them.'
Jason: Now that's a threat!
Dick, covering Damians ears: *horrified silence*